(upbeat music) - Hey, what's going on? - This is the Saturday Down South podcast, Will. First of all, I'm Connor O'Gara, you are Will Ogren. We are, once again, live in Dallas. ICC media days, we are at our Airbnb, apologies for the Dallas rush hour. Yeah, we'll call it rush hour, rush hour traffic that you might hear during the recording of this podcast. But we have a lot to be able to get to today, Will. We're through three of four days. This is the last pod that we report from media days. Are you exhausted yet? Do you have anything left in the tank? - I feel like it just depends, all right, everything's situational, right? So I feel like day one, I was in here, I was in every media scroll, I was like getting video photos of every guy I could see. I was asking everybody a question. Now I'm more like, all right, wait, hold on, be cognizant here, you're not on a deadline. You're just asking these people a question to help other people out, but what they need is to get to their deadline. So I'm just like trying to really work, I'm at it as far as, 'cause you know, like I said, I'm not a writer, I'm a little bit different. I'm trying to ask like thoughts I had come up up and around and be like, okay, does this make sense basically? Man, everyone's been really cool. So yeah, I think for me, I've been kind of more laid back, but it's hard to be laid back on a day like today, man. There's so many big names. - There was, there was a ton of big names. By the way, if you see any of our great social content this week, Will has been knocking that out of the park for us. Follow us on Instagram, Saturday not south, in case you do not already. Yes, big, big names today. Today felt like the biggest headliner day because let's be honest, it started with Alabama. Texas was involved today. The fact that we had very new situations for both programs, it was something that we had talked about coming into this week. Starting off the day, let's start with the Kalendibor Alabama era beginning. Think about this Will. For the first time since 2006, that was before Urban Wanna Title, F Florida, that was before the SEC started its run of national championships. For the first time since 2006, someone not named Nick Saban was representing Alabama and ICC Media Days. - Yeah, yeah, and I mean, I vividly, obviously remember the 2007 season. You know, shout out to our boy Hester where it felt like, I mean, I'm gonna be honest, it kind of felt like the Oklahoma we were winning the breakup, right? So that's the advice I'd give everybody is, at least give it a couple years because I felt like I was at home in Louisiana still, I hadn't moved yet, I was laughing so point being, yeah, I think that Dibor is, like people are always gonna have the questions of him, but I think he's kind of handled it, he's kind of crushed it so far, I'll be honest. - With Nick Saban in the same room, yeah, at ICC Media Days because in case you forgot, he is an analyst now, that is what he's gonna be doing for ESPN, for I see network, he's gonna be doing ABC stuff as well, I'm sure. And we had this very surreal start to Kalen Dibor being the face of this program and for those who are looking to poke holes in him and say that he's not gonna be able to do this, he's not gonna be able to do that, we didn't get answers to any of those questions today. The only thing that we might have seen was, oh does he get defensive when he gets asked about Nick Saban, when he gets asked about replacing the greatest coach of all time, he doesn't. And whoever was going to replace Nick Saban was going to have to handle that massive, gigantic elephant in the room, pun very much intended. And Kalen Dibor so far passes that test. Talking with Alabama players, everything that you hear from those big three, which I say big three because that's truly what they are, I guess Malakai Moore is not as big. But big three in terms of the guys who returned for this program, who did not hit the portal in that 30 day window, Jaylen Mill, Earl Tyler Booker, and Malakai Moore, we're all here representing Alabama today. And if you talk to them, you get this sense that they didn't really have an eyebrow raised for Dibor. It wasn't like he was the stepdad, trying to come in and be the dad, which is a weird thing to say, but it kind of makes sense. It feels like they, at least from everything I gathered today, they were going to have a respect for whoever replaced Nick Saban. The simple act of doing that, signing up to do that. When we know that coaches didn't do that, despite what some might want to tell us, there were some who didn't want to sign up to do that. And Kalen Dibor did, and I think he's taking everything very well in stride. Tyler Booker, funniest moment of the day was probably Tyler Booker talking about the Nick Saban prediction that we talked about the other day of Texas and Georgia to be playing in the SEC Championship. And he was asked, I asked him, how'd you think about, what'd you think about Saban, not even picking you guys to get to the SEC Championship. He's like, well, Coach Saban would probably be mad at me if I listened to external factors, and he used to always say if you listen to people that are living in their mom's basement, what are you doing, essentially? He's out here just playing golf all day. Why would I listen to him? - Yeah, turning on the page. I'm like, who's this Goober? Like, I'm just following your advice, Coach. - It really is. I love me some Tyler Booker. He might be my favorite person that I've spoken to this week. We had him on the pod a little over a year ago after he finished his true freshman season. And I wondered why Alabama signed off on having a true freshman, essentially, speak to the media at all. I didn't go through Alabama was actually through one of the camps that he was doing. But I remembered thinking after that interview, oh, yeah, Tyler Booker kind of gets it. And he's a fantastic face of the program, which I guess you could say also belongs to Jalen Milro. But, well, did you get this sense that Alabama players had a different mindset than last year? Where last year we talked all about how, oh my gosh, the disrespect, the disrespect. I didn't really hear as much of that this year. It was more about this new era and moving on from Saban. - Yeah, I mean, you absolutely nailed that. I think those three players were kind of the, in a way, like the brain trust that held the whole roster together, right? And that goes with the great culture they have over there at Alabama, goes to the fact that even that Nick Saban had a plan, right? And we heard like, can we've heard throughout the month since then, you know, kind of how that plan got out and how he enacted it? But I'm not obviously saying they would do this, but if Alabama had hired Deon Sanders, there was only but so much that that brain trust was going to allow them to do because the quote we kept hearing is, it really wasn't necessarily pro-devore quotes. It was more about pro Alabama, pro the team, pro the roster. And I think that's by design. Because if you buy in, it's the same thing to recruit, right? If you buy into a coach, he could leave. If you buy into a program, that's a turnaround. - I kept thinking today about how weird it would be if Saban's successor was just much. If he was just much, you know who I was talking about. There are coaches in this sport who are much. - T.J. Black. - T.J. Black. - First one that I thought. You couldn't have hired someone who was much to do that job. Even someone that's established in this sport, because I don't think they would have been able to handle a lot of the fact that like, you know, I don't want to call it. It's not a cloud that Nick Saban has hanging over the program, but the Nick Saban aura that will hang over Alabama football for years, that's not going to go away. He still has an office there, and for Dibor to step up on this stage for the first time, a stage that's- - He wasn't the step coach. He was the coach that stepped up. - Yeah. (laughs) Where's that from originally? - It was a guy wearing a shirt. I'll be able to step that stepped up. - That's pretty good. That's pretty good. I like that. That's like a target shirt, isn't it? Yeah, I feel like that is. But yeah, he is taking on this kind of like, strange stepdad type role, although he's got a job to do. His time at Alabama will not be defined by how he comes across at media days. I'll say that. Don't think that's really bold. Zion will be defined by how he handles failure. And what does it look like when you obviously lose that first game at Alabama and everybody's picking every decision apart? What does it look like if he has a season where he misses the playoff? And does he have guys that hit the portal window? Does he have guys that leave and then talk smack about it? I'm like, we're so early in this process that nobody can look into the crystal ball and see that. All we can do is go based on what we've heard so far, what we've seen so far. And to this point, he's done everything, everything possible that an Alabama fan could have hoped for and an Alabama hater could have rooted against. - Yep, I fully agree. I fully agree. And I'd say this too, like in, you know, for this entire time since the Bush administration, as we would say. Which one, Hw or just W? - W, right, since, you know, Sabin took over, right? The whole thing is, oh, there's trouble in wherever, right? Oh, there's trouble in Gainesville. There's trouble in Knoxville, whatever it is. There has not been trouble in Tuscaloosa until the potential of next Sabin weaving. And I think that their whole plan has been geared away from, you know, avoiding trouble in Tuscaloosa. And I think they've done everything to kind of shield from that. So yeah, I think exactly what you just said. I mean, the, and I'll say this to you, a little peel behind the onion, right? 