Transcript
Speaker: Alright, welcome everybody back to another episode of Warm Weather Fans, the Sunbelt Podcast. It is your hosts, Brian Stone and Zeke Palermo. and We're here today to talk about the South Alabama Jaguars who were an embattled team last season, ah going 4-8. Major Applewhite back yet again.
Speaker: Maybe a good decision, maybe not. We'll we'll see. ah But before we jump into all of that, Zeke, how's it going? I'm good, man. What what a better time talk about South Alabama than the day after the 4th of July, University of South Alabama, USA. When like I'm putting together stuff for our show and I'm writing my notes, I want to use a different abbreviation for them because like it just doesn't sit right with me.
Speaker: But also, like the what what else would you use? S-A-L-A is the ugliest thing I've ever seen. It's like, what is it? Southeast Louisiana uses C-Law. And again, this is this is the minorist of nitpicks to have about football player. S-A-L. S-A-L. Sal.
Speaker: I don't know. There's nothing that's, like, really ah pleasing about abbreviating South Alabama, um but we're recording this, of course, on the 5th.
Speaker: How many lifetimes ago does it feel that 2022 season where they went 10-3, 10-2 in the regular season, I think, and then lost their bowl game, I mean, how many lifetimes ago was it the year after when... What what did they go? Eight and four? Seven and six the year after. and And we came on the pod and we're like, how did they underachieve like this? like that it was It was one of... Because the numbers were roughly the same.
Speaker: i guess the defense had gotten worse that year. But it was just it was sort of mind-blowing that you go from, again, a 10-3 team that was you know They lost to Troy 10-6 and would have went undefeated in conference play, would have went to the Sunbelt title game, probably won the Sunbelt title.
Speaker: I believe that was the Grayson McCall a coastal year when they got in the the title game and Troy just steamrolled them and it wasn't really ever particularly close. I think that i think it was that year. Yeah, they would have won the Sunbelt title and and been in a big-time bowl game And they just, they ran into basically a carbon copy of themselves. And yeah, that that feels like forever ago now. So...
Speaker: so Let's start out. Also, on your USA point, they also have red, white, and blue as their colors. Of course, yeah. So, it's great branding. Do they do much with it?
Speaker: Not really, unfortunately. um Okay, so again, last year, four and eight Major Applewhite's second season after going in 2024.
Speaker: Last year, they lost ah quarterback Gio Lopez to Chapel Hill in the portal. and it really showed because I remember them not being good offensively last year. This is, this team was like a half step above what ULM was doing last year offensively. Sure. I think the offense is the majority of their problems, especially when you look at, you know, they're once again, another team defensively that gives up 30 plus points a game. And as it seems to be the case with the Sunbelt, but you can't have an offense. I mean,
Speaker: we We can talk about everything that's going to happen this year, but if we're just recapping last year, 26.5 points per game on offense, only threw for 181 yards per game.
Speaker: um in a In a season where you go 4-8, it's a little hard to comprehend. and I was going through the game logs of last year, Would you like me to list all of the games where Bishop Davenport or I guess the team he Bishop Davenport could have been in and out, but he was the majority, ah passer in these games. Do you want to me to list all of the games last season when he threw from more than 200 yards in a game? Ooh, I'm going to say there might've been like two games where that happened.
Speaker: It was three. Oh, out of 12.
Speaker: One, he threw against Tulane, 231 yards. They lost by two points. That was ah that was ah almost upset, so that was a yeah good performance. 280 yards against Georgia State in a 38-31 and then 203 yards that lost to Louisiana the week after the Georgia State game.
Speaker: they it For a team that gives up 30 points but game per game, if you can't throw the football and you're still like, we're just going to do that. We kind of talked about it with ULM. Like you can't just say, we're just going to grind this game out. It's like, number one, your defense isn't good enough.
Speaker: You're not generating enough big plays to justify running this type of offense. you You have to have things like going in your favor. And last year they just flat didn't.
Speaker: And you could tell they were missing Gio Lopez, which I mean, understandable, but yeah, yeah I don't know. I don't know if it was a coaching issue because now that now they've almost done... the the This is really funny. They're like a mashup of bunch of teams. So they got rid of their offensive coordinator from last year.
