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KY Mildcats and Dark Mode against OK · Champions of Life

welcome to the champions of life podcast where 3 orangeblooded Tennessee alums discuss how there's always next year Welcome back to another week of Champions of Life.
You've got Laney, Joe, and myself.
Is this Barry White? I don't know.
Nope.
Just Bobby with the dad disease, whatever sickness is going around so listeners don't fall asleep at the wheel.
I know this voice is very soothing.
We're here to unpack our game up at Neland North against the Kentucky.
Uh, mild cats.
We can call 'em.
I don't know.
It was pretty, pretty rough.
They're on a shade.
I mean, they were bad.
They are very bad.
Yeah.
But they threw up a little points.
We made them look not too bad.
They set some records against the Tennessee volunteers.
That's normal.
That's what we like to do.
Make 'em look good.
So what does this do to your outlook towards teams with a pulse moving forward? Not good for Oklahoma.
They can put up points.
Probably can't stop 'em.
I'm still worried about Vanderbilt.
Where do we play? New Mexico.
Mexico State.
Not worried.
Not too worried about them.
Who am I missing? Oklahoma.
Florida.
Florida.
Florida.
At Florida.
Florida can knock off or they could, or we could beat 'em.
This is our chance.
I think you said this lane a couple weeks ago.
We are where we are thought we'd be.
Mm-hmm.
Oklahoma was kind of on the line.
Mm-hmm.
I still think we take 'em though.
I know we're not doing our picks yet, but.
I think we've got a Oklahoma, we have to out score 'em, gotta out score 'em.
What do you think? So, we should probably do some positives from the game.
Okay.
I tend to go to the not so great things first, but the reality of the situation.
Yes.
Um, positives were, we found Chris Brazel again, very open.
Yeah.
Very open.
We didn't have any critical drops penalty wise.
How many penalty yards did we have? That felt a little bit better, A little better.
Better? You know, that's very relative.
Um, Joey looked good.
We couldn't get much going running wise, which I mean is Kentucky's line, like is there D line that good and is ours that bad? Like what happened there? Yeah, I don't know.
Were we trying some new things? I don't know.
Were we testing some things out knowing we'd probably win? Mm-hmm.
I don't know.
Maybe.
I feel like there was an emphasis to throw the ball down field this week for sure.
Yeah.
Why that disappeared last week? I don't know.
Okay, so there's my positives.
I am nervous that we cannot get off the field on defense.
We cannot stop anyone's running back, even mediocre running backs so far this season.
They have a good one.
Mm-hmm.
They have a really good defense.
If it comes down to a shootout back and forth, I feel like I put more money on their defense than our defense, even though we're at home.
Mm-hmm.
So do I think that we can score a bunch of points? Yes.
But are we gonna get out there and play like we did against Alabama and shoot ourselves with the foot and not score.
Can there quarterback run? Mm-hmm.
Oh yeah.
He's mobile.
He's, he's mobile.
I take that back.
He's mobile.
I'm worried.
Well, since his injury, he, his thumb surgery, like his passing game hasn't been as sharp.
Yeah.
But yeah, he's a mobile quarterback.
Okay.
Now I'm a little more worried.
How much did they lose by? Was it last week or two weeks ago? Oklahoma.
Uh, have to look it up.
The Texas game that they lost.
Yeah, they lost 23 to six.
23 6.
Ole Miss beat them by, 34 to 26 this past Saturday.
Okay.
The Texas game.
I don't know what happened then, but that was Mattie's first game back after his surgery.
So that was kind of like, well, I feel like this is.
Not really unexpected, right.
For him to have a pretty bad game.
I had to look this up.
So Oklahoma, Illinois State, they beat, uh, I would say a down Michigan team by mm-hmm.
11.
They played temple.
They barely beat Auburn.
Which SEC officials were indicted that maybe.
Shouldn't have been the outcome.
And Auburn is, they've been feisty, but they're not a good team.
They're just not a good team.
Kent State, 44, nothing Texas.
You lose 23 to six.
You put the hurtin on South Carolina 26 to seven.
And then who had Alabama on the roads? Who definitely had Alabama? They should have.
Did you see the college students? They were ready to rush the field.
I hate to see that.
Kind of like us but go ahead.
Sorry Bobby.
And then, you lose to Ole Miss, um.
Hmm.
Which was a big game that was there on their home turf.
Right? It was so, I mean, Ole Miss is good.
I don't wanna admit it, but they're good.
They're good.
They're good on both sides of the ball.
So that loss wasn't necessarily surprising.
Well, K was talking to some smack, wasn't he? All day, every day Kiffin always talks.
Yes.
So that's how I feel.
I don't feel good about it.
Are we, wait, are we over Kentucky? I You did.
It is great.
Great.
