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SEC Media Day Highlights, NCAA QB Rankings Reactions · The Craig Way Show

0:05
Speaker 1: Happy Wednesday, everybody. It's the Craig Waves Show on Sports
0:09
Speaker 1: Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone.
0:12
Speaker 2: Good afternoon. This is Jake.
0:13
Speaker 1: Herman filling in for Craig today. Craig along with our
0:19
Speaker 1: AM thirteen hundred Zone crew including Cameron Parker and Mike
0:22
Speaker 1: Hardball Hard They are getting ready to go wheels up
0:27
Speaker 1: on the way to Tampa or SEC Media Days continue.
0:31
Speaker 1: It's going to be the main focus of this Wednesday
0:34
Speaker 1: show is keeping you in the loop and letting you
0:37
Speaker 1: listen in on all of the hype, all of the speculation,
0:44
Speaker 1: all of the questions that head coaches and players are
0:48
Speaker 1: facing in Tampa as we start to creep up closer
0:53
Speaker 1: to the start of another college football season. We've got
0:56
Speaker 1: a long list of coaches and teams and players that
1:00
Speaker 1: we're going to hear from over the course of the program. Today,
1:04
Speaker 1: we're also going to bring you some of the very
1:07
Speaker 1: latest soundbites from SEC Media Days in Tampa, after getting
1:11
Speaker 1: you caught up on some of the comments of the
1:14
Speaker 1: last two days, particularly where they pertain to the Texas Longhorns,
1:19
Speaker 1: and we'll also put a couple of other programs that
1:22
Speaker 1: are on the Longhorns schedule under the microscope throughout today's
1:26
Speaker 1: show as well. We want to hear from you text
1:28
Speaker 1: the word Texas, followed by your questions and your comments
1:31
Speaker 1: to eight one five three zero. That's eight one five
1:35
Speaker 1: three zero. Standard message and data rates may apply. We
1:39
Speaker 1: really enjoyed all the engagement on the text line yesterday
1:43
Speaker 1: when it came to National Sandwich Day, which Craig and
1:47
Speaker 1: I had a lot of fun with on the show.
1:49
Speaker 1: We love hearing from you there, and we hope to
1:52
Speaker 1: hear from you throughout the show today. We're gonna hear
1:54
Speaker 1: from a couple of guests. At three point fifteen, David
1:57
Speaker 1: Eckert from Horns two four seven joins us. We'll talk
2:00
Speaker 1: about the Longhorns basketball schedule first, with the big announcement
2:04
Speaker 1: yesterday that Texas will take on Baylor at the Frost
2:07
Speaker 1: Bank Center in San Antonio that though among the biggest
2:11
Speaker 1: marquee matchups on Texas's non conference slate. We'll talk about
2:14
Speaker 1: maybe some of the criticism that Sean Miller has faced
2:17
Speaker 1: over not scheduling tougher in the non conference, and then
2:21
Speaker 1: we'll get into that twenty four to seven Sports poll
2:24
Speaker 1: that preseeds, like Craig noted yesterday the actual SEC preseason poll.
2:30
Speaker 2: This is just among sports writers.
2:32
Speaker 1: David Eckert included in that, and we'll see where the
2:35
Speaker 1: Longhorns stack up in the SEC preseason ratings according to
2:39
Speaker 1: that particular site and those CBS sports writers who voted
2:44
Speaker 1: in it. We'll also touch base with CJ. Vogel from
2:46
Speaker 1: on Texas Football. He is boots on the ground in
2:50
Speaker 1: Tampa hearing from these players and coaches. Will preview with
2:54
Speaker 1: the Longhorns availability tomorrow and find out what stood out
2:57
Speaker 1: to him, what kind of takeaways and impressions he's got
3:00
Speaker 1: from the SEC talk that's flooded the airwaves and the
3:05
Speaker 1: social media feeds over the last few days. I want
3:08
Speaker 1: to start the show by talking about one of those
3:11
Speaker 1: preview pieces, and that is what The Athletic did, which
3:16
Speaker 1: is a piece from Antonio Morales and Sam con Junior.
3:20
Speaker 1: They are ranking college football quarterbacks in tiers. They went
3:26
Speaker 1: one to one thirty eight every projected FBS starter. They
3:33
Speaker 1: were inspired by Mike Sando on this, who does the
3:36
Speaker 1: NFL quarterback tiers every year, talking to general managers and
3:40
Speaker 1: coaches and other quarterbacks to figure out who the industry
3:45
Speaker 1: sort of values and what they see that. Maybe other
3:49
Speaker 1: media members don't. And I took a stab at this
3:53
Speaker 1: from my NFL side of things last week when I
3:56
Speaker 1: was filling in for Craig. This is also they noted
4:00
Speaker 1: not an NFL draft ranking, but rather a rank of
4:03
Speaker 1: these guys as college quarterbacks.
4:06
Speaker 2: So we'll read down the list.
4:09
Speaker 1: I'll go ahead off the top because everyone's wondering where
4:12
Speaker 1: arch Manning slots in on this, and he comes in
4:16
Speaker 1: at number seven. A lot of those who would rank
4:19
Speaker 1: college quarterbacks by NFL traits, it's hard to argue arch
4:22
Speaker 1: Manning belongs outside of the top three, maybe even the
4:25
Speaker 1: top two. But as far as college quarterback rankings go,
4:30
Speaker 1: these guys slotted arch Manning in at number seven, still
4:33
Speaker 1: in the highest tier of college football quarterbacks, Tier one,
4:37
Speaker 1: which they write the best of the best, a strong
4:39
Speaker 1: combination of proven production and elite traits, and are among
4:42
Speaker 1: the Heisman Trophy front runners. Number one on this list
4:47
Speaker 1: is Trinidad Chambliss from Ole Miss, and we're gonna hear
4:50
Speaker 1: for him a little later on in the show. This
4:53
Speaker 1: is a D two transfer who probably is among the
4:59
Speaker 1: fastest rights in college football, maybe even on a larger
5:03
Speaker 1: scale than what we saw with the national champion and
5:06
Speaker 1: eventual number one pick, Fernando Mendoza from Indiana last season.
5:11
Speaker 1: So Chambliss, it is the fact that he jumped so quickly,
5:16
Speaker 1: so smoothly, from Farris State to ole Miss that impressed
5:20
Speaker 1: so many people. It was the playoff performances, both in
5:25
Speaker 1: helping Ole Miss reach the College Football Playoff and in
5:30
Speaker 1: that opening round matchup against Well the quarterfinal matchup against
5:34
Speaker 1: the Georgia Bulldogs. Never mind the demolition job ole Miss
5:38
Speaker 1: took to Tulane in what was Pete Golding's first game
5:42
Speaker 1: as the ReBs head coach. We'll hear from him later
5:45
Speaker 1: on in the show today too. He had some interesting
5:48
Speaker 1: comments about Lane Kiffen, about tampering, about the state of
5:51
Speaker 1: the sport, and about playing Texas. But Trinidad Chambliss at
5:55
Speaker 1: the top of this list, I can't argue with that
5:57
Speaker 1: based on what we saw on the field last year,
6:00
Speaker 1: from start to finish. It's a guy that was largely
6:02
Speaker 1: unheralded and came in and looked ready and looked the part.
6:06
Speaker 2: And Lane Kiffin.
6:08
Speaker 1: Obviously gets a lot of the credit for that, but
6:10
Speaker 1: so does Trinidad Chambliss, who won the job proving himself undeniable.
6:16
Speaker 1: After Austin Simmons was going to start the year as
6:18
Speaker 1: the old miss QB, we moved down to number two,
6:21
Speaker 1: and it's Dante Moore who likely would have been, as
6:25
Speaker 1: the Athletic notes, the top well, the second quarterback taken
6:29
Speaker 1: behind Fernando Mendoza had he gone to the NFL Draft.
6:34
Speaker 1: But he comes back to stay at Oregon work under
6:39
Speaker 1: Dan Lanning. Remember he played at UCLA back in twenty
6:43
Speaker 1: twenty three, backed up Dylan Gabriel in twenty twenty four,
6:46
Speaker 1: and then took over as the Oregon Ducks QB last season.
6:52
Speaker 1: Scouts noting that he gives a lot of calm under pressure.
6:55
Speaker 1: That's a trait that they like to see in potential
6:59
Speaker 1: pro quarterbacks.
7:02
Speaker 2: Certainly didn't show very well.
7:06
Speaker 1: In the College Football Playoff semi final loss to Indiana,
7:10
Speaker 1: but you can add a lot of guys to that list.
7:12
Speaker 1: Think about the way Ty Simpson and Julian Saying looked
7:15
Speaker 1: against Indiana late last year. So I'm gonna try not
7:17
Speaker 1: to sort of fault Dante more too much for that.
7:20
Speaker 1: It's a guy who completed seventy one percent of his
7:23
Speaker 1: passes last year, thirty touchdowns, ten interceptions. Obviously had the
7:26
Speaker 1: costly pair of interceptions I believe in the first quarter
7:29
Speaker 1: of that semi final game last year.
7:32
Speaker 2: Now CJ.
7:33
Speaker 1: Karr is number three, and he's going to be the
7:37
Speaker 1: starter at Notre Dame this year. He was one of
7:39
Speaker 1: those that very much impressed folks at the Manning Passing Academy.
7:45
Speaker 1: But I thought this list was based on what we've
7:49
Speaker 1: seen in college from these quarterbacks and not so much
7:52
Speaker 1: an NFL draft list.
7:54
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what CJ.
7:56
Speaker 1: Carr has shown us at number three that the quarterbacks
7:58
Speaker 1: that I'm going to name behind him in a moment
8:00
Speaker 1: have not.
8:03
Speaker 2: P four.
8:04
Speaker 1: General managers in general are pretty high on him. That
8:06
Speaker 1: contributes to this ranking as well. One manager said he
8:10
Speaker 1: was poised. He can make all the throws, he can
8:11
Speaker 1: layer the ball, he can process, he's a captain, He's a.
8:14
Speaker 2: Top ten pick.
8:17
Speaker 1: They had a running back last year who was picked
8:19
Speaker 1: third and another running back who was picked thirty second,
8:24
Speaker 1: two first round running backs behind him last year. I
8:28
Speaker 1: understand that takes some of the load off, and he's
8:31
Speaker 1: going to have to take on more of the load
8:33
Speaker 1: this year, and that article notes that, But I feel
8:36
Speaker 1: like this is a pick that's based more on what
8:39
Speaker 1: he can do from a projection standpoint, more on how
8:44
Speaker 1: the throws look on film than maybe what we saw
8:47
Speaker 1: on the field last year, simply because he wasn't asked
8:49
Speaker 1: to do that much and he wasn't, frankly facing the
8:54
Speaker 1: highest caliber competition on the defensive side of the ball.
8:58
Speaker 1: Darien Mensam is number four, the eleventh hour transfer to Miami.
9:03
Speaker 2: They are bullish on him.
9:04
Speaker 1: He was the quarterback for Duke last year who he
9:08
Speaker 1: dragged that Duke team despite their five loss record to
9:12
Speaker 1: the ACC Championship, becoming the first Power four champion in
9:17
Speaker 1: the twelve team playoff era to be left out of
9:21
Speaker 1: the CFB and maybe maybe maybe the first and last
9:25
Speaker 1: that we'll see of that in the current format. All
9:29
Speaker 1: that is to say, Julian saying at five, Drew Mestemaker
9:34
Speaker 1: at six, arch Manning at seven feels too low. And
9:37
Speaker 1: I know this is the Texas station, right and I know,
9:41
Speaker 1: being in Austin, having seen arch Manning in person, having
9:45
Speaker 1: been left with the taste of what was a very
9:48
Speaker 1: good second half of the season for arch Banning after
9:50
Speaker 1: some growing pains early, this feels too low. And if
9:56
Speaker 1: we're talking about the projections of what a quarterback can be.
10:00
Speaker 1: The college football world had anointed him in some sense
10:04
Speaker 1: coming into the twenty twenty five season. It feels like
10:07
Speaker 1: a bit of an overcorrection to place him down at
10:11
Speaker 1: number seven given the way he played at the end
10:14
Speaker 1: of the season with an offense that could not run
10:17
Speaker 1: the ball. That's what I'm that's what I'm taking issue
10:20
Speaker 1: with on this list. The Longhorns struggled mightily to run
10:24
Speaker 1: the football last season, with the exception of the season
10:29
Speaker 1: finale against Texas A and M. It took into the
10:31
Speaker 1: second half of the final game for Texas to truly
10:35
Speaker 1: impose its will with the running game, and arch Banning
10:42
Speaker 1: is seventh behind guys like Julian Sayan and CJ. Carr,
10:47
Speaker 1: who had the benefit of some of the best running
10:49
Speaker 1: games in college football, who had, frankly schedules that were
10:53
Speaker 1: not comparable to what the Longhorns faced last year. When
10:57
Speaker 1: Julian saying, who I think belongs to this game tier
11:00
Speaker 1: as arch Manning, whose numbers last season are excellent seventy
11:04
Speaker 1: seven percent completions, thirty two touchdowns, only interceptions.
11:09
Speaker 2: He's played.
11:10
Speaker 1: He's played three good defenses from what I saw last year.
11:14
Speaker 1: I'll give him a pass on the Michigan game with
11:16
Speaker 1: the weather, but that College Football Playoff semi a quarterfinal
11:22
Speaker 1: against Miami.
11:25
Speaker 2: That wasn't pretty. That Big Ten Championship.
11:29
Speaker 1: Game against Indiana, obviously, the season opener against Texas, that's
11:34
Speaker 1: that's his first start as the Buck Guys quarterback. Trying
11:39
Speaker 1: to give some grace here, but we've seen him play
11:41
Speaker 1: three high caliber defenses in his collegiate career, and I'm
11:47
Speaker 1: just not sure what we've seen to justify him up
11:50
Speaker 1: at number five ahead of Arch Manning at number seven,
11:52
Speaker 1: Sam Levitt is eight, and you get down to tier
11:55
Speaker 1: number two, Jada Mayava at USC, Noah Fafida at Arizon,
12:00
Speaker 1: He'll be the most experienced quarterback in the Big twelve
12:02
Speaker 1: this year. Gunner Stockton of Georgia is down at number eleven.
12:07
Speaker 1: Might not be the pro prospect that some of these
12:10
Speaker 1: guys ahead of him are, but you're ranking college quarterbacks.
12:16
Speaker 1: You're telling me a team wants Noah Fafida or Jayden
12:20
Speaker 1: Mayava over Gunner Stockton. Now, I hate to sound like
12:23
Speaker 1: just the sec homer here, but those are my issues
12:28
Speaker 1: with the list as I see it. I think Kevin
12:31
Speaker 1: Jennings down at number fifteen from SMU is too low
12:34
Speaker 1: for what it's worth. This is a guy who led
12:36
Speaker 1: his team to the playoff two years ago and if
12:38
Speaker 1: he's healthy, if he's healthy, he's got a chance to
12:43
Speaker 1: repeat that production from twenty twenty four and make that
12:46
Speaker 1: number fifteen ranking look pretty low. I could buy Kevin
12:51
Speaker 1: Jennings as high as number seven or eight on this list.
12:54
Speaker 1: But that's an example of what this type of year
12:59
Speaker 1: can this time of year can produce in the world
13:01
Speaker 1: of college football. And the number one takeaway from it,
13:06
Speaker 1: it means we're getting closer to the season. When we
13:09
Speaker 1: come back, we'll dive into some thoughts from SEC Media Days.
13:14
Speaker 1: Our first segment is going to jump around a little bit,
13:17
Speaker 1: and here's some of the coaches and players who have
13:20
Speaker 1: stepped up to the podium already earlier this week. Some
13:23
Speaker 1: of their sound bites as it pertains to Texas, some
13:26
Speaker 1: updates on former Longhorn players in new SEC homes, stuff
13:31
Speaker 1: that I think you could easily miss if you're glazing
13:35
Speaker 1: over watching the entire SEC Media Day coverage. We're going
13:38
Speaker 1: to bring it to you right here in this next segment.
13:40
Speaker 1: We've also got segments coming up with focus on the
13:43
Speaker 1: teams who took the podium today. Those include Alabama, will
13:46
Speaker 1: miss Florida and Texas A and M. We've got excerpts
13:50
Speaker 1: from Bucky and BK's show yesterday.
13:52
Speaker 2: They got to have Phil Steele join them.
13:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, the author publisher of one of the premier college
13:58
Speaker 1: football preview magazines. I know Craig Way brings it with
14:01
Speaker 1: him into the office every day when we do the show.
14:04
Speaker 1: He had some thoughts on Texas at arch Manning that
14:06
Speaker 1: Bucky at BK have been kind enough to share, so
14:09
Speaker 1: we'll bring you those over the course of these next
14:11
Speaker 1: three hours. We'll also have Inconceivable towards the end of
14:14
Speaker 1: hour number one as well. But it's time now for
14:16
Speaker 1: our first break here on the Craigway Show Sports Radio A.
