Boomo Bugg Show 020326

[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. 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 Bama fans say finally some good news.

Good afternoon, welcome in and how are you? Happy Tuesday to you and the listeners. Las Vegas insider Bruce Marshall will predict the Super Bowl and preview some of the SEC basketball games this week. Thomas Ashworth of AL.com will preview the Boys and Girls Power 10. That includes a lot of North Alabama teams and also look at UNH 2026 football schedule. But Roger Hoover is here right now to recap a tough, tough, did I say tough, weekend for Alabama men's and women's basketball. It takes a man as tough as Roger Hoover to explain it all.

He's on the Alabama Crimson Tide Network. Roger, welcome in. Can you handle tough assignments? How are you? Boomo Bugg. I'm doing really well. Looking forward to hopefully not nearly a tough of a week coming up for the Crimson Tide. Inside and out. Before we get in, like we said at the top of the show, Alabama fans have been going through the desert on a horse with no name, looking for probably some water and some good news. Here's why it's interesting, Roger. Before we break down what we're talking about here, why it was a tough week in case you've been out of touch, the final rankings as far as recruiting are in from 24-7 sports, which is a composite.

And after all is said and done, Alabama winds up with the best recruiting class in the SEC. Not in the country. I think Oregon got it because of sheer numbers. But Alabama winds up with the top recruiting class in the SEC. And what's ironic about that, Roger, I want to know how they figured this out. Because tomorrow, correct us if we're wrong, is the second part of the national signing day. But they've already gotten the numbers in. So, Roger, explain yourself to us. Well, I think most of it's based on the early signing period that was completed in December.

So that's where Alabama did very, very well in terms of its high school recruiting. We know the transfer portal has been kind to the Crimson Tide over the last few weeks as well. Because Kalen DeBoer has essentially gotten every player he's wanted to be in Tuscaloosa. You know, they've signed their name. So I think it's a showing of the hard work Coach DeBoer and his staff have done, according to Morgan, the general manager, all kind of being on the same page and making sure they do what's necessary for Alabama to be at the top of the rankings.

And I'm certainly not surprised to see that the Crimson Tide had the best run of anybody in the SEC toward signing day. And, Roger, even in the transfer portal, a lot of people gave Alabama maybe about a C+. They finished much stronger, picked up a death piece at running back a little bit early. In fact, Alabama, I think, finished number 16 in the transfer portals in the various and sundry services. We'll see. Spring practice is certainly going to be huge. But, Roger, I think they have replenished a lot of the talent they lost.

I think so, especially on the line of scrimmage. I know that was a point of emphasis for the staff on really both sides of the ball, making sure the offensive line, which we know is going to have a new coach, we know there's going to be a lot of new faces there, making sure they've got kind of the depth and the size they need there. And then I think on defense, they wanted to see more competition. Too often last year relying on the same kind of handful of four or five players to really do the bulk of the work that sometimes you need six or eight men to do.

So now we've got those six to eight bodies that will be making their way to campus and look forward to seeing the progress they make during the spring. Ryan Grubb, it's almost like he can't wait. It's like, remember when you were a kid, you woke up on Christmas morning and got a box full of toys. You look at at least two of them, and he is beaming with confidence in two guys coming in, and that's no shock. E. Crowell, considered to now be in the latest rankings, the number one running back coming out of high school across the nation he's in.

And C. Morgan, Cedarian Morgan, it looks like these two guys, they're not going to have to sit on that bench very long, Roger. Yeah, I hope not, especially Crowell. The highlights we've seen have just been eye-popping from what he was able to do in high school. So I think for a running back position that's also losing a lot from this past year, there is going to be that opportunity to be a playmaker and contributor right away for this football team. So, again, all of it's really exciting to see, kind of the vision that Coach DeBoer has, putting this roster together.

[5:04] Now it's coming together, and I think the further we get away from some of the transfer portal drama about players, will they, will they not sign, are they going in the portal, are they staying, I think the further away we get from that, the more we get closer to football and actually being able to develop these players. And I think, again, this coaching staff has a very good idea of what they want to do with the guys that have made the decision to come to Alabama.

Roger, there's really no way to sugarcoat a 177 loss on the road to Gainesville, who I think has won the top five teams in the nation, the defending national champions. And I think Florida really won the game in the first media timeout of the second half. They go on a 12-0 run. They forced five turnovers. They grabbed seven rebounds. And over the course of the game, their front, I think they ended up scoring 70 points in the paint, which is amazing in itself. They don't know there's a lot of work to do.

This team, I believe, is overall beginning to get a little bit healthier. They had a very tough game with Bucky Ball and Bucky McMillan Wednesday night. Roger, your thoughts on the Florida game and how Alabama regroups with two very tough games in front of them, A&M and Auburn on Saturday. Yeah, I've got to get ready to go for a huge week ahead, starting with the Aggies coming up tomorrow night. And I think the loss to Florida showed some of the flaws that this team has shown throughout the course of the season.

Not being tough in the paint like you want to be and not getting those tough rebounds when you've got to get them. And as you mentioned, Brett, the turnovers are just killer for this team. You know, as good as this backcourt can be with LeBaron final on Aiden Holloway. Turnovers take away what Alabama does best, and that's get quick shots, get quick three-pointers up, and score in a hurry. If you're turning the ball over, you can't score. So I think that made life a little tough for Alabama.

The Florida matchup has just been tricky for the last few seasons, no matter what the reasons are going up against Todd Golden's teams. But, you know, it's a good Florida basketball team, and I think Alabama learned a lot from it. And now you've got to apply that learning and really protect the home floor in a way that Alabama hasn't needed to the last few years under Nate Oates. So this is kind of the most perilous position Alabama's been in around the midway point or just past the midway point of SEC play.

We've typically seen Nate's teams start very strong. And then if they do fade, some of the teams haven't faded, but if they do fade, it's towards the last week of the season. You know, right now this group has to dig deep and make sure that they turn the month of February into the one they want it to be. Roger Hoover, Crimson Tide Network, and Brad put it out there. You can't sugarcoat it because right now this to me is one of the most critical parts of the schedule because you have all these expectations.

And right now, as the British would say, they're level pegging at 4-4 inside the conference play. Obviously, they just snapped a 42-week streak of being in the top 25. They're now outside the top 25. This is gut check time. And of all things to do it, this is not exactly an easy assignment trying to break it coming up this week with the schedule that's facing them. Yeah, with Texas A&M playing at a very high level off to a 7-1 start in conference play, that's a group that's won on the road.

That's a group that's won at home. Regardless of who they played in SEC play, after kind of a lackluster non-conference schedule, the Aggies are playing extremely well. So, I think this is going to be a huge game coming up for the Crimson Tide. You know, Buck McMillan with his history of being a lifelong resident of Birmingham, former coach at Samford and Mountain Brook. They're going to have people hanging from the rafters from all over, you know, Mountain Brook and Homewood, making their way to Coleman Coliseum.

This game means a lot to him, but hopefully it's not a great homecoming coming up on Wednesday. And then, it's Alabama against Auburn, you know, regardless of what the sport is. It's a huge rivalry, and it's one where you really want to win, and you know that Auburn, no matter what's going on with their team, they're going to have a great home court advantage coming up on Saturday. Even though Alabama won its last trip there, you know it's going to take everything you've got to try and get a win on Saturday against a very good Auburn team.

Roger, I nearly used the same description for the Alabama women. There's no way to sugarcoat losing by 40 in Baton Rouge to a very, very good. They're neither number six or number seven, but probably been updated since then, 103 to 63. Jessica Timmons had, I believe, 15. Carly Weathers had 10. But, Roger, I kind of look at the big picture with Alabama women's basketball. They've come a long way in the last two or three years with Christy Curry. Yes, they lost to LSU, South Carolina in a close game to Auburn, but they're 19-4, 5-4.

They've got, I believe, Ole Miss coming up, yeah, on Thursday. Roger, there is no question, though. I think this Alabama women's basketball team is certainly headed in the right direction as far as competing for an SEC championship. Yeah, and even just looking at what Alabama's done this season, despite the loss against LSU, there were some really good things in that ballgame. Alabama just didn't have its best day defensively. And LSU kind of had an uncharacteristic game on offense. I mean, seemingly everything was going in for them, especially from three-point land, in a way that they have not made three-point shots this season.

[10:36] So you kind of chalked that one up as a tough day, but to win previously on the road at Georgia in the top 25 matchup on Thursday and kind of win handily in that matchup, I thought said a lot about how good this team can be. Because, again, there's a clear separation between the top three programs in this league and the rest of the league. Like the top three being South Carolina, Texas, and LSU, just operating at a different level, it seems like, than the rest of the SEC.

