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Previewing The Ole Miss Rebels with David Kellum · The Craig Way Show

0:08
Speaker 1: Okay, we got a bit of true confession going on
0:12
Speaker 1: here on the Yacht Rock Wednesday. Back in August, it
0:17
Speaker 1: happened to fall on a Wednesday that we visited with
0:20
Speaker 1: my good friend David Kellum, the play-by-play voice of the
0:22
Speaker 1: Ole Miss Rebels. And we bump back with this particular tune,
0:27
Speaker 1: which is Bachman Turner over to her drives, looking out
0:31
Speaker 1: for number one. And I asked DK because I knew
0:34
Speaker 1: he was a big yacht rock fan and a classic
0:36
Speaker 1: rock fan. And he said, oh, yeah, I know all
0:38
Speaker 1: about BTO. Got a lot of stuff. But to be,
0:40
Speaker 1: and if I'm quoting him correctly, but to be honest,
0:42
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to need a martini. When
0:45
Speaker 1: he heard that. So I said, as David was getting
0:49
Speaker 1: ready to come back on, I said to Jake, oh,
0:51
Speaker 1: you got to pull up looking out for number one again.
0:53
Speaker 1: We got to go down that road again. So I
0:56
Speaker 1: appreciate the indulgence, DK. How are you?
0:59
Speaker 2: I guess it's become my theme song. Anytime I talk
1:02
Speaker 2: to Craig White, it's the way to go when I
1:04
Speaker 2: talk to Craig White.
1:07
Speaker 1: And looking out for number one. And that's tough to
1:10
Speaker 1: do in this league, isn't it? No doubt.
1:12
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't want us to get the number one.
1:15
Speaker 1: I hope that doesn't happen. Trust me, you don't want that.
1:17
Speaker 1: You don't want that.
1:18
Speaker 2: It has been a matter of... Well, the league has
1:20
Speaker 2: been just crazy, hasn't it? Oh, my gosh. Yeah, yeah.
1:23
Speaker 1: It's something else. And I'm pleased you took an opportunity
1:27
Speaker 1: here to be on with us. And I have several
1:30
Speaker 1: questions to ask you. But the one thing, the first
1:32
Speaker 1: thing I want to ask you, and you've been around
1:35
Speaker 1: Ole Miss coaches for decades, just as I've been around
1:38
Speaker 1: Texas coaches for decades. I've watched... Pete Golding's news conference.
1:44
Speaker 1: And I came away from it being pretty impressed by
1:50
Speaker 1: the relaxed yet completely informative nature that he brought to
1:57
Speaker 1: the podium, if that makes sense. Because, you know, you
2:00
Speaker 1: can pull up press conferences from lots of different coaches.
2:03
Speaker 1: And there's that tension there, even when things are going well.
2:07
Speaker 1: I mean, the champ of all of it was Nick Saban,
2:09
Speaker 1: but there's that tension, even when things are going well.
2:13
Speaker 1: But Golding seems to have really comfortably transitioned into the
2:18
Speaker 1: head coaching role, starting being thrown right into the fire
2:20
Speaker 1: in the college football playoff, but then picking up from there.
2:24
Speaker 1: And I'm just curious to get your thoughts on how
2:27
Speaker 1: he's handling everything, because it looks like he's handling all
2:30
Speaker 1: of it with quite a bit of aplomb. Yeah, no doubt.
2:33
Speaker 2: And he really, Craig, didn't have a desire to be
2:36
Speaker 2: the head coach, wanted to continue to be the defense
2:38
Speaker 2: coordinator and lane stay here and yada, yada, yada. But
2:40
Speaker 2: when it became a possibility, he said, why not me?
2:44
Speaker 2: And obviously he had a plan on the day that
2:47
Speaker 2: that would happen. He immediately got out of his defense
2:50
Speaker 2: coordinator only mode, met all the offensive players, brought them
2:54
Speaker 2: in one by one, went out and got John David Baker,
2:57
Speaker 2: the great offense coordinator. So he did all the things.
2:59
Speaker 2: And I don't know, it was the most amazing period
3:03
Speaker 2: a year ago. And the way he handled it was huge.
3:06
Speaker 2: I mean, it got us one play away from being
3:08
Speaker 2: in the national championship game. So he did a wonderful,
3:11
Speaker 2: wonderful job there. And then this is the first full year,
3:14
Speaker 2: and as a fan, kind of looking from a distance,
3:16
Speaker 2: you go, okay, so he did really good last year.
3:19
Speaker 2: Is he going to be the right guy to be
3:20
Speaker 2: our head coach? I think there's no doubt about it.
