Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody, welcome in to the Wednesday Morning Podcast. I'm
Speaker 2: going to have on an old friend. Greg McElroy is
Speaker 2: the former quarterback in the NFL and very well known
Speaker 2: as a national championship quarterback for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Speaker 2: He's now a very popular radio show host down in
Speaker 2: the South, and we're going to bring him on today
Speaker 2: and shoot the ball for about twenty thirty minutes about
Speaker 2: the college football season. I have not been this fired
Speaker 2: up for college football in a long time, even though
Speaker 2: my beloved Pac twelve conference is circling the drain. That
Speaker 2: was fairly inevitable and predictable. Greg McElroy. In a few minutes,
Speaker 2: you know, I was thinking about last year's preseason exhibition season,
Speaker 2: and all the years I've been doing talk radio. It
Speaker 2: was the slowest preseason of all time Becausehaan McVay several
Speaker 2: years ago, as I've noted multiple times, stopped playing starters,
Speaker 2: and all these young coaches followed suit. So the only
Speaker 2: story we had last year in the preseason was Kenny Pickett,
Speaker 2: who was a good college quarterback, not stupendous. He wasn't
Speaker 2: a hot Caleb Williams Andrew Luck Trevor Lawrence prospect, not
Speaker 2: even a Kyler Murray, DeShawn Watson, Baker Masonfield prospect. He's
Speaker 2: a solid guy who had a lot of college starts.
Speaker 2: And I remember thinking, after about two weeks of Kenny
Speaker 2: Pickett discussion, thank god he plays for the Steelers. What
Speaker 2: if he had played for the Jaguars. There was just
Speaker 2: no story. This year's preseason feels entirely different. First of all,
Speaker 2: there's three first round quarterbacks. All could succeed, but I
Speaker 2: do think one of them's fascinating. Anthony Richardson for the Colts,
Speaker 2: not only because it's six five, two fifty five. He
Speaker 2: has big ben Cam Newton like Josh Allen like, where
Speaker 2: he will just be such a force, a productive force
Speaker 2: running the football with that new offensive coach Shane Stike
Speaker 2: and a brilliant guy who had Herbert and Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 2: So I think the Cultu are going to be a
Speaker 2: fastating watch. I don't think they're gonna be a great team,
Speaker 2: but between Jonathan Taylor the running back and Anthony Richardson,
Speaker 2: I think they're gonna catch people off guard. I think
Speaker 2: they're gonna look like Cam's rookie year. Although he's not
Speaker 2: as polished as Cam, big Ben, a little Josh Allen,
Speaker 2: and a little Lamar Jackson. It's gonna be all of
Speaker 2: that mixed into one. So I think that's fascinating. I
Speaker 2: think Bryce Young is interesting because Frank Reich is one
Speaker 2: of those coaches that didn't get a ton of credit
Speaker 2: because he had reclamation projects. He had to clean up
Speaker 2: Andrew Luck clean up Philip Rivers clean up Carson Wentz
Speaker 2: all three, three for three. Frank Wright did an amazing job.
Speaker 2: Now he gets a rookie Bryce Young, who I think
Speaker 2: was head and shoulders above the other quarterbacks coming into
Speaker 2: this draft. I'm fascinated by that. Also in this preseason,
Speaker 2: Sean Paytons said, I'm gonna play Russell Wilson really interesting.
Speaker 2: My guess is Russell reverts to about seventy five to
Speaker 2: eighty percent of what he was at his prime. But
Speaker 2: I don't think he's as good. I think quarterbacks that
Speaker 2: move get hit more, quarterbacks that get hit more, age
Speaker 2: much quicker. I mean, big Ben got old fast, Cam
Speaker 2: got old fast. I was talking to Michael Vick on
Speaker 2: FS one yesterday and it was about you know, year
Speaker 2: five or six that Michael Vick the fastest player in
Speaker 2: the league couldn't outrun Carolina is outside linebacker Thomas Davis.
Speaker 2: And that's when Michael realized, Okay, everything's changed. So I
Speaker 2: think this preseason's got a lot of stories. Not to mention,
Speaker 2: I think Week one Buffalo and the Jets and Aaron Rodgers. Listen, man,
Speaker 2: you look at that Jet schedule and that's a tough
Speaker 2: matchup with Buffalo, very good front seven, very good pass rush.
Speaker 2: Jets start zero one to one. Fair not there's gonna
Speaker 2: be heat on Aaron Rodgers because their early schedule for
Speaker 2: six games is a gauntlet. So I feel differently about
Speaker 2: this August. I'm excited for it. Last year I felt
Speaker 2: like I was just trying to fill space. But Anthony Richardson,
Speaker 2: Bryce young A, Russell Wilson all really interesting to me.
Speaker 2: And the other one I'd throw out there that I
Speaker 2: find myself kind of rooting for is Mac Jones the Patriots.
