Mailbag Podcast: Will Tennessee basketball be playing next weekend?

0:00Ever notice how ads always pop up at the worst moments when the killer's identity is about to be revealed? During that perfect meditation flow, on Amazon Music we believe in keeping you in the moment. That's why we've got millions of ad-free podcast episodes, so you can stay completely immersed in every story, every reveal, every breath. Follow the Amazon Music App and start listening to your favorite podcast that free, included with Prime. It's time for the Ballacquist Mailbag Podcast, answering your questions from the General's Quarters, every week, right here on BallQuist. Hey, good Thursday morning everybody, welcome to the Ballacquist Mailbag Podcast, I'm Eric Cano, Longtime for Hubs, Matt Ray, and Grant Raimi.

1:01We got a lot of questions to get into here today. We got a lot going on right now at BallQuist.com with Tennessee Basketball. In the incidentally, tournament lady balls getting going this weekend as well, spring practice fully underway, tons of recruiting, Matt had a lot of notes and a lot of coverage from recruiting from this week up on the site right now, baseballs and SEC play, again, there's no better time to join us. If you're watching and listening to this right now, but not a member of the site, no better time. 50% off your first year of annual subscription, 50% off happening right now at BallQuist.com. You can sign up, the link is in the show notes, go check that out today at BallQuist.com. Let's hit some basketball questions to begin the day. We will go for Balls Forever 901, call your shot with the balls. Week in in Philadelphia, a mirror at the end of Rocky II, a hard-fought victory to advance to the Swiss XVI or Rocky I, a hard-fought close loss in the round of 32. Before we get started, we need to, for the YouTube viewers, everybody show off. We're all matching. Robert Pullup.

2:02Robert Pullup. Robert Pullup. That's all I got. There we go. There it is. There you go. There you go. There you go. If they do advance on Sunday, it will be a Rocky II hard-fought victory. How about Rocky II this weekend to get to the Midwest Regional in Chicago next weekend, and then Rocky IV next weekend, if I as can change, use can change, and Tennessee can go to the final four. How about that? Robert Pullup. I tell you what, if Tennessee is going to do that, they do have to change. They do have to change. They got a lot of change. Robert Pullup. They got to do some things differently. They need to find the Siberian snow to run through with a big wall on their back, but they can get some logs and some wagons and run in the snow, and yeah, go to Siberia for a week. You'll be fine. By the way, Matt Ray, shout out to me for having a pop culture reference to a movie. I've actually seen pretty shot here. A couple of movies there. A couple of movies there. If you haven't seen Rocky, Robert, there's something wrong. Robert Pullup. It's going to be a easy ball. How much conditioning time and efforts have native men put in since Thursday can't have

3:06him being so fatigued. I know short turnaround, but he makes us roll, please. Okay, yeah. So answer that one first about native men in his conditioning. I mean, we haven't seen any practice. I assume he's been a practice participant, nothing crazy. But you also want to have him involved because you need that, but that's kind of the line that you're always trying to walk between having him ready to go and not risking anything and having him fresh and trying to kind of straddle that fence and try to get the best of both roles there. Yeah, and I don't know what this, I don't even know what his regiment has been outside of treatment in the practice floor. I mean, we saw him in a complex on Wednesday, I guess it was, and he did not, he was in low-top shoes with, then if you have any kind of a brace on or anything like that. So I mean, he's clearly getting better. I think the question is, what's his, just his cardio durability and where's the balance of trying to get that back versus putting too much stress on the ankle and the leg outside

4:08of the practice floor, right? I mean, you're not going to crack and suddenly get your cardio back and take that kind of pounding. So I think there's a line there. It's good that there's a day off in between games if Tennessee can win the first one. But the reality is for this team, he's going to play as many minutes as they need him to play to try to win a basketball game. Right. Look, I mean, he played 62 minutes in two games that really didn't mean anything. Right. I mean, that tells you, once Rick gets in the game and gets in the competitive flow of it, you know, all bets are off. That Michigan State exhibition game a couple years ago, the Dalton Connect coming out party, that game was supposed to be like, let's play everybody. Let's, you know, let's enjoy this and make this a something that benefits both sides. As soon as both of those coaches got started, it was a five on five, just straight up basketball game. You're going to play your best five guys, your best rotation, all that stuff. That's who Rick is. I got two natives too. That was the feedback in Nashville, like, he's doing everything he can to get back on the floor as quickly as he can and they're almost trying to hold him back.

5:09So he's going to do everything he has to do to be available and be as close to 100 percent as he can be. It's like a part of this question, a football question. Please tell me Ryan Stov has nothing more than a backup plan, have to go with one of the two young guns, Matt Ray, I would assume that Tennessee is going to go with one of those two young guns for sure. Yeah. Does he certainly invest a lot of time and resources and recruiting both of those guys? I mean, you bring a guy in my front stop of veteran that has some experience that can come in and play in a pinch. I feel like if you need him, but I think it's an open quarterback competition, but if it was me, I'd be handicapped in it for one of the younger guys. Whoever wins the job, we're going to win the job, but I'd be shocked. It's going to be one of these two young guys for sure. Yeah. I mean, it's where it should. I mean, that's the anticipation. Again, you're going to play whoever gives you the best chance to win. I thought Ryan Stov was as refreshing as anybody you'll ever hear in a media setting on Tuesday, when he was just kind of like, man, I'm happy to be here. You know, that was that was kind of my takeaway too.

6:11And like, of course, and he even said, I'm here to compete. I'm here to work. I'm here to compete. But like my last takeaway was like, man, that guy just pulled to be a ball and you want people like that, of course. Yeah. And again, I think the maturity of him, you know, being an older guy who's not played a ton, right? Whereas, you know, we talked a year ago about how Joey came in and just kind of put his head down and went to work. But in Joey's mind, he was the starter of the day he picked Tennessee. Yeah. And he knew it because nobody else had experience. He just had to go about it the right way. And I give Joey tons of credit for, I mean, he didn't do big interviews before he got here and annoying himself and announce anything. You know, but this situation is different. I mean, I think that if Stop had started, you know, 20 games and had done a bunch of stuff granted, it would make it, it would be different. But I mean, here's the guy who started last year because they couldn't find the quarterback answer at Colorado, not because he really went and won a job. So I just think his mindset's a little bit different.

7:12He was very refreshing. You know, what, what a, when we visited with him on his portal visit, he was in such a hurry that when you left, you're kind of like, okay, what's, what's the, what's the deal with this kid? He was nice, but it was just all rushed and yesterday he's kind of bellied up to the bar. So to speak to the chair, just kind of held court and went at it. I mean, he was fun. And I think his maturity will be good for that room. All right. Back to basketball. Everything rhymes with orange 14. What is your favorite non-tenancy related March Madness moment? I think this question was a call back from the Monday night chat earlier this week. There was early 2000s, number 15, Hampton, beat number two Iowa State and the game was played at Boise State and that was before they all had uniform courts for March Madness and all that, all the logo and the branding and all that stuff. And Boise State had a crazy court back in the day. I don't think we watched that game at school, but it was one of those games in middle school where the TV cart came rolling in and for the afternoon on the Thursday or Friday for

8:16the first weekend. And I remember seeing highlights of that game because Hampton wins and the coach just runs over kind of in front of the score table, almost like Jim Valvano where he didn't know what to do because he was so shocked they won. He just put his hands up and one of the Hampton players comes behind him and hugs him and picks him up. His hands are up and his feet kick up and he's just like freaking out in the moment that was awesome. I remember that one, go ahead, man. No, you know, he got mentioned in the Monday night chat several times, but the J-Rot reaction, the shot, I mean, that's just as good as it gets, I mean, cool as a cucumber I guess, but man, what a reaction to winning it all and the shot and the moment and then him calling it and boom and then just. And J-Rot already looks like he's straight out of casting from Mad Men in the suits and all that stuff and for him to just say, boom, and the shot goes in and the shot goes in, everybody freaks out and he just turns around like, all right, guess we won.