3:22
Speaker 2: And he's not necessarily laid back. He's just focused, very,
3:27
Speaker 2: very focused. You know, a ball coach, not a lot
3:31
Speaker 2: of nonsense, and holds the players accountable and wants them
3:36
Speaker 2: to become the best version that they can become. But, yeah,
3:39
Speaker 2: I think he pretty much nailed it. He's one of
3:41
Speaker 2: those guys that I don't think has any fear. He's
3:45
Speaker 2: been with Saban as a defense coordinator, just like Sark
3:47
Speaker 2: was over there. And so those guys that kind of
3:49
Speaker 2: come out of that tree, they've been singed a little bit,
3:53
Speaker 2: I guess. And so they get it for sure.
3:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I would say this too, and I'm curious
4:00
Speaker 1: to see what you think about this. For years, and
4:03
Speaker 1: we still hear it, but for years, the past several years,
4:06
Speaker 1: the buzzword in just about any college football program, especially
4:10
Speaker 1: for a coach taking on his first year, was the
4:12
Speaker 1: C word, culture. Everything was about culture. Now I'm hearing
4:17
Speaker 1: the A word and you just said it, accountability. And
4:19
Speaker 1: I heard him say it the other day. Sark has
4:23
Speaker 1: had to drop that in saying accountability has to go
4:26
Speaker 1: around when you're not playing the way you should or
4:28
Speaker 1: even when you are playing well. And so folks may
4:32
Speaker 1: wonder what exactly does that mean other than, hey, my
4:35
Speaker 1: bad if I made a mistake. But it means several things,
4:38
Speaker 1: doesn't it? And I'm sure it does to Coach Golding.
4:41
Speaker 2: Well, I think so. And the thing, too, now that
4:45
Speaker 2: they're making money, you hate it to a certain extent.
4:48
Speaker 2: We've always said through the years, oh, they're just 18, 19, 20-year-olds. Yeah,
4:51
Speaker 2: but now they're 18, 19, 20-year-olds are getting paid for
4:54
Speaker 2: their craft and what they're doing. And so it's kind
4:57
Speaker 2: of like you can't be a kid anymore. You got
4:59
Speaker 2: to grow up and be more pro-like. And I think
5:02
Speaker 2: that's kind of the downside of it. The NIL and
5:05
Speaker 2: the portal transfers and all that, there's a lot of
5:08
Speaker 2: good to it. You take like Keewon Lacey for us,
5:11
Speaker 2: who was in a running back room where he wasn't
5:14
Speaker 2: going to play at Missouri, so he needed to find
5:16
Speaker 2: another opportunity. Austin Simmons, who just left us and went
5:19
Speaker 2: to Missouri. was behind trinidad chandler's he's a fantastic quarterback
5:23
Speaker 2: so i think that you know it's good in a
5:25
Speaker 2: lot of ways and i'm not against them getting paid
5:28
Speaker 2: by any means but i do think that it has
5:30
Speaker 2: it has really increased accountability for players i mean you
5:34
Speaker 2: don't need to be missing missing meetings there's a fine
5:37
Speaker 2: system in a lot of schools going on too and
5:40
Speaker 2: uh but but yeah i think that that that's a
5:43
Speaker 2: good way to nail it with especially with.
5:44
Speaker 1: The Well, you brought up Kiwan Lacey. I wanted to
5:47
Speaker 1: get your thoughts on him. You know, I know people
5:50
Speaker 1: think of him as a former Missouri Tiger. Let me
5:52
Speaker 1: tell you something. I know him as a former Lancaster Tiger,
5:55
Speaker 1: you know, from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. But he, I think,
6:02
Speaker 1: has done a really good job in having to work
6:05
Speaker 1: through and around the injury bug that he's had to
6:09
Speaker 1: deal with this season. How would you describe what he's
6:12
Speaker 1: gone through and where he is at the moment?
6:15
Speaker 2: Very, very tough kid. He's had a banged up shoulder
6:18
Speaker 2: a little bit, had a little bit of a hamstring
6:20
Speaker 2: twinge in this last game, and he just keeps on rolling,
6:22
Speaker 2: gets on the bike, does what he needs to do.
6:24
Speaker 2: And I'm sure we're not putting him full throttle through
6:27
Speaker 2: practice as much. But, yeah, we were over in Dallas
6:31
Speaker 2: for what we call Rebel Road Trip, and we had 500,
6:34
Speaker 2: 600 people show up. We've got so many Texas students now, Craig.
6:38
Speaker 2: It's crazy. And Ole Miss has just been kind of
6:42
Speaker 2: a popular spot for a lot of the Texas kids.
