SEC SQUAD - The SEC is LOADED at Quarterback | How Vandy stacks up

0:00Hey everyone, this is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of The Lockdown Podcast Network. Thank you for being here, because your support means everything. And if you're looking for another way to support the show that you love, while getting something awesome in return, check out the Every Day or Club. You get ad free episodes of your favorite lockdown show, access to a members-only group chat for fans of your team, and you can even jump into the national chats and talk about whatever's happening across the league. Tap the Every Day or Club link in the show notes to learn more. No thin skin, but we do have some sunburned skin here on this week's edition of The SEC Squad.

1:23I'm Zach Blackerby, I host locked out Auburn, I'm filling in for Chris Gordy as he is at a creed concert, Stephen Wilson locked out Ole Miss joining us, Corey Burton clearly at the beach, he host locked on Vandy, Jimmy Stein of Lockdown, Bama, and John Miller of Lockdown on Mizzou. I thought it'd be fun to talk about some of the more interesting quarterbacks as we all know, we can't get enough of quarterback discussion. So I wanted to throw a question to each of you, you can't say a quarterback on your own roster, Stephen, you can't say Trinidad Chambles, I know you're going to want to. But I thought it'd be fun to go around and discuss the most intriguing quarterback in the SEC from your point of view, from your team's point of view. John, can you start us off here? Who's intriguing from the Mizzou point of view? Obviously can't say anyone on Missouri's roster. I'm actually going to go with Lenora Sellers, who everybody loved last season, seem to have had a little bit of a down season. Now, I think you're looking at the new offensive coordinator

2:26bump, which is a new theory of mine that I've been banding about in our group chat. And I do think in this situation, in particular with the Gamecocks, getting Mike Shul out the door, I think it should be big for Sellers. And I think he has a pretty big bounce back season. Yeah, it's so funny, you know, how much has really changed from 365 days ago where, you know, we couldn't get enough of, yeah, he was talking about being the one one in the NFL draft. And then, of course, he came back for a lot of money. I think he would have still been an interesting prospect. The first rounder, though, maybe not. I think he can get back there. I really do. Experience means a whole lot, especially in this league. Yeah, does he have the guys around him to help him take that step? I guess is my biggest question. That's true. They're already down a couple tackles, I think. That's it's been a brutal spring here so far for the game. Yeah, Marlor locked on Gamecocks. It's like every time he does a show, it's somebody else getting injured. So we'll see. But yeah, Lenora Sellers, the skill sets there, right? We saw glimpses of it. Can

3:28he put it all together? That's super, super intriguing. Corey Burton, what say you? Man, I'm interested in Byron Brown, honestly, because that's the first SEC quarterback that Vanderbilt's up against. I want to see how he navigates the first part of the season, how they mesh into Alex Colesha's offensive scheme, and how that whole team just kind of jails with their first SEC matchup against Vanderbilt and for you, Zach, it's at home. Might as well just go the whole way and make it at night too for Jared Curtis. But yeah, I'm intrigued by Byron Brown. I think he was a great prospect in the transfer portal. Obviously, following his head coach Auburn was a phenomenal move. And so we'll see what he looks like in SEC play. Does everybody else have to wait to their... I thought most people opened up their SEC slate in their third game. Are other folks having to wait till their fourth game for that?

4:31Vanderbilt just made their schedule like that, I guess, with the non-con. They just... They went interesting. They went for free, and then it's all conference from the rest of the rest of the league. Game two for Alabama. I think Missouri has the same Vanderbilt set up. I could do it wrong, but got it. Yeah, I just assumed it was like week three across the board or game three across the board, but I'm clearly wrong on that. Jimmy Stein, most intriguing quarterback outside of Bama from the Bama perspective is who? For me, it's Sam Levitt. In Alabama, we'll play on issue late in the year, simply because of this. If Sam Levitt had returned to Arizona State, I wouldn't know what to think about him. I mean, obviously he had the tremendous freshman year, not so great this previous season. Some of it may be due to injury, some of it due to general team decline. Lane Kiffin has worked as magic with just about every quarterback he's ever tutored. You would have to think he's going to get the best out of Sam Levitt. I'm just not sure exactly