9:19Yeah, I will remember and I think it was more for the call and I remember watching it. I was young, but when Keith Smart made the baseline jumper to beat Ronnie Sikley and Syracuse when it was Indiana there. The call, the game is resonated because the call has just over time, has just continued to be used and be used, but I remember that one being a pretty big upset. For whatever reason too, I can remember Danny Manning's Kansas run and that improbable run by Kansas to win a title that year. For six games, there have been other players. Rermell Matthew was mentioned in a thread on Tuesday about, has a single player carried a team through the tournament. I don't know that anybody carried a team through the tournament the way Danny Manning did and what, I guess that was 86 or 88, maybe somewhere in there. He was unbelievable. I know you guys are old enough to remember that, but he was unbelievable for three weeks. He was just, he was on a total different dominating level in that run that I remember as a

10:25young kid. It wasn't as great as I think it is because I'm going to look up the stats, but I just remember as a young kid going, this guy's just like, he owns the game. He's in control of everything. It was pretty cool to watch that one. I think Kimber Walker would be in that conversation as well in terms of just taking over for three weeks and get out of his way because he's just going to carry his team. Other impactful moments, obviously UMBC, not going to offer Virginia a couple years ago. That was history. Like near history in 09, your box almost took down pit. Was that 16 water? Was that 215? 215. Okay. And ETSU won a, I think a 14 seed game. They lost to the Fab Five in the second round. I think that's a footnote to history right there. Was that Keith Mr. Jennings? Was that that crew? I don't know the names in the personnel. Yeah, they had a run with, and I, again, this was, I was in high school. I remember I was house setting for a guy that I was working for, and never mind, I won't

11:27tell you where I was working, what I was doing at that. And it was all legal, by the way, but I was house setting this guy. And I remember Santa Clara with a guy named Steve Nash upset somebody. They were like a 15 maybe in a two 15 game, something like that. They upset somebody on a late night game. And I remember being up watching that and was like, that, you know, you thought when you had that, that was one of the early two 15 upsets. And you hadn't seen a ton of those Rhode Island had one, I guess, at some point. But I remember that game being like a big stunner, one of the earliest upsets I remember as well. You don't want me to tell you NBC story really fast, indulge you, you'll indulge me, I guess. So we're in Dallas, it's 2018, Tennessee's playing, they had just played the day before against Wright State, and they're getting ready to play all of the next day. So we go downtown and there's a sports bar called happiest hour, and we get there at like six o'clock, and we're going to enjoy the entire night slate of games. And UMBC Virginia comes on, and at some point we notice on the menu, there's a drink, camera,

12:32what it was called, but it was like a group drink, and it was $150. And we randomly said, like, before the first media time out, a few NBC wins this game, we'll order this drink. And it just kept going and going and going and going and uh oh, we ordered that drink. And we sat there at that sports bar for probably five or six hours, and the tab was something at the end of the night. And I don't know if he wants me to tell him the story, but Andy Staples ended up there with us. And the biggest move I've ever seen, he just says, I'll take care of the tab. He's got it. So then we uber to a place called fuel city tacos, because we need some food after this night of spirits. Um, I'm like, man, Andy paid for the, Andy paid for the tab at the last place. I'm going to get these tacos. So we order like, it feels like we order tacos for an entire army unit and the lady goes, all right, that'll be like $26. And I was like, how, how could it not be more like you've got to charge me more? I'm trying to do something here, so that was it.

13:32And then the next day before the, well, again, I tried to give Andy some money. I don't even know if he took it, but that was a great night. The next day, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a great ramie, Vin Mo that you can just decline, because he's always trying to pay you back for something next day did not go so well for me. It went fine for to say it did not go so well. It did not go so well. All right. We'll stay on the, uh, the basketball front here, AJ Lewis, 0527 has Josh shirts done enough to be a candidate for when Rick Barnes retires, Josh built link of a memorial into a D2 power has done both, has done well both at Indiana State and St. Louis. I'm curious as to what the pool will look like when the time comes when Rick Barnes retires. Yeah. He's done enough to be a candidate. He's going to be a popular candidate for just about every big job opening here, probably in this cycle and in the cycles moving forward just because of how much he's won and how much success he's had consistently at those different stops. He's favorite anonymous college basketball insider, Trillie Donovan posted one day something

14:35saying something that Tennessee was shirts his dream job, so I don't know really what the connection is outside of Lincoln Memorial and kind of the locality of that, but that's a big deal if that is the case. And I say that as a fan of Trillie Donovan myself, but I think, um, I think yeah, he's going to be in that kind of pool. He's going to be in a lot of kind of pools because he's winning a lot of games. Quite the rise from Harrogate to Knoxville, baby, from the Turner arena to Food City Center. Dream World again, this is when Rick Barnes retires because everybody loves to talk about that all year long, the last five, six years, your top three candidates have even given that any thought. Yeah. Um, I think TJ, also burger would be there for me. The Iowa State Coach. He's been very impressive in my opinion. Um, I think Josh shirts would be in that top three for me in terms of guys to go after. I think Brian Hodgson is a name that will become more popular in the next few cycles. He's a Nate Oates descendant. He's at South Florida. He's had a lot of success as a head coach.

15:36He's obviously very offensive minded and does a lot of the stuff that Nate does in terms of tempo and efficiency and offensive numbers and all that stuff. So if they can make some noise, I think he's a, he's a Western New York guy. So maybe he's a, ends up as a candidate at a Syracuse now that there's a job opening there. I don't know who that third one would be for me right now, but they're, you know, I think also burger and shirts are two good ones for the time being. Yeah. I think I read somewhere where he just turned down the Syracuse job maybe on, on Wednesday morning. Oh, great. The report study was which to me, man, what does that say about where Syracuse is right now? That's right. Go get that. If that's true, if you can't get him out, listen, I understand living in Tampa. It's a heck of a lot better than living in Syracuse to York. Coaching an ACC job versus being in a group of five place at South Florida tells me he's either holding out for something specific or Syracuse is just a mess. And, you know, he didn't, he didn't want to go get involved in that deal.

