7-29-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 3: Needing upsets or mulligans to make CFP; Justin Hokanson talks Auburn; busy recruiting weekend
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McElroy and Kubelik in the morning starts now. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. Appreciate you tuning in. Jocks94.5, jocksfm.com is where you can find the show online, podcasts as well. Paul Feinbaum has been with us. Andy Staple has been with us. You'll find those there. Going to continue talking a little bit more college football playoff. Recruiting this hour as well, Justin Hocus is with us at 930.

as we are into hour number three, 9 a.m., Monday, July 29th, right here on JOX 94.5. I'm going to tell you about our friends at Wayne's. I know it was rainy over the weekend, and usually what that means is a lot of standing water sitting around, which is going to keep the mosquitoes near your house. Get the mosquitoes away from your outdoor areas, your porch, your yard, your patios, all your outdoor spaces with Wayne's Mosquito Plus program today.

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basically a chart that allows for the mulligans that a team has and how much they'll be allowed or I guess afforded to make mistakes and still be able to get into this college football playoff. So regular season mulligans and upsets required to be in the college football playoff at-large discussion. So this is talking about being an at-large team, GMAC. There's one team in college football that he believes is afforded three mulligans –

Three. And still be able to be in that discussion. Who do you think that team is? Georgia. It is the Georgia Bulldogs. And a lot of that would be because of that schedule and the difficulty that comes with it, I would assume. I don't know exactly how this is being put together. But you think about if Georgia were to lose, say, the top three games on their schedule, that would be, let's say, Alabama, Ole Miss, and Texas? Probably. Probably.

So if they lose to Alabama early, they lose to Texas in the middle of the season, Ole Miss late. They could possibly have wins over Tennessee. Maybe Florida's pretty good. Clemson could be your ACC champion. Georgia Tech could be in the mix for an ACC championship. They could be better than maybe some people think. Kentucky might be one. It doesn't feel like that would just be enough. But according to Kelly Ford's numbers, he thinks they are. Two teams. I would agree, by the way.

You think of Georgia's 9-3, they're in the mix. For an at-large, yeah. I think they're one of those teams where people will look and say, oh, look how talented. And...

Look how many first-rounders. And people would give them the benefit of the doubt, 100%. I've always said that's the biggest issue, I think, with moving to the 12-team playoff is teams like Georgia, teams like Bama, teams like Ohio State, teams that are already perceived in the court of public opinion to be elite from a talent standpoint, they have to play their way out of the playoff.

And I think George is the best example of that, especially when you take into account just how challenging their schedule is. All right. According to Kelly Ford at K4 Ratings, if you want to go follow him on Twitter and find some of his work, two teams have the ability to have two mulligans and be in the mix for the college football playoff at-large discussion. Would you like to take a guess at who those two teams are? Ohio State. Incorrect. Penn State. Incorrect. Correct conference.

Oregon? One of them. Oregon is one, and Alabama is the other. One mulligan required to be in the college football playoff at-large discussion. Kelly Ford has Florida State, Iowa, Kansas State, LSU, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Texas. Iowa, eh? Eh. He says, Iowa is an interesting example per my current numbers. Favorite in 11 games, only have 7.6 projected average wins.

So many projected close games this year, 10 wins required to be in the college football playoff at-large discussion. That's for him, he's saying. So then he goes to upsets required to get in. He has Missouri, by the way, with no mulligans. I think what he's doing here is putting them against the point spread, saying that they're going to be favored in every game, and so then mulligans, you would be allowed. He has Missouri as no room for error, just win.

Now, I don't think that that means they have to win every game. What he's saying is versus where they're going to be favored and upsets needed. So he's not saying right now that they're going to need multiple upsets to be able to find their way in as an at-large bid. Like for Auburn, he says Auburn is in the three category of upsets required. He says Auburn would have to have three upsets this year to be in the discussion today.

as an at-large bid to be able to get in. And that sounds about right. Probably right. It sounds somewhat fair. Panama, Georgia, I mean, Oklahoma, if they are considered a dog in that game, I don't know. I'm just trying to think of some of the other games. A&M, maybe. I'd have to pull up their schedule. On the road at Kentucky, is that considered an upset? At Missouri? Are we talking about at Missouri? Are we talking about actual...

