(upbeat music) Hey, what's going on? This is the Saturday on South podcast. - I am Connor Gura. Will you are back after my very shuffled travel schedule? How are we feeling? - Feeling great, man. Feeling great. Connor is a very like, you know, private Instagram, but he posted like just the most adorable pictures I've ever seen out in Chicago, some summertime shy. You really deserve that. You've been busting your butt. You know, I know you've been going through a lot physically and mentally delivered. Myself, so I'm glad that you're, you know, above other things, right? As you get some of the famous Chicago pizza we discussed. - Yes, I did. Night one. Night one. - Aw. - We had Luma Anadis. My mom, this is always the dilemma. And I'm sure for those of you that live out of state or you just like, it's a little bit more difficult to get home, you have this dilemma when you're home of do I request the thing that my mom makes the absolute best, which in my family, which has a lot more Italian in it than what I look like and what my last name is and all that stuff, like surprisingly. The thing in my family is my grandma's spaghetti. My grandma's spaghetti is like, no, it's the recipe's passed down. It's like this big deal when I come home. And so it's always-- - So what do you do in your first interview? You are throwing up your grandma's spaghetti. - Like a smile. - Exactly. - Exactly. - And my mom tries to claim it and I'll kind of correct it a little bit like it's like, you're a spaghetti? Or it's like grandma's spaghetti. And I'm just saying, just saying. Like I love you, mom, and it's the best, but still. And so it's always this dilemma. Do I request my mom's spaghetti, like grandma's spaghetti, correct me myself? Or do I request Luma Anadis? Because Luma Anadis, look, that's the death Romeo. That's what I'm requesting. So we had some extended family over that first night and I was able to get that out of the way. Ended up getting a little bit of Portillo's fix, had a cake shake, one of those nights as well. We made it happen and still got to have some of my mom's food as well that she makes whenever I'm home. But it was a great weekend. Unfortunately, the travel was just, couldn't have been worse. And I'm sure anybody that's listening to this that had to deal with travel across the Southeast in the first part of the week, it was brutal, man. Like absolutely brutal. Those two, like getting two flights canceled. And I recorded, actually the interview that I recorded with Shahan was like right before we were about to leave for our third flight. And that ended up happening, just fine. But yeah, it was a long day. Claire by the end of it was just like, give me home. Anywhere but an airport finally made it home at 1.30 AM, like Tuesday, going into Wednesday after the travel days started about, you know, 12 hours earlier. So we're here right there. Remember, I mean, flashback to what, two years ago, we started doing this and we were talking about the Orlando airport. And we were like, "Man, your Orlando airport. There's just all these crying babies. It's such a mess. Look how far we've come." Now you're the dad with the jury eye, is the crying baby at the MCO. And you're like, "Ugh, I'll give you out of here." Here's the thing, my baby's not crying because she wants to go to Disney. My baby's crying because she's 14 months old. She's been out of her routine for the last like week. It's way past her bedtime. Like eventually she fell asleep on the plane. You know, we made it work. There was a while there where, yeah, it was rough. It was really rough. And here's the thing, didn't even have to spend much time at the Orlando airport. We connected in Houston. And the problem with the Orlando airport. And this speaks to why it is the worst airport on planet Earth. There is not a second. I don't want to hear it Atlanta people. I don't want to hear that Hart's field is worse. I spent more than enough time at that airport to tell you MCO is so much worse. If you have ever flown into Orlando past 10 p.m., I guarantee you, you will have some sort of hold up because they didn't realize you were coming into that gate every single time. It's at least a half hour. Oh, you know what, the crew didn't realize that you guys were flying into that gate. There was gate change. And we're waiting for them to be able to come on board and figure this out, but just sit tight. And then they like turn off the AC or whatever they do in planes in those moments. And when you're in the back row with a 14 month old baby was crying her head off and it's like, it's past midnight, just keep me home. It's the worst thing. And I would rather be anywhere else on Earth than the Orlando airport. Anywhere. You start thinking to yourself, you just hear this viral videos and people freak it out or they're playing the stuff. It's like, would I rather be in jail than on this plate of the Tarback? Well, there's air conditioning in jail. If I get turned off the plate. We had a flight attendant come by and give, she gave us her personal fan, which was a super nice move. I've never had a flight attendant do that. Clear sitting there like sweating and it's terrible. Like, how in these moments is it always, ah, you know what, we can't really cool the plane the way that we hope to while we're working on this flange. I know it's a friend's reference, but you get what I'm saying. Yeah, I hate it. I just hate it. I'd rather be anywhere else. I hate those moments so much. Well, yeah, welcome back. Welcome back. I was able to like, it's funny to find out. I was like, what's it called, the crap, but whatever the windows thing that messed up the flights, I'm not an expert on that. But on the way out of Dallas, like we got the beginning of that, right? And I was like, I was kind of being a diva about flights anyway on the way up. But I was like, something about this isn't lying. Like my flight's a little bit too late. Like the one I booked and it changed airports and it changed that started a book in a Southwest flight. And I'm talking about like, plane taking off as the scene is exploding in the movie behind me because everybody else that I knew that weekend, we had people get stuck at WNBA All-Star. We had people like, thankfully to the people of Southwest. I owe you an apology. I was not familiar with your day, but I think I said this out here previously. But flying lately, man, has been rough. I don't know what the through line is here. It's not like a single airport problem. It's not, it just is what it is. So I'm glad to have you back in one piece. And hopefully, you know, you can remember the happy times and not just the, you know, feeling like you're a subtype of a refugee situation as they head your baby who's over to the fan. That's so scary, man. Yeah, like I felt bad because, you know, I told my mom, I'm like, you know, everything's been great. And Chicago was, it was fantastic. But, you know, when you hit that point where you've had two flights canceled, you've had to pay so much additional money where you're like, just like, just give me hope. I just wanna be back in my routine. And so we're back. And that's what we're gonna do today is we're gonna talk some football. We got a lot of stuff to get to, a lot of stuff to get to. Dion Walker is gonna join us in a little bit, great combo with the Kentucky defensive lineman. And then we're gonna end with a Jersey story from my extended weekend in Chicago. But first, well, I don't wanna say the pod curse is back, but yeah, it's back. It's back, man, I feel so bad. CJ Baxter is out for the year. It took literally hours for one of my bold predictions to go up and smoke. And I guess it doesn't technically count as hours because what was the pod that we did about the SEC leading rusher trying to predict that, like back in April or something. So it got a little bit of juice, a little bit of life. But yeah, CJ Baxter, unfortunately, the guy that I predicted would be the SEC lead rusher. He has a torn PCL and LCL as Amor Richardson reported. That means he is likely out for the year six, nine months. That means barring a Will Muschamp like timetable for a return from a knee injury, we will not be seeing CJ Baxter in a Texas uniform this season. That's a bummer, major, major bummer. So far, I would argue that's the first fall camp injury that we could be talking about going into a game that's played in late December or early January. Okay, like fair, like first big time kind of casualty that maybe that's gonna impact the national championship. I don't say that lightly. I really don't because I thought about this too. Like, are we sure that a running back injury can be that significant? Because when was the last time that we really saw that play out with the national championship with the college show playoff? And then I remember, oh yeah, we saw that last year. We saw that last year. Texas and Washington are playing in a game in which Dylan Johnson gets hurt at the end of that Texas game. And Dylan Johnson had a really impressive year after transferring from Mississippi State. But I thought him getting hurt late in that Texas game impacted the game plan that Washington rolled out against Michigan. If he's healthy against Michigan, eh, they're still bright now winning that football game. But it definitely at least impacted it. And I didn't necessarily think that Washington had its full offensive arsenal because of the lack of depth that they had at tailback behind him. - Well, it flipped that too really quick because Blake Quorum obviously got hurt the previous year against the Ohio State. And we got to see NCAA cover athlete thought of it Edwards because so it really is either or, right? You either, whatever the story you wanna go with, either you respond to it or you don't. But I think we've seen, 'cause leave me to Ohio State and end of that streak without their best player at the time. - Yeah, and who knows, like if he's making the difference in that TCU game? Because turnovers were obviously so costly in that, but yeah, it's fair point. - Oh, why was it out for that game too? That's a really good point. So yeah, they overcame one and they didn't overcome another one. So yeah, it's all in there. - Yeah, I mean, ideally if you're healthy at that position, that's a good thing. That's a really positive thing. And I'm not saying that Texas lost as a result of its injuries in its backfield because obviously the Jonathan Brooks injury was something that opened the door for Baxter and Jaden Glue to both play