Andy & Ari On3 - Josh Heupel and Tennessee are ready for a NEW ERA | SEC tiers

Episode Date: July 17, 2024

Back in Dallas to recap Day 2 of SEC Media Days, and we have a PACKED Wednesday show for you.(0:00-3:26) Intro(3:27-13:13) Josh Heupel Interview(13:14-17:38) Jesse Simonton Joins(17:39-23:49) Tiers of the SEC(23:50-25:44) Ole Miss(25:45-26:49) Texas(26:50-28:47) Tennessee(28:48-32:06) LSU(32:07-34:54) Oklahoma(34:55-37:07) Texas A&M(37:08-45:41) Georgia(45:42-58:55) John McDaid, SEC's Coordinator of Officials John McDaid joins(58:56-1:02:14) Horns Down?(1:02:15-1:10:02) Oklahoma DB Billy Bowman joins(1:10:03-1:10:44) Conclusion - See you tomorrow!Tennessee coach Josh Heupel joins the show from SEC Media Days to discuss how the Volunteers plan to take on the new version of the SEC. Tennessee’s defense is the deepest it has been since Heupel took over, and Nico Iamaleava looks ready to step in as QB1.Next, Andy and On3’s Jesse Simonton talk about where Tennessee fits in the SEC’s tiers. Alabama and Georgia are comfortably in the top tier, but who might be able to join them there in the 12-team College Football Playoff era?Later, SEC coordinator of officials John McDaid joins Andy to discuss how in-helmet communications might affect the game. McDaid also mentions a small rule change that could have a big effect on a game.Next, Oklahoma safety Billy Bowman joins to discuss the variety of a college football career that now moves from the Big 12 to the SEC. Bowman also explains how long a 100-yard pick six feels when it’s happening.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et! https://www.youtube.com/@On3sportsHost: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey, Trey Yanity

Welcome to Andy Staples on three greetings from SEC media days in lovely Dallas, Texas. Got another big day on tap. Got the Alabama Crimson Tide showing up and Nick Saban's here working for ESPN, which man that feels weird, but he's here. But Kalen DeBoer will bring the Crimson Tide in. And I, they got a reason to be pretty excited. This is not a team that is going to take a huge step back, but you got them. You got Florida, tons of questions about Billy Napier and company. You got Mississippi State. First year coaching situation. Jeff Lebby comes in.

He left Oklahoma. He was the OC there. Oklahoma was just here on Tuesday. And then, of course, Texas. Texas has been chewing up a lot of the scenery here at SEC Media Days without actually being here. So cannot wait to hear from them. But we got to talk about the teams that were here on Tuesday

because maybe the most loaded day in SEC Media Days history in terms of what is expected from the teams, from all four teams that were in attendance. So, yeah, Georgia, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Tennessee. These are all teams with playoff aspirations this year. They all believe they should wind up in the college football playoff this year. Georgia, I think everybody feels pretty confident about that. We'll talk to Jesse Simonson later about the tiers of the SEC.

Georgia's clearly in that top tier. The other three on Tuesday trying to get into that top tier. Who has the best chance? Who can wind up at the end of the season in the 12-team playoff? It's possible multiple teams that were here on Tuesday wind up in the 12-team playoff. Just don't know which ones. But we'll talk to Jesse about who can climb into that top tier. But right now, first, right out of the gate, here's a coach who's trying to get in that tier. And his team, I think, has a

very good chance. They got a nice schedule draw. Things are evolving offensively. Defensively, they're much better than they have been. And this guy sounds a lot more loose and relaxed than we've seen him before. And I realize we probably read too much into that sometimes, but Josh Heupel sounds like a guy who is really confident in his team. When he took over at Tennessee a few years ago, it was a tough situation. They had an NCAA investigation coming in. They had just changed athletic directors and obviously hiring Danny White as the athletic director, probably the reason Josh Hypel got hired at Tennessee. And I remember at the time we kind of looked at it like, okay, Danny White's coming from UCF. He's bringing UCF's coach. How's that going to work? Well,

I think Tennessee people have been very, very pleased with Josh Heupel's performance, but can he take it to that next level? That's the biggest question. Can he take them from they're now pretty good again, can they be very good? Can they be a team that actually competes for the SEC title, actually competes for national titles? That is the expectation at Tennessee, fairly or unfairly. Can Josh Heupel join that group?

Let's talk to him now. We are here with Tennessee coach Josh Heupel, who you can't see it, but there is somebody playing the video game across from us. It's in the background. Yes, so Josh's last night was like my weekend where basically we spent our time getting our asses beat by our own kid at the college football video game. Yeah, Tennessee versus Tennessee on the TV with my son.

This Tennessee guy. Crushed in the head-to-head battle. Did he critique your play calling? I didn't critique the play calling. He questioned some of my decision making. Really? Yeah. Played aggressive.

A few onside kicks. Does he call the sports talk shows locally too? He doesn't. He does not. All right. I got to ask though, since you drew the playbook, how's the playbook? Well, I didn't draw that playbook. I did not draw that playbook. I can put you in touch with the guy. Yeah, probably need to get that done. So what did you think though? You and I are about the same age. Did you ever think a video game would look like that? No, it's unbelievable how far it's come from the original version that it used to play. It's cool for college football fans to be able to have that game back. Well, there's so many kids that are like my favorite player to play with is James Pierce or my or Nico. Like that's that's the crazy part that I never thought about until just just this year.

Like and I played as James Pierce the first night I had it. I was like, oh, wow. How'd you do? So my son was tired of beating me, so he's like, you play us Tennessee, I'll play us Hawaii. James Pierce had three sacks in the first two series. Yeah, that's a good start. And then my son, Range, quit. We need to get him off to that kind of start this fall too. Exactly.

All right, I'm glad we mentioned this. We've got to talk about your defense because this is as deep as I can remember of a D-line that Tennessee's had in years. You get Keenan Peely back. You'd hoped to have him last year. You lose him right before the season. How excited are you about that group? I really am excited about defense, who we have in the building,

but what Coach Banks and our defense staff have done over the first three years, nothing short of remarkable. There's a lot of areas that we need to get better at, too, get all that but you go back to when we first got here all the things that we had to navigate players loss with the reductions that we had to take our best is still way out in front of us this is the the deepest that we've been but length athleticism up front uh short area quickness block destruction second second level. Athleticism on the third level. Really excited to get in training camp, grow with these guys, and go play.

And this is something I've talked to a lot of coaches who are offensive guys, and it feels like it's hard culturally when you run an up-tempo offense. Don't paint me that way as an offensive guy. I'm not going to. That's why I was going to ask you that. That's why I was going to ask you that because you haven't done that. You get to Tennessee, you find out you have more athletic offensive linemen, you add more physicality to the run game. Defensively, you clearly want to be dominant on defense.

Yeah. But how do you do that? How do you practice that way? Well, statistically, yards per carry defensively led the league last year. Tackles for loss, sacks, top two over the last two years in all those categories, turnovers. There's so many things that we've done well. Now, there's more out there for us to go take.

But for us, like, we want to be dominant, not just good, but dominant on the defensive side of the ball. That is the standard of Tennessee football. Al Wilson, Reggie White. Absolutely. They're echoing through Neyland Stadium right now as we speak. John Henderson. That's right.

Big John, right? But for us in our structure, what we do in our practices, maintaining balance, not playing with tempo, formation, shift, trade, motion. So they have to communicate through that, chase the football. When do we do our tempo period? Why are we doing it? How do we do it the right way for all phases? Those are things that we've continued and I've continued to get better at during the duration of my coaching career.

