Transcript
Speaker: Alright, welcome back everybody to Warm Weather Fans. It is the Sunbelt Podcast hosted by Brian Stone and Zeke Palermo. And Zeke recently just ah recorded and we're going to release to start ah our previews the Georgia State a Podcast with Brady Weiler. But here we're going to start talking about We're going work our way up from the bottom of the standings as we usually do. We may have to move a couple episodes around just for some guests that we may have on just for their recording ah availability. I don't know why that word was so hard to say, but we were going to do that. But we we tried to get the Warhawk report ah to cut to come on this and they were giving Zeke kind of the cold shoulder. So we will talk about ULM during this episode and just sort of
Speaker: what ah what are What are their hopes? you know what What is a ceiling at ULM? That's a great question in and itself. But Zeke, before we get into all the ins and outs of ULM, how's it going?
Speaker: It's going really well. My past several weeks, excuse me as I move my mic, have been really occupied with, we're recording this June 28th, so it's World Cup mode for me. It's been a blast.
Speaker: Had a chance to go to the DR Congo versus Uzbekistan game last night here in Atlanta. That was crazy. there are implications for both teams. Uzbekistan would have had to win by like seven goals to do anything, but...
Speaker: still fun to play around with uh the thought of it was a great time the city's been electric over the past several weeks and i'm really looking forward to like ah we're getting a couple knockout round games so um that's been pretty dominant in my life you know yeah and will be for the next two and a half weeks Yeah, that's that's fair. I've been keeping up with the the World Cup as well, mostly the U.S. matches. I did watch a couple of non-U.S. involved matches. Mexico and South Korea ah was one that I watched, 1-0. Yeah, there have been some good...
Speaker: some good matchups in there uh you know how the round robin stages though it's like a lot of powerhouses just beating the ass of of um a lot of lot of really poor teams unless you're spain right um i actually had tickets to their game against cape verd as well uh stub hub ended up screwing us over i don't know if the guy never had the tickets or decided last minute not to give it to us but we got an email like three days before ah, not going to make it, guys, and that ended up being you know one of the best matches of the group stage, ah a zero zero draw Cape Verde, Spain.
Speaker: Very disappointed about that. yeah that's odd Yeah. I'm sure we're boring folks, though, um with the talk of the real football. Well, let's let's go ahead and I'm not sure you know how much quote-unquote real football we're going to get to when we talk about ULM. um i I don't know. you know just to start out with,
Speaker: if this means anything to you as someone who keeps up with Sunbelt football or football as a whole, uh, ULM is the rated as the dead last team overall wise in the new NCAA football or college football 27 game. That's coming out in the next couple days, uh, at like a 69 there, they're lower than every other team in the game.
Speaker: um you know Matt, our ex-co-host, used to come on and and talk about all of the ah financial issues that the financial department the athletic department goes through and you know how they just... Financially, they're not really on the level with like a lot of these other programs, namely like you know teams like JMU who are like...
Speaker: you know they're cranking up the the amount in student fees that their students pay. And it's it's been working out you know sterling for them because they can then take that money and kind of funnel it back through the athletic ah programs. Whereas ULM, it's like, is the fan base really that robust? would they I mean, they probably wouldn't vote for that like if the if it was you know up for a vote. So...
Speaker: let's Let's talk about them as a football program. So last year was year two for Brian Vincent, you know, formerly the interim head coach at UAB came over in 2024, had that five and seven season ah with Ahmad Hardy, who has now gone on to star for Missouri um as, as sort of the the focal point of the offense. They,
Speaker: They started out hot in 2024. I think they started 5-1, and their only loss was to the number one team in the country in Texas that year. And then they ended their season losing seven straight games.
Speaker: Ahmaud Hardy leaves at the end of 2024. 2025 twenty twenty five is a wreck. yeah how how How can you really put it into words? It's like your wins are over St. Francis, Pennsylvania, who is I assume is an FCS school, UTEP by six points, and you beat Arkansas State by 12 in a huge upset.
Speaker: um Actually, last season, if you look, started the season three and one ah with their only loss being to at that time number 21 Alabama, albeit 73 to zero. um And then again once again for the second straight year, you win all your games right at the beginning chunk and then you lose nine straight to end the season.
Speaker: um We'll get into a lot of the... Ironically, a lot of the reasons that this went wrong last year are returning. That's not great for the outlook of this team. um I still lay...
Speaker: 90% of the blame at the offense's feet like they can't do anything um you know offensively last year they averaged 16.6 points per game they couldn't even score three touchdowns a game in college football at the G5 level uh You know, their defense also regressed a bit from 24 to 25. They give up three more points per game, which is a death knell when you can't move the football at all.
Speaker: um You know, you as soon as Ahmad Hardy left, you kind of knew what the deal was going to be, which was like they weren't going to be able to replace this guy who was like an all-conference, you know, an SEC player wearing G5 colors on on Saturday.
Speaker: And so... Yeah, it just it didn't go well. Their offense is just has sputtered the last couple of years, especially like in back halves of the season. um They've got a new offensive coordinator that comes in this year.
Speaker: if If Phil Steele's magazine is correct, I don't love the philosophy that the guy is bringing in based on the talent that they have on the offense. But we'll see. I mean, they've they've been every year under Brian Vincent, even going back to Brian Vincent's time at UAB, they've been run heavy.
Speaker: um You know, they want to establish it. They want to play action. You know, they want to live and die by the ground game and play action. And unfortunately, when you don't have an Ahmad Hardy level talent,
Speaker: you can't really run that type of offense. It sounds like they're going away from that a bit. And I can get into the specifics of what Phil Steele says in his magazine about ULM and their new offensive coordinator. But I just, I wouldn't be shocked if this was Brian Vincent's last season um in Monroe.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, ULM, and you mentioned the financial situation, so that muddies this up a ton. we We don't know what the buyout, and really looks like the ins and outs of that, or rather you and I don't.
Speaker: I'm sure someone does. um Through three years, Terry Bowden had won 10 games and they cut him loose. And i i remember thinking at the time that that may have been a slight overreaction to a 2-10 season.
Speaker: He'd gone 4-8 in the previous two. And it's like, again, that's not excellent football, but that's a level of football that ULM had kind of comfortably been sitting at for the couple years prior.
Speaker: So at the time of the fire, I remember thinking that that was a bit of an overreaction. ah Through two seasons, Bryant Vinson has eight wins. you know We can say three to four wins this year.
