Andy & Ari On3 - Kentucky’s Deone Walker will WRECK your offense | Can Mike Elko turn around Texas A&M RIGHT NOW?

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

Kentucky defensive lineman Deone Walker is one of the most intriguing players in college football. He stands 6-foot-8, weighs 345 pounds and can dominate centers and guards but also is quick enough to rush off the edge against tackles. (0:00-3:22) Intro - Alabama naming field after Nick Saban?(3:23-4:29) Utah State fires Blake Anderson(4:30-9:33) Embracing the Hog?(9:34-14:15) Hugh Freeze and Auburn(14:16-17:33) Over in Kentucky(17:34-27:00) Deone Walker joins(27:01-41:05) Nick Roush from KSR joins(41:06-43:27) Down in College Station(43:28-1:01:03) Billy Liucci joins Andy from SEC Media Days(1:01:04-1:02:05) Conclusion, Wrapping upHe joins the show to discuss a dicy few hours on the final day of last season, his offseason work to bend better and his excitement for the Wildcats this season.Next, Andy talks to Kentucky Sports Radio’s Nick Roush about the Wildcats’ chances to make noise in the SEC this season. Did coach Mark Stoops’ flirtation with the Texas A&M job alter the expectations this season? Also, Nick believes this team looks similar in makeup to the 2018 group that went 10-3.Later, Billy Liucci of TexAgs.com joins Andy to talk Texas A&M. The Aggies are one of the more fascinating teams in the SEC. They just made a coaching change, but because of Mike Elko’s recent experience in College Station, he doesn’t feel like a first-year head coach there. After inheriting a roster that still has some serious talent following Jimbo Fisher’s firing, can Texas A&M pull off some surprises in 2024?Want to watch the show instead? Join us on YouTube, LIVE, M-F, at 8 am et!https://youtube.com/live/WHViHoYxxnAHost: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Friday. I am home from SEC media days. What a week. Got some more stuff today. From Dallas had a great chat with Kentucky defensive lineman Dion Walker. That's a guy. If you are a fan of an NFL team that may have a very, very high draft pick next year, you may be learning a lot about Deion Walker, but Deion Walker is, he's a force and great interview with him. Had a lot of fun talking to him. We also talked to Nick Roush of Kentucky Sports Radio about what Kentucky is expecting this season. How do things change? Remember Mark Stoops, very close to going to Texas A&M, and then that didn't happen, and now he's back, and they have some high expectations,

at least internally. I don't know if the external expectations are that high, but internally, they are very, very high. Also, we're going to talk to Billy Lucci of techsags.com about Texas A&M and their expectations this season. Strange year one because Mike Elko is a first-year coach who doesn't feel like a first-year coach because he used to be the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M. He was gone for two years as the Duke head coach and then right back. Goat Dog says Deion Walker not getting in the transfer portal was big for Kentucky. You're going to hear Deion Walker talk about that and why he's still at Kentucky. It's a very interesting answer. But first, a little bit of news.

Alabama's Board of Trustees is going to vote Friday about naming the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium after Nick Saban. And this has got to happen. about naming the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium after Nick Saban, and this has got to happen. This is an obvious choice here. They could have said, well, Mr. Denny has the chimes. We could just name it Bryant-Saban Stadium, but I think Nick Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium has a very nice ring to it. The dedication would be at the USF game on September 7th.

I find funny because that USF game last year was probably one of Nick Saban's more nerve-wracking games at Alabama, the one in Tampa. But it is the one where he said before the game, we're going to start Tyler Buckner at quarterback. And then probably in his mind is like, that'll shut everybody up. And it did. Any noise around Jalen Milrow ceased after that. I was like, yep, Jalen Milrow's the guy. Sounds good. Ryan in the chat says, I thought it would be Bryant saving stadium too.

You've got to make sure Denny's okay with that. I didn't realize he's not alive anymore. And again, he does have the chimes. He has Denny chimes already. So, but I think Nick Saban field at Bryant Denny stadium, it works. It just works. I'm curious to see, will they put, will they have a kind of a graphic along with it on the field? Like the Nick Saban practice hat? I don't know. He didn't wear that during games. So I don't know if we're going to do that. But that practice hat did become synonymous with Saban in his later years at Alabama, especially because the recruits would all wear it in their photos.

So I don't know. There's a lot you can do with that. Other news. On Thursday, Utah State fired Coach Blake Anderson officially. Now, they had announced that they planned to fire him a couple weeks ago. There was a contractual deal where they had to give notice, and then they would fire him. His attorney, Tom Mars, had said when they gave notice that they were going to fire him that there was going to be some information that would come out that would probably change things.

It did not come out. Nothing changed. He was officially fired on Thursday. Mars says they're going to pursue, quote, unquote, all legal remedies to get, I would assume, to get Blake Anderson's buyout at this point because he's not going to get the job back. But at issue is whether Anderson reported an arrest of one of his players on a domestic violence charge in a timely fashion. And there's quite a bit of argument about that. One of the associate ADs was also fired in this case. So we'll find out more as that goes on, because I don't think that one is over yet.

One coach who is trying not to get fired, and in this case, it would be just for not winning games, nothing, nothing off the field, but is trying to keep this job is Sam Pittman. Sam Pittman was in Dallas on Thursday with Arkansas. And this is a coach. I think if we look around the country, who's on the hottest seat, we've talked about Daveranda at Baylor we've talked a little about Billy Napier at Florida but Sam Pittman is the one I think that everybody points to that says this is the guy that has to turn things around right now or it's over Bobby Petrino comes in to call the plays now I think the biggest mistake Sam Pittman made at this point was when Kendall Bryles the offensive coordinator coordinator he had from the beginning of his tenure at Arkansas, when Kendall Bryles left for TCU, he brought in Dan Enos

to run the offense. And if you watch that offense last year, it was just a disaster. So the Enos hire was pretty terrible for Sam Pittman's tenure. Bobby Petrino comes in, which is very weird because one, Bobby Petrino is the last really good head coach at Arkansas. He was fired. And we all remember why. We all remember the motorcycle accident. We all remember the story that was told about the motorcycle accident.