Speaker: Appleway is now the OC. He has no OC underneath him. He's called plays full-time. I don't know whether the issue was the OC or whether it was Davenport. But in a season, again, when you lose when you lose eight games and you can't average more than 180 yards passing in games where...
Speaker: you know, go back and look at some of the the the stat logs. It's like, okay, in the finale, they lost to Texas State by 23 points. They threw for 150 yards in that game.
Speaker: Sure. So, like, i maybe it's an offensive scheme issue and they wanted him to play, like, Carlos Del Rio Wilson and just throw a bunch of things, like, around the line of scrimmage. Right.
Speaker: That was just a weird, it was a weird strategy to go with that. I mean, that's kind of how it played out to a degree in that, they weren't asking Bishop Davenport to do a whole ton.
Speaker: ah Like, if you look at the stats across the conference, he ended up finishing second in completion percentage and only threw six interceptions across the course of the season, which, in a vacuum, is incredible.
Speaker: But when you pair it with, like, we're talking like eighth, ninth, tenth for passing attempts, um you know, bottom half probably, middle third in terms of passing yardage. And that's obviously then inflated because he was one of the few 12 game starters, uh, in the conference last year.
Speaker: So it's like they they, they weren't challenging him a lot. And for a lot of teams, there's there's an argument to be made that they didn't have to because you'd control Bullock, who was like top two, top three running back in the conference last year, ran for over a thousand yards. I think finished behind only Brad Jackson for rushing touchdowns last season. He was exceptional and landed with the Cincinnati Bengals, I think, ah after the draft.
Speaker: So it's like you're in that position where if we think back to like that Troy team, you were talking about, um, in 2022 where they've got like Kamani Vidal, for example, who's toting the rock and running excellently. You didn't need a ton out of like, was it Gunnar Watson at that point? i was Yeah, they were asking him to a lot. You weren't asking a ton. You can get away. And Gunnar Watson was like, ah was a different kind of quarterback than Bishop Davenport is. But like you can you don't have to ask a ton out of those guys when you have a guy pounding the rock.
Speaker: But as you pointed out very astutely, as anyone saw, there were times where Southout couldn't stop a nosebleed, man. I mean, they i they only made 12 sacks over the course of last season.
Speaker: They had one of the worst passing defenses in the conference. um there was nothing there defensively to really like and so it's like even in the world where all of this works out where you have control bullock being the guy and let's say i think he ran for what was it 1100 1200 last year it was uh i mean phil steel has it listed out as like total and net sure it was net it was 1085 but yeah he's running like 1100 on the nose it's like
Speaker: it's like there's there's there's a certain ceiling that you can reach with an offense that runs that way. We've seen that at ah ULM, which is the worst version of this, where they have some running backs, obviously Amard Hardy two years ago, but even without him, we saw some flashes of what that offense can actually be if it's clicking, but you need to stop guys, and they really didn't.
Speaker: I think if this is a... better, like if this is a top third level defense, I think South Al definitely, I mean, definitely reaches a bowl game last year, probably is in some sort of race for the, for the title game.
Speaker: I mean, they're not in that echelon of like the old Dominions and James Madison's that we had last year, but they're in the hunt for that championship game. Um, from like a really high level,
Speaker: I just don't know if like offensively, I don't think the offense was the sum was not equal to whole to the whole of its parts. um But defensively, man, it's like i I understand Apple White's the offensive guy, but it's like if there was a side that you as a head coach were going to say, screw this, I'm taking over.
Speaker: It should have been the defense. And again, he's a quarterback guy. He was the offensive coordinator um at South Al right before his promotion to head coach when Keane Womack left for Alabama. um So like that is not going to happen.
Speaker: But from like a very, very generic point of view, it's like, dude, the offense, you know, you you guys lacked a little bit of bite, but that was not the problem by and large. Yeah. well It was kind of my take in retrospect, having now had you know eight months to kind of sit on it.
Speaker: I mean, it it really, to me, I think, um boiled down to a couple of things, and I touched on one of them, but you you said it. Twelve sacks as an entire defense is not is not going to get it done. you if you're If you're allowing opposing quarterbacks to just stand back there all day and just make reads and and all of that stuff, and then...
