The Herd with Colin Cowherd - The Jboy Show - Marcus Freeman is a home run and discussing Georgia's dominance

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

Jboy talks about how much he loves what Notre Dame did, plus discusses is Georgia is an all-time great team. Make sure to check us out LIVE on Youtube every day at 3pm EST, plus follow us @thejboyshow on all social media platforms! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and change direction. So we appreciate you guys joining us. Got a heck of a show for you today. Going to start off talking about Notre Dame hiring Marcus Freeman. What do I think about the hire? And the worst argument ever when it comes to age. We have to debunk this theory that's going on about age when people freak

out young or old. We're going to have Pete Samson going to join us. A beat writer for Notre Dame for the athletic. Great conversation there. And he says the main reason Brian Kelly left Notre Dame was facilities. Shocker there. We're going to get into it.

Cole Kublich, of course, C-squared. One of our boys on the show is going to join us. We're going to talk everything, coaching carousel, what he thinks about the new coaches, championship game preview, all that. We're going to talk about Georgia. Is this Georgia team an all-time elite team? We're going to talk about that.

I'm going to talk about a new term that I am coining. You're a defensivist. So you do not like anything defensive, therefore it can never be good. as being offensive. Therefore, you are a defensivist. And I'm going to continue to try and say that word right. Then Jamari Sawyer, George Offensive lineman, going to join us talking about the messaging from Kirby Smart this week, how big this game is, which we all know. But I want to start talking about Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame. Number one, I want to take my hat off to Swarbuck, everybody at Notre Dame. I think this was a great hire. I think it was a great hire. And you have to understand

outside of a couple guys, three, four, maybe five, every hire is a gamble. Every hire is a gamble. And people will say, oh, well, he's only 35. How are you going to give him the head coaching job when he's 35? All right, Dabo was 39, Lincoln Riley was 33, Ryan Day was 39. Look at the way coaching is going. Coaching is turning into a young man's game. Look at the NFL. Cliff Kingsbury, Sean McVeigh, you want me to go down the list? But that doesn't mean old guys can't coach, our older guys, depending on how you look at it. It's the same people that make the argument, oh, well, Brian Kelly's 60 years old. Taking over LSU.

Nick Saban was 57. Elon Musk isn't super old, but he's smarter than a lot of people that are 70. Probably most of them. So when you're looking at age, you can't look at an age and go ahead and make a decision. Now, if he was 12 years old, that'd be different. That'd be a different situation. But Marcus Freeman is ready. And if you go listen to Inside the Garage podcast on the Volume Network, the three Notre Dame players,

they all wanted him. They even said it felt like he's been there forever, and he knows them, and he knows when to get on them, and he knows when to love him up. It's more about the personality than the age. It's way more about the personality. So anybody that gets hung up on age,

you're wasting your time. I'm going to tell you what Marcus Freeman is going to bring. They're going to play hard as hell. They're going to play hard as hell. I think Marcus Freeman will be a better recruiter at Notre Dame than Brian Kelly was. He's kind of in that, honey hole, new era, old era. Even though age really doesn't matter, he's kind of in that honey

hole. But when you look what Marcus Freeman has done in his past, hell of a player. Yeah. His coach, it has been a meteoric rise. If it wasn't Notre Dame, it was probably going to be Cincinnati if Notre Dame got Luke fickle. So I know it was a bad look for Notre Dame, Brian Kelly leaving. We're going to talk with Pete Sampson about that. But people that if you don't like the hire, then don't like the hire just because of age. That's what I'm saying. Don't fall in that trap. Don't fall in that trap. don't fall in that trap. Their OCs 29, and guess what?

He's one of the best OCs out there. So this Marcus Freeman hire, Notre Dame read the room. They read the room. And at the end of the day, you got to get the best guy at the time available to fill that spot. And they did. And you know what? You don't even got to buy a U-Haul truck to move his stuff.

That's the thing. You save money there, and you know what? Typically, you can get those guys a little bit cheaper that are younger. But how about Marcus Freeman? Your first head job is Notre Dame, and he deserves it. Expectations year one, I would temper those, even though I know Notre Dame's got some guys coming back. People would say, and Pete Samson says it,

I don't want to take away all this thunder. But if Brian Kelly was still there, he'd feel like they'd have a legitimate playoff team coming back. But Marcus Freeman, to me, and it's not your typical Notre Dame hire from the old school, this is Notre Dame. Marcus Freeman. Marcus Freeman is exciting.

Marcus Freeman is energetic. And that leads to the biggest building block that there is. Recruiting. Where has Notre Dame struggled? I could say Notre Dame's offensive lines have been pretty good. Yeah, I'd be right. You could go all through the past. It's having the depth in the front seven, in my opinion,

especially on the defensive line. Not that they haven't had one really elite defensive linemen or maybe even two. But guess what? You don't win games with your first four defensive linemen. You win it with your first seven. It's about depth. You don't win games with your first 22, people.

You really don't win them with your first 44. You win them with your first 56. That's really the number that coaches look at. But what I'm interesting to see with Coach Freeman is kind of the older things, structurally, structuring the roster, stuff like that. That's where you're going to see how well he does. delegating power. It's different.

It is so different being a coordinator than a head coach. You have much more media obligations, fundraising obligations, things outside of just coaching that side of the ball. Because when you're a defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator, you are immersed in it. Not the full scale, but that third, the third of the game, offense, defense, and special teams. You are immersed in it.

Now, now you have to be in charge of all of it. and I don't think he'll micromanage, but I like the energy. I like the enthusiasm. He's a player's coach. And guess what? The best coaches are players' coaches. Because they're the ones that have to do the playing.

And I'm sure Marcus Freeman could probably go out there right now and not play bad. You know, he was a hell of a player. He was a thing he could play. Saw that first. But getting those guys to get up and believe, getting those extra few defensive linemen. And he even said it. The academics,

It's his job to go get them. It's his job to go get the guys that Notre Dame hasn't been getting to be able to get them over the hump. And they've had a lot of success. And he's been under the tutelage of Luke Fickle and Brian Kelly. He's not having to figure out Pythagorean's theorem here. And I think he's going to hit the ground running. And I think you're going to have more of a problem in two to three years keeping him out of the NFL or keeping him out of somewhere else that wants to just throw the absolute bag at him than you are of wanting to fire him. I love this hire, and I tip my hat to the Notre Dame administration.

Yeah. Because they got caught flat. Look, if you don't think Notre Dame or Oklahoma got caught flat-footed, you're wrong. Oklahoma still hasn't. You know, they called Bob Stoops, and they're like, hey, man, we need you to come hang out for a little bit. You know, circle the wagons, this, that, and the other. But don't get hung up on age. Because if you look at society nowadays, you have a lot of young people doing a lot of very, very impressive things. that take a lot. So don't say, oh, he's 35. Who cares? Oh, he's 60.

Who cares? Go win. Go win. The Fountain of Youth. Winning is the Fountain of Youth. I mean, Nick Saban eats little Debbie's and drinks three pots of coffee in the morning. He's doing great. So don't get hung up on age.

And I applaud Notre Dame for this higher. Blaine, what does the booster club say? Yeah, we got the Blue Bloods right here. He says the fact there's not a mass exodus after the winning his head coach in Notre Dame history speaks to respect. He's earned in nine months. Plus, assistance choosing him over Kelly at LSU shows his command over the program. Yes, and if you go back and watch the clip that we played on the show of those guys talking, it is unanimous. Yeah.

It's unanimous. And Notre Dame is smart enough to read the room. Yeah. When those existing players speak, you listen. Notre Dame did. I think they did a good job here. I'll tell you another thing Marcus Freeman has going from. He's from the state of Ohio.

Yeah. Okay. All right. Michigan fans may not want to hear it, but that's the birthplace of American football. Let me list you a couple coaches here from the state of Ohio. Don Shula. Yep. All right.

