Andy & Ari On3 - Can Georgia Actually 3-Peat? | Kirby Smart Joins the Show | Can Hugh Freeze Flip the Script?

Episode Date: July 19, 2023

0:00-21:27 Andy and Jesse Simonton point out just how difficult it is to win three consecutive national titles in college football and then handicap whether 2023 Georgia can win its third consecutive title. The schedule is favorable, but will it prepare the Bulldogs for potential matchups against Alabama, LSU, Ohio State or Michigan?21:28-26:30 Georgia coach Kirby Smart joins the show to talk about pickleball, the crazy retention (and contribution) rate of the 2021 recruiting class and focusing on the process instead of the outcome. He also answers this question: Would coach Kirby Smart sign recruit Kirby Smart to play on this Georgia team?26:31-40:40 Andy and Jesse break down Auburn coach Hugh Freeze’s appearance at SEC Media Days. Can Freeze — who had to go heavy in the transfer portal to build the roster — flip the script on the Plains?40:41-54:23 SEC director of officials John McDaid talks about the big change to the clock rules as well as a smaller change spurred by a call in the Kentucky-Missouri game last year.54:24-59:47 Mississippi State tailback Jo’quavious “Woody” Marks explains how he got that nickname and how his role changes in a very different offense in Starkville.59:47-1:01:16 In honor of Woody’s visit, Andy celebrates some of the great nicknames in college football.

Welcome to Andy Staples on 3 here at SEC Media Days in Nashville. Jesse Simonson joining me. Day 2. Day 2. But we're talking about the number 3, as in the 3-peat, that the Georgia Bulldogs would like to accomplish. Except, here's the problem, Jesse. That doesn't happen very often.

It's really hard. It is. It's really hard. It's crazy, though, because on paper, in a vacuum, if we just forgot that Georgia won the last two national titles, we'd look at it and we'd go, yeah, this team probably should win again. This team should win a national title this year or should coast into the playoffs because of a schedule.

Yeah, I mean, when you have a schedule that's got favorite cupcakes from your local bakery, I mean, that's the schedule that Georgia's looking at right now. No Oklahoma. It was supposed to be Oklahoma, but there was a little snafu of taking Oklahoma into the league and going, wait, we don't want one of those to be a non-conference and one of those to be a conference game, so let's just not do that.

And honestly, that's a good clarification for, well, why is Alabama and Texas still playing each other? Well, they're finishing that home and home, whereas Oklahoma and Georgia will be starting it. But, yeah, I mean, just to say on the surface Georgia is the preseason favorite to win a third straight national championship is actually a historical absurdity to actually say out loud. Minnesota was the last program to do it.

I know you're probably assuming it was Ohio State or Oklahoma or Alabama. Take that to your favorite local Jeopardy. It was the Gophers, don't you know. And it happened in 1936. Gone with the wind, hadn't been made yet. So this is

what Georgia is up against. History, probability. As far as these things go, it feels like they are pretty well set up. But, again, what— Probably the best since the team that you were on since Nebraska in the 90s. I was not on the Nebraska team. I was on the Florida team.

No, on the Florida team that ruined Nebraska's— Well, that's the thing. I think everybody who had played the year before against Nebraska in the national title game, the older guys, I think they looked at that and were like, I probably don't want to see Nebraska again. That was not a great matchup. And that team, that Nebraska team, was coming off 94 and 95.

The 95 Nebraska team, one of the most dominant national championship teams that you will ever see, and that 96 Nebraska team was really good too, but they had the misfortune of just happened to have scheduled Arizona State in Tempe that year. It was a great Arizona State team, Jake Snake Plummer, which wound up, by the way, also factoring into the national title picture in the 96 season. And then they lose that game. They weren't out of it yet, but then they go play in this new thing called the Big 12 Championship Game.

And they're playing against Texas, and it was kind of a middling Texas team, but they had a quarterback named James Brown. They made a very daring fourth down call, a play called Roll Left, and that's why James Brown is now forever known as the Godfather of Roll. Not the Godfather of Soul? No, Godfather of Roll, famous in Texas and Florida Gators lore. That's a good nickname for a show that's going to tease some nicknames. That's exactly right, and he is going to knock Nebraska out of that.

And so that Nebraska team, had they gone to the Fiesta Bowl that year and played Florida State, there's a good chance they could have won that national title. And that team would have won four in a row because they ended up getting a piece of 97's national title too. But you've got them. The history lesson, I would say, yeah, is the two that I have more reticence with would be the famed USC teams.

Now, that one was a split title, but still. I think if there was a four-team playoff in 2003, you could make a very good case for USC winning that national title. LSU and Oklahoma, I think, would have had problems with USC the way it was playing at the end of that season. USC mowed everybody down in 04 but they lost straight up to Texas in 05 I don't think if there had been a 14 playoff they still would have had to beat that Texas team maybe they would have but maybe they wouldn't have

yeah and I mean Vince Young was obviously insane and then obviously uh the the Alabama team that attempted to do it was the kick six. Yes. And I think if that – Let's say they win that game. Let's say the kick six doesn't happen. Do they win the playoffs? Do they – well, even if it was BCS,

that Florida State team that won the national title that year would have been a really fun game against Alabama. And Florida State could have won that game. Loaded with defensive pros. Jameis Winston at quarterback. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and honestly, to circle it back to Georgia, I think that Alabama team, the kick-six team,

probably is the most apt in terms of Alabama really wasn't challenged until the kick-six. Yeah. And so you lose a heartbreaker. You don't have a chance to three-peat. Could that be how Georgia stumbles their toe this year? It's funny because we talk about Nick Saban only repeating once, and that was 2011 and 2012.

But let's remember, they also won in 2009. That 2010 team. Which came back loaded. Had an incredible. Think about this. You had Mark Ingram coming off a Heisman Trophy. You still had Julio Jones. You still had Dante Hightower.

You had Marcel Darius. You had all of these people that wound up being great NFL players. You had Barrett Jones, who would go on to win the Outland Trophy. Loaded. That team lost three games. You had Les Miles eating grass at LSU, that game. Then they go and Stephen Garcia in South Carolina beat them. And then I think the South Carolina game was actually first.

I think the LSU lost the second. And then the cam back, same year. Cam Newton coming back from, I mean, it looked like they were completely dead in the first half. Cam Newton just single-handedly dominating to win a national championship. But that's what can happen is I do wonder in 2010, if we were sitting at SEC Media Days, if podcasts were a thing that existed, I don't know if they were.

