7-22-24 McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Hour 1: SEC Media Days fallout; Paul Finebaum talks Lane Kiffin & SEC; naming Alabama's field after Nick Saban
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This jocks 94.5 podcast is brought to you by Millennium Satellite and Video. Log on to msbnow.com. TV excellence everywhere. That's Millennium. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning starts now. All right, welcome in McElroy and Kubelik in the morning, Monday, July 22nd, 7 a.m. right here on jocks 94.5.

Appreciate you guys being with us. Everybody back in studio from SEC Media Days. A couple things you may have missed. A couple things we want to sort of recap from SEC Media Days. We'll get through that today. 33 days till kickoff. You just heard the voice of God tell us there in the break. That kind of doesn't feel real, GMAC, to be honest with you. It doesn't, it doesn't. Right around the corner. But we know once we get through Media Days, like, that's it. That's the final countdown. Yeah.

But I also feel like, like you said, media days is kind of the ultimate, I don't know, kicking off of the season. I don't know if the fact that it's just a couple weeks away is not that surprising to me. So a couple of things that I feel like we missed, I want to get through that over the course of media days. You've had a little bit of, first off, how was the weekend? It was good. We had a great weekend. We went to the lake, enjoyed our time at the lake, had our in-laws down, and we had a

But I got to get my life together. You know what I mean? I've been saying that for a while. I feel like I've been saying that for a while. I've been in pretty decent shape. I don't feel like I'm out of shape, but I weighed 234 this morning. It's just things like that. How good or bad is that for you? I have no idea. That's high for me. I don't know. That's high for me. Where do you live usually? I'd like to live at 220 or less, but I don't know if that's necessarily reasonable or to be expected.

used to like to live around 215 so 220 i feel like it's giving myself a little bit of a little bit of grace but to be heavy going into the season is never good so i gotta i gotta really trim up the next few weeks but we'll get there we um we you and i were not live on friday and i'm gonna say thankfully because i'm gonna be real with you guys i would have been beyond worthless if i would have attempted to do a live show on friday um

Greg got out a little bit before I did. I got out a little bit later. Friday was on the desk until 3, and I kind of figured it was Auburn Day, so they might ask me to do some stuff. So I booked a little bit of a later flight. Got delayed a little bit getting out of Love Field and then got to Atlanta. We were supposed to leave Atlanta at 10-11. That turned into 10-50, which turned into 11-40, which turned into like 12-10 departure time.

So put me... Trying to figure out when you booked your flight. Did you book it like the day before? I don't understand when you booked it. When did you book it? Because I was looking at my flights between Southwest and between...

I know you don't like Southwest. I get that. Well, I love Southwest. Southwest is awesome. Yeah, they're awesome. Yeah, man. That's why the league spent all that money. Yes. But I didn't – I'd be surprised if you had to take Delta to Dallas. That's really hard. That's really, really challenging. I can't believe you got home at 1 o'clock in the morning. I wanted to get there – well, keep in mind, I was supposed to get home at like 1020. Or maybe it was even like 950 originally, which would have been fine.

And this is, keep in mind, pre all the stuff that happened on Friday. And I talked to multiple people that were still in Dallas on Friday, and there's a couple of them that finally just said forget it and ran in a car and drove home, which I probably would have done that right out of the gate. From Dallas? Greg, if I would have seen a photograph of Hartsfield International Airport with those airplanes lined up in their parking spots that they're never in –

All of them completely grounded, and I saw a tweet from Delta that said, we have grounded everything internationally. I would have said goodbye. We're not waiting on this. Oh, from Atlanta, yeah. No, from Dallas I would have driven home. That deal that happened Friday morning, there's no way I would have waited around on that. And I kind of know Kirk Sampson was out there, and I was texting with him, Auburn SID, and he was –

He's like, yeah, we're going to wait it out. We're not going to drive yet. But a couple people, like he said, there were a couple of people from ESPN, like technically some camera folks and whatnot that said they were probably going to drive home. I wouldn't have waited that thing out. No way. That would have been surprising if you could have gotten a car late. But either way, we missed that. And I was supposed to be home around 10-ish, either a little bit before or a little after, and got home, walked in my door after 1.30. So wife had to go out of town. She wakes me up at 7 Friday morning and was like,

See you. Friday was a rough day. That's weird. But yeah, we made it through the weekend. We survived. It was fun. Good to be back with the fam. Missed them. But I don't know. Greg and I were talking about it before the show. Media Day just feels like a lot more nowadays. I don't know what it is. It's a lot. But I still think that there are some minute takeaways there.

that we kind of didn't catch that I wanted to discuss a little bit further, maybe even revisit some of that audio that we had and just kind of react to it. Was there a team that you, I don't want to say drastically or dramatically, but anybody change your mind on them while you were there? Or was there anything that changed or like improved perception?

