Boomo Bugg Show 071026

[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 tie, Tigers, Tennessee and the rest of the SEC. Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9, The Story. Good afternoon and welcome here 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? Recruiting fanatics, stay tuned.

Schedule breaking news just in over an hour from right now. Will it be good news for you, A, for the prize, QB. Good afternoon, welcome in and how are you? Happy Friday to you and the listeners. What you're alluding to is going to be Mr. Pre-Year, who is going to be announcing at about 1.15 on ESPN2. And if he does, will that be Alabama's ninth quarterback when you include 2027 and 2028? Oh, man. We'll talk about our next guest about that in a minute. Bill Shanks will talk Braves.

Former Alabama shortstop Jim Jarvis is on a heater. And speaking of our next guest, Jimmy is here to talk a little Alabama football and basketball. And to answer the question, does Alabama need anybody besides a quarterback when they go on the field? Jimmy Stein is co-host of Locked On Bama, part of the Locked On Network. Jimmy, welcome in. How are you? Oh, doing great, guys. Jimmy. I'm checking the book here, Jimmy. You need 11 guys. Quarterback is one position. Boy, when they say you need a quarterback to win, this stuff takes it to a whole new level, did they not?

Yeah, this will make, assuming Kingston pre-year picks Alabama, which is the betting favorite, is the time to land yet another quarterback. This will be two in every class that DeBoer has signed at Alabama, two in each class. And obviously people would want, first of all, if you're going to over-sign somewhere or you're going to, you know, add too much talent, quarterback's a good place, right? I mean, you want to be good at quarterbacking. I mean, there's no question that the position's never been more vital in college football than it is right now.

So, secondly, some of it's just math. If you're going to lose half the guys to the portal, maybe you better have eight. Because if you only have four and lose half, now you've got a big problem. So, having too many is probably not a thing. Obviously, some of the numbers will take care of themselves over time. The good news for Alabama fans is not only is DeBoer taking two per year, it's two high-quality guys per year. It's not like he's been signing a, you know, a Ballyhooed guy and then a complete sleeper.

I mean, you know, both guys in the 27 class were at the Elite 11. I wouldn't be surprised one inch to see Kingston per year and Charles Scott both at the Elite 11 next year. That would not be surprising. These are some quality, quality players. And, again, in an era where you're probably going to lose half the room over time, having eight makes more sense than having four. Now, I don't think there's going to be eight. I mean, there's several on the roster right now. Alabama's got three walk-ons.

Now, one was awarded a scholarship this summer, but it was just, hey, you know, you've got 105 scholarships now. They're going to reward some kids who have stuck it out with scholarships. But, in reality, Alabama's got four scholarship guys at quarterback right now with three walk-ons, giving them seven total. You've got two guys arriving next year. But, let's be honest, who knows how it will shake out, but I would think it would be a little surprising if, on next year's team, Alabama had Keelan Russell, Austin Mack, Jet Tamala, and Tayden Cahaba.

So, I doubt all four would be on the team next year. So, you just add those two, and let's say you lose one, you probably just have five quarterbacks on scholarship. That's not an insane number. So, again, you just have to see how it plays out year to year. Here's the deal, though. This staff, I get tickled at people saying this and that. This staff hopefully knows what they're doing. Hopefully, they know more than us. They know what they've got. They know their long-term plans. But, Jimmy, be that as it may, time is going to tell, obviously, that.

But what, for the folks who don't follow recruiting religiously, what does Mr. Prair bring to the table for Alabama? Yeah, he's, in terms of rankings, if people are into that, he's the fourth-ranked quarterback in his class nationally. Now, this would be the 2028 class. So, this would be player Kingston in his class. He'll be a junior in high school this fall. So, he's got two more years of high school football to play. So, this is kind of a guy, you know, kind of a long-term thing. I mean, he wouldn't even be signing for something like 18 months, I believe, until his signing day gets here.

[5:32] 6'3", 205, great athlete, but he is a thrower first. There is no doubt, yes, he can run. As a matter of fact, his offense, they run a ton of RPOs, and Kingston does run around quite a bit. But he is absolutely a passer first. He was Cedarian Morgan's quarterback a year ago. So, those who saw Cedarian Morgan's highlight film, you're also seeing Kingston Prair's highlight film. They hooked up quite a bit last year. And I think Cedarian Morgan helped get a lot of eyeballs on Kingston. I'm sure it helped raise his profile.

But this is a pretty big, strong kid. He throws a really pretty deep ball. That's what stands out to me on his tape. Not every high school kid with a big arm does. But he's got really impressive accuracy well down the field. Again, runs an RPO-type offense. Quick release. I think a cop, I kind of struggled with a cop trying to find an Alabama quarterback that made me think of Kingston. I couldn't really come up with one. But I'll tell you who he reminds me of as a high school prospect is Dante Moore, who signed with UCLA out of high school.

Now he's a Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback at Oregon. Very similar sized, similar arm talent at the same stage, similar athlete. And as we all know, Dante Moore has had a tremendous career at Oregon and is a candidate to be the first pick in the draft next April. So I think Kingston Perrier's skill set is sort of like Dante Moore. And then for Alabama fans, just have to hope he develops like Dante did. Jimmy, one of the things we've been talking about this week is position battles, NCC media days around the corner, and then, of course, summer camp.

Now, I was watching you and Luke Robinson on one-year podcast. I agree with you entirely about this. Luke Matz will be a factor and linebacker, according to Jimmy Stein. QB Reese, Abdul Sanders, Caden Jones, Xavier Griffin, and some other friends. Very athletic. Again, I know some of these guys may be a little undersized, but they're very athletic. That's one of the more intriguing positions for me, but I agree with you. Look out for Luke Matz. Yeah, there's a phrase I've been using this summer to describe Alabama's roster.

I call it the depth of good. There's tremendous depth of good players. Now, notice I'm not using the word great. I mean, they still need more great, and they need some of these good players to become great. But the depth of good at inside linebacker is really impressive. Luke Matz sort of almost headlines that list. I'm not sure who's going to – well, one thing I am sure of at inside linebacker to this point, Caleb Woodson, the Virginia Tech transfer, he's going to be out there. He's sort of cemented his spot this spring.

It looks like he's exactly what they thought they were getting, not only a quality, experienced, older player, but a leader. So who's going to line up next to him? There's so several candidates. I would probably favor QB Reese to be the guy that initially is out there with Caleb Woodson. But Alabama, under Kane Womack, has consistently played three inside linebackers with the ones. Last year it was Deontay Lawson, Justin Jefferson, and Nakai Hill Green. They all basically played about the same amount of snaps, constantly rotating.

I won't be surprised, guys, if Alabama played four inside linebackers this fall just simply because it's too tough to keep some of these guys off the field. I'd say nothing of true freshman Xavier Griffin, who was really impressed since he's been there. But Luke Metz is solidly in the mix. It would not be a surprise to see him as a starter. I'll be shocked if he's not rotating with the ones. Well, you got the inside track there, Jimmy. Jimmy Stein locked on Bama. Can you believe this?

Eight Saturdays from tomorrow, Alabama takes the field, hoping to rebound from last year's opener in Tallahassee. They got the home cooking, they got the art pirates from East Carolina. Jimmy, who's going to be Alabama's starting quarterback against the pirates? Wow, what a good question. I'm going to stick with what my answer has been since Ty Simpson announced he's headed to the NFL, and that's Keelan Russell. That's my guess. Now, I've also said this, and it's proven true so far, and that's that Austin Mack's not going to make it easy on him.

It hasn't been, and in many ways right now, there's still a 1A and a 1B, despite Keelan playing so well on A day. Austin Mack was banged up on A day. I don't think we should consider his performance that day indicative of anything based on his injury, which my understanding was fairly significant for a player who played some that day. But Keelan was great on A day. I think ultimately Keelan wins out. So my prediction for right now is that Keelan wins the job in fall camp and has announced a starting quarterback about a week before East Carolina.

