Andy & Ari On3 - Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman LOADS UP his staff and his roster | A whole new world at Alabama

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

Today's show is brought to you by PrizePicks, the easiest way to play daily fantasy. All first time users that deposit and use the promo code ANDY will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100.Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/ANDY(0:00-0:39) Intro(0:40-3:25) James Madison and Samford punch their ticket to the big dance(3:26-22:06) Notre Dame's Marcus Freeman Joins(22:07-29:40) Notre Dame's Schedule(29:41-53:48) Tim Watts from BamaOnline joins(53:49-55:42) Drew Pyne transferring to Missouri(55:43-56:22) ConclusionMASSIVE GUEST ALERT: Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman joins the show as the Fighting Irish start spring practice for Freeman’s third season at the helm in South Bend. Freeman discusses reuniting with offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, who coached Jayden Daniels to the Heisman Trophy last year at LSU. Freeman also talks about hiring a strength coach and how important that position is.Freeman explains how he’s handling the quarterbacks after getting transfer Riley Leonard from Duke. Freeman also discusses how the Irish plan to replace offensive tackles Joe Alt and Blake Fisher.Next, Tim Watts of On3’s BamaOnline joins to discuss how wildly different the program feels under new coach Kalen DeBoer. They’re playing music at practice, which Nick Saban didn’t do. They’re letting assistant coaches do interviews. Nick Saban didn’t do that, either.But DeBoer was never going to work exactly like Saban did. But he’s alike in some ways. The Crimson Tide had a massive wave of visitors in the first week of spring practice, and it appears they’re ready to compete for the same kind of players they did under Saban.Want to watch the show on YouTube? Catch us live every morning, M-F, at 8 am et! https://youtube.com/live/PK7isa7jpOY

Welcome to Andy Staples on three happy conference tournament week. It is a prime day basketball time here. Not a lot going on in the college football world, but a lot going on here because we have Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman on the show today. Talking about going into year three, talking about getting Mike Denbrock as the offensive coordinator, talking about what he's going to do with Riley Leonard at quarterback and how they're going to handle that quarterback situation. Sounds like it will be fairly similar to the way they handled Sam Hartman arriving last year from another ACC school. But before we get to that, congratulations to James Madison for winning the Sunbelt Conference title and Sanford for winning the SoCon.

They have punched their tickets. There are now six teams guaranteed to be in the NCAA basketball tournament. That's James Madison, Sanford, Stetson, Drake, Longwood, and Moorhead State. If you are scoring at home, we got the Horizon League, the CAA, the Northeast northeast conference and the summit league will be crowning champions tonight so there will be four more tickets punched we're getting close to a bracket folks we're getting very very close but a lot of day basketball in between now and then and what do you need to do to enhance your joy of this day basketball what prize picks of course go to prize picks download that app,

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Helps you with all this day basketball. It's just, there's so much coming in the next few days. You got prize picks on your phone. You're going to enjoy it even more. All right. Now it is time to talk to the head coach at Notre Dame, Marcus Freeman, entering year three. They started spring practice last week. Actually had one spring practice and then went on spring break. And Marcus Freeman will explain to

you why they did that. But he is back in South Bend working his way through spring break while the players are on spring break while I'm on spring break. but you can tell he's still having fun. Here is Marcus Freeman. We are joined by the head coach of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Marcus Freeman. Marcus, you're on spring break. I'm on spring break. I think my spring break is a little different than yours, though. Yeah, yours looks like a little bit more sunshine, a little bit more water.

I'm here in South Bend, man. Well, and that's the thing. You guys started spring practice, then break for spring break. What did you get out of that first kind of quick look at the team before you take off and then reconvene? Well, I thought it was good to be able to almost get a run through of what we expect. And it was very strategic in why we placed that practice before spring break. But I was pleased with the first day.

You know what? I was really pleased with the organization and the execution of what we wanted. And there was not a lot of guys on the ground. There was no fights. It was stuff that, you know, as a head coach, you're trying to prevent. So I was really pleased with the day one. Well, and something about this team is a lot of these guys have been together. It's weird in this day and age.

You guys do bring in transfers. Obviously, we're going to – well, I'll ask you about Riley Leonard and Bo Collins and those guys. But you have a lot of players who've been in your program a while who developed through your program. How important is that when you've got to reload on the offensive line or you want to have a nice nice crisp practice right off the bat? It's so important.

I think the job of a leader is to set the standards and make sure you try to show them the teaching points before they become a reaction. And so that's the approach I took this year was I really depended on our leaders to make sure that they execute the standards that we have for our practice. And I showed the group before practice the post-2023 practice one corrections. And I said, let's try to prevent these from happening before we actually go out there and practice. So I think it's important you rely on your leaders, but at the same time, you show everybody the standards you have. Do you find now that those older guys know exactly what you want? Because you weren't the head coach when they got here.

Yeah. Yeah, I think now going into my third spring, there is very clear expectations and standards I have, and they understand it, but you can't take it for granted. You have to continuously remind them what your expectations are as a head coach. Well, and you've got a new tone setter. So Lauren Landau is your new strength coach. And I've always said that the strength coach is probably the second most important person in a college football organization behind the head coach because they spend the most time with the players. So how did you decide on Lauren Landau, who'd been with the Broncos, but he'd also been in private practice training,

UFC fighters and Olympians and everything else? Well, his name was given to me by multiple people that I respect in college and NFL football. And he was one of the many people that we interviewed. And so myself, we had a team of a couple people that we kind of went through this interview process of talking to a couple guys on Zooms and then kind of funnel it down to some on campus interviews.

