Boomo Bugg Show 072226 (SEC Media Days -Day 3)
93.9 The Score WYTK - July 22, 2026
https://www.939thescore.com/boomo-bugg-show-072226-sec-media-days-day-3/

This transcript was generated automatically from the broadcast audio. Names and some words may be misspelt; the audio is the official record.

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Now, get ready to roll, Shoals, Decatur, Athens and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee.
It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM Sports Voice.
The Boomo Bugg Show.
Your exclusive inside track to the Tigers, Tennessee and the rest of the SEC.
Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9.
If we can leave year one and have a foundation of who we are, our identity, proof of concept, offensively, defensively, the wins will take care of themselves as long as our identity is what it is.
If we are physically and mentally tough, if we are detailed, if we are player led, if we are connected as a team, we win in the margins.
If we take care of what we have to take care of from a detail standpoint, I love where our talent is.
We're plenty talented enough to go win every single game.
Year one will be successful if we leave it and we know exactly who we are and we've got proof of concept to continue to build to.
The sounds of a different sounding top tiger on the plains, Alex Gullish, and the sounds of at least one of the co-hosts of day three from SEC Media Days.
Sounding a little bit different today.
We're working on getting the wrinkles out, but in the meantime, Brett Beaird, welcome in.
How are you?
Happy day three of SEC Media Days.
I'm Harold Buck.
Helen DeBoer addresses the media this morning, and we'll spend a good part of the show recapping some of his top comments.
Mr. Unfiltered Florida coach John Summerall dropped some S-bombs during his presentation to the main media room.
And we'll be talking today, obviously, about Auburn and Georgia and others, but Alabama, Florida, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M are the ones headlining day three.
Well, let's start with a man who obviously with a tan, Kalen DeBoer coming in, looks like he left the SPF off on his vacation to Canada.
He's back, Kemp, about to get back.
He's starting to punch the clock.
BB, what were some of the highs and lows of the folks who might have missed Kalen DeBoer's day at the podium?
Harold, I thought he did a pretty good job of this.
When I saw him in June at the Jackson County Alumni, he was a little bit more relaxed,
but he knew he had more of a friendly audience, so to speak, than what he had in the print room.
He was asked about the new faces on the offensive line.
He's excited about Michael Carroll, Will Sanders.
Noted last year, and we've talked about that extensively, they had a larger rotation last year due in part to injuries.
As he put it, it would be a little bit more stable.
He was asked about the Florida State game, which has been talked about.
Alden knows him getting off to a rough start.
Says it's important for Alabama to protect its home stadium.
And the Florida State loss made Alabama stronger.
Well, it did for a while because they won 10 out of 11 games and beat four top 25 SEC games.
Interesting question, I thought, when he was asked, is the run game across the board in college football being deemphasized a little bit more?
He said, I really don't think so, but Alabama faced some tough run defenses, but we all know Alabama's got to run the ball a little bit better.
Asked about the quarterback battle.
Well, noted that Austin Mack's got more of an advantage with experience, that he runs the ball much more better than a lot of people give him credit for.
But both quarterbacks are high-level elite quarterbacks.
Those are just some of the highlights, and we'll be going over more.
But, yeah, very interesting comments from Kaelin DeBoer this morning.
Well, two things.
Obviously, a lot of folks off the hub of the wheel, but it all starts with the quarterback.
And, BBM, most folks have already got Kaelin Russell penciled in.
I think that's the answer, but I don't think it's necessarily going to be the answer out of the gates in the season opener against East Carolina.
Because Kaelin Russell has a tremendous amount of potential.
Anybody who knows anything about football, those on the inside, those on the outside, know that.
But this is a tough job to come in because I thought the points were well made this morning.
He knows about offense.
Right now, these young quarterbacks with that kind of potential, we saw with Arch Manning coming out of high school and starting first year, they've got to know the defense.
They've got to sit here in a nanosecond, read that defense, and adjust accordingly, hoping your God-given talent and instincts take over.
And I think because of that, if you agree or disagree, I think initially they're going to go with Mack.
God, they could go with Russell.
We're just speculating here.
Don't hold us to this, of course.
But I wouldn't be surprised if you go with Mack because of the experience factor because Russell's going to be the quarterback.
I think that's the question.
The question is when.
Harold, I actually agree with you.
Again, this staff is more familiar with Austin Mack.
He does, you know, we'll find out Desiree defense is better than Keelan Russell.
Now, Russell has more upside.
I don't think anybody will argue that.
But Ryan Grubb is more familiar with Austin Mack.
Certainly, Kellen DeBoer is more familiar with him.
I think he starts against East Carolina, the first game of the season on September the 5th.
But I do think as Keelan Russell begins to become more ingrained in the offense, settles down, learns to read the defense better.
I think Russell takes over maybe by the end of September.
Well, it's basically a live audition.
I thought another good point this morning is, was it 2015 when Alabama went out in the first three games, fans were ready to fire Nick Saban because they couldn't settle on a quarterback.
If you remember that, they lost Ole Miss, terrible game.
And then they finally settled on one, and they say the rest is history.
Basically, I think that those first three games are going to determine, and by week four, we're going to know.
But those first three games are critical live auditions.
But it comes down to this, BB.
And here's why I think on the other side of the coin, people are going to say, I thought you said that Matt's going to be the quarterback.
Look, here's Russell.
Obviously, fall camp, you know, I still call it that.
I call it summer camp, the temperature down there being what it is this time of the year.
But I still believe because of the questions on the offensive line, if those guys, let's say, so let's cut to the chase.
If the old line didn't do any better than it did last year, it didn't have a matter of the quarterback.
Except when they're going to get hurt.
If the old line could just make significant improvement.
But until then, I think Russell has the edge because he is the X factor.
He gives opposing defenses something else to think about.
Well, when the play breaks down, Russell takes off.
Or he can make something happen out of nothing.
And I do think the offensive line is going to get, would be better.
Nick Saban is on the panel today.
And he had a couple of good points.
Harold, his main concern, not just with Kellen DeBoer, but with every college coach, is the key to, as he put it, the key to the drill is managing roster turnover.
42 players from the 2025 Alabama team are gone.
23 through the transfer portal, 10 drafted in the NFL, nine were undrafted.
And there, and Kellen DeBoer mentioned this this morning, there are 50 new players.
And I thought also that Nick Saban brought up a good point.
I believe it was Alyssa Lange asked him about the culture.
He said, look, the roster changes, the culture doesn't.
You've got to come in with toughness, sustaining a high level of success.
I thought that was a great point.
He said, the roster changes every year, but your culture better not.
Speaking of that, things that don't change, if you're a coach, you're a coach.
What's going through Nick Saban's mind of his assessment of where things are with the program right now?
I think he actually has more sympathy with Kellen DeBoer for the reason I just said.
And it's the reason he got out.
He got out of Alabama, not just so much about the frustration with NIL, which was just beginning to rear its ugly head when he retired.
He just simply could not maintain the high caliber assistant coaches that he was so used to.
That 2015 team, Harold, had eight future college coaches in it.
And that's the reason why that team was so good.
I think actually, in a way, now the offensive line, I think, irritates him in not being able to run the ball.
But I think he gets it.
It's the constant churn or the turnover in the roster that Kellen DeBoer and all these coaches are going to have to learn.
Well, if you're listening right now, I don't have to tell you this.
To anyone who's been out there in the workforce for a number of years, you know that you are only as good as the folks around you.
I've been blessed to work with some good teams.
I don't know if the word blessed is the right word.
I've been on some teams that are not necessarily five stars.
But you are only as good as the guy or girl next to you.
They've got to pull their weight.
They cannot be that weakest link in the chain.
You cannot be that weakest link in the chain.
If you go back to Nick at the end of his tenure, he wasn't getting those five-star assistant coaches like Kirby, like Lane, like Jeremy.
We can go up and down the list.
They're all now making multi-million dollar contracts, giving him and Alabama fits because they are in the running L.O. Curtis Ignatius for national championships.
Well, Kevin Steele is a good example of that, Harold.
And believe me, I'm not trying to be derogged toward Kevin Steele, but he had to settle.
Kevin Steele was about, when he named him defensive coordinator, and Kevin had some fiscal issues that affected him.
In fact, really and truly, the defensive coordinator that year was Nick Saban.
But he basically had to settle for Kevin Steele.
He wanted Jeremy Pruitt, and we know all the background about that, about Jeremy's issues with Tennessee, et cetera.
But that, I think, was the final nail in the coffin as far as Nick Saban's coaching career.
He just could not continue to hire some of the incredible assistant coaches he had during his tenure at Alabama.
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The other side of the corner is where everybody's talking about Alabama's offense, and they should.
But I thought they brought up some good points about the other side of the ball, and that's defense.
And here's kind of the point I thought was interesting.
They're smart enough to never specifically say, I think this might be a problem, but they get as close to it as they can without saying it.
Kind of the implicit thing, if you will.
I think the common theme between Roman Harper, who, by the way, is outstanding behind that microphone.
He is very good.
And Nick is very good.
I thought they brought up a good point.
Both of them basically said they'd like to see more man-to-man.
As they said, let's go to fight in a phone booth.
Don't wait until these speed rabbits get behind you, behind the secondary, and then depend on your safety to take up the slack.
Go ahead and play more man-to-man.
Everything in life is a risk.
You can stay home and be safe, or you can get in a car and drive to the store, and there's always risk involved with everything.
So I think it worked out pretty well for Nick Saban.
I thought that was an interesting observation.
It may be if they were asked, they would politely say you might want to try more man-to-man defense.
Well, that's what Nick Saban played so much in the secondary, but I'll say this.
I think the secondary is the deepest position for Alabama, the most talented.
The other issue, Harold and even Kendall and DeBoer mentioned this, we've got to get, we, Alabama, we've got to get more pressure on the quarterback.
You've got to get the quarterback on the ground.
You've got to, again, Nick Saban mentioned this, all nauseam during his tenure.
You don't even necessarily have to get him a sack, but you've got to throw him off his mark, pressure him,
and that's going to be another key for this defense improving.
Quickly, have they got any soap for John Somerall at the podium?
Yeah, if you had any questions about John's leadership and who's in charge of the program,
I thought he did a phenomenal job.
Now, the SEC office is saying, John, we love you, but can you leave out the S-bombs next time?
We talked to John Ferrari and some of the other games, but I thought he did a very good job.
I thought his answer was pretty, I have a pro.
He said, not only no, but no.
There you have it.
As you mentioned, John Ferrari is going to be a little bit later on,
but first, what about the boys across the state line in Mississippi?
We're going to be talking Ole Miss and Mississippi State with the king of Mississippi Sports Talk,
Jacob Wembley, he's on deck on day three, NCC Media Days, you're at 93.9, the score.
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Now, back to the Boomo Bugg Show on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back in.
Day three, SEC Media Days down in Tampa, Florida.
But why don't we go the other way west, young man, to Mississippi.
Say hello to the king, talk radio in the Magnolia State.
Jacob Wembley, he's host of The Drive on ESPN 105.9 in central Mississippi.
Jay, welcome in.
How are you?
Guys doing great.
It's Wednesday.
It's SEC Media Days week, so it's always, you know, fast and furious.
Kicking off the second half, if you will.
Obviously, a lot to get to, but let's talk about your neighbors in the Magnolia State.
One, anticipating Pete Golding.
Your thoughts, obviously, you look at the, as I said, the new kids on the block.
A lot of folks still classify Pete Golding as a new kid, although he had what was just a game away from playing for the national championship last year.
Let's start with Pete Golding and Ole Miss, Jake.
Yeah, you know, I think when you look at Pete Golding and you look at Ole Miss, obviously, the expectations are very high.
They've got a lot of returning players back.
Obviously, notedly, Trinidad and Samuels, you know, depending on how they look at, you know, one, two, three, maybe fours as far as he falls nationally.
So I'm saying he's the best in the SEC, and you can debate that with Arch Manning and some others.
But definitely, you know, it starts there with Trinidad, and then you look at Mike, they see a running back.
Michelle is there.
The players are there.
You know, you talk about Pete Golding.
You know, we got to see, you know, a snippet of him running the college football playoff last year.
One of the things I've said is if you talk to high school coaches around the state, you talk to people, everybody loves Pete Golding, and that's very rare that you can say that about a coach.