Speaker: you pair it with the fact that on defense, they allowed 178 yards per game on the ground. They have one of the worst rush defenses, um you know, next to like Georgia Southern in the, ah in the Sunbelt.
Speaker: It's like guys are completing six out of 10 passes and they have all day to dissect your defense. And then when they run the ball, it's 4.8 yards per carry. It's like, Yeah, your offense has to be way more explosive if you're going to try to keep up.
Speaker: And they were just playing it extremely safe with Davenport. And I think I even asked at one point last year, I'm like, when are they going to kind of take the training wheels off of this offense and like actually try to like... Are we going to run this? Are we tanking for draft? yeah Are we tanking for draft capital? What's happening? like i don't i i just don't really... under And then...
Speaker: one of one of the things, again, that Applewhite did where he gave up play calling as soon as he became the head coach, I'm like, why? That's what got you hired to do the job. Like, no, they didn't hire you because of your great, like, personnel management. They were like, this guy can scheme up, you know, an ah offense that's going to get us, you know, in in contention for the Sunbelt West. And then the second he hands off the the reins, it's like,
Speaker: Okay, in 2024, his first season, um they were really good, honestly. 34.4 points per game, 442 yards per game. like All of the measurements were good.
Speaker: When you get halfway through last year and you're you're at 26.5 and your your yardages yardage totals are down, the only thing that's up is completion percentage. why wouldn't you look around and go, all right, I'm taking a bigger hand in in calling plays here?
Speaker: that's That's sort of where I was at with it. And I understand, I mean, according to Phil Steele, like you know he talked to Applewhite for the magazine. He was like, you know they're near the bottom in NIL for the conference, so they're not going to be big, huge spenders and players in like the the transfer portal market.
Speaker: And they have a lot of homegrown talent. I think the problem is, if you're not If you're not going to field a good defense, that can't get if you're going to field a defense that can't get to the pass or can't stop the run, all of the all of the above, and you're scared to take the training wheels off of throwing the ball further than like five yards down the field, then...
Speaker: but it's kind of like ULM. Like we're a non-starter at that point. There's, there's so many, you like so many things have to go right in order for that to work. And they just don't have, they don't have all of those things like going in their favor. It's not like what we said with the 22 team, where it was like, you had this awesome defense,
Speaker: um I think Carter Bradley was still the quarterback at that point. He could like make some plays here and there um out of structure. And we just really haven't seen that from Davenport. And I don't know whether they are scared to ask him to do it and don't trust him or he just doesn't have the ability. But like he threw 12 touchdown passes all last year.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, he just wasn't given the opportunity, and I think we'll just kind of roll this into like our quarterback conversation from a positional sense. I was listening to ah Craig Stevenson, who beat reporter ah for South Al on, i think he was it was, I know it was, the G5 Hive podcast, ah talking about Davenport, and his assessment was as such that Davenport is the starter based on pedigree, um but Hollins will probably take the job at some point this year. Jared Hollins, who stepped up like very intermittently. um he had took yeah i didn't even throw that he threw the ball under times last year.
Speaker: and showed a bill two is yeah i mean so he he he was not ah by any means like trying to succeed Bishop Davenport at that point. Remember, though, I mean, last year, from a quarterback perspective, South Al was kind of left in a rut because Gio Lopez left after the spring, right? They they they went into spring ball anticipating having another year of Gio Lopez, which, I mean, I know you you and I both, like, that that would have changed a ton.
Speaker: I mean, that that's a guy who adds, like, we talk about that two-lane game that you only lost by two points. Or I think Arkansas State, where they only lose by a point, only scored 14 points. Like, those are games that Gio Lopez on his own can win you if that's the difference. If two points is the difference, Gio Lopez can get that for you. So they were left in a bit of a rut.
Speaker: um So it's interesting that, like, if this was... We perceive them kind of to be in a bit of a trench after spring ball, after the transfer. It's like, well, you know, you're caught a little bit with your pants down. You know, you, you want to think in theory that it's next guy up, but like when you have a guy like Gio Lopez, you sorry Sorry, we don't have someone of his caliber ready to go. right um But they're rolling out the same two with Jared Hollins and Bishop Davenport is kind of your one and two.