Upsets in regards to Vegas or the perception of said team? Yeah, he says, how to read this. Georgia's favorite in all 12 games, but only needs nine wins to be in the playoff at-large discussion. So they have three mulligans. Michigan's favorite in nine games, but needs ten wins to be in the college football playoff at-large discussion. So they need to pull off one upset. So that's kind of how...

He lays this back and forth both ways. Like a couple other – like he says South Carolina needs five upsets. Same with Mississippi State and Arkansas. Yeah. He has Tennessee as needing one upset. That's just to be in the discussion as an at-large. So I think he's – like Oklahoma, he says, needs two upsets to be in the discussion as an at-large.

LSU has one mulligan. Doesn't necessarily need upsets. So they win the games you're favored in and then also have a mulligan and LSU is still going to be in. Those one mulligan teams would be Florida State, Iowa, Kansas State, LSU, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, and Texas. Right. So he has Ole Miss as just win. Doesn't have a mulligan, but also doesn't need an upset.

So it's just kind of an interesting way to look at it from a different analytical perspective. I think I buy it. I'm having a hard time kind of understanding what qualifies. To me, the things that look like upsets right now might not be upsets in the future. So this is going to be a major sliding scale. That's the challenging thing about analytics is it's just everything's sliding scale. Everything's adjusted.

Because you don't know who's going to be good. I mean, we can assume. Right now, I can tell you, I think this team's going to be good. And then next thing you know, we get to the end of October in Clemson's 4-4.

You know, I mean, we've seen that happen a million times. So it's kind of hard to kind of assess. Yeah, he says Clemson just win. Doesn't need an upset. Also doesn't have a mulligan. Here, I've started to look for a group of five teams just to kind of where he thinks things need to happen to get in. But I also found it very interesting, along with Tennessee, the other teams that are on that need one upset line to be in the discussion to be a college football playoff at-large team. Kansas?

Miami, we mentioned Michigan, NC State, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, SMU, TCU, USC, and Virginia Tech. Now, what I took from that, Greg, is a lot of ACC teams. Yeah. So telling me that things are going to be pretty tight. And if one of those teams pulls the one upset that they need, now they're in that discussion to be in the college football playoff at large for one of those bids.

You don't get to a group of five team until the four upset required line. Now, keep in mind, this is for the at-large discussion. Four upset required line. Because when we went to, like we said, Kansas, Miami, NC State, like North Carolina, nobody's talking about them for a playoff bid right now. We've talked about SMU a little bit. I don't think TCU's getting much talk. Virginia Tech, maybe just a smidge.

But one upset doesn't feel very difficult. That feels very reasonable. Now, also, you're not allowed any mulligans there. Right. But he believes to be an at-large. You have to have four upsets on the season. That feels almost impossible. There's only one team there, and it's Central Florida. He thinks that with four upsets, Central Florida could be a team that's at least being talked about as a college football playoff at-large. So, I mean, I...

I'm not even looking at... It ain't happening. So I feel like we're literally spinning around in circles. It's completely unnecessary to have the discussion. There is a 0.0% chance a G5 team will get in as an at-large because they have to be undefeated. And for the record, if you're, quote, an at-large, that means you have a loss because you didn't win your conference. Right.

So he doesn't even have one listed on the entire. They shouldn't graphic because they don't belong. And I know that sounds negative, but it's the reality like their rosters. Think about how many examples of the teams that we've broken down over the last six months. How many different G5 players are now on P5 rosters? How many plots from Colin Lacey to Trey Moore? Call Lacey. The receiver from South is now at Louisville.

Trey Moore, the outstanding pass rusher from UTSA, is now at Texas. Like, they don't stay at G5 programs anymore. The only example of a guy that did was Ashton Jeanty, but he's a running back at Boise State.

So if guys were staying there and they couldn't transfer to other big programs and there was a little bit of collective buy-in, then sure, I'd be on board 100%. The problem is they're not. You can't even get teams that recently made the move up as not having to have multiple upsets to potentially find their way in. That's why I thought Central Florida was kind of intriguing there. You have to go like Cincinnati's at five potential upsets to be able to get in? Yeah.

So, yeah, I don't know. When you start talking about some other teams, the damage they would have to do to possibly be in that discussion, like you said, is probably insurmountable. Houston at eight, by the way, according to Kelly Ford. Wow. Eight upsets required to be in the mix for an at-large bid. That's it? That's all. Colorado six. You might be on the call for one of them. Possibly. Let's ride.

