8-1-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 1: SEC Fall Camps begin; Kyle Whittingham talks Utah; David Murray talks #HailState
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Welcome in. Michael Roy and Kubelik in the morning. 7 o'clock Thursday, August 1st right here on JOX 94.5. Appreciate you being a part of the show. Listen online, joxfm.com. That app is in your app store. iPhone, Android can always download. Listen to that for free. Got a great show for you today.

We're going to talk a lot of college football camps that are getting open, that are getting underway. David Murray will update us on Mississippi State. They get going today. We've got Jason Caldwell. We'll talk Auburn camp, Auburn recruiting. They get going today as well. That's at 815. The coach, Wim Sanderson, always with us at 9 a.m. On Thursdays, Nick De La Torre talks Florida camp.

They got going yesterday. And then Kyle Whittingham, Utah head football coach, going to be with us at 740 this morning. We'll begin to discuss his football team and then we'll talk about his team even more so at 8 o'clock on just the fact of they're our team of the day asking can they make the college football playoff. So a lot of college football going on today. Camps in full swing, G-Mac.

Yeah, it is. And it's kind of wild to me. I feel like camp is starting earlier and earlier. I don't ever recall a look our NFL camp. I think we got quarterbacks and rookies usually got there on the 21st of July. So just mirrors camp just starting really early now for a lot of these teams.

Feels like it, but I think that's kind of school in general. Feels like it's starting earlier for kids and when they're going back and different things of that nature. So it just feels like it all. I guess the games, like you have games in August. I mean, there are games at the end of this month. So you have the first week of the season. Most teams will play.

In August, with the exception of USC and LSU, everybody's playing in August. So it's pretty crazy. And obviously they're playing on September 1st. So it's not like they're playing way outside of August. So maybe the season's just a little earlier this year. But I was under the impression that Bama started practice today. It was practice yesterday. And they didn't have their...

Here is Alabama's head football coach, Kalen DeBoer, on Alabama's first fall practice yesterday.

I think just like most first practices, great energy. Guys were excited to get out there. You never, I can't remember really any, many times where you had to coach up the excitement and passion. I was all there. These guys worked hard. We're excited about practice one. So, you know, always going to be far from perfect. But each side had its moments. And, you know, Bay plays. And that's what you want.

It's never going to be perfect. I don't think any coach is going to be satisfied after day one and feel great about how things are going. There's going to be mental mistakes. There's going to be mistakes made just kind of across the board that are going to be ironed out during the course of practice once you become more comfortable, more acclimated, especially with a new coach and new systems. But some individual players that I know some folks have some questions about, freshman wide receiver Ryan Williams, what Coach DeBoer hopes to see from him in fall camp.

Consistently, just in this trajectory on up, I don't need him day one. You want every play to be consistent.

amazing, explosive, but you just want him lining up right, doing the fundamental things, making the easy plays, and then because of his ability, the big ones will come. So when your route's on air, run a good route, catch the ball, accelerate out with good ball security. You find those consistent fundamentals and you stack days and those plays that we know he'll be capable of making will happen.

Greg, we talked about that receiver position. A guy like Ryan Williams, how much does Alabama need him this fall? I think it would be really, really helpful if he can be a difference-making player. I'm not suggesting he needs to come out and be Julio Jones, because if you even look back at Julio Jones' performance as a freshman, and even as a sophomore, frankly, there were a lot of ups and downs. There were some great moments, and there were some moments where it's like, all right, he's a freshman.

But that's to be expected as a freshman. They're going to be young in a few different spots at the wide receiver core. Ryan Williams is not going to be the only freshman that's going to make an adjustment. I remember, I mean, he should be playing high school football right now. So him reclassifying, he's probably going to be a little behind. And that's to be expected. Didn't go through spring. Probably going to be a little behind. So I think to anticipate a heavy workload from him day one and game one,

That's tough for me to envision. But I could see a scenario where he becomes more of a factor in the game plans mid-October through November as they kind of bring him along slowly. I would anticipate a lot of Jeremy Bernard, Kendrick Long, Kobe Prentice.

I think you'll see a lot of Emmanuel Henderson as well. And then you'll see sprinklings of Ryan Williams and Caleb Odom situationally early as they start to get more and more comfortable. We'll see more of them as the season goes along. Caleb Odom, after the first practice for Alabama, also talk about Caden Proctor and just kind of where he is, what he's bringing to the team.

I don't have a huge, I guess, understanding of what he was a year ago other than watching on film, but it feels like he's in really good shape and lean. You know, when you ask people who would have an understanding, Coach Ballew and so forth, you know, it'd be nothing but positive about the progress he's made. Strength and explosive numbers I know are up. You know, that's facts. That's real. And then also just the way his body looks.

