FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
The DnD CFB Show - Dan and Dalton speak with JT Crabtree about the South Alabama Jaguars and Paul Finebaum on a busy SEC Week 1
(upbeat music) - All right, I like the sound of that. Welcome in the inaugural edition of the Dan Brennan. That's you. - Yeah. - The Dalton Orwig College football show. - I don't know much, but I know that's me. (laughs) - And I'm Dalton. And this is our first episode. So we're excited about this. Now I will let you know ahead of the season. We're open to changing the name. I mean, if you come up with a better idea, we will change the name of this podcast in just the next second and-- - Well, and if you want to sponsor it. - That's-- - Yes. - If you want to put some money in our pockets, then we'll change it like every day. We won't, there'll be no rhyme or reason. So anyway. - So yeah, if you're tuning into this on the podcast or maybe eight o'clock on Friday nights, we were this way or during the football season. Dan Brennan is over there. I'm Dalton Orwig. We are the mobile mornings, morning show, multiple time nappy award winners, multiple, well, single time abby award winners. That's the Alabama Broadcasters Association. And I think we're pretty good at what we do. That's in the morning. I think we're better at actually talking about sports, which we like to do a lot of times in our free time and on the show in the mornings. - Yeah, everybody's not as uptight about sports. - Yeah. - So we can be, it's easy to be a little more easy go, easy, you know, easy come easy go with sports. Now, not that there's not passion involved with college football. - Of course. But, you know, some of the issues we deal with in the morning, a lot heavier than Auburn against Alabama A&M. - Yeah, no doubt about that. This will also kind of serve as a companion piece to our FM Talk 106.5 College Pickham Challenge, which you're lucky if you're listening to this Friday or early Saturday morning. 'Cause we're cutting off the entries Saturday morning at 11 a.m. You gotta get in big prize from Spring Hill Ace Hardware with a Blackstone portable grill, a five piece stainless steel tool set that goes with that grill. Yeti 48 roller cooler, which can carry 76 cans. And then also the Yeti Camino 35 tote bag, all of that going to the winner at the end of the year. Run your pool.com is hosting this. If you played last year, just go sign in or do the forgot password thing, then it will prompt you to join the group. I just watched Dan do it that way earlier this week. If you haven't played before, go to our website, FMTalk106.5.com. Click the link College Pickham Challenge and the directions are right there for how to get signed up. Then you just pick 10 games each week against the spread. Whoever has the most wins at the end of the year is our grand prize winner. It's that simple. - And I would say there's nothing like it anywhere, but there is and it's a lot worse. So you would choose, just choose ours to start with. - Yeah. - Give yourself a chance with FMTalk 106.5 and let's get a big winner. - We've grown this thing to the point where Run Your Pool is like, you guys are doing that this year, right? - Yeah, they're wanting to make sure that we're in. - They're reaching out in July. - Exactly. - They can't indulge them. - Yeah, yeah, so for sure. And we'll talk about some of those games, especially later on in this episode. Florida State, let's just get into this really quickly before we lay out who we'll talk to. How about that? Dublin, Florida State, the upset lost to Georgia Tech who just ran the ball right over them. A lot of sad Knowles fans on both sides of the pond to start the year. - Yeah, I was hearing somebody talk about this. Can you imagine you go to a road game to root for the ball, say, right? - Yes. - And it's a four hour drive. And now you're like, I got another four hours, I got to drive back home. How about if you go to Ireland? (laughing) Now you have to go to an airport, take an international flight home, you're not going directly back home probably. I mean, that's a long trip to have the blues. - Yeah. - And after you lose to Georgia Tech, certainly you would. - Yeah, and then you know, a lot of terrible food at the same time. If you don't get to go eat, I'm sure there's great food in Ireland. I think this game to me, the return of the run game and it's important. Not that it hasn't been important, especially in college football, where you'll see some guys go for some major yardage, less so in the NFL unless they're cracking off big runs, like two or three 70 yard runs. But you see this seesaw with offensive schemes and what works and doesn't work. When you've got guys in the trenches, they can really put the other guys in the dirt or move them back and some quick guys behind them that could run. I love a good run game. - Yeah, and it's not always just power adulting a lot of times with offenses like this. It's pulling guards and almost like an option game, almost like you're going back in time and you can mask some of the things you don't have when you can run the ball with certain schemes. - Yeah, and we saw Georgia Tech do that. It'll be interesting to see if they're able to kind of hang in there in the ACC through the end of this season 'cause that could really create some good intrigue. We'll see some other teams who think they have a shot like Miami this weekend. And so I'm so stoked about this year, especially the games that begin on Saturday for so many big games they have this week. Speaking of a game we're interested in, you'll be at this weekend. I'm gonna try to make it out there. We'll talk with JT Crabtree, the voice of the South Alabama Jaguars. Not a whole lot of national discussion on our Jags. - No, but we'll discuss. - Yeah, we wanna fill you in and especially using JT's knowledge, he's so good. We'll talk with him here in just a couple of minutes about what he sees with South. This year is they get ready to host North Texas at Hancock Whitney this weekend. Also our Paul Finebaum weekly interview that we have with him, we'll play that for you. Also a little bit later in the show he's got some really great things to talk about as well. And then we'll take a look at the pick 'em for this week and some other big games that we're keeping our eye on as we unveil the Dan and Dalton College Football Show. How about that? - Dan and Dalton College Football Show, that's the name of it, we're not changing it unless you come forward with your checkbook. - Yeah, come correct. You can get this wherever podcasts are available by the way and our website, effintalk1065.com. Coming back, JT Crabtree joins us. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) All right, that's the intro music. - I like the intro music. - So far so good on the Dan and Dalton College Football Show. - Yeah, that's a good name. Here we are, Dan and Dalton. And we know a lot of people involved in the sport of football, college football. And so we can reach out to them and they can help us with the show. - That's right, and one of those that you're referring to there is a, I guess at this point, I can say a long time friend of mine. We were classmates at South Alabama. I didn't go too far, he didn't leave. He stayed on campus there at South Alabama. JT Crabtree, the voice of the South Alabama Jaguars joins us here on this inaugural podcast/radio show episode. JT, how you doing, man? - I'm good, man, I'm a, man, what an honor. The inaugural show and it has to be a part of it, let's go. Well, it's an inaugural show, but it's just ours. So you don't want to get too excited. JT, I remember back in the day, so I guess I didn't know Dalton back then. You were like the wacky student fan at the basketball games. - I was, yeah, in a past life. I was a super fan wearing an Afro wig and what are they called? The shutter shades with the little plot through them and the plays are in a tie with no shirt on under it. - Yeah, I was having a good night. - You were this close to being arrested, but now here you are. You're the play-by-play man of the jags and we're happy to have you on our show here today. - Well, I appreciate it, man. It's a great honor to think back to what I was doing in the student section of basketball and football games to now, instead of yelling into a traffic cone that I modified to a megaphone, I get to yell into a headset now. So, yeah, it's a joy, man. I would not want to be doing anything else. - We've grown into a great broadcaster, man, to do a great job. - Yeah, and the growth of the jags has been something else to watch also since those early days when you were cheering for the team. And now we have multiple players in the NFL. We've had bowl games. We've had some really exciting games against top tier programs. And if we make the right steps here this next year, possibly you can go forward a 12 team playoff. So, it's not out of line to think that one day the jags could be playing for a national championship. - It is not out of the question. You know, it's now with the 12 teams like you're talking about if we can kind of take care of our business and be the top ranked group of five teams plus be a conference champion. We're in there. We're right there in the mix. You saw last year Liberty get in to the Fiesta Bowl. Now, obviously the game didn't go great for them, but they got in there as a group of five. And so now you've got a realistic possibility. I know Liberty is in the talk this year. I know one of the dark horse teams that teams talking about or is Texas State out of the Sunbelt Conference potentially being a playoff team. So, it's a real possibility now, you know, with four teams, let's be honest. We didn't really have a shot. Now that there's 12, there's a dedicated spot for the group of five. We've legitimately got a chance to play for a national championship, which is pretty darn cool. - Jadi, what's it gonna take to get south to the position where they are not just a member of the Sunbelt, but the dominant member of the Sunbelt, just even just one year where we just have everything, just all the recipe items rolling together at the same time and suddenly got the, for instance, the defense was pretty good last year. That's a good place to start. We had a good quarterback last year too. And Bradley, I thought he was the best quarterback we've had in the program. But Gio Lopez got us excited about what he can do. What's it gonna take for the Jags to have that kind of special season? - Yeah, it's gonna take a little bit of consistency. You know, we haven't handled winning very well with this program to be honest. You look at 2022 and we went 10 and two in the regular season. We were five points away from being 12 and 0. I mean, maybe two or three plays from being undefeated in the regular season. And then we go to the New Orleans Bowl. We're playing a Western Kentucky team that was six and six. Half their team is going to the portal and we're thinking, oh, we got this. You know, we handled everybody else. We've got this and we get demolished. And no one really thinks about, yeah, you won 10 games in 2022. Everyone thinks about, you guys got killed in the New Orleans Bowl, right? - Yeah. - And so that's kind of what I'm talking about is, we've got to figure out how to handle winning. Last year, we were six and six in the regular season. Won a bowl game for the first time. And that's obviously a great step. You want to check that box for the program and you're seven and six, but you look overall at what we did last year. And you can say that we honestly kind of underperformed a little bit, you know, you beat Oklahoma State, you're the national team of the week and you feel great about that. You feel great about the direction the program's heading. And then you come home, you host Central Michigan. You've got almost 20,000 people in the stands for the Central Michigan game. We had no crazy promos or anything. People were just legitimately wanting to see Jags football. And we laid an egg in loss. And that kind of really killed the momentum we had from beating Oklahoma State. Everyone says, instead of going, oh, the Jags dominated Oklahoma State, they're a really good football team. Instead, people are saying, ah, the Jags kind of got a flooky win in Oklahoma State. And so that's where we've got to clean things up here. It's a program, but yes, we've had some bright spots. We've had some big marquee wins over the years, but we haven't been able to find a way to sustain it just yet. And I think that's just part of the growing pains of a still a young program. You know, this is only going to be year 16 of football at South Alabama coming up in a couple of days. And so I think that's the next step is we've got to find a way to handle winning. Because right now we just really haven't done that. - We're talking with JT Crabtree, the voice of the South Alabama Jaguars in a big year on deck that starts this