Conor Guerra

So good, so good, so good.

Will

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Conor Guerra

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Will

Hey, what's going on?

Conor Guerra

This is the OG kickoff. A double down in next round Media production. I am Conor Guerra. Will I beefed up. I beefed up. It's been a minute since I've done like an I beefed up intro. When people, when people say I beefed up, they assume that beef means mess. Like I messed up, right? Like the context. I don't need to add anything to that.

Will

I've never heard anyone say that but you. So to be honest, it could mean anything in the outside world, but in our context, it's that you. You messed up. Yeah. Yeah.

Conor Guerra

I think Alan says it in hangover. Or maybe he says I fudged up. That's what he says. I think he does. I did not beef up by declaring Auburn is my personal current leader for the dud of the decade discussion. Your current leader is Nebraska. Again, this is all very fluid. Heard from many people on that, by the way. Very, very strong social media response on all of that. But listening back, I, I beefed up because I said that Purdue had never won a national title. Well, they've got three. Purdue's got three national titles.

Will

The hatred runs deep in your veins. You just, you just counted three, Daddy.

Conor Guerra

One of which even happened in the 21st century. So that's cool. Men's golf, 1961, Kennedy administration. Who could forget? My bad.

Will

That's.

Conor Guerra

Hand up. That's on me. Women's Hoops 99. That's the most egregious one. Should have had that on my radar. My bad, my fault. Women's Golf 2010, while I was in college, wherein Purdue slander was a little bit more prevalent in my life. Should have had that one as well. So forgot about that, that is entirely on me. Purdue fans do not give us one star reviews because I forgot about your three very coveted national championships. So I messed that up. And then I also meant to say that Tennessee was the dud of the decade in the 2010s. I accidentally said the 2020s. I hope enough people were able to connect the dots. I meant 2010s and that I also messed up. Rutgers being in a full share of Big Ten media revenue. They are not even in a full rev share yet. They still haven't got.

Will

I kind of alluded to that. You're. Oh, yeah, they. They now are into that. And I was like, good for them. But that's a good reason why they're kind of. Kind of cooked as well.

Conor Guerra

Yeah, so. So I beefed up. And for those saying, like, oh, you forgot this team, you forgot this team. I saw some of the, you know, the comments on, on Instagram and I had people that reached out, like, what about Arkansas? What. What about Arkansas? What about Florida State? Or like this team or that team? And go back and listen to the podcast.

Roddy Jones

That's.

Conor Guerra

That's the best I could say without getting into some crazy discussion about it, but wanted to cover it up because we want to be 100 accurate at all times and never have anything that we say ever come back to bite us.

Will

Connor, I'm scared. Did I, did I come out of that one clean?

Conor Guerra

I think you were good. I think you were mostly good. Oh, my audio cut out very briefly.

Will

Okay, well, now we're just saying if

Conor Guerra

we want to talk about Will mistakes, that's fine.

Will

No, but I'm like, if I, if it's 0 to 3, that's the all time leader there. But yeah, no, it was a lot to cover and I think you had a ton of notes and I was just kind of reacted. So I think anyone who's ever. Anyone who ever like, yells at your radio. Try to actually do a segment like this. It's very hard to prep for 4,

Conor Guerra

500 words, 13 pages of notes. Got a few things wrong. Purdue, national championships. My bad on me. Okay, so we have a great pod. Great, great pod lined up. Roddy Jones, who talks all things college football for ESPN SiriusXM, he's going to join us in a bit and then we're going to close with lad of the week. But Will, we are sitting here past the halfway point of 2026, which, look, I'm not going to tell you that that's full on Sunday. Scaries a little bit in some ways, but that does mean we are at the first Wednesday, Thursday by the time people are listening to this of the month. So it's draft day. Happy July. Last month. Without football until March, technically, if we're getting into week zero stuff and preseason football, I guess why not? But cheers to that.

Will

That's.

Conor Guerra

That's a very, very good thing. So I thought we would draft some SEC wide receivers today, and I don't know how this is going to go. Well, this could be, this could be all over. This could be our most. Yeah, sure. Draft that we've ever had and it won't surprise me.

Will

Yeah, no, absolutely. It's one of those things. This is probably, I would say wide receiver is the most offense dependent position, like in terms of your scheme and types of your game planner, because there are some guys where you're just like, hey, hey, this guy's just in a great system. And then there's the opposite of that. A guy that's still on our board this year, Cam Coleman we saw last year, we could tell he was a great talent, but the scheme didn't fit him. So it's one of those where you could watch a guy, you know, catch thousands of yards and then you got to get to the end and you're like, was that guy just part of the system? And on the other end, it's the joke I always tell about these LSU guys in the 2010s, where it's like you get to the NFL, it's like, whoa, this is a wide receiver that can catch passes.

Conor Guerra

You're exactly right. And it's maybe a trickier thing to predict now than it was five, six years ago because last year the seven leading receivers in the conference were all former transfers.

Will

That's nuts.

Conor Guerra

Even crazier in 2024, the eight leading receivers in the SEC, all former transfers. So, like, chances are a lot of these guys at the top are going to be guys that did not start off at that school. It's just now more, it's, it's more rare than ever to see a receiver who wants to stay at the same school for three or four years. And I, I don't mean to dismiss this about the position when I say this, and it's a, it piggybacks your point. I think it's the easiest spot for teams to recruit out of the portal. And if you truly whiff at wide receiver, I think you kind of have yourself to blame. Okay. And like, that's not to say that you're going to bat a thousand. I'm not saying that. But just think of how each team carries so many different receivers and you could go like, oh, we don't have a guy that really plays the slot very well. Let's just go get the guy from Kent State who did that really well last year and he caught like 60 passes for 900 yards. Like, let's just go do that. We'll pay him 700 grand and we'll just. We have that figured out. And on the flip side, receivers obviously have more freedom than ever to find the best situation possible and they can go, well, wait, is there a better offense for me? Is there a better quarterback for me? Is there a situation where I could be the second guy instead of the third guy? So like it is created a scenario in the SEC in which I think all of these coaches look at wide receivers and go, they're basically all on like one to two year contracts. And so that's really going to dictate probably a lot of why this seems so up in the air with how we talk about this guys. It is more of a crapshoot than it was before and another stat that reflects that. So last year, if you google preseason all SEC and you'll see both of our faces. Remember when we were part of that and we were interviewing Archbanny right there?

Will

Oh, yes.

Conor Guerra

Yeah. Still horrifies me to look back on that. Whatever. But the media picks for preseason all ICC receiver and you could say like, oh, BD gets all this stuff wrong. Coaches get wrong too. There were these six guys. First teamers were Ryan Williams, now Ryan Coleman. Williams and Cam Coleman. Second teamers Aaron Anderson, my guy and Ryan Wingo. Third teamers, Eric Singleton, Kevin Coleman Jr. None of those guys finished in the top eight in the SEC in receiving yards. None of them. Winko was the only guy who earned an all SEC nod at season's end. And I think Ryan Winger was more of a bust than a breakout. If we're being 100 honest, I think Texas fans would agree with that. So that's my way of saying we're going to be wrong on this. We're going to be really, really wrong about this. We could have guys that we feel totally good about. We that when pen hits paper here, we're like dang, still here steal there. But chances are we are not going to end up drafting the top 10 receivers in the SEC. And if we get like three guys that end up in the top 10 or like two guys that earn all SEC honors, we're probably going to feel pretty good. Because as you go through this. And if you want to do this exercise at home of, like, who do I think are the top 10 receivers in the SEC, buddy, good luck. There is not much separation, and all of that is going to be totally forgotten when people get mad at us for our picks.

Will

Yeah, I feel like this is one of the ones where it's like, yeah, so. So the list I have here. Gosh, man. Yeah. Brazil, Thompson, Titania. So, like, these are some guys that genuinely cooked kind of past expectations. And the sport, obviously, is a copycat thing where, okay, we got to get this type of player, we got to run this type of offense. And so it could be a thing where we end up with several guys that aren't transfers this year, and then suddenly it's like, that's the new Tre. That being said, there's not a lot of data to take from this list from last year.

Conor Guerra

There.

Will

There are. There are very few guys that had preseason expectations. So to your point, it does seem like a shopping spree in the transfer portal. It seems like guys finding situations that work for them and raw talent really not mattering that much, to be honest.

Conor Guerra

Yeah, it just. It's not one of those things that can overcome everything. You need things to. You need a lot of things working in your favor if you're going to be an elite wide receiver in the sec. Simple as that. So here's how I'd like to do this, and I want your approval on this before we sign off on this, because best is very subjective. If we're just saying, oh, this guy I think, was better than this player, I think we should do one point for every receiving yard, 100 points for every receiving touchdown. So that way it just covers the duration of the field, and that way we actually have, like, a numerical system. Will's busting out laughing.

Will

It's so much bad. If you're doing the math.

Roddy Jones

No, it's not.

Conor Guerra

No, it's not.

Will

Okay.

Conor Guerra

No, it's not. All you have to do. You're just looking at receivers, like receiving yards. You're looking at receiving yards, receiving touchdowns. You're just adding it up and you're treating it kind of like fantasy football. 100. 100 yards is what you need to score a touchdown. So 100 points for every receiving touchdown. So that way if a guy has, oh, he's got 600 receiving yards and he's got five touchdowns on the year, boom, 600 plus 500, you get 1100. So that way there's an easy way to kind of separate this. We're not just looking at oh, who ends up with an all sec nod or something like that. Because we could very easily tie. Maybe we'll get zero. I, I don't know. But that at least kind of lets us know we're looking for production here. It's not necessarily the flashiest because I think there are probably going to be guys that maybe we overdraft because they make the big time flashy plays. Not to spoil any picks here coming up, but I know it'll happen because of the way that I did my board too. But that way we're looking at, did these guys produce? Did they show up and do kind of what you hope that they would do this year? Because if a guy is electric but he only has 300 receiving yards, all right, that's cool. But that doesn't necessarily move the needle. So that's a way to, to just define it, lock it into terms. I don't know that it changes things a whole lot, but would you be okay with a system like that?

Will

No. I'm fired up about this. I think this is perfect. I think it's way better than like, because like previously we've done Heisman stuff and that makes sense because it's, it's what we're talking about. But it's very subjective. This is like, hey, if you're some no name dude, it's at some rate like it if Kentucky just ends up with a 2000 yard receiver, it counts.

Conor Guerra

I love that all yards are the same.

Will

Okay.

Conor Guerra

We will not discriminate. Although in terms of like projection, obviously if the guys who, you know, if half of their production came against East Tennessee State, probably not going to suggest that you're in for a thousand yard season at least.

Will

I don't know. We'll see. Okay.

Conor Guerra

The question I always ask will first pick or second two? What do you want?

Will

I'm so fired up. Take the second two here. I can't wait to see where you go at one.

Conor Guerra

I'm Arch Manning. I'm Madison Skinner.

Will

I'm Eva Jovic.

Conor Guerra

I'm Decoria Moore. Want to train like a Red Bull athlete? Tell us your fitness goals this summer to enter the Red Bull Athlete Challenge. You'll get to try each of our

Roddy Jones

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Will

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Conor Guerra

Think you have what it takes? I always feel like you take the thing that I want, but that's okay. I'm gonna say this with my chest. I want Isaiah Satania. He's my one. Yeah, he's my one. And he's not the best player overall at the position. Okay. But I am trying to win this draft with production because no returning receiver in the SEC produced like this guy. Last year he was third in the SEC in receiving, first in the SEC in receiving in conference, in conference play. If you just look at, you know those numbers and remember that's with an offense that had a new quarterback, a guy that struggled down the stretch. I, I think we could safely say that John Matier himself has come out and said yes I was. You saw the throwing motion. It was not particularly good. By the way. AI photos of John Mateer and his arms and seeming seemingly everybody's arms. What kind of loser sitting at home just doing AI on quarterback's arms. Get better things to do with your time.

Will

It's a little sus.

Conor Guerra

Yeah. Like the front squat. Okay. The front squat. Legit. Not AI as Oklahoma said. That's impressive if you've ever front squatted before. Very, very difficult weight distribution. Respect for John Mateer, the biomechanics expert that he's. That he's seeing. George Steuer wrote about this for On3 to work on his throwing motion. That's interesting because it's kind of the same thing that Will Levis did before he got to Kentucky and it was kind of the thing that really allowed him to develop into an NFL type prospect. John Matier is, is a different player than Will Levis. I'm not saying that 3 or 4 inches shorter as well. But Mater has to get better with the lower half for us to see an even better version of Isaiah Satania. If Isaiah Satania is going to become like this 1300 yard guy who is just a national household name. I, I think it's because John Matier is in the Heisman Trophy conversation because like last year we said this all the time when Oklahoma needed to get bailed out.

Will

Boop.

Conor Guerra

Hit the Isaiah Satania button. That's what they would do. 18 catches that went for at least 20 yards tied for the most in the SEC. He could have some of his production accounted for if they are going to have more depth at that position with Trail Harris all being the drum team member coming over from Virginia. Parker Livingston crossing enemy lines from Texas to Oklahoma. Still though, I, I just think Satania is such a high floor guy. He's so good after the catch he's not gonna need the high volume of targets to be able to get there. And like this is a guy who was tied to with Jeremy Bernard for the most targets in the Sec. 102 targets last year and he gets his quarterback back and again I think they're. They should have a better passing offense or at least a more consistent one. Should be a preseason first team all SEC guy. I know that's probably bold to take Isaiah Satania at one. I, I'm okay with it. I, I think he is worthy of it.

Will

I'm so mad right now. This is the worst I've been undercut one of these in my life. I wanted.

Conor Guerra

When did you think you were going to be able to get.

Will

I thought I was going to draft him next.

Roddy Jones

I.

