Boomo Bugg Show 060826

[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 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 a free ride around the Tennessee Valley. Brett Beaird, welcome in where Auburn deals with the pain, Alabama deals with the rain.

Good afternoon, welcome in and are you ready for a little baseball from Omaha? Happy Monday to you and the listeners. Party like it's 1999, a 27-year drought for Alabama baseball. Moving on to the College World Series is over. The celebration continues in Tuscaloosa. We'll be talking about throughout. Troy advances to the College World Series. In fact, they're the first game on Friday. Hugh alluded to Auburn loses a tough series to Ole Miss. But Adam is here right now to talk about some SEC baseball and football. He's going to be talking SEC baseball and he may need more than two hours because there's a good chance that the eight-team spy could reign from the SEC.

And nobody covers that league better than Adam Spencer. He's busy there at Saturday down south. Adam, welcome in. How are you? I'm doing great, guys. How are you? How are you, man? Almost as well as the SEC. If Oklahoma takes care of business as scripted, five of eight. So Adam, the question is, when's the Big Ten going to complain and try to change the rules again? Yeah, I mean, I don't know if they really know what baseball is up there. You know, they have to shelter in their cold igloos all winter.

So, you know, they're lucky that they have USC and UCLA out there. But obviously, UCLA is base planted and USC came up just short against North Carolina. So, you know, Oregon came up just short against Texas, too. So, swing and a miss for the West Coast Big Ten squads that have actually picked up a baseball before. Isn't it amazing, Adam? Just to your point there before we move on to the obvious. California, they tell me, is a big state. And, Kareem, if I'm wrong, zero teams heading to the World Series, while little Alabama has had a possibility of three.

So, as Meatloaf would say, two out of three ain't bad. The state of Alabama is sending two to Omaha. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty good. Troy, obviously, is one of the surprises of the tournament. You know, that's been a great story to follow. Auburn, you know, they've been a great team all year. But they came up just short against an Ole Miss team that, you know, Mike Bianco knows how to coach a team in this time of the calendar. So, you know, he had his guys ready to go.

And they went into Auburn and pulled off a mini upset there. So, yeah, I mean, the real story is the Crimson Tide, 1999, you know, obviously a long time, first time this century. So, you know, good for them. They've been playing, you know, they've had some ups and downs this year, but they found their consistency at the right time. And, I mean, that's all you can ask for. It doesn't matter how you get there. Yeah, I agree with you about Ole Miss. They just made the clutch plays against Auburn when it counted.

Mike Bianco, they've been there, again, three years ago. And they just had clutch plays, great pitching. The, really, the exciting series of the weekend, Adam, Georgia and Mississippi State. 13-12 the first game, 11-9. Quite frankly, if Mississippi State would have played any other team in the country besides Georgia, they're in the College World Series. I thought Mississippi State had an incredible series, but Georgia combined 21 home runs. Georgia's bats, though, were just too much at the end. Yeah, I thought we had to wait until July for the home run derby, but that took place in Athens this weekend.

And, yeah, I mean, what a fun series for, you know, people who love offense. I mean, not so much if you're a purist that wants to see a pitcher's duel, but, yeah, I mean, not a lot of pitching going on in that series. So, I mean, that's definitely a concern for Georgia heading into Omaha, but, you know, with the way that they hit, it might not matter. But, of course, they get Texas with their first game, I believe, on Saturday. And Texas, Dylan Volantis is one heck of a pitcher.

So, if they use him, I mean, it might be tough to slug their way to another double-digit run total in that one. So, I mean, that should be a really fun one to watch if that is the way that Texas decides to stack pitching stuff. I remember Texas back in the day had a pitcher by the name of Roger Clemens. Adam, let me ask you this. Adam Spencer, Saturday down south, Georgia has a lot of home runs. But, a lot of folks call that a little league ballpark.

[5:21] I mean, just look at the number. What was it? 21 home runs in that game. What's Georgia going to do? Because, let's face it, it used to be called Rosenblatt. I don't know what they call it now. How would the size affect Georgia? Because they got there on the strength of home runs. But it's all relative. If you're playing in a Cracker Jack ballpark, that's one thing. If you play in a pitcher's paradise, it's another. Your thoughts just about the dimensions and how that may affect Georgia besides their opponent.

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a concern for Georgia, who uses the home run ball a lot. But, yeah, I mean, the opponents are going to not be able to hit what we would call cheap home runs either. I mean, I think that the difference is, you know, we saw a team, I forget exactly what year Tennessee won the College World Series. But they play in kind of a band box of a baseball stadium, too, there. And they managed to. They had a really strong pitching staff that year, though.

You know, a few of those guys are already up in the big leagues. So, you know, that would be the model to use. I just don't know if Georgia has the arm to get that done, especially after they're, you know, opening a couple guys. So, I mean, it has been done. We're a team that has played in a home run friendly ballpark, has won in Omaha with Tennessee. But it's easier said than done. So, I don't know how well Georgia's bat will travel there. But, you know, they definitely, even if those home runs turn into doubles at some point, you know, that's still going to be plenty to put some runs on the board, even if they don't quite get 13 in every game.

And before we get to your predictions for the college football playoff, which you're now down to number six with Georgia. The story of the day, besides the college baseball teams getting in, was Brandon Soarsby receiving an injunction from a Texas lower court judge to continue playing after the NCAA had suspended him for betting on his own teams. There has been a meltdown on social media about this, and I can see where it is. Your thoughts on it. I think he's going to get, right now, the judge said, a two-game suspension.

This will be appealed by the NCAA. But, man, that has just set off a storm on social media. As it should. I mean, this is a terrible look for the judge involved. I mean, it's a slam dunk case. You bet on your own team, you're out. If he had just had a gambling problem and he was only betting on MLB and NFL and stuff and had never placed a bet on college football, that's one thing where maybe banning him for life isn't a necessary step. But every other case, the Black Sox scandal, the Pete Rose stuff, the Jonte Porter in the NBA, and maybe Terry Rozier here coming up soon based on his own legal situation, all banned for life.

No, it's a slam dunk case. This judge in Texas, you know, you've got to really look into that decision on his part and, you know, really consider some discipline if you're a higher court that's looking at that judge. Because it's making a mockery of the legal system. It's making a mockery of college athletics. And it's just a horrible, horrible ruling that just anybody who isn't looking through Texas Tech red-colored blinders would know that, you know, this is a slam dunk decision, that you'd have to give him more than a two-game suspension.

I mean, come on. Well, I think it's a key phrase there, judge in Texas. But the question now is, that in itself is what it is. But what kind of, in law, we all know this, there's a word called precedent. What's going to happen the next time somebody yells? How are you going to tell, you know, Johnny Smith from Oregon or Alabama, Auburn, you name Missouri, maybe not Missouri, okay, Adam, but how are you going to tell them if they commit the apples-to-apples same situation, how are you going to tell them if they can't do it either?

You can't. That's the thing, you know. And this is what's so frustrating about, you know, some of these injunctions that have allowed players to compete for, you know, additional years in college. You just keep suing and appealing and suing and suing and appealing until you find somebody who gives you what you want. You know, like, the solution, the impetus of the decision seemed to be that, like, Sorsby said, well, it would affect his mental health if he wasn't allowed to play football. I bet it would.

Yeah. You know, like, yeah, okay. Getting a statement ticket does, too. Yeah. Like, what are we even doing here? Like, now, like, can I just say that, like, doing my job makes me sad and then I don't have to do it, but I still get paid? Like, what are we even doing here? You get a trophy. Come on. Yeah, so just a terrible day for the legal system, a terrible day for the NCAA, you know, just a terrible day for everyone out there in any aspect of life who's just trying to do things by the book and by the way it's supposed to be done.

[10:35] Because this is a kick in the face to all of us, too. Absolutely. Let me go back to what I mentioned earlier. Adam Spencer predicting the playoff teams, number 12, Boise State, 11, Michigan, 10, Alabama, 9, LSU, 8, Indiana, and Texas Tech. They before mentioned Texas Tech. Number 6, the Georgia Bulldogs, and I think everybody knew they would be there somewhere between 4 and 7. Adam, talk about how your criteria for this and your count down to number 1. Yeah, we just published number 5, Oregon, earlier today. So, yeah, we're down to number 5 now. We just got the top 4, the 5, coming up the rest of the week here.

