8-6-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 1: Coaches Preseason Poll mostly right; Bryan Driskell talks Notre Dame; Top-3 basketball big men
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McElroy and Kubelik in the morning starts now. All right, welcome in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. Glad to be with you. I am not in studio today. Up in Bristol, Connecticut, we have our college football seminar today and tomorrow. So GMAC and I are going to be off tomorrow. But be with you remote today. Got a good show planned for you. Got a lot of good guests coming up. I'm excited about what we're going to have to offer. We've got a lot of college football news. Coach's poll is out.

We'll be right back.

Show always open to you, 800-239-9569, 800-239-WJOX. If you would like to be a part of the show, you can do it there. I will go ahead and say this quickly right out of the gate. It's not even worth flying anymore. It's just not worth it. Just rent a car and drive. Just rent a car and drive. It's just not. I honestly, Davey, can you Google Birmingham, Alabama to Hartford, Connecticut, the drive? Okay.

how long that would be and I actually cannot find my phone currently at the moment in my hotel room I have no idea where that is just a little adversity all

Also got up this morning, and the little coffee maker has the switch to the left and to the right for one and two. If you're going to make one cup or two cups, add it on one cup, but put the cup on the right side, which I guess cup one is on the left side. So got out of the shower to water all over the counter and the floor. That wasn't necessarily ideal, not the best way to start the day. Hey, Cole, I'll tell you this, man. It's only a 16-hour and 20-minute drive from Birmingham to Hartford, Connecticut, bro. Okay.

All right, so you helped me with the math here. I left my home yesterday at about 3.45, and I got in bed in Hartford, Connecticut at 2.30 in the morning, Eastern time. So I feel like the drive still probably would have been a little bit longer. Right, just sad. But it's at least close. By about five hours. Well. That's wild.

We were on the brink of that actually not being close. So Jordan Rodgers I know is not going to be here. His flight got canceled yesterday, so he's just going to go virtual. Doesn't have an option to be able to get out today and be a part of it. So it's just you hear more and more people talking about it, and it's just kind of like, man, it may have been worth it to just get in the car and drive. Yeah.

We're here today and looking forward to what we've got going for you. All right, Coach's Poll is out, and I want to play a little bit of a game with this after we kind of discuss just who is where, first and foremost. Also, our team of the day today is going to be Georgia. Will they make the college football playoff? Are they in? We're going to have a different team every day leading up to kickoff. And, yeah, this one will be just as easy as yesterday. Everybody's going to say yes.

But we'll look at some of the obstacles, maybe just kind of dissect the roster a little bit. Are there some hurdles in the schedule that maybe some people aren't talking about? We'll get through all that over the course of the show. All right. Coach's poll is out. Georgia is one. Ohio State is two. Some people I have seen, and I've had a couple people ask me the question, is right now, you could ask right out of the gate, is Ohio State underrated?

And for me, I would say no. I think when you're talking about these two teams, neck and neck, toe to toe against one another, you go veteran quarterback that's proven where he is.

I think it's actually a doorbell. It's in my room. Okay. I feel like an episode of Mr. Rogers right now. And the doorbell has rang, and we need to go see if it's the postman or whoever it is. And just let him come in and welcome me to the show. Ask him about their Ohio State take. So put the shoes on and take the jacket off, hang it in the closet, and see how everything's going.

I do think I called down and asked for more coffee since we only had two packs. You did, but you also did say, if I don't answer, leave it at the door. Leave it at the door, yeah. But I don't know what place you're at. I will give them credit. They didn't just bust in. You have been known to have people just bust in like they're the police just coming in like, hey, here we are housekeeping. It'll happen before the end of the show. Somebody will kick the door in. We'll have a hotel raid by the time we get to 11 o'clock Eastern.

Um, so going back to Ohio state and Georgia proven commodity quarterback. Yes. Will Howard somewhat proven, but not in the offense. I think the continuity that's back on that staff with coach Bobo and a lot of the offensive lineback couple receivers back to Carson Beck's familiar with obviously no Brock Bowers. I just, I lean a little bit more Georgia that way. Um,

I think personnel-wise, you can make an argument that Ohio State might be a smidge ahead. I'll take Georgia linebacker. I think secondary is close, but I'll take Georgia. In defensive line, there will be some folks that will say it's Ohio State right now, and that's the direction that they would go.

But still, I'll take Carson Beck, who I have been told has had an amazing offseason, is doing things this offseason that he wasn't doing a year ago, seeing things that he wasn't seeing a year ago. So I'll go with Georgia one, Ohio State at two. I don't have a problem with it. I don't think that there's anything kind of weird about it or anything that's disrespectful about it towards Ohio State. It's just I think one team's a little better than the other.

today on paper, which is all we have to judge it by. That's all it's going to be. Oregon comes in at three. Man, it just feels high. I know what people like about Oregon. I know what people are enamored with with Oregon, but

This is going to be kind of part of the question that we're going to ask ourselves here in a few minutes. But when you say Oregon right now, I'll ask both of you this, do you think number three team in the nation? When I say Oregon right now, do you think that's the top three team in college football? Just right off the top of your head. Not three. No. No.

