7-30-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 1: SEC starting fall camps; Ryan Callahan talks Tennessee; Olympics rolling on
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McElroy and Kubelik in the morning starts now. All right, welcome in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. Appreciate you being with us. 7 a.m. Tuesday, July 30th right here on JOX 94.5. Got a good show for you today. Martin Newton, Sanford Athletic Director, going to join us in studio. Remember the NCAA Basketball Committee. Remember we told you that some of the lower tier tournaments now are going to be played on site with the Final Four tournament.

Talk about that as well as some of the future of college athletics as Martin joins us here in studio. We'll talk Tennessee recruiting and camp getting underway with Ryan Callahan, 730. Andy Burton begins his weekly visits at 8 a.m. today. We'll get about about it in hour number two. And we are going to ask the question every day for one college football team. Will they make the college football playoff today? That will be Notre Dame. But first, G-Mac, how are you doing this morning? Good, buddy. What's the word?

a lot of olympics for you yesterday i actually did not watch any olympics yesterday a lot going on yesterday trying to get caught back up getting back in town so did not watch one second of the olympiad uh but hoping to get caught up this morning because from what i gather yesterday was a

Coco Gauff moves on to the third round yesterday. The United States women, 102-76. They knock off Japan. Most points in an Olympic game for the USA women since 2016. Asia Wilson, 24-13. They'll go Thursday against Belgium.

The men are going to go Wednesday against South Sudan. That's at 2 o'clock. So that's sort of your basketball. And one thing we talked yesterday a little bit about, G-Mac, was you kind of took issue with this yesterday. You were a little angry at this. People are saying or debating Kevin Durant, best Olympic basketball player of all time.

I don't know if he is or not. I don't keep a running list of best Olympic basketball players. I keep a running list of best basketball players, and he ain't on it. Whoa. Like not even on it right now? He's not one of the best in the league? Oh, one of the best in the league, yeah, currently, sure. Okay. That's great if you want to be the best in this version of the NBA. Cool.

I mean, I would take being the best of any version, really. That's cool, but, I mean, some versions are softer than others. I would take the version that we grew up with in the 90s. Well, you grew up in the 80s, but I grew up in the 90s. What if they just said best American, like best American basketball player all the time? I understand statistically speaking. Like, I do appreciate that he's played in four Olympic games. Could be the first human ever with four basketball gold medals.

That's cool, but Michael Phelps has 21 gold medals. I don't need to qualify as a basketball gold medal. They only hand out one a year for basketball. If it is a basketball gold medal, more valuable than any other Olympic gold medal, they only hand out one a year for mountain biking. I don't see anyone giving the mountain biking champ from France a medal.

Are we sure? Do we know if there are other events with mountain biking? Is there like a downhill? Is there a slalom? Well, there's three-on-three basketball. Is there ramping? There's three-on-three basketball. Ramping. Is there a... Half pipe? Is there a street course for mountain biking? I don't know what all they have, if there's different ones. But I did find some interesting numbers on Kevin Durant. Like, Sabre, when somebody says that to you, is that, like, offensive? Do you say, like, what? Or...

It doesn't feel right because obviously Jordan's been there. There's been a whole bunch of other probably better players than him that have been there. But the longevity, again, he's the all-time Olympic leading scorer, at least for the Americans. Yes, 458 points, the most points scored in USA men's basketball history. So it feels wrong to say because of all the other players that have been there, but also it's hard to deny that.

Do you know the only other American player that has three gold medals in basketball? Men's. I don't know. Scottie Pippen? Carmelo. Who he passed in scoring. They say he's not a champion. I now have to disagree. Well, if you and I wanted to put together a team right now, we could go and beat, right now, in two-on-two, people that are in probably seventh grade.

I feel pretty good about our chances. And a lot of the guys are overmatched when playing against American basketball players. Now, I do think that world is leveling off. And ironically enough, the best players in the NBA for the most part right now are all European. But hopefully in time, the quantity of American basketball players will outweigh the individual greatness of a Giannis, of a Jokic, of a Luka, of a Wemby. But...

I don't know. I'm feeling like this sport is becoming more and more international in the years to come. All right, so mentioned that Durant, the USA all-time leading scorer, 458 points. 23 games, these are his numbers. 19.9 per game, 54% from the floor. Get ready for this one. 51.6% from behind the three-point line. He needs that multicolored ball in the NBA. Yeah.

You think the multicolored ball is it? Then why doesn't he do the three-point contest and make the sixth ball, the money ball? Every time. Every time. Especially in that last game, he was just kind of standing there just waiting for them to pass it to him. And when he got it, he hit it. Do you guys want to take a guess at who the all-time leading scorer in men's Olympic basketball is? Kevin Durant. Not even close. Oh, you're talking about all time. All men. All countries. All Olympic games ever. All right.

