Boomo Bugg Show 101326
93.9 The Score WYTK - October 13, 2026
https://www.939thescore.com/boomo-bugg-show-101326/

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.
The score.
Good afternoon and welcome here to the Boomo Bugg Show.
I'm Harold Bugg alongside Brett Beaird.
Thank you so much for giving us free ride around the Tennessee Valley.
Brett Beaird, welcome in where we're able to give you the very latest in the Titan Tigers' respective huge border wars this weekend.
Good afternoon, welcome in.
And first of all, can you sum up the response from the SEC office about this past weekend's officiating in the Alabama-Georgia game?
How are you?
That was it.
Very short.
Happy Tuesday to you and the listeners.
Yes, rivalry week.
We can be talking about a lot of that throughout the course of the show on the week.
Las Vegas insider Bruce Marshall.
We'll preview the top games in college football this weekend.
Ben Thomas of AL.com previews another big high school football weekend.
But right now, Roger Hoover is here to recap a tough, but I call it an encouraging loss to the number one Georgia Bulldogs in preview the third Saturday in October.
The man who has all the answers from the second Saturday in October and the third Saturday in October.
And the man who had the best seat in the house, and I'm sure he's going to clarify everything, the fine voice on the Crimson Tide Network, Roger Hoover.
Welcome in.
How are you?
Boom, old bug.
I'm doing well.
Give me five more minutes than we would have whooped the Bulldogs this past week.
I just need five more minutes, guys.
Or four less controversial calls, maybe, you know.
Who knows?
But I won't put you in the hot spot on that, Roger.
But it is what it is.
Good, bad, and ugly, as our buddy Clint Eastwood would say.
Now you've got to live with that.
The people who made that call, they've got to live with it.
Hopefully, they've got a conscience, too.
We'll leave that over here in another room.
Reality is what it is.
That's life.
Where do you start breaking down, now that we know the outcome, where are you with this team, Roger?
Well, I thought Alabama showed itself extremely well against the class of not only the SEC at the moment,
but of college football in Georgia.
And Georgia did a lot of good things that a veteran football team should do
and really showcased their depth by going to their third string and fourth string running backs
and having good days.
It's a pretty solid rush defense against the Crimson Tide.
They had a veteran quarterback who made really veteran throws throughout that ballgame
in Gunnar Stockton, pretty similar to how Ty Simpson was able to win in Athens just a year ago.
So, I think you're able to keep up and you're down to nothing.
You're not really sure what Keelan Russell and his offense can get going.
They put up 14 points in a flash, and I think the game slowed down for Keelan.
Tyler Watts, who I co-host the show with on Crimson Tide Rewind, he said it perfectly.
He said the game for Keelan was going a lot faster in his mind than it really was on the field in the first quarter.
But once he settled in, he had that touchdown pass to Marshall Pritchett, got the offense moving the rest of the game.
And he realized he can play with a tough defense like Georgia.
I think that's only going to make him better as time goes on, because even though we've still got some really hot ball marks
starting this week against Tennessee a few weeks from now against LSU, and let's face it,
we didn't win our last time with Andy, so we've got to play well at Nashville.
But for the Crimson Tide, you're not going to see a defense like we just saw again in Georgia,
unless you play them later in the season in the championship game for the SEC or the college football playoffs.
So going through that experience will only help this football team.
And the only really unfortunate part of the night for me, besides the loss, is that now you're dinged up.
In addition to losing the ballgame, now you're not at full strength as you get ready for the ball.
Absolutely.
That was a great description by Roger.
I've heard from three Alabama fans this weekend who told me I really wasn't a Kalen DeBoer fan until the Georgia game.
And there's two reasons for that.
At the end of the first half, and I'm amazed I haven't heard more about that,
you're basically at the goal line.
It would have been so easy to kick a field goal without a timeout.
No, we're going to go for it.
And E.J. Crowell makes an incredible run in Alabama, as you alluded to, went up 14-10.
Then, of course, DeJohn Lee's mistake.
And I've heard a lot more positive than negative.
Some people have said, well, he shouldn't have told him that he lost the game.
But I understand, in the heat of the moment, it was a teaching, and I guarantee you Kalen DeBoer has met with him several times since Saturday night.
But I want to dovetail this into you.
I always ask you at the end of the segment about your Crimson Drive guest.
Paul Feinbaum, the one and only, is one of your guests this week, along with Marshall Pritchett, the tight end, and William Jennings, the golfer.
Paul's comment was, the thing that really impressed fans was the demeanor of Kalen DeBoer.
Roger, I would agree with that.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think he's shown kind of this fiery side when some calls have gone against Alabama or players didn't play with discipline before.
But it's magnified in a game like this, and especially when ABC cameras are fixed right on you for all those loans, and fans are able to read lips and all those things.
So, I think it just shows that Kalen DeBoer is really built of the same things that we saw from Nick Saban throughout his years.
And, you know, that's the basis of this Saban documentary we're all watching is some of his legendary sideline rants and being upset at players and coaches and things like that.
You know, Kalen DeBoer is no different.
And, again, that is something that has been around since he got to Tuscaloosa.
This is nothing new.
I just think it's magnified a little bit.
And, you know, holding players accountable has always been part of this program, and I'm glad that was on full display.
I'm glad a staffer in Ha Ha Quentin Dix made a point to have DeJohn Lee look Coach DeBoer in the eye for these things he's saying.
Exactly.
You know, that's a coaching moment.
It's not a blame moment.
It's a coaching moment.
And Kalen DeBoer knows that DeJohn Lee is going to have to make huge plays starting this week for this football team in order to be successful and for the rest of the season.
And, hopefully, we get another crack at the Bulldogs again at some point later in the year.
So, definitely a teaching moment.
But I am glad that now I think fans are starting to see more of the Kalen DeBoer than those of us around the program have really known who he is in from the start.
You know, he just comes off, you know, very stoic at times and always kind of says the right thing in press conferences.
So, I think maybe fans have gotten that reputation of him in their heads or just image of him like that.
But, again, this is nothing surprising to people who have been around this program.
You know, if you've got a mean brother or sister, it kind of brings back memories.
Because, remember, when they got in trouble, if they got away with a mom and dad, you'd go get in trouble.
But if you saw them have to go out and get a peach tree limb and get their butts beat, that sent a message to the siblings.
And I think that the point here is the rest of the team is watching for this response.
They don't want to go get that switch from the peach tree themselves.
So, be that as it may.
You mentioned nobody knows Tennessee better than you.
Anyone who's been there on a game day knows it ain't right.
It is loud.
It is crazy.
And you've got a guy that, right now, based on what could be not only an inexperienced line, but maybe a change at the center spot.
We know the importance of that when it comes to motion, especially in front, other respective student body sections.
Your thoughts, how banged up is this Bama team?
And your thoughts just about the intangibles coming into that environment.
Yeah, I think you start with the three injuries who are closely monitoring and Ryan Coleman-Williams, Rayson Delgatti, and Terrence Green.
Coach Samoa provided some good updates on them, but basically indicated that all of them are kind of week-to-week at this point.
You're not sure if they're able to come back, along with two guys that we missed the last two weeks, Justin Hill and Desmond Zulu, who really helped.
This time we have a defense on the edge if they are able to come back shortly.
So, it's a wounded group, and I'm sure there are more injuries we don't even know about that are kind of out there.
Because you've played six tough football games, and you just had your most physical game of the year against a very good Georgia team.
So, I think everybody's a little mixed up.
Now, the same can be said for Tennessee.
They've had some injuries along their offensive line, too.
But, like you mentioned, Keelan Russell has done a really good job.
And this is in my interview later today that Brett mentioned with Marshall Pritchett.
Keelan has done a great job organizing this team at the line of scrimmage.
A lot of that is thanks to Rayson Delgatti.
But a lot of it, too, is thanks to Keelan and the way he kind of commands everything at the line.
And there's a lot of things going on.
There's audibles.
There's free-snap movement.
He's handled that extremely well.
So, I feel like he has been in some tough environments already.
You know, State is a different kind of level with the Cowbells.
It's not going to be, you know, fully enclosed like Neal Stadium.
Same with Kroger Field in Kentucky.
But I'm glad that this is now his third road game.
This is not the first time.
He's trying to do this on the road.
So, I feel like he's really prepared for this moment.
The biggest change is if Rayson Delgatti is not able to go with center.
How does he make sure he's on the same page with likely Mal Waldrop who would slide over and be the center for this game?
Roger, the other thing I've heard since Saturday night is will number 13 and number 17 get more carries?
And I, of course, talking about E.J. Crowell and Treshawn Brown, Ryan Grubb mentioned yesterday in his press conference
that we're going to try to get number 13 about 10 a game.
And the more carries he gets, but listen, 17, Treshawn Brown, nine carries for 90 yards.
Roger, again, for Alabama fans, that's good news.
Yeah, it really is.
Alabama, I feel like, especially in a game like this where you're going to need to have some longer drives
that Tennessee plays in an up-tempo style where they want to have the ball all throughout the game
and have quick scoring drives, your defense is going to need rest.