'Cause you're used to this stuff, I'm not. You guys see, right, like you the listener at home, you see these quotes from, the quote graphics from, sorry down south, ESPN Bleacher Report. It'll be some, you know, quote from media days. I didn't really factor in how many times people have to ask similar questions to get that one good quote. Goodness, we heard so many South Dakota questions. - Yeah. - So many replacing Nick Saban questions, trying to get the best answer. And they eventually got those answers, right? But just to bore getting peppered over and over in what's during the street in Alabama and South Dakota. What's during the Alabama and Washington? And it's like, bro, what do you think? It was kind of like, I like Greg Zakey. Like, I can only tell you, you know, so many things 'til I say the weather that you've really got about that. - Yeah, that's a bit, the shout out to our friend, Barry Trammell, listener of the show, legend of the game, Tuscalo World. Barry asked the question, like you've never had a job south of Carbondale. Like what's, you know, Carbondale, Illinois, which actually, that's Southern Illinois, where my aunt went to college. The answer, yeah, it's like, I sweat a lot. It's really, really hot. Which, yeah, okay, that's part of the adjustment. But ultimately, this is about being able to coach football at an extraordinarily high level, which he clearly realizes. I lied before. I said that Tyler Booker talking about Saban as a skeptic was the funniest quarter of the day. The funniest quarter of the day was actually what Tyler Booker said to the next round. And he's like, they asked him if he had a chance to play the new college football video game, which has been a really popular topic of discussion. This week, we'll get into that a little bit with Luther Burden, I think, as well, in a minute here. And they asked him, like, if he had played, he's like, oh yeah, actually got a chance to go to the local boys and girls club in Tuscaloosa. I played two games, and I won both of them by 35 points. - And he sat with a straight face. - That's Jones's back, we're back in 2014, buddy. - I love it, dude, I love it. If you're not, you can't just be, you know, there are defining lines here. You're not letting anybody win. Nobody's given anybody any free passes with this new video game. That's what I've learned so far. Take no prisoners' mindset for those who have been able to play it. But yes, Alabama's day certainly was noteworthy and had a very, very different vibe to it. Do we want to talk about Texas Snow Call? Yeah, let's talk about Texas Snow Call in the Wall. - Sure. Let's start with Texas. - How are they preparing for the SEC? - How are they preparing for the SEC? Oh gosh, if there was a nickel for every time you heard that, if there was a drinking game for every time you heard that, you would be mighty blitzed. The Texas presence was real significant. - Yeah. - Real significant. I think the biggest crowd so far at media days was four Queen viewers. - Yep, I fully agree. - I think viewers' crowd was even bigger than Jalen Melrose. - Yeah, I mean, 'cause I was kind of working and like, you know, it took a 20 minute or a 30 minute dead period between the coach talks on the players' talk. And like, you kind of look like a goober if you just stand there for 30 minutes, so I was starting to like, get some work done. Not that it's the wrong thing to do. In this case, it was exactly the right thing to do, 'cause everybody else, I've been able to finesse my way in. I'm like a little bit taller, so I can kind of get over. I couldn't even get a photograph of Queen viewers. - Yeah, even if you, like, there were too many people standing on chairs to get photographs of Queen viewers, whereas with Melrose, I guess you could at least do that a little bit, plus you could see the chain that Melrose was wearing from space, it was huge. - Yeah. - Melrose is so much more likable than I thought he was gonna be coming into college. - Yeah. - In that, like, I feel that I've done a 180 on his mindset where we always talked about how much we loved the arm talent, we thought it was special to watch how easily the ball just popped out of his hand. And the biggest 180 that I've probably done on him overall is he actually seems like a guy who's built for this. Now, that doesn't mean he's necessarily built to win a national championship and to run through the SEC. Nick Saban, nobody is saying that Texas is gonna dominate the SEC. But I do think that Sark kind of talked about some of the points of, like, why viewers has had this transformation. And I just think that Queen viewers comes into this season in rare fight air, where he is the guy who everybody still remembers how decorated he was as a recruit. And yet, there is still at least some skepticism about him. - And yet, the first question I asked to Steve Sarkagio was about Archmantic. I've never- - Yeah. - I've ruled so hard in my life. Like, bro, wait a, wait a minute. They're like kind of embarrassed. The family is like, we're trying to walk effectively. It's like, how about your backup quarterback, Sark? - I was actually gonna ask an Archmantic question, and then I stopped because he did bring up, Sark brought up having depth at every position, including quarterback. And he's right because viewers miss multiple games each of the last two seasons. Malik Murphy got the start last year. Hudson card was the guy, and then he kind of wasn't the guy. The Casey Thompson thing happened at one point. But the entire conversation, thankfully, wasn't just about Arch. I thought Sark came off pretty understanding of how big of a deal this is. He talked about having a police escort to SEC media days. That was the thing that Texas and Oklahoma, both very much agreed on, was, oh my God, this is a huge deal. 1,200 media members are credentialed to be at this thing. It is, if you have a radio station in southeast Alabama, you are still talking about Kentucky football and Texas A&M football. That is the unique difference of this conference. And they certainly appeared to see it up close. Hearing Sark reference how important this was. And seeing that, this is somebody that has great perspective, having been in the SEC already as a coordinator from his time at Alabama. I got a question. Do you believe what Quinn Ewer said? Or I should say what he interpreted from his dad. Quinn Ewer said in the auxiliary media room that his dad told him growing up that the A&M Texas rivalry was bigger than the Red River rivalry. Needless to say, I think Oklahoma fans might have been a little bit upset about that. Yeah. What do you mean you don't hate us as much? He said his dad said that. He wasn't saying that. His dad said it. That's a all-time football guy, boo. He'd be like, oh, somebody else. I'm just repeating what I heard. Yeah, I mean, I'll say this, man. The description that Sark David, the Red River rivalry, that guy might be a writer in an ex-life. The way he was talking about the way the locker room just set up, the way the crowd mixed up. The corn dog smell. I was like, I want to go to this game now. Like, what's going on? State Fair, just sitting right there. And we talked about the Chris Del Conti quote that he had at the SEC Spring meetings a couple of months ago where he said, hey, Iron Bowl's great. Cocktail party's great, but the Red River. Let me tell you about this. And that upset SEC fans to hear that. I do think it is extremely unique. I would absolutely love to go. It is on my college football bucket list near the top. But you're right. The description that he was giving I was kind of like, dang, man. At the same time, if you gave me a right Thompson description of the cocktail party or something like that or if Ryan McGhee did like an essay on the cocktail party, I'd be right there. And I'd have goosebumps thinking about that because it's talking season. And all I want to do is be able to watch football. But yeah, the Sarc presence was very much felt. He had the burner orange jacket going, came in with a lot of swagger as he should, as he should. And it upsets me how sick they look. I told you that like today, I was like, oh my gosh. Like the way the burn orange and the white contrast. So he just said, hoke him. But he walks off. It's like, I get it. Now again, we're talking about their history, but this is the president, you know what I'm saying? And one thing that's really cool, too, that he talked about that I had not registered, right? Because they were in a big 12. All their coordinators are staying together. They're four or three year together. It's a continuity. Yeah. Coordinator continuity is a big deal for why Texas has been able to do this. And, you know, eventually that time is going to come. Because if you're really good, it always comes. It came for Alabama, it came for Georgia. It, of course, is going to come for any elite program that does this for more than one year. But it is part of the reason why I love Texas so much in the regular season. Why I feel like they're going to be able to navigate this favorable year one schedule in the ICC really, really well. And I'd be lying if I said Queen Evers wasn't a big part of that. He is. I wouldn't pick him to win the Heisman Trophy just because of the injury history. I don't necessarily know for certain that with all of these new receivers, Sark did say that they have more receiver depth than they have ever had, which I was like, oh, that's interesting. That's probably because last year, 80 Mitchell and Xavier Worthy, those guys played a lot. I mean, they were on the field all