Andy & Ari On3 - Greg McElroy Praises Oklahoma and Breaks down Alabama's QB competition | Georgia aims for a 3-peat

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

Greg McElroy praises Oklahoma and breaks down Alabama's QB competition | Georgia aims for a 3-peatThis episode is brought to you by Gametime! Download the Gametime app or go to Gametime.co and use code: STAPLES for $20 off your purchase. Best deals, guaranteed. Terms apply.We begin with some QB news. Auburn has named Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne as the starting QB. Meanwhile, On3's Matt Zenitz is reporting that freshman Jaden Rashada has a chance to win the starting job at Arizona State. (0:00-7:14)Next, ESPN analyst and former Alabama QB Greg McElroy joins to discuss why Oklahoma could be better than everyone expects and what Texas has to do to overcome its underachieving reputation. (7:15-31:23)Greg, who has been through a QB competition at Alabama himself, then breaks down the three candidates competing for the starting job. Will it be Jalen Milroe, Ty Simpson or Notre Dame transfer Tyler Buchner? (31:24-42:56)Greg gives us his surprise team of the 2023 season with high hopes in the Wisconsin Badgers (42:57-49:08)Later, Jake Rowe of On3's Dawgs HQ provides some intel from Georgia camp. Can Carson Beck hold off Brock Vandagriff at QB? Which receiver will emerge as a top target alongside tight end Brock Bowers? Which defensive lineman will be the next household name? (51:09-1:08:33)Andy's Extra Point is on Florida State transfer Darrell Jackson, who has been deemed ineligible by the NCAA due to transfer rules (1:08:34-1:12:09)

Welcome to Andrew Staples on three. We're starting to get quarterback decisions, which means we're getting closer and closer to actual games week zero. Only a scant nine days away. Actually, by nine days from now, it will be most of those games will be in the books. We'll be watching USC and San Jose State tussling by that point. Very, very exciting.

We got a major quarterback decision on Thursday. We also got some news late Wednesday night, kind of fleshed out on Thursday, about a quarterback competition that maybe we weren't quite expecting and a player who, I'm not sure people were thinking he was going to be playing this season but he may be uh maybe in the mix to start as a true freshman but let's start in the loveliest village on the plains Auburn has picked a quarterback Hugh Freeze named Peyton

Thorne the Michigan State transfer the starting QB now Pey, Peyton Thornton at Michigan State, great year as a starter in 2021. He averaged 8.3 yards per attempt, 27 touchdowns, 10 interceptions. That production dropped quite a bit in 2022 as the Spartans' win total also dropped. 6.9 yards per attempt, 19 touchdowns, 11 interceptions. But let's add some context. The offense averaged one fewer yard per carry in 22 than it did in 21.

Funny what happens when Kenneth Walker III is no longer there. But Peyton is the starting quarterback at Auburn. He beats out Robbie Ashford, Holmgriner. And here is Coach Hugh Freeze on the decision. Coach, there's been reports today that you were going to announce a starting quarterback today in Payne Thorne. Is that true? Do you want to announce it?

I was going to. You guys seem to know everything before it happens. So that's interesting to me because only four people knew that and didn't even tell the staff. So it's interesting how everything works today, but it's just a different day and time. I've decided to start Peyton Thorne. Let me say this first.

I totally believe that Robbie and Holden, we can win games with any of the three. A lot of that would depend upon how we play defensively and how the supporting cast play. I believe in all three of those guys. And there are days that there's been very little separation. I just believe, man, my gut is usually right, and usually when I follow my gut, and I'm not saying my gut is right that Peyton is the guy for all 12 games, but my gut is saying it's the time to do this,

to get us best prepared for the opening of the season. That is Hugh Freeze naming Peyton Thorne the season. That is Hugh Freeze naming Peyton Thorne the starter. It'll be interesting to see how this works out. Hugh Freeze was at the Senior Bowl earlier this year, and he was talking about when he got to Ole Miss and that getting Bo Wallace as a junior college transfer was one of the more important acquisitions of his time at Ole Miss. And it probably set up everything else that happened because it allowed them to do offensively

what Hugh Freeze wanted to do in that first year. So we'll see if Peyton Thorne is the secret to that. He was in Michigan State's quarterback competition in the spring. It looked like he was going to get beat out. He takes off to Auburn. He is now the starting quarterback on the Plains. We will talk about the other quarterback situation in the state of Alabama later in the show. We've got Greg McIlroy, former Alabama quarterback, ESPN analyst. He can break it down better than anyone,

and he does. So we're going to talk to him about that a little later. But before we get to Greg, there's another quarterback competition out West that is very, very interesting. Late Wednesday night. So after the show was over Wednesday night on threes, Matt Zenitz wrote a story. Reporting that freshman Jaden Rashada has a chance to win the Arizona quarterback, the Arizona State quarterback competition. So Jaden Rashada, we all know who he is. He was the guy who signed with Florida. There was that massive $13.8 million contract that there was no real money behind. He ends up not going to Florida because the contract was not backed by any actual cash. And now he's at Arizona State where his dad played. The thought was he was probably

going to go to Arizona State and develop for a little while before we saw him on the field. But that plan may be changing because Drew Pine, the Notre Dame transfer who everybody thought was going to be the guy at Arizona State, injured during a practice over the weekend. And so it's basically Jade Rashada versus Trenton Borgay. Now, Borgay played in seven games last year, including that win against Washington. So there's a chance that the veteran may wind up winning the job. But that Jade Rashada is doing this well already is a pretty big deal because this is a guy that when everything went down at Florida, you wondered, how does he recover from this?

How does he handle this? It certainly seemed like none of the stuff that happened with Miami and Florida during his recruitment was really his doing. It kind of felt like everybody around him was jerking him around a little bit. So good to see him doing well. And it'll be interesting to see if we get a look at him early in the season. This is not what everyone was expecting out of Arizona State right now, but this is what happens when you have some camp injuries and maybe somebody's a little

further along than you thought. So we will see if Jaden Rashada is the guy. Now, Arizona State has a little chance to figure things out. They play Southern Utah in their season opener. That's Thursday, August 31st. So they will have a cushion, can probably play both guys, figure it out. They get Oklahoma State in Tempe on September 9th. I imagine they would like to know who their guy is. Kenny Dillingham, the first year head coach there. He's been very good with quarterbacks. He did a great job with Bo Nix at Oregon as the offensive coordinator last year. So be interested to see what he winds up choosing. Now, before we get to Greg, Damon showed up in the comments and we need to address Damon's comment. Hey, Andy, just popped in to say that your grudge against Coleslaw is unfounded and it hurts your credibility. Have a

great show. Damon, I think my hatred of coleslaw and mayo-based coleslaw only, vinegar slaw is actually fine. Mayo-based coleslaw is the worst condiment on earth. It's disgusting. It's vomit inducing. I can't imagine why anybody would eat it. Don't tell me it cuts the whatever flavor.

It's awful. If you're getting a chicken finger box, the only proper way to do it, double fries or double bread, but obviously just throw the slaw in the trash. Sorry, Damon, we can't have that sort of pro-slaw propaganda on this show. This is not a place for that. But what we can have is a great conversation with Greg McElroy. He's a former Alabama quarterback, won the national title in

2009, starting for Nick Saban's team. He's also an ESPN analyst. He's got his own podcast. He broke down that Alabama quarterback situation about as well as anybody can. We also talked about Oklahoma. We talked about Texas and he gave us a team that he thinks is going to surprise some people. And when you hear the comparison he makes to a team that he thinks is going to surprise some people and when you hear the comparison he makes to a team from last year you're going to go I never thought of that and it's completely true here is the great Greg McElroy we welcome a very special guest Greg McElroy host of the incredible Always College Football podcast, co-host of Mac and Cube on JOX 94.5 in Birmingham, and also ESPN analyst extraordinaire.

