Should we be talking about Alabama the same way we talk about Clemson?

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Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. See website for details. Mike Felder joins us on the Adam Gold Show. My friend, I made pizza yesterday and I thought of you, so I just want you to know that. Hey man, what'd you do? How'd you do? You do it on the grill, you do it in the pizza oven? How'd you do it? I did it on a pizza stone in the oven. Nice, I love it man. You let that thing heat up right? Yeah, it was very good.

You gotta heat it up first, otherwise you might as well just throw it on the rack. Bingo. I love to see it. We do pizza every Wednesday. It's very, very fun. I was there for a recent Wednesday.

I had a blast. Let me ask you about this. I mentioned this before. Should we be talking about Alabama the same way we're talking about Clemson this year? I think so. There's something lacking, right? I think, you know what? I hadn't thought about that in terms of parallels, but you know what?

I think you really just kind of created something in my mind because here's the reality. Do they have the skill players, specifically the wide receivers that we're used to them having? Absolutely not. Let's go down the list real quick. Amari Cooper, Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, Mike Williams, Sammy Watkins, New Popkins, Dion Cain even. Even Adam Humphrey or Hunter Renfro. You know, and like the same, same type of guys for Bama as well. Like, you know, whether it's Slade Boldin or whoever, like they don't have any of those guys.

So, yeah, I think that's very parallel. And then I think the difference is the quarterback probably. Cade seems like there's something that he can do. Jalen still feels a little bit behind where Cade is right now. They're both kind of in the same spot, though. And yeah, I think you're right.

And I think here's the other part. Alabama probably a little bit more out in front because they still do have Dallas Turner. And they have Kool-Aid McKinstry. But at the end of the day, from a defensive line standpoint, they neither one of these teams are what they what we've seen like there's no Josh Allen.

There's no Christian Wilkins, right? Like they don't like those guys aren't there anymore. And it's going to be interesting to see how they how they do it. But I will say this and listen, we've talked so much about two teams that one team lost their debut. The other team lost their second game.

But here's a reality gold. I got to give Texas credit. Yeah, I know I do too because they I thought that when Alabama took the lead back. I thought that Texas would ball would fold like a launcher and they did and that's the part to me that I do want to give props to. So anyone any Texas fan that's listening, there it is.

I did talk about it. But yes, this is I'm far more intrigued by what's going on in Alabama. And this is a team and you can see it on the sidelines and they kept putting the camera on him, give him the one shot, the hero shot. Nick Saban hates this team.

Am I wrong? I don't know if he hates this team, but what it always strikes me as obvious when Nick doesn't think that he has the right team because they do things that he that they normally would not do. I remember when they fit with a fake a field goal. They faked a punt against Clemson because he knew you could tell early on I do not have a team as good as the guys on the other side of the line. And I thought I thought Texas as for as close as that game was in the fact that Alabama had the lead. I thought things came a little bit easier to Texas than they did to Alabama over the entire night, even though the game was in Tuscaloosa. I, I swear I tweeted that I don't know if it's good.

I extended that I don't actually you asked it. Yeah, I literally everything was hard for Alabama, and every time they were in third in anything over four. I was like, they'll, they'll never get this. So, it's, it's, they've got to figure out who they are, of course, this is a team that still can win 11 games and go to the championship.

But at the end of the day when you look at them. It's gonna, it's gonna be a slog of the entire time and oh by the way to bring it back because I know we're an ACC country. What are they going to do against Texas A&M, like an A&M team that lost to Miami so shout out to the ACC getting a win that they really needed to get a component, but like every game for them whether it's Arkansas A&M. LSU, Ole Miss, Auburn, Auburn is not good but they got a base still gonna have, they have to give their best effort, every single time. This is not, you know, in classic triangle style Roy Williams rolling the ball out and I just got better players than you. This is going to be. Hey, we got to have a game plan that works and we got to stick with that game plan. And if it doesn't work we got to have a new game plan made up in the middle of this game plan so that we can go out and make plays. Alabama, by the way, after they, I don't know why they're playing at South Florida, but they are.

That's, that's a curious one for me. Ole Miss, two, two road games Mississippi State right Ole Miss first two road games Mississippi State and Texas A&M. And then it's home against Arkansas, Tennessee and LSU in a row it's not, they, they do not have an easy schedule, unlike the University of Georgia, which clearly does, I keep, I keep harping on this but it's fun to say, nobody cares in college football you played.

They only care what your record is. So, Georgia and Michigan, the two teams that right now are one two in the college football rankings are going to stay there, unless they lose in Michigan's case, they'd have to get monumentally upset by somebody not named Ohio State, and they'll probably be 11 and 0 going into that game. And I don't know who's going to play with Georgia until we get right down to it but maybe maybe Tennessee, although I don't know Mike Phil, Mike Felder is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show very quickly I want to move on to Carolina, and maybe a little bit of Florida State here. When Clemson lost their opener to Duke, it looked different from the team in blue. They did not look that did not look like, regardless of what we think of the outcome. The fact that Duke was competitive in that game with Clemson did not look like a fluke because I think Duke's got players. What was your takeaway from that game. Well, if we go so obviously do just be, was it Louisiana Lafayette, not know just Lafayette.