That could be one. I mean, you still change. I mean, if there's a team you feel better about than you did before, I still think that's different. That changed. Like there were a few things that I was surprised about that you and I have talked about a little bit that people still are just either not on or don't understand or don't pay attention to. A perfect example. I sat around last night or yesterday afternoon before I recorded my podcast and I was thinking about the amount of interviews I did. I counted up 19 interviews that I did.

At media days, like not our show, not people we had. Not one person asked me about Jarcrest Hunter. Not a single one. Oh, you're talking about like when you're on Radio Row and stuff. Correct. Podcasts and Radio Row. And I just, that's one thing that you and I have kind of been talking about and trying to hammer. Like, why are we forgetting about this kid? Like, why is nobody talking about this guy? 6.7 per carry that leads all active SEC rushers. Leading rusher returning in the SEC. Like, talk to Freeze about him. Freeze is like, yeah, we're going to ride him. Like, he's going to be our guy.

But for some reason, nobody wants to talk about it. Tennessee defensive line, you and I have been talking about for a while. I brought that up to multiple people, and they were kind of like, man, yeah, it might be pretty good. I was like, wow. I figured just the James Pierce thing, like everybody would be on him just because of James Pierce.

And it's not even that that is the reason that I think they're going to be pretty good. I think it's mostly the interior guys that they have. But it's amazing that there are certain things that people just still kind of refuse to believe, I guess, when you're at media days. Yeah, I mean, some people just – let's be real. A lot of the people that are there aren't very good at covering college football. I didn't say that. Hold on a second. I'm going to be honest with you. Look, I have a lot of friends there, but they cover their professional sports team and their professional sports town.

They're not all in on college football. They read the treetop narratives. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. There are a lot of people there that do college football all the time, but they're not in the national sense. And they're going to write stories about Billy Napier on the hot seat, the fact that Saban's leaving, and Kalen DeBoer stepping in. They're going to write about what Kirby Smart had to say, and they're going to write about

You know, Texas is welcoming what Texans know you in the SEC. And that's what the national guys are there for. And let's be real. I mean, as far as, like, size, how much coverage is Auburn getting nationally? Like, 20th biggest? I don't know. I don't know where they'd be as far as, like, fan base size. I don't know. I have no clue. So I think a lot of people that don't cover the sport, like, day in, day out, aren't going to be all in on Jarquez Hunter. And that's not a reflection on them. They're just doing their job.

We dive a touch deeper. I mean, I don't even hear any analysts talk about Jarquez Hunter. No. That we work with. So we're going to dive a little deeper because we have a three-hour show to serve this audience every week. But it's just our job is different than theirs. So I don't really blame anybody. And I don't expect people to know the defensive tackles at Tennessee. That, to me, God's honest truth. I think only you would know that. I don't know them by name. I'm not going to try to say. I could probably tell you.

I think that group's going to be pretty decent. I couldn't go through there four deep. Well, there's Reggie White. Yes, Reggie White's there. The guy from, I don't know, he hit me out of bounds one time. He's there. Albert Hainsworth? Albert Hainsworth, yeah. John Henderson? There we go. John Henderson's there. Probably a couple others. It's kind of a dry spell. One of them was there, like Mark Thomas.

Omar Norman Lott? I don't know. It's that depth that they have there that I feel like is worth talking about. I'm not saying it's not. I'm just saying I think you might be the only person at Media Days that would know

Every single one that would be in the rotation, which is credit to you. Can I ask your opinion on something that I did at media days that for some reason didn't make a lot of people mad at media days, but is making a lot of people mad like the last 24 hours? The cowboy hat? No, actually, I'll tell you guys a funny story about the cowboy hat in a minute. Okay.

Somehow my top five offensive lines, we discussed it on the show the morning after I did it. Apparently some other folks made their own graphics of it and started putting it out Saturday. So yesterday and Saturday it kind of got going. There's some cat that claims to be an agent that went to Alabama that's really mad at me now. He said that I'm putting my feet in the ground for being wrong last year, so I'm going to make it right this year. That's how I operate, I guess. I don't know.

