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 Tomorrow night, partly cloudy sky, low near 65. And Wednesday, a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms high around 85. Your weather from 93.9 The Score.

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 Now, get ready to roll Shoals, Decatur, Athens, and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee.

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 It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM Sports Voice.

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 Woo!

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 The Boomo Bugg Show.

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 New exclusive inside track to the Tide, Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC.

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 Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score.

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 Good afternoon and welcome here to the Boomo Bugg Show.

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 I'm Harold Bugg alongside Brett Beaird.

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 Thank you so much for giving us a free ride around the Tennessee Valley.

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 Brett Beaird, welcome in to the Dead Zone.

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 Starting today, how does your team do with all the recruiting now that it's dead?

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 Brett Beaird, welcome in to a friggin' good Monday.

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 I was exactly about to say that.

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 Happy Monday.

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 Happy friggin' Monday to you and the listeners.

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 It is going to be a big recruiting week.

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 Alabama and Auburn have some big recruiting decisions pending.

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 A little bit of a surprise this morning.

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 Michigan basketball coach Dusty May makes a surprising decision to go to the NBA Dallas Mavericks.

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 We'll talk about that throughout the show.

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 But Adam is here right now to talk about the National Championship baseball game tonight

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 and his number two team in the top 12 of the college football playoffs.

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 Adam Spencer is the executive editor of Visionary Podcast, host Saturday down south.

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 Adam, welcome in.

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 How are you?

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 I'm doing great, guys.

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 How are you?

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 I'm in.

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 Man, I'm confused.

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 I look up.

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 Brent just coined the word friggin'.

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 I looked it up and the spell check keeps coming back freezing.

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 Can you help us out with that word, master what that word means?

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 Yeah, it applies to Monday for sure.

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 Yeah, yes it does.

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 There you go.

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 All right, Adam, let's jump in.

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 Dead period is today.

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 Obviously, a lot of loose ends.

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 Your thoughts about the biggest surprise, both pleasant and unpleasant,

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 through the major part of the recruiting cycle now that the dead period kicks in today?

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 You know, I haven't really been following it all that closely,

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 but, you know, because I think that the recruiting at this point is, you know,

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 you're just buying to pay a guy and I owe money for his freshman year

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 before he hops in the portal and goes somewhere else.

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 But Alabama seems to have some momentum.

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 You know, I think that, you know, they've added some nice pieces to some key areas,

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 including the offensive line.

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 So, you know, I think that it's just, it's hard to put grades on this.

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 This is like kind of the NFL draft kind of rant that people always go on.

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 Is that like, well, you don't know how the draft went until you see the players in action.

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 So there's a lot to be decided here.

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 I haven't really, every year that goes by,

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 I start paying less and less attention to high school recruiting.

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 And, you know, we'll see where these players end up.

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 And if they stay, if any of them stay and contribute with the schools that they signed with,

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 that'll be a big plus for those programs.

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 That's a good point, Adam, because I think the biggest thing right now

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 is the recruiting fanatics and all the fans who've been following recruiting over the years.

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 And I think it's a period of adjustment.

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 Would you agree?

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 Because you're seeing more three stars back in the day, just taking Alabama for an example.

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 If they got a four-star, the fans would panic.

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 What are you doing taking a four-star?

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 Nick, come on.

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 You're a five-star boy.

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 Now you're seeing a plethora of three stars to fill out the roster,

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 trying to squeeze a dollar.

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 And fans are saying, what in the heck's going on here?

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 We're dead last year.

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 What's going on?

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 But to your point, I think that makes sense because in some ways, I think they're playing chess.

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 A lot of these coaches are going to let you spend the money initially.

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 And if it works out, we'll come in and try to work out a deal.

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 If not, then you've got to eat that first year.

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 Yeah, exactly.

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 I mean, we saw it with Quinn Ewers at Ohio State before he went to Texas.

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 We saw it with Julian Sayan at Alabama before he went to Ohio State.

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 So, yeah, I mean, it's rarer that you have a guy like Elon Russell

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 who's potentially in line to start a quarterback for Alabama if he wins that starting job.

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 But he's there for a second year already.

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 So that's becoming rarer and rarer.

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 And the more interesting thing now for recruiting fanatics who used to be looking at the high school ranks

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 is almost to just look at the Division II, the Group of Six, some of these lower-level programs

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 and find yourselves the Ahmaud Hardys and the guys that are ready for a payday after their freshman year.

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 Let the Group of Six programs develop these guys before they come into the big time of the SEC.

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 Adam, the SEC's got another chance tonight to win its, what is it,

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 seventh consecutive national championship in baseball.

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 North Carolina comes back to beat Oklahoma 62 to even the series.

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 Here are two stats.

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 If you want to know why these two teams are in the national championship game,

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 North Carolina has not lost consecutive games since early March.

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 Oklahoma's been averaging 9.4 runs per game in the postseason,

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 8.25 in the College World Series.

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 They were held to their fewest runs since the May 19th loss to LSU.

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 That kind of tells you why they're in the spot they're in tonight.

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 Yeah, absolutely.

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 And, I mean, Oklahoma jumped out to that early lead yesterday, too,

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 and it kind of looked like maybe they were going to run away with it

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 and we wouldn't need the game three.

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 But, you know, credit to North Carolina for, you know, battling back, shutting down that rally

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 and, you know, keeping Oklahoma in check for the rest of the way.

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 And now, you know, I think Oklahoma's starting a freshman tonight.

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 So, you know, the pressure's going to be on there.

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 Big lights.

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 You know, we'll see.

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 But, you know, North Carolina's down to its third starter, too.

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 So, I mean, it's going to – I don't think I expect plenty of offense tonight.

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 Like you said with that stat with Oklahoma, you know,

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 I don't see them getting held to two runs again tonight.

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 And, yeah, with just kind of every arm available kind of do-or-die game here,

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 you know, maybe, you know, I bet North Carolina scores plenty of runs, too.

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 So, you know, it's going to be all hands on deck.

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 And, you know, can't hold anything back now.

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 I mean, we saw Paul Skeens do some incredible work a few years ago for LSU

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 to kind of make his legend in a do-or-die game like that at the College World Series.

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 So, you know, we'll see who becomes the heroes tonight.

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 Stay tuned, as they say, and also stay tuned to Adam's workout in Spencer.

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 There's Saturday down south.

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 How surprised were you with the news of the day?

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 Dusty May saying goodbye to Michigan, hello, NBA.

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 Your thoughts on how that shakes things up.

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 And I think a lot of folks, the first thing they're going to think of

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 is a guy down in Tuscaloosa by the name of Nate Oates.

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 I know they've signed him up, but Michigan's got a lot of money.

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 They can do a lot of things.

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 Your thoughts about the news and how it shakes up things down the road.

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 Yeah, I mean, I was pretty shocked by that.

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 I mean, I thought if he was going to go, it would have been by now.

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 You know, thinking about it more and more, though.

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 I mean, the Mavericks, you know, they're a franchise that has been willing to spend money.

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 They have a franchise cornerstone in Cooper Flagg and potentially can get another impact player tomorrow night in round one of the draft.

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 They have Kyrie Irving potentially coming back as, you know, a great guard, but also a potential trade piece.

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 So, you know, Masai Ujiri is their new general manager, and he won a title with the Raptors.

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 So, there's a lot to like about what Dallas is doing.

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 I can see it.

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 I just didn't see it at this point.

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 I thought if he was going to do it, it would have been by now.

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 Yeah.

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 Yeah.

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 They have Michigan in a bad place, but, hey, they're used to having coaches run and leave them in a bad place after winning a national championship.

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 So, they can handle it if any school can.

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 Yeah, Dusty May told some of his close friends he was very concerned about the future of college sports.

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 I think everybody is, quite frankly.

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 Your countdown, too, is number two.

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 You may be number one today.

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 The Texas Longhorns is number two in your playoff countdown from 12, and the one sticking point, you brought out a brutal schedule, and they really do have one.

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 The running game should improve.

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 They finished 90th last year in rushing, and everybody talks about Alabama's problems, but they average 137 a game.

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 But as you point out, another brutal schedule.

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 Yeah, they have six games that are potentially tough on the schedule.

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 They have three SEC road games.

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 I think they go to Texas A&M this year.

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 They go to LSU.

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 There's one other tough road trip on there.

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 So, even though you don't see the Georgia or Alabama on there, they still have a really brutal schedule.

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 They take on Ole Miss.

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 And then, of course, we had to hear Texas Tech bluster before they kind of had to shut their mouths here.

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 But they were like, we'll buy them out.

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 We'll play them anytime, anywhere.

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 And it's like, okay, but your schedule is not the same as Texas' is.

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 They already play Ohio State in non-conference.

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 And, you know, that's going to be another marquee game.

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 I mean, that could be another one-versus-two matchup in Week 2, depending on how the teams look in Week 1.

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 So, you know, I think that that's the one tripping point, because I like what they did.

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 You know, they have another year of consistency with Arch Manning and Steve Sarkeesian.

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 You know, they brought in Cam Coleman from Auburn.

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 Colin Simmons is on the defense.

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 Trevor Goosby is at left tackle.

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 All four of those guys, Manning, Coleman, Simmons, Goosby, they could all be top ten picks in the NFL draft next year.

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 They could have, like, an Ohio State type of, you know, what Ohio State did this year.

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 So, you know, they have the talent.

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 It's just going to be, can they stay healthy and can they navigate that brutal schedule to get to ten wins or beyond.

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 Based on that memo to Steve Sarkeesian, don't screw it up.

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 I'm looking at your list here, Adam.

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 And, boy, the times there are changing.

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 Now, back in the day, the only question was who was going to be one and who was going to be two.

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 Alabama-Georgia, Georgia-Alabama.

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 Georgia is six.

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 Alabama is sneaking in these days at number ten on your list.

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 Your thoughts about the modern 2026 race compared to just a few years ago.

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 Yeah, I mean, and, you know, Clemson's not even on the list.

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 And there was a lot there, too.

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 It was right in the mix there.

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 So, you know, I think, you know, with all this variance, it's just, you know, who's got the top-end talent.

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 You know, I gave the edge there to Texas because they have Manning coming back and he should get off to a smoother start than he did last year.

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 They have some top-end wide receivers.

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 They've got some star power on defense.

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 You know, Georgia has, you know, a lot of its defensive contributors.

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 They're, like, in the top five in returning production on defense coming back, and they have their quarterback.

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 You know, so that's why they got the nod over Alabama.

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 Alabama has a little bit of uncertainty at quarterback.

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 I think that they'll ultimately be fine.

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 But will it cost them a sneaky game early when, you know, the new starting quarterback is having some jitters in his first true road game or something like that?

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 I don't know.

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 You know, I think that there's going to be a lot of jockeying for position from some of these SEC schools.

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 I have LSU at number nine, too, just because I think that Lane Kiffin is going to hit the ground running there in Baton Rouge.

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 But, you know, Ole Miss certainly deserves consideration.

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 Oklahoma deserves consideration.

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 There's going to be a lot of really good teams in the SEC this year, and we'll see how many of them finally manage to make it into the 12-team field.

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 Adam, the NBA draft tomorrow night, and I've seen six players in the first round from the SEC.

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 Darius Acuff of Arkansas, six.

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 Nate Amen from Tennessee, 10.

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 LeBaron Phylon, 13 among the six.

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 Does that sound about right for you tomorrow night about six SEC players first round?

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 Yeah, and I think it would have been more if a couple of those Florida guys would have won.

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 Yeah, absolutely.

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 Yeah, they're coming back, and they're going to be favorites to win the title this year.

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 But, yeah, I think that Acuff's definitely going to be the first SEC player off the board.

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 I'd be shocked if he wasn't somewhere in that five to seven range.

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 I don't know if the Clippers would want to have him at five because they already have Darius Garland.

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 But, you know, they could still trade that pick.

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 You know, maybe I think the Kings are really interested in Acuff.

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 I think the Nets are kind of interested in Acuff.

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 So, you know, even the Mavericks, who just signed Dusty May from Michigan, you know, he could want a strong young point guard there.

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 And that certainly fits the bill if Acuff has any type of slide.

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 So, yeah, Acuff's the name I'm watching.

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 But I think somebody's going to get a great value in LeBaron Phylon.

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 I think that he's just ready-made to be a sixth man in the NBA right off the bat, working his way potentially into a starting, like, two-guard role.

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 But, yeah, I think he's going to be an impact player off the bench for whichever team ends up drafting him.

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 Absolutely.

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 NBA Draft, National Championship in Baseball, countdown to number one.

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 You name it, you've got it.

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 Adam, where can we get online to get all the good stuff?

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00:14:10,580 --> 00:14:13,320
 Yeah, SaturdayDownSouth.com.

227
00:14:13,460 --> 00:14:16,300
 We'll have number one in the playoff rankings tomorrow.

228
00:14:16,580 --> 00:14:18,380
 We'll have a mock draft tomorrow for the NBA.

229
00:14:18,700 --> 00:14:20,960
 And we'll have some recaps of whatever happens tonight.

230
00:14:21,100 --> 00:14:21,920
 So, yeah, check us out.

231
00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:23,580
 Sounds great, Adam.

232
00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:25,060
 Listen, man, thanks so much for your time.

233
00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:26,080
 Have a great week, okay?

234
00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:27,580
 Yeah, you too, guys.

235
00:14:27,620 --> 00:14:28,040
 Appreciate it.

236
00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:28,460
 Thank you, bud.

237
00:14:28,660 --> 00:14:29,500
 Thank you so much.

238
00:14:29,540 --> 00:14:32,120
 Adam Spencer, Saturday Down South.

239
00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:35,140
 As we mentioned at the top of the show, dead periods in the house.

240
00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:37,900
 Alabama picking up some help over the weekend.

241
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:38,740
 How do you rate it?

242
00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:40,980
 Later again, how do the experts rate it?

243
00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:42,440
 Andrew Bone and more straight ahead.

244
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 Stay with us on the Big Bone Bug Show.

245
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348
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351
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352
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353
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354
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357
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358
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359
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360
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 Let the Gobbler get it.

361
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:22,460
 The Score.

362
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:27,660
 Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.

363
00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:28,840
 Welcome back again.

364
00:20:28,900 --> 00:20:31,320
 Time to say hello to Andrew Ball.

365
00:20:31,460 --> 00:20:35,340
 Fine columnist and recruiting editor for BamaOnline.com.

366
00:20:35,440 --> 00:20:37,380
 That's part of the On3.com family.

367
00:20:37,820 --> 00:20:39,960
 His book is called The Road to Bama.

368
00:20:40,120 --> 00:20:41,200
 Andrew, welcome in.

369
00:20:41,300 --> 00:20:42,380
 Happy Monday to you.

370
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:43,000
 How are you?

371
00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:44,940
 I'm doing great.

372
00:20:45,020 --> 00:20:45,540
 How are you guys doing?

373
00:20:45,540 --> 00:20:45,660
 Good.

374
00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:51,080
 I guess we could say happy Monday or happy beginning of the dead period, Andrew.

375
00:20:52,020 --> 00:20:54,820
 Your thoughts about today being the dead period,

376
00:20:54,820 --> 00:20:59,240
 and where Alabama's been on the road to today on the recruiting trail?

377
00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:04,900
 Yeah, it's kind of crazy how we finally hit the dead period.

378
00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:08,380
 I mean, it seemed like things really went by pretty quick this summer,

379
00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:14,400
 and maybe I think the lack of number of recruits that were in town

380
00:21:14,400 --> 00:21:16,680
 throughout the official visit season,

381
00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:19,280
 the low number of commitments,

382
00:21:19,460 --> 00:21:21,280
 and the low number of expected commitments,

383
00:21:21,380 --> 00:21:24,820
 I guess, kind of changes things a little bit

384
00:21:24,820 --> 00:21:27,420
 because you're not covering 50 official visitors

385
00:21:27,420 --> 00:21:31,080
 and thinking that you've got 25 decisions that are going to happen

386
00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:33,520
 before August starts.

387
00:21:33,820 --> 00:21:35,740
 So, you know, things have been a little bit slower.

388
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:39,140
 You know, it picked up this weekend because Alabama had nine official visitors.

389
00:21:39,300 --> 00:21:43,180
 I think that was tied for the most official visitors they've had on campus this summer.

390
00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:50,060
 They had nine on campus back on the first weekend on May the 29th through 31st.

391
00:21:50,260 --> 00:21:52,700
 So, you know, we've had some smaller weekends the last two weeks,

392
00:21:52,780 --> 00:21:54,300
 but it picked up this week.

393
00:21:54,360 --> 00:21:59,860
 And, you know, we should start seeing some decisions pop over the course of the next few days

394
00:21:59,860 --> 00:22:02,200
 to the next week or two.

395
00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:06,460
 So, you know, really looking kind of forward to seeing how a lot of this plays out

396
00:22:06,460 --> 00:22:07,680
 before the season starts.

