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FOOTBALL FRIDAY WITH PAUL FINEBAUM BROUGHT TO YOU BY BRYANT BANK 092724
It's time for football Friday with Paul Finebaum, preceded by Bryant Bank. Your hometown bank with Big Bank benefits, located in Mobile and Baldwin counties. Now, here's Dan Brennan and Dalton R. Wig. And of course, now here's Paul Finebaum, a football Friday with Finebaum. Paul, good morning. How are you? Good morning. We finally got to a real weekend, didn't we? I think we're there. I think we're there with one big, big, big headline game, obviously. We'll look back at last week as well and kind of pick up the pieces from there. Yeah, and we had a top 25 SEC match up last week, Paul, that I know you're keeping your eye on, just like all the other games. But so many storylines we discussed last week in that Tennessee at Oklahoma game and score ended up being 25 to 15. I think the story of the game was, once again, Tennessee's defense, forcing Jackson Arnold out of the game. Yeah, and out of the starting lineup. And what was so interesting about that game is that all week long I've got idle calls from Tennessee fans. By the way, they covered the spread, but fans are saying, "How come Josh Heifel went easy on his alma mater like?" I mean, Tennessee fans are now to a point where they haven't had a championship, I don't know, forever, and they want to go out and beat Oklahoma by 50 points, and they're not happy with just kind of a middling 10-point win, which felt like about 30. Yeah, Tennessee fans have now become Georgia fans, oh, in that wonderful. So where would you ask for? Yeah. Well, also Oklahoma, do they know how to grow grass out there? What was going on with everybody's footing? Yeah, I'm not really sure, the Ag campus at Oklahoma is up and running at Oklahoma State. It's at Oklahoma State? Yeah, I think that is more than the case. Yeah. It was, I guess we don't, I talked to Jackson Arnold about three weeks ago, he seemed like a nice young man. I'm not sure I'll be seeing him again on my screen. Yeah, they're moving on to the freshmen, and, you know, I am one of those Tennessee fans. I think they're calling it BVS battered vol syndrome, just taking so many hits over the years with teams we expected to be good. I will say a couple of the things I am worried about moving forward for the vols, who are now ranked fifth, Niko's ball security and ability to see blitzers off the edge. That seems to be a common theme these last few weeks. And then the defense, once they moved Michael Hawkins Jr. in at quarterback for Oklahoma, things seemed to really open up and he was kind of able to, using his legs, kind of spread the field out. Yeah. Listen, they're not a perfect team. I think they're a little bit ahead of where people thought, all of a sudden you've got pundits saying they're a national championship team, but I think we should calm down. But I'm pleased, I mean, this is progress for Tennessee, which last year could not win on the road anywhere. Yeah. Well, he probably had Joe Milton to thank for that, but. No. Correct. Uh, also, okay, let's, let's get into Auburn football. Plenty of my friends are Auburn graduates and football fans and, and I'd like for Auburn to do well, but it's not just the games themselves or the quarterback play more specifically, which was really bad last week. What is Hugh Freeze? There seems to be a disconnect with coach freeze and reality. What are you getting out of him? I had a friend text me the other day, says, is Hugh Freeze trying to get Jimbo, meaning fired and, and, and, and take a big pay, pay, pay check away as a settlement because there's not much he has done that indicates that he really wants this job. He looks lost at times, looks like he hasn't slept since Ole Miss and, yeah, and he, he's just, uh, putting mouth, uh, I mean, he, he, he, he thrown his players under the bus and then his former player, uh, Bo Wallace, uh, buried him and then Hugh Freeze came out the other day so well, but we're not, I love the guy, you know, we're, we're great. Oh, you're not. Uh, when, when your former quarterback who led you to the biggest win of your career, uh, says you're a bad guy and I wouldn't let my own son play for you, uh, that's not going away. Uh, and just when you thought it was safe to, uh, watch Hugh Freeze again, he said, uh, we were the better teaming at Dark and Time, we would beat them nine out of nine times. Well, guess what? The only, the only time that counts is the one you lost, so shut up already. And it just seems like the quotes just seem to be odd for the head coach of a big program like Auburn. I don't know how else to describe it, Paul. Uh, yeah, and my, my, my long history of knowing Auburn fans, uh, indicates to me that, uh, you better win against Oklahoma on Saturday. Uh, or otherwise, uh, the heat really started up and I'm not trying to say he is in Brian Harsonville, uh, but I will say Brian Harson, uh, had a better record after 17 games in Hugh Freeze. Wow. That stings that, that really stings. I wonder at what point if this continues and if he keeps throwing his players under the bus. I mean, the, the highlight of this year for them has been recruiting. When are we going to start seeing players maybe change their minds quickly? That's, uh, that's the nature of college athletics right now. And, uh, there's no such thing as a great recruiting year. I mean, I mean, other than this complete and the ones who have committed, uh, haven't signed yet. Yeah. Well, even his in game remark that cam Coleman was kind of loafing on a place. Wow. That's, that's smart. You're, you're, you're best player. Yeah. Go ahead and yeah. Yeah. Make sure that he's unhappy too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There is a transfer portal here. Let us remind you, uh, and, uh, of course looking forward to this week, there's no game