14:19
Speaker 1: I'm thirteen hundred to zone. We're also glad to have
14:21
Speaker 1: you with us on the free iHeartRadio.
14:23
Speaker 3: App Cis Longhorns and Hall of Vain broadcaster Craig Way.
14:30
Speaker 1: Here on a Wednesday afternoon. Craig Way is out on
14:34
Speaker 1: his way to Tampa to host tomorrow's show, which, again,
14:38
Speaker 1: if you missed the announcement yesterday, we'll start after the
14:42
Speaker 1: Round Rock Express game and then go an extra hour
14:49
Speaker 1: up until six o'clock, so that'll give us plenty of
14:52
Speaker 1: time us including Cameron Parker, Mike Harg and Craig Way
14:58
Speaker 1: to recap everything we heard from Steve Sarkeesian arch Manning,
15:02
Speaker 1: Trevor Goosby, Colin Simmons and the rest of the SEC
15:08
Speaker 1: teams present at tomorrow's edition of Media Day's Longhorns are
15:13
Speaker 1: the last team to sort of close out the show
15:15
Speaker 1: there in Tampa. As far as Media Days ago, our
15:19
Speaker 1: yacht rock song coming back there was how Long by
15:22
Speaker 1: Ace taking off their nineteen seventy four debut album five
15:27
Speaker 1: aside As a yacht Rock Wednesday continues even in the
15:30
Speaker 1: absence of the Hall of Famer Craig Way. We're talking
15:34
Speaker 1: SEC Media Days here and it has been two years now.
15:37
Speaker 1: This will be the third full season of Texas and
15:40
Speaker 1: OU being in the SEC. And we heard a little
15:45
Speaker 1: bit yesterday from Kirby Smart. Yesterday was the Georgia Bulldog's Day.
15:49
Speaker 1: They were one of the four teams who were kind
15:51
Speaker 1: of spotlighted. It gets broken down by four teams per day,
15:55
Speaker 1: and he had the chance to talk about the pros
15:58
Speaker 1: and the cons of OU and Texas joining the conference
16:01
Speaker 1: two years in. It's a question that's been asked by
16:04
Speaker 1: both the Texas and OU media cohorts to almost every
16:08
Speaker 1: coach that's taken the podium, but particularly the ones on
16:12
Speaker 1: the Longhorns and Sooner's schedules.
16:14
Speaker 2: Here's what Kirby had to say.
16:16
Speaker 4: I can't think of any cons.
16:17
Speaker 5: I mean, you'd be telling me to say something negative
16:19
Speaker 5: about me being I might say travel. You know, like
16:22
Speaker 5: we knew that was inherent that was going to come,
16:23
Speaker 5: and you look at our conference versus many others, and
16:27
Speaker 5: we're blessed to have the travel we have, right, like
16:30
Speaker 5: going to Austin. I think at night the year we
16:32
Speaker 5: went over there, it was like we got back at
16:34
Speaker 5: three thirty am or something.
16:35
Speaker 4: We play a night game on the road in a
16:36
Speaker 4: different time zone. That stuff, right.
16:39
Speaker 5: But outside of that, I don't know whether there's cons
16:41
Speaker 5: the pros or we're all over the state of Texas
16:45
Speaker 5: now in Oklahoma.
16:46
Speaker 4: You know, the footprint of recruiting expanded.
16:48
Speaker 5: I think Greg would tell you that the media part
16:51
Speaker 5: was huge in terms of the coverage and having a
16:55
Speaker 5: better product to put out there. I mean, the number
16:57
Speaker 5: of games we now have on set Saturdays when we
17:01
Speaker 5: line up and say, okay, you got this night slot,
17:03
Speaker 5: you got this midday slot, and now your twelve o'clock
17:06
Speaker 5: game is out competing the other conference's best game week
17:09
Speaker 5: in and week out. We're putting a better product out
17:11
Speaker 5: there with our third and fourth game. So that's what
17:13
Speaker 5: it's created. This like, Hey, we're going to play the
17:15
Speaker 5: best teams every week, and there's going to be elite
17:17
Speaker 5: matchups for television we picked from I don't know that
17:19
Speaker 5: we could do that without Oklahoma and Texas.
17:23
Speaker 1: And one of the teams that Texas will face for
17:26
Speaker 1: the first time on the road in school history this
17:30
Speaker 1: year will be the Tennessee Volunteers and Josh Heipel, their
17:34
Speaker 1: head coach, who remember has those ou ties as their
17:38
Speaker 1: longtime assistant, their longtime OC. He was asked, is there
17:42
Speaker 1: anything special about facing Texas at Neeland Stadium as Texas
17:48
Speaker 1: will open its conference late there on September twenty sixth awesome?
17:53
Speaker 6: You know, first dame of the conference Season's important. You
17:56
Speaker 6: want to get off on the right foot, tough perspect
17:59
Speaker 6: for University of Texas, and you know it's a unique
18:04
Speaker 6: game of Pyton having played here at Arch, you know
18:07
Speaker 6: currently playing there. So there's a lot of things. I
18:11
Speaker 6: think our fan base is really excited about it. The opponent,
18:14
Speaker 6: we haven't played it in a long time, and you
18:17
Speaker 6: know that's part.
18:18
Speaker 4: Of, you know, the expansion of the SEC.
18:20
Speaker 6: Footprint, having an opportunity to play these types of games.
18:24
Speaker 1: All Right, I'm going to call this this next section
18:26
Speaker 1: of sound bites kind of the the SEC diaspora, because
18:31
Speaker 1: this offseason, maybe more than most and maybe as will
18:35
Speaker 1: become commonplace as college football continues towards this world of
18:40
Speaker 1: coaches changing. I don't think we'll have a lot of
18:43
Speaker 1: off season coaching carousels.
18:45
Speaker 2: Quite like twenty twenty six.
18:48
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that the likes of Lane Kiffin and
18:52
Speaker 1: others being on the move at the same time will
18:54
Speaker 1: become so common If jobs such as Florida auburt LSU
18:59
Speaker 1: will all be open at the same time again in
19:02
Speaker 1: this conference, and maybe not at the same time as
19:05
Speaker 1: a job like a Penn State which also came open
19:08
Speaker 1: this offseason, there's no you don't even to tell you
19:11
Speaker 1: how crazy this offseason was from a college coaching carousel standpoint.
19:16
Speaker 1: So first off, you heard it a little bit yesterday
19:19
Speaker 1: from Georgia players about Will must Champ. How about Gunner Stockton,
19:23
Speaker 1: who I mentioned in the last segment when I highlighted
19:26
Speaker 1: the athletics quarterback college football rankings, which, look it might
19:32
Speaker 1: be more accurate than I'm giving it credit for, but
19:34
Speaker 1: it's not going to win any awards for context, I mean,
19:37
Speaker 1: Gunner Stockton down at number eleven feels way too low
19:40
Speaker 1: to me. Here were his thoughts on Will must Champ,
19:42
Speaker 1: who was with the Georgia staff for a couple of
19:45
Speaker 1: seasons and now will be the defensive coordinator for Texas.
19:48
Speaker 1: Gunner Stockton's thoughts on working with and against Will must
19:52
Speaker 1: Champion practice, Dude, coach.
19:54
Speaker 4: Definitely have a great coach. He has a lot of passion.
20:00
Speaker 4: Does need to be able to.
20:02
Speaker 7: Be around him for the years that I was here,
20:05
Speaker 7: I'm here.
20:06
Speaker 5: But he's definitely got a lot of fashion.
20:09
Speaker 4: However, your best for you.
20:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think Longhorn fans are strangers to that passion,
20:14
Speaker 1: and they're certainly hoping he brings it to the Longhorn
20:17
Speaker 1: defense this year. We'll talk a little bit about South Carolina. Now,
20:21
Speaker 1: won't hear too much from Shane Beemer, who is entering
20:26
Speaker 1: his sixth season at the helm from South Carolina. One
20:30
Speaker 1: A big sec consensus that I've heard this offseason is
20:34
Speaker 1: that of how hot his seat is right now and
20:36
Speaker 1: how he's maybe under the most pressure in the conference
20:40
Speaker 1: to win and to turn things around. His South Carolina
20:44
Speaker 1: tenure has been up and down. And I don't say
20:46
Speaker 1: that as a cliche. I say that about as literally
20:49
Speaker 1: as you can get from a team that just missed
20:51
Speaker 1: the playoff in twenty twenty four to a team that
20:55
Speaker 1: was four and eight and never really finding any kind
20:58
Speaker 1: of a rhythm in twenty twenty five.
21:01
Speaker 2: There was a new staff brought in.
21:03
Speaker 1: Kendall Briles will be ThEC after stops at Baylor, Arkansas
21:07
Speaker 1: and TCU. It's a South Carolina offense that was second
21:11
Speaker 1: to last in scoring last year. They've got a guy
21:15
Speaker 1: in Leonora's Sellers who is oozing with talent. He finds
21:18
Speaker 1: himself though, down in the third tier at number eighteen
21:20
Speaker 1: overall in the Athletics quarterback rankings, and I would have
21:26
Speaker 1: been shocked to hear that at the beginning of last
21:29
Speaker 1: season that he'd fall this low and would be back
21:31
Speaker 1: at South Carolina and not playing pro football by this
21:34
Speaker 1: point in his career. But the film last year was very,
21:39
Speaker 1: very inconsistent, so you could understand maybe that fall down
21:43
Speaker 1: outside of the top two tiers for Lenora's sellers. One
21:47
Speaker 1: of his primary weapons this year is Nicholas Harbor, the
21:51
Speaker 1: tight end who comes actually from the DC area, and
21:55
Speaker 1: he will he's listed now actually I think as a
21:58
Speaker 1: as a wide receiver har but he's got a lot
22:01
Speaker 1: of size at six five two forty two, and he
22:04
Speaker 1: got to talk about the addition a former Longhorn, Christian Clark,
22:10
Speaker 1: who figures to play into the backfield. Him and Matthew
22:14
Speaker 1: Fuller will be handling a lot of that load at
22:18
Speaker 1: the running game. Fuller is the UH running back who
22:23
Speaker 1: had a pretty good spring according to the folks who
22:27
Speaker 1: cover the game Cocks. But Christian Clark has been in
22:30
Speaker 1: the fold. And here is what Nick Harper had to
22:32
Speaker 1: say about the former Longhorn in his new home.
22:35
Speaker 4: That's my guy. He brings energy, he brings us closing this.
22:40
Speaker 8: He brings some hard running and he's gonna be a
22:42
Speaker 8: really good batch for us.
22:44
Speaker 4: You know, you're gonna make a lot of plays. Who
22:46
Speaker 4: watched his tape against Texas and stuff like that, and.
22:48
Speaker 8: That was should be against Michigan area against Michigan, just
22:52
Speaker 8: the way he just, you know, just ran the ball
22:54
Speaker 8: and I was really first shown as Rmy one and
22:56
Speaker 8: really getting some touches. And he's just been doing the
22:58
Speaker 8: same thing in the springs when working on Harns, just
23:01
Speaker 8: to prepare yourself for fall camp. So I just can't
23:03
Speaker 8: wait to watch them, can't wait to block form. I
23:05
Speaker 8: hope we scored a Lotta's house this year.
23:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, Christian Clark will certainly factor into that South Carolina backfield.
23:13
Speaker 1: But you think about the South Carolina season. They were
23:16
Speaker 1: one and seven last year in the SEC. And the
23:20
Speaker 1: moment that I think sticks with folks is the collapse
23:23
Speaker 1: against Texas A and M, a game in which they
23:26
Speaker 1: led thirty to three before allowing the Aggies to storm back.
23:31
Speaker 1: You're a Texas fan, you win at this little bit
23:33
Speaker 1: thinking about, Okay, if that result goes differently, or if
23:36
Speaker 1: Oklahoma were to lose at Bryant Denny Stadium, a game
23:40
Speaker 1: in which they were out gained by almost two hundred
23:43
Speaker 1: and fifty yards and won the turnover battle won that game,
23:47
Speaker 1: the Longhorns might have snuck in the back door of
23:50
Speaker 1: the College Football Playoff by virtue of head to head
23:53
Speaker 1: victories over A and M or Oklahoma, who would have
23:55
Speaker 1: had three losses at that point. But as it stood,
23:58
Speaker 1: the Longhorns beat both of those rivals last year, we're
24:00
Speaker 1: still left on the outside looking in, and that South
24:03
Speaker 1: Carolina versus Texas A and M game is one of
24:05
Speaker 1: those results that you remember from the SEC last year
24:08
Speaker 1: that ultimately had a big say in how the SEC
24:11
Speaker 1: race and the playoff chase shook out. So Shane Biemer,
24:15
Speaker 1: he knew he was going to be asked about this
24:16
Speaker 1: again the first time. He's probably been asked about it
24:19
Speaker 1: in a few months, but somebody probably thinks about every day.
24:22
Speaker 1: That second half collapse against Texas A and M.
24:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a rough It was a tough thirty minutes.
24:27
Speaker 9: First of all, I think you give them an amazing
24:31
Speaker 9: amount of credit coach Elco and his team to be
24:34
Speaker 9: able to come back from that deficit.
24:39
Speaker 4: But you're right. You look at the you know, the.
24:41
Speaker 9: Second half of the game in twenty twenty four where
24:45
Speaker 9: we really pulled away in the second half. You look
24:48
Speaker 9: at the second half of twenty twenty five where they
24:51
Speaker 9: pulled away and made the plays. You know that was
24:54
Speaker 9: I think you look at everything you give them credit absolutely,
24:58
Speaker 9: and then for me, looking back.
24:59
Speaker 4: At the game, it was just there were a.
25:01
Speaker 9: Lot of mistakes that we made in the second half
25:04
Speaker 9: that just were just not like us, you know, whether
25:07
Speaker 9: it was mental errors, physical plays that we made or
25:12
Speaker 9: didn't make. So as the head coach, you look at
25:14
Speaker 9: it and you say to yourself, you know.
25:16
Speaker 4: Why and why did we.
25:19
Speaker 9: Not make those plays in the second half when we
25:21
Speaker 9: made those plays or didn't make those mistakes in the
25:24
Speaker 9: first half.
25:24
Speaker 2: Is it putting too much pressure on yourself?
25:26
Speaker 4: Is it momentum?
25:28
Speaker 9: Is it the adversity continued to grow and we didn't
25:30
Speaker 9: handle it. I'm sure all those are you know, all
25:33
Speaker 9: the answers to that are probably yes in some way.
25:35
Speaker 9: But at the end of the day, we that was
25:37
Speaker 9: a really, really tough loss, but we had thirty really
25:40
Speaker 9: good minutes of football, and we had opportunities in the
25:43
Speaker 9: second half of that game to make plays and not
25:47
Speaker 9: even let it get to the fourth quarter, and we
25:49
Speaker 9: didn't do that. So ultimately that's on me, and we
25:52
Speaker 9: need to be better this year when they come to
25:54
Speaker 9: Columbia because we know what kind of team and how
25:57
Speaker 9: well coached that group is.
26:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, that'll be a big time game that South Carolina
26:04
Speaker 1: will have circle next season. It comes on November seventh.
26:08
Speaker 1: That'll be the same day that Texas travels to Missouri.
26:11
Speaker 1: Texas A and M. We'll take on South Carolina after
26:15
Speaker 1: a bye. It kicks off a very difficult end of
26:18
Speaker 1: season stretch for Texas A and M. If it wasn't
26:20
Speaker 1: right after a bye week for A and M, I
26:24
Speaker 1: would call it a trap game. But here's what it
26:26
Speaker 1: proceeds on the A and M schedule Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas.
26:31
Speaker 1: It's a tough end of the season for the Aggies.
26:33
Speaker 1: And we'll continue to talk about Texas A and M
26:36
Speaker 1: a little later on in the program. Mike Elco getting
26:38
Speaker 1: ready to go to the podium as we speak in
26:42
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay. After this break, we're going to bring you
26:44
Speaker 1: some soundbites from his quarterback, Marcel Reid coming up later
26:48
Speaker 1: on this hour. We'll talk a little Alabama as well,
26:51
Speaker 1: and we'll bring you Inconceivable. It's our SEC Media Day's
26:55
Speaker 1: deep dive Wednesday here on AM thirteen hundred the Zone.
26:58
Speaker 1: So glad to have you with us right back in
27:00
Speaker 1: a moment in little Texas A and M.
27:02
Speaker 2: Next on our SEC Media.