Oh, gosh. Manage and Obley. That's actually a decent guess, but no. Tony Parker. No. Maybe off the field. It's okay. Dirk Nowitzki. Second all-time is Australia's Andrew Gaze with 789 points. Only him. Why didn't I think of him? How could I not remember him? And your all-time leader would be the big O, Oscar...

Schmidt from Brazil with 1,093 points all-time in men's Olympic basketball. I don't know how many Olympiads he competed in. A whole heap of Olympiads. Probably a few to get the extra games. But, yeah, he –

He moves on there. He was the greatest ever. I haven't seen the tape on Oscar Schmidt. Is there tape? Do we know when it happened? Are we talking like 1800s or something? I do not know. I haven't. I'm not sure. Men's Gymnastic gets their first medal since 2008. They get a bronze yesterday. And then I don't know if you guys saw the fellow doing the bar yesterday. Yeah. Single bar. Yeah.

I thought he was going to break it. I'm going to be honest with you. The single bar is pretty hard for him. My man had some power generating on that thing. And then, Greg, your United States women's rugby sevens team is moving on to the semifinals with a 17-7 win against Great Britain. That's not a blowout. Nope. I told you. It's a good sport. And they lost to France earlier in the day. All three medals for that sport will be awarded today, and that is a sport.

So the only other big news from the Olympics yesterday was Novak Djokovic knocking off Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros. Last ever. Last ever match. Yeah, he's kind of hinting to that. But 38, a lot of issues health-wise. I mean, it'd probably be an appropriate time for him to shut it down, but he had a great career. No doubt. I mean, one of the best ever.

What did he finish in ESPN's top 100 athletes? Like 23rd? Probably behind Secretariat and Cigar. He had more major wins than tennis players in front of him, but somehow. I think the winner of the Westminster Dog Show is ahead of him. They do have four legs, though. Nadal's only doing it with two.

All right, so it does bring up an interesting point, though, because if you're even a half fan of tennis for the last 20 years, what you've been able to witness and watch has been pretty remarkable. Because the debate on – I remember when we had Chris Fowler on the show, I think he actually went Djokovic, and that was like two years ago. Talking about Federer, Nadal, Djokovic. Now, Novak's all-time record –

against Rafael Nadal is 30-29. He also has a winning record against Andy Murray and has a winning record against Roger Federer. So if there was a debate about the greatest ever, it feels like Novak's moving to position GMAC to take it over. I think that he's one of the most hated champions of all time. He'll never, ever eclipse anything.

that of Rafa Nadal or Roger Federer as far as popularity. But I do think as far as just sheer accomplishments, how can you deny that he's the best? I mean, he is the best. 31-29 against Rafa, 27-23 against Fed, 25-11 against Andy Murray. All time. Yeah, I mean, it's ridiculous. And in fairness, he did kind of catch it at the right time.

And I understand that there's the argument to be made on behalf of timing is everything. And Rafa and Fed had to go head to head. And there were pockets of success from Andy Roddick, pockets of success from Andy Murray and a couple other guys in that time frame to Djokovic has kind of had the world to himself. You've had an aging Federer and aging Nadal.

And he has been the younger, more agile of the three and has been able to win a bunch of majors. But if you look at the numbers, they didn't let him compete in Australia for however many years because of COVID. And he won 10 of those, by the way, more than anybody.

What's that? He's won 10 of those also, by the way. I think he had to miss two of those. Off the top of my head, I'm not like the biggest diehard. I'm not watching Tennis Channel deep into the night. These are off the top of my head. I think he had to miss one U.S. Open and two Australians because of his vaccination status. So he's at 25. He could be at 28 probably pretty easily. And I'm not sure anyone would be that surprised if he got to 30 by the end of his career. I mean, he's that good. So...

I hate that he's universally loathed by many, because if you acknowledge what he's done on the court by itself, the guy's the best of all time. All right, so that's a little bit of Olympics from yesterday. The women's all-around, I believe, happens at 10 a.m. today, and obviously we get the replay tonight.

So stay away from social media and your computers if you don't want to know what happens there and you want to try to watch it later tonight when it actually airs on regular television. I think you have to have Peacock to watch that live during the day today. Is that individual or team? No, it's the team. So that one gets going today. Rugby sevens, we mentioned that'll be today. Men's basketball tomorrow if you're trying to keep up with the Olympics tomorrow.

We are going to talk some college football today. Notre Dame will be a big part of the conversation. Some more good news for Auburn in recruiting tomorrow. We'll get to that on the other side, GMAC. First, tell our listeners about ABS Systems. ABS Systems is going to always put the customer first. They've just added ABS Pure Water, which is an additional addition made by ABS Business Systems to make sure that you get the best possible pure water product.