Lou Holtz. Yep. Woody Hayes. Yeah. Right. I mean, he's from the state of Ohio. Played at Ohio State. This kid, he's going to be an awesome coach.

And it's interesting when you talk about new era. We think so often that the new era guys are the offensive minds. Like the Lane Kiffins and the link rights. Defensiveists. Defensiveists. All defensiveists. All defensiveists. I love to see these young, new era defensive coaches.

Dan Lanning's going to get his shot. I mean, look, the phrase defense wins championships still exist for a reason. Look. We look like we were going away from that for a little bit. And now look what's about to happen here this Saturday. It's almost a recipe you're starting to see a little bit with these big time defensive coordinators coming in and fixing programs. This is why this Dan Lanning name to me should be high, especially for an Oklahoma

team, because you see the Savans. What was Savans? What was Savants? This defensive coordinator came into the head. head coach and started taking over the same thing with kirby smart right these guys are so you have to be so structurally sound on defense it just leaks it's a reactionary yeah yeah you're leaking to your entire program right and this in two to three years notre dame you're probably got to re-up something and pay this guy a little bit more money because people are going to come try and get him look

Notre Dame is about to be like it it's going to be cool it's going to be cool to go to Notre Dame not because of oh well Rudy who was off sides by the way and all that stuff in in the past with Notre Dame and you know Johnny the Galloping Ghost and all that stuff I think he's going to make it cool I think it's going to be cool new era cool to go to Notre Dame and you talk about young defensive guys all and I don't mean to digress and we're going to we'll probably get to this maybe next week if they haven't hired a guy LSU listen to me right now I need you guys to listen to me LSU fans if you are smart and you really have four million dollars to go get a DC why don't you do what you did earlier go get Wisconsin's it worked out great with Dave Aranda Jim Lennon

just sitting up there for $4 million? Listen, I understand coaching your alma mater. But South Alabama hadn't sent me a check yet. But they asked me to come down there and do a South Alabama show for $4 million. Guess what? We're getting in the car and we're driving down to Mobile. So if I, you've done it before and it's worked.

If I'm LSU, you didn't get Marcus Freeman, I am going to get Jim Leonard because he's another one. You look at Marcus Freeman, you look at Dan Lannning, you look at Jim Leonard, you go around the country, and it's not just defensive guys. There's offensive guys everywhere. I mean, look at Joe Brady. was basically a one and done at LSU.

So it is becoming a young man's game a little bit. Blaine, what else we got from the Boosier Club? Yeah, I've got a question here from Kyle Kennedy. What's up, Kyle? He says, what are your thoughts on the committee saying they would take into account Brian Kelly leaving Notre Dame as a part of whether or not they should be in the playoffs? Listen, listen, everybody has bias, right?

Like you have bias, say subconscious bias, whatever. Everybody has bias. But again, isn't it about the players? The team, thank you. The team? Thank you. Like what? Did Gary Barta say that? Every time, if Gary Barta said that, every time this man's, this man opens his mouth, it makes me less confident in what they're doing.

Somebody muzzle this guy. Go hire a PR. Get you somebody like the White House gets. She just gets up there and it's like, oh, well, you know, it's all good. If they penalize teams because their coach leaves. In all White House's, by the way. Go ahead. It's just a problem. It's going to be a problem. It means there's a flaw in the system, if that's the case. So you guys are playing the Kardashians. That's what you're playing that game. Oh, well, you know, she left, so we're going to focus more on the... It's the teams.

What are you guys doing? Here's what we need to do. Can we just get like 10 of the people we consider the smartest college football people? I don't care if you have an American Idol-style vote where you got a text too for Barry Switzer or something like that. I don't know. But can we please get people on there that know what they're doing? Not that all of them don't. You know what I'm saying?

Like maybe on the first one. I know three guys. Three got lists. They could put it in there right now. Who you think of? Let's go. You know, it should be us. It should be Josh Pate.

It should be Cube. I can go down the list. Put Joel Cloud. Just put some guys in there at least that understand it's about the teams. Gary Barta said set the games aside. No, set you aside. Set this man aside. Literally 180 of what you should be saying.

Yeah. Congrats. You played yourself. Just awful quotes. his PR person must just It must just be like being Waking up hitting with a baseball bat every morning It's just, God

It's like being a weather man, you just don't know Yeah, yeah, you just really Don't know Is that a Nimmilus, cumulus nimbus? Like whatever? I don't know. What else the Beast will come saying? We got a $5 donation

He's back. We haven't heard this name in a while, boys. It's the one and only Shacker Jack. Shacker Jack is back. And he says, Shacker Jack is back. Let's have ourselves a Thursday. on a Thursday before a Friday, boys. Wow, there's nothing like a Thursday before a Friday.

I think we can all agree on that. Nothing like a Thursday before a Friday. We got a question here from Marshall Green. He says, do you think Kelly's departure will have Notre Dame looking twice at joining a conference? Also, does the recent hires at LSU and USC possibly change their early signing date? Okay, I'm going to answer your second question first because Marshall, that is an unbelievable segue. Marshall, I want to say congratulations. Very nice job, actually.

We're just unknowinglyingly saying. What's a end of a meeting today? Where is he? Yeah. Marshall. Inside man. We are. No, I don't know where he is. But second question, read it to me again. USC, what was it about? It says, does the recent hires that LSU and USC possibly change their early signing date? Okay, I've talked with three coaches about this in the past two days. They are all for moving the signing day back to where it was. For multiple reasons, multiple reasons. We look at the coaching, how it's going right now. It's so early, and most kids are signing, and it's not early. This is the new signing day.

Most kids are signing in December, and then you're kind of getting leftovers or guys with grades or if you're having to reach and take a chance on a kid in that later signing period. But there's another caveat here. You can't hire NFL coaches. Can't do it. There's no movement. Especially once, I mean, it's still going right now. Their season may go for two more months.

So if you're in Eric Vien enemy or any of these young NFL coaches, like you can't leave yet. So it's bad timing. I understood why they did it when they did. But now with the new sign, they're going to have to move it back. And for the reason we just talked about, you can't go coach your bowl games. I mean, imagine if we had a situation here where Luke Fickle, I mean, you know, I think that this is a great hire by Notre Dame, but look, they would have looked hard at Luke Fickle. When you say that one of the two institutions you would most want to leave to, and Notre Dame's one of them, they were going to go look at this guy. And, like, we would have had a situation where maybe Notre Dame could make the playoff without their coach in Cincinnati could possibly do it too, but he feels the need to move or else give up on one of his dream jobs.

We can wait. We can wait three weeks. Christmas is around the corner, boys. If you want to early enroll, you know what early enrol it should be for people that are able to early enroll. Do it. Exactly. That's what it should be for? And most of the time you're going to get what? Quarterbacks, you know, there'll be some guys that want to get there early and go through spring.

But a lot of coaches are for moving it back. They're for moving. And I don't blame them. But great segue, Marshall. Let's get Pete Sampson in here. All right. We got a lot going on at Notre Dame after naming Marcus Freeman, the head coach. Tommy Reed's going to be the offensive coordinator.

Excited to bring on Pete Sampson. Notre Dame beat writer for the athletic. Pete, I appreciate you coming on, brother. Hey, thanks for having me. It's been a wild last 72 hours here. Yeah, I know you've been a little busy to say the least probably. But number one, just starting off, how surprised were you to see Brian Kelly go? And then how surprised were you to see Marcus Freeman be named the new head coach?