You're going to need to have some long, sustained drives on offense.
And, you know, at times it felt like Alabama got away from the running game.
I agree.
In the second half when they didn't really have to against Georgia.
Even though it was tough flooding on the ground at times, you mentioned that explosive threat is always there
with those two, in addition to Daniel Hill, who I think still has some great moments ahead of him this season
as your lead running back.
So I'm all in favor of giving that ball to E.J. Crowell.
Loves seeing the spin moves and the way he's able to take some contact and bump away out of there.
And then Treshawn Brown just runs hard every time.
I mean, maybe it's because we're playing Tennessee, but it just makes you think back to Travis Henry,
who was always kind of low to the ground for the balls, but had similar kind of bursts of speed
and was also really hard to tackle.
So, Roger, is it safe to say that there's obviously 52 cars in the deck
and there's 52 ways of looking at this game this weekend,
but could it say that the hub of the wheel comes down to the chess match
between Alabama's offensive coordinator, Grubb, and Tennessee's defensive coordinator named Knowles?
Two well-recognized and respected names in the game,
although if you talk to fan bases sometimes, that's not the case.
But I think those in the know know these are two names.
Whether they're working here or somewhere else, they're going to have a job.
Your thoughts just about that chess match Saturday between Grubb and Knowles?
Yeah, I'm excited to see what's new for Ryan Grubb this week.
You know, Alabama's offense two years ago at Tennessee,
I felt like had one of their worst games of the season in 2024.
I just got kind of stagnant in some spots.
I had some unlucky breaks in that fall game that really went against the offense.
But Ryan Grubb, I'm excited to see him play call for the first time
in Neyland Stadium against Tennessee.
I thought he had a great game against the ball of last year,
and there's just always something new to look forward to.
Now, maybe we haven't seen the crispy package with Caden Proctor
or, you know, Jackson Lloyd lining up in the backfield, anything crazy like that.
But I think this year has kind of shown you don't have to do anything crazy
because the talent's better on the offensive line, the tight ends, the running backs.
And at quarterback, you've got a very good decision maker.
And I think that's the key thing for Alabama going into this matchup.
You know, Jalen Milrow, not to speak too ill of him,
but he made some really poor decisions two years ago
when Alabama lost that game in Knoxville.
And I have really a great deal of trust right now
with how Keelan Russell is handling himself.
You know, no interceptions against Georgia.
I feel like he's going to make some really good calls.
And his decision-making in the RPO game has gotten a lot better, too.
Let me close with this.
Alabama men's basketball is going to be speaking at SEC Media Days
in about 15 minutes.
You did the call on the exhibition game with Alabama and Furman.
The Tide win 111-93.
I've heard, Lord have mercy, about these freshmen.
Samuels and Bowie.
Chloher is really good.
Brandon Garrison had a good game.
Ole Miss is on the docket next Thursday.
With that, tell us quickly about your thoughts on basketball
and also the rest of your week.
Yeah, it was pretty impressive considering Alabama
didn't have many guards available for that ball game.
They had Anderson Diaz banged up.
Obviously, Holloway is serving his five-game suspension.
So it was a much larger lineup on the floor.
And as a result, Alabama was still able to score a lot of points.
They probably gave up more points,
especially against Furman's hot-shooting guards
than they wanted on Thursday night.
You know, Nate didn't like the 90-plus points
that the Paladins scored.
But you like the offense.
And especially you like highlight reel dunks.
And we got a lot of that from Taurus Bowie
who reminded some people of Brandon Miller.
And anybody that reminds you of Brandon Miller,
you buy stock in.
I think Bowie had a really good first showing.
King Samuels was a starter in that ball game.
So Alabama certainly trusts what he can do on the perimeter.
So it's a good team.
But it's just there's so much trust right now with Nate Oates
and how he's going to build a roster from one year to the next.
And I love the fact, too,
Amari Allen looks like an NBA point guard.
I mean, the way he directed the offense was incredible.
With his size, knowing he could play down low with anybody as well in the SEC.
But the fact that, I mean, he is just such a large human at point guard,
I think adds just a different dimension to this Alabama team.
So I'm thrilled.
I'm excited to see what these next few weeks look like as we get into the season.
Absolutely.
Listen, always enjoy it.
Have a great week.
I know you're going to be busy.
Hey, coach, tomorrow night, Crimson Rewind.
And then, of course, going to Rocky Top again, as Harold said,
you've got a lot of experience in the state of Tennessee.
Roger, have a great week, buddy.
Thank you, guys.
Always appreciate you having me on.
Roll time.
Absolutely.
The one, the only, Roger Hoover.
Coming up all over the SEC.
Maybe the surprise team of the entire country right now
may reside in the backyard of our next guest, Joe Cox.
He's on deck.
Stay with us.
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Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back in.
Really a pleasure for us to go to the new home of college football surprises.
Joe Cox, fine columnist, Saturday down south.
His book's called A Fine Team Man.
And he's living in a fine team land these days called Kentucky.
Joe Cox, welcome in.
How are you?
Gentlemen, the sun is shining.
The birds are chirping.
And the Kentucky Wildcats are five and one.
What could I ask?
Oh, man.
Is Kentucky still a basketball school, Joe?
Or is that just a distant memory now?
You know, it's getting that way.
It's become a two-part move in that direction
when the men are picked seventh in the SEC preseason basketball bowl.
And then the football team looks like they might be a little better than seventh.
So, yeah, the coaches, Pope and Stein, are sending it that direction.
Joe, since you brought that up,
we just got done talking about where Alabama is in the preseason bowl.
They're fifth.
You said Kentucky's seventh.
How good is the SEC if Bama's fifth and Kentucky's seventh?
Well, I mean, that's going to be the question.
But you look at a team like Texas coming in where they are,
but then you look at Texas' roster and you go,
yeah, it's hard not to respect these guys.
I mean, you know, will it play out that way on the court?
I think we could be in for a basketball season
where basketball is just as up in the air as football is right now,
where you've got a couple of really good teams
and then you've got everybody else.
And on a given, you know, Tuesday or Wednesday or Saturday,
anything could happen.
Absolutely.
Joe, as you can imagine in this state,
the loss to Georgia has resonated with one or two fans,
especially the officiating is concerned.
We've got a lot of great games.
There is a tremendous slate of SEC games this week.
But, Joe, just to recap,
your thoughts on the last game of the century?
Well, you know, it's just one of those situations
where you can't make more out of it than it was.
I think the good news for Alabama is if you had to take a loss,
you took one where you were very much competitive,
where if one official had managed to call pass interference,
maybe it all comes out a little bit different.
There's certainly no shame in taking a loss to the Georgia Bulldogs this year.
And I like Alabama a lot.
I don't think anything that happened on Saturday
changes the overall trajectory of the season,
which is still very much moving up
and wouldn't want to move in on the tide come college football playoff time.
While we're on that topic of Crimson,
your thoughts about this is weird, Joe.
They're going to be wearing Crimson jerseys at Knoxville this weekend.
The two teams, one brain, go retro.
Tennessee next year will wear their orange and Tuscaloosa.
That's cosmetics.
At the end of the day, who's going to have the fireworks
and the scoreboard Saturday in Knoxville?
I like Alabama's offense better than I like Tennessee's.
I think that's going to be the story here.
The Vols have really done a nice job of kind of gutting through some games,
but I think there's just going to be too much firepower on the tide side.
I think in the second half, Alabama's going to come out and take that game over.
Joe, it amazes me that the SEC has three of the best games
of the season on at the same time.
One of those is Missouri at Ole Miss.
Along with the Kentucky Wildcats, Missouri's, the other Cinderella,
Austin Simmons, returning back to his former school to face Trinidad Chambliss.
Jamal Roberts has been running wild back-to-back 200-yard games.
Ole Miss is a six-and-a-half point favorite in what should be a very intriguing game.
Who does Joe Cox favor in this game?
You know, this is definitely going to be one that I think is closer than the pundits would have you believe.
I recognize Ole Miss does have a home field advantage, but I really do like this Missouri team.
And, you know, to my eyes, not to slander the locals here, but I think Missouri is the team that's probably not getting enough talk
as far as that third or that fourth team out of the SEC after it's kind of, you know, obvious teams.
Missouri's the one that's really stood out because of how well Jamal Roberts has run the ball.
And then, you know, they've only committed three turnovers this year, and that's an amazing thing.
And if that holds up, that's the recipe to go on the road and win.
If you don't beat yourself, you know, with the ground game and then the solid veteran Simmons there at the helm
with some things to prove, as you know, in his old stomping grounds,
Missouri certainly got a very good chance at that upset.
Joe Cox, Saturday down south.
Remember at the SEC MIA days, everybody was laughing at Will Stein when he was asked the question,
why is Kentucky going to be better?
And he said, because of me.
Maybe he knew something a lot of folks didn't know because without Will Stein being Will Stein
in the last two wins, where would Kentucky be?
He said, the heck with that conservative kick after.
Let's just go for it right here.
All on the line.
