7-8-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 1: Where the OU job sits now in the SEC; Paul Finebaum talks SEC & Lincoln Riley; Top-3 players we're excited to watch in 2024
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Alright, welcome in. Michael Roy and Cuba Lake in the morning. It is Monday, July 8th right here on Jocks 94.5. Back from vacation. Back in. Hope you all had a great July 4th weekend. We were able to spend some time with the family, get out and have some fun, do some different things. Great weekend for you, G-Mac? Really good. Spent pretty much the entire time at the lake, man. It was great. Did have a little weather the last couple days, but for the most part, man, really, really nice.

Solid, solid week. First week off doing some due diligence. I started this business July 14th of 2014. That was the first day that I was ever in this industry. And last week was the first full week that I've taken off since I've started. Had days, multiple days, two or three days in some cases. Rare cases, but in some cases. But first time I've ever taken off

seven straight days without doing anything and i'm pretty fired up about it so i don't know about you i know you had a great weekend going and doing a bunch of different things as well but man that was the refresh needed before we get ready to take on what should be the longest college football season of our careers it's going to be long and uh that's great good for you congrats i got a full week off um definitely not a refresh but um good to get away and get some time off

and glad to be back to be able to talk some college football today. We've got Paul Feinbaum coming up 7-15. Texas-Oklahoma officially in the league now. That was celebrated early last week, so we'll talk about that some today as Ryan McGeough joins us at 9-20. He has an essay out now that

discusses the two teams coming into the league, what it's going to be like. It's pretty cool up at ESPN.com. We'll discuss that with him. And Cooper Patanga is with us at 830. It has been a busy recruiting, really holiday week, not just weekend, but Missouri, Miami, Arkansas, LSU, Alabama, Auburn, all been busy, Ohio State.

Oregon with a massive pickup over the weekend. We'll just discuss with Cooper which one of these really are the massive pickups that some people are discussing and maybe why some of these teams are heating up in recruiting that we need to be talking about. And then we've got SEC Media Days next week.

And obviously that sort of begins the official slash unofficial countdown to the college football season. We have college football next month as we're here in July now. And that's exciting enough, G-Mac, to think about the fact that next month we've got real live tackle college football. 47 days. Camp. I'm going at some point this week to go see one of my buddies. He's the OC at the Falcons. Like, hey, dude, if we're going to see each other, he's been gone for a while, been working for us.

the Los Angeles Rams. And we hadn't seen each other yet since he's moved to Atlanta. He's just been drinking through a fire hose, as one can imagine. And I'm like, well, let's get together. Let's hang. And he goes, well, we have to do it this week because camp for me starts in like 11 days.

12 days or whatever it is from the time that we had this discussion. So NFL camp's opening up here in less than two weeks. We have real live college football coming in 47 days, as you heard the voice of God tell you just a moment ago. So a lot to look forward to here in the next couple weeks, man. Obviously, Texas and Oklahoma will now be a part of that. Some cool celebrations to the SEC Network, ESPN there. I mean, it was packed in Austin.

I mean, it looked like they were having South by Southwest with the, how they packed it out there and then celebrating in Oklahoma. Also pretty cool. I don't, I don't know how much you got to catch that, but it was pretty neat to see and pretty exciting just to see those two teams officially now in. Very cool. Uh, got to watch a little bit of it. Um, got a kick out of some of the, it's just funny. It's just, I've always felt like the sec, like we, we do things that aren't, don't feel like that big a deal better than anybody. Um,

Media Days being one of those, it's a great event, but we turned it into a festival. That was kind of what went down in both Norman's

and in austin on the 30th and the first respectively so i don't did you get a little package from oklahoma too i did get that yeah yep so that was pretty cool i'm gonna be honest with you based on the size box looked you thought it was shoes really excited for a second and it was not yeah not shoes not jordan's yeah no good try but that was pretty funny to get

a box from Oklahoma saying, hey, glad to be part of the SEC, glad to be part of the ESPN family, etc. By the way, when you get a chance to do an Oklahoma game, you need to go and take some time to go get to know their president, Joe Mraz. He is the coolest guy, maybe of all time. But that's beside the point. And it was just really...