YouTube shows definitely didn't exist, even though YouTube existed. Would we have been like, oh, there's no question Alabama repeats here? Well, again, I mean, it's absurd. We're talking about something that hasn't happened in almost 90 years in this sport. We're out here talking about three-peats, the Chicago Bulls, the Los Angeles Lakers, the New York Yankees. None of these Georgia players were even born during that. No, no.

Pat Riley trademarked three-peat a lot before these guys were a twinkle in anyone's eye. So it is truly amazing when you think about it. So the idea that they could win a third national title seems almost impossible when you think about it that way. But then when you just look at how things lay out, it seems quite possible. Yeah, well, first you take their schedule. Obviously, outside of the Tennessee game in Knoxville in November, I'm not sure there'll be less than even a 10-point favorite in any of those games. Then you look at the roster.

They probably have a top five or top ten unit nationally wide receiver tight end offensive line best defensive line best secondary and one of the best linebacking cores right kirby smart you're gonna hear from him later in this show in an interview with andy you know he kind of discussed the covid baby class and that's this 2021 class that's amazing they didn't get to go visit campuses couldn't take official visits so they had to send in videos they had to send in workout videos and examples well Georgia 17 of those 20 guys are still on the roster yeah would be 18 if A.D. Mitchell who's got a touchdown on every single one of their playoff wins he's a Texas didn't have to go to Texas because his daughter

to be closer to his daughter. And George also did take Missouri's best receiver and Mississippi State's best receiver out of the portal. For sure. But that's just an absurd hit rate. Yeah, it is. It's pretty amazing. And I'm going to run down. Oh yeah, go down the list.

This is incredible. It's an absurd hit. This is one thing to say, they all stayed. They're stay still on the roster they are contributing mightily yeah you're talking about marius mims who's a starting right tackle both you're starting inside linebackers dumas johnson and smile munden your star cornerback in kamari lassiter who's here the best tight end in the country and brock bowers who's here javon Bullard one of the better safeties Ingram Dawkins starting defensive lineman Chaz Chambliss starting Sam Linebacker and then the rest of the guys are all guys on the two deep yeah I mean that right there it's you know yes you can point to Georgia's recruiting for their success obviously the the resources and their investment in that program

but Kirby used a word today that I think probably should get more reticence around here is retention, staff retention, player retention. That could be the difference. Yeah, and I go back to Clemson. I blanket on which years it was. I did this when I was at SI. There was a four-year period, four recruiting cycles, where Clemson lost seven total players to attrition.

Like, so guys who were not playing, guys who got kicked off the team, all that. Everybody else who left exhausted their eligibility or went to the NFL early. Like, that is the kind of thing you do when you're creating national title teams. And that did encompass national titles at Clemson as well. And it's hard to do. It's hard to create that level of culture where everybody wants to stay unless they're playing or unless they're not playing. The guys who aren't playing, they leave.

Everybody else stays, and that's what George has had. Now, Amarius Mims, you mentioned, is an interesting one because he went in the portal for a minute. Not this past offseason, but the one before. Dipped his toes. It looked like he was going to go to Florida State. And then basically somebody convinced him, hey, you can still be a high-round draft pick at Georgia.

You do not have to start for three years at Georgia to be a high-round draft pick. You might only have to start one year to be a high-round draft pick at Georgia, you do not have to start for three years at Georgia to be a high-round draft pick. You might only have to start one year to be a high-round draft pick. Yeah, come in and start a couple college football playoff games and then start the next dozen games in 2023. So let's – if they don't three-peat, what are some of the hurdles, challenges? I think we both agree maybe it's not a game against an Auburn or Kentucky in the SEC. It's what happens if you lose a coin flip game to Ohio State? What happens if Michigan suddenly does what

they've spent this whole offseason with a beat Georgia play in their practice? What if one of those two teams does end up you know catching you well and i think that's the interesting part because as we sit here that sounds like a lot has to happen we're not even talking about a three-peat if ohio state's defense gets one more stop in the peach bowl that's how close that was. Yeah, the margins are super thin. Yeah. When you get in a game like that, you have to be great. And so they're going to see somebody like that, whether it's in the playoff against Ohio State,

perhaps in the playoff against Michigan. But there's a name we haven't mentioned yet, and it always comes back at SEC Media Days to this guy. Old Nicky Saban? Nick Saban, that's right. We have not mentioned Alabama yet in this discussion, but obviously Alabama's there, LSU's there, Brian Kelly, he's taken teams to the playoff before.

He took a team to the SEC Championship game last year. I got the sense from listening to Brian Kelly yesterday, though, that he doesn't necessarily think they are as deep as Alabama or Georgia and maybe not ready for that spot yet. I've got to say those comments are giving me a little reticence, Andy. I may be coming closer to your swinging back towards the tie. To the tie? I just think that he spent so much of this offseason glowing in the

basket beating alabama they did beat alabama do you think you got you got to cash in on that like that doesn't always happen so you got to cash in do you think some of it do you think some of his uh tap breaking or break tapping however you want to say it it's because there's like two other national champions on lsu's campus right now and he's like whoa we don't want to I think it's a matter of managing expectations when you do beat Alabama and you make the SEC championship game I think the SEC championship game gave you a very good picture of where LSU is as a national title contender as they had about three touchdowns short right they'll they can get there like I don't think they're that far off i think maybe a recruiting class or so away from the depth that you need but it seems like he's just managing

expectations trying to be realistic alabama on the other hand is deep enough we are not sure about their quarterback situation we don't know what that's going to look like we do know they're loaded on defense we do know they'll have a pretty good offensive line. And we should learn. Some great backs. We probably will learn tomorrow how optimistic, I guess, we should be about Alabama's quarterback situation, depending on what Nick says. Yeah, it'll be interesting reading his. It's going to be reading in between the lines.

You always have to read between the lines. It's going to be nothing that he says verbatim. It's more of kind of how he kind of presents that situation. Here's a hypothetical, though, with the tide. Because of Georgia's just absurdly silly schedule, if they do slip up once. Alabama will be much more tested. Let's say Alabama gets to Atlanta. They'll be much more tested when they get to Atlanta.