Let's go for two or go home.
They did.
They win.
Your thoughts just how the road to this surprise there in your backyard of Kentucky with the Wildcats.
You know, it has been an amazing run already, not just to win, but to win in the way that you describe.
Because Kentucky football is such the Charlie Brown of the SEC.
Kentucky's life is losing on two-point conversions.
They're turning victory into defeat year after year.
And under Stein, maybe it's a change in attitude.
Maybe it's some really good coaching and some play calling.
Maybe just the elements have aligned themselves in the right way.
But for Kentucky to suddenly be this opportunistic team that can cash in on other people's mistakes,
that can grab the one play that makes the difference, it's a very novel feeling up here.
Joe, LSU fans are saying, where's our return on the investment already after losing to your cats where they host Mississippi State in the early game on Saturday in the status of Camario Taylor and also Fluff Bothell.
They're a very fine running back who did not play against Alabama.
And the state's had a bye week.
LSU is coming off, of course, a stinging win.
LSU, 10-and-a-half.
Joe, do they win and cover that 10-and-a-half?
A 10-and-a-half looks awfully big to me, particularly if they've got some emotional hangover.
And I've certainly seen enough commentary on officiating from LSU fans over the last few days.
You know, the team better not have its head there because if they do, Mississippi State is certainly capable of coming out and making them pay.
I wouldn't necessarily think that state wins the game, but the idea that state could keep it close and make it uncomfortable, that's one I would certainly subscribe to.
It's interesting to see in the modern era that money doesn't always guarantee anything.
Look at the baseball races right now.
Tampa, one of the best-managed teams overall in the entire world.
Milwaukee, hello there, more famous for beer than anything else.
And the reason I bring that up is you go to the Dodgers and the Yankees.
Dodgers still got a pulse, but they're down without a win so far at this point in the postseason.
And then you go to the aforementioned teams.
LSU goes out and bankrolls the big one.
Texas does the same.
Indeed, they are not living up to their standard.
And then you go to Texas A&M.
They have spent a Brinks truck load, too.
Your thoughts just about where we are, that money doesn't always parallel success.
And what about A&M with Elko?
Yeah, it's a mess with A&M.
I'll start there.
I mean, you can't do anything, but, boy, it's not going to be a comfortable offseason after they wind up going, you know, maybe 6-6.
Maybe at best, I would think 7-5, 5-7, not outside the realm of possibility.
And, yeah, it's all about return on investment.
And probably the unexpected element of the professionalization of college sports is that you have that kind of moneyball mentality.
The key is going to be finding value.
It's not being able to write the biggest check.
Yeah, it's being able to write the smartest check, the check that's getting, you know, the best out of the players and the coaches that it's written to.
And that's been the story, I think, of this season so far.
I mean, yeah, certainly the big dogs are eating.
Ohio State and Georgia aren't going anywhere, but, yeah, you look around and Mississippi State and Kentucky are up.
You've got teams that are down like A&M and now somewhat LSU that you never, ever would have thought about.
And some of it's luck, some of it's the fortune of the schedule, but some of it has just been there were teams out there who were saying,
we can't win an arms race with these schools, but we can be smarter than them.
And I think that a lot of those teams have thrived in that.
Let me close with one game with you.
Florida at Texas.
Florida was really, the fans were so pumped after beating Auburn 4-0.
Jane Ball was running wild.
Well, the last two weeks, they've come back down to earth after scoring a combined 36 points and losses to Missouri and South Carolina.
Well, Texas fans are certainly not happy after losing Red River very late in that game.
Texas, nearly a 10-point favorite, Joe.
Florida, Texas, and Austin.
It's going to be interesting to see what Florida's mindset is because Florida, you know they've lost two in a row.
The other side of that, their defense has been pretty atrocious.
They've given up a lot of points and that's good news for a Texas offense.
It's kind of, as you know, licking its wounds at this point.
But Florida's got Texas and then they've got the artist formerly known as the Cocktail Party coming up.
So Florida could very well walk into a four-game losing streak here.
This team that was 4-0 could be 4-4.
And, you know, that's my story.
Where's their head going to be at?
Because I think Texas is going to come out pretty motivated and, you know, arch chance at redemption, 437.
Let's see.
At some point, you feel like the guy gets it right.
But this feels like a pretty good landing spot for him against Florida.
Absolutely.
Listen, you did a great job again predicting every team's final record after week six.
Bama 10-2 or 11-1.
Auburn 5-7.
Florida 7-5.
Just some of the 16 SEC teams always enjoy the conversation.
Where can we get on line to get that article and the teams, Joe?
The gang of Saturday down south has got you covered.
That one's out today.
And, of course, later in the week, I get that viewer's guy together and remind everybody what's on,
who's playing when, where they're playing, and which games you just can't miss.
And there's going to be a lot of those this weekend.
Joe, enjoy it.
And according to rumors, Kentucky still has a basketball team.
We'll see you here in a few weeks.
In the meantime, enjoy, okay?
All right, guys.
Take care.
Thank you, bud.
Joe Cox, Saturday down south.
What about the boys and girls?
The place called Las Vegas.
Bruce Marshall, the latest.
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The Score.
Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back in.
Wait just a second.
We've gone to the replay booth and we have been clear to say without any reservation.
Bruce Marshall is busy out in the desert.
There with a gold sheet.
Winners and whiners, picks and parlays.
Bruce, welcome in.
You did not get a yellow flag.
How are you?
Well, I should have got a flag maybe.
You know, I actually went to an NFL game on Sunday.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes.
We were in California.
I was out here for a reunion.
I went to the Broncos Chargers game.
What an unsightly affair that was.
I'm sorry.
You know, I will say this about it.
Here's an NFL analytics again.
The whole analytics thing.
Because Jim Harbaugh is coming under a lot of pressure here.
A lot of heat for that fourth and one call.
That quarterback sneak.
And you hear the analytics, guys.
Yeah.
Well, it says at this point you have a better chance to win going for it there than if you
don't.
Now, but you have to nuance this a little bit.
You're up seven.
You know, 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, you can punt Denver inside of its own 10, maybe.
And Denver's not doing anything with the ball.
There is no way on earth Bo Nix is going to take that team 85 yards to score.
He might be able to take them 40 yards to score.
Not 85 in that game.
Yet, they opened the door for Denver to do just that.
They couldn't convert that fourth and one sneak of poor call.
And what do you know?
Nix hits one pass and he scrambles once and then, boom, touchdown pass.
And that was it.
I mean, and then the Chargers turned the ball over again.
But it's this, the analytics thing.
I've had stat people talk to them.
They say, whatever they see on the football side, it is not statistically relevant.
There aren't enough examples for them to make these blanket statements that you go for it.
Because there's so many different factors you have to figure in.
And that Charger example was a big one, I thought, on Sunday.
The thing I say about that, Bruce, if you're going to go that route, don't pay a head coach money.
Just get some kid over there who's a nerd with stats and have an iPad.
Just relay what it says on the screen to the quarterback.
I mean, that's all they're doing anyway, as long as we live like this.
But, Bruce, you've got the national seat at the table.
Alabama, Georgia, here's the deal down here, okay?
Alabama fans say they cheated.
Georgia fans say they cheated.
But for different reasons.
In other words, Alabama got all the calls.
So, I know that's shocking to you.
You are the neutral voice here.
What is your take on Bama and Georgia?
Well, you know, it was what we sort of thought of.
I thought Bama could pull that game out beforehand.
I thought it would be close.
But the bottom line is, I think, we saw and we're seeing now.
We're at the half-mile pole now, the regular season.
These are the two best teams in the SEC.
Maybe the two best teams in the country.
But these two are probably going to go at it again in Atlanta, like they did last year, like they've done many times.
And they may do it again in the regular season, in the postseason, too, in the playoff.
This might be like the Seahawks and the 49ers.
You might see these teams play three times.
And that would be very believable.
But I think, you know, somebody had to win and somebody had to lose on Tuesday.
And these two teams, I think, are at less risk of losing multiple games than anybody else in the SEC.
And that includes Texas.
I could see Texas missing the playoff completely.
You know, they're, listen, the Ohio State game, I know they won that game.
But for three quarters, they didn't look all that good.
And some things happened in the fourth quarter.
But, you know, there's a lot of banana peels out there.
And the only two I can see kind of missing those in the SEC are Alabama and Georgia.
They'll be fine at the end of the year.
We'll see them again in Atlanta and maybe then when we get to the playoff come January.
All right, before we get into our SEC slate, which is amazing, I've had several people say,
now, when you get Bruce on, ask him about the two big national games, and we'll do that.
Ohio State and Indiana.
At Indiana, the first time Indiana's played a team of the Pulse this year,
the Buckeyes three-and-a-half point favorite.
I go back to the Illinois game when they gave up 465 yards.
But their defense seems to have improved a little bit.
Josh Hoover, can he make plays?
And then Notre Dame at BYU.
This is an interesting quarterback matchup with C.J. Carr and Bear Blockmeyer for BYU and Notre Dame,
plus 13 turnover.