Yeah, it's just, you know, looking at the schedule, you know, trying to figure out, you know, I think in total I have like 4 SEC teams, 4 Big 10 teams, you know, and then Texas Tech out of the Big 12. And now, you know, maybe even now I'd have to bump them up a little bit now that they have their quarterback back after two-game suspension. But, yeah, it's just looking at the schedule, looking at some of the returning production metrics, you know, looking at, you know, with Oregon, it was, they would have probably been higher if they had managed to keep one or both of their coordinators.

Just because that roster is stacked, but, you know, losing those nine and Tosh LaCoy, it's going to be tough for a place. So, it's just an overarching picture of what you have coming back, what you've brought in through the portal, who your coordinators are, and, you know, do you catch any breaks with the schedule? You know, Georgia kind of catches a couple of breaks. They don't have to play Texas. They, you know, they play Alabama, and Kalen DeBoer's kind of had Kirby Smart's number lately. But with this 12-team playoff, too, it's, you know, you get a little more leeway to lose a game or two and still get a high seed.

So, I have Georgia going 11-1, I think. I think they'll probably split the Ole Miss-Alabama games and, you know, win out from there. Kirby Smart's built such a, just a well-oiled machine there. So, you know, I think that, you know, those teams are looking good. And, yeah, the top four starting tomorrow with, you know, a team that didn't make the playoff last year. Will Texas Tech be the most hated team in the country because just what we've been talking about. And then you look at all the money they're pumping in, and you look at their schedule.

It's Cupcake City. What's going to happen on Selection Sunday if Texas Tech goes through that, like, knife and a hot knife and butter and vice versa? And there's a two-loss team from the SEC that's played their butts off, but they've played a nine-game schedule, and the bow ties give the nod to Texas Tech. Like, what's the likelihood of that, or will they finally practice what they preach and stop being hypocritical where strength of schedule does matter as opposed to a team that basically buys their schedule and players?

Yeah, I mean, we'll see. I mean, I think that, you know, I think that, you know, Texas, you know, they offered to buy out Texas' opponents so that they could play Texas. It's like, well, you had several years leading up to this to try to get Texas on your schedule, and now you can bluster all you want right now, but, you know, it's, you know, Texas isn't going to take that game when they have Ohio State on their non-conference schedule already because they're doing the right thing by scheduling these games.

But I don't think that the committee will do that. I think that the committee has shown that, like, they're going to value the number of wins, and if Texas Tech goes 12-0, as they should now, especially once they get Brendan Sorsby back, then I think that they're going to have to be in, and, you know, it's just going to, I mean, they would theoretically win their conference championship and go 13-0 if the Big 12 is as bad as I think it's going to be. So they would have to be in, but, you know, I think they are going to be hated because of the Brendan Sorsby situation, because of all the money that they're pumping in, the week schedule, I mean, it's going to be fun to root against them this year, that's for sure.

Great stuff, Bud. We always appreciate starting the week with you. What a day for Alabama and the SEC. Texas, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Alabama already in the College World Series. Oklahoma with an 8-1 lead. We'll see if they get in later today. All sorts of great stuff, football, basketball, baseball. Where can we get online to get your stuff and the teams? Yeah, SaturdayDownSouth.com. We'll have you covered later this week, and, yeah, we'll be plenty busy with all of the SEC flavor that's going to be heading up to them all this weekend.

I think it's baseball down south, too. Adam, listen, man, thanks so much. Stay safe out there, and let's do it again soon, okay? Sounds good, guys. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much. Adam Spencer, Saturday Down South. We've been talking about Alabama. Why don't we just go to Alabama and talk with Andrew Bone next for the Bumbo Bug Show. Stay with us. Hello, I'm Eddie Buckley, president of Certified Alarm. No matter where travels take you, Certified Alarm will help you be worry-free. Our security systems have all the latest technological features.

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[21:22] And did we mention he's the author of The Road to Bema. Andrew Bone, welcome in. How are you? Good afternoon, guys. How's it going? Man, we're doing all right. You know, rainy days and Mondays may have gotten the Carpenters down, but it hasn't gotten its Alabama baseball team down, has it, Andrew? Man, that's exciting. You know, 27 years later, Alabama's headed to the World Series. I mean, that was certainly exciting. I guess the two best teams in the state of Alabama are heading to the World Series.

And Alabama, I mean, it is definitely unique to, you know, I know Auburn certainly was hoping to be there, but it is very unique to see, you know, not only Alabama, but Troy making good to the College World Series. You know, that's exciting for the state of Alabama. And, of course, they're close to having three, I guess. But, yeah, I mean, great. That grand slam, I mean, that was a sight to behold last night. And, you know, I think that, obviously, the pitching performance from Tyler Faye, you know, a couple nights ago was outstanding.

So, you know, they played great and, you know, excited to kind of see what they're going to be able to do in Omaha. You know, of course, Justin LeBron, he's the face of the program, but they did it basically apart from him, which says a lot. It also says something about kids, in this case baseball, but other sports, calming and staying. If you do the right thing, sometimes you'll get the reward of going, playing for a championship and then go collect the big checks with the pros.

Your thoughts about that, and I've always said one of the craziest celebrations in any sport in baseball, probably more so than others, piling on at the end of the game. You know how many people get injured in that? Can you imagine? Your key pitcher gets hurt in that celebration. Kids are going to get caught up in the moment. I get it. But your thoughts just about the vibe, 27 years of frustration pent up, and now a chance. And let's face it, at this point, you've got just as much chance as the other seven teams going to Omaha to win it all.

Yeah, I mean, obviously, they got hot at the right time. I mean, they were hot during the middle of the season. You know, things kind of fluttered there for a second. But, you know, they played great when the time was needed. And, you know, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of excitement around the program. I mean, we saw the fans that were, you know, packed inside the show this weekend. I mean, it sort of rejuvenated, you know, the program overall. So that's really exciting.

And I think it's certainly going to be great here in the future, especially when I've got so many people that are watching and, you know, going to support the baseball program, you know, in the upcoming years. Andrew, I was amazed looking at the crowd today. It looked like it was similar to the crowd yesterday. They had a record crowd, obviously, Saturday night. Well, they were still there. Yeah, they spent the night. Everybody called in sick. It's Monday-itis. Exactly. That's pretty good. Listen, Alabama's already had a big, big day.

Will it get even bigger with the verbal commitment of Ty Phillips, a running back from Columbia, South Carolina, later today? Yeah, I think so. We've liked where Alabama stood with him. You know, even before official business began a few weeks ago, I think we've mentioned on Bama Online really since April that Alabama was in a really good spot with Phillips, as a pivot. He's from North Carolina, but transferred after the season to Irmo High School in South Carolina, and that's one of the top programs in the state.

We certainly look forward to kind of seeing what he's able to do this upcoming season. Yeah, he's a fast kid. I think he had the fastest 40-time at the Atlanta Open Regional back in the spring. I mean, he's got a 42-and-a-half-inch vertical jump. I mean, this is a really talented athlete. He's 5'10", 5'11", 195 pounds, and can just take the distance from just about anywhere on the field. So, Alabama has been warning to sign or at least add two running backs to this class, preferably before the season started.

And they got a big one a few weeks ago from, or I guess last week, from Nigel Newkirk, who they recruited since last summer. And coincidentally, Ty Phillips was also offered. I think they were both offered within a week of each other last summer. And Alabama, for the most part, when juniors, guys who are going into their junior season, they're closely monitored. I mean, the offer happens, but you're still evaluating as juniors. You're awaiting more and more running backs throughout the season and all that stuff.

So, Ty Phillips remained, along with Newkirk, as one of their top running back targets throughout the year. And now they're on the verge of adding Phillips to the class. So, like where things stand, and I think Alabama's running back class will be complete. Today. Andrew, I'm looking at the rankings here, and you know a lot of Alabama fans are, and that's why they're saying they have a question here right now. Okay, right now. And it's all relative to the number of commitments and how many three-stars relative to the other guys you get.

