FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Tiger Talk Overtime w/Doug Holton 9.5.2024 w/guests: McGill-Toolens Emma Moore, Auburn Legend Byron Franklin, and Tailgating with Stu Donald
It's time now for Tiger Talk Over Time. Time. We should embrace playing the gold standard of this conference right now. You should welcome that. You should want that. You should want that experience. It should burn within you to say, I won't that opportunity. Nobody's flipped. Give the ball up and over. And even if I believe it, take it out. Put it down over. Low and sure, second effort by both guys. And he just got hit behind the line of scrimmage. Everybody's they go with coming. Alabama's they go with coming. Both guys can just don't steer it. We've got to get out of the shotgun. Patrick Nick. Alabama bringing everybody. Nick's is going to blow one for Sanders. Sanders-- oh, he's caught it on the move. And he died, damn it. Touch down, Auburn. Touch down, Auburn. Oh, my goodness. Carmel Williams at the tail back. They'll hand it off to Williams up the middle. 25. That's an inside. 30, 35, 40. 10, go crazy, Cadillac. Go crazy. Touch down. There goes Davis. Oh, my gosh. Davis is going to run it all the way back. Auburn's going to win the football game. Auburn's going to win the football game. He ran the best field. Go back. He ran it back to 109 yards. They're not going to keep them off the field tonight. Road, home, dirt, grass, it don't matter. Just give us that opportunity. That's the fire that is within us. Or it's down in the tent, just inside of it field. There's Tim on the lake, right up the middle, breaks the tackle. At the 40, stays on his feet. 35, 30, 25, 20. He will send it one man to beat at the 5p. It is in. Touch down, Auburn, flash the smile, Cam. Fire wipes for the snap in the place. There it is. The kick is up. The kick is good. Auburn wins. 22, 19. Tiger talk over time is presented by Will To. Number one in quality and safe work for industry. To be a part of the show, call the Morgan Bradley Health Insurance Tiger line now at 3, 4, 3, 0, 1, 0, 6. [CHEERING] Now, here's your host, Doug Holton. All right, thanks very much. Welcome into the show, everybody. I appreciate you being with us. On Tiger Talk over time, on a Thursday night, right after Tiger Talk from the Auburn network each week, right here on FM Talk 106 5. It's a busy, busy show for you tonight. As the Auburn Tigers get ready for the rematch with Cal Saturday at 2.30 at Jordan Hair Stadium, you can catch the game, of course, right here. On FM Talk 106 5, we're going to talk a lot about that tonight with Auburn receiving legend Byron Franklin. He'll be with us in just a couple of minutes. And we're also going to talk at the bottom of the hour with Emma Moore, a freshman on the Auburn volleyball team from McGill Tulin High School here in Mobile. She won a couple of state championships for the Yellow Jackets. We'll talk with Emma and the head coach of volleyball at Auburn Brent Crouch. They will be with us at the bottom of the hour on the Horizon Financial Half-Time Report. And we're also going to talk to Stu Donald, as always, get his tailgating tips for the weekend. And we're going to talk about Deuce Night. He had a chance to see Deuce Night last weekend. The Auburn recruit at quarterback. Possible flip from Notre Dame. We'll see what Stu thought about his performance last weekend as he was close to Mobile playing Friday night. OK, let's hear from the head coach Hugh Freeze about-- the two things that stood out to me last week, of course, in the game, the receivers scoring in their opening game at Auburn. And they were phenomenal, even though they were playing against Alabama A&M. I thought it was a good night. They did what they had to do. And the other thing that stood out to me was Hugh Freeze on the sideline. And we're going to talk about this with Byron in a second. But Hugh Freeze on the sideline, to me, he didn't smile a whole lot, even with the success of the Auburn offense. It seems to me like he is after perfection this year. And you saw him get after Peyton Thorn a little bit. He was asked about that at the press conference this week. And here's what he had to say. Peyton can take the hard coaching. I wish the camera wasn't on me all the time. And my wife got on me about one of those. But it was a third down play that I know how critical those downs are in coming weeks. And I expect him to get those right. And I think that's a positive that he should take, is if I didn't believe he should get those right, I wouldn't be quite as upset. But I expect him to get that right 95% of the time on certain things that I was upset with the other night. I was really only really upset one time. I was frustrated a few others on. And he still made good throws and made a touchdown or whatever. But he didn't get himself protected like he's supposed to. And I don't want him taking unnecessary hits. And I made it clear, I believe in him. And with that, though, comes the expectation that if I know we have thoroughly discussed something, then the expectation is you get that right. All right, we want to welcome in to the show. Former Auburn Tiger, former Auburn great Byron Franklin. And Byron, it is great to have you with us on Tiger Talk over time again. Thanks. I appreciate you inviting me to be here. It's a great honor. Tell me your thoughts on last week. I think everybody, all the Auburn fans, were waiting on that ball game. It was Alabama A&M. But as we were talking a second ago, a complete game from the Auburn Tigers. And they did what they had to do last week. Yeah, it was a great opener for the season starting