You know, I think some of the challenges for this team is, you know, things we don't know is, you know, what does the offensive, you know, continuity look like amongst the coaching staff?
What does the defensive side look like?
You know, with some coaching changes, you know, they've got a very tough schedule.
You know, you come out of the gate, neutral sideball, going against the Bulls, you know, the ACC, that will not be a kick walk.
So, you know, there's going to be some challenges.
I know everybody, you know, in Oxford and around, the SEC has circled that September 19th game against LSU.
But as we've talked about, you know, there's more games on the schedule after LSU.
I mean, regardless of what happens that night on September 19th, they're going to turn around and go to Florida the next week.
So, you know, this is a team that's not going to speak up on anybody.
They're going to be on the radar for everybody that they play.
But this is a very good football team.
And, you know, for them to reach their goals and to make the college ball playoff,
they'll have to, again, win some of those one-position games, those four games on Saturdays.
That's where we'll really see, you know, what the staff is made of
and how they manage those, you know, tight situations and those tight SEC ballgames.
Jake, that's what I was going to ask you about.
You alluded to the change in some of the staff.
John David Baker takes over.
Charlie Weiss now going to LSU.
And you look at the numbers last year.
Three of the top offensive categories.
Scoring Ole Miss was 10th.
Passing third.
Total offense, 490 yards a game.
And I was getting amused at what people, the misconception of a Lane Kiffin offense.
Well, he throws the ball 60 times a game.
No, he doesn't.
They run for 176 yards.
You've got Kewan Lacy, one of the best running backs in the country.
How much of a change that, again, I know these coaches work well together.
What will be the change, in your opinion, with John David Baker over Charlie Weiss Jr.?
You know, that's really yet to be determined.
I mean, John David Baker said the right things.
Hey, look, you know, we're not going to change a whole lot.
We're going to keep the offense multiple.
We're going to keep the offense open.
A lot of the coach speak that you see.
I think what you will see personally is, you know, when you go back and you kind of cut the tape on from last year.
And John David Baker, I'm sure, did this months ago.
And they've analyzed everything and said, hey, look, let's keep it simple, stupid.
Obviously, we may change some verbiage.
We may change the way we, you know, call our plays in.
But I think at a base level, you know, they're going to stay close to 50-50 as far as run-pass ratio.
I mean, just what you said.
I mean, there is the misconception that Lane Kiffin throws the ball over the yard.
I mean, he will definitely take that home run shot, you know, more times than not.
But they're going to be a line-of-scrimmage team.
Pete Golding is a line-of-scrimmage coach.
We talked about this yesterday, as a matter of fact, on my show.
You know, the SEC has got to get back to, you know, a better line-of-scrimmage team.
I mean, Ole Miss was a good line-of-scrimmage team last year.
You look at the teams that played for the national championship.
Indiana, very good at running the football.
Miami, very good at running the football.
So, when you have a back like Lacey and you have a quarterback like Trinidad, I think you're going to see a multiple mix, you know, tempo mixed in there as well.
Again, what will be interesting to see is not on first down what they call.
What do they call on third and five?
What do they do inside the red zone?
How do they, you know, manage tempo?
What about fourth down conversions where Lane Kiffin, you know, if you're a cross-run 40, you're getting close to 50.
Plus 50, Kiffin's going for it more times than not.
Does John David Baker risk it like that or does he scale it back and punt and play defense?
Those are the things I'll be interested to see.
Jake Wimbley hooking up with us.
He's on the drive in central Mississippi.
Jay, let's talk a little bit about Pete Golding.
He is not a new coach.
He's been there and done that.
He's had two of the best mentors anybody could ever want with one, Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin, one defense, one offense.
Last year, he was given a situation that a lot of coaches dream about or also dread.
You have a coach that runs out of town for you.
You got everything on the table.
Pete Golding basically could go into the team meeting and say, it's us against them.
Let's galvanize.
Let's see what we can do.
We saw what they did.
They beat Georgia.
Your thoughts about now that there's kind of, if you will, a reset.
Now that's gone.
Now he's going to be the head coach without having that emotion and that ability to galvanize the room over adversity as it sometimes happens.
Your thoughts now that basically he is the head coach.
Yeah, I think one of the things that we saw, at least for me, out of that playoff, and again, that playoff run they had, and you don't have any concrete evidence of this,
but I think the success with a victory against Tulane, a victory against Georgia, taking Miami down to the last drive, is that this thing could have went really south.
And one of the things that you can look at Pete Golding and say, because it didn't, is obviously he is a motivator of young men.
He knows how to hold a locker room together.
And then he lets his coaches coach, because if that wasn't the case, I mean, we didn't see a whole lot of, you know, variation off of what Lane Kiffin was doing versus what Pete Golding did in three ballgames as head coach.
So that meant he let, you know, Charlie Weiss Jr. coach the offense.
He helped, obviously, did, you know, however how they call the defense.
And I think one of the things that you can see from really good coaches is they let their assistants coach.
Obviously, they have that veto power, that overrule power, and I think that's a characteristic of Pete Golding that we saw is he's going to try to put the best guys in place.
He's not an offensive play caller.
He may have, you know, some words to say on a down and distance or a certain play call or a suggestion, but he's going to let his coaches coach.
And he's a heck of a recruiter.
We know that.
You know, like I said, the state of Mississippi high school coaches all, you know, adore and love Pete Golding.
So, you know, if you can control your locker room, if you're a good recruiter, and you identify coaches that can get it done, you know, on Saturdays, and then, of course, when you're, you know, you're installed during the weeks and game prep and, you know, scheme prep, then you're a pretty darn good head coach.
And he has shown up to this point that he has all of those characteristics.
I'm going to be curious on defense to see what Jordan Renard from Alabama, Jaheim Otis, who got caught up in the numbers issue when he was with Nick Saban, Antonio Kite, who transferred from Auburn, I believe, played pretty well last year.
What have you heard during the spring about Renard, Jaheim Otis, and I believe Kite played pretty well last year?
Yeah, I think you're going to see all three guys be, you know, big-time contributors to this defense.
Ole Miss lost some guys on that defensive front.
They lost some key pieces, so they're going to be expected to play.
We know this.
You don't bring guys into the transfer world to sit.
You pay them money to come play immediately, and I think all three will get, you know, big opportunities to be, you know, big pieces to this Ole Miss defense, and I think they'll be expected to step in immediately.
Quickly, Jake, your thoughts about Mississippi State.
You're talking about a mountain to climb.
Look at that schedule.
They're the team that nobody's talking about it.
But, Jake, can you talk to us about the dogs?
Yeah, it's the total, you know, polar opposite ends in this state.
I mean, if you start talking, if you talk Mississippi State baseball, people want to chime in all the time.
If you talk Mississippi State football, then it kind of becomes a, you know, quiet as a church mouse, so to speak.
So, I think there is some reason for some cautious optimism, Kamario Taylor being one.
I think he's far from reaching, has reached his ceiling.
I think he could be one of the better quarterbacks in the conference.
You're talking about a guy that's big, physical, and he makes you play 11 on 11, you know, when he's out on the field.
So, that's a weapon that Jeff Levy has not had.
I mean, obviously, he was in some mix last year, but for now, it's his team.
And one of the things you hear about Kamario Taylor is he's kind of that alpha dog in the locker room.
I mean, he's present in defensive, you know, scheme meetings.
He's present with the offensive line.
He's present with his wide receivers.
I mean, he is that team leader, and I can tell you this.
Mississippi State's had some good quarterbacks over the last few years, but they haven't had that guy that kind of has the locker room, you know, by the collar, so to speak, since Dak Prescott and Nick Fitzgerald.
And Kamario Taylor has that kind of ability.
If he can stay healthy, he gives the Bulldogs a fighting chance, you know, on most weeks.
The biggest question is that, you know, Jeff Levy is going to put offense out on the field.
He's going to score points.
They've got a running back room they like.
They've got pass catchers they like.
Defensively with Zach Arnett there, that should make that defense better.
You know, it's kind of a weird mix bringing him back in, but by all accounts, you know, we've talked with several position coaches over the summer for Mississippi State on the defensive side.
They all like Zach Arnett.
They're like, you know, the cohesion on that side of the ball is really good.
Offensive front is going to be the question.
You know, can they move people around?
Mississippi State the last two years under Levy has had an atrocious offensive front, so if that unit is not any better, we won't know it until game time.
It could be problems for him, and you referenced that schedule.
I've said this.
We'll know in the first month if Jeff Levy is going to be around at 27, and I say that because week two trip to Minnesota in the Big Ten, week three trip to South Carolina, week four trip home against Missouri.
They need to clean up, and, of course, a week one game against Louisiana Monroe, you would figure they would handle that.
They need to come out on the plus side of that run because after that, I mean, you're talking Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma.
I mean, they've got that murderous row like everybody in that October schedule, so if he slips to one and three or even maybe two and two, it could be problems for him.
He really needs to win three of the first four ballgames.
I agree with you about Taylor.
He could be special, and particularly when the play breaks down.
I think he ran for over 200 yards the last two games, and the battering ram is Bothwell.
We watched him at high school, and then, of course, at South Alabama.
Nobody does football, high school, or college better than Jake Wimberley in the state of Mississippi.
Still the king there.
Jake, where can we get online and listen to your show this afternoon?
Sir, you can just go to thezone1059.com.
That's thezone1059.com.
We'll be on three to six.
We'll be out on site around some Mississippi high school football.
Today, of course, we'll be covered up with SEC media days like you guys, so it is rock and fire from this point on until Christmas, guys.
You know how it goes.
And you've got a double-helping like we do between Ole Miss and State.
Enjoy it.
Thanks so much, and let's do it again soon, Jake.
All right, thanks, guys.
Thank you, bud.
Jake Wimberley, who can be with us, 105.9 The Zone in Mississippi.
Coming up, he's the voice of the Sporting News, Double B, Bill Bender.
Day three, SEC media days.
You're on Sports Radio 939, The Score.
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The Bats couldn't get going in the Braves' 8-3 loss to the San Diego Padres in game two of the four-game set.
For the second straight night, the Braves managed only four hits, but none of them left the yard.
How about Jim Jarvis, though?
Two for three with a two-run triple as Jimmy Baseball keeps doing his thing.
Unfortunately, the pitching could not hold up.
Ronaldo Lopez, four and a third, nine hits, five earned runs, three walks, and six strikeouts.
He takes the loss.
He drops to four, and three.
Walker Buehler got the win for the Padres.
Braves look to get one back tomorrow against those Padres, and they'll have to do it against a very tough Michael King,
who dominated the Braves earlier this year to the tune of seven innings, six hits, and no earned runs.
He, six and seven, has a .334 ERA, 45 walks, 96 strikeouts, a .116 whip, and a .212 opponent batting average this year.
First pitch between the Braves and the Padres, 7-15.
It'll be Ben and Darren on the call, and you can hear all of the action right here on the Braves' radio network.
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Now, back to the Boom-O Bug Show on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back in.
Day three, NCC Media Days.
It's time to make way for the man who, along with his kids,
has gone down to the store and gotten school supplies.
He's sharpened every pencil.
He's bought all kinds of gigabytes for his computers because college football is about to kick off
in earnest for the guru at the Sporting News.
Bill Bender, welcome in.
How are you?
Hey, I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me on.
Bill, you're kind of a veteran, if you will, of these media days across the country.
How does the SEC, number one, compare with other media days you've been to as far as the overall gala and buzz and all that stuff?
Ben, how does it now compare with SEC Media Days, as they say, back in the day?
Oh, they do a great job.
The SEC communication staff is as good as anybody at what they do.
I'm friends with Kevin Trainor, the moderator.
You know, I always get my questions in because of him.
But, no, they do a fantastic job, and I think it creates excitement with the conference.
I think, you know, compared to the other ones, they're all really well done.
I enjoy it, and I always enjoy it because it's not just about the coaches and the players and those kind of things.
It's about the people you meet along the way.
Otherwise, I remember one of those years I was sitting next to you, gentlemen, and, you know, we were just talking.
And that's my favorite part of these events.
And what I like about it from the media standpoint is the one time a year they take a shower.
So they kind of get duded up for that.
But, Bill, well, these guys are competitive.
We know that some of these guys are shy, just want to come in, not call it in golf, call it 7-iron golf.
They want to lay up.
They don't want to try to go over the water.
Some of them are conservative.
Some of them want to steal the show.