in that semi-final game against Washington. And they played well, but they both had costly fumbles that they lost in the second half of that game. And they got more significant work because Jonathan Brooks had that late season injury. And then those two guys ended up kind of giving us a glimpse of what the future was gonna be. And I suppose you could go back and forth and say like, all right, well Baxter was originally expected to be RB1 as a true freshman, starting off last year. And then he gets hurt, that opens the door for Jonathan Brooks. So really who was opening the door for who? I don't know. I still thought that despite the fumble, Baxter looked excellent in that game. And as I referenced the other day, and probably several other times this offseason, an 18 year old getting 100 scrimmage yards in a playoff game is super rare. And for me, that was a major positive working in his favor. He just turned 19. And in my mind, the former number one running back crew was poised to have a monster season in this pivotal year one for Texas in the SEC. The yards after contact, that's like maybe my favorite stat with a running back. I think that's so significant. It was going to be a factor for him. It just was. And it's kind of the answer to the question. Like at least it's part of the answer to the question, is Texas SEC ready? Well, when you have guys like CJ Baxter, it helps us think that you were at least getting there. And it's not that shifty backs can't pop in the SEC, but think about this. Well, like usually a leading rusher in the SEC, he generates a bit more pop, and he looks a little bit more like CJ Baxter than a Jaden Blue type, which I'm not trying to take anything away from Jaden Blue, but he's different than CJ Baxter. He just is. I think Texas's original plan was going to be utilized. Blue has more of a change of pace type back. He was better in the passing game than Baxter was. So that's a positive. Maybe not quite like a quench on Judkin's Ulysses Bentley type thing, but maybe some shades of that. So who knows, who knows what that's going to break down to be this year. I just feel very confident saying that Jaden Blue is going to average more than the 11 to 13 touches per game that he was getting after that Brooks injury late last season. Maybe Sark just goes, you know what, screw it. Let's see what we got. Let's see if we can make this a Bijon-Naji type workload for Jaden Blue. He's the most very regular guys. Yeah, two totally normal guys. Everybody just, ah, yeah, he's just another one of those. Another one of those, yeah. That was a big deal. Who knows? I mean, and that workload is significant. Like 21 to 23 touches per game, that there could be a world in which Sark plays that card because the depth behind him is a major question. Trey Weisner is their, I guess, second string back now. He was almost exclusively a special teams player. Shout out to Nash Talks Texas on Twitter because I went back and watched all of his highlights from last year, played only 22 offensive snaps, 12 carries compared to 173 special team snaps, which explains why half of that minute 52 video is plays that he made on special teams. So take that for what it is. And I'm talking like gunner tackles, not like I broke through and had this massive return or something like that. So a little bit different. I'm gonna make a bold prediction, say that's gonna have to change, probably specific to this Texas offense. Sark is probably gonna have to get some run from these true freshmen, Jerick Gibson, Christian Clark coming in. Gibson was an IMG kid, number nine running back in the 24 class, according to the composite rankings. Maybe he's gonna be the answer to Texas's question about the yards after contact. The thing that I thought C.J. Baxter was gonna really bring to the table. But also as much as, how can I say this without taking a dig at Billy Navy? As much as pass protection, should it be the determining factor with snap count for your running backs? I do wonder if Sark might be a little bit hesitant to roll out true freshmen in pass pro, to protect viewers when we know when your injury history is. So that's a factor, that's part of this as well. That's one impact of losing someone like Baxter, who even if he wasn't necessarily some elite pass pro guy, he's still a guy that has real reps in that system and knows what it means to see live edge rushers that are getting off the ball and throwing different things at you. And he's been asked to pass protection in those spots. They had depth, they had depth at running back. This was not a team that needed to go into the portal and be like, hey, let's go after a Logan Diggs or something like that. We're like with what old Miss did, trying to replace a Quenchon Juggis. They weren't in a situation like what Kentucky was in where they really felt we need to be able to make a difference there. And look, let's remember that even if you feel good about the Texas running back room, post C.J. Baxter injury, it's early August. In Texas is hoping to play 16 or 17 games this year in this new expanded playoff. I don't know that you can operate the way that Sark did with Bijon and Najee. And I'm saying it Bijon, by the way, because remember last year he like came out and said, actually his name is pronounced Bijon, not Bijon. So if you feel like I'm pronouncing it that way, that's why I'm still kind of in between those two things. It's definitely Najee. - Achan. - Yeah, yeah. - But since we got enough stuff, we got to learn what these dudes do is code up. - Stop changing the stuff that we already do. - That's all I gotta say. - Just don't say Najee. It's not Najee. - Yeah, it's Najee. It's Najee Harris. Like he said a million times before. Look, here's the thing. I think it's going to be really difficult for these playoff contenders to operate within that frame of trying to have a back that gets the 20 plus carries per game on a weekly basis. And I think more teams will get away from that more than they will lean into it because they realize the season just got longer and it's going to be that much tougher. That's why Ohio State was willing to say, oh, Kunchan Jugkins, you're in the portal. We'll pay your price. Yeah, we love Trevion Henderson, but we love you too. And we feel like if we're going to have a long season, we need multiple guys that are going to be doing this. Texas looked like it had that in that conversation, obviously changes now. Or at least it's questionable in this early part of fall camp. And let's also remember like even when Najee was given all that work in 2020, it's because Sark was looking at a shortened season because of COVID. You know, they played 13 games that year, very, very different than what's going to be asked this upcoming season. The good news for Texas. And maybe the bad news for the rest of the SEC who's hoping to maybe see Texas kind of get knocked down a peg, the schedule is still so forgiving. The schedule didn't change. Two matchups against the SEC teams that won at least eight games last year, one of which wasn't even in the SEC because obviously that was Oklahoma. Speaking of Oklahoma, that's a game where you were struggled with turnovers last year. Yes, they still moved the ball. They still had a lot of success in the offense started the ball, so I'm not dismissing that. But maybe, maybe we were going to see Sark lean into a different approach against Oklahoma. And maybe we were going to try and see Texas have a more run focused approach against a relatively unproven Oklahoma defensive line. And C.J. Baxter would have been a really big part of that. TBD on kind of what all that looks like. Maybe same thing with that Georgia matchup. You know, I feel a whole lot worse about that prediction right now. I'm telling you, okay? I know I'm already out there with the Texas is 12 and O thing. And now I'm looking at the Georgia matchup going buddy. I don't really like Texas' backfield to be able to have major success breaking off chunks of yardage against Georgia's defense without C.J. Baxter. Because we know you don't beat Georgia by being one dimensional. Nor do you beat Georgia with a bunch of shifty backs. The guys who had a hundred rushing yards against Georgia the last three seasons. Well, it's Cody Schrader. That's it. That's the list. That's the guy. Cody Schrader, great college player. TBD on if him being undrafted in the NFL is going to mean anything. More thoughts on that in a little bit. 10th in America on yards after contact. That's the type of back that you need if you're going to go toe to toe with a team like Georgia. Or you got to have like a J.L. and Milro that can also do those sorts of things. And even if you don't have a traditional backfield with a guy that's going to be a true bruiser. J.L. and Milro. He just gave me the war flashbacks to Schrader that you just followed that with Milro. You just watched these guys bounce off of the LSU defenders. Like, hey, nobody, I'm sure half of those yards I forgot to have for the each end of the year. Yeah. How many tackles did Cody Schrader break against LSU alone? You just jabbed out Cody. Yeah, a whole lot, a whole lot. Georgia, also in case you forgot, for whatever reason, has lost regular season game in three seasons. That game is just so much tougher without a guy like C.J. Baxter. But what's also working in Texas' favor and why this isn't necessarily some massive game changer in terms of their overall outlook. The surroundings were a big reason why I picked C.J. Baxter to lead the SEC in rushing. You've got four or five starters back on that offensive line. You've got a starting quarterback returning as one of the preseason Heisman Trophy favorites. And even if the top end receiver talent isn't what it was with Mitchell with Worthy, you're still not about to load the box against Queen Ewers, especially with how Sark can scheme these guys open. So that's a positive. And remember, this is an offense that last year was 13th in America and yards per play. That's good. That's really good. We could definitely see Blue or maybe Gibson is going to step up and just become another great back under Sark, who again, has earned a lot of blind faith at that spot with having the first running back selected in three of the last four NFL drafts. That's why I don't want to necessarily back off of my pick of Texas making it to the SEC Championship and reaching the college football playoff. This should be a two to three win change all of a sudden. That's the difference with Texas