8-13-24 McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning Hour 1: Hugh Freeze goes down memory lane; AP Poll release and reaction from Ralph Russo; Top 3 coaches Cole's played for!
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This Chalks 94.5 podcast is brought to you by Millennium Satellite and Video. Log on to msbnow.com. TV excellence everywhere. That's Millennium. All right, welcome in. McElroy and Q Blake in the morning. Glad you're with us. First day of school for McElroy, so he'll be in a little bit later today.

A lot of college football to get to. AP poll released, and what does it mean? What does the AP poll mean now? Is it important at all? I still think it is. I still think it carries weight because I think there's a couple ways you could look at it. I think historically there are comparisons that you can make. I think it gives us a guide to the beginning of the season as to how, I mean, think about the people who are voting for this now.

And I understand that some of the people out west don't watch the teams on the East Coast. Some of the East Coast folks don't watch teams out west all the time. A lot of change in where teams are and what their schedules look like. And there are some teams that vote, some people who vote based on schedule, and

which I've always said that's a massive mistake in my opinion. You don't go into this and vote and say, well, Florida has the toughest goes in the nation. They're not in the top 25. Well, if you think they're a top 25 team, put them in there. Don't put three teams that you think are worse than them because they have an easier schedule ahead of that team. That's always been nonsensical to me, but that's just the way certain people think. So the AP poll comes out. Who do we need to talk to about it? Ralph Russo. He handles it.

Worked for the Associated Press. We'll talk to him about the historical significance of some of the things that have happened in this poll and some of the things that you need to know about what it always means, essentially. Like 18 of the last 20 years, a top 10 team has finished unranked in the Associated Press poll. 18 of the last 20 years.

That is essentially telling you, go look at this AP Top 25. One of the teams in the Top 10 is not going to be in there. And when I say not in there, not outside the Top 10, they're not going to be ranked. Who will that team be? 800-239-9569, you want to get in? I want to hear your opinion on that. 800-239-WJOX. Tweet in at Mac and Cube.

You can always text into the show, 205-834-9450. Listen online, jocksfm.com. Apps in your app store, you can get it there. Tell your home smart speaker to enable the jock skill. Easy. Just listen on Alexa or your home smart speaker every single morning. Get that thing cranked up. Get it going while you're getting the kids out to school. So who do you think that team is or that team will be? Also, not real great for...

Number one, winning national championships. Just historically. Does not happen often. We'll talk AP poll. We'll talk to Andy Burcham at 8 o'clock. He joins us every Tuesday thanks to Crane Works. Get a little bit of insight into Auburn and camp. Feels like some parts of the defense are starting to come along a little bit.

Some of the guys up front, Isaiah Rakes, comfortable in that DJ Durkin system. Some of the linebacker play, been pretty good. We've said all along, if that group stays healthy, they can be pretty good. They can be effective. It's the availability that you're going to need to have there. Mark Slaball has his SEC power rankings out. A couple surprises there. He and Chris Lowe put that out yesterday. We'll talk to Slaball at 830 about how and why a couple of teams are where they are as it pertains to

SEC power rankings heading into this season. Sean Keeler works for the Denver Post. 930, you'll hear from him. He was the guy that Deion doesn't like. Or the guy who Deion just basically said, you don't like us. Why are you here? Which he's covering the team and doing his job. We'll talk to Sean just about what was going on. Why that was happening. Why was Deion agitated? What is that situation in Boulder looking like heading into this season? So a lot to get to today. A lot to talk about today.

And we'll get it going right off the bat with a little bit of audio from Hugh Freeze that sort of showed up yesterday. I thought this was interesting. Hugh Freeze with Marty and McGee referencing just his, I guess, success against Nick Saban in his career.

Well, at Ole Miss, it was certainly, I think we were one of the first staffs to bring in the tempo RPO world, and he didn't like that at all and tried to get it changed and all of that. Then he started doing it. And he's a good friend of mine, for sure. But I did understand what complicated their calls. I mean, we honestly, Nick is incredible, but I should have four wins against them.

We beat them twice, and we had them 24-3 the third year, and I wasn't smart enough to slow it down. And then last year easily could have gone our way. So I may have not phrased that exactly right on everybody, but we easily could have beat him a few more times. Well, obviously people are going to jump on that because it's low-hanging fruit and it's easy, but I think he does clarify it as to I'm not necessarily trying to go that way with it, but folks on this station have heard me say for a long time, no should haves in football. Nope.