What are your impressions?
Who has stolen the show so far in your eyes?
I'm reading a little bit about Jon Sumrall, you know, and the impression he made at the podium today.
You know, it really, the guy that's the star is the guy that hasn't taken the podium yet.
You know, there's been a lot of talk about Lane Kiffin.
I think that's coming tomorrow where the center of attention in college football, not quite like Nick Saban used to be, where I always made the joke with you guys that Nick Saban kind of, when it was his turn to speak, it was kind of like the state of the union.
Not just to the SEC, but the college football as a whole, and the SEC doesn't have that voice now.
I mean, Kirby's a loud one, and not as loud in a bad way, like a one that we listen to, but Lane has certainly found out his way to become the center of attention in the conference.
A couple of highlights for me, Greg Sanky comes out and mentions, yeah, the talks of the SEC, quote, succeeding from the union, so to speak, are real.
I thought Kirby got a little testy, they asked him about his receivers, and he said, well, just wait and see what happens with that.
I thought Alex Golich was just, he didn't come out with any wild predictions, which I don't think anybody who knows him thought he would.
He said, look, we're just here to establish a foundation and create an identity, and we'll go from there.
Kellen DeBoer, I thought, did a good job this morning.
Again, talked about some of the things that worked and did not work, and of course, again, John Summerall dropped a couple of a** bombs, but listen, he left no doubt who is in charge of the Florida program.
Yeah, that's the guy, like I said, that made an impression.
Kellen's very calculated, you know, he's not, some would say, boring's not the right word, but just coach speak, and is going to keep, go by the book and just be solid on the podium.
He always is solid.
You know, I think Summerall obviously establishes that with a fiery tone.
You mentioned Alex Golich.
I just think he knows what he's in for there, and if Auburn fans give that guy a chance, I think they're going to like the results because he just, he's going to bring that offense.
He's going to get kids to play hard.
He's got the right quarterback to kind of transition that with Byron Brown, and I enjoy him.
You know, I think he does a good job.
Just to kind of, if you will, a fun question, Bill, if you were pressed for an answer on this, if you had to choose, as Florida and Auburn did, who got the better deal?
Did Florida get the better deal than Summerall, or did Auburn get the better deal than Golich?
We know time is obviously going to tail, but right now, what is your gut?
How does it answer that question?
Probably Summerall, just because we've seen him do it at Troy.
We've seen him do it at Tulane.
See, I think he's kind of the, I'm not comparing him to Urban Meyer, okay?
But when Urban came to Florida, he immediately set a different tone, and some probably outsiders were like, who is this dude from Utah?
What, what, what, you know, there's no way this is going to work.
But he had a, he had a persona, and he had won at every previous stop, and I kind of see that with John Summerall.
There'll be bumps, no doubt.
I mean, Florida's behind a little bit as a program, but I do think if I had to pick between the two, I think I'd take John Summerall.
Let me ask you a recruiting question, and our listener is saying, what?
David at Gabriel Georges is going to announce this afternoon at 4.30 Central Time on CBS, and you wrote an article about this.
Five-star running back, he is going to command a multi-million dollar NIL deal.
He is between Ohio State and Tennessee, and we've been following this now for what seems like months.
Certainly weeks.
Where is he going to announce that he's going this afternoon at 4.30?
I think you've, you know, you're seeing the crystal ball prediction flip to Tennessee, and maybe that's, maybe there's something behind that.
And, you know, what a pickup that would be for the volunteers.
You know, you get a five-star running back, it does change things.
You know, he's being compared to some generational prospects at position, and I believe that,
that, I don't know, we'll see.
When you get a five-star recruited running back, you want a running back that's going to get 3,000 yards or more.
And I looked at that in the Sporting News article.
There have been eight in the playoff era that have had 3,000 yards or more.
And, you know, if they get that out of David Gabriel Georges, then I think they'll get what they pay for, even though it's going to cost a lot.
Yeah, speaking of cost a lot, I saw a number, Bill.
You may have seen this.
LSU, between coaches' salaries, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, the grand total of over $100 million.
Now, you can agree with that or not.
That's just the number I saw.
Your thoughts about the ROI, the return on the investment, and are LSU fans prepared?
Because when you spend that kind of money, any fan base, especially LSU, they're crazy, man.
They'll tell you that themselves.
They want to win and win right now.
What's realistic this year for that $100 million reported Spaniard tier?
They should.
They're going to be expecting to win now.
Now, I would say the first year we'll see.
You can establish a foundation in year one, but when you have that much money behind it, it better be a pretty darn good foundation.
I think Lane Kiffin will do a nice job there.
But to expect them to get to the semifinals in year one or like a deep playoff run, you might be asking a lot.
But by year two, that will be the expectation, especially because he left in a season where Ole Miss reached the semifinals.
So he'll be held to that standard for a very long time at LSU.
Brian Kelly was held to the same standard, couldn't do it.
And we all saw how that went.
Absolutely.
We'll be talking about this for the next three months, but this time of the year, Heisman candidates and, of course, Arch Sarkeesian is on tomorrow.
With Texas, I keep hearing that he's the front runner for the Heisman.
Well, you're insane at Ohio State maybe, and there are about five more.
But I'm telling you, if Trinidad, we talked about this.
If Trinidad Chambliss at Ole Miss plays the way he did in the postseason, he's going to be in New York too.
Yeah, I mean, it's a loaded quarterback class.
You've got Dante Moore, you've got Trinidad, you've got C.J. Carr.
They love him at Notre Dame.
I think what it's telling me, Brad, is that it's going to be very difficult for somebody not a quarterback to win the Heisman this year.
Even a guy like Jeremiah Smith or Leonard Moore or those type of players that have done a really fantastic job.
So, yeah, we have Trinidad Chambliss at top of our quarterback rankings, and I feel great about it.
I think he's going to have a great year.
I think if you see the same quarterback we did see last year, there's no doubt in my mind he could have a chance to go to New York and perhaps hold up that award.
And what's one of the best friends a good quarterback can have, a good running back, and he's got a better one right now than Ole Miss.
Bill, it's the third quarter of SEC media days.
Bottom line is fourth quarter tomorrow at the end of it.
You get to cast a vote.
Who's one, two, and where do you put Alabama and Auburn and Tennessee?
I'll put Alabama right in that four or five range.
You know, I think Georgia and Texas will be one and two, and I would, if it was my vote, I'm putting Georgia number one just because it's kind of like the roster, like Gunnar Stockton, like the defense, like their schedule, too.
You get into Tennessee, they're probably around seven, and you mentioned Auburn.
They're probably like, to start, like to mention that foundation, probably in that 11-12 range.
So that's where those schools probably sit right now, but a lot can change, obviously, when you have, and South Carolina's getting a lot of buzz in the potential playoff contender, guys.
So you look at that, and you're saying, okay, you have 10 possible teams that can make the college football playoffs.
I mean, and not all 10 will make it, but you have 10 that are inferior in contention.
That's why the conference is so strong.
No question about it.
Listen, tell the Sporting News distribution chain for the preseason magazine to look at the state of Alabama, and particularly North Alabama, and tell them to put some of these things on a truck and deliver it to North Alabama, because I'm still looking for one.
I've told people, you know, Lindy's and Athlon are great, but our buddy, Bill Bender, wrote a lot of articles, and I want to see them.
Tell us where we can get one and also get online to get all your great stuff.
Yeah, you can go online, and they should be.
You're the second person from Alabama to tell me this this week, so I'm going to have to talk to my editors and get this problem fixed.
I will.
But, yeah, you can get it online, and it's out there, and you can read our work at sportingnews.com.
I'm sure I will write about Mr. Tiffin tomorrow.
In the meantime, enjoy something rare for an Ohioan.
Enjoy the beach and the sun down in Tampa.
Okay, Bill?
Hey, I will.
Thanks so much for having me on, guys.
Take care.
Thank you, brother.
Bill Bender, the voice for the East Sporting News.
BB, have you got a napkin, you and James?
What's going on over there?
Let me tell you something, Harold Bugg.
You know, first of all, I appreciate Greg Thornton going to pick up.
Anything that you get from lost pizza is going to be good, and we've got kind of a smorgasbord.
Exactly.
The other thing I wanted to say is that's the voice of the great James Moody,
who has done a tremendous job of producing SEC Media Days this week.
James, what did we get from lost pizza that we're eating right now?
Well, I had the Cujo, which is like, there's like olives and peppers and meat and things.
That's when I get a lot during the scoreboard show.
And so that's, I know that one's going to be good.
I mean, everything's going to be good, but that's going to be good.
Oh, man.
And we also got, you got the Fat Boy Burger pizza.
Right, I did.
How was that?
I said, well, you know, I'm going to have one piece.
I've already had three.
And Blair, who is not in yet, he got the full court press Cuban, which was inspired by Tony Pujol.
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And then they gave us the Philly cheesesteak, the new Philly cheesesteak pizza.
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Just thank you, Lost Pizza, for wonderful food for the scoreboard show.
Harold, you're missing out.
Well, I did get something.
I got the bill.
So, it's a team effort.
I hope you guys enjoy again.
Shout out to Lost Pizza there.
Coming up, we're never lost.
There's something to talk about at SEC Media Days.
Coming up in the next hour, the man who knows lane keeping about as well as anybody anywhere,
Hall of Famer Ron Higgins, and somebody who knows Alabama pretty well inside out,
Rodney Orr from Tider, insider.com.
Hour 2 of SEC Media Days.
Coming up, stay with us, Sean.
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Shoals, Decatur, Athens, and all of northwest Alabama and southern Tennessee.
It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM Sports Voice.
The Boomo Bugg Show.
Your exclusive inside track to the Tide.
Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC.
Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Everywhere I go, TV, media, everybody wants to talk about the landscape of college football.
And it's sad that what's forgotten, what wins games.
Maybe that becomes boring.
Maybe that becomes mundane.
But not at our place.
I don't enjoy talking about all these things that are the landscape of college football.
I enjoy talking about what wins and what allows our team to have the best chance.
The consistency and performance is probably what I'm most proud of over the last 10 to 11 years, including this season.
And the consistency and performance is what Georgia's been built on.
Can we repeatedly do and be successful regardless of who comes in and out of your program?
There you have it.
The wisdom of, now it's hard to believe this, the dean of SEC coaches, Ron Kirby's smart top dog in Georgia.
Welcome in.
It's our two, day three SEC media days in Tampa.
Quickly, B.B., for the folks who missed that, Kirby's come a long way.
He is no longer kind of putting his toe in the water.
Remember, when you try to learn how to swim, you kind of go out there and put your foot in.
Say, I don't know if I can do this.
You jump into the deep end, and once you start, all of a sudden, you feel like you can swim the English channel.
In a way, you just kind of get that feel that Kirby now knows he's got a big target on his back.
Obviously, Lane takes a different approach, but I like Kirby's approach to try to put a championship team on the field, B.B.
Well, he tries to emphasize the reasons why Georgia has won two national championships in 21 and 22 and why they've won three SEC.
And they've been in the SEC championship game eight out of the last nine years.
And he doesn't want people to forget the formula for that.
Now, once again, you mentioned he's the dean of SEC coaches.
That's the reason now he gets asked.
Nick Saban, again, when Nick was in Alabama, he was asked, you know, how's the team doing?
But what are your thoughts about the future of college football and where are we now?
Well, Kirby is getting those same questions.
And the last two years, Nick was in Alabama.
I know people were saying, well, they slipped a little bit.
You and I have talked about the reasons for that repeatedly about, again, how college football was changing.
The assistant coaches were not up to par, at least what he had in winning national championships.
Kirby got a little testy yesterday when asked about the lack of sexiness, so to speak, for the receivers.
You haven't won a national championship in three weeks.
And he always gets asked now about the state of college football.
So those questions, they're not going to stop coming at Kirby.
I wonder when Kirby's going to also take, if you will, a play out of Nick Saban's playbook.
Nick Saban never wasted an opportunity.
He had the unique ability of basically, in effect, giving the impression that he hated to come to these things.
It's a waste of his time.
The book on Nick was, he was always organized.
What was a joke?
Even when he came out of church services on Sunday morning, he had the car turned around, so he didn't have to waste 30 seconds doing that so he could organize.
That's maybe a legend.
But the point is, back to what I was trying to make there about the media, when Nick took to the podium, he had a plan.
Instead of him working for the media, he was going to make the media work for him.