Speaker 2: I contend that Mac Jones is as good as Kenny Pickett,
Speaker 2: not as athletic, doesn't run as well. I think he
Speaker 2: throws a better football, and I thought I thought the
Speaker 2: organization completely got in Mac Jones way last year. I
Speaker 2: think Mac Jones is going to revert to a good
Speaker 2: B quarterback, sort of a Kirk Cousins with maybe a
Speaker 2: little better arm. I think mac Jones maybe not quite
Speaker 2: as accurate, but a little better arm. And if mac
Speaker 2: Jones becomes Kirk Cousins, then Bill Belichick's back on track
Speaker 2: and can make the playoffs and win playoff games, maybe
Speaker 2: the division. So this preseason Pro football fired up well.
Speaker 2: Greg McElroy was at the very early stages of the
Speaker 2: Alabama dynasty, and the early stages of the dynasty, quarterbacks
Speaker 2: got no f and credit. It was all defense. Now
Speaker 2: it's not about linebackers and safeties and corners. Now, Saban,
Speaker 2: the brilliant man that he is, has really pivoted in
Speaker 2: transitioned to more of an offensively dynamic dynasty. And Greg,
Speaker 2: I want to bring you in on this. The world
Speaker 2: changed and a lot of people, Greg, don't change with
Speaker 2: the world. And I got to give Saban a lot
Speaker 2: of credit. About the time Lane Kiffin got there, he
Speaker 2: started really really upping his game with offensive players. When
Speaker 2: he started your years, it was McLain the linebacker, it
Speaker 2: was corners, it was right, and guys like you were like, well, Greg,
Speaker 2: just hands the ball off and I always feel like
Speaker 2: Greg actually played in the league. Greg was really good.
Speaker 2: But when you look at it now, there are some
Speaker 2: remnants of it. But when did you notice that it
Speaker 2: really pivoted to more but USC fielding dynasty or you know,
Speaker 2: a Mac Brown dynasty where the offense is a sixty
Speaker 2: forty advantage.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's it's well observed. It had
Speaker 1: to have been fourteen when Lane Kiffin came in, and
Speaker 1: it's easy to look at it and through the lens
Speaker 1: of the USC because that's her Lane came from. So
Speaker 1: they really started to acknowledge there was a time and
Speaker 1: a shift in college football at that time where Ole
Speaker 1: Miss was starting to roll a little bit and they
Speaker 1: needed to kind of start scoring some points. Auburn had
Speaker 1: just been to the National Championship in twenty thirteen on
Speaker 1: the heels of a high optane, high tempo offense that
Speaker 1: really created a lot of conflict for the defense. I
Speaker 1: think coach Sata started to realize and it's going to
Speaker 1: be really hard to win games twenty one to thirteen
Speaker 1: moving forward, So we're going to have to get real
Speaker 1: comfortable winning games forty two to forty one, which he's
Speaker 1: had to do a couple of times. Now, I actually
Speaker 1: think Colin where it's starting to go back, though, because
Speaker 1: teams can now simulate with their scout teams the tempo,
Speaker 1: they can simulate the quarterback play, they can simulate the
Speaker 1: run pass options. But what they can't simulate is incredible
Speaker 1: offensive line play, a fullback that's coming at you one
Speaker 1: hundred miles an hour and blowing up the middle linebackers.
Speaker 1: So I actually think the pendulum starting to shift back
Speaker 1: the other way. And we've kind of seen that with
Speaker 1: Nick Saman's hire of Tommy Reese because of Notre Dame,
Speaker 1: we knew what he was all about. It was three
Speaker 1: yards in the cloud of dust, right downhill until you
Speaker 1: liked it. So I wonder if you're sensing something similar
Speaker 1: in college football as well. Well.
Speaker 2: I say, you can't really look at Georgia and say
Speaker 2: we could duplicate that, Okay, So right, the state of Georgia, you.
Speaker 1: Better recruit, you better be able to get some dudes
Speaker 1: in on defense.
Speaker 2: Georgia was always the sleeping giant in college football. I
Speaker 2: mean for years and years you would talk to NFL
Speaker 2: scouts and they're like, why doesn't Georgia win more. You know,
Speaker 2: we always know that the state of Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas,
Speaker 2: calif you have a lot of players. Ohio, Georgia now
Speaker 2: has as many D one players as California, and you
Speaker 2: have a third of the population or a quarter of
Speaker 2: the population. So I don't think George is something you
Speaker 2: can duplicate. They do remind me a little of Alabama early,
Speaker 2: where it's a defensive culture with very capable quarterbacks who
Speaker 2: are going to get drafted. You Aj mcceron. Maybe not superstars,
Speaker 2: maybe not like a Caleb Williams or a Vince Young,
Speaker 2: but it's a defensive leaning culture. I just think they
Speaker 2: recruit at a different level. And George has always been
Speaker 2: a sleeping giant. But you know, I've said this for years,
Speaker 2: even though I work at Fox and we have the
Speaker 2: Big Ten, and I said this for years when I
Speaker 2: worked at ESPN. People sec dominants, recruiting, Draft Day and Saturday.
Speaker 2: Get over it. It's the best conference. Here's though, what's
Speaker 2: really fascinating by including Texas and Oklahoma, and I think
Speaker 2: specifically Texas, that's another game on the schedule that's going
Speaker 2: to be it's becoming an arms race. Texas money Texas coaching.
