Hour 1: Seth Emerson, The Athletic

The NBA on ESPN is happening now, and opening week is on a new level. Welcome to another season of the NBA on ESPN. New chapters begin in South Beach. Two of the elite players are on display. The king protects his new court. NBA opening week, Wednesday and Thursday on ESPN. The pride, passion and pageantry of college football lives here. This is the Paul Finebaum Show, our one podcast. We all know what a weekend it was. We've been talking about it since Saturday. I hope you are about to settle in for a couple of hours, and we will try to educate you on anything you may have missed. The phone lines are open. We understand that. We want to get to some of the headlines first. What happened? And what does it mean? That is really where we all are right now in trying to figure it out. We'll talk to Conley in about an hour from now. So where do you go first? Well, Alabama, a week ago, we were all praising them. Today, a lot different. We'll talk to Alex Scarborough, who's been very high on the tide. We'll see if he still is after two losses in a row. And speaking of coming apart at the seams, that is the University of Texas. Nine days ago, they were number one in the country. They are barely in the top 20 right now, and Arch Manning's career there, hanging in the balance. So two weeks in a row, number one goes down. I don't think that will happen this week, but we'll get to Seth Emerson right now and figure out what happened to the Georgia Bulldogs and what it all means, especially on some other issues. Seth, good afternoon. What should we be saying about Georgia no longer number one and their prospects moving forward? Well, maybe it's a statement on just the state of the conference and everything that happened Saturday, state of college football now, that you can honestly say that Georgia lost at home as about a three-touchdown favorite, and yet is probably still the best team in the SEC, and probably still the team you'd be the betting favorite to win the SEC championship, be the top-seeded SEC team in the playoff, whatever you want to say of it. Paul, it's a jumble. I was just going through and doing some projections on the SEC, and the conference is beating up on each other a little bit, but there's still five more weeks, six, I guess, of beating up on each other. And I mean, there's real possibilities of like five teams being nine and three and battling for like one spot or two in the playoff. It's going to be pretty fascinating down the stretch to see if there's any separation, does it look like we were starting to get some separation? And then this past weekend happened and it's a muddle again. So what happened in the Georgia game to Gunnar Stocken? How do you explain his performance? Well, it started well enough. He was out for three plays, the first possession, went back in for the touchdown. They jump out to a 14-0 lead, but then Auburn comes back, and Byron Brown finally looks like the guy that Auburn hoped it was getting when it brought him along with Alex Golis from South Florida. And Stocken just ended up having some, obviously a couple bad throws, bad decisions on throws. I saw the second interception happening before Gunnar did. The Auburn safety saw what was happening and was able to pick it off. And then obviously the fumble decides the game. It was just a, you know, I talked to him afterwards and asked if there was anything after, you know, he took a hit on the game's first play. So people were saying, well, you know, did he get a concussion? Was it not himself? And he was, he said he was fine. It wasn't that. It was he got cleared. Kirby said after the game and Gunner seemed fine when I talked to him. It just was a bad game for him. And it wasn't just for him. Georgia's defense, the run defense was not there. They missed KJ Bolden, all-American safety candidate. He might have been able to help on some of those runs. But more concerning was the up the middle. The road, as you said, has been difficult, but it's about to get more difficult, especially for the dogs when you look ahead. Florida next in Atlanta at Ole Miss. Missouri challenging. And then the finish there before possibly an Atlanta visit. What do you make out of this road? Because everybody's got a mulligan. Most have two. Nobody, we think, can be assured of three. Yeah, to get back to the idea that there could be all of these nine and three teams. There's a lot to be fleshed out in other conferences in terms of who makes the playoffs. Like does UCLA come back to the pack? You know, the only unbeaten team left out there. How does Ohio State look without Julian Sao in the next few weeks? What happens in the ACC? Do they get a second bid? Big 12, like, has three unbeaten teams. How does that flesh out? But that could also, that could all have an effect