You know, leaner. He's just so dense. He's got so much mass. He's going to be big no matter what. So, loved his demeanor out there. It's good to have him back. You know, good to have him here. Would be huge if Caden Proctor can kind of take that step and be ready to be a little bit better than he was a season ago and obviously solidify one of those tackle positions, Greg, that we have some uncertainties about.

Well, in the tackle position going into the spring was among the biggest question marks.

and, frankly, corner. Those were the two things that I was most intrigued by when I showed up to call the spring game. I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw from Elijah Pritchett, and based on what guys were telling me in the facility, they feel pretty good about the performance that he had. Now he switches over to right tackle. Proctor's being slotted in there at the left side, a place that he played and occupied last year. But, I mean, you're the overachiever.

O-line guru. I mean, you don't practice all spring. I think he finished the season on a high note for sure. I thought he played pretty well down the stretch. Didn't play as well against Michigan. But for all intents and purposes, there was progress made as a true freshman last year in the SEC. So what is a reasonable expectation as far as jump this year?

Well, he does have legitimate playing experience, so you can at least lean on that. But it's been my concern with that Alabama tackle position this entire offseason, and it's why I'm a little bit more concerned about Brailsford than I was when that was just announced.

Thinking that would be a great get. Now you have a guy that wasn't there with his team for a lot of the spring. And you have a guy that hasn't had any work in pads up until yesterday. Well, they weren't even in pads yesterday. But up until what? Probably Saturday? Since January 1. That's concerning to me, especially at that position. Because you know like I do, we can go take pass sets on air and

Go out there and work on our kick sets and work on our feet and do all the cone drills and rope drills we want to, but you've got to do it against people if you're going to get better. What about sleds? It can help a little bit, but in order to really get better, you've got to do it against other people. Do they not do O-line, D-line, pass rush and stuff? Can you not work that? We're not going to talk about that. We do seven-on-seven. We're not talking pass rush and not in pads. I mean, come on. That's where you get these D-line men that...

You don't want to sneak a bull rush in every now and then. It's like, come on. We're not – yeah, I'm not – you can get a little bit from it, but you're not really getting better in my opinion. Technically, you can work some things, but again, you just got to do it against people. And he hasn't done it against folks in a while. So it's why I have a little bit of concern about just exactly what he's going to be this year. He's got all the talent. If he's a leader, I think that's going to help him. I think being lighter will definitely help him.

So I'm anxious to see kind of what he looks like and what he's doing. Kalen DeBoer yesterday, Alabama head football coach, also on that Alabama secondary. And some folks that are transferring in that could give them a little bit of a boost.

One or two plays, I think, might be a little bit more that happened because of maybe those guys being in there and just not in sync completely, but that's expected. Practice one, new faces out there in the field. But I love their energy. I love their attitude. They give great effort. They've really meshed well with the whole team. I think there's a ton of respect by their teammates. That's what you want.

A lot of that starts with just their character and the work ethic that follows along. They've got ability. Now it's just a matter of getting those reps so they can be confident in themselves and others can be confident in believing that they're going to be in the right spot. It's a group you feel pretty good about, Greg. It's going to be a bit of a new group in a new system, but it's one that you have a lot of confidence in.

I wouldn't say confidence is probably the wrong word, but I'm not as panicked as I think others are. Like I think if you ask Nick Saban, which we did, I think he's concerned about the position group as a whole. And I think, frankly, anytime you're expected to rely on freshmen. So if they were to tee it up and a game were to be played on May 1st,

they would have had two true freshmen starting at both corner and at Husky. Red Morgan would have started at Husky, and Xavier Mincy, or excuse me, Xavier Brown probably would have started at corner. And I think that's something to be concerned about. I mean, you've got two true freshmen in a defensive system that requires a decent amount of communication. That's, I think, an issue. So they go out and they attack the portal. They bring in a couple guys. They bring in Cam Howard, bring in King Mack.

Bring in Deshaun Jones from Wake Forest, who I've actually heard good things about. Damani Jackson has been there, but he's also a transfer. So it's not like these guys have played a ton of football together. So they're going to have to mesh and mesh quickly. The good news is they have some good challenges in the first month of the season that will get those guys on the same page. Like if you...

If for whatever reason they were playing against teams in weeks one and two that couldn't really throw it, you could get some false confidence. You could maybe not address issues that exist. And frankly, against Western Kentucky and against USF,

You don't have that luxury. You will get exposed if you're not ready to go, which is probably a benefit knowing that you head to Madison, Wisconsin in a pretty good passing attack the third week of the season. And then, of course, George is here at the end of September. So I think it actually sets up really nicely for them to kind of work their way in where you have quality competition and challenges, but ones that probably can't beat you. Yeah.

But either way, I think it's probably the most important position group to get solidified. The offensive line will be fine because they're so good guard to guard, but they've got to get the back end of the defense ironed out, figure out who's playing where, and what the pecking order might be.