out. And I think that a few things stuck out to me. One was that they really looked like a complete football team. Obviously, you have a few things here and there that you would like to see go a little better and operations with the offense. I think the offense always has a little more work to do and timing related to receivers and quarterback and running back and the mesh with the quarterback and blocking schemes and that kind of thing. So the offense usually have a little bit more work to do to kind of jail as a unit. And you normally don't see them coming together and for a couple of weeks. And that's around the time that you start hitting a little bit more of a competition or a competitive team. But defensively, they look great. And special teams, they look solid. And I think the first steps that you want to see are the fundamentals and we saw that. Tell me your thoughts on the culture that Hugh Freeze is building at Auburn. An amazing story at the press conference this weekend. I'm sure you heard it about some of the players giving to foster kids and Coach Freeze and his wife are donating to that also. How important is that to building this program? Well, I think it's important for several reasons. Number one, it instills in those young men that it's more than football and that they have a responsibility in the position that they're in. And a lot of times, if kids don't have the right mindset, it'll be more about them than it will be about the system and the culture of the team. And with this NIL and Transfer Portal thing, I think one of the toughest challenges for any coach to take on at this stage would be to create a team. I mean, think about it. From one year to the next, you got guys that were on the other side of the ball from you on your team, literally like an NFL where you guys been traded. Now you play, he's on your team and you were playing against them a year before now. And so now you have a situation where you really don't have a consistent yearly group of guys that you have to work with. And so the greatest challenge to me is to create a team atmosphere with that kind of stuff going on. But I think that for them, it's important to instill up within them the idea that they need to give back. And then I think it also kind of says a lot about leadership from the standpoint of Coach Freeze. And his life has gone through some ups and downs. And I think that-- I think he appreciates where he is. Maybe-- and I don't know this for a fact, but maybe. And it would be human nature-- that he got the leadership role in an SEC school, maybe a little too early or maybe before he really had the opportunity to mature to know where he was and how valuable it was and how precious and special it was. And to leave and to be out of the game and then be at Liberty and take on the responsibility of being who he should be at that level. And then have another opportunity at this level. Man, you better believe I guarantee you, he has a strong sense of appreciation of where he is and at a better team. I was watching the first half last week. You mentioned offense. And sometimes they'd lag behind a little bit. Watching Coach Freeze, he didn't smile a whole lot, even though we were scoring a whole lot in that first half. And his back and forth with Peyton, it seems to me like he wants perfection in this offense this year. What do you think? I think you're right. I think that he understands that the competition level was a little bit less than who they are. And it was important for them to execute. And it was important for them to score. But it was also important for them to do things that they needed to do, regardless of their talent level that they were playing. And that's the same. Coach Saban, you said, we're not here to play down to our competition. We're here to play who and be who we are and compete against ourselves. And he knows that if they're going to be great, they have to execute at an absolute, excellent level, regardless of who they're playing. Because you're going to face, man, I mean, it's tough now, man. You got-- I called this last year, and you'll see a lot more of it this year. You're going to see a lot of surprise wins when you have what we consider lesser programs showing up. And in the old days, you just drive them off the field and overrun them with your talent. Well, you got a problem now. Guess what that problem is? The transfer portal. And you got kids who are high-level players who maybe not started at Alabama or maybe not started at Auburn or maybe not started at Tennessee or Ole Miss or Mississippi State, they can go anywhere and play. And so what you have now is what I call super teams. You got a team-- I'll tell you what, I'll give you a perfect example, South Florida. You mess around with South Florida and see what you get. Because they were already pretty good and had good talent and good program. But guess what? Now they pulling from all these D1 schools, all of these Power Five schools. And they're piecing them together. And Doug, you don't need but about eight guys. Eight real guys, eight real dogs. And four on offense and four on defense. And you got a problem. So you can't take any school lightly. You've got to be ready to play every weekend. And you have to execute at a high level. South Florida, the opponent for Guess Who, Alabama, number four Alabama, this Saturday night at Bryan Denny Stadium. More with Auburn legend Byron Franklin. When we come back on Tiger Talk Overtime, glad you're with us on Thursday night. And we'll be back with more in just a minute. Thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome back to Tiger Talk