8-1-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 3: Do you know the next superstars?; Nick de la Torre talks Florida; Wimp Sanderson talks training camp
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McElroy and Kubelik in the morning starts now. Welcome back. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning, 9 a.m. here in Birmingham, Alabama. It's a great day to go and take a peek at

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He joins us each and every Thursday at this time. Thanks to our friends at Coke and Piggly Wiggly. It's the coach, Wim Sanderson. Nice to talk to you tomorrow.

Good morning, Coach. What's on your mind today? Well, back before you guys were born, football practice was taught to a day with Coach Bryant. They were darn hard. You might have one day, if things weren't going well, you might be in shorts sometimes in the morning.

The minute you got through, you were in class between the two practices, getting ready to learn the offenses and defenses in your first practices. When I gave out the money to the football players from time to time, we gave them $15 a month. Laundry money, $7.50 every two weeks.

There wasn't anything like that. Everything has gone in the last two or three years on the way of the players. The players are getting all the benefits of the transfer rule, the money that they're making. Each one of you guys tell me the way that things are going with, say, football, because it's about bell cow. What do you feel has gone too far?

Where have we gone too far with football? Is it screwing up the conferences in your feelings? I think our listeners, I've had a couple of listeners call me and ask me to ask you that. What each one of you feel like we've gone a little bit too far with football? I was thinking... With their whole thing, I'm sorry. The main thing, I think, is the portal coach and just allowing...

the amount of times that somebody can go in, the amount of places that somebody can go play, the frequency at which they can go into the portal. Because I think that actually leads to a lot of the other issues that people have in college football and what makes it so difficult to manage right now. I think as far as realignment, it's too early to tell. We won't really know for a while. But for me, the portal would be number one on my list, Greg. I don't know about you.

Same spot. If there were a few hurdles that you had to encounter in the event in which you were unhappy and guys could kind of think through it a little bit more and not constantly go to the portal or threaten going to the portal to create leverage against their school, that would be really beneficial. I think the portal is the biggest problem for sure. And I also think it's probably the easiest thing to fix. It's just nobody wants to do it for fear of litigation.

Yeah. Well, I think that's interesting. On the football field itself, Cole, the way y'all did things with Tommy, I guess, Tuller was coaching most of the time. Whoever coached him, I know Bill Aubrey came in there a little bit. I know the defensive side of the football, maybe they've changed things. Is there any factors in practice, the way they're practicing twice a day, making it –

I would say practice is a little bit easier. Maybe I'm dead wrong. You can correct me if I am. When we get to you, Greg, your skill level, is it taught better now than it was back then? Go ahead. I'm sorry. I don't think you need two-a-days in general, and I'm all for player safety, but I do think the lack of contact...

that's allowed over the course of time in practice nowadays, coach, does make a difference. You see it in tackling. You see it in blocking. There's a physical portion of the game that's been subtracted and taken away. Some of that actually doesn't have to do with that. I think it has to do with just more emphasis on skilled players, formations being spread out, ball being out a little bit faster. But there's a portion of it that is lacking that used to be there and used to be a lot easier to develop because you could have those practices. Now you can't.

So, yeah, I do think that affects things to a certain extent, no doubt.

Greg, anything on your end? I guess not much on your end. Back then they did the same old cotton-picking thing that you did, is try to get the ball to open people in practice and have good wideouts with speed and could catch it. That's about it, isn't it? Or has practice changed? Go ahead. Yeah, I think practice has changed a bit. I mean, not as much for us as it would be for Cole. But I do think there are some aspects of

Of the adjustments that you've seen, I think there's a little more emphasis on passing, a little less emphasis on defensive fundamentals and run fits and things like that. I think it's practices in general, a little more fun.

For the guys, back when we were there, when you were practicing, you were there to work. It was not fun. Practice was not fun. It was awful. Sometimes. I enjoyed it. And I'm sure it's still highly competitive, but it was borderline dangerously competitive when we would play. We did not like the defense, and they did not like us. And I think there's a little bit more...

I don't know. I just think that guys are certainly still super competitive, but it's just not quite the same with the level of disdain for the group that you're going against on the other side. It's just different. Guys are more friendly than they were back in our day.