27:05
Speaker 1: Day's focused Wednesday edition of The Craig Way Show. Before
27:10
Speaker 1: we close out the hour, we'll bring you in Conceivable
27:13
Speaker 1: in the next segment as well. Jake Kerrman here filling
27:16
Speaker 1: in for Craig who was on his way to Tampa
27:18
Speaker 1: where the SEC Media Day Magic is happening. It looked
27:23
Speaker 1: to me the start of a magical season for Texas
27:25
Speaker 1: A and m. We talked about their comeback win over
27:27
Speaker 1: South Carolina, We talked about their eleven and start a
27:31
Speaker 1: little bit in the last segment, and then it came
27:35
Speaker 1: crashing down, both with the loss in Austin by a
27:37
Speaker 1: final score of twenty seven to seventeen, and then in
27:40
Speaker 1: that windy, sloppy, tense playoff game at Kyle Field at
27:46
Speaker 1: seven versus ten matchup, the Aggies fell to the eventual
27:49
Speaker 1: runners up, the Miami Hurricanes last season. And look, this
27:54
Speaker 1: is going to sound like a simple, maybe cliche take
27:58
Speaker 1: on what's happening in college station, But Marcel Reid, there
28:02
Speaker 1: might not be a quarterback in the country that is
28:05
Speaker 1: more important to his team's success than number ten in
28:08
Speaker 1: the Maroon and White.
28:10
Speaker 2: Why you asked, I.
28:12
Speaker 1: Mean, so many other teams don't have as much around him, right, Son?
28:15
Speaker 1: Other quarterbacks mean more to their squads than Marcel Reid. Well,
28:19
Speaker 1: I'll give you this, Marcel Reid last season was a
28:24
Speaker 1: Heisman candidate at one point. Didn't look anything like that
28:28
Speaker 1: in the two losses. A and M suffered down the stretch,
28:31
Speaker 1: and sometimes it would vary wildly, not just from game
28:34
Speaker 1: to game, but from half to half. In the first
28:36
Speaker 1: half of that South Carolina game when he was just
28:39
Speaker 1: flat out missing open guys, to the second half where
28:43
Speaker 1: he helped rally his team for a comeback. So it's
28:47
Speaker 1: a Texas A and M team that's replacing a lot
28:49
Speaker 1: ten players, drafted new coordinators on both sides of the ball.
28:54
Speaker 1: With will Stein off to Kentucky, we heard some soundbites
28:57
Speaker 1: from him yesterday. Jay Bateman, left as well defensive coordinator
29:01
Speaker 1: at A and M last year, is now in the
29:03
Speaker 1: same role at Kentucky, so Lyle Hempil, who was the
29:08
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator at James Madison, took over. Of course, Mike
29:11
Speaker 1: Elko is a defensive head coach and this is still
29:16
Speaker 1: his team, and it's still a defense that is going
29:19
Speaker 1: to be full of talent, particularly on the edges.
29:22
Speaker 2: But there are some questions around Marcel.
29:26
Speaker 1: Reid this year, especially with the departure of one of
29:29
Speaker 1: his top targets, Casey Concepcion, And we'll see how things
29:33
Speaker 1: go with the new offensive coordinator, Holman Wiggins, who now
29:40
Speaker 1: is promoted into the offensive coordinator seat after working preminently
29:45
Speaker 1: with the wide receivers last year, kind of as will
29:47
Speaker 1: Stein's right hand man from a year ago. It's not
29:51
Speaker 1: going to be some night and day change in this
29:54
Speaker 1: offense with this transition, but you're still looking for Reid
29:57
Speaker 1: to take a step forward with the pieces around him,
30:01
Speaker 1: maybe becoming a little bit less secure. So that's why
30:04
Speaker 1: I'd posit him as maybe the most important player to
30:07
Speaker 1: his team in the SEC and maybe the country this
30:10
Speaker 1: season if you think Texas A and M is a
30:12
Speaker 1: team that can compete.
30:14
Speaker 2: On a national scale.
30:15
Speaker 1: Marcel Reid, before taking the podium at SEC Media Days,
30:20
Speaker 1: met with a scrum of Texas A and M media
30:23
Speaker 1: and he was asked, first off, can Texas A and
30:27
Speaker 1: M reach that next level on the national stage after
30:30
Speaker 1: their brief playoff appearance a year ago.
30:33
Speaker 4: I think we have.
30:33
Speaker 7: I mean, you know, we really don't listen or care
30:39
Speaker 7: what the media has to say about us compete on
30:41
Speaker 7: national stage. I think Elko thinks that we can compete
30:44
Speaker 7: on the national stage at the highest level, and I think,
30:47
Speaker 7: you know, us going eleven to zero, you know, spoke
30:50
Speaker 7: a lot of volume and what our team was capable of. Obviously,
30:54
Speaker 7: the last two games didn't go how we wanted him
30:55
Speaker 7: to go. But you know, we just have to raise
30:58
Speaker 7: our floor and I think that's what's going to happen
31:01
Speaker 7: this year. We have a lot of talent and like
31:04
Speaker 7: I said, a lot of experience, and I mean you
31:06
Speaker 7: can only over go up.
31:08
Speaker 1: And for Texas A and M, of course, there are
31:12
Speaker 1: always lofty goals. But coming off of last season, what
31:15
Speaker 1: do those goals look like now in twenty twenty six.
31:18
Speaker 2: According to Marcel Reid, Yeah.
31:20
Speaker 7: Oh, goals for sure. I'm just trying to you know,
31:23
Speaker 7: I want to win. That's really all it is. I
31:25
Speaker 7: want to win, probably improve the statue a little bit,
31:29
Speaker 7: definitely some goals. I want to achieve in yards passing
31:33
Speaker 7: and rushing along with touchdowns, and then you know, I
31:37
Speaker 7: want to get to that state championship. I want to
31:39
Speaker 7: make it to the national championship. I want to do
31:40
Speaker 7: all those things, and I think they're very attainable. We
31:42
Speaker 7: just have to put our head down to work.
31:45
Speaker 2: Yeah.
31:45
Speaker 1: For Reid in Texas A and M, the schedule certainly
31:48
Speaker 1: gets more difficult. They will face five teams that finished
31:52
Speaker 1: last season ranked, and they'll also see three new teams
31:57
Speaker 1: on the schedule that were not last year year. A
32:00
Speaker 1: lot of SEC teams dealing with this as the league
32:03
Speaker 1: transitions to that nine game slate. Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee are
32:08
Speaker 1: the ones who move in to the schedule, and the
32:13
Speaker 1: teams that move out include Florida, who finished last year
32:19
Speaker 1: with a losing record, and I'm trying to see that
32:23
Speaker 1: last team is Auburn. Texas A and M will not
32:25
Speaker 1: see this year, and that's a program going undo a transition.
32:29
Speaker 1: That's a game that Texas A and M was pretty
32:32
Speaker 1: lucky to escape last year. I mean you think about
32:36
Speaker 1: that was their version of Texas's matchup with Kentucky, a
32:40
Speaker 1: game that the Aggie defense won and the offense did
32:43
Speaker 1: not quite look like itself. Two new pieces for the
32:47
Speaker 1: A and M offense are transfers from Alabama. Will can
32:52
Speaker 1: formbeat and Isaiah Horton are coming over from Alabama. Two
32:56
Speaker 1: guys who started last season for the Tide who did
32:59
Speaker 1: advance once age further than the Aggies after beating Oklahoma
33:02
Speaker 1: on the road in that first round playoff game and
33:04
Speaker 1: then getting trounced by Indiana in the Rose Bowl game.
33:08
Speaker 1: We'll let you hear from Klin de Boor, who took
33:10
Speaker 1: the podium this morning on that what those transfers informed
33:15
Speaker 1: by and Isaiah Horton uh mean to him his relationship
33:20
Speaker 1: with them as they move on to A and M.
33:23
Speaker 9: Good guys that you know, appreciate everything they did for
33:26
Speaker 9: our program and always gonna wish they meant the best.
33:29
Speaker 4: You know, every situation is different.
33:31
Speaker 9: Guys coming into our program, guys leaving our leaving our program.
33:35
Speaker 9: As long as they've given everything they've had while they're
33:37
Speaker 9: with me, I'm always gonna appreciate them. But I think
33:41
Speaker 9: just simple simple. I mean, Wilkins got two years, calling
33:45
Speaker 9: years of snaps under his belt, you know first till
33:50
Speaker 9: he played probably play inside and outside. Isaiah long, big
33:55
Speaker 9: catch radius, uh, you know, can can make those plays
33:58
Speaker 9: that a lot of made a lot of plays down
34:00
Speaker 9: in the red zone for us last year in some
34:02
Speaker 9: big games.
34:03
Speaker 4: Yeah.
34:04
Speaker 1: So those are guys at Texas. A and M will
34:05
Speaker 1: look to fill in for those several positions. Where they
34:11
Speaker 1: will have turnover for mean four new starters on the
34:13
Speaker 1: offensive line.
34:15
Speaker 2: That's not easy.
34:16
Speaker 1: Longhorns know that Texas A and M run defense has
34:20
Speaker 1: to replace some pieces. It's not a run defense that
34:22
Speaker 1: was even all that stout for stretches of last year.
34:26
Speaker 1: So no doubt a program in Texas A and M
34:30
Speaker 1: that has lofty expectations but has some big questions over
34:33
Speaker 1: how they are going to meet them. Hear that about
34:35
Speaker 1: a lot of SEC schools as we run through some
34:38
Speaker 1: media day soundbites today, but I want to let you
34:40
Speaker 1: hear a little bit from their head coach, Mike Elko
34:42
Speaker 1: before we hit the brake, including his thoughts on Steve
34:45
Speaker 1: Sarkisian and the Lone Star Showdown, which he's still yet
34:49
Speaker 1: to win as the Texas A and M ag coach.
34:51
Speaker 10: Yeah, just a tremendous amount of respect for a coach.
34:54
Speaker 10: Got a chance to compete against him when he was
34:57
Speaker 10: the OC at Alabama, obviously have now competed against and
35:00
Speaker 10: as the head coach at Texas.
35:02
Speaker 4: I think he does a phenomenal job on offense.
35:04
Speaker 10: I think he's really really challenging with the diversity of
35:07
Speaker 10: play action attack that he has and how he marries
35:09
Speaker 10: that to the different run games. I think they do
35:11
Speaker 10: as good a job with that as anybody that I've
35:13
Speaker 10: ever gone against. And so yeah, I think it's an
35:18
Speaker 10: interesting situation because I think there's a lot of mutual
35:20
Speaker 10: respect between the two head coaches despite the fierce.
35:24
Speaker 4: Rivalry and the need to win the game that we
35:26
Speaker 4: both have.
35:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Craig, get a test to that, the mutual
35:29
Speaker 1: respect that's on display as these head coaches are constantly
35:35
Speaker 1: competing for what feels like at a conference that's as
35:39
Speaker 1: crowded and competitive as ever.
35:41
Speaker 2: But off the field, right, they could be They could
35:43
Speaker 2: be friends.
35:44
Speaker 1: Even if Sark and Joey maguire can make up, well,
35:47
Speaker 1: you never know what's possible. We'll get some more stories
35:50
Speaker 1: on coaching relationships with one another. Pete Golding took the
35:53
Speaker 1: podium today, had some things to say about Lane Kiffen.
35:56
Speaker 2: But we'll change pace for a moment, take.
35:58
Speaker 1: A break, come back, and bring Inconceivable to close out
36:01
Speaker 1: hour number one of today's show. You're listening on sports
36:04
Speaker 1: radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone and on the iHeartRadio app.
36:12
Speaker 1: We start the second hour of today's show on AM
36:16
Speaker 1: thirteen hundred The Zone. Jay Kerkman with you. Craig Way
36:18
Speaker 1: on his way to Tampa Hill.
36:20
Speaker 2: Have the show from.
36:21
Speaker 1: SEC Media Days tomorrow and that'll start as soon as
36:26
Speaker 1: the Round Rock Express game comes to an end. Now
36:28
Speaker 1: it's likely between three point thirty and four thirty in
36:31
Speaker 1: the afternoon, and we'll run up until six o'clock with
36:35
Speaker 1: our recap of SEC Media Days. Craig Way, Cameron Parker,
36:40
Speaker 1: Mike Harge will have you covered as Texas takes the
36:44
Speaker 1: podium tomorrow afternoon. Pete Golding was at the podium today,
36:48
Speaker 1: the head coach of an Old Miss team that made
36:51
Speaker 1: the College Football Playoff semi final last year, lost its
36:55
Speaker 1: head coach before the playoff began. Pete Golding promoted from
37:00
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator to interim head coach and now the man
37:04
Speaker 1: in charge at Vaught Hemingway Stadium. It's an ole Miss
37:09
Speaker 1: team that is going to return. Who the Athletic ranked
37:13
Speaker 1: as the number one quarterback in college football this season,
37:17
Speaker 1: Trinidad Chambliss, whose meteoric rise from Division two Farris State
37:22
Speaker 1: ended in the semi final game a year ago against Miami.
37:26
Speaker 2: What a thriller that was.
37:27
Speaker 1: And it's an ole Miss team replacing a lot of
37:30
Speaker 1: receiving production, but bringing back some talent on defense, some
37:33
Speaker 1: transfers in from Pete Golding, who has been accused by
37:38
Speaker 1: a few of his colleagues, particularly Dabo Sweeney, of tampering,
37:43
Speaker 1: and he was asked about that in a number of
37:45
Speaker 1: different ways all offseason long, but it came up again
37:48
Speaker 1: today at SEC Media Days. Here were his thoughts on tampering,
37:52
Speaker 1: the allegations that Davo made, and how he would fix
37:55
Speaker 1: tampering in college football.
37:57
Speaker 11: I don't get into feelings, to be honest with you,
37:59
Speaker 11: you know. I mean, we got a compliance department. They
38:01
Speaker 11: get paid to do their job. They do a really
38:03
Speaker 11: good job. So it's our responsibility to recruit really good players, right,
38:07
Speaker 11: coach them extremely hard, getting ready to win football games.
38:10
Speaker 11: So we're gonna continue to recruit really good players. That's
38:12
Speaker 11: both in the high school market and in the portal market,
38:15
Speaker 11: and we'll continue.
38:16
Speaker 12: To do it. Have we done it?
38:17
Speaker 5: How would you fix tampering or is it something that
38:20
Speaker 5: cannot be fixed in this environment?
38:24
Speaker 11: Let me put it to you this way, Okay, like
38:26
Speaker 11: it'd be so obviously you're a reporter, right, would you
38:30
Speaker 11: quit your job before interviewing for another job or being
38:33
Speaker 11: offered another job.
38:36
Speaker 12: No, no, no, nobody would.
38:37
Speaker 11: But right, but we we have a portal that you
38:39
Speaker 11: can go in with a do not contact. I'm gonna
38:42
Speaker 11: quit my job where I'm getting paid, and I'm going
38:45
Speaker 11: to go in saying I need a new job, but
38:47
Speaker 11: nobody can call me to interview.
38:52
Speaker 12: Like what have we created?
38:53
Speaker 11: So we've created it on top of representation for these players,
38:57
Speaker 11: right that it's their responsibility to make sure they get
39:00
Speaker 11: really well and they also have opportunities. So by design,
39:03
Speaker 11: it's put a lot of people in bad positions. And
39:07
Speaker 11: let's not act like recruiting in college football for the
39:09
Speaker 11: last hundred years is the most moral thing, right that's
39:12
Speaker 11: ever been existed.
39:13
Speaker 12: I mean, like, what are we talking about here?
39:15
Speaker 11: So I'm really not going to get into my feelings,
39:17
Speaker 11: and I know how it's been educated to answer this question.
39:21
Speaker 12: Right, does that makes sense?
39:22
Speaker 11: It's where we have a great, great compliance department, right,
39:25
Speaker 11: and all those type of things. But but no, I
39:27
Speaker 11: mean the model obviously has been broken. And I'm all
39:31
Speaker 11: for everybody being on the same playing field and doing
39:34
Speaker 11: the same things. I get it, but I think that's
39:36
Speaker 11: in any job, right, Like coaches, we're under contract. You
39:39
Speaker 11: don't think other ads are calling us during a year
39:42
Speaker 11: so a bitching about all this stuff for the same
39:45
Speaker 11: ones calling coaches right to come to other schools, right
39:48
Speaker 11: and everything. So it's everywhere, it's in every profession. So
39:50
Speaker 11: I'm not saying I've got all the answers. I'm not
39:52
Speaker 11: saying that at all, right, as that makes sense, So
39:55
Speaker 11: we go by then the rules of the program, right,
39:57
Speaker 11: and how the flow. Just like when you're on the
39:59
Speaker 11: interstate people are flying by you, what do you start doing?
40:03
Speaker 11: Damn right, you're gonna get hit all right, as I
40:05
Speaker 11: makes sing and this profession.
40:06
Speaker 12: You're gonna get fired, right. So I'm not saying that,
40:10
Speaker 12: but I think there are a.
