Latest / Dawgs Down South / Episode 106: SEC Summer Preview LSU, Tennessee, Hot Takes, Gunner Stockton Radar

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Episode 106: SEC Summer Preview LSU, Tennessee, Hot Takes, Gunner Stockton Radar · Dawgs Down South

• Ted Turner: Good evening and welcome everyone to Dogs Down South. I'm your host, Ted Turner. It's great to see you tonight. We are into July, which means we are very, very close to experiencing fall. A lot of people are like, man, we're in summer. Don't rush it. Things of that nature. But I tend to personally, when I and I go on vacation and I come back from vacation and I kind of just get in that mode of like, man, here we go, right? It's regardless of if it's the beginning of July, beginning of August. For me mentally, when vacation happens and it ends, my mental countdown kind of begins. I'm excited to be back. I'm I'm going solo tonight. I thought it would be I I I think honestly it's very important that I say that I was supposed to be going live with my partner Fish tonight. And I think he would be okay with me saying this, but it's a very tough moment. as the story that connects with this is is that we're praying for fish and he lost his father yesterday or this overnight last night and Mr. Cliff was a person that I've talked about many times with Fish because me and Fish go way back as friends in high school, but his dad, his parents were the first people to take me and let me experience a Georgia football game with their family. I remember very fondly of Mr. Cliff driving us up to Athens from a little town called Americas, Georgia. And we would take the four four hour drive. And if I'm not mistaken, and I think I'm on point with this in the Astro Van and him and Miss Marsha were so openly willing to take me to a couple of games. And that's back in the day where you could unload the van and there were 20 parking spots to your left, right, and forward, and it wasn't an all-day thing. You didn't have to buy a parking pass early and you get out, throw the football, you could throw some hot dogs on the grill. You could experience it, you could go into Sanford Stadium and you could walk around the hedges and we didn't stay in our seat much, but very rewarding experience for me. I'm grateful for that. And you know, that's that's the start of my my journey as being a dog fan. and so very, very tough day today for Fish and his family. And so you know, thoughts and prayers with the family, Mr. Cliff, you will be missed. but he would have been looking forward to this season just like all dog fans are right now. want to start out the night was I just just came back from vacation. So this is a lot this is a loaded show tonight. I'm by myself. We're gonna talk about a lot. We're gonna cover a lot. we're gonna talk some hot takes. We're gonna continue our SEC summer preview and it's gonna be a tough one to make it through tonight because these are two teams that I think It it's it could go really left or right with any of these two teams that we're previewing tonight. Both of these teams this year are we took a little break, and these are two teams that in the regular season that Georgia will not be facing. So it'll be interesting to talk about these two teams, talk a little bit about SEC media days coming around the corner. some hot topics. I'll throw out some hot takes, some real hot takes that some fans may agree with, disagree with, not only around Georgia was around the SEC. and then we'll do some fun things towards the end. I thought it would be cool to I don't know if you guys have seen some of these statistics, but number of days since some of these schools have actually beat Georgia. and I also want to talk about where you know, which SEC programs have the best home record since 2021. I think some of this will. kind of blow your mind a little bit to know some of these statistics. But before we do that, let's hop right in and let's talk some hot topics. first off, obviously, let me go to my handy dandy countdown. I created a little countdown clock. So as of today we are 59 days until we open up in the hedges. Obviously media days, SEC media days, fall camp and all those things. help us get to that point without going crazy. So we're counting the days down to all that as well. so can't wait for fall camp, media days and all those other things. 59 days till we till we touch down in the hedges. But let's hop right in. Let's talk about some hot topics real quick. First off, if you have not already done so, man, I'm looking so forward to this season. so much going on and we're gonna try to extend ourselves and get out, get this podcast even more out there. not because we're saying anything special, just because we feel like we're, you know, we're trying to do our best to cover Georgia football and around the SEC and we we we we give kind of a hometown feel and we try to do it from a standpoint where it's pretty truthful, not a hundred percent crazy biased. And, you know, we also don't sit up here and, you know, kind of say crazy things. We just kind of report the news, what's going on around Georgia football expectations, try to call the games. And try to give you good insights day in and day out. So I hope you'd appreciate that. If you do appreciate it, make sure you continue to like and follow us on all the platforms. that's YouTube Dogs Down South, Facebook Dogs Down South, TikTok Dogs Down South, and Apple Podcasts and Spotify Dogs Down South. we appreciate the support. and please continue to like and follow and share the share the lives, share the the podcast with people. we'd love to we we'd we'd love to hear from you at at Dogsdown South at Gmail dot com. If you have questions or you have anything you want brought up or talked about on the show, we'd love to we'd love to hear about it. That's dogsdown south at gmail dot com. So let's hop in really quick. Hot