BONUS EPISODE - College Football Showdowns, NFL Quarterback Concussions, and a Potential Bet Between an Alabama and a Certain Georgia Fan
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The Try That In A Small Town Podcast. Bonus episode. You know, we talk about Alabama football. Their next opponent is...

I don't know. Aldean's team. Oh, Georgia, really? Yeah. Wow. I don't know if this episode will come out before then, but we may have a recap of the game. So where is that game? It's in Tuscaloosa. Ooh. That's a big one. It might be a little tough on the dogs. Do you and Aldean? They did struggle with the cats. Do you guys have a working bet?

No, we don't. Maybe you should fix that. I know it. I'm wide open now that we all work together and we're all on the same team in the music business. I think we should come up with something. Oh, God, we need to. And I'm sure he'd be in for it. And then when UT comes? I'm usually on a thread with Jason, Luke Braun.

Who else is on that thread? Dallas, probably. Dallas is on there. Red Aikens is on there. Yeah, Tyler Farr is on there. There's a whole bunch. And I'm like the only Alabama guy. It's all Georgia guys. And there for a couple of years, we were kind of, you know, they were kind of silent. Last year, I was silent. You know, and well, no, it was a year before. And.

But I'd like to pick that back up again if we could. Jason, if you're listening. So, yeah, by the time this episode comes out, that game will have been played, right? Yes, probably, yes. It's kind of fun knowing that. And I may or may not have this helmet on again. Yours too next week. You know what? If Georgia wins the episode that comes out after that game or whenever it comes out, I will wear Georgia clothes.

Oh. Oh. I will. Wow. I will do it. And this goes out to Aldean. If Alabama wins, he's got to come on here again and wear some crimson. Well, he's not here to accept that. So does it worry you with the dogs having a little bit of a fight this last weekend? It makes me feel like they will be more than ready.

Oh, they will be. I think they were looking ahead. Yeah, I'm the same way. Like, it's easy. And college football, when I'm learning my very limited knowledge of it is, I mean, look at Notre Dame. Oh, gosh. They went down to an unranked team. Sure did. They come back and, you know, maybe it is easy to look ahead at those games that are, that give me games, you know? So I'd be, are you worried about,

What do you think? No, I'm not worried a bit. I'm not. There it is. Because I don't know. I'm not. I'm not. At least I'm not a Florida State fan. Hmm.

They're 0-3 against three unranked teams. They're done. And they started in the top ten. They were going to be the team. And I feel bad for them. With Georgia and Alabama being such solid programs and you have the expanded playoff, whoever loses, you're still going to be in the playoff. So you're going to have a chance probably to play again. So it's not like you're out.

Does UT play an actual college team this week? Yes. Yes. And you're talking about the number seven team in the nation right now due to the AP poll. So it went from 14, came in at 14 and went to seven. So they're playing really good. They are playing good. That's actually a good team. They are. And we did play A-ranked team. So it was top 25 team, NC State at the time.

It was 24. I'm scared of Tennessee. And it was a neutral site. And they're putting up some points. I'm worried. I've talked to a lot of Crimson Titers and Bulldog fans, and everybody keeps bringing up Tennessee. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's like the little game with the asterisk beside it. Everybody's kind of keeping their eye on Tennessee this year. I call him actually legit. Yeah, Nico is great. And he's a freshman, though. He threw his first two picks last week, which actually was good. So he doesn't feel – not that he's not going to ever throw another interception, but you don't want his first one to be in a big SEC matchup. And then all of a sudden he's like, oh, crap, that's my first interception. And then –

you know, spiral or something. But this coming week, uh, playing against Oklahoma at Oklahoma, that'll be the first true road test. So he hasn't had a road test yet. He's a, he's a freshman. So we'll see. That'll be a, you know, I feel like on paper, the way they're playing and the way Oklahoma is, you know, struggling to score, um,

On paper, Tennessee should win, but it's football, and Oklahoma's a good program, too. Yeah, but they play on paper. They don't play on paper. They don't play on paper. Yeah, that's right. I've got to ask you, looking back on the Kent State game, Tennessee was up by 30 in the first quarter.

and they did an onside kick. Yeah. I got to know what you thought about that. Well, I'm one of the, because my brother works for CBS Sports. He got me into reading about recruiting and all kinds of stuff. Wait, wait, wait. You're dodging the question. Wait, wait, real quick. My brother works for CBS Sports. I didn't know this. Yeah, yeah. Tell me more. He's like VP of technology. He's way up there. He's the smart one. Yeah. Where's he based out of?