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to stop a train. More audio from other coaches around the SEC as they began practice yesterday. Some beginning practice today. One of those schools is Mississippi State. We'll talk to David Murray on the other side about his expectations from Jeff Levy, Mississippi State. Year one is fall camp opens. That's next right here on Jocks 94.5. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kublik 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 Tap or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning, Thursday, August 1st, 716 a.m. Listen online, jocksfm.com, apps in your app store, iPhone, Android. You can always download those for free.

We're going to go to David Murray here in just a moment, talk Mississippi State opening fall camp today. First, say about your CBD store. If you need products to help wake you up a little bit better, get a better start to your day, better focus throughout the course of your day, maybe even just a better night's sleep, they have products that can do that. Largest brick-and-mortar CBD retailer in the world. They focus their attention on being the best plant science company out there. First company to have USDA-certified organic oil supplements. They have products for your pet as well. Arthritis, anxiety, gut health, skin care, all for your pet. Go

Go into your CBD store today, see what they can do for yours. They've helped a couple pets in my household be able to move around a little bit better. They can do the same for you. Visit one of their four locations. Highway 280 by Bailey Brothers, 150 by the Cajun Cleaver, Trussell just off 459, and now downtown in Five Points, your CBD store, where good health hits home. David Murray with us now on the Buyer's Right Hotline. Is Mississippi State set to open fall camp today? David, from the quarterback situation, we know what Blake Chapin is. What are your expectations after him as this

I believe, is a pretty important position based on how Jeff Levy and company will actually handle the first-string quarterback. Well, you get right to when I did my pre-camp five questions. My first question was, who's the backup quarterback? Because I think that matters. I was talking yesterday with a member of the staff and said, you know, if this team –

succeeds is because Blake Chafin steps in and does his job immediately. If something were to happen to him, you're looking at an uphill battle for those guys. Now, Chris Parsons, based on experience, would be the number two at this point because he has a little bit of seasoning. I'm not saying it was good seasoning if he saw his game at Texas A&M, but still, you've been on the field.

That said, I think Michael Van Buren is the future of the position. The guy has come in here from Maryland first year. He managed to get through spring ball. He's looked good. He's got a grasp of the offense right there. So to me, that's going to be the competition. Who's going to be your number two behind Chapin? But let's be honest, guys. This season hinges on keeping Blake Chapin upright and him performing as he's expected to in Levy's offense.

The offense should be pretty good, right? I mean, I don't... Sometimes it's hard when you watch spring games to assess, all right, is the offense good or the defense bad? In this particular case, I really think the defense looked worse because the offense really does have a chance to be excellent defensively.

We all know Zach Selman flat out just came out and said we want it to be an exciting brand of football. So what's exciting? Points scored. So I get the sense that Jeff Levy's been brought in to score points and then hopefully over the course of time address the defense and allow them to get better and better and better over the next few years. So how much will this team lean on the offense? And was the spring game...

Is that something that you should put a lot of stock into, given how good they looked relative to their defense?

I think you can put a lot of stock in the spring game and how they approached it with the mix of the run and the pass. I mean, yes, it's exciting because he does push the ball downfield and Chapin has the arm to do it. And now he's got some receivers to do it, bringing in Kelly Gregory, bringing in Mario Craver, bringing in Will Coleman, some new receivers, young receivers. They're making a difference. And let's not forget Creed Whittemore, who's going to do his job both at split and slot and at Mississippi state any year, you know,

Yes, Levy was hired for his offensive mind, and as I've told many people, we're going to see. Is he Dan Mullen or is he Joe Morehead? I think much more likely he's closer to the Mullen end of things, a hot young coordinator promoted to a head coaching job at Mississippi State.

I like their approach, but I'm going to tell you too, and Cole can certainly echo on this, offensive line, plug and play. Three transfer guys are immediately on your starting line, another one your second offensive line. That's going to be what makes it possible for Chapin to get done what he's done.

I think it's good news, though, that you at least have a couple of those offensive linemen coming in that have been in a very similar scheme system. I'm obviously going to help. So, we had Murray talk with us on the Buyer's Right Hotline. The running back position is one that I think is intriguing. I know they were trying to attack another one, but there is some talent there. Do you expect there to be a breakout back? Are there going to be shared carries? How dynamic can anyone at that position be in this offense this fall?