Speaker: He's in pretty much the same spot. And just based on previous trends, obviously Terry Bowden was just in the the the tail end of his career anyway. So there may have been other elements, but it's like, realistically, this is probably the end of it for Bryant Vinson.
Speaker: I think you mentioned the offense being the real bugbear for this team. And something that i I talked about with Brady just now as we were talking about Georgia State is In this conference, only five teams, we're talking only conference play, only five teams didn't allow 30 points or more per game.
Speaker: Most teams were sitting in that like passable but not elite by any means defense range where you're allowing like four touchdowns and a field goal per game, 31, 32, 33 range.
Speaker: That's where ULM was last year. Across all 12 games, they were allowing a smidge under 32 points per game. It is that offensive number, 16.2. That's their second time under Bryant-Vincent. They're held to under 20 points um per game.
Speaker: They're averaging less than three touchdowns a game across their Bryant-Vincent tenure. So there's a lot to be work work to be made up there. um I don't have a ton of faith because we're looking at kind of year three of Aiden Armenta, who in three years, like two and a half year or a year and a half rather as their starter, has given me nothing.
Speaker: um you talked about um loot the the ratings for college football 27 the only great thing to point to is uh brought in transfer austin carlisle from houston he is the highest rated quarterback by speed in the game at like 93.
Speaker: Everything else. And to that point, actually, can we all the numbers inflated. Most of these Sunbelt teams don't deserve to be in like the 74-75 range. that That's something that really bugs me. But again, besides the point here. Wait, you think they need to be lower?
Speaker: i think they I think we need to really tighten up. We've got way many 76s and you have to seventy seven Well, I'm actually okay with that. I think you need to if you're going to do that, you need to bring the top teams down a bit because it's like... It seems like every year one of the top teams will slip up and lose to a G5, and it's like, okay, but if you stick... Who's who's an average team in the Sun Belt? If you stick Arkansas State at a 65 and you have...
Speaker: I don't know, you know, a couple years ago, it's like Marshall beat Notre Dame. Okay, well, if you take Notre Dame and they're a 95 and you've got another team in the Sun Belt that's a 65, those upsets would never happen in the game. They would just run the percentages every time and be like 0%.
Speaker: But in real life, it's like an any given Saturday. I don't actually mind it. I mean, it's like, I think there are certainly like levels, obviously, like there there's like where the Sun Belt is,
Speaker: There's where, like, you could say the Big 12, the American, like, those types of conferences, whatever the Pac-12, I guess, is is, is, like, a half step above the Sun Belt because, like, those teams are all over the place. Like, outside of Boise, you don't really know, like...
Speaker: Does Oregon State that much... Oregon State's not that much better than App. I mean, you know, App beat them, what, last year or two years ago? So it's like, you can't say... And then there's like a huge tier gap where you start getting into like, okay, here's the ACC and then above them, here's like the SEC Big Ten, like all of that stuff. So it's like...
Speaker: yeah I don't really mind it. I think it's fine as is. Again, we're deviating from the main point, and I don't want to stay here too long, but ah I would point to two of EA's other games in NHL and formerly FIFA, now FC, where you have...
Speaker: Again, these teams are across such a different level because in NHL, you've got obviously the NHL team, but they also include like the Swedish league. They've got the AHL. They've got the ECHL. These like low minors. They've got the rush or they may not have the Russian league, but they've got like the Swedish league or whatever. Right.
Speaker: um And they they treat that appropriately. Like, yeah, the best team. team in the NHL is like a 95, 96 overall. But then you go down to like the worst ECHL team and it's like, yeah, no one wants to do it, but you're playing with 55s, you're playing with 56s.
Speaker: Same thing in FIFA. It's like, yeah, you roll out with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal, w right? Paris, you're rolling a roster of guys who are 88 and above, like even on the bench. But then you come down to like even the MLS, you come down to like the Indian leagues that are in this game. You come down to Malaysia.
Speaker: Okay, the last the last thing I'll say on this, I'm going to push back a little bit and then we're going move. I think the last thing I'm going to say is, okay, I understand that, but if you take a top team in the Sun Belt, like let's say you take 2024 James Madison.
Speaker: They could have, I mean, half of that team was part of Indiana last year, like that won the national title. So like, I, think I think, think your issue is more that you're like the middle class of the Sunbelt needs to come down and like the top teams need to stay where they are or even maybe rise just a tad. But yeah, there needs to be more diversity in the, in the Sunbelt. Um,
Speaker: All right. so So we talked about it a little bit at the top. I think the main thing for me and why I can't bring myself to think that ULM is going to surprise me is Armenta.
Speaker: um I've watched him for, like you said, what, a season and a half now or two seasons? He... he I don't think it's a chicken or egg problem. I think it is him.
Speaker: I really don't think his accuracy is that great for a quarterback. Um... I think by the end of the season, once if Vincent gets fired midseason, whatever, like the the the we're off the rails at that point.
Speaker: i think if Vincent's the quarter or still the coach at the end of the season, I think Carlisle's going to be out there basically running Wildcat sets. um Because how many how many times can you watch Aiden Armando do the exact same thing and go...
Speaker: all right, well, you know, we're going to suit him up again on Saturday and he's going to complete 55% of his passes and we're going score 10 points and and lose, you know, 28 to 10 again. It's like, how many times can we just roll this out and do the, like yeah we're doing the basketball equivalent, you know, people say roll the ball out and just play. Like you don't really have like schemes.
Speaker: That's kind of the, I don't know if the offense is going to be, I don't know if the offense can be markedly different with a guy that can't get the ball from point A to point B on a consistent basis. Like there's only so many things you can do. And Phil Steele talked about, talked with Bryant Vincent, the ULM head coach.
Speaker: And he's already said it's a three-man battle for the job. Aiden Armenta's been there a year and a half. If you don't know if he's the guy, you need to go ahead and jettison him and be like, listen, man, you're going to be the backup. Like, I'm sorry. Like, we have to see what we've got in...
Speaker: Austin Carlisle or Landon Graves or like just one of these other guys have to have to get some run to because like what we're doing does not work. We know that it's been two straight years. You talked about it a little at the top in 2024 when they had a rusher who was like a 1600 yard 14 touchdown guy a mod Hardy.
Speaker: They averaged exactly 21 points per game. Last year, without Ahmad Hardy and without that workhorse running back that you could just turn the ball turn and hand the ball to and and get out of danger, 16.6%.
Speaker: you' I don't care. You would have to field an all-world defense to make that work. And I don't think it's an offensive coordinator issue. I think it's just a talent, flat talent issue. It was like last year, um you know, i I'm going to regain access to PFF, I guess. They seem to be in shambles. I don't really know what what to make of of their whole thing at this point.
