7-19-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 2 - SEC Media Days Bonus Material: Steve Sarkisian, Quinn Ewers, Harold Perkins, T-Bob Hebert, That SEC Podcast
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This JOX 94.5 podcast is brought to you by Millennium Satellite and Video. Log on to msbnow.com. TV excellence everywhere. That's Millennium. McElroy and Kublik in the morning starts now. Coming up on 8.01. Welcome in McElroy and Kublik in the morning, JOX 94.5. I'm John Saber here with you today. Thank you so very much for tuning in. Today, if you haven't been listening for the last little bit...

We're not only wrapping up SEC Media Days, which took place in Dallas, but today is a special show because you're going to hear from...

various coaches players and esteemed media members that we quite frankly just didn't have time to get in during the during during the normal week like coming up this hour you're going to hear from Quinn Ewers and Steve Sarkeesian but you're also going to hear from Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze but I asked for your help earlier I was trying to figure out what to call today because again it's not a best of where this is material that you haven't heard before I thought about bonus material to harken back to the

physical media and DVD days, but that, that didn't feel quite right. So asked you the greatest listening audience out there to, to text in, Hey, what do you think I should call today's show? 2 0 5 8 3 4 9 4 5 0. One text that might be the leader in the clubhouse right now is, uh,

SEC Media Days Plus, with all the streaming and everything going on right now, that feels kind of good. Mike in Huntsville said, call a Matching Cube Media Days wrap-up. That's a good one. I might roll with that. Drake, who...

I'll be honest, might be sucking up a little bit, but I'm also here for it. I'm not above bribery and compliments. So call it Cinema Friday. And you know how I love movies that that I want to make that work. But I don't know if that fits. But we've got one texter as well as Christian who texts and call it the SEC Media Days after party. And I I'm digging that. I

I think that might be, that might be the one I go with, but keep those suggestions coming in. Two zero five, eight, three, four, nine, four, five, zero. That's the number to text in. Well,

We've got a little bit more of T-Bob Hebert. They kind of had a little fun in the last little bit, but now they're actually going to get into what Media Days is all about, looking ahead to the upcoming season. So we started off by asking T-Bob kind of your 1,000-foot overall view. How do you see LSU heading into 2024? I think you and Mac have a very strong,

read of the situation in that my expectations are kind of a combination of both of yours. Like I saw Mac the other day when he was talking about how he ranked at 15, but that's probably low because the potential's there. I agree with you. It's a potentially...

pretty high ceiling. Yeah. Because it's a friendly schedule and you still have a lot of talent everywhere, even if the interior line is a pretty big Achilles heel. I like the coaching changes. So there's potential. But I'm with you where it's like, okay, but if we take a step back and we're objective, there's question marks everywhere. Now, a lot of the time, I like coaching

The potential answers to the question marks, like a wide receiver, right? Yeah, you lose Hilton, you lose Malik Neighbors. Kyron Lacey is an alien. I think Kyron Lacey is going to be a freak, right? CJ Daniels is legit. Yes, and then I think out of all the young guys, maybe it's going to be Chris Hilton, maybe it's one of these other new cats. There's enough talent in that room where you throw them at the wall, and I like who's going to stick. I kind of feel that at cornerback and safety right now.

Well, I don't think they're going to be like the LSU greats of the past, but I think they'll be vastly improved. I definitely feel that inside linebacker. I think Blake Baker's going to make that a strength with both Weeks brothers, Greg Pinn and Harold Perkins. That's actually a strong group. That's not really a question mark in my mind. Edge defender is a question mark, but...

I like the potential answers there. But again, it's like I have to also take this back and say, okay, but if I'm being honest with myself, what are the chances that so many question marks are answered all positively? Like some are not going to come to fruition. And so at the end, when I tabulate all the data...

I end at about 9-3, where I really feel like 10-2 is a real opportunity, but I have to ding my own kind of homerism being too close to it, and I ding myself down to 9-3. And 9-3 would be a solid season. You're in the playoff discussion. 10 wins is enough.

You hit 10 wins, and if it's with a bull win. I think it's actually hilarious. There is not a bigger difference in college football than 9-4 versus 10-3. 9-4, you suck, fire everybody, everything sucks. 10-3, okay, we're fine. We're fine. But yeah, and look, in 10-2 you make the playoff in the SEC, right? So what's fascinating to me is...

There's this grouping of teams. Tennessee, LSU, Mizzou, and you can throw Mims in there as well. A&M, I have sneaking up into this group. I'm very bullish on A&M. I'm with you. They have the top-end talent, but they have just as many question marks. Yeah, but it's like, but I like Elko, and I love Tommy Moffitt. But also, I'm biased. He's my favorite coach I've ever had. He's awesome. But...

But those four teams, they all, to me, are in that 9-3, 10-2 range. Did you put Tennessee in there? Tennessee, Mizzou, LSU, Ole Miss. That's kind of my four right there. And what I love is they're all 9-3, 10-2 in my mind, and they all play Oklahoma.

So Oklahoma, to me, is the playoff arbiter for this year of SEC football. Like, if you beat Oklahoma, then you probably have a good chance to go into it. Do you lose in your of those teams? And you'd probably go 9-3. Usually we have, like, one fork in the road game. You have a fork in the road team. Yes, yes. Oklahoma is the fork in the road team for every football SEC team. So I'm assuming you have...