He got his message.
If you will, you've always had those relationships.
Some people are masters at saying it without saying it, if you know what I mean.
And Nick had that ability, and I think he did that this morning.
Maybe I'm off base here, but when he was asked about basically what he would do differently if he was in Alabama,
and I don't know if he said, I would do it differently.
He just said, this is the way I did it.
And that made me sure I'm clear.
He didn't say he would do it differently, but I think the implicit message was there.
Maybe if this staff is listening to Nick Saban, they might take a little bit of a hint here.
We talked about it earlier, he would like to see more man-to-man on defense, not give the other team,
and let's face it, it's a whole different world now.
Every team has got jackrabbits on there.
If they get even a half-step on the secondary, it's hard to catch them, baby.
Well, it is, and I think you'll see more of a mix of man-to-man and zone
because this secondary has got the skills.
I mean, Harold, again, 10, 15, 20 years ago, a cornerback was 5'11", 5'10",
5'11", and 180 pounds.
Now they're 6'4", and 2'10".
It is incredible at how that position has evolved with that,
and I think you're going to see more.
I think you're going to see Alabama more aggressive getting after the quarterback,
but go back to one of the points you made.
You remember the year that Nick Saban went off on agents?
Nick Saban always has an agenda.
Whenever he is talking to the media, there are one or two points that he is always going to try
to get across, and Kirby's learned that, or he will certainly begin to learn that.
And I think Kirby's message yesterday was, guys, look, we know college football has evolved.
It's changed.
We're going to have to change with it.
But let's don't forget, Georgia has been basically the bow cow of the SEC, certainly since Nick Saban retired with the two national championships.
But Kirby's been around Nick for a long time, and he mentioned that, again, yesterday in one of the segments,
but, you know, the car wash, whatever you want to call it, going from one platform to another.
But, as he said, I've learned a few things over the years, too.
Isn't it interesting?
Obviously, the league's got a lot of good coaches.
Nick Saban's been out how many years now?
Three, four, whatever it's been.
Yet, when he walks in the room, the room shuts down.
It's like Elvis is now in the building instead of has left the building.
Your thoughts, do you think that, how much of a conversation do you think Nick and Kalen DeBoer have?
I know they're not going to come out and talk about it, per se, publicly.
If they don't, and correct me if I'm wrong, Nick is still on the payroll in some capacity, Alabama.
I think fans would like to say, Kalen, we understand everybody's got their own egos.
Everybody's got their own limitations and boundaries, et cetera.
But, wouldn't it be nice if you could at least have a phone call from time to time and say, Nick, I'm thinking about Joe Blow up in Starkville, Mississippi.
What do you think?
Would you pursue this kid or not?
And, like we just mentioned, as far as schemes, how much of a role does Nick have at Alabama now?
And if it's not enough, wouldn't you think fans would say, why not take advantage of, let's face it, in Kirby Smart's own eyes, unmistakably the best college football coach ever?
Well, I think Nick has alluded to this a couple of times, in that he has been hands-off as far as Kalen DeBoer's staff.
He's going to let them make their own mistakes, do their own thing, that they've got their own schemes, that they do.
Now, from what I've been told, Kalen DeBoer and Nick meet at least once every other week to discuss personnel.
I'm sure schemes to some point.
And that's one of the keys, when Nick Saban retired, he said, look, they offered me an office in the football building.
And I said, no, I did not want to be inside that football building.
He's got one at Bryant-Denny Stadium along with, again, some of the other offices, some administrative offices there.
But believe me, I'm sure Nick Saban would be glad to go into as much detail as Kalen DeBoer would like to go into.
But, yeah, Harold, they do meet on a frequent basis.
I was going to say that, and I totally agree with Nick.
Once you leave the building, you leave the building.
My point was, Kalen DeBoer, since Nick is, my understanding is still on the payroll there,
why wouldn't Kalen DeBoer reach out and initiate that conversation?
I think in that context, Nick would say, okay, since you ask, make sure I'm not trying to meddle here and tell you what to do.
But since you ask, yeah, this is what I would do going forward.
So just a thought there.
BB, obviously Alabama kicked off the day.
Everybody thought once Alabama gets in, the party's over.
Jon Sumrall had a different thought talking Florida Gators.
Yeah, I'm going to be very curious when we talk to John Ferrari, our good friend, about John.
John had been a little bit hesitant as far as, is Jon Sumrall the man that Florida needs?
I think John pretty much put that to rest this morning, and it wasn't the two a** bombs.
It just, look, we know who's in charge now, and I still love his point.
He said, look, again, these guys are getting paid.
They better perform.
There you go.
Well, it's not a babysitting service, and he's right.
If you're making that kind of money, think about this, BB.
I dare say, in probably 9% of the cases, those 17-, 18-, 19-year-old kids are already making more money than both their parents combined all their lives.
So, yeah, don't sit here and play the kid card.
These are employees, so if they're going to be employees, treat them as such.
Florida, we're going to be talking with John Ferrari on that.
After the meal, which we'll get to on a local level here in a second, Ole Miss and Texas A&M, what do you expect this afternoon?
I think a lot of people are interested about Pete Golding.
I think Pete is going to come in and do exactly what we see in a lot of the interviews now.
I'm sure he's going to be asked about the Dabo situation as far as poaching the player.
I'm going to be curious to see what his response for that is going to be.
But, again, he doesn't play golf.
He doesn't do a lot of it.
He's kind of like Alex Gulich at Auburn.
He doesn't have a lot of hobbies.
He's just a football coach.
Now, Texas A&M, Harold, Mike Helco, I think he's going to have to look at the expectations.
Well, everybody's got the expectations.
But Texas A&M lost their last two games after having a great, jumping out 11-0, lost the last two games.
And I think, again, Marcel Reed, as he stepped up to that next level of leadership, would the defense fill some holes?
It's going to be an interesting afternoon with Mike Helco and Pete Golding.
So, if you're going to sit here and say, what are the keys outside of offensive line?
It's safe to say the two most important things to have a successful offense, and obviously it's all important.
We're talking about rankings here.
You better have a good quarterback, and you better have a good running back.
And you know where I'm going with that, BB.
Who in the league has a coming-in better situation at quarterback or running back than Ole Miss?
And I think I know your answer, and if it's what I think it's going to be, everybody's talking Texas.
Everybody's talking Georgia.
Where do you put Ole Miss?
I'll be honest with you.
I think Trinidad Chambliss, if he stays healthy, wins the Heisman Trophy.
Key one, Lacey, is one of the best running backs, if not the best running back in the league.
I know what Texas has got, but no, I would put Ole Miss at the top for quarterback.
I think you're a good bet there with that, because not only that, they're kind of flying under the radar relative to those two.
Speaking of that, what are you two doing as far as lunch?
Well, it has been one of the highlights of the week.
Let me bring James Moody back in.
By the way, when you hear the lost pizza commercial, the monster at the end is the one and only James Moody.
They're located at 201 North Seminary.
Esteemed producer, what did Greg Thornton bring for us to munch on?
He brought us some, first of all, some jalapeno mac and cheese bites, and they were wonderful.
Incredible.
Wonderful.
Also, Blair, when he gets here, is going to have the court street, excuse me, the full court press, a Cuban that was inspired by.
If we don't eat it first.
Yes, exactly.
He might not have much of a sandwich left to eat.
That was inspired by Tony Pujol, Coach Tony Pujol at UNA.
I had the Cujo on a Cauliflower Crush.
You can get the pizzas on Cauliflower Crush.
It's a little, you know, more health conscious choice there.
And you got the Fat Boy Burger Pizza.
The Fat Boy is good, yes, yes.
And looking at both of us, Brett is not the Fat Boy.
And also, they got us the new Philly, it's called the Philly Y'all.
It's the Philly Cheesesteak Pizza.
And I may have a little bite of that here in a minute.
But, no, wonderful food for Lost Pizza.
And they always provide me and Blair with food for the scoreboard show.
So, off-season shout-out to them for the scoreboard show.
And so, yeah, go by and see them in historic downtown Florence across from the Shoals Theater.
Absolutely.
Harold, let me do the sponsors real quick.
And we appreciate this.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.
Well, I knew you and James were talented, but now I have an even more esteem for you.
You can actually talk with your mouth full.
So, that is a special talent.
He's a special talent.
He's the Hall of Famer, Ron Higgins, on the top of the SEC.
One name, Lane.
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Now, back to the Boomo Bugg Show on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back again at Kildo Sinemus.
Thank you so much, guys.
And thank you for making us a part of your day, day three, SEC Media Days in Tampa.
And I don't care how many years you have covered this thing.
There's always a first for everything.
First time in Tampa.
First say hello to Ron Higgins, the Hall of Famer.
Now, fine columnist of the Shreveport Bossier Journal.
Ron, welcome in.
How are you?
You having fun?
Oh, man.
I'm just about, I've maxed out and I can't wait for tomorrow to put a cherry on top of it, Ron.
Everybody's kind of been building to this.
You know the name Lane better than any of us in this conversation.
There's been a lot of talk.
Is it true that basically Lane has two personalities?
When he's in his basement, he'll take a shot at anybody out there.
When he's one-on-one looking you in the eye behind the microphone, it's like, he's Mr. Shy Guy almost.
Ron, you know him better than we do.
Tomorrow, everybody's been talking about it.
What are we going to get?
You're going to get the 1970s late-night FM DJ.
You know that guy?
Appreciate it.
I've been there, done that.
Let's talk to you, the dirty, hairy guy.
Yeah.
Well, here's a song for lonely lovers on a lonely night.
That's who you're going to get.
I mean, he won't look you in the eye.
He'll shift from foot to foot.
Right, right.
And everything, you'll have to, even with the sound guy who's run the sound system is going,
I've got to jack this up like 20.
Nobody can hear him.
How much of this is just basically controlling the room.
I mean, obviously, Lane, he's a different bird.
He's a heck of an X's and O's coach, but a lot of the coaches that are X's and O's.
He's just got the kind of personality that, let's say, at least the modern media, they love
it because he's always a quote.
He's a soundbite.
He is a TikToker.
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, he's a guy that, he's much better on a keyboard or on his phone somewhere reacting
to something rather than just, you know, in interviews.
He's just, he's not a, he's not a great interview.
He really, he really isn't.
But he's a h*** of a football coach.
I mean, h*** of a play caller.
I mean, he won't say probably anything remotely controversial to Mars.
He'll probably say, he'll probably come up and say, listen, man, I mean, have a whole new team.
We're just trying to get better.
You know, I think, you know, he said, you know, I feel like we'll win a national championship eventually here.
But it might mean he's not putting a time, you know, timeline on it like, you know, like LSU fans are.
I think he'll be, as Kitt, Lane always is really low key and just, this is the way he is.
You know, you're not going to, I don't know.
Maybe because I'm not there, and I'll watch this a little bit on TV this week.
Do any of these coaches have any personality?
Some are all.
No, it's corporate.
It's corporate.
Yeah, some role does.
I mean, John Summerall, and maybe, I guess, Eli Drinkwitz would be the closest thing to it.
Yeah, I mean, it's like, I don't know if they're so guarded, like you said, corporate, you know.
But it's just not, you know, just even Spurs was in the league.
I mean, there would be people would, I mean, people would, I don't know if it was because he was in the room,
but it would encourage us to talk, you know, just kind of speak their minds.
And, you know, some of those coaches are gone.
I mean, Les Miles, as daffy as he was, he was entertaining.
He would review his entire vacation for everybody before he started his business.
You know, you think of some of the great, you think of some of the great many days of the past
where it's just been bizarre stuff, you know, like, like the whole, you know,
fuller being served in injunctions so he didn't win the show.
So everybody, everybody had 150 people in the room looking at a speaker phone.
Right.
You're right.
I remember the story of Billy Brewer.
You remember when they used to give out the goodie bag at the SEC?
I looked behind me.
Guess who was in the line?
Billy Brewer, the head coach at Ole Miss, went for his free goodie bag.
That's how far they'd come.
Yes, he did.
Probably his wife, Miss Kaye, told him to go get him.
Right.
Oh, yeah.
Billy, go get him.
You know, the year that Saban was LSU, he locked his dog up in a room upstairs in a hotel, the Winfrey.
Yep.
And the maid came to change the room.
The dog got out.
The dog found Saban downstairs in an interview.
He found him.