Speaker: Last year when i was i was going through PFF and I was looking at like grades for receiving cores, quarterbacks, and stuff, it was like ULM was consistently in the bottom three of every quarterback unit in the conference, and the receiving core was in the bottom three of of the conference. And I'm like,
Speaker: bringing these guys back, nothing's going to change. You can change the offensive coordinator out unless you're just going to start throwing more horizontal passes to get his completion percentage up That's fine. Maybe that does something for you.
Speaker: I don't know that they have the athletes to make even that offense work. And it's like, and then once you start looking at, we're going to the ball 5, 10, 15 yards down the field. It's like, he can't get it. Like he can't put it on the money consistently there. There is.
Speaker: There's a little too much Will Levis in there for me, I think. is where It's like even the games in 24 that they won, they upset James Madison, right? I brought this up two years ago.
Speaker: There was a play in that game. They were up. They were running the clock out with Ahmad Hardy, and they decided we're going to put the ball in Aiden's hands in a big spot, and he hit a JMU defender in the hands who could have run, walked to the end zone and won JMU that game, and the guy just dropped it. And I'm like,
Speaker: if this is what we're looking at as like And just a spoiler, the offensive coordinator apparently wants to get more to a pass-happy scheme than than what they've been doing.
Speaker: It's not going to work. You're going to see a high turnover offense. the ah The defense is going on the field constantly. It doesn't matter how good the defense is. If the offense can't move the ball and you can't keep the defense off the field to get rest, it's all for naught. And I think that's where we're stuck is like,
Speaker: if Now, if Austin Carlisle or Landon Graves or Bryson Kimbrough, the fourth quarterback listed on this roster, if somebody else comes out and they have the snaps week one, I'm like, okay, maybe maybe we've got something here that we can build off of.
Speaker: But it's like, how many times in the Sunbelt have we seen these coaches roll these guys out every year and they don't have it and you can tell they don't have it and it's just like,
Speaker: we've talked about this multiple times. The best coaches in this conference look at things that don't work and go, okay, we've got to stop doing this. We've got to give somebody else a shot. Whether it be Samari Collier at Coastal last year with that winning streak, whether two years ago it be Braylon Braxton at Marshall getting, getting put in, like you got it. it Like you can't just change the the coordinator and keep all the pieces and hope like,
Speaker: it's all going to change now. It's like, no, it's still the guy that, that can put the ball in harm's way on a regular basis. And you don't know where the ball is going. Once it leaves his hand, that's my, that's my biggest knock.
Speaker: Yeah. I like, it's not like Aiden Armenta is the inverse of Carlos Del Rio Wilson. you talked about like, you know, could this be a thing where you just need to put it out horizontally more than you jack up? That's what Carlos Del Rio Wilson did for a couple weeks at Marshall before he was a dot was like three yards. Yeah, it was ridiculous. Like there might have been one game where he had like a negative a dot or something. Right. Right.
Speaker: um But that's not the situation. They're just not putting the ball in Armenta's hands because the coaching staff has proven that they know ah one game last year did ULM throw the ball more than 20 times.
Speaker: And he's not particularly mobile either. We talked about bringing in Carlisle. Last year, they had Hunter Herring, who they used as like a gadget wildcat. Taysom Hill guy who landed somewhere else now, right? Transferred out, I believe, and believe he actually landed somewhere.
Speaker: um this is like a ah skill issue at quarterback um it' easy to point to like the offensive line but if you want like arment is just he's not particularly mobile he doesn't have a great awareness in the pocket um he doesn't have a super strong arm like i i hit the ball kind of flutters as it goes down the field and then accuracy like i've said but like I've been saying, it's like nobody knows where the ball is going to go once it's released. Like, if he... I don't even know if you took him and stuck him on, like, a JMU-level team. They wouldn't take him. But if you stuck him on a JMU-level team behind an offensive line that was, like, one of the best in the conference, I'd be fascinated to see what happens, but i still think he'd be pulled at the end of the, you know, however long he starts for because they're going to be, like...
Speaker: no, man, like we need somebody who's either dynamic or can get the ball from point A to point B. And if you're hovering at like a 58% completion percentage in college football at the G5 level, it's just not going to work. And you don't have, you know like you said, Carlisle, for what it's worth, the speed rating on NCAA football, it's like, okay, well, at least he has that element to his game where maybe some teams are like,
Speaker: we're thrown off. we We don't know how to like deal with this guy. You know, you saw Brad Jackson at Texas State last year kind of do that where it was like the year before he's a gadget guy. runs primarily wildcat sets and then they set him up for success in year two. And he was, he was good. He was not the problem with that Bobcats team last year.
Speaker: ah Maybe there's some, some of that in there, but if you're in year three of a quarterback starting for you and you say it's a three man battle, then he's, he's cooked because it's like you, you've seen what you've had for the last two years, year and a half, whatever it may be. Um, and,
Speaker: And then it's like, we even when, you know, we can transition away from him, I think we've we've gotten the point across. But it's like, even when you look at like the the weapons or whatever he had, it's like, okay, Nick Trujillo is back.
Speaker: Again, a chicken or egg thing. he could have He could be good at another school, maybe with like a better quarterback throwing to him. He had 368 yards last year receiving.
Speaker: I mean, through 12 games. It's like, okay, um they've got J.P. Coulter, who is also ah returning at receiver. he had 234 yards last year.
Speaker: I mean, there are guys who put that close close to those numbers up in a single game last year. um So I'm just like, okay, yeah, you bring Parker Fulgham in from who spent the last you know two years at Clemson.
Speaker: Maybe he gives you something, but it's like, what if he's What if he's this year's you know Camden Brown and they don't have anybody that can get the ball to them like that that's That's where I'm at with it, where I'm like, I don't know how good any of these guys are because I haven't seen a good quarterback throw to any of them yet. So I'm i'm just sort of left at like a loss to say, like what could this be?
Speaker: Something that stuck out to me as we kind of look at like the guys that are going surround Armenta or whoever it is, and you know we probably won't know who starts until probably kickoff week one.
Speaker: um Something I want to give ULM credit for is it looks like they're following a a pretty successful blueprint, and that is bringing in guys from the lower levels. Something that we saw Old Dominion, and I know that I got wrong, was really junking on Old Dominion.
