Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: WVUA FM Tuscaloosa.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Exciting times. So let's hop right in. Obviously on Friday night was when we got the official news that Kalyn Deborah had been hired to be the next head coach of the University of Alabama football team. Obviously, Saturday comes the press conference, his official you know, now that we've had a couple days to kind of collect our thoughts, kind of let everything soak in, how are we feeling about the.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: Hiring of like I still really like the hire, I guess in those couple of days, obviously, alabama has lost quite a bit of talent on the roster, so I guess I'm hoping that he can kind of turn that ship around and not lose too much.
Isaiah Bonds going to be a pretty big loss. NY Black had a really good season out of that tight end spot late, so he's going to be a big miss. But, yeah, I'm still really excited. I mean, I think he's still a really good coach. I mean, Nick me and you talked about it on Friday, and his track record as a winner is kind of undeniable, so I'm still really looking forward to it. But I'm hoping some of these recruits kind of re up a commitment or guys stay longer. So yeah. Still optimistic, though.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Yeah. So I really like the hire. Obviously, when I was here for the first emergency one, we kind of gave out who we wanted to get the job.
I voiced my opinion on a couple other coaches. That didn't happen. But Greg Burns says, this is the guy. This is the guy. And he hasn't been wrong with his other hires so far. Obviously, he is not Nick Saban. We can't expect him to come in and immediately start winning national championships, but he's in a good situation. The program is in a good spot. I know there have been players that had already transferred out. Obviously, Isaiah Bond transferred after Nick Saban retiring, and he said that it was 100% because of the Nick Saban retirement. And then he didn't even respond to the new coaching staff trying to get in contact with him, which I didn't like, but hey, he's out in Texas driving Lamborghinis now. So Nye Black, he has not officially signed anywhere, so maybe he could still rejoin the not. You know, we have a good tight end recruit coming in and odom. And then my biggest worry with the hire nowadays with the transfer portal, we haven't seen an Alabama coaching hire with the transfer portal with Nil, and that's why even Greg Burn said, you have to move fast and get this stuff done. So within 48 hours, already have the new coach hired. And as soon as he was hired, the entire coaching staff on RollTide.com was taken off. It was just kaylin. Deborah Obviously with him coming in, nobody's job was secured. Now, we do have a report from Chris Lowe on ESPN saying people that are expected to be. There nothing official from the university yet, but Ryan Grubb Washington's Offensive Coordinator who took a team in 2021 that was averaging 21.5 points per game and 323.4 yards per game, and then in 2022, it was up to 39.7 points per game, 515 yards per game. And then this past year, 36 points per game, 462 yards per game. And then they were in the national championship, lost to Michigan. And then also Jamarcus Shepherd, wide receivers, coats Jarrett Mcelwayne, son of Jim McElwain former Alabama Offensive Coordinator director of Scouting and then we have Nick Sheridan, who Scott Huff is the offensive line coach. Nick Sheridan he is tight ends coach for used to be Washington. Hopefully he is this is an accurate report and he will be the new tight ends coach for Alabama. So with these hirings that are tentative coming over from Washington, hopefully they can get in and actually show the players what the direction of the team is going to be other than the head coach. So we don't have more people transferred. They still have, what is it, 25 days. I don't know the exact time. They had 30 days from the retirement that they could enter the transfer port on leave. And then obviously, there have been a couple of recruit decommitments, ryan Williams and Jamie French, the two main ones, five star wide receivers. But now that they know who the offensive coordinator is going to be and the wide receivers coach, as long as it's officially announced by the university, it looks to be headed in the right direction, I just want everything to become finalized. And like Scott Huff, the offensive line coach that's coming in washington did just win the Joe Moore Award for best offensive line. So I know people that watched the game in the national championship might have saw how Washington struggled with Michigan. Alabama's line also struggled with Michigan. Michigan's defensive line front was very good with the bigger bodies that you will have at Alabama, I know they might recruit a little differently. It might not be the same size, but Alabama usually does have some bigger guys come in on the line. So should be a little bit easier of a job when you start facing those big defensive fronts.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Right? So my personal reaction to divorce hiring, look a winner everywhere he's been, at every level, he's shown that he's a winner. Right. Which, if you're Greg Byrne, that's what you're looking for. You're looking for somebody who can come in and take a roster that just went to the semifinal and came within three minutes of taking down the eventual national champion and win immediately. Right. There was a joke thrown around. One of the TV reporters told Dubois that the students had given him three games, and he said, I got that many. He understands the kind of pressure that comes with coming to a place like Alabama and having to follow up the greatest coach of all time and so I think that's going to serve him well. I liked the hire when we found out about it on Friday. I talked openly on the show about how much I liked the hire. After the press conference and having gotten to hear him take some more questions from the media, kind of get a feel for him better and hear from Greg Byrne as well. I love this hire. Right. It does seem to me like this was Greg Byrne's first choice. He spoke about how pretty much immediately after they had found out that Saban was going to retire. He never gave us an exact date or time as to when he knew that Saban was going to retire, but he did say that he was pretty open in his communication.