It's exciting. I mean, we've been talking about it forever. And what I noticed, the first thing I noticed, even in my days off, I was still spending a couple hours in the morning on the computer and kind of getting caught up in any other stories that would break and then messing around and looking at the market and all the other stuff. But long story short, it was kind of cool to go to ESPN and look at the standings tab on the 1st of July. And then there you have it. You have the ACC with all their new additions. You have the Big Ten with all their new additions and the SEC with all theirs.

I just had to kind of refresh my memory. I did see the Pac-12 still there. Got both of them. But pretty cool to kind of go to the website and actually see it in print as opposed to just thinking about it and watching the show on it. Yeah, there are a couple of factors that haven't caught up yet. I haven't gotten theirs officially done. I did see the Pac-12 with their release last week officially of their two teams, which is...

Maybe the oddest thing of realignment that we're going to see is the two-team conference that's going to continue to stay there. But nonetheless, Joe Castiglione, Oklahoma athletic director, during said celebration of entry into the Southeastern Conference, had this to say about some of the coaches that he helps with. I will tell you, without reservation, every coach that we talk to

was excited and you know what the ones that weren't aren't here anymore it's uh we call that a mic drop and when you're in this league you you can mic drop a little bit

So, obviously, the shot there at Lincoln Riley. I don't get it. Is that who he's talking about? I thought the golf coach left. Did the golf coach leave? I don't know. Maybe he meant Stoops. What did you say? Maybe he meant Stoops. Oh, Stoops left? They said he meant Deuce. I was like, who's the coach Deuce? If he knew when Stoops was there, knew that this was happening, then you talk about keeping things quiet. Oh, yeah.

I mean, this only goes along with... The tortious interference would get real awkward. That whole claim a few years ago, which obviously died by the wayside, which is very, very awkward. But yeah, I don't think Lincoln Riley was real excited about getting his feet into the deep end of the pool or his feet in the fire or whatever the sayings are. It might take a couple of days for my brain to reacclimate, but I think it was pretty well documented that he wanted to have the best job

in said conference and you can make case that he had the best job in the big 12 there for a while texas fans might push back on that but look at the conference championships uh in the sec the oklahoma job right now is maybe i don't know eighth seventh sixth fifth i don't know where do you have it as far as best jobs probably not top five

Good job. Bottom of the top. Great job. Incredible job. But, I mean, are you putting that ahead of Alabama? No. Are you putting that ahead of Georgia? No. Are you putting that ahead of LSU? No. Florida? That's three really easy ones. I would put Florida ahead of it. It's probably a little bit of homerism, but I would put Auburn ahead of it, but that's just me. It's probably on the same line as Auburn. I think you could start making conversations. You could have a conversation about Texas and Tennessee.

realistic conversations so yeah but i mean it's either way i mean that job got harder they they got me in the sec no question about it i mean but in fairness he went out to the pac-12 got sc best job in the pac-12 still would be if they'd have stayed by the way i had to uh own a quote-unquote upgrade okay yeah still would be same job if they if they stayed in the league i'm not mad i'm still not mad at him for leaving i'm really not like quality of life to him must matter

Does it give off the perception that is already there about, you know, the S word perhaps? But I can't really blame him. I mean, if someone comes to you and says, I'm going to give you 120 million and you're going to have to work less. How does that sound?

I think I'd consider it. I don't know about you guys. No, but if the perception continues to roll down the same road and you cancel spring practice for two weeks because a couple of guys are dinged up and you say specifically that all those guys are on offense and you want all your best players on offense practicing together and you haven't played defense really the entirety of your coaching career. Your style of play has not always been considered to be one that offers a lot of physicality. It's

When you continue to push all of those things down the same path, I mean, it's only going to continue to generate the narrative of it may not even go down the path of you are soft, but you just don't want things to be difficult. And let's be real. If you're going to be a great college football coach and try to lead great college football teams, there are going to be a lot of things that are very difficult. Yeah. And for him to not want to have to deal with that or not want to be a part of some of those things –

It then becomes very fair to question why he won't win many championships moving forward. I think it's a reasonable argument to make. But then again, I mean, Joe Castiglione works for one particular university, and he can make those claims, backhanded or not, and it's perfectly fine. He works for one fan base. I support that.

the shade being thrown. But I just, I think if any one of us were in a similar situation to Lincoln Riley, we would probably strongly consider the same possibility. Hang on a second. 120 million living in Manhattan beach. I have a $19 million house that overlooks the Pacific ocean. I have the best job by a mile in the pack. 12 million.

