8-7-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 2: Why Alabama will (or not) make the College Football Playoff
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Our number two McElroy and Kublik in the morning. Damian Mitchell, Conrad Van Order, John Saber holding it down for the guys as they get set for their ESPN seminar.

Get ready to talk some ball. Well, I know they're going to talk a lot of ball locked and loaded on the production side, on the visual side, the systematic approach of what goes into the broadcast of games. I think it'll be fun. Can't wait to see those guys again back here in studio tomorrow, kind of locking in and talking some ball, but.

Now we get a chance. Crimson Conrad, I know you've been itching for this because now we are about to talk some Alabama football as we continue on the McElroy and Kublik in the morning's playoff championship contenders here on the show. And Alabama is our team today. We know what the expectation is for Alabama. I think I understand that Nick Saban's gone. I understand there's a lot of changes that have happened. But the standard is still the same.

The expectations are still the same, at least for a lot of people in the fan base. You got a lot of people that are saying, hey, it's a new coach, you know, let's kind of temper things. I can't really buy into that because not only did you just hire a coach that played for a national championship with the Washington Huskies, I can only imagine what he can finally do when he has Washington

Some five stars around him. And I think that Kalen DeBoer, when he's come in the first six months that he's been on the job, I think he's done a great job so far. You go out and hire Kane Womack on the defensive side. You bring in Coach Sheridan with you from Washington, who's been with you the entire ride.

And I think it all comes down to what number four does at the quarterback position, because when you go back and look at the second half of the 2023 season, it's hard for me outside of Jaden Daniels. It's hard for me to have a discussion of who was playing their absolute best when their team needed them the most. And that was Jalen Milrow. I think it really started against Texas A&M when.

pretty much it was they sold out to stop the run and they were telling number four in the pocket to beat us. And that's exactly what he did. And I think that's when the game started slowing down for him. And you saw the back half of that season where it just felt like Jalen Milrow, he was cooking. The receivers were locked in the running back, the running game, everything on the offensive side felt like it had ironed itself out and it led to an SEC championship. And, and,

To be honest, it came down to the very last play against the eventual national champions, and we could be having a whole different conversation of what the 2023 season was for Alabama. Now you transition into 2024. You lose Isaiah Bond in the transfer portal. You get...

Well, you lose Caden Proctor, then you get him back. So he comes back after a month and a half or so from the transfer portal as he went to Iowa to come back. You ended up adding Parker Brailsford from Washington as well. You've got some guys on the defensive side, and Keyon Saab, Damani Jackson transferred in. You did great in the recruiting front. You go get Ryan Williams, a receiver from Sarah Land, who expects to have a great season. A lot of hype coming in as a freshman. But collectively, when you look at this Alabama team,

I think their schedule kind of plays into a factor into it that I'm still confident that this is one of still the best teams in college football right now. And I think it's going to be different because Nick Saban is not on that sideline and you're going to be tested early. You're going to be tested early because at the end of September, Georgia comes into town. Now, records would show you that.

Yes, it's usually a hype game going into it, but it feels like Georgia has most of the pressure because they can't prove that they can consistently beat Alabama. So how different does it look now with Kalen DeBoer being at the helm? Does Kirby kind of, you know, does he lose his psychological advantage now because he can kind of poke fun at the bear and say, hey, Saban's gone, now I got you. Only time will tell. But when you look at this Alabama football team, Conrad,

And I say that you can kind of scoot your crimson colored glasses to the side, but I think you do a good job of being completely objective. Why will Alabama be in the college football playoff? So I think that kind of an underrated thing with Alabama going into this season that I don't feel like I've heard a lot of people talking about as much is, all right, so Alabama won the national championship in 2020. That was the last time they won a national championship. Most of the guys that are on this roster today,

haven't had that, right? They don't know what it's like to go and win a championship. And the guys that do weren't playing huge roles in 2020 when that team did go and win a national championship. And so you couple that with what you had last year and coming so close, losing on the last play of the game to Michigan in the Rose Bowl, you have that chip on your shoulder and you know how close you got. You know what it takes to get right up there, right to the peak,

but you weren't able to quite climb up those last couple of steps. And so I think that motivation for the guys that stuck around after Nick Saban left and feeling like there's unfinished business from last year, let's be honest, that's something that you haven't had as much of from Alabama over Nick Saban's tenure as other programs because they won a lot of the time, right? There was a lot of complacency that could have creeped into that program, and I think they did a pretty good job of avoiding that

