Jake Rowe, who covers Georgia for On3 Sports, tells McElroy & Cubelic how big of a problem off the field issues are at Georgia & what he expects of the team in 2024
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All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. We are going to try to move away from our food discussion, although I did recall the PB&J item that I had had previously. It wasn't wings. It was a sushi roll. I remember it now. And it was incredible. I don't remember the place. I believe it was in North Alabama. And it was awesome. Not surprised. Just throwing that out there. Just letting you know that that was a real thing. And it was incredible.

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All right, Jake Rowe covers the Georgia Bulldogs. He joins us now on the Buyer's Right Hotline to discuss this football team. Jake, am I to understand correctly that there was actually a speaker in-house this week to discuss some of these things and how to handle some of these things from a driving perspective before these issues took place this week?

Absolutely. Yeah, there were, I think, multiple times. It actually, they spoke to these guys about these things and

Man, it's, you know, I don't envy, and I'm not trying to say, well, this is not me being like, well, there's another team to deal with this, but, I mean, Tennessee had four of them, too, and I don't envy anybody trying to, like, get this message across to these young men because I drove like an absolute maniac at that age, so I get it, but at some point, like, I understand where Georgia fans are coming from, too, and they're just shaking their head and

Georgia, I mean, these players and all this stuff, they kind of deserve the ridicule that's flying their way over it because it's not like anybody's just sitting on their hands saying, hey, we're not going to do anything about it. It's just that, you know, guys are being guys and they're

They're just not really taking care of business off the field and behaving and comporting themselves like they should. And that continues to be a black eye for Georgia, you know, in that regard. Yeah, and I think the real surprising one was Smile Munden.

who has played, who has been a big part of that defense, a leader on this team returning this season, and someone that you would just assume would know better, who lost it. He was a part of the football team, lost a teammate a couple of years ago to similar actions. And that was one, I think, Jake, when we saw that one, you're kind of like, come on now. Like that's it just shouldn't be taking place.

Yeah, 100%. And, you know, I do push back a little bit on all of the parallels with the Willett tragedy, just a little, because, I mean, I think we can all agree that, you know, somebody being behind the wheel, you know, two and a half times the legal limit and driving 104 in a 35 and all that stuff, I mean, that is above and beyond kind of what we've seen. But ultimately, it's still in the same vein. You're still in the same zip code here with –

hey, just drive like you've got some sense. And, you know, the Athens-Clarke County Police, man, they just do not play. And when it comes to those sorts of things, like they're going to, you know, they're going to take you and book you and all of that stuff, even if it's only on, you know, $25 bond, they're going to do that. And then it's going to, and ultimately it's just up to the players to, hey, listen, don't race.

Don't drive like you stole it. Just act like you've got some sense and everything will be okay. I do hope at some point, not at some point, I just hope that this gets reined in

to a large extent before maybe there's another accident and somebody else does get hurt. Jake Rowe joining us on the Buyers Right Hotline talking Georgia Bulldogs. He covers Georgia. Is this going to affect any playing time this upcoming season, do you think, for any of these guys, ATN, Smile Monday, any of them?

Well, I mean, okay, so you have the ETN situation and the DUI charge less safe, which means there was no, from what I understand, means there was no breathalyzer or any real proof. He just kind of admitted to having something to drink and wasn't 21. That charge got dropped, which kind of takes the thing out of the student handbooks, the Georgia student athlete handbooks handbooks.

uh, uh, you know, I guess jurisdiction and really kind of puts it in Kirby smarts court where, you know, I, I don't know. You mean I, you, you played ball. I don't know how much trouble you got into. Maybe some, maybe none, but, um, ultimately I think, you know, the, this, the, the in-house discipline there is going to be pretty miserable. And so I tend to think that if he completes all of that and does that, like you're supposed to, then he's going to be fine. Um,

Small London, first time he's ever had an issue with anything off the field since being at Georgia. I tend to think that, you know, he's going to have some of the same thing. May not start, maybe a quarter against Clemson. I don't think he's going to get suspended for a whole game. You know, we still don't know anything about Bill Hughley. He's not really going to be a big-time contributor or is not expected to, especially after that off-season labrum surgery. So I would expect that, you know, we won't even know whether it impacts him or not. All right.