So, you know, you would like to be like that, but it's almost like it's become – when ESPN took over and started showing, you know, television every day,
which I always say, you know, forced to – most of the sports writers to wear their best-looking free golf shirts, I think it just – it became real corporate and tightened up and everything was measured.
You know, the questions were measured.
The responses were measured.
You know, there's not much personality left in there.
I miss that.
I do miss that.
Ryan, do you remember at the bottom of the elevator at Hoover at Winfrey, the little dog that was painted with orange and blue, like a tiger?
You had the national championship ring guy.
You had the Bear Bryant imitation holding the program.
That was a lively bunch that was at the bottom of the escalator.
When the Alabama rolled in, it was like a Mardi Gras.
Yes, it did.
I mean, and for all the – of course, Radio Row was right next to it.
Right.
So, you know, you can look down the floor and see, like, this massive crowd.
You go, Alabama's here.
Yep.
I don't know how it's set up.
It was in Tampa.
I know this thing goes back to Nashville next year.
I do know this.
I asked certain bits of this.
And I think we'll all enjoy this if it happens.
New Orleans has put in a bid for media day.
Oh, my goodness.
We'll all enjoy that.
I don't think we're ready for that.
No, no, we're not ready for that.
I'll tell those people I like.
I think the final four should be like three or four different places, and that's it.
Like, Minneapolis, New Orleans, probably San Antonio.
And so, I'll tell the same about media day.
Oh, man.
Rocky by Alka-Seltzer in the morning after.
You know, honestly, God, as much as some people complained, honestly, the best media day location is Birmingham.
It is.
It is.
It is.
It's a mental.
And it's ridiculous.
It's Fenway.
Hey, right.
It's Fenway and Wrigley Park.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
I mean, honestly, God, it's the best setup.
It's the most drivable thing for all media.
That's right.
You can drive there, practically.
That's right.
I'm about to tell you, this c*** about moving around to different places was like in, you know,
also media day.
I mean, I don't know if it's – I'm not there, so I don't know, but I'll just kind of look
in the audience.
I'm guessing it might be down a little bit, maybe.
I don't know.
Yeah, it is.
Because it's just people out there.
It's not central.
They can't afford to go to Tampa.
I mean, they can't afford to go that far.
You know, I just always – I'm a big believer.
I know – look, I know the SEC's falling in love with Nashville.
Nashville.
Yeah.
That's what I'm talking about.
I get that.
But I'm a traditionalist guy, and I don't care if it's in Alabama.
It doesn't mean anybody else who cares in Alabama.
Mm-hmm.
You know?
It's been – look, I – it should be in a city that's, I guess, relatively easy for everybody
to get to.
Right.
And I just think, when you go to Atlanta, which is h*** to drive through or fly into.
Yes.
When you go to Tampa, Florida, we're in the middle of nowhere.
Yeah.
But, you know, I would – you know, going back to Birmingham, I wouldn't mind that at all.
And, I mean, I'm certainly – nobody's going to protest against New Orleans.
No.
Right before you get away, they say there's $100 million on the books between coaches' salaries,
players' stuff.
What's going to be the return on the investment of this LSU team this season?
Honest to God, I looked at the schedule, and I just – realistically, I think the best
they can do is 9-3.
Yeah.
I mean, that's – I'm not going to be, you know, these crazy LSU fans.
Like, I tell these LSU fans, they say, y'all play talking about – see, their playoffs
this year.
Are you sure about making a first down on third and one?
You know?
Yeah.
You couldn't do that, Steve.
Yeah.
And so, I think 9-3, you know what I mean?
But, you know, Kevin's put together a really good staff.
You know, he had Ed Orgeron back as a defensive line analyst and also a recruiting guy.
Ed spoke of Louisiana High School Flake Association Clinic yesterday.
I went and saw him.
You could hear him – before he walked in the room, you could hear him outside walking.
Hey, you know, Manny.
You can see Manny.
Hey, Manny.
Yeah.
Hey, Manny.
He's very happy in his role that Lane created for him.
And I think this is an excitement here that it hadn't had in a while, you know?
Look, I don't think Brian Kittle was a terrible coach.
I just don't think he was.
And people say, oh, he was a bad fit.
Well, you know what?
If he would have won a few more games, he'd be a h*** of a fit.
Yep.
And Kittle will tell you, I didn't win enough games, you know?
That's right.
He had a strength.
I didn't win enough games.
That's what it is.
You know?
And all the people say, he wasn't a fit.
We'll give us to Louisiana, blah, blah, blah.
I don't care where you're from, man.
You're going to, if you win games, I mean, look, Saban, Louisiana, like Saban when he was, like, when he came here, like he was from Uranus, man.
And once he won, he was, like, on us, you know?
Yeah.
He's a part of Louisiana fabric.
Not really, but he won, and people loved him.
People will forgive where you're from, or maybe you have an abrasive personality, if you win.
And when you don't, they're going to use that as an excuse, but he wasn't one of us.
Absolutely.
Listen, this segment has been sponsored by the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce.
There you go.
Where can we get online and get the Hall of Famers good stuff?
I've got a column on, I've got a column on today on Shreveportportjournal.com.
That's where you found me today.
And I'm on Twitter at Ron Higg and SCCRon for Instagram and theronhiggins.org.
I'll post some stuff on there, too.
That's free.
Everything's free.
I'm all free, man.
I'm all about it.
You're free, but not cheap, right?
Yeah.
Look, when you get to a senior citizen, you're almost 70, you want everything free, okay?
You want to give it free.
You want two picks at supper.
That's right.
You want people to give away free, Pete.
Oh, no.
There you go.
Just stay away from New Orleans.
Don't say the word free on a street corner in New Orleans, Ron, okay?
I might get handcuffed on you.
I got it.
I just don't like it.
Ron, listen, thanks for your time today, and let's do it again soon, okay, buddy?
All right, guys, take care.
We'll see you.
I'm the only Ron Higgins talking about Alabama.
Who does it better than Ron New York?
On deck.
Day three, KCC Media Days in Tampa.
Stay with us.
You're on Sports Radio 939 to score.
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Now, back to the Boomo Bugg Show on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back in again.
Thank you so much, guys and gals.
Really appreciate the support.
And for you, taking time out of your busy schedule to make us a part of your day,
Day 3 SEC Media Days, down in Tampa, where I'm sure Rodney Orr had a very close eye
on the first guest of the day at the podium, one Kalen DeBoer from Alabama.
Rodney has got it all covered from the inside out when it comes to Bama.
That's because he's about it at TidalInsider.com, and his book's called Bigger Than Bama.
Rodney, welcome in.
How are you?
I am doing well, guys.
How's it going?
Hey, man.
And it's finally gotten here.
And when you see this thing called Media Days rocking and rolling, you know it's about
to get, as we say down south serious, your thoughts about Kalen DeBoer?
I mean, to me, we talked earlier with Ron Higgins.
You probably know Ron down in Louisiana.
And these guys are not going to say a whole lot of shocking stuff.
I've noticed the ones who really come out and try to ripple the waters are the new kids
in the block.
They want to come out and kind of establish their boundaries like a new dog in the yard.
But your thoughts about Kalen DeBoer's performance this morning?
Well, I mean, I think it's just typical.
I mean, in terms of, you know, I thought he did a nice job.
Obviously, this is his third one.
Seemed a little more comfortable, perhaps.
But I just think he just addressed the questions and the things that a lot of people have talked
about over the course of the offseason.
I mean, obviously, the quarterback situation, the competition there between Austin Mack and
Kiel and Russell, something that we knew would be a topic.
And I think the physicality of this team, you know, was another topic.
You know, will this team be more physical?
Will they be able to run the football?
And I thought he addressed that really well.
And, you know, the things that they've tried to do in the offseason to really work on those
areas that they needed to improve.
And it sounds like to me, Harold and Brett, you know, just based on the things that he touched
on, you know, he feels confident that this team made a lot of strides in the offseason.
And it sounds like he feels like that they've put themselves in position to be an improved
football team across the board, you know, this fall.
Well, you know something, Rodney, that I think he's not talking enough about.
It's his third year.
I mean, who in the world, in their right mind, want to come in and try to even attempt to fill
the shoes of one next save?
You're not going to fill them.
You're going to give it your best shot.
But I think any time you come from out west to the SEC, and not only SEC, but Alabama,
and not only Alabama, but after the GOAT, how much has he learned in his first two years?
In other words, is this going to be the year that he says, I had a pretty good idea of what
I was getting into from the SEC standpoint?
Forget all that talk about Nick.
Football at the end of the day is still football.
But why has he learned in his first two years that maybe I should have done before now that
he can benefit and the team and the fans can benefit this year?
Well, I mean, I think, you know, it's a good question here.
Hold on.
That'd probably be something he would, you know, be better attuned to than I would.
But, you know, I think that there's probably a lot of things that you learn after the first
couple of years.
And one thing is what not to do.
Yeah, this Alabama thing is a monster.
There's no doubt about that.
And I think, you know, until you experience it, and look, I can go by talking to the former
head coaches here, Dennis Franchoni being one of them.
He said, until you actually experience what this is all about, he said, you really can't
kind of grasp it.
So I think he did a really good job of, you know, managing the offseason, understanding that
there were things that they were going to have to change, areas where they were going
to have to improve.
And, you know, Harold, he made some changes.
Obviously, he's, for example, at the line of scrimmage.
I think that's one of the big areas that they have to take a major step moving forward.
And I think when you look at the portal guys that they brought in across the defensive front,
I think they knew that they had to get bigger.
They knew they had to get stronger.
They have to do a better job of stopping the run.
And to do that, they needed some experienced guys who brought that size and, you know, ability.
And they did.
They went out and got some guys.
Now, we'll see if those guys actually come through.
But they did address that.
And then I think on the offensive side, obviously, they made a change.
The offensive line coach with Cap leaving and with Adrian Clem now.
And Clem has a philosophy or a reputation of developing physical offensive lines.
And, again, how much is the scheme going to kind of play into that?
You know, we'll see.
But, you know, they have made some changes.
They brought Richard Owens in at tight ends coach with Brian Ellis moving to quarterbacks now.
So they have done some things.
They brought some guys in in support roles as assistant offensive line coach.
You know, those types of things that I think, you know,
that they've addressed these areas in terms of the staff, but also the personnel.
Again, they went to the portal and got some guys on the offensive line.
So now the question is, Harold and Brett, how much improvement do they actually make?
And, I mean, these are just things that we won't know.
But we do know one thing.
They've emphasized trying to improve in those areas.
And we really won't know until they actually get out on the field.
Ronnie, I'm guessing you haven't had any feedback whatsoever to your prediction that Alabama would go 10-2.
But you had a good analogy of comparing this to Bill Curry's third season in 1989.
And I agree with you.
I think Alabama gets off to a good start.
I think they will be undefeated going into Georgia.
And if they beat Georgia on an emotional Saturday night, what are they going to have left in the tank when they go to Knoxville the following week?
But I thought that was a good analogy with that.
I remember, again, Alabama had a quarterback injury early.
And then Gary Hollingsworth, who was an absolutely perfect fit for Homer Smith's offense.
And I've said forever that Homer Smith was one of the greatest offensive coordinators in the history of college football.
Hollingsworth was the SEC Player of the Year.
But there was a question, and you alluded to this, about how tough was this team at the line of scrimmage.
Well, they found out when they went to Auburn for the first time.
I've always said there was no way Alabama was going to win that game, the first game at Auburn.
And I gave Pat Dye credit for that.
But I thought that was a very good analogy for you, kind of comparing this team.
And we'll see, as you always say, we'll see how this goes.
But there are some legitimate comparisons to this team, to that 1989 team.
Yeah, I think the way it kind of sets up, you know, and I think the first five games this year will give Alabama a great chance to develop, build some momentum, some confidence.
Hopefully, I mean, to me, you never know.
I mean, they've got some tough games in there.
I get that.
So I'm not taking any of those for granted.
But I think that it's really important that they start out 5-0, really.
I mean, if you want to keep your hopes alive, because that second half of the season is going to be really tough, you don't need to slip up in one of those five games.
Again, I understand they're going to be very competitive.
But, you know, just like in 1989, you're finding the hot quarterback.
I mean, and I think killing Russell, and I'm not shortchanging Mac in any way.
I would not do that, because I think he's certainly, this right now is going to be an interesting battle.
