Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid Verbo.
Speaker 2: I'm that for me. I'm a man, I'm forty.
Speaker 3: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
Speaker 3: be happy.
Speaker 2: You want to be happy for Dake Edith State.
Speaker 1: Is that whoo whoom? And Dan and Tye welcome back
Speaker 1: to the solid Burble boys and girls. My name is
Speaker 1: ty Hildenbrandt, joining me as always over there in blustery,
Speaker 1: apocalyptically cold New York City. My man Dan Rubinstein, sir,
Speaker 1: how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm good? Is it super cold in Allentown in eastern PA?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Dude? Did you get that the squall? A few men, God,
Speaker 2: we got the squall?
Speaker 1: They were talking about the squall like it was the
Speaker 1: Second Coming, and it blew through here between twelve and two.
Speaker 2: As expect Wallen Brown did. Yeah, yeah, man, it.
Speaker 1: Was something else. One one second it was fine, the
Speaker 1: next it was a whiteout outside crazy.
Speaker 2: I first of all, if you are listening to this,
Speaker 2: we're recording this when's day evening? That would stay the
Speaker 2: thirtieth thirtieth of January thirtieth if you are anywhere in
Speaker 2: the upper Midwest, so say Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan.
Speaker 3: What about Fargo?
Speaker 2: Fargo, the capital of college football championships. If you are
Speaker 2: in the Upper Midwest Upper Plains area, we hope there
Speaker 2: are multiple ear muffs on top of whatever you are
Speaker 2: listening to us on right this very moment, and you
Speaker 2: are doing everything you can to stay warm, and nobody
Speaker 2: wants to be a frostbite. Hero Ty, don't let anybody
Speaker 2: be a frostbite. Here.
Speaker 1: I sent you a link that I saw frost quake
Speaker 1: people in Yeah, people in Chicago were hearing booms and
Speaker 1: it was due to something called a frost quake.
Speaker 2: So if you are Clayton Thorson listening to this show,
Speaker 2: get get saved from the frost wakes. No clue. I
Speaker 2: mean it's sort of like that with thunder snow. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's been my favorite combination of weather terms that we've
Speaker 2: had recently.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. Well, welcome back in Dan. It's good to talk
Speaker 1: to you. If you're listening for the first time or
Speaker 1: for the umpteenth time, don't forget. You can find us
Speaker 1: out on Twitter, Twitter, dot com, slash Solidverbal. We've also
Speaker 1: got a Facebook, We've got it Instagram. We've also got
Speaker 1: a subreddit started by Verballers fans of the show for
Speaker 1: other fans of the show, which you could find Reddit
Speaker 1: dot com, slash our, slash Solid Verbal, and of course
Speaker 1: we are on Apple Podcasts and really anywhere you can
Speaker 1: find podcasts, be it Spotify or Google Play, you name it.
Speaker 1: We are out there.
Speaker 2: Throw us a review, procrastinate doing something else by throwing
Speaker 2: us a five star review. Be specific, We check them
Speaker 2: out for sure.
Speaker 1: You can also hit us up if you've got something
Speaker 1: to get off your chest at solid verbal at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. So a variety of different ways that you
Speaker 1: can get in touch with us if you so desire. Today, Dan,
Speaker 1: today we're going to be talking a little sec and
Speaker 1: by we I mean you, because you were the one
Speaker 1: who recorded this show with our friend Andy Staples from
Speaker 1: Sports Illustrated.
Speaker 2: Yes, Sands, Sirius XIM does a great job. Jason Horwitz there,
Speaker 2: I think it's College Sports Nation. I want to get
Speaker 2: that correct because you know how much we do treasure
Speaker 2: serious football content. Of course, yes, recorded with Andy already.
Speaker 2: That's coming up here just shortly. But here is something
Speaker 2: that I want to talk about real, not quick, but
Speaker 2: medium quick. So I would say we've each had not
Speaker 2: significant significant, two medium significant medical experiences. Recently. You won
Speaker 2: the toss. So you are going to I talked about
Speaker 2: your I guess it's mouth drama ahead of the ACC
Speaker 2: show I did with Chip Patterson from CBS last week,
Speaker 2: and that you had mouth trauma that needed to be
Speaker 2: dealt with in an emergency way, and even though you
Speaker 2: were actually available to record, you were a DNP. Mouth
Speaker 2: is what ended up happening. If that gives you any idea,
Speaker 2: because this is your instrument. Sure, this is your connection
Speaker 2: to the college football universe. So what I want to
Speaker 2: ask you, how you doing? I'm good?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: Better?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Week?
Speaker 2: So walk me through everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'll try to give the a bridge
Speaker 1: version because people ultimately, I think when you hear a
Speaker 1: college football But yeah, I cracked a tooth before Christmas.
Speaker 1: It took a while to figure out that it was cracked.
Speaker 1: Eventually they end up testing it. And I'm the dentist,
Speaker 1: but my evaluation of how they evaluate the tooth is
Speaker 1: they put a little bit of liquid nitrogen or something
Speaker 1: very cold on a small cotton swab and then put
Speaker 1: it directly on your tooth to see what happens. Yeah, like,
Speaker 1: what's going to happen if we do this? And of
Speaker 1: course they did that, and I almost jumped through the ceiling.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: But that was their indication that I apparently needed a
Speaker 1: root nowl which I've never had done before. And when
Speaker 1: they do this, they of course numb you up, and
Speaker 1: it's this whole big, drawn out thing. You don't feel
Speaker 1: it as it's going on in your numb for hours afterwards.
Speaker 1: But what you also don't feel as part of that
Speaker 1: process is when they stick the big old X ray
Speaker 1: thing in there to double check and make sure that
Speaker 1: they've done the procedure correctly. It's not always done in
Speaker 1: a gentle fashion, let's say, and in this case it
Speaker 1: most certainly wasn't because they ripped up the entire left
Speaker 1: side of my mouth, which meant that trying to talk results.
Speaker 2: No, I would have listened to this show entirely with
Speaker 2: you sounding.
Speaker 1: Like that, Yeah, it had interesting results, and therefore the
Speaker 1: instrument as you call it would not have been tuned
Speaker 1: up to specifications because I couldn't really talk all that
Speaker 1: well for about a week and I was very annoyed
Speaker 1: by it. But now I'm back, I'm off the shelf.
Speaker 1: It seems as if the procedure worked, it's not fully
Speaker 1: done yet. I've got some other odds and now yeah, yeah, no, no,
Speaker 1: this isn't done yet. We've got two more appointments. But
Speaker 1: everyone can relax. I'm fine. The voice is fine. I'm
Speaker 1: not having the voice problems like I did a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. I'm back. I'm good to go.
Speaker 2: Can we do a quick exercise before we get to
Speaker 2: Andy where we're doing a sort of autopsy, taking what
Speaker 2: happened with each SEC team in twenty eighteen and the
Speaker 2: off season thereafter, and figuring out what it means for
Speaker 2: I guess the future of these programs, these fourteen programs. Okay,
Speaker 2: the exercise I want to do. I want to honor
Speaker 2: your mouth, because this is why we're here, Ty, We're
Speaker 2: here for honor. I want to quickly go through. We
Speaker 2: don't need to do all fourteen teams. Whatever comes to mind.
Speaker 2: Will you pull up the SEC standings, I'll get you
Speaker 2: got I've got them in front of me, in front
Speaker 2: of you. I want to go through as many teams
Speaker 2: as we'd like to do, you'd like to do whatever,
Speaker 2: And I want to find the moment or stretch during
Speaker 2: each team's twenty eighteen season that probably most felt like
Speaker 2: their fans were getting a root canal while watching said
Speaker 2: team in action. Okay, so I'll start off will I
Speaker 2: will probably say LSU's offensive attempts, especially inside the forty
Speaker 2: when they actually did get there against Alabama was probably
Speaker 2: feeling like a root canal for a lot of LSU fans.
Speaker 1: For Kentucky, that Tennessee loss.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's never fun.
Speaker 1: They lost Tennessee and apparently some Kentucky fans out there
Speaker 1: feel like listening to our show at times can be
Speaker 1: like a root canal.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I would also say maybe the overtimes, by
Speaker 2: the way for LSU against Texas A and M, especially
Speaker 2: after coach O is drenched in gatorade and we're still
Speaker 2: going and it's just when will this weird pain inevitability,
Speaker 2: who knows what will happen end? I think that's probably
Speaker 2: there too. I would say, first, there's multiple looking poor
Speaker 2: against Tennessee. Root canals on here. I would say Auburn's
Speaker 2: game against Tennessee at all, Oh yeah, for sure. Wow,
Speaker 2: had to have felt like a root canal.
Speaker 1: Auburn the whole season was kind of a root canal.
Speaker 2: Everything ended well, like there was that good wash out
Speaker 2: that you probably got where you got all the gunk
Speaker 2: out of your mouth at the end by that the
Speaker 2: vacuum meet type thing. Yeah. Yeah, So I think that
Speaker 2: Purdue is the switch and spit of Auburn season, all
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you say it ended well, and it did
Speaker 1: in the Music City Bowl, but before that they lost
Speaker 1: handily to their hated rival Alabama. Sure they beat Liberty,
Speaker 1: but of course they beat Liberty. They lost to Georgia,
Speaker 1: they barely beat A and M. They what beat Mississippi
Speaker 1: before that, Then they lost to Tennessee previous to that,
Speaker 1: and then they lost the Mississippi State in there. So yeah,
Speaker 1: the whole season, at least on this end, trying to
Speaker 1: predict Auburn football was certainly like a root canal watching
Speaker 1: the ground game.
Speaker 2: Unto itself. Yeah, I would say for A and M
Speaker 2: still not getting over the hump. They had that long,
Speaker 2: long road stretch right where they had Kentucky at home,
Speaker 2: but Arkansas was a neutral neutral site games, South Carolina,
Speaker 2: Mississippi State, Auburn all on the road. They lose those
Speaker 2: final two games, still not able to get over the
Speaker 2: Mississippi State hump, and then the second half against Auburn
Speaker 2: for A and M fans, I think there's your root canal.
Speaker 2: But again n C State full switch and spit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: a wonderful Swiss and spit. I'm glad you brought that
Speaker 2: term to this show. It can only mean we're getting
Speaker 2: into gross.
Speaker 1: What about Florida? Florida is an interesting one.
Speaker 2: Felipe the Frank's throwing into the Georgia secondary.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're going very specific, yes with your example, I.
Speaker 2: Think Michigan Swish and spit.
Speaker 1: I think you almost have to with Florida because new coach.
Speaker 1: I think it was a pretty good season for Florida. Oh,
Speaker 1: the definitely right. You have to come away from that
Speaker 1: feeling pretty good. I think initially the loss to Kentucky
Speaker 1: felt worse than it ended up being because Kentucky, you know,
Speaker 1: one ten games, so it wasn't all that bad of
Speaker 1: a loss.
Speaker 2: No, in retrospect, a totally understandable loss to a very
Speaker 2: good Kentucky team, for sure.
Speaker 1: What else do we got on here?
Speaker 2: The end of Missoo's game against Kentucky if we're sticking
Speaker 2: with the Wildcat, where Missoo definitely should have won.
Speaker 1: Okay, what about Alabama.
Speaker 2: Aside from thattional championship? If we're just going to stick
Speaker 2: with the SEC season for Alabama, the first half of
Speaker 2: the Georgia game, the SEC Championship game. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: painful to watch Tua hobbling around, getting hit, getting blitzes,
Speaker 2: not get picked up, throwing interceptions, right, first half of that.
