Latest / The Jake Wimberly Podcast / Josh Pate on Alabama and Playoff Contenders for 2024

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Josh Pate on Alabama and Playoff Contenders for 2024 · The Jake Wimberly Podcast

• 0:00
  Let's shift over to Alabama, just ninety miles from Starkwell, Uh, of
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  course, a lot of you know, there's always going to be media coverage,
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  always going to be you know, Alabama's gonna be front and center.
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  Nick Saban comes out, makes some candid remarks about, you know, his
• 0:12
  players and what they know, the way they acted after the National Championship game,
• 0:15
  and he's been pretty candid about getting gown to college football. And those
• 0:18
  reasons are far and wide. But with Kaylen de Boor and the exodus and
• 0:23
  the transfer portal, now, I would assume that they're going to work the
• 0:25
  transfer portal after spring practice in that short window. But how do we even
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  quantify what this team could or could not be this coming year? Uh,
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  it's tough to not It's tough to say it without knowving what they're going to
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  do post spring, like you said, But I'll tell you the way I
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  look at it, I have never seen to Bor tracking him all the way
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  back to his Naia days, he has never been in a position where he
• 0:50
  didn't maximize his quarterbacks potential. Always does it. So it's pretty much a
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  guarantee you're going to see improved play from Jalen Milroe. They all they've got
• 1:00
  a good quarterback room. Look, there's a kid named Dylan Laandergun over there
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  that may end up transferring. That's just a name to keep an eye on,
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  because they loved what he looked like last year as a true freshman,
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  even though you never saw him play in any games. So I think you
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  can tell I've been paying attention to coaching moves a lot because they initially had
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  Ryan Grubb and Scott Huff as the OC and the offensive line coach, respectively.
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  When Debor first got there, I graded that as a top three staff
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  nationally, like they killed it in hiring under Debor when he first got there,
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  But when those two left, it knocked him down. Probably I grade
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  him in the ten to fifteen range nationally. Right now. It's still a
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  lower tier one staff in the SEC. But the biggest takeaway is the Boor's
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  an offensive guy. Yet it's the defensive support staff grade that upgraded for Alabama.
• 1:52
  They did not have a very high level defensive staff last year, and
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  Nick Saban being the head coach hit a lot of that. I think Kevin
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  Steel is the defensive coordinator. Here were some stuff that kind of went on
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  in the summer to where I don't think he was able to be his hands
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  on as he wanted to be so defensively, they were mixing and matching all
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  year and it got overshadow calls. The quarterback instability was the main event there
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  at Alabama. But it's a minor miracle that team was in the playoff last
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  year. So I think people expect drop off, and that's fair when the
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  best coach of all time walks out the door. I think they'll be a
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  contender as early as this year. I don't think there is a ton of
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  drop off, and I think that also in due time, you'll find Kaylin
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  Debor adjusts to recruiting in the SEC probably a lot more seamlessly than some folks
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  expect them to. Let's get you on your way, and with this question,
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  I appreciate your time as always way too early. If you're buying stock
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  in a team or two, we'll see the twelve team Playoffs's going to be
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  fun. I'm looking forward to it. We'll see you know who makes that
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  thing? Are you buying stock? I wouldn't hold you to this as like
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  a pick, but give me a couple teams. I mean is it Texas
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  or you're looking at Georgia, You're looking at Ohio State, Are you looking
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  at Florida State? Maybe Oregon. It feels like a fairly wide open field
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  with about seven or eight teams. I don't know that there's this one dominant
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  team. You may disagree with the on that, and that's fine. But
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  if you're buying stock today, just you know early stock, you're gonna put
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  in your pocket who you buying. Love Ohio State actually, because there is
• 3:17
  a growing narrative out there that's wrong that they can't win the big one Ryan
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  Day, can't do this and can't do that, And that's always a misused
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  term. There is a very big difference and cannot versus have not. Once
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  upon a time, Kirby was labeled as the cannot guy. He cannot get
• 3:35
  over the hunt, cannot be saving. Well, that was always wrong.
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  He just hadn't done it because it was hard to do. And then all
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  of a sudden he did it. And now he's won two titles and everyone
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  thinks he's the best in America, which he probably is. But the point
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  is there were fractions of inches between being labeled cannot versus already's done it well.
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  Ryan Day's right there, and I'll tell you another one that's off the
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  radar is Missouri because Eli Drinks lost some really really good coaches. He lost
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  Kevin Peeples, the defensive line coach, for example, went to LSU.
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  I am huge on Kevin Peeples, not to mention this defensive coordinator leaving,
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  and he goes down and he gets Brian Early out of Houston, which I
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  got rated as four h and half star defensive line coach, and he actually
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  upgraded I think his defensive coaching staff overall, and it's the third biggest staff
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  improvement great I've got in the SEC. So like Missouri will be thought of
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  as a one hit wonder from last year. And they still got Luther Burden
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  at white out, they still got Brady Cook at quarterback. Defensively, they're
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  not going to drop off twelve team playoff. I think Missouri has a half
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  decent shot of making it this year. Make sure to find him on ex
• 4:35
  Late Kick Josh get the show The Late Kick with Josh Pate and of course
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  you can find his channel on YouTube. Of course check it out in the
• 4:42
  bios. Well, Josh, always appreciate your time. Stellar work, my
• 4:45
  friend, look, have a great weekend. We'll do it again. Cern
• 4:46
  I appreciate it, brother,