Congrats on the move to the new crew. I appreciate it. A lot of effusive praise in there. I've watched your show a couple of times and you, you introduce everybody that way though. So I'm not going to make too big a deal of it. It it's, it's been fun watching you and your new frontier buddy, long time fan, long time friend, naturally. So happy that you guys are having success at on three that you're having. Oh, I appreciate it. It's, it's been fun. And I'm excited. I'm just so excited that we're getting so close to games, Greg. Like I,

well, you don't like realignment conversation? You don't want to keep talking about where Oregon State's going to be playing ball in 2028? What do you mean? And we have games in like seven days? It's funny because for the show purposes, yeah, people say they hate talking about realignment, but you look at the numbers and they love it. Oh, right. For sure. When I was writing stories more, they certainly loved all the speculation about it but it just it grinds

like i feel so bad just thinking about if i was an oregon state fan or a washington state fan how i'd be feeling right now going into this season it's so bittersweet and weird right so the thing about the realignment angle to me is like you and I grew up in the era of, you know, you're a little bit older than me, but the same era of football, like 90s Spurrier against Bowden. Yeah. You know, the 2000s with with USC's run and Miami's run there in the early 2000s, Nebraska in the 90s. Those are the teams that I was a big 12 guy at my core, originally from Los Angeles, but didn't really have a team, I guess. I guess if you were to ask me gun to head, who did I pull for? It was probably Florida State. My mom went to Florida State, but didn't really have a team, just watched football and liked football. I was a huge Brett Favre fan and a big Cowboys fan. I was more of an NFL guy and then moved to Texas.

And it's like, you like high school football and you like the longhorn or Aggies pick. So went to my first cotton bowl, watched Ricky Williams. And from that point forward, I was hooked. Like it was over. You were,

you were being recruited by Texas tech, right? Before the Alabama offer came along. Is it, did you envision yourself in Lubbock? Yeah, actually. I mean,

I was really close. Um, my, my recruiting story is a little different. Um, I backed up chase Daniel in high school and chase was just a year older than me. So I only had one year to start, but South Lake Carroll is like, uh, for those that don't know it's a big time it's a big time high school program so my parents and I kind of had the conversation it's like there were other people that were like you can transfer here and you can train you can go to Fossil Ridge and you can go to Keller and you can go like these other places and I was like you know one year at South Lakes equivalent to like three and a lot of other places right because they're they're already recruiting South Lakes backup and South Lakes JV quarterback at camps anyway.

Yeah. And we were doing the camp circuit. And I actually already had some offers. And back then, you didn't really get offers until your junior year. So I actually had some offers even before I played games because they would come and recruit Chase. They'd be like, well, the backup's pretty good. We'll throw him an offer. So you get Kansas.

And I think I had Houston and Baylor and like a few others. Um, so I wasn't in like a huge hurry. I knew I was going to have a chance to play D one ball, but the biggest offer I had prior to my senior year was Texas tech. And at that point, you know, this was Cliff Kingsbury, Sonny Cumbie, BJ Simmons, Graham Harrell was on his way. It was a little before he became the guy. Graham would have been two or three years older than me. And Leach was there. Funny story. The guy that picked me up at the airport was actually Lincoln Riley. And Lincoln and I hit it off. And then you go and you sit down and it's Dana Holgerson, Ruffin McNeil. And it's like a who's who of future college football stars as far as

the head coaching ranks are concerned. So it was a really cool opportunity. They had kind of taken a chance on me, but I had told Coach Leach at the beginning, I was like, hey man, I'm starting my senior year. I'm going to have 16 starts. Hopefully we make the state. I'm going to re-evaluate everything after the football season and then we'll see where we go. So after the fact, a few other offers came in. Then I was everyone's fallback plan. I was everybody's. Hey, if Tebow goes to Florida, Alabama, we're going to give you an offer. Hey, if Tennessee, if we miss out on so-and-so, we're going to give you an offer.

Hey, Michigan, if we miss out on so-and-so, we're going to give you an offer. Hey, USC, if we miss out on so-and-so, we're going to give you an offer. And like next thing you know, December 28th rolls around and my offers go from 10 to 35. But I'm everybody's fallback plan. And I was okay with that. It was fine. That was my wife's fallback plan, so it all worked out. We all in the same boat. We're all somebody's fallback plan it didn't it didn't really bother me um so i took my visits went to colorado north carolina uh you know bama a few others um unofficially and ultimately just found out that bama was just the best place for me and um but i was kind of a guy that grew up with without really an allegiance yeah but i was a big 12 guy so to see the big 12

disintegrate before our eyes and to see a and m and missouri leave 10 years ago was kind of heartbreaking to me and then to see texas and oklahoma now join the sec kind of made me feel a little sick to my stomach but naturally also excited knowing the matchups that we were going to get in the sec then to see sc and ucla leave for the big 10 then i was really flabbergasted i was like this is weird it doesn't make sense and now i mean just to see the conferences just completely lose their soul and their identity it does like as a traditionalist it really makes me sad well and and it's it's like they're trying to rip the band-aid off but still not get all the way there because you know there's expanded playoff coming next year so you

have all these new conference alignments but we all know there's more coming. We all know there's some sort of like Premier League or Super League staring us in the face 15 years from now. But I, you know, I just, it is tough because you wish they would just go ahead and do it already and stop all this. Well, the thing about it is the things that are driving decisions right now are ultimately about numbers and eyeballs and brand strength and all this other stuff. But it doesn't mean that Oregon State has a bad product. Oregon State has a phenomenal product and phenomenal support. Washington State the same. I mean, what was the greatest game day in the history of college game days? I mean, you can make a case it was Washington. And now that's a place without an obvious home. So just because in the money and the eyeballs

and the sheer size of the national appeal of some of these brands, just because some are better than others doesn't mean that others don't matter. And that to me has been troubling because as a guy that's called washington state games with gardner minchu uh as a guy that's called oregon state games uh against ohio state i've called an oregon state game last year in the or two years ago in the la bowl i mean i've gotten to kind of know that program a little bit and those those fans are rabid. So it just makes me sad because I kind of view all Power 5 teams, and people will say, well, what about the G5?

I like the G5 too. I like it a lot, but I acknowledge the G5 for what it is. I don't view a G5 team as capable of running the gauntlet through the college football playoff and winning the national championship. I don't think that's possible, which is why I've said forever, if I were in charge of the G5, I would have a G5 champion. And I would make that, not the NIT, but I would make that, you know, this is our level of football right now.

We don't have the resources that everyone else has, so why are we trying to play in the deep end of the pool with schools that have way more resources than us i would endorse a g5 playoff and i would endorse a power five playoff and just acknowledge that they're two different worlds we'll be right back with more from greg mcelroy but first i want to tell you about game time it's the easiest way to buy last minute tickets. It is stress-free, a couple taps, and you have the tickets you need. For example, let's say you're a big fan of Greg Zalman or the University of Alabama. Let's say you're also a big fan of Cuban sandwiches. Well, there's one way to go see the Crimson Tide play while also being in the proximity of the best Cuban sandwiches in the world.

