Boomo Bugg Show 111225

[0:00] Now, get ready to roll Shoals, Decatur, Athens, and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee. It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM Sports Voice. The Boomo Bugg Show. Your exclusive inside track to the Tigers, Tennessee and the rest of the SEC. Now your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score. 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 if it's Wednesday, it is time to go to Hawkeye and get the MASH report. Who's in, who's out for the week's big games? Welcome in. How are you?

Happy Wednesday to you and the listeners. Alabama remains number four in the latest college football playoff rankings. That includes eight SEC teams. We'll be talking to Brian Matthews shortly of auburnsports.com about football and basketball and always delighted to bring in UNA coach Brent Dierman, who's going to join us to recap a tough loss to West Georgia. UNA top line, Coach Brent Dierman in the huddle with us. Coach, welcome in. How are you? Guys doing fantastic on this Wednesday, getting ready for a great practice today. Always a pleasure my Wednesday to talk to you guys.

Right back at you, Coach. We appreciate you because, let's face it, a lot of folks, they want to talk when you're unbeaten. But football, I don't care who you are or where you are. It is a proverbial rollercoaster ride. I don't have to tell you that. You're up one week, you're down the next, somewhere in between the rest of the time. But speaking of that, Coach, wouldn't it be nice if, as a college coach, the rules could be changed to maybe hand grenades, or as they say, grenades, I say hand grenades, and horseshoes?

A very close one, one of those, a break here and a break there, and we'll be having a different dialogue today, but break down the West Georgia game for us. You summed it up with a break here and a break there. We have a 17-10 lead early in the second quarter. Probably offensively, it was our best start to any game this football season. Then we scored on three out of our first four drives of the game, and then our starting quarterback broke his foot. And after he breaks his foot, we don't score another point the rest of the game going with our backup.

So I've got to be better. I've got to be better to help our true freshmen that come in the ballgame to help us to go win a football game. I thought defensively, we probably played one of our better games of the year, holding West Georgia to 10 in the first half. They scored 14 in the second, so ended up losing 24-17. We've lost two games in overtime this year. We've lost a game off of a missed extra point this year. And then the tough one this past week, I mean, we're close, but nobody brought us here to be close.

We've got to take the next step. We've got to win these football games. Coach, talk to us about that. The reality of football is, in a perfect world, no one ever gets hurt. And you don't want anybody to get hurt. But when the sort of the hub of the wheel goes down like that, unexpectedly, you've got two choices this year and throw the towel in or say, we've got to go to plan B. Now that you've had a little time to digest it, talk to us about the quarterback spot starting this weekend.

You know, we've, this season, total, we've played four different guys at the quarterback spot. We went with two of our older guys early in the year, and they wasn't getting the job done. So because our junior and our senior quarterbacks we didn't feel was putting us in the best position to go win games, we ended up deciding on the cue, and now he's been hurt two different times as the season went on, got hurt against Illinois State, had a collarbone issue, where he had to be out for two games after that.

Then he comes back, we're playing well offensively, and he gets the broken foot. So now, with two games left, we're definitely not throwing the towel in, but we are seeing what our true freshman, what our young kid can do. We brought him here because we think he's really talented. So John Austin Wood is our true freshman quarterback that we're, this whole team believes in, that we're going with this week, and it's going to help us to see the direction of our offense, direction of our program.

Coach, I'll tell you one, I know a lot of coaches give lip service to special teams. You don't, being such a fundamental coach. Ian Bishon had a 43-yard field goal, but Adam Warford, man, nine punts for a 49-yard average. There's not a coach on any level in college football who would not want their punter to punt for nearly 50 yards a punt. You're talking about flipping the field and putting a couple of them inside the 20-yard line. That's quite a weapon. Yes, he is. He's been a great weapon for us now for three years.

[5:16] Came here and started as a true freshman our first year here. Had a solid freshman year, I thought, last year. Kind of dropped off a little bit, got that sophomore slump. And then this year, his junior year, I mean, he's killing it. He's one of the top punters in all of college football right now. So, as an offensive coach, you're hoping your punter does not have to punt nine times in the ballgame. That's not a good sign. But it also helps our defense knowing that we've got a guy that can change the field, can put momentum in the ballgame, can pin an opposing team down deep.

I think two of his punts ended up laying inside the 10-yard line. So, a great day out of Adam. In the huddle with UNA head football coach, Brent Dierman. Coach, the bad news is you're back on the road this weekend to Tarleton State. The good news is, correct me if I'm wrong, it is the final time to pack the bags and hit the road, Jack. Your thoughts about that and your matchup with Tarleton State? You know, it's exciting. We get to go down and we get to play one of the better teams in FCS football.

They're a top five program in FCS. So, we're going to get a great challenge. We're going to see kind of where our guys stack up and we're going to go down there and go win this football game. You get your last plane ride, last true road trip, and even looking at next year's schedule. Because Southern Utah and Utah Tech are both leaving the UAC, both the Texas schools come to us next year. So, we may go an entire year next year without making a plane trip.

So, we won't step on a plane until next year, possibly hitting in the playoffs. So, it's a good feeling to be able to stay closer to home for the next 12 months. You mentioned the defense playing one of the better games they've played this year. Tango McCauley, Southampton, DeMarcus Robinson combined for 25 tackles. And you mentioned it. Sometimes you can't see it for the score. To me, again, I've got to look behind the numbers. 25 combined tackles, pretty good. Yes, it is. I think our linebacking group has gotten better as the year has progressed.

You want to see those type things and let you know that your coaches are doing a great job of preparing these guys and developing them. The linebacker room is a room that we were very senior heavy last year with Jackson Bratton leading us. Our freshman last year that was very talented, Josh Anglin, that transferred out. So, we had to rebuild that whole linebacker room where Seth Hampton is really the only guy that was here last year. And to see two new guys with Tango and D-Rob stepping up and playing better as the years went on, it's a great sign.

Coach, we mentioned the quarterback situation. Overall, in the modern era, and the SEC has the report every week, the availability report. Overall, how's the health of the team? I would imagine it's safe to say at this point in the season, plenty of people are hurting right now. That's true of every team. To me, there's always a difference between being hurt and being injured. Overall, how's the health of the team coming in? I think we're okay. We're about probably about where everybody in the country is. I think we've lost a defensive end earlier in the year that's out for the year.

We've had some old linemen banged up that everybody in the country has that happen to them. We've got a quarterback out. We've lost a running back last week. So, I think we're probably right where everybody else is. We haven't been completely away from the injury bug, but we haven't been devastated by it either. So, we've got to load up whatever we've got right now. And we've got a couple of young guys that get an opportunity to go play in a big-time ballgame this week. So, we're really excited about it.

I'll tell you something else I noticed about your stats. And I kind of, again, open the door and look at all of them as penalties. We talked about this with Alabama. Even with Nick Saban there in 22 and 23, they were 119th in the country in penalties. In the last four games, UNA's been penalized less than 55 yards, including West Georgia. I believe it was four penalties for 40 yards. Again, I know you don't want any penalties. Some of those at the discretion of the official. But that's fundamental football in attention to detail.

Yeah, we're trying to. We're trying our best to stay hard on these guys and playing the game the right way. And in a tough part, two of our penalties last week came after the whistle of two guys. You know, when two gladiators, two men are going at it, sometimes emotions get away from you and you retaliate. And we had a couple of retaliation penalties last week that we had a long talk on Sunday about. We can't do those type things. We try to be a very sound, disciplined team that plays the game the right way.

[10:18] Absolutely. Well, listen, we will let you get back to it. We always enjoy the visit on Wednesdays. And I've said this before, and I'll say it again. I know this has not been the season that you or UNA fans wanted. But I think people can begin to detect incremental improvements in this team. And I appreciate the class and professionalism that you have every week. It's not easy to do this. And we've talked about this throughout the course of the season. There are a lot of things going on behind the scenes with players' families, coaches' families, and others that the general public don't see.

And I appreciate how you and the coaches handle that. I always enjoy it. And as I frequently say, when you go on a road trip, bring back a W. Well, I'll tell you what, guys. I have two purposes in life. Number one is to win football games. They pay me to win football games, and that's what we're going to do. And secondly, God put me here to impact lives. And I'm not going to let anything get in the way of positively impacting lives of young men.

That's the old saying, people may forget what you tell them, but they'll never forget how you make them feel. So, Coach, listen, thanks for your time. Safe travels to and from. And I echo Brett Sinema's there. Bring back a big dump if you can. And thanks so much again for your time today. Appreciate you guys. We're a lot. Thank you, man. You and I head football coach Brent Dierman. Coming up, kind of cricket time down the plains. Or is it Brian Matthews talking Tigers next? Stay with us.

