8-14-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 1: Bama practice recap; Trent Dilfer talks UAB; Eric Mac Lain talks ACC
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McElroy and Kubelik in the morning starts now. All right, welcome in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning, 7 a.m. Wednesday, August 14th, right here on Jux 94.5. Appreciate you guys tuning in. Alabama on the practice field yesterday. We'll discuss some of that. A lot of college football news to get to. Some sneaky names you may need to know around the Southeastern Conference. We'll get to that. Games aren't too far away. I mean, we are mid-August now.

Week zero is creeping up on us here quickly. I don't know how excited you are about that day, that slate, Greg, but at least it's college football and it's going to be coming to us sooner than later. Yeah, I'm great with it. I don't have any problems with college football at week zero anymore. I just wish it was exclusively G5 teams. If we could just eliminate...

the big power five matchups from week zero, I think that that'd be beneficial because it gives those teams an additional bye week.

In the season, it's a bit of a tactical advantage. That means Florida State and Georgia Tech will have three bye weeks in the season this year. That to me is awkward. It's weird. So I'm not okay with that. But a G5 team, look, they got a hard thing going already. I think a G5 team should probably start their own playoff at some point. And they should start that playoff probably around December 10th. Just so they're not interfering with the Power 5. So...

I would love nothing more than for week zero to become a thing, but it'd be a destination thing for those that don't get the, don't get the conversation, the attention they you'd like for them to get during the season. It will bring some intrigue though. August 24th, next Saturday, when you get Florida state and Georgia tech at 11 AM on ESPN, this is a Georgia tech team that we think could be a little bit dangerous. They've got some juice on offense. They've got a good scheme, a quarterback now going to be really familiar with it. Um,

Line of scrimmage, probably better than a lot of people anticipated last year. Florida State, a lot of new faces. Some talent that's been brought in. Haven't really operated together as much. We don't think the quarterback's as talented as it was last year. But running back, receiver, defensive line, you've added guys to replace some of what you lost. There's intrigue with that game. I think for a lot of different reasons, not just the fact that it's going to be in Dublin, Ireland,

But those are two teams that I think one that we're kind of wondering, can they be close to what they were last year, Greg? And then another that we think can probably exceed expectations. And how about Georgia Tech pulling a five star the other day? I mean, recruiting for 27th ranked player in the country, second highest ranked player that they've ever gotten. Highest ranked player since Calvin Johnson. Pretty incredible. Brink Keene is doing a really good job recruiting right now. But how normal? Yes. For his size. I mean, just 255. You don't like that. Look how normal. We're six, five.

Oh, look how long. I mean, you act like they recruited you as a tackle. I mean, I think he's. I'll be at 255 by December 22nd. He'll add some weight. He'll be fine. But they're recruiting in a very different way. I was probably an edge guy at some point. Yeah, not often. No. Not often. But I was, hey, I'm pumped that they have him. You said it the other day, and I think it makes a lot of sense. Like, it's kind of nice to see guys kind of going where they want to go.

Hey, if NIL is a priority for you, that's awesome. And maybe some teams can rally up and do a good job in that area. But it's cool to see not all the guys. If you're in the southeast and you live in the state of Georgia, you're not going to Georgia necessarily. That's kind of cool. No, I love it. Maybe NIL is helping with that just a little bit. I saw an article somewhere.

that Georgia Tech had recently had this big fundraising emphasis, and there were like 20-something donations, and I want to say like 12 or 13 of them were over $2 million. So, I mean, you're getting a lot of people that are now beginning to infuse a lot of cash into that program, and obviously that's going to help you upgrade the talent. And I think Brent Key, you can say what you want about him as a head coach, still lacks a little bit of experience, but I think he's exceeded expectations. He's put a hell of a staff together. I know that.

They got a good offense. They got a cool offense. Very cool. I like what Buster does. Gotta hang on to Buster. That's going to be big for him moving forward. That day, by the way, is going to be a little bit weird as it goes on. Montana State at New Mexico at 3 o'clock on FS1. Rivalry game. Then SMU at Nevada.

At 7 o'clock on CBS Sports Network. SMU we're really interested in. What kind of impact can they have in the ACC? I think there's big questions around that. What's that going to look like? So we'll get a little peek at SMU. And then you get the always rare 10-59 kick. Central. Delaware State at Hawaii. Rivalry. The one we've been wondering about. They're playing for a trinket. Are they?

Delaware State, they're the Hornets, right? Yes. The Hornet Wave Cup? Yes. The Hornet Bows. Like headphones? So that one will be, I don't know.