When Nick Saban had it, because he worked for Bill Belichick, it was one voice and one voice. He didn't want the defensive coordinator talking about what they did wrong. He wanted to talk about it, our offensive guy. With Kalen, it's several voices. In his own easy way, he lets you know that he's the boss. He was over there and watched the defense yesterday some, whenever they did it.

One voice right or all voices? What's the best way to handle that publicity-wise?

When you say publicity-wise, Coach, what exactly do you mean? Well, I don't mean publicity-wise, but that's not a good thought there. But to handle that with your team and with the people who are after you, you know, Caden LeVore is fine until the Georgia game if he wins those first three. Where do you go with what we did wrong, why we got beat?

Let the defensive coordinator talk about it. Let the offensive coordinator. That's what I meant. I hope I'm sorry. No, I think I understand because obviously the coordinators now have a little bit more freedom to be able to talk to the media. We haven't heard from those guys in the past. Coach Saban didn't really allow that. It wasn't a real thing. Now we're able to hear from those just a little bit more. I would say I think it should be limited.

but I don't know if I would go as far as to maybe have it where Coach Saban did, where you're only going to hear from those guys after the SEC championship game. I think it's good to hear from different coordinators. I think Coach DeBoer knows what it can do for them as well. It kind of builds their brand a little bit, gets them out in the public eye a little bit more, helps the fan get to know them. I think there's a lot of pluses with it. I think you have to have a lot of trust.

that they're going to keep things where you want them to but in today's world of media and how things are covered i don't think it's a bad thing to have more voices out there talking about your team great i think well i just think that there's it's a necessary evil now to give guys a little bit more freedom and a little bit more platform um

I think good conversation. I mean, it's like the old school. I guess you could call it old school, like the one voice approach is still – I don't know if it is, though. I mean, it's still very much utilized. Hey, one voice type of approach. Like we want to have a message, and we have a certain message that we're trying to implement, and you're going to hear from me and me alone. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I just think guys are –

you guys are also probably a little more comfortable in front of the microphone. Nowadays, they live their life, you know, in front of the camera in many ways, they are active on social media. They have a little bit more of a platform. So I don't think it's necessarily anything that is bad, but I would probably still subscribe to the idea of one voice because it protects guys. I mean, it protects coordinators from, uh,

from having to answer questions and you run the risk of giving off the impression that you're not on the same page in the event in which your coordinator's comments get taken out of context what have you yeah those are both terrific answers the biggest thing for me is to see the Stanford's of this world go to the ACC uh

It bothers me some to see those others. I know football goes, makes one trip, and that's it. But to see these other sports have to make this, you know. And, you know, you sit there and have Oregon picked as the number two team by picks in the Big Ten this year. Just...

It's quite different for me. It's different for everybody, Coach. It's one of the things that we're interested to kind of see where it goes and how it plays out and if that travel really affects some of these teams because we just don't know what it's going to look like. I did have one question for you, though, that I was interested in hearing.

because we talked to Martin Newton a little bit earlier in the show, and obviously you guys go back a long ways, but he brought up Olympic basketball. Now, I realize that CM Newton was involved in Olympic basketball and the Dream Team back in the day, but...

How do you watch Olympic basketball? How different is the game? How interesting is it for you? I'm interested in kind of your lens for Olympic hoops. I don't really enjoy it that much. I don't know enough about the opponent to really know exactly what's going to come off when I watch it. I enjoy watching the individual guys play. I enjoy the substitution pattern. I enjoy seeing guys...

what kind of front they put on, if there are great players coming into it and don't start, don't play.

I like to watch the mental part of it as much as I do the physical part of it. I like to try to figure out, listen to what they have to say when I'm not there in person, but I can listen to them and find out exactly what their feelings are. Sometimes they're phony feelings and sometimes they're not. But the skill level of these other teams is high.