All right, Jake Rhodes joining us, talking Georgia Bulldogs. Let's focus in on this football team heading into this season. I feel like the pass catchers on this team are being slept on. And it's not that people say they're not good or they're not great, but I feel like it should be discussed as the best group in the nation because of the depth and because of the proven commodities that they have. Even though they haven't all done it at Georgia, they've done it against high-level competition. How good do you believe this group of receivers that Carson Beck is going to be thrown to this year is or can be?

I think it's going to be really good. And then I'm going to go back to a guy that's general manager at Vanderbilt right now, Barton Simmons, a guy when he comes to talking about players, Barton Simmons, a guy I worked with for several years, is one of the best. And Barton told me a long time ago, I think we were up in Nashville for an event, he said, I don't think it's as important to have a

to have a one receiver. You want to get this guy, but it's tough to find this guy, that one receiver who checks off every box. And he said, I don't think it's as important to do that as it is to get a receiving core that puts multiple checks in all the boxes. And that has kind of stuck with me over the years, and I think Georgia has that with this group. You know, you've got size and go-get-it ability with guys like Rara Thomas and Colby Young.

You've got explosive separators, you know, with Dominic Lovett and Dylan Bell. Even Raul Rafaes there, too. I mean, I think that's the guy that even Georgia fans don't really understand how they think about him in that building up there because he's the guy they really wanted out of the portal when he got in, and he's the guy they really believe is a Sunday football player.

But, yeah, I mean, you move on. I mean, you've got guys that can be physical. You've got speedsters who can get behind the defense. You're really good in the slot and deep in the slot. And on top of it all, you've got route runners. And I really like the versatility of the group. I think it's very difficult with a veteran quarterback, and this is all part of the equation here. It's very difficult with a veteran quarterback to be like, all right, well, we're going to take this away from Georgia.

and it's going to hamper them. I think now you're looking at a spot where, hey, listen, if you've got a couple really good outside corners but you struggle at safety or if you're a little bit more susceptible down the seams, Georgia can hurt you. Or if you're struggling a little bit on the outside and you've got a corner back down, Georgia can hurt you. I don't know...

that they are the best in the country. I agree with you. I think it should probably, there's a case to be made, but I do think that it is one of the most diverse and talented experience groups that you'll find in the entire country and definitely one of the best in the SEC.

Talking with Jake Rowe, discussing the Georgia Bulldogs. Let's go to the other side of the football. Defensively, it's unfair and kind of similar to what we saw during Saban's tenure in Alabama. We're going to compare it to guys who had been there. The front is not near what it was three, four years ago, but that doesn't mean that it can't be really good or great defensively.

So where do you sort of grade, view, rank the Georgia front? Defensive line, including the edge defenders, as far as what they can be, what they have the potential to be, how problematic can that group be this season?

You know, first I'll say, Cole, I can't wait to see if a team can put together one of those 2021 Georgia defensive lines or one of those, you know, kind of Nick Saban-era Alabama defensive lines in the transfer portal era. Like, I mean, I think that those may be gone. Those may be extinct. I think it's really tough to stack those.

that talent on top of each other. But in terms of the Georgia D line, everybody had this kind of notion that Georgia was going to get into the portal and they were going to try and get some difference making defensive linemen in the portal. There may have been one or two in the portal, period. My contention all along from the very jump was, listen, Georgia can go in the portal. They can get it. They got a good player in Xavier McLeod, a guy they recruited really hard out of high school. And I think

he's going to be able to help them at multiple positions. But my contention from the jump was that Georgia's defensive line, on the year older, year better progression from Jordan Hall, a former five-star prospect out of Jacksonville, Florida, who flashed a little bit last year, but wasn't Jalen Carter as a freshman, and very few guys are. And the progression of Christian Miller, who jumped into the –

and now some tensions to jump into the transfer portal for about 18 hours before deciding not to get into the portal and return to Georgia. Those two, I believe, are the most dynamic guys that Georgia has up front in terms of experience. They're really powerful at the point of attack. They're 300-pounders, which is something you hear Kirby bring up a lot. They can penetrate, redirect, make plays. And I think that is where Georgia can really improve. That and the fact that Nazeer Stackhouse,

was fantastic in 2002 and didn't really have that. There is a reason he's back, and it's because he didn't have the 2023 he wanted. The same thing with Warren Brinson. So I think when you put those four together, there's a core there. Keeping Tyree and Ingram Dawkins healthy is massive. You saw the impact he made as soon as he came back from injury last year against Florida. Gabe Harris is an up-and-comer, a kid out of IMG Academy, who kind of came in as like an edge prospect that has grown into a defensive end. And I'll give you a name.

