18 Burst results for "Billy Napier"
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"billy napier" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"I think the call of that and- So New Hampshire's out. New Hampshire's out. New Hampshire's out. Maine is out. You know what I mean? Those places are out. Now, Colorado has been a power before. They have been before. Not saying that they can't be done, but I'm saying I don't think Dion will be there for the long term. I'm one of those people. Okay, so your top five is top five teams that should be worried that Dion is kind of staring over their shoulder a little bit. Top five coaches. I'll start off at number five. Now, this is a long shot for a couple of reasons. We're gonna get to higher- We're going from five to one to build up suspense. We're going from five to one. This is great. This segment's working great so far. I'm having a good time. We're going from five to one. Five is Dave Aranda. Dave Aranda is the head coach of the Baylor Bears now. Things are going bad for Baylor. If you don't know who Dave Aranda is, Dave Aranda was formerly the defensive coordinator at Nebraska, then became the defensive coordinator at my LSU Tigers, went down to Baylor and had almost immediate success turning Baylor's program around. If you know anything about Baylor's program, you know that Baylor's program had some issues. I would say so. Yeah, had some issues. If you had issues that lead to a documentary that's longer than two hours, you had issues. Right, and because of that, it was tough sledding down there in Baylor. He had a lot of chances to take a lot of different jobs. He took the Baylor job. Now things aren't going so good. Why would Deion be interested in the job at Baylor? Texas. It's Dave Aranda, Texas. Texas athletes. Texas athletes. Baylor is a team that over the last 10 or 15 years has been able to eke out a national identity for itself in a very football-rich state. Of course, they're a good hoops team now too. Great hoops team. The entire sports program at Baylor is on the rise. And you're in Texas. Dedicated to football, dedicated to sports, Baylor could be something. The reason why Deion wouldn't go to Baylor, in my opinion, is because it's kind of a lateral move, right? It's not one of the traditional powers that we're gonna talk about for the rest of these places. It's not a place in the SEC. It's not a place where football is in the blood, not quite yet. Yeah, my counter to that one would be if you're going to Texas, go to Texas. Go to the actual Texas. There's another school. Okay, are we going to number four? Number four. We're not quite to Texas yet. Number four is gonna surprise a lot of people. Ryan Day at Ohio State. Ooh. Now, a lot of people might be asking me right now, Van, why would you have Ryan Day on this list? Ryan Day is 48 and six during this time at Ohio State. He's had them in the college football playoff. They lost in the national championship game. It was a blowout, 52-24 to Alabama. They have been a successful college football team since he's been there. The only problem is that the chatter from inside the Ohio State fan base is not as high on Ryan Day as you would think that it is. One reason, Bill, is because he is one and two against Michigan. Oh, that can't fly. And that's not gonna fly. Gotta be Michigan. The coaches before him, Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer, didn't lose that many games against Michigan in something like 18 games. Tressel was nine and one against Michigan. Urban Meyer was seven and oh. When you combine that plus the fact that Ryan Gay hasn't been a particularly good big game coach, there are some people who believe that if Ohio State would have a down season this year and not get back to the college football playoffs or if they were to lose to Michigan again, that there might be some people that would look to bring in a different regime there in Columbus. Here's the reason why that wouldn't happen. I don't think there's a culture fit there. I don't think Deion Sanders would fit in a super traditional college football power like Ohio State. He's probably a little bit too outside of the norm for them. It doesn't seem like that would translate that well in Columbus. However- Good athletes in Ohio. Good athletes in Ohio, some of the best. But I don't think that would work because I don't think that the OSU tradition would happen. I also think that Dave's success would make pulling the trigger on him a little bit too early. I liked it. I thought it was a good thought experiment though. I enjoyed it. I don't see Deion in Ohio State. Just fundamentally, it doesn't pass the sniff test for me. Don't see it. Number three is a really interesting one and it's the worst nightmare for college football fans. This is the worst nightmare for college football fans. For me, the thought of this one keeps me up at night. Oh no. Texas A &M. Ooh. This is the Texas who I was talking about. Jimbo Fisher is in hell right now, Texas A &M. He's in hell. All right. They paid this man $100 million and they just got waxed on national television a couple of weeks ago by Miami. Miami's coming out party was against Texas A &M. Texas A &M has one of the most talented rosters in the country. When you talk about blue chip composites, they're up there with the Alabamas in terms of the talent that they have. It just has not at all reflected on the field. Jimbo Fisher, who won a national championship at Florida State, just can't seem to get it going there at Texas A &M and they're paying so much money for him. Okay. So you think Jimbo is rooting for Colorado State on Saturday night? I think Jimbo is rooting for any hot shot coach out there to fail because any hot shot coach that's out there makes it more realistic that Texas A &M would make a move. He is on the hottest of hottest of hot seats. So what do we think of that fit for Dion? He's in Texas, he gets nice crop of athletes. I think it's actually a perfect fit. I think it's a ridiculously perfect fit. I think he would be in the SEC. He's got access to Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, all the neighboring places. Oh yeah. The one thing that would stop this from happening is $70 million. Jimbo Fisher has around that left on the $100 million contract that Texas A &M gave to him. It is going to take a lot. And this is a rich school that has all the resources in the world, like literally brought in one of the most impressive recruiting classes ever. Actually, if you use the composite number, the most impressive recruiting class ever because of NIL, they can just pay more than anybody just about. But $70 million, eating that, having to pay him that, and then having to pay Dion, who if he's making 29 at Colorado, is definitely not going to jump for anything less than $70 million. Mel Tucker got $100 million. So you're looking at a guy who probably wants that same type of money. That's a lot of money. A lot of money. Do you think college coaches should make that much? I don't see why not. I mean, like why? Like what's that a year? I'm just trying to like... I think Jimbo got 10 years, 100 million or something like that. So it's like $10 million. If you're paying $100 million for 10 years for Jimbo Fisher, it's almost like you have to have the guarantee that your team's going to be good for that amount of money. That's what you pay for, for sure. Because you can't get out of it. But then they're not that good. Right. Like how many coaches are... I don't know, it just seems like watching from afar, it seems like way more, much more of a craft shoot with college coaches than it is in like, I don't know, football. Whereas like in football, let's say Brian Deball, like pro football worked like college football. Brian Deball had one good year. And they'd be like, oh, the Browns have offered him $120 million to be the coach. I like Brian Deball, but I also, we've seen such a small sample size of it. So I don't know, it just seems like a dice roll half the time. Well, this is what I'll say. You're not with me on this? It's interesting. You'd have to understand how important a college football coach is. I totally get it. I get all of it. But it's just, how many of them are actually good? Like it's basically, it's a recruiting thing more than anything, right? Not really. When you're paying $100 million for one, you're normally paying $100 million for a really established coach that can change the program's culture. But he didn't do it. I mean, it can backfire. Any coach can be a bad fit. It seems like it backfires half the time. It doesn't. Well, you got to look at coaching as a profession then. How many of these coaches go on to be popovitches? You know what I mean? However, when it does work, think about it. When you have a coach that really hits for a program, think about where he takes the program, he or she, but in this case, it's he. Like, think about the fact that when Alabama, you don't remember Alabama, the program it was before Nick Saban got there. I remember it wasn't good. Strugglesville, his first year, they lose to Louisiana Monroe, right? So Strugglesville, think about the national brand that Alabama is. Think about what that means, not just to the school and to the team, but to the state of Alabama, the economy around the area. Like the investment for a coach that changes the culture of a program. So how many of those guys are there at this point? How many now? I would say you probably have the guys that are for sure winners. I'd say you probably have. It's people you said about Chip Kelly, right? And then he bounced around and now, you know. Here's the thing about Chip Kelly. Chip Kelly is actually a good example of what we're talking about. Chip Kelly built the culture at Oregon, right? He built it and he had it going in a very specific way with the support from Nike and all of that stuff. He left to try to take it to the NFL. And then when he came back, he's not been able to build that exact same culture at UCLA, although he has made UCLA into a reputable and powerful college football program. So I would say that when it works, it's really worth it. And when it doesn't work, it's all fucked up. And that's kind of the thing with any of those big contracts like that, right? How many NBA contracts can we think of guys that got a lot of money? But this thing in the NBA, there's like Monty Williams got an incredible amount of money to coach the Pistons. And it's just like, eh, I don't know. There's like five NBA coaches that matter. I mean, there are only five to 10 college coaches that matter. And the rest of them are trying to prove that they matter. Would you put Dion on that list yet? Not yet. I would say that he's significant, but he's not quite there yet because in order to matter in college football, I mean, Dion matters culturally, but he has to show like success in Colorado and then like success in the long term. And some game management stuff, like there's a whole bunch of checkpoints. All right, so who's number two? So before I get off Texas A &M, I want to say something real quick. Yeah. If Texas A &M were to hire Dion Sanders, the reason why I say it would be the worst case scenario is because with those resources and that proximity, if Dion is even half of who he says he is, they would be a perennial top five, top two team for a long time. It would be a nightmare if he were to end up at a school like that with those types of resources. Okay. Okay. Number two is Arkansas. And let me tell you why I have Arkansas on the list. Arkansas coach Sam Pittman right now, LSU is locking the horns with Arkansas. This weekend, battle of the boot, Sam Pittman, great guy, amazing guy. Been a great coach for Arkansas. KJ Jefferson's the quarterback. He is a veteran there. He's going to be a tough game for LSU. There are ties there. Jerry Jones is a huge Arkansas alum. Oh. And they actually gave Dion Sanders an interview, from what I understand. And him going there, it would be greased for him to go there. It would be the SEC school, one of the SEC schools most likely to give him a shot. Right? So there's some familiarity already there. Sam Pittman and Arkansas haven't quite gotten to the point that you would want them to get to. They've been competitive for the last couple of years, the last few years, but they haven't really made a real run in the SEC West. And it doesn't look like this season is going to be the season that they do that either. They just lost to BYU last week. We'll see what happens on Saturday with LSU, but it doesn't look like a program right now that is a very powerful program. And that's a state with a great football tradition. So Dion going there would be a huge deal. And Jerry Jones could probably make that happen for Dion Sanders. You know what I mean? Would he have to live in Arkansas? He would. See, that was a joke just for you because you're from Louisiana. I had to do that just for you. He would. He would have to live in Arkansas. The only reason why I don't see that happening is the reason you just named. I don't know how culturally that fits in Arkansas. I'm going to call it a major city or major state. Yeah, but I like the people in Arkansas. I have a lot of time when I go up here. I'm just saying he's a very famous wealthy person. I just don't see him shacking down in Arkansas. Well, Nick Saban- It just seems unrealistic. See, and this is another thing you should understand. Last thing I'll say before I move on to the number one, the charm of the college town also is- You can't compare Alabama to anything. That's the most important college football program and everything. Now it is. No, but it was from the past. Bear Bryant. Historically it is, but you can't tell me that places like Oxford, places like even Baton Rouge, Starkville, all of these towns have their own charm and the coaches build community there, Bill. They build community there so it can happen. Number one, and this is by far to me the coach that should be looking over your shoulder the most. Billy Napier at Florida. Oh yeah. I was waiting for this one. Billy Napier at Florida. Sunbelt Billy is a great coach. Anybody that spent time around him knows that he's a process oriented coach. He is a coach that is able to inspire his guys. He's pragmatic. He's all in that stuff. Florida wants results. They started this season with a loss to Utah and it completely deflated the fan base. On the Deion Sanders front, Deion Sanders is from the state of Florida. I'm aware. Fort Myers, Florida, right? It's probably the home of the fastest human beings in America, Florida. Just speed everywhere. With how they like to play at Colorado, with how they like to put pressure on defenses, like to have speed everywhere. Just imagine a Florida team with Deion Sanders at the helm and then also man, if you guys think he's got Boulder rocking what would happen in the