[10:40] That's my prediction. But am I going to be surprised if the competition extends into the first game and Austin Mack gets the start just as a matter of seniority? That's not even going to surprise me. I mean, I'm almost half expecting it. But if folks want an official prediction, I think Keelan wins this job. My guess is he wins it in fall camp. I won't be surprised if the competition extends into the games. Austin Mack is a – he's ready. That's one thing about Austin. Austin's ready.

Now, the question for Keelan is exactly that. Is he ready in year two? But Austin's ready. So that makes a difference. Jimmy, I'm going to guess if Nate Oates goes back to the lake this weekend, which we hear he enjoys tremendously, he's going to be all smiles. After adding one more, Princeton Murphy is the king of the memes and had a tweet earlier this week, I think on Monday, you guys got room for one more? Yeah, they did with five-star Alabama commit Anderson Diaz. He reclassified.

He is loaded with talent this year. There is no question about that. Jimmy, I always enjoyed the conversation, and particularly the podcast with Luke. Where can we get online and get the best podcast about Alabama sports on the planet? Locked on Bama with myself and Luke Robinson. We have six new shows a week. That goes all through the off-season. We don't slow down. We even have some breaking news shows, which we will have today, we believe. But six shows a week. We take Saturdays off, which is kind of ironic, because coming up, there won't be Saturdays off.

Saturdays off just for now. Other than that, there will be a new Locked on Bama. The other six days, you can find us on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, the O and that on Saturdays won't be off. It'll be overtime. Enjoy these next eight Saturdays, Jimmy. Thanks so much for your time, Dave, buddy. Hey, I appreciate it, guys. Have a great weekend. You too. Jimmy's time, Locked on Bama. Again, in case you're just coming to the table, about a matter of fact, about an hour right now, Mr. Prey, you're making his announcement.

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Blight Lovell, welcome in. How are you? Good, doing well, guys. Good to talk to you. You too. Obviously, are you ready? It depends on which calendar you go by. Only seven more Saturdays to college football. Eight until the first big one. Are you ready for some football, Blight? Now that the fourth is in the rearview mirror. Yeah, like you said, usually when we really start to kick things up, both on our side of things, just in terms of really taking a further look into these teams and really starting to get, I think, a better idea of the national picture.

I think it's going to be more interesting this year just based on the playoffs and trying to really see, you know, which of these teams outside the SEC can give some of these teams problems when we get into these bigger non-conference games. But typically, you know, which of these SEC teams are going to live up to the hype? And I think when you have a year like this, you've got so many of these first-year coaches that are trying to kind of break in and get off to a good start.

But meanwhile, you know, you've got the usual teams at the top that don't seem like they're going anywhere. So it's, as always, a pretty fascinating setup here. But let me ask you this. Where do you put Alabama? Because you look across the country, so-called self-described smart people. They don't know where to put them, do they? Most of them have got them just outside the top 10, 11, 12, take your pick. But the Mothership, ESPN coming out today and saying, not so fast, my friend, their power index, say whatever you want about that, they got Alabama, they rate an 8.

So Alabama's inside the top 10, and let's face it, so long as you're inside the top 12, fate's in your hand at the end of the year, assuming that the committee agrees to that. But where do you put Alabama? Who's right? Is Alabama 8th or 11th, 12th, et cetera? Yeah, that's the thing, right? And I think, you know, it's not what Alabama fans are used to because for the longest time it was saying, well, you've got your clear teams at the top, and they were kind of that separator.

Then you started to say, well, sure, you're going to have a lot of these SEC teams that are jumbled, you know, are there in probably that 8 to 20 range. If you're ranking teams nationally, it's just a matter of, okay, who's going to win some of these games and lose them. That's probably the bigger issue is that I probably would jumble Alabama, you know, more so with the teams, let's say like an LSU, like a Texas A&M. Oklahoma, I think, would be in that same conversation. You know, I think there's still a lot to be determined potentially with a team like Tennessee, Ole Miss, I would put in that same conversation with the Alabamas.

You know, it would seem on paper that Georgia and most likely Texas, I think, should be able to separate themselves a little bit. But, again, how much separation, we're literally talking about a game or two that could really decide, you know, kind of what that drop-off point is. So, I think, you know, for me, again, you could probably put Alabama anywhere in that 8 to 15 type range. And I don't think you would get a lot of pushback just because there are a lot of these teams in the SEC.

They're going to be grouped together like that. And, unfortunately, like I said, I think if you're an Alabama fan, you don't want to necessarily be in this conversation because you must have to be the team saying, well, they're, you know, a surefire top-five team. And we just really can't say that right to the second. Could Alabama basketball be a preseason number eight after adding Anderson Diaz, the five-star who reclassified, to come in this year, along with bringing back Amari Allen, everything we keep hearing, Aidan Holloway, is going to be coming back.

[20:56] London Jimmison, the transfers, Garrison, Davis, Fleming, and Felder, and Cloher from North Carolina State. And then three phenoms, Nate Owens, I believe he's going to be smiling this weekend and weeks to come. Yeah, I think so. And, you know, it's kind of the same scenario now in SEC basketball where, you know, you've got a lot of these teams that feel like that they are really jumbled together. And I think this year, you know, of course, two seasons ago, guys, it was historic SEC year and all that.

But, you know, last year you take an inevitable sort of step back. I think this year potentially can look more like it did two years ago where, you know, you've got teams like Alabama now with these kind of late pickups. I mean, that's been the story here. Alabama with a late pickup. Kentucky had late pickups. You've still got kind of some waiver situations that have to be determined, you know, for teams like Florida and such. But Florida's going to be either the number one or number two team in the country no matter what.

So, yeah, I think with Diaz joining the mix, I mean, it just adds to your overall depth. And I think that's the thing. We did our way too early kind of SEC summer power rankings this week. And we kept saying, I mean, we had Alabama probably a little, and I say lower, right? We had them, I think, four or five. Maybe even one of us had them six. But we said, you know, again, that gap is so small. But if you're picking Alabama to be any lower than third in the SEC heading into next season, you need to just rethink it.

And I'm telling myself that because when in doubt, always bet on Nate Oates is finding a way to either win the SEC or finish in the top three because it's usually what he does. And so I think a pickup like this only pushes him further towards that argument. Because like you said, if Holloway's back, Amari Allen's an SEC player of the year type candidate. And then you kind of look and see how the frontcourt plays out. But either way, Alabama's going to be a, should be a top 15, 20 at worst team, I think, heading into the season.

So that's going to put them right there in the conversation. Level Southeastern 16. Blake, if you were sitting here and someone says, Blake, you have a choice of taking Alabama's roster or Auburn's roster, which one would you take? And what a story last year. Who would have thought at one point that Stephen Pearl would have a national championship trophy in the case in his inaugural year? Your thoughts back to the original question. Which roster do you take and where do you put Auburn? Yeah, that's the thing.

I think with Alabama, it is fair or unfair. This is how you have to have the conversation. I mentioned, are you betting on Nate Oates or are you betting on Stephen Pearl? And right now, you just have much more of a sample size to work with than Nate Oates. And I do think Alabama's roster is better. I think in our rankings this week, we had Auburn either 10 or 11, which is not going to make Auburn fans happy. Because, you know, you're used to playing for Final Fours.

You're used to playing, you know, at the top of the SEC. But I don't really see that on paper in terms of just that being the level that this roster can reach. But, you know, I say all that knowing that there are always going to be teams that are outliers. Especially when you have two guys, I think, in Pettiford and Overton, who can be all SEC players. I mean, I think we've seen the potential for both of them. I think some of the newcomers are going to make a big impact.

They're certainly going to be a better three-point shooting team. They should be a better rebounding team. And so things like that, you know, defensively, they've got to be better. They know that. So I think Auburn will be better this season. I think, again, as we always say, the question is, you can be better. But can you be better than the teams that are already in front of you? And the teams that have already pushed up higher and higher. And that's where, when you start going down the list, guys, can you be better than Alabama, Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Vanderbilt?

And you just keep going, that's a lot of teams. You've got to be able to eclipse right now and look at what Bucky's done at Texas A&M. I don't think A&M's going anywhere. So it's a much more crowded landscape with the SEC at the top. And that's where you fall back like Auburn did last year. It's not so easy sometimes just to quickly get right back up to the top. I'll tell you one thing, and you've confirmed it again. People may call me crazy.