It just seems like such a hard balance to strike and I know Brent Venables is here today too and he and Dabo pulled it off when they were together at Clemson where you you could actually have a tempo offense have a dominant defense it's not impossible yeah you look at possessions per game where we rank within the league it would shock everybody that's watching the show. And that happens. You've got to understand situational football. You've got to control the ball when it needs to be controlled.

All those things are a part of it. So speaking of that, you've got a new quarterback coming in. How valuable was Nico being able to start that bowl game and you getting that period of practice, kind of extra spring practice with him? Hugely, vitally important to the continued growth of him this offseason. The experience of knowing you're going to be the guy, completely different than just getting thrown into the game.

Owning the preparation from the video to the practice field, the time on task with the other ten guys, then that creating the urgency that you need in the offseason. He's had a great offseason. Really excited to get into training camp with him. And it feels like Iowa is kind of the perfect defense to test him against because they're not going to give you anything easy. They're going to always be in the right.

And it felt like he didn't try too hard in that game. He played within himself. One of the best compliments you can give a quarterback is from practice to the game, the game doesn't speed up. It's slowed down for him using complete control. There's some things and outcomes on plays that he would want differently. But that's why he practiced and continued to grow. So expectations obviously very high this year. You've dealt with that now. How do you deal with it within the team when you're talking to those guys?

Because having lived in Knoxville, I don't know that there's a place in the country that is more intense when it comes to how everybody feels about the football team. And everywhere you go, it is, okay, you guys going do it this year i i how do you have them deal with that that's just the way you want it yeah that's why you come to rocky top because they do care 365 days out of the year um the expectations outside of the building are never going to be higher than what they are inside of our room yeah and our guys our guys, in today's landscape, you don't block out the noise, but you can be intentional on what you live in your headspace versus moving it out of your headspace.

And for us, this group has been really good at how intentional they are in their work habits every single day. On the practice field during spring ball, in the weight room, just the consistency of it, and that's where success lies. You have long-term goals, dreams, visions, where you want to get to. It comes down to being where your feet are and winning that moment. The other thing I've noticed, especially talking to your players versus talking to some of the other players around,

you guys kind of let your players let their personalities fly. And you give them a little more freedom. But it's interesting because coaches usually don't want to do that. What is the decision-making process behind that, and how does it work? Yeah, control the controllables. Yeah. Monitor and care about things that actually impact who they are and their success on the field.

Yep. And then you've got to let them be themselves too. And if you're not, you run dry as a human being and you run dry as a football player. You've got to embrace, but you've got to enjoy the journey. Yeah. And my playing experience I think is a big part of why I view it that way. I let the players pick the things that I don't think have any indication on

whether we're winning or losing. Let them have fun and enjoy the journey. And you were a very tight-knit Oklahoma team, it seems like, because I know people who got into that group, and it feels like they're still tight. Everybody seems very, you know, like that was a group that loved each other. Yeah. How much does that matter when you're trying to win a national championship? Talent is one thing, but you've got to be connected. You've got to care about the people around you. You've got to be committed to each other.

That's what we are still building in our room, but what we have built, too. And it's an ongoing process day by day. And, you know, today picking three guys to come up here and represent them, it was really tough. Oh, yeah. There's a bunch of guys. And I think that speaks to the culture that we have. We've hatched a plan.

By the way, Cooper Mays helped me come up with this, but then Omari has seconded it. Elijah Simmons, one of your D tackles. Yeah. Voice of an angel. He does have a voice of an angel. We're trying to figure out, do we think we could make opposing offensive lineman

false start if he starts just singing a Boyz II Men song pre-snap? Yeah, that might work. I mean, Michigan allegedly had the guy who could fake the clap with his tongue. Oh, geez. So it's not illegal. It's legal. But, I mean, that's definitely not illegal to sing to them. Yeah, we'll work on that with Big E during training camp.

Well, Rodney Garner, I'm sure, will be thrilled to hear about that. Rodney would love that. Coach, appreciate it. I appreciate it. That is Tennessee coach Josh Heupel. This is Jesse Simonton on 3 National Writer. Former Tennessee beat writer, too. We've both been Tennessee beat writers in the past.

We have. I joked with you earlier. Amari Thomas sat down with you. That'll air at some point. It was myself and On3's VolQuest, Austin Price, that recorded his recruitment video way back six or seven years ago. That's how long this COVID baby season stuff is still taking place. I was going to say, we also talked to 26-year-old Tennessee linebacker Kenan Peely, who spent most of his career at BYU.

But yeah, interesting though, a couple of defensive guys from Tennessee, and you just heard Josh Heupel say, look, don't lump me in with those offensive up-tempo guys. I want to play a dominant defense. He used the phrase block destruction, which I love. That's one of my favorite new football phrases. They didn't use block destruction back in the day, but block destruction sounds like something awesome.

You know, Heupel is a guy who his program, for as much as it garners attention because of the offense, defensively, Tim Banks' unit has progressed each and every year. They were terrible on third downs in red zone after year one, made the leap year two. Last year they were awesome at tackles for loss. I think they were like first or second in the conference in sacks. Really good yards per carry.

Now have they fixed the secondary? If they fix the secondary, if they're not, you know, just Swiss cheese back there like they were a year ago, we might be talking playoff. Yeah, and we'll see how good Boo Carter is. That's the one everybody's excited about, the freshman. Obviously, Nico on the other side of the ball is going to get all the headlines. But I think James Pierce, who your NFL draft net crowd loves to talk about now.

But I do think those defensive tackles, you know, they're the ones that are going to make it go. And it feels like, you know, with Norman Lott, Big E, like Elijah Simmons, like they have these 300-pound bodies that are capable back there, and they'll be able to, to make them fresh. Yeah. I mean, I,

I wrote a column earlier, uh, this, this off season on three that for as much talk as everybody has an exciting, it's natural. I mean, everyone's playing the EA game.

They want to play with Tennessee because of Nico, they want to play with those, you know, wide splits and the, and the receivers. Uh, but I wrote a column that i basically said i think their playoff hopes hinge on you know the next evolution of tim banks's defense yeah and i think

him bringing hypo bringing two defensive players you know here to sec media days and as old as that defense is going to be kind of speaks to him believing the same thing and so there's some we talk about them getting a pretty good schedule draw. I don't know if they got the easiest schedule draw, but it's close, but what they have to do if they want to make the playoff, there's four games that I think they have to split. So they're going to be playing Grayson McCall and NC state at a conference week two that's in Charlotte.

They're at Oklahoma. They play Alabama. They're at Georgia. I think they got to win two of those. And then of course they got to win the rest of them, which look Alabama, they're at Georgia. I think they've got to win two of those. And then, of course, they've got to win the rest of them, which, look, Florida's coming, but Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, they seem to have their number between Heupel and Stoops. So I think if they split two and two, those four,

we are potentially talking about a playoff team. We are, and those are the small margins and that kind of speaks to something else hypo said today which he it it it should be said he was extremely confident and and much more relaxed and loose than he typically is in these media settings a lot of times he's pretty bland and pretty just kind of you know white-faced and and today he was kind of smiling laughing he. He joked with folks about how many Oklahoma questions he was peppered with, but I think the margins for Tennessee's season and other teams that I think we're going to talk about is something that Heupel said today.