I'm, I'm trying to figure out all this transfer portal stuff. And now I got I just added the NFL stuff into so this is a lot. So do they get a big they get an easy win this week, or they get a win that they work for but they want an easy fashion. Yes, but the game or the Clemson game. You look at the box score. And I know turnovers turnovers turnovers, and I understand green zone and for folks that don't understand green zone green zone is basically 20 to 20 clubs in a lot of 20 to 20 yards if you look at the box score and you say oh wow this guy threw for more than this guy and this guy this guy and this guy ran for more than this guy, you're like how did they not win the game but it's what you do in the red zone.

And it's also turnovers and those are things that are that matter a lot and Duke was able to take advantage of it so me coming out of it. Super excited for Mike Elko, you get off to a two and oh start, and now all of a sudden the next thing that you're looking for is who's next for us, who's next for us, who do we get next, and I think that's going to be the part that's interesting, because Northwestern is not good. I watched them this week.

They're not good. The Yukon game stands out to me and I'm very excited for that because I will say this, I am a Yukon fan right now. Okay, I, a guy that I played football with at UNC Shelton Bynum. He was the strength and conditioning coach at Johnson C Smith here in Charlotte.

He got the assistant strength and conditioning coach at Yukon under Mora. And so I watch what they I follow my Instagram I watch what they do all the time he and I talk, and it's just like I'm rooting for them to be successful. I'm not rooting against do right, but I want you kind of be successful, but then they there, then it really starts when you get Notre Dame NC State Florida State, yes, back to back to back.

And then you get a little, the little, the, what do you call it a chaser with mobile. Yeah. And so it's going to be interesting to see what this how this shakes out but this is a team realistically three and oh, they could be born, if they beat you come on headed in that Notre Dame game, and certainly going to be a really interesting team and they can, they're going to continue to stay right. So let's see what happens, college game day at Wallace Wade Stadium for the first time ever I don't know idea if that's going to happen it might not might not even be wise for that to happen in my, my prediction is that game will be a 330 game.

Nobody wants to risk putting that in prime time, because it could go the other way. But let me ask you about North Carolina Mike Felder going into the season, my wonder was I knew I was not concerned about the offense, although I was concerned about playmakers on the outside and now and we'll, I'll let you give your opinion on tells Walker in a second, but I was more concerned would we see disruptors in the defensive front in the first two levels of defense we knew Cedric Gray was good. Right, but it looks like they have other players that are disruptors that can get in the backfield stuff to run, because I think that I think apps good I think absolutely legitimately good I'm not concerned by anything that I saw really in that game.

But what is what are your thoughts on their front, let's just say front seven. I love Cedric as you mentioned I love power echoes. Yeah, he, he I remember the first time I ever saw him, I think it was at Rocky River High School for Nike the opening, and I was like this is going to be really good.

And I was like, I thought he was going to end up at Clemson like Trenton Simpson, and he didn't he went into the UNC so maybe I am, to me, I'm looking at Desmond Evans. I do want more from him. Honestly, I want more.

But what he's doing right now is enough but I want more. And then you throw in a guy like, what's the bigger bait bait is it biggers. Oh, I don't know, but they're him they've got the transfer from Florida State. You've got Rucker on the edge. It just good. They seems like they have guys who have lived in the defense in the offensive backfield. And I haven't seen that since Mac Brown's been back. Biggers is a, I like you, it's you money biggers is he's a guy that's kind of a high this hybrid player that moves around a lot and they have he's a different type of piece.

So I love it. The big thing for me, and that's why I include him as part of that front seven because it's going to get tackles for loss he's going to find a way to play in the back but he's also going to be he's the he's your lead secondary run defenders. And I love that in terms of when the ball breaks the line of scrimmage he's going to be the guy that makes that tackle, and I love that. So, the big thing for me with them and we saw it Listen, we did see it like South Carolina. That was an apparition right where, where you have 16 tackles for loss and nine sacks.

It's not going to be a game to game thing. No, but we recognize how it can happen, they just have to figure out how to make it happen more often and that's the part that I looked at where they are going to have to bring pressure they're going to have to bring dudes down they're gonna have to do all those things and what that does do and as we get into an ACC schedule and we saw it happen a couple times against app apps not a team that is great throwing the ball but the Sean Davis had a day. Yeah, seven kids for 117 yard. And basically what happens is, is because you have to, you have to give every, it's all push pull right, like it's like you think about the scales of justice. And on those skills of justice there's past coverage, and their sacks. If you got to give more to get sacks that pass coverage, it gets a little bit lighter. If you got to play more in coverage, those sacks, they're going to go away. And that's one of those things for me that I really look at and this is a team that if they can get penetration and they get home with the blitz and this was a problem we talked about last year. They would blitz, but they wouldn't get home, they would not get the sack, which left them at a deficit at a deficit, with respect to throwing the ball down with when teams are throwing the ball down the field. Yeah, I love that they were able to get the stop on fourth down.

