Boomo Bugg Show 052226

[0:00] Now, get ready to roll Shoals, Decatur, Athens and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee. It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM Sports Voice. The Boomo Bugg Show. Your exclusive inside track to the Tigers, Tennessee and the rest of the SEC. Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Good afternoon and welcome in to the Boomo Bugg Show. I'm Harold Bugg alongside Brett Beaird. Thank you so much for giving us free ride around the Tennessee Valley. Brett Beaird, welcome in where the NASCAR world is morning a stunner.

Good afternoon. Welcome in. How are you? Good morning to you and the listeners. By the way, Harold, as far as weather is concerned, there seems to be a spin-up tornado in Madison around Toyota Field. I'm not trying to alarm anybody, but just, again, this day, there were two tornadoes in Mississippi earlier today. I hope there turns out to be nothing to it, but once again, be weather aware. Alabama has a tough day in Hoover, losing to the Florida Gators 13-3. But Baseball America says the Tide still may be a number seven seed and host a Super Regional.

We'll preview a big week for the SEC in San Destin next week. And Jimmy is here right now to recap a tough night in Hoover, Alabama softball, and a big basketball commitment for Nadeau. Jimmy Stein is busy there as co-host of the Locked On Bama podcast. They're with Luke Robinson, part of the Locked On Network. And also busy with Cover Crimson with Clint Lamb. Busy boy, Jimmy Stein. Welcome in. How are you? Oh, doing great, guys. Thanks for having me back. Good, Jimmy. And we appreciate it.

College baseball is crazy. For that matter, baseball is crazy. You cannot get a handle on it. You no-hit a team. And then you turn around, and Florida breaks out the run rule on you. What is it with baseball, and what is it with Alabama when it comes to the SEC tourney? They better grab a quick cup of coffee, but history's not on their side in Hoover, is it? Well, you know, with this Alabama team, if they do something really well, it's going to be followed by something pretty terrible.

And if they do something pretty terrible, it's going to be followed by something pretty spectacular. I think the sweep of Florida is probably the highlight of the whole season. I mean, in terms of the amazing things this Alabama team has accomplished, I think sweeping Florida is at the top of the list. And then in terms of how bad they've looked, probably the loss to Florida in the SEC tournament might be as bad as they've looked all season. And it's kind of what you've been getting all year.

Now you throw it in the blender, and it comes out, and it adds up great. But there's no doubt this team has hit some really low lows, and yesterday was one of them. But let's be serious. The only thing from this point that's going to define this team, in my mind, is how they do in the NCAA regional, in which they are certain to host next weekend. Obviously, they're going to be a heavy favorite to win their home regional. And if they do that, it's just impossible to paint this season as anything other than a raging success for Alabama, regardless of what happened yesterday.

The program just hasn't had enough success over the past two or even three decades to say anything else. They need to host this regional, win this regional, and then all the bad stuff is just sort of flushed. It would be a hugely successful year for Alabama if they did that. Jimmy, let's put that in perspective, because we live in a world now with social media. Everybody has to have instant gratification, which means, put another way, we forget history. What a mess Vaughn inherited. Do people realize, except for you and others on the inside, what a mess he inherited?

There's always going to be coaching changes, but the reason they had a coaching change, and the mess he left for Vaughn, and to get back, the way you count it is every year, if you're showing improvement, that's usually the best measure to stick, but you've got to put things in perspective, and that's hard to do in this modern era. Oh, that's exactly right. Alabama even simply making the NCAA tournament, it will be the fourth year in a row they've made the postseason, three years, three years under Vaughn, and this is the first time in 15 years that they've made the NCAA tournament four years in a row.

So there's no doubt that right now they're on an uptick under Vaughn that's been consistent. Now, it hasn't been by leaps and bounds. I think it's been one of those improvements that's not exactly linear. It's two steps forward and one step back. I think that's been kind of how it looked. It hadn't all been great, but to have a four-year streak of making the postseason, which, again, they had not done in 15 years, and if they somehow win this home regional, which they will be favored to win, and advance to a super regional, it would only be the third time in 20 years and only the second time hosting, first time hosting in exactly 20 years.

[5:35] So the program right now is on not just an uptick, but an historical uptick. But it can be even better, and yesterday's being a good example of, hey, you know, it can be even better than this, and you know Rob Vaughn is working to achieve that. Jimmy, big week for Nate Oates. As far as finishing the roster, he picks up a top 20-27 prospect, Anderson Diaz. Now, he's from basically an all-star team, an overtime elite in Atlanta, Georgia. 20 points, seven assists a game, five rebounds. Jimmy, there's some scuttlebutt about reclassifying him for this roster.

And then secondly, the clock's ticking on Amari Allen. I've seen that he may have slid into 32-34, in other words, not as high as he was a couple weeks ago. Will he decide to come back to Alabama? Your thoughts on Diaz reclassifying in the future of Amari Allen? I think I wouldn't say that they're tied to one another, but I do think it's not a coincidence that because Amari Allen may stay in the draft, Alabama landing a 20-27 point guard who may have the ability to reclassify, I don't really think that's a coincidence.

No. But I also don't think, hey, even if they knew for sure Amari Allen was returning, they would have recruited this guy anyway. I mean, he's obviously a pretty big-time talent. He's a borderline five-star type prospect. As far as reclassifying goes, I think there's going to be some level of effort in it. We have to remember this. Reclassifying isn't a decision. It's kind of like you can decide, you know, you can decide to be a marathon runner or you can run 26 miles. Running the 26 miles means you're a marathon runner, not deciding.

So by that I just simply mean reclassifying. There's a lot of work that has to be done, and I think right now they're kind of in the mode of, hey, is it possible to get all this work done? Oh, and then you have to do all the work? So I don't think it's just simply a matter of, hey, do I want to be in the 26th class or do I want to be in the 27th class? So there's a lot just left that has to happen.

But apparently it's something that might happen. And even if Allen and Aidan Holloway both return to the roster, it would be a shot in the arm to have a kid like this off the bench. And then, you know, you lose Allen or Holloway. Then this is a guy that if he is able to pull off the reclass, he could be an impactful player right away. I mean, again, this is a borderline five-star guy who's a point guard from the Bronx in New York. You know, signing a point guard from the Bronx is a lot like signing a wide receiver from South Florida, you know, or a lineman from Iowa or Nebraska.

You just feel pretty good about it just based on nothing but geography. So that's somebody that they're obviously very excited about, whether it's a 26th sign-ee or a 27th sign-ee. And then you just weigh to Marty Allen's decision, which will be known no later than May 27th, so just a few days away. The guy from the Bronx, that's the guy you want to team with when you go to Baton Rouge and walk to the bus. You know what I'm talking about. Jimmy Stein, Locked on Batman.

Jimmy, where are you right now with this Alabama football team as far as the gut and the vibe coming up on this Memorial Day compared to last year? We heard all the verbal bouquets. This team, year two, divorce teams always do better than they did in the first year, and we saw what happened. Where are you as far as your gut with this team coming into this Memorial Day milestone? I think there's some quiet optimism for a few reasons. Number one, when there's doubts, you know, the national guys, I mean, when somebody puts out a post-spring top 25 and you hear the doubts about Alabama, it often starts with quarterback.

And I think from inside the program, they're optimistic about quarterback. I know it sounds like they wouldn't be because they don't know which quarterback it is, but I think they're very high on Keelan Russell and Austin back. I don't think they look at quarterback like it's going to be a problem beyond which one of these guys are we going to go with. But I think there's some optimism that they feel they're going to be pretty good at quarterback, regardless of which one it is. Another reason there's some optimism that would surprise a lot of the national folks is I think they're really high on a lot of these transfer portal defenders.

[10:41] The guys they signed from the portal, they weren't exactly, you know, lighten up the transfer portal rankings, but they get them on the field this spring. And so many of them are even better than they thought they would be, like a Devin Hopkins and a Caleb Woodson. They don't just look like immediate starters. They look like immediate stars, and I think for that reason there's some real optimism, but I say that relative to what the expectations are. I mean, Joel Klatt, for instance, had a top 25 this week.