But now you have a roster where the majority of these guys have never won a national championship before. They don't know what that's like, but they know what it's like to get a taste of it and to get a taste of that success, winning the SEC last year and making the playoff. And so now I think going into this year, you have a team that's motivated to prove that not only are we better than the final result from last year, but just because Coach Saban's not here, that doesn't mean –

that we're any different, right? The University of Alabama football is the players, right? It's the guys that stuck around, the guys that said, I still want to be a part of Alabama because I believe in what this program is, what the script A represents,

not necessarily just because of who the head coach was. Now, clearly that was a big part of why they went there in the first place, make no mistake about it, but they clearly see the value in being a member of Alabama and being that group that can carry on the torch and say, we can still go and play at the highest level. We can still compete with the big dogs in the sport. We are still, you know, the class of not only the SEC, but college football as a whole. And, you know, when you look at this team going into the season, uh,

The schedule's not easy, but ultimately, I mean, as far as the SEC goes, you don't have the most difficult schedule in the conference, and it's kind of what you expect, right? You know, we know how big the Georgia game is, like you brought up. And I think that game is massive. Clearly, we all understand why it's a big game. But that is the game where I think that's where you will see the shift of,

All right, Alabama goes out there and knocks off Georgia. That's when the expectation returns to let's go win a national championship because I think right now,

Yes, the fan base would love to go and see Alabama win a national title this year, but I think the expectation is let's make the playoff. Let's show that we are still one of the best teams in the sport. It's the first year, though. Maybe there's going to be some growing pains, but let's at least make the playoff. But I think if you knock off Georgia there at the end of September, it becomes, oh, okay, we can beat anybody in the country when Alabama's playing their best football. So now we believe that Alabama can go out there and win a national championship, but I

I mean, you look at how different is this really from what you had to deal with a couple of years ago? Granted, you lost when you had to go to Tennessee and to LSU a couple years ago and play, but you're having to do that again this year. So are you able to win both of those games or at least split them to where –

You open yourself up to maybe you do lose the Georgia game or you fall somewhere else, but you're still getting to 10 wins and making the college football playoff. You know, Missouri is going to be tough, but you get that game at home. Going to Oklahoma is going to be interesting. The Iron Bowl is what it is, but in Bryant-Denny Stadium, that game typically goes a little differently than when it's in Jordan-Hare, so...

You know, I think if you're Alabama, you feel good about the schedule that's in front of you. You feel good about the pieces you have coming back. Again, it's early in fall camp. We'll see what it looks like on the field. But the early reports on Jalen Milrow, when you hear Kalen DeBoer come out over the weekend and say, you know, I'm seeing Jalen Milrow take bigger strides the first four practices of fall camp than at any other point since I've been here in Tuscaloosa. Yeah.

you have to feel pretty good about that and what that's going to look like. And you hear Jalen Milrow talk about the offense being catered to him and how important that's going to be because this is an Alabama team that didn't find its footing really until, what, five, six weeks into the season last year. Well, now if you can hit the ground running, you know what you have in Jalen Milrow. The offense is tailored to him and to his strengths.

on top of what I think will be an improved running game with justice and jam Miller. I think you're going to get more production out of the wide receivers. Um, you know, losing Jalen Hale hurt. That was a guy that I think was really going to be a big contributor, but, uh,

Sky's the limit for a guy like Kendrick Law and how they're going to use him because he's so versatile and he's just an athletic freak. I think Jeremy Bernard is – we gave our bold predictions on morning jocks last week. I think that's going to be a guy – maybe he doesn't lead the league in receiving yards. Maybe that's a Luther Bird or a Kyron Lacy like we talked about for LSU.

But I think that's going to be a thousand plus yard receiver for Alabama this year. I mean, he he can do it all right. He can burn a little bit. He can catch the 50 50 balls. He's a great route runner and he's familiar with the offense. Right. He has a little bit of a head start on some of these other wide receivers. And I think the offensive line is going to be improved. There's a there's a little bit of a question at one of the tackles.

Is Formby going to be the right tackle? Is Pritchett going to be the right tackle? But you feel pretty good at the other spots. And a guy like Caden Proctor, who at the beginning of last year was, let's be honest, a weak link. That guy came a long way over the course of the season and ended up being, I mean, he was a freshman All-American by the end of it. So I think offensively speaking, at least you have to feel really good. And defensively, yeah, there's question marks. It's a new system. What's the 4-2-5 going to look like?

Who's going to be that pass rusher in the mold of a Will Anderson, Dallas Turner? How are you going to get that production off the edge? Maybe it's not one guy like it's been the last few years, but it's a couple of guys kind of adding up to that production you've gotten from some of your first-round picks over the past few years. Feel pretty good about the linebackers. Secondary, some guys are going to have to step up, but you've got veterans that transferred in. You have guys that have playing experience already.

paired with young freshmen with a ton of potential. And I think that's a group that later on in the season you're going to look back and go, okay, this is a group that I'm really confident in now. Whereas at the start of the season, I think it's fair to say there's question marks there. So I think that, look, this is one of the most talented rosters in the country, no doubt about it.