topics. I'd like to talk some hot topic Georgia takes. Okay. and I'm gonna say the hot the hot take first and then we're gonna kind of dive into it. I thought it'd be a cool way to break the ice, and then we're gonna cover We're gonna cover a couple teams. Tonight's teams are Tennessee and LSU. So it should be should be pretty cool. But so let's talk Georgia real quick. Let's talk a hot take on Georgia. So I'm just noticing over this past few days that Gunnar Stockton is not getting a lot of love. Some people have him I mean, you hear these little side comments about, you know, Gunnar Stockton's a sleeper Heisman candidate, all these things, and then you hear You know, people that are like, nobody has Gunnar Stockton, even in their top one hundred college football players this year. and you know, I would tell you that that's exactly how Georgia and Gunner wants it. I mean, you know that. If you're a true Georgia fan, you know that. that Kirby would like nothing less than to be talked you know, the least amount of talk about Georgia, the least amount of talk about, you know, how somebody's up for this award and that award and all these things. Kirby likes it exactly like that. I think the DNA of all the Georgia players are to to to some extent, I mean, I'm sure they keep up with that stuff, but all in all, I think they follow kind of Kirby's DNA as far as if it came down to Heisman or Doe Campbell or any of these things, national championship would be highly SEC and championship would be highly rated above all those awards for the players that play for the red and black. I think that's Kirby's take, obviously. that's George's take as as a player. and I'm sure most of the fan base would agree. I don't think there's a fan base that would come up there and go, yeah, I I much rather think it's more due for Gunnar Stockton to win the Heisman than it is for for George to win the national championship. Which saying all that, I mean, when you look at Heisman, I would tell you that for the last five to six years, it's been the least. predictable award that's out there. you look at some of the last few to go down. I would tell you that Mendoza last year, I think he was a hundred to one or something of that. You look back at Joe Burrow, Joe Burrow wouldn't didn't even have a percentage of of of a chance to win the Heisman when he won it. some of them that don't fall into play, like I think there was Caleb Williams who was around 18%. You had the kid from LSU Jaden Daniels that Think he was around 18 to 20 percent. so those don't kind of aren't aren't really included. when you look at Travis Hunter, I think at that time he was like a 60 to one or something of that crazy. So I would say when you look at Heisman, like you this is something that has been kind of like from left field the last few years. it's not been a predictable thing. why am I saying all that? Because obviously it doesn't detour dog fans that and it doesn't. You know, it doesn't mess with us that Gunnar Stockton isn't a Heisman candidate, or, you know, he's like, hey, you know, probably one of the best players in college football this year will be Gunnar Stockton. But we all know that expectations are high for Gunnar Stockton returning for his senior season this year, with everybody expecting him just to get better, right? They're expecting automatically Gunnar's gonna be better. he's gonna do some things. That last year were so challenging. He's going to do them better. and he's gonna be a little bit more in control of the offense and control of his team. I agree with all of those things. But let's not get ahead of ourselves this year. And and and, you know, I think one of the biggest things, one of the reasons I preempted everything with that is because my hot take is is that I think this year, the the hot take is that Gunnar Stockton shuts people up and throws the deep ball and intermediate ball well this year. I think that's a hot take. because I think he will. I think I I I look at Gunner and I feel like he is a work ethic, clock-in, go-to-work guy. It's it's it it's didn't shock me that of all of the rumors around the NCAA college football game, how he chose not to be in the game and all these other things, and how he said he just wants to play football. None of that shocked me. that's right on his DNA, it's right on point with who he is. I think he's all about work. I think he's all about football. I think he's all about getting better and doing what it takes to help this team compete, win a national championship and an SEC championship this year. And I think that's just what he's about. That's the business that he's about. I commend him for that, obviously. And I'm sure every dog fan out there does. And and believe me, I I have plenty of people because I know some of these clips are gonna hit TikTok and people are gonna chime in and go, yeah, Gunnar Stockton can do this better, he can do that better. He's got to do this better. He's got to do that better. I'm concerned with this. Ryan Puglisi is the better arm. He's probably the better quarterback. So on and so forth. we lost Jerry Curtis. if Gunner would have just, I don't know, you name it. There, there's going to be negative comments that go against any of this. But I do believe that in a few snippets that I've seen from the Manning passing camp and a couple of offseason things going on already. I feel like Gunnar Stockton has a little bit more zip on the ball. in the clips that I've seen, just natural zip. has his throwing motion changed a little bit? I know everybody spoke of spring practice that they they felt like Gunner's throwing motion changed a little bit. I do think it was tweaked a little bit. I I do think there is some nuances that are a little bit different. I don't think there's anything major. I don't think we wanted to break anything that wasn't really per se damaged. if as weird as that sounds, we