We all remember the truth about the motorcycle accident. And that's, it's awkward. It's awkward. It's also awkward because Bobby Petrino was hired last year by Texas A&M to help save that tenure with Jimbo Fisher, and that did not work. Now, the difference is Jimbo Fisher is a play-calling head coach, is his own coordinator. Sam Pittman is not a coordinator, has never been a coordinator,

does not call plays. So Bobby Petrino will have carte blanche to call plays. And I don't get the sense that that Bobby Petrino hire was made to backdoor Bobby Petrino back into the Arkansas head coaching job. I get the sense that if things go wrong and they have to fire Sam Pittman, they'll look around. But Sam Pittman is determined to keep this job. If Bobby Petrino can do what he's done at various other stops and get this offense going, Taylor Green, they bring him in to play quarterback from Boise State. If he can get them going, then there's a chance this could work but it is a it is a brutal schedule Sam Pittman on Thursday said what they're planning to do this season and that's I he said he explained it but I'm still not sure I understand it we know our fans deserve a team that competes at the

highest level we're committed to making that. The support from our Razorback community is not wavered. It fuels our drive to turn things around. Our focus is to embrace the hog, which means we need to be tough. We need to be together. We need to be consistent, accountable, and do it with pride. Embrace the hog. He said what it meant. I still don't know what it meant, but I do know that I have embraced the hog at many a barbecue restaurant, and it has always worked out for me. So, Razorbacks, you embrace that hog? I think it's going to work out for you too,

we'll see, but the schedule is absolutely brutal for Arkansas, they're at Oklahoma State in the non-conference, that's, this is not a year to have to go to Stillwater and play Ollie Gordon and company, the Oklahoma State offensive line is super old, this is a team that played for the Big 12 championship last year. And then you get an SEC play. Listen to this stretch. At Auburn, Texas A&M, in Jerry World, Tennessee and LSU, and I realize Tennessee and LSU are at home, don't care. That's going to be rough. They go to Mississippi State. They play Ole Miss. They play Texas. Finish the season at Missouri. If Sam Pittman keeps his job, he has freaking earned it, everybody. The hog will have been fully embraced because the odds are stacked against him. This schedule is

rough. We talk about Florida and Billy Napier and the schedule he faces. We're not even talking about the schedule Sam Pittman faces, but this thing is absolutely brutal. We will find out if the hog is being embraced fully, they're going to have to hug that hog as hard as they can to get through this one. One of the teams that they'll be playing this year, the Auburn Tigers. A lot of talk this week about how tough it is to play in Jordan here.

And you watch this show, you know that's the truth. You've heard me say that many, many, many times, that there are days in Jordan here where you could send the 85 Bears in there and they wouldn't win. And I think Hugh Freeze is very happy about that, very excited about that. But more than anything, the impression I got from Hugh Freeze and his appearance at SC Media Days on Thursday was that he is much more comfortable doing what he's doing this year. Last year, he gets to Auburn and basically goes against everything he'd done in his entire coaching career. When he was head coach at Ole Miss, he called the plays. When he

was head coach at Liberty, he called the plays. When he was head coach at Lambeth in the NAIA, he called the plays. He gets in there, he hires Philip Montgomery, who doesn't run his offense, to install the offense and to call the plays. And it seems like Hugh Freeze just did not enjoy working with an offense that wasn't his own, didn't feel like he could jump in when he needed to jump in. So he talked about how things feel. There's a comfort level in our building right now for me that I think is breeding confidence into our players.

And when I walk into the offensive room now, every single person in there, every single person has worked with me before. And it's just made it. And I love the energy that Durkin and Charles Kelly and the defensive staff are bringing over there, organized to a T and bring great energy. So it's made me a lot more comfortable.

Comfortable. Comfortable, comfortable, comfortable. That's what he kept saying over and over. And the flip side of that is how uncomfortable he probably was last year. So he brought Peyton Thorne to media days. Peyton Thorne was there answering questions the whole time. And some of those questions were straight up either to Peyton Thorne or to Hugh Freeze. Why is he still here?

Because Freeze gave him a vote of confidence before the bowl game, looked really bad in the bowl game. But Freeze really likes what he's got right now. And he talked about DJ Durkin and Charles Kelly running the defense. I think he feels like he can let that side of the ball be coached, not worry about that, let them do their thing. And he can run the offense. And I'm telling you right now that in helmet communication, the ability for him to talk to the quarterback directly up until the 15 second mark of the play clock, he's one of the ones who will benefit the most from that. And you look at Auburn's schedule,

it's not easy. You've got the usual suspects, course uh they play Georgia they play Alabama but they also play Oklahoma we've talked about how big that Oklahoma Auburn's game Auburn game is going to be uh they're at Missouri they're at Kentucky we'll talk about the Wildcats a lot more today and you will probably come away thinking oh yeah gaming Lexington's gonna be tough they also have the non-conference game against Cal now they went out there last year and won. Cal will come to Jordan hair this year. Jade, not one of the best running backs in the country. If you don't know about him, you're going to find out about him, but that's a game that Auburn had better be careful with. And, uh, Christopher, I don't know if it's Christopher Jordan or Jordan in the chat, but he thanks me for pronouncing Shug Jordan's name properly as in Jordan hair stadium.

Have to have to Christopher Shug Jordan and my mom are from the same hometown of Selma, Alabama. Trust me. Even though that side of the family all went to Alabama, they're very aware of how one of the hometown heroes' names is pronounced. We made sure I knew that long before I became a sports writer or a person who does shows on YouTube. I'm very excited to see Auburn this year. I really am because I just didn't understand the decision to not call plays by Hugh Freeze. It didn't make any sense. It didn't make any sense.

It didn't make any sense when Gus Malzahn did it when he was at Auburn either. This is what Hugh Freeze is best at. He's added some good pieces through the portal in recruiting. Everybody's excited about Cam Coleman, the receiver. This is the time that they should make a leap. And you remember at Ole Miss, year two was when he started to really scare people. I think this is what's going to happen.

There'll be some, now you had, they played Georgia tough. They should have beaten Alabama last year. Fourth and goal from 31. Got to rush more than two. Got to rush more than two. But they were that close. Auburn's going to beat some people this year. I'm telling you right now. Auburn is going to beat some people this year. The question is, will Kentucky beat some people it's not supposed to beat? The stat that always

follows Mark Stoops around is that he's only beaten two teams in SEC play that finished with a 500 or better record in the SEC in 12 years. That has to improve. There have to be some games that Kentucky goes into that they're not supposed to win that they win. That's how you evolve. That's how you get to that next level.