You have a schedule that's not easy but manageable in terms of making the college football playoff. There is room for you to slip up a time or two and still get into the playoff. But look, I go back to this. Kalen DeBoer, for all of the people that look at, well, why are you just saying he's going to walk into Alabama and they're going to be able to go to the playoff? It's a new coaching staff. It's a new everything down there. This is a guy that took over a Washington program that went 4-8,

with a bunch of three- and four-star dudes on his roster, won double-digit games the next year, and then in his second year won the conference, went to a national championship game. That's why I'm confident that Kalen DeBoer can come in here and pick it up. If he could take a 4-8 Washington team and win double-digit games, I understand the SEC is a different beast.

But I just don't know how you can look at what they have on paper and what their coaching staff looks like right now and say that they're not at least a threat to make the college football playoff. Even with all the questions that you could have around them, they are so talented. They have one of the best coaches in the sport, and they have a chip on their shoulder. And I think that's what makes them very, very intriguing. And I think once you get past –

People have different opinions, but once you get past, I think Georgia, Ohio State, Texas, and Oregon, that seems to be the unanimous top four amongst media members projecting going into the season.

Do you really have more faith that Notre Dame can win a national championship than Alabama? Do you really think an Ole Miss team that they look like they're going to be great this year, but they've never really won a big game. Do you really think they have a better shot of winning a national championship than an Alabama? An LSU team with a bunch of question marks on defense. A Tennessee with a quarterback that we've only seen play one game.

Do we really think that those teams have a better shot at winning a national championship or making a playoff and winning multiple games in Alabama? And maybe you do, and that's fine. I just think projecting out, okay, there's some teams you might like better than Alabama, but are you really going to put that many teams ahead of them when this is a team that time and time again has gotten the benefit of the doubt and proved that that was the right decision? Right. So if we're looking at the floor and ceiling for this Alabama Crimson Tide team,

Is 12-0 pretty much the absolute ceiling? Do you think they can run the table? Yeah, because I think if you win that Georgia game, that's the hardest game on your schedule, right? If you do that, you're going to feel – I know you have to go on the road a couple times, but I think you feel if you win the Georgia game, yeah, we can beat anybody else on our schedule. I don't think 12-0 is super likely. I don't think that's what's going to happen.

But yes, I think you can look at this team. If some of the young guys on defense step up and Jalen Milrow is improved upon what he was last year when he was one of the best players in the country at the end of the year. But yeah, I think 12 and 0 is the ceiling. And again, I'm not projecting that's going to happen, but I don't think it's all that unrealistic to say, all right, if Alabama can beat Georgia, then why can't they beat everyone else on their schedule? And you probably say the floor is what, 9-10? I mean, if you want to be honest, I think the floor is 8-10.

I don't think that's going to happen either, but you lose to Georgia, you pull a 20-22, and you lose to Tennessee and LSU on the road, and maybe Missouri is real, and you lose to Missouri. Or you go to Oklahoma. What about the other Tigers? It's possible. It's a rivalry game. Anything's on the table there. So I think that 8-4 is the floor for Alabama. I think 12-0 is the ceiling, and I think the realistic projection is right in the middle at 10-2.

A 10-2 Alabama Crimson Tide team, do they make the college football playoff? Yes. What if the losses come between – what if they come to Auburn and Wisconsin? Do you think a 10-2 team will still get in there? Yeah, because that means you beat a Georgia team who – You're probably in the SEC championship at that point with one loss. Yeah, you're probably in the SEC championship because you have one conference loss. And, okay, maybe you have two losses to teams that aren't ranked or aren't ranked very highly.

But that means you beat Georgia, you beat Tennessee on the road, you beat LSU on the road, they're probably going to be ranked. You beat a Missouri team, it's probably going to be ranked. You beat an Oklahoma team on the road. Yeah, I mean, I don't know that there's two losses on this schedule that – because it's like Ole Miss, right? You look at Ole Miss' schedule. All right, if they lose to LSU and Georgia, they don't really have a lot of ground to make up with impressive wins. So you could see where maybe they don't get in with a 10-2 record. But with Alabama, I mean, they have so many –

I guess, competitive games on their schedule. I mean, even if you lose to Vanderbilt and South Carolina, that's going to look really bad. But you probably beat four or five teams that are in the top 15, top 20. And if that's the case, you'd be beating Georgia twice. Most likely. Most likely, yeah. Or you'd beat a Texas team or an Ole Miss team or something like that to where – and I guess that's the other thing too, 10-2, but if you're making the SEC championship game –

Now, the question would be they're 10-2 but lose. They're 10-3 at that point. Right. But with those, let's say a loss late to Auburn and another maybe Georgia, something else like that, that could be something to where they might be left out from there because we've had this discussion several times before that what is the committee going to do with the –

conference championship loser because gone are divisions and so you're going to have the two best teams in conference so it's going to be kind of hard especially with the Big Ten and the SEC or maybe not kind of hard but it would stand to reason that

Those four teams will most likely at least be in, if not the top five, the top seven, eight or so. So it's going to be hard to maybe keep them out of the top 12 when the playoff committee, when the final rankings come out. Well, and that's where you have the conversation that people are going to bring up and already have of, are you almost better off?