Speaker: What Stevenson ah was saying, which I thought was interesting, is that you have ah a higher passing ceiling with Jared Hollins. You get a little bit more mobility with ah Davenport.
Speaker: Not that he's particularly mobile, but can play a little, you know, is a little better at improvis improvisation ah was kind of my understanding. And it's like, you know, by the time we get to late, you know, mid-late October, we this might not be Bishop Davenport's team anymore. um Another point that that I think is pretty pertinent, ah Jared Hollins, he grew up like 30 minutes from Mobile, so he's local. that you know Especially when you are a team of like these sizes, having that homegrown talent is so important, for one, for draw, but also for future recruiting. Yeah.
Speaker: um you know when we get to like how do they finish out the season troy southern miss app state like those are three uh those are two back-to-back very winnable games with southern miss and app state it's like it'll be interesting to see because they could be possibly on a fringe bowl contention like who's going to be taking those snaps are we going development with holland's are we trying to make sure that he's ingrained and committed to us next year or are we gonna you know maybe ride a hot hand in Davenport or maybe Hollins is the hot hand at that point yeah I mean the other funny thing too when you were listing off the games that they would have had a shot if Gio Lopez had been on this team
Speaker: an overtime loss at Troy by seven points. I mean, he probably would have swung, helped swing that game as well. Cause Troy was good last year, but they definitely had some ups and downs like throughout their season. And you could have, you could have caught them on the right, uh, Saturday and taken advantage.
Speaker: Um, um, Yeah, i i i i always I hesitate to always say, like, all right, we need to put the backup in and see what he has. But I think it just depends. Like, if Applewhite truly doesn't trust Davenport to throw the ball down the field, then, yeah, you might as well just go ahead and put Hollins in. Because you can't keep – like, your your team is not good enough to run this – five yard slant every play like type of passing scheme like you don't have the receivers to execute it you probably don't even have really the offensive line to pull it off and the quarterback is like has a great completion percentage but it's sort of like i don't know if you remember Chad Pennington like from a long time ago but he I mean, he was he was that way with the Jets where it was like everything had to be super short or the Dolphins too. He was on those teams, but it was like everything was super short around the line of scrimmage, super high completion percentage. And everywhere he went, they kind of were counting the days until he was out of town because he couldn't push it.
Speaker: I don't remember Chad Pennington. And when you said that name, I instantly started thinking of his son, equally incompetent at Marshall. who had Who had the same problems. Yeah.
Speaker: but Um, okay. So we have talked about obviously the loss of Kentrell Bullock, their, their star running back from last year is going to hurt. Uh, they do have Keenan Phillips who is back, uh, and had, what was it? Uh, 607 yards and three touchdowns last season in relief of Bullock sort of as that number two, uh, change of pace guy. I think he's going to be really good for this team.
Speaker: i I just, I'm, I'm wondering how much his pot potential, production would be limited by the fact that like they might not have a top eight passing offense in this conference. like if If you add everything up, it's like he's going to have to be he's going to have to be running uphill basically the whole time trying to figure it out.
Speaker: Sure. I hear you But I mean, we we saw last year that he he was really, really good. He just needs to make sure like, I don't expect him to make that jump to like the control bullet where he's running for 1100. But this is a guy that was pretty much if he got the touches was going to be like a nine could have been 1000 yard rusher last year.
Speaker: So yeah as for like ability, it's not necessarily a concern, but what was so critical to control Bullock success last year was the ability to then say, Hey, I need to drive off. Let's go Keenan Phillips, right?
Speaker: let Let's look somewhere else for a little bit. And you need that number two guy. and And we've seen some really good running backs in this conference. Get that. We've seen some really good running backs, uh,
Speaker: maybe have their like numbers reduced because they're in such a good room. I think not last year's James Madison, obviously, but like some of the recent James Madison teams. Georgia Southern, too, in the past couple years has had some running back talent. where it's like Louisiana, when they were when they were running like those three running back. like Yeah. yeah is so like every You never know who's getting the snap on any given play. They just rotate constantly. Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, we've just seen how important having like at least a deputy, if not a carousel of guys is going to be. And as you look at their roster right now, it's like there's no presumed backup because your third leading rusher last year was Bishop Davenport.