And that is exactly where Stoops plans to take this team. So remember, he was flirting with Texas A&M. Probably would have been there if not for some Texas A&M regents saying, you know what, I don't know that we want to do this because we're going to have to guarantee him about the same amount we guarantee Jimbo Fisher. Because Kentucky pays him a lot already. So Mark Stoops comes in with, I would think, probably higher expectations because of that. He's taking Kentucky to eight straight bowl games. As he'll explain, that's a pretty big deal. We have been to eight straight bowl games

there's only eight teams in the country have done that i think only two in the sec besides us alabama and georgia and of course oklahoma who's you know hasn't been in the league but they've done it as well but that's not nothing but but we want to improve you know and that's the message with the team ultimately we got to get better We got to find a way to make those plays and critical moments to push us over the top. You know, we're not interested in just existing. I'm not here. I'm not coaching.

I'm not back for the 12 years just to exist. You know, we want to find a way to improve, use these rules, whatever it is to, you know, to, you know, make changes, to make that jump, to get to the next level. We're not interested in just existing. That's a hell of a quote. Now they got to stop just existing.

It's up to Mark Stoops. It's up to the Wildcats to make that happen. How do you make that happen? You make it happen with special players. Kentucky has a few of those, but the most special is probably Deion Walker. Massive defensive tackle who can also play out on the edge. This guy is one of the most interesting players

in the country. You'll hear me talk to him about, I thought he probably might have been the most, one of the most tampered with players in the country just because of his skill level and where he fits and how few of him there are. In fact, there's only one of him. And I would say that every other team in the country, except for Michigan, because Michigan's got Mason Graham and Kenneth Graham, who I think are both first-round prospects. That's the only team I would say wouldn't trade one of their starting

defensive tackles right now for Deion Walker. I think everybody else would. I'm talking about Georgia. I'm talking about Alabama. I'm talking about Ohio State. They all would. But Deion Walker's back in Kentucky. Big Zero

is a Wildcat. Listen to him explain why. We are here with the King Wildcat. Dion Walker. Right here, the King Wildcat. That might be a good nickname for you. King Wildcat. Can we do that? Can we start that whole thing if the fans want to hey listen branding nil we got well okay

what what nicknames have you been called throughout the years uh i don't really like this one anymore but big d big d okay well we're in dallas that's what people call this whole town so big d d1 d1's good like when you're in high school they start calling you d1 i like that but it was really how you spell my name my name got the number that's true d-e-o-o-n-e that's right dd my friends from back home i was gonna say is that a relative or? Okay, all right. That's really it. Yeah, I figured when somebody's got the name, it starts with D, everybody just calls them D or DD, cuz it's just so easy. But yeah, King Wildcat, I would go with it.

You brought the fan to SEC Media Days, I like this. Yeah. This is, I live in Florida, so I feel like this is the type of thing I need to be thinking about is carrying around a fan constantly. Yeah, you slacks our communications susan lax greatest sid in america that's right she gave it to me on the uh on the flight here actually nice i love you she's like it's like dion it is 100 degrees everywhere in this place you're gonna need this in a suit yeah and i'm already feeling it this is it. So what is this experience been like? You're going around, you're getting asked all these great,

what is the craziest question you got today? I really got that many questions just talking about my receiver shoes. Yeah. And talking about how it feels to play for Mark Stoops. Well, how does it feel to play for Mark Stoops? It's great, you know. I wouldn't have chose anywhere else or anybody else to play for, you know. Coach Stoops, he's a great person. He's a family person.

You know, he's not just a great coach, but you can tell, like, he has all the right morals, too. Right. You know, he's a loyalty person, and he's going to reward hard work. Yeah. So I, this is a weird one because I, but I saw this scene.

I'm not going to name any names, but I was in one of your away games, your freshman year. And I thought it was interesting. One of the opposing players came up for you on the field after the games. We'd love to have you here next year. And I imagine throughout your career, like after your freshman year, after last year,

with a 360-pound dude who can effectively rush off the edge and play up the middle, like people around you probably got a lot of phone calls. How is it – what you just told me sounds like a good reason to still be at Kentucky, but how does that decision get made? For me or just people around for you for me um after our Louisville game you know a bunch of that talk was being made yeah I actually called him you know yeah crying to him like coach if you're gonna leave just tell him let me know now yeah but he said that he was gonna stay loyal to me stay loyal to the university so i had to do that

for him so yeah that's right that was that day all of that stuff was going on and so by that night you find out he's staying and everything's cool so wow i've forgotten that all of that happened within a few hours yeah so what is what has this past year been like for you? Because, you know, I felt like your freshman year, they were kind of figuring out how to use you. Now they know exactly how to use you. As you come into this year, what can you do better than you've done before? You know, one of my big cons was my pad level, you know.

So I've been working and doing bear crawls, you know. Yeah. My high school coach called me after the season. Do 10 bear crawls a day. I said, yes, coach. You know. That is a punishment in the football world, by the way. Everybody knows this.

You mess up, you do bear crawls. So you're voluntarily doing bear crawls every day. Yeah, because it helps me work with my conditioning and my pad level. I like to do a lot of my back, like footwork drills under the chute, learning how to stay low. That was my next question,

is how much chute work are you doing? Yeah, doing quite a bit. For those who don't know, the chutes are where the linemen go during practice. And they are these metal they're made with these thick metal tubes and they're about that that high off the ground so if you get too high you're getting smacked in the head so dion is making sure he stays low so he gets smacked in the head for for lack of a better term but but can you feel that do you feel like you're bending better

when when you're playing now or yeah i feel like I'm getting less exhausted as I'm bending, you know, still running, still going full speed. It's so hard when you're as tall as you are because you don't see a lot of interior D linemen as tall as you. A lot of them are – because everybody's like, oh, Grady Jarrett was huge. No, Grady Jarrett was the perfect height because he didn't have to bend as much. Aaron Donald was the perfect height. But you're – are you 6'6"? 6'8". was the perfect height because he didn't have to bend as much aaron donald was a perfect height so

but you you're are you six six six eight six eight holy crap so yes the the bending part is is the hard part but how much does that help when you do get moved around and you are you know closer to the edge and dealing with offensive tackles who are, you know, that size? I feel like it helps a lot just because of my length, you know. Missouri game, I got a sack just because I extended and spun off the offensive tackle, you know. So I feel like it was just a great plus to have long on. 340 plus in spinning? Yes, sir. When did you have the spin move? Man, I had it in high school.