Speaker: for trying to replenish or refresh the receiver room by bringing in only JUCO guys. They were top-level JUCO guys. um I don't know like it'll i don't know if I got it wrong on the players or on the process. I'm not sure where I went and wrong there, like which side of that I got wrong.
Speaker: But as you look through like the intake here for ULM, they brought in like three or four guys at running back who were coming from D2, D3 JUCO. um They brought in a guy who had 50 catches, almost 600 yards, Marcellus Jackson, ah at JUCO last year. He's like 5'8". He's really undersized, but it's like, you know, i we're seeing very rapidly at G6, G5, you know, Sunbelt level play. Size is starting not to matter as much anymore because the top teams are hoarding all of that size now. Right. And we're seeing, like, different builds start to emerge, especially at running back.
Speaker: wide receivers trailing a little bit, but like this is a guy that could follow. I want to give ULM credit because they're following that Old Dominion blueprint, and I don't know if this is what ULM has been doing. i don't know if this was an intentional choice or they're such a hard sell to recruits.
Speaker: This is where you had to go. But it's like this – from a skill position, looks very similar in composition to, like, it would be like a B-plus version of, men maybe B-plus version of what Old Dominion did last year.
Speaker: um Again, it all depends on can Armenta get you the ball. The offensive line, um you know, that is a little chicken or the egg, but it's like he took a lot of sacks. I think from what I recall, from what I saw, it was a lot of him standing still and not a lot of, oh there's a guy free off the edge.
Speaker: um If some of the skill guys can can really develop here, um i mean, we saw two good running after Amard Hardy left. We saw two good running backs in, was it Parker Smith and Braylon McReynolds? Zach Palmer Smith and Braylon McReynolds. Yeah, ah both ran for like 600 yards last year.
Speaker: So it's like there are skills around here, and it looks like they're in a good spot to replenish that. It feels lazy, but it's like, dude, I've seen this guy for now, like 16 games.
Speaker: I know what it is under center. And yeah, I remember even last year looking at ah PFFs like time to throw.
Speaker: and he was like middle of the pack, like but like in front of guys who took way fewer sacks. like And I understand some of those guys are more mobile than he is.
Speaker: But that's just another like knock on him. It's like, okay, if you want the mobile guy, then we we get Carlisle out there. if you want you know If you want all these different kind of flavors, then yeah, let's do something else. But like you you can't... I think we even said this at beginning of last year. You can't just keep doing the same thing over and over again and just being like,
Speaker: no different results are the same every single year like what when are we gonna mix it up and it's like i don't know man like i would just throw guys out and just see what happens like because frankly like your other option is you get fired regardless so it's like you can go out swinging Or you can go out doing the exact same thing you've been doing the last two years.
Speaker: and And, you know, well we'll see which one they pick. But, like, I know what I would do. Because like, I can't just keep doing the same thing and hoping different things happen. the i'm not gonna say it's new good or bad because it is a mixed bag here but like for ulm they start the season at mississippi state and at uab like those are not great ah especially mississippi state uab a little less of like those aren't great opportunities to just keep throwing stuff out the wall because none of it realistically is going to work you can you know throw out
Speaker: every guy on the roster at quarterback and they're all going to perform practically the same. Well, I have a question. yeah i don't keep up with UAB at all. They fired Trent Dilfer at the end of last year. ah Who is their head coach now?
Speaker: I truly don't know. I'll look it up right now. I'm in the same boat. If they're still... Yeah, I mean, if they're still as bad as they were under Trent Dilford, that is the game that you can keep testing things out. Because frankly, the the last whatever ah however many two years under Dilford, they were like a complete joke. Like, I remember Southern like housing them in 2024 and it like wasn't even particularly close. And i was like, oh no, this team sucks. ah after playing them ironically with Brian Vincent the year before.
Speaker: It's Mortensen, the guy who was their interim when they beat... um Oh, they gave him the full-time job. Oh, nice. Okay.
Speaker: um i'm still I'm still a little dubious. ah Well, whether or not that pans out in week three, you get Southeast Louisiana. That is your opportunity to actually figure it out and say, actually, you each get a half. You each get a quarter.
Speaker: like let's actually figure it out. And then you play FAU, which is like, all right, we figured we think we figured it out. Does this actually work? So those first two, the first game for sure, second game, I don't know, that's like a like-for-like matchup. So it's like, you know, that can – Yeah, the first game you're going get – you're going to get drubbed regardless. You might as well just go ahead and and, you know, throw things out there. It's a little bit like last year with Marshall starting the season where it was like – We've got the Zion Turner. We've got Del Rio Wilson. we've got They had a third guy in the mix as well. And it was like, we're playing Georgia or whatever week one. It's like, okay, we're going to get our brains beating. We might as well test some things out and see if it works. ah
Speaker: That's a good opportunity to do that. And then it's like... I don't know, man. UAB has been a mess for the last couple of years. And I'm like, that might be a good game to like actually put some effort forth, but be like, we really need to find out in practice like over the last however many weeks, like who's going to be the guy to suit up that game. Cause that might be a chance at a win.
Speaker: um And those don't come very often for ULM. So like really need to figure that out. Someone I want to bring real quick on ah Donald Chaney.
Speaker: And I ask because he did some time at Louisville, close proximity to you. um He is really, like, Phil Steele is all in on this guy. He is his eighth highest rated um transfer out of the portal this year.
Speaker: He did not play, he was cut from the team at Charlotte. or left on his own volition uh last year at charlotte uh they what i read it was due to eligibility concern i don't know if that's because it would have been his sixth year if it was academic stuff but he didn't play last year phil steals all in on this guy thinking like this can be a mod hardy too do you have any insight on this guy at all donald cheney uh started at miami came to louisville for like two years Not really. I mean, it's like, okay, 2023, he took 94 carries for 478 yards at a 5.1 carry. That's good.
Speaker: um That was the, that would have been what the Tyler Shuck era still. Um, I don't know. They they were... Shuck has... here's Here was the problem with with Louisville a couple years ago.
Speaker: When Shuck was the quarterback, I think he's made a lot of really good strides with the Saints. When he was with Louisville, he would throw them out of games, like just doing dumb stuff, and it didn't really matter who they had around him. Like, he was going to, like...
Speaker: screw it up. So you would kind of go, all right, when's the inevitable like boneheaded pick coming? Oh, there it is. Just called it. Like I remember a couple years ago, i went to a, um, like a Thursday night game or something. It was a prime time between them and Florida state. And they were up, uh,
Speaker: and this was uh the year that they that florida state like did really well yeah and uh it was like the 12 and 0 or whatever year and it was just like yeah they they were louisville was in the driver's seat for like three quarters and then they just absolutely threw the ball threw the game away um so i i have no real memory of this guy ah I can't believe this guy has has been taking snaps since 2020. That's just nuts. ah But yeah, no.