Will

What I thought I was going to do is make you split the Texas guys pick the other one against Titania and now I'm cooked. No, I, I love this pick. I can't. I can't even cap. I, I see that he's right there. I mean if you can do what he did last year in an offense that was not just broken but inconsistent. Like, okay, if you start off your year and you're like we just can't throw the football, okay, you figure it out. Last year they started the year with a Heisman Trophy candidate and, and they finished the year. You know, obviously they, they made the playoff. You know what I'm saying? They beat Alabama in the middle. Who's to say what happened? Pretty much just Isaiah Satania on a game by game basis. We had really no idea what OA was and it really just broke down to how many times could this guy get the football? Were his ridiculous plays getting called back for holding and stuff. Like it really just. He was the st. He was the straw that started the drink in a way that I don't think anyone else was in the SEC last year. And when you think about like I've talked to nauseam about Coleman and the difference he made last year. Santania was like that.

Conor Guerra

But it led to winning.

Will

It was like when he got the production, they won games and so yeah, I think this is actually kind of a lock to go number one and,

Conor Guerra

and a guy that's got experience against SEC competition because he didn't. It's not like he was coming from the group of five rings like came from Arkansas. Okay. Like he's, he's been seeing SEC defenses and just thought he was in my opinion like way more than they could have expected last year. Like I was expecting Deion Burks to step up and be that go to guy and ends up being Satania and like not even really close in my opinion. And I just think that they have a lot of faith in him. And even if he doesn't bail them out in as many key spots, I just think that his return was one of the most significant of any of the playoff contenders and it didn't really get talked about nationally in the way that I thought it should have. But I, I like Satania to, to have as high of a floor like you can't, you can't whiff on that guy that you're taking one in this draft. And I think Satania will be at least as long as he stays healthy. Like a 900 receiving yard type guy.

Will

Yeah, I, I like him a lot and now I'm actually fascinated because I thought I could tones I could tear split you and now I'm, I, I, there are three guys I want here, so. Okay, well, might as well fight fire with fire and go Mario Kraver.

Conor Guerra

I had him third on my board. Will third on my board. I was hoping to get him when, when you came back. That's a good pick. Yep.

Will

I, I think lots of the same reasons here you got your quarterback returning. It's an interesting situation I think is true for both of these guys that their quarterback is coming back but they have another gear. We think, you know I, I think that they both would be happy to just have the season they had last year. But you know the offense is going to get better and for Craver there's no Concepcion. There's an added we offense like we talked about, you know, last week about Texas A M where we, we really need to see Marshall Reed throw the football to become an NFL prospect. He has all the incentive in the world to just lock into the passing game and Craver specifically, who he already has the chemistry with and they were able to support two big dog wide receivers last year. So let's just say they spread the ball around a little bit more. Let's say they get a couple more weapons. You still have that one guy who's going to be your safety blanket and, and I think that matters.

Conor Guerra

Yeah, I thought last year when Casey Concepcion kind of blossoms into this guy who everybody's looking at by the time the end of the regular season rolled around and going that's, that's a future first round receiver. The way that he moves it was kind of forgotten how good Craver was and you know, fun fact about him and one of the reasons I had him so high on my board, even though we point out the deficiencies in Marcel Reed's game, like this is somebody who was too turnover prone in the intermediate like needs to get better if Mario Kraber is going to be, you know, truly a national name in the way that he was at the start of last season. But we kept bringing up his yak yards last year, like what he does yard after the catch was so evident. That play that he made against Notre Dame, the catch and run, one of the most ridiculous plays a receiver made all year. The only two power conference receivers who were ahead of him in yak yards, Zachariah Branch because he had an average depth of target of 3.6 yards because that's just what he was in that offense. And that was fine and it worked for what Georgia did. And Malachi Tony, because he was Malachi Tony. People forgot that like Craver's production was still really good, man. Like two fewer catches and two fewer receiving yards than Concepcion, a first round pick. And Craver coming back was really important for this offense. And what they're going to have to do if this passing game is going to be more consistent. You talk about like those other weapons you bring in, Isaiah Horton coming over from Bama, which is always interesting when a guy moves like that within the conference. And I'm curious kind of what that looks like with him, but I think he should be a nice compliment for what Craver likes to do out of the slot. So yeah, I like this pick. He was going to be taken high on the board and I don't know that he's going to be a first team all SEC guy because he's not as much of a household name. But I think people just in general are down on the A M passing attack. But it's kind of similar to what we talk about with Satania.

Will

Yeah, exactly. Somebody has to catch passes. And Reed, I don't think it's going to get worse this year. If anything, I guess I think he's going to be leaned on more. So this next one is really where the rubber meets the road, right? So I gotta pick a Texas guy. I wasn't gonna get him both maybe. I think either way I go here, I'm gonna get killed. Because I think either way, the next was like, oh, the guy you should have taken. But I think given. Given my overall take on this player, I'm going Cam Coleman.

Conor Guerra

That's fair. Second on my board. Love Kim Coleman.

Will

I think he's. I think he's a better player than Wingo. Not to jump on Wingo, but if you're going to go with the guy who has the experience. This has been some experience picks so far, guys that are coming back and everything I think that if you feel happy with the passing attack, you don't go and get Coleman and pursue him the way that they did. You're gonna have to make promises behind closed doors to say here is the guaranteed production. No, we know we have Ryan Wiggle, but trust me, you're gonna get fed. You know, and again, I've said it enough. People can say I have a man crush on him. That's fine. He is one of the, like, he's the type of receiver I, I genuinely like. He's a bigger guy, he's a faster guy. Growing up watching like you know, the Michael Thomases and, and the Calvin Johnsons having like a large receiver who can make plays and also is shifty. I, I, there's just not no type of player I like better. I think that he made such a difference for Auburn last year and I think that he tried to make it work and it just didn't. I think that just given the opportunities he had, it was amazing what he did. But I think now is his time to really just show up on that big stage. He's a guy that I picked to get a little bit of Heisman love. So I gotta stay with my guy here and he could be a first team all SEC guy if Arch Manning stays upright.

Conor Guerra

Can I address the Cam Coleman is overrated crowd? Can I?

Will

Sure.

Conor Guerra

Just let me, let me preach to, to those who are in that camp because I hear, I hear you like guys just trying to finish as a top 15 receiver in the SEC for the first time. Like what do you, what are you guys saying about him? Why is he paid so much money when the production isn't there yet? Here's the obvious reason. He had a quarterback who notoriously refused to throw it downfield and yet he led the SEC with nine contested catches on 20 yard throws and he finished with an SEC best 13 contested catches overall. Even more than Carnell Tate, whose best skill set as a the first receiver taken the NFL draft is contested catches. So now of course he's got Arch and the Ryan Wingo part of this. We're going to get to the re you talk about like why would Texas do this if they felt good about their receiver room? It's 100 spot on because they had a huge need to get a contested catch guy. Ryan Wingo had four contested catches last year for a Texas offense that had just 15 contested catches with a first year starting quarterback who struggled struggled with accuracy. It was such an obvious need for Texas that we started talking about this in early November. This fit of like Cam Coleman and Burn Orange would make a lot of sense, wouldn't it? And then sure enough, Cam Goldman and Burn Orange makes a lot of sense. And you know, the only question I think I have about, about him fitting into this, this offense and like, what's. If Cam Coleman's not going to be a first team all SEC receiver, if he's not going to live up to this sort of hype, it's about target distribution. Because. And I'm sure this is kind of like why you're, why you like had that debate of like, which Texas guy do I go with? Because Ryan Wingo last year had twice as many targets as any other Texas pass catcher. Even though he had the seven drops, it was, it was touch and go. And at the same time you could say like, all right, if arch throws for 3,500 yards and 30 touchdown passes, which is not that crazy of a projection given the crazy projections that have been out there for Arch, there's plenty of production to go around. And as we know, Coleman can just have those TAKEOVER games where he's like, it's, it's very reminiscent of like what Julio used to do. If you ever own like Julio Jones on fantasy and he would have a first quarter where he's like, oh my God, he's already got 100 receiving yards and he's taken over this game. Cam Coleman can do that for you. So even if he has like a rough three or four game stretch, he could just pop right back to earth and make up for it. So I will not be in the Cam Coleman is overrated camp because of his surroundings. What they were. If he still struggles in surroundings this good this year. All right, then that's his conversation we're going to have to have with the NFL draft talk, which I think he's in line for that. But he's a phenomenal player. Who is one of these guys that needed a better situation.

Will

Yes, I absolutely love that stat about downfield contested catches. That is exactly why I love him. I started to speak about my favorite thing that I like about him is his grittiness. But of course you could hear the chirping of, oh, the, the football against payable. But no, that's what it is, man. It's the fact that you throw the ball up and he can go get it. And those type of like jump ball, big body wide receivers are so hard to find today because everybody wants to kind of be shifty. So it's, it's really the combination of all that stuff but in reality, it's his physical that I think could make him a big weapon for Texas in a way that Ryan Wingo, like you said, couldn't last year.

Conor Guerra

So now the question becomes, do I take this guy? The most polarizing returning player in the sec? One could argue, yeah, let's do it. All right, give me Ryan Coleman Williams. Let's do it. It's funny because at this time last year, we got into the discussion, like, Kim Coleman versus Ryan Williams, which one is better? And then there were so many. Like, I remember writing that column for sds and there were so many people being like, how could you even say that? I'm like, the gap is not nearly what. What people think it is. Like. And then sure enough, this year, I think if you just pull the average person, like, who would you rather have on your team? It would have been really interesting to see what the market would have looked like for Ryan Coleman Williams in the way that we saw the market play out for Ken Coleman, where it felt like he could have gone to the highest bidder. He was easily going to be the most coveted guy in the transfer portal. And I don't mean to continue to compare them because obviously they're not playing in the same state anymore. They were always going to be compared to one another. And that's just reality for guys that came out in the same class as five star receivers going to rival schools. So I get all that. And I do think, though, that if you are just anti Ryan Coleman Williams, you need to hear part of this conversation.

Will

Okay.

Conor Guerra

Because the talent is too loud to ignore. The flaws are also too loud to ignore. Okay, so let's start with the good here. If you look at the side by side compared to the aforementioned Julio Jones in his first two years, they are separated by four catches and 34 receiving yards. And Ryan Coleman Williams has four more receiving touchdowns. And you could say, hey, they played in different offenses.

Will

How many more games there not to be that guy?

Conor Guerra

Ryan Coleman Williams missed. He played in 13 his first year. And then I. I don't. I think it was like only maybe one or two more games.

Will

I mean, Julio, I got you. Yep. Yeah.

Conor Guerra

Julio Jones played in an SEC championship both of those first two years. Played in a national championship in his second season. So, like, he still played plenty of games. And like, I get it, like, different offenses. You could also say Bama has more receiver depth now than what they did back in 2008 and 2009, if you want to look at those rosters. And let's not pretend like 20, 24, Jalen Milroe was at some elite passing level in what they wanted in the Kaylin Deborah offense. So. All right. The other thing, the sophomore slump, it's nearly identical. People are gonna hate this. It is nearly identical sophomore year production to Juan Amari Cooper who was banged up that whole year. And you could say, well, his was injury related, his was just performance between the ears. They don't want to bring up the fact that Ryan Coleman Williams was banged up in the first part of the season. They don't want to mention that because of how bad he was in the season opener. I get that. Even though he's hurt on that play, they were separated by four catches, 47 yards.

Will

Okay?

Conor Guerra

We know that Julio and Amari, those guys in their pre draft seasons, phenomenal players, legacy cemented. So I'm not saying that what Ryan Coleman Williams does is automatically going to be in lockstep with that. I am just saying if that is your biggest critique, there could be some pushback. And if you're saying there is a roadblock to him being elite player, I would disagree with that. Can Ryan Coleman Williams be that dude? The guy that we saw against Georgia were like, this dude is an alien. He's gonna take over college football. And then Jeremiah Smith ends up doing all the things we thought Ryan Coleman Williams was going to do. He's got a new name, he's got a new number, but it's kind of the same task.

Will

Okay.

Conor Guerra

And for all those things, I'm just glazing and we're just falling in love with the highlights.

Will

You're not allowed to like any player ever, actually. It's crazy. That's the thing. If you think an athlete is good at being athletic, you just, you're, you're a homer.

Conor Guerra

Yes, of course. I mean, I, I get it. He's got plenty of detractors. And, and here is why, okay. He led power conference receivers with 10 drops, two more than anybody else at the power conference level. Only five contested catches. When we watched 20 SEC wide receivers have at least six last season and he wasn't one of them. And for a guy that's so lethal after the catch and you're like, look, man, just get the ball in his hands. Let's see what he can do. He's only 15th in the SEC in Yak Yards, so that's, that's got to get better. It's possible that that Russell's classmate Lottie Brooks guy that's going to be mentioned later on in this, he could emerge as the wide receiver one in this offense. And Coleman Williams is more of like the highlight reel, complimentary type guy. But I still think that there is just so much talent and so much potential and I'm willing to take a chance on a guy that is 19 years old. Yes, he's 19 now, not 17. And already has 1600 scrimmage yards and 14 touchdowns at this level. As polarizing as he is, I get the entire Ryan Coleman Williams spectrum, I promise.

Will

Yeah, there's a lot to this. And this is the type of guy that I feel like, you know, we're not really equipped to talk about just yet as a society. Because you can talk about.

Conor Guerra

Yeah, we are. We had Dennis Rodman, we could talk about this stuff.

Will

No, but it's the fact that he's so young, you know what I'm saying? It's the fact that like, we want to hold him to these, like, adult, you know, levels of like, competence and, and he's a kid, he's going to make mistakes. To your point, he was 17 for a lot of this. And I think that the two Alabama offenses he's played in have kind of uniquely failed him in different ways. Like Jalen Milrose limitations created like a symbiote. Like they were just joined at the hip with Ryan Williams, which magnified both of their weaknesses. Right. Like Jalen Mo would get locked into one player. It was Ryan Williams. Ryan Williams did not have the adult body to take 18 targets at an SEC game. So he was started dropping the footballs, started running away from contact, you know, didn't obviously, I would say it's fair to say at this point, didn't handle fame super well his first year. You know, I, I think that the spotlight was immediately put on him after the Georgia game. I think the defense is keyed on him. And Alabama didn't do enough to really diversify their gameplay. Another game plan might have been diversified, but when the ball was snapped, I knew what Miller was doing every play. He was looking at Ryan Williams and he was looking down at his feet. And that was kind of what it was going to do. And so his efficiency went way down. It was this weird situation. Then last year, you know, Ty Simpson is like kind of the opposite where he wants to do things within scheme he wants to do. He wants guys that are in time, he wants guys that are not going to take risks and maybe drop the football. And Jeremy Bernard was like a perfect player for him. So it was like, you know, it's like it doesn't make Jeremy Bernard necessarily better than Ryan Williams. It makes him a much like we were talking about, a much better fat fit for the system. So in year one you have too high of expectations and year two, it's like you can't live up to those expectations because the offense is a little bit better, but it's not running through one 17 year old kid who's not really built like a Calvin Johnson like we talked about. So I think there's a lot of words to be said on him. But I think that at this point we're in, you know, kind of year three here. We're in year two of the Ryan Grubb experience, if you believe in that a little bit. And so I think it's kind of now or never. And this, this could be shaping up to be one of the only players that I'd say Alabama has kind of let down because if they can't figure him out in year three, it's clear that he has talent and it really hasn't been optimized in that way. So I think he's a super talented player. Can they figure him out this year?