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It's the easiest, least stressful way to buy tickets. So download the GameTime app, use the promo code STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, and go to your game. Enjoy. Or your concert. or your comedy show download game time promo code staples 20 bucks off your first purchase last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed at game time in texas we have big 5a and little 5a uh big 5a are schools with populations of you know 3 000 plus little 5a

is 2 000 plus or at least that's what it was when i was in school yeah carol was in the little 5a and guess what we felt great about our national our state championship like we didn't say well we wanted the big 5a state championship no we won state championship but it was a little 5a right so that's the way i'd view it i mean at least yeah just because toledo is is 30 minutes from michigan doesn't mean they're the same thing like they don't have to be the same thing you don't have to expect the same things exactly i'm with you and now i i like that they play each other and we still get the occasional upset but absolutely i i think you're right you can still have that and it would be i think it would be fun it'd be like i love the sunbelt the new sunbelt i do too i love it because they went

out and found a bunch of programs that just care deeply about football so when you add james madison and yep you know they added appalachian state and georgia southern a few years ago and you've seen what happened at Coastal and Louisiana. I love those games. 100%. I live in Birmingham and UAB has a certain fandom for sure.

Let's be real. When you move to Alabama, you pick one, Auburn or Alabama. Everybody likes UAB. Everybody. We live in Birmingham. Everybody like they're a, they're like, we live in Birmingham. We support the Blazers and we do.

And if the Blazers played on Wednesday, guess what? I'd probably have season tickets. I'd take my kids to go to UAB games. That stadium. Oh, it's a phenomenal. And you're telling me that if they didn't host a semi-final in the G5

playoff at protective life, I'd be there. I'd be dressed in gold and green. My sons would be wearing the Zers shirt and we'd be all in, you know, we'd, we'd be all about it. So, um, I would endorse it. I'd love it. I wish that it, I wish that it existed because it'd be cool for something cool for those teams to play for something more than just a bowl invite. But I, you know, I don't know if they're necessarily willing to punt right now and acknowledge the fact that there is a gap between the two.

Well, and they want the money from whatever that 12 team playoff is going to bring in and they're, they're in a piece of that, but no, you're right. I, and I,

the dual fandom is, is certainly something that is realistic. Like my, my mom was an Alabama gradama grad and obviously crimson tide that's who she's rooting for on saturday right but she had a tuesday night team the toledo rockets there you go toledo played she was all in 100 who doesn't have a mac team oh i mean yeah i don't know i don't know a soul that doesn't have a mac team that they pull for. Like my Mac team is Buffalo. And it has been since Leipold was there. And I mean, if Buffalo's playing Northern Illinois,

like we're watching and we're fired up about the buffs. Like it's in, like we're in, you know, the bull. So like we're all about it. So everyone should have a Mac team. Everyone should have a Sunbelt team. Like my Sunbelt team is, well, I can't say Troy because South with Kane Womack has a special place in my heart. Appalachian State has a special place in my heart because having done a game there against Miami six, seven years ago

is one of the great experiences I had calling a game. Even though the game was sideways, it was still just incredible to be there in Boone for the game. I think everyone should have a team in their respective leagues. You can have your team that you pull for, and if they play anybody else, that's your team. But there's no reason why you can't also be a UNLV fan at the same time because you love Barry Odom because you went to Missouri and things didn't work out there,

but now you're pulling for him to get a second shot, right? I like this. This is a great, we should actually start a campaign to everybody. Adopt a team from a league that your alma mater isn't in. Yeah. Just why not you? Like we went to different sec schools,

so we can pick an ACC team. We can pick a big 10 team. We can pick a sunbelt team, a pack. How are we going to do it? I love this. I'm Big Ten team. We can pick a Sunbelt team, a Pac-12. However we want to do it. I love this. I'm all for it. I'm all for it.

My Big 12 team will be K-State. And you decide that that's your team. That's a good pick. I know. Listen, Greg, when you bring back four starting offensive linemen, three six-year guys, and the other guy, oh, by the way, is the best interior lineman in the country, I'm going to pick you in a lot of games fair enough i get that completely well let's talk

about about some games and some teams and you know your podcast you talked about oklahoma recently and that's one that i feel is a little mysterious because yeah i what i kind of want to know is what kind of jump did brent venables make from year one to year two as a head coach? Because there's obviously a learning curve there. There is. And I think early – here's the problem, is that early we got sold a bill of goods against Nebraska. Meanwhile, Nebraska fell off, and we all know what happened with Nebraska,

but they come out like gangbusters, and we're like, oh my goodness. Brent Venables, nothing's been lost. When Lincoln Riley left, hey, they replaced Caleb Williams at that point. Caleb was doing some good things, but he wasn't totally lighting the world on fire. So we're sitting there,

and we're thinking, oh my goodness, this team's unbelievable. And then they play against TCU and it's like, oh, boy. And then Dylan Gabriel gets hurt and then they play against Texas like, oh, boy. Yeah. So I think the highs and the lows of last year made it hurt maybe just a little bit more because it just didn't have the consistency that we've seen. I mean, name a more consistent program in college football over the last 20 years than Oklahoma, as far as conference championships won. Ohio State, only one. It's the only one in the history of college football.

Oklahoma, Ohio State won Oklahoma too. But tell me this, Ohio State had a 6-6 in there in what, 2012? Yeah, in the Trestle year, yeah, where he was fired. 2011 or whatever it was. So I'm all for Oklahoma having high expectations. But I do think the fact that Lincoln Riley left, there was a void there, and it was almost like a gunshot to the gut,

and they covered it with a Band-. And that's not going to, that's not going to, and that's not to call Brent Venables a bandaid. Just, there was a hurt there that no one wanted to acknowledge. A lot of people said, well, you know,

we're actually going to be better because of this. And that was, that was misguided. But we also kind of glossed over the fact that the turnover that existed on the roster was challenging. And I remember talking to Willie Taggart about this when he took over at of glossed over the fact that the turnover that existed on the roster was challenging. And I remember talking to Willie Taggart about this when he took over at Florida State after Jimbo Fisher left. When you go to Oklahoma as a player, when you go to Florida State as a player, that is a destination. That is not a stepping stone place. That is, as a player, you think, man, Florida State, Oklahoma, it doesn't get any better than this i've arrived yeah exactly and then the coach leaves for a and m a place that maybe you

don't think or at least hasn't been a destination in a little while and you're sitting there and you're thinking well man what the heck is this place not as good as i think it is and it's not real it's all subconscious but it actually there's a hurt there's a hurt factor that affects the team and willie taggart said the thing that i made the mistake of doing is i didn't heal those wounds from the previous coach departing for the next job that wouldn't be perceived on the same level as ours and that i think is something that might've happened last year at Oklahoma. They were so focused on how we're going to attack this. Like we didn't need him.

But there was a hurt there that you had to acknowledge. You had to digest. And now you had to process and move forward. What they've done is done a really strong job of assessing their weaknesses, getting deeper at the spots they need to get deeper at reinforcing the line of scrimmage on the defensive side getting an impact player from indiana and dasan mccullough that might be able to i don't necessarily know if he'll take over games but that ceiling exists right uh and now you have another year in the system in which dylan gabriel and company offensively are going to feel a little more comfortable. So I think Oklahoma is a sleeping problem.

I'm not going to call him a giant yet. Right. Because I think there's a sleeping problem in the Big 12 because nobody's talking about him. There's no pressure on Oklahoma this year. There is internally. Meanwhile, their biggest rival on the other side, all the burden, all the pressure is Texas Beck.