397
00:22:07,820 --> 00:22:11,540
 You know, things kicked off yesterday with the commitment of Darius White,

398
00:22:11,660 --> 00:22:18,240
 who we've talked about really ever since January as being one of Alabama's top defensive back targets.

399
00:22:18,500 --> 00:22:22,360
 And I know a lot of people look at Darius White as being a three-star,

400
00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:27,700
 but he's been a top five DB on Alabama's recruiting board since they offered him.

401
00:22:27,860 --> 00:22:30,460
 I think they were hoping he'd commit, you know, months ago,

402
00:22:30,460 --> 00:22:33,440
 but he decided to wait off to make a decision.

403
00:22:33,700 --> 00:22:36,060
 And he had a lot of schools that were pushing hard for him,

404
00:22:36,120 --> 00:22:39,480
 including Georgia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Florida State.

405
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:44,780
 But, and he was set up to take official visits to all of those schools this month.

406
00:22:44,940 --> 00:22:48,780
 But, well, actually took a visit to Tennessee a couple weeks before Alabama,

407
00:22:48,940 --> 00:22:53,340
 but came to Tuscaloosa on that official visit weekend back in May

408
00:22:53,340 --> 00:22:57,980
 and decided that that was where, you know, he was completely comfortable with it.

409
00:22:58,080 --> 00:22:59,080
 That's where he wanted to go.

410
00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:04,060
 And we saw this last year, Jaira Edwards came into Tuscaloosa, committed privately,

411
00:23:04,660 --> 00:23:08,260
 and did not go on any other official visits that were scheduled.

412
00:23:08,380 --> 00:23:12,740
 I think everybody just kind of said, well, he canceled all of his visits after the Alabama trip.

413
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:17,700
 So it was, you know, clearly an indication that that was where he was going to go.

414
00:23:17,860 --> 00:23:20,620
 And then we see it again with Darius White.

415
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:24,620
 But I think Coach Moe Lindquist has done such a great job,

416
00:23:25,420 --> 00:23:30,440
 one, with the defensive back unit that he has in Tuscaloosa these last few years,

417
00:23:30,540 --> 00:23:36,540
 the development aspect, but also been able to go out there and win some top recruiting battles

418
00:23:36,540 --> 00:23:41,720
 over the last few years, as we've seen with DeJohn Lee and Jordan Edmonds,

419
00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:45,660
 you know, Jaira Edwards last year and, you know, Zion Gibson.

420
00:23:45,660 --> 00:23:49,700
 You know, they've done extremely well on the DB front.

421
00:23:49,940 --> 00:23:52,360
 And, you know, they do it again with Darius White.

422
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:55,420
 So six foot three, 180 pounds.

423
00:23:55,540 --> 00:24:00,900
 That's definitely a guy that is the type that Alabama likes to recruit at corner.

424
00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:07,260
 I think Patrick Sertan was the biggest corner that Alabama signed during the Nick Saban era.

425
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:09,180
 You know, just about six foot two.

426
00:24:09,300 --> 00:24:16,960
 And now all of a sudden, it's rare to see anybody under six two targeted in the defensive back club for Alabama.

427
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:20,160
 So I know they were happy to get him on board and, you know,

428
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:22,080
 should see some other decisions happening this week.

429
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:28,240
 Andrew, obviously, if this strategy works, they're genius because every business owner has one thing in common.

430
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:30,360
 They want a Volvo for the price of a Ugo.

431
00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:31,660
 In other words, paying for a buck.

432
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:32,560
 Everybody gets that.

433
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,000
 But you can't sugarcoat where they are in the rankings.

434
00:24:35,140 --> 00:24:38,480
 Do you agree with some of the services where Alabama is 16 out of 16?

435
00:24:38,640 --> 00:24:39,800
 That's great if it works.

436
00:24:40,360 --> 00:24:44,020
 The question is, what happens if it doesn't as far as investing in the future?

437
00:24:44,140 --> 00:24:47,100
 Andrew, your thoughts about the folks who are taking the double take

438
00:24:47,100 --> 00:24:50,200
 at how this class is being put together compared to Nick Saban's?

439
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:53,920
 Yeah, I mean, I think you've got to look at it now, you know,

440
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:55,740
 obviously from a money perspective.

441
00:24:55,740 --> 00:24:58,040
 I mean, that's, you know, that's the key there.

442
00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:03,680
 I mean, you're, you know, you basically have a set number that you're able to spend.

443
00:25:03,860 --> 00:25:09,320
 You know, whether that's from the rev share or whether that's money that's raised through the collective,

444
00:25:09,540 --> 00:25:13,920
 which collectors are, you know, they're not going out there paying these high school kids.

445
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:17,700
 They're there to pay for, you know, for the players on your current team.

446
00:25:18,060 --> 00:25:24,120
 So, you know, they're trying to raise as much money as they can through these, you know, collectors right now.

447
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:29,220
 But Alabama, you know, I think they look at their roster and say, hey, you know, we've got a really good roster here.

448
00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:33,940
 But we also have a really good roster that's going to be coming back after next year.

449
00:25:34,580 --> 00:25:38,780
 You know, guys that are going to be juniors, guys that they're certainly going to have to pay.

450
00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:43,340
 And I think Alabama looked at it from this perspective this past cycle.

451
00:25:44,020 --> 00:25:53,380
 I think they saw a lot of the higher-end guys in the transfer portal probably cost a lot more than what you would assume.

452
00:25:53,460 --> 00:25:57,660
 But they also saw players on their own team that were not in the transfer portal.

453
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:04,380
 They were getting offered some big dollars behind the scenes that chose to remain in Tuscaloosa.

454
00:26:04,620 --> 00:26:05,560
 Now, did they get raises?

455
00:26:05,940 --> 00:26:06,200
 Sure.

456
00:26:06,340 --> 00:26:13,120
 But were they anywhere close to what some of the other programs were offering them to enter the transfer portal and transfer to their schools?

457
00:26:13,220 --> 00:26:13,460
 No.

458
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:14,920
 And you've got an offer.

459
00:26:14,980 --> 00:26:23,600
 You have to offer a big number for a guy to consider entering the transfer portal who's not necessarily thinking about it at the time.

460
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:28,580
 And we saw that a lot under the radar that people don't really know about last year.

461
00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:33,280
 So I think Alabama is looking ahead, knowing the guys that are going to be juniors.

462
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:34,040
 I mean, you look at it.

463
00:26:34,060 --> 00:26:36,060
 Michael Carroll, Jackson Lloyd.

464
00:26:36,140 --> 00:26:39,780
 You've got three linebackers that are going into their sophomore this year.

465
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:45,640
 You've got six offensive linemen that are freshmen, six defensive linemen that are freshmen.

466
00:26:46,300 --> 00:26:49,240
 DeJohn Lee is going to be a junior next year.

467
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:54,300
 So you've got a lot of guys that are probably going to get offered behind the scenes some money.

468
00:26:54,380 --> 00:26:55,960
 So you've got to take that into account.

469
00:26:56,100 --> 00:27:02,640
 But I think they feel comfortable as far as their numbers at various positions as far as the young talent.

470
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:05,740
 And you just don't have to go out and spend a heavy amount.

471
00:27:05,740 --> 00:27:15,560
 I mean, are you going to go out and spend a million dollars or $800 or $750 on a guy that's going to come in and sit down as a true freshman and not play at all?

472
00:27:15,700 --> 00:27:22,580
 But he can get developed, but why not develop a guy that's going to be a fourth of the price and kind of see where that goes?

473
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,500
 If it doesn't work out, you just go and get somebody in the transfer portal.

474
00:27:25,700 --> 00:27:30,040
 So I think that's something that Alabama is trying to manage.

475
00:27:30,340 --> 00:27:36,660
 I'm not one of these guys that's going to trash the staff because I look at it from the entire angle.

476
00:27:36,820 --> 00:27:38,400
 I know that they've recruited well.

477
00:27:38,500 --> 00:27:40,140
 I know what they're going to have coming back.

478
00:27:40,360 --> 00:27:43,060
 And roster retention is going to be certainly very important.

479
00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:49,520
 And if they feel like that's how they want to go, trust them and kind of see how it shakes out.

480
00:27:49,580 --> 00:27:56,960
 But I just don't see them making these humongous investments on certain players that they don't necessarily have to.

481
00:27:56,960 --> 00:28:03,820
 And we saw what we've seen on our end is, well, it's going to be a smaller class, so that means you've got more money to spend.

482
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,420
 No, you still have the same amount of money to spend.

483
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:08,100
 That doesn't change at all.

484
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:18,420
 And it's not like you're going to go, oh, well, we signed six defensive linemen, so let's go spend a million dollars and get one defensive lineman this year.

485
00:28:19,020 --> 00:28:20,740
 That's not how it really works out.

486
00:28:20,740 --> 00:28:34,140
 So I think that they feel comfortable and confident in a lot of their young players that they don't have to go out and just spend a fortune to get somebody to come in and be a backup for a couple years and just play it out that way.

487
00:28:34,220 --> 00:28:38,240
 Now, is it going to be the wrong thing to do?

488
00:28:38,580 --> 00:28:41,800
 I don't know, but I don't think Alabama looks at it as wrong.

489
00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:51,340
 And they're playing with the money that they have available and the money that they know that they're going to have to spend on their sophomores and on their freshmen when this season's over.

490
00:28:51,900 --> 00:28:57,900
 Andrew, there are six players associated with Alabama who are going to be making decisions this week.

491
00:28:58,400 --> 00:28:59,480
 There are three tomorrow.

492
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,800
 Tyler Younger, a three-star edge from Atlanta.

493
00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:08,800
 Cedric Simmons, a wide receiver who seems to be between Alabama and Auburn.

494
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:12,840
 2,100 yards of receiving and 20 touchdowns.

495
00:29:13,300 --> 00:29:18,140
 Stafford Willis, an offensive lineman from A-Rab, is making a decision tomorrow.

496
00:29:18,940 --> 00:29:24,140
 Friday is Junior James Tuopo from Thompson, maybe leading to Texas.

497
00:29:24,940 --> 00:29:28,240
 Jeremiah Beverly, a three-star edge on Friday.

498
00:29:28,460 --> 00:29:34,780
 And then on Sonny Gales, the four-star receiver who canceled trips to Notre Dame and Tennessee.

499
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:39,720
 And I believe BOL has projected him to Alabama.

500
00:29:40,220 --> 00:29:46,920
 Of those six, Bud, how many do you think eventually end up committing to Alabama this week?

501
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:54,560
 Well, I think they – I like their position with at least four or five of those guys.

502
00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:56,820
 And I'll start with the guys that are announcing tomorrow.

503
00:29:56,980 --> 00:30:00,500
 I think they're in really good shape with Tyler Younger.

504
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:07,320
 And you talked about the recruiting class earlier, how it's kind of at the bottom of the SEC right now.

505
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:12,600
 Yeah, there's guys in the class that I just absolutely love that are ranked low.

506
00:30:12,660 --> 00:30:15,060
 We talked about Darius White a minute ago.

507
00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:17,180
 Oakley Keegan, who's a tight end.

508
00:30:17,260 --> 00:30:22,300
 If you saw his pictures, I mean, he's one of the most impressive tight ends that's out there.

509
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:26,400
 But he's ranked extremely low because he missed his entire junior season due to an injury.

510
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:34,940
 So, I think that there's some guys in this class that have really good high potential that are getting slept on.

511
00:30:35,020 --> 00:30:36,620
 And I think that's the case with Tyler Younger.

512
00:30:36,740 --> 00:30:39,680
 He's 6'5", 230 pounds.

513
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:45,540
 This is a guy that they push for harder than – I'm not saying he was hard.

514
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:53,320
 They push for him harder than some of these other guys, you know, like a Frederick Ards who ended up going to Texas A&M.

515
00:30:53,740 --> 00:30:57,260
 But he's a guy that they really liked a lot as far as his potential.

516
00:30:57,540 --> 00:31:03,020
 And, you know, they didn't necessarily need a wolf to come in and start right away.

517
00:31:03,020 --> 00:31:09,000
 You know, let's say you lose Yonse Pierre next – you know, after this season, you've got Justin Hill.

518
00:31:09,100 --> 00:31:10,240
 You've got Xavier Griffin.

519
00:31:10,420 --> 00:31:15,060
 If they need some more talent, you can go and get somebody in the portal because you've got a pretty high price.

520
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:18,720
 Wolf and Pierre that's going to be off your roster next year.

521
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:26,480
 So, I think with Younger, they see his development guy, moved from inside linebacker the last couple seasons.

522
00:31:26,620 --> 00:31:27,660
 Also played wide receiver.

523
00:31:27,780 --> 00:31:33,680
 He was a receiver when he started in high school and then moved to inside linebacker and now playing off the edge.

524
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:38,300
 And Christian Robinson went and saw him during the spring, really liked him a lot.

525
00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:45,320
 Said that they wanted to bring him into camp, work him out, just because it was a new position for him and kind of see how

526
00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:46,360
 he did out there in camp.

527
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:52,680
 And, you know, they told him – I know he announced an offer last week, but they told him in camp, hey, you've got an offer from us.

528
00:31:52,740 --> 00:31:58,640
 We want you to come in for an official visit on June the 21st – or June the 19th through 21st.

529
00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:02,360
 And, you know, we're going to be ready to accept your commitment during that visit.

530
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:04,680
 So, you know, he didn't really go anywhere else.

531
00:32:04,820 --> 00:32:08,820
 I think he ended up taking a trip out to Stanford last week.

532
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:16,260
 But after Alabama, you know, really told him that they were going to have a spot for him, he kept things quiet and then came on that visit.

533
00:32:16,500 --> 00:32:22,400
 And I think that, you know, this is a spot there that he really wants to go to and get developed at.

534
00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:25,420
 And I like Alabama's chances there.

535
00:32:25,940 --> 00:32:35,360
 I think with Stafford Willis, you know, another kid that's a, you know, development guy, you know, once again, they signed six –

536
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:37,880
 they had six freshman offensive linemen on their campus.

537
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:42,780
 They're going to return their entire offensive starting front after this upcoming season.

538
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:50,140
 So you don't necessarily have to have a guy that's going to come in and, you know, potentially even be a second-team guy right away.

539
00:32:50,220 --> 00:32:57,040
 So you get a chance to, you know, get a big kid who's 6'5", 300 pounds, that's played left tackle,

540
00:32:57,460 --> 00:33:01,340
 but seen more as an interior player at the next level.

541
00:33:01,340 --> 00:33:04,840
 So – and that's kind of where Alabama sees them as an interior guy.

542
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:11,240
 So you get a kid into your system working at the – you know, learning the position on the interior

543
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:16,340
 and potentially developing into a really good prospect in the next couple years.

544
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:21,260
 So those are two guys that I feel Alabama's in a really good spot for heading into tomorrow's decisions.

545
00:33:21,620 --> 00:33:26,460
 Cedric Simmons, they've had two wide receivers on campus the last few weekends,

546
00:33:26,760 --> 00:33:32,860
 and Cedric Simmons and Kyron Caldwell, and everybody obviously knows about Monsoon Sills and Osani Gales,

547
00:33:32,860 --> 00:33:37,640
 and Gales is going to be announcing on the 27th, really like where Alabama stands there,

548
00:33:37,740 --> 00:33:39,580
 and then Sills mid-July.

549
00:33:39,700 --> 00:33:45,640
 I don't think either one of these decisions with Cedric Simmons or Kyron Caldwell affect Alabama's pursuit

550
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:51,940
 or how much money that they're going to, you know, have set aside for Sills and all is said and done.

551
00:33:51,940 --> 00:33:54,200
 So we'll have to see.

552
00:33:54,460 --> 00:33:56,920
 Simmons had a great visit to Auburn this past weekend.

553
00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:00,480
 He grew up an Alabama fan.

554
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:02,160
 Auburn's recruited him a lot longer.

555
00:34:03,100 --> 00:34:10,580
 Alabama just got involved a couple weeks ago, but I know he had a great visit two weekends ago to Alabama.

556
00:34:11,220 --> 00:34:14,600
 Kyron Caldwell's coming off the official to Alabama this weekend.

557
00:34:14,740 --> 00:34:16,420
 He's been recruited a little bit longer.

558
00:34:16,900 --> 00:34:20,320
 Alabama offered him back in the spring, made a couple trips to Tuscaloosa,

559
00:34:20,460 --> 00:34:22,480
 so I think that's a really good relationship.

560
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:28,420
 It's stretched a little bit further than the one with Simmons, but I also think that, you know,

561
00:34:28,460 --> 00:34:33,160
 there is an opportunity for Alabama to, that they would accept both of those commitments,

562
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:39,100
 but I do think Caldwell will make a decision within the next, you know, he hasn't,

563
00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:43,140
 I think he set an announcement date for July the 4th, but I also think that, you know,

564
00:34:43,140 --> 00:34:49,080
 it could happen earlier, and I like Alabama's position with Caldwell probably more than Simmons,

565
00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:54,120
 but like I said, I also wouldn't be, you know, really surprised with Simmons,

566
00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:59,540
 but I think it could go either way there, and then I think Jeremiah Beverly was the other one you mentioned

567
00:34:59,540 --> 00:35:00,940
 he's announcing on Friday.