I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say I won't make it through all four quarters of that one. Wow. I'll try. You're going to admit. I will try. To the national audience. I will give it effort. For those listeners in Hawaii, I'm sorry. I will. He won't be paying attention to your team. You won't have a breakdown on Monday on that game. I'm sorry that you guys can't kick before most people go to sleep in the central time zone. Much less the 11.59 kick Eastern for that one.

I'll do my best. Cannot promise you that I'll be making it to the end of that one, though. That one's going to be a rough stay. I probably won't be watching that one. Just going to admit, that probably ain't happening. Watching it live. That's what Sunday's for. Not even sure I'll watch it Sunday. Okay, well, at least I try to help you. I appreciate that. But that one, not going to have a huge impact on my assessments on the team moving forward.

But I will be watching most of the other games. I can promise you that. The rest are going to be fun, I think. I think we'll have a nice... The other good part about Saturday, August 24th, I mean, number one, if you need to do some things around the house or the kids want to play wiffle ball, whatever, like...

You could kind of have these on in the background for some of the time, and they're spread out to where you're not really going to have to find seven TV screens to be able to watch all these. So I kind of like the fact that they're spread out a little bit. You can have it going throughout the course of the day. You want to dial in football? It's there.

You want it on the background? At least that's the only one. So you can still kind of pay attention to it and not have to worry about three or four. Then we'll get August 29th, Thursday. I think we have slept on how super loaded that day is. We've got Trent Dilfer coming up in about six minutes. His team will be going that day. Alcorn State at UAB, 7 o'clock on ESPN Plus right here at Protective Stadium.

But you've got Utah playing. Illinois is going to be playing. Arkansas is going to be playing. Missouri is going to be playing. Kansas is going to be playing. Rutgers, NC State. They're not all playing one another, Greg, but you've got a lot of teams that I think we have real legitimate questions. I mean, North Carolina at Minnesota is an interesting one. North Dakota State at Colorado is an interesting one on that day.

maybe not so much the actual matchups, but the amount of teams that I think we have some real interest in that are going to be playing on that first Thursday of the season. No question about that. The first Thursday is fascinating. And North Dakota State-Colorado game, that's all you want. I'm not sure what more you could possibly ask for than seeing a team that has captivated the nation's attention in Colorado against a team that is...

built to beat teams like Colorado I mean North Dakota State's not what they were I think most people acknowledge that they're not the same right last couple years kind of falling off a little bit still great but not nearly as dominant as they once were and they're gonna go test a team whose huge question mark has been in the trenches in like that one I think is very dangerous

for Colorado. And if they don't play well, they will lose that game. We oftentimes reference, Craig, we like contrast in style games. And sometimes that means your eye formations, two tight ends against, you know, Texas Tech, four or five wide, getting up and down the field in a hurry or Chip Kelly's old, you know, hurry up, no huddle, zone read. This is about as contrast in style from top to bottom outside of the X's and O's included that you think you're ever going to get. Yep.

There's no doubt about it. I'm not sure I've ever seen a group that is more by the book as far as line of scrimmage play downhill run right at you as opposed to a team that is more a spread you out. We're going to win with speed and athleticism. I mean, they could not be more different. They are literally polar opposites and it's going to be amazing. I can't wait for it. That was going to be fun. I don't think there's any doubt about it. So just like Colorado gets that one pretty easily, though.

Like if I had to pick it right now, I know we're a couple of weeks out. I know I hate saying that to you. It's a diehard North Dakota state fan, Cole Kublik. I'm not going to deny that. I enjoy that program growing up in Bismarck, but that's when I say contrast in style, that's one part of it. Like that's a place where literally the town almost completely shuts down when they play a game. Yeah. I mean, you roll through the city and it's not like you don't see some Broncos flags and, you know, some Iowa flags. It's all yellow and green.

Or golden green, whatever. I don't know technically what we call it. But that's it. Everyone there, that's what they do. That's what it's all about. Not a lot of flash, not a lot of glitz, not a lot of glamour, not a lot of clicks. They just want to play football, man. Yeah. They love ball. I've told you before. It's the most intelligent fan base I've ever been in front of at a game. Ever. They live it and breathe it. And so it's just...

For a lot of reasons, that one has my interests. But line of scrimmage might be a little bit different. Yesterday, Colorado's defensive line, is he the actual defensive line coach now, Warren Sapp? Or does he have like a creative title? I'm not 100% certain. The Booger McFarlane defensive line coach from Colorado. I like that. Quote, we got bullets. You get shot with a 38 or 9 millimeter, you pick it. I mean, I'm going to try to avoid all of them, but...