But you always have it against high schoolers. When did you realize you could do it in college? I didn't know I could really do it in college until about last year. I tried it a little bit my freshman year, but last year was really solidified. Okay, yeah, I can do it. You hear that nfl teams he's got a spin move too yes sir yeah rip so your swim is probably pretty spectacular too with those long arms yeah i say i'm more of a arm over type person than a rip guy all right um really i'm really more of a uh push pull well especially with this new flexibility too

yeah because you're not you're going to be able to stay balanced as you're as because you're pushing and pulling but they're pushing you at the same time like you got to you got to have that balance to make sure you can get you can set up the the move yes sir so uh well god bless you with your bear crawls did you do any bear crawls here today or are you gonna you're gonna make it up at home okay tomorrow all right 20 bear crawls tomorrow for dion walker thank you so much that was awesome ryan in the chat so we're just supposed to act like you wouldn't have bolted to college station if he could have you're talking about mark stoops here yeah i think he was, I think he was going. I think he was going, and I think the Texas A&M Regents decided,

you know what, I don't know if this is what we want to do. Ross Bjork, the athletic director at Texas A&M at the time, who's now at Ohio State, I definitely think that's who he wanted, but the final approvals did not go through. For Deion Walker, that's great because he's happy at Kentucky. He's happy playing for Mark Stoops, and that's what he wanted to do. It would have been pretty interesting to see what happened if Stoops had left. Would Deion Walker have just, would he have followed A&M? Would he have said, you know, you went somewhere else.

I want to go somewhere else and then just been on the market because like I said earlier I Michigan's the only school I can think of that wouldn't that maybe wouldn't replace one of its starting off defensive tackles with Deion Walker so Kentucky has a really special one they're really special anonymous in the chat dude is 68 350 with agile feet Dion is a true unicorn yes yes although King Wildcat works I love that the Wildcat with a crown on the chain it was it was pretty awesome let's talk more about Kentucky because this is a very interesting year year transition new quarterback coming in and Brock Vandegrift, new offensive coordinator, Bush Hamden, who, by the way, we're going to have on the show not long from now. So

excited to hear from him as well. Anonymous in the chat. Nah, he turned A&M down. They just say face by acting like they pulled the offer. No anonymous. That is not how I know people close to the man. They didn't want the image of being turned down. It's not how it happened. I don't care if you think, you know, people close to Mark Stoops. I know people closer to the man. They didn't want the image of being turned down. It's not how it happened. I don't care if you think, you know, people close to Mark Stoops. I know people closer to Texas A&M and to Mark Stoops, and that's not how it happened. So, but Mark Stoops is at Kentucky. And Deion Walker's at Kentucky. Brock Vandegrift's at Kentucky.

J'mon Dumas Johnson is out Kentucky. Chip Trainum is now at Kentucky. Big expectations this year. And they should. We talked to our friend Nick Roush from KSR, Kentucky Sports Radio, and his spectacular hat at Media Days. Here with Nick Roush at Kentucky Sports Radio. We just talked to De Walker who big guy massive

enormous human I mean you're you're an enormous human and he's more enormous than you it's one of my proudest pictures is being able to stand next to him and not look tiny and feel like a child he is he's he's massive and he is mov, but the motor is really what sets him apart. Well, and the ability to rush off the edge at that size. I just don't know that people who have not played football truly understand how difficult it is at that size to be quick enough to deal with offensive tackles and people chipping you. But he can do that when they need him to and then they can also move him back inside well and people forget about this play in this game because ray davis ran for 280 yards but the game against florida last year really broke when

deon dropped back into pass coverage split somebody in half on his own blitz and kentucky picks it off and they're in the red zone and it was all she wrote it was it's just incredible so Dion told us and because my thinking on this has been there probably has been no player more tampered with in the past two years than Dion Walker because like we said people like that don't exist right in real life and so everybody needs one oh you look at the spring portal and how people were overpaying for interior defensive linemen it's a very important position schools and accuse people because i don't know but i can just tell you everybody who's competing for the national championship would take deon walker and start him immediately over whoever they have every single

one and i think i think what adds some validity to your point too is, is that nobody thought they could get Jordan Davis from Georgia because he's at Georgia, right? Right. But I bet people think that, like, well, Kentucky doesn't have the money. Surely we can outspend them. So Deion told us that it was actually touch and go for a few hours after the Louisville game. Because remember, Mark Stoops was talking to Texas A&M.

Yeah, yeah. And he said that it wasn't until that night when he heard from Mark Stoops that he's staying that Deion's like okay I'm I'm here too that that's remarkable because we knew how tenuous that moment was but he's never gone on record to talk about being tampered with I'm not surprised like you said but that is it makes you know what else should make Kentucky fans very happy is that I'm pretty sure Deion Walker was the first person Mark Stoops told he was staying at Kentucky that's the first person I would tell you Deion but yes I'll be here you be here too stay

please but it so that whole episode is fascinating and the fact you know they could have done a lot of things with SEC media days and the schedule. You could have put Texas and A&M on the same day or put Texas and Oklahoma on the same day. But having Kentucky and A&M on the same day, I'm sure they didn't even think about it. Right. No, of course not.

But how weird is that? It is weird. That it was really probably a few Texas A&M regents away from being very different. If he checks a couple more boxes before and doesn't get ahead of his skis yeah i mean now i still had a part in me it was kind of like john calipari going to arkansas right where all the smoke and the steam is there but you can't really believe that he's going to go through with it and do it until he does and that's kind of how i was with stoops where yeah it's like but but does he really want like i mean he is kentucky and in closer to home where i'm in the city of

louisville it was kind of like charlie strong going to texas where you're like you've got this great thing going here like do you want to and it's even much more different for stoops where stoops is i mean he's like statue guy right now right right i mean he is when charlie strong went to texas remember Texas remember Texas was eight years removed from a national title and four years removed from playing for a national title A&M ain't that no no they're they're hey maybe we'll go to the playoff like that would be good what was it 98 was their last conference they won the big 12 in 98 correct and I think it might even been a share of it as well so they had a championship game so they did win it okay all right but nevertheless like

that making that jump it's something that we talked about a lot you you wondered is Stoops gonna go it Iowa has always loomed out there but now I mean he's he's navigated Kentucky and got them to a spot where they're in an SEC with 16 teams and you feel like they're on solid footing which is just remarkable to say if you look at Kentucky's history over the years because Stoops, his message today is, hey, I'm unsatisfied. The last couple of years weren't great, but going to eight straight bowl games at Kentucky is not nothing, which is true. The floor has been raised in Lexington.