That you had three receivers all go over a hundred yards.
Hadn't done that in a long time.
Those guys actually came out, ran Chris Bros.
Caught the ball clean, which was great to see.
Kentucky is bad.
So I mean, it was more of like a, it felt like a, a highlighted walkthrough or practice, which is fine.
Felt like we weren't trying to run the ball, which is good.
I'd like to see.
Some more of the, the high octane stuff anyways, especially when, you know the game is in hand.
But yeah, the defense is concerning.
I think that's gonna be an issue moving forward.
Obviously, I think everybody's concerned about it and I don't necessarily, put it on one person or one coach.
I think that there's a lot of things that are not going well all combined, but, and Arian Carter.
He'll probably still be out this week.
Right.
Double turf toe.
That's something that can take forever.
Yeah.
You never want one double turf toe? No.
Might as well just amputate.
Okay.
So we're not feeling great.
I watched a little as a, as a guy who's seen 12 minutes of Oklahoma play football this year against Ole Miss, they do have some weak points.
There are some areas where, I think that Tennessee has an advantage and I think they have an outstanding quarterback.
I think their offensive system is really, really good, but I think they, like us at times will get stagnant or not be able to find the clutch, so to speak, on what they're doing.
And then quarterback.
I think he's been given a lot of opportunities, but I saw him miss a lot of throws, against ole miss stuff where he was going for the whole house and he could have just checked down and lived to see another down.
And so I think our defense obviously is opportunistic.
We are tied with the most touchdowns in the nation, right? As a defense.
So, you know, if our defense is on the field, somebody's gonna score a touchdown, either us or them.
Uh, but I like our odds.
I like.
You know, kneeling at night.
I think that's just a different environment that will give us an edge.
So I think Tennessee's is a small betting favorite right now.
I think we're like plus five today, but it'll be interesting.
We're going dark mode too, right? Dark mode.
Dark mode.
Spooky season.
Yeah.
And you hope there's motivation that we have to win out, there's hope of getting in the playoffs.
So every week's a playoff game.
Hopefully the coaches don't.
They keep us in there.
We don't lose it by poor clock management or, I don't know.
It's fourth and we done play calls.
Yeah.
Fourth and two.
Fourth and three.
Gotta go for it.
We can't play field position, can't get field goals to beat them.
Go back to the first half of the Georgia game.
The best first half.
I think most physical in every way we were beating them.
Yeah.
That's what I'd like to see.
Again, it's so interesting.
During the Kentucky game, the broadcast, they would show graphics of Tennessee's like statistics.
And in some cases it's like historically we're one of the best teams that's ever been at Tennessee.
And then the next they would show like, we are basically dead last in the country on.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And so you're like, what? What is going on here? And so there's this disconnect for me at least of like, you're so good in the passing game.
And your offense is prolific and your receivers and your quarterback, but it feels so different played out on the field.
And I don't know if it's because of the, the play making like the play calling I should say.
Or if it is, we're counterbalanced by some of the silly stuff that we do that comes bite us in the butt, whether it's penalties or not being aggressive enough, but.
It's great that we're an aesthetically pleasing statistically, highlighted team, but it feels like you're so far off from that against the Alabama game.
It just, it feels like false gold a little bit.
I don't know.
Well with that too, the just kind of to the defense, we're one of the highest scoring defenses, right.
Before the Alabama game, we were up there in most sack.
Mm-hmm.
So like you look at those two things, you're like, oh, this defense is killing it.
And it's like, well actually no we're not.
But here's the other piece that we're forgetting about.
This is heel's old team.
Right? That's true.
There's some bad blood there.
So maybe there'll be a little bit extra motivation and maybe that's what'll take us over the top.
Okay.
So.
Prediction time.
Is that what time it is work on tackling, finding your angles, so many bad angles against Kentucky and Alabama and Alabama.
Yep.
Uh, predictions, I am gonna go 34 28, Tennessee.
We're gonna have to score a lot on 42 to 34.
I don't know.
Can I take a pass? No, that's not, this works.
I really don't know that we're gonna win.
Say it.
No, I can't.
I can't not.
Okay.
We will have to score a lot.
You're right.
We likely cannot stop them.
All right, so let's go 34, 27, Tennessee.
Alright, we'll see.
This is why we're champions of life right here because we wanna hope we, we won it so bad guys.
We haven't lost a game at home.
That's not Georgia in like three seasons.
Wait, this is true.
Yeah.
And in that we beat Alabama twice at home, so That's right.
Mm-hmm.
I don't know.
All right.
Another UT News.
We have a new baseball coach.
I'm all in Josh Lander.
We feel pretty good about it.
Yes.
Let's go coach.
Yep.
Long time assistant coach.
Great background.
He played in the pros.
Mm-hmm.
He's a Tennessee guy.
