Boomo Bugg Show 070629

[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 Tide, Tigers, Tennessee and the rest of the SEC. Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score. And welcome into the Boomo Bugg Show. Harold is going to be joining us in just a few minutes. Going to be talking about a lot of things today. Number one, talking Auburn with Brian Matthews a little bit later.

And Tennessee with Vince Ferrara. New Brooks High School football coach Mike Horton is going to join us at 1.35 and preview the 2026 season. But always a delight to begin the show on Monday with Adam Spencer, newsletter editor, columnist and podcast host of Saturday Down South, Saturday Tradition and Sports Betting Dime. Adam, welcome into the show. Hope you had a great fourth. Hey, I sure did. I hope you did as well. Yes, we did. The SEC football power rankings entering in July by Adam Spencer. I actually agree with a lot of these.

We'll go through as many of these as we can. You literally started from 16 to 1 and that one being the Texas Longhorns. Let me ask you about 13 with South Carolina. Every time I turn around, Shane Beamer is on the, he's either one or two of the hot seat for coaches, but there's a lot of talent on this team. Lenore Sellers, Harbor, the 6'5 receiving freak, Dylan Stewart, their edge, and Swain. But as you pointed out, they've got an absolute brutal schedule. Your thoughts on the Gamecocks? Yeah, I just don't know if they did enough.

You know, I think that they should be maybe a little bit better than they were last year. You know, they got a left tackle out of the portal, you know, potentially going to be a first-round pick. So, I mean, they've upgraded at some interesting spots. You know, Dylan Stewart still, he's another guy that could be a top-10 pick this coming NFL draft. So, you know, I just don't think that they noticeably upgraded from a team last year that struggled. And, you know, Sellers was running for his life far too often.

You know, he was inconsistent and inaccurate at times. And, you know, I just think that with all of that combined, like, I just don't know that they did enough to really make meaningful change. And then, yeah, that schedule is really tough. So, you know, when you're a team that's not, you know, one of the elites in the SEC, all of them have tough schedules because you usually have to play two or three of the elite teams. So, you know, it'll be tough to see a pass towards a top-half finish in the SEC for them.

I mean, the top-end talent is there. I just don't know if the too-deep depth chart, I don't know if there's enough talent on that to be a really competitive top-half SEC team this year. Adam, you've got Kentucky at 14. Alabama plays Kentucky the second game of the year in Langston. Will Stein has brought some real energy back to that fan base. Mincy, the backup quarterback at Notre Dame, we'll see how he does. I think it's going to take him a couple of years. Now, they brought in a lot of guys from the portal, and he'll be looking to spring some upsets.

I still think that it's going to take him at least a year, maybe two, to really get that going again. But as far as energizing the fan base, he's been able to do that. Yeah, I think he was a great hire. You know, I'm excited about what he's doing. The portal class was a top-10 portal class. I mean, they're going to be tough to beat. I do think that Alabama catching them in week two is a good spot because I don't think that they'll be, you know, firing on all cylinders that quickly into the new regime.

So, you know, that's a good break for Alabama to kind of ease into the SEC schedule against the first-time head coach, you know. So that's something that I'm looking at. But yeah, Will Stein, I think, was a great hire. I think he's going to, you know, bring that program back to respectability. But I'm with you. I think it's going to take at least a year. The Florida Gators, we're going to be talking about the Gators with Mark McLeod in our next segment. Again, I use the word energy.

John Summerall has really brought some accountability, stated over the week that if you're a minute late to practice, that's not a good thing. We can hold you accountable for that. They've got some weapons. Dallas Wilson, Jane Ball, just whoever the quarterback is, and it seems to be Aaron Filo, just turn around and hand it to Ball. But they've got some weapons on the offensive line and to a wide receiver. The offensive line lost a lot. I think the defense is going to be solid. What are your expectations on John Summerall at Florida year one?

[5:07] Yeah, I think they'll be fine. You know, I know that's not really, you know, a hot take either way. But I think they'll be fine. I think they'll pull off a couple of games that we don't expect, but they'll also drop one or two that they should win. And I think that, you know, they will have a defensive identity. You know, the Swamp's not going to be a fun place to play. But, yeah, some of this talk that I've heard about them being, you know, dark horse playoff contenders and stuff like that I think is a little too early.

Let's give them a year. I did like the Buster Faulkner hire. I think that that's really under the radar one of the best coordinator hires of the offseason. You know, and Aaron Filo, we'll see what he's got as a full-time starter. He's shown some flashes, backup roles with, you know, Haynes King with the way that he played at Georgia Tech. You know, he was banged up from time to time just by the nature of being a running quarterback. So, Filo stepped in and looked good in those situations.

So, we'll see if he can take on a bigger role this fall. You also, we'll get into this a little bit later as far as the three critical games for Auburn. You've got Auburn number 12, and I'm sure Auburn fans are saying, Adam, what in the world are you doing here? Again, it's prove it. I think they're going to be much better. They know their identity. They're going to run the ball. Byron Brown coming up as a transfer. You know what you've got in him. But you mentioned this again.

They've got an absolutely horrendous five-week stretch on a schedule. Tennessee, bye week, Georgia, LSU, Ed O'Mass. My goodness. I really do think Auburn's going to improve. And if they stay healthy, I think they have a winning season. It's still going to take them a couple of years. But I know you've got Auburn ranked number 12. Yeah, just, you know, just again, you know, they lost so much through the portal. You know, Cam Coleman is now on a different SEC team that I'm sure we'll talk about here in a bit.

That's a huge loss. You know, it's going to be tough to replace a guy like that. And, you know, I have questions about the receiving core. Yes. Like, I think that, you know, bringing in all those USF guys that he did was smart. I like that move from Alex Golesh. But, you know, they went into the swamp and pulled off an upset last year against Florida. But, you know, can these guys stand up to a nine-game SEC schedule? You know, I have my questions about that.

You know, some of these group of five programs, you know, they can pull off the one-time upset. But then, you know, you ask them to do it week in and week out, and they kind of struggle. So, you know, we'll see how they hold up. But, yeah, I think that Alex Golesh in the long run was the right move for Auburn. And I just think, you know, you have to settle for, like, seven and five maybe this fall. You've got Alabama number six. And, again, I've been saying this the entire summer.

If Ty Simpson was coming back, Parker Browsford at center, Alabama might be number four or even number three. But as you mentioned, you trust Cale and DeBoer to figure some of this stuff out. Again, big question, can the offensive line jail? Can they run the ball? I think this is going to be one of the better defenses in the SEC. And I know we've talked about them a lot this summer. Your thoughts on Alabama at number six? Yeah, that defense is what's going to have to carry them, especially early.

And the secondary is loaded. You know, Bray Hubbard, you've got the whole group coming back. So, I mean, I think that the secondary is going to make it a no-fly zone in Tuscaloosa for most of the season. But, yeah, I mean, I don't want to put the tide higher. You know, I'm still high on them. I picked them to make the playoff. But right now, you know, with these power rankings, it's like, okay, who would be who on a neutral field if a game was played today?

And right now, you know, I don't think until I see it that Alabama's offensive line can hold up to the teams that are above them. So, you know, I want to see it with the offensive line first. But if they get that ironed out, then I'm sure Alabama will rise a couple spots pretty quickly. You've got your Missouri Tigers at No. 8, and I actually think that's too low for them. If Austin Simmons stays healthy, I think he can have a very good year. Once again, they've got a very solid, good offensive line.

But when you can run the ball for 2,500 yards, again, hopefully Ahmaud Hardy will be able to answer the bell in September. Of course, everyone knows he was shot and recovering in the offseason. Roberts is very good. You say don't sleep on Missouri. I agree with you. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I trust Lane Kiffin to analyze quarterbacks, and he saw something in Austin Simmons that he liked. So I liked Austin Simmons as a dark horse Heisman contender going into last year. And now, of course, we know that I picked the wrong Ole Miss quarterback because Trinidad Chambliss became the dark horse Heisman candidate.

But, you know, I still think that there's something there. And if they didn't have a guy like Trinidad Chambliss sitting behind Simmons last year who stepped in and made an immediate impact, you know, I still think that with extra time to get it together, Simmons would have been a really good quarterback in that system last year. So, you know, I think that people gave up on him too soon, maybe. So I think that he's the key to all this. But, yeah, when you could just turn it around, turn around and hand it to Ahmaud Hardy or Jamal Roberts.