16:36If that story is true, but you would, you know, again, this is my, remembering the old big east, big Monday days on ESPN. It's hard to imagine that Syracuse is not perceived as a really high end basketball job, but boy, they're having some struggles up there for sure. He had a really cool moment during his tournament media appearance where he was talking about getting selected and they're playing in Buffalo. And, you know, he's been a head coach for three years, his dad's got dementia. So he's not been able to make that trip, but he's going to get to watch him coach in person for the first time here in the tournament. I thought that was a really cool moment that he kind of had and shared there. He seemed like a pretty genuine person. Great. You had a good trouble with the Syracuse this winter, didn't you? That did. It was about the longest 22 hours of my life. No, it was good. It was a fun trip. It was a different experience. I hate that for Syracuse. If that's the case, I had not seen that. That's tough. It's also kind of be careful what you wish for with these job openings, man. You never know what it's going to be. I mean, maybe that's Syracuse not having everything lined up the way they need to have

17:37it lined up. And maybe it's a bad social media story. I remember. Yeah, that's true. I mean, they're fault, but they're... The fall from grace can happen to anybody and you just never know like that. They're one of the most relevant basketball programs in college basketball just in terms of historical and wins and what you think when Syracuse basketball comes to mind. But yeah, that would be a big mess for them. Well, you said it best. Be careful what you wish for. Right. Be careful having the desire for the brand new car when your car is running 80 mile an hour down the interstate and still doing a lot of good things. It's not about who you fire. It's about who you hire and it's always the that's always the the rub right there. It can be you can take the next step with your next hire and it can be awesome. And the best movie you've ever made or you can stumble and it's going to be hard to get out of that mess that that comes from that stumble. If you don't get it right, home filled apparel, the exclusive apparel sponsor of volquest.com

18:39basketball season. It is very much coming to a close here pretty soon. Hopefully not for a few more weeks. You know what I'm saying? But baseball season, softball season, those spring sports. It was 80 degrees the other day here in East Tennessee at the time of this recording and it's freaking snowing outside. It's crazy. This weather. So, home filled apparel vintage college design for your Tennessee volunteers. They specialize in having a peril for any types of weather out here. This crazy forecast in East Tennessee and the Knoxville area again, it's vintage college design nostalgia. I want to take you back a little bit from those Tennessee wear that you wore back when you were a kid, maybe growing up in middle school, high school, maybe as a young adult or whatever. It's specialized in vintage college design. If you're watching this right now on the YouTube channel, you're seeing some of the stuff that we have out there, incredibly comfortable sweatshirts, interlocking UT, signage, bomber jackets. They have a smoky apparel section. They got a proud of the Southland marching band apparel section. They got lady balls.

19:39They got a Tennessee baseball. Pretty much anything you want, they've got it over there at homefilledapparel.com. The Tennessee selection is one of the best. So go check it out today, homefilledapparel.com. Make sure that you are dressed and looking great for the next Tennessee game that you attend. You can do that at homefilledapparel.com. Most notable things that have caught your eye early in spring practice, Matt Ray. Well, I think one for that, it's just kind of the change of the practice feel. I mean, no music, the first day that we were out there during periods and then they're moving around doing things a little bit differently. We didn't watch stretch, then turn over circuit. We watched them go straight into some different stuff and I thought number one that was different. I thought some guys physically, especially some of the freshmen caught my attention. I thought they guys like Kamari Blair and Gabo Sinde of the white room has been good to them. Early on. The white room needs to be a lot better to Kamari Blair though, that's for sure. It does.

20:39He's got to continue to grow. I think he's adding a lot of weight, a big guy long arms, but I think he's got to continue to grow. But I was kind of surprised to see where he had gotten to already. I think he's got room to obviously continue to improve, but he's a pretty athletic tackle. I'm just kind of seeing them move around. It's different. There's a different defensive coaching staff. Guys are different places on the field. I think that kind of jumped out right away and just feels like there's a little bit of a different energy this spring. Fridge, you got anything? Yeah, I mean, I think it was just to watch Jim Knowles day one to day two. Day one seemed like a little bit more sort of observer day two. He was very much more kind of hands on. There's sometimes when the defensive side of all, when they're getting a fundamental drill established, something that they're going to run a lot. There's an extra teaching time where you're like, man, they're not getting a lot of reps in during this period, but they're teaching it because they're going to run that period multiple times a week, not just in spring, but in fall camp and even during season.

21:44They want to make sure it's being done the right way. Just a ton of fundamental work, a lot of tackle angle work, particularly in space with the secondary. And we know a huge priority for the secondary. They got a tackle better than they did a year ago. And so you're seeing a ton of tackling work being done by Anthony Poindexter. Just on fundamental things. Just playing angles and pursuit drills and that kind of, you know, just their different touches on the way that they're doing it, you know, kind of stood out to me early on. I thought the quarterbacks had thrown them all well. I think they've been able to go pretty fast with some things at that position. But clearly they're working on some fundamental stuff with those guys as well, particularly with as phase on Brandon talked about using his lower body more as a big priority. You can, you can see that in Joey Halsey's conversations with him after every rep, basically, on the practice. Not that it's terrible, but it's just a reinforcement. Much the same way this time of year ago, it was trying to shorten George McIntyre's release. And his release is tighter.

22:44That's something that he has improved on over the last year for sure. Yeah, on the quarterback front, I think they've, I think they look really good. We haven't seen him do a lot and day one, they, they did routes on their running backs so that they really didn't have a period there day two. They did short to intermediate throws. I mean, I don't think we've seen a throw 20 yards down the field yet. But they've looked good. I think George or some of the football really well. I think phase on has to and again, to reiterate what you said, certainly no quarterback guru. But, you know, when phase on Brandon learns how to use his bottom half and his legs and you know, the twerk and all that is in his throwing motion, it's going to be even more dangerous. But man, that arm is lively, back hash, tin yard out from the far hash. Oh my gosh. And he didn't use his bottom half. It just zipped it right in there. I mean, that was a beautiful throw on Tuesday from phase on Brandon quarterback. Right. So that's what I heard. I can't take it. He's cleared the winner. He's calling it. What's today, March, feeling the blank, whatever the day is.

23:46He's calling it. I can't hear that. Just scowl. I mean, the next media appearance. Third and Chavis, why is the basketball portal Intel so hard to gather compared to football portal? Does break play things super close to the chest? Are the visits quicker and just harder to get intel on? I know the ball question stays on top of things, but previous years always seems like we didn't know any portal targets until they were here on campus. It's hit or miss. They do play things closer to the chest. You do start hearing some things before it becomes public. I mean, we were we were hearing about Jacobi Gillespie before Maryland was out of the tournament just because it felt like Kevin Willard was going to be the new coach at Villanova. There's going to be defections at at Maryland and Tissy needed a point guard. He was from Greenville and all that stuff. So sometimes I think maybe Chazzle and Ere was the same way if this guy enters the portal Tissy is going to be a team to watch there and it's just they do play things close to the vest. They don't want a ton of things getting out. It's kind of operate differently. I mean, you know, Zacazegler and Marquis Clark, those are two three star point guards that

