Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / Interview: ESPN college football analyst Cole Cubelic

Transcript

Interview: ESPN college football analyst Cole Cubelic · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: ESPN and SEC Network analyst Cole Cublic is with us
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: now from Nashville, Tennessee. Cole, what's up? How are you? Button? JP?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Doing well? Just trying to uh, trying to survive the
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: crowd down here, man, it's pretty nuts. Yeah, you're there
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: for serious XM radio and you're gonna be there throughout
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the weekend. It sounds like, Yeah, there's a lot of people.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: They're they're moving this draft around now, Cole. And it
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: seems to be bigger and bigger and bigger every year.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: This one last night, just when it looks out on TV,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and now you're seeing it in person today. I think
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: they may have topped all of them. I think this
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: one's gonna be hard to talk, honestly. I just I
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: don't know how. If you if you've been to Nashville
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and you know how downtown is laid out, Broadway is
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the perfect place to have it because you know, it's
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: kind of a little bit of a downhill slope because
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: right down there to the water, and then you have
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: you have that landing right by the water where they
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: could set up the stage, and it's just a row
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: of bars, restaurants and hotels. Got Bridge Stone Arena right
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: there as well, so everybody's already familiar with coming down
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: there at the party, bachelor parties, New Year's Eve, to
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: hang out a concerts, and then Titan games and get
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the stadium across the river in the background. It's just
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: it really is a perfect setting. And I think Nashville
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: has really turned into one of the more popular tourist
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: destinations in the country, so a lot of people have
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: heard about it want to come here anyway. And geographically
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: you get a lot of the fans from the southeastern
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: portion of the country, So Jack fans, Falcon fans, obviously,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Titan fans are gonna be here in New Orleans, Saints
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: fans if they want to come check out the draft,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: it's all in decent proximity for them, and it's a
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: short drive for Colts fans from Indianapolis. It's a it's
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: a it's a perfect setting, and I imagine this is
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: gonna be very difficult to talk. We'll get to Josh
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Allen coming up. You had a tweet yesterday after the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: first round twenty three of the thirty two picks are
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: on the line of scrimmage. That tells you something about
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: how football is designed. To be played cool. Listen. I
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: love it. I love the fact that it's still a
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: line of scrimmage league, and I think this year we're
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: seeing it now. Part of it is not ultimately that
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: surprising because I thought, at least in the SEC, probably
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: nationally JP, this was the best group of defenders on
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: the line of the scrimmage that I can recall, especially Interier,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: your defenders. When you look at at Jeffrey Simmons, and
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: you look at Rashawn Gary, and you look at Quinton Williams,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and then you've got guys like Richard Lawrence at l
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: s U, Derek Brown at Auburn, Javon Kinlaw at South Carolina,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: who are even gonna be back next year, but we're
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: still playing this year and giving people problems. Benito Jones
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: at Old Miss is one of those guys. And then
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: you have the Josh Allens and the Bosas and the
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: edge guys. Montest sweat to the state that we're also
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: a force and a great group of linebackers. And I
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: always got two tight ends to go in the first
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: round album, it was about one that's probably coming off
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the board soon. It just just re this wasn't a
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: strong offensive line class, and you saw a couple of
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: guys go like Titus Howard out of Albama State that
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I don't think anybody expect you to be a first
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: round pick. So, uh, it's it's pretty cool to see
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: that with this seven on seven fantasy football world that
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: we're living in, the line of scrimmage still has an emphasis.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Col Cubula is with US at ESPN and SEC Network
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: analyst w j o X radio host in Birmingham, a
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: former Auburn center. The Josh Allen's story is pretty remarkable.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: He was an all state receiver at Abbeyville, Alabama as
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: a junior in high school, then moved back to New Jersey,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: switched to defense as a senior in high school. He
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: was a two star recruit to Monmouth and then went
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: to Kentucky and now he's the SEC defensive Player of
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the Year and the seventh overall pick just a few
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: years later. That is, UH, rags to riches if you will.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: For Josh Allen, it's wild and it's a pretty incredible story.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: You know, went back and forth from Alabama the New
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Jersey with the family barely recruited, like you mentioned, and
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: uh didn't really have a position. I think when he
