7-2-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 2: Alabama expectations for 2024
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Keep my blood pressure at a regular rate. Just have Chris come in. I'll go home. I'll take the rest of the day off like Chris come in and host with Damien Johnson. You jumped in and did that. Conrad was perfectly fine to put him in his place, inject some logic into the conversation, and Damien, as if someone said Kellen Mahn, had to jump in.

And be like, no, I'm going to show you why I'm doing this. No, I just don't. And then you wonder, well, why is my blood pressure up? Well, okay, you played yourself, fool. Yeah, I didn't know we were doing the good cop, bad cop routines. All I'm saying is, if you're going to bring up something like that of just, all right, well, we need to manage expectations. Well, tell me how to manage expectations when I think besides one game on their schedule, you have the better team going into it. Yeah.

I I'm not buying it like I'm just truly not. And then to say you're an Alabama fan, it's like, wait a minute. Really? Really? Like we're going to say we're going to give Caleb DeBoer a window of seven games and that be acceptable at Alabama. Like I know it's going to be different post Nick Saban, but I know that we're over here. Like I said, if you might as well sort of hire Mark Stoops, if you wanted to be content with being in the middle of the pack.

Maybe I'm a bad Alabama fan. Maybe I just have too high expectations for Bama. Are you an actual Bama fan now? I am. You're kind of half in your... I'm like, you know, up until October. Kind of like the third week of October. I kind of just play it by the field. Well, to be fair, if you're only a partial Bama fan, that's a true Bama fan. So...

That and Atlanta Braves. When we were hot, oh yeah, road tie, baby. I'm a bad basketball fan, though. I've been rocking with them for a while. A good solid two and a half years. Yeah, two years I've been rolling with them. Ain't that right, Conrad? What's wrong? Can you name me the coach before Nate Oates? Yeah. Can you name me the one before that? Yeah, it was Avery Johnson then Anthony Grant, wasn't it? Okay, and before that? Godfrey. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that was all during my lifetime. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was there. Big Bama guy. Huge Bama guy. Well, according to Big A, 205-834-9450 on the text line...

Good morning, guys. Hey, I see Damien in a whole new light now. Love you. Roll Tide. Roll Tide, brother. Alabama fan base is... Yeah. God. Remember this in October. Remember this in October. When you've let him in, you say he's a part, then all of a sudden...

No, I think just to remember this, that's all. I don't know. Maybe I'm just too optimistic. I find it difficult. I truly find it difficult to say that Alabama is going to like I know they're going to have growing pains, but they're growing pains are coming with financials.

Four and five star guys like they're coming with like, hey, well, Malachi Moore's been playing football for a long time. If there's a defensive leader that I'm looking towards, he's going to be that guy. He's proven game in and game out that he's definitely the vocal leader on the defensive side. He plays the star position. He's going to be mixing it up at safety. Like, I understand you losing Caleb Downs. Like, OK, I get that.

But you have attacked the portal. You've attacked, I mean, recruiting at a high level. How can you not have expectations still be high and have – like he wouldn't be under this much pressure to win if he wasn't – if he was anywhere else. But you're at the University of Alabama. It's expected. See, and my thing is, you know, one of the things that Chris brought up is he was trying to make the argument that college football is not transitional. It's cyclical in the sense that –

You can't just expect for somebody to come in and take over a program that's had success and continue to have success. I would argue it's honestly more of the opposite of that. Do you think that when Ryan Day took over for Urban Meyer, they were expecting, oh, well, we're not going to be very good for a couple of years, but we're going to hire this guy anyway because we'll be good in three or four years. No, you expected that that was the guy you were going to hire to immediately make you better.

Okay, Georgia, yeah, they didn't win national championships. They were pretty darn good under Mark Rick. They just didn't win national championships was the expectation when Kirby Smart came in there. Let's rebuild the Georgia program. No, it was, we've had success. This is the guy to take us to the next level. Why did Michigan stick with Jaron Moore instead of going after someone, I know they wouldn't get him, but someone like Orion Day. They wanted to keep the train rolling. Yep. And...

There are countless examples of situations where you've had people go in and have success or take over a program that had success and

and being able to continue to do that. You could say the same thing for Ohio State when Urban Meyer took it. That's a program that has had a great lineage of success. And why were Oklahoma fans so beat up about Brent Venables in his first year when he went 6-6? Because you're used to winning double-digit games and being in the college football playoff conversation every year, and then you weren't. And you saw how quickly things had to turn around there, and you win 10 games last year, and all is good right now. You get a new contract. Interesting.

And think about this. Brian Kelly is, quote unquote, his seat is starting to warm up because he made it to the SEC title game his first season at LSU. The expectation is to win. Like, it...

It ain't fair. Like it's it's if anybody else was in this position other than Kalen DeBoer, the expectation, no matter who was coming in after Nick Saban, is to keep this thing rolling. And Kalen DeBoer has a track record of winning everywhere that he's gone. What makes it difficult? What would make it more, I guess, challenging to be at Alabama other than he's never been here before?