Georgia, Bama, and Texas ahead of all those teams? Are they on a different level for you? I keep shifting my tiers.

But, yes, generally I have been – if I want to go what I've been consistently saying this offseason, it's been Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Tier 1, and then Tier 2 being Ole Miss, LSU, Tennessee, Mizzou. And then I kind of have A&M at the top of the next grouping with that potential to get into Tier 2.

And Oklahoma, maybe a little bit behind them. Oklahoma's right there, yeah. But recently, I've kind of been going more Georgia-Alabama Tier 1. All right, so I want to hear from you. And then Texas Ole Miss Tier 2. You have a different angle of it than we do every day talking about Alabama, and you're obviously, you feel pretty good about them. What do you like about this Alabama football team?

I mean, bro, it's, okay, first off, it's Kalen DeBoer mainly. That was the hire that I was most terrified from the second Nick Saban announced his retirement. That was the name that I was like, if he goes there, this is going to be worrisome. Because who's done more with less?

And it's not like he wouldn't do it against nobodies. He two-piece Sarkeesian. He three-piece Lanning. His record against top ten teams. And you've got to remember, I can't remember exactly what it was, but in all these games he had lesser talent. Maybe it's like ten and one. That's what I'm saying. And so now you give him the objectively second most talented roster in the nation? Like, are you kidding? Like, am I dumb? Like, what, he's going to do worse? No? Like, no? And then I'm a big... And just these Alabama fans just...

I was so infuriated at my friends when Alabama was going through spring ball and they're all like hoping for like Ty Simpson to beat out Jalen Milrow or something. I'm like, what the hell are y'all talking about, dude?

You have a top five, top ten, top five quarterback already who only has one year of experience with a bad OC. And now he gets his, like, you know this, playing Cole. There's no big, or this is my perspective. There was no bigger jump than year one to year two of starting. It felt like everything slowed down significantly. Totally. So he gets that. He gets one of the best offensive lines we have in modern college football in Kalen DeBoer. I mean, the upgrade over from Tommy Reese to him cannot be overstated.

He has a great offensive line and a running game that can take a ton of pressure on him. And he has a clear area in which he needs to improve. Short intermediate stuff, maybe getting the ball out of his hand a bit quicker. I love when a player who's already really good has such a...

clear area to improve because I feel like it makes your offseason plan that much more focused. And so you combine all that. The only thing that worries me are Alabama's weapons. We talk about this. Auburn objectively probably has better weapons on the outside than Alabama does. But if Milrow can overcome that, he is poised to take a massive leap. Well, and as you know, too, if you're adding the run dynamic and it's a special run dynamic like his, and you have an also decent traditional rushing attack...

You don't have to have Judy Ruggs and Smith and Waddle. And this is one thing that I loved about DeBoer at Washington is... And you've definitely watched way more Washington film than I have, so you can speak to this better. But when you would look at the box score after these massive games, just...

He would... We think about Washington as just being throw, throw, throw, throw, throw, throw. Even if they didn't have a ton of success, he would always run the ball about 35 times. Like, he was really committed to the run, and now he should have a way better rushing attack than he's had. And it was a really good Washington offensive line last year. Don't get me wrong. They were very good. And Dylan Johnson was good. He was a hammer. But...

They're not as big as Alabama's guys are. These cats have the potential to be a bit different, and Haynes and Miller. And lest the listeners forget, I hate Alabama down to my last non-active sperm cell. I got cut earlier this year, so my swimmers are no longer fertile, but they still hate Alabama. I can feel it.

I can feel it in my RNA, Cole, so just know that I am being objective if I am saying all of this because it pains me to do so. I would have loved nothing more than to feel like the actual end of Alabama's empire was coming, but I

I just don't. I can't logic it out. It would take something happening that we haven't seen from either party up to this point to do that. And then, what, I tried to drop on one of the shows today, and you know they're already number two in recruiting, and I guess something just happened and now they're number one? Yeah, they got a five-star tackle yesterday. So, great.

So that's going good, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the worst part is, DeBoer's a great guy. And everybody loves him. The nicest guy you'll ever meet. To me, it is like...

Luke Skywalker taking the hand of Vader or something. It's like when the good guy accepts it or like when Gandalf says no to the ring because he's like, you know, I would seek to do good, but through this ring I would wield a power more dark than you could possibly imagine. Like, that's the boar. He's like, look, I'm a good guy. I took the ring. I'm going to do good work with this. But all he's really going to do is continue the reign of Crimson Oppression.

You know, it was nice for Cole to laugh in that, but I'm pretty sure that flew over his head. I understood that. I understood that reference, me pointing like I'm Captain America, and that's why I love T-Bob Abare. But you thought Bama hater disliked Alabama at all.

It's down to his RNA. That's some deep hatred, and that's also why we love the SEC. Well, I'm sure a lot of you have had enough, LSU. Let's go a little local. Coming up in about not quite 20 minutes, we're going to go to Texas, and we'll hear from Steve Sarkeesian and Quinn Ewers. But coming up next,

Auburn coach Hugh Freeze right here on McElroy and Kubrick in the morning on JOX 94.5. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than a player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the JOX app or wherever you get your podcasts. Coach, one thing that has sort of struck me this week, and I continue to try to bring it up, I don't think anybody has asked me

When asking me about this Auburn football team, about Jarquez Hunter. I think he's the most proven back in the league. He's the league's returning leading rusher. What do you expect from Jarquez this year? I expect him to have a dominant year. I do. I think he has put the work in. He's hungry. He looks great and is working extremely hard.