Speaker: Well, I guess it is going to be PJ Martin, I would assume, based on the the way that the depth chart is laid out on this page, ah who appeared in eight games and had 326 rushing yards, 5.4 a carry last year. You've got some other guys that are...
Speaker: in here that are returning Trayvon Dunbar is another name. um And then from there, they have two freshmen on the roster too, but I would assume it's going to be Phillips Martin and maybe some Dunbar mixed in as sort of your three headed rushing attack. And then,
Speaker: you know when you go back When you look at the the top pass catchers that are returning, to it looks again a lot like ULM. where it's like Their leading receiver that's returning is Anthony Eager, who's a junior.
Speaker: He had 339 receiving yards last year. He started four games, he played in all 12. He had 339 yards total last season.
Speaker: um You get another receiver, ah Michael Woods, who I think was, if I'm reading this correctly, primarily used as like a kick return special teams type of guy. ah He seems like he's going to step up and play some. And then ah Brendan Jenkins had 117 yards receiving total last year. yeah.
Speaker: you know They just have three guys that like if they are going to try to push the ball down the field and be a little bit more dangerous of a passing attack to face, um they need these guys to somebody to step up and be like an 800-yard guy just to make it work in general. i mean It was like the top receivers they had last year, they lose Devin Voison, who was at 775, and Jeremy Scott, who was at 417. He was the second leading receiver on the team. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, they need somebody to to fill the voice and role, and maybe it's Eager, and maybe or maybe it's one of Woods or Jenkins, or maybe it's somebody else that hasn't been you know elevated on the depth chart yet. Sure.
Speaker: The passing attack is the only thing that's really holding them back, and I think they both need somebody to step up, but they also have to have somebody with the willingness to uncork it down the field. Quarterback play, as we talked about, is going to put a definite ceiling, but I remember when I first started following the conference, I fell in love. I think there was just something really sexy about South Alabama's insistence on having the guy who leads to the conference in receptions when it was like Colin Lacey, Jalen Tolbert,
Speaker: Uh, Jalen Wayne. Uh, there's another guy in there. Jamal Pritchett was another guy in there who it's like, yeah, they would just, they would just feed those guys. Yeah. I like that. I don't like, you know, as, as you look, it wasn't super, super correlated to like great offensive success.
Speaker: Um, But now, like, Voysen, I kind of thought, was going to take that role. I don't remember. Was he banged up for a little bit of last year? Because I remember his volume being disappointing. um I thought he could have taken that, like, 90-catch role.
Speaker: But as it stands, like, you don't have that guy that you can force-feed and say – Congratulations, man. You're going to catch 90 balls this year. um It's up to you for however many yards, but congratulations. And and then youre with 90 catches this year, you're guaranteed to sign a UDFA deal um at the end of it. so I'm interested to see where the targets go, but it it depends a lot on...
Speaker: um quarterback play? like Do you need a guy who's shifty and can kind of create his own space or can get open in in short areas of the field? Or you know maybe if they go to Hollins, who is, again, as I understand, is maybe a bit more of a pure passer, has a bit of ah a stronger arm, like maybe a burner, one of those like Cam Brown guys um or Ted Hurst types that just like blows the conference out of the water.
Speaker: um We're not really going to know until we know what we get out of the um the the the quarterback play. However, to to my prior point about like volume guys, who was the offensive coordinator through those ah Jalen Wayne years and the Jalen Tolbert years?
Speaker: Major Applewhite, who's taken back over the reins. So maybe maybe they do just force feed a guy for 80 catches this year, and he's first team all conference, whether he wants to be or not.
Speaker: Yeah, something else that that Phil Steele notes here when he's talking about the receivers. um Eager had a wrist injury last year, um and maybe maybe that hampered him some, but he was he was still what the...
Speaker: fifth or third leading receiver on the team. I mean, it was like he played in all 12 games, so he might have been hurt, but it's like you played in all 12 games and you had 40 catches on a team where the leader had 67. So it wasn't it couldn't. how How much could it have possibly hurt? You know, it's unless he had like a ton of drops. um And then their tight end position, they i don't know if they even really utilize it. They've got Rod Gibbs, a senior, in here. he had one start last year, and but played in all 12 games. So it just I don't know if they're going to even utilize that position as like a premium pass catcher, but...