I think there are eight to ten teams in the SEC who may be in preseason top 25. I agree with you. Yeah, no, go ahead. No, I was going to say, I think you're on to that because, listen, I truly, and again, I don't want to compare it to two seasons ago because the big reason the SEC was so good two seasons ago is because they went 185 and 23 in non-conference play. They're not going to do that again. That is a historically probably once-in-a-lifetime type thing. That record is just really hard to pull off when you consider everything bouncing your way.

But if we're projecting to March and thinking about the teams that can be in the Sweet 16 and beyond, I mean, I think you're looking at ten teams right now on paper that you're saying, I feel like these are the rosters and NIL matters, right? I mean, we always say, like, it's how much money you're pumping into it, and that's not even counting a team like LSU, who, you know, could very well have a professional leading roster. We just don't know who's going to be on the team yet, but you've got a lot to determine there.

[25:57] Absolutely. Great job, as always. Where can we get online to get the best podcast on earth? Yeah, I always appreciate you guys. Southeastern 60 on YouTube. Find all of our off-season basketball, baseball stuff, and, of course, cranking things up on football. It's all there, Southeastern 60. Kick back. Enjoy. Stay set this weekend, Blake. Thanks for your time today, buddy. Thanks, guys. You too. Thank you, bud. Late level checking in from Nashville. Time for us to check in to Wimbledon. Stay with us. We'll be right back. I mean, I felt good before the match, and, yeah, for some reason didn't completely feel as comfortable as the other days.

I mean, partly because of the opponent and how he was playing. Yeah, didn't feel as comfortable as that and at ease like the other days. And what a fairytale run it was. The 23-year-old grew up five minutes from the All-Inkland Club and had everybody rooting for him, Zverev, into his first Wimbledon final. With this tennis update, I'm Brad Heller, 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. But when it comes to Kohl's summer outfits, everyone's in agreement.

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Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Welcome back again. Time to say hello to the man who's always got George on his mind. Bill Shanks is the king of radio in the Peachtree State. Host of the Bill Shanks Show on 93.1 FM in Macon, Georgia. Welcome back to the Superstations.com and on the tube at 41NBC. Bill Shanks, welcome in. Happy Friday to you. How are you? I'm doing well. Good morning. Good afternoon. How are you all? We're doing fine, Bill. Are you starting to feel a little bit better about this team?

Baseball fans who've been around this game a long time knows it's like a roller coaster. You're going to have highs. You're going to have lows. And even Philadelphia is starting to show that they're human, too. They got hot. Now they're kind of playing ping-pong ball back and forth. So, Bill, where are you with this team right now? Well, I feel better after two straight wins. I mean, I think these next three games are important. I guess the Cardinals, Cheryl Thug. Bill, let me interrupt and say if you don't beat the Cardinals, then there's no excuse.

This is a team. They want a Volvo for the price of a U-Go, man. So, you should win these ones. Well, they've been better than people thought they would this year. They've been better. They're not as bad as they're – I mean, they're kind of reloading and kind of rebuilding. And they're doing much better than people thought they would. So, I don't think you can take them lightly at all. So, I think they've got to be careful. But I think it would be good to win two or three because then you'd go into the break, win four or five, and feel a little bit better about yourself.

You've had a rough six weeks here. So, I think that would be very beneficial to win two or three. I agree. Let me mention two things. Matt Olsen's consecutive game streak has certainly flown under the radar. I think he tied Dale Murphy's at 740. And I believe he's, what, 36 games away from 900 consecutive games, which is absolutely incredible to me. Again, we know Garrick and Ripken is, you know, light years ahead. But your thoughts on one of the most underrated streaks in baseball, and I mentioned this yesterday on your award-winning show.

[36:10] What about Bama boy, Jim Jarvis at shortstop, 316, 6-19, one home run, three RBIs. These Bama boys can play baseball. Well, it's good because they sure can't play football very well. They need to have some kind of sport that could be successful at. No, well, first Jim Jarvis, I mean, look, they brought him up. He was having a great year in AAA, and they brought him up. And, of course, they had Kardashian at short. That's what I call Kim. And he was awful. And so they had Dubon there a little bit, Mateo there a little bit.

And I hope they keep Jim Jarvis there for a while. Let's give him a shot. Let's see what he can do. I mean, he has surpassed anything he's ever done in pro ball or college this year in AAA and now in the early stages of his big league career. So let's see what he can do. You never know. Sometimes it takes players longer than others to kind of break through. So I'm anxious to see him, and I hope he'll be in the lineup today and moving forward.

I mean, why not? You don't have anything to lose. I mean, the guy who went there before was making $20 million a year and hitting about $0.67 million is a bad d*** bingo card. So, I mean, you know, I think you give Jim Jarvis a chance. As for Matt Olsen, he's just fighting the wussification of America all by himself. He's trying to be able to go out there and play every day. So God bless you. Bill Shank, CSuperstations.com. We talked about the fields being human. I'm not sure the Marlins are.

What's interesting about it, if you don't pay attention to this thing, everybody thinks it's just the Braves and fields. Well, guess who's also just three games back, tied to the fields, the Marlins. One thing about it, I think I got, I looked at the numbers here, Bill, correct me if I'm wrong, about 70 games to go. If nothing else, they've learned that they can't take anything for granted, but they have not only one legitimate chaser, but they got two. And let's face it, the Nationals are not too far back at seven.

Well, we got a pennant race. There's no question. We got a pennant race. And I think, you know, the Marlins have been, I think it's 26-8 since June 1st. Yep. I think that's what it is, something like that, which is incredible. They were 14 back, and now they're, you know, only a couple of games down, three and a half, whatever. I mean, so it's a race, and it's going to be a race for the rest of the season. I don't think that we, you know, I think you always have to wonder about who comes out of the gate hot in the second part of the season.

It's not the half, it's the part. They've already crossed the halfway point, so it's the second part. But who comes out hot, you know, who's rested, who gets a little break, who is better in the second. I mean, that could happen all the time, the second half, second part of the season, who's better. And so I think that's what's really interesting about it, to see. It could be any of the three. You know, it could be Atlanta, Philadelphia, or Miami can keep this up, and they could be legit.

I mean, they've got a lot of no-name players. I don't think Jeff Conant's playing for them anymore. But, I mean, they've got a lot of no-name players, young players. They've done really well, and you've got to give them credit for that. Tommy John says hello, by the way. Yep, he does. His legs, his arm's not too good, but his mouth's pretty daggum loud. But, you know, it's a race. I mean, look, the Braves have done this themselves by having a rough time here in their last six weeks.

And it's been rough. I mean, there's no doubt there are nine and 17 here in the last 26 games. And they've just been going backwards while the Phillies and Marlins have caught up with them. Okay, trade deadline. Logical, reasonable starting pitchers. And you have beat this drum for two or three years as far as durable guys who can throw for innings, even though Major League Baseball scared to throw anybody past six. Take a guy out with a no-hitter is where we are. I've seen articles this week, Sonny Gray at Boston, who I've heard chatter about for a couple of years, Scooble, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

All right, you know this, and you know the front office, what they can do and not do. If you were Anthopolis, what would you do for a starting pitcher? Well, I think my worry is they need more than one. Yeah. And that's, you know, you don't want to gut your farm system for a team that may not be worth it. It's a tough call now. I mean, he backed himself in the quarter by not doing what he said he was going to do over the offseason, which is to go get a starting pitcher that would be playoff worthy.

And, you know, when he didn't do that, and he only brought in Martin Perez, and then all this started to happen where Lopez went to the bullpen, now he's back. And, you know, Holmes could only pitch five innings. And Perez, now he's hurt with a line drive off his elbow. So now what with him? He's got a lot of question marks about this rotation that, you know, and A.J. Smith-Schalver is coming back from Tommy John surgery, and he is – no, not you. He is pitching in AAA tomorrow for I think his fourth rehab appearance, but they don't need to rush that kid.