Georgia will be playing the first team like this it has seen. If they slip up and lose to Alabama in the SEC championship game, do they get the Alabama break? Benefit of the doubt. Benefit of the doubt that Bama got in 2017. Obviously, Georgia got that same benefit of the doubt two years ago, but they had a couple other nice wins on the resume. This year, there is no splattering of Oregon in week one that makes you say,

I think that's going to depend on what happens elsewhere. Obviously, the Big Ten champ is going to be in the playoff, whether that's Ohio State, Michigan, maybe Penn State. Penn State's got some dudes this year. Some folks seem to think Drew O'Leary could be the future. Right. So you've got that pot. That's probably a spot taken.

As we're hypothesizing here, if Alabama wins the SEC, that's another spot taken. So that's two more spots. What if there's a really good big 12 champ i think they're gonna eat each other what i do too it's possible but here's another one this is the deepest pack 12 we've seen in years the idea is they'll probably cannibalize each other what if they don't what if one is so hot you know so far above the others that it winds up 13-0? And I think in terms of teams that can compete for that title, USC, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, Washington.

They're all in that mix. I think if we're talking about teams that could go 13-0, USC, maybe Oregon. And then in your scenario, the irony is that in your scenario, it's not even necessarily a... But then they take a spot. Right.

They take a spot. It's not necessarily they could beat Georgia or are better than Georgia, but they would take that spot. Let me tell you. Tell me if this is a hot take. Because I think you have a good hot take barometer. Okay. All right.

Georgia loses the SEC championship game to either alabama or lsu i think they have a greater odds of actually becoming the first team since the gophers to three pete because i don't think this georgia team would lose twice this year no i don't think they'd lose again so you know it would be a matter of them getting getting in getting shut out would be take? It would be a matter of them getting in. Getting shut out would be the question there, would be the problem because of the rest of your resume. And you think the playoff field would actually leave the two-time?

No, I don't unless you had undefeated Big 12 champ, undefeated Pac-12 champ. And a spoiler, like Clemson or Florida State. Clemson's the other one we didn't mention. And that's the thing. Well, Florida State's a good example. What if Florida State beats LSU, races through the ACC, or even loses to Clemson in the regular season but avenges it? All of a sudden, that's a possibility.

So that's the part that could stop them. If we're talking about this a year from now and they were to lose that game, you don't worry about it. They're getting in. And then somebody's got to beat them. Isn't that hilarious where that program's at? That we're now saying that, like, their over-under win or loss total this year is probably still half a game.

Yes. I mean, like, they're not going to lose twice. Yeah, their season total is 11-1⁄2, and I'm pretty sure there's more juice on under. But I'm even saying, yeah, for the entire, just, it's. It is. It tells where they are, and it tells you that they have supplanted Alabama as the Darth Vader in the country.

Now, that may piss you off if you're an Alabama fan. I guarantee you Nick Saban is using that with his players. Like, we joke about what are the ohio state players saying and coaches saying that that michigan is is doing the beat georgia drill instead of the beat ohio drill like what are the alabama people saying about that like well i don't know what happened to we want bama where'd that go where did that well you know what we may find that out we're gonna find that out now you still don't want bama can i just just throw that out there yeah i mean this is nick saban is still got his fastball the man just landed historically uh

yeah the highest rate numbers wise the best recruiting class i got a little pushback from from our folks on my my statement yesterday oh wait is the greatest they didn't like julio versus jalen waddle... 2017 is pretty strong. It is pretty good. It's Alex Leatherwood, Dylan Moses, Tua. Jedrick Wills. Oh, and Mac Jones. Yeah, you're going down the list

and find the 517th ranked player in the country that year, Mac Jones, who was a Heisman finalist in a first-round draft pick. Well, you know, and now Georgia's racked up some of those recent classes. We're going to be talking about that, maybe with the Kobe baby class. Maybe with the Kobe baby class, with the class two years ago, with the record 15 NFL draft picks.

It was interesting that Kirby didn't get a ton of questions today about kind of the off-the-field stuff. And I think it's because you can kind of separate Georgia's quote-unquote cultural issue in terms of their speeding problem with the fact that they clearly don't have a bunch of guys transferring because they do have this retention where guys have bought in to eat off the floor. What was their mantra today was better never rest.

Well, and look at what they've been able to do because it's not just do you get players drafted, it's where do you get players drafted. Their players are being drafted very high. Like their median draft position is higher than everybody else's right now. So it pays to wait around. Urban Meyer had that going at Ohio State for a long time. Like remember, there was a several-year period at Ohio State

where some guy who was a special teams ace in the fifth DB would start at corner for a year and be a first-rounder. They had that rolling for a while. That feels like what Georgia's got going on. And Ohio State fans are now screaming at Andy saying, that's what we're trying to get back to him. I know. I know.

And he only got one national title out of all that too. That's what. So, but it is really about who they're bringing in, the fact that they're staying. And the reward for staying is a high draft pick. That's why they're willing to roll the dice and stay instead of all hit the portal. Yeah, and two of the guys that are here today are guys that have developed and become – they were not five stars.

Brock Bowers was a highly rated kid, but not a five star. Kamari Lasseter, not a five star. And they've developed where you see their name on these early 2024 NFL draft picks and they're, oh, that's a day one guy. That's a day one guy. They're going to have more first-rounders this year. That train isn't stopping anytime soon. When we come back,

we'll hear Kirby Smart talking about that COVID baby class, and also, would this Kirby Smart offer high school Kirby Smart a scholarship at Georgia now. We'll be right back. I'm here with Georgia coach Kirby Smart. Vacation almost over, but I hear the pickleball skill has greatly improved. I wouldn't say greatly improved. Really competitive. If anything, it's attributed to my weight loss, which is a good thing. I did get to play probably more pickle this offseason than I did last year. I really enjoy it. Me and my wife get to play it, but I'm not particularly good at it.

I'm guessing you're a nightmare, though, because of the competitiveness. I'm a nightmare for my partner. And now who's better, you or your wife? You know, that's interesting because if you measure it on a scale of where she ranks among women and where I rank among men, she's uber more talented. But if you just compare us as equals, she and I are probably about even. She's a big runner, so her stamina probably better than yours. I like to take breaks between points.

But you are an athlete. I've noticed the Keeley Ringo, no, no, no, no, yes, yes, yes interception in that national championship. You got off the ground. I was like, this man wasn't all SEC safety. That's right, and I was heavy carrying the high off the ground. So if you're creating the force to go vertical that high with that much weight, it's a good vertical lead. You might get offered by this Georgia team.