Colorado on the six line right there with Vanderbilt, by the way. Wow. To be in the mix. Well, let's see. I mean, if Vanderbilt had six wins. Barkley brought his luggage. On the year. That's right. That one, they're not even upset. It's like, oh, Vanderbilt's free. Well, yeah, six wins. I think we might start to be talking about where they would be. I mean, but you think about the possible upsets that are out there for them. Tennessee, LSU, Texas, Alabama, Virginia Tech.

That's at Kentucky, at Auburn. That'd be some... That's just six of seven. That's not hard at all. They'd be doing some work there. It were to take place, it were to happen. I don't know how feasible it is. I don't know how realistic that would be for even a G5 team not even on the list to be able to find their way in. I did find it interesting, though, Central Florida announced their captains over the weekend, Greg. Yes. Ethan Barr, KJ Jefferson on that list. Marcellus Marshall, RJ Henry on that list. Yeah.

It's just always going to be weird to me that your voted captains by your teammates are guys that have been there for like four months. I mean, yes, it's a starting quarterback, but I don't know. It's just odd to me. It's almost hard to not be a captain as a starting quarterback. You have to really be a bad dude. I mean, seriously.

Are they an interesting team for you this year? No. I just think they're a fascinating watch because of so much production that's being brought in from other places. We don't know a lot about them. I think they'll be pretty good, well, relatively decent in the Big 12, but not like playoff. You know how I feel about KJ Jefferson. I think he's an average player. I think he's solid. I just don't think he's like...

Cam Newton 2.0. Some people treat him as such. I don't really get it. I think he's streaky. When he's on, he's on. When I think he's off, he's off. He's not the only one. They just have a lot of Power 5 transfers that are good players in name and recruiting stature.

But those that are looking at UCF and like, oh, man, this team could be like a dark horse playoff contender. Maybe they could. Maybe their blue chip recruiting stats come to fruition. But it's like people look at those, oh, he's a former five-star. Yeah, but he's not a five-star. We've watched him in college the last two years. Right. Oh, he's a former four-star. Great. Yeah.

At a high school, three years ago, he was supposed to be an All-American candidate. He's not. I've seen him play. So I think some of the love affair right now with UCF is by the recruiting gurus that refuse to acknowledge Cody Schrader, for example, for Missouri's existence because he had zero stars coming out.

God, this guy can't be good. Zero star is D2 player. He can't be good. We didn't have him in our database. He was productive in D2, though. And that's why I like production for guys coming in. So you don't say Zaire Alexander linebacker from Idaho at 75 tackles, four for loss last year, led the team. Jacoby Jones, wide receiver from Ohio, 45 for 776, six touchdowns last year.

You get Njai Kelly, edge from Miami Four Sacks last year. Traquan Fagans is one of the guys you're talking about. USC in Alabama hasn't played a ton, but has that high-level talent. Sheldon Arnold, safety from ETSU, 87 tackles last year, led the team. Antoine Jackson, corner from ECU, led the team in interceptions last year. Mack McMillan, corner from UAB, 52 tackles last year, also had a pick. You've got guys that have played a lot of football. K.J. Jefferson, we didn't even talk about.

I just think it's interesting to see they've added a ton of guys that have played a ton of football. Does that mean they're going to win the Big 12? I don't know. And like you said, consistency quarterback is going to be big also. I just think they're a fascinating team because there's so many different additions and just kind of how they're doing so many different things in different ways. But we'll talk about that a little bit more on the other side. There's one other thing with UCF.

as it pertained to recruiting over the weekend. Not sure exactly how and why it took place. We'll talk about that. But first, tell our listeners about B-Dry. B-Dry has been serving Alabama and homeowners here across Birmingham for 60 years. They've been making sure that your basement and crawl space are taken care of. And God forbid something else happens. We've had a lot of wet weather. I mean, goodness gracious, if your basement stayed dry yesterday, then you're in good shape. But you might want to go down and take a peek.

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A player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Cup or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back in. Michael Roy and Cuba Lake in the morning. Appreciate you guys tuning in. 921 a.m. Monday, July 29th. Talk a little bit of recruiting before we welcome in Justin Hokanson in nine minutes. It was a pretty good weekend for Auburn GMAC four-star defensive lineman Antonio Coleman. Flip from Alabama, 6'2", 280-pound defensive lineman from Sutherland.