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Shoals Royale 2026, Saturday, February 21st at 7 p.m. at the Renaissance Shoals Conference Center. Tickets are available now at givebutter.com slash Shoals Royale 2026. The Score. Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score. The Score. Welcome back in. Really appreciate Brian Matthews taking time out of his busy schedule as senior editor for AuburnSports.com. Brian, welcome in. How are you? Doing great. I'm just sitting here at beautiful Plains and Park, getting ready for a little baseball media, but it's a great day here in Auburn. I'm ready to talk a little Auburn sports with you.

Just what you need. More on your plate, Brian. Listen, we want to talk that stuff to kind of warm us up, but Brian, I thought they said that Auburn could not score 35 points against a ranked opponent on the road. What happened, Brian? Well, I'm pretty sure I probably said that, and I still can't buy it. You did say it. But, wow, I was, you know, that was amazing. I mean, this is the best balls Auburn's had in years, to be honest with you, and I kind of say that flippantly, but on the other hand, I don't, because, you know, they needed that offensively.

It's a shame that Vanderbilt picked that game to play the best that anybody's played against Auburn defense, and they mix things up there, but offensively, Auburn was fantastic. They did, really, the earth-shattering move. I think that's going to change college football forever, and they did something, I think. I think they called it getting the ball to the best players on offense. It's just a brand-new thing, so I don't really know how to explain it perfectly. Ouch. But you saw it on the field, 560-plus yards, you know, 38 points.

Ashton Daniels was incredible. I think it was 442 total offense, if I remember correctly. That's the first most of our football history. That sounds pretty good. You know, so, yeah, it was an incredible job, first of all, by D.J. Durkin, giving those guys the, you know, free reign to do what they did. And then, you know, Derek Nix and his staff really put together a great game plan and really called a great game, I thought. Let me ask you this about a decision that Ashton Daniels and the coaching staff is going to have to make.

If he sits out the Mercer game, he can play in the Iron Bowl and a possible bowl game. We'll see if that happens and still qualify for a redshirt in an additional year of eligibility. If he does play, he can't. What have you heard about the decision? Yeah, so we just got off the SEC teleconference with D.J. Durkin. He was asked a specific question. And we talked to people about it before this week and had stories on it. But the latest is they're still discussing it, and he's going to try to do what's best for Ashton, what's best for the team, what's best for the program.

And there are a lot of things to weigh there. To me, though, it's a fairly easy decision, in my opinion, and that is you sit him out. Of course, if, you know, we get in the fourth quarter and it's a cold game, then I'm an idiot. That's why I'm not a football coach, being paid millions of dollars for this football program, right? But preserving that year of eligibility, having the potential for him to come back and be that quarterback for Auburn next year, you know, that number one guy coming back, or at least in the hunt for it, I think that'd be great for this football program.

I mean, it only is one game, right? But it's also one game that is the third best game by a quarterback in Auburn history. So, you know, it's pretty darn good, and I think Auburn would benefit from having him back for one more year. As I say, stay tuned for that. Talk to us about the job of Durkin. I mean, what was going through Hugh Freeze's mind, and he said, what didn't I think of that? You look at Coleman, and when you look at Coleman, I mean, if he just flew in from Pluto and you saw this guy do what he did, catch it with the right hand, then the left hand, I mean, the dude is good.

[20:50] He's going to make a lot of money for a long time at the next level. But your thoughts just about the job of Durkin, and has anyone asked you what is the latest when it comes to the coaching search? Well, I just think, again, I think Durkin, the best thing he did was let Derek Nix and those guys take full responsibility, you know. I think, I don't remember if he said it or somebody said it, but, you know, Derek was going to call plays on first down, second down, third down, every down, right?

But as far as the coaching search goes, I think they're still in the stage of, I'm going to meet with people, vet people, talk to people. I don't think they're in the narrow it down to a few candidates or one candidate yet. So, I think that what's going on this week is a lot of informal talks, maybe some one-on-one type talks, you know, not directly face-to-face, but in other ways. But, you know, you can do informal things, agent to AD or, you know, AD representative to agent or what have you.

So, you can still have those discussions in many ways. So, I think that's happening now. I do think, generally speaking, I feel like Auburn is receiving a lot of interest in this job. I feel like Auburn has a roster, a war chest, I guess you'd call it until I call it a better word, as far as NIL and money to invest in next year's roster, that that's attractive to other coaches. And I think Auburn, I guess it's 19 straight or going on 20 straight, whatever it is, sellouts, and also going on potentially a fifth straight losing season, says all you have to say about what the Auburn fan base and the support this program has and how hungry it is for a winner.

So, I think there's a lot of pluses out there for Auburn to go out and get a guy that can be a winner and come out here and start winning games for Auburn right away. I don't think it's going to be a wait period. Yeah, I apologize. I don't think it's really rocket science because it comes down, I think Nick Saban said it best. In the old days, you looked at this, this, and this, and Nick, he just cut the chase. It's who's got the money to go buy the players.

I'll coach if you can get me somebody to coach. And two things on that, though. If you're a coach shopping around, I think the situation at LSU actually helps Auburn because that's a train wreck down there. The other thing is the decision about that quarterback and whoever's shopping around, they saw Coleman at receiving core actually be able to do their job Saturday. Your thoughts just maybe have some of the influence. If you're a coach out there, you know you can win if you've got good players.

If you're self-confident. After seeing that receiving core, and back to Brett's point, how big is it to make sure that this quarterback is going to be in the house for a full season next year? I mean, I think that's big, but it's not, you know, the end-all, be-all. I mean, we've seen now several very successful examples of a coach bringing in an offensive coordinator who brings his quarterback and maybe a couple coaches, and they just absolutely blow up, right? So I think there's a lot of ways to fill out that quarterback room, but I think the best thing for Auburn to do at this time is to find a way to get Ashton back.

That'll be important. You know, as far as the roster returning next year, I mean, that's going to be an interesting thing to watch. You know, I don't think the entire roster's coming back. I think some people will leave. But the important people, I think Auburn will have the funds to make a very capable offer to keep them. A very strong, a strong, what was the LSU coaches line up, maybe I should say it already, but a strong you-know-what offer, so to speak. Thank you. Right, and I think part of that is due to them going out there and putting that game against Baylor and Atlanta and getting that $4 to $8 million in that money on top of what they're revenue sharing, which is something other schools don't necessarily have.

So that's going to give Auburn an advantage there, but we'll see. We'll see how things work out individually. There's individual decisions that will be made. You cannot say for certain what a Cam Coleman is or is not going to do right now or some other high-pop players. We'll just have to wait and see how everything works out, what he thinks of the new coach, what he thinks about the new offense, and what type of offers are put on his plate, including from Auburn. Auburn did not have a Bain-y-means great defensive game against Vanderbilt, but Xavier Atkins did.

That camp continues to amaze me. Leads the SEC in tackles with 78. Tackles for a loss with 15 and a half. Leads the team in sanks with 7.5, and I know we talked with you about that was one of the concerns going into the summer. In summer camp was the linebacker core, and he is just being magnificent. But listen, you've followed this team, and all three of us have followed the SEC for decades. I know the other coaches in the league want to see Diego Pavia get out of the league as soon as possible, but he gains 480 yards against a very good Auburn defense.

[26:09] And you've seen quarterbacks. He's not fancy. He's not pro-typical 6'5", 230. But, B, man, Pavia just gets things done, doesn't he? He does. And, first of all, Xavier Atkins, he is a first-team all SEC defensive player. He's having a tremendous year. I don't know how many people across the SEC are noticing it, just because Auburn is not in a position, the top profile right now. But he is having an incredible season. He deserves all the positive press and praise he can get. Diego Pavia is incredible. For those who haven't really, you know, heard much about what happened Saturday, at the end of the first half, well, on Vanderbilt's first three drives, Auburn held them to 130 yards in a field goal right.

And on that last drive, right before halftime, they spread it out. They went tempo, and they went right down the field. And it's something that they really haven't done all season except for the fourth quarter of Texas. But they came out to start the second half and did the same thing. And I think they scored touchdowns on four of the five drives in the second half, four of the first five drives, doing that. And just Auburn was unable to adjust to that. And Pavia was incredible.

Just sitting there watching that, to me, I'm not sure why that's not their offense full-time, because he is unable to stop when you spread it out and just let him make plays. And he has those options because he's a great decision-maker. He can make decisions under pressure. And then he has the other option of being a really good scrambler, runner, making yards after kind. You know, he can do it all at quarterback. He's fun to watch when he's not playing your team, right? Not exactly a stereotypical quarterback.

Brian, has anyone asked you about the Auburn basketball team out of the gates? Yeah, nice little start there, 3-0. I was at the game last night. I thought they played well, you know. But they've got a really big test coming up Sunday. Number one Houston, Legacy Arena in Birmingham. That's going to be a terrific matchup. We'll see how that goes, right? Auburn is a team with 10 newcomers, a new head coach, still trying to work out all those things where Houston's a little bit more established, you know, with their program and their roster with guys, a few more guys coming back there.