6:45
Speaker 2: And we had, I think, half of the crowd were
6:47
Speaker 2: Texans who had attended Ole Miss. I kind of asked
6:50
Speaker 2: that question. But we took Kiwan because we thought that
6:54
Speaker 2: he would be loved in that area, and he really was.
6:56
Speaker 2: I mean, he's very popular. in that area and all,
6:59
Speaker 2: but he's been fantastic for us and is just a
7:02
Speaker 2: tough kid. We're a different team when he's in there.
7:05
Speaker 2: We got a really good room, probably a better overall
7:08
Speaker 2: running back room than we had even a year ago.
7:10
Speaker 2: And Frazier's great, does a good job. Lindsey is too,
7:13
Speaker 2: but Lacey's a difference maker. I mean, he's considered a
7:16
Speaker 2: Heisman possibility for a reason. and hopefully we can get
7:22
Speaker 2: him healthier and he can get more playing time to go.
7:25
Speaker 2: He got over 100 yards against Missouri, even though he
7:27
Speaker 2: was banged up. So that's how important he is to
7:29
Speaker 2: our offense.
7:30
Speaker 1: Well, I'm in complete agreement with you that he probably
7:32
Speaker 1: would be a Heisman Trophy if the guy who's handing
7:35
Speaker 1: him the football wasn't probably front and center on that.
7:39
Speaker 1: We talked before the season what a great guy Trinidad
7:42
Speaker 1: Chambliss is and what he means to us. to the program.
7:45
Speaker 1: And now with the weight of the world, obviously thrust
7:49
Speaker 1: on him as the quarterback, he has performed remarkably well.
7:52
Speaker 1: How about your thoughts, both in the disappointment of the
7:56
Speaker 1: loss to Florida and what he has done, obviously, before
7:59
Speaker 1: and since?
8:01
Speaker 2: Well, and, you know, even in that game, he played
8:02
Speaker 2: exceptionally well. He played well in the Florida game. We
8:05
Speaker 2: just didn't defensively. We were terrible. And we kind of
8:08
Speaker 2: came back and had some powwows with the team. And
8:12
Speaker 2: since then, we've been really good defense, especially against Missouri.
8:14
Speaker 2: We held them down in the running game, and they've
8:16
Speaker 2: been fantastic the previous two weeks. So we felt really
8:20
Speaker 2: good about our defensive front and all. They have continued
8:25
Speaker 2: to play well, but we're just missing a bunch of tackles.
8:27
Speaker 2: I think Pete, as a defense coordinator by trade, solved
8:30
Speaker 2: that a little bit, but Trinidad played well in that game.
8:33
Speaker 2: Here's the thing about him, Craig. He comes from Ferris State.
8:37
Speaker 2: I'm sure in his mind, he's not real sure, do
8:39
Speaker 2: I belong at this level? And so we go out
8:42
Speaker 2: and look at him last year as a backup quarterback
8:45
Speaker 2: in practice. Harry Harrison is my color analyst. And we
8:48
Speaker 2: went on, so let's go look at this kid from
8:49
Speaker 2: Ferris State. So we go over to the practice field
8:51
Speaker 2: and watch him and say, hey, he's going to be
8:54
Speaker 2: all right. If something should happen to Austin Simmons or
8:56
Speaker 2: if we need him, he can handle it. He can
8:58
Speaker 2: handle it. So he ended up just exploding onto the scene. Unfortunately,
9:04
Speaker 2: Austin does go down. We pretty much had Austin Pennsylvania
9:07
Speaker 2: as the number one guy all year last year, but
9:09
Speaker 2: the injury was slow to recovery, and Trinidad just got
9:12
Speaker 2: better and better. But the thing that I like about
9:14
Speaker 2: him is he's still very humble, even though now everybody's
9:18
Speaker 2: bragging about him and he's on the Heisman list and
9:21
Speaker 2: all of these things. He's still working on his craft.
9:24
Speaker 2: He wants to be better. It's only halfway through the
9:26
Speaker 2: second year he's played in Division I. And so he's
9:30
Speaker 2: been very humble and super, super talented. But we've also
9:34
Speaker 2: watched him get better game by game, making the throws better.