[26:48] Alabama is 33rd. And to put that in perspective, some of the teams ranked ahead of them, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Missouri, Minnesota, Louisville, Kentucky, these are teams ranked ahead right now. Auburn is 13th. What message can you send Alabama fans sitting at 33rd right now? Well, it's certainly different. I mean, you don't see that too often. I think the biggest thing with Alabama this cycle, which for people who are subscribers on Bama Online, they have been reading our stuff really since January, that this was going to be a small class, that they were not going to sign 20-plus recruits this cycle.

They were probably going to sign anywhere between 15 and 16. We felt like next year or this upcoming season after the year, they signed a lot of talent over the last couple of seasons or the last couple of cycles that they really love. These are guys that they're wanting to keep for the long haul. So after the season's over, roster retention is going to really be a big focus for them, a lot of commitment financially. This is really kind of a money game now more than anything else.

It's not a numbers game. So you're not going out and trying to sign 25, 27 players to every single recruiting class. You're trying to budget and make sure that your star players are getting paid and you are developing guys for the future. I think that for Alabama, they looked at it this cycle as we've got a lot of guys coming back. We can pick and kind of choose who we're going to target in the portal. Last cycle, last year, the portal was a little bit different because they lost a lot.

They needed to really replace several players. So they ended up adding, I think it was 21 players from the transfer portal, where you're probably going to see, because of all the guys that are expected to return after this season, Alabama really kind of limit how many guys that they're going to go after in the transfer portal. The cycle guys that they really feel like they can spend money on to add key positions. So last year, they really kind of had to spread that wealth out to 20-plus guys.

So that was a little bit of a challenge that they made work. But this year, they can do it a little bit differently. So, yeah, I mean, high school recruiting, you're probably not going to see a top-10 class at Alabama, for the first time in almost 20 years, which is hard to believe. But a lot of that also has to deal with the numbers. I think I was looking at it the other day. There's one team over the last, I think, seven or eight years who've finished in the top 10 that had less than 20 signees.

So I think that was Oregon. But I think that this is a year where they're going to sign probably, I would say, 12 to 13 players that they really kind of invested in, that they push for. And then probably add a few more guys that, you know, scholarship-only type guys that they really don't have to pay a heavy amount for and try to develop them. Because what we've really seen this cycle is there's a lot of guys, especially at the top, five-star, top 100-type players, that when you're ranking players in high school, it is about what they are going to do over the next four years.

Where are they going to be in four years? Are they going to be a first-round draft pick? Are they going to be, you know, a star player? Not necessarily right off the bat, but a lot of these guys that are developmental guys are still getting the $900 to $1.5 million offers. I know a lot of that sometimes, especially from the schools that aren't getting a lot of star players, they're seeing it as a five-star talent who can really help their future here. You know, down the road, whereas a program like Alabama or Georgia, they might be looking at it as, I don't know if we're going to pay $1.5 million, $1 million to a kid that he's not even going to see the field until his sophomore year, and this is going to be $1.5 million just to sit on the sideline for a year, and then you've got to renegotiate by the time before they're a sophomore.

So, and I think that Alabama is okay with that. They know that fans are probably going to be a little bit disappointed that it's not a top-ten class, but they're not signing five-star after five-star in this cycle, but they are really focused on trying to get the players that they want at the top and then kind of filling out the rest of the class. So they've still got some big names that they want to add. They added two guys this weekend, Ty Phillips, and potentially one today with Ty Phillips, who they've, like I said, he's a three-star kid, but he's a kid that was offered over a year ago, almost a year ago, by Alabama and heavily pursued.

[31:48] So they wouldn't really worry too much about the rankings as long as they're getting players that they really want and feel like they can make an impact here in the future in Tuscaloosa. Yeah, this is going to be quality instead of quantity. Michael M. Buffet is one from St. Francis, a school that's been a pipeline for Alabama and Auburn the last couple of years. Three-star tight end, 6'5", 250, and Luke Cody, a top-ten kicker that they added also. Andrew, great stuff as always. I know a lot of our listeners are going to be looking this afternoon for a, as far as the commitment from Ty Phillips.

But where can we get online and get all the great stuff today in the remainder of the week and also buy your book? Yeah, come check us out, BamaOnline.com. We have a 50% off sale for annual subscribers. So go check that out. Get you all the way until next official visit season. So I think everyone will enjoy it. And if you need a copy of it, you need a new book this summer, if you haven't picked up mine yet. The Road to Bama, incredible twists and improbable turns along the Crimson Tide recruiting trail that can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, Amazon.

I don't know if there's other places to buy books, but that's all I really have ever mentioned. So those are some good spots to find one of those copies. So that's it, but come check us out at BamaOnline, where we're going to have a lot of content coming out over the next several days from official visits, camps, and a lot of upcoming decisions on the recruiting trail. Including the road out of Bama to Omaha for the baseball team. Andrew, listen, man, thanks so much. Have a great week, okay?

You too. Thank you. Thank you, bud. Andrew Bone, BamaOnline, part of the On3.com family. Again, the book is called The Road to Bama. Coming up, let's head on down to the plains and check out Tacker Talk with Brian Matthews on deck. Stay with us. A lot goes into taking care of your property. You need equipment with more reliability and versatility built in. Like Kubota, BX, and L-Series compact tractors that get the job done right. Z-Series mowers that deliver a quality cut and sidekick utility vehicles where durability meets speed.

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The Troy baseball team is out of the College World Series for the first time in program history. They swept Little Rock this weekend 12-2 and 7-2. Auburn was knocked out of the Super Regionals this weekend. They fell to Ole Miss 6-4 and 5-3. 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. Now at Lowe's, faster quotes start at the Lowe's Pro Desk. Got a material list handwritten on a sticky note or saved as a photo?

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Brian, welcome in. Happy Monday to you. How are you? I am doing great, guys. Good to hear from you all. You too, Brian. Listen, obviously, I tell you what, I don't think the weekend could have started better for the Auburn baseball program. Great fan support. The weather was cooperating after a week from, you know, where the previous weekend. It started well, but didn't end well. Brian, where do you start breaking down Auburn and Ole Miss and the Super Regionals? Well, I'll start where you started, and I thought the job that Auburn did, you know, filling up Pleasant Park was incredible.

Set a new, set several new records, game after game after game. But I think the final one was 10,639 for Saturday's Super Regionals. So, really impressive support there by the fan group. But I just think Ole Miss had the big swings and the big pitches and the big moments. That's a big difference. And a lot of their big hits and big plays came from seniors. Our guys that have been in program three, four, five years. You know, Furnace had a couple big swings. Chad Ruder had a big, or the Ruder kid had a big swing.

So, they just did a great job. Ruder Mark had two or three big hits. So, I just thought that their experience made a difference. I don't know if I'm an experienced beast talent all the time, but they're talented, too. So, they earned it. Auburn's gone 0-4 and Super Regionals last two years and lost those games by a total of eight runs. So, they've all been really close, really tight. And just a few things have gone the wrong way as far as Auburn's concerned. You bring up a good point, Brian, because, let's face it, these guys that's been upperclassmen, there's a big difference between a 22-year-old and a 17-, 18-year-old.

Because a lot of those freshmen, they're talented, but last year, they were playing in places, in all due respect, like Op and A-Rab, and they're not used to going on the road in a hostile environment. We sit with the major leagues. Sometimes, they play better on the road than they do at home. And I thought this morning, to validate that, I was listening to the interview from Alabama's Justin LeBrun. He said he obviously had options to leave. He stayed. Some of the other guys, like you just mentioned there for Ole Miss, they came through when the chips were on the table.

To me, there's a message, this is baseball, but it's the same for football or any other sport. You cannot replace experience and maturity. Like I said, there's a big jump in maturity between, especially guys, 22 and, say, 18, 19 years old. Yeah, and a lot of it comes down to a guy like Judd Ugramark has probably seen 600 or so big SEC pitches. You know, he's been in all these tough places, and he's not going to be intimidated. He's not going to be nervous. He's just going to, you know, sit in that batter's box and wait for his pitch and get a good swing off.