And I don't think that the guy who wins that job, or let me rephrase that.
I don't think the guy who necessarily starts the first game is the guy who starts the fifth or sixth game.
And that's the way I think it could play out, because I do think both are going to play early in the season.
So I think Russell, when I look at him, he could be one of those guys that totally elevates those around him to another level.
So I think this team, if they can go 5-0, get on a little bit of a roll like that 89 team did,
I do think ultimately what it's going to come down to, and I'm talking about over the course of the season,
is how much better are they in the trenches.
And that's where I said that, you know, the 89 team eventually got exposed in the trenches.
And, you know, this team, how far will it go?
I think ultimately you've got to have the quarterback, but I think it's got to be in the trenches.
I mean, if those trenches, and as I said, if Kalen DeBoer can flip the switch in the trenches this year,
then this team has a chance to be really, really good.
And I did say 10-2, losses to Georgia and LSU, to be specific.
And then, but now look, I also said if things don't go as well up front, if they don't develop,
this could be an 8-4 football team, and with a few bad breaks, who knows, could be worse.
So I really see it, actually, between 8-4 and 10-2.
You know, I think that's probably somewhere where they'll fall.
Let me ask you this, Rodney.
One thing, these are facts.
It's not emotions talking.
It's pure numbers.
They've got over 50 new guys coming in.
I saw a stat this morning.
I saw it right.
As far as returning efficiency on offense, there's 16 teams in the SEC.
Alabama's 16th.
So, obviously, this is going to be a talented team, but it's going to be a young team.
Your thought's just about something that sometimes maybe we don't give enough attention to.
Well, there's going to be a lot of youth.
And at the same time, I was looking at the SEC, the average age of the players on the rosters.
And Alabama, I think Arkansas was just under 21 years of age, and Alabama was just 20.4.
There's not a lot of difference there in terms of the age of the teams.
And Arkansas was number one in terms of the oldest team in the SEC.
So, with all that said, look, everybody's got, you know, I don't know what all, I haven't seen all that list, but everybody, most of these teams have a lot of transition.
There's so many teams.
I think LSU brought in 43 new players.
Yeah.
Something like that.
So, you know, that's what makes it so difficult to predict is how these teams, you know, stack up right now because you've got so many different players.
And how are they all going to blend together on a team, create chemistry?
It just makes it difficult to really project.
And, you know, guys, we could be sitting here in late November talking and saying, you know, Alabama's blown away the competition.
And we really wouldn't be thinking that maybe right now because, you know, we're just kind of not privy to what these teams really look like with the transition that they've had.
We don't know how these guys in Baton Rouge are going to adjust to, you know, where they are now.
So, just so many different changes that every year that it makes it really difficult to project.
And, listen, you know it's got to be crazy for the coaches to have to try to manage this.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Nick Saban touched on that was this morning.
A lot of uncertainty in college football, but there is no uncertainty when it comes to tighter insiders coverage of Alabama sports, football, basketball,
baseball in season, always recruiting at 27, 24, seven message board, tighter insider TV, I get all of that great stuff for nominal price.
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And, you know, we're putting stuff up now.
We just had the boards' comments.
We've got some other things, some other observations from SEC media days.
We've got Zabian Brown, Hubbard, and, you know, Ryan Coleman-Williams coming up.
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The board, the all sports forum there at Tighter Insider is just really starting to heat up, man.
You can tell it's here.
You need to rename your board, Lazarus.
It's resurrected and about to get even more rocking and rolling.
Keep up the good work, Rodney, and thank you for your time today, buddy.
Appreciate it, guys.
Thank you, Ben.
Rodney Orr, he's busy there.
Tighterinsider.com.
And again, his book is called Biggers and Batman.
Coming up in the third hour of SEC media days, Double D, Drew Jarman is going to be on board.
And the man who covers the man who probably his mom would say he needs to wash his mouth.
So, John Ferrari on that horse head again, day three, SEC media day.
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Valley Broadcasting Corporation.
This is Daryl from Columbus.
Previously from the Paul Firemont Show.
Roman Harper.
Let's just be honest with the callers and the listeners.
No person has ever replaced the GOAT successfully.
In any sport, at any time.
Whether it's UCLA.
Whether it's Belichick.
You can just go down the list of whoever you think the best coach is.
And the person that comes after usually doesn't have a lot of success.
The Paul Feinbaum Show.
Weekdays at 3 Eastern on the ESPN app and on the SEC Network.
Evan, Canty, and Michelle are unsportsmanlike.
The Kansas City Chiefs have become extremely underrated.
Everyone is trying to find teams that are going to be better than them
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We're doing this thing that we did with New England forever.
We're trying to find reasons to put people above the Chiefs.
and sportsmanlike.
Weekday mornings starting at 6 Eastern on ESPN Radio and on ESPN2.
93.9, the score weather.
Today, a 20% chance of showers with possible thunderstorms.
A high around 90 with heated X values as high as 100.
Tonight, mostly cloudy with a 20% chance of showers overnight and a low near 70.
Tomorrow, partly sunny with a 10% chance of showers and a high around 85.
Tomorrow night, partly cloudy with a low near 70.
Ampere Friday, partly sunny with a low near 70.
with a 40% chance of showers and a high around 90.
Your weather from 93.9, the score.
Now, get ready to roll Shoals, Decatur, Athens, and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee.
It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM sports voice.
It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM sports voice.
The Boomo Bugg Show.
Your exclusive inside track to the tie.
Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC.
Now, your host, Harold Bugg Show.
The Boomo Bugg Show.
I think we're still internally the chip on the shoulder underdog that has a lot to prove.
There's nothing that we inherit from last season that has to do with any future win.
Everything's about the responsibility we have over the program that we have built, but how this team can actually move it forward.
And maybe more importantly, how this team can fully express itself over the course of the next six months.
My hope would be that the program, with every year, becomes a little more of a thorn in the side to other SEC fan bases.
I wonder if that's Bruce Lee or Chuck Lee.
He's throwing it down.
Vanderbilt Head Coach Clark Lee on board with us.
SEC Media Day 3.
Here on 93.9, the score.
BB, it is now the third hour of SEC Media Day Year 3.
It's going to be very interesting.
Your thoughts, and we're going to get to what all has happened to this day, but back to Vanderbilt.
To me, this is one of the more intriguing stories, Brett.
And people said, how in the world did they go from that old Vanderbilt to now?
Well, we have been blessed to be friends with one of the reasons for over a decade, and here's what's weird about it.
Have you ever gone through life, and you went to school with someone, and you went to high school with them,
and then when you got into the business world after going through the school thing, you ended up teaming back up?
Well, that's what has happened with Clark Lee.
Remember, we had Barton Simmons, our friend for over a decade, with us.
He is now the brain trust of that team.
He is an Ivy Leaguer.
He's smart as a whip, and Clark Lee had the insight to bring him on board, his old high school buddy, and let him be the GM.
And this is the man who put together all-star teams down in San Antonio back in the day at the U.S. Army Games.
He knows talent.
He's from the Nashville area, so they got back together.
And to me, you're only as good as the people you hire and surround yourself with.
And I think that was one of the most strategic moves that Lee could have made.
And our friend Bruce Marshall, who can have this opinion about anywhere, he didn't have a dog in the hunt.
He's in Las Vegas.
Even he says, Barton Simmons, one of the best at what he does.
Lee agreed with him.
But your thoughts just about how Lee has put this program together.
Well, that's the key, Harold.
It's not just a team.
It's a program that he's been able to do this.
Of course, beating Alabama in Nashville two years ago, they just skyrocketed from there.
But I still remember the first time I ever met Barton Simmons.
He was scouting a player at Spartan High School.
That was about 15 years ago.
But he knows how to evaluate players.
He did it for rivals for years and then 247 for a while.
And Barton and Clark Lee have been friends.
They were teammates in high school.
They've been friends forever.
But what, to me, that he's done the best job of is building a line of scrimmage.
Now, they lost some of the guys, but they've got Cade McConnell, Cooper, DeBose.
Where's he from?
He transferred from Alabama.
I'm going to be curious to see what kind of year he has.
Jared Curtis, the five-star.
Everybody thinks, I thought it was an interesting comment from Clark Lee yesterday.
He said, no, we actually have a quarterback competition.
We're not going to give anything to anybody.
And he said, Jared Curtis is going to have to win it.
But Cedric Alexander, remember, he had the 65-yard run against Alabama last year
and had about a 40 against Tennessee Junior Surreal, one of the best wide receivers.
Cole Adams, of course, from Alabama, another transfer.
We've been talking about a lot of former Alabama players here today.
They've got a good defense.
Glenn Seabrook's a defensive tackle.
Miles Capers, six years.
He's been there for a long while, long will.
But there's no question.
Clark Lee knows.
And, Harold, the other thing about Vanderbilt is their athletic director,
who was at Bob Jones High School, is the amount of money that they're now putting into the athletic program.
Remember, we talked to Max about this on Monday.
And several people have noted, in the past, a lot of their private donations would, of course, go to academics.
But now it is going to the athletic program.
They have remodeled and expanded the football stadium.
But the locker rooms, all the other stuff, Vandy right now is a true SEC program.
Isn't it amazing what the Madison County, Alabama, is contributing to college football this season?
You mentioned the A.D. at Vanderbilt, out of Bob Jones.
Chip Lindsey, we talked about.
The offensive coordinator now at Missouri, out of Bob Jones.
The guy that we're going to be talking about here shortly is out of Grissom High School.
I talked about John Somerhal.
It's amazing how much talent comes out of our neck of the woods.
But the other thing you talked about, B.B., as far as the question this morning was posed about Vanderbilt.
We'll get to the other stuff here in a second.
Bear with us.
The question was posed, who owns the state of Tennessee now?
Which, in the years past, would have almost been something for the comedy channel.
And the answer was, Tennessee's got to catch up to Vanderbilt.
Do you ever think we'd have that to say?
No.
In fact, Harold, Vandy beat Tennessee last year in Knoxville emphatically.
45 to 24, and boy, did that ever send a message, believe me.
Harold, that's one of the reasons why, you know, that there's been some skepticism about Josh Heupel at Tennessee.
Again, the same thing.
When you lose to one of your biggest rivals.
That big.
And particularly, the last game of the season, it's going to haunt you for a while.
But there's no question.
And again, Vandy is a true player in this.
And I think they're going to have a winning season.
Are they going to go 10-3, 6-2 again?
Probably not.
But it wouldn't surprise me at all if they win eight or nine games.
In case you're just joining us, Alabama taking to the stage today.
B.B., I will say this.
People are trying to project this Alabama team.
And I can't remember the last time.
I've seen so many predictions all over the board.
This, that, and everything in between.
But to me, it all comes down to this.
I think projections are crazy, especially in the modern era.
That's why I don't put a lot of stock in anybody's top 10, top 20, whatever.
Because there's so many guys coming in that weren't on the roster last year.
Just taking, as we mentioned, Alabama taking to the stage today.
And they've got over 50 new faces.
And that's just Alabama.
Everybody's got a lot of new faces.
LSU's got probably even more.
You go across the board.
And I thought Nick Saban had a good point this morning in his analysis.
I'm going to put a lot of stock in that man.
He talked about all these new guys coming in.
And some teams are veterans.
And what Nick said, look, you know, veterans are great.
But a football player is a football player.
He's either good or he's bad.
Not because he's a freshman.
Not because he's a senior.
Now, the senior should have a better ideal of a feel in certain circumstances.
But he brought up the obvious example of the national championship game.
He talked about, look, we had this guy that's pretty good.
He went over to the NFL and had a pretty good career.
But he did not have a good night.
And he brought this kid off that nobody could spell his last name.
And he ended up capping off a national championship.
To me, Nick has a good point.
If you can play, you can play.
It's going to be some learning experiences, some painful moments.
But here's the big question.
Alabama has got to do two things.
They've got to have an offensive line that can open up for the running backs.
And let's not put it all on the O-line.
The running backs have got to have what I call just a natural instinct to hit the hole and go.
That combination, unless they address that, then I don't have a lot of expectations.
But I will say this.
If they've managed to sit here and patch the holes in the offensive line,
and guys like Crowell can live up to his potential,
I think Alabama can surprise some people.
And to DeBoer's credit, he went out and basically did about all he could do.
I mean, he shopped, and he brought in a new brain trust to coach the O-line.