Speaker 2: I know the SEC fans thumps their chest, but do
Speaker 2: you really want to face LSU Georgia, Florida Texas in
Speaker 2: one season? Is there anybody in the South that's going
Speaker 2: this isn't potentially and you're going to add Clemson in
Speaker 2: Florida State here in the next eighteen months as well.
Speaker 2: Could you become just too rich? You're the AFC, You're
Speaker 2: too powerful, there's too many stars.
Speaker 1: I think that there are programs. Mississippi State a good example.
Speaker 1: When the schedules came out for the twenty four season,
Speaker 1: Mississippi State didn't have Alabama on the schedule, they didn't
Speaker 1: have many of their SEC West foes, and they were
Speaker 1: doing parades through the middle of Starkfield. But hang on,
Speaker 1: that's your closest team as far as proximities concerned, even
Speaker 1: more even closer as far as just straight mileage from
Speaker 1: Starkfield and Tuscaloosa than it is to offer for Mississippi
Speaker 1: where all miss resides. And they said, no, no, no, we
Speaker 1: don't want to play it. So I think for some
Speaker 1: they are a little bit not want to say intimidated,
Speaker 1: but it's they kind of acknowledge where they are at
Speaker 1: in the pecking order. But I also think too if
Speaker 1: players are going to flock to it and the money's
Speaker 1: going to be there. But we look at the big
Speaker 1: I mean, the Big ten is comparable. I mean I
Speaker 1: think I think Wisconsin's an unbelievable program with tremendous history
Speaker 1: and success. We know what Michigan is, we know what
Speaker 1: Ohio State is. I've seen Michigan State at their best,
Speaker 1: even though they didn't have their best that day, but
Speaker 1: they were eleven to win Team ten twelve years ago,
Speaker 1: playoff team back in fifteen. SC is I think you
Speaker 1: reference Georgia is a sleeping giant. SC to me has
Speaker 1: been a sleeping giant for two decades because there was
Speaker 1: a time when I was fifteen years old when I
Speaker 1: never thought I'd see him lose a game. I think
Speaker 1: UCLA is dangerous because chick Kelly, now in the nil
Speaker 1: era with his NFL pedigree, understands how to work that system.
Speaker 1: Washington is just getting started out or killing the Morse.
Speaker 1: I don't think there's one right now that is significantly
Speaker 1: more difficult than the other. I think the SEC bottom
Speaker 1: is better than the Big tenth bottom, but at the
Speaker 1: top you have very capable programs with tremendous resources at
Speaker 1: they're disposing.
Speaker 2: As a PAC twelve die hard and loyalist. I had
Speaker 2: told friends five years ago that it wasn't going to survive.
Speaker 2: And my takeaway was once the NFL came back to
Speaker 2: Los Angeles with two teams, is that you know, Pete
Speaker 2: Carroll was in a time no NFL in LA all
Speaker 2: the resources, all the resources, all the time sellouts and
Speaker 2: also people were spending their money on USC. People were
Speaker 2: totally supportive of USC. Games were sellouts. Also, you didn't
Speaker 2: have a PAC ten tournament you could lose. You didn't
Speaker 2: have to play a summifinal game. If you were great
Speaker 2: and you beat your Oregon States, Arizona States, in Washington,
Speaker 2: you ended up playing for the national championship if somebody
Speaker 2: thought you were good enough. So it's a different time,
Speaker 2: and so I'm not that I'm not bothering. I'm bummed
Speaker 2: out about the PAC twelve, but I sure it was.
Speaker 2: It's a SEC big ten money is just greater. How
Speaker 2: is that viewed in the South? How do you look
Speaker 2: at it? You guys always think we're soft out here anyway,
Speaker 2: But how is it viewed that the four best teams
Speaker 2: are basically going to join the enemy in the Big Ten.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if I want any of my
Speaker 1: Southern friends to know that I'm actually originally from Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: so I you know, I don't want to be perceived
Speaker 1: as soft. I don't think you are, necessarily. I do
Speaker 1: think that there is a bit of a perception that
Speaker 1: when it's good against good and best against best, the
Speaker 1: likelihood of the SEC winning that game is higher than
Speaker 1: that of what we see sometimes from the Big Ten.
Speaker 1: I mean, Ohio State did beat Alabama at fourteen, has
Speaker 1: beaten the SEC teams came within a field goal a
Speaker 1: way of probably being the national champion last year, but
Speaker 1: those have been more few and far between, even dating
Speaker 1: back to the two thousand and six two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: when the Big ten just had a difficult time matching
Speaker 1: up on annual basis against the best that the SEC
Speaker 1: had to offer. Why the SEC won every championship from
Speaker 1: O eight all the way up until twenty thirteen when
Speaker 1: Florida State founally brought it home. So I think that
Speaker 1: will be kind of an interesting evaluation. It's going to
Speaker 1: be a tug of war. I mean, we don't like them,
Speaker 1: they don't like us type of mentality for Big ten
Speaker 1: fans and for SEC fans, some will pound their chest
Speaker 1: about the money or some will pund their chest about
Speaker 1: the ratings. Everyone's seemingly trying to find an edge, But
Speaker 1: at the same time, I still feel like the edge
Speaker 1: is that both leagues are beyond delete. It's just whether
Speaker 1: or not now the Big Ten, which doesn't have as
Speaker 1: much talent density as the SEC, if they'll be able
Speaker 1: to go south and attract kids up to the north
Speaker 1: to play at some of those places with a few
Speaker 1: less Division IE level high caliber prospects that they would
Speaker 1: normally have at their disposal of the SEC. Like South
Speaker 1: Carolina goes down the street, they can get fifteen guys
Speaker 1: that can play high level D one ball. Iowa might
Speaker 1: have to go two hundred and fifty miles in every
Speaker 1: direction and they might not find that many. So I
Speaker 1: think it's just a little bit more difficult when it
Speaker 1: comes to the recruiting pipeline. But if the identities are
Speaker 1: clearly at the Big Ten, I think they can play
Speaker 1: with anybody.