the time. And this year, they think they're going to be able to have a lot more depth. Time will tell. But I think that we are still a little bit skeptical of the Texas offense because they haven't had this 2020 Alabama-like group. It remains to be seen if they're going to be able to do that. I don't think they're going to have to to get to the places that they-- let me take that back. They probably would have to have an offense like that if they're going to win a national championship. I don't necessarily think that it has to be a historically great offense for them to go 12 and 0. I think they can be really good. I think they can be one of the top 15 offenses in the country. They can be top 20 in both categories and go 12 and 0 with that schedule. I don't think that's that far-fetched. Yeah. Yeah, I think too. OK, so this certainly affects Oklahoma more than Texas because Oklahoma has come in from decades of all big 12, all big 12, all big 12, all these different positions. And Texas hasn't honestly had a lot of that. So getting players that are all SEC caliber players and are judged against SEC competition is like, yeah, these guys already have the rep coming in. So I wanted to make that point really quick about Oklahoma, where it's like, OK, I think that's going to be a bigger adjustment for them, not having all those accolades. But I think for Texas and for Sarkeesian, they've already beaten Alabama, it's like, I feel like they will-- the way that they're judged is going to be different because you can't just coast your way to big 12, first team all big 12. It's going to be a lot easier to really see what your guys are made of on a week to week basis. And I think that's for Sarkeesian, who, like I said, had their best team since Mac Brown beat Alabama last year. Right now, he's excited about that. I kind of love that Oklahoma beat Texas last year, just from a content perspective, making this interesting to talk about, because Texas fans can claim, well, we made it to the College of Wall playoff last year. We beat Alabama this way. And I would say, Oklahoma, the reason that you're not talked about and the way that Texas is being talked about coming into the SEC is because when was the last time you had a victory like that? When was the last time you did something? And they could push back by saying, we beat Texas last year. We beat the team that did that. What do you mean? What are you talking about? And there's discourse there. And I think that's fun. I don't think there's actually as much discourse as the average person would think. There is not that much discourse about Hornstown. There's not. I asked men and bulls about that on Tuesday. And actually, I think Oklahoma is the best person to ask, like the best group of people to ask about this, because Texas fans don't care about Hornstown as much as everybody thinks they do. They do not. There have been high profile people that have been upset by Hornstown. And that's the four or five key quotes. I think you nailed that. And it's the administration running the Big 12 as they were getting accused of a Monday. Yeah. And last year, the Big 12 makes the decision, Hornstown will be penalized. In the SEC, Hornstown will not be penalized in that way. Imagine they do that and they still leave. I mean, I'd be so mad if I was the Big 12. Like, I'm treating you special. I'll give you your own network. I was saying, we can't do a little thing. And you're still out of here, no? Imagine if Texas had, like, because obviously it was two years already in the making of them leaving for the SEC. But imagine if they had heard the Big 12 say that. [LAUGHTER] This is a long more network all over again. We're coming back. Yeah. But that's not how Texas feels. Like, Texas thinks, OK, Texas gets upset about people thinking that they get mad about it. Yeah. And that's a frustrating thing. I've had people that say to me, you look really mad. And I'll respond with, no, I'm not mad. But I'm mad that you look that. Yeah, right? I am mad at the sun. I'm a pale Irish guy. What can I say? But I'm mad that you're assuming that. Don't assume that. And so we talked about this. And it was, in my opinion, a worthy question to ask Oklahoma, should this be penalized? Should it ever be penalized? There were non-responses from Danny Stutzman, who you talk to, Jackson Arnold, who just basically gave a flat no. I don't really want to get into that. And then Venables kind of said, if it's going to be penalized, we're going to have to abide by that. He actually, at first, asked me during the game. Like, do you think it should be penalized during the game? And I was like, yeah. And then I remembered, well, he last year at that game had the horns down going afterwards. And there's pictures on the USA Today wire that I use for that exact story, where he's got his daughters around him. And he's just throwing the horns down. And so maybe he's talking about that. Would that be a finable offense? No. But the way this is going to be called moving forward is just it's the taunting penalty. Now, what is taunting and what's not? There will be some room for interpretation. John McDade tried the SEC coordinator officials explained kind of what that would look like, what those scenarios would be. If you're doing it in somebody's face, as well, takes off his credential, he's no longer a big J. If I'm going up to you and doing that right in your face, I guess that's a penalty. But I loved the John McDade description of, could you do this at a mall without context? He's right. He's exactly right. You could do the Gator job at a mall. And nobody's going to look at you. Who goes to malls anymore? I don't know. But you could do that at a mall and it would be fine. Could you throw up a middle finger at the mall? No, you couldn't do that. So we've reached this place now where I think there's at least an understanding of what Hornstown is, in terms of the offense, the taunting. But all it's going to take is one Hornstown taunting penalty. That's borderline for everybody to say, oh my God, I can't believe this is happening. That day is coming. Yeah, and like, whenever we talked about it, I was like, I can compare it to the Gator chomp, as you just did, right? Which is like, yeah, let's say, let's just imagine that she was being Florida, right? And if they were to do the Gator chomp, kind of at the cameras, at whatever, that's one thing. But if you walked up to it at other player, just sort of Gator chomping them, that's taunting. And yeah, I think that's a great, the mall thing is even better. Yeah, it's like, you know, the Tebow example that I always provide, you know, against Oklahoma and the National Championship, you go up to the right in their face and Tebow's, I mean, a Gator, so he should have been able to do that. Right, the way that this is going to be called though, I don't think will be as controversial as it was when they were in the Big 12. Billy Bowman said the Oklahoma safety talked about how, no, it shouldn't be penalized. And if you let that, you know, a gesture like that impact you, you probably shouldn't be playing football. Facts? Facts? He's right. I see no problem with that whatsoever. So a lot of discussion about Hornstown. It's worth discussing though, because if you're going to get penalized 15 yards for doing anything in this conference, we should probably have a good idea of what that looks like. And I feel like we actually do after this week and hopefully there's no murkiness about it. Yeah. Do we want to talk about Tennessee? Let's talk about Tennessee. Well, I think that Josh Hypel, if he could just live the most boring life as a head coach outside of like winning a National Championship. But if everything else can just be perfectly boring, he would be so happy. Yep. He did not bring Nico Iamalayaba here. Asked him about that. It was not necessarily what it, and I asked him like why he wasn't here, because if he's going to be the face of a program, if he's going to be the guy who is decorated as Peyton Manning was once upon a time, you know, as a recruit, then sooner or later he's going to face the media and he's going to talk to people. And how much does that matter in the grand scheme of things? Not much at all. But I did think he was interested to move not to bring him when Oklahoma brought Jackson Arnold and he's in the exact same spot as Nico, started in the bowl game now, you know, former five star, entering that red shirt freshman year, whatever you want to call it. And so I do think that Josh Hypel lives in this world in which being boring is perfectly fine, not bringing James Pierce here, even though all of the NFL draft people are already all over him as an edge rusher. And he just wants to be as forgettable as possible. And I think Tennessee is welcome that with such open arms and they don't mind that one bit. - Josh Hypel, you know, when he was at UCF and when he got to Tennessee job, one of the reasons why I was a little bit skeptical of him is when I see him, I find myself going like buddy. And like, when he first, I had like one of his first questions, right? So exactly to your point, right? He stands up, he like does a pretty good like kind of opening statement preamble. He's like a little bit of a cold. And you could tell he's turned everything to just not mess up like and like not generate a headline. And he accidentally called Barry Trammel, our new friend, the grand wizard of Oklahoma media. I talked Barry about that afterwards. I was like of all the things to say, man. For those who don't know, maybe didn't know, I didn't know immediately when I heard that. Just Google it, you'll know exactly what we're talking about. - Yeah, it's not a term of endearment, especially in