They had 21 interceptions last year.
The two big national games, Ohio State at Indiana, Notre Dame at BYU.
Yeah, I'm looking at both visitors there.
Indiana did pull one out of the fire last week at Nebraska.
They were in deep trouble in that game.
There were some real defensive breakdowns there, especially that long touchdown that got Indiana over the hump.
But from the Northwestern game a couple of weeks ago until now, I'm just not quite sure Indiana is where it was last year.
And Ohio State, I think, is probably about where it was.
It got a little bit better.
Listen, I think Iowa is a really good team.
And Ohio State went into Iowa City two weeks ago.
And mostly because of Smith and Iowa not being able to cover him.
They dominated that game just because of him, for the most part.
And I don't see Indiana with an answer to him.
I know they faced him last year.
I know they beat him in the Big Ten title game, 13-10.
But the Hoosier offense didn't do much that game.
I'm not sure with Hoover in there.
They're going to do much more on Saturday.
And I think Ohio State will figure something out.
So I'm going to lean to the Buckeyes there a little bit.
The other one, I'm going to lean to the Fighting Irish.
The Domers come in, like you say, all those numbers.
You know, all these game, what's it now, 16 straight wins, all by double-digit margins, by the way.
Some of them, a couple was right at 10.
But they're starting to put some things together offensively.
You know, the one thing I thought early in the year was that, you know, you had two first-round NFL running backs there.
Who were taken in the draft in Jeremiah Love and Jadarian Price.
Even at Notre Dame, that's not easy to replace.
But suddenly, they're starting to find some room to run.
And this freshman, Jonas Walton, big play threat.
And we've seen him burst upon the scene the last couple weeks.
CJ Carr is still there.
But mostly in this game, it's because BYU has turned into too much the Bear Bachmeier show.
I mean, he counted for, I think it was, 426 of their 508 yards against Iowa State last Friday.
The question is, so why didn't they score more than 24 points in that game?
Well, it's because they're also without their top running back, now L.J. Martin, and down in the red zone, they really had some problems against Iowa State.
Got stuffed a couple times, didn't even score, settled for a field goal another time.
So, Bachmeier by himself was not going to be able to do this.
And BYU also struggled offensively against TCU the week before that.
Notre Dame goes in there and takes care of the Cougars on this Saturday.
Bruce Marshall, the goal sheet.
Bruce, you want to talk to us about the respective border wars down here.
We've talked about Bama and Georgia.
Let's talk about Bama and Tennessee and Georgia and Auburn.
I think most folks believe Georgia is going to win.
The question there is, is it going to cover or could there be an upset?
And your thoughts about the respective rivalry games?
Yeah, I mean, it's the third Saturday in October.
And here we go again.
And Bama's lost a couple times up at Knoxville in 22 and 24.
And, you know, we'll see here.
We'll see what Josh Heupel does.
I thought it was a pretty shrewd move of him.
The move to McIntyre at quarterback, I thought, was, first of all,
kind of a vote of no confidence in Faison Brennan.
And we talked about this last week and the weeks prior,
the reasons that Josh went with Brennan at the start,
because of the upside and the big arm and the mobility.
He wanted to see more big plays.
We saw some in the Furman and Georgia Tech games.
And then not as many after that.
It started to get kind of worse when we got banged up a little against Texas.
And then Josh Polder in the Auburn game.
McIntyre, totally different.
I mean, he is just a game manager.
He's not going to stretch the field.
But he can hand the ball off to Bishop and Morris.
And two games ago, at Auburn, Bishop had the most carries, 34.
And Heupel running back since he took over Tennessee, what, six years ago.
But that's a change in philosophy for Heupel, because his team's sort of on up-tempo.
But like Lane's offense, there's a lot of running.
But the big plays have always been part of it, whether it be Hooker, Milton, even Aguilar last year.
But McIntyre is something else.
Now we're hearing he might not stick with McIntyre this week, because that was labored last week against Arkansas.
I think they're in a little trouble here, because Bama, it took Georgia to slow Bama down.
And I think Bama probably gets them.
The oldest rivalry in the South, that's a big spread.
I think D.J. Durkin has enough, his defense at Auburn, I think, can keep this thing from getting out of hand.
And I know, you know, we've talked about Goalish hasn't gotten his offense going with Byron Brown and all that.
But, you know, you are catching Georgia off the Alabama game.
And this is an awfully big number.
It would be a desperate effort here by Auburn, I think, this week, because they're looking now at this season.
You know, they're looking at, you know, maybe the Music City Bowl with that.
I mean, if they don't start winning a few games.
I think Auburn stays within this number.
Sunday doesn't win.
But I think they can slow down Georgia just enough.
Georgia's got a little bit more big play weaponry this year, and Stockton's playing better.
This also might land under 50.
And also the Tennessee game might land under 51 and a half, because Tennessee has been going under the last few weeks.
So both these games under, Auburn for me, one, and then Bama for me, the other.
Fascinating game to me, Missouri at Ole Miss.
Missouri and Kentucky are the Cinderella's of the SEC.
Austin Simmons going back to his former school.
Trinidad-Chamill is a very good quarterback matchup.
Look at the running backs.
Jamal Roberts second in the FBS with 828 rushing yards.
T1 Lacy is healthy.
Ole Miss is a six-and-a-half point favorite.
Do they win in cover?
I'm not sure if they do, because I keep on being impressed here by Eli.
And, you know, they just keep doing it at Missouri here.
I mean, Missouri's really, really impressive, what they're doing here.
And especially, you know, you mentioned Roberts running all those yards.
I mean, this is, you know, Ahmad Harty stuff in the summer.
I mean, this is quite a story about Missouri being able to do that.
My question about Ole Miss, and as good as Shambles is and as good as they seem to be going here,
I still have some issues with that defense, which I think can be picked upon.
And this matchup of Austin Simmons coming back is very, very intriguing.
You know, he probably, Ole Miss probably would have been just fine last year
and maybe got as far as they did if they didn't, even if they stuck with Simmons,
because he was going to get better, and we're seeing that now.
It's just Shambles was something special, but Simmons is looking awfully good, too.
Missouri's got a better defense, and I think they got a shot in this game,
so certainly close to near a touchdown.
I'll take Eli in this one.
The goal is where you can find Bruce Marshall
and also the Bruce Marshall under the radar game of the week, B.E.M.
Yeah, I'll tell you, one I would look at again here.
I talk about this Oregon State.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I want, first of all, Jamarcus Shepard is not going to be there next year.
No.
He's going to get hired away.
Yep.
And those two, the quarterback, Atkinson, the Mercer transfer,
and LeGree, the freshman wideout, who, by the way,
has posted better receiving numbers than even Jeremiah Smith this year.
They're going to both get rich in the portal.
I have never seen an offense just tear teams apart the way this one is,
at least at this level.
Yeah.
66-14 last week.
Atkinson leads the nation in touchdown.
He's passing yards and TVs.
Washington State, this is the tortoise and the hare.
Washington State has no offense,
but only in Aesop's fables does the tortoise beat the hare, not in football.
You're only laying like 17-and-a-half here in the old Pac-12 game,
and now in the new Pac-12.
I'm just going to keep riding Oregon State until they don't cover a game.
Whatever I have to lay, I'm taking the Beavers.
I think Oregon State and Oklahoma State may be two of the most improved teams,
and our listeners remember Shepard, Alabama's wide receiver coach,
ace recruiter under Kalen DeBoer, and I'm like you.
He's doing exactly what I thought that he would be doing.
This is the Bruce Marshall weekend.
I mean, as far as the games in the SEC and nationally,
you're doing well in the NFL, Major League Baseball, hockey, you name it,
you've got it covered.
The gold standard, my friend, where can we get online to get everything?
Here's the scary thing.
College hoops, the first game I think is November 1.
It is.
That's like two-and-a-half weeks away.
The NBA is starting like late next week.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, this is a fun time of year, though, all these games, all these picks.
We had a smashing weekend, in football especially, 4-1 college, 4-1 in the NFL,
and we've got some picks up there now, a special $5 Tuesday, so all the picks up there, $5.
That's at my page at wagertalk.com.
Go up there right now.
Tonight you can pull down this week's issue, the gold sheet from Wager Talk,
and you can also find winners and whiners and picksandparleys.com up at the Wager Talk site.
As the Beatles will say, come together with all these sports and do a great job tying it all up.
Listen, man, Bruce, as always, great job.
Keep up the good work.
Have fun, boys.
Enjoy the games.
Thank you, buddy.
Thank you so much.
Same to you.
Bruce Marshall, amongst other places, the gold sheet.
Coming up the next hour, I'm going to be going to the option of the country, down to Orlando.
Matt Michelle checking in.
The oldest rivalry in the South, Auburn, Georgia, talking Tigers with Brian Matthews and Ben Thomas.
Did he survive the king, all right?
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The Marshall County School Superintendent Cindy Wigley is responding to comments that were made by the incoming superintendent-elect, Clay Weber.
Weber says that the new policies that Wigley is now implementing within the school district is only going to make it harder for him to make the changes that he was elected to do.