But that's where I so i compare stoops at kentucky a little bit to steve spurrier at south carolina where steve spurrier raised their level of expectations so high that it was actually not sustainable because it was south carolina that's true so here's my question to you because stoops has raised the level of expectations at kentucky to an extraordinary degree. They are so much better than they were when he took over. But does the flirtation with Texas A&M now make it where the fan base goes, okay, but now you've got to do better than that?

I think it was going to be there regardless, Andy, because we had those nine. So maybe that's why you do that. Maybe that's why you had that flirtation because you reset the clock exactly exactly but if you want to answer the question can Kentucky get back to nine ten win seasons can they go to a playoff I mean we don't have to make big takes about it you can just say hey Brock Vandegrift former five-star top 25 overall player that's their ceiling because the rest of the roster is pretty loaded you got four out of your five offensive linemen returning defensive line best run couple really explosive wide receivers and they are new running back is pretty damn good they've been very hesitant to pump up brock vandergrift say anything good or bad or indifferent yeah but if you look at two

other quarterbacks that are two of the best in the league this year you can see the guy he was behind in carson beck people thought maybe brock should have been that guy instead of beck right beck has some learning lessons at auburn and then he's a first round draft pick against kentucky right yep brady cook i think is is the brady cook story from a year ago especially their skill set because cook has the legs right where he vandergrove's got some talent around him. Barron Brown, very fast. If you're playing that video game, he's the fastest guy you'll play with on there. So he has some tools. Brock doesn't need to do everything,

but he can raise their ceiling to where they could legitimately, we could be looking at that Texas game, Andy, in the second to last week of the season to say, is this for a spot in the playoff? It could happen. That would be incredible. Now, the Brock Vandegrift story, and Kentucky fans, I'm sure, have gone deep into this and understand it.

But for those who aren't Kentucky or Georgia fans or Oklahoma fans, because they'll know about this too, Lincoln Riley had identified Brock Vandegrift as his guy for the class of 2021. Correct. And for those who don't know how lincoln riley recruits quarterbacks it's actually a pretty noble way to do it like he picks a guy that's his guy and he doesn't pull the i'm offering two and the first one who takes it gets it like when he picks his guy that's who he's recruiting even if that person hasn't committed yet that's who he wants he's not going after anybody else brock vandergrift was that guy he commits to oklahoma

only when he decommitted so that he could go to georgia which was right next to home yeah he's from prince whale prince avenue yeah yeah 20 minutes away and what changed his mind too andy it was going to thanksgiving and his grandma saying well this will be our last thanksgiving for a while right and so that that could be your sliding doors moment because, because Caleb Williams is the person that Lincoln Riley then goes and gets. So given the chance to recruit all these guys, Lincoln Riley actually was targeting Brock Vandegrift before Caleb Williams. So Kentucky got Caleb Williams is what you're telling me. Well, no, because I think Caleb Williams would have beat out Stetson Bennett

and Carson Beck at Georgia. That's fair enough. But that potential was there and stirring. When you talk to people at Georgia, he's got the physical stuff. It's the processing, and he just needs the reps. Which is what Carson Beck needed before he became what carson beck is now here is another like you know we're at sec media days let's let's dream big let's talk okay go for it go and i don't like doing this because kentucky fans we've done this quite a bit with close calls

of georgia over the years but think about this beck needed some of that adversity at auburn to learn can't you see a scenario where south carolina comes to town and they've got Lenora Sellers and it's another quarterback, by the way, who if they hit their ceiling, it changes everything for that team. So you could see a scenario where it's the first big game. Brock

throws an early interception, but Kentucky matches up well with them, so they probably come back and they win the game by two or three scores or something like that. But can't you see a scenario? Can't you see a scenario, Andy, where Kentucky's two leaders on the offense

and defense, and this isn't to discount Deion or any of the other guys, but can you see a scenario where Pop Dumas Johnson, the Georgia linebacker, Brock Vandegrift, the former Georgia quarterback, what if to beat Georgia, you had to go and get them? You had to go. I'm not saying they could, but can you see a third quarter?

Can I be the P in your Cheerios Devils advocate? Just imagine a third quarter, Andy. If they were starting at Georgia, they'd still be at Georgia, right? There's game pressure. Georgia's feeling it. There's people down in Marietta who are screaming, like, I knew we should have gotten Brock. I knew Brock was better than Beck.

You're right, though. You're right. And the thing that sucks for a guy like Pop Dumas Johnson, I mean, the dude was All-American. It's not his fault. The guy behind him is just from Georgia and is also going to be an All-American. Yes, exactly.

And that's why we're dreaming big here, right? We're just dreaming big. But, I mean that you're talking about week three early and this is the this is the thing that i've enjoyed the most about this sec media days i don't think anybody said anything particularly interesting other than what deon said to us that was pretty interesting and maybe nick saban just being yeah saban but coming up with these scenarios for these games that maybe you haven't given much thought to. Right.

You're thinking about A&M and Texas. Right. Like, that game, if it works out that way, let's say Kentucky beats South Carolina week two, Georgia comes in, and that game's tight at halftime. The whole country's tuning over to that game. It's the first SEC on ABC between two SEC teams, right? And you have that game. There's another one, on abc between two sec teams right and you have that game there's another one too andy later on wisconsin's that day too by the way auburn coming to lexington mm-hmm q freeze auburn has so many of these games by the way right yes but like

there's a moment where you you don't think about it because they have so many of those games but like what if losing to kentucky Kroger Field it's it's it could be there's between eight and four and ten two I mean Auburn could be a playoff well and that's right that's what I've said about the Auburn Oklahoma game so people don't realize that after Auburn plays Oklahoma which is Oklahoma's first SEC road game by the way and Oklahoma plays Texas next but after Auburn plays Oklahoma which is their fifth consecutive home game at Georgia, at Missouri, at Kentucky. That's your whole season right there. So it's fun.