568
00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:07,320
 Hillcrest, Tuscaloosa kid, he's a local guy, and he loves Alabama, you know,

569
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:09,780
 grown up, always wanting to play there.

570
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:14,100
 I didn't really have a ton of offers, but I think with, you know, the way things are,

571
00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:20,440
 as far as being able to offer 105 scholarships, you're not really having to make a humongous

572
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:25,840
 investment there, and I think that Alabama, you know, sees him as a guy that can develop

573
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:34,080
 and potentially be a good defensive player for them in the future, so I like Alabama's position there.

574
00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:39,620
 Obviously, everybody wants to know about all the other big guys that are out there,

575
00:35:39,620 --> 00:35:45,020
 like the Mitchell-Turners, the Hayden-Chepps, the Montague-Sill, but all those guys are really kind of just,

576
00:35:45,460 --> 00:35:49,120
 you know, coming off their final visits, they're sitting down with their families,

577
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:54,120
 they're trying to make decisions and kind of go from there, so we're still kind of waiting on,

578
00:35:54,260 --> 00:35:56,200
 you know, when these decisions are going to be announced.

579
00:35:57,660 --> 00:36:04,720
 Junior Tuopo from Thompson High School is announcing on Friday, came off the official to Alabama this weekend.

580
00:36:05,820 --> 00:36:12,320
 Texas has been at the forefront, and I know a lot of people still feel that they're at the top of the list,

581
00:36:12,420 --> 00:36:16,340
 and, you know, very well could be, but, you know, we know that he had a great official visit to Alabama,

582
00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:21,020
 been to Tuscaloosa several times, has his teammate Trent Seaborn as a commitment,

583
00:36:21,220 --> 00:36:23,540
 and he was down there helping recruit this weekend, too.

584
00:36:24,180 --> 00:36:28,460
 But, you know, I think, as of right now, probably could go either way.

585
00:36:29,060 --> 00:36:29,140
 Yeah.

586
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:30,920
 You know, we're just going to have to wait and see.

587
00:36:30,980 --> 00:36:31,160
 Right.

588
00:36:31,900 --> 00:36:33,060
 Over the next few days.

589
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:33,880
 Right, buddy.

590
00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:37,020
 Well, listen, we've got to run to a break, but great stuff.

591
00:36:37,140 --> 00:36:41,880
 I know you and Tim Watts and the guys are going to be on top of this.

592
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:45,180
 Three decisions tomorrow and six by Saturday.

593
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:49,220
 A.B., thank you so much for taking the time to go into detail about these.

594
00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:51,440
 Where can we get online to get all the great stuff?

595
00:36:52,380 --> 00:36:56,820
 Well, just come to BamaOnline.com, 50% off special right now for a year,

596
00:36:56,820 --> 00:36:59,540
 so come check us out, BamaOnline.

597
00:36:59,660 --> 00:37:04,000
 You can read all of our coverage content and also interact with us every single day

598
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:05,880
 on the BamaOnline message board.

599
00:37:06,260 --> 00:37:08,840
 Some early fireworks before the 4th.

600
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:10,540
 Andrew, listen, man, thanks so much for your time.

601
00:37:10,600 --> 00:37:11,660
 Have a great week, okay?

602
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:13,200
 You guys do the same.

603
00:37:13,260 --> 00:37:13,600
 Thank you.

604
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:15,680
 Andrew Bowen looking up with us.

605
00:37:15,740 --> 00:37:19,080
 Visit there at BamaOnline.com, part of the On3.com family.

606
00:37:19,180 --> 00:37:21,300
 Again, his book is called The Road to Bama.

607
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:22,780
 He mentioned Auburn.

608
00:37:22,860 --> 00:37:25,980
 Let's get the latest Tiger talk with Brian Matthews on deck.

609
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610
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680
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681
00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:43,520
 Progressive presents the Sports Flash on 93-9, the score.

682
00:41:43,860 --> 00:41:45,520
 Atlanta Braves lost at home yesterday.

683
00:41:45,660 --> 00:41:47,560
 They fell to the Brewers 9-4.

684
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:49,060
 Bryce Elder took the loss.

685
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:50,880
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686
00:41:51,020 --> 00:41:53,380
 The Braves are now 48-28.

687
00:41:54,040 --> 00:41:56,880
 The Braves are back in action tonight in San Diego.

688
00:41:57,040 --> 00:42:00,160
 As a take on the Padres, Grant Holmes will start for Atlanta.

689
00:42:00,300 --> 00:42:03,500
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700
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701
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702
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703
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 The Score.

723
00:43:21,780 --> 00:43:26,360
 Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.

724
00:43:26,780 --> 00:43:27,400
 Welcome back again.

725
00:43:27,460 --> 00:43:29,320
 Time to head on down to Auburn.

726
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:30,780
 Say hello to Brian Matthews.

727
00:43:30,820 --> 00:43:33,520
 He's a senior editor for AuburnSports.com.

728
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:34,660
 Brian, welcome in.

729
00:43:34,740 --> 00:43:35,280
 How are you?

730
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:37,340
 I am doing great, guys.

731
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:38,000
 Thanks for having me.

732
00:43:38,660 --> 00:43:42,240
 Are you celebrating the beginning of the dead period today, Brian?

733
00:43:43,860 --> 00:43:45,700
 Well, yes and no, right?

734
00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:50,440
 Because we've got to create some content now a little bit for the next five or six weeks.

735
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:53,220
 But, yeah, I think it's a great time now.

736
00:43:54,080 --> 00:43:55,560
 You know, the coaches need some time off.

737
00:43:55,660 --> 00:43:56,960
 I think they're working their tails off.

738
00:43:57,380 --> 00:43:57,760
 Yeah.

739
00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:05,160
 Since then, the season, right, with the transfer portal, then straight into spring practice, and then a heavy period of recruiting and official visits.

740
00:44:06,300 --> 00:44:12,420
 And now, even though they can still contact recruits, they can't host any off-campus or visit any off-campus.

741
00:44:12,420 --> 00:44:16,220
 So, that's going to allow them to get away a little bit and get some time with the family support.

742
00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:19,080
 The whole process starts over again this fall.

743
00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:25,020
 And it's that time of the year for a reporter when you say, does the quarterback have seven hairs or five hairs?

744
00:44:25,100 --> 00:44:26,720
 Let's do an in-depth story on that.

745
00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:27,980
 So, we've all been there.

746
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:37,260
 Brian, is there a greater contrast inside of the state, certainly inside of a rivalry like Auburn and Alabama, with the respective recruiting strategies?

747
00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:46,080
 We want to talk about the latest, Auburn Fresh, you're picking up number 22, Alabama, at last report, is still struggling to get to double digits, period.

748
00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:47,560
 Now, the dead period's on.

749
00:44:47,620 --> 00:44:48,800
 That takes on a different perspective.

750
00:44:49,320 --> 00:44:50,960
 Brian, your thoughts about Auburn's strategy?

751
00:44:52,340 --> 00:44:54,600
 Well, I think you can go back to A-Day, right?

752
00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:57,800
 A little bit more than two months ago, Auburn got their second commitment.

753
00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:01,840
 This class was ranked 58th, I believe, nationally.

754
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:04,220
 So, I think there was a lot of concern there.

755
00:45:04,660 --> 00:45:14,440
 And, you know, I probably came on your show at some point during that period and said, hey, you know, recruiting really picks up in May and June and, you know, the first couple weeks in July.

756
00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:17,720
 So, let's pump the place a little bit and wait and see what happens.

757
00:45:17,860 --> 00:45:19,300
 And it's really happened for Auburn.

758
00:45:19,380 --> 00:45:22,500
 They picked up 20 commitments this, you know, since then.

759
00:45:22,540 --> 00:45:27,340
 I think it's the two so far this weekend, if I'm correct there.

760
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:30,400
 They're up to top 12, I believe, nationally in our rankings.

761
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:33,880
 I have not looked since this morning, so that can change.

762
00:45:34,020 --> 00:45:35,740
 But I think they're top 10 in some other places.

763
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:52,500
 So, that's just an indication of what a great job the staff has done, getting kids on campus, you know, getting them here multiple times, whether it was for an official visit, whether it was for, you know, just a practice or really anything.

764
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:56,460
 I just think they did a great job recruiting, just put a lot of effort in.

765
00:45:56,580 --> 00:45:58,760
 You can see the results of that effort now.

766
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:07,580
 And, you know, even, you know, this weekend they got a commitment from that running back, what's his name, Moni Williams, right?

767
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:09,460
 And he's a good player.

768
00:46:09,660 --> 00:46:12,220
 They flipped him from West Virginia, I believe.

769
00:46:12,480 --> 00:46:12,680
 Yep.

770
00:46:14,040 --> 00:46:22,300
 But I think they got him in anticipation that one of their other running back commitments, you know, might be flipping to Missouri here fairly soon.

771
00:46:23,400 --> 00:46:26,140
 And, you know, it's no big deal.

772
00:46:26,220 --> 00:46:27,980
 Kingston Miles is from St. Louis, Missouri.

773
00:46:28,740 --> 00:46:33,920
 Their other running back commitment, Myron Johnson Cook, is from East St. Louis.

774
00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:39,560
 So it's not surprising that Missouri is going to pull out all the stops and try to get one of those guys.

775
00:46:39,660 --> 00:46:45,440
 And I think they've really recruited Kingston Miles really, really hard here over the last month or so.

776
00:46:45,780 --> 00:46:49,940
 But I give the staff credit because every single school is going to have decommitments.

777
00:46:50,580 --> 00:46:57,620
 But what I haven't seen enough of at Auburn is people being, you know, up front about it and assertive about it

778
00:46:57,620 --> 00:47:03,060
 and not just being the victim but going ahead and going out and getting that guy's replacement before he even decommits.

779
00:47:03,060 --> 00:47:04,580
 I think that's pretty impressive, yes, man.

780
00:47:05,100 --> 00:47:07,780
 Yeah, Auburn's number 12 in 24-7.

781
00:47:08,020 --> 00:47:09,720
 Let me double-check with you.

782
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:14,260
 19th commitment was three-star Maryland safety Canary Crum.

783
00:47:14,940 --> 00:47:16,360
 That's an interesting name.

784
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:26,020
 The 20th commitment was four-star edge James Pace III from Maryland to Martha Catholic in Maryland.

785
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:31,560
 21, three-star Preston Williams from George W. Lone High School.

786
00:47:31,860 --> 00:47:40,820
 And as you mentioned, was the West Virginia flip number 22, Kamani Williams from West Virginia.

787
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:41,660
 Is that correct?

788
00:47:42,240 --> 00:47:43,260
 That is correct.

789
00:47:43,420 --> 00:47:46,560
 You know, James Pace, again, another kid, a defensive player.

790
00:47:46,660 --> 00:47:49,900
 They're getting from the Baltimore area, right, where D.J.

791
00:47:49,940 --> 00:47:50,940
 Durkin has a connection.

792
00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:59,500
 I think Coleman Hutzler, their new edge coach, is a very, very good recruiter and well-respected, I think, among kids that want to come play for him.

793
00:47:59,820 --> 00:48:01,720
 He's going to show a lot of really good SEC schools.

794
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:07,780
 I think Auburn's really fortunate to have him, and I think, you know, James Pace is going to be a really good player.

795
00:48:08,180 --> 00:48:09,880
 I'm also excited about Preston Williams.

796
00:48:10,100 --> 00:48:12,460
 You know, he's not a highly recruited kid.

797
00:48:12,520 --> 00:48:14,340
 I think we have him as a three-star, I believe.

798
00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:20,920
 Or maybe he's not even ranked yet on our site, but he's from the smaller schools, GW Long and Skipperville, Alabama.

799
00:48:21,820 --> 00:48:24,380
 But he's 6'2", 180, can really run.

800
00:48:25,340 --> 00:48:28,160
 Auburn has evaluated him really closely, and he's really impressed them.

801
00:48:28,580 --> 00:48:37,020
 I think he's going to end up being either a tall cornerback or a nickel or, you know, maybe a safety and end up being a really good player.

802
00:48:37,100 --> 00:48:48,120
 This is one of those players from, you know, that Alabama finds, I mean, Auburn finds in state a lot of times and turns out to be really good in the future for them.

803
00:48:48,180 --> 00:48:50,140
 So I'm excited about that pickup, too.

804
00:48:50,140 --> 00:49:00,460
 And, you know, I think nowadays you just cannot do what Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State did for, you know, a decade and more and just stack your classes up with five stars.

805
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:02,260
 First of all, you can't afford that anymore.

806
00:49:02,340 --> 00:49:02,880
 They're too expensive.

807
00:49:03,300 --> 00:49:07,520
 And secondly, they're not going to stick around for long if they don't play right away.

808
00:49:07,680 --> 00:49:12,520
 So you're not going to have a lot of guys, you know, your third string defensive end is a five-star, right?

809
00:49:12,580 --> 00:49:13,400
 It's hard to do now.

810
00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:14,120
 It's more spread out.

811
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:21,980
 So I think when you recruit now, you've also got to take a blend of those great players, those five-star caliber players, Rivals 100-type players.

812
00:49:22,320 --> 00:49:27,520
 And you've got to take some guys you think are going to develop, guys that you've evaluated differently than other schools.

813
00:49:27,580 --> 00:49:29,680
 And I think Preston's one of those guys for Auburn.

814
00:49:30,020 --> 00:49:34,480
 The A-trap was good back in the day, but I don't think it'll play now in most circles.

815
00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:40,880
 Obviously, the dead period is on, Brian, but it doesn't mean that the kids can't still come see you.

816
00:49:40,880 --> 00:49:42,540
 You just can't go see them as such.

817
00:49:43,120 --> 00:49:47,900
 Tomorrow's supposed to be D-Day for Cedric Simmons, at least on paper.

818
00:49:48,020 --> 00:49:52,620
 It looks like the wide receiver from N-State will choose between Auburn and Alabama.

819
00:49:52,780 --> 00:49:53,920
 What are you hearing?

820
00:49:55,580 --> 00:50:00,560
 I haven't heard really anything other than I think he did not grow up in Auburn.

821
00:50:00,640 --> 00:50:01,540
 I mean, Alabama fan.

822
00:50:02,200 --> 00:50:02,600
 Yes.

823
00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:04,020
 Yeah, that's correct.

824
00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:06,860
 I know Auburn's been recruiting him fairly hard.

825
00:50:06,860 --> 00:50:12,380
 So I don't really have a great, you know, hey, I think he's going here or there.

826
00:50:12,500 --> 00:50:17,580
 I just, you know, if a kid grows up, an Alabama fan in the state, and he's being recruited by Alabama pretty hard,

827
00:50:17,620 --> 00:50:21,300
 and he has a legit offer from Alabama, I think all those things fit Cedric's case.

828
00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:23,720
 I'm not an expert on recruiting.

829
00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:26,020
 I cover the team more, but I think that's the case.

830
00:50:26,140 --> 00:50:29,300
 If that's so, you know, most of the time those kids end up at Alabama.

831
00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:30,160
 So we'll see.

832
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:32,640
 But he's making it tomorrow.

833
00:50:33,140 --> 00:50:36,740
 I'm not sure exactly of the time, but it'll be Auburn or Alabama.

834
00:50:37,380 --> 00:50:42,060
 Either way, I think Auburn's getting, or Alabama's getting a really talented young man,

835
00:50:42,140 --> 00:50:47,960
 a guy that goes from Southside Selma, guys really athletic, and should step in and play fairly early in his career.

836
00:50:47,960 --> 00:50:51,360
 That was an interesting comment before we let you go.

837
00:50:51,480 --> 00:50:57,340
 Tom Luginville of ESPN, who's got roots to the Tennessee Valley and the Elk River,

838
00:50:57,560 --> 00:51:03,120
 said they were asking about Byron Brown on the round table with Dunaway and Brown.

839
00:51:03,560 --> 00:51:04,680
 I thought he had a good comment.

840
00:51:04,780 --> 00:51:09,740
 He said, it ain't pretty when you look at him on tape, but he's a point A to point B guy.

841
00:51:09,740 --> 00:51:15,860
 It gets you really quick from point A to point B, and quite frankly, that's what a quarterback's supposed to do.

842
00:51:17,700 --> 00:51:26,780
 Yes, and, you know, I think with his running ability, I think it's going to sort of marry well with Golesh's,

843
00:51:26,780 --> 00:51:33,180
 you know, want to really be a power running team with, you know, the running backs and the offensive line many signs.

844
00:51:33,180 --> 00:51:39,140
 So I think that's really a good double there, having a guy who can run the ball,

845
00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:41,880
 who can throw it deep, of course, is very important in his offense.

846
00:51:42,140 --> 00:51:46,920
 I think he's got some big receivers that can run and get downfield and make some plays one-on-one too.

847
00:51:47,460 --> 00:51:49,480
 So I think that all fits in his offensive attack.