40:11
Speaker 11: Lot of people that are doing an unbelievable job greg
40:13
Speaker 11: being one right to make sure that, all right, everything's
40:15
Speaker 11: catching up. College football is constantly changing all those type
40:19
Speaker 11: of things. So hopefully we'll all, you know, decide on
40:22
Speaker 11: what's fair.
40:22
Speaker 1: Fairbody, Yeah, welcome to media Day's Pete Golding ripping off
40:26
Speaker 1: some takes there as far as the absurdity at times
40:31
Speaker 1: of the transfer portal, the analogies that in his bind
40:36
Speaker 1: sort of justify the craziness that we saw in the
40:39
Speaker 1: off season when it comes to the transfer portal, and hey,
40:43
Speaker 1: that analogy about the interstate trying to keep your program
40:47
Speaker 1: up with ever changing speeds and standards. Yeah, All Miss
40:49
Speaker 1: did that too in seeking out a ruling from an
40:53
Speaker 1: Oxford County judge to grant Trinidad Chambliss another year of eligibility.
40:59
Speaker 1: Before we hit the break and get to our first guest,
41:01
Speaker 1: Pete Golding was asked about his relationship with Lane Kiffin
41:05
Speaker 1: as it stands to this point. Kiffin, of course, will
41:07
Speaker 1: take the podium tomorrow and we'll bring you some of
41:09
Speaker 1: those soundbites on the program later this week. But Pete
41:12
Speaker 1: Golding on his relationship with Lane Kiffen, Look.
41:16
Speaker 12: You know I get this everywhere we go.
41:18
Speaker 11: So we're on our caravan tour right now with Old Miss,
41:20
Speaker 11: and we go every Tuesday and Thursday and take a
41:22
Speaker 11: couple of players and go around the country. So when
41:25
Speaker 11: we goes Q and eight with everybody, so it's everybody, tell.
41:27
Speaker 12: Me how you really feel about them? You know, they're
41:29
Speaker 12: like this intimate, you know environment. But Lane and I
41:32
Speaker 12: are good like like.
41:33
Speaker 11: So you know, I did not know Coach Kiffin prior
41:36
Speaker 11: to taking the Old Miss job. I think everybody just
41:38
Speaker 11: assumes Alabama Alabama. I wasn't at Alabama when coach Kiffin was,
41:41
Speaker 11: you know, so I didn't come to Old Miss because
41:44
Speaker 11: of Coach Kiffin. I came to Old Miss to be
41:46
Speaker 11: at Old Miss to raise three kids. So you know,
41:49
Speaker 11: our relationship really grew in those three and a half years,
41:52
Speaker 11: and he did a lot for me, and I was
41:53
Speaker 11: very very appreciative of how he treated me and my
41:56
Speaker 11: family and learned a lot from him. So I have
41:59
Speaker 11: no ill will towards Coach Kiffin. He texts me on
42:03
Speaker 11: a regular basis, and there's certain things that we'll talk
42:05
Speaker 11: about and there a certain things that we don't talk about.
42:07
Speaker 11: He's very competitive, just like I'm very competitive, right, And
42:10
Speaker 11: so obviously a lot of this win a different direction
42:13
Speaker 11: when now he had a new job with new responsibilities,
42:15
Speaker 11: and he's going to be super competitive to be the
42:17
Speaker 11: best that he can at that job, right, which is
42:19
Speaker 11: his job. And so I can separate the two. I
42:23
Speaker 11: know some people can't. So you know, I tell a
42:25
Speaker 11: lot of these people is that I probably shouldn't say this,
42:27
Speaker 11: but I don't care, all right, Like I told an
42:29
Speaker 11: all misgroup the other day at twenty one, I said,
42:31
Speaker 11: all right in twenty twenty one, if you said you
42:33
Speaker 11: could look in twenty twenty five and you're about to
42:36
Speaker 11: be eleven and want to go to the playoff, would
42:37
Speaker 11: you take it if your coach was leaving the hell yeah,
42:40
Speaker 11: I was like you would. Everybody won from it. It's okay, Keith,
42:43
Speaker 11: Like you made a great hire. He did a great job.
42:46
Speaker 11: Every place isn't for everybody. That's coaches, that's players, that's
42:49
Speaker 11: your job, that's everything, and that's okay, you know, And
42:52
Speaker 11: so throughout the process, I'll be the first one to
42:55
Speaker 11: tell you. I told him I wass think he was
42:56
Speaker 11: dumb if he was a leave, I want him to stay.
42:58
Speaker 11: That was a selfish decision because I love in the
43:00
Speaker 11: DC where I was at right, but he decided what
43:02
Speaker 11: was better for him and his family, and that's for
43:04
Speaker 11: him that acide. So I have no ill will towards
43:06
Speaker 11: him at all, all right. Wish him the best of luck.
43:09
Speaker 11: We play him like every other SEC team, and we're gonna.
43:11
Speaker 12: Both show up and spot the ball and play.
43:12
Speaker 11: So I talked to him on a regular basis, but
43:15
Speaker 11: no ill will at all right, and really appreciative of
43:18
Speaker 11: how he treated me and my family, and then this
43:20
Speaker 11: created an unbelievable opportunity for me as well on top
43:23
Speaker 11: that I really wasn't looking for but so appreciative that have.
43:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, isn't an interesting position, Pete Golding is when it
43:29
Speaker 1: comes to Lane Kiffin, his relationship with him, his comments
43:32
Speaker 1: about him. We'll hear a little more from Golding on
43:35
Speaker 1: Kiffen later on. We'll also hear his thoughts on playing
43:38
Speaker 1: Texas this season. Ole Miss will be at DKR on
43:42
Speaker 1: October twenty fourth.
43:44
Speaker 2: Who cannot wait for that one.
43:47
Speaker 1: When we come back, we will talk a little bit
43:49
Speaker 1: more about Texas schedules, not justin football, but in basketball
43:53
Speaker 1: with David ecker from Horns two four seven. We'll get
43:55
Speaker 1: his thoughts on their preseason SEC poll as well. Right
43:59
Speaker 1: after this on a thirteen hundred zone, I'm.
44:03
Speaker 12: The Boy and the Fun.
44:08
Speaker 1: We continue on a Wednesday afternoon. Jake German here filling
44:13
Speaker 1: in for Craig Way and excited to bring in our
44:16
Speaker 1: first guest of the afternoon who covers all things Texas
44:20
Speaker 1: athletics for Horns two four seven. David Eckert. Thanks so
44:24
Speaker 1: much for coming back on the show, David and taking.
44:26
Speaker 2: The time with us.
44:28
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, thanks for having me.
44:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we want to start here with a note
44:33
Speaker 1: that we covered on the show yesterday and that it
44:35
Speaker 1: was the announcement that Longhorn basketball scheduled to take on
44:39
Speaker 1: Baylor November fifteenth at Frost Bank Center. I know a
44:42
Speaker 1: lot of folks are excited to get to see Texas
44:45
Speaker 1: play Baylor again, number one as non conference foes and
44:49
Speaker 1: number two to see this happen in an NBA arena.
44:53
Speaker 1: What was your reaction to sort of seeing that come
44:55
Speaker 1: to fruition and maybe this non conference schedule for Sean
44:58
Speaker 1: Miller and the Longhorns as a whole.
45:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that one's gonna be really fun. You know.
45:05
Speaker 3: I don't necessarily know if this is the most popular
45:08
Speaker 3: take them on Texas fans, but I think it's good
45:12
Speaker 3: for them to schedule, you know, the more local power
45:15
Speaker 3: conferences when they can. I just think those games are fun,
45:20
Speaker 3: you know. And I think that the women played Baylor
45:22
Speaker 3: last year, men are going to play them this year.
45:26
Speaker 3: I wish it was on campus, you know. I just think,
45:31
Speaker 3: I don't know, I think big games like that are
45:34
Speaker 3: better when you can play them on campus in front
45:37
Speaker 3: of a crowd. That's probably it's got some students in it.
45:40
Speaker 3: It's not going to be stale. But you know, if
45:43
Speaker 3: the choices, you know, play the game in San Antonio
45:46
Speaker 3: or don't play it at all, I'm glad they're playing
45:48
Speaker 3: the game.
45:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think maybe some of the neutral site net
45:53
Speaker 1: rankings come into play when you're thinking about scheduling things
45:57
Speaker 1: like this. I also feel like from a Texas perspective, right,
46:00
Speaker 1: it's a chance to sort of reciprocate. Like Sean Miller
46:05
Speaker 1: talked about what the Longhorns give in terms of the
46:10
Speaker 1: Spurs playing at Moody Center and then Texas playing down
46:12
Speaker 1: in San Antonio, So I get it from that perspective too.
46:15
Speaker 1: But I'm generally a proponent of games being on campus,
46:19
Speaker 1: and the Longhorns are playing a couple of other sort
46:21
Speaker 1: of neutral site invitational type events. They're going to San
46:25
Speaker 1: Diego to play Georgetown and then either UCLA or Saint Mary's.
46:28
Speaker 1: They're also taking on Miami and Jay Lucas's team at
46:32
Speaker 1: the Toyota Center. All in all, though, this schedule that
46:37
Speaker 1: Texas put together in the non conferences maybe taking some
46:39
Speaker 1: criticism in the last few days. Maybe they haven't scheduled
46:43
Speaker 1: as aggressively or too many big name opponents compared to
46:47
Speaker 1: what we saw in the past few years. How much
46:50
Speaker 1: of this criticism kind of resonates with you? Would you
46:52
Speaker 1: like to see them schedule more difficult games?
46:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would like to see them get two or
47:01
Speaker 3: three games that you can play at home that that
47:06
Speaker 3: you know, drive interest among your fans.
47:08
Speaker 13: You know.
47:09
Speaker 3: I think I think they've got Memphis on that reported schedule,
47:14
Speaker 3: that's that's quoting around right now, and that's probably their
47:18
Speaker 3: marquee home game, you know. And I don't know what
47:21
Speaker 3: Memphis is going to be this year. They were bad
47:23
Speaker 3: last year, but you know, and I think when you're
47:27
Speaker 3: talking about Texas basketball too, right, And and maybe it's
47:32
Speaker 3: unfair to have this demand because maybe the burdens shouldn't
47:37
Speaker 3: fall on Sean Miller and and the program. But the
47:39
Speaker 3: reality of this program is, hey, you are going to
47:43
Speaker 3: have to drive people out to come see you, right,
47:48
Speaker 3: this is not Texas football. You know that the interest
47:51
Speaker 3: is not automatic, you know, And so when you've got
47:54
Speaker 3: this roster that we think is going to be awesome,
47:57
Speaker 3: you know, for me, I would like to see them
48:02
Speaker 3: have a couple of games that give people, you know,
48:04
Speaker 3: reasons to get excited to come sit down and watch
48:07
Speaker 3: and at home specifically, I don't necessarily know if they've
48:10
Speaker 3: got that.
48:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, some of the reported home scheduled games include the
48:15
Speaker 1: Memphis one you mentioned on December sixteenth, and then outside
48:19
Speaker 1: of that, Chicago State, Guardner, Web Grambling, Southern Utah, Southern Indiana,
48:23
Speaker 1: Jackson State, Prairie View A and M, and East Texas
48:26
Speaker 1: A and M. So certainly a lot of local teams
48:29
Speaker 1: in there from both Texas and Louisiana, but also not
48:32
Speaker 1: a lot of maybe brands that casual college basketball fans
48:36
Speaker 1: would recognize. The long Horns will travel to Louisville on
48:39
Speaker 1: December first as part of the sec ACC Challenge there,
48:43
Speaker 1: so it'll be interesting to see how that all kind
48:45
Speaker 1: of shakes out for a Longhorn basketball team that, like
48:48
Speaker 1: we talked about last week, has some pretty high expectations
48:51
Speaker 1: with the addition now of Marcus Spears junior reclassifying. I
48:54
Speaker 1: think that happened live during our last conversation.
48:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it was fun last year, but yeah, you know,
49:02
Speaker 3: I mean there's a lot of thrusting on that schedule,
49:05
Speaker 3: lots of cupcakes. You're going to really have to watch
49:08
Speaker 3: your calories and budget for the rest of the day,
49:11
Speaker 3: because those cupcakes are going to make you fat if
49:14
Speaker 3: you're not careful. There's a lot of them.
49:16
Speaker 1: Well, and then you get to the SEC schedule and
49:19
Speaker 1: maybe those kind of kind of disappear. Then you're eating
49:21
Speaker 1: your vegetables in the form of Florida twice on there.
49:24
Speaker 1: So we'll have plenty of time to discuss that. Of course,
49:27
Speaker 1: this being the week of SEC media Days, it's the
49:31
Speaker 1: season of preseason polls and rankings and speculations, and some
49:36
Speaker 1: of your colleagues over at twenty four to seven Sports
49:39
Speaker 1: put out the SEC pre season poll. This was voted
49:44
Speaker 1: on by each of the perspective SEC sites Horns two
49:47
Speaker 1: four seven was included and it was a pretty tight
49:50
Speaker 1: split at the top in terms of who took the
49:52
Speaker 1: first spot. Georgia came in with seven first place votes.
49:56
Speaker 1: They are at number one. The Longhorns were second. They
49:58
Speaker 1: received five first place votes. If you had a ballot here,
50:04
Speaker 1: where would you kind of give the nod in terms
50:06
Speaker 1: of those top two before we get into the rest.
50:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that would be my order, right, I
50:13
Speaker 3: think you know, Texas doesn't play Georgia this year. But
50:17
Speaker 3: when it comes to Texas and Georgia. I'm just going
50:19
Speaker 3: to have to see it before I reject it, right,
50:23
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, if if Georgia just for the
50:27
Speaker 3: for the uh, since Texas has has transitioned into this conference,
50:31
Speaker 3: you know, they've beating Texas three times twice I think
50:36
Speaker 3: in in very very not very but but in relatively
50:40
Speaker 3: dominant fashion. And then you know, Texas kind of has
50:43
Speaker 3: that special teams meltdown in the SEC Championship games. So
50:46
Speaker 3: you know, I think you're getting to the point with
50:48
Speaker 3: Texas and Georgia where you have to start thinking about,
50:51
Speaker 3: you know, the idea that it might be a little
50:53
Speaker 3: bit psychological. And so if those two are lining up
50:56
Speaker 3: for an SEC Championship game, I'm having a hard time
50:59
Speaker 3: pick in Texas, right, But yeah, that would that would
51:02
Speaker 3: be where I would go. Do I feel strongly about it? No,
51:06
Speaker 3: I mean we're just making educated guesses at this point,
51:09
Speaker 3: but that would be my nod.
51:11
Speaker 1: Hey, if you remind people this time of year that
51:13
Speaker 1: it's just an educated guess, it can go a long
51:16
Speaker 1: way sometimes, speaking from experience, I'm gonna run down the
51:19
Speaker 1: rest of this top five year and then kind of
51:22
Speaker 1: get your thoughts on where you are compared to this
51:25
Speaker 1: consensus in a tie for third behind Georgia and Texas.
51:29
Speaker 1: There the two four seven sports writers voted Ole Miss
51:33
Speaker 1: and Texas A and M tied for third. In the
51:35
Speaker 1: SEC preseason poll, Alabama was fifth, Oklahoma was sixth, LSU seven,
51:41
Speaker 1: Tennessee eight, and so forth down the line. Are there
51:44
Speaker 1: any big differences in your mind on on your poll?
51:48
Speaker 1: We're talking to David Ecker from Horns two four seven.
51:51
Speaker 1: Against this consensus of some of your colleagues, I.
51:55
Speaker 3: Would have I think the major one is I would
51:58
Speaker 3: have LSU a little bit higher than it is, maybe
52:01
Speaker 3: kind of in that old myth Texas A and M
52:04
Speaker 3: tier somewhere in there. I just think, you know that
52:10
Speaker 3: that's a really extensive roster they've got to coach. You
52:14
Speaker 3: know who I covered for for three years in Lane Kiffen.
52:17
Speaker 3: Who has you know, if there's one guy who's really
52:20
Speaker 3: really good at hey, I'm gonna take over a roster.
52:23
Speaker 3: I'm gonna flip it every offseason with transfers, and I'm
52:27
Speaker 3: gonna get them to the point where they're cohesive and
52:29
Speaker 3: they're winning football games by the fall. I mean he's
52:33
Speaker 3: done that a million times. He was doing that before
52:36
Speaker 3: everybody else was doing it. That that's kind of how
52:39
Speaker 3: he got ole Miss going. And so I think that
52:43
Speaker 3: offense is gonna hum I like Sam Levitt. They have,
52:47
Speaker 3: you know, one of the best defensive coordinators in the country.
52:49
Speaker 3: I think that's going to be a really good team. So,
52:53
Speaker 3: you know, I do not think obviously the actually he's
52:57
Speaker 3: the best a great conference, but I do not think
53:00
Speaker 3: that's the seventh best team in the SEC.
53:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can probably talk to sixteen different two four
53:06
Speaker 1: seven sports SEC sides get sixteen different opinions on LSU.
53:11
Speaker 1: They could be one of the most divisive preseason picks.
53:15
Speaker 1: We're talking to David Eckert from Horns two four seven.
53:19
Speaker 1: So that begs the question if LSU at seven is
53:22
Speaker 1: too low or there may be teams in front of
53:24
Speaker 1: them that you feel as though are ranked too highly
53:27
Speaker 1: in this preseason poll.
53:31
Speaker 3: I think nobody dramatically right. I think probably the others
53:35
Speaker 3: I would slide down a spot, you know, to fit
53:40
Speaker 3: them in. I'm not in love with Alabama. I haven't
53:45
Speaker 3: really been impressed by what Kaylin de Bor has done
53:48
Speaker 3: there so far. You know, I have questions about Oklahoma's offense.
53:55
Speaker 3: I think you know, obviously John Mattier had the injury situation.
53:58
Speaker 3: I just know I did not see it with him
54:02
Speaker 3: last year. So those are two that I'm questionable on.
54:07
Speaker 3: You know, Texas A and m obviously has a lot
54:10
Speaker 3: of a lot of pieces that they're replacing, but they
54:12
Speaker 3: bring back Marcel Red. So you know, nobody that I
54:16
Speaker 3: really feel too strongly about, but you know, maybe a
54:19
Speaker 3: few that I would I would slide down just a bit.
54:21
Speaker 6: Yeah.
54:22
Speaker 1: And then of course in the back half of the poll,
54:24
Speaker 1: I think a lot of folks down on Arkansas given
54:27
Speaker 1: the high amount of roster turnover that they have from
54:30
Speaker 1: a year ago. Kentucky second to last at fifteenth out
54:34
Speaker 1: of this kind of next group of fourteen through nine,
54:39
Speaker 1: Mississippi State at fourteen, Vanderbilt thirteen, Auburn twelve, South Carolina eleven,
54:45
Speaker 1: Florida ten, and Missouri at nine. I mean, I think
54:49
Speaker 1: finishing in the back half of the conference a very
54:51
Speaker 1: disappointing season for most of those teams. That's the nature
54:55
Speaker 1: of the SEC. Is that older something you're comfortable with,
54:59
Speaker 1: or would you kind of move things around in terms
55:02
Speaker 1: of teams ranked in the bottom of the preseason poll
55:05
Speaker 1: that that might actually be a little bit underrated here.
55:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's tough. I really liked I you know, I
55:13
Speaker 3: liked I like South Carolina, you know. I I think
55:17
Speaker 3: they've got good talent on their roster. They were really, really,
55:20
Speaker 3: really undermined by a terrible offensive line last year. You know,
55:24
Speaker 3: they get that fixed a little bit. You know, maybe
55:27
Speaker 3: they finish above elevens. You know, I like, I think
55:31
Speaker 3: will Stein at Kentucky is gonna get it going. I
55:33
Speaker 3: don't know if it's gonna be instantaneous, but you know,
55:37
Speaker 3: it wouldn't surprise me if they're better than fifteenth in
55:40
Speaker 3: the country or in the SEC. Excuse me. You know,
55:44
Speaker 3: I could see them making a Bowl game. You know.
55:47
Speaker 3: I think you've got to look at Obviously Diego Pavia
55:50
Speaker 3: is gone, but Parkley at Vanderbilt, I mean, what can
55:54
Speaker 3: he do, you know, kind of to to follow that up.
55:57
Speaker 3: I think that's interesting. So there's a few intriguing programs
56:03
Speaker 3: down there, for sure. I mean, it's the SEC. None
56:06
Speaker 3: of these teams are terrible, but I guess somebody's got
56:09
Speaker 3: to finished last, so you know. But yeah, I think
56:13
Speaker 3: out of that group, the one that I'm most interested in,
56:16
Speaker 3: I think is Kentucky I really liked what they did
56:18
Speaker 3: make it over their roster in the offseason.
56:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, will Stein certainly one of those coaches who created
56:25
Speaker 1: a lot of buzz around Kentucky at the SEC media days.
56:28
Speaker 1: Of course, the Longhorns will have their turn kind of
56:31
Speaker 1: closing out the four day experience in Tampa by taking
56:36
Speaker 1: the podium tomorrow afternoon, right before we take the air.
56:40
Speaker 1: One of the biggest things, David, that you're curious to
56:43
Speaker 1: hear and learn from sark and the players who traveled
56:46
Speaker 1: with him when Texas gets its turn.
56:50
Speaker 3: I'm interested in the tone that Steve Starkisian is going
56:56
Speaker 3: to take because, you know, this offseason, I mean, he
57:00
Speaker 3: he's turned some jabs, you know, and it's given us
57:04
Speaker 3: some stuff to talk about, which is great, but but
57:07
Speaker 3: you know that that's not really what I've come to understand.
57:11
Speaker 3: Steve Starkesian's like m is and so I'm wondering if
57:16
Speaker 3: if he's going to bring that down to Tampa, right,
57:19
Speaker 3: is he going to be spicy or is he going
57:23
Speaker 3: to be, you know, the buttoned up professional head football
57:27
Speaker 3: coach at the University of Texas that he kind of
57:29
Speaker 3: is most of the time. As far as newsworthiness, you know,
57:34
Speaker 3: I think what their vision is for the running back
57:40
Speaker 3: situation is an interesting topic, right, do they want to
57:45
Speaker 3: go fifty to fifty with Riley Brown and Hollywood smothers?
57:48
Speaker 3: Did they want to have a guy and then a
57:52
Speaker 3: b guy? You know, I'm curious to see how their
57:56
Speaker 3: tight end.
57:56
Speaker 14: Situation is evolving.
57:59
Speaker 3: Uh, you know, they have a guy who they feel
58:01
Speaker 3: like can be to do it all, you know, the
58:04
Speaker 3: do it all answered like they've kind of had at
58:07
Speaker 3: that position to the last three four or five years.
58:10
Speaker 3: And then you know, on defense, it's just, hey, how
58:13
Speaker 3: is this transition going? You know how uh you know,
58:18
Speaker 3: you're you're you're moving on from Pete with Kowski and
58:20
Speaker 3: and and kind of a more passive, safe defense, and
58:25
Speaker 3: you're installing Will Muschamps defense that wants to be in
58:28
Speaker 3: your face and aggressive, and they're going to play press
58:30
Speaker 3: man coverage and then I don't think that's super easy,
58:36
Speaker 3: you know, to master from the jumps. So those are
58:37
Speaker 3: kind of the three topics that I would I would
58:39
Speaker 3: be interested to hear from them on.
58:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, looking forward to that.
58:43
Speaker 1: Anything in particular surrounding arch Manning that piques your curiosity
58:48
Speaker 1: as he takes the podium, faces questions this week. Of course,
58:52
Speaker 1: it doesn't help them that the athletics quarterback rankings just
58:54
Speaker 1: dropped before he and Sam Levitt had their turn.
58:59
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's like, what could Arch Manning possibly
59:04
Speaker 3: say that somebody hasn't asked Arch Manning of it. It's
59:08
Speaker 3: borderline impossible. You know. It's just with Arch, I always
59:12
Speaker 3: like to just kind of like sit back and look
59:15
Speaker 3: at the feeding frenzy a little bit. It's because it's
59:19
Speaker 3: it's just crazy, you know, especially when you put him
59:23
Speaker 3: in a situation where there's people from everywhere and and
59:28
Speaker 3: you know, like the guy from Alabama wants or wants
59:33
Speaker 3: his readers want to know what Arch Manning thinks about
59:35
Speaker 3: Alabama's quarterback and the guy from South Carolina. You know,
59:38
Speaker 3: they want to know our Arch played with wide receiver seven.
59:43
Speaker 3: You know, what do you think about him? Because Arch
59:46
Speaker 3: is a lightning rod. Arch drives interest. Everybody has something
59:50
Speaker 3: that Arts can provide value for them on. So I
59:53
Speaker 3: don't know, I think it's just going to be I
59:56
Speaker 3: feel bad for him, to be honest, because it's just
1:00:00
Speaker 3: overwhelming and there's just a lot of bait being thrown
1:00:04
Speaker 3: his way. But you know he'll handle himself, but it'll
1:00:08
Speaker 3: be it'll be a mess.
1:00:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mentioned the Athletic quarterback rankings. I highly
1:00:13
Speaker 1: doubt that arch Manning values the opinion much of a
1:00:17
Speaker 1: outlet that declared him college football's first flop before he
1:00:20
Speaker 1: played half an sec season, So there's always that to
1:00:24
Speaker 1: consider and love getting your perspective on things. David Eckert
1:00:28
Speaker 1: from Horns two four seven. You can follow him on
1:00:30
Speaker 1: ax on excuse me at David Eckert ninety eight. Thanks
1:00:34
Speaker 1: so much for stopping by. We'll touch base as the
1:00:37
Speaker 1: season gets.
1:00:37
Speaker 2: Closer, all right, thanks for having me, That is David Eckert.
1:00:42
Speaker 1: And you mentioned you heard him mention the comments from
1:00:45
Speaker 1: arch Manning that are coming up tomorrow, how everybody wants
1:00:49
Speaker 1: their specific angle to be covered when arch Manning takes
1:00:53
Speaker 1: the podium and often provides his his very you know,
1:00:56
Speaker 1: buttoned up to the point answers on things. And we're
1:00:59
Speaker 1: gonna hear some of the rest of the conference's opinions
1:01:02
Speaker 1: on arch Manning, plus that of Phil Steele, the author
1:01:07
Speaker 1: of one of the premier college football preview magazines in
1:01:11
Speaker 1: the country. So we'll get some reactions and some thoughts
1:01:15
Speaker 1: on arch Manning from Media Days in Tampa coming up
1:01:17
Speaker 1: in the next segment here on AM thirteen hundred Zone
1:01:20
Speaker 1: and on the iHeartRadio app. Ah Yep, it is a
1:01:25
Speaker 1: yacht Rock Wednesday after all, and amid some reports of
1:01:31
Speaker 1: heavy rains in Tampa where the SEC Media Days are
1:01:34
Speaker 1: going down, we hope everybody's flights there. Those traveling from
1:01:39
Speaker 1: Austin today, including our own Craig Way, we hope that
1:01:43
Speaker 1: they're going off without any kind of a hitch. That
1:01:45
Speaker 1: was Albert Hammond with it never rains in southern California.
1:01:48
Speaker 1: Part of a yacht Rock Wednesday. My name is Jay Curman,
1:01:51
Speaker 1: fielding in for Craig Way. Thanks again to David Eckert
1:01:54
Speaker 1: for Horns two four seven joining us in the last
1:01:56
Speaker 1: segment for some of his thoughts on SEC Media Day
1:02:00
Speaker 1: things he's curious to learn tomorrow and obviously we'll hear
1:02:03
Speaker 1: from arch Manning. But all week long we've heard SEC coaches,
1:02:06
Speaker 1: particularly those on Texas's schedule, comment on texas It's impact
1:02:12
Speaker 1: on the SEC and arch Manning's development in particular. And
1:02:17
Speaker 1: one of the coaches to make his media Day's debut
1:02:20
Speaker 1: this morning was John Sumral, the new head coach at Florida,
1:02:25
Speaker 1: and he was asked to talk about the potentially budding
1:02:29
Speaker 1: rivalry with Texas. Longhorns and Gators are on each other's
1:02:32
Speaker 1: schedule now for the third consecutive year, and he was
1:02:36
Speaker 1: asked to give his thoughts on playing Texas and going
1:02:39
Speaker 1: up against arch manning.
1:02:40
Speaker 15: Yeah, I mean it's it's a big game because you're
1:02:42
Speaker 15: playing Texas and they're really good. Every SEC game is
1:02:46
Speaker 15: a big game. Every game is a big game. You know,
1:02:49
Speaker 15: I don't change you know, ask about Georgia. It doesn't
1:02:52
Speaker 15: matter who we're playing. We don't change our prep for
1:02:54
Speaker 15: the game. It says the same. But it is new
1:02:58
Speaker 15: and unique to be playing tech is a third year
1:03:00
Speaker 15: in a row. That's not something that's maybe historically been
1:03:05
Speaker 15: a part of Florida's past or Texas past. Who would
1:03:08
Speaker 15: have thought, uh, ten years ago that Florida was playing
1:03:12
Speaker 15: Texas for the third year in a row and not
1:03:13
Speaker 15: playing Tennessee, like we don't play Tennessee this year.
1:03:16
Speaker 4: That's really kind of weird.
1:03:19
Speaker 15: But to address Sark and arch Man, A lot of
1:03:23
Speaker 15: respect for Sark. He's a brilliant offensive mine, a play caller.
1:03:26
Speaker 15: I've always admired how he does things I think he
1:03:30
Speaker 15: runs a great program. And then Arch uh Man, what
1:03:33
Speaker 15: a great young man.
1:03:34
Speaker 3: You know.
1:03:34
Speaker 15: When I when when I was head coach at Tulane,
1:03:37
Speaker 15: Archie would shoot me a text or a phone call
1:03:39
Speaker 15: and say hey, it's okay. In in May during the
1:03:42
Speaker 15: little downtime if arch comes over and throws, and I'm
1:03:45
Speaker 15: like yeah, and ask me if he wants to transfer,
1:03:48
Speaker 15: you know, because he wasn't a starter yet, and uh,
1:03:51
Speaker 15: and I would go watch you.
1:03:52
Speaker 12: I'd go out there and might watch him throw.
1:03:54
Speaker 15: Or Cooper whoever might be out there, and I'd like,
1:03:58
Speaker 15: I like, I'd like to coach that guy. But he's
1:04:00
Speaker 15: a good player. I really have a lot of respect
1:04:03
Speaker 15: for the Manning family as a whole, and that apple
1:04:06
Speaker 15: doesn't fall far from the tree there with the Arch
1:04:08
Speaker 15: with how he carries himself.
1:04:10
Speaker 1: And that mutual respect extends as well around the sec
1:04:14
Speaker 1: from quarterback to quarterback and from Trinidad Chambliss at Ole
1:04:18
Speaker 1: Miss to Arch Manning as well. Here's that sound bite
1:04:23
Speaker 1: that's a meat arch.
1:04:25
Speaker 16: In person at the Manning Passing Academy. It's a great guy,
1:04:28
Speaker 16: great dude, really down to earth. You're talking ball a
1:04:31
Speaker 16: little bit.
1:04:32
Speaker 4: It's kind of you know, choking with them a little bit.
1:04:34
Speaker 16: You know, he played Texas this year, so excited that,
1:04:37
Speaker 16: you know, play him and their team.
1:04:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's a great guy.
1:04:40
Speaker 1: His head coach Pete Golding, who we heard from a
1:04:42
Speaker 1: little bit at the top of the hour, got to
1:04:45
Speaker 1: share his thoughts as well. He was asked this same
1:04:47
Speaker 1: sort of freezed question, the pros and the cons of
1:04:50
Speaker 1: Texas and OU joining the SEC now that they're headed
1:04:53
Speaker 1: into year three.
1:04:54
Speaker 11: US having to go to Austin and play Texas and
1:04:56
Speaker 11: Texas that's kind no, I think it's really really good
1:05:00
Speaker 11: to be honest with you, and I know you said
1:05:02
Speaker 11: look at the cons, but yeah, I mean that's an
1:05:04
Speaker 11: incredibly tough place to play. We got them on our
1:05:06
Speaker 11: schedule this year. It's at Austin, obviously extremely hard place
1:05:09
Speaker 11: to play. That's gonna be a playoff mentality.
1:05:11
Speaker 4: You know.
1:05:11
Speaker 11: We were fortunate we did do that at Tuscaloosa one year,
1:05:14
Speaker 11: went down there and played Sark in his first year,
1:05:16
Speaker 11: so we've got a little experience down there. But they're
1:05:18
Speaker 11: two really good football teams, right, and tough places to
1:05:21
Speaker 11: play that have traditions at the school and from a
1:05:23
Speaker 11: recruiting standpoint, are infertile areas that now that's your competition.
1:05:28
Speaker 11: And so even from a recruiting standpoint, now, like they
1:05:31
Speaker 11: come to Mississippi recruit, right, we're battling in the Mississippi
1:05:34
Speaker 11: on recruits being in Austin, you know, so I'll tell
1:05:36
Speaker 11: us arg all the time, like do you got plenty
1:05:37
Speaker 11: of guys in Texas? Like get out of our state? Right,
1:05:39
Speaker 11: but they're everywhere. So two really good competitors, I think
1:05:42
Speaker 11: venables at start do an amazing job and really good traditions.