But it seems like Alabama and Ole Miss are trying to be in that picture. And right now the Rebels and the Crimson Tide are just kind of on the outside, only a few games back, of those top-tier programs. So it's going to be a battle coming up on Thursday night. And it's going up against an Ole Miss team that hasn't been home in about two weeks. They have, you know, the campus has been completely shut down due to the ice in Oxford. They haven't had water on campus.

So as a result, the last two games that the Ole Miss women's team has played has been in Alabama at Birmingham's Legacy Arena. And they've won those games. It's been amazing, including last night beat Auburn in Birmingham. So, you know, they're coming in on some short rest. They haven't been home in weeks. But I think that's kind of galvanized that team. So it's going to take a great effort from Alabama to beat an Ole Miss team that kind of feels like the world. And circumstances are against them over the last couple weeks with how much their lives have been disrupted by the winter storm.

So it's setting up for one. It's going to be a really dramatic week of basketball. And then we had the Texas A&M coming up over the weekend. And hopefully we can get a win against the struggling Aggies team and then move on after that. I'm proud you brought that up about the campus because we get so caught up in sports. That place looks like it's almost snowmageddon, literally. And shout out to all the linemen. I know right next door to us over in Tishomingo County, a lineman cost him an arm.

He was amputated because he was electrocuted, trying to restore power. So that whole channel of area from Oxford up through Tippa County, which is Walnut, Sladen, up through Kossuth, Corinth, Iyuka, and north of there. Hands off to all those folks out there trying to get the power restored. I'm proud you brought that up. Roger, what about some good news? Is the baseball team ready to go and shake off some of this chill? I think so. I think they are excited to get outside and play some good baseball.

I got to MC their first pitch banquet on Saturday and host Bingo as well. That was a really fun time with over 300 Alabama fans that we had at Saban Field. So a good time with Coach Vaughn and the Crimson Tide players. Justin LeBron is back at shortstop. He could very well be the number one pick in the MLB draft in the summer. So he had opportunities to go to basically any college baseball program he wanted to. He would have given him a blank check for how much money he wanted.

But he talked about how his only thing he wants this year is not money. It's a trip to Omaha with his Crimson Tide teammates and getting this program back where it rightfully belonged in the 90s for so many trips to Omaha. But trying to get back there for the first time since 1999. So I think there's a good feeling around that group. And I can't wait to be at Sewell Thomas Stadium coming up next weekend. We've got softball starting this weekend for the Crimson Tide and Coach Patrick Murphy.

And then next week it's baseball's turn to get it going. And then it's going to be a mad sprint to the finish of the school year with everything that we have going on on campus. I saw some bold predictions yesterday for Alabama baseball. And we'll see. Everybody's got to stay healthy and see how this goes. But Justin LeBron wins the 2026 SEC Player of the Year after 18 home runs and 72 RBIs maybe. Land three players on the freshman all-SEC team. Caleb Barnett, outfielder Eric Hines, Miles Upchurch. And a pitching staff that if they can stay healthy may have an ERA under 4.5 with Tyler Faye, Zane Adams, and Heiberger.

Roger, we'll see where that goes. But some folks are beginning to get excited about Alabama baseball. And they should because I think now three years in, Coach Vaughn really understands what SEC baseball looks like and kind of the numbers on the roster you need to have to be competitive in what is the most competitive baseball league you'll play in. You know, last year was a great step forward, getting 40 wins for the first time in 20 years, going undefeated in midweek games. And Alabama did that against some extremely good programs, mostly in our state.

You know, teams like UAB and Troy that put all these effort and resources into upsetting the Crimson Tide. And they weren't able to do that this past year. So I think you can expect something similar from this group this year. But the main thing that I kept hearing from Coach Vaughn and our banquet and even in some private conversations with them, the freshmen are ready to go for SEC baseball. He doesn't really feel like he needs to shelter them a little bit from how tough the transition is from high school to college baseball.

He's like, we've got a lot of guys that, like Crowell, the running back, talked about earlier. I mean, these guys are going to be ready to go from opening day. So I think that's a really exciting sign about how good this team can be is the fact that all this young talent that's on the roster will be ready to contribute as soon as February 13th begins. Absolutely. Well, you're ready to go, too. I know Wednesday night, Texas A&M, Thursday, Ole Miss, and then Crimson Drive, Aiden Holloway of Alabama basketball loan.

[15:56] Who else have you got on Thursday and the rest of the week, bud? And where can we get online and get your stuff and everybody else's? Yeah, just follow the Crimson Times Sports Network at UA underscore CTSN and all social media platforms. We'll have the Aiden Holloway interview today. And then we're going to talk to Ace Austin for over 20 minutes coming up on Thursday's show. Talk about everything Spring Garden and her transition to playing college basketball for the Crimson Tide. Really outstanding young lady that should make everybody in the state proud the way she has made her freshman transition and just really wants to represent Alabama at a high level.

So we'll have those shows again Tuesday, Thursday, 2 o'clock on our social media platforms at UACTSN. And then, like you mentioned, men's basketball tomorrow, women's basketball on Thursday. So a busy couple days at Coleman Coliseum before I head to Texas over the weekend to visit the Aggies on Sunday. Really tough tip-off time. It's 5 o'clock on Sunday going up against the Super Bowl. I'm not sure how many teams Alabama has Texas A&M is going to steal. I think it should be an illegal tip time. I'm going to write a letter to the commissioner to thank you about it.

But, yeah, 5 o'clock on Sunday, we'll be playing women's basketball if you get bored and roll a football game. There's a test to find out how many people's watching. Cut loose with some English, and you'll find out in a hurry, Roger. Just be careful what you wish for. Safe travels to and prom, and thank you so much for your time today. All right. Thank you, guys. Roll time. Thank you, buddy. Roger Hoover with us, Crimson Tide Sports Network. I'll tell you what, what a name, Ace, and what a freshman living up their name so far for Alabama.

Coming up, he is the legend, Coach Donnie Smith. Don Deck, stay with us. Hello, folks. Mark Humphrey, new car sales manager at Ray Miller GMC, where we treat you like family. We understand that buying an automobile is the second largest purchase you'll do in your lifetime. And just like all the Alabama athletic programs, we take pride in what we do. So, if you're looking for a new or pre-owned automobile, we have you covered. Also, don't forget to schedule your next oil change or any of your mechanical issues with our award-winning service and parts department.

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And they're right there in the wad with a lot of teams trying to get traction. But who has a bigger task in Alabama right now? All they got to do to get back on track is, one, take on the top team right now in the SEC and Texas A&M. And then go on the road to their toughest nemesis in terms of arch rivalry, the Auburn Tigers. This is a gut check time, especially after falling out of the top 25 for the first time in 42 weeks, baby.

Alabama may have the toughest week, Harold, of any team in the country. Hopefully, they can rebound. Again, I mentioned this. I know Alabama amazingly did not even score in the first media timeout of the second half as the Gators took advantage of that. I think Coach is ready for us now. But, Harold, no question. Auburn's got to buy this week to get ready for Alabama. That will help them. But Alabama's schedule this week is brutal. Former Auburn-slash-VCU head coach, or as we like to call in the legend of the Plains, Coach Sonny Smith, welcome in.

How have you been? I'm good. How are you guys? Good to hear your voices again. You too. You too, man. Listen, here's the bottom line. If we're on top of the ground, life is good. Is it not, Coach? It's all gravy from here. I guarantee you. That's exactly right. Let's talk basketball, Coach. Obviously, when's the last time you've seen a season like this where buckyball, we want to get into that. What a story there. Brent and I are just talking just about, it's almost like NASCAR.

Everybody's bunched up right there in the middle of the pack. Alabama and Auburn, kind of the middle of it, along with a lot of other teams. Coach, before we get into the Auburn Tigers and some specifics there, your thoughts overall about the league right now so far? I think the league is better than it used to be from the standpoint of the number of teams that have winning records and have the possibility of NCAA play. I didn't think that would happen because I thought recruiting was going to pick up in this conference, maybe to the best in the country, but maybe it hadn't, or maybe the players were not as good as they were.

But I think we've had some great games, so I don't think it's lack of being able to recruit. Sonny, let me ask you about Auburn and Tennessee. That was a very good game Saturday night. Tennessee comes out a 77-69 winner. I think one of the primary reasons, Tennessee out-rebounded Auburn 46-30. And when you get out-rebounded by 16, Tennessee is one of the best rebounding teams in the country. They demand their freshman, Sonny, looks like an NBA player already. Dwayne Brown came off the bench, the kid from Hoover, and he played well.