So is this an indictment on the rest of the college football teams? Are they in a group of other teams that we have similar questions about? I don't know exactly where it all plays out or how it plays out or where we are mentally and emotionally, but it does feel weird to say Oregon number three in the nation. Texas would then come in at four. Alabama would be five. We'll get back to that here in just a moment, but rounding out the top ten would be Ole Miss, Notre Dame, which if this was taken today,

Could be a slot or two lower. Michigan at 8, Penn State at 9, Florida State at 10. So that's your top 10. We'll run through the rest of the top 25 in a couple of minutes. Alabama at 5 is significant. One, some people are going to think that it's disrespect. Some people are going to think they're being overlooked. You're still a preseason top-five football team, which last time I...

Remember, it's pretty damn good. Pretty good. It does end a 14-year streak opening in the top three of the coaches poll for Alabama. 2009, when they started number five, remember after that 2008 season, that's the last time this took place. They were unranked going into 08. And so you just kind of think about...

How long this has been happening, how it's just been a given that Alabama's going to start the season in the top three. You're still top five. It's nothing to be upset about, mad about, angry about. But it's kind of insane to think about the fact that you'd have to go back to preseason of 2008 to not have Alabama in the top three of the coaches poll.

So it's impressive when you think about what Alabama has done. It's not, in my opinion, disrespectful to think about them being at five. I think there are fair questions. I think there are fair concerns. And some people don't want to talk about it, don't think it's real. But when you first saw Alabama at five, what were your reactions? Did you think that this was just flat wrong?

No, I thought I was adequately ranked. Um, I know with the transition post Nick Saban, but I mean, when you look at that roster, I think the biggest question marks that you really have probably just unproven talent at receiver just now, but everything else. I mean, I think that just the regime change is going to be different, but Kalen DeBoer is one everywhere that he's been. I still think he's inherited in a top five roster. Um,

I thought it was adequately ranked. I probably would have had them four. As confident as I am on Oregon, I would have them closer to five than I would have them in my top three right now. I think Alabama and Texas are probably better than them if they were to play right now. I'd probably lean both Alabama and Texas over them, but I think Alabama being at five is still respectful. John, when you saw it, did you think disrespect? Did you think incorrect? What did you think when you saw Alabama at five? At five, it almost feels...

A bit high? I don't view it as disrespect, but I'm not saying they need to be like 12 or 13 or something. Five is maybe not where I would have them, but I don't think I would have them any lower than seven. So it's okay. I'm not going to quibble with it because it's at five, but if it's four, five, six, seven, I think that's about where they should be.

Okay, so it's rounding out the rest of the top 25 with Alabama at five. After Florida State at 10, we have Missouri at 11, LSU at 12, Utah, Clemson, Tennessee round out the top 15, Oklahoma at 16, K-State, Oak State, Miami at 19, Texas A&M at 20, Arizona 21,

NC State at 22, USC 23, Kansas 24, Iowa 25. Your other teams getting votes, Washington, Louisville, Virginia Tech, SMU, Memphis, Boise, Auburn, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Liberty, Iowa State, amongst a couple of others.

When you look at after the number 10 Florida State Seminoles and you get to the rest of the top 25, is there a team in an egregious manner that you think is absolutely too low, too high, that you immediately saw right out of the gate? City Bear, is there one that you looked at and said, I don't like where that team is. They either need to be much lower or much higher. In the top 10, not really. Oh, no, the top 25 in all of it. Overall, no.

Honestly, I don't know if Iowa deserves to be in there. I mean, I'm kind of a wait-and-see on that offense. That's great that you finally have one. I mean, maybe you'll score a point a game, but not really. I feel like, especially around the top ten, a lot of those teams are –

more or less interchangeable like if if you told me Ole Miss was six all the way down to 10 I'm like okay that's kind of about where where I expect in Tennessee at 15 I mean I'm not going to quibble with that because I could see them I kind of have them maybe as low as 17 18 or as high as you know 13 12 so all that feels like a lot of those teams we have a bunch of tiers and we just kind of have to rank a few of these out and so I don't really have a major issue with

with the way that some of these are. Maybe the biggest one might be Oregon, but again, at three, I'd probably have them at five. So I'm not that bit out of shape. It's an interesting thought. Like you said, some of this is by default, right? You take Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State, Florida State. There

They're all in a similar category for me. Could be pretty good, have some good players, good history, tradition. The expectation is going to be high, but there's enough change for me to think they might not be a top ten football team. I, for one, would have Missouri ahead maybe of all those teams. I think Penn State probably a little bit low at nine. I might have them ahead of Michigan and Notre Dame right now.

I think everybody knows where I stand on Michigan. I lack some confidence on where that thing's going to be going into this year. It's not necessarily just a finger pointing at Jerome Moore. I just wonder if they're going to be able to be the same type of ball club, if they're going to be able to play the same kind of bully ball that they've played the last few years.