The United States is going to be good. They're well coached. They had to deal with them mentally some, and Tatum didn't start and didn't play at all the next time he started. So, you know, I like to coach. I like to try to coach and to see what people did differently than, you know, I would have had a hard time if I had my best player not play at all in a particular game. I had that...

one time against UCLA, and we won by two. But it is, for me, I enjoy watching the games. I enjoy watching the opponent probably as much as anybody. Sedan last night has got big skill guys that can run it. They struggle defensively some, and the talent for the Americans was much better. But I just kind of like to figure out

When guys don't play and when they play sparingly, what happens after that's over with? They come out to the press conferences and talk a little bit about what's going on with there. That's what I do. When you were putting in the messaging to the staff, and in the event in which those guys were interviewed or what have you,

How would your message change throughout the season? Let's say you get off to a great start. Things are going great. Y'all are playing well. How does that message change compared to when maybe you're not playing as well, and how do you adjust?

Well, we darn sure made it. If we weren't playing as well because of lack of effort, if I felt like we were going into a game knowing we were going to win it and didn't play, when we played...

uh... when we played all burn it was now you're not put every different at different attitude towards any team big a big-time ready to play for deal for auburn it was big for me when i took the job i thought i had beat auburn order when we we we were okay with it uh... but uh...

We substitute. We got people out individually and had the assistant coaches talk to them, and then I talked to them when I was the head coach after those assistants talked to them and tried to figure out. And we worked them harder. We came in. Now, that's a good question for me. I...

I got beat at Auburn in a game maybe once where I thought I should have won. We got back home at 1.30 and we put our togs on and practiced.

right there and it was against the rules now but back then you could do what you wanted to and I did so we matched him if we felt like we needed to but we tried to brag on him as much as we possibly could I think the one thing Greg that's important to me is and I didn't do this the first year and I corrected it rather quickly because when we went to play St. John's

Whatever you do with your kids, they've got to understand that you care about them as people.

I mean, you can mash them, and my personality was different seeing him. It's okay. My personality is what it was, and I did it differently. But you've got to be darn sure that they understand that you care about them as people. We went to St. John's to play. They stuck our butts in the NIT my first year. We went to Tennessee AA Tournament, but they stuck me to St. John's.

And Lou Carneseca was a coach. You don't even know who that is, but he was a great coach at St. John's. And I walked into Lou and I said, Lou, I'm having more darn problems with my kids. I can't get them to do what they're – they just – he said, you're having problems. I've been in this business 40 years. He said, I can't get mine to do the same thing. And so one guy, one of my staff members said to me, Wimp,

I think right now, in this first year that we've got this job, they're not sure that you care about them as people. I said, but I'll tell you one cotton-picking thing, and I said this in my mind, for the next years that I coach this basketball team, they're going to know that I care about them as people. Yesterday, yesterday, I had signed a kid from Mississippi. He came over here. He came to my place and played just a little.

Yesterday, I have a sick wife. He called me and he said, my wife and I are driving down through there. Coach, I'm dying to see you. And he and his wife came and saw Annette and visited with us. And I know he cared because he called me from time to time. And it made me feel so good that here's a guy who didn't play much.

but knew that I cared about him, and he talked about some of the tough things I did against everybody and made them work. It made me appreciate it. So whatever you do, whether it be handling players or your wife or whatever, try to remember that you care about them as people, and I think you'll go a long way.

Coach, good stuff. We appreciate the time. It's always great to visit with you. Always appreciate you coming on and you do it every week thanks to Coke and Piggly Wiggly. Well, I do and I want to thank Coke and I want to thank Piggly Wiggly for allowing me to come on plus you two guys. I appreciate it. You're terrific and

Sometimes I get questions asked about Coke and Piggly Wiggly. I get questions they want me to ask y'all on your show, and I can't always remember them. I've gotten old. But Coke and Piggly Wiggly are great. You walk out of a Piggly Wiggly store, you'll feel refreshed. You'll feel like you've got the right products. Coke has been a product that I've

drank for years and years and years, and they are great people. And I want to thank Coke and Pig Little Wiggler for having me on. Thank you guys for having me on, and I thought the show was good today. Thank you. Great, Coach. Appreciate the time. We'll catch up next week. That's the Coach William Sanderson joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline for all your insurance needs. Look to Buyer's Right Insurance, a member of the WRM group where relationships matter.

Coke and Piggly Wiggy bring us Coach Sanderson each and every week right here on the show. I want to stick with basketball for just a moment. I know that sounds a little bit odd.

But when we come back, I have a quick basketball question for you guys to see just maybe how in tune you are or are not next on McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubelik 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 Gap or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning.