5:31what that is. I won't be shocked if he's maybe the best quarterback in the league. And we certainly shouldn't be shocked if he's no better than he was a year ago. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Sam Levitt and like the LSU storylines, nobody loves the storylines more than Stephen Willis when it comes to the Lane Kiffin. But yeah, you're right, because Lane Kiffin's track record is unbelievable. I think it's a little weird how nobody's bringing up the foot injury stuff with Sam Levitt. Really feels it's not the exact same, but does feel a little similar to the DJ lagway conversation a year ago where I'm like, no one's talking about how this guy is injured. But like, I think this is important. Different injury, different circumstances, but I am a little surprised that that doesn't typically come up, especially at the national level when people talk about Sam Levitt. Yeah, because we saw a year ago, lagway, even Nussmire. Even Nussmire was hurt all last spring, and then he starts planning, played pretty poorly, and everybody's like, what's wrong? And then he goes to the combine and says, well, every time I threw the ball last fall, it hurt because of that,

6:33you know, abdominal injury. So yeah, we'll see if Levitt's completely recovered. I think LSU went and got another God just in case, although no one with Sam Levitt's, you know, you know, his upside or his talent. But Lane Kiffin has worked magic with all his quarterbacks at Ole Miss. He's done it before. He certainly did it with his quarterbacks at Alabama. He got the best out of everyone's ability. So you have to think Sam Levitt's going to be really good. We just haven't seen really good Sam Levitt in a while. Chris Marler of Lockdown Gamecocks joining us. Welcome, my friend. You're down, Banner. What are you hearing of this conversation? Because you really are in the middle of all of it. Yeah, I think the big thing is that we're in the middle of the tornado watch. I've never felt more SEC than right now. That's me. You're okay. It's interesting because the Nussbar thing was so blatantly obvious covering that from up close. And it was like, no, he's hurt for sure. And then you just had the ultimate politician Brian Kelly being like, no,

7:35you guys are crazy. He's not hurt at all. Trust me. And then it's like, he looks pretty hurt. He's wincing a lot. Like that's just what he does when he's excited. So that was that was wild a lot. But I think that the thing with Levitt that I really do think is going to pay off in their favor is that they went out and got two other kids, the kid from Elon, who I don't expect to be a starter, but he's put in some, you know, quality time. And we've seen Lane Kiffin. I know I came in the middle of that conversation, turn a division to quarterback into the best quarterback maybe in the country and entered that chambers, even dating back to who's the OC at Bama. Nine of his last 11 or 12 quarterbacks have had 30 touchdowns and or 3000 yards passing in a season. So he is, he's worked wonders. The thing that I love the most is that Hussein Longstreet, the kid from USC was a former five star committed to A&M. But that kid's going to get a ton of reps and a ton of quality reps. And we've seen this time and time again. I'm looking at the group we have on here right now. Five out of the six of us have seen a quarterback change. The only one that didn't

8:38was Cory Burton. And at some point over the last two years because of either an injury or just, you know, wear and tear. It happened to Lenora several times and or at least once in both seasons. So I think that depth in the in the QB room is going to be really, really big for LSU. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. One more thing on. I go ahead, John. I was looking. Hey, hey, you were too late to be around at this point. But no, when it comes to Sam Levitt, the word Liz Frank and yes, that is one word makes me a little bit nervous. He did shut it down and get the surgery though. And that was last October, November. I believe I have my timeline right. I think that should be long enough. It really should be that that makes me a lot less nervous than had he put it off until say February or something like that. Just timely and wise. That had been a lot more nervous. Liz Frank, great diary too. It really is. All right. So we'll continue this exercise. Are you not going to pick me? No. Hold on, Steven. Let me do these. We got