Maybe. No chance. No chance. Seriously, do you think you would have been offered by this talent level? No chance, because I would have been in charge of it. So if I'm the head coach, I'm not signing me. Really? No question.

Wow. Now, I've got to ask you this, because I've heard you answering questions today. You've gotten multiple three-peat questions, and you've actually answered them, which surprises me a little bit, because I know how you designed the mental architecture of your program. You wrote two books with Trevor Moad, so I understand the outcome process part. And you train these players not to think about outcomes, not to talk about outcomes. How do you deal with that when all they get from the outside is outcome? I think you keep going back to the narrative of better never rest.

It's not about a three-peat. It's not about an outcome. It's not about an opponent. It's about us, man. Yeah. And people say that all the time, like, oh, yeah, whatever, that's coach speak. And I'm like, no, it's real with us because we really believe that if we do what we do better, then we're going to beat who we play.

And if we can out-physical them at the point of attack, then we're going to beat who we play. And that's all we worry about is how we play. I was talking to Cedric Grandparent about this, and he said he thinks he always was that process-oriented, but he needed somebody to kind of unlock it. He needs somebody to tell him how to do that. That probably makes sense.

He's very process-oriented. He's a deep thinker. He's a very serious guy. He cares so much about the game, the team, the university, that he kind of wears his emotions on his sleeve. And you've got guys like that. Even Brock Bowers, who you said doesn't talk at all, he said, you know, Kirby says something, you do soft one time,

you're going to try to make sure it's never soft again. That's good. It means I at least got to him because Brock's hard to – he's hard to frustrate. Well, that's what he said. He said he gets a lot of soft Napa Valley stuff, but he can't tell anything about wine. So I asked him what pairs with a good cab. He said he doesn't know.

He doesn't have a clue. So you were talking about this COVID baby class. And Brock, you know, year after that, but also was one of the guys who couldn't take a lot of visits. I was talking to Will Muschamp about this last year, and he said you guys like these guys to see you practice, to see you work out, to understand how they're going to be coached. How is it that that group was so able to come in

and deal with the way they're going to be coached and the way you all work without that? I think the barometer for taking kids in that class was, hey, let's shoot out a video and sample and say, this is how we want you to work out. We want to see you do this workout. Okay. If kids took the time to actually set up a phone, video themselves doing these exercises, it meant they gave up enough to like really care inherently. Like a Javon Bullard pops in my head because he's out in his backyard because he couldn't go anywhere else. And he was setting up cones and doing drills.

And I'm like, this guy's in weeds out there doing the drills if he's willing to do this there's a good chance he's willing to fit our culture so basically that was the the test was a barometer yeah and most of the kids bought into that and said you know what i'll do it and i'll do it and i'll do it and you know they weren't stuck on their rankings it was a unique class have you used that sense where you got the visits back, but now can you give them homework and see if they do it? We really haven't and probably should, but most of them will say, well, I'll be there in June to work out for camp.

I'll be there, and you're coming to see me, Coach, in spring. You just watch me there. Less of the I'm going to go out and initiate it myself. It almost feels like when you go on the interview and they take you to lunch and they're really watching how you treat the weight staff. How you do anything is how you do everything. I'm telling you, that makes sense. It does.

It helped us. It helped us make some tough decisions without all the information we typically have. Well, you've got everybody now. I still don't believe you wouldn't sign yourself. I wouldn't sign myself. No chance. I'd give myself a walk-on. A preferred walk-on, maybe.

That's right. Not a crawl-on like Dabo says. That's right. Not like Muschamp, but not a PW myself. No chance. I'd give myself a walk-on. A preferred walk-on, maybe. That's right. Not a crawl-on like Dabo says. That's right. Not like Muschamp, but not a PWO. All right. Appreciate it, Kirby. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Welcome back. We're here at SEC Media Days. Jesse, we've got to talk about Auburn. Hugh Freeze was here talking about a team that probably will be unrecognizable to people who watched Auburn last year. And for many Tigers fans, they say thankfully so. Right, right. The Brian Harsin era did not go as anybody planned,

although I think a lot of the Auburn folks probably knew that from the beginning of it and knew they would be here at this point. But that doesn't make it any easier when Hugh Freese has to come in and completely revamp the roster yeah I think 40 some odd uh players are either in or out you know Hugh has been as of aggressive in the transfer portal um really you know he hasn't really Auburn's it's not like the roster reckoning that's happening you know uh in Colorado or Arizona State oh he was but it. But it is dramatic. He wasn't throwing everybody out.

There were people there that he liked and who can play. Yeah, but he still did identify both in the first window and certainly in the second spring window a ton of positions of need. And so Auburn hammered offensive line, hammered defensive line, linebacker. You're going to see transfers from Ole Miss, from Kentucky, from Florida International, from Western Kentucky, from Appalachian State. I mean, they really scoured. And don't forget Michigan State.

They got to maybe start a quarterback. Yeah, it is such a – I guess we should get used to this because there are going to be a lot of times when you have a first-year coach come in. USC, I guess, was a little like this last year, but it was such a different situation with Lincoln Riley kind of bringing his luggage, which was – it wasn't Louie. What's more expensive than Louie? Hermes?

You're talking over my head on that, but yeah. Not Samsonite. Really expensive luggage. Not Samsonite. So Hugh Freeze comes in from Liberty and has to overwork this roster. You go back to 2012 when Hugh Freeze took over at Ole Miss. That roster, probably in worse shape than this Auburn roster was when he got there, but no transfer rules to allow you to overhaul it as quickly as they have.

Yeah, and Hugh's going on this. He talked a lot today about he wants to flip the script. That's kind of his mantra this year. He's getting a lot of themes from these teams. You know, and I do think they can. I think a guy like Peyton Thorne raises their floor. Because, you know, Robbie Ashford, quarterback, a year ago, dynamic athlete, but he completed 49% of his passes, and he just,

they didn't have a passing game with a pulse. At least Thorne, 50-some-odd touchdowns in his career. He did help Michigan State, you know, lead them to that Rose Bowl two years ago. Not Rose Bowl. Not Rose Bowl. Excuse me. Peach Bowl. But 11-2 season.