And Coach Lando was the guy that we ultimately decided this is the one we want to lead our program. And the impacts he's made in these three months have been tremendous. And I've said this before, again, squat versus leg press versus lunge versus bench versus all those different things I'm not a professional in. But what I am a professional in is recognizing belief and the belief that our players have in what Coach Lando's doing. And the kind of the translation to what is being shown on the field has been tremendous. And he's big into the science piece of it. How important was it that he fit in with everything else people in with in discussions of what's best for

our players is uh on an individual and groups uh level and so um he's huge in it right and he studies the science but you know what was impressive for me was that he's done the team setting but he also knows how to individualize workouts to get the output that you want from an individual and so that was important for me. And he's been tremendous in working with our high sports performance staff. He probably thinks it's crazy how much time he gets to spend with the players because the NFL strength coaches don't get anywhere near that amount of time. Yeah. Yeah. It is definitely a mixture of what he did in the NFL, but then he has a lot more time to spend with the players when he was in that private sector. So it's a

mixture, as he told me. So another new member of the staff who's not new to Notre Dame is Mike Denbrock. So back for his third time in South Bend, you guys worked together in Cincinnati. He obviously coached the Heisman Trophy winner Jaden Daniels last year at LSU. What was it about Mike that made you want to get him back there? And what about Notre Dame made him decide to come back? It was a guy that as soon as Jared Parker decided to take the Troy head coaching job that he was number one on my list. And I was able to kind of look through the top offensive coordinators in college, NFL that I believe would fit here at Notre Dame. And Mike Denbrock was at

the top. And then our familiarity of knowing each other from working with each other at Cincinnati for three years or four years was tremendous. And so I knew if I could get Coach Denbrock to come here and to really lead our offense, that we would have a lot of success on that side of the ball. And so I'm pleased with everything he's done and implemented here for sure. I saw you said the other day that you went into his meeting room and you'd forgotten just how competitive he is. What was that like on that staff with you

and Mike Denbrock and Luke Fickle as the head coach? I mean, that's a bunch of really competitive dudes in one place. No doubt. You know, every day me and Denbrock used to go against each other, you know, and that was on game day day we're all together, but when you talk about the offensive, defensive coordinators

are fierce battles every single day. And it's now – it's awesome being a head coach because now he has – we're not going against each other, right, in that I get to support him in his efforts. But he is a competitive person. He is a great leader. That's the thing that I loved about being in his meetings and watching him lead on a practice, but he's an ultimate leader. Who taught more trash? You or him

back then? Hey, listen, we gave it to each other back to back. He was not going to back down from this young defensive coordinator that thought he knew everything. He made sure to give it right back to me. And that's something you appreciate you appreciate man that competition makes us all better so you you bring in riley leonard at quarterback from duke you obviously played against him last year and know exactly what he's about but you you've got steve angelli you've got young mr carr who just got there as a freshman uh you you did this last year with sam hartman where you had the transfer who comes in and a group of quarterbacks you recruited out of high school. Is it going to work in a kind of similar fashion in the spring? Yeah, listen, I truly believe in that competition really brings out the best in everyone.

And that's why I made this decision. One, because at any point, you know, the transfer portal is going to open here soon and that somebody might decide to leave. And I wanted to guarantee that we at least have three quarterbacks on scholarship in case somebody did leave. But two was was the ability to make sure we create competition. If we're going to find somebody, we're going to get the one that we feel is the best fit, but also the best player that's out there. And so I look forward to the competition that you'll see in the spring. And then I know as the head coach of going through this last year that you have to name a starter, right? I don't want to take this thing all the way into fall camp. And I'll be excited to see how this competition unfolds with all four of the quarterbacks that we have. And then,

you know, we'll name a starter and we'll move forward going for the spring. And what made you decide that? Because you did that last year and it was very definitive when you named Sam the starter. How did you decide, okay, I've got to do this at this point rather than push it into the fall? Yeah, I think when there's a clear-cut starter, you name right in. And I think I was able to do that last year once we got through spring with Sam. and so i would foresee the same thing happening here is let's have a very uh objective uh competition and make sure that we are utilizing the grades very clear on our expectations and meetings and honesty and then at some point uh after the spring be able to name a starter for the fall

now between returning guys and and guys that are doing some other things you're going to have a pretty full house at receiver in the fall but right now you've got you know beau collins who's coming in from clemson who's still a clemson student i've never heard of this before but so he's at your practices observing but he's finishing up his his coursework at clemson this spring have you ever had this situation before you've had a guy who's a student still at another school trying to finish up just watching no um he is like an unofficial visitor right and that's what he's doing he's observing meetings and and watching practice and soaking it all in and but that's 2024 you know welcome to the world of transfer portal

and all those different things. And there's nothing that could happen right now that would surprise me in college athletics. It is amazing. And well, the other thing is Jordan Faison, who came on really strong as a freshman second half last season. He's a middie on the lacrosse team.

Like, how do you handle that with the other coaches? I know you got a baseball player too, but when you have a guy who's great at two sports, how do you handle dealing with the time management and the other coaches in the athletic department? Well, I think it all starts with the player, right? And what do you want? Do you want to be a guy that's truly playing lacrosse or playing football or doing them both? And Jordan made known from the beginning that, hey, coach, I want to play lacrosse. playing football or doing them both. And Jordan made known from the beginning that, hey, coach, I want to play lacrosse. And then I had meetings with Coach Corrigan and his staff and about, okay,

where do you see Jordan Faison? If he can help you, what does he need to do? And then we decided, okay, he's got to be all in on lacrosse. And lacrosse right now for the spring will come first. And then how can we supplement our practices and our workouts around what he's doing in lacrosse to make sure that he's not falling behind in football. And so at the end of the day, this is what's best for Jordan Faison. And I'm so thrilled for what he's doing for lacrosse team, but he's still growing in football too. How important is keeping that promise you

made in recruiting? I love the story Jason Campbell tells. He was the quarterback at Auburn for their undefeated team in 2004. When he got recruited, he was a really good basketball player, and there was talk that he'd be able to play basketball. And then he tries to go out to practice, and the football coach goes, ah, no, we don't want to do that. How critical is it when you say in recruiting you can play two sports that you follow through on that?