Speaker: If Gibbs has some juice, you might see him you know taking a bunch of ah you know like Travis Kelsey travis kelsey like middle of the field type things because they just need people to produce, frankly. like they just They didn't have much production out of anybody outside of the running backs last year, so they just absolutely need that. ah Moving to the offensive line, you got...
Speaker: I think it's what two, two returning starters, maybe three. I know Kenton Gerardo, the left guard is the big one. 13 all sunbelt last year um played all over the line. ah The last two years just played at left guard, left tackle, right guard, right tackle. He he's played pretty much everywhere except for center um center. You got a red shirt freshman who didn't play last year, ah slotted in there. That could be, there could be some growing pains there for Devin white.
Speaker: um Ethan Hubbard is another returner. Had 11 starts last year at the right tackle spot. So you've got some some experience there. um I can't find out while I'm just looking at it, this left tackle...
Speaker: uh, Reese, Oh, Psy, Wusu. It says he played seven games here last year. I i don't know if he's like a full-time returning starter he was just like a plug and play kind of sub guy.
Speaker: Um, but I would assume they would have noted him. Yeah, he's not a returning starter. um this This is a fairly revamped line. um yeah the The one spot you didn't talk about ah being right guard is Shalik Hubbard, who Phil Steele has as a two-year starter at Monmouth, which I think is of note. We talked about this.
Speaker: Was it with Aikman that we talked about this? um Talking about offensive line, it's like, You can go one of two ways when you're building ah a transfer offensive line. Are you going to go for starts or are you going to go for like raw tools?
Speaker: i I think it's the official opinion of the pod that we lean towards starts over tools at that position. I'd like to see that transfer. ah The redshirt freshman slotting in at center. We'll see how it plays out. ah You can surprise me. But I think we talked about this last year as well. It's like that's a position, especially in college, because you're asking the quarterback – you're asking so much less of the quarterback in terms of like at the line processing um because you just need that guy to like figure out what's the other team doing before we even figure out, Hey, I need you to slide here. I need you to ID him. I need, you know, whatever. um I need you to pick this guy up. We need to double here.
Speaker: um That, that scares me a little. I don't want to like plant my flag because the kids never played a game of college football. And so, you know, I don't want to,
Speaker: make a lack of evidence, ah you know, a knock on him. But it's like for a guy who's never played college football, um or at least played a ah snap of college football before, it's like, yeah, that that worries me, especially as our quarterback play is already kind of something that we're not super confident in.
Speaker: um how How does he handle? Do you just pass that that responsibility off to one of the guards, one of the guys who's returning? um I think that's something, you know, if you're really into offensive line play worth watching, could be an interesting story to kind of watch develop. um This offensive line, South Alabama has actually, over the past couple years, turned into one of these like weird running back factories that we've had in the conference where, like for whatever reason, they have the best running back every year and it's a different guy every year.
Speaker: Like I remember that when I first started following the conference, it was App State with like Cameron Peoples into Nate Noel. Yeah. And then Georgia State did that. And it's like South Al's doing that because they had fluffed Bothwell and last year, Kentrell Bullock. and and it looks like they're in on pace to have another one of these guys.
Speaker: um Offensive line, obviously, is like a big part of that. Having a good offensive line unit, it doesn't matter who's running behind. it I think that was kind of the consensus when we talked about App State and Georgia State. is like These aren't the world's most talented runners.
Speaker: Although we saw both Peoples and Noel, I think, had stints in the NFL. I don't know if they're still doing anything, but you know these are not the world's most talented runners. They just have a really solid group of five in front of them.
Speaker: You can turn anyone into a good runner if you have a head and shoulders offensive line. So yeah as you go back to that point about like who who's going to provide relief in the run game for Phillips, who's who's going to provide relief when, you know, maybe we need to ask, know,
Speaker: ah the Bishop Davenport to drop back, who's going to be there on that surface um is going to decide ah a heck of a lot. I mean, it does for every football team, right? This is not novel thinking, but that's going to decide a lot for this football team, how successful they can be, where their ceiling is offensively.