If you're, let's say, the third best team in the SEC, are you kind of happy you're not playing in the SEC championship? Because if you're not going to win, it's going to hurt you ultimately, and you're kind of just better off not playing in that game and knowing you're going to get in. So I guess the biggest question is,

Is Alabama going to the college football playoff? That poll question is up at Mac and Cube, and we're going to answer it on the other side when we return here on Jocks 94.5. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than...

A player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Cup or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back into McElroy and Kublik in the morning. 821 here on your Wednesday morning. Conrad, Damien, and Saber with you until 10 o'clock. Greg and Cole back tomorrow. Currently up at ESPN headquarters doing their college football seminar program.

But we have an event of our own coming up one week from today that we would love to see each and every one of you come out to if possible. And that is the Bill Smith Buick GMC jocks kickoff party, which is next Wednesday, August the 14th at Regents Field. And the only way for you to come hang out with us, the jocks personalities at Regents Field, is to enter...

Or, excuse me, text the keyword JOX in your full name to 205-834-9450. Again, text the keyword JOX with your full name to the number 205-834-9450. We're drawing winners daily, and for more information, you can log on to joxfm.com. Continuing the conversation here about the Alabama Crimson Tide as they are, the Mac and Cube playoff contender series continues going on. They were a team for today. And the question is...

Right now, you got to make a decision, Conrad. Will Alabama be in the college football playoff at the end of the season? I'm going to say yes. I think that one, two losses at the max on the schedule. I still think their wins are going to be monumental enough to continue to keep them in the discussion. They're going to be one of the best teams. I have confidence in Kalen DeBoer and what he plans on doing here in 2024. I think they're in. You agree? Yeah.

Yes, I'm pretty confident in that as well. I understand why people think that Alabama is going to be not as good as they have been in the past. I completely understand that. I think that is a fair question to have and a fair assumption to make going into the season. But just based on everything...

that we have heard since Kalen DeBoer took over this program, it has been nothing but positive things. Outside of, you know, some of you lost a couple 20, 25 kids to Auburn over the last couple of weeks. But outside of that, recruiting wise, coaching staff hires wise, hearing feedback from the players, what they think of the new coaching staff and kind of the new culture and the new vibe down there in Tuscaloosa. It has been extremely positive and positive.

I just don't think that there's going to be as big of a drop-off as people are expecting. Again, I don't think that Alabama is going to go undefeated. I don't even know if they're necessarily going to make it to Atlanta and play in the SEC championship game. But I feel very confident that they will be 10-2 or 11-1 if some things go right for them along the way, and they will be firmly in the college football playoff conversation. I agree. I think that...

For Alabama in 2024, which actually kind of poses another question I want to have after we get done discussing Alabama. Will there be any undefeated teams in the SEC? My gut tells me no, because let's be honest, for the last few years, Georgia hasn't had the most difficult schedule in the world. It's pretty easy to predict that they were going to go at least 11-1 and likely 12-0 for the last few years.

Their schedule is significantly tougher. Texas has some tough games on the road in their first year in the SEC. Ole Miss is going to have to beat Georgia if they're going to go undefeated. Alabama is going to have to beat Georgia and have some tough road games to go undefeated. I think that we may, yeah, I don't think you'd get an undefeated team in the conference this year. We'll have that discussion a little bit later. John, is Alabama in the college football playoff at the end of 2024?

Ultimately, probably, yeah. They have a lot of questions because, yeah, it's a whole new offensive scheme. Everyone's having to learn something brand new, not just offensively. Everyone's having to learn something completely new, and there's not that much of a time limit.

for you to be able to acclimate everything before the schedule really kind of gets real. I mean, yeah, you've got a couple of weeks before your first major opponent and that's on the road at Wisconsin, but then your next opponent after that is Georgia. So whether or not you're ready, you need to be ready at that time. I don't, I pretty confident they won't go undefeated. I think they will do better than your floor of eight and four and,

10-2 is probably where I would have them. 11-1, I do think in this first year with a fair amount of new people coming in, I think that may be too much to ask.

to be 11-1, so 10-2, which is very interesting because we've had a lot of teams already in this series kind of right at 10-2, and it feels like the ones we had at 10-2 in the SEC made it and the other ones didn't. Now that said, I think we had 20 total teams we were doing. We weren't picking 12 teams to make it. We were just saying whether or not just in a vacuum will this team will or will not make the playoff. I think ultimately yes because...