Conor Guerra

Some of it's on him.

Will

Oh, I said that from the jump. He didn't handle it well. He made it about, oh, I'm the next to. It's like, brother, you're 17 and like 5 10. What are you doing?

Conor Guerra

Yeah, I mean, you got it. Hey, he's bringing 510. Catch football. Catch football above all else. Catch football. Worry about all that other stuff later, man. And I, I again, I would have been fascinated what the market would have told us about him and about his impact. And I think he still would have had a very wide and vast market. But you're in a situation now where you've got what I think is going to be an uberly talented quarterback and Keelan Russell. And if you are truly that guy, you have to look the part. It's no longer an excuse that you're too young. You got more reps than any of these cats and you can't be dropping footballs in key spots. You can't be having guys that come in and do things better than you, like one Lottie Brooks, a guy that we'll get to in a second here. And I do think that there are so many people that want to see Ryan Coleman Williams fail. Okay? That's just, that's just the, the cold, hard truth. And you can embrace that or you can let it overcome you. And I think to this point in his career, I think he's Done the latter a little bit more so that than ever, he's still been a productive player. He has just been a guy that too often in his career has been like the third option in a passing game. And for a guy that's as talented as he is, that should not happen. And so being able to, to get rid of that and be a true go to guy for an entire season, that's his task this year. So I knew, I know I'm gonna get pushed back on here for that. The ceiling is still immensely high. I knew I was gonna go high floor with my first guy and I was gonna try and go high ceiling with my round two guy. No. Or knowing that this was going to be, you know, a little bit all over the place. So that's. I guess it's a dart throw to take Ryan Coleman Williams with the fourth overall pick in this.

Will

Yeah. And I'd say that that's a good take on it, which is. It's been very feast or famine. Either he's been your number one option or he's kind of disappeared and maybe pouted a little bit. Right. And I think it's the same. It's. It's basketball advice I'd give a football player. Be good without the ball. Ball. Right. Be good at blocking. Be good at setting your guys up. Be effective in your second and third role. And then when you get the chance to shine, that's how you earn it. Right. You don't just get to walk on a campus and be that guy. So. Yeah, I think, I think that.

Conor Guerra

Would you have taken him? Would you have taken him with your next pick?

Will

Honestly, I was thinking about it, yeah. Okay.

Conor Guerra

That's what I. And that's, that's what pushed me to take him. Even though I think I'll probably get crushed in the comments for that. Whatever. We're after production here. All right, Your pick, your third pick. This is fifth overall.

Will

Okay. Third pick, fifth or fifth overall. We're already going with a little bit of upside here. I'm gonna go Mike Matthews from Tennessee.

Conor Guerra

Like that pick. Really? Like that pick?

Roddy Jones

Yeah.

Will

So low key. Tennessee's been stacking some guys in recruiting. This is a former five star guy who already, you know, has produced in the sec like we talked about. Tennessee is just reloading at the wide receiver position quietly under Josh Hypo for the last like four or five years. And this is a little bit of a pick of the offense plus the talent. I don't exactly say that. I've seen enough with Brazil eating all the targets and the attention that he had last year. But I, I think the Tennessee is going to have a guy who pops. I think it's going to be this guy and how awesome he looks doing it. We'll see, we'll see if he develops new NFL receiver. Some of the Tennessee guys have struggled to do that, but I think the stats are going to be there and that that's fundamentally why I'm making this pick. So I'm not going to say, hey, I'm this guy's biggest stand. I'm gonna say when the, when the chips fall and we look at the end of the year, he's probably going to be top 10 in the SEC when receiving.

Conor Guerra

I had a math on my board. He was probably going to get taken. I, well, I mentioned how rare it is for receivers to stay in the same place for, for three years and I think that goes double for a former five star guy like Matthews. And you know, he is entering year three what could be his pre draft season and it was a solid year too, albeit as kind of like the third option in that passing game, which is pretty crazy. I mean the third leading receiver in the Tennessee offense last year had 813 receiving yards, which is significant. When you remember that last year the discussion about the Tennessee passing game was they've developed their route tree. It's not the same as it once was with these wide splits that NFL people look at and they laugh at. And it's a lot more diverse and well, time will tell like kind of if how that translates to the next level as it relates to the college levels, maybe not quite as important, but it is significant in that they showed at least more versatility in those ways. And this is a guy who in year two had more receiving yards than fellow year two guys. Cam Coleman, Ryan Coleman Williams, guys who have already been drafted. And speaking of Ryan Coleman Williams, if there is a knock on, on Matthews, it's not even that he was like the third option in the passing game last year and maybe he'll end up being the second this year with a guy that I'm about to draft. He also had twice as many drops as contested catches. If we're being, if we're being honest, I do think that Tennessee's passing offense is very likely to regress. It might be if you're picking one thing in the SEC where you're like that's going to get worse this year, it's the Tennessee passing offense.

Will

And that speaks on obviously how good it was last year. And I feel like that was one thing that we were kind of both on, which is like, hey, we could say some negative stuff about Tennessee for sure, but this past the game is much better than we expected.

Conor Guerra

Yeah, I mean, Joey Aguilar was an adult in the room. He, he definitely was. Still though, like, you talk about hypo cranking out some of these guys. He's had seven guys that have hit 800 receiving yards, including Matthews last year. He and Braylon Staley are an exceptional one, two punch and it's the strength of this team coming back. And if you're kind of wondering like, yeah, I, I don't really know what this quarterback situation is going to look like, you do feel better at least knowing that the receiver position is not going to be an issue. You don't think it's going to be an issue? So I'll just go ahead and take my guy then. Here I'm gonna take Braylon Staley, the guy who last year SEC Freshman of the Year did not get talked about a lot. And remember how I said that the top seven in the SEC in receiving were former transfers? I didn't say top eight because Braylon Staley was eighth on that list. And he's coming off a red shirt freshman season in which he outproduced those guys. He out produced the Kim Coleman, Ryan, Coleman Williams and Ryan Wingo, by the way. Yet we didn't talk a lot about him being the SEC Freshman of the year because when you have a hollow eight win season, that's part of it. He was the, the second option on that team behind Chris Brazil who's obviously now off to the NFL. And yet you look up at the numbers and they were really, really good. I mean, second behind only Zachariah Branch in terms of receptions game. He did have six drops and only four contested catches. That's not great. But a slot receiver in the Josh Light Bull offense can feast. I mean, we've seen this time and time again before they did the changing of the routery and all that stuff. The only reason that he's not higher is the quarterback situation. Like I think he'd be maybe a top three pick if they had a returning starting quarterback or if Joey Aguilar had just been able to, to beat the system and get another year of eligibility. I had Tennessee fans kind of in my mentions with my quarterback rankings because I had George McIntyre and they all are like, hey Faison, Brandon, he's going to be the guy again, like tbd. If, if I'm wrong on that, that's totally Fine. I probably wouldn't have had a very different ranking anyway, so that's okay. But either way, it's an inexperienced quarterback with a very experienced group of receivers. So how that plays out, we'll see. Are we going to be blaming the quarterbacks? Are the receivers going to be bailing out the quarterbacks? I. I don't know. I. There's still going to be more run heavy, probably. But this is a really good group of whiteouts with Staley and Matthews. And I think it's pretty telling that we took those two before we took the Texas two. So something to keep in mind when we have these preseason discussions with Tennessee.

Will

This is. This is such a funny draft by you is. I feel like you're trolling me here. It's like, oh, yeah, you never got me. Tell you what, better guys on his team you're cooking. No, I mean. But I think that's honestly the best respect we could give Tennessee is saying, can't really tell which one of these guys are gonna pop, but it's certainly going to be one of them. We don't really know what the quarterbacks

Conor Guerra

are going to be.

Will

Yeah, no, exactly. And. And I think that's the thing, too. And that's why I make the point about last year's quarterback situation coming off of Nico, where it's just like we. We could just skip parts of this offense. This is just brutal to watch. Even though you had the big wins, you know, Tennessee was such a good, underrated, the weird team last year because again, like, we really trusted their defense and that fell apart. Their offense was a little bit of a question mark. And you can kind of draw a through line and say, oh, you know, was hypo. Kind of a quarterback merchant with hidden hooker. And then you look back now and it's like, no, it just feels like Nico was the problem. Right. Because they still had some great receivers, they still had a good run game. And so now looking back, I think that's if you were. This is kind of my whole point about Tennessee. If you look back to before the hyper and you're just like. This feels like about the third time in a row where we're just like, yeah, they'll probably figure it out. We're not really sure how it feels like that's not even true. It's. It's back to being true at Georgia, but I don't know, another SEC situation where we're just going, I don't even really care who they line up.

Conor Guerra

It's gonna work, I guarantee you A big part of the pitch for those quarterbacks that they pursued in the transfer portal. Or Ty Simpson, the guy who wasn't in the transfer portal technically, but like Sam Levitt and Ty Simpson, I guarantee you, at some point they sat down and just said, hey, watch highlights of Mike Matthews. Watch highlights of Braylon Staley. You'll get to throw to them. You'll look really, really good. This offense had the number six passing attack in college football last year, even though it was kind of a massive question mark coming into the year. And there is something to be said for that. We will see how it plays out. This is the part of the draft where it's really. I think we're going to be all over the place. Like, I, I, I have my top five are off the board here and it's kind of, it's, I mean, it's already based on like, after pretty much the first, the first three picks of this draft. But who do you have with your fourth pick? And this is seventh overall.

Will

I could not have anticipated that. You just didn't like Wingo this much. I feel like at this point I have to take Winko. It's funny because I thought, like I said he was gonna go at least to the top four. We were gonna split them. And he didn't take him. He kind of did. I was like, like, okay, if this dude gets wiggle, like at the end of this draft, he's gonna cook me. I have to go back and take him. And I like Wigo. Like, it sounds like we're both anti. We're really not. He was one of the most dynamic. I don't know. I'd say with the ball, probably top three most dynamic receivers in the sec.

Conor Guerra

Up there. Up there.

Will

And you hate this guy.

Conor Guerra

I don't know. I had him 10th on my board. I had it.

Will

Yeah.

Conor Guerra

And I'll probably. I'm def. I'll be lower than consensus on Ryan Wingo. Even though I think I saw maybe his best. I, I think I saw his best overall play in person. The catch that he made against Florida.

Will

Yeah.

Conor Guerra

With the route running and the tracking and the throw that Arch made to him was like anything that you said positively about Arch in this new look offense. It was confirmed on that one play.

Will

And.

Conor Guerra

But I have my reservations, but I don't, I don't want to, I don't want to dunk on this because I do like the player. But, but go ahead.

Will

With your case form, I would say he was one of the most electric players in the sec.

Conor Guerra

With the ball.

Will

I think he was a guy who got the Texas offense going when it got stuck in the mud. I think there is a safety blanket element here and ultimately what it is is, you know, it's funny that I'm getting cast as this guy because I'm generally such a hater, but I think Arch Manning is really ready this year and I think that he could support look again. If the Tennessee offense can support the three top 11 guys, I certainly think the Texas passing game can get two about top 10 guys. I think that's what we're looking at here. I think these are two receivers that compliment each other tremendously well. I think that it truly could be a one, one, a situation where Wingo is the type of guy that makes you that kind of sucks the defenders in to go, hey, he's going to do some fun stuff in the backfield. You got to always watch for the screen. You always got to watch that he can take a slant and go with it. And then actually taking the top off of the defense might be a little bit more Coleman where it goes, hey, we got to man him up downfield for those contested catches. And so I think these guys assuming March, March, assuming Arch, you know, stays upright and and and progresses because even by the end of the year, I feel like the offense was starting to click a little bit more. And if they can just kind of copy paste that and say, hey, we're still with Sark, we get this extra offseason, we're adding a plug and play receiver. Like I said. I, I just think that the versatility here, you know, maybe he's not great at anything outside of his speed, but he, he was been so trusted last year, to your point about the target share that he's gonna get his spots here and I think he's gonna cook with him.

Conor Guerra

A lot was put on him last year and I just don't think he was quite ready. I, I think it played out. And this was a guy who was asked to be wide receiver one for the preseason number one team in college football. It's a lot as a second year guy. And yeah, you could say, well, you know, if you watch camp like this guy was gonna always gonna be. No Ryan Winkle was that dude preseason all sec.

Will

Okay.

Conor Guerra

And that's. That wasn't just some media narrative. And you wonder how it's going to look now with he and Cam Coleman. And you could definitely make the case. Cam Coleman's gonna suck up so much of that attention. Ryan Winkle should benefit from that maybe this is the, the one. A role that he's, that he's meant to be in. Like this, this. He's more of like a compliment as, as opposed to like a true alpha number one wide receiver. And that could be to Texas's benefit. The, the reason that I struggle with him a little bit, the drops were alarming. You know, he had the 94 targets, which was great. Obviously Arch did not lose faith in him. Didn't just be like, yeah, I'm ghosting you. I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna feed other dudes in this offense. Seven drops on 94 targets only. The one game of 100 yards, albeit in the furious comeback that they had against Mississippi State, which kept Texas's playoff hopes alive. So that was good. But, you know, for a guy that was deemed kind of disappointing last year, the numbers were still pretty good. I mean, 68 catches for 834 yards and maybe I, I haven't given that enough credit to do that as like a second year guy who plays primarily on the outside in the sec. So you're right. Like, maybe I'm too low on Ryan Wingo and I'm perhaps too high on Cam Coleman and they could be a lot closer. Maybe I shouldn't have had that much separation to have Kim Coleman at 2 and Ryan Winkle at 10 on my board. I, I would like to see the drops go away and I would like to see them have a true, like, hey, it's third and six. Ryan Wingo can go do this for you and you could just trust him to do that. That's what we need to see from him this year. And we did not see that enough last year. And it's like, it's not entirely to blame for why Texas was just kind of a tough watch offensively at points, but I think it was definitely part of it.