24:51I know they're not relevant to the portal discussion, but they were very under the radar. Nobody knew who they were. Tissy had them evaluated a lot higher than other programs did and they don't really want other people knowing their business on that kind of stuff because they're trying to get those guys into the uniforms before anybody knows who they are. So I think they have a little bit of that with their transfer portal logic as well. They don't want everything out in the open and publicize because they're trying to, you know, win competitive advantages on that front as well. Grant, I wonder too from a national standpoint, do you think the portal in college basketball is covered as extensively as it is in college football just from a national perspective? I mean, maybe it is. It just doesn't, it doesn't sometimes feel like there's a, you know, here's who this player is going to visit these four schools over the next four days. I mean, just, it feels like the whole scope of it. Maybe it's because there's fewer players in the portal. Maybe guys already know where they're, I don't know, it just, to me, it feels like it's

25:54covered a little bit different, which makes me think a lot of basketball coaches are more under the radar about where they're going with portal. I've always felt this. I've always felt basketball kids and football kids are just wired completely differently and the way their recruitment's play out as, as, where I see that the most and that's, as high school kids and I think that's as portal kids and it's usually no secret when a kid's about to enter the portal or thinking about it in the portal and all that stuff, especially on the basketball front that applies as well. But from there, it becomes a little bit more hit or miss like you might, you might learn that this guy's visiting this, this in this school, but outside of that, there's not a ton of, they don't, they don't publicize stuff as much as football kids do it seems like and there's nothing wrong with either way you want to go about it. It's just always come across to me like they're wired very differently. Phase on passes the I test from a physicality standpoint in your opinion. Can you pick up enough of the offense from a mental standpoint to have a real shot at the starting job or is GMAC's knowledge of the offense too much to overcome that?

26:58I think it's way too early in spring practice to declare anything in that regard. I understand George has a year in the system and that is certainly not nothing, but let's not act like he's a 10 year pro here. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think for both of these guys, there's still going to be a learning curve for phase on you're trying to get up to speed on on a number of different things, not just the offense, you're trying to get up to speed on, you know, practice of what we're going through, practice and those things, but, you know, George obviously has an advantage there, but at the same time, if you're Tennessee, your offense is constantly evolving. Something that Josh Isle was talked about this offseason, it's something that they did last offseason. It was evolving before Nico left and involved more after Nico left, going to continue to evolve. So both of those guys, I think, are going to be playing maybe not on exactly level footing, but I don't think it's something that phase on can't overcome. Yeah. I mean, I think, and I wrote about this on Wednesday. I think this is something that probably gets glossed over a little bit when you look at things.

27:59One, I think the fact that you can't run tempo is easily as you once did, changes what you're asking your quarterback to do. And two, I think the way defenses are playing teams now, particularly tempo teams that would like to try to be in some tempo stuff, they're trying to show their hand really, really late. And so what it causes is, and Jim Nose talked about this and his sit down interview with Mike Keith that he did last month. We don't talk about three safeties and everything. They're trying to make the quarterback read more post snap than pre snap. And Grant, so much of getting a young guy ready, an athletic guy, whatever it is, hey, you hold up the flash card, then it became Helmut Com and you say, hey, slot receiver here, you know, on a dig or, you know, it runs sort of specific things as opposed to concepts. I think quarterbacks are, and it's the cycle of football, they're being forced to be more concept oriented that you're going to have to do more progression reads instead of just point and throw, which makes it maybe a little harder for a young quarterback.

29:01Are an inexperienced quarterback that creates more growing pains, I guess is what I'm trying to say, Grant. Yeah, I mean, it, it's a leg up for now for GMAC that he's, he's been here and he's been in the offense and he says it's a completely different feel year two versus year one. But at the same time, Joey Aguilar got here, win last May and did a crash course through the summer and they felt like he was the best quarterback, given them the best chance to win. So he played not obviously the big difference with phase on and Joey is experienced at the college level and and phase on doesn't have that. But at the same time, it's quarterback and you're going to play the guy that gives you the best chance to win whether he's been here for, you know, two weeks or two years. All right, we will jump to Dowball five. Why do you think we never saw an SEC team challenge the in conference spring transfer ban to say you have that much grip on the conference? You know, that's a great question. And I don't know why someone was afraid of that. I don't know if they didn't think they could get it on a court docket or what the case may be.

30:04But it really surprises me that nobody challenged that rule because I just don't think there's any way you lose that case if it ever gets in a court. If one collection of athletes around the country can do one way, why are you going to lose a court battle that says you're specific group that you're involved in, which has no collective bargaining agreement, all those types of things? Why can't you do it in that league if you can do it in every other league? I am surprised no one challenged that rule. Yeah, again, the basis of the argument is if you're a student, if you're a college student, and you want to unenroll from this school and go to another school, you're free to do that. And you challenge that in the courts. And you know, it's especially if one section of the country is allowing that to happen if you're a student athlete, like you pointed out, I'm with you. I'm surprised that nobody really challenges or challenge that in the Southeastern Conference of the Craig Sanky. Here's one that you'll like. Did rainy moths stop by when he was in town fishing? He did not stop by. He did not make it to the Quatic Center for a dip in the pool. He didn't come by and hang out with the vols, but I wish I

31:12had a known he was intent. It was awful cold. I probably wouldn't stand on the dock and try to find him. But there's a lot of people there. Obviously, he's an interesting story. I love him as a commentator. I kind of like what he's sort of morphed into compared to where he was when he was a very young human being, but he did not make it by the complex. But he certainly loves to fish. He was a part of that pro am, which is pretty cool. It seems like he's doing better health wise as well, right? Yeah, it seems like it. Again, I love him on TV. I'd never thought, I mean, I never thought I would say that. I mean, probably the two of the bigger surprises to me in terms of people who were good in that role that I never dreamed. I mean, they were like, we're going to hire Randy Moss. I'm like, holy geez, really? But I think he's fantastic. I think he's entertaining. I think he's knowledgeable. I think he's pretty raw. And obviously in the college game, they said, I mean, Nick Saban's been like, I never saw that coming at all. I think he's been really fantastic in that role. Never dreamed that he would actually commit to it the way he has. So

32:13you never know when some of those things work, but those two guys work. I'm glad to see that Randy Moss is doing better and continuing to be a part of things because I think he's entertaining on television. And I'm glad I don't have to call him and ask him where he's going to school. Yeah, no doubt. Then he didn't know that call with with national baseball coverage with the World Baseball Classic. I'm going to have a question about that here in a moment. I've been seeing a lot of a rod on television. And in Alex Rodriguez is such a dislikable human being. It feels like, like, I don't like the guy. Didn't like him as a player. He cheated. He lied. You just knew he was going to be really good as a broadcaster. And I, I mean, I don't like him. But when he's on my television, like every time he says something, I'm listening because he is obviously so smart. He, I mean, he knocked that coverage out of the park part of that panel with their jeeter and big poppy and all that. So he carries that crew. And he's just another example of, you know, guys that you didn't think maybe, well, I guess he's different because I thought he would always excel in that role. He's a little bit more likable now is what he is now. But right.