So, I think they certainly have an advantage in that area. Houston is a great defensive team, a great rebounding team, a great offensive rebounding team. And that's some things that Auburn, although they've done well in the last couple of games with that, you go back to that Oklahoma State exhibition, they did not do well with that. And this is going to be the most physical team they've quite sent. So, this is going to be a real, real test for them to see how much they've improved.

The only thing I would say about this game and this program right now is to be patient. They're going to improve a lot. Auburn is from now until February and March. So, this will be kind of a baseline game for them. And we'll see how that goes and see how it performs and see how well they play and if they can, you know, do something, maybe get a win or not. But don't get too down on the team regardless of what happens Sunday. I was going to say, Alabama and Auburn have had success against Houston.

I remember Birmingham, Auburn played them in the NCAA tournament. Kevin Samson's teams, if you survive beating them, it's kind of a barometer for the season when you play a Kevin Samson team. You've got to match their physicality. One of the things Alabama and Auburn have been able to do the last couple of years. I know you've got a bye week, but things have been picked up. You're covering baseball, basketball, you name it, you're doing it. Where can we get online to get all the good stuff?

Yes, yes. We are enjoying our bye week so far. I think we've got eight stories this morning. No, six. Six, I'm sorry. Just six. So our seven. Slacker. So, yeah. There we are. But, yes, we are continuing to blow out our coverage of Auburn sports. And, you know, I'm at baseball right now. We're about to have a media opportunity with Bush Thompson and his staff. And plenty of coverage of the coaching search, football team right now, basketball, all that more, AuburnSports.com. You can sign up for a dollar online right now and get all that coverage.

And you can follow me on Twitter, slash X, at BMATAU. Brian Matthews, Buffet. Thanks so much for your time today and stay safe down there, K.O. Brian. Appreciate it. Thanks, guys. See you, bud. Brian Matthews, AuburnSports.com. You're talking about Alabama and Auburn breaking out with the basketball. He mentioned Auburn taking on Houston, number one. Alabama taking on Purdue. Freshman being number one, now number two. That game on tap tomorrow night. And you catch it right here on 93.9 The Score. Speaking of Alabama and where to keep it, Rodney Orr talking about my basketball and football next on the Boomo Bugg Show.

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We would like to extend an invitation to our 8th annual Shoal Salsa Showdown on Saturday, November 15th from 2 to 5 p.m. at Singing River Brewery. Local restaurants and individuals will compete to see who has the most delicious salsa and queso, which will be judged by you, our supporters. For tickets and more information, visit our website at FlorenceEducationFoundation.org. We would like to thank our gold and silver sponsors, T&T Fireworks, Forsyth & Long, United Community Bank, First Southern Bank, Grigsby Properties, First Metro Bank, Chick-fil-A, Bank Independent, United Benefits, and Johnson & Mayhem Dental.

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Deshaun Hall had 20 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists as 22nd-ranked Auburn improved to 3-0 on the season. Number 8 Alabama back home tomorrow to host number 2 Purdue in Tuscaloosa. Both teams are off to a 2-0 start to the season. Atlanta Falcons are back home on Sunday as they host the Panthers. Carolina is 5-5. The Falcons are 3-6. Progressive is helping veterans drive their lives forward with its Keys to Progress program. Online at keystoprogress.com. I'm John Thayer with The Sports Flash presented by Progressive on 93.9. The Score. The holidays are back at Starbucks, so share the season with a peppermint mocha.

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Rodney Orr, welcome in. How are you? Doing well, Harold and Brett. How are you guys? Hey, Bill. Yeah, we're doing okay. Latest big poll out. The only one that matters in Alabama hanging in there at number four. Rodney, your thoughts. Obviously, when you look at this ranking, and you go back to last year, a lot was in front of Alabama at that point coming into the Oklahoma game. This year, a lot is in front of them coming into the Oklahoma game. Your thoughts about last year to this year getting ready for this big matchup this weekend in your backyard?

Well, I mean, I think if you compare the two, there's a lot of differences. I mean, obviously, DeBoer's second year here, and I think that they're playing a lot better. The program, they have a lot more confidence, I think, overall on every aspect of the program actually right now. And, you know, they've got a ton of leadership on this team. And so I just get a different feel, you know, to where they are right now versus where they were last year. And I think there's a lot of confidence headed into this game.

You know, I mean, I think that the players, they understand that this is an extremely important game. They win this game. It kind of sets the table for the future. You know, they lose this game, and all of a sudden, not that the Auburn game's not already extraordinarily important, but I mean, it just kind of would make it even more important for this team. Because, you know what, you guys know this, it's playoff or bust. Absolutely. Ronnie, if I had a dollar for every fan or media member who mentioned to me, when is Alabama going to run the dadgum ball?

I think after nine games, everybody's come to the realization that they're not going to run for 150 yards because they've got deficiencies at running back in the offensive line. But I want to use a word that you told me Saturday night, and you put it in your couple of articles this week, is rhythm. Alabama's offense has not been in rhythm. And as you noted from the Georgia-Tennessee game, this was one of the most prolific offenses in the country. Ty Simpson was hitting everything that he threw, and we know about the miss, long passes.

He threw for 277 yards. If he hits the two bombs, he's probably throwing for 400. And there are reasons for that. And it's not just Ty Simpson. Sometimes it's the receivers in the offensive line. But, Ronnie, I know that's something they're working on, and particularly get back into it. It's not going to be easy with Oklahoma's pass rush, but the offense needs to get back into better rhythm. Yeah, that was actually part of our Inside the Five preview last week that we put out on Fridays around lunch.

And Alabama has to get back into the rhythm in the passing game because it slipped a little bit. And really, it didn't happen in this game. And I think what's going on here partly is, and people say, well, it's because you're not running the football. I think a lot of it is that it is the fact that Alabama is one-dimensional. And I think teams can almost disregard the run to a large extent. But I also think, too, that as this has gone along, they found out that we have to bring pressure.

And I think we saw that in some games leading up to the last couple. And South Carolina was really effective in bringing pressure, getting Ty Simpson off his mark. And I think the same thing, too, with LSU. And he missed some throws. And, you know, like you said, there's been some drops, some key drops along the way as well. But here's the thing. I mean, again, it's not something that Grubb can't adjust to, that they can't make some adjustments here and there and change some things, tweak some things.

[41:34] Then all of a sudden, you hit those throws that were there. Ty just missed them, a couple of them. But you hit those throws, and it changes the whole kind of complexion of the game. So I'm not really, like, overly concerned about that. I think they can find that rhythm again in the passing game. Because, listen, too, there's been some injuries at wide receiver. You know, Horton, lots of Brooks. Ryan hasn't been himself 100%. So, you know, I think they're getting closer to being healthy and back to, you know, those four guys that have really been productive being where they need to be.

And so, and I also think, too, Josh Cuevas has done a fantastic job as a receiver. And watching and seeing those guys, Josh Cuevas, Caleb Edwards, start to get involved as receivers, is going to be really important to see. Ryan, that literally was what I was about to say. You can see when Lonshire Brooks, again, I know the top three in the rotation, as far as receivers, are exceptional. But I think Josh Cuevas is the most underrated receiver. He's a good blocker, just a good player.

And you can see when Alabama missed Lonshire Brooks in the South Carolina game. Again, this is a very talented receiver room. Hopefully they can get healthy and bank and rhythm. But I know Josh Cuevas came into the interview room and talked with some of the media. But, Ronnie, I've been impressed with him all year. Yeah, very impressed. He was the guy that I thought, you know, I said heading into the season that I thought he could be a really dynamic weapon for them as a receiver.

Because, you know, obviously he can run really well and catches the ball consistently, can get down the field, can make things happen after the catch. All of those things are really important. I like Caleb Edwards a lot, the true freshman number 81. You know, hopefully continue to see him get more involved. Because I think the way teams are pressuring, you can use the tight ends maybe in some effective ways. So, hopefully we see more of that. And I think maybe see more of Daniel Hill as a receiver.

We keep saying that. But also, maybe we see Daniel Hill more as a runner. That's something that I think it's hard to get into a rhythm with only a few carries. So, hopefully we see that. And I do think that Jam is struggling with his vision right now. I don't know if it has something to do with, you know, the injuries that he's had. He hasn't gotten back in the rhythm since Vanderbilt. He ran for 136. Then he went for 85 before the injury against Missouri. And that concussion, he just really hasn't been quite the same.

And, you know, I don't know that we should expect the running game to be, make a significant amount of production, have significant production. But, if they can get some semblance of a run game, it certainly would be very helpful. Obviously, Rodney, we're not a fly on the wall. But, we're not saying anything. This coaching staff doesn't already know far more than we do. The reality is you can't be one-dimensional against a good team. And Oklahoma's a good team. We all know that not only are they a good team, they're a darn good defensive team.