Will

The swing pass against Vandy, I think was special, and he ended up getting injured a little bit on that play too. That's why you go look up a big shirt. It was like that two guys. No, like, I, I think that we talk about this third and six. I think we just detailed it, right? It's like, okay, Cam Coleman can either hit you with like a slant or a post to spread out the defense, and then you got to go stop this guy one on one in space on like a screen swing pass, something like that. And I think, like I said, get the ball in his hands and see what happens. And without the entire defense focused on a player like that, I think it changes. So I'm excited about him this year.

Conor Guerra

Year. And you're right. If they improve the ground game and if Arch improves his accuracy on those 0 to 9 yard throws which are a staple of the Sarco offense, Ryan Wingo stands to benefit from that. Probably stands to benefit from that even more than Cam Coleman. So look, he was probably going to come off the board. I figured I wasn't going to get him. I did not expect that you would end up with both Texas guys. You're right.

Will

I thought we just kept sticking me with him. I love that Strat. Yeah.

Conor Guerra

Look, it worked. Maybe it didn't work. Like, okay, I can go in a lot of different ways. You know what? I gotta go with my Albane the drum guy. Give me Isaiah Canyon. And this is, this is so stupid. But this is, this is the way that our brains work sometimes as college football fans. The only reason I didn't have him as like top five on my board or top four because I think the talent is really good. George's lone thousand yard receiver is still just Terence Edwards. And they haven't had a first team all SEC receiver since AJ Green 2009. And that history is just always in the back of my mind of like, like, don't hype it up just because it's Georgia. Like the way that this offense has typically worked, there's probably a lower ceiling than what we are. We are what we're usually talking about here for these Georgia receivers. Okay.

Will

College football is such a hilarious sport because you look at Tennessee, like I said, they got three top 11 guys. It's like, yeah, their third receiver could almost get a thousand yards. But they're Tennessee and they win eight games. You look over at Georgia, it's right. Yeah, you got, you're kind of vetting positions. You got like dudes branch playing like an H Vac and you got dudes doing stuff, but they're kind of smoking everybody.

Conor Guerra

It's.

Will

What a funny sport, man. Yeah.

Conor Guerra

Like your best receiver catches like all his passes at the line of scrimmage.

Will

Sure. Yeah.

Conor Guerra

Just all these screens and stuff like that. That's, that's kind of your go to in the passing game. And it advanced a little bit, but there's going to be opportunity there. And, and that's a big part of why I'm high on Canyon. And I, I truly think they pursued him and said, you're going to be our go to guy. And I, I think he and Gunner Stockton can develop a really nice rapport. I think they complement and this is the huge if, if Gunner Stockton is willing to attack downfield, more huge if of the Georgia offense this year. Mike Bobo's play calling, all those different things. It's very well documented last year.

Will

I think we're going to see, especially to start the year, him ripping it.

Conor Guerra

I, I think so too. I, I think we were starting to see signs of that in November and then you're right. I, I think some of, some of the injury stuff maybe, maybe played a part in that. But this is someone who can catch passes all over the place. Only had two drops on 56 career targets at Georgia Tech, which we know the Haynes King version of that offense was probably not going to necessarily Yield like a 1300 yard receiver or something like that or anything crazy. But I think Canyon shows up with just the right mindset and he's going to be exactly what they need at that position with what is very much a transition year at wide receiver. They're really relying on a lot of those young guys. C.J. wiley, Taylor. Taylor, who by the way went to Geneva High School. My cousin, fellow Geneva High School receiver, former Geneva High School receiver, albeit a couple decades ago. But I love me some Isaiah Canyon. I really, really do love the ball tracking skills. The spatial awareness that he has I think is like really NFL level. And even if he's not a thousand yard guy, I think he could play in 14 games, double digit touchdowns and is one of the five best returning quarterbacks in college football. Like his favorite target. So I like the value there. I like getting Canyon this late in the draft.

Will

Draft, yeah. I mean this is really putting your money where your mouth is as an analyst because there's kind of like the cute stories. It's like oh, I like this guy. But to really say like no, this guy is going to do something at Georgia, I think, I think it's a big deal and I mean I'm, I'm there with you. My interest is peaked. I think that ultimately, you know, it's, it's, it's hard because we can kind of go back and forth on Bobo, but I feel like last year was actually a very good year for him as a play caller. And I think that they were kind of missing that guy. And Georgia historically kind of has been even under Curry, even during this run. It's like they've been able to develop great wide receivers like you. You had some of the guys kind of in the slot here and there, but it was more about the tight ends. It was more about kind of the trickeration. I Think this is a chance to develop something they, they haven't had and to really change fundamentally how the Georgia offense looks. And it's coming right at the perfect time. You know, with, with the passing game progressing, with the O line kind of getting set. I could see this one, man. I, I, I'm, I'm picking up what you're putting down.

Conor Guerra

Lad, McConkey, Brock Bowers, George Pickens. Not thousand yard receivers. That's the thing.

Will

People are going to push back on like oh, they cocky. Oh, they had George Pickens. Yeah. Again, they're kind of like LSLU in the 2010s. Those guys get to the NFL, it's like, oh my God, where were these guys? Lad was the kind of that inside out player. Pickens kind of couldn't keep it all on the field. Right.

Conor Guerra

That hurt his pre draft season too. And that, that definitely derailed some of it. But yeah, I mean that, that's the thing. It's like you just for whatever reason that's just always going to loom until it doesn't and until all of a sudden that just starts to change. But I think that probably will limit his ceiling overall. But that's okay. So, all right. This is your final pick of this draft. I'm amazed that you haven't taken an LSU guy yet. I thought there was going to be at least one that you were going to take. Are you going in that direction or are you going elsewhere? And you're not going to end up with a single else.

Will

You guys guy not getting up, an LSU guy. I don't know who's gonna get hot. I mean we're talking about Lane Kiffin with like a billion transfer. We could get a guy, get his random dude from Syracuse who got kicked off the team, be a number one receiver. I don't know what I think I know or what I think. Just to our friend, the big Chungus over at Mississippi State, I'm gonna take Anthony Evans iii. This is another guy who again, quietly, quietly. That's why I love that we're doing this statistically and not based on hype. And again, back to the canyon thing, same deal. It's like, no, we're putting our money where our mouth is with stats. This is a guy who was, you know, part of a pair of very, very good receivers last year. We could say a lot of negative things about Mississippi State and we, we did. But their passing game, statistically, you know, we could talk about the big moments, we could talk about the inner games. All different stuff. Stats don't Care about your feelings. And when you get to the end of the year, the Mississippi State passing game that, that I think developed, I think they do have their quarterback of the future. I think that you can say, oh, they're going to be a little bit more dual threat now. They're not going to be as, as true error focused. But I think that, you know, losing the big wide receiver from last year, Brendan Thompson, and saying, hey, this could be kind of the, the Milro situation where it's a one read and go in an offense that's proven that they can develop passers and move the football. I think that this is a safety pick, but I think it's one that I'm going to feel great about at the end of the year here.

Conor Guerra

Had 300 yard game. This is what I wanted to look up. He had 300 yard games against power conference competition. Like I just talked about how Ryan Wingo had the lone 100 yard game, ironically enough against Mississippi State. But it's going to probably be overlooked the loss of Brennan Thompson. But if you have that dude in Camario Taylor, a guy that I'm like, I was telling, I've been telling, trying to say this throughout the off season and if I've been allowed to take quarterbacks on my, my own self enforced, I'll be in the drum team. You know, I would have taken Camaro Taylor if Camaro I actually ripped him

Will

off of my board for that reason. Guys started to be like, I'm gonna take him anyway. I was like, I don't want to do that to you if you liked him too, because I'm right there with you. I think he's gonna be really good this year.

Conor Guerra

Yeah, like former Georgia transfer who I, I think if we see the best version of Kamari Taylor, Anthony Evans is going to be a great player. Like I, I really think that's going to be the case. And in this offense, this offense should be clicking now like this. This should not have late game miscues in the way that they did last year. And I realize we're just talking about production so it's not as much like oh when are you making these plays? But they, they needed Evans to be as good as he was against Arizona State. For Brendan Thompson's heroics to matter like that, that was really important. And for Jeff Lebby to get this rebuild right, you were gonna have to hit it with those skill players in the portal. And so far that looks like a hit and that's a really good thing that's working in Your favor. This is a, this is a good way to finish out your draft. And I'm actually kind of jealous that you went in this direction because I was not going to take him and I was. And I'm debating like a lot of different things right now as I'm talking this out and just stalling for time. This is really all I'm doing.

Will

Gosh, that's a good pick.

Conor Guerra

Dang.

Will

You know,

Conor Guerra

I could. Let me. You know what?

Will

I'm.

Conor Guerra

I'm doing it. I'm gonna feel dumb if I don't take this guy and he wasn't as high on my board. I'm taking Lottie Brooks. I don't care if that makes me look like a Bama homer. I, I don't realize. I realize that's not really a thing I've been accused of in the past except when I call out Auburn as the dirt of the decade. But Lottie Brooks is so freaking good, man. And I think last year this Bama team had so many questions at different points of the season. Most notably when they dig themselves that hole in Norman and going how in the world is Bama gonna dig itself out of this hole and look no further than one Lottie Brooks without him, they don't win that game. I mean period. They do not win that game. He was masterful as a 5 9, true freshman to do the things that he did on that stage in a visiting stadium in that weather. Like I, I feel like I might even be too low on him to get him with the last pick of this draft. Like he could be the wide receiver one for the breakout star of college football and Keelan Russell. I love the ball tracking skills are already there like, like in the production last like kind of month of the, the regular season tailed off a bit. And so if you just look at, you know, the overall numbers here, you're not going to necessarily be like, ah, yeah, that's, that's really a guy that feels like he needs to be taken. But you just watch the way that he plays the game and you understand that the dynamics there and you go, that's, that's impressive because last year Bama's plan was Ryan Coleman Williams, then Ryan Williams, he's going to be our slot guy. We're getting these favorable matchups. We're going to make things easier on him. We made things a little bit too tough on him. We put too much on his plate as a 17 year old freshman and we thought he could handle it. Turns out he couldn't. We're going to put him in the slot. We're going to let his new quarterback know kind of at the line of scrimmage when he's got a mismatch, and we're going to hope that we can be able to capitalize in this, in this sort of way. And then Ryan Coleman Williams gets hurt, and then Lottie Brooks steps in and plays the slot better than he did. And so they're like, well, we can't take that guy off the field. We got to find a way to make this work. They try and use Ryan Coleman Williams a little bit more interchangeably and move them all over the formation, but they're like, Brooks needs to be on that football field. He just does. And look, maybe some of this is too heavily weighted on that Oklahoma game, and maybe I'm looking too far into it, the heroics that he showed. But I. I'm. I'm all in on him this year, and I guess I'm all in on the Bama passing attack by taking two Bama guys with my five picks here, with 40 of my draft going to Bama guys. Didn't think I'd go in that direction, but. But, man, if Lottie Brooks leads the SEC in receiving, I'm not going to be surprised. I think he's. He's got that. That type of potential.

Will

I'm gonna go in, right? I'm gonna be surprised by that. Okay, that's fine.

Roddy Jones

I.

Will

Okay. I think he's a good player. Are you sure that he is the guy if Ryan Coleman Williams struggles?

Conor Guerra

Yeah, because I think if. If you're just trying to. To line them up and find out where. Where is this guy going to play? Let's remember that they asked Jeremy Bernard to do a lot, and one of those things was. Was playing the slot and do different things. So there's. There's a lot more opportunity available in that way. And. And I think that they could figure. Figure out a role for Ryan Coleman Williams if he's struggling with what he's doing. I think they want to have Lottie Brooks as the slot guy. Whether they come out and say, hey, he's gonna play every single snap in the slot or not. I. I think that's what they want to do. Like, I. I think they know it. Did you see last year, too, the story like, that Ryan Grubb shared after the Oklahoma game of, like, Herbtree came up to him in the bathroom and was like, that's the dude. Like that. That's your guy. And I'm.

Will

That's the Most believable Ruby story ever. That's how he's been tweeting about the World cup, too. Just walk up to you, hey, play that guy more.

Conor Guerra

Yeah. Herbie will fire off a take like that even, you know, taps you on the shoulder as you're at the urinal. Like, hey, your cat out there, he's pretty darn good, man. You should give him the rock a little bit more. I think with more opportunity and with him more established going into this year. Let's remember, like, probably spent all of last season with the Twos and then seized his opportunity. Always, always beware of those guys that climb up the depth charts so soon and then they get that opportunity. They're like, I'm not giving this up again. I need to be out there. I need to be out there on that field. So love me some Lottie Brooks there.

Will

There's a couple of guys who transferred from NC State. No Rogers. I think that, like, ultimately, okay, I think where that Oklahoma game happened matters, you know, because I. I will say that statistically it is kind of that game and every other game, you know,

Conor Guerra

in two different categories against a really good defense and a really good Brent Venables attack. That is totally befuddled. Bama to that. That point. And that secondary is loaded like, he was not doing that against Scrubs by any stretch of the imagination.