[42:29] That's what he did several times. And, you know, sometimes as freshmen and sophomores, you can get caught up in the moment more so. You can struggle a little bit more against really talented pitching, as Auburn has done at times this season. So, but I think those are all things that improve with experience and with time. And we'll see, because I think Auburn next year is going to have a very experienced team, a very veteran lineup, and guys that have been through it. And guys you would hope that come into the year with a chip on their shoulder, having performed, you know, not as well as they would have liked to, and then do straight home super regionals.

That's what I noticed. That's what I noticed. Stoneman's got the clutch hits. Let me give you some numbers. You probably know these. In the two games against Stoneman's, Auburn was 3 of 19 with runners in scoring position. I always look at the box score when I look at a Braves game, and that's the first thing I look for. They left 17 runners on base. And you mentioned pitching. I think Auburn had one of the most underrated staffs in the SEC. It was the 11th time this season that Auburn lost a game allowing five runs or less, and it was the 19th game this season when the offense scored three or fewer runs.

Yeah, and that's been the Achilles all year. Auburn's had a great pitching staff and really consistent. Had really six guys pitching as well as anybody in the country and in the league. And, you know, they provided good enough pitching, you know, in the super regional. Obviously, they gave maybe a little bit more than usual, but still plenty of opportunities there for Auburn to have some big swigs. And it knocked some runners in and scored some runs. I can go back to, I think it was Ethan Bigman.

It was late in Saturday's game, and he nails one to center field, or the center field takes a mid-step, but still managed to get back and catch it. Snow cones it, right? It's hanging out at the top of his glove, you know, one inch or two the other way. And that's a big hit, and you're scoring runs, and you're off to the races. So that's how quickly things can change. And, you know, sometimes, you know, even if the teams are easily matched, the balls don't drop for you, and they do for the other teams.

Brian Matthews, senior editor, AuburnSports.com. Switching gears, a little brighter note for Auburn, especially on the recruiting trail when it comes to football. Brian, I'm looking at one of the services here. And they've got Auburn 13th in the entire country. By comparison, Alabama is 33rd. Your thoughts about this class, as the Beatles would say, coming together right now. It is, and just quickly, I wouldn't get too caught up in Alabama being where they are. You know, it just matters a lot of times how many commitments you have at this time of year, right?

Once everybody gets up around 14 or 15-plus, and you can start comparing them more fair. But Auburn has been on a roll lately. They are up to 15 commitments. And they got a really, another nice one just today after an official visit over the past weekend from Reed Ramsey. I don't know exactly where he's ranked, but he's one of the top interior offensive linemen from Orlando, Florida. Four-star. I mean, you just look at Auburn's top commitments in the class. A lot of them are offensive linemen and running backs.

And you can just see, you know, since Alex Goers was hired, that he is really putting an emphasis on that part of Auburn's offense. And this team is going to really, in a lot of ways, get back to Auburn football, right? Running the ball and play action. Of course, you've got that dual-fright quarterback, too, and Byron Brown. So you can just see sort of a return to some of the things that have been really successful for Auburn offensively. Yeah, they have, in the last, I think, week, landed four-star linebacker Isaac McNeil from Viger, one of the best linebackers in the state.

Three-star Aiden Wiggins from South Carolina. And also, running back, another running back, Kingston Miles. I'll tell you one thing, Auburn's going to have quite a running back room if all these guys stay for 20-27. But, yeah, those are three impressive pickups. Yeah, and now they've got two really big running backs. My son Johnson Cook is over six foot, over 220 pounds. Kingston, who they just got the commitment from, is six foot plus, over 200 pounds. Got a bunch of big offensive linemen. Of course, they're getting really talented linebackers.

I think D.J. Durkin is a great coordinator, a great linebacker, coach, and a great recruiter. It all adds up to them recruiting and coaching up some really good players. I think Auburn's linebacker group is maybe the strength of this team. They're going to be one of the best positions overall in the SEC this year. So, I'm just, I think there's room, a reason for excitement for where this football team is going. Although, I would caution that, you know, you're talking about 60 newcomers. You're talking about a program that's gone through five consecutive losing seasons.

[47:37] And they just need to get out of that, you know, low point and get those seven wins and see if they can go from there and see if they can't. You know, maybe one or two more. But I think, you know, set your expectations to a medium and just see what happens. Brian Matthews, AuburnSports.com. Brian, before we jump off, it's not Auburn, it's not Alabama, it's college football and common sense. Your thoughts about the news out of Texas today. The Texas judge says, Texas Tech quarterback, okay, you made a mistake, but it could affect your mental health.

So, we're just going to give you a pass on you saying you bet on a game, but you can come back and play. Maybe we'll suspend you against maybe Texas State and maybe El Dorado U. Your thoughts about the news out of Texas today. I mean, it's pretty wild. And I think it's really brought a really strong reaction from a lot of corners of college football and college sports in general. So, I just think, and I think we're really sports in general. I think anybody understands that if you bet on your own team, that could end your career in whatever sport we're talking about, right?

So, and I guess two games, you know, and of course this is probably going to be appealed and, you know, it's not done yet. But very interesting ruling there. I think it's going to cause a pushback. I think it's going to have people more in favor of having some kind of reform and maybe pushing this team, this whole thing toward more to probably sitting down and doing some collective bargaining. I still don't think it's going to be enough to get any kind of legislation passed. I just think that's been a quagmire and will continue to be for many, many different reasons.

But that opportunity now to get it done and maybe there'll be more of a push to sit down and work this out between the players and the other parties involved. All right. Before we let you go, we've been talking to you, young man, for about 20 years on this show. A lot of people don't know this about you. You're a big soccer fan. Tomorrow night, Argentina, Iceland, I was looking at what they have done to reconfigure the field. 72 yards wide, 115 yards long. They've had to take some of the hedges.

Obviously, when you're trying to reformat a field for soccer, you've got to do some work. How many tickets? I heard they sold 75,000 tickets three weeks ago. How many tickets have they sold? What's the atmosphere? Are you going to be parking cars in your yard? Tell us about tomorrow night. Oh, my goodness. If I had to walk from my house to the stadium, I'm not sure I'd make it. But I think they're closing in on the sellout, but I don't think it's quite there yet. At least I've not seen that announcement or that email yet.

But I think it's close. But we'll see if they can get there by tomorrow, kickoff, so to speak. But it should be a really entertaining event. You know, Messi will be here. He did not play Saturday at Texas A&M. He played Algeria, I believe he was. So maybe, you know, with a week to go for Argentina, maybe the world's greatest all-time or certainly one of the top two or three all-time soccer slash football players, we'll get a chance to get in there for 30 or 45 minutes, and the people there will get to see him in action.

So that will be fun. I'm looking forward to being there and just being a part of the atmosphere and just experience something I've never experienced before. So it's going to be a pretty wild day. I'm not sure on the parking situation how that's going to work out, but I'm just going to go over there like everybody else. I'm not going to have a press pass or anything. I've just got to take it and figure it out. See, I always thought Bo Jackson was the most famous athlete to ever play on that turf.

I guess I'm corrected now, right, Brian? Yeah, that's a really good point, right? Yeah. That will be a fun list to come up with now. Save them from down the road. That's a good bar joke. Brian, that's the man. Good luck with the soccer score, and thank you so much for your time today. Hey, I appreciate you guys. Thank you, buddy. Thank you, buddy. Brian Matthews, senior editor at auburnsports.com. One of the best athletes I ever interviewed, BB, was a soccer player. Remember a guy by the name of Kyle Roten, Jr.?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. He came to Huntsville back when ESPN was in his fledgling days, and at that time, UAH and A&M, they had great soccer programs, and of course, ESPN was looking for programming. He came probably the best conditioned athlete at that time on the face of the earth. Kyle Roten, Jr. Coming up the next hour, he's pretty good himself. Ben Thomas got the entire state of Alabama covered. Got that more straight ahead. Stay with us. Hello, Shoals. It's Elmer Pierce from Garner Pierce Autos.

