Roman Harper, SEC Network analyst & Alabama legend, tells McElroy & Cubelic why he hasn't really been impressed during SEC Media Days & what he truly thinks of teams like Arkansas & Mississippi State
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Live on Radio Row, SEC Media Days, Day 4. Roman Harper joining us now. What do you need? Volume up? Down? Volume down? And your mic's not on? Is my mic not on? Your mic is now on. Now it is? Yes, correct.

Great job, Greg. Just finishing up with Commissioner Sankey, who went a little bit long for us, so we'll back some things up. Brett McMurphy will be with us after Roman Harper. How's your week been so far? Bro, it's been good, man. You know, suits have been cleaned. Got to work with some talent like Greg McElroy. You have had good suits. I know I gave you a hard time yesterday with the pink. It was aggressive, but you have looked good.

It was disappointing, though, because he had that sitting there, and he chose to go with something else when we dressed up as Crockett and Tubbs for Halloween, and that was all he needed. Just the one he had yesterday. It was already there. You had it. I did. But you did go double-breasted for the costume, which was probably appropriate, so yeah. Yeah, it was more of the look, and it's fine. You know what I mean? But hey, we're never perfect, Cole. It's okay. We're all trying to get there. We're just trying to get there. We're never perfect, and we're never impressed, right? Yes, exactly. Have you been impressed by anything this week? Honestly, no.

No. No. I haven't at all. I've just continued to just form my own opinions about Leo. Just no. We were on set the other day, and Dusty and I are kind of talking offensive line, and Roman says –

Yeah, that all sounds really good, but I've got to be honest. I just don't care. Well said. Well said. He said, not only do I not know what you're talking about, I don't care what you're talking about. It's bad because I'm so just biased versus, like, center guard center. Like, I just hardly ever give those guys credit. They've got to be so dang good. Or bad. Or bad. And it's like – but it is so funny. But I love a left – I love a tackle. But a center guard center, I'm just like –

Guard to guard. Yeah, guard to guard. And they're so important. Anyone can play that. At least you can admit that now. They are important. We're making progress. They are important. Making some progress. I mean, there are more important positions. There's no doubt. 22 of them. Outside of kicker and putter, you're pretty close to the bottom. There you go.

We asked this question yesterday. Can't win without them, though. Because we were talking about the differences in some of the offenses and quarterbacks who may be great, some that we know are going to be great. And then we started talking defenses. And you heard me talking to Dusty about the other day. I don't know if you're with me that just we're used to having these monsters on the defensive line in this league. It just doesn't feel like there's a ton of them. Agreed. Are we going to have –

one or multiple great defenses in this league this year. Great defenses. That's the problem when people throw around the word great way too often. They just throw it out there like, oh, we're great. I mean, you're decent. You're decent. You got a couple dudes.

But that's all it is. Me and Cole have already decided it's not good anymore. Everything's either great or trash. Yeah. There is no in-between. I'm sure your kids are the same way. Greg's are probably a little bit young, but my son, my 7-year-old, you're either the best or the worst. And he comes and tells me who his friends try to tell him are trash.

Babe Ruth is trash. One of his friends told him that. One of his friends legitimately told him that. Babe Ruth is trash. I said, first off, has he seen the tape? No.

Ask him that. Ask him if you saw the tape. No. Because none of us have. No, my kids, they are pretty bad aggressive about that. But then it's also anybody that they see on YouTube or, like, whoever they have this huge dream of, that is, like, the best player ever. Like, my son still thinks Odell Beckham is the top three receiver in the league. Like –

Is he in the league? Yeah, and only tries to do one-hand catches. Who does he play for? Yeah, only tries to do one-hand catches. And I like Odell. I know him. But, I mean, yeah, but he's not a top three guy anymore. It's fine. But my son, top three. And he's also just like, Dad, where's your – Tyreek and –

I don't even think he's – no, Justin, Jay Jetta. Tyreek Hill is big with the kids, though. Yeah, yeah. He's big with the kids. But the kids all like Justin Jefferson, too, because he dances and he's flashy. Like, that's what they see on YouTube. My son has posters in his room.

And it's hilarious who he wanted. We got him. All right, buddy, you have eight posters. You can pick whatever sports guys you want, or you can put in Chase from Paw Patrol. None of us care. Whatever you want. You got eight. You got eight. There's room for eight. You just tell us which ones you want. Justin Jefferson, Tom Brady, Kelsey, of course, Mahomes, of course, Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Joe Namath.

Let's go. How random is that? It's a random list. What are we doing? Also, how much my kids wanted the Lakers to draft Bronny James really ticked me off because I'm a true Lakers fan. I'm not a LeBron fan. Like, I've been on the Lakers bus since I was like five, six. And so...

Now we have this thing called LeBron in our area, in our realm, and they wanted Bronny, and it really ticked me off. I yelled at my kids. Anyways. Did you hear him after the game last night? No. He had like 12 points. He had a decent game. He sounds exactly like his dad. Really? Exactly like his dad. I mean, I was listening to it thinking, is that LeBron talking about Bronny? I mean, it's odd how much he sounds like his dad. It is crazy. But we were at the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame banquet a couple weeks ago, and he says, Dad,

Is this the best Hall of Fame or the worst Hall of Fame? And I said, son, there is no worst Hall of Fame. I haven't heard of that. They're Hall of Fames because they were good at whatever it is. It could be the Hall of Fame of sewing. They were great sewers. He's like, well, I just wondered if it's the best one or the worst one. And I'm like, we got to get away from this whole best thing, worst. Like, you can be really good and not the best ever. It's okay. I want to know you guys' opinion on Arkansas because. Are you allowed to have a real opinion on Arkansas based on the things that we don't know?