At this point, going into camp, it's a shared position. Kevon Lee ended up as your main guy in the spring game, but I think that had more to do with the health of Johnny Daniels, who was brought in as a juco and then a spring ball. Got himself a little bit hurt, and he should be healthy here for the start of camp. That's the guy who I think, and I repeat, think,

has the best chance of being that balance back who can run, who can catch, do other things in the offensive system that Levy wants to get done. Of course, you have Jeffrey Pittman back there, and it's kind of regretful that Seth Davis is out for the full year, injured in the final game of the season. Um,

So I'm not sure there is a true lead dog back at this point. Now, maybe by August 31st we have one at this point. I think it's going to be by committee and by mix-and-match positions there. I believe this is somewhere that Levy is going to keep recruiting for the future, whether it's in the portal, high schools. And by the way, guys,

I know he brought in something like 19 portal players and many of them quarterback, offensive line, linebacker, other positions. They're going to play immediately. That's not how he wants to recruit. He wants to be a developmental program. He wants to sign guys, but not, say, the two and three stars to develop. He wants to sign the three, four, and five stars and develop them and try to retain them in the system and then use the transfer more sparingly. This is going to be a unique year in how many transfer guys –

They're not just coming in to play, but have to play for Mississippi State because they've got to get it off the ground. That was his phrase in Dallas at media days. Shapen, transfer linemen, transfer defensive guys, give you a chance to get off the ground in year one. I think they're definitely going to be able to get off the ground. I'm not sure many people are concerned about that. The question is, what is their role right now in the ecosystem that is the SEC? I think at this point,

a postseason bowl berth would be a tremendous accomplishment, especially given some of the turnover and the change in identity offensively and defensively. So how will the fans react to a six-win season? Is that kind of the hope there in Starkville? Six wins is the target this season. And you look at it, too.

The state should start out 3-0. I mean, let's be honest. Eastern Kentucky, an Arizona State team that is struggling to rebuild itself entirely, and then Toledo coming in. You should be 3-0 going into the Florida game, which is your first conference game, and it'll be on Scott Field. That's going to be kind of the hinge game to me. For a state to get to six wins, they should sweep their non-conference games.

Your matchups that you're looking at as you've got to win are Florida and Arkansas at this point. That's no insult to either team, and by coincidence, that's the two hot seat teams in the league right now. You win those games, you get a bowl bid against this schedule when you're playing, what, the two top contenders, not just for the SEC, but in the country, in Georgia and Texas. You're playing Texas, their first SEC home game ever. That's

that's a tough schedule we've been handed, and plus it's not a home-friendly schedule either. So that's the factor they're going against. But again, they should start out 3-0. They should start getting some momentum there, figure out who they are offensively, and more to the point, I think, defensively with Coleman Hutzler coming in, first-time coordinator, and putting a defense together that's got to just give the ball back to the offense a few times, and I think he can get the job done this season.

What's the key defensively? Is it Stone Blanton coming in, maybe understanding the scheme? Is it the defensive line trying to find a little bit more bulk up front, holding the point? Is it an edge rusher like maybe Don Terry Russell being able to be effective getting the quarterback? If there's a key to them maybe being a little better than we think, what would that be for you this fall?

I think it's safety position, and that's been true for the last couple of years. State has gone to the portal for so many safeties over the last five years and still have struggled. Let's be honest, they have struggled at all three of those safety positions, and they're going to run a variation on the 3-3-5 again this year. What was it Hutzler told us and then was backed up by old dog David Turner? Defense is defense. Everybody's doing pretty much the same thing schematically.

And Turner, who's been around this SEC loop a lot, when we talked to him on Tuesday, he said it's going to now just be the players you plug in, how fast they grab your system, and can they execute. I think it's going to be the safety positions more than anything. I think they'll be decent at cornerback.

Linebacker, as much as you're going to miss guys like Jet Johnson, Nate Watson statistically and leadership-wise, I think you're more athletic now, can do more things with them. Edge is going to be a mix-and-match at this point, whether it's another outside backer, defensive lineman, that sort of thing, as you mentioned, Ontario Russell, other players.

Up front, you've got to get Calvin Dinkins and Trevion Williams healthy because had they not gotten hurt in the very first game of last season, maybe they sneak out six wins last year. So help is going to be a big consideration on the defensive side of the ball as well. That's where, for all the strengths we had in the Mike Leach program, recruiting on the defensive side just fell behind. That's not criticizing. That's just fact.

So now it's a rebuilding process there, and you've got to develop those linemen fast. But to me, it's going to be the defensive backfield.

The backfield has just had so much turnover the last few years, and with where the league has gone, it's become such a pass-happy league. I mean, what you'll see from Texas, what you'll see from Arizona State, frankly, they're in the non-conference. What you'll see from Toledo, to an extent, they're in the first four or five games of the year. A lot of these teams could throw it around the yard. So will that group be equipped enough to kind of keep things in check after last year kind of falling flat by giving up a lot of completions?

We'll find out. I'm serious. I'm not trying to be funny about it, but as I said, this has been a weak point for several years. Zach Garnett said that was his first concern, the safety positions. Before that, leeches last year, the safety positions. And they've tried a lot of bodies, as I've mentioned. I think this year they'll be more athletic. I think Corey Ellington raised his game. I think Isaac Smith has a chance to be a professional in the future.