There just aren't. There aren't. If you should have, you would have. Fair enough. So either way, he was as competitive as almost any coach in that span against Nick Saban during the greatest stretch in college football history for any head coach. I don't think anybody would deny that with what Coach Saban did at Alabama. Also, just how that fourth and 31 changed things for Hugh Freeze. We got to coach better.

All right. Some issues with that audio. We'll try to get to that one just in a little bit. I do. There's one thing that I appreciate about Hugh freeze. And we, we mentioned this a little bit earlier in fall camp when it almost felt like he was being a little bit too open about a couple of things. I think this is an area that he's grown a lot and maybe being honest with himself, maybe being honest with his staff, coming to that realization of that's got to change. That's got to be different. And it's not something that I think I noticed early in his career that

But that sort of self-awareness, that self-scouting, I think, has gone a little bit further with Hugh Freeze. I think there's an understanding of, I mean, you heard it a moment ago. Like, I wasn't smart enough to slow it down. I mean, that's essentially Hugh Freeze saying, I wish I was the coach then that I am now and understanding how to do some different things and how to manage things in a little bit of a different way. Just an area of growth.

For Hugh Freeze, the Auburn head football coach, and referencing a little bit earlier what he has done against Alabama. So fall camp continues, and some of the guys down in Auburn apparently making some strides. Some of the guys down in Auburn doing some things a little bit better. Okay, we have the audio from Freeze here just talking about that fourth and 31. We've got to coach better. If you're not accountable through the week in little things, it will show up on third down.

It'll show up on fourth down. And so some of that fault is the culture. Some of it is coaching. Maybe we didn't coach it good enough. Not winning that game sucked. It stunk. It was disappointing, hard, but at the same time, I didn't think our roster was as good as theirs. And it gave me even more confidence that Auburn can return to one of the top programs in the country pretty fast because we went toe-to-toe with them and

Should have won the game, truthfully. So it was a mixed bag of this is awful, but man, we can play with them. You live on those positives and you try to carry those over. You try to build on that. That becomes a little bit, not all of, a little bit of your foundation moving forward. And I'm fine with that. I'm cool with that.

You take what happened against Georgia as well and say, we took less talent, a lot less talent, and we went toe-to-toe with one of the best coach teams, one of the most talented teams in college football. Okay, great. You had a more talented roster than New Mexico State. So you have to look at that from both sides as well. Because while you are close, and if there's anyone who covers college football that will tell you close wins matter less than most people think, it's going to be me. I am not on that train.

I do not believe that one and three point losses equate to immediate wins the following year. Funny how a lot of those people will also tell you that one and three point wins will usually equate to losses the next year. It just doesn't work that way. Great teams find ways to win games. Bad teams find ways to lose games. It's the reality of it. It's just kind of how it goes. But I do think you can take some of those positive performances in losses and say, this is how close we are. We have to alter certain things.

We have to try to do things in a little bit of a different way. But you can't just lean on that. Because if you lean on that, you also have to utilize what happened against New Mexico State to prop yourself up. And that was the opposite direction. So I appreciate where Coach Freeze is headed, where he's going. I appreciate some of the things happening within the program. But you also have to consider what happened in some of the other situations and those essentially just not acceptable. Some interesting audio that I heard yesterday.

Kind of along the same lines of what we're talking about here from Nebraska head coach Matt Ruhle. I'm going to send this to Damian quickly because I forgot to do this before the show, and we'll try to get this out. Speaking of – now, Nebraska put this out. So this is obviously a little bit of rah-rah, a little bit of home cooking here, a little bit like get our own fans going, which is fine. That's what you're supposed to do from your own account. There's nothing wrong with that.

But they have been the poster child of, hey, these eight close losses are going to be automatic eight wins next year. For how many years in a row now? Four, five, seven, 11? Probably a decade. Whatever.

But in reference to some of those things, this is, it sounds like Matt kind of in the middle of a practice stopping things and talking to his guys. But I felt like this audio was relevant to kind of what we're talking about and what we're having a conversation about as it pertains to just sort of how you win games. You guys want to know why we've lost a lot of close games? You just saw it.