Speaker: maybe he Maybe he does some positive things for him. Frankly, they need to replace both McReynolds and ah Palmer Smith. So... ah he he's got a nice build to him and he's 5 11 235 uh and then even their backup is like pretty decently sized i mean he 6 1 227 derrick jameson at least phil has them listed on the depth chart so it's like maybe you get some power run stuff in there but then it's like the offensive coordinator is quoted or vincent's quoted in here as saying
Speaker: um We brought in a new OC. We'll use more tempo, pass the ball more, and we're veteran at quarterback. Okay. Yeah. the Veteran experience doesn't mean a lot when the veteran's bad. Like, but that doesn't mean anything. And it does say that they will have an improved O-line.
Speaker: Maybe... They come back around and will and Vincent like puts the fear of God into the OC at a point and goes, we have to go back to what we've been doing with the the running the ball stuff. And maybe you get Carlisle worked in there and you finally get some sort of, like I said, like a Samari Collier level spark of like, okay, wow, we went from a guy who was basically a statue in the pocket to this guy that can move himself. And we've got, in theory, we've got these two huge running backs. Maybe we just ride kind of this rushing attack and like hope that it all bears out because the the fear though is you figure out the quarterback spot, the running backs come along, the offensive coordinat or the offensive coordinator, you know, buckles down, the offensive line is better.
Speaker: And these receivers that have been around for however many years are just not good. That's the fear is like you figured everything out. And then it's like Nick Trujillo, Bless him. He's just a 300 yard receiver per per season. yeah Like he's just not any better than that. That's the like the ultimate fear is like you've put all this effort into fixing in theory like all these other spots and then it turns out the one spot that you barely touched like we need Parker Fulgham to be 1100 yard receiver. We're like we've got nothing. That's the that's the big like fear.
Speaker: That was something I talked about with Brady. This is probably coming out after our Georgia State episode, so give that a listen, where we talked about, you know, it's probably too little too late for Dell McGee at Georgia State, but you're starting to see the vision start to come together where his recruits are now, like, of playing age.
Speaker: um the There's a consistent, like, vision for the team, and you can see, like, It's not going to work out more than likely, but we see where you're trying to go. And for the most part, at least speaking strictly offensively, I see that with ULM.
Speaker: I see, like I talked about, the old Dominion blueprint kind of. I see a good offensive line with a guy in A.J. Vinson who's going to be really, really good. It was great last year.
Speaker: um Started 12 games for them. They've got a couple other guys ah added through the portal. Phil Steele likes them. Who am I to disagree? um But then it like it all, God bless Aiden Armenta, we've already dunked on him so much, but it's like, ha I don't see the vision here because I don't know what you plan to do offensively.
Speaker: Maybe Austin Carlisle is going to you that Samari Collier. Maybe Landon Graves, like really but also Landon Graves, we saw him get run last year. Yeah, it wasn't much better. Okay, cool. It's Landon Graves, a backup Sunbelt quarterback.
Speaker: um So it it really revolves on, like, how is this offense going to work? We saw it, though, at ULM two years ago in his first year with Ahmaud Hardy. And granted, again, Ahmaud Hardy is, like,
Speaker: you know future He was way too good to be playing. yeah but you know And so that's a hard barometer. But it's like this team was playing like one game away from bowl game football with Ahmaud Hardy.
Speaker: And so if you can get those pieces together, there is an idea here. There's an identity. But now what you're telling me about what Bryant Vinson is saying and their new OC who's coming up from JUCO, I believe.
Speaker: um Like, you're trying to move away from the only thing that has worked for you. The only thing that's worked for you is the run game. And we're trying to move away from that. Again, like, again, Georgia State is in the same spot where it's too little too late. Like, coach is probably getting canned this year.
Speaker: You know, we're going, looking at four or five wins and we're happy. But it's like, there's no, why are you deviating from this idea? If that is, like, i it feels like that last-ditch effort of, like,
Speaker: i i Yeah, yeah i'm like I'm of the opinion. Also, the OC's name is Jesse Montalto. He was the head coach at Iowa Central Community College the last eight years, according to Phil Steele.
Speaker: um I don't have a problem in theory with the scheme change and wanting to go more up-tempo and just sort of like hoping it works. I have an issue with doing that with Armenta as the quarterback. That's my big hang-up is like,
Speaker: I haven't seen that he could operate like a slow roll, not asking a ton from you processing wise ah of an offense and and turning it into this like high powered. where' We're going to like sugar huddle. Like, i I don't know, man, like that seems like a recipe for a disaster for a guy that frankly, like couldn't put it together when we were running like a more slow paced,
Speaker: like run heavy scheme, just asking you to take care of the ball and do play action stuff. And you still couldn't do that. Like, has anyone ever improved? Who was that? Has anyone ever with a low completion percentage improved by getting more attempts? Like, I don't think I've ever heard of that.
Speaker: Um, so God, God bless Aidan Armenta. He's turning into this year's Daniel Beal. good Well, I mean, he was kind of that last year. Like even I think ULM this plays in their favor.
Speaker: They're just so you can dismiss them so easy that you're just like, we we shouldn't even dunk on them because it's like everybody. It's it's like understood like, okay, like, yeah yeah, we get it. They're bad. Like there's nothing else to say.
Speaker: Um, So let's let's switch to the defensive side of the ball. Really, you've got one big impact defender coming back who was Noah Fleming's ah senior linebacker.
Speaker: a Second team all Sunbelt last year had 80 tackles, 11 tackles for loss. Um... Outside of that, it's like kind of what you said on the defensive line, especially there's two community college guys listed here.
Speaker: Maybe they're trying to do the full ODU where you just like replace everybody with community college guys and hope it works. But it's like CJ Wilson's at defensive end. They're running a three, four, and they've got guys with legit three, four size, which I appreciate because there are teams that run three, fours that like,
Speaker: They'll stick 241-pound guy at defensive end, and I'm like, what are we doing? You got C.J. Wilson, who's 6'3", 270, coming over from Butler Community College. You got Marvin Hall, who's going to be your nose guard, played last year at something called Garden City Community College. Garden City, they played Independence in Last Chance U. Same division, I believe.