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That's ethos.com slash play. Paid spokesperson. Time spent on application may vary. Online health questions required. Rain for the past few days in Alabama has created a flash flood watch in northern Alabama and parts of central Alabama. Some spots receive 5 to 8 inches of rain on Sunday alone, which has caused the flooding in low areas. Recent rainfall throughout the state has resulted in the U.S. Drought Monitor changing its drought designation for the state overall. Conditions have improved in Jefferson County and northwest Alabama, with the drought designation being completely removed.

Southern counties of the state of Alabama have gone from an extreme drought designation to moderate. 16% of the state is now considered to be in a drought, with 83% considered as abnormally dry. I'll be back with more Alabama stories after this. Are you enjoying 1819 News? If so, consider joining 1819 News as a member. As a non-profit news organization, we depend on the support of Alabamians like you. Memberships start out as little as $5 a month, and you'll get access to exclusive content only offered to our members. You'll be supporting independent journalism done by people who cherish Alabama values.

Become a member today by visiting 1819news.com and clicking Become a member. That's 1819news.com and click Become a member today. A reward of $10,000 is now being offered by the Birmingham Police Department in order to find and arrest the person responsible for a mass shooting in the Sandusky neighborhood last week. Two people were killed as a result of this shooting, five others severely injured. The fatalities have been identified as Bernard Watts and DeAndra Johnson. The gunfire broke out at a house party where those attending were family members or close friends.

The U.S. Coast Guard has officially opened up its training center at the former Birmingham Southern College campus. The U.S. Coast Guard will begin training programs at the campus for new Coast Guard cadets. Admiral Kevin Lundy will be overseeing these operations. I'm Andrea Theis. For more news affecting Alabamians, go to 1819news.com. And while you're there, subscribe to the daily newsletter. Straight Talk Wireless presents Pickup Truck Wisdom. Trust is earned. That's why I've stuck with Straight Talk. Same price since 2009 on Verizon's 5G network. Because shoot, anyone can make a promise.

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Your weather from 93.9 The Score. Now, get ready to roll. Shoals, Decatur, Athens, and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee. It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM Sports Voice. The Boomo Bugg Show. Your exclusive inside track to the Tide. Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC. Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Welcome back in, hour two of the Boomo Bugg Show. I'm Harold Bugg, alongside Brad Veer. Thank you so much for giving us a ride around the Tennessee Valley. With that, we open the door and say hello to the BT Express.

Ben Thomas, got it all covered there at AL.com. BT, welcome in. Happy Monday to you. How are you? Doing good. Yeah, I don't know about having it all covered, but we're certainly trying to cover some of it. Well, 99.9%. That ain't a bad percentage, Ben. I tell you what, baseball in the state of Alabama is very, very good. Could have been three. Auburn came up short. We'll talk about that. But let's talk about a team not too far from you that has to be the Cinderella story so far.

The Troy Trojans. What was interesting about it, Ben, I saw a blurb where the fans were so enthused that the administrators had to go. It was your backyard, the Gulf Shores, the Orange Beach. They had to rent some stands, some seats to come up, temporary seating to accommodate the fans who stood in line for hours to get a ticket. What a Cinderella story not too far from you. Yeah, very cool. Very cool, Troy, going to the World Series for the first time. Just all worked out for them, you know, in the regional, the big upsets that pulled.

And then to get a home super regional, I mean, you know, they couldn't have imagined that a couple weeks ago, I'm sure. And then, you know, have a favorable matchup against Little Rock was cool to see. And I thought, you know, I hated that Auburn didn't win. Just to have three teams there would have been amazing. But I think you saw the atmosphere at all three locations was as good as any of the atmospheres around. And I think every series I saw had a – it was really exciting.

But, you know, I think Auburn and Troy and Alabama can all be proud of the atmospheres they put on at home. And, you know, we'll see how far Troy and Alabama can go in this thing. I think maybe they're on the same side of the bracket if I'm not mistaken. So, be pulling for those guys. And it just shows you, you know, how good baseball is at the state. No question about that. Let me ask you, the big thing this year, and we've talked about it a lot, was separating the public and private schools in the playoffs.

[1:03:37] And the private school committee, I was reading one of your articles last week. I believe they're meeting again with Heath Harmon, the executive director of the Alabama Husky Athletic Association, this afternoon or today or at some point this week. And they're looking at expanding the private school playoffs. BT, update us with that. That was a big surprise. We can all see how it goes. Are they already looking at trying to expand the playoffs? Or what's the gist of today's meeting? Yeah, well, you know, this was part of Mr. Harmon's plan or, I guess, idea when the whole separation took place in January.

He said we're going to form a private school committee that we're going to listen to. And so they did that, eight members' committee. So there's a private school member from each of the districts in Alabama. They met one time in May already in person. And I understand that meeting was, you know, from about 10 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon with lunch in the middle. So a long, long discussion there. And I think they're going to, what I've been told is they're supposed to meet again today by Zoom, maybe about 2 o'clock.

So not in person. And I'm not sure what all is on the docket, but I know I talked to Shane Sullivan, who's the athletic director at St. Paul's down here in Mobile. He is the District 1 representative on the committee. And what we talked about is they're interested in really increasing the number of teams and rounds in most of the playoffs for the private schools. And I didn't get too deep into the weeds as far as what, you know, basketball and softball, those type programs, what that would look like.

But football is interesting because, you know, we know there's two different divisions there in the private schools. The AA division, which only has 16 teams. I mean, there's 17 total, but only 16 of them play football in the smaller private school division. And, you know, I think the private schools in the beginning, their idea was that 12 of the 16 teams make the playoffs. And then you play three rounds of the playoffs, you're off for the semifinals, and then you play the finals, which is, you know, kind of what we have had, that same system for 7A for a couple of years.

But they didn't go with that. When the HSA announced it a couple of months ago, they announced that just eight of the teams would get into the playoffs. And the really weird thing about that is, if you look at the playoffs, in that structure, you would have, they would not play the first week of the playoffs. They'd play week two and three, and then they would not play the semifinal week, and then they would play their championship game. So, you know, it's not ideal. You know, what Dirk Sullivan said was, you know, we just want, more so than getting more teams in the playoffs, we just want our kids to experience, have every opportunity to experience the rounds of the playoffs.

We're more interested in the rounds of the playoffs. So, we'll see if that happens. I mean, it's, you know, I think they're going to talk more about that. It would have to go through, I think, two more committees and maybe the central board to get approved. And he's still hoping it gets approved for this first year, this fall, which seems like it'd be a rush at this point. Yes. But, you know, another part of that that's interesting is, and they talked about this before the playoff situation was announced, that they would like to have, so in that scenario, there's only two regions, you know, in the larger private school division.

So, they would have their top two seeds from each region getting their first round by, and then the other games being played maybe at one site. And they talked about this 17 Springs place in Millport, which apparently is a very nice place. I've never been there. And they would talk about getting a sponsor and doing all that stuff. So, if that's going to happen, you know, I haven't talked to Heath Harmon. He'll be at the Alabama Sportswriters Convention next Sunday. So, we will, I'm sure, talk to him about a lot of this stuff.

But if they're going to do that, especially for football and volleyball and whatever the fall sports are, they're going to have to make a quick move on that and see if it happens. I'm not against it. I don't see what it could hurt. You know, what they've, and when I've talked to Mr., I've talked to Mr. Harmon about this right after they announced what the playoff situation was. And I kind of said to him, you know, I thought the private schools were talking about 12 of the 16 teams.

And he said, well, you know, traditionally we've gone by kind of a 50% model in the playoffs, 50% of the teams to get into the playoffs. But we scrapped that already for six minutes. You know, we already know that 24 of those 32 teams are going to get into the playoffs this year. So, I don't think we can stand on that. I don't see anything wrong with it. Private schools want to do that. It does seem to me that having two rounds of the playoffs off is a little awkward.