If they go out and play Alabama and lose by 21, oh my goodness, the boo birds will be out in Austin, Texas. So I think Oklahoma is in a really good position to surprise people this year because there's expectations and there's acknowledgement of the improved roster. But then again, if they go eight and four, no one's going to be calling for their coach to be run out of town or anything like that. Well, so let's talk about Texas, because the one thing that I think people miss with Texas is the assumption that there's always talent at Texas. This is more talent than Texas has had in a long time. Yeah, there are there are lots of guys like if you talk to NFL scouts, there are a lot of guys they want on that Texas roster, which was not the case necessarily three, four or five years ago.

So that's where the pressure's coming from. But Greg, my, what I keep coming back to is how do they avoid games like Oklahoma state or Texas tech last year or Iowa state or Kansas the year before? Like, how do you avoid that? Well,

Texas tech game was a, I don't want to call it a fluke by any stretch, but your best player fumbles the ball with the lead in the fourth quarter by a couple touchdowns. The odds of that happening are remarkably slim. I remember a similar thing happened to us against Tennessee in 2009. Mark Ingram had never lost a fumble in his career.

We're up by nine with five to minutes to go mark ingram fumbles and we're putting the game on ice it's over yeah we're this is the rocky block game mark ingram fumbles next thing you know everyone's like oh my god what happened you know like this guy's human like what is this like you know next thing you know jonathan crompton tennessee go down score touchdown get the onside kick and then they're kicking a game winning field goal that we ultimately blocked. It's going way wide left anyways. Fortunately, Terrence Cody's got hops.

That's all you need to know. Hops, I would say a low liner on the kick, but maybe a little duck hook left, but I digress. So I think that had a little bit of a trickle down. But as far as Texas, here's the problem with Texas, and I don't think people want to acknowledge this. While there is five-star personnel, maybe on the roster. And there has been four-star personnel on the roster and maybe has been Texas is a very wealthy state. Anyone that has ever been there

knows that Texas is not afraid to showcase. If you're from Dallas in particular, uh, like I am, uh, people are not afraid to flaunt their wealth. It's just, let's just be real. And high school football in the state of Texas is a remarkable priority. Probably, I would say probably as well invested in as any high school state in the country. By absolutely, probably a country mile. It's the amount of money

in texas high school football is on another level compared to pretty much everywhere else and that means that they attract better coaches they attract better uh they attract better personal trainers they attract speed coaches and weight coaches i mean our high school has a full time 24 7 strength and conditioning coach at my high school. They also have an indoor facility that the Dallas Cowboys used prior to them building the bubble. So we are talking about kids who at 12 have private trainers and quarterback coaches and receiver coaches because the resources are there. And as a result, kids are hitting their ceiling of their potential as a junior and senior in high school. And they get to college. Yeah,

they're a four-star player. Maybe they're a five-star player. They get to college and they never get any better. They are as good as they're ever going to be because they're overdeveloped and their development is accelerated because of how well trained they are at the high school level. That's not an indictment. That's just, it's just an acknowledgement of fact. And the best example of this is Sam Ellinger. I'm not going to suggest that Sam Ellinger was a really good player, was a five-star player coming out of high school. But when Sam Ellinger was a true freshman at Texas, how much better was he as a fourth year senior at Texas? How different was it?

Was there a significant gap? Was he way better as a senior than he was as a freshman? No, he wasn't. So, and that's because he went to Austin Westlake, was really well coached, really well developed. And when he arrived at Texas, he was ready to roll as a true freshman, but he never got a whole lot better. And I think there's a ton of examples of that that have been on Texas's roster over the course of the last decade. So they have made,

I think they've had to be more thoughtful and more careful about the guys they recruit to make sure they're not recruiting guys that are totally tapped out. They're recruiting guys that still have a lot of growth that can potentially be made within their system so that they're seven star players when they're seniors, not five star players. Like when they arrived. That's it. And like when I was covering Florida, when urban Meyer was the coach, he, I remember there was a first practice we were watching and there was a

freshman who looked great and he'd played at Don Bosco in New Jersey, one of the best high school programs in the country. And Urban had it after the practice. When we asked him about the guy, he said, listen, I'm not saying anything against anybody, but he's been coached better than anybody else in this recruiting class. Yeah. So he may is probably closer to his ceiling. Urban's like, watch what some of these other guys do over the next few years. And he was right. The player we were talking about was a good college player but not an nfl guy and then there were a bunch of nfl dudes that were on that recruiting class that didn't know what

they were doing the first day yeah and there's a million examples of that and you can go and you you go to practice i got to practice we go all over the place all these other schools go to florida state and georgia and all these some of these guys, they have played multiple sports. So, I mean, in Texas, you play football, you play football year round. Like it's like you usually pick one sport. Maybe, maybe you run track, maybe you play baseball, but you're probably only running track because it's going to get you in shape of football. You know what I mean? So, but when you look at other places that maybe come from smaller towns, there's, you know, 72 people in their graduating class and they had to play football, basketball,

baseball track. They, you know, played slow pitch co-ed softball on the community team. They're playing the saxophone on the halftime show and they're marching at halftime. They're doing everything. So they've developed a really wide array of skill sets, but they haven't really honed in on their craft. So I think that that's been really important for Texas in particular and A&M and all those that recruit the state of Texas to be mindful of that when evaluating the kids. So when I was in school and when I was coming out as a recruit, Texas's entire recruiting class, I mean, 90% of it was from the state of Texas. Now it's a whole heck of a lot lower. They're going to California.

They're going to Florida. They're going to Georgia. They're going to Alabama. They're going to other places. So it's a little bit more diverse as far as where guys are from. And, and I think that's led to maybe being able to, to develop guys a little bit better there at the college level than they might've been developed at the high school level. Yeah. And they also, it's not, so not you go in for junior day now, back then you go into

Mac's office. I don't know if you actually dropped to one knee and he just, you know, took the sword out and knighted you, but, but basically, you know, they'd run through their junior day and that suddenly they have 20 commits and they don't do that anymore. Well, Mac also said that if we offer them, they're coming. Yeah. So that was at that time, you know, late two thousands, early 2010s, they had to be really selective with who they gave offers to, because more often than not, that if you receive the Texas offer, you were going there. So that was, I think a little challenging as well, because they had to be a little bit more selective with who they took and they didn't always make the right decision.

Yeah. Let us, let us talk about your alma mater a little bit, because there is a quarterback competition going on. Uh, you've got a guy from texas and jaylen milrow who started a game last year against texas a&m tyler buckner the transfer from notre dame ty simpson uh coach's kid all duking it out and you've been in a quarterback competition in alabama before what what is that like when you are trying to win the starting job on Nick Saban's team? Mine was a little different than this one, naturally. I think our competition lasted like two or three practices.