on how many bids are there for the SEC. All kind of a thought for maybe five was assured after the non-conference season. The SEC is 10 and two against other power conferences. And it still may be, but the way it's looking, if you can get to 10 and two, you should be all right. In Georgia's case, they can have one more loss. And it could be at Ole Miss, but if they were to trip up against Florida, it would be better. The game at Ole Miss may be their play-in game, because the schedule is just not strong enough. The win at Alabama would be carrying it. But everybody in the SEC kind of has that one tent pole win at this point. They all also are at this point are getting that kind of ugly loss, like Georgia just got. And sometimes those cancel each other out. Like, looking through it, Paul, you know what seems in the best shape right now? It's Tennessee. Like, you know, we've got to see if this team is capable of continuing to play the way they did against Alabama. But when you look at their schedule, they may be the favorite in the rest of their games. At minimum, what they've done the first seven weeks, you'd think would be enough to get them to 10-2. That's the team I'd, you know, that's the team I'd feel best about. Now, I'd like to see even better quarterback play, but the way their defense has looked, the way their running game has looked, you gotta feel really good about the Vols. Seth, one more thing before you go, because you cover Pesanky and the SEC about as intently as anybody. You've interviewed Jerry Moorehead a number of times. A lot of people are struggling to understand the news Friday about, or Thursday, I should say, about the playoff and how we got from 12 to 24. What happened to the SEC? Why did they, some people call it caved, some people call it, realized that they had no exit strategy. What changed the SEC? They weren't willing to stand on their own. They weren't willing to put up a fight with everyone else against them, but also with enough people within the league. And we've been able to see that for a while, that there were definitely coaches who then pressure their ADs, who often are in lockstep with their coaches on something like this when it comes to playoff access, and then it works its way up the chain and it pressures enough presidents. You know, George's president, Jerry Morehead, you know, I don't know that he has changed his mind, he probably hasn't. I put in a request to talk to him since Thursday and he's laying low. But he's one of 16. And there's just, I think, a lot of sentiment of the more bids, the better this will be. I think there's enough schools in the league that are looking like what we were just talking about. All these nine and three teams. You're in this first year of a nine game schedule. And there's now the counter to that is that if you stand firm and go to 16, that would be enough. Like you'll get those extra teams in. But, you know, 16 different schools, everyone wants a chance every year. I think there's just, there were just too many voices in the room saying, hey, let's go to 24, let's not put up a fight on this, and let's give more people in our league collectively every year a chance to make it. My counter to that would be, what is it, seven different SEC schools have made the 12 team field the first two years. And if it went to 16, I think it would have been nine, because South Carolina and Vanderbilt would have made it. So 12 is still giving everybody a chance, but 24 is much more of a guarantee. Seth Emerson from The Athletic, many thanks, Seth, as we begin the program here on a Monday, like maybe no other. Of course, get your phone calls in just a moment. Scarborough here, a couple of weeks ago, he was telling us how great the coaching seemed to be at Alabama, and Kiela and Russell, and everything else. We'll see if he still feels the same way on this Monday. Bill Conley analyzing it all, and Cole Kublick breaking down the X's and O's. Your phone call straight ahead. Quick break to tell you some game time tips. When you're hosting during football season, you've got to be ready for every kind of craving. Somebody wants fresh pizza, somebody wants crispy wings, somebody's asking if they're sliders. That's when you need more than one call in the playbook. Frigidaire offers ranges and wall ovens with over 15 cooking modes, so you can tackle hosting with confidence. We'll be right back. 