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If you have problems just with your provider at all, call ABS today at 205-588-5077, or you can start the conversation at absimage.com. All right, when we come back, some more recruiting news. Auburn, a couple other SEC teams with more success today.

and break down a little bit more of who's getting on the practice field today in the SEC. That's next on Mac and Cube in the morning. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kublik in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than...

A player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Cup or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back in. Michael Roy and Kubelik in the morning. Appreciate you tuning in. Jocksfm.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to yours. You can always grab the podcast there of what you missed. Ryan Callahan going to talk Tennessee coming up in about 13 minutes. On the practice field yesterday was Missouri.

Coming up today, or excuse me, tomorrow, you're going to get Texas A&M, Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas are all going to get underway.

Missouri was on the practice field yesterday, GMAC, and we discussed Missouri as a team potentially making the college football playoff. Eli Drinkwitz laid out his goals for his team this fall camp. We have three goals when we talk about fall camp. Number one, we want it to be hard. Proverbs 24.10, if you faint in a day of adversity, your strength is small. So we want to create adversity in fall camp. That's why we move into the residence halls for the first week so that we force these guys into a mindset of it's just about football and eliminate distractions.

Number two is embrace their role. Everybody's going to have a role on this football team that helps us win and lose football games. And we need everybody to embrace that role. Not everybody's going to be the star. Not everybody's going to be a starter. But everybody has a role in order to help us win. And then the last one is develop a unity among the team, just us mentality. And so that's really the focus. Whether you're talking about day one or day 17, it's trying to accomplish those goals.

All right, that's Eli Drinkowitz just kind of on some of the goals for his team. Also discussed replacing SEC leading rusher Cody Schrader. From a talent standpoint, you know, there's a lot of players who have talent very similar to what Cody had and possessed. But for this team, it was the leadership components that he had. It was the toughness that he displayed. It was the commitment that he's displayed to the team on a daily basis to put himself second, put the team first, and

And whether that was his body, whether that was the way he prepared, you know, those are the things that we've got to find. And we've got to figure out who's going to carry that flag for our football team. All right, so Eli Drinkwitz discussing replacing Cody Schrader, GMAC. We mentioned some concerns for this team yesterday, specifically that one with what they have coming in, Marcus Carroll, Nate Noel. Is that a big concern that they can be anywhere close to,

to the same of what they were rushing the football season ago? I'm not worried about that one. The biggest challenge to me would be making sure that the offensive line is as good as they've been in the past. Now, running backs, they're a dime a dozen. I'm not saying it's always been that way, but I think nowadays that's kind of where it's gone. You can have great ones, but they can be spelled wrong.

Pretty quickly by the next best guy. Like you look at Texas last year, like how can you possibly replace B. John Robinson? That's just not going to happen. No way. Well, you replace him with a guy that was every bit as productive and Jonathan Brooks. How can you possibly replace Jonathan Brooks? Well, you've got a one to punch now and Jaden blue and CJ Baxter that are pretty dang sporty. Bama lost two backs this year. How many people are real worried about Jason McClellan, Roydale Williams not being there?

I just think a lot of people in Tennessee, for example, too, big time, home run hitting backs, gone. No problem, next man up. Backs have changed a lot, and that's kind of crazy because it used to be the premier position in the sport back in the 80s and 90s. That's not the case anymore. It's quarterback and kind of just need a committee of backs that can kind of spell each other and have different, I would say, traits so that you can have versatility at that position.

Also, Eli Drinkowitz, what kind of quarterback they need Brady Cook to be this year? We're all susceptible to...

complacency or falling into that praise and blame trap. He didn't let the blame get to him, and my anticipation is that he won't let the praise get to him too. But I'm constantly hammering with we don't need a celebrity quarterback. We need a battlefield commander. And so I think Coach Moore and Coach Gleason and myself will do a good job of monitoring that. I haven't seen any symptoms of that, but that is something that we'll be monitoring. Doesn't need a celebrity quarterback, Greg.

I'm not sure what that means. Because if your quarterback's a celebrity, that means you're probably doing things right. Probably winning games. Okay. All right. It's the truth. Yeah, I see what you're saying. I get it. If people want to stop you and get a picture at Publix, then you're probably winning games. Maybe he just doesn't want a coach that embraces the celebrity or chases the celebrity. Yeah, is trying to go and make the media rounds. Have a podcast like Shador.

I think that there are varying levels of celebrity. I, for one, am kind of a less is more guy as it relates to being out there in the public spotlight, being super active on social media and things like that. Yeah, it's not really my thing. I think as a quarterback, the attention will come when you play well. Because guess what? If you open yourself up and you all of a sudden want to be out there in the limelight, you

You better take the good in with the bad because there's going to be some games when you don't play well and you're going to get roasted. So I think it's better to kind of stay under the radar, which I acknowledge what Eli's saying, but they've won too many games. That cat's out of the bag. I mean, people know who Brady Cook is, and people are going to treat him like a celebrity, whether it's in and around Como or in and around the southeast part of the United States. Is it more important for him to take another step or for that running game to be similar to what it was last year?