A lot more surprised for Kelly to go than Freeman to be the head coach. Kelly's departure, you know, it's like you don't want to just take head coaches said the word, but we're all sort of susceptible of that. And when the guy gets up there and says, I'm not leaving Notre Dame of my own volition and then leaves Notre Dame of his own volition about a week later, it's shocking. Especially with Notre Dame in the hunt for the playoff, even if it's a longer shot than others,

you know, the fact that you have a chance to win a championship here, potentially that you would leave is shocking. But Freeman, as the next head coach, is much less surprising. not just because the outpouring support from the players themselves, but people in the administration at the trustee donor level were all, there was a lot of support for him at that level as well. So he had a lot of people in his corner to be the next head coach. Agreed.

And, you know, when we look at reasons why he left, I mean, people can speculate again, I think outside of Brian Kelly, nobody 100% knows and Brian Kelly's family. But do you think had anything to do with not being in a conference, kind of being a long shot with the one loss, or the recruiting restrictions. Is there anything you can put your finger on, Pete?

I would say more facilities than independence or the conference part of it. You know, Notre Dame is not at the top of the heap in facilities or, I would argue, close to the top. I mean, when I'm talking about the teams that aspire to win a national championship, I'm not talking about everybody. So that was frustrating to him. He had been pushing for an expansion in their facilities for a while. It will happen. but it did not happen fast enough for him.

And I think that being in a place for 12 years, a new challenge element, I take him in his word on that, but I think mostly it was more of a facilities than a independence or a recruiting restriction issue. How do you think Brian will do at LSU? I think that he will do well, but you can't just do well, at LSU, right?

Either you win a national championship or you're a failure. Sometimes you win a national championship and you're a failure there. So that's, that is a, I don't see him killing it in recruiting there at any level that is going to be required for LSU to beat LMA consistently or beat Georgia consistently. I think he will do a good job sort of professionalizing a program that needs it. but man you need the horses down there and that was never his strength

that Notre Dame is to get the horses at the highest highest level and you know you look at Marcus kind of shifting here with Pete Sampson from the athletic Notre Dame beat rider for the athletic looking at Marcus going forward I love to hire Pete

I love that you know they got a guy who's I know he's only been there a year but he understands the lay of the land the Notre Dame players obviously wanted them he's energetic he's a young guy he can connect with the players who know he can recruit. Has the fan base been pretty behind Marcus Freeman?

From what I can see, they really like the hire. Yeah, it's, uh, for Notre Dame's fan base to be united in anything is surprising. But they are really united on this one. And it's, yeah, you can't, man, you just, you cannot miss what is happening here with, you know, the vibe around the program. I mean, for Notre Dame to sort of be a young, hip program, is, like what? Notre Dame, like, how do this happen overnight?

Yeah. And I think people are really gravitating toward that right now. Yeah, and you look at the way college football is going. I mean, you look at social media and kind of the way society is nowadays, that young energetic guy adding that new splash to Notre Dame. And, you know, Pete, when you look at this Notre Dame team, and I know, you say long shot for the playoff, but we've watched college football all season. I mean, there's been, you know, more parodies than a whose line is it anyway episode.

But when you look at this Notre Dame team, how does it stack up to kind of some teams from the past that Notre Dame has taken to the playoff? I think that that's one of the reasons why I'm trying to get my head around them that like, yeah, they're a serious contender for the playoff because it's not nearly as talented a team as I think the 18 team or even last year's team in some ways. I mean, they are better in some parts. Tide and Michael Mayer is a stunned. but their they're sort of generational safety. Kyle Hamilton is out. So, I mean, he hasn't played the second half of the season. You know, the offensive line is young.

You're starting a freshman left tackle. That's a disastrous formula for Notre Dame. And yet they've made it work. You know, their quarterback is a grad transfer from Wisconsin. That's not a program known for, like, pumping out elite quarterbacks. But, you know, they're making that work, too. So it's, I think it's a team that has really. has overachieved. I never felt like this was a true playoff contender at the start of the year.

It was more like 10 and 2 would be a good season. Now they're sitting there at 11 and 1. It's a really impressive job to get to this point, whether they make the playoff or not. Yeah. And Pete, this may be a question that you can't answer. I'm probably sure you get asked this all the time. Do you see with the playoff expanding? I know Notre Dame, I already said that they're probably not going to join a conference that if it goes to 12, they're not going to be able to get one of the buys. But down the road, do you think with the way college football, shifting. Like Notre Dame's going to have to at some point, especially if we go to super conferences. I mean, it almost forces your hand. Yeah, to me, that's where you get to Notre Dame

joining a conference making sense. Like the playoff expanding, it actually, I think it makes Notre Dame more independent with the playoff at 12 teams because they have more access to the playoff. But when you, if there were, essentially if we had an AFC and an NFC in college football and we're talking, there's a conference with Clemson, Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan. Michigan State, and then there's another conference that has the SEC and maybe USC and Washington. Like that's a game Notre Dame wants to get in. That's a group they want to be a part of. But until we get to that point, I think that they're probably more independent post-college football expansion than they would be pre-expansion.

How do you see with the roster? And again, with the portal, again, I know I'm asking quite, teams can look totally different. I mean, it's turning into free agency. But going into Marcus Freeman, looking at it. it next year. What's returning for Notre Dame? What do you think is a reasonable expectation for a new head coach keeping Tommy Reese was huge as the OC to keep that kind of vacuum going there offensively? What's a reasonable expectation for head coach Marcus Freeman going into officially year one? You know, it's next year's team. If you told me Brian Kelly was still here and the staff was back,

I would say it would be a playoff contender. They open at Ohio State. They have Clemson here in South Bend. and then they finish at USC, which is a lot different than finishing at USC for the last decade with Lincoln Riley out there. So that's a different, that's a different challenge. Marcus Freeman's going to have to learn on the job. So I think the idea of Notre Dame going 12 and 0 next year, 11 and 1, man, even though it would be probably a more talented team next year in some ways than it is this year, that would be a big challenge. I think Notre Dame is going to have to live with Marcus learning as he goes because he's a first time head coach, 35 years old. But I think that the energy around the program

right now, you're going to see the fan base probably be a little bit more okay with that than under normal circumstances. Without a doubt, I'm very interested to see how the recruiting under Marcus, because I know he's really good in person. He's one of the best young recruiters in the country. That's one of the reasons why he was so coveted

when you looked at him picking between LSU and Notre Dame last year. And going back to this year, it seems like we're seeing the same movie a little bit, just kind of the sequel. But Pete, you're the first Notre Dame guy I've had on. It's great stuff. I'd love to have you back. Make you a regular if you're down with it. Tell everybody where they can find your work.

I'm all for it. Yeah, I'm at The Athletic. I cover Notre Dame there. You can find me on Twitter at Pete Sampson underscore, but all are good work over at Theathletic.com. And, yeah, it's, hey, the SEC is great. I tune in every week when I'm not covering Notre Dame, but with Brian Kelly down at LSU. Man, that is a storyline I cannot wait to follow from a distance.

Yeah, no, that's going to be very interesting to say the least. I always joke. He's probably going to walk in there and be like, hey man, can I get one of those poor boy sandwiches? It's like, no, it's a po-boy sandwich. But no, Pete, I appreciate it, brother. Let's do it again soon. Absolutely, thanks. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged.

It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all. embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators,

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But Blaine is the booster club, the club de la booster. What's going on over there? Always hot over here. I did it put a poll out earlier. Did Notre Dame get this higher right? I want to know the booster's opinion on this. Right for the throat. You know what we're doing.

I'm going to switch up a little bit. Jake, I'm going to let you go first. We're going back to the old ways. go first. I'll switch it back in a couple weeks. What do you think? I'm going to say yes. It's obviously yes.

It has to be yes. But I'm going to say yes, and I'm going to say 55%. Oh, I'm going over. 56. It's yes, 86%. Come on. I thought mid-80. Okay.

How many of Brian Kelly's family members are in the booster club? That's the real question. 86? All right. Listen, I think it's a great hire. I told you guys. I thought it was a really good hire. Now the pressure is going to be on them.