Overtime, presented by Will2, number one in quality and safe work for industry. To be a part of the show, call the Morgan Bradley Alpha Insurance Tiger Line now 3, 4, 3, 0, 1, 0, 6. [MUSIC PLAYING] Now back to Doug Colton. OK, welcome back to the show, visiting with Auburn legend Byron Franklin on Tiger Talk Overtime tonight. And Byron's great to have you with us. Of course, I want to ask you about the Auburn receivers last week and what they did in their opening game. Very impressive. Dre Lambert Smith from Penn State. Also, Cam Coleman, Perry Thompson, Malcolm Simmons, and a guy that you know pretty well, Sam Jackson, who's coming from Cal to play at Auburn this season. So how about this? Sam Jackson is a distant relative of mine, and I didn't even know it until I was headed down to the game. And I talked-- one of my cousins reached out to me, and they knew I was going to be on the radio show last weekend. And they said, listen, Sam Jackson is a cousin of ours. And I said, really? I said, how? One of my aunts is in Chicago. And he's related to one of my aunts in Chicago, which makes him a distant relative of mine. So I think those guys are very athletic. They have all of the gifts and talents that you need to be able to succeed. It's going to come down to them having time to throw and Peyton having the ability to get it to them. But I think that they're young, but I believe that if they keep it simple and make sure that they do the fundamentals, man, it's going to be a great season. I thought that was an impressive play that he made on the ball and the end zone, because obviously, Peyton just threw it up there. And the other guys kept running the fly pattern. He reacted and caught a touchdown pass. Yeah, great play, great physical talented reaction. And it just tells you that he's a great instinct. So all of them, man, I mean, they just-- the combination of those guys will give a defense a hard time, because who do you double? You know what I'm saying? If you get to trying to double guys, there's still somebody that's going to be open. And this day and time, they are much more advanced than when we were playing, when we were coming out in college, because they play-- they're coming out of these schools that do 707s all summer long, and then they go into their seasons and they have a little bit more of advanced passing games than we had when we were coming out in high school. Matter of fact, I was running back in high school, so I didn't even play receiving until I got to Auburn. And so the spread and them being experienced in those spread 707 type drills and going to those camps has just increased their skill level to be ready and play really well. Yeah, I was going to bring that up with Sam being a quarterback and now being a receiver. I heard you tell that story on the radio last week about starting as a running back at Auburn and then switching to receiver. Yeah, yeah. You know, I caught passes out of the backfield as a running back. And I got to Auburn, and they told me, we want you to go to receive. And I didn't know if I really wanted to do that, because I really wanted to-- I touched the ball every time coming out of high school. Then I got to Auburn and then there's a guy by the name of James Brooks. There was a guy there by the name of Joe Kribbs. There was a guy there by the name of William Andrews. And then Chester Willis and you had all these guys, man. And I said, you know, and I was looking at the linebackers and I was looking at the D line. And I said, yeah, I think I'll go to receiver. Nobody was faster than me. I ran the 40 in 4.3 seconds. So that was perfect for me. The only downside to it was we didn't throw the ball. So I think I probably only caught maybe 45, maybe 50, something passes in four years and got drafted in the second round. Yeah, but Kribbs and Brooks and Andrews were slapping you on the back, right? Because you opened those holes for them. Yeah, they were slapping me on the back all right. Yeah, they were running right by me. And yeah. Well, let's talk about count a little bit coming in this weekend. Obviously, we played them last week out there in Berkeley. And probably a tougher game than Auburn would have liked last year. We made some mistakes in the first half. But how do we continue this success and this momentum in week two? Well, I think the key is that it's not so much that we play in Cal as much as it is we play in Auburn. I'm going to stick to what I said before. How does Auburn get better from week one to week two? And what areas do we look to? Because every team you play is different. You have a different attack plan, but you've got to execute. And the key is for them to establish some type of a run game. We've got to run the ball. You have to run the football in order to be able to be balanced and be able to throw effectively. You have to have a running game. So I would say that our run game is going to really be the key to the success on offense. And then defensively, those guys up front, they play really well. But I think the line that you faced this week, the offensive line will probably be a little better. And so we'll have to see just how well they fare against the next level of competition that they'll have. So I think that's the whole key. Yeah. You feel good about the running backs right now with Jarkwez and Demarion are coming out of Pike Road? You know, I feel great about them. But I would love to see a three-headed monster. If you remember back when Georgia was just really just awful, man, they just kept bringing them out at you when they had Holyfield. And they had all three of these guys coming at you at one point in time