What, in your opinion, if you could be that fly on the wall, how is Alabama going to sit here and turn the chips, counter some of those things in lieu of the fact that right now, this is not a knock. Overall, Alabama's one-dimensional, which is another way of saying how good Ty Simpson is. The other guys know that, and yet Ty Simpson's still able to move the ball, especially the two-minute drill. What kind of strategy will they do coming in, not only to a game that's important, but especially somebody who has a stark, I mean, an absolutely great reputation for defense and Brent Venables?

Yeah, first of all, they love pressure. Brent Venables loves pressure. They have 33 sacks this year. I joke that 32 and a half came against Auburn, but, you know, they actually did have, I think, double-digit sacks against Auburn. And they're a really good pass rushing team. And you know what? Let's take a moment just to say this. Their defensive line coach, I think he's one of the best in the country. He's an Alabama guy. Todd Bates does a fantastic job. He develops players. He gets them ready to play at a high level.

So I want to say that about Todd. He's a tremendous guy. He's done a great job there. He's got a lot of defensive linemen he can rotate in. And they're all well-developed. And to say that is they have a couple of injuries. The best pass rusher, R. Thomas Mason, R. Mason Thomas is out. Now, I don't know if he'll be out. Let me rephrase that. He was, in the Tennessee game, missed three and a half quarters that game. But we'll see if he's back. I know they've been missing one of their linebackers, Kobe McKenzie.

We'll see if he's back. So they've had some injuries on the defensive side of the ball, but they do have a lot of depth. Like I said, it's been well-coached, well-developed up front. So the pass rush is where we're going here, Harold. I think, you know, and I'm talking to the Oklahoma people, one of my top connections out there, and he covers the team, and he just said, look, he thought the real key for Alabama was protecting Ty Simpson, keep Ty upright. There's going to be some opportunities.

[46:53] Joey Aguilar, Tennessee, he didn't have much of a run game in that game a couple of weeks ago. Tennessee only got 63 yards rushing. But Joey Aguilar threw for right at 400 yards. It was the turnovers that really hurt Tennessee. So I think if you can keep Ty upright and give him a second to deliver the ball, there's going to be some real big opportunities in the pass game. And, look, I think you do have to rely on your pass game because that's your strength. I mean, let's just be honest.

It is what it is. This is not a running football team. It's a one-dimensional team right now. Ronnie, we talked to Redfish on Monday, and one of the things we talked about was the improvement in the defense, and particularly the inside linebackers. Number zero, Deontay Lawson, is beginning to look like himself. Hill Green, to me, seems to get better, more integrated in the offense. And Justin Jefferson is a tackling machine. John Zepierre has turned into a superstar. Quain Russo may even get back. Maybe, I don't know if he's going to be back for Oklahoma.

Maybe the following week, we'll see. And they still have some busts, and they still have occasional, and particularly over the middle with a tight end or a wheel route. But no question, Ronnie, this defense has improved as the season's moved on. I thought they played with as much energy, passion, confidence. They tackled extremely well, as I've seen them probably under Kane Womack against LSU. Now, a lot of people may say, well, LSU's not very good offensively. Well, Alabama may not look good, too. You know, in that game, they only had 232 total yards.

I think it was 53 yards on the ground. So they did a fantastic job, and I think they did a really good job against South Carolina. They are. They do seem to be getting better and better as we go along. They seem to be playing a lot faster now, with a lot more confidence. I think DeJon Lee's done a really good job out there at corner. He had a tremendous play earlier in the game when he knocked that ball away from Trades Green, who I thought was going to be a real factor for LSU, the big, tall, 6'7", tied in that they gave around to different positions.

So, yes, I do agree with you defensively. Alabama's doing a really, really good job. And, you know, again, talking to my Oklahoma people, they say, look, one of the keys in defending Oklahoma is going to be this. Get after Mateer, get after him early, hit him, because if you hit him, he begins to get a little bit gun-shy at times. So I think that's a real key. And with the development of that pass rush, you know, Harold Britt, you might have noticed my guy out there, number 24, Noah Carter, who I've talked about quite a bit, the red-shirt freshman, he had some, he was getting some pressure, too.

He might have had a sack, I'm not sure. But I know that he was getting a lot of pressure when he was in the game. So that's good to see, along with Yonse Pierre and so forth. But the one thing I would really, as I look at this game, not to say concerned about, but I do wonder still how susceptible Alabama is to getting gashed up front in the run game. And Xavier Robinson, the Oklahoma running back, has really come on the last few weeks. He had 107 yards against Alabama last year, but he kind of disappeared in their rotation up until two weeks ago against Ole Miss.

He ran for 109 on nine carries, and then he came back and ran for 116 or 115 the last game against Tennessee. So he's doing a really good job. They're starting to get more confidence. Now, they do. There is probably a pretty good chance of starting two freshmen at the offensive tackle spots. But, again, they're getting better and better. And, you know, that could be a real key, though, is that Oklahoma run game. You certainly have to be aware of it. Rodney, we're all men. We're impatient. We don't want to wait until Saturday.

Go ahead and tell us who's going to win Saturday night. Well, look, I tell you, I think Alabama is in a great position here. I don't really put a lot of stock in the South Carolina or even the LSU games, for that matter. I do think that it's like DeBoer said, you're an inch or two away from regaining that rhythm, you know, making those plays that you were making earlier. I think they're going to find that. I really do. I think this team's got a great amount of leadership.

They work extremely hard. They know where they have to improve. And I think this is an extremely determined team. Now, eventually, Harold and Brett, will they meet somebody that exposes them? You know, some of the weaknesses that we've talked about, very, very possibly could. But I think they take care of Oklahoma. Now, again, I think it would be a really good game. And Oklahoma's certainly capable of coming in and winning it. But I like Alabama here. And, Ron, you mentioned the 33 sacks that Oklahoma's been able to get.

I remember Tennessee was leading the nation, too. Yeah, that's right. And they got zero against Alabama. And Georgia and Athens got zero sacks against Alabama, too. So we'll see how that goes. Ronnie, where can we get online to get the best coverage of Alabama sports 24-7? Message board, basketball coming up, and particularly tomorrow night with number two for you. Where can we get online and get all the good stuff? Right. It's saturnsaturn.com. It's only $48 a year. And you can get instant access right now with your credit card.

[52:22] If you prefer, there is an address there to send a check. It gives you all our premium information. But also our all-sports forum. That's our community of Alabama fans there. It's a lot of exchange going on, both football and basketball right now. And then, you know, yesterday we had a big notes package there about – and we discussed some of that here that was in our notes package. But a lot of stuff like that. Of course, we have our Inside the Five preview coming up. We're going to preview the recruiting, the visitors coming in this weekend.

And like you said, basketball is big, too. I mean, it's really big with Purdue coming to town. Ronnie, it's always good to catch it with you. Don't give much of a break. We appreciate so much taking time out of that busy schedule and sharing with us. Thank you, and keep up the good work, my friend. Okay, Harold and Brett, you guys take care. Thank you, Bill. You're on titeringsaturn.com. Just to be clear, again, the ball game Saturday in Tuscaloosa kicks off onto the sun, a 2-30 kick, and catching your own 93.9 to score.

But we'll wind up under the light. In the meantime, a heck of a fight for Coach Tony Pujo and the UNA men's basketball team. Coach is going to be joining us. Scott Baisen says Muscle Shoals is on fire. And Drew Giamman, he's got it all covered, and it's all straight ahead of the Boomo Bugg Show. Stay with us. On the basketball court, the soccer pitch, or even the golf course, your crew brings their best not just for the win, but for that post-game celebration. When victory tastes like Michelob Ultra, it's worth every drop of sweat.

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And tears. Oh. Okay. So, like, everybody deals with losing, right? To a rival on a last-second field goal. Whatever. It's fine. I'm totally fine. But I cope with losing with an ice-cold Dr. Pepper. Mmm. Those 23 flavors are, like, so delicious. They totally wash away the pain of your college football team taking a big fat L. College football. It's a pepper thing. Tire care shouldn't come with extra costs or surprise fees. It should be simple, straightforward, and stress-free. So, at Midas, they're rolling out the Limited Lifetime Tire Guarantee, included with every tire purchase with paid insulation.

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The legislation says that any senator whose data was acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed, or disclosed to officers or employees within the federal government can bring legal action against that governmental entity. U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville was one of those eight senators surveilled due to his relationship with President Trump. The Biden DOJ was looking into Trump associates who were also in agreement with Trump's claims about election conspiracy. This latest legislation is retroactive to the year 2022, which is well within the time frame that the Biden DOJ started to look into Trump and other Republicans.