I believe Kenneth Walker may have had something to do with that. And that's sort of the issue with the Peyton Thorne. Mel Tucker says thank you. Right. The Peyton Thorne thing, how much of that success, and Mel Tucker, same thing, was just they got lucky on Kenneth Walker in the transfer portal. Yeah, because their defense was terrible that year too, ironically.

I mean, the secondary was awful. And Kenneth Walker just single-handedly rolled them, willed them to those 11 wins. That'll be a question. Certainly when we talk Michigan State later this year, that'll come up a bunch. Yeah, and we'll find out. But Hugh Freeze is an interesting one because he got to the SEC the first time around at Ole Miss,

made them fairly competitive very quickly despite inheriting a terrible roster at the end of the Houston Nut era. Then they started getting talent, and then they started beating Alabama. They beat Alabama two years in a row. And you can say what you want about Chad Kelly throwing the ball up, not knowing it was going to hit anybody in the head, not knowing it was going to bounce to him for a touchdown. They beat Alabama two years in a row.

They did not have the level of talent Alabama had. So Hugh Freeze gives you a puncher's chance. What do you think? What do you think? You know, because you talked a little bit about this today. What do you think about Hugh not calling plays? Now he taught he in his appearances, you know, I thought it was kind of interesting that he said, you know, the guy in Tuscaloosa, the King Nick Saban,an and then another guy which I think he was alluding to Kirby Smart but I'm not exactly sure that they that he has gone and spent time with them kind of doing the coaching sort of you know that yeah you know how do you do this how do you scheme

this up and it's because he wasn't in the SEC anymore he could do that he could do that he feels like they know his secrets a little bit. And so Phillip Montgomery, former head coach at Tulsa, he is now actually going to be in charge. He's going to be at Baylor. Former OC at Baylor. For Art Bryles. And we talked about this yesterday. That offense used to be a secret.

Bryles was very secretive about it. It is not a secret anymore. I mean, Heupel's running his own version of it. In the SEC, Tennessee runs it. Ole Miss runs it. And now Auburn has hypo's running his own version of it tennessee runs it ole miss runs it and now auburn has somebody who's well versed in it and it's interesting because it is something that has been used in the past to to equalize talent gaps and then auburn because of the program it is can close that talent gap with a couple good recruiting classes, and then what's it going to look like?

Yeah, and again, huge short. I think the offensive line is going to be way better than it was a year ago. My concern for the Tigers would just be, you know, last year they might have had the worst wide receiver room in the SEC. How much better is it this year? Right. And we don't know, honestly. I would like to pretend that we have broken down the film

of every single person who transferred to Auburn, and we can tell you who's going to start and who's not. It would take a while. It's not. I don't know that Hugh Freeze could tell you exactly who his biggest contributors are right now. Well, one of the guys better be Brian Beatty, the running back from south florida and that's not because you know i think auburn if jarquess hunter is available might have one of the better one two punches but right now we don't

really know what's happening with that situation hugh could not comment on it it seems like it's an ongoing deal maybe a little more in the summer but you know they're gonna need beatty who rushed for a thousand yards last season to contribute whether Hunter's available or not, because I just don't think, even if Thorne is pretty good with the weapons they have out on the perimeter, I just think they're going to lean on the ground game. And the question is, what is this offense? Is it a marriage of what Montgomery's done in the past and what Hugh Freeze has done? Is it what Montgomery's done in the past and what Hugh Freeze has done? Is it what Montgomery's done? Because if it's closer to what Montgomery's done,

you can lean on the run game. That offense is designed to run for 400 yards a game if you're doing it right. Those wide splits, wide hashes give you a lot of space in the end. Exactly right. Ask Lane Kiffin. That's exactly what Lane Kiffin had to do last year when they couldn't get their passing game going. I think that's the part I'm fascinated by is we've seen Hugh Freeze do this

in a worse situation where he's made them competitive. So can he make Auburn a team that can scare an Alabama, scare a Georgia, can beat a Texas A&M? I don't know. Yeah, and this will change next year with the new schedule, the 2024 schedule with Texas and OU. But you're talking about an Auburn program that every year has to play Georgia and Alabama.

And they're still going to when they go to nine games because they will eventually go to nine games. Which we both are in the, they are so stupid that they did not do that in 2024 camp. They should have, but at least they didn't get rid of Tennessee, Alabama. Texas and Texas A&M. And Georgia, Auburn, those sorts of rivalries. But they play Cal this year, which is going to be like a funky game. And they open it.

Is that their opener? No, their opener is against UMass. Okay. And then they play Cal this year, which is going to be like a funky game? Yeah. And they open it. Is that their opener? No, their opener is against UMass. Okay. And then they play Cal. Cal is another team that's really hammered the transfer portal. Yeah. We don't know what they're going to be. It's almost like they got all the money that they didn't get for leaving with UCLA and USC.

It was like, well, suddenly we'll just spend those funds on some players. Well, and Justin Wilcox is kind of coaching for the job this year as well. Spavital's the OC now? Jake Spavital's the new OC there. He's been the OC there before, so we have some idea of what that offense is going to look like. Then Texas A&M in College Station September 23rd. I'm peeking over your shoulder here. That is a brutal three-game stretch.

You mean A&M, Georgia LSU? Yeah. That's. I'm peeking over your shoulder here. That is a brutal three-game stretch. You mean A&M, Georgia, LSU? Yeah. That's what I'm saying. That's why I'm circling Texas A&M on this schedule and not Georgia or LSU because that's the one where they got a chance to make something happen. September 23rd in College Station. Now, you want to cause some existential crisis in Aggieland, you go win that game.

Yeah, which would be highly ironic because Auburn fans for years pined to try to get Jimbo Fisher to become their head coach. Back when they had Gus, right when they got Brian Harsin, it was why didn't we go pay for Jimbo? And now they could be – in our year of hypotheticals, if Auburn goes to A&M at the end of September and beats the Aggies, that could be the early doom. He could be wearing the Scarlet A.

Kind of depends on what happens to the Aggies in Miami, but kind of doesn't. Like, if you lose to Auburn. God, if they lose twice in the first month. With what's coming up next. And that's the thing. The end of the SEC West, we pour out a little. I don't have the watermelon moonshine that I had yesterday. How was that?

Surprisingly refreshing. Kind of dangerous. You could drink a lot of it fast, and that could be a problem. But if I had some, I'd be pouring out a little for the SEC West and the sheer meat grinder-ness of the sec west like do you think about that if you're a and m and you're auburn you've got this game against this team that probably is going to challenge you either direction and then it only gets worse yeah i mean miss again mississippi state fans are all up in my mentions because i have the audacity to put a team last, and I get it.