I think you have to be a man of your word. And two, you've got to be honest with your players. And if you don't think that they're going to thrive in football while playing another sport, you've got to be honest with them. But I think with Jordan and Drake Bowen, who's playing baseball, the ability to say, okay, hey, here's your expectations in football. Here's what we've got to make sure you're in a position to do as we go into the fall.

And now can you handle playing lacrosse or can you handle playing baseball so important? So I think as long as you're a man of your word and you let the young people make the decision, right? That's what's important is that you don't force this young person to make any decision that goes against what you promised, but let him make it. So you've said multiple times that you wanna be an offensive line and defensive line led program and an offensive line and defensive line

led program and the offensive line at Notre Dame going way back at this point has been spectacular. We all watched Joe Alt at the combine a few weeks ago was pretty awesome. But I'm curious, you know, now you've got to you've got to replace two tackles. How much did Charles Jagasaw show you in that bowl game, in the bowl practices? Because I know he'd actually been working at guard a little bit before you put him at left tackle in the bowl game. But what did he show you in that end of his freshman season? Yeah, listen, Charles was a big five-star kid coming out of high school. We knew that he was going to be special.

What we thought at the time was it was best for him to redshirt and i was able to work with him a lot on the scout team and coach him every day being a part of the offensive scout team and we knew he had a chance to be special when he's given the opportunity so when he got the opportunity for the bowl game he did an unbelievable job and really just confirmed the things that we had already thought about him as a football player. And then, you know, we have four guys that have started multiple games at the center of our position. So I feel really good about that position, about who will end up being the ultimate starters. And the four of the five offensive line positions, we're going to have a great battle at right tackle with Tosh Baker and Emil Wagner. And both of those guys have played meaningful playing time.

And so I really look forward to the competition. Every time you get a chance to have competition, you love it. But at some point, just like with the quarterback position, you've got to make a decision. How do you handle all those conversations in 2024 when you've got a developmental position? Because like Charles, he's an offensive tackle. He's got all the tools coming out of high

school. You know he can be great but it's not like it's a position where you can usually it's rust a true freshman into playing like if you get a special corner, you can play him. You can find a place to to get him into the game. How do you handle those conversations with with an offensive lineman or maybe a defensive lineman who does need maybe a year to mature and then you can start seeing all that stuff yeah i think every individual is different right and i think

you can even when you're recruiting charles jackassaw you say hey if you're if you're ready to play as a freshman you're gonna play you look at blake fisher who started his first game as a true freshman and got hurt and joe wald i think who started game five or six and then played throughout his freshman year but then you also got to show them examples of guys that redshirted that were able to go on in three or four years and still reach their NFL goals. And so you can't put a timeline into reaching this goal of being a starter, right? You've got to just continue to put the work in that's necessary. And when you are ready, you're going to get that opportunity. So you've got to continue to remind them, what is your ultimate goal? You want to be a starter at Notre Dame. You want to be developed to go to the

NFL and put yourself in a position to be drafted as high as you can. Okay. Don't put that, don't put a timeline on that. Just look at that as a journey and focus on your journey and where it's going to lead you to. And so I talked to you a couple of days after that Ohio state game, you were talking about what you'd learned through that process, that last snap and how you'd make sure that part never happened again. Where do you feel like you are in your development as a head coach? Because you're still very young in your career as a head coach. Where do you, what do you feel like you've learned these first two years? There's no, there's no substitute for experience experience right and and i hope when we're on we're having another zoomer podcast here next year that i'm saying i'm a much better head coach going

into year four than i was year three and that's the thing like when you stop growing there is no finish line for me and i'm speaking for myself there is never a finish line where you say i've got it i'm there i've said i know exactly what it's going to take for me. It's, it's how can I consistently grow, um, challenge myself to make those sacrifices and those choices that it takes to be a better individual first. Right. And that's my challenge for everybody in this program is let's find ways to be a better, the best version of ourselves. And that's going to take sacrifice for coaches, the same things we tell our players they have to do. And if we are better individuals, we're going to become better leaders and better coaches. And that, to me, is what I'm challenging myself with.

So am I better going into year three and year one and two? Absolutely. But I'm far away from where I want to be. That no finish line thing is an amazing concept. It's one of those that took – I think everybody kind of finds it at their, at a certain point in life. But I remember I covered Billy Donovan who coached at Florida. He's a Bulls coach now, but he wins the national title and actually got kind of depressed because he's like, okay, what is there now? What do I do next? And he realized after that, he's like,

oh wait, there's no finish line. You just, You just keep on going. So at what point in your life did you come to that realization that, hey, I'm not coaching or working towards some end point here that this is always going to grow and evolve? Well, I think you look at – I start and look at myself, one, as a player. And all you dreamed about was making the NFL. I was a fifth-round draft pick. And it was like, okay, you did that, and now what? And what's next for you then you become a coach and okay i just can't wait to become a position coach or a coordinator and every time you get that opportunity like oh okay you just continue to work if i would

have told if you would have told me 10 years ago you would be the head coach at notre dame at 35 years old i would have been like there's no way that's the ultimate that's the end line and then you become the head coach and you go, okay. Now the work continues to be there. So there is no finish line. There is no, you know, once you become a national champion head coach or you lead a program to this certain level that you've arrived, it's just that that's this constant growth, this constant chase for improvement,

to me is what makes leaders exceptional. And that's something that I'm going to continue to try to do. I also imagine when you become the head coach at Notre Dame, we all saw the video of the players going crazy when you got announced. But I imagine there's some point where you're back in your office and somebody hands you a binder of here's all the 5 billion things you need to do in the next 24 hours. I imagine then you realize I didn't hit the finish line yet. Yeah, there there's no playbook for this thing, right? And nobody really explained to you all the expectations and demands

of a head coach, but you got to be able to have one people around you that can help you. You can't do this thing alone. And I have a great team around me that's able to help really guide me through these things that it takes to be a head coach. But also, you know what? It's just put your head down and work, right? And every day, the obligations that you have, you knock them out and then you move on to the next one. But it's also about keeping self-centered, right? And physically, mentally, spiritually, self-centered and making sure you are in a good position. Because if you let all this other stuff really weigh on your shoulders,

it'll overwhelm you. Well, it seems like you were handling it very gracefully, Marcus. And I, I hope you enjoy the rest of your spring break as much as I'm going to enjoy mine. I'll try to find a way to Andy,

but I don't know if it's going to be. All right. I'm going to go catch some fish, Marcus. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right, man. Good, thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right, man.