Speaker 1: I mean, the thing with Alabama, if we're trying to
Speaker 1: compare it to dental work, is it's never serious dental
Speaker 1: work where you actually need novacaine. Right, Like all of
Speaker 1: their problems end up being cosmetic. Lose like ten assistant
Speaker 1: coaches doesn't matter. Have a quarterback who's hurt for pretty
Speaker 1: much the entire second half of the year doesn't matter. Right,
Speaker 1: You're really splitting hairs if you're trying to find things
Speaker 1: that Alabama fans are going to treat as root canal.
Speaker 2: Georgia special teams play calling is both the root canal
Speaker 2: for Georgia and the swish and spit for Alabama. That's right,
Speaker 2: So thanks for that call.
Speaker 1: Swish and spit could be our new thing.
Speaker 2: It's it has to be in a very specific way
Speaker 2: to this show. Georgia ends. I mean that the Georgia
Speaker 2: root canal is probably the first half of the Texas game,
Speaker 2: the LSU game was It was rough, but losing in
Speaker 2: Death Valley is not. It's nothing that is going to
Speaker 2: feel consistently terrible and give you nightmares. That was a
Speaker 2: very good LSU.
Speaker 1: I think I think I'm looking at Arkansas. Arkansas had
Speaker 1: a very bad years.
Speaker 2: It was a weekly Root Canal.
Speaker 1: Schedule, Yeah, two and ten, a tough schedule. I think
Speaker 1: they were disappointed in Faetteville by the quarterback play, especially
Speaker 1: with Chad Morris coming in.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I at least had an expectation that we would look
Speaker 1: better than it did, and that was that was a problem.
Speaker 2: All your Swish and spit was signing day. Yeah, nice
Speaker 2: class coming in Swish and Spit was signing day there.
Speaker 2: I talked about the ending of the Missoo Kentucky game.
Speaker 2: I think we I mean Vandy, I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know you're going into a Vandy season that you
Speaker 2: have some cracked teeth. There's an expectation of there's a
Speaker 2: work's going to be done low point. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: probably Georgia, but that's not the Root Canal. The Root
Speaker 2: Canal was probably watching the end of the Notre Dame game,
Speaker 2: because that game was there for Vanderbilt. Yes, it was
Speaker 2: there for the taking and they could have beaten Notre
Speaker 2: Dame in South Bend. I believe that game was in
Speaker 2: South Bend. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: So it was so that you know that was there
Speaker 1: and they weren't able to capitalize.
Speaker 2: Who are we missing? Ole Miss? Mississippi State? Ole Miss
Speaker 2: was was root canal all. It was sort of beginning
Speaker 2: to end for ole Miss. There were exciting moments with
Speaker 2: that receiving corps, but you know, you just get the
Speaker 2: what the one win is over Arkansas.
Speaker 1: Mississippi State on offense. I expected more September's Mississippi State offense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: was one prolonged. Oh wow, this tooth is gang greenness
Speaker 1: and we have to drill here right, Yes, that I
Speaker 1: think it was. It was either thirteen our fourteen combined
Speaker 1: points against Kentucky and Florida, two totally good teams, but
Speaker 1: with that type of experience and talent returning, you know,
Speaker 1: you have three points against LSU seven, Kentucky six, Florida
Speaker 1: and zero Alabama if memory serves right. Swish and spit was,
Speaker 1: I mean the ultimate Swiss and Spit is the egg
Speaker 1: Bowl ultimate. It's America Swish and spit in so many
Speaker 1: different ways. I think that about covers it. I think
Speaker 1: I think that covers this. So we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: cut over to the interview you did with Andy. We'll
Speaker 1: be back after. But you did a cool thing on
Speaker 1: the ACC show you did with our friendship Patterson from CBS.
Speaker 1: You're you're basically having the guest pick a number between
Speaker 1: one and fourteen, as you did last week again this
Speaker 1: week with the SEC, and then you talk about those teams.
Speaker 1: All too often we just go in order a finish
Speaker 1: or in reverse order a finish. This was a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a democratic way going about it, and
Speaker 1: I think held interests pretty well, at least through one
Speaker 1: conference autopsy. So we're gonna kick it over to Andy
Speaker 1: Staples from Sports Illustrated, SI dot Com, Serius XM, and
Speaker 1: we'll be back shortly.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the interview, all right, I don't make promises I
Speaker 2: can't keep. So here is Andy Staples from Sports Illustrated.
Speaker 2: And because honestly, you know what this episode is about.
Speaker 2: You know, we're doing an SEC autopsy and we're gonna
Speaker 2: find the rulings. Who better than Andy Staples to figure
Speaker 2: this out? But because this is not exactly pressing. I
Speaker 2: saw this recently, and I want you to go further
Speaker 2: into it because I get a lot of these questions.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you get a lot of these questions. People
Speaker 2: travel for college football and they want to know where
Speaker 2: to eat, and they ask us these questions, what is
Speaker 2: your source? I guess, other than me on the West Coast?
Speaker 2: What is your source to figure out where to eat where?
Speaker 4: Usually I call someone local, Okay, I call someone who
Speaker 4: lives in the t and I say, what is the
Speaker 4: place that you don't tell the tourists about because.
Speaker 3: You don't want them overrunning your favorite place?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 4: And that's how you find Archibald's Ribs in Northport, Alabama.
Speaker 3: That's how you.
Speaker 4: Find Tara Jumaras in Norman, which is the best just
Speaker 4: regular old text Mex place you'll ever. It looks like
Speaker 4: the text mess place in your town, and probably five
Speaker 4: others in your town that's a million times better. And
Speaker 4: I don't even know how to explain why.
Speaker 2: That's a blind spot of mine, because I'm a big
Speaker 2: Mex Max guy and have not spent enough time in
Speaker 2: San Antonio or Oklahoma or El Paso places that really
Speaker 2: do it right and have places that have been around
Speaker 2: forever and I need to fill my life.
Speaker 3: Blind spot for me too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my thing for years was it's meat and beans
Speaker 4: and melted cheese. What possibly could make one better than
Speaker 4: the other. But you go to this place and you'll
Speaker 4: you may not be able to describe it, because I
Speaker 4: certainly can't. Interesting, but it is significantly better, and I
Speaker 4: don't know why.
Speaker 2: What I think it is is a sort of some
Speaker 2: of the parts rather than each individual. Like the enchilada
Speaker 2: that you'll find on a good text Mex plate is fine.
Speaker 2: The beans you'll find are fine. And I think it's
Speaker 2: sort of like the when your syrup spills over onto
Speaker 2: the bacon on a breakfast plate and then you get
Speaker 2: a little bit of waffle in that bite. It's all
Speaker 2: about the symphony of flavors. In my mind.
Speaker 4: I think that's a good way to a good way
Speaker 4: to put it, because you know that like tarahumara is
Speaker 4: in Norman, so great fresh made salsa, which is a
Speaker 4: big thing for me, like huge you better have good
Speaker 4: salsa because and it better not come from a.
Speaker 3: Jar, So that that's easy.
Speaker 4: But the other thing they do is so when you
Speaker 4: sit down, they sit the basket of chips in front
Speaker 4: of you, they sit the saucea in front of you,
Speaker 4: and they also give you a cup of kso, which
Speaker 4: I was looking around the first time. I'm like, wait,
Speaker 4: I didn't order kiso. I don't want to pay for kso,
Speaker 4: and they're like, oh, no, no, no, it's included. So
Speaker 4: apparently I don't know how this happened, but apparently in
Speaker 4: metro Oklahoma City, and for those who don't know, Norman
Speaker 4: is kind of a bedroom community of Oklahoma City.
Speaker 3: It's a little a little bit out but not far.
Speaker 4: Apparently at the text mes places in town, keeso is included.
Speaker 3: I don't know why, and I don't know why no
Speaker 3: one else does this, but there it's not extra.
Speaker 4: So people who aren't from around there are just looking
Speaker 4: around the table like what what is this madness?
Speaker 3: What is this witchcraft?
Speaker 4: And then people from there go to a Mexican place
Speaker 4: anywhere else, and they're like, wait, where's the case.
Speaker 2: You've grown accustomed to a certain way of life getting
Speaker 2: keso on the table immediately it's.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, can you imagine if that was Somebody
Speaker 4: on Twitter said it reminded him of the first time
Speaker 4: he got charged for catchup in London that he grew
Speaker 4: up in Oklahoma City. So when he went to when
Speaker 4: he went to another Mexican restaurant and they charged for KEESO,
Speaker 4: wait a second, this is supposed to be free. It's
Speaker 4: sort of like when Chippotle came in and started charging
Speaker 4: for chips. Yes, I was very anti Chippotle for years
Speaker 4: because the idea of paying for tortilla chips just really
Speaker 4: and really listen, I realized when I go to Moe's
Speaker 4: or wherever, I am paying for the tortilla chip, right,
Speaker 4: it is included in the price of the ap built
Speaker 4: in yep, but my mind does not know that. My
Speaker 4: mind is not grass. When I met Chippotle and I
Speaker 4: have to pay an extra dollar nineteen or two nineteen,
Speaker 4: it bugs me still.
Speaker 2: By the way, I won't claim to be an expert
Speaker 2: on all things food in Oklahoma, but another thing I
Speaker 2: do know and consider Oklahoma to be underrated because of it.
Speaker 2: Do you know what an Oklahoma style burger is?
Speaker 3: The onion burger.
Speaker 2: The onion burger they fry the meat with onions smacked
Speaker 2: on top of it, so you get the crispy finn
Speaker 2: burger with crispy onions all at the same time, and
Speaker 2: could you eat a burger any other way after doing that?
Speaker 3: See, I'm not a.
Speaker 4: Big onion push, so that much onion flavor might be
Speaker 4: a bit much for me. Although cooked onions I'm good
Speaker 4: with fried onions I'm good with so I'm gonna have
Speaker 4: to I have not tried one of the onion burger
Speaker 4: places as one of those as i've been like because
Speaker 4: of my irrational hatred of onions. I don't know if
Speaker 4: I should do this because I don't want to say, oh,
Speaker 4: I don't like this when it's everybody's favorite thing and
Speaker 4: it's just my weird taste buds. But I probably should
Speaker 4: try that next time I'm out there.
Speaker 2: I like that we've spent a solid five minutes talking
Speaker 2: about the least SEC state in the South and Southwest,
Speaker 2: and that's a good way.
Speaker 3: The SEC tried to get Oklahoma.
Speaker 2: That's true. They tried really hard, that's true. And I
Speaker 2: like that you use the phrase irrational hatred because at
Speaker 2: some point you or somebody will write a book called
Speaker 2: Irrational Hatred about the history of the SEC and.
Speaker 4: It will football in the SEC. Yes, exactly, it will do.
Speaker 4: It would be a great title for an SEC football book.
Speaker 2: Write it down, put it in if you're if you're
Speaker 2: a writer listening to this, if you are Andy Staples
Speaker 2: considering it, take out your iPhone or whatever, your Google
Speaker 2: Android phone, put it in your notes. You never know.
Speaker 2: Let's start here. I have a list of fourteen SEC
Speaker 2: teams with just sort of hazy thoughts and questions about each,
Speaker 2: not really all put together. And I'm just going to
Speaker 2: ask you to give me a number between one and fourteen,
Speaker 2: because it'd be easy to just say, let's start with Alabama,
Speaker 2: Let's talk about ed Orzron, let's talk about Kirby. You,
Speaker 2: this is on you. This is the game show thing
Speaker 2: we are doing because I can't help but be a
Speaker 2: game show host. Give me a number between one and fourteen,
Speaker 2: and imagine that spinning wheel in your head.
Speaker 4: You really did miss your calling. I feel like if
Speaker 4: you'd have been born twenty five years earlier, you would
Speaker 4: have hosted card Sharks.