swamp? What would happen in Gainesville? The type of national notoriety that that program has had traditionally, that would be an incredible scene. An incredible scene. It's his out for getting out of Colorado if he actually wants to leave. But you know, he might want to stay there for 20 years. But if he left Colorado and he bounced again, the natural narrative would be, I'm from Florida. Like it was always where this was gonna end up. I want to come home and I want to coach the team in my state. Come home, coach the team in my state. It seems like his relationship with Florida State right now, a team that's actually obviously riding high, you don't have to tell a no shoe fan that, it seems like his relationship with Florida State now is kind of icy. So it also would grind their gears a little bit to have Deon in Gainesville, a lot of things. The reason why it might not happen is, Florida might be good. They just beat Tennessee at home this past Saturday. Obviously the loss to Utah was a setback, but Graham Mertz looked really, really good in the victory at Tennessee. The running game looked fantastic. The defense stopped Joe Milton and Josh Hypel's offense. They actually might be good. So this might be a moot point. Billy Napier, who a lot of people think is on a hot seat, based upon the performance we just saw, might not be hot, might not be hot. Maybe it's like a lukewarm seat. But I can tell you one thing, if the season goes on and they get splattered by Georgia and they drop a couple, you know, Missouri looks like they might be better. If they drop one in Missouri or the seat gets hot, look for Deon to Florida, Deon to Arkansas. Look for those two teams right there to be really in the mix for Deon Sanders if somebody wants to pluck him. But, Colorado's gotta keep winning. Everybody's high on Deon right now. The Pac-12 is one of, if not the best conferences in all of America. And Colorado has a hell of a schedule coming up, Bill. Like a hell of a schedule, man. I think it's more fun if he stays at Colorado for a few years because you're basically creating a powerhouse team from thin air that we didn't have, right? Florida, all these teams you mentioned, Florida, Arkansas, like they're all teams that are in the mix anyway. But Colorado is like, when was the last time people were having Colorado conversations? Very long time, I will say this. And it's in a cool place. Like it's in, like Denver's, the Denver area, I can see having a cool college football team. That's kind of fun. I don't know, it's fun that they play on West Coast time. I like having more West Coast teams. I think it depends on a lot of things. If Deon is able to be successful, and we're jumping the gun right here, we are. But anytime there's a successful young whippersnapper coach, other coaches start looking over their shoulder. If Deon's able to be successful there, the question is, can Colorado be a traditional football power? Can they spin like the SEC? Can they win like the SEC or the Big 12? The conference realignment matters here. You're gonna look at a situation where you're gonna have two mega conferences, and the Pac-12 might not be the conference that you wanna have one of those major, major, major heavy hitter teams in. You might wanna get in the game from a playoff standpoint, and from a power and television standpoint. You might wanna get in the game in the SEC or in the Big 10. So it just depends on how things shake out for Deon Sanders. If he thinks he can do that at Colorado, we don't know yet. It's working fine right now. Can we bring in Sarudi quickly? Sarudi, you there? All right, Sarudi, Van just laid out his five teams, and you know way more about college football than I did. Which one of those five got you the most excited? Oh, it's Florida, definitely Florida. Yeah, I mean, I feel like 10, 15 years ago, that Tim Tebow, Urban Meyer, Florida run, I mean, they were the most terrifying, you know, they weren't a dynasty, but you know, small run of anybody in college football. And they just had so many dudes rolling through there. And that was kind of pre the Saban era too, or at least like the dominant Saban era. And they were kind of the closest, scariest thing to what Nick Saban's done at Alabama. So I think if you can get that going again in Gainesville, man, that would be a pretty terrifying situation. The only other one that I would say that you didn't mention that would be probably the only other place that would be worse than Florida State, you know, Deion Sanders, a former Florida State guy, going to Florida would be going to Miami. We've been talking for the last 10, 15 years, plus however many years, whether or not Miami could ever come back and be the U again. He seems like the guy with the bravado. He seems like the personality that can make it be the U again and make them be the number one team in the country and the scariest team to play. I mean, certainly the recruiting ground there in Miami is probably the most fertile one in the entire country. The question is, you know, is a former Seminole going to cross those lines and become a hurricane? I doubt it, but that would be the one where I'd be like, man, if he went to Miami, that's a perfect cultural fit and it's a perfect, obviously, reviving one of the long-lost programs that hasn't made its way all the way back yet. So I would say Miami, Deaf Florida, but Miami's the one wildcard. Yeah, fun place to live for a rich former superstar athlete. Miami, a few of them have enjoyed it. Miami definitely could have made this list, especially over maybe like a Baylor. I just wanted to throw in the Dave Miranda thing to show my college football knowledge. But the only reason why I wouldn't put Miami on, I really do think that Miami's like headed in the right direction. I really do. But like Deon in Miami, think about what that would mean. Think about the U coming back with Deon. It would essentially be 1989 again. I'm not even talking about the second iteration of the U. I'm talking about that first group of U people that were hanging out with Luther Campbell and the hot tubs and all of that and the camouflage and everything that's going on. That would be crazy if he ended up there. That's a good one. All right, Van. I really enjoyed Van's top five. That was fun. We'll have to do it again. Good to see you. We definitely will. You can hear Van on the rewatchables, by the way. He was on the Brock's Tale this week, so that was fun. Thanks, Van. Bye, guys.
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"The Paul fine bomb show podcast. We have seen it before, not often, someone coming out of nowhere to make it to the championship game. Auburn did it in 2013 after a losing record and a coaching change. And TCU did it. So what about this upcoming season? She Han J Raja joins us from CBS sports and these are some of the odds for folks from back in the pack, auburn, way back there, but a lot of optimism, Sean, thank you, always great to have you on the program. Good afternoon and take us through what it looks like from back in the pack. Yeah, great question. So for this article over for dark horses at CBS sports dot com, we tried to find people who had 50 to one or worse odds, which generally speaking, that's pretty low odds to make the college football playoff field. And so, you know, when you look at the SEC, that means that 5 teams are off the board. Obviously, sort of those top contenders, Alabama and Georgia, as well as LCU in Tennessee and also Texas a and M. So I did go down the board. You know, you consider an old miss, do you think that a Florida could maybe get back into the conversation, but when I looked for teams with upside, to me, it was auburn. I think that this was a roster that over the past two years has largely been mismanaged. And I don't think has been put in good place to succeed. And for all the questions about you freeze, you've done a great job of developing offenses at a high level. And I think that adding paint and thorn at a quarterback position. I think that Caleb Burton at wide receiver, a former big time recruit from the state of Texas. I mean, there's just some upside here, I think, when it comes to them potentially crashing the field. You know, when you look around the rest of the country, a couple other places to go. I think that Oregon state is a name that most people may not have noticed last season one, ten games. And actually Bo Nixon Oregon in their big rivalry game last year to win that tenth game. So there are programs that I think has a lot of upside, especially after adding you can see Jay Lee uncle LA as the transfer quarterback from cleansing. And then I think that when you go up to the Big Ten, a real, real boomer bus candidate could be Wisconsin, where you have Luke, they call one of the few coaches who has led his team to the college of all play out that Cincinnati. Well, he's changing everything now at Wisconsin. They're going to look completely different with a dynamic offense that's going to really attack through the air. So who knows? They could be a team that has a chance to come out of the west and maybe shock the world. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned Luke FICO because I think that's a not an underreported story because plenty of people are covering Wisconsin, but a story that's out there lurking and he is such a great coach and could have gone so many different places, especially the year he was he was in the playoffs. Let me go back to auburn for a second because you were talking about some of the players as you freeze, has now in the portal. He inherited a mess, he's building it quickly. What is your view of auburn from a little bit of distance? Well, I think that they are certainly one of the tougher team to identify thinking college football this upcoming year because look, when you look at sort of the talent composite type metrics, this is one of the 20 most talented teams in college football. They are right there, really not that far away from even a Michigan or things like that. So you add a quarterback and Payton Thornton who I think really has a chance to settle down that quarterback position, which really I think you could make the argument was one of their biggest issues this past season. They've been really, really aggressive on the offensive line and the transfer portal adding four or 5 players. They've gotten more wide receivers. I think that is three wide receivers through the transfer portal to a roster that was already pretty good at the position. You know, this is, I think, a situation where if things go the right way, if they're able to rebuild the trenches the way they want, there is talent there. There is production there. There are quality players there. And I think that you freeze has proven in the past that he knows how to put those guys in good position. So if there's still a chance that the roster may be a little bit further away than we think it is, but if it isn't, if there are good players here, I wouldn't be surprised if you do see sort of a jump in a bump. The way that we did with Washington last year, where they go from four napes to winning ten 11 games because they just get put in better position and maximize the talent that was already there on the roster. Sean, I don't think they were in your list, but I'm curious just your observation on billing Napier, second season at Florida because he's had a lot of bumps. It doesn't seem like he's got a great option at least immediately at quarterback that will change in time. Brutal schedule, it's hard to find us open or difficult in going to Utah. What do you make out of the Gators? Yeah, well, actually, I was looking at some metrics and some metrics have their schedule essentially the toughest in college football that's upcoming year. And I think that we saw what this is supposed to look like at times last year. You know, they obviously host Utah to win the pack 12 in that week one game and managed to pull off a shocking victory, but it was inconsistent at best. Now they have to do it without their top ten NFL Draft pick Anthony Richardson at quarterback. I think that I expected to see more science at this point than maybe I've seen. I thought that it would be maybe the second year would be a really good recruiting class. I thought that maybe they would continue to develop on that offensive line. It just hasn't happened that way. So far now, the thing to mention about Billy Napier is that he is a developmental coach, he built a really strong infrastructure during his time at Louisiana and eventually, you know, after a year or two of some bumps, it really paid off, and they have the best seasons that they've really ever had in that program. And so I do think that we're going to need to keep a close eye, not just on the results, but also on the processes of it as well. But I wasn't good with the process last year to be quite honest. So there are a team that I think has a lot to prove that coming here, I don't see them as a team that can come out to maybe be explosive or dynamic enough to compete with the Georgia or Tennessee, but if they can push into that 8, 9 win range, I think that just a little bit better about the way things develop. Sean, we just had Chris marler on and he fought out predicted Texas to beat Alabama. Second week of the year, maybe I've just bought too many tickets on Texas in the last ten years, but