But they haven't really done it yet. You've got to get them out there. Just get enough pressure on the edge. And you mentioned the quarterbacks throwing it around. They all do something different, too. This is a bunch that's got to learn a whole lot of offenses in a very short time once they get into each new game week. I mean, Quinn Ewers one week, Dillard,

Brock, a couple weeks later, Jackson Dart, all the guys they're going to see who can throw the ball around, receivers who can do so many different things and mixed up with a decent running threat from everybody. These guys have a huge learning curve ahead. So to me, again, that's going to be the key to how this defense works. But as I said, again, the whole idea of defense anymore, and we've talked about this many times,

It's no more just try to stop people outright. Just get the ball out a couple of times. Just make a couple of stops, keep them out of field goal range, and let your offense go to work. Well, David, we appreciate the time. It's great stuff getting us updated on Mississippi State before they take the practice field today. Thanks for joining us. We'll do it again soon.

And the good thing is that Jeff Levy is very big on morning practices. The high today is going to be 97 in Starkville, but it looks like it'll be in the 80s when they hit the practice field at 930 this morning when we're out there to watch them. So put another shot of coffee in me, and it's time to go out and watch some preseason football, and it's time to get going, guys. What is this 80-degree nonsense? It's supposed to be 180. Hey, come on.

Hey, Jolie Dunn would thoroughly dislike how they're doing it now. He wanted suffering as much as possible. But let's be more realistic about today's athletes. Let's not wear them out in the first couple of weeks of preseason temperature-wise. And, hey, this old Jones County farm boy, I've gotten to the point that I don't mind being a little bit cooler watching practice than I was in my younger days. I don't blame you. David, thanks for the time. We'll catch up soon.

Guys, good to hear from you as always. Yes, sir. There you go. Talking a little bit of Mississippi State here early in the show. Practice gets underway soon.

today for the Bulldogs and there are questions obviously you turn the roster over bring in a new coaching staff things aren't going to look great by the way you can find david at dogsbite.com at dogsbite mag via twitter as well but that backup quarterback situation seems to be a massive question you heard davy ref david reference safety a couple of times g mac those are probably two of the bigger ones that jeff levy and his staff have to sort of figure out before this season begins

And I'm not sure they're going to be able to feel great about what they have. It's just with Ellington being the only guy back and him, let's be honest, having some ups and downs last year.

I think that's of concern. You lost, obviously, a couple guys to the league. You had Nicholson transferred to SC. So there are some challenges, I think, for them to not just replace some of the pieces from last year, because I don't think they were great in that part of their structure anyways.

but they're going to get thin in a hurry. So they're going to, I think, have to manage some of the rotation back there so guys don't get gassed early in the year. Absolutely. All right, we'll talk a little bit more Mississippi State, some other schools.

that are beginning practice yesterday, today. We'll hear from Lane Kiffin and some of his thoughts on practice next, right here on JOX 94.5. The capital of the sports talk nation. This is JOX 94.5 and joxfm.com. Hurry and... All right, welcome back in. McIlroy and Kublik in the morning. We're going to talk some other SEC teams that are getting underway from a practice perspective today.

Some good news recruiting first here at 7.33 a.m. Thursday, August 1st for the Florida Gators. Four-star athlete Demetrius Samuel Jr. He flips from Syracuse to Florida, 6'19". Also, you have four-star safety Devin Jackson from Winter Garden, Florida. 6'2", 190 commits to the Gators yesterday, and he's going to reclassify to the 2025 class. Alabama gets some good news for Florida.

Goodness gracious. Way down the road. 2027 edge defender, Jabarius Garner, 6'2", 215 out of Viger High School down in Mobile, commits to the Crimson Tide yesterday, G-Mac. Sophomore. Feel great about the potential of signing him at this point? Just got to hang in there for a couple more years. Ha, ha, ha.

We'll celebrate that one in two and a half years. How's that sound? Just hang tight. You'll be okay. I'll be nearing 40. That's when I'll start to celebrate that one. Get excited about it then. There's one place to get excited about boats here in Alabama. It's Airport Marine, your boating headquarters. Now, premier brands all in one location. Phoenix, Skeeter, Vexus, Icon, Bass Cat, all on the lot.

Great selection on Mercury-powered boats as well, something that fit every budget, Greg, right there at Airport Marine.

Yeah, Airport Marine right off I-65 down in Alabaster. They have a lot of great boats, and you should still just get incredible deals, man. I mean, just amazing deals right now. Summer's not over. There's still plenty of time to get out on the water. So take that short drive down I-65 and know that every purchase is backed by the best service department around. They're constantly winning that Mercury CSI Award for Excellence. You'll find the best brands, Phoenix, Skeeter, Bolling,

All these bass boats, you name it, they got it with the Mercury-powered boats, the pontoons. Go check them out for yourself right there off I-65 exit 234 in Alabaster. It's Airport Marine. All right, Ole Miss, the football team we talked about yesterday, getting underway. A lot of expectations, a lot of hype surrounding this football team. And Lane Kiffin says that, guess what, they actually do look like a team. We do, for the first time since I've been here, look like –

a real team, you know, when you even in walkthrough. And again, I don't mean we're going to be any good. It just means that we actually have length and size like we do. So basically saying that he thinks that I think where he's kind of going with that, Greg, just a little bit more complete, number one, and then probably physically have more body types like what you need to be more successful in this league.