He put Alabama at 16. I've seen Alabama as low as 19 or 20. I think there's some real optimism that, hey, I think we're better than that, while, you know, admitting that there are some issues. I mean, it's not a secret or insulting to them. They know they couldn't run the ball a year ago, and I'm sure they feel it's very fair to doubt them when it comes to that. So I think there's legit questions, but at the same time, a lot of quiet optimism that they could put together a good season.

Absolutely. And, Jimmy, this time next week, hopefully, if we can hook up with you, we'll be talking about the first big official visit weekend. I know there are at least three five stars coming in to Tuscaloosa on their official visits. Jimmy, always enjoy the conversation. Listen, have a great Memorial Day. I nearly said you and Luke Robinson will be having six podcasts next week. It may be cut down a little bit because of the holiday, but still a lot to cover, baseball, softball, basketball, and, of course, a big recruiting weekend.

Jimmy, where can we get online to get the best podcasts about Alabama on the planet? Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Brett. Locked on Bama. You can find us on YouTube or the audio version wherever you get your podcasts. We'll strive to have the normal six episodes next week, but we will have extensive coverage of official visit season, which begins next week, and we're going to put maybe as many as four players, at least, on a commitment watch next weekend. So, it'll be a big week on Locked on Bama.

Sounds like a tease to me, Jimmy. I guarantee a lot of eyes on this neck of the woods. Thanks so much for your time today. Have a great weekend and a safe holiday, okay? Hey, appreciate it. Happy Memorial Day to you guys. Thank you, Jimmy. I mean, Jimmy Stein, Locked on Bama. Quickly, we alluded to at the top of the show, the day after, by now, a lot of folks know about the tragic news of NASCAR star Kyle Busch. By the way, still no answers dying after he went to the hospital.

He won a race just, what, seven or so days ago. Went to the hospital yesterday and died 41 years old, and, of course, they're still searching for answers. No one wants to speculate right now, but, nonetheless, it would be tragic news for Kyle Busch and his family. Harold, he started down to NASCAR as the villain, as a lot of people put it. But, again, over the years, with a couple of children, began to mellow a little bit, began to work with the drivers a little bit more.

Yes, a very, very tough loss for NASCAR. It reminded me of Darryl Waltrip and his metamorphosis. He was the bad guy, and he finally saw the light and said, wait a minute, I need to change my image, and the rest is history there. Coming up, a fellow by the name of B. Beard on deck. Stay with us. I've always wanted to learn French, but the app I tried didn't help. If you want to memorize words in another language, there's an app for that. But if you want to really learn another language, there's Babbel.

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Colbert County, 7. Madison Academy, 0. Colbert County went 2-1 yesterday, and they've got to win two more games that they beat the Mustangs. And that tornado warning we talked about earlier for Madison and Madison County has been canceled. The one and only James Spann came out and said that a few minutes ago, but without keeping him waiting anymore. Brent Beard is the college football analyst for First Coach News, has been trophy voter, and co-host of Second Helping Podcast on the SEC with good friend Travis Ryer. Brent Beard, welcome into the program today.

I would add College Football Magazine. I keep up with it very closely. Tomorrow will be May the 23rd. Why is that significant? Well, it's significant because that is the, can we say the mean average? Is that a good word that we probably, we probably know, but we don't understand what that means. But on May 23rd, that is, that is the average day that the preseason magazines hit the stands, which is a, just a ritual that we all enjoy. And as we mentioned before, our friend Bill Bender is running, and for the first time in quite a while, Sporting News returns to the ranks.

[21:42] So that will be, that will be fun to see. Lindy's and Athlon will be out first over the next few days. And then we'll have Phil Steele and his, my understanding is Phil's got his biggest magazine ever that requires a microscope to be able to read it. But it's supposed to be, guys, like more than 350 pages. If you can imagine, I know there are 130-something Division I schools, but that's, that's, that's absolutely amazing when you think about it. But just imagine being the editor and the writer for that.

The folks over in Cortland want to crank the paper mill back up for all the paper that requires. That's not a magazine. That's an encyclopedia. Brendan, one thing about those magazines, and I think there's a generation that still likes to hold the physical magazine in their hands, as opposed to that tablet stuff. But whether it's a tablet, whether it's the physical itself, it's always fun to see where your team stacks up. And we've been talking with some of the folks, Brent, to see what you think.

They got Alabama 16th or, lo behold, 19th. Your, your thoughts, where would you realistically put Alabama in? If I'm the coaching staff, I'm happy with that because now the expectations are lower. Anytime you're up there at the top, we know where the expectations are. There's only one way to go. It can go both ways. But, Brent, your thoughts, where would you put Alabama right now? I'd say that's probably about right. And if you put them at 15, I mean, we've got a 12-team playoff. It won't take much to be able to get to inside the top 12.

I mean, right now, obviously, Texas may come out to be number one. Ohio State has been number one. And USA Today, their preseason poll, they came out recently. Georgia is quietly, if they can possibly be, like four or five. The one that is interesting is LSU. Some people think LSU still could be in the playoffs. Now, the LSU beat writers would disagree with you on that. I'll be curious next time you guys have Mike on if he will tell you that or not. But at this point, I mean, Tennessee's on the fringe.

Florida's on the fringe, too. But, no, I think Bama's pretty well where they need to be. And, frankly, if you're an Alabama fan and you want to take a lot of pressure off if you're 15, 16, that will certainly do that. Big week for Greg Sankey and the SEC next week, starting Tuesday in Destin. In fact, he may even talk to the media on Monday night. Tony Padetti has been holding council all week, telling everybody why they need to go to 24 playoff teams. There are a couple of other items that need to be taken care of first.

But a big week in Destin for the SEC. Yeah, that would be an understatement, frankly. Look, I'm a lot warmer to 16 than I am. And, frankly, I really think they ought to put it at 16 and leave it there for a while. I do agree it needs to be more than 12. And having the non-power four still involved in that, look, I get why they want 18 in there. And there's talk about this, again, this week, is why the non-power four do not want to go out and have a, what, guys, a 6-8, 12-team per tournament themselves and make their own money with that, frankly, surprises me to hear that.

But I'm a lukewarm on 24. I'm just glad we've gotten past the point where we're more excited about the pool and weed-eater bowl, according to the powers to be, than we are a playoff. But I do think we need to add some. Next year will be a good start to do that. In the huddle with Brent Beard. Brent, talk to us about the expectations for LSU. What possible excuse, either Texas or LSU, not to win? Because they've given both coaches the checkbook, said, go buy the team.

We believe in you. We know where the bar is set. Now, go give us an ROI, return on the investment. And your thoughts about Lane. This is all cute and funny when you win. It's not so much when you lose LSU fans with tar and feather. You just ask Ed Orgeron, which also is another way of saying how crazy those people are. They bring him back. Your thoughts just about the expectations. Give me a reason why LSU can't sit here and get a return with all the things they have given, all the toys they've given Lane to win.

[27:00] Well, I think they will, but I don't think they'll do it immediately. And the people who are saying that are the LSU beat writers. The LSU beat writers have come out and said, look, they are at least a year or two away. And let's be honest, that was a very average football team last year. And I understand Lane is there, and they brought Kiffin in, and they've got good coaches. They've obviously got good players. I think they've got a super-sorted quarterback. That's going to be interesting to see.

But, Ken, I mean, you start the season at Clemson, and then you've got this Armageddon game at Ole Miss. Now, what people have missed about LSU is the weekend. So, man, they come home and play A&M. What if they have this game of the century in Oxford and come back home, and they don't have anything in the tank for A&M? Is that possible? Of course it is. As we see it all the time, we saw with Alabama, I mean, it's as much between the ears as it is between the hash marks.