[10:27] They have Caden Green who, you know, Hardy and Caden Green are two of the highest rated players in the EJ sports college football game. So, you know, that's a really good thing to have. And I think the defense might take a step back. That's where I have a little bit of concern. But I'm sure they'll be fine. And, you know, maybe they'll get overlooked like they tend to do. And that'll lead to a couple of upsets. Absolutely. Yeah, when you can run for 2,000 yards, you can do a lot of things.

Georgia, number 2, Texas, number 1. I agree with you. I think Texas has filled their gaps. Hollywood Smothers, who committed to Alabama, then we know the end of that story, ended up at Texas. Relique Brown. And then, of course, Arch. I think you're going to see the Arch in November instead of the Arch of September. You've got Texas 1, Georgia 2. And you're right. For some people, Georgia's offense, quite frankly, is nearly boring. But they win. They're going to run the ball. They're going to have a very solid offensive line.

The defense is going to be good, too. Georgia 2, Texas number 1 in your rankings. Yeah, I think that I got a lot of pushback on it. They're like, well, Georgia owns Texas. Well, this is a different season. Yes, a lot of the key players are back to two quarterbacks, the two head coaches. But, you know, I like Cam Coleman on offense for Texas there. I like Arch Manning. I agree with you. I think he's going to be ready to go much sooner than he was last year.

And we're not going to see the kind of early season struggles here. He's been through the ringer with, you know, the lofty preseason Heisman expectations last year. So he knows what the pressure is going to be on him. And I think that he comes out of the gates much, much stronger this year. And that's why, you know, I give them the slight edge. It's more of a 1A, 1B situation. But I still give Texas just the slight edge over Georgia as they can stand right now.

Well, and I appreciate you ranking this because we've been doing this for a while. And we'll have a little bit better ideal in summer camp, but not until really you play two or three games during the season. Are you really going to get a handle on some of this stuff? Also, you did a very good job with the three most critical games over in Tennessee, I believe Florida. And I know you've done some other ones. Always great to begin the week with you looking at the SEC.

Where can we get online to get your stuff and the teams? Yeah, Saturday Down South is a Saturday tradition. Sign up for our newsletter. We're, you know, now that it's a little bit slow, we're working on some season preview stuff that's going to be coming your way soon. So, yeah, stay tuned and check it all out. Absolutely. Always enjoy the conversation. It's going to be speeding up here in about two weeks with SEC Media Days. Glad you had a good fourth. Always enjoy the conversation, Adam.

Have a great week. You too. Thanks a lot. All right, buddy. Adam Spencer of Saturday Down South. When we come back talking Gators with Mark McLeod, when we return to the Boomo Bugg Show on 93.9, let's go. The world's biggest soccer event is here, and there's no better place to catch every match than Sam's Sports Grill in Florence. Watch all the World Cup action on our big screens while enjoying featured items like our Cuban sandwich, Casamigos Blanco, Spicy Margarito, Don Julio Resposado Old Fashioned, and Ice Cold Modelo Especial starting June 8th.

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I wonder if Mark McCloud is ever in the doghouse with John or his number one fan. We can find out from the man himself. Mark McCloud is host of The Blitz with Mark McCloud and the Gator Blitz podcast. Mark, welcome in. How are you? Hey, doing well. Good afternoon, guys. Always fun to be on with you guys. You too. Mark, have you been one minute late with your wife or with Jon Sumrall? So, what happened? I got better shot with my wife. She's got more forgiveness in her, I think, than some of us.

John's bringing the whip to town. He said, no, I knew he was a tough guy. He's from North Alabama, so you know he's tough. I didn't know he was this tough. What's going on down there, Mark? Yeah, and you know, it's discipline. It is discipline that Florida is a much needed discipline at Florida. You know, they've kind of been back and forth with different coaches since the end of the Urban Meyer era. But they're getting back to, you know, and you like this. If you're a Florida fan, you're sitting there, where has this been?

Why can't we have the toughness and discipline that has been needed in this program for many years? Absolutely. Let me ask you about the offensive line. And, again, Florida's got Dallas Wilson, Bernal Brown III, Singleton, and some other guys. But it's the offensive line we've talked with you about. We thought Florida's offensive line last year was going to be one of the best in the SEC. They got Harris, Moore, Lovett, Kane Jones. But I know something you like is the offensive line coach. He won the national championships at Florida in six and eight.

[20:51] Phil Trotwine was a major addition to the staff. He really was. And you're right. I love Phil Trotwine. I had a conversation with him back when Dan Mullen was taking over as head coach at Florida. And I talked to him. He said, I would love to come back to Florida as a coach. He goes, that would be like a dream come true for me. He goes, I don't know that Coach Mullen will have a place for me. He goes, but I would love to do it.

And now here we are. And Jon Sumrall's done it. And you look at the success he had at Boston College under Steve Adazio. And that's not an easy place to bring talented offensive linemen into. And then Penn State, which is much, much better and much easier. And you look at the success those guys had and he had in developing those players. And this is long overdue, as you know, Brett, because you follow recruiting. You follow the portal so well. And this is just something that Florida underperformed last year as an offensive line when they should have had one of the better offensive lines in the Southeastern Conference or maybe the country.

But now, guys, they've got Naja Harris back. He's the only returning veteran from that Florida team. But you do have Harrison Moore, who started at center for Georgia Tech and did a very good job for the Yellow Jackets. You've got a couple guys, Egan Boyer, coming in from Penn State, who transferred into Florida after playing with Trout Wine. You've got a couple other guys as well who transferred into Florida, that T.J. Shanahan and company, who also played with the Nittany Lions, who come in. And he's fighting for the tackle position.

I'm sorry, the right guard position. So, if you can get a couple of these guys and look, so you have two guys who started, really one and a half guys who started at their previous schools. And then you have Naja Harris. There's just a lot of work. And I think your point is well taken, Brett. That is one area where not only Florida fans, but the media alike coming up with SEC media days are going to be looking at Florida and wanting some answers from John Summerall.

Mark McLeod is with us, amongst other places, the Gator Blitz podcast. Mark, we mentioned him being tough. That is, John Summerall, the coach. Obviously, it's culture shock for the guys already on the roster. Human nature says, how much can I do and get away with it? But it looks like that the new guys are saying, Coach, we believe in you, man. He's tearing it up, is he not, on the recruiting trail. He really is. He really is. And, you know, going back, Harold, last year, two years ago, there were players on the Florida team who went to Billy Napier and said, Coach, we can be coached tougher.

We can be coached harder. You can go at us a little harder. We need to be toughened up a little bit because they felt like Napier wasn't doing enough of that. So now you have this and you have the reputation of John Summerall and what he did at Tulane. You have players on the Florida team who are out there, you know, all over social media saying, since he came in, here's what he's doing. And you're absolutely right. But the recruiting has been phenomenal for Florida, given the circumstances, Harold.

I think you have to, you know, weigh in, I think, the circumstances. He's not coached a game at Florida. Florida's had their struggles for several years now. And yet you've got guys like Maxwell Hiller, who the number one offensive lineman in the nation is coming to Florida. Peyton Miller out of Texas, who is one of the top, top five centers in the nation coming to Florida and several other guys as well. So, and the thing that I like that they're doing, guys, is what John Summerall has done is you look across the board at this recruiting class and you'll say, oh, look at the number of offensive linemen, defensive linemen, linebackers, wide receivers.

He is really building the roster and he's making sure that every position group is covered. So, the numbers, the numbers add up. We'll get into this a little bit later with you, but the proposed NCAA changes, 14 weeks to play 12 with two bye weeks, narrowing the transfer portal to 10 days, January 4th through the 13th, and OTAs instead of a spring game. So, we'll see what they do with that. Is Mark McLeod in favor of those? I'll go two out of three. You know, I want to see something jazzed up for the spring.

And your brother told me this years ago, and you and your brother actually, talking about the fact that we needed a spring game where the fans can get excited. Let's see a Florida versus Clemson. I couldn't agree more. And you brought it up and your brother brought it up many years ago to me, and I thought, you know, that's a fabulous idea. Let's do that, guys. Let's do that and create some excitement for college football in the spring even more instead of just talking about NIL, the transfer portal, the college football playoffs, and all the other stuff that we talk about.

But I think the other two, you know, they definitely need to address the calendar of the transfer portal. It's ridiculous for coaches. So, something needed to be done there. And then, of course, you know, the other elephant in the room is the college football playoffs. But I do like what they're doing with NIL and what they're doing with the calendar for the portal. Absolutely. Great to talk with you again, my friend. Where can we get you online, buddy? Yeah, at McLeod Live on X and then BlitzSportsRadio.com, soon be SECBlitz.com.