Ben Thomas, AL.com. Ben, I'm just listening to some of the folks earlier, and then obviously we all love high school sports here. And we know back in the day, if you were a four or five star, you drove the bus as far as the next level. Very coveted. But with all the NIL and all the money, we talked with some of the folks earlier, and it seems to be the consensus is a lot of these coaches, they don't want to put down big money and have a kid sit on the bench for a year.

[1:08:58] They'd rather go to the portal, put that money there. It's more of a guarantee. The point I'm trying to make, how is high school sports going to be affected as far as kids? In the old model, if you were a star athlete, you're almost guaranteed to go into an Alabama, Auburn, some other school, Ole Miss, et cetera, Tennessee. But now, maybe not. Maybe they're going to sit here and say, yeah, you're pretty good, but you're too expensive. We're going to put that on a more reliable income, if you will.

And could one of the beneficiaries of that be a school like UNA, which says, okay, come here, we'll give you a chance to play now? Well, 100%. I mean, in the last, let's say, decade, it's changed considerably. I mean, I talk to high school coaches all the time about their frustrations of trying to get some of these good players noted, you know, if they're not a four- or five-star guy. Another thing is, you know, we've almost cut out the kids who might be on kind of the bubble going into their senior year and then have a great senior year.

I mean, most of the big-time colleges are already full by that point. That's right. With their classes. So it does, it should benefit programs like UNA, like Jacksonville State, Stanford, those type programs, even South Alabama. But I think we have more kids even going to junior college and Division III or whatever and trying to work their way back up. So, you know, the good news is, the bad news is a lot of the players who would have normally been in SEC-type signing classes, some of those players are not out of high school getting to those signing classes.

But the good news is if you go somewhere and prove yourself, then you can probably use it as a stepping stone and eventually get paid to go to one of those schools. But it's a tremendous difference just in the last five, six years. B.T., I enjoy your poll questions that come out on Thursday. And the one last week was, what's the biggest issue facing high school sports today? Overall sportsmanship. Number two, non-compliant transfers. Number three, dealing with the possibility of NIL. And that's going to rear its ugly head in this state sooner or later.

Public-private school restructuring. And the one you had before this I thought was interesting, which dovetails into this. What should happen if a high school coach is found enticing players from other schools to transfer to his school? And the response was, 73%, the coach should be suspended, those players ruled ineligible at that school, and the team banned from postseason play. And then the second response was, 27%, the coach should be suspended, but don't penalize his team or the players. Two very good poll questions, B.T., that makes you think a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, and obviously that last one you talked about, Brad, is, you know, that's the penalty, 72% of them said. That's what the HSAA had basically sanctioned, Pell City and Mary G. Montgomery. I mean, you know, the coaches are suspended for a year. You know, players that are included, they are ineligible at that school. And, you know, they've also, it's a playoff ban. Now, I still think, you know, we'll hear some more about that. I think the next board meeting, July 29th, that's going to be big because that's when I think both those programs will address the central board, maybe talk about what they've done moving forward, maybe have some of those penalties alleviated.

We'll see. And, you know, I keep hearing, and I'm sure you guys do too, but maybe there's some other programs under the watchful eye of the HSAA. So we may not be done with that. But I do think it's just interesting, though, of course, I think this week coming up on Thursday is about this playoff scenario I just talked about, about whether private schools should have more teams in the playoffs or not. So it's fun. We try and get questions that people are interested in and don't get too deep in the weeds where, you know, if you're a parent, you might not have specific knowledge about some of these issues.

So we kind of try and do it overall to what people might like to weigh in on. Another fun question, I think, Ben, would be talking about Phillip Rivers. Chances are he's going to be coaching, not obviously this coming season, but next season. Will he be coaching high school ball at St. Michael Catholic College down the road from you on the coast? Or will he be coaching in the NFL? Who has that kind of question posed at him? Who can make a decision between possibly coaching at the high school level and maybe at the NFL level?

Yeah, you know, I'm hoping, I'm trying to get a hold of Phillip. We're honoring him this weekend at the Alabama Sports Writers Association Convention. And I'm trying to get a hold of him and ask about it. I mean, I think that's a very valid point. You know, his son, Gunnar, will be a senior this year. He's already committed to NC State, Phillip's alma mater. His middle son, there's three boys. There's ten children overall, but only three of them are boys. And the middle son is, I think, in ninth grade, going into ninth grade, and he's a quarterback as well.

[1:14:11] So, like I said, but I think I said it before, Phillip, this is not him talking. Although he has told me that, you know, his return to the NFL, I think he did see that, you know what, I can have an impact on these men as well as I can in high school. I do think he had that impression. I don't know, you know, obviously it's not about money for him. You know, he's not a guy, it's not about the glory or keeping his name out there.

He'll pray about it, I'm sure. I think he'll have some opportunities down the road if that's what he wants to do. But, you know, for our sake, the sake of, you know, folks in Alabama, I hope he remains a high school coach. I think it's good for high school athletics in the state. By the way, you mentioned this last week at the Alabama Sportswriters Association meeting, Mr. Baseball and Ms. Softball will be mentioned. And I'm going to guess that there are going to be some nominees from North Alabama.

We'll be talking with you about that down the road. And what else? That's a lot. You've still got a lot going on. What else? I know Randy Kennedy came out with another position last week. What else have you got on the docket this week? Man, it's a big recruiting time, obviously. We're going to see a lot of 7-on-7 stuff. The Williamson linebacker committed to Florida, John Summerall in Florida. Over the weekend, Ellis McGaskin, he was a former Notre Dame commitment. So a big gift for John Summerall coming into the state.

Yeah, so the all-state softball team, the Alabama Sportswriters Association, will be out Thursday. All-state baseball team out on Friday, on Saturday, excuse me, Saturday, on AL.com and on outlets across the state. And then, like you said, Brett, we'll have our convention on Sunday where we name Mr. Baseball and Ms. Softball. And we honor the Jimmy Smothers Courage Award winner, who's a young woman from North Alabama. So a lot of good stuff coming up. And also, we're doing, this week, Thomas and I are starting our People's Choice Awards, AL.com fan voting for, we've got eight baseball players, eight softball players to vote off to see who people's choice is for the player of the year.

So that's going to start on Wednesday. So check all that stuff out on AL.com. Ben, you can never do NASCAR. You never take a pit stop. Enjoy. Thank you so much for your time today, Ben. All right. Y'all have a good week. Thank you, buddy. Ben, Thomas, AL.com. Trivia question time, BB. How many schools, college programs overall went to the World Series in softball, baseball, the playoffs, and football in Sweet 16 in basketball? I think I saw that the other day. There were four or five.

Well, wait a minute. Alabama and Texas, I know, is the answer to one of them. And there are no more than four. One of all those, by the way. And it's Alabama. Coming up, are they friends with folks in Tennessee? I don't think they like Alabama up in Tennessee. We'll take you there nonetheless for the V-Man. It's Raar on Deck. Stay with us. At First Metro Bank, we're more than just a place to keep your money. We're a proud part of this community, committed to helping you achieve your dreams.

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Grainger. For the ones who get it done. The Score. Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Welcome back in. It is always a pleasure for us to say hello to the V-Man. Vince Rowan, 99.1. The Sports Animal in Knoxville, Tennessee. And on the Vol Radio Network. V-Man, welcome in. How are you? I'm good, gentlemen. How are we doing? Hey, buddy. Man, we're doing all right. We're proud you're in the huddle with us. Unlike Brent and I, you had a C average in Scott, so you're the smart one in the room here.

Your thoughts about the ruling out in Texas today with the Texas Tech situation, V-Man. A lot of folks are saying this is the day college sports, in particular college football, died. With the ruling where a judge says, we know, son, that you admitted to gambling, even on your own team, but it's okay. Spend you a couple of games, you can come back and play. V-Man, are people overreacting, or is there still hope that maybe somebody out there has got walking around sense? Well, I'm not putting hope on anyone in college sports right now, so we can rule hope out of the equation.

But to answer your question, H-Man, I absolutely despise this. I hate it. It is many things that are wrong and make no sense in college athletics. This one has made me the most angry. We have a segment on our show on Wednesdays where we get to vent about something in sports, and we know there's so much material of things that it's called give me a break. And there's always things in sports that make you say give me a break. Well, my reaction would be a better segment for Sirius XM satellite radio because it wouldn't fly because of the language.