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: ended up going to play college football in morph into
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: this edge defender, pass rushing linebacker that I think just
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the sky is the limit for The cool thing about
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: him is I think he's still a little bit raw,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: and he developed a couple of counter moves this year.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: He really lived on the dip and rip. Two years ago.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: That was kind of the only his bread and butter
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: and one of the only real moves that he got
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: consistent wins with as a pass rusher. But he's continuing
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: to develop as a pass rusher and I think understands
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: it's gonna take bonus moves. But the number one thing
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: that people need to know about Josh Allen is Jacksonville
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: is getting an amazing young man. When you sit down
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: and talk to him, the maturity, how humble he is,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: it really is incredible. And he's always been a joy
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: to be around. I've covered probably ten twelve of his
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: games in his collegiate career. The coach's rave about what
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: kind of human being he is. The leadership, the demeanor,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: and you know, you put it on the field. It's
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: not just a production, but the late production that I
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: really like. You go back this past year and you're
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: talking about a guy who is getting stripped sacks at
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: the end of games. You go back to the Mississippi
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: State game, you go back to the South Carolina game
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: strip stacked against A Bentley, the Florida games trip set
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: against Philip bay Franks. I mean he closed games down.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: He was kind of like the Mariano Rivera uh the
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: SEC this past year. And I think he has a
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: lot of room to grow still. I think that the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: one of the more impressive things about him that nobody
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: talks about is put on the Texas A and M
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: film and you'll see him multiple times going step for
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: step with Texas A and M tight end J Sternberger.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: I mean a guy who can handle himself in coverage
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: and is not a liability and coverage and can run
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: with speedy tight ends. So he's a total package. And
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I think he still has room to grow. If he
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: is at every down handing the ground guy, which we
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: expect him certainly to be here in Jacksonville. That's that's
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: where that can grow. If he can only concentrate on
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: one thing, and that's getting to the quarterback, that might
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: help him right. Cole absolutely, and I think the the
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the amount of attention that's probably not going to be
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: on him will also help. When you think about Khlis
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Campbell and and you think about probably maybe the best
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: offensive tackle tandem in the NFL right now, When when
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: you think about what those two guys can do on
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the interior of that defensive line. So, I mean, it's
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be scary to think about. And when you
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: got guys on the back end who can cover that,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: that only makes your life a little bit easier when
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: you're trying to get to the quarterback. So I think
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: I think Jacksonville's defense gets better, Jacksonville's defense gets more athletic,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: And that's that's kind of a scary thought because they've
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: they've been successful with some hybrid guys for the last
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: few years, and I think they got another one that's
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: gonna be able to help do a lot of different things. Yeah,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: think about the passing down defensive line. Josh Allen, Calais, Campbell,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Marcel Darius unique In Gotquay, those are the four up
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: front for the Jaguars. It's pretty good. Yeah, And you
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: don't want to be an office devon right now in
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: the FCCL. So it's uh that that that's not the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: division that you want to be having, that's not the
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: team you want to be having a face on a
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: regular basis. All right, is there was he far and
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: away the defensive player of the year in the SEC
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: last year. Who else would have been close to him? Now,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Quintin Williams was really close Quinton Williams, Well, I wouldn't
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: have It's a coin toss between those two, honestly, um.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: And he had the advantage of just being closer to
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: the football and and being so destructive at the point
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: of attack. I mean he was. He was a guy
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: that literally could dominate the point of attack on a
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: regular basis, but also lined up right over the football
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and that made life very difficult on his opponents. So
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: it was those two and then a pretty big gap
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: between everybody else Dead and White may have been close,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: mind backer at a l s U he did some
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: really good things, but I think all at all, Uh,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: you're talking about Quinnin Williams and Josh Allen as the
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: two best defenders in the SEC last year.