[26:11] And please, Mark, don't be late, okay? I'm already tardy. I'm in trouble. There you go. Join the crowd. Mark McLeod, again, with us, busy with the Gator Blitz. Coming up, what's going on at Wimbledon as they head down the stretch? The ladies straight ahead. Stay with us. 93-9, the score. Westwood One Sports presents this special tennis update. Wimbledon's second week underway. Not much to speak of when it comes to Americans. Coco Goff and Jessica Pagula will play each other tomorrow in the quarterfinals. So, one assured of getting to the semis, but the other obviously goes home.

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How are you? Yeah, we did good. Winnie is not bothered at all by fireworks. She was pretty relaxed, so I guess she's fortunate in that respect. A big dog, as they say. Brian, let's talk about now we're on the, I guess it's safe to say, college football is now underway. We're past the 4th. It's in the rearview mirror. I think for the most folks who got roots to Alabama, now it gets down to serious business. Your thoughts about July 1 is today. 6th, 7th, whatever it is, compared to one year ago for this Auburn program.

Well, it's a lot different, right? I mean, I think going into last year, Auburn folks were really hopeful that this was going to be the year that things were going to turn around. You know, they had the back-to-back top 10 classes. They spent a bunch of money on a quarterback and the portal. And there's just a lot of confidence, and it got blown up pretty quick once we got into the actual season. So, you know, and now I think there's a little bit of confidence, not as much as far as the season goes.

But I think there's a lot of hope now that Auburn has found the right person to lead this program forward. I think there's some happiness that, you know, over the last seven months or so or eight months has been hired. He's made a lot of good moves. I think people feel good about the additions he made to the roster and, you know, sort of how the team's coming together. I don't think the expectations are too high, but I think there is some confidence that this program is going in the right direction.

What's your impression of Alex Goldish as a person? We know what the potential is as far as the coach. We know that his kids down in South Florida, believe it, and they transferred up to Auburn with him. That says something right there. But your thoughts, fans are going to see the perception, and as we get into media days and beyond, the season wears off, we're going to find out more about the person. What is your impression? He comes across like it's almost like he chews nails and watches a lot of John Wayne movies.

Yeah, that's a pretty good description. I would say he's very determined. I'd say he's a guy that believes in working hard and teaming himself and knows the grindstone type. I think he's a pretty disciplined coach, and I think he just wants to, you know, dot all the I's and cross all the T's type guy, just a real attention to detail type coach. And all that said, I think he also has the ability to relate to his players and his coaches. I think that's a big reason why they followed him here.

They believe in him and his way of coaching this team and his vision for the team. So I think that's all positive, and I think there are reasons to be excited about him. I could see him being a long-term coach here at Auburn if things go well. I always enjoy reading Monday Musings, and Pete Nacus of On3 had an article that caught a lot of people's attention last week. The highest rated four stars going for $750,000. Most five stars are now $1 million. In fact, Georges, the running back, is probably going to be the first million-dollar running back.

But you talked a little bit about the formula. How does the rest of the league compete with a Texas A&M, who's going to be north of $10 million, making better valuations, assigning more accurate values, a little bargain shopping, looking at three stars, getting three stars, low four stars, evaluating them, and if they don't work, go to the portal. Summarize Monday Musings for us. Well, you know, A&M's got six five-stars in their class right now. I don't think that's sustainable. And maybe this is just one of those classes where they have room for those type guys, but I don't think you could do that every class.

The guys won't stick around, and you're sinking a lot of money to them. And maybe A&M's okay with throwing that money away. We'll see. But, you know, I think that's very tough for other schools to duplicate. I'm not sure Texas A&M could duplicate it over the long term or not. We'll see. But, you know, there's got to be different ways to do it, right? I think for the most part, the talent is more spread out among more teams now. So you don't have the power teams that you did five, six years ago and for really almost a two-decade period with Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, et cetera.

So you have to find other ways. You have to kind of live in the margins more. So whether that's, you know, you're making better valuations than you're, you know, the schools you're competing against or you're doing a better job of getting out front or making the right valuations on a player, right? You know, we're only going to pay this much for them. If somebody else wants to offer more, we just can't do that. So those are the tough decisions you have to make. So I just think it's a different world, and you almost have to treat it like you're a financial analyst in some ways, along with being a really good coach and really good evaluator.

[36:59] This is an era, I think, where you can really benefit your team and your program if you have coaches on your staff that just have that knack for picky talent. And I can remember Auburn for, you know, the first decade of my career, Phillip Lawley was one of those coaches at Auburn who just had a knack for finding dudes. A lot of times in-state guys that just turned out to be really good players, and I think those are guys that are really going to thrive in this area because you need as many of them as you can afford to put on your staff.

Bingo, Brian. That's exactly what I was thinking. It's going to come down. The coach who can evaluate talent and squeeze it, you know, for all the realtors out there now listening to the show, they'll tell you right now, buy low, sell high. Go down the street, find the house that is right there with all those million-dollar houses that's going for like $400,000. Buy that $400,000 house because it's going to rise in value because if you buy the million-dollar house, it's hard to build equity there because of where you're starting.

To me, that's the key is evaluation, buy low, sell high. It's like buying a stock or a house or a football player. Yeah, that's absolutely right. And, you know, it's, I mean, five years ago or seven years ago, if I told you you need to have a, you know, a class with, you know, five or six good players and a bunch of them, you know, just a bunch of guys you see upside in, you just call me crazy, right? You're probably right because that wouldn't work, but that's exactly what you have to do now because, yes, you've got to pay for these top guys.

You've got to have top guys in top positions to compete still. But you've also got to get guys that are going to stick around for three or four or now five years, right, and be part of your program and grow and get better and realize that potential because those five stars or high four stars if they don't play, they're not sticking around. And then the other thing I think you really have to do in this era is just really be smart and be able to move quickly.

For instance, let's say, you know, your class, it turns out maybe you get them here and after a year or two, some of them didn't turn out too well. Go to a group of six schools or conference and look at their top first year, second year players and pluck a couple of those guys. They're a couple of years more advanced than they were at a high school. And now you have a better idea how good they're going to be or what their potential is. But sometimes it's not easy to do that with a 17- or 18-year-old because their body changes so much, you know, as they get into college programs and start getting on, you know, lifting and, you know, nutrition programs that they're not used to in asking.

Well, not only that, the key is if someone like Oregon wants to come into the state of Alabama and lay down a million, million and a half for X, Y, Z, and he goes out and either, A, he doesn't pan out, or B, he gets homesick, you can come back and get the down-home discount, perhaps, down the road. Yeah. You know, there's a time when, you know, something bad can go for you in recruiting and you're sort of like, well, we didn't want him anyway, or, you know, we don't want anything to do with him.

Nowadays, it's like we are going to build this relationship and we're going to keep this relationship going no matter what because you never know when that kid can come back around to you and it'd be a big part of the program. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but so many transfer quarterbacks have been a part of national championships here recently. I think we see how it can work out for you if you keep those relationships going as much as possible, how that can be an advantage.

Just to reiterate your point, you brought up a good one on money musings. 39 transfers. Well, and I know sometimes your subscribers say, well, Auburn just needs a left tackle, go get one. Well, their mindset, the Auburn coach's mindset is, of the 39 transfers that they brought in in January, 26 have multiple years of eligibility and 18 of those have three or more years left. Now, even if only half of that 39 works out, you've got half of that, obviously, who've got multi-years to where they could be there two or three years.

That's smart. And again, you just don't go get a left tackle. Go get a redshirt freshman or sophomore left tackle who might be able to stay with you for two or three years. I think that's especially true at those development positions like offensive line and defensive line, right, where a guy may take two or three years in the college program to get to where you can be a full-time starter or a big-time part of the rotation there. So, yeah, I thought that was really important for Auburn to do that.

You know, they had to bring in 14 offensive linemen. They only had three scholarship players returning. But a good bit of those guys are guys with multiple years of eligibility. So, even if they're not starting, if they're second team, you know, this fall, they could be starters next year and for a couple of years down the line, which would be big for this program going forward, where you don't have to go out there and sign a bunch of offensive linemen out of the portal and expect them to come in and start right away over and over again.