We talked a little Olympic basketball earlier today. United States men take down South Sudan yesterday, 103 to 86. They'll get Puerto Rico on Saturday. Also talk some hoops there with Coach Sanderson. I have a basketball question for you guys here in just a moment, and we will get to it in just a second. First, I'll tell you about Ox Foundation Solutions. You guys know if you're having any issues in your basement right now, Ox Foundation Solutions needs to be where you go.

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for the, I guess that would be 24-25 mock draft, the 2025 NBA mock draft. I'm going to run down the top ten and see if any of you can give me the affiliation of said player. Okay. Setting the over-under of names correct at one and a half. All right. Number one overall pick according to CBS Sports, Cooper Flagg. Human. Human.

Not the team he plays for. Oh, okay. Kentucky? This is legitimately the one that everyone's supposed to get. Correct, Greg. Duke Blue Devils. I thought you guys were trolling. I was like, what is the deal here? Number two, VJ Edgecombe. G League. No. Miami. No. I'm going to say Clemson. Baylor. Number three to the Toronto Raptors, Dylan Harper.

G League. No. No, no, no. I already like your strategy, though, John. I figured if I hit the over somehow. No, not Oregon. I'll say Butler. Rutgers. Number four to the Detroit Pistons, old Ace Bailey. Ignite. No. Louisville. No. I'd say...

Georgia Tech. Rutgers again. Oh, wow. Double up. Whoa. Rutgers is going to be a fun one. They got two top five picks. Double up. That's right. I got Rutgers in the final four this year. I don't know about y'all. Number five to the Charlotte Hornets, Mr. Trey Johnson from? Wisconsin. No. Michigan State. Nope. I have no idea.

I'll say UCLA. He's an SEC guy. We feel like we should know him. Not that I would have. Texas. Big SEC guy. The number six overall pick, apparently, to the Brooklyn Nets is going to be Nolan Traore from? France. Yes. John hits the over. Nice. Actually, you didn't get Duke, so combined, you guys do get that.

It was one of those hated schools. This is not a troll or a joke, but apparently the number seven overall pick to the Utah Jazz will be, stop the music for a moment, Dink Pate. Oh, Auburn. Rob's nephew. No, Purdue. Not a professional wrestler. That is not Josh's brother. Dink Pate? I'm going to say, yeah, I mean, that feels very American. Yeah.

So I'll say... I'm just going to go ahead and say it's Mexico City. So yeah, you're wrong. Wherever you're going there, it's not right. How do you know it's not Dink Pate? It could be something like that. No way. All right, back to your 2025 way too early NBA mock draft, according to CBS News.

sports and kyle boone the number eight selection to the san antonio spurs will be liam mcneely it's not ireland i was thinking england i'm gonna say notre dame though no g leaf no dang it i'll say virginia yukon the only place for the defending national champions uh the spurs apparently gonna get the number nine pick too okay

They're going to take Isaiah Evans from Memphis. Northwestern. Nope. Northwestern. Kentucky. I played the name. Duke. Duke in the final four. Okay. Duke and the Rutgers. Two top ten picks. Finally, should I give you guys a hint on this one? The number ten overall selection to the Chicago Bulls, according to Kyle Boone's way too early 2025 NBA mock draft, from the Southeastern Conference, Asa Newell.

I just cut it down to 16. Do you think you guys should be able to get that? Arkansas? No. LSU? No. Florida? Georgia? I will say, you guys went over. Why wouldn't it be? I set the total at one and a half. You guys nailed two. There we go. I don't know if John knew that Nolan Traore was from France, but he guessed it correctly. I knew there was a French person in there, and it was either that or G League. It felt right.

There you go. Cooper Flagg, Nolan Traore are only top ten picks, apparently, in this next NBA draft. Do we have any idea where they're from? So is Rutgers going to be our NCAA basketball team? They're in. We are with Boise State. They are 100% in, yes. They and Duke, apparently, are going to the Final Four this year. That's what I'm talking about. With two top five and two top ten picks. Texas and Georgia, watch out for them also. Maybe a Baylor with Edgecombe.