It's a lot harder when you've won seven to ten games. You've kind of made that you've walked the feet. Can you make up the inches? And the inches is getting to that 11th win maybe, that may be the difference between being left out of the dance or making the field. Right, and I think it's between 9 and 10 if you're an SEC team, probably. But that's going to be a hard step to take

given the difficulty of most of these schedules. You've got a column out on On3 right now about the tiers and about how do the teams from the second tier move into the first tier. Because right now, the first tier of the SEC is Alabama and Georgia. And maybe we can include Texas since they made the 14 playoff. They beat Alabama last year. They have a roster that feels somewhat comparable. But Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, LSU. I'm sure Auburn would love Ole Miss.

Well, yes, Ole Miss, and Ole Miss may be the next most talented roster down from Tier 1, but all of those teams want to get into Tier 1. They want to be in that 12-team playoff. How do they get there? That's the real question. I mean, for as much as the SEC has dominated the college football playoff, only three teams have made it. It's just Alabama, Georgia, and LSU.

Yeah. Texas A&M hasn't made it. Auburn hasn't made it. Ole Miss hasn't made it. You know, and all these teams want a spot. So how many teams can actually crack into that next level and how do they get there? You know, I think old miss is a really interesting

situation because lane's been pretty transparent this is his best team yes he's like he's like i i got the horses now we look good getting off the bus um but as he has alluded to many times he's kind of you know made this uh metaphor in terms of like nba free agency just because you're picked to win the most games because you signed the best players, doesn't mean that's how it plays out. Well, if the NBA has taught us anything, the super team worked a little bit,

but it doesn't work forever. Eventually, you've got to have your own homegrown, your chemistry. The last two NBA champions, homegrown talent, chemistry, bringing in the right role player. The team from this city. I think I just compared Walter Nolan to Kristaps Porzingis, by the way.

The team from this very city beat one of the very original super teams and the Mavericks over LeBron and the Heat. For Kiffin, it's going to be defensively. What are they doing in the trenches? For Ole Miss, I mean for Missouri, I think it's going to be defensively. What are they doing in the trenches? For Ole Miss, I mean, for Missouri, I think it's going to be like, where's their depth? I think a lot of folks like their 1 through 22. Yeah.

But if Caden Green goes down at offensive tackle, what happens for them? Well, and also how does their defense recover from what they lost? For sure. From a player standpoint and a coaching standpoint because that's a pretty difficult replacement job that they have because you're not alabama you're not georgia you haven't been recruiting at that level they've been recruiting better than ever but that's still not the same as when you have to go play the alabamas and they do have to play alabama they do not have to play georgia and if

people believe that it's a one-year wonder? Because obviously that was, you know, that was Drink's best season to date. And they certainly bring back a lot with Brady Cook and Luther Burden. But, you know, all these teams you can poke holes. With Oklahoma, I think, and I've written about this already this offseason, I think absolutely if you stripped away Oklahoma's schedule, you'd say, man, that might be a playoff team. You know, Billy Bowman, you got Stutzman. You see what they've done on the offensive line, bringing in SMUs,

you know, all-conference center. People are super high on Jackson Arnold, and yet you look at the schedule and you're like, eh, I don't know. They may put more spoiler than anything. You know, it's funny because I look in the comments on this show. I get the tweets I get from different fan bases. I'm sure they're nice. It just feels like – now, the Oklahoma fans are mad

because I'm not suggesting they're going to win every single game. And they feel like they're being disrespected going to the SEC. And I don't think they're wrong, actually. I think the average SEC fan bases are disrespecting Oklahoma. They think, oh, you know, this is a team that they're down. We can beat them. They've not really had to play anybody. Oklahoma is one of the most consistent programs in the history of the sport.

Believe we term it recession-proof. Yes. Yes. Like, I'm not worried about them long-term. I worry about them having to replenish their offensive line this year, but I'm not worried about them long-term. And I think it's funny that there are so many people who look at Oklahoma and say, well, that's a win.

No, it's not. Like, last year, Texas beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa. You know who they lost to? Oklahoma right over there. Yeah, I mean, like the Longhorns obviously have sucked up all the oxygen in terms of the move to the SEC vis-a-vis Oklahoma. But lest we forget, Brent Venables is two – or Brent Venables, yeah, is one and one against Texas.

But Sark is one and two against Oklahoma. If he loses this year, one and three, I mean, Oklahoma fans will be – Please tell me you didn't just put Sark in a hot seat. Hold that over him. No, no, no. No hot seat. I'm talking about in terms of how the conversation will flip. Yeah, absolutely.

In terms of Oklahoma being like, all right, yeah, we deserve that same respect in terms of, oh, everyone's talking about Texas dominating the SEC. No, we deserve that same respect in terms of, oh, everyone's talking about Texas dominating the SEC. No, why can't we compete in the conference? But it's crazy because if Texas hadn't done what they did last year by beating Alabama and Tuscaloosa, winning the Big 12, making the playoff, we would not be saying any of this stuff about it.

We would be saying Texas is in for a rude awakening. They're not going to be able to handle the grind of an SEC schedule. Like, I do understand when you upgrade conference, and I'm sorry, Big 12 folks. I know you don't want to hear this. The SEC is an upgrade over the Big 12. It's the deepest conference, Andy. There is a learning curve.

There is a – well, learning curve probably isn't the right word, but there is a week-to to week body blow effect that happens. I mean, like Gus Malzahn talked about that going into the Big 12 from the American last year. It happens when you do that. Yeah, and then I think that's why so many SEC coaches are reticent about a nine game schedule. And we've kicked this thing down the can all the way until 26. Who of the schedule and we've kicked this thing down the can all the way until 26 who of the teams that we've mentioned i guess we could almost do a draft yeah who who would you pick first so this is non-alabama or georgia or texas well you left okay you left texas open so even though

texas is in that pre- field, if we did a draft, you get first pick. Who are you going to move in with Alabama? Who's going to join that neighborhood? Who's going to build a house in that neighborhood? This year. This year, 24. I think Ole Miss will.

So what tips and scales for them over Texas in your mind? They got the best schedule draw. Even though Texas got a good one, I feel like Ole Miss got the best one. Texas also has to go to Michigan, which I think people are discounting that. Michigan still has some of the best players in the country. Yes, they lost a lot. But think about when EA Sports released the top 100 player ranking before the game came out right there's five michigan players on that list i got three first rounders on defense yes

will johnson i mean it's grand it's grand and wasting yeah i mean so that's that matters when it comes to the playoffs because it's pure wins and losses granted, those are hopefully going to be judged accurately by the committee, but I think if you have a 10-2 SEC team and a 9-3 SEC team, even though, like, if it's Ole Miss and Texas, let's say Texas lost to Michigan and lost two SEC games, and Ole Miss won their non-conference games and went 6-2 in the SEC, I think Ole Miss gets the nod there. I do think Ole Miss has to go 10-2, though.

Yes, I agree. They don't have the benefit of the doubt. Texas, depending on how everybody else does with that Michigan game, might be able to do 9-3. If Ole Miss gets blasted by Georgia and LSU and then goes 10-2 against the rest of the schedule, I'm not sure they get in. I'm going to take Texas with the next pick.

And the reason I think they'll already kind of have the Longhorns looped in. But the one thing I will say, are we sleeping on Quinn Ewers? I'm going to be really interested to see what he says tomorrow or Thursday. This is not an arch Quinn thing. No, no, no. I just wonder if he's been kind of lost in the shuffle in terms of the conversation. I just don't feel like he's been in a ton of headlines this offseason, aside from him saying that Texas is going to be the bullseye of everybody's team.