Amazing. Yeah, he saw penetration there right you see penetration you see you see guys someone being strong, you see someone deciding not today. Not, not, not me, I'm not gonna be the guy that gives us up. And so I really enjoyed that, but it was one of those things where that's just me as a football person liking guys standing up for.

And I think at the end of the day. I mean, geez, how did we go this one without mention Omarion Hampton, like, tremendous, they can run the ball and run the ball and good. And he's good with his feet as you know as well as his arm. And, I mean, so I'm not really concerned about their offense.

It would be better if Tez Walker were out there. No, no, I'll get you started on it, because I've been ranting about it for, I don't know, three weeks now. It's a slam dunk for the NCAA from this standpoint, who's the aggrieved party, the only aggrieved party could possibly be Kent State, they supported exactly, exactly. This is, this is the NCAA standing, you know, that little circle they have underneath the basket NBA little dash line. This is them standing there and still missing a layer. This is them, they're, they're shooting the ball underneath the rim. They're hitting the, they're hitting that big orange block. They're hitting that. And it's coming back to hit them in the face.

What I don't know is what, like, I was talking to somebody today. Tez was ineligible at the time he transferred and knew it, because the second time transfers, it wasn't a free transfer the second time, and whether or not he should be considered a second, second time transfer. Regardless, under the old guidelines, it was a formality he would have been allowed to transfer and be immediately eligible, which is when he transferred that was the assumption. But when they changed the rule and then they let the schools know in March, that the restrictions were going to be real, which, by the way, we should not lose sight of the fact that coaches and administrators argued for that.

They probably should have started any legal maneuvering then. Yes, but UNC just assumed that mental health would win out. And unfortunately, the NCAA never bought his leaving. I think I don't think they ever bought his leaving central the circumstances under which he left central.

But so I mean, this is almost predictable. It makes no sense that he left central because their season was canceled. He wanted to keep playing football. Right.

But they want somewhere he could play. But what they said was it was not a unique situation. So in going back and reading about what their decision was, what it was based on, it struck me then, oh, well, they're not going to be sympathetic to this because they weren't sympathetic to that. And they have, I'll give them credit for being consistent.

Yeah, consistently wrong, but I'll give them credit at least for being consistent. And then the the emotional plea because it was the first time Tez Walker had been in front of them, even though it was in a video conference. It was all well and good, but they they didn't see any new information. So they just went, this is the way this is our decision. Sorry, I just don't know what UNC could do now because he wasn't eligible. So you can't even file for a temporary injunction for what he was.

He was still ineligible. It's really frustrating. And again, I'm glad you mentioned kind of like the legal team element of it and teams like the PR element of it and folks pushing hard like this feels really last minute, if you will, from UNC like it seemed like they're like, okay, we don't even have to worry about this, it'll work.

And then you get to the 11th hour. And now all of a sudden, we're like, well, wait a second, what happened? And I will say this, I, I don't think this would have happened if it was basketball. And somebody, somebody for you and see that somebody that UNC wanted out of the portal and basketball.

I think they would have geared up and got and went out and got it made sure it got done. And now it's not getting done. And this is, this is a guy like I like, I feel really bad as he's from Charlotte. Yeah.

And he didn't get to play in that game. Because what, because obviously the NCAA, they stink. I'm not, I don't trust them. And I would, I would not, I wouldn't trust them with a dollar on the ground. And the reality for me is, but you got to push. Yes. And that's the part that's frustrating for me. And I guess this is, and you know what, I'm not, I'm not gonna say sour grapes, but it's frustrating because I went through, not I went through, I have friends that went through that 2010 situation. And it felt like that the school also didn't push hard for them. Agreed. So it's just, it's, it's, it's, it feels kind of like deja vu all over again.

Yeah, I, I, I, I made references to it a few times that kind of just kind of slipped through without anybody noticing. Like nobody was told to hand over their cell phones this time. So that's probably a good thing. But yeah, this whole thing, worst things that's ever happened. I cannot believe that your school lawyer tells you're the best player that you've had in a while to give his cell phone to the NCAA to look at when he doesn't have to.

He doesn't have to. Right. But again, it was about protecting the university, not protecting the player.

And I'm not, I don't think these situations are identical, but the university, they should have been on top of this earlier. Yeah. All right, sir. Good luck. Good luck to you and your, and your sewing, which by the way, on its Felder, we learned about sewing. If you want to be a Renaissance man, like my friend Mike Felder at in the bleachers on X, you should, you should subscribe to its felder. You're the best man. I'll talk to you later. From I heart podcast Supreme the battle for row tells the story of the unlikely champions behind the landmark case Roe v. Wade, starring Maya Hawk as 26 year old lead attorney, Sarah Weddington. We're challenging the Texas abortion laws in federal court and Academy Award nominee William H Macy as Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackman.

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