[41:45] I mean, they rushed Hurston Waldrop. Yeah. That was stupid. They just sent him back down to AAA because he's clearly not ready. So, they're kind of in a mess with the starting rotation. They have not had a starting pitcher go past 6.0 innings. They have not had a starting pitcher get an out in the seventh inning or later since June the 2nd. Wow. June the 2nd. So, that's awful. And that tells you how bad the starting rotation's been. So, all those names, Robbie Ray, Logan Webb, Sonny Gray, all those names you mentioned, they're all going to be possibilities.

You know, but here's the thing. Here's the interesting thing about, like, Boston. There are a lot of teams that are under 500 in the American League who are still in the race because there are so many teams in the American League that are under 500. Like, they only have, like, four winning teams, four teams with a winning record in the American League. So, a lot of those, if you go look at the wild card race, if you go look at the wild card race in the American League, teams that are, like, several games under 500 are two and a half games out of the wild card.

And it's like, they're not going to trade their players if they think they got a shot because, you know what, they're going to say, well, we're going to be optimistic. We're going to come out in the second half of the season. We're going to go on a run, and why would we trade? So, I think that means a lot of that will go down to the very last hour, to be honest with you. Let's go from Bill Shanks' dogs to the Georgia dogs. Bill, do you feel better about Georgia winning multiple national championships now that they've extended offensive coordinator Mike Bobo's contract?

Well, it's caused turmoil over here. There are people rioting. I bet that's right. These coordinators, you can't make people happy with these coordinators. Nope. They're the first ones to go, as you Alabama people sure know. Yes, that's correct. You know, they get behind six to three in the first quarter. You're ready to go fire a d*** coordinator and bring the ball back in here. Yeah, no kidding. So, no, I mean, look, I'm a big Mike Bobo fan. I mean, I didn't like what they did in the Ole Miss game, the bowl game.

I thought it was awful. They had a bad game plan. I don't know if it was Mike or Kirby, but overall, I think Mike Bobo is a great coach, and he's done a great job for this team and this program for a long time. And so, I'm very happy with him. And Glenn Schumann's done a good job as a defense coordinator. I mean, you know, Kirby's taught him how to coach what he wants out of his defense, so that's important as well. So, I'm fine with it.

I'm just ready for him to get ready to win a national championship and leave everybody in their dust. We talked about this a little bit yesterday. There are $89 million worth of NIL contracts that have not been cleared yet, and the majority of those are in the shock. SEC in the Big Ten. Now, with training camps starting off here now in three weeks, can you imagine million-dollar contracts that have not been cleared by the NCAA? And you've got Johnny Five Star or Mr. NIL who says, Coach, I hate it, but my agent told me that I'm not going to practice until we get this cleared up, so I'm going to sit out.

I really think that is going to be prevalent once we get into maybe even the season, but certainly in some recount. Well, I want to tell you what I think is going to happen. A non-championship team, a team that's not going to win a championship, whether it's a conference or whatever, is going to have that happen, where a player on Friday afternoon says, I'm not playing. That's right. I've already heard that that threat has been made in Athens. Now, I don't know what happened was the response.

Well, you know what? I don't give a d*** whether you want to play or not. We'll get the money to you when we can, or they give the money. I don't know the answer to that. But I think what's going to happen is that a non-championship team is going to happen. You're going to have a big-time player tell a coach, I'm not playing. And then, you know what, I hope, Brett, that the coach has the cojones to go into the media and say, well, Johnny Five Star was all ready to play.

He doesn't have an injury, but I'm letting you know right now he's not playing because he's p***** that he hasn't gotten paid his money. Now, of course, the gamble of that is if you do that, other recruits are going to hear that and say, oh, God, they don't pay their players. Of course, you have to be careful. But, you know, coaches are tempted to do that because there may be extenuating circumstances. You never know. We're not there. There may be extenuating circumstances. There may be stuff going on that can't be explained.

But it's like I hope a coach at some point says, yeah, you know what? He was all ready to play against Alabama, but he wasn't happy that he hadn't gotten paid when we already paid him or something like that. And a coach is just going to go off. And I hope they do. I hope they do. I hope they do call him out for that. So, you know, I'm just ready for training camp and people to be on the field sweating and going at it, you know?

[46:54] Well, in eight weeks from tomorrow, I know you're sweating that opener against mighty Tennessee State and then more sweat the following week of Western Kentucky. So, let's fast forward to October 10th and October 17th. You got on the road to Alabama back home against Auburn. What message can you tell Alabama and Auburn fans as you face both of them back to back? Well, number one, Alabama better get a running game. And I'm just glad the offspring of the Smothers Brothers comedy hour is finally getting a little play time.

But, you know, Alabama's got to run the ball better. There's no question about that. I think that's the Achilles heel that has kind of kept them from doing better, along with the fact they, you know, hired a coach from the Big Ten. But anyway, I think that, look, I said on a show yesterday, I said, you know, somebody asked me what am I most looking forward to in the SEC. I said, well, I'm looking forward to Kentucky, Auburn and Florida to see how they're going to do with their new head coaches and to see what's going to happen here.

And I think Auburn and Florida are, you know, I'm, I'm anxious to see, I'm anxious to see what's going on. I mean, Auburn had a long time and they, you know, obviously regressed and we know that program's better than that historically. So for them to have this many losing seasons in a row, mainly because they've only beat Georgia like twice in 20 games or something like that, which, I mean, I do, I mean, it's, it's my responsibility to remind people who I know that went to Auburn for that statistic.

I mean, I just think it's, you know, it's my, it's a, it's extra time for that. Well, I mean, you know, it's just my duties, Harold. I mean, you know, I mean, here we are at two 50 and I mean, it's very, very clear that it's my duties to do that. So, but I want to see what the goal is and the new coaches sign and I want to see what they do. And I'm curious about that because look, it, it's not easy to replace the coach.

It's not. It's tough, especially, well, whether you've had a successful one like Nick Saban or, or Kirby smart or whomever, or you've been in a revolving door, you know, I mean, Auburn has been trying to find their guy for a while and look, I don't envy that situation. That's tough. You know, you feel like you got a good, I mean, I don't know what the heck that Carson got was, but I mean, the, the, you think you got Hugh Freeze and you feel like, okay, this is Eddie's a fit.

He makes sense. And then boom, it doesn't work out, you know, and, and, and Florida thought they had their guy and it didn't work out. And it's, and it just proves, cause it's not like these guys aren't very good coaches, but you know, fit and, and circumstance and players and talent and money now and everything goes into it where it's just not easy, you know, and, and it's tough. It's really, really tough. So, uh, you know, I imagine, and you know, Arkansas was silver field or silver hair or silver, you know, he's, I think he was, I think, well, I think he was in dances with wolves.

Wasn't he? I think he was. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I mean, but you know, you want to see what he can do. You want to see how these new coaches kind of adapt and, and, and, and fit in and work well with their talent and, and take that next step. So I'm, I'm really anxious to see how that goes in the SEC this year. Can you imagine if, um, Nolan Ryan or Gibson or Sandy Koufax were on the mound, they've pitched six innings of no hit ball and the manager walks out to Nolan Ryan and says, Nolan, we'd love you buddy, but we're going to tell, I'm going to take you out because we don't want you to get hurt.

This has happened twice in major league baseball this year. Can you imagine what those old school pitchers would have done to a manager on the mound? If they would have come out and said that. Had to the, uh, initials TRO. Yes. Training order. Yes. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's, uh, I don't know what else to say about pitching in baseball. It's, um, it's, it's amazing. And it is the biggest change in this game and it's not pretty good. There's nothing good about it. There's nothing, you know, even if people were to say, well, Bill, you know, the reliance on velocity is going to eventually make this the, you know, cause and effect of this.

I understand that argument. I understand that discussion, but I think it's still the handling of pitchers is ridiculous. Um, I had, I had someone call my show the other day. Who's actually a physical therapist. He said, you know, one thing I don't understand is if they take them out after 115 pitches or if they take them out after 65, why do they feel like that? They're going to get hurt specifically because they're throwing more on that specific day. Then you get hurt when you go out there and pitch the first pitch.