Speaker: The thing too, I don't know if this matters at all, but there are two other junior centers listed on the roster that ah Devin White is slotted ahead of. So maybe maybe they just feel really good about him as a player and they're like, you know, we'll we'll get the experience on the field and we'll figure it out because, I mean, you got to play sometime. But it's like, if you've got two other junior centers that are on the roster,
Speaker: and you're turning to a redshirt freshman, clearly you must feel either good about this guy or not as great about the other two. But, you know, we'll we'll see how it all plays out. Defensively, dear Lord, get get a pass rusher.
Speaker: i can't i I can't stress this enough. um You know, okay, so they... What it seems like is they run like a 3-3-5 based on the way that the scheme is laid out. So you've got...
Speaker: Emmanuel Waller, who is returning as a defensive end, ah had six starts last year, 14 tackles, two and a half tackles for a loss. ah Nose guard, you got Steven Johnson, ah who had 15 tackles last year in one start in 12 games, 12 appearances. And then Tyler Carter as the other defensive tackle.
Speaker: ah He played in one game last year. And then, ah you know, if you want to extend it to the guy, I guess, that will be rushing the passer. I think he will function both as sort of like a run stopper and an edge rusher.
Speaker: Terrell Johnson um was an honorable mention Sunbelt player last year, had 10 starts, 54 tackles and five tackles for a loss. But dear God, somebody's got to get to the quarterback. We can't you can't go another season with barely over.
Speaker: barely You can't have as many sacks as your quarterback has touchdown passes in a season. that's a bad i mean It could be super high and that could be great. It can't be 12 for both. that's right That's why you get to 4 and 8. You're not throwing touchdowns and you can't rush the passer. That's kind of the name of the game. It doesn't appear to me that they added a ton in that front seven that's going to create like a ton of havoc. um Guys surprise us every year.
Speaker: um Guys who were like maybe you know in a rotational role last year because they were young, not not strong enough yet. um I think there's... Anyone can surprise us. Like we're in a position where, hey, someone do something and you're going to get applauded for it.
Speaker: um But with that said, at very face value, it looks very barren. um And that's, again, going to put like a very finite cap on this defense. If it's third and eight, I have no concern. I know my five can block your six.
Speaker: without issue. ah It doesn't matter who your quarterback is. doesn't matter if you're Coastal or if you're, you know, ah like ah Old Dominion or James, but you know, it doesn't matter where you are in that range of quarterback play. If I know my five can block your five,
Speaker: I'm going to convert every third day. It's about game over. Yeah. It's like, it's a non-starter. It legitimately is like, you cannot win football games in that manner. Whereas like, so, so I, at this point, it's just like, Hey man, who wants it?
Speaker: Who, who's it going to be? Because it it has to be one of you. It has to be. And if it's not, Maybe, like again, and look, i you know not like as 100% tapped into this camp, maybe there is a guy that's going to come out and provide something, but like at at face value at the moment, this could just be another like kind of inexperienced group. I know the linebacking group last year ah had had some ah some experience, especially with Myrick coming back, ah and I think they had another linebacker. And now you're down him, too, top of everything else. yeah It would just be a very raw group that
Speaker: has a lot of growing pains that they never really mature out of. Well, I don't mean to pile on, but their new defensive coordinator is Todd Orlando, who I remember multiple fan bases wanting to can him like mid game. A lot of times, like I'm pretty sure he was the guy uh at usc who was with um who's the usc head coach that came from oklahoma uh no the guy who's there at usc now who to who coached like caleb williams and like all those guys oh my god humiliating ah um ah not sarkeesian
Speaker: ah no ah damn it I'm trying to think oh li Riley Lincoln ryan Riley okay yeah he he's done such a great job at USC I forgot that he was over there um I remember the 2021 season there were fans that were like I will drive Orlando to the airport tonight.
Speaker: Sure. Like, they they there are a lot of fan bases that, you know, Texas from 2017 to 2019, I remember fans really being like, what is Todd Orlando doing? So, like, I think Applewhite might have gotten a little too cute and gone back to, like, the the we all went to Texas or whatever. Well,
Speaker: um I just have real concerns that a defense