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and should be evaluated on their administrative and financial merits rather than the timing after a recent election.
I'll be back with more Alabama stories after this.
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A judge has set a date for a preliminary hearing for a former high school baseball coach who is charged with sex abuse of a minor.
Eli Fuller will have that hearing on November 3rd.
Court records indicate that the victim in this case was a 14-year-old girl.
And criminal charges were recently issued against the principal at Colbert High School for failure to report a crime.
Lance Mitchell is the one facing charges after his nephew Eli Fuller was indicted for sex abuse of a student.
Fuller has since been fired as the baseball coach at that school and placed on administrative leave as a teacher.
Mitchell has also been placed on administrative leave as the school's principal.
And two women were found dead inside a home in the city of Mobile this past Monday afternoon.
The deaths are not connected to Hurricane Isaiah's police have now detained one man as a person of interest.
I'm Andrea Tyson.
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93.9, the score weather.
Today's sunny with a high around 90.
Tonight mostly clear with a low near 65.
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Your weather from 93.9, the score.
Now, get ready to roll Shoals, Decatur, Athens, and all of Northwest Alabama and Southern Tennessee.
It's time for the Valley's exclusive FM Sports Voice.
The Boomo Bugg Show.
Your exclusive inside track to the tie.
Tigers, Tennessee, and the rest of the SEC.
Now, your host, Harold Bugg on 93.9, the score.
Welcome back in our tour of the Boomo Bugg Show.
I'm Harold Bugg alongside Redbeard.
Thank you so much for giving us a free ride around the Tennessee Valley.
And what do you say we go from the Shoals to the Shores,
and a man who had a lot more going on than just games in the field over the past few days.
Ben Thomas at AL.com covers a lot of high school sports and was hoping that the good Lord would cover him with a blessing
with a thing called a wedding over the past weekend, a hurricane in his backyard.
Ben Thomas, a lot on your plate.
Welcome in.
How are you?
And how did things go for you in the family?
Well, good and bad, I guess you might say.
I hope you guys are doing well.
We, down here where I live in Daphne and Mobile, too, largely got sideswiped by the hurricane.
It largely missed us.
Hit Bruton and Escambia County really hard.
They really took a run of it in the south part of the state.
But we did.
We talked last week about my daughter getting married.
And on Saturday, we did postpone that until December.
Turned out it would have been, the weather would have been okay on Saturday,
but we didn't know what the power situation would be or anything.
And we had people traveling in the town.
And Friday would have not have been a good day for travel.
So we opted to move it to December 12th.
And we'll celebrate that day.
And in the meantime, pray for those in Pensacola and Daphne and up in Bruton
and other areas that were a lot more affected by the hurricane than we were.
Absolutely.
The Power 25 caught my attention for several reasons.
Florence is number 22 and James Clemens is number 18.
Two matchups, two top 10 matchups.
Williamson at Viger, they're 6-10.
And then the big one, that's Thursday night.
By the way, Brooks at Dassler on Alabama Public TV Thursday night, BT.
That needs to be in the Thursday picks, along with Florence at Austin.
And then the Friday night, number three, Prattville travels to number one, Thompson.
So you've got two top 10 matchups.
Yeah, a bunch of good games this week.
We kind of, you know what, we've got three weeks left in the regular season.
It's kind of closing in on the fast.
But, yeah, down here Thursday night, people have been talking about this one for a long time.
It's been moved to a lot of people's stadium, even though both Williamson and Viger have their own stadiums now.
They'll be a huge crowd, Williamson and Viger, number one and number three in the last week.
How about the sportswriters rankings?
The new rankings will come out again in the morning.
And these are teams that played twice last year.
They split two meetings.
Williamson won a close game in the regular season.
Viger won in the state semifinals and went on to play in the state championship game.
If you don't know a whole lot about these teams, you probably will next year,
because they've got a lot of guys on these teams that are going to be playing on Saturday,
especially on defense.
I mean, these two defenses may be the best in the state in any classification.
Guys like Jabari Escarar from Viger and Isaac McNeil, the Auburn committed.
Williamson, you've got Elson Gaskin, who's going to Florida.
Jalen Scott's going to Oklahoma.
He was once committed to Auburn.
And a bunch of other guys who have offers.
So that should be really special.
I met probably the first of, possibly the first of two times they'll play again this year.
And then, you know, the same could be said for Friday night, Prattville and Thompson.
Two undefeated 6A Region 3 teams.
We wonder if anybody can slow down Thompson.
That was kind of a close game last week against Hewitt Trussell.
It was tight at the half, and then they just broke out in the second half and won easily.
So, you know, I think if you look in 6A, you're talking about the people that could win the state championship.
Thompson's certainly at the top, and then maybe Central Phoenix City and Prattville right behind them.
Thompson's already beat Central Phoenix City once.
We'll see if they can beat Prattville or if they can slow down at all.
That should be an interesting one on Friday night.
Ben Thomas at AL.com.
Ben, you've been kind enough to join us every week, whether it's high school football season or not.
And one of the things we talked about in the offseason was, what effect would this reclassification have on the respective teams?
And has anyone benefited more than our neighbors down the road at Florence High?
Your thoughts overall, who, besides Florence, has the reclassification helped across the state?
And maybe on the other side of the coin, who might have suffered because of it?
Well, that's an interesting question, Harold.
I do think Florence dropping down to 5A has been helped a little bit.
Just looking at their schedule, I mean, they've really been consistent all year for Coach Morrison.
I mean, their scores, other than 7-0 against Muscle Shoals, have been pretty consistent down the line.
And it gets them out of that 6A competition where you'll eventually have to face somebody in Birmingham or Central Phoenix City, you know, that area.
You know, I think somebody else has helped is Briarwood Christian.
Yes.
Taking them out of the public school environment where they might not have even been a realistic state title competitor.
And then put them in this double-A where they're undefeated and they look like they're number one in the double-A league.
A lot of good teams in that league, McGill-Tulin's right behind them.
You could say the same thing about them.
You know, I'm not sure they would be a state title contender in Class 5A.
If you look at Class 5A just across the board, it used to be 6A.
I mean, there's so many good teams in there still.
I mean, most of them are back.
You know, Clay Chalk, Parker, Hillcrest, Tuscaloosa has dropped back down.
They're really good.
Sierra Land's always there.
I'm probably missing somebody.
Benjamin Russell.
So any team, basically, I can summarize your question by saying any team that got out of that Class 5A and got into another class has probably been helped by this.
Who's been hurt by it?
That's a good question.
I mean, you know, smaller schools, as I've talked about before, like our school, Bayshore Christian, Snook, I mean, these teams that are kind of just starting programs, that are having to go up against established programs with a lot more people, it's just difficult.
And also travel-wise, I mean, we've talked about that endlessly.
I saw a tweet from Aubrey Blackwell, the Montgomery Catholic coach.
They came down last week, had a great game against UMS Wright, lost in overtime, and he tweeted out that at 2.30 in the morning, just got back from our region games in Mobile.
I mean, that's just not good when you've got teams, and there's a lot of them that are having to travel three and a half, four hours to and from to play region games.
And how do we solve that?
We talked about that a little bit on our podcast this week with Thomas Ashworth and Randy Kennedy that you guys can listen to.
It's linked to on ale.com right now.
It's free.
I hope people go and check it out.
We have fun doing it.
But, you know, the two huge problems with this separation are travel and then, as I mentioned, the quality, you know, teams that really shouldn't be playing teams.
And how do you solve that?
I don't know.
I mean, it just doesn't seem like we're going to go back to the way it was.
And I think the other solution is having more private school teams so that you can maybe divide it into three classes and then maybe the travel is eased up and the competition is a little bit better.
But right now, you know, we've got a whole new league forming.
That doesn't look like that's going to happen.
So, it'll be interesting.
After this first year, Heath Harmon has said that they could go back and look at it even though it won't be a reclass year.
Maybe they can make some changes and make it better going forward.
B.T., we talk about Fife a lot and Paul Benefield and his incredible record.
They're 7-0.
They've got two stats that are nearly comical.
They have the 7-0 record.
They have five shutouts.
They've shut out teams five out of the last six games.
They actually had a close game the first game of the season.
I believe they won in overtime.
Five out of the last six games have been shutouts.
They've allowed 26 points.
What is nearly comical is in the seven losses, they have completed 16 passes the entire season.
Not the game, the entire season.
They run the ball and run the ball and run the ball.
They're running the same plays they were running 15 years ago and it still works.
Isn't it amazing when you – every time we talk about the five, we nearly snicker.
They do it the old-fashioned way, but boy, it still works.
I was just giggling as you recounted those stats.
It's incredible.
Yeah, they did win in overtime the first week, but remember that was at Central Clay County.
It's been a larger classification that a lot of people didn't expect them to win.
They win that game and then 49-0, 56-0, 42-0, 55-6.
Hey, congratulations to Brindley Mountain for scoring six points against them, 62-0 and 42-0, or 54-0.
And now they get Collinsville, which will be a test.