I love his attitude, and I'm like you. I'm okay with nobody talking about us. Truthfully, that's fine with me, but I think Jarquez, God willing, he stays healthy. I think he's going to have a really, really explosive year for us, and we want to run the football. He's got the talent to have explosive runs, but also to get those dirty three yards when we need them.

I like that room in particular anyway with Damari and Cobb behind him. But he's the bell cow of it. When you look at your offense, you've done a good job in past years of sort of stealing yards with your quarterback, even though he might not be a dynamic runner. You've had a dynamic runner there also. Last month of the season last year, did you know Peyton had that in his legs? And then with whatever he did prove to you, how much more effective can that help you be this year? You know, I can't say that I...

I guess whatever game the Georgia game was, middle of the year or so, he had a couple runs in that game where you said, all right, we can work with this. It kind of reminded me of the Chad Kelly, Bo Wallace days where you don't call a ton of quarterback runs like I will with Malik Willis. Exactly. But they have to know in the back of their mind that could be called. Yeah. And we have to account for that and that extra gap. And I think he's proven that –

He can hurt defenses with his legs when he needs to also. So, again, that's not something you want to call a ton of games with your quarterback, but it sure is nice that even in the scrambling world, I think just moving the chains, when things do break down around him, I think he has that capacity that,

that gives us another set of downs. We don't get to see him, and you always anticipate second year, not only in a similar offense, on the same campus, in the same league. You should be much more comfortable. I think that's just a very real expectation. But what do you see on a day-in, day-out basis that's been different with Peyton Thorne? Honestly, this describes Peyton, but it kind of describes me too. Yeah.

and our staff and what I see and I just see a lot more comfortableness. I feel it, I see it. I think the culture's a little better. I think the chemistry's better. I think the kids feed off of that if we are that way in the offensive room and again, I've said this a hundred times and I certainly don't want to act like I have all the answers and someone else doesn't but

There's just something about chemistry that's contagious, and I think it breeds confidence. And everybody in that room now has either been with me or been with... I guess I think everybody's been with me in that room now at some point. And so it's... I think he senses that, and there's no question he's walking around more comfortable. And, you know, we had our...

before I left to come do the AU Booster Club events. We had our, you know, we'd get 40 minutes with them a couple times a week. And, I mean, just our conversations on, hey, all right, what are we going to do on this scoop concept, it just was really natural. And I think we're going to be on the same page. It's a little bit of a different one, but I'm going to throw it at you because I actually think he can really help his team be very different this year.

Number one, he's matured.

from the time I got here, coaching, him accepting coaching didn't come naturally. And now we're talking about a guy that played D-line his first year of college and really only had one year of O-line play

He's come miles as a person, as a leader, as his work ethic. And I'm with you. I expect him to really be a dude that in this league can handle the inside people. And, you know, really pleased with where he is, the way he's worked this summer, the way his body is. Dom praises him, which wasn't the case when we first got there.

Really, really pleased to this point with Jeremiah. The capital of the sports talk nation. This is Jocks 94.5 and jocksfm.com. Hurry and... Coming up on 829 here on McElroy and Kubrick in the morning, Jocks 94.5. I'm John Saber. Thank you so very much for tuning in today on this kind of dreary for the moment, but soon to be hot because it's July. Friday, July 19th.

205-834-9450. That's the number to text in because I've been asking...

Y'all, to kind of help me out, what do we think we should call today's show? Because in just a minute, you're going to hear from not only Quinn Ewers, but also Steve Sarkeesian. And we weren't able to air that between 7 and 10 over the last couple of days. So that's what today's show is. Previously unreleased material, which I know it sounds like a lost album or a lost CD or something that we're playing. And so I'm going to ask you, what do you think we should call today? Because I'm not quite sure how to dub it. Joey texts in and says, days of future past.

And my inner nerd is loving that. And I hope you'll be there with me next Thursday, Joey, when that movie drops. Another texter says, just call it SEC Media Days Rewind. I like that, but that kind of implies that I'm playing things that you've already heard or may have missed but already aired. And we're airing previously unreleased material, and that's why I kind of wanted a special or a different name. Another texter, Saber Speaks Up, Media Days Wrap Up.

I kind of dig that. I don't mind having my name on it and throwing my weight behind it. That's not too bad. One more texter says SEC Unwind. I kind of dig that. That one as well as SEC Media Days Unplugged. That's a...

That harkens back to the MTV Unplugged days. The only reason I guess I'm not a major fan of it is because Unplugged would indicate that we were going acoustic and not going with heavy stuff. It's kind of hard to do a radio show if I were to unplug. Unwind, that was going on me a little bit. I might roll with that. Speaking of rolling, that's what Texas did a year ago when they rolled into Brian Denny and gave Alabama a double-digit loss there.