Byrne had been on the road immediately, headed out to Seattle and I believe interviewed Deborah the next mean. He should be your first choice. In my opinion, he's a winner everywhere he's been. He's probably the hot new thing in coaching.
Hasn't been all over the place, really. It's only had a couple of different jobs. Fresno State then went to Washington and now he's the head coach at Alabama insane Rise. But after having to to get spend some more time with him, I'm only more impressed than I was after the hire was announced.
Seems like the kind of guy who you want leading your football team and it was always going to be hard to hire Nick Saban's replacement. Right. Not even replacement right. It's impossible to replace the goat, but seems like you got the right guy who is going to come in and bring a really fresh and exciting offense to Alabama, which is something we haven't been able to say in a while.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Yeah, it's going to know. When the hire happened, I was like you. I like the hire. I had nothing against Kaylin Dubore. My thing was who does he get for those other coaching positions? And seeing the reports that now it would be Ryan Grubb who did call plays at Washington last year. We know Deborah is a offensive minded coach, but having that guy that still called plays with him at Washington, if he is coming in right, it's going to be a similar offense to what you saw with Alabama under like a Steve Sarkeesian. It's not going to be the same offense. It's going to be that type of offense like Sarkeesian, Lane Kiffin that people have been begging at Alabama for the last couple of years.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, look, it's not just like he got his offensive coordinator either. He's got all the pieces. He got his wide receivers coach.
He brought in his O line coach, which I think that is an extremely underrated part of that. You're talking about Washington who had the best offensive line in the country this season and that's with a caliber of athlete, with a non SEC caliber of athlete. So just imagine what he can cook up with some of the talent that.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Alabama has and then you think, oh, he's bringing in all these Washington guys. What does he do? He knows how good Alabama running backs have been. So he keeps Gillespie as the running backs coach.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: And I think that's genius because I think you have a way better chance of keeping a lot of those backs there, keeping the ones that haven't left.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: And sorry, Nick, you've been trying to make a point. Go ahead.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: No, go ahead.
[00:10:28] Speaker C: I was just going to say I just found this. It was kind of an interesting stat. So his last couple of gigs we talked about was Fresno State and Washington. Now before Alabama, and I was just kind of perusing the internet here, looking at kind of what his quarterback play was like at these schools because that's what he was known for. He was a QB coach for Michael Pennix at Indiana and then became a head coach at Washington.
In the past three seasons, he's never had a quarterback throw less than 30 touchdowns in a season. So in 2021, the Fresno State Bulldogs had Jake Hayner as their quarterback. He threw for over 4000 yards at 33 touchdowns, nine interceptions. Pennix, in back to back years hit over 4500 yards, 30 plus touchdowns this past season. He did have eleven picks. But consider Jalen Milrow with Tommy Reese as his OC, had 23 touchdowns, I believe total, sorry, no, just passing and then six interceptions. I mean, I think this guy's the limit. For a guy like Milro who already had a really good season this past year, especially late now, you're getting a quarterback kind of whisperer in a sense.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: And here's the thing, right? So there were several questions directed at Dubois that were clearly like trying to get the vibe on how he felt about Millrow. He was specifically asked in the breakout, he was asked what he looks for in a quarterback. And he talked about how Alabama had won with all types of different quarterbacks. Guys that were run first, guys that were pure pocket passers. And he talked a lot about in his comments at the public part of the press conference about adaptability and being able to adjust his style of offense to the athletes that he has at his I think, you know if you're a guy like Jalen Mulro, who showed up to the team meeting the other night and was giving the fans a Roll Tide and he was ready to go, I think you're very excited for a guy like jalen Milrow especially if you just saw what he was able to do with, you know, a guy that, when he was coming out of Indiana, was not an NFL caliber talent. And now he's going to be one of the first quarterbacks off the board.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: And like with know, you were saying that he was going to roll tides. He's already stated that he's not leaving. Obviously, that could change in the future. Right now he's excited with a new hire. We'll see. I don't know if he'll be the starter next year. We'll have to see how it goes through practices and everything. If there's anybody that transfers in and then obviously the quarterbacks that are already on the staff that they improve during practices under Deborah and the new staff. But a lot of people have questioned Millro's throwing ability and he was still one of the most efficient passers in the nation. He didn't throw it as much as quarterbacks in the past, but he still finished 6th in heisman voting. He played very well in a lot of key games last season and there have been many quarterbacks who have played very poor. And then you have somebody come in at an offense coordinator or even just a quarterback's coach position and turns their whole career around, like you were talking about with Michael Pinix when he went to Washington. And then also if you think about with Joe Burrow at Know, he was not very good his junior year at LSU. Senior year, you have Joe Brady come in as a passing game coordinator, turned all around he's heisman winner, number one quarterback taken, number one pick in the draft. And I'm not saying that's going to happen with Milro, but anybody that's still questioning like, oh, he can't work in Deborah's system, Deborah's already told you that he can adjust his play, call his system, and this could be a good thing for Millro to improve his quarterback play and then eventually draft stock for the NFL.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, if you're jalen Millro, how good do you have to feel? Because if the ultimate goal is to be one of the first quarterbacks off the board, I mean, you just got the golden ticket to prove what you can do to NFL teams. You're going to be playing in a new Alabama offense that is very modern. Looks a lot like the offense is being run in the NFL with the way that Ryan Grubb has utilized motion. So it's going to be exciting and it's going to be a blast to watch, that's for sure. When we come back here on 90.7, we've got so much stuff to talk about, so much that we've missed here in our first episode. One thing I got to say before we go to break though, I have to get one more Cowboys dig in. Okay, fun fact, the last time the Cowboys won a Super Bowl, nebraska, Northwestern, Kansas, Colorado, UVA, and Syracuse all finished above Alabama in the AP poll.