This has been a great week. It's been so much fun being here. I've been wearing my stupid cowboy hat everywhere. That is not a stupid cowboy hat. It's tremendous. My wife thinks it's stupid. My kids think it's hilarious. The Kentucky blue of it all is what

makes it amazing. I got it at the Derby. Is anything more Kentucky than that? I don't know. Maybe Mark Stoops went in nine games this year. That'd be pretty great. Why nine? Why not ten? Why not make it easy to get into the playoffs? Why do you have to make it an argument? We only do seven to nine.

You don't do eight. You don't do ten. That's how we do it at Kentucky. Just strictly odd numbers at Kentucky? Exactly. exactly exactly man it's gonna be so much fun though it is it is gonna be so much and to watch Deion Walker so let's let's be real this guy's a top five NFL prospect yeah like no bones about it and he's playing around a bunch of old big guys on that defensive line and I mean watching defensive tackles Andy on a down-to-down basis isn't that much fun. But when you watch Kentucky, just look for zero because it is. It was the Josh Allen experience back in 2018 where I just, I would,

I felt like I was doing my job a disservice because I just got stuck Josh Allen watching. But it was worth it. Yeah. And Josh Allen was the best player on that team. And that was a very good team. And if you go back to that 2018 season, I mean Josh Allen was the best player on that team and that was a very good team and if you go back to that 2018 season I mean that was the they were returning similar experience defensively I mean you had a known quantity in Benny Snell yeah that made the big difference

with the offense but these receivers are pretty good they shake off their sophomore slump they're explosive and then like Chip Traynham's no job over here right exactly so i mean this is going to be very interesting very interesting things in lexington and yeah deon walker he is the one you want to watch i love the zero on the giant guys good love this year it's a it's a single digits on the defensive lineman too that i like he has octavius oxendine and he wears eight because of the double o's that's just like that's so college football. It's beautiful. Greatest sport in America.

Nick Roush, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Yes, lest you've forgotten, Kentucky also has a defensive lineman named Octavius Oxendine. Hi, Bob. Can this season get here already? Great question. AJ Adams, there's going to be some real carnage in the SEC this season.

Mark my words, you're absolutely right. All these games that we are so sure we know what's going to happen as we talk about the months before they happen, we don't know anything yet. We don't know anything yet. We don't know anything. And that brings us to a topic that we've broached a little bit already today. And that's Texas A&M. We mentioned Texas A&M through the lens of Mark Stoops talking to Texas A&M after last season. And the fact that he almost became their coach, but he did not become their coach.

He's still at Kentucky, which is why Deion Walker is still at Kentucky. Mike Elko is the new head coach at Texas A&M. And it's one of those situations where he doesn't feel like a first year head coach because he was Duke's head coach for the past two seasons, did a great job there. But before that, he was Texas A&M's defensive coordinator. So he was actively involved in recruiting a lot of the guys on Texas A&M's roster. He has actually coached some of the players on Texas A&M's roster, and he understands the place very well. It's not like he's getting dropped in and, you know, you see these coaches, well, they hadn't set foot on campus until they got hired.

That's not the case with Mike Elko. He knows it very well, understands the expectations, understands what's at stake at Texas A&M. And I find that whole situation fascinating because while it's not the roster that most people think it is because they had a number one recruiting class two years ago, it's still a very good roster. It is a top half of the SEC, top third of the SEC roster. And that's why their Vegas win total is so high, despite the schedule that's pretty hard.

You know, they open with Notre Dame. They go to Florida. They got Missouri at home. They play LSU. They're at Auburn. They play Texas. This is not an easy schedule, but the Aggies have a better roster than a lot of the teams on their schedule, and we'll see how Elko can do it because Elko did not always have a better roster at Duke, and he did a very good job with them. Now, he's going to see his old quarterback, Riley Leonard, in game one because Riley Leonard transferred from Duke to Notre Dame. But this is a very intriguing season for the Aggies because it feels like they're kind of lying in wait. We're not talking about them very much.

We're going to talk about them a lot right now, though. Billy Lucci from techsags.com talking Aggies. We are here with Billy Lucci of techsags.com. And Billy, this is, has this been a weird week for you with three solid days of everybody talking about Texas and now here, here come the Aggies? You know, it's,'s you know it's been a couple years of this Texas OU build up particularly I think particularly Texas because I cover A&M but also what happened on the field last year right you know which is ironic because OU beat Texas right but Texas had a better season they had the better season that play the playoff berth. And I think better prepared in terms of this year's roster.

Right, right. I don't worry about Oklahoma long-term, but if you said which is the better roster this year, I'd probably pick Texas. I've been impressed. I was impressed with Fennibles the other day. Yeah. And I think there's been an uptick.

Yeah. At first I was going, man, I just think they're like one step ahead in terms of the roster. But it has been interesting. And then you combine that with A&M being in the final day. Yeah. And, look, let's be honest.

If you look at the preseason rankings, it's A&M and it's three other teams that are going to be towards the bottom of the rankings. Right. And you know how that final day goes. Yes, and everybody's trying to get out. I would have personally loved to see A&M in Texas on the same day. That would have been hilarious. I'm sure politically they wouldn't do it.

That would have been awesome. He was just a little bit, really wanted to have some fun. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I always like my preference for covering the team is day two, always for me. Oh, yeah. Yeah, because day one's a mess yeah nobody knows what's going on day two everybody's settled in everybody's excited day three you're

starting to drag day four your bags are packed yeah yeah absolutely but so here here's the deal we just saw mike elko in the big room and he comes across as fully prepared, as understanding. Like, I feel like of the first-year head coaches around the country this year, nobody's better prepared for the situation that he's walked into than Mike Elko because he was the D.C. before he took his last job. Well, he was the D.C., so he knows some of the players. He certainly knows an even higher percentage of the talent. Yeah. And then also just understanding the place, understanding A&M.

Which matters for A&M especially. Absolutely. Like the uniqueness of it, but also, you know, Aggies, and I'm an Aggie, and I think a lot of fan bases, and fans become the decision makers. You like to think, yeah, we're unique, we're unique, we're different. So it is an advantage to know it. But also what you don't want to acknowledge,

he was here and knew where this place could and needed to get better. You know what the problems were, yeah. Where the program shortcomings were, where they could do better in terms of, like, say, the nil space or the facility so he comes in with a really unique knowledge base and i promise you it wasn't like that went away while he coached you dude i'm not saying you spent time with it no it's very like we had him on the show a few months ago and it was very clear he was trying to be as diplomatic as possible but he knew where the warts were and and had gone to work on them

pretty quickly because i i asked him a question that was something to the tune of well you're inheriting all this talent and kind of look on his face was like it's not what you think man i've described it as this you go through and go on here we can go with the that kick-ass database of y'all's at on three which which I think is the best thing out there. We appreciate it. Prop Shannon and Andy and company. But I mean that, too. I mean, like, the way On3 is covering recruiting is next level.