But by the way, I do it. I want to give you guys a little look inside here at the College Football Hall of Fame. They're getting set up for kind of everything that's going. You can see the tables. Look at Cohn there doing his GoPro like Neil Armstrong in space. One small step for the hall. Did he have one of those? One big state for college football.

Yeah, he had a GoPro. Neil had a little. Yeah, they're like 60 years. The military is like six years ahead of us, right? That is true. They had GoPro is like 60 years ago. That is true. I mean, yeah, you see the robots they're building right now, so I'm sure we had a GoPro.

Yeah, so right. Listen, and if you saw, I put out a tweet earlier, speaking of tweets. I'm not going to say this guy's name, but talking about Gary Barta. He used to be in Iowa. This is absolutely hilarious. It says, LMAO. As a University of Iowa student, it's so refreshing. It's so refreshing to see America get a taste of what Hawk fans had to deal with 24-7 from Gary Barta.

So this guy isn't exactly winning Homecoming King, it appears. But you know what? I guess you fail up. You can fail up pretty quick nowadays, I guess. But we're going to get Colin here in a minute. Blaine, what else we got from the booster club? Got a question here from Luke Stuart and he's asking a little Wisconsin fan right here.

He says, what took Wisconsin's offense so long to get going this year? That's a good question. You know, they struggled running the ball early. And that's, look, since Coach Paul's been there, that's his MO. That's Wisconsin's MO. The minute I see Wisconsin get into empty consistently is the minute I know it's over. I'm just going to go outside and look for the meteor. If Wisconsin can't run the ball, it's not going to work.

It wasn't like they were playing horrible on defense. all year. But when you can't score, eventually that levy breaks. So, you know, they found their ability to run the ball and guess what? Because Graham Mertz isn't exactly Joe Montana when it comes to passing the ball. So it's not like they could pass their way out of it to open up the run game. Now that they got that run game open, though, you can definitely run to open the pass with the personnel that they have. So that's a great question. Keep your eye on Jim Leonard, though, too. But look, Wisconsin's scary a little bit. I know they're not going to play in the Big Ten championship. Iowa's going to play in that.

But Wisconsin has just always been, whether you're playing them in the regular season or playing them in the bowl game, they get that run game going. They got those Yetis up front. Like I said, they just go to Siberia and look up top of the mountains, and they're like, there they are.

There's like four big linemen like pass setting. Yeah, Wisconsin. Wisconsin has known who they are for a long time. Yeah, there's no, there's no misinterpreting what Wisconsin wants to do at the end of the day. They want to pound it, and they want to run play action.

It's interesting to see how Iowa, Wisconsin. sort of trended in opposite directions this year, right? And if you're Michigan right now, I think you're more happy to see Iowa the way Wisconsin was trending. And because Michigan beat Wisconsin pretty badly earlier, like I said, with this Appalachian state pick, it's hard to beat the same team twice in a year, man. That is very true.

That is very true. What else we got? We got another questionnaire from the soldier. He's not blue. He's not yellow, but it is the green soldier. The green soldier. Hashtag Ask Jay Boyne says, how does Kelly's recruiting drop off when he did so well in Notre Dame,

despite all the academic restrictions that they deal with? He said it's comparable to kind of a Georgia Tech situation. You know, I think you do get a little more leeway at Notre Dame than you do at some other places. I think you're starting to get a little more leeway at Georgia Tech with Jeff Collins. They understand they've got a win. But, you know, the drop-off, I think LSU recruits itself. LSU recruits itself. I don't think Brian Kelly is going to have a hard problem.

I don't think Marcus Freeman is going to have a hard problem recruiting at Notre Dame, even though there are those restrictions. You said coal hopped in for a second. Cole hopped in and Cole hopped out. All right. We'll see, watch them hop back in. Blaine, we're going to stay with the booster club right here. Okay, we've got another question here from Kyle Kennedy.

He says Notre Dame hire is just like a pitman out of Arkansas. Players advocate him for him and believe in him. Two years later, the program is the best that's been in a long time. How long do you think it will take for Brian Kelly to get LSU into the playoffs? Man, listen, with the transfer portal now, and look, LSU is not one of the hardest places to flip. I think we know that. But with the transfer portal now, with the transfer portal now, you can flip it really quickly, very quickly. I use the HGTV reference.

But anyway, let's get Cole Kubik in here. there he is Cole what's up man is it supposed to be up and down or sideways it's supposed to be sideways but I mean you stood next to shack this makes you look about as tall as shack if you want to flip it sideways there we go I do before we get into football Cole and we'll get there

how big is Shaquille O'Neal you're not small at all you're tall guy broad guy good looking guy shack's humongous is he not he's one of the biggest human beings I've ever been around The crazy part about it is to think about the way that he moved when he played. I mean, if you couldn't tell during the game, I was a big shot guy growing up.

So idolized and worshipped him, wanted to be him. I wanted to tear a goalpost down. I wanted to break back for us. And to be next to somebody that's that big, knowing the way that they used to move, run the floor, jump, dunk, block shots, die for balls. That's the craziest part about it. Yes, he is massive. It's unbelievable how just big he is.

But then when you think about the way that he used to move at the same time, it's insane. Yeah, and you know, Cole, it's something that's cool parts being on the sideline. I know you probably ran into a bunch of big time guys. But I want to ask you about this coaching carousel. You followed the game for a long time. I've followed it for a long time. Seen a lot of coaching carousels. Is this the craziest one you've seen, and do you have a theory as to why?

It's absolutely the craziest when you, there's never a time I think I wouldn't believe. if you said, hey, next offseason or this off season, hell, it's not even offseason. So that's the craziest part about it. I mean, technically, the season is not even over. But if you just said USC, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Florida, Washington, Virginia Tech, LSU, all going to be open at one point in time, I wouldn't have believed that. Just because so many of those jobs are jobs that I view as you don't really get to that job until the other guy is done.

And I mean, like done coaching. that's when those jobs open up, not when somebody says, I want to go try it somewhere else, or I'm going to go from one of those to the other one of those. So I think that might be just the craziest part about it. And the only way I can make any sense of it is just that the leashes have gotten so short. And it really is a two-way street because part of that reason,

I think, is that they're making the much money as they are. So people look at it as if we're going to pay you this and you're not going to get the results, then we're going to find somebody else because there's quite a lot more people that want to do it for that amount of money. But on the flip side of that, with everything that's happening in college football, it's becoming much more difficult not only to win, but to sustain success. And I think that's probably the main reason that we're seeing as much movement as we've seen is just that everything combined with NIL, transfer portal, pressure, TV revenue,

conference realignment, all of that mashed together has just heightened the pressure, number one to win, and then number two, I think, for schools to want results more quickly. And it just doesn't always happen that way. For sure. What are your thoughts on the Brian Kelly hire at LSU? It feels like to me that now that he left Notre Dame, Notre Dame in Oklahoma got caught a little flat-footed with Lincoln and Brian. What do you think about Brian Kelly to LSU? You know, we talk about the fit, this, that, and the other. Do you think it's going to be an instant hit?

I think Brian Kelly would win wherever he goes, just because I think he's. I think he's got that DNA. I think if you can win at Central Michigan, and it's easy for us to look at Cincinnati and say, well, he wanted Cincinnati. Well, Cincinnati wasn't this Cincinnati when he took over. You know, he kind of got it on the runway to be able to take off and be what it is today.

So I think he deserves a lot of credit for what that job is. And the thing about Brian Kelly at Notre Dame is, if you go back maybe eight, 10, 12 years ago, it was very easy to look at Notre Dame as about to end up where Texas, Nebraska, and Miami are right now, maybe even Southern Cal, as, yeah, they're always going to have it, but they're never going to be it again. They were that at one time and will always remember that

and they'll always have great history, but they're never getting back to what they were. And he had it pretty close. You're talking about making two playoffs, I mean, 10 wins for five consecutive seasons, that's stupid at that school where you have the obstacles and hurdles and logistics that he had had to navigate as the head coach at Notre Dame.