Yeah, I think that that's a fair move. I really do. And Oklahoma fans will push back on that, but I think it's a fair move. I do think that Oklahoma's done a really good job in replacing him. I had questions about Brent Venables being a head coach 100%.

I mean, everyone thought that Will Muschamp was going to be God's gift to football as a head coach when he got the head coaching job in Florida. It didn't materialize. You never know. You don't know for sure. You can hope. You can feel good about it. You just don't know.

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At 205-588-5077. Or you can start the conversation at absimage.com. When we come back, Paul Feinbaum is going to be with us. We'll discuss the Lincoln-Riley move with him, the new Southeastern Conference, what he expects out of Oklahoma-Texas year one, and a look ahead to SEC Media Days next, right here on McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubelik in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than...

player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Gap or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning, 716 a.m. Monday, July 8th, right here on Jocks 94.5. He joins us each and every week. Thanks to our friends at Crane Works from ESPN, the SEC Network. You can hear him 2 to 6 p.m. weekdays right here on WJOX. It's Paul Feinbaum. Lift it, load it, grade it, grind it, move it.

Paul Feinbaum on Mac and Cube in the morning is brought to you by Crane Works. Lift it, buy it, rent it, the big dog's got it. Now, Paul Feinbaum.

Paul, always great to have you in on a Monday. Going back just a little bit, you were part of the Oklahoma-Texas celebration coming into the league. The Texas turnout there in Austin was incredible. What did you learn? What did you take away? What do you maybe view a little bit differently now that it's official and you had a chance to be around some of the Texas brass as they entered the Southeastern Conference?

Cohen, anyways, it was surreal. We've been talking about it for three years and counting down every day on the network, but still, it was...

It was almost hard to believe Saturday. It was almost hard to believe Sunday night standing up looking down over, I don't know, 40 or 50,000 people mulling around that this moment in time had finally arrived. I detected something.

Incredible enthusiasm, exuberant excitement from both Texas people on Saturday, and then we quickly moved over to Norman afterwards. And even though the scene was a little bit different, it was in the middle of the afternoon leading into the official celebration on Monday night. It was...

It was one of the most emotional. Sunday night was one of the most emotional things I've ever encountered in this business. The fact that the reality had arrived and these two incredibly meaningful and historic programs were coming in.

Paul, when you look at just how quickly Texas is going to be able to compete, we've kind of documented that. That I'm not concerned about. I think most people have them in the preseason top ten, top five, top three in some cases. But when you look at Oklahoma, how quickly do you think they'll be able to handle the gauntlet that is the SEC?

I don't think they're that far behind. Now, again, sometimes Greg, and you do this as well. You can get a little bit too close to the sun, but I, I, I sense genuine confidence from, from Brent Venables Monday when we, a week ago, when we talked to him, I think that show in Joe Castiglione, the athletic director's decision to reward him after only two years, one, including one bad year. I,

I think from a recruiting standpoint, they're, they're, they're on their way. Uh, they took a bump, uh, and it hit after Lincoln, while Riley left, they had to reprogram the entire place, reboot it. And I said, now again, uh, I'm not, I'm not looking, uh, as hard as the X's and O's charts and the depth charts as maybe you guys are, but from where I think they, from a sense of, you know, from a vibe standpoint, I think the program's there. I think this year, uh,

uh if they can land uh somewhere between eight and four and nine and three they'll they'll be okay considering their schedule but but i don't have any doubt oklahoma is clearly on the way back paul feinbaum with us and the buyers right hotline joins us every monday thanks to crane works uh we played the quote from joe castiglione you've heard it you know what it was about how every coach was excited to join the sec outside of the ones that aren't there anymore and it's it's a shot at lincoln riley and

I think the problem with it, Paul, is that it continues to push that cart for Lincoln Riley and maybe what his perception is as a coach down the same path. And it's becoming more of a reality than a perception of him. And it's the word soft that a lot of people are going to use or just maybe not wanting to take the difficult path very often. Can he overcome that? Is it too late? Are we too far down that road? And that's just kind of now what Lincoln Riley sort of is?