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It contains essential prescription medications in your name for over 30 common conditions, strep throat, sinus infections, pneumonia, UTI, stomach bugs and more. Plus, telehealth doctors standing by for your questions. I trust my medical emergency kit and I can save you $45 right now. Visit urgentcarekit.com/sportspromocodesports. It's urgentcarekit.com/sportspromocodesports. We are back, let's get to phone calls. I know a lot of folks are excited about what folks and people will be saying. Why don't we start in Georgia, with a guy who has predicted Georgia to do pretty much everything right. What does Darryl have to say about Saturday? Darryl has to say... I don't know, I mean, we come out the gate, we jump up by two touchdowns. You think this is just gonna be an easy ordeal and then we just fall flat on our face. I mean, I tell you, here's the problem, Paul. Okay, I'm just gonna be straight up. Here's the problem. We luckily beat Alabama, okay, by putting the ball around four times. We got all four of them turnovers, their fumbles back, okay? That didn't happen against Auburn. If Georgia don't find a way to fix this, to turn the fumble into football, it's hard to win when you turn the football over three and four times a game in this conference. It's hard to win. But KJ Bolden being out, that hurt. Frazier, does it look like he's back yet? I mean, it looks like Pigna is gonna be our number one back. Frazier still doesn't look like he's comfortable after coming off that real injury. And this has to be, in my opinion, probably the worst loss, probably the smartest had since he's been at Georgia, especially being a 23 point favorite. I mean, we had a chance right there at the end. And then... I thought the loss a couple years ago to Will Muschamp in South Carolina was pretty bad. This was pretty bad too. This was pretty bad. Especially coming off the Alabama win. This was pretty bad at home. But we got two weeks to lick our wounds. We'll get it fixed. We'll be ready. We'll come out of the gate for Florida, and we'll take care of business. But I want to see this from Auburn. Okay, this is what I want to say. Congratulations on the win, first of all. But I want to see Auburn, okay, will they use this win to get better? In other words, can they go and beat Texas? Or are they just going to use the win and then lose to a bunch of teams they probably should be, and still be Auburn? I want to see them grow off this win. That's been their issue in the past. If they played everybody like they played Alabama and Georgia every year, they'd go nine and three. At worst, nine and three. By the way, Darrell, listen, they're not playing Texas this year, but I appreciate your call anyway. Dominic is up next from Florida. Hello, Dominic. Paul, I got a lot to say from the Alabama fans, and I'm not, and I'm calling it out. We're gonna lose two or three more games because our problem in Alabama is not our game coach. It's the goddang offensive coordinator, Ryan Dumb Grove at Alabama. He is terrible, Paul, and we're gonna lose. We might lose this week, and we might lose when we play LSU because of that dumb idiot. When you got a young quarterback, you have to simplify the offense for Keon Russell because he got these long routes that he's pre-estating that Keon Russell will do. And Keon Russell is not helping himself because he hold on to the ball. And I listen to him press conference from state and the board. I don't have no confidence, and so was no elbow, for us to lose two or three more games in his ass be out of Alabama. And I hate to say this, we are done because of Ryan Dumb Grove. And I hate it when Alabama fans want to tip on the line and say, Oh, the players got an issue. That's a pop out. That's Ryan Dumb not putting out offensive players in the right situation. With no, and no limited excuses, Paul. I see two or three more losses for us. And that's a damn shame. And I want to give a shout out to Alabama's Paul AJ today. Congratulations. Y'all won, AJ., it's your day. For all the Alabama fans that call today, we don't care about no excuses. Well, thank you. Before we go to the next call, I want to remind the audience what was at about four weeks ago today when Ryan Grubb waddled up to the microphone in Tuscaloosa. I won't be able to say everything he said because one of them was a curse word, and I made a vow a long time ago that we're not going to curse on this show, even though obviously other shows on ESPN do. So we're talking about the FSU game here, 50 to 36 win by Alabama. They just didn't have any quit. They're a really resilient group. I'm super proud of that. We had, I would say, we had some boo-birds. I told the guys, shoot, guys, if you would quit as fast as some of your fans, blank, we wouldn't have won that game. Ryan Grubb calling out the fans four weeks ago. Let's see how that idiotic, absurd, obnoxious statement ages today. Let's continue with more phone calls, and Dr. Retta is next. Hello Paul, listen. Paul, pondering what happened in football this weekend, I think many of us may have been stymied by the paralysis of over analysis regarding that 24-team playoff. Paul, listen, I want to ask you this, and I want you to