Your thoughts about those two points.
Well, I've said all the entire summer,
the key to the Alabama season is the improvement on the offensive line.
Kalen DeBoer mentioned this morning about the offensive line,
and everybody talks about, well, they need an improved offensive line
to be able to run more effectively.
And he said, look, the other reason we need a better offensive line,
we being Alabama, is we need to protect the quarterback better.
Listen, they nearly got Ty Simpson killed in the South Carolina-Missouri game,
and I still say the injury that he incurred in the Missouri game,
he was never the same the rest of the season.
I thought he was the best quarterback in the country through the Tennessee game,
and then the injuries began to pile up on him.
But Nick Saban mentioned this this morning on the air is the key to the drill
is Alabama, as he mentioned literally, Alabama had 23 players leave through the portal,
another 10 drafted in the NFL, nine were undrafted.
That's 42 players from the 2025 team who are gone,
and they've got 50 new players.
Now, those guys are not going to gel immediately,
and I know you said that the team is young.
The team is technically one of the youngest,
but I would use the point also inexperienced.
Now, some of these transfer guys have played two or three years at other places,
but Harold, that's the entire key to me is the line of scrimmage.
If the offensive line jails and they stay healthy,
they can run the ball and protect the quarterback, whoever he's going to be,
and we haven't talked a lot about this this week,
but that defensive front I think is going to get better.
They're bigger.
They're stronger.
The kid from Oregon and USC I think are going to be good.
They've got the best defensive secondary in the country,
and I think the linebackers are underrated,
but, again, the key is all these guys have got to jail.
And let's say it's a defense early on anyway you would think
has got to carry the offense so they can catch up
and get some of that experience under the belt.
Let me ask you this on the offensive side of the ball.
How much focus is going to be on Ryan Grubb?
Will the Zebra change his stripes?
When he was Washington, we saw he called the place with the NFL.
What was the criticism?
He could not develop a running game in the NFL.
He comes back to Alabama.
Where's Alabama's running game been?
On his tutelage in Tuscaloosa.
Has Ryan Grubb gotten a memo that maybe you need to change
the way you think about approaching a game plan?
Well, he's going to have to,
and Nick Saban mentioned this again this morning.
He said, when I was a defensive coordinator,
I always wanted to put the offense behind the sticks.
And that's what happened to Alabama last year.
When they would go, you know, first down or second down,
they'd run the ball and get all the two yards.
You're second, you're third and eight, you know, third and long,
and the defense can pin their ears back and come after you.
In other words, the defense, they're going to dictate the strategy here.
But I do think he is going to run the ball more.
I think they, again, you've got a better offensive line coach.
I think Coach Kemp was a better recruiter.
Coach Clem, I think, is a better technician.
You've got a very good tight end in Ford, who's a good in-line player.
They've got good tight ends.
The tight end coach was an offensive line coach, too.
They've got all the pieces of the puzzle, but he is going to have to run.
But Alabama needs to be, and I say this all the time during the season,
you need to be in second and six or second and five instead of second and ten.
You've got a much better chance of making a first down.
And if you're in the fourth quarter and you need to melt the clock,
you also need a reliable, consistent running game.
And like Nick said this morning, you brought in Jake Cooker.
He was a no-name quarterback.
He said, yeah, but did you see that running back?
Yeah, exactly.
And that old line.
Yeah, yeah, number two.
You or me behind him.
That's right.
You can put us behind the quarterback and be pretty good.
By the way, I think, if I'm not mistaken, Blair's contact and wants to know,
have you guys saved him any crumbs?
Maybe, maybe.
You know, we'll see.
Listen, I appreciate Greg Thornton going by and picking it up.
James and I have been nibbling.
This is James Moody, our esteemed producer.
James, tell us again the incredible delicacies that we've been munching on this afternoon.
Well, we had the jalapeno mac and cheese bites.
Well, I had the Cujo.
Right.
Which is normally one of my go-tos during the football season.
When they do us for the scoreboard show.
And also, you had the Fat Boy Burger pizza.
Fat Boy, right.
And they also gave us, as a bonus, the Philly y'all, Philly cheesesteak pizza.
That's correct.
And Blair, right here, has his full-court press Cuban sandwich inspired by Tony Pujol.
Maybe it's left.
Left.
It'll be in the fridge for him.
So, Blair, come on.
You better hurry, buddy.
You better hurry.
I think you just got a speeding ticket trying to get down there before you guys did it.
So, but a big shout out to a lot of people.
Thanks so much for making the day for our team here.
And speaking of spicy on the menu, what about that boy down in Gatorade country?
John Ferrari talking John Somrow and more day three, NCC Media Days.
You're on Sports Radio 939.
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Now, back to the Boomo Bugg Show on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back in day three,
and it's a pleasure for us to welcome in the man who's at the heart of
NCC Media Days down in his home state of Florida.
He's John Florey.
He's in there at CBS Sports Radio 1420,
WAOC, 1240 WFL for Hawaii over in St. Augustine.
That's on the other coast.
And host of Sports Now on 965sports.com.
John, welcome in.
Do we need to tell the kids to leave the room before we get started today?
How are you?
Doing great, Harold.
It's been a great SBC Media Day.
And John Summerall, if he didn't have me already, he has me now,
and I think he has every other Gator.
Talk about taking command of a room, guys.
That's something Florida hasn't had since Orban Meyer or Steve Spurrier either
in different ways, is to be able to take command of a room like he did today.
And I think his best answer of all of them, just for me personally,
was when he interviewed for the job,
and he said the Florida committee asked him what was something he didn't like about Florida,
and he said everything's great except the football team doesn't win enough.
Bingo.
That puts it all in a succinct capsule.
And so I think right there, I think he had most of Gator Nation on board,
if not all of them.
But other things were the way he answered, and I can't say it on the air for FCC,
but about how he lost to Mississippi twice last year.
And he just touched right to the point.
And it's just honestly so refreshing, guys.
I know yesterday I said briefly, while you had the superstar on, Brent Beard,
that the main difference is you're going to have a guy with a pulse today,
and boy, did we.
It was great to have that.
I think the message there is don't mention those boys from North Alabama.
I'm just saying, did he join the Navy?
Is that where he got his vocabulary was the Navy?
Yeah, I mean, I think if he can win at a sustained level at Florida
with his personality, guys, he is going to be a superstar.
I don't think that's superbly.
Now, he's got to win because winning's the key ingredient to everything.
And just the personality I've seen with Coach Summerall from early December to the present,
from the day he got hired to July 22nd, it's been amazing.
I mean, I just didn't realize any of this from afar, obviously.
And I know he hasn't coached at this level, but, boy, you just get a good feeling about it.
And you can see, at least I can, just from what happened today, why he's connecting on the recruiting trail.
Yeah.
Because if he's that way one-on-one, the way he is amongst a group of people, and I've got to believe he is because of the numbers that he's compiling.
And I even asked Jaden Ball, myself personally, one of the three players that came, how impactful was the Christmas Eve meeting with Coach Summerall?
And he said, very.
He said that basically weighed him to stay.
He was leaning that way anyway.
But he said when Coach Summerall came up there with his family and even brought the dog, he threw in.
And for a couple hours, it wasn't about football.
It was just about personalities.
But that right there, and I can believe it, just that he can connect with people.
And that is important in this line of work, no doubt.
John, his press conference today reminded me a little bit of Nick Saban's.
The very first press conference, in fact, Harold and I read another radio station then, and we were listening to it.
We had it on the air.
And I turned to Harold and said, there's a new sheriff in town.
And Nick Saban had complete command of the room.
Same thing John Summerall did.
Now, his record was 43-12.
And I know the Sun Belt, and I don't mean to bring up the Sun Belt again to John Ferrari and Florida fans in the American Conference.
That's not the SEC, but he's got a little bit of that innate ability to where he tells you exactly what.
He gets the message across to you, but you used a great term.
He was in complete command of that room.
Even to the point where a reporter's cell phone went off, guys, and he said, normally I would throw this podium at you.
But he had control, and that's the type of command he had.
And I love that he acknowledged the Florida fans that through, as bad as it's been, the 4-8 season last year, they've had 18 consecutive sellouts.
But he said he needs to get it back to where they had sellouts over 100 consecutive sellouts between the 90s and 2011.
And, of course, that was the Steve Spurrier-Urban Meyer era.
So, I just loved everything he said today.
Obviously, none of that will matter on September 5th.
But, well, let me take that back.
I think some of it will matter because I think he's built a swagger with the kids a little bit.
I got that vibe from not only Jaden Baugh, Miles Graham came, Vernell Brown III, a legacy recruit that some are all touched on on the podium.
You can tell that they said there was a difference this offseason.
And not mentioning Billy Napier's name, but there was just a difference in the tone and what's been laid down and what's been expected between what's been going on the past four years.
So, I think this is going to be a fun ride.
And it's funny you mentioned Nick Saban, Brett, because when Coach Summerall was on the podium, Nick Saban was on SEC Network.
And then he turned around.
We saw it in the room.
He was focused on Coach Summerall.
And Coach Summerall wound up joining that group later.
Now, I was in the room.
I didn't hear what they were interacting.
But Nick Saban was talking to Coach Summerall.
And I think John Summerall got Nick Saban's attention.
And there aren't many that get Nick Saban's attention.
So, that right there says a lot.
John Priority of 965sports.com.
Let's face it, it's July.
We saw another first year of Coach Will Stein early in the week.
Kentucky throwing it down.
It seems to be kind of a script with the new kids on the block.
And all that's great.
But like you said, at the end of the day, it's not what you say in July.
It's what fans say about you in December, January.
But one thing I like about what he does, like Nick did, lay down the boundaries.
And I'm huge on that.
Tell me what you want.
Once you tell me, let us go do it.
If you don't want me here, I'll tell you what I'm expecting.
Once you establish boundaries, then you go and let people do their jobs.
And I think that's something that John Summerall, like Nick Saban, is good at.
But realistically, let's face it, Nick, he talked big the first year.
But the numbers weren't there in the first year.
We saw it starting in the second year with that Clemson game.
What is realistic with this first year under Summerall?
Realistic, Harold, to me, would be 8-4, 7-5.
Realistically, in that range, I think the first two games, Florida wins.
I don't think they're going to lose a game to an opponent they shouldn't,
meaning like South Florida a year ago.
I think they're going to take care of those type of opponents in the Swamp.
And no disrespect to Florida, Atlantic, and Campbell, but I think those are two wins.
I think then we get down to the nuts and bolts.
How many wins do you get out of the nine-game SEC schedule?
Because I also think they're going to beat Florida State at the end of the year,
even though it's in Tallahassee.
So that's three wins I have for them right now,
which means he's got to figure out how to get four or five more from the conference.
And I think he can.
And I think there are winnable games in there.
I think that South Carolina and Vanderbilt both come to Gainesville this season.
They didn't have either one of them come last year.
I think those are two wins for them.
If he gets that, you're up to five.
The Auburn game is a toss-up to me.
You guys know more about that place than I do, but that's a tough place to win at.
There's no doubt about it.
Very tough.
Even one Nick Saban will admit that.
But I think Florida can go over there and win.
I think a lot's going to depend on where they are physically on the line of scrimmage.
And the offensive line was touched on during the session with Coach Sumerall.
And now he's trying to build that starting five up and beyond.
But I think eight and four is realistic, to get back to your question.
I truly do.
I don't think anything beyond that's realistic.
They could surprise and get nine.
But I think seven to eight wins is the target for year one.
Yeah, yeah.
That Missouri game on the road has been a little bit of a bugaboo for Florida coaches over the years, too.
Always great to catch up with you.
I'm glad it's been a great week for you.
But, yeah, everybody was impressed with the North Alabama product, with his command of the room.
John, keep my beloved brother under ramps, because, you know, we all know he gets loose with women, too, down there, even though he's engaged.
Where can we get online and listen to your show this week, buddy?
It's been tough keeping the groupies off.
I know it is.
As a television star, no doubt about it.
And when you got it, you got it, right?
The other thing I want to say is, right before I came on with you, I saw Ryan Fowler, who I think the mayor of Tampa might want to put in a key to the city, too.
But, anyway, I joked with him offline.
But you can find me at 1021news.com online on x slash Twitter at JF underscore sports now.
And with you guys, we're here.
It's been a great time, but I think we might be presenting a key to the city to John Summerall in a few years in Duval County.