Texas and Georgia, then New Florida in the middle of 2000. I still like Dink Pate personally. I just want Dink Pate to come to the States and play up here. Why? He's a Mexico City guy. Yeah, but I just want him to play here. Dink Pate. And there's a dunk by Dink. You could have some fun with that one. I don't know how, but you could do it. He actually does play for the G League Ignite team.

But listed as being from Mexico City. I don't know. Maybe he hasn't started there yet. Not sure. Played for the Capitanes de Ciudad de Mexico. There we go. Yeah. Y'all know them. You nailed that one. Y'all know those guys. You're very fluent. Of course. 6'8", swingman, 18 years old. Haven't seen the tape.

You don't know what NBA comp he has. I'm not ready to make that just yet. I need to do a little more research. Break down his game just a little bit more. Would you like to know what his Twitter handle or ex-handle is? Actually, he's listed as a point guard. 6'8". He's the next Magic. His Twitter handle is? I am the shooter one. I am the shooter number one. And that's what you want for your point guard? Shooter. All eyes matter. There you go.

Needless to say, we are a little bit behind on our NBA draft for next year. Just a smidge. I think we'll catch up, though. We have plenty of time. We're definitely going to lock in. We're going to be in great shape. The NBA draft this past year, I was super dialed in. I don't know about you guys. I think I knew three guys. Can't wait to hear you break down Liam McNeely's game. I think that feels like... Let's do that tomorrow.

Let's start the show with that. So if we do this exercise again in June, July, during the draft, do you think the over-under would then be set at, what, 3.5?

Three? I think we'll be a little better than that. I would hope. Well, first off, five of these guys aren't going to be in the top ten. Oh, correct. Because that's going to change. Because Mark Sears and Jannat Broome are going to be in that conversation. Yeah, for sure. He's sucking up the Bama fans now. We will talk some Florida Gators. So does Dalton Connect. Right, Damian? He's already in the league.

Kind of. He's Brownie's teammate. We don't know if he's going to make it. He's been in the summer league. We don't know if he's actually going to make the team. Him or Brownie, who are you taking? Oh, Dalton Kinnick. Wow. What about to make the team, not who's a better player? Oh, Dalton Kinnick. Okay. JJ drafted his kid and LeBron drafted his. Now that's actually an interesting conversation. That's an interesting conversation to be had there.

All right, we will talk Florida Gators with Nick DeLaTorre on the other side. Before we get to that, Damian, for folks who are looking for a new home in Birmingham, who should they call? They should call my buddy Ben Hedding from the Beham Realty Group. Give him a call at 205-568-2705. If you're thinking about selling your home and when it comes to selling, all you want is excellence, that's my buddy Ben Hedding from the Beham Realty Group. You can visit his website at behamrealtyco.com. If you're struggling to get your house sold because the markets are changing every single day and you need an expert,

That focuses on adapting at half the time to make sure you come out on top. That's my buddy Ben heading at 205-568-2705 or go to behamrealtyco.com. Florida camp underway. Nick De La Torre tells us what we need to know about what is already happening next on Mac and Cube in the morning. The capital of the sports talk nation. This is Jocks 94.5 and jocksfm.com. Hurry and...

All right, welcome back in. Michael Roy and Kubelik in the morning. Get to Nick De La Torre here in just a moment. Talk Florida Gators camp underway. 9.36 a.m. Thursday, August 1st. G-Mac, before we do that, tell our listeners about B-Dry. Well, B-Dry has been serving homeowners here in...

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All right, let's go to the Buyers Ready Hotline now. Nick De La Torre covers the Florida Gators. He's joining us on the Buyers Ready Hotline. Practice started yesterday. Anything stick out? Anything a little bit different? Anything maybe catch your attention that was unexpected for the Florida practice yesterday, Nick?

I think just health. I mean, we know how injuries can pop up throughout the spring and summer, and Florida only had one player in a non-contact jersey, a freshman, Gregory Smith, and he was still kind of going through things. So as Florida had to kind of shuffle strength coaches with Craig Fitzgerald leaving, Tyler Miles, I think him and his staff, not

not only got the guys to be bigger, faster, but kept them healthy. So I think from a standpoint of just starting the fall camp in a good spot, and you hope you keep that as you're 30 days away from the first game, but I think that kind of stood out to me, just the way the guys looked coming off of the summer program and just starting camp healthy.