Well, he works a lot in Florida. He's here, but he's in Florida a lot. So it sounds like a hookup. So maybe, yeah. Interesting. We'll see if he can get us some swag and stuff. Swag? Talk about swag. I'm talking about. Yeah, he wants to be on the sideline. He's talking about sideline tickets, man. Maybe for the Super Bowl. He might be good for the Super Bowl. Yeah, he can get you. They get some cool buttons and Paramount also. They get some Paramount buttons and some CMT buttons also. CMT buttons.

But anyway, you said something about the onside kick. So I did read about that because I was thinking, okay, why did they do that? And they did it because they had practiced the formation. They had seen what they were lining up in, and they practiced it that week. And they said, hey, if they line up that way, we're going to do an onside kick. It had nothing to do with the score or where they were. They practiced it, and they said, hey, let's do it. They lined up that way, so let's do it. Just execute it. Don't you think it was bad optics?

Not really because, I mean, the fact is they kicked it right to the guy. It wasn't a great onside kick. It went directly to the guy and he missed it. But just the simple fact that they did it.

It's like in your face, we're up by 30. After all the years of Alabama crushing everybody in the United States, about one onside kick. Do you think for one second Saban would have done that to the opposite team, to another coach? Yes. Oh, yes. Oh, my gosh. Are you kidding? Give me one example. If one of our listeners can give me an example where you've seen Alabama do that in a game. Okay, challenge.

Well, and you're talking specifically about onside. When they're up that much in the first quarter, I love how you defend your team. Whether you're up or not, the players are competitors. And even if you put a fourth string guy in there, they want to score. And you want them to score. You want to get in there and execute things and see what they can do.

So, I mean, you're not out there to say, oh, we're beating them too bad. Let's don't be talented. You don't want to do that. I'm going to spend the rest of the show with this look. So let's shift to the main slate on the Sunday Boys now. Kurt, the Dolphins. The NFL. The Dolphins, yeah. So, yeah, the recent news isn't good.

As you guys probably saw, it was a primetime game, right? We were watching on the road. We were out west. So the game starts at 530, by the way, which is awful. But we're watching and Tua goes down, speaking of Alabama, with another concussion. And man, it's heartbreaking to me. I'm a Dolphins fan, but also am a Tua fan as a human being. He's like one of those rare players that you root for as a human being as well.

And, man, it was heartbreaking. It was heartbreaking to see him go down. It's his third documented, probably fourth in a few years. It'll be interesting to see what he does. I know there's a lot of opinions, but ultimately the doctors and him and his family, I'm sure, will have a lot to say about it. We talked about this a little bit. He went all last year without getting one that we know of. Mm-hmm.

And as we were watching it, I was wishing, God, he went in headfirst, you know? Yep. And Hamlin, ironically... Yeah, DeMar Hamlin. ...was making the tackle. Who lost his life on the field for a brief moment. Yeah, so that was weird in itself. Yeah. But you're right, when Tua has those concussions...

The optics of that one always look really bad because he always goes to that fencing position. He goes into a fencing position, which is scary. Yeah, and it wasn't a bad hit. It was just the way that it happened. No, and it wasn't a hit that if I'm looking at it saying, if I didn't know any better, would I think that a concussion had occurred from that hit? Probably not because it looked more like his neck. The neck, yeah. But there's so – but it's –

I hate it. And look, I'm a Pages fan and I have, you know, I wish nothing but the worst for the Dolphins year after year. But... It's so nice. It's true. I really... Well, that is the worst. It's really... The worst did happen. Well, you let me finish though. But this kind of stuff, like you never want to see a...

a player go down or especially like a, like a franchise QB go down. And even in this case, you know, I saw like the, you know, they were playing the bills and the, the bills fans have like flooded his foundation with, you know, donations through the week, which is like, that's a class act. What kind of man he is. Yeah. Yeah. Right. No, I mean, I think everybody, and he is a great player and you, and you want, you know, you got Tyreek Hill out there and Waddle and you want to see Tua slinging the ball around. I was,

As a fan of the NFL. Oh, yeah. You know? So as a fan, what do you want Tua to do? I want him to play. Slide. I want him to slide as well. I didn't say hindsight. I want him to slide as well. No kidding.