We'll see.
I can tell you, Huntsville is getting a lot more fans over here, guys, than what we saw today.
Bottom line is, he's one of the nicer guys in North Alabama, John, so be aware of those guys, okay?
Absolutely, but always an honor and a pleasure to be on, guys.
Thank you, Bill.
Thanks for having us.
John Fowler, who's going to be with us, 965 Sports, Dicott.
Speaking of North Alabama, Rudy Armin on deck.
Stay with us.
Thank you, Bill.
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Now, back to the Boomo Bugg Show on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back again and again, make you so happy to make us a part of your day here on 93.9 The Score, day three SEC Media Days.
Biggie boy down there, Drew DeArmond, host, Taco Ball and Hustle is 97.7 FM in the zone.
Drew, welcome in.
How are you?
I'm doing well, guys.
It's been a fun week in Tampa so far.
It's been a long day, but certainly have enjoyed it.
You know, obviously, we were just talking earlier, Drew.
Isn't it amazing the impact that Madison County is having on college sports this season?
You look at the situation there in Bandy, and you look at the offensive coordinator at Missouri, both of them products of Bob Jones High,
but it seems the guy that's making a lot of noise at the meetings there in Tampa is also from Hustle,
the truly tiger out of Grissom High, one John Somerle.
He's making some waves, is he not?
Yeah, he's been a super popular guy here in Tampa, this is Gator country, as you know, and a lot of Gators are free.
I mean, I think he's the only coach when I was in the main room.
He got some applause when they walked him up to the stage, and certainly he's been locked and loaded,
had a chance to speak with him briefly, you know, very proud of him being a Huntsvillian and doing what he's doing.
Really excited about his maiden voyage this year at Florida, and I really think they're the biggest sleeper in the league.
I think they can make a jump into that top eight.
I think they can win nine games.
I really think they're going to be much better.
They're going to have more cohesion offensively, and you know, John, they're going to be good on defense.
They're going to be physical.
Rusty Witt, his strength coach, has been with him at Troy and Jelaine and went with him to Florida.
He's done a great job, and I think they're going to have a good football team.
They've got to take the quarterback out a little bit, but he's always been able to do that at Troy and Jelaine.
And, you know, I think with Buster Faulkner coming over from Georgia Tech, I think they're going to be good on that side of the ball.
He's a defensive-oriented guy, no doubt, and he wants physicality, and he's full of energy.
But he does a good job on being a complete football coach and wanting a complete team, and I think they'll be good offensively.
I'll just say this.
I think Jaden Ball may lead the SEC in rushing.
You may be right.
Listen, tell us about the Alabama interviews this morning, coach, player, and who else has impressed you during the week, coach or player?
Yeah, I mean, we were really blessed today.
You know, we got a chance to sit down with Caelan DeBoer for about 10, 11 minutes, and, you know, I really think he understands what they have to fix offensively on the line of scrimmage.
A lot of scrimmage that, of course, the running game to create some balance for a couple of young, talented quarterbacks, and Austin Mack and Keelan Russell.
And it's truly a competition.
He told us that, you know, it will play itself out during fall camp.
Last year they did it early on in the offseason and into camp with Ty Simpson.
Really, even before camp started, I don't think that's going to be the case now.
It sounds like after that second scrimmage they're going to have a much better idea with this group, you know, who it's going to be.
But certainly I think he's excited about Adrian Clem and what he brings to the table.
And, you know, I found out today a little nugget that, you know, Adrian Clem's son played for him as a dub.
That's kind of how the relationship started.
And so that's how he became aware of Adrian Clem and his work and his ability to teach.
And I think he's been impressed with the work that he's done with the offensive line thus far.
And now they've still got to keep improving.
And fall camp is going to be big.
And I think they feel like they've got the pieces in place.
And then, you know, certainly, you know, it was a big year for Ryan Coleman Williams.
He had a chance to catch up with him.
But now he is now married.
He got married in June.
And it's hard to believe he's 19 years old.
He's already in year three.
And he's married now.
But certainly his wife did a great job picking out his suit.
He looks very zapper.
And I think he's very confident, no matter who the QB is, whether it's, you know, whether it's certainly Kewin Russell.
And I think Kewin is my personal favorite, no doubt about it.
But it's going to be a battle, no doubt about it.
And I think he's confident, no matter who's pulling the trigger, that he's going to have a really nice year.
June, to me, you're talking about the quarterback competition there.
It comes down to, at least based on what everybody has said.
We won't know until, as they say, the live bullets start flying on the head, start with East Carolina.
But it's a matter of do you want familiarity, a guy with some experience in the system, or do you want to bring a guy in who's got a lot of potential?
By the way, Russell's not exactly a rookie himself in this system.
Would you be surprised, based on that alone, if they start with Mack, just to defer there, and kind of slow-walk Russell into it?
Brett and I have been saying, I don't think there's any question it's going to be the quarterback.
It's when Russell's going to be the quarterback.
But starting out, would you be surprised to see Mack getting the starting draw against the Pirates?
Well, you know, that's another little tidbit.
You know, we were able to discern with Austin Mack and Kewin Russell.
And like I said, at the start of the segment, it's going to be a true battle.
And I believe Dylan DeBoer made that readily apparent.
But I think he wants to make a decision between the two guys, you know, before that East Carolina opener.
Because, you know, I think my first thought was he might play them both against East Carolina,
much like you saw, you know, in the situation, you know, many years ago with Phillip Sims and A.J. McCarrey against Kent State.
And then they had decided on A.J. when they went to Happy Valley.
But it doesn't sound like that's going to be the case with certainly with Austin Mack and Kewin Russell.
I think he wants to make a decision, you know, before the first game against East Carolina.
And as you pointed out rightly, they've got to be ready to go.
But East Carolina is a nine-win team that won a bowl game.
They're not a bad football team.
So, you don't want to have a situation where you play an egg like you saw.
I believe it was several years ago when the Houston Cougars, I think, tripped up Oklahoma in an opener.
And you've got to be – so you've got to be ready to play, especially with what happened against Florida State a year ago.
Yeah.
D2, were you impressed with Alex Golich yesterday?
Yeah.
I mean, I told somebody, you know, it's the first time, you know, especially in the last three years, that, you know, you were around the Auburn coach and you didn't want to take a shower.
So, I felt like that Alex Golich was extremely matter-of-fact.
He has a strong belief in his vision.
And I think it's the first time, honestly, since going into the 2013 season, that was, of course, Gus Malzahn's first, that I think Auburn has a coherent plan of what they want to be and their identity.
And it's very similar.
And it's interesting, though, Gus – and I talked about this with our good friend Jason Caldwell.
I don't know why, still, I couldn't tell you, but with all the success that Nick Marshall had coming out of junior college, converting from DB to quarterback, kind of going back to his roots in high school,
and then Gus running him and him being able to throw the deep ball, and they were very, very difficult to defend.
And for whatever reason, he started going toward the Jarrett-Sidhams.
He got away from the mobile QB.
Yeah, yeah.
And I never really understood – and really offensive line recruiting.
But I don't think Golich is going to do that.
I think he's going to stick to the plan.
And they've got a – I think they've got a really good direction that they want to go.
And I was impressed with him yesterday.
Drew, the obvious question here is, a lot of people have got Auburn picked as a dark horse.
In your opinion, who is – right now, coming into the season, who's going to be the most overrated team
and who's going to be the most underrated team, a.k.a. dark horse, in your opinion, the league?
Well, last year, I hit it on the head with overrated.
That was South Carolina.
They got Shula and I was afraid they were going to.
I think underrated or dark horse for me, wild card is Florida.
They went four and eight a year ago.
I think they can flip that and maybe even do one game better.
I believe in John Summerall.
I always will.
I think he's going to do, you know, an outstanding job.
No question about it.
Now, as far as a team that could backslide a little bit, and I'm not saying they won't be a good football team
or have a winning record, but Texas A&M's schedule was much more difficult than it was a year ago.
And last year, they kind of – they were on cruise control.
If you can be that way, it's hard.
But they still had an easier draw.
The draw is not as easy.
We'll see how Marcel Reed bounces back from a poor ending of the season.
Didn't play well against Texas.
Didn't play well at all against Miami.
And, you know, of course, they suffered some losses on defense.
But their schedule is much more difficult.
So – and for backsliding what I mean, last year they went 11-2.
Could they end up maybe 9-4 this year?
Yeah.
Which is still a good year, but not a playoff team.
So, I think Texas A&M's schedule may conclude them from going to the playoff.
And I think Florida, with John Summerall's leadership, that game against Auburn in week three,
on the plane, John returning to his home state is going to be big for the Gators.
No question about it.
I think that's the key game to set the tone for everyone.
Listen, glad to see you and the gang down there having a great week.
Try to somehow keep Ryan Fowler, my beloved brother, on the straight and narrow.
Where can we get online and get your interviews?
And we'll talk next week about the one and only Nate Oates getting the seven-foot Canadian surprise.
And T.J. St. Louis, that was quite a pickup.
Where can we get online and get the interviews and all the good stuff this week?
Well, I've gone to call him D.J. St. Louis since he is a Canadian.
So, maybe go to the hockey that way.
But, yeah, absolutely.
You can see all of our stuff at 977ESPN.com.
And, of course, on our SoundCloud page, ESPN 97.7 The Zone.
And, of course, you can listen to us, 8 to 11 Eastern.
I've had to reprogram myself with that, 7 to 10 Central.
And then we are uploading a ton of stuff to WDVN TV now.
Today, the Ethernet and the Wi-Fi has not been great.
So, we apologize for it taking a while, but we're sure they're going to get it done.
But, again, it's been great here in Tampa so far.
We've got one day to go.
Four longest days of the year, but it sure is fun, and we appreciate you all having us.
Technical issues across the board.
We're listening to St. Travel's back, and thank you for your time, Day-Drew.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you, buddy.
This is your arm at 977FM.
That's all.
BB, day three, tomorrow, the final day.
We'll run over the roster for that.
But we've got some folks that we really, really want to tip our steps into,
including one that I think you and the taste buds of James would agree with.
Yes, yes, we would.
We got a little care package from Lost Pizza.
Our esteemed producer, again, I appreciate what James and Blair does for us.
They've done a great job this week.
Talk about that care package there, Mr. Moody.
Well, Blair has finally arrived, so he will soon be partaking of his full-court-pressed Cuban sandwich
inspired by Tony Pujol.
And I had the Cujo pizza.
You had the Fat Boy Burger pizza.
Right.
And they gave us, both, all of us, mac and cheese jalapeno, jalapeno mac and cheese bites.
And also, they gave us their new Philly Y'all Philly cheesesteak pizza,
so we're splitting that up among us.
And so, we've had a wonderful time here with this food.
Blair is looking forward to his.
And I want to give another off-season shout-out to them for doing that for me and Blair
for the school board show during the high school football season.
So, Lost Pizza in historic downtown Florence, across from the Shoals Theater.
Highly recommend it.
Time to find Lost Pizza.
But, Bibi, go ahead and spread the love, my friend.
Yeah, Harold, we would not have had this week without our incredible sponsors, title sponsors,
Jonathan Pissura, Medley and Virtual Attorneys.
They do a phenomenal job.
Software at Cypress Creek Indoor Range, Keith Collier, Jr., Gardner Pierce Auto.
So, as you hear him on Tuesday and Friday, Zimmer Pierce, Lost Pizza, Chuck, and Marcy McCarty.
Now, not only helping us, but so many people in the community in the Shoals.
Our touchdown sponsors, Lindsey and Winchester, Cindy Lindsey Pounders, subsidiary of Tiffin Motorhomes,
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Thomas and Lovell, thank you again.
And Steve Curtis in Greenhill with Curtis Restaurant.
Go out there today and have a great steak, chicken.
They will be more than glad to take care of your taste buds.
But, again, thank you so much for the sponsors of 2026 SEC Media Days on 93.9 The Score.
Well, let me give another big shout-out and ask to you, you, and you for taking time to listen and be a part of the show.
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.
Buckle up.
The season is just around the corner, and we've got it all covered for you.
That's going to take care of business for now.
On behalf of B.B., Greg, James, Blair, the entire crew here.
Harold Buck, thank you so much for your time today.
Let's see you again next time.
Boonga Tube, the Boomer Buck Show, back here on Sports Radio 93.9 The Score.