[26:49] Auburn responded, got close again. Keyshawn Hall had 21. Pettifer had 11. And you're going to lose games in this league. Sonny, your thoughts on both Auburn and Tennessee? Well, as Auburn plays, when they shoot the ball, they're very difficult to beat because they do a really good job of defending. And they do it with man-to-man. They also do it with zone. They don't rebound as well as I thought they might. But if they can come out on top on the rebounding situations, I think they're going to be very difficult to beat.

Legend, Coach Sonny-Smith. Coach, obviously, you know this better than any of us. Coaching in the SEC can turn your hair gray or turn it loose, one of the two. But your thoughts about the job that Steve and Pearl's done and the circumstances of having to fill some pretty big shoes down there from Papa. Yeah, I'm not surprised that he's doing well. I thought that he would. He's grown up under coaches all his life. He's been around the Auburn program for years. And I think he will join well with the Auburn fans.

And I know he's going to be able to recruit because it's all he's ever done. And I think he'll recruit pretty well. And Auburn's a good place to recruit, too. Probably one in the top five in the league, of course. Sonny, we'll get into Alabama and Florida in a minute. But you mentioned Auburn does a good job of playing defense. We saw that against Florida in Gainesville. Florida ran Alabama at the gym in the second half on Sunday. But when Auburn played Florida, they matched their physicality.

They were able to rebound. But Alex Condon, who went off about 20-something points against Alabama, had one point against Auburn. You're right about defense. That's one thing Steve and Pearl stresses over and over again. Auburn is a very good defensive team. They really are. I don't know that their depth is going to be strong enough to beat number one, number two teams, you know, like that. But if they can stay out of foul trouble, I think they can be in any game. He's well-schooled on the things that he does.

He's been around the Auburn program. He knows how to get the fans involved. And they really are involved. And so I think Steven's going to do a good job. I really do. Coach, have you ever seen a more Cinderella-type story than Bucky Ball? It's now a moniker out there. I mean, he went from being a high school coach where he had to basically depend on free fries with his Big Mac because he was a local celebrity to now making millions and millions. Your thoughts about the job of Bucky coming from where he was just a handful of years ago until now.

He is a rock star in the SEC. He really is. And I had forgotten about all that stuff that you just mentioned. But you described it really well right there. And I think he's going to be good for a number of years because he's a recruiter. Sonny, nobody knows this better than you do. Nate Owens had a bad day on Sunday afternoon. Florida led by 10 at halftime, even though Alabama, I thought, was very competitive for the majority of the half. And then Florida comes out in the first five minutes in the first media timeout.

They go on a 12-0 run. They get five turnovers. Alabama ends up with 18. And then Florida wins the game going away. Sonny, regrouping and getting ready for the next game. You've got to be able to do that. And I know, unfortunately, I'm sure you had some days like that in your career. How does a coach get a team back up, get ready to play, and particularly, as Harold mentioned, one of the toughest teams in the SEC, Texas A&M? Well, one thing you have to do, and I think every team would be placed in this category, you've got to be able to sell the next game, next game possibility.

And you don't ever go into that without that, in my opinion. And that's either home or away. Boy, this league is so strong from top to bottom, you can't just say, well, we're going to wipe the floor if these boys want to come to our place. It doesn't work yet anymore. Everybody's got themselves in a position where their starting fives are all SEC calibers or higher. Yep. Yep. No question about that. Listen, we're going to let you go. We wanted to touch base with you again and get your thoughts on the SEC.

[31:52] Hopefully, we can do this with you again in the coming weeks. But it is a delight, once again, to always talk with you. I hope you're doing well. Jan's doing well in the family. Coach, let's do this again real soon. I'd love it. Thank you very much for calling me. Thank you so much. The one, the only legend of the plains, Coach Donnie Smith. They say there is a pretty big football game this weekend. What's the Vegas thing about the super matchup? Bruce Marshall on deck.

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They are set to race the Cookout Clash at Bowman Grace Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. That ahead of the duels next week, which all leads up to the Daytona 500 on February 15th. Bundle auto and home renters or condo and save with Progressive. I'm John Thayer with the Sports Flash presented by Progressive on 93.9. The score. For your big game party, you better pop in to Total Wine and More for a guaranteed win. We've got thousands of bottles down every aisle and prices so low they're gonna make you smile.

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Deploy your career in IT today at mycomputercareer.edu slash CWP in Elite CompTIA certification partner. BA education benefits are available to those who qualify. The Score. Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Welcome back in in Vegas jargon. I bet he is a busy boy this week. Bruce Marshall busy there at Las Vegas Insider. Bam! Sports.net. Winners and Winners picks and parlays. CBS Sportline, Sportsline, and Vegas Insider amongst others. Bruce Marshall, welcome in. How are you? Hey, I'm pretty good at Super Bowl week.

We'll finally be done with football. Seems like it's been going on a long time. It has. Six, seven months. Almost a year round thing now. Yeah, what was it? Last weekend was the first time since August we didn't have any football. Bruce, are you ready for the Bad Bunny show this weekend? Are you a Bad Bunny boy? No, I don't think so. I think I'll tune out at halftime. But I usually tune out at halftime. I just wish they'd bring one of the old show bands back.

I mean, you know, Grambling or Prairie Viewer. Just let them like the first Super Bowl, you know, 40 a.m. I think was there at halftime. So, that's all I would want. I'm so old. I remember Bad Bunny was something that Hugh Heflin had to deal with. Let's talk about the game itself. Obviously, the wait is finally here. In some ways, obviously, if you're a hardcore football fan, it's always fun. But the Super Bowl is one of those games. It's kind of like, would you agree? It's kind of like Wimbledon or the Masters.

Even the Nunn fan would tune in because of all the stuff that goes around it. But your thoughts just about the Masters. coming in here on the Tuesday before the Sunday. Yeah, I mean, it's been overhyped for a long time. The games, yeah, and last year certainly didn't. Now, we have had some pretty good games in recent memory. Two years ago, we got an overtime with the 49ers and Chiefs and the Chiefs and the Eagles before that right down to the end. Last year wasn't too good.

But, I mean, it's the surrounding hype around it. It gets a little bit too much to take, I think, and all the peripheral things. And a lot of people who watch the game, I understand that. I mean, a lot of people who don't watch much football will tune this in. And some will bet the props, which I think is really I'll tell you, the hardest thing to do on a Super Bowl Sunday is to watch a game with a big group of people or in a big ball or whatever.

And so many people have bet these inane props in every play they're cheering about something. It's not a good way to watch the game. And that's why I sort of steer away from the props. You know, it's not really the game. And it takes away from it to be around people who will just cheer on every play and they're not really following the game. They're just worrying about their prop. And I would rather just watch the game. So we'll probably just stay at home and watch and I'll be unbothered by all the hoopla and all that and just watch the game as much as I can.

Let me ask you about some of the basic fundamentals of either a middle school game or the Super Bowl is winning the line of scrimmage. Listen, these quarterbacks are going to get so much attention this week and they deserve it. Drake May, they've had a tremendous run with New England. Sam Darnold showed what he could really do last week in a game. But running the ball, which team can run the ball short in the game at long drives. Seattle up into the game two weeks ago had been running for 170 yards a game.

Kenneth Walker has had a good season. Stevenson and Trayvon Henderson for New England. Who can run the ball most effectively Sunday? Brett, I'm going to say Seattle, although Charbonnet is not there. And that is sort of a negative. Walker has been so good this year and Seattle has, like you say, pretty consistently run against everybody this year. I know New England's got those two backs, Anderson and Stevenson, but I don't expect either of them to move as well running the ball as Seattle. I think the edge up front both ways.

[42:36] I think we'll go to Seattle and I think that might go a long way to determining the outcome on Sunday. You know, the thing is, Bruce, it looks like just from afar that New England has been living like a cat's life, nine lives. Everything has fallen right for the Patriots. Your thoughts, will the Cinderella story continue this weekend or will Seattle's defense, if they live up to their reputation, how do you see the Patriots winning this thing? Well, I think you've hit the nail on the head at least the way I look at it there, Harold.

There was a strange and odd confluence of factors in the AFC this year that all contributed to New England. Now, give New England credit for being the last team standing here, but the whole AFC sort of collapsed around the Patriots. I mean, think about it. The teams that were supposed to contend, the Kansas Cities and the Baltimores and the Cincinnati down years and all had quarterbacks get hurt. Mahomes got hurt later in the year, but that sort of finished Kansas City up. Burrow was out most of the year for Cincinnati.