in the game. And because it's such a physical game, I personally think you need three, man. You've got to have three backs. And you can't overuse any one of them if you want to have them later on in the season. So I think what I'd like to see is I'd like to see them. I'll spread it around a little bit with those backs and give them some time. If you got a third guy that needs a little bit more time and experience, get him in and let him get it. That way, you're more the better later on because you've got three guys that you can count on that had some battle time and been battle tested. And I think that's a big key. Yeah, interesting. Like you said, Georgia had the big backs. And I don't know if it's by design because you phrase is only in his second year, but we kind of have the, I won't call them all scat backs, but smaller type backs that can catch the ball of the backfield. But those, like those Georgia guys, when they had those guys, those big running backs, that really wears on a defense. Man, it tears you up, man. I mean, it just breaks you down. And because eventually you just can't cover all of them. You know, eventually you get a fresh guy coming in in the third quarter, late in the third, early in the fourth, it just puts that much more pressure on you, especially if you got a good offensive line. If you got guys coming off the ball, it's going to be a long day, man. If you got big backs and you got three of them, that can come downhill. Yeah. What being a receiver did anything catch your eye on our defense last week, anything really good, anything that needs some work? I mean, you know, they're going to face some great receivers. I don't know how good Alabama and the Rams were, but they're going to face some great receivers. And so they're going to get tested, man. And there's only one way to learn how to do that. And that's to play. So the greatest coverage in football is a defensive line. Exactly. You cut down the timeframe, then average defensive back is going to look like an All-American. 'Cause that guy's going to throw that thing anywhere. Well, so, so I think keeping the pressure on the quarterback is going to be key to helping our defensive backs and our safeties and that's just going to be a big part of it. Yeah, hopefully we get rakes back in there, or in there this week in a couple other guys and we can get some pressure off the edge with our, with our strength there. Let's talk about some games this weekend. All right. Looks like Florida State has dropped a couple here, so they may be out of the picture early. What did you think about their game? Well, you know, again, you can't take anybody for granted. You know, they faced a tough, was it Boston College? Yes. They faced a tough Boston College team that's hard-nosed. And, and you, if you notice, you know, they came right at them. They ran between the tackles early in the game. And they just broke them down. I mean, they just broke them down. And I think that was the, that was the game plan. And when you play that kind of team, you're in trouble. Yeah. And especially late in the ballgame there. But anyway, the early games this week on Fox at 11, Central Time Texas and Michigan, number three against number 10. Right now, the Longhorns are a seven and a half point favorite. What do you think? Yeah, I think that's about right. Texas too, they're big up front. And, you know, Sarkeesian, man, he's a great coach. He really is. He knows what he's doing. He's got two, and he's got two quarterbacks. You know, he's got Manning in the background and his quarterback that starts. But Manning is back there, and he's capable. Yeah. Which is kind of odd to see still with with art still on the on the second team, right? That's right. Making about $11 million a year as a NIL deal. I need that. Yeah, but they're used to that in the Manning family. So that's right. All right. Also 11 o'clock on ABC, Arkansas, future opponent for the Tigers in a couple of weeks here against Oklahoma State and the Cowboys are a seven and a half point favorite. Where is it? It's at Oklahoma State. I'm going to go with Oklahoma State. Yeah. Yeah. And what the hogs are coming up in a couple of weeks. Are they attached to Auburn? Yeah. Going to be a good test. You know, SEC game, it's going to be challenging. But I think that if we continue to improve, it will be in the place we need to be in when they show up. And we'll have a chance to win it. OK, ABC 230 game. Central time is South Carolina. I can tuck you in the cats or a 10 and a half point favorite. I'm giving it to the cats. I think that they're rolling, man. I think they got it going over there. And South Carolina struggled last week. Yeah. Yes. I can line struggling and stoops. You know, he's he's built a pretty good program over there, man. Yeah. Yeah. OK. Also number 14 Tennessee at number 24 NC State, Tennessee is a seven and a half right now. I give it to Tennessee, man. They're going to win that game. It's strong. All right. Good deal. We'll see what happens in the SEC this week with the Auburn Tigers and week number two against the Cal Bears coming down to play in some humidity, right? That's right. It'll be a little bit hot down here for them California bears. I don't think they understand what they face down here. All right, Byron. Always appreciate you being with us here on the show. And we'll talk again very soon. Thanks for being with us. Thank you, man. I appreciate the invitation. Look forward to it. Byron Franklin on the show tonight. Great to have him with us. And when we come back, we're going to visit with a current Auburn Tiger out of Mobile, Alabama and McGill Tulin