Speaker 2: I love Saban. I think sometimes he can be If
Speaker 2: Nick wants to talk about something he's going to go
Speaker 2: to the podium and he's going to find something that
Speaker 2: can get him into what he really wants to talk about.
Speaker 2: He does this all the time, about three times a year.
Speaker 2: It's like, I'm going to talk about transfer portal. I
Speaker 2: don't care what your question is, I'm going to bring
Speaker 2: it up. And there have been two different occasions where
Speaker 2: he's complained about the NIL and he said, you know,
Speaker 2: it's not even it's not fair. And my takeaway has
Speaker 2: always been that's a message. And my gut feeling was
Speaker 2: he's a little concerned about Texas, that the fact that
Speaker 2: Texas money is like USC can't compete with it, Phil
Speaker 2: Knight and Oregon can't compete with it. The Longhorns have
Speaker 2: two to three billionaire donors, and that when Nick talks
Speaker 2: about the NIL, my takeaway is he's doing some battles
Speaker 2: with Sark and some of these they're wrestling people away.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're getting great recruits. That's my take What
Speaker 2: is yours? When he complains about the NIL, because Alabama's collective,
Speaker 2: I'm sure is just fine. Why is he doing that?
Speaker 1: I think it's as much calling to rally the troops
Speaker 1: of his own fan base. Everyone made a big deal
Speaker 1: about the argument between Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban back
Speaker 1: in the summer of twenty two. It was never about
Speaker 1: Jimbo Fisher and Nick Saban. It was never about Alabama
Speaker 1: against Texas, A and m what he was doing and
Speaker 1: what he thought was a controlled environment amongst friends and
Speaker 1: family onknowing that there was televisions there and all this
Speaker 1: other stuff. He was basically saying, hey, look these guys,
Speaker 1: look at the recruiting class they were just able to
Speaker 1: bring home. You guys better step it up. That was
Speaker 1: a call to action for his own fan base, I
Speaker 1: think more so than it was being frustrated with the
Speaker 1: current system. I mean, are there as many billionaire donors
Speaker 1: in the state of Alabama as they are on the
Speaker 1: state Texas. No, But I would be willing to probably
Speaker 1: go probably on the record and saying I'd be willing
Speaker 1: to bet that people to worth five or six hundred
Speaker 1: million are putting up a higher percentage of their net
Speaker 1: worth to make sure that Alabama succeeds. Then maybe in
Speaker 1: Texas or in California or other places. It just means
Speaker 1: a lot in this particular state. So I will be
Speaker 1: interested to see how that all unfolds and how the
Speaker 1: arms race really ends up working out. I'm really actually
Speaker 1: more interested, though not as much in nil. But what
Speaker 1: would you do if you were one of those teams
Speaker 1: right now that is perceived to not have that war
Speaker 1: chest of nil at your disposal, if you're behind as
Speaker 1: far as as far as your approach right now in
Speaker 1: your television contract. I don't want to say Floridastate and
Speaker 1: Clemson because I think they have enough resources to be
Speaker 1: able to support them on the recruiting trail. Just look
Speaker 1: at how they've fared in recent years. But what message
Speaker 1: would you send if you were one of those teams
Speaker 1: that was lacking behind and not a part of the
Speaker 1: Big two or hopefully en route to the Big two.
Speaker 2: Well, Greg, my belief is is that college football is
Speaker 2: going to become a little bit like college basketball, that
Speaker 2: the playoff is going to be a big chunk of
Speaker 2: the sport. It will go to twelve, then I think
Speaker 2: it will go to sixteen or twenty four. Now people
Speaker 2: are concerned that will ruin the college football regular season,
Speaker 2: and here's why it won't, Because Greg march madness did
Speaker 2: not kill college basketball's regular season. We watched Latner, we
Speaker 2: watch the run in rebels. We watched Georgetown, we had
Speaker 2: March madness. What is killed college basketball is one and
Speaker 2: done culture. The quality is not good. The playoff's not
Speaker 2: going to hurt college football because you watch LSU play Georgia.
Speaker 2: There's thirty four NFL players on the field. Because of
Speaker 2: the cultural reality of college football, you have to play
Speaker 2: three years. Most guys play four. You have grown men playing.