[42:09] You know, just thinking back, you mentioned Texas A&M and Auburn, Alabama, every school's watching this. Let's just say you've got the money to go out and, like you mentioned, six, five stars. Well, correct me if I'm wrong, you need 22 guys playing football between offense and defense, not to mention specialty teams. Where do you put your budget as far as putting the guys around them? Do you put all your eggs in the five-star basket? Or do you say, maybe we need to spread this out and get some high threes and low fours?

It's the same money, but if you put it all on these six guys, correct me if I'm wrong, that's going to leave five guys that may not be as talented. Right, right. So, that's a balance you've got to take, right? I mean, I'm sure everybody would love to have the big budgets and go out and get all these talented players. But it doesn't always work that way, and we still don't know for sure, you know, what's going to happen as far as the process of approving these players and approving this money above and beyond the revenue sharing that's already been approved by the court.

So, that's something you have to work through, obviously. But, yeah, it is. You've got to find, you know, in different schools, you're going to go about different ways. But I just think the way Auburn's doing it is one good way to do it. There's probably other ways to get it done. But I think you've got to balance it out. I think you've got to go get good players in good positions. But I also think that if you have an opportunity, like take quarterback, which, you know, if you want to sign a five-star high school quarterback or a, you know, a really good transfer quarterback, you're talking two million plus, right?

But if you're like Auburn and you go out and get a transfer from Oregon State, who was a freshman, and get, you know, a transfer from USF, who was a freshman, and then, you know, sign a three-star and then get a commitment for a three-star, if one of those guys hits, right, if one of those guys turns out to be good or a quality starter, suddenly you save yourself millions of dollars by developing that quarterback instead of going out trying to sign up, you know, a guy who's ready to go right away.

So there are different ways to save money. If you do that, then maybe you invest in that really, really good edge rusher that you have to have right now because you didn't do a good job maybe evaluating that position a couple of years ago. So I think there's a balance to it, a give and take, but I think you're always looking for opportunity. Let me ask you about some names. I was reading some articles on your site with some of your staff, and they were looking at maybe the best, and again, this is, we'll see where this goes, but the most complete offensive lineman, Dary Plaz, the Miami transfer, his name came up as far as some of the young guys, Buster, Jacoby Ward, Kel Ellis, the top defensive line, Dallas Walker, but Cody Sigler from New Hope High School in Madison County has caught everybody's attention, and another one that pretty much everybody said inside, outside the program, Champ Anthony is the name that you hear constantly, and I threw a lot of names at you, but your thoughts on some of those guys.

Yeah, and that's an article by Cole Pinkston, which is a great job, because of the whisper report, right? Just the little things have been here and here and there, which is just a great way to put it all together, and I think you really nailed it. You know, Derek Ply is the offensive lineman you mentioned. He's coming in with several years of eligibility left, and he's probably your starting guard, and, you know, he went to Miami, developed under a great coaching staff, under a great offensive line there, so he's got that experience, and now, you know, he's probably ready to be a starter, so Auburn's very fortunate there that, you know, the Miami staff put in all that hard work, right?

It invested money into them, and Auburn's going to get to, you know, benefit from that. Of course, there are a lot of players that transfer from Auburn who other schools are going to benefit from this season, too. That happens for sure, but he is definitely one of those guys, and a lot of those guys he mentioned in there, Buster, Jacoby Ward, Kyle Ellis, those are the three of the returning guys that Auburn's got that were part of some highly recruited classes during the freeze era, so it was good to keep those guys, especially offensive linemen that can continue to develop, and I think all three of those guys will be either starters and our key backups this year, and certainly starters in the future, and then Cody Sigler, he mentioned just a great story, how he's just gotten better and better every single year, and I saw him in the spring.

I loved watching the defensive line. I was really impressed with him, and I think he's going to be one of those guys that can impact the line of scrimmage defensively for Auburn, a guy that Auburn's going to depend on to be out there in key situations against really good teams. I think he's ready to step in, even though he's played at smaller schools, I think he's going to excel well at an SEC school almost right away, so yeah, it's a great story if you want to check it out by Cole Pinkston there right there on our front page.

[47:19] Brian, 61 days until the show gets rocking and rolling for most teams, including the Auburn Tigers. Your thoughts, we've seen all the preseason magazines where they think Auburn's going to wind up the polls, but these same guys one time, I believe they sold me an Edsel and some motion front property in Arizona, how did that work out? Where do you put the Auburn Tigers right now in your preseason poll, in the SEC and across the nation? I just think you've got to look at trying to find seven wins on the schedule.

I just really feel like that's the first step. You know, last year, well, we can win eight or nine, maybe ten games, and you know, okay, well, it didn't happen, and your coach got fired, and now you're with a new coach, so I think sort of like last year, there's an opportunity in September to get some really good wins, right? You know, you've got Baylor, which has, you know, got a coach on the hot seat, had a lot of turnover on the roster, so the missus almost had to rebuild their entire roster, the second game there, you know, and then you've got a huge home game at night against Florida.

I think that's going to be Auburn's only home night game, right? Wow. So, so the missus is a night game, but you know, this is only SEC game that I know of that'll be a night game at home. So, that could be a really, really big game, and of course, you've got Summerall coming in, who Auburn also went after as a potential coach, and then you've got a Vanderbilt team coming in the next weekend, that's, who knows, beat Auburn twice in a row, right? But they're, but they're probably starting a true freshman quarterback.

So, there's a real opportunity for Auburn to get off to a good start. I think they'll need to, because like last year, October could be really tough. Trips to Knoxville, trips to Athens, a trip to Ole Miss, LSU at home. Those games are going to be pretty tough, although it might be good that that LSU game's at 11 a.m. They may not play as well that early as they will see, but yeah, it's, you know, I think this team is going to have to fight, and I think if you're an Auburn person who's fought Auburn for a long time, you want to get back to Auburn teams, that even if they're not a great team, that they find ways to fight and stay in games, or an upset here and there, instead of getting clobbered all the time, like Auburn's been doing here a lot lately.

By the way, you do the opponents' previews, and I've enjoyed that. Vandy is your latest one. Yeah. 10-3, 6-2 last year. Clark Lee has established a toughness with that program that they did not have for years. Now, they lost some guys. Junior Sorrell is back, a very good receiver. Curtis, Jared Curtis, the five-star quarterback, well, he's a freshman. Well, he also threw for nearly 10,000 yards and 128 touchdowns. Now, we know that's not the SEC, but the potential is there. They've got a very good running back in Cedric Alexander, and their defense is good, but you're right.

It's incredible. Florida, Vandy, at Tennessee, at Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss. I mean, that is just an absolute gauntlet from September 19th to nearly Halloween. Yep, yep. And so it would help Auburn a lot to get off to a good start and then find a way to pick off a team or two as you're getting into the schedule in October and into November, right? Just to start making this fan base feel better about the direction of the program. So that'll be really, really big. And, you know, back to Vanderbilt, I just think it's really hard to replace a guy like Diego Pavia.

I think he should just change the whole direction of that program. Not just his playing ability, but his leadership, his confidence, the edge he had to him. So that's going to be interesting to see what Jared Kirst can do, that true freshman quarterback who flipped from Georgia, I guess, the day before Sunday day and is expected to be their starter. And that'll be his first road start when it comes to Auburn there in September. Absolutely. Well, listen, great stuff. I highly recommend our listeners get online and read Monday musings.

Still a lot of stuff going on. SEC media days in two weeks. B-Matt, where can we get online and get your stuff? And Cole Pinkston and all the games. Yeah. Just check us out. Armorsports.com. You can sign up online for a trial and you get all that information and much more as we continue to roll it out. And of course, I'll be down for SEC media days in, you know, about a week and a half or so. And, all that coverage too. And, you know, the big baseball draft is coming up and they'll have plenty of dates on baseball to see how many of these top signings Auburn can get in.

That are also baseball draft prospects too. So, all that and more. Armorsports.com. You can follow me on social media, uh, Twitter, such as exit B Matt, a U. That's great, Brian. That's a man. Thank you time day and have a great week. Okay. Appreciate you guys. Thank you. Thank you, buddy. Brian Matthews, Auburn sports. And, if you've been waiting for that football fix, BB, guess what happens one month from this date. Are you ready for this? Yeah. The NFL preseason, Arizona and Carolina. Who's the quarterback of the Panthers?