[00:15:36] Speaker C: Well, yeah, that's a fact.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Anyway, we will be right back here on 90.7 of WVU AFM 90.7, a division of student media at the University of Alabama. Support us by leaving a review rating or following us on X at WVUA FM Sports.
Welcome back into the Load side, ladies and gentlemen, here on 90.7, the Capstone, nicholas Joe Adam talking Alabama football and talking a new era in Tuscaloosa. Kalyn Deborah, hired as the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide on Friday, introduced on Saturday, and here we are.
So let's talk expectations. Obviously, we talked in the last segment. I talked about how a reporter said that Kalyn De Bour had been given three games by the students, and he was surprised that he got that many. Interesting to note, that fourth game would be against Georgia.
So on that note, what are some expectations for Kalen Deborah as the Alabama head coach? How quickly does he have to win?
[00:17:11] Speaker C: I would mean this would have been a tough schedule even if Saban was still here. I mean, you got Georgia, you got to go to Tennessee, got to go to LSU, got to go to Oklahoma. Missouri is going to be a tough home game for you. I mean, Wisconsin on the road early is not going to be easy.
It's a tough schedule to begin with. But I will say I think, and the fans will give him as long as this season, it's not a total disaster. Like, say you go out, make the playoffs, maybe you don't win the SEC, but you're still in that kind of, I guess, what, six through twelve seed of those.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: So that would be the floor for you making the playoff.
[00:18:03] Speaker C: That would kind of be where I'm like, okay, yeah, the guy can still win me over even if it's just going to the playoff. Maybe you don't win the championship. But I will say that within like four years, he's probably got to win one national championship at the very least, I think, just to calm down the people. Because I think if you win one championship, you kind of get it, that little grace period of maybe not having to win them. But the fans are going to expect, I think a lot of fans are going to expect national championships year one through 15.
And I just say as long as it's one within its first four, that's probably where I am. And you got to make the playoffs consistently.
That's kind of the obvious one.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: So the expectation at Alabama is championships, whether that be SEC championships, whether that be national championships. We want national championships in Tuscaloosa. That is what they wanted the longest time. That's why Nick Saban was brought in and he reestablished the standard of winning national championships. And then over his 17 years at Alabama, there were six national championships won, and they hadn't lost more than three games in a season since his first year. And it'll be interesting to see once the staff is officially put together and how many players leave, how many players come in, how many recruits that are supposed to be coming in still come to Alabama. But year one, I know that Wisconsin game is rough. He needs to be three and O going into the Georgia game, you have the USF. I believe that's week two, what was the you still have the schedule.
[00:19:54] Speaker C: It's western Kentucky.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: So Western Kentucky, South Florida and Wisconsin all within the first three weeks. Wisconsin on the road is tough. You need to win that game. You get the bye week, then you play Georgia.
I don't think people are going to call for his firing if he loses to Georgia, especially if Georgia is as good as what we think they're going to be next year.
But you need to have the chance to have that two weeks prepare for the game. If you do beat Georgia, then all of a sudden everybody's going to be saying that Alabama is win the national championship next year. But like you were saying, with this being the first year of a twelve team playoff, if you don't make it, that's when people are going to start making some noise. When Nick Saban was brought in in 2007, the year before Alabama went six and seven, he started off six and two and was up at the top of the west for a little bit and then lost four straight games to end the regular season, won the bowl game to finish seven and six. But some people were calling into radio shows calling for Nick Saban to be fired, saying, we're paying him this much money to only win one more game than Chula. Well, now the standard has changed. So if you are not in the playoff, especially in the first year of a twelve team, ever since it was announced, people have said Alabama will never miss the playoff again. Which might be a little unreasonable to think forever, but right after you had the greatest coach of all time, as long as you can make the playoff, I think people are going to be happy if they don't win the SEC, which now it's a little bit more difficult. It's not just winning the west, you have to be one of those top two teams because they're doing away with the divisions. So if you do get to an SEC championship game, that's great. If not, if Alabama is able to host a playoff game in that first round, that would be great.