Star Jackson, right? It was Star, and Star was a good player. But I had kind of really the year before, really the competition started when John Parker was a senior. John i had kind of really the year before you really the competition started when john parker was a senior john parker wilson was the starter the competition started kind of whoever won the backup job the year before that was the competition then you know i started as the starter and never i never gave up a rep i mean it just it was just different then and it was just um because the portal wasn't really a thing and you weren't worried about, hey, if this guy loses out, then he's out of here. So now you have to kind of artificially extend competitions, even though you probably don't necessarily have to. But that's just the way and it makes sense. Like if the portal was open back then, we probably have been rotating every day you know it's just the way the way it was so uh i think when you look at this one in particular uh jaylen milrow is or was going to get the first crack at it for sure uh and that's

in practice i'm not talking about the first game he's gonna get the first crack at it he's been there the longest has earned it um was the starter last year when Bryce got hurt and made a lot of really nice plays as a backup quarterback last year. Ty Simpson, they've been very excited about. They've been really looking forward to seeing what he can do now when he finally gets that opportunity. I think Ty is a really cerebral guy. I think he's a really intelligent guy in a sense that he's a pleaser. He's a coach's kid. He wants to do right. And I think he puts a lot of pressure on himself because he wants to be perfect. And being perfect is just impossible. I mean, did you ever have a game or a practice in your life where you graded out 100? I've never had anything I've done that I was perfect in. Never had a show, never had a story that was perfect, never.

Pass-fail, to me, passes 100, fails zero. So you probably had some pass-fail situations. I as well logged a couple hundreds there, but not many. Perfection is unattainable in this sport because you have to make split second decisions and it's not, and your footwork and you're dependent on other guys. And, and you, you know, that guy's got to be perfect on his route for me to be perfect on my throw. And if he's short, I'm late. And if he's deep, I'm early. And, and if my right tackle gets beat inside and I step left,

then guess what? That, that D ends in my lap. And I, you know, I should have stepped right, but I had to make that from an instinct. That's not even like a conscious decision. That's purely instinctive, and those take reps to develop. So I think he probably has an insanely high standard for himself and probably puts a little too much pressure on himself, and as a result, maybe doesn't always play with the confidence that he's capable of playing with.

And then Ty Buckner is a guy that just hasn't played a lot at all. I think his story is at this point pretty well documented. Missed his senior year of high school in 2020 in California. They canceled it because of COVID. In 2021, he was a spot player, a situational guy for Notre Dame. Talked to Brian Kelly. We did the opener that year. Notre Dame played against Florida State.

We did that game. And we were talking to Brian Kelly before the game. We're like, hey, look, Jack Cone's our starter. But you're going to see this kid, Tyler Buckner. He's got a lot of juice. And we just have to get him involved. He's a guy that we have really high hopes for and really high expectations for. And we just have to sprinkle him in a little bit.

He's not ready to be the guy, but we've got to sprinkle him in because we are doing ourselves a disservice by keeping him on the sidelines for 60 minutes of the game. So he got a little time there and did some nice things, but was really more within a package. Last year was supposed to be the guy. Hurts his shoulder there in the second game of the season so basically two of the last three years he's missed and the one he played was

situational so he just hasn't played a lot of football and i think he's still trying to develop the timing the speed the efficiency the processing those parts of playing the game that come with repetitions, he just hasn't had. So if everybody were equal, as far as the ceiling, Milrow's got the highest ceiling. He's got unbelievable speed and athleticism. He's extremely dynamic. If everything breaks down and everything goes haywire and all 10 guys offensively totally bust, he can still turn nothing into something.

Simpson has to stay within the offense a little bit more, but he's the best pure passer by a fairly wide margin from an accuracy standpoint, from pushing the ball down the field standpoint, from a consistency and decision-making standpoint, he's the best option there. And then Buckner is a blend of both. I don't think people realize how big he is. He's a physical runner and he's got pretty good juice himself. Now I think he's just developing a little bit more of the accuracy stuff that's going to come with repetition. So I think they have three good options. Everyone says if you have three, you have none. I don't agree with that. I think that's an old school and archaic way of thinking because if all three have

different skill sets, then you have three different offenses that you as a defense might have to prepare for. So ultimately I've said it on this platform. I've said it on other platforms. I still think it's going to be Ty Simpson in the long run, but I would be absolutely shocked if Milrow and Buckner don't have a role within the offense. Well, would you expect him to play a couple against middle Tennessee?

And then wouldn't you, you know? I mean, I, and I, like, I think it's really important because you can try to create competition and evaluate the quarterbacks, but the playing field is not level for evaluation. starting offensive line, which is one of the best in college football, and experienced wide receivers on the perimeter, even if they're going against the ones or the twos defensively, that guy with that supporting cast is going to have a significant advantage over the backup

quarterback or the guy that's running with the twos that day with a backup offensive line and the backup wide receivers and the inexperienced wide receivers. it's hard to have enough reps or hours in the day to evaluate every single guy on an even playing field. So the only way you can really do that is in live game situations where the starters are out there and guess what? In goes one guy, he goes in for a couple of series, in goes the next guy, he goes in for a couple of series,

you assess it, you ride the hot hand, you evaluate the game after the fact, and then maybe the guy that grades out better starts the following week. So I think that's the only way to really assess it, you ride the hot hand, you evaluate the game after the fact, and then maybe the guy that grades out better starts the following week. So I think that's the only way to really assess it, because if you're put, people all will look at the first scrimmage and say, well, Milrow lit it up, Ty Simpson didn't. Ty Simpson was running with the twos against the one defense. That's really hard to do.

Meanwhile, Milrow. You light that up, you're going to be the starter. No doubt. They actually came out of that scrimmage saying, he played great because that's an impossible situation to be in so milrow was with the ones against the twos and had a really nice day he did what he was supposed to do uh so now it's kind of putting those those days together and i think that competition will probably leak into the first week of the season so who's the one team that you're just excited to see on the field that you've wanted to see this version of this team on the field Wisconsin

ah me too yeah I mean wait look I I'm trying so hard not to be I try like you know me I really try to be thoughtful I really try not to be a reactionary I, you know, me, I, I really try to be thoughtful. I really try not to be a reactionary. I'm not a hot button guy. It's just not, it's not my style. I wish I had a little in me, you know, and probably bake more headlines and go viral more often. That's just not my style. I just don't do, I can't do it. Um, but I continue to look at Wisconsin this year, the same way I looked at TCU last year. And way I looked at TCU last year. And I actually really liked TCU last year. I'm not patting myself on the back cause I didn't have them in the national

championship, but I did have them playing for the big 12 title. Uh, and I, everybody else had them seventh in the, in the big 12. So you can pat yourself on the back. And Cole Kubrick will attest.

I had Kansas state and I had, I had TCU in the big 12 title and I had Kansas state winning it, but I had Adrian Martinez, a quarterback. title, and I had Kansas State winning it, but I had Adrian Martinez as quarterback. And I also had Chandler Moore as a quarterback at TCU. So don't worry about that. It's not entirely important, but I digress. Braden Locke at Wisconsin is like, let's just have it again.

100%. Yes, my prognostications last year in the big 12 were very good. However, they were completely misguided. Um, but I liked TCU. I thought they'd be like a nine win team. I thought it was going to be total chaos in the pack in the big 12 last year. I thought it was going to be throw everybody. Everybody's going to have three losses and we'll figure it out. Um, meanwhile, TCU, I felt like there was a regime there for 20 years that had had great moments, that But at the end of Gary Patterson's tenure, it had gotten really stale and they just needed a little bit of life. They just needed a little

kick in the butt. So that's what Sonny Dyches did. He infuses some offensive identity, brings in Garrett Riley. They run some crazy tempo. They start to get going a little bit. Next thing you know, they're cooking with gas. Well, now we step into Wisconsin this year. And while Paul Crist hadn't been there for two decades, he'd been there a long time. And the regime, the Barry Alvarez regime with Bielema, Crist, and obviously Barry Alvarez, they'd been doing things a certain way for the better part of the last three decades. Now in comes Luke Fickle. And there's still an established culture of winning. There's still an understanding and an emphasis on the line of scrimmage, but you're bringing now Phil

Longo and they're going to infuse some energy into an offense that at times over the last handful of years, albeit they tried to get to the forefront. They tried to get to the RPO world that just wasn't who they were. Now you get some energy, you get some enthusiasm kind of infused into the program and you still have really good backs. You still have a good quality offensive line. You still have a very strong and proud defense and you bring in a bunch of transfer portal wide receivers and you hold over three from the year before. And then you bring in Tanner Mordecai.