weekend at home against North Texas. Let's talk about the biggest change this season. Kane Womack, who Dan mentioned how great the defense looked last year, of course, that was his specialty. And now he stayed in state, but in Tuscaloosa, the new defensive coordinator of the Alabama Crimson Tide, the OC from last year, man with some head coaching experience himself, Major Applewhite moves into that head coaching role. What has been, have you noticed a culture shift at all with Applewhite taking over? Have practices looked any differently? How does it seem that the team is taking this change in coaching? - The guys really like him. He's a players coach because he's been that guy. You know, he's been the star quarterback in Texas. I mean, it doesn't get too much higher than that in terms of, you know, kind of notoriety as a player in college football. And so he's been there, he's played in those big games. But I think what the guys kind of respect to is, you know, he took his lumps at times. You know, it wasn't all five star guy. You know, he went in national champions at left and right. No, Major got hurt. Major had to battle for his job for several years. And Major ended up writing his name in the record books as a consistently good quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. And I think the guys respect the fact that, you know, he's one of them, you know, yes, Kane played. And, you know, but everyone thinks of Kane and, you know, he's a coach's son. You know, everyone knows Dave Womack and what he did for college football and the defensive side of the football, you know, kind of fathering in the 425 defense. People think of Major Applewhite. Yeah, you're the Texas quarterback. Yeah, I remember your 2001 holiday ball, the comeback. Yeah, I remember all that. That's that same guy. And it's been fun to last couple of weeks in free season camp to watch him kind of interact more on hands with everybody. Because as O.C. and quarterback coach, he kind of had his defined role, his space that he stayed in. But then the first day in pad, you see him running around. He's flapping guys on the helmet. He's hitting them on the pad. He's all fired. He's in the middle of drills doing all this stuff. He's in the line of fire. And it was really, really cool to see him involved as much as that. And you think, too, some of our guys on the defensive side of the ball, you know, how much have they interacted with Major over the years? Well, we go to send out media day at the end of July. And while T.V. Thomas, our big defensive tackle who's been here now for six years, you would have thought him and Major were best friends. Yeah, it was just a seamless transition for a lot of these guys. I knew some folks will ask, you know, oh, he's an offensive coach. You're going from a defensive coach and whatnot. Yes, that's true. But I don't think in terms of system and terminology and whatnot, not a lot's going to change coming up this year, which is really exciting, kind of comforting as well for the players. But, you know, I like working with them. You know, it's in terms of, you know, kind of the day-to-day operationally, what is he like to do? You know, little things like, what does he want to do as pre-game energy? How does he want to do post-game when we're on the road? What does he want to do the coaches show? Little things like that on my end are just an adjustment, but nothing really glaring, nothing that's kind of crazy or anything like that. You hear sometimes of coaches being free medanas and whatnot. That's not the case with Major. And he very well could be being the guy that he is, but he's not, he wants to go out there, wants to coach football, wants to play football, and wants to be competitive. The word they've been using all in camp is violence. They want to be violent out there and have kind of a chip on their shoulder a little bit, which is funny thinking about that, that swarm defense you guys were talking about with Kane Womack. You know, it was blitz, blitz, blitz and attack everywhere. And they're preaching more physicality and more violence which is the game of football is a great thing. So I think that's going to be really exciting. - On the offensive side, how good can Gio Lopez be? We saw him in the ballgame. He looked brilliant, he was athletic, he was pinpoint. Is that him? Is that really who he is? - I think it is, you know, I think the key thing for him is going to be consistency. What's really exciting about Gio, and you guys know this, we really haven't had a true mobile quarterback maybe ever in the program's history. And we had Ross Mc granny who could run, but he wasn't necessarily a mobile quarterback. Brandon Bridge is probably the closest thing we had to a mobile quarterback, but he didn't really kind of put it all together and utilize that athleticism. I think we're going to see that with Gio. You know, he's poised, man. He's just a red shirt freshman. He doesn't talk like a red shirt freshman. He doesn't act like a red shirt freshman at practice. He walks around with a little bit of a swagger. And hey, let me show you how it's done here a little bit, which is fun to watch from a 19 year old kid out there that's playing now against 23, 24 year olds. And he looks calm. What we saw in the ballgame was great, how much you can run. He kind of improvised pretty well also. I think we're going to see some pretty cool things offensively from Gio just from the fact that he can move around a little bit. We're going to call some QB draws and some read options and whatnot. And that's something we've never been able to do before, especially the last three years with Jake Bentley when he transferred him from South Carolina in the last two years of Carter Bradley. Those guys were the definition of pocket passes. And so I think our offense this year is going to look very different just because we have some different weapons we can utilize and we can do some different things because we've got a mobile quarterback like Gio. Yeah, that's always fun to watch. And he sure was fun to watch in that ballgame. How about defensively? We've talked quite a bit about last year's defense. You mentioned Archivius Thomas, an absolute, I mean, he's going to plug that front. But what about on the back end? I know, is it Jaden Voisen, who all team's son belt last year and then his brother on the offensive side. I mean, have you seen those two go at it and practice at all? They have, they love to go