Yeah, because it's totally dependent on what last year was like. That's usually what I go for. I'm being accused of engagement farming, which I'm not even 100% sure what that is. How do you water that? But I also feel like the people that respond to graphics and say I'm engagement farming, like shouldn't you say like successful crop grown? I mean like you just engaged.

So you sold it at the farmer's market. Your accusation is actually accurate. Gotcha. Now, I guess I don't understand what not having Alabama in my top five. Gotcha. And I feel like I've done a very fair job, Greg, of explaining Caden Proctor was not a great player last year. You could argue he wasn't even a good player last year. No Bama fan that would disagree with that. But they're all saying that it's an upgrade this year because he's back.

He is your two. I'd hope he's better. Well, he's moved twice, and he hasn't practiced. He hasn't put a pad on since January 1st of this year. That's concerning to me. Also, a guy that had a bit of a weight problem coming in. That's concerning to me. Sinner, we think is a pretty good player. Hadn't really been in and out of the facility. Don't know how long he's been with, how long he hasn't been with. I feel like from a continuity standpoint, somebody who needs to be bigger and stronger for this league, it's a minor concern for me. So...

So I think the two guards are great. Absolutely. If Brailsford had been there the whole spring and everything was just all systems go, I'd be like, yeah, pretty good. But I'm not going to put him ahead of LSU. Probably not going to put him ahead of Georgia.

You can make an argument about a couple of the other teams. Like, I understand why the Alabama fans are mad at me because I have Missouri ahead of them right now. Because they have like this guy is mad at me. He's he can't name a Missouri offensive lineman probably ever in the history of Missouri football. So that's OK. That's OK. I'm fine with that. But just how outrageous to you is it that they are not in my top five?

Right now. One, remind me who the top five are. See if there's one that I really disagree with. Well, I mean, we mentioned right out of the gate. Texas. It would be LSU. LSU. Number one, you have no issues there, I guess, right? No, LSU, Texas are one, two. Texas. Texas would be up there, of course. Are they two? Texas, I think, was two. I got to go find it again, honestly. All right. All right.

engagement farming. You don't even remember what it was. Don't even remember. Those crops have already been gone, man. We're onto a new one. Of course. What's next? Sorry, Georgia was two, Texas was three, Tennessee four, and Missouri five. I mean, I think those are all fine. I mean, I don't have like a huge issue with it. I'd probably say that if you're going to put Bama in, who do you put them over? I would put Missouri probably ahead of Tennessee.

No, and when Dusty and I were on the desk, he said, I think I might have Bam in instead of Tennessee or Missouri. And I think he had another different team in outside of that. He didn't have those two teams in. And I said right there, I was like, I'd be fine with it. It's just right now I have concerns about who's been there, who hasn't been there, and how they're going to work together. That's it. That's all I said. I don't think anybody in the nation has been more complimentary of Tyler Booker than I have, honestly, for a longer period of time. That's not a humble brag. It's just –

Like, I can remember when the kid played like five or eight snaps a game. And I was like, why is this kid not starting? Because he didn't have anything like him when he first started rolling in and out. But the best offensive line, it's continuity, it's understanding, it's playing together. Like, that's a big part of it. So that's why I had what I had. How dare you. Then again, how dare you. I mean, like, right tackle might be a problem, too. I mean, I don't know that for sure. They lost the first round pick last year, and that –

I don't know a single Bama fan that would look at last year's offensive line. That is level-headed. I don't care about Twitterverse. I'm talking about a level-headed Bama fan that said, man, I really trust our offensive line this year. If you watch them last year, man, they were a real liability at times. I got a couple I can show you that aren't. And the best part was they countered me with PFF has Bama at number one. You knew you won at that point.

That was a personal victory, by the way. Yes. I mean, I think guard to guard, they're probably going to be as good as anybody. I feel pretty good about that.

I do think tackle's a question mark. I don't think that's a negative, by the way. I think the staff probably views it as a question mark. Cain Parker being back's great. At least you have experience in the position, as opposed to breaking into guys that hadn't played a lot before. I think Pritchett will be fine. And you and I talked about it. That tight end group's going to help those tackles a lot. Tight end's going to help a lot. They're an enforcing group. They're all 255. They're not great runners, but they're all pretty physical at the line of scrimmage. Dupree's the best runner, and he's not a great runner. So...