now compared to Texas two or three years ago. If Bijon Bijon got it so weird to say it like that, it really is. You say it's like one way for so long and then you try and train your brain to pivot and you're just like, nope, that's not happening. If Bijon had suffered an injury like this, it would have been fair to question the surroundings and question Texas's upside. But Texas is in theory in a different place, which was really already shown last year by the fact that in the post-Bijon era, it broke through, made the playoff, had its best season in 14 years, despite the fact that yours missed multiple games. If I picked Texas to win a title, however, I wouldn't be feeling as good about that. The margin for air to win a national championship in this new system, it might not be like the 100 meter at the Olympics, shout out Noah Liles, the lean scene around the world. Probably not as close as that, but it could absolutely come down to not having a guy and like Baxter at your disposal. Go ask Bama fans what it's like to take away Jameson Williams in the second half of a national championship, all right? Like these things can come down to one guy getting hurt at the wrong time. So yes, I think it's fair to say this impacts Texas's upside. It doesn't necessarily feel like it'll be a season derailer. If Texas is truly back, we talked about how it needs to have a multi-season deal. And one injury like this should it be the thing that holds you back from being one of the best teams in the sport. It's a bummer, but it shouldn't be the end of the world. Will before we pick a new leading rusher in the SEC for this upcoming season, hopefully don't jinx them and get them hurt with a season and an injury by the time that we finish recording this podcast, thoughts on Baxter, the impact, how that can impact the SEC to play off all those things. - I mean, it's so tough, right? Because as I'm going back through this, and you know, this is a theme that we're going to probably continue to hit on, because guys, the all SEC running back team is going to be so like the most fascinating we've ever seen ever and maybe will ever see because they're these new teams. But all of the great running backs and there are a couple are these smaller backs like you were just talking about. And so it's like, yeah, could you see ETN or a Jerquoise Hunter or like one of those guys being, you know, leading rusher maybe, but you do start it off with that where it's like, it's hard to see that. And then you see this guy. So obviously, when injury like this happens, the first time is like, your heart goes out to the K, because he's just 19 getting his career started. It's terrible to see that. The second part of it is I feel like, dang, that prediction actually made more sense than I even gave it credit for at the time because yeah, to your point, this was a unit. This is a big guy nicknamed C4 from Lakeland, Florida, sorry, Edgewater in Orlando. Sorry, Edgewater in Orlando. And like, you know, right now the street and this is a guy that you go, wow, this is what you wanna, the Clidesdale, you wanna ride into the SEC in a year where there's smaller running backs, right? There's all this stuff going on. Number one running back in the class by the two recruiting sites people respect. So yeah, I think it sucks because you could see, you know, this is a guy that, you know, first year he had like, you know, 800 scrimmage yards, right? And this, it was all lining up to be, okay, this is the massive breakout. We have to your point, sorry, because these great running backs have come through greater line in Texas. You know, like this guy was highly recruited. He's already popped, you know, in these big games. And this was gonna be a great kind of pick by you, honestly, but now, you know, he's off the board. So yeah, I hate to see that. And like I said, it's just gonna be fascinating going forward because another guy is now off the list. So yeah, I mean, that being said, oh man, I took, my save answer was always gonna be Montreux Johnson, and I still, I feel like a coward for saying that. I mean, the other big backs, I mean, yeah, I hate to discredit anyone. I'm sure there's guys, I'm leaving out. I mean, it's like, it's hard to find those guys. Another one obviously would talk about backs who went down. I don't think like a Josh Williams is gonna do anything. So yeah, I think you would have to be if you're going for that type of guy, right? Like a Montreux Johnson, because he's gonna get the carries with approval of the coaching staff loves him. Not to harp on that, right? But I don't think that knowing Kirby in the way that he does, like Kirby is not really done post, you know, Nick Chub and those guys. And it feels like he started off with these just huge backs. And since then, it's like about melting those guys. It's been a lot more of a stable, right? So it's not easier to imagine Etienne as a role running back where it's like, oh, you're gonna be the, I don't know, the Reggie Bush in this offense. Like what the Saints used to have within Pierre and Reggie, you're gonna come in on screen passes, third downs, stuff like that. You're gonna play a lot, but you're not gonna get 30 carries a game, right? So I, you know, with the, it's hard to pick you've re-defense too, especially at this point. - Hold that real quick. I hit on, you brought up something with Montreux Johnson that I think people are gonna want, like they're gonna want to dig into it. And I'll get to those, I'm gonna get to those other backs too. And like why? - For sure, for sure. - Like, you know, kind of revisiting their case for this. Now that it's kind of up for grabs. But the workload with Montreux Johnson, now that Trevor Ettien is at Georgia. If you were told, hey, what do you think, what do you think is like the max workload for him? Because we saw him have a really good first season with Billy Napier at Louisiana. And then after this freshman season, he follows him to Florida and we know what it's been these first two years. And does that all of a sudden make him this guy that Billy is saying, you know what? You're worth 2021 carries per game. Because history has shown us that if you're going to be the SEC's leading rusher, it's so much about opportunity. And it's so much about what it looks like in that backfield, which, you know, TBD on some of the options, like I've heard some of the things about other backs that have been able to emerge. And maybe there is going to be a Trevor Ettien replacement, a true Trevor Ettien replacement there. But I don't have the faith that they're going to be consistent week in, week out on that offensive line. It's just like, it's been such a yo-yo unit with that. I guess, I guess you're one, they were better than they were last year with that. But man, I'm telling you, if you think I'm discounting Montreal, Johnson, go look at the Florida game log last year and look at the game log because that shows their rushing totals game to game. And it is as far and wide as there can possibly be. And to me, that would scare me to death if I'm like, "Oh, I'm picking this guy "who was going to be the SEC's leading rusher." And he could very well have games in which he has eight carries for 18 yards. Like, yeah, that's not crazy. And so that's why I won't be picking Montreal, Johnson is my pick. - Yeah, no, I get it. I really do get it. And like, that's kind of the thing. I'm planking on this guy's name. I'm sorry, the transfer that Kentucky got, I believe he's from Georgia State. - Yeah, he's got a long last name. Look it up on our lads and try and pronounce. (laughing) - Try and pronounce. - Yeah, like, 'cause it's really just about your offense. Like, there's really just not, like, a kid Baxter was kind of that guy. Like, that's like, his talent will make his team play him and give him these carries. So, yeah, like, that's another, like, safe way to get, sorry to be this guy that does the names, but we're getting down to like, I get fifth, sixth, seventh guys in a class that was, you know, kind of unclear at the top. So, yeah, I think that, I mean, looking at this man, I mean, it's just, yeah, I think that, that someone from Kentucky will emerge. I'll put it to you like that. Mark Stoops does not really like to do the stable thing as much. He's an old school coach. You know, those guys are rare. Like, if less miles are still in the SEC, I'd go, whatever that guy has. I'll take his run back. So, same deal there. I think that whoever the emerging star in Kentucky is, they like to kind of ride that guy. That being said, yeah, I mean, it seems a lot easier as you kind of look back and last year to look at Hunter, honestly. I think that he does have a little bit more carries than I was imagining. I think that in the offense, I hate to say it this way, but it's true. I don't think it could really get worse. I think that, you know, it's going to get better. It's just going to get better. That's a nice way to say it. So, I think that given that he was kind of in that weird role where, I mean, the defense has been focused on the guy's whole career, right? So, like, that is not going to change. It's same deal as what he had at Florida, where it's like, hey, when you're on the field, two guys are looking at you. Like, two guys are looking. It's not just the one guy. It's the whole defense. It's just like, well, and so point being, I actually think I'm going to go jaw-quiz Hunter, man. Honestly. Only problem. He's a fine candidate. He's a fine candidate. I'm not going to say that's an impossibility. I should have had this number last time when we did, when I kind of outlined why, like the case for Baxter, and I kind of circled around this, but I don't think I brought this exact number to the table. Hugh Freese has had 11 seasons as a head coach. He's had 1,000 yard rusher. That's it. It's a totally good receivers and tie-dads. He has none of those right now. He's a really good running back. He's got good receivers. He's got better receivers, better receivers. He has won. (laughing) They're hoping to go 3-D. They're hoping to go 3-D. This should be, in theory, not just Cam Coleman, but the Condry Lambert Smith edition was very important. Is that one of them, Coy Moore? No, no. Like, very, very new look group there. I'll just play it. I'll push back on that. But that's the thing is like, Frankie Hickson at Liberty 2019, is there are only 1,000 yard rusher during Hugh Freese's time as a head coach. And that was your one, when Freese wanted to get Malik