33:16I mean, when he when he advocated and lied and lied and lied and finally he got the then negotiate a punishment that he was okay with. He's like, okay, yeah, I did it. I did it. It's like all right, buddy, whatever. Smokey one Kenobi, first and foremost, great handle. Secondly, this question was all the talk on Tuesday. Is Tristan Key's speed and explosiveness an issue? No, they were not going full speed. Yeah, I mean, you know, that was a deal. Jason Swayne tried to explain it on social media and actually got a Mari Rogers to participate in and who Jason helped when he was a younger player because of his relationship with T and Jason knew him from his time. I mean, that particular route, I mean, he's working on some specific things on trying to run that route the right way and become more of a polished route runner. So what happens is you're not running at full speed. You're focusing on the output, I guess, and kind

34:17of your body land, your body lean and try not to sell it early. And you're trying to work on the footwork of it. So you start at a reduced speed and you build to it. And the video that was caught was at reduced speed. It was not a full speed rep by design. They were working on a specific part of that. So it was not a, you know, go as fast as you can go. I mean, I get nobody has ever said that Tristan Key's has top in world class speed, but he doesn't like for explosiveness. He doesn't like for speed. Nobody is concerned about his physical ability to play receiver at this level. So understand the route that was being run there. You know, I just, you got to understand that what you see is don't there's reasons for things happening sometimes the way that they happen. And that was the case in that 12. And that's why I put the disclaimer in every practice

35:17observation. You know, we say it repeatedly like what we see oftentimes like routes on air is the biggest overblown thing that we react to. We you and I as roles fans. Okay. Like we'll be there like gosh, man, Joey Aguilar. He was awful today. And then after practice, like Joey had a really good day. It's like, what? You know, you mean the seven minutes that I saw on phone, the football, like, well, that's the hard part. And I get where coaches are. And I don't blame coaches. I don't blame coaches that close practice completely down because something gets taken out of context that way. When I first started doing this, you never, nobody ever thought about charting or routes versus air or even paying attention to them because you were going to get to stay and watch one on ones and seven on sevens. And then you would chart the scrimmage because that's where football was being played. So like I have all the Peyton Manning scrimmage charts, his freshman year on what he did. Because that was a note, right? That was a note on how the quarter, it was just him. I did

36:21cold quit. I did all those guys. I had him in 98 with T. Barton and how bad they were in August throwing the football. Not how bad they were in routes versus air, but how bad they were in 11 on 11 because we got to see it. I understand why we don't get to see it now. But because of that, sometimes the context changes because people want to know what the quarterbacks look like. Well, all I can tell you is here's what they did in routes versus air. At the end of the day, what does that mean? I mean, I've told us before, Casey Clawson was one of the worst routes versus air quarterbacks I've ever watched practice. For the simple reason, he thought it was a pointless drill. Like, why don't we have somebody out there contesting the receiver and contesting the ball? Like, I don't understand the rest of it. I'm loose, guys have stretched and run. Let's go play football. It was never a big deal for him that way. I've seen some other guys. Joe Milton was one of the best routes versus air guys you'll ever see. I was about to say that, yeah. It didn't necessarily translate. But when that's all you get to see, you have to be careful not to over-analyze that.

37:22But it's hard not to over-analyze that when that's the only thing you get to see. Again, I'm not critical to Coach Heipel, because I understand all of it, but that's the challenge in covering practices. Everybody wants to know everything. Morsel, and you've got to be careful not to let not to let that one thing become the thing, so to speak. Again, Tristan Keys is going to be fine. Yeah. And the Tristan Keys example is a perfect example. Those guys are working on something specific in routes versus air. How many times have we seen receivers, specifically guys who are dealing with some hammy issues like Chris Brazler, Mike Matthews, and pointed to times last year, start their routes versus start their route ten yards up the field where the break is. Sure. There's so many different things they're working on in routes versus air. Again, it's the only thing we get to see, so it's the thing that everybody over-reacts to. But the fact of the matter is quarterbacks, water seevers, tight ends, they're all working on something specific. And at times, that can disrupt the timing a little bit.

38:25All right, you teach up 54 a couple weeks ago, ask Tennessee why Tennessee was willing to pay $2.5 to $3 million for running back. My question is why since Josh Hyples has been here, Tennessee run game has been at the top of the SEC, you know, Dada Dada, a lot of NFL guys. 2024 was a good year. Just makes no sense to spend that much money on a running back. These kids have were three and four stars. They turned to the NFL backs now. He got a walk on that rush for a thousand yards. Essentially, he wants to know why they're paying that much money. Why would they be willing to pay that much money for DGG, right? DGG and then, you know, Hyder last year they were, they were obviously going to pay for that one if they could get it. My friend, you take this, but like those two guys are exceptions because I agree with the poster for the most part, but those two guys are exceptions. Like you pay for those guys, but the NFL doesn't pay a lot for running back. I understand where he's coming from. Unless it's B. John Robinson. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then he got drafted high, right? I mean, he got drafted high and two of tongue of a low is going to be a handoff to him every time. Yeah. So I mean, fear. There's obviously

39:29exceptions and everything else to the rule. I mean, it's one of those things where you have to make a decision as a head coach and your, your staff of GM's or whatever you have there, like where are we going to allocate? What are we allocating for? What is important to us? Is this one particular player a difference maker for us? We think that it can really change and really enhance the run game. And those, those are, those are eight and nine million dollar decisions. And that's, you know, is it the right decision? We had this discussion, I mean, this discussion has been on the message board when Nate A. meant went down with an injury. Did they spend too much money? Did you allocate too much money for one player? You shouldn't necessarily do it that way. Take that money and go get a couple more players. That there's, there's, you know, that's, that is what those guys are getting paid to do to determine what somebody's worth and what somebody is willing to pay. And obviously, Tennessee at this point is all in on on DGG. I don't know what,

40:34what the number is going to be or not going to be and that type of thing. But I mean, it's pretty clear. They're all in on on Gabriel, George's and they have been for a couple of years. So, you know, is it the right call? I mean, hey, if he comes here and shatters record, yeah, if he comes here, he doesn't play very well. No. But I mean, it's, that's for those coaches to decide, kind of where that value is. I'm not trying to get a cop out answer because I understand that the running back position seems to be devalued, right? And football and Tennessee has been successful with lower ranked running backs, you know, in this system. You know, they, they feel like this guy maybe is a generational type deal and they're going to, they're going to focus on that. They're clearly investing and trying to get him to campus. Whose bullpen management is worse? Joshi Landers or Mark Dorosis? Mark Dorosis come under a lot, both these guys have come under a lot of scrutiny this past week. Mark Dorosa for, you know, a comment that he had on hot stove is the

41:36manager of the team USA and the World Baseball Classic not knowing the rules or he did know the rules or he was spoke and he doubled down, whatever, he just, he took a huge L USA responded got to the, to the title game of the tournament and came up short against Venezuela. The WBC if for those of you that were watching the broadcast throughout the tournament and really, you know, on Tuesday night, man, Major League Baseball and these agents and Major League Baseball front office personnel, I mean, they're, they're kind of controlling all the dominoes here, but the team Venezuela's closer, the closed out the, the Cubs closer. They comes up, they closed out the game the other night. I mean, they basically said you can only use my guy if it's a safe situation of the ninth and that's when it worked out. So all these teams that were in the WBC were kind of, you know, had their hands tied a little bit of when they could use their pitching and how often they could use them. So I'm not going to fault Dorosa and awful lot there. Can't walk the lead off God in the ninth when you tie the game. I mean, that's inexcusable there. I love the WBC man. I wish it was every single year. I also wish Team USA cared about it like all the other, like all the other