848
00:51:49,580 --> 00:51:53,860
 I don't think he's going to throw for 3,000 yards and run for 1,000 in the SEC,

849
00:51:54,100 --> 00:51:56,660
 but he is welcome to prove me wrong, right?

850
00:51:57,260 --> 00:52:02,580
 But anybody that can do that at any level is probably going to have some success when he moves up,

851
00:52:02,580 --> 00:52:04,840
 and I think Byron is going to be successful for Auburn this year,

852
00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:09,060
 and I think he has a chance to help Auburn break out of this funk of five straight

853
00:52:09,060 --> 00:52:10,360
 losing seasons.

854
00:52:10,760 --> 00:52:13,640
 Well, AuburnSports.com is very successful.

855
00:52:14,240 --> 00:52:17,040
 A lot of great stuff, recruiting certainly on top.

856
00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:20,680
 I know you do a lot of preseason stuff in football.

857
00:52:21,620 --> 00:52:24,220
 B-Matt, where can we get online to get all the good stuff?

858
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:25,680
 I appreciate that.

859
00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:29,680
 And we had a bunch of content this morning, including commitment,

860
00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:34,440
 but about to put up my Monday Musings here, so that'll be coming up soon.

861
00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:37,820
 You can read all about not just the commitments, but how they kind of fit in

862
00:52:37,820 --> 00:52:41,880
 and what their sort of role is going to be at Auburn and how closely they can contribute.

863
00:52:42,060 --> 00:52:45,860
 We have some really great guys here like Cole Pinkston who can break down that type of info

864
00:52:45,860 --> 00:52:48,600
 and bring it to you in a way that really makes a lot of sense.

865
00:52:48,740 --> 00:52:51,020
 So, all that and more at AuburnSports.com.

866
00:52:51,680 --> 00:52:53,080
 Check us out and sign up online.

867
00:52:53,160 --> 00:52:56,020
 We're running a 50% off deal for the summer.

868
00:52:56,560 --> 00:53:00,200
 And, of course, you can follow me on social media, on Twitter, such as X at B-Matt-A-U.

869
00:53:01,020 --> 00:53:01,800
 Sounds great, Brian.

870
00:53:01,860 --> 00:53:02,660
 This is a kickback.

871
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:04,540
 Enjoy the beginning of the dead period.

872
00:53:04,620 --> 00:53:05,800
 Let's do it again soon, okay?

873
00:53:06,620 --> 00:53:07,500
 I appreciate you guys.

874
00:53:07,580 --> 00:53:07,720
 Thank you.

875
00:53:07,720 --> 00:53:08,180
 Thank you, bud.

876
00:53:08,300 --> 00:53:09,060
 Thank you so much.

877
00:53:09,120 --> 00:53:12,180
 Brian Matthews, senior at AuburnSports.com.

878
00:53:12,240 --> 00:53:14,520
 Coming up the next hour, we're going to go to the Man of Steel.

879
00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:15,940
 Jim Steel is going to be on board.

880
00:53:16,340 --> 00:53:18,160
 Vince Rawls is also going to be talking Tennessee.

881
00:53:18,640 --> 00:53:23,680
 And Ben Thomas has got the entire state of Alabama cover from one end to the next.

882
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:25,380
 It's all straight ahead of the B-Mobile Bug Show.

883
00:53:25,520 --> 00:53:26,160
 Stay with us.

884
00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:30,940
 The final out has been called.

885
00:53:31,140 --> 00:53:32,100
 The dugout cleared.

886
00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:34,720
 And now your team is starving.

887
00:53:35,700 --> 00:53:37,100
 There's only one place to go.

888
00:53:37,720 --> 00:53:39,740
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889
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890
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 Whether you're Little Leaguers, travel ball champs, or rec league legends.

891
00:53:47,740 --> 00:53:49,960
 After the game, bring the whole team to Lost Pizza.

892
00:53:50,220 --> 00:53:54,440
 We've got the table, we've got the pies, and we've got the monster waiting for you.

893
00:53:55,740 --> 00:54:01,940
 Stop by after the game and taste what everyone's talking about at 201 North Seminary Street, Florence.

894
00:54:03,460 --> 00:54:07,120
 T-Mobile has an exclusive bundle for customers 55 and up.

895
00:54:07,120 --> 00:54:08,260
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896
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:09,400
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897
00:54:09,620 --> 00:54:12,260
 A reliable network is key for us.

898
00:54:12,680 --> 00:54:14,540
 And with T-Mobile, it's been wonderful.

899
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:18,560
 And going to the 55-plus plan saved us so much money.

900
00:54:18,920 --> 00:54:19,520
 A lot.

901
00:54:19,740 --> 00:54:21,900
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902
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 While the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup, Hyundai has its eyes on the next

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 Future stars who are already turning heads at age 14.

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 Next starts now.

928
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 Progressive presents ways to save money that aren't bundling your home and auto insurance

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 I can't believe the deal we got on these seats for the game.

932
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 Wow, they must be pretty high up here.

933
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 I think my ears just popped.

934
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 Yeah, here, put this on.

935
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 Is that an oxygen mask?

936
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957
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 Your summer food game is only as strong as what you're working with.

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971
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 Valley Broadcasting Corporation, WITK-FM, Rogersville, Athens, Decatur, The Shores, Sports Radio 93.9, The Score.

972
00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:42,860
 West 1-1 Sports presents this World Soccer Update sponsored by Henkel, official partner of U.S. Soccer.

973
00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:45,340
 Some World Cup history just made in Dallas.

974
00:57:45,340 --> 00:57:52,580
 As Lionel Messi became the all-time leader in career goals scored, his 17th was a patented Messi drive.

975
00:57:52,720 --> 00:57:59,200
 It came after he missed an early penalty kick and was stopped on two other shots, but he scored 39th minute.

976
00:57:59,360 --> 00:58:02,460
 At halftime, Argentina leads Austria 1-0.

977
00:58:02,560 --> 00:58:05,720
 Argentina has scored four goals now in a game and a half.

978
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:07,700
 Messi has scored all four.

979
00:58:07,800 --> 00:58:10,040
 The next game is France versus Iraq.

980
00:58:10,140 --> 00:58:11,040
 That's in Philadelphia.

981
00:58:11,240 --> 00:58:14,280
 So after Messi, it'll be the French star, Kylian Mbappe.

982
00:58:14,420 --> 00:58:17,080
 He's got 14 career World Cup goals himself.

983
00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:19,520
 And Norway has a goal scorer as well.

984
00:58:19,620 --> 00:58:22,420
 Erling Haaland, 16 goals in qualifying games.

985
00:58:22,520 --> 00:58:24,900
 He scored twice in the Norwegians' win last week.

986
00:58:25,020 --> 00:58:26,280
 MetLife Stadium in New Jersey tonight.

987
00:58:26,360 --> 00:58:27,520
 It's Norway against Senegal.

988
00:58:27,940 --> 00:58:30,020
 This is Jordan's first-ever World Cup.

989
00:58:30,020 --> 00:58:33,400
 Lost its opener, taking down Algeria late tonight in Santa Clara.

990
00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:35,420
 John Stash, our Westwood One Sports.

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1008
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1009
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1010
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 From the crack of the first bat to the final out, this Atlanta Braves club has the rest of the National League on notice.

1011
00:59:44,480 --> 00:59:46,560
 Olsen annihilates this thing.

1012
00:59:46,920 --> 00:59:48,000
 Two-run homer.

1013
00:59:48,260 --> 00:59:50,500
 That was barreled to the chop house.

1014
00:59:50,500 --> 00:59:59,340
 Tonight, the Braves hit the road for a West Coast trip as Atlanta opens up a three-game series against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park in San Diego.

1015
00:59:59,720 --> 01:00:05,960
 Braves Radio's on the air at 855 Eastern, 755 Central on the Braves Radio Network.

1016
01:00:06,500 --> 01:00:18,540
 Brought to you locally by the law firm of Johnson Pasture, Medley & Birchall, J.C. Hammond Sons, First Metro Bank, Nationwide Insurance Agents Michael Doe and Bill Cochran,

1017
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1018
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 Los Pizza, Cypress Creek Indoor Range, and Alabama Health Guidance.

1019
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 Atlanta Braves baseball tonight versus the San Diego Padres on 93.9 The Score.

1020
01:00:42,920 --> 01:00:44,640
 93.9 The Score Weather.

1021
01:00:44,940 --> 01:00:48,620
 For today, a 100% chance of showers and thunderstorms high around 85.

1022
01:00:48,940 --> 01:00:52,920
 Tonight, an 80% chance of showers and thunderstorms low near 70.

1023
01:00:53,440 --> 01:00:55,880
 Tomorrow, partly sunny skies high around 85.

1024
01:00:56,360 --> 01:00:58,880
 Tomorrow night, partly cloudy skies low near 65.

1025
01:00:59,460 --> 01:01:03,820
 And Wednesday, a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms high around 85.

1026
01:01:04,420 --> 01:01:06,860
 Your weather from 93.9 The Score.

1027
01:01:07,880 --> 01:01:16,480
 Now, get ready to roll Shoals, Decatur, Athens, and all of northwest Alabama and southern Tennessee.

1028
01:01:17,140 --> 01:01:20,400
 It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM Sports Voice.

1029
01:01:23,400 --> 01:01:25,740
 The Boomo Bugg Show.

1030
01:01:26,280 --> 01:01:31,560
 Your exclusive inside track to the Tide, Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC.

1031
01:01:32,360 --> 01:01:37,780
 Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score.

1032
01:01:38,300 --> 01:01:40,280
 Welcome back in our tour to the Boomo Bugg Show.

1033
01:01:40,400 --> 01:01:42,080
 I'm Harold Bugg alongside Brett Beaird.

1034
01:01:42,180 --> 01:01:45,240
 Thank you so much for giving us free ride around the Tennessee Valley.

1035
01:01:45,360 --> 01:01:49,480
 And for Ben Thomas on the other end of the Tennessee Valley joining us.

1036
01:01:49,480 --> 01:01:51,860
 Ben's got it all covered there at AL.com.

1037
01:01:52,360 --> 01:01:53,320
 BT, welcome in.

1038
01:01:53,400 --> 01:01:56,000
 How's life in South Alabama again today?

1039
01:01:57,120 --> 01:01:59,680
 Well, I think it's good, but that's not where I am today.

1040
01:02:00,180 --> 01:02:02,960
 So, I'm actually not too far from y'all.

1041
01:02:03,120 --> 01:02:09,360
 I'm in North Georgia, in Eastville, Georgia, visiting my mom for the week.

1042
01:02:09,440 --> 01:02:10,340
 So, I'm helping her out.

1043
01:02:10,400 --> 01:02:13,940
 Still working, but being here with her for a week.

1044
01:02:15,020 --> 01:02:15,760
 Good for you.

1045
01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:17,940
 And everything's good up here.

1046
01:02:18,000 --> 01:02:19,040
 I hope things are well with y'all.

1047
01:02:19,520 --> 01:02:20,780
 Yeah, that's a beautiful part.

1048
01:02:20,780 --> 01:02:25,140
 I don't know how close you are to Helen up there, but my late brother has a place up there.

1049
01:02:25,580 --> 01:02:26,780
 To me, it is.

1050
01:02:26,840 --> 01:02:33,440
 If you want to go to the Smokies, but you don't have to deal with people like crazy up there in the park, go to North Georgia.

1051
01:02:33,480 --> 01:02:34,440
 It's beautiful up there.

1052
01:02:35,740 --> 01:02:38,740
 Yeah, Helen's not far at all from here, less than an hour.

1053
01:02:39,960 --> 01:02:41,160
 Dolanaga is very nice.

1054
01:02:41,260 --> 01:02:46,140
 It's less than 30 minutes, especially if you go during Christmas, where they have it all night.

1055
01:02:47,200 --> 01:02:48,500
 Helen's a little bit touristy.

1056
01:02:48,560 --> 01:02:52,920
 I mean, during the tourist season, it takes an hour to get through there, but it is nice.

1057
01:02:53,980 --> 01:02:57,960
 Y'all probably didn't call to talk to me about North Georgia geography.

1058
01:02:58,260 --> 01:02:59,160
 Hey, what the heck?

1059
01:02:59,200 --> 01:03:00,060
 What the heck, BT?

1060
01:03:01,060 --> 01:03:09,660
 One thing we did want to talk to you about is you had a big powwow over the weekend with the boss of the Alabama High School Athletic Association.

1061
01:03:09,900 --> 01:03:16,920
 Talk to us about some of the points coming out of the meeting or the conversation, or at least a speech from Heath Harmon.

1062
01:03:17,920 --> 01:03:19,760
 Yeah, that was actually last weekend.

1063
01:03:20,400 --> 01:03:34,660
 He spoke to the sportswriters convention, and he tells you a lot, but sometimes you've got to read into it to see if there's any newsworthy information in there, if that makes sense.

1064
01:03:35,020 --> 01:03:35,560
 Yeah, it does.

1065
01:03:36,200 --> 01:03:44,800
 You know, a couple of things he pointed out that were interesting, and of course we have some news at the HSA today we can talk about when I get through with this.

1066
01:03:44,800 --> 01:03:58,460
 But, yeah, so we asked him obviously about the two, you know, the talk in the last four weeks has been about the two major football programs that were put on restrictive probation, Mary G. Montgomery and Pell City.

1067
01:03:59,520 --> 01:04:13,300
 Both coaches there suspended for a year from coaching in the AHSAA and a playoff ban currently for those two, and he was asked directly about, you know, could there be any relief of penalties for those two schools?

1068
01:04:13,300 --> 01:04:22,340
 And I believe both of them are supposed to go in front of the central board on July 29th, which is, I think, the next official meeting of the board.

1069
01:04:22,640 --> 01:04:25,500
 And so they will, I'm sure, talk about what they have.

1070
01:04:25,660 --> 01:04:37,840
 You know, I guess they could give some rebuttal points if they want to, but also I think talk about, you know, what maybe they put in place to not have the same things happen again that are alleged to happen this time.

1071
01:04:37,840 --> 01:04:43,680
 And I think at that point, I don't, I think the coaches will still be suspended.

1072
01:04:44,220 --> 01:04:46,740
 I think the question is, will they get the playoffs back?

1073
01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:54,260
 And I think there's probably a possibility that both of them may still be eligible for the playoffs, depending on what happens at that central board meeting.

1074
01:04:54,360 --> 01:04:57,060
 So that'll be something to watch a little over a month from now.

1075
01:04:57,260 --> 01:05:13,420
 And probably in both cases, they may still be debating, you know, what student athletes are affected by this, because they've come out and said in both cases that student athletes that were allegedly recruited or whatever will not be eligible at that school.

1076
01:05:13,420 --> 01:05:15,760
 So they would have to go back to their homeschool.

1077
01:05:16,440 --> 01:05:25,980
 So, I mean, I think that's a big, the Mary G. Montgomery coach, who's now the full-time coach, Alex Page, said back in May that that could be as many as 20 players at Mary G. Montgomery.

1078
01:05:26,220 --> 01:05:28,280
 So I think that's something to watch as well.

1079
01:05:28,380 --> 01:05:29,280
 So he talked about that.

1080
01:05:30,600 --> 01:05:35,220
 We also asked him about the expansion of the private school playoffs.

1081
01:05:35,560 --> 01:05:37,400
 I've written a little bit about that.

1082
01:05:37,820 --> 01:05:40,220
 Private schools want more teams in the playoffs.

1083
01:05:40,220 --> 01:05:51,420
 Really, what they want is more rounds of the playoffs, because just, for instance, in that larger AA private school classification in football, there's only 16 teams.

1084
01:05:51,880 --> 01:05:57,080
 And the model of the HSAA release was that only eight of them will be in the playoffs.

1085
01:05:57,620 --> 01:05:59,720
 Well, that means that there's only three rounds of playoffs.

1086
01:05:59,960 --> 01:06:02,960
 They would play week two and week three and then the championship.

1087
01:06:03,560 --> 01:06:11,260
 So if they go at least to 12, they'd have some bias, but they'd be able to play week one, two, and three and then have a bye week before the championship.

1088
01:06:11,600 --> 01:06:14,680
 I still think that's going to happen, and it's going to affect multiple sports.

1089
01:06:15,520 --> 01:06:20,540
 And we'll see when that, it's got to be, if it does, and it starts this fall, it's got to be announced soon.

1090
01:06:20,660 --> 01:06:25,560
 I mean, we're, what, really two weeks, two months away from the start of football season right now.

1091
01:06:25,560 --> 01:06:26,660
 Yeah, absolutely.

1092
01:06:26,940 --> 01:06:31,980
 He also mentioned that he was going to create a private school advisory committee.

1093
01:06:32,220 --> 01:06:33,060
 He's done that.

1094
01:06:33,640 --> 01:06:45,860
 And hire an assistant director primarily for the private schools, and I believe he hired Buster Daniel B.T. with the former Lee Scott coach.

1095
01:06:46,300 --> 01:06:47,880
 Listen, you teased us with it.

