FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
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[MUSIC PLAYING] It's time for football Friday with Paul Pinebaum, preceded by Bryant Bank. Your hometown bank with big bank benefits located in Mobile and Baldwin counties. Now, here's Dan Brennan and Dalton Irwin. And now, here's Paul Pinebaum. Paul Pinebaum show, of course, two to six weekdays on FM Talk 10065. Yeah, and a pleasure to have you on once again, Paul. Our favorite time of the week is talking football with you. Thanks for coming on with us again. Always a pleasure, guys. I can't believe the season's already over. Oh, actually, it's the third week. I guess after this week, there'll be a fourth of the season. It'll be in the books. We can look over things and see if they're as we expected. Looking back last weekend, pretty good weekend. The Texas-Michigan thing, I don't know if that was unexpected, Paul, or if that's about the way you saw it. I expected Texas to win. I mean, there were four or five points favorite. What I didn't expect was Michigan to look like Auburn. I mean, like an average team or a blue average team. It was really shocking to see them just get rolled over, considering the very last time I'd seen Michigan, I was on the sidelines up to Roseville, as you all remember. It's not the same team, not the same coach. Well, one thing we learned in Texas is not going through freshman orientation of the SEC. They're letting themselves be known that they are around, and everybody else get out of the way. Yeah, a lot of folks are saying it'll be Texas, Georgia at the end of the year, but we know how predictions this early in the season usually turn out. Let's talk about these in-state schools for us here in Alabama, and we'll get to Auburn here in a moment. But, Bama, they didn't have a breeze through against South Florida themselves. Wasn't as bad as last year showing, and that fourth quarter sure helped them out a lot. But they did have some issues there, those first three quarters. Yeah, again, I don't want to sound like a technician, because I'm really not. But when your left tackle is out and you start moving people around, problems usually occur, and that's exactly what happened. And it was very reminiscent of a year ago, and I know a lot of folks are in meltdown mode primarily because Alabama city cover. But I am not overly worried. I feel like Alabama is still a very good team. And you saw how quickly, how explosive they were in the fourth quarter. So ultimately, I think they'll prevail this week. And this sounds like a really big game. I don't think it is, Wisconsin is a middle of the pack. SEC team at best. And I'll be surprised that Alabama doesn't go up there. And when? Yeah, I get the impression. Yeah, I get the impression Wisconsin. It's a daunting place to play. They've got the crowd, the jumping around, and all that. I know that they support their team big time up there. But I don't know that they've got the pieces here. Like in pre-season, no one was worried about Wisconsin. No, I don't think it really should be. I mean, this is a pretty fortunate matchup for Alabama instead of playing a team that's arrived. And this program is good, not great. And now, that's what I think. I am wrong on a very regular basis. Let me make, let me point that out to the audience. Well, I guess we could-- there's one example from last week. Yeah. And I mean, Kiffin, what is his deal? Shouldn't he be coaching Paul? I mean, the slightest thing. And he's ready to throw something back in your face. But he was talking about Auburn. And I don't think really anyone saw Auburn losing, certainly in the fashion that they did Saturday to when they lost a cow. Four thrown interceptions from Peyton Thorne. Five turnovers from Hugh Freeze's offense. And on Tiger Talk this week, he basically said he thinks they called one bad play. So more or less kind of thrown it on the players. But this was supposed to be a new and improved Auburn offense, Paul. Yeah, what happened was a caller asked me on Friday, hey, you think California's going to win? I said, no, they're not. That's a Auburn will win. Book it. Somebody tweeted it. And it's amazing that Lane Kiffin has time to find every tweet about me. There is. He does. And he put it out there and said, what is the fun I'm good at? That's a thing that he's been on for a while. And what's scary here is that he got about 3 million views. So that will make the 17-year-old Lane Kiffin want to continue tweeting about me. When I think the media missed here, if I can be a critic for a second, he was really taking a shot at Auburn, and nobody caught that. Here's a guy that wanted the Auburn job, and pretty much almost accepted it two years ago. And everybody's saying, all the Kiffin trolls find him. Well, as he did, but what about he frees? He lost the game. He did. I