Roman Harper, SEC Network Analyst

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Odyssey. That's right, it is the Zach Yelp show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. Let's head down to the Alabama campus right now. Big game this weekend between Texas and the Crimson Tide. We'll welcome in a former Alabama safety, also played in the NFL for the Panthers and Saints. And now is a superstar at the SEC Network.

That's our pal in Roman Harper. Roman, I know you've got to be fired up for this game between your alma mater and Texas. Well, and honestly, man, this is a big prove-it game for both of these teams. So, I say it's a great prove-it opportunity for Alabama to actually let everybody in the country know, you know what, we're still Alabama.

A lot of people, this is probably the most I've seen since I've been doing this job. I'm sure that a lot of people think Alabama not to be the number one team in the SEC West, let alone the SEC and maybe possibly a national champion. So, knowing and understanding that the standard that is called football is moved, and it's all a constant moving target, that it was not on Alabama, it's on Georgia. So, that's a prove-it opportunity for Alabama.

And then for Texas, how real are they? Everybody in the papers have wrote about how talented they are, how good they are. But at some point in time, you still got to go out there and put it on tape, and go out there and show people how good you are. And so, you got ranked last year after a loss versus Alabama.

Still a loss. And they did not live up to the ranking until you move up. And this year, they've been praised. Everybody's picked them to win the Big 12. And so, it is a prove-it game not only to be who they're supposed to be in the Big 12, but also around the nation.

So, I'm looking forward to it. It's a big prove-it opportunity for overall. Like you said, people are finally starting to doubt Alabama, and Nick Saban for so many years had to go after people for praising his program too much. How do you think he's like in the locker room with this entire offseason of people saying Alabama's falling off and they're not that great anymore? Well, he calls it reverse rat poison.

You know what I'm saying? That's his thing. The reverse rat poison. He wants all of it all the time.

He loves the reverse rat poison. We'll see though. At the end of the day, it's so tough being at Alabama right now because, you know, when I was here, you know, we lost two, three, six, you know, we lost six games, seven games one year, two years. You know, it was only one year where we won ten games when I was in school.

But now, if you lose two games, you lose two games. It is a disappointing year at the University of Alabama. And like Nick says all the time, you know, the fans and everybody gets all in their emotions, but nobody cares more than the players inside that locker room. So they live, they understand what the standard is at Alabama and what they have to constantly battle against, which is their own standard that has been set before them. But the best thing about it is each individual locker room at some point gets to prove why they are that individual locker room.

Everything changes, even more now in the transfer reporter era. So it's just, I think, until you go out there and prove it and do it, that's probably the emotion that you really look for and seek for as a head coach, the way you get to see your team react in these moments. And in these big games, you can be proud of them, you can be not as proud of them, but you never truly, truly disappointed in them because what you do is prepare the best you can, do the best you can, and you're dealing with 19 to 21-year-old kids, dudes, you know.

So, 22, it happens. That's why they go out there and play it, Zach. I think it's going to be so good to have everybody's eyes on this game, you know, outside of Colorado and Nebraska. This is going to be the game that everybody's talking about and watching on Saturday night. Roman Harper here with us.

Where's your confidence with Jalen Milro as a quarterback for Alabama? It's rising. I would say it's rising.

That's the word I'll use to describe it in my best Will Bond. It's impressive, rising. And that's because, starting off, we didn't know. We knew he was athletic. We knew he was an athletic guy that could try and play quarterback, but now he's trying to be the quarterback that is athletic. And last week, he showed some really good throws on some good touch.

Some technique things can be cleaned up. But it's going to come down to, you know, I think allowing him to kind of get started in the run game early sometimes allows guys to get more in the rhythm throwing the football. KJ Jefferson, quarterback, Arkansas. Really good example of that. When he's using his legs, he's more active. He's just in the game.

You still got to learn how to protect yourself. But these guys are out there. Cam Newton, another great example in college.

That was who he was as well. So, and I'm not putting Jalen Milro on Cam Newton's level. I'm just saying the type of game that these guys have is where we're going with that. And he's got some talented wide receivers that are now no longer true freshmen.

And so they got some speed on the outside. They got some difference makers. And really, it's going to come down to this, Zach. Is Texas going to come out and shoot their gun in their shot? Being aggressive, really blitzing and say, hey, we blitzed a lot against Bryce Young last year who controls the protection, who does all these things.

You know how cerebrally talented that kid is. Are you going to try and push Jalen Milro to that breaking point as well? Are you going to see if he can get the corrections up front? How aggressive do you start? Are you going to be able to try and play some zero coverage, which is what they did versus Rice at times last week that gave them some success? So are they going to try and do that versus Alabama, which is if you play zero coverage and you don't sack the quarterback, watch out.

He can hurt you. He has shown he can take it 80 yards. And also, they have the ability on the outside to run by guys as well, like Isaiah Bond and some of these other apprentice, Kobe Prentiss, another wide receiver who has shown the ability, hey, these guys are downfield threats 45, 50, 60 yards down the field. What would your approach be, Roman Harper, defensively up against Quinn Ewers, who was having success last year up against Alabama before the injury in that game? It's not so much about just Quinn Ewers.

I think Quinn Ewers is a good quarterback. But it's all about covering Sarkeesian's defense and understanding what they're trying to do at all times in which situations. It's all about situational football, Zach. I'm sorry if I'm going to go on a heavy football jargon, but you asking these questions, I'm like, bro, I can give you the fluff. That's why we bring you on, Roman.

Give us the SEC network analysis here. Let's go. All right. So what it is, it's like, all right, what is the situation? It's first down or earned first down, not just start of possession, which is possession. Possession means we kicked it off whatever we just punted.

Different situation. Earned first down, you get past the 50, or really it's the 45 to the other 40 versus Texas shot zone. First down, just play coverage. Understand they want to go fast. That's when they want to try and quick strike you.

That is an attitude of this offense and under Sarkeesian. That's in his DNA, so understanding those things. And then also where they move around Xavier Worthy. When he's out there on the loan, in the field, understanding how you want to press this guy. When he motions in, there's no reason to press him from inside out. He just wants to run right back outside and get open and use the field.

And then when they move him down to slot, so understanding where Xavier Worthy is. Because when they want to take these shots and be aggressive, that's what Texas is. And if your guy is blocking, go hit the quarterback.

There's no reason to stand back and cover the air because they do a lot more max protect. They use a tight end. They put in an offensive lineman. We call him a pig or a slug.

And so because they're not going out, they're not releasing. So instead of covering this guy, just go hit the quarterback because he's in there to block. So the more pressure you can add and hug Rush as quick as we can, understanding the situations. The other former tight end, he's going to go across the line of scrimmage to help with waggle protection.

That guy, go get your man. Go get the quarterback. When they block, go get the quarterback.

It speeds up the timing. It makes Quinn Ewers uncomfortable. It's not shown that he's the quarterback under pressure that handles it well. And if it's feet are moving and you knock him off the spot, he's not that good at quarterback. So that is when you've got to understand those things and how to be aggressive and how to play against this defense.

At least that's what I would tell them to do, Zach. Roman Harper here with us. We're getting a PhD in football right here on CBS Sports Radio. LSU, I think the world of them heading into the season, same with Florida State. I thought that was going to be a great close game. It was looking that way in the first half, and then Florida State just took it to them in the second half. How shocked were you by LSU not getting up for the moment in that second half last week? You know, LSU had the opportunities to really take over the game and do what they need to do to win it.

And I always say this. It's usually five plays in every game. They kind of win a game, lose a game.

Everything else is kind of hogwash, right? And so you go in, you know, LSU really shouldn't have scored that last field goal. Florida State, that was a dumb defense call. Anyways, they got down there. They're up 17-14. They could have been up more, understandably so. But I'll say this, Zach, that whole first half was hogwash when it's all said and done, because it was even. And you look up, and three things can't happen if you want to win a big game. Number one, you can't get outcoached. LSU was outcoached.

Number two, and I just don't flat-thread it out there. It was like, you know, certain defenses that they're trying to execute, Florida State out-executed them and run the same type of defense. You got to understand, both of these quarterbacks are very similar.

So you got to have a spy. You got to be able to do the little things on defense to be successful versus these type of quarterbacks in teams, right? And they're very similar in those ways. So LSU lost that battle. They were outcoached.

I also saw them out-hustle. You know, there was a couple of tip balls in that game. Florida State's defenders are running by LSU's offensive players, trying to go catch an interception. I'm like, dude, are we playing their game?

What are we doing here? Also, Malik Nabors and Jayden Daniels, they got to get better in the red zone in their connection. You got one-on-one on the backside. At some point, you got to score those.

The odds will have to be in your favor if that's your star player, right? Those connections have to be better. So that's another thing. And lastly, Florida State out-hit LSU. They out-hit them. When the collision points were made, LSU players were going back. Florida State's players were stunning those guys. Even on the sideline runs, LSU was going to get that guy out of bounds. If you weren't going to run out of bounds, we were going to hit you on the way out of bounds.

But seeing those little things, you know, Jayden Daniels getting body slammed, planted on the floor. LSU on the fourth down, great fourth down, red zone defense, stuffing the run first, second down. LSU tried to run there. They couldn't. It wasn't like they didn't try. They couldn't. So seeing those things and those little elements happen, and then the second half, Zach, let me tell you what happened. As a former player, they got in at halftime, and they said, you know what, we don't need all this stuff we came in here and thought we were going to do.

We're going to play straight man-to-man defense. So they called the cat out, and that's what they did. And in LSU, they lined up right in front of LSU and said, come beat me. And they couldn't. And they lined up. I looked at the plays at the top of the drop. Jayden Daniels, there's no space.

Nobody's open. So that is what they did. And then they got after the quarterback with a great spy technique. And so, and once LSU had that happen, they got hit in the mouth, and they couldn't respond. And that is how the game kind of got away from LSU. Roman Harper, wrapping up with the SEC Network analyst, former safety for Alabama, the Saints, and also the Carolina Panthers.

Does Jimbo get it done this week up against Miami, in your opinion? Oh, so Zach, man, that was the game I've been studying lately, man. And it's just so weird because, you know, in college, you just don't get to carry over the success of last year.

And, or sometimes the warts of last year. And maybe Texas A&M is better. I think it's going to, look, this is when it's going to come down to me. I don't know who's going to win the game yet.

I'm not ready to put a pick on it yet. But my, where I'm looking at this game, where it be won and lost at, is going to be Texas A&M's wide receivers, who's the best part of their offense. And versus Miami's secondary, specifically the slot position.

I'm looking at the slot. They run a lot of man, do some dance, different man, different things. And they trust that one-on-one.

But if you got Evan Stewart in the slot eating, and Texas A&M has three wide receivers. They got the Noah Kidd that came out of nowhere last week. My man, shout out to my man, Tequil Spikes.

He said he was going to be a breakout player. So I didn't say nowhere, but Tequil Spikes knew. I didn't know. Then you got Little Moose Muhammad. Well, I don't say little, but the second. I call him Little Moose because I know Big Moose.

So, sorry. And Evan Stewart, the number one wide receiver out of last year's freshman class, who really came on and did his thing. So those three guys at Texas A&M are going to be a tough matchup for Miami. And that's what I'm looking at on that side of the ball.

And who wins that matchup will win the game. And then on Miami's side, it's going to be on Miami's offenses. I don't know if Miami can just run the ball on Texas A&M like that. Like in last week, they had to just run the ball. They weren't like the pass game wasn't as threatening. I don't know if their pass game was threatening enough to put Texas A&M in fear to maybe they have to put more guys back away from the line of scrimmage. At some point in time, you got to strike fear in somebody.

And Miami's offense didn't strike fear in the pass game. Two more for Roman Harper before we let you run. What was your reaction to what Coach Prime and his squad did, which was awesome up against TCU? Proud. You know, proud. Really happy. It's something to be said when you're an underdog and you go out there and shock the world.

Muhammad Ali said it first, you know? And so when those things happen, you root for them. You always root for the underdog. And look, man, I'm a Deion Sanders fan. I'm a Coach Prime fan. Like, he's been on my wall since I was a little kid, you know, with the Atlanta Braves poster.

You know what I mean? I'm growing up in Alabama. I didn't like the Falcons as much, but I love the Atlanta Braves. And so he was on my wall since then. And then I've got him. He's still in my man cave room right now on my wall.

From an autographed picture that I have. So, like, he's always been that guy for me. So I've always been a huge fan of him. He's the GOAT. And so when you take those type of qualities and attributes, and he's been successful at every level of his life.

So if anybody should dare doubt him, they're dumb. But for him, and not only that, but, like, his son, Shidoor, had a great game. Like, all the stars showed up in the biggest moment. And, like, those things don't happen that often.

And when they do, big monumental shifts and things happen. And that's what I saw for Colorado. It was great. I was proud. It was, you know, I don't want to say this on your show, Zach, but, like, man, it was almost like the Montgomery Boat incident. Like, it give you a little sense of proudness sometimes when somebody gets the correct reckoning at the end of a bad behavior.

And I meant the bad behavior in the fact of just all the doubters. People were like, man, they ain't going to win two, three games. I looked at the schedule. I'm like, bro, they can win four easily, you know?

And that's just, like, four. But, like, man, any more than that, man, give this man credit, give this team this program credit, man, of what, you know, Deon has been able to build. I mean, he's in talk with college football right now. Last thing I'll ask you, Roman Harper, Ole Miss, Tulane.

I can't wait for this one. Ole Miss, his offense is going to be humming. And then Tulane, we saw what they did up against USC with that crazy comeback last year. And they're one of those, well, I guess you'll say group of five teams that could really make some noise this year. You know, remember what I said earlier about you don't get to take the successes of last year into this year? Remember what I said in that?

Yes. That is a true statement. Now, Tulane has talent. They bring back the same quarterback. They bring back a lot of some of the offensive linemen, some D linemen.

Like, they got some players. But you also got to understand, their bell cow down the stretch was the Taiji with the running back. He rushed for over 200 yards versus USC. He rushed like 190 something, 180, 150 or more in the AAC championship game. So he was the guy down the stretch, right? Like, he got drafted in the NFL for that. So like, you losing these players, sometimes you don't always get better. And so that is real and true.

I watched him versus South Alabama. I think the biggest thing is this. I'll give you the secret sauce to this in the patch-ups app. Number one, it's in New Orleans. So and Ole Miss connections to New Orleans, that's the whole deal and the whole vibe. The Mannings, that whole little mysterious little thing, those connections, some of the same type of people in both places.

That's one thing. And then also is that Tulane wins in certain ways. They create turnovers, all right?

They're not a lot. But when they do, they score off of them. And so then when all of a sudden you're down, you know, that makes the other team's offense press a little bit more. Sometimes that creates more opportunities for more turnovers. And so if Ole Miss can protect the ball, they should win this game. Ole Miss is better. But if you turn the football over, you're a little sloppy here. You know, you don't have penalties, which Ole Miss has never really been that highly penalized team under Lane Kiffin. I give him credit for that.

But if those things start to creep up, then you give somebody that's probably not as talented to you a chance to beat you. I just saw that last Sunday when Clemson lost to Duke. And man, man, I know we talked about Brian Kelly, and I thought it was laugh blood. He's on the hot seat. How about Dabo Swinney?

Is there anyone more stubborn in college football than him with the way that he doesn't embrace the transfer portal and all the arrogant things that he says? Hey, man. You know what they say about that, man. Hard head got a soft, you know what, you know? At some point, it happens. You know what I mean?

Like, all that stuff. Look, I'm a big Dabo fan, personally. You know, look, I've been a Dabo fan since he coached Alabama wide receivers. And then he really won me over when he was the BYOG coach, you know?

Bring your own guts. Like, that's when he really won me over. And I don't know if that Dabo is still the same Dabo. It's really hard when you've been at the top for so long. And you don't want to, I guess, call it evolve or whatever it is, you know, whatever the correct term is. I would say evolve. You know, you got to be in this game, Zach. In the last five years, bro, in college football, this space, since I've been in it, last four years, you got to be the crocodile. You can't be the dinosaur. You're getting passed up. Things are changing. It's changing rapidly. You're not willing to adjust, evolve. Try and grow with it.

And if you just want to be against it, and I'm not saying Dabo's against any type of brain, then, like, it's going to be tough. And it's just funny because, like, people have, college players, a lot of them have gotten money underneath the table from different programs forever, Zach. And now it's no longer like that. And things are more above board. Things are at least, and I don't even think it's even better.

I don't. But at times, but it has better, it has more opportunity. And that's the thing that I don't want to take from these young men because I didn't have that opportunity. And it's not even about the money. It is about the money.

It's always about the money. But at the same time, we root for it as former players because it's about the opportunity, you know? And so don't ever lose that because opportunity creates hope. Hope creates love. You know, it creates all these other great things. So, and so that's all I want. But at the same time, I mean, everybody has to adjust at some point.

And it'd be different if like, so Clemson's never paid anybody on the table. But you just want to be out loud and in front of the camera saying it. It's just like, it's like, why at this point? It's simple.

It's ego control and stubbornness. That's really all I could chalk it up to. Anyway, Roman Harper, we got to bounce. Always appreciate the time. Thanks so much for doing this. Appreciate it, bro. Be good. Later.