Lamar Jackson was hurt. This is a good chunk of the season not the same coming back. How about this one? I mean, up to mid-season, Indianapolis was, I think, the best team in the AFC and that started to change immediately when Daniel Jones went out. and it had continued for New England into the playoffs here against Denver without Bo Nix last week. I think Denver wins, I think Nix is there. But even in the playoffs, you faced a couple teams with some real offensive line injury problems.

the Chargers, you know, they're down to the third running back and their line was decimated. Same with Houston. And one more thing, the schedule this year, we had talked about that before and again, New England couldn't do anything about this. I mean, they did what a good team is supposed to do, so give them credit for that. But, and they won all their games away from home, which is pretty impressive, but it's a diet of Jets and Dolphins and Saints and Titans and they did catch a couple that did win at Buffalo, but that was at a time when Buffalo was dropping some games mid-season to the Falcons and Dolphins.

They did come back to beat Baltimore late, but Baltimore wasn't the same this year. One other note, the crossover this year to the NFC, New England was playing the South in the NFC, so those were all games, you know, winnable games. They were not playing the NFC West or the NFC North, which would have been much tougher in the crossover, so I just think, you know, everything sort of collapsed around the Patriots, anybody who follows European soccer, it was sort of last year in England, Liverpool, the same thing happened, all the contenders sort of collapsed around with injuries and managerial problems.

They were sort of the last team left standing, and that's how I sort of view the Patriots, though I don't think any of that really applies this week. It's got New England to the final, but I don't think those dynamics are going to work for them against the Seahawks. It's obvious you're leaning towards Seattle. What are your one or two keys for a Seattle win in your prediction? Seattle will have to kind of keep doing things the way they did, and Darnold will have to avoid mistakes.

Now, that is still a little bit of a concern with him because during the year, he was guilty of more giveaways. 20, had 14 picks and six fumbles, more than any quarterback in the league, and we saw him at the end of last year struggle some too, but I think he dispelled some of those concerns last week against the Rams. He had a spectacular game, and it looks like he is probably up to it, so I'd say him avoiding mistakes is one. Two, New England, if they're going to do something here, May is going to have to have a pretty big game, and I would point out too, he has not excelled in the playoffs whatsoever.

He's been sacked five times in each of the games. He didn't look good. Now, last week, yeah, I mean, the conditions in Denver were more for the Iditarod than a football game, so I don't want to knock him too much for that, but he didn't look comfy to me against the Chargers or the Texans the first two rounds. He's done basically nothing in the playoffs, so he's going to have to really step it up big, so I hate to base everything around the quarterbacks, but those are the guys who can impact the game the most, and if Darnold just doesn't make mistakes, I think it's an advantage to Seattle because I don't think May is going to do too much in this game.

Bruce, let's switch gears, go inside, talk basketball, and dive even deeper into ACC basketball. Your thoughts over all the incredible story of Bucky Ball. Next up, he's coming home to Alabama, which leads to the next question, Bruce, what the heck is going on with Alabama at 4-4 with a quote pro player on the team that's now they're 1-2 since he's been back on the court for them? Yeah, well, there's a lot of Betti I'll go have it wherever he plays. I guess he'll get A&M at home tomorrow.

[47:49] We will see. Yeah, Bucky Ball, I think Bucky should be in the coach of the year conversation for sure. This is basically a new team with A&M, and he's got transfers in, and these weren't top-of-the-line transfers. I mean, some good transfers, but the whole team is new. But I've been watching, you know, A&M finally, in the two polls this week, it finally got to 25 in one of the polls and still isn't ranked in the other one. And this is for a team that's in first place in the SEC into February.

So it's sort of, it's like the preseason mindset among the voters. They're still reacting to what they thought these teams were going to be. I bet a lot of them don't even know A&M is in first place in the SEC. But there they are. Bucky ball is working pretty well. So they're a storyline that they'll, you know, Lenardi certainly got them all safely into his bracket. Florida is the other one I would watch here. I mean, this front line is really something else. They've been getting better backcourt play lately, but it looks like after Florida struggled with some losses early, and they were close to Duke and the UConn losses were really close and Missouri loss was really close.

I know Auburn got them a couple weeks ago, but man, they let Alabama have it pretty good on the weekend there, and I think that team looks awfully scary right now. It really does. You're such a historian in so many sports. I saw this today and I was amazed for LSU head coach. Dale Brown reportedly, and obviously he's got the time to do this now, charted every one of Pete Marevich's shots in college. I wonder how long that took to begin with. Marevich would have scored, according to Dale Brown, if they had the three-point line, and people forget this, freshmen could not play on the varsity during Pete Marevich's time, but after charting every one of his shots in college that he made, Marevich would have scored a total of 4,731 career points.

He would have averaged 57 points a game, Bruce. 57 points a game. Wow. Yeah, I know. That was something. You know, another one, and that Rick Mount, in that era, too. I mean, most of Purdue, most of his shots were deep as well, so I'd like to see how a chart would be with Mount. He's a tick under Marevich scoring. But, yeah, I mean, that didn't surprise me. It wasn't long ago. I was watching some Marevich highlights, you know, and he was the ultimate. It helped have his dad as coach let him go out there and shoot all he wanted.

By the way, LSU, now that you bring LSU up, there's a coach. McMahon is in some real trouble down there. And I think we're looking at a change there. And they're already talking about potential replacements, and that fellow from St. Louis, Josh Schertz, is coming up on a lot of short lists here for teams that are going to be looking for somebody. LSU might be great for change. And, you know, Oklahoma, you know, Porter Mosier, I don't know how much he can survive being in the bottom of the SEC like he is right now, but that was a bad loss for Oklahoma blowing that lead against Texas last week.

Mosier might be in some trouble, too. It's like LSU is going up I-55, Oxford, St. Louis, just pick you out of coach there, LSU, and write a check. All right, Bruce, we get away a couple of questions. The Bruce Marshall under the radar game may be college basketball and your pick for a final score this weekend in football. Tonight, let's go in the Atlantic 10, and there are, it's an interesting league, because you've got, I mentioned St. Louis, but you've got some other teams that are sort of straddling the cup line, and one, George Mason, which I think should be in the tournament but isn't right now, Virginia Commonwealth, that's Phil Martelli Jr., by the way, coaching Virginia Commonwealth.

They have a game tonight at Fordham, and they're laying about eight and a half, nine. But Fordham is actually pretty scrappy this year. Mike Mike Pio, the new coach, coming from California at UC Riverside, he's got Fordham pretty scrappy, and I would almost take Fordham plus the points there tonight. It's just later in the season to go laying a lot of points on the road against a decent team. It's tough. VCU wins, it'll be closer than the spread. Also, I'd just go against Loyola Chicago right now.

They're bad, and I would take a LaSalle, which I don't do too much LaSalle, into Chicago tonight. By the way, I don't know if you guys noticed last night that North Carolina was up 31 inside of seven minutes to go against Syracuse, laying 11 points and won by 10. So if you had North Carolina, you were pretty sad. If you had Syracuse, you thought Christmas came 11 months early last night. So watch 40 minutes of these games because that can happen. My Super Bowl forecast, I'm going to give you Seattle.

[52:58] I think they're going to win kind of handily, and we talked about this a couple weeks ago before the colleges when Indiana was rolling up scores. Sometimes these title games end up being lopsided like Kansas City and Philadelphia. was last year. I think Seattle wins this thing handily. Not quite the way the Eagles won last year, but comfortably enough. 27-15 my score forecast. That also keeps it under the total. I don't think May does too much. As long as Darnold doesn't make mistakes, they take the Super Bowl title back to Seattle.

Well, yeah, I kind of agree with you on that. One last thing about Maravich and Pistol Pete. He was nearly as good of a passer as he was a shooter. In fact, his passes were so amazing, the teammates would drop it because they never understood how anybody could do that. Between the legs, over the head, he was just an absolutely incredible player, as is Bruce Marshall with his picks, college basketball, a lot of it tonight and this week, the Super Bowl, National Hockey League, all sorts of stuff going on.

Where can we get online and get the gold? Everything is gold with you. Where can we get all the good stuff? Thanks, Brad. Check me out online at the old standbys, vegasinsider.com. We've got some basketball there, a little hockey. By the way, we've got an Olympic break coming up in hockey, so we won't have NHL for a couple of weeks. But anyway, that's what's going on there. Also, at cbssportsline.com and picks with a different twist at winnersandwhiners.com and picksandparlays.com. Bruce, as always, knocks it out of the park.

Thanks so much and keep up the good work. Let's do it again soon, okay? Okay, gentlemen, enjoy the games. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. You do the same. Bruce Marshall going to win us amongst other places, Vegas and Saturday. Coming up the next hour, we're going to get more of the super coverage from Matt Merchelle, Joe Cox bringing it home to the Southeastern Conference and even closer to Alabama. Thomas Ashworth, it's all straight ahead of the Boone Bug Show. Stay with us. Hi, this is Ike Fowler with Alabama Health Guidance.