We thud here, but because there's people watching, you don't want to look stupid because you're not leveraging the football. We're just grabbing people and pulling them down. Which means either you're not a good athlete or you're not doing what we're trained to do. Our seniors, their first drive, they go sit on the bench and then practice. And a fight breaks out. A fight breaks out in front of the fans. So I'll make my point. But this is why we lose. Because the minute there's people here, we don't do what we do anymore.

We have pride in the way we practice tomorrow do your job the right way while we're out here. Yes, sir Everything right you can't change your shot with the game on the line You do what you do and I'm demanding you do it, right? I promise you this will be a long night

For no reason other than I'm not losing. And that was losing. Not the result. The process sucked. So go to the rest of the practice, and I expect a standard tie. I expect a standard from you older guys. It's time to win. It's time to win. Winning is every day. Let's get to work. It goes a little bit further with just how much goes into winning. And...

Kudos to Nebraska's social media team for putting that out because there are little hidden gems in there that are just awesome from Matt Rule. And I think what it does is it help explains to you all of the details. Go back to what Coach Saban said at Alabama so many times. Details, details, us, us, not them, us, not them, details, process, process, process.

It was never who can catch an 80-yard touchdown pass in a game. It was never who can blow that defensive tackle three yards off the ball. It was always about us handling our business our way. How about this quote? You can't change your shot with the game on the line. I've never heard that. That is incredible. I love that so much. Now, it also makes me think about the old Patrick Ewing clip when –

You never shot that shot. He's asking the guy, when did we practice that shot? Game shots. When have I ever seen you? What are you thinking? Have you ever practiced that shot? Have you ever practiced that shot? Amazing. Also, not the result. The process sucked is what Matt Rule said there. How much have we heard process from Nick Saban?

And referencing some of those little things, seniors, you finish your drive, what do you do? You come sit on the bench. I can't have you doing that for my team. Help me coach these guys up. Help me get these guys ready because you are ultimately going to be responsible for how they act.

And then you got a fight that breaks out. You got fans in the crowd. You're probably feeling yourself a little bit. You're a little bit more amped up. And all of a sudden, we fight. That's going to be a 15-yard penalty. One of you guys is probably going to be ejected. We needed you for the rest of the game. Little details. Little things. And Damian can tell you from all of his playing days. I can tell you from all of mine. The amount of times that coaches stressed little things, details, detail-oriented, like those are what get you beat.

Getting in a fight in a one-score game middle of the third quarter, that gets you beat. You lose a player that you need, and you possibly essentially flip the field. You get in a fight in your defense on the third and seven, and all of a sudden, what are you looking at on the next play? You're extending that drive. You're giving more opportunities to go score. I mean, it's just you can't do that. Yep.

Leaders cannot come to the sideline and just go sit down and essentially ignore everybody else on the team. You can't do it. So I love the self-awareness from Hugh Freeze that we talked about. I love the understanding of how to win games and what it takes to win games. And we've heard Coach Freeze talk a little bit through this camp about he feels like the chemistry is a little bit better. He feels like the locker room is a little bit better. You expect all that year, too. It should be.

He made a couple adjustments within his staff, so some of the things should be heading in the right direction. And I just feel like some of the things that he referenced with those clips from Marty and McGee that we heard, it rang loud when I remembered back watching that video of Matt Rule discussing how games are won, why you lose close games. The details are not what they need to be. You're not handling your – you're not – essentially, and he said it, be smart. It's not smart.

And there are a lot of things, if you really dive into the tape of Auburn football last year, that were not smart. I will say point blank, some of it was just not being good. Some players were just not good enough to go win against other really good players. That's fair. That's fine. Championship effort? Not all the time. That was one of the things that I got mad about after the New Mexico State game, which was embarrassing.

But there are a couple of people who cover Auburn that immediately went to low caliber, poor, unacceptable effort across the board for the players. I did not see that on film. I saw a team that got outcoached, specifically the Auburn defense. Did not have a clear idea of where the football was or was going to be. Now, that's not saying the effort was great everywhere. That's not saying, y'all know me, I'm not going to go should have.