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"Back. Great to have all of you here. Let's get back to the calls in bubba is in North Carolina. How about how you doing today, Paul? Bob, we're doing great. Hey, God boy, I said young lady, you were speaking with ALS. It's, I think, more commonly known as Lee gage disease. They've been following. It is, yes. Yeah, it's very debilitating and God bless everybody that's bad on that. You know, we tend to all take our health for granted, I think. And I said, I myself, I like to watch inky Johnson speak sometimes just so I remember how well I've got it and have fortunate I am. What you just said. I was sitting there talking to her like everyone watching. And whatever is going on in your mind. And we all have plenty of dancing around it all disappeared and listening to her story. And what she's gone through, what she's facing now and what she will face. It was just, to me, just a jarring reminder of how blessed most of us are. Slightly. And we tend to take it for granted. I mean, we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. And we need to remind us how we really do. Reason I called, I want to touch on Tennessee's football team here a little bit. A couple of names. I just want you to lock in, I'll tell you if you're going here a lot of this year's remail Keaton and Aaron Beasley, I think most of these guys are going to be integral parts of Tennessee success this season. I might remember Keaton hadn't got a lot of the height because of the previous receivers we had. We've got brave McCullough squirrel white. But I really think for male Keaton's going to be a clutch position type receiver. have a thousand yard season, I'm going to be surprised. And our linebacker and Beasley stepped up when Jeremy banks kind of got out of the picture and honestly, I feel that he's going to lead to defense this year. And I don't think I'm realistic. We're not going to have a Georgia type dominant defense, but if we have a solid defense, I think Tennessee is going to contend in every game. Well said, bubba, thank you. You'd be well. Donnie is in south Dakota. Hello Donny. Hey, how are you? Very well. Thank you. I just wanted to get your opinion on one thing. I'm going to Ohio born, but I grew up in Kentucky. And I've been watching Kentucky football as much as I can up here in the middle of nowhere. And it just seems like over the last few years, they've made one or two small steps forward and I was just reading this morning that they got a couple of names out of the transport transfer Porter and I was just wondering if you think there are obviously they're in the SEC with Alabama's in Georgia, but do you think they can make any bigger steps forward? Donny, I'm not certain. And I say that not to be a pessimist, but I've seen Kentucky nearly touch that ceiling a couple of times and for whatever reason they just can't seem to get over up to the top or stay there. And that is frustrating. For everyone, I think who's a fan of Mark stoops. It should, it shouldn't be that difficult right now after when you consider how long he's been there. And the amount of time that he has spent building this program. Agreed, agreed. He's definitely brought the culture where they might just wish they could get over that, huh? Yeah, and is that one or two more players? I don't know. I mean, levitt was one of the best quarterbacks he could have ever. He's had there. I think leery is good and maybe not great, but he gives him a chance. It's just, it always seems to me that Kentucky gets to a particular place and then throws it away. And for no reason, some of the losses are inexplicable. That they have suffered in recent years. Thank you for the call. Thank you very, very much. Johnny ray is up next. Hello, Johnny. Johnny, you there? Bo is up next to hello, Bo. Hey, Paul. I've got a couple questions for you. Well, two to be exact. Okay. You think Billy nakers, the answer for Florida and do you think DJ lag way will be one of the next greatest quarterbacks to come out of the SEC and you think he'll lead Florida back into the playoffs? He could. As far as Billy Napier, I think it's just a matter of surviving right now, surviving a difficult time. And maybe what could be another difficult season. This season, I don't think will be great, but he has to find a way this year to give folks reason to believe and last year he did it all in the first game. After a week one, we thought Florida was back and then we got to root awakening in the next 11 weeks. Thank you for the call. Let's continue with preacher Nick up next to hello Nick. Hello, Paul. This is Nick brewer from Appalachia, Virginia. I will rear down around Barbara ville, Kentucky. I'm a big Kentucky fan, my question is about coach kal, Paul, I love your show and you're always straight as an arrow. How many games is coach Cal going to have to win this year to keep his job? I don't think there's a number. I think he has the team. I mean, we all know what he's got coming in. And it's just a matter of what he does in March. I think we have, we have now determined that the regular season is not the problem. A couple of years ago, he had a great regular season this year, he had a great finish to the regular season and a spotty beginning, but if Cal keeps hanging around the first weekend of the tournament, not getting out of it. I think that will be his undoing. Paul, thank you very much. I really enjoy you program. Thank you. You'd be well. You take care of yourself. Ed, in South Carolina. It was up next. Hey Ed, hey, Paul. How are you buddy? We are great. Thank you. I just wanted to compliment you on having the young lady on earlier. Sarah, I
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"Know. I know. Well, and if they do all the people that think this is a difficult job, it is not. Mike has broken the code. It is probably the easiest job in America. But don't tell anyone, please. You're doing a great job at it, Paul. It takes enormous skill to sit here and look down and go, Mike is next. I do have one question. One more question, if you will. The earlier guy I was just wondering, what was up with that guy? I don't remember his name from Missouri that called in boys. You didn't give him he was going to tell the story about the septic tank or something. I mean. Well, here's why I did that in Davis called for a number of years. I've been down the road with him with other things beyond a septic tank. I knew it was something I could. And I know that sounded like, man, Paul has really been cruel to this poor guy from Missouri wanting to tell his 30 year old septic tank story. Well, I knew there had to be a story behind it. That's why I asked. I never want to be like a minister or something and say, please, I want you to trust me. But Mike, I want you to trust me and I am not right about many things, trust me, and that I was right about that. I do. I absolutely do because I've heard some by the way, but if you want, we have his number. We can get him back and finish the story at any time. Oh, no, no, actually, I'm happy. If we do, I'm leaving, but you're welcome to hear the story for the next two hours. No, thank you for sparing me. I appreciate it. Hey, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Lee is in Cincinnati. Hello Lee. Hey Paul, thanks for taking my call. Thank you. I want to ask you a few months ago I called back and asked you how Florida is going to rectify the quarterback situation and we came to the general consensus that they're going to have to do it through the transfer portal. The problem is that there were a lot of good, in my opinion, talented quarterbacks who went into the transport portal and Florida didn't get any of it. They didn't upgrade their quarterback position. So I guess my question is, is this an unfortunate showing that Florida might be spiraling down? They're no longer one of the best or no longer should be considered one of the top Echelon teams in the SED that they're kind of becoming second year now. What do you think? Lee, if you base it on the last two years, that's exactly what they have been. And that was clearly the idea behind regime change and giving Billy Napier what he got and having faith in him. And there is still support. Nobody is suggesting he's going anywhere, but he has to do something now. And in relation to the quarterback position, there's no evidence that he has. And I think that's really the problem. Thanks for the call. We head to the break. We'll talk to one of our favorite people. It's been a while since we've talked to our next guest. We'll reintroduce him for those of you who don't know Kenny. And we'll be right back after this. We are officially out of time for this program. We appreciate all of you for being a part of it. Some really interesting guests today will see you right here tomorrow. Thank you for listening to the Paul fine bomb show podcast, the Paul fine bomb show airs weekdays on the SEC network beginning at three eastern.
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"You turn into a star damn near. Preston. We want Billy, we want Billy. Until somebody had called the NCAA anonymously. The federal probe has turned up widespread fraud and corruption in college basketball. Listen to the bag game from 30 for 30 podcasts. We all got mud on us, man. All of us. You were listening to the Paul fine bomb show podcast. Back, we have had a back to back guess, and so in other words, we didn't get a chance to get your reaction to what Mike Griffith had to say. We'll do that now if you want to get in, we'll open the phone lines at 8 5 5 two four two 7 two 8 5. Mike had a lot to say about how Georgia has taken over the SEC questioning Nick Saban's inability to win the west with three of the top 12 players in the NFL Draft the other night. He went on to take a number of shots at both Sabin and Billy Napier your reaction to that coming up here in just mere moments. Let's go to Ron, starting us off from Iowa. Yeah, that's my whole topic of all thanks for taking my call. It seems like the last month, everybody's been talking about Alabama because they are doing this. I ain't doing that, but Nick Saban's got 7 championships and he's not had that many losing deals in last year if he would have had 5 points, so you might have been in the playoffs and one another national championship. Yeah, but he didn't, Iran, so therefore what he might have done doesn't matter. Yeah, but the deal two Paul is Kirby smart and the LSU quarterback, maybe we'll never be there long enough to have 7 national championships like Alabama's guy. Ryan, that's not really the point. The point isn't what Nick Saban has done. We all know what he's done in every legitimate person, agrees about the obvious. I don't think we need to discuss Nick Saban's record. What we are discussing, however, and what Griff got into is where are we now? That's all that matters. And I'm not telling people how what to say or what we want to hear, but nobody on this program needs to hear any more about Nick Saban's accomplishments. They're unparalleled and unprecedented in college football history. The question is, where is this program today? And which direction is it going? And that is what we're doing. That's what we're talking about. Paul, the other deal about bringing this guy in from Notre-Dame, it might help push those other two guys because the freshman quarterbacks were to go to push those two guys to be the starting quarterback. Ron, quick question here. If you need to bring somebody in, the second string quarterback from Notre-Dame to push you to guys vying for the position. What does that say? Well, he was hurt last year and then he wasn't there. I saw him play when he wasn't hurt. Well, anybody mason on Notre-Dame's team, they are all that shabby. Ron, when you come show me the last time Notre-Dame on a national championship, I will be greatly appreciative, and I'll show you that Nick Saban has won 7 since the last time Notre-Dame has won one. So thanks for the Midwestern bias, but goodbye. Let's check out Logan in North Carolina. Hello, Logan. Hey, Paul. Man, that's tough to follow that. I wasn't ready. I guess what I'm just gonna say today is right now there's a lot of talk, talk, talk, I mean Saban's gonna have to answer that talk, Paul. He's been written off before. Things aren't looking good. We talked about it. He messed around and kept his coordinators on too long and that was a detriment to the program. I think we got the challenge to do it. Quarterbacks the question, as we said, I do agree with the one guy that Brian Kelly is a great coach and I don't know how he kind of got overlooked. In this whole thing. Nobody overlooked Ryan Kelly. Here's the thing about Brian Kelly. Who really thought Brian Kelly would leave Notre-Dame in his name wasn't on anybody's list last year. So that's what makes this story so remarkable and the two most impactful coaching moves from last year were Lincoln Riley and Brian Kelly and they were at story vintage programs. I didn't really expect Lincoln rally to leave Oklahoma. I didn't think Brian Kelly would ever leave Notre-Dame. It took a couple of innovative and brilliant ADs to think outside the box. It did, and if you look at the programs they left behind, the poll, I think those coaches realized they're never going to win, especially Brian Kelly. He's never going to win a national title with Notre-Dame. Yeah, I mean, the guy raw in a minute ago from Iowa. I don't know what cornfield he's been hiding under lately, but Notre-Dame is not a, there are traditionally rich program that may very well be competitive again on the highest level, but Notre-Dame is not on the level of Alabama and Georgia. And that's not even debatable. And that's what we're not arguing over good. We're talking about great here. No, yeah, exactly. I mean, Notre-Dame, with their academic restrictions. They're never. I don't forese them ever. Unless they loosen that up, which I don't think they ever will. They're never going to be at Georgia, Alabama. They're never going to be an LSU. I mean, Brian Kelly, he came to the bride. Kelly said the reason I'm leaving, he told me a year ago. I want to try to beat Nick Saban. And he did. First time out. Yeah. Much respect to the guy, you know, he knows he's going to a place where he's got recruits in his backyard. I mean, he can get savings been going in there and taking those guys. So if he can keep some of them there, I don't foresee I mean, I would do foresee him getting a national title. It probably won't take very long. If he keeps up and two of the goofiest people in college football history have won national championships at LSU. That is true, Paul. Sorry. I was being benevolent on this may 1st. But I hear you. I mean, less miles at one time was considered among the best coaches in the country. I mean, it didn't last, but he was. The other guy was never considered among the best anything other than maybe one of the best recruiters, which he was. Will is in North Carolina. Hello, will. I was watching the brass young introduction for the Panthers. I seen you dire. I think you're in the crowd. But if you do, if you did, you were imagining me. As always, I would just like to thank him and the university of Georgia for allowing the rest of us in the SEC to attempt to play football. I mean,