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AFC against the NFC in San Francisco ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl, which will be played in Santa Clara at Levi's Stadium. The Seahawks and the Patriots are set to play in Super Bowl 60 on Sunday. The NASCAR Cup Series will have the unofficial start to the season tomorrow evening. They are set to race the cookout clash at Bowman Grace Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. That ahead of the duels next week, which all leads up to the Daytona 500 on February 15th. Bundle auto and home, renters or condo, and save with Progressive.

[58:18] I'm John Thayer with the Sports Flash presented by Progressive on 93.9 The Score. For your big game party, you better pop in to Total Wine and More for a guaranteed win. We've got thousands of bottles down every aisle and prices so low, they're gonna make you smile. Ask our helpful guides for a recommendation to add some wine and beer to your beverage station. Discover something new and let the fun begin. Come on down to Total Wine and More for a guaranteed win. treat responsibly B-21. Career changers including veterans and active duty service members.

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Boomo Bugg, on 93.9, The Score. So let me stand by there. He's got the Texas A&M Aggies all covered at what better place than texaggs.com. I think Elko's really good at, look, here's the place we gotta get better. Let's address them. And you know what? The guy that's not necessarily at that position may not be the best player for us. And that's what he's done so well. So you have an open mind, you know, that maybe you didn't get the top name player. You know, maybe they're not getting the girl to date, but they're getting the girl to marry.

That's a good way to put it. And it's February, it's Valentine's Month, you're giving out that love advice. You're giving out Godiva, we're giving out Russell Stover and Whitman Sampers up here, okay, Owen? So keep up the Godiva advice, okay? We'll do the best we can. I'm not going to ride naked on a horse. There you go. Not again. The Boomo Bugg Show, weekdays, noon to two on 93.9 The Score. 93.9 The Score weather. Today, a 100% chance of afternoon showers with a high around 55. Tonight, cloudy with a 60% chance of showers overnight and a low near 35.

Tomorrow, mostly cloudy with possible wind gusts up to 20 miles an hour and a high around 40. Tomorrow night, partly cloudy with a low near 20. And for your Thursday, sunny with a high around 40. Your weather from 93.9 The Score. Now, get ready to roll Shoals, Decatur, Athens, and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee. It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM sports voice. The Boomo Bugg Show. Your exclusive inside track to the tie. Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC. Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score.

And welcome back into the Boomo Bugg Show. Harold will be with us in just a few minutes, but this time of the year, the regular season for high school basketball is winding down, and the playoffs are just around the corner, along with a lot of other stuff, and it's always delighted to bring in our good friend, Thomas Ashworth, sports reporter for AOL.com. Thomas, welcome to the show today, buddy. How are you doing? Hey, I'm doing good. I'm wondering where the heck January went, like you said, with the playoffs starting, but here we are.

It's in the refrigerator, I think, Thomas, in the deep freeze, and hopefully you got through it okay. Let's kind of, you got a lot on your plate there, obviously the powwow last week with the high school folks in Montgomery, but you also cover UNA, and here's what's ironic about it, you cover the entire North Alabama area, UNA announcing their schedule, get your thoughts overall, starting with what I think is a tremendous marking and ideal, kicking off the season against Sanford in Huntsville at Joe Davis Stadium.

That stadium goes back to the mid-80s, got a lot of history there with the former Huntsville Stars, Oakland A's, et cetera, but now that ship has sailed, they've renovated it, it's now a nice facility there, easy in, easy out if you're a fan. Your thoughts about overall UNA's football schedule now in the house, starting with an opening game there in the Rocket City? Yeah, I don't know if y'all remember UNA playing Jack State as a baseball stadium a few years back, but this will be way better than that.

[1:03:25] can pretty much guarantee it. Oh yeah, but this is a great opportunity. I mean, there have been high school football there for the last couple of years, St. John Paul 2 and Grissom actually calling it their home stadium, and then there were obviously some other teams that played there as well, so there's some good football there, and I think it's a great idea. I mean, it's not just you're getting two random opponents, it's a matchup that hasn't been played in I think 20 years or over 20 years, something like that.

It's a really exciting matchup, and I mean, it's a chance for obviously North Alabama to have a new market in a way. You know, you're introducing it to people in Birmingham as well. I mean, there's no reason that people that are big Sanford fans can't make the trip up and watch the game as well, so I mean, it's a really exciting matchup, I think. Anytime you can get two teams from the state of Alabama to play each other is always a huge deal, but getting it in Huntsville at a neutral site, could lead to more things.

I mean, there's no reason that there can't be more games every year there. I mean, I think it's a really good venue. I think that being in the stadium personally a couple times, it creates a really cool atmosphere. It's really intimate in a way. It feels like you're really close to the action, which will be really cool for college football. I think it's a great idea. I think it's a slam-dunk move for both programs. In fact, it's a very interesting schedule. The first home game for UNA is Alcorn State, September the 19th.

Why is that the case? Number one, to make sure that the stadium is ready. But we talked about Samford at the renovated Joe Davis Stadium. What about the next next week at Arkansas? I'm not talking about Arkansas and Little Rock. I'm talking about the Hogs in Fayetteville. It's going to be interesting with a new coach there too for Arkansas at Southeast Louisiana. Then they come back for two home games in a way game at Eastern Kentucky. As you noted in your article, three consecutive home games.

late August September is quite a schedule for them. Yeah, it is. I think this is the first, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's the first SEC game in the program Division I history. I think, but I could be wrong on that. It's a big deal, obviously, when you're getting that kind of money, especially to play Arkansas. They've played Florida State in the past. Last year, I don't think they had one, but they played Buster Kentucky on the road. But any time you can get a team like that on your schedule and get yourself in front of a national audience is always a good move for any team.

It's really exciting for them to be able to open up big independent stadiums. I know it's been kind of on a wish list for a lot of UNA fans to have some place where they don't have to drive 10 to 15 minutes potentially to go watch some football. It's a really exciting move for them. I know they've been playing this for a long time. All we've seen is a bunch of cinder blocks and renderings and that kind of thing. It'll be really cool to be able to actually play some football, especially when you have a bunch of home games.

You get three road games. The first one's in Huntsville, but you get two home road games and then the rest, I think, you only have two or three road games after that. You get a lot of home cooking, which is really good. You're getting some really interesting opponents as well. Sacramento State, that's a really interesting matchup with the kind of transition. They've tried to have to FBS. Austin PA is always an interesting matchup. Harleton States have programmed looking to jump to FBS as well. You're getting some really good matchups at home.

Not only that, but you get in a new stadium. and not only that, it's a good strategy to number one, the game at Arkansas, let's not kid ourselves, that's a nice paycheck there. Coming to Huntsville expands your footprint as far as recruiting because you go back to those great teams for UNA that won those three national championship games. They had a lot of folks from this neck of the woods of Huntsville and the surrounding areas on that team. And then going to Arkansas, any time a team like that plays an SEC team, it gives you national exposure.

So from a standpoint of picking up a check and expanding your footprint, I think it's a good strategy. Thomas, obviously that's a ways off. Looking at the situation here as far as high school situations across the state, the private schools having a big powwow last Friday down in Montgomery, your reaction to that? Were you surprised at the quote saying we plan to stay or we want to stay together? A lot of folks thought they might throw a hitch in things, but it looks like they're saying, you know what, let's see how this goes and not rattle the cage too much right now?

Yeah, it's obviously it was really interesting. My understanding is that was already a pre-planned meeting, just kind of ahead after, you know, we're going to meet after this decision, but they moved it to Friday in person and it sounds like it was a pretty packed house, a lot of people on Zoom as well, so really interesting. It's my understanding that the ISA director was there as well and Lieutenant Governor Ainsworth was there as well, so a really interesting mix of people. I don't know what he's going to complain about on Twitter next, but we'll see what comes of that.

[1:08:46] There's obviously a lot of decisions still to be made. What are the playoffs going to look like? next week or this week is the central board meeting. There's no competitive balance or multiplier or anything. There's no real reason why they can't release basketball areas or softball areas down the road. We can see a lot of decisions at this next board meeting as well. It's really interesting what it might look like. are they still going to keep it the same as far as regions? I know there's a lot of concerns about travel.

Are these concerns going to be weighed? There's a lot to know. It looks like it's all kind of fluid right now. With the playoffs and everything it's kind of a big question mark as to what that's going to look like as well. Amazing. We are at the postseason. A lot of teams have got games the next couple of days beginning Thursday. I believe the girls begin area play for the championship to get to the sub regionals. Boys are Friday. Class 7A I believe is next Monday.