after each other. And yeah, they've been doing that since they were like three years old, probably. And there's still no, there's no love loss between them. They love to go after each other, which is fun because Jaden play safety and Devin plays wide out. And so they're going after each other left and right. And they're both starters now, which is really cool. And I know that we're very excited to have Jaden back. You know, like you mentioned, all conference guy last year and he's going to be the heart and soul of our defense. Bubba, Wykevius, everyone calls him Bubba. We still don't know why after six years. We've had something like on everybody calls me Bubba. But anyway, Wykevius, he'll plug that middle for us. And then it's just kind of like, all right. Well, where do we kind of plug things everywhere else? You know, Jaden Boyson up top with our safety is going to be kind of the defensive quarterback for us out wide at the corner spots. Ricky Fletcher returns. And I think Ricky's boys have himself a big year. He's a junior. He's a big kid too for a corner, six, three, almost 200 pounds. Wow. Safety, the other safety, we kind of call them a rover because they play kind of center field up there up top. We've got a couple of guys, Mike Harris is a transfer from Baylor a couple of years ago. Chris Wallace, who's a kid who could really step up this year. He's a mobile kid. He's got a great story. He was from MGM. Really, he wasn't part of the football team. Going from high school senior to college freshman, he wasn't part of the football team. He was working out with the buddy on the intramural field. And one of our GA's happened to see him. I'm like, hey, you're pretty athletic. Do you play football? Yeah, I play at MGM. Don't really have any aspirations of playing college ball. So why don't you come out and give it a shot? And lo and behold, Chris Wallace might be our sleeper on defense this year. He's been really solid. There's a couple of guys to plug some holes. Like Kil Washington's a transfer from Liberty, who, back, I'm expecting some really big things from Akil. Really, really well-spoken kid. He knows what he wants to do. He's very professional and polished about what he does. Lardarias Webb, Jr. is a transfer from Oklahoma State. He's going to factor in there in the defensive backfield somewhere. The big key for us is going to be linebackers. The last couple of years, that's been a spot of strength for us. Trey Kaiser, James Miller, Khalil Jacobs, Quentin Wilfon. There's just a couple of the guys that we really didn't have to worry about in the middle of the field. Now they're all gone. They've all graduated or transferred out. So a kid from across the Bay over in Barrow, Blaine Myrick. Really excited about Blaine. He's probably going to be our starting middle linebacker for us. He played well in spurts last year. Didn't play a ton because he was behind all those guys. What he got out there? He looked really good. Gavin Forza is another Baylor transfer, a Kansas State transfer, excuse me. He's going to be one of our other linebackers spots. And then the rest of them, it's OK. Who's going to step up? You know, it'll be like a depth guy from years past of Chris Dal Caldwell who had played a ton, a special team guy who's played really well over the years. The special teams, but hasn't done a lot on defense like Dolph and Hughes. It's kind of time for those guys to say, hey, we need someone to step up. Here's your opportunity. And so I think that's what's going to be key is who are those-- we know pretty much all the starters everywhere. It's just who we're going to be those twos and those threes that we rotate quite consistently on defense. Who are going to be those guys that step up for us? Kind of what we've got to feel out on Saturday. Well, it sounds like they use the transfer portal well. And it all starts this weekend. JT, I know you're fired up about it. North Texas comes to Mobile. Five point favorites are the Jags as we head into week one. And they've got the total set relatively high, 65 and 1/2. So they're expecting some offense this weekend. What are you expecting, JT? What do we need to see from the Jags here in week one? You know, for-- I'm not a betting man. I cannot because of NCAA compliance rules. Come on, you can bet. Use your inside information and get rich. Come on. So disciplined. I wish. I wish. OK. I wish. No, but they're not wrong in expecting a lot of points. North Texas last year was one of the best scoring offenses in the country. They were six in the FBS in total offense, averaging 495 yards per game. But defensively, they were the worst defense in college football last year. They averaged allowing 37 points a game and 476 yards of offense per game. Both of those were dead last. Now, this might end up being a 49-42 ball game when we have-- when everything's said and done coming up this weekend, but they're a talented bunch. North Texas is-- you know, they've got a new quarterback, Chandler Morris. Transfer from TCU. He started at TCU. Last year was a little bit banged up, but now just wants an opportunity to beat the guy. He's a dual-threat guy. He can run. He can really sling the football, too. His deep ball is really well. The running-back spot, they had a couple of guys transfer out, including their starting running-backs now at James Madison in the conference. But a kid last year, Ragsill, who missed the majority of the season with an ACL injury. He's back. You know, they've got several talented wide receivers. I think I read that they have somewhere around 74 total newcomers on this year's squad. You can only have 85 scholarship kids and 120 total on the roster. So, I mean, there's been a lot of reading of just-- I always think of the scene from the moving major league when they open up the newspaper on opening day for the Cleveland. And they're like, who are these guys? This is me right now looking at North Texas, because there's so many new guys on this roster. I expect defensively, they've got to be better, right? I mean, they were last last year, so they can't be worse. I hope they bring last year's defense. Is there any way they would agree to that? I'm with you, man. I would love that. They've got an interesting spot to fill, though, because they're defensive star. There's two of them, Roderick Brown, who's their nose tackle. And their other is kind of-- they play a 335 defense. And their nickel-back ish, Ashim Young, who was going to be their