Good to see you. Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, and that is a man who seems very comfortable in his role and very much understanding the gravity, the pressure of that job. I remember sitting in his office two days after the Ohio State game, and he was talking about the situation.

I mean, it's horribly embarrassing as a coach. Obviously, he's just fuming inside because they had that game. They have 10 guys on the field on the final play, and they end up losing to Ohio State. He's talking about all the things he'll do to make sure that never, ever happens again. And you think about that, think about these coaches, everybody's kind of at a different place in their evolution. And Marcus Freeman, still young as a coach period, because remember he played a little bit of pro football,

then he got into coaching. He got the Notre Dame name job at a pretty young age. And you just don't know. Cause I always go back to Kirby smart, you know, Kirby smart loses the national title game in year two as a head coach. It loses on the second and 26 play. And you think,

okay, what could have been done differently? How could it probably aided him? Just killed him the next year, Georgia gets the SEC championship game. He calls that the fake punt, horrible fake punt, where they put Justin Fields in. You see every Alabama player pointing at Justin Fields. You know, something's up.

And you think, oh, you know, is this guy ever? But he was in year three as a head coach at that point. Nick Saban had been a head coach for much, much longer. When Nick Saban won his first national title at LSU, he'd been a head coach at Toledo. He'd been a head coach at Michigan State. And so all of these guys have an evolution. They don't just come pre-wrapped as a head coach. And I think Marcus Freeman does seem to be developing along the way. Now it's a high pressure job. You got to win. You got to get results. And Notre Dame probably has to be better than they were last year. They they've got to not have a game like Clemson,

like Louisville. I think I can understand, like you look at where that wasn't the schedule and it was Louisville's absolute Super Bowl at that point. Louisville wound up losing the next week, kind of the same situation. But where that game was in Notre Dame's schedule, it was a dangerous spot. The Clemson game, there's really no excuse for them going down there and losing. They've got to win that game in that situation. And especially now the playoff, Notre Dame can make it at 10-2. This 12 team version, they can make it at 10 and two. It sounds like whatever comes next, whether 14 teams or six of what it's say at 12, whatever they do, it sounds like Notre Dame will be in a situation where if they're 10 and two, they make

it because it sounds like there's going to be some assurance that if they're in the top 14, they make the playoff. So this will be a situation where if Marcus Freeman is evolving and developing as we expect, Notre Dame should be in that spot this year, next year, where they should be consistently able to make the playoff. Because I think they're consistently recruiting at a high level. They're doing a good job in the transfer portal, where they're getting guys that seem to fit their needs. And look at this schedule this year. They open with Texas A&M, Louisville again. And we talk about this being a very easy Notre Dame schedule and it looks on paper easier than most of them. I will say there's some trickiness here. Like having to play Georgia

Tech and that's a Mercedes-Benz state. It says neutral. It's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, so it's basically two miles from Georgia Tech's campus. If Georgia Tech is having a good season to this point, that's going to be probably a 50-50 crowd because there'll be a lot of Notre Dame folks in the South who want to go see a game in Atlanta involving the Irish. But that one's going to be tough. I think Brent Key's done a really good job there. Florida State, we don't know exactly what they're going to be this year because they's going to be tough. I think Brent Key's done a really good job there. Florida State, we don't know exactly what they're going to be this year because they're going to be so different roster-wise, but I suspect they're still going to be pretty good.

Virginia, we'll see. That was a team that was getting better under Tony Elliott last year as the season went on. And then at USC to end the season, we just don't know what USC's going to be. If the defense is better at USC, then there's a chance that this could be a very good team. We know the offenses are going to be good under Lincoln Riley. We actually haven't seen what a Lincoln Riley offense looks like

when there's a good defense across the field, except maybe kind of the end of the 2020 season. So I'm not convinced that Notre Dame can just roll through this schedule and make the playoff, but if they're better than they were last year, then they definitely should. Now, Tyler Horka from blue and gold who covers Notre Dame for us at on three, he says they, he thinks they got to be 11 and one, or it's got to be a situation where other teams lose some games. He thinks this schedule might not be enough to get there at 10-2. That's something we're going to have to figure out how the playoff math works because we've not seen this before.

So I don't know exactly how that's going to go, but I still think in most seasons 10-2 for Notre Dame is going to be enough to get them in the playoff in this format. Now I realize this format is only going to exist for two years, but it sounds like the next format too will be pretty advantageous to Notre Dame. So we'll find out what happens. And I think Marcus Freeman is, uh, is probably that guy. I think he can do it. I just, I'm amazed at how people just write people off because they had a bad game or had a bad decision or two that early in the coaching career. So you got to remember how young this guy is. And no, I mean, he's not quite matched Brian Kelly yet, but we'll see. Cause Brian Kelly

really took off in year three at Notre Dame. And that was the year they went 12 and Oh, made the BCS title game and lost Alabama. Now, obviously he took over a little different situation than Marcus Freeman took over what Brian Kelly took over from Charlie Weiss was not nearly as good as what Marcus Freeman took over from Brian Kelly, but we shall see in year three. Now he's also got Brian Kelly's former offensive coordinator. So we'll see what happens with Notre Dame. Now let's talk about another big time program that is in a period of change that we all knew was coming, but I don't think any of us was quite ready for it. When Nick Saban retired, we were all just gobsmacked trying to figure out basically how college football works without Nick Saban. And we've had a lot of those big picture conversations

and we've had a lot of those conversations involving other teams. Like we talked to our friends who cover Ole Miss and our friends who cover Auburn and our friends who cover LSU about what it's like in a post Nick Saban world. What about what it's like in Alabama in a post Nick Saban world when they actually start practicing, when things start happening? Tim Watts from Bama Online joins us now to talk about what it's like in Tuscaloosa with not Nick Saban at the helm. Kalen DeBoer running the show. We knew it was going to be different. Everybody knew it was going to be different,

but it's still so weird to see somebody other than the goat leading the Crimson Tide out to practice. Here's Tim Watts. We are joined now by Tim Watts of Bama Online, who has got to feel like he's in another universe. Tim, how strange is it after 15 years of covering Nick Saban, Alabama to see Kalen DeBoer Alabama like it's one thing you knew Kalen