So it's like, what, what, what necessarily makes you think throwing more in that particular way, throwing more is what they used to do. A lot of people think of course, Liam, that today it's one enough. You know, um, somebody told me the other day, Derek Lowe, the former brace pitcher who was an innings eater, you know, he wasn't very good with Atlanta, but I mean, he did eat innings and he made every one of his d*** starts. I could tell you that. And he said, you know what?

[52:14] He never threw in between his games. He threw long tosses every day, every day. He didn't, you know, he didn't, you know, they usually throw one bullpen in between starts. Leo used to make him do two. He didn't do any, any of that. No bullpen in between. He would throw long tosses, all he would do. And, you know, he stayed healthy and, and everything's different. Every body's different. And, but yeah, I mean, it's, it's ridiculous and it's, it's changed the game. It's not, I know that as a 56 year old person who's watched this game since I was eight years old, the game is different now.

I know I get it, but I think that is something that has changed, not for the good and, and why it's like, why, why are you taking your pictures out already? Why, yeah, I, I did a study the other day, but through Sunday's minor league games, the Atlanta Braves minor league players, they had 320 games between the top four full season minor league teams through Sunday. Only 16 times out of the 320, half of 1% had a picture gotten an out in the seventh inning or later. Incredible. It's amazing.

Well, listen, when you and Tommy John begin your podcast, which I know is going to be any day now, let us know so we can promote it. But in the meantime, where can we get online and our listeners from Athens all, all over the planet, listen to your incredible show. He needs a podcast with his loud mouth. He does. I mean, he sits around and runs his mouth all day long. He thinks he hears me for crying out loud. Thesuperstations.com. I'll be on at three o'clock Eastern time and, and done at five.

We're doing a two hour show today, but don't tell anybody. We're going to be like you two, you two. We're going to be, we're going to slum like you two and only do two hours. There you go. There you go, Bill. You and Tommy John have fun and look forward to that. Your favorite city on, uh, on earth, Athens, Alabama. So be looking for that. Okay, Bill. All right, guys. See you, buddy. There you have it, Bill Shanks, the superstations.com. Coming up in the next hour, Auburn Talk with Justin Ferguson.

Doug Seger has got it all covered along with Mike Huganen and Elmer Pierce. It's all straight ahead here on the Boomwell Bug Show. Stay with it. Braves baseball is heating up and so are the dogs and mug shots on North Court Street in historic downtown Florence. Cheer on the Braves with your choice of the Chicago-ish dog, the Southern dog, the spicy firecracker dog, or stick with the classic dog. And this summer, celebrate Mug Shots' Summer of Freedom with our limited time value menu. Available every day after 4 p.m.

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Since 1998, playing tomorrow, and England's Dan Byrne was asked about the success of the Norwegians. There's no surprises that Norway are at this stage of the competition. I think from the qualifiers, they won every game. We've got Haaland, which is arguably one of the best strikers in the world. So, yeah, it's going to be a huge challenge for us. Reference Erling Howland, seven goals in four games after he scored 16 and eight qualifying games. The quarterfinals end tomorrow night in Kansas City with Argentina against Switzerland. Quarterfinal winners are short of two more games because of the third-place game a week from tomorrow.

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From the crack of the first bat to the final out, this Atlanta Braves club has the rest of the National League on notice. Olsen annihilates this thing. Two-run homer. That was barreled to the chop house. Tonight, the Braves roll into St. Louis for the final series before the All-Star break, taking on the Cardinals at Bush Stadium in a big NL showdown. Braves Radio's on the air at 7 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Central, on the Braves Radio Network. Brought to you locally by The Law Firm of Johnson Pasture, Medley, and Birchall.

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Tomorrow, sunny with an 80% chance of showers and thunderstorms with a high around 90. Tomorrow night, cloudy with an 80% chance of showers overnight, possibly a thunderstorm, low near 70. And for your Sunday, partly sunny with a 70% chance of showers and a 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. The Boomo Bugg Show. Your exclusive inside track to the Tide. Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC.

[1:02:36] Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Welcome back in. Welcome back 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. And for Mike Kugin and taking time out of his schedule there, it's National College Football slash Basketball Analyst down in Orlando, Florida. Mike, welcome in. How are you? Hopefully be able to hook up here with Mike in a second. Now, imagine he's counting it down, BB, because I'm looking at the schedule here, and Mike is a fanatic like we are.

It's hard to believe. Eight Saturdays until Alabama, Auburn, and the Lions Sheriff teams get rocking and rolling. But week one is only seven weeks away, and there's some intriguing matchups on there as soon as we get Mike on the board, including right off the bat, UNC and TCU. Is Bill Belichick and his staff going to be ready for that game, BB? Well, I think Bill Belichick is a little bit better of a second year than the first. They went to transfer Portland and Bronx. I mean, I think Mike is with us now.

All right, Mike, Kugin again, National College Football slash Basketball Analyst. Mike, welcome in. How are you? Obviously still having a bit of an issue there, but maybe some of the other games of notes on that opening weekend, North Carolina State and Virginia, and I think one is very intriguing for UNA fans, long-time UNA fans, and that's Jack State and North Dakota State. In some ways, to me, North Dakota State is one of the more intriguing teams this season. Well, they are, yeah, they are, Harold, North Dakota, South Dakota.

Listen, those guys have been powerhouses for years. Yeah, but Mike's joined us again, man. All right, now, well, you know, we just do not give up because we have three doors. We've knocked on the first one, knocked on the second. Let's knock on the third one and say hello to Mike. Mike, welcome in. How are you doing, my friend? Doing well. There we go, bud. But we're just talking here. It's hard to believe, but we got eight weeks to the first big weekend, but we're talking about some of the opening weekends, weekends of games and some of the things on there.

And I don't know if you heard it or not, but to me, it gets rocking and rolling right off the bat. It's an 11 o'clock kick, our time, 12 viewers with UNC and TCU. We were joking. Is Bill Belichick and his staff going to be ready for that game, Mike? Yeah, they're playing in Ireland, which is, you know, I'm not sure if you want to make Irish people love college football, and I'm not sure if North Carolina TCU will do that. But TCU breaking in a new quarterback, North Carolina just looking for any kind of footing whatsoever.

You know, TCU, the Big 12, is going to be interesting this year. A little bit more wide open, I think, now that soars be ineligible at Texas Tech. How good is TCU going to be? And I think that game will give us an idea if North Carolina is going to be any better than they were last year. They were horrible last year. They did go into the portal, sort of like they did last year. A lot of the portal guys they brought in last year, though, were massive failures.

Let's see if it's any better this year. You're throwing some Big 12 media days this week. Besides Brett Yormack announcing that Monster, who they sponsored media days, is going to give the league $20 million and $1 million for patches on the jersey and logos on the field. But it was interesting. Dion got up and talked primarily a lot about himself, which is nothing unusual for a lot of people, but what did you learn from Big 12 media days this week in Frisco? And I think this is a little bit different because he did talk about, you know, he beat bladder cancer.

Yeah. He took out his bladder with a robot and built a new one out of his intestine, which is pretty fascinating. His team's not going to be very good. So my assumption is that he's doing a lot of talking about himself, so he doesn't have to talk about how bad it's going to be. You're probably right. But the Monster sponsorship to me is, I don't know the worth of that. I mean, you mentioned it. Yeah, I know it's worth $20 million, but each school is getting a million.

That, to me, is for a patch on a uniform, that is aesthetically low. I don't know why they signed such a cheap sponsorship deal. I don't understand it. You know, just talking about TCU, Baylor's in that league, Texas Tech's in that league, UCF, Colorado, I can't believe that those schools individually couldn't go out and find a patch sponsor that would have given them $2 million. Because a million dollars for a patch is, like I said, pathetically low. I believe they're going to be branded as the Monster Energy Big 12 Conference Basketball.

[1:07:58] And you're like, no, you're still the Big 12. No one's going to call you Monster Energy, except on releases from the Big 12 office and your member schools. But it is an interesting, I guess, the media vote was that, or the coach vote, I'm not sure who was, frankly. But BYU was picked as the preseason winner, which is surprising. Texas Tech beat BYU like a drum twice last year. For BYU to win it, Barry Backmire, the quarterback, going to have to make great strides. I'm not sure he's able to make the great strides that are going to be needed.