main guy, defensively, the transfer from Ole Miss. He started Ole Miss the last two years. He was a preseason All-American two years ago with the Rebels. He's done for the year with the knee injury. And so that's a huge blow for their defense before they even get started. So I'm curious to see what they do there. They've got several transfers, obviously. They've got several kids from not only D1 transfers, but they've got a kid from the Division 2 rank. That was an All-American three years in a row. They've got a Texas transfer. The Ole Miss kid I just talked about. They've got a Kansas kid, another kid from McNeese, who was an FCS All-American, Northern Arizona. They've got kids from everywhere that played good ball at their level. It's just going to be a matter of does it translate now to the FBS level is always going to be a big question mark. So I'm excited-- I think this is going to be a really fun test. I think it's going to be a good test for us. Ideally, you probably want to play an FCS opponent to start to roll out a new coaching staff and whatnot and kind of have that on paper win. But we saw this weekend with Montana State and New Mexico that's not a guaranteed win playing an FCS opponent. But ideally, probably playing FCS. But I think this is a good matchup. I think it's going to be a fun game. If you're a fan of college football, there should be a lot of points scored in the football game. And I think it's going to be fun. I'm excited. I'm excited. College football is back. So regardless, I am excited for this weekend. I hope all those transfers stink. And I hope we just roll on them. 4 o'clock on Saturday, Dalton. That's correct. 4 o'clock, Hancock, Whitney Stadium. And how can folks, if they're not at the game, listen to you, JT. Yeah, we can catch the USA Jaguars.com/radio. We've got all the listen links and whatnot there to catch the broadcast. We've gone on the air two hours before. We've got some cool pre-game guests lined up. We've got a great conversation with Travis Llewellyn from the Sunbelt Conference, who you guys know there's new rules in college football this year in terms of technology. There's the two-minute warning now. But now players on the field have in-helmet one-way comms like in the NFL. And then there's also on-field tablets for video replay where they can break down film if the game goes along. All that stuff is new in college football. And so there's some interesting rule changes that goes with those new changes. There's the green dot on a helmet. But if you have more than one guy on offense or defense on the field at a time, with that green dot, that's a penalty now. And so that's something I hadn't even considered. But it's the same as if you had two number sevens on the field at one time. It's a uniform violation. So there's some interesting stuff in there. But yeah, looking forward to talking to everybody again, come up this weekend. - All right, JT, thanks for your time, man. - Thanks guys, JT's up and go Jax. - J's up and go Jax. That is the OG Jax, right there. JT Grand Prix. And he's done a great job with his career there on campus at the University of South Alabama. Wow, he broke that down. So I'm ready for Saturday and seeing those Jags back in action. Coming back, we'll have our conversation with Paul Feynbaum, our weekly conversation right here on the Dan Brennan and Alton Norway College Football Show. Stay tuned. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - It's time for football Friday with Paul Feynbaum, preceded by Bryant Bank. Your hometown bank with big bank benefits, located in Mobile and Baldwin counties. Now, here's Dan Brennan and Deltnerwig. - And Paul Feynbaum on football Fridays with Feynbaum, we catch him live here this morning in between phone calls with Dion, I guess. What's been going on, Paul? - Yeah, listen, I've gotten blamed for a lot of things this week that I had nothing to do with, but I was simply asked on our ESPN show there that about Dion and next thing I would be on is pretty much writing my entire career off. So he said, I'm a dying breed and I'm out of touch with reality and I'm talking, I'm only talking about him because he's hot. - Yeah, and he's only talking about me because he's been skinned, petty, and a narcissist. (laughing) - Yeah, it's, you know, I thought the season was getting started here at Colorado. So I've seen a lot of other nervous coaches, you know, that are maybe not worried about the season getting started, but they have their mind on the game. Dion has had a lot of time here to go after the media, it seems, Paul. - Well, Dion never has missed an opportunity to get publicity. And, you know, he is clearly the PT Barnum of this generation for those who don't even know who PT Barnum was. He used to run the circus. (laughing) And that's pretty much what Dion does. But listen, I don't mind because guys, by the time you get to the week of the first game, I mean, other than the Florida State mess from last weekend, beer is not a single new thing to talk about. So for those of us who were in the inner, well, excuse me, the sports entertainment business, we particularly enjoy stories like this. - Well, let the games begin, that's what I say, Paul. - And they finally will. - Yes, that's for sure. You know, last week we spent a lot of time talking about the big changes. Before we get into some of this week's games, I just, a couple we didn't bring up last week that we saw in action over the past weekend and Thursday night games, new two-minute warning, which means you get an extra little commercial break in there. Helmet communications with the quarterback up until about 15 seconds on the clock and tablets on the sidelines. Those are some pretty big end game changes. Do you think that'll make, have a major effect this year? - I think they will help the communication. Obviously, Connor Stallion, who was the Michigan guy last year, jumped a gun on this in-game communication deal. But I don't, I mean, I think it's necessary, frankly, let me, why do we have to, you know, play stupid games with, you know, looking over the sideline and trying to hide it. I mean, just talk directly to the quarterback. I mean, it would be a little confusing to me, trying to, you know, among all the other noise, but I like it very much. And, you know, a lot of things in the two-minute warning, the last couple of minutes of a game, as you guys know, takes so long. I don't really think that's significant. I know there's