think that Vegas should start putting odds on which school Kiffin will pretend to leave Ole Miss for following this season. I mean, that's a yearly occurrence. And I'm sure if he's-- Yeah, it is. Listen, in fairness to Kiffin, I'll give you a little behind the firm. He did-- he was out of the alibi. He sent me a text before it put out the tweet. And he said-- he actually quoted another coach, head coach in the SEC, said, hey, he sent this to me. And if Kiffin didn't have time to find it on his own, then we tweeted. But I think it's funny. I mean, the media thinks that there's just some big feud, but he also sent me this on Tuesday night, right before the debate. Somebody said they forget Harris and Trump. Can you imagine the ratings for a debate to not between Kiffin and Finebaum? So I mean, he really is having fun with it. And at some point this season, please remind me of Ole Miss as a legitimate opponent. Yeah. And that's why I can't have fun with it. Exactly. I expect it's for them. Who's not having fun in that is the war eagle fans? I think it was actually foreboding looking back. Hugh freezes interview with you just before the season began, where you were talking about their success on the recruiting trail and all that. And he said, well, give us three, four years. Let's get this whole class in. Maybe he knew that the team wasn't quite up to par. And we saw that against Cal. Yeah. I mean, I don't know about up to par. I mean, you can't lose a Cal. Not with the schedule that you have. And to me, that's really what is so problematic for Hugh freeze, I mean, he's still, I mean, I don't know where he is. I mean, I think he's losing support. And he has to-- he just can't have another seven and five season or whatever. Last year, I just was 67. And that lost. I mean, that was an automatic win, OK? So now, where do they go to find quality wins? And I don't think there's many options. There's a rumor that after the game, Peyton Thorne was playing with his dog. And he threw him a frisbee. And the frisbee went right in front of an oncoming bus. And that was a close call. But by the way, you guys, I didn't mean to bury the lead. But the best part of the week was, Hugh Freeze strolling his entire team under the bus. How about that? You know, we didn't call bad players. You guys suck. That's really what you said. He sure did. And on Tiger Talk, in front of the whole war eagle nation there, I'm starting to think they might be having regrets about Hugh Freeze. But like he said, give him another two, three, four years. Like he said. Yeah, I mean, let him take his time. No big deal. No rush. I mean, he's making $8 million a year. And while he's becoming a multi-millionaire, Auburn fans are suffering. By the way, Auburn paid Brian Harson $20 million to leave for this. They did. Yeah. And Harson, I think, even took a shot this week. He did Hugh Freeze. So all kinds of drama around the Auburn program, not many wins to come by lately. How about Tennessee? Everyone's talking about Nico and the offense. But for me, the story of Saturday was that D-line. I mean, the Vols have a defense. I think folks are worried about it. Yeah, they really look good. And yeah, there have been a few people that have thought Tennessee has been on the outside of the playoff. And I think now they're inside the playoff. So they have another one of these off-brand games Saturday night. And then next week, they go to Oklahoma and they start to find out, are they legitimate or not? Yeah, I think they're at least as legit as Oklahoma. It's tough to-- Well, they're probably more legit than Oklahoma. Yeah, Oklahoma's looking like a good 12 team right now. They are. And so it's tough to go ahead and put your stamp on a team early in the season. Things change. People get hurt. Kids develop, whatever. But right now, Tennessee looks really, really, really strong. Georgia does, too, for their limited time on the field this year. They help Clemson to three. And then Clemson got 66 the next week against App State. So I think that defense for Georgia is pretty legit, Paul. Yeah. Yeah, they're just-- I mean, at some point, Georgia will have a-- yeah, actually, I answered my own question on the track. So they'll have a real game. That would be in two weeks. So when they make the track over to Alabama-- so ultimately, we're going to find out a lot. Georgia's scheduled coming up. You have Alabama. They have practice. They have Ole Miss. No more mysteries after those three. Hey, man. Oh, well, Oklahoma, too. And Tennessee. Yeah. They got everybody. Everybody has everybody, seems this year. But Kentucky, we thought, might be a good team this year and thought maybe some competition for Georgia. I guess we'll find out this weekend. But I was absolutely shocked that South Carolina, who barely escaped Old Dominion, put it to the Wildcats last weekend. In Kentucky. That