Look at Alabama a couple of years ago. You embarrassed Georgia and get beat at Vandy. Oh, yeah. Absolutely, and that's going to be extremely important, too. By the way, you guys have mentioned Destin a couple of times. This came out a few minutes ago, and probably a lot of people haven't seen it yet, but it's the tax returns on what the conferences have made. The Big Ten and the SEC are in the billions. I don't mean the millions. They're in the billions. And you've got the rest of the conferences are in the millions.

Now, when you split it up, the SEC has between $70 and $75 million they can give out per school. Now, listen, you guys remember this like I do, and some people are going to laugh at us, but I don't care. Y'all remember when they announced, and this was decades ago, that the SEC teams were going to divide up and give each school $4 million? And people were aghast. Oh, they were. They thought they were stealing money somewhere and were making a big deal about that. Of course, the rate of inflation may have been different, of course.

But I remember that just like it was yesterday. And Steve Spurrier, of all people, told them, hang on, this is not going to be anything compared to when it's going to be a few years from now. And he was right. That's exactly right. Yeah, and Harold talked about it all the time. 2007, when Nick Saban was given $4 million to get started, the wailing and gnashing of teeth, that was the most awful thing possible. Well, I know you're going to be keeping up with it. By the way, every team in Destin, I believe, is going to be getting $70 million next year is divvying up.

That's a pretty good week in Destin. That's about a lot of seafood. Where can we get online to get all the good stuff in the podcast? Yeah, I appreciate that. I do a podcast with Travis Reier that we have out on some social media prospects during the week, which is a lot of fun. First Coach News here in Jacksonville, Florida is, and I'm sure I'll be on next week to discuss SEC media days. And, guys, look, I remember it like you do. Harold, I remember Brett and I sitting there watching Channel 6 in Birmingham in the middle of May, and Tom York was the sports director.

He said, well, there's not a whole lot going on today in sports, so we're just going to have a raft down the river. And had somebody that had a camera that had this, basically, pontoon boat or raft that they were going down the river. And he said that's all they had to talk about during this time. My, oh, my, how things have changed. Oh, and listen, I did the same thing when I was in that situation at a different station. We went to the Elk River, pieced together a pontoon boat, and it fell apart.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Things have come a long way. Man, listen, it's always good to hook up with you. Have fun down there. It's always fun to be by the beach on the holiday. Watch the fireworks down there, okay, Brent? Absolutely, guys. Take care and enjoy the week. Thank you, bud. Thank you so much. The other half of the Beard Boys, Brent Beard from Florida. Coming up, the big dog from Georgia, Mr. Shanks himself. Stay with us. The final out has been called. The dugout cleared.

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The Score. Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Welcome back in. What would a Friday be without saying hello to Mr. Georgia himself, Bill Shanks, host of the Bill Shanks Show on 93.1 FM in Macon, Georgia. Online at thesesuperstations.com and on the tube at 41 NBC. Bill Shanks, welcome in. You've got all the holiday fireworks and milk and cookies ready for the weekend. How are you? You know what? I bought me some red, white, and blue M&M Chonka chip cookies in the Kroger this morning, so I'm d*** ready for it.

[38:07] Now I know. I went to get them, and I guess you got all of them. So, Bill, I'm putting on you to share. So, Bill, I'm looking at some numbers here. Memorial Day, and you know the routine. This is one of those markers. And I just happened to take a sneak peek back last year. See if it sounds familiar. The Braves were 25 and 27, eight and a half back of the fields. Fast forward this year, they are nine and a half up on the fields. If they win tonight, they'll be 20 games over 500.

I looked at some of the so-called experts, and they said, name the biggest disappointment in Major League Baseball last Memorial Day, and guess who came up? The Atlanta Braves. Did the Braves and Walt Weiss listen to Bill Shanks or what happened from last year to this one? Well, number one, they have survived the injuries that they have had. Yeah. It's not been an injury-free the first third of the season by any means because you've had, you know, Baldwin's out right now. Acuna, he's hurt every other day.

You know, Spencer Strider missed a month. Schwellbach and Waldrop have been out, of course. The left fielder got suspended. It's not been as drastic of an unraveling as it was last year, but they've been able to survive it. I think their depth has helped them a little bit. I think that's been a big deal. I think having two rookie pitchers, J.R. Ritchie and Didier Fuentes, come up and contribute as they have has helped a great deal as well. They really didn't have that too much last year.

So, you know, there have been some things that, I mean, look, last year was one of the worst years, I think, in Braves history. And it was not because, it wasn't just because, well, they sucked. You couldn't say that because that wasn't a 76-win team if everything hadn't fallen apart. I mean, when you've got your opening day starting rotation out for a five-week span, you're not going to survive that. No team can survive. The Atlanta Braves in 1998 with the Big Three couldn't have survived that. Heck, they would have fallen apart too.

So, you know, as bad as everything went last year, everything's going just as good this year. And it's just a total contrast to what happened. And it's been awfully fun to watch. You know, the other thing, Bill, too, is the chemistry. You've got a good mix here. You mentioned Richie. He's the young guy. Getting Strider back and adding to that, Olsen, some of the other guys in that clubhouse. I've always said the team doesn't need to be too young and they don't need to be too old.

If you can get the right chemistry, that is huge. But your thoughts just about having not only back healthy, but Strider back on the mound, too. Well, I mean, number one, you've got to start with Chris Sell, right? He's the best pitcher in baseball when he's healthy. I truly believe that. And then you've got Bryce Elder pitching at this outlandish all-star level. He pitches tonight and, again, the apology tour will be in September where we all have to say we're sorry for John cussing him for two years.

And then now, but Harold, to your point, now with Strider doing well and looking like the old Spencer Strider before his second elbow procedure, that's huge. Because, look, we know that, you know, you can win 150 games in the regular season, but you've got to be ready for that postseason. That's right, short series. And you've got to have pitching to be able to get through three and a half weeks in October. So, for Spencer to, you know, he had a bad first start, but his ERA in his last three starts is 2.05.

Well, that'll play, you know, and that'll do it. And especially, the more he does of those kind of, the more he has of those kind of outings, the more the Spencer Strider aura, like he had before he got hurt, is going to be there. I mean, let's be honest, 2023, that kid was one of the best pitchers in baseball, and partly because, you know, you watched him and knew that he's going to strike your butt out, brother. And, you know, I think he's got that, he's getting a little swagger back to him now, which I love.

I think that's great. Let me ask you, your biggest pleasant surprise as far as the starters. Austin Riley struggled, even though he's got some power, and, of course, he displayed that recently. Matt Olsen's had an all-star year. Ozzie Albies, to me, has played very consistent. Dominic Smith has been a very pleasant surprise. Your scrimpies coming on. But my vote for the surprise of the year is Michael Harris. I know we were talking about him last year about, they need to send this guy down to AAA and let him learn how to hit.

My vote's Michael Harris. What's Bill Shanks? Well, I would probably go Mauricio Dubon. Yeah. Just because, I mean, and it's no knock on Harris, but, you know, we thought Dubon was kind of a placeholder until Kim got back. And now that Kim's back, everybody wants Dubon back in there. Yeah. And he's going to get playing time now because he's going to get some, you know, jerks and profile made sure of that by making sure that, you know, Dubon can get some outfielded bats. But Michael Harris has been a great, great first start of the season.

[43:19] I mean, you know, I would always scoff at these people that I probably did on the show. They'd say, well, Michael Harris is going to be a 30-30 guy. He's going to be at 30 home runs. I'm like, well, h***, I don't see it because, you know what, I haven't seen it. Well, we're seeing it now. We're seeing, we're seeing, I mean, he's on pace for 30-plus home runs. Maybe not 30-plus stolen bases, but that's okay. I mean, he's putting up good numbers. His OBP is respectable.

His batting average is very good. So there's no question about it. And especially, Brent, with the fact that, you know, Acuna has obviously not been off to a good start. Slash been hurt. Right. Hurt again last night. You know, I think we've got to take him to a gynecologist to make sure he's not transitioning or something because he's getting off the week out there. That's spelled with a G, right, Bill? But, you know, the problem is for Acuna to be struggling and then left field to be a question mark.