Speaker 2: People think by adding to the playoff it'll hurt college
Speaker 2: football's regular season. And I said this two days ago
Speaker 2: on my show. Texas is playing Bama. You're not watching, really,
Speaker 2: George's playing LSU or Oklahoma. You're not watching. Really. USC's
Speaker 2: at Michigan. You're watching, and you're watching even though they
Speaker 2: made meet to get in the playoff. You're watching because
Speaker 2: Caleb Williams is going to be against their first round
Speaker 2: quarterback pick. It's Harbor and Lincoln Riley play end of
Speaker 2: the year. Playoffs don't kill the sport. Lack of quality
Speaker 2: has killed college basketball. Hell Victor Webbin Yama. He didn't
Speaker 2: even play college basketball, Scoot Henderson, Jalen Green. So as
Speaker 2: long as you're forced to go to college, I'm going
Speaker 2: to watch Georgia Bama, LSU, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Michigan, Ohio State.
Speaker 2: But I do think, Greg, to your initial question, the
Speaker 2: bottom part of that ten eleven twelve, that's going to
Speaker 2: be the area where in Oregon State can win that
Speaker 2: Mountain West. If that happens and they can get in,
Speaker 2: you're going to get four from the SEC four from
Speaker 2: the Big ten, one or two from the Big twelve.
Speaker 2: But instead of getting like Cincinnati, and we argue about it,
Speaker 2: you'll get two of those. You get two of those.
Speaker 2: And so I think what will happen is we're gonna
Speaker 2: do twelve for about four years. It's gonna make everybody
Speaker 2: a fortune, and everybody's gonna go, all right, let's go
Speaker 2: to sixteen, and it won't hurt the sport. You're gonna
Speaker 2: watch Auburn Alabama even if you played a second time. Greg,
Speaker 2: you and I have watched march Mandess since we were kids.
Speaker 2: If Duke and Carolina play in the Elite eight for
Speaker 2: the fourth time, we're watching, You're right, there's.
Speaker 1: No denying that. But I am curious your thoughts. Are
Speaker 1: we getting to a point in the nil era in
Speaker 1: the college football world where they're looking at the top
Speaker 1: twenty five. The coaches poll came out the other day
Speaker 1: and people are saying, all right, how many teams can
Speaker 1: win it? And people aren't getting past five right now
Speaker 1: as far as teams that can actually win the championship. Now,
Speaker 1: Caleb Williams elevate his team to a level that is
Speaker 1: just unrecognizable and maybe pull off two upsets and route
Speaker 1: to a championship. But the Vince Young taking over the
Speaker 1: game against USC back in five, does it feel like
Speaker 1: it's as capable nowadays? Do you still think that Cinderella
Speaker 1: or a run like a Cinderella is possible in college football?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I do because I think the SEC's always had
Speaker 2: more elite athletes, but the game used to be tighter
Speaker 2: and smaller, and that Nick Saban could suffocate you. I
Speaker 2: watched Ohio State play Georgia, and just because of those
Speaker 2: receivers for Ohio State, Ohio State and c J. Stroud,
Speaker 2: they moved that ball. I thought they were the better
Speaker 2: team that day, right, Caleb Williams, Quinn yours, c J. Stroud.
Speaker 2: The game is is you know, if you go back
Speaker 2: Greg and go back to Nebraska when they were winning titles,
Speaker 2: they had one receiver wide, right, I mean everybody was
Speaker 2: jammed up on the size of my screen. The game
Speaker 2: is so fast and so wide, and so many young
Speaker 2: players now want to be quarterbacks or wide receivers that nobody,
Speaker 2: including Nick Saban or Georgia, is going to cover Marvin Harrison.
Speaker 2: You can't do it. And so I think the USC's
Speaker 2: and the Texas and the Notre Dames may need to
Speaker 2: have a Caleb Williams or a Vince Young. Okay, they
Speaker 2: have to make up something, right, Stetsan Bennett's good. Caleb
Speaker 2: Williams is different. Trevor Lawrence beat s Bama. Those schools
Speaker 2: to beat the SEC king have to be better at
Speaker 2: quarterback and probably transcendent. You know a Trevor Lawrence that
Speaker 2: that's a different Caleb's a different kind of number one pick.
Speaker 2: I mean, Baker was a number one pick. Caleb. That's
Speaker 2: not close. And I do think the field is so
Speaker 2: spread now and the offensive coaching is so good that
Speaker 2: if you have that superstar quarterback and you're eighty five
Speaker 2: percent of George's roster Obama's roster, you can win. I
Speaker 2: watched Tennessee last year. Drop A was like a fifty
Speaker 2: bigger on Alabama. They couldn't stop them with Hndon Hooker.
Speaker 1: That's it. They've scored fifty two. Look at you, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: you place sure reb in and bringing it up. I appreciate,
Speaker 1: appreciate the reference. I am curious on this because I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone in the world does a better job
Speaker 1: with analogies and being able to recreate the idea and
Speaker 1: the visual. As I'm listening to you, you can sumped
Speaker 1: up something up and I'm like, how did you come
Speaker 1: up with that? And I tried to do my best
Speaker 1: calling Calvert impression and said, if you put too much
Speaker 1: on the quarterback's shoulders, it's like the quarterback is the
Speaker 1: bicep and all you do are curls. Meanwhile, your triceps
Speaker 1: are atrophy, your pecks are atrophy, your legs are atrophy.