What if North Dakota State's head coach responded, we got Kevlar? That would be pretty amazing. I don't know how I'd feel about the whole we got bullets. I mean, D. Lyman, I'm not sure I want to describe my defensive lineman as bullets. What do you think? Safeties, maybe. Linebackers, they can go sideline to sideline, sure. But I want my defensive lineman to have a Hemi on a pickup truck. I want a Z71, a dude that can flat out go,

But he's a beast inside still at the same time. That's how I want my defense. Warren Sapp, senior quality control analyst, parentheses, defense. Think you're getting some good coaching from Sapp Daddy? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think he knows how it works. He knows how it's supposed to go. It's just so hard for great, great, great players to coach.

Because they can't understand why. You can't do the things that they can. Why can't you do this? This is not that difficult. Oh, trust me. Strike and shed. Sometimes it's hard for coaches also. We were shown a lot of Alan Fanica and asked why we couldn't do that, what he was doing.

It's like, well, sometimes God decided to make guards, coach. Sometimes he decided to make talk show hosts. We can't do that. Literally show us Willie Anderson in films. Like, why can't you take a pass at it like this? Well, his arms are 77 inches long, coach. I mean, that's literally three quarters of my height. Sorry, I can't do that. He's 330 and has lighter feet than I do. Yeah. My bad.

It was amazing. I love it. It really is. It reminds me of when my agent showed me the video and said, all right, here's what a pro day is kind of going to look like. And the guy in that pro day was Jamarcus Russell. I'm like, yeah, sorry. I just, I'm not, you know, I'm going to avoid the 72 yard post. I'll push it down there. 80 yards. I'm going to avoid the 72 yard post on a rope in the indoor facility. Cause I'll hit the ceiling, you know?

That's what it is. All right, we'll get to a break. Come back. Trent Dilfer going to join us. Your HVAC system, by the way, one of your artist investments this time of year, constantly being pushed to the extreme. You can trust a train home comfort system to give you reliability and peace of mind day in, day out for years to come. Visit train.com to find a comfort specialist for you. And remember, it's hard to stop a train. Right back with the UAB head football coach live next. 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. Michael Roy and Kubelik in the morning. 7.16 a.m. Wednesday, August 14th. Right here on Jocks 94.5. Right to the Buyer's Right Hotline welcoming in Trent Dilfer, UAB head football coach to the show.

Should be a lot more comfort, a lot more confidence offensively for you guys this year going into year two, coach. I'm just interested the install, how many things you were trying to do different, how you're sort of orchestrating that side of the football and practice so far through fall camp.

Yeah, the carryover has been really good. You know, having a veteran quarterback that can take in a lot of information, process a lot of information, fix things on the field is a great starting point to have a center who's played a ton of football, who's a natural born leader, who's another highly academic guy in the football field.

and then bringing in some veteran offensive linemen in the portal that have you know been part of systems learned offenses you know understand game planning understand all the looks the defense gives you um and then running backs you know coached by henley bregan was good at running back coaches in the country that are experts in pass protection and the run game and all these things so you do all that we can just overload them i think i told you guys

This last year, you know, our offensive philosophy of teaching is drop them off in Mexico and teach them how to order them a cup of coffee. You know, that's day one. And then eventually, just through immersion, they learn how to speak the language. And it's been a really good formula for us. We have a ton of volume.

We feel good about where we're at, but, you know, saying all that, we're still to me penalties, you know, to me, drop balls, to me, mental mistakes as we go through camp. So, you know, I've been real hard on them about raising their expectations on execution. What do you think is the hardest thing to manage right now in fall camp? Because a lot of people are looking at it and saying depth is a challenge everywhere.

getting your young players up to speed's really huge. Making sure you guys don't enter the portal in the middle of camp, which we've seen at other places. How do you approach this fall camp differently than you would have approached it, say, five, seven years ago? Great question. You know, I went on my staff two days ago, and I'm like, I got to coach this team different than I've ever seen a team coached or, you know, my limited time coaching coached a team.

Because we have some really good veteran players that have a lot of miles on them. And we need them to get through the year. And we have younger players that are very, very physical and athletic that are going, you know, a thousand miles per hour trying to prove themselves. And what we're having is a lot of car collisions happening.

and bang up some offenders. You know, we haven't, you know, fortunately we haven't been hit with the big injury bug, but we have a lot of fender benders and managing the health of the players depth and

development is definitely a key thing, but I think it's more, well, I shouldn't say more. In my world, it's more finding that perfect balance of how do we grow and teach and get tougher and develop grit and resilience without this Neanderthal approach of just banging each other every single day. So starting today, we're going to be extremely tactical in

on how we practice from here until the first game and make sure we're talking to Lyle Henley every single, probably five times a day about different methodologies, about keeping the engines revved up without banging up the exterior of the car.