Four-star cornerback Blake Woodby, 5'11", 180-pounder from Baltimore, commits. Four-star linebacker to Michael Garrett, 6'2", 200-pound linebacker from Gulf Shores, commits. Four-star linebacker Shadarian's Toodle, 6'3", 220 from Mobile, commits. That's a 2026 linebacker. And then elite edge defender Hezekiah Harris, 6'6", 235 from Huntsville, commits. The big one, though.

All that would be enough if you were Hugh Freeze in Auburn. The big one was John Allen McGuire. What does he play? According to On 3, number two punter in the nation. What? See? Field flipper. Big Cat Weekend was good. You get the number two punter in the nation. Haven't seen the tape, but apparently they say he's good. Would you actually watch the tape? Nope. Don't need to. Don't need to. I'm going back to Central Florida.

An odd one over the weekend, Greg. Now, I don't know the situation here, and I'm sure that there's something weird to it. Four-star cornerback to Marion Gordon, 6'1", 95, from Jackson, Alabama, flipped his commitment from Alabama to UCF. I just read the information. I don't know the hows and whys. I'm sure there is a something there. People are going to be mad that I even read it. But that's the way it reads, is that he flipped from then to then. I don't know.

I'm not sure I'm following. It's the Malzahn effect. Why would people be mad? Because I announced that he flipped from Alabama to Central Florida. Oh, I mean, people make decisions. I don't think anyone should be mad about that. It's a high school kid. You're mad about where high school kids are decided to do. Have you lived in the South for a while? Yeah, right. Yeah. Pretty long time now. Folks get a little, they get cranky. There will be tweets.

And people telling us the reasons why, which I do not know. I have no idea. I don't know what's happening or what happened or how it happened or what went down. I do know that Gusty Goulds can help you find a new home. 205-542-1996. Google Gusty Goulds Group or look up gustygouldsgroup.com. You'll see over 835 star Google reviews brokered by EXP Realty.

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Deshaun Brame, 6'6", 230, flips from Oregon to Tennessee. And then four-star safety, Laganza Hayward, 6'1", 205, at Alliance Georgia, has announced his commitment. Texas also flips four-star defensive lineman Josiah Sharma from Oregon, 6'4", 320. Georgia gets a couple of commitments, a four-star corner in the 26 class. John Tavius Wynn, 6'1", 76, from Jonesboro.

So he's going to be committed there to Georgia. So a big weekend from Auburn, big weekend from Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, doing a little bit of work, all in recruiting, and still a lot more to go.

It's not going to matter for a couple months, but we can give you the updates on what seems to be the best. Don't tell the guys at 247 that. This matters. Be careful. There's a graphic. It's real, dog. It depends on what ranking service you pay the most attention to. Those rankings will be different at those places. So some are going to look better than the others. Kind of just the way it goes. Which one do you care about? The one that Auburn has the highest rating in? I mean, why wouldn't you?

Why would you be concerned? They're clearly the most right. Why would you be more concerned with one that maybe didn't respect your school the way that they should? Not that I know what it should be. I have no idea. I saw one the other day where they're ranking the top 25 eighth graders in recruiting. On three has Auburn, 12th, by the way. Ohio State, one. Alabama, two. LSU, three. Georgia, four.

Auburn's 12th. How many SEC teams are in front of them? Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M. No Texas? Nope. No South Carolina? Nope. Texas at 15, Missouri at 16, Kentucky 21. Where is Texas, by the way? They decided not to recruit anymore. Fresh out of Lambeau. 15th. Texas 15th. Oklahoma 13th.

So non-SEC teams will be one Ohio State, five Oregon, six Clemson, eight Florida State, ten Notre Dame, eleven Miami. So there you go. Got that going. All right. We'll talk more recruiting with Justin Hokanson. Why was Big Cat Weekend so successful? And how much further can Auburn climb in the recruiting rankings this

When we come back right here on McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. The capital of the sports talk nation. This is Jocks 94.5 and jocksfm.com. Hurry hand. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. It is 930 Monday, July 29th right here on Jocks 94.5. Listen online, jocksfm.com. Alabama's largest GMC dealership and the largest discounts.

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Exit 310 off I-65, or you can shop online. Have it delivered right to your driveway at BillSmithBuickGFC.com. All right, go to the phones now. Welcome in. Justin Hokanson of the On3 Sports Network covers the Auburn Tigers. And let's just start with Big Cat Weekend. Felt like it was super successful. Why do you believe that Hugh Freeze and his staff had so much success over the weekend?