a lot of conversation about the kickoff rules in the NFL, but, you know, every year we hear, it's all about safety, but I get to see much evidence of that. - You know, real quick on this conversations, you know, not all offensive coordinators are built the same. So if you have a, it's kind of crazy that a quarterback will be distracted by a dim-witted offensive coordinator for 15 seconds leading up to each snap. If you have a bad coach, I'd only get helps. - No, and by the way, I started on those sidelines and they still can't get the signal in. I mean, that's all an offensive coordinator got. He works on the game plan. He works on situation. So when he sees something out there, he should be able to communicate. But by the way, my first year covering Alabama, I stood about 10 feet away from Bear Bryant and Mal Moore, some may remember him in a game in Mississippi that Alabama lost ending this 27-game winning streak and costing him a national championship. And to this day, I'm still waiting for Mal Moore to get the play in to the quarterback. They fumbled, they fumbled on the goal line in Jackson, Mississippi and lost the game. And I waited about 30 years to bring it up. Now that Mal and Coach Bryant are both gone. Dude, I didn't want embarrassed, but there was always wanting to ask Mal. Now, I was five feet away from you. And I think what he would have told me was he was waiting for Coach Bryant to tell him what he wanted to do and Bryant in the moment just couldn't think straight. - Wow, there's a story right there. - A heck of a story. Let's keep talking about the tide. And of course, DeBore, game one, Kaitlyn DeBore is the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide. And Western Kentucky coming in to Tuscaloosa, put about a, they're sitting around 31, 32 point favorites are the tide. What are you, if you're an Alabama fan wanting to see from this game one this week? - Well, I want to see Joe in the world. How does he handle this new offense? And it's definitely, definitely, you know, my dog's excited about the season. It's definitely a new offense. So I, I, well, it's all-time, buddy. I think, I think that's really what I'm most interested in. And, you know, what is the more life? I mean, he is, you know, he's got a lot of things right. He's not been the most exciting coach I've been on, but I might suggest him taking my dog with him to the game set. He might get him out of my house. But, but other than that, I mean, I think it's really all about the offense. The defense is not going to be showing up one way or the other against Western Kentucky. - Yeah. And I sympathize, I went out and got a blue-tick coonhound after Tennessee beat Alabama just a couple of years ago. So he's allowed one too, Paul. So we're dog-friendly here. No worries about that at all. Also- - Yeah, well, you got Auburn, of course. And you got Hugh Fries right here on FM Talk 10065. They've got an opener against Alabama, A&M, and a big favorite there, but not the score. But what would Auburn want to see out of their team? - I think the same, I, well, I used to cover teams for a beef or a newspaper. I mean, these games, you were basically down there, just studying just how the operation flows. 'Cause there's not much to be gained. And quite frankly, I don't think in either game, you're going to see either coach get very much away. Kirby Smart says something really interesting the other day. It's unlike the NFL, you know, we get out there. We have no idea what we're going to see. All we can do is look at the previous year. And that's not a very good indicator, especially when you have a new coach. So for a few Fries, it's, you know, do they look crisper? But this game, I mean, I don't want to dissuade any months and going down and listening here on the station. But it's a good game to take your kids to it. Maybe a half time, say, hey, let's get one more hot dog to go home. - Yeah, we had a co-host who thought the same thing last year about, was it New Mexico State? Took the kid out there to the Auburn game there. That didn't work out as well as he had planned then, but we'll see a lot of new recruits, a lot of transfers that came in there. - Yeah, I remember that week that was the, that was the beginning of the, at some point, somewhere around the middle of November last year before that game. She freezes defensive coordinator, took a two week vacation because he didn't make it to that game and he certainly didn't make it to the final play of the iron ball. - No, nobody was there. Nobody was on that. - Well, we do have some really good match ups this week one, including SEC teams. And I guess we go chronologically, how about two programs? One that is really, really has high hopes this year, Miami, and they're heading to the swamp. And I think a 230 game, I guess I messed up the chronological Georgia Clemson, but Miami at Florida, Cam Ward, quarterback for Miami, what are we going to see in Gainesville this Saturday? - That is one of the probably the two most interesting games of the day for me or the weekend, I should say, because I don't, I don't think either team can, either coach can really afford to lose this game. And for Florida, it's a little more important because Christopher Ball has not had a great run so far in Miami, but he has a really good team with Cam Ward. Florida is a mystery. I mean, the schedule has been talked about ad nauseam, but if, should they lose this game, their path to a 500 or a winning record is almost shut. And that's before we get to September. - Georgia Clemson, Georgia seems to be the big favorite, but I don't know if that's gonna be the case, Paul. How do you see that game? - For some strange reason, I think it came being a little closer maybe than maybe the betting line. And that's not for, I think Georgia's a little bit banged up right now. Clemson has something to prove and I mean, by the way, Georgia, Georgia, but I just think there's so much pressure on Diablo Sweeney to get this program back. And this is probably his biggest opportunity of the year. It's the biggest game to play. - Yeah, I agree. Yeah, another game we're fired up around here about is Notre Dame at college station and taking on Elko. In his first year as the Texas A&M head coach, of course we're fired up. Riley Leonard, now the quarterback at Notre Dame, the former Fair Hope quarterback and then Duke with Elko. And then now on to the Irish. Only a two and a half point spread in this one. And the