I don't want to go say go win a national championship first year, but if you start off and you beat Georgia, that's what the expect. It's going to be like how they talked about with Colorado once they won three games. It was like, oh, they got to go undefeated now. I don't want that to happen, but that's going to happen if he gets that upset against Georgia.
[00:22:02] Speaker C: Yeah, and the other quick thing too, know the schedules and the SEC is changing as a whole. So you're not going know realistically, yeah, they are going to add Texas and Oklahoma, but the only three opponents he's going to face every year is Tennessee, LSU, Auburn, those are the permanent three opponents. So you're not even going to have one of these schedules like you are next year where you're going to have Georgia on it and you're going to have Missouri who's going to be probably a tough game and Oklahoma on it along with Tennessee, LSU, Auburn. So you know, I do think that if he can know maybe like you said Adam kind of just get to the playoff whether at least just his.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: First season be in the top twelve. Yeah, that's all we're at.
[00:22:46] Speaker C: That's what it is. Really?
[00:22:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So much like you two, I think the floor, especially given with how college football is changing should be make the playoff in your first year. Look, you have a team that just went to the semifinal that beat Georgia to win the SEC championship game and you have a quarterback who will probably be in New York next year for the Heisman. I'm not saying he's going to win it but going to be one of the top contenders. Certainly I believe he's first or second in betting ODS to win the Heisman this next season. Also you look at schedule, right, even if we live in a world where a two loss team can very easily make the playoff, especially given if you're in the SEC, there's a world where a three loss team might make the playoff controversial.
[00:23:40] Speaker A: Right, but I saw people saying possibly an eight and four team sneaking in there.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: Well, I mean go look at Florida's schedule, look at the last five games. Let's assume that all of those five teams that they play at the end, let's assume that they're all top ten in the country. If Florida had won every game up until that point and then lost all five of those games by like a field goal, you're going to tell me that they wouldn't be one of the top twelve teams in the country? Controversial, right? But this is the way that we're going to have to start talking. And part of the reason white this is a conversation for a different day. The auto bids thing is ridiculous and needs to be changed immediately. But looking at Alabama's schedule for next season, I mean what you've got Georgia at home, that's going to be a tough game.
I don't know, we'll see once we get into the season. But know probably would not be shocking if you were to lose that game. And then the rest of your tennessee, LSU, auburn, the iron bowl. That's going to be tough at least.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: Georgia and auburn's at home. Those other ones are on the road and oklahoma.
[00:24:46] Speaker C: And some say that one of nick saban's biggest wins early in his career at alabama was Georgia.
So true it could be a little.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: Fate again, but team of destiny as far as long term expectations, right? There are five active head coaches in the FBS who have won a national so and three of them had to beat Saban en route to doing it right.
And only four of those in the modern playoff era. Right. But I feel like there's a world where we're looking back on Kalyn Deborah in 15 years, and he's won one, maybe two national championships, and he would be looked at as a disappointment.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: We probably wouldn't be 15 fair.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: I don't feel like it's fair because it is so hard to win a national championship, and Alabama has been spoiled.
Let's get that out of the way. I mean, you were talking about you had the greatest coach ever, not just in his sport, but maybe in any sport ever with an unbelievable record of dominance. There has not been another coach, certainly not in any of our lifetimes, that has shown that kind of dominance. So is it really going to be fair? Because winning a national championship for anybody? Like, if we took the labels off right, and we were just looking at head coaches at the end of their career, if they had won a national championship, you would say, that is a fantastic career.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:26:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: But then Kalyn Duboir could very easily like, we look back after he's done at Alabama and after his coaching career is over and he won a national title at Alabama, and then people in Tuscaloosa would probably be like, oh, yeah, that was a disappointment. Should have won more.
Is that really fair?
[00:26:55] Speaker A: It's not. But the good thing about Kalen Duboer is he already knows that coming in. He kind of spoke about know at his press conferences and stuff, where he knows the challenge. He even know you can't replace him, but he knows the challenge coming in. And it's not fair to like, if he wins multiple national championships, he'll get a statue out front, but then people will probably walk by and be like, he wasn't as good as Nick Saban, and it's not really that fair. I'm just hoping that most teams can't make the coaching change and then stay at the top. We've seen many teams like Florida when Urban Meyer left georgia is one of the few going from Mark Rick to Kirby Smart. But like Ohio State going from Jim Tressel. I know they had the one down year with Luke Fickle back in 2011, but after that, Urban Meyer and then Ryan Day, where they're consistently at the top, they're consistently ranked in the top ten in the conversation for championships. That's really all that I can really ask for. I can't ask you to win a national championship everywhere, no matter how much that I would like Alabama to win a national championship every year, I hope that if Kalyn Deborah does win a championship or a couple of championships, that people won't go around the statue and be know this was a failure. But Alabama fans are a little crazy, like so.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: Okay, so very quickly, so we can make sure we touch on a couple of topics here. We'll be with you until the top of the hour.