1:05:46
Speaker 12: So just two to other top.
1:05:47
Speaker 11: Ten opponents, right that you've added in your conference that
1:05:50
Speaker 11: you're gonna play, so you'd be ready to go. So
1:05:52
Speaker 11: you know, I don't have anything negative about it. Sorry,
1:05:54
Speaker 11: not have to be able to do that, but I
1:05:55
Speaker 11: would just say the quality of the opponent and the
1:05:58
Speaker 11: competition within a recruiting standpoint on t top of it.
1:06:00
Speaker 11: Now with them being in the SEC, you can't use
1:06:03
Speaker 11: the league versus the other league as far as the
1:06:05
Speaker 11: development of positions, right and increasing the value of their
1:06:08
Speaker 11: first contract in the NFL.
1:06:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, it gives you some insight into what the recruiting
1:06:12
Speaker 1: process maybe used to look like, although that for more
1:06:15
Speaker 1: ways than one just in terms of the conference, and
1:06:18
Speaker 1: obviously now with the portal, name, image and likeness out there,
1:06:22
Speaker 1: it is a very different game in that recruiting element,
1:06:26
Speaker 1: and so Pete Golding shedding some light on that.
1:06:29
Speaker 2: Somebody who's been in the.
1:06:31
Speaker 1: Sport of college football for a long time is Phil Steel,
1:06:35
Speaker 1: and as the publisher of Phil Steel Magazine, he certainly
1:06:40
Speaker 1: gives one of the most in depth previews out there
1:06:44
Speaker 1: when it comes to college football. And Bucky and BK
1:06:49
Speaker 1: who follow our show every day here on AM thirteen
1:06:52
Speaker 1: hundred Zone That'll be with you today from five to
1:06:54
Speaker 1: seven here on AM thirteen hundred and the iHeartRadio app,
1:06:58
Speaker 1: they had a chance to interview Phil Steele on their
1:07:01
Speaker 1: program yesterday, and so here were Phil Steele's thoughts, starting
1:07:07
Speaker 1: just in general on Texas as a whole, who he
1:07:10
Speaker 1: was pretty bullish on coming into the season.
1:07:12
Speaker 13: I want to start off talking Texas. You've got the
1:07:15
Speaker 13: long Horns right there with Georgia atop the SEC. Why
1:07:19
Speaker 13: are you high on the long Horns and maybe what
1:07:21
Speaker 13: reservations do you have about the Texas football here in
1:07:24
Speaker 13: twenty twenty six.
1:07:25
Speaker 17: Well, I'm very bullish on Texas this year.
1:07:28
Speaker 18: Start off with the quarterback position.
1:07:31
Speaker 17: Arch Banning had a lot of hype heading into last year.
1:07:33
Speaker 18: Of course, everybody knows he struggled early last year, but
1:07:36
Speaker 18: I really like the way he progressed as the season
1:07:39
Speaker 18: went on. I thought that arch Banning we saw at
1:07:40
Speaker 18: the end of the year will be even improved over
1:07:43
Speaker 18: that this year. Plus he's got a better supporting cast.
1:07:46
Speaker 18: You go back to last year, he only had one
1:07:48
Speaker 18: returning starter on the offensive line. This year it's a
1:07:50
Speaker 18: veteran front. I rate my top twenty offensive lines in
1:07:54
Speaker 18: the country. Last year, the top running back had just
1:07:56
Speaker 18: five hundred and ninety seven yards. You go out and
1:07:58
Speaker 18: get a thousand yard rusher from enc State and Hollywood
1:08:00
Speaker 18: smothers a thousand yard russier from Arizona State and really Brown.
1:08:04
Speaker 18: You bring in a couple of VHD true frost running backs.
1:08:07
Speaker 17: That's a deep running back corps.
1:08:09
Speaker 18: And then you're already returned Wingling Mosley, but adding at
1:08:12
Speaker 18: cam Coleman to all that much better supporting cast for
1:08:15
Speaker 18: arch Manning. Then take a look at this team defensively.
1:08:18
Speaker 18: Colin Simmons is back one of the best defensive ends
1:08:20
Speaker 18: in the country.
1:08:21
Speaker 17: They do lose a really good linebacker and Anthony hill Bo.
1:08:24
Speaker 18: How about replacing them with rasheend Biles who comes in
1:08:27
Speaker 18: from pitt An All American linebacker Jelany McDonald, one of
1:08:30
Speaker 18: the best safeties in the game. I rate their defensive
1:08:33
Speaker 18: line number four, the linebackers number three in the country,
1:08:36
Speaker 18: and then top it off. I love the additions on
1:08:39
Speaker 18: the special teams this year. First of all, Ryan Nibblett returned,
1:08:42
Speaker 18: but adding in a Spectac coming in from Memphis at kicker,
1:08:48
Speaker 18: and then adding in Tormento coming in from Florida State
1:08:51
Speaker 18: at punter. I think these guys both have met big legs,
1:08:55
Speaker 18: and I've got them rated the number one special teams.
1:08:57
Speaker 18: What I don't like about Texas, probably the same thing
1:09:00
Speaker 18: with a lot of SEC schools, is that dog one schedule.
1:09:03
Speaker 4: This year.
1:09:03
Speaker 17: They have to play Oklahoma. We had a neutral site.
1:09:06
Speaker 18: They have played Tennessee on the road, LSU on the road,
1:09:09
Speaker 18: an M on the road in the season final, Ohio
1:09:12
Speaker 18: State early on I rd at the toughest schedule in
1:09:14
Speaker 18: the country this year, but I think this seems very
1:09:17
Speaker 18: capable overcoming that and a great shot not only making
1:09:21
Speaker 18: a playoff, but once they get to the playoff. Fromer
1:09:23
Speaker 18: Ohio State last year, played a cake schedule during the
1:09:27
Speaker 18: season and got to the playoff, and got to the
1:09:28
Speaker 18: postseason and lost both games. I think they'll be better
1:09:31
Speaker 18: prepared for the playoff having play the type of schedule
1:09:34
Speaker 18: that they did this year.
1:09:36
Speaker 1: Hey, it brings up some good points there in terms
1:09:38
Speaker 1: of the schedule. Thanks to Brad Kellner and Bucky Godbolt
1:09:41
Speaker 1: for sharing some of that with us. Phil Steele joining
1:09:45
Speaker 1: them yesterday on Bucky and BK. We do need to
1:09:49
Speaker 1: take our final break of this three o'clock hour. We're
1:09:53
Speaker 1: so glad to have you with us here on AM
1:09:54
Speaker 1: thirteen hundred The Zone. We always welcome your text your
1:09:57
Speaker 1: comments at eight one five three zero two the word
1:10:00
Speaker 1: Texas followed by your questions. We'll continue our media day
1:10:05
Speaker 1: deep dive here. More from John's summer all of the
1:10:08
Speaker 1: Florida Gators here from Caitlin to boor Alabama team facing
1:10:12
Speaker 1: a big prove it year coming up, and uh well
1:10:16
Speaker 1: here what from Mike Elco in the Texas A and
1:10:18
Speaker 1: m Aggie's as well.
1:10:19
Speaker 2: CJ.
1:10:19
Speaker 1: Vogal's gonna join us in the final hour from Tampa Bay.
1:10:22
Speaker 1: So we've got a lot still to come for you
1:10:24
Speaker 1: here on a Wednesday Afternoon Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred.
1:10:27
Speaker 2: Zone back in a moment.
1:10:33
Speaker 1: All right, we've got one hour to go on today's show.
1:10:36
Speaker 1: Jay Kurban here filling in for Craig Way. He's on
1:10:38
Speaker 1: his way along with our thirteen hundred Zone crew, Cameron Parker,
1:10:42
Speaker 1: Mike Harge.
1:10:43
Speaker 2: They're all flying out.
1:10:45
Speaker 1: To Tampa for SEC Media Days tomorrow when Texas takes
1:10:48
Speaker 1: the podium, and we bring you a show from there
1:10:51
Speaker 1: tomorrow starting after the Round Rock Express game concludes, so
1:10:57
Speaker 1: in my mind that's around three thirty four o'clock. Whenever
1:11:02
Speaker 1: that does come to a conclusion and their postgame show
1:11:05
Speaker 1: wraps up, we will take you through our biggest takeaways
1:11:09
Speaker 1: from Media Days, bringing you some soundbites from that as well.
1:11:13
Speaker 1: Craig Way, Cam Parker, my Carge with you up until
1:11:16
Speaker 1: six o'clock tomorrow. We usually would go up until five o'clock,
1:11:20
Speaker 1: but we've had it an extra hour for this occasion.
1:11:23
Speaker 2: Tomorrow Here on the show, We've.
1:11:25
Speaker 1: Got a lot to get to in our last hour
1:11:27
Speaker 1: of the program today. Of course, it was Texas A
1:11:29
Speaker 1: and M's turn to close out the lineup on day
1:11:33
Speaker 1: three of SEC Media Days, and I want to start
1:11:37
Speaker 1: this segment by bringing you this Mike Elko, who is
1:11:43
Speaker 1: entering year number three as the head coach at Texas A,
1:11:48
Speaker 1: and m asked about how he keeps his team motivated,
1:11:52
Speaker 1: how he keeps his team from being satisfied. You know,
1:11:56
Speaker 1: a lot of folks at Texas A and m very
1:11:59
Speaker 1: satisfied with the eleven and oh start not so satisfied
1:12:01
Speaker 1: with the way things ended. And I want you to
1:12:04
Speaker 1: hear this question and this answer from coach elco which
1:12:07
Speaker 1: has certainly caught some traction here over the last few minutes.
1:12:11
Speaker 18: Hi, coach Jacob werlind k U Sports, after last year's
1:12:16
Speaker 18: playoff run, how do you keep this team from becoming satisfied?
1:12:21
Speaker 10: I show them our trophy case and it's empty, and
1:12:25
Speaker 10: I think they're all very aware of that, and so
1:12:28
Speaker 10: you know, I think you know, listen, we live in
1:12:30
Speaker 10: a lot of worlds, and so we're obviously happy with
1:12:32
Speaker 10: the things that we accomplished. We're happy with the direction
1:12:34
Speaker 10: of our program. But it's also not lost on us
1:12:38
Speaker 10: that we haven't won the hardware that we're searching for.
1:12:41
Speaker 10: And so you know, that gets us into a mindset
1:12:43
Speaker 10: of growth and getting back to work to go finish
1:12:47
Speaker 10: this thing. A little bit better than we did last
1:12:49
Speaker 10: year and put ourselves in a better position maybe to
1:12:51
Speaker 10: compete for some trophies.
1:12:53
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:12:53
Speaker 1: I talked a little bit earlier in the show about
1:12:55
Speaker 1: the challenge in front of Texas A and M this
1:12:57
Speaker 1: year and the challenge in front of more Marcel read
1:13:00
Speaker 1: a team that has four new offensive line starters, has
1:13:04
Speaker 1: two new coordinators, and faces Bama, Oklahoma, and Tennessee with
1:13:09
Speaker 1: Florida and Auburn dropping off of their schedule, so we
1:13:13
Speaker 1: haven't seen these types of challenges yet for Mike Elko
1:13:17
Speaker 1: to manage at Texas A and M. Their win total
1:13:20
Speaker 1: sits at eight and a half on the season. They
1:13:23
Speaker 1: are a team that is picked to finish depending on
1:13:26
Speaker 1: who you ask, and again the official SEC polls not
1:13:29
Speaker 1: quite out yet pick to finish anywhere in that I've
1:13:34
Speaker 1: seen three through seven tier in the SEC. According to
1:13:38
Speaker 1: Lindy's College Football Preview magazine, they're in at number six, two, four, seven.
1:13:41
Speaker 1: Sports hadn't been a tie for third with Ole Miss,
1:13:44
Speaker 1: so it'll be fun to see how things shake out there,
1:13:48
Speaker 1: and it's always going to be fun to close the
1:13:50
Speaker 1: season with the Lone Star Showdown. Marcel Reid, the A
1:13:55
Speaker 1: and M quarterback who I told you earlier why I
1:13:58
Speaker 1: think is maybe more important to his team than any
1:14:01
Speaker 1: other SEC quarterback is to their own teams this year.
1:14:04
Speaker 1: And it's not a huge difference between him and a
1:14:07
Speaker 1: lot of the talented quarterbacks in this league. But you
1:14:11
Speaker 1: saw the way the team was able to shine, not
1:14:16
Speaker 1: just in particular games, but in particular halves of games
1:14:19
Speaker 1: where they got the best version of him, and how
1:14:22
Speaker 1: low those valleys and craters were the peaks and valleys
1:14:25
Speaker 1: of his season at A and M last year.
1:14:27
Speaker 2: We're pretty severe.
1:14:29
Speaker 1: Here were Marcel Reid's thoughts when he was asked about
1:14:32
Speaker 1: the Lone Star Showdown and its importance in his mind
1:14:37
Speaker 1: and within the A and M locker room.
1:14:39
Speaker 7: Put it past me, but it's not like some not forget,
1:14:42
Speaker 7: like it's in the back of my mind. But I
1:14:45
Speaker 7: definitely want to get back to that game, looking forward
1:14:48
Speaker 7: to that game because Roberts's grown every year, Itch and
1:14:52
Speaker 7: every year and hasn't gone the way we wanted it
1:14:56
Speaker 7: to the past two years, and he just really looking
1:14:58
Speaker 7: forward to getting back to Marshall.
1:15:00
Speaker 16: Your feelings about Texas changed, you know, looking before you
1:15:04
Speaker 16: know you got to this rivalry compared to right now,
1:15:07
Speaker 16: you've experienced it, you know what it's like.
1:15:09
Speaker 7: Yeah, Like I said, it's just grown over the years,
1:15:12
Speaker 7: like as it's come back to college football.
1:15:15
Speaker 4: I think people are understanding.
1:15:17
Speaker 3: The magnitude of it each and every year.
1:15:20
Speaker 4: You know, the cruits come in.
1:15:21
Speaker 3: They don't like Texas onus. They commit to A and M.
1:15:24
Speaker 7: People that are in the in the locker room right now,
1:15:26
Speaker 7: we don't like Texas and we don't like how it's gone.
1:15:28
Speaker 7: Like I just said, we don't like how it's gone
1:15:29
Speaker 7: in the past two years. And we've got an opportunity
1:15:32
Speaker 7: to play them again at home, so I know the
1:15:34
Speaker 7: atmosphere is going to be great and we're really excited
1:15:37
Speaker 7: for it.
1:15:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is the thoughts of Texas A and M
1:15:40
Speaker 1: quarterback Marcel Read one of many teams on their schedules.
1:15:44
Speaker 1: I think even Jamal Roberts at Missouri said it a
1:15:46
Speaker 1: couple of days ago. We don't have that sound bite,
1:15:48
Speaker 1: but the theme you hear teams are excited to play Texas.
1:15:52
Speaker 1: They want to get a crack at a team that
1:15:55
Speaker 1: certainly carries a lot of preseason expectations and is going
1:16:00
Speaker 1: to be projected either to the top spot or the
1:16:03
Speaker 1: second spot behind Georgia in the SEC by most of
1:16:07
Speaker 1: the pundits want to get to one more funny moment
1:16:12
Speaker 1: from media days before our break and before CJ. Vogel
1:16:15
Speaker 1: joins us, and that is this conversation John Sumral had.
1:16:19
Speaker 1: Now you're gonna hear him talk about Lane Kiffin and
1:16:22
Speaker 1: what their off season conversations were like their experience in
1:16:25
Speaker 1: the coaching carousel. But then a reporter's phone rings part
1:16:30
Speaker 1: way through, and you're gonna hear some rawl's reaction to that.
1:16:37
Speaker 15: Well, I'd say, no, two decisions are alike, you know,
1:16:40
Speaker 15: like Lane and I are friends, and Lane and I
1:16:43
Speaker 15: talked several times through the process of October November about
1:16:50
Speaker 15: what it was looking like for both of our schedules
1:16:52
Speaker 15: of how things were going to unfold, and you would
1:16:58
Speaker 15: be kicked out of our team meeting. I swear, like,
1:17:03
Speaker 15: you're lucky. I'm not gonna throw this freaking podium right now,
1:17:05
Speaker 15: Like drives me crazy.
1:17:09
Speaker 12: I would say, who is that? But I'm not gonna
1:17:11
Speaker 12: embarrass hibody.
1:17:11
Speaker 15: But no, you know, no, two situations are different. Lan
1:17:16
Speaker 15: and I talked as we were going through and He's like,
1:17:17
Speaker 15: you and I are going through the same thing. In November.
1:17:19
Speaker 15: I'm like, no, Lane, we're not. If you leave, you're
1:17:21
Speaker 15: leaving to SEC School. To go to SEC School, it's
1:17:24
Speaker 15: a little different. I'm leaving two Lane, and but it was.