42:36countries that would be, that'd be really cool. Well, I think the hard part of that is in the middle of spring training. It is. You know, you know, if you're a club owner, you've got a bunch of money invested in a guy. They have responsibility. The last thing you want to hear is this guy's got elbow tinder and it's coming out of that because it's thrown too much or he's got a sore shoulder or something has happened and you're like, well, that's my million dollar arm that's out leaving spring training and going to throw competitive games against other teams out there that want to win that want to win it more than we do. I mean, I think it's a great concept. The problem is when do you play it so that you can really turn everybody loose? Nobody wants somebody throwing, you know, after the World Series and throwing in December when you're in an offseason recovery point. So okay, we're going to throw it, you know, we're going to play it during spring training like we are. I mean, you know what I'm saying? Like as a manager and and a team president and owner, you're built, you're trying to build up and get ready for

43:36the long grind and now you got a guy going out there to play that he, but you're not playing two innings of spring training ball out there. He's in a competitive nine inning game to try to win. I mean, I think the concept of it's really, really cool. I just think it's hard to squeeze it in the calendar where it can be competitive the way that you would like team USA to be and not maybe hand ties some people on what they can and can't do. For sure, but every team, 90% of the teams are in this tournament. They got stars immediately baseball too. And from a, from a, from a, I care about a standpoint, everybody else just cared about it so much more than USA did, and that bothers me. From the timeings, you're exactly right. Like the clubs have responsibility, there's no perfect time to do it. You know, Bryce Harper pretty much came out last week and said, you know, WBC is great. I love it. It's not the Olympics. I hope, I hope we get the, I hope we're going to LA in 2028, you know, baseball is in the Olympics. That'd be great. Problem is, I mean, that's right in the middle of the majorly baseball season or towards the, you know, the back half of the fall getting ready for postseason run. So there's no perfect time

44:39in there. That's right. But you saw it in his way. I mean, they were moved to tears the other nights, just what it meant for that, for that program, that organization, obviously, that country. So I don't know. It's, I'm a huge WBC guy. I jumped on board with that way early on when King Griffey and Shipper Jones and Jason Veriteck and all those guys were playing. So that's kind of a soft spot for me. But that, I always enjoy the World Baseball class again. I mean, I think, I think the frustrating part in a lot of, in a lot of ways is like, you know, even like the Ryder Cup, you know, in golf. I mean, it means more to the European team. It appears that it does the, the Americans, most every year. And that part of it is frustrating. You know, it's, I mean, the hockey, the hockey game in the Olympics between Tennessee and Canada or between Tennessee, the United States and Canada was, was fantastic. You don't get enough of those sort of country-pride type games or type moments that you would like to see, whether it's in the,

45:40World Baseball Classic or whether it's in the Ryder Cup and golf and things like that. Yeah. Also, and this, this happens in the Olympics as well. Team Italy, the best story. I mean, Venezuela won. It's, I guess, the best story. But team Italy, the best story of the WBC. 80% of that roster is America. They're, they're Italian Americans. They were born here. So I don't know how we can, you know, fix that issue. As far as the Josh Elander side of this whole thing, I mean, his explanation on Sunday for leaving Braden, Crenzel in there was like, hey, we believe in him when we like to match up. I think he made the wrong call. That's what he's going with. You know, the guy that homer, it was a ground ball hitter. Crenzel is a ground ball pitcher. I understand, but you had just given up single walk walk to load the bases. I just give it up a run with a hit where they actually got two runs out of it as well. A move needed to be made. So we'll see if Josh Elander can learn from that or if he sticks in those certain situations, it's all about evolving and learning and we'll see what happens. The OB, the OB

46:42ball can OB, bigger factor for improving tackling for the coming season, new strength conditioning program or different coaching. Um, I think that it's probably a little bit of a combination of both. I'm watching some of the strength and conditioning stuff in the off season. One of the things that is big in Derek Owings world is they a lot of times if they're running a sprint or they're finishing a drill instead of finishing through the cone Eric, they finish at the cone, meaning they have to come to a complete stop, but you've got to get full speed and come to a stop. It's a controlled stop. Part of that is muscle development apparently and there's some things in the strength and training world that I don't, I don't look at me. I have no idea what I'm talking about with that, but they're that that's done for some development of muscle mass strength and that type of thing, but it's also done from the standpoint of improving tackling. So I think that again, Derek Owings talked about this in his interview with Austin that he did his interview with Mike Keith. He is, he is not a bodybuilding strength coach. He is a football strength because

47:46everything they do is football related. So what can he do from a physical standpoint to help a team or help a player become a better titular? But then the other side of that is what do they do fundamentally from a coaching standpoint to also be a better better tackling team? So it works hand in hand. I don't know that there's one that's bigger than the other. I do think that the strength and conditioning stuff that that Owings is doing has a full football, everything is for football movement in hand in his deal, which will certainly help this team tackling, but so we'll coaching. Yeah, one example of that, like instead of you know stopping at the cone instead of running through the cone, you make an open full tackle, you got to break down, like you got to break down. If you if you go in their full speed, they're going to sidestep, you're going to miss that tackle. We saw a ton of that from the from the secondary last year. So that emulates, you know, breaking down for an open field tackle. You're right. It's it's completely hand in hand. As far as the coaching aspect of that, you know, drills you do every single day, individual drills,

48:50how you go about turnover circuits, all that top and stuff. It's instilling habits, it's instilling muscle memory and trying to create good habits and being a good tackling football team. Well, and here's the problem too with tackling moving forward right quick. I mean, when you're at 105 players, instead of 130 or 125, whatever your roster number was with walk-ons, you have to find ways to fundamentally improve as a tackling team without tackling every day. Okay, it's not like it was 30 years ago where you just put some scout team guy out there and you just let him get beat up every day getting tackled. Those days are hard to do now. So you have to do it from a fundamental standpoint and you know, make figure out the best way to make that translate to the game as best you can because you you have to be mindful about not getting people hurt. Also really enjoyed Brent's post on Coach Cuts Retirement. Those stories alone are worth the subscription. I read that on the board last night. That was that was some good stuff. Oh, it was yeah, I mean, he's the best. Again, a young guy that that David just

49:51invested in me and learning and helping learn and we've just sometimes you hit it off with people for whatever reason and I don't know why, but he and I hit it off well when I was young, which struck back up our friendship when he was in town for that that year where he was a coaching and I had spoken with him some actually one of the the first time I went to SEC media days and it was in Birmingham. It wasn't in Hoover. It was actually in Birmingham at the old Sheridan. I was the first time I went for Valk West. David was kind enough to do a sit down with me. Now think about that. I mean, here I am doing some website and David saw me and we we sit down and did five or 10 minutes of an interview that I did for the site and you know, we kind of just struck our French and kept our friendship going and he was just always great to me and I mean, I walk in this past year and he's there down on the sideline and he's, you know, I'm sitting there with him and he's shoe learned. We're sharing a laugh and some stories and then he's walked off to talk to somebody and he put his arm around me and he goes, hey, now a couple things to keep