They made the playoff last year, got rolled by Michigan, and now they're rolling into the SEC. And so now they are brothers now, whether we like it or not. They are a part of the league, and we are going to welcome them with open arms and horns down. And so now that they are here with us, they were at SEC Media Days, and our guys were able to sit down with head coach Steve Sarkeesian. I want you to hear that here on McElroy and Kublik in the morning.

Coach, one thing that I feel like is really interesting about your group, everybody goes and replaces players in the portal.

It's almost like you went and found outside of the D tackles, because I don't think there are carbon copies of those guys, but you found almost carbon copies of super athletic tight end that can run slot receiver. You just, it feels like you went and got the exact type of players that you needed to replace with some of that happenstance or how much strategy goes into that? No, I think there's obviously some strategy, you know, I think, you know, naturally we have some position profiles that we like to fit, you

in our style of play, especially on the offensive side of the ball. So when you look at some of those skill positions, even at quarterback, even at running back, obviously the receivers, tight ends, there's a profile that we're trying to fit year in and year out. And in some years, you fit it perfectly the way you want. There's other years maybe you have to adjust some. This year just happened to be one of those years where you're able to fill those voids with the three wide receivers, the tight end,

in Amari Nyblak that kind of fit what we had before. But even with that, we're still going to be a little bit different because maybe some of those players that moved on had a little bit different skill set. But it wasn't by happenstance. It just worked out the way that it did, that we were able to do it the way we were.

You have a luxury that not many teams in all of college football have. You actually have a couple of, I'll call them extra offensive linemen. Like, they'll be regular depth, but there's not many teams that have two, three guys that have played meaningful snaps. Could we see those guys used in different ways? And just how valuable is it to have a couple guys that have started and played meaningful snaps kind of just ready to go? Well, I think it's been huge. You know, obviously you have a ton of experience in Jake Majors at center.

um, you know, Hayden Connor at left guard in Kelvin banks at left tackle. Uh, you know, two years ago, Cole Hudson started as a true freshman force at right guard. Last year, DJ Campbell started for us at right guard. Both those guys are back and healthy, which is, it gives us a wealth of experience on the inside. We're super excited about Cam Williams at right tackle. Um,

I think his future is just so bright and I'm ready to watch him play. But Malik Ogbo played a lot of football for us last year as well as kind of that tight end, bigger player. And then we have some young guys coming up as well. So Coach Flood has done a great job of recruiting that position in WSU.

developing those guys, and we're going to need it. To think that we're going to go through this gauntlet of a season and play with 5-0 linemen all year is probably not realistic. We're going to be a lot more aggressive earlier in the season and playing more players, especially even the big guys. Our first game is 2-30 on August 31st in DKR, so it could be a little warm. We're going to play more players and use a little bit more of a rotation than we have in the past, and I think that depth is going to be critical for us, but it is a great asset.

for us have we talked to cole about like a little bit of wrist tape or a glove maybe here and there i mean about as throwback as you can get yeah he is a throwback guy man he's a beauty he's tough i'm really happy for him that he's healthy again you know last year was a hard year for him you know a couple surgeries after his true freshman year and just when you don't when you're a young player and you don't get that off season to train physically to get your body right it

it kind of takes its toll on you as the season comes around. So for him to have a really healthy offseason and you can see that transition for him now, the type of player that we know he can be is going to be huge for us. All right, I'm going to get your thought on this. I'm not putting words in your mouth. I personally feel like right now, collectively, the offensive lines are ahead of the defensive lines in this league. I don't know when the last time I could have said that.

Could we be seeing a little bit of like full circle football here where there's maybe more emphasis on ground and pounds and ball control, more focus on running the football, trying to control the line of scrimmage more than we have the last couple of years? Have you watched Georgia's D-line? I also watched Georgia's D-line three years ago, and I know how different it was then. I get it. I did watch your D-line last year, though. Exactly. Exactly. I don't know. In this conference, it's...

Man, that's a tough statement to make. And you've been around this conference for a long time, Cole, and there's always great D-line. But sometimes you don't know their name. You know, the guy at Mississippi State. You know their number, though. Next thing you know, this 94 from Mississippi State is wrecking the game. But in the end, you know, I do think there's a lot of experience on the offensive lines in the SEC. And, you know, how people utilize that as a strength of theirs, we'll see eventually.

You know, naturally, you know how we play. We're a very balanced attack. And, you know, we try to utilize the run game and the play action pass and the RPOs and all those types of things because I think that's what's needed in this conference. You know, there's such good players. There's such good coaches. You can't be one dimensional. And so if our offensive line can be somewhat of an advantage for us, man, we're sure we'd love to lean on them.

Some great time with Steve Sarkeesian, and we're going to keep the Texas train rolling. And now this is the boys' time with both Greg and Cole. This is their time with Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers.

This is a little uncomfortable, surrounded by Southlake greatness right here. Quinn Ewers, are you in the Southlake Hall of Fame yet? Shoot, who knows? I'm not up there to make those big decisions like that. I mean, you're standing next to one right now. You have to wait five years before you get eligible. I mean, I didn't know how you guys operated. Do you have a key to the city yet? No, I don't. We've got a ways to go to catch up with Macklemore. They gave them all away. I asked Kelvin a little bit earlier, your job,

I had you before the Alamo Bowl. You sat down with us, and Jordan told Greg about it yesterday. He's like, we walked into that meeting, walked out, totally different human being. I feel like you're totally different now than you were then. A lot of growth last offseason. How have you grown this offseason? I think I've just gotten more comfortable in my own shoes and in my own skin, whether that be leading on the field or off the field.