I think for them to be at their best, they need to be able to run the ball the way they did last year. I don't know how you feel about it. Yeah, I mean, I think that was the core of what they did, the basis of what they did. And then I think that allows you to utilize his movement just a little bit more. And two, think about what that did. You go to Athens last year, and you don't have to drop Brady Cook back in the pocket 38 times.

I think that compressed that game a little bit and helped make you a little bit more competitive in a game like that. So I think if you're looking for different advantages against different teams that may either be bigger, more physical, or have a little bit more talent than you, that's obviously one of the ways to neutralize it. So yeah, probably a lean run game. Needs to be closer to what it was last year as opposed to Brady Cook maybe taking that extra step. Obviously, he can't go out there and throw 10 more interceptions this year. Yeah.

But I'm interested to see where he does take a step if he does, like what part of his game kind of improves this year as opposed to last year. Because he's got the weapons around him. If that run game is similar, does it allow him to take more shots down the field? Does he have to run the ball less? Does he maybe pick his spots just a little bit more? Just interested to see kind of where is an intermediate accuracy? Where does he sort of improve a little bit? Because I think there is some room for it. I just don't know exactly where it's going to be.

as far as Brady Cook and where he gets a little bit better if he does. Well, I think he's going to be solid. I mean, I think he threw the ball and played about as well as he could last year. I don't think he's a guy, and we talked about this in the past, some guys have a crazy high ceiling, some guys don't. I don't think he has a crazy high ceiling. I don't think he has a Burrow-level ceiling. But I think he'd be a real good distributor. Then again, before 2019, I didn't think Burrow had a Burrow-level ceiling. So maybe there's more in the tank that we don't know yet.

But based on what I've seen now through two years of him being the starting quarterback, I think he has a chance to be a high-level starter, but not an elite takeover-the-game, best-player-in-the-field type of player. So that's a pretty good place to be, by the way. High-level starter is perfectly fine. You can win a lot of games with a guy like that. But I don't think he's going to be a guy that just completely takes over the game as the best player on the field. I've never seen that from up to this point, and I don't know if I'm going to see that moving forward either. But...

He's got players around him that can be that for him as long as he continues to distribute in an efficient manner. UAB hits the practice field today. They'll start fall practice. You'll hear from Coach Dilfer on the show tomorrow. We'll give you some updates there on what they're anticipating throughout the course of fall practice. When we come back, we'll talk to Ryan Callahan about the Tennessee Volunteers getting going, also recruiting volunteers.

has sort of taken a little bit of a notch up for the Tennessee Volunteers. Mentioned some recruiting news yesterday. Auburn four-star safety, they get a commitment from four-star safety Anquan Fagan, 6'1", 195 from Alabaster. And then four-star athlete Derek Smith flips from Alabama, 6'1", 185 out of Selma.

Second player in the last, what, four days, three days that Auburn has flipped from Alabama. So good news there if you're Hugh Freeze and you're that staff. Georgia also getting four-star cornerback Dominic Kelly to flip from Southern Cal. I think that's three since the weekend that Southern Cal has had flipped to other teams. 6'1", 180-pound corner out of Tampa, Florida. And we're going, I mean, it is the Olympics, Greg.

We're going national over in Athens, not Greece. 2025 defensive lineman J.J. Henney has committed to Georgia. 6-4, 280. From? Sweden. Berlin. Ah. Mm-hmm. How is German football right now? Couldn't tell you. I feel like you should know this. We know about the Ryan Fires. Watch the tape. You've not watched the tape of the German leagues? I watched a little bit of highlights yesterday. But, um...

That was all I could get. That's more than most. I mean, there are these placement services now that can give you, I think, a much better idea of what you're doing from a certain player. But it's all traits. They're not really banking on the football being played. They're like, oh, this guy's big. This guy's fast. This guy's strong. Let's see if he can play football. I played with two guys that were international players in the NFL. Neither one could play. Well, he has played two years of football, so I don't know what that means. Against who?

The Berlin Thunder, by the way, are 4-5 on the season. That's why he's trying to get out. Oh, so... No, because he... Ryan Fire, 9-1. He can't preserve a red shirt. He's played nine games. Uh...

It's just funny about... It's funny that there's like a nuance level to playing football, like a savviness of playing football. The guy that I played with was a rugby player. He's 6'5", 260 pounds, could run like high 4'5". The guy was just a complete monster that checked every box. His name was Hayden Smith. He's a great dude, one of my best friends on the Jets. He only played one year because he...