But you can go do that, and the stars still say this is a loaded roster. I don't think I'd say loaded, but I'd say it's a nice roster. Yeah. And it's a roster with a coach that is checking every box. And I don't mean in season. I mean from the day he took the job, the hires, the portal, the NIL, the retaining players, who to retain, who to let walk, the offseason, Tommy Moffitt, like every box you check.

The decision to practice Connor Wigman. Yes. In the spring, people were like, oh, he doesn't look healthy. They made sure, can he re-injure himself? No, he's fine. Then he needs to practice because they needed that quarterback to run the offense while learning the offense, let the teammates see him out there,

and also work that foot from the various angles that come with actually being an athlete playing football. So what I was getting at is I think he checked all of those boxes along the way. And he is prepared that roster is not Bama or Georgia. Like we were maybe thinking it was threatening to be a couple years ago. But it's still good enough to beat any team on that schedule when you look at Well, and that's what's so interesting about this, because A&M comes into this season, and the players who've been at A&M have never had a quiet offseason like this.

They've never had a season they've gone into without a bunch of expectations, without everyone talking about them. Because two years ago, it was they brought in the number one recruiting class. Is this the year they ascend? Last last year it was 2022 was a disaster Jimbo's on the hot seat now we are not even talking about them but like you just said they can be competitive in every game on this on the schedule well Andy I'll I'd say they were competitive in every single game on the schedule last year. Right. You think about Bama, Tennessee, Ole Miss in Oxford. They were in the game. Final play. LSU third string quarterback leads at halftime. And that was with all the stuff you talked about

going on. And you bring the steady hand of Mike Elko and that presence and that day-to-day structure. Yeah. I think it's just going to build and build. And if they can get out of September, and it's tough, we know this, but it's also not impossible. You draw Notre Dame at home in week one, Riley Leonard's first game with ours. You go to Florida. Elko's former Duke quarterback.

There's so many storylines there, too. And Elko was a former Notre Dame VC. And Mike Denbrock was probably the runner-up to that OC hire. Right. With Colin Klein. There's a bunch of them. But if you – man, like, I think A&M's in that group with, like – and you can put one up top, one up top.

But A&M, LSU, Tennessee, Oklahoma. Yep. Those four teams, I'm going to be like somebody out of those four is going to make the playoffs. Oh, agreed. And it's going to be, in my opinion, you look at Connor Wigman, Jackson Arnold, Nico, and Nuss. Yeah.

You watch. Whichever one of those four quarterbacks has the best year. And I don't mean statistics. Right. When we say leading their team in the way they need to lead their team, yes. I think that team makes a playoff. I agree with that. And I've said I think that's Tennessee out of that group.

I could see it. Because Tennessee's defense is probably better this year than LSU's. We'll see with A&M with Nick Skorton coming in as a transfer. I think A&M's defense, Andy, is what – if they get there, it's going to be quarterback and defense. Yeah. You know, when Mike Elko – and you know, he kind of will downplay. It is.

It's different. It's the all shucks. It's the – but when he does believe in something he says it yeah he doesn't make like a little you know joke or right but or check you like hey well he'll say it and when he came out of spring and made the comment that yeah i think this could be the best defense i've had at a m you know we had a couple of really good ones they had some really good yeah they led the league and run defense a couple years they were top 10 at least one year and when he says that i'm like okay well and and i look at a and m and where a and m falls on various schedules and i there's a game i

keep coming back to with some other with oklahoma and auburn like they play each other and it's one of those where it feels like each of the fan bases thinks it's an auto win and you realize and you want to like shake them and be like no neither one of these is an auto yeah florida a&m feels that way like all the florida fans think they're going to easily beat a&m in the swamp and the a&m fans are like well florida's supposed to be bad this year we got that one like one of you is going to lose that game i hate to tell everybody that well yeah and i i agree with you on that one and i think look i think auburn's one of you is going to lose that game. I hate to tell everybody that. Well, yeah, and I agree with you on that one. And I think, look, I think Auburn's one of those, too. Yeah.

Like, I'd rather play Auburn early, Florida late. Right. Flip-flop those and play Florida. Yeah, let Florida get beat down by that schedule a little bit. Play Auburn in week three. Yeah. Those are two really tough road games for A&M. They also have to go to South Carolina and to Starkville.

And South Carolina, not necessarily in the position of A&M roster-wise, but kind of has some special players. They're good enough to beat anybody at home. Yeah, if you're not ready, you're going to get beat. And look, you go to Florida, man. Florida is either going to lose to Miami, and that is going to be a desperate catastrophe. Yeah, yeah, Florida's either going to lose to Miami, and that is going to be a desperate situation. Catastrophe, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kind of like, to me, A&M will get their last shot. Right. Like, if they lose to Florida and A&M, it's over. Right. So, I mean, to Miami and A&M, it's over. Or they beat A&M. I mean, Miami. Yep.

And then it's like, oh, we can start hot. This could be great. Yeah. And then the Swamp's going to be like, the Aggies kind of have to be a top-ten team to get out of there. Correct. So that's a tough, tough game for the Aggies.

And I think, look, it's going to be really tough for Florida. I'm just trying to make sure I show you the proper Gainesville experience the night before that game. That's what I want to make sure you come away with the right Swamp experience. You kind of have to. I'm skipping a Creed concert for that thing. You know Creed's like FSU, guys. That's the tallahassee band i did not so yeah that you know that they're not welcomed with arms open in gainesville so well i'm i i'm selling a couple of like second row tickets

in the woodlands to creed so if any houston people are at send me a message. Can you take the price higher? I'm going face value. I would never do that and disrespect Scott staff and company, but I will be going in November in Austin. So there you go. Okay. So you're going to get your creed fix. There you go.

