FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Bryant Bank's Michael Holland and Greg Strachan join Mobile Mornings to kick off the 2024 football season - August 19 2024
talking some football right now with our friends from Brian Bank, Michael Holland, Greg Strong. Good to have you guys in studio for sure always. Good morning, Dan. Hey, and feel free to just pass that mic back and forth. But yeah, a big season on deck. I don't think we have any SEC teams this upcoming week zero. We'll have one Thursday game, I believe, in the SEC next week. So if somebody will get started on August 30th, but what a different year in the SEC. Now a 16 team league with Texas and Oklahoma joining. And you've got, of course, Nick Saban gone from Alabama, Kaitlyn DuBour taking his place. And then the Georgia Bulldogs trying to keep that dynasty rolling along. I think we're in for a heck of a season this year. 16 teams is going to be a long time to long season. It's going to be a exciting season. Everybody's wondering how well prepared Oklahoma thinks they are for the SEC. Thanks. You know, Texas is probably more so because of Sarkeesian, but it's going to be interesting season this year. It really is. And for you, I know you're looking forward to seeing how all Hugh Freeze does in year two. You're the Auburn fan. And I mean recruiting wise, he's got it going on finished pretty high up in the 2024 recruiting classes. But you look at 25 and the early returns on the class of 26, he said, you know, you need three or four years of recruiting and then we'll see where we are. Don't let me go right now. Give me a little leeway, but things are exciting on the planes right now. A big difference from from our prior coach as far as recruiting and then emphasis on talent. You know, we all know Coach Saban always said, you know, you only as good as your recruiting classes. And that's this. That's the truth. I remember years ago when I was at Auburn and Coach DuBour after his first year, you know, reporters asked, well, Coach DuBour, how was your, how was your first recruiting class? He said, I'll tell you in four years. So that's kind of how it's going to be here. But I liked what we've seen so far with Hugh Freeze and staff. You know, it's hard to, it means we're talking about this year right now, but you look at the 25 class, like you mentioned in the 26th class that's coming behind them, it's really going to be exciting. And, you know, I was looking at some of the numbers as far as the projected starting first and second teams for Auburn this year. And there's like 27 transfers that are coming in and we've got lots of freshmen that are going to be playing a lot. Yeah, that's the conversation I'm hearing out of Hugh Freeze. They're on campus now and they're going to play that they're at the point where they need to play, right? Absolutely. They may have to. And then that's one thing, you know, you say first second string, but there's going to be a lot of third stringers and fourth stringers that, you know, even the projected fourth stringers, they're getting a lot of comments about, you know, from the reporters and the coaches about how they're standing out. A lot of the freshmen, you know, they may not be listening, you know, starting one or two, but you're going to see a lot of time played and a lot of depth. There's a lot of depth. You can see a lot of faces in there, a lot of times, and a lot of time getting experience for the younger guys. And it's going to give everybody a blow during this season, you know, now as I said, they're not playing, you know, 20, 30 plays or 40 plays a game. They're getting a breather. Meanwhile, Michael, let's talk some Bama. And are you over yet? Is everyone like now that Nick Saban, you've had a few months to kind of get used to the thought of him not being the head coach any longer? It's time to move on. It is time to move on, no doubt about it. But I think there may be some folks still saying, well, gosh, where's Coach Saban? He's down the hall. He is down the hall. And as I understand it, defensive coordinator Kane Womack has has his number and and access to him when he needs it. So he's going to continue to be a continuous or a tremendous resource for the coaching staff and the university. Look at the recruiting that we talked about, Greg talked about how well Auburn is recruiting right off the bat. And same with the board. They haven't slipped at all. They're number one and number two. It looks like they're going to be in the next few classes. They're right up there again. So the talent acquisition in Alabama is doing just fine. And Dan, I think it started when he came on board. You mentioned talent acquisition as the recruiting season started, but talent retention. He and those coaches did a great job of keeping players on campus, some left, but they did, they kept the majority of those players. And that's the reason preseason Alabama was ranked number five. There's a lot of talent on the roster still. And it's just a matter of getting them to play together and play for each other. You know, years ago, it was hard to imagine a Nick Saban offense. There was anything but, you know, standard NFL kind of run the ball back in the day. But then Lane Kiffin came, really opened things up. He started seeing more spread elements and chucking the ball down the field. So I'm not sure how much different this debore offense will be, but it'll be certainly different than what we've seen in the past. It will be in your listeners, probably remember this, but we got a glimpse of Kaitlyn DeBore when he was the offensive coordinator at Fresno State played at Alabama in 2017. Now he was able to put up 10 points, but that wasn't quite enough. And Brian Denny, when Alabama put up 41 that day. So some fans may remember Kaitlyn DeBore and his offenses. That's interesting. Yeah, you know, it's probably one of the more difficult things to do, especially moving off of Nick Saban, transitioning to a new coaching staff. Seems like there's a whole new culture at practice and in the locker room and everything. But one thing that I think DeBore absolutely needed. And that's a guy like Jalen Milro at quarterback, a returning quarterback, a Heisman candidate. It's much easier to make that transition with him behind the center. I agree with you, Dalton. He has a presence. The team and the players respect him, fans respect him. We all remember how his season started last year and there was a competition for quarterback and he earned that starting role and has never let it go. Took the team to the playoffs, had a great, great season last year. And I think everybody's excited about what he can do this year. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. We're talking with Michael Holland, Greg Strong with Bryant Bank, sponsoring football Fridays with Paul Finebaum, which we'll kick off here at the end of this week, our first conversation this year with Finebaum. Greg, let's talk a bit about this Auburn schedule. A lot of people have discussed it, but it is a strange, strange schedule. First five weeks at home, you have started off with Alabama A&M, then Cal comes to town after, remember how late that game was last year on the west coast. I don't think they ended till maybe 1 AM our time morning, fourth quarter I was having breakfast, then New Mexico. And then the SEC schedule begins, you stay at home, Arkansas comes, and then Oklahoma's first SEC road game will be at Jordan hair stadium. You go through August in September before Auburn season opposing field that they've got to take care of business those first five weeks. It's kind of like last year, you know, we start off with a schedule that we had a lot of small or very winnable games early on, and you're right, you've got the five games right away, you know, Arkansas is probably going to be the biggest test on week four, then Oklahoma's right behind them. So, you know, then we've got, you know, we hit the road with Georgia, Missouri, Kentucky, and Missouri is really, really strong. Kentucky has shown that they have grown the last five years, and they're going to be a force to be reckoned with, and then we get Vandy, L.A., lose M&Rove, of course, you've got to be careful because last year, you know, we went it to the game we should have won, and we didn't win that game at home, and so then we got A&M in Alabama at Intuscalosis. I think a lot of the prognosticators had Auburn, you know, probably winning seven games going in, possibly eight, but now with the, you know, the fall season behind us, and now we're getting ready to start school. I think some are saying, you know, as many as eight, so probably seven and a half is kind of the best number right now. You know, this, I think that this, I think there's so much new is going to happen in the next few months. We see it on the schedule, but we have never experienced it before. Every week, you're going to see these matchups like, that's not like a top 10 matchup necessarily, Oklahoma at Auburn, but is it a great matchup? Are we like, whoa, I don't want to miss that. All these new games, even in the big 10, week in, week out, you know, normally we would, it'd be weeks that were kind of some high profile stuff, maybe a game or two weeks where you plan to do things with the family. Whatever, you know, you might hang around for your team's game, but nothing else really, you know, lights you up. I think this year, new big 10, new SEC, and let's leave it at that. This is going to be insane. There's going to be weekends where you say, hey, Ohio State, they're at Oregon this weekend, or whatever, games like that. USC is at Michigan. That's like crazy. It's like so tempting as a college football fan. I think there's just to be a lot more games like that. I agree. That's just going to like just mesmerize us. And speaking to SEC, you know, and then now we're talking about going to a non-season SEC schedule, it'll be next year. Mm-hmm. Now you got, you know, the Texas, Oklahoma coming in and these teams like Missouri and others that are really starting to elevate their position at Auburn's coming back. And we obviously know Auburn's been, you know, not the Auburn team have passed in the last few years, but hopefully few frees and companies have us turned around. So it'll be interesting to see. Yeah, it will be. And you know, also potentially for the first time, if things at very, very small odds, but Alabama and Auburn could potentially play in the SEC championship game against each other. Something we haven't seen because divisions are basically no more. Yeah. Top two teams out of the 16 will end up in Atlanta. Things could possibly work out until we have an Auburn Alabama SEC championship, but you know, it could just as easily be a Georgia Tennessee SEC championship. And you know what? And Georgia, obviously, I went to Georgia, but they no longer have the protection of the SEC East. Mm-hmm. You got to face it, the SEC East was down when the West, so many teams were very good. And a variety of teams were very good. Auburn, up and down, but when they were good, they were very good. Of course, Georgia would play them at LSU and other teams in the SEC West. Now, Georgia almost gets the brunt of it all. If you look at their schedule, people are saying, "Hey, Georgia's really good." Well, they better be because they have to go at Alabama, at Texas, at Ole Miss, who's considered a top 10 team. Teams that come to Athens are Tennessee, potentially top 10 team, Kentucky, potentially top 15 team. So if Georgia's good, they better be. Yeah, and they start the year against Clemson in Atlanta. That's right. So that's not a cupcake. No, I would say. Michael, as far as Bama and the big coaching change, what has that ride been like this summer? I know initially, folks are saying, "Oh, it's over. Saban's gone. DeBor can't do this." It seems like there's a lot more optimism here these last few months. Yeah. His name is Ryan Williams. And everyone's excited about the former Sarah Land star, but I think as folks learned about Coach DeBor, as he was more accessible to the media, and we hear more and more about how practices are going, Dan, you mentioned that, the recruiting and the comfort level that he is going to continue to recruit at a high level. I think everyone is kind of getting acclimated to Coach DeBor and how he is going to perform. Look, he took Washington to the championship game last year. He is going to be a top performing coach, and I think do great things at Alabama. What do you think? What are your or what do you think fair expectations for this season are for Alabama? It's a tough question. Remember, you have a 12 team playoff, so they could have a middling year and