Six years from now. What would be a successful career?
A successful not career. I hope he's here for longer than six years.
What would be a successful six year period? What would that look like for Kalyn Deborah, in terms of national championships, SEC titles?
[00:28:59] Speaker C: I would say especially with how the twelve team playoff is, and you don't necessarily have to even win the SEC to win a national championship anymore. I would say if you get two of each over six years, I think that would be pretty successful.
If you can go in and win over that period, two SEC titles, two national championships over that six years, maybe even three SEC championships, that might be a little more realistic considering kind of the talent you should have.
But I would say two and two at a minimum. And that would be considered, I think, pretty good considering like we talked about the guy he's following, and you'd still have a pretty crazy run of national titles coming into Alabama.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a little difficult with how many championships that he should win, because with the know they're doing away with the divisions, you have Texas and Oklahoma coming in. It's going to be difficult to win an SEC championship. It might even be more difficult to win the SEC championship than the national championship. So really don't miss the playoff. It's a twelve team playoff now. The expectation every year is going to be to make the playoff, so don't miss the playoff. Hopefully you can win about two SEC championships, hopefully more.
If you don't win a national championship within the six year period, I think that is when you might start hearing some of the fans start voicing their opinions about it. And like you were saying, Alabama fans have been spoiled. Nick Saban came in within three years, they were undefeated national champions. So the expectations think, you know, at least win one, but don't miss the playoffs.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: Okay, so I think I have this right for Nick Saban in his first six years at Alabama, three national championships, two SEC titles. Okay? Yeah. I mean, obviously I do not think Kayla Dubore is going to get that in his first six years, especially with.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: Who the other coaches in the conference are.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: Right. Like, given how much the competition in the SEC has increased and how much harder it is going to be to win a national championship. We haven't talked about that. Know, formally, you win two games, you're the national champion. Now your road could look a lot different. And that doesn't even bring into account, like the fact that there's more time for injuries to occur, different stuff like that. Right. Less time to get healthy over that full stretch. You got to play more games in a season if you're going to go to the national championship.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: If you don't get the by week. You could potentially be playing a full NFL regular season 17 game.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: So, yeah, that's crazy.
I would say, much like you, that's a great point. Don't miss the playoffs.
Maybe one year in there.
If it's going to be a year, it'd probably have to be this first year.
And I would say you got to win the SEC at least twice, I think, over a six year period, especially considering that now, yes, the competition is harder.
So I feel like it definitely would be harder now than Saban had it to win SEC twice in six years, and then I would say one national championship in a six year span. Because I think very quickly, four years since the last national championship here already, you would be getting on ten years without a national championship. And there might be rights.
[00:33:01] Speaker C: Yeah, there would be. And the other thing, too, is that obviously now, with just how much kind of media and stuff is out there, if he doesn't win one next year in his first season, which is going to be a hard ask, it would be the first time a recruiting cycle has gone and none of them have won a championship. So that's like an immediate when that season's over, people probably bring that up and you get talked about. And I think for Deborah, anything to help him kind of just from him as a coach separate from a Nick Saban era stat, that's going to be a huge plus. Because, I mean, you talked about the six year period. If he wins one in ten, just for some comparison. Ohio State championship was ten years ago. Auburn's was longer than that. Texas has been waiting forever, it seems.
[00:33:56] Speaker A: All the way in 2005.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: Yeah, 2005.
It's just these big programs that you think of us being like national championship contenders every year. Like I said, ohio State and Florida and Texas or whatever. It takes a while. And it was hard to win a national championship. Now it's really hard.
So I don't envy him whatsoever in that job. But I do think that the sooner he can establish his own kind of credit in the bank with a championship of some sort, obviously the better.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: I just wanted to say that's been a huge recruiting pitch. Like, if you come and stay for four years, you will win a championship. If that goes away now, you start seeing more recruits potentially going the other way. And next year we talked about a little bit before, potentially for two playoff games, a championship and a quarterfinal that would only be in Atlanta. So that would be a huge home field as long as you're not playing.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: Georgia, very similar to the scenario that Texas had lined out for them this year. You're not going to get a better draw. They would have had New Orleans and then a Houston national championship. Unfortunate bummer.
Two quick questions I'll pose here since I think we want to move away from football and maybe finally talk about basketball in the next segment. There's been basketball games played.
[00:35:21] Speaker C: They get a new no.
Okay.
[00:35:24] Speaker B: Unfortunately.