50:52an eye on tonight. Think about this, be looking about that, be like, I mean, just cool stuff like that. That he's just taught me a lot of football and was very, very gracious with his time with me throughout my entire career. Love that guy. My favorite part of that, you know, story that you wrote, the other not about Coach Cutt was talking about you as a 19 year old, going in the detail and breaking down a specific play from practice. When I was the reporter for the station for the couple of years, like, we didn't get to see that intent stuff, but I even knew like, that's a no no. I was about to be a lot back here. I mean, that's totally should not have done it, you know, and totally it was like, I mean, I remember it was like, it was, it was a toss to the right so he could square his shoulders, he wouldn't throw him back across his body. And I mean, it was, I mean, they had worked on it, worked on it, and I don't even know if they ever ran the play, but I did. Thankfully, there was no internet back then, so nobody could take my poster or take what I said and turn it into a poster or anything like that. But I did. If you were a fan of the opponent,

51:52you lived in Knoxville, Tennessee, and heard that practice report, you absolutely could tell your friends back at your school, hey, Tennessee's got a trick play and watch it this weekend because I heard to got to talk about it because I was in full detail on how that sucker went. But look, you towed the line there and it's like, well, better to ask for forgiveness. Look where it got you. Well, I did it because I didn't know any better. And again, he comes over and I think he knew that I was like, man, what if this guy's going to be around, we've got to do, we got to do, and he had I mean, David Cuckliffe and Mike Keith had a long really well as well. So that was part of the reason why he just didn't just come unhinged on me. I'm sure because of his relationship with Mike, but he just told me that it's our lesson. We ain't doing that. All right, what do you need to know? And then who are you and what are you about? And we kind of started building a relationship from from there. It was really cool. Yeah, that's really neat. A couple of different things here. Go to Barb Chip dip, another all-American handle. We all know GMAC needs to stack pounds and stack reps at soft season, stack those days. Do you see my head on the other day? Yeah, stacking days, baby. Yeah,

52:56yeah. Everybody uses that. Like, I mean, everybody does. It's become a great comment. I mean, Karen Weekly used it the other week talking about her softball team. Yeah, because she heard you say it on a, you know, ball network interview or something. Yeah, I'm sure. Beyond that, where does GMAC's game need to improve to grow and be an effective day one starter? Well, I mean, again, I think the thing with GMAC and you said it best earlier is this is not a 10-year veteran or four-year veteran or two. I mean, he's got nine career passing attempts. So what does his game need to grow? I mean, he's got to grow in all areas, not just physically. I mean, mentally it's progressions. It's decision-making. It's understanding where he's going with the football. Why is he going there? It's understanding the seeing the pitchers. I mean, because again, defenses are doing everything they can to create confusion and muddle the pitcher for you as much as they can. He's got to be able to sort through that quickly and make quick decisions. That's why a lot of people are around the country are like, man, you got to have an experienced quarterback. You got to have an experienced quarterback. So how

54:00quickly can he pick up on those things and work through the growing pains or whoever the quarterback is, work through some of the early growing pains they're going to have of getting tricked? I mean, listen, we saw it in the Oklahoma game, right? What Joey Aguilar thought he saw? And then what it became post-snap when he just assumed it was going to be open on the post ended up in an easy interception? You know, I mean, it's those things. It's the mental side. Physically, I'm not worried about George. I mean, I know the weight thing and the durability part is there, but I think the question for George, for Faeson, for anybody, it's, who is making the right decisions and processing those decisions at a pace where you have to, that you're not waiting to someone's wide open, you're throwing them open, you're understanding the windows, you're understanding it through your progressions. And that's that's hard to do based just on practice stuff. I mean, whoever the starter is is going to have to really grow week one to week two. There should be a huge learning curve between those first two weeks of

55:02season for them. Joey Halsey spoke on this earlier this week. I mean, you want a guy with a lively arm, you want a guy with mobility, you want an athletic guy, you want a tall guy, I mean, you want all these attributes, but at the end of the day, you have to be able to process, you know, in a lot of scrimmage, okay, so that's my read, I go to my next read, okay, this is closed, I'm going to my next thing, you got to be able to process at a high cliff and you can simulate that a lot in practice, but again, it's not like anything you're going to see in a game, and then to your point from week to week. So it's like, okay, they played me this way this week, Alabama's going to play me a different way. I think Kentucky's going to play me a different way. How do you process and kind of build off that, you know, whoever does that at the best clip, among other things, this is going to be Tennessee's quarterback. A couple more questions here. Nashville since one five most casual fans are expecting nine to 10 wins. This fall yet, our Vegas win total is in the six to seven win range. What do you make of the despair, the transparency? He said, I'll know that I think rational ballquist folks have the fall of the construction of this team, understand eight and four is in a bad outcome. A couple of things here,

56:05Fandall released it late last week. They were at six and a half. Tennessee was one of five teams about time I checked it to record my show Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening. Tennessee was one of five teams that changed from that. Tennessee went up from six and a half to seven and a half. I think, there's one team that went down. I think maybe South Carolina went down and there were four teams that went up. I think a lot of that is there's a ninth conference game. So a lot of the totals are a little bit lower than you expect, but Tennessee started at six and a half, which I thought was incredibly too low. It's sending it seven and a half and I think seven and a half is a pretty good number. I would take the over there, but casual fans as you're asking are just, you know, guys that, guys and gals that tune in to watch the game on Saturday and say, oh, who we got this week, who should be an Auburn? Auburn's not very good. Who's a coach there? Gene Chisholk? No. Casual, you know, and so you're like, oh, Tennessee, let's go win 10 games or, you know, if you're Eric Angel on the right, I'm going to pick Tennessee to win 10 games every single year if you're a BFL like that's that's kind of what it is. And then fans, you know, that are just diehards will find every way and every avenue and every path in order to get to that because

57:08again, fans are for fanatic. Those that like are on ballquests every single day and you know, look at the routes on air and follow recruiting and the transfer portal. See the warts in the team and kind of see how it can come to be. So, you know, in Vegas has to look at those things. So, I think the number that you're at now seven and a half is a much better number. But, you know, Tennessee's got questions though. It returns on a lot of experience. Quarterback being the number one question. What the heck's this defense look like? What's the depth on the defensive line? The depth quarterback, the depth running bag. A lot of questions. So, it's going to be interesting. I think seven and a half is a good number. Again, I would still take the over there. But six and a half, I thought was way too low. But a casual fan and a diehard fan are different. And the casual fan, the diehard fan is more closely resembles Vegas because that's their job to find all the warts in the team. Yeah. And I mean, I think when you look at this team and while Vegas would be there would be quarterback, unproven. Yeah. And a world where the narrative is you have to

58:11have an experienced guy to be effective at that position. You have a new defensive staff. What was the narrative on Jim Knowles and James and December when he was hired? Man, it's complicated. It's great when everybody learns it. But it takes them a couple of years to learn it. I'm not saying that's accurate, but that's the narrative. So, when you start putting all those things up for some people, it drops down Tennessee's win total. You're right. For some fans, they're going to pick 10 wins every year because and their belief Tennessee should win 10 win 10 every year. Here's the other part of this that affects the win outcome. Play an extra conference game. Yep. And I'm not saying fans should change their expectations because you know, you're investing a lot into into being a fan. If you're going to games, it's not cheap and all those types of things. But you better have a dose of realism too. This league is hard and it's only getting harder because you're adding that extra game in there. You look at Tennessee's schedule this year. I mean, compared to what they played the last two years when Tennessee's been a playoff