And I think Tanner Mordecai is one of the most underappreciated guys in college football. I think that guy's legit, really good. Have liked him all the way back to his time at Oklahoma when he was a backup before they played Joe Burrow in the, in the bowl game. Yeah.

Semi-final game. I'm sitting there with Tebow and we're watching the, and he's oohing and aahing about Spencer Rattler. I'm like, dude, do you see the number 15 can spin it? Like this kid is pretty good. This is not going to be some runaway competition next year.

So I've had a little bit of an infatuation with him for years. And I think it's a perfect fit to go with Phil Longo's offense. So I think Wisconsin, you look at their schedule, with the exception of Ohio State at their place, which will be a night game. They've already announced it's on NBC at night. You know that play's going to be bonkers for that one. That's the only game where they're a legit underdog.

Every other game's either a toss-up or they're favored. So I think 10 wins is well within reason for Wisconsin, which would have them in the Big Ten title game. And who knows, in a one-game season, you're playing against, say, Ohio State. Ohio State's got a couple questions in the secondary as far as giving up explosive plays and we know wisconsin and phil longer are going to create those so it wouldn't shock me if wisconsin shocked the world yeah the

second luke fickle took that job i said they're not trying to win the big 10 west anymore they're trying to win the big 10 and the national title like that. That is a, that is a mindset change that Wisconsin has done. And I'm with you. I cannot wait to see it. Greg, this has been an absolute pleasure. Hopefully we'll do a home and home and I can, I'll show up on your show, but I love it. This is all about doing it the right way, dude. Like that's like, I'm, I love your show. I love Josh Pate. I love the cube show. Like I, I listened to my little,

I do all my workouts and stuff and I'm a workout warrior. Like, uh, but I listened to all the podcasts on repeat and this is obviously one of them. And you guys are doing an awesome job and have so enjoyed it. I'm happy for the move that you've made and you do it the right way. And we'll continue to support you ever where we can,

any way we can. Well, I will try to pump you up for when you're in a squat rack. So you just let me know when, when my show's up in the rotation on leg day and I'll make sure there's so much juice. It's just raw the whole time. Well,

that's really nice of you. I'm more like into the lunges and the body weight exercises as far as the lower body's concerned. Like there's no need, like there's no need at this point. I'm not getting under the bar I have, but if I, if you see me under the bar with more than two 25 on there, like come get a weight belt on me. We're old people. We don't do that. No. Yeah. Like honestly, I need to be doing like

one 35 tops. Like I'm not, I'm not, and I tell you what I'm not doing. I'm not putting the pad on the, on the bar either. No, that ain't happening. Like that's, I've been training. My, my, my son has gotten to the age where he's allowed to lift weights now, and he's asked to put the pad on, and we're like, no, I don't think you want to do that. Can't do it.

Can't do it. People will look down on you. Don't do that. Thou shall not judge, except if you put a pad on your bar doing squats. Yeah, just learn to pop your traps out. Greg, thank you so much. Appreciate it, buddy.

The great Greg McElroy. And that was the comparison to TCU with this year's Wisconsin. I had not thought about that before. But as soon as he said it, it was like, oh, you're absolutely right. This does feel very similar because Gary Patterson's regime, all the good things, the reason there were good players when Sonny Dyches was there was because Gary Patterson was a great evaluator, and that hadn't changed,

but maybe he hadn't been able to keep up with the game itself as the head coach, but was still feeding good players in the system, doing it the right way and it allowed Sonny Dykes who is a good coach and a good builder of programs to come in and have immediate success same thing Paul Christ is a good coach it wasn't working out but that doesn't mean Wisconsin doesn't have good raw material to work with and now you have this guy who took Cincinnati to the college football playoff, helped build Ohio State as an assistant. This is potentially a big, big time jump

that Wisconsin can make. And I'll tease you a little bit. Sunday night show, we're gonna have another guest, Wisconsin grad, hosts a very big podcast, and he's also very excited. So there will be more Badgers talk. But right now, we got to talk about the team that is trying to three-peat. We haven't talked a ton about Georgia because we know how good Georgia is. We know the schedule probably isn't going to challenge them a whole lot, but this is the two-time defending national champ. They have an open quarterback job that has not officially been filled. We got to get some intel. And so we go to Jake Rowe from Dogs HQ, who will give us the best camp intel from Athens. Here's Jake. We welcome Jake Rowe from Dogs HQ. It's weird, Jake. We keep talking

around Georgia, but we haven't really talked about Georgia much on the show because it feels like they're just set up. They're going to compete for the national title again, and everything is hunky-dory. But I imagine if you ask Kirby Smart that, he's got a long list of things he'd like to take care of before they open their season. Yeah, I mean, it's just the other preseason. Kirby is already – we've got a long, long, long way to go. Some guys don't want it.

The mind games, the seven and five mind games, don't just get played out in the media. I think those get played out really hard behind the scenes. And, you know, it's something Kirby's good at. I think he's probably pulling from a big bag of tricks at this point. And, listen, man, I get it, you know, the whole dancing around talking about Georgia. There's really one question it seems like everybody's asking right now.

Can anybody beat Georgia? Absolutely. Georgia has a new quarterback. Georgia has – I'm not worried about offensive coordinator as much as I am quarterback, as much as I am, you know, left tackle, as much as I am, you know, just the overall makeup of a team that's trying to three-peat. I remember when USC tried to do it years ago, and they fought tooth and nail against Fresno State,

and everybody, all comers, because it's hard to keep the focus week to week. We'll see if Georgia can do that. But, yeah, Kirby's playing the game right now, that's for sure. Well, let's talk about the quarterback position because I think we all assume it's going to be Carson Beck, but there's been no official announcement of who it's going to be and you and you know we read the site with you guys and uh you'll see that that uh Gunnar Stockton or Brock Vandegrift has had a good day and it's

like okay well is it is it really over so where do they stand right now in terms of QB well I mean I think Carson Beck I mean I think someone asked the other day, you know, what's your confidence level? 9.5 that Carson Beck is going to be the starter. But it may have been at a 10 before preseason practice began because Brock Vandegrift has had a really good camp. I think he's made up some ground. The issue I think you run into with those guys is number one, knowing, you know, Kirby Smart and the way he likes to run the program. The fact that that that Carson Beck has so many more snaps and it's still not a ton of snaps, but, you know, 100, 150, 200 snaps in his career is going to play a factor in that. I think that we've seen that before. Seniority matters at the quarterback position um and also the fact

that brock vandergrift i think his ceiling you know when you if you take great brock vandergrift and great carson beck i think it's probably similar but when you look at floors and hey what happens when it goes bad which you know you know as well as i do andy these coaches love to think about that scenario what's the worst and who's the least bad whenever it's bad? I think that the floor for both guys is very different. Carson Becks is a little higher, and Brock Vandegrift is kind of in some ways unknown, but also concerning them, I think, is it's kind of bad. And I think we saw some of that in the spring game.