Trent Dilfer, UAB head football coach, joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline, middle of fall camp. I want to go back to a young man that you brought up earlier, Jacob Zeno. And I don't think people appreciate the numbers from last year. And we've seen what he's done prior to last season for you. But can you peel back the curtain just a little bit on maybe what some folks don't know about him? What he is outside of just a young man in pads playing football. Give us a little extra up on Jacob Zeno, the person, not just the quarterback.

mature beyond his years um quietly insanely competitive like he's not a he's not a guy you're gonna want to play cornhole against you know or you know ping pong or whatever it is he's just a guy that is has that kind of assassin's approach competitively um really really smart not not kind of smart but like really smart um

He's a one rep guy. You know, what we mean by that is especially a quarterback, like he'll make a mistake. He makes tons of mistakes once. And then he, once he kind of understands why he made the mistake and he's taught around the mistake. And a lot of times I'll tell him, Hey bro, you don't have to make mistakes yourself. I'll tell you the mistakes I made.

And you can avoid them if you just listen. And he'll listen. He'll be like, yeah, you know, coach said, you know, cover two, Mike dropping a number three and three by one, probably not a good idea to try to rip in that bender, right, against a good Mike. And so he won't try it. You know, he'll just, he'll look at it and, you know, throw the ball somewhere else. I just love his temperament. You know, he, at times last year early, he would get a little, you know,

frustrated. I wouldn't say in his head or lack of poise, just frustrated. And then I think by midseason, really after the UTSA game where he got the concussion and had to miss the Memphis game. And then after that, he really settled into one play at a time, not one play is more important than the next play. Stay within the moment and really become a guy that deals and operates. And he approaches his life that way too.

How would you assess some of the progress made on defense? Because I know we've spent a lot of time talking about, whether it's on the air or off, how you want to grow on that side of the ball. Sounds like based on some of the things you've said so far, there's been progress made on that side, but I'm curious how much. How have you assessed that group? Well, progress, but we haven't proved anything, you know, and that's...

And it's hard sometimes too, because you have like seven to 11 new contributors on that side of the ball. So you can't get up in front of them and say, Hey, last year, because they're like, Whoa, don't talk to me. You know, I was in Indiana last year. I was Georgia tech last year, or I was, you know, Purdue last year. So,

Try not to say, okay, we stunk last year. We got to be better. It's more, here's the standard of defensive football that Bill Clark established at UAB. Here's the standard of defensive football that Sione and Trent Dilfer have had in their history. This is going to be the standard. How do you guys...

approach getting there. And we've seen real progress. I mean, the running of the ball, the shedding of blocks, the energy, the ball hawking ability, you know, these are things that have to become core values and cultural within your program and become standards on defense. And we're seeing massive progress that way. Now, are we still missing run fits? Yes. Are we still blowing coverages? Yes. But I would bet if you went down to Tuscaloosa, they're doing the same thing.

I bet you if you went to Oxford, they're doing the same thing. In this part of camp with this amount of information installed that they're getting, there's naturally going to be some mess up. So what you're looking for is more up in the clouds, 30,000 feet. What is the culture identity of the defense? And we're seeing more progress, but we got to go prove it, man. We haven't proved anything.

So I think there's kind of that healthy chip on our shoulder that, hey, we got to continue to improve every day so that we can prove that what was represented last year at the UAB football will never be represented again.

Coach, we know that offensively we've had you in here. You guys are going to be more than multiple. You're going to do a lot. But Greg and I have found it interesting looking at things, talking to people, hearing what people are saying, how a lot of offensive football is sort of coming full circle. More tight ends. A couple people talking about fullbacks again. Hell, I saw I-Formation in the NFL preseason last week. Vegas lined up in the I had Brock Bowers at fullback. And so...

Is this something that may be going to be a little bit a part of what you guys are doing? Some would call it old school. I talked to a defensive coach in the league the other day about this, and he said, I've never coached my guys against I-formation. They wouldn't even know how to fit it. They've never seen it.

Yeah, 21, 22, 13, 14, all these personnel groupings are difficult for defenses because everything's nickel-based these days. Also, depth. It's hard to find three really good linebackers to put base on the field. Defensive linemen have become more laterally and, you know, went at the line of scrimmage instead of two-gap oriented. There

There's reasons to run a lot of things. As much as I love you guys, I'm not going to divulge everything we're going to do. I've always said we want to be an offense that ruins your practice, ruins your sideline. We want to be able to do a lot of stuff. We want to be able to be very multiple. We want to be good at those things. We don't just do them to do them. We're practicing a lot of different things. You don't just do them to do them. If we're not good at those things, we're not going to do them.