The amount of talent that's on this and really the coaching acumen that's on the sidelines will have them in games enough to where the games that they lose I don't think will be so – all right, I expect them to lose to the better quality teams like your Georgias and maybe your LSUs or maybe your randomly Oklahoma or something because that's a week before Auburn. Maybe your Tennessee, something like that as opposed to –

Like we thought about Ohio State or Penn State and stumbling like – they wouldn't stumble against Mercer in between LSU. But a team like that where you got all up for Georgia and then you stumbled the next week at Vanderbilt or you got all up for Tennessee and then you stumbled. We don't expect this team to do that. But I do think that at least one, most likely two losses are in Alabama's future for this year. And I think that would give in –

What else that they would face this season, that should be enough to make the playoff. And even possibly if one of those losses is Wisconsin, if you're making the SEC championship game, even with a loss at 10-3, which maybe would be to Georgia again or probably to Texas, I think that would be enough to get them in. If they were to have two total conference losses with one of them being in the conference championship game.

Okay, so that was going to be my question. So do you think they make the SEC championship game? I would say no. No, I don't think they do. I do think they are the... It's very possible, but I'm not going to make that. Right now, I think I have them as the third best team in the conference, which means they're right there. They'll be flirting with it. But I think when it's said and done...

Even if they have the one loss, I think it would be kind of weird because I don't know how the tiebreakers are going to be now because everybody may not play anymore. I know it will be head-to-head, but if Alabama has the loss to Georgia, I don't know if that would just preclude them from it and then all of a sudden by default Georgia and Texas move in.

But I do think Georgia and Texas are two better teams than Alabama. And so I'm going to put them ahead and have them in the conference championship game right now today. Right. And I agree. I even – I agree 100% with what John said as well. Like I have Alabama at number three right now. And –

one through three to be honest they could change at any point during the season how it goes but right now no i would have j i would have georgia and texas in the sec championship but also when i look at the alabama schedule it's all right say if they beat georgia and we're still quote-unquote guarantee guaranteeing they have a loss where does that other loss come either tennessee or lsu on the road because that's kind of been my thought is you know

Once we see the team on the field through the first three weeks, I will feel a lot more confident going into the – not confident, but confident in making a pick for the Alabama-Georgia game because we just kind of need to see those teams. But my prediction of 10-2 has been, okay, let's say you lose to Georgia, and then I think you're going to – one of those other losses is on the road to either a Tennessee or an LSU. And I think right now, me personally, just because there's still so many questions on defense, I would lean Tennessee as –

the more likely of the two games for you to lose. Interesting. Interesting. And I did not just say that because you're here right next to me. No, no. I am personally a little higher on Tennessee than LSU going into the year. So that's why I would project Alabama's loss to be to Tennessee. No, it's going to be very funny because he will – I assume that week Damon will probably wear like Mrs. Bowden used to wear back in the day, half Tennessee, half Alabama shirts all week. Oh, yeah.

and then sure enough coming in that monday it's like oh see i told y'all the whole time i'm gonna smoke a cigar i'm gonna smoke a cigar on thursday saturday in october no matter who wins the ball game smoke them if you got them baby we want to hear your reaction as well 205-834-9450 will alabama be in the college football playoff is it a resounding yes is it a kinda i

Think so? Or is it a straight up nope? Alabama's reign of terror is starting to come to an end. Want to hear from you? 205-834-945-0. You can text or call in. You can also tweet in the show at Mac and Cube. We'll see what you think and get your reaction as well. We'll return here on Mac and Cube. Look in the morning on Jocks 94.5. The capital of the sports talk nation. This is Jocks 94.5 and JocksFM.com. Hurry and...

Welcome all back into McElroy and Kublik in the morning. Damian Mitchell, Conrad Van Order, John Saber holding it down for the fellas this morning. As you heard the last couple of seconds, we're discussing the Alabama Crimson Tide as they were our McIncube college football team.

Can college football playoff contenders discussion want to hear from you? 205-834-945-0. You can text or call in with your prediction. Do you think Alabama is going to the college football playoff? Simple as that. Or do you think the, and I know people have been saying this for years, Colin, right? But they said the dynasty was dead for about, what, 16 years? Yeah, I heard that a few times along the way. But, hey, man, this is the longest stretch that Alabama fans have had to go through without a national championship since.

Nick Saban got there. You're telling me there's signs. You're telling me the program is trending downward? Is that what you're saying? Apparently so. Wow. Boy, Crimson Conrad said it, not me. But I'll tell you about my friend Ben Hedden of the BHAM Realty Group.