[52:37] Remind me of that, please. Uh, could it be some guy who played at Alabama? I don't know if he'll play much in that game, but one month from tonight's NFL preseason helps with the fix. Don't have to wait that long to find out about the new boss that at Brooks high coach, my court going to be on board. Vince Verrara and Ben Thomas all straight ahead of the more bug show. Stay with us. The final out has been called the dugout clear. And now your team is starving.

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Fireworks there. The coach, Mauricio Pochettino, threw out the first pitch in a Mariners game and certainly overjoyed with the news yesterday. No suspension for leading scorer, Foller and Balligan, despite the red card. U.S. and Belgium tonight in Seattle. If the U.S. wins, it's the best U.S. showing in 24 years. Here's Chris Richards. Coming into the tournament, there was a lot of question marks about our whole team in general. And again, I think game by game, we started to prove people wrong and prove ourselves right.

I think we knew we had it the whole time. It was just a matter of showing it. So, I'm glad it's coming out at this time. First game of the day starts in one hour in Dallas, Spain and Portugal. Spain's three wins have been by a combined 8-0. The sidelight to who's going to win the World Cup, who wins the golden boot for most goals scored. There's a three-way tie. Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, and the Norwegian star Erling Haaland all had seven goals. England's Harry Kane has six.

John Stashley, I'm Westwood One Sports. Oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly! Celebrate America's 250th anniversary with our limited edition O'Reilly Brake Parts Cleaner while supplies last at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Right now, get two cans for $8. Our professional parts people can recommend all the parts and supplies you need for your brake job. Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts or shop online at OReillyAuto.com. Oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly! Auto Parts. From the FIFA World Cup to competitive business environments, grand ambitions lead to game-changing achievements. At Bank of America, we're there to support businesses at every step, providing insights and expertise to help you gain an edge.

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Tonight, a 10% chance of evening showers and thunderstorms low near 70. Tomorrow, mostly sunny skies high around 90. Tomorrow night, a 10% chance of evening showers and thunderstorms low near 70. And Wednesday, a 20% chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms high around 90. 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. New exclusive inside track to the Tide, Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC. Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score.

Welcome back in our Toodaloo Bum O' Bug Show. I'm Harold Bugg alongside Brett Beaird. Thank you so much for giving us a free ride around the Tennessee Valley and for heading on down to the other end of the state, North Alabama, to South Alabama. And Ben Thomas, he's busy there at AL.com. Ben, welcome in. Hopefully, you and your family had a great and safe fourth. Hey, yeah, I had a good weekend, hot weekend. I don't know how it is up there for y'all. It was a good weekend and celebrated the country and my wife's birthday, and so we had a good weekend.

So, in other words, you're broke between fireworks and birthday presents, right, Ben? You got that right. You know me well. Well, we're on this side of the fourth. Did you get any summer vacation? Or, if you did, are you back at it? Are you going through summer workouts along with all these high school kids? Isn't it amazing, Ben? For a lot of folks going up there who turn the counters with a lot of birthdays, they don't know what it's like now for these high school kids as far as what they're doing in the so-called off-season.

Yeah, it's funny. I was just talking to my older brother about that. Today, I was trying to arrange some family business and trips and stuff, and I was telling him my son has workouts, too. Tuesday through Thursday. He's like, what? What do you mean? I was like, we didn't go back to work until August 1st. I'm like, yeah. That's right. They're working out, you know, doing work and conditioning. We don't need to be doing with this. You know, you don't want guys just out there doing two days as hot as it's been.

So, I think all that's positive changes in the health of our student-athletes. It's certainly different than it was, you know, 20 years ago, I guess. Absolutely. Five Alabama high school head coaches honored by Max Prelbs in their list of 100, and this is pretty prestigious to be on a Max Prelbs who covers, obviously, the entire country. Orange Beach is Shane Alexander for softball. Mark Freeman, we've talked about it about 30 times in the last two years for football, of course. Central Phoenix City's Mitchell Holt for flag football, which is going to gain more popularity every year.

Hoover's Crystal Johnson, the girls' basketball. Miguel Toulin's Kate Wood for volleyball. BT, we talk about some of these guys throughout the course of the year, but Alabama's blessed to have, and a lot of names that are not on this list, but Alabama's blessed to have some very good high school coaches. Oh, yeah, in every sport, really. Yeah, this is a list of, I don't know, it'd be hard to combine to come up with this list. 100 high school coaches in the nation headlined this list, and to say that we had five of them, and all those coaches, you know, obviously what they have in common is not only did they win the state championship this year or last year, they've won multiple ones in a row.

[1:03:41] So, I mean, Mark Freeman has now won, what, six out of the last seven, 7A football championships. Obviously, now we're going back to 6A, so who knows if we'll ever be another 7A again. Arnett Beach, Jane Alexander is pretty amazing. They've won all six of the state softball championships that they were eligible to play in. So, and they have now the record six in a row. Mitchell Holt, I think three straight in the flag football, and they've been the national champions a time or two at Central Phoenix City.

Hoover's, what is Hoover, Lady Bucks, won six in a row now or something like that? Yeah, yes, six. And then McGill Coulin has dominated in football as well. So, not only great coaches who are highly successful, but also well-respected among their peers, you know, for what they invest in their particular sport. So, yeah, definite congratulations to all of them. Ben Thomas, they're going to be with us. Visit there at AL.com. Ben, you can guess, Brent and I talk a whole lot about recruiting, but it's college recruiting.

Did we ever think we'd be asking this question? We talk about it from time to time. What is the latest as far as high school recruiting in Alabama? Because, let's face it, these guys, it's hard to get talent in, like the college coaches, it's hard to hold on to it because somebody from Georgia, Florida, Missouri, elsewhere, they're trying to fish them away. What, when you start asking or answer the question about high school recruiting in Alabama, where do you start? Well, I mean, it's probably as good as it's ever been and as competitive as it's ever been because now you've got to factor in NIL, you know, and there's got to be some limit to NIL at schools, right?

I mean, so every school, you think the schools in our state can't rack up all of our recruits because, you know, there's just not enough NIL money to rack them up and recruit nationally as well. So you see more and more teams from around the nation coming in and recruiting our people. I mean, we got, I think we talked about last week, if you look at some of the rankings, Dothans, Aki, Aki, I can't even say this, Akiing Hall, a defensive back, and Jatori Williams, an offensive lineman out of Central Phoenix City, they're two of the top five players in any rankings, I think.

They're both committed to Miami. We've got multiple guys committed to Texas, including Jabari Skarrar, who was committed to Alabama. Obviously, Gunnar Rivers is going to NC State, but we know why that's, you know, that's the case. I mean, we don't see NC State. Shocking. Although, you know, Ronnie Goldshore sent somebody to NC State just a couple of years ago, Ronnie Royal, but NC State's coming in because of who Gunnar's daddy is. It's not that he can't play at that level. He certainly can, but that's the tie there, and if you look down, you've got a Clemson, you've got Arkansas.

Oregon has come in the last couple of years and taken, you know, some of our top prospects. And they've got another one this year that's committed, and Cam Pritchett's a big defensive lineman out of Thompson. So, a couple in Oklahoma, you know, Oklahoma, I think Jim Nagy, you know, Jim Nagy used to be the executive director of what's now the Panini Senior Bowl. It was the Reesey Senior Bowl when he was here, but he is now the general manager at Oklahoma, actually just got a huge raise.

They're doing a great job out there, and they've got two of the best players in Mobile committed for this year. Jamison Roberts, the quarterback at Sierra Land, who's probably one of the top Mr. Football candidates, and Jalen Scott, the defensive back from Williamson. So, a lot of good players in this class. And actually, we should mention that we are debuting, starting a week from yesterday, we're debuting our new best in Bama recruiting list that Randy Kennedy does. This is the second year we've done this. This is the list of top prospects in our state, regardless of their grade, classification, or position they play.

And we'll debut them 10 at a time. It's revamped, because obviously the class of 2026 is now taken out. Class of 2027 will highlight this one, but we'll also have juniors and sophomores, you know, and we'll rank those. So, we'll debut that starting next Sunday, 10 at a time, and then Randy will, every Thursday of the high school football season, he'll have a new ranking, updated ranking for that. So, we think it's a really unique deal that we're able to do for our readers, and we'll start that, like I said, on Sunday.

BT, we talked with you a lot about the polls, and we've talked about this quite a bit this year. The majority of AL.com newsletter readers still believe that the Alabama Hubs, High School Athletic Association, has a long way to go to curb recruiting in high school football. In the poll earlier this month, 44% of the readers said they believe recruiting is still rampant. 16.7% believe that the recent AHSAA rulings have been a step in the right direction, and 40% or 38% said time will tell. We know two coaches have been suspended for the year.