So with that, continuing on with the incredible, solid disappointment, what would be a disappointment for Alabama? Not making the college football playoff. Yeah. I say not making the college football playoff, especially now it's 12 teams. Like, I find it difficult to say that there are 12 teams better than Alabama right now. Like, they're in this conversation with ease.

Yeah, no, I completely agree with that. Again, I think you've potentially fallen from maybe a top three team in the country to a top ten team in the country. But you're still a top ten team in the country. That should be the expectation. No, I think a disappointing year for Alabama is you don't make the college football playoff. And I know there's a lot of people that don't think that should be a realistic expectation in year one. But it should be. It should be. Look at their schedule. Their schedule, I mean, it's tough. But for Alabama, I mean, it's manageable. You're used to this kind of stuff.

You've got to play Georgia. You've got to play Tennessee and LSU on the road. You're used to that. You do that every other year you have for decades now. You're used to that. There's no reason that you shouldn't be able to win 10 games or more, and even if you're not in Atlanta, be in the college football playoff. That should be the expectation, and I don't think that it should be a huge shock if Alabama does make it to Atlanta and plays for an SEC championship game. You have a coach that went to a Washington program that was 4-8,

He won double-digit games his first year. His second year, he took them to a national championship game. You think it's easier to take over what he had at Washington? Right. Or to take over what he's inheriting here in Tuscaloosa? I think he will take what he's inheriting here at Tuscaloosa. With ease. Any day over what he inherited at Washington, and we saw what he was able to do there. Again, Chris is an Alabama fan, so I don't know. Maybe this is... And maybe he's just setting himself up to not be disappointed if the season doesn't go well.

Well, and if that's what he's doing, that's fine. I can understand that. But and then to me, while the expectation probably should be playoff and maybe that's the shift and maybe you just had a because of his crappy phone, he had a difficult way of voicing it. Maybe now the expectation should be instead of national championship or bus this year, at least right now, because it's a transition.

It should be college playoff for Bust. I agree with that. The expectation right now probably shouldn't be national championship. We know we're the best team or one of the two, maybe three best teams. We should be in the semifinal without doubt, and we definitely should be playing for the college football playoff. That was the expectation for the previous season.

I don't want to say 17 years because, let's be honest, maybe one of those couple of years you kind of knew that you weren't. And even last year, that really shouldn't have been the expectation, but it kind of was because of who was at the helm. But right now, because he's not there...

And because it is transition, even though there's so much talent still there, the expectation may shift for this one year to be, okay, the expectation should be a college football playoff berth. But moving forward, because of what Kalen DeBoer has shown in his track record, because of the talent that Alabama typically amasses, moving forward, it probably should be a national championship appearance.

Somewhere right in there, at least a semifinal appearance should be the expectation moving forward. But right now in this year, in this for today, I can see taking a slight step back in expectation. That's like that's at least reasonable than saying Alabama needs to set the bar at seven games.

Like, that's just unbelievable. Well, it worked for Georgia in their second repeat. Oh, yeah. Everyone thought they were going 5-7. So, yeah. We talked about that yesterday. It's like Kirby brainwashed those humans. Right. Nobody in America said that. Master motivator, man. You've got to give them credit. Maybe that's what your boy Chris was trying to do. He was trying to brainwash everyone into thinking, well, we should only really win seven games this year. Sure. Sure. There should be 7-0 with seven games on the season. But again...

Like I said, I look at the team that is constructed right now. And again, it's all on paper. I find it very difficult to truly sit here and say that a team outside of Georgia. I mean, you could say I'm a Tennessee fan. I think right now, roster to roster, Alabama has the advantage. I think Tennessee gets them at home, which is also their advantage. But who's to say that Nico doesn't go out there? Maybe he looks like Joe Milton 2.0. Then everybody's, you know.

up in arms of what's going on in Knoxville. You're telling me hitting hookers is the best thing that you can do since you've been there? That's kind of the conversation that's going to happen. To me, an incredible season for Alabama. We're just going back to the exercise. I think it's a national championship appearance. I don't even say you have to necessarily win it, but if you're going to, I think it would be absolutely incredible in year one for Kalen DeBoer. I'll put it like this. If Gus Malzahn, the BCS heir, could find himself in the national championship game in year one with Nick Marshall at quarterback position,

There's got to be something on this planet that can be aligned for Jalen Miro and that offense and what Alabama presents could find themselves in the championship game as well. Yeah, I mostly agree with that. I think for Alabama, an incredible season, though, is you have to win the whole thing. And I think part of that will be if we get to that point in the season at the end where the college football playoff is about to kick off and Alabama's look pretty good,

The expectations we're setting right now are going to go out the way. I'll be honest. I think if Alabama beats Georgia in Tuscaloosa in September, at the end of September, the expectations goes from make the playoff to win the national championship. Because at that point, in a lot of people's eyes, you will have beaten the biggest roadblock. Or maybe them and Ohio State would be viewed as the biggest roadblocks. And you just took down one of them in the regular season. The first SEC game with the new head coach replacing Nick Saban was...

That expectation is going to shift dramatically. So I think an incredible year for Alabama. I think you win the national championship in year one under Kalen DeBoer. Again, I'm not expecting that to happen, but just based on Alabama fan standards, if you make it to the game, the expectation is going to be that you win the game. Yeah.