59:13team and he has some underachieved this past year and they did underachieve because of where they were defensively. This schedule coming up this year's a lot harder than what they played two years ago when it went to the conference for ball playoff. And so all of that factors into some of those things as well. Whereas you're right. Casual fans go man. Well, she went 10 every year. Nine telling paying the guy nine million dollars a year. He's winning 10 every year. That should be a given. It's in this day and age. That's not reality. Yeah. And there's a little bit to this and what I'm about to say for me as well. It's like, oh, Tennessee plays an Arkansas. Tennessee will win that game. Tennessee better win that game. Arkansas is not good. But but then you look and they haven't won over there in like 12. You ball coasters. You die. Hearts know that, well, Tennessee and won there in quite some time. Well, what's going on? So there's some differences there. All right, the the everything school question. This is the last question here. We had a great run with ball sports from 2022 to 2024. And it seems things are leveling out a bit. Do you envision a shifting of everything school mindset? No, I don't I don't think it shifts. I think that I think

1:00:19the the monitor everything school can be can mean different things for a lot of people. Everything school means you win a champion. You're going to win the national championship in every sport. And you're going to spend more money in every sport than anybody else does around the country. That's not necessarily at everything school mindset. If you're operating the business, the everything school mindset is we're going to invest in that sport at the level that is at a national level where where other people are investing. And in an effort to make sure we are competitive and we have a chance to win. Not necessarily we're just going to outspend in that sport compared to everybody else to try to go buy one so to speak. Okay. So I think that I think from a competitor, you're going to be you're going to try to be in everything school. But but I don't think that means you are going to invest millions more and say track than somebody else is investing

1:01:23in track. But you're also not going to go well, we just don't care about track at all. So we're not going to put anything into the track program. So I think there's a you know, there's a little bit of a balance there. I think sometimes just like with casual fans, when you hear everything school, the assumption from a lot of people is you're winning a championship in every sport. Well, that's unrealistic. And that's you know, that's what we're at. But everything school, meaning I'm telling my coach as the athletics director, I'm giving you the resources you need to be competitive in this league to have a chance to win a league championship. Okay. Now, I mean Rick Barnes budget and Kentucky's basketball budget are not close. Okay. But do we think Rick Barnes doesn't have the resources he needs to go win championships and chase championships? Right. I mean, it's Tennessee putting as much money into their bat women's basketball resources as South Carolina or LSU. Probably not. But but they're not also just ignoring it where they're not trying to be competitive

1:02:27to go play those teams as well. So just because you use the moniker, everything school doesn't mean you have the highest budget for every sport is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, that's very well said. That was our last question we got to go. It's already been an hour. I do want to go back. I have one more thing to kind of say on that. The previous question about the casual fans Vegas win total 9 Tim was and all that eight and four. I'm not saying that should be the expectation or that should be the the standard or anything. I'm not saying that. But like back to the matter is based on everything we just said, eight and four is going to be a different looking season now. Like eight and four has always been like, whatever, you know, like Tennessee's had two eight and four win seasons two last four years. You're like, oh, gosh, terrible. You had in that ninth conference game eight and four is going to be a different looking season now. Well, and I mean, think of it this way. This has been several years ago, but several years ago you had before the SEC put the rule in that you had to play a power for non-conference opponent. Okay, you can go buy four wins out of the gate. You're four and O because you're going to beat whatever. I'm not going to mention school's names. I don't

1:03:30want anybody's feelings, but you're going to win your four payday games that you're paying those teams seven figures, you know, times whatever to come in and play the game. Okay. So there was four at the time Vanderbilt Kentucky, not very good. So you're at six. Oh, right. And then all of a sudden you look up and it's like, well, they better get to eight because eight should be a given. I mean, the mentality that the league has changed so much. I mean, when I first started back when I was dealing with David Cuckler and back in the 90s. I mean, it was a one game season. Maybe a two game season, you know, you had Florida in September. That was the narrative. That was the one game. You thought you were going to win the rest of them, particularly after you beat Alabama in 95. They were down a little bit. Georgia was very good. You know, you just, I mean, in 96 and 97, it was a one game season. It was just an assumption you were going to win everything else. You could roll the ball out in Columbia, South Carolina and you were going to win the game. You won the game when you

1:04:31put your uniform on. But because Tennessee and Florida won at the level they won at the 90s, when we rolled into the 2000s, the investment in other school that other schools made to try to win increase. They changed coaches. Why did Georgia fire Jim Donan and go higher, Mark Ray? Because they were tired of losing to Florida. They were tired of losing to Tennessee. They wanted to go try to win. And you saw investments go. The same thing we've seen in NIL, right? The first couple of years out of the gate, well, this, this team's organized Tennessee, he's got more money. That, that, that, that, that doesn't mean it's failing now. It just means everybody else said, hey, you know what? We've, we've got to, we, we've got to catch up like we've got to, we've got to be where everybody else is involved. If we're going to have a chance to be competitive. And so right now the investment level, particularly in football in this league, is higher than it's ever been. And it's going to remain that way. And so you can't just roll out

1:05:32and say we're eight and four. There's going to be very few of those moving forward. Georgia, maybe that's where they're at right now. But I mean, every game is a grind in this league and everybody, everybody's, you got to go beat everybody. You don't just win it because of your uniform the way you did the 90s. It's a lot different. There is a lot more positives. There's some negatives, but it is just as entertaining as it's ever been. If not more, following college athletics right now, there's no better place to be stayed up and down into it all on a day, a minute, the minimum basis, then right here of valkwest.com on the journalist quarters. So much going on, we got spring practice. Matt Ray did a sensational job earlier this week breaking down a big recruiting day for a lot of high prospect, highly touted prospects that were on campus for Tennessee's spring practice. You get that. Mike Wilson wrote a phenomenal story on the basketball manager for Tennessee basketball that I encourage everyone to go read right now. It is a phenomenal story. We got baseball coverage in SEC play, men's basketball determined, women's basketball

1:06:32in the tournament. So much going on right now, Brent hubs of valkwest.com and new subscribers and annual subscription right now 50% off. Yeah, it's great deal. It's a great time to check us out. The story Mike did is available to everybody to read just because I think it's a wonderful human interest story. You read that story and you go, okay, that's what valkwest is about. Those are the things that you do. It's compelling content. They're not all tugging at your emotions and everything, but it's compelling content beyond just a press conference clip. Beyond just a, yeah, it was a great family atmosphere. I really jibbed at the coaches. I mean, Matt raised insight on stuff from the recruit visits that that took place on Tuesday was fantastic. Unlike anything you'll see. So I encourage you to be a part. If you just watch this here, it's great. We thank you. Subscribe. Hit the like button. All those things you're supposed to do on YouTube. If you listen to the podcast, thanks for listening. We're whatever Apple or whatever platform you use, but there's so much more to valkwest than just these two

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