funniest thing to me would be if Jimbo's gone and A&M ends up having some kind of record year in the first year with Elko. Lots of proof for both of these sides Saturday night too. - Yeah, you know, I saw, I got to get off the subject. I saw Jimbo's now there and beyond like satellite radio once a week given his opinion. Like, how could anybody understand what that guy talks to us? Somebody, can you imagine? - Yeah, it will, Ed Orgeron B is co-host. (laughing) - You know what, that might be a Kelsey Brothers podcast right there probably. That's a very intriguing because obviously Leonard played for Elko and now Elko is coaching against him. I'm guessing Elko knows a little bit more about Leonard's tendencies than Leonard knows about Elko. So I really like A&M in this game. I think the Saturday night crowd, Kyle Field is the difference. - I'm gonna wrap up the weekend wraps up LSU USC. - LSU, enough on defense to get this win? - Fairly enough. I think the offense is probably, the both offenses are really good. But in my mind, I just don't buy what's going on out there at USC. I think they're a program in great transition. And Lincoln Raleigh is about to find himself on the hot sheet. - Yeah, no, you always speak so highly of Lincoln. Lincoln Raleigh, I'm so confused, Paul. (laughing) - Well, I go from, listen guys, without horrible and saving, I've got to pick on somebody. (laughing) - Yeah, there's plenty to choose from, but he's a good candidate. And these two teams looking so differently offensively as well, maybe not the points we would have seen last year with Daniels behind one line and Williams behind the other, kind of remaking both offenses. - No, exactly. I think, I think LSU is gonna be okay. Dr. Brian Keller the other day, and he's trying to mask the problems on defense, but I think he knows my report about this. It's a drop off, but it's really not significant. He will be one of the better quarterbacks in the SEC. - All right, Paul, thanks for the conversation this morning. We always appreciate it. And we know that you're getting stretched in a number of directions with your conflict with Neon Dion. So thanks for taking time. - Oh yeah, he's on the other line ready for me to yell at me again. Guys, I'll see you next week. - All right, thank you. Paul Finebaum, the Paul Finebaum Show two to six every weekday afternoon right here on FM Talk 106.5, and it's presented by Bryant Bank Football Fridays, every Friday morning right here at eight o'clock. And coming back, more mobile mornings on the way. We'll turn up your voice 2513430106, stay tuned. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Welcome back to the Dan and Dalton College football show Extravaganza, inaugural. - A lot of people use that word, Extravaganza, when it doesn't fit. - Yeah, but in this case. - Well, I believe that to the audience. - Yeah, exactly. Welcome back. Thanks for sticking with us through this first episode as we look forward to these first week games in college football. Great conversation with J.T. Crabtree earlier, also Paul Finebaum, I just hope he and Dion are able to work things out. - You hope so, you know, you hate to see a couple on the rocks like that. - Yeah, so I'm sure that-- - Prayers. - Prayers are up, that's exactly right. Let's talk a little bit about pick 'em and reminder, we talked about this earlier in the episode, our FM Talk 106.5 college pick 'em challenge, still time to get in. Just go to FMTalk106.5.com. You can either, there's two ways from there, click on the football trophy picture. - Yep. - Or at the top of the page, college pick 'em, click on that, instructions on how to get in, 10 games against the spread each week. And I don't know, you know, this week one, it wasn't so difficult, even though we have some good games. So I'm, just so you know, I select the games that we'll choose, I don't put the lines up, there, the points press. - Yeah, you select the games, the lines come with the games. - Right. - And you gotta pick with the line in mind, you're not picking just the game, but-- - So yeah, so to put you into my thought process on how I pick these games, I'm trying to keep us with our Bama teams, definitely Alabama and Auburn each week in South Alabama. I try to keep Troy in there, UAB when they have some good games. - Yeah, Troy, I mean Troy is the school that threw you out. (laughs) So in your college career, you have one school you graduated from. - That's right. - And there was, it was on the fence. - Yeah, a little gray there too, but there was one school. - They only kicked me off campus. - Right, right, and was jail time involved? That's, there's no need to get involved. (laughs) But Troy in your college career, that's the school that actually said, sayonara, man, you don't fit in. - Yeah, yeah, well that was, I kinda resigned, really. It wasn't so much, but they said I wasn't Trojan material, whatever that means. - Well, yeah. - But they said we have a college in mind that you might be perfect for. - Yeah. - And then other than that, it's just the big games. And that's where I'm thinking some of this difficulty will arise is there are gonna be so many massive games, and now so many of those will be conference games. - It's crazy. Like Ohio State at Oregon, Oklahoma against Auburn, games we've never imagined before, a lot of these, and some more conference games, which makes it really crazy. Every week there's gonna be so many games that you're thinking, like Miami against Florida this week. - Mm-hmm. - Crazy. - In Gainesville. There's gonna be more and more quality games every week. That's what I love about it. - My wife was tasked to work with selecting a, she's putting together like an employee event, and it's on a weekend in October. She said which weekend would be best, and I've flipped flopped on her like four or five times. - Yeah, you're like Kamala. - Like Kamala, exactly. Hey, this is a sports show. - I'm sorry. - That's for the Mobile Morning 69 weekdays. So let's look at some of these games. And Georgia Clemson, let's start there, Dan, because you've, well, you've been watching everything you can about this Clemson team. - Yeah, like I said, I know the punter's stepmom's from, she's from Greenville, and I know her birthday. So I'm oversaturated with information on this game, but Georgia's favored by 13.5, I'll go with the dogs. - Yeah, and I went that way too. I just, I mean, you have Carson back there in the backfield, and we talk about so many