still get in. But look, you run a bank. You have tough stuff come over your desk all the time. Go ahead. I think a 10 and 2 season would be, I think, a good season. Still going to get you in the playoffs. Dan, you mentioned Georgia. Alabama's first, they're on the road the week before at Wisconsin. Gosh. Have a week off. That's not easy. That's a crazy game. Then Georgia at home week four, that is a huge game. And don't look for that on CBS either. You know, that's another change. That's kind of going to have us all clicking to figure out where's the game? Yeah, poor old Vern Lundquist. They just left him. He's left high and dry. Yeah, that Bama schedule, you're not joking. I'm looking at it right now. And USF, you know, South Florida, they're not easy either. We saw that last year with the big Millrow discussion and that close, I guess you can call it a close call against USF. But at Wisconsin, Georgia, they'll play at Tennessee this year. We all know what happened last time. Bama went to Knoxville. I remember anyway, Missouri, they're not easy. They'll be after Tennessee. And then thankfully for the tide, you mentioned that week off before Georgia, they also get a week off before playing at LSU. That's another team that I think folks really don't know how to gauge how LSU is going to look this year. And I think so many great offensive players that left in the draft. Just a terrific team, Heisman Trophy, winning quarterback, a lot of rebuilding at LSU, but they will be good. They've got a really good coach too. They do and high expectations for the Bayou Bengals. Let's talk a bit about Bryant Bank, of course, and sponsoring football Fridays with Paul Feynbaum again this year. We thank you so much for that. Let's talk a little bit about your role in the community. Clearly, SEC football means a lot to everyone around here for the most part. And it's no different with you at Bryant Bank. But you guys, you care for the community, you live right here, you work, you go to church, everything right here with us on in this area. Talk a bit about Bryant Bank and your role with the community and why you decided to partner with us on this Feynbaum football Friday. Well, Dalton, we are all about community. As you said, in our mission statement, talks a lot about community, about caring for the community. And one thing we've always said when Paul Bryant Jr. started our bank back in 2004, is that he wanted the bank to be a contributor to the community. He felt like a lot of times that was being lost with the banks, bigger banks coming in and acquiring other banks. And so that was a big, big part. Every year we do our performance reviews for our employees. And that's a big part of our performance reviews is community service. And I get that asked about me from my boss all the time, who's president of the bank. And so it's very, very important to us. We love partnering with you guys here locally. We partner with some of the radio stations in Baldwin County, which is my market. But this has been a really great association. And you know, to your credit, I get a lot of comments from people throughout the community. And as I'm just living my day every day, every week about hearing us on the radio and hear our sponsorship. And so it means a lot to us. And you know, the big thing we always try to remind ourselves is we're out there trying to promote our bank is that our bank is named after our owner. And most of our competition can't say that. We're privately owned. Michael and I talked to our owners every week, you know, and then and how who can say that? And that means a lot to me. And I've been with the bank now almost 18 years. And I'll see it through when I go to retirement. But it's a great organization. We've got great people all the way through from top to bottom. We talk about, you know, how we care about our customers, care about our community, care about ourselves. And I'm a big believer that if you take care of your, of your employees, that they're going to take care of your customers. And I think we do that very, very well throughout the entire state. And Michael, that structure that Greg just laid out there, it's so important, we have it right here. You know, so many other stations are part of big conglomerates. We're locally owned. It's very easy to get answers from somebody as long as you can get them on the phone or if they're, but being able to have that kind of communication, both for above you and below you, that has to make a big difference in just getting things done. That's right. It's a family-owned business. That's what you're a part of. That's what we're a part of. And it makes it, you know, we have core values. We believe that we rise by lifting others. We use our expertise to help customers as they're building a business as they're growing that business. But we are involved in our communities. We support athletics. And we're a big believer in that because people are built, communities are built through those activities. So you'll see us sponsoring. We sponsor the high school player of the week. Yeah. We're sponsoring fine ball and Fridays where we're talking about football. The those activities bring communities and families together. And we believe that's important. And because it makes community stronger and as communities get stronger, our state gets stronger. Yeah. And so often those local high school football players of the week are the guys we're talking about on Saturdays or talking with fine bombs we prepare for those Saturdays. And I saw you, you know, last year shaking the hands of a lot of those guys who are going to go on to do great things. So that is just fantastic. Thank you guys for dropping in the conversation. And we just look forward to the fall. It's going to be great. And if anyone's interested in banking with Brian Bank, they could probably just stop by a local branch or hop online, I imagine. That's right. We have four branches in South Alabama. We're on airport Boulevard in Mobile in Daphne. We're on Highway 98 at the intersection of 64 in Foley on Highway 59 across from the hospital. And in Orange Beach, we're on Canal Road. Thanks again, guys. Appreciate you guys coming and you're welcome anytime. Look forward to it. Thank you guys. It's 853 FM Talk 10065 Mobile Monies. We'll wrap it up and the Jeff Porsche on the way. We'll preview that.