So I'm not worried about his staff, not going with him. I think he's a guy that understands personnel, knows how to win. He's putting together top five recruiting classes at Notre Dame where he's got to go through obstacles to be able to put that together. He's not going to have the same obstacle to the LSU, and he's going to be able to take the Schnellenberger approach at Miami, draw a hundred-mile circle around his campus and probably get 60-70 percent of his roster,

a roster that can go win, probably win in the SEC West. So I think Brian Kelly will be fine. I think he's going to be solid. I think he will win a national championship. I don't know. I said Dan Mullen would win a national championship in Florida. So I'm probably going to be backing off statements like that for a little while with all these coaching changes.

Yeah, well, you know how it goes, Cole. I mean, some hits, some don't. But, you know, kind of looking forward and looking at, you know, the Oklahoma situation. We've got a bunch of, you know, young coaches I talked about it, even though to me age doesn't matter. When you look at a place like Oklahoma, what type of coach you think? a good fit there. Do you think they stick with Bob? Do you go get Venables? Do you try and get Davo? Who is an Oklahoma guy coming into the SEC with that footprint out there that you think can have success? Yeah, I think some SEC experience would be valuable, but I don't think it's must have.

I think Oklahoma's in a pretty good spot right now because there are multiple guys that have been mentioned or would be good candidates or could potentially get that job that I think would be fine that I think would do well. There's an SEC offensive coordinator that I think if they did go the defensive route at head coach that I think they could probably grab. Maybe even if they got a guy like Venables and didn't have to go pay him what LSU is paying Brian Kelly or what Penn State is paying James Franklin or what Michigan State is paying Mel Tucker and be able to go get the O.C. that you want

that's probably going to be a head coach pretty soon and bring him in and sort of have a bit of a two-headed monster in there to be able to go win game. is the guy who already has SEC experience. You know, I think that I think there are going to be good candidates that want that job, and they're going to be able to pick between those. Now, what's best suited for the move that they're about to make? I just think it comes down to recruiting. So, I mean, you can talk about organization.

You can talk about game planning, offense, moving the ball. They just got to get players. Because let's be honest, it is Oklahoma. And there are some inherent advantages. But when you're talking about getting guys that are going to compete in this league every year, you're going to have to recruit some different parts of the country. And if you don't, then you're probably not going to be able to compete with those teams on an annual basis. No, I agree 100%.

Look, you don't get development and culture without having good players. At the end of the day, a great game plan is nothing without great players. I've seen bad game plans look great with great players. But Cole, looking at this game Saturday, looking around the country, looking at these conference championships. Starting with Bama and Georgia, you know Bama's going to get up for this game. You know, back in my mind, I obviously like Georgia, but I feel like it's going to be low scoring, man. What kind of feel do you get on this game? Well, I definitely think the under is the play, just because a game of this magnitude,

two coaches that have seen each other as many times as these two have, I think you've probably throttled down offensively early no matter what. So even if we do get fireworks, it probably won't be until later in the game. I have no idea how Alabama is going to consistently manage the Georgia front seven for four quarters. Me either. I think center is going to be a big problem, right, has a potential to be a problem. And if you go out of your way to protect that, I think you put yourself in some dangerous situations

in other places on the field. If you slide protect or gap protect or quick protect the majority of the time to try to keep the linemen at bay, well, then you're going to allow Georgia to play light in the box, which I think they could do and probably slow the rundown anyway, which then you wonder, how's Alabama going to create explosive plays? You can say they're going to screen them, but I don't think they've played a linebacker core

that runs the way that this group. does all the way across the board. So it's going to be tough to generate consistent offense. And I think the only way Alabama can do it consecutively or consistently for four quarters will be as if Dan Lennig and Kirby Smart get greedy. If they just decide that they want to bring pressure and need to bring pressure, which I don't really believe that they do, at least not seven or eight the majority of the time, then you could see a Jameson, or you can see a METI be able to turn even

a high percentage throw into an explosive player, get on top of this defense. I would suspect they start out playing back and probably trying to force Alabama to win underneath, make them work their way down the field because they haven't had to do that a whole lot this year. And they hadn't been good at it. So on the flip side, I think the more interesting conversation is how problematic can Alabama's defense be for Georgia's offense? Because I feel like we've just taken that discussion and thrown it out. No one wants to have it. No one feels like it matters.

But I actually think it does because Alabama's got a takeover guy on that side of the ball. Will Anderson can take over the game at any moment. But Aaron Mathis has had a really good year. Byron Young has flashed. Byron don't play great against Auburn. That was last week. Now, he hadn't been great every week, but he's been great some weeks this year. So I think you have guys that can be problematic up front on that Alabama defense that, I'll be honest,

a Georgia offensive line that hasn't been bad, but they haven't been great. They're not elite. And I think no matter who you have playing tackle against Will Anderson's going to be an issue. And if Will Anderson's lined up on the right side of the offense, I think right guard could be a potential issue for Georgia. and Will Anderson ends up over the guard a lot. He's not a guy that just rushes off the edge. They slan him down inside. They stun him with penetrations and twists.

He'll end up on the guard a lot. And if your guards having some issues, well, then all of a sudden, Will Anderson's going to be a guy giving him those issues for a lot of the game. So I do think Pete Goldie's got some things that are going for him. I mean, keep in mind, this is a top 20 scoring defense, a top 10 overall defense, a top five rushing defense in all of college football.

So for all the nerds that want Pete Golding fired, I don't really know what you want. I know. It's the same thing. But like, what do you want the defense to do? I know that there have been, I know Arkansas had a good game. I know Tennessee hit some plays.

Well, guess what? Every damn defense in college football's had plays hit on them. That's just it. I mean, I saw Josh Van hit some against Georgia. I saw Tennessee hit a few against Georgia. I mean, every defense gives up plays nowadays. It's just what it is. So I think that's the matchup that probably deserves a little bit more conversation

because I do think there's a chance that Alabama's defense could provide some headaches for Georgia's offense. Yeah, and look, that's why I laugh. People got mad at Pete Golding for giving up 19 points a game. I'm like, you realize how good that is. How many head coaches would give their three fingers on their right hand to only give up 19 points a game at the end of the year. But Cole, looking around the rest of the country.

Let's look at some of those offenses too. I mean, Miami had Deeric King. You got Florida before things fell apart there. Ole Miss was healthy. Matt Corral was healthy. healthy in that game. I mean, they shut down Mississippi State. Look what Will Rogers has done since you they shut out all miss in the first half, Cole. You know, Tennessee, they got Tennessee when they figured it out and Hendon Hooker had it rolling. Arkansas and Kendall Browns, we know what

that offense has been doing all year. So, I mean, especially when you look at the offenses that they played, it's nothing to complain about. Yeah, it's an old cliche saying, but you don't know what you got till it's gone. And I think that's going to be ringing true here in four to five to six years. But Cole, looking around the rest of the country, we're here with Cole Kublick, SEC Network, ESPN. I mean, just turn on your TV if you like footlong. Friends with Shaq. Yeah, friends with Shaq. I mean, listen, he's probably going to be on like Big Brother 8 or something here soon. But, you know, Cole, looking around the rest of the country, do you think it's going chalk around the rest of the country? That Houston's Cincinnati. And listen, I'm not a Cincinnati guy.

I haven't been one the whole year. But, you know, Houston, that could get a little interesting. Then you look at Oklahoma State Baylor. Baylor's a five and a half point dog. Do you see it going chalk or do you like anybody to kind of pull the upset? I like wakeover pit. There's no way this weekend goes chalk. And the main reason that I say that is no other weekend this year has gone chalk. It just literally hasn't happened. I mean, this entire season has been about as bonkers as, you know, the last 72 hours

have been from a coaching change perspective. Every single week we've seen upsets, whether you go by the most AP top 25 teams that have lost, top 10 AP teams that have been upset, underdogs that have won, I mean, look at the FCS teams that won the first three weeks of the season against FBS teams. Like, we've had it all this season. So there's literally no way that we're going all chalk this weekend. I mean, you look at a team like Iowa against Michigan. I like Michigan a lot in that game.