And, you know, Yastrzemski was struggling. Now he's had a good three-week stretch here in the month of May. He's getting back on track. But Harris has kind of led the way. And if they didn't have Michael Harris doing that, Brent, you're right, they'd be in big trouble. Bill Shanks always on top of it at thesuperstations.com. Bill, are you and Kirby Smart just going to go ahead and join Lane Kiffin? And everybody else is joining him on his staff at LSU. Your thoughts about that? And we know when a guy by the name of Saban was in the league, he was the go-to guy.

Is Lane fighting for that honor now? When anything happens, whether it's in season or out, Lane wants to be at the front of the charge. Your thoughts just about Lane Kiffin, the expectations at LSU. Well, I think Lane Kiffin ought to continue to open his mouth because, to me, he's the Kamala Harris of college football. The more he talks, the less we're going to vote for him. Because it's like, I mean, you know, his comments about Ole Miss were moronic. Were absolutely moronic. And he's trying to justify why he bolted from there with him having the best season they've had in forever.

And, you know, I'm sure Ole Miss people, I'm sure they see right through that. And, look, I mean, I don't like that kind of talk. I don't appreciate that at all as a Southerner. I don't want to, this narrative of, oh, it's just a bunch of d*** racists and all that. I mean, what the h*** was he talking about? And, you know, if he didn't like it, he should have left there. If it bothered him that much, he should have left there a couple years ago if he was that kind of high-ground, moral, principal guy.

He's not. And so I just, I'm telling you, I think I pegged it correctly. It's like, hey, I want for Kamala Harris to keep on talking, to run for office, because that's going to be great. Well, the more Lane Kiffin talks, the more we're going to think he's just a boob. And the thing is, Bill, where would Lane Kiffin be now, given his track record, without Nick Saban and the Ole Miss Rebels? Well, right. So, I mean, again, he's going to do anything he can to make himself look good.

You know, why did he think he needed to go to LSU? Well, whatever. I mean, you know, and I get whatever Saban may have said to him, or, well, you can win at LSU, you win at Ole Miss. But to downgrade the people, to downgrade the state, and to go off like he did, I mean, that was just, that was unnecessary. And again, when people do that c***, they try to make themselves look better than they are. By the way, I emailed the SEC office this morning and asked them if you could address the athletic directors and coaches next week in San Destin.

And I told them that you sat at a Mexican restaurant and put on a napkin, your solutions to college football. And look, we all understand the 16-24 debate, which has gotten to be nauseam, but five years to play five, the early signing day, two buys in the season, the first two rounds on campus. Yeah, but we've discussed this on both of our shows. What would it be next week for Greg saying, could you say, look, these are 10 solutions to the issues with college sports. This is what the SEC recommends, and let's get started doing this.

And it's what you've been saying for months. Somebody put something on paper, let's sit down, and with reasonable human beings, look at this, and start making some decisions. Do you think that you could go talk to them next week? Well, you know, Jerry Moorhead, who's the president of the University of Georgia, the best institution in the entire country, he came out this week and said, you know what, and I'm paraphrasing the way I interpreted it now, Brett, but he kind of said, we're the blankety-blankety SEC, and it's time for us to act like it.

That's what he said. That's right. And in other words, you know, we need to throw our weight around a little bit. We need to make some decisions for us. And if everybody, I mean, again, this is my interpretation. If everybody don't fall in line to h*** with, and I think he's right because, you know, I think for the ACC commissioner to fall in line with this 24, you know, same thing, which is ridiculous, it's just trying to, you know, hey, I'll be fine with a 24, but I ain't going to guarantee any conference squat because if that's what they're trying to do to 24 to guarantee that their conference is going to be locked in with a certain amount of games, you're wasting my time if I'm the SEC.

[48:57] Why would I agree to that? Why would I agree to weaken the field of 24 by having to put some whiny-a**, you know, eight-and-five team from the ACC in the top 24 in college football? No way. Now, if you win your conference tournament, fine. If you win your conference championship game, fine. That's great. I don't care what your record is. But I'm not going to guarantee these other conferences anything just so they can get a piece of the pie. If your conference isn't good enough to have good football teams in it, then you need to expand and get some teams in there that will be good enough, or you need to go in the back of the line.

And because I just don't agree with that. That's the big thing that I just have no respect for is these conference commissioners trying to guarantee certain spots for their conference. We've had three guests on the show this week. One of them was Paul Feinbaum. And I asked him, will the SEC and Big Ten leave the NCAA in football by 2030? And all three of them said yes. Well, yeah, why would they stay? I mean, first of all, there is no governing body. And that's another thing pretty much that Jerry Moorhead said, Brad.

He said, you know, ain't nobody – if you think it's the Wild Wild West now, it's going to get worse by the year. And it's like, let us set some rules. Let us do that. And I can't imagine the Big Ten not following suit with the SEC. And you can't tell me if the SEC and the Big Ten did this, the Big 12 and the ACC are going to say, all right, well, y'all go ahead. No, they're not going to say that, you know. So, sometimes you just got to throw your weight around and, you know, somebody's got to make a decision here.

That's why I respected at least Jerry Moorhead because, you know, part of my deal was, Brett, not only that I was right about everything, but, of course, I was. Yeah, of course. I mean, let's be honest, I was. You were. I mean, I'm an egotistical sports talk show host just like you two huckleberries. I mean, you know, we're right about everything that comes out of our mouth. But I just wanted someone to say, hey, here's what we need to do and follow through with it instead of just p****** in the wind.

That's all he's been doing. I know. That's exactly correct. Yeah, I don't think we can say wind on the radio. Hey, I'm going to keep saying all kinds of things. Yeah, I know you will. Then I'll back off a little bit. I know the other reason you're in good mood is George is the number one seed in Hoover, and they may even win the dadgum tournament and get a super regional. You know, that stuff really doesn't go over well with me, but unfortunately, George is having a good year.

All right, listen, you and your mama have a great weekend. You get away from this stuff for a day. Go eat your M&Ms. Think about more of what you want to do to solve all the problems. Now, if any of our esteemed listeners would like to get online and listen to your show and call in, how can they do that today? I don't pick through all my d*** green M&Ms, so I've got to go give you another bag. But anyway, well, I'm going to have Brian Sticker on today.

Oh, really? We're going to tell some Bible talk stories, so that'll be good. So we're looking forward to that. That'll be on at 4 o'clock, but we'll start at 3 o'clock Eastern time, and they can listen to a quality sports talk show for a change at thesesuperstations.com. Well, we all need variety, right, Bill? So listen, man, I echo the sentiments there. Have a good weekend and stay safe over the holiday. Okay, bud? Hey, you guys are the best. Thank you very much. Of all the shows I'm on, this is one of them.

There you go. He took the words right out of my mouth. The one, the only, Mr. Soft-spoken himself, Bill Shanks. Check him out amongst other places, thesesuperstations.com. Coming up in the next hour, Auburn fans, what up? Justin Ferguson on that. John Frawi talking about speaking the floor to the Gators. And Zach Patterson checking in with what's shaking in the shoals. It's all straight ahead of the Wimble Bug Show. Stay with us. Do you owe $10,000 or more in credit card debt or personal loans? With credit card debt at all-time highs, Debt Relief Advocates is urgently notifying consumers of debt relief now being made available designed to aid consumers with out-of-control credit card debt.

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Tuberville was recently on Real America's Voice. You've got to play hardball. We've got several people that it's not going to vote for a filibuster or they'll probably vote for some of the Democrat amendments. You say, listen, you do that, you're out as chairman of a committee. You're out, immediately out. We're going to put somebody else in. Because that's the reason people stay here is to have power. But we do it because of seniority. We don't do it because of merit. We don't have the best people in some of these chairmanships.

So we've got to do the right thing. It starts at leadership. We're going to go in. I'm going to listen to it. And if we don't make changes, we go and try to beg people to do things. It doesn't work. Put their feet to the fire. Let's go to work and let's work with President Trump. I'll be back with more Alabama stories after this. Are you enjoying 1819 News? If so, consider joining 1819 News as a member. As a nonprofit news organization, we depend on the support of Alabamians like you.