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"Podcast. And we're back in Matt Hayes writing about the new commissioner of the Big Ten and what he should be doing, the last commissioner went rogue, ended up leaving his league in good shape because of TV deals, but it was a rocky road and Matt Hayes joins us. Always great to have Matt. I'm Matt thanks for the time. Good afternoon. Tell us more about what you see happening with the Big Ten and what they need to be doing with SEC. Hey, Paul, thanks for joining me, come on. Look, honestly, I see this as a situation where, you know, I don't even know if the relationship between Greg sankie and Kevin Warren was cordial. It was that bad. So I think these two, look, we can't hide from the reality that the Big Ten and the SEC are pulling away from the rest of college sports. So by the next super college sports clearly his favorite play. That's coming down the pike. I mean, you can not have, you can not have the conferences earning billions annually through their deals and through the playoffs and the players not get some of that. It's going to happen just a matter of when and how. So I think they need to work together and start to think more globally. They're not really rivals. You know, they need to start thinking like the AFC and the NFC because whether they like it or not and whether any of the fans like it or not, their product is moving closer to a professional model. And I think they need to find the best way to get there and do it proactively instead of reactively. The problem with NIL and the problem with free player movement is the NCA just basically unleashed it on everybody and said, good luck. And there was no proactive movement there. I think they've got the work together instead of as rivals and realize they're not really rivals they're the two conferences back in basically strengthen everything. Yeah, and Matt on that front. Most of the competition off the field is over. The TV deals are done. Neither has even gone into effect yet. So I think what you're saying makes a lot of sense. So let me take it a step further in terms of everyone else outside of the SEC and Big Ten. What does it look like for the other three leagues right now trying to catch up or figure out a way or a path forward? Bleak? I mean, that's kind of the best word way to put it well. I mean, in a couple of years, you're talking about they will be, I mean, you're talking about the big 12 earning the most of the three, basically a probably a little bit more. So like 38, 40 somewhere around there. And the million annually actually for a team. And the SEC and the Big Ten are going to be an 80 or more. And that's, I mean, that's a difficult chasm to breach. If you are an ACC school, if you're a big 12 school, a clear the tax law is going to be much less than that, if it's still around, which I don't know that it is going to still be around. I mean, Paul, you look at it and now you see why the FSU athletic director and that very public board of trustees meeting, which is rare in and of itself, was complaining about the reality that they're going to be a long way behind rivals in college sports as far as generating revenue and keeping up with the elite of the Big Ten and the SEC. So then what do they do? Do they try and find a way out of that rock solid rent, grant of rights for their deal with the ATC, do they sue the ACC? There's a lot still to happen because you've got a few mega programs that don't want to be left behind and you look at Florida state and Miami and Clemson. They don't want to be left behind like that. So then what do they do? What's their alternative? Talking to Matt Hayes Matt, let me get from off the field to on the field this fall. It all starts with Georgia. Your thoughts on Kirby smart hitting four a three P and if not and who within the league has the best chance of slowing them down. But I'll tell you what Carson deck looked good. And I know it's a spring. I know it's a spring game and here's the best way I can explain spring games, Paul. If you remember, Justin Fields had a terrible spring game at Ohio State when 20 transfers from Georgia like awful. Then he went out in the season and had 40 touchdowns and one interception. So take it all with a grain of salt, but boy Carson Beck looks good. He can make every throw he's a physical guy. He's got a great arm, they're going to be dangerous offensively. They just got a lot of talent that they got to receivers from the portal that are going to help them. Defensively, they're going to be very good. I think the only thing that stops them is Georgia Paul, honestly, we've got about now four months to go three and a half, four months ago for the season begins. Can Kirby keep those guys in line? And they've had a problem the first couple of months of the off season. So let's see what happens here. As far as who could beat them, we don't know what's going on with y'all in the quarterback. And I know you've spoken about this. I don't know what's going to happen with be it, be it Simpson, whoever it is. I don't know what it's going to look like. And typically if you just go on, okay, well, I trust what Nick Saban is. I trust his process. I trust his decision to hire Tommy Reese. Then you can say that, but the reality is until it's on the field and we see it playing out. We have no idea what it looks like. At least with Bryce young, you knew he was a mega recruit. And you could see that as a potential was there. With two, you knew he was a Megan recruit. Like, you could see it was there. I just don't know that you see it yet with Alabama. Beyond Alabama, you buying this hype on LA shoe or is there someone else you see coming up? I like yellow shoe. I think Jake Daniels is going to play a lot better in a second year as a starter. I'll tell you if I like Paul, that's if and this is a giant if Jimbo and bob petrino can get along, what kind of weak men he watched him last year and last month of the season. He has talent and they have a talented roster. You know, if he gets hot, he becomes an elite quarterback in the league, they have enough time on that team to do some damage. And I don't know that they're going to win the SEC, but they're going to be a hard team to beat if they get again, everything turns the way they think it can turn. Matt, you're in Florida, you do a talk show in Jacksonville. What are your college football fans saying about Billy Napier and the Gators? That was brutal let's bring game. Again, again, just a spring game, but I think it's very clear that they need another quarterback Billy neighbor came out literally minutes after the game this postgame press conference and said, yeah, we're going to look into the spring portal at a quarterback. Grim works is not the guy. Jack Miller's not the guy. And they're trying to find a bridge to get the DJ lag way, the 5 star reference coming into 2024. But I mean, they need somebody in that offense that can at least stress defense somehow. Isn't a guy from the SEC? Is it not smart or if he leaves? Is it max Johnson if he leaves Texas a and M? Is it Brock van de Griff who, quite frankly, didn't look that good in the spring game at Georgia. I don't know. Any of those guys, all three of those guys would need an appeal
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"Talking about the hot seat because I don't know at what point in anyone's life Jimbo Fisher would ever legitimately be on the hot seat, but let's talk about pressure and what does that mean and what do you think he needs to do to alleviate some of that angst out there? I think the first thing is take a step back and if you're going to hire a guy like petrino, let him be petrino. And not from an attitude perspective because that's just horrible. But from a stylistic standpoint, let the guy coach and I think too many times, Jimbo has micromanaged everything about his program and he granted he had some success with that at forest date and he had some success with that. It's actually saying them during the COVID year, which is hard to do. But the first thing that Texas a and M fans want to see is sort of a shift in his attitude and philosophy as a head coach. And then beyond that though, I tend to disagree with you about the hot seat. And I kind of wrote this in the story too. Yeah, the guaranteed contract is just massive, right? Ten years, $95 million before the 2021 season. That's a lot of money. However, with the SEC TV contract ticking in next year, there's going to be a lot of incoming revenue, right? So do you put yourself at a little bit of a financial shortfall by letting him go knowing that there's going to be a massive uptick in revenue coming later on down the road once you get out from underneath that short term hit. I don't necessarily know the answer to that question, but I don't think it's far fetched to say that he is on the hot seat and that Texas a and M might be willing to eat the rest of that contract knowing that there's going to be more money coming in. Yeah, I don't know what the answer really is either, but if you could tell me what oil prices will be at the end of the season, there might be easier to answer. There's a lot of reasons I can't do that. Barrett, you mentioned a couple of other people in your piece. Billy Napier is also mentioned. And that's the one that I can't understand very well because he's off to a miserable start. Let's acknowledge that. But where does he go from here and in terms of pressure at what point does that start to really be real? Yeah, probably after this year if things don't improve, but the thing with Florida and with Billy Napier is it's kind of all tied to Georgia, right? George is going through a transition to a new quarterback. So you're kind of in a wait and see mode with your biggest rival with your Billy Napier. But if you're not closing the gap, what's going on here? You know, I think for Florida, they have to show that there's at least a legit chance that they catch up to Georgia in the near future. And obviously 6 and 7 won't cut it. Depending on how they look, especially if they look better offensively. Sure. Maybe. But I think that's the biggest thing with Napier is that he was hired to fix all of the problems to recruit at a high level to be more consistent offensive with more balanced offensively and, you know, you didn't see that in year one and the gap with Georgia expanded, obviously, because we're doing the national championship. But you have to show that's not the case anymore. And I just, I don't know if this team can do it. But to answer your question, if things get worse this year than 24 is going to be really interesting because it's not going to get any easier with Texas and Oklahoma and what we assume will be the 6 three scheduled rotation. Barrett with two great quarterbacks from a star stands point on his roster a year away from the SEC and a road game to Alabama just for starters. What is these shape of Steve sarkeesian this year? I think that sarx look, I know Texas is a lightning rod for criticism, right? But the jump they made from year one to year two under start was pretty impressive, especially considering his starting quarterback got hurt in the 5th quarter of the season, right? And in that 5th quarter, first quarter against Alabama was awesome, right? So I think that's a pretty significant step forward. And then going into the transfer portal and getting a guy like 80 Mitchell and a couple other guys. In addition to signing arts, I think that there's momentum for the Texas program. So I think for Texas fans to be happy with src, they have to at least contend for the big 12 this year. Does that mean they're going to contend for the SEC next year? Of course not. But I think it will give them hope that the program's foundation is strong as they make that transition. And potentially could be contending for an SEC championship game appearance in 25 or 26. So I think it's sort of gets overlooked the success that he had or at least the jump that the program made in the year two, especially considering the circumstances that sort of existed on that roster throughout the rest of the course of last season. So I think they're pretty intense. And if there's another step forward this year, even if it's a small step forward, I think the program will be on relatively stable ground as they make the transition. Barry, let's end with Georgia. You alluded to the quarterback situation earlier. They're in a position to do what no one really in the legitimate world that we live in college football has ever done. What is your assessment of this Georgia program? And what do you think the odds are they do it again? Well, if you're talking about a dynasty, it's right there or some would consider that it's already happening. I think when you went back to back national championships and you are the unquestioned king of the college football world, that is that's hard, that's hard to ignore. And I think if they were able to do it this year, or if they're able to just get to the playoff or get to the national championship game, you're talking about a team that is comparable to Alabama of the 20 cents. And I think they're pretty much at that point now anyway. And just to go through a quarterback change and an offensive coordinator changed in the way that that will be that as it happened, that's, again, another notch in Kirby smarts bell, if he's able to do it and show that not only can you sustain success with the team that has one two national titles and spend off that complacency, but do so with massive roster and coaching turnover. That is, again, comparable to what Alabama did in the 2010s. And only one team can be that team any decade. And right now it's Georgia. There are actually always delivers. We appreciate him joining us to begin our program. We are just beginning here on a Monday, a new week has arrived. You've got a pretty good idea what some of the subject matter will be more guess as well. And your phone calls. Right around the corner. Guys, fellas, men. Are you Roman ready for the weekend? Right now, generic Viagra, AKA sildenafil is just $4 per