don't we don't we're not trying we it it's hard to pick things off the floor that were never on the floor. I think you can just take some things and turn some knobs here and turn some knobs there and make something better. And I think that's what what happened. I think it was some easy tweaks to kind of help him maybe torque and get over get on the ball a little bit better. because he has a strong arm. I mean, he's shown that. He's shown he has an accurate arm. He's shown he has a strong arm. is it the strongest in the SEC? No. Is it the strongest, obviously, in the in the in in the NCA? No. is it the most accurate? No. but I do think he will have a year where he will be better at the intermediate and the deep ball. So here's another, here's another hot take that kind of goes along with Gunnar Stockton is that I think George's defense is gonna be. That's good this year. That Stockton has less pressure, similar to the Stetson Bennett natty years, right? you know, those defenses. Do I think Stetson Bennett had good years? Yes. But I think Stetson was allowed to play a little bit more free. He was allowed, he was allowed to play a little bit more, take a little more chances per se, because he had a defense that he knew was elite. It was a top three, if not. Top, you know, best defense in college football at those times with with with those national championship teams. I think the defense has the opportunity to be that good this year to where, and I'm not saying they were not good last year. I there were many improvements last year on the defensive side of the ball. Could there have been more? Did we see some things we need to work on, obviously, from chasing Trinidad Chamless around in the playoffs and some secondary things that still could. could be better and you know getting pressure on the quarterback, more sacks, more you know, more impact plays on defense, of course. But I think this has the opportunity to be a very special defense this year, which will in turn take a lot of pressure off of Gunnar Stockton to kind of be a hero. And don't get me wrong, I think Stetson Bennett was gutsy. I think he was a competitor. I think he he was a great quarterback and he caught a lot of people off guard. Nobody can Nobody can sit there and say they saw Stetson Bennett coming on to win two national championships in Georgia when he took the field. They just they just didn't. You're you're not, I mean, those are lottery ticket odds. That's like if you told me that, I would say yeah. And the the same person probably in the next few days will have somebody showing up at their door knocking and going, hey, you have the winning lottery ticket for the billion dollar lottery. I mean, it's just that minute that somebody sitting out there going, Stetson Bennett's gonna win a national championship this year prior. To ever seeing him take the field as a starter. Not as after seeing him and him playing in, you know, four or five games. But I do think this defense will be better this year. I think it will be elite enough to take some of that pressure off of Gunnar Stockton. And and there's where I think Stetson Bennett was such he was so good at what he did was because and now when you made them pay, you hit intermediate routes, you hit deep balls. It made us even more potent of an of an offense because of the fact they knew that the defense wasn't going to allow a lot. It it wasn't going to allow a lot. And so you had to be cognizant about how you played us. the last one I will say, this is a Georgia hot take. I got a couple of SEC ones I want to throw in there before we start looking, covering teams, but I think Isaiah Canyon is can can be a bigger star this year. Than any other wide receiver in the past five years at Georgia. Let me repeat that. I think that Isaiah Cannon has the ability, has the makeup of a receiver. And I love how sneaky behind the scenes he's been this year, right? He's he he's been somebody that's been mentioned, obviously, because he was in the transfer portal. He was a coveted wide receiver out of Georgia Tech. He made some catches against Georgia. We don't know much about him. We did we didn't see a ton of him. In the spring game, I think that was on purpose. but I think he could be a bigger star than any wide receiver. And yes, I said any. That's including the the Zachariah branch, who I loved last year, who a lot of Georgia Vance fell in love with. But I think he could be as big or bigger of a playmaker than any other wide receiver in the past five years of Georgia. I really I I I'm high on this guy. I think Georgia's high on this guy. They wanted him. they they they were kind of annoyed. They they missed on him. I don't know if they missed or just didn't prioritize him in a cycle where Georgia Tech did. but I think this kick could be really good for Georgia. He has the makeup to do it, strong hands. It it's kind of like a little bit of a makeup of a Kobe Young with with the strong hands, the the versatile body, bigger body. a taller wide receiver, the the quickness and elusiveness of the Zachariah branch. but also kind of that that kind of smarts, I would call it. you know that that kind of that that route etiquette of like a Brock Bowers. I think he he's a guy that when you go look at the tape when he was at Georgia Tech, the reason he was effective at Georgia Tech Also because he had a quarterback that was more of a scrambling quarterback was because he was he had the ability to find weak spots in the zone and man to man, he was able to create separation and he was able to play one on one and figure out how to get open. And I know that sounds like, well, isn't that what their job is? Yeah, but these are it's harder in the in in in college football now, right? I mean, you look at the transfer portal, you look at top level DBs on all teams across the country now in the SEC. really just doesn't play. You're you're