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I'm Andrea Theis. For more news affecting Alabamians, go to 1819news.com. And while you're there, subscribe to the daily newsletter. Valley Broadcasting Corporation, WITK-FM, Rogersville, Athens, Decatur, The Shores, Sports Radio 93.9, The Score. Boomo Bugg on 93.9, The Score. It is a privilege for a say hello to Logan Fowler. He's got the Auburn Tigers covered at 1819news. Logan, let's play a little game here. Let's talk basketball. One of the latest additions to the class. I'll take the first name. You take the last one, okay? I'll give you a hint.

He's from Lithuania. His first name is Mantis. You can help us out with the second name. I've practiced this. Good, good. And I still think I'm wrong. We'll call him Rusty, okay? I cannot wait with the Auburn Media Relations. So I'm going to go with Rube Stavichius. That's good. I think that's good. That was our second choice. Good, good, good job. We're going to go with it. The Boomo Bugg Show. Weekdays noon to 2 on 93.9, The Score. 93.9, The Score Weather. Today, a 90% chance of showers and thunderstorms with a high around 80.

[59:35] Tonight, a 90% chance of showers overnight with a low near 65. Tomorrow, partly sunny with a 60% chance of afternoon showers. And a high around 85. Tomorrow night, mostly cloudy with a 50% chance of showers. Possibly a thunderstorm overnight with a low near 65. And for your Sunday, 90% chance of showers and thunderstorms with a high around 85. Your weather from 93.9, The Score. Now, get ready to roll. Shoals, Decatur, Athens, and all of northwest Alabama and southern Tennessee. It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM Sports Voice. The Boomo Bugg Show. Your exclusive inside track to the tide.

Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC. Now, your host, Harold Bugge on 93.9, The Score. Welcome back in our tour of the Boomo Bugg Show. I'm Harold Bugge alongside Brett Beaird. Thank you so much for giving us a free ride around the Tennessee Valley. And with school letting out, a lot of folks are going to be leaving the Valley and heading down to a place called the State of Florida. Or put another way, where John Ferrari calls home. He is busy there at CBS Sports Radio 1420, WAOC, 1240 WFOY in St. Augustine, Florida.

And check him out online at 965sports.com. That's 965sports.com. John, welcome in. How are you? Doing great, Harold. And it's not exactly sunny right now in the Sunshine State, but we really have our nerve to complain, right? Guys with weather down here. So, but a lot going on in Florida Gator sports right now. Softball just lost 10-8 in game one to Texas Tech. Former Gator Mia Williams left the yard with a two-run homer in the seventh. But the men's baseball team, as you guys know, is on fire right now.

Speaking of heat, a 13-3 win yesterday in the semifinals tomorrow against Georgia. And then Ruben Cingula returning to Florida. And I don't know if anybody's more hotter than John Somer on recruiting. So, other than that, there's nothing to talk about with Gator sports, guys. You mentioned that win yesterday. Remind us who Florida beat in that run rule game. Can you remind us, John, in this baseball schizophrenic, I mean, we've all known Dr. Jekylls and Mr. Hyde over the lifetime. But here's the team, Alabama, that embarrassed Florida with a no-hitter.

And then Florida turns around and does a favor in return, embarrasses Alabama at the tourney with a run rule game. What's going on in college baseball? Well, I think it was the perfect storm for Florida, guys. I think they wanted to show that what happened in Tuscaloosa earlier this season wasn't really the Florida Gator baseball team. Nothing against Alabama. But they've kind of turned it on, the Gator baseball team. This has reminded me more of the teams from three and four years ago than the last couple.

What I've seen down the stretch, they've won nine out of ten in the SEC. They are in the semifinal, had the run rule game yesterday. And I think the most important thing, Liam Peterson is starting to look like Liam Peterson on the mound again, which he had not until the last three weeks to the point that Aiden King became the one starter during the season. When the season began, Liam Peterson was your number one. If Aiden King and Liam Peterson continue to pitch like they have, giving Florida a 1-2 with the offense you've seen over the last three weeks to a month, this is going to be a hard out for anybody that plays this Gator baseball team.

I think they can make a serious run in Omaha just from what it seems like all the pieces are coming together and health-wise as well. That's a perfect time this season for Florida. Well, I guarantee you, you couldn't get anybody from Alabama that would not agree with that with you, John. You mentioned another basketball player returning to the Florida Gators. The entire starting front court for Florida returns next year. And I wasn't joking with you. I think they're going to be a preseason number one. I mentioned Todd Golden's got a pretty good smile on his face.

John, your thoughts about who is coming back next year for the Gators for basketball? This is incredible, Brett. If you had told me three months ago, I was thinking about this yesterday when the news dropped about Ruben Chinulou returning. But if you told me in February, this Florida team was going to have Thomas Houck, Alex Condon, and Ruben Chinulou all come back for another year, I think I might have admitted you into a clinic somewhere. I just, there's no way I would have believed it. But yet, that's how this has played out.

[1:04:54] And you're seeing the world of the NIL in motion, folks, because there's no way even three years ago this would have happened. Maybe even two that I could see these guys coming back. But I'll take Thomas Houck out of it because he's kind of a special case. He could have been a lottery pick. He might have maybe made more money going NBA, even though he's paid, from what we're hearing, he's going to be close to $7 million. That's the figure team bounced around down in Gainesville. The other two guys in the frontcourt, Ruben Chinulou and Alex Condon, are actually making more returning to Florida than they would have going in the NBA draft because they were not projected to be lottery picks.

In fact, Chinulou was projected at the bottom of the second round, and that's why he decided to come back. Condon still needs to work on his outside shooting. I think that's a big reason he came back. And Todd Golden's grinning from ear to ear, as you had said, Brett. The only piece to the puzzle that's left, Denzel Aberdeen, who the former Gator from two years ago from the national championship team, transferring back to Florida, but they're still waiting on the NCAA to see if he gets his fifth-year eligibility.

So other than that, everything Todd Golden has touched, no pun intended, has turned to gold this off-season with this roster. And they could be a preseason one. You're absolutely right, Brett. It might be Duke, but it could be Florida. And it's going to be hard-pressed to argue. If Aberdeen gets the waiver, I think it is going to be Florida. It may be Florida even without Aberdeen, but I think Aberdeen would seal the deal on that ranking. You're number one in college or number one in the NBA.

And I get the impression that NIL influenced these decisions. I'm just starting to get that form, that opinion. But, John, here's your thoughts about that. Where is this going to end? I mean, we were just joking earlier with Brent. And back in the day, SEC teams, they divvied up $4 million, and everybody went crazy. Are you kidding me? And now they're looking at $70 in your backyard next week up at Sandestin. At what point are we going to say, not only that, but you've got Todd Golden smacking off with Will Wade, Will Wade smacking off, and a lot of folks are going to smack off at Will Wade with what he's doing there at LSU.

At what point are we going to be able to lasso some of these wild bulls? Well, that's the $24 million question, Harold. I don't think it's going to happen until the NCAA steps forward, gets a commissioner to start with, and then starts enforcing some of these rules. Right now it's the wild, wild west. And they need to have a set of rules for everybody across the country, not just from state to state. And I've been thinking for years this is not sustainable, but it seems like every year, guys, the money seems to come from somewhere, the boosters, and it just keeps getting larger and larger.

Florida's basketball program, what we're hearing is at about a $25 million budget now with all these guys returning. I never would have thought that. I mean, football, John Summerall's trying to get it to $25 million from what we've heard from football, but basketball is there. And obviously the boosters are more willing to give the basketball because they've seen the results with Todd Goldman. I think that's part of it. But still, I don't have an answer yet, Harold, to when it comes to an end. I think it's still going to be a while before it comes to an end, to be quite frank.

Eventually, though, the rubber's got to hit the road, as they say. I don't think they can continue this, you know, for infinity, but it's amazing how they always seem to find more money. It's incredible. But here's the problem with that, John, and you're right. The money's coming from a lot of sources, primarily from billionaires. If they give up $5, $10 million, I mean, they turn their couch over and get that. The problem is going to be on the other end. These guys didn't be billionaires because they gave money away.

Every time they spent money, they want to make $2 for every dollar they spent. So they're looking for a return on their investment in some shape, form, or fashion. The problem is going to be you and I, Brad, and everybody listening right now, we're the ones who are going to end up beating this because, I mean, how many free lunches really are there out there? Well, yeah, good point. You would think that it's going to come to an end eventually. I think the bigger issue, and this is when it may come to an end, Harold, is that these billionaires are going to start wanting to run the program.

Exactly. They just contribute to the program, and when they start threatening the school presidents, the school athletic directors, they start saying, hey, we gave you all this money. Hey, boy. This head coach is out. Bring another head coach in. Yeah. That's when I think this is going to have to come to an end because you can't let the inmates run the asylum, as they say, guys. And that's where I think it is going to be headed. I know there's a big booster out in Texas Tech, and I think he actually got to go to President Trump's sports committee up in Washington, D.C.

[1:10:20] Yeah, he did. And he shouldn't have been there. He had no business being there. I know he's contributed a lot of money. He's got money. He's not Nick Saban. He's not Urban Meyer, even. I just don't think he should have been there myself because he's never coached. He doesn't really know anything about it. I mean, I know he's made a lot of money in other industries, and I think that's a problem, and I think that's as we see more and more of that, I think that's when it's finally going to reach its tipping point and start coming to an end.

But I still think we're a little bit away from that yet. Cody Campbell's the guy you're talking about from Texas Tech, the billionaire. John, Greg Sankey's got a crucial meeting next week for the SEC to stand up and say, look, this is our solutions to a lot of the problems that we've discussed. What do you want to hear Greg Sankey say next week in San Destin? Well, first of all, I'm going to applaud Greg Sankey from a distance and the SEC because I think we'd be looking at a 2014 playoff right now, guys, if not for the SEC standing up.

Because the Big Ten has been pushing that, and I think Greg Sankey's got to just draw a line in the sand and say a 2014 playoff would ruin the college football regular season to begin with. 12-16, in my opinion, doesn't, but a 24 would because you're going to start letting teams in that are 7-5 in the college football playoff. Give me a break. I mean, they have no business being in there, but I think besides that, he's got to talk about what we just talked about. There's got to be some rules and regulations to bring some of this in, NIL money, and even the transfer portal, because to me that's the first step, guys, is stopping these kids from being able to transfer every single year.

If you're going to pay these kids, I think at least minimum it's got to be a two-year deal. They can't just transfer every single year, and right now there's no parameters for anything. So I think the transfer portal, NIL money and budgets, and then the playoff, where does that come to an end? I think you've got to stop at 16 myself, and I'll be curious about the conference championship game, because I know the SEC doesn't want to lose that because of all the money it makes. And I think Sankey's going to have to get some kind of reassurance from the NCAA and the other partners that the SEC is going to recoup some of the money they're losing, because they are going to lose a nice chunk if you get rid of that championship game.

John, what do you think the reaction would be if Sankey stood up there and said, we're recommending a two-year collective bargaining based with performance and benchmarks? What kind of reaction would that get? Oh, it would get a lot of eyes probably rolling and turning, but I think that is a great start, Brett. But I would love to see him stand up and say that, because just like the NFL, these guys are really professional now. I mean, you know, the amateur status is gone. That's a joke.

And I think they should be held to a standard if they're getting paid these millions of dollars. I know they're kids, but they're getting paid now. And like I just said, they can go from school to school to school after each year. So, I would love to see Sankey do that. Absolutely. Yeah, and Florida has had such a good year across the board. I think they won the SEC All-Sports Trophy, which they've done quite a few times in the past. Great stuff. Yeah, we're going to be following Sandestin's results quite closely next week.

John, where can we get online to listen to your great show? You can follow me online on X at JF underscore sports now and online at 1021news.com or 102.1 and 1240 in St. Augustine. And guys, to show you how good the other sports were in Florida, what you just mentioned, Brett, they won that with a 4-8 football team. Yeah, they did. That is amazing. That blows me away when you said that out loud because I was like, wow, that means the other sports are excelling so much.

They're covering up the eyesore that's been the football program. Quite amazing. But hopefully that's going to turn around starting with Mr. Summerall starting this fall. We shall see. He's been called to the principal's office and given his assignment, I guarantee you. John, listen, man, thanks so much. Have a great and safe Memorial Day weekend, okay? Guys, thanks for having me on. And for all, if you see a serviceman or woman out there, take their hand and thank them because this is the reason we get to do this, guys, is because of those that gave their lives for our freedom.

[1:15:32] So God bless. Well put. Well put, John. Listen, man, thanks so much. Very heavy, John Ferrari, 965sports.com, amongst other places to check out John's work. Coming up, watch Shaking in the Shoals, Zach Panter's all over that. Next, stay with us. This is Keith at Cypress Creek Indoor Range. We're turning nine and want to celebrate with you all week from May 31st to June 6th. Representatives from Smith & Wesson, Browning, FN, Winchester, Dead Air, and more will be here. We'll also be having a suppressor class open to everyone with great discounts for all those that attend.

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[1:20:57] Brought to you by PayPal. Official peer-to-peer payment sponsor of the NFL. The Score. Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Welcome back in. Really appreciate free ride around the Tennessee Valley. Man for Zach Pounder is taking time out of his busy schedule, following everything that's shaking in the shows at the show's sports report. Zach, welcome in. Happy TGIFT. How are you? It was good. How y'all? Hey, buddy. Well, we're not as well as the city and the community of Leighton. What a week, huh? The pride of Leighton, the Wizard of Oz, Ozzie Newsom coming home to address UNA's biggest fundraiser of the year.

And now the girls out there giving Oz a run for his money on the softball state field. Your thoughts about the community of Leighton and how about those Calvert County girls? Right now, they're in a battle with Madison Academy. It's 11 to 7 in the 5th inning. 12 to 7, my bad. 12-7, top of the feet, two outs. They're adding all the runs right here, basically. It's been a battle of a game. McKaylee Davis has allowed seven runs, only one of them earned. Three errors so far has allowed six more runs to score from Madison Academy.

but the defense says, they can win this game. Let me go back just a bit to yesterday. I believe Calvert County, according to your report, went 2-1. They beat Glenwood 8-2. They beat Hansville 8-0. And then they lost to St. James 1-0 in the 8th inning. And I want to go back to that Hansville game. McKaylee Davis struck out 20. And I know people think I'm making that up, but talk about that game that you got 21 outs and she struck out 20 batters. Regulation of softballs with seven innings.

But she struck out 20 straight to start the game, basically. All outs were a strikeout. She had 24 batters faced, one hit, one walk. But past that, it was 20 straight strikeouts. And the last out, everybody's kind of like, oh man, jokingly, but it was so important like she had 20 strikeouts. She's very ready to get 21 straight at all any sport. But she nearly did 21 in a row, basically, to get all outs by strikeouts. Put this team in perspective. I mean, that to me is, I don't care if it's softball, baseball, pickleball.

That's an incredible statistic. How good is this team overall? And when's the next time we're going to see somebody? It's not only, you know, sometimes you have that game where everybody just sparkles, but this kid is consistent. How good overall is this team at Colbert County? Yeah, they're very good defensively. It's kind of a mixed team. Also, they're not very, they have six seniors, but they're also very young as well. You've got girls getting high-level reps at a young age that's like eighth graders, ninth graders, tenth graders on this stage.

But they're still very experienced teams. They should have been here two years to go to the state, should have been redone last year. but, that's all happened and they got here finally this year. I think it kind of does a lot of different girls basketball last year because they got one chance to go to the state with the seniors and they won it. If Colbert County holds on and wins this game, St. James has come in here and played after sitting in all day and Colbert County has been playing already.