Speaker 3: So all right, let's let's do this. Let's okay, let's
Speaker 3: play the game.
Speaker 2: Let's do it. Number seven, number seven. We go to
Speaker 2: number seven, and that is going to be Mississippi State.
Speaker 2: A weird but fun and interesting year. I would say
Speaker 2: it appears Inssissippi State is in a pretty good place.
Speaker 2: Defense was great in year one, but they lose a
Speaker 2: ton of pieces up front, Jeffrey Simmons, Montese Sweat whatever,
Speaker 2: and a lot in the secondary. The offense was it
Speaker 2: was somehow all right, even though it overcame maybe the
Speaker 2: worst passing attack in the conference. So my question is
Speaker 2: to you.
Speaker 3: What it overcame.
Speaker 4: Was Joe Morehead realizing, Hey, all these other places I've been,
Speaker 4: I didn't sort of force anybody into a system. I
Speaker 4: just built the thing around what they do. And I
Speaker 4: think he realized he was trying to force Nick Fitzgerald
Speaker 4: into a system and make him be Trace McSorley and
Speaker 4: he's not and so on. They once they settled on
Speaker 4: that and realized that then they could work with some
Speaker 4: stuff and I think that changed the season for them.
Speaker 4: But listen, they have a quarterback. You know, Keton Thompson
Speaker 4: is going to be the quarterback. I would argue that
Speaker 4: he may what Joe moore Head wants better than Nick
Speaker 4: Fitzgerald did. So I think that is going to be
Speaker 4: a very good thing for them. You know, as far
Speaker 4: as defensive line goes, yeah, they lost some special guys
Speaker 4: but Mississippi State has always been able to find those guys.
Speaker 4: I mean, there are really good defensive linemen in the
Speaker 4: state of Mississippi, either in high schools or in the Jucos.
Speaker 4: You should be able to have a good defensive line
Speaker 4: a Mississippi State without a lot of you know, not
Speaker 4: really going too far out out of your normal recruiting area.
Speaker 4: So I think that one should maybe not be as
Speaker 4: good as it was because those you know, Jeffrey Simmons
Speaker 4: and Montes but are really special guys. But they should
Speaker 4: have enough you know back there that you know they'll
Speaker 4: be all right on defense. And I think the offense
Speaker 4: should be pretty good. I mean Kylin Hill running the
Speaker 4: ball and Thompson throwing it. I'll take that. I'll take
Speaker 4: that next year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially with there being a big concern about and
Speaker 2: Joe Moorehead's not from the South. I think all of
Speaker 2: those questions were pretty were answered pretty emphatically, pretty quickly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then not from the South. Thing, Like, Joe
Speaker 4: Moorehead's a very personable guy. He's the type of person
Speaker 4: that can connect with people from anywhere. I don't worry
Speaker 4: about him not being from the South. I think that's overblown.
Speaker 4: You either are a.
Speaker 3: Person who can recruit or you're not.
Speaker 4: And that's more of a personality trait than a regional thing.
Speaker 2: Fair, give me a number one in fourteen thirteen thirteen.
Speaker 2: All right, we're going to Auburn. We're really going for it.
Speaker 2: I like this. Wow, Auburn is a team that I
Speaker 2: think we can all agree not super stable as a program.
Speaker 2: As soon as things look good, things go bad. Talking
Speaker 2: about it is Quicksand so last year starts pretty well
Speaker 2: with the winover Washington, they look okay, bad loss, I
Speaker 2: mean a heartbreaking loss to to who do they lose
Speaker 2: to LSU? Early on they look pretty terrible against Tennessee
Speaker 2: and just sort of dicey, but then finished season super
Speaker 2: well in the Bowl. So if ten is unbelievably stable
Speaker 2: and one is Auburn, where is Auburn today? In late January?
Speaker 2: Here's the thing.
Speaker 4: We're going to pick Auburn to finish like fourth in
Speaker 4: the West next year and they're gonna win eleven games. Yeah,
Speaker 4: of course, because that's what happens. When we picked them
Speaker 4: to have a bad season, they have a great season.
Speaker 4: When we picked them to have a great season, they
Speaker 4: have a terrible season. And contemplate paying, you know, thirty
Speaker 4: two million dollar buyouts.
Speaker 3: I just I don't know why.
Speaker 4: And I realized they're going to get a bowl, the
Speaker 4: Bowl bump of all bull bumps from what they did
Speaker 4: against Purdue. But I think that was more of a
Speaker 4: Catharsis for the guys that we're leaving of. Hey, this
Speaker 4: season didn't go the way we wanted to. Can we
Speaker 4: please go out in style? And we please just you know,
Speaker 4: make this better. But you know, Gus Milson calling plays,
Speaker 4: I guess I never understood why he stopped, Yeah, because
Speaker 4: isn't that the thing he was really good at?
Speaker 1: MMM?
Speaker 4: So why not continue doing it? And him calling plays
Speaker 4: in the ball game certainly worked out well, and that's
Speaker 4: great and probably made some people mad, like why why
Speaker 4: why was there this conflict all season when if you
Speaker 4: could have done this, why didn't you just do this?
Speaker 4: So I don't know how that's gonna work. But yeah,
Speaker 4: they've just got to figure out what they're going to
Speaker 4: do at quarterback. And the fact that they've they've not
Speaker 4: been particularly active on the transfer market leads me to
Speaker 4: believe that they feel like they got somebody and maybe
Speaker 4: that's Bo Nicks, that's the incoming freshman. Maybe maybe they
Speaker 4: like him, but they had opportunities. They could have gotten
Speaker 4: Austin Kendall when he was coming from Oklahoma. So I
Speaker 4: think that tells me they like what they have coming in. Now,
Speaker 4: we'll just have to see if it pans out, because
Speaker 4: you know, quarterbacks who signed with gus out of high
Speaker 4: school have not done particularly well.
Speaker 3: They've done better with transfers.
Speaker 2: And cornerbacks who become quarterbacks. Yeah right, Okay.
Speaker 4: If there was a corner that they could move to quarterback, yes,
Speaker 4: a corner at some other school that they could move
Speaker 4: to quarterback, that would be fantastic.
Speaker 2: But that smells on ideal.
Speaker 4: Yeah, But look from a talent standpoint, Auburn looks like
Speaker 4: when they get off the bus, they look like LSU,
Speaker 4: and they look like Alabama, and they look like Georgia.
Speaker 4: So I don't think they're that far away from being good.
Speaker 4: And this is what happens with Auburn. That's why you know,
Speaker 4: every couple of years they flip a switch and suddenly
Speaker 4: they're great because they have good players, right, it's just
Speaker 4: a matter of getting the chemistry right. So I think,
Speaker 4: you know, maybe maybe they do get the chemistry right,
Speaker 4: maybe having a very clear organizational chart on offense will
Speaker 4: help them more, because that seemed I think that's a
Speaker 4: problem for the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're scheduled this past year down the stretch
Speaker 2: going to Bama brutal. It's so brutal, so it can
Speaker 2: only improve. I know they open with uh, well, I
Speaker 2: think it's Oregon next year, but down the stretch they
Speaker 2: have Georgia and Bama both on the planes.
Speaker 4: And I'd rather open with the organ than play organ
Speaker 4: in November next year because I think I think by
Speaker 4: October November, Oregon's going to be really.
Speaker 2: Really tough to be I hope. So I agree. Give
Speaker 2: me a number, all right, let's go to number three.
Speaker 2: Number three is LSU, who you just mentioned. I think
Speaker 2: this is my prerogative. I think it'd be dumb to
Speaker 2: call a nine to three regular LSU season with an
Speaker 2: inexperienced transfer quarterback, a sort of new offensive coordinator, wins
Speaker 2: over Auburn and Georgia and o'll miss mind you and
Speaker 2: a new year six win anything short of a good year.
Speaker 2: But if the clear formula for winning the SEC West,
Speaker 2: aside from talent and defense, is being able to stress
Speaker 2: Alabama vertically is LSU Are they self imposing a ceiling?
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
Speaker 4: Okay, I think their bigger problem against Alabama was in
Speaker 4: the trenches last year. They just they just got whipped
Speaker 4: up front. And I think they're going to be better.
Speaker 4: And you're you've got, you know, now, three years of
Speaker 4: ed Oorgron recruiting basically because he was the recruiting coordinator
Speaker 4: for Miles that last year.
Speaker 3: So you've got three years of.
Speaker 4: Him recruiting lineman, be they offensive, war defensive, you know what,
Speaker 4: he knows what he's looking for.
Speaker 3: I do think they're going to be better up front,
Speaker 3: which they need.
Speaker 4: And and you know, in terms of guys coming back,
Speaker 4: I thought they came out fairly well on that.
Speaker 3: Normally LSU does not. Normally LSU loses.
Speaker 4: Everybody that they could possibly lose, and so like getting
Speaker 4: Fijoko back, that's a big deal. Yeah, that's a that's
Speaker 4: a big presence in the middle of your defensive line
Speaker 4: that you don't just replace very easily. So I think
Speaker 4: I think they're going to be pretty good next year.
Speaker 4: Now here's here's the problem. Their schedule is always brutal
Speaker 4: and they still play in the West you know, we
Speaker 4: think Auburn's gonna be better, although Auburn has to go
Speaker 4: to them, but they've got to go to LSU's got
Speaker 4: to go to Tuscalousa, you know, Florida we think is
Speaker 4: gonna be a little bit better. And they were pretty
Speaker 4: good this year and they're coming to Baton Rouge. So yeah,
Speaker 4: it's it's gonna be tough, but it's always gonna be
Speaker 4: tough if you're LSU.
Speaker 2: I think they go to Texas, right, Jak Texas is
Speaker 2: week two? Yeah? And DK yeah.
Speaker 4: Yes, So I mean, listen, they've they've got what they
Speaker 4: need now to be a very good team. I don't
Speaker 4: know if they have the roster to beat Alabama yet.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure if they're there yet, but it feels
Speaker 4: like they're getting closer.
Speaker 2: I think that's reasonable. I still want, like the the
Speaker 2: Joe Burrow thing, Like I feel like he is probably
Speaker 2: the best okay quarterback in the country, and I just
Speaker 2: want a little bit more because there's so much speed
Speaker 2: and there's usually so much talent.
Speaker 4: You may get a little bit more because remember Joe Burrow, true,
Speaker 4: where did Joe Burrow has practice last year in Columbus?
Speaker 4: So you know, he's got a full offseason this year
Speaker 4: to really get to know those receivers and he's not
Speaker 4: getting thrown into this. So I think they're gonna be fine.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Because of the schedule.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure the record is going to be appreciably different, right,
Speaker 4: but they you.
Speaker 3: Know, And that'll be the thing.
Speaker 4: There'll be pressure on Ozron at some point if they
Speaker 4: don't take that next step of winning that game they're
Speaker 4: not necessarily supposed to win, and that would be the
Speaker 4: Alabama game probably, So they've got to break through at
Speaker 4: some point.
Speaker 3: But then that's sort.
Speaker 4: Of the the ballot of everybody in the SEC West.
Speaker 4: Eventually you have to break through and beat Alabama, and
Speaker 4: of those teams, only Auburn's been able to do it.
Speaker 2: And we're also talking about an LSU team that was
Speaker 2: like an eleven hour game away from being ten and two. Exactly.
Speaker 4: We should not downplay that either, because remember this is
Speaker 4: the team that people were saying, Oh, they're going to
Speaker 4: be five and seven and Oordron's gonna get fired. No, no, no,
Speaker 4: Oorgron's a good Yeah, for sure, that is a good program.
Speaker 4: They are in the right direction. They just now need
Speaker 4: to begin competing for SEC and national titles, which is
Speaker 4: the hardest step to take.