He really wasn't a great player. Did have a catch in a game. I threw it to him. It was on screen. But long story short, if the route said 10-yard out, he was going to make sure he got all of 10 yards.

And then square it out. As opposed to like, hey man, I got banged off the ball. I got to round this thing and get there a little faster. There's just nuance and repetitions that you have to learn as an international player. Played with another guy named Matthias Burning. Played linebacker. Was only in camp with us. Never made the team. But the dude was a thumper. Like if he could square you up on kickoff, like absolute thumper. Now, you want to tell him to like...

on kickoff to switch places with the four and the five. Let's say he's playing the four or the five. I don't know which one he played, but he's playing one of those two. They want to cross the four and the five and switch jobs. It was as if you were telling them to run backwards down the field on the kickoff. It was weird how things that we take for granted, having grown up watching the game, playing the game...

And these guys, even though they're complete freaks of nature, couldn't do it. It's an understanding. It's such a weird thing. Awareness. And that comes with experience more than anything else. And not always just getting out there on an NFL or college practice field, but how much you consume growing up. I've told you the story before that Dave Aranda told us. Like when he got to LSU, we asked him the biggest difference between Big Ten and SEC players. And he's like, listen, athletically, it's not even close.

He said, there seems to be so much more of an emphasis down here on 40 time and vertical jump and three cone drill and your camp numbers. He's like, we didn't have a lot of guys that really cared about that. And he said, the other big difference is all my guys at Wisconsin consumed as much football as humanly possible. Monday night football, Mac football during the week, like in the hotel night before game, watching Friday night, Pac-12 football, whatever it was like, they watched football all the time. He goes, we got a lot of kids in this building that just they don't watch a ton of football.

They just don't. Could you imagine not watching football? No. Could you imagine if there was a college game and I'm not watching it? I can't. No. It doesn't work. I was at media days and we had the argument about greatest rivalries. And when I said that I would consider putting the Egg Bowl 2, some guy tweeted me and said...

that I was the casual because I didn't know about Red River and that he had never even watched the Egg Bowl. What is a casual? Like a casual fan of me, I don't really know anything about it. Wait, so you're the casual. But he has never even turned on a standalone college football game. I feel like Egg Bowl, appreciating Egg Bowl makes you less of a casual because the casual would say that's not a big deal. Well, that's kind of the point is that this guy was –

Obviously, you know what he's doing. You have to call it out. I don't know. I have a hard time with bad football. If the football is bad, I struggle with it, not denying that. But college football, there's nothing better. It's the best. I can't watch preseason NFL. I just can't. Tomorrow night or Thursday night when the Hall of Fame game gets going on. I led the preseason passing in the NFL in 2011. Humble brag. Because I played a lot. It was a lockout year. I played a lot.

So, like, I just, I understand that it's not the most, like, it's just not a glamorous position. But, golly, I can't watch it anymore. It's so bad.

So bad. But, hey, those were my people. Preseason guys. Get out of your bad riding into a good ride this summer at Royal Automotive. Experience how car buying should be. With four Royal-owned dealerships in one location, selection and savings are unmatched. Right now, get up to $14,000 off select 2024 GMC Sierra models. 0.9% financing with approved credit on 2024 Volkswagen Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport. Up to $18,000 off select Volvo C40 models.

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All right, welcome back in. Mack O'Roy in Cuba Lake in the morning. Going to talk some Tennessee football with Ryan Callahan here from 24-7 Sports here in just a moment. Before we get to that, it's 735 Tuesday, July 30th. G-Mac, tell our listeners about B-Dry. They've been serving Alabama and homeowners here across the state for more than 60 years. That's right. The longest and largest waterproofing company in the country.

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So you have some cash on hand for some end of the summer fun. Call B-Dry now to get the job done right with the strongest warranty and the best price at 942-1976 or visit B-DryAlabama.com. All right, let's go to Ryan Callahan of 247 Sports. Covers the Tennessee Volunteers. Talk some recruiting, talk camp opening. Ryan, first off, a pretty good weekend for Tennessee as they get a bump in the recruiting rankings with a couple commitments. Why the recent success for Josh Heupel's team?