DeBoer got hired. You saw him recruiting but to see him on the practice field to see him at that podium next to that Coke bottle, how weird is all this? Yeah, it's been a week of weird. It's almost like that Spider-Man animated show with the universe. I feel like I've went into another, I'm in another planet, another universe with how Alabama football was ran at the same time.

I mean, it's been so different and it's not good or bad, but it's definitely different. I mean, we have Charlie Potter who works for me, who's a technician, as professional as it gets. He's excited to go to practice this week because they got like 30 minutes. You know, a lot of schools will go, you only get 30 minutes. Well, Alabama, that is like an extension of life. We went from 10 minutes with, you know, there's a lot of confusion too. On a side note, people were acting like Bama never gave access to practice. They absolutely did. We got, they always did, but it was like seven minutes. I've been there for that seven minutes before and all that stuff, no assistant coaches. And then COVID came and Nick Saban took that, you know, and locked it down and probably rightly so at first. And then it just

became a habit, but 30 minutes, that's an extensive amount of time. Travis Ryder covers the team for us, flew in and, you know, everybody was excited. And then you've got the coaches talking and I have friends who are like, like the funniest thing is I had a friend who texted me and he said, I haven't heard Freddie Roach talk since he's a linebacker in Alabama. And it kind of hit me like, you know, like, right, the public doesn't see this.

And I thought they did good. And another thing is how genuine they were because they weren't polished. You know, it was just like somebody walking up to you at Walmart and started interviewing you. Well, that's the funny thing. The freshmen in Alabama who were just recruits and getting interviewed by, you know, the likes of us at On3 and everybody everybody else they're probably more experienced being interviewed than the guys who've been position coaches at Alabama for a while uh speaking of new position coaches Chris Kapilovic

is the is the new all-line coach I was going to play this just because it's an Alabama position coach being interviewed man that probably started early in North Carolina we used to have pound the rocks then we went to Juice Squad. And, you know, it's always good. Nobody gives the old linemen any love, right? I always joke, if there's a 40-yard run and the back goes untouched, they say it's a great run, right? But if he gets tackled in the backfield, the old line isn't very good, right?

Because you use the other words you use for that. So, you know, I like to make it fun for the guys. You know, we've got Juice Squad. We'll have hoodies, hats. We even got a big gold chain with a gold Juice juice squad and they win that line of the week it's amazing how much they love putting that thing on right so so we promote our guys and you know when you're in the football culture everybody knows how important they are so the jew squad that's the offensive line so you're going to see in tyler booker and company in in the juice squad hoodies and

whoever wins the juice squad award is going to be wearing the big old gold chain it's not the next day Alabama baby yeah let's say song times are changing you know I think that's it you know and the funny thing about it is and I love Alabama fans but they will really discuss everything I mean we spent a day and a half when they found out practice had music. And you've been at events too, right? You've been at events. You go to an NBA game. There's music playing. When the game starts at a seven on seven, you kind of zone out. You're watching the players. The players certainly aren't running routes and doing spins and Michael Jackson or splits.

They're certainly focused on the game. It sort of tones it out, but it does get you pretty hype before the game. It does get you pretty excited. Then that's why everybody does it. But to have Nick Saban never played music and then to go to music, I think there was a, you know, I think there was a little bit of a shock factor. So we've been debating stuff all week at demo online.com and it's good debates. I mean, times definitely are different. It's also March for sure now there's a

good basketball team in alabama too to talk about but but the music thing let's set people's mind at ease pretty sure kirby smart lets them play music at practice at georgia and they still win national titles doing that so it is okay but yeah i mean everybody plays music now at practice the the funniest thing about that one tim i remember back remember back when Gary Patterson coached TCU and this was probably, I want to say like 2015, 2016, I went to a practice and Gary Patterson did play music, but unlike all the other schools where the music is basically the rap

that the players like to listen to. That's usually what the music is at most schools. Gary Patterson had his own Gary Patterson playlist, and this was the only thing that was allowed to be played. And it was a lot of like seventies rock. There was a band called Trooper that I had never heard of that apparently was popular before I was born, but it was, it was unbelievable. But yeah, I think, I think now it's pretty commonplace, and it just keeps you going. But the thing about it, you mentioned this earlier,

neither good nor bad, just different. How much are you going to have to say that to Alabama fans over the next six months? Yeah, it's a lot. I mean, there was heated debates about why recruiting was so quiet during the quiet period. It's literally called the quiet period, you know. So you got a new staff late, you know, getting to fill his staff.

It's on down the road. But so, you know, February was building relationships, putting out offers. You see a consistent amount of offers every night that go out. You can count on six to seven, five to six, seven tweets that go out. And they were building those relationships. And every bit of effort went towards this first week where I don't know if they had 100, but it felt like 100 kids came on. Big name guys got a commitment from an athlete, Zamir Smith, that they really liked.