Somebody's got to finish last. They could absolutely scare somebody with Will Rogers and go into – Absolutely, 100%. What happened two years ago when they went into – You're going to hear from Woody Marks later in the show. They're running back, and that dude's going to – in this new offense, that dude's going to be really good. Well, he's just happy he actually gets to run the football all right well he listen he got to catch it before but yeah he can definitely run it and uh but yes that that that meat grinder of the

sec west it's not going to be like that again now it it's obviously going to be hard with texas and oklahoma and and you're just running through the whole thing. But the year in, year out, just, oh, my God, how do we deal with all of this? Well, and that's why when you do the little fun game, and fans like to do it, we like to do it, when you do the win-loss, win-loss down the schedule, that's why I think even if Hugh gets to six wins in year one, I think that's fine. I think that's fine.

I know Auburn has bigger expectations in that, and they want to get back into the national relevancy. But if they go bowling and they do pull off an upset or they look frisky, I think that certainly will set them up for some momentum. And they're already recruiting in a way. Like he's gotten the quarterback he wanted for 24 in that class. They are recruiting the way they want to recruit. They beat out Georgia for one of the top flight linebacker, I think, last month.

And so. So, I think they're in good shape, like you said. Bowl eligible. Frisky at the end of the season. A lot of the things we say about Florida, actually, just a year later. Florida's in year two, but kind of needs the same thing. Maybe with a little less fan apathy. Yeah, but that's a different story.

For sure. That one's going to be judged on who's contributing at the end of the year. Is it guys that Billy Napier recruited? With this one, this is an all-hands-on-deck, let's pull what we can out of the transfer portal and then start recruiting for the future. And how much better will Auburn be just with the fact that everyone seems to be, you know, swimming in the same direction compared to what was happening a year ago?

I mean, the team literally was no different. Brian Harsin gets fired, Cadillac Williams gets promoted, and suddenly guys are playing hard. You know what else happened on that same day? Tell me. John Cohen was announced as their AD. Oh, yeah. So they feel like they're in a much more aligned place.

Another Mississippi State reference. Now, listen. Auburn and alignment aren't always words you use in the same sentence. And I'm not going to predict that suddenly all the meddling and all the other things that have happened at Auburn over the years are going to stop. I don't know that. But it feels right now.

You're saying Auburn's being Auburn is a name for a reason. Maybe it's a honeymoon phase, but it feels like everybody likes where they're at right now. Yeah. And I guess to circle this around back to the schedule, the funny thing is the very next week after that LSU game, oh, it's

Ole Miss and it's the Lane Kiffin Bowl. Yeah. God bless you, SEC West. We are going to miss you. We are absolutely going to miss you. When we come back, though, we're going to talk about the guys in the stripes.

SEC coordinator of officials John McDade joins us to talk about a big change in the rules with the clock and a very interesting change spurred by a result in the SEC last season. We are here with John McDade, the SEC's coordinator of officials, former referee, gourmand, guy who we met because I found out you were taking restaurant recommendations from my columns. Good morning, Andy. Absolutely I was. I would go to your column and I would go to the end to see what Andy's eating, and then I would go to the top and read the rest of the article. You don't need to read the rest.

You started at the best part. And so now that John is not officiating games anymore, we can text back and forth about where he is and where he's going to eat and that sort of thing. Now, I missed Destin this year. Did you go to the Red Bar? and that sort of thing. Now, I missed Destin this year. Yes. Did you go to the Red Bar? I didn't go to the Red Bar for the SEC spring meeting,

but I did make it down there during the Sunbelt spring meeting. How do we feel about it? Oh, we love that place. Good. All right. That's my death row meal, the Red Bar in Grayton Beach. It is the blackened grouper over a fried grit cake followed up with key lime pie. It's the best.

The only thing you could complain about that place at all would be the parking situation. Even that's not enough to negate what happens when you get inside the door. No, you need to park like two miles away now. It's a nice walk. Let's put it that way. So you've got a very big job this year as you're managing all the officials. But there's a big change in college football because they've changed the clock rules. I know those of us who are very in the weeds, everybody who reads and listens to this show,

they know something's coming. But I guarantee there will be millions of people watching that first week that go, clock didn't stop on first down. What happened? Yes. You know, the challenge is there's nothing complex about the rule. Right. There's nothing complex about any kind of mechanic changes we need to make.

The challenge is just being consistent. Yeah. There'll be instances where we do stop it erroneously. I hope I'm wrong. Yeah. But, you know, I've willing to bet, you to bet one or two times over the first two weeks that we'll mistakenly do that, just trying to get used to the new rule. But creating consistency, and it also raises awareness to the timing rules, such that there's many aspects of the timing of the game

that are probably going to have more scrutiny than we've ever recently had. And that's going to put that much more of a challenge on us to be consistent week in and week out. Well, and I'm curious, you were in the Big East, and you were a back judge first. Started as a back judge, then moved to referee prior to leaving the league. In 2006, when they changed the clock rules, what was that like? That was, so that's a great question. I remember in 2006

the radicalness, if that's a word, of the time in rules was Clock kept running on change of possession. At change of possessions, we had there was a we started when the ball was kicked on free kicks. We did all sorts of wild things. I mean, that was

wild. This year, not so much yeah we're just keeping the ball the clock running after the ball is uh first down in bounds yeah i think with some college football fans is they don't like anything that that sort of mimics the nfl and this does mimic the nfl game yes it does you guys are fairly agnostic on this stuff right in terms of terms of... Yes, that's correct. Because I think, you know, the commissioner level, those people, we try to ascribe a reason why they're doing this. My cynical view is, obviously, you want to fit it into TV windows like the NFL does. You want it to look like that. But I would imagine you guys don't care one way or the other.

The only reason we would care is, you know what? It takes a lot to be focused for three and a half hours. It takes a lot to be focused for 180 plays. Or if you have that type of game, a game that has 200, 210 plays. That's the only reason we have any thought in the matter. We've got to keep focused on however long the game is. Yeah. And the focus part is amazing to me.