Well, I think the 2026 commitments were big. I think that was kind of interesting to watch how it's not just about the class that they're putting together for 25, but I think the fact that they were able to land three of the best players in the state for next year is a good indication of, I guess, the inroads they've made and the work they've done.

That's always the hardest thing when you come in as a new staff. It's one thing to catch up and have a class that year, but it takes longer to make those connections, relationships, and figure out the lay of the land for the guys that are sophomores, you know, or juniors. And so I think the fact that a year, a little over a year later, you're

they're in position to land guys for a class ahead. I think that's a really good sign of the relationships that they've built and the work they've done to figure out those younger guys, not just the guys at the top of the list for that immediate class. So I think that was a really good sign. And, yeah, I think it's been a good summer. And they had a little bit of a lull there in the middle where a couple of guys they thought they might get kind of went elsewhere. But all in all,

They're sitting there right around top ten, and I think the aftermath of Big Cat is still going. Anquan Fagans is going to decide. I think Auburn's in a great position for him, one of the best players in the state. Four-star safety, you've got Jared Smith, who's going to decide here in a couple of days, one of the best players in the country, one of the best players in the state. Auburn's in a great position for him. He was there at Big Cat. And then you've got Derek Smith, who's committed to Alabama, who's

who was at Big Cat as well and could easily flip to Auburn here pretty soon. So it's not just what happened that day, the aftermath of it. I think you're going to see more commitments come into Auburn's class here before in the next week or so, and this class will be inside the top ten. So they've done a lot of work in the spring and summer. I know it's better to have commits than not have commits, but...

I guess I just don't follow it that closely, if I'm going to be honest with you, Justin. Are these guys guaranteed to sign? It feels like a long way away from signing day for people to be doing cartwheels and backflips with recruiting classes, not just at Auburn, but everywhere. If they're committed now, what's the likelihood of them signing on the dotted line down the road?

Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, and I told somebody over the weekend just talking to somebody about it, I'm like, recruiting has always been, especially in football, basketball is different because they just treat it different. But in football, it's always been, you know, you're never going to give up on a kid. You'll try to flip them at the 11th hour. That's always been the case. But you now toss in NIL.

And recruiting can change in a second. You can have a guy committed. You can be in the lead. You can be in great shape. And with NIL...

All it takes is a better offer if that kid values that above everything else. And it can just change so quickly now. Then again, maybe you can help lock kids down because of NIL. Maybe that can help you sort of secure something. So I guess it can go both ways. But with NIL in these days, man, stuff can just change so quickly. I think the early signing period will help.

But, yeah, you're right. I mean, look at Antonio Coleman. Alabama, Auburn, Alabama, Auburn. And it's, you know, we're in the summer. His senior season hadn't even started. So I think –

I think one thing Hugh Freeze and that group is, it feels like they've done a pretty good job of when they get a commit, holding on to them. If they put their teeth in, if Hugh Freeze really, really wants a guy, I feel like they've done a pretty good job of holding on to guys. So I feel pretty good about the guys they have committed in terms of keeping them.

But, yeah, I mean, this day and age more than ever with NIL, if schools stay after players, if you see a guy committed but he's still kind of taking visits and stuff like that, then you might as well not even view it as a commitment. I mean, you might as well just view yourself in the lead even if he is committed. If he's taking visits and you toss in an NIL, you might as well just view it as, well, we lead for him and we'll see where he signs.

Justin Hokanson joining us on the Biosphere Hotline, talking Auburn recruiting. We haven't seen the tape on John Allen McGuire. What can you share with us?

Yeah, that was an interesting one. He's a guy that was there over the weekend and they offered him and you go read about him at Kohl's for people that kind of follow recruiting. You've probably heard of Kohl's Kicking Academy over the years. They're sort of the place to go in terms of kickers and punters. Like he's evaluated for decades, kickers and punters.

And you go look at John McGuire, and as of right now, Cole's kicking academy, they rank him the number two punter in the country. In the spring, he was actually number one. He went to some camps, and they elevated him to the number one punter in the country. And then right now, he's number two. He's a five-star punter in their eyes.