So with Mike Bobo calling the plays now, obviously he and Kirby Smart go way back, but is he going to handle a quarterback decision or situation differently than maybe Todd Munkin would? I don't think so, because I think Kirby's going to be heavily involved in that. I think they want the same things, which is they want somebody that's athletic enough.

They've got it in both of their quarterbacks and even Gunnar Stockton there too. Somebody's athletic enough to extend a play, but somebody accurately and accurate enough to make the layups and the plays that they can design and get them going there. I think Mike Bobo is going to be very similar to Todd Munkin, and that's why I'm not super concerned about it. If anything, I think Bobo, we know, we've seen it already probably. He brings a little bit more oomph in recruiting, you know,

a little bit more involvement there. But I also think he's – there was a lot of run game stuff when Georgia was under Mike Bobo before where teams knew Georgia was going to run the ball, and they just figured it out. A lot of it was having really good tailbacks. I mean, Todd Gurley and Nick Chubb and things of that nature. But they also got really creative. I think Mike Bobo brings some of the good elements of what Todd Munkin did,

especially with him learning under him, and also maybe some of the good elements and some of the good things that Georgia had go on under Jim Chaney where they just kind of figured out, hey, we've got to run the football. How do we make it happen? So, wait, you're saying that Bobo might run the damn ball? He might. Oh, wow.

Okay. Well, let's talk about left tackle because Broderick Jones off to the NFL, who does replace him? Right now from a starting perspective, I would say Ernest Green. You know, I think he's a redshirt freshman, you know, out of Bellflower, California, big-time player. I mean, he's not your prototypical left tackle in terms of size, probably 6'3.5", 6'4", but very long, very athletic, very good in the run game.

Austin Blaske, who has dealt with an illness kind of throughout spring preseason practice, he is a fifth-year guy or Yeah. Fourth year guy, I believe. And he's a guy that's going to be a factor as well. I think what Georgia wants to do, what Stacy Searles wants to do is they want to have three tackles and they want to have at least three guards and they want to play them all. They want to give them a chance to play, not only just to keep guys fresh, but to build depth as the season goes on. Georgia's got the luxury of doing that early this season. And it also kind of, you know, has a big-time benefit coming over into next year

because all those snaps that Marius Mims played last year has him sitting as one of the best right tackles in the SEC. And, yeah, and it's interesting because, you know, a lot of people, why not just move Marius Mims over to left? That's not how people think anymore. You know, you watch Tennessee with Darnell Wright. He was better on the right side.

He got drafted in the top 10 as a right tackle. That may be a Marius Mims future as well. Absolutely. And, you know, there are things you can do to kind of protect one side of the line of scrimmage, right? If you take your best lineman, you put him where he's most comfortable and say, all right, this is your edge. We're going to leave you one-on-one a lot. Then you can afford to kind of do some things to help your left tackle out who may not be as experienced or comfortable or talented. Yeah. And the other big offensive question for me is with Brock Bowers,

we know what he can do, but Oscar dealt now as, as really that second tight end, how different is Brock Bowers and Oscar dealt on the field at the same time from Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington on the field at the same time from Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington on the field at the same time? I think very different, and not just from a blocking perspective, but Oscar Delp's really good, and I think he's going to be a great before-the-catch tight end. I think he's athletic enough to get open and create separation

and be a mismatch problem. But the thing, the most underrated part of Darnell Washington to me was he could take a two-yard pass and turn it, like he did against the one that everybody turns to against Oregon where he leaped the guy. He is – he was just incredible after the catch. He was a very tough guy to bring down. I think, you know, Delp can bring some of that.

But, you know, then you've got the blocking. I think so much so it's going to be different that Georgia's not going to spend as much time in 12 personnel as they did last year. And I think also injuries and youth at tight end is going to cause that because, you know, you look, Darnell Washington left, Eric Gilbert had two other guys transfer out and Godey and Brett Sither. Well, they lost four experienced tight ends at the end of last season. They brought Brock Bowers back. They brought Oscar Delp back.

They signed two freshmen. One of those freshmen just had surgery on his ankle and lost some lucky. And the other one, Pierce Sperling, didn't even play tight end in high school. So I think another thing that kind of pushes them towards more 11 personnel and three wide receivers is the fact that they don't have as much experience to tie it in. Then you throw in Dominic Lovett, you know, one of the SEC's best from last year in the slot. I think they're going to want to try to have him on the field

as much as possible. You brought up an interesting point the other day. You were talking about Dominic Lovett, and he played for Missouri last year. If he doesn't get hurt in the Georgia game, Missouri may beat Georgia. Yeah. Now Lovett plays for Georgia. First 16 minutes of that game, he was targeted eight times,

caught six passes for 84 yards. Now he also had one of the key blunders in that game when Missouri broke out a long run. He kind of got caught watching. If he's not watching the play, Malachi Starks never runs the kid down and holds Missouri out of the end zone. But if he doesn't get banged up in that game, it's 100% right. And I think that was one of the big reasons Georgia went after him, is they saw what he did to their defense. And I continue to hear great things about him. One of the, I think, best anecdotes I've got on him thus far is somebody told me that's very close to the program.

They haven't had anybody to run after the catch like that in the slot position since Isaiah McKenzie. And, you know, we're talking about Dominic Lovett is a bigger, stronger, you know, maybe even faster version of a slot receiver than Isaiah McKenzie. Wow. And that is something they've needed. Now, they've got Ladd McConkie. Who else are they going to rely on outside?

Well, they've got Marcus Rosemey. Jack Sane is going to be an X receiver for them. Dylan Bell flashed for them big time last year, and they love him at that spot. He's put together like a running back, but he's also very fast. He's going to play that X spot. Rara Thomas was the guy they brought in from Mississippi State. He's had a tough time staying healthy for long periods of time thus far.

It's been a hamstring. It's been an ankle. It's been a foot. That's somebody that I think if he can get healthy and put some practices together, he was Mississippi State's leading wide out last year. He's also had a tough time kind of adapting to the offense, you know, from Coach Leach's spread to, you know, kind of Georgia's more pro-style stuff.

But that's going to be the base. And I'll say this, too. Keep an eye on Yazeed Haynes, a freshman out of Pennsylvania. They're really high on him. I don't think he's quite ready. He's probably – he's going to look like – on the hoof, he's going to look like Devontae Smith and that's not exactly a good thing he's very thin but they love his his raw speed and route running ability I think

they're going to give him some opportunities as well and you got also I guess we shouldn't forget Arian Smith you know probably the the biggest game of his life and one of the biggest moments of his life there in the in the Peach Bowl last year. So who's the next household name on Georgia's defensive line? They've cranked out these first-rounders the past couple years. Who are we going to be talking about in the middle of the season? Like, oh, okay, that's the next guy. Well, okay, I've got my brain and I've got my gut here. My brain says Nazir Stackhouse.

That's what makes sense is Nazir is a nose tackle, but he brings a playmaking element to the position. I think he could have a breakout year. My gut says, Kristen Miller, a four-star prospect. They signed out of Cedar Grove high school. I mean, just an absolute football factory in terms of prospects. He has had, he had a good spring and, you know, sometimes when you hear, oh man, this kid, you know, we can't oh, man, this kid, we can't run a play because he's doing this.