So two quick questions. A, Alabama has lost two five star wide receivers since Saban has gone. Now they're not gone gone. Right.
It certainly looks like Ryan Williams might be recommitting, but just today they lost another five star receiver. Are you worried about that? And B, what would Kalen de Bour's New Year's resolution be for the Alabama Kerns and Tide?
[00:35:55] Speaker C: All right, I can go, I guess. A, sorry, that resolution one really stumped me. Sorry, did you ask if we were.
[00:36:03] Speaker B: Going to get them worried about it?
[00:36:06] Speaker C: Oh, am I worried that's what it was? Yeah.
Not really. I mean, he's been on the program for two days. I'm sure that he's going to talk to them.
I'm worried about them not coming here, but I'm not worried about him in terms of like, oh, he's going to lack recruiting.
I think, to be honest, a lot of what the decision to decommit from Alabama for those players was the fact that they just wanted to see the program. They didn't want to tie themselves to a program that they weren't 100% confident in. And so if Deborah meets with them and it really hits it off, I have no worries about him getting those guys back. It's just when you have a guy like Saban retire, you're going to have some fallout and some questioning, whoever you bring in. And then B, I guess his New Year's resolution, I would say priority would be to fix his New Year's resolution is to fix the offensive line.
I mean, he's bringing in his own his old offensive line coach from Washington. Alabama has had some struggles, especially with a pretty in that roseville with McLaughlin and a couple bad snaps.
And I think for him to bring in the guy that won the Joe Moore Award to Alabama would be huge. Although the guy that we brought in from, I believe it was Kentucky, had also just won the Joe Moore Award. So I'll wait and see. But in know he should have better stuff to work with, better resources, better talent to work with on that O line. So I think if I'm Kaylin Duboir, that's gotta be my priority because that was one of the things that really helped Pennix, was he had a really good time or a lot of time to throw the ball at Washington.
[00:37:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:55] Speaker A: So for me, I'm a little know, I want to see the rest of the staff come together officially, like with announcements from the university that these people have been hired and I think that'll do really well for getting those players to recommit, if that's what they want to do. Now, Ryan Williams did just take an official visit to Texas A M. Hopefully he'll change his mind, come back. He is from Alabama, so I think that's a little bit easier to get him to recommit now with French, I think it's a little more difficult. He's from Florida, and apparently Florida State is pushing hard for him to commit there. And a bunch of Alabama players have already transferred to Florida State, so I could see him signing with them, but really get the rest of the staff together so that you can actually show these people what they're getting into when they get into the program. And I think we'll be fine once the stats together. Another thing about it, Alabama's lost Jermaine Burton.
He's going to the draft.
Then you had Isaiah Bond just transferred out, and then you had was it Benson? Yeah, he transferred out. So now Jacori Brooks. Jacori Brooks transferred out as well. He didn't really play a whole lot this year. Hurt early. Don't really know what happened behind the scenes after he was healthy, but you have people still there that can make a huge impact. Kobe Prentice was very good in his freshman year, took a step back this last year, but now he could be your number one wide receiver coming back, and hopefully you get those recruits to come back in as well. Maybe some transfers, who knows? New Year's resolution.
I think he spoke on it at his press conference a little bit where he said, give him a chance for the team. Give him a chance and then show up to work and like Joe was, know, fixing the offensive line. But really, everybody coming in to work because he knows that there's work to do. He knows who he's got to play next year, and he knows the expectation that Alabama is to win championships.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Okay, so I would say not worried if you cannot recruit top tier wide receiver talent. If you're a top tier wide receiver and you look at what Kalen DeVore and Ryan Grubb were able to do at Washington with a bunch of guys who were not NFL talent when they came mean, how can you have a better pitch than that? Not to mention the fact that Divorce seems like a very player's first kind of guy as far as the New Year's resolution would go. This is interesting, and I posed the question.
Yeah, I would say win the SEC.
I would say that would be quite the statement to make in your very first year to show that you could hang with things.
I'll take a lesser bit of a lesser news resolution. When your first Iron Bowl yeah, that's.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: Going to be huge.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: Hugh Freeze is chomping at the bit.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: Right now, and he got it in Brighton. Don't lose that one.
[00:41:15] Speaker C: Yeah, you can't lose that.
I mean, this is also a year. You got Tennessee on the road, LSU on the road, the other two big rivals. I mean, you got to work some magic to appease the fan base.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: And Vanderbilt on the roads.
[00:41:34] Speaker C: The Commodores let's see how his first Vandy game.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: Will the stadium be finished?
[00:41:37] Speaker A: I will be there. I don't care.
[00:41:40] Speaker C: Will it be a Vanderbilt stadium?
[00:41:41] Speaker B: They should keep the cranes. They should hanging. Yeah, that could be crazy. What if you hit the crane with a kick?
[00:41:48] Speaker A: Five points, two points.
[00:41:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyway, we'll be with you.