Will

100. So, like, I would say that, like, it, It. It does have more weight going into camp going into the next season. Talking about, okay, how are we going to reach you rebuild this passing game. We, again, didn't do awesome last year. Like, it was solid. It was better. But, yeah, I think having that type of momentum going into the camp definitely matters. I'm just, like I said, I'm with you. I'm interested. I was like, try it all day to not take two Texas guys, end up with two Bama guys. Of course Bama is going to become the death star and win 15 games this year. And then you're gonna have two, like, all SEC guys, like, great. This always happens to be. So I think that at this point, I was a little bit too high on them last year, maybe. But we just got to know with this Alabama offense, they still have not put together what they were hired to be, you know, ultimately. And it could be the run game, it could be the pass game. Run game wasn't exactly this big staple at Washington. Right. But so ultimately, it's like, this is your preview year if you're Alabama and you want us to really, like, take you seriously. And come through every time before. I know a lot of that was under Nick Saban, but they don't make a lot of mistakes out there in Tuscaloosa.

Conor Guerra

Yeah. And let's remember too, this is classmate. Those guys come up together sometimes. Sometimes that that magic is just there. And I'm very. And again, I've talked about Keelan Russell like he already has the starting job, has not officially been named the starter at Alabama. Even if it's Austin Mack. I'm kind of looking at this going like I think he's really trustworthy and he's capable of looking like that wide receiver one in a given week. Okay.

Will

So you got to pray on Ryan Coleman. Ryan Coleman Williams downfall just a little bit like.

Conor Guerra

No, no.

Will

He has a drop or two in the first days. Here's why.

Conor Guerra

2023 Washington will come on.

Will

Of course.

Conor Guerra

That passing attack. Look at that passing attack. McMillan Dunesay, bears legend Bernard Polk. You had four dudes in that offense. No, you're right.

Will

Like, you're right.

Conor Guerra

Just saying. Love Rome. Still love Rome. Friend of the show.

Will

All right.

Conor Guerra

We left out a lot of guys that people probably say this guy's going to be the best. And how did you forget he's gonna lead the SEC and receiving. I maybe very well could. Okay, we didn't take an LSU guy. If I did not take Lottie Brooks there, I was going to take Jace Brown, the Kansas State transfer who I think is set up really, really well to be the leading receiver in this offense. But that's a dart throw that you avoided link given receivers because of how much of a dart throw it feels like, right?

Will

Yeah, it's like the Kaden Lee thing last year. It's like, yeah, he's gonna get the guy open. It's never the guy we think it's. It's going to be ever in any situation with Lane Kiffet.

Conor Guerra

Yeah. Like I went back and looked at this because I was trying to figure out is. Is that just in my head or is it. No, it's. It's real. Trey Harris in 2024 was. Was a safe bet to be the lead receiver. Elijah Moore, you can make that case going into 2020, but it was still the first year with Lane Kiff and you didn't know how he was going to fit into the offense. But he's had a new leading receiver in the sec. You know, like every year here. Here's something of note that that kind of reflects that if we include 6 years old miss and the 3 years as an offense Coordinator at Bama. So I guess we're leaving out Tennessee. Whatever. Lane. Having a top five receiver in the SEC in terms of receiving yards has happened seven times in nine seasons. All different guys, with the exception of Trey Harris repeating. So Jace Brown, like, stepping up and being that guy. That would make a lot of sense. Touchdown volume is going to be a little bit tough to predict outside of like trade as Green being the ultimate cheat code for that LSU offense. But I also think they're going to be able to run the football better in the red zone too. Will. Will said something on mute about Trey, about trade as Green. That made me think. He didn't want anybody to hear it.

Will

Sorry. No, my mic died a little bit.

Conor Guerra

Yeah.

Will

I said if I could have drafted trade as Green, I would have taken

Conor Guerra

that bet and I would have vetoed that in a heartbeat. Because if we're doing a tight end draft, he's won.

Will

Right? Exactly.

Conor Guerra

Yeah. No, we can't do that. And that's. And maybe that's part of it. Maybe that's part of why we didn't draft, you know, an LSU wide receiver. But like, what do they have? They had five guys on the Ole Miss passing attack last year that had at least 600 receiving arts, one of them being Kaden Lee. So how do you. You can't figure out who Wide Receiver 1 is in a given week. And that's kind of the way that they, they design it. So yeah, that's, that's why I didn't ultimately go with him and why I didn't pull the trigger on him.

Will

But conversely, I did take Harlem Berry in like the Heisman Flyer draft because ultimately, like, that's kind of the given thing is he picks one running back. It's a lot easier for me to choose between one of two running backs is one of the five. Five receivers.

Conor Guerra

Yeah. Eric Singleton is a guy that Roddy Jones is going to talk about in a minute here. And we'll all ask this. If we're giving Cam Coleman a pass for playing in the Auburn offense, shouldn't we kind of do the same with Singleton? You know, maybe a little bit. Yeah. Preseason all SEC guy last year as well. Remember how we made note of that? Auburn's got two preseason all SEC wide receivers. Think it'll turn out that way. Maybe not, but he gets the do over with Buster Faulkner. Maybe it's kind of an Aaron Philo reunion. Kind of not probably limited reps together. They did have the NC State moments together. But here's a stat for you about Eric Singleton. That gave me some pause. Among the top 50 in receiving yards in the SEC last year, there was one guy who did not average 10 yards per catch. Can you guess who it was?

Will

Oh, gosh. Was it Branch?

Conor Guerra

No, no. 10.01 for Zechariah branch?

Roddy Jones

No.

Will

Who was it?

Conor Guerra

Yeah, it was Eric. Yeah. His average depth of target two years at Georgia Tech was 13 yards in the Buster Faulkner offense. And then an Auburn with Hugh Freeze. It gets cut in half because you have bad scheme and bad quarterback play. And Zachariah Branch and Malkai Tony can have very shallow average depth of target because that's kind of when they're at their best. And Singleton's just not that type of player. He's not supposed to be used like that. But maybe with Buster Faulkner, this is going to be a great union reunion. And with an inexperienced quarterback, they're like, Eric Singleton's awesome to throw the football to and he could be a thousand yard guy and I don't think anybody would be stunned. There is some depth in that receiver room with what they're able to retain at Florida, of course, so probably should be part of that. So I wanted to include him. Donovan Alugbide, the guy that we brought up for the all being the drum team from zoo. I know we talked about the Kaden Lee Austin Simmons reunion connection, whatever that happening still at Mizzou. But Alub Day has the higher ceiling and not just because his unofficial name is now oh look of free play. More contested catches than freshman George Pickens. Or saying George Pickens as a true freshman. Well, well, Cam Coleman is saying George Pickens.

Will

I see. Okay. I was about to say I don't know if that exists. That's like dry water.

Conor Guerra

Yeah, exactly. But yeah, I mean I, I love a lug Biden and think that he like he is a really good contested catch guy for a guy that I think is going to be attempting a lot of contested catch throws in Austin Simmons based on his turnover prone ways. So I think he complements Caden Lee really well. And then other guys we can just kind of rip through here. Jackson Harris, if we want to talk. Another LSU guy comes from the run and shoot at Hawaii, which is electric. He could be really fun. Deuce Alexander at ole miss, my QB1 and all of college football. Trinidad Chambliss, who's going to be his leading receiver? I don't know, maybe Deuce Alexander, maybe that would make sense. But the way that he distributes, I don't think I would put a whole lot of A whole lot of faith in that. That could be game to game. And then Charl Harris Alban, the drum team member at Oklahoma, junior Cheryl is going to be talked about very little in this off season because it's a post Diego Pavia world but like had a lot more production than people realized last year. Parker Livingston in Oklahoma and then Kaden Lee. So I have 18 guys, 19 guys. I think I had 19 guys here that I went through. And you could make a case for all of them, I think to be taken in this draft. I don't think there is that much separation. So I know that there are teams that like we forgot some of their guys or we didn't include some of their guys. Like we didn't have an Arkansas guy here. We didn't have have a Kentucky guy. Like there's no like Will Stein offense guy. And we could be having that conversation by season's end. But that's the way that I looked at this. Any thoughts on those guys or anybody else that I failed to bring up here?

Will

We're gonna end up with like the Joe Sloan revenge here and I like the number one receiver in the sec.

Conor Guerra

That'd be funny.

Will

Heck yeah. I can see it with Wilstein. No, dude, I'm right there. I think we hit the talent X scheme guys, you know, they're gonna again, they're gonna be guys we don't expect. They're going to be guys that we haven't even heard their names. It could be freshman or transfers that we don about. But I think the safe bets are mostly, mostly off the board.

Conor Guerra

So let's recap this. And again, this is based on, this is based on production we will do. It's a hundred yards per receiving touchdown and then just a point for receiving yard. So that's, that should be very easy to figure out at season's end. Will you ended up with Mario Kraber, Cam Coleman, Mike Matthews, Ryan Wingo, Anthony Evans iii and then Anthony Evans is second. The second, right? Yeah, there's three. Oh yeah, there's three of them.

Will

My bad.

Conor Guerra

I forgot about the second. That's my fault.

Will

If you're like in valid draft, bro, you drafted my bad, my bad.

Conor Guerra

And then I went with Isaiah Satania Ryan, Coleman Williams, Braylon Staley, Isaiah Canyon, Lottie Brooks. I think you would win the popular vote in a landslide. I really do. We'll see. I don't, I, I, I knew I was going to feel strongly like, oh my God, I just cooked on this because if you feel like you cook in this draft, you're probably set up for failure.

Will

So literally, I have been once again probably cast as a Texas homer. He's choosing Texas once again. But I mean, hey, that, that when the value is there, you take it. I think that football in the state of Texas with a M. UT I think Oklahoma coming over too, like, kind of in that region. They're all poised for like some really, really fun offenses, man. I mean, that. That was kind of the first part of our draft was those teams.

Conor Guerra

I don't mean to speak in absolutes too much here. Choosing Texas has been stuck in my head more when head hits pillow than I think any country song in recent memory.

Will

Today.

Conor Guerra

I really like it. It's. It's a banger. Like, you know, it's. Here's. All right. Confession. I have a return of the Mac station on. On Pandora. Yeah, Spotify, Pandora, whatever. We mix it up and I'll turn it on when I'm trying to do a mile. And I just want like, I'm like, I need two bangers. I need two bangers to get me through this. And I'll be. And I'll be fine. Sick brag. And choosing Texas came up on that. Like, that's when you know you've kind of crossed over some genre is that you're getting. You're ending up on that station that probably a lot of people like that song. I think it set the. The record for like number one on. On like Billboard country charts for like 11 consecutive weeks or something like that. It is a banger. Certified.

Will

All right. Well found away. Yeah. But yeah, I think this is one of our stronger drafts. I didn't draft anyone who plays at Middle Tennessee State, so I'm really proud of myself. And I think that. I think that overall, like, I don't think there's any embarrassment week. Everybody stays healthy and doesn't like, have any crises off the field. I think all these guys are like at least top 20 guys. Like, if they're playing, they're producing.

Conor Guerra

Yeah. And surely we will look back on this in a few months and go, we are idiots. We are absolute idiots. That's the way this always works. All right, let's kick it to Roddy Jones. We discuss his bold Arch Manning take. I say that tongue in cheek from a few months ago. Some ACC storylines and stories of being a two sport guy at Georgia Tech. So here is Roddy Jones. I'm not excited to be joined by

Will

a very special guest.

Conor Guerra

It is ESPN and SiriusXM's Roddy Jones. The pride of Stone Mountain, Georgia. Roddy, it's, it's been fun getting to go on with you and Chick on, on Thursday. On, on. Serious. I pride myself on being an off season innings eater when it comes to, you know, all things college football content, especially this year. That included last week discussing my SEC quarterback rankings. When you saw that I only had arch at 3, how I rate, were you.

Roddy Jones

I was not irate at all, to be honest with you. I just wanted the explanation. Like, honestly, with, with any list that someone puts together, if there's logic behind it, I got no problem with it. I may disagree, but I got no problem with it. The fact that you had Trinidad 1 and Gunner 2, it didn't really bother me because over the balance of the season, those guys were better than architecture. Now I had the Cheese it bowl where Arch went off with like a bunch of ragtag, you know, misfit toys against, against Michigan. He had the long run. He had an incredible touchdown pass over in the corner. He was great, especially down the stretch of that game. So I am biased by that. I saw it live and in person. But I, I had no problem with you having arch at 3. I thought the logic behind it was, was sound.

Conor Guerra

So that's the full context of this. You had that game and you said during that game, I. On the call, I think it was after one of the long, the long touchdown run he had that he's going to be the Heisman Trophy favorite, which at the time, I'm sure you got a lot of pushback and people are like, all right, we're doing this again. And then you see the way that it plays out. He's just behind C.J. carr in the, the early Heisman Trophy odds. A lot of people will still roll their eyes at that, but, you know, your take was pretty spot on, which at the time it might have felt really bold. How much did you hear from people after that? Because I saw the awful announcing article

Roddy Jones

as well, a little bit. You know, honestly, dude, there's a lot, there's a lot of noise after every game, and particularly when you have two brands, there's a lot of noise on your social medias because whoever's losing at the time absolutely hates you. So. So yeah, it was just kind of a part of the noise. And to be honest, man, you know, I felt like it was a bold statement, but I didn't feel like I was going out on a limb too much. The biggest name in the sport and he was coming off of a season where they were, were obviously they just Missed out on the playoff, but he finished really strong. And I thought he got better at a lot of the things he was criticized for. Early in the year. I thought he started playing more free and, and honestly, he is an emotional player. Like he, when, when he is in the game with his legs, when he is showing his, his emotions outwardly, it rallies his teammates. He is much different than everyone else that we've seen with the last name in that regard. And so he started to play like that more late down the season. And so, yeah, I, I definitely heard some. To be honest, man, the people that you hear from usually don't watch as much or, or have the context that you do, but it was, it was definitely a fun game to do. And we actually did Arch's first game, the first game that he appeared in a couple years ago when Quinn had the oblique against, against Texas, San Antonio, utsa. And so, so I feel like when we're in the building, Archer does really well. But so maybe that, maybe that, that also sort of, you know, colors my view of, of what he'll be going into this year.

Conor Guerra

I was gonna say maybe Sark sent you a text afterwards being like, man, look, we're trying to calm the hype here. We're not trying to get Arch all, you know, all riled up in the same way. Yeah.