Year three is always, you know more guys, all the younger guys, so you don't care what all of them are thinking. It just makes everything a whole lot easier. You did have so many familiar targets and weapons the last couple of years, though now it's...

for the most part outside of Jonte, pretty much everybody's new. So how have you kind of developed that rapport with the receiver so far in the summer? Yeah. I mean, like you said, for most of those guys, except AD, that was year two for, for us. And I was super used to how they got in and out of breaks. And, you know, I think we've done a good job, um, starting in the winter time and throughout this whole entire summer of, you know, getting used to how, you know, whether it's golden or bolden or, you know, IB getting in and out, in and out of routes. So, um,

And that's only going to continue through fall camp. You know, fall camp's the real test. So we're excited. Is there a part of the offense for you that you want to try to be more successful in, want to see grow a little bit more? I guess something that you tried to add with Coach Sark through the offseason. Yeah, I mean, I think we do a whole lot of play action. And I'm comfortable with that. But I guess just a little bit more accuracy on the deep ball, continuing to take those big chunk plays and get more explosive passes.

I know that the correct answer would be Colorado State because it's week one. But you're playing a whole new schedule now. You've seen Tuscaloosa, right? So you've been had an SEC experience. But is there like a place that you're really excited to go see and an opportunity to play against a team that you're really looking forward to?

Yeah, I mean, like you said, we're really taking it one week at a time, but I'm excited to get down to College Station and play A&M. So as a recruit, I went there as a recruit a while back when they played Auburn. That place was rocking. So and I know they're only going to be even more fired up for that one. So I'm excited. If you took your junior year dragons against Greg's senior year dragons, who wins?

Man, I don't know. We had a pretty good squad. Dude, you're not touching 05 Dragons, dude. There's no chance. I'm sorry. We had 11 guys go D1 off one offense. You had no shot on that one. You guys might keep it close within a 14 or so. We were hard workers. Discipline.

Dragon maker all day long. Quinn, thanks for the time, man. Appreciate you guys. Thank you. Wow, apparently the stars that night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas, as it's nice to see a little rivalry between Quinn Ewers and GMAC, but keeping that high school pride alive. Well, coming up next...

There are a couple people that like to stir it up when it comes to SEC. You're going to hear from them as we wrap up this second hour of Mac and Cube in the morning, JOX 94.5. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than...

A player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the jock deck or wherever you get your podcasts. 843, welcome back in. Malcolm Roy and Kubrick in the morning. Jocks 94.5. If you haven't heard of that SEC podcast, no, that one, like the Ohio State with SEC Mike, Michael Bratton, or Cousin Shane.

Now's your chance to hear it right here on McElroy and Kublik in the morning as Cole sat down with those guys earlier this week. Welcome back in. McElroy and Kublik in the morning. SEC media days. We've got That SEC Podcast. Which one do we have? That one? Yep. That one. Okay. Do you get that when you introduce it to people? Like, That SEC Podcast? Like, which one?

What's the one? No, usually people say the. The? So I'm waiting for when the SEC is going to sue me at some point probably. I'm going to change it to the. Which SEC is going to sue you though? Probably both. Depending on what we say, you know. As long as you don't put the logo on there, I think you'll be good. Regardless of what T-Bob does in the background. Alright, so we've got Michael Braddon, Shane, Cousin Shane in with us. We've got to start with Hugh Freeze. You did it on this channel.

You made the world mad. How did it feel? One of these guys did a whole podcast, and the title was the worst take of all time. And surely... There have been worse. I've said worse probably this week. You know what I mean? New listener. Yeah, yeah. He surely was new. But, hey, I stand by what I said. I am a little biased because I'm not...

a big fan of Hugh Freeze personally but I try not to hold that against Auburn because I don't think anything he's done is not against Auburn but hey I stand by it I think he's going about it the wrong way and the point being if Auburn goes 6 or 6 7 and 5 this year I think that that seat's going to start heating up yeah I don't think many people would doubt that um

I was talking a little bit earlier today and just how odd it is that it's year one and there's already people that are kind of starting that kind of conversation. It's like, wait a second. It's a rebuild. You have to wait, right? Not today. Not today's football, I don't think. I think year two, you start to see, just look at the history. And it's not fair to, we can't compare everybody to Nick Saban and Urban Meyer. But surely we can compare Hugh Freeze to Josh Heupel, who won a bunch of games year two. How about Lane Kiffin?

winning double-digit games here, too. Brian Kelly. He won the division the first year. But just the point being, what is Auburn trying to beat? I thought they were trying to beat Alabama and Georgia. Isn't that the goal? And yet, I just, again, five years ago, ten years ago, you could do it the way he's doing it, I think, in high school.