He's already got an invite to the All-American Bowl. You're talking about one of the best punters in the country, bar none. I think those kind of players, it's kind of rare that you get a punter or a kicker on scholarship. Probably even more rare a punter. A kicker, somebody like Alex McPherson, you'll get those elite ones on scholarship, but punter, it's sometimes even more rare. To get a player like that, those guys are important. You're talking about one of the best punters in the country,

um to get committed is nice and now you're looking at alex mcpherson's got a few years and this this kid's town's town's uh mcgoe is is is there and then this kid's coming in so you're like all right auburn kicking and punting that stuff's important it can't be overlooked and so i think it was an important pickup and now if you're auburn you've got elite all-american high school type talent at kicker and punter for the next three four years i just want to clarify before greg asked another question that's

K-O-H-L's Kicking Academy, for those that are trying to put that together. That is not. Don't put that on there. Yeah, I'm sorry. It's not your Kicking Academy. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I was thinking. I was trying to figure it out. I was like, hang on a second. Is there a different Kohl's? Nope.

Not mine. I think Cole's going to run a long snapper clinic here very soon. He's realized that there's deep pockets for people that want their kids to become long snappers. He's going to tap that market. Where else would you... Let's just kind of move it on to the field. Auburn opening camp here sooner than later. Hugh Freeze seemed really happy at media days. And I don't feel like it was...

at all like trying to blow smoke towards us at the media i think he really believes that his roster is is capable of competing now i'm not saying for an sec title as much but i think he anticipates progress so you know based on you knowing him having a relationship with him having covered him uh what about his mood at media days did it have an effect on how you assess the roster

A little bit. I think a lot of his mood is, yes, I think he has a better roster. And there's some important pieces, whether it's maybe now feeling like you've got a chance at wide receiver. Maybe you feel like Keiondre Lambert-Smith or Cam Coleman. Maybe you feel like you've got a couple of guys that give you an opportunity to make some plays when nothing else is there. I think that helps. I think a big part of his mood, though, is,

is just an overall comfort level being in the program now a little over a year. I think, one, just being in the program, you've got the lay of the land. You've figured you've sort of got your recruiting infrastructure going. You've got a much better grasp on the roster, talent in the SEC. But then also bringing in Derek Nix, elevating Kent Austin on the offensive side of the ball,

I think that is making him a lot more comfortable in terms of how he looks at the offense. I think he said it as a whole. He feels really, really good with the coaching staff. He feels like everybody's on the same page, same message. I think that's playing a lot into his mood, too, just a better feel of

The coaching staff, a comfort level, the culture, I think he thinks that's in a better place than maybe it was a year ago. You heard a little bit about struggling to get guys to be accountable last year here and there, different positions. I think he feels like that's in a better place. So,

I think there's a bunch of reasons to be optimistic about what Auburn can do this fall. But, man, the SEC is so hard that you could be better and it could result in one more win. I mean, it's just tough, the league's that tough. And so you look at the schedule and, man, they could be a better team and go –

You know, I mean, if they went 8-4, which is just two wins better, and I think it's still not where Auburn fans want to be. 8-4 shouldn't be the standard. But with that schedule in year two, 8-4, you probably have a lot of fans pretty happy. It probably puts you at 4-4 in the league, something like that. So I think he just feels more comfortable with where the program is, how he feels around the roster and the staff, in addition to just the personnel pieces, getting some personnel additions that makes him feel better about what they can accomplish X's and O's wise. Justin, we always talk about

Guys coming out of the transfer portal, they could help. How surprising would they be? Newcomers through traditional recruiting, how surprising could they be? Is there a veteran on this team that you think could surprise folks this year that maybe hasn't been ultra productive through his Auburn career so far?

That's an interesting question. And, yeah, sometimes these returners get lost in the shuffle, right, with all the hype around a freshman or a transfer player. I mean, if you're talking about a veteran that maybe could step up, I'll tell you one guy who I'm kind of waiting to see take a next step is somebody like Jason Jones, who's played a bunch of football at Oregon and Auburn. He's got the size and he's got the athletic ability to,

but I don't know that he's really broken through and been as dominant as he could be. I mean, you look at him and you're like, how are you not more dominant? He's going to be a guy at that nose tackle position that's going to be a very important player. He's probably one I would look at and go, okay, you've been in the Auburn program, you've played a bunch of college football, you've got all the physical attributes that

Can you take it to another level? Because there's, you know, the talent's there, but if you can take it to another level, he could really help Auburn's defense and really entire team because that interior of the defensive line, I think, is...