gonna be playing against good cornerbacks against every team you play against in the SEC. And I would I would venture out to say that even some of the teams that are not picked to do well in the SEC this year will still have DBs on their team that could play for any team across college football, even some contenders. and so that's why I think he'll be special this year. Now, a couple of SEC hot takes before we get into Before we get into some other stuff, I this one's gonna be a little weird, but go with me on this. I think Texas and Archmanning could possibly severely underachieve. And does that does that open the door? For Peak, I'm sorry, does that open the door for for Sarkeesian to possibly I don't know if they would fire him, but like how hot does the seat get? Texas has not hidden any, they've not pulled any punches, they've not hidden any agenda from anybody to know they've spent money, a lot of money in the portal, a lot of money on the coaching staff to fulfill needs on the defensive side of the ball, to fulfill needs on the offensive line. running back, wide receiver, just all parts of the ball have been addressed. it's kind of like the makeup of an NFL team. All boxes have been checked. To some degree, I would say possibly better than some NFL teams. because they know that they're possibly gonna be the highest paying. Right. Some a lot of NFL teams are, you know, sometimes it's a battle because you might can sneak in there and You know, they make you get you could pay a little bit more money, but there's a lot more competitors. I think in college football, I I think you're getting very picky about who wants to pay what. when you're looking at paying what some people pay for one wide receiver, they could go out and get two or three solid wide receivers and spend the same amount of money. I call that a bargaining agreement. it's it's it's kind of like three for the price of one. it makes sense. but I would say sometimes people pay for the crucial catch, the absolute unstoppable ability to to to create double teams and leave other people open makes the team better. If you can if you can do what you gotta do to get them open, if they're a wide receiver, if they're running back, you can block for them. If they're a quarterback, you block for and you know, so forth and so on. But that's a for Texas fans, they're probably like, All right, so you hate Texas. I I mean Yeah, I'm gonna give you a statistic here in a minute that's gonna blow your mind about Texas, but I I don't hate Texas. I'm just I'm concerned. I'm gonna s I love Will Muschamp, but Will Muschamp hasn't called a defense on his own in nine years. will he bring the work ethic of Georgia and Kirby Smart and the Georgia DNA to I think it's gonna bring the Will Muschamp DNA and Will Muschamp had his own thing going as a head coach and obviously lot of respect for Kirby and he took on some of that and he implemented some of the ways and things that he brought to Georgia and he'll take those to Texas. But I don't think it's made off the coaches alone. I think you look at how you can connect culture and practice work ethic and talent mixed with determination and all those things, you know, make you become an elite coach that in turn hopefully can get you to become an elite defense or offense. So and the last one I would say is this is and this is this maybe a wild one, and it and it's gonna lead us right into LSU and the preview of LSU, but I have a a hot take I have is I I feel like Lane Kiffin has a really great possibility to go to the SEC championship year one at LSU. it's easier nowadays to form a team in the portal, as you can see. So I think this is not one of those rebuilding things for LSU. The the questions will be how quick can we how quick can we move the pendulum for culture? which with the portal nowadays, and you've seen there's no secret that, you know, Lane Kiffin has been called the portal king the last two years at all miss. And he has been able to, in the past two years, shape that culture and get it to win. i you look at Ole Miss in the last three to four years. And besides Georgia, who's won two national championships and and SEC championships, and Alabama, who, you know, had one of the had one had the best coach in college football, one of the winningest coaches in college football. And they had the third most wins outside of Georgia and Alabama. And so he did that with maybe some would say less of talent, less money. less influence as far as who Kirby Smart and Nick Saban are, even though I think Lane Kiffen is a is an incredible offensive mind. but I do think with that all those combinations, like this is nothing new to him. This is what he did every year at All Miss, regardless of he was there the year before. Now he's just coming in and going, look, this is still the Lane Kiffin team. It just has LSU and yellow on the jerseys and purple and white. And We just got different we j we just got different jerseys and we got different school names. This is this is still a Lane Kiffin team. I I think I think you could see that year one. I think you could see that happening year one. maybe a bold take, but you know, as we get into looking at LSU, I think it will kind of it'll kind of connect for you. And I tell you, you know, the more and more this year you look at the SEC and you look at college football. you look at the SEC going bold and doing a nine-game schedule. I think this is going to be the year that the SEC reclaims the national championship. I think this will be a year that the SEC comes back as the the no-doubt clause that is needed to let everybody know that the SEC is the number one conference in college football. and I really do believe that some of the best players in college football are in the SEC this year. last year. Maybe a little bit different. I I feel like when once the the year started going that the Big Ten a lot of really