If you're good at 11, run 11. If you're good at 10, run 10. If you're good at 12, run 12. The challenge is how many things can you be good at? How many personnel groupings can you be good at? And I think that's the, in fact, that's the message in about three minutes to my offense is, hey guys, you know, we've made progress, but I wouldn't say we're great at anything yet.

Love it coach. Great stuff. We're looking forward to visiting with you each week this year. Definitely not trying to get you to divide, dive old game plan. So I don't know what your problem is. Well, Greg, behind the scenes, we can go, you know, sneak out to Birmingham or Vestavia and I might be able to give you some secrets. That sounds like a really good plan. We'll just draw it up on a scorecard. That sounds like a great play. I,

Are you even able... I got a text yesterday from a random reporter saying, I'm writing a story about all the coaches' golf games in the sport. I'm like...

Why now? Don't do it now. Do it April. Don't do it now because we don't need these coaches being thinking about their handicap. You guys are deep in camp mode right now. We can't be talking about golf. The same reporter reached out to me and you played. I'm not that good anymore, but I'm still exponentially better than any other coach in America. I,

That's what I told him. I'm like, look, I've played with a lot of these guys. Nobody wants Trent. Nobody. I told our coaches meeting for the American Conference at Media Days. We're all sitting around having a pop, talking some ball. Golf came up. I looked at Kevin Wilson. I said, listen, I'll play all of your best balls and I'll still whoop all your asses.

And I'm not going to lie. I might take that bet. Like there's only two other guys that are within striking distance. One is Hugh freeze. The other is Jason candle. When I've been told, I don't know about his game, but I know that freeze can play, but he's you're giving him at least three aside, at least. Oh gosh. I've given him three. I decided to strip it. I mean, he knows that. Love it. Great stuff as always, man. Look forward to catching up next week.

Appreciate you guys. There you go. Trent Dilfer joining us on the buyer's right hotline, where all the guests appear for your insurance, financial and HR needs. It's buyer's right insurance, a Higginbotham partner. I love that quote there, Greg, we want to be an offense that ruins your practice and your sideline, essentially forcing you to work on things that you haven't seen, which is going to waste probably your fundamental time, your individual time, some of your team time. And then two, when you get into a game and it's causing confusion, commotion, uh,

and panic, your sideline obviously is going to be scrambling. So it's like, like you said, then you have to make a decision of how much of that can we actually get good at. But I love the philosophy of just trying to say, we're going to try to ruin you before we even come down to competing mentally. If we can, if we can affect you before it even gets going, we're going to have a big advantage. I think so. And I like they, Hey, you got to prepare for a lot when you're playing against Trent and UAB, you got to prepare for a lot of different looks.

They might not have superior personnel in some cases for sure, but they're going to get you thinking. And that's a challenge. And if you can get big guys, strong, athletic, fast guys to play a touch slower and a touch lighter because they're trying to look and think,

It's really helpful. So it's a good start, I think. Absolutely. All right. Great stuff with Trent Dilfer. You can get great stuff at Royal Automotive. They want you to experience how car buying should be. Four Royal-owned dealerships in one location. Selection savings unmatched. Royal, only place to find over 19 unique truck and SUV options in one spot. Right now, get up to $14,000 off select 2024 GMC Sierra models. 0.9% financing on 2024 Volkswagen Atlas, Atlas Cross Sport, and

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There's Royal. When we come back, we'll hear from Kane Womack, Alabama defensive coordinator, some of his thoughts on yesterday's practice next on Mac and Cube in the morning. The capital of the sports talk nation. This is Jocks 94.5 and Jocks FM.com. Hurry hand. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. Pretty big news made in Knoxville yesterday, 734 a.m. Wednesday, August 14th, Jocks 94.5.

A pilot sponsorship for the stadium there in Tennessee, still going to be called Neyland stadium, but pilot going to be branded with some of the renovations that are being done, have an on-field logo. A sponsorship is going to go for 20 years. 20. So a little bit further than Pitbull's sponsorship down there at FIU, 20 year sponsorship from pilot.

20. Logo on the field. Saw it yesterday. It's not that bad. Okay. I didn't think it was that bad. It's not like it's, you know. If I'm pilot giving that kind of money, I want the end zone. If you get whatever sponsorship you want, what do you? I would uncheckerboard the end zone and have the pilot logo across the entire. Pilot one side, flying J the other. I think that'd be a popular decision. Don't care. If I'm giving you 20 million a year, I get what I want. Sorry. He's not wrong.