bigger in the country than the one going down in Tuscaloosa Saturday night. Alabama. Trump bowl. Yeah. The Trump bowl, uh, Alabama hosting Georgia. I love this week, uh, the breakdown of the Trump menu, uh, that he asked for there at Bryant Denny, but, uh, I'm looking forward to this. Can we talk about that for a second? Sure. Listen, I, I'll leave the politics to the pundits, but he's my kind of guy. Uh, I forgot, I used to work at McDonald's, uh, when I was in high school. I forgot that cheese came on, on the lay of fish and, uh, I mean, I started getting hungry for a lay of fish sandwich with cheese and fries and, uh, and an orange drink and, uh, rather than heading to my high school prom. I mean, too, too, wait a few sandwiches. Um, let me see if I remember that he wanted, uh, hot dog. Yeah. At halftime. Did he also want a Domino pizza? I believe so. Yeah. Yeah. And now the, the drink order really got me though, Diet Coke. Oh yeah. Always. Um, always with the Diet Coke. You got to watch it. Wait, slow, Paul. I mean, where was, I mean, he doesn't like Mr. Pibb or Pibb? Come on. Uh, after that meal, we might see, uh, the four president nodding off maybe in the third quarter, uh, taking a little, uh, little nap there, but what a game this is. I mean, this will have a pretty massive effect on the, the remainder of the season. I'd forgotten that Georgia, uh, because of COVID, haven't really played in a fully-packed Bryant Denny Stadium in quite some time now. That'll be different this weekend. Yeah. I mean, everything about this game is different, but, uh, I, I, I think if you, if you're looking for the storyline, it's about Kirby Smart, you just can't seem to be, uh, Alabama. We all know the back story. Nine years there. He made sure everybody knew this week that there's two kids who were born in Tuscaloosa as if that factors into the game. Um, so, uh, I, uh, I, I, I'm, I'm siding with Alabama right now. I feel like maybe I'm jumping on the, uh, on the moving parade, but it just seems like all the trend lines are pointing creams in a white. Oh, they had a great road trip to, uh, Wisconsin. I don't know how good Wisconsin is. They not got the first string quarterback early in the game. So that, that gave them a decided advantage right there. Meanwhile, you know, I think it's, we're all, we're all biased by the last thing we saw in Georgia at Kentucky was kind of a mess. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you, you, she used to ignore that and say, well, you know, they'll be bill bounced back, but I don't know what you're grasping for. I did talk to a Vegas guy yesterday who, uh, who said, listen, when everybody's running one way, we tend to go the other way. Um, in other words, you'd like, you'd like Georgia minus two. Um, that doesn't mean anything to me since I don't bet. Uh, but I am going with the, uh, I'm going with the, I'm going with the parade, huh? It seems like it's tilting a roll tide right now. It does. Yeah. And you know, one change, uh, with the shift in networks is this game probably would have been played at two 30 in the afternoon, uh, in years past, but getting a night game at Bryant Denny, uh, there's probably no better quarterback suited for going on the road and playing in those kind of conditions than Carson Beck and, uh, possibly, you know, he reminds us that he's the Heisman contender this weekend. You better. Well, it, it, here's where one advantage comes, comes his way. I mean, he, he has played at night in Kentucky, uh, by no means is it the same thing, but it's, it's still a simulation and he's been tested and he's a really good quarterback. But generally the middle road doesn't look like the kind of guy that gets around. Uh, watch the first couple of minutes of the game. I've talked to Kirby Smart many times and he's big on the floor of the game and Georgia has not been able to get started against Clemson, Oregon's Kentucky. Uh, he is, I'm sure sitting in his office right now, figuring out a way, how do we get a fast start? Uh, what do we do because without that, uh, I think, uh, some of the same problems are going to come back and haunt Georgia and Paul. I did want to ask you about one more player, uh, one we're keeping tabs on closely around here. And that is Ryan Williams, four touchdowns already, uh, through three games. I was saying earlier this year, I could see him maybe being mentioned in Heisman contention if he keeps this up. Of course, Georgia is a completely different animal, but how important is Ryan Williams to the success of Alabama's passing game this weekend? Well, he's huge and listen for the, the Heisman is all about, you know, what do we just see and is there a video attached to it? And, uh, you know, should he make, uh, some incredible catch to win the game. That's all you're going to see Sunday morning, uh, in the rest of the week. So, uh, you can get in the Heisman race very quickly and you can drop out of it pretty quickly too. Uh, Paul. Uh, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Ask Carson back. That's where I was kind of going with that, uh, appreciate to all your time this morning, Paul and, uh, the conversation and the kind of betting tips, but, uh, we'll take them as we can get them. Enjoy the guys. I'll see you next week. All right. Give Stephen AR best, Paul. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Um, the Paul Feynbaum show weekdays, two to six, right here on FM Talk 1065 and football Fridays with Feynbaum presented by Brian Bank. We appreciate so much, uh, what Brian Bank, uh, has meant to this program for the last few years and, uh, bringing us football Friday. It's always a great time chatting with Paul always is Paul Feynbaum on Fridays. Again, thank you, Brian Bank and Dan and Dalton back with you after this. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] (upbeat music) (upbeat rock music)