good players, a lot of the conferences had real good players. NIL, if it's done one thing right, it's created a little bit more cohesion between the fact that there's a lot of better games on Saturdays now. There's not just, you know, top twenty five, top thirty-five teams blowing out everybody else. games are closer, tighter, there are more knockoffs and Uh-oh wins than I've ever seen in college football. And if I would say so, then I would say that NIL had a lot to do with that because sometimes there's people that there's players that are a little bit more apt to go and play for a team that maybe doesn't have as much high expectations because they're like, look, as long as I'm getting poached up, as long as I'm getting paid well, my goal is yeah, I'm gonna be a good team player. But at the end of the day, if I don't win a national championship, And so, you know, that being said, it is what it is. and and that's what NIL's created. And, you know, we'll have to be we'll have to be okay with that because I I I don't think that's gonna change anytime soon. I don't I don't think it's a prerogative right now to really look at NIL and to make it better. Why? Because I don't know if they have the answer for it right now. I think that's one reason. A lot of people are like, well, is it because You know, they're they're focused more on making sure that, you know, we we we don't need to go to a sixteen team playoff next year and so on. Yes, that's that's not important, but I definitely know I definitely would say that's on the agenda for a lot of for a lot of the the SEC and what's going on is you know, is the next move and I think it will. I think there'll be enough whining by coaches out there for job security that will want to go 16 teams. will it be exciting? But What the NCAA has to wonder is, is it gonna cut the legs out from under them and it'd be a slow burn, right? Is it gonna be are you gonna take away conference games, conference championships? where that I mean, conference championship have great TV ratings overall. a lot of sponsorship opportunities there. and are you gonna get the same amount of money for per se, like if you go to like a play-in game situation, right? Or you got four of the top teams in the country. getting buys in the first round. And so you have teams that are sitting out that are destroying your TV ratings, they're destroying money for you in the long haul. They're sitting at home and on a weekend where you could, you know, have, you know, great viewer, you got less than stellar viewership because those teams are sitting at home watching the games because they got to buy. I don't know. That's the business world of college football. But I still would say being more a part of the the actual sport of college football, I would still say it's the downfall and the shadow the overshadowing of how great the game of college football is. And it it's gotta be addressed. It's gotta be addressed soon. bar nut. So let's hop in. Continue our SEC summer preview, and we're gonna hop in coming off of right off that comment about Lane Kiffin. And let's hop into LSU. Now, big, big, big story you want to look at with LSU. I was talking to somebody today about LSU, and I said, you know what? I said, if I had to start with a preview, not only talking about the fact that Lane Kiffin could get LSU in his first year. To an SEC championship, possibly via for a playoff spot and a national championship. Let me just let me get into this first and tell you that LSU has a very challenging schedule this year. I think they have a lot of teams that look at Lane Kiffin and that have put him on top of the pendulum of you're going to start to get their best games. it's kind of what you've seen from Georgia in the past four or five years. Georgia is gonna get everybody's best game. I used to sit here and listen to people and go, how in the world is you fill in the blank, Mississippi State, Kentucky at home, South Carolina. How are they doing this? And how is Georgia allowing this? Or why is this game even close? I do feel like there's a standard that Georgia is getting everybody's best game, everybody's best bulletin board material. It's everybody's highest price ticket. You know, if I'm if I'm at a home game at Kentucky, that ticket for the Georgia game is the premier ticket on Kentucky's list. And so it's getting more of the predominant people that support Kentucky that are that are season ticket holders that know that how important that game is. And they're gonna play up to the standard of Kentucky football and who they're playing every single time. so you're gonna get their best game. I think LSU and Lane Kiffin, that name is garnering more f of a following because if you can if you can stop LSU and per se if you can stop Lane Kiffin's offense then you have a great chance to beat him, right? does that take away anything from Pete Golding when he was Ole Miss in the defense? No, I thought Ole Miss had flashes of greatness towards the end of the year. I thought they had incredible improvements throughout the year from day one, two and three, excuse me, week one, two and three of of of their season. They were a different defense. Do they have a lot of young guys in the secondary and things that yeah? which is what gives them hope this year. They, you know, you got still got a peak golden defense. with with a with a decent amount of returning people. Do they have to make some do they have to replace some spots on the on the defensive line? Absolutely. but it's it's not about if you gotta replace people. I think every team in college football now. Has to has the daunting task of going with NIL and with the portal, we're always going to have to do a great job of making sure we recruit well, making sure we do the portal well, making sure that we maximize the needs of our football team. but with that being said, let's look at LSU. So let's