1:17:28
Speaker 15: It was challenging to do it. I wouldn't have done
1:17:32
Speaker 15: it any other way.
1:17:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, listening closer, I'm not sure it was so much
1:17:35
Speaker 1: a ring tone unless shook ones as a ring tone,
1:17:38
Speaker 1: which I could totally get behind. But it was a
1:17:41
Speaker 1: song that started blaring out of a reporter's phone and
1:17:45
Speaker 1: John summerl got a little fired up about it. That's
1:17:48
Speaker 1: the new Florida head coach coming over from two Lame.
1:17:50
Speaker 1: We'll hear more from him coming up later on in
1:17:53
Speaker 1: the program. We need a break, but after this, we'll
1:17:56
Speaker 1: touch base with our friend CJ. Vogel in Tampa right
1:18:00
Speaker 1: after this on sports Radio A, I'm thirteen hundred zone.
1:18:06
Speaker 2: Yep, this was the song in question.
1:18:08
Speaker 1: The culprit during John Sumrawl's press conference earlier today at
1:18:13
Speaker 1: SEC Media Days shook Ones playing off a reporter's phone.
1:18:17
Speaker 1: John Somemrall said he wanted to throw the podium. We
1:18:20
Speaker 1: hope that wasn't the phone of our next guest, CJ Vogel,
1:18:24
Speaker 1: who takes the time to join us now from Tampa
1:18:27
Speaker 1: at media days, CJ.
1:18:29
Speaker 2: I'm sure you were innocent in that.
1:18:30
Speaker 1: Today sounded pretty lively though, they're regardless.
1:18:34
Speaker 12: YO, no doubt about it.
1:18:36
Speaker 14: The fireworks were coming quick. It was about five feets
1:18:39
Speaker 14: from that phone. I will tell you what though, I
1:18:41
Speaker 14: did not make a very quick first step to go
1:18:44
Speaker 14: shut that thing off before summer All made his comments.
1:18:47
Speaker 1: I'm not going to look pretty in the in the
1:18:50
Speaker 1: film room later, but I just wanted to. Yeah, I
1:18:53
Speaker 1: wanted to exonerate you on that front, first of all,
1:18:57
Speaker 1: and second, get some of the takeaway ways you have
1:19:01
Speaker 1: from the players and coaches you've spoken with so far
1:19:04
Speaker 1: today we've heard some of the sound bites from Pete Golding,
1:19:08
Speaker 1: from Mike Elko, obviously from John Sumrall.
1:19:11
Speaker 2: But what's maybe stood out to you the most?
1:19:15
Speaker 14: Yeah, I think obviously a few sicks one Pete Golding
1:19:18
Speaker 14: very animated, right, people say what is on his mind?
1:19:21
Speaker 14: There's no coach speak to it. It is genuine, it
1:19:24
Speaker 14: is upfront, It is honest. If you don't like it,
1:19:26
Speaker 14: well too bad, because it looks like he's going to
1:19:29
Speaker 14: be here to stay in the sec especially at Old
1:19:31
Speaker 14: miss but my thought process went to John summerl in Florida.
1:19:35
Speaker 14: That's a team that I've been very high on. I
1:19:37
Speaker 14: think they have a lot of autensive firepower. I think
1:19:39
Speaker 14: that's a team that looks with the continuity from Austin's
1:19:42
Speaker 14: a coordinator and quarterback coming in from Georgia Tech, very
1:19:45
Speaker 14: easily to be a nine win team this year. And
1:19:47
Speaker 14: I think that would surprise a lot of folks nationally.
1:19:50
Speaker 1: And when it comes to obviously Texas, A and M.
1:19:54
Speaker 1: We heard some of the sound bites from Marcel reed
1:19:57
Speaker 1: from Mike Elko argued a couple segments ago there might
1:20:02
Speaker 1: not be a quarterback in the conference that means more
1:20:05
Speaker 1: to his team than Reid. And I was curious your
1:20:08
Speaker 1: thoughts on that, just because of all the change maybe
1:20:10
Speaker 1: that's happened around him and some of the proof we've
1:20:12
Speaker 1: seen in the putting CJ of what A and M
1:20:15
Speaker 1: looks like when he's on and when he's off.
1:20:18
Speaker 14: Yeah, he's certainly going to need to be on this year, right,
1:20:21
Speaker 14: And I think that was one of my biggest takeaways
1:20:23
Speaker 14: coming out of today is look, I think A and
1:20:24
Speaker 14: M is putting a lot of stock and a lot
1:20:27
Speaker 14: of eggs into the basket of first time play caller
1:20:29
Speaker 14: Holman Wiggans right, that is a lot of responsibility on
1:20:32
Speaker 14: his shoulders if he is a guy that holds A
1:20:36
Speaker 14: and HM back, whether it's play calling, whether it's the
1:20:38
Speaker 14: ability to get the ball to his big time playmakers
1:20:41
Speaker 14: on the outside. Look, that's a concern because I think
1:20:44
Speaker 14: that defense will be able to compete with just about
1:20:46
Speaker 14: anybody in the SEC. And your quarterback has talent. He
1:20:49
Speaker 14: has some flaws, but he can certainly keep you in
1:20:53
Speaker 14: games or win you games, like what we've seen against
1:20:55
Speaker 14: LSU a few times. So for me, it's all about
1:20:59
Speaker 14: Holman wigged. Can he be the guy that helps elevate
1:21:02
Speaker 14: that unit rather than holding him back because of being
1:21:04
Speaker 14: his first time play caller.
1:21:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought it was striking to the answer Mike
1:21:08
Speaker 1: Elko gave when it came to keeping his team from
1:21:12
Speaker 1: getting satisfied, and that is the fact that you look
1:21:16
Speaker 1: at the trophy case and it's empty.
1:21:18
Speaker 2: I know no context.
1:21:19
Speaker 1: College football has already kind of taken that and ran
1:21:22
Speaker 1: with it. But for Texas A and M right, it's
1:21:25
Speaker 1: a matter of getting to that next step after starting
1:21:28
Speaker 1: eleven to zero last year and really crashing out in
1:21:32
Speaker 1: those last two losses. And I just wonder, CJ, based
1:21:36
Speaker 1: on the schedule this year and some of the things
1:21:38
Speaker 1: that stand in their way, what are the biggest things
1:21:42
Speaker 1: sort of keeping them from stepping forward? And you sort
1:21:45
Speaker 1: of answered that with the play calling.
1:21:48
Speaker 14: Yeah, that's certainly part of it. Look, I think they
1:21:50
Speaker 14: hit the portal very very hard with that offensive line.
1:21:54
Speaker 14: I think they added some talent, But does that talent
1:21:57
Speaker 14: necessarily mesh does it cohesively work together as one unit?
1:22:01
Speaker 14: And not to mention, some of that talent came from
1:22:03
Speaker 14: schools with pretty poor offensive lines a year ago. So
1:22:06
Speaker 14: if that's what you're expecting, And for Mikeelco, just like
1:22:09
Speaker 14: with Brant Vinibles, I think they're at their best defensively
1:22:11
Speaker 14: when they compare that together with a really strong running game.
1:22:14
Speaker 14: And AEM has historically had a very strong running attack
1:22:19
Speaker 14: under Elcove. Can you continue to have that presence with
1:22:22
Speaker 14: a brand new offense lineup front and a team that
1:22:25
Speaker 14: will be basically saying, hey, you can beat us with
1:22:28
Speaker 14: your arm, Marcel Reid, but you're not going to beat
1:22:31
Speaker 14: us with your legs. That's going to be another question
1:22:33
Speaker 14: for them.
1:22:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know his legs have been really effective, particularly
1:22:37
Speaker 1: in that big win over LSU last year. So it's
1:22:40
Speaker 1: something to look out for.
1:22:41
Speaker 4: CJ.
1:22:41
Speaker 1: Vogel joins us from SEC Media Days. He's a college
1:22:44
Speaker 1: football insider from on Texas Football. It's not lost on
1:22:48
Speaker 1: me the timing that the athletic comes out with its
1:22:51
Speaker 1: quarterback tiers, all one hundred and thirty eight projected starters
1:22:55
Speaker 1: ranked right and true. Dad Chambliss at the top of
1:22:58
Speaker 1: that list. You got to speak with him today. Is
1:23:02
Speaker 1: this ranking and standing kind of justified to you as
1:23:05
Speaker 1: you look at what he's done, the body of work
1:23:07
Speaker 1: coming in, and maybe the expectations for him this year.
1:23:10
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:23:10
Speaker 14: My saying with college quarterbacks, especially whenever you consider them
1:23:13
Speaker 14: to be the best in the sport, is do they
1:23:15
Speaker 14: truly take over football games? And you know, for folks
1:23:18
Speaker 14: listening at home saying, well, what about our commanding? I
1:23:20
Speaker 14: do think towards the back end of the last year,
1:23:22
Speaker 14: we saw him take over agains right Texas A and
1:23:24
Speaker 14: M in the second half. We saw it certainly against
1:23:26
Speaker 14: Mississippi State. We certainly saw it against Michigan in the
1:23:29
Speaker 14: second half of these games. Absolutely, I would agree with
1:23:31
Speaker 14: you that he has that capability, but there was no
1:23:34
Speaker 14: one that did that more consistently and at a higher
1:23:35
Speaker 14: level than what we saw from Trinidad Chamberlas. That is
1:23:38
Speaker 14: returning to school, right Foranana Mendoza certainly in that conversation
1:23:41
Speaker 14: from a year ago. But it's gonna be interesting, right
1:23:44
Speaker 14: because coming into this year is much different for Trinidad
1:23:48
Speaker 14: Chamberlas versus what happened a year ago. Right, he was
1:23:50
Speaker 14: not the expected starter. He came in for Austin Simmons
1:23:52
Speaker 14: due to injury, and he basically took over the jobs
1:23:54
Speaker 14: that I've never given it back. Now, coming in with
1:23:56
Speaker 14: the expectation of being the top quarterback in the country,
1:23:59
Speaker 14: what does that do for you, especially without having Lane
1:24:01
Speaker 14: Kiffin in your ear column plays running that offense kind
1:24:04
Speaker 14: of in your in your corner, It's gonna be really interesting.
1:24:07
Speaker 14: But I think, without a doubt you look at what
1:24:09
Speaker 14: he did towards the tail end and the college hole
1:24:11
Speaker 14: of playoff and said, all right, not many quarterbacks in
1:24:13
Speaker 14: the country can do remotely close to.
1:24:17
Speaker 3: What he did.
1:24:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I I tend to agree with that, even though
1:24:22
Speaker 1: I'd maybe take issue with arch Manning uh being lower
1:24:26
Speaker 1: on the list than a couple of guys like maybe
1:24:28
Speaker 1: a Julian Say and or a CJ.
1:24:30
Speaker 12: Car.
1:24:30
Speaker 1: I just I felt as though that ranking kind of
1:24:32
Speaker 1: lacked context for what was going on around arch Manning
1:24:35
Speaker 1: a season ago. Uh, but again, it's it's a it's
1:24:39
Speaker 1: an off season poll, right, and if you remind people
1:24:41
Speaker 1: it's just subjective, you you lose some of the shine
1:24:45
Speaker 1: onto that. Speaking of polls, I know Texas and Georgia
1:24:47
Speaker 1: have sort of been compared near the top of those
1:24:50
Speaker 1: as SEC media days continues and teams kind of look
1:24:53
Speaker 1: for a measuring stick. How have you noticed other teams
1:24:57
Speaker 1: talking about this Texas squad and what stood out to
1:25:00
Speaker 1: you in those types of soundbites.
1:25:03
Speaker 13: Yeah.
1:25:03
Speaker 14: I think a lot of it is, Hey, they acknowledge
1:25:05
Speaker 14: there's a lot of talent on this team. And talents
1:25:07
Speaker 14: has not been an issue under the last three years
1:25:11
Speaker 14: of Steve Sharkisan's Texas football. But this year specifically, I
1:25:14
Speaker 14: think you look at every position on the board, even
1:25:17
Speaker 14: the offensive line, even the safety room, two of the
1:25:20
Speaker 14: bigger question marks going in the fall camp. We'll see
1:25:23
Speaker 14: that the roster and they say, yeah, they've got guys,
1:25:26
Speaker 14: Now does that equate to wins? I think a large
1:25:29
Speaker 14: part of that comes down to discipline. I think a
1:25:31
Speaker 14: large part of that comes down to play calling in schemes.
1:25:33
Speaker 14: So for Will Muschham, for Steve Sharkusan, keeping those guys
1:25:36
Speaker 14: on track is going to be paramount. But it's needless
1:25:40
Speaker 14: to say that these guys are going to be working
1:25:42
Speaker 14: with one of, if not the very most talented team
1:25:44
Speaker 14: in the entire SEC. It's up to them to figure
1:25:47
Speaker 14: out how to get those talented players to play the
1:25:50
Speaker 14: team and win games.
1:25:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a lot of the same questions too that
1:25:55
Speaker 1: Lane Kiffen will face. He leads off tomorrow morning in
1:25:58
Speaker 1: the final day of conferences at SEC Media Day. Seve
1:26:02
Speaker 1: Starkesian will close it out in the late afternoon. We'll
1:26:05
Speaker 1: bring you sound bites on the show tomorrow for those
1:26:08
Speaker 1: of you listening at home. But CJ, what are you
1:26:11
Speaker 1: most interested in hearing and learning from those two coaches
1:26:15
Speaker 1: in particular starting with Sark.
1:26:19
Speaker 14: Well, Lusark, But I don't know if we're going to
1:26:20
Speaker 14: hear a lot from Sark. He's been pretty consistent with
1:26:24
Speaker 14: his message, whether it's been from Texas High School Coaches Association,
1:26:27
Speaker 14: whether it's been from his trips to the Dallas, Houston,
1:26:29
Speaker 14: San Antonio quarterback clubs and whatnot. He said, Look, we
1:26:33
Speaker 14: have a talented team. You could basically sit here and
1:26:36
Speaker 14: predict exactly what he's going to say, But I do
1:26:40
Speaker 14: want to hear about what's going on with the offensive line.
1:26:43
Speaker 14: Lawrence Seymour has been around for about a month and
1:26:44
Speaker 14: a half. Now where's he Where's Jordan Coleman in the
1:26:46
Speaker 14: mix for your left tackle? With the John turntime, you know,
1:26:51
Speaker 14: working as a second unit there with those two. And
1:26:53
Speaker 14: then of course, well let's see update with Cole Hudson,
1:26:55
Speaker 14: because that's an interesting little wrinkle that up until about
1:26:58
Speaker 14: a week ago wasn't on the you know, on the
1:27:02
Speaker 14: purview of anybody. So the offensive line is going to
1:27:05
Speaker 14: be key for me.
1:27:06
Speaker 1: And then a team like LSU that we've talked before about,
1:27:09
Speaker 1: you might find sixteen different opinions from the sixteen media
1:27:13
Speaker 1: coalitions covering them at this thing.
1:27:16
Speaker 14: Yeah, definitely. Look, I don't think there's anyway LSU has
1:27:19
Speaker 14: a bad year this year. And I know that I've
1:27:21
Speaker 14: said that about teams before, and they certainly have.
1:27:23
Speaker 3: But there's a lot of.
1:27:24
Speaker 14: Talent on that LSU team. From what I want to
1:27:26
Speaker 14: hear from Lane Kissing is is this a defensive line
1:27:29
Speaker 14: unit that been played at a ole mess He could
1:27:31
Speaker 14: not you know, obtain or kind of wrangle together with
1:27:36
Speaker 14: all that talent that they have up front. So it's
1:27:37
Speaker 14: gonna be really interesting. They have a tremendous freshman defensive
1:27:41
Speaker 14: line class coming in and you know, I think the
1:27:44
Speaker 14: rest of the SEC will get a glimpse this year
1:27:45
Speaker 14: before two years from now, I think they're going to
1:27:48
Speaker 14: be right there at the very top of the conference
1:27:51
Speaker 14: because of that dominant defensive line.
1:27:54
Speaker 2: Interesting observation. CJ. Thanks so much for taking the time.
1:27:58
Speaker 1: I know you're busy out there Tampa, and we can
1:28:01
Speaker 1: look forward to following along with your coverage tomorrow.
1:28:04
Speaker 14: All right, Jake, thanks so much for having me.
1:28:06
Speaker 1: That is CJ Vogel College Football Insider from on Texas Football.
1:28:10
Speaker 1: You can follow on x at CJ Vogel Underscore OTF.
1:28:15
Speaker 1: We're back with more soundbites from Tampa after this on
1:28:18
Speaker 1: AM thirteen hundred Zone.
1:28:22
Speaker 3: Hello.
1:28:24
Speaker 1: We continue on this yacht Rock Wednesday afternoon, and appreciate CJ.