Speaker 1: If you put too much on that position, it's going
Speaker 1: to actually result in the rest of your team not
Speaker 1: being as good. Now, it's totally opposite from what you
Speaker 1: just described, but I think there's a real analogy to
Speaker 1: be made at say Alabama, maybe even USC to a
Speaker 1: certain extent last year at Ohio State at times, especially
Speaker 1: on defense back in the end of the Urban Meyer era,
Speaker 1: herb early early era of what Ryan Day is doing,
Speaker 1: Dwayne Hasse, their defense fell off, I mean other things.
Speaker 1: The run game has at times fallen. Do you think
Speaker 1: that there's a possibility that if you put too much
Speaker 1: on your quarterback, the rest of the roster actually won't
Speaker 1: be competitive enough to maybe win the national championship?
Speaker 2: Well a twofold. I had Urban Meyer on my show
Speaker 2: today and I made this point, and Urban even said,
Speaker 2: he goes, you know, that's actually a really good point.
Speaker 2: I said, Ohio State's receiver recruiting is so good now
Speaker 2: they only take five stars that they've become less physical
Speaker 2: as a team because you have to get those players
Speaker 2: of the ball or they're not going to go to
Speaker 2: Ohio State. And I said to Urban, I watch Ohio
Speaker 2: State and it's almost like, okay, we got to give
Speaker 2: Marvin ebooks. I got to give this could not And
Speaker 2: I said, I feel like Ohio State is not a
Speaker 2: finesse team, asked Georgia. But there's a they're not they're
Speaker 2: not quite sure what they are. Simultaneously, Michigan has doubled
Speaker 2: down on physical play and running and now they've separated
Speaker 2: between the two. And another point on this, I said,
Speaker 2: this year's ago on the air, I said, the downside
Speaker 2: of making the NFL so quarterback dependent and all this
Speaker 2: greg is based on the CTE check the NFL wrote
Speaker 2: for almost a million dollars. They change the rules. They
Speaker 2: literally now the middle of the field is offense. You
Speaker 2: can't hit anybody except the running back. And I said
Speaker 2: the downside to this sport. It'll be good for fantasy
Speaker 2: players and ratings, but if you don't have a star quarterback,
Speaker 2: we know you're done. And you look at the Super
Speaker 2: Bowl bubble, Malmes Burrow, Allen Lamar, Jalen Hurts, I mean
Speaker 2: Trevor Lawrence. That bubble used to feel like fifteen teams.
Speaker 2: It feels like seven. I mean, Kirk Cousins is good,
Speaker 2: but in this day and age, he's simply not good enough.
Speaker 2: Dak's good, he's not good enough. And so I do
Speaker 2: think to your point of atrophying due to safety reasons,
Speaker 2: the NFL and college football to a lesser degree, is
Speaker 2: so quarterback reliant and driven. You don't want football that's
Speaker 2: Canadian football. You can only win with passing. We don't
Speaker 2: want that. I want defense. I like when Georgia rocks people.
Speaker 2: Those Georgia Notre Dame games were physical and intense in
Speaker 2: lineup scrimmage. That's what separates us from the CFL. So
Speaker 2: I do think physicality is still huge. I mean, listen,
Speaker 2: the best offensive line wins most NFL games. If you
Speaker 2: have a competent quarterback and you control the clock, you
Speaker 2: win most games, at least to a sir.
Speaker 1: I got to the point in college football though, because
Speaker 1: the advent of spread and no huddle and all this stuff,
Speaker 1: it's almost like offensive line play as long as you
Speaker 1: relies on a liability down in the NFL, it's different.
Speaker 1: Those pass rushers when you got you know, thirty five
Speaker 1: year old Von Millers still wreckon habit Like I mean,
Speaker 1: we were talking about guys that are just different, and
Speaker 1: not everybody has a guy like that on the end
Speaker 1: of the line of skirts down the SEC. Yeah, most
Speaker 1: teams do, even Mississippi State. Vanderbilt had a guy last
Speaker 1: year that was legit. Kentucky always has two or three
Speaker 1: big ten all Oile of State's got them, Michigan's got them,
Speaker 1: Michigan State occasionally has them, Penn State absolutely has them.
Speaker 1: We haven't seen someone at sc or. UCLA's got one,
Speaker 1: Washington's got two. But you don't see that down and
Speaker 1: down a great unbelievable defensive front to where your offensive
Speaker 1: line has to be rock solid or else your quarter
Speaker 1: actually get killed. So I maybe it's coming down in
Speaker 1: that direction a little bit as the talent starts to separate.
Speaker 1: But I don't see the depth of defensive line talent
Speaker 1: in the college game that we do in the NFL.