9:41for you. It's easy, but I haven't done this yet. Steven, myself, Chris Marler. That's next right here. Unlocked on FTC squad. I'm Claudia Butler, host of Lockdown Women's Basketball. And this is Mazda's Women's Basketball snapshot celebrating the work no highlight reel can ever capture. Texas won its first ever SEC championship on Sunday beating South Carolina 78 to 61 and snapping the game costs three year run as SEC tournament champions. In the big 10 championship, UCLA dominated Iowa 96 to 45. The 51 point margin is the most lopsided title game in big 10 tournament history. With a resume that includes 18 quad one wins and one of the toughest schedules in the country, UCLA is making a serious push for the overall number one seed. But Yukon has held that spot all season and remains

10:42the nation's only unbeaten team. These moments are earned off the clock, those long before the lights ever come on. The sweat, the fakes, the doubt, the scrapes and coming back for more every time. Mazda puts that same drive into every detail wins to find the moment putting in the work that defines you. There's more to a Mazda because there's more to you. Today's show also brought to you by our friends at Robin Hood. What if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long user sports knowledge in the moments that matter Robin Hood prediction markets changes the game. It's people moving the action. So when the momentum shifts, you can move with it. I always do the game but never had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. Now I can actually take part live in a market powered by people. You no longer just a spectator play by play. You decide trade every play with Robin Hood.

11:48Now available across the US download the Robin half Robin Hood app now to begin. All right, rolling on with the SEC squad Stephen Willis now is your time to shine. I'm going to repeat the exercise because Chris Marlowe didn't hear what we were doing. So we're all going saying a quarterback that is most intriguing from your team's perspective. You can't say somebody on your own roster. Stephen Willis that is your turn. The quarterback that I am intrigued about is Arch Manning because of his the Manning's ties to Ole Miss and Ole Miss playing at Texas this year. It is going to be phenomenal one way or another. Now Arch had a rough start to 2025. There's no way that you can dance around that but the end of the year he was really good. If he takes a jump from that year to this year, it could be pretty special for Steve Sarkation in the Texas Long Horns. Arch Manning is the quarterback I'm paying attention to. That's a good one.

12:51That's certainly a good one. We definitely saw him get better over the course of the year. Can he continue to carry that pressure? He seems more ready for it this year than he did last year. I think he kind of went through some growing pains and I actually think he handled a lot of the pressure pretty well. Does anybody want to say anything about Arch Manning before we let Chris Marlar go? I predict a greatness for him a year ago. So I guess we find out this year was I wrong or early? I'll tell you wrong, Jimmy. You were wrong. I think you could be early, but it's going to make it easier for him. That's for sure. Sure. Yeah, Texas is like in town. You're right, Carla. Yeah, that's really what they need. It was more talent. You're right. What did you say, Cory? I was saying having Cam Coleman makes it a lot easier to be great. So Jimmy, you might be right. Yeah, maybe so. Just early. All right, Chris Marlar. Yeah. Who's your quarter back that's most intriguing from the South Carolina point of view? Peyton Thorn. He's going to be

13:51starting for the Montecristo Mustangs. It's like a sea league version of indoor arena football. I'm pretty profiled up about that. So I think for my standpoint, it's more so there's seven out of the 10 quarterbacks that South Carolina will face from power for competition. Well, we or teams are going to face and are breaking in a new quarterback. I think the one I'm most interested in that can have their team have the highest fluctuation and ceiling in floor is I'm going to say he wins the starting job is Keeling Russell. I know that the board is very high on Austin Mac and he obviously was high enough on him to have him follow him from Washington and then forget how to say Julian the saying's name and allow him go to Ohio State. That was tough. But Keeling Russell, you think about all of the people and players that Alabama's brought in since Sabin got there and now with the board. He's the highest ranked recruit in the history of that program. Higher than Julio, higher than Bryce Young, higher than any of them. And I think that it's hard to keep somebody like that on like the two line of that that depth chart for very long. So I