But I think Cade McNamara's got just enough gunslinger in him that if he kind of gets a little bit too happy and a little bit too excited, starts feeling himself, he could absolutely throw the ball to Iowa a couple times. And that thing could get interesting because Iowa's, I think, plus 12 in the turnovers. they know how to get the ball back. And they can play ball control and shrink that game. If you can take two possessions away, get a score or two, all of a sudden, that's a completely different game. You mentioned Houston. I think Houston's got a great chance to pull that upset.

They give up under 90 rushing yards per game. Clayton, Tune has been fantastic his last seven games. He threw four picks the first game, and he's only throw four picks since the first game. So that offense can get going. I think that's a group that could find their way. Dana Hulgerson, we know can coach. They'll have a plan for that group.

So I think there's a good chance that we might not get full chaos this weekend, but we're going to get a couple of upsets because the weirdest team out there. The weirdest team in college football to me is Mississippi State this year. Next in line would probably be Oklahoma State. And the only reason I say that is they are so limited with legitimate NFL talent, yet they force you to be what you don't want to be in almost every facet of the game. They can run the ball. Their offensive line plays great together.

They fit the run well. take the ball away. They don't give it back. They get off the field on third down. Like every football cliche that you can think of, Oklahoma State lives it and breathes it. And that means they win a lot of games. So I think that one could go either direction. I can see multiple paths for either one of those teams winning that game. Baylor obviously love the offensive line. I love what Coach Grimes is doing. They run the ball well. But that's just a stingy, stingy defense that they're going against. It's the best third down defense in college football and one of the best rust defense is in college football.

So that one's going to be awesome to watch. think we're going to get wall to wall great football this weekend. I mean, is Oregon going to go get punched in the face again? I doubt it. But I think Utah could do it again because they're that physical of a team and they're that nasty. Now, they don't get it at home like they did last time. But I think that could be another really fun game Friday night. Yeah, you know, I think Kyle Wittingham is one of the most underrated coaches in college football. I don't think we talk about him enough, honestly, with what he's done out there. I'm with you, Cole. Who knew Mike Gundy's best coaching job would be a defensive-led team? But he is 40 and he is a man. So you,

You never know what's going to happen. Cole, Mac and Cube, great show. Tell everybody I know I already said it where they can find your work. Brother, you know I always appreciate you having on and on your way out. Can you give me a letter grade for Brian Harsen, year one? Probably C plus B minus for Brian Harsen. Things did fall apart a little bit late, but we kind of said we probably should have seen that coming to a certain extent. We knew depth was going to be an issue.

I know the last three games, they blew double-digit leads in the same. second half. But if you go to the two games prior and really watch the defense late in those two games, you could start to see it melted down a little bit. They were just running out of gas. Now, offensively, you have to make a quarterback change. That's never easy. Look at what A&M had to go through early in the season. That's not going to be comfortable. And I think that was magnified because they did such a nice job of utilizing Bo Dix's legs after a first few games of the season and making that a big part of the offense. And T.J. just wasn't going to offer you that. So there are things that we can sit here and nitpick, would I'd like to see more taint for the entire

season? Absolutely, I would. Would you have liked to have seen Kobe Hudson maybe kind of present himself as the number one receiver like he did late in the year, early in the year? And maybe you build some things around him. Sure, Landon King may have been a guy that could have helped him earlier in the season. That catch against Alabama from the two-point conversion was insane. So you could, there's some giving some take, but I think when you really look at the roster and really look at what they had this year and how competitive they were, even in some of the games that they lost. It was about what we anticipated without as strong a finish as we wanted to see. So probably a C plus for me, Brian Harson, year one. And you can always catch the show, jocksfm.com,

McElroyc in the morning, 7 to 10 a.m. Central. And just about everything else I do is at Cole Kublich, Instagram, Twitter, whatever else. Cole, you're the consummate professional brother. I always love having you on. Let's do it again soon. Thanks for having me, Jake. Talk soon. All right, brother. Cole Kublich, always gold. Might as well, call him Gold Cube, like, wow. See what I just said there? That's, that's no one. He can use that.

Call if you're still listening, you can use that. You're going to let me use that? Yeah, I'm going to let him use that. Good for you. Look, real, recognized real. Real, recognized real. All right, let's get to the booster club real quick. Got a one question then I want to get to Georgia.

Love, I got a question here from Nate, who's always in the kitchen's kitchens, hashtag Ask J-Boy. He says, does the Bama brand have everything to do with the point spread being only six and a half points? No, look, I think, I think they know this is going to be a fist fight. Yeah. It's going to be. Look, Bama's getting up for this game.

Bama's going to get that. George is going to get Bama's best shot, which means that Bama is going to pull what a team does to Bama. Yes. You know, we always talk about Bama. Well, they got A&M's best shot. They got Harvard's best shot with the backup quarterback. They get every team's best shot. Well, now, and you know, you'll have people.

And I understand, people say George is still, you know, the one that's out there being the hunter. I get that. That's a logical, rational thing. But that's not what Saven's telling the players. He's not telling him, George is coming in to. you know, George is the underdog in this one. This is what Nick Saban loves. This is right in his ballpark.

This is a fastball right down the middle now. Do I think they're going to win? No, I don't. But I think this is going to be a old school line of scrimmage, you know, a lot of third and sevens, a lot of third and eights, and it's going to come down to three to five plays. Like big games and typically most games always come down to who can hit the big special teams play.

And the big special teams play isn't a, always a kickoff return for a touchdown. It's a punt that pins you at the one unless you're Auburn and then it doesn't matter. They're going to score anyway. But outside of that, there's big plays on special teams that could happen. But I want to get into this debate. Is Georgia an all-time great team? And I want to open it up like this. People will instantly say no because they're not a high-flying offensive team that just happens to be six in the country in total offense. And you, if you think that immediately because they're not LSU 2019, Or they're not Bama 2020, that, oh, they're not as good?

You're being a defensivist. And I'm coining that term. That means that you are impartial to the defensive side of the argument. Because if we're going to say that LSU 2019 and Alabama 2020 are all-time elite teams because they were that elite teams, how in the hell can we not say that Georgia is one of the all-time elite teams? Because they have the most elite defense that I've seen. Name a better one. Name a better one.

I'll hang up and listen. The Chicago Bears in 1985. Name a better one. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Because guess what? If you score 60 points, you're probably going to win. If you score no points, you're definitely not going to win. You can score 50 points and lose.

But if you score zero points, you're not going to win. George's have more shutouts than Max Scherzer and his prime. I mean, this is an elite team that can run the ball and set up the play action pass. and they have the sixth ranked total offense in the country. And they play complimentary football. You want to know the scariest teams to play? They're not the ones that have the most elite offense. They're not the ones that have just the most elite defense.

They're the ones that have an elite side of the ball with a really, really good side of the ball, and they're really good on special teams. And who don't change up depending on what you do. That's exactly right. They're not going to change. They dictate the terms. Yes. They dictate the terms.

When you go and sit at the table, you don't dictate the terms against Georgia. They dictate the terms against you. And that is what an elite and what an all-time great team is. Now, are they the greatest team ever? Probably not. But for the people that instantly write off teams, because it's not, you know, the globe-trotters on offense, but yet they're out there.

It is so hard. I don't care how much talent to shut people out in high-level Power 5 football consistently. They've given up, what, seven points a whole year in the second quarter? In the second quarter? That's insane. In this era, that's insane, where everything's tailored to the offense. Yeah, then you have people say, oh, well, their schedule hasn't been that great.