[57:53] It's also when Special Counsel Jack Smith was tasked with bringing charges against Trump for the events of January 6th. When Senator Tuberville found out about Smith's surveillance of him and other Republican senators, he called on Smith and others involved in this witch hunt to go to jail. I'll be back with more Alabama stories after this. Brian Dawson here, CEO of 1819 News. I'm also the host of 1819 News, the podcast, and we'd love for you to join us by listening to our weekly show on all the top podcast apps, both in audio and video format.

At 1819 News, the podcast, we are in pursuit of a free and flourishing Alabama. Every week, we're having important conversations with guests from across this great state, all with the goal of equipping Alabamians to be in pursuit of a free and flourishing Alabama with us. New episodes are released weekly. I hope you'll join us. A preliminary hearing has been set for December 2nd for the arson suspect charged in starting a fire in Birmingham that destroyed four buildings and displaced 19 people from their homes. 42-year-old Joshua Mitchell is charged with starting that fire in early November.

I'm Andrea Theis. For more news affecting Alabamians, go to 1819news.com. And while you're there, subscribe to the daily newsletter. Valley Broadcasting Corporation, WITK-FM, Rogersville, Athens, Decatur, The Shores. Sports Radio 93.9 The Score. Missed the Boomo Bugg show today? Or Bill King or Paul Feinbaum? Missed the last Florence Falcons game? You can access the latest episodes and game broadcasts at our website, 939thescore.com. Click on Podcast and then All Podcasts to access the latest Boom-O, Feinbaum, Bill King, and Florence broadcast. That's 939thescore.com. 939thescore.com. Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.

This is Joe Cox and he is busy as a columnist there at Saturday Down South. Welcome in. How are you and have you thawed out or has it been as cold where you are as where we are? It's been cold. Today I've been running my daughter around. She's 16 and she was job shadowing. So for off of half a day she could tell me that work is fairly tedious and fairly boring and I could have saved her half a day and just told her that myself. But you know how it is.

Yep. The Boomo Bugg show. Weekdays noon to 2 on 93.9 The Score. 93.9 The Score weather. Today windy with possible gusts up to 20 miles an hour and a high around 65. Tonight mostly clear with a low near 40. Tomorrow mostly sunny with a high around 70. Tomorrow night partly cloudy with a low near 45. And for your Friday sunny with a high around 75. Your weather from 93.9 The Score. Now, get ready to roll. Bowles, 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 our tour to the Boomo Bugg show. I'm Harold Bugg alongside Brett Beaird. Thank you so much for giving us a street ride around the Tennessee Valley. And thank the man who probably is still running on adrenaline. UNA men's basketball coach, Tony Pujo. Coach, welcome in. How are you? Anything but a boring night, I'm told. How's it going? It's going well. Forgive me that I'm a little bit under the weather.

But glad to be with you guys here on the call. Oh, man, we're sorry to hear it, Coach. I tell you what, you're talking about giving everything you've got. But the folks who might have missed it, talk to us about the big showdown last night. It's one of those deals, you have a right to be tired. Regulation couldn't hold it. You had to go to overtime, a heck of a shootout. But it came out on the right end for you. Yeah, no doubt. And, again, a lot of guys contributed and got us to that spot.

But I'll tell you, I was extremely impressed with our player, Tank Washington. He didn't play one minute until he got into the game with about a minute and a half left in regulation. Played the entire rest of the game and the overtime. And I think not only came up with the big play to steal the win, but just really put his footprint on the entire game with his short minutes of play. Tony, I had the pleasure of interviewing you for an article earlier this year. One of the things we talked about was the amount of time you spend during the summer cultivating your players.

And when you could be out recruiting and doing a thousand other things, that really paid off to me. Cornelius Williams was the bell cow or is the bell cow for this team and had another double-double. Twenty-eight points, sixteen rebounds from start to finish. The other thing that impressed me about him is we talk about doing the little things in games. Three assists and he went ten of eleven from the free throw line. Cornelius had quite a game. No, 100%. And, you know, again, you and I have that conversation.

[1:03:28] And I've always said this, that, you know, and don't get me wrong, I still go out and recruit. But I do spend an enormous amount of time during the summer here at home and especially with our players. And the one thing I can tell you is, at our level, if you could keep a core group of guys together, I think that's such a competitive advantage. And having a guy like Cornelius stick around for another year, sort of like what Jakari Lane did after year two, right?

Stuck up an extra year. You know, I think those things pay dividend down the stretch. It doesn't guarantee anything, but it gives you a fighting chance when you're, you know, when you're dealing with rosters and all that. I think it gives you a fighting chance if you just have a solid relationship with all your players. You and a men's basketball coach, Tony Pujo. Coach, talk to us about this part of the schedule because a lot of teams go out and they get off the hot start, but then you look at their schedule and say, well, you should.

And then you go up and you face a tough schedule at the beginning. You have a lot of adversity. And I would imagine as a head coach, that's what you kind of want. You want to win, but you want to make sure you know who's who's and who's what. Talk to us about the nature of last night. You lose your star guard to a lot, like a lot of coaches, to foul trouble. And then you go to the bench, and as you mentioned, you get some help there with Tank.

But talk to us about what that tight win does last night for the balance of the season. Well, what I can tell you is one of the things that we talked about when we put this schedule together is, especially with the losses that we had from last year, three to graduation and obviously Jakari Lane transferring to Texas A&M, you know, we wanted to challenge our guys. And I'll even tell you the non-D1 games that we're playing. We already faced Lane College, and I hate it for the teams in their league when they go up against that team, because I'm telling you, even our non-D1s, we got UT Southern also, right?

Which these are D2 programs that are going to make an impact in their leagues. And then you got teams like Clemson that we're still about to face, and you got East Tennessee State next Saturday. Chattanooga, San Francisco, LMU. I mean, the list goes on and on. We wanted to challenge our guys in the non-conference. Like, you've already said this before. This is something that we do as a program to make sure that our guys are ready to go when league play starts up on January 1st.

I'm telling you, someone else who had a good game, Dante Backus, 16 points. And, again, here comes the little stuff. Career high, 14 rebounds, four assists, and blocked two shots. Yep. And zero turnovers. Listen, when I looked at the stat sheet at the end of the game, I was extremely impressed with our bigs in this game, not only because they scored 44 points combined, not only that they had 30 rebounds combined, not only did they have five steals combined, but they also had seven assists and zero turnovers. And when you can get your bigs to do that, that's the part of putting this piece together that's so important.

Valuing the basketball has shown us a whole lot, right? And when we get our guards to understand the, you know, valuing possessions, if our bigs can understand it, man, we're ahead of the bell curve here, right? Because those are the guys that normally have the harder time with it. And our bigs have already kind of figured that part out. So I'm truly excited about that. But as far as Dante's game last night, I think the only blemish that you'll see is he was so impressive. He had such an impact in the interior.

He went to the free-toll line 19 times. Right. Where he's kicking himself is he left seven free-tolls on the table. He went 12 of them. But I could tell you one thing, if there's anything I know about Dante, is Dante is, I promise you, he's in the gym today working on that. And that's one thing I could count on with him. So I'll be honest with you guys, those two frontcourt players for us were just phenomenal yesterday and carried us through. Coach, obviously, you mentioned it earlier, East Tennessee State comes down this weekend and wraps up a three-game homestand.

Your thoughts about East Tennessee, and I would imagine, again, you can't say enough about the purple pandemonium there at the vault. No. Listen, last night we had about 2,400 people in the arena. The night before, against Lane, 2,000 people. Like, this is almost unheard of for us at this time of the year, November. It felt like last night's game almost felt like late February. I mean, it was one of those contests that really took our team to the brink, you know, just to see our team grit that out.

[1:08:32] But then also the support that we got from our folks. I mean, this community has just embraced this program like I can't even explain, right? Like, I'm extremely grateful to be a part of this community because it truly loves its university. It loves, you know, the basketball program, the women's programs, all the other men's programs. I mean, it's truly been extremely supportive. I'm very thankful to be a part of that. As far as ETSU is concerned this weekend, you know, you're looking at one of the top four teams in the SOCON preseason.

A lot of history there. A lot of women there. So, it's going to be, you know, what type of game it's going to be. And, you know, I would love to see our crowd come back out and support these guys at 2 o'clock on Saturday. Tony, let me ask you about the experience with Mississippi State. I had a lot of people ask me about it and say that you played very well, and particularly in the first 25 to 28 minutes. I mentioned Josh Hubbard, who's one of the best guards in the SEC, much less the nation, just kind of took that game over.

I know you blocked eight shots and you played very well. I know there was about a seven- or eight-minute period where Mississippi State took the game over. But the experience of going in, I know you're familiar with the hump. We talked about that last week when you were at Alabama going to Mississippi State on multiple occasions. Talk about the experience the team had playing Mississippi State. You know, like I said, I think this time of the year is so important. You can get a feel for your team and see what pieces.