9:38
Speaker 2: He had a couple of misses in this last game,
9:41
Speaker 2: but then he turned it on and hit some fantastic
9:43
Speaker 2: passes down the stretch. So knows when to run, very cerebral,
9:48
Speaker 2: if you will, as a quarterback. And you always feel
9:51
Speaker 2: like you got a chance when you've got him.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and then when you've got receivers like Deuce Alexander
9:56
Speaker 1: and Horatio Fields, that makes a big difference. and certainly
10:00
Speaker 1: they're worth the wait. I want to ask you about
10:03
Speaker 1: the other guy, the former Longhorn, John Tate Cook, because
10:05
Speaker 1: he had, and I call it a state championship games
10:07
Speaker 1: when he played at DeSoto, and he had some big
10:11
Speaker 1: moments in Texas, but it didn't work out from there
10:14
Speaker 1: and then went to Syracuse and had some off the
10:16
Speaker 1: field things and it didn't work out. It looks like
10:19
Speaker 1: he has, if not reinvented himself, kind of retooled himself.
10:24
Speaker 1: Is that a fair way to describe it? Because he's
10:25
Speaker 1: obviously been a contributor.
10:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. We're kind of a weird receiving room.
10:31
Speaker 2: You know, we lost a lot of those key guys
10:33
Speaker 2: from that playoff run team a year ago. Deuce is
10:35
Speaker 2: one of the returning players, and he leads us by
10:37
Speaker 2: far as far as receiving goes. Alexander does. But Fields
10:42
Speaker 2: and Ray and Cook and those guys, it's kind of
10:45
Speaker 2: an equal distribution among them. They're all handling it pretty well.
10:48
Speaker 2: Caleb Odom is kind of a hybrid tight end, H-back.
10:52
Speaker 2: And then you've got a couple of other tight ends
10:53
Speaker 2: that are in the mix too. But Tate's done a
10:56
Speaker 2: good job. He's... You know, one of those guys that's
10:59
Speaker 2: getting his third stop, so to speak. We also took
11:02
Speaker 2: him to Dallas when we had our Rebel Road Trip
11:04
Speaker 2: over there, and he got a nice round of applause
11:07
Speaker 2: when we introduced him and all. I got to meet
11:09
Speaker 2: his family there, too. And, yeah, I think he is
11:13
Speaker 2: kind of reinventing himself and trying to stay on track
11:17
Speaker 2: the rest of his career.
11:19
Speaker 1: What was the key, do you think, in flipping the
11:23
Speaker 1: script and being able, because, you know, coaches talk about
11:25
Speaker 1: it and players talk about it too, about shelving it,
11:28
Speaker 1: putting behind them, you know, if they have a disappointing
11:32
Speaker 1: loss and being able to move on. It stunned a
11:35
Speaker 1: lot of people, especially after the win over LSU to
11:39
Speaker 1: have what happened happen. in the swamp there. But Texas
11:43
Speaker 1: discovered that last year and they discovered it last week
11:45
Speaker 1: about having to deal with Florida and all that. But
11:47
Speaker 1: to be able to turn it back around to play
11:50
Speaker 1: so well against Vanderbilt and then against Missouri, what was
11:53
Speaker 1: the best thing that you noticed about how the team
11:56
Speaker 1: kind of dusted itself off and went back to work?
12:01
Speaker 2: It's hard to measure, but you don't know how much
12:04
Speaker 2: or what part of it is that just showed up
12:07
Speaker 2: at Florida. My wife and Jean, bless her, Mary said,
12:11
Speaker 2: she said, have you looked at the schedule and who
12:13
Speaker 2: we're playing after LSU? I said, yeah, I think it's Florida.
12:16
Speaker 2: She said, yes, Florida, on the road where we don't
12:20
Speaker 2: do really well. And win or lose, that's going to
12:22
Speaker 2: be a tough game. And she was 100% right. And
12:24
Speaker 2: they just, they stuffed us and they ran the ball.
12:27
Speaker 2: And Jaden was fantastic in that game. Hadn't been quite
12:30
Speaker 2: as good since, too. And then they lose a couple
12:32
Speaker 2: of games after that and get the win over Texas.
12:34
Speaker 2: I mean, the whole thing is just... crazy but i
12:36
Speaker 2: think what we did was get go back to the
12:39
Speaker 2: drawing room and during the two-week period uh pete said
12:43
Speaker 2: that they really increased self-evaluation you know self-evaluation is fan
12:47
Speaker 2: sometimes we don't know but that's an ongoing thing with
12:49
Speaker 2: all our programs especially in our league too but you're
12:52
Speaker 2: looking at your own tendencies making sure you're not throwing
12:54
Speaker 2: something out there on video that that people can say
12:57
Speaker 2: oh when they do this you know the the We
12:59
Speaker 2: can take advantage of it, blah, blah, blah. So there's
13:01
Speaker 2: a lot of self-scouting going on. And then really got
13:04
Speaker 2: physical during that two-week period. I think we'd come into
13:07
Speaker 2: these camps sometime before season started. Good old days. You
13:10
Speaker 2: had two days and you knocked each other crazy. And
13:12
Speaker 2: so you were up to speed physically. But the fear
13:15
Speaker 2: of getting players hurt and that kind of thing, I
13:17
Speaker 2: just don't know how physical we are. We did have
13:19
Speaker 2: some physical practices. and periods before the season started. But
13:23
Speaker 2: we really got down and dirty during that two-week period,
13:26
Speaker 2: especially the first week, and made sure we were getting
13:30
Speaker 2: people on the ground defensively. And we've just played so
13:32
Speaker 2: much better defensively the last two games.