Well, if you look at them traditionally, you talk to coaches about where they've come up short, it's almost exclusively along the line of scrimmage. I mean, the best versions of Ole Miss, that's when they had Robert Kimdiche, but that's when you could point to an era in which one or two or three players really made a huge difference. It was around that time. But offensive line, defensive line, they have never been on the same level as a Georgia or an Alabama scrimmage.

Maybe with some of the additions they've made in the portal from Washington, from North Carolina, they're going to look the part along the offensive front. And then, of course, the well-publicized additions of Walter Nolan, Prince Liam Monmiel, and on the edge. I think they are going to be better on the defensive front, too. So...

I offensive line, like Diego pounds coming down. He's a big boy from North Carolina. It can move some people a little bit of a waste bender. In my opinion, I don't know how you feel about them. And then the Coleppo is, I think it's going to help them a lot. But I don't think he's like a game changer. So how do you, how much better will their offensive line be in your opinion? I think Coleppo can make a big difference for him. I just don't think they've had a lot of guys similar to him with his mindset, sort of the way he plays and,

Julius Bulow is one that I just – I don't know if that's going to be a whole lot different from what they've had. But you're right about pounds. He is massive. If he can find a way technically, probably needs to be a little bit lighter, needs a little more flexibility, lower body flexibility as well. But, I mean, physically I think he can help.

But it's the experience that I really like. Caleb Warren's back. Micah Pettis and Jeremy James have both played at tackle, so you've got some real tackle depth now, finally. Not a lot of teams can say that. So Reece McIntyre's been in the system. Eli Acker's been in the system for a while. So not a lot of dominant guys, but you have capable bodies that have played and played meaningful snaps. And I know last year, Charlie Weiss Jr. said they want to try to rotate those guys a little bit more, get different guys' snaps. They'll have the ability to do that this year also.

to be able to preserve some guys for later in the year and have that depth ready to go. So I think they're in a pretty good spot when you talk about the offensive line. And when you talk about their mentality for the year, quarterback Jackson Dart had this to say after practice yesterday. So we kind of had that mindset going out the year that we still have a lot to prove. And we understand that it's going to take every single day, every single rep,

counts going into the season and I feel like if we keep that mindset it's going to pay dividends throughout the year. Alright so that's the Ole Miss quarterback just on the mindset for his football team going into this year. What's the mindset for the Utah football team heading into this year? We'll ask their head coach Kyle Whittingham as he joins the show next right here on McIlroy and Kubelik in the morning. Catch up with all things McIlroy and Kubelik in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than a

A player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Cup or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back in. Michael Roy and Q Blake in the morning. Excited to talk to Utah head football coach Kyle Whittingham, a guy that I know Greg and I both have a lot of respect for, followed his career. And coach, a little bit of a small signal that that career may be coming to an end with the announcement.

Of a coach-in-waiting, I'm just interested how does that change your approach? Does it change any of the conversation, how you handle things going into a season?

No, it doesn't change anything at all. In fact, it was done back in November. Somehow it just got released recently. But it's not all that uncommon for our situation. You've got a coach who's getting close to retirement and your program's been pretty successful and you've got an outstanding coordinator on your staff. So it's been done before. It's not...

It's not completely out of the norm, but we are operating business as usual. We just want to make sure that recruits, primarily a recruiting move where the recruits know that when that transition time does come and it's time for me to turn this program over to somebody else, that

They know the plant, and so I think that's important in that regard. And Morgan Scali is a fantastic choice. He's completely ready for this job, and like I said, when that time comes, it should be a smooth transition.

He'll do a great job, Coach. No doubt about that. Last time they promoted from within and went defense, it worked well. I don't recall who that was, but it was a long, long time ago. That's for sure. Your guess is as good as mine. Coach, looking at everything that's gone on now, you've been around for a while. You've ushered in new eras for this program a few times now. You're no stranger to joining a new league, but you now join the Big 12. What immediate changes...

did you make to your philosophy as you now make this transition from the pack?

Not a lot. I mean, there's more similarities than differences between the Big 12 and the Pac-12. And so it wasn't... Wholesale changes were not in order. Now, we did change our recruiting footprint quite a bit. You know, with a lot of teams east of us now rather than the other way, we've taken a lot of the manpower and put it in Texas and Florida, Georgia, you know, those states...

east of us. That was probably the biggest change, just reallocating manpower in our recruiting footprint. Otherwise, the offenses, there's a lot of similarities. They may be a little more run-heavy in the Big 12 than the Pack was, but there was really no need to completely revamp or retool anything other than make those tweaks in the recruiting.

Coach Whittingham, do you think it makes it a little bit easier when the blueprint, sort of the foundation of your program is just physicality, winning the line of scrimmage that, listen, no matter what league we go into, we're going to be able to lean on that. We're probably going to be okay.

I would agree with that. Physicality travels. No matter where you go, who you play, that's going to be something that is our calling card, something we hang our hat on. That is a big advantage for us most weeks is the line of scrimmage. When we made the transition to the Pac-12, we were pretty equipped to play at the line of scrimmage in that league. Now, we weren't equipped in the perimeter. We had a lot of

catching up to do recruiting-wise with team speed and athleticism on the outside. But that was a whole different ballgame going from Mountain West to Pac-12 where you're going from G5 to P5 at the time. We feel like we're much more equipped and more ready right away to compete at a high level in our new conference.

Having a quarterback that has kind of seen it all at this point, obviously it was unfortunate it was never really available last year. You guys had a bunch of warriors at the position, but a lot of inconsistency as well. So now that Cam's back and you have some stability at that position, what type of boost can we anticipate from your offense?

Oh, a big boost. I mean, having him back is the single biggest factor in the program from last year to this year. He's a captain, but he's the captain of the captains. He's the guy that everybody looks to. His presence out on the field is invaluable to us. I mean, his play is outstanding, but his leadership and the way he makes everyone around him better is really what sets him apart.

When you look at what he had to do in the offseason, I've read a couple of things that may be stronger than he's ever been. Is it adding some extra muscle? Is it movement in the pocket? Where's an area that maybe Cam Rising could be a little bit different than what we've seen in the past this upcoming season? Well, I just think you're going to see a bigger, stronger version of him. He's about 225 pounds, 6'2".

too, so he's a thick kid and he's got a great build as far as for durability, although he's had these injuries the last few years, but he's really worked hard in the weight room and he's a guy that is competitive. He's one of the most competitive people that has ever come through this program and like I said before, having him back has given us a huge boost.

What about some of the weapons? I mean, it's amazing just how the positions changed. You can't play quarterback by yourself. And while you guys have had amazing players on defense, great players along the line of scrimmage, maybe the one position group that you would like to see maybe take a big leap has been the wide receivers. And you now have added...

and really fortified that position with great depth. Tight ends have been great for a long time, but the receiver group collectively the last few years, now it feels like you guys can kind of go with everyone. So how have you made that position group a priority in order to kind of elevate some of the big plays you might be able to create?

Well, in a word, or I guess two words, transfer portal. We feel like we've really, as you mentioned, bolstered that position. Damian Alford came in, and he's a big athletic kid, 6'6", 220 pounds, and does a great job on the contested ball up the field. Dorian Singer,

was a 1,000-yard receiver at Arizona a couple years back. He went to USC, didn't quite have the production he did at Arizona, but he is doing some really good things on the field for us. Micah Pittman from Florida State, who was pretty banged up last year, is healthy now and ready to go. Money Parks, who's been with us since he was a freshman, but he is really starting to come into his own. So we feel like we've helped ourselves quite a bit at that position. In fact,

It's going to be a little bit of a transition year for us. Typically we have an RB1 that's pretty dominant, but right now the running back room, there's nobody who is really at the forefront. We've got good depth in that room, but it looks like it might be more by committee at the running back position this year than it has been in the past and maybe air it out a little bit more with Cam in the throw game.

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline. Another group that could help assist in catching the football, the tight end group. I know you get Cam Rising back, but also Brandt Keithy coming back. You've got a couple other transfers that potentially could help you out there. I know where we are, a lot of folks were excited about the possibility of what Landon King could do at Auburn. A lot of athleticism, but tight end group, could that be something that really helps your quarterback out, maybe even helps get that run game going as well?

It absolutely should be something that helps him out as a strong suit for us. That room has got a bunch of talented players in it, starting with Brent Keithy. As you mentioned, it's great to have him back. He missed all of last season as well. He's not really a prototypical tight end. He's 6'2.5 and about 230, but he presents definite matchup problems for the defense. We split him out a bunch of the time and get him isolated on backers and strong safeties and

So he's a tough matchup for the defensive coordinators. We've got a really intriguing kid, Caleb Lohner, that transferred in, a basketball player from Baylor, 6'7", 250 pounds, and he is ultra-athletic and got about a 38-inch vertical, and he is a very interesting kid. He's had an exceptional first two days of practice, and so we'll see where he figures in. You mentioned Landon King. Darren Bentley, transferred from Snow Junior College a couple years back, is

is really doing some good things. Carson Ryan, transfer from UCLA, is in the mix too. So we've got a room loaded up with a lot of good players, and we'll see how it sorts itself out.