But you do the power 10 for both boys and girls. We'll look at the boys first. Albertville number eight. In fact, they play Muscle Shoals tonight and the Trojans have won 14 of 15 games. They are hot. James Clemens is number five at 19 and four. and those Huntsville Crimson Panthers are number one, Thomas. They continue to roll. You've got your teams to watch. Decatur Heritage, East Limestone, they're 23 and two. Gunnersville 20 and four. Oakwood's number one in class 1A. They're 12 and 15 and five because they play all these upper tier teams.

Spartan is number five in class 7A. Wattsburg Christian with Patrick Harding is number two in class 3A, 20 and four. But there are a lot of North Alabama teams in your boys and girls power team. Yeah, there are. Huntsville, obviously, they lost their entire starting five from last year. So it was kind of a question mark on their season. But I don't think anybody here except them expected them to be the kind of team they are. Maybe I know they expected to be good, but this kind of success is just ridiculous what they're doing.

I mean, they swept the battle of the board at Orange Beach. They swept the Huntsville City Classic, won that championship, and now they're still rolling. They just beat Austin. I think they were down like 13 at halftime or something and came back and out scored them by 20 in the second half. So they're really good on the road as well, as we've seen. But Albertville as well, having a really good season. Like you said, Muscle Shoals boys are doing pretty good as well. They've won a lot of games, just beat Florence.

So they've got a big test with Albertville coming to town, a really good team coming to town. Last year, we've talked about this before, last year for boys basketball especially was kind of the year all the seniors were playing. Obviously all the Huntsville guys came record who's out at Kennesaw State for Bob Jones. Guys like that who were showing out in the Huntsville City Classic, guys like that, they're gone now. There were a lot of question marks coming into this season for a lot of teams.

I think we're in a pretty good spot. I think this year is kind of a transition period, but as we're going into next season and the next season, I think it'll probably look like North Alabama basketball is going to probably be at that point where it's going to be a guaranteed Final 14 and five of the classifications or even six or seven or eight. You just never know. Thomas Ashworth, AL.com. It's a testament to good coaching. You mentioned there doing what they're doing at Huntsville High.

That's pretty amazing. What about the Hazel Green girls? They truly lose a living legend in Tim Miller. One of the guys' new coach is Demetrius Miller. What's he done or they've done? They're still rocking and rolling. Your thoughts about the coaching transition at Hazel Green, losing a legend like that and basically not missing a beat at 24-2 at last report? Yeah, well, I mean, Demetrius is a great coach. He was there at Hazel Green longer than Tim was. He's been there a long time, well-established. It was kind of a seamless transition, obviously, and that's weird to say.

We're talking about a guy like Tim Miller retiring, and obviously he wasn't seamless, but they're just picking up where they left off almost. Expectations are obviously high, especially when losing the way they did in overtime, I think double overtime last year to Park Crossing. It's a really tough way to go out, and they want to get a championship. There are some players, who have come in and haven't won a championship with Hazel Green, which is kind of rare, obviously. There's a heightened sense of we've got to win, we've got to get to that championship, and they've done a really good job.

[1:13:57] They've gone toe-to-toe with teams like Hoover and Albertville. They've beaten Bob Jones twice. They've played some really good teams, and they have some really good players as well. They have a couple of Division I signees. Kristen Johnson is returning, and she was 6A player of the year finals last year, and she's back. But they lost a handful of really good players as well, but it doesn't look like they're slowing down anytime soon. They're still rolling, picking up some really good wins as well. A really good job by the new Coach Miller, if you want to say that.

It looks like they're going to be in a position to contend yet again this year. Northwest regional is going to be really tough with teams like Clay Chalk will come in as well. We'll see what happens, but as of right now, it looks like they're in a pretty good position. You also have teams to watch. Dessler, Coach Killen, winning 950. Isn't that amazing? 950 wins in basketball, over 1,000 in volleyball. 21 and 3. Morris Hill, 20 and 3. Number 2 in Class 3A and then Price Full in 5A, number 6 and 18 and 15. On the year, you're going to have it covered.

You've got a busy week, young man, as far as doing all this other stuff to get us ready for the area of play. But where can we get online and get all the great stuff? Yeah, like you said, it's going to be a busy couple of weeks. I'm sure there'll be a lot of Schultz teams in the championships as well. Be watching that a lot on AL.com. There's no better time to be subscribed to Times Daily or Decatur Daily or wherever you get your news.

It's the best time of the year in North Alabama. High school heaven. Thomas, thanks for your time today. Stay safe after your travels. Okay? Yes, sir. Appreciate you guys. Thank you, Ben. Appreciate you. Thomas Ashworth, AL.com. Time to go all over the SEC with the one, the only, Joe Cox on deck. Stay with us. Silicone carbide was discovered in 1893 when a meteorite crashed to the earth in Arizona. It was discovered by a French chemist named Henry Messon, and originally he thought it was a diamond, and when he realized it wasn't, he named it after himself.

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How much fun is it to play alongside LeBaron Phylon? Super fun, man. My CTV, super talented. Super, super talented, man. Like, great teammate. That's my boy. That's me. It's kind of self-explanatory. You know what I'm saying? He put in work, so you see it. Yeah, we really do. We've seen your assist numbers go up, feeding him the basketball, and then he does the same thing for you. Is it great to just kind of have that kind of synergy between the two of you? Definitely. He definitely makes it easier on me, just the gravity he has on the court, how many defensive players he attracts, defensive schemes that he makes other teams, like, have to scheme up for him, so that frees up everybody else, and, you know what I'm saying, he just makes it a lot easier, for sure.

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Roll Tide. If you missed last night's episode of Hey Coach and the Nate Oates Show presented by Alpha Insurance, catch it on demand on the Alabama Insider Podcast, as well as the video replay on all CTSN social media platforms at UA underscore CTSN. Crimson Tide Today is brought to you by Vector Security Champions Lane. Crimson Tide Today is a production of the Crimson Tide Sports Network from Learfield. The Score. Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Welcome back in. Really appreciate for you right around the valley.

Afternoon to hook up with Joe Cox, get his perspective on the SEC. B.B., did you know that in the meantime, this is something that you may not be aware of, but tomorrow is National Signing Day Part 2. Did you know that, B.B.? I know a lot of our listeners probably had forgotten it or don't know about it, but it's the quietest. And again, we've mentioned this for the last week, and now Alabama will announce two guys who committed. One of them is already enrolled, according to Andrew Bone, but it's the quietest going into Auburn will not, according to Brian Matthews of Auburn Sports.

Ryan Callahan of Govoss247 said Tennessee is not going to sign anyone. So, again, the early signing day, whether they keep it in December or move it to the summer, we'll see where that goes. Yeah, Harold, there are a lot of people listening to us talk right now who said, you mean to tell me national signing day before? I kind of miss that from the old days. You know, it was always fun that first Wednesday in February. You know people who actually took off time from work.

I don't know if they told the truth and said it or they lied and said they were sick, but you actually know people who back in the day took off the first Wednesday in February, do you not? My brother did it for about 10 consecutive years and he wasn't bashful about it either. The thing is, you look at the classes now and BB, I think a lot of folks they kind of get caught up in it as far as the 105 expanded with the NIL and I think it takes a lot of shine off, but that's never the case with Joe Cox.

He's always busy and shining there Saturday down south. Joe, welcome in. Is the Grand Hawk seeing his shadow there in your backyard in Kentucky? Are you still looking at the Abominable Snowman? How are you? I think James is going to get him on in just a minute here. All right. I thought maybe Joe's probably still out trying to dig a path to the phone because he's up in Kentucky where they've had a lot of challenging weather as well. While we get Joe Cox on, BB, back to that, your thoughts, our fans now at a crossroads really and truly they don't know what to expect because you look at Alabama, 24-7 just said they have the number one SEC class, but then you go the other way and you see these guys coming in from schools that nobody knows about.

It's a different era in more ways than one. They're expanding these rosters. You're going to get a kind of an interesting mix right now between the five stars that you got back in the day with guys who are basically, for lack of a better way of putting it, they are role players. They help you with the practice. It's a different world out there as far as the fans' perception of these classes. Well, now that they've expanded the NCAA, one of the few things they did that made sense increased from 85 to 105 and Joe has joined us now.

[1:24:28] Again, we'll see where this goes but a lot of these transfers may not have flashy numbers but they can play and they've played for years. Joe's always consistent there Saturday down south. Joe Cox, welcome in. How are you? Thank you, gentlemen. Sorry to be difficult to track down but yeah, still dealing with the weather and then my whole family's about to go to the dentist so we're having just a lovely day here. So other than that, Joe, so other than that, Mr. Lincoln, how'd you enjoy the play?