Yeah, I mean, I think that they have a chance to be pretty good. I don't know if I would have them as top five for sure. I could definitely make a case that they should be ahead of Tennessee, for sure. I can definitely make the case they could be in front of Missouri. But I can't make a case that they're in front of the top three. No chance. Not right now. Not with what's back and what I've seen that group do. Those groups do, collectively. Those three return a lot of good players and

have pretty dang good depth, too, behind them. So that wouldn't – those three, I think, are kind of in a different league as it compares to where the offensive line ranks across the board. The other part you consider – I think it's funny that people are debating offensive line. People don't watch offensive – people don't know what they're talking about. It's offensive line. If you want to debate quarterbacks, I think a lot of people do understand what quarterback's supposed to do, what they're supposed to look like, wide receiver, how it's supposed to be played.

You can even tell who the best defensive linemen are because they're the ones that are causing the most disruption. The average casual can watch that and be able to tell. My grandmother, who's 90 years old, can tell you which defensive lineman's best. Oh, it's the one that's really making a lot of plays in the opponent's backfield. She can tell you that. Guess what? It takes a trained eye.

He'll be able to evaluate offensive line play. Here's how this went. Tyler Moody added the graphic from PFF or the link from PFF and said, Atko Kublik doesn't even have any of his top five, to which I said, opinion further reinforced. Good. Brandon Greenberg then decided to respond. Bio, emoji football NFL agent, emoji elephant, Bama alumnus 2X, emoji person screaming Montgomery made trademark.

You got burned so bad last year by an overhyped and overrated position coach and a ridiculous philosophy to have slow, over-bulked linemen that you are really going to dig your heels in here and look stupid in the process. No team has a better middle three. No team. I mean, but it takes five.

No. No. This is not the arena league. By the way, we have a champion. I'm all for it. I'm all for it. Look, I think the middle three is phenomenal. I love Booker. I love his personality. I love everything there is to love about the internal three. I think Brailsford is going to transition nicely. I'm not worried about him being slightly undersized. He's another year older. Hopefully he's gained some weight. Didn't practice in the spring, but I feel pretty confident and

Could be a very good player. Yeah, I think he's got a chance to be a really good player. I think the internal three are rock solid. I've got no concerns. But I can tell you who I'm not taking a lot of information from as it relates to offensive line play collectively. Social media. I'm just being real. Unless you're watching the tape, which PFF does, I'm not sure what they're watching it with sometimes because it ain't their eyes. Yeah.

You have to watch the tape tight copy and tell me how these guys' steps are, how their pad leverage is. These things take a trained eye. I know ball well. I'm good at ball. I understand it. Offensive line play, to me, requires more work than pretty much anything else.

So if these guys are willing to put in the time and the work and watch the tape, and not just watch tape of their own team, watch tape of Missouri and Tennessee and all these other teams that you're ranking them up against. If you're putting a ring together, you better have watched all of them. That's what always annoys me. It's like, oh, hey, this is a top five group. All right, tell me the list of the groups. Well, watch five. Watch all of them because I think you need to watch Vanderbilt too.

If they're amongst the group that's being considered, they need to be watched. I'm not going to vote on the Academy Awards and not watch all the movies that are up for it. That would be irresponsible. So, I don't know. I think it's important. When they go to the Olympic Games, they don't just let five people run in the 100. You have to qualify through multiple heats to be able to run in the final, in which it's the ultimate meritocracy. So, I trust that Cole's done the work, and I believe that his list, if that's how he believes it,

It's pretty accurate, but you can probably make an argument that four should be five or five should be three or five should be four or six should be four or whatever it might be. Those are pretty dang close and probably interchangeable. I did feel like it was just one that I wanted to share from Tyrone who responded, of course, you do a great job of analyzing talent, form and alignment yourself, but Bama has to have a better group of guys than at least Missouri on that list. So he literally just called himself out?

epitomizing butt Bama there. Actually put it in the tweet. Usually I have to assume that you mean butt Bama, but actually went ahead and typed out butt Bama there for us. Well, I will say this. It is kind of nice too. You can have the butt Bama angle to it. It is nice to know that

People aren't suggesting that Nick Saban's playing left tackle and him being gone is now this offensive line. How can they play together? I had to deal with some of that last week. It's like Nick Saban's not there. How are they going to score points? I don't know. Nick Saban's not there. How are they going to defend? I don't know. Nick Saban's not there. How are they going to win five? I don't know. You have to find a way. It'd be tough.