Again, ignoring the portal, that's not fair. But I think not upgrading a quarterback I think will be a huge mistake. And people are acting like it's not. But if it is six months from now, it's going to be Hugh that's got to answer that. And it was this time last year they were talking about how connected, you know, Peyton and Hugh. And they're exchanging phone calls in the middle of the night. They're thinking one of the like. What happened to that? We just completely forgot about that. I don't know. I just think you have to do it faster than ever. And.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with that because there's so much evidence that it can be done. Shane, I don't think people have heard you follow up on this take. Are you in agreement? Are you just being nice and going along with it? Where are you on Hugh Freeze, Auburn, Peyton Thorne 2024?

Well, I mean, that's a loaded question because Peyton Thorne situation, I was with Mike there. I thought maybe we'd get somebody out of the portal here to kind of catapult Auburn to that next level, and we didn't get that. But on the flip side of that, I do like –

I mean, you can't just do away with recruiting on high school players. You know what I'm saying? I think the biggest concern is when you start hearing the rumbles that Hugh Freeze is on a hot seat, not that saying that he will be, but how secure are those kids at that university? Because we see...

as Lane Kiffin calls it, the free agency kicking in. So I go back and forth with it. I don't think he's on a hot seat. I don't think he'll be on a hot seat next year. I think when he first came in, I was excited about what Hugh Freeze could bring to Auburn University. And now that I'm seeing some of these recruits that are coming down there,

Yeah, a little time, absolutely. But if we start losing those kids at the tail end of these football seasons, then I may say, well, maybe SEC might win. See, that's where I'm with Shane is I do think you can still build it through recruiting, high school recruiting, traditional recruiting. It's just going to be –

the level in which you can maintain those recruits and hang on to them. Because if you get them for a year, either one, they blow up and you can't keep them, or two, you don't give them the ball enough and they're mad and you don't keep them. Either way, you have to have that sustainability if you're going to go try to build through getting five stars. And let's be real. I mean, he's got traditional high school recruiting. He's as good as getting them in, what, a decade plus? I mean, we haven't seen this in a while. But that's Auburn. Auburn is supposed to recruit well. I mean, maybe not to this extreme level, but I thought Dust did a good job.

Recruiting. Early on, yeah. I just think that, again, if the quarterback is an issue, and I hate to pile on these players, you know what I mean? But if...

quarterback is a real issue and we can't throw the ball effectively and we do have Cam Coleman who may be the best freshman in the country is he going to stay I mean I have no inside information on that but I can guarantee you that there's going to be 14 other SEC coaches that's a normal conversation in today's college football I don't think that you're trying to point a finger at anybody that's just that's where we are we would say that about Alabama

If they had a kid that had 45 catches in the first three games and then they barely got it to him second half, you'd say, oh, he's probably thinking about leaving. Well, they have a kid that made arguably a top three play in the school's history that left. Literally. Isaiah Vaughn made arguably a top three play in the history of Alabama football, a top three traditional program in college football, and he went to go play somewhere else. So it's not a crazy thought at all, I don't think. All right, so I want to know tears from you guys.

T-3, T-4, T-5, T-6, T-7, T-8, T-9, T-10, T-11, T-12, T-13, T-14, T-15, T-16, T-17, T-18, T-19, T-20, T-21, T-22, T-23, T-24, T-25, T-26, T-27, T-28, T-29, T-30, T-30, T-31, T-32, T-32, T-33, T-34, T-35, T-36, T-36, T-37, T-38, T-38, T-39, T-40, T-40, T-41, T-41, T-42, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43, T-43,

What is Tier 1 for you right now going into this season? I think you hit the nail on the head. I think Georgia is the team. But I wouldn't do a tier of its own. It would be like a 1A, 1B situation. I don't think the gap is as wide as people like to pretend. College football, especially this year in the SEC football, that top 6.

six, seven, eight. I mean, you could argue, and we've argued, this season's coming to an end, thank God, but we have argued that this team is going to make it to maybe not an SEC championship, but expanded playoffs. So I would say Georgia number one, tier two, you're looking at Ole Miss.

I'm not convinced Alabama's in that tier right now. I do think that they're close, but I like Ole Miss. I like Texas. I like Mizzou because of their schedule. I like Mizzou because of their team also. I think their team's pretty good. Alabama's got a tough road. Georgia's got a tough road. So I think a lot of this is going to play out toward the end, but those are kind of my tiers there. And then LSU, Tennessee, kind of in that fringe area. Alabama, you know, still on the...

bubble there to make it into the playoffs. All right, Michael Braddon, Cousin Shane, That SEC Podcast. Mike, I want your tears, but are we ahead of ourselves on Texas a little bit? Hell yeah. I mean, tear, how many tears we got? We got four or five? As many as you want. Yeah, I put Texas near the bottom.

Of the tears? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Come on, this is worse than your Hugh Freeze take. Are you just trying to have a worse take? I love trolling Texas. But no, I think they're going to have legitimately a hard time, particularly the games that I think that really be hard for them is towards the tail end of the season when people are just completely chalking those up to automatic Ws. I think Florida's going to be a lot better than expected. Okay. At Arkansas, I think there's a real shot that Arkansas is one of the biggest surprise teams in this conference.