I mean, Collinsville, 6-1, 5-0.
But you're right, it is, you know, in an era where so many teams are, let's spread them out.
We're going to go do the spread.
We're going to throw it all over the place.
Pfeiffer has decided to do it the opposite way.
We're going to pull everybody in as tight as we can, and we're going to run it at you until you don't want to tackle us anymore.
And I've seen that happen in, what, seven state championship games now where it just, you're playing a good team,
and it just looks like the defense is almost like, okay, midway through the third quarter, we just don't want to tackle that guy anymore.
And then when they, you know, just when you're not expecting it, they throw it, and when they throw it,
there's some wide-open guy running right down the field because you're so used to trying to tackle them.
It's amazing.
And we've talked about whether Paul Benefield, whether this is it for him.
He's talked about it being it for the last three or four years.
But he just continues to keep doing it, and it's, like I said before, it's fun for me because my last year or two in Gadsden,
I wrote the story about him going from Sylvania back to Fife, and he's been there ever since and just wanted a historic pace.
You know, Ben, it works in northeast Alabama.
It works in northwest Alabama as well.
It shows you the impact of a coach who can rock and roll no matter what jersey or hat he's wearing.
How about Daryl Higgins and Russell?
His formula is not exactly the jet age either.
It's old-fashioned, but guess what?
It's like Coca-Cola.
It still sells.
Yeah, I mean, you know, people win different ways.
That's what's kind of fun about this whole environment we're in.
There's really no right or wrong answer on how people are doing it.
But, yeah, Daryl, I mean, you know, we thought he was going to be successful.
He did so well at Mars Hill and now going to Russellville 7-1, having won four straight.
They're only lost to that good Florence team that we mentioned earlier.
Now they get to go to Decatur and they finish with Austin before the playoffs.
So, you know, it's different than when we all kind of cut our teeth, guys, and we were running when I was in Gaston.
You know, everybody was running some form of the wing tee, basically.
Walter Welburn was running the old Notre Dame box.
Oh, yeah.
And, you know, very few people were throwing it around.
But you get a Trent Seaborn and you throw it around.
But otherwise, there's nothing wrong with, hey, are you a man enough to stop me?
Yeah, Central Husky in Tuscaloosa ran the Notre Dame box for years.
Taurus Davis at Russellville, 1,420 yards on the season.
He ran for 131 when Russellville beat Athens-Colbert County at 5-2 after beating J.B. Pennington-Hamilton 6-1.
Hatton still undefeated after beating Haleville.
They've got a showdown with Central of Florence at the end of the season.
BT, great stuff.
You've also got the Ben's 10, which the Boomo Bugg Show is honoring a member of the Big Ten.
We are so humble with that.
Absolutely.
And you've got Oregon, an Oregon commit, an Alabama commit.
By the way, Patrick Parker Turley of Buckhorn was through for 457 yards last week.
He's had a really good season.
I know you've got the five questions, the state rankings tomorrow, your lousy picks on Thursday, live Thursday and Friday.
What else have you got going on?
Well, Buckhorn, by the way, they get a good matchup with Gadsden City.
Yeah, they do.
The Auburn commit Sam Solly this week.
That should be a good matchup.
I think you kind of summarized it, Brett.
I will say, going back to the Notre Dame box, that was hard to cover.
Oh, it was.
They were playing the ball when they were handing it all around.
You know, Murphy ran something we like to call the spin attack at one point because they had K.J. May
and you had the quarterback spinning and you never knew where the ball was.
But, yeah, check out our podcast today if you can on AL.com.
It's only 10 or 15 minutes long.
It doesn't take an hour and 15 minutes.
I think it's enjoyable.
We'll have football high-life.
Probably just one this week on Friday.
We've had two the last couple of weeks, but probably just one and a lot of good games this week.
So, check everything out on AL.com.
Always a good job.
The most encouraging news of all.
You and your family made it through okay.
Thanks so much, Ben, for your time today, buddy.
It's all right, guys.
Have a good week.
You too, bud.
Absolutely.
For a change in a cool one, maybe, too.
BT, BenThomas, AL.com.
Auburn had a quiet weekend.
It won't be this weekend, says Brian Matthews next.
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From the University of Alabama, this is Crimson Tide Today.
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Hello again, everybody.
I'm Roger Hoover.
Here are more thoughts from Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer following Saturday's game against Georgia.
In regards to Kalen, what type of response do you anticipate from him on the field,
off the field as a leader of this team?
Yeah, I mean, you know, just even just talking to the team, I'm confident, you know,
it will yet to be seen what that response looks like, you know, next week,
not just for him, but our entire football team.
You know, this will be certainly where your character of your team gets tested.
And so, you know, we've set up to this point.
We feel really good about what the team looks like, but, you know, we were undefeated too.
So my feeling is that we'll get back to work.
You know, that's what was said down.
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What's happening this week in college football?
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The Score.
Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9 The Score.
Welcome back in. Really appreciate free ride around the Tennessee Valley.
And, B.B., this is one of the best weeks of the year.
You get down to these nice border wars, rivalry wars, and nobody has done it longer than the boys from Auburn and Georgia.
I think Brian Matthews would document that.
He's a senior editor for AuburnSports.com.
Brian, welcome in.
You sound rested.
At this point, you must have had the weekend off.
How are you?
Well, I've been working on, you know, pre-snap penalties.
I've been working on my tackling.
Yeah, I bet you have.
Execution on offense, all those things.
So, no, I haven't been well rested at all, man.
It's been a rough week.
Yeah.
Brian, the joke is, Auburn fans are asking, is Georgia going to bring the same officiating crew with them this week that they had last week?
I thought all those calls were spot on.
I don't know what you guys are talking about.
So did Georgia.
You guys are going to agree on anything.
Oh, yeah.
Obviously, that's football.
Let's talk about Auburn.
What did Auburn learn from their off week?
Well, I mean, I don't know.
They learned that Alabama and Georgia are pretty physical football teams watching that Saturday night.
I think it was more about getting back to the basics for Auburn and correcting the number of mistakes, which I talked about, right?
Pre-snap penalties on the road to Tennessee were a big issue.
Tackling's been a big issue all season.
Getting off blocks was something that D.J. Durkin mentioned right away.
Although I think everybody in the room thought he was talking about, what was it, he said defeating blocks.
But I think everybody thought he was saying defeat blocks or something.
I don't know.
It was a block defeat is what he said.
And everybody thought he was saying block defeat.
That's a new one.
Yeah.
I was like, what is block defeat?
Really?
Yeah, we figured it out.
But then, you know, just getting off to better starts, right?
Auburn didn't get a first down until the second quarter of the Tennessee game.
They struggled running the ball early in games.
Just a whole lot of turnovers for this team to work on really in the off week.
I've seen a lot of reports, in particular, about Justin Hokanson had.
Auburn wants to run the football more.
Jeremiah Cobb and Mampson combined just 13 carries against Tennessee.
And look, I understand if you get behind, it's a tendency for offensive coordinators to begin throwing the ball.
But, B, Mamp, we've talked about this.
And I think that's been the strength that Auburn has gone away from at times the last couple of years.
It's away from running the football.
Again, we know how good Georgia is.
We saw it Saturday night.
And a lot of people are certainly not giving Auburn a chance.
But offensively, can Auburn run the football against Georgia?
They cannot.
But they can certainly try.
That was a quick, quick answer.
Well, here's my thing.
They're struggling to run the ball because their offensive line is not doing a good job.
And I think when that happens, when you have those breakdowns, it's more difficult.
So they can try to scheme things up.
They can try to use Byron Moore in the running game to try to open things up for the running backs.
But I don't think lining up and giving the ball, you know, 30 straight carries to Jeremiah Cobb or Omar Mabson or Bryson-Washington, I don't think that's suddenly going to turn Auburn into some powerhouse offensive team.
And just when they line up and run the ball with running backs, I see a lot of one-yard runs, two-yard runs, a lot of two-yard runs.
And then maybe at some point they'll bust out a 20-something-yard run here and there that makes the average look a little better.
But it's still not as effective a running game.
And that's especially true, I think, early in games.
Brian Matthews, senior at interauburnsports.com.
Brian, it's safe to say that if you're realistic, you look at the situation here, and you go back to what Gunnar Stockton did over the weekend.
My gosh, NFL quarterbacks would like to go on the road in that environment and complete nine out of ten third-down passes like this dude did, man.
He was throwing dimes, maybe even pennies.
Those were not easy conversions, and he did that in hostile territory.
Is it safe to say for Auburn to sit here and defeat the odds against them?
Durkin on defense has got to come up with something to stop this juggernaut from Georgia and a seasoned, level-headed quarterback.
Yeah, he's really good, Gunnar.
I mean, I don't think you're going to stop him, right?
You've got to slow him down a little bit if you can.
You know, Georgia, it's going to be a run-first team, right?
They're going to use a tight end and throw to them.
It's going to open things up for other parts of that offense.
As they go, they've got so many different weapons.
You know, they can adjust really well to what a defense is trying to take away from them.