I don't think Auburn should have won that game. I think if Auburn would have played and had a good plan, they still might not have won that game. New Mexico State played great football. They did the little things in that game. But just thought that kind of some of those clips from Hugh Freeze and then hearing that from Matt Rule is really cool. I love that. You can't change your shot with the game on the line. And we hear what is a hero ball, trying to be a hero. Don't try to be an All-American.

Play within the system. Play within the scheme. And that's where – and I don't know what Damian was yelling about this morning, but I heard him down in the office yelling about Peyton Thorne all morning. But it does go back to Peyton Thorne and kind of what has to happen and what needs to happen for him specifically. He does not need to be Peyton Manning. He does not need to be Tom Brady. He does not need to be Patrick Mahomes. Play within your scheme. Play within your system.

have an understanding and a comfort level of what the offense is. If that's a little bit better this year, yes, things can take a step. Do things need to take eight steps to appear to be a lot better? No, I don't think so. Because I believe that team's going to be able to run the football. And if that is there, a lot of things open up. Now, give me a receiver or two that can make a play here and there. Okay, now we're making some strides. Now we got a chance to go do some things.

Let go of the football when the time is to let go of the ball. Understand where not to throw the football and have a couple guys that can help you make some plays and run the ball. Those things happen, that offense can look a lot different this year. Now, I understand some of you are riding around in your pickup trucks and you're going to say that I'm saying Auburn's going to have the best offense in college football. You probably should not call 800-239-WJOX because I don't want to talk to you about that because it's not what I'm saying.

But I do believe that there are some things, be it process, be it understanding, be it schematic, be it talent in certain places that could make things a little bit better. And if they're 30, 40, 35, even 28% better than they were a year ago, it's going to appear to be a lot better. Now, defense is a different conversation. As I stated, it feels like some of it's a little bit better. Some of it's coming along.

But it's going to have to continue to come along, and there's going to have to be some guys that we're not talking about that are making plays on a regular basis. Because we've seen, I think the most interesting part about Auburn's defense is what exactly is it going to be. We've seen D.J. Durkin's defense be sort of a second and third level sit back and wait because they were so disruptive up front. We've seen them be pressure oriented, movement oriented, where they try to create the havoc up front. That's what I talked about with Oregon's defense the other day with Greg.

Everybody pees their pants about the Oregon front and the Oregon D-line. Go watch them. They do not sit still. They don't. They attack constantly, and they do it with precision, the same thing that Georgia does. I think that's what Lanning took from the guys at Georgia is if you're going to move and you're going to roll the dice and you're going to do different things, bring it with pressure and be precise with your pressure and your movement. And that's what Oregon does.

They have a very good idea of what needs to be where and how that will be disruptive. And they do it almost better than anybody. It's not guys clanging face masks against one another, running into each other. You guys guys halfing it around the other guy when he's trying to loop. They know exactly where to be and how to be there and how to get there and do it quickly with authority. It's kind of what makes them different.

So, a lot to get to from a college football perspective today. Ralph Russo is going to join us in about 10 minutes, and we'll talk to Ralph about this AP poll. What top 10 team is not going to be ranked at the end of the season? Because it happens every year. Every single year. Well, 18 of the last 20. We'll discuss who we think it's going to be. You'll hear who maybe Ralph thinks it's going to be.

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All right, welcome back in. Michael Roy and Kubelik in the morning. Going to go to the buyer's right hotline here in just a moment. Welcome in Ralph Russo of the Associated Press. Texas running back Christian Clark, apparently a lower leg injury yesterday in practice.

So this is now becoming a problem for the Longhorns. We'll spend a little bit more time on it later in the show. Potentially redshirt freshman wide receiver Ryan Niblett could move to running back, but now you begin to worry about the depth of that position over we've talked about it, this new grind that we're going to see this year in college football. Your CBD store, if your daily grind is getting to you, they have products that can help, better focus throughout the course of your day, better gut health throughout the course of your day as well, products for overall health,

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Ralph Russo of the Associated Press joining us now on the Buyer's Right Hotline to talk the AP poll that is out now.

I don't know what your organizational level is of this as far as how you see it being constructed or if you just kind of see the final product before it goes out. But when it was finally laid out yesterday, Ralph, and you knew it was coming out a little bit before that, but what maybe took you off guard? What did you maybe question before you guys had to finally put this to print and kind of go double check to make sure that's exactly the way the voters had it?