I don't think Lincoln Riley has a path back. And what we all sensed on Monday out there was real. This wasn't just the beat up of the coach. I mean, listen, we all lived through that 20 years ago at Alabama when Dennis Franchoni left. But this was even more stark because Lincoln Riley was popular. I mean, he was beloved by Oklahoma people. He had taken...

the program, what, the three playoffs and a couple of Heisman Trophy winners. And he just clearly tucked and ran. And in the parlance of college sports, as both of you know, running away from something is probably the worst look. And that's how they feel about him. And this is an incredibly proud program that has been at the pinnacle of the sport for 100 years.

And it's not a matter of wishing him bad luck out there. That's already happening. And if you look at the reality, the number of players that are bailing on Lincoln Riley in Southern California is startling.

I've always thought he was a really good coach, especially on the offensive side, but I don't think anybody today views him in that same realm. And quite frankly, I think he'll be out of Southern Cal at the end of the season. It's a matter of whether it crashes and burns or whether he just decides he's got to seek elsewhere, but I don't think there's any way he...

is going to be successful out there. I think that train has pulled out of the station. And if indeed that happens, this is one of the most historic crash and burns in the history of modern college football because five years ago, Lincoln Raleigh was literally –

among the top three or four coaches in the country. Every time the Cowboys job came around, everybody feared he would leave. But he made a disastrous decision, I think, in the end. But what do you think? I mean, where's he going to go, Paul? I understand the NFL. I mean, does he take a coordinator job? I don't think the head coaching jobs are necessarily going to be there in the event in which he struggles. Where do you think he's going to end up? I mean, his buyout is enormous.

I think you said it, and I don't know how you get through that except some negotiated settlement. But I think his only way back is as a coordinator. And it doesn't take much, by the way, in the NFL, Greg. I mean, you become a coordinator and have 15 minutes of success, and you can get a bunch of NFL head coaching jobs. And I think Lincoln Riley is very smart.

But I also think he would be better if, indeed, he doesn't get fired. By the way, I would have no difficulty as the athletic director at Southern Cal getting rid of him. Frankly, I thought he should have been on 10 eyes last year. And it's just a matter of whether he can stop the bleeding or not. But if you look at his roster right now, he's not a factor in the Big Ten. And that league, I think, will eat him up.

Paul, we really appreciate the time as always. Great stuff. Look forward to see you in Dallas SEC media days. Anything specific you want to try to learn that you're looking forward to hearing? It could be Oklahoma, Texas, a certain coach. What sort of has your antenna up for SEC media days this year?

Yeah, I mean, I think those two go without saying. I think it's how easily I believe Kalen DeBoer is going to move into that chair, succeeding Nick Saban, especially with Nick Saban being

I think that's something I'm fascinated by. And by the way, anyone who doubts that he will have an easy time out there has not been paying attention because the transition has been one of the most seamless I have ever seen in college football. So I think that's certainly a subplot that I know a lot of our listeners here are going to be intrigued by. Paul, I always appreciate the time. Great stuff. We'll see you in Dallas next week.

Enjoyed it. Thank you.

And something else that Greg sort of mentioned earlier in the show about the Oklahoma job in the Southeastern Conference. I want to have that conversation about the USC job in the Big Ten. Before we move there, if you're looking to move out of your house, who should you call, Greg? That would be Crocker Movie Services, our local company owned by an Iraq War veteran, Eric Crocker. Crocker believes in hiring movies you can trust to complete full background checks and run drug tests on every single employee. These are good guys.

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It's crockermovieservices.com. Support your veterans by choosing Crocker Movie Services for your next move. Interesting. Paul joins us today, but not doing his show today. He likes us that much? I guess so. And I appreciate it because I'm filling in for Paul today. So I'll be seeing a little bit more of his show, but obviously not hearing a lot of him 2 to 6 p.m. today. Are you flying to Charlotte? I'm not. I'm doing it from here. That's right. We've got the...

The takeovers this week on television. So it's non-television. So just radio only. But be there doing that. It should be a fun day. We'll have fun with it. But when we come back, I want to finish up what Paul said about Lincoln Riley. If you missed that, you probably need to hear what he just said again.

But also, let's take that USC job and ask the same question that Greg just asked about the Oklahoma job in the Southeastern Conference. Where would it rank in the Big Ten? Maybe a little bit easier practice. We'll do that next on Mac and Cube in the morning. The capital of the sports talk nation. This is Jocks 94.5 and jocksfm.com.