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"Well, not only Kirby's smart Paul, but I think Brian Kelly is quickly catching up to him. I think Josh, you could argue, you know, he doesn't have the resume. I'm not sitting here saying Josh hypers got a better program necessarily, but beat him head to head last time I checked. And again, a and M has beaten them in recent history. And again, should have beat them last year despite being arguably the worst team in the SEC, and that's including Vanderbilt. So I don't know, Paul, I mean, these number one recruiting classes are great. They've been doing that for about a decade, and they had the number one class two years ago, and about 40% of that class is no longer within the program. And last off season, we were singing the praises of Texas a and M and this vaulted number one class. It was the greatest ever assembled, and then they won 5 games. So you can't sell me on we just signed number one class all ills are fixed, because Nick Saban, I think, has been caught up by many of his peers in the SCC and it was bound to happen, Paul, because he's gotten about every coach fired or every institution has fired their coach at least once, if not twice, and some, as many as three or four times, it's Nick Saban's been in Tuscaloosa. Talking to Michael Bratton in case somebody was wondering who that voice was if you're driving around the country. Michael, you mentioned Jimbo Fisher, I take it, you didn't like that play quality end of the Alabama game last year, but let's talk about what's happening now and moving forward with bob petrino on board. What do you expect out of the aggies? Well, we're less than 24 hours away, Paul from the first opportunity for Texas a and M to be a massive disappointment here in the spring game. Fortunately, they can't lose when they're playing themselves, but I kid, because I've heard you say this and I would echo these sentiments that Bobby petrino, you know, you may not necessarily trust him to do the right thing off the field, but I do trust him, coaching quarterbacks, calling the offensive game plan, and that is the last thing that I trust Jimbo Fisher with. So as long as Jimbo doesn't steal the play calling back from Bobby petrino, I really do think a and M could be one of the biggest surprises in the years you see this season, but it would only be about the fourth or 5th time someone has uttered that and they have disappointed nearly every time. So it could go either way. I could see them potentially even winning the west pole. I could see them finishing dead last again, but it is going to be fun to watch as an outside observer, no doubt. Michael, you mentioned hypomania. I know you're high on that program. In fact, we saw you last year when we were doing the show from the Alabama weekend, give us your view of this program moving forward now with seemingly the quarterback situation settling down. Right. And I think something that everyone is overlooking when they talk about the Tennessee balls going into the season, Paul, is this is going to be the deepest, most talented roster on overall, but especially on the defensive side of the ball that Josh has had. And I just think that is going to help keep them, given that Josh, well, it seems like every quarterback he works with just turns to gold. I think they'll do the same. I'm not sitting here saying Joe Milton will be the SEC's best quarterback, but given his experience, his knowledge of the system and the return. We just now Paul, we're just now getting to the point where these are Josh hyper guys that are all over the field. He's basically been doing this with players he inherited his first two years on rocky top. So I look for that to continue. I think Tennessee's Georgia's biggest threat in the east. And I think Tennessee is here to stay. Thanks in large part to lane kiffin may hate it, but I tend to see fans are loving NIL because they have one of the best NIL collectives in the game. And I think that's going to keep Tennessee here for years to come. Michael, you talk to people from every school and this is what you do on your podcast. Let's get a little bit deeper in the weeds. So you mentioned a and M, LSU, obviously Tennessee, South Carolina. I know you're high on them. What else are you looking at this year in the SEC? Because everybody is great. On August 14th. But that's not the case. Once we get to the season, who are you concerned about? You know, one team Paul that we just saw their spring game and maybe I'm just reading too much into a spring game. It's always dangerous to do that, but it's the Florida Gators to me, Paul. And all this hype with Anthony Richardson and he deserves all of it due to just his pure athleticism, the talent that NFL teams believe they can unlock within him while building Napier sure as heck couldn't do it, at least not consistently. And without Anthony Richardson, I mean, it looks like a train wreck on offense. Either that poly or maybe they've got the best defense in the SEC, which was one of the worst, but they just hired a new coordinator. So maybe that'll fix Florida's issues. They have an incredibly daunting schedule. The replacing four or 5 on the offensive line, and that seemed to be a huge issue in the spring game. And that's kind of Billy Napier's bread and butter is running the football if they can't do that. They don't have a quarterback. I mean, I think we're possibly looking at a four and 8, 5 and 7 type season for the Florida Gators. And I just can't see that sitting well with that fan base that demands excellence. I know there are living on recruiting and they picked up a big commitment yesterday, but if Georgia continues to do, we both believe they're going to in Tennessee. You've been pretty clear on that. I know you're high on Shane beamer who's picked up another big recruit in the last 24 hours. I mean, we're looking at a significant paradigm shift, are we not with Florida? I mean, they are, where are they right now in the SEC east in terms of your estimation? I mean, they're battling with Missouri. And that's kind of sad to say if I'm a Florida fan. I mean, heck, you could even throw Vanderbilt in there. And I don't just jump out and say that because, heck, they lost to Vanderbilt. I mean, anytime you lose to and this is not the best Vanderbilt ever, this is a rebuilding Vanderbilt that had something like a 20 game SEC losing streak. You find a way to lose to them. I don't understand. And again, at Florida state, if Miami starts to emerge, it's going to be even tougher to recruit in that state, this is just, they're trying to do the Alabama Georgia thing, but they're doing it without the players. So yeah, I think you just have to try to do something different. That's what they're doing in Columbia, South Carolina. That's what they're doing in Knoxville Tennessee, and it's working for them. I just think we've come to the point Paul where Kirby and Nick Saban have kind of mastered this blueprint and every time someone tries to mimic it, it fails miserably. And it's far too early to say Florida is going to be a disaster. But after a season, I mean, it's certainly looks to be trending that way. We'll leave it on that happy note. Michael Bratton from that SEC podcast. Michael, you'd be well. You take care of yourself and be secure after these comments. Absolutely. Thanks, Paul. Did not disappoint if you're looking for some firecrackers on a Friday as the weekend begins. We'll take a break. We'll get your reaction to all of that coming up. You were listening to the Paul fine bomb show podcast. When I was young me and my mama had beef 17 years old kicked out on the streets. FX is dear mama. A 5 part docuseries.
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"If the Gators can rely on a running game that I think is going to be really impressive again, then they're going to have a chance to kind of start moving in the right direction. To me, that's what this year is about. No one I think is realistically expecting them to beat Georgia or top ten or anything like that. But if they can improve, again, cut down on some of those mistakes and you're looking at an 8 and four, maybe things go really well, 9 and three seasons that gives them at least a little bit of momentum heading into what would be a pivotal year three for Billy. Okay, Matt, I'm not holding you to this. I've just asked you to speculate. So here's a schedule. 8 four maybe 9 three. Okay, for those who are driving around and can't see our screen, it begins at Utah, mcneese, home game against Tennessee, Charlotte, at Kentucky Vanderbilt. We'll do this in piecemeal. 6 games. Tell me what the record's going to be after those first 6. Well, I think they lose to Utah. I think they lose to Tennessee. And I think Kentucky's a coin flip. At Kentucky is a coin flip. I don't know why not? Look at the way Kentucky's played in the last few years at Kentucky. I'll give it to you. So we'll go to losses in a tie. And we'll come back to the tie later. Second half the season. At South Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, at LSU, at Missouri, Florida state, those 6 games. How do you handicap? I think three losses that I would feel pretty confident penciling in Georgia LSU and Florida state. And then South Carolina is the other kind of half of that coin flip where that goes either way and that's the swing between 7 and 5 and 6 and 6 if I had to pick. Okay, so I'm not trying to be a prosecutor here, but you said I'm going to go 8 four, maybe 9 three. You gave me two definite losses on the first half, which Kentucky, a coin flip. So that's two and a half. Second part, you gave me three with at Missouri at South Carolina in Florida state up for grabs. Citing what you told us correctly. Well, I think Florida states lost. Again, okay, so the losses are Georgia, LSU, and Florida state. The coin flips or South Carolina and Missouri. Do I understand you correctly? South Carolina and Kentucky to me are the coin flips. So again, if I say 8 and four, 9 and three, that's the most optimistic spin that I think I could put on it because I think that 6 and 6, 7 and 5. What do we do at another way, Matt? We'll put the schedule back on the screen. We're somewhere between maybe we're at 8 and maybe 7, 5, 8 and four optimistically. Let's say things don't go well. Maybe some things Utah's a loss. Kentucky's a loss. Tennessee's loss in the first half, Kentucky, Kentucky, Utah, so there's three losses on the front end, George is an automatic LSU in Florida state. So how many would we have now? Got 6. South Carolina, Missouri, our tweeners, correct? Correct. We could get to 8 losses without really trying couldn't we? You could. Just based on where this program is. And I'll say this billing acre seems pretty confident about his team. Is that putting on a face? Maybe. Or maybe there's something there in terms of the chemistry and stuff behind the scenes that I don't see in the 20 minutes of practice, right? But yeah, you could see this going pretty not very good for the Gators. That's certainly within the card that we sit here on April 13th or whatever. Let's split the middle, let's say it's 6 and 6 again. How does that play in gatorland? That's a really good question. I think a lot of Florida fans are understand that this was not a turnkey things are going to be better immediately situation. So I think the smart forest and know that this was going to take time and the way Billy approached the transfer portal and going in and going out and his first season showed that he thinks he has plenty of time. But you and I both know this is a fan base that is not a custom to patient. When you look at they were in mullin went to three straight new year 6 bowls and got ran out of town in year four. Jim mcelwain won the east twice and didn't have a chance to go for the third because he got run out of town. That's the way this is. So I wonder if it's going to be more of the same if things go south for Billy this year or don't improve much or if Florida fans kind of say, you know what? There's a couple of coaches in a row that didn't work out. We ran them out too fast. We actually have to be patient here because that's the way this is going to the ship is going to get turned around. So it could go either way. Give us one reason. One real reason, one legitimate reason why Florida fans should feel good about billion AP or today. Because he knows what it takes. He knows this is a talent acquisition business. As you said, literally in his first day. And there are some incremental gains that he made on the recruiting trail in his first full cycle. And they've got three top 60 recruits here in 24 as well, including blue chip quarterback and DJ lag life. So if I'm going to spin this optimistically, I think the recruiting has improved overall and there are signs of optimism going into 24 that the foundation is going to be laid for a longer term rebuild that Billy knows what it takes because you saw it first handed Alabama that this can be done. This is the way to do it. It's just up to him to kind of put that together. You could argue that Derek Dooley knew what it took as well. He worked for shaman at LSU. You could argue, will must champ. You can argue a lot of people have been around successful programs and failed at SEC schools. Why should we believe Billy Napier is going to change the direction of Florida football? I think is what fans are asking. You know that. You're down there and I'm and I realize I think we're all trying to find positivity. I'm just struggling to see
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"Starters. But then Michael tarquin and Ethan white decided to go to USC. So now they've got some younger guys, some guys that they brought in through the portal that they're trying to get figured out there. If that group turns out to be pretty good, this could be an offense that can gain a lot of yards on the ground. And you don't need Superman at quarterback. Now, the weird thing is they may have just had Superman at quarterback, but his numbers didn't match what his NFL Draft position is going to be. Anthony Richardson is probably going to be top ten pick, but he didn't play like that last year for Florida. So what happens is it going to be Graham merch the Wisconsin transfer running the offense. It certainly seems that way. And really that line needs to be good needs to be able to control the game on the ground and give him a chance to just if you can just be efficient in that case. That's how that offense works best if you go back to when Billy Napier was at Louisiana Lafayette, that was a very efficient offense that liked to run the ball. And finally, I'm Anthony Richardson, and you have seen and heard the same things. That everyone has what do you think has intrigued the NFL people so much where he is literally near the top of some boards. There is not been a person like this. Coming out as a quarterback. There's not been an athlete like this. He is just measurable talking, not talking about performance or production. But from a sheer measurable standpoint, better athlete than Cam Newton coming out of auburn. Now obviously Cam Newton coming out of auburn led them to a national title and undefeated season won the Heisman Trophy. So we're not even comparing those two things. But that level of athlete with that level of arm does not come along every day. And does not come along every ten years even. So that's what they are just looking at that going, okay, he's 20 years old. He started 13 games in his career, whatever it is, I can fix it. And now they're going to be some teams that don't believe that. They're going to say, if he didn't immediately blossom in college, how's he going to do that here? But they're going to be other staffs that say, you know what? Whatever was the issue, we can take care of that with some time. I do hope for his sake and I think that's what will probably happen is the team that picks him will pick him with the idea that maybe they do a red shirt your situation. A lot like the chiefs did with Patrick Mahomes. That that would be the best situation for him because it allows him to get in, learn the offense. He doesn't get thrown in immediately. And remember, he is just 20 years old. So it might be that there's some growing left to do, and I know the next logical question is, well, couldn't he have done that in Florida? Yes, but if you're going to be a top ten pick, you gotta go. Very good stuff. Great stuff from Andy Staples of the athletic Indy always great to see you. We run to the break right now because we went a little bit longer with Andy, but it was that riveting. We'll take a break. Your phone calls around the corners. You were listening to the Paul fine bomb Joe podcast. The NBA playing tournament is back, April 11th through the 14th