Well, so here's the thing, Colin, you're right. You know, we don't vote. We just count the votes as they come in. And we know for a while before they published yesterday what it looks like. It's hard to be surprised about anything these days. And here's why.

We've been, and I don't mean we, the AP, but we sort of the college football media ecosystem have been ranking these teams since, when was the championship game played? Like January 10th? Since like January 11th, right? The way, way, way too early and the way too early and the post spring and the post portal. And then all the computer rankings come out in the spring and summer. So you end up, it's hard to not get something of a,

okay, here's about what the poll should look like by the time I get the AP polls, the last one, by the time it hits in mid-August, you kind of have a sense of like, well, it's probably going to be...

28 or 30 teams and the back end might be a little different and here's about what the top is going to look like. So it's hard to be surprised these days. And I can't blame the voters for a little bit of groupthink because again, we've been ranking these teams for eight months and dissecting them. So you build up a bit of a, a bit of an order. You know, I would look at it and I, you know, listen, Miami is 19. Miami is,

coming off a seven and six season and a losing season before that under Mario Cristobal. I know they've been building up, but like I could see a little bit of like, don't you want to let them prove it? A&M is back in the rankings again after a bunch of disappointing seasons. Again, I know there's talent there, but it's a first year coach. Don't you want to let them prove it? So at the back end, you have a few teams, USC, that I might personally, if I voted, might have said, I'm going to wait and see on them. But

But nothing shocking. I guess the one thing I would ask you, Cole, because nobody knows these SEC teams and this particular SEC better than you, have we pivoted a little too much on Alabama? In other words, at first when DeBoer got there, there was just like, oh, no, things are sort of falling apart because a few big guys go in the portal and you think, oh, there's going to be regression. Alabama could go 9-3, 8-4. And now we have them as the fifth ranked team in the country.

And they're still a very talented roster. But I'm wondering if that maybe was a little bit of an overcorrection getting into the season on expectations for Alabama.

I know exactly what you're saying, and I have seen it a little bit as well. There was a lot of panic at first. There was a lot of, who is that? And then all of a sudden, a couple months later, there was a ton of confidence with it. I think a few things have aided with that. One, the recruiting. The recruiting has not really taken a dip at all. Also, keep in mind, Ralph, but this was pre-DeBoer,

There was a massive portal wave that hit. There was an influx of players that went into the portal and left that roster. Some ended up staying, some came back. But I think that was, no matter who the next head coach was going to be, made things a little bit scary. Then once people, I think, began to realize, oh, wait, this guy's been good at every level. He's probably a pretty good coach. And by the way, he's put together a pretty good staff.

Then, too, I think the roster is something that when you go comparatively down either the top 10, top 15, whatever it is, they're ahead or not far off of anybody else that's there. So if you have a decent coach with that much talent, you should be able to win some games. But I also think on the flip side of that,

We have negated a lot of questions that would normally be asked about a new head coach and a new coaching staff. We've just pushed those to the side. Like, oh, it's going to be fine. It's a new system. Don't worry about it. But then there are other teams that are like, well, hold on now. It's a new system and a new – hold on. They have new play calls. We can't say they're going to be that good yet. So it is a very interesting case study with new regime, new head coach, very talented roster as to what the expectations are for Alabama this year.

Yeah, and you're right. It's funny the way the recruiting piece of it – well, we're talking about recruiting for 2025. That doesn't impact this team. But you're right. I do think the, oh, he can do that. He can recruit well gives a certain level of confidence that I think gets projected onto this team. The one thing I would say is – and again –

You know, listen, when you talk about Alabama and try to critique them, you always have to sort of do it within the space of we know they're all fours and five stars, right? We know what we're talking about. We're talking about the difference between playing for a national championship and maybe just squeaking in the playoffs. So you're still talking about a super high level.

but you're looking for like, who's going to be the standout sort of number one wide receiver on this team, right? Is it going to be a freshman in Ryan Williams? We love justice Haynes. Everybody thinks he's going to be a tremendous player running back, but like how much of the playmakers are going to be young guys who really haven't established themselves. And is that a, you know, and is that a team that looks like, you know, a number one, a team that could be, you know, fight for national championship. That's all.