That's BS. They play in the SEC, but then those same people say, Cincinnati needs to be in with the 100th ranked overall strength of schedule. It's a walking contradiction. So to me, you have to put Georgia, now they've got to go finish it. True. So that's my point. Okay, go ahead. Whether or not this is an all-time great team should have and will have nothing to do with their offensive style.

It will have everything to do. Can they finish it? Will they win the national title? Okay, this will be an all-time great team regardless to Georgia fans, even if they don't finish. Georgia fans are going to remember this team. But for everyone else, the only way this can be an all-time great team is to win the national championship. I remember watching a 2014 Kentucky basketball team that we thought might be the best ever.

Yeah, I remember that. Didn't make the championship. Zion and Duke in 18, we thought maybe an all-time great team didn't make the final four. Remember a 2007 Patriots team that we thought maybe maybe. the greatest football team we've ever seen didn't win the Super Bowl. Okay, so they need to go finish it, and I think that they are primed to do so. So here's another great analogy. If you were having to go to war against somebody, would you rather go against somebody that has an elite army of ground troops? Decent Air Force, good Navy, or would you rather go against somebody that has an

elite ground troop force, really, really good Navy, and a dominant Air Force. I need to check with You don't have to be a general patent to figure that one out. If you know what I'm saying. What's the booster club saying, Blaine? We have a question here from Kyle Kennedy. He kind of takes us back. Did Kyle pay you before the show to read every question he asked? It takes it back to some of a coach that we've had on the show.

And he kind of wants to get your opinion on. I like he says, what do you think of SMU hiring Red Lashley? Do you think he'll have success and success quick as his first time head coach? But I believe he was the head coach at Connecticut, if I'm mistaken. On the top of my head, I don't think he was the head coach at Yukon. I think he'll have success at SMU. I think Red will be fine. Do I think they'll be elite?

No, I think he'll be able to pick up close to where Sunny Dykes left off. And I'm happy that he finally gets a shot. Red gets a shot at a legitimate place. I think he'll be fine. I mentioned to see the Flatbill that he rocks. I've got to get Coach Lash on the show to talk about it. He's got to get just a bad pony up like Flatbill. Well, he's a fan of the show.

So I think that he will dominate and they will be the best SMU team that has ever been ever because he's fan of show. Pony Express, better than the Pony Express? Fact. Wow. Because he's a fan of the show. Strong. He listens in. He does. He wins the water cooler. Shout out Coach Lashley.

And he's going to win on the field. Yeah, we hope he does. We're excited to get him on. All right, Blaine, what else we got in the booster club before we bring Jamari Salier? Got a question from Brian Gahn. He says, hashtag AshJ Boy. Do you think that Jimbo Fisher's first contract with A&M was a steal given that now Brian Kelly, Lincoln Riley, and Mel Tucker have just as big as contracts as Jimbo without a Natty? Hey, you know, I thought it was, first off, it's A&M's money. They can do what they want with it.

But I thought they were, you know, a little ahead of the curve. I mean, if you, you don't have everybody freaking out about the numbers now with Jimbo, do you? You know, they saw the writing on the wall, but it's not hard to see where we're going. And I got a little hint for you. It's not stopping. But you know what is even bigger than the money with the Jimbo Fisher hire? Look around college football right now. There is not a lot of stability.

The teams that have stability, you have a built-in advantage in recruiting. It's easy to see. Jay-Z said, less is more. Man, there's plenty of us. You know, the stability factor is huge in recruiting and continuity. You have Mike Elko keep coming back. You've got continuity on that staff, and that is yielding itself. Look at the way they're recruiting right now.

And I'm not saying that's the only reason they're having success, but they're able to look and say, hey, look, you know, stock market's going up and down like crazy, but look at us. We're stable, baby, getting a good return on our investment. You know what you're going to get. There are no surprises. And that in itself is a big deal. You ready to get Jamari in here?

Let's do it, man. Let's get Jamari Sawyer in here. All right, excited as we usually are to bring in a standout offensive lineman from Georgia in a big week coming off a big win against Georgia Tech, Mr. Jamari Sawyer. Jay, it's always fun to talk to you, brother. How's it going? It's going good, man. It's going good. It's hard to talk to you too.

Definitely. Well, look, it's championship week. And, you know, Jamari, you guys are a veteran team. You know, you have a bunch of older guys. You've kept your head down. You haven't looked up. You've grinded. You're in the SEC championship game.

Is it business as usual this week? Or is there a little twang in the airs? Is something maybe a little bit, you know, the air is a little bit heavier? You know, I mean, it is business as usual to start. But, I mean, you know, obviously this game has a historical tie. No, now present and impact. I'm really, obviously the goal that's their head coach. Great, great man, great coach.

And they have a great team. So I'm excited for the matchup. I'm excited for an opportunity. Yeah. And Jamari, too, you know, everybody makes a big deal. You know, Georgia and Alabama. I had Jordan Battle on here, safety from Alabama, talking about they view y'all as a rival now. I mean, you guys have gone head-to-head in so many big games over the past three, four, five years.

Do you guys see Alabama's arrival as well, which is a sign of respect to me? Yeah, for sure. I mean, like you said, not so much of, you know, we hate them to hate us, but there's some mutual respecting. Obviously, every year they have one of the top programs, and so do we. We run our programs very similarly. we do a lot of very similar things, you know, just in talking to some of the guys on their team, and they talk to us, you do a lot of things very similar. We got the same coaching tree.

So, yeah, it's definitely a, definitely what Mark it down is arrival for us. So, yeah. Yeah, and you guys wouldn't have it any other way, right, having to go through Alabama to get there. I mean, again, coach smart being underneath the Sabin tree. I mean, this is a matchup when you look across the landscape of college football of two of the top teams. What would it mean to you, Jamari, to put a ring on your finger? It'd be huge. It'd be huge. Almost kind of an exclamation point to a great season.

Obviously, we have aspirations to win the big thing in Indianapolis. But, I mean, to take the SEC along the way it would be amazing. I'm really blessed to have the opportunity to be able to play in the SEC championship. Because, I mean, to me, it's the best, to me, it's the best conference in college football. And to be able to have that ring on your finger, it's just kind of like the exclamation points with it. Definitely. And I know every year's different and every game's different. Jamari and you guys had a big win against Georgia Tech, but you know Jordan comes back,

you guys get some guys to come back, some veterans through the portal. This is that moment. Have you guys as a leadership council or there's older guys? You know, I know you all talk all the time and talk about everything, but has this something y'all really focused in on, you know, this Bama matchup and this is why we came back. This is one of the reasons why we came back. For sure, it's definitely been trying to focus on it. So, you know, everybody can say, well, you kind of saw the crash course, you know, the trains headed for each other at some point in season. but we try to focus on it week to week, but we're here now. You know what I'm saying?

We're here now. We're excited for opportunity. And, yeah, I mean, this is the one we've been preparing for getting ready for, taking every week to get better for it. This is one of the big ones along the way, and we're really excited for it. Like I've been 18 for this one. Like I said, I'm really, really ready for this game. Yeah, and Jamari, I couldn't let you go before we talked about.

Coach, Coach Smart, the halftime speech at Florida, one of the best speeches you hear. And that's why I love when people can actually hear what it really sounds like, you know, because it's different. I think people think it's like, they sit in a presidential address. Like, you're going out there running into full-grown men for 60 minutes. But when he looked at you, were you smiling when he said, hey, Jamari, just pointed the scoreboard and laugh at him, man. I can just see you in the front smiling, man.

Man, I was locked in. I was having a good time. I mean, I guess, like you said, in a video, I was kind of like, that was a robbery game. Like you said, like, on the other sense of robbery games, it was a robbery game. And every time you score, they dashed with Chibi D. Lime.