was just the armed comprehension. I was up in Lexington, as you guys know. And I heard it's how great that program is. And then I watched the game and thought the program's really bad. I mean, it's so bad that they had college game day coming there for the Georgia game. It was all about it. It was all these moves being made. And they lose the game. And then they lose game day to South Carolina. Unranked team. Yep, that's just slapping the young face. And I think stoops and smart are good enough boys that I don't think that if smart can-- I think the wrestling some people for the Alabama game that have been dinged up. I would. I would play my third team against them. I don't think they're going that far, but he may go easy on him. By the way, their backup quarterback is now the starter. Wow. That's been made. That's a done deal? Well, he's there now. I mean, he's plugged Vanderbilt. Oh, they're back. Yes, Georgia back up. Yeah, back up. Yeah, back up from last year, I should-- Right. I thought you said they'd already yanked it. Vanderbilt. Oh, yeah, it does. OK. Yeah. Kentucky would like to trade him back if he was going to go. A&M at Florida, and that's where SEC. That's where you'll be this weekend. Florida, have a lot to prove Napier especially, but A&M does as well as they start the tenure of Mike Elko here, week three for them. What do you see in this game with A&M heading to Gainesville? Yeah, I mean, I slightly favor Florida. You're going to say, well, why? And I'm going to say, I have no idea. The question is who will be the Florida quarterback? Grammer, who looked pretty good last year. He's a transfer over from the League of Wisconsin. That's right. One of those. He had a concussion. And D.J. Lagway was probably the number one quarter back in the country last year coming out of high school. And they really like him. He looked good against Samford, but Dalton, you might look good against Samford. So I don't know if that's what he's saying or anything. Yeah, Missouri really under-discussed. I mean, they're sixth in the nation right now, and they have a top 25 game here this week against Boston College, but still no one's talking about Missouri. That's your old pal, though, Bill O'Brien, Paul. Yeah, is it possible to be a better head coach than offensive coordinator? Maybe it was terrible at Alabama, but he's a pretty good head coach. Do you think Missouri has the chops to-- I mean, the 12 team playoff is one thing, but are they talking about top four by the end of the year in Missouri or not? I mean, they really believe they're a playoff team. I'm not so sure. Remember that Cody Schroeder last year that nobody had ever heard of that did everything for them? I think they're going to miss him. And ultimately, I mean, they're a good program, but they go to Alabama. They-- I think they have-- I mean, I don't know their schedule. But I mean, they have a lot of really tough games. So I think they're 10 and 2, 9, 3, somewhere in there. They'll get by this weekend, though. Paul, we've got LSU at South Carolina, let's wrap it up with that. And the unlikely game destination, that just kind of happened when South Carolina beat Kentucky, I guess, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, listen, I was just joking about that the other day in a lot of the headline. You'll find bomb blast game day decision. I really don't care where game day goes. But it just seemed like they could have done better than LSU at South Carolina, but it's just weird. I mean, I don't know. I mean, the game day's gone to some HBCU. They've gone to James Madison. But I don't know if they've ever gone to it to an unranked SEC game, where home game was unranked. I mean, this is very strange. Yeah, with an off-campus stadium, too. So it's like an exactly-- Yeah, exactly. Anybody's ever been there, especially during the state here, where you get some cotton candy on the way in? There's not even a hint of higher education. No, it's truly-- I mean, the campus is OK. The stadium is with state playgrounds. Miles away, yeah. Well, Paul, another great week of the Paul Finebaum Show. Only two times. Only two times your show makes my head hurt, talking coaching buyouts and the math around that. And then now the 12 team play off in trying to figure out how all that works. Led to some great radio with collars trying to figure out the math involved there. But we appreciate you coming on with us again for football Fridays. Always a pleasure, guys. See you soon. Thank you, Paul, so much, Paul Finebaum. And football Fridays with Finebaum is brought to you by Brian Bank. That's right. More of our show, Mobile Morning's on the way after this. 2, 5, 1, 3, 4, 3, 0, 1, 0, 6. I want to thank Paul Finebaum again for joining us. And we'll be back right after this. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] (upbeat music) (upbeat music)