You know, you've got some players already on our team that have solidified their position. But there's some other guys right now that are like a Cannon Jefferson who is trying to understand the role that he plays. Remember, Cannon's been here. This is his third year. But this is a new role for him. Dante Bacchus has been here for two years. But this is a new role for him. But you see, like a guy like Dante's already kind of solidified his position. Cornelius Willem solidified his position.

Cannon Jefferson as well. And I think that experiences like that going into hostile environments like the hump, which, by the way, hats off to Coach Jans and that team. And you mentioned Hubbard being one of the best point guards in the SEC. He's one of the best point guards in the country. This kid is the way he took that game over. We always tell our players, when a player does that, you tip your hat, man. You hurt them by tipping your hat and saying, well done.

Because he came through and really put his team on his back and just said, no, not tonight. But I was very happy with the way that our guys competed. You know, when you looked up at the 15-minute mark and we're sitting here with a nine-point lead, you know, it kind of showed in the second half, it kind of showed right away that, you know, this team belongs. A guy like Cornelius Williams, the game that he had, showed me that he played at that level, right? So my thing is, this is, I think, a great experience for everybody, as, again, as we're trying to grow this basketball team into the 25-26 season.

Yeah, absolutely. By the way, speaking of tipping your hat to the opponent, I want to tip it to Izzy Miles, the Huntsville native, who scored 16 points. I can't tell you the number of times I saw him play in the Huntsville Times Classic for Jack Doss. But it's nice to see players in North Alabama, and you know the talent, in North Alabama, in this state, even though he scored 16 points. But it's nice to see a Huntsville native play against you. Listen, we'll let you go. Hope you get feeling better.

Yeah. Congratulations on a big win last night, and listen, keep it up, and have a great week. Well, I appreciate it, guys. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much. The perfect medicine for Coach. A win again Saturday against East Tennessee out at CB&S Bank Arena. Coming up, he's got his own game plan ready out at Muscle Shoals. Scott Basin on deck. Stay with us. The season's in full swing, and there's no better place to watch football than Sam's Sports Grill in Florence.

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Time is running out for you to file a claim, so don't wait. Call 800-606-8169 for a free consultation. From the University of Alabama, this is Crimson Tide Today. It's a daily update on Bama sports, and it's brought to you by Conecuh Sausage, a true Southern flavor since 1947. Order online at ConecuhSausage.com. Hello again, everybody. I'm Roger Hooper. On Tuesday's edition of Crimson Drive, driven by NASCAR, we were joined by Alabama legend, Jerry Duncan. You've got to have the will to pay the price to win.

This 65 group that's coming in there, they paid a price because, you know, this was back in the days, Roger, when, you know, we would have a water, one water break, practicing 115 degrees heat. And everybody would line up on the 50-yard line about halfway through practice. And we'd get it, they'd come down, the trainers and the managers would come down and give everybody a piece of ice and a salt tablet. And then you'd go back and practice for another hour and a half. But, I mean, he just knew how to handle people.

He knew how to, he knew when to press and he knew when to back up a little bit. And he drove us hard, I'll say that. I'll have more in a moment. Favorite jeans, favorite shirt. Got a neck of sausage and I'm firing it up, yeah. Everybody knows how to get my grill on. You can smell that flavor up and down the road. It's a little taste of heaven and everybody knows. That's how I get my grill on. Conecuh sausage. It's just a little taste of heaven.

Join us tonight for Hey Coach and the Kalen DeBoer Show, live from Baumhauer's Victory Grill in Tuscaloosa at 6 p.m. Central. You can listen to Hey Coach on our full radio network, the Varsity Network app, as well as watch on all Alabama Athletics social media platforms. Crimson Tide Today is brought to you by Conecuh Sausage. 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. The Score. Welcome back, Ken. Really appreciate your free ride around the valley.

And for Coach Scott Bays, now the muscle shows how to take time out of his very busy schedule to join us. Coach, welcome in. How are you? Doing well. How are you guys doing? Thanks, Scott. And we're doing okay. As they say, if you're still drawing up plays a couple of weeks from Thanksgiving, you're doing something right. Coach, first of all, congratulations on a great season of the day. Talk to us about your boys. Yeah, just really blessed. You know, had a good season so far.

And, you know, it's looked to keep it going. And, you know, I thought they played really well throughout the year. And, you know, and obviously getting to this point, that's where we wanted to be all along. You know, Coach, everybody in this modern era of tech, they want to come up with a brand new mousetrap, as they say. They say it's always better. But it's safe to say some things, there's an old-fashioned formula, and that is if you've got a defense, you've got a pretty strong foundation to build on and keep on playing.

You've got a lot to get to, but let's start with something that I think has been amazing, that is your defense so far. Yeah, you know, Coach Lawler, he's been with me here for 18 years. Him and his staff just do a phenomenal job. And, you know, obviously you've got to have great kids that buy into what you're doing. And you just couldn't be more pleased and blessed with the staff that we have on that side of the ball and, you know, with the young men that are, you know, attentive to how they're being coached and try to carry it out and do it on Friday nights.

Scott, it really is amazing. I've seen three of your games this year. You basically give up seven points a game, three shutouts. Maury Johnson is just a beast. He's the Alabama commit. Devin Smith, I think, is just about as good. Brownie Jones, you're a very good linebacker. Foster, he's going to Arkansas. Christian Pritchett, I know you do use them both sides of the ball. Cam Hogan's, I could just go on and on and on. But that, to me, is the difference in your team. And I've said two or three times, I thought Musa Shows is the best team in North Alabama.

[1:18:45] I know one thing, you've got the best defense in North Alabama. Yeah, you know, those guys, they've played a lot of football. Those were the same guys we were really worried about last year because they hadn't played a lot of ball. You know, and they came along through the season last year and just been really blessed this year of how they've, you know, gelled together as a unit and, you know, they're playing really good for us. Obviously, you've got to have both sides of the ball clicking.

We talked about your defense. Talk to us about the Trojans' offense. Yeah, you know, real pleased with, you know, the progress that they've made. You know, we lost all but one offensive lineman, lost a lot of skill. You know, Coach Darden just does a tremendous job week in and week out with his staff. And I think Cade Clemons, you know, has been something that, you know, just that steady rock for us at quarterback. And really, you know, just been blessed with guys stepping up and making plays.

There's some younger guys that, you know, you really wasn't counting on. And they've really showed up this season. And running backs have run really hard. You know, we've got two of them. And, you know, they really complement each other. And just blessed of how that offensive line is sort of gelled as a unit and continue to play better each week. I think you described Cade Clemons really well. And I've seen his growth the last couple of years. He's just consistent. He's just steady. He can make big plays.

I think he does a really good job of managing the offense. But when you've got Israel Fowler, Samples, and you mentioned Davey, or alluded to the running backs, Davey Reynolds and Tapscott. And, yeah, I'm like you. I was curious about the offensive line. But I think they played very well. But you've got some guys who have matured and developed. And I know everybody wants to talk about the defense. But the offense has been very impressive, too. Yeah. You know, I can't say enough about how those guys have grown.

You know, it's been a work in progress. But, you know, just the little things every week. And like you said, I tell Cade every week, you know, when our team meet, look, don't need you to do anything special. Just, you know, just manage the game, get the ball out on time, and, you know, just be the leader. And he's done a phenomenal job doing that this year. And, you know, I think somebody's going to be lucky to get him at the next level. The next game is against a name that's known all over the state, and that's Parker.

We know what happened last year. Coach, talk to us about, if you will, the postseason rematch against the thundering herd from Parker this week. Yeah, I told Frank down there Saturday, I said, I'm tired of seeing you. He said, well, I'm tired of seeing you, too. I think this is three times in the last four years, you know, we've played each other. You know, we're very familiar with who they are, and they're familiar with who we are. And, you know, I told him, though, I said, thankfully this time you get to finally come to my place.

So this will be the first time we've actually played them at home. But, you know, very talented, just like always. You got to do things right. You can't give up the big play. And, you know, you just got to be consistent all night and, you know, keep the chains moving and try to keep that offense off the field. And, you know, their defense makes it very difficult on a lot of things. So, you know, we got our work cut out for us. But, hey, you know, if you're going to be in that conversation, you want to play in games like this.

And, you know, obviously we've been fortunate enough around here the last several years that, you know, this is nothing new. You know, it's this time of year you play good or you go home. And so, you know, it's a great opponent and another great opportunity for our program and our kids to go out and compete. Coach, you said the word home. When you start looking at playoff games, everybody wants to make the playoffs. But one thing after that you start looking at is not always who you're playing, but where you're playing.

And talk to us about, to put it from a coach's perspective, the advantage of playing at home. Well, you know, usually this time of year, and I'm not saying this to be conceited, but, you know, we've been here enough. And so, you know, the travel and you know you've played these teams over and over. So, you know what you've got to do when you go on the road. It's just, it's a blessing just to have your normal routine on Friday instead of having to get on the bus.