Exactly. Exactly. Oh my gosh, well good luck at the dentist. They'll drill down into your wallet if you're not careful. They'll drill them all ways than one so good luck there. Joe, your thoughts about this SEC basketball situation today. Let's start with a team familiar with us or maybe this year they're unfamiliar and that is Alabama. They start out in top five and for the first time in 42 weeks they're outside the top 25. What is going on in Tuscaloosa, Joe? You know, I think the last time we talked we kind of hit the hidden key here which is that everybody was busy talking about Betty Acco as a matter of policy of what we should and shouldn't do.

Nobody was talking about him as a fit with the team and he's playing well. trying to shuffle your rotation mid-season is always a dangerous thing. And between injury stuff and then late guys coming in like this I think you're going to see more and more of this. but you know ideally in the olden days of college basketball by this time of year you were pretty much set on who you were going to go with and what you were going to be and here's Alabama still kind of scrapping around and trying to dig and figure out what that is but you know all that said boy they've got a chance tomorrow to really grab one that I think would get them healthy in a hurry.

Just talk about that the critical part just from a psychological standpoint momentum going forward all you've got to do as we mentioned earlier is knock off the number one team in the conference right now it's still a ways to go but Texas A&M is number one right now and then after that all you've got to do is pack it in and win a game on the plains against your arch rival does anybody face a one-two punch tougher than Alabama this week? No I mean it's a challenge but at the same time you know when you're having a season that at least in league play I think we would say is definitely disappointing so far it's really a chance to get everything right so you know it's kind of a be careful what you wish for because it could be a one-on-one or an 0-2 week but if you can come out of it with a 2-0 week all of a sudden you're headed down the stretch run a little closer to where you want to be but yeah A&M you know that's as big a challenge obviously as any you're going to have to defend your rear end off and then Auburn you know I seem to get the idea there's never any love loss between those two and anything you're exactly right confrontational yeah Bruce Pearl came out with some interesting comments about Nate Oates which has fanned the flames even a little bit more Joe Florida ran Alabama out of the gym in the second half Alabama literally did not even score in the first media timeout on the second half I don't ever remember that happening they went on 12-0 run stole 5 had 5 steals Obama turned it over 18 times that's not a good formula Chenilu is going nuts he hits I think 17 rebounds is a double double Condon played much better than he did against Auburn and Auburn did a great job upsetting him in Gainesville but I tell you one thing Florida is getting on a roll boy don't you know that game next week it's Texas A&M is going to be a prime time game on TV oh absolutely going to be yeah I got to tip my hat a little bit to Todd Golden here for kind of reinventing himself it's a very different Florida team than the one that he took the national championship a year ago but they're really leaning into who they are they've got size they've got physicality they're a beast on the backboard they defend the offense is kind of here and there but you know the thing about it is the old axiom is the defense is ultimately what's going to win and you know you can kind of cobble together the points as long as you're not getting outscored and I like what Florida has done obviously everybody I think is impressed with A&M but watch Florida sneak up here at the end and really take their claim as a strong contender to repeat or at least to go deep in March Joe Cox said it down Joe your thoughts about the Auburn Tigers I mean record wise they're right there kind of with Alabama but the vibe is different no shame in losing at Tennessee they didn't get blown out it's kind of like in tennis Tennessee held serve at home your thoughts about Auburn as we get ready it's hard to believe is it not March Madness is knocking on the door and the short trip down the interstate to Nashville and the SEC tournament is looming your thoughts about the Tigers at this point yeah I mean it's just a thing where you've got to tighten up a little bit they've been really inconsistent and you know I think in many ways still feeling the effect of having the late coaching change forced on to them I think it's a different team and no offense intended to Steven Pearl if Bruce Pearl you know is out there coaching these guys and it's just not been you know the kind of consistent identity that you'd like to see to be successful in the league is there enough talent there certainly you know and they have games where they show up and look really impressive but just got to tighten it up down the stretch got to get a little more consistent and got to do the small things well and you know maybe get a little bit lucky even isn't that kind of the hidden key in a league that's going to have a lot of close games maybe the luckiest team is going to be the team that ends up doing the best Kentucky Joe they are playing really well Ote Oway had very good game against Arkansas started on to Kentucky fans wanted to run him out of the stage now I believe they've won five of their last six including a big game over Arkansas your thoughts on the cats really up and down week I mean they start with a game at Nashville where they just couldn't do anything right and Vanderbilt looked like that team that started out however many you know it was before they kind of hit their skids in SEC play but then you play Arkansas at Arkansas in a game that I don't think a lot of people came in too optimistic and really put together a nice effort all the way around away in Aberdeen I think are really going to be the keys the offensive consistency is not there but when those guys are playing well everything else seems to kind of fall into place now how many games will they do that how many chances will they get in the post season to keep moving ahead that'll be a good question but Pope probably has bought himself at least one more year because of the whole injury situation but beyond that yeah there's there's some baying at the door here and the biggest thing I'm watching now honestly is recruiting he's done fine in the portal but he needs that elite five-star guy who Calipari made his bread and butter he needs to get one of those guys and if he doesn't it's going to be a uphill grind or that Kentucky Arkansas game featured six technical fouls they don't like each other either I haven't seen that since a high-skill game though Malachi Marino also is playing well for the Cants but I always appreciate you joining us it is getting tight Alabama's got I think maybe the toughest week in the country with A&M and Auburn looming on the horizon always enjoy the conversation my friend where can we get on line to get all your good stuff check it out Saturday down south and as the February days get along and we move even closer to March you know it'll only pick up and again I always keep talking about it I'm going to bring it into fruition if I say it enough times maybe a little bit of ice will melt but baseball let's play two or more Joe listen good luck at the dentist and thanks so much for your time today thanks guys take care thank you Joe Cox hooking up with us there at Saturday downtown let's head on down to what used to be the sunshine state is it now Matt Michelle that more straight ahead stay with us I'm Chris Stewart for Elliot Johnson Insurance Elliot Johnson has a great partner in auto owners insurance auto owners makes it easy to get life home car or business insurance auto owners insurance aligns themselves with great agencies like Elliot Johnson Insurance knowing the best local agents only add to your convenience let Elliot Johnson Insurance find the auto owners policy that makes a difference for your life call Elliot Johnson Insurance at one of their three locations Florence Loretto and Lawrence Berg Elliot Johnson Insurance moving forward for our clients every day are you 50 or older this news is for you the CDC recommends you get vaccinated against pneumococcal pneumonia even if you're healthy your age puts you at risk people 50 or older are over six times more likely to be hospitalized with pneumococcal pneumonia compared to adults 18 to 49 just one shot can help protect you 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and four on the season Alabama coming off of a loss at LSU the tide looks to get back in the win column on Thursday when they play at home against 13th ranked Ole Miss bundle auto and home renters or condo and save with progressive I'm John Thayer with the sports flash presented by progressive on 93.9 the score a KFC tale in the pursuit of flavor the colonel made his $10 Tuesday bucket so full with eight pieces of juicy crispy chicken or tenders that it might just last you till Wednesday if you've got that kind of self control I mean some people want leftovers others are more into right nowers the colonel lived so we could chicken 10 bucks eight pieces one big deal with KFC $10 Tuesdays prices and participation may vary taxes tips and fees extra finding great candidates to hire can be like well trying to find a needle in a haystack but not with zip recruiter it's powerful technology actively finds and invites qualified candidates to apply to your job so while other companies might 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about the news of the week for a lot of uh college fans across the country particularly auburn fans for the state fans but for you personally because nobody knows gus malzahn better than us your thoughts about the news the week that the gus is going to park the bus when it comes to coaching yeah you know it didn't shock me i thought you know if gus hadn't had the opportunity to go to florida state after he left ucf you know i i think he would have retired then you know i think having the conversations i had with him you know uh during that season the last season at ucf and also you know during you know afterwards when when he took the job of florida state i think that the way college athletics has changed the way college football has changed i don't think gus liked it i don't think gus enjoyed any part of it you know gus is a x-of-the-nose guy he wants to sit down and plan everything out and and yeah coach i mean and you know i think the nil stuff i think the stuff that that was going on there with the um you know with everything else is just i think it was too much i just i just don't think he could he could really you know wanted to get it done and and so uh you know i i think it didn't surprise me i think timing is a little bit you know unusual because you know it is february and i know there's some scuttle that maybe he was out looking at some other jobs and and those didn't materialize but um i had a chance to talk to gus last night briefly on on social media and you know basically you know i wished him well you know because you know i four years he was here he you know had a good relationship with the media you know we talked about it all the time and and um you know he's he's a he's a lifelong high school coach that and a lifelong coach and basically you know i think he realized that that was the time to start hang up the whistle and move on talk to us about maybe uh the future of the coaching business because number one the money is good but if you were a guy like gus a guy like nick saban they got money but at the end of the day they want to coach they want to do the x's and o's and and and deal with the jimmies and joes back in the day on