And because of how they've recruited, there's a good chance that happens. I mean, it's a safe bet that there's a couple of those younger guys that step up and we say, oh, right. We weren't talking about him. I feel like five is fair, though.

I think you could have conversations. We've talked a lot about Oregon in the last week or so. I'm not quite as all in on Oregon as some other folks are. Not that I don't think they're going to be good. I think there's a clear gap between Georgia, Ohio State, and then Oregon and some of the other teams. But if you're asking me Alabama, Texas, Alabama, Oregon, I don't think they're very different. Okay.

I think they're all pretty close. And I think the couple of teams behind them, specifically Ole Miss, I think they're fairly close as well. I know you've heard it. I know you've probably talked about it. 18 of the last 20 years, a top 10 team has been unranked. Does there feel like an obvious candidate for that in this year's top 10 for you?

That ends up unranked. Well, you know, if I said Michigan, I think it would drive people out of their minds, right, because Michigan is the defending national champion. But I could see a situation where Michigan really has a hard time figuring out their offense, right?

I would be with you. I think the regime change. Here's one thing that I was talking to a buddy of mine about Michigan yesterday, Ralph, is there are still a lot of distractions around that program right now, right this very second. I mean, outside of maybe 2010 Auburn, have we seen a team that mentally and emotionally overcame distractions as well as that Michigan team did last year?

And I just don't – is there any way to gauge if they're going to have anywhere near the resolve this year that they had last year? Because I think that was a massive piece of why that team was so good last year.

So I do believe that. I think you're right. I think this is a team that, well, listen, it didn't fight through adversity as far as on the field. It very rarely faced any adversity. You're right, all of it was off the field. But you get at the crux of what I'm trying to get at here. It's not just a massive loss of talent. For a team that doesn't recruit top five classes every year,

So you're not looking at a situation where they're, you know, they're just plugging and playing the next wave of guys who are going to be three and done NFL high draft picks. That team was built on a slow burn, right? It was built as, hey, we have veteran guys who really know the system and in their fourth and fifth years really blossom. So you have that type of talent, but you also have that type of leadership, right?

where it was a slow burn. You had guys who were pillars and understood the culture. And now not only are you taking away the coaches who set that culture in Jim Harbaugh, not just Jim Harbaugh too, Jesse Minter was a hell of a defensive coordinator. He's out of there. Like a lot of that staff is gone and you take away the guys who set the culture and

I just think that there's a lot can go wrong. And now like the bare bones of it is you're talking about a kid who's thrown in Alex orgy. I believe one college pass. So, um,

you know, what are we doing as far as the offense there? So listen, there's talent there, but you can see a scenario. Like, I don't think it's outlandish to see a scenario where Michigan, which plays Ohio state and Oregon and Texas, right. All of a sudden is an eight and 14 because, you know, a little bit of a tough schedule and they fall back and eight and four might not get you right. Absolutely. Ralph Russo, the associated press joining us on the buyer's right hotline, talking yesterday's initial AP poll for this upcoming season. Uh,

Ralph, I feel like there's still a lot of significance with this poll, the hows and whys that go with it. But for someone who maybe wasn't a believer or didn't see the impact that it has or just kind of wondered why it's important throughout the course of a season, how would you sort of defend that? How would you respond to someone who maybe says that? Yeah, so I have a spiel on this. I'll give you a shortened version of the spiel.

Like college football for, you know, 100 years has changed the way it works. Right. You know, first it was polls and then it was BCS. And then now it's a 14 playoff and now it's a 12 team playoff. So you're right. We have another way of determining a champion besides voters taking votes at the end of the year. And that's a good thing.

But the AP College Football Poll, you know, the preseason poll has been since 1950. The poll in general has been since 1936. Like, it's the one through line through all of college football, through most of college football, that kind of gives you a little sense of, like,

history, you can sort of tell the tale of a season. If I just were to say, here's the 2005 polls, you could look through the polls and be like, oh, that team was a disappointment. That team exceeded expectations. Here's how the race for the national championship went. You can sort of tell the tale of college football through the polls. And when you sort of pull the camera back

historically you can tell the tale of like this is when Notre Dame dominated and look at this few years when Army and Navy were really good and here's when the SEC rose and became the SEC that it is today and the Big Ten and maybe Pac-12 football started slipping off so I think that it it is about its value is more as like as more as a way to sort of tell the history of the sport

And, you know, listen, there's also a certain amount of engagement that we love to just talk about. One simple argument is the bedrock of all sports. And that is my team is better than yours. And all the poll is is 25 teams where people can go. My team is better than yours. So I think it still has a lot of value. And the fact that it doesn't necessarily crown the national championship champion is a good thing.