really give me your learned and expert opinion on it. Given the growing parity of the SEC and referencing what the guest callers said about us beating up on each other, and because of that parity, and because of the gauntlet that all of the teams in the SEC have to play, could it be that the 2014 playoff is beneficial for the SEC? What do you think about that, Paul? Yeah, well, thank you, Dr. Ratta. Listen, I don't think we know yet on the 2014 playoff, and I have never liked it. I came out the other day and said, let's embrace it. What difference does it make? I mean, what's the point of trashing something when the powers that be, whether they, first of all, didn't listen to the fans? They don't care about the fans. They care about the people that sit in that room. And access is what it's all about nowadays in college football, and that's what we're going to get. I still haven't figured out how the 12-team playoff works, let alone the 24. Stacey is up next. What's up, Paul Finebaum? And first of all, foremost, let me give prayers out to my boy Jalen Hertz and his family. I'm not gonna get up here talking about Alabama this year, and who needs to go and who needs to stay. We know what happened, we know what the problem is. To these Auburn fans, especially AJ, especially AJ, look, y'all only want to win one game a year, and that's the Iron Ball. But this year, you got lucky, you won two games, you beat the number one team in Georgia. We know what's gonna happen now, you're gonna be satisfied with that, and you ain't gonna do nothing else the rest of the year. So in reference to Alabama, man, I ain't gonna get on here and say we're gonna do this or we're gonna do that. I don't know where we are right now. I'm just depressed, man. My Eagles, they losing, Jalen Hurst gone, Alabama losing, I don't know what to do. I'm just gonna start watching these movies all day on Saturday from now on, because this is just ridiculous. Roll the tie, Paul. I'm out, man. Vance is next. Hey, Vance. Hey, Paul. I think I'm gonna let my Alabama brethren do all the talking today. I want to ask your opinion about something. I'm not an offensive football coach or a football coach at all. But doesn't it seem obvious that the University of Texas is asking Arch Manning to be something he's not? Don't you think he ought to be more of a thinking-on-his-feet, reacting, dual-threat quarterback? It's like they're forcing him to be in the pocket all the time. And the kid's not built for that. He holds on to the football all damn day. Then he'll make the greatest pass in the world, which he was lucky not to get sacked on that 62-yard deal. Well, Vance, let me make it simple here, because we're short on time. I think Steve Sarkeesian has committed coaching malpractice the way he's handled Arch Manning. I was with Stephen A. Smith earlier, and I thought he may have had the best comment I've heard. The job's too big for Steve Sarkeesian, number one, running the Texas football program, and number two, being the personal manager and enabler of Arch Manning. And that's why he needed an offensive coordinator, and he doesn't have one, to call the shots. And he screwed up both, and that's why Texas is hanging by a thread of its season and perhaps of the Arches and Sarkeesian's legacy. Up against the break, we'll dive deeper into the Alabama conundrum with Alex Scarborough right after this. 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Alex Scarborough covers a lot of the Crimson Tides, and been part of that, covering that program for a long time. Alex, good afternoon, and what is the temperature reading in Tuscaloosa today? It's chilly outside, but it's hot in Tuscaloosa. There's pressures ramped up right now. Kaelin DeBoer said it after the game at Tennessee, it's going to get uncomfortable from here on out, and that's kind of where they are. They know they've got to turn things around in a hurry, the margin for error in terms of reaching the playoff just shrunk considerably. For them, obviously, taking that second loss, and got a lot of things to fix, especially on that offensive side of the ball, with what we saw at Tennessee, 201 yards of offense, Kaelin Russell taking a big step back at the quarterback position and the inability to run the football. Busy, busy week for them with Texas A&M coming up. Well, as I respect Coach DeBoer, he was asked about Ryan Grubb today, and he said, I still think he's a great play caller. He may be the only person in the state of Alabama who believes that today. Can you explain the disconnect that we all seem to be having with watching Ryan Grubb call plays at Alabama? Yeah, I think two things can be true. I think Alabama might be the most overly critical fan base when it comes to offensive coordinators of the last 20 years. I don't think there was an offensive