look real quick at three big questions. We'll talk about returning starters and where some of this offense and defense is going to come from, look at scheduling. I'll go real quick through, you know, just breeze through what I think a record may look like for them. But top three questions that LSU's facing this year. One, will Kiffen be able to blend so many newcomers effectively? It was one of the things I just said a minute ago. it was in a note that I wrote after I thought through that as well. We already talked about that. Do the running backs have the size to compete in the SEC? I spoke about this a little bit yesterday with somebody that I was talking to as well. we are quickly seeing that if you do not have a run game in the SEC, you could very easily, no matter how stellar of a quarterback you have, how great of a play caller, and how amazing of an athlete you have at the wide receiver position, you are not going to bode well in the SEC. I feel like teams that our success have really high success rates on the offensive side of the ball are balanced in the SEC. You heard it from me because when you look at teams like Missouri, I'm sorry, Ole Miss early on in the year last year. I think early on in the year last year, Kewan and Lacey was a he was a package piece. It was like we want to get Kewan Lacey some looks in these packages. And then what what what happened was those first three, four games of the year, last year in 2025 when they played Clemson, Louisiana Tech, Florida, and they were at Ole Miss. I'm sorry, this is this is Ole Miss director. I apologize because looking at LS you know. But Ole Miss, I f I feel like they didn't like the outcome and productivity of their offense the first three games of the year last year. I think that's where they looked and went, we gotta get Keewon Lacey the ball. We gotta be balanced. We're gonna have to take some pressure off of Trinidad Chambliss. I think. If we do that, we're going to expose we're going to expose who he really is and that he's really great when it comes down to playing a being a role player. Because believe it or not, I don't think Trinidad Chambles could take a game over. A lot of you guys are gonna be like, were you not there? you know, in the playoff game. Yeah, I was there. But I also saw, you know, a team that played completely different against Ole Miss, put them to bed in Athens. And we just didn't do that. Like he had to play a perfect game. He did play a perfect game. But I don't think Trinidad Chambers could match that four out of seven times. I really don't. I I just don't. and that's kind of my take on it. So and the third thing is is will the secondary live up to its its reputation? LSU's defense has a chance to be really, really good this year. Blake Baker coming back for LSU to coach that defense. and and you know, Lane Kiffin. very smartly keeps Blake Baker, keeps that defense intact. And he he's betting on if I can make this offense roll well, we can get we can get athletic, we can stretch the field, we can, we can, we can give the defense some breathing room. This defense could really be good. It could really be great, it could really be elite. and who knows that that very well could happen. names you need to know, names you might hear. Obviously, at the quarterback position. when you look at Sam Levitt, the question is how healthy is Sam Levitt gonna be? Is he gonna be ready at the beginning of the year? What's he gonna look like? obviously, and and I I mispronounce this guy's name. He he's a transfer from USC. cannot remember his name. He's the backup for I think it's Long Street or something like that. don't quote me on that, but there's a reason why he really got battle tested this year. in the spring. It's because everything has to do with is Sam Levitt healthy? Is he healthy? Because I do believe among I I think the word would be far balanced to what people thought. Trinidad Chandless was not just this great talent that was sitting over there that goes, Until you let me in the game, you'll never see how great I am. No. Like he was in a very prolific offense that fit his play style. I think he had the ability to be coached by one of the coaching gurus, not only in college football, but in the entire United States, that's Lane Kiffin. And I think his mindset was he was given the killer instinct and he had a little bit of swag because Lane Kiffin kind of coaches that. If you don't have swag, I don't know if you can play for Lane Kiffin. Like he has a swag about him that he he asks you to play with. so that's key. Sam Levitt is going to be a huge key into the excess of any of those goals happening for LSU. big names to know, Jace Brown, Jackson Harris. Jackson Harris is a kid that came over from Hawaii. Jace Brown coming from Kansas State. Those were two big, two big gets, man. Two real big gets that make this offense immediately, immediately elite. those are the names you're gonna hear a lot of. Obviously, when you look at the defensive side of the ball, you look at Prince Well U Umani Million. I mean, he came over from Ole Miss, brought him over there with him. Witweeks, I mean, isn't this poetic, right? I mean You can't write this as any cooler of a story, right? With Lane Kiffen, who the whole thing of the boyfriend Wit Weeks with his daughter from LSU from O Miss. And now they're coaching there. And you know, Whit Weeks is he I don't know, I haven't heard much about it, but Whit Weeks is a great football player and he's gonna be playing for Lane Kiffin in Baton Rouge for one more year. This defense has the chance to be very much elite dominant McKinley, Jordan Ross, DJ Pickett. PJ Woodland is a name know. and then to Marcus Connolly. this is a this is a roster that's a little bit more well put together than the offense is. These are a lot of names that have not played with each other for LSU on that side of the ball. we look at