14:53don't think it would be really interesting to see if he's the starter and how well he's supposed to be a generational talent, how well he'll be able to play it. Yeah, your thoughts on that? Yeah, the competition between Austin Mac and Keeling Russell is likely to produce a pretty good quarterback. I think the betting favorites Keeling Russell. I mean, that's who I would go with at Fandall is Keeling Russell. But Austin Mac is going to make it really tough on him and early whispers are. He's off to a really good start and camp. Fourth year, fourth year guys never started. Reminds me of guy named Toss Simpson a year ago who's going into his year four, who had never been a starter and really flourished might end up being a first round pick. Austin Mac has a ton of ability. It's year four for him. But my guess would be Keeling Russell ultimately wins the job. Yeah, from now on, I'm looking at I've got a question how much of a true battle that is Jimmy. I think it's absolutely a true battle. 100%. If they really believed that Keeling is definitely going to be the starter, he wouldn't be split in 50-50 reps. Even at this juncture,

15:59they're split in 50-50 reps. There'll be three scrimmages that Alabama has including the final scrimmage, which will be the A-Day game. We'll get a real good look at how they're splitting reps at that point. I think the battle is going to extend all the way deep into fall camp myself. Interesting. All right. The quarterback that I think is most intriguing from the Auburn point of view is Aaron Filo of Florida. I just I don't fully get that one. I'm not going to lie to you. And then when Florida comes to Auburn, it'll be both teams starting their SEC slate against each other. And obviously, those two coaches, I think, are going to be tied together because of how the coaching carousel went over the off season. And so I think it's going to be clearly an important one. And whoever wins that game is going to have so much hope and excitement going into their first season under the new head coaches. And then there's going to be some frustration for whoever loses it. And I think Aaron Filo coming to Jordan here, I think that's intriguing,

17:02because I don't fully get it. I think they could have done and gotten a much more proven guy. But I'm excited to see how that shakes out. So Aaron Filo of Florida sure he's going to be the starter. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Interesting piece there. And you know, Buster's not afraid to just because he played with him at Georgia Tech, doesn't mean he's going to necessarily start. I mean, he may end up winning the battle, but I mean, Tramil Jones has a different dynamic to his game that might be more intriguing and might be a better fit with that offense. So it's basically intrigues me as the winner of that quarterback battle and what what identity Florida is going to take on as a result of that. You know, Aaron Filo's thrown about the same amount of career passes as Austin Simmons. I'm just saying who's that? You're presumptive Missouri starter. By the way, I questioned John Summerall's decision-making after this weekend announcing that he is

18:06not going to take his wife that he's been married to for 15 years on her 40th birthday to Italy, because he's too busy. That's not something he's going to hear about for 25 years. That was a tough scene there, Stephen. That was when he said it, I was like, and then he said they're not even going out of the state. They're going to stay in Florida, which there's a lot to do in Florida, but my God, dude. Bad moves. I'm just like when I saw that. I was like, not good, not good. Yeah, I'm sure Aaron Filo and Tremel Jones are really good players, but you got to go home every night to her. Yeah, that's also fair. Yeah, take her. Yeah, he must have Joe Judges PR guy. Well, I'm glad he earned the Florida logo, which is good. I know that that was kind of the thing that they were talking about is you got to earn it. You got to earn it, which is my least favorite part of spring football. We're not putting names on the back of the jerseys this year. It's more important the name on the front, like we got it, dude. We got it. I already know everything, too.