[1:08:42] I think they have an opportunity to plea their case late this month, and we'll see where that goes. I do agree with you, as you mentioned in your article, that you're a little more optimistic about this. Maybe Heath Harmon, the executive director, was trying to send a message with this. Will it ever be stopped completely? Never. Is there been some improvement? Probably. But BT, your thoughts again on your poll and where we're going. Well, I mean, I do think it's a step in the right direction.

I mean, I haven't seen the evidence against either one of those schools, so I'm not making any referendum on that. But, I mean, I think when you come down that hard on two schools, you know, Pell City hasn't been greatly successful lately. It pains me to say that, since my dad went to school there and was a longtime lover of Pell City Athletics. But, you know, hiring Jake Gaines was a big-time hire for them. Mary G. Montgomery had been, you know, they were a dormant program for a long, long time.

Zach Golsan came in there and took them to the playoffs four straight years and even went to the semifinals. So, those are pretty, two teams that have been on the radar. And then, I don't, you mentioned they'll have their chance to plead their case. I don't know that the head coaches will. I think the schools will go in front of the board. And I'm not sure it's plead their case as much as I think what they're supposed to do is, here's our plan to prevent this from happening in the future.

And maybe the central board elects to take some of those restrictive probation penalties away. We don't know. Well, you know, they've done that in the past. We don't know if that'll happen this year. But that'll be July 29th. So, that'll be a big date that we need to circle on our calendar. But I do think, I mean, you know, people are never going to be completely happy. I mean, I do think this certainly is an eye-opener. And hopefully, if there are coaches in this state who aren't doing it right, who are doing the wrong things, I hope they look at this and say, maybe we need to reevaluate.

But we'll see. I mean, the big news last week, and actually, just as you guys called, the AISA Executive Director Michael McClendon gave me a call. I'm going to talk to him hopefully today. You know, Atauga Academy decided to leave the AHSAA and go back to the AISA for the coming school year, which is huge because, you know, that's in wake of the split. And, you know, they were in a region in the AHSAA already. So I don't know what the fines may be there. And more importantly, is this the first and only school that's going to do this this year?

Is this going to be a trend in time to come? I mean, I think that's a big, I thought we were kind of at a, you know, to a point where, okay, the controversy behind us, let's see what happens this first year. But maybe that's not the case. Maybe there are more schools considering doing something different. Yeah, absolutely. The next poll question, and again, I know I enjoy the poll questions. And I think the latest one was, for a high school football player, what's the most important during the summer to help them succeed in the fall?

Weight training, conditioning, seven-on-seven competition, rest, and a healthy mix of all three. So I'll be curious to see what the poll results are for that. As you mentioned, Best of Bama coming out. What else have you got coming out this week? And where can we find it? Yeah, I'll tell you, my 14-year-old would not say conditioning. He's out there in the hot zone. He actually, I've been telling him, like, you need to get out in the late afternoon and get ready for stuff. Last week, he mowed the grass with his football helmet on to try and get used to the acclimated to that.

Brenton has to do that. But we're in full kind of, I think we've concluded our award season last week. We named our male and female athletes of the year in each of our three markets and also named our overall male athlete of the year, who was Garrett Reed from High School. There you go. You can find the story on that on AL.com. We kind of begin our preliminary Best in Bama stuff on Thursday with a look back on where last year's seniors signed. So you can see, we talked about how many schools have come into Alabama and signed our kids.

This will give you an idea of, all right, let me refresh myself of where these guys went. And then, so we'll have a lot of focus on that. We're also going to, we're working on volleyball stuff, who are the best volleyball players coming up. So there's going to be a lot of, a lot of news on AL.com moving forward. Ben, get some rest. Hard to believe. Four weeks from today, correct me if I'm wrong, practice begins for high school teams. Six weeks and some change, the first game of the season.

Get some rest, stay cool, and get your son of a brand new football helmet there, Ben, and maybe get even more grass mowed. But in the meantime, thanks so much for your time today, buddy. All right, guys, y'all have a good week. You too, bud. BT Express, Ben Thomas, stayhill.com. The latest big talk from Big Orange Country, the V-Man, Vince Ferrara on deck. Stay with us. Wouldn't it be great if you could have your insurances for auto, home, business, farm, and RVs in just one agency?

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Hey, buddy. Man, we're doing well. Well, we're anticipating V-Man. Did you ever think you'd be on the eve of a game that's so big that the president of the United States got involved in it? Are you ready for some World Cup soccer tonight, the USA and Belgium? Yeah, absolutely. I've watched some of every single game. I've loved it. Last night's England win over Mexico was amazing. So many people, celebrities, athletes, everybody was reacting to it. It was incredible. The most intense game in the World Cup by far.

One of the best I've ever seen, honestly. Not being a prisoner of the moment either. It was incredible. And then, you know, obviously with the U.S. and getting Valorant Baligan back from the suspended suspension, basically, is what it was. Double S. And, yeah, the, you know, the involvement of the president, you know, who knows how much of an influence or how much he leaned on him. Some people are like, well, he would have bragged about it. But, you know, who knows? Maybe they said, hey, we'll do you this favor, but don't brag about it.

[1:19:08] So who knows how much? But it's not the optics isn't great for everybody else. And, you know, you hate that everyone else is just going to pile on, you know, hating the U.S. Wham, wham, wham. But in terms of the game, man, it should be so much fun. And love that how many people are jumping in on it. And, man, if the U.S. wins, it's just going to ramp it up till Friday. So, yeah, I'm all in. Let me ask you about the Tennessee uniform debuts.

They're rolling them out. Tennessee went from Nike to Adidas. The orange uniforms, the white uniforms, the summit blue for the Lady Vols basketball team, the dark mode or the black. And, obviously, this is a lot of money until 10-year deal with Adidas. Now, the only thing they should have done was to have you and Daphne model these this week. Right. Who said it didn't? But, you know, they missed an opportunity there. But, V, man, your thoughts on the rollout with the Tennessee new uniforms? Yeah. If only I could have you advocating for me more frequently, BB, I'd really appreciate it.

Right. But, no, every day is a different portion. You mentioned all those orange, white, the summit blue, and then the dark mode that they're going to do with the blacks. Every day, they're unveiling one for all sports. And then there are certain things that they are holding back, like the smoky gray specials that they'll do. They'll hold that back. And then they'll have some other special things that they're doing that they'll hold back till it's time so they don't give everything away. But you look at it for the casual viewer, they're going to be like, oh, those look the same as the other ones.

And, honestly, they do. The only difference is, the biggest difference is the numbers are more bold. And they say that it's more in sync with the power team. So, they're bigger, bolder numbers, which is very, very appreciated for those of us that are up just under the clouds in the press box at Neyland Stadium or anywhere else the balls are playing. And then for the fans, too. You want them to be able to see the numbers. The white on orange is not always the easiest in contrast.

So, those are appreciated. It's supposed to be better, you know, breathable material, things like that. So, you know, largely because Tennessee has the creative control over it, you're not going to see them do anything crazy with it. And I think that's a good thing. Fans want the traditional look. And then it opens the door for them to be able to bring back the true old school classic looks from back in the day and duplicate it. As opposed to when they were with Nike, it was kind of partial, but it doesn't look the same.

And Nike kind of put their own, you know, imprint on it. Now, it's Tennessee doing what Tennessee wants to do and then doing what they did with Adidas back in the day when you do those throwbacks. You're absolutely right about that press box. I've covered a number of games over the years. And I remember sitting there chatting with a fellow sportscaster. And it's so high up. You couldn't see, especially on a sunny day, you could not make up the contrast of the numbers on those jerseys.

And you're so high. The joke in the press thoughts was, knowing how sports writers live, that's the closest to heaven a lot of them's ever going to get when they got that high in the stadiums. One guy that won't be wearing it, apparently, is Chaz. What's happening with the Chaz drama in Tennessee country? Well, it's over. With him being medically disqualified, he's no longer a part of the team. He's not able to go to another school. It's unfortunate. You know, Tennessee, because of the reports from BallQuest, looks like they reworked his NIL deal to where it backloaded a lot of money to give him the incentive to be a part of the team.