Have you seen gas prices? Or. 20 is a drop in the bucket. Or in the middle of every orange and white, there's a pilot logo. So you can da-da-da-da-da. Oh, that'd be good. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that would work. I don't have any problems with that. Don't take my check then. It's that easy. Probably wouldn't. To be honest with you, you wrote me a $20 million check. I'm not sure it's going to work out good for either of us. We're both going to get $30 overdraft fees. But either way, you know that family is not going to.

They're going to respect the name, respect the stadium, which I think is really cool. But that's a massive infusion of cash for Tennessee moving forward and a deal that we haven't really seen yet in the SEC as far as logos on the field. Haven't seen a lot around college football. How long until Yellowwood's on Jordan Harris' field? Not long. I mean, something. I would imagine. Apple? You don't think Tim's feeling it? I think a lot of us wish. He's more of a Duke guy.

I'm not saying that. No. Definitely an Auburn guy, but I'm not sure. Duke too. Not everybody is all in on NIL. You don't say. It's okay. It's fine. They ain't getting a bunch of my paycheck. I can tell you that. Or any of it. I got scars. I paid my dues. I paid brain sales. I paid in surgeries. My left leg don't work because of that place. No, seriously.

I wouldn't contribute to NIL, but that's my personal opinion. I played for free, so it's hard for me to pay guys to do what I did for free. I'm sorry. I just can't. I have a hard time with that. But it has to happen. I'm not saying it's not a necessary evil. I'm just saying I'm not going to participate. That's how it works today. If you are looking to feel a little bit better because of some surgery, Game Day Men's Health can help.

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all right there at game day men's health they can help you get there and they offer a minimal upfront cost for the programs that they offer so just go to gamedaymenshealth.com right now and do it on your phone if you're sitting at a red light gamedaymenshealth.com see how they can help you feel better each and every day moving forward all right uh kane womack alabama defensive coordinator uh feeling pretty good uh about his group thoughts on his group in the first scrimmage from over the weekend you

You know, I thought early on, I thought the offense did a really good job. We've challenged our guys to be able to respond early in games. That's hard for a defense because when you think about it, an offense is working all week long, right? They've got a game plan. They've got, you know, whatever they want to call it. Usually people call it their openers or their starters, right? And so they've got, you know, their first eight to ten plays of the game that they really feel good about and honed in on.

The challenge for a defense, but also an opportunity, is if we can limit them in the first drive of the game, it creates a little bit of doubt in their mind, the things that they've been working all week long. But I thought our offense did a really good job in that. I thought our defense responded immediately after. I thought our tackling was just okay. We're running to the ball.

Probably as good as I've seen since we've been here. But I think overall, from a tackling standpoint, those are things that you've got to get better at from scrimmage one to scrimmage two. So it's going to improve. It's going to get better. Number one, Greg, you're going to allow your guys to do more.

You're not going to be sitting in base. You're not going to be playing one or two coverages. I mean, the playbook, the understanding, what you allow guys to do is going to expand across the course of camp. So that in and of itself is going to change. 100%. And I like a lot kind of their whole approach to, hey, this is kind of how we got it. We got to start fast. I know that's always – every coach says that. I understand that. But more specifically, because of the scripting done by offense,

Like you're going to put your best stuff in, in the first 10 plays. Like no doubt about it. First eight, 10, 12 Sark scripts is first 30. Some people do less. Some people do more. It's just dependent on how comfortable you feel with the plan. So I think it's nice to know that they're putting a huge premium on not just getting a fast start, but,

But trying to disrupt that rhythm to cause that doubt, I think that's 100% real. When you go 3-0 on the first drive, it's the worst feeling in the world. Literally the worst feeling in the world. It's not fun. It happens. But he's 100% right in putting a premium on spending time in those areas. Secondary is a place that you've said you've had some concerns. Kane Womack yesterday just on the development of that position thus far through fall camp. I think Moe Lindquist does a tremendous job.

From a technical standpoint, he's one of the best teachers that I have seen. I think those guys are very fundamentally sound. Even those young freshmen, they don't look like freshmen out there in terms of what they're doing from a fundamental perspective in their footwork, their hand placement.