He wants to be there.
And from an a hiring perspective, I do feel like this is like an easy one because if you're Danny and you go out and you get somebody that's not.
Lander or Tennessee guy is gonna be like, Hey, you kind of messed up what Tony just built.
And so it's gonna have a lot of scrutiny.
This one, I feel like if it doesn't go well, you kinda get a free pass.
It's like, Hey, we got your guy.
The players were bought in.
We tried.
It just didn't work.
And so this felt like the right thing to do strategically.
And then if you're Danny, it should have made your life a lot easier.
Yeah, especially Frank stays.
Mm-hmm.
Which I think he is.
I don't know.
Mm-hmm.
The pitch that he is.
Okay, good.
And Josh is the main recruiter anyways, right? Mm-hmm.
So, and it's more likely they'll stay for him.
You bring in a new guy, even if it's Coastal Carolina's coach.
Yeah.
They might leave even because they've had the relationship with josh the whole time.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that's a good point.
And from, I don't know the the man personally, but from what I read and like his press conference stuff, he seems like a genuine, authentic, real guy.
He says family is the most important thing and he's gonna treat the players that come to play for this university.
Just like they were someone's kids, like they were his own.
And so, yeah, I feel like you're still building a good stable of coaches on the campus that are good quality dudes like Rick and Josh, and Kim.
She's not a dude, but you get what I'm saying.
Yeah.
She's putting together a good team too.
Mm-hmm.
Speaking of Rick.
Yeah.
You guys watched the game last night? Yes.
Duke exhibition game.
Quick thoughts.
Glad it didn't count.
Yeah, I like the new players.
We were talking before this podcast of how you had to look the players up 'cause learning a lot of new names, new faces, and I like what I saw in the first half.
They, were.
Bright spots there where we had it together.
Even being new and not really knowing Rick's system yet, they had it going and partly 'cause some of the shots were falling when they didn't fall.
We were forcing it in the second half.
And not just Nate, there were several other players that were jacking up threes and we should have got it.
And I think Rick said it best in his press conference afterwards, like, we gotta get it down low.
He was given the stats.
They were like five of six, six of six down low.
We're like 90%, you know, a layup is so much better than a three.
So Yeah.
Gotta get it done.
We did that last year too.
We did that in the tournament.
We feel like we gotta shoot our way back into it when just, and if you get fouled, you get the old fashioned through point play.
But I like the way we played these new guys.
They were not scared and, uh, they were intimidated by Duke.
Mm-hmm.
They shouldn't be, it's a home port.
Yeah.
I think we've got a long way to go, but I think Rick will have him, he'll have us ready.
I was pleasantly surprised.
Mm-hmm.
Only two return.
Let's see, one return.
Star.
K Phillips.
P.
K.
Yeah.
Um, uh, aka not o Waka.
Um, AKA was before.
Yep.
Toe bang still hurts.
We miss you.
I will say it was a typical Duke game where I don't care who they're playing, it just feels like the announcers are just drooling all over.
Yeah.
Like, and talking about Boo Carlos' Boozer and his, I was just like, oh my goodness.
What do you have a quota of? How much time you have to talk about? Maybe they're getting paid for every time they mention his name.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because there were so many scouts there.
That probably does happen.
It did feel like there somehow they're gonna come back and win.
That's Duke.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe that's where we go.
Yeah, I mean, it was okay.
It was good to see us.
There were some new players out there.
I did see, uh, Boswell.
Mm-hmm.
He was the one I ran into in the grocery store that time, and he dropped the drink underneath the counter and he thought nobody saw him.
And I said something to him.
I knew who he was.
I said, I just hope you don't do that when you're out there on the court and, uh.
He was like, oh yeah, that was bad.
But I recognized him.
A couple others, but yeah, lots of new faces.
Welcome to basketball in 2025 in college.
Yes.
Everybody's got a different team.
It's like a a u almost.
Not gonna have the five, six year players anymore.
No more is the Kais.
No.
Nope.
Veca.
Yeah.
There's always rumor he's back.
He's got one more year.
He found a way the Diego Pavia rule.
All right.
Well, anything else for this one? No.
Hey, shout out to all my lsu Yes constituents.
Just keeping the common thread here.
You've lost another head coach, which is insane.
This is the first coach you've had in the last four coaches that has not won a national championship.
RIP.
Brian Kelly.
Mm.
And the fake accent.
It's a shame.
It's a shame.
Is it? Where's he getting out? He'll end up at Penn State, I guarantee you.
Really? Oh yeah.
Penn State, that guy, yes.
You're getting paid $60 million to not coach.
I don't know.
Ah, that's true.
He may just ride off in sunset.
Go hang out with his family.
My leg.
All right.
That's it.
Champions of Life podcast.
Come on.