Took a playmaking guy. They took made headway with a lot of other guys. It's just like, you know, like you said, you know, like we've said, it's different. It's not bad. But I get the guys that are old school. I mean, Nick Saban didn't play music because his coaches never played music. Probably that would be my guess. But these kids are growing up where they were allowed to listen to music in the locker room on the field. So it's a little bit different. He kind of changed with the times, but I've never heard anybody say, you know what? We had a championship team, but we kept playing music at practice. And that's how we ended up losing a lot of football games. I don't think anybody's ever going to change that, but I do think the music's important. Like your story about Gary

Patterson that described every family trip anybody's ever taken. Where the mom – God's got the radio. Well, mom's even worse now. I came up – I grew up – you know, I was in a little bit – rap was very popular when I was growing up. Different kind of Beastie Boys run DMC. I've always stuck there.

Mom goes straight to the 70s, 80s hits, and the kids, you know, I think they like it. Everybody likes it, but they gripe about it because it's tradition. But Well, she was just throwing on some seals and cross summer breeze. Yeah, it's a dear and they always they only hear the song is mom, you know what I mean? You didn't hear it. You know, it is truly amazing. And it is funny though when you see

the the folks who cover practice don't always they're not always up on on the current hip hop and so they get a little shocked when that bass starts. I I was like to take you back to Central Texas that same it is actually I think was the same trip I was on where I I caught the Gary Patterson playlist. Baylor was playing same trip I was on where I caught the Gary Patterson playlist. Baylor was playing, you know, it was basically wall-to-wall future and Migos and all stuff that was popular at that time. And I was like, the Baptists have really changed on their musical taste here.

Yeah, I mean, but again, that's the energy. I just love the fact, you know, again, like you said, it's March. There's not a lot to discuss. But this week we saw a lot of discussion. Now, the thing for for, you know, there was a lot of can he recruit the South? And I guess that's a fair statement, right? He's never been in the South. You don't know. But asking a question, that don't mean you know the answer. You're going to find that out as time goes on. And he's showing he knows how to recruit. And let's be honest, recruiting is recruiting, right? If you know how to recruit, you can recruit, you build relationships, you sell your program. It's like a single guy, a guy that knows how to get girls can get a girl in Columbia, Venezuela, or Alabama. He knows how to talk. I think Kalen DeBoer and this staff is like that single guy. And in the sec, they all recruit like single guys, right? I mean, they all know how to sing it. They all know. I hate that that's the best analog we can ever come up with, but it's always so true.

It is. I mean, Kirby smart knows how to host the first date, you know, Kalen DeBoer does. And, you know, you're in a conference with people who put a lot of effort. They put so much effort in it. They're banning, you know, cookie cakes. You know what I mean? When you're making cookie, you know, they ban cream cheese and other banning cookie cakes down with the NCAA. So you mentioned all the visitors, you know, probably triple digit visitors last week for the first two practices. I am assuming this is going to be a steady stream of guys coming through. How important is it to get people to come look at how a practice looks,

how a day in the program feels with this new regime? I imagine that's a pretty critical thing for them here in these next few months. I think for sure. I mean, you build a relationship. When you saw those guys talk, Freddie Roach and Moe Lindquist and Shepard, those guys, all the coaches have done extremely well. You can see they've got a good personality. So I'll get them on the phone and work, you know,

now you got to get them onto campus to see, because Hey, Juju Lewis, you know, one of the top quarterbacks in the country came, he's been to Tuscaloosa enough. He doesn't, he knows his way around that campus, but he got to see that offense in action. Right. And the one thing you've heard the most about is that option. And then if you talk to Kane Womack and you're a recruit and you're hearing all these different roles and, you know, terms like stinger and all this stuff, Husky and all these different positions and how he's going to attack, you also want to see it in

person. So get them on campus is huge because you get them to see what you've been telling them about. So now, you know, is the proof in the pudding what you've been telling them about so now you know it's the proof in the pudding we've been telling you what we're going to do now here's what we're doing do we lie to you yeah and that's the thing i mean everybody who's been being recruited by alabama and and these class of 2025 guys a lot of them were coming on campus in the nick saban era we're coming to games in the nick saban era. We're coming to games in the Nick Saban era. They understood what that was. But now, Caleb DeBoer has to show what this is. And it's funny because I read people talking about, oh, well, they just give them enough NIL. Everybody Alabama recruits against has access to a significant amount of NIL money. So you still have to differentiate yourself

in some way. And that's where I think it's interesting with these 17, 18-year-olds because when Nick Saban leaves, I feel like that wipes the slate clean. Like you've got to prove it all over again. Yeah, and I agree. And, I mean, again, you know, that's a good point. And, you know, it also should be noted that everybody Nick Saban liked, Kalen DeBoer's staff won't like. And everybody that Kalen DeBoer's staff likes, Nick Saban might not have offered. So you're seeing that crossover

because you got a different system. You got a different scheme. And I'm really looking forward to seeing what Alabama does on the offensive line. Washington was considerably lighter. Now, they still had big guys, but they were considerably lighter than Alabama, who had two centers in that.350 range, if not more. I mean, two tackles in that.350 range, if not more. So you've got to, like, change your philosophy on your recruit for a certain way. But obviously Nick Saban knew what he was doing. I think that's why a lot of the attention you've seen on defensive backs, athletes that can play both ways, wide receivers and those guys,

you've seen a lot of the crossover there but they're evaluating them you know you're seeing guys being re-offered and guys not re-offered so there's a lot of a lot of recruiting going on a lot of evaluating going on um just been a very busy time for them but they seem like they're pretty excited about it that offensive line thing you mentioned is really interesting i was at the senior bowl when caitlin abor came by and he got asked about it. And I felt like he answered the question very diplomatically. But if you read between the lines, it is basically, no, these guys are going to be lighter. Like they, they were, they were bigger than I would prefer. And the thing is, you know, everybody's got their own flavor, like Kirby smart and Nick Saban love huge offensive linemen.