Speaker: Oh, I didn't watch that much of Last Chance U, so... I watched about the first season and then I was like, all right, I get it. laugh Yeah, it's a good laugh. ah And then James Smith, ah who I believe played at um ULM last year. He's not listed as being anywhere, but anywhere else. 11 games, had 14 tackles in a sack.
Speaker: ah You know how the 3-4 works. It's like the defensive line is just supposed to eat up space and let the linebackers work. So it's like, I don't expect a ton from these guys. Like, you're not going to get an NFL level 3-4 defensive end like a J.J. Watt or anything like that where you're like...
Speaker: Oh, we just put this guy on an island, and he's basically like ah an edge rusher that just weighs 290 pounds. like we don't Those things don't happen at this level. so ah And then, like I said, Flemings is pretty much your one standout ah and on the entire defense, like if you're looking at returning ah production, kind of. ah You get these other linebackers. you get Jaden Callender, who played in 12 games last year, had 25 tackles at...
Speaker: what is I think going to be the three, four D end, like an edge position. um And he's 235 pounds. so I hope he's playing edge and i I don't hope he's like stuffing the run at that size. ah Flemings and Marcus Ross are going to be the interior linebackers for this scheme. um Flemings is much more built like a thumper at two 50, whereas ah Ross may be built like more of a guy that can kind of move around and um defend the pass a little bit at two 35.
Speaker: And then Jabari Tiller was also here last year, ah is a senior, is listed at that weird like nickel hybrid position that they call Hawk.
Speaker: He's 6'2", 205, played in 11 games, 45 tackles, seven tackles for a loss. So he's pretty i mean pretty good for a ULM team that desperately needs like contributors on the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker: um And then the secondary... Again, it's so hard to... Carl Fontroy is good. yeah um But when you play for this... Again, I know we've already said this, but when you play for this team and they can't score three touchdowns, you're like... They they could be the 2,000 Ravens, but if you're on the field for 45 minutes, like what does it matter?
Speaker: yeah but i wear a that I think Noah Fleming is obviously... like he could be this year's... like Gosh, Jason Alexander, who was the guy at Troy Carlton Marshall where they're just like making every tackle across the field because that's kind of what he did for ULM last year. um And as I recall, he was only kind of limited by the fact that they were out of so many games.
Speaker: yeah It's like, yeah, we're putting the other offense on the field so often, but it's like, hey, man, we're – We're going need you at some point. Ended up not needing him, but we're going need you at some point.
Speaker: Jabari Taylor was someone that kind of broke out late in the year. He wasn't getting a ton of run until conference play started. And even then, it took a couple weeks to get his engine going. But like Coastal Carolina, I don't remember this game from him.
Speaker: Five tackles, three of them for loss. including a sack against Coastal Carolina, a sack and a half against Old Dominion. um So he's someone I'm excited to like kind of keep an eye on here because he seems like he could just be absolutely electric.
Speaker: um I don't you know. why you You know why you don't remember that game? Because they lost 23 to 8. And the story is we have 8 points on offense. Oh, what what a game, what a game. um Yeah, I think – They brought in a lot, a lot here, um especially in that like front seven. I mean, the whole defensive line, including that what we presume to be like edge rushing role, is fresh to the program or did not start last year.
Speaker: um So it's just going to be a matter of like who sticks because obviously we have the Phil Seal projections, and like they're as good as you're going to get. But there's a world where like some of the – James Smith, as you mentioned at that tackle, he played 11 games. like It could also be Derek Omeriji, who's also a senior and in the same build and played pretty well at um Southern Connecticut, I think, two years ago. So it's like there's there's any number of guys here that could stick.
Speaker: um And it's just going a matter of like, what what does this, I think defense um more so than offense is ah like super, super fluid. You're obviously subbing guys out more like when you have your offensive line, they're playing every snap barring a helmet.
Speaker: Whereas with the defensive line, like shoot, half of these guys might not even play third down. So yeah. you know i think it's important to focus in here on like Flemings, on Tiller, Fontroy, the guys that are coming back that we know are good, um and just kind of let the rest of the group fill in as they need to.
Speaker: And then, look, as we talked about at the top, to be a top-half defense in the Sun Belt, you only need to allow 30 points per game.
Speaker: That's very, very doable. I mean, that's something only five teams did, but it's a very achievable mark. um we don't need you to be james madison we don't need you to be the o2 davins right we just need to keep us in games and that's something that this defense frankly did more than their share of last season can i tell you one stat that like this has more to do with the offense but can i tell you one stat that it like really sticks out at me yeah because we need to dunk on them again No, I'm just the last time that ULM had a quarterback or at let's say this, not the quarterback as a team, a quarterback unit. The last time they had a quarterback unit that completed more than 60% of their passes was 2022. That is second year of, uh, Bowden, right?
Speaker: Yeah. Who was the quarterback at that time? Was it his son?
Speaker: I don't know. um But I'm just like, the the fact that you guys can't complete 60% of your passes at the college level, especially a chief in G5 ball, where, like you said, what there are five teams or something in the whole conference that don't give up 30 points a game. It's not as if we play in this like...
Speaker: you know, 2012 SEC conference where it's like everybody gets in the I formation. We just run the ball in the middle. And like, that's how we, it's like teams are spreading it out, throw the ball all over the place. And you guys can't get anybody that can complete 60%. Six out of 10 passes. It's nuts to me. Do you want to blast from the past? The quarterback of that team was esteemed Sunbelt legend Chandler Rogers.
Speaker: Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. I mean, yeah, that's all there is to say. I mean, yeah, he was good. And that's, ah that's, that that's what they need. They need steady quarterback play, which is something they haven't really had the last two years under Vincent. Let's talk about the schedule. You sort of talked about it. It's like Mississippi state at Mississippi state to open the season.
Speaker: That's going to be ugly for them. But frankly, like you just need, they need to figure out who their starting quarterback is going to be moving forward. Um, at UAB, like I said, I think that game's winnable. I don't imagine the Mortensen kid has turned the program totally over.
Speaker: like I think there's going to be some real building that they have to do from what kind of Dilfer left them, which was not a lot in talent. um I think that game's winnable, but again Again, I don't know. like Are they going to be able to score more than 21 points? Who knows?
Speaker: ah Third game of the season you play at FCS school, that should be a win for you there. And then the 26th game that you you singled out was ah Florida Atlantic.
Speaker: ah I don't even who's coaching at Florida Atlantic these days. Like it was Tom Herman and then they paid him a lot of money not to coach anymore. It wasn't the last time I checked. It was like an up and coming type coach, but I can't remember what his name is.