All right, welcome back in. Michael Roy and Kubelik in the morning, 730, Monday, July 8th, right here on Jocks 94.5. Top three coming next segment. Eight o'clock, we'll go a little bit of a different direction, as I did finish Game of Thrones over the weekend. Oh, boy. We will excuse Damien from the conversation. We will give you fair... And you say you didn't have a productive week. Ha ha ha.

I will not share with you how I was able to get through it, but I was able to get through it. It only took me a couple months. Well, I don't know. I'm trying to think when I started it. Not bad for seven seasons. It was right after football season I started it. Seventy-seven? I'd say that's really good. That's about one a week. It was a lot, so...

And as I tweeted out and John responded to it, I don't know how you folks sat around a week waiting for these episodes. I really don't. And not every single one, but there were multiple that you were just like. There was a bunch of cliffhangers. Yeah, I cannot imagine having to sit here for seven days. Or going to sleep. It started at like 9 o'clock central. Try going to bed afterwards. Right after that, that would be tough as well. You're all jacked up. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, there were a couple that were kind of like, wow. I have to live on after this? Now that he died, I can just die now, too. That's kind of how I felt. But I will say this, because I had a lot of people responding that wanted my opinion on the ending. I'm anxious to hear from you guys, and we'll do this at 8. We're not going to do it now. What did people want?

Because I don't remember. I didn't follow it then. I wasn't dialed in then. So we'll visit that then. Perhaps anti-corny. Okay. All right. That's fine. We'll talk a little bit of USC first.

You mentioned a moment ago, Greg. Yes. Where would this Oklahoma job rank in the Southeastern Conference? I think it was fairly easy for most people to say Bama, Georgia, LSU, Florida, probably both Auburn and Tennessee ahead of the Oklahoma job. And some of these are not going to be the same right now as all time, like Alabama.

You have certain jobs that are like, is the Georgia job better than the Alabama job right this second? Probably. All time? No. Is the Oregon job ahead of some of these Big Ten jobs all time? No. Is it right now? Yes.

So it's going to be a little bit of difference in context and how you want to spin it and what you believe. But ultimately, when you look at USC, we know that is one of the power brokers in college football all time. What it is right now felt like USC was going to be in the NIL game as much or more than anybody. Yeah, that feels like it's kind of faded just a little bit. Now you come into the Big Ten where Ohio State, Michigan, we can push those to the side. Penn State ahead of USC or no?

Penn State would be ahead, I think, in terms of recency bias, probably. And I think that they haven't figured out on both sides of the ball. Offensively, we'll find out this year. I mean, they haven't exactly been lighting it up offensively, but I think they're pretty balanced. So I think that job is traditionally pretty dang good. Nebraska? No. Is there another traditional Big Ten job that would be ahead of USC? I don't know. The more I think about it, I think SC is probably ahead of Penn State.

The more I think about it. So if you're putting them ahead of Penn state, you're not putting them ahead of Wisconsin. You're not putting them ahead of Wisconsin. It's a head of, a head of Penn state too, though. And not because the Penn state is not a good job. It's just, I think Wisconsin is a really good job and a really underrated job. There's only one school in the state. Uh, you have an established tradition, um, great fan base, great fan base. Uh, there, I mean, do you have decent players? They come out of the state of Wisconsin, pretty accessible to the Chicago area. Um,

I think Wisconsin's probably a better job than people realize. And, well, I think Penn State's probably slightly better. I just don't think the gap is as wide as some might like to say. So are we still essentially alluding to the fact that SC might be the third best job in the Big Ten? I think it's interesting, too, when you look at Washington, because I think Washington's a better job right now. I think Oregon, you can make a case with where we've gone, Oregon's as good a job as...

I mean, Ohio State and Michigan are top two, but I would say Oregon would be right there. I mean, neck and neck. Considering the world's changed beneath their feet. Like back in the day, yeah, Oregon's a beast. But they have endless NIL. Endless. So that has changed things drastically. Absolutely. So it's kind of interesting when you look at the two teams coming into the SEC where those jobs would rank and maybe some of the new teams in the Big Ten where those jobs would rank. But...