And then I think if you look at what a solid year for Alabama is, I think it's... To me, it's a playoff win. Yeah, it's 10... You win a playoff game. It's 10-2. Let's say you lose to Georgia. You split LSU and Tennessee on the road. You lose to one of them. Yeah. But you're 10-2. You're not in Atlanta. Sure.

You're not in Atlanta, but you make the playoff and you win a game or two, and you're one of the final four or eight teams. Because I think at that point it's, okay, we're right there. Like we are still right there in the mix, right there in the conversation, pretty much on par with where we were last year. Now let's see what it looks like once Kalen DeBoer has his guys in here and he's more comfortable with the talent he has on the road. If it's a repeat of – I know what he's going to say, but if it's a repeat of 22 –

where your two losses were to teams like that. And you obviously make the playoff, you win a game, but

You're in there. It's not like you got blown out by Georgia. You lose in overtime or whatever where, hey, you can compete in the show. All right, maybe we're not at Georgia's level, but we're within striking distance. There may be a half step ahead of us. That's all it took. One extra play, one extra something. Heck, that team was really one play away from beating Michigan last year. Yeah, came down to the last place. And that team...

was really one that probably shouldn't have been, shouldn't have had that kind of success, but, but they found a way to. And so that I could see, that's why I said a solid season would be for them to just have a playoff win because we got to have them in that top 10 ish or so range, which that's about what you expect. You know, the, after that first round of the playoffs, it should be the top eight teams, which is right around where we have Alabama right now. So a playoff win, uh,

I think it would be a solid season because we have the standard really set as making the playoff. And you're probably going to be hosting it in Bryant-Denny, which is just going to meet the expectation that you're going to win the game. Yeah, and that raises it up. Assuming the student section shows up. Yeah, they might be on Christmas break. Correct, right, yeah. I think they'll stick around for that. Christmas break, college football playoff.

Now, that's the problem when you still have more out of state students and students. Yeah, I have a lot of people going home. That's that's what that plane flight is. I'm from California is a little different than my drive from Vestavia was to Tuscaloosa for four years. Yeah. Oh, man. For sure. For sure. We want to keep this conversation going because there are some other teams in the SEC I want to get a hold of. And there's some text I've got to read, too. Oh, boy. We got some good ones. They're getting pretty vicious.

Against you. It happens. No, no, I'm just kidding. They're for you. Against your boy, Chris. That's Conrad, homeboy. By the way, he elevates your blood pressure. He's your boy.

We'll get to all of your action on the other side. Keep it locked right here on Jocs 94.5 for McElroy and Kubrick in the morning. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than a player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Joc Cup or wherever you get your podcasts. I know this one.

I know this one. You actually do? Wow. Yes, sir. I hate everything about... Hey, I used to move some weight to this one, man. I don't even... I don't know this one. What? Are you serious? Three Days Grace. Three Days Grace, bro. Yeah. Nah, that was never my... Oh, man. That was never my genre.

I have I remember specifically one time in the weight room we were maxing out and like I just I mean, I wouldn't like introduce to rock until a little bit later. I just wasn't used to it. I was like, this song is hard. Like I see like the movie. You know, this doesn't ring a bell for me. You'll see why.

oh okay yeah yeah yeah okay never mind the first time i ever power 225 was like listen to this song okay yeah i know i definitely know this song and hold me back by rick ross or two of the songs if i hear him in the weight room just move it like very different songs yeah by far by far very different song back into mackinac you look in the morning damian mitchell john sabre conrad van order holding things down uh we haven't really dove into the office of line tape i think uh

I think Conrad has some takes on the Alabama offense. I know you were doing some deep study yesterday, right? Yeah, dude. Caden Proctor's big. Tyler Booker's big. Jane Roberts is big. Parker Brailsford is not that big, but pretty talented. Hold on. Damien's the one out here being ready. So why aren't you breaking down the tape? It's very rare that we get to this point at receivers, I guess.

Not rare, no. It seems like this is a common occurrence with you. It's very rare that we get frustrated. If we're going to run all these routes this fall. Really, very rare you get frustrated, right, because OBJ never beat up the net, the kicker's kick. No, they never did that. When you saw who his quarterback was, I beat up the net, too. Okay, but also made him, but all right, sure. Okay.

It's crazy that the one OBJ clip that will forever live in fame. You know who threw that ball to him? Yeah. Your boy. It's like I can't erase it. I can't erase it. This is really random. I might lose some credibility for this. But we all have shows that our wives or spouses watch that we end up getting roped into watching. Sure.

Um, so my wife has been watching this reality dating show. And so she's got me to watch a couple episodes of her with her. And they're like introducing some of the people on there. And I'm like, this guy kind of looks familiar. Like he looks like somebody that's on the reality show. And he goes through and he's just casually like, yeah, I mean, my brother's kind of famous and they're all, you know, who's your brother? And he's like, Odell Beckham jr.