It's interesting because Texas is sucking so much oxygen out of the conversations here, but you're right. We're not talking about individual Texas players. We're talking about Texas, the monolith, right? Texas as a,

as an idea, as a construct, rather than this actual team, Quinn Ewers, can he be better? Isaiah bond, Amari Nye black, like that group,

right? Jalen Ford. Like we're not talking about that. That's strange. It's strange. So who do you got next? I think I got Tennessee next. You took my pick.

I do. You took my pick. That did not happen for me today. I did the post-spring top 25. I had Tennessee in the top 10. I had them making the playoff. If you did it that way, if the season ended that way, they would make the playoff. It's not that this is a new sensation for me. I think they were so limited on offense by Joe Milton last year. Nobody's going to say that

out loud, but that is the truth. The middle of the field was completely barren for them. They couldn't do anything. The read option game, the rpo game was not something they could mess with i think they fell down at receiver too i mean they did when mccoy got hurt they they really kind of lacked weapons yeah you lose you lose tillman you lose hyatt suddenly the guys on the perimeter scroll white was okay um but i think the fact they bring in Braswell from Tulane, I think that's going to be a big help. You get Bruback. You get Thorntons is going to be healthy, supposedly.

I think all around. Holden stays the tight end transfer from Notre Dame. Yeah. Looks interesting, too. For sure. Although they don't typically throw the ball in it. I wonder if they're going to. Maybe.

But I think they're going to run the ball fairly well this year. Because that's the thing. Nico is going to enhance their run game by being capable of making better read option decisions. And I don't mean that to say I think Nico's going to run for 1,000 yards because I don't. But I think he will pull

the ball when he's supposed to, which will make the defense play them honestly. Which, if you have to play their run game honestly, they can probably beat you in the throw game easier. Yeah, I think that's a great pick. You kind of stole my thunder there. Now, here's where I think some folks, I don't know if they'd push back. I'm going to go Missouri next.

Over LSU or Oklahoma. Yes, and I think that actually speaks more about the other tiger than it does the tiger i picked interesting and i say that because this is year three from ryan kelly year one he exceeds expectations they get to the sec championship game they beat alabama awesome thrilling win um and then last year was just kind of – I don't know if the air went out of the balloon, but the fact that they wasted a historic season from Jaden Daniels. Okay, let me – yeah, think about this. In 2019, we watched that LSU offense and said,

we will never see anything this good again. And it was better. We saw it again in four years. But the LSU defense in 2019 was not – it's funny because I think it's sort of lost to history that that was a pretty good defense. It wasn't a – It's a bunch of dudes in the NFL. It wasn't a dominant defense, but it was a very good defense.

Last year's LSU defense was awful. Yeah, and so let's say that they go from objectively terrible to just bad. Right. How much do they lose offensively? How much of this step back? Because I like Nussmeier. I like the weapon. I like Lacey.

Oh, I'm not worried about their offense one bit. But they're not going to be generationally, you know, they're not going to set records. Right. And so. So the defense has to go from abjectly terrible. To bad. I think they have to go to average.

Like, if they want to make the playoff, the defense has to go to average or better better and they didn't do enough in the portal they they you know brian kelly can say you can make whatever excuses about not wanting to you know pay the nil or whatever i think what he said was fair but there are still repercussions with that decision and there's also i i think them changing coaches when they did like this is this is where it's coming back to haunt them a little bit. Like, cause LSU always had corners that they could plug in that they had

recruited out of high school and they have not had those. Now that maybe there's some young guys this year that, that will grow into that, but it's not the same and D tackle. Same thing. They have not been able to develop those guys. Homegrown. They looked into the portal

by the time they were active now part of this was the timing of the of the defensive staff overhaul by the time they really got active in the portal all the best ones were gone what was left was overpriced and what Brian Kelly said I thought it was so when Brian Kelly said we don't buy players that's completely disingenuous. But what he said after that in the same interview was basically, we didn't like the price tag with these particular players, and he's not wrong there. Not wrong there, but there's still a cost for that.

Right. That decision, there are still repercussions with that decision, and that is you now don't have a guy that could even give you 2015, whatever snaps. And I think, you know, I think that that's one of the reasons that LSU in my mind is kind of on the outside.

It really is up to Blake Baker and Kevin peoples and the people they brought in on defense staff wise to just deploy everyone. And this is, it's funny cause it's like, it's like the nature nurture argument. It's, it's, it's Joe's it's like it's like the nature nurture argument it's it's it's joe's jimmy's and joe's x's and o's can you x and o your way to better jimmy and joe's not in the sec that's that's the issue especially when one of your joes is is harold perkins and they got to make sure they turn the light on right with how they use them. Let's talk about Oklahoma now. Because Oklahoma

defensively, as deep as they've been in a long, long time, since the Bob Stoops era. They did pay for a good tackle. Dominic Williams from TCU was one of the good ones. And they were paying more than everybody. Because Texas said, too rich for my blood. LSU said, too rich for my blood.SU said too rich for my blood they they were willing to step up for that one but they also lost Caden Green to Missouri on the offensive line that was just a shock to them and they had to replace you know they already had to replace two NFL tackles and so this is going, you know, how well did they work in the portal?

How well has Bill Biedenboe been developing at the line of scrimmage? And that's an offensive line coach I trust completely to get the job done. So I think Oklahoma can be good. I just, that schedule is brutal. It's, I mean, you talk about just landmines. They're everywhere. I mean, even the body blow theory of having to, Houston's going to be a really bad,

they're going to be a big 12 seller dweller, but it's still a power five team that, you know, Tulane, probably one of the better G5 teams. And then you go Tennessee, Auburn, Texas. Tulane had a coaching change, but their new coach when he was at Troy, those defenses were awesome. Yeah, he's a great aid football coach. You know, that's just.

So, yeah, it's going to be a tough schedule for Oklahoma. I think that Auburn game is really key for them because it's so strange because the Oklahoma people are like, whoa, we'll win that one. And the Auburn people are like, we're definitely winning that one. No, no, no, no. This is a toss-up. This is Oklahoma going into a very hostile environment. Your first SEC road game as an SEC team.

I know they've played at Tennessee before. And look, Oklahoma has played in plenty of hostile environments throughout its history it's not that it's that this auburn team's gonna be better too that is a tough place to play you'll have just played tennessee and by the way you play texas next but uh jackson arnold's already worried about the voodoo and jordan hair carson beck warned him about it carson beck was not lying he's not. Carson Beck, you saw Carson Beck in Jordan hair last year. He did not enjoy his time there. I've never been to

the stadium before, but when I was at the Manny Patson Academy, I was talking to Carson Beck about it. He was, he claimed the place was cursed. So no, but I'm really excited. First SEC away game. I grew up watching Georgia Auburn games on the tv so i know how how special that stadium is i've got got friends that are auburn fans they tell me about it all the time so i'm super pumped up for that game you know i guess my last thought on this discussion would be does not does where does texas a&m merit in this debate in this seat in this season okay well here let me say let me go ahead their schedule sets up thusly where they could if if if mike elko oh my god here we go go for it come on if mike elko bring it bring it has truly transformed the identity and just vibes. This is a vibes take.