If the job is that good and it's still the third best in the conference, are you on board with, Paul, that you see an exit for Lincoln Riley at the end of this season? Absolutely not. I'm not asking you to predict it, but do you see this even feasible? It's the dumbest. It's the most ludicrous thing I think I've ever heard. You think Lincoln Riley's walking away from, all right, so he's been there. This will be year three. You think he's walking away from $88 million? It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

I know Paul likes to stir it up. Paul's a friend. I got no problem with Paul. That's literally what he does. That's why sometimes with me and Paul, it's hard for me to take him seriously on some stuff. That's absurd. He's not walking away from that. Guess what? They're buying him out. Every dollar that he's got is guaranteed. It's $11.5 million over $10. This would be year three that he's in.

And he might be miserable as far as the grind, for sure. I'm not saying he's not, but that's absurd. But Paul does this every year. He tries to fire coaches, and that's how he does things. Okay, fiscally, if you want a good deal on products that make you feel better, first and foremost, your CBD store has them. Better night's sleep, waking up to feel better, better focused throughout the course of the day, gut health, your CBD store can help with that. That's why they're the largest brick-and-mortar CBD retailer on planet Earth. First company to have USDA-certified organic oil supplements.

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It's not bad if you can get it. Todd Munkin and Mike Kafka, both getting $3 million per. Where's Todd Munkin at? Ravens. Ravens. Yeah. Where's Kafka at? Chiefs? Giants. This list is per June 17th, 2024. So you got a couple in the 2.3, 2.5 range. Ken Dorsey's 2.3. Kellen Moore, 2.5.

So Arthur Smith at $2 million. Daniel Hackett's at $2.2. If you went a little bit ahead of that, let's just say you went to $3.5. So you've got $3.5 million per to be a coordinator in the NFL. Still, you would say that does not make any sense to you? There's no way that that would take place? No. You're going to take an $8 million pay cut? No. And become the highest paid coordinator? If you're over it and you're done with it and you don't want to be a part of it anymore...

Yeah, but that's great. Awesome. He's not nuts. I mean, seriously, like I don't care what you're not walking away from that kind of money. But if you if if if there was a portion of him that didn't want to deal with the Southeastern Conference, it's not like it's getting a whole lot better.

It's not like this is going to be a much easier path. I mean, you've got to play at Michigan. You've got to play Wisconsin at home. You have to play Penn State at home. You've got to play Nebraska. I mean, throw that on top of still playing Notre Dame-UCLA. Yeah. You've got Washington on the road still. It's not like all of a sudden you've said, well, we're going to continue down Easy Street. It's not really the way of the world now. It's not. But I don't understand –

No one in their right mind is walking away from that. The only way is if you have a really soft landing, like a la Chip Kelly. Chip Kelly really is over it. And for the record, he's been coaching for a really long time and has made a boatload of money and has been a head coach in the NFL twice. He's done everything. He just wants to get back to calling plays. That's different. I mean, Lincoln Riley has an ego now. I mean, not in a bad way.

He's got an ego. He's just going to walk away. First of all, I think they're going to have a pretty good year. I'm not saying that he's going to win a national title or anything, but I think they're probably going to surprise some folks this year and probably be better than they anticipate because I think their whole program was run through Caleb Williams, and I don't believe that to be true. I think they're going to be better on defense. I think Danton Lynn is that good. What if they lose 4-5? If they lose 4-5 and they're in the same spot as last year,

But guess what? The only way you're taking me off that contract is by firing me. Welcome to Jimbo Fisherland. You sign the deal. You're going to pay me every dollar. Literally, you will pay me every dollar that I am owed. Settlement. And that's what Paul said. Settle? Settle? Why would I settle? Telling me I only get three years?

To get this thing flipped around. Two years ago, we were a win away from going to the college football playoff. Everyone wants to forget that. It's an interesting thought to at least look at, see, think about. It's definitely an interesting thought. It's a lunatic thought is what it is. It's absolutely interesting, but there's no way that's going to happen. I love Paul. He gives us great fodder and great material. He's a good friend.

But that's crazy. That's just not going to happen. It's just not going to happen. The Alabama heat and humidity can be crazy. It was over the weekend, as it was in some other places. Don't let it affect your home and family. Keep them comfortable with an affordable train cooling system. Train is our official partner here at Jocks. They've been recognized as America's most trusted brand 10 consecutive years. Find a comfort specialist near you at train.com. When we come back, first top three in a while.

We'll see if we can make it count next on Mac and Cube 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 Jock Tap or wherever you get your podcasts.