So I think it's a really tough thing to do, and I think it's especially tough if you can't stop the run.
And I think that's where Auburn has struggled.
You know, the Florida running back had over 200 yards, Cincinnati running back over 200 yards.
I just – and Georgia's better up front than both those teams by far, I think.
So I think that's job number one for this Auburn defense.
If they can somehow do that, then maybe they've got a chance.
But they've really struggled with that, with tackling, with getting, you know, blown off the ball at the point of attack, you know, with some other issues, getting up blocks, of course.
So, you know, that'll be a big, big test for the defense.
And one of the best players on defense will not be participating since Xavier Adkins has been suspended for the Georgia game.
He's got 37 total tackles.
Number one, were you surprised at this?
And number two, the linebacking core for Auburn, I've said all summer, was one of the deepest, one of the better ones in the SEC.
How does Auburn adjust to that?
Well, I'd say I was not surprised, you know, a few days ago when we started hearing, you know, what's going on.
But, you know, I'm a little surprised that Xavier hasn't maybe taken some steps forward maturity-wise, you know.
Now that he's been a college football player, this is his third year.
But I also recognize that I've been doing this a long time, and I know different young people take more time than others.
And some, you know, it takes after college, or maybe it never really happens for them the way it needs to.
So we'll see.
I don't think Xavier has broken any major rules or, you know, crimes or anything like that.
It's nothing that serious.
It's just a matter of him, you know, taking care of his responsibilities within the team and, you know, showing up at the right time in the right place all the time, that kind of stuff.
And, you know, that's what you need from your veterans on every side of the ball if you're going to be a really successful team.
So we'll see if he can, you know, get past this and get back on the right track.
Goal said he would address it again next week.
So, you know, it's not just one week.
It could be more.
Or it could be – this could be it.
We'll see.
And then depth-wise, I think Auburn – that's probably Auburn's strongest room.
It is the most talented.
So Bryce Diaz, I think, is more than capable of stepping up and being a very good linebacker for Auburn starting.
You know, DeMarcus Riddick still working his way back, I think, physically good.
Still working on his confidence.
I think having both shoulders injured and missing all that time, I think that's just something you just have to get used to getting back and playing as well as, you know, DeMarcus Riddick can play.
He can be a star, right?
But to do that, he's got to play reckless and, you know, do all the things he did in high school and in such a mirror, Auburn.
So I think he's getting back to that, and I think he'll get more opportunities against Georgia.
Quickly, on the recruiting trail, kind of a flip day.
Nash Johnson, we understand, the three-star quarterback flipping from Auburn to in-state Georgia.
But it looks like Jatori Williams decommitted from Miami, and word is Auburn's in a good position to land Williams.
Yeah.
This team takes a really proactive approach.
I give Gullish and staff credit when it comes to recruiting, right?
If they anticipate they're going to lose somebody, they cut the next guy lined up pretty quick.
Don't waste any time, so that's good to see.
I think they have a good idea of what's going to happen.
They don't just let things happen to them and then react.
They've already anticipated things, so good for them on that.
So we'll see how it all works out.
I think, you know, it would be really helpful for them in recruiting, and, you know, when it comes to portaling, you know, January 2nd, when that begins to have a successful season, I just don't know, you know, if they can get to that point.
So they're just going to have to overcome that.
We'll see how that goes.
Certainly recommend getting on Auburn Sports and Monday Musings, one of the topics clueless in Birmingham, referring to the SEC office and considering reestablishing a transfer policy that would require players to sit out a year.
I don't know how that would go over very well.
And you talk about your thoughts about that among many.
Recruiting, basketball exhibitions coming up, football getting ready for Georgia, all sorts of stuff, even baseball.
Where can we get online and get all money musings and everything else?
Yeah, I appreciate that.
And the president's did table that vote for the one year sitting out when they did some other stuff.
So we'll see.
That just seems really just a really dumb idea.
And it really has to be harmful to the SEC.
It would send talent elsewhere, and you don't really want to do that.
That would be helping the other conferences.
But, yeah, we'll have full coverage of practice this week, preparations for Georgia, recruiting, basketball, of course, exhibition tomorrow night, fall ball, baseball's going on.
I have updates there.
All that and more, AuburnSports.com, 60% off.
You can sign up right there online.
You can follow me on Twitter, such as X at BMATAU.
Sounds like the B, and Brian stands for busy.
Brian Matthews, thanks for your time.
Have a good rest of the week, okay?
I appreciate you guys.
Thank you.
Thank you, buddy.
Brian Matthews, senior editor of AuburnSports.com.
Coming up, the National Perspective from Double M, Matt Michelle on deck.
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Dishler Basketball will host Dinner in the Dome on Saturday, October 17th at 7 p.m.
in the Dishler Dome with guest speaker, former University of Alabama men's basketball coach,
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There will be a silent auction from 7 to 7.30, along with a meet and greet with Coach Godfrey
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Monday night football last night, the Bills outlasted the Rams 37-34 in overtime.
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Georgia is 6-0 on the season.
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Now, back with Boomo Bugg on 93.9, The Score.
Welcome back in.
He's a busy boy down in a place called Orlando, Florida.
He's Matt Merchelle, college insider with the Orlando Assembly.
You can check out his podcast.
It's called Grand Iron 365.
Matt Merchelle, welcome in.
How are you?
I'm doing well.
How are you guys?
Hey, bud.
I'm doing all right.
Matt, I'd say you're a busy boy.
Were you covering Central Florida over the weekend, or were you working the replay booth
for the SEC office in Birmingham for the Alabama-Georgia game?
Oh, I know.
I had nothing to do with that.
I was over in Oklahoma, Tennessee, and UCF, Oklahoma State.
So, you've got to pin that on someone else.
Oh, okay.
Now we're clear.
Matt, obviously, it is what it is.
Your thoughts.
We can talk from now until the cows come home about that.
You can either believe what they say, or you can believe your eyes on that.
That's up to you on that.
But your thoughts overall.
What did we learn from that game, aside from these officials may not have a halo over their
head and walking on water?
Yeah, I mean, listen, you know, I think any good coach worth of salt is not going to let
one call, you know what I mean, define what's going to happen.
It's disappointing, obviously, but, you know, I think for Alabama, you know, coming off the
losing end of this, you know, I think they've figured out some things that they're going to
have to continue to get and improve on.
You know, listen, they're still a good defensive team.
You know, they're a team that was toe-to-toe with Georgia at the end of one team of the
country.
So, I still think they're in a good spot.
I mean, they're probably one of my probably favorites to get in the college football playoff.
You know, this is not like the sky is falling type of situation.
You know, so there's definitely things that, like I said, they can always figure out they
can get better on.
But this is the SEC, and you're going to have to find a way to win those kind of games.
You know, for Georgia, I mean, Georgia right now finds itself out in the driver's seat.
You know, now they can continue to move forward and try to figure out a way how they can get
better, you know, and continue to do what they have to do.
They've got a little bit of a luxury.
They've got Auburn this weekend.
You know, and then they've got Florida before they face a couple challenges in the Ole Miss
and Mizzou.
But their schedule looks like it favors them pretty well.
It's not like this is a chance for them to, you know, they're going to face a tough, you
know, tough round robin.
So they're going to have a good chance to come out there and play well.
So it was a good game.
But, you know, I think both those two teams are going to see them in the college football
playoff of this year.
Let me ask you about another fan base that's had an interesting three days.
Texas Longhorn fans losing to Oklahoma 27-24 in one of the more amazing Red River games that
I have seen, Arch Manning's inexplicable interception with 19 seconds left in the game.
John Mateer wakes up and hits Sintega on back-to-back passes.
And then Oklahoma kicks the winning field goal.
And, of course, Georgia now number one.
And Texas falls.
And the criticism of both Sark and Arch has increased this week.
Your thoughts on Texas' loss to Oklahoma?
You know, I think the criticism is worth, you know, is worthy.
I mean, you listen, you know, there's a reason when Arch Manning was, you know, signed at Texas,
you know, there was a lot of people who believed that him and Steve Sarkisian would get together
and they would, you know, they would win, you know, SEC titles and play for national championships.
And it hasn't happened.
You know, and there's moments in Arch Manning's development where he looked really good
and you see the potential and you realize, okay, there's a lot there.
You see why he was as ranked as high as he was.
And then there are moments when he makes kind of, you know, head-scratching mistakes, you know.
And, I mean, listen, no one's going to be perfect, but, you know, you also feel like this player could be better.
And, I mean, maybe is that fair because of the last name?
Probably not, you know what I mean?
Because they're not going to put on the fact of Manning.
But this Texas team has some issues, you know what I mean?
And I think that's something that this game, this loss, brought up to them.
Listen, their defense has got to play better.
Offensively, they've got to be crisp and cleaner.
You know, they've got to find a way to – they've never looked dominant.
Even when they were number one, you know, early on, you know, beating Ohio State,
they've never looked like that dominant team.
And so, I think that's going to be a challenge for them.
Listen, they get a Florida team this weekend that's hurt, that's coming off a really bad loss,
and really wants to kind of showcase themselves.