1096
01:06:47,980 --> 01:06:50,000
 What was the announcement this morning?

1097
01:06:51,000 --> 01:06:52,520
 Yeah, so, well, you're right.

1098
01:06:52,620 --> 01:06:56,440
 They said they've made two major hires over the last couple of days.

1099
01:06:57,020 --> 01:07:00,980
 You nailed it with Buster Daniel, pretty well-respected coach.

1100
01:07:01,260 --> 01:07:01,460
 Yep.

1101
01:07:01,500 --> 01:07:02,120
 State one night.

1102
01:07:02,180 --> 01:07:05,340
 He's been at Lee Scott, but he also has some public school experience.

1103
01:07:06,020 --> 01:07:14,720
 So, yeah, that fulfills what Heath Harmon promised to do when he announced the separation, or as he calls it, the restructuring of championship pathways,

1104
01:07:15,000 --> 01:07:17,560
 which is to start this private school committee.

1105
01:07:17,660 --> 01:07:18,380
 He's done that.

1106
01:07:18,460 --> 01:07:19,200
 There's eight of them.

1107
01:07:19,200 --> 01:07:21,580
 There's a representative from either of the eight districts.

1108
01:07:22,140 --> 01:07:30,460
 They've already met twice, and now he also promised to hire somebody or appoint somebody, an assistant director, to kind of be in charge of that.

1109
01:07:30,620 --> 01:07:32,980
 And so now they've hired Buster to do that.

1110
01:07:33,080 --> 01:07:33,960
 I think that's a good hire.

1111
01:07:34,040 --> 01:07:44,140
 And just today, I mean, we've been talking since really December, really before that, who's going to replace Ron Ingram, the Hall of Fame school writer that was director of communications for 15 years.

1112
01:07:44,140 --> 01:07:48,860
 Of course, he's technically retired in December, but basically he's not retired.

1113
01:07:48,960 --> 01:07:51,540
 He's still been helping him out a lot since then.

1114
01:07:51,620 --> 01:07:58,660
 Well, just today, in fact, a little while ago, they announced that it was going to be Birmingham TV personality Scott Griffin.

1115
01:07:59,700 --> 01:08:00,440
 How about that?

1116
01:08:00,440 --> 01:08:01,940
 Pretty well-known guy.

1117
01:08:02,120 --> 01:08:03,620
 Harold, I know him, Scott.

1118
01:08:03,720 --> 01:08:04,720
 I don't know him real well.

1119
01:08:04,780 --> 01:08:06,140
 I bet you know him better than I do.

1120
01:08:06,560 --> 01:08:09,500
 Yeah, we were cellmates down at Riker Island together.

1121
01:08:11,440 --> 01:08:12,700
 That was years ago.

1122
01:08:12,880 --> 01:08:15,980
 And, you know, of course, we signed a pledge that we wouldn't talk.

1123
01:08:16,200 --> 01:08:19,440
 So now this guy, he's been there and done that.

1124
01:08:19,560 --> 01:08:20,520
 He's done everything.

1125
01:08:20,700 --> 01:08:21,420
 He's done radio.

1126
01:08:21,540 --> 01:08:22,380
 He's done TV.

1127
01:08:23,100 --> 01:08:26,100
 So the bottom line is he's got a well-rounded background.

1128
01:08:26,100 --> 01:08:29,140
 So no matter what they throw at him, he ought to be able to handle it.

1129
01:08:29,260 --> 01:08:31,220
 And not only that, he's from here.

1130
01:08:31,280 --> 01:08:32,320
 His heart's in Alabama.

1131
01:08:32,320 --> 01:08:36,720
 So I think, at least on the surface, you know, I think it's a good hire.

1132
01:08:37,240 --> 01:08:41,240
 Yeah, he went to Inslee and I think the University of Alabama.

1133
01:08:41,240 --> 01:08:46,360
 And I think he's been at about every major sports station, TV station in the first-game area.

1134
01:08:46,380 --> 01:08:49,080
 And some of us are named in this show.

1135
01:08:50,300 --> 01:08:54,640
 You know, I'm sure Scott and I have met in passing.

1136
01:08:54,880 --> 01:09:00,980
 I mean, we've both been in, you know, I just had my 40th high school anniversary this weekend.

1137
01:09:01,220 --> 01:09:02,600
 I didn't, our reunion, I didn't know.

1138
01:09:02,860 --> 01:09:05,880
 But so he and I have both been in the state for a long time.

1139
01:09:05,940 --> 01:09:07,200
 I'm sure we've come across each other.

1140
01:09:07,280 --> 01:09:10,720
 It's surprising, really, that I don't know him any better than I do.

1141
01:09:10,720 --> 01:09:15,520
 But certainly in this position, I hope to get to know him very well.

1142
01:09:15,800 --> 01:09:16,820
 Wait, here's the bottom line.

1143
01:09:16,880 --> 01:09:19,200
 Don't go to any high school reunions at a certain point.

1144
01:09:19,280 --> 01:09:21,020
 Because, look, you don't recognize anybody.

1145
01:09:21,100 --> 01:09:23,820
 Nobody recognizes you unless you've got a nameplate on site.

1146
01:09:24,560 --> 01:09:24,720
 Yeah.

1147
01:09:24,940 --> 01:09:26,760
 It's just bad to stay away.

1148
01:09:27,380 --> 01:09:29,000
 I didn't regret it at all, Harold.

1149
01:09:29,060 --> 01:09:32,180
 In fact, I was looking at pictures on Facebook, and you're exactly right.

1150
01:09:32,300 --> 01:09:34,720
 I had to kind of zoom in on the name tags.

1151
01:09:35,160 --> 01:09:35,860
 Yeah, man.

1152
01:09:35,940 --> 01:09:36,340
 Absolutely.

1153
01:09:38,460 --> 01:09:40,620
 But they had a good time, and I'm glad for them.

1154
01:09:40,660 --> 01:09:42,380
 But I didn't miss particularly.

1155
01:09:42,460 --> 01:09:43,160
 Amen, brother.

1156
01:09:43,300 --> 01:09:44,520
 Listen, you got your poll out.

1157
01:09:44,520 --> 01:09:51,360
 Do you think significant progress is being made to curb recruiting of high school athletes in the state?

1158
01:09:51,440 --> 01:09:53,020
 What does your poll say on that, Ben?

1159
01:09:54,220 --> 01:09:55,420
 Well, it's pretty mixed.

1160
01:09:56,180 --> 01:09:56,340
 Yeah.

1161
01:09:56,420 --> 01:10:00,240
 I mean, I think it – I think – let me call it the results here.

1162
01:10:00,320 --> 01:10:01,580
 I just was looking at them earlier.

1163
01:10:02,220 --> 01:10:03,680
 Yeah, this was in our newsletter.

1164
01:10:03,860 --> 01:10:05,300
 Again, I appreciate you guys bringing that.

1165
01:10:05,800 --> 01:10:09,600
 Y'all always are good about bringing up something in our little newsletter, and I appreciate that.

1166
01:10:09,600 --> 01:10:15,620
 But – so it's – you know, so – well, we haven't got the – we haven't got the results on that.

1167
01:10:15,720 --> 01:10:17,400
 I mean, we'll get the results on that Thursday.

1168
01:10:17,820 --> 01:10:19,720
 It was – that was this week's question.

1169
01:10:19,800 --> 01:10:22,780
 Do you think significant progress is being made to curb recruiting?

1170
01:10:23,180 --> 01:10:23,320
 Yeah.

1171
01:10:23,400 --> 01:10:27,240
 The answers were yes, no, or time will tell.

1172
01:10:27,680 --> 01:10:28,320
 We'll see.

1173
01:10:28,400 --> 01:10:29,460
 We'll see what the answers are.

1174
01:10:29,540 --> 01:10:31,360
 I would guess most of them are no.

1175
01:10:31,480 --> 01:10:32,980
 There's still much more to be done.

1176
01:10:33,060 --> 01:10:34,560
 But I think we have made progress.

1177
01:10:34,780 --> 01:10:41,740
 I mean, I think any time you sanction – you know, put somebody on restrictive probation like they've done for Pell City and Mary G. Montgomery,

1178
01:10:41,960 --> 01:10:43,980
 that at least has to open some eyes.

1179
01:10:44,800 --> 01:10:45,540
 And we'll see.

1180
01:10:45,640 --> 01:10:52,360
 I mean, you still – every coach I talk to almost talks about some other school that's recruiting, you know.

1181
01:10:52,640 --> 01:10:53,260
 Oh, yeah.

1182
01:10:53,260 --> 01:10:57,360
 So you kind of got to read between the lines on that and what may be going on.

1183
01:10:57,780 --> 01:11:03,220
 Our poll from last week was about the expansion of the private school playoff, particularly in AA.

1184
01:11:03,900 --> 01:11:09,220
 And 37% of the people said, no, they didn't need to – they didn't need another round of playoff.

1185
01:11:09,360 --> 01:11:10,280
 So we'll see.

1186
01:11:10,720 --> 01:11:16,860
 Yeah, 32% said yes and 29% said not sure.

1187
01:11:17,700 --> 01:11:19,680
 Big day in recruiting this week.

1188
01:11:19,760 --> 01:11:22,280
 Alabama may pick up four or five.

1189
01:11:22,400 --> 01:11:24,260
 Auburn's been on a roll.

1190
01:11:25,800 --> 01:11:29,260
 But Randy Kennedy had a storm last week, and we couldn't get him on.

1191
01:11:29,260 --> 01:11:40,940
 But one of the things that I did notice was four of the top five senior prospects in the state are committed to other colleges.

1192
01:11:42,220 --> 01:11:45,560
 King Hall is going to Miami.

1193
01:11:46,260 --> 01:11:49,240
 Isaac McNeil is going – well, he's going to Auburn.

1194
01:11:49,240 --> 01:11:54,880
 To Torrey Williams to Miami, Carlos May has made up his decision.

1195
01:11:55,560 --> 01:12:03,500
 I'll tell you one thing, BT, Oregon and a lot of other schools nationally have figured out there's a lot of good talent in the state of Alabama.

1196
01:12:04,640 --> 01:12:06,760
 Yeah, I think they figured that out a while ago.

1197
01:12:08,160 --> 01:12:09,640
 They've been rating us pretty good.

1198
01:12:09,700 --> 01:12:22,160
 If you look at – it depends on what polls you look at or whatever, but if you look at the 247 composite, which is, in general, what I look at, you've got, as you mentioned, two of the top three going to Miami.

1199
01:12:22,620 --> 01:12:26,820
 Then you've got Vigert at Auburn, and then we've had a lot of kids go to Texas.

1200
01:12:27,380 --> 01:12:34,680
 Jabari's Garrar, who used to be the Alabama commit, was a long-time Alabama commit, just announced last week he was going to Texas.

1201
01:12:35,640 --> 01:12:39,280
 Obviously, you've got an outlier there, Gunnar Rivers, but we know about that.

1202
01:12:39,380 --> 01:12:40,520
 I mean, he's going to NC State.

1203
01:12:40,640 --> 01:12:42,260
 We know why he's going to NC State.

1204
01:12:43,320 --> 01:12:45,760
 So, it's a good class.

1205
01:12:46,040 --> 01:12:58,200
 Randy, I think he's got one watch list left for his watch list, and then, I believe starting July 9th, we will start revealing the top 50, our best in Bama recruits, which we do.

1206
01:12:58,740 --> 01:13:02,000
 You know, it's just recruits overall, not just seniors.

1207
01:13:02,200 --> 01:13:04,180
 This is the best high school recruits in Alabama.

1208
01:13:04,180 --> 01:13:08,620
 We rank them, and then we update it every week of the football season.

1209
01:13:08,740 --> 01:13:12,960
 So, that will be starting in early, mid to mid-July.

1210
01:13:13,680 --> 01:13:14,160
 Absolutely.

1211
01:13:14,660 --> 01:13:27,820
 And before we let you go, the People's Choice Awards for the Alabama Baseball Player of the Year, I think it's down to St. Paul's slugger, John Stowers, and Hartzell star, Asher Doppel.

1212
01:13:28,160 --> 01:13:33,000
 Doppel, I believe, is, Lord have mercy, what a career he's had at Hartzell.

1213
01:13:33,000 --> 01:13:37,400
 But, tell us about that and any other things you've got going on this week.

1214
01:13:38,240 --> 01:13:43,080
 Yeah, so, Stowers is the Auburn signee, one of the top prospects, catcher.

1215
01:13:43,340 --> 01:13:48,020
 And then, Doppel, like you said, I think he's been MVP of the last two Class 6A title series.

1216
01:13:48,280 --> 01:13:54,020
 So, you can vote on that now through Thursday, I think, or maybe through Wednesday, and then we'll announce the winner.

1217
01:13:54,880 --> 01:13:57,500
 And then, softball, I think the finals will start tomorrow.

1218
01:13:57,620 --> 01:14:00,860
 We're still trying to figure out who made it out of the semifinals.

1219
01:14:01,520 --> 01:14:07,080
 And also, this week, we were doing our, we kind of started our all-region teams in Mobile, Birmingham, and Huntsville.

1220
01:14:07,080 --> 01:14:08,620
 We call them the Terrific 22.

1221
01:14:09,660 --> 01:14:12,040
 So, today, we had the Mobile baseball team.

1222
01:14:12,140 --> 01:14:17,200
 I think tomorrow may be Huntsville baseball, and then, you know, softball after that.

1223
01:14:17,280 --> 01:14:22,200
 So, we'll have that all week, and we'll see what happens with the HSAA the rest of the week.

1224
01:14:22,440 --> 01:14:23,200
 Stay tuned to that.

1225
01:14:23,260 --> 01:14:24,280
 But, boy, jump off, Ben.

1226
01:14:24,340 --> 01:14:27,240
 Obviously, a lot of folks want to find out about Cedric Simmons, your take.

1227
01:14:27,340 --> 01:14:30,660
 Supposedly going to be making his announcement tomorrow between Alabama and Auburn.

1228
01:14:30,900 --> 01:14:38,760
 Your thoughts on that, and whoever gets him, he's out of Selma, south side there, and Selma, how, what's your rating, and your thoughts on Cedric Simmons?

1229
01:14:39,980 --> 01:14:41,020
 Well, he's a good player.

1230
01:14:41,220 --> 01:14:43,880
 I mean, big, tall, wide receiver, had a lot of yardage.

1231
01:14:43,940 --> 01:14:50,500
 I think he's at, did he, I don't know if he transferred over to Selma or not when the coach and quarterback left.

1232
01:14:50,500 --> 01:14:53,760
 But, it does seem to be an Auburn or Alabama battle.

1233
01:14:54,880 --> 01:14:58,520
 You know, I think maybe Alabama might have the edge there, but we'll see.

1234
01:14:58,620 --> 01:15:03,180
 I think also the Thompson DB, Junior Tuapu, Junior James Tuapu.

1235
01:15:03,280 --> 01:15:03,380
 Right.

1236
01:15:03,900 --> 01:15:05,420
 He was Junior James.

1237
01:15:05,520 --> 01:15:06,920
 Now he's Junior James Tuapu.

1238
01:15:07,260 --> 01:15:07,680
 There you go.

1239
01:15:07,840 --> 01:15:10,320
 I think he's going to, I think his commitment's upcoming.

1240
01:15:10,580 --> 01:15:13,120
 So, it is, June has kind of become a commitment month.

1241
01:15:13,160 --> 01:15:13,420
 Yeah.

1242
01:15:14,280 --> 01:15:15,220
 Over the years.

1243
01:15:16,280 --> 01:15:18,020
 It's just amazing how they changed their names.

1244
01:15:18,020 --> 01:15:21,040
 Next week, will it be Thomas Ben, or will you stay with Ben Thomas, Ben?

1245
01:15:21,900 --> 01:15:28,560
 I'll just stay with Ben Thomas and go, and I attended Auburn University, not the University,

1246
01:15:28,560 --> 01:15:29,160
 of Auburn.

1247
01:15:31,360 --> 01:15:32,680
 Breaking news as it comes.

1248
01:15:32,680 --> 01:15:33,240
 Oh, man.

1249
01:15:33,940 --> 01:15:35,240
 Thanks so much for your time, Dan.

1250
01:15:35,260 --> 01:15:35,980
 Let's do it again soon.

1251
01:15:36,020 --> 01:15:37,520
 And good luck with Mom over there in Georgia.

1252
01:15:38,000 --> 01:15:39,240
 I'd love to hear those stories.

1253
01:15:39,360 --> 01:15:40,480
 Have a good time over there, okay?

1254
01:15:40,560 --> 01:15:40,900
 All right.

1255
01:15:40,960 --> 01:15:41,500
 Thank you, guys.

1256
01:15:41,520 --> 01:15:42,040
 Thank you, buddy.

1257
01:15:42,600 --> 01:15:47,280
 The BT Express, Ben Thomas, not Thomas Ben with AL.com.

1258
01:15:47,280 --> 01:15:50,760
 Coming up, time to go to the V-Man and top Big Orange, Vince Ferraro and Dex.