Yeah, as a lot of times in recruiting it is, it's sometimes just kind of a culmination of all the work you've put in over a long period of time, and this happened to be that. And give them credit for some persistence with one of those recruitments. Deshaun Brame, four-star tight end, had just committed to Oregon last

less than a month earlier on June 29 and flips to Tennessee on Sunday after coming back to Knoxville over the weekend for an unofficial visit. That's one where he had just about picked Tennessee the first time around. Oregon came in, made a late push in the final 24 hours before he announced his decision. Tennessee stays on him. A couple weeks later, he decides, you know what, this doesn't feel right. I think I want to go to Tennessee now. And the Vols end up getting him. So they had put in the work the first time there and then

Lagonda Hayward, four-star safety, top 100 prospect, a guy that really led for for months, beat out Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, some good programs, and going to South Georgia to get a good player like that. So I think some of it's just kind of the program where they're

their trajectory where they've been and where they're where people think they're headed now you know 20 wins in two years they've got a lot to sell now in year four under josh heifel and uh clearly they've been putting in the work to to win some of those battles and they're winning a decent percentage of those this year probably more so than they were a year ago and it's definitely showing in the standings now well looking at kind of the the footprint it's it's kind of all over the place uh with where they're recruiting they're going to oklahoma they got actually a guy from my

High school, South Lake Carroll, a tight end, which we didn't even have when I was in school. So the fact that they're still running the same offense and have tight ends now is pretty sweet. Indiana, Kansas, Vegas, but not a lot from Tennessee. Only just a handful from Tennessee. As the mid-state continues to grow, or central state or whatever we call it, I think it's the mid-state. As that continues to grow, how much more will Tennessee maybe focus their attention on trying to increase the amount of

Tennessee kids that they bring in in their class? I think that's always a pretty big focus, but the state has been a reliable source of at least

six to 10 players in just about every class that Tennessee can count on wanting, really wanting to get. And really it's been closer to eight to 12, a lot of years it's in the talent levels improved. And so that's a, that's a focus, you know, even more than it, than it always has been because they, I think they know there's enough talent there to be a big part of the core of their roster. I mean, you go back and look at some of the most, most successful rosters in recent memory, a lot of in-state guys, you know, that Jalen heard and,

And Josh Malone, some of those guys that were key to Butch Jones' run eight or nine years ago, were in-state players. So they know it's important. This year, I think, is just a little bit of an unusual class because there's some guys that are maybe on the fence about evaluation-wise or that –

Tennessee maybe sees playing a different position or would prefer to play at another position, in some cases a guy who wants to play on the other side of the ball. So just some interesting cases where this might not be a bigger in-state class compared to some other ones they've had in recent memory, but most years...

you see them going a little more aggressively at some in-state players. So a couple have not gone their way this year, but for the most part, they do a pretty good job of prioritizing in-state players. And I think you'll continue to see that with the staff. That's usually the first place they go when they go out on the road and they've

They do a pretty good job of getting in-state players on campus all the time. Ryan Callahan joining us on the Bioswap Hotline, talking Tennessee. As we move into fall camp, guys who we have not yet seen in a Tennessee uniform that could contribute this year. We'll get to some other position battles maybe with some veterans in a moment, transfers, but new faces that you feel like could actually help this football team this fall. Who might those be?

Man, well, like with most teams, it's probably the transfers for the most part. You know, I think true freshmen, you know, there are a couple to watch. I think on defense, Boo Carter, he's one of those in-state stars in the 2024 class that they pursued for a long time, really coveted, held off Michigan to land him and later had to hold off a big run from Colorado down the stretch to make sure that they

They signed him, and he's made some plays throughout spring practice and continued to make a name for himself throughout the offseason. I think he's probably number two in line at the star position right now going into fall camp, but he's one of those guys that we're going to be watching throughout camp and maybe into the season, too, to see if he maybe gives Tennessee some pause to think, hey, maybe we need to

find a way to get this guy on the field if he can really continue to prove himself because I think he's going to help on special teams if nothing else. But if he shows up on defense, they've got Jordan Thomas, a junior, probably in front of him right now, but a guy that could also maybe play safety. So do they give any thought to moving him over to safety to get Boo Carter on the field? And then Mike Matthews, a wide receiver. I think he's an exciting freshman that made some plays throughout the spring. He's

Not going to be in line to be a starter, I don't think, but he's someone that they're probably going to have to find a way to get on the field. He just kept showing up throughout the spring and five-star coming out of high school, so you knew he had that kind of ability. But one of those guys, newcomers on offense that I think you're going to see. And then Peyton Lewis at running back, too. Probably not one of the top two backs, wasn't out there this spring, but I think he'll get some work this year as they look to establish some depth at that position.

Looking at this season in general, really not a lot of question marks outside of the secondary. I mean, what's keeping you up at night if you are Josh Heupel? Outside of injuries, right, the obvious. If Nico goes down, what does the backup look like? Sure. But is it the secondary that's really kind of the main point of contention at the moment?