Roddy Jones

And then they go and they sign Cam Coleman and then. Oh, calm down, calm down a little bit with the hype. Yeah, man, he did not. But I don't even know if you heard it, man. There's so much stuff, stuff around Arch that it probably just again, was part of the noise.

Conor Guerra

That's fair. I was thinking about ACC quarterbacks because it's in one sense kind of a changing of the guard with Haynes, King, Kate Clubnik, Tommy Castellanos, kind of these, these stalwarts of the acc, they're gone. And obviously you still got someone like Darian Mensa, albeit with a new team, a new ACC team. You've got the ageless Kevin Jennings, who is going to be an all time. Oh my God, how is he still in school? And people turn on their TVs this fall and then JKS Cal, if I give you a non Mensa ACC quarterback, and that's a key distinction there because Malachi, Tony is the obvious answer. If it's, you know, a non ACC player, non acc, like Mensa guy, if I give you one of those, and maybe it's not even in that group of someone who can make it to New York, who would you pick? Pace Checkout is offered by your banks and credit unions. So when you shop online at participating merchants, your cards appear in one place place ready to use and kept up to date. And the best part, your actual card

Will

number isn't shared when you check out

Conor Guerra

because boundaries are healthy.

Will

Like no work emails after 6.

Conor Guerra

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Will

It checks out. Activation required.

Conor Guerra

See pays.com to learn more. Terms and conditions apply.

Roddy Jones

Oh, I would, I would go with if, if we're going quarterbacks is probably Kevin Jennings. If we're going non quarterback. It the, the obvious is Malachi Tony. But I would, you know, I would say Justice Haynes probably feels a little rich out of Georgia Tech, but I mean I think he's poised to have a really good season. He obviously was having a really great year last year. I think he was, you know, in, in the conversation to be the second best back in the country behind only Jeremiah Love until for about the first half of the season, maybe a little more in Georgia Tech. While they're retooling in a lot of areas, particularly on the offensive line, I think they are gearing this, this offense towards running the ball with he and Malachi Hosley. The, the question for those two is how are they going to split the carries. But I do think that, that I do think they'll have a good season. The question is, is Georgia Tech going to win enough for like a Heisman campaign? And that's the other thing. Oh I, I forgot this guy. And, and this is actually, this would be my answer. It'd be Isaac Brown out of Louisville that that would be the guy because I mean he has been fantastic his entire career was awesome as a freshman, was really banged up as a sophomore, showed flashes when he was healthy. He is a home run hitter for everywhere on the field and I do think Louisville can win enough where his stats will, will, will matter. And they will have some, they will have some big stages. I mean starting with Ole Miss week one. They've got SMU Week three. I've got the schedule here in front of me and they've got some showdowns. They got Florida State a little bit later on. They'll play obviously Kentucky at the end of the year, but they've got some big name games that I think if he puts up big numbers in then he will certainly take the national landscape by storm and people will start to fall in love with just as he is. He is absolutely dynamic. So. So yeah, that would be the one.

Conor Guerra

Yeah, it's, it's interesting because the acc, it feels like it's Miami and everybody else, it's Mensa and everybody else when it comes to quarterbacks. And it, it almost feels like 2010s clemsonish with how they're being discussed. And obviously if it plays out that way, you know, then we can have different conversations. But do you, would you take the field right now like to, to win the ACC over, over Miami? Like, is it boring to just default to that and go, well, Miami's got Mensa and they've got Tony and Mark Fletcher coming back. They kind of reload on the defensive line. Like, would you go that route or would you say, you know what? But when we think that this is going to happen, we think this is imminent, usually we're wrong.

Roddy Jones

I would take Miami knowing that the second part of your, of your, of your statement is absolutely true. Like Miami still has not won the league. It's since they've been in the acc. They did not win the league last year. Duke did. And they were the most talented Tina year team a year ago. So while, while knowing all of that, I would still take Miami because of the talent. But if it were to go wrong for Miami, number one, this is a program that has had its stumbles over the course of, of Mario Cristobal's time there. And even though they, they had that run to the national championship game last year, two years ago with Cam Ward, they go into Syracuse with an opportunity to play for an ACC championship. They blow a 21 point lead and they end up on the outside looking in. They should have made the playoff that year if they just take care of business up, up in Central New York. Last year, obviously you had the, the SMU game, you had the Louisville game. Those were two games that Louisville was, was probably a little bit closer to them talent wise, but this was not the SMU team that we had two years ago. And Kevin Jennings was really banged up coming into that game. He played phenomenal. There were mistakes made both by Carson Beck with the interceptions, although one of the interceptions, absolutely not on him. The other one, the one in overtime, was debatable. But, but if, but if Marquis Lightfoot doesn't hit Kevin Jennings after a whistle, right after the ball was snapped, they blew the play dead. Marquis Lightfoot decks Kevin Jennings on a fourth down. That gives SMU the first down and SMU goes in to tie it and then, then they end up obviously winning in overtime. If that doesn't happen, then Miami wins that game. So, so Miami has had its stumbles over the course of Mario Crystal Ball's time there and then offensive line is going to look a lot different. It was an offensive line that really led that offense. They returned basically three starters. One of the guys is a rotational guy, Samson Okunlola. Oh, I guess you consider him or Ryan Rodriguez the rotational guy, but they kind of rotated together. So you, the tackles are going to be new though. You're likely going to start a freshman at left tackle. And while that skill position group with Mark Fletcher in the backfield, Gerard playing Pringle in the backfield, Malachi, Tony, they added Cooper Bargait who was part of that Darian Minta acquisition, basically their skill position group is absolutely loaded. I just want to see Miami mature a little bit and maybe this will be the team that does it because they are incredibly talented.

Conor Guerra

You've been asked this question a lot throughout the off season. How significant is the loss of Buster Faulkner for Georgia Tech and how monumental is it for Florida in year one under John Sumrall?

Roddy Jones

Yeah, it's funny because I think it's pretty big. But you talk to Brent Key and he sort of downplays it because, because the, the architects of that offense or, or some of the people that were the architects of that offense along with Buster Faulkner are still around. So I think the offense is going to look fairly similar. George Godsey coming in from, from the Ravens organization is interesting. He and Brent Key are really close. He has not had a ton of success calling plays. But I do expect the, the offense to look structurally similar to what you saw before. And in terms of what Florida is getting, I think you're getting number one one. You're going to have an identity running the football with Jaden Ball, which is, was obviously going to be very good for you. You're not going to see as much quarterback run as you did with Haynes King. And that's probably a good thing not only because of Aaron Philo's skill set, but also I do think it'll make them a little bit less predictable and maybe more efficient doing other things, particularly on third and shorts and in the red zone. I do think Georgia Tech at times was a little bit of a one trick pony in those scenarios. You kind of saw it in the bowl game where they, they, they basically took the quarterback run out of the game and they weren't able in those, in those condensed areas to turn it into points. So, so Buster Faulkner is certainly going to bring that. You're going to get a lot of different formations to basically run the same stuff. It's Going to be counter. It's going to be stuff off of counter. It's going to shifts in motions. Eric Singleton Jr. Is another really big acquisition because I don't think Auburn really figured out how to use him well last year. Now Auburn had a lot of issues around just the that position, including at quarterback. But I think Eric Singleton Jr. Is going to be a really good piece for Florida as well to add to the guys that they already have. So, so I'm really excited to see what Buster Faulkner is going to do. Do you have some questions about Aaron Philo? Flashes have been great. Sample size is limited and there have been some questions in what he's shown but, but I think the potential is there to have a really challenging offense to defend in year one for Florida.

Conor Guerra

Let's talk Philo because I, I'm right there with you. There are some good moments and obviously the two week stretch that he has, the Miami and NC State stretch a couple of years ago, they only get him that one start last year. It's an FCS start and you're kind of like man, it would have been nice if he had gotten more reps but because Haynes King is this durable guy, like he just didn't necessarily get out there in the way that you would have liked to. I'm kind of fascinated with him because I, I think he's still a little bit raw and he's probably a little bit more raw than what people are gonna are gonna realize. But it's year three in that system. What do you think he does this year? And that is assuming that he's able to, to win this job and fend off, you know, Tramell Jones Jr. Yeah,

Roddy Jones

and I think that's a big if. I do think his familiarity in the system helps because there's a lot of moving parts pre snap that you have to manage. And so, so that is going to help, that is going to help him in his pursuit of winning the job. Look, the guy can throw the football. He's one of the most prolific passes in the history of Georgia high school football, which has some very prolific passers. Like I think he broke like the Trevor Lawrence Lawrence's record exactly for, for pass yards in a career. You know, guys like Gunner Stockton are up there. Like there have been some incredible passers and Aaron Philo is, is right up there. So, so the ability to throw the ball is there. I do think there's going to be a speed of the game and, and a, in a quarterback maturity that I just have question about. We just haven't seen it. And so there will be some mistakes. How does he bounce back from those mistakes? But he's a big, strong quarterback that, that can absolutely. He can throw on the run. He had a great throw a couple years ago on the run in the back of the corner of the end zone. That may have been last year. My years are running together, but, but, but it's shown the ability to throw on the run. And, and, and I, I, I just have questions about how he handles all of the moments that you're going to have in the sec, particularly for a guy who, who, who was not raised in an SEC program, if that makes sense. Like, he hasn't seen what it's like to go on the road in some of these environments, which are tough. So, so I, I, I, I guess I have as many questions as anybody. I certainly see the talent and I do see the upside, and I, and I see the potential. If it's a, especially early on, if it's an offense built around Jaden Ball, if it's an offense built around easy RPO throws, where he can kick the ball out to Eric Singleton or some of those weapons on the outside and then play action, rollout shots down the field, stuff like that, stuff that gives some easy ways to sort of get used to the speed of the game. I do see there being a recipe for success there, but I think a lot of it's going to come down to Florida's ability to run the ball, because I don't think you want to put it all on Philo, especially early this year.

Conor Guerra

Yeah, surroundings are certainly good. They've definitely gone all in with, with making sure that it's not going to be a lack of surroundings that's going to do him, him. If he's gonna fail, it's going to be on him. Take me back to your recruitment at Georgia Tech, because like Philo, you're all over the Georgia high school record books. You get drafted by the White Sox in the 39th round, but you, you choose Georgia Tech before your senior season of high school. And I can't help but think my guy Jeff Collins played a little bit of a role in that. He did. Yeah. My guy. If you didn't play football at Georgia Tech, would you have played elsewhere, or were you going to go to the minor leagues?

Roddy Jones

No, I, I was pretty set on going to play college football. I loved college football. You know, I love the environments. I love, I mean, I grew up in Atlanta, like the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution for about half the year was a college football player. So that's, that's what I fell in love with. And so if I didn't play, if I didn't play at Georgia Tech, I was going to try and go elsewhere. I would have probably gone to Clemson, but Georgia Tech was going to allow me to play both football and baseball. I got recruited under Chan Gailey. Danny hall, who was there up until last year as the baseball coach, was the baseball coach then as well, and he was going to let me play both. And then it didn't quite work out that way. Coach, you know, Gailey gets fired, Coach Johnson comes in. And so it was a little more challenging than, than initially we thought. But I, I likely would not have gone to the minor straight out of high school because I had, I had ability to play football somewhere else. So, yeah, I was fortunate. I ended up playing two years of baseball. Not well, but I ended up playing two years of baseball at Tech and had a great time, played with some great players. We had some really good team.

Conor Guerra

I always wonder what that's like when you're dead set on playing football and the MLB draft is going on. Like, do you make an appointment viewing to like, watch all the rounds of it? Like, are you just going to get a text or a call? I guess at that time you're getting a call. Yeah. Hey, you know, you just got drafted during the throne.

Roddy Jones

That thing wasn't televised at all in 2007. So, yeah, it was basically so. So we had signability conversations leading up to the draft with a few teams, and essentially they tell you, hey, look, here's where we have you slotted. Here's what that would likely look like money wise. Would you sign for that? And the answer for me, you know, they were saying somewhere between the 7th and 13th round that the money was. I don't even know what that money is today, but it's certainly not the nil money that these guys are getting. And back then, it just wasn't enough money to turn down the opportunity to go and play both. And so, you know, I kind of told him, hey, look, I'm not gonna sign if it's in those ranges. I'll go to college and play. So, you know, we appreciate it, appreciate the look. And then the White Sox said, okay, that's fine, we'll probably draft you anyway. And then if you change your mind, you know, we'll talk and we'll, we'll sign you for above whatever slot they, they, they drafted me in. And so I get drafted in third, ninth round. We were actually down in Orlando at Disney, and I think my parents were in, like, a timeshare, like, meeting when I got the call, or we were in some hotel room. Yeah, I think we were there either, but, but anyway, I, I pick up the phone and I say, hey, you know, this is, this is, you know, the scout that I was talking to from the white. So we just drafted in the 39th round. We'll give you a call in a couple days and talk about sort of the logistics of it, and then you can make your decision. And it was pretty tight timeline. I don't remember exactly when the draft was, but I was set to go to Georgia Tech second week of June. And so I think the draft is like the first week of June, so we only had a couple days to decide. But I, I kind of knew that I was, I was dead set on doing it. I don't know what it's like for these guys nowadays. I mean, they get, they get, they got nil contracts on one side waiting. They got, you know, the draft on the other, and then, and, and they're on campus a lot earlier than we were. So I don't even know how it'll work now.

Conor Guerra

Would you recommend doing both? Like, do you. It probably depends on position that you're playing, like, how high your draft is. Like, every situation is different. But, like, having gone through it and kind of seeing, you know, like, how tough it is to juggle that, especially with the commitments to spring football now, like, I don't know. I, I look at this and I, I'm like, hey, play as many sports as you can. Like, I, I understand it's like, specialization. There's a lot that's been made of it. But, like, like, having gone through it and seen, like, the time commitment, like, how do you feel about someone that steps into that world and says, like, I just want to do everything when I show up and just kind of figure it out after I get to college.