1259
01:15:50,820 --> 01:15:51,260
 Stay with us.

1260
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 Attention, golfers.

1261
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 Mark your calendars for the YMCA Benefit Golf Tournament on Thursday, August 27th at the

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 And new for 2026, the Banker's Trophy, awarded to the top finishing financial institution team.

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 Register today at ymcasholes.org and tee it up for a great call.

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 You've probably heard all those ads for life insurance.

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1289
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1290
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1291
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1298
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1300
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 So, yeah, you need life insurance.

1301
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 Rich Eisen here with some advice.

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1344
01:21:06,640 --> 01:21:08,280
 I just sold a pair like that on eBay.

1345
01:21:08,720 --> 01:21:09,260
 Oh, really?

1346
01:21:09,560 --> 01:21:13,360
 Yeah, it took like two seconds to list, and they sold almost immediately.

1347
01:21:13,680 --> 01:21:15,000
 I've been selling everything lately.

1348
01:21:15,220 --> 01:21:21,000
 Some chunky boots, a faux fur coat I never wore, and a vintage chair that was more of an expensive clothing rack.

1349
01:21:21,500 --> 01:21:23,360
 You know, I actually bought these on eBay.

1350
01:21:23,820 --> 01:21:25,960
 Wait, are you, Kitty, sell stuff from Brooklyn?

1351
01:21:26,040 --> 01:21:27,420
 Okay, quiet, please.

1352
01:21:27,640 --> 01:21:28,480
 Find what you love.

1353
01:21:28,760 --> 01:21:29,500
 Sell what you don't.

1354
01:21:29,700 --> 01:21:29,960
 eBay.

1355
01:21:30,280 --> 01:21:31,540
 Things people love.

1356
01:21:32,380 --> 01:21:33,380
 The Score.

1357
01:21:33,920 --> 01:21:38,720
 Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.

1358
01:21:39,120 --> 01:21:39,780
 Welcome back in.

1359
01:21:39,860 --> 01:21:42,500
 Really appreciate free ride around the Tennessee Valley.

1360
01:21:43,620 --> 01:21:48,300
 And speaking of Tennessee, why don't you say we go there right now and speak with the V-Man, Vince Ferrara.

1361
01:21:48,420 --> 01:21:53,320
 He's got the big orange cover there at 99.1 The Sports Animal in K-Town.

1362
01:21:53,420 --> 01:21:54,520
 V-Man, welcome in.

1363
01:21:54,580 --> 01:21:55,300
 How are you?

1364
01:21:56,100 --> 01:21:57,300
 I'm good, H-Man.

1365
01:21:57,360 --> 01:21:58,060
 Hope you're doing well.

1366
01:21:58,740 --> 01:22:01,220
 Does it ever have an off-season for Vince Ferrara?

1367
01:22:01,220 --> 01:22:05,920
 I mean, is it always September in your backyard, V-Man?

1368
01:22:07,060 --> 01:22:14,120
 Yeah, I mean, you know, this alleged off-season, you know, recruiting, the June is arguably the biggest month in recruiting.

1369
01:22:14,800 --> 01:22:16,580
 So, you're tracking that.

1370
01:22:16,880 --> 01:22:25,420
 And then, you know, there's NFL minicamps going on, and there's 39 former Tennessee players in those expanded rosters.

1371
01:22:25,420 --> 01:22:31,480
 So, I've been doing a bunch of interviews with former Tennessee players that are on NFL rosters.

1372
01:22:31,860 --> 01:22:35,480
 And so, that's work to get it done, first of all.

1373
01:22:35,640 --> 01:22:37,880
 And then, you know, follow up and everything.

1374
01:22:38,120 --> 01:22:42,040
 But then, you know, talking to them and everything, doing the research for it.

1375
01:22:42,420 --> 01:22:46,060
 You know, it's been fun, but it does eat up some time.

1376
01:22:46,180 --> 01:22:53,080
 And next thing you know, you know, a couple weeks headed to Tampa for family and then SEC football media day.

1377
01:22:53,080 --> 01:22:54,940
 So, no, it does not stop it.

1378
01:22:55,240 --> 01:22:56,880
 All of it is kind of bridged together.

1379
01:22:57,380 --> 01:22:58,740
 Do you ever sleep, V-Man?

1380
01:22:58,920 --> 01:23:00,300
 Do you ever sleep?

1381
01:23:00,320 --> 01:23:00,600
 Not enough.

1382
01:23:00,780 --> 01:23:04,500
 I mean, you mentioned Tampa.

1383
01:23:04,620 --> 01:23:12,680
 Well, just before we get into some of the meat of the matter here, Brett and I are trying to find a nice, convenient, clean place to stay at the right rate.

1384
01:23:12,760 --> 01:23:15,540
 Do you know anybody in Tampa, V-Man?

1385
01:23:16,600 --> 01:23:19,500
 Well, you know, my mom's house, Mama for our house.

1386
01:23:19,500 --> 01:23:20,560
 What a coincidence!

1387
01:23:22,920 --> 01:23:24,300
 It's not a big house.

1388
01:23:24,420 --> 01:23:27,700
 If you can find a place to stay, we can have you guys over for dinner.

1389
01:23:28,160 --> 01:23:28,940
 So, how's that?

1390
01:23:29,960 --> 01:23:30,960
 That's fair enough.

1391
01:23:31,320 --> 01:23:32,320
 By the way, we're joking.

1392
01:23:32,460 --> 01:23:34,880
 So, you can tell mom, she can breathe a sigh of relief.

1393
01:23:35,460 --> 01:23:36,200
 But let's talk a little bit.

1394
01:23:36,240 --> 01:23:37,240
 We want to get to that in a second.

1395
01:23:37,320 --> 01:23:42,660
 But let's talk about Tennessee and the strategy of putting together a class in 2026.

1396
01:23:43,340 --> 01:23:46,360
 Back in the day, it was automatic what Nick Saban was going to do.

1397
01:23:46,540 --> 01:23:48,360
 And you know how this game is played.

1398
01:23:48,620 --> 01:23:52,320
 Fanatics would say, Nick, why are you taking that four-star?

1399
01:23:52,720 --> 01:23:54,880
 And that just takes up a spot for the five-star.

1400
01:23:54,980 --> 01:23:57,060
 And nowadays, you look and there's three-star.

1401
01:23:57,620 --> 01:23:59,940
 And then you go back, there's another three-star.

1402
01:24:00,120 --> 01:24:01,420
 And then you get another three-star.

1403
01:24:01,560 --> 01:24:03,100
 And, of course, you ask why.

1404
01:24:03,200 --> 01:24:05,940
 Well, it's because we've got an expanded roster.

1405
01:24:06,420 --> 01:24:07,820
 We don't want to spend a lot of money.

1406
01:24:08,100 --> 01:24:09,360
 We're trying to squeeze it.

1407
01:24:09,420 --> 01:24:10,500
 We're going to have a small class.

1408
01:24:10,920 --> 01:24:13,260
 That seems to be the strategy at Tuscaloosa.

1409
01:24:13,600 --> 01:24:16,200
 Auburn has now got 22 in the house.

1410
01:24:16,740 --> 01:24:19,500
 What is the strategy in Knoxville for this class?

1411
01:24:20,780 --> 01:24:23,040
 Well, it's interesting you brought it up, H-Man.

1412
01:24:24,040 --> 01:24:27,660
 John Wilkerson and I were talking about it this morning on Sports Talk

1413
01:24:27,660 --> 01:24:32,560
 and how people are wondering, all right, how many are you going to take?

1414
01:24:32,940 --> 01:24:35,080
 You can save some from the portal.

1415
01:24:35,880 --> 01:24:38,120
 Well, do you really have to save some from the portal?

1416
01:24:38,600 --> 01:24:41,600
 What if you lose a whole bunch in the portal?

1417
01:24:42,480 --> 01:24:49,340
 And then if, for some reason, you need to recoup in the portal and upgrade,

1418
01:24:49,820 --> 01:24:57,360
 that's a part of college football today where guys can be told, hey, we love you,

1419
01:24:57,540 --> 01:25:01,980
 but you may need to find another place to play in order to get playing time.

1420
01:25:02,160 --> 01:25:07,980
 Or here's where you fall in the grand scheme of things.

1421
01:25:07,980 --> 01:25:11,340
 Not putting the kid down and say, hey, here's the reality of it.

1422
01:25:11,380 --> 01:25:15,960
 You're probably fourth in our position on our projected depth chart, things like that.

1423
01:25:16,240 --> 01:25:17,600
 And then here's another equation.

1424
01:25:17,980 --> 01:25:28,440
 Sometimes you end up losing players that you like and they like you, but their representation wants a certain dollar figure that you don't.

1425
01:25:28,440 --> 01:25:29,340
 You mentioned budget.

1426
01:25:29,580 --> 01:25:31,060
 You don't budget for them.

1427
01:25:31,160 --> 01:25:37,980
 So if they're crazy out of whack, you may like a player, maybe someone that you feel can be a diamond in the rough.

1428
01:25:37,980 --> 01:25:48,020
 But when they come back after a year and they're asking for a whole lot more money than what you're willing to budget for them with everything else you got to take care of,

1429
01:25:48,260 --> 01:25:49,200
 you may end up losing them.

1430
01:25:49,540 --> 01:25:59,120
 So you have to over-recruit in bringing in numbers in high school and the portal, and then you have to let it kind of sift out.

1431
01:25:59,360 --> 01:26:02,580
 And then, you know, those on the lower levels will get something.

1432
01:26:03,040 --> 01:26:05,860
 We'll kind of get those that drop down to them.

1433
01:26:05,920 --> 01:26:08,880
 It's unfortunate, but it's kind of a game.

1434
01:26:08,980 --> 01:26:12,320
 I think the big boys are playing, even though that's not openly discussed.

1435
01:26:12,800 --> 01:26:17,180
 Well, and these guys are making a lot of money, so it's on them to make the right call.

1436
01:26:17,240 --> 01:26:18,120
 That's kind of their job.

1437
01:26:18,200 --> 01:26:19,460
 It's called player evaluation.

1438
01:26:20,460 --> 01:26:24,660
 To me, you look at it, V-Man, and he just seems to be part of the chess game right here.

1439
01:26:25,140 --> 01:26:30,660
 If I see a hotshot kid and he's heavily represented, and if he's a five-star, you know he's got reps,

1440
01:26:30,660 --> 01:26:33,540
 and they're just sitting there waiting for that money grab behind the curtain.

1441
01:26:34,540 --> 01:26:39,460
 I'm going to let you, Vince Ferraro, recruiting him at a high school, putting him on the bench,

1442
01:26:39,580 --> 01:26:45,780
 paying him his million, $2 million a year, and then if it doesn't work out, then I'm coming in,

1443
01:26:45,820 --> 01:26:47,640
 and I can get him for basically half that price.

1444
01:26:47,800 --> 01:26:53,680
 How much of that is going on in college football outside of maybe some teams like Texas and others?

1445
01:26:54,280 --> 01:26:55,880
 And here's where I see it now, V-Man.

1446
01:26:56,060 --> 01:26:59,080
 The teams that have deep pockets, they're recruiting depth.

1447
01:26:59,540 --> 01:27:03,480
 A lot of these schools are sitting here and writing big checks for the front 11,

1448
01:27:03,940 --> 01:27:08,160
 but Texas now, it looks like Texas like that, Ohio State, some of these other schools,

1449
01:27:08,780 --> 01:27:11,960
 they're able to go out and recruit the front 11 and some depth.

1450
01:27:12,060 --> 01:27:12,820
 Look at Arch Manning.

1451
01:27:12,920 --> 01:27:15,500
 How much money did he make sitting on the bench for two years?

1452
01:27:17,080 --> 01:27:19,840
 Yeah, I think there's some exceptions to it, H-Man,

1453
01:27:19,840 --> 01:27:23,740
 but I think part of what's brought more teams closer together

1454
01:27:23,740 --> 01:27:28,180
 and brought the SEC back to the pack, including the Big Ten,

1455
01:27:28,600 --> 01:27:33,840
 is the fact that the SEC, the big boys, the Alabamas, the Georgias,

1456
01:27:34,340 --> 01:27:39,240
 they don't have the ability to retain their depth like they used to.

1457
01:27:39,380 --> 01:27:45,160
 Georgia used to be able to stockpile five stars behind five stars.

1458
01:27:46,820 --> 01:27:52,060
 Now those players want a lot of money because they were five stars

1459
01:27:52,060 --> 01:27:56,960
 and they know that they can still demand it in the portal.

1460
01:27:57,160 --> 01:27:58,460
 I don't think you get a discount.

1461
01:27:59,200 --> 01:28:01,720
 I think those guys, knowing what they're recruited,

1462
01:28:01,900 --> 01:28:03,300
 knowing what their potential is,

1463
01:28:03,720 --> 01:28:07,960
 especially if that position is short on the market,

1464
01:28:08,440 --> 01:28:10,180
 they can still get plenty of money.

1465
01:28:10,600 --> 01:28:15,900
 So the portal always, to me, will draw players more money

1466
01:28:15,900 --> 01:28:18,880
 than what they could get staying at their own school.

1467
01:28:19,100 --> 01:28:20,340
 That's part of the problem,

1468
01:28:20,880 --> 01:28:24,480
 is that everyone will leave their good situation to develop,

1469
01:28:25,100 --> 01:28:26,500
 that they could develop,

1470
01:28:26,900 --> 01:28:29,520
 because they know they can get more money

1471
01:28:29,520 --> 01:28:31,420
 being on the open market in the portal.

1472
01:28:31,420 --> 01:28:33,280
 You know it's going to happen,

1473
01:28:33,440 --> 01:28:39,420
 but I do think that it has hurt the depth of the big SEC programs.

1474
01:28:40,120 --> 01:28:43,220
 Yes, there's a few exceptions, Ohio State, Georgia,

1475
01:28:43,600 --> 01:28:47,360
 that are still better equipped with depth than others,

1476
01:28:47,860 --> 01:28:50,600
 but I don't think it is what it used to be

1477
01:28:50,600 --> 01:28:54,360
 with four-star, five-star, all over the place.

1478
01:28:55,160 --> 01:28:59,820
 And the best programs that sustain winning

1479
01:28:59,820 --> 01:29:04,780
 are the ones that can find a way around being the biggest spenders.

1480
01:29:04,920 --> 01:29:07,340
 I don't think Georgia is the biggest spender.

1481
01:29:07,720 --> 01:29:09,640
 They have to be able to sell the NFL

1482
01:29:09,640 --> 01:29:13,200
 and development and wanting the right kind of kids.

1483
01:29:13,380 --> 01:29:14,920
 And if they get that,

1484
01:29:15,080 --> 01:29:17,840
 then yeah, they can have great players on their roster,

1485
01:29:17,840 --> 01:29:20,160
 but not always be the highest bidder.

1486
01:29:20,320 --> 01:29:22,980
 Like, everyone that just plays the highest bidder game,

1487
01:29:23,380 --> 01:29:25,640
 I think that's where you will run into problems.

1488
01:29:26,720 --> 01:29:27,860
 Especially down the road.

1489
01:29:28,000 --> 01:29:30,780
 You better get that money for that class down the road.

1490
01:29:30,880 --> 01:29:32,600
 That's when you start having to sit here and take the hit.

1491
01:29:33,200 --> 01:29:35,680
 V-Man hooking up with us, 99-1, the sports animal.

1492
01:29:36,020 --> 01:29:38,480
 V-Man, just to illustrate where we are in 2026,

1493
01:29:38,600 --> 01:29:41,440
 did you ever think under Nick Saban, Bama fans would get excited

1494
01:29:41,440 --> 01:29:43,660
 by getting a flip from Vanderbilt?

1495
01:29:44,300 --> 01:29:50,220
 Over the last few days, they got Braylon Gibbs, a four-star quarterback.

1496
01:29:50,960 --> 01:29:52,560
 Here's the reason I bring it up to you, V-Man.

1497
01:29:52,700 --> 01:29:53,400
 Correct me if I'm wrong.

1498
01:29:53,460 --> 01:29:56,960
 He's from Knoxville, which the automatic question is,

1499
01:29:57,040 --> 01:30:00,680
 if he's a four-star, why is Tennessee not on him heavily?

1500
01:30:01,080 --> 01:30:04,200
 Or is this one of those deals, the old proverbial comeback to that normally,

1501
01:30:04,300 --> 01:30:06,160
 is, well, the kid wants to go out of state somewhere?

1502
01:30:07,580 --> 01:30:10,100
 Well, no, I mean, because he committed to Vanderbilt initially.

1503
01:30:10,580 --> 01:30:14,020
 So I don't think that Tim's seeking there.

1504
01:30:14,460 --> 01:30:20,080
 You know, he liked Vanderbilt, had that commitment early on,

1505
01:30:20,100 --> 01:30:21,760
 a connection to that coaching staff.

1506
01:30:22,460 --> 01:30:25,040
 Tennessee has gotten a number of in-state players.