coordinator that could do right under Nick Saban because there was just this impossible expectation. And it sort of has bled over as well. So I think that's happening. But then, you know, what Ryan Grubb has done the last two weeks, or what he hasn't done specifically, if you go back to the Georgia game as well, has put a lot of that on his plate, too. Just getting away from the things that made them successful, the first, what, five games of the season, whatever it was, where they were really committed to running the football, using multiple tight ends, being physical, you know, staying ahead of the chains, you know, and that's all before we talk about putting up, you know, what, 45 points a game. Keelan Russell really maturing as a quarterback and looking like there's not a throw we can't make, to all of a sudden, that's all out the window. Where the offensive line is looking kind of like what you and I, Paul, we talked about in the summer, what we kind of thought might happen with four star, four new starters and a new offensive line coach, just showed up at a really inopportune time. So I understand Caelan's, why he wants to stick with Ryan Greb. Look, I've said it a million times. I'll say it again. There's a reason the Seattle Seahawks wanted to hire Ryan Greb. There's a reason the Washington Huskies' offense was so good and got all the way to the National Championship. There's talent there as a play caller, but they've got to figure out a way to be more consistent. There's a relationship there that goes back 20 years between Caelan and Ryan, so they're going to stay strong, but they've got to the two of them as the offensive brain trust have got to figure this thing out, how to work around maybe some of the deficiencies on the offensive line. And oh, by the way, injuries on top of that, with the starting center being out, and then how to just speed things up for Caelan Russell, where he's just playing faster and playing free because we all know the talent's there. One thing I've never understood, I thought the beginning of the game is probably the easiest part of the game for elite teams to excel. And I think you've already guessed where I'm going, Alex. In the last 14 games against quality opposition, Alabama has been an absolute train wreck on the first drive of the game. Turnover, turnover, touchdown, three and out, three and out, turnover, turnover, punt, three and out, three and out, punt, three and out, turnover on downs, three and out. Is there any way to explain the ineptitude of the opening drive by Ryan Grubb and Caelan DeBoer? No, I mean, I guess we could be really positive and say they figure out a way to make those adjustments later in games and a lot of those games with the exception of obviously the Tennessee game and to some extent the Georgia game. But yeah, it is a little bit perplexing now. This year's really different in terms of all the newness they have on offense. Again, I talked about replacing four or five starters on the offensive line. Some of those starters, Michael Carroll shifted from playing tackle to playing guard after only starting six games as a true freshman. Oh, by the way, he has not played his net best football there. You're without Ryan Williams, Ryan Coleman Williams is your most veteran receiver in that game with the concussion and the knee injury on top of that. And you have this young quarterback and I think everyone, myself included, got a little bit ahead of our skis on Keelan Russell. I think we need to be a little bit honest about that. I guess all the talent is there, but there are just some inconsistencies. When you just look at his footwork, he has the arm to get around a lot of it, but some of the, you know, he just gets sloppy in that area. He makes some decisions with the run pass option that are sometimes not always correct. And, you know, you can be a great play caller and if you don't have those things working, there's not a lot you can do about it. And then you can be, you know, a struggling play caller and it looks even worse. And that's kind of where they're at right now. They've got to, you know, I think they know what their identity, what they want it to be in terms of being able to run the football effectively and then work off of that with the play action. But they got to figure out a way to get there consistently. Just in terms of the questions about Ryan Grubb, I wasn't there. I saw the defense of Ryan Grubb by Kailyn DeBoer. I'm well aware of their relationship. Nobody needs to remind us of that. But what did you read into what DeBoer said, if anything? I don't think I'd necessarily read it. Again, this is a friendship and a partnership is kind of how I would phrase it in a lot of ways. That goes back 20 years. I mean, they were assistants to get, they've been assistants together. Kailyn has