13:34
Speaker 1: David, this isn't the right phraseology, but I'll ask it anyway.
13:39
Speaker 1: How weird... is this league. I mean, I know, well,
13:42
Speaker 1: tough and a grind and all this, but to see
13:45
Speaker 1: some of the things that have happened, you know, from
13:49
Speaker 1: what Kentucky has done and then LSU up and down
13:52
Speaker 1: and then Texas starts 4-0 and they're number one and
13:54
Speaker 1: now they've dropped two in a row and Oklahoma looked
13:57
Speaker 1: great and then they fall back and then Auburn, you know,
14:00
Speaker 1: winning at Georgia and then, you know, in Alabama, you know,
14:04
Speaker 1: losing at Tennessee. I mean, this, what does it say
14:07
Speaker 1: about this league other than the fact that it's a
14:09
Speaker 1: tough league to be in?
14:11
Speaker 2: I know you and the Longhorns are a recent arrival,
14:15
Speaker 2: so to speak. But for someone who's been associated with
14:18
Speaker 2: it for like 40 years, this is one of the
14:19
Speaker 2: craziest years ever. And I think it's because everybody has
14:23
Speaker 2: got 25 million plus rosters. Everybody's got really good players.
14:28
Speaker 2: And if they show up and they play well and
14:30
Speaker 2: you're a little bit off, you can get beat. I
14:32
Speaker 2: just think top to bottom, there's that potential there. Some
14:36
Speaker 2: have got better depth than others. I also think that
14:39
Speaker 2: the portal has affected maybe some blue blood depth, if
14:43
Speaker 2: you will. I mean, Alabama used to go four deep
14:45
Speaker 2: and if somebody got hurt, just plugged another one in
14:48
Speaker 2: and you ran out of gas late in the game.
14:49
Speaker 2: I don't think that's happening as much either. And believe me,
14:53
Speaker 2: I'm just guessing. I really am because it's just been
14:56
Speaker 2: a crazy year of how we're kind of beating each
14:59
Speaker 2: other up. And you hope, Craig, by the time you
15:01
Speaker 2: get to the end that the committee will look at
15:04
Speaker 2: all of us and if there's a handful of nine
15:07
Speaker 2: and threes that they'll say hey you know they're nine
15:09
Speaker 2: and three but uh so that's going to be the
15:12
Speaker 2: mystery down the road but we sure are beating each
15:14
Speaker 2: other up and you just don't know it makes it
15:16
Speaker 2: very exciting from weekend to weekend to see what's going to.
15:18
Speaker 1: Happen no doubt about it he's david kellum play-by-play voice
15:21
Speaker 1: of the old miss rubbles dk are you bringing miss
15:24
Speaker 1: mary with you Ms.
15:26
Speaker 2: Berry's not making this trip. We came to Texas for baseball.
15:30
Speaker 2: She came with me on that one. We came to
15:31
Speaker 2: football last time. We'd have been to basketball. So she's
15:33
Speaker 2: taking a break this weekend and going with the best
15:35
Speaker 2: friend of hers to the lake. So she's punting me
15:38
Speaker 2: going up to Pickwick to the lake this weekend. But
15:42
Speaker 2: we are bringing a good crew, and we're looking forward
15:45
Speaker 2: to it. We're going to stay out in Round Rock.
15:46
Speaker 2: The team's going to be at Round Rock and see
15:49
Speaker 2: what we can do with Texas. I really wish you'd
15:51
Speaker 2: won last weekend so you wouldn't see backs against the wall,
15:54
Speaker 2: but oh well, it is what it is, right?
15:57
Speaker 1: We've learned that that sometimes matters and sometimes doesn't, so
16:00
Speaker 1: I guess we'll see how that does. Hey, DK, thanks
16:03
Speaker 1: for the time. I appreciate it. Look forward to seeing
16:05
Speaker 1: you this weekend. Alright, that's David Kellum, play-by-play voice of
16:11
Speaker 1: the Ole Miss Rebels. Up next, we bring Inconceivable here
16:13
Speaker 1: on Sports Radio AM 13 Under the Zone and the
16:15
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app.