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most times worthless sometimes sports sometimes not it's a top three we haven't had in a while so we haven't some people i feel like we're actually excited about it oh let me tell you i've forgotten how terrible it can be it was a it was a topic of discussion around the family uh barbecue over the weekend man it was uh so the family knows how bad it was entertaining wow it was absolutely entertaining they were like well they give you a hard time but some of it ah it's kind of reasonable oh the one the one support group i need it's like nah the

The hard time is reasonable, they say. No, I'm asking. That's what they're saying. No, it is. That's what they said. Okay, good. Well, they're right. Yeah, they're justified. It's warranted. But no, also another discussion that we had that actually started the conversation is top three guys that you are just excited to see in 2024 in college football.

Any position, what are you looking forward towards, if it's a draft stock or if it's just guys that you want to see play college football? Who would those top three guys be? Cam Coleman is going to be one for me at Auburn just because that position has not been great, and it's one that I feel like can make that big of a difference. I'm also going to say Harold Perkins, but it's more on the line of how he's utilized because I think we all know that

He has a particular skill set that can be extremely valuable. We just don't know exactly how he's going to be used and if he's going to be able to show that off a whole lot. And then I'm still going to go Travis Hunter because I think he might be the best overall football player in college football. I think that in and of itself is an interesting debate, by the way, but...

I'll go Cam Coleman, Harold Perkins, Travis Hunter, and the fact that there's no offensive lineman on there. Yeah, that's pretty sickening. Wow. I thought you were going like Francis Maui Noah, right tackle at Miami. I would have probably gone like Ernest Green, Will Campbell. There we go. And then obviously Booker would probably be up there as a guy I'm excited to see. But I intentionally left some alignment off there. Okay. We could do that a whole different top three.

Sounds good. Gregory? Greg gets mad when I list offensive linemen in my page. That's not true. I wouldn't say I get mad, but I do get irritated, which is perfectly fine. Number one is Iko Iamalaeva. What? Yeah, just the hype. I mean, the hype is crazy. It's a lot. And it might be justified. I don't know. I mean, that's the whole thing.

I just don't know. I'd love to tell you, hey, I guarantee you he's going to be fill in the blank. And I just can't do that. I feel good about him. I think he's got a nice skill set. People I talk to are real excited about him. He's one. Number two, Cam Ward, Washington State, formerly, now at Miami. I just want some people to think about some things.

Remember the hype that Texas was getting going into the season last year and people were like, no, you can't say that. They haven't won anything yet. This way, you see. If you really look at the roster, Miami's roster is really close. Could they be this year's Texas? I think the answer is closer to yes than no. We can discuss that later.

A little bit later on, so he would be number two. And at number three, I'm going Cam Rising. Three-quarterback shouldn't come as a huge surprise. Cam Rising being out all of last year was really one of the more disappointing storylines probably in the sport. And Utah now being in a new league with a bunch of teams that are real similar. I mean, there's going to be a lot of parity in the Big 12, I think, at the top. So...

That's going to be real fascinating to me as well. So those would be my three. John Saber. Number three for me is Luther Burden III because he has a chance to look like Jamar Chase, to look like – pick your bar receiver from the NFL or that we've seen from Alabama or LSU lately. He has a chance to look like that. He just –

If he gets similar to the same quarterback plays he got last year, which I think he should, but the running game is going to be questionable. But even still, you have a stud wide receiver in the league that, yeah, okay, I'm going to see this guy ball out. Number two, Shador Sanders, because we all expect him to be relatively highly drafted a year or so from now.

But it's going to be very interesting if he has a Joe Burrow type year or if he has a Spencer Rattler type of year. And Spencer Rattler in the sense that he played well, it's just he didn't have all that much whatever around him and everyone just kind of wrote him off. But if you really look at it, Rattler actually played pretty well last year. He just didn't have all that much around him. And I get the feeling that might be the sense of what is at Colorado. Number one is Jalen Milrow.

Because we know the talent's there, but now it's a new system. But we've seen what that system can do to quarterbacks. It just got Pinnock to the Falcons. So to see what this offense could do with a skill set like Jalen Monroe has, I'm excited to watch that.