1507
01:30:25,140 --> 01:30:28,580
 Half of their 16 commits right now are in-state players,

1508
01:30:28,660 --> 01:30:32,040
 and a number of them local product, but not everybody.

1509
01:30:32,040 --> 01:30:38,420
 It's just a really deep year in the state of Tennessee and in East Tennessee.

1510
01:30:38,700 --> 01:30:40,140
 So you're not going to get everybody.

1511
01:30:41,640 --> 01:30:42,660
 I'll have to dig.

1512
01:30:42,740 --> 01:30:45,640
 I'm not sure exactly why he wasn't.

1513
01:30:46,020 --> 01:30:47,180
 Maybe he was just beat.

1514
01:30:47,260 --> 01:30:50,980
 Maybe Tennessee did want him, and they were just beaten out by Vanderbilt.

1515
01:30:51,100 --> 01:30:54,740
 Vanderbilt had a lot of momentum when he committed to them.

1516
01:30:54,940 --> 01:30:59,940
 So that may have just been a win for Vandy as opposed to Tennessee didn't want him.

1517
01:31:00,660 --> 01:31:04,420
 But, yeah, you know, I don't think it was in-state, out-of-state.

1518
01:31:04,640 --> 01:31:09,180
 I just think you saw an opportunity there at Alabama,

1519
01:31:09,520 --> 01:31:11,680
 and maybe they had a spot open up.

1520
01:31:11,760 --> 01:31:14,900
 You just never know how that works with Kenneth Simon Jr.

1521
01:31:15,280 --> 01:31:16,900
 flipping from Alabama to Tennessee.

1522
01:31:17,180 --> 01:31:19,380
 Maybe there was an opportunity there.

1523
01:31:20,140 --> 01:31:25,040
 Different position, I get it, but just maybe another spot and saw, hey,

1524
01:31:25,400 --> 01:31:26,800
 I want to be there.

1525
01:31:26,800 --> 01:31:29,440
 Let's go after it.

1526
01:31:30,220 --> 01:31:35,020
 What's going through the mind of Tony Vitello these days with the Giants?

1527
01:31:35,060 --> 01:31:37,360
 You think maybe he'd like to come back to Knoxville in some way,

1528
01:31:37,420 --> 01:31:40,320
 minus the prestige and paycheck he's probably given to the Giants.

1529
01:31:40,660 --> 01:31:43,340
 The reason I bring it up, did you see the latest episode?

1530
01:31:43,480 --> 01:31:47,260
 Earlier this season, he couldn't communicate with a bullpen who he wanted to come in

1531
01:31:47,260 --> 01:31:47,800
 and pitch.

1532
01:31:48,020 --> 01:31:51,700
 And over the weekend, he's sitting in a pinch runner for the Giants.

1533
01:31:52,260 --> 01:31:54,700
 And the guy on first base said, get away.

1534
01:31:54,760 --> 01:31:57,400
 When the kid came out of the dugout, he sent him back.

1535
01:31:57,480 --> 01:32:02,160
 I can't imagine back in the day of a player showing up a manager like that.

1536
01:32:02,420 --> 01:32:05,340
 It has been a long year for Tony Vitello, is it not?

1537
01:32:06,300 --> 01:32:08,860
 Well, yeah, the team wasn't very good.

1538
01:32:08,860 --> 01:32:12,100
 At max, there were going to be a 500 team at max.

1539
01:32:12,240 --> 01:32:14,860
 Their veterans have not played up to par.

1540
01:32:14,960 --> 01:32:17,740
 Some of them have started to turn around recently and get better.

1541
01:32:18,160 --> 01:32:20,560
 Yeah, they've had their issues, there's no doubt.

1542
01:32:20,840 --> 01:32:25,020
 By the way, Devers, I think, eventually had the guy that was at first that was being

1543
01:32:25,020 --> 01:32:25,720
 pinch run for.

1544
01:32:26,060 --> 01:32:29,420
 He came out of the game because they had already pinch run for him.

1545
01:32:29,560 --> 01:32:34,880
 He could say he didn't want to come out anyway.

1546
01:32:35,280 --> 01:32:37,480
 He's one that needs to move.

1547
01:32:37,740 --> 01:32:39,760
 But, no, he's not coming back to Tennessee.

1548
01:32:41,180 --> 01:32:44,880
 If it's one and done, which I would still be surprised.

1549
01:32:45,060 --> 01:32:45,460
 Arkansas.

1550
01:32:45,720 --> 01:32:48,360
 Then it would be for another college gig, I think.

1551
01:32:48,720 --> 01:32:53,060
 Yeah, I know Arkansas is lusting over him coming back over there and getting back to

1552
01:32:53,060 --> 01:32:53,740
 his roots there.

1553
01:32:54,220 --> 01:32:56,500
 B-Man, it's always good to hook up with you.

1554
01:32:56,500 --> 01:32:58,500
 Listen, man, thanks so much for your time today.

1555
01:32:58,560 --> 01:32:59,380
 Let's do it again soon.

1556
01:32:59,460 --> 01:33:01,120
 All right.

1557
01:33:01,180 --> 01:33:02,280
 Always look forward to it.

1558
01:33:02,300 --> 01:33:02,720
 Thanks, Sarah.

1559
01:33:03,260 --> 01:33:03,600
 All right.

1560
01:33:03,660 --> 01:33:08,460
 B-Man, Vince Roy, 99.1, the sports animal in Knoxville.

1561
01:33:08,560 --> 01:33:12,080
 Let's go to West Tennessee and speak with the man of steel, Jim Steele, on deck.

1562
01:33:12,160 --> 01:33:12,960
 Stay with us.

1563
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1575
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1580
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1581
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 Make the most of every lawn with Kubota commercial landscaping equipment.

1582
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1586
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1588
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1589
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1590
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1598
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1599
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1600
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1601
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1610
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1611
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 Sketchers elite athlete OG Ananobi has been making history on the basketball court.

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1624
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1625
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 Get your pair of arrow bursts for only $165 at a Sketchers store, Sketchers.com, or wherever high-performance running cheese are sold.

1626
01:36:50,400 --> 01:36:54,220
 Progressive presents the Sports Flash on 93-9, the score.

1627
01:36:54,720 --> 01:36:56,420
 Atlanta Braves lost at home yesterday.

1628
01:36:56,560 --> 01:36:58,480
 They fell to the Brewers 9-4.

1629
01:36:58,580 --> 01:36:59,980
 Bryce Elder took the loss.

1630
01:37:00,040 --> 01:37:01,800
 He drops to 5-5.

1631
01:37:01,920 --> 01:37:04,360
 The Braves are now 48-28.

1632
01:37:04,940 --> 01:37:07,800
 The Braves are back in action tonight in San Diego.

1633
01:37:07,920 --> 01:37:11,080
 As a take on the Padres, Grant Holmes will start for Atlanta.

1634
01:37:11,200 --> 01:37:14,400
 He is 4-3 on the season.

1635
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1636
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1640
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 Thanks to Doug and LeMu.

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1642
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1643
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1647
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1648
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1649
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1650
01:38:29,420 --> 01:38:36,960
 Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.

1651
01:38:37,460 --> 01:38:38,300
 Welcome back in.

1652
01:38:38,360 --> 01:38:39,480
 It is an absolute pleasure.

1653
01:38:40,360 --> 01:38:46,100
 If I say hello again to Jim Steele, he's a fine award-winning writer for the Richardson Media Group.

1654
01:38:46,220 --> 01:38:47,380
 Jim, long time.

1655
01:38:47,560 --> 01:38:48,140
 Welcome in.

1656
01:38:48,220 --> 01:38:48,740
 How are you?

1657
01:38:49,420 --> 01:38:50,840
 Well, I'm a lot better now.

1658
01:38:51,400 --> 01:38:55,960
 I've gotten both hips replaced, and I'm no longer walking around like Fred Sanford.

1659
01:38:57,540 --> 01:39:03,820
 So in NASCAR terms, you took a pit stop, got your tires changed, and you're ready for the race again, right?

1660
01:39:04,220 --> 01:39:04,700
 Oh, yeah.

1661
01:39:04,720 --> 01:39:05,840
 I got my tire changed.

1662
01:39:06,160 --> 01:39:08,580
 Yeah, spoilers adjusted to everything.

1663
01:39:08,820 --> 01:39:10,460
 So, yeah, I'm good to go.

1664
01:39:10,580 --> 01:39:11,600
 I'm very pleased.

1665
01:39:11,760 --> 01:39:14,300
 It's been a year, and I have had no difficulty with it.

1666
01:39:14,420 --> 01:39:19,060
 So folks out there with arthritis and having hip problems, go get your hips replaced.

1667
01:39:19,560 --> 01:39:21,320
 Even if you don't need it, I recommend it.

1668
01:39:21,740 --> 01:39:22,220
 There you go.

1669
01:39:22,360 --> 01:39:26,080
 And when you get your oil changed, that's when you're really going to get back on track there, Jim.

1670
01:39:26,380 --> 01:39:28,420
 So I'm good luck with that.

1671
01:39:28,620 --> 01:39:31,360
 You are, like a lot of us, a baseball fan.

1672
01:39:32,180 --> 01:39:32,360
 Right.

1673
01:39:32,540 --> 01:39:33,200
 No secret.

1674
01:39:33,320 --> 01:39:35,900
 You love your Cincinnati Reds, and here we go again.

1675
01:39:36,080 --> 01:39:41,080
 Before we get into that, Jim, let's talk a little bit about baseball as a whole, if you will.

1676
01:39:41,200 --> 01:39:47,980
 I mean, this guy named Manfred Jr., the commish, Braves fans know what he did a few years ago because of politics,

1677
01:39:47,980 --> 01:39:49,940
 took the All-Star game, moved it to Denver.

1678
01:39:50,400 --> 01:39:52,380
 They threw him a fish down the road.

1679
01:39:52,540 --> 01:39:53,560
 Now he's coming back.

1680
01:39:53,620 --> 01:39:57,100
 He's making political statements with these kids, basically saying,

1681
01:39:57,180 --> 01:39:59,900
 you've got to go to court to fight my policies on certain things.

1682
01:40:00,260 --> 01:40:06,280
 And now, basically, trying to take away kids coming out of high school and going directly to the majors.

1683
01:40:06,380 --> 01:40:09,960
 And one of the reasons we bring that up, it's no secret what they're trying to do.

1684
01:40:10,020 --> 01:40:13,480
 They won't put that expense on colleges to see who's good and who's not.

1685
01:40:13,580 --> 01:40:14,600
 Then they'll come into the mix.

1686
01:40:14,600 --> 01:40:18,440
 But you're a Reds fan, and one of our best folks in this neck of the woods

1687
01:40:18,440 --> 01:40:21,360
 is a former Cincinnati Reds pitcher by the name of David Weathers.

1688
01:40:22,080 --> 01:40:24,800
 David's son, Ryan, now pitches for the Yankees.

1689
01:40:24,880 --> 01:40:31,680
 He came out of Monte Loretto, Tennessee in high school and basically signed a contract that could set him up for life.

1690
01:40:32,260 --> 01:40:35,100
 If Manfred has his way, that would go bye-bye.

1691
01:40:35,440 --> 01:40:40,140
 Your thoughts about the politics and the policies of this crazy man, Manfred?

1692
01:40:41,220 --> 01:40:45,900
 I've talked to a lot of guys that are currently in Major League Baseball in some capacity or another,

1693
01:40:46,700 --> 01:40:49,960
 and I think the consensus is that Rob Manfred is an idiot.

1694
01:40:51,680 --> 01:41:01,160
 Some of the policies, for example, they're going to try to put in the balls and strikes.

1695
01:41:01,380 --> 01:41:06,440
 They do that in the minor leagues where it's a machine that does it and not the umpire.

1696
01:41:07,240 --> 01:41:11,780
 And they say the appeals, that works pretty well.

1697
01:41:12,300 --> 01:41:16,780
 But generally speaking, everybody says that's going to be a disaster in Major League.

1698
01:41:18,060 --> 01:41:20,120
 So I just, I don't know.

1699
01:41:20,280 --> 01:41:26,420
 But yeah, I mean, all the stuff that he's doing, it makes me wonder what's going on.

1700
01:41:26,500 --> 01:41:27,500
 I don't understand why.

1701
01:41:27,840 --> 01:41:33,180
 I mean, if a player doesn't want to celebrate a lifestyle, nobody's celebrating my lifestyle.

1702
01:41:33,660 --> 01:41:39,600
 So, you know, why is it that they got to, they're mandated to celebrate others?

1703
01:41:40,140 --> 01:41:42,560
 So that's my question about that.

1704
01:41:42,660 --> 01:41:45,600
 But that's neither here nor there, I guess.

1705
01:41:45,720 --> 01:41:47,300
 Rob Manfred's going to do what he does.

1706
01:41:47,960 --> 01:41:53,880
 And I really and truly, I almost want Bud Selig back.

1707
01:41:55,080 --> 01:41:56,400
 That's how bad it is, right?

1708
01:41:57,000 --> 01:41:57,560
 Oh, man.

1709
01:41:59,020 --> 01:42:03,540
 Well, it goes back to, as you mentioned there, going back as far as the automatic balls and strikes.

1710
01:42:03,640 --> 01:42:04,700
 I think it has a place.

1711
01:42:05,040 --> 01:42:06,100
 It's a strategy now.

1712
01:42:06,460 --> 01:42:10,860
 You can sit here twice, and you can use that to your advantage, or it can cost you.

1713
01:42:11,380 --> 01:42:15,180
 But to me, it's like going to a store and going through the self-checkout stand.

1714
01:42:15,560 --> 01:42:18,480
 When I do that, basically, I'm cutting somebody out of a job.

1715
01:42:18,640 --> 01:42:21,700
 I'd hate to see the umpires be cut out of a job because of this tech.

1716
01:42:21,700 --> 01:42:26,180
 I get the reasons why on paper, but it's life all about bottom line.

1717
01:42:26,360 --> 01:42:28,280
 It's just about a bottom line world out there.

1718
01:42:28,360 --> 01:42:29,340
 I guess that's what I'm trying to say.

1719
01:42:29,380 --> 01:42:32,900
 In other words, the umpires helped build this industry, and now they're saying, well, thank

1720
01:42:32,900 --> 01:42:35,780
 you for your services, but we can make more money on this.

1721
01:42:35,960 --> 01:42:40,840
 And if we can let the colleges pick up the tab for these kids to develop, that way we save

1722
01:42:40,840 --> 01:42:41,400
 more money.

1723
01:42:42,160 --> 01:42:42,460
 Oh, yeah.

1724
01:42:42,540 --> 01:42:45,400
 I mean, that's, well, the NBA and the NFL are doing it.

1725
01:42:45,500 --> 01:42:46,360
 I mean, that's the thing.

1726
01:42:46,420 --> 01:42:52,740
 I mean, they've got, you know, baseball is really the only professional sport.

1727
01:42:52,740 --> 01:42:57,700
 Well, hockey to some extent, and that's so disjointed, but baseball is

1728
01:42:57,700 --> 01:42:59,620
 a big time farm system.

1729
01:42:59,620 --> 01:43:07,060
 And so, um, you know, colleges serve that for the NFL, essentially, and for a college

1730
01:43:07,060 --> 01:43:07,600
 basketball.

1731
01:43:07,920 --> 01:43:12,360
 I mean, you got the D league or whatever, but I mean, really, truly most of the kids,

1732
01:43:12,360 --> 01:43:17,080
 if you don't go to college and you're not European, you're out of stock.

1733
01:43:17,640 --> 01:43:18,000
 Yeah.

1734
01:43:18,940 --> 01:43:22,420
 Well, back to David, David went to mining Motlow Community College.

1735
01:43:22,540 --> 01:43:27,240
 How much money is, is a community college going to be able to pay a kid, uh, compared to some

1736
01:43:27,240 --> 01:43:28,540
 of the big powerhouses out there.

1737
01:43:28,540 --> 01:43:31,540
 So somebody somewhere is going to have to take the hit for this modern.

1738
01:43:31,620 --> 01:43:35,180
 If it's, if it's, if it comes to a law, somebody somewhere is going to take the hit.

1739
01:43:35,260 --> 01:43:37,980
 Jim, let's talk about markets like Cincinnati.

1740
01:43:38,620 --> 01:43:41,100
 You're in an interesting place up there in West Tennessee.

1741
01:43:41,100 --> 01:43:47,020
 You come between the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals up there, but markets like

1742
01:43:47,020 --> 01:43:48,340
 that, can, can they survive?

1743
01:43:48,460 --> 01:43:50,940
 Will they ever be able to do more than remember?

1744
01:43:51,020 --> 01:43:53,660
 The old Harlem Globetrotters was at the Washington generals.

1745
01:43:53,660 --> 01:43:59,740
 They had to have an opponent is baseball turning into the markets, like Cincinnati and St.

1746
01:43:59,740 --> 01:44:00,960
 Louis and Pittsburgh.