And it still has a certain amount of value. I'm with you. I love the historical significance of it. I love the comparative nature that you can bring to it for a lot of different reasons. But we appreciate you hopping on today. Great stuff. Look forward to catching up with you again soon.

Always good talking, Cole. Thanks, man. Thank you. Ralph Russo of the Associated Press, at Ralph underscore Russo. Follow him on Twitter. Find his work at the Associated Press. All Jock's guests appear on the Buyer's Right Hotline for all your insurance, financial, and HR needs. It's Buyer's Right Insurance, a Higginbotham partner. Speaking of AP history, one thing I found interesting yesterday that I came across when doing a little bit of digging on this particular poll was the first Associated Press poll.

Ever. The first ever ranking by the AP. Some will surprise you. Some, maybe you'll expect it to look the way that it did. But...

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All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. JOX 94.5, joxfm.com is where you can listen to the show online. Apps in your app store, iPhone, Android. You can always download that for free. First ever Associated Press poll. By the way, Notre Dame's going to adjust their final exam schedule around the potential college football playoff matchups that they could be having at home. Could. Remember, big advantage.

No conference championship game, but the get-the-home game. Can't finish in the top five, but big advantage. And now, apparently a big advantage that you also won't be having to play school while a potential playoff game is there in South Bend. Makes sense. A lot of people getting ready for playoff games. We don't know if they're going to have playoff games or not. But, hey, what do you always say? When you stay ready, you never have to get ready.

Including school, I guess. Absolutely. Okay, Notre Dame, I see. That's the way it goes. All right? All right. If you don't ever feel like you're ready for your day because you lack energy or getting poor sleep, maybe you feel on edge, it could be the effects of low testosterone. I want to tell you about my friends at Game Day Men's Health. This is what they're going to offer you. A no-charge consult, and that includes a free testosterone and PSA test. You're going to know right away.

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You want to feel better? Go see Game Day Men's Health right now. Low-key atmosphere, no pressure, locker room environment. Go in and tell them you heard about them right here on the show today. GameDayMensHealth.com. It's GameDayMensHealth.com. All right, the first ever AP poll. How did it look? I mean, we know there are going to be some teams on here that probably shouldn't be. What year was it?

That'll start narrowing down the choices. What year do you think it was? It would have been 1958. 1958. The first AP... And the reason I want to do this is because I did say earlier in the show that historically...

I think that you can always compare and contrast. Right. But in 1936, probably not a lot of carryover to today. Maybe not. But there is a little bit. I just think it's always interesting to go back and look at how things were and how things are. Your number one team in the first ever AP poll going into the season, the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Number one. Now, they were dominant back in the 30s. Yes. Two, Duke. Three, Army. Army.

Four, Northwestern. Oh, boy. Five, Purdue. Okay, we haven't even gotten to a ranked team yet in this year's preseason poll. Oh, boy. All right, now we get to some of the big boys. Six, USC. Seven, Notre Dame. Eight, Washington. Okay. Nine, Pitt. Ten, Yale. Okay. We're taking a little bit of dip here around ten. Eleven, Duquesne. Twelve, St. Mary's. This is not...

The NCAA tournament field in 1936. This is your preseason AP college football poll. Okay. LSU at 13. Texas A&M at 14. Nebraska at 15. Oh, boy. Fordham at 16. Holy Cross at 17. Holy Cross. Tulane at 18. SMU at 16.

Pre-Camaros at 19. Wow. And Marquette at 20. The fight in Dwyane Wade. Feels basketball heavy. It does. Seems very regional. Extremely regional. But listen, Army you expect because they were dominant back then. You said it. Minnesota early on in college football had a really dominant run.

I'm not even sure if you would have given me guesses here that I would have thrown out Duquesne, St. Mary's, Holy Cross in the top 17 of the inaugural Associated Press college football poll. That would not have come out of my mouth. No? USC, yes. Notre Dame, yes. Pitt, yes. Could have guessed those. Tulane, back then. SEC, baby. It has some things happening.