I think Colbert County has won this game and beat St. James in that two o'clock game to get to the four o'clock game if necessary. That's what I was going to ask you. First of all, I appreciate you having set up the interview. We talked to Will Inman, their very fine coach, earlier this week and he talked a little bit about Recount the Year. Now, if they hold on to beat Madison Academy, they've got to beat St. James twice. Is that right? At two and four this afternoon?

Yes. But it's been done this year so far. Five-A had this happen, six-A had it happen, and seven-A had it happen this morning. So in five, six, seven, eight, it was a team that came in with one loss to the championship game, won both championship games to win the championship. And then in one-A and four-A, the team that came out of the loser bracket and had to play once or twice on the day two got to the state championship game. Plain, he was in a fight on Tuesday, had to win one to get to the championship and also Orange Beach.

But it's been done this year before, and at five, six, seven, so far, the last three nights, it's been done in the night count, went twice, man. Coburn County trying to do what Lawrence County has already done. Talk to us about Lawrence County winning its first blue mouth in softball. Congratulations. Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead, bud. All right. Yeah, Lawrence County, though, jumped on Houston Academy Wednesday, whatever day it was at this point this week. But it was Wednesday, I think. They jumped on Houston Academy in the first inning 3-0, and ran that first game.

[1:25:57] 6-3 kind of game, 6-4. But in game two, they started the game up 4-0 in the second inning, got delayed for two hours because of but then came back and held on still to win. 10-1, I think it was the final of that second game. But very rowdy crowd for Lawrence County, very good rowdy crowd. Also, very good fan base as well. And they're coming up 4-8 next year with Deshler, Brooks, and Hamilton in their area. That's going to be a tough area. It's a lot tougher.

They lose two girls off Lawrence County and bring their belts back. Before we ask you about baseball with Hartzell and Morris Hill, tip of the camp to Hackelberg. They lost to Kingston again. They lost to him last year, but Hackelberg finished 44-11-1. Their second straight runner-up losing to Kingston again. They didn't win it, but I know they had a very good offense. They were averaging nine runs per game over 15 runs or so. Your thoughts on how, I don't know if you got a chance to see them very much, your thoughts on Hackelberg with the runner-up trophy?

Yeah, it was a tough spot for Hackelberg and Kingston and Bo's Wednesday night because that two-hour delay pushed everything back. Then basically they got fine rooms and Pell City, Altford, Jacksonville, where they were fine rooms basically at that point because you had half the states that were playing the tournament the next couple of days. But I put that on, you never want to make excuses, but I do think when you got to go find a hotel room last second, 8-9-5-9, it can't play apart.

You never know how teams respond either. But also Kenton's one back-to-back state title congrats to them. But the spot they're putting in was tough for both teams. Tell you what, Arrington must have one heck of a team to knock off Mars Hill on this platform. They've got to be outstanding. And talking about outstanding, Hartsell is just bringing yet another blue belt back to Morgan County. Yeah, Hartsell and Spain Park played a really good series. They actually had a walk-off finish on Tuesday in game one, or went into game one, and then yesterday at Jacksonville State, they had a controversial finish to game two, where Spain Park thought they had walked it off.

It was a foul ball off the guy's foot. They hit the ball, bounce it off, off his foot. It's a foul ball, it's a ruling, but they ruled it a fair ball. The runner on base comes home and scores. They think game three, one of the series leads. They come back out, they overturned the call to a foul ball like it should have been, and Hartsell scores a run to the top of the eight to win the series. Wow. What is it with Hartsell and controversial games and state championship games?

This is not their first rodeo. Yeah, basically that one couple years ago with last year softball for Hartsell down here. The season ended in a little matching game on a triple play. The runners got caught in the base pass. It was a triple play to end it. One of the crazier ended to the season I've seen ever. Absolutely. And listen again, kudos to Morris Hill. I know they won the first game four to nothing, lost a very good Arrington team. I believe they've won three of the last four.

Blue Mounts six to one and five to two, but Bo Willis, Cody Willis, Noah Handback, et cetera. What a great year they had. Listen, you have worked your tail off trying to get us information about this and we sincerely appreciate it. You will have the updates and what Calvert County does the rest of the day. You're there covering the games. You'll have the wrap-up, the stars of the game, et cetera, and then I'm sure your thoughts later tonight on what you've seen this week. We'll try to wrap up the athletic year with you next year, I mean next week, but you've done a great job.

We sincerely appreciate it. Tell our listeners again, if you want to keep up with Calvert County this afternoon, how can they do that? Yes, Facebook Sholes Sports Report page, the page is Sholes Sports Report on Twitter at lowercase S-H-O-A-L-S-P-O-R-T-S and you follow us on Twitter that you can turn on post notifications and it'll come to your phone right away. And also Calvert King is up 12-9 at the end of the field right now, heads in the three runs about a football game. I think 15 runs might win this game either way.

Don't really know yet, but we'll find out. You took the words right out of my mouth. You're talking about the freshest update. The entire show is there. You've got it. You've got everything else. Zach, listen, man, thanks so much and stay safe down there and see travels home. Thank you, buddy. Zach Pounder is there with the show's sports reports. It's been a busy week on the plains, whether it's recruiting for football or baseball, rocking in Hoover. Justin Ferguson on that and more straight ahead. Stay with us.

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Save up to 50% on your Babbel subscription when you sign up at Babbel.com. That's Babbel.com to save up to 50%. B-A-B-B-E-L dot com. With the Sports Flash, I'm Chuck Sanders on 93-9, the score. Southern Conference Baseball Tournament Thursday top seed Mercer advanced to the semifinals with a 9-8 win over Wofford. Mercer staving off elimination after being beaten 9-2 earlier in the day by the Citadel. They'll get another chance today when the two teams square off at 9 a.m. The other semifinal game today, it'll be Samford battling Western Carolina.

Samford beat Western 9-5 yesterday while Western staved off elimination beating UNC Greensboro 4-3. SEC Baseball Tournament quarterfinals top seed Georgia beat Mississippi State 5-3 to advance to the semifinals tomorrow. Fifth seed Florida beat Alabama 13-3. The Gators will battle the Bulldogs tomorrow. Today it's Texas against Arkansas and Texas A&M facing Auburn with semifinal berths on the line. Baseball Thursday, the Braves beat the Marlins 9-3 to win their third stream. Bundle auto and home, renters or condo in safe with progressive. That's the Sports Flash. I'm Chuck Sanders on 93-9 the score.

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[1:36:42] Justin, welcome in. Would you agree with that? How are you? Yeah, I'm doing. I'm staying busy a little bit right now. How are y'all? Hey, buddy. We're doing all right, Justin. Man, let's talk about this Auburn baseball team. Two things on it, Justin. Would you agree? The Auburn Tigers getting hot at the right time, and as far as the LSU Tigers, just because you throw a lot of money at a program, there's nothing to be guaranteed that you're going to win. Would you agree with that, Justin?

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I think LSU is kind of an example of kind of what we see from time to time, like in professional baseball. Just because you spend a lot of money and you have a really big payroll doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be among the best teams. And I think LSU was kind of a victim of that a little bit this year. As for Auburn, yeah, I think the big thing for them is I think in the postseason, it really comes down to does your pitching staff have it?

And Auburn's had probably the best pitching staff in the SEC pretty much all season long. And so for them to win a game the other night in Hoover where you only score three runs and, you know, you feel like you're pretty set up to hang around for the weekend if you can get through these next couple, through this game today, I think it's just a testament to just the kind of arms Auburn has. And I think they're going to have to lean on them if they want to make a run here in the postseason.