I guarantee he's been coached to slide. But it's hard, though. I know. You're in the moment. You're in the moment. You're in the middle. And we've all played sports, and you all understand it's easy to make those calls when you're watching it. But when you're trying to get the yard or you're trying to get the first down or the touchdown, obviously he wishes he would have slid, too. Sure. Yeah, at this point. But, you know, like I said, all last year, do you think he had maybe like a sense of security? Like, okay, he's gotten past that. I'm sure. I mean, you can't play football if you're not confident about what you're doing. Right.

I saw J.J. Watt. You and I were talking about this. He came out with some video and he was like, you know, to all the people that say just slide. You know, you don't understand the mentality of every football player. It's we can't even comprehend it. But they're literal warriors out there. And he goes, fans would have been yelling at him if he came up short of the first down because he slid.

So it's hard to tell anybody what to do. We don't know. Obviously, the family, the doctors, and he'll decide. And it doesn't matter what I think. Yeah. Hated to see it. So moving on, I don't know if that. So he's out, let's say, three weeks. Probably two. That's fair, at least. Let's say three. Backup QB? I don't know. It's not good. Better call Vinny Testaverde. Who's backing him up?

Skyler Thompson. Where did he play college ball? I'm not sure. Maybe Kansas State. It wasn't a major college. He's a seventh-round guy. I wonder if you guys would be interested in Will Levis from Tennessee Times. I'm going to go on record. Can I go on record real quick? Okay, let's go to that because that's good. He's not going to be on the show. I want it right now. I want this right now. I'm going to take some heat for this. I called this, by the way. Overrated.

Overrated. From the start, this whole town, if you remember when he came on last year, everybody was excited. Not going to happen. He's a great athlete. He's a great athlete. He's got a cannon. He's a stud of a dude. No, he is not. He's made two of the dumbest plays. Sorry, Will.

You don't have to apologize. We don't apologize here on the Try That podcast. That you can make in back-to-back games. Sometimes we apologize. At that level, and I get it, he's trying everything he can. He is. But at that level, it's just too risky two times in a row. And after the head coach had already really got his ass chewed for jumping on him, then he does the same thing in the same game in scoring position.

You know, which you just can't. You just can't do. And anyway. The quarterback position depends so much on your mental acumen. Here's what they should do with him. I'm going to make another prediction. I'll be two for two after this. They need to turn him into like a hill from North. Taste of metal. Yeah. Make him a QB. Run the ball. Put him at tight end. Do some different things with him. He is not a pocket QB. He's not going to lead the Titans anywhere. This is hard.

I'm going to take some heat for this. I can feel the heat at the table, but I'm not wrong. I tell you right now, he does not fit into my QB model. Well, he does. He just doesn't. I mean, he is a pocket QB. He's just not good.

Well, yeah, but he's not making pocket QB decisions. He's throwing the ball away. It's the NFL. And it's amazing to me, these players that come in, and you can see it happening with Caleb Williams too. I think he's got a lot of talent too. But they come in the NFL, and the defense is so fast that it changes. It's really, like we talk about, a mental game, making the right decision.

Levis has... He's a great athlete. Great athlete. But can he make those decisions? I don't know. It's too late for the compliments. I'm not giving compliments. I know. Believe me. The headlines. Yeah, I mean... Tennessean. It's definitely a rough start. It's a rough start. It's going to be a rough start. It's early. It's early. You guys are forgetting all... See, you're drinking the Kool-Aid. I will go... Look...

A month from now, we're going to be sitting here and the Titans are going to be rough. It's already rough. I believe it. It's already rough. Make sure to follow along, subscribe, share, rate the show, and check out our merch at trythatinasmalltown.com.