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"Andy first of all, it's a good to have you on and a lot to talk about. We got spring games, galore. We've just ended a couple of seasons. I want to ask you about something that you wrote about this week and I think a few freeze mentioned it. He'll be on later in the week to talk about it as well, is the idea of doing something more with these scrimmages, which used to be really exciting and we all were glued to them and now a lot of us are yawning on the Saturday afternoons. Were we ever really that glued to the spring games? I defy that. See, I like it when Nick Saban's mic'd up during the spring game. That's fun. I can get into that as a viewer. But unless you are very into your team's depth chart, unless you wore our very interested in what's going on in the number two and number three spots in your team's depth chart spring games aren't necessarily the most entertaining thing for you. But I liked what you freeze says, hey, let's go play somebody. Every other sport has exhibition games. And I know you say, well, the bowl games are really. They count and stats that count the standings or they don't understand it, but they do count the stats. So why not have actual exhibition games? Now, you brought up auburn playing Troy, Alabama playing UAB. There's probably a little political freight to go with those particular matchups, but you could do that or also, let's say the SEC oh, I don't know. Added a conference game. And suddenly, you didn't have a spot for an FCS team that you wanted to play. Maybe an in state team you want to help out. Maybe your south Carolina and you wanted to play the Citadel or South Carolina state. Maybe there's a spot for that in the spring. And I still, I love the idea of Alabama bringing North Dakota state down because Nick Saban would absolutely love to watch North Dakota state starters wear out his backups so that he could spend the next four months saying, well, look what happened there. Look how hard you have to work. In Andy, I have to ask you about that, but let's say something crazy happens in one of these games. Is that now going to be held against the school when we get to the real season? Well, what do you mean crazy like the FCS team wins or somebody gets hurt because I've been at games where players have gotten I covered a Florida spring game years ago where Ronald Powell towards ACL and it's like, oh, good lord, this is the highest rated recruit in the history of recruits and he's looking to have a good season and now he's done. So it happens. There is an injury risk, but the losing the game thing, I actually think it's probably I'll bring up my South Carolina Citadel example again because that happened a few years ago where beat South Carolina, if they beat you in the spring, it's probably not as bad as if they beat you in the fall. Just spit ball in there. Andy, on that subject, if you ever looking for a rainy day column, call me because I'll try not to spend too much time on this. But we were doing SEC nation. That was the off week. There was nowhere to go. It was, as you can imagine, and I don't remember what happened. But somebody who was supposed to, by the way, the game was scheduled for the SEC alternate channel. I mean, it's not like, you know, prime time. And they asked me at the last minute, is there any chance you could hang around and be the sideline reporter? And I said, really? And they said, you know, don't ask real questions either. Just, you know, good game coach. I want you breaking down the triple option, Cole cubic style in a game like that. That's what I need to see. So we spent a three hour meeting the night before talking about all the things that we would be talking about after the game was a blowout. And senator was ahead at halftime, so I'm out to go interview the Citadel. I don't remember his name. Coach Higgins. Okay. The year before, Citadel had played FSU and a game. And I was on SportsCenter and I said, this is, why is FHA playing a joke of a team like the Citadel? If I walk up to the guy and I'm expecting, he goes, I said, coach, first half, what do you think? I mean, like, blew me off like I was. He had never forgotten that. So when I had to go interview him after the game, I can't tell you how the guy just won the biggest game of his life, and he barely gave me the time of day. And it was a very forgettable experience. So thanks for bringing up Citadel in South Carolina. That was spur last season, I believe. I believe he'd already resigned at that point. He may have seen what was coming. So yeah, I apologize for that. And as it actually was, I believe it was Mike Houston, and here, Kevin Higgins had already retired at that point. So that is, yeah, bad memories. And look, you know, like my Alma mater got beat by Georgia southern in 20 13 when Georgetown was still in the FCS. It happens, but I like Hugh freeze his idea of having and actually competitive situation because a lot of times, especially with the way the rosters are going, if you're a first year coach, you may be in the middle of a roster flip where before you even got there, everybody entered the portal. And now you're dealing with a really thin roster. So you're not going to be able to have a full full on 11 on 11 scrimmage with regular football rules and everybody hates the weird adjustments to the rules or the defense gets 8 points for an interception or something like that. So this would be more fun. It would allow the players to hit somebody else. You can change it up however you want as you freeze pointed out. You can control it however you want. You can make the quarterbacks off limits. I just think it'd be fun. If nothing else, LSU southern the concert at halftime and postgame. Human jukebox, golden band from tigerland, let's just make that happen. Get everybody else. Let's just make that happen. Well, it may be happening right now since you're one of the most important voices in the game and you're talking about it. So in terms of this spring, to get to what to really going on, not the games, but the battles and the coaching stories. What intrigues you the most right now? The Alabama quarterback situation, what's Alabama's offense? It's going to look like new offensive coordinator and Tommy Reese. Tyson and Jalen milrow two different styles of quarterback. We got to see Jalen Miller starter gaming as Texas a and M last year. What will Alabama be? What will they look like? Because obviously they're always going to have very good players, but I feel like this is kind of the most mysterious they've been in a while where we didn't really know what they were going to look like. So fascinated by that, fascinated by the quarterback competition at old miss because you get a Spencer Sanders who was a four year starter at Oklahoma state coming in, but then you've got Jackson dart coming back, you've got walker Howard, who is Brian Kelly dance for this guy. That's how important he was as a recruited LSU. And now he's at old miss. So there's a lot going on. It's certainly not very settled in terms of quarterbacks in the SEC. You're in Gainesville and we don't have a week that goes by when somebody doesn't ask the billing Napier question. I probably asked you already the spring, but I'll keep asking you until we see what's going to ultimately happen down there with the Gators. What are you hearing? And what are you sensing? Well, it seems like they feel pretty confident in this team and this is a group that is more Billy Napier's group that he brought in and he saw a lot Lee through the portal after last season. A lot of the latter era Dan Mullen recruits left through the portal. So this will probably be a team with more of billion AP's identity. The question is, what's the offensive line going to look like? They want to run the ball and they certainly have the backs to do that with Montreal Johnson and Trevor Etienne. But they go in thinking they're going to have three returning offensive line starters. Well, Austin barber started a bunch too. So it really was like four returning offensive line starters. But then Michael tarquin and Ethan white decided to go to USC. So now they've got some younger guys, some guys that they brought in through the portal that they're trying to get figured out there. If that group turns out to be pretty good, this could be an offense that can gain a lot of yards on the ground. And you don't need Superman
NFL Live
"billy napier" Discussed on NFL Live
"Dan, how you need is Richardson as a physical talent. As rare as we've seen in years. He's a unicorn, the combination of athleticism, size, and then natural arm ability. Natural throwing ability is incredibly wear. How many times have we seen a quarterback do this pregame? Yum. That's a quarterback. Like that natural athleticism that he has. I called this game. Watch this play. Two defenders at Utah right there. What do you do? Pump fake and jump. Somehow, while you're doing that spin, land on your feet and then get outside of that and throw an absolute perfect throw. I mean, that is just these jaw dropping rare moments. This is probably my favorite place had in his career. This is a little bit of half movie. He's supposed to get outside to the right. There's pressure off his right. So he's got to move to his left. Eyes downfield, flip the hips, and then throw this ball 35 plus yards downfield. This is pretty good coverage now. So you got to lead that guy to a little space in window. Perfect throw. That's my favorite Anthony's Anthony. That is not a guy that I look at and go accuracy issues. Over the next 6 or 7 weeks, this show and I are going to debunk the people who say Anthony Richardson has accuracy issues. I think that his Twitch and suddenness is very rare and her Daniel Jeremiah say this. The Patrick Mahomes plan has got to be the plan. Go get drafted, sit for a year, work on the things that we need to work on and then his talent is top 5 player at that position in the NFL. Wow. Yeah. We know the talent, the highlights. We also know the questions. To me, what gives me the most confidence that I think Anthony Richardson can succeed in the NFL is that he doesn't take a lot of sacks. So he holds on the football a long time, obviously he has a long time to throw, but his sack rate when pressured was the 8th lowest amongst all power 5 quarterbacks last year, 10%. That's very unusual. It speaks to his field for pressure and how elusive he is inside the pocket, not bailing on the pocket inside the pocket. And I'm telling you guys, that's something that matters a lot to me because it's something that has continuity year to year. It's something that I loved about Justin Herbert as a rookie. It's something that I liked about Trevor Lawrence as a rookie, and it is something it is a quality that I think Anthony Richardson has. You know, you know what happens when you watch really good college football. You think to yourself, we want to draft the best athlete on the field. And if you're ever watching Florida last year, player play against anyone, that athlete was Anthony Richardson. You probably said that about a guy like a Trey Lance or you said that about a guy like a Josh Allen. What it was playing at freaking Wyoming and North Dakota state. Right? This man plays in the SEC and for whatever you want to say is wrong about him. Oh, he doesn't have a lot of experience. That's like Trey Lance. Or he's a little inaccurate. He has to improve his accuracy down the field. That's like Josh Allen. Don't care 'cause they wasn't playing in the SEC and they worked the best athletes on the field. Every single Saturday. When you cut this tape on, you're gonna fall in love with those traits. And with those things and if he gets to the right place, that could absolutely explode in big time football. And I think the things that you sit there and go, what does he have to improve on? The encouraging part is they're all coachable things. Right. Right. There's mechanics. A little bit of touch on some throws, seeing windows a little bit more. And I would argue, this is not a disrespect. He hasn't been really coached to play like real NFL football either because some of the gimmicky colleges all that's something that Billy Napier has admitted. I mean, they know they were doing the best with what they had. One of the things that Napier told me this week though, Matt, is how intelligent Richardson is. I'm not sure that that actually gets as much credit as it should, but teams are noticing here, right? Teams noticing and it might matter more than how fast he is and how strong his arm is. I talked to a handful of scouts last night who had been in interviews where they had all four of the top quarterbacks back to back to back. Every single one of them said Anthony Richardson is the best quarterback interview they've had this year. Some of them save the best record every day they would have had last year. He is crushing it in the interview portion. What happens behind us on the field is important. It's fun. That's why we're here, but the interviews are why the players are here, and he's crushing it. So if you can win the combine, has a quarterback, you do it in these meetings, 15 minute speed dating that they do, and he's crushing it right now. Yeah, Napier also said when it comes to skill set, it's the combination of the ability to throw the way that he can and the mobility with his legs, but Mina he mentioned the arm as being he thinks a true NFL caliber arm. People talk about the athleticism, but the form should play at this next level. The Josh Allen comp who's going to get thrown around a lot, Josh Allen's, of course, the ultimate like yes case for what would happen. But I would argue, I remember watching Josh Allen's tape out of Wyoming. Anthony Richardson actually throws with more touch downfield than Allen did as a college quarterback. Yeah. You know, he does have some work to do. We'll talk about that over the next few weeks with the mechanics and I think on the short to intermediate stuff, but throw in deep. Good lord. As Dan said, we are apparently going to make the case for Anthony Richardson now up until the draft. What a trailer you just cut for the love. I love it. We'll see you tomorrow here on NFL live live from the combine. And of course, remember that on field workouts continue to go on right now with defensive lineman live coverage on NFL network through this evening when the linebackers are scheduled to work out. The coverage will continue on NFL network, of course, remember we'll see the quarterbacks throw some really good ones are gonna be throwing on Saturday. You don't want to miss that. I know I'm gonna be posted up watching a ton of that. And we've got a lot more coming your way. What is that? Will levis. I knew it. We'll see you tomorrow on NFL live for bendy.