Yeah, I think so. That's where I start. And I don't know that it's something that necessarily keeps Josh Heupel up at night, but it's the biggest concern about this team that's not something established that they can really count on having good production at that position this year because they do have a lot of new faces there. And some of them have played a little bit before, but just haven't been full-time starters. Guys like Andre Turrentine, former

former Ohio State transfer. I think they feel pretty good about him and even some of the new guys they brought in. I mentioned Jordan Thomas. He's been in the program a couple years waiting his turn to play. He's

He's played some, and when he has, he's looked pretty good. So I feel they know what they've got there. Same thing with Ricky Gibson, a second-year guy they're really excited about. He'll probably start a corner. The transfers and the big spot I'm not sure about is safety next to Andre Turrentine. That one's kind of up for grabs going into fall camp. Could be Will Brooks, the walk-on fifth-year guy in the program. Could be

You know, maybe Jacoby Thomas, the middle Tennessee transfer. He didn't really take that job and run with it this spring. So he's got some work to do. And then maybe a guy like Christian Charles reemerges who's had some injury problems. So that's a little bit of an unknown. Jermod McCoy, an Oregon State transfer, probably in line to start at corner. But yeah, that's all new guys, basically. And then the depth behind them, a little shaky at one or two of those spots, too. So,

That's the most unproven thing, and because they lost so much experience, too. They had a lot of veterans last year at that position. This year, again, all new guys that have not been full-time starters at Tennessee. Ryan, am I on track with having some real concern after Dylan Sampson at running back? Not saying not capable, but just he has legit explosive capabilities. He is a big-time home run hitter. I just don't know if they have anything close to that after him. How would you either agree or debate that?

Yeah, that's a valid concern, I think. And this spring, Cam Seldon got hurt, a second-year guy that they've been pretty excited about, but who hasn't carried a huge workload to this point. And then I mentioned Peyton Lewis, true freshman. He wasn't out there this spring coming off a surgery that he had after arriving on campus in January. So those are the next two guys in line, ideally, and you just haven't seen –

much of them this year. So it's a big camp for, for Lewis. And then we'll see, see how Selden comes along. He's, he's still working his way back from the injury he suffered in the spring. So maybe he's, it sounds like he's a little ahead of schedule. So maybe he's back in time for the start of the season, but he could be still out for the first game or two before he's back at full strength. So without those two, it was the Sean Bishop a lot throughout the spring. And I think they, another second year guy hasn't played, but,

I think they like what they have in him enough that they didn't go to the transfer portal. But, yeah, those are all unproven guys for the most part. So it's a little bit of a concern when you look at what they had the last couple of years with a three-headed backfield at one point that had guys that they trusted in every situation, Jalen Wright, Jabari Small, and then obviously Dylan Sampson. So it's definitely a different situation, and they've got to quickly get those guys in the mix because they rotate a lot, and they're going to have to count on somebody else beyond Dylan Sampson. And right now I'm not sure they –

know exactly what they have in that position finally before we get you out of here what what is the temperature right now on on the tennessee fans i know last year a lot of people very frustrated with a with a nine and four i happen to think it was a pretty dang good year given what you lost the year before um i think most people are looking at a playoff or bust is that kind of the general consensus around tennessee heading into the season

I don't think the expectations, now we're a month out from the season opener, so maybe that's changes. I don't think the hype train has completely run away yet, but it probably will by the time we get to that first game. I definitely think there are a lot of people, though, looking at it like this

this is such a good opportunity with the schedule, especially for Tennessee to make a new 12 team playoff, that it is going to be a missed opportunity if they don't. So yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty close to playoff or bus. And I think we'll probably get there once we get to the season. Uh, but especially once I think people see first game or two, if Nico starts to live up to the hype and is making a bunch of plays early on, it's going to be hard for fans to, to accept anything short of the playoff because, uh, that, that is such a big piece of it in college football, obviously. Uh,

I think looking at the schedule, too, Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama, those are the big three games it probably comes down to. Tennessee should be favored in the other nine games, and they might even be favored against Alabama at home. We'll see about that. I think early on they're about a one-point favorite. But they've got a chance to be favored in nine or ten games, and if they don't make the playoff with that kind of situation with Nico at quarterback, it will be tough for fans to accept, I think. Ryan, great stuff. Thanks for joining us. Look forward to catching up again soon.

Sounds good. Thanks a lot, guys. There you go. Ryan Callahan with 247 Sports. Find his work, Go Vols 247. And also find him on Twitter at Ryan Callahan 247. Bill Smith Buick, GMC, is the GMC Dealer of the Year. Take the short drive up to Coleman. You'll see why. All the different deals, the lot, the inventory, the amount of savings that you can get

When making a purchase, you would pay in some cases $5,000, $6,000, $7,000 more if you shopped somewhere other than Bill Smith Buick GMC. That's why I bought my last two vehicles from them. I know I'll buy my next one from them as well. You can go get yourself a GMC Sierra 2500 Denali. It's a loaded vehicle, $91,270 is the list price. You can take $5,500 off the list price, get it for $8,570 plus 5.9% for 84 months.