Willis eligible, but could it because of the NCAA rules. And he wasn't necessarily running his preferred offense, which was something that we talked about a lot last year, that this was ideally not the way that Hugh Freese was gonna try and move the chains, but the only thing, seemingly, that Auburn could do on occasion was run the football. And if the thinking is that Freese is going to be more hands-on with the offense this year, and if he's gonna really take over those play calling duties, I don't know that that means all of a sudden, giving Hunter this 250 carry workload. And especially when we're hearing a lot of things in fall camp about the backs, about Austin, about Cobb, who have stepped in. And that's just been kind of more of the Freese MO. Hunter is a good, is a good pick for this question. Like, there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever based on ability and all those different things, but does history suggest that that's working in his favor? I would say probably not as much as somebody else that I have more. - Yeah, yeah, and I mean, I'm with you there and it's like you can't even lean on the other thing 'cause we truly don't know. Like that could be, with that court, we haven't really seen that side of quarterback with the board either. So it kind of goes to Milro was sixth in carries last year at the SEC. So that's why Alabama running back 'cause I've been discussed so far. Because if you're using the player correctly, you're not having a bell cow running back. You're having an option at most, right? So point being like, yeah, it's just, I feel like I just keep finding the nose. So I'm gonna officially go, Hunter, but it's not like I'm gonna be like, "Oh, dang it, if Hunter is like third." Because it likely, let me answer it this way, it's a guy we're probably not gonna be talking about. Let's put it to you like that, give us a mystery. That's possible, that's possible. All right, so let me give you some more nose. And maybe I should go with, I should mention the Bama thing 'cause Justice Haynes is a guy that's got a lot of expectations. Jam Miller as well. But again, you kind of already hit on it. Like Milro takes away from some of that rushing and in a debore offense, yes, I do think that they'll run the football more than Washington did just because their personnel is more conducive to that. But all of a sudden producing the SEC's leading rusher, I don't necessarily know that that scheme yields that type of result. And maybe am I overthinking it or underthinking it by kind of dismissing Jaden Blue from this conversation? I don't know. It's super tempting to just go, just, in sarcai trust and his back will end up being that guy. But I feel like I just need to see a bit more of him from this level. And if he was already being passed on the depth chart by Baxter and by, you know, Brooks last year, obviously emerged and he was just stud. But, you know, like what exactly was the thing I was preventing them from giving him that opportunity last year? Maybe that's just a little bit too far in the back of my mind and I'll change that opinion a month into the season. I'm not going to rule that out, but I'm not going to pick him kind of as that default guy. And let me go even more conspiratorial there. And the age of the transfer portal, which you really don't want, is a bell cow running back emerging when you have a guy like C.D. Baxter, who is going to be coming back at some point. Because then you have a weird situation where it's hard to manage those two guys, you know? Yeah, and, you know, Texas didn't have to go to the portal. Right? But I'm saying like, let's say that they have, let's say blue breaks out and Baxter comes back and they're like, it blues like, dude, I just led this team in Russia. I led the conference in Russia. Who's this Baxter guy? And Baxter is like, all right, I'm out of here. You know, so as a coach, you don't really want that. You'd rather have kind of like, all right, buddy, we're keeping your seat warm if you're healing up, nice, you know? If blue pops, he can go to the NFL. He's driving. - That's also true. That's also very true, yeah. Whereas Baxter can come back or you can just find a way to be able to make that work in this day age. But you're right, it is kind of like a little bit of like a balancing thing, especially if you're giving this guy all this work and he says, I want to come back to school or alternatively, he comes back and then it's the quench on Jugkin's thing and says, I want this and maybe you're like, no, we have CJ Baxter. We don't necessarily need to give you that. We appreciate what you did, but we can move on from you in a different sort of way. So that's possible as well. - I think, I mean, I hate to mention this guy's name but a certain Darius G that used to play at LSU with a letter for a net went down, he popped. - And then it was a weird situation 'cause Leonard came back and it was like, we got both of y'all. It was the running back here, you know? - Darius guys led the ICC in rushing 2016. Isn't that crazy? - Yeah, yeah. - A year in which letter from that was an active player. Darius guys led the ICC in rushing. - Pretty amazing. Gavin Sawchuk is a guy that I kind of thought about. I do think, look, funny name, funny name. I don't know that I see fans know the name very well. - No, I'm laughing at like, we're just going, we're like talking about some dudes at this point. This is so funny that this is like the greatest position. Like the old school like Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, like it's so crazy, man. - It really is. It is such a unique thing in the ICC this year. - Look at this guy. - So, no. - But that's what makes it fun is that it's, you know, there's a lot of room for interpretation here and it's very much, you know, pick whatever sort of preference you have. But yeah, I see fans need to know more about Gavin Sawchuk because that guy had five games to end last season where he takes over the starting roles. They don't have three in the backfield. And then he had nothing but a hundred yard games, averaged 123 rushing yards during that stretch. I'm not picking him though because I worry about that new look offensive line. I don't know that it's going to all of a sudden spit out a leading rusher year one in a 16 team SEC. I don't necessarily know that it's going to be quite that good. So hold off on that. I already told you some of my reservations with Hunter. Rocket Sanders, if you don't do it, I'm not going to do it. - Don't ball for it. - I will say, if you told me, Will, if you had a crystal ball sitting in front of you, which by the way, crystal ball series, we're getting going with that on Saturday down south.com shameless plug, that starts next week where we go through every single game that an SEC place this year, record predictions, storylines, all that stuff. Check that out. If you had a crystal ball and you told me, Connor, Lenora Sellers, Horst Grant 2.0. Yes. - Okay. - If you told me, this guy is going to be a middle of the pack SEC quarterback. If you told me that the offensive line that was thrown into the fire last year because of all the different injuries that they had, if you told me that what Shane Beamer said at media days was going to be 100% accurate and they were going to be better for it and you told me that Rocket was going to be healthy for an entire season. If you just gave me all those things and said, all three of those boxes would be checked. I'd say, all right, sign me up. But I worry that one of those landmines will be stepped on this year. And that's all it'll take to derail Rocket from being the leading rusher in the SEC, which by the way, for all the things that I think Beamer has done well at South Carolina, I've been pretty adamant from the jump that they have not been put enough in the trenches on either side of the ball. They have yet to have a rusher, a runner, I should say, gain 710 rushing yards in a season. That's not great. You're going to need like double that to win an SEC round title. So that's a little bit tougher. If you have a scheme change or something like that, all right, that's a little bit different, but we're not exactly talking about that. So I'm not going to do this too is sell it. I think you're totally right. It's funny because I was like picking a random penis in South Carolina. Oh, here we go. I forgot. It's so point B because we've literally seen this movie. I hate to be this guy. But it's like, yeah, I have the same reservation for trying to pick UCFCs. It was KJ because I'm like, you guys are really good. And then you weren't. And I don't know what happened. I was bad, but that doesn't make any sense either. So point being like, we've already seen a hurt, Rocket Sanders, who she's hurt now. When Beamer was like, we really haven't seen dude in terms of like, he's still hurt. I was like, okay, like I'm already out on this. I just cause like you said, the line's bad. We're talking about Florida's line for Montessori Johnson. This line's worse, probably. Honestly. And the thing is about the newest sellers. Think back to the fill in games that Jalen Miller had before he was like the starter when Bryce Young was there, right? Like whenever they found success, it was like, okay, your tank, we know you could turn you into a tank. We're going to develop you as a pastor, as your career goes on. But right now your tank, that's what I feel like the lowest sellers is. And so that's the problem where it's like, the thing he can probably do well is be a tank. We even saw that in spring game, right? Whereas like when he doesn't know what to do, when the line breaks down, when Beamer is like, ah, this guy's getting a little bit cold. Let me try to get him something going. It's going to be a lot of QB run. So yeah, I think that's the key is that it's not that they even have like a modern Milro or Daniels that had a ton of rushing attempts at yards last year. It's they have a guy who they're not sure can consistently throw the football. And when that happens, you see the safety start to creep in and to get that guy going, you got to get rushing attempts. You can't just have him throwing into blitzes because the line's not going to help him, you know? - Exactly. And they don't have, not having Xavier Laguette too. - Yeah. - Not having a guy that's going to at least make you think, oh man, you got to really make sure that you got eyes on him in the secondary. You're right, the teams might just decide, let's load the box against South Carolina and let somebody else try and beat us and just kind of figure it out from there. So yeah, we won't go with Rocket Sanders. And to your point that you brought up before, whichever he's in, I'm not going to go with him, even though I think he's got 2019 DeAndre Swift upside, I think that's on the table. But think about this and you did a good job of mentioning this. Georgia has played in all of these extra games with Kirby, whether it's SEC Championship or playoff games, whatever. Nick Chub, Sony Michelle, DeAndre Swift, throws Amir White in there as well. Guy was expected to be starting running back in the NFL. If they all had multiple seasons under Kirby, none of them led the SEC in rushing. None of them. Chub was the only guy under Kirby who even finished in the top four in the SEC in rushing during that entire time. And he had three more games than carry on Johnson, who obviously got hurt at the end of that season. And yet Nick Chub still didn't win the SEC Russian title. Awesome. One of the best backs that we've seen in the 21st century in the SEC and still he came up short of that. So I'm not going to pick Trevor Ettien despite the fact that I love the player. I think he has an awesome season. I think he set up for great success running behind that offensive line. But I'm not going to quite pull the trigger and go that far because I think maybe his upside is a little bit more capped by the situation in Georgia playing blowouts. You get it. Yeah, yeah, I think that's what it is. I think we're pretty, I mean, I'm sure something fan based. We'll be like, you forgot our guy and I'm like, buddy, again, pitch me, who will be the SEC's video? Please, if you have a guy that you like, or not leave it above on purpose, we've talked about 15 guys, if you were like, hey, there's this guy from this local community college man, he transferred to Mizzou. He's going to be straight or 2.0, please tell me because I would love to root for him. Speaking of that, so that's what I'm going to go with. Well, that's what I'm going to go with. Not a community college guy who transferred to Mizzou who got his offer because of a bribe, not a bribe, but a deal with a booster over a cocktail. But I'm going to go with Marcus Carroll, to be the SEC's leading rusher this year. If you don't know the name, I think he will in a very short matter of time coming over from Georgia State. He is, I don't want to say he's expected to be Cody Trader 2.0 because that diminishes what Cody Trader did as one of the best players in Mizzou, I think he's ever had on the offensive side of the ball. I think he was that good. And I understand, and part of my reservation originally with picking Marcus Carroll to leave the SEC in rushing was because I still think that Nate Noel is going to carve out a role. He's coming over from App State. But last season, what was the big difference with the Mizzou offense? The passing game found an identity, the new play caller in Kirby Moore. Brady Cook took the next step. Luther Bird in the third was incredible. Your boy Whis became this a reliable veteran that they could-- - Of course. Yeah. - And you say that every single time and I'm always like, is that from somewhere? I don't know if it is. - No, it's just from Will. Exactly. All those things happened. And Mizzou finally had the passing game that it so desperately lacked far too often in the post drew lock era. And yet, Cody Schrader won the SEC rushing title by 469 yards. That's, I mean, without question. Speaking of Schrader, I thought it was a joke that he went undrafted, okay? I'm on record saying that. We talked about that after the draft. You can't tell me that that guy just lacks juice and it was only because of the scheme. But at the same time, that's basically what the entire NFL said about his draft stock. They said, you're benefiting greatly from being the perfect fit in this zone running scheme. And mind you, it's not like Mizzou has just been cranking out a bunch of first round offensive linemen who have paved the way for him and it's an unbelievable track record. Two day three offensive linemen drafted during the e-ledger and quiz era. That's it, okay? So think about that. That's not to say that anyone who steps in to Mizzou's run game is just a talentless scheme dependent player or the system back, whatever you want to call it. But in terms of predicting a leading rusher, I want scheme on my side. And I want it to coincide with talent and opportunity. Those are the three boxes that I want to check if I'm predicting something like that. Marcus Carroll led FBS with 22.8 carries per game. He hit the portal in the post regular season window, which was two months before Sean Elliott, front of the program, surprisingly stepped down at Georgia State and took an assistant job on Shane Beamer staff at South Carolina where he's gonna be the run game coordinator. He's gonna go to the tight ends. If Carroll had left after that move, different story. He could have stayed at Georgia State where he got more work than anybody in the country. And he decided, you know what? No, I don't care if I have another season like that. I want to go to a place where I feel like I'm gonna get on an even bigger stage. I'm gonna have an even bigger opportunity. That's ultimately what he was going to get at Mizzou. So I'm gonna bet that even if this is as running back coach Curtis Loop or said back in the spring, even if this is a bit like 2020 Larry Roundtree, Tyler Beatty, I still think that Carroll should feast. And by the way, the discrepancy in terms of workload was still pretty significant with those two guys. We kind of go back and look at those numbers before Tyler Beatty really got into that role in 2021. This is 2020 that we're talking about. So I think even that comp favors and Marcus Carroll in this spot. So I'm on record now. Please don't have a season ending injury Marcus Carroll or else I'm gonna feel so bad and I'm just not gonna predict anything ever. - You know what, Connor, I'm gonna admit to something here because my brain is just at an absolute pretzel. And I don't want anyone to think that Connor is as stupid as me. So I want to just take a pause here. I just have an odyssey hour. I fused Marcus Carroll and Kentucky's running back. And what they said, the Kentucky transfer from Georgia State, I was talking about Marcus Carroll. And I initially felt stupid for doing that. Then I realized these are the two old school coaches left, and Drake and Stoops that feed their guys. Both of their guys were like top three in rushing last year. Both of them had transfers last year, right? Administrator and Davis. Both of them have transfers this year. And again, there's a kind of like a battle like Kentucky with two gentlemen whose name is like, we were both like, we'll see who wins before we learn this name. And furthermore, Carroll is exactly where I was thinking of. So I guess it's honestly our hand up, but it comes down to scheme. I think you're totally right. I love that pick. I knew who Carroll was. I knew he was at Georgia State. I just thought he was the guy at Kentucky. And the Kentucky guy was at Mizzou because there's so much movement going on here. I love that pick for the exact reason. He already has the, and we've already talked about him. There's just so many backs moving in and out. No, we're down one and back there too. We gotta go learn three more guys at Texas. But point being yeah, I love that pick because of his history. Like you talked about the carry is the wear and tear. And it goes back to our good friend, Larry Roundtree. And we were like, look, he was like the running back versus the Phillip Rivers. It was like, you watched the end of a Mizzou game buddy. You're going to see Larry Roundtree swing profusely. He's going to be on carry 25. He's going to have like between 100 and 150 yards or like 80 and 150 yards. And that's going to determine how Bizzou is doing. And like, that's pretty consistently like those two coaches. I've been the ones who have been like, this is our running back. We are going to feed him. I actually love that pick at Mizzou or give me for confusing everyone. What if I just didn't know how to pronounce Carol? I was like, is it Carl? Carl? Yeah, Carole? Snow. Do you have Carol? Is it? No, no. Wait, we, you know, brains brains are not in mid season for me. That's the nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But it kind of speaks to the nature of Marcus Carroll and the role that he's taking on. I'm pretty sure he wasn't even on the preseason ballot because our guy, Derek Peterson, he like nudges me and it's like, and I already mentioned before how Derek spent, I think six hours on his prime season. All I see about it, he's looking up. He's a, he's a, and when I say this, it's not like, oh, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Derek is sitting there breaking down the PFF numbers for long snappers. So that's how seriously he took this thing. And he nudges me. He's like, where's Marcus Carroll on this ballot? I just did all this research on him. I think he's, you know, should be a preseason all SEC guy. Like, I don't think he's on there because he's, he comes in as a transfer. Maybe drink has some sort of policy with that. I never, I never heard like why exactly that was the case, but I don't know that it's not like a rule in the SEC where if you're transferring, you can't be on the ballot. I'm pretty sure it actually just comes down to coach decisions with who's on the ballot and who's not. So yeah, I don't know. - Yeah, and I'm sure they break it down from there 'cause like we've seen, you know, like a, not a lot of any guys, right? So like, I'm sure there's somebody who's like, now come and get out of here. But, but I will say that's actually the answer to a question that you asked a month ago, immediately is which is who is the transfer? Who is going to get swept under the rug? We thought it would be Nick Scorton. It wasn't, he ended up on the second team. This is the guy who got swept under the rug. Like it was like, oh, you gotta learn these new faces. There will be a transfer who people are not talking about. Now we are talking about him. You're so right. Marcus Carroll's going to have a 25-carre game and people are going to be like, wait a minute. I thought Cody Schrader graduated. Didn't, he moved on, right? Like, oh, no, he's still back there, still doing it. So all right, we are officially on record with that. It's new leading rusher in the ICC. And