Speaker: um Hold up here. They're coached by Zach Kittley. Oh, the OC. Okay. He was the OC at... Yeah. he he came up and He came up through like Western Kentucky. um yeah i I remember like being pissed off because Georgia Southern took...
Speaker: the other offensive coordinator from Western Kentucky who Kitley was brought in to, um, to basically run the offense. Like the the other guy, I don't know what fetching coffee or whatever, but like he, he, uh, Ellis who eventually became Georgia Southern's offensive coordinator. like, this isn't raise red flags to anybody in the program that like,
Speaker: they brought in a kitley to replace him and he just stayed on. Like, is that not weird anybody? Um, apparently the answer was no, uh, coach Bailey's happy. Yeah.
Speaker: They had a, they had some really high powered, like passing. That's why Texas tech like snagged him up when they did. um all right. And then the last game but in this five game block, before you get your first bi-week, they play at South Alabama who, um,
Speaker: is beatable i mean i mean major applewhite showed me like not a lot as the as the head coach over there and and showed me even less last year without geo lopez so we'll we'll see what that looks like uh then you get a buy louisiana tech who i we don't know a ton about we we're still working to get a guest on for that episode just to kind of tell us this the lay of the land as far as wind totals go I don't know if this says a lot, but Louisiana Tech's win total through the... I think it's MGM is five and a half.
Speaker: So they're not exactly coming in like a ah JMU level team where it's like, oh no, like everybody get ready. They're going to be like... Fine. They're going to be they're go to basically going to be win-loss record, like probably Texas State.
Speaker: Right. Where it's like, they might get to 6-6 and everybody just sort of goes, okay. yeah I mean, in the West, like outside of Troy, 7-5 can get you to the conference championship game. So it's like...
Speaker: Maybe. Maybe. Well, hold on, because their big rival, Louisiana's win total, is seven and a half this year. And it was high last year, too. And I know that they had, what's his face, Walker Howard. I don't know.
Speaker: They had Walker Howard, and I know it was high and and all that stuff, and we kind of got swept up in the the hype for them. But I'm like, no, you got to show me something before i'm I'm penciling you guys in for like seven, eight wins. Like last year was rough to watch. It was it was not pleasing football to be a watcher of.
Speaker: Uh, so yeah, it's like they play Louisiana tech. They play at Troy, which is Troy, I guess in theory, Troy and Louisiana are, are in it for the West. Like it's a two, two horse race.
Speaker: Uh, Southern miss at home is their homecoming game. So I think so this is going to take and a step back again. yeah um they, they are restarting kind of with, uh, Anderson now over there who, who knows, you know, it's year one now for him. He's got to rework a lot of things.
Speaker: ah At Arkansas State, Arkansas State without Jalen Rainer is going to be a tough watch as well. um I don't really have a lot of faith in that going well. We talked about Louisiana. That's a wait and see for me. like louisu If you want to tell me Louisiana and Troy are gonna be the two best teams in the West, I'm fine with that in theory. But we got totally duped by how Louisiana was supposed to be really good last year, and they were just not.
Speaker: and it And it really wasn't even Walker Howard or him getting injured. It was like the offensive line couldn't block. And thus they couldn't do hardly anything. um I know lunch Winfield's back, but I'm like, I don't know, man, like the offensive line has got to show me something. You got, you got to show me like a sense of pride. Like you want to fight or something like I, there was none of that last year. And then the last two games to end the season, they play at app apps, a beatable team. They look like a mess last year too. If this team, but if this schedule, I don't know if they do this on, on purpose or whatever,
Speaker: If they do like a last place schedule like they do in the NFL, this this schedule is really good for a team that is like average. You know what I mean? Like if you took 6-6 caliber team and you gave them this Sunbelt schedule, they're probably looking at 8-9 wins because it's like your big losses are...
Speaker: The ones you're absolutely going to lose are probably Mississippi State, Troy, maybe Louisiana. And you'll probably slip up somewhere else in there. App's a beatable team. It's at App, so I don't i don't think ULM is going to win that game, but App wasn't good last year either. And then you get Marshall in the finale.
Speaker: Marshall's going to be an interesting team because we can talk about them when their episode comes up, but we talked about it when we recorded our Georgia Southern episode ahead of time. ah They faded big time in the second half last year, and Carlos Del Rio Wilson being like all over the map as a quarterback really played into that, and he's back.
Speaker: So I'm like, is he going to get it fixed fixed, figured out, whatever you want to call it, or are we going to do this thing where it's like, one week we're losing and we can't put up points in our a dot is like at four and a half yards because we're throwing everything like around the line of scrimmage and none of our guys can get free.
Speaker: Or are we getting back to how we were earlier in the season where we were like running the ball? Well, you know, giving old dominion, beating old dominion, giving JMU issues. Like what Marshall are we going to see? Are they going to continue to fade at the end of seasons? Like they went, they went one and four to end the season last year. so We'll see.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, obviously we're still with this divisioned conference. And so that frames so much of like the schedule conversation.
Speaker: my take from like a schedule broader schedule perspective is like, if you're in the East, third place is up for grabs because it's JMU, Old Dominion. I still want to be a little out on James Madison without Colton Joseph, but Quinn Heineckel looked good um what from what we did see of him. So it's like, we'll we'll we'll wait and see on that one. but it's like third place is really up for grabs there.
Speaker: Whereas in the West, like, Troy is the de facto team to beat here. Louisiana is in that conversation by mostly just pedigree. as Yeah, and it's like, Troy's beatable.
Speaker: Troy's very beatable. They're good, but they're but they're definitely, they're not like a juggernaut that like, oh no everybody watch out in the West because it's Troy. Yeah. think the West race might be really interesting because you're going to have like three or four teams sitting at, you know, thereabouts five, six conference wins. I don't know if that's like actually mathematically, but you're going to have three or four teams really near that top that are all playing very similar ball.
Speaker: Whereas the East, as it's been for the past, Honestly, as long as I've been around the conference, because before JMU, it was like app and coastal. It's just going to be like, take your pick. Who do you want it to be? Well, we got the two Troy years with Summerall.