Very detailed, very organized, and very intentional about their individual time. And I think it's showing up in practice right now. What I'm excited probably to see is some of those younger players are playing with anticipation. You know, defense is inherently reactionary, right? So the offense comes out in a personnel formation, whatever, and we react to whatever those things are. But if you can say under this personnel and that formation on third and sixth,

Right now, it's either going to be this or it's going to be that. Now we can play with anticipation. I think the corners are leaning into that right now. The anticipation portion of that, why does that take longer to come for a DB? Just because you're so cognizant. I've never played Divas Back at a high level, but you're so cognizant about what could be coming. You need to be able to anticipate things.

As opposed to reacting. And I think that's tough. Like it's, it's helpful to say, all right, Hey, it's, it's third and nine. They're probably going to run something two yards past the sticks. Like I need to anticipate based on down a distance, what their tendencies are. And that's hard when you're just focused so exclusively on what your role is within the scheme. It's hard to think about what's going on situationally. It's just like any other position. Like as a quarterback, you treat third and seven different than you treat second and two.

But I'm not sure that other positions outside of quarterback are thinking about situation as much.

the quarterback at the coach might be. So that's, I think a challenge, but it's, that's all part of the growth process. That's asking a lot of those guys to be honest with you. No, absolutely. All right. So I get to a break, come back, talk to Eric McLean about the Clemson Tigers next on Mac and cube in the morning. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than a,

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. Welcome back to Macro and Kubrick in the morning, Wednesday, August 14th, 746 a.m. right here on Jocks 94.5. Phil Smith Buick, GMC, is the GMC dealer of the year, the seven-time national champion. They've won four years in a row. Go and check them out on the short drive up to Coleman, I-65,

Exit 310. You'll see what I'm talking about. The inventory they have on the lot is ridiculous. I'm a repeat customer, just like 75% of their business, because you have a better experience when you shop with Bill Smith. Go see for yourself and check out the GMC Sierra 1500 SLTC 71 4x4. This thing's loaded. $6,000.

67,860 is the list price. Take $12,500 off. You get it for $55,360. You just won't find that deal anywhere else. You're literally costing yourself money if you don't shop at Bill Smith's. Take the short drive up to Coleman. You can also shop online. Have it delivered right to your driveway at BillSmithBuickGMC.com. Eric McLean, former Clemson Tiger, now with the ACC Network. Joining us, Clemson be our team of the day. Will they make the college football playoff? We'll spend more time on it in the next hour and give you that final answer then.

You were recently, though, in Blacksburg. Before we get to Clemson, I just want one quick thought from you on Virginia Tech because I feel like the thought on the Hokies going into this season is almost all over the place. How much confidence do you have in them maybe being an ACC contender this year? Yeah, good morning, guys. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure to jump on with you. But the Hokies look good, man. You know, when you have that much production coming back, we saw the –

you know, abilities that they were able to really unleash on offense once Kyron Drones became the guy. You know, he's been a full starter now. And, you know, Greg, you know how important that is just for leadership perspective, for someone to look to, the team to look to for an entire offseason, entire spring, fall camp. There's no questions. There's no competition. He's the guy. And

I think the biggest focal point I had for him was working on his short to intermediate and how much better could he get there. And it looked really clean. Now it's practice, and we'll see when they line up in Nashville week one. But they looked fast. They looked like they had body types. Just things that I haven't seen in Blacksburg in a handful of years now. What do you make right now of Clemson? A lot of buzz about Clemson.

The offense rolling some folks in the preseason. Not what I expected, to be honest. We thought the defense would be elite. Is this more a testament to the offense being maybe better than we thought? Or is it more concerning about potentially the lack of depth on the edges defensively and what they might have in the front seven?

Yeah, well, I'll give you a much better answer if we want to do this again Tuesday morning. I'll be with the Tigers Sunday and Monday, so I'll get to see them in person and really get a much better feel and opinion with my own kind of eyes there. Here's the deal. I think receiver has been a position that folks have been kind of clamoring for, right? Like Clemson went on such a run

of just having these monsters, you know, at the wide receiver position, first round draft picks, early second round draft picks, very impactful guys. And, you know, for, for these handful of years, kind of along with lackluster quarterback play, there's been a lot of injuries in that room and guys not being able to step up.

Clemson feels great right now with where they are at wide receivers. Two five-stars that came in think that they're going to have an impact very quickly. But Tyler Brown, Antonio Williams, you know, Stilato, these guys are all healthy and ready to go. Adam Randall, big-time guy, 6'3", 230 pounds. I mean, he's like a glorified H-back, DK Metcalf out there, you know, with his size and ability. Easy.