Oh, wow. So, whatever. So, this dating show that my wife has had me watching is Odell Beckham's Little Brothers on it. Well, I'm surprised Odell ain't on there. Well, nah, he's dating Kim Kardashian. Well, hopefully he doesn't turn to music. Who does he play for now? Does he play for the... Dolphins. He does play for them. Okay, that's right. Tua has no excuses this year. I'm talking about Peyton Thorne. Yeah. Yeah, Tua. Yeah, Tua. One of those is not alike. Oh, Hulk Tua. One of them is not like the...

Sorry. Just pay the man. Yeah, they're going to. They're going to. After all these weapons they have around them, he'll be fine. Get him a thicker helmet and pay the man. We'll be all right. He's one hit away from being a motivational speaker, I'll tell you that. I thought it was going to happen in the playoff game. To a Toyota. Sounds good. He can sell a lot of them down there in Miami, too. Like, hey, I think if you're in Miami, you're probably going to luxury cars. Yeah, true. Or boats.

To a Tesla? To a Tesla. There we go. To a Tesla. I love it. I love it. It's going to be to a Tesla before too long, probably. Let's go to the text. To a Prius, probably.

Let's go to the text line, Conrad. I know we've got some interaction there. So what's happening? Yeah, so we got, yeah, appreciate everyone chiming in throughout the morning. 205-834-9450 if you want to hop on the text line with us. So going back, we've had people chiming in about Ohio State, Auburn, Alabama, everything we've talked about so far. So Christian texted and says, I agree. If Ohio State doesn't go all the way, Ryan Day will have difficult questions to answer because he's been given all the resources available to him.

Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. You're paying, what, $15 million for your roster? Right. You want to see that return on investment if you're the university. Let's see. Jamie Texton says, Alabama has five games this year that will define Kalen DeBoer in year one. Oklahoma, LSU, Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Auburn. The Georgia game is a push this year. Okay. Well, I mean, again, I'm not going to disagree with those. Okay.

But, okay, that's six games right there. If you go four and two in those, you feel really good about the other games, and then you're back in the playoff. But, yeah, no, I think those are all big games this year for Alabama. Let's see. Going on the Ryan Day and the expectations there, someone texted and says, well, what about Dabo? How much longer until he gets the boot, and does any team touch him right now, knowing that he doesn't like using the portal? I think he's in a little bit of a different situation than Ryan Day. I think Clemson, that's a completely different program now

And I think he has gotten to the point, and I could be wrong, but it almost feels like you can kind of stay here as long as you want. You won us two national championships. You've taken us to heights that we've never reached before. We'll roll the dice that maybe you catch lightning in a bottle one year and get us back there as opposed to going out and getting someone. Because if you're Clemson, let's be honest, are you able to go and poach the big-name coaches from other places? I don't think Clemson's as appealing as...

You know, like an LSU going and getting the Notre Dame coach or USC going and getting Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma. Last year was the first year since 2010 that Clemson didn't have double-digit wins. Yeah. Yeah. Dabo's allowed to – yes, it may be a bit frustrating. They'll let him skid for a little bit. Correct. Right. He's –

They're not going to run him off. No. Right. No. It's very similar to when Gary Patterson was at TCU. It's like they're going to let you do whatever you need to do because you built this to where it is. And I think it'd be more of Dabo leaving than Clemson forcing him out at any point. I agree with that. But I do think the point about what would his options be is interesting because I think

I mean, as we saw earlier this year, I mean, for how many years do people say, oh, well, he's the head coach and waiting when Nick Saban retires. And I mean, Alabama fans didn't want to touch him with a 10 foot pole. Right. This January when that was, you know, I guess an option. Let's see. We have Wesley from Jimson. He asked, what would you guys consider to be Auburn's biggest flip game? I think it's Oklahoma. But what are y'all's thoughts? Love the show. War Eagle.

I would agree with that. I think Texas A&M also fits the boat, but it's a little later in the schedule. So I think Oklahoma, for where it sits early in the season, I think that's a big game for both of those programs. And just in terms of kind of setting a benchmark for where they are. Right. We'll know everything about both of these teams after that game. Yes. But truly for Oklahoma, probably after Tennessee, because that's the first SEC game they have. And then their first one on the road is against Auburn. But.

Yeah, I think that's probably the biggest one, because if you're Oklahoma, say if you do fall to Tennessee, it's kind of one of those. Well, we expect Tennessee to be competitive anyway. So it's like, all right, well, that's a measuring stick. But if you find a way to beat Auburn, it's more of a telltale of where Auburn is than what it is for Oklahoma, because it's their first year in. Whereas Auburn, it's all right. Maybe you haven't truly crossed that threshold yet. And depending on how the loss were to happen, it's like how far do they really need to go before they're truly competitive?

We have Dwayne who texts in, and I'm going to be honest, these are the Auburn fans that put a smile on my face because it's just so hard to keep you satisfied and your priorities are in the wrong place, in my opinion. Oh, this is from you. Okay. Dwayne texts in and says, I'm sorry, Conrad, but incredible for Auburn would be beating Alabama. You just don't understand Auburn football. See, that's good. We can go 9-3 but have to beat Alabama. So you would rather beat Alabama than make the college football playoff. Thank you. That is a twisted mindset to have, and it's why –

It's why Auburn is where they are, because you're okay with, oh, can we just beat our rival and then we're happy. That means you're Texas A&M a few years ago.