the South. And I felt so bad for him because of course he played quarterback at Oklahoma. You could just see like Josh Heipel is sort of like kind of getting ready, like, all right, guys, remember be nice to the Oklahoma people. Remember don't be too nice though. And just represent Tennessee, da da da da. And like Barry Trammel is like kind of the Oklahoma guy. But yeah, I mean, that's just, he's actually kind of like a little guy, is like what I'm realizing about Michael is he's like, he's kind of boring, but he's also like humble. And he just seems like regular, you know? Like I've never felt so bad for a coach at a podium. But that moment was like, oh, I know you didn't mean to do that. And I just, I know you're trying to be as to not create headlines, you know? - Do you think he actually was told afterwards by Tennessee SID, Bill Martin? Hey, man, we're gonna have to walk that one back at some point. Haven't seen any sort of, I don't think he's gonna do a public apology. He's probably just hoping that people like us won't get in front of microphones and talk about it. But I guess it's too late for that. (laughs) But yeah, Tennessee, it felt like so much of the Josh Heipel conversation was centered around Oklahoma. - Yeah. - I mean, that much more excited for that game. I cannot wait for that game. For those two teams to be able to play in Norman, the reunion, I don't think Heipel's gonna add anything to that. He's not gonna necessarily make it anything externally that it doesn't need to be. - Yeah. - But it's a legit fun storyline, this reunion. And it's something that we talked about when Trey Wallace came on the show a couple months ago of what that relationship looks like. And it certainly for the Oklahoma media contingent who was there, that was what he was gonna get asked about. - That's the most interesting thing about Josh Heipel is the Oklahoma side of it. - Yeah, it's crazy. Like, and this is, I promise you this is not slander, but it's kind of wild that that's their last national championship winning quarterback. - Yeah. - God, it really is. - Yeah. - 'Cause you always forget that Sam Bradford didn't technically win one. - Yeah. I mean, his team got major right. - Yeah, it gets, obviously wins the Heisman Trophy and gets to a national championship, but you forget that that eluded those posts. Was that post a year two? - Pop stoops? - Yeah, a year two. - That's the crazy thing is, I mean, this was like, what, 2000? - 2000. - So I was a wee lad, but like, I would assume he almost almost looked like a Kirby Smart-type trajectory. You go and you win so early as far as stoops, and then he kind of flips it and becomes like this, like, elder statesman, almost like Tom is a type thing, stoops, where it's like, okay, you win early and you're almost there, almost there. But yeah, I mean, it's, so therefore, it's almost like, in a way, in a way, not, I'm gonna say 70% of it, but almost the way that Herschel was viewed with Jordan or where you were the symbol of this title, and now you're coaching for Tennessee, and that used to not matter, 'cause Tennessee was in the SEC, you're proud of your guy, you're probably rooting a little bit for Tennessee, 'cause that's your guy. I mean, that's like, if Joe Burrow in 30 years is the head coach at like, I don't know, Texas or something. - It's always weird that the relationship with online modders, because feelings can hurt easily. - Yeah. - They really do, it's kind of like families. Feelings can, a grudge that you might have with a friend hits differently than if it's with your sibling, or with your parent, or something like that. It just does, and I am so interested in the way that this is gonna play out, and I think Oklahoma and Tennessee are jockeying for position in the SEC. They're in similar conversations with the way that we're talking about them. I feel like I've been asked the question about who's the dark horse playoff contender in the SEC, and a lot of people will say Tennessee, and I've added Oklahoma to that conversation. And I do think that those two teams have just such a pivotal match up ahead, and it was interesting seeing them speak at ICC Media Days on the same day. Let's talk Florida. - Oh wait, really quick on that. Venables is an Oklahoma grad, right? - He is an Oklahoma grad. - So that means we have three Oklahoma grads, and two guys from South Dakota. - As easy as he is. - How does that happen? - Isn't that wild? - Hype was one of each to be fair, but like, yeah, Levy, Venables, Hypo, Oklahoma grads, and then De Boer and Hypo are from South Dakota. One of the odds of that, yeah. - There's so much, it's just so much Oklahoma conversation too, with Levy as well. So if it feels like we're talking a lot about Oklahoma, that's kind of why. Those are a lot of the angles that we've been talking about this week. Yeah, it's a really good point. The Florida Billy Napier segment of today was, I don't want to say it was hard to listen to, but. - I had a great time. - Look, if you're a Florida fan, you're a defending Billy Napier, he said the word different six times during his time in the main media area. - Like two chains. - That's a thing that I don't know that you do. - I'm different, yeah. I'm different. - You. - That's like 10 years old, man. - Right over my head, not my genre. But the Billy Napier defense is a bit, it's a bit of blind faith. It really is. Kept talking about how we're going to be different in this way. He touted the fact that they have 35, I think it is, new players, but they're also fourth in the SEC and Bill Connolly's Presented of Returning Production, which he brought up, which is kind of like, oh, you look at that and go, that's strange. There's portal stuff that gets factored into that as well. And how they're going to be different by overhauling their nutrition program. When he said that, my ears perked up. And I knew that they had made some changes internally. They got a new strength coach. I'd forgotten about the whole like, oh yeah, they hired a new nutritionist. But it was weird hearing that going into year three, because all we heard about when Billy started was this plan, the support system. They're going to do it the right way. They're going to train harder. They're going to recruit harder. They're going to do all these things to make sure that the end of the Dan Mullen era doesn't repeat itself. And for a coach going into year three to be talking about how different things are about to be, it is strange. I'll give Billy credit for making some adjustments. The Joe Houston edition, as the game changer coordinator, he's not going to be able to be on the field now with this new analyst thing, right? Which is, take that for what it is, TBD. All it'll take is two number three's going on the field at the same time for a return. For us to think that that's still a position he should have hired a bit more seriously. But TBD, again, and hearing him use that word repeatedly. Different, different, different. Three consecutive losing seasons. Two of which under him. If you're believing in him, it's blind faith. Florida players aren't even doing the thing where they're like, yeah, like we think everybody's wrong about us, blah, blah, blah. They're kind of acknowledging what's out there, what's out there with the schedule. And they're like, it's up to us to like prove people wrong. Which I think is slightly different than everybody's wrong about us. They're not giving us enough respect. Florida hasn't earned any respect. - Yeah. - There's no room for interpretation there. You can't lose five in a row to end the season. And then come on this stage with the 16 team SEC, the 16 team SEC and say, we deserve more respect. - No, you don't. You don't yet. And I think that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. And it was interesting seeing such few media members flock to those Florida areas for those player representatives. Grandma already had a good amount of people over by him. But I didn't really think Montreal Johnson or Lamar James had a lot of people around them. And our colleague Derek Peterson was like, dang, isn't that kind of weird? See, Florida have player representation here. And it's kind of, man, you look over there and I think that was like a bad year at Mississippi State or something. It was very strange. - Yeah, I mean, it's interesting, right? Because like, so with Napier, we have been on the same page of like, give the guy time, he has a plan. And like even before he walked in the media room, like Ross Delendred posted the quote, then he got him outside of it and was like, you know how do you think it's going? It's like, yeah, we're on schedule. And then to your point, he like steps up in front of the podium and says, dog, we're changing everything. - Kind of, yeah. They hired, they bring in a new DC. They bring in Roberts from Auburn who look, TBD, if that's going to work out with Austin Armstrong, what that working relationship looks like. - I'm not sold on that group being significantly better. I am much more sold on Graham Mertz being significantly better than what I thought he was going to be at this time last year, fully admit that. - That's the crazy thing is that Mertz has been significantly better than we thought I think. - And they still want five and seven. - And he probably will likely get better again, just based on how things work. I mean, I don't think it'll get worse 'cause his turnovers are so weird. It's not like he had a bunch of tip. It's like, anyway, so point being, it's like, if I told you, it's like, if you're a Florida fan, I told you, this is what Graham Mertz was going to be in your one. - Yeah. - And if you're two, we're poised for it even bigger. Like, maybe not all else you see 'cause the team won't be very good. But like, statistically, he could be. It's like, yeah, but this team is like, part of that's the schedule too. And I do kind of feel for them in that way. 