That's a ridiculous deal and one that you won't find anywhere else. To know that you can get that type of financing rate on a vehicle that is in that high demand is pretty incredible. So take the short drive up to Coleman. You'll see what I'm talking about. You'll see all the deals on the lot. You won't want to go anywhere else. That's why 75% of their businesses repeat customers because you'll have a better experience when you shop with Bill Smith. Take the short drive up to Coleman. You'll be glad you did it. You can shop online. Have a look right to your driveway at BillSmithBuickGMC.com. All right, so top three next right here on Macaroni Kublik in the morning.

Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than a player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Tap or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubrick in the morning, 7.51 a.m. Tuesday, July 30th, Jocks 94.5. Get to our top three each and every day.

Could be sports, might not be. Damian, what's on tap for our top three this morning? We've got an underrated actor's birthday today. I want to talk about his top three roles. That would be one, Terry Crew. What are your top three Terry Crew roles? He's the same character in every movie. No, he is not. Damon is not Julius. Everybody hates Crew. I can't recall if he was the office linebacker or not. No, no, not him, no, no.

If he was, I was probably number one. I have him towards the top. Man, this is just such a great list of movies. Every one of these I've seen. Like the longest y'all are. So many good ones. How old is he today? He is 55. Giraffe Day and Balls of Fury. Soul Plane. Man. Friday After Mixed. Malibu's Most Wanted. He was in that. All these movies.

White Chicks. All these movies are just so good. It's tough. These have to be some of the best movies ever. When the number one is probably The Expendables, you know you've got problems. Steel Branded. The Expendables is tough to beat. Steel Branded. It's a good one. Is it? Yep. Bridesmaids. I don't even know he's in that, but I like that movie. Hey, speaking of El Football, he played for the Rhine Fire. Wow.

Jack Walters. Oh, yeah, that may be number one. People go pro in something else. Gosh, I forgot about this movie, Balls of Fury. It's about ping pong. My goodness, it's a bad movie. Table tennis. I feel like it is so bad. Appropriate for right now, though. It would fit. I feel like John should lead us off here because I'm struggling. Okay, number three is Idiocracy. He plays the president. Yeah. Number two is White Chicks. It's probably the movie that put him on the map.

And gives full new meaning to Vanessa Carlton's Million Miles, Thousand Miles, whatever that song is. Number one is Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It's a show. Yeah, he said Rolls. I've only seen a few episodes of that. He did say Rolls. It's very top tier. Who was he in Friday After Next? Damn! He was a replacement for Devo. Oh, was he? He came back from jail.

You know what I'm saying with him and Cat Woo? See, like, I don't even... Like, I actually liked Friday After Next a lot for it being a good, solid reboot. I liked it a lot. So I'll go Friday After Next 1. Attaboy. I'll go Longest Yard 2.

And I'll go Idiocracy 3. Okay. I'm going to go one of the guys standing around in the background on training day just because the movie was so good. Obviously, right. Longest yard is going to be two. And Click, Adam Sandler movie, is going to be three for me. Who was he in Click? I'm not sure, but I've actually seen it. So I just figured I'd throw that one in there. Okay.

It was funny to hear him. I think it was on Club Che Che or whatever some interview he said when Denzel was doing that scene. He did like two or three times, and each time he made sure to keep kind of inching toward him so he knew he'd be in the shot. Because he knew this scene was going to be huge. He's like, just keep making sure. Was he in the background when they went to the dude's house? I'm putting cases on all you expletives. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, we'll hear it.

Number three for me, I go Longest Yard. Number two, White Chicks. Number one, everybody hates Gerson. By far, that's his best movie. He played Julius to a T. It was hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. So there you go. I've never seen Idiocracy because there's a couple people that text in. It was good. It really was one of the worst movies of all time. And then the world around us changed and it became, whoa, this is actually pretty good. So...

I wouldn't say you're missing much. Really? Yeah. Just to tell you how dumb society is, but it's pretty accurate. Scale of one to ten. On how dumb society is? No. Wow. No, the movie. 7.7 points. No. The movie is just like our whole world, and it's like,

It's just funny. It's honestly just... Does it make more sense now? Like, is it one of those it aged well? Yes, 100%. Really? Yeah, it definitely has aged well. It's gotten funnier as time's gone on. That's a heck of a plot. All right, when we come back, we will begin our weekly visits with Auburn play-by-play voice Andy Burcham. Also, next hour, we ask you, will Notre Dame make the college football playoff?

That's next right here on Jockets 94.5. This is McElroy and Cubelik 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 MyBob's.com.

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which you can probably tell from my appearance. I don't have a crazy high IQ or I really don't have that many skills. I would say my main skill is I believe my instincts. I don't hesitate to follow my instincts ever. The extent that I have, I've gotten in trouble. The Sean Ryan Show on YouTube or wherever you listen.