High School Emma Moore, a freshman on the Auburn volleyball team at her head coach Brent Crouch when we come back on Tiger Talk Overtime. Stay right here. Welcome back to Tiger Talk Overtime, presented by Will2, number one in quality and safe work for industry. To be a part of the show, call the Morgan Bradley Alpha Insurance Tiger Line now, 3, 4, 3, 0, 1, 0, 6. [MUSIC PLAYING] Now, back to Doug Colton. All right, welcome back to the show. Everyone, it's time now for the Horizon Financial Half-Time Report brought to you by Horizon Financial. Come with us and experience the Horizon difference. We are joined now by coach Brent Crouch of the Auburn volleyball team. Brent will be along with us in just a second. And also Emma Moore, a freshman at Auburn University now on the volleyball team, a middle blocker. And Emma played her high school volleyball at McGill Tulin High School here in Mobile, Alabama. And Emma, welcome into the show tonight on Tiger Talk Overtime. Glad that you are with us. Where are you going? Emma, tell me a little bit about the first few games here. As an Auburn Tiger, I know as we were talking a minute ago, you grew up an Auburn fan. What has it been like to actually be in the uniform and playing on the planes? It is like a dream come true. My younger self is screaming right now, just being able to represent Auburn. Of course, the first game, I was a little nervous, but this team is so great in making me feel super comfortable in the core. But the coaches are really great about keeping me calm and trying to help me get those nerves down. So it's been really, really cool and surreal. Tell me a little bit about, as I watch the game Tuesday night, it seemed like the chemistry of this team is really good. Tell me a little bit about your freshman that you have come in with and the team as a whole. What is it like playing with these girls? It's like the only thing I can think of to describe this team is like family. Like coming in early so I came in in the spring and I was super nervous, you know, like coming in, I'm supposed to be in high school, but I had the opportunity to come early and the girls just completely surrounded me and like made me feel so welcome, made me feel so comfortable, made sure I have everything taken care of. So yeah, our chemistry I think is just out of this world. I would not want to be on the court with anybody else. - You won a couple of championships at McGill Tulin and Mobile. How did that prepare you for college volleyball? Has it been easier or what would you say about it? - College volleyball has definitely been more of a challenge than high school, just getting used to the schedule and all that stuff. But I would say that the state championships have definitely helped in like learning how to handle pressure, especially our second year. We had that target on our back of like, let's see if we can go back to back. So I think that that definitely helped me learn how to handle pressure of like, how to perform under that kind of standard, yeah. - Coach, tell me about the beginning of the season here. Congratulations on the win so far. What do you think of this team? You lost a couple of key players and you brought in these young players that are contributing right away. - Yeah, I think it's been a great start. We did have some transition in the roster. We expected that to happen in late May. We had 20 or 21 players, which is an exceptionally large roster, kind of the average size of the NCAA is 17 or 18. So we sort of figured there'd be some changes at the end of May, but we were very confident that we would have a solid team, no matter what those changes look like, because we knew that the freshman class, including him though, was going to be so special, and they've proven to be that way. It's, I don't think we've lost a beat. I think we're actually better than last year. We're starting through freshman at the same time, and they're doing a great job. So we were really pleased. We're going to get tested. You know, the next few matches, the level of competition goes up, but we can already tell from what practices look like and from these early games that we're continuing to move in the right direction from a performance standpoint and also a chemistry standpoint. - Yeah, you have Cal Poly tonight, and then Florida State over the weekend. And then I noticed Minnesota pulled off a little upset the other night. So the schedule is quite challenging. - Absolutely. It's exactly the way we wanted it. We wanted to start kind of medium, and you know, those teams we played early on, those are not bad teams. You know, Troy beat LSU last week before we beat them. And they're typically kind of top 100 RPI teams, but when we head into Cal Poly and Forte State, Forte State, you know, is typically top 25 RPI, and then you get into Minnesota, and they're typically top 15, and after they're winning against Texas, and they almost beat Stanford, they lost way too to Stanford. They look really solid. So, you know, after we play Minnesota, we're gonna have a really good idea of kind of where we are and in the areas that we need to improve to beat whoever we're gonna play. - You mentioned the three freshmen coming in, and I think Alexis as well as new. Tell me about that group and Emma in particular, or what attracted you to them and to her, and how big an impact can they have this year? - Yeah, well, I'll start. I'll kind of start with Alexis first, and go back to the freshmen, Alexis. You know, we have a deep libero core, but we got to know her through the transfer portal through actually somebody else I was recruiting at Baylor, and who's actually setting