So, if you're Texas, you want to find a way to kind of put all the anger, all the questions aside,
and you want to put a hurt on the Gators if you want to showcase the fact that you're still a Gators.
Absolutely.
Let me ask you about Oregon.
They should have lost to Boise State to begin the season.
They lost to UCLA 17-15.
UCLA is 5-0 on the season, and they lost Nico for the year.
But, Matt, do you think losing Will Stein, who is the talk of the town at Kentucky,
who was the Oregon offensive coordinator, and then Tosh LaPoy, the defensive coordinator,
now head coach at California, I think Dan Lanning is still struggling a little bit to replace those two.
Yeah, very much so.
I think any time you lose your offensive and defensive coordinators in the same offseason,
it's difficult.
It's a little challenge to go out there and bring in guys that you feel are going to do the things that are going to have success.
It doesn't help that you lost your starting quarterback, Dante Moore, you know,
and you have to bring in a guy in Dillardale and comes in and just plays decent,
maybe not at the same level as Dante, but still decent enough.
But, again, this is a team right from the start.
You mentioned it.
The Boise State game, I think, showcased right off the bat that this team had some issues.
And they're struggling offensively.
They're trying to find ways to get points and create opportunities and get turnovers and things like that.
And they haven't been able to do that.
And so it's been a challenge for them.
And I think for Dan Lanning, I think now you're not waving the white flag,
but I think you've got to realize, okay, you've got a couple weeks now.
You've got to play a really good Nebraska team coming up.
You've got Illinois.
And then you've got a surprising Northwestern team that's ranked.
And Ohio State.
So, you know, you could still salvage the season.
It's just going to have to be the fact that maybe the idea of playing in the college football playoff is still an attainable dream.
Who better to ask this question than an Indiana native.
Is this the way we find out about this Indiana team?
Yes.
This will be the biggest.
I mean, listen, you know, you can say what you will about Indiana.
I mean, Indiana's schedule has not been that tough.
I mean, you look at how they've played.
They've played nobody.
And so, no offense to Nebraska, because even Northwestern probably stuff at the college.
But they're going to find out very quickly how good they are.
We're going to find out how good Indiana is against Ohio State.
I think the thing that surprised me, I know Ohio State's up there.
I know they're in fourth in the country.
But they've been quietly number four.
You know what I mean?
Ever since they lost it, there's a lot of buzz around Ohio State.
I think that's what Ryan Day wants.
I think he wants to come in under the radar, take on this Indiana team, and go out there and see what they can do.
I mean, as much as I'm a former Hoosier, I mean, I think Ohio State's got the upper hand in this one.
I just don't think that we've seen enough of Indiana so far in the schedule to believe, you know, that they've got a chance to knock off Ohio State.
But we'll see what happens.
I mean, and listen, if Indiana does somehow pull that off, the rest of the schedule really isn't easy enough.
They should be able to go undefeated the rest of the way.
Yep.
All right, let me ask you about another Indiana team you know well.
Notre Dame at BYU.
You know BYU very well in the Big 12.
CJ Carr is really well.
Their defense amazes me.
They had 21 interceptions last year.
They've already got, they're already plus 13.
Imagine, Kalani Satake is a good coach.
Barrett Blackemeyer, according to Bruce Marshall, our Las Vegas Insiders, maybe be trying to do too much.
Notre Dame's a 10-and-a-half point favorite.
Traveling to BYU, do they win in cover?
Yeah, you know, that's going to be a tough one for Notre Dame.
Even though I know BYU's without LJ Martin, you know, they're top one and back.
You know, it's a tough place to win, you know, if you go on the road at BYU.
And, you know, this is a good BYU team.
Now, that being said, Notre Dame's got the best defense in the country right now.
They're playing lights out.
You mentioned the turnovers.
They get takeaways.
They've got a big chip on their shoulder from the way last year ended.
And they've really played that way throughout the season.
Now, you know, have they played enough good teams that people would think, okay, they deserve to be where they're at?
You know, who knows?
But I think this is going to be the real test for them.
This is an opportunity to kind of make their case if they can find this road win and find a way to win it.
Because, you know, listen, they get BYU, they play Navy, that's a great game.
But then they get Miami, then they'll win after that.
So that right now, this stretcher game, is really for Notre Dame, their chance.
If they stumble, they lose on the road, you know, this weekend, you know, it's going to be tough for them.
They've just got to finish in the top 12 this year.
Remember, that's a whole new ruling this year for the college football playoff.
Notre Dame's just got to be in the top 12 in ranking.
Losing to a number eight team on the road would not, I don't think, jeopardize that.
But they still have to find a way to finish strong.
And the way they play defense, I think Notre Dame finds a way to pull them down.
They tell me the tailgate beverage of choice is different in Salt Lake City than it is Baton Rouge.
We'll double-check that.
But, Matt, let's talk a little bit about the border war here.
Alabama and Tennessee.
Alabama's coming off a loss.
Alabama's, I mean, Tennessee's coming off a win.
A lot of Tennessee fans feel like it was a loss against Arkansas by seven.
What happens in the latest edition of the third Saturday in October, and who lights the cigars Saturday night?
Well, I mean, listen, I still think, you know, and I know this is at Tennessee.
I think Alabama is certain, and I think they want to show that they're still angry from this past weekend.
I think they're going to come out, and they're going to play like that.
You know what I mean?
I mean, again, it wasn't like, to reiterate, it wasn't like Georgia stopped them, and they ran away.
This was a hard-bought game to the very end.
I think that this is an Alabama team that's got a quest.
They're going to come out there with this idea of wanting to prove that they deserve to win last weekend's game.
Officials or no officials, whatever.
But I think they want to come out and play that way, and I think that's what's going to happen here.
And I think if you're Alabama, this is your opportunity.
You know you've got that tough schedule.
You know you had a bunch of games in a row.
But now you look around, and you look at that schedule, and you think, okay, we beat Tennessee.
You would have thought LSU might be the team, but look at where they're at.
You can go to the rest of the schedule.
Yeah, you can go to the rest of the schedule and finish undefeated and be right there based on the schedule.
So it's not as tough as it used to be.
This is the game right now that you have to find a way to get past.
You went to Oklahoma, as you alluded to, and covered UCL.
They lost to what I think is one of the most improved teams in the country.
Oklahoma State, Mr. Maker is their quarterback.
How impressed were you with Oklahoma State?
I was very impressed.
Their offense is, I mean, the job that Eric Morris has done in a short period of time,
and don't get me wrong, I get it.
You can bring a coach in, and the coach brings in his top quarterback, his top wide receiver, his top running back,
and a couple other players with him, and brings them more from North Texas.
But to get to where Oklahoma State won one game last year, you know, and then to be where they are now,
their offense marches up and down the field.
Their defense is opportunistic when it can be.
You know, the fan base is exciting.
Now, they've got a big game this weekend.
They go to Houston, and Houston's a good team.
I saw Houston two weeks ago.
Houston's a good team that struggled early on against UCL.
But again, this is going to be a matchup with two top quarterbacks.
Connor Wegman at Houston and Drew Messamick.
I think Drew's probably going to be a first-round pick, or late first-round pick.
So, I mean, this is a great matchup, and one that I think the Big 12 definitely is looking forward to,
because they need these kind of opportunities to showcase the league.
You know, they know the SEC's going to get, you know, three or four teams in.
You know what the Big 10's going to get in.
You know, BYU's playing a big game this weekend against, you know, Notre Dame.
You've got to have some of these big games to showcase what the league is about.
So, it's going to be a good opportunity, I think, for this.
Absolutely.
We're halfway through the regular season.
Tell it to slow down, please.
We look forward to this forever, and it gets here, and it goes by in an eyelash.
It's just absolutely amazing.
The great stuff.
You do a good job of covering Central Florida and all the other college teams.
Matt, where can we get online to get all your great stuff?
Yeah, you can go to orlandosentinel.com to check out the latest.
Follow me on OS, Matt, Michelle, and all social media.
Yeah, it's been a – it seems to blow by.
This is a bye week for me.
This is a bye week, so I'm actually taking a deep breath.
But even then, there's still stuff that's all going on, so it never ends.
And as you said, Susan Flink, it's going to be December, and we're going to be talking
to the Bulls and the college football playoffs, bro.
It goes by really quick.
In the meantime, enjoy the Lazy Boy this weekend, man.
Thanks for your time, and have a good one, okay?
All right.
Thanks a lot, guys.
You take care.
You too, bud.
Double L, Matt, Michelle, the Orlando Center.
Coming up just ahead, Paul Feinbaum, the host.
Coming up tomorrow to be Paul Feinbaum, the guest.
Along with the top line, Brent Germany Moore.
That's coming up tomorrow.
But in the meantime, on behalf of BB, Greg, James Blair, the entire crew here.
Harold Buck, thank you so much for your time today.
Let's do it again tomorrow, noon to two for the Boomwell Buck Show.
Back here on Sports Radio 93.9, the score.
We'll be right back.