teams that are replacing their quarterbacks, this is not them. And you know, some people say Clemson should replace their quarterback, but they're stuck with the same guy, and he didn't have a good year last year. - And you know, they have Georgia list as the home team, not technically, but they're in Atlanta, which basically, like I told you the other day, is a home stadium B for the Georgia Bulldogs. - Kind of is. - So yeah, I'm with you on Georgia. I think they'll get that too touchdown cover. This was a tough one. I really don't have a whole lot of insight into this, other than I have cousins that go to Penn State. But West Virginia gets a home game. Penn State high hopes like they do every year, top 10 ranking, but they have the Nittany lines favored by eight and a half on the road. - Here's why, and this is a big game for West Virginia. They don't get used to play a lot, the two teams, but they don't anymore. West Virginia based, their big game is with Pitt now. So they don't get Penn State very often. My thinking on this is just look at the past four years in recruiting Penn State's always top 10. West Virginia is never up that high. The talent's on Penn State side, so I think they come. - Yeah, and I went with West Virginia to cover the eight and a half. I'm just thinking so early in the season, you get a home game and you're eight and a half point dogs. Like I know you're not the better team, most likely, but that's too hard for me to resist a home team getting eight and a half points. The game you mentioned Miami also on the road, but they're actually favored in Gainesville against the Florida Gators. You have Cam Ward behind the line now in Miami. They've got high hopes for the hurricanes. They're favored by two and a half over Florida. - I don't like it. Graham Mertz is probably as good as Cam Ward. Let's just say I'll say that he is. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - He was pretty good quarterback last year. - I think he caught a lot of flack last year and it wasn't really his fault in all of this. - No, it wasn't his fault and he's got some good receivers. They've got good talent and I think the swamp is an impossible place to play eventually. So I'm going with Florida. - Here was my thought process in picking Miami. I hate the Florida Gators. - Yeah, well there you go. - That's one. - Also, not that I'm a big fan of Miami, but I think the world, the country is in a better place when you have a good Miami Hurricanes team. Just more fun, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So I took the hurricanes there. South at home, North Texas. We have the Jags favored by five and a half. - Gotta go south. - I went south too. I'm excited about Gio Lopez. We talked so much about what JT earlier. - Yeah, maybe a really good quarterback they can build around that's gonna be here for another, well, you gotta watch it. If your quarterback's good, the upper tier may snatch him from here. - So we want him to be good. - Yeah, not that good. - Not that good, exactly. Troy at home against a team who's actually played a game, Nevada and Troy favored by nine and a half. And remember, Nevada, they were actually four touchdown underdogs last week two, and now I'm blanking on it. Was it, oh boy. - SMU. - SMU, and SMU had to come back late to win that game. For that reason, Nevada coming off their first game, a tough loss, I like Troy at home. - Yeah, I like Nevada because they were, you know, what they did last week. And I don't know if we've time for the others or not. - Yeah, I think we can run through it quick. - Okay, yeah. - West, and these are the actual toughest ones when you're picking against the spread. Western Kentucky is the away team in Tuscaloosa. I think we all believe Bama will win, but will they cover the 31 and a half? - I'm going with Bama. - You are going with Bama. - You're going with Bama. - I feel like you've been on the fence about that this week. - I'm going with Bama. - Okay, I went Western Kentucky. I'm all about TJ family, man. I think he's going to, I think career resurrection here. - He's played for everybody but Rutgers. - Also, we don't know if Dibor is going to put the hammer down, right? I mean, I guess if he followed his Washington career enough, does he like putting people in the ground once he's up? - He scores a lot. I mean, they scored a lot of points with the Washington last year, so yeah, I would say yes. - Auburn at home, 46 and a half point favorites against Alabama A&M. - Going with A&M, you're inside, yeah. - We're on the opposite side of them a lot of these. I think Hugh Fries is going to try to send a message to whatever conference Alabama A&M. Are they swack? I think he's going to send a big message here. Notre Dame, big game, they are the dog in college station. Texas A&M the favorite by two and a half points. - Riley Leonard's Heisman, his journey for the Heisman begins in college stations. I'm going to go with, this is my heart talking. - Same. - Going with Notre Dame. - I did so for the exact same reason. Kentucky 27 and a half point favorite against Southern Miss. I know we have some Golden Eagles fans around here, but. - Yeah, but you and I were at the game last year against South Alabama. - Yeah. - And that was one of the poorest defense that, it almost turned me against football. So I'm going to go with Kentucky beating the spread. - Yeah, and Vandergriff, is he the quarterback there now? - Yes he is. - So that would be fun to watch. And then the Sunday night game, this is on the pick them as well. This is in Vegas, I believe is what Dan told me. - It is. - LSU and LSU is favored by four and a half. - LSU is favored? - I have LSU favored by four and a half. According to the pick them. - I'm going with LSU and that's that. - All right, I went USC because four and a half, it's more than a field goal. They're in Vegas, I think they're going to be pretty amped up. And I don't know, Feynbaum said he thinks that Nussmeyer or whatever the LSU quarterback, they think he's going to be fine. Maybe, but I'm going to take the points with USC. So we'll see how it goes again. Get in on the FM Talk College pick them before Saturday morning at 11. And we'll see you again next week. Keep this podcast rolling. - And Dalton College football show. - We might have a different name by next year, next week. - Yeah, we'll start to need one. - We might. - Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next week. (upbeat music) You