It might be my biggest question mark, even beyond Peyton Thorne and maybe even beyond the receivers. When you lose Marcus Harris, I don't see an interior defensive lineman right now that's dominant. I see some decent players, maybe some guys with some ability, but I don't know exactly yet how they're going to hold up defensively.

and can they be a unit that goes up against the best offensive lines and holds their own and stuffs the run and can penetrate? I don't know yet. I mean, Trill Carter's coming in. Gage Keyes is coming. You've got some transfers coming in. We'll see how they acclimate. But Jason Jones is a guy who's been there and been in the SEC and has the ability. So he would be one guy off your question that I would immediately go to and go,

You're a veteran. You've got the ability. If you can step up and kind of hit your ceiling, man, it would do wonders for that defense or that team as a whole. What is the floor for Auburn this year? I think it's easy to probably assess the ceiling, but I think it's also pretty easy to assess the floor. I actually think Auburn...

This year, as weird as this may be, their floor and ceiling are actually closer together than any other team in the SEC. Like I see the ceiling is like a nine. I see the floor is like an eight. It's kind of wild. So what's the floor and what's the ceiling this year?

Well, the floor eight, I mean, that'd be interesting. I mean, I would say the absolute floor is six. I mean, you're four non-conference, and then you beat Arkansas and Vanderbilt at home. Like, I think that'd be the absolute floor because past that,

I mean, you're looking at – you're going to be an underdog against Oklahoma at Missouri. Texas A&M at home, you might be a slight underdog. At Kentucky, you probably will be an underdog. I mean, you're looking at one, two, three, four, five, six games. I think they can – I think there's six games that they're going to be expected to win. The other six, they're going to be an underdog. So, to me, the absolute floor is six, and they don't need to do six and six. Six and six is not going to be acceptable. This program needs a step and a breakthrough. Yes.

Six and six is not going to get it. You're not going to go through this year and go, well, we beat who we were supposed to beat, and we lost who we were supposed to lose to, so we kind of did about the expectations. That's not going to get it done. To me, they've got to get to eight wins, and they need to beat somebody in the process, beat Oklahoma, win at Kentucky or at Missouri, like have a ranked win, something like that. But, yeah, floor, I would say absolute floor would be six. And then ceiling, yeah, probably nine. Nine is going to be –

Nine, I think, is going to be tough. I think that's a fair ceiling. I'm not sure they can get there. If they come out and we see maybe how good Calendary Lambert-Smith and Cam Coleman are together and that defensive line interior-wise is a little bit better than we thought, all of a sudden nine looks attainable. So I would go six is the floor and nine is the ceiling.

Justin, great stuff, man. Appreciate the time helping us catch up on Auburn recruiting. And as we head here for fall camp, a couple of players to watch out for. We'll have you back soon. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you. Justin Hokanson, you can find him on three. Covers the Auburn Tigers. Some good stuff there just around a big recruiting weekend. And then obviously coming up here in fall camp, some guys to potentially watch. All right.

We'll wrap up the show and give you a bad box score of the day 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 job app or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubrick in the morning. Final segment of the day before we hand you off the three-man front. And if you're looking to feel better,

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Testosterone replacement therapy has a lot of different benefits, more energy, increased stamina, and maybe enhanced muscle mass as well. Book your free consult today at gamedaymenshealth.com. That's gamedaymenshealth.com. All right, let's get to our Bad Box scores, plural, of the day. Offense. He was giving them the business. Potential rounding. Offense number seven. It's a 10-yard penalty. I'm talking to America here. Bad Box.

All right, something you said that you watched over the weekend, G-Mac, and that was the Rugby 7s in the Olympics. Yes, you love it, don't you? Not going to dive into a lot of these, but I am just going to give you an update. I think we all know the USA knocked off Japan in women's Rugby 7, 36-7. Here are some of your other scores from over the weekend. Oh, boy.

Ireland knocked off South Africa 38-0. Australia knocked off Great Britain 36-5. France knocked off Japan 49-0. New Zealand took down Canada 33-7. Makes sense. Are we thinking that we like this because it's competitive? Or do we just like blowouts? No, we like it because it's basically football. It feeds bad box score of the day. It's basically football. Maybe these are their lettuce games, getting them out the way early. Yeah, that's all it is. I mean, it's just very top-heavy.