Speaker 3: So good luck with that.
Speaker 2: Okay, good luck, give me a number between one and
Speaker 2: fourteen that you haven't yet. Eight oh eight. We're going.
Speaker 2: This is the earliest anybody will ever talk about the
Speaker 2: Vanderbilt Commodores, and I think that I think that's wonderful
Speaker 2: because the Doors they kind of quietly had a totally
Speaker 2: fine year. Kyle Shermer one of the best, what five
Speaker 2: six quarterbacks in the conference? Keishon Vaughn was a wrecking ball.
Speaker 2: And I hate questions like this, I promise you I do.
Speaker 2: But maybe there's something on the bone. Is having and
Speaker 2: blowing late leads to Kentucky, Notre Dame, Miszoo, and I
Speaker 2: think Florida all were like blown leads indicative of anything.
Speaker 3: Here's the problem.
Speaker 4: This was your year with the senior quarterback and the
Speaker 4: basically fourth year starter. Yeah, so now you're it's if
Speaker 4: you're Alabama or Auburn or LSU or Georgia or one
Speaker 4: of those programs and you lost a significant amount of
Speaker 4: leadership or experience, you can still grow on that. The
Speaker 4: problem is when you're a Vandy, when you're an Arkansas.
Speaker 4: When you're a Missouri something like that, you're you're probably
Speaker 4: going to take a step back just because the roster
Speaker 4: can only be as good as that every couple of years.
Speaker 4: So I'm not sure how much you can build on
Speaker 4: that if you're Vanny Now. Getting Vaughn back is big. Yes,
Speaker 4: the dude averaged seven point nine yards of carry and
Speaker 4: he was he was incredible in that Bowl game. So
Speaker 4: I think that's that's a big deal they have. You know,
Speaker 4: they have some good pieces, but it's going to feel
Speaker 4: like starting all over again because you're you're starting all
Speaker 4: over again at quarterback.
Speaker 2: Yeah, got to make it count with those senior classes
Speaker 2: in the way that like Kentucky Kentucky.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean that that's the thing. They
Speaker 4: they sort of provided the model for how you're supposed
Speaker 4: to have one of those seasons, and you know, you've
Speaker 4: got to you've got to strike when you have that
Speaker 4: kind of experience. That's that's the hard part. I mean,
Speaker 4: And look, it's Vanderbilt. It's the toughest job in the league.
Speaker 4: Nobody nobody's expecting them to win the East, nobody's expecting
Speaker 4: them to win national championships. It's not like the other jobs.
Speaker 4: You know, it's just hey, can you be kind of
Speaker 4: good every once in a while? And they were all right,
Speaker 4: and maybe they can be all right again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, let's go to Kentucky just because you
Speaker 2: mentioned it. Yeah, yeah, Is Kentucky in a better place?
Speaker 2: And I assume the answer is yes than Vanderbilt, just
Speaker 2: because of what Mark Stoops has been able to do
Speaker 2: on the recruiting trail. But I don't want to ask
Speaker 2: if it's repeatable twenty eighteen, because that's that's a tough ask.
Speaker 2: But in terms of infrastructure and laying a foundation, are
Speaker 2: they at least in a point where at a point
Speaker 2: where an eight win goal is not crazy year in
Speaker 2: and year out.
Speaker 3: That's not crazy. Okay, You go any higher than that
Speaker 3: and you are crazy.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 4: That's my thing is I don't want Kentucky fans to
Speaker 4: start using this past season as a weapon against Mark Stoops,
Speaker 4: because that happens sometimes with fan base, is when when
Speaker 4: you have a team sort of outperform expectations and then
Speaker 4: they start saying, well, why can't you do that every year?
Speaker 4: You can't do that every year because you're Kentucky. You're
Speaker 4: not going to do that every year. You're not going
Speaker 4: to have that specialist season every year. This is the
Speaker 4: sort of thing that you have to cycle up to.
Speaker 4: And listen, they had a roster with a great running
Speaker 4: back in Benny Snell, a great offensive line, and that's
Speaker 4: the sort of thing you have to build to.
Speaker 3: That offensive line. Doesn't they don't.
Speaker 4: Show up, you know, just Hey, we're gonna throw all
Speaker 4: these guys in as starters together and they're going to
Speaker 4: be great.
Speaker 3: It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 4: It doesn't even work that way at Alabama or Georgia's,
Speaker 4: so it certainly isn't gonna work that way at Kentucky.
Speaker 4: You know, that took years to put together. It's going
Speaker 4: to take, you know, another couple of years to cycle
Speaker 4: up to another type of team like this. It also
Speaker 4: helps to have a Josh Allen that that everybody kind
Speaker 4: of missed on on defense who just rex opposing offenses.
Speaker 3: But that's that's the deal. These are good recruiters.
Speaker 4: They understand what it takes to build a good roster.
Speaker 4: But because it's Kentucky and because nobody's perfect, you're not
Speaker 4: going to be able to have that kind of roster
Speaker 4: every season. As good at recruiters as this bunch is,
Speaker 4: that's asking too much. So if they are a team
Speaker 4: that is that that is seven or eight regular season
Speaker 4: wins and then a bowl game every year, you should
Speaker 4: be very happy with that. That that's a good place
Speaker 4: for Kentucky to be. And then every once in a
Speaker 4: while you have a season like this where you can
Speaker 4: win double digit games.
Speaker 3: And you know, I think I think.
Speaker 4: They they sort of showed you the model. Now it's
Speaker 4: up to the fan base to understand that that is
Speaker 4: the model. That is every years. It's not every year.
Speaker 4: So don't don't kill those guys if they go seven
Speaker 4: and five this year.
Speaker 2: Correct, And I will say they did a really good
Speaker 2: job of taking advantage. And this is something we mentioned
Speaker 2: with Vanderbilt of that year, with Florida with a new coach.
Speaker 2: With Tennessee with a new coach with a weird South
Speaker 2: Carolina year, they will.
Speaker 3: Didn't really take advantage of Tennessee.
Speaker 2: They did, they did not. Excuse me, you're right, but
Speaker 2: in terms of okay, we have a bunch of seniors
Speaker 2: and we are not in the strongest SEC East. Ever,
Speaker 2: it was it was a great time to take advantage.
Speaker 4: Right, And that's the thing look that the East is
Speaker 4: gonna get harder. George's George is going to be better
Speaker 4: than it was this year. Tennessee should be better than
Speaker 4: it was, Florida will be better than it was. And
Speaker 4: so they're gonna be losses where you had wins, you know,
Speaker 4: in a couple spots. But that doesn't mean you can't
Speaker 4: be an above average team and then build to another
Speaker 4: great season.
Speaker 3: It's doable.
Speaker 4: I think this is a really good model that they've
Speaker 4: set forth, and they seem to be pretty patient with
Speaker 4: Mark Stoops, which I like. Mitch Barnhardt is an ad
Speaker 4: I mean, he's been around the block a lot of times,
Speaker 4: so he's not going to be one of those crazy
Speaker 4: Hey you.
Speaker 3: Know, you didn't win eleven games this year. Year gone.
Speaker 3: That's not going to be his style.
Speaker 4: So that's the good news for Kentucky is they're going
Speaker 4: to be managed properly. And listen, this staff's good. They
Speaker 4: seem to be doing the things that make them want
Speaker 4: to stay. Enjoy it, Kentucky fans, enjoy it.
Speaker 2: Give me a number two. All right, we're going to Georgia.
Speaker 2: If my calculations I'm not very good at math, are correct.
Speaker 2: So the end of their year, losing a winnable Bama
Speaker 2: SEC championship, losing justin fields, looking pretty outmatched in the
Speaker 2: Sugar Bowl by the Big twelve runner up, losing both
Speaker 2: coordinators for somewhat reasonable reasons, and now that they're measuring
Speaker 2: themselves very clearly against Alabama, what is the big reason
Speaker 2: to believe in Herbie three point zero.
Speaker 4: That they've been right there each of the last two
Speaker 4: years And they shouldn't given what they lost from from
Speaker 4: twenty seventeen to twenty eighteen, should not have been right
Speaker 4: there this past year, but they were. And now the
Speaker 4: coaching staff has to avoid some of the in game
Speaker 4: mistakes it made against Alabama because I think, as in
Speaker 4: terms of off the field, recruiting, culture, program, all that
Speaker 4: other stuff, they're doing what they need to do. Now
Speaker 4: they just need to figure out how to beat them
Speaker 4: on the field. And you know one way to do
Speaker 4: that is when your starting quarterback is having the game
Speaker 4: of his life, don't take him out twice in the
Speaker 4: same series to put in the guy who you're praying
Speaker 4: won't transfer.
Speaker 3: If it's if he's going to transfer over that let him.
Speaker 4: It'll be okay because you already have a quarterback who
Speaker 4: took you to a national title game and had you
Speaker 4: up on Alabama.
Speaker 3: In the SEC Championship game.
Speaker 4: Maybe ride him, you know, I realize that's not the
Speaker 4: popular thing that you know, he doesn't look like Justin
Speaker 4: Fields and doesn't you know, have the same athletic ability
Speaker 4: as Justin Fields. He's not as tall, he's not as big.
Speaker 4: But guess what, Jake fromm wins. And there's a lot
Speaker 4: of programs out there that can't seem to find any
Speaker 4: quarterbacks who can win. So you've got one enjoy it now.
Speaker 4: They've just got to figure out how to how to
Speaker 4: get over that hump against Alabama.
Speaker 3: They're gonna do it. I know everybody's like, oh, Kirby
Speaker 3: showed it.
Speaker 4: You know, he just can't hang with Nick Saban on
Speaker 4: game day as a game day coach. No, no, no,
Speaker 4: he will break through. They're doing too many of the
Speaker 4: right things to not break through. And I think this
Speaker 4: team is going to be better next year than it
Speaker 4: was this year. I just that offensive line is going
Speaker 4: to be fantastic. I know they lost a bunch of players,
Speaker 4: you know, obviously for Isaac Nada, and.
Speaker 3: You look at what the NFL is doing offensively, you
Speaker 3: have to go.
Speaker 4: But like Elijah Holyfield, I think that's a case of
Speaker 4: looking at the depth chart, looking at Zamir White, maybe
Speaker 4: coming back healthy and going I don't know that I'm
Speaker 4: gonna have as big of a role next year, so
Speaker 4: maybe maybe.
Speaker 3: I'll go to the NFL.
Speaker 4: They've got some players on this team, and I think
Speaker 4: they're gonna be able to block really well. The D
Speaker 4: line will be older and more experienced, which was a
Speaker 4: big issue last year. They never really found a replacement
Speaker 4: for John Atkins. They're always gonna be able to find corners,
Speaker 4: They're always gonna be able to find pass rushers. That
Speaker 4: they live in the best recruiting area in the country.
Speaker 4: They really do. I mean, players from Georgia are athletic,
Speaker 4: they're well coached in high school. You have pretty much
Speaker 4: everything you want. It's just a matter of getting them.
Speaker 4: They've been getting them. So now they have to beat
Speaker 4: Alabama on the field, and the tricky part of that
Speaker 4: is they have to they have to win enough games
Speaker 4: to get to Alabama. They're gonna have to to beat
Speaker 4: Florida again. They're gonna have to They get Texas A
Speaker 4: and M next year, so they're going to have to
Speaker 4: deal with those teams. But if they can do that
Speaker 4: and get another game with Alabama, they have been right there.
Speaker 4: They just have to get over the hump, and I
Speaker 4: think they can do it.
Speaker 3: You keep playing.
Speaker 4: Them dead, even for fifty eight minutes or fifty nine
Speaker 4: minutes or in one case, like sixty three minutes, you're
Speaker 4: going to beat them eventually.