Roddy Jones

I, I, I will say, I will preface it by saying I don't regret doing it. It taught me a lot about time management. It taught me a lot about just the, the ability to, to suffer through, you know, And I say suffer as it, it, it, it wasn't like I was trudging through every day, but it was, it was a grind. Like, it was a consistent grind for, for those two years. And it was even more of a grinder in summer because I was playing summer ball. I had an internship, I was doing workouts, and I had, and I had school. So it was a grind. I would not recommend anyone do it because I think at that point in time, you pick your best sport and you give it your all. You know, that is, that is past the time of, like, special generalization is great. Like, at some point you got to nail down on the finer points of, of, of. Of an individual sport. And when you get to that level, I, I think, I think that's about the time. So unless you are just an unbelievable athlete, like, if Deion Sanders were to come around, he can just sort of show up, roll it out there and, you know, hit 300, steal 40 bases, and then go out and lock down the number one receiver on the other team. I wouldn't generally recommend it. And the guys that I've seen do it, we had a couple do it at Georgia Tech. We've seen a, we've seen a guy or two try and do it around the country. Guys that generally do it are not great at both. And so I feel like you are sacrificing being great at one of them, whichever one's the, the better one, in order to sort of generalize in, in multiples. And we've seen, we've seen lacrosse guys do it too. I mean, Jordan Faison was doing it for a while, but at some point you are sacrificing both of them and not really reaching your potential in either one.

Conor Guerra

Not to disrespect Chan Gailey, who was the coach that, that you committed to and played for in your first year when you red shirt it, but take me back to when Paul Johnson gets the job and goes, hey, Roddy, like, we're gonna run the Flexbone triple option and we're running the rock like 50 times a game. That had to be like, oh, my God, this is, this is going to be. I know you gotta, you know, learn a new scheme, but that's a running back stream.

Roddy Jones

Yeah, it was, it was really cool to learn it. Now the, the. When, when we were kind of showed the highlights of, hey, this is what position you're going to play. And we were showing guys from Navy, you know, you know, I was shown, you know, slot backs from Navy who were catching passes and getting pitches and seeing all they didn't quite lay out, like, hey, look, the, the most, the most carries you'll ever have in a game is 13 and more likely it's like, you know, five or six on the high end. But it was really exciting to be a part of an offense that was going to create as many issues as, as that one did. And so there, there were a couple conversations that Coach Johnson probably had that were more important than me. You know, Joshua Nesbitt was a big time recruit coming out of Georgia. He had a lot of those records that, that Deshaun Watson broke and then Trevor Lawrence broke in the state of Georgia. Throwing the ball, convincing him to stay was a priority. Jonathan Dwyer was a priority. He was the top 100 recruit in the country. And so getting those guys was more important than me. But when, when he came in and we were switching offenses, there was a lot of, you know, I think a lot of people were uneasy. They didn't know what it meant it for them. But we end up being pretty good. And so that, that, that cures a lot of, a lot of concerns when you end up being as, as good as we were year one and then especially year two.

Conor Guerra

Why'd you save all your best runs for Georgia? And how much do you still hear about 2008?

Roddy Jones

All the time I, I hear about it, honestly, man, like, I attribute a lot of, of what's happened since then to that game. I, that was my retro freshman year. It was the first time we beaten Georgia in, in seven years. And so it meant a lot to people because we were down at halftime. We came back and won. And it made me one of the more recognizable names for Georgia Tech for the next three seasons. And that's sort of the, the thing that, that, that bothers me about the Portal is just like my experience. I had a great game my freshman year at Georgia Tech against Georgia my retro freshman year. And then I stayed the next three years. I, I never topped 100 yards in a game after that, that rushing, I certainly never had the carry. That was my 13 carry game. Never had the carries that I had in that game. And so, and some would say it was all downhill from there, but because I was, because of that game, you know, I was a player that a lot of people got to know over the next three years. And I, then I had a really, you know, I would say a solid career. And, and I'm, I'm very proud of, of what we did, what, what I did and what we did those next three years. But if the transfer portal had been around and someone had said, hey look, coming off that 200 yard game at Georgia, we'll offer you twice what Georgia Tech will offer you, and then you leave and go somewhere else. And you know, if I'd have had the same last three years somewhere else that I did at Georgia Tech, I would have been forgotten about. And I Likely would not be here talking to you. Like, I wouldn't be on espn. I don't know if I'd have been welcome on ACC Network when it launched, so there's just a lot of tentacles that happen after that. But I would have had more money, so. So maybe. Maybe that would have. Would have kept me warm. But that was a. It was a magical day. And the. The interesting backstory to that game is that we went in there a little bit thin at the. At the slot back position, the position that I played, the A back position. And then one of our. One of the other guys who was sort of a speed guy like me got. Got banged up early in that game. So I ended up being the guy who took all of the pitches. And so Connor, that's honestly why it happened. Like, some of it was. Was just luck because that the two healthy A backs that we had was me at just under 200 pounds, you know, who could. Who could run a little bit, and Lucas Cox, who was the brother of Mike Cox, He's a natural fullback. He's about 230. And so anytime an option play was called, Luke went to the block side, I went to the pitch side. And in the way Georgia was playing, we got the ball in the perimeter a lot. So. So a lot of it was luck, man. I was just. I was just the lucky recipient.

Will

It.

Conor Guerra

I thought you were gonna say you're just trying to give it to Mark Rick for not recruiting you.

Roddy Jones

We have talked about that since then. The fact that they came in very late in the process. George was very honest with me through the process. He's like, look, we like you, but we like these other four guys more. We think we're gonna get two of them.

Will

So.

Roddy Jones

So we're gonna wait until those guys decide. I said, okay, cool, fair. And so I went and committed to. Went and committed to Georgia Tech, actually. Interestingly enough stuff. The running backs coach who recruited me for most of that left during the process. And Kirby Smart ended up coming over as the running backs coach at Georgia before. Before he hopped over to the defensive side. So that. Or. Or he started recruiting me. I think he was the running backs coach. I could be wrong about that. But anyway, they jumped in late. They ended up not getting the two guys. Two of the guys they wanted. They got Caleb King, they wanted Jonathan Dwyer, who ended up coming to Tech with us. Us. And. And so. So it ended up being sort of both of us kind of. Kind of wanting to give it to George. Although there were so many guys from Georgia on that team and we hadn't beat him in forever, that there were a lot of guys with that kind of motivation.

Conor Guerra

I have the dumbest question that you'll be asked all week, so apologies in advance. Like, this is a dumb question, but my brain just, like, can't get it out of, like, I have to ask when you would enjoy. Let's just say enjoy a night out in Atlanta. No, I'm not, like, make of that what you will. It could just be going down to a local restaurant, something like that. And when you were in school, did you ever say, like, yeah, my name is Roddy, and I play football. And have someone think you're Roddy White?

Roddy Jones

100. Still happens. Honestly, dude, you'll. I'll introduce myself not as much recently because Roddy White is sort of fading from people's memories a little bit. He's just not, you know, he's not playing for the Falcons. But, yeah, I'll go and I'll say, hey, hi, My name is Roddy. And they'll say, Roddy White. No, he's like, six three and, like, like $63 million richer than. Probably more than that than I am. So. So, yes, it happens all the time. It happened more back then because obviously the Falcons were very good. And then you'd say. Then I would say my name is Roddy Jones, and they sort of look at me like it's a mixture of Roddy White and Julio Jones. So I don't know. I don't know where to put you here. Who am I confusing you with? I'm not really sure. So, yeah, during that, the. The real MVP of it all is Western, who very rarely got Roddy Jones, Roddy White, and Julio Jones mixed up over the course of his broadcast. It happened. Happened, like, once or twice, but I believe that overlap would have happened. Julio got drafted, so only a couple years, but then we worked together, so it's. It's been a challenge for Wes, or we have challenged him with our names over the last. Over the last probably 15 years.

Conor Guerra

You never had to go to your birth name, though. Like, your full birth name. For the people that don't know, could you say your full birth name and. Because if. If that's. If that's you as a. As a broadcaster, like, I think it. I think it takes on, like, a different sort of meaning, and you definitely would have never been confused for anybody else.

Roddy Jones

No, my full name is Roderick Ronaldo Jones.

Conor Guerra

Great.

Roddy Jones

Thank you. I'm. I'm named after my dad, so. So. So you can thank him or maybe my grandmother. But if I was Roderick Jones, like, I feel like. I feel like I should have been a doctor to be Rod Roderick. Like, that's a person that needs to be taken seriously. Roddy is a guy that can call college football games on a Saturday. It's just, it's just a different feel. You know, if Roderick Jones pops up, I have to be. I'd have to be stiff, I feel like, and, and represent the name in a higher or a higher way.

Conor Guerra

R.R. jones.

Roddy Jones

That's a good one. That's a good. I mean, look, I, I. If I was an author, that would have been. That would have been the. Go to R.R. jones.

Conor Guerra

That's a good point.

Roddy Jones

Or maybe, maybe I could just transition or become Roddy R. Jones. It feels like the middle initial, it worked for Stephen A. Smith. Maybe that helps elevate you.

Conor Guerra

Roddy R. Jones. I like that. I like that. When you write a book, definitely put that as, as the, you know, the author. I think that makes a lot of sense. This has been great. Let's get you out of here with some, Some rapid fire. Just five questions. First thing that comes to mind. Does that work for you?

Roddy Jones

Yeah, let's do it.

Conor Guerra

All right. Speaking of things that you've been asked about you. You're gonna have a new booth partner this fall because Mark Jones retired. Guys named Jones. You don't have to share who that'll be just yet, because I know we're still, you know, waiting on announcements and stuff like that, but, but who would be your dream, play by play, person to work with, and it could be living or dead.

Roddy Jones

Oh, oh, I. I think you'd have to go with, with one of the legends. So I, I would say. I would say Keith Jackson, just because he sounds like college football to me, like that. That is the, the voice that I grew up with. So, yeah, I'll go. Keith Jackson.

Conor Guerra

That's the correct answer.

Will

Yeah.

Conor Guerra

Yeah, that's good. The varsity is overrated, underrated, or properly rated?

Will

Rated.

Roddy Jones

Absolutely overrated. Unbelievably overrated. And I don't even know how it's rated, but whatever it's rated, it's overrated.

Conor Guerra

I had one of the more disappointing burgers of my life there a year ago and thought to myself, look, I get it. It's an institution. Somebody's gonna tell me, who listens to this. I got the wrong thing or something like that. But I was like, this, this.

Will

This is the burger. This is what?

Conor Guerra

This is like high school lunch type of, Type of burger.

Will

Burger that was.

Conor Guerra

That was not very good.

Roddy Jones

Connor, let me tell you, you didn't get the wrong thing. This is if. Look, if people want to come after me for it, come after me. I am born and raised in Atlanta. I've gone to the varsity. I think my first time was probably

Will

when I was five.

Roddy Jones

There's not much on there that you're gonna walk away with satisfied. And you're certainly not going for the customer service. It is only to say that you went there for the hats.

Conor Guerra

That's true. That's very, very true. Okay, the SEC is overrated, underrated or properly rated.

Roddy Jones

I would say generally probably slightly overrated, but amongst the. The reasonable folk, I think it's properly rated. The environments are awesome. The teams are very, very, very good. I do think the demise of the SEC is, you know, while. While people are having their moment, sort of dancing on the graves of. Of the SEC's national champions. I mean, you know, the. The three years that they've missed the national championship game, you're a play away. So I don't think, think. I don't think the league is quite at the alarm level that, that people are. So I will say. I will say amongst the reasonable people, properly rated, amongst the zealots, definitely overrated.

Conor Guerra

What's your go to entertainment on a flight?

Roddy Jones

I. I would. I'd probably say I usually just pop on a movie. Honestly, Connor, the reason I'm struggling with this is because I sleep on planes. I am a fantastic plane, plane sleeper. And so usually by the time we take off, your boy's knocked out and I wake up somewhere. Depending on the length of the flight, you know, hour and a half in. So if it's shorter than an hour and a half flight, there's no entertainment needed. Your boy's knockdown.

Conor Guerra

How give us the secret because I think it's impossible. And I said that even before, before I had a toddler that I had to manage on on a flight. But I. I think it's one of the more underrated things. Like if I could just snap my fingers and be able to sleep on planes, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Roddy Jones

Yeah, I. To be honest, I don't know. I have been blessed or maybe cursed throughout my life with being able to fall asleep very easily. It is great on situate in situations like planes. It was terrible in situations like class because, like, the ability to sleep easily does not discriminate when you are just the slightest bit. Not even. Not even super tired. It's just like calm and still when you are the slightest bit calm and still, still the, the, the nodding starts to happen and so whether it was in, you know, I didn't take that many calculus classes, but let's just say calculus. Whether it's calculus or management statistics or flight to Utah doesn't matter. The, the desire to go to sleep will be there and the ability to go to sleep will be there. So to be honest, I don't know. I just get a window seat. I go to the bathroom before I get on the plane so I don't have to get up and I, and I tonk out.

Conor Guerra

Talking about your struggles in school. It says the three time ACC all academic team and recipient of an NBA like okay, nobody. Yeah, school I'm sure was really hard for you.

Roddy Jones

Staying awake was. Staying awake certainly was.

Conor Guerra

Okay, last one for you. Your arch is a Heisman favorite take. Technically wasn't an off season take because you were saying that during bowl season. But give me your boldest off season take. Prediction thing that you've just been going, man, maybe this team's getting, getting disrespected in the off season. But just thing that you've been coming back to that you're like, hey, I know I'm gonna bust this out at ACC media days and it's gonna make the rounds.

Roddy Jones

It is not ACC related but my take, BYU will win the Big 12. I think BYU is the best team.

Conor Guerra

No way. No way. Honestly, I love it.

Roddy Jones

I thought that, I thought that pre Sorsby, pre the whole Sourcebee deal because of, of number one, what they're bringing back number two, the culture of that place is really fired up. When Kalani Sataki came back, I think they're there. This is the most talented BYU team that Kalani Sataki will have had. I mean LJ Martin was a Big 12 offensive player of the year last year. Kato Luave comes over from Cal. They've got, they've got probably four top two day picks on that defense. L.J. martin's likely another one. They've got questions at receiver but that, that offensive line is mostly intact and I think Bear Bachmeyer takes a step and even if, even if Bear Bachmeyer struggles something, they've just brought in a five star freshman a Rider Lions coming on to, to back them up. So I, my, my take is that. And they don't play Texas Tech in the regular season. So it comes down to one game. If those two meet. So, so I'm gonna go. BYU wins the Big 12.