I imagine that – who was the texter? Dwayne. Dwayne. He is at least 35 years old or older because he grew up when college football was regional and not national like y'all two did. Because over the last, I would say, I don't know, about 17 or so years, maybe a little bit before 20-plus years, college football has become more national. And it was all about beating your rival and everything else. Okay, fine. I mean –

You saw how one of the greatest coaches in Michigan really kind of ran off because he couldn't get it. I mean, Tommy Tuberville was kept around because he did what? He beat Alabama. Fear the thumb, baby. Teams and coaches in Alabama got ran off because they couldn't beat Auburn. Yes, they wanted to win the national championship, but they had to beat the rival. That's why rivalries are so great. It has shifted since...

To where, yes, now the people growing up understand that, yeah, I want to win it all. Yes, I'd like to be my rival, but only because they're on my schedule. And if we don't play them, oh, that really stinks. But if I go and win the whole freaking thing, it didn't matter if I played or beat my rival because I'm number one. What else are you going to do? Okay, fine. So what? You beat me, Auburn, in 2017. The shiny ring that I got is kind of making up for it. Why do you think Hugh Freeze has the Auburn job?

Because he could beat Alabama. I mean, I think that's part of it for sure. Exactly. It's the same way when everybody was telling me that Zach Alzada was going to be QB1 at Auburn because he beat Alabama. It's the same way Damien always brings up, oh, Trevor Lawrence, oh, he's supposed to be this game. But who kept him out of the playoffs, huh? We did. He wears that like a badge of honor, like the Tennessee Titans won the Super Bowl because they found a way to beat Auburn.

One freaking team, one freaking time. Because they told us that they were the team of the AFC South, and the one team that was stopping them from winning the AFC South was the team that was in last place of the AFC South. And y'all want to tell me that Trevor Lawrence is worth $55 million per year? And look at how he's wearing that. Look how he remembers this. Oh, I know. Correct, right. I could go off on that. Okay, so I think, first off, you bring up a very good point.

I think the regionality because we – it is different. Y'all grew up later. The expectation – It has changed. Yes. Yeah.

But I still stand by the fact that in this exercise where we are talking about what would be your miraculous, I could never see this actually happening season for Auburn, and it's not even when we made the playoff. It's when we beat Alabama, but we missed the playoff. That's what I'm saying. In your wildest expectations for what a great season would be for Auburn, you don't care about potentially competing for national championship. You would rather beat your rival and be sitting at home. It's very Dwight Schrute. So your fantasy is...

You running an Airbnb? Okay. Yeah, and make $80,000 a year. And you're not even running? You're not the manager? Yeah. Exactly. I mean, that's – again, that's where the expectations are, man. Let's see. Steven from Lee is texting in about Auburn. He says, as an Auburn fan, I'd be thrilled with 8-4 in a top 25 finish this year with 10 wins and a playoff spot potentially next year and moving forward. See? Extremely reasonable. Reasonable. And it makes perfect sense. Like –

You're not there just yet, but you're trending in the right direction. That's it.

All right, we'll get to one more before we have to head to break. Keep the texts coming in, 205-834-9450. Got a lot of great texts we still have to get to, but this one I'll give to you, Damian, because this is your guy. It's not Chris, but this is your guy. John May. No, he did text him, though. Smokey from Jasper says, do you think that Nico has the most pressure on him of any quarterback in the SEC? I ask because this is Hypel's guy, and let's be real, Tennessee fans have oftentimes had unrealistic expectations of

Are they playoff bound? We'll ponder on that one. I'll let you ponder that one. Yeah, we'll ponder on that one because I have a different direction I want to go for that. But we'll continue the discussion on the other side. Keep it locked right here on McElroy and Kubelik in the morning on JOX 94.5. The capital of the sports talk nation. This is JOX 94.5 and joxfm.com. Hurry and... 835 here on...

Almost there, morning jocks. McElroy and Kublik in the morning. Damian Mitchell, Conrad Van Order, John Saber holding it down. For a few more moments here on this Tuesday morning, having some fun.

And one of the text messages came in, they were asking about Nico, right? Yeah, so smoking from Jasper before the break, he had texted in and asked, so do you think Nico has the most pressure on him of any quarterback in the SEC this season? I ask because this is Hyples guy, and let's be real, Tennessee fans oftentimes have unrealistic expectations of

Are they playoff bound? He also says he doesn't have unrealistic expectations. So I guess he's a he's a reasonable. He's a ball fan. Yeah. He's one of yours. Yeah. One of your own. We're far and few between when it comes to rationale. I don't think he's the quarterback under the most pressure, but I do think that he's under. I think he's more of under Tennessee pressure than he is collectively across the SEC, because, again, this is his first year start.

Like whatever you kind of take everything with a grain of salt because we saw what Joe Milton was against Clemson in the Orange Bowl. And I'm thinking, oh, this is about to be rent. He finally got his accuracy issues straightened out. No, not so much. But I think for Nico.