Now, we talked about this a little bit last week. Auburn's got a very good strength of schedule in RPI I believe it was in at times it's been in the top five. Texas A&M tonight the late date again depending upon the weather but if they win this game tonight would that solidify if they're not already in the top eight and of course if you're in the top eight you've got a good chance you've got to win the regional first but to host the super regional if they win tonight are they in the top eight and then have an opportunity to do both host the regional and the super regional yeah I think they're kind of close to that already right now it'll be interesting to see how much the selection committee of the NCAA tournament takes these SEC tournaments into how much weight they put into it I think for Auburn when you look at the teams closest to them right now in the running for a super regional or that top eight to that national seed the two closest competitors to them right now I guess three would be Texas A&M Florida and Southern Miss in the case of both Texas A&M and Florida Auburn won road series there against each of both of those teams have more quad one runs have a better RPI in the case of Southern Miss your metrics are way above what you're seeing out of Southern Miss and I don't really think the Sunbelt tournament's really going to affect them that much in terms of those numbers so I think Auburn's in a pretty good spot right now I think Alabama losing yesterday I don't think that's going to change them from being a team that makes it in that top eight I think that kind of helps Auburn a little bit kind of solidify their position and so if they lose one game to A&M they still won two road games against them and they still feel pretty good if Florida got on a really big run and just kind of won it all maybe you could see Florida maybe jumping in there but I don't know if they're going to jump all the way up to knock Auburn out at this point I think Auburn's probably around that 5-6-7 slot right now Justin Ferguson the Auburn Observer big week for the Auburn baseball team big weekend for big cat weekend for the football team talk to us about the fruits of last week's big cat weekend on the recruiting trail Auburn got a couple of commitments over the weekend they pick up linebacker out of Georgia one of the fastest kids in his class really good pick up there I think a guy that when you look at Auburn you see D.J. Durkin got a really good track record at that linebacker spot his talent evaluations have been pretty spot on since he got to Auburn and you look at the Auburn team where linebacker they really prioritize range and athleticism more than anything else when you look at Xavier Atkins Melendez and Bryce Diaz and guys like that so really good fit in there and then a guy who wasn't that big cat but the big pick up of the week you go get a four star offensive tackle from Delaware who top 70 player in the country top five tackle in the country and it was really down between Auburn and Notre Dame and my thing about that is if you beat out Notre Dame for any offensive lineman you've done a heck of a job in recruiting just because Notre Dame has really owned that position really for the last decade in college football and they get their recruiting efforts you've got official visits coming up here shortly and those will start rolling in fast and furious Auburn looks like they want to pick up on trail and get some more guys in they've got a lot of momentum right now and Big Cat obviously helped out with that Tennessee has some guys coming in this weekend but the majority of the SEC schools begin next weekend with 10 15 even 20 I think Alabama has got close to 20 coming in not this weekend but next weekend how many does Auburn have coming in scheduled Auburn I don't have an exact number but I know they have a good number they wanted to hit it hard early on so yeah I would imagine it's going to be a pretty big recruiting splash for them early on next week obviously a holiday for a lot of folks after that Greg Sankey and his court is going to be holding it down at San Destin from an Auburn standpoint Justin what would you like to see come out of those meetings yeah yeah it's really interesting because you know I think in years past it's been we've gotten down to spring meetings and be like all right what's scheduling going to look like all right is what's Auburn's permanent opponents going to look like you know on the football side and now you really don't have that anymore you've got that sorted out so I think kind of the big thing is just I think trying to figure out where the league stands when it comes to this business of expanding the playoff even further and just kind of what that looks like I think Auburn's got to be able to be a team on the football side just can you get back to winning period first and foremost but I do think Auburn is necessarily they're in a spot where when you play Alabama and Georgia every year and you're playing the SEC and you're in a nine game schedule and all that you know you don't have to necessarily run the table in order to be a playoff team in a 12 team format so I don't think you know expanding it even further would be a big big big deal you know to change a ton but obviously it would affect a team like Auburn if you know the SEC came in and said hey this is what we want to do playoff wise this is what we kind of want to do with that so I think between that and just kind of the battles going on right now with player eligibility the 5 and 5 rule you know trying to get maybe a tamp down on some of these transfers I think it's going to be kind of like a lot of SEC schools from Armors for going to 24 obviously if you're a coach you want that because it takes the pressure off you can put it on your resume I made the playoffs yeah we got smoked in the first round because we stunk but because the rules changed we still made it so I'm going to take advantage of that with a career but how would that affect the regular season for a lot of these teams because let's face it there was a time when you could not lose one game and then they've gone well you can now lose two now that there's a nine game ACC schedule people talking about three even four how's that going to affect the regular season in your view just as far as these teams where let's face it the regular season there's no other way of putting it it's going to be watered down to an extent barring some people who hate to lose even when it comes to who gets the biggest bar of soap in the shower yeah I think the big thing for that would be it would just yeah you're in a position where if you get to 24 if you're a power you're a power conference team like in the SEC or especially you're in yeah you're just kind of in if you don't have a bad season or if you just win eight or nine games so I think it would still be important to get to that number but then again like you're saying you could take a couple pretty big blows and keep on going I think it would not be quite to this level but it's kind of like when they expanded recently the college basketball tournament like if you're a high major and you don't make the tournament moving forward like you had a bad season point blank I don't think football would be quite at that point just because of the number of teams but it would get closer and closer if you talk about hey we get a 2014 playoff you know what are you going to do six seven or eight from the SEC it's like okay well yeah I mean you just got to be decent to get in in your conference what has John Cohen and Alex Golich mentioned even on the side or indirectly are they against or in favor of 24 yeah I don't know exactly about 24 from Golich's perspective I think it's kind of been he hasn't really been somebody we've heard about a lot from you know the talk and of playoff stuff and anything big picture stuff it's been more of a you know focus on you know getting back to winning around here Mel Cohen in the past has been a guy that I think has been you know one of those who's kind of stood in the middle of the road a little bit on these kind of things like kind of sees the pros and cons I think it was the same thing with the nine game schedule I remember when that was going on it was like okay you know you can kind of see it one way or another so yeah I think I don't think Auburn feels super super strongly about it like at least publicly one way or another but you know I think it's definitely something that would have a great impact whenever it gets done because you know it would put even more of an emphasis on teams that are these bigger power conferences to go get the job done absolutely I always mention the 6am emails on Wednesday the podcast the Friday mailbag I was looking at your Twitter this is some of the content on the Friday mailbag projecting Auburn starting offensive line who will be wide receiver number one what was the 2021 mustard bottle game and what can that teach us about Auburn in 2026 Auburn versus Arizona in basketball in the last one being a multiple cat owner if this is what you're talking about our two cats now explain to us the mailbag today yeah so the mailbag a lot of football questions this week about you know just scheme and personnel kind of diving into that you know I talk about that mustard bottle game you know 2021 when Ole Miss played Tennessee that was DJ Durkin versus Alice Golesh in terms of coordinators you can kind of like look and kind of see that that mind battle there and yeah the cat question was just I mean it was funny this earlier this week I'd posted a photo of one of our cats and you know people started asking me questions about them so we threw them in at the end you know it's the summer we get a lot of weird ones this time of year but yeah it's a lot of stuff going on right now I've got some baseball stuff today as well so check all that out at auburnobserver.com and Tom and Jerry love the cat stories as well Justin man have a great weekend and a great holiday okay you too thank you bud Justin Ferguson are going to get up with us with the Auburn Observer when we talk about all this baseball stuff how about you and a quietly rocking and rolling in their own tourney action BB yeah they won 11-4 and James and I were looking at the monitor and they've got some weather issues there too the winner of the A-Sun tournament gets to go to regional now they may be three or four but that would be big for you and A to be able to get into the NCAA tournament Braves tonight Auburn tonight depend upon the weather and Harold before we go John Ferrari touched on this yep take a minute on Monday too if you see someone in uniform a veteran they made the absolute ultimate sacrifice for you and I and James and a lot of other people be talking about sports and they need to be especially remembered this Memorial Day on Monday well the key word there is especially we live in crazy times we don't have to go ahead and share that we all know that but they're the ones who are keeping the ring of protection around us right now so echo those sentiments and whatever you do make sure you stay safe because we want to get back together with you on Tuesday it's going to take care of us for now on behalf of BB Greg James Blair the entire crew here Harold Block thank you so much for your time today listen again next time noon to two for the bit more buck show back here on sports radio 93.9 the score