19:09Yeah, Stan's house. How are we going to make the quarterback making $3 million a year earn his right to have a name on the back of the jerseys and what? And shockingly ends up with the jersey number. Everybody thought he was going to have. Yeah, crazy how that works out. That's right. His team. Did we leave any of these quarterbacks out? And then, you know, are there eligibility questions still lingering for some of these guys? Like, does that make the situation intriguing? That's next right here on the SEC squad. Coach Pay is giving locked on college football listeners up to $2,000 credit for your business when you get started today. If you manage a crew construction HVAC landscaping or any operation with trucks on the road, you already know how messy gas and material spending can get cards, get shared receipts disappear and month end turns into a major headache. Coach Pay fixes all of that. It's a modern fuel card and expense management tool built specifically for fleets. Fuel

20:09maintenance and materials all in one card with real control and instant visibility. You want real time alerts? They've got that automatic receipt capture. Yep, the sure thing and for all protection with employee check ins by text, no shared pins. It works everywhere. Vista is accepted, no detours to specific stations. It's built for operators who do not have time to chase paperwork and unlike old fuel cards, there are no contracts or commitments, just smarter expense control. Right now, Coach Pay is offering our listeners up to $2,000 credit when you get started at coastpay.com slash locked on college. Go to coastpay.com slash locked on college to see how you can earn up to $2,000 credit today. Terms apply. And welcome to the five hour energy flavor, Jeff, with 18 different flavors to choose from, including new options like confetti grades, fruity, Rambo or cotton candy. There's something for everyone. The board is set and now on the clock with the number one pick of the five hour energy flavor draft is John Miller. Who's the first

21:15pick? How did I know you were going to pick me? I'm going watermelon for sure. There's no doubt. Chris caffeinated. You got to love it in zero sugar. Done getting better than that. All right, with the second pick, who, who, who fell to the second overall pick? Jimmy, grape, grapes, got, got one grape. Yep. And who doesn't need five hours worth of energy? That's what I'm saying. I've had four days. Let's come a night. Find your new favorite flavor of five hour energy shots available at fivehourenergy.com or on Amazon. All right, I thought a few minutes here. Is there any sort of intrigue from you guys's position on, you know, what is happening at Ole Miss with Trinidad or what is happening at Tennessee with Joey Aguilar? Do y'all think that's pretty much worked itself out up to this point? Who wants to start? If the Ole Miss thing arrives, right? If the, if Chambles isn't, if Chambles isn't the quarterback, won't we be surprised? I mean, in terms of his eligibility. And, conversely, I don't believe that Aguilar will, right? I mean,

22:17on the surface. I think the quarterback for Ole Miss in 2026 is going to be Chambles. I mean, that the, the, the, um, NCAA appealed, but it's asking permission to appeal and the spring court can just say no. And by the way, like seven out of the eight justices, they have a lot of grief from Ole Miss. Yeah, that's true. Yes. I thought it was nine. I thought it was one, one of the justices do not. I don't know if Ole Miss just turn that out. That's incredible. Yeah, there's two all schools in the state. Yeah, there's two all schools in the state, and like 90% of the judges in that state are Ole Miss Grips. How about that? The fact that the NCAA is asking permission in the state of Mississippi to do it is hysterical. I wrote about this last week, James Plug, and I was like, this is this and in the fast and furious movies. It's like every time you think it's going to end, which is like, no, we're sitting in Taipei's to space this time. You're like, what? Just, just call it a day, man. Just call, like, you're not going to win this case. Everybody wants to see Trinidad Chambers, that likes College Football, wants to see him play. And I think more than anything at this point,

23:21we just don't care. Like, it's, nothing is going to change when they go back into a courtroom. And we've already, we've already seen how it's played out. They've already made their decision. And so at this point, I'm like, let's just move on. Move on. And, and, and whatever case you want to lose next, go to that one. Yeah, you want to, you want to hear my ten full? That was released the day before the saved college sports thing and everything to get eyeballs on Washington, DC, releasing a 654 page document, which it was an 18 page repeal, appeal, and they sent like the rulebook for the NCA, ran photocopies of it for the total thing. It was all for show so that they could get eyeballs in Washington. My question is ten foil at all, man. I think that's probably reasonable. Chris Marlowe bringing up Fast and Furious, Power Rain, the top three Fast and Furious movies. Who wants to take a stab at this? I'm so glad I found the link. Number one for sure. Come on. John, he asked me, not you, first of all. No, I asked, I asked a general. I think fast five is very good. Fast four is probably number two.