Well, that's super encouraging. So much has been made about Graham Mertz. Is he overrated? Is he underrated? Can he take the next step? Will he be able to carry the team in the event in which maybe there's other parts of the team that are still a work in progress? So I know it's early, but how has he looked as far as his command?

I think it's interesting because this time last year, everyone was wondering why did Florida go to Wisconsin to get a quarterback, maybe an offensive lineman from Wisconsin in the transfer portal, but not a quarterback. And Graham Mertz proved everyone wrong last season. I think he's only taken the next step in terms of his

his knowledge of the playbook. He said something that really stuck with me. And it was last year. I was learning my teammates names this year. I'm learning there. Why, why are they here? Why are they playing? What does it mean to them? So I think Graham is kind of ready to take that next step that we've seen second year transfer portal quarterbacks make like Joe Burrow did or Kyler Murray. The command he has of the offense, I think is exceptional. And,

And the biggest thing that we're looking for from Graham, I think, is that deep ball. Really didn't connect on deep balls last year. I don't think it's an arm strength issue. Maybe it's just the way he knew the plays and where his eyes were going because of his knowledge of the playbook. So I think that's something with the guys they've added, Elijah Badger, Tim Dike, and, of course, Eugene Wilson coming back. I think Florida will look to try to push the ball down the field a little bit more this year with Graham.

What are your expectations of the run game? All indications that I get are that the offensive line is going to be a little bit better, going to be improved. We know what Montreal is. About as solid as you're going to get in college football with the running back position. Maybe not super dynamic, explosive, but somebody that you're going to be able to lean on. I'm excited about Jaden Ball. If he gets a real opportunity, don't know how much he's going to get.

But from what I saw in the spring game, I think he can be special. What's your outlook of the Gators' run game this season? Yeah, that's going to be the question for me. Last year, or the last two years, Montrell and Trevor Etienne got about 92% of the running back carries. What does that shake out? I think there's a belief inside the building that Montrell can be a guy that can carry the ball 25 times a game and maybe even get stronger as the game goes and as he gets more carries. Yeah.

But how do you mix that up with Tram Webb, Jaden Ball? They have a transfer, second-year guy Jacoby Jackson, and then Katie Daniels. There's a lot of talent. And I've said for the entire offseason, I think losing Trevor Etienne, as good of a player as he is,

was worse for the perception of the program than it will be for the production. Because I really like Florida's backfield. Like you said, Montrell's gotten 800 yards or more in all three of his college seasons. He'll go over 3,000 career yards. He's capable. And then behind him, I think Jaden Boss showed off in the spring game, but he's not the only one. And I would expect to see Katie Daniels and Jacoby Jackson a little bit as well, too.

What about as we transition to the defense? I think all of us feel pretty good about the offense. I think the weapons are going to be really underappreciated. I love some of the... Well...

Love is probably a bit of a stretch, but I do think they have a couple of sneaky good additions to the wide receiver core. I think Eugene Wilson is very capable of stepping into a number one spot. I like their personnel offensively. I really do. I think they can score. Defensively is the big question, and there's a lot of reason to believe that there's been progress made, but that's kind of just listening to what people are saying. How true is it, though, in the progress that supposedly has been made?

Yeah, I think there has been progress. Billy Napier had never fired an assistant coach in six years. Less than 24 hours after the season ending last year, he fired two. They have three new coaches. They've added 13 new players, even through the transfer portal through high school recruiting. I think it's Florida's

best roster, deepest roster, and a lot of that is because of the changes and the additions on defense. And I think it starts probably with at the back end with Asa Turner, DJ Douglas, Jaquez Bridges. They added over 5,000 snaps of experience and got

And guys who are proven tacklers. Florida struggled just getting the ball carrier down last year, and that's an area they really, really targeted this offseason. Another guy, Pup Howard, who's just up the road from Jacksonville. You missed out on signing him out of high school, but you get a nice rebound in the transfer portal. And I think he'll start next to Shamar James, so it's an improved quarterback.

room. And then the big thing for me will be Kim Florida get to the quarterback because there's a lot of talk last year about the secondary not doing well. It's

if you have to cover a guy for seven seconds because you're not getting pressure on the quarterback, the offense is going to have a lot of success. So, you can't afford to get pressure. You have to replace Prince William Yellen, I think Justice Boone, L.J. McCray, T.J. Searcy are three guys that can do that. But I also want to see Florida get a little more pressure and a little more penetration from the interior defensive line. That's Cam Jackson, Caleb Banks, and then the Ivy League transfer, Joey Slackman, who is one of the most football guys I've seen. He's

headband, eye black for 5 a.m. workouts on a Friday morning, old school football guy. So I think Florida's done a lot to kind of reshape and rebuild the defense, and there's definitely optimism in Gainesville that it'll pay dividends.