[00:41:52] Speaker C: Gets the win.
[00:41:53] Speaker B: We'll be right back here on 90.7, the Capstone. Nicholas, Joe, Adam, we're here. And unlike the weather in Tuscaloosa, we are red hot and ready to go. Here we no, please, no, I can't handle anymore.
Now you just make me want to tell a joke. I refuse. Maybe before we go out there. We'll be with you until the top of an hour, potentially a little bit longer.
So now we're going to talk basketball. There have been basketball games going on, contrary to popular belief here in Tuscaloosa just last night. Gumps in the hump.
[00:43:01] Speaker C: Yeah, it's been a pretty solid stretch. I mean, the last time we actually got on and talked basketball was right before the Rose Bowl. So a couple of games have happened in that span. Alabama has been starting their SEC play. There's three and o. In it. But just kind of getting into some of the games on this was, I believe, January, Saturday the 6th, the Alabama defeated Vanderbilt. It was 78 75. Mark Sears had 21 points, riley Griffin had 16 and Latrell Wrightsel had eleven. So those three combined for 48 of the 78 Alabama points, which is a pretty incredible stat. And Alabama actually started this game really well. They built up an 18 point lead in it, but then Vanderbilt went on a couple of runs, and I believe a nine to two run outside of that, essentially off the back of the 18 point lead to cut it down. So Alabama, that game was a bit of a struggle just to kind of close it.
But Nate Oates, he's still perfect in Nashville.
He's four and o. Against Vanderbilt. He's ten and O overall in games in Nashville, including an SEC championship and tournament there. So that was the first game on the 6th, 2nd game was their home opener in the SEC, tuesday, January 9, before the world stopped for a second in Tuscaloosa. But this game, it was a little more straightforward, especially in the second half. Alabama kind of steamrolled. South Carolina, a really confident South Carolina team who came in 13 and one. Alabama won 74 to 47, outscored the gamecocks 44 to 18 in the second half. And this was a game where it was going to be a pretty big test. They did not have Mohammed Waggy, their starting center, and South Carolina took advantage early, got some inside buckets, kind of out physical to Alabama at halftime or by halftime. And then the second half, it was just all Alabama. They opened the half on a 25 to four run to jump out of the gates. Mark Sears is probably.
I'm kind of ready to start the whole mark Sears might be the best SEC basketball player. I'm ready to start that agenda. He had 31 against the gamecocks, ten of 13 shooting was six of eight.
And the big thing, too, is he grabbed six rebounds, had three assists, three steals, so he's doing it essentially everywhere alabama needs him to do it.
[00:45:48] Speaker B: Mark Sears undeniable bucket getter.
[00:45:52] Speaker C: Yeah, simple. I'll keep it simple. Incredible.
It was great. I mean, Alabama as a whole played really well against South Carolina, but particularly Sears, I mean, he's on pace to have a historic season for Alabama.
And then just last night, like you said, humps or sorry, whoops? Gums at the hump not oh, God.
Comes at the hump. Respond.
Alabama went into Mississippi State. I'll just start it there. They won 82 to 74. Mark Sears again let the team in points with 22. Latrell Ritesell has kind of come into his own. He had 19 and then Ryland Griffin with 17. Alabama shot just over 40% from the field in this one. And this is another one. Alabama kind of jumped out a little bit. Mississippi State crawled back, which is going to be a bit of a common or it's been a common theme for Alabama as of late, especially against the more talented teams that they've played.
But yeah, just still a really good game. And we talked about this before the Rose Bowl when Alabama was sitting at six and five coming off of tough losses to Creighton and Purdue and Arizona, and I said the team's six and five, but they could very well be twelve and five before they hit the Tennessee game. And they're on pace to do that. They got Missouri. Up next on Tuesday night here in tuscaloosa at Coleman at coliseum. So the Gumps don't have to go far.
[00:47:32] Speaker B: Shout out to the Crimson Chaos, because I heard that they were substantially louder than the crowd that left pretty early in the hump. So very exciting for them. Shout out them.
[00:47:45] Speaker C: Yeah, they've been really good. I mean, the whole student section is kind of the highlight of Alabama basketball crowds.
NATO commented on it, he loves it, the players love it, so hopefully they can feed off of it just a little more.
Alabama seems to be pretty dominant. They've only lost one game at home. They're seven and one. And a lot of those wins are by pretty substantial numbers, albeit against some pretty bad teams.
[00:48:14] Speaker B: But, guys, I thought alabama basketball stunk yeah, turns out Ken Palm might be right.
[00:48:21] Speaker C: Yeah, that's the thing with this team.
[00:48:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:23] Speaker A: And all their losses. You had the three in a row that was top ten ranked teams at the time with Purdue, Creighton and Arizona, and should have at least won one out of the three. They had chances, weren't able to do it. And then the other losses they lost to Clemson. Who Clemson?