The system is going to benefit him because of just what Josh Eichel does. I think they did a good job of getting some guys out of the portal. You get Brew McCoy back from injury. I think the run game really helps out for everything for him because he is able to use his legs. And one of the things that you saw with Hinton Hooker, he wasn't asked to use his legs as much, but when he did, he was very effective. And I think that's kind of what they're going to do with Nico. I think the quarterback under the most pressure in the SEC is actually Jackson Dart.

OK, I think it's very collective between him and Lane because we put so much on the offensive side because of what Lane has done. And when the big games happen, Jackson Dart has shown that he doesn't necessarily rise up to where he needs to be. And I think for Ole Miss to get to where they need to be is going to be on Jackson Dart's shoulders.

Okay, and I will give you that. I would personally think I would have him at number two. I think Quinn Ewers has less pressure on him, and I think that part of it is just Texas. Can they sustain the success they had last year? But it's also a guy who, let's not forget, this is a kid that was given a million dollars out of high school when he went to Ohio State, sat on the bench, had all this hype, all these expectations, and he's been good.

But I think Texas fans would tell you that he hasn't lived up quite to the hype. He got them to the playoff last year, but he missed a handful of games, and they struggled in the games he was out. They were definitely better with him, but with the injury questions, is he going to be a first-round pick in the NFL draft? He has a lot of pressure on his shoulders to live up to the hype that I still don't think he has, on top of the fact that

that he has everyone's favorite backup quarterback looking over his shoulder. Yeah, this is most likely, unless he, I would say, maybe gets hurt, this is most likely his last year at Texas. Yep. I think one way or the other, they're... They're ready for Orange. They're hoping, whether it be Texas or the fan base or whatever, that Quinn Ewers...

is gone next year and so he's got to perform one way or the other yeah he could maybe potentially pull a spencer rattler if something happens and he feels like his draft stock and he could go somewhere else because you you've had arch now for two years when all is said and done and you kind of got to get him in but they're the reason the right answer is queen ewers is because they have national championship they have realistic national championship uh expectations oh miss i i

They're close. They're right there, but no one really thinks they'll actually win the national championship. People think they'll have a very, very good offense. We expect them to make the playoff, not win it. We expect them to make the playoff and probably maybe make the SEC championship. But right now, as it stands, they're looking up at Texas and looking up at Georgia and definitely looking up at teams like Ohio State.

So all of that pressure is sitting right now on Quinn Ewers. Yeah. And there's a fair amount on Jackson Dart, don't get me wrong, but like you mentioned, he's sharing that with Lane Kiffin. Yeah, most of it is like the coach is on the front end of that, and you just so happen to be the product because you're the quarterback. Because I think Lane Kiffin has more pressure than Sark does, but I think Quinn Ewers has more pressure than Jackson Dart does. That I agree with, because if you're Sark, you kind of have –

Kind of the pick of the litter. It's like, all right, well, if Quinn doesn't stay healthy or if he shows that he's just not ready to be that guy to take us over the hump. I mean, Arch has been sitting there for a while now. He can pull a skip holts. He can pull a hardball. He can pull a Saban and just, you know what, maybe he'll give us a spark. We're putting him in. Yeah. After Texas beat Alabama last year, there were still Texas fans a couple weeks later saying, I think we might need to make a quarterback change.

That happened last year. People wanted Malik Murphy to get an opportunity, and then they saw how that went. Very similar to Jalen Milrow at Alabama last year. We saw what Tyler Butcher was. Yeah, he's a walk-on wide receiver now. Good for him. He's a lacrosse champion, though. He is a national champion. That is something his teammates can say this year. He's an SEC conference champion as well. He's got a ring.

I guess. He was there. He was there. I wonder how long it takes to ship stuff to South Bend. Going back to the jocks text line 205-834-9450. Appreciate everyone continuing to chime in.

With their reaction to Auburn, Alabama, Ohio State, Ryan Day, all these different topics we've hit on this morning. Patrick Texton says, listening to you guys talk about Auburn, I only heard y'all mention conference games. Who is Auburn's big out of conference games? Oh, wait, it's Cal. No wonder y'all didn't mention them. Yeah, Auburn should be cruising through that non-con. We thought the same thing last year. And, yeah, they proved us wrong. They got the other New Mexico this time. Yeah.

Let's see, John Mack was not a fan of Chris's call. Really? Yeah, he wanted him to get out of the Burger King bathroom. See, we got a couple red-ass Damien's. Oh, what is this? Is he going to get out of the Burger King bathroom? Okay, I thought someone once got busy in a Burger King bathroom, but maybe that's a song for another day. A little before my time. I'll see where your head's at, though. I like this road that we're going down. That's fine. I mean, my nose is long. Okay, that's fine.

Dave takes in about Alabama and the conversation we were having about the expectations for Caleb DeBorn year one. He says, Dubose and Shula both won 10 games with far less talented rosters. Dude better win with what was left over from Nick Saban. I think that's – Thank you. That kind of sums up what we were talking about. Let's see. Someone else texts in, Damian just went off on Chris like Cole went off on Golden Domer last week. I didn't slam anything. I just – my voice was elevated.