Sometimes when you hear that, you kind of pause. I'm like, is it that great? Well, with him, there's almost like a quiet, hey, man, this kid has gotten so much better. This guy, I mean, he's got an incredible motor. He's really talented. We're excited about him, that type of thing. And. You know, he's really talented. We're, we're excited about him, that type of thing. And that's kind of what you're hearing about Kristen Miller. And it

almost makes me like him even more that nobody's really going above and beyond trying to make it seem like it's something that, that maybe it won't be. I think he's a guy that's going to have a pretty good season for Georgia. Well, that's the sort of thing Georgia would keep under wraps. If they, if they have another Jalen Carter, they're probably not going to announce that to the world right now. They'd probably like somebody to be surprised by that when they see it on the field. If they have another Jalen Carter right now, then they're going to have college football coaches

from across the country come in and taking soil samples in Athens because they've got something in the water. Because those guys don't – another one of those doesn't just pop up right off the other. So, yeah, they're going to be sending some scientists into the classic city. Well, and is that something that people – because we talk about this with Alabama's quarterbacks where they were on just this unprecedented run of one after the other after the other, and don't be shocked if there's a drop-off at some point.

With Georgia, in the middle of that defense, you've had Jordan Davis, to the other and don't be shocked if there's a drop-off at some point with Georgia you know in the middle of that defense you've you've had Jordan Davis you've had Jalen Carter, Devontae Wyatt, Trayvon Walker like that doesn't always happen even if you're recruiting better than anybody else in the country. No that's a good point and Trey Scott deserves a lot of credit for that I mean he he's a big-time developer I think one of the cool things that Trey Scott does and I don't want to get too inside baseball here is is he teaches he teaches players to be more than just two gap run stuffers he teaches them how to play one gap he he coaches the motor into them he he you know they they've got to earn it they've got to earn it from week to week and and you know the way they push Jordan Davis even when he was already a star and getting all sorts of attention, the way they just kind of

stayed on him and never let him kind of the, they kind of put the better never resting on him, you know, before anybody. And, you know, you see guys like Devante Wyatt just stick around and comes back for a, for a, you know, COVID season basically, and becomes a first-round pick. They're doing a really good job developing, and Trey Scott does a really good job of rounding these guys out. Yeah, and it is important and also just helps you in terms of messing with an offense's head. If you've got guys that are skilled at two-gap run stuffing,

but also guys that can shoot gaps and maybe get some interior pass rush. Plus, I imagine the NFL teams like the diversity of skills. And they also like to, you know, I've talked to Trey Scott before, and one of the things that caught my eye was, hey, we want to do to offensive lines what people say offensive lines do to defensive lines. It's like, you know, everybody's talking about, you know, coming into a game, you know, hey, that big offensive line is going to wear them out. Well, Georgia wants to take their defensive front,

and they want to wear the offensive line out. They want it when the fourth quarter comes in for it to be kind of Katie, bar the door. Let's keep these guys out of the backfield, and they can't because they're exhausted. Yeah, and the other thing is offensive linemen tend to play the whole game. And Georgia has the luxury of rotating in maybe even more than anybody else which is which is pretty impressive but all right every everybody's bagged on this

schedule we all know they're supposed to play oklahoma the league came in and said we can't have one of these be a non-conference and one of these be a conference game so you're not playing that one so it's not the greatest non-conference schedule in the world. It's not the toughest schedule in the world, but where are the landmines on this schedule for Jordan? You know, I know there's a lot of chatter about Spencer Rattler right now, and I'm not saying that he's not a good quarterback. It's going to be really, I already know right now, Andy, I can write the Monday script for you, or maybe it's post-game for UAB or whoever it is week two. Kirby Smart's going to call the crowd out.

All right, he's going to be like, hey, we need you. We got to have you. And they're going to have to come into that. And not only that, it's going to be kind of their first big test. It's at home. I don't see South Carolina as a landmine, even though I think that's going to be a good football team, and I think they've got a good quarterback.

Tennessee is obviously, you know obviously one of those because you got to go play at Neyland Stadium in November. The best thing for Georgia in that situation is for Tennessee to struggle earlier in the year and go ahead and lose three games because then maybe that takes some of the juice out of what that might be because if Tennessee comes into that game one loss with a chance to secure the East, that's going to be a snake pit. And I think Georgia can definitely lose it. That's really the only one I see because I don't see Georgia losing a home game, not a big home game, not a home game where, again, Kirby can do like he did before Arkansas or he can do like he did before Tennessee. Because Sanford Stadium, outside of maybe two or three instances in the first 20 years that

I followed the team, was a difference in the game. I've seen it be the difference in the game two or three times in the past two or three years. Well, and the abundance of first-round players on the field tends to help too. Well, Jake, I appreciate it. Can't wait. We had to check in on the defending national champs because we can't just assume that they're going to roll over everybody, but it does sound like they are in a position to roll over some people. It's a great situation for them to be in if they want to try to make history. It's just a matter of the most important position on the field, quarterback. Can they get that figured out?

And if they do, you know, it's sky's the the limit jake rowe dogs hq thank you so much got it that's jake rowe georgia trying to three-peat good chance they might or at least might make the playoff and have a chance but extra point focuses on a story that we talked about last week. Last week, we told you about Daryl Jackson, who's a defensive tackle. Started his career at Maryland. He transferred to Miami. In the fall last year, he decided to leave Miami to transfer to Florida State. Now, he's from Havana, Florida. Spelled like Havana, Cuba, but it's pronounced Havana. It's right on the Florida-Georgia border. It is basically suburban Tallahassee. He went to Florida State to be closer to his mom. She is ailing. He asked for another waiver so that he could play right away. The NCAA had said

potentially that they may be tougher on second waiver request or second transfers who wanted waivers because you get a free first transfer. Well, his waiver request was denied. Now, what really rankles the Florida State people is he enrolled at Florida State on January 9th, started taking classes there. The rule that tightened up those waiver policies didn't even get passed until January 11th. So basically, he's being impacted by a rule that was not even in place when he transferred. Meanwhile, he's got a situation that under the old set of transfer rules, when you didn't get the free transfer and you had to apply for a waiver to play right away every time you transferred. This is one of those the NCAA would have granted. That's the situation where they would have granted a waiver. But the NCAA, because

they lack a vice president of common sense, denied this waiver. And now you've already had Marco Rubio, one of Florida's senators, send a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker. On Thursday, Ross Dellinger from Sports Illustrated obtained a letter signed by 12 Florida House of Representatives members, excuse me, Florida representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives. So all the people that Charlie Baker has been hired to lobby as the NCAA president, well, now he's made all the Florida ones mad at him because the people in his office can't figure out what they're trying to do. So what you're trying to do, Charlie Baker, is you were hired to be a lobbyist in chief, essentially. That's why they hired the former governor of Massachusetts and not somebody who actually knows stuff about college sports. Your job is to get Congress to pass an NIL law so you guys can keep athletes from making more money,

which is really what you've been hired to do if we boil it all down. Wouldn't it be smart if you didn't piss those people off? Well, guess what? A bipartisan group of 12 members of the U.S. House of Representatives is now pissed off at you because your people couldn't grant a waiver to someone that no one would have complained about him getting, except maybe the coaches at Miami because they wanted to keep him. That's it.

I believe it was DJ Khaled, that great wise man, who's also from South Florida. You said, congratulations, you played yourself. Congratulations, NCAA. You keep playing yourself over and over and over again. It's hard to do this, but you manage every time. We will talk to you on Sunday night. Very big guest on Sunday night.

I'm going to leave it at that. Very big guest. We'll talk to you Sunday.