Texas Tech is still the most talented team in that league. They just don't have the quarterback that was expected. But I still think Texas Tech's the best team in the league. But that league is not very good, I don't think, top to bottom. And a little with Mike. You're going to stay in that league for a second, Mike. And here's why. Auburn opens up with, you mentioned Baylor. What can you tell Auburn fans about this Baylor team? Well, Dave Aranda is going into this season like Hugh Freeze went into last season.

He's on the hot seat. A lot of folks thought that Dave Aranda was going to lose his job after last season. He is not. He's had one good season there. And he is a guy who made his bones on defense. They've been atrocious on defense since he's been there. They do have DJ Laguay. Let's see if they can resurrect his career. I like Jake Spavitol, their offensive coordinator. I think he's a pretty savvy guy. Let's see if he can solve the DJ Laguay conundrum. Defensively, they brought some guys in out of the portal.

A ton of guys, frankly, especially in the front seven. They totally remade the front seven. The game's in Atlanta. It's going to be 90% Auburn fans. I will be surprised if Auburn doesn't win that game. I don't think Auburn is going to be all that good, but I don't think Baylor's going to be very good either. Yeah, I think you're right. ESPN came out with their football power index this week. And Alabama, ironically, is number nine, 41% to win or to make the college football playoff. Notre Dame's 75%, which a lot of people look at their schedule.

Mike, they've got an away game at BYU and two home games with Miami and SMU. That's primarily the three big guys they play. CJ Carr's really good, but they don't have anybody behind him if he gets hurt. They've got basically three freshmen. Love and Price are gone. Williams is back. Their secondary returns. They intercepted 21 passes. Mike, is this a semifinal playoff team? They're going to play nine teams, I think, that are going to finish with losing records. The schedule is a brief. SMU, Miami, and BYU, that is their entire game to prep for.

CJ Carr presumably will be given more to do this year in terms of the passing game. Last year, it certainly is nice for any quarterback to turn around and hand the ball to Jeremiah Love, running behind maybe the best offensive line in college football last year. Well, three of those starters are back. They've got a really good defensive line as well. I think this is going to be a playoff team for sure. I think that of all the teams that have a chance to go unbeaten, I think this is the one that might have the best chance because their schedule is a joke.

You know, if they're 11-1, you're like, yeah, that's impressive. Then again, that means you went 2-1 in your real games. So, but I don't think there's any doubt but that they're going to be 11-1 or 12-0. I can't see them losing two games like they did last year. I am a believer in CJ Carr. I think the running game is at least a little bit of a question. I think the passing game makes big strides. Defensively, the secondary is, frankly, awesome. Yeah, there's no reason for Notre Dame not to be in the top three at the end of the season.

If they're not in the top three or even top two at the end of the season, something will have gone drastically wrong. I agree with you entirely on that. Great analysis as always. We are one more Friday, my friend, closer to college football, which makes me smile. Always enjoy the conversation. Have a great weekend, buddy. Let's do this again next Friday. Excellent. Thanks, guys. Thank you so much, Mike. Mike, you can hook it up with us. Busy there down in Orlando, Florida. Coming up, the latest on the Prey Year announcement.

Will it be Bama? Will it be Florida? Will it be Vanderbilt or others? That's and Doug Segrist on deck. Stay with us. This July 15th through 18th, experience four incredible nights of free live music at Mobile Plaza in the heart of downtown Florence. From Grammy Award winner Cedric Burnside to Sunny War, the Funk Brotherhood, Parlor Greens, Lamont Landers, Bold Bloom, and more, it's four nights packed with unforgettable performances in the heart of the Shoals. Plan your weekend now at HandyOnThePlaza.com. That's Handy on the Plaza, July 15th through 18th at Mobile Plaza in downtown Florence.

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He has been voted one of the 50 legends of Alabama sportswriters in this great state. Also, knows what it's like to turn it out there at 3340 ABC, the zone down in Birmingham. The book's called A Storm Came Up. Doug Segrist, welcome in. Are you a four or a five-star, Doug? I'm a negative two. I'm definitely a walk-on gray shirt. I couldn't even spell walk-on, Doug, so we've got a lot in common, man. What's going on? What's the old saying? You've got to have a quarterback to win.

If that's true, Alabama's going to win a lot. Have you ever seen a room like this in the modern era where this much – I'm talking about it's like going down to the farm and getting cordwood. You stack it up, they've got layer after layer of not only this quarterback, that's the quarterback, but I'm talking about nationally rated four and five stars. I think it says a lot about how Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubber perceived on, you know, at that level. It's guys who can get you to the NFL, guys who will develop you.

Obviously, they're not going to keep them all, but the fact that you're building there, you get a chance to develop and decide who you've got going forward. You know, I thought it was big that Ty Simpson stayed around, and now Austin Mack has stayed around, and, you know, you've got Keelan Russell. You know, you're just kind of building there, but you're also building depth, and there still could be a big drop-off if, you know, your starter gets hurt, but it's a very rare situation. I mean, when was the last time Ohio State had a guy they developed themselves?

There you go. You know, they're winning with it, but you're rolling the dice every time. When was the last time Auburn had a starting quarterback, a season-long starter, you know, that they signed right out of high school? It's just very much a rarity. Absolutely, and Graham Simpson, who's Ty Simpson's younger brother now, will probably be going somewhere else, but he was another one that I'd been asked about lately. You're a world cupper, and Monday night was not a good night for the United States. We'll talk about that, but we're down to the Elite Eight.

[1:19:04] France beat Morocco 2-0, Spain, Belgium, Norway, England, Argentina, Switzerland. You are the soccer guru here, Doug Segrist. Who's going to be in the championship game? I mean, that's tough. I mean, this final group is just so good. And I'm trying to think of the bracket right offhand, but Argentina is one of my favorites. I really like the Snorway team. Yes, that fan favorite. Yeah, and just, you know, their best player is just such a good person, just all the stuff he does off the field. I just think it's going to be incredible.

And then, you know, look what Belgium did to the U.S. I mean, there's just so many good teams left, and that's not counting, you know, some of the pre-favorites like, you know, England and Germany and Italy. So, this has just been an incredible tournament, and at this point, I don't really care. I just, just the excitement is so incredible. Even if you're not a serious soccer fan, and I would not fall in that category, but every match is just, you're on pins and needles, and the crowd's just incredible, which is kind of a surprise to me.

I think what it is, a lot of folks right now are trying to learn the game, because it's not that complicated, but it's just, anything that's new, it's a matter of a learning curve. But one thing I think we have learned, Doug, we grew up in this state, around this state, and we think that football has some crazy fans, but as a group, does any sport have crazier fans than soccer on the international level? Well, I'm just sitting here looking at France beat Morocco, and London now is probably half, as far as a different race, if you will.

They riot in the city, they almost burned London down. I mean, these soccer fans, they take crazy to a whole new level, do they not? They really do, but it's a, at least those that we're seeing, you know, here are a good crazy. I mean, they're, you know, they're getting along with their rivals, they're exploring, you know, the sights and the sounds, and it's just, I think it's kind of opened the world, and it's kind of reminded us, as we see ourselves through the eyes of others, that we've still got a lot of great things going here.

And, you know, the fact that stuff we take for granted, and I think that's been a blessing. Yeah, that's the point right there. These guys, like, for instance, air conditioning, you know, I tell you who's watching this thing, Doug, in my opinion, we've been around this crazy world of the media for a long time. I guarantee you, up on the advertising gurus in New York, they're watching this. Do you think, with the numbers that Fox is getting, that now, all of a sudden, they're going to put even more money and even more resources into the U.S. soccer team?

Because, let's face it, I don't think anybody saw the numbers and the interest across the board with just nonchalant fans. If they get serious, show enough serious about this stuff, who knows? Because when America commits, they can do crazy things. But your thoughts just about the advertisers who are watching this and say, maybe we need to take this thing a little more seriously than we have in the past. Yeah, I think it's right. Now, listen, the only programming that's guaranteed to turn a profit right now is live sports.