a Texas now. And she kind of connected us. And we got on the phone and we were looking at her playing, and we're like, wow, she is not being used, you know, a lot at Baylor in a capacity that we think she can flourish in. And her numbers indicated she would be the best passing libero in the SEC, and she's turned out to just be phenomenal. It is real fast in the transfer portal. You don't get to know people real well, you know? So what initially attracted us to Alexis was just performance that we saw, you know, on video and on the court. And then when we met her on her official visit, of course, she was great. We hit it off, but that's not a lot of time to get to know each other, you know? But it turned out the first impressions were right, and she's been great. And then the freshmen group we've known, you know, for a couple of years now, they've verbal back in 2022, and that's summer. And so we've got to know them quite a bit, and got to know them a little bit more before they actually committed. So that whole group really bought into what we were doing, you know, pushing the program forward beyond simply, you know, being an average team in the SEC, they want to win, you know, they want to win at a high level, and they want to work at a high level. And that's what attracted me to all of them. And I think, I don't want to put words in their mouth, but, you know, they wanted to help take a program over the top. And they showed up early, you know, they all came early. They, and worked all springing. They had a great summer working out, and they're making a huge difference right now as freshmen. I really think they're a step forward already, you know, over players that we had playing for us the last two years. - Mm-hmm. - So that's, you know, in Emma, in particular, we really liked how fast she is laterally. She's, you know, most players that are her height, and, you know, she's touching about 10, three. And, you know, they don't necessarily move real well, you know, the taller they get, the slower they are, kind of, that generally holds. And that's not the case with Emma, you know, she's by far the best blocker we have in terms of touching balls, getting stuff, moving around laterally. You know, we had Kendall Kemp on the roster last year, you know, big, six, six, looks super imposing, but Emma's going to break all of her blocking records, you know, maybe her freshman year, because of the way that she can move. And she's got a phenomenal arm. She can hit it really hard. And, you know, once she gets a little more comfortable over the next year, attacking, I see those numbers moving way up, too. - A couple of more minutes with Emma Moore and coach Brent Crouch when we continue on Tiger Talk Overtime. - Fans, here's an event you're going to want to be a part of. Henry Hardy and the team at Horizon Financial have partnered with Show's Special Humans Outreach and Wellness to make a positive impact on the lives of individuals with special needs. So Horizon is hosting a golf tournament at Timber Creek in Daphne, September 24th at 1 p.m. Two ways you can get involved, become a sponsor or participate by forming a team for the four-person scramble, which welcomes players of all skill levels and come together, have fun and contribute to a fantastic cause. Proceeds support Show's efforts in Baldwin County, which play a vital role in covering cost of life-changing care for individuals with special needs, a cause deeply cherished by the Hardy family and by Horizon Financial. To get involved, call 256-504-8951. That's 256-504-8951. Show your colors with Horizon Financials, September 24th at Timber Creek Golf Club. Back on the Horizon Financial Half-Time Report with Coach Brent Crouch of the Auburn volleyball team and Emma Moore, a freshman who played at McGill Tulan High School here in Mobile. And Emma, I wanted to ask you and can I pick up where we left off there? As far as your freshman season or your career at Auburn, have you set a lot of goals? Are you a goal-setter? Are you just trying to ease in and get familiar with the college volleyball right now? - Yeah, I like to focus a lot on trying to beat myself 'cause when you kind of fall into comparing to others, that is kind of what holds me up sometimes. So just kind of trying to beat my stats every game, beat my practices every game, but also like I want to do as well as I can. So I don't have necessarily like hard set goals of like what I want to be doing, but I just want to do the best I can. And do the best for my team as well. - I know I talked to coach last year, I think about the girls that are playing volleyball, six, three, six, five, six, six. Talk, tell me a little bit about growing up in Mobile and what height were you at? What grade and when did you start knowing that volleyball might be a thing for you? - Yeah, so I started playing volleyball in about eighth grade and I played for club. That was my first year. And then I was like, oh, I really like this. So I kept going with it. And I didn't really know how far I could make it collegiately like until really my junior year. And then Brent started recruiting me. And so then I thought like I definitely want to do this in college. I knew before, but I really not really solidified it. So yeah, I really liked the competition that club provided me. And then yeah, I had a great recruiting process and here I am. - Yeah, I heard a lot about his cooking the other night on the broadcast. That didn't have anything to do with your decision. - Oh, it definitely did. Cooking with Crouch is definitely a great aspect of playing volleyball here in Auburn. - Yeah. Coach, how did you get into