Speaker 2: No, I see it in the SEC. You know, the
Speaker 2: state of Louisiana probably has six million people that live
Speaker 2: in it, and they have eight good D one D
Speaker 2: line prospects that you're eight to twelve eight. California's got
Speaker 2: California's got thirty eight million people. We have three. I
Speaker 2: mean some of it. Greg I've said his diet, you know,
Speaker 2: the West Coast, it's just health and wellness. You know,
Speaker 2: you go up in California, health and wellness out in California.
Speaker 2: I mean, like I say this, I had lunch with
Speaker 2: somebody today and he's a Californian and he lives in
Speaker 2: the you know, he lives in a different part of
Speaker 2: the country. He goes you as you coming back to California,
Speaker 2: it's like, does anybody eat out here? Like every He's
Speaker 2: like offensive linemen in high school are two fifty five.
Speaker 2: It's like, and so I just think other parts of
Speaker 2: the country they just, you know, the SEC produces more,
Speaker 2: Midwest produces them. Northeast does I always you know, I
Speaker 2: just I kind of feel like this college football season,
Speaker 2: I'm really excited because I was known when I was
Speaker 2: at ESPN as a college football guy. Then I thought
Speaker 2: the sport got really insular and very southern, and you know,
Speaker 2: I would say the SEC is the best. But when
Speaker 2: you're a syndicated talk show host, you have to talk
Speaker 2: about national sports. I talk a lot of NFL. I'll
Speaker 2: talk at UFC Fight For about seven to eight, maybe
Speaker 2: ten years college football. Once USC eroded, it felt like
Speaker 2: the sport was down to three teams, Ohio State and
Speaker 2: two SEC teams. I actually think Texas this year, Michigan
Speaker 2: this year in USC can play with anybody. Don't know
Speaker 2: if they can, but I think they match up. You know,
Speaker 2: Alex Grinch, the coordinator for USC, has got to prove himself.
Speaker 2: He's got three NFL bodies up front. They had none
Speaker 2: last year. So due to the transfer portal, they got
Speaker 2: three Sunday guys. Because their corners and safeties are fine,
Speaker 2: they have maybe the best safety in the country, Kaylan Bullock.
Speaker 2: Their offense is exceptional. They've gone out and gotten NFL
Speaker 2: bodies on the old line. So I always feel like
Speaker 2: with a transfer portal, you can fix one side of
Speaker 2: the football per year. So USC fixed their offense last year,
Speaker 2: they went and fixed their defense this year. It takes
Speaker 2: about two years without the transfer portal. It took Nick
Speaker 2: Saban a third recruiting class to get it rolling right,
Speaker 2: like you were part of that. Now it takes two years.
Speaker 2: And I think Brian Kelly first year got the offense
Speaker 2: kind of figured out. Now he's going to get the
Speaker 2: defense figured out. So I have Michigan facing LSU of
Speaker 2: the Championship, and I don't think LSU is the best
Speaker 2: SEC team. I don't think they're the deepest, but I
Speaker 2: love the coach, I love the quarterback, and I looked
Speaker 2: at their schedule and I'm like, I think LSU is gonna.
Speaker 2: I think they're gonna, you know it's it's it's gonna
Speaker 2: be a lot of people knocking each other off. I
Speaker 2: like LSU a lot.
Speaker 1: If LSU wins the National Championship, what's the headline in
Speaker 1: the LA Times or wherever your local paper, the Manhattan
Speaker 1: Beach Post, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it would be a real story because
Speaker 2: Brian Kelly is a Notre Dame and Notre Dame has
Speaker 2: a big has resonance here and I and I think
Speaker 2: if they beat a Michigan and it was a competitive game,
Speaker 2: I think it would be a win for college football.
Speaker 2: It's SEC winning's not bad. SEC beating Michigan State in
Speaker 2: the playoff by forty is bad. So if it's LSU
Speaker 2: thirty five thirty three, I got no problem with that
Speaker 2: USC losing. I don't. I don't want USC and Sam
Speaker 2: Darnold playing Ohio State and two series in it doesn't
Speaker 2: even look like they're by the same sport. So I
Speaker 2: don't think the SEC winning is bad. I think them
Speaker 2: dominating and suffocating teams is bad for the sport. So
Speaker 2: and I don't think we'll see that this. I think
Speaker 2: Quen yours Cabb, Caleb William the Michigan kid, I think
Speaker 2: those guys can move the ball in anybody listen Ohio State.
Speaker 2: I thought they outplayed Georgia. I did, I really.
Speaker 1: I thought it'd be hard pressed to push back on that.
Speaker 1: I don't know all of you.
Speaker 2: I could yeah, So I think we're in a good spot.
Speaker 2: I think going forward, the really big brands not in
Speaker 2: the SEC have really good coaches, and I think that's good.
Speaker 2: I think Sark, you know, you can say what you
Speaker 2: want about him, he can recruit and he can coach offense.
Speaker 2: Lincoln Riley is very clever. Harbaugh's unorthodox, but more than competent.
Speaker 2: Daboshweeney's great. So I think we're in a good space
Speaker 2: right now going forward in college.
Speaker 1: As long as the FSU and Clemson stay in the ACC.
Speaker 1: Because you thought it was going to not even catch up.