And I felt like I was asking reasonable questions, though. The only thing I was asking was...

Tell me on Alabama's schedule right now who you think has a better roster than Alabama. Yeah, but that wasn't the tone you had. And that's why Conrad and I were laughing because this is how you sound 98% of the time. I started off peaceful. You did, right. And then he opened his mouth, and then all of a sudden, yeah, you went, your shoulders got a little bunched up. You could see some...

um, color in your face. And it, everyone knew it was like, Oh, okay. All right. Like, uh,

Conrad and I knew that, okay, yeah, he got under his skin by just opening his mouth. Okay. No, but he said, when he said some people, I wasn't asking about some people. I specifically was asking Chris a question. And he kept saying, well, some people would say, I'm like, hey, we're not asking. I don't know any of these other people that you're talking about. I'm specifically asking Chris. We know. And he never gave me a team. And I'm like, you weren't using that tone. And you wonder why you might need some. I tried.

I tried. No, you didn't. I feel like I was reasonably at first. You're like Robert Downey Jr. and Tropic Thunder. What do you mean, you people? You can't go full. No, seriously, just...

I just couldn't process that he kept saying some people, some people. I was like, Chris, I'm asking you, dog. Like, not worry about anybody else. I specifically want to know because he's an Alabama fan. I want to get to the nitty gritty of, hey, man, you're a quote unquote diehard guy. So why would you not have expectations besides just a six or seven wins for Alabama? That's all I was trying to figure out. Damien's getting fired up again.

Let's see what this gets from Damian. John texted in. He says, I have to preface this by saying I'm an Auburn fan. Oh, boy. But Jalen Milrow is going to ball out, and Alabama will be back in the college football playoff with as good of a chance to win it as anyone. Chris is bugging, LOL. Couldn't have said it better myself. That's coming from an Auburn fan. Exactly. Just like Damian. You would have said bugging? That feels a little my time. Yeah, I would have said bugging.

Tripping. Let's see. Someone else texted in and says, Damien blowing up on Chris had nothing to do with Damien being a bammer. It just had to do with him using a little common sense. Boom. Damien's the one that had common sense. I'm telling you. Wow. It comes in waves. That frontal lobe. Frontal lobe moment. Had one. Jimmy texted in, I'm still going to be cautiously optimistic about Alabama only because it's DeBoer's first year. But, yeah, Alabama's roster is stacked, and they aren't going 6-6 like Auburn's bound to be. Yeah.

Man, no love for Peyton Thorne. 30 touchdowns and they're only going to go 6-6. Yeah, we'll see about that. Justin Texan, Damian, does Ryan Day always have a better roster than the other teams? How many conference and national championships does he have? A better roster doesn't always win. That's fair. But name another team in the Big Ten besides Michigan that has a win over.

Iowa a few years ago, Purdue a few years ago. But yeah, you go back. Michigan's been the roadblock for them. That is the only conference loss he has is Michigan. Yeah.

Oh, those were that long ago? His eight losses were Michigan, Missouri, Michigan, Georgia, Oregon, Michigan, Bama, and Clemson. Those were his eight losses while at Ohio State. 56, I think, in eight? All right, big dog. You know what the assignment is this year. Yeah. Where's Lou Holtz?

That's what Lou Holtz said. Oh, man, I forgot about that. That was a feud that we were not expecting. The team just won on a talk on quarterback sneak. Yeah. The first person he's looking out for is Lou Holtz. Yeah, he... Ten guys on defense, too. Right. I mean, consecutive plays. That would have been Happy Gilmore versus Bob Barker, like, in real life. Right. That's what we were...

close to getting there. And Bob won. Yeah, exactly. And Bob won, so we knew how that one was going to go for Lou.

Oh, man. That would have been something. But, yeah, keep on chiming in on the text line, 205-834-9450. We'll continue to get your reaction to the expectations for Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State, and a couple other teams around the country as we continue here on McElroy and Kubrick in the morning. You're listening to Jocks 94.5. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than...

a player right like the myth of bo jackson like rate and download the show from the job cup or wherever you get your podcast 8 50 here on mcelroy and kubelik in the morning damian mitchell conrad van order and john say bear we're going to continue the exercise was incredible solid and disappointing with uh with some teams that we've already mentioned there at the top of the hour we're going to bring up old miss in tennessee i want to see where uh

We'll see where y'all's heads are as far as the team up there. I'll tell you this right now. Incredible season for Tennessee. Damien's sticking with them all 12 games. That would be impressive. Yeah. We know that ain't going to happen. I think it's more likely they win a national championship. And that just goes to show that they could win a national championship. And there's going to be at least one week in the season where Damien's like, I'm not feeling this anymore.

I'm not telling this. Big, big roll tide. I actually got an Oklahoma shirt. I got a Boomer Sooner shirt, so I just need to update. The only teams I'm missing right now as far as my SEC wardrobe are Texas, A&M, and South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. But I got everybody else covered. Good for you. So I probably won't be searching for an A&M shirt. But the rest of them, more than likely. I was about to say, one of those you can leave off. Maybe John Mack will mail one to you. Yeah, wear medium. Medium.