If they just transform the vibes in College Station, that roster is set up to win. Yes, they lost a lot off the Ballyhoo number one class ever, but they might have the best defensive line in the country by the end of the season. Nick Skorton, portal, but then you still have Shamar Turner, Shamar Stewart. I mean, you're talking about multiple first-rounders. Connor Wegorton, portal, but then you still have Shamar Turner, Shamar Stewart. I mean, you're talking about multiple first-rounders.

Connor Wegman, is he a five-star? If he can stay healthy, I think he's a damn good quarterback. You still have – They were moving the ball with the old offense when Connor Wegman was there. Yeah, now they actually have Colin Kline instead of Bobby Petrino pretending to call his own plays but still calling Jimbo Fisher's Waffle House playbook. Cheesecake Factory. Cheesecake Factory.

Cheesecake Factory, okay. I'm a Waffle House guy. I know, but it's a Cheesecake Factory. Waffle House has one sheet. The Cheesecake Factory has 20 pages. That's true. And that was what Jimbo Fisher had. That's true.

I just wonder if Texas A&M, are they capable of – it would be a stunner, obviously, but it would be hilarious. In the would-be hilarious category, Andy, you have to say it would be – Going into the Texas game with a chance to make the playoff, or let's say Texas came into that at 9-2. Yeah, and it's a winner gets to the dance. Can you imagine if Texas and Texas A&M were both nine and two going into that game?

Can you even imagine that would, that, that game already has probably, you know, game of the year potential exit. The A&M could be on 11 and a game and a game of the year potential. But if the stakes are like that, I can't,

I'm like Cal field may actually, you know, it shakes when you're in there. I've only been there once. It may fall down. It's pretty new. I think the building codes were pretty strict when they built it. So I think they're okay.

But Jesse, there's a team we've really barely mentioned that was here today. The Georgia Bulldogs. Remember them? Two of the last three national champs. Well, they might have won it last year if there had been a 12 team playoff. For sure. I mean, so Georgia as the hunter again. champs well they might have won it last year if there had been a 12 team playoff for sure i mean that so georgia as the hunter again how does that how does that strike you i think i think you know

again a team for you know we haven't talked a lot about quinn you were talking about individual players and stuff with texas i just don't think there's been a lot of conversation around georgia in general this offseason aside aside from another reckless driving charge that Kirby had to address. We'll talk about that in a second. We'll talk about that. But the conversation around his 2024 football team seems to have been fairly quiet, which is exactly how it was in 2022 when they went back to back.

And I think this team is set up to be hell on wheels this year. So I was standing next to Mikel Williams, and it occurred to me, and I've noticed this before, obviously, but every time you see it in person, it is still jarring. How different the human beings. Georgia has different people on its roster. And it's not just 1 to 10 or 11 of them. It's, it's, it's, and they, and it's not just one to 10 or 11 of them, right?

It's 60 of them. Yes. It's in. And that is that what you just said, that little anecdote and me saying there's 60 of them speaks to why I think Georgia at worst is going to get, you know, I would think to the semifinals because they have the depth to navigate

what's going to be. I don't think people understand this. This is going to be the longest season in college football history. Yeah. The attrition factor matters. The body blow theory. They can handle some. And, you know, now here's the thing.

Can Georgia win the SEC? Like Georgia's got one of the toughest schedules in the SEC. Their three hardest games are on the road. They may potentially be playing three other playoff teams on the road. They play at Alabama, at Texas, at Ole Miss. Oh, by the way, they open with Clemson and Atlanta. And he's still got Auburn and Tennessee. And so that's why they're one of these teams.

If they did slip up and had a big injury and went nine and three, with that schedule, they're getting in. And with Georgia's reputation schedule they're getting in and with georgia's reputation they're they're getting in um and then it's like oh you're having to play them as an eight seed good luck because you know they can they can go in and play anytime anywhere so i think their offensive line is going to be really good the fact that xavier trust you know is a swing guy who may or may not even start and yet he's a six-year guy. Defensively, the fact that they were able to tell the linebacker to head up to Kentucky because Javon Dumas-Johnson, who was an all-conference guy, because they love all the guys.

They have Jalen Walker and some of the – I mean, it's just Kirby's built – he's built a locomotive in that. Who's that train coming down the tracks? I think we're going to be hearing it, you know, Mean Machine in the red and black. I think that they're going to be saying that a lot this year. You know, I joked the other day about Kirby might have the stroke to create mass transit in Athens.

Because he can get things done politically. But he did get asked about all the driving stuff, which, you know, you and I have been beat writers before covering SEC teams. And we all had to do the police checks and the courthouse checks. And you see a lot of speeding tickets. But with Georgia, you had the accident that killed Devin Willick and Chandler LaCroix. You've had multiple incidences of guys getting pulled over for racing.

Like, speeding and racing are two different things and the racing is the dangerous one that's the one obviously speeding we all do it we shouldn't but racing we don't all do and that's that's what can kill you he got asked about that because it just like it keeps happening here's what he said the AJC report said that there were 24 driving related arrests and incidents surrounding Georgia football since that January 2023 tragedy. Why does this keep happening and what are you specifically doing to address it? Yeah, I think the number one thing is disappointed. You know, anytime you have a situation like that, you want your kids, your players, to make better decisions.

And I always say you can't be outcome-related, and I'm very disappointed in the outcomes, but I am very pleased with our process we've put in, in terms of education, driver safety, requiring defensive driving, education, talking about it, having leaders stand up and talk about it, bringing speakers in and talk about it, suspending players, dismissing players, which we've done. I don't know to this point any coach in college football that suspended a player for a driving citation. We have. We have. And we've also dismissed players based on driving citations.

Nobody's done that. So hopefully they get the idea and the information. But we have a really good locker room, and I feel really good about that. Like, I love the players we have. I love the locker room we have. We have good kids. We got 45 kids yesterday playing, battling breast cancer, golf tournament to raise money.

So we got kids that go to Camp Sunshine, the entire team, and do a lot of good things, but not representative of what we want when they make mistakes like that. so we got kids that go to camp sunshine the entire team do a lot of good things but uh not representative of what we want when they make mistakes like that so i'm sure it's frustrating for kirby smart you keep saying don't do it they keep doing it he has suspended players he has his misplayers uh but he did bring up something interesting not on the stage but in his scrum with the local media so their collective has begun to find players for stuff like this i do wonder we because we've never seen this before in college football could that actually be a better deterrent than running gassers or whatever the other

potential penalties are it's certainly it's certainly an interesting potential solution when you like you take money out of my pocket suddenly i'm i'm listening more carefully well especially when you can draw a direct a direct line that it's it's the nil funds and contracts that are affording these souped up dodge chargers and porsches and cars that are in the police reports that they're getting pulled over for yeah and so i wonder if this will work and look every we've seen some of the NIL contracts. Not necessarily all the Georgia ones, but we've seen these NIL contracts. They're very similar to if you've ever had an employment contract.

There's a clause in there, don't embarrass us. And there's a clause in these NIL contracts, don't embarrass us. And they can withhold. I don't know if they're actually saying, write me a check for 500 bucks or withholding. It doesn't matter. It's money you were going to get that you don't know if they're actually saying, write me a check for 500 bucks or withholding. It doesn't matter. It's money you were going to get that you don't have. Exactly. And again, is it better than, you know, Kirby has said

and folks have talked about it behind the scenes that he's, you know, he's had people, he had people speak to the team this week, you know, and folks are still getting pulled over. So maybe the biggest solution is, hey, start finding them. I think the focus is laser on this because of what happened, because you had a tragedy. Absolutely. You know, you and I, we've covered Florida, both of us as beat writers in the past.