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"Hey, doing great, Paul, and I was afraid when I said the Tommy Reese hire there at Alabama, killed the Nick Saban dynasty. I didn't know if I was ever welcome back on this show. So I appreciate the invite. That's okay. Before we get to football, and I definitely want to get there because there's a lot to digest. What has been your reaction to this Alabama sago with the entire basketball program now being literally obliterated by many in the national media? Yeah, I mean, heavy topic obviously to open with here, Paul, and this is just one of those where I make a conscious decision never to rush to judgment. I know that's easy to do to go out there and give your two cents on what Alabama should have done, what Brandon Miller should have done. I think I've been listening to you all week and the opinions very wildly depending on a call guest to guess, this is just a subject where I honestly don't feel comfortable without having all the information weighing in on it. So I'm just on the sidelines. I don't blame you, by the way. I wish I had I wish I wish we had talked before the week began. Michael, let me get to. The Florida situation because I realized coaches come and go and NFL presents opportunities, but if you're not paying close attention or if you are, it looks bad that three coaches have left. What do you make out of it all? Well, I think I can sum up Billy Napier's season hidden into year two, Vanderbilt at home is a must win situation. So, I mean, that's essentially as dire as it gets for a coach that came in with much fanfare and apparently turned down many high profile SEC jobs and it's not a good look. Obviously, we got spring practice a week away Paul, so it's almost like a rush to get some of these coaches in here. You expect that year two jump. Now you're gonna have to be doing it with a new defensive coordinator and a guy that while Alabama was pretty fired up to get Austin Armstrong. About a year older than stetson Bennett, maybe a couple of years older than that, but I mean, I'm just left shaking my head here, Paul, because I think we have to reset the expectations now 4 billion AP are going into year two, and that's the last thing Florida fans want to hear, particularly with Georgia dominating the sport, Tennessee and South Carolina seemingly on the rise. I mean, I think making a bowl game will be something that should be celebrated a 6 and 6 type season, but that's clearly not why you brought Billy Napier in here. No, no, and this is university of Florida, which even after a couple of bad seasons still looked at itself as Alabama. I mean, you know the fan base, Michael, they don't settle for anything. Right. And here's something Paul. I don't know if you realize it, I've not heard it on your show, but the NFL scouting combined. That's not a total indication of what overall talent you had, but Alabama leads the country. Georgia's right on their heels number two, Florida is actually third most of all SEC programs. I think they're sending 9 players to the scouting combine, including Anthony Richardson, who some for some reason have pegged as the first overall pick in the draft. I'm not buying that, but just the fact that they have 9, maybe even ten NFL caliber players where they had that many, and yet we went 6 and 6 last season. That's somewhat of a damning statement on Billy Napier and the roster turnover and obviously now the coaching turnover. That's why I think we need to kind of pump the brakes on expectations unless you got urban Meyer coming back to town. I don't know how this gets fixed overnight. This may be a three or four year rebuild and I don't know if that's what the Gators need to hear want to hear, but that's what they need to hear right now. By the way, you may be right. And I think they have been remarkably patient, but it's also February. So patients goes a lot farther in the off season. Let me get to the Alabama situation because they were excited when they got Armstrong from southern mist. They thought that was a really big time higher for Nick Saban, a young coach on the defensive side of the ball. He's already gone. You rarely see that happened to Nick Saban, give us some thoughts on that coaching stuff. I know I know you alluded to it a few weeks ago, but tell us more. Yeah, well, the fact that correct me if I'm wrong, Paul, but Nick Saban had an open defensive coordinator position to fill this off season and Armstrong was not the higher. I know he got the co title, but that's just purely for title's sake. I mean, he was a position coach. So I don't know if I'd be doing cartwheels if I'm the Florida Gators that we hired this 29 year old. I mean, he may be the next Nick Saban for all I know, but the fact that more turnover, again, for Alabama, I just think it's laughable, Paul, some of these scholars you've had on your show, which I respect them greatly. They're throwing dirt on Georgia's grave for bringing back Mike Bobo when they hired Tommy Reese, who I can't find a single reason to celebrate Tommy Reese over Mike Bobo, I think Georgia comes out miles ahead in that exchange, and then you're bringing back Kevin Steele, who I got a great respect for Kevin Steele has been in the SEC for decades, but I mean, Miami's defense was God awful. The entire program down there was awful. So I don't know that he's the answer. He's just going to be running what Nick Saban wants run just like Pete Golding did. And we ran him out of town and blamed him for all our woes when we all know Nick Saban is in charge of the defense down there so I don't see much changing for Alabama and I don't care how many number one recruiting classes they sign down there. They signed the number one class two years ago, Paul and the vast majority of that class is either exited or not made any impact whatsoever for the program.
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"Second hour live and we change our direction here toward Gainesville or another day, another headline in seemingly more chaos for the university of Florida. Alan Taylor from the athletic with the absolute latest in Allen, I don't know what it's like to cover this team because every day it seems like you're writing a similar story. First of all, good afternoon. Thank you for being here and take us through the last couple of days in terms of what seems to be a revolving door with Billy Napier assistant coaches. We know these off season changes come in waves, right? You have the first wave that's usually December and impacts bowl games. And then you have that January flurry that usually gets done for the second signing day. And now I think we're in what's probably an NFL way where post Super Bowl those staffs are being firmed up and Florida has lost three assistants in the span of about 36 hours, two of them to the years of the cardinals and then Terry Colbert today headed toward Denver, I don't know how you gauge the severity of it. Obviously, if you lose a codes to an SEC rival, that's probably worse than guys getting promoted to the NFL lifestyle, but certainly with Florida looking at spring practice starting March 4th, that's a lot of turnover to deal with, especially on the defensive coordinator side where Patrick Tony was entering year two. And then Billy, an API reaches in the test closer to bring along Austin Armstrong and even younger defensive coordinator who was officially 9 days into ten years Alabama's inside linebacker coach. So I guess there's a trickle down effect to gains a little test loose in that respect. Yeah, and the Armstrong hire was highly regarded in Tuscaloosa, but that was for a position, not necessarily for the D.C. job. I realized anyone can jump to conclusions here, but a pretty bad season to start off. A lot of chaos off season, recruiting. I mean, how would you describe the current mood of the Florida football culture well, as you know, beyond head coaches, I thought fans pay attention to these coordinator hires because they're multi-million dollar multiyear deals. And so there's a ton of pressure on Napier to make the right higher and obviously he has familiarity with Austin Armstrong having overlapped or at least one season in Louisiana and so there's something to that, but I'm not even enough to think the fan base wouldn't have loved to see maybe an ex NFL defensive coordinator or Florida chase somebody from another power 5 institution that has a little bit more of a track record what Austin Armstrong did at USM the past few years was it doesn't allow you from a statistical standpoint, but then obviously there are football minds and understand what he was getting out of the group we had. Just looking at last year, there were 8 in the sunbelt and yard per play out of 14 teams, 6 and scoring defense, 5th and third down stop. None of that's great, but they were first in sacks and I'm looking at some blitz tendencies now just see if he might be a little bit more aggressive blitz wise than maybe Patrick Tony was during his first year at Florida. Where the defense was brutal. And you're probably looking at a turnover of 6 or 7 starters from that unit that begins spring cracks and less than two weeks. Okay, well, let's get to the field with the practice starting in a couple of days or weeks. Who is the quarterback going to be? Got to feel like it's Graham merch after with a guy his age coming in with one and probably really two years of eligibility left if you want to maximize that, just not a believer in the guy making that move. Without some feeling that he has a chance to be a starter. And the off the field stuff with him has all been, you know, every box has been checked and lots of rays and things like that, but obviously Florida fans want to see a guy who is more productive than he was in those 32 starts at Wisconsin where he showed up as the highest rated quarterback in program history and they didn't want enough for Paul Chris to save a job. There's still some talent there. There's some operational ability, apparently he's picking up the system really fast. But he's not going to. Do you think it's not going to turn a broken play into a 50 yard run? Like Anthony, Richardson did, I think the hope is he also won't turn a perfectly natural clean pocket into fully thrown interception like registry did at times as well as definitely going to be a tradeoff and skill set. Chatting with Alan Taylor about the university of Florida's turnover and confusion has been obviously a few weeks since recruiting. I mean, from a ranking standpoint, Alan the Gators did pretty well. But comparatively to everyone else, especially in the division and the SEC, what is the sense of how good a haul that was matched against what left a program? Where are the Gators right now? Well, the whole knock on Dan Mullen is that finishing anywhere from 9th to 12th nationally wasn't good enough. And then lo and behold, Florida, service you're looking at it in that 13 to 15 range now after the departure of Jaden Rashad over the NAL mess that went down here. I think Florida was in a bad place for a lot of kids. You finished second in recruiting and there's no points for that, right? A lot of time invested, a lot of energy invested and if they go somewhere else, well, I guess unless they come back to you in the transfer portal then you haven't really gained anything, but they didn't land culinary maclean who came from an area of Florida that typically goes to the Gators. So that's a mess and honestly, with a shot at leaving, they didn't get the highly ranked quarterback that helped those ratings as well. So all those organizationally, they did some things really well. I think they really improved themselves on the defensive side. Including with a different environment up in gardendale that Clemson and Alabama wanted very badly and tell the Collins and I think that really helped themselves on the receiver side, but offensive line was pretty puny. And they've had to go into the portal to try to shore up that position. So basically tread water from at least the level of recruit that Dan Mullen was bringing in when recruiting wasn't going so well. Alan, I hear from people down there that there's still some level of optimism. Nobody wants to come to any conclusion after one year, but it does seem to me that some of the buzz seems to have calmed down and we just threw the schedule up for those who aren't watching television right now. Utah, mcneese, Tennessee, Charlotte, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. That a manager well, not really that manageable, as I catch myself. And then the second half of the season, at South Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas at home at LSU at Missouri, Florida state. You tell me you cover the team. I'm not pinning you down for anything that really matters, but just best guess. If you had to make it today in late February, what do you think the Gators do next year? Schedules topper that it was in 2022, when they spend a 6 and 7, that trip to Utah is not going to be easy. Considering they lost a Vanderbilt last year, I don't think you can chalk up any SEC game as being easy if the team has the capacity to global game like that and that's one really when you talk about the buzz sort of dissipating from last
The Paul Finebaum Show
"billy napier" Discussed on The Paul Finebaum Show