I like that. Everybody kind of went in a different direction. Number three for me, only because he's in a new spot, and I'm interested to see what is he really going to be able to do because he's got a lot of tread on the tires. That's running back Quinshawn Judkins now at Ohio State. We saw what he was able to do when he was at Ole Miss and –

I think the big team is going to be really excited to see what he has to offer. I think Ohio State, for the expectations of what they're going to accomplish with the best team that they pretty much have put together on paper,

I think Quinshawn Judkins could probably be one of those guys we talk about at the end of the year as hoisting that Heisman Trophy. I know he plays running back, and it's kind of unlikely, but I think he'll be in the conversation. Number two for me, I got Travis Hunter. I want to see what his offensive workload is going to look like because I know what he's going to do on the defensive side.

It's just, all right, how many snaps are you really going to give him on the offensive side and just letting him make plays? And if he's got the endurance to do it for another year. And number one, I agree with Greg. I got Nico at number one. I'm interested to see what this Tennessee offense is going to look like. Are they going to rectify all the wrongs that they had with Joe Milton in the inconsistency in the past game? I mean, we saw what Nico was able to do with his legs against Iowa. Again, it's just a bowl game. But we get a full season of it in that Josh Hypo offense. So Nico would be my number one.

I think all good lists and all interesting characters when you're talking about why you would want to watch them, why you'd be excited about seeing them. There are a lot of different guys. And like when you brought up Quinn Sean Judkins, it's I'm almost more excited to see him in that particular offense than I am just him as a player. I think he would be a good player no matter where you put him, really, and no matter what offense. But that offense can create space and give you big running lanes, you

I don't know, Greg, how many more would you say would be ahead of it? I mean, outside of a triple option offense, I mean, you're going to have the misdirection, eye violation aspect of that offense is going to give him an opportunity to have a lot of explosive runs. And now I think he's going to share the workload. But he's definitely a guy that would be on that list. I mean, the Tennessee thing Greg and I were talking about during the break, for me, it's past quarterback as to why I'm gaining confidence in what Tennessee could be, maybe this upcoming season.

And I just wonder, I have questions for that offense of how much can be added with a new quarterback and then how much is just having to get him on page on par with sort of a lot of the basics of the offense. I don't know how advanced the offense is going to be compared to what they were last year, the last two, three years. And I don't know how advanced the offense can be. Is there a part of you, Greg, that looks at the Tennessee offense and just kind of says, well, this is what it is. And.

They are difficult to manage because they do these things and they're either doing well or they're not. And you can either defend it or you can't. Because there's an aspect of that offense that I view that way. And I'm not saying it's that black or white, that do or die. But how much can that offense really advance? Like how much can you add, subtract from it? How different can it be than what it was last year? I don't view that it can be all that different than what it's been over different years. Well, I mean, the offense is going to be.

The offense is going to be how the quarterback runs it. I mean, that offense is so quarterback dependent, and that's, I think, part of the problem with it is while their running numbers look good last year, it's still almost exclusively dependent on whether or not your quarterback can create big plays, hit big plays, all those other aspects. So I don't know. I've always kind of been a little interested in

Hey, if your quarterback doesn't have it one day, you need to make sure that you have other guys that can step up and do things. That offense just doesn't present those opportunities. It's kind of wild to really think about it. And I think John brought up an interesting one with Jalen Milrow because I do think there's a lot of the college football world that has just said, hey, that's going to be fine. That's going to be great. That's going to work. As John stated, what that offense did for Mike Penix Jr.,

There are some unknowns. And people might not want to admit that or discuss that or believe that or talk about that, but it isn't a given. The offense is. The offense works. We've seen it work with multiple guys that have different skill sets. But him in that offense, we don't know exactly how that's going to be, how that's going to work out. So I do think that's a very interesting selection also. That's part of the reason why I said it, because I imagine it'll be good and fun and it'll work.

But it worked last year, but I also assume it's going to be somewhat different. So what am I going to see? I guess that I'm excited because it's unknown as opposed to, you know, some people kind of worry and fear the unknown. I know it's going to be good, if not great. So what am I going to see? That's what I'm excited for. Some of the hows and whys. Yeah. He's as or more successful this year as he was last year. It's all interesting stuff. It's all why we're excited about it. It's all why we love college football. Yeah.

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Is that accurate? And what ending did people want? That's the biggest question that I have, because that's the biggest question that people had when I shared on social media that I was finished with it. So I want to know, what did you think it should be? And we'll discuss it right after this on McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. This is McElroy and Kubelik in the morning.

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