So it's less of a financial hit in NIL. Tennessee doesn't look like they're, you know, backing out of an NIL deal or asking for money back. Those things you never want out there because then you get negatively recruited, fair or not. And so Tennessee was able to avoid all that. You know, look, they brought him in because he was really talented. He hadn't been productive yet because he's so young, but it was the upside that they could have, with bolding him and him fitting into Jim Knowles' defense, the upside potential.

But it was on potential. It was not on production. And so Jim Knowles, with what he does in defense, I've been studying a lot of his Penn State, Ohio State defenses especially, he adapts to his personnel really well. And he will find a lot of things to confuse offenses and generate pass rush, even if they don't have a guy with an upside ceiling like he did, potentially. But there was no guarantee that he was going to live up to that, even if you had him. So I think Jim Knowles will compensate for it, and you'll see them do some different formational things defensively because that's what he does really well.

[1:24:32] Well, Danny White is going to make a significant bonus. $577,000 is his significant bonus. Tennessee finishes 15th in the Lear Cup and 52% increase in contributions, 51% increase in licensing revenue, and 12% spike in ticket sales. That had a little bit to do with it also. Yeah, for sure. And look, the Adidas deal, it's more than just changing uniforms. Adidas is making Tennessee basically the face of their brand for college football. And they invested a lot in Tennessee. And it's packed and it's connected in with NIL deals where the players end up being ambassadors for Adidas.

So it's helping your recruit and get better players. So much of it is more than just the apparel deal and the licensing and that kind of stuff. So it's, you know, yes, 15 broke a streak of three consecutive seasons for them to be in the top six. And so 15 was further down than what we've seen them over the last few years. But it's still so much better than what they were pre-Danny White. You know, they're still able to, I guess, meet a lot of those bonuses. Absolutely, buddy.

I always enjoy the conversation. Where can we find the man on social media? Yeah, I appreciate it. Adidas Sports, B-I-N-C-E Sports. And they've done a bunch of interviews with former Tennessee players in the NFL. You can find that at 991thesportsanimals.com. And we'll have back to the TV stuff coming up this week after the board. So always enjoy being on with you guys. Same. Right back to you, Jim. B-Man. Enjoy the soccer. But first, what about the latest from Wimbledon? The latest next. Stay with us.

Question 1 Sports presents this special tennis update sponsored by Kohl's. Show off your team pride with tees, hats, tumblers, and more at Kohl's and Kohl's.com. Alex Ciala made a name for herself on Saturday with the upset of defending Wimbledon champion Iga Chiantic. And then her emotional post-match on-court interview when she talked about what it meant to be from the Philippines and win on center court, where today she lost. Beaten in three sets by Italy's Jasmine Paolini, who was a Wimbledon finalist two years ago. The other women's winners today, Elise Bertens of Belgium, Marta Kostiak from Ukraine, and Linda Nascova, who's from Chechia.

She took out the American Madison Keys. Taylor Frens has played well. He's up two sets right now on Alexander Bublik. Arthur Ferry went to high school in the town of Wimbledon. And then college at Stanford, he's taking on the veteran Gregor Dimitrov there early on in the fifth set. Flavio Caboli today beat Alex De Menor in straight sets. Alex Zavera has his match coming up. John Stash, our Westwood One Sports. Kohl's knows summer comes with a few family debates, like what's the best ice cream flavor, or who gets the good pool noodle.

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He is tearing it up. Stewart Sink finishes second to Patrick Harrington at the U.S. Senior. Stewart, four shots back. Eight under. Harrington, 12 under. But finishing second at a major like that, but the Senior's not bad. And Stewart Sink is rolling in the dough these days, BB. Yeah, I think he led the first round of the Senior Tournament. Unfortunately, yesterday, shot a 71. Pannington, I believe, shot a 66. And pretty much had the lead going into the, through the final nine. But no, there's, listen, Stewart Sink's had an incredible year.

[1:35:07] You know, as a golf course, not too far from here, I'm sure he spent a lot of time. I wonder if our next guest gets to go out there and hopefully some of that Stewart Sink golf talent would rub off on him. Mike Horton, the brand new head coach at Brooks High School in Killen. Coach, welcome in. How are you? I'm good. Appreciate you all having me on. Hey, Coach. Man, did you get to get out there and hopefully some of that Stewart Sink influence will wear off on you at Turtle Point, Coach?

I don't know about that now. I know Stewart Sink back in the days when he was at Bradshaw, because I'm an old graduate of Bradshaw. So I've heard about him pretty well. I don't get too much time to go play golf now. I do every time I do, but not too much. You've got one of the more interesting stories, Coach. We'll be looking at it. First of all, congratulations being named the new head coach at Brooks High. The question is, did you and the former coach, Tim Bowen, did you guys cross each other on the highway?

You're now at Killen coming from Florence. He's at Florence coming from Killen, Brooks High. That has to be one of the more interesting matchups in high school football. But your thoughts just about the brand new gig at Brooks High School. Well, obviously, it's an honor to be named, you know, head football coach here at Brooks. You know, I came here four years ago when Coach Bowens first got the job. And, you know, since I've been out here day one, I mean, the community's been great. You know, these kids have been great to be around.

And, you know, it's been a good place to be over the last four years. You know, I was at one place for 11 years prior to that. And, obviously, you know, change, you know, you're kind of different, kind of going in. But, you know, talking with Coach Bowens when I first got here, you know, about the path we want to go to in the program. And, you know, just being around everybody out here in this community, you know, it's been a great, it's been a great transition.

And now, you know, I'm ready for the next step. Tell us a little bit more about yourself. I know you played offensive line at UNA from 2005 to 2009, as you alluded to, 11 seasons at Florence, 10 as offensive line coach, and one season as outside linebacker. And, as you mentioned, came to Brooks, served as a very successful offensive coordinator. The lines of average under your tutelage, 36, 40, 37, and 33 points a game. We'll get into last year in a minute. Tell us a little bit more about yourself. Yes, sir. I played, you know, at UNA.

I graduated from Bradshaw. Got the honor to play at UNA after that. First four years, I played for Coach Hudspeth. And then, you know, my last senior year is when Coach Bowden came in and, you know, played there at UNA. Like I said, I was an offensive lineman. I played center there. And then when I got to Florence, started out, obviously, coaching, you know, freshman football with the offensive line. And, you know, when I got moved up to varsity, one of the best things when you look back on it, it was when Coach Wallace was there.

He moved me up and, you know, asked me to coach outside linebackers. You know, I've kind of been on the offensive side from a playing standpoint, then coaching. And then, you know, he moved me on that side to kind of learn that side of the ball as well. Obviously, you know, if you want to move up in a career, it's pretty big to coach both sides of the ball. So you can see both atmospheres. And, you know, after that first year of coaching outside linebackers, I got moved.

And I've been coaching the offensive line at Florence, you know, for the rest of the time until I came out to be here at Brooks for the last four years and being the offense coordinator. Coach Mike Horton Brooks High School. Coach, talk to us just about that. A lot of coaches, it is a career. In some ways, it's kind of like broadcast. You've got two schools of thought. Some people want to come and stay. Some people want to bounce around like a rubber ball to build a resume.

I've always said I want to go with someone who wants to keep it down home because they have the intangible. Just as they say, it just means more. I know the SEC has that mantra, but it just means more when you grow up with people. You go to the store, you get your hair cut with the people you've grown up with. You go to church with them. They'll be critical if you don't do the right thing. But, Coach, talk to us just what it means. I don't think it's news to you, but talk to us what it means to have your heart in your job as well.

Well, you know, every time I go somewhere, I'm not ever looking to leave anywhere. We always tell the kids, be where your feet are and do the most successful and best as possible where you're at. Obviously, people want to grow your career and try to take the next step, but some people, I think, try to do it too fast. When the time's going to come, it's going to come. I was at Florence for 11 years. Obviously, I knew a lot of people just from being in that area.

And you don't want to move just to move, but you've got to find the right fit or what feels like the right fit. And, like I said, I was there for 11 years and really enjoyed everybody I got to coach with. I got to coach under a bunch of head coaches. You learn a lot from them, and I was able to pick up. I actually coached under five coaches when I was there at Florence. You kind of pick up some stuff from a culture standpoint, schematically and all that, you kind of, you know, you try to form your own style.

[1:40:11] And, you know, when I got that phone call from Coach Bowens when he got the job here at Brooks, and, you know, we talked about, you know, what we wanted to do, what he was looking at doing, events doing the culture. And, you know, from an offensive standpoint, you know, it just felt like he was the right time. And, you know, Coach Bowens called, and he was a great man to work up under, obviously. And, you know, from all the attributes, not just as a coach, but, you know, as a growing man especially.