Speaker 1: Catch that for a second. What's stopping them? You said,
Speaker 1: never going to the SEC. What's stopping Clemson in Florida
Speaker 1: State from maybe going to the Big Ten.
Speaker 2: I don't think they feel like the Big Ten, so
Speaker 2: I first of all the Big Ten, and this sounds newdy,
Speaker 2: but they view themselves as sort of an academic elite conference. Washington, USC,
Speaker 2: UCLA are considered really elite universities, So was Northwestern, Michigan,
Speaker 2: Penn State. Wisconsin's considered a public ivy. I'm not knocking
Speaker 2: Florida State, Clemson. Those feel like football powers. One of
Speaker 2: the things I appreciate about the SEC is they don't
Speaker 2: lose any sleep. They love their football. They're not you know,
Speaker 2: they're not going to pretend they're this or that, not
Speaker 2: that universities don't matter, but they're all in on football.
Speaker 2: It drives the cultural bus and the and the revenue bus.
Speaker 2: I'm okay with that, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 2: lived down in Tampa. I covered the Gators. I love
Speaker 2: the passion. I think the Pac twelve got way too precious.
Speaker 2: That's why they've unraveled. I mean, Cal football, Cal cares
Speaker 2: more about rugby than football some years, so I can't
Speaker 2: take them seriously. But I do think the Big Ten
Speaker 2: would love Notre Dame, and if Notre Dame came in,
Speaker 2: would consider Stanford. But I think some of their school
Speaker 2: presidents they view that themselves a certain way. And whether
Speaker 2: it's snoody or not, you may disagree, but I kind
Speaker 2: of feel that they think Washington and USC and UCLA
Speaker 2: fit their academic profile.
Speaker 1: We've said it before, the only pretentious fan base in
Speaker 1: the SEC would be Vanderbilt. Everyone else is kind of like, man,
Speaker 1: we're just happy to be here. Let's win the party, right,
Speaker 1: Let's win the game when the party. Let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: But I'm talking my degree at the time, but I'm not.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're proud of our football. That's what it is. Man,
Speaker 1: this has been awesome. This has been a great conversation.
Speaker 1: I so appreciate you. Brother.
Speaker 2: By the way, I know three families. In fact, one
Speaker 2: of my dearest friends, Trace Gallagher at Fox News, dear
Speaker 2: friend for twenty years, his daughter goes to Alabama loves it.
Speaker 2: So I don't know what it is. But Manhattan Beach,
Speaker 2: California has a lot of kids that went to Bama.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm not joking. And my daughter went in a
Speaker 2: leadership conference years ago to Cape Town, South Africa with
Speaker 2: about fifteen SEC girls and I loved it, loved the girls,
Speaker 2: and she, you know, she considered it. She considered going
Speaker 2: to the South. So it's really interesting. I think there's
Speaker 2: there's a mystique about the South and country music and
Speaker 2: college football. It's almost mysterious to kids out West, and
Speaker 2: I think people are very attractive to it. I know
Speaker 2: a lot of families, you know. I work out at
Speaker 2: a gym around the corner from my house, and Alabama
Speaker 2: is a topic all the time. During the football season,
Speaker 2: A lot of there's a lot of roll tied shirts
Speaker 2: in my little beachy California, jym So and a lot
Speaker 2: of that Saban. It's the greatest dynasty ever and it's
Speaker 2: it's noteworthy, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it is. But and again I
Speaker 1: lived forty five minutes from Tuscaloosa, so not exactly in
Speaker 1: the same part of town as you, buddy. But this
Speaker 1: has been awesome, man, it's a great conversation. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you so much. Love much to do others do it
Speaker 1: the ball. You appreciate you, guys, and look forward to
Speaker 1: continue to watch your pod and your show and listen
Speaker 1: on FS one all that other fun stuff.
Speaker 2: My friend, yeap man, you been a big hit. You're
Speaker 2: you're the morning guy, is it?
Speaker 1: K JOX w j X yeah, w j X so yeah,
Speaker 1: doing that bad East Coast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's the big stick in the morning. And uh,
Speaker 2: I remember when you were up for that. We were
Speaker 2: at the volume looking at you and because we were
Speaker 2: going to bring you on to the volume, and somebody
Speaker 2: said he's up for a huge morning radio show in
Speaker 2: the South. And I remember they gave me the call
Speaker 2: letters and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's the big morning
Speaker 2: show that's going to be, and I think you made
Speaker 2: the right choice. I say this all the time. I'm
Speaker 2: a radio guy at heart. They put me on TV,
Speaker 2: but I'm not. I don't look like a TV guy.
Speaker 2: I'm a radio guy. There's nothing like connecting to a
Speaker 2: radio audience storytelling. It's the very best.
Speaker 1: It's the best. But you at least have the gift
Speaker 1: of gab. I have voice for radio or voice for
Speaker 1: TV or whatever they say, voice for print, face for radio,
Speaker 1: something along the lines of that. I don't know exactly
Speaker 1: how it works, but at least you got it good.
Speaker 1: It's man, I'm just trying to figure it out. Falling
Speaker 1: your lead bite, well, great seeing you. Appreciate you. Man
Speaker 1: the volume