That's exactly right. And we know with college football, we know with NFL, you know, everybody talks about, well, baseball's ratings aren't good enough. But they're putting, you know, average of 35,000 people in the seats for 81 home games. It doesn't matter who's playing. And the TV ratings for the World Baseball Classic were at record highs. So it's across the board. And I think this kind of lifts all boats. You may see it help college football contracts, you know, if the conferences are still allowed to negotiate on their own.

Right now, this is just the only thing that's guaranteed to pull viewers in. Right. What does the U.S. soccer team need to do to get past the Sweet 16? I don't know because, you know, I mean, the real truth is, at least in Europe, those guys are pros at 8, 9, 10, at least by 12. And we don't have that structure here. I'm not sure that we really want that structure just because it would conflict with everything else. You really want to send 12-year-olds off to, you know, whatever academy you have in Dallas and start paying them.

That might be the key, though, is maybe not paying, but at least supporting. Because right now, to get at that elite level, you have to put in, your family has to put in hundreds of thousands of dollars for that type of training. So that may be the next step. You know, with all the athleticism in the U.S., it's a very expensive sport to master. And I think that's where we limit ourselves. Doug, I'm looking at the calendar we've been talking about. It's seven, eight weeks.

[1:24:19] Take your pick as far as college football kicking it off. What, in your opinion, is the most intriguing storyline, and who's going to be the Indiana this year? I think my dark horse for the playoffs, and I don't think they're going to be all that good, but my dark horse for the playoffs has been the state. Because when you look at that schedule, it's the easy schedule in the Big Ten. So I don't think they have to play Ohio State, Indiana, or Oregon. They may have to play Michigan, but that's about it.

So they've got it kind of there. And, you know, in the Big 12, we could see a conference champion now that Texas Tech has been, you know, nullified a little. We might see a champion nine and three at best. So it really comes down to what the Big Ten and the SEC offer. To me, in the SEC, what will Lane Kiffin do at LSU? Because the expectations are just out of this world. They're coming up with new fundraising, which, to me, I'm not so sure that's proactive as it means they're in big financial trouble.

You know, I don't give Ole Miss enough credit. They've got the best quarterback and the best return and run back in the country. So it's just going to be wild. And, again, I think expectations are raised to Auburn. I think expectations to Alabama are neutered. Yet this is a very manageable schedule. So I have never gone into a season with less of a pulse for what's actually going to happen. I just think it's the Wild West right now. Yeah. Always great to talk with you, my friend.

Have a great soccer weekend. Let's do this again real soon. Remember my motto, free hot dogs and wings for everybody. I'm on my way, Doug Segrist. And speaking of that, let's take it across the farm for another sport called tennis into the Wimbledon update. Stay with us. Westwood One Sports presents this special tennis update. Defending championic center is back in the Wimbledon final after dominating Novak Djokovic at center court. The atmosphere has been always amazing since the first day. And it means a lot to me that I can play one more final here.

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Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third-party insurers. Not available in all states or situations. The Score. Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Welcome back in. Time to say hello to Justin Ferguson. Got the Auburn Tigers covered there with the Auburn Observer. Justin, welcome in. How are you? I'm doing all right. How are you? Hey, buddy. Man, we're doing all right. Justin, tell us if we're right or wrong on this. If you want job security, you come on the job in 2023 and you had a mere, only $54.7 million in the coffer.

And since then, you have now $93.1 million in the coffer. You guessed it. Largest total in department history. Is it safe to say John Cohen's job is pretty secure as Auburn's athletic director? I'm doing a really good job, I think, of raising money and getting stuff done on the financial side. You know, we've been talking about, you know, the North End Zone project at Auburn for over a decade. Finally, wheels have gotten into motion. I think about all the upgrades that have gone into, you know, Plainsman Park during the time he's been the athletic director.

[1:34:29] You know, Neville Arena, getting that done as well and, you know, navigating a stretch here where, obviously, revenue sharing changes the game. NIL changes the game as well. And Auburn feels like they can be pretty competitive in a lot of sports right now in terms of roster building. And I think that's just a testament to, you know, the job he's been able to do is, you know, being able to raise money, manage those funds and kind of get, you know, everything going in that direction. So, you know, I know fans would like to see some more wins on the field.

And, you know, that's obviously something that everybody wants to see. But in terms of just the, I think, the big picture stuff, I think Cohen's done a pretty good job. I mentioned this earlier this week. I think this is a very improved Auburn team. I think the defense will be as good as last year. The offense can't help but be better than last year. Solid kicking game. But I can't get over this six-game gauntlet. Beginning September 19th, Florida at Vandy at home, at Tennessee by week, at Georgia, LSU at home, at Ole Miss.

Did they go two and four, three and three, or four and two? And, again, I'm not trying to slight Arkansas, Mississippi State, and, of course, the Alabama game in Tuscaloosa at the end. But they should get off two and O. But that next six-game stretch may be the toughest in the nation. Yeah, it's a pretty tough one. I feel like if you went three and three against that stretch right there, you'd take it and run with it if you're Auburn. You know, two and four wouldn't kill you.

You would just have work to do, you know, in the month of November. It's pretty brutal. And, you know, I think that's the thing that, you know, going to nine games in the SEC is something that I've long been advocating for. I don't think it made Auburn's life any easier. I think it made a lot of other teams' lives harder. We were going through SEC schedules earlier this week on our podcast, and we started looking, and I was like, man, this team's got this kind of stress.

This team's got this kind of stress. Auburn's coming right in the middle. I think it's a little different than a lot of other teams in the SEC. But, yeah, I mean, I feel like if you could get through that six-game stretch and be 500, I think you would be in a pretty good spot. Because, you know, ultimately, I think this team, this season, the goal, you know, you want to win every game you can, obviously. You want to compete for a championship if you can. But I think realistically, Auburn would just have another winning season, make it back to the bowl game.

That would be progress. That would be a step in the right direction. The best way to do that is go through that gauntlet, you know, without taking too much damage. And then, you know, see where the chips fall in November because, you know, you'd be pretty well set up there if you manage to go through that six-game stretch. You know, three and three are better. Justin Ferguson, the Auburn Observer, just the fact that you're listening to this and saying about the middle of it, it's one of those build two and then hang on.

But it also, Justin, it's safe to say the other side of that is it just makes that opening game against Bader all the more important. The season's not over. It's just the message that it sends to the fans and also confidence. It can either build confidence or it can get in your head. It's safe to say you can't overestimate the importance of that opening game against Baylor in Atlanta. Oh, it's a tone setter for sure. I mean, I think it's a tone setter for the Alex Gulloch era.

I think it's a tone setter for a lot of these players, a lot of these new guys that they brought into the transfer portal. Some of the guys that decided to come back to Auburn for another year. It's just kind of, okay, these last few seasons have been rough, you know, and you need to get that taste out of your mouth. You know, obviously last season when Auburn went to Baylor on the road and beat them, that didn't fix their season. That didn't solve all their problems, obviously.

But it's an opportunity for sure. I think you're playing, you know, right down the road. It should be a, you know, virtual home game. And I think you're going to be playing a Baylor team that's very, very interesting because you're going to be better than them on paper in terms of your talent, your roster. They're hitting the reset button on offense and defense. You know, their offense was really good last season. Their defense wasn't. So it's going to be interesting to see how that dynamic kind of shifts.

I think Auburn's got the better quarterback in this game for sure with Byron Brown playing in the same system against, you know, DJ Lackway who's coming into a new system. So take advantage of that, take advantage of that home field advantage, that quarterback advantage, and get off to a good start. It would do a lot, I think, for this team. Let me ask you about the offensive line. That's a question for every team going into the season, but even more for Auburn. I've read two reports this week where some of the guys thought Derek Plaz was the most complete, maybe not the best, but the most complete offensive lineman.