Because you had a presentation to the the big media room earlier today and you were going over a play from the kent state georgia game last year where kent state was doing several things in terms of moving guys on and off the line of scrimmage receivers who were covered up and then were uncovered and then somebody's in motion and and basically trying trying to get more guys in the back field than you're supposed to be able to have. I can't imagine trying to do that math 200 times a game if both teams were up tempo. Many times, a clear majority of times when we have a mistake, whether it's an incorrect call or a missed call, and we try to get to the root cause, it comes back to focus.

We just lost focus. And when you have a game that's three hours and 40 minutes, let's say, and 190-plus plays, it's hard to keep your focus the entire time. So I'm always fascinated when there's a rule change or just an adjustment to how rules are interpreted based on something that happened in a game. And last year you had one. You had the Kentucky-Missouri game.

And then Kentucky's up. They're punting. Ball snapped over the punter's head. 35 yards behind the line of scrimmage. Missouri player just tackles him as he's trying to kick the ball. The referee immediately throws the roughing the punter flag. And you were going over your conversation with the referee from after the game, and he had called it exactly the way the rules say to call it.

Yes, except for there's the interpretation, is it obvious the kick's going to be made? And that's the rub, right? But the guy had his hands on the ball underneath, and it looked like he's going to be made? That's the rub, right? But the guy had his hands on the ball underneath, and it looked like he was going to kick. Gave no indication he was going to run with the ball. You're absolutely right. But common sense to the viewer is like, wait, they're 35 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

Why is this being treated? And I didn't realize you guys had changed the rules, what, about 10 years ago to account for rugby punts. That's correct. When that rugby punter gets five yards outside, when they get outside the tackle box, you can do whatever you want to them. But that one, because it went straight over the guy's head, was in the tackle box. Yes. It was almost a freak occurrence that a snap, that over his head would stay exactly in the tackle box the entire time and this is this is a to give people context there's a 21 17 game there's two and a half

minutes to go if there's no roughing the kicker call Missouri gets the ball on the Kentucky four yard line so they can punch it in maybe win the game instead Kentucky, Kentucky keeps the ball. They end up winning the game. And so you guys made what you called an editorial change. And now, if that happens, they're probably not throwing the flag. Not throwing the flag unless he otherwise comes in and fouls him for unnecessary roughness. Right. Which in that particular play, he made a football play. He made a rugby tackle, basically. Yeah. So the safest tackle he could have made. Exactly. So it is fascinating to me.

And one other thing in your presentation that I found very interesting, because it drives me crazy, and this is not unique to the SEC. This is actually not unique to college football. It feels like in college football and the NFL, a lot of offenses just try to bail themselves out by throwing underthrown balls, intentionally underthrown balls where you're forcing a situation where a DB's in good position and the receiver initiates contact fighting back toward the ball, but it's really a ball that they don't expect them to catch.

They're trying to get a call. And you were talking about that today because you said you guys talk to coaches about what techniques they coach. And you showed some video of a DB in that situation who, instead of trying to keep the receiver between him and the quarterback, was tracking the receiver's hip and staying right on him behind, you know, between the receiver and the quarterback. And so now maybe that's not going to get called as much.

Probably not. At least that's what we're going to be talking to our officials about. We had a philosophy for years that said that if a defender is beat and not playing the ball, he has two strikes against him, and he can't come in early to the body. What we're saying now is in that particular play, he's not playing the ball. He has two strikes against him. And he can't come in early to the body. What we're saying now is in that particular play, he's not playing the ball. Right. But he's not taught to play the ball.

But he's not taught to play the ball. You're exactly right. But he's not beat either. He's in exactly the position he wants to be, the most advantageous position he believes and his coach believes that he should be in. And therefore, we're not going to penalize him for being in that position. Now, he can't pin an arm down. He can't tug at a shoulder.

He can't overtly just run through them if he's trying to come back. But if the receiver tries to slow down and come back, and that's what's creating just as much contact against the defender, then maybe it's not a foul. That's good. I'm tired of offenses getting bailed out on third and 15 because they intentionally underthrow. Let's make sure we're clear, Andy.

Defense pass interference is still a very tough, tough play. I agree. And I'll tell you where I have some experience there. We met in Athens, Georgia at the spring game in 2019, and the SEC did something that I, it's one of the most educational things I've ever gotten to do. So they brought a bunch of us in, and we got to officiate the second half of the Georgia spring game.

And I was a line judge. You were shadowing the referee. I believe Dusty Dvorak was our referee. And I threw a flag for defensive pass interference. And now I'm the line judge. I'm not really in position, but it looked like something happened. So I throw the flag. And if you watch the broadcast, this is when they had Maria Taylor was on the field next to Kirby.

And Kirby goes, oh, no. And it's not, oh, no, my DB screwed up. It's, why did this idiot throw the flag? It's the second half of the spring game. I'm trying to go home. And so I run out there, and you're standing behind Dusty, and Dusty's like, okay, what you got? And I'm like, what do you mean what I got?

Passer Ferris, didn't you see that? He's like, what number, defender? And I'm like what do you mean what i got passenger ferris didn't you see that he's like what number defender and i'm like oh crap i don't remember what the number was i was like can we pick up this flag and just so i i run grab the flag and then just run back to the sideline as fast as i can i'm glad you had a good time with it uh we haven't done that since the obviously we couldn't do it during the pandemic and we haven't done that since the obviously we couldn't do it during the thing yeah and we haven't done it since the pandemic but um those were unique experiences well it's so fast and i remember you guys telling us if you think this is fast imagine how fast the real game is and then imagine how fast an nfl game is yeah. It's the, and it's fast, and it's also, you know, the best example, it's an overthrown ball, and you're at high school,

they're like, no one's catching that ball. Yeah. Then you get to the college level, Division I, FBS, and you're like, you know what, this guy might catch this ball. Yeah. You get to the NFL, more times than not he's catching that ball. The athleticism just jumps off the page. It is crazy.

Another one I missed on that one, by the way, is a Jake Fromm intentional grounding play. Near the goal line. So I'm working my mechanics. I went from the line of scrimmage to the goal line to make sure I'm looking down the goal line as the play moves along. And then Jake gets pressured and he throws laterally, but a little bit forward. Ball goes out of bounds before the

line, before it reaches the line of scrimmage. Didn't get that. I got, I got dinged for that one. You would have been yelling at me on Monday about that. Absolutely. Well, let's hope a crewmate would have come in and bailed you out. That's what I'm hoping. Now, the other thing that you talked about today that I thought was really interesting and something to keep in perspective, we see when an official makes a bad call or they miss a call, we see that. And especially if we're a fan of the team that is aggrieved, that is the only call we've ever noticed that official make. And you did the math on how many calls per year or how many plays per year. There are probably, an official's seen 10,000 plays per year. Per year.