'Cause that was the thing we talked about with, you know, give them two or three years. Well, year three is gonna be survive, which is 'cause of the schedule. - If Florida had Texas' schedule, Florida and Mizzou's schedule are all miss a schedule. There would be some people saying, ah, 84? I think that's in play. - If Florida had the same schedule from last year, how many games would you pick that for? - That's tough. 'Cause are the teams the same? - It would be the same. It would be these teams. - Oh, it's just running into two teams. - Yeah. - I'd have to really go through it. - Yeah. - That's tough. - 'Cause that's what we got. - I was gonna say, Billy kept talking to him. He said, you know, how they're close. They're close. They feel like they're right there. And Matt Baker pointed this out, Florida hasn't had this bad luck of close games not going their way. - Yep. - Under Billy Napier, they are four and five in one score games. They were one and two last year. They only had three one score games last year. - Yeah. - They didn't really have a lot of these close games. I don't really know like where that was quite coming from. I think there are teams that had way more close games. - Billy, college got for us. He was like, how'd you get that extra year? - Oh, God. That's a team that had close one score games. - They sure did. - That's like a championship year. Oh, he's makes me worried though when I hear that. If like a coach with a losing record, who says, we're right there, a couple of things here or there, and I get it. It's kind of all you have to say. It just doesn't make me believe in you. - Yeah. - I don't think there's anything wrong with being skeptical of Florida coming into this year. I have them going six and six. I don't necessarily have this being a year in which Billy Napier quiets all the doubt because the schedule is just far too daunting. - Yeah, players acknowledge it, players acknowledge that the schedule's there. But I'm not, it's not like I heard what Billy said about the nutrition program and how they added 500 pounds of muscle and then lost, or then had like 500 pounds of lean mass that they lost, I can't. We were talking about this with Derek Peterson who are guy I lifted with him yesterday and oh my God, I'm not on that level. I'm not on Derek's level. And we were trying to like go through the math of 125 scholarship players. - That would be a good Bobcat at the three of us. They're like, I used to be a lifter compared to you guys. You know what I'm saying? I'm really relapsing too, but I'm like, we're like waiting with the big guys, have to lose the weight. The small guys got to gain the weight. Like how did you come up with these round numbers? - 125 scholarship players. But it was such a small timeframe that Billy gave of this weight was from January into April with this new nutrition program. - You see these weird problems is cool. I can't jump with you. The train is leaving for this thing. I was doing this, we like sat down and did it. We're like, all right. So it's like eight pounds. Okay, that's not that crazy, but still. I don't know. So anyways, they're doing different things in that way as well. They're even forcing players to be able to log breakfast and lunch, which I don't know why you weren't doing that before. That seems like an obvious prerequisite to be able to play big time college football. It's kind of tracking those meals a little bit closer, whatever, it's different. I don't know that it means the results on the field will be different. - You have watched an attended way more of these than me. Does it feel like this one's more? - I know that it's somber because of the kitten stuff, but it like, I was kind of expecting that, particularly from Billy is what I'm saying. It's kind of like a more brash, bolder personalities. - Never. - It feels like it's very flat. - You know, we've been saying this since Spurrier left the SEC. Since Spurrier and maybe less miles as well, who would occasionally just give us these weird soundbites. Mike Leach, of course, late Mike Leach, who was one word opening statement and then just get right into it. Yeah, there is that. There is like, people think Lane is that person. Lane's not really that person. I don't know how many times I have to say this to people. Lane is kind of over it. He's a lot better with Twitter fingers, much to the chagrin of Jeff Levy, who does not seem to be a fan of Lane trolling you about social media, which is fun for the rest of us. But you're right, there is not that because there's so much more training that goes into this stuff. There's so much more scrutiny and maybe the fact that the event continues to get bigger and bigger and bigger, it's tougher for these coaches to really look out there and say something like that. Sometimes some of the best quotes come out of the auxiliary press room. Like the Sarc quote about how he said, Arkansas fans hate Texas more than they like themselves. Mm hmm. Buddy, you are not making any friends by saying stuff like that. It's like Pac-12 after dark or like Date Mike, like he was in there talking about, we're humble, we come in to the SEC, we want to earn our buyers respect, goes in the auxiliary room, like puts on the taxi doe shirt, and he's like, "It also bleeped Arkansas." Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, so it is a little bit different. That's why, you know, quite frankly, I like being able to do one-on-one type interviews and stuff like that. Sometimes you finish a press conference and you think to yourself, "Can I just have those 30 minutes of my life back?" Yeah. That just didn't do much of anything for me. But yeah, getting some of these, some of these individual moments with players, I still really enjoy. I love getting to talk with Luther Burden. Yeah, wait, really quick, where I was going with that with Billy, is almost like for Billy's thing to work. He's always been said, is like almost international confidence guy, right? Like that's always like, "Wow, he's a leader of men." Like he inspires the guy, you want to run through a tunnel for Billy Napier. And I think he made a calculated decision. Alaf Beemer, who is another guy that's been, you know, pretty, like had the quotes, had the energy, where it's like, "Ah, I'm kind of a little bit, "I am on the hot seat if you're, if you're Napier." It's like, "I want to lose the job. "I don't want to lose. "I don't want to come to the turnover here." But I feel like for, I feel like I wanted Billy to come up there and be like, "You don't even know what's coming for you." Like the guys in this locker room, you know what I'm saying? Because that's his thing. I don't know. I kind of would have pushed back on that. I would have said, "That feels bad, man." That feels bad. - Well, I know. - I know. - I know. - But they were like, "Don't ask us about the schedule again." But it felt, that would have felt like false confidence. - Right. - You can't do that in this conference. - Well, with that schedule, you gotta Alabama, Texas today. Do that internally. Do that internally. - Yeah. - Don't do that externally when you lose five in a row to end the season. - Yeah. - Then it's not on a bowl game. You just, you just can't do that. And I do think some of these coaches do try and think about how they're going to come off. - Yeah. - I thought drink this year was different than I expected him to be. I thought he was going to be the brash, confident guy like he was trying to sell us on something. And he really wasn't. I thought drink was a lot more subdued. I don't think he's wearing Jordans this year. He's wearing Jordans every single year. He's wearing black dress shoes. Oh, I guess this is the button up version of drink. But yeah, you're right. It didn't feel like Billy was coming out, going to blazing, ready to go, trying to sell you on the vision. Maybe there were certain elements where he's trying to sell you on the vision of his program, but not necessarily in a brash way, because doesn't really have the leg to stand on to be able to do that. - Yeah. - Totally, you're talking about Luther Burden. - Yeah. No, I think that Luther Burden had the mindset that I hoped he would have. - Yep. - Which was that of STP, which was, wow, why am I blanking on what STP stood for? - Certain people find this. - Not that. Not that. - Show them something, show them something? No, that's not it, whatever. There was a mantra that he kept, that he come back to over and over and over. And it's not that he feels like Mizzou is being disrespected or anything like that, but he talked about his game, specifically himself in the new video game in college football 25. And I asked him what he thought of his ratings, like average, you know, just average. I said, did you think you were gonna be a top 10 player? He's definitely. Mind you, he was 11th. He's like top 10, top five, I don't care. That guy is confident, it shows. I totally understand why he had this magnetic personality, the way that he did. He was asked about the Auburn game two years ago, his freshman year, he deletes all mentions to Mizzou off his social media. And it was this turning point he talked about and how different things are now compared to them. And he took that, he admitted like he took that personally. And the way that he was used that game, I always thought the drink explanation afterwards and having like hamstring injury was BS because we saw the snap count, he was out there for like punt return and stuff. I just thought that was a strange explanation, but he comes into this now having all the confidence in the world and I'm not looking at him as a guy that should lack any confidence whatsoever. If I were Luther Burton, I would hope to be as confident as he is. Yeah, I already liked him a ton. He's in the early running for just a lot of the year in the SEC, like the way the answer to the question, did you talk about the EA video game where he's like, okay, I took that personally. Like, I think, I think you talked about, was it heavy, did someone was asking about Dick Harper? He's like the guy with 99s? Yeah, he did the EA video game. He's like, who's the most, he was asked, who's the most athletic person in the SEC? Yeah. I think it was questioned by call. I think Nick Kelly was the one who was asking that question to a bunch of people, a bunch of players. And he's like, the dude with 99 speed. And he's like, he's huge. And I said, I chimed up, I was like, Nick Harper. That's what I'm talking about. So yeah, that's kind of unmistakable. Yeah, I love that. Especially from a receiver that's not as physically imposing, you know, he's not negative trying that six, six. He's a little bit, you know, five, 11, five, 10, whatever, and to be a big presence like that, like you sit there, he looks you in the eyes. He's like, oh, this guy's a game changer. Like he, damn, he's seven feet tall. He's got a giant gold chain on it, his mind. He's ready to go like, shock the world. And like, that's what you need. Especially with other guy like Schrader. Yeah. Yeah. And Brady Cook is well, came across really, really well. He currently has a significant leg up on Luther Burden in the video game department. But he talks about how the faith that the coaching staff put in him after the start of last season was huge. That was what turned around everything for him. Just being able to not have to worry about, is he going to lose his job with every throw that he makes after, you know, the second or third game of the year, having that buying from the coaching staff. He was finally able to exhale and realize, I have a golden opportunity on my hands. The Kirby Moore factor as well, won one of the coordinator draft, probably played a part in that. But I feel almost bad not putting Mizzou into the playoff, because I think Mizzou deserves to start in the top 10, but I don't think they will make the playoff. I have no problem whatsoever with them starting off like 8 or 9 or 10 or something like that. And also acknowledging the hurdles that they potentially faced on the defensive side of the ball, which is something that drink addressed head on. But it is the thing that's holding me back. This is like a throwback marler with sirens in the background. It's been a minute. Yeah, the real sirens going. How about that? But yeah, the drink, bravado, brashness. The only time we got the brash version of drink was when he talked about being on the hot seat last year. He's like, I don't think anybody said I was going to get fired. Well, except for Dennis Dodd. Just stare at him. Just stare at Dennis Dodd, the Cardinal fan. But any other takeaways from the first three days of media days we're going to do, we have, by the way, I didn't even say at the top. Hopefully you read the description. We've got Todd Gurley coming up. No big deal. Might have heard of him. We've got Todd Gurley coming up. He's so fired. In the second year. He just did it for Todd Gurley. We forgot about it. There's been a lot going on. We've got Todd Gurley coming up. And then we're going to do some spinning forward to the teams that we got in action on Thursday. And maybe some all SEC stuff will do a little bit. But any other takeaways from the first three days so far? I should have brought this up earlier than I meant to. I was kind of like, I felt in reverse earlier. Quinn Eure has had a quote earlier. I need to go find it. That was like one of the best football guy quotes I've ever heard. Someone asked him how he stayed grounded. And he was like, I lean on my faith. I don't do this crisis. And he's like, the Lord has put calluses on my brain and spirit to protect me from that. Calluses on the brain and spirit. All right. That was a fire. I was like, OK, you make me look good in church, man. That was cool. Yeah, I think I just think like just overall-- I don't know. I think everybody was about what I expected them to be. I think that's a good point that you made about the size of the event. People are just trying to not lose the press conference. I don't think there was anybody. Honestly, man, two evil that impressed me of our sarcasian and Kayden the bull war. I think that it's annoying as I think-- I think sarcasian probably had the best. Like, when you think about the amount of pressure on him, you've walked out. Welcome to Dallas, everyone. I just want to say that. That was really cool. Talking about the other wherever he-- It's hard to say. I need to practice saying-- Red River rivalry. Yeah. That's like a tongue twister. It is. Like a sobriety test. Anyway, so yeah, I think that's the part of it. Is that like, OK. When I was in 2012, I was in high school for that. I remember hearing, like, A&M and Mizzou were coming to the SEC. And I was like, I just don't get it. Like, I just didn't understand why those specific two teams. And I think for Mizzou, they proved it almost immediately. They made the one that he's back to back in year two and three. For A&M probably took 12 men's help, showed up. It was first year, yeah. Yeah. So boom, that was pretty quick. But then kind of since there's not stayed there. But on the field road through themselves, I think that I was-- I don't think I was nervous about these additions. But I am much more excited than I was, not to dump on anyone's brands or anything. But there could have been a way that in Dallas, the way that Oklahoma fans kind of talk about Texas, they have lots of opportunity to show their butts today. And I don't think they did that. I think they represent themselves well. I think everyone's happy and excited to be part of the conference. Texas and Oklahoma still hate each other. I love that. So yeah, I just feel like it feels like you're meeting some extended cousins you ran on ancestry.com. You're like, yeah, we'll get the same nose, ears. OK, cool, man. It would have been strange if one of those teams had come in to the league with a coach in really questionable standing, like really questionable standing. And if one of those programs had vibes similar to what we were just talking about with Florida or something like that, it would have definitely taken some of the allure off of it. But I think the fact that both programs very much feel like they are on the rise and about to do even bigger and better things, I think certainly adds to the intrigue, adds to the excitement during talking season. That's all it is. That's all it is talking season. OK, let's kick it to Todd Gurley, a guy you might have heard of. Certain former Georgia star got to be able to catch up with him and talk about being 10 years removed from that just totally bogus suspension and NIL, what that's like to be involved to look at that from afar now and as well what he's doing with bushes. So let's kick it to Todd Gurley. All right, now excited to be joined by a very special guess. It is the one and only Todd Gurley who is here on behalf of Bush's big means. We got the cans right here set up, perfect little spot for him. Todd, tell us about the fine work you're doing with Bush's. Yeah, man, obviously out here on behalf of Bush's girl and beans, the official beans of SEC. It's the third year going in the partnership with SEC. So I'm a big griller man and obviously being a former Georgia player and being able to partner with Bush's girl and beans. It's been dope, man. It's been super cool. They had me out here talking out here at SEC Media Day. We live in my old playing day. So a lot of good questions, a lot of great interviews. So I appreciate everybody for the conversations, but then also the great interview as well. So like I said, out here on behalf of Bush's girl and beans, they give a lot of bold flavors. A lot of grill, lamb, chicken, brats, burgers. And they provide a good source of plant-based protein for me. So being able to be out here, like I said, on behalf of them, it's been cool, man. It's been a hell of a run going around talking to different people, different schools and just talking ball, you know? It's crazy to think that if you were in college, Bush's would have been an NIL deal. Have you kind of thought about what that's like to go back and look at what a potential partnership would have been? Maybe, but that's the blessing of it, too, right? They could have picked anybody, but out of everybody, they picked me. So just being able to be honored. And they could have went ahead and got them a Georgia player or got them a Tennessee player. Because obviously, home bases is Tennessee. So I don't really think about what could have been. And vice versa, I'm pretty blessed. And God did me very well. So I'll try not to live in that life. And I'm like, oh, what you would have made this year? So it's just easy going for real for me. You're 10 years removed from all that playing out. And that's got to feel like it's a tough pill as well, like I can see it in your face. No time flies, man. Time flies. It's been a hell of a ride and a fun journey. But looking back at it, just try to appreciate the time, especially like being here. And a lot of the players have been losing their life at young ages. So you just put that in perspective and being a new dad now. And just wanting to just be here for my daughter, but then also just grow and develop and just help other guys develop and grow as they lead the game too. So, but yeah, man, wow, yeah. Looking back at it, it's been 10 years. It's, yeah. Does it feel like that long ago that you were at Georgia and now seeing the program where it's at now, or they're trying to win three in four years, man? Like, could you even imagine being in that spot, like knowing the pressure that this team is going through, it feels like Georgia has turned such a new leap since you've been there. No, it's been good. But honestly, as the players, it's, I don't know, man, I'm not in that position in that situation. But I think Kirby does a great job of demanding greatness out of those players and building up talent and developing talent and just a winner. Just a winner, that's what he does. That's what he's been doing these last eight years that he's been there and as a former player and just a fan of Georgia, just a good feeling just to see it. But also, when you get the winner, you kind of take all that stuff for granted, right? Like, you're like, oh, yeah, we're going to win it. And, but that's not necessarily the case. You know, all it takes is, you know, that one loss and, you know, that can get you out of the playoffs. And I think last year was a lesson learned, not only for dog fans, but just for the players as well. So that's just been, just been a good feeling. How much more appreciation do you have for college football? After the way that your career went, like, when you miss games and you, like, have to just be on the sideline, whether it's injury, like, whatever happens, do you look back in that now in which, like, man, I wish I could just have a year back to be able to play college football? Oh, no, not at all, definitely not at all. But no, it's, yeah, now I look back at it 'cause I'm like, I got hurt in my freshman year. I just pretty much played every game. And then my sophomore year, I think I missed, like, four games, but, yeah, I guess when you do look back at it, it's more just like, man, it was, it really wasn't that much, but it was like, 'cause I really wasn't there that long. I felt like I was only there, like, two and a half years, literally from summer of 2012 to, I was pretty much gone after December and 2014. So, you just gotta embrace it, but I just tell guys, just have fun, man, have fun and live those, you know, live it up and live those memories. What advice would you give, guys, besides just savor the moment, anything can be related to, you know, financial literacy, like, you know, get a dietician, like, look, what's the one piece of advice that you look back on now, and you would give these guys who are stepping up to the stage here representing Georgia? - Yeah, I would, see, it's like, it's funny you say that because, like, I guess the mindset that I have now would technically, should be the mindset I had when I was playing, but I was young, I was new for us, so, like, have fun, live life, and, like, not really, you're young, right? You're not taking the health stuff, like, too serious, but I would just say, try to, try to mature, you know, a lot earlier, but then also, try to learn from lessons, but learn from others, as well, so, that financial literacy part, that's real. That's why I kind of, I do like the NIL, but it's like, half and half with me, 'cause I'm like, man, I just want guys to be able to take care of theirself, and hopefully they're able to take care of their family, but first, you just need to set yourself up and just think, just think new ways, right, far as business-wise, you know, what you stand for, you know, whatever your value is, so, it's a lot that's going on, and take care of your money, take care of your mind, and don't try to take life too serious, right? Like, it's a blessing, man, you're playing college football at the highest level, you're winning, I know it gets stressful sometimes, and, you know, you might put a lot of pressure on you, but at the end of the day, man, you're playing in your childhood dream, like, to go from playing in the backyard to literally playing in front of a hundred thousand people, like, just take that for what it is, and just keep growing. - I had your boy, Keith Marshall on a couple of years ago. He said not only can he beat you in a race, but that he could beat Herschel in a race. - It's fast, man, Keith was fast, yeah, Keith was like, he did beat me in a race, 'cause we were, I made, like, Olympic team, and... - As one does. - Yeah, yeah, but I did the hurdles, so I wouldn't say this just to defend myself. I never ran a hundred without running the hurdles right before, but you let them tell it, they gonna be like, oh, you should be warmed up, but, yeah, Keith was always fast, man, he always just was like, blazer speed. Even after injury, he had just come back, like, still fast, yeah. - I think Georgia fans wanted more of Herschel. They wanted, Herschel was such a great little, little time. Like, how nostalgic do you feel like those days are for you? - Oh, it was funny, just how they, 'cause I was three, and he was four, and it's funny how they get so creative, right, and just make that, and obviously we pretty much had, like, one year together, 'cause after that, it was like, either I was hurt, or he was hurt. But, you know, the blessing on that side, right, like, I got to see the transition of Chub, and Sony, and, you know, so, this is always good that come out of it, too. - I got a couple rapid fire for you here, before we get you out of here. Toughest place you ever played in on the road while you were at Georgia. - I would say South Carolina, 'cause I lost there twice, so, kind of, go with that one. - Best touchdown of your career was what? - Best touchdown. Oh, all right, I got to be that kickoff return. I was in my first touchdown, but it was my kickoff, my kickoff return against Buffalo. Like, that started it for me, like, yeah, that was like, who is this dude? Like, oh, we might have something. - That was the correct answer, you didn't know, yeah. And last one for you, will Georgia win a national championship this year? - That is not for me to say, but with Carson Beck and a Kirby, the sky is the limit. But, you know, I'm always rooting for the dogs, and, you know, I don't know, I had to check out a couple of games first, you know, I don't just speak sometimes just to speak, but, you know, I'm sure Kirby have a guy's writing, put us in a great position, and, you know, have us definitely in a position to win, so I definitely see that. - Todd, on behalf of Bush's, I appreciate everything that you're doing, and looking forward to, hopefully seeing you around the SEC, man. - Yeah, man, I'm definitely looking forward to getting back, just having these conversations, and appreciate you for the good interview, and, you know, the memories floating in my brain, and, you know, it definitely was an exciting time being at Georgia, so thank y'all. - Thanks, man. - All right, well, the final day of SEC Media Days, I hate to be Debbie Downer, a buzzkill. It's tough, it's gonna be a tough scene for the amount of people that have been here, and the amount of people that will filter out, because you gotta catch flights and do all that stuff, but it'll be difficult, I think, for the likes of Auburn, and Arkansas, and Kentucky, and Texas A&M, because none of them feel quite like what yesterday, Tuesday, felt like, whereas four teams legitimately in the 12 team playoff hunt discussion, however you wanna call it, and these four teams on this last day, not necessarily a coincidence, are more on the outside of that conversation, so I feel bad for those programs. I always feel bad for the Thursday programs. I always do, it's a tough look, but I don't necessarily have the highest of expectations. Maybe that just means we're set up to get the best quotes that we've had all week. - Oh, dude, I think this is, I'm so fascinated to see who set this schedule, how I figured all this out, because I think it's a situation where everybody wins, right? 'Cause I was talking about the Tri-Wizard Tournament, like these big programs like Kalendibor walking out and being like, "I am from Alabama," and it's like, "Wow, which one of those four coaches do you think, like, wants to be?" That's a good point. - That's a point. I think this is perfect. They would rather have an empty room, they would do COVID rules, and then nobody asked a question. - No, I think Sam Pittman's fine with it. I think he's perfectly fine in his own skin. - Yeah, he has fun, but remember he's so on the hot seat. - I know, but at the same time, I don't know that Pittman is gonna get grilled in the same way that a lot of others would be, kind of on the hot seat. - He's like him, yeah. - Yeah, 'cause just 'cause I think people like him more, he's very comfortable in his own skin, I think he's kind of an extrovert, whereas I think Elko has a vision to sell with his program, but at the same time, if you told Mike Elko, "Hey, you can just go watch film for an hour instead of doing this." He'd be like, "Yes, I'll watch five hours of film instead of doing this." So yeah, and Stupes, of course, you know. - He brought all the texture. - He brought all the texture. - As the night pole, yeah. - Yeah, of course. Hopefully we're gonna be able to get... I'm trying to get Deon Walker on for next week. So hopefully we'll be able to do that. TBD, it's very difficult to be able to get these guys, player interviews for the way that we kind of set it up off to the side and stuff, not just in like a media scrum and whatnot, or even some of the radio roast stuff is difficult when there's six minutes or seven minutes, and then there's somebody just saying like, "Hey, finish, last question, last question." I hate that. That's why I don't do all that. If you're wondering