Florida State, I think Damian and I are on the same page with this one. I don't think DJU N'Golea is not a good quarterback. I just don't think he's a great quarterback. And I don't see him as a guy that can put a team on his back and say, I'll get us to 10 wins, by God. That's going to happen. I don't see that. I look back at Missouri at 11, probably have them higher. Would I have Tennessee ahead of a couple of the teams in front of them? Yes.

I think Oklahoma at 16 is interesting. I'm not going to say it's wrong, but that's maybe the most respect I've seen the Sooners get with a lot of these preseason polls, and some of them for good reason. They have a legitimate star power. We've talked about it. Danny Stutzman, Billy Bowman. Miami at 19 feels low.

Now, once again, there are a lot of new pieces we're trying to put together. And I do think that there are fair questions around game management, game preparation, in-game calling. I think it's all fair to have those questions and concerns.

If there wasn't a new head coach at Arizona, I'd probably have him a little bit higher. So a lot of this is a juggling act. I think, John, you stated it well to just say we've got to rank them somewhere. And if six or seven of them we all feel pretty much the same about, it doesn't matter exactly where they fall. Some of that will work itself out. But was there one team you looked at, Damian? For me, it would be Missouri being a little bit too low. But if there's a team you looked at and said, no, no, no, they need to be higher or lower, what team would that be for you? Right now, I'd say Utah. I'm

I'm extremely confident in Utah going into the Big 12 because I think when you look at just all those teams collectively, their style matches all of that. Utah doesn't mind getting into the phone booth and making it a fight, and I think they're equipped for it. And I think for Utah...

I think they're a better team right now than Florida State. I take them over LSU. You can give me a conversation with Michigan and Penn State, but I would probably lean a little bit more for Utah because I know what they have coming back and Cam rising. And again, it's not like he was a world beater, but he's played a ton of football and just the styles. I think that if they want to be, they can be as physical as they want to be. They've done it in the Pac-12. And I think for what they're getting themselves into in the Big 12, they're

I'm just confident in Utah. I think they're a little too low. Okay. Now, when you take some of these teams and you begin to pit them against one another on a neutral site, it becomes very interesting. It does. We'll do that in a few minutes.

We'll talk some Notre Dame football. Big injury news for the Irish. We'll get to that in just a few moments. I mentioned earlier Jim Harbaugh has responded to some of the things happening at Michigan. We'll discuss that. A lot of college football news happening right now. We're going to get to all of it. We'll be here until 10 a.m. Central. First, I'll tell you about Train, your HVAC system, one of your largest investments in

This time of year, it's constantly being pushed to the extreme. You can trust the Train Home Comfort System to give you reliability and peace of mind day in, day out for years to come. Visit train.com to find a comfort specialist near you. And remember, it's hard to stop a train. All right, more college football. Talk some Notre Dame injuries next on Mac and Cube in the morning. 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 Tap or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, update here from Bristol, Connecticut. The coffee was delivered hanging on the doorknob. And props to the Home 2 Suites with, I think, six extra...

Well, single bags of coffee. I thought they'd probably drop off like one or two. So kind of load me up a little bit with the extra mile. We'll give them credit for that. 719 a.m. Tuesday, August 6th, right here on McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. McElroy out today, both out tomorrow. College football seminar for us here in Bristol. And we'll be back live on the show Thursday, which for us in my house will be the first day of school. So for all you heading back to school this week, good luck with that. Hope it goes well. Hope it goes smooth. Hope everybody has fun.

Brian Driscoll is going to join us on the other side. He covers the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, a big injury for Notre Dame. Andy Burcham will join us at 8. We'll obviously talk Auburn camp with him, Auburn on the practice field yesterday, some excitement around what people are seeing specifically with that offense. Josh Newberg is going to talk recruiting with us at 8.30, both Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, a lot happening within the Southeastern Conference from a recruiting standpoint. Austin Meek is going to join us.

at 9 o'clock this morning to just give us an update on Michigan. What's happening? How bad is it? Should we be concerned? And everything that's taken place with the Wolverines, Coach Jerome Moore, what Jim Harbaugh said yesterday. We'll get to all of that. And as we've stated before, Georgia is going to be our team that we talk about. Are they going to be in the college football playoff this year? We'll get to our top three later this hour. We'll get about about it next hour. So you look at this Notre Dame football team, they're going to be

Charles Degussa has an injury and is going to be out. He's going to have a torn pec and he's going to be out for the entire season. And this was a question mark for this team coming in. This is a concern for this team coming in. Something that a lot of people thought right out of the gate they needed to be worried about, they needed to be concerned about. And now the reality sets in that it's more than a concern, it's a big concern. Now, if there's any silver lining or any good news with this for Notre Dame,