And so you're evaluating on 10,000 plays and not one play. Exactly. I thought that was very good. You mentioned they're not going to bench a quarterback because he threw one interception out of 500 attempts. Yes. If it's his 13th interception in six games, maybe. Yeah, exactly.

But not just because of that one interception. But we get so bent out of shape. You know what? The passion and the emotion is what makes it so special. Yeah. Unfortunately, it works against officiating, right? Oh, yeah. And it's what we sign up to.

Yeah. I get it. I get why. You know, fans is short for fanatic, fanatical. Yep. But, yeah, we just got to remember that, you know what, they didn't officiate just that one play. They officiated 180 this Saturday.

And just in the first game they worked for us, they worked many, many, and there's thousands and thousands and thousands of reps. Yeah. We're judging them inside. Not the easiest job in the world. I'm glad somebody wants to do it. I don't. John, thank you so much.

Absolutely, Andy. It's great to see you. All right. We're here with Woody Marks from Mississippi State, and this has been a very different year for you. Obviously, Mike Leach passes away, Zach Arnett gets the job, and he brings in Kevin Barbata on your offense, and now it is a completely different offense.

What has it been like for the past eight months? I'd probably say we've just been getting used to the offense and used to different types of formations and stuff coming out the center, the pistol, and just doing different things. Basically, the offense still, like the past concepts are the same. They're all the same. It's just called different names. Now, as a running back, though,

what you're doing probably feels a little bit different. In the air raid, you're doing a lot of the angle routes and you're kind of a safety valve in a lot of those plays. How much more do you have to do? We got a little more different kind of routes coming out of this offense. There's some good routes here. I think it's a good route. Some man beaters, some zone beaters.

Now, running ball, you got a little bit of outside zone, stuff like that. What's that like in terms of reading blocks and being patient? It's different, way different from the average because you're coming from the side. So we're coming out the pistol, we're doing outside zone, stretch runs, and we're coming from the side and doing outside zone. And we're doing inside zones, power, counters. We didn't run counters in the L-Rate.

Did you do any of this stuff in high school? I did, yeah, I did a little bit. Is this kind of a throwback for you? Yeah. Is that stuff that comes back pretty easily? Yeah, I got used to the offense pretty easy because I still got it in me. I'm an athlete, so I took two years off. I feel like I took two years off, but I still got it in me, so it came easy. So how has Coach Arnett kind of made this job his own? I think he just rolled over as if everybody on the team had a good relationship with Coach Arnett.

And coming from the defensive side, he just rolled over pretty good, being the head coach and bringing all the stuff to the offense. Now, those defensive coordinators like to talk trash to the skill guys on offense. How much trash did he talk to you as the D.C. before he became head coach? I'd probably say most trash talk he talked to the offense was to the O-line. Okay. Yeah.

So I think he's pretty nice to the skill players, but the O-line he talked trash to them. Now you got an offensive lineman who goes by Dalla Bill. How safe do you feel walking around with a dude that everybody calls dollar bill who weighs 300 pounds i feel safe with him he's named dollar bill so he got some money exactly exactly that's what i i just remember talking to coach leach a

few years ago and he was talking about different guys on the line. He's like, yeah, we got Dallabill. I was like, you got a dude named Dallabill? Dallabill, chop. There you go. Well, you do realize that Mississippi State has one of the great all-time offensive line nicknames. They had a left tackle named Floyd Porkchop Womack. Porkchop? Porkchop.

That's right. So, and that's what, like, a lot of times the nicknames don't get out of the locker room. But it seems like with you guys, like, you know, everybody calls you Woody. Nobody's calling you, Joquavius is your given name. So, who calls you that? Really, my whole family calls me Woody. Okay. Really, when I got to college, well, it started in high school.

I once scored in an away game, and they said my name wrong, and my mom got mad. Oh, no. And she went up to the press box, and she was like, just call him Woody. And we went away game again. They said it wrong. She was like, call him Woody. Then she was like, just go by Woody. Now, how did you get that nickname in the family uh from halloween when i was small seven years straight

out tour story underwear every day in school i actually did i would monday through friday costume i had like two probably had like 10 yeah i'll cry you would if you didn't get the woody costume yeah i'll cry she wouldn't let me wear it. That is amazing. So how long did that last? I'll say probably, I think it was like third grade. I'd start being around other kids and like, you know. Now, do we still feel the same way about all the Toy Story movies?

I love Toy Story. It gets you. I hate that Buzz made his own movie. Yeah. I hate that. I was just sad when Andy had to give them away. That got me. That was the hardest part.

I'm just trying to imagine you in elementary school with the Toy Story. So your mom had to go buy more Toy Story pajamas? I had a whole closet full of Toy Story. So your mom had to go buy more Toy Story pajamas? I had like a whole closet full of Toy Story. I had a whole closet. I had the book bag. So I was really like him going to school. And little did she know at the time that that would make it easier for people to identify your touchdown runs. Yeah. Yeah, pretty big right there. Woody i appreciate it thank you so much no problem

we now know how woody marks got his nickname and what a story that is i do love a good nickname in college football and i'm talking about not sweetness walter payton that sort of thing i'm talking about the name that you are called by by your teammates who may or may not even know you have a given name on your birth certificate. So we're not talking about the names that were given to people at birth. So I'm sorry to Colas Crawford. I'm sorry, General Booty. We'll have another day to pay tribute to you. We're talking about the Porkchop Womacks, the Cadillac Williams, the Booger McFarlane.

Did you know Booger McFarlane's name was Anthony? I didn't think you did. Big Cat Bryant, former Florida State fullback Pooh Bear Williams. These are the names that we remember because we do not remember their given names. We got a bunch of those in college football this year. You know about Woody Marks. Tennessee has a receiver named Squirrel White. Tulane

has a receiver named Fat Watts. Not F-A-T. No. P-H-A-T. Pretty hot and tempting. Bear Alexander was playing at Georgia. Now he's going to play at USC. Juice Wells at South Carolina. And, of course, we're waiting on Alabama to show up here at SEC Media Days on Wednesday. You know who's coming with them? Cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry.