Greg McElroy, Former Alabama QB/College Football Analyst

Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix. I'm interested in making money.

I'm not interested in hurting people. Fifteen years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C-13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio. Season 2, The Dixie Mafia. Available now on the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app. Your trusted local radio stations, coverage of your favorite teams, live news from your hometown, and millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about, like leagues and teams, pause or rewind your local sports and news, and add shows to your queue to catch up later.

There's a lot to listen to, so get started and download the free Odyssey app today. I feel like we're kind of meat and potatoes folks on our radio show, and Cole being a former offensive lineman, we just really, really watch the offensive line and the defensive line very closely. I feel like I have to because of Cole. My eyes are naturally drawn to the back end and to the firepower that teams have, but ultimately, man, what still wins and loses in the biggest possible games is always going to be line of scrimmage play. I just wasn't surprised by the outcome, and so many people got so enamored with Ohio State. Oh, they have CJ Stroud, and they have great wide outs, and they have all this amazing firepower, and look at just how they rev their engine against teams like Indiana. But when it really comes down to it, there's still a lot of holes on that roster, man. They're not great along the line of scrimmage offensively. They're very subpar along the offensive line relative to what they should be. They also are not great along the defensive line. They have good edge players, and they have good linebackers, but they're really not great in the secondary. I mean, they're really just not that great, and yeah, they're going to torch teams that aren't very good.

There's no doubt, but when it comes down to a team that can control the clock and control the line of scrimmage, Ohio State's really going to struggle. A lot of people talk themselves into it being different this year. Oh, we made this whole offseason about Michigan.

We made them such a priority in it. I wasn't convinced that anything had changed, and sure enough, it hadn't. It actually might have even been worse this year than it was last year. I thought it was a pretty big black eye for Ohio State. They're still very much within reach of the playoff situation, but guess what? You get into the playoff as a four seed, you find Georgia week one.

In the playoff, Georgia's a steroided up version of Michigan, which is what we found out last year in the semifinals. I think Ryan Day's got to do some soul searching in the offseason and figure out a way not to be so dependent on the pass and probably alter a few things structurally to how he practices in an effort to improve both his offensive and his defensive lines. Is he on the hot seat now, Ryan Day?

No. Now that to me, and I've heard it, you're listening to the same thing I'm listening to. We in college football, we're two things.

We are extremely emotional and we're extremely irrational. Getting rid of Ryan Day would be both to the fullest of three. I love college football fans, but that is a typical prisoner of the moment. The guy's won 90% of his games. He's getting the job done in a ridiculous clip, and he's had two chances. Unfortunately for him, dropped the ball against Michigan.

And look, it's no secret. I mean, his teams have gotten punched in the face and they haven't responded real well to adversity, but he has without question earned the right to figure it out. I mean, they're running roughshod through everybody else, so I'm not that consumed by the, oh, what's your record against your rival thing? That to me is not the mark of a great coach. I think he will figure it out.

He's a great, great coach, but I do think that it's going to take some alterations for him to get there. Greg McElroy here with us. So I said very early in the year that I thought Michigan was slightly a better football team than Ohio State, but then leading into the game with not knowing how healthy Edwards was going to be, not knowing what Blake Coram would be. I thought Michigan would cover. I thought they would lose a close one just because it would be so much to overcome those injuries.

That to me is the embarrassing part for Ryan Day. I know Michigan is a well-built football team, but they didn't have their best player in Blake Coram and they still embarrassed you. Well, that's the best part about Michigan, though. Like, that's why I love them, right?

Is they're not player dependent. I mean, if CJ Stroud goes out for Ohio State, they're done. Guess what? Michigan started Cade McNamara last year and got the same result, changed their quarterback, and Cade McNamara is now in the transfer portal.

After starting early in the season, he got hurt there in the midway point of the season and opted to have season ending surgery. Like, they're not player dependent, man. Hey, hey, guess what? Hey, Coram can't go today, buddy. Hey, Donovan, go in there and go for 170 in the fourth quarter alone.

He had the best rushing performance in the game since 1995, and that was Tim Biakupetuka, who went for over 300. So, I mean, they're not player dependent. That's what I love about them. Like, if Ohio State loses CJ Stroud or if USC loses Caleb Williams or if Alabama loses Bryce Young, they're done. In a big time situation, like, big time situation. I mean, you might tell me that, and I look, Ohio State at one point, I don't need to remind everybody of this, they were not player dependent. They lost J.T. Barrett. They lost Braxton Miller, and in comes Cardale Jones, some third string quarterback that nobody had ever heard of, and he leads him to three consecutive victories en route to a national championship.

He went to Big Ten in his first start, beats Alabama in his second in the semifinal, and beats Marcus Mariota in the third for the national championship. So, they at one point were player dependent, but they've kind of gotten away from that, and I think they just need to build a roster and a team. And I think it's tough nowadays, by the way. Like, the problem with Ohio State is they're so good at recruiting. You know what I mean?

Heartline's a stud, yeah. Well, that's the thing. I mean, they're getting blue chip, five star, high profile players on the recruiting trail.

And I'm telling you, Zach, I think that hurts you in today's day and age. I'm not saying you don't want some, but I don't know if you want a team full of them. I think A&M learned that the hard way this year. I think Bama had some challenges from a week-to-week basis. Georgia has somehow figured it out.

I don't know how, but Kirby Smart has the recipe. But most teams that are completely stocked with five star talent, Clemson has had up and down performances all year long. There's a handful of teams that have recruited essentially blue chip players across the entire roster, and they have inconsistent performance because guys that are top tier players have a tendency to be a little bit more prima donna.

And I think that now in the NIL era, it can sometimes occasionally bite you. And I think there's going to be more high level three star guys with chip on their shoulders that are going to be taken as, quote, glue guys, if you will, to kind of keep a locker room together here in the years to come because it's changed quickly into a Wii game, into a Mii game. And the teams that prioritize the Wii, like Michigan, they're going to win out in the end. And Georgia, they're going to win out in the end.

So I think there's going to be some adaptation period for some of these programs, but ultimately they're going to figure it out. Greg McElroy here with us. About four or five weeks ago, I had a caller, Ohio State fan, ring us up and he said, guys, CJ Stroud is just very good. He's not great. What's your evaluation of the Ohio State quarterback? I think he's got a lot of tools.

I think there's a lot of things to improve. I think he is extremely subpar in the pocket. Pocket presence, honestly, it's not really his fault. I mean, they get the ball out and when he's under duress, he struggles.

For instance, on Saturday, best defense he's played this year, he goes four of 12 on third down for 81 yards and three picks. And they weren't really even getting pressure on him. That secondary was just awesome for Michigan. No, they were great.

Yeah. I mean, it was tight, tight window throws, you know, I mean, so that was on two picks, by the way, not three that was on third down. They got pressure on them three times. There were three times in the entire game, he was pressured on third down and that way he went over three with a pick.

If you make him move, he's in serious trouble. And in the NFL, it's all about can you throw off platform? Can you move off the spot? Can you make awkward body throws?

Can you stand and look down the barrel of a loaded gun, take a hit and still deliver the football accurately? I'm not convinced he can do those things right now. Like you watch Joe Burrow. We're talking about. Look, he's still a first round pick.

OK, so I can twist it. But we're talking about potentially the number one overall pick here. You look at Joe Burrow in the pocket at LSU. That was his best attribute. The guy would move in the pocket, would throw off platform, would jump and throw passes, would move one step, throw it quickly before the defender could turn around and get a hit on him. So I think that there is a lot still to showcase with C.J.

Stroud. I think another thing, too, is playing, you know, playing in big moments. I mean, that's something that concerns me a little bit twice now against, you know, the best defense on your schedule.

And you look like an average guy. So I I have my doubts and my concerns about him at the next level. I think there's better prospects out there. This went, I think, from being a no doubt surefire three quarterbacks in the top 10 class to now. I mean, you're drafting a couple of guys off tools like C.J.

Stroud and Will Levis, maybe Anthony Richardson from Florida. You're drafting some guys off tools and you're drafting the guy with questionable size and Bryce Young. And I think Bryce Young is the best of the bunch. If he was agreed, he just dropped size. It's a no brainer, right? I think he's the best.

But I also think his size concerns me. So it's going to be a really interesting draft season, I think, for these guys as they're going through that process. Greg McElroy here with us. So we know Georgia, Michigan is going to be are going to be in T.C., who I think is in as well. I do believe USC is going to win this week. But if they don't, do you think the committee goes Ohio State or Alabama? Ohio State. I think and it's not. The problem is, it's like you got to look at three evils, Alabama, Tennessee and Ohio State, which is the last.

What is the least of the three evils? I mean, like one team got blown out on their home field against the team that might very well be ranked number one tomorrow night. When the rankings come out, I mean, we don't know exactly where Michigan will be, but it's pretty impressive victory. Probably as good as anybody in the country this year. So Michigan might be one tomorrow, if not at worst, they're two.

Right. So you lose by twenty two points to the number two team. Or do you like the team that lost twice but lost close in both games against at LSU, who's now nine and three. And against Tennessee, who's, of course, ten and two is also in the conversation. So the head to head probably should factor in.

But for whatever reason, the committee overlooked that last week. But Alabama, Alabama won close on a handful of times, too. I mean, Texas, Texas A&M.

There were some games in which it was tight for Alabama and it was really uncomfortable. So, yeah, people always point to, well, they lost two games. They lost so close. Yeah, I know. But they also won close. Right.

So you got to kind of look at the bigger picture. I think Alabama is really good, but they've been inconsistent. And I understand why the committee has docked them and they lost a couple of games. So I think the committee and then Tennessee, who got blown out by South Carolina, that loss doesn't look as bad right now. But they also lost convincingly against Georgia in a game that, yes, I know it was only 14 points on the scoreboard, twenty seven thirteen. It was worse than anybody to watch that. It was it was sideways, man.

So it was it was definitely sideways. So, you know, all that is kind of a roundabout way of saying the committee traditionally and all we have to go on is a little bit like a court of law. We have to go off precedent. And the committee, even though it's a different set of 13 individuals every year, they have always prioritized the number of losses more so than who you lost to and how significant the margin was. So it'll be interesting to see how they all unveil themselves tomorrow when they do the rankings. But I would anticipate it being Ohio State five, Bama six, Tennessee seven. Wrapping up with Greg Mack or I just want to go rapid fire here on coaching moves that have happened. Let's start off with one that caught a lot of people by surprise.

I think it's a home run higher. Luke fickle to Wisconsin. Yeah, it's awesome. I mean, I think this is how you do it. I mean, I've been kind of critical of how Auburn's handled their situation with it. Like I said a second ago, we're emotional and irrational.

And I think emotion would have led you to do the easy thing. If you're Wisconsin, say, hey, we're going to promote Jimmy Leonard, remove the interim attack. He's our guy. You know, he's played for Rex Ryan, New York Jet, been at the D.C. level here for a while.

Like we want him to be our guy. They're actually the reason why they fired. He's actually the reason why they fired Paul Chris.

They want to get a good long look at him in the interim team played terrible last couple games. So you say, hey, Jimmy, we appreciate all you've done for Wisconsin, but time to move on, man. We've got to go with the best candidate and you're not going to be a part of the staff. He'll probably be a D.C. in the NFL. Jimmy's gonna be fine. But we're going to go with fickle and we're going to let him have free rein to do what he wants to do.

I love it. I thought it was just it was just the way you do it, man. The way you handle it like, hey, can't let emotions play a role here. But, you know, we're going to we're going to go in a different direction. Conversely, I know you'll probably ask me about Auburn. They just hired you, Freeze. They were initially going after Lane Kiffin, but they were expecting Lane Kiffin to retain Cadillac Williams, who is currently serving or was serving as the interim. And Lane's like, hey, now you're telling me he's going to be on my staff. Lane's now like, all right, no, I don't know about this. I'll stay at Ole Miss.

Make nine million a year and be in a great spot and continue to lead something I've built. Auburn now goes to Plan B. They end up with Q. Freeze, who comes with a million skeletons in the closet. Do you love that hire? Like I just said a few moments ago, I'm fine with the hire.

I like it. I would have rather had Lane Kiffin, but I don't love that hire. Yeah, I mean, I'm like as a ball coach. Yeah, he's a good coach. Like, I mean, he's he wins. Right.

Like he wins. But unfortunately, you know, I think the hires a little uninspiring. I mean, it just feels kind of like Gus Malzahn all over again, a guy that they gassed two years ago.

You know, I mean, it's like I don't feel like there's any difference there. I just think that if I were them, I would have vetted way more options. There was some interest in Matt Rule by Auburn, and I think Matt Rule was willing to listen. I don't think he would have taken it, but he was willing to listen. So I would have thrown the kitchen sink at someone like Matt Rule or someone like Lane Kiffin before I settled on Q.

Freeze. It's already a really unpopular hire. And a lot of the fans are are up in arms are very upset. And look, huge track record. He's a good coach. I mean, he's a good football coach. If that's all you care about is football, he's a good football coach.

He's going to win the win games for you, I think. But there's obviously a back story there with what transpired and how things went down at Ole Miss. And there's a lot of people that they won't won't forget that and certainly won't let Auburn forget it, especially in the event that that he struggles out of the gate. Matt Rule going to Nebraska. I've covered him since I was a college student at Temple. If you would ask me a month ago if Matt was going to be the coach of Nebraska, I would have said no.

But the last two weeks, that started to seem like it was not only likely to happen, but it was definitely going to happen. Your reaction to Rule going to Nebraska? Well, I was you know, he told he said no the first time like Trev Alberts went to him. He said no, turned it down.

Trev Alberts did what the best ADs in the country would do. He said, I'm not accepting that. You're my guy. You're going to have to kick me out of your house. I'm going to go back to the drawing board. I'm going to put together a different proposal. I'm going to rally the troops and the boosters. I'm going to put NIL money at the highest priority as humanly possible.

Make sure the boosters understand the importance of NIL. They now have gotten to $10 million in NIL money, which rivals anybody in the country. And Nebraska, they don't play around when it comes to football.

It's important to them. And I think Matt Rule sensed that and he's never had resources like this. Now he had great resources at Baylor. Not so much at Temple. Trust me, from year one to year two, the football team looked completely different. Greg, they once asked me to fill in at practice because they were down so many offensive linemen.

Nothing surprises me with that. He is a builder, man. And the thing that's cool about Matt Rule, and I just so appreciate his perspective, he has credibility in every single position group room. If you look, go type in his Wikipedia bio. The guy has coached linebackers, defensive line. He went from defensive line to quarterbacks.

He then went to tight ends. He's coached literally offensive line with the Giants. He's coached every position except for DBs and wide receivers on the field. Every single position he coached in college football and in the NFL, he's coached every position. So he can look, having spent time coaching that position exclusively at some point or at some spot in his college career, he can look at that position and identify a flaw and he can fix it himself. Whereas other coaches have to delegate, he doesn't have to. He has credibility in that room because he's like, man, I coached it. This is how I did it. You do it how you think you should do it.

We'll combine, put our heads together and let's try to get the best result. He's just a genius. In the NFL, he didn't have a quarterback. We've had people call in to the radio show like, Nebraska's dead.

It's a dead program. He's not going to win there. He didn't win the NFL. Look at his track record in the NFL. Dude, in the NFL, it doesn't matter. It does not matter if you don't have a quarterback. If your best option is a derby between P.J. Walker, Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield, you've got major issues.

And by the way, you were thrilled with your quarterback room relative to what you've had. I think the guy is really good and he'll get Nebraska going again. It's just the job gets tougher when they get rid of the visions because the Big Ten West right now, put it this way, eight and four Purdue's playing in the Big Ten championship. So the Big Ten West about to get a lot tougher if they get rid of the visions. But either way, I think they knocked it out of the park.

I have 60 seconds left, Greg McElroy. Do you think Deion Sanders is going to be the next head coach of Colorado? Yes. Yeah, I think he is. And I don't believe I've been told there's a lot of presidents concerned about Prime Academy and the missteps that went down with that. He seems to keep talking about how he's an option for so many teams. I don't know how real that is. I know Colorado is real. He says there's others that have made offers to him.

I don't buy it. But yeah, I think he'll definitely take it. I think it's exactly what Colorado needs to do. They have to make a splash. No one's talked about Colorado football since 2007. So it's definitely time to try to get back in the front page of the news.

And certainly with Deion there, patrolling the sideline, they'll be able to do that. Greg McElroy, always appreciate the time. You're awesome. We appreciate it. Thank you.

All right, I see you, buddy. Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix. I'm in a rush to making money.

I'm not in a rush to hurting people. Fifteen years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C-13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio. Season two, The Dixie Mafia, available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app. Your trusted local radio stations. Coverage of your favorite teams. Live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about, like leagues and teams. Pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later. There's a lot to listen to.

So get started and download the free Odyssey app today. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app. Your trusted local radio stations. Coverage of your favorite teams. Live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about, like leagues and teams. Pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later. There's a lot to listen to. So get started and download the free Odyssey app today.