You've got plenty of time to be able to work it out. You have time to look back and say, all right, this was two and a half weeks to our first game. Rotate the offensive line however we need to. Flip one side, do something a little bit different, whatever we think needs to take place. You've got time to be able to go out and make that happen. But the reality is this is now going to be a position that could potentially become a liability for the Fighting Irish. And as we just saw in the coaches poll, they're going to start number seven,

coming out and not going to have an easy, easy way having to deal with new offensive linemen this late in the game. I think there are tackles that can be flipped. I think there are guards that would have already been pushed out if that were going to take place. You know, maybe Tosh Baker goes over to the other side. Emile Wagner maybe steps in over there. You've got Sullivan Absher who has an opportunity to be able to come in and play right away. But Wendell,

This also, as Damian brought up yesterday, different players playing different positions probably impacts your ability to cross-train just a little bit.

probably affects your ability to be able to go out and rep different guys at different positions because now you've got to find not just one guy but maybe two guys to get comfortable there at left tackle because if the one guy you're trying to get comfortable doesn't end up working out you better have somebody else ready so it's a little bit of an advantage that it happens this early in camp but this was a young man this team was going to rely on depend on and a lot of folks were excited about fellows that now is going to be gone and

And just a massive hit for this Notre Dame football team. And the thing for Notre Dame, I think it's something different if you had to have a Texas State or a Western Kentucky or something week one. But you start this thing off with Texas A&M and losing such a valuable piece during this moment is...

I mean, how much does it sway or how much does it change your thought process of how that week one game is going to look and then moving forward, how different of this, you know, Notre Dame team we're going to see, because offensively, I think when you look at Riley Leonard, that's about to take over. He was good at North Carolina, but I look at him in the same boat as I look at Sam Hartman when he got there. It's.

Alright, now you're in a different environment. Was it the people around you or the scheme that you played in? Or is it you that can take this thing to the next level? And I don't know if he's got necessarily that in him. But I think their schedule is going to be kind of favorable once they get past Texas A&M. So I think for Notre Dame...

It's all about getting at least starting out strong, but you're going to be down, you know, at least one guy. But I'm just Notre Dame. The closer we get to kick off the more I'm just I need to know what's going on during fall camp for them for me to feel confident going into week one that they don't drop that one. But the rest of their schedule kind of plays out in their favor.

We'll talk to Brian Driscoll about it. He knows this team extremely well. I think that Riley Leonard's fit into the offense is a little bit ahead of schedule. I also think that Mike Denbrock has learned the last couple of years how to morph his offense around the individuals that he has and his playmakers that he has.

And the young receivers apparently having pretty good camp for Notre Dame. That's a position that from everything that I read and everybody who I talk to that's close to it says is having a pretty good fall. Now, the problem is not just that you play Texas A&M week one. The problem is that you play Shamar Stewart, Shamar Turner, Nick Skorton. You have two of the better can-be edge defenders in the SEC most likely that are going to be able to come off that side.

And that is going to be problematic. So how exactly does, does Notre Dame handle that? I mean, listen, it's, we've seen the good news is rally leader is going to have the ability to be mobile in the pocket. So if there is pressure, he's going to be able to escape. You're going to be able to design quarterback runs to be able to force defensive ends, maybe to play a little bit more straight up and,

So I do think that this particular game is one where Riley Leonard's mobility becomes a lot more important. It's not just because of the lack of protection, it's because of what that defensive front is going to be able to potentially do to you.

But at the same time, this D-line is going to be able to take over games. It's going to be able to dominate games. And early in the season, questionable offensive line versus what appears to be a really good D-line, I'm going to lean that D-line all day because they're going to make your life hell. And you're going to have trouble getting the ball out. You're going to have trouble getting explosive plays. You're going to have trouble making things go. And then that's going to affect your rhythm, your continuity. You're going to get off schedule with your play calling. All of those things have the potential to go. And then, by the way, you're on the road in a hostile environment where –

I mean, this A&M team under Elko, they get a little momentum going, that fan base is going to be nuts.

And that place will be loud. That's going to even complicate it a little bit further. Not the kind of things that you want to face heading into an opener. Not the kind of things you want to be staring down the barrel of right out of the gate going into this 2024 college football season. A&M's got questions of their own, though. So, I mean, if we're just talking A&M versus Notre Dame, we don't know how Conor Wigman's going to look in this offense. We don't know what the quarterback run is going to look like in this offense where it has been present before. Speaking of offensive lines we don't know anything about, how about A&M?

And by the way, Notre Dame brings a pretty good front too. I mean, Howard Cross and some of those guys can be problematic and be able to get into the backfield. So it still could be a very interesting game, very tight, very competitive game. But it looks right now like if you're Notre Dame and you're searching for answers on the edges offensively, it's not what you want at this point in fall camp. So...

As I stated, we'll get to a little bit more of that on the other side, Brian Driscoll. There's also a high-profile recruit that some people believe is about to flip from Notre Dame to a certain SEC school. We will talk to Brian about that one, get his thoughts there.

But I'll tell you about the Gusty Goulas Group. All you need to do right now, Google Gusty Goulas Group and see over 835 star reviews. So Gusty walked around the school yesterday, had to meet the teacher, talking about being brokered by EXP Realty and all the different customers that he has served in the greater Birmingham area. Over 3,000 of them. Since 2012, Gusty Goulas Group recognized both nationally and locally as greater Birmingham Alabama's number one team in homes sold. So there's no reason for all your real estate needs that you should not call the Gusty Goulas Group.

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All right, when we come back, a little bit more on this Notre Dame situation. How bad is it? How does it change the matchup with A&M week one? Brian Driscoll joins us on the other side next right here on JOX 94.5. The capital of the sports talk nation. This is JOX 94.5 and joxfm.com. Hurry in.

All right, welcome back in McElroy and Cubelic in the morning. It is 731 a.m. Tuesday, August 6th right here on jocks 94.5. Appreciate you guys tuning in. You can always listen on the app. Download it in your app store, iPhone, Android. It's free. Listen to us on the go. All the podcasts are going to be there. Tell your home smart speaker to enable the jock skill. Listen to jocks.

Back to school, getting the kids ready every morning, getting that routine to say, listen to jocks when you get up and when you head downstairs. And I'll always appreciate you guys listening in Birmingham on 94.5 FM. Some college football news outside of the coach's poll. Going to compare and contrast a couple of teams there as we move on. Some recruiting news for Auburn yesterday. 2026 DB Wayne Henry commits out of St. Francis Academy in Baltimore. He joins Auburn.

Blake would be and Brian Deese as the third player to commit to Auburn out of St. Francis. So another good get for Hugh freeze and his staff, a four-star offensive tackle from mobile. A Cardiff Cardiff Swift has committed to USC six, six to 85 previously was committed to Auburn now committed to Southern California. So a big offensive line commit in the state of Alabama now heading out to USC and

So a lot of recruiting news is going to continue to go around. We'll talk about all that. I definitely want to let you hear what Harbaugh had to say earlier in the week, or excuse me, yesterday, about the situation at Michigan. But we've got to talk a little bit of Notre Dame now as Brian Driscoll joins the show. And Brian was listening to your podcast, watching you guys on YouTube yesterday in the airport after this news comes down of

A player that you don't want to lose at this point in camp, specifically if you're a Notre Dame football team that has question marks along the offensive line and then your starting left tackle goes down, how easily repairable is this given that Notre Dame does have a little bit of extra time in camp before they kick off the season?

Well, that's the big thing. You know, if there's a saving grace in this and you never want to lose a starting offensive lineman, especially one as talented as Charles Jackasol, but the timing of it is the ideal scenario. I mean, when they lost Blake Fisher in 2021, it was right before halftime against Florida State.

And you've kind of got to figure out, okay, what do we do now and over the next few games? And obviously it took them about five weeks until they figured out, hey, let's put Joe Walt there. And it worked out pretty well. But the timing of it is ideal from that regard. But, look, it's never good to lose your starting left tackle. I don't care what point in time of the season it is. It's never good to lose your starting left tackle.

especially one who's 6'7", 330 athletic and is a kid with elite talent. So it's certainly going to be a blow. The good news is if there's one position where Notre Dame can usually overcome a loss, it's the offensive line with the way that they recruit that position.

Brian Driscoll joining us on the Bioswap Hotline, owner of Irish Breakdown. Find him on YouTube there. Always a good watch talking about Notre Dame football at CoachD178 on Twitter is where you can follow him as well. Around the tackle position, because we just expect Notre Dame is going to be really good at tight end.

Been really good at running back for as long as I can remember as well. Outside of Riley Leonard, to be able to help that position, whichever way the Irish go, how do you view that heading into this? Because you're probably going to need that against A&M anyway with the pass rushers they're throwing at you. Where is Notre Dame for that perspective heading into this season?

Well, I think that's one of the reasons it was even, well, I guess another blessing for getting Mike Dembrock because you're bringing in an offense that I think is geared to be able to handle that kind of loss with the scheme, right? It's an offense that's going to allow them to have some RPOs, which is something you can utilize to attack a pass rush. It's an offense also where you've got a dynamic quarterback in Riley Leonard, and you're going to bring in a read zone offense when you're coming off of a season in which

Mike Denbrock's quarterback ran for 1,100 yards. I don't expect Riley Leonard to put up the numbers that Jay Daniels did, but philosophically, schematically, there are certainly things that he already has kind of baked into his offense that can allow you to manipulate the edge a little bit. You've got a quarterback that can throw on the run, allows you to kind of move the pox a little bit.

bit. So you're going to have to do some things between moving the pocket, running your RPOs, read zone, and then also you're going to have to max pro a little bit. You've got those big old tight ends. You can use 12 personnel. Use that to max pro a little bit to try to protect that left side at the offensive tackle position because you weren't going to be able to ask Charles Jagasol to go out there and say, hey, block Nick Scowerton and those guys for 60 minutes. You were going to have to help them too. You're certainly going to have to do that now that you're missing one of your starting tackles.

Brian Driscoll with us, Irish Breakdown. Find him on YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. What are we hearing about Riley Leonard? I know it's Saturday was what, first day in pads? So we're not too far down the road here. But what are the whispers? What are the thoughts of just kind of how he's taken to Coach Denbrock's offense?

Quite well. The big thing for Riley is he missed a lot of time with the receivers during the spring, being out with the ankle injuries. So there's still some got-to-get-on-the-same-page stuff where he'll throw a post route and it's just about a foot off of where it needs to be. And when you get more time with those guys, then you hit that throw. But what I've heard is the further camp has gone on, the more comfortable he's getting with the players around him. They've got a brand-new receiver look as well. They've got a transfer from Florida International, Marshall, Clemson.

And, you know, so there's a lot of guys trying to get on the same page. The biggest thing that I've heard about Riley that's a positive from the late summer workouts and then going into fall camp is –

He's really improved his consistency hitting the deep ball. And that was probably my biggest need for improvement from him going back to the Duke games. You know, there's weeks like he had against Kansas in 2022 where he just lit Kansas up, throwing the ball down the field. And then there's other weeks where he wasn't hitting the throws he needed to make down the field. So the improvement there is going to be a big thing. As you saw last year, Cole, from Mike Denbrock's offense, he likes to throw the ball down the field, whether it's backside digs, you know, post routes, the slot fades, he likes to get the ball down the field. And so, you know,

And for this offense to work the way it needs to, Riley's going to have to make sure he continues developing in that regard. My understanding is that the receivers are maybe a little ahead of schedule, not just the transfer and Zed, but maybe the younger group of receivers. Are they exceeding expectations thus far from what you're hearing?

Jaden Greathouse is a great spot for that receiving core. Obviously, the transfers are a big part of it, but that's three guys. I think only one of them right now is guaranteed to start. That's Chris Mitchell at the Z position. Jaden Greathouse has looked tremendous in the slot. They got Jordan Faison back this summer after he spent the spring winning a national championship with the lacrosse team.

And Jane Thomas is finally healthy. So that blend of the returners and the transfers has certainly helped them. And then the two young players in the sophomore class that I mentioned, and then there's a freshman that's really pushing the veterans in the boundary position. That's Micah Gilbert, a young man out of Charlotte. So the depth at the receiving core is so much better than it was a year ago. They're a lot more experienced. And there's just more dynamic athletes in this group than we saw a year ago. They had a lot of possession guys, a lot of slot guys last year.

you have a little bit more of a mix with some vertical players on the outside. So getting those young players to really step up this offseason to go with the transfers is really what Notre Dame wanted and needed for them to have a pass attack that's going to actually make teams have to respect it next year, which they didn't really do last year in the big games. Yeah, Chris Mitchell can get it. I had a couple of his games at FIU last year, a big play receiver specifically down the field. He'll be a big addition. All

All right, so there are some Auburn fans that are getting a little bit excited about a potential flip. And I know recruiting is not necessarily your expertise, but you're aware of what's happening and some of the noise that's being generated around quarterback Deuce Knight that's been committed to Notre Dame for some time. Steve Wilfong has predicted that he will flip to Auburn. Do you foresee this happening? Is this just a given that he's going to flip, or is this maybe going to be a little bit more contested than some Auburn fans may believe?

I think it depends on who you talk to. When you talk to different sources, they tell you a little bit of a different thing. I think right now that's what it's looking like is going to happen. Notre Dame's obviously fighting like crazy to try to keep Deuce in the class, and they've had him –

committed for almost a year, and I think that's what they're kind of banking on is the relationships of, hey, we've been building this thing around you and those type of things, and hopefully try to convince them to stay in the class. But right now, if I had to make a prediction, I don't really do that, but if I had to, I would say that right now it's leaning towards Deuce making that decision. But I'll say this, Cole, if he hasn't made the flip by the end of the week,

then Notre Dame is going to feel like they've got a shot to keep him in the class. If he does flip, I think it'll be now. If he doesn't flip by the end of this week, I think we'll see him carry this into the fall and take some visits, and then that gives Notre Dame a little bit more of a puncher's chance to try to keep him in the class.

I'm interested finally, Brian, and this is a little bit just however you interpret it, sort of open-ended, but Notre Dame comes in at seven in the coaches poll. Some of these teams, I think that we feel very similar to groups of pods of, I don't know, four, six, eight teams, whatever it is, and you just got to find a place to slot them.

I'm interested in not only your opinion on where Notre Dame is for you, but kind of some of the teams around them. Based on all of that, just how did you feel about Notre Dame being seven based on maybe the two, three teams ahead of them and the two, three teams behind them?