Nick De La Torre talking Florida Gators with us. You kind of mentioned, alluded to this just a little bit, guys being a little bit stronger. Billy talked about the muscle mass that's been added, just the conditioning aspect of it, which we kind of said earlier in the week, Nick, I've heard more coaches talk about how different their guys are this offseason around the league than I think I've ever heard. I don't know why it's all of a sudden so different now. How much of a difference do you really believe this could make for this team this season?

The

Yeah, well, everyone works out really hard in the offseason, so I think you probably get these stories from more places. But I got the opportunity to kind of go behind the scenes and spent a couple days with Tyler Miles. He calls himself, you know, a redneck meathead from Kansas, grew up on a farm. But as I watched, everything they do is analytic and data-driven, and they're looking at numbers and they're changing things. So when I look at their speed numbers, I think they said –

They have 15 guys running 22 miles an hour, two players who are running 23 miles an hour, and I think you're getting back to –

what made Florida great during the Urban Meyer years, and he wanted to have the fastest team at Florida. And I think for the first two years, Florida was kind of trying to play like Michigan or play like Kentucky and have big, strong offensive and defensive lines and run the ball. And just when you're recruiting the state of Florida, you have unbelievable access to skilled position players and speed. And I think Florida is kind of finding that out and getting guys where they

You have a little more speed and space, and you can get them the ball. So to me, looking at the guys, they look fantastic. I think the world of what Tyler Miles has done and Jake Sankel, they have a nutritionist who's also on the strength staff. I think that's an interesting dynamic. You'll probably see more teams.

start to mimic uh because it just makes sense um but yeah florida to me looks bigger stronger faster uh but you know like i said everyone works out really really hard in the summer it matters what you do on saturdays in the fall quickly because we're running out of time here but i just am curious like everyone seems to still be super down on florida i think cole and i have

We are of the blue. We're probably as high on them as anyone in the media, especially the national media. Where are the fans with where this team might be this year? Yeah.

Yeah, I think they're definitely split. I've had fans tell me that Florida's going to go 10-2 and fans who think they're going to win three games and fire Billy. I think we've talked so much about the schedule, but it's kind of more manageable. If you start looking at things, you get LSU at home. Jaden Daniels, the number two overall pick, isn't there. Two first-round wide receivers aren't there.

You get Kentucky at home, that's a game you need to win. You get Miami at home. I think Florida, I'm hammering the over. And I know the people in Las Vegas don't lose, don't keep building palaces in the desert for setting lines wrong. But I think four and a half wins is a little low based on what I've seen this summer and what I'm going to see this fall. I think Florida will surprise some people if you're going into the season thinking that their team is not going to go to a bowl game.

Nick, we appreciate the time. The updates on Florida fall practice, it's underway. It's here, and we'll have you back soon. All right. Thanks. How are you doing? Thanks, man. That's Nick De La Torre. He covers the Florida Gators at De La Torre. You can follow him on Twitter. Find his work at GatorsOnline.com. Well, it's interesting. They've got new pieces. There's some confidence with a lot of people on those new pieces and maybe what they'll be. So we'll keep you updated on Florida practice.

as it continues. When we come back on the other side, bad box score of the day and some bad news on a former Alabama player right after this on Mac and Cube in the morning. Catch up with all things McIlroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than...

A player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Cup or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning, 951.

Thursday, August 1st, right here on JOX 94.5. The Bill Smith Buick GMC JOX Kickoff Party is Wednesday, August 14th at Regents Field. And the only way to go is by winning a pair of tickets. To enter to win, text the keyword JOX and your full name to 205-834-9450. That's keyword JOX and your full name to 205-834-9450. Winners are drawn daily. And for more info, log on to joxfm.com. All right, let's get to our bad box score. This is a plural of the day.