I feel the same way about Mississippi State. The only thing we know is that Jeff Lebby is going to call some plays. And you like the quarterback too, right? Blake Chapin is going to be solid. Yeah, because he's actually played some games. He's got some stripes on the wall. And he's won some games. We try not to put too much into the spring game, but, man.

Mississippi State looked good offensively. I want to know about Arkansas. Like Kelly Akari and some of their receivers, it's not at high-profile places, but they've done it. They've been good players. I think the offensive line has got a chance to be pretty good for what he needs. He needs the tight end room to be good, and they've got some talented tight ends. So I feel pretty good about the offensive shape and stays healthy. Now, defense for State? They've got some problems. I just don't know. They're not very heavy, which is – They've got some problems. The other thing about Arkansas, though, like I think –

Heaven forbid you say this. Like, oh my God, I can't believe you don't say this and kiss the ring. I think they upgraded the quarterback significantly. I was not a KJ Jefferson guy. I'm just not. I don't think he's quick twitch. I don't think he's very accurate. I think he's super streaky.

When he gets going, he's a monster. Yeah. But I'll tell you what, dude. He might look like Cam in the first half and Jeremy Johnson in the second. Like, it ain't good. That's the third Jeremy Johnson reference you've made this week. What are you doing? It's a media day reference.

Ten years ago, it was the greatest. There's no doubt they had crowned him. There's no doubt they crowned him. I'm higher on KJ than that, but I thought the offensive play called it. I do, too. He's big. He's tall. He can run. And he can throw. He can roll left. He can get into the most important thing when it comes to playing quarterback. He can roll left and still throw the football.

Okay, because the throwing part is what I was waiting for you to talk about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he can do that. I've seen some that are not. Yeah, he definitely can do all those things. It'll be interesting because Bobby Petrino will be calling the plays, and so we hear a lot about that too. I think Arkansas is a team that could possibly be better than what people think. Like they could be that team that knocks a couple teams off. That's why I'm telling you. And be a four-win team.

I think five wins. But I'm saying four, five, six wins and be better than that, and people are still going to say that's a crummy team. But Arkansas. Oh, I thought you were talking about State for a second. I got sidetracked because I just read that the painter at the 50-yard line at the South Carolina Gamecocks, he died. He's been painting since 1983. Sorry. Damn. If Arkansas wins six –

And it depends a little bit on who it's against. That's a hell of a year. Yes. Seriously. If they get Texas at home or whatever in November, that would flip the switch tremendously for Sam, I think. I think Sam is really well-liked there, and I think they want to keep him. The problem is his expertise...

is the offensive line, and their offensive line has been really bad. It's actually fair. And that, I think, is what has – like talking to my people at Arkansas, that's a real holdup for them. They're like, hang on a second. The thing that you're best at has been one of our biggest problems, and that is a hard thing to kind of – and that's kind of killing them. So I do think Taylor Greene can help them with that a little bit, but if they can win six, there's no way you can let them go. And, Greg, the other thing for me is that he had –

a tumultuous offensive coordinator hired last year they hired his boy bad it when it was it was bad bad early they never got on track and they would look so much more explosive so much so much they played so much faster under kendall browse and then you go to that it just was not good and it got really bad uh like early and never got ever ever ever on track and so i think if they just get those things right i think they will be better defensively like they at least look

like they had a scheme defensively that I could know. And, like, when I saw it, I knew what I was looking at. And so I just think Arkansas. I'm rooting for Arkansas because Sam Pittman is such a great fit for the SEC. He's such a great fit for Arkansas. And, like, I just like marriages to work. Ole Miss is a team that I feel like is fading a little bit with getting a lot of conversation. They've had a lot of pieces defensively. Can that defense be –

I'm not going to say great. Can they be real this year? I think they can be real. I just – I don't think it's going to be about the players. Like, the players are going to have to make the plays, yes. But you know me, Cole, what I feel about Ole Miss' defense. May or may not have led you down that path. My question mark is always going to come back to my boy Petey, Pete Golden. And he's got to be able to call it right.

I don't need the weird stunts stunting me out of run gaps. I don't need it in the red zone. I don't need it. I don't need this bionic stunt up front in the low red zone and the quarterback just turns his head to running back and the D-lineman is just gone. I'm like, I don't need it. And we have seen that multiple times in multiple years. And so...

That's my only thing. It's all about havoc rate. You just need havoc rate. Whatever the havoc rate is. I don't need it. Don't chase it. Don't chase the havoc rate. Roman, great stuff, man. Thanks for hopping on with us. Good to see you, bro. Yeah, we'll be hanging out a little bit later. All right, baby. I'll see y'all, boys. Thanks for having me. Roman Harper with the SEC Network joining us live on radio. We'll be right back with Brett McMurphy next on Jocks 94.5. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kublik in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than –

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