[1:39:32] Cole Best is a senior. The USF transfer is good. Joe Simmons is a senior. And some of these kids, I think, are going to be, too. Buster, Jacoby Ward, Ellis, et cetera. And I know you'll be talking about this this summer. Your thoughts. Is Plaz maybe when you look at the entire offensive line? Now, Stanton Ramell, of course, is good, too. Could he be the most complete offensive lineman on the team? He was really impressive in the spring ball. And he was kind of the guy that caught my eye the most in the spring because you didn't really know what to expect from him coming in.

And he was a guy who played some in Miami, but he never was a starter. So you really kind of don't know what you're getting when you get a guy like that in there. But he did really well. And I think if Auburn had to play a game tomorrow, he's probably your starting left guard. And, you know, that's a pretty good spot to fill because everywhere else, you can kind of see where some experience could fill in if they're healthy. Like if Ramell's healthy and he wasn't in the spring, he's probably your left tackle.

Simmons, you mentioned, is right tackle. Cole Skinner came in from USF as well. He could be experienced right guard in the system and obviously best at center. You needed a young guy. You needed at least one young guy to kind of step up and show that he might be, you know, starter quality pretty quickly. And I thought Plas did the best job out of that of any of those young guys. Now, there's some other ones. You mentioned Buster, Ward. You know, you've got, well, Wilson's out here as well.

Like there are a number of guys on that offensive line that could get into the mix. I think there's more depth there than usual. But it's pretty wide open in a lot of positions. But I thought Plas did the best job of just, you know, really taking advantage of the opportunity. I mean, he looked really good, you know, in spring ball. And, you know, I would expect him to be, you know, one of the leading candidates to get a starting job once, you know, fall rolls around.

Two other names that I saw was Cody Sigler from New York High School. Maybe the most underrated player in the SEC, but had a tremendous spring. Champ Anthony's name seemed to come up with everybody. For just the way he plays. But I know we've talked about Cody Sigler before. I think a lot of SEC fans are going to be very impressed. Again, he's come at New York High School and some of the other ones. He didn't come from Michigan or USC, but he's a very good player.

He's a really good player. And, you know, he's a guy that started his career West Alabama and, you know, D2 making his way all the way up. You know, last season at Arkansas State, if you look at things like pro football focus, they had him as a top 10 defensive tackle in the country. His ability, you know, he would have been, I think, I think I wrote about this earlier in the week, of all the guys on Auburn's team, the guy who had the most quarterback pressures last season on this roster with their team was Sigler last year.

He had over 30 last season. Well, the fun part about that is he's over 300 pounds and he's getting after the quarterback like that. Really good run stopper, got a high motor from day one of spring practices. It was like, hey, this dude's different. And Auburn really, really pushed hard to get him quickly in the portal. It's easy to see why. I think more people are going to kind of catch on to, like, what kind of player he is, you know, this upcoming season. Really, really talented guy.

I think he can do some of everything. Like I said, high motor. He's going to be one that's going to be super easy to cheer for. And we don't know who Auburn is going to be sending to media days in a couple weeks. I wouldn't be stunned if Sigler was one of them. I think he just had such a great first impression in spring practices with his coaches and his teammates. Absolutely. Well, listen, good to talk with you again. I know you've taken some time off lately.

Well observed. You got the 6 a.m. emails, the mailbag on Friday, the podcast, all sorts of good stuff. Where can we get online and get it? Yep, auburnobserver.com. Check it out there. This week I did a story on Auburn's pass rushing options, looking at that, wrote a story on, you know, breaking down to Kaeya Davenport, one of the running backs that I really, really like, kind of flying under the radar on this team. Broke down Auburn basketball's non-conference schedule as they're, you know, getting practice going right now here in the summer.

And, you know, we had a podcast up today. Didn't get a mailbag answering a lot of questions. So if you want a lot of Auburn football and men's basketball analysis here in the offseason, go to auburnserver.com, sign up there. Six bucks a month or $60 a year to get a full subscription. And, you know, we'll be in media days here in less than a couple weeks. And, you know, when we get back from that, it'll basically be fall camp time. So it's a good time to jump on board and get used to everything before it gets really cranked up again.

Buckle up, my friend. There you have it. Justin Ferguson hooking up with us. Visitor there with the Auburn Observer. Coming up, the man who puts you on the road with a good deal, Elmer Pierce on deck. Stay with us. The final out has been called. The dugout cleared. And now your team is starving. There's only one place to go. Lost Pizza, home of the Monster Pizza. So loaded with cheese, so massive. It's basically its own sport. Whether you're little leaguers, travel ball champs, or rec league legends.

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Something else that's hot, and that's Alabama's recruiting when it comes to quarterbacks. In case you missed it, they added more to the room in basically in the last hour or so, BB. Yeah, four-star quarterback, Kingston pre-year from Benjamin Russell. Again, a 20-28 commitment committed to Alabama. James and I watched that on ESPN, too. Tom Luganville on that broadcast, too, with Roach, too. The Elk River in Athens, Alabama. But, yeah, when you add the 6-7 quarterback walk-on, two from 2027 and two from 2028, there are nine quarterbacks, Harold Bugg, nine quarterbacks.

And a lot of people are saying they've got nine quarterbacks and one offensive lineman to come in. Oh, my gosh, I'm not very smart, but I can't figure that out, BB. But here's the bottom line. People say, why are you doing that? Well, it's four letters. There are four numbers. Two, zero, two, six. That's the way it is now because I think this staff knows realistically they'd love to keep them all on board. Number one, how do you afford that? But they're realistic. They know once they come up with the final depth charts that a lot of these guys are going to be shopping there where it's elsewhere so they don't want to be caught with just a couple of quarterbacks.

So, if that's not what it is. But, to me, I understand that, but, BB, I think a lot of folks, to be objective, they still don't understand. You didn't have a great quarterback, but you still got to have offensive lineman, correct me if I'm wrong, a pretty good running back, correct me if I'm wrong. And did I mention also a pretty good defense? Where are you, when we see the criticism, are they putting too much into the quarterback room and maybe not enough across the board?

Well, again, they've got 48 to 49 kids that are coming back, and they really feel like they will be able to keep the majority of these guys. So, they're having to use some of this NIL money and keep it where they can try to keep these guys next year. And, once again, several of our guests made the point, what happens if Keylon Russell has the year that everybody envisions he might be able to have? His NIL is going to go up, not go down. So, they're keeping some money in the bank for that.

But, I've always been an advocate for years. In a signing class, you need to get a minimum of three offensive linemen and three defensive linemen. In the meantime, the Braves trying to get some legs under. They are riding a two-game winning streak. They're heading into St. Louis. This is a team that basically is pretty much a 500 team. They're 48 and 44. They're a team that's trying to build with a young roster, the management up there. This is pretty much what they sell every year. It's a young roster.

[1:50:14] Put it another way, this management knows how to squeeze a dollar in St. Louis. It's not a big market. Still no excuse. The bar is always going to be set high regardless of the reason for it. The Braves and the Cardinals, your thoughts, they come in with a three-game lead over the fields and the Marlins, BB. Well, I agree with Bill Schoen. So, Harold, I think this is a key series for Atlanta. They can't go there and lose three games. Before the break. Yeah, the all-star break, of course, begins next week with the all-star game Tuesday night.

They got a little bit of momentum after beating Pittsburgh. Jim Jarvis, the former Alabama player, now shortstop, has had a great start. I agree with Bill. Keep him at shortstop and see what he can do for the remainder of the season. But they've got to bring in a starting pitcher, whether it is Scooble or Sonny Gray from Boston. We'll see where all this stuff goes. But it's a key series for Atlanta. They really need to win two out of three. Chris Sale is on the mound tonight, and you can hear that game on 93.9.

Let's go. Here's the deal about Sale. There's two teams that he has not beaten in his MLB career. The cards are one of them, and his current club. There's always room for a first. Chris Sale on the mound for the Braves tonight. And the Braves are on 93.9 The Score, where you can catch it a little bit later on. That's going to take care of biz for now. On behalf of BB, Greg, James Blair, the entire crew here. Peril Buck, thank you so much for your time today.

That's been again Monday, noon to two for the Boomo Bugg Show. Back here on Sports Radio, 93.9 The Score. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.