[1:24:28] And my reaction when I heard about this, it's absolutely ridiculous. It shows that you can go to local courts, and not every time, but depending on the strength of your legal team, and maybe money backing, you can get whatever ruling you want. And to think that that kind of nonsensical ruling that is being applied in everyday life to people with higher stakes with their well-being is just incredible and mind-blowing that that's applied. There is nothing worse than the ethics of the game. If you know that people are betting on your sport, and people can't have faith in your sport that it's legit, you'll lose your sport.

So that's why so many people couldn't recognize the severity of Pete Rose. And people are like, well, put Pete Rose back in now. It's different, but what it applies is that being a criminal isn't as bad as betting on your sport and on your team. And that was the big thing that he admitted to in those court documents. So it just calls in the question, how many more people are doing it? It's okay to do it. It incentivizes doing it. There's no repercussions. You just have your legal team do it.

And just the disingenuous nonsense in the attorney's statement, in Cody Campbell's statement, just all these things that are just absolutely ridiculous and self-serving. It's awful for college athletics. So the only positive could be is if this angers so many people and it becomes so bad that it can lead to somehow blowing up the system or somebody fixing everything else in the sport. That would be the only silver lining down the road. But right now, it's just horrible and ridiculous. Well, the question is, does the judge have season tickets to Texas Tech?

Is he buzzed with Campbell, who writes big checks? And to me, it's even worse than Pete Rose in some ways because Pete Rose is one of nine. A quarterback, of all the sports out there in positions, a quarterback can determine the outcome of a game. All he's got to do is throw some interceptions from the ball. I'm not deluding what Pete Rose did, but Pete Rose was one of nine. A quarterback is like a pitcher. They have more impact than a guy in the field. Well, and H-man, the argument is, well, you know, he had, this is a sickness.

He had an addiction. Well, guess what? Well, guess what? If you don't, if you don't make, if you don't bet on your sports, you don't get an addiction. One. Two, if it is a medical, even if you want to go that route and say, all right, medically, he has an addiction. Well, if you have any other illness, sickness, disability, anything else, you're not, you're not, you're not, it's not your right. It doesn't justify, too. It doesn't justify, too. Absolutely. You don't get a free pass. You don't have to change the rules, break the rules for you.

It's just unfortunate that you don't get to do that. So, the fact that they're ruling that he has a right that he would be damaged, it's his fault. He's admitted to it. He doesn't get damage if he doesn't bet on his team and place all his bets to get himself in this situation. So, the lack of accountability is just amazing. And hopefully, there's some sort of way to override this. I don't know the legal repercussions. We're going to talk to our legal analyst that's a law professor in New York sometime this week and see if he can help us with it.

But right now, it's just horrible. Bud, let me ask you before we let you go. Four SEC teams now have punched their ticket to go to Omaha. Alabama dead about an hour ago, ending a 27-year drought. Texas, Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama, Oklahoma's leading 12-1. And I think they're about to punch it in the seventh inning. You saw these teams come into Knoxville week after week. Your thoughts, B, on quite a year for SEC baseball. Yeah, it's the dominance of the league. It's the depth of the league, even though it's not all the same brand.

You know, Georgia has not been a regular. They've had their disappointments in the Super Regionals, in the NCAA tournament. Oklahoma is a newbie. Texas is, yeah, they have more history than anyone, but not necessarily representing the SEC. That's still a new thing. And then, you know, obviously, Ole Miss, Alabama is new, going back to 99. So, the newness of it shows the depth of the league when you can have some of the regular powers not be a factor and have so many other teams ready for the moment in getting to Omaha.

[1:29:52] So, it's incredible. Unfortunate that there are four of them on one side of the bracket. Yes. So, they're going to clip each other. And we'll see, you know, how far maybe the Final Four could end up being out of the SEC. We'll see. But it just speaks to the depth. I'm surprised by a lot of things we've seen. But it's amazing to see some of these teams and individual players rise up to the pressure moments that they've had. V, if Mississippi State plays any team in the country besides Georgia, they're in the World Series.

They score 12 and 9 runs and lose both games. Which is absolutely amazing. But where can we get online and get all your great stuff? You're right. I think Mississippi State and Auburn in a super regional would both beat North Carolina. I agree. I agree. And that would make it seven. Now, I don't know about West Virginia because they're playing on a crazy level right now. But those other two, they would have beaten. You can follow me on all the socials. Vince Sports, V-I-N-C-E Sports and SportsSource Digital Network.

Look that up on YouTube for a lot of the TV work I do here locally. V-Man, as always, good to hook up with you. Listen, man, kick back, enjoy yourself, and thank you so much for your time today, my friend. Yeah. The best thing is I'll get to go into Daphne here in one second, my mini golden doodle, and she'll solve all these problems for me. There you go. Daphne's got a higher IQ than some of these folks out there in the real world. I can't tell you, V-Man.

Vince Frost, 99.1, the Sports Animal in Knoxville. Coming up, the latest big names, the head of the Limestone County Hall of Fame. Details next. 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. After the game, bring the whole team to Lost Pizza. We've got the table, we've got the pies, and we've got the monster waiting for you.

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They fell to Ole Miss 6-4 and 5-3. Atlanta Braves had just three hits yesterday, but the Braves were winners at Tua's Park as they beat the Pirates 3-2. Ronaldo Lopez got the win. He's 3-1. The Braves now 45-21. Braves are off today, but back in action tomorrow in Chicago as they start a series with the White Sox. 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. The burrito is fire. Hi, this is Maya.

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Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score. Welcome back in. You know, Brett, it's not very often that we get a chance to talk to the president. Would you agree? Right about that. Jeff Hodges, he is the president. He's the big man when it comes to the Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame. Jeff, welcome in. How are you? I'm doing good, gentlemen. How are y'all? Hey, Jeff. Man, a long time. How's life been since the last time we talked? It's actually been good, fellas. I appreciate you guys having me on and appreciate you guys having interest in the Hall of Fame.

Well, the thing is, we should, because we obviously want to talk about the latest big names heading into the fame, but the people realize how rich the athletic history is for folks coming out of Limestone County. Reed Blankenship out of West Limestone, pretty good career with the Philadelphia Eagles and Houston, Texas. Michael Bowley got a Super Bowl ring with the Atlanta, or I'm sorry, with the New York Giants. He was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons early on. And the NFL, I think his name is Phillip Rivers, pretty good quarterback at Athens.

I have no idea what happened to him in the NFL, but proportioned to the population, the people realize not only athletes, but how many quality athletes have come out of Limestone County over the years. Absolutely. That's right, considering we're the smallest landmass county in the state, right? But we do happen to be the fastest-growing county in the state. And, hey, you know, I'm a little bit biased, too, but, you know, we've got a PGA Tour winner from Limestone County. Yes. Talk to us about that, because people don't realize that we are always talking about Stuart Sink, born in Huntsville, raised in Florence.

Do people realize how good the golfing is in our neck of the woods? Well, it is. You know, the Hodges kid's not bad. It's his fifth-year on tour, and he won the 3M Open a couple years ago. He's played in at least one of the – played in every major at least one time, some multiple times, so he's not bad either. Let me ask you about your golf tournament before we get into the inductees and actually purchasing tickets for the induction ceremony. You've got a golf tournament, the Martha Jo Memorial Golf Tournament.

I know Morgan County does this, too. Joe Bailey is a friend of ours who runs Morgan County, and they raise money, I believe, for the Boys and Girls Club. The golf tournament, I believe, raises college scholarships for your local high-school students. We were joking. You told me that you're full a little bit later this week. Hopefully, God willing, it's going to stop raining one day. Tell us a little bit more about your golf tournament, where the money goes. Yes, sir. Well, let me say this. The golf tournament's named after a lady named Martha Jo Leonard, who was a founding member of the Sports Hall of Fame board back 20-plus years ago.