that? When did that become an interest for you? - Oh, yeah, I've always enjoyed cooking. I haven't had a lot of time to do it. You know, this is a coach family, but COVID for a lot of people, right? We all gained hobbies during COVID. And I was one, we weren't at, we're in a smaller town. Not, you know, obviously a lot of great options to eat here, but you're not going to restaurants during COVID that first year. I was trying to learn how to cook stuff for my kids and love cooking for them. And then that kind of bled into cooking for the team too. So we have Mober and lately it's been pizza. It's been homemade pizza at home in the oven. And we're introducing them to real Italian pizzas. All right, not Domino's and that junk, right Emma? - Yeah, it's a really good pizza. - Well, Emma, I know you have to get to class in a little bit, but coach, tell me quickly about Cal Poly tonight. - Yeah, solid team, really solid program historically, you know, they've been to the tournament a bunch. They've gone deep in the tournament. They've been ranked before there. I think they're picked to win the big West this year, which is a solid conference with Hawaii and UCSB in Long Beach State. So good program, confident coaches. I know the coaches from being a West Coast guy for a while. And yeah, they're going to be solid. They've got a big left side hitter, Tommy Stockham. The other outside is good too. They run a really fast slide. That's the set behind the setter. We're middles run off one foot, it's real fast. So they've got some big people that, you know, I think we can do a good job though. I mean, we're a very solid defensive team. Really good blocking team and good digging team. And so I think we can slow them down, provided we serve tough and get them in trouble but they're not the best path to the team in the world. So we should be able to, if we hit some good serves, have them spring balls around. We'll be a challenge there. Better than anyone who you've played so far. - Yeah. Emma sounds like a good night to get some blocks. So good luck and we'll be watching. And we'll be watching you the rest of the season. Have fun up there. - Thank you so much. - Emma Moore, a freshman on the Auburn volleyball team and coach Brent Crouch. Appreciate them both being with us tonight. The Tigers in action tonight. If you'd like to check out the score, we have it posted on our Twitter or X page. Go to it @TV_warrigo, @TV_warrigo, back with more. And just a minute. - Welcome back to Tiger Talk Over Time, presented by Will2, number one in quality and safe work for industry. To be a part of the show, call the Morgan Bradley Alpha Insurance Tiger Line now. 3, 4, 3, 0, 1, 0, 6. (crowd cheering) (upbeat music) Now, back to Doug Holton. - All right, we want to welcome into the show Stu Donald of the Sip and Chew with Mike and Stu Show. It's too great to have you with us. As always, time to talk to some college football. I know you're looking forward to that, looking forward to the weekend. And we want to ask you first though, as we always do, what is Stu-ing for this weekend? (laughing) - Well, you know, California is the largest producer of avocados in the country. And it should be no mystery, anybody, that avocado toast, a very popular brunch dish now, was created in Northern California, in Berkeley, where Cal is headquartered from. So all I want to do, you know, I always like to borrow from our opponents as kind of a welcome to town, sorry about the whooping. So here's some culture. So I want to take the avocado toast, but I want to put it on a Gulf toast spin, when I add a little Cajun shrimp on top, and some hauls on dewy sausage. You know, made right here in Mobile in Chickasaw, it's just the best on dewy sausage that I've ever worked with. So why not keep it good and local, a good Alabama product, and just make your regular avocado toast, however you like to make it, and just add some shrimp that you grill with Cajun seasoning on it, and brown up a little of the on dewy sausage you put it on there. And if you've never made avocado toast before, it's so easy. Make some toast. Walkamole and spread it across the top, and then generally it's topped with a bunch of what's called catea cheese. It's a Mexican crumbly cheese, but it's kind of sweet, not like fetta. It's much milder. And a ton of that, and then you put a little chili tai powder, a little lime squeeze, and bacon is what normally goes on there to give you a little salt and a little sin to go with all the other healthy stuff. But I'm switching it up with the on dewy, and then the grilled shrimp, because go from Mexico's got the best shrimp in the world. - Yeah, and your guacamole, you're talking about putting stuff on top, right, with the bacon and what it's sausage or whatever. In your guacamole, do you put tomatoes and all that stuff in there? - Yeah, I've heard the guy that I've watched. - Don't put that in there, yeah. - Yeah, I don't like tomatoes in the guacamole. - Yeah. - A lot of people do, and I'm saying, if you don't want to make guacamole, go to the grocery store. There's really good guacamole in the produce department. A bunch of different brands are good. Try them and get the one you like the best. - Yeah, and they're really pretty natural now. - Yeah, yeah, and it's a very healthy fat. It's very fat, there's a lot of fat in avocado, but it's a very healthy fat, a polyunsaturated, which is the same thing you find in olive oil, canola oil, duck fat also is polyunsaturated. It's very healthy oil or fat, however you want to call it. But there's also antioxidants. It's got that bright green color and anything you see, bright or bold