Like if you look at Georgia starting offensive line, they've got, they want tackles who are 6'8", so they can put 350 pounds on them. Like they want to be that big. But if you look in the NFL, there aren't many lines that big. Most NFL lines are smaller, look more like what Kalen DeBoer trotted out at Washington last year. And so it is very much a philosophical thing, and you got to figure out what it is you want

yeah they're so big that every georgian alabama game we got the same graphic right look how much bigger they are than your average nfl offensive line they were absolutely huge i also saw jc latham was closer to 240 down from that 260 260 plus range so he got down a little bit too well 20 pounds is a decent amount of loss to get ready for that NFL combine. So I think he saw that as well. Everybody was talking about how well he moved. But again, you're talking about a philosophy in college versus the future with, you know, in the NFL. But with Kalen DeBoer, it's, you know, it's more about his scheme with his offense. A lot of quick passes, a lot of quick hits guys pulling and moving you know the

one thing about coach cap that when i was talking to people that knew him they kept talking about vertical blocking which is basically just get in front of your man and push him back so i mean you're going to have to be athletic have good feet to you know and you know be quickness to get out there and move guy around another thing it just hit me and it's not new information, but we just, we haven't talked about it yet. This is Alabama going from a defensive minded head coach to an offensive minded head coach. And it is very like, we always said, you know, whether it was Kirby smart or Jeremy Pruitt or Pete

Golding or anybody calling the plays at Alabama, it was Nick Saban's defense. You know, Kevin Steele did that, Nick Saban's defense. Now we're probably going to feel the same way about Kalen DeBoer's offense. Meanwhile, Kane Womack's probably like, hey, this is my show. Yeah, I think, you know, the one thing, it's funny you bring that up because I've had people describe, I tell you, I had an SEC coach tell me the thing about Gus Malzahn,

who's an offensive-minded coach, and this is pretty common, I think, with offensive-minded coaches. They leave the defense alone. Now, Nick Saban wasn't one, obviously. He's obviously a defensive-minded coach. But the offensive guys, one of the coaches who had coached with Gus Malzahn said, I don't care what you do, but do it fast. Get the ball back. Let them score.

I want the ball. That's an offensive-minded coach. So they pretty much recruit who you want, Gus Malzahn, let the defensive guys recruit who they want, get the guys that fit your scheme. There might be a little bit of that with Kane Womack because it is his defense, right? It's his defense, it's his personnel. Obviously, there's a trust factor between him and Kalen and DeBoer. And hey, if you can have somebody handle one side of the ball and you focus on your side, I mean, there's not a better union that you're going to find.

Well, and also I think Kane having been a head coach these past couple years is pretty important because he can kind of operate on his own without a ton of supervision if need be. And now we saw like Nick Saban would definitely have an influence on the offensive side of the ball in terms of philosophy and the one thing I I don't know that we're going to see this at many places again the one thing I thought was interesting with Nick Saban is offensively they would change coordinators but they would not change offenses it would it would be kind of the whole menu and then the coordinator would just call their flavor of it

but they did that so that the players even even if the offensive coordinator changed, didn't have to learn a new language. And I do wonder like if, you know, Kane Womack has a good couple of years and then becomes an sec head coach, is it going to be Alabama's defense? And then you just sort of work with it or it will be just what what what that new coordinator brings and and that's you know that i always thought that was something nick saban did extraordinarily well and helped him deal with the constant coordinator changes because every time somebody was good they became a head coach but we don't know how this is going to operate now you have to think though you've got mo lindquist who was the head coach on that staff you got some defensive guys they're all learning

the same system under Womack. So you have to think possibly they're teaching those guys to replace Kane Womack if he gets a head coaching job. But you've got to think if he does a good job at Alabama, I think you have to expect him to get a head coaching job considering he has a head coaching experience and some success as a head coach. So it could be as simple as teaching those guys this defense

and you see that defense run through them. Or like you said, you might bring in another defensive coordinator and it changes to what he wants. But the key is to make sure you have the personnel that will transfer over. And I think that's one of the things that you're looking at with Alabama. You're looking at traditional defensive linemen. You're looking at really good linebackers they're recruiting. Now, they're a little bit more versatile, Swiss Army knife type guys.

Same with the secondary. But these are guys the question isn't can they be a cornerback. It's are they a cornerback? Are they a safety? Are they a nickel? Are they a slot guy? You know, the last commitment, Zemir Smith, was basically referred to as a field corner,

somebody that can bounce around almost like a rover in my mind in softball. He can just bounce around where he wants to, find mismatches, and take a turnover and turn it into instant offense. The personnel, just like Saban left it for Kalen DeBoer, I think that Kane Womack will have the right personnel there if that happens in the future. So you mentioned even the little thing like like music at practice sends the message boards into a tizzy and and you get

debates for a day and a half how how nervous is the fan base still about the unknown the the newness the the how's this all going to look you know it'd help if they could remember one year to the next I mean that's the thing that's kind of I mean seriously it's like every year it's like groundhog's year except a day except for it's for the whole year for us I mean after signing day you know Wednesday they have the big meeting they have the signing day they meet with the Red Elephant Club um you know, we saw an offensive coordinator announce he's the offensive coordinator at Alabama and was gone Friday. At that big event, after that, they take a break. Thursday, Saban gave them Thursday to Tuesday.

Well, we had a discussion, and I had several people say, hey, holy cow, this is new. Alabama's taking off in February. It was almost like a tis-tis gotcha moment. And I was like, dude, it happened every damn year for 17 years under Nick Saban. And it's just like that practice access. Oh, Kalen DeBoer doesn't take it serious. You have access to practice like Charlie Potter's going to influence a game. You know what I mean? But Nick Saban did it as well. So it would really help calm the nerves if they would remember one year to the next. And'm kidding but i'm also kind of serious there's a lot of people yeah i don't you're you're not kidding and it is interesting and it's also here's the thing if they lose two three games

this year it's going to be the music of practice's fault it's going to be the access to spring practice it's going to be the interviewing position coaches if they let's say they they have a great season and it looks just like it always did under Nick Saban. It's going to be like, hey, this is great. New and different. Viva la difference. That's all it'll be. But Kalen DeBoer is just going to have to rise or fall on his own merit. I just can't imagine the pressure because we've talked about what that job is and how how built up those expectations are.