Speaker 2: In a weird way. I think the Justin Fields thing
Speaker 2: and the way he was used and the way he
Speaker 2: was brought in sort of nonsensically at times. I almost
Speaker 2: think that is going to be the thing that cements
Speaker 2: the sort of ruthlessness gene In Kirby that he's never
Speaker 2: going to play anymore. He's always going to play the
Speaker 2: best player, no matter what.
Speaker 4: Right you have to be ruthless, especially as you pick
Speaker 4: a quarterback. And one of the interesting conversations I had
Speaker 4: during this season was some of the Ohio State beat writers.
Speaker 4: This is right after Meyer had retired. I think they said,
Speaker 4: you know why, what was the difference between Meyer and Saban?
Speaker 4: And I said, the difference between Meyer and Saban is
Speaker 4: that Saban would have started Dwayne Haskins over JT.
Speaker 3: Barrett. JT. Barrett Senior year. Yeah, that's the difference. No.
Speaker 2: I think if you look across college football, the guys
Speaker 2: who have really established themselves as the consistent double digit winners,
Speaker 2: it's understanding. You're gonna hurt feelings no matter if it's
Speaker 2: a freshman or a senior.
Speaker 3: Well, and Meyer was a consistent double digit winner.
Speaker 4: He just kind of did it his own way, right,
Speaker 4: And one of those things was when he found a
Speaker 4: guy he really liked, a quarterback, he was not moving
Speaker 4: off him.
Speaker 3: Give me a number, all right, let's do number five.
Speaker 2: Number five is South Carolina your home state. If I'm
Speaker 2: not mistaken, All right, here we go.
Speaker 3: Go Fox.
Speaker 4: I used to have a hat that played the fight song.
Speaker 4: Really yeah, you press the bill and it done. No
Speaker 4: no no no no no no no no no no no.
Speaker 2: It would have been better if it played Sandstorm. But
Speaker 2: I'll accept it. I'll accept it.
Speaker 4: You know, Sandstorm hadn't been recorded yet, and actually Sandstorm
Speaker 4: it took nine years after Sandstorm was recorded for the
Speaker 4: students of the University of South Carolina to discover that
Speaker 4: it existed, even though the rest of the country had
Speaker 4: been listening to it when it was recorded.
Speaker 2: There's a good untapped market of like euro techno that's
Speaker 2: played by marching bands, that's played in stadiums well after
Speaker 2: the fact that they were popular, and I appreciate drut.
Speaker 3: Has probably moved to a place in Charleston.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. They have to.
Speaker 4: He's got to be the most like the second most
Speaker 4: popular person in the state of South Carolina behind Dabo.
Speaker 2: I think that's right. And can will never buy a
Speaker 2: mohito again in the state of South Carolina. All right,
Speaker 2: So game Cocks are Every game is close, it seemed,
Speaker 2: other than maybe the Clemson game at the end and
Speaker 2: the Georgia game. So my sympathy is to South Carolina
Speaker 2: fans for all of the heart attacks. I didn't watch
Speaker 2: a ton of South Carolina, but for a Will must
Speaker 2: Champ team. What happened to the defense and is it?
Speaker 2: Is it just a bad injury luck sort of blip.
Speaker 4: I think probably because they overachieved their first two years
Speaker 4: under must Champ, and that has never been an issue,
Speaker 4: whether he was the coach at Florida or the defensive
Speaker 4: coordinator at Texas. Finding players on that side of the
Speaker 4: ball and then putting them in the right spots on
Speaker 4: that side of the ball has never been an issue.
Speaker 4: So I think we can we can look at this
Speaker 4: as an anomaly and just say, all right, they're going
Speaker 4: to be better defensively. Now, what does that mean in
Speaker 4: terms of where they land in the SEC East is
Speaker 4: another story entirely, because I think they're still going to
Speaker 4: be looking up at Georgia. There's a chance they're looking
Speaker 4: up at Florida. Then what happens if Tennessee's better? They
Speaker 4: can't seem to beat Kentucky. Now, eventually they're gonna they're
Speaker 4: gonna turn that around, but you know, they just really
Speaker 4: cannot seem to figure out how to beat Kentucky. So
Speaker 4: you know, this is a team that that could be
Speaker 4: the second or third best team in the East, but
Speaker 4: they've got to they got to figure some stuf.
Speaker 2: I think that's right. And the offense did take a
Speaker 2: nice step under a first year coordinator, and they'll have
Speaker 2: a senior quarterback next year, so they're at least poised
Speaker 2: to and I don't have the schedule in front of
Speaker 2: me look better and maybe finished games out that they
Speaker 2: didn't in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, that's that's the issue with them. I
Speaker 4: Mean they always get Texas A and m out of
Speaker 4: the West. So that's that's not a pleasant thing this
Speaker 4: year because I think Texas A and M is going
Speaker 4: to be better.
Speaker 3: But I just I think they're they're probably due to
Speaker 3: it's weird.
Speaker 4: We have not seen a South Carolina team under Will
Speaker 4: mus Champ play to its potential. It's either played well
Speaker 4: above it the first two years well below it this year.
Speaker 4: So if they play too potential, then you're talking about
Speaker 4: I would think, you know, an eight or nine win season. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I think that would be about right, depending on who
Speaker 4: you know. A couple of toss ups. So I I mean,
Speaker 4: if you're South Carolina, I think you should be happy
Speaker 4: with that.
Speaker 2: I think that's right.
Speaker 4: I know they got spoiled with their eleven win seasons
Speaker 4: under Steve Spurrier and beating Clemson every year, but that's
Speaker 4: not gonna happen anymore.
Speaker 2: Steven Garcia's do not grow on trees. That's just fact.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. You can't just find a.
Speaker 4: Steven Garcia anywhere, or or is Davian Clowney or a
Speaker 4: Marcus Latimore.
Speaker 2: Correct, give me a number.
Speaker 3: And honestly, those players are going to Clemson now.
Speaker 2: They are going to Clemson. So we might as well
Speaker 2: just give me another number before South Carolina fans become
Speaker 2: even more despondent. Sorry, nine nine, let's talk Florida. That
Speaker 2: worked out nicely. I would say, all things considered for
Speaker 2: a first year coach, really good opening year, LSU, Florida State,
Speaker 2: Michigan wins. Hard to be disappointed with any of that.
Speaker 2: Only one really indefensible loss in Missoo, and Missoo is
Speaker 2: probably a second tier SEC team. They just weren't.
Speaker 3: Missoo was kind of due with that point.
Speaker 4: Yes, you knew they're going to do that to somebody
Speaker 4: in Florida just drew the unlucky short straw. This is
Speaker 4: the most optimism I have noticed in Gainesville in Wow, golly,
Speaker 4: since Tebow was.
Speaker 2: The quarterback, J had Jim mcawaan really drained the place.
Speaker 4: Wow, well, even the muss CHAMPI years. They even after
Speaker 4: that that really good twenty twelve season, nobody was particularly
Speaker 4: optimistic because of the way it ended. They hammered by
Speaker 4: Louisville and it was like was this thing a mirage
Speaker 4: or what? And so I think they feel like there's
Speaker 4: there's definitely Ford momentum. Now here's the deal you have
Speaker 4: to build on that, and that's that's Dan Mullen's next step.
Speaker 4: You've got to now be able to win some games
Speaker 4: that actually their similar position to LSU, where you are
Speaker 4: kind of where you need to be at this point
Speaker 4: in your tenure. At some point you will be asked
Speaker 4: to ascend to that national title contender level because Florida
Speaker 4: and ls you expect more than you know. We've talked
Speaker 4: about Kentucky and South Carolina. You know those places should
Speaker 4: not expect that. At LSU and Florida, they can expect
Speaker 4: that and do so. I don't think that's going to
Speaker 4: be expected of Dan Mullen this season, but it will
Speaker 4: be by twenty twenty. So better keep stepping that direction,
Speaker 4: and you know, we'll see what happens. I thought what
Speaker 4: they did with Felipe Franks over the year was really good.
Speaker 4: I mean that is coaching right there. What you saw
Speaker 4: in terms of his mentality changing over the year, and
Speaker 4: I think the South Carolina game really turned things for him.
Speaker 4: I think he realized, wait a second, this can be
Speaker 4: my team. I don't have to just be a placeholder
Speaker 4: until they find their quarterback that they recruited. I can
Speaker 4: be the guy here and so we'll see if he
Speaker 4: can hold off a challenge from Emery Jones, because my
Speaker 4: guess is Emory Jones will be given every opportunity to
Speaker 4: win the starting job in the spring practice, in preseason camp.
Speaker 4: But I think now that's going to be more of
Speaker 4: a competition.
Speaker 2: How far way with whoever behind center, whether it's Emery
Speaker 2: Jones or Filipe Franks. Are they from Georgia though, that's
Speaker 2: the measuring stick.
Speaker 4: That is the measuring stick, And I don't know if
Speaker 4: it's that side of the ball that you need to
Speaker 4: worry about as much.
Speaker 3: Which is strange again.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so when we're talking about Florida, but they're they're
Speaker 4: defensive recruiting was it tailed off so much under Mclawaine
Speaker 4: that they're very thin on that side of the ball.
Speaker 3: You saw it last year like when Marco Wilson went down.
Speaker 4: They're not as Remember how deep they were when muss
Speaker 4: Champ was with all the defensive players. Yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 4: So they're not there. They got to get back to that,
Speaker 4: and that's something I think they can do. I think
Speaker 4: this staff is capable of recruiting that way and building
Speaker 4: that depth. But that's not something that happens in one year.
Speaker 4: So they are going to be very dependent on good
Speaker 4: injury luck defensively to stay afloat. It will get hard
Speaker 4: for them if they have a few key injuries, especially
Speaker 4: in the secondary, and you know, if they can, if
Speaker 4: they can get through this year, I think then they'll
Speaker 4: be more toward the depth level they need to be at,
Speaker 4: where it'll be more you know, more normal for top
Speaker 4: to your sec team, where if you lose a guy, Okay,
Speaker 4: it stinks you lost a guy, but there's another guy
Speaker 4: who's pretty capable behind him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all sounds reasonable. One, four ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen.
Speaker 3: All right, let's go to fourteen.
Speaker 2: Let's go fourteen.
Speaker 3: Big.
Speaker 2: Oh see, but I didn't do that. I didn't. I
Speaker 2: went against expectations.
Speaker 3: It's not in order of finish.
Speaker 2: It's not in order of finish. We are going to
Speaker 2: miszoo because then I'm glad we are, because we just
Speaker 2: mentioned them as being due to beat somebody interesting and big,
Speaker 2: and they did. There's a good case being made that
Speaker 2: Barry otom is the ultimate second half coach after his
Speaker 2: two seasons just dominating late October and November.
Speaker 3: Every first time.
Speaker 4: You know, every young writer when they're writing their first
Speaker 4: few game stories. Does their tail of two Cities lead? Yes,
Speaker 4: Barry Otem's Captain Taylor Two Cities Lead.
Speaker 2: Like Barry Otams shows up to give the book report
Speaker 2: without having read the book, and he was like, well,
Speaker 2: there were two cities. There was a very grand tale
Speaker 2: that you know, had a number of themes man versus man.
Speaker 4: But it's almost like someone is feeding in the book
Speaker 4: as he goes and by the time he finishes, he's
Speaker 4: an expert.
Speaker 2: This is true, And I guess the only parallel to
Speaker 2: be drawn here is the end of the Kentucky game
Speaker 2: being just a total mess and not at all Miszoo's faults.