colors in produce, that means they're packed with nutrients, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants. So the avocado toast is a really healthy dish. Get the healthiest bread you can or whatever you like. If you like bunny bread, use bunny bread. I like a good multi-grain for doing this, something that's gonna have, especially if it's got oats on top of it or sesame seeds or something like that. Just embrace the California of this dish because it is popular for a reason. And one of those reasons is it's healthy, but it's also darn delicious. - Yeah, with your bread comment there, you made me think of an ex post I saw this week, it said, "Give me your Mount Rushmore of cereal." There were some great responses there. - And mine would be so different for most people's 'cause none of those kids cereals are gonna be on there. When I was a kid, I would rather have great nuts than frosted flakes. - Was that you that said great nuts? - I didn't respond to it, I just saw it, but I would have had great nuts, muesilics, and all of the, basically granola. - You were one of those, yeah. - I like granola, cereal is cheap imitation granola. - Yeah, yeah. - But granola is also more expensive. - Well, tell me, before we get into count a little bit here and some other games, you got the chance to see deuce night, last Friday night, close to Mobile, and we knew he was wearing an Auburn towel, and we saw he switched to an Ole Miss, and maybe back to an Auburn, the decision is still out there, I think, but what did you think of his talent and his look? - He is very smooth, and I had heard some people that had concerns I get 'cause they didn't see him play last year and I haven't seen any highlights really, that he had accuracy issues, he did not. Now, they said he went to camps and he worked on that. His accuracy is outstanding, his touch is great, and when he throws the long ball, man, it just explodes out of his hand. It's like you're sitting there and he's popping in the back of the pocket, trying to stay clean, which is hard to do with their offensive line. They, I was bigger than most of their offensive linemen. And he was, you know, good two inches taller than his offensive tackles. - Was he a pocket guy or did he throw off side of the armor? - No, it's pocket and then he scrambles when it breaks down, and he had one scramble that went 72 yards for a touchdown, but somebody on the back end of the play did a little holding, so they brought it back to the 30. - Yeah, I just had that vision in my head about, you know, Cam Newton throwing off his back foot, throwing the deep ball. - Yeah, I didn't seem to have to do anything like that, but when he runs, it will remind you a lot of that Cam thing where he looks like he doesn't move that fast, but he's leaving people behind us 'cause he's got that long stride. He's listed as six, four and a half. Now I've been next to, I met Jason Campbell at the senior ball, and that was the first time I really experienced what a six foot five quarterback was like. My quarterback in high school was five foot eight. - Yeah. - And then right next to him was Matt Jones, who was six, six. - He looks every bit as tall as Jason Campbell. - What did you think of last week against A&M? It seems like Auburn did what they needed to do, and what do you think? What are your keys going into Cal? - When was the last time we saw Auburn do what they needed to do against an opponent like that? - Probably been a while, right? - Yeah, but what, maybe Cam? I'm sure Nick Marshall blew some teams out too. But it's been that long, maybe stid them those years. We probably did some damage, but we all, but we struggled the last eight years or so with teams that we should just be burying, where we came out and buried 'em, and guess what? Ole Miss, they came out and played a weak team too, and buried them, and the scores were very similar, and Alabama did the same thing. In Georgia, yeah. - I didn't get to see that second half, but apparently they wore Clemson out, right? - Yeah, they did what they wanted to do. Clemson is not the Clemson of old, and as long as Davo is gonna be flaky and not do the portal and not do NIL and all that, and they're not ever gonna be again, but Georgia is. They are Georgia. They say Cal's expecting to run the same defense against as they did last year, crowd the box and they're Peyton Thorne to beat 'em. - Well, they'll be dangerous. - They're not prepared for as Peyton Thorne's probably gonna beat 'em like a drum if they do that. - Yeah, yeah, and I thought it was interesting. I was talking to Byron Franklin also about what he found out was one of his distant relatives, Sam Jackson, who played at Cal, quarterback, and Sam Jackson was asked if he thought Cal would bring a lot of people to the ball game this weekend, and he kind of hesitated and said, "Not really." - Yeah, they had 32,000 in attendance for the last week. The stadium seemed 62,000, so they had about half capacity for their first game of the year. - They were still surfing. - Yeah, and we've been joking on Twitter back and forth with some Cal fans, and I'd brought up, you had 32,000 that your opener, Auburn had about 32,000 if there's spring yet. - Well, they will see a full house Saturday at Jordan Air Stadium. I think the Auburn fans are excited. That's about all the time we have for tonight. Don't forget to join us all through the week for the latest on Auburn Athletics at WarEagleTV.com. Our Twitter page, our X-Page @TV_WarEagle, @TV_WarEagle. Until next time, I'm Doug Holton. So long, everybody, enjoy the game and WarEagle. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)