And then Kentucky. Shane loves Kentucky this year. And add A&M. I don't think there's any shot in hell that Texas wins all those games. I'm not saying they're going to lose them all. They'll probably go 3-1 in those games. But I think they'll lose to Georgia. I think they'll probably lose. Probably the other ones, Oklahoma or Michigan. So, I mean, 9-3-ish type. I just think it's insane after, what, 20-some-odd years when one Big 12 title, they beat the decaying dynasty, and all of a sudden we've got to act like they're the best team

program in the country i'm not buying that so yeah i i love trolling them not nowhere close to tier one they're they're in that tier two but i put them bottom tier two if that makes would you agree that their roster is top three four in the league just talent wise perhaps but another thing i think i don't understand where people are getting this but sarkisian is not a good head coach

His coaching grade suggests that. His coaching grade is essentially Jimbo Fisher. He had three games last year where he played a team with near or equal talent. He went one and two in those games. And we all focus on the one he won, which is, hey, it's beating Nick Saban. It's beating Alabama. Not a lot of coaches did that. But lost to Oklahoma. I mean, that was a...

You can't compare that Oklahoma to last year Texas. Texas was a lot better. Blew that one. And I think even Washington. I know they had a bunch of draft picks, but no coach in their right mind would have traded Washington's rosters for Texas going into that game. I think they really blew it. And that's one Texas fans could be looking back at and say, we should have played in the national championship. I think they probably would have beat Michigan too, I think. No, no, no, no. I do. I think that's where you lose. Michigan line of scrimmage, both sides of the ball would have been too much. Texas got some monsters on the defensive front, though.

They had them. Michigan had one of the best low lines in college football at the end of the year. It wasn't that way all year, but those two D tackles for Texas, too, would have been able to negate some of it. Well, they were cheating, too. We didn't know they were cheating the whole year. So I don't really honor Michigan. I don't know if Connor Stallion's went to any Texas games last year or not. I do want to ask you something for your audience. I think they'll appreciate this. If DeBoer goes 8-4 this year, does he survive to make year three at Alabama? It depends on what he does year two.

I don't think so. I think he's dead. But, Mike, you can't say if he goes 8-4 and then he runs the table and makes the second round of the playoff and gets beat that he's going to be out. Because he's not going to run the table. I'm telling you. I think it's just going to get progressively worse if he goes 8-4. You think Alabama's going 8-4 this year? No, I don't. I'm saying if he does. Because that's a poor coaching job if he does. But go back to what you said about Freeze.

Like, he's dominating traditional high school recruiting right now. Yeah, I'm glad you said that. Like, it might be ahead of where it was. I've seen a lot of that, too. But I think that's a joke. When people are like, Kalen DeBoer, he's kicking ass. He's recruiting like the devil down here. I don't think it's Kalen DeBoer and his staff. I think it's Alabama. I mean, every high school player in the country wants to go to Georgia. But he is the head coach at Alabama. You understand that, right? But they have their entire lives. Alabama has been. Shane, do you deal with this every day? No.

Alabama has the program for two decades. Every high school player in the country, they want to play at Alabama. I think Derek Dooley right now couldn't screw that up. Now, he'd screw it up the first game of the year. They'd go off. That's what I'm saying. And, again, Caleb DeBoer, I don't think that's unfair to compare him to Derek Dooley. I think he's an elite coach. But if he somehow screws this up, I don't care where they're right now in July in recruiting. They'll lose some of those guys. They will not maintain it if he screws it up. Okay.

And I don't believe he will. But where are you on Alabama, Shane, this upcoming season? Well, like I said, I had a Tier 3 bubble college football playoff team. So I think 8-4 would obviously be a horrible year. But 9-3, 10-2, I could see that. I can make an argument with that. Okay. Interesting...

I'm feeling pretty weird now about me being ahead with you on Florida. I don't like the fact that you also like that. I'm just going to be honest. Billy's gone week three. But here's the thing. I tell everybody Florida's going to exceed expectations. The unfortunate part is the expectation is three or four wins. I'm like, guys, it's Florida. They're not going to win three or four games. Like, stop. They're going to make a bowl this year. This logo, like...

I don't even know what to call it, you know, logo dizziness of, oh, Miami. They were one game above .500. Central Florida was a game below .500 last year. We're acting like they can't beat these teams. People act like A&M won ten games last year. I know it's a new coaching staff and a new regime, but, like, they were barely above .500 last year. And all of a sudden, Florida can't beat any of these teams. Now, I'm not talking about the Georgia game, you know. I even think some of the tail end. I think they could beat LSU.

Because I think LSU's going to take us. LSU's got question marks. Right. That's where I'm at. So, again, I think I'm pretty much guaranteed. I think Florida's snapping that streak. But that's another one I think they can win. They own Tennessee. Florida State's going to be totally different. Right. Totally different team than they were a year ago. And what if Ole Miss has a loss that's not expected by that point in the year?

I think that could be issues for Lane Kiffin to deal with, too. If he had lost to LSU, if he's lost to Georgia and maybe one other one, they could – I don't know. I don't know where that locker room is going to be. So I'm not chalking up Ole Miss as an automatic loss for Florida either. Okay. How much time do you give him? How much time do you give Billy down there? It has to turn around to an extent this year. It has to. I mean, it can't be – They're projected four and a half wins. You know, I mean, if that happens –

Do we give Billy another year? So what, five wins or six wins? Let's say five wins. I hate putting a number on it. I think I told you guys this last year, but I think he's got to get to seven at least to start even having the conversation of, all right, do we continue down this path? Yeah. I mean, I'm...