why I don't do 30 interviews while we're here, I used to try and do that. And then I thought, "Hmm, maybe we don't. "Maybe we don't. "We do have an interview coming up with Jordan Rogers. "That'll be out next week as well. "Great to be able to catch up with him in person "as we always do at media days." But only other thing that I wanted to ask you about, all SEC ballot, need to do that. Need to do that, need to fill it out. Classic Thursday afternoon activity. - Yep. - I am pre-mad about the transfers and about the Texas and Oklahoma guys that will not be included on first and second team. I think like Calvin Banks is gonna be fine. I think Quinn Ewers will probably be a second team all SEC guy if I had to guess. But I am pre-mad about some of those snubs of like a Nick Anderson not necessarily getting that love, or if we're talking about Danny Stutzman, not as a first team all SEC guy. It's like, what are we doing? This guy's pre-season all American. This shouldn't necessarily be the case. But I am pre-mad about that. And I might just, I don't wanna say overcompensate on my ballot, but I will make note of that and make sure that I am not part of the problem. - Yeah, I think on a related note, I haven't done this. I actually don't remember the last time I did a ballot 'cause I was there when I was like a media member last time I was like 17. But I think the way to do this, right, is I pick Alabama and Georgia and then I get mad at them for not letting them do those expectations. That's what I'm gonna leave. - Please don't default to Alabama and Georgia for all your linemen picks. Parker Brailsford's worthy though, even as a transfer who's going to Bama because of what he did at Washington and somebody that should greatly help that the interior of that offensive line. But I do think that there will be a lot of those snubs that are frustrating and I get it. It's tougher now because there are 16 teams. It's difficult to be able to figure out this, you know, depth charts and stuff like that. I think running back is gonna be just a total crapshoot. Somebody pointed out to Montreux Johnson today, you're the first running back of the week that's been here. Isn't that crazy? - It's great. This is Montreux Johnson, dude. That's Billy Scott. - Yeah. That's actually so wild, dude. Are there any tomorrow? - There. Gosh, that's a good question. - What happened to the position I used to look up? - That's right. It's so weird. It is so weird. We talked about that when we did which SEC running back will leave the conference in rushing and the turnover is so significant with Judkin's leaves and ETN goes from Florida to Georgia. Not that ETN was like a top five rusher or anything, but there's so much turnover of that position. So that's gonna be difficult. There's probably gonna be weird snubs there. I will probably do, we'll probably do something on the pod about this next week to be able to talk about all SEC snubs. - Yeah, is there anyone specific player that you can almost guarantee? Well, it's not like a guy that just to watch out for this, not gonna get it. - That's a good question. - It's a good question. - And while you think about that, I'm gonna say last year there's Old Boy from Arkansas, the interior lineman, which it turns out-- - Bullimmer. - Turns out they're right. - Yeah, that's right. I don't know what him specifically, just the line in general. He didn't make it back to the end of the year to you. - Yeah, like, Landon Jackson's, Fortnite and Arkansas. Landon Jackson's a guy that shouldn't be left off, but maybe he will, because he's a smaller school guy. That's the type of stuff that always gets me like. Somebody probably, there's like three all SEC teams and CJ Taylor's not gonna be on one of them or something like that, even though he's good enough to be, even though he's at Vandy. I don't know, a quarterback, everybody's gonna feel like they're getting snubbed. We've talked about that. It's potentially the best year of preseason hype for SEC quarterbacks since, I think since 2013, and maybe even more depth than them, but definitely more star power in 2013. So yeah, I do think that snubs will be had and there'll be more discussion about them because the league is bigger and they added so much more talent. - I don't think that human beings, and especially not human beings that aren't like doctors or lawyers, are meant to retain this amount of information. - Yeah. - I think 14 was kind of the outer limit of my brain. Thank God for Vandy, not to be mean, but like, I've got to worry about there. I am sitting here, like, I mean, it's crazy 'cause like, to worry about Thursday, it's like, I'm so glad that those teams are kind of not flashy trying to make a headline team. 'Cause I'm trying to remember like, who's all on every team who said what, who went on which days and what order. And so like, yeah, the concept of having to pick favorites between that many players. - It's a player will. - It's a player, man. - Yeah. - I'm thinking about it now. Nick Scorton's gonna be the guy who's gonna get left off all this. - That's a good one. - He's gonna get left off first team and I'm gonna be really mad about it. If Dion Walker gets left off first team, all SCC, we're going rage mode because that would just be an insane thing. I don't think that'll happen. - Who's the first team running back? - Is it much or no? - The first team running back could be Montreux Johnson. See, the difficult thing is I probably won't, I think CJ Baxter's gonna lead the conference in rushing. There's a difference with doing the projection, we talked about this before. - Versus what's legitimately a preseason honor, right? Because I think more of that should just be based on what you've done so far. The player that you are, if you stepped onto the football field tomorrow. But that's a really good question, man. I think there's a really good chance that Montreux Johnson will be that guy. Guys, who else? I don't think Rocket Sanders is gonna get it because of the injuries. - Yeah, he already kind of had that year last year. We're running projected. Big things out of him that just kinda come true. - Yeah, so I don't think he's gonna necessarily get it either. I bet Justice Haines will be part of that conversation as well, just because Bama running back, why wouldn't he be? - Yeah. - The guy who's probably gonna get it, is Jarquest Hunter. I bet Jarquest Hunter will be the first team all of us to see running back. - He is, so, so Johnson is with you there because he's such a high youth. His guy, he's a safe pick. So I think guys will think of him and be like, okay, he'll get the touches. That's the only thing about Hunter is that he's a little bit, and I think he's gonna have more of a-- - I think he will too. - This year? - Yeah. - He had a weird off season last year, obviously. We don't need to get into that. He's probably the best bet to be the first team guy. I think he's gonna be there with Auburn. I think he will be there, so we will have more running back, representation. - Yeah, okay, so that's the key. We're not really forgetting, guys. This is just kinda weirdly right now, pre-season, kind of a down year running back. - Okay, very much. This is not 2015. - Oh. - This is not 2015, needless to say. - Yeah. - All right, well, that's a wrap for media days. We probably won't be doing an in-person pod for a long time, which is sad. Love being able to do in-person pods. - This is fun, man. - Shout out to you for this luxurious setup that we got, this makeshift-- - It looks like a literal tornado cave here as soon as the island stops, but that's my job, you know? - Thank God, that's off camera, yeah. - I'm making shot or uncomfortable with my mess, which is so-- - I know. - I donated my room here we are, you know, for the team. - Exactly, our podcast studio, AKA Wolves Bedroom. - Yeah. - But yes, follow all of our coverage. SaturdayDownSouth.com, lots and lots of great stuff coming out. Derek's been doing awesome work for us. Matt Hayes has our entire news team. Just so much work that's been done this week. Got some karaoke to go do tonight. - Yeah. - Hopefully by the time people are listening to this, I will have crushed it. My karaoke will probably be on the internet somewhere for people to be able to see. Pray for your boy. Pray for your boy. It'll be good, year three of this. All right, well, if you have not sleep as a five-star review, you should subscribe to the SaturdayDownSouth YouTube channel where you can watch all of our great content. We even throw up like the, you know, like being on fine bond the other day. And, you know, we include stuff like that. We're trying to do more of that as well. So subscribe to the SaturdayDownSouth YouTube channel and then follow us on Twitter @cjogara@cosohard @dstspot @setsonsaw. Thanks, guys. Talk soon. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
It's a loaded pod from the Airbnb at SEC Media Days in Dallas. The guys discuss the strange new Alabama era seeing Kalen DeBoer at SEC Media Days and why Tyler Booker had the quotes of the week (2:00). Plus, Texas had arguably the biggest draw of anyone. The guys discuss everything interesting that came from Texas, including why Quinn Ewers is actually likable. Plus, a discussion on why there's not actually this perceived Horns Down discourse, as well as thoughts on how Billy Napier came across with his "different" approach and why Luther Burden III is that dude. Former UGA star Todd Gurley joined the show on behalf of Bush's Grillin' Beans and discussed being 10 years removed from his time at Georgia, NIL, Gurshall and much more (52:00). The guys close by predicting All-SEC snubs (1:03:00).
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