[1:23:56] And, you know, just like last year we were going down there and the bus breaks down. So we're on the side of the road an hour and a half waiting for a bus. And so, you know, thankfully when you're at home, you don't have all those factors that might factor into something. And so, you know, I think it's a great advantage of being at home, you know, because you don't have to worry about the unknowns. And so, you know, that's always a blessing, you know, and fortunately there was no upsets last week.

So, you know, being the region champion, you know, the first two games, you get to play at home barring an upset. So, you know, just real thankful that we get to play them at home this time instead of going to Birmingham. I've been down there more than I want to be. Scott, they do the same thing you do. They're major strength. Now, they've got offensive players. Dylan Reese, their quarterback, is shifty. Davidson Sparks, they've got a couple running backs. But it's a grown man facing these guys on the defensive line.

Vodney Cleveland is a commitment to Texas. Robert Taylor, Terrell, et cetera, et cetera. When you see Parker on film, Scott, what do you see? I see a bunch of athletes and animals. You know, Vodney Cleveland, we played him last year. He's as good as advertised. You know, just to be honest with you, when he wants to make a play, he makes it. That's a good point. You know, it's just, it is what it is. So, you know, you've got to, you know, you've got to account for him.

You know, and he is very talented. I can see why, you know, that he has the attention that he has because he is really good. But the other 10 guys are, you know, they're really good too. And I think something that has really helped our offense, you know, talk about growth early on, is having a defense like we have, has really, iron sharpens iron. And it's really made us better as an offensive standpoint. Are we where we need to be? We'll see. But, you know, not taking anything away from anybody else, but this is the type of defense we see every day in practice.

So, I think, you know, the thing that has gotten us better offensively is because going against our defense every day. So, you know, and that's what we've done this week. You know, usually you sort of back off this time of year. But, you know, we went live against our defense just so our kids know, hey, this is what it's going to be all night long. Yeah, when you go against Maury Johnson and Devin Smith and Jones every day in practice, you've got to get good to survive.

You've got to improve. Listen, we always enjoy talking with you. The best of luck Friday night with Parker coming in. Have a great week of practice. And hopefully we'll see you at some point deeper in the postseason. Yes, sir. And thank y'all for having us and appreciate what you do. Hey, we appreciate you, Coach. Obviously representing, as they say, Muscle Shoals taking on Parker. Huge playoff game. Coming up, he's Double D, Drew DeArmond. He's on deck on the Boomo Bugg Show. Stay with us. Hey, Shoals.

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The Score. Welcome back in. It's a pleasure for us to open the door and say hello to Double D, Drew Jarman. He's host, Talking Ball, and Huntsville's 97.7 FM, The Zone. Drew, welcome in. How are you? I'm good, guys. How are y'all? Good, Ben. It's kind of like Christmas in November if you love good sports in this state this week. Guys, now, Drew, you've got, what, Auburn basketball taking on number one, Houston in a few days. Alabama taking on former number one. Now, number two, Purdue in basketball tomorrow night.

And, oh, by the way, number four, Alabama will be taking on a highly ranked bunch of Sooners from Oklahoma. So, Drew, an early Christmas present for sports fans. Where do you begin in breaking it down? Well, I mean, I think it's a great opportunity, first of all, for, you know, the state in basketball. And it's not every day in the same week that you get a chance to play the number one and number two teams in the country. No doubt about it. I mean, Auburn, you know, Stephen Crowe's got also a good start there for, you know, Houston 2-0.

But this is an ESPN game in the battlegrounds, 2K25. And, I mean, that's a – it's a – and it'll be, you know, in Birmingham at the – so, Auburn will have a somewhat, you know, a home court advantage. But Houston's a really, really good. And it'll be a chance for Chase McCarty to come back home. He's a redshirt freshman at Houston. Getting the chance to play a little bit, play at Westminster Christian Academy for Ronnie Stapler. So, that'll be a cool, you know, moment for Auburn. It's going to be a tough matchup.

[1:34:15] Houston's really, really good. Really physical like they always are. I mean, they play a certain way, and this will be by far and away the biggest test for Stephen Crowe in year one. And so, they'll get a chance on Sunday to, you know, to play against an elite-level opponent. And then I know you're referring to Thursday. We had Brian Passick on this morning. And, you know, Alabama's coming off of a great win in the garden against, you know, Rick Pitino, who is arguably the greatest coach of my generation when you consider what he did at Boston University and then what he did, you know, at Providence.

And then it's well-documented at Louisville and Kentucky, two stints in the NBA, and then what he did at Iona, and then, you know, now back in the limelight, reviving St. John's. And for Alabama to go into the garden with that, you know, kind of atmosphere and play the way they did, and you get, you know, Aiden Holloway back and Latrell Wright, so you see how important those guys are. With Houston Millett and then the incomparable LeBaron Phylon, I think Alabama has the deepest backcourt in the country.

And they certainly showed that against St. John's, who could not stay in front of Alabama. And it's very, very difficult, guys. You can count on, I think, on maybe one hand, how many times Rick Pitino's given up 100 in a college game. And so, it was well-earned. And Alabama did a great job. And you've got to give them a lot of credit. But now, no rest of the weary. The way they do schedule, they get a chance for the fourth straight year to play Purdue. They've played them the last three years.

We know, you know, that they have not won any of those contests. And so, it's one of those things where, you know, but it's kind of calculated. Nate likes to play Purdue because of their style of play. And, you know, how good a coach Painter is. You know, last year in West Lafayette, they could not guard Trey Kaufman-Renn. And we'll see if he plays on Thursday. I hope he does, just for the challenge. But he was a big thorn in the side for Alabama. Preseason National Player of the Year, Brayden Smith, is back.

And then, to make matters even worse for Alabama, they played South Dakota State last year and had trouble guarding Oscar Club. And he just happened to have transferred to Purdue to be the center. So, this may be Painter's best team. And that's saying a lot because a couple years ago, they went to the national championship game and were really, really good. But this is a great Purdue team. It'll be a great test. On a Thursday, it should be an electric crowd in Coleman College. I would imagine a lot of people may have just decided to take a three- or four- or five-day weekend and just be down there for both basketball and, as you mentioned, Harold, football against Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon.

Lord, I was going to mention, did these guys ever graduate or go into the NBA? It seems like Brayden Smith has been there 10 years. Kaufman-Renn, as you mentioned, is an absolute load. Sam King's pretty good. They've got their center, 7-4, and they've got three 6-11 dudes. I mean, it's just – their roster is amazing, D2. Well, it is. And, again, they don't have a ton of McDonald's All-Americans, but they do an amazing job of identifying guys that fit the way they want to play. And this is going to be really kind of a contrasting style.

Purdue likes to get it inside, pound the ball, and, you know, and, of course, their guards do a great job controlling tempo. And then we know what Alabama wants to do. They want to create possession. They want to turn you over. And then they want to push the pace. And then I think it was obvious by – I thought early in the second half that St. John's was wearing down against Alabama's pace to play. And it will be interesting to see if they can get Purdue in the same bind, you know, with their guard play.

But, of course, Taylor Bowl Bowen was amazing in the game against St. John's. He's a perfect fit for this, the way they play, and it's a stretch forward. And he's going to have to bring it. He's going to have to stay out of foul trouble, block some shots. And then the key is – I thought that one of the big keys against St. John's is they out-rebounded the Johnnies by one. They're going to have to find a way to stay within, I'd say, five, six rebounds against a much bigger Purdue team.

And then, of course, it's going to come down to shot-making and Alabama needs to, you know, attack the rim, get to the free-throw line, and then shoot the three well. Double D, Drew Jarman, 97.7 FM, the zone. Drew, there is a football game, they say, coming up Saturday in T-Town. Coming in, Alabama with plenty of reasons to win, but Oklahoma also. Talk to us where you start talking chalk when Alabama takes on Oklahoma this weekend. Well, I mean, it's going to be a defensive game. I mean, you're talking about two of the better defenses in the SEC right now.

[1:39:18] Oklahoma's is arguably the best, but I think Alabama's is continuing to get better. That's why I think this game is going to be relatively low-scoring. You know, I've got a 24-17 Alabama win, but, you know, a huge factor in this game is going to be turnovers. Whoever can force the other into the most mistakes, because Alabama forced LSU into two big turnovers that helped them win the game 20-9 last week. And then, you know, two weeks ago when we left to Oklahoma, they gave up a touchdown on Tennessee's first drive, and then it looked like Tennessee was waltzing right down the field to take a 14-0 lead.

And then we saw the strip, the fumble, and then the defensive touchdown, and it kind of flipped things. And even then, at halftime, Oklahoma, because of those turnovers they forced, they led the game 16-10, though they were being out-gained. They nearly gave up 500 yards to Tennessee, but it didn't matter because of the plus-minus. And so that's going to be a big part of this game. And then, you know, the big topic of conversation, I know you guys have been talking about it all week, is Alabama's running game, because they were basically running in place against LSU.