24:24And I would have to say either six or the original. After that, they got really, I mean, let's just call a spade of spade like some of them. I'll just say it, guys, not very believable. Not very believable. John, your thoughts on Chris Marlowe's list there. Sorry, Jess, man. What's the one they go to Brazil and I lost count five. I was going to say basically it's for me the series ended. They did a good job sending Paul Walker out kind of beautifully. I'm not even joking. One Charlotte is there and showed up. I don't really have any time for it anymore. I gotta be honest. I thought fast and furious was a documentary about Antonio Brown. It's movies. No, no. It was just incredible. Here's a documentary about the Georgia football term. There it is. I just watched most documentaries. I mean, what is what is less believable that they keep making these movies or that every two to three weeks we get on Twitter at 8 a.m. and Clint Shamblin is sending us something about a Georgia football player

25:25being arrested again. Because that seems at this point just as far as fetch. Like, how have they, how have they not stopped this yet? Maybe the incident in the government should step in with that. The best thing about those tweets is it's, oh, it happened. We just found out about that. But it goes into a paragraph justifying why it happened. That's the fun part about those tweets. Yeah. It's true. So it's telling the Georgia football players to reign it in a notch with their reckless driving. Well, I thought you were going to be at the creed concert with Gordy. I'm so pissed right now. No. So our dog had emergency surgery. Allie's leaving tomorrow for her bachelor ed party. So I was not able to go see Creed tonight because I had to stay home and make sure that I was back in time for the dog to be given all their medicine. But they're coming to New Orleans on April 11th or 12th that Sunday in a month round. I will be there or I will break up with Allie. Now that's the most SEC thing ever. All right. And if you want to know the point that you know that you're getting old,

26:26my wife told me that the offspring was at the strawberry festival in the planet city, Florida. And we could have seen them. And I was like, oh, my goodness. I am at the worst. Yeah, it's like the grocery store is putting out bangers and you can't listen to the radio anymore. I love it. Yeah, yeah. That's a good point. Also, anytime you see one of your favorite bands from your adolescence is playing at a county amphitheater. You're like, jeesh, that is tough. That's not good. No, I used to, I used to listen to that one. And you're like, oh, gosh. Yeah, back in last day. Right. All right. Are we good? Anybody want to add anything quarterback related? We all could go around the room and say something nice about Byron Brown. Are we good to go? Are we fine? Is he going to be that good? Is he going to be that good? Yeah, after week four, yeah. After week four, he could be as good as he wants to be. But yeah, I, I got to say I love, I love that what Auburn did this time around with the higher and the quarterback was like, in the past, it was like, hey, let's go get a guy who's got a kind of a shady past.

27:29We don't love that. But he beat Bama twice 10 years ago. And then this time, they're like, okay, that didn't work. What if we get a guy that almost beat Bama twice within the last five years? And they're like, yeah, yeah, that's let's do that. So, you know, just in the future, they're going to end up going to get like the coach from Mercer. I think next time around, which, I mean, which, which hard do you think is better? The Hugh Freeze one or the Alex Golis one? I hate that I thought the Hugh Freeze thing was going to work. I've just listened, it's not an election year, but I'm not going to say anything bad about Russians at all. So I'm just, I'll just, I'll say this one out. I think that does it for this week's edition. The SEC squad, Jimmy Stein of Lockdown, Bama, John Miller, Lockdown, Mizzou, Chris Marler, Lockdown, Gamecocks, Cory Burton, Lockdown, Bandy, Stephen Willis, Lockdown, Ole Miss. I'm Zach Blackerby, I host Lockdown, Auburn. This has been another edition of Lockdown, SEC squad. Yeah. You do me higher.