All right, so we'll discuss all that and more with Paul Feinbaum next right here on 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 Jock Tap or wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, welcome back in. Michael Rowan Kublik in the morning. 7.23 a.m. right here on JOX 94.5. He joins us each and every week. Thanks to our friends at Crane Works. You can see him on ESPN, the SEC Network. Here on 2 to 6 p.m. right here on JOX 94.5 weekdays, it's Paul Feinbaum. Lift it, load it, grade it, grind it.

Paul Feinbaum on Back in 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, great to catch up with you again. Great to see you last week. I asked Greg this a little bit earlier, and I'll kind of ask you. Was there a team or even a part of a team that you changed your opinion on based on conversations you had, what you heard, what you saw last week at SEC Media Days?

I don't know. In talking to Josh Heifel and a couple of the Tennessee people, I probably am a little more optimistic about the Volunteers. I've always felt they were in that next group after the three or four that we talk about, but I think they're maybe closer to that first group than the second tier. So I think after the obvious, the ones we talk about every day, I think they have the next best shot to make the playoffs.

When you look at years past, Paul, you've been covering this event for a long time. Has there ever been a situation where you just didn't read it the right way? Where you thought, hey, I thought a team was going to be this. You went all in and the next thing you know, they ended up being terrible. Has there ever been one that you feel like you kind of missed on?

Well, a lot of times. Greg, I've got, I think, what was it, 2001 or 2000, maybe 2000, whatever Mike DeBose's last year was, they were number three in the country opening the season in the Rose Bowl.

And I think they went three and eight. So I would say that would start my list of missed calls. The Auburn one a couple years ago, was it 11 years ago? And I took some heat. I said, I thought Auburn really could have a seven and five record maybe. And I remember some of the national colleagues looked at me like I was crazy. And they ended up

within one play of the national championship. But I think the most noteworthy in recent years was 2015, when a lot of us thought Auburn had an excellent chance at winning the SEC, and they crashed and burned. Paul Feinbaum with us on the Buyer's Right Hotline joins us every Monday, thanks to Crane Works. Did you see this sort of Lane Kiffin heat coming? I had no idea that there was anything going on between you guys.

Yeah, listen, guys, you know me. I never want to end what looks like the feud of the media days, but let me give you a fact or two. We interviewed Kiffin like everyone interviewed Kiffin on Monday. I think we talked to him at about 545.

He said what he said, and it was the exact same thing he said when I was with him in Oxford last year and a previous appearance and a previous appearance. Why on Thursday that became the story of the week other than Nick Saban, I have no real idea. I'm entertained by it. But I think it shows this dichotomy between reality and the aggregated viral social media world that we live in.

What is there history there that we don't know about? I mean, what's going on? Well, Greg, it's not a recent history, I can assure you, because really, Kiffin and I this week were very friendly off the air. I gave him personal condolences on his dad, and we had communicated quite a few times over the last two or three weeks. What he did is what he always does with me. He goes back to 2013.

And he relitigates the famous appearance I had on game day when I called him the Miley Cyrus of college football. But he used that as the precursor and then started just kind of joking about all the times I was ruling and writing Nick Saban off, which I was not even paying attention to him. I mean, I just said, okay, I've heard this before, I've heard that before, and

And I laughed, and it was a little more somber because of his personal circumstances. And we left, and we shook hands, and we said goodbye. It's amazing. I felt we were good until I looked at Twitter and found out we weren't. Both time bomb with us.

On the Buyers' Right Hotline, George is here every Monday. Thanks to Crane Works. What was your assessment of Coach Saban? I know we saw him a little bit at the draft, but we saw a lot more of him here at Media Days. And Laura told us a story on Thursday about how frustrated he was day one by not working enough and wanted to work more. And then they revamped his schedule for Tuesday. How would you assess kind of, I guess, Coach Saban's full sort of dive into college football media work?

Well, Greg worked with him a lot more than I did, but I was just in awe in watching him. I was doing a lot of stuff in the morning while you guys were in the other room, and so I had a chance to interview him on our show, but the only time I came in full gear with him was a Wednesday night. Greg and I were doing a show with Laura, and

And the weirdest thing is you're sitting there on that desk, and Greg knows this better than I do, and Laura goes to Coach Saban and goes down to Greg and whoever else was with us, and they get to me, and I'm thinking to myself, do I really want to answer this question with Nick Saban sitting five feet away from me when I'm talking about his former team? So I found myself almost...