Part of that, I think, is just personnel, and they're just average on the O-line and in the backfield. But part of it is also, like, Baker had a great plan for Florida, and they executed it. And now, you know, in many ways, I've said this on a few shows this week, I think it could be a blessing in disguise for Alabama to have struggled offensively like they did against OU. Because now, there's no complacency. You have to play well and better than you did on Saturday to beat the Sooners.

And they're going to have to find a way to, I think, manufacture 120 to 150 rushing yards. It's probably going to be closer than 120. Oklahoma is so good against the run. But I think, you know, Ryan Grubb used to be creative. Heck, he was creative at the end of the LSU game. Guys, you watched it. Nothing was working. So, h***, let's run Ty Simpson. And it worked. You know, it was late in the game. So, you know, and he did that against South Carolina. They went to Jerm against Tennessee.

They went to Daniel Hill. A lot of it is going to be adjusting because, you know, everybody knows how good Venables is. So, you have to get a feel for what he's doing to you and then try to counter. And I think I'd like to see more reps for Daniel Hill and his running style. And then, you know, maybe you use Ty as a runner a little bit on his own read type concept. And then, Jeremy Bernard, he's the best player on this offense, guys. I think he didn't think he touched good enough against LSU.

And I think getting him seven or eight catches and maybe four to five to six carries is imperative because he can make big plays. And then, I think if you look at the end of the night and Alabama's average over four yards to carry against Oklahoma, which is going to be a tough task. If they've done that and they've rushed for 125 yards, then I think Oklahoma's in trouble because it means Alabama stayed on the field. And I do think if you watch OU's defense, if they have an area of weakness, I think you can throw the ball vertically on them.

So, if Alabama can keep Ty clean, I think you'll have a chance to make some plays through the air. Me too. We've talked about, in fact, with Ronnie earlier today about the improvement on defense. They only officially had one missed tackle. Red Morgan did that. You mentioned the turnovers, Alabama's plus 10 in turnovers. They forced three fumbles, recovered two, had seven pressures, two from Pierre, Morgan, Overtune, et cetera. And the Redfish mentioned on Monday's show about the improvement with the inside linebackers. Lawson certainly is moving much better than he did earlier in penalties.

Two for 25, you know, ninth game of the season. You only get two penalties. Again, they're doing a lot of things that, the small things that win games. Well, they are. And, you know, one thing Alabama's going to have to do is, you know, both teams have struggled to run the ball. But the last few weeks, you know, Boylock and especially Xavier Robinson have done a good job for Oklahoma. So, Alabama's going to have to stop them. And then, you know, and then contain Mateer. He'll make a few plays with his legs.

But I think you can tolerate that. But you need to make him feel you. And I think that if Alabama can spy him and put them down in different situations where Mateer has to throw the ball, then I think, you know, he's struggled with his accuracy a little bit, especially coming off this injury, Brett. And I think, you know, he's thrown seven interceptions on the year. And he's been sacked 16 times. So, to me, I think Alabama's front seven can make some plays. And if you put Oklahoma in that bind and put them down in different situations that are advantageous, I think Alabama can turn Mateer over.

[1:44:19] I still don't know what the h*** he was doing with four minutes to go throwing the RPO against Tennessee that turned into an interception because Oklahoma was running the ball there and controlling it. But I just think, overall, if Alabama can, you know, do a good job on the line of scrimmage, if Pierre continues to assert himself as a pass rusher, and Mateer's mobile, but I think they can get to him. And then I think, you know, if you put them in long, down, and distances, they can turn them over.

And I think I'll take Alabama's coaching staff over Oklahoma to out-scheme them and out-coach them a little bit. And I have all the respect in the world for Venables. But I think the key is going to be, like I said, Alabama's going to have to win the turnover battle, run the football better than they did a week ago. And then I think with, you know, some of the creativity with certainly coming from Ryan Grubb, you've got to get the ball to Jerms, you've got to get the ball to Josh Quavis.

And then I think the running games center around Daniel Hill. If that happens, I think Alabama can win this game. And I haven't even mentioned Ryan Williams. You know, he did have another, I thought, drop last week, but he did make a couple of nice catches. He may be a bigger factor in this game as well. So, and I will say this, the one advantage I'll give Oklahoma to Tate Mandel, they've got a heck of a kicker. Yeah. They got a shot. So, Alabama's has been a little shaky.

But I think the rest of their special teams, especially the punting, has been good. So, field position may be a big part in this game as well. What are you hearing about the MASH report? I saw some of the back and forth of Rousseau. I saw them as questionable. What's the latest you're hearing about Rousseau and the rest of the MASH report coming in? Well, I mean, I don't think Rousseau is probably ready yet, would be my best guess there. I've heard he has been making progress.

You know, I don't think there's anybody else severely banged up besides the ones that are already out. And I would expect Drake or Patrick Jr., with his legal situation, to probably still be out as well. So, I think you already know who's not going to be there for you. Now, we haven't heard of any injuries in practice that would knock someone out. And so, I think Alabama's still going to be relatively healthy. And so, I think we'll see what happens going forward. But I think Alabama, you know, they need to, you know, start quickly in this game.

And make no mistake. I mean, I mentioned it earlier in the conversation about, you know, maybe being not a wake-up call. But they understand that they did not play well enough on offense against LSU. And they're going to have to sharpen it up against Oklahoma. But don't forget, Oklahoma knocked out Alabama and cost them the college football playoff. Yeah, that's right. And right now, Alabama can go a long way to doing that to OU by whipping them in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Staying unbeaten under Kalen DeBoer. Taking a huge step forward from the top.

Yeah. Getting to Atlanta. And if they get to Atlanta, then I think they're in. Absolutely. Isn't this a fascinating time of the year with college basketball getting started? Two big games in the state with Auburn and Houston, Alabama, and Purdue. Got the second round of the high school football playoffs. We'll be talking about that extensively on the show. Tomorrow, I know you've been covering Huntsville and some of the other teams. And then, of course, college football going down the stretch. 82, where can we listen to you?

And, Scott, by the way, I had to run Huntsville this morning for a doctor's appointment. A listen to your interview with Brian Passing was very good. Where can we listen to the show? They're recruiting blitz, and you're always entertaining Twitter feed. Well, yeah, they can connect with me at DrewD977ESPN on my X account. And then, of course, our station is 977ESPN. If you miss talking ball, we have our sound call page, ESPN 97.7 The Zone. And then on our website, 977ESPN.com. And, yeah, as you just said, bro, we had a great conversation with Brian Passing.

We're going to be recording a conversation with one of the hottest coaches in the country, John Summerall, later this afternoon. He got a big win over Memphis last week, and it's still squarely in the mix to be a college football playoff participant. And not to mention he's from a town called Huntsville. So he's one of the hottest coaches in the country. We look forward to having the listeners be able to hear that tomorrow on the show. And we're going to talk to Brooks Austin as well because there's another big game in the SEC.

There's many of them as Georgia hosts Texas. And that's going to be another game littered with playoff, you know, implications. And we also, I know your listeners in Florence probably don't want to hear it, but the Crimson Panthers played the Florence Falcons on Veterans Day yesterday and thumped them by 28. Drew, as always, good to hook up with you, man. Thanks so much, and stay safe out there, okay? Thank you, guys. Thank you, Ben. Drew DeArma, 97.7 FM, The Zone. Drew mentioned Texas is taking on Georgia. Did you see the story about Ty Simpson and Arch Manning?

[1:49:42] I thought it was a variant. To me, it's a real smart move on both of them's part. What happens, according to the story, is the best I could glean from it. This weekend, when Alabama takes on Oklahoma, Ty is talking to Arch on how to face Oklahoma's defense. And guess what Arch is doing? He's asking, Ty, how do you approach Georgia's defense? These kids are smart, BB. Yeah, they're checking notes, switching, yeah, getting some information in Intel. That would be an interesting conversation, wouldn't it? Coming up tonight, BB, are you ready for some, hey, coach, chatter here on 93.9, the score?

Yeah, you can hear that. In fact, the Kalen DeBoer show is in there. And I'm sure he will be talking about getting fan participation, Harold Bugg, for the Oklahoma Sooners' own homecoming. I do believe the crowd, the show, the lights, that influence. You saw it Saturday against LSU with those false starts. You can't say enough about the 12th man. As they say, in your face, Texas A&M, you're not the only one with 12 people in a game. Just go to Tuscaloosa on a Saturday night, you'll find that out.

That's going to take care of business for now. On behalf of BB, Greg, James Blair, the entire crew here, Harold Bugg, thank you so much for your time today. That's doing it again tomorrow on noon, the tube with a bit more Bug Show. Back here on Sports Radio, 93.9, the score. We'll see you next time. We'll see you next time.