We'll kick it off. Go ahead. No, you. Offense. He was giving them the business. Intentional rounding. Offense number seven. I'm talking to America here. Katie Ledecky takes home gold in the 1500 meter freestyle yesterday. Don't know if you guys had a chance to watch this race.

She won by 10 seconds. That's an eternity. We watched it. If you just think it's 10 seconds. You couldn't even see anybody in the pool when she got to the finish line. I mean, that's how, and the shot was wide. It was pretty impressive. Just count that out in your head and think about you touching the wall and then the next swimmer taking that long to get to the wall. It's her eighth gold medal, which ties her with Jenny Thompson, who

for the most for female Olympians all time, most ever. Also, her 12th medal that she has earned in any Olympic competition was

which ties her for Jenny Thompson for the most all time. And she has at least one more race in a potential relay coming up where she'll be able to essentially become the most decorated Olympian in history. Now, most swimming medals earned, Ledecky now has 12. Emma McKeon from Australia, Ryan Lochte, United States, Natalie Coffin, United States, Dana Torres, United States, Jenny Thompson, United States, all have those. Put it in a little bit of perspective. You guys know how many medals...

Michael Phelps has? He's got 23 golds. I saw that last night. So that's a pretty good start. 28. Sabre is correct. 28 medals. So more than double.

What? The most decorated female Olympian all the time has. That's just completely insane. We need to just sometimes remember how insanely good he was. All right, so Ledecky dominant in that race last night as she picks up the gold. I'll take you to Major League Baseball on this one. Not exactly the score, but we've been in this situation before and we have discussed it.

The Kansas City Royals. They knocked off the Chicago White Sox. Could have gotten it wrong, but it was the White Sox 10-3 yesterday, which is almost a bad box score. Yeah, it's almost a bad box score in and of itself. However, your Chicago White Sox have now lost 17 straight games. Yes. They are 0-13 since the All-Star break. So whatever adjustments were made there.

Should have done the opposite. Not great. Second longest losing streak to finish a single month in Major League Baseball history, the 1890 Pittsburgh Braves? No. Penguins? No. Cardinals? No. Innocents? Steelers?

What? They were not guilty. Lost 19 straight to finish August. Oh, innocence. Like, they're innocent. I was thinking like incense. Like the snowy things. The return to innocence. Great story. All right, Inyo. Who sings that again? Inyo. Chicago White Sox. They are batting with the... I'm sorry. Have a 125 win percentage this month. 3-22. Third worst in July of any team since 1900.

27-84 this season. That's a 2-4-3 win percentage. Worst percentage entering August by any team since the 1916 A's. They were 19-71. On pace for 123 losses. That would pass the 1962 Mets for most by any team in a single season in the modern era, which is from 1900. Do you feel bad for their fans? No, not really. Mm-hmm.

They're on pace to make history, though. It's a historic season, apparently. At least it's looking like it. Bobby Witt Jr. is ripping it. 13th multi-hit game this month. 489 in July. He won bright spot. Two infield hits last night. Don't see a ton of those in MLB. How long until he gets shipped out? You get a chopper in MLB, guys are usually walking back to the dugout.

I appreciate Nick DeLaTorre, Wim Sanderson, Jason Caldwell, Kyle Whittingham, David Murray all joining the show today. Tomorrow on the show, we'll continue talking camps opening. Georgia opens today. And we ask the question, will Ole Miss make the college football playoff? That will be our team of the day question.

Tomorrow, Zach Berry is talking Ole Miss at 7.20. Charlie Potter talks Alabama with us at 8.20. Rusty Mansell talks Georgia with us at 9.20 tomorrow. So updates from camps everywhere. It's all going to be underway when we get back in here tomorrow, 7 to 10 a.m., and we'll continue talking college football. Keep it locked. Three-man front coming to you next.

And obviously anything that happens around the world of college football, they'll have it for you right after us in Define Bomb. And we'll have it tomorrow morning right here on Jocks 94.5. This is McElroy and Kulik in the morning. It's time for Bob's Dare to Compare. You get style. You get features. You get quality and thousands of dollars in savings.

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