I was comfortable with them being seven. I'm going to have them at six in my preseason poll, so I think seven is a good spot because Notre Dame still has a lot to prove. I think if you look at their record last year, 10-3, and you look at the teams ahead of them, Ole Miss and Alabama, they both won more games than Notre Dame did last year. They both have a lot coming back. So the

So Notre Dame's going to have to have a lot to prove. I was actually surprised that Notre Dame was ahead of Penn State. I thought Penn State was going to be ahead of Notre Dame. I don't think that they should be. I think a lot of those Big Ten teams scheduled for success last year in their non-conference, Penn State being one of them, and they struggled in some of the bigger games as well. But I think seven is a comfortable spot. I said, look, Cole, if they're anywhere between seven and ten, I think that's a fair place for Notre Dame to be because they are a very good team. They are talented.

They do have a lot of new transfers coming in, but they're still a team that has to go prove that they can go play in those big games, those big moments, and win more of them than they have in recent seasons. But they've got a lot more love this offseason than I anticipated, and it's really kind of doing damage to that Notre Dame fan mentality of that there's a bias against Notre Dame with all the love that they're getting in the preseason. I think ESPN had them fifth.

So, you know, I think that says a lot about the kind of talent that Notre Dame has assembled and a lot of the faith that people have in Marcus Freeman. And then, of course, I think that Mike Denbrock hired this offseason to go without Golden as people thinking like Notre Dame can now go toe-to-toe coaching-wise with people. And maybe that means that they're going to finally be able to get the most out of this roster.

I think the key word you said there, Brian, was but. Because after you get past two or three, you can say a lot of nice things about a lot of these teams, and then the but comes. And we've got to start talking about the question marks we have, or is this guy going to work? Is this guy going to fit? Is that scheme going to be okay? What's it going to be like losing that coach or that assistant or that coordinator? And that's what makes it fun. Really appreciate your time today. Great stuff, great insight, and hopefully we can do it again soon.

Thanks for having me on, Cole. Absolutely. Brian Driscoll joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline. Iris Breakdown, that's where you can find his work. YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. They do a great job talking Notre Dame football. Brian, he brings the X's and O's as well. They're a fun watch. They're a good listen. Go check him out on Twitter, at CoachD178, and you can find out anything you need to know from a Notre Dame football standpoint. All right, I mentioned we were going to discuss...

We'll be right back.

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All right, welcome back in. McIlroy and Kubelik in the morning. 8.47 a.m. where I am, 7.47 where you are. We've got college football seminar here in Bristol this afternoon and tomorrow. McIlroy off today, both of us off tomorrow. So we'll be back on Thursday, which is first day of school for us. I hope you're all getting ready for back to school. What was the, what was you guys' favorite? Did you have a favorite part of back to school?

I mean, mine was the sneakers back in the day. You usually got a new pair of sneakers for back to school. But was there a portion of going back to school that was a real, you got excited about?

Yeah, but as I got older, I kind of weaned myself off of it. But I was probably the freshest I was going to be the first day back to school. Just the gear. Like if I had to shower twice a day. No, I mean like the years. I was going to stunt a little bit. Well, Damien, you're a little bit younger, but John, this might be interesting for you. Do you recall if you, specifically elementary school, maybe middle school, did you find out everyone who was in your class before you started school? I felt like...

in elementary school like you found out day of because I don't remember very many you just went right you just showed up and you're like oh you've got you know you've got Ms. Falls okay cool like oh Brent's in the class oh Billy's in the class hey Joe Capoto Joe Capoto again three years in a row

How's that principal keep putting us together? He knows we're going to get a paddle. As somebody who has won a school, you kind of knew who was in your class. Jennifer again, huh? Yeah. Old Jethro every single year. Hey, Cletus. Never fails.

Bubba, are you sitting next to me? Yeah, yeah, pretty much. But the class lists have gotten to be this massive deal, like who your teacher is, who's in your class. And I don't recall knowing. I think in high school even, we went a couple days before the first day of school, and you got your schedule.

But it didn't have everybody who was in all your classes. Now, that's usually when you found maybe you could kind of see maybe a person or two in passing. Because I remember being registration because you went, signed up, whatever, you got your locker, tried to coordinate it with friends and stuff, didn't get lockers close to each other, maybe figure out y'all can get the same parking spots or whatever, all like that. And then I would always walk the schedule just to see it. Oh, okay, cool, Quitty's in this class. Oh, awesome, James is here. I kind of figured that was like, oh, crap, this person.

But you didn't know everyone. You maybe saw one or two in passing, but you didn't know everyone going in. Well, how about that? How about that locker first time in middle school? Trying to figure that thing out. Oh, man. Well, you had the little card with the perforated side that they ripped off. Like so they had a copy and it had the three numbers and you're sitting there going, all right, hold on a second. All right. I will admit this. This was the only time I will actually laugh at my own height challenges, my own vertical. My challenge is being vertically, you know.

I had to stand on my tiptoes for the first two years to get to my locker room. Did you not get a lower locker? Well, the bottom was for the lames. Oh, okay. I couldn't be called. So it was much cooler to stand on your tiptoe. Oh, okay. All right. That was like the last I used to get because, like, all my friends started to hit their growth spurts and stuff, and I'm kind of, oh, now I see. Now I see. And literally for the first two years, you may catch me, you know, right in between break or second block last year.

Got to crease up the J's because I got to stand on my tiptoes to get my books out. I'll tell you what was a massive gift for me and it kind of happened by accident. Going into my senior year, our athletic lockers, whoever had the locker under mine, I think like transferred or their parents moved or whatever, like right before the school year.

So there was just this vacant locker, and I just remember asking our head coach one day, I was like, can I just kind of, he's like, you're fine, just, yeah, we're not putting anybody in there. So having two lockers, especially in the athletic locker room where it's like helmet, shoulder pads, all the gross stuff went down there, that was a massive win. I mean, just saying. The locker was big for me in high school because I actually never took any books home. So that thing stayed full all the time.

I'm just going to tell you guys. I remember seeing these people carrying these damn sacks of so many books home. I was one of them. There were two kind of people in high school. There was me that never took anything out of his locker, and then there were the folks that actually never put anything in because all of their books stayed in their backpacks. I'm like –

That Jansport doesn't support all that weight. You realize that? It's going to rip at some point. It's not going to happen. You've got to take the biology book out of there at least. Leave one of them here. They're not all designed to go home at the same time.

You guys, say Barry, y'all carried lockers around your entire high school career. And I don't know how or why you did it. I wasn't going to do it. Sorry. They suckered me in on freshman year because maybe three of the classes with the bigger books, we got to leave in class.

Really? We never had to bring it home. It was biology, math, and I can't remember. I think it was history or whatever. But if we ever had to do anything to take home, she would make copies or whatever. So we never had to take the books home. So freshman year, I was like, oh, this is easy. I ain't got to worry about that. And so sophomore year when I was like, oh, okay, I'm happy to take the books home because I finally get to do it. And I feel like my back turned into a question mark because of all the ways it bent from all the stuff I was carrying. Yeah.

Yep. All you kids listening out there, take your books home and study. Do your homework every night. Yeah, you always have homework. I don't care what. Rewrite your notes every day. Don't be like us. I didn't learn that until college.

All right. Let's try to squeeze the top three in here before that, Damien. What else you got going on? Hey, I got to talk about, you know, selling houses during this time and age. I know the housing market is changing every single day. You need somebody that's going to get you locked and loaded when you're ready to sell your house. That's my buddy Ben Hedden from the Beham Realty Group. All you can do is visit his website at behamrealtyco.com or give him a call at 205-568-2705.

If you're thinking about selling your home and when it comes to selling, you only want excellence. That's my buddy being head. I've been seeing his signs up and down the highways here in Birmingham. All you got to do is give him a call at 205-568-2705 or go to Beham Realty, C.O. Dot com. Well, as today we all know, August 6th, August 6th is Balloons to Heaven's Day.

I'm sorry. Balloons to Heavens. You know, you. Hot Air Balloons. Eric Clapton's song? Okay. I don't feel like they make it. Didn't know that was by Eric Clapton. I'm familiar with the song. Didn't know it was by Eric Clapton. Okay. Okay. Got it. Did Michael Bolton do a cover of that song? Maybe. I don't know. That's where I stand. But no, August 6th is also a legend's birthday. A multiple NBA final winner.

Also known as the Admiral, David Robinson. All right. How old do you think he is today? I'm going to go. Yeah, I was going to say 63. He's 59. He's looked a lot older. He's looked a lot older. But now I want to know who are your top three big men that you have watched in your lifetime? Oh, man. Shaq is going to be number one for me.

I would probably go Olajuwon too. I did get to catch sort of the tail end of the Olajuwon career, actually some of which he schooled Shaq early in Shaq's career. I think Olajuwon has to be there too. And then Patrick Ewing, just because what he was able to do both offensively and defensively, I know he never got a title, kind of never got over the hump.

But of guys who I watched, like my era, I'll probably take Ewing number three. It's interesting because I have the same three, just in a slightly different order. I got Shaq, Ewing, and Hakeem. I got Shaq, Joker, and Tim Duncan. Olajuwon, which is, yeah, I mean, Duncan probably deserves to be in there. Yeah, he was super versatile, did different things.

Yeah, Duncan, man, Kaia was good. But Akeem Olajuwon, I will say, in his size, some of the smoothest feet. Oh, yeah. There's no doubt. Oh, my God. You can't coach that. And wasn't really put on full display until a couple of those Rockets teams made a couple of runs there late in his career, and he was just ridiculous. Smoothest could be in the paint. I don't think there's any doubt about that. All right, when we come back on the other side,

We're going to talk to Andy Burcham about Auburn camp. Is this receiver group really living up to the hype? Do they deserve the excitement that we're already hearing about? And Auburn recruiting continues to trend upward. The voice of the Auburn Tigers joins us to discuss it next right here on Jocks 94.5. This is McElroy and Kulik in the morning. It's time for Bob's Dare to compare. You get style. You get features. You get style.

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