Schmedium? Schmedium. I prefer Schmedium. Oh, kids medium. Okay. Was that 10-12? 3T? Okay. Got to have some elbow room.

Going back to the jocks text line where many of you have been weighing in all throughout the morning, 205-834-9450 if you want to weigh in yourself, where Micah texts in, and as Damon was just talking about, we've been doing the incredible solid disappointing exercise for a number of teams this morning, and one of those was Alabama. And so Micah texts in, for Alabama, an incredible season would be winning the national championship. A solid season would be a semifinal appearance.

in the CFP, and a disappointment would be missing the playoff altogether. Pretty similar to what we were saying about our own thoughts on what would be solid and incredible seasons for Alabama. Let's see. Jim Perry texts in, what happens if Alabama gets steamrolled by Georgia and Tuscaloosa? How does that change the narrative? I think that the expectation at that point would still be to compete for a college football playoff spot, but at that point, I think it's pretty clear that

There's a gap between Alabama and Georgia. Again, where I said if Alabama knocks off Georgia and Tuscaloosa, I think it moves the expectation back to we can win a national championship. If you lose that game, I think it probably hurts morale a little bit, especially if you get blown out. Because even when you go back to the one time that Nick Saban lost to Kirby in the national championship...

I mean, that was a game that Alabama was leading with nine or ten minutes left in the game. And so even that loss, even it got a little lopsided at the end with the pick six, but...

You're not used to going into those games and getting the break speed off of you by Georgia. I think that would probably tell you more about Georgia, that they're probably a little bit more for real than even we were giving them credit for. Because, of course, we know the talent that's there, but they go out there and handle business in a convincing fashion over Alabama. I think that would lean more towards telling us exactly who Georgia is in 2024.

Let's see. Tanner says, Dwayne doesn't speak for every Auburn fan. Dwayne was the one that texted and said that an incredible year for Auburn would be 9-3 with a win over Alabama as opposed to making the college football playoff. Tanner says, Dwayne doesn't speak for every Auburn fan. I'm tired of most of the fan base looking at the Iron Bowl as our national championship. I agree. Yeah, I would agree with that, Tanner. We have somebody else texting in.

He says, I'm an Auburn fan and could care less about beating or even playing Alabama. I'd rather win a national championship, could care less about playing or anything to do with Tuscaloosa. Now that might be a little bit of an overcorrection because that game definitely matters, but...

Yes, I think he's just saying that at the end of the day, the ultimate goal is to win a national championship, not win the Iron Bowl. Because it's going to be very awkward, and probably not this year, but at some point, if these two teams face again the next week in Atlanta for the SEC championship, and in theory could face again the following week or at some point down the line in the college football playoffs. I was about to say, if you're playing in Atlanta, you're definitely both in the playoff at that point. Let's see, somebody else texting in about Texas.

They say, why does everyone believe Arch Manning is ready to step in if Ewers has issues? Arch hasn't played a single snap, and he hasn't played in the SEC yet. True. He's played some. And that's a fair question. Again, he is a guy that, let's be honest, spring game was super impressive, but it's a spring game. Exactly. So, you know, the jury is certainly still out. There's just a lot of hype behind him. Somebody says...

I hate I missed Red Ass Damien, but well done this morning, guys. This is a 33-year-old. I'm glad to know that Jocks is in good hands once the old people like Landrum and Pat retire. They are old. Really, really old. He's only 33. That's only five years away from us. Don't remind me of that. It happens.

We have another text coming in. Alabama's incredible season would be a national championship. A solid season would be playoffs with at least one win. Anything less than that is a disappointment. An incredible season for Auburn would be the playoffs. A solid season would be eight and four, and six wins or less would be a disappointing season. Oh, absolutely. I think that's pretty spot on. Yeah. All around. I think that's reasonable.

Brandon from Tuscaloosa says, as an Auburn fan, I think a solid season is 8-4 or 9-3. I think they have the talent. Anything over 9-3 would be an incredible season. For a solid season, though, I would take 7-5 with a win over Alabama. That would show that we are trending in the right direction. That's the thing, though. If you're 7-5 and you find a way to beat Alabama, you shouldn't be 7-5. No, I'm – You shouldn't.

No, that means you definitely lost to some people you shouldn't have lost to. You lost to, like, New Mexico or something. Yeah, right. Or Cal. Right. You failed to Arkansas, but you beat Alabama. Like, wait a minute. Okay, yeah. What happened? Hi, Kentucky. And finally, Thomas, the question that we all wanted to know, can we get a Damien apparel check? Damien is actually repping the Blazers today. Yes, sir. He is a UAB guy, so we can't. Fire breathers only. No pitchforks today, unfortunately. Got to put them away. Deal for Damien. It just fits. That means you'll be bald soon. Yeah.

But you're going to win a Super Bowl. That is true. I'll be one behind Eli Manning. You are going to be bald, though. More Mac and Cube coming up next. This is McElroy and Cubelik in the morning.

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