been his head coach and they handed off play calling duties to him in his career, really trust him and they've had a lot of success there. So I don't think he's ready to walk away from any of that. Kailyn is someone who is repeatedly valued and shown to value continuity, and that's in the coaching staff. And if he can help it, it's on the roster as well. But he has guys he trusts and I don't think he trusts anyone more than Ryan Grubb throughout his career. They see the football game the same way in terms of the way what they want to be offensively and how they want to get there. They just got to be able to put their heads together and make that happen along with their wide receivers coach, along with their running back coach, along with their offensive line coach. Because at the end of the day, those personnel areas need to get better as well. When you talk about protecting the quarterback, when you talk about getting more consistently positive yardage in the running, and when you talk about just simply catching passes. We talked about that and harped on that with Ryan Coleman Williams throughout his career. But Rico Scott had a couple of drops the other day that would have been really nice to have and just drive killers. False starts on fourth downs drive killers. Stepping on your own teammate drive killers. So there's all these things where Saturday just felt like a perfect storm for a lot of that. It felt like probably a nightmare when you think about all the noise that goes into Neyland Stadium and how that place can really turn on you if you're part of the opposition. So they get to be home this week, they get to regroup and I think if you're looking for the positive light, it's like, okay, we've got a long list of things now that are very clear that they need to work on, whereas I think maybe there was a little bit of a human nature thing where it's like, oh, we lost to Georgia, but we look pretty good and everybody's still patting us on the back because of it, so how are we gonna attack that? There's none of that happening anymore. They know full well what they have in front of them. Alex Scarborough, many thanks and I know every Alabama fan watching and listening is reassured that Kaelin DeBoer is going to live and die with Ryan Grubb as the offensive coordinator. Reassuring to say the least. We will take a short break and we're coming right back. You're listening to The Paul Finebaum Show Podcast. I'm glad to have all of you with us. Certainly a very busy afternoon. And G is up next in Atlanta. Hello, G. Hey, Paul. Thanks for taking my call. First of all, I want to give a shout out to I-Man and AJ in the Auburn Nation. Great win for you, for your program. Congratulations. Paul, I got three questions for you. Uh, the first one is, the first one is when they took Gunner out on their first play, where they said they took with the head injury. And Paul Kirby said it was a shoulder injury. You think that that was a head injury? Because it seemed like after he took that hit, his game was off for the rest, you know, for the rest of that, for the rest of the day. And second, Paul, you said you should have kept the second QB in our, clearly too, and you know, when he took him down field, even though Gunner came back in and had to buy lots of fillers for the first touchdown, but my thing is, Paul, Schumann had those defensive backs to play, and they were not ready to play Georgia football. They'd won us from the East Carolina one for Crimson, and they showed badly that they missed KD Bowden. And Paul, I just want to know what you think about that. Well, I believe Gunner scored on the next series. Listen, I don't know his health. I mean, there's no way I can. I'm going to defer to Kirby Smart on that. Hey, thank you for the call. Appreciate it. Let's check in with Brad from Macon GA. Hey, Mr. Paul, and that relationship between the boy and Grubb kind of runs similarities to Kirby and Bobo Dutton. Seems that way. As far as them not wanting to get rid of anybody, it's gonna be, they're gonna be together forever. But I just want to reach out to congratulate the Auburn fans. You came in our place, beat us up. You beat us up the way we typically beat up people by controlling the line of scrimmage, by not making any turnovers, and well-deserved play. I'd like to give a special thank you to Alabama, Missouri, Texas, Indiana, Notre Dame, all y'all going down makes me feel a hell of a lot better about us going down. Missouri loves company and Notre Dame, you got one more game to play. And if you mess that up, you're going to be sitting at home, not making the playoffs again. And Paul, one more thing to my son over there in Alabama, I don't know how in the world you made a phone call in a straight jacket in a rubber room, but you did it, Stacey. So congratulations, all