Speaker 2: So they should have finished the season. What winning five
Speaker 2: six in a row is their actual momentum. I know
Speaker 2: they've recruited, all things considered pretty well, not for SEC standards,
Speaker 2: but I think that's a top thirty ish recruiting class
Speaker 2: right now. Is there in your mind an ability for
Speaker 2: Miszoo not to obviously get back to winning the SEC
Speaker 2: East necessarily, but sort of being that second ish tier
Speaker 2: in the SEC consistently.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I mean they have a quarterback right now.
Speaker 4: They have Kelly Bryant, so we know what Kelly Bryant
Speaker 4: can do. And you know, if you put Kelly Bryant
Speaker 4: against Alabama you might have an issue. But against the
Speaker 4: teams in the SEC East sans Georgia, maybe I think
Speaker 4: they're they can win. So you know, they get they
Speaker 4: get West Virginia. West Virginia is probably not going to
Speaker 4: be what they were. Well, they're definitely not going to
Speaker 4: be what they.
Speaker 3: Were last year. You know, I'd be more.
Speaker 4: It's funny because they were going to play Neil Brown
Speaker 4: one way or the other. Like if Neil Brown were
Speaker 4: still at Troy, I'd be picking Troy to win that
Speaker 4: game in Columbia, Missouri next year. But he's not at
Speaker 4: Troy anymore. And now I'm picking Neil Brown to lose
Speaker 4: in Columbia, Missouri with West Virginia. As strange as that sounds,
Speaker 4: but no, I think I think they have a manageable schedule.
Speaker 4: Now it really comes down to what do you do
Speaker 4: in the games you can win in the East, Like Kentucky.
Speaker 4: They should have won the Kentucky game last year. Can
Speaker 4: you go to Lexington and win? You get South Carolina
Speaker 4: at home? They should have beaten South Carolina in South
Speaker 4: Carolina last year.
Speaker 3: Can you beat them at home?
Speaker 4: You know, from the west, they get All miss they
Speaker 4: should be able to handle them. You know, we'll see
Speaker 4: what the two new coordinators at all miss but Missouri
Speaker 4: should be able to do it. They have a very
Speaker 4: favorable schedule, and I think we could be looking at
Speaker 4: Missouri as you know, sort of like we were talking
Speaker 4: about South Carolina.
Speaker 3: This this is a team that could be in that
Speaker 3: middle tier.
Speaker 4: But they have to they have to win the toss ups,
Speaker 4: right and so like that, that South Carolina game early on.
Speaker 3: Is a big toss up for them.
Speaker 4: They play them Week four in Columbia, Missouri, and you
Speaker 4: win that game, you probably had all kinds of momentum
Speaker 4: heading in the rest of your sec schedule. Uh, lose
Speaker 4: that game and and then you gotta gott to recalibrate
Speaker 4: your expectations. Now here's the thing. They can't be the
Speaker 4: Missouri of the last two years. If they want this
Speaker 4: to work. If they can, if they can start strong,
Speaker 4: this the schedule lends itself to them starting strong. So
Speaker 4: if they can start strong and then have the same
Speaker 4: kind of finishing kick that they've had, this could be
Speaker 4: a really good year for them. But they they've got
Speaker 4: to figure out how to how to put it together
Speaker 4: early in a season, and they've yet to do that
Speaker 4: under Bury on.
Speaker 2: Them, I think that's all. Yeah, I'm excited. I think
Speaker 2: they have what the best returning tight end probably in
Speaker 2: the conference. Yeah, in Albert Oh so, I mean there
Speaker 2: are pieces there that can be game changers.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, And Kelly Bryant has been in these games.
Speaker 4: You know, there's nothing that any of the teams on
Speaker 4: their schedule are going to throw at him that he
Speaker 4: has not seen.
Speaker 1: Ah.
Speaker 2: Yes, Derek Dooley excitement one, four, ten, Yeah, sorry, he's
Speaker 2: been well.
Speaker 3: Before we move on, he did well.
Speaker 2: He did do well.
Speaker 3: You know that we're allowed to make fun of him
Speaker 3: as much anymore.
Speaker 2: It's more of like the surprise that actually saying Derek
Speaker 2: Dooley excitement as being an actual real thing. All right,
Speaker 2: what are our numbers that we have one for ten, eleven, twelve, twelve,
Speaker 2: text A and M very clearly. I mean, after the
Speaker 2: best Clemson loss of the year, probably at full health,
Speaker 2: they beat LSU, they win their bowl game the way
Speaker 2: that they did, They're going to come into the season
Speaker 2: with a ton of probably top ten, top twelve type
Speaker 2: of hype conversation.
Speaker 3: You're going to get the biggest bowl but ittable.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's gonna be brutal, it's gonna.
Speaker 4: Be so so enormous. And their their schedule is awful.
Speaker 2: It's wrong.
Speaker 3: Your schedule is so hard.
Speaker 2: Oh they could be a nine win team that finishes
Speaker 2: seven and five or a ten win team that finished
Speaker 2: at seven and five.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, they could be as good or better than
Speaker 4: they were this year and the results not bear that
Speaker 4: out at all.
Speaker 2: Are you? Are you a Kellen Mond believer?
Speaker 3: I don't know if I'm a believer, But I like him.
Speaker 4: Okay, I liked him, you know when when someone was
Speaker 4: still there and he played against Alabama and played them
Speaker 4: as about as tough as anybody could. Yes, I thought,
Speaker 4: you know, this guy, he's definitely got something to him.
Speaker 4: It's just a matter of, you know, will put it
Speaker 4: all together. And then of course he has to learn
Speaker 4: a new offense and everything else. So I do think
Speaker 4: they have what they need at quarterback. I just and
Speaker 4: they got players. I mean, that's one thing Jimbo Fisher
Speaker 4: said when he got there, is pleasantly surprised because the
Speaker 4: cupboard was not bear. Someone left them playing players, and
Speaker 4: they they've obviously picked up you know, right where they
Speaker 4: left off recruiting.
Speaker 3: So this is the issue though.
Speaker 4: I mean, like you go to Clemson, everybody's gonna pencil
Speaker 4: that in his loss.
Speaker 3: And if you win that game, obviously everything changes. But
Speaker 3: you know, you go to Clemson.
Speaker 4: And then week four, you got Auburn coming to you
Speaker 4: in a game where you finally the home team finally
Speaker 4: won the game last year, but in very odd fashion
Speaker 4: like A and M just gave it away. So does
Speaker 4: the road team start winning again? And this this is
Speaker 4: a series that I think other than the year Manziel
Speaker 4: came in and just clabberd Auburn, I think it's been
Speaker 4: pretty close most years. So and that's you, that's your
Speaker 4: intro to SEC play, and then it just sort of
Speaker 4: rolls from there. So and then you got to go
Speaker 4: to Athens late in the season, like your final two
Speaker 4: games are at Georgia and at LSU.
Speaker 2: That's brutal.
Speaker 3: That's brutal.
Speaker 2: I'm excited to see it.
Speaker 4: But yes, that said in a vacuum, I think they're
Speaker 4: a better team than they were this year.
Speaker 3: I think that's Zimbo Fisher is going to do a
Speaker 3: good job there.
Speaker 2: And I think hear two of Mike Elco is going
Speaker 2: to be enormous.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, I mean, you know, getting them back with
Speaker 4: the kind of athletes that they can recruit, getting them
Speaker 4: back to playing good defense. I think that is a
Speaker 4: bigger key to consistency than anything else for you.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I think that's right. I'm excited to see
Speaker 2: them one four to ten, eleven, All right, eleven eleven.
Speaker 2: Here here is your woo pig. This is the easiest question,
Speaker 2: at least the most simple question in simple thought. Arkansas
Speaker 2: was very bad in twenty eighteen? Is their reason to
Speaker 2: believe they'll simply be bad? I know what they get
Speaker 2: an average American Conference quarterback who's familiar with their offense.
Speaker 2: The offense I guess, yeah he was. He was pretty average.
Speaker 2: Can they ascend to just below average?
Speaker 4: I don't know, because they're still trying to remake the
Speaker 4: roster into what Chad Morris wants it to look like,
Speaker 4: because that, you know, Brett Beelma.
Speaker 3: Didn't have a roster like that.
Speaker 4: But I don't know, because A and M's Like I said,
Speaker 4: A and M's better, LSU's probably better, Ole Miss will
Speaker 4: be better, Alabama's Alabama Auburn is you know, we're predicting
Speaker 4: Auburn to not be good, which means they'll kill everyone.
Speaker 2: That's rough.
Speaker 3: I don't know where the wins are. I just don't
Speaker 3: where the who.
Speaker 2: Do you bet I'm pulling up their schedule right now.
Speaker 4: You know they play Missouri at the end of the season,
Speaker 4: and we know what Missouri does to teams at the
Speaker 4: end of the season.
Speaker 2: This is true, they can win. Oh god, this is rough. This,
Speaker 2: You're right, this is I'm not a good enough detective.
Speaker 2: They have Portland State, Colorado State, Oh, miss San Jose State.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like you should beat Colorado State this year, should
Speaker 4: beat San Jose State. Yeah, But in the SEC I
Speaker 4: don't know. I mean, and they actually could be a
Speaker 4: little bit better than they were, and I still don't
Speaker 4: know what happens. I still don't know where the wins are.
Speaker 4: There's a chance of teams that they have to beat
Speaker 4: get better.
Speaker 2: They could start four and oh and finish four and eight.
Speaker 3: It's entirely possible.
Speaker 2: It's a rough way to go through life. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, they recruited relatively well, all things considered, that
Speaker 2: what you're recruiting to and what you have to replace,
Speaker 2: there's opportunities, certainly, and it just does not feel like
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen is a okay, We're going to be frisky
Speaker 2: and nobody wants to play us, which is certainly the
Speaker 2: first step for a competitive Arkansas team.
Speaker 3: Well that's the thing. At what point? Now? This is?
Speaker 3: This is the year when when.
Speaker 4: Morris was at SMU, when we looked at it and went,
Speaker 4: I don't know where the winds are, and they wound
Speaker 4: up beating Houston. I think they ended up going four
Speaker 4: and eight or five and seven, and then the turnaround
Speaker 4: was completed the following year.
Speaker 3: So maybe maybe he just has some year two magic
Speaker 3: that we don't know about.
Speaker 2: It's possible. It's wait and see for me.
Speaker 4: And I don't think when Arkansas cleaned house and got
Speaker 4: rid of Jeff Long and Brett Bielima, I don't think
Speaker 4: the people in, you know, making the decisions and writing
Speaker 4: the checks were fully appreciative of how hard the job is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's right. One, four or ten, ten,
Speaker 2: let's go ten. I love this offseason. I don't know
Speaker 2: if it's going to do anything. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it's going to be fun, but I love it so far.
Speaker 2: Ole Miss had a nightmare of a year on defense,
Speaker 2: they win one sec game, but make probably the splashiest
Speaker 2: duo of coordinator Hires and rich Rotten Mike McIntyre at least,
Speaker 2: I guess in name are they those two in a
Speaker 2: position at all to succeed they.
Speaker 4: Here's the thing there, there have been athletes on ole
Speaker 4: missus defense, true recently, and I realize everybody's going to go, well,
Speaker 4: you know, that's why they have NCAA violations and a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 4: they got athletes pretty much across the roster. It's been
Speaker 4: a case of putting those athletes in the proper positions defensively.
Speaker 4: So maybe McIntyre's that guy, although I would argue that
Speaker 4: that his greatest success at Colorado came when Jim Levitt
Speaker 4: was running his defense, and then once Jim Levitt was gone,
Speaker 4: then it wasn't that good anymore, Right, So you know,
Speaker 4: we'll see. I definitely think Rich rod has a little
Speaker 4: more work with. I realized they don't have the best
Speaker 4: receiving core in America anymore like they did.