Speaker: I'm talking about in the East rather. Oh, in the East. Well, for a while, Troy was in the East. Oh, really? mean, this was, I think, I think this was, yeah, that this does predate you. They were in the East at one point. And then once we started the conference expansion and bringing the other teams in, they realigned them. But yeah, Georgia Southern used to have to play Troy every single year. Cause it was, I mean, for a while it was like a three horse race where it was, it would be like,
Speaker: is it going to be Southern? Is it going be Troy? Is going to app? It was kind of the, the, the deal for a while. And then when they got switched over to the West, I was like, Oh, thank God. But seemingly we play them every single year. So like, I don't, i don't really understand how the math works there. Um,
Speaker: But i'm I'm just looking at it from the the perspective of like, yeah, the West is down, but even the East teams you drew were App and Marshall. Like, you know, the like you said, third place is up for grabs. It's like, you don't play JMU, you don't play Old Dominion. It's like, so...
Speaker: that you know Those are two winnable games right there, but if if those games went to a more capable team, I'd be i'd be like, wow, i I like the schedule a lot. But when you give it to a team that is going to be like, what, three, four wins at the end of the season? I mean, ULM has the lowest win total in the conference, even lower than Georgia State. f there ULM's at three and a half.
Speaker: So... Maybe. I don't know. I could see them winning four, But i have ah i have a really hard time being like they're going to make an early run like they have the last two years. even They're not even going to make an early run, I don't think. like they Their schedule to start with is is kind of difficult.
Speaker: um So like maybe you get couple upsets here and there. I just don't i don't see the path for them. like A good season would be winning like five games.
Speaker: Yeah. that I mean, that's the situation. it's like unless... unless this defense like really becomes like that James Madison type or something revolution, like one of these backs is a mod Hardy or the quarterback situation is like really, really fixed.
Speaker: Like one of those three things needs to happen for this to really come together. Otherwise there is a very finite because the defense has been good, but has not been like that great level that can just win you games.
Speaker: The running game, since or i we've only had one year since Ahmad Hardy, but last year was really good and kept you know was good enough to win football games but not dominant enough to win them extra games.
Speaker: And then you know we've said our piece on the quarterback situation. So until one of those three things happen, this team is really capped at like four wins, maybe five if we really want to get lucky one week.
Speaker: And it sucks too because it's like – it I like in theory, some of the pieces and like the, the, the scheme change and all that stuff um on the offensive side of the ball, like even going back like six, seven years or so, if Caleb Evans, who's like their second all time leading passer, I know this is a no does statement, but if you took him and dropped him on this team, I'd be like,
Speaker: ah With the schedule, seven. Yeah, that's a seven-win team. Yeah, becausez i'm like because I'm like, ah okay, he could throw and run that would give like other teams fits, and it's like he could elevate the rest of the team. But with when the the if you had to think about it this way, and I know we've we've done a lot of dunking, but I do have a legit question for you. If you took but like a poll and you were like,
Speaker: rank every quarterback in the Sun Belt? Would Armenta be the last or second to last? Like, where would he, would slot in? Because think about it. Coastal has a conversation, right? The revolving door at Coastal has a conversation in there.
Speaker: Sure. Like, it you can only judge it off of last year, right? Because we don't know, like, what's going on. We don't have a finite answer at Arkansas State, at App yet. there But, like, based on last season, it's, yeah, do you want – Armenta or – what's his name from Coastal? Uncle's fan of a show. What's his name? um well I think he's gone. Ted Hudson? I think he's gone. i don't think he's there anymore. Yeah.
Speaker: No, but yeah I think it's I think you would put him last because you would put all the unknowns above him because you're like, it's the devil I know versus the devil I don't. And in this case, you're like, I'd rather the one I don't know because like they might give me something. And when you look at a guy who's like the last two years, he's primarily been the starting quarterback. They have completed 54 and 56 percent of their passes as a team.
Speaker: Mm hmm. 54% of his passes in a year where he had a running back go for like 1,500 all-purpose yards and like 10, 15 touchdowns. And you couldn't contribute at all.
Speaker: Like you couldn't give me anything to like go off of that. And then the running back situation got worse last year and it's still the same thing. So I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker: um Yeah, think about this. As a team in 2024, they averaged 135 passing yards per game. Last year, they would bumped it up all the way to 160.
Speaker: they they can't So it's low completion percentage, low yardage totals. I don't know if if the the thought process was to run Hail Marys like a five-year-old playing Madden for the first time, but like what what could have been the thought process? Or it just has to be the quarterback. So I'm like...
Speaker: um I mean, I think that'll reveal itself pretty quickly, right? With the a coordinator who's at least saying that he's... Or is it him or Vincent that that is saying that we're going to be more pass-happy? It's like a little summary, so I assume it came from Vincent. i don't think I don't think Phil Steele talked to the OC, but it was like... It just says they're they're going to use more up-tempo and pass the ball more. And I'm like, okay. I think that'll reveal itself pretty quickly then. It's like, because...
Speaker: when you move a guy between schemes like it it becomes very evident very early wet that it's just not working um i'm trying to think of like an nfl example like a good comp for that where it's like you can move a guy you know where we go under center a ton or we go out of the gun or we're running super horizontal stuff or we're letting you make the plays or we're telling you to run like at a certain point you realize this guy just ain't that good.
Speaker: yeah and so and that's That's what I meant, though, is like if you're an inefficient passer, has more attempts ever ever solved that for anybody? Sure, yeah. that No, that was a good point. I like that quote. I mean, I'm like... breaking down you can't You can't say... like You're a Bills fan. You can't say, okay, Josh Allen made this big jump at his completion percentage, but it's really because we started throwing the ball 38 times a game or whatever. it's like That's not how works. Right. and i'm I'm like, that that has never that has never worked itself out. so that's That's sort of why I'm just at am where I am. Now, if Carlisle comes out and he knocks our socks off and he looks like the second coming of Colton Joseph...
Speaker: I will give them all all the credit in the world for finally making a change that was desperately needed. yeah the The only thing that could surprise me this season is that Armenta comes out and completes 71% of his passes and he throws for 20 touchdowns.
Speaker: That's the only thing that that could happen with this team that surprised me. Everything else, I'm like... Yeah, I could see it. i mean, I could see Armenta being benched after three snaps in week one. I could see him starting the whole season and tanking this team's chances of doing anything. Like I could see any of these things. The only thing, i like I said, I couldn't see is he comes out and he's like Drew Brees. Like that that would really like what is going on here. But yeah, no.
Speaker: um So that basically does it for this episode. ah You can catch us on our socials at Warm Weather Fans. You can catch me on X at WatchTheStone. Zeke, let them know where they can find you, and then we'll go ahead and get out of here.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm on Twitter at Zeke Palermo, Z-E-K-E-P-A-L-E-R-M-O. All right. Thanks, everybody, for joining us, and we will be back next week with two more preview episodes. This has been another edition of Warm Weather Fans.