the other side of the coin you got a guy like lane kiffin who obviously he wants to put together an nfl model where basically i don't have to recruit i just go write a check buy a player talk to us about what this could send to other guys out of the old school and say you got money in the bank you're going to go and say goodbye and then guys like lane kiffin who are going to jump at the chance to make 13 14 millions of dollars as a head coach they don't really care about all the stuff that maybe nick and gus to a point they do but not anywhere near like those two guys and those like and your thoughts just about the industry going forward well i i think the biggest thing now is adaptability i mean yeah i mean coaches talk about this all the time and they've been talking about it for years is how do you adapt and i think that college sports unfortunately with everything that's gone on it's it's struggled to adapt things have happened so quickly i mean you think about with nil and you think about our revenue sharing and how things have changed in the game overnight you know overnight and and these guys really didn't have especially older coaches didn't have the ability to look forward and say okay i need to hire a gm i need to hire a specialty staff i need to hire people who can handle the portal and keep me abreast and let me know what's going on they didn't do that and i think what happens then is is now you're you're kind of playing catch-up and it's so hard to play catch-up because yeah every you've got played people like lane kiffin and you've got other coaches now who are really who've gone full speed ahead they hire gms yeah and and they love it and they want to do that and i think that it's going to come down to what do you really feel like at some point you know like are you are you willing to do that and and you know i've talked to coaches who said listen i get players who come into my you know my office with their agents i got you know parents with their players and agents and they come in the office all the time and if you're just a coach coach why do you want to deal with that why do you want to come into a place where you're not talking about what can we do to make you to make you succeed what can we do to help you take you to the next level but it's all about what can you do for me now what can you pay me today you know it's it's very frustrating and i think that you know that's why you're seeing coaches who said i've had enough of this i don't want to deal with this anymore i just want to move on and do you know what you know i just want to go be a coach and that's hard to do now because you have to have layers in place now and they just it's tough schools don't have the money to do that at a lot of points and it's tough to front kind of make that happen tennessee quarterback joey aguilar has filed a lawsuit in docks county court seeking to extend his eligibility and play for tennessee in the 2026 season this will be his eighth year in college threatened today chambliss is waiting on his decision uh to continue playing for old miss for another year that comes up february the 10th uh charles mediaco of alabama is waiting this coming friday to hear whether or not he's going to continue playing the remainder of the year matt uh these filing court injunctions to continue playing it's just an every week event now isn't it yeah it is you know i mean and and listen if you can make two million dollars or whatever it is you know why wouldn't you want to keep going back to school why wouldn't you want to keep saying let me play two more years or three years let me keep doing that i mean the the biggest the the biggest move that we've seen over the last few years in college athletics has been lawsuits is the fact that it's the reason why we're at we're at right now is everyone started suing everybody and then now all of a sudden we're stuck where you got people trying to figure out what's their next move i mean listen if you want to legitimately play you know i get it i mean if you don't think you're going to be able to go to the nfl if i'm not a first round or second round pick in the nfl draft why would i want to there you go and and and not return where i could make two million dollars next year and deal with that and then you know see what happens i mean it's it's it is it is something that is you know it's going to continue to happen especially until they're put some guardrails up that basically allow people to do what they need to do and i mean it's i mean it always makes me laugh you see it more in college basketball now where guys aren't willing to go to the nba now because they say why should i why would i go as a freshman in the nba when i would stay for three more years and make you know six seven eight million dollars which i may not even make that at all in my professional career well the answer to that as far as checking it is if you're going to take a shower what you got to turn the faucet on what's the faucet us fans if we stop watching and stop supporting it at some point tv or somebody in that chain is going to get the message but until that happens they're going to keep the faucets wide open and you look at the case of bediaco what kind of guaranteed you have if somebody comes back with that resume alabama is one in two since the return of charles they are four and four in the sec play they played in your backyard over the weekend the chilly gainesville your thoughts about alabama their situation with bediaco on and off the court and how about those gators from florida well yeah you know i mean you know i think the situation in alabama it just it goes back to to you know you got to keep doing your due diligence you know for alabama and figuring out how everything works i mean you know you joked about this earlier about the idea of until people turn until people don't refuse to watch the sport i mean you know that's not going to happen you know i mean that's not going to happen no no one's gonna no one's gonna stop watching sport you know this but it's the only way that would though it's the only way it's going to happen but it's not going to happen i mean i tell people all the time who are frustrated with situations like what's going on alabama or frustrated with other other things and i tell them will you not watch college football well no well there you go i mean it's like the nfl you can hate the nfl you can hate what's going on but you're going to watch nfl you're going to watch the super right so you know and listen i i think when you look at florida you know florida's had a really good run uh you know again todd golden it's always hard to repeat you know when you won a national championship there's going to be struggles the sec is obviously strong again and you know they're going to have to find a way to to get out there and and get some of those tough wins especially when they get closer to tournament time you're seeing a lot of these teams you know who are losing the game here or there that you know could have a big impact when you're going to the ncaa tournament man um dembo sweeney it's not the first rant he's ever had but it's the latest went on an eight-minute rant last week documenting documenting with times names dates uh o miss is tampering with cal linebacker look for it look for relly who did end up going to o miss for over a million dollars the latest on this is fresno state is the second team to put tampering allegations on o miss for uh josiah freeman a fresno state receiver uh was actually i believe their leading receiver for the year and people say okay uh in the ncaa has acknowledged this uh but the question matt once again is okay um everybody's not saying they didn't do it and they have admitted it but what's the ncaa going to do about it that can do a lot i mean they really don't have much to to do i mean we've talked about this for a year i mean the ncaa has lost a lot of teeth in it and it when it comes to fractions and and you know it's hard to to go in there and get the proof you know unless someone is willing to walk in unless the the player gives them you know text messages and you know or or correspondence and says the ncaa this is what's going on you know what i mean and and the problem is and then we've seen a little bit of this before is if it's fine you could start pointing fingers and say okay well you're doing this guy's doing this and this guy's doing this but everyone's doing it so it's not like they're the only ones doing it you know it's not like this is the only one's doing it and you got to be careful because the moment you start pointing fingers at your neighbors they're going to start pointing fingers back at you so you got to make sure that you're not doing anything wrong either because you're going to start having people and that's what the ncaa doesn't want is they don't want this to get to a point where all it is is everybody pointing fingers at everyone and saying you know that we're all crooked we're all bad you're all coming after my players this is the system we're in right now and you've got to find a way to to figure it out and i get frustration i get dabble's frustration i get you know everyone's frustration behind it you want you want everything to be up and up on level playing field but it's just not you know and pete's not going to be going to change the way he does things just because a few people cry about it i mean he's it's what's going to take is it's going to take you know the ncaa finally getting the guts to stand up and figure this all out and then figuring a way to to you know slap a penalty on you know it's the reason why it's like the nfl if this was the nfl you would find a team right so that's where college is that what the college system would really benefit from is this idea of you know finding schools for for doing tampering and and and then that would stop the tampering efforts what's the old say when you point one finger you get at least three maybe four unless you've been around a chainsaw pointing back at you matt what's going to happen on super bowl sunday i'm going to eat a lot of wings i mean there you go you're a winner already there you go um now you know i'm i'm not sure i mean listen i i'm not a big nfl guy and and uh i'm really out following the nfl as closely as i probably should but um i i think you know seattle's played really well um you know i think their team has got an opportunity to play um and you know to me the super bowl is is just a it's a great opportunity for some of these players to really kind of showcase themselves and to see where they're at and uh um i'm i'm have no dog in this in this show so i'm just looking forward to a good game there you go man it's it's not a game anymore it's an event it's it's an american holiday is basically what it is now uh and i hear your comment more and more and more often every year uh in particularly with the people who concentrate more on high school and in college glad you got a chance to get away with some personal time always enjoyed the conversation matt where can we get online and hear about ucf college football college basketball and a lot of other good stuff yeah you can go to orlandosentinel.com to check out the latest or follow me on social media oh that's matt michelle sounds great matt enjoy the game and that 60 degree cool weather down there okay all right guys i'll try to send something your way okay there you go please please please matt michelle the orlandosentinel and you know bb if those guys do well in the super bowl they may even get a job back in college and get a pay raise right we'll see about that national sunny day part two tomorrow any surprises hate you that's taking care and taking care of business for now on behalf of bb greg james flair the entire crew here peril bike thank you so much for your time today let's do it again tomorrow on noon to two for the boom on buck show back here on sports radio 93 9 the score you