After being asked a question, asking him the same question, and Greg, I don't know about you, he seemed more than happy to answer. Yeah, he didn't. It was strange that he would make a comment

And you're expected to follow up, not necessarily disagree, but maybe take it in a different direction because it feels like he should have the final word. You know what I mean? It's like how he should have the first word and the final word. We can fill in and color in the blanks because we're TV people, maybe with some names and maybe he didn't. You know, he's not great. I don't think he looks at it like a coach. He's not going to be real intent coach.

on trying to figure out what players names are he's gonna be like they're good on the edges of the defense that's pretty much it uh we'll color in we'll color things in though i'll be around it so i think he's going to be great i think it's a lot of fun to kind of be with them in that setting i hadn't spent that much time with them in a long time so i was i enjoyed it did you have any interaction with him off the air that you could enlighten us to

Well, I think the funniest thing is we talked about it later when I was on Get Up one morning, and I was just having fun just talking about how this last six months has been the worst six months of my life without Coach Saban. And they played it for him. And, you know, instead of taking it in the spirit that I meant it, like it was in deference to him, like all of our lives had been ruined. He took it as Nick Saban. He took it, okay, he took it as a competitive coach and responded by saying, well, you know,

I'm not concerned about him. I mean, he's tried to ruin my life the last 17 years. But that's just who he is. He views everything through that prism. I joked with him later when he came up to me. I said, when are you opening in Las Vegas on your comedy tour? And I think he thought it was funny. I'm not sure. But we had a couple of other interactions, but

By the way, Greg, tell me if I'm wrong, but I saw the same entourage around him in the green room that I did when he was walking into a stadium. He had a group around him that literally never left. I thought it was pretty funny, but I think he had fun with it. He was in coaching mode, and even when we were doing the show we were doing, he had the rundown in front of him. He had all the notes, and

And he noticed very quickly that we didn't do what we were supposed to do. So I just, I had a great time with it, but I wonder what type of, how he's going to react with the producers because he is a perfectionist and they better be as well.

Paul Feinbaum joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline. Before we let you run, getting a little bit away from SEC media days, there was a little bit more chatter last week about Florida State and them seemingly not having a home right now. And the damage that they've already done to themselves in the ACC might not be able to be undone. With a little bit of new information coming out, how do you see the future for Florida State Athletics?

I think today is going to be fascinating when they appear at ACC Media Days. There's some reporting this morning, as you guys know, that they are probably not going to file by this deadline in a couple weeks that they want out of the league right now. But I don't think that was really a surprise. They don't have a route out.

But I think ultimately they are going to get out. There's just too much legal maneuvering and too much shrapnel flying. But I still don't think they're any closer to a home.

I think a lot of people thought the Big 12 was a good place for them, but it's really not. That's not what they want. They want the SEC or the Big 10. And I don't think you can absolutely say, well, hey, just because the SEC and the Big 10 don't seem to want them right now, they won't end up. I think the SEC and the Big 10 look at it as if,

okay, maybe we really don't want them electively, but if the other guy wants them, then suddenly do we have to play defense? So I think that's really where they are. In a year of screaming and hollering and going to court and making a lot of noise, I'm not sure Florida State has really moved the ball one yard from where they were a year ago. Paul, always great stuff. Always appreciate the time. Look forward to catching up with you again next week.

A pleasure, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Paul Feinbaum, ESPN, the SEC Network, and here, right here, 2 to 6 p.m. weekdays on JOX 94.5. We'll follow up a little bit of that, media days that are coming up this week, some of the storylines, and more next right here on McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. The capital of the sports talk nation. This is JOX 94.5 and joxfm.com. Hurry and... All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning.

7.37 a.m. Monday, July 22nd here on JOX 94.5. We're going to move on to some of the other media days that are happening this week. Paul mentioned ACC media days. Also, American media days gets going today. UAB is going to be in attendance for that. Trent Dilfer, Michael Moore, linebacker and quarterback Jacob Zeno will be there. We'll give you anything that comes about from that over the course of the week.

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at ABS, Great Customers for Life. It's going to be interesting, Greg, just to see what some of the conversation is. Florida State will be at ACC Media Days today along with Georgia Tech and SMU. Tuesday, you'll get Pitt, Virginia Tech, Cal, Stanford, and Virginia. Wednesday, you'll get Miami, Louisville, Boston College, Duke and Wake. Thursday, NC State, Syracuse, Clemson, North Carolina.

Based on what Paul was referencing, a little bit of new information coming out this morning. What's the latest that people should know about Florida State and sort of where they are as it pertains to being in or out of the ACC? I think they're doing everything they possibly can to get out. It's just I don't know if the lawyers take time and they're billing by the minute. I'm not sure they're going to be in a huge hurry to get to a conclusion here.