You like watching Bama against Mercer, so you're not allowed to talk smack. Not anymore. No, they fired that guy. Oh, not a good offense anymore. Correct. Can confirm. All right, I'll take you to the Elf League. If you're not familiar with that, we get to it almost each Monday in our Bad Box Scores of the Day because there seems to be a team that gets blown out every weekend. If you guys can recall this over the weekend, the Stugart. Renegades? No. I think this is the third straight week they've been here. Storm. Close. Ah.

Cyclones. Serge. Serge. That's what it was. They just snuck past the Barcelona. Dragons? Correct. Now, the Serge go to 8-0 on the season. Barcelona, remember, shut it down at halftime one game this year. Correct, right, yeah. They fall to 2-7.

On the year. They lost this game 71-7. Sound like they did shut it down at halftime. And the one statistic that you need to take away from this game were the rushing yards where Stugart outrushed Barcelona 262-94. There we go. Ground a pound. Okay. Getting it done on the ground. That is, it's kind of been where the Surge have hung their hat this year. They run the damn ball. They got it done in this one. Copying after Saul Dalton.

Nope. It doesn't help by the way when you're Barcelona and you convert 17% of your third downs. Now, they did throw for 168, but they were outgained in the game 480 to 320. So not exactly what you're looking for there. It wasn't the only blowout. Also, we got the Cologne. Cardinals. No. They are the generals.

Centurions. Centurions. Is that what they were back in the day? No, it was the Rhine fire. They still exist, by the way. But Cologne had one, right? I think they were the one with the hammers. Yeah, that's what I feel like. No, that was Berlin. They were the thunder. Them two. Yeah. Cologne went down to the Madrid. Nickelbacks. I don't even know what that is. Red Shipmen. No. They're the Maulers. Nope. They are not the Maulers.

Madrid, the Bravos. Oh, yeah. Makes sense. We all knew that, right? They're the Braves or the Bravos? The Bravos. Well, it's B-R-A-V-O-S, so I don't think that would be the Bravos. Oh, like the channel. Okay. Once again, rushing yards, the difference in this game is Madrid, who knocked off Cologne 37-0, outrushed them 264-73. There we go.

Solid, solid. That's your type of game, though. Unable to get it going on the ground. Or anywhere else. Cologne did muster up 158 yards passing. They were out gained 380 to 229. Ah. That's all. That's it. Third down is a little bit better for Cologne as they converted 40% on the game. Okay. So got off to a bad start. 14-0 in the first quarter.

You're talking about those halftime adjustments? Madrid 23-0 in the third quarter outscored Cologne. So these Centurions go down again. They made some adjustments, just not the good ones. Great coaching. Adjustments in the second half. There was another blowout. The Rhine. Fire. We just said that. 38-6. They took down the Paris...

Olympics. Wait, Crips. No, they are the Panthers. Musketeers makes perfect sense. Okay, yeah. 38-6. Probably will be headbanging, too. Not a lot of rushing yards in this game. 79-85. Paris actually outgained Rhine. Game played in Rhine for obvious reasons. Oh, okay. I feel like. Yeah, a lot of people talking about the Elf League going on in Paris right now. I feel like they're busy with some other stuff. There's a lot going on there. Yeah.

They had to move that game out of there. Don't know if they had Crocker Movie Services to help, though, GMAC. Crocker Movies are a local company owned by an Iraq War veteran, Eric Crocker. Crocker believes in hiring movies you can trust to believe, pull background checks, and run drug tests on every single employee. These are good guys. Neal?

And you can trust them in your home. They need your whole home back to move. Your company headquarters moved across the country. Or you just want them to come rearrange the living room. These guys got you covered. They also deliver us for free. You can purchase and you can take care of your home. Just call or visit them online today for a free quote. The website's crockermovieservices.com. That's crockermovieservices.com. Support your veterans by choosing Crocker Movie Services for your next move. All right. Appreciate Andy Staples stopping by today. Paul Feinbaum was with us. Justin Hokanson with us.

Tomorrow, Andy Burcham starts his weekly visits at 8 a.m. Martin Newton, Sanford Athletic Director, going to talk some college basketball with us at 9 a.m. in studio. And we ask you this question, just like we did in Missouri today for tomorrow, why Notre Dame will make the playoffs, or why not? We talk Irish tomorrow on the show, 7 to 10 a.m., three-man front, coming to you next, right here on Jocks 94.5. This is McElroy and Kulik in the morning.

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