schedule this year. Let's just kind of breeze. This is a tough schedule for LSU, right? September 5th, there they got Clemson. This will be a game that's highly televised. at home you got dabo sweeney coming into town. this will be an interesting game. I I I think for the most part, I think that LSU's gonna be okay in this game. I really look for Clemson to take another step back this year. I could be wrong. So people have different takes on that. But I think Clemson takes another step back this year under Dabo Sweeney. I hate it for the guy, but his take on NIL and and recruiting right now is really hurting Clemson as a whole. Louisiana Tech, I think that's at home. That's a win. And then the big game on September 19th when they go to Ole Miss. I I don't think there's a bigger college football game this year. I think the Ole Miss LSU game is the is the best game right now, slated for week three in college football that you could that you could be watching. So that's gonna be a huge game. yeah. Advertisements and everything's gonna go nuts on that. Texas AM is gonna be at home. so I haven't really called it, but I man, wouldn't it just be like Lane Kiffin to go into Ole Miss. In the Hottie Toddyville and get that to get that win, right? does he do it? I am gonna go through these just for the sake of previewing it. But I think he can do it. I think it's a mind game. I think it's a Pete Golding versus Lane Kiffin. And I think that team was who it was because of Lane Kiffin, not Pete Golding. So as of right now, I'm calling LSU to go in there and knock off all miss. And Hottie Toddyville. Texas AM at home. I don't know this is gonna be the same Texas AM team from last year. with this being at home and Death Valley, I think LSU has a shot at this one. I think they beat McNeese. I think they go to Kentucky on the 10th and beat Kentucky. I think they take care of Mississippi State on the 17th. I think they go to Auburn, and this is where it gets really tricky right here. gets really tricky right here because I think Alex Golish and the Auburn Tigers have one of the best shots at being one of the teams that's on LSU schedule this year to beat them. So am I picking Auburn? No. But I am saying this is a game to be careful of because I do think Alabama, Texas, Tennessee are all losses. I said it. Alabama Texas, Tennessee are all losses. I think it's a tough November for LSU. and then I think they go to Arkansas and win. So this is and this is the reason why I say could this be an SEC slide into the SC championship? you know, they go nine and three overall, they with losses to Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee. Just because it's at Rocky Top. And we're gonna talk Tennessee here in a minute, which will lead into that. But I do think that LSU has the opportunity to backslide into a playoff. possibly into an SEC championship and be better than expected this upcoming year. without any further ado, let's hop into let's hop into Tennessee. You talked about Tennessee as a great starting spot after coming off of LSU and expectations for Tennessee. Now, Tennessee, Tennessee is a little bit of a hidden gem this year, I think. Georgia does not play either of these teams this year. in the regular season, that is. So number one, you know, when you look at Tennessee, the first question you have, and I I think I wrote these down earlier as well. When you look at an overview, is is who's gonna be the quarterback for for Tennessee? That's a big thing. Now, you got a four and a five star, right? They're young. The the second question that's related to the quarterback is not only who will it be, but can Josh Heipel get them comfortable enough in this offense to where they can produce, not turn the ball over? And don't get me wrong, in in in years past, you can look and go, Well, yeah, Josh Heipel's always done this, right? Different this year is because these these are two freshmen, right? You got either George McIntyre or you got Faison Brandon, right? I think Faison Brandon has a little bit of an edge going into fall. I think he's a little bit more athletic. I think he's I I mean I could be totally wrong, but I think if I'm having to bet, I think he wins the job. And it's how comfortable Josh Heipel can get get them in this offense because I think I think Deshaun Bishop's gonna be outstanding. I think he's gonna be a sleeper candidate in the SEC for be one of the top running backs in the SEC. I like Braylon Stanley as was wide receiver, freshman all American. we we They bring back Mike Matthews. This offensive line returns almost all starters. Wendell, Wendell Moe Jr., Sam Pendleton, Jesse Peary. This this offense is probably one of the top lines, I would say top three offensive lines in the SEC, if not the top line in the SEC. everybody knows Jim Knowles has taken over the defense for Tennessee. This is a defense that has to replace some holds, obviously, when you look at You know, that's Airland Car, excuse me, Aaron Carter, Ty Redman returns, Aegis Farouk. I mean, you look at some of these names that are coming back, but these there's other names mixed in there, you know, Jordan Norman, Xavier Gilliam, all these guys, this has to mesh with a new defensive coordinator. But now I'm gonna tell you, Jim Knowles is a winner, man. He's a winner. I didn't like the marriage of Jim Knowles and Penn State. And so I think this is a little bit different. the only thing that has ever sparked a little bit of like, can this be a good marriage? Jim Knowle, John Hype, you know, Josh Heipel is can can Jim Knowles produce a defense that can protect an offensive output that is either hit or miss, like Tennessee's is thinking about that offense is it could be potent and it could go and it can run teams out of the building, or it can be stagnant, not move. And make it very extremely hard on the defense to play competitive against anyone. I think that'll