If you are interested in selling your home, and listen, when it comes to selling your home, you only want excellence. You want top dollar. Just give my buddy Ben Hedden a call at 205-568-2705 or go to behamrealtyco.com. If you're struggling to get your house sold because the markets are changing every single day, you need an expert that focuses on adapting it half the time to make sure everybody comes out on top. That's my buddy Ben Hedden at Behem Realty Group. You can visit the website at behamrealtyco.com.

or give them a call at 205-568-2705. I'm going to the jocks text line.

Where we are getting some reactions to the Alabama Crimson Tide and their playoff chances in 2024. Jamie takes in. He says, I think the Tide is going to win a national championship. That's what I'm talking about. Whole chest. Say it right now. Kalen DeBoer's first year in Alabama. Not only is he going to the SEC championship, he's going to win the whole damn thing. That's what I'm talking about. Real tight. I like the optimism. You know, and again, I think that.

Right now, you maybe aren't going to hear a, I don't know if that's going to be the resounding sentiment within the fan base, but like I said a few minutes ago, Alabama beats Georgia at the end of September. I think that's going to be what you hear from the Alabama fan base is it's now, oh, we're winning the national championship. It's a done deal. It will shift that quickly, I promise you. It'll be fun. Oh, we're going in the opposite direction. Bobby takes in, he says, this prediction may be unpopular.

But I think Alabama loses to all three of these teams, Tennessee, LSU, and Georgia. At 9-3, I'm going to say they narrowly miss the playoffs. That is not a – I don't think that's an unrealistic prediction. Again, a couple years ago, we saw Alabama with Bryce Young lose to both of those teams, and they didn't have to play Georgia that year either. And so, yeah, you will have a lot of –

Alabama fans will not be happy if that's the case and you go and lose three games for the first time since, what, 2010? So, yeah, it's possible, though. Oh, boy. We have a spicy one? Austin Texty, and he says, you tell Bobby I'm going to kick his ass, a bitter-ass LSU fan. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

I just read the text, y'all. I'm just saying, man. I mean, you didn't have to read that one. You could have just left that. But no, you chose to. You're literally choosing violence. Listen, I'm just the referee in this one. You know that gif of the referee when he sees those couple combinations? Right, but the ref doesn't call every single holding call that's out there. He chooses to call them.

Just keep that in mind. God, you're being an instigator. No, no. I'm just reading text messages, man. It's my job. Not to read every single one that comes in, but okay. I'm pulling the landrum. I don't even look. I just click. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because that didn't get him in trouble. All right. Yeah. Oh, Jason takes in. He says it's over. That's it? It's over? That's all it says. Is he Vince Young? I don't know who he's talking about. I will tell you in the past, yesterday he texted in at 1156 and he said Fulmer. So I'm guessing he's a Tennessee guy.

You're not talking about Phil Fulmer? Oh, so he's dating. Oh, okay. Yeah, we were talking about SEC coaches to win double-digit. There's only two SEC coaches that have ever won double-digit games their first two seasons at an SEC school. And one of them is Brian Kelly, and the other one is Les Miles. Wow. Yeah, because the Brian Kelly one was easy, but then Les Miles, I mean, it took me about 20 minutes to figure out it was Les Miles because –

I'll be honest, that was not one of the first names that came to mind. But, yeah, I think that's what he was texting in about. But, hey, yeah, you know what? Maybe it is over for Alabama, but maybe it's just the beginning. Man, our buddy Jamie from Alex City says, now that Milrow has a center that can actually get the ball to him instead of going to the ground or over his head, Milrow is going to be more dangerous. He says, Bama beats Georgia, but will stumble against Tennessee. 11-1 plays for the SEC championship makes a deep run in the playoffs.

Yeah, I think if you're an Alabama fan, you have to be pretty happy about that. I thought it was funny. I saw something over the weekend from, I can't remember who it was, but somebody that covers Ohio State, and they were at fall practice, or they had been at fall practice, and they were talking about Seth McLaughlin, and they were like, yeah, man, the offensive line looks good, everything's great, and then he was doing live updates throughout practice.

And right after he sent that tweet, the next one was, and he just snapped it over Will Howard's head. I'm so sorry. Like, I jinxed it. Okay, well, I'm glad to know that maybe there's still a couple of issues there. But, hey, as Nick Saban told us last year, that was not a problem in practice. So we'll see. I mean, look, I hope the best for Seth, and I hope that he gets those problems corrected. But that was a big issue.

Okay, got another text message. I think Alabama will not win the SEC championship game, make the playoff, and win the natty in a revenge game. So what, you lose to Georgia maybe in the regular season and then you get to play them in the natty? I guess that's what that person's predicting. It's possible. That path would be...