I covered Florida during the Urban Meyer years. It's a lot of police. When I was checking the courthouse, I saw a lot of speeding tickets, but those didn't really rise to the level of some of the other stuff. So I didn't really, you know, you knew they were there. It just wasn't like, okay, it's a speeding ticket. I got speeding tickets, but those didn't really rise to the level of some of the other stuff. So I didn't really, you know, you knew they were there. It just wasn't like, okay, it's a speeding ticket. I got speeding tickets in college. But I think because of what happened after the 22 season, it becomes magnified. It's a heightened deal.

Yeah. I just stop. Don't race. Like, it's that simple. Don't race. People are going to speed. I get it. College students are going to speed i get it college students are

going to speed don't race i think it was good that carson beck came out he had he made he made a comment that was like because he got asked about his lamborghini yeah uh and he made a comment that hey i'm not dumb with it that maybe the quarterback you know comes out and maybe kind of puts his his team on front street and says hey you know i have the nicest car in the house. Yeah. If I'm not getting pulled over, he's looking out for that car too. You got to true, but he's saying, if I'm not getting pulled over, you, you, you guys don't need to be, you know, messing with us. Exactly. Jesse Simonton. Thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me, Andy. We go from Kirby smart to a guy that Kirby maybe sends some video clips to on Sundays. The SEC coordinator official is John McDade. And a few changes this year for the officials to deal with, including some tech issues that we haven't seen at the college football level. But now we are. Here's John McDade. This handsome devil next to me is John McDade,

the SEC's coordinator of officials. We've got to talk helmet communications. We've got to talk tech on the sideline. You've got iPads on the sideline now. Before it was coaches yelling about calls. Now are you ready for coaches to yell at you about their sideline comms with the quarterback went down? Yeah, how you doing, Andy? You know, I'm a degreed computer science major. So I can bring my technical background from decades ago. Oh, yeah.

Because I haven't practiced any computer engineering in I don't know how long. I think you used to work for the competition of one of your new conference partner. That's correct. I used to work for the competition of one of your uh of your new conference partner uh that's correct i used to work for microsoft but uh yeah the introduction of technology two two big uh pieces of technology on the sideline is the big story this year when we're talking about uh college football playing rule changes the first is the the helmet communication you're talking about the same rate in the sec it's the same radio system that they're using on sundays in the Football League, and it gives a coach the ability to talk to one player, whether they're on offense or defense. I believe it gives other coaches the ability to listen in to

what's being called, but that's one of the two big pieces of technology that are now permissive in the college football game. So your officials now need to be watching, because there can only be, are they going to do the green dot like the NFL does where they have to be watching to make sure there's only one green dot helmet out there? That's correct. There's a unique green sticker that will be on the back of the helmet of any player that has a radio. My understanding is our teams in the Southeastern Conference are going to have,

I think somewhere on the order of four radios for offensive players, four radios for defensive players. Obviously, one of them can be on the field at a time. And let's say you've got some fairly versatile defensive players that have radios and you want to use them on special teams at the same time on the field, they're going to have to have a second helmet without a radio in it if one of their teammates also has a radio and they're out on punt return or whatever the case may be. John, you just made every Florida fan have a heart attack because they watched the Utah game last year with the jerseys. Now they've got to worry about what the helmets do?

That is correct. That is correct. Jeez. I mean, and it's interesting because this is the biggest change this year. A lot of times you guys are dealing with changes in the mechanics of the way you call something. Or last year it was clock rules. This feels completely different. Yeah, it absolutely is.

And from a true officiating standpoint, it's a set of the playing rules, a small set of the playing rules, that actually falls under what we call game management purview. Meaning just like for years we've had decades, we've had headphones on the sidelines, and the NCAA football playing rules are very specific on how many you can have, who can have them, so on and so forth. But that has always been a game management issue. We never have the teams on the sidelines saying, hey, they're using too many headphones over there.

Go do something about it, yeah. The referee of that particular game, should it hear that from a sideline? Would it just go over to the game manager and say, look, they filed this complaint, can you look into it? The only exception with the headphones has been if one side goes down, we have conference rules that says let's bring some equity, bring the other sideline down until we resolve the issue. The radio system for coach-to-player communications, the same thing, right? The only

thing we're really officiating on the field is, do we just have one radio on the field at a time? Other than that, it's a game management issue. And so the other big change that everybody's going to notice, and you corrected me on this because I call it the two-minute warning because that's what I'm used to on Sundays, the two-minute timeout. The two-minute timeout. And the mechanics of it are essentially exactly what you find in the game on Sundays. If we have a running clock during a dead ball period and it hits two minutes left in the second quarter or the fourth quarter, we're going to go ahead and stop it. If we hit two minutes while we're in a live ball play, whenever that play ends,

we're going to stop it, just like you see on Sundays. And the idea here is that the television partners are going to hold back one of their media timeouts in the second and fourth quarters to use during that two-minute timeout. There's definitely going to be commercials during that one. You won't be seeing everybody meeting. Let me preempt right here. We are not adding an extra media timeout to each half.

Let me repeat that. We are not adding a media timeout. In fact, with our television partners. The man has been briefed on the talking points. The television partners that we have with the Southeastern Conference, the number of media timeouts that we have in each one of the quarters, their duration and whatnot, they've already been in contracts that have been defined for years

before we had this playing rule change. So is this a response to the clock rules last year where it did move a little faster, plays were taken out, this adds a stoppage? The creation of the two-minute timeout, I can't think of any way where it's going to address game time or the number of plays per game. In fact, it's really not going to do anything in game time. You say, well, we're creating another stoppage to the game. No, we're not.

We have a television partner that's holding back immediate timeouts such that sometime before the two-minute timeout, let's say we have an injury, we have a change of possession after a punt, they're going to elect to not go to – It's replacing a 30-second timeout or something like that. Exactly, exactly. Why did we create it? I don't pretend to 100% know.

I wasn't in the room in Indianapolis when this was discussed. But my understanding is that it's twofold. The television partners wanted it for the ability to know when they can use that last timeout and not running into risk where they don't get a chance to use that last media timeout. Right. The second is we do have timing rule changes that take effect at the end of the half, and one of them we instituted last year. We are now stopping for a first down inbounds only under two minutes.

That's what we did last year. Right. We keep it running in all other aspects. And we had, it didn't happen in the Southeastern Conference, I guess there was a handful of times it happened across the nation in the football bowl subdivision where a first down was achieved in bounds really close to the two minutes up there. And the sidelines didn't know, is it going to stop or is it not going to stop? So this gives you a bright line of this is when you stop the clock with a first down.

An extremely bright line, absolutely. I hadn't even thought about it that way. But, yes, you have that nice line of demarcation. Is this before or after the two minute? So you know. That's correct. Absolutely. I hadn't even thought about it that way, but yes, you have that nice line of demarcation. Is this before or after the two-minute? So you know. That's correct. Now, for those of you who really understand your playing rules, one change, it's not necessarily insignificant,

but one change this brings on with the two-minute timeout is all of the timing rule changes at the end of the half now sync up to the two-minute timeout. And one of them is we introduced 10-second runoffs approximately a decade ago. 10-second runoffs were always under one minute left in the second and fourth course for certain scenarios. 10-second runoffs now are in effect after the two-minute timeout. Oh, this is different. There's a whole extra minute of game clock where 10-second runoffs are in effect. This is the sort of thing Nick Saban would have been noting and making sure

he took advantage of. Every team, we talk about the quarterback room, and every team's quarterback room will have sessions during their August camp talking about the timing rules and how it affects two-minute offenses at the end of the half. This is a new ring. So what creates a 10-second runoff again? Refresh our memory.