Yeah, size, man, size, body types, body types. Come on, Cole. But when you look at these guys, I think the offensive line is going to be improved. I think the running game with Phil Moffa is going to be exceptional. It's just going to come down to how much growth do we see in year two of a starting quarterback in Cade Klubnick. And again, we're so quick, myself included, we're so quick to, if a guy's not an All-American his first year, start and get rid of him. Go on to the next. We forget that

It takes time and it's hard to immediately be put into a situation, especially quarterback and have this unbelievable, perfect success right away. I think Clemson is going to be just fine. Are we, are we putting too much on him though? And I, I mean, listen, you said Clemson with, with the wide receiver run, I'd go tight ends too, but I mean, you had Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson, like the, I mean, most teams when they get going, there's a guy pulling the trigger. That's pretty legit, but,

It feels like there's more on Klubnik than there is on a lot of quarterbacks at a lot of other places of whether or not Clemson can be in contention to go to the college football playoff. Yeah, I think it is fascinating. But that's part of Clemson's own doing, right? They had so much success at the quarterback position with really young quarterbacks kind of immediately in their careers. And so I think that's just...

you know, it's part of it when you have this unbelievable run that Clemson had there capturing, you know, two national championships and playing in a handful of others. And fair, not fair, Cole? I mean, it's never fair, right? None of the scrutiny that we put on these kids is,

is ever fair, but that's kind of the world that we're getting to. And the more of a business this becomes, the more scrutiny that's going to come, the more money that's involved, all these different things. But I do think that you're right. For whatever reason, it does seem like you can look around the preseason top 15, and for whatever reason, that Tiger Paul gets the most scrutiny, and that quarterback in particular, for what he is going to and have to be responsible for.

I'm not sure Clemson gets the most scrutiny, but that's, we can, we can have that debate at another point. Maybe that's my bias ACC Sean. Well, maybe Florida state gets it too. Those two teams. Yeah. That's a hundred percent. Yeah. Nobody else ever falls under anyone's criticism. No one's program ever gets dismantled after a loss ever. Uh, what about Miami? Um,

I'm real bullish on them. I think if we just remove the lack of trust that they have in the court of public opinion, their roster can go with anybody. Now they got to stay healthy and they're going to get young in a hurry in certain spots, but there's a lot of reason to be optimistic. What do you think that group's going to be?

Yeah, sorry about that. I don't think there's any question about that, man, and I'm bullish on them too. And having seen them in person, it makes you feel even better because it's just things that you think, things that you hear. We trust our eyes better than anybody, right? When we can see it in person, we can see what they look like, things of that nature. And I think the biggest difference for me with Miami is obviously quarterback. I mean, I think that guy's dynamic.

as they've had in a long time and what he can do with his legs, what he can do with his arms. You know, people will say Derek King, and I think he was fantastic, but this guy is smoother, faster, bigger, you know, at the end of the day. And I think that's really going to translate. But the biggest difference, you know, to me is they're going to be able to control both lines of scrimmage. And I don't know when the last time that they were able to do that. Top of the

That offensive line is massive. You're talking about average 6'5", 330. I mean, you got Francis Maui Noah at the right tackle position, 6'6", 340, 15% body fat. I mean, it's freaky when you see the size and the just NFL body types that you see offensively.

along that often to line jaylen rivers the other tackle you know six six three thirty and you have a a four pack it's just it's different you know it's different than what they've looked like in a really long time when you look at the depth at the defense of line position defense event they made some portal addition have some five stars that are just going to be sitting waiting in the wings for their opportunity uh... but i i think that's the biggest difference they're gonna be able to bloody people's noses

and really play big boy football on both the defense and offensive line. Eric, great stuff. We appreciate the time. Always good catching up, and we'll do it again soon. No doubt. Appreciate you guys. Have a great show. All right. Appreciate you. Eric McLean with the ACC Network ESPN joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline for all your insurance, financial, HR needs. Buyer's Right Insurance, a Higginbotham partner. So Clemson will be our team of the day. We will select one team each and every day.

Going into the college football season, will they make the college football playoff? There's a lot to discuss. There's a lot of interest with sort of what they have, what they don't have, what they might have when you're talking about this Clemson football team. So we'll get to that a little bit in our next hour. First, I'll tell you about our friends at Wayne's. Obviously, you've got to have the mosquito protection this time of year. If you're going to be outside in your yard,

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Got some injury news around the SEC that we need to discuss. A certain captain no longer going to be showing up. A lot to talk about the rest of the show. Keep it locked right here on jocks94.5, jocksfm.com, where you can listen online. The app is in your app store. And just tell that home smart speaker to enable the jock skill or listen to jocks. Clemson Breakdown next on Mac and Cube in the morning. This is McElroy and Cubelik in the morning. It's time for Bob's Dare to Compare. You get styled.

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