"We continue the journey. We're back, final 30 minutes on this president's day. And handsome Joe is next. And you know what? The one thing happy president's day almost say happy president's day because you are the president of sports doll. Well, thank you. How many and informative? And I won't say happy president's day to president legend. But this thing happened here and I'm coming in from the hip hop because I just tuned in when you was talking to Larry. I've just got home and but anyway, this is a nice way I see it two kinds of birds. I may have never wanted those other. But not all this present this day, I would like to throw my hat in the ring for the black cat mafia. For a Secretary of State, that's kind of like, but of course that's the president legends choice. He don't even have a vice president, but I won't tell my ring in for the Secretary of State. That will have to go out and talk to these people, you know, but don't necessarily fans of Alabama. And then it's up to the president. He wants to post a sanctions. I just go full blown nuclear on some of these foods as is this. I mean, that's just, you know, that's just a thought, Paul. But you know what, brother, I miss you, I ain't talking to you since last Tuesday. And I've lost uncle since then. And yes, you Milton out in Arkansas. So this place remember the milking family out there, Paul. And because it's married to my mom's sister. But Martha, she's not she's not doing too well for sale. And I think my mom and sister are going to try to go out there this week. But just keep that in your priors. But I don't have lots of ad right now. I would like to ask you this here while I got you on the phone, Paul. About the NCAA poll, when they do these brackets, I mean, as these chose by rankings are just, I mean, how did they come up with their, there's a men's basketball committee of about 13 people just like in football and they meet and they seed the tournament based on their view of a team's worth. Can you imagine Paul, if we had had 60 14 in football? I mean, auburn would even be in the playoffs. I mean, how crazy would that be? Because they don't, but I'm glad you had the difference in basketball. I think of the 64, 68 actually getting the tournament. And they had the two play in games in Dayton or the foreplay in games, but remember, there's also, I think, 32 automatic bids, meaning if you win the SEC tournament, you get an automatic bid and that doesn't mean it helps your seating, but the rest of them are at large bids. Well, I like the way they do it. Because that gives a lot of teams and sometimes that's all the teammates have changed. You just got to be hard to write time of the year. And I love the way the basketball. I thank you for explaining that to me. But in my brother, you have a good and I'll get out here and let you talk to somebody wrote my brother. Well, thank you very much ray scene is up next. Hello racing. Hello. Ray Shaw. Rayshawn, I'm sorry. Oh, hello. First time caller, I love your show. Thanks ray Sean. I want to ask you about the upcoming quarterback battle at a high state about who you might favor, Devin Brown, or Kyle mccord. I'm going to wait till spring on that one, ray Sean. I don't know. And I believe you wrote an article about my high school team, I want to tell you this and I real quick. You previewed our hospital team as going back to the state championship that year and we actually did. Where did you go to high school? Southern choctaw high school in Silas, Alabama. Oh yeah. That was a long time ago, but I vaguely remember, hey, thanks so much, ray Sean. You'd be well. Miss pat is up next. Hey, miss pat. Hi, Tom. I just let me get this straight. Okay, I'm Anne and Jim are getting along. Larry is going to be your investment. And I would vote for Joe for secretary, state of my goodness. This is quite a line that you got there. So I'll follow that with, what do you think about you free and his recruiting so far? I think it's good. Well, I think he's done well. He had to, and he did. He's gotten a lot of players in the portal. And he has recruited at a much higher level than auburn has in some time. And I think I hate to use the word it will take some time because it seems like an excuse, but in his case, it's real. It will take a year or two to get this thing organized, but all it will take will be the right quarterback. And I think Hugh freezer is capable of doing that. Thank you very, very much. Brandon is up next in Florida. Hey Brandon, you're on the air. Hi, Paul. I'm calling today. It's the first time caller to discuss the Florida Gators. I know there's a lot of pessimism, but I think there should be actually a lot of optimism about this year. I mean, are you sure there's question marks about the quarterback situation. But I think Florida's return in probably the best running back duo in the country. And there could be a lot of dark horse candidates on the defense to really revamp them. Hold on, did I misunderstand your second Brendan, what did you say about the quarterback situation? I mean, the show, there's question marks about the quarterback situation, but I think we can push the offense and make it a lot more rushing based. Montreal? Okay. Running backs, didn't you? Okay, I'm sorry. Yeah. Okay, I'm misunderstood. I'll talk to you said quarterback. Right now, I think we talked about this with Matt earlier. It's a real tough situation. But Billy Napier has time. And not a lot of time, but he certainly has enough time to at least get this thing heading in the right direction, whether he can pull it off or not, I think, is open for debate. Squirrel is up next. How are you squirrel? I'm doing wonderful. Do you have a favorite president, Paul? Probably Lincoln. I would do it with Jefferson
The Bill Simmons Podcast
"billy napier" Discussed on The Bill Simmons Podcast
"Well, then you could make the same argument that Alabama was saving depending. Alabama has an amazing college football history. Yeah, I think that the history of it, I mean, fuck Alabama's in Forrest Gump. Yeah, yeah, I mean, Alabama had Joe Davis. I mean, that's what we call out of them. We call them the course cup. Yeah, we'll call them the gums. No, but I see your point. But what we were talking about jobs if we're talking about historically, then obviously there are games going to be up there, but if we're talking about right now, let's just say right now, what are the best jobs so we can stop John over it? Yeah. And right now, I would say the best jobs are ill issue. Certainly think that LSU is one of the best jobs in the country. And it's going to be one of the best jobs in the country for the foreseeable future because of the way the recruiting is. Yeah. Alabama Notre-Dame has to be on there, which is what makes it so interesting. At least being the top 5 or 6. Notre-Dame would be on there. I'd say, even though a lot of people around SEC circles on agree with me, I'd say Florida is an amazing job. Which they have Billy Napier going over to Florida right now. I think Florida is an amazing job. Well, you know you have Florida you're getting this incredible recruiting advantage just from the state. Absolutely. You're inherently inheriting. Yeah, right. And of the three floor to schools right now, Florida is the one that's having the most recent success. So it should be able to recruit pretty well within the state. Georgia is an incredible job and incredible place to coach. And then I'd say, what about Ohio State? Because you get everyone from Ohio. Horse state, right? That would be in that circle. Of course Ohio states one of the best jobs in the country. You have people there that are committed to winning. And to that degree, Michigan, too, you know, what you want out of a out of a college football job in my opinion is you want the culture, you want the fan base. You want the recruiting soil. And then you want the facilities. I would say you want the expectations, too. You need a little pressure. Like in Michigan, Harbaugh, I know a lot of Michigan people. Harbaugh finally being able to beat OSC. If he loses that game, then it's like, all right, this is 6 years of this fuck this guy. Where there's just you have a lot of generations of people, some of them have money, influence. And at some point, they just want to root for a team that wins. Well, the expectations are a part of the culture. So when I say the culture, you know, if you go to a place like UCLA with chip Kelly's coaching right now, you have a lot more leeway, but those fans don't expect to win. They're hoping to win. They don't understand. They're happy to be there if it's happy. They're like, oh my God, we're good this year. Yeah. Right. So the culture, the expectations are part of a culture. You're just not going to be able to like Harbaugh hats beat Ohio State this year or her seat was going to be pretty hot. And he's had what other coaches were considered to be a successful run at Michigan. He's won a lot of games there, but if he didn't start beating the big rival and having him playing for playoffs, they're not going to accept that. What about how college football is shifting? And I mean, I don't even know a couch football is going to be in three years. Already, the conferences are so confusing. The other day, they should just change all the names for them and just the SEC should be called we have we have the most money conference. They're like, why even call it the SEC? Is it Oklahoma going in there? And Texas. Yeah, which is another reason why. Come on Riley, chickened out. Oh, Texas is another job we should have mentioned. Texas is another job one of the best jobs in college football there. So you think you think Lincoln Riley chickened out? Of course. Yeah, he wanted no parts of the SEC. Oklahoma's on his way to the SEC. He'd have to coach in the SEC if he came to LSU. He goes out to SC, which, by the way, I'm never going to be grudging man for wanting to live in Los Angeles or something that I consider to be the greatest city in the world besides Baton Rouge Louisiana. To live in. Two living. So I'm not gonna be grudge about it at all. And he has the opportunity to do some things that he has to support of an incredible fan base and a nationwide brand. So I'm not saying that going to essence, whatever. But we know he was not in favor of OU moving into the SEC. And obviously he wasn't going to come to LSU with the expectations are just different. SEC football is it's not a Saturday thing. I wish I knew how to describe it. Everyone describes it, oh, it's just different. But no, but it really is though. You look at things, football in the southern part of America sped up.
WGR 550 Sports Radio
"billy napier" Discussed on WGR 550 Sports Radio
"I am intrigued, though, with what Sark was able to do in his debut for the Texas Longhorns, right, Um, but I thought Louisiana the Raging Cajuns with Billy Napier. There was a reason why he's been hanging around right. He's been offered a couple positions. I think he looked at it as like, Hey, I got something special brewing, and you thought well, they might be able to catch Texas kind of in this world of transition where you got all your guys coming back, and there's a bunch of hype. Texas looked pretty darn good. I was I was impressed. And that makes me a little bit more intrigued with the big 12. If for no other reason, Oklahoma kind of play with their food, lighten the game against Tulane. And I'm not quite sure of this. Oklahoma's defense as much more improved if that narrative still carries after week, one be interesting. Arkansas took care of Rice yesterday and Texas is next two opponents are Arkansas and raise you look at the sorry just felt weird to say that then, of course, the Red River showdown coming up In October, Um, Iowa State lingering out there. They didn't look great again against northern Iowa. We don't give these teams opportunities to get better. We just passed judgment immediately. You need to be sure Season form Week one. Even though you have no preseason, It's time to go. But, yes, I'm intrigued by Texas. And Oklahoma's got some issues. But again, it's week one and let's let's let's see what they do. We don't overreact. We don't hot take here, but it's never dab. O Sweeney on the hot seat. No, I'm just joking. We will talk about college football playoff and what went down and why it is important week one. As far as how the committee will look at it. Heather Damage will tell us next. He has met Chick. I'm Peter Burns. This is the best week ever John Johnson. They don't want to four FT Games based story your belief J. William from knowing Justin Fields. I think his mindset is better when he's thrown to the wolves. And now Max Kellerman, Trevor Lawrence, it looks like he's the guy struggling the most with the speed of the NFL starting Tuesday at six Eastern on ESPN Radio and on ESPN two Father. Hey, I want to look like a million bucks but only spent a handful of books. Upgrade to a.
The Audible with Feldman And Mandel
Coaching search updates: Kevin Steele the favorite at Auburn
"Obviously we're in the middle. Coaching carousel to and i think the most interesting one right now is auburn I think they spent twenty one point. Five million dollars to buy out gus malzahn. We could argue whether he should have been fired or not the end of the day. He lost the momentum there and they the boosters put the you know got out the hat and collected the money and they fired him. So you think okay. You're gonna fire Coach gus malzahn. All that money. You're going to want to go out and get like the splashes possible coach. You can get tell us who's actually leading the coaching search right now as we reported this morning. That sources are telling me that the front runner for this job right now is defensive coordinator kevin steele and while that may blow some people's minds. He has some very very influential people at auburn who are big believers in him and in his corner at auburn. Especially that matters right so look We have a story up but the athletic now about who's in the mix there and the ones. I think one of the people who is really a big contender against kevin steele on this front is lane. Kiffin at ole miss But i think he would have a hard time turning that job down. I think he's obviously a big name. Now he's foreign four. It's it's interesting in that. I think a saturday's game between ole miss and lsu doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot. You know outside of those two programs. But i think it may may need a little bit of something potentially at auburn as crazy as it sounds because for some people at auburn i think they could shape it and saying all right kevin steele dreadful run as the head coach at baylor twenty. Plus years ago he was one and thirty one in big twelve. Play at baylor is a long time ago but people. I've talked to down there have made the case where you know what at had a bad record. The first time he was a head coach and he just won a national title a year ago. And my my counter. That was well. He did have to times as interim pretty lengthy runs where he was at least able to show people he's evolved and grown and those people said look a people at auburn feel like kevin steele's been the guy who's hold it together for them the last few years he is very well respected within the scc And so also know how. Attractive is lane to auburn. He did a really good job at fau their foreign You know if he loses to. Lsu's not very good this year. He's foreign five. I think probably diminishes a little bit No its first year. It wasn't like anybody expected out all messed great. But he's definitely a candidate As billy napier from louisiana Maybe who freezes is somebody that that auburn would push for. I think and you still have steve sarkisian there. You know also in the state of alabama So it's a really interesting. Search in auburn is wildly unpredictable. What does but From what i heard they would love to have a coach Decided upon by the beginning of next week