1:28:29
Speaker 1: Vogel take it time to join us from Tampa. In
1:28:32
Speaker 1: the last segment, remind you again that our show might
1:28:36
Speaker 1: not start until around this time tomorrow. That's because of
1:28:39
Speaker 1: the Round Rock Express game against Albuquerque, which will precede
1:28:46
Speaker 1: our show tomorrow. As always, Ryland Cobriy will have the
1:28:50
Speaker 1: call for you here on thirteen hundred Zone, and then
1:28:54
Speaker 1: once his postgame show concludes, we will send it out
1:28:58
Speaker 1: to Tampa Craig Way, Cameron Park. Mike Harje will bring
1:29:03
Speaker 1: you the latest from SEC Media Days, including Craig's conversation
1:29:07
Speaker 1: with Steve Sarkeesian exclusive and all of the soundbites that
1:29:11
Speaker 1: Sark and his players provide to the assembled media in
1:29:15
Speaker 1: Tampa for that and we've been continuing throughout the show
1:29:20
Speaker 1: to recap some of the interesting takeaways from SEC Media Day.
1:29:24
Speaker 2: Today.
1:29:24
Speaker 1: College football season starting to creep just that little bit closer,
1:29:29
Speaker 1: and this time of the summer, Major League Baseball really
1:29:33
Speaker 1: the only pro sport going on. MLS getting sets a
1:29:37
Speaker 1: red back up as well post World Cup. But it
1:29:40
Speaker 1: is that quiet time in the sports calendar where it
1:29:46
Speaker 1: is certainly that college football itch starting to creep. In
1:29:51
Speaker 1: That Round Rock Express game tomorrow against the Albuquerque Isotopes
1:29:55
Speaker 1: starts at one oh five, so you think a typical
1:29:58
Speaker 1: baseball game might end a round three thirty four o'clock
1:30:02
Speaker 1: and then we'll be with you up until six o'clock,
1:30:04
Speaker 1: an extra hour on the show tomorrow to break down
1:30:07
Speaker 1: everything that Texas players and coaches had to say at
1:30:11
Speaker 1: SEC Media Days. The team who started off the festivities
1:30:16
Speaker 1: on a busy third day in Tampa today was the
1:30:18
Speaker 1: Alabama Crimson Tide and we're going to talk about them
1:30:21
Speaker 1: a little bit in this segment. A team that is
1:30:25
Speaker 1: going into its third year with Kaitlyn de Bor who
1:30:27
Speaker 1: replaced Nick Saban who retired after that twenty twenty two
1:30:31
Speaker 1: semi final loss to Michigan.
1:30:33
Speaker 2: And it was a.
1:30:35
Speaker 1: Great start to the season. I mean, I'm sorry it
1:30:37
Speaker 1: was a bad start to the season for Kaitlyn de Boor,
1:30:40
Speaker 1: a great middle and a tough ending with the loss
1:30:43
Speaker 1: to Indiana, a game in which Ty Simpson was injured
1:30:46
Speaker 1: in Alabama was blown out in the Rose Bowl by
1:30:50
Speaker 1: Indiana thirty eight to three. They did beat Oklahoma on
1:30:55
Speaker 1: the road in the first round of the College Football
1:30:57
Speaker 1: Playoff game, avenging a law us from last season. And
1:31:02
Speaker 1: we'll start there when it comes to Caitlin de Boor
1:31:05
Speaker 1: and his comments to the media this morning, including what
1:31:10
Speaker 1: it's like facing Brent Venables at ou, something he's had
1:31:13
Speaker 1: to do twice last season, three times in the last
1:31:17
Speaker 1: two years, and something the Longhorns will have to do
1:31:20
Speaker 1: every year moving forward.
1:31:22
Speaker 9: Venables, he's he's a mastermind. He does a great job,
1:31:27
Speaker 9: you know, calling the defenses and you can see what
1:31:30
Speaker 9: he's trying to do, but he still gets the job done.
1:31:33
Speaker 9: I think that's what's impressive. And he's got great players.
1:31:36
Speaker 9: He had great, great players last year and I know
1:31:38
Speaker 9: he'll have great, great team this year as well, but
1:31:42
Speaker 9: players that can get the job done doing the things
1:31:44
Speaker 9: that he wants them to do. I would consider them
1:31:47
Speaker 9: an attacking style defense. They can do it with the
1:31:50
Speaker 9: individual talent, but they can also do it with scheme,
1:31:54
Speaker 9: and I think it's probably a combination of both on
1:31:56
Speaker 9: why their success was what it was, But that you know,
1:32:00
Speaker 9: you can see it starts with him as far as
1:32:02
Speaker 9: how the defense operates from an aggressiveness from a physicality standpoint,
1:32:08
Speaker 9: I thought the first time we played him last year,
1:32:10
Speaker 9: I thought we did a pretty.
1:32:11
Speaker 4: Good job countering them.
1:32:13
Speaker 9: I thought they did a good job of countering back
1:32:16
Speaker 9: In the second game we played, we found our ways
1:32:19
Speaker 9: to move the ball up and down the field as
1:32:21
Speaker 9: the game went along, but it was tougher early on
1:32:25
Speaker 9: because of the way coach venables just in the schematic
1:32:29
Speaker 9: and the adjustments he made going from game one to
1:32:32
Speaker 9: game two.
1:32:34
Speaker 1: For some bigger picture thoughts on Alabama, a team that
1:32:37
Speaker 1: has won at least nine regular season games every year
1:32:41
Speaker 1: since two thousand and seven, and that is a streak
1:32:44
Speaker 1: that Nick Saban left for Kaitlyn to bar and he
1:32:47
Speaker 1: has kept that up.
1:32:48
Speaker 2: The way Aladam has talked about, you would never know that.
1:32:50
Speaker 1: They've won nine games each regular season under coach to Boar.
1:32:54
Speaker 1: But it's because of the lack of playoff success team
1:33:00
Speaker 1: that missed the playoff a couple of years ago, that
1:33:03
Speaker 1: folks are sounding in alarm and potentially panicked about Klen
1:33:06
Speaker 1: de Boor saying can he keep Alabama in that national
1:33:10
Speaker 1: title picture?
1:33:11
Speaker 2: Is it national title or bust? At Alabama?
1:33:14
Speaker 1: And Debor was asked, will your time in Alabama be
1:33:16
Speaker 1: defined by whether or not you win a national championship?
1:33:21
Speaker 9: I certainly know that that's an important part of what's
1:33:24
Speaker 9: happened in the program, so went doubt.
1:33:26
Speaker 19: If that's the case, I'm not focused on that.
1:33:29
Speaker 9: I'm focused on just helping our program be the best
1:33:32
Speaker 9: and trying to bring out the best.
1:33:34
Speaker 19: And raise the level of everyone around me.
1:33:37
Speaker 9: From coaching staff to our players, trying to maximize what
1:33:40
Speaker 9: we're capable every single day.
1:33:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's obviously something that Caitlyn de Boor knew well
1:33:47
Speaker 1: when he took the opportunity to follow Nick Sabe, and
1:33:50
Speaker 1: it's a challenge that he certainly wants and he elaborated
1:33:53
Speaker 1: on that when he got the inevitable question about the
1:33:56
Speaker 1: experience he has. It's a what of a kind experience? Really,
1:34:00
Speaker 1: because there was only ever going to be one coach
1:34:03
Speaker 1: to follow Nick Saban. And They'm not saying Calen de
1:34:07
Speaker 1: bor was the only one that could do That's not
1:34:08
Speaker 1: what I mean. I mean that every coach follows somebody else,
1:34:13
Speaker 1: but only one person was going to have the challenge
1:34:16
Speaker 1: and the advantages too, of following Nick Saban, following the expectations,
1:34:21
Speaker 1: the legacy, the program that come with it. He was
1:34:25
Speaker 1: asked how has it been handling that responsibility and to
1:34:28
Speaker 1: what extent does he feel it's impossible, which I thought
1:34:32
Speaker 1: was a weird thing to ask.
1:34:33
Speaker 4: I mean, I mean, I.
1:34:35
Speaker 9: Think you can talk about how great of a job
1:34:37
Speaker 9: coach Saban did and building the program to what it is,
1:34:40
Speaker 9: and you know, the expectation that expectations. Man, I just
1:34:46
Speaker 9: know my past experiences being part of places that have
1:34:50
Speaker 9: the pride and tradition on the extreme high level like
1:34:55
Speaker 9: Alabama would or Alabama has, you know, it'd be something
1:34:59
Speaker 9: that I wanted to be a part of.
1:35:01
Speaker 19: And I love that challenge.
1:35:03
Speaker 3: Uh.
1:35:04
Speaker 9: You know, I love the internal challenge of just in
1:35:07
Speaker 9: the moment of trying to bring a team together to
1:35:09
Speaker 9: be the best we can be. But I also love
1:35:10
Speaker 9: the challenge of taking a program.
1:35:14
Speaker 19: And you know, one year, uh, you know, winning a
1:35:18
Speaker 19: championship is hard.
1:35:20
Speaker 9: What's what's so impressive with what what coach Saban did
1:35:24
Speaker 9: for so many years is doing it again because you
1:35:26
Speaker 9: know everyone's coming after you, and everyone is going to
1:35:29
Speaker 9: bring their best when when when they face you on
1:35:31
Speaker 9: the football field, and so you know, that's that's what
1:35:35
Speaker 9: I understand.
1:35:36
Speaker 19: What I understand.
1:35:37
Speaker 9: It took place and happened here, uh during you know,
1:35:41
Speaker 9: the great times and coach Saban obviously leading the charge here.
1:35:46
Speaker 9: But I also I love the challenge of trying to
1:35:48
Speaker 9: continue to build on that, continue to add to this
1:35:51
Speaker 9: program's great, great history.
1:35:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Cailin de Boor and his crew this season
1:35:56
Speaker 1: only have one starter back on offense that's won, and
1:36:03
Speaker 1: there's certainly a need for Alabama to run the football
1:36:06
Speaker 1: better than they did last season, in which they really
1:36:09
Speaker 1: really struggled. Both seasons under kaaln de Boor, they've only
1:36:12
Speaker 1: averaged four point four yards per carry by running backs.
1:36:16
Speaker 1: I say by running backs because last year they used
1:36:18
Speaker 1: Jeremy Bernard in that kind of gadget role. Generated a
1:36:21
Speaker 1: couple explosive plays on the ground that way, but it
1:36:24
Speaker 1: was really hard to come by for Alabama on the
1:36:27
Speaker 1: ground last year. It's why I think Ty Simpson was
1:36:29
Speaker 1: so underrated, the fact that he was able to lift
1:36:33
Speaker 1: that offense to at least a level of competence. They
1:36:36
Speaker 1: got them into the playoffs despite how inept they were
1:36:40
Speaker 1: at running the football. Jim Miller was their leading rusher
1:36:43
Speaker 1: last year five hundred and four yards on the ground,
1:36:46
Speaker 1: three point nine yards per carry, only three touchdowns. Daniel Hill,
1:36:50
Speaker 1: who came in pretty unherlded, ended up leading Alabama with
1:36:53
Speaker 1: six rushing touchdowns. But it was not pretty for Alabama
1:36:57
Speaker 1: in the running game last year. They've got it entirely
1:37:01
Speaker 1: new offensive line led by a very, very talented recruiting
1:37:05
Speaker 1: class for the class of twenty twenty six to try
1:37:09
Speaker 1: and fix that, and it's obviously a top priority. They've
1:37:12
Speaker 1: also got Ryan Coleman Williams, who had a huge freshman year,
1:37:17
Speaker 1: particularly in that home win over Georgia, a little bit
1:37:20
Speaker 1: of a step back last season forty nine catches, six
1:37:23
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty nine yards, four touchdowns. He dealt with concussions,
1:37:26
Speaker 1: he dealt with drops. He is somebody that's going to
1:37:30
Speaker 1: be counted on even more this season with the departure
1:37:33
Speaker 1: of Isaiah Horton in the portal, the departure of Jeremy
1:37:38
Speaker 1: Bernard to the NFL. Like I mentioned, he was drafted
1:37:40
Speaker 1: by the Pittsburgh Steelers. And you're gonna hear from Ryan
1:37:43
Speaker 1: Coleman Williams on the quarterback battle that's going on in
1:37:46
Speaker 1: Alabama between Keelon Russell, who people that listen to this
1:37:50
Speaker 1: program know from his days at Duncanville winning those back
1:37:54
Speaker 1: to back state championships, and a guy by the name
1:37:57
Speaker 1: of Austin Mack who has been with Kailn de Boor
1:38:01
Speaker 1: since he was recruited to Washington in twenty twenty three.
1:38:04
Speaker 1: Three years of experience in Kaitlyn de Boor's system running
1:38:09
Speaker 1: his offense. So where does that quarterback battle kind of
1:38:14
Speaker 1: get decided. I don't think we're gonna get clarity on
1:38:17
Speaker 1: that quite yet, But here is Ryan Williams talking about
1:38:21
Speaker 1: the Bama quarterback battle and some of the personality traits
1:38:24
Speaker 1: that both guys.
1:38:25
Speaker 2: Bring with j D. Pichel from on three. Uh, you know, Keelan,
1:38:30
Speaker 2: he's just a guy.
1:38:31
Speaker 20: You know, he has some guy given talent, you know,
1:38:34
Speaker 20: coming out of high school.
1:38:35
Speaker 4: You know, the number one player in the country obviously.
1:38:38
Speaker 20: But what stood out the most of me is, you know,
1:38:41
Speaker 20: every single day he comes to work like you know
1:38:43
Speaker 20: that wasn't the case. He's like he's an underdog. And
1:38:46
Speaker 20: I think that's kind of the theme for the quarterback room. Man,
1:38:49
Speaker 20: it's like that room they just it's a brother the
1:38:52
Speaker 20: love that's so tight that.
1:38:54
Speaker 2: It only demands the bad version of the same question.
1:38:57
Speaker 2: For Austin Matt what makes him different from that battle?
1:39:00
Speaker 4: Really?
1:39:00
Speaker 20: I call him human playbook because you know, he's been
1:39:03
Speaker 20: in the offense since Shoes nineteen eighty probably I don't know,
1:39:09
Speaker 20: so he's been in the offense a while, and you know,
1:39:11
Speaker 20: just being able to learn from guys like Pannix, Ty Murro.
1:39:14
Speaker 20: You know, being behind those guys, he's seen all different
1:39:17
Speaker 20: variations in of the playbook. So and that's also, you know,
1:39:21
Speaker 20: a testament of their own because, like I said, they
1:39:23
Speaker 20: literally quarantine each other so much that the other guys
1:39:26
Speaker 20: just grasp.
1:39:27
Speaker 19: On to it.
1:39:27
Speaker 20: And you could literally go to any of those guys
1:39:29
Speaker 20: and they just gone on the spot.
1:39:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, one more interesting wrinkle in that quarterback battle because
1:39:35
Speaker 1: you hear kind of Russell described as the playmaker, the
1:39:39
Speaker 1: one that can bring a little bit of explosivity to
1:39:44
Speaker 1: the offense, a guy that is oozing with big play talent,
1:39:48
Speaker 1: versus a guy like Mac who clearly has a great
1:39:51
Speaker 1: grasp of the system. So it's a tough decision for
1:39:57
Speaker 1: Debor and offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb to make. They do
1:40:01
Speaker 1: start the season with a little bit of an easier
1:40:04
Speaker 1: SEC schedule. They do have Florida State in the non conference,
1:40:09
Speaker 1: although it's in Tuscaloosa this time, and a revenge game
1:40:13
Speaker 1: for Alabama after that debacle in Tallahassee last year that
1:40:17
Speaker 1: ultimately set them off on the wrong foot last year.
1:40:20
Speaker 1: They have East Carolina and then a game at Kentucky
1:40:25
Speaker 1: on September twelfth, leading into that Florida State game. Then
1:40:29
Speaker 1: South Carolina comes to Tuscaloosa, and then they go to
1:40:31
Speaker 1: Mississippi State. So that is a very manageable start of
1:40:35
Speaker 1: the schedule for Alabama. And then it gets crazy Georgia
1:40:38
Speaker 1: at Tennessee Home A and M at LSU, at Vanderbilt
1:40:43
Speaker 1: Chattanooga and then the Iron Bowl. So very very unbalanced
1:40:48
Speaker 1: schedule just in terms of a softer launch to start
1:40:52
Speaker 1: and then a very difficult downhill finish for Alabama this season.
1:40:58
Speaker 1: When we come back, we'll refocus on Florida as we
1:41:03
Speaker 1: continue our coverage of SEC Media Days today. Jay Kerman
1:41:08
Speaker 1: here at Austin tomorrow, Craig Way and Company out in
1:41:11
Speaker 1: Tampa here on AM thirteen hundred.
1:41:13
Speaker 4: The Zone