Because ultimately the conclusion they're going to get to is they're going to pay an exorbitant amount of money to get out, just a matter of how much. I'm not sure anybody knows the answer to that. Yeah, and according to Pete Damel 15 minutes ago, he says he's been told by multiple sources there's no expectation for Florida State or Clemson to notify the ACC they intend to leave by the August 15th deadline to depart after the upcoming year. That's the deadline to declare intentions to exit for the 25-26 year.

But the thing that I continue to hear at SEC Media Days, Greg, that I don't think a lot of folks have really had a long discussion about is the damage that has already been done by Florida State. There was the one quote that McMurphy told us about that essentially they're not viewed now as a good drafting partner, so to speak, that there are a lot of people that just kind of in general don't want to do business with them with how this whole thing's been handled. Right. And I think that –

They've proven themselves to be a bad partner. I mean, you can't shake that. I mean, then again, they get in the Big Ten. They get in the SEC. Would they be a bad partner? No. I can't imagine them being disruptive. They wouldn't have any place at the table. They don't have any skins on the wall in those two leagues. So I think they would probably just fall in line. But in the Big 12, I could see them being disruptive.

trying to throw their weight around a little bit. Couldn't you? Absolutely. Well, with how they've handled this situation, I mean, it wouldn't surprise me if they were to go into just about anywhere and start trying to –

you know, make their presence known and want things their way. Because we saw that there was a push for different revenue sharing in the ACC. Was that two years ago? Yeah. Where they wanted unbalanced revenue sharing for them. Clemson, I can't remember if anybody else was involved, that they thought deserved more. But obviously they thought that they and Clemson both did. And Clemson kind of took a little bit of a backseat on that. But it's, I don't know what their options are. So, yeah, you can't file that you're going to exit early when you have nowhere to exit to.

So I don't know how surprising it is. I think it's just surprising to hear based on all the other noise of potentially where they were going to go. But if you don't have a landing spot, then there's nothing to file for. But I also think they have an inflated sense of how important they are to the ecosystem that is cultural ball. I mean, they think that if they exit, then the SEC and the Big Ten will just bend over backwards to add them. And I don't know if that's the case. I don't know what size their fan base is. I can tell you.

If I pull this document up, but it's not as high on the list as one would like to think. They're number 14 or so in regards to football fan base. 14 right behind Michigan State. I mean, it's not like I'm talking about size of the fan base. So doesn't mean it's not big. That's big.

I mean, it's not popular, but it just puts you in perspective just a little bit. Yeah, it puts you in perspective a little bit. Arkansas is like 17. That would be the others that are kind of close. But I don't think anyone's bending over backwards. If they were Penn State, yeah, bend over backwards. Notre Dame, bend over backwards. Alabama, bend over backwards. Those are the...

teams with the biggest fan bases or so. I'm not in that order or anything, but just generally speaking. So, yeah, I would definitely be mindful of that moving forward.

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That's pretty cool that GMAC and I need to discuss. We'll do it right after the break 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 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. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. 800-239-9569. You want to get in, talk?

Top five offensive lines in the SEC. You want to get in and talk Florida State. Any other takeaways from SEC media days that we had? We'll share a couple that we felt like flew under the radar a little bit in the next hour of the show. And I mentioned something cool that's going to happen at Alabama. We'll get to that in just a moment. First, I want to tell you about my friends at Royal Automotive this summer. If you're looking for a new ride, it's got to be Royal Automotive. Royal's got all the trucks, cars that you need, SUVs.

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Nick Saban is going to have the field inside Bryant-Denny Stadium named after him on September 7th. Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium. This was the reaction from Coach Saban and Miss Terry on the Board of Trustees call late last week. Often that a coach's family has four generations left.

watching the games together, these exciting games at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and experiencing the Walk of Champions and our Million Dollar Band and Big Al and the lights at night and the big plays and the great hot dogs in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Four generations watching and cheering together. And being able to say, roll tide, after every first down. We will never forget that.

So it's going to be really cool to think about the field now being Saban Field, G-Mac. Just kind of your thoughts first and foremost of that reward that Coach Saban is going to get there inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. I mean, it's great. You know, symbolic. I mean, I wish you could put his name on the stadium. I wish you could put his name on the street. I'm not sure you can rename the university Saban Boulevard or whatever to go along with Bryant Drive.

which is obviously just south of campus. I would love for them to do more personally, but I think it's a good step. I don't know if you can name it Bryant-Denny Saban Stadium. That would be a lot. BDSS, that would be a lot. They did the same at Florida with Spurrier, but I don't feel like it's enough.