Conor Guerra

You are preaching the choir on that one. I've been Saying that for months. It's BYU's year. I picked BYU to beat Alabama in a playoff game in Alabama fans, they ripped me. They ripped me pretty good on social media, but love it. Roddy, we're gonna have to do this again. Like I said, it's been fun getting to. Getting to chop it up with you and Matt each Thursday on Sirius xml. Yeah, we'll do this again in season and I'm sure you'll have a bold in season take that'll make the rounds and you'll be like, hey, Arch for Arch for Heisman. See, how do you like me now?

Roddy Jones

Yeah, exactly. Hopefully. You know, it's funny because when we throw out these takes, it almost makes you root for the thing that you. That you said a little bit. But, you know, again, like, if Texas is not. If Arch is not in the Heisman conversation this year, and if he's not a front runner, then Texas is not having the season that they need to have and people will be much more concerned about that than. Than my Archdeak.

Conor Guerra

Yeah, nobody will go back to that. I won't bring that up at all. No, you're in the clear on that, Roddy. Thanks, man. We'll do it again soon.

Roddy Jones

Yeah, thanks, Connor.

Conor Guerra

All right, well, lad of the week. You want to start? You want me to start?

Will

You got it, man.

Conor Guerra

All right, so this happened about a week ago, actually, but it was after we had recorded, so haven't had an opportunity to. To address this. But yeah, by now everybody's pretty well aware that Jordan, Rogers, Cole, Cuba, like Tom Hart, the three Amigos have been broken up. And that sounds a lot more negative than it actually is. But that trio is not going to be calling games together on SEC Network. The SEC Saturday Night Crew is no longer in that role. Kind of TBD on where all of them are going to end up. I do know that. Like, so, I mean, they're all going to be just fine. Like, let's, let's. They are all going to be just fine. And those, those three are all going to be set up very, very well. And last year when Jordan was doing like the, the Jesse Palmer, you know, replacement stuff, when Jesse's off doing bachelor stuff or whatever, you're like, all right, this kind of makes sense that Jordan's going to be elevated. And it's not that they. They haven't been, you know, doing their own thing at different times, but it's. It's a massive bummer. And I don't know how much people realize this, but that trio Was together for nine years. Okay. And I had the privilege of shadowing them and spending some time with them back in 2021 when they were in year five. And at that point they were tied with the Joel Clatt, Gus Johnson, Jenny Taft trio as the longest running trio in college football. Announcement. Like, it just does not happen in college football. We get the same trio. You might have like a color guy and a play by play that have been together for a long time or something like that. But having a trio all together is very, very unique. And spending that time with them that I did back in 2021, like, in addition to having them on the show, but, but getting to see like, kind of how they operate within their respective spaces was such an incredible experience. And it, for those who have heard me speak about those guys, like, you know, I've developed an even greater appreciation for what they have to do. Like, I got to spend time with each of them individually and then, you know, was able to like be in a production room with them on, on that Friday night and then, you know, a couple hours for the game, you know, I was able to hear all of their interactions that they have over like their, their mic and their operating system that they use, able to communicate within the games and stuff. I don't even know if they knew that I was like listening to that part of like, what they were, you know, what they were saying to one another. Like, it's like kind of on the record, kind of not. But I essentially had like a four to five hour, like earpiece in to hear anything that they were saying. And it's, it's really incredible. And I, I just don't think it should be taken for granted. And it sucks that people don't understand the chemistry that goes into building these things. And while I do respect that all three still want to get to bigger and better places, like, those guys should be on better games, man. Like, they should be on better games and not just, you know, watching this, this game against Mississippi State Mizzou on a Saturday night that like, is with these teams are out of contention. Like, those guys deserve to have bigger voices. And I think part of their frustration, at least, you know, this is what I've gathered, is that, that they have watched others that have been given opportunities to rise who, like, I, I, frankly, I don't think they have. They have been outperformed. I don't. Like, I, I know I might be a little bit biased in saying this, but I think those three, with what they do and what they offer to A given broadcast is, like, exactly what I would draw up for a college football broadcast. And I know, like, people that have listened to SEC Saturday night over the years have really learned, like, what that's like. I mean, let's not forget. Forget, like, Brent Musburger used to do SEC Saturday night, and it was nothing. All right? Like, he's a legend of the game. And you have people like Brent Musburger and Jesse Palmer who are, like, bigger names that have done it, but they don't have the chemistry that those three guys did. And so it sucks to see that people in charge have decided, ah, we're gonna break this up, and kind of left them out to dry, because agents just are going to do what agents do, and they're going to announce, oh, this guy has this opportunity first. And so it's. It looks like they're being broken up and, like, that they're naughty. Like. Like, Tom and Cole are getting demoted and Jordan's getting promoted. It's like. It's not. It's not like that, but it got me fired up, and not in a good way, because I just. I respect their craft so much.

Will

Okay.

Conor Guerra

And, like, I. I just think that we've been very fortunate as SEC fans to get to listen to those guys on a Saturday night in games that I think they're. They're kind of better than, like, if we're being 100 honest. So. So I'm going to miss having the three of them on the call. I'm sure we'll have all three of them, you know, individually on. On the show in the very near future here. I mean, we had Colin and Tom on a few months ago, but, yeah, like, those guys deserve a salute, and they. They certainly deserve the love of college football fans everywhere. And I know that they're going to be still on our airwaves this fall. It's just going to be different. Hey, I just Venmo'd you for rent.

Roddy Jones

Nice. Now I can instantly spend it, whether I'm checking out online with Venmo or using a Venmo debit card.

Conor Guerra

Say more.

Will

More. Exactly.

Roddy Jones

Because the more you do with Venmo, the more you get, like, earning up

Will

to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash

Roddy Jones

on a bundle of brands.

Conor Guerra

So order more pizza.

Roddy Jones

The math demands it.

Conor Guerra

Get the Venmo debit card.

Roddy Jones

Venmo stash bundle Terms and exclusions apply.

Will

See terms at Venmo Me stash terms.

Roddy Jones

Venmo checkout not available at all merchants.

Will

Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank. Na, man. I joked with you off air about, like, wow, one of these finally isn't a bummer. I feel myself just as bummed out here. You're right. Thinking about all this stuff that they. It's like they've been right there. You talked about kind of the voice of certain teams and how, like, you know, being a little bit younger sounded. And it's like, yeah, if I sit here and I'm 31, you said nine years, so 22. I was just kind of getting out of college and everything. It's crazy to see how they've kind of been together this whole time. And, like, I'm a big believer in how people treat people that are kind of below them, like, really defines their character. And those guys are on air guys. But. But I. I've talked about this at Media Days, where I think the SEC network guys really set the tone with. With how the conference is covered and how everybody treats each other. And me being a guy who's kind of been around the sec, but not ever really being on air, like, not really having a face or a name. The first time I met each, like, all those guys was awesome. Like, they made sure to, you know, firm handshake, oh, listen to the pod, do all this stuff. And having worked on so many people on television, that was really unique. It was really unique that they went out of their way to make me feel welcome in the conference and be like, kind of like, hey, you know, informally, like, you belong here. Like, I'm gonna spend a time, talk to you, get to know you a little bit. And like I said, we don't really. You know, again, me having covered so many leagues in different sports, like, it just goes unheralded that they have made SEC Media Days in this conference a place that is fun. And it doesn't feel like they're really tears to anything. It feels like you can just walk up and talk to one of them, assuming you're not, like, doing a live hit or something, obviously. But a lot of the times being on air is, you know, is this big Walty thing. And it's cool to see that they bring the same vibe off air as they do on air, where it's like, oh, you just walked into your buddy's house and he's got a couple friends over, and we're all just gonna, you know, have. Have a beer and watch this late game and kind of joke about how. How weird and fun it is while still keeping on topic and not just kind of, you know, acting like we're bored or too good for it. So shout out to those guys. Man, what an era.

Conor Guerra

Not fake at all. Trust me. Like, guys, I would tell you if I thought they were fake. There are people in this business that are fake, that are very different on air compared to off. And like, those three guys are not that at all. What you see is what you get. They are all incredibly funny in their own unique way. They all are so knowledgeable about. About football. And like, even Tom, like, some of the stuff that Tom sets up, it goes so underrated. And he's just such a great point guard. And so I'm bummed. Like, I, I'm really bummed as someone that, that loves being able to sit down on Saturday night and lock into some of these games that I know, like, like maybe aren't going to get talked about on a national show. But I know that with our audience and people that come here, part of the reason that they come here is because I can sit down and tell you what happened with Mizzou in Kentucky. All right. I could tell you if this guy, Wanda Robinson is having a breakout moment, is worthy of being discussed nationally as the most versatile player in college football. Like, I can tell you these things because I'm informed by people like that and they do a great job of storytelling. The SEC one day is too big of a name.

Will

We've seen too much Dane Key to. We're not talking about the good kid. We've seen lots of Kentucky football.

Conor Guerra

That was, that was a great weekend. Like, I'm looking back on that weekend. It was so fun because I got, I got to do that story. And then like the day before, like I was, I was fortunate enough where like Kentucky, I, I went, I went to like the Kentucky facility and did a story on Wondale and, and Liam Cohen that weekend too and you know, established like some really good relationships there and it was kind of cool to see like their operation then got to do like the SEC network stuff as, as well and was. Was very fortunate. What would have thought of like doing two, like in depth actual real journalism pieces and like having a place that is willing to say, hey, we value this. But anyway, those two guys are great. Those three guys are great. Two guys. I was thinking of Wandale and Liam when I said that. Those three guys are great and they're gonna be just fine. They're gonna be just fine. I wish they were all going to be just fine together and just getting to do better games. Games.

Will

Yeah, that's the thing. More things like Time goes on. It's hard to keep things together, especially in sports and. Yeah, especially with the. With kind of three guys like that. So back to the happy. All right,

Conor Guerra

we need this. It's the yang and the yang, you know?

Will

Yeah, exactly. The yin yang twins, they call us. Anyway, so that being said, right. Hey, lad. Last group of the week is the entire beautiful nation of Mexico. Got to watch their World cup game last night with my favorite Mexican, Andrea. And it was just a great time. Watching that game get rain delayed for like an hour, and it was like, every second, every minute, the. The crowd noise just got longer, a little louder. Like, that's one of the few that, you know, I've talked about. Oh, you hear Mo Bamba. You hear Colin, Baton Rouge. You hear whatever in your favorite stadium, and there's nothing like it in the world. And seeing an Estadio Azteca, this just crowd that like the. I actually watched the broadcast on Telemundo, and my Spanish, too, was really being played, put to test. And I was going kind of back and forth, and the way that they said, like, okay, well, we're just stuck here. It was so funny. Like, after the game, they were like, well, hope you like football, because we're stuck here. We cannot go home. Our cars are in that parking garage. There are people we couldn't get in the road, so we're just gonna hang out with you kind of like on the desk. And that was super cool. And so, yeah, they obviously beat Ecuador last night to nil. The second half was a bit of a snoozer as Mexico controlled the first half and then kind of of play a little bit of keep away. They have advanced to this kind of point in the tournament several straight years, so I don't want to take away from that. But the tournament format changed to where they're able to get there via knockout game, which is always a lot more high drama getting that type of environment in a home environment in Mexico City. Mexico City is an underrated large city. If you ever want to really get your mind blown, Connor, look at, like, the American cities in terms of where they are in the world. We have small cities in America and Mexico. Mexico City is massive. And watch all the people come out and just turn. Like, it's the effect that like a. A Lincoln, Nebraska, or an Auburn, Alabama would have in Mexico City, where it's like everyone from around Mexico City has now swarmed this. Like, it's college football. So just shout out to them, man, I. I'm really hoping for both, you know, honestly, all three host nations. I have a little bit less faith in Canada, but I, I, I'm really hoping for all three kind of North American nations to make it very far. And yeah, man, vamos.

Conor Guerra

Claire's favorite daycare teacher has been wearing a Mexico jersey for Mexico kit. Called a kit. I don't know. I. You know soccer better than I do, I think, for three weeks. I think every day for three weeks. Just show up. Ms. Maria Rocking the Mexico jersey.

Will

All right.

Conor Guerra

World Cup. She's all in. It's very dialed in. Very dialed in. Yeah. Seeing the scene there. Incredible. Incredible.

Will

You're right.

Conor Guerra

It would be kind of cool to see all the host nations get, like, a deep run like that. By the time people are listening to this, though, they'll know. They'll know about the US So we won't say anything there.

Will

Don't get.

Conor Guerra

We won't get cold take on that at all. But, yeah, Dos Arrows. It's not gonna happen again. No. I know some things.

Will

It's interesting, man, because, like, Team USA was really kind of not really struggling, but they weren't really popping coming into the tournament. And then, you know, the, the lineup that beat Paraguay so bad really hadn't played together, like, at all. I think it was her first time starting together for the US So could be good, could be bad. We'll see. You know, there's a little bit of a health issue for Team USA as well, but I don't know, man. Mega. Mexico's looking strong. There's a couple of teams. Shout out Germany that didn't go as far as I think people thought. So this, this format, obviously, we're all America, America and centric here, but this format has been so legendary, where you have three host nations, they're all playing home games, you know, like, people getting to experience random places of America. This has been like. It's really turned me on to soccer in a way that I never thought was possible. Even more so than, like, going to the Arsenal game and everything. So, yeah, it's been a great viewing experience. I can't wait for.

Conor Guerra

Again, people will know the US Result by the time that people by the time that this comes out. So don't want to get cold take down that. But yeah, nonetheless, because y', all, the US Advanced very, very far. I'm sure I won't get cold take. All right, that's pod. Thank you for. If you have not subscribed, I shouldn't. Thank you. If you haven't subscribed, you should subscribe to the next round on YouTube where you can find all of our content. We have interview views, we have our shorts that are going up and you can subscribe to the next round on all forms of social media. You can see all of our content coming out. We still have all of our the OG kickoff stuff on our Instagram as well. Please, please go follow that. Follow us on Twitter at cjogera gosohard. Thanks guys. Talk soon.