And nothing short of perfection is going to be good enough. So he's got to he's got to figure out how he's got to handle when it's not perfect. And these SEC schedules, nobody's going to be perfect, I don't think. Well, you know, the thing about it is I'm not sure he can really win over the naysayers, so to speak. I mean, if he has success this year, how much is it going to be given to Saban? I imagine by the people that are skeptics that they'll still give the, you know, the same. And obviously Saban left a great roster, but, you know, I refer back to that because I've thought, you know, in recruiting that there's people that were convinced he couldn't recruit. So when he got Ryan Williams, you would have thought, hey,

that's a pretty big deal, right? That is a pretty big deal. Biggest wide receiver since Julio Jones. Maybe the biggest in-state recruit since Julio Jones. It's a big deal. And they kind of wrote that off. And then he got the other transfers. Well, then he got Keon Saab,

and there were still people wondering, can he recruit? And I was like, well, Keon Saab is a national portal entry. He could have went to a dozen of schools. Now, I will say he got a big advantage when he flipped Antonio Coleman from Auburn. So he drew some naysayers. I'm not saying that too much. But he drew some doubters' interest when he did that. So I think it's picking up a little bit.

But you're always going to have your doubters. And, I mean, it's Nick Saban. And to rattle on, this happened with Bear Bryant, right? I remember Saban had won two national championships when the debate started, who's the greatest Alabama coach? And it kept going. I think it's still pretty debated. And it's a good debate.

I mean, it's two fantastic coaches in different eras. Yeah, I think that I usually view them differently. I will say, before I let let you go one other funny thing we played this clip last week and i laughed so hard the first time i listened to it the other people who have to be trained other than the fan base the reporters who cover the team they have to learn you can it's it's okay to ask depth chart questions now listen listen to the the defensiveness in the question and then listen to caitlin devore's answer you talk about depth chart and different stuff obviously i'm not asked for a depth chart but you have players i mean you sat next to jaylen miller at the basketball game

is that your guy going into it or do you clean slate every year with every position yeah i mean you want competition right and so um the competition is always going to be there and yeah someone had to take the first reps today, you know, with the ones when we lined up and we referred to him as that and Jalen did, you know. So, you know, he's putting everything into it he can along with the other guys that took those first reps. But I fully expect those guys that are really hungry to be pushing those guys that are ahead of them to be their best. And that's what you want in a football program. You know, and that's certainly going

to be the case here with so many good football players here want to get on the football field. Did you see the small grin creep across Kalen DeVore's face when the guy goes, I'm not asking for a depth chart? Yeah, there's going to be a lot. I mean, it is a lot to learn. I mean, I was surprised all week because somewhere in my mind, I thought the only access to the assistant coaches was Wednesday or Tuesday when they had the media open. But, you know, Friday, Charlie Potter was dropping new interviews,

and I was kind of like, what the heck's going on? Then we saw, you know, Coach Kapp, and I was like, are they talking to everybody? Like, you know, it's chaos. It's out of my hands. It's going on then we saw you know coach cap and i was like are they talking to everybody like you know it's chaos it's out of my hands it's one of those moments that it's wow but it was a very interesting week not just recruiting but team and like you said and you know i kind of envisioned like that gate being shut when the media could go in and when it opened it's almost like the opening of uh uh disneyland everybody's spring to the average is running right i thought everybody was just praying to get a good spot in the video and photo it wasn't that bad no

elbows but i can imagine how excited they were i was pretty excited to see it all well it is a brave new world in tuscaloosa and we're going to pick apart every little part of it, and I'm going to love it. Tim, thank you so much. Absolutely. Anytime, Andy. The great Tim Watts from Bama Online. Yeah, things are different in Tuscaloosa now. Things are different everywhere. Let's give an example. In the news here on Tuesday morning,

Pete Dammel from ESPN has a story. He talked to Drew Pine, former Notre Dame quarterback, former Arizona State quarterback. Remember, Drew Pine was a starter at Notre Dame after Tyler Buckner got hurt in 2022. Yes. Okay. So Drew Pine is transferring to Missouri, where he'll back up Brady Cook this year. And you're thinking, oh, he's going to back up Brady Cook. And then he'd probably up Brady Cook this year. And you're thinking, oh, he's going to back up Brady Cook. And then he'd probably get like his master's degree. And then he's on to whatever's

next for Drew Pine. No, no, no. Drew Pine has three seasons of eligibility remaining. So if you were curious about how the math works, here's how that works. Drew Pine was a member of the class of 2020. So yes, he is going into season number five of college football, but is somehow only a sophomore. Here's how it goes. 2020 COVID year does not count, does not count toward any eligibility at all. 2021, that's his red shirt year. 2022, red shirt freshman year at Notre Dame. He goes to Arizona State. He gets hurt at Arizona State in September. Applies for a medical redshirt.

Looks like he's going to get it. So now he is entering year five of college football, essentially as a redshirt sophomore at Missouri. So Drew Pine, congratulations. You are going to be a Van Wilder. I hope you can get a doctorate while you're still playing college football. I think that would be awesome.

I love it. I think Brady White, former Memphis quarterback, did that. You're going to be on pace to do that. So congratulations to Drew Pine and good luck on your PhD. And thanks to everybody for watching. We got a big show for you tomorrow.

Jared Ivey, Ole Miss defensive end and fellow YouTuber. He's got a hell of a show. You guys are going to love watching that one. And you're going to love our interview with Jared Ivey. We're also scheduled to be joined by Florida Atlantic coach Tom Herman. That's right. Former Texas and Houston coach Tom Herman. Now coaching the Owls in Boca.

Going to be a fun show. A lot of day basketball coming up. Enjoy. We'll talk to you tomorrow.