like I said, just stay upright, man. Just don't make me look even worse than I already feel. Just please don't do that. All right, let's kick it down Walker. Really enjoyed being able to chop it up with him at Media Days and then again, here on our air wave. So here's Dion. Now excited to be joined by a very special guest. It is Kentucky defensive lineman, game record, whatever we want to call you. It is Dion Walker. Dion, I'm going to start with a little story here. So at ICC Media Days, I sort of ran into you in the hallway and I saw your chain. And it, by the way, it's awesome for those who haven't seen this guy, it's like a bear with a crown on it, with a number zero in it, like your number. And I asked you if I could take a picture of it. And you gave me this look that it was similar to like what my daughter gives, someone that's attempting to hold her for the first time. It was perfect. So I'm wondering, because this is like before your podium session and all that stuff, I'm wondering, is this guy who just has no sort of lack of aggression in a football game? Is he going to be really shy when it comes to the podium and all that stuff? And I got to say, you, Luther Bird in the third, and probably like Tyler Booker, you guys were my favorite guys to talk to at Media Days. It wasn't so bad, right? Like we're not that, we're not that terrible with the media. Yeah, no, we just try to make the best of it, you know? It's a great, it's just so great to be there, you know? It's a great accomplishment, you know? And just being trusted by Coach Stoops, it's all fine. So that's, I think that's the best way to kind of describe your game is disruptive. Speaking of Coach Stoops, how often have you been kicked out of practice just because you're too disruptive? And the offense is like, man, we can't get anything done if you're going to be like this. Only about like two, three tops, you know? Couple scrimmages, you know? But you know, this year our old line is, we fight it. Don't worry about that because, you know, it's one thing to get kicked out of practice like, you know, stuff happens in the heat of battle. You do something wrong and it's like, all right, maybe I grabbed a guy's face mask that I shouldn't know. A coach sends you to the sideline and something like that. It's also a badge of honor to have a coach say, you're too good right now and you're too good for what we're trying to do. Yeah, of course, you know, you know, one part of me wants to play, wants to keep going, wants to keep, wreck a habit, but the other part is like, hey, I'm really where I need to be. So tell me what those battles have been like throughout your career. It was really well documented a couple of years ago with the offensive line, an area that, you know, 22, you guys surprisingly struggled with that. And, you know, to see it kind of progressed. Where last year it improved and I think you want to see it get even better. And it's probably a little bit of a double-edged sword for you because, you know, if you're dominating those matches every single time of practice, you're like, oh, man, like I want these guys to get better. What have you kind of seen from them so far and kind of how that progression is going? Um, there, we got a bunch of guys, you know, we got, like, I could say three or four leaders on our offensive line, you know, with Eli Cox, Jack Bird, Marcus Cox, even Gerald Mincey's, he's talking more, you know, we threw him in the fire and he came out of it, you know. So we got a bunch of guys. I can see that we turned into a world oil machine. You said in media days that you were at about like 340 pounds. I guess that was, gosh, that was like close to a month ago. That was probably three weeks ago. Yeah, three weeks ago, four weeks ago, whatever it was. And that you wanted to get down to about 320 pounds or 330, 325 pounds, pass rush was a big part of that. You want to improve, get that, that, that extra second of speed. How do you feel like that's going to be able to elevate your game? How do you feel like you've made progress with that? I feel like it's going to live in my game a lot, you know. My big, or our big defensive line emphasis has been, you know, staying in there, anchoring down on the run. When you get those bump combos, you know, when it is GT counter. And, you know, at this way now I feel like I got a good sense of that. But while I'm still having the pass rush, I feel like I need to get my way down. And it's going good. You know, I'm still putting on more muscle while I'm trying to drop the fat. So it's going great. What did you play at last year? Because the motor was a question at all. I mean, I feel like I talked about that so much. Like the fact that you were at least listed at, I think at 348 and all but once you played 50 snaps, which is just unheard of for a guy at your size. Like that just doesn't happen. So like what were you playing at? Like pretty much what was like your steadiest weight last year? I'd say around like 335 to 340 and then later in the season I got up to around like 345 at the most. Is that normal for you? Like do you gain weight like over the course of this? Like how does that work with, you know, the diet and, you know, maybe the conditioning like kind of changes? Like how exactly does that typically go for you? Yeah, I feel like it was just a big, you know, workout change, you know. And like last August, same as this August, I'm getting my own two a days in with the strength staff walking to my own treadmill, you know, on the, on the soft bike. That's horrible, but it's just the change of working out and I got to do a better job at watching what I eat off of how many calories I'm burning throughout the day. What's what's the toughest food to lay off of? I'm a pasta guy, man. I'm a pasta guy. What's your favorite kind of pasta? Chicken Alfredo. Okay. Okay, that'd be, that'd be a tough one to kind of kick back. Is there like a food that you've picked up that you're like, you know what? This isn't the worst thing in the world and, you know, being able to kind of eat more of this kind of gives me an excuse or is it like, yeah, you know what? We're actually keeping it pretty tight with the nutrition program, all that stuff. No, we're keeping it pretty tight, you know. I got a, um, an audio deal with Jack Nutriger, Craig Mill Place out here in Kentucky. I like to take Kentucky, you know. They do a great job and they got a variety of things. So I was going back to, to your high school stuff. Did you think you were going to play offensive tackle in college? Was that kind of the reason that you were playing both ways? That was never an option. Not at all, not at all. You know, I, I was playing both ways because I had the best feet, one of the best feet on the team, you know, a couple of schools wanted me to follow tackle, you know. Got the perfect size of frame, but I knew in my heart and in my head, I wanted to play a detail. What was that, that experience like playing both ways? Because it seemed like you would probably just be gas by, by the end of the game doing that. Like at, at that size, that's just, you know, I know it's like, well, it's one thing to do it when you're like a sophomore in high school, but to do it competitively, to do it like, you know, bigger school. I imagine that that decision was probably a difficult one. There were probably moments where you're like, man, it'd be nice to just be able to focus on one thing. Yeah, it was fun, you know, just playing with my guys. I didn't even really see that I was gas because next week was coming up so quick, you know. And I feel like it helped me a lot to get prepared for college, just to get my motor, get my motor started, get my condition enough. So I feel like it's a, I had a great transition. You told me that you would throw down some nasty dunks. One, like you do like the 180, two-handed slam, like that was, that's like the most athletic thing that you've been able to do. You played center on your team at, at Cast Tech. When Cal Perry was at Kentucky, did he ever say like, Deon, look, I know, I know we typically, you know, we look a little bit bigger, we're, you know, we're going for like six, eight, six, nine, you're gonna be playing in the post. But what does he ever like, hey, Deon, like, come on, like get some runs. Let's see what you could do. I wanted to, man. I was, I was waiting for the text, you know. And I'm, I'm, I'm on Mark Pope here, too. I want to, I want to get a little try out here and I got it. What would your game be like? Because is it, are you like Charles Barkley at this point? Because you, you're six, six, but at the same time, like, you know, with all due respect, you know, you should be playing in the post. You should, you should freeze, I would think. Hey, I got, I got everything on my bag, you know, in high school, I was really, I, my senior year, I was really our facilitator, you know, his bud, the top of the key, run the offense. So I got a, I got some tricks up my sleeve. Let's just say that. Okay. So you were like a yokech in high school? Man, I was doing everything. What was, what was the, like, best game that you had in high school, like the, the game that you look back on and you're like, all right, I fell up to stat sheet. I felt pretty unstoppable. Uh, I say, it was, it was our basketball homecoming game against Renaissance, another big high school out of Detroit. I had it around. I like double-digit boards, like six or seven assists and like 10 points. That's fun. That's, that's, that's a yokech, yeah, very, very much. Uh, can you explain what it's like to be recruited by, by Nick Saban or Kirby Smart? Because I know you didn't end up there, obviously, but is there a story from, from getting recruited by one of those guys that, that kind of stood out? Not really a story, but it's, you know, it's a great honor to get recruited by Nick Saban. You know, he's the, I, the most respected head coach in the country, you know? So it just felt great, you know, I don't really have any stories. I've only been there, well, I've been a, only been in Alabama, like once for a camp. But it was a great camp, you know, I was, I was tired, but it was a great camp. Those camps seem, they seem really intense. They're like, we're gonna, we, we, we, these guys out, like as, as like sophomores or dreams, whatever it is, I know they, they change that stuff all the time. Like did you notice the difference? Like going to, to all those camps where you're like, man, some of these are just