I'm not sure if they're still ranked. I know they were ranked as of last week. I believe they and then you had the Ohio state game who was not ranked, but they were receiving votes just like Alabama is right now. And I think Alabama should jump back into that top 25 if they keep doing what they're doing. Obviously they will. And the last two undefeated teams in the SEC are Alabama and Auburn or they have a matchup within the next couple of weeks.
[00:49:07] Speaker C: Yeah, that game on the 24th is going to be huge. And I think another really big game for them is going to be coming up. This Missouri game is going to be big. Obviously, you want to stay perfect in the SEC.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: Do they introduce the football coach of that game?
[00:49:22] Speaker C: Potentially, maybe or do they do it against Auburn?
[00:49:25] Speaker B: Could be a hole. I didn't even think about that. Yeah, I think you got to wait.
[00:49:30] Speaker C: Honestly, he was just hired, so maybe I mean, to be honest, your logic might be everyone's going to Auburn anyway. Let's get people to the Missouri game.
[00:49:39] Speaker A: As long as he has a staff.
[00:49:40] Speaker C: Together by the well, that is true. Yeah, he might be out on the trail, but I do think Alabama, they have a really big game coming up against Tennessee on the 20th before they play Auburn, after they play Missouri. And that's on the road in Knoxville. Alabama has looked shaky on the road. I kind of talked about how they've been pretty good at home, but all except one of their losses have been on the road and Vanderbilt's been able to come back on him a little bit.
When Alabama's on the road. Mississippi state kind of hung around in that game for a little to be that's kind of where I'm going to decide really how good the Alabama team is because you've gotten your tests out of the way. This is like a conference, big time conference game on the road in Knoxville. Can you get it done there and then it'll be interesting to see how they play against Auburn.
[00:50:33] Speaker B: Okay, real quick, late night eight. Does eight count as late night?
[00:50:39] Speaker C: Kind of depends.
[00:50:40] Speaker B: Late hour, low tide, after dark thought. Okay, two thoughts. A, the potential video. Alabama marketing. You can send the nil checks my way.
The video of a potential video of Kalyn Deborah dapping up NATO's that would feed the gumps for years. And also second, you got to get Kayla Dubore in the student section for the Auburn game.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: That would be amazing.
[00:51:09] Speaker B: Could you imagine? I totally think he would do it, too. Real talk.
[00:51:13] Speaker A: I mean, he does have the personality for it.
[00:51:15] Speaker B: Exactly. That's what I'm saying.
It could be a blast.
[00:51:19] Speaker C: Yeah. And I mean, if you got it there against Auburn, place is going to go nuts.
[00:51:27] Speaker A: Maybe this time the Alabama's basketball team won't fall down 17 against yeah, hopefully not.
[00:51:34] Speaker C: Hopefully not.
[00:51:40] Speaker B: So I think that's going to do it for us. Unless anybody has anything like, I will.
[00:51:46] Speaker A: Just throw out a quick thing. We were loaded with the new football coaching news and then we wanted to get you caught up on basketball. Gymnastics also started two meets so far, won both of them. So the first one, they had the Mean Girls Super 16 Gymnastics Championships in the week. One in their session, they won, posted their second highest season opening score in program history of 197.125. And then they had their first home meet against Missouri, which they won as well. They won that 1197.225 to 196.45. And then they have another one this week at home against Arkansas. Friday night at 630.
[00:52:38] Speaker B: Tide is rolling. Yeah.
[00:52:40] Speaker C: Just because there's no football and a new coach doesn't mean things stop completely.
[00:52:48] Speaker B: One thing I got to say to everybody, thank you to all the listeners for putting up with two emergency Low Tide episodes this past week. We previously had zero emergency episodes all time. Now we have two.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: When you have a coach that has been steadily in place for 17 years, you don't really need those. Not a lot of emergency sessions. I mean, the other emergency sessions you could have made maybe basketball a couple of years ago. But Nate Oates, we don't think he's leaving anytime soon. Hopefully not.
But if it was me, we would record every day. But fitting everything from a weekend to 1 hour is a little rough. But hey, hopefully we don't really have any reasons for emergency sessions anymore, at least. And if Kalyn Deborah, hopefully coaches here for a while, if he coaches for the next 17 years, he will still be six years younger than Nick Saban when he retired. So this could be could be here for decades.
[00:53:46] Speaker B: The fountain of youth.
[00:53:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: So now I think it's interesting, just before we go off, we're finally getting towards the end of all the football chaos, hopefully, fingers crossed getting into basketball season. And we have the potential to do some fun episodes coming up. So there could be some very interesting episodes of the Low Tide coming your way. But the only way that you'll be able to hear them is right here on 90.7 the Capstone every Sunday night from seven to eight. Thank you for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. As always, you can find our show on Spotify or on Voices ua.edu. Thank you for listening. Have a good night.