Speaker 3: But Matt corral could be a good quarterback. We'll see.
Speaker 4: The few times he got put in last year, he
Speaker 4: seemed to perform, So I think I think he's got
Speaker 4: a better shot of early success than McIntyre does. The
Speaker 4: thing is there's there's got to be improvement or they're
Speaker 4: all gone. Yeah, you know that they're going to clean
Speaker 4: house if they're not. Because Matt Luke's an interim who
Speaker 4: got you know, got the full time job, he's not
Speaker 4: going to get the same amount of time someone who
Speaker 4: was hired from outside would get.
Speaker 3: So they had better get better quickly.
Speaker 4: And you know, I again, this is the same thing
Speaker 4: we were talking about with with Arkansas. Where are the wins?
Speaker 4: I I, you know, you'll beat Arkansas, you know, I
Speaker 4: think I think they should be competitive Mississippi State, Yeah,
Speaker 4: but I worry about them against LSU, against Auburn, against Alabama.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know that's that's three right there. You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say win A and M and yeah,
Speaker 2: who do they So they have l s U, A
Speaker 2: and M, they have Vandy. They should be able to
Speaker 2: be competitive against Vandy. Again, they get Cal, which they
Speaker 2: should be able to. I love that they're playing Cal.
Speaker 2: I love that. You know, do you have a Berkeley
Speaker 2: Oxford series? But yeah, I think they can probably aspire
Speaker 2: to We're going to put point on everybody. You're going
Speaker 2: to have to outscore us, and many and most will,
Speaker 2: but I think they can aspire to that like two
Speaker 2: thousand and five six Texas tech level.
Speaker 4: And I think six and six should make you happy
Speaker 4: in terms of improvement. Yeah, it won't make anybody happy there, No,
Speaker 4: I think it should.
Speaker 2: I mean, listen, if they beat Mississippi State, everybody will
Speaker 2: be happy.
Speaker 4: No, And that's that's the funny thing is they can
Speaker 4: be five and six going into that game, win that game.
Speaker 2: And get ball eligible.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Success, we'll see at Memphis as a season opener.
Speaker 2: No, no for them? One or four?
Speaker 3: Four?
Speaker 2: All right, Alabama, which means I made Tennessee number one,
Speaker 2: which felt right for some sort of twisted reason. So Alabama,
Speaker 2: I did trick you. Aside from let's call it the
Speaker 2: clear most important reason for the manner and very public
Speaker 2: way in which the Tide loss, which is Clemson's excellence,
Speaker 2: what was it? I guess if anything internally about the
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen team that could have contributed to that sort
Speaker 2: of out of character beat down.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't think it was something that happened in
Speaker 4: twenty eighteen. I think it was when they were recruiting
Speaker 4: corners and both of them were going after Justin Ross.
Speaker 4: Clemson and Alabama were both going after Justin Ross, and
Speaker 4: Auburn was also going after him. Justin Ross picked Clemson.
Speaker 4: If Justin Ross picks Alabama, then that result is not
Speaker 4: the same. There's not a wins above replacement receiver for
Speaker 4: Clemson that you can throw in there. Maybe it's T Higgins,
Speaker 4: Maybe not though, because remember, if you don't have Justin Ross,
Speaker 4: you can put a better corner on T. Higgins, which
Speaker 4: they did put a better corner on T Higgins. Justin
Speaker 4: Ross was the one they kind of left, you know,
Speaker 4: playing against the they're not as good corners, and you
Speaker 4: saw what he did to them. And I don't think
Speaker 4: they're going to find many situations where they face another
Speaker 4: team that has recruited as well or better than they have.
Speaker 4: They're just not gonna There's nobody else like that. So
Speaker 4: I think they're gonna be fine in the SEC except
Speaker 4: you know, when they when they ultimately play Georgia in Atlanta, right,
Speaker 4: and I think that's gonna be a really fun game,
Speaker 4: just like it has been the last two times they've
Speaker 4: played in Atlanta.
Speaker 3: But I think they're gonna be okay.
Speaker 4: Every everybody looks at the score of that game, and
Speaker 4: the fact that the whole staff has has turned over, well,
Speaker 4: the whole staff has turned over the last couple of years,
Speaker 4: and they've still managed to be good. You know, as
Speaker 4: long as Nick Saban's there, they're going to be good.
Speaker 4: Now does this Does this portend a time when Alabama
Speaker 4: is not the you know, dominant program in college football
Speaker 4: and not the dominant program in the SEC?
Speaker 3: Maybe? Maybe?
Speaker 4: I mean, look, Nick Saban eventually will retire and then
Speaker 4: they won't be anymore. So, but I think as long
Speaker 4: as he's there, they have to be the favorite, and
Speaker 4: you have to assume that they are going to be
Speaker 4: the best team on any given Saturday in an SEC game.
Speaker 4: So I just I think I think the downfall and
Speaker 4: everybody loves to write those the dynasties over columns. Don't
Speaker 4: do it yet, No, don't do it, say save save
Speaker 4: that for later.
Speaker 3: It's not time.
Speaker 4: It did feel different, though, didn't it. It did feel
Speaker 4: different because we've never seen them get beat like that. Right,
Speaker 4: every other team has gotten beaten like that. We have
Speaker 4: not seen a Nick Saban Alabama team get beaten like that,
Speaker 4: And so it feels different because it's it's a kind
Speaker 4: of vulnerability we've seen from them.
Speaker 3: That we didn't think existed.
Speaker 2: So strange.
Speaker 4: But that said, Clemson's the only team capable of exposing
Speaker 4: that vulnerability. There's nobody in the SEC capable of it,
Speaker 4: because if Georgia was capable of it, would.
Speaker 3: Have done it.
Speaker 2: Nobody has that combination of quarterback and continuity and talent
Speaker 2: level and culture to to go into a game like
Speaker 2: that that fearlessly.
Speaker 4: Georgia could could for sure, could you know, maybe maybe
Speaker 4: December twenty nineteen or December twenty twenty. George is at
Speaker 4: that point, but nobody's there yet in the SEC.
Speaker 2: It's incredible that we are in a time where there
Speaker 2: are at least right now, two teams nationally that have
Speaker 2: gotten this close to Alabama. There's always been like that one,
Speaker 2: or like the old Miss offense this year, or a
Speaker 2: freak South Carolina year, but there's never been the infrastructure.
Speaker 2: It seems to me that there are those two teams
Speaker 2: that are basically, if not on Alabama's level.
Speaker 4: Yes, and so that's good for college football. Yes, that
Speaker 4: there are those teams, and it will make things interesting.
Speaker 4: It's just it makes Anick Sapements job a little bit harder.
Speaker 4: But the thing is they still have to They still
Speaker 4: have all those receivers, they've still recruited. Well, there will
Speaker 4: be a Quinn Williams type who you don't know about,
Speaker 4: who only the recruit Nicks know about, who will be
Speaker 4: a household name come October. They're going to rense and
Speaker 4: repeat and they're still going to be really good.
Speaker 2: If there is an internal downfall, because I know you
Speaker 2: don't see it coming right now. Is it only Nick
Speaker 2: Saban retiring or is there any Is it Scott Cochrane leaving?
Speaker 2: Is there anything internal that.
Speaker 3: Scott Cochrane leaving would be a huge thing?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think.
Speaker 4: I've I've strained the conditioning, make sure the coordinators. Yeah,
Speaker 4: that he's more important than either coordinator. And it's funny,
Speaker 4: he's not even the highest paced strength coach in America.
Speaker 3: Wow, who guy at Iowa is the highest Okay? Yeah,
Speaker 3: so I.
Speaker 4: Mean it's I think he is the second most important
Speaker 4: person in that organization behind Nick Saban. And when they
Speaker 4: kept him away from Georgia, they kept themselves atop the
Speaker 4: SEC a little bit longer.
Speaker 2: That's it's amazing that kind of impact. But it makes
Speaker 2: sense because he has so much FaceTime. He is the
Speaker 2: good cop, and he has so much FaceTime with the
Speaker 2: team all year long.
Speaker 3: He right, he interacts with the players more than any
Speaker 3: other coach. He is the guy.
Speaker 4: So you know you you don't have him, then you
Speaker 4: don't does the message Saban wants to get across? Get
Speaker 4: across because Saban's big thing is messaging. It's it's all
Speaker 4: about you know. Here's what I need them to understand
Speaker 4: this this week, and it's not just game weeks, it's
Speaker 4: this random week in January. Here's what I needed to understand.
Speaker 4: Scott Cochran is the guy who makes sure that message
Speaker 4: g's through.
Speaker 2: Incredible. Yeah, Final team Tennessee our headliner for all the
Speaker 2: goodwill of beating a good Kentucky team and a pretty
Speaker 2: good Auburn team on the road. They finished two and seven.
Speaker 2: Those are the two Power Five wins of the year
Speaker 2: for Tennessee. So outside of the UH the South Carolina collapse,
Speaker 2: the rest of them were uncompetitive losses. The good news
Speaker 2: is recruiting transfers, returning guys. Jim Cheney, I guess what
Speaker 2: is the case for Tennessee colin consistently improving Bowl team.
Speaker 4: I think that's probably the right the right tack to
Speaker 4: take is consistent improving Bowl team, not sec East Challenger
Speaker 4: not there yet, and it's going to take him a
Speaker 4: little bit. But the Cheney hire, I think is a
Speaker 4: good one. You know, you look at when he was
Speaker 4: there before, what he did with Kiffin, and he turned
Speaker 4: Jonathan Crompton into a into a guy who got drafted.
Speaker 2: I still don't I still have my doubts that that
Speaker 2: actually happened. Insane it happened. I promise there's YouTube clips
Speaker 2: of it. There's proof, those receipts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I that's right.
Speaker 4: So I do think that's a really good hire because
Speaker 4: Cheney seems to have the temperament to work, you know,
Speaker 4: with those And look, Cheney just worked with Kirby Smart
Speaker 4: for a few years. You know, he can work with
Speaker 4: Jeremy Prewett. They're similar guys, you know, the similarly demanding.
Speaker 4: So I don't think that's going to be an issue.
Speaker 4: And you know, they don't have bad players. And I
Speaker 4: think Jeremy Prewett is a is the type of recruiter
Speaker 4: who understands what he needs, understands you know. The question
Speaker 4: with Jeremy Prewett is knowing he can get the same
Speaker 4: kind of guys at Alabama and Georgia can always get.
Speaker 4: How does he kind of reevaluate recruits, How does he
Speaker 4: how does he decide who's a take and who's not,
Speaker 4: Because you're not going to get your ideal wish list
Speaker 4: every time like you did when you're in Alabama. So
Speaker 4: it's really more of a test of him as a recruiter.
Speaker 4: But my guess, just given his history, is that you
Speaker 4: because he's he's so he's never stopped recruiting the same
Speaker 4: high schools. If you think about it, you know, he's
Speaker 4: gone from Alabama to Florida State, to Georgia to Alabama
Speaker 4: to Tennessee. He's still recruiting all the same high schools
Speaker 4: and in Georgia and Tennessee and Alabama and Florida that
Speaker 4: he always did. So he's got a good network and
Speaker 4: a good understanding, you know, going back to when these
Speaker 4: players were in eighth grade of what they can and
Speaker 4: can't do. So I think I think that's that bodes
Speaker 4: well for Tennessee that he's going to be able to
Speaker 4: stock the roster the way it needs to be stocked.