crazy difficult. And this would probably be how it would be if I, if I signed up to play here. Um, yeah, I noticed different, like every, every place is different. But Alabama, so we was bare rolling forward, backwards roll, and that was just warm up. That's alright. Michigan wasn't a finalist for you. I saw even though, you know, they gave you your first offer. It's the big in-state school. What's that like growing up where you know, you probably hear about Michigan, you can't go anywhere without hearing about Michigan. Why did that maybe not appeal to you as much? Because I think oftentimes if, if you're turning down the in-state school, it's, you know what, they kind of came on to me late. They didn't really show that interest in me, but if they were kind of coming on to you really like, what was kind of the relationship like with them? Yeah, it was a great relationship, you know. I got a bunch of old teammates at the University of Michigan, you know, right here in Madison. I got a bunch of friends that go there. I just feel like it wasn't the place for me. If I could go back and do it again, Kentucky, be my first choice again. Harbaugh come into your lunchroom and just be like, yeah, what are we doing here? Like that anything like that ever happened? A few times, yeah. All right, tell me about that because the Harbaugh recruiting stories, we've seen the stuff that goes viral and when he jumps into a pool to be able to sign a kicker or whatever that was, the sleepovers and all that's like, but what's it like to actually see him like walking in your high school and be like, all right, this guy's, you know, as the kids say, he's got an aura about him. Yeah, you know, he's like a celebrity in Detroit, you know, he's a great coach. I remember the first time he walked in, it was, I want to say, my junior year and I just got put on to, I was in my lunch period. I was cheerleader. I looked back. I had to like double take and then I get a phone call from my head coach like, hey, you just licked it. Let's come over here. Coach Harbaugh want to talk to you. Man, I had butterflies in my stomach. And of course, Harbaugh probably like criticized what you were eating for lunch. He's like, oh, is that like chicken or something like that? He's got like, why are you drinking like the tallest glass of milk you could probably find was weird. Yeah, look, I think it's always fascinating for the out of state guys that end up back in Tucky because we were talking all the time about like Stoops's presence in the Midwest and like why he recruits so effectively to that specific area. When did you know Kentucky's the place for me? This is where I want to end up. I think I have a path to to become everything I want to be in then. So I really didn't know until like that night of like before early Sunday that I had conversations with coach Harbaugh, coach Stoops. Then my dad asked me what I was going to do. I didn't. I really had no idea because they were my top two, you know. Then I just I prayed that night. I asked guy like, hey, show me where you want me to go. Then I'd even five minutes later, coach Stoops called me again. And I'm like, okay, I got you. Does take me through what that process is like of getting to know him because I think he's he's kind of wired a little bit like a throwback guy. And for some people, maybe it's not their thing and he can rub you the wrong way. And then for others, it's like, yeah, I mean, I want to go to bat for this guy. And I know you talked about like, you know, you've already talked about like the Texas A&M stuff and all that, like how you called him right away. And you're like, Hey, what's up? Like, just just be real with me. Just let me know what's up. What's what's going on? Because I've seen all this stuff on the internet. But like, what is your relationship been like with Stoopsies last for years? That's a great relationship. He's like the uncle that I've never that I always needed but never asked for. You know, I can call him about anything. He's going to be open here. He doesn't care who you are, where you came from. He's going to treat you the same. And he is old school coach. Like, he can have he would have us out there for 10 hours if you could, you know? No, but he as long as we get our work done, he's the nicest guy in the world. I know you're a fan of NIL. It's something that's benefited you. But you also, you know, had talked about how you think it's it's something that is maybe made too many guys can be to the wrong places. If you could make changes to NIL based on your experiences so far with it, what would those those changes look like to just the system as a whole? I never really thought about that. But my number one is the guys that's loyal to me like no freshmen come in and get money, you know? Because if I offer you on for 50 to 100 and then this other school offer you 200, you're not mature enough to know who has more loyalty. So you're going to hear that go to a higher number, you know, to where our third and fourth year guys that's really that's really already bought in and put in the work and have flashed on the camera and that in the SEC, they, you know, they're living good. Yeah, it's interesting because like you step into a situation where you're playing right away and you're earning that in a much different way than probably most true freshmen arm, most true freshmen is like, yeah, I mean, you could be getting and I am money for this, this and this, but you're not even on the traveling roster and you're still figuring out like how in the world to get to class and do all these different things. Did you feel how much did you feel right away? Because you enrolled like you weren't an early enrollee either. Like when you get to campus and you start playing and you realize like, oh, I can do this effectively at this level, even though I wasn't some top 50 recruit or anything like that, like how quickly did your perspective change of, oh my gosh, like I actually belong here. I say it was like, I knew that I belong there. I knew that I belong here. I'm not. I don't like to be like, I'm a humble person. I don't like to be like, I want cocky, but I know what I could do. I know how I was brought up. I'm not going to get into any trouble. I promise my mom that if I went out of state for classes or for school, she would have to worry about my grades again. And the football part, that's all of me. It's all about my work ethic. I love my high school defensive line coach, coach Nick Marta. He really instilled that in me and showed me like nobody's going to give it to you. So you got to go and take it. Tell me what's been the most surreal thing about these last two years because it really has been two years since you arrived on campus and now to be seeing yourself that all these mock drafts and stuff like that and preseason all American. And you can say, yeah, I just try and block out the noise and everything. That's all well and good. But I imagine there's been a moment or two where you've looked up and been like, dang, this happens so quickly. Hey, I look back and you know, I miss those days. I miss those days while I was just coming in with the rest of my freshman class, you know, we are in each other rooms laughing and playing the game. But it has been, it has felt so surreal, you know, just having to come up be a leader, be a captain so quick. I feel like that's what I'm doing. I feel like that's like the most surreal moment because now looking back, I was a captain, a team captain at 19 in a school in the SEC, you know, so it's just it's crazy, man. It's crazy. It's really rare. And I feel like I've been talking about guys like they can do that, you know, like a Harold Perkins is in that spot. Nick Scorton is someone that was doing that last year. And it is amazing to think about being 19 years old and have all that responsibility. Speaking of responsibility, coverage responsibilities, that's maybe my favorite thing to talk about with you. Last year, the floor to play redraw back into coverage, you forced the interception. Can you take me through that? Because that is still one of the most impressive things I think I've seen from a defensive lineman at the college level. Hey, all I remember is Coach White telling me if it's a pass, drop a five, get big and kill somebody. I had to. Does that come up in pregame? Like, are you are, do you know that that's that's part of the game plan that there's going to be one of those opportunities waiting for you? Because you guys didn't call that isn't the play for you to drop back like that, called Gator. So I imagine that was like you know, on Wednesday that was going to happen. I mean, I knew we put it in, but it was like, I don't know if we're going to run it, but if we do, it's your chance. And we ran it a couple of times in practice. So he saw that I got the feel for it, you know, the full work was good. So he really just said, eff it. I think your coverage grade on PFF is like a 99 as a result of that. I think you only ended up with three covered steps. That's all that matters. How do you not say after that, like, some stoops? Come on, just give me one a week. Just give me one a week to be able to do this. You had to be banging the drum to do to be able to do that the rest of the season. Yeah. I've been I was begging. And then I was begging for the boy. I'm a skilled position. It's unbelievable that that play for those who haven't seen it go back and watch it. Florida fans probably remember it all too well. This has been a great man. I really appreciate the time. I want to get you out of here on a little bit of rapid fire. Just five questions. First thing that comes to mind, is that work for you? All right, first one. Got to be near and dear to your heart. Detroit style pizza, overrated, underrated, or properly rated? Properly rated, properly. I'm stunned you didn't say underrated because I'm a Chicago suburbs native and I think it's underrated. Like, I think it's phenomenal. Yeah, it could like you got to be in the mood for it though. Yes. Yes. Not every day pizza, but like, you know, like I say with deep dishes. It's like holiday pizza. You know, there's a place for that, definitely. Okay, speaking of food, what is your your go to post game meal? Um, what what's almost the game? Ooh, that's a good question. How about I can't say 330 on CBS anymore. That brings a little tear to my eye. I hate that. Let's let's talk. Okay, let's let's just say noon game. Let's say a noon game and anything is on the table. You're eating at like four or five o'clock whenever that is. Okay, probably probably a chipotle bowl or some tropical smoothie. Okay, chipotle order. What are you going? Do you go double meat? Is that the the default? Yeah, white rice, double chicken, no beans, queso, sour cream, guac, and veggies. That's a good order and bull not burrito because the burrito falls apart. That ends up being a bull anyways, right? Yeah, literally. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Uh, you're a good person to ask this too, because you're originally from the Midwest. What do you think is the perfect football weather? I say me being yeah, okay, me being 70s. Okay, so everybody from your from like your area, I feel like that I talked to was like, no, it's got to be it's got to be like below freezing. It's got, you know, you got to be out there just like, you know, full winter jacket and stuff like that. That's why you came to the SEC right there. Yeah, you know, hey, you got to do what you got to do, but I don't really mess with the code. I don't I don't blame you. I don't want to be uncomfortable at a game like that. Okay, what's your favorite thing to do on a football field? Favorite thing to do like me game? It can be, how about your favorite thing to do post-snap? So it can be stuff a run. It can be rush the passer. It could be drop into coverage, whatever. I say stuff the run on the third and why third and two, you know, and a better feeling than that. There was the one against Clemson too, that I think was, I think it was like third and two or something like that. That was a pretty, but yeah, that was, it looks like you were having fun, it's what I was saying. Yeah. All right, last one for you. I ranked you number five among my best SEC players returning for this upcoming season. Did I disrespect you? Of course. All right, where should I appoint you? I'm confident, bro. I feel like top two, top three. I'll give you top three. Okay, who would have been ahead of you? Top three. No, I'm number one, but not three, you know, but, you know, we got a bunch of guys in the SEC, you know, even just, you know, we got James Pierce, we got Luther Bird and we got even Watcher Nolan. We've got Maxwell that's right downstairs. He should, he better be top 10, man. All right, we'll save that discussion. We'll save that discussion for our fair. We'll save that. Yeah, look, hey, a couple is, I mean, one was one, I had, I had Pierce, I had Pierce at three, Will Campbell, I had it two, and then I put Harold Perkins at four. So those are the guys I had at you, not, not Slouch is my opinion. Yeah, I expected that. Yeah. Hey, we should got some work to do. Exactly, exactly. Hey, this is preseason. This could be number one by season's end. The season's end stuff that matters a whole lot more. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this has been awesome, man. Really appreciate the time looking forward to watching this year. Yes, I thank you. All right, before we get to a quick Jersey story I had from over the weekend, quick cleanup, Montrell Johnson, by the way, I should have mentioned before, I don't know why it's based on this has been an eventful few days, has the injury week to week days going to be that he's going to be not as serious as a CJ Baxter thing. But for those who are wondering, why didn't we bring that up when we were discussing him as like Russia? Honestly, just space, just space, just totally space on that. But hopefully he is going to be back for the start of the season after having Arthur Scott big knee surgery. So wanted to clean that up as well. All right, Jersey story. So for those who have been listening, maybe if you don't listen to the pod throughout the offseason, but I talked about this a couple of months ago, I lost my cousin tragically who was really, really close to who was he would have been turning 40 this month. And I've been, you know, at multiple funerals for it, because they had a funeral in Florida, they had a funeral in Chicago this weekend. I was in Chicago more so for fun than I was. We had the funeral in Chicago a month earlier, but I got to see my aunt Jean, which was great. And it was awesome. But my cousin had this massive, massive Jersey collection, I think he had 52 jerseys that he had. And he's a big dude, cousin was like six, three, six, four, like, you know, 240 pounds, like big guy, really big guy. And so all these jerseys are like double XL, triple XL. So I'm not like looking at these jerseys as if I'm going to be able to fit into one of them anytime soon or anything like that. So my aunt told us, Hey, I want you and Ryan, my brother, to be able to pick out a jersey. She's like, I don't want to like deal with selling all these and stuff. I just want his friends to have this and like to have it be like a momento of like who Pat was and stuff like that. And so I was like, yeah, absolutely. Like when I'm in town, like I'll pick one out, I'll bring one home. And it'll be a nice little way to be able to remember my cousin. And so my aunt, like she showed me all these jerseys or whatever. And he's got like a bunch of old bears jerseys and stuff, like Singletary, like, you know, he's gotten typical. He was like a big Jordan brand guy. He would wear like humancy stuff as a result of that. Like, you know, so he has all these jerseys. And none of them had like really like stood out to me. And then I kind of thought about something else. And I picked a Travis Kelsey jersey. Why did I pick a Travis Kelsey jersey? Is it because he's dating Taylor Swift? No. My aunt had told me two months ago before my cousin died. She says to me, like, hey, I really miss being in the family fantasy football league. And this was the first year that she wasn't in it. She's like, I really missed not being in it. If someone drops out of this league that my brother organizes, he's the commissioner, let me know. And I'm like, perfect. Absolutely. We'd love to. And a week after that, my cousin dies. My cousin was a big part of our fantasy football league drove conversation, engaged with everyone. It was a huge part of this. And so at my cousin's funeral, we had like, I had like some downtime with my aunt that we were talking. I said, you know, a month ago, you told me someone drops out of this league, you know, let me know. I'm like, well, she's like, oh my God, like I didn't even, I didn't even realize that. And she like breaks down, you know, you know, crying and she's emotional. And it ends up being this like kind of half moment. It's like she's going to come back into our fantasy league. She's going to take the place of Pat. And so how this connects to the jersey is she would always, she said, the only jersey that I want of his is the Pat Mahomes jersey. And I only want the Pat Mahomes jersey because I would pick, she's like, I would pick Pat Mahomes way too early in the draft every single year. And then Pat would always call me and give me crap for it every single time. And she would. And I remember this, like, you know, the person in your, like, if you're doing like a snake draft fantasy, they're gonna work kind of in the midst of snake draft fantasy football, like that person just takes a quarterback so early. And she was that person. And so I thought to myself, it'd be kind of nice to think about. I know that she has the Mahomes jersey and if I have the Kelsey jersey, and it's kind of a nice way to like connect us because none of those other jerseys made me feel like, you know, like a Jordan jersey would have been kind of cool, I guess. But like that's the only that's kind of a nice little tie into that. And so that's always going to make me think of that. So our fantasy football champ, we decided in honor of him, we're going to get a custom jersey of him, like a bear's jersey with like a patch that we can put on it every single year, have people chip in, and just find his way to remember him. And yeah, I mean, I miss them like crazy. It's been a really hard summer dealing with that. And it was a nice moment to be able to kind of share with with my aunt after just a very eventful weekend that we had in Chicago. Man, your whole life is like a hallmark. Every story you told me is like the cutest. So, oh, I'm trying to like hold back emotions right now. That's a cool story, man. See, that's why this stuff matters. That's why the people that are losers, they're just like, you're an adult, why are you wearing a jersey? It's like, no, it means things to people. It's not just the jersey, it's not their cool adult pajamas we get to wear. It's the fact that in me, it signifies something. That's really, really cool, man. Exactly. And figured, you know what, happy to add that one to my closet. I know I've talked about like giving away jerseys and stuff like that, but figured, you know what, that one's now going to have sentimental value to me moving forward. TBD, if I'm going to do what I did with the sake one jersey and get like a custom fitted and all that stuff. The tailored, that the tailored thing. I don't know, we'll see. It was kind of a lot of work for the jersey that I haven't really worn that much. But who knows, maybe if we have another jersey contest, a few years down the road, maybe I'm going to have to bust that one out and actually get it to fit me, because it does not. It is a dress. It's got the Super Bowl patch from the most recent Super Bowl though. So it's legit. It's very nice. So please, if you have a jersey story, send one to me, C-O-G-A-R-A at SaturdayDownSouth.com. We'd love to share those periodically as we get those. You got a story like that that stands out. Love to be able to talk about that on this show. If you have not, leave us a five star view. Subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can watch every single episode of the SaturdayDownSouth podcast. Follow us on Twitter @DSTSPOD, @SethDownSouth, @SethJurrier, @GhostOfArt. Thanks, guys. Talk soon.
The SDS Podcast jinx has resurfaced. Connor's predicted SEC leading rusher, CJ Baxter, is out for the year with a season-ending knee injury. The guys discuss what it means to Texas, the SEC and the Playoff picture to be without the promising Texas tailback (7:00). The guys also predict a new leading rusher in the SEC. Kentucky DL Deone Walker joined the show to discuss his rise at UK, his recruitment, the Florida play that'll be all over his NFL Draft reel and much more. The guys close with a Jersey Story from Connor's trip back to Chicago (1:13:00).
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