be the challenge for Jim Knowles. I mean, it's a SEC defense going up against a really tough schedule. We're gonna talk about here in a minute. But the most w but like a winnable schedule. When I say tough, every every SEC schedule is tough. But Tennessee has a pretty good avenue, much better than LSU, in my opinion. and then I and then I got a hot take for for Tennessee as well at the end, but I I think Jim Knowles is gonna be really good for this defense. I mean, if you're gonna bet on somebody in the offseason to turn the defense around, what a name to be out there to go and grab. I think Tennessee Josh Heipel and this administration went and did a great job to get Jim Knowles. Does it connect? Does it click? We shall see. We they'll have to know very, very early on. reason I say that is because very early on, when you hop in, you got Furman, you got to go at Georgia Tech, which is I just I mean, do I do I see Buster Faulkner gone? Do I see you know, a lot of things having to be reshaped, remolded every Georgia Tech this year? yes. But I think Brett Key still does a great job to get his team ready. They're gonna play with a lot of heart, a lot of effort. That's gonna be a tough game right there. So they're gonna have to be ready quick. Kennesaw State. I I I still think Tennessee goes to Georgia Tech and gets a win, but it's gonna be a tough game. Kennesaw State's probably a win. Then they have Texas at home. On September twenty-sixth. And this is a tough one for them. They get them at home. and I don't know. I mean, I would tell you when I'm looking at Texas later on, this is gonna be a question mark for Texas right here. I'm thinking Nealan's gonna be going crazy. This is gonna be a night game probably, on that weekend. coming right off of the LSU Ole Miss game. I really think, man, I give the edge to Texas, but Tennessee could get this done. But I'll give the edge to Texas right now, to be fair. so three and one right there. Auburn, much improved at home. I think Tennessee takes care of business against Auburn, makes them four and one. They're five and one at Arkansas. They get Alabama at home. And I think Tennessee can rewrite the book on this again. I think Morgan Wallen gets him another song out there in a crazy good way. and they win this game. So I think that that they still cover a loss. So that's one, two, three, four, five. That's six and one at South Carolina. It could easily be seven and one. Kentucky eight and one. I think they it's going to be hard to go to AM. I think eight and two could be a possibility. LSU at home. this is the game that makes or break nine and ten and two or nine and three. I think LSU gets this game because it's I just think that late in the year they're gonna be playing really well. and if I have LSU getting into an SC championship game, possibly a little higher on LSU than Tennessee until I see the product. But at face value and what I'm hearing, like in Lane Kiffin, man, you gotta trust, right? I don't like the guy a lot. I mean, especially after this year, but you have to respect the fact that he does he does a whole about a lot about the game. He's a good coach. So, I got them at around nine and three. A lot of people have them at nine and three. I don't know if they have the same records per se. but I I think that there's a real good possibility that you see this team doing really well this year. Really, really well. so yeah. So and then to close out tonight, I wanted to give some fun facts, right? Here we go. So I thought I would go through a list of number of days since the following schools have beat UGA. So I'll end with this. Thought this was pretty cool. for for Florida, it's been two thousand and sixty-seven days. Since Florida has beat Georgia. The next team in line is South Carolina. It's been 2,459 days since South Carolina has beat Georgia. the next in line would be Auburn. I'm sorry, Texas is actually before South Carolina, 2,378 days since Texas has beat Georgia. And then you got Auburn, 3,159 days since Auburn has beat Georgia. and then you have Georgia Tech, 3,509 days since Georgia Tech has beaten Georgia. and then the next two in line, you got Tennessee, 3,565 days since Tennessee has beat Georgia. And Clemson comes in at the very top, 4,692 days since Clemson has beat Georgia. So thought that was pretty cool. And man. I am I I am counting down counting down the days to college football. We have a lot of exciting stuff coming up. We are going to continue and finish up our SEC preview, summer preview in the next few weeks, and then get heavily late July, early August into nothing but Georgia. Everything going on from camp, everything going on from reports, who's in, injury reports, everything we're hearing. We're ready. already. We're ready to get on top of it. We're gonna be going weekly. Our TikTok pages will be going strong. YouTube, Apple Podcasts, all of them will be going strong. We'll we'll possibly be going live two to three times a week in the off season. So get ready to look forward to that. Can't wait for all that. so yeah, we're gonna wrap it up. and if you haven't already done so, I'll end with this. If you haven't already done so, go follow us on YouTube, Dogs Down South, Facebook, Dogs Down South, TikTok, Dogs Down South. and then 24 hours later, we're on Apple Podcasts, Dogs Down South. So hope you guys are having a great week. Hope you guys had a great fourth of July. Looking forward to next week where we'll be reviewing a couple of more teams in the SEC talking news heading into camp and some fun stuff going on. So looking forward to that. Hope you have a great remainder of your week. and looking forward to the season starting and so. as for myself, and all dog nation around the world, can't wait counting the days down. Hope you're doing well. Can't wait to see you next week. Hope you have a great night. And as always on Dogs Down South, go dogs.