Speaker 4: Then it's just a matter of them putting it together
Speaker 4: on the field. I mean, I thought this team was
Speaker 4: wildly inconsistent last year. I mean, that's that's not really
Speaker 4: a news flash. But you go from that Florida game
Speaker 4: where everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, to
Speaker 4: the end of the season where for the most part
Speaker 4: it seemed like they had cohesive game plans that the
Speaker 4: players didn't quit. I mean, I think, I think they're
Speaker 4: on the right track. I just don't think it's going
Speaker 4: to be easy because unfortunately for them, Kirby Smart is
Speaker 4: building a monster at Georgia and Dan Mullen is doing
Speaker 4: a good job at Florida and that is going to
Speaker 4: make it where And then you've got Will must Champa
Speaker 4: at South Carolina with the what we talked about earlier.
Speaker 4: If they if they even perform up to expectations, they're
Speaker 4: at least the level of Tennessee and probably better, right,
Speaker 4: And then there's March Stoops at Kentucky. So there's I
Speaker 4: think there's some pretty good coaches in the East, and
Speaker 4: I think that's that's the thing Tennessee is going to
Speaker 4: run up against where it will take some time to
Speaker 4: get them to where they're competitive at the top.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds right. That is I'm really hoping for
Speaker 2: the best because I've liked the best of Jerk Warrentano.
Speaker 2: I know that the transfers coming in. There's some Aubrey
Speaker 2: Solomon coming in.
Speaker 3: His arm is off the show.
Speaker 4: It's ridiculous, but it's you know, you gotta it can't
Speaker 4: just be a great arm.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of other facts that involved.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I feel good about all of this. I'm
Speaker 2: glad we went through the fourteen teams the way that
Speaker 2: we did. And here's my final question for you before
Speaker 2: we let everybody go. We always seem to talk about food,
Speaker 2: because of course we do. Give me something non food
Speaker 2: that you've consumed, whether it's an album, whether it's a
Speaker 2: TV show, whether it's a movie, whether it's a book
Speaker 2: or a graphic novel or whatever that you can recommend
Speaker 2: to people as an off season something.
Speaker 4: Well, I'll tell you what I saw the first episode
Speaker 4: of Black Monday on Showtime.
Speaker 3: That shows Okay, awesome, don day. It's it's it's.
Speaker 4: A period piece set in nineteen eighty seven. Oh that
Speaker 4: the stock makes Yeah, Black Monday. The stock market crash
Speaker 4: in eighty seven, and it's about how it happened. It's
Speaker 4: a fictional story of how it happened, and it is.
Speaker 4: It's a pure comedy. It is hysterical that they have
Speaker 4: this guy playing the Lehman brothers. He plays both Lehman brothers. Okay,
Speaker 4: get just hand in the Emmy now. But Cheetle's fantastic.
Speaker 4: So yeah, the first episode I was I was in
Speaker 4: there's a great montage set to Don Henley's New York Minute.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's tremendous. Oh looks like it's seth Rogen as
Speaker 2: the executive producer Don Chietel. Yeah, I'm totally Yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna watch this very so. Yes, great recommendation.
Speaker 3: Everybody get on board. Cool.
Speaker 2: Andy Staples, thank you very much for your time. If
Speaker 2: people want to follow you, follow Andy on Twitter. On
Speaker 2: s I read everything he writes. He writes a column,
Speaker 2: a weekly column called punt Pass and Pork. What is
Speaker 2: the single best way that if people want to consume
Speaker 2: your wares you're on Sirius XM. What is the easiest way, Well,
Speaker 2: just go to my Twitter feed, Andy underscore Staples and
Speaker 2: I put most of that stuff there and of course
Speaker 2: debscribed to series XM.
Speaker 4: That just because I have a show on it, but
Speaker 4: because there's all kinds of great music channels, Howard Stern,
Speaker 4: great interviews. So it's the best thirteen dollars a month
Speaker 4: you can spend.
Speaker 2: Done, do it? Listen, you get Andy Staples and your
Speaker 2: show is what three hours long.
Speaker 4: One to four pm Eastern every day on Channel eighty four,
Speaker 4: which is the channel devoted to college sports.
Speaker 3: That's right. And we don't just have one.
Speaker 4: We have six channels devoted to college sports because mine
Speaker 4: is the main college sports channel, but we also have
Speaker 4: one devoted to each power conference.
Speaker 2: This is true. And if you follow, if you already
Speaker 2: follow Andy on Twitter, you know that when he starts
Speaker 2: tweeting during our three of his show, it's basically just
Speaker 2: like what was the best arranged dance from a movie
Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty four? Oh, it goes to weird places.
Speaker 4: And basically what that means is my co host, Jason
Speaker 4: Horowitz has given me some idea about something and I
Speaker 4: need to crowdsource it.
Speaker 2: Yes, done, Okay, Andy, thank you very much for your time.
Speaker 2: Follow Andy everywhere he goes and we will speak soon.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Dan.
Speaker 2: Okay to and there you go.
Speaker 1: Andy Staples Sports Illustrated Serious XAM, long time, long time,
Speaker 1: best Bud of the podcast. What did you learn from
Speaker 1: talking to him that you didn't know going into that interview,
Speaker 1: that conversation.
Speaker 2: Didn't know where to get tex mex in the Greater
Speaker 2: Oklahoma City area. Okay, import Tara Tara Humera, Tara Tara Humara,
Speaker 2: whatever I now know to go there, go to their
Speaker 2: Thanks to Andy and George Schroeder. It's one of those
Speaker 2: the points that Andy made. I guess particularly like it.
Speaker 2: AM very quick to say, Oh Georgia is there you know,
Speaker 2: is there an opening where Georgia is losing coordinators and
Speaker 2: all these transfers? What is you know? Do we have
Speaker 2: faith that Kirby smart essentially is Nick Saban, that he
Speaker 2: can weather anything thanks to his system and thanks to
Speaker 2: so much talent. And I thought Andy did a good
Speaker 2: job of pumping the brakes on any concern about Georgia
Speaker 2: with the way that they finished their season, you know,
Speaker 2: just and fields and the Sugar Bowl everything like that.
Speaker 2: I thought that was that was probably pretty smart. I
Speaker 2: liked his optimism about Miszoo. I thought that that was
Speaker 2: pretty smart given that they are recruiting on a somewhat
Speaker 2: respectable level. It's a top thirty thirty five class quarterback
Speaker 2: play has been good and they're just very quietly in
Speaker 2: that sec second tier. I thought that's I think that's
Speaker 2: all correct. Texas A and M as a danger if
Speaker 2: not for their schedule. I don't know if you've looked
Speaker 2: ahead to texts A and M schedule in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: It is late January, and if you have, I'm so sorry,
Speaker 2: but I have ty. It's not great really, So Texas
Speaker 2: A and M in twenty nineteen they go to Clemson
Speaker 2: week two. Oh boy, they have Auburn later on in
Speaker 2: September neutral site against Arkansas, followed by Alabama, and then
Speaker 2: they go to Ole Miss and then they finish out
Speaker 2: the season though their November slash late October is Mississippi
Speaker 2: State South Carolina as there the crossover game every year,
Speaker 2: and they finished at Georgia at.
Speaker 1: Ls That ain't easy.
Speaker 2: Well, boy, season at Georgia at LSU at Clemson LAM
Speaker 2: soon is is rocky? Tie? Okay, rocky?
Speaker 1: If they go yeah, if they go with one loss
Speaker 1: all year, that would be like they're the number two
Speaker 1: team in the country.
Speaker 2: With absolutely they absolutely are. And they recruited well enough
Speaker 2: and they will continue to recruit well enough. Year two
Speaker 2: of Mike Elco and even without Travon Williams, I thought
Speaker 2: defensively they got better and better throughout the year save
Speaker 2: for the LSU seven overtime game Texas. A and M
Speaker 2: is quite interesting to me because they're the team that
Speaker 2: has a potential ceiling to you know, they have a
Speaker 2: lot higher to climb that outside of Alabama, there's the
Speaker 2: obvious concern about Auburn and stability, obvious concerns about LSU
Speaker 2: and generating offensive firepower consistently. But A and M feels
Speaker 2: like that wild card in the West, and that it
Speaker 2: made me a little more intrigued. I would say, given
Speaker 2: what I mean, they're recruiting super duper well once again,
Speaker 2: I'm intrigued by that. And then I think that Joe
Speaker 2: moorehead once he has a forward pass thing, and that
Speaker 2: the Keyton Thompson hope is interesting to me about Mississippi State,
Speaker 2: that they are another one of those teams that if
Speaker 2: they have a winning record in conference, they could be
Speaker 2: winning nine ten games. That's interesting to me. Yeah, interesting.
Speaker 2: I like the optimism abut Mississippi State and A and M.
Speaker 1: All Right, well, Daniel, with all that being said, please
Speaker 1: write in let us know what you think. Solid verbal
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com. We're also out there at solid
Speaker 1: verbal dot com. You can find all of our content.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to check us out on social media as well,
Speaker 1: Twitter or Facebook, Instagram, all the usual hotspots. As Dan
Speaker 1: staid at the top of the show, please do leave
Speaker 1: us a review.
Speaker 2: All that stuff helps.
Speaker 1: We will be around all off season, though only once
Speaker 1: a week now that we've got less college football stuff
Speaker 1: to talk about. So here's what we're gonna do next week,
Speaker 1: because we haven't in a while and because there is
Speaker 1: ever demand for it. Big Q and A Show coming
Speaker 1: next Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Yes, might even be a two parter. I don't know.
Speaker 2: We're gonna stretch this one.
Speaker 1: Big Q and A Show coming. We've also got a
Speaker 1: fun show planned some point in the next couple of
Speaker 1: weeks where we're gonna look at like the nineteen most
Speaker 1: important transactions or I guess, yeah, of the young off
Speaker 1: season so far. Yes, And I guess can college football
Speaker 1: season at large?
Speaker 2: Can we do for that show? This is what I
Speaker 2: want to start doing occasionally, and this is this is
Speaker 2: how we'll know about you know, after the Marvel movies
Speaker 2: that you know, after the credits, there's a small little
Speaker 2: teaser scene of some kind. Yeah, I want to do.
Speaker 2: Maybe it'll be on that transaction show. Maybe it'll be
Speaker 2: on the Q and A show. And by me saying
Speaker 2: it'll happen sort of ruins the easter egg quality to it.
Speaker 2: But the transaction show, there is an asterisk to the
Speaker 2: show that I want to mention and I almost want
Speaker 2: to do. This is so ridiculous to I don't know
Speaker 2: how to call it. I don't I don't know what
Speaker 2: to call it. Can we do an after show for
Speaker 2: our own show on the same show that's very metadan
Speaker 2: but we could try to do like isn't isn't there
Speaker 2: like like Talking Dead like on AMC after The Walking
Speaker 2: Dead where Chris Hardwick sits down and says, like, well,
Speaker 2: what did we think about episode? That was crazy? Isn't
Speaker 2: that a thing we could do that they did like
Speaker 2: they did that with Breaking Bad? So I think I
Speaker 2: think we do a postgame show on our own show
Speaker 2: after the show is over on the same shown.
Speaker 1: A week to figure out how to do that, but
Speaker 1: we can y.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think you're still trying to figure
Speaker 2: out When I try to say, do we want the
Speaker 2: playoff to be a postseason versus a championship finder. All right, well,
Speaker 2: yeah that's all.
Speaker 1: Hit us up again usual hotspots, email Solid Rouble dot com,
Speaker 1: leave us a review for that guy over there, my
Speaker 1: good friend Dan Rubinstein for myself, Tie Hilton and Brand.
Speaker 1: Still freezing over here in eastern Pennsylvania. We will catch
Speaker 1: you all in a week. In the meantime, enjoy your week,
Speaker 1: enjoy your weekend. Well, stay solid, Peace,