1747
01:44:01,340 --> 01:44:03,160
 Are they turning into the Washington generals?

1748
01:44:03,160 --> 01:44:07,820
 Just having somebody on the schedule, would they ever realistically be able to compete for

1749
01:44:07,820 --> 01:44:09,680
 a world series title at one time?

1750
01:44:09,760 --> 01:44:11,680
 We know the Reds machine, they could do it.

1751
01:44:11,740 --> 01:44:14,940
 The Cardinals did it, but will they ever get back to it in the modern climate?

1752
01:44:16,180 --> 01:44:17,120
 That's a good question.

1753
01:44:17,300 --> 01:44:22,540
 I think they can, but I mean, when you look at the Reds, that's just a lily pad for them.

1754
01:44:22,680 --> 01:44:27,500
 Guy goes there and then somebody else, you know, walks the fog and he leaps to another lily pad.

1755
01:44:27,800 --> 01:44:27,880
 Right.

1756
01:44:28,100 --> 01:44:29,980
 Got the NIL package in college football.

1757
01:44:30,720 --> 01:44:30,980
 Yeah.

1758
01:44:31,140 --> 01:44:31,340
 Yeah.

1759
01:44:31,340 --> 01:44:33,320
 I mean, that's, don't get me started on that.

1760
01:44:34,220 --> 01:44:39,680
 But that, yeah, I mean, that's the thing about a place like Cincinnati, they get a guy for

1761
01:44:39,680 --> 01:44:44,080
 about two or three years and then he's gone because, you know, the Reds don't want to pay

1762
01:44:44,080 --> 01:44:46,560
 him and the Reds probably could pay him.

1763
01:44:46,920 --> 01:44:47,720
 They don't want to.

1764
01:44:47,760 --> 01:44:48,440
 They don't keep the money.

1765
01:44:49,160 --> 01:44:50,100
 Well, yeah, that's true.

1766
01:44:50,200 --> 01:44:55,440
 You know, and that's something you said earlier about, you know, keeping the money and the

1767
01:44:55,440 --> 01:44:58,560
 umpires, you know, league going.

1768
01:44:58,700 --> 01:45:00,640
 I mean, everybody wants to trim the thing.

1769
01:45:01,020 --> 01:45:06,100
 You don't ever see in baseball, for example, you don't ever see doubleheaders anymore where

1770
01:45:06,100 --> 01:45:07,640
 you have one game right after the other.

1771
01:45:07,920 --> 01:45:11,440
 They're day and night because owners don't want to give away free innings.

1772
01:45:11,940 --> 01:45:15,120
 Uh, it's old, uh, Comiskey park or whatever they call it in Chicago.

1773
01:45:15,120 --> 01:45:20,780
 Now they used to open the gate after the seventh inning to let the neighborhood kids in to watch

1774
01:45:20,780 --> 01:45:21,620
 the games for free.

1775
01:45:21,720 --> 01:45:21,920
 Nope.

1776
01:45:22,180 --> 01:45:23,920
 And now they don't do that anymore.

1777
01:45:23,920 --> 01:45:28,220
 They said, well, we'll, we'll give random tickets to kindergartners and first graders around

1778
01:45:28,220 --> 01:45:30,960
 the area, but that's not the neighborhood kids.

1779
01:45:31,180 --> 01:45:34,460
 And so owners are so reluctant to give away free innings.

1780
01:45:35,020 --> 01:45:40,740
 There, uh, plus they also sell like every team has like three or four different hat combinations.

1781
01:45:41,000 --> 01:45:41,400
 Yep.

1782
01:45:41,460 --> 01:45:47,380
 So when you buy your merchandise or whatever, they want you to have, uh, different kinds of,

1783
01:45:47,380 --> 01:45:48,060
 uh, variety.

1784
01:45:48,060 --> 01:45:50,860
 And so they're just trying to chase that almighty dollar.

1785
01:45:51,320 --> 01:45:55,180
 Uh, I think people are getting kind of sick of that at some point in time, because you're

1786
01:45:55,180 --> 01:45:57,320
 already seeing people get sick of it in football already.

1787
01:45:57,500 --> 01:46:02,480
 Well, something else to show you how the modern world is compared to where it was.

1788
01:46:02,540 --> 01:46:07,380
 You mentioned the old fashioned twin bills, uh, day, night, double headers that over the

1789
01:46:07,380 --> 01:46:12,540
 weekend, you see teams taking off Friday night, Saturday night, taking off holidays.

1790
01:46:12,540 --> 01:46:15,920
 That would have been unheard of at one time in baseball.

1791
01:46:15,920 --> 01:46:20,660
 And, but you mentioned college football is the same pattern coming to college football.

1792
01:46:20,800 --> 01:46:22,780
 We, this is big recruiting country.

1793
01:46:22,780 --> 01:46:27,480
 We know you're in big and recruiting country, but if you took the pulse of where the

1794
01:46:27,480 --> 01:46:31,760
 passion is now for the respective teams compared to where it was just five years ago, certainly

1795
01:46:31,760 --> 01:46:37,820
 10 years ago, it is cool considerably because I think a lot of fans are starting to see people

1796
01:46:37,820 --> 01:46:38,840
 here love college football.

1797
01:46:38,840 --> 01:46:43,600
 They'll put up with a lot, but, uh, you're starting to see some spots on the banana, so

1798
01:46:43,600 --> 01:46:48,340
 to speak of fans saying, I'm tired of these 18, 19 year old kids, not necessarily the kids,

1799
01:46:48,360 --> 01:46:51,640
 but their handlers coming in and maximizing the dollars.

1800
01:46:51,640 --> 01:46:55,800
 And then my cue said about the reds, they stay a year and then they transfer out and the

1801
01:46:55,800 --> 01:46:58,560
 schools left holding a baggage for a lot of money.

1802
01:46:59,080 --> 01:46:59,740
 Oh yeah.

1803
01:46:59,820 --> 01:47:06,180
 I mean, that's, it's, I'm going to be honest with you, um, Harold, I, I, I, um, I'm not really

1804
01:47:06,180 --> 01:47:10,100
 looking forward to college football this year, primarily because of this very thing.

1805
01:47:10,240 --> 01:47:15,880
 I don't know who's going to be playing where last year during the championship game or

1806
01:47:15,880 --> 01:47:16,160
 something.

1807
01:47:16,420 --> 01:47:21,780
 I heard somebody say, well, this is this guy's fourth, fourth college to play in four years.

1808
01:47:21,780 --> 01:47:22,860
 Now what's that about?

1809
01:47:23,080 --> 01:47:23,480
 Yeah.

1810
01:47:23,560 --> 01:47:25,380
 Um, you know, it's, it's ridiculous.

1811
01:47:25,500 --> 01:47:28,360
 I remember when I was going through it, you got five to play four.

1812
01:47:28,420 --> 01:47:30,100
 And if you transferred, you had to sit out a year.

1813
01:47:30,400 --> 01:47:30,760
 Yeah.

1814
01:47:30,820 --> 01:47:36,740
 Um, I've often thought if you transfer, okay, maybe you can be immediately eligible for one,

1815
01:47:36,840 --> 01:47:39,560
 one year, but you get one bite at that apple.

1816
01:47:39,560 --> 01:47:44,480
 And then after that, you've got to sit out and, uh, and do whatever, because this is getting

1817
01:47:44,480 --> 01:47:45,200
 out of control.

1818
01:47:45,200 --> 01:47:48,040
 I mean, uh, Nick Saban has been very outspoken about it.

1819
01:47:48,080 --> 01:47:50,760
 So it's John Calipari and Tommy Tuberville.

1820
01:47:51,320 --> 01:47:57,540
 Uh, they need to get a handle on all this stuff because they did, I think was, was a nice

1821
01:47:57,540 --> 01:47:59,640
 idea, but they've got unintended consequences.

1822
01:47:59,640 --> 01:48:03,440
 They didn't account for, and now they've got to, they've got to fix that.

1823
01:48:03,800 --> 01:48:04,200
 Yeah.

1824
01:48:04,280 --> 01:48:09,300
 To illustrate your point that you have no idea of the lineup, I bet you, uh, a dime to a donut.

1825
01:48:09,300 --> 01:48:12,780
 You can remember the Reds lineup back in their heyday.

1826
01:48:12,960 --> 01:48:17,400
 Who batted first, who batted second, what position, and I would challenge any fan now

1827
01:48:17,400 --> 01:48:20,060
 to tell me what the lineup is from last year for these teams.

1828
01:48:20,140 --> 01:48:21,400
 It's the same with football now.

1829
01:48:21,920 --> 01:48:22,500
 Oh yeah.

1830
01:48:22,600 --> 01:48:23,680
 You're exactly right.

1831
01:48:23,780 --> 01:48:24,620
 You're exactly right.

1832
01:48:25,220 --> 01:48:30,640
 Um, you know, you, you, you don't know who's coming in and who is going to identify with

1833
01:48:30,640 --> 01:48:30,960
 them.

1834
01:48:31,960 --> 01:48:32,360
 Yeah.

1835
01:48:32,460 --> 01:48:33,240
 That's the thing.

1836
01:48:33,280 --> 01:48:37,880
 I mean, and here's another thing too, you know, uh, February 5th was always signing

1837
01:48:37,880 --> 01:48:38,680
 day, right?

1838
01:48:38,760 --> 01:48:38,920
 Yeah.

1839
01:48:39,220 --> 01:48:39,460
 Right.

1840
01:48:39,560 --> 01:48:39,880
 It was.

1841
01:48:40,380 --> 01:48:40,780
 Yeah.

1842
01:48:40,780 --> 01:48:42,180
 We've got this transfer portal.

1843
01:48:42,180 --> 01:48:44,200
 Now, does anybody talk about recruiting anymore?

1844
01:48:44,940 --> 01:48:50,200
 No, no, no, because they got to wait to see who's coming in on the portal.

1845
01:48:50,200 --> 01:48:51,660
 And I think that's the big deal.

1846
01:48:51,740 --> 01:48:52,880
 You're in Tennessee country.

1847
01:48:52,880 --> 01:48:57,900
 Speaking of which, Jim, what, what are fans there realistic expecting about Tennessee?

1848
01:48:58,060 --> 01:49:01,620
 We know that the hardcore fans always saying anything less than national championship.

1849
01:49:01,620 --> 01:49:02,620
 And I'm disappointed.

1850
01:49:03,440 --> 01:49:06,200
 Is there such a thing as a realistic fan?

1851
01:49:06,200 --> 01:49:11,500
 And if so, what are some realistic numbers from those fans in your neck of the woods for

1852
01:49:11,500 --> 01:49:13,120
 this Tennessee football team coming up?

1853
01:49:13,720 --> 01:49:17,420
 Boy, that's a good question because I'm real, I haven't really heard too many people talk

1854
01:49:17,420 --> 01:49:17,800
 about it.

1855
01:49:17,900 --> 01:49:22,880
 And that's when you go a lot of people usually this time of year, like, well, I can't wait

1856
01:49:22,880 --> 01:49:23,520
 for that season.

1857
01:49:23,740 --> 01:49:27,400
 And now people are like, yeah, well, you know, yeah, they're going to play.

1858
01:49:29,240 --> 01:49:34,480
 Just in my mind, I haven't really talked to anybody about it because nobody's mentioned

1859
01:49:34,480 --> 01:49:35,140
 it to me.

1860
01:49:36,180 --> 01:49:40,380
 I think Tennessee's going to be probably a middle-of-the-road team again.

1861
01:49:40,500 --> 01:49:42,100
 Last year, they finished ninth in the SEC.

1862
01:49:43,020 --> 01:49:44,620
 They were, what were they, eight and five.

1863
01:49:45,240 --> 01:49:45,600
 Yeah.

1864
01:49:46,220 --> 01:49:47,680
 They got hammered by Vanderbilt.

1865
01:49:48,040 --> 01:49:50,820
 They had a lot of things that went really wrong last year.

1866
01:49:51,960 --> 01:49:58,360
 You know, losing out on Nico Imaliava, which to me was kind of like addition by subtraction,

1867
01:49:59,160 --> 01:50:01,540
 sort of added a little fervor to the beginning of the season.

1868
01:50:01,540 --> 01:50:06,980
 But, you know, I think, you know, they had an after placement and now he's gone.

1869
01:50:07,080 --> 01:50:07,980
 You know, Aguilar's gone.

1870
01:50:09,320 --> 01:50:14,120
 So Tennessee's, I mean, it's just, I don't know.

1871
01:50:14,240 --> 01:50:17,860
 It's like, I don't know what they're going to do.

1872
01:50:17,940 --> 01:50:22,140
 I think Tennessee's going to have a, they've got some good players, but I think on defense,

1873
01:50:22,520 --> 01:50:26,980
 I think I counted, what was it, eight transfers coming in on defensive side?

1874
01:50:27,220 --> 01:50:28,120
 Something like that.

1875
01:50:28,420 --> 01:50:31,040
 I mean, so we don't know how they're going to meld.

1876
01:50:31,040 --> 01:50:34,440
 I mean, they, they're going to have to learn that the system, they've got a new defensive

1877
01:50:34,440 --> 01:50:37,080
 coordinator, which is probably a good thing.

1878
01:50:37,240 --> 01:50:37,560
 Yeah.

1879
01:50:37,640 --> 01:50:38,480
 Mr. Knowles.

1880
01:50:39,220 --> 01:50:42,560
 And, and so, yeah, I don't know.

1881
01:50:42,620 --> 01:50:45,220
 I think Tennessee's going to be very interesting this year to be sure.

1882
01:50:45,640 --> 01:50:52,180
 But again, I, their schedule stuff, you know, you look at, you know, they got Texas coming

1883
01:50:52,180 --> 01:50:53,240
 in, they got Alabama.

1884
01:50:53,600 --> 01:50:56,480
 They don't have Florida anymore, but Florida would have been great this year.

1885
01:50:56,940 --> 01:50:57,060
 Yeah.

1886
01:50:57,720 --> 01:51:02,120
 I think LSU is on the schedule and I don't know what Lane Kiffin's going to, going to do

1887
01:51:02,120 --> 01:51:02,660
 down there.

1888
01:51:02,760 --> 01:51:08,240
 I suspect he'll do quite a bit better than Brian Kelly, which I never did understand that hiring.

1889
01:51:08,240 --> 01:51:15,880
 But anyway, um, um, so yeah, Tennessee's going to have a, they may surprise everybody because

1890
01:51:15,880 --> 01:51:19,700
 nobody's talking about them, but, um, um, I don't know.

1891
01:51:19,760 --> 01:51:21,160
 It's going to be curious to see.

1892
01:51:21,800 --> 01:51:22,700
 Here's the deal, Jim.

1893
01:51:22,700 --> 01:51:26,300
 You know, when you're in the state of Tennessee, if more people are buzzing about Vanderbilt

1894
01:51:26,300 --> 01:51:28,420
 than Tennessee, you know, something ain't right.

1895
01:51:28,480 --> 01:51:30,620
 Jim is always good to hook up with you, man.

1896
01:51:30,720 --> 01:51:31,840
 Here's the bottom line.

1897
01:51:32,320 --> 01:51:34,700
 Tickled to death to hear about the hip replacement.

1898
01:51:34,880 --> 01:51:40,360
 My, uh, the better half of this clan here, my wife had double knee replacement surgery and

1899
01:51:40,360 --> 01:51:41,760
 now I can't keep up with her.

1900
01:51:41,880 --> 01:51:44,320
 So highly recommend it.

1901
01:51:44,360 --> 01:51:46,880
 Good luck and keep those wheels oiled up there.

1902
01:51:46,900 --> 01:51:48,800
 Okay, Harold, thank you so much.

1903
01:51:48,840 --> 01:51:49,620
 I appreciate it.

1904
01:51:49,980 --> 01:51:50,580
 There you have it.

1905
01:51:50,640 --> 01:51:55,460
 Uh, Jim Steele hooking up with us, the Richardson media group in the state of Tennessee.

1906
01:51:55,720 --> 01:51:57,940
 It's going to take care of biz for us for now.

1907
01:51:58,000 --> 01:52:00,220
 The Braves, by the way, later on tonight, get a nap.

1908
01:52:00,320 --> 01:52:04,440
 They got the late date at San Diego, but in the meantime, on behalf of BB, Greg, James

1909
01:52:04,440 --> 01:52:08,200
 Blair, the entire crew here, Harold Buck, thank you so much for your time today.

1910
01:52:08,200 --> 01:52:11,680
 Let's do it again tomorrow on Dune to two for the BMO Buck show back here on sports

1911
01:52:11,680 --> 01:52:13,240
 radio, 93, nine, the score.

1912
01:52:16,900 --> 01:52:27,260
 The final out has been called the dugout cleared and now your team is starving.

1913
01:52:28,240 --> 01:52:29,660
 There's only one place to go.

1914
01:52:30,500 --> 01:52:32,320
 Lost pizza home of the monster pizza.

1915
01:52:32,700 --> 01:52:33,720
 So loaded with cheese.