But wow. Like Nebraska, LSU, okay. We can get that. Marquette? Not sure I would have had them. No more of the basketball school, but you know. I haven't seen the tape on Marquette football. Oh, 1938? Six, by the way. 1936? Maybe two years later they weren't in. I don't know. I have to go find that. I did not locate that one. But there are a couple other parts of this AP poll that I want to get to. We'll do it a little bit next hour.

We'll get to our top three when we come back. And I don't know if it's going to actually be around college football and this Associated Press poll, but Damian will give it to us next right here on Jocks 94.5. 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.com.

Former Navy SEAL Sean Ryan shares real stories from real people from all walks of life on The Sean Ryan Show. Tucker Carlson, what is it that you think that people gravitate towards? I'm not self-aware. I refuse to be self-aware. I don't even look in mirrors at all.

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. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubrick in the morning, 7.52 a.m. Tuesday, August 13th on JOX 94.5.

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That's my buddy Ben Heading of the Bham Realty Group. Visit the website at bhamrealtyco.com or give them a call at 205-568-2705. All right, so we bring it to you each and every day. Sometimes sports related, doesn't have to be. Oftentimes useless, sometimes fun. It is our top three. Damien, what do you have on tap today? Well, as it is a...

You know, every August 13th is National Left-Handers Day. Who didn't know that? I didn't until today. But this is actually something I did with Greg the other day while you were doing the first day of school. I asked him, who are the top three coaches that you have played for? It doesn't necessarily have to be the head coaches. It could be position coaches. It could be strength and conditioning coaches. But coaches that you have played for.

All right, one's going to be Bob Newton. He was sometimes position coach, head coach as well for me at, I mean, hell, he was my Little League baseball coach at one point, but my head football coach in high school as well, and just somebody who helped shape my life really more than anything. Two, I'm going to give a shout out to David Jones, who was my position coach my junior year in high school.

And we ran a four-down read-based defense. Oh, yeah, I forgot you were a defensive linebacker. I'd never played a down of offense in high school. And he essentially knew how to get to me, and he knew how to coach me. And without him, I don't think that I would have been as successful. I only appeared in two games my senior year. I didn't play a quarter of football my senior year in high school.

Because of knee injuries. So I had to have that junior year. And without David Jones and how he coached me individually, I don't think I would have had it. And then number three, I'm going to go with a little bit of a tie here. I know it's kind of a cop-out. I'm just going to go Bill Oliver, who was our interim head coach at the end of 98, just because hearing his philosophy on all things football was incredible. And I don't think he gets really enough credit for that, but he deserves it. But then also Noel Mazzone,

our offensive coordinator with Tuberville when he came in because Noel Mazzoni, for the first time, he helped me understand that a very complicated offense can be run in a very simple manner. And he just knew how to do that. He knew how to, it was very easy on us, but it was very complicated on the opposition. And Noel Mazzoni was the first person that kind of introduced to me, hey, we're going to do the same things, but we're just going to make it all look different.

And then his main philosophy was take what the defense gives you. I mean, it was run inside zone to the three, and if you have uncovered in the slot, turn and throw it, check 90, and we get it going. He just simplified everything. I mean, there were so many of us that were like, where has this been? Because as you've kind of seen the last few years, Jimbo was very –

It was wordy, lengthy, and kind of complicated. It was good. It was effective, but just it was sometimes a lot. What was the transition like from defensive line to offensive line in college, especially going from the defensive line in high school? Oh, no, let me throw another one on there for you. Let me throw another one on there for you. Oh, boy.

So I was the blocking dummy in high school, basically. We would go down to do offensive individual, and I would be the first defensive tackle that worked against – so like when they worked their combos or their down blocks or whatever, because I felt like I was getting more reps on defense, which was great, and I was giving them a good look. Not only going to offense, going to center and had never snapped a football. Right.

and then jumping right into the gauntlet that is the SEC, of all things. And this was back when I didn't go early for summer, so I went in the fall. Oh, boy. So the first time I snapped a football, I mean, I tried to do it a little bit in the summer before I went, but it was before our first two-a-day practice. So, yeah, head was spinning, to say the least.

I'm not self-aware. I refuse to be self-aware. I don't even look in mirrors at all.

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.