10-second runoff is any dead ball foul that stops a running clock, including fouls that prevent a snap, such as a false start or defensive offside where we come across the neutral zone and make contact or run a baited quarterback. So if you're a team trying to come back from a deficit, every second counts. Now, if there's a minute 30 left on the clock, you false start. It's either a 10-second runoff or you use a timeout. That is correct. There's also any kind

of illegal pass. You threw a forward pass beyond a line of scrimmage. It's the second forward pass. You threw a backwards pass intentionally out of bounds. Any kind of pass that is incomplete stops the clock. Right. That's going to create a 10-second runoff situation. Interesting. Yeah, that does change things quite a bit. I'm predicting. Some coach is going to forget and go volcanic when they have that 10-second runoff

with like a minute 45 left on the clock. I'm predicting. It might happen this year, but it'll happen in the first two or three years. And I'm saying this with a smirk on the clock. I'm predicting, it might happen this year, but it'll happen in the first two or three years, and I'm saying this with a smirk on my face. Somewhere, somehow, we'll have the same team in the same possession in the same half have two or more 10-second run-offs in that possession, which

is unheard of. I don't remember that ever happening. And when it does happen, I bet you we ask ourselves, is that good for the game? Is that what we want? I don't know. That's an honest question. So, I know you can't get into specifics on this, but I must ask, what are your Sunday mornings like during the season? I go home and I'm up for a while. I'm up for

a while for a couple of reasons. I've got some paperwork that I have to do that I'm waiting to come back from the cruise so any crew that's on the game at the end of the day they're gonna go back to the hotel have their postgame meeting uh generate this paperwork and i'm waiting for it to come in what am i doing um i used to be watching pack 12 after dark right you know that's gonna be big 10 after dark it's gonna be somebody playing after dark right so i'm home i'm doing that paperwork and just like when I was on the field as an official, when I step out of our video center for 13, 14 consecutive hours, there's a

certain amount of adrenaline going through my body. I'm not going to fall asleep at any point in time. So I'm thinking about the day, thinking about our highlights, thinking about our low lates. And why do I bring all this up? I've digested the day such that when I wake up on Sunday, unless someone wants to proactively contact me, I'm taking off until like 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I'm probably working around the house. I'm doing things to take my mind off of what's about to start at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. When I go into the office, I start crunching through plays that I took notes on the previous day.

I'll start hearing from teams about the plays they want my comment on that I'll get back to them. So we, in the past four years I've been in this position, we've had 14 teams in the conference. I don't even average one phone call on a Sunday a week. Really? Right. It's pretty, pretty close to one call a week, but yeah, there'll be weeks where I don't get a call and there's not many weeks where I get two. Now, some coaches, some coaches like to hear my responses back from the plays they send in, and then maybe that will beget a dialogue. But it's not as pounding on me with a hammer as much as you can think.

We do have to keep the relationship solid. I have a very good relationship with all our head coaches, even in those moments where there is a lot of emotion, there's a lot of disappointment. And if a coach is disappointed in something that truly was done wrong, you can rest assured I'm disappointed, right? At the same time, their relationships are very fair to me. They're at least professional, but they're many, many, many times beyond that.

So I, you know, it's, it's, there's just, I got to go in and turn the crank. I have to process what are highlights and lowlights. And by the way, one of the things I'm doing Sunday evenings is I'm getting ready for a 10 a.m. Central time meeting with Commissioner Sankey every Monday to go over our highlights and our lowlights. That's, that's one of the things that we do. The highlights. And so I got to do the deal a few years ago where we, a bunch of us media folks, officiated the Georgia spring game. Oh, yes, yes.

And I got torn up in that post-game meeting, and deservedly so. I missed an intentional grounding call that I should have made, and I made a pass interference call that I shouldn't have made. So I deserved it. But I'm curious, because you guys watch film very much like the football players watch film. How often are you pointing out, hey, you did great on this to your officials? Because they never hear that from the coaches. So how often do you guys tell them that?

So we definitely do it. I'm here to tell you that that's not one of my strengths. If you talk to someone in corporate America that's in training and development for corporate functions, they'll tell you that good training will give an attaboy or attagirl four times more than being critical of their performance. And I miss that ratio. My ratio is probably, if I'm being kind, one to one, maybe one and a half to one. But we certainly do it. And I put a training video together every week that the crews will watch in their pregames

the success of week that uses plays from that previous week. And there's plenty of times where I put on. Let's look at the good job of officiating we did here, particularly the examples where it takes two or more officials to do a good job, to make the correct call. And I want to reinforce teamwork, communication. Exactly. This is what we're looking for great job well i will tell you in my limited experience of that it's the hardest job in america and i don't know why anybody does it but god bless you guys for doing it you know i i stopped years ago trying to explain why we do it um and in fact i started

getting that question anew when i took this position. The athletic director is asking, John, why do you want to be the coordinator of football officials? I'll just tell you this, and I wish everyone out there could see my face. It's extremely rewarding. Oh, we can see your face. You're on camera. John McDade, thank you so much. Very good. Now, bad job by me.

One thing I forgot to ask John McDade about when we recorded that interview is horns down remember the horns down such a controversy in the big 12 now we talked to Joe Cook from inside Texas about it the other day he explained the average Texas fan does not think horns down is the most horrible thing in the world Mack Brown complained about it after one of his players was flagged at Texas Tech for doing the guns down, the whole string of the guns. Rodney Terry, the Texas basketball coach, didn't like horns down last year. That made them look sensitive. So John McDade got asked about horns down. Is it something that the SEC will flag

if a player were to put the horns down well here's what he said hey john this may not be of a wide interest to a lot of people around sec country right now but texas coming into the league a lot of sooners wondering about horns down is there a stance on what your officials will call moving forward on that? Yeah, if it's going to be an issue, the signal, it's going to be under the playing rules for unsportsmanlike conduct. And we've talked a lot about that in our officiating group since I've taken over in the 2020 season. And to be unsportsmanlike conduct, I'm asking my officials to use a framework of judgment where the act to be a foul needs to be in one of three buckets. It needs to be taunting an opponent. It needs to be a travesty of the game, or it needs

to otherwise compromise our ability to manage the game. What's a travesty of the game, right? It's just a phrase. I ask my officials, the act itself needs to be offending to the census. If you took that act out of a football stadium and did it in a shopping mall or a grocery store, would it offend the census to a majority of the reasonable people in the area, right? That signal would not, right? You might have some people that share that signal with you. You did that at a grocery store or in a shopping mall, depending where you are. So it's very much we're going to evaluate it in context.

I could see a scenario. I want to be very cautious about using hypotheticals, right? But I could see a scenario where an opponent of Texas makes a big play in celebrating with his teammates, possibly going back to the sideline. They're giving the signal. It's not taunting. It's not making a travesty of the game. It's not affecting our ability to manage the game. So there you have it. Horns down is going to be

okay. And I kind of figured that's how things would go. Texas is probably not going to get a lot of sympathetic ears from the LSUs. Definitely not from the Texas A&Ms, from the Alabamas of the world. You got to take your lumps, rookie. So horns down, all out. And one guy I know will be happy to hear that, Oklahoma safety Billy Bowman. We talked about how deep that Oklahoma defense is. Since Brent Venables got there,

he's been working on trying to make it look more like they did when Bob Stoops was the head coach. And I think they're getting there. I think they're getting there. And a big reason why is Billy Bowman. This is a man who likes his pick sixes. He's hoping to have a few more in some new stadiums this year. Here's Billy Bowman. Here with Oklahoma safety, Billy Bowman Jr. All right, Billy, you've gotten this question all day. Like, you're playing in the SEC now. I'm not going to ask you how scared you are to play in the SEC. Here's what I'm curious about.