you Auburn fans. Congrats, a hell of a win. Thanks, Paul. Have a good day. Grayson is up next in Tennessee. Hey, Grayson. Hello, Paul. How are you on this Monday afternoon? We're doing great. Thank you. Good. Good. Well, me personally, I'm a little distraught. Let me tell you why. Now, since I last talked to you, I'm now at Middle Tennessee as part of the student media here with former Vanderbilt head coach, Derrick Mason and the Blue Raiders. And it's given me a bit of a unique perspective. Now, I know that you've probably talked so much about the playoffs in the past week that what little hair you still have is just about ready to fall off. But I'm going to do it anyway. Because from my perspective, from here with the G6 program on this new CFP format, you know, I know you said you personally don't like it, but it feels kind of disrespectful to the group of six teams as well. I get the counter argument against it that group of six teams haven't necessarily been competitive in this playoff era of college football. But when I look at a scenario like this year, you know, the highest ranked team from the G6 is Boise State from the Pac 12. They're one loss, that narrow loss to Oregon. If we put that into perspective of a 24 team playoff format, I don't think a group of six powerhouse like Boise State should simply take that one bit away from teams like James Madison, who's still undefeated this year, or a story like NDSU, who could still go 11-1 and win their conference. So overall, really on that, I wanted to get your opinion on kind of what feels like a G6 clause, just a one bid for those group of six teams. And then more so as a college football fan, just it feels like we still have a world with this 12 team playoff where two losses still matter. You know, this world of SEC cannibalism where everybody's beating up on everybody in Knoxville, a bunch of drunk fans storming the field after handing Alabama their second loss. Ohio State and Bloomington fighting for their life just to avoid getting the two losses after losing to Texas earlier in the season. But I know, of course, a lot of other people are going to have a lot to say on the bigger matters. So, of course, I wanted to get your opinion on- First of all, thank you for the call. I think the G6 will have their own playoff, frankly, and then we wouldn't be having this aimless conversation. Steve is in Montana. Good afternoon. Hello, Paul. Thank you for taking my call. Some pundits have suggested that the intensity and the physicality of the Georgia-Alabama game last week may have contributed to the losses to Auburn and Tennessee respectively. What are your thoughts on that? I think that is resulting in almost everything that we're seeing this year. And I expected this to happen later, but I didn't expect it to happen at the midpoint of the season because the ninth conference game is not a factor. We've only seen about five conference games so far, but I think emotion is a big deal. And when you're when you don't have the depth that you did four or five years ago, like a Georgia or an Alabama, you're going to get in trouble very quickly. You got a couple of players banged up. You don't have quality players to replace them, and you're in a world of hurt. John is in Ohio. John, good afternoon. Well, thanks for taking my call. I called in last week to talk about Kentucky going to Norman. And one thing you made clear was that Norman was not an impossible place to play. After watching that game, I have to echo that. Paul, what's going on with that fan base coming off the huge win versus Texas? Yeah. Well, first of all, I learned it last year. I've been to Norman a number of times, but being there for the Alabama CFP game, I was talking to a couple of people. I'm not going to mention their name, but they've been to an unbelievably large number of games in Norman. They said this place is overrated as a, it's not Tiger Stadium. It's not, I mean, New England Stadium, Saturday, you couldn't hear yourself think in that stadium, let alone talk. And I think Brett Venable's team gave the season away. It happens, but you need a lot more than, and by the way, let's not forget, Arch Manning handed the Sooners that game. They didn't win that game. I'm just shocked that coming off of the win that the fans were not more into it, even when they were winning the game. Well, I'll tell you what, deep down, John, I think the fans are confused about the future of the program under Venable's. Like all fans, they get behind him and he won that game, so all is right, and that's a big game. That's the biggest game of the year, but when you throw it away the next week, doesn't mean very much. Bill Conley is up next. We have a long way to go here on what has been a frenetic Monday afternoon. You're listening to The Paul Finebaum Show Podcast.