That would be ideal, I will say that, because that means that you've played two playoff games against two teams that are probably going to be ranked a little bit ahead of you. But if Georgia is that number one seed, you match up with them in the national championship game of all things, I would probably lean Alabama in that one. I ain't going to lie, because at that point, he ain't lying about revenge. Yeah, they'll definitely get it. But we saw it in the SEC championship the other way around.

I was about to say, we saw it a couple years ago where nobody thought Alabama was going to be able to beat Georgia, and they go and beat them pretty good. Which time? Well, in the game that didn't really matter as much. Exactly. Well, that was my point is we saw an Alabama team beat Georgia pretty good when no one thought they would, and it's like, oh, man, they're going to do this again. It didn't work out that way, unfortunately. But you got a Jai Hall out there, though. He was balling. Oh, sorry. 40 pounds, man. That's a lot. I'm just...

That was a number that was thrown around recently involving him. You're right. We ain't talking about weights on the curl bar either. Mike D from Jasper Tech said, he says, Bama gets the natty, bedded up, chest out like a show dog.

I'm here for it. Roll Tide. All right. Yeah. Got two of them now. I'm telling you, man. I love it. I love it. Oh, man. Conrad, this is kind of dealing with your situation on three-man front when it comes to your eating challenges. Somebody takes in and says, tell Conrad he could have eaten all those chicken nuggets in four minutes, but he chose not to. No, I physically was not able to do it. I tried, but I just suck at eating competitions. There's really no way around it. I'm not going to sit here and

I'm not trying to make any more excuses. I think we found out through two of these. Now, I'm not good at those. That was not what I was put on this earth to do is consume large amounts of food and

Short periods of time. Yeah. I'm no Joey Chestnut. No, no, not at all. Not at all. 205-834-9450. Continue sending your text messages, your calls as you react to Alabama. The question is, are they in the college football playoff? AJ, Larry, we see you. We want to make sure you give ample time on the other side. Keep it locked right here on Mac and Cube in the morning on Jocs 94.5. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than...

A player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Cup or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back in to McElroy and Kublik in the morning. 848 here on your Wednesday morning. Continuing on with our conversation about the Alabama Crimson Tide, what their outlook is for the 2024 season. Will they make the college football playoff?

And getting some reaction from the listeners. We've got a couple that are – we've got both sides of the coin here, Damian. We've got people saying Alabama is going to be better than ever, going to win a national championship here, 100 Kaelin DeBoer. We've got some people that think it's over for the Alabama Crimson Tide. So we will just have to wait and see, but appreciate all of you continuing to weigh in on the jock's text line and the hotline as well. But next Wednesday, one week from today, we have a big event coming up.

And we would love for you to be a part of it as the Bill Smith Buick GMC jocks kickoff party is next Wednesday, August the 14th at Regions Field. And the only way that you can attend is by winning a pair of tickets.

If you want to enter to win, text the keyword JOX, that's J-O-X, alongside your full name to 205-834-9450. Again, text the keyword JOX with your full name to 205-834-9450. We are drawing winners daily, and for more information, you can log on to joxfm.com.

Remember, you can vote on our Twitter poll or X poll, whatever you want to call it, at Mac and Cube. Question simply, will Alabama football team be in the college football playoff at season's end?

We've hit triple digits right now, and 78.4% of you are saying yes. But there is a good solid contingent of you, 21.6% say no. Remember, you can vote online at Mac and Cube. Oh, man, roll tide. I'll tell you what, though. It's crazy that school's starting up this week, and I kind of feel like we're in class right now because our boss is in here, and it feels like the principal just walked in, and we've got to put our snacks and stuff away. Well, it's like when the –

I don't know what it was called, but the principal and some people from the Board of Education, they'd come and monitor your class. And you could tell – because I don't know about you, but the teachers would always be like –

Y'all are going to act what you're going to act right. And all the stuff they let you get away with, like your cell phone's not coming out. I remember one time I was in history class and we were taking a test. And it's the day that, you know, the principal and people were coming to observe the classroom. And our teacher was cool. She would let us, like, listen to music while you're taking a test. So I had my headphones in. So I'm sitting there taking my test. And I just see someone tap on my shoulder. And I have my headphones in. So what? What?

And I turn around, and it's my teacher staring at me, and behind her are the principal and the people from the Board of Education. And they just looked at me like, you need to take that out right now. And my teacher was so mad because she was like, I'm trying to be nice to y'all. I try to give you some freedoms in my classroom, and I messed it up. Bye.

Doing that in front of the principal wasn't great. So not only have you messed up Alabama, and you messed up – you let Clemson become a mini-dynasty. You let Johnny Manziel run all over Brian Denny Stadium. You messed up the education system in the state of Alabama, too. Oh, geez. Although that said, we all kind of here know the feeling of having someone come in and just kind of watch over you. Yeah, it happens more than it should. It's kind of annoying.