So hopefully there's more that can be done around the university to acknowledge his importance and how he helped the university kind of come into the 21st century. I think it's cool that you go ahead and do it, though. You go ahead and get it done and say, look, this is at least one landmark that we want to go ahead and honor you with and to be able to have him there to do it. I mean, so many times we've seen things like this done and that individual is not there to see it. I think that's going to be pretty cool for Coach Saban to actually be a part of it as well.

Yeah, I mean, it's great that that will be something that will be celebrated and it will be a huge deal. I'm sure there will be lots of former players that will go back for it, but it's not enough. Hopefully the tributes continue and there's more that can be done around campus.

And frankly, around the state. If you look at where Alabama was when he took over, 35% of the population were out-of-state students. The population was 26,000 undergrad. Now it's upwards of 40. The out-of-state student percentages are through the roof, which has allowed for more money for growth and expansion in research and the improvement of the academic experience.

experience to begin with. He did more for the university than anyone else in the university's history. I think as far as growing it and making it become more attractive nationally, I think that's something that should be acknowledged. Hopefully, he can continue on with that. I think college football's popularity has helped with that, of course. If Bear Bryant's

If there was more coverage of college football when Bear Bryant was coaching, I'm sure he would have done just as much. It would have been significant, of course. Probably attracting people from every corner of the country that would want to go to school at Alabama. So I don't think it's enough, but hopefully it's a good start.

to what should be a laundry list of tributes throughout the years. All right, so we'll ask you, do you think it's enough for Coach Saban to have the field named after him, like G-Mac said, a street name possibly? I'm sure there will be a facility, a building somewhere that will probably don his name as well. Stadium felt like a little busy, obviously, to add his name.

um i couldn't do that that's too much brian denny stadiums brian denny sabian stadium yeah you can't do it this could be a little bit of a lot but but i do agree with you that it's it feels like that's something that probably should be done and i i mean is it ever enough really i mean i i don't i do feel like sometimes we we we underserve actually everything that he has done for the university and just for everything around it and

Not just the wins, the SEC championships, some of the division titles. You line all those up, the players into the NFL, the high draft picks, the salaries there. And like you said, just raising the popularity of the university in general, something that I don't know if we could ever really place a true value on. No, that's where his impact is felt the most. Like the titles are great.

championships are awesome uh no one's going to overlook and under appreciate all the national championships sec titles guys getting drafted guys having better lives as a result of having gone to the program all that's accurate that's great but look at the popularity of the school look at the out-of-state enrollment it's outrageous when i got to school nobody nobody

Nobody in my high school went to Alabama. Nobody. I was the only one in several years. Now, my sister, when she went in 2011 or whatever, was one of nine. Now, Southlake's sending double digits to Alabama every year. That's just one school within a large metroplex of people there in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. So...

I mean, Coach Saban brought that part of the world, the financial aspects of the world, to Tuscaloosa. And you look at how Tuscaloosa has transformed for the better as a result of Coach Saban's presence. I mean, it's amazing. So I don't think that's enough. I hope that there's more that's done. And hopefully that'll be done sooner than later.

You know, it's going to be interesting to see kind of what else comes his way, what else could be done, because he obviously deserves a lot. And I don't know kind of where you stop or where you start, but it's, as Greg said, might not ever be enough, really. And having the field named after him is something that I feel like can be done right now. It hadn't been taken. But I do feel like there were some folks that were kind of immediately putting this down as to who's ever going to say that again.

And actually, I do think that a lot of the fields that that Don other coaches names, you do hear it. Not as much as the actual stadium's name, but it is it is a sign of respect. It was there and available. So at least you go ahead and give him that. And you kind of start from there.

And Mona be like spray paint or something on the field. So if you're watching the game, like you'll see it. It's going to be there. Yeah, always. And it'll be somewhere in the stadium as well. So and they already showed some of the renderings of when you're walking in, what it's going to look like, some of the signs that they're going to have. So, yeah, I mean, I don't.

I think it's at least a start to sort of celebrate the career of Nick Saban and what he did at Alabama. And still there, but just in a different capacity. All right, some of the takeaways from SEC media days that may have gone unnoticed. We'll discuss those next right here on Jocks 94.5. This is McElroy and Cubelik in the morning. At your job, do you ever have to deal with a nose roller? How about a snub pulley?

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