And, you know, it just felt like he was the right fit. And, you know, like I said, I was offensive line coach, just position coach. And, obviously, the chance of being an offensive coordinator, you know, that kind of helped want to make that move. But, you know, it's just kind of one of them. It feels right. You know, you just want to find the best fit when you move up in your career. And that's just where I felt like, you know, coming out here at Brooks.

Let me ask you about last year. In fact, the four years you were there, I believe you went to the quarterfinals twice. Last year, seven and four. And you lost the first two games. In fact, I went to the West Morgan game. And then you won seven of eight. And you scored 360 points in seven of those wins. Average 27 the first two games. Ended up averaging 42 in the final eight regular season games. Lost a tough run in the first round to Plainview with Jeremy Pruitt and his dad, Dale.

Summarize last year for us. We had a lot of kids, you know, step in. You know, we had a good bit of seniors graduated the year before. And, you know, we had some kids, you know, that did play the prior year before last year. But, you know, we made a quarterback. You know, we moved Tanner, our wide receiver, to quarterback last year. And, you know, just kind of fitting that mold, getting the experience that we needed at the beginning of the year. And it kind of all started coming together, you know, after the first couple of games.

And, you know, getting more confidence in what we're doing, how we're doing it. And, you know, protecting the football. You know, just trying to take care of the stuff that we can take care of. And, you know, we grew throughout the year. I mean, we made tremendous strides from game one, you know, to game 11 in the first round. And a lot of kids got a lot of experience, you know, they didn't play much the year before. So, you know, it was a growing experience. Kids fought, you know, every single game.

They did everything we asked them to do. And, you know, it was good to see them grow from that standpoint from game one to game 11. And we got a lot of those kids coming back. So, we're looking forward to it. Coach, talk to us about it. Obviously, any time you go to a new job, it's new this, new that. Talk to us about how things are going. And, obviously, any time you talk about high school, you've got guys who were here last year coming back. You've also got guys who were there.

They've gone now to graduation. Talk to us just about where things are right now in the cycle of the new era of Brooks High School football. You know, we've tried to create a lot of competition this year in all positions. And, you know, we've had, you know, the kids have been great with it. You know, they compete hard off the field. And, you know, they come back. You know, we're pretty much a family when we come back in here. But, I mean, the competition that we've created, you know, some have obviously separated themselves from that standpoint.

And, you know, we've got some guys back in their regular position. You can tell they feel more comfortable back to there. And we're looking at people, you know, on both sides of the ball, you know, to try to figure out what's the best fit for us and try to go from that standpoint. Talk about the summer so far. I know a lot of coaches do seven-on-sevens. Obviously, strength and conditioning. The weight room is there to get ready for the season. How has summer been? And I know you also, you're quite familiar, again, as you mentioned.

You've been there four years. You know these players very well. But talk about the summer as far as the guys getting acclimated for 2026. You know, we obviously started out in June. You know, we give them the first couple weeks after at the end of every school year to kind of, you know, rejuvenate, come back ready for the summer. And, you know, attendance, you know, everybody's been great here. We started out, like I said, early in June, really mainly working out, conditioning, you know, try to get it at that standpoint to increase in that manner.

And we started the football stuff. And we've got a couple of sevens-on-sevens, and we've done a previous. We did a couple of them already. You know, and we're really kind of getting into it. Because when I told them, once you get back from the 4th of July, you know, it's pretty much full tilt from there. I mean, we give our kids off, you know, kind of give them a little break right in the middle. And, you know, we're back at it now. And, you know, we go back, and we're still working hard in the weight room.

And then, you know, we get the extra stuff from the 707, you know. But, you know, the biggest thing is we just try to improve within ourselves each and every day. You know, we talk to the kids about getting 1% better each and every day. Not everything's a finished product. You know, we're finding one thing, and we're going to get better at it each day. And it just builds from that standpoint throughout the entire summer and into the season. Coach, Mike, Corton Brooks High School. Coach, I can't keep up with it.

[1:45:17] I'm not that smart. When folks in Montgomery real line things, you've got, obviously, things for a lot of schools, that means a lot of changes. How does the real alignment affect Brooks as far as in the area play and how things would be different this year, Matt's standpoint, compared to last year? We've got some new guys on our schedule this year. You know, we were able to hold over a couple of them, you know, from non-region. And we still have Deschler and West Morgan, who's been in our region previously.

They'll still be in our region. And, you know, we've got Priceville, who's back. You know, we played them a couple of years ago in the playoffs when I was here. But, you know, we've also got Ardmore, Hamilton, West Point, and Lawrence County that's going to be kind of new to us. Those are the new teams. But, you know, we've got Hatton starting off. And then we've got Lardot County. And we also have Central as a non-region game. So, we're about half of the teams we're pretty much still familiar with for previous years.

And, you know, we added those couple of teams for that's in our new alignment. Yeah, Class 4A, Area 7, eight teams. Boy, that is going to be, as you well know, that's going to be a dogfight every week. I was looking at the Times Daily preseason last night. And in 2020, entering the 2025 season, you had 13 seniors, 17 juniors, and 26 sophomores. And you mentioned a lot of those guys are coming back. Or 80, or as far as the juniors and sophomores, have you got about 90% of those guys coming back? Yes, sir.

We've got a good group, especially on the defensive side, that's coming back from our secondary and from the line spot. You know, we've got a good core from our defensive side coming back. And we brought back most of our skilled guys on offense. So, those are pretty much, you know, from last year to this year, those are the guys that were able to gain a lot of experience. And still got a couple of guys up front on the offensive side that played last year, whether they were in there from a starter standpoint or a rotational standpoint, that are able to step up and hopefully have a big year for us coming up.

I'll tell you what, every time I read an article about you, obviously you want to win games. But the one thing that I keep hearing more and more about is he develops young men physically, mentally, discipline-wise. You're doing this the right way. Thank you. Yes, sir. Well, you know, we try to instill, obviously, you know, from a football standpoint, you know, we want to improve them for on-the-field standpoint. It's like, you know, we've got a lot of guys that obviously have the aspiration to play at the next level.

We hope that happens, you know, given that opportunity. But, you know, we preach our guys that we're all going to grow up to be men, and that's what we're all going to do. So we really try to instill the values in that to be a successful, you know, be a successful husband, be a successful father, you know. And we just try to implement a lot of those attributes in order to be that, you know, growing men of character, you know, from a discipline, accountability, trust standpoint.

And I believe a lot of those traits obviously translate over to the football field, and they kind of work hand-in-hand together. So, you know, we do focus on building them to be the best football player at all possible, you know. But at the end of the day, we want to make sure that they grow up to be men that's going to be respected in this community, you know, and do things the right way. Absolutely. Listen, congratulations again on being named the new football coach at Brooks.

I know a lot of people know you well, and I've heard nothing but great things about that. It's going to be a tough year. I forgot to mention to you, if you've got a jamboree, I know some teams do. Talk about that if you've got one. But listen, we wanted to introduce you to our audience. Have a great summer. I know things, again, the rubber meets the road now. Hopefully we can do this again with you sometime in August. Oh, yes, sir. You know, I greatly appreciate being on.

I actually think I had to do one of these back when I was at UNA years ago. It don't seem that long ago. But when you actually look at the years, you're like, well, let's go. That's right. It's been good. I appreciate you all having me on. Mike, we appreciate you having all the best. And down to the season, let's do it again soon. And stay as cool as you can out there, okay? Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Coach. There you have it. New Brooks Highhead football coach.

Mike Horton. BB, a big night ahead. You got soccer and you got the Braves, my friend. Yeah, the Braves lost a tough game, 10-9. They got behind 10-4 and then rallied to make it 10-9. Just couldn't get over the hump. In fact, it's pretty rare to have what I call a wraparound game. Another game with the Mets. Normally, teams begin a three-game series on Monday, but one more game with the Mets, and you can hear that game right here on 93-9, the score. We'll start the night three games up on the second-place fields again.

[1:50:18] Catch it later on tonight. You're on 93-9, the score. It's going to take care of business for now. On behalf of BB, Greg, James, Blair, the entire crew here, Harold Buck, thank you so much for your time today. Let's do it again tomorrow. We're on Dune to 2 for the Bumble Buck Show back here on Sports Radio 93-9, the score.