[1:40:10] She passed away suddenly back in 2018, unexpectedly, and she was such a stalwart of our group that we named the tournament after her. But, yes, Brent, we give away this year, we're giving away four, excuse me, six $4,000 scholarships to student athletes in Athens and Limestone County. We upped that this year from five to six, and since our inception, we are well over $150,000 in scholarship funds that we've given them. And this golf tournament is our primary fundraiser for that. So, Jeff, obviously, I've got to add another name to that, the fellow by the name of Gary Reedus played at a place called Tanner High, had a pretty doggone good major league baseball career, so I want to add Gary to that list.

Let's talk about who's going to be added to the current list, Jeff, as far as the new names on their way to the Limestone County Hall of Fame. Sure, Harold, we'll do. Gary Reedus is actually on our board now, by the way. Gary, I said that a lot. Has he still got his car collection? Do what now? I don't know. Does he still have – he had – when I did stuff back in the day with Gary, he had a classic car collection. And this is a true story.

One day, he had – I forgot what model it was, Jeff. He had like a 50-something model. He said, let's get in the car and go fishing. I said, what? So, we went – we got in his car. He took the cane poles, put them out the back rear window like we do down south, and over the bridge that went from Decatur to Athens, we stopped and had a fishing fest there. So, ask Gary about his car collection, okay? I didn't know Gary other than to know who he was, obviously, from his baseball fame until we got on our board.

But what a gem of a fellow. Yes. He's just, you know, the most humble, easy-going guy. We talk about his – you know, his son's now the ladies' basketball coach at Rutgers. Yeah. Anyway, you asked me a question, and I built you a clock. But anyway, this year's inductees, we've got a guy by the name of Neil Cheatham. Y'all may know Neil from his days in journalism. He was the sports editor for the Addicts News Cougar for over 25 years and covered all the sports – you know, small newspapers.

So, he was the guy. He covered all the sports. Yeah. Good for him. And so, we're putting Neil in for his commitment and years of service in sports journalism in Limestone County. Channa Campbell-Clay, basketball player from over at West Limestone High School. Great player, played there, all-time leading scorer at that school. Broke her sister's record, by the way, who's already in the whole thing. And then she went on and played four years at Mississippi State. Patrick Johnson, Patrick started his career over at West Limestone High School and then transferred to Athens High.

He was a field goal kicker, special teams player, earned All-State at Athens and then went on and played at Vanderbilt for four years. And Leon Lockett, Leon was an all-around player over at Elfmont. He actually came to fame early on as a Little League baseball pitcher, but then went on and played on the same basketball team with Terry Williams over at Elfmont. Actually averaged 28 points a game, which was more than Terry averaged 13 rebounds a game there at Elfmont. And then went on and played at Wallace State from there.

And then Andrew Medley, speaking of golf, Andrew was a standout golfer, All-State golfer at Athens High School, won the individual 5A state championship his senior year, played four years at Auburn, had some success there, turned pro, won three times on the Hooters Tour, then had an injury and became a caddy, caddied for one of his college teammates for a little while, then caddied for Jimmy Walker, who won a PGA championship. And now he's actually on my son's bag. They're up in Canada playing right now. And he's been on the police bag for about three years now.

And then finally, the last one is Roshanda Shepard. She was a multi-sport star at Athens in track and field and tennis, and then went on to play at both, and did both of those at Alabama A&M, and had a lot of success in track and field and in tennis at Alabama A&M. Jeff, you've got a great website. I've looked at it two or three times leading up to our interview. You've got certainly the members there. How you can nominate someone, and we'll get into that a little bit more in a minute.

But I was impressed with the, it's just a wide variety of sports, of people. Now, if anyone listening to our conversation would like to attend the induction banquet, tell us about tickets, the time, the place, the venue, et cetera. Yes, sir. Our banquet is Saturday night at the Veterans Museum slash Event Center off of Elm Street in Limestone County. Most people know where that is. Tickets can be purchased through the United Way of Athens in Limestone County. They're very gracious as to handle our ticket sales and the logistics for us on the banquet.

[1:45:45] That number is 256-233-2323. It's $40 per ticket, and I would welcome anybody to come. I tell people, most of the people, I can't tell you how many people every year that have never been to our event come because they know somebody that's getting in, or, you know, and they tell us, this is one of the best, inevitably, I will have multiple people tell me every year, this is one of the best events in Limestone County that I've ever been to. And what we go out of our way, our board does, to try to put on a first-class event, and we really think we do.

It starts at 6 o'clock with a nice meal. There's nothing more valuable than a kind word. Before you jump off, Jeff, brag a little bit about your favorite golfer on the tour. Well, I'm not going to talk that much about Scotty Shep. Forget their rankings. We're going by your rankings, Jeff. My rankings, my son, will always be number one. He's played okay. He hasn't had a great year. He was injured a lot last year and ended up being able, obviously, to keep his card and play for his fifth year.

And as you all know, in professional sports, that's a big deal, getting that pitch from a benefit and financial perspective. But he's out there grinding, and there's a lot of golf left. So, hopefully, he will finish strong this year. We're looking forward to that. Listen, before we let you go, tell us if you're listening to this and would like to nominate. You may be driving down the road, you just heard some names and say, well, I played with so-and-so 30 years ago, and he might be worthy.

Tell us how the criteria for nomination, how you can do that. And, again, tell us your website address and also the phone numbers for his tickets. The phone number for tickets is 256-233-2323. That's the United Way of Athens, Limestone County. Just call them there and tell them you would like tickets to the Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet. Our nomination form, Brent, is on our website. Just go to Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame. You can Google that or LCSHOF.com. Let me make sure I get all that in there.

Click on nominate. The form pops up. You can complete it. You've got to be a native of Limestone County or attended high school in Limestone County or a resident of Limestone County for a period of time sufficient to be considered a resident. You know, we have people that played at Alabama or played at Auburn who were not from Limestone County but have been here, lived here, or not just those two schools. I just throw those out as one gentleman comes up in my mind particularly about that.

And then, and it's all on there. 35 years or older, you're supposed to be retired out before we nominate you in the category that you're going to be elected. You know, you can be a coach, you can be a player, or you can be a support personnel. That's the three categories that we've put people in. And we did make an exception a few years ago. If you're over 65 and still doing what you're doing and you're still good at it, you can be nominated before you retire and be elected.

So, go to that. You know, people tell us all the time, inevitably, the night of the banquet, I'll have two or three people come up. We need to get so-and-so in. Right. I agree with you. But we can only get them in if they're nominated. Yep. Right? That's right. So, encourage people. If you know somebody, take the time because it is a great honor. And we do want to get everybody that needs to be in the Hall of Fame in there, but we've got to get them nominated first.

Sounds great. Jeff, Brent and I qualify at least on one of those points. We're over 35. In fact, we're way over 35. So, at least we qualify on one point, okay? Me too. Same. Jeff, all the best. Hope the weather cooperates. All the best to you. And thank you so much for your time today. Hey, gentlemen, thank you all very much. We appreciate the recognition and having us on. Thank you, Jim. You've well-earned it. Jeff Hodges, president of Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame. BB Alabama is on their way to Omaha.

First time since France. It's going to party like 1999. It looks like they will take on a familiar face in the boomer sooners from Oklahoma. BB, if things go as script for the rest of the day. Yeah, we got the one and only Roger Hoover going to have a couple of his great calls tomorrow. Thanks to James Moody. Harold, before we go, let me mention James Buddy Moore. A 2012 UNA Athletic Hall of Fame inductee passed away recently. Oh, man. At the young age of 93. Played on the UNA football team from 51 to 54.

Also coached in 1965 at Deshera High School. 78 at Coffey High School. Won two state track and field titles. Our certainly prayers and condolences with the Moore family. James Buddy Moore passing away at the young age of 93 years old. Appreciate you sharing that with us. Obviously, echo those sentiments. It's going to take care of business now. My half of BB, Greg, James Blair, the entire career. Harold Buck, thank you so much for your time today. Let's do it again tomorrow, noon to two for the Boomhole Buck Show.

[1:51:11] Back here on Sports Radio 93.9, the score.