Freshman class this year, Joseph Jonah Johnye. He is a 6'4", 265, 270-pound freshman out of Houston, Texas, or the Houston area. Cole, he doesn't turn 18 until November, right?

but there has been no shortage of folks that will tell you, like, this kid's the real deal. He's just got some stuff he can't teach, and I think he's going to be a factor at some point during the season as well. Jake, we saw kind of a new wave of linebackers sort of start to take over last year. Like, we knew who the guys were going to be, and then –

All of a sudden, Smile Mundin comes in there. C.J. Allen's getting more snaps. Could we see something similar with, like, Raylon Wilson and Jalen Walker? Because what I hear about those two is that they could soon be the stars of the Georgia defenses of the future.

Yeah, and that's one of the reasons, Cole, I expect there to be a very – I think Georgia had a good run defense last year. It wasn't great. I mean, you look – if you go back and you watch some of the things, the defensive line kind of catches to me, and you study it more than I do, I feel like they catch a little shrapnel that they don't deserve off of the run defense discussion. You go back and you watch that first play where they give up the 75-yard touchdown to Tennessee on the first play of the game.

C.J. Allen just kind of runs himself into a wrong gap. He kind of just runs into a block. And that he's trying to go after, he's trying to play the quarterback when Mike Hill Williams is playing the quarterback. So I feel like the youth really hurt Georgia last year. But as we all know, last year's, you know, growing pains become kind of this year's strengths in a lot of instances. And I think that C.J. Allen and Raylan Wilson and Jalen Walker, with Jalen Walker actually becoming a factored inside linebacker instead of kind of having to help out on the edge,

I think that's a really good young trio. I also love Troy Bowles. I mean, I've heard some really good things about him, too. I think he might be able to carve out a role for himself in some passing down situations. But, you know, when you put those guys with Smile Monday, who's healthy now, that was, you know, Smile Monday at the end of 2022 was playing some of

some of the best football you've seen from a Georgia linebacker under Kirby Smart, and that's saying something because those guys have played really well. And then last year was definitely a step back. I didn't think he was going to be available until the middle of the season. Then all of a sudden you started to hear late in camp, dude's going to be ready to give it a go. So I think having him healthy plus those next three guys being a year older, it's incredible. And I don't know if folks understand that,

Georgia has dudes stacked up behind them that are just absolute free shows as well. That's a very strong position for Georgia. Jake, we really appreciate the time, man. Great stuff as always. Look forward to catching up with you again soon. Thanks for hopping on. We'll see you next week at Media Days.

Actually, I'm not going. We'll send Palmer Tom's this year. I'm going to cover it from home. But always an honor to come on the show, man. I really appreciate you and respect everything you do. You do a fantastic job, buddy. Appreciate that. Thank you, Jake. We'll catch up soon. Bye, bud. Jake Rowe, at Jake M. Rowe, R-O-W-E. Follow him on Twitter. Find his work at the On3 Sports Network covering the Georgia Bulldogs. Does a great job there. And great stuff with us just now. So, I mean, listen, there's...

There are people that are going to feel strongly about some of the things that have taken place, being upset about it. It's dumb. I'll say that. It is. It's just in continuing to make the same mistake over and over. I know it's not the same individuals, but same teammates. It's there's no excuse for it. But at the same time, you're dealing with young people. Young people oftentimes make dumb mistakes. And I think there's a lot of things important to it as well. NIL is allowing access to different vehicles, different cars, different things.

That gives you more potential to have more issues. Just part of it. But for somehow, someway, Kirby Smart and his staff have got to find a way to start to negate some of this because the continuing aspect of it has to be frustrating for a lot of people. I understand that. All right, we'll get to a break. On the other side, Ross Dellinger is going to be with us. We'll talk to him about the latest on Florida State and Clemson. Are they in?

Are they out of the ACC? We'll discuss it 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 Cap or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Watch the quarterbacks and his ADP. I think he has massive high-end upside.

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