I mean, another year, three coaches, at least because going back to what we were talking about with Auburn, it's like, well, at least we can look at the recruiting classes and say, you know, Billy's building something, you know. But if we're still not making a bowl game by this time, I mean. Well, yeah, if we're not making a bowl, we're done. We're not having the conversation. I can't wait to have this conversation about Hugh Freeze in the next media days. Okay. We will see. Sleeper pick to actually make the playoff from the SEC.

Not knock on the door, not maybe, but a team that most people are not saying they believe are in the playoff right now that you think will be in the college football playoff. Well, you just got done bashing them, but I'll say it. Texas A&M, which, again, you're saying sleeper because I don't think they'll actually get there.

But I think they have some of the pieces. I really like what Mike Elko did at Duke from what I saw. I didn't religiously watch Duke, I'll be candid. But I went back and recently watched that Clemson game. I mean, I think the guy could be an elite coach. I don't think we've seen enough to know that. But certainly know he's an elite defensive coach. I love Colin Kline, Connor Wigman, if he can stay healthy. He's got some top-end talent. There's no doubt about that. D-line, receiver, quarterback, running back, if they stay healthy, I'd...

I'm not against it. It's just it's the other side of that, all the question marks that I'm – Right. Man, I don't know where to go with A&M. I really don't. Well, that's why they're a sleeper. Yeah. Okay. Shane? Yeah. Mizzou wouldn't be a sleeper, right? You wouldn't have them as a sleeper because – No, I think Missouri is at least in our conversation of playoff teams at the end of the year. I guess the sleeper would be Oklahoma for me. I think when you're looking at their schedule, this is a team that you can make an argument against.

a 9-3 gets in. They've got a tough road ahead of them, of course, but everybody's kind of down on the offensive line, but they've got one of the best offensive line coaches out there. If Arnold takes up, I mean, you've seen it. We've seen it. A quarterback can just change everything. And given that opportunity with that wide receiver room, I just, I don't know. I think Oklahoma could surprise a few people. There were two superstars that were brought from LSU to SEC Media Days. You heard one earlier in Garrett Nussmeyer.

And now I want you to hear from Harold Perkins right here on Macro and Kublik in the morning. All right, LSU blank Harold Perkins. How do we fill in the blank there? LSU blank Harold Perkins. LSU love Harold Perkins. We know that, but position-wise, if I'm describing you, I'm introducing you as your position, how do I describe you? LSU athlete Harold Perkins. Oh, we're playing offense now?

You never know. Expect the unexpected. I know one thing regardless of whether it's going to be on the ball, off the ball, zone, man, whatever it is.

Blake's going to bring pressure. And that's one thing I'm excited to watch you and his defense is you're going to have the opportunity to attack often. Is that something you guys have already discussed? Yeah, I like being aggressive. And obviously, you know, watching Missouri defense last year, they were the aggressive ones. So just speaking to Tess today, I love Coach Baker. I'm ready to be the aggressive.

When you do have the opportunity to rush the passer, you've been successful. What I want to know is when you have the opportunity to do that in your practices, what has it been like against your tackles on your team? It's been good, obviously. You know, we had Jaden Daniels back there last year, you know, going against Will and going against Emory Jones.

It's just speaking to a testament of coming to LSU. You know what I'm saying? Just the best of the best. You know what I'm saying? Just going against each other, iron sharpening iron. You know, like, that's what we do here. A lot of people don't realize some of those one-on-one pass rush battles in practice, like, that's the most entertaining part of practice. Nah, for real. It's just going against the best. You know what I'm saying? Like, they the best at their position. There's nothing you can take away from them, so...

I said go in against them. Every day got me right. Okay, so it looks like we just get to blame SEC Mike and Cousin Shane because everything else worked fine except that one time didn't seem to work out. So we'll just blame them for those technical issues and move on. Remember, you can text into the show 205-834-9450 trying to figure out what to call today's show because, again, we're airing things that we

We were able to record outside of our normal 7-10 slot. Coming up next hour, by the way, we're going to have a murderer's row of SEC coaches. Not only are you going to hear from Kirby Smart, you're going to hear from Mark Stoops, you're going to hear from Shane Beamer, and Greg McIlroy himself. He took the time before he left Media Days yesterday, he took the time to

Give us his, I would say, media day's takeaways, what he's going to remember most from SEC media day's 2024. And you're going to hear that in just a little bit. You're going to hear that next hour. Like I said, you're also going to hear from Kirby Smart, Mark Stoops, and Shane Beamer in our final hour of Macaroon and Kubrick in the morning. Remember, you can text into the show, 205-834-9450. Let me know what you think we should call today's

Mike texted in and said, hey, it's Friday, John. K-I-S-S. Keep it simple, stupid. You know what? That's right. I might just roll with that. Daryl texted in, SEC Media Days lost media.

I kind of dig that. Lost media. I may roll with that one. But we've got one hour to figure out what to call today. Remember, you can't keep texting in 205-834-9450. Coming up next hour, you're going to hear from three SEC coaches, Kirby Smart, Mark Stoops, and Shane Beamer, as we wrap up our final hour of McElroy and Kubelik in the morning on JOX 94.5. This is McElroy and Kubelik in the morning.

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