And they want to, you know, you know how field goal protection can be. Oh, my God. The dirtiest play of all, Jamari. It's the dirtiest play there is. Yeah, the DeLaman wants to get a little upset. So, you know, I just throw my hands in. We all right to get to the points now. I mean, it's cool boy.

So I think that's what he's referring to. And the referee kind of got a little upset at me for doing. He's like, you're egging him on. Don't do that no more. And I'm like, well, it's, you have to play. Yeah. What do you mean I'm egging him on? Yeah.

I think that's what he was referring to. But, I mean, you know, Coach, Coach, Ma, is good dude. and everybody had their, had their takeaways from it. But he was just getting us fired up, man. It's a rivalry game. It's part of it. That's what it sounds like. That's what it is.

That's what it really is. So, yeah, yeah. Definitely, man. Well, you know, we're here at the College Football Hall of Fame. I know you guys are going to be rolling into town here soon. But, you know, Jamari, what is your message to Georgia fans as we get into the postseason from a leader on the team, from a guy that, you know, has earned the right to be able to speak for the team?

What's your message to them? I just say stay loyal, stay, stay hype. I mean, the energy all season has been great. I love Dog Nation, love the fans. They show up every time basically took over Bobby Dodd Stadium, took it over. And, you know, we need that energy wherever we travel to, wherever this season takes as we definitely going to need it in Atlanta this weekend and,

you know, and so on and so forth. So I'm really blessed to be able to be a dog and be able to have Dog Nation my back and just be loud, be proud, be the same dog nation. Y'all been all season and stick by us. And, you know, we'll definitely put on the show for you guys. definitely well last question and we were laughing about this off air you know against tennessee y'all put the ball in the air a little bit you know stetson's been doing this thing on the ground putting in there i felt like after the tennessee game did he like walk in the locker room with

like a new gold necklace or something like stetson or is he just smooth man just all the way through his blue collar i could never see stett with no gold saying oh man that's going to show up what his cowboy suits his plane his cowboy boots and his plane suit on every week um and he's going to listen to his country music to the day he dies. He's a South Georgia kid at heart, and that's who he's going to be. But he worked hard every day. He don't look for no extra credit or anything like that. He just Stax.

He just wants to be Staxon. And he got to respect that about him. He just wants to be Staxxed. And he just wants to win. And he wants it just as bad for us as he does for himself. And that's why I love him, man. He's a great person. He's 10 times a person he is as he's a quarterback.

So, yeah, I love him for sure. Jammari, that's great stuff, buddy. Good luck to you this weekend. And, man, excited to talk to you next week. And you know, if you're in the college football Hall of Fame, man, come over here. I'm sure Coach Smart would just let you all walk around. You know, I'm sure there's no problem with that. But, man, you get a chance to come over here, come holler at me, man.

Yes, sir, for sure. All right, Jamari. Talk to you later, buddy. Jamari's a real one, man. Well, Jamari, I'm glad he's healthy. I'm glad he's healthier, too. Yeah, glad he's healthier. Looking like he's definitely going to play this weekend.

All right, Blaine, a few questions from the booster club, and then we're going to go ahead. We've already quenched our thirst on this thirsty Thursday. but you'll have one more, nothing wrong with, you know. Yeah, we've got a question here from Johnny's teams. Johnny's teams. Ask Jay Boy says, why do the Aggies get great recruits and get outperformed by the Razorbacks this year? Arkansas, we had a good old line without a single four star.

Imagine five stars with Sam Pittman. Yeah. Look, A&M lost a lot. Like A&M lost a decent amount offensively, not just Kellen. You look up front. But they've recruited well. I'm not worried about A&M. Like if I was, I would not, A&M to me, like I said the other day, like you are going to, they've got to get a quarterback in there.

You know, Calzada is a good player. I don't think he's the guy. I know it was his first year and he's young, but I don't think he's the guy. Haynes King to me, from what I've been told, and we're going to get Billy Lucci on here soon again. But from what I've been told, they're putting their eggs in the Haynes King basket. And if you give Jimbo a quarterback that can run around, because look, Haynes can run. Yeah. Like, it's not like he's just like, oh, I'm out of the run around.

Like four, four, five, four or five. He can really run. Now, we've got to see them do it, but I think they get a quarterback that's able to extend plays, that's able to be more mobile. That helps out the offensive line way more than a lot of people understand, because it keeps one side honest. It also takes the guy, sometimes you have to spy him, which takes them out of coverage a little bit. So I wouldn't read too much into that, but the Sam Pittman quote,

you start giving Sam Pittman five stars. Arkansas is a, they're already a problem. I'm just telling you guys, we've been saying this. Arkansas is a problem. I would buy stock in Arkansas right now. I'd buy a hell of a ton of stock in Arkansas. A ton of it. I'd move most of my stock over there.

It's a great question. I love what Sam Pittman's doing. What else we got? Got another question from Drew Greason. What's up, Drew? Hashtaguer. Ask Jay Boy, do you see Dailing Gabriel come in the SEC, possibly Ole Miss?

Look, I like Dilling Gabriel. Yeah, yeah. If you don't know who Dylan Gabriel is, he's the UCF quarterback, was there with Hepo. then Malzine came in, broke his collarbone, throwing a pick six that lost the game. That's neither here nor there. But look, I think Dylan Gabriel's a good player. I mean, look, he can throw the vertical ball.

He can run. He's got touch. He's got experience. Somebody can use a quarterback that has all those things. And you give that to Lane Kiffin? I mean, he goes to Ole Miss. It's a problem. I know him and Heipel, it's apparently it's not exactly a love fest between Josh Hyple and Dylan

Gabriel, a lot of people. And, you know, I was wondering about the Tennessee connection myself. But this would just be another lane. special. Look, quarterbacks don't go to lane and get worse. Name one. I'll hang up and listen. Matt Corral will tell you.

A lot of people told him not to go to Ole Miss. He said, no, I'm a go. I'm going, and you see it worked out for him. So Dylan Gabriel goes to Ole Miss, and Leby's still there, which we'll see how that goes. But even if Levy's not there, that'd be a great trend. And look, I like Altmire.

I watch Luke Altmeyer come in against Auburn go five for five. He wasn't afraid. So I think Ole Miss isn't a good spot. Look, as long as Lane's out by stock in Ole Miss, they're not going to get better on defense. And they were down a lot of guys this year. Mingo, Broken Foot, Elijah Moore, League,

Kenne Aboa, Free Age in the League. So, you know, Ole Miss, they're not going away. Lanes will always get good quarterbacks. There are some coaches that always have good quarterbacks, and good quarterbacks want to go play for those guys. So it's pretty interesting to see. But I appreciate the Booster Club. Great job today, guys.

Got a lot going on outside. Another fantastic day. Spread the word. Hit that subscribe button. Hit that notification button. We're going to be live tomorrow. Same spot. Three to four Eastern.

Make sure you check us out. More great guests. John Salsbury is going to join us. Really excited about that. A guy that really knows it. You know, NFL and college got more great stuff coming. A big weekend. Championship week, boys.

Listen, and we are going. It's keys to victory tomorrow, fellas. Keys to the streets. We're going to break it down like it's bringing on to. Oh. Again. Wasn't that the third one? Bring it on again?

Bring it on again? Who left the fridge open? Who left the fridge open? That's hilarious. All right, we appreciate you guys. And like Brian Kelly's tenure at Notre Dame as head coach, we're going going. Gone. The Jay Boy Show is produced by David Cohn.

Associate producer, Blaine Crane. Audio engineer, Faison Shereef. Executive producers Jake Crane, Vince Thompson, Steve Chamberlain, and David Cohn. Voiceover announcer, Mark, Mark, Mark, Cast them. Please subscribe to the volume on YouTube, where you can catch us live weekdays at 3 p.m. Win the water cooler with the J-Boy Show. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite.

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