You've gotten to play in the Big 12 and the SEC and a couple different versions of the Big 12. How cool is it that you're going to get to go to all these different stadiums in your career? It's very cool. You know, that's actually one of the most things I'm looking forward to going to the SEC is, you know, seeing these different stadiums in your career it's very cool you know that's actually one of the most things i'm looking forward to going to the sec is you know seeing these different stadiums and going to playing these different you know uh you know uh teams you know like jordan here at our

first away game you know people say that's electric you know i've never been there i've never seen it um you know i'm also looking forward to old miss and lsu as well so so i auburn everything they've told you about it is true like there are days there where you cannot hear anything and i'm sure they're gonna welcome y'all to the sec properly in that in that game but so you've gotten to play at some really cool places what's the coolest one so far that you've played at? I'd say West Virginia was pretty cool. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. West Virginia's pretty cool, you know. It's definitely a different scenery.

It's something that, you know, necessarily being from down south, I'm not used to seeing that type of scenery. That was cool. That's really the only one that comes off the top of my mind. Not BYU? BYU, actually, it was. That's different now. It was. It the top of my mind. Not BYU? BYU actually. That's different now. It was.

It was. But the field was terrible. Really? It was the worst field I've ever played on in my life. So you're looking up the mountains. You're like, oh, these mountains are beautiful, but this below on my feet is not great. The field was terrible. But the mountains, it was literally in the mountains.

It was awesome. So as bad as the field was, though, 100-yard pick six. How long does it feel like it takes when you're running back 100-yard pick six? That one right there felt like it took forever. Now, if I was to go out there right now and run 100 straight yards, I would get there really quick. It's pretty quick, yeah. But that one felt like forever. And that was one where you kind of noticed something,

noticed there was an uncovered receiver, you jumped the route, and was it the quarterback almost ran you back? Yeah, it was the quarterback, which he was actually, when we did our scouting and stuff like that, I think they said something about he had track in his background. He was a really fast guy. So the quarterback was fast. I'm not just slow.

But, yes, I've seen an uncovered receiver. How bad would the meetings have been if he'd gotten you on like the one? They would have joked on me for the rest of the week. So this defense, you know, y'all have been building up to this. Since Coach Venable's got there, he's been trying to make this a deeper defense, a better defense. Where are y'all at now versus maybe when he got here? We're so far ahead.

I mean, when he first got here, you know, everything was brand new to us, even the older guys. You know, they've never seen nothing like it. All coaches have a different, you know, philosophy of how they go about what they go about. And so I think of them coming in their first year, you know, all of us, we really didn't know what we were doing, you know. But now going into the third year, you know, you have experienced guys on defense. You know, you have elite guys on offense, you know.

It's just we're in for something special and we're headed in the right track. And it's definitely going to be something to keep an eye out for. When did y'all really feel like you were comfortable schematically? Did it take until last season to really get comfortable with? I would say, see, last season it was still here and there, you know. I would say this spring, this summer, and we're finna go into fall camp now, is when everything is starting to click, and it's the perfect time, because we're right, we're finna be right at the season, and everything is starting to make sense, you know, because after the season is when you truly get to reflect.

Yeah. And so that helped us learn a lot is after the season, you know, going back and correcting the things that, you know, we need to be correcting. And, you know, last season was one of those straight kind of up and down. How do you build consistency? And I realize, you know, with a schedule like yours, that's going to be hard. It's going to be hard it's going to be hard and um you you have to put consistency in its place meaning you you have to start over every week yeah um you can't get bored of doing it you know you work you work from

January to August just working out you're not playing against no opponents you're playing against your own teammates uh doing your own drills. But you work so long, and you get to the season, and sometimes the season can get, you know, it can be long. So what we have to do as a team is we have to be player-led, and we have to make sure we restart every week and treat it brand new. So as a guy who sees him from the other side, what are we going to see from Jackson Arnold this season?

You're going to see him connecting with all his explosive playmakers. I was going to say, there's a bunch of guys you've got to cover. It's not fun, I'm sure. There's a lot of guys. There's a lot of receivers. Obviously, we've got Gavin Sawchuck coming back at running back. We're going to have an explosive offense like Oklahoma is used to having in these past years. But Jackson Arnold can definitely sling it, and he can definitely use his legs too. So I saw you were interviewed earlier today,

and somebody had asked you about horns down, and you were wondering if it's going to be okay. I talked to John McDade, who is the coordinator of officials, a few minutes ago actually, and said, you know, how are we feeling about this? He's like, perfectly fine. No reasonable person would be offended. So feel free.

If you want to do that, I mean, the Texas people, I'm sure, are not going to like that if I do that tomorrow. But, you know, is that part of the Oklahoma culture, though, like to be able to throw that? It is. To be able to throw that, that's a part of the Oklahoma culture. You know, it's just fun. But then again, at the end of the day, it's a hand signal.

You're going to give somebody a penalty for putting a hand sign up? I could do the peace sign. True. Just don't do half a peace sign. Yeah. But still, it's a hand signal at the end of the day. Yeah, it means something, but it should be okay. Have you thought about, because it's interesting,

some schools have the hand signals. We're trying to figure out, you can like, a gator chomp down. Like, when people beat Florida, they'll go gator chomp at the Florida crowd, but they'll just do the chomp. I guess South Carolina's got that spurs up thing, so you can kind of do that down, I guess. But have you ever thought about starting an Oklahoma hand signal? Is it? Not really. I mean, I see a lot of times, you know, just I see a lot of times people just do the OU.

Not necessarily a hand signal, but something with the arms. Oh, that's like the Ohio State thing where they're just spelling. I feel like that's too much work. Yeah, it could be at times. And in Texas A&M, they've got the guys who do the yell leaders that do the hands. So you don't need to put those down. But is it fun to come in with Texas, though, like to have your rival come with you? Oh, yeah, that's the only right way to do it.

I feel like one of us going in and one of us staying, that's wrong. Yeah. We travel together. Yeah, that's our rivalry. But it feels good going in there with them because, you know, it's self-explanatory. So we're here in Dallas. So for people who have not experienced it, what is it like as a player to run out of the tunnel in the Cotton Bowl?

Oh, it's a feeling like no other game. You know, you walk out that tunnel and the field is split right at the 50. Half orange, half red. The game is loud the whole entire time because it's half red, half orange. One side is going to be cheering the whole time. Oh, yeah. So just going out of that, man, it is chills. And being a captain in that game last year, I mean,

walking out there on the field, it's just surreal. It's crazy. And when you get to leave with that golden cowboy hat on? Oh, yeah, yeah. We're going to keep it here in Norman this year. Billy, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. That was Oklahoma's Billy Bowman.

Thank you so much for watching. We got more coming. Alabama. The Crimson Tide. And they might not even be the biggest show at SEC Media Days on Wednesday because that's right. The Texas Longhorns.

We're in their home state. We'll see how big they do it at their first SEC Media Days. We'll talk to you tomorrow.