Perfect. Perfect. I don't know about you, Billy. This is, I've not been more excited for a season. And I think being here, people keep asking me, what's the most memorable thing anybody said? I'm like, nothing. Nobody said anything interesting. But what I did is I talked to more people about different games that are going to happen that I hadn't thought about. And I'm like, oh my God, what if that happens? Let me throw this scenario at you because this is the one I've decided. I've got one for you, too. This is the one I've decided is DEFCON 1 greatest must-go-to game

if this scenario works out to be this way. This is not what I thought, but remind me to go to what I was going to say. Texas and Texas A&M are each 9-2 going into the game at Kyle Field. I will sleep in your yard that night to be in College Station that day. There's a little burrow in my yard that I noticed this week. Oh, okay. I'll fit right in. With baby rabbits.

Oh, cuddly. So you don't want to sleep. Well, I do, except there was a murder back there, one of the babies. A fox? Oh, no. We got foxes. We've got hawks. We've've got owls we've got copperheads we've got oh boy we got a little bit of everything i live in florida everything everything could kill

you in florida too so i understand but what you don't expect to kill is a is a golden retriever and he accidentally planned but anywho you can stay in the yard thank you and you might have to because it is going to be like that. I agree with you. It's going to be like that regardless of their records, but imagine that. I could show you a text I sent yesterday, and I say, could you imagine 9-2, 9-2? If you made me predict today, I'd be like,

what about an 8-3 A&M versus a 9-2 Texas? Just spoil it. A little bit less, but maybe a little more realistic. Well, there's still a chance at 9-3 depending on how things shake out. It's A&M facing Texas. But, yeah, 9-2, 9-2. Get back to me if the Aggies do win those two games. We talked about Notre Dame and Florida.

Right, because then there's a possibility. And, by the way, I thought you were talking about these games. And you're like, you know what's one that would be insane? What's that? Imagine A&M gets by the Irish and the Gators. Look ahead a few weeks. Not long. Missouri's going to come in.

Right. Oh, yeah. What about the unexpected showdown of drink versus Elko at Kyle Field at 11 a.m. With like an unbeaten top 10 Mizzou. Wow. If it's an unbeaten A&M team. Yeah. It's not crazy.

It's one I hadn't even thought about, but could be the biggest game of the year or the biggest game of the week that week. That's not the 12th, is it? I think it's the week before. Okay. Then that's good because the 12th the biggest game of the week is still going to be ohio state at oregon but the good news is that's not going to

be at 11 a.m central so yeah that's true but that that's what i'm so excited about is all these possibilities like i had not even thought about that game yet you're absolutely right if you look at missouri's schedule it should be undefeated so it's you know kind of on a and m to to make itself in position for that to be a big game but i would argue they don't even have to be undefeated there they if they lose one of the one of the bigger ones that's okay yeah it's non-stop this is all we this is all it's going to be i'm going to big 10 next week and i guarantee you i'll have like a list of 10 more games that i can't wait for pretty It's pretty cool. Like, it is. It's unexpected.

Like, we'll see where the season goes, but there's a week. I usually skip one road game a year. I've just kind of been like, you know, if there's like three road games in four weeks, that's kind of maybe where I'll pick it if I've been to the place a few times. I was looking. When A&M plays at south carolina there's a certain date up in michigan where it's oregon at michigan oh man i've got like my little andy

staple style hookups up there oh yeah the only thing that kind of killed my vibe is the lions are not home that weekend because we doubled when he says hookups dan campbell was his college roommate but he's not my michigan hookup but he knows some people in town yes for sure christina de ruder oh yeah former texas actor was daughter of tim de ruder running the show there former dc director of on-campus recruiting yep unfortunately great for her she left harbaugh created a position for her with the chargers and she left so that was kind of what i was hoping for but we've got marshall at oregon so oh yeah i can put on that bright green marshall marshall mount out very big name if maybe one of those names you've have not heard in college football who's one of the most important

people in college football he's helped build that roster at at Oregon and was at A&M before that. He's done a hell of a job, and there's a lot of smack talk. There's a little group of us, and there's a lot of smack talk every time. He comes into Texas trying to take players, not just from A&M but from Texas. With Lanning and him doing that, they're a threat to anyone in any state right now. Absolutely. Billy Lucci, you're a threat to anyone yeah in any state right now absolutely billy luchi you're a threat to everyone in every state we appreciate you we didn't even talk style oh we should all go let's do that i just learned i've known this guy for years i just learned he

has a stylist a friend that turned stylist but she's really good. Who's her other big client besides you? I'd say her second biggest would be Troy Aikman. You might see him on Monday Night Football. You'd be like, oh, that's number two client. We're probably not. I don't know if I make the top 10 or 20, but

she's here in Dallas. She does great work. I've never thought about having a stylist before. I do a here in Dallas. She does great work. I've never thought about having a stylist before. I do a show every day. You have good style anyway with the suits. Well, we may have to call Ashley. We'll hook me up. It's right up the street at Q.

We could just drive over there. Done. Done. I took T-Bob shopping this week. Whoa. Hold on. We had T-Bob on earlier. You should have. Oh, my God god did he make sure to get things that accentuate the chest hair um no i got him like a i got him i i didn't i

didn't have a sugar daddy i didn't take we went shopping i got him like a uh into like a viore like long sleeve crew neck oh first pair of jeans he's bought he said like 15 years oh we're getting we're getting t-bob into the athleisure army yeah good we were at north park mall where you know we were i took a call a couple work calls while we were in like adjacent dressing rooms so we're like you know talking over the stall like the real that is that's the worst rom-com dressing room montage ever, by the way. I felt like Seth Rogen and Michael Cera when they're like trying on one of the dad's clothes in Superbad. Yeah. It was not that different than that. And we will leave you with that image of Billy Lucci and T-Bob A-Bear in the rom-com dressing room montage.

Thank you, Billy. All right. That is Billy Lucci. That is a disturbing image, but that's okay. Because we got a lot out of SEC media days. We've actually got more interviews that we've banked that we will be running out here over the next few weeks. But next week we got ACC media days, got Big Ten media days.

I am heading to Indianapolis for the Big Ten. The ACC will be gathering in Charlotte. I'm sure there'll be plenty to talk about there, you know, with a couple lawsuits against the league by the two best football playing members. But the Big Ten, lots of new members. We're talking Texas and Oklahoma, in Dallas, in Indianapolis. We're going to be talking Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA. Joining the Big 10.

All those crazy new games being added to that schedule. It's going to be so much fun. We will talk to you on Monday.