Coach, last year was an anomaly in regards to injuries. I've never seen anything like it. Calling y'all in the bowl game, it's like, well, with the injuries and the opt-outs, we have seven guys available, and they're going to play both ways, and we're going to have to play seven on seven. It was unbelievable, man. I've never seen anything like it. I do think it told us a lot about your team and their resilience to still get to eight. It's insane. But also, at the same time,

Maybe you've looked and evaluated how you've done things in the offseason. Is there anything that you've tweaked in order to maybe mitigate some of those injuries in the future so you don't get as decimated as you were last year? Boy, we've looked at that from every possible angle, and the answer is yes. We have made some changes. We've looked at everything from the weight program, making sure we're not creating imbalances in the weight room, to how we warm up.

to just the conditioning factor in two-a-days. We've revamped our two-a-days to more of an NFL model where we go two days on, one off, and three on, one off, four on, one off, kind of a ramping effect. And so we've spent a lot of time in the offseason looking at that, but traditionally we've been a team that's able to stay pretty healthy, and we really haven't changed. Last year we didn't change a bunch of stuff up that we say, hey, that was a mistake. It's just like...

it just snowballed on us. And so we didn't hit the panic button, but we certainly did our research. And anytime you can find a way to make things better in your program, you do it. And that's what we did this offseason, hopefully. Kyle Whittingham, Utah head coach with us on the Fire and Drug Hotline. Coach, with all the realignment, everything that's taken place, everything happening, things going different directions, geographies changed the landscape, everything.

And I know you don't want to get ahead of your opener against Southern Utah, but having BYU on the schedule and just knowing that college football is going to have that game, what does it mean to you? What does it mean to your program?

Well, first of all, it means a tremendous amount to the state of Utah. That game has been hit and miss for the last decade. I think we've only probably played six times in the last ten years, five times. I couldn't tell you exactly, but it hasn't been every year like it once was. But now that we're back in the same conference, it will be an annual event, and we'll continue to do so as long as we remain in the same conference with everything going on.

going on in college football. Who knows how long that is? But it's the single biggest sporting event in the state of Utah in any given year, with the exception if we have the Olympics, which, by the way, we just got to win the Olympics. So in 34, I think it is, that'll be an exception year. But it generates a lot of interest. The media gets excited about it. Players get excited about it.

But it's not in the traditional spot. I thought that was a little bit weird. Typically that game when we were in the same league back in the Mountain West, it was the last game of the year. But this year it's early November, I believe it is. So it's not in the traditional rivalry week spot. But I think it will probably get to that as the schedules in the Big 12 start to get fine-tuned.

Is there anything that you can do from a staff standpoint to better prepare your players for the new league? I know you said that it's maybe a little more run emphasis, a little bit more line of scrimmage. But I know you guys have a great staff. You guys do a great job on a week-to-week prep. But how much time have you spent as a staff really studying the opponents and the tendencies that you're going to see this year compared to that of a normal year when you know kind of who you're going to get?

Yeah, we've spent more time in our preliminary scout reports, is what we call them. But just on the teams that we play this year, we haven't done any legwork on any of the other teams. There's no need to if you're not playing them. And then we'll do our detailed deep dive on every team that game week, obviously, just like anybody else would do. But we've done a lot of research. We've researched everything from

you know, their personnel scheme wise, uh, travel, you know, we're going to be traveling about 35, 40% further this year than we would have in the PAC 12. And so there's, there's some things to look at. Um, and then there's some, you know, anytime you travel two time zones, you look at going out a day early, you don't go down on a Thursday instead of a Friday and central Florida would fall into that category for us this year. We're,

It's a night game, so we decided to not go out two days early. But there's some things to consider, definitely, with the geography of it all and the logistics of it all. Well, Coach, we appreciate the time. Excited to watch your team this year. We love watching your teams every year because you guys are going to bring it specifically at the line of scrimmage. But we wish you the best, and hopefully we can catch up again soon.

All right, guys. Thanks for having me on. You take care. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. There you go. Utah head football coach Kyle Whittingham joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline. For all your insurance needs, look to Buyer's Right Insurance, a member of the WRM group where relationships matter. That will roll us into our team of the day today. Will they make the college football playoff? Utah going to be that football team that we discussed today. I feel like a couple of questions answered there by Coach Whittingham. G-Mac, just about what his team is going to be in a new conference this fall.

Yeah, I mean, one of the biggest questions, the health of Cam Rising. He's now 20 months out or thereabouts. I don't know exactly how long, not quite 20 months, but it's been a while since he had his operation. So that's encouraging. Maybe it's 16 months, 17 months, whatever it is. He's at 100%. Sounds like they're full go at the weapon position. I do think there's going to be a bit of an adjustment in the learning curve to going to the Big 12.

with some of the things he referenced. But for the most part, man, they're well-equipped to make a run at it. It certainly feels that way, and I'd be surprised if they're not in the mix.

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