Not from our boss, no, not from our boss. No, no. He's cool to come in. I love working here. I absolutely love working here, y'all. This is so much fun. Oh, especially when they have guests, too. And I like bringing in the Board of Education. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I love it. Oh, boy. Jocks, 94.5. McElroy, Kubrick in the morning. Damien Mitchell, Conrad Van Order, John Saber.

Now the principal's gone. We can let our hair back down. Save that for the... Yeah, buddy. Let's go to the phone lines.

Let's hear from our buddy AJ in Florida who wants to talk about this Alabama Crimson Tide team in 2024. AJ, talk to us. Welcome on in to Mac and Q. Hey, guys. Good morning. Got a hot take for you. Let's do it, brother. If I was an Alabama fan who said Kalen DeBoer is going to be just as good as Nick Saban, that would be crazy, right? You've got the greatest coach of all time, 17 years, six national championships. Not possible. But how hot of a take is it to say –

that I don't think Kalen DeBoer is going to be much of a drop-off over the version of Nick Saban that we've seen over the last one to two years. I've seen a version of Nick Saban where he was struggling to get it right on the offensive side of the ball, probably having his age used against him. Bill O'Brien was a disaster. We lost two games with Bryce Young and Will Anderson yesterday.

They did do a fantastic job last year. So I'm of the opinion that, and this is in the short term, I don't think DeBoer is going to be a big drop-off offensively

from what we've seen over the last couple of years. So I think the success will continue. We will be dramatically improved on the offensive side of the ball. My only concern is, you know, like Caleb Odom left, the defensive struggle. You know, we've got a mobile quarterback that I think with a great offense, Kirby Smart hates that stuff.

So I think we're going to get Georgia with doing exactly what always got us, which was a mobile dynamic quarterback, which is what we have. I'm concerned if this, what is this, Nico Llama Lover or whatever his name is, if he's as good as they claim he is.

claiming to be, and he lights us up with a bunch of freshmen in the secondary. That's what gets me, and that's where I think the 10-2 becomes realistic. It's going to be that defensive secondary that gets us, but I think we've got something for Georgia because they're going to play normal Georgia ball. They're going to run the ball with a game-manager quarterback, and we'll

I think we'll be all right with that. But that's my hot take. I don't think DeBoer is a big drop-off from the version of Nick Saban that we've seen post-2020. Okay. Yeah, we appreciate the call, AJ. And I don't think that's a bad indictment. I don't even think it's necessarily much of a hot take. Because if it serves us anything, that means within the next two years, Alabama is going to be in the college football playoff. But not win. True. True.

So is that enough for Bama fans? Conrad? He's Nick Saban post-2020. He's a very, very good coach. Yeah. Not all that bad, but ultimately he'll come up short. I think you're going to give him or you're going to see, I think three years is probably the time frame of if you're making the college football playoff for the next three years or two out of the next three years,

That will be good, but I think you need to at least make it to a national championship game over the first three years or the fan bases. And that doesn't mean that he's done a bad job if he doesn't accomplish those things, but the expectations are just so high. Right. And Alabama fans, I can admit, are pretty spoiled, and you expect to be in that conversation. I mean, for the longest time, it was almost every other year, right? You pretty much could write and pin that at the very least, Alabama's going to be playing in the national championship game, but...

I don't think that take is super is too hot. There's going to be people that don't want to hear that. And I understand that. But it's kind of the same conversation with, you know, some of the changes that have been made, like practicing in the morning, having music at practice, having more media availability. These are all things that people look at how Nick Saban did things and they go, well, that's different. So I don't think it's going to be good. It doesn't mean that it's.

or better just because it's different. There are multiple ways to do things the right way, correct? And it's all about personal preference. And so if Alabama loses games, people are going to point to those things and go, well, if you had done it the Nick Saban way, maybe these games wouldn't have been lost, which is kind of unfair. But, you know, I think you're allowed to say, hey, things like the guys are a little more relaxed. It's a little more, you know,

A little more chill of an environment down there in Tuscaloosa. That doesn't mean that it's better or worse than how Nick Saban did it. It's just different. Also, if you can learn to say tongue of Aloha, you should be able to figure it out. You should kind of learn how to say it. Oh, Nico Lomelova. Yeah, yeah. That was good. I never heard that before. Never heard it. Just remember that when they win. Damien, you said Roll Tide like three minutes ago. Listen, we live in a popcorn society. They don't even know if it happened three minutes ago. We got the recording.

Well, I tell you, the tape don't lie. See how the media sees everything. Not lie. What? So, oh, I can't find the clip. I'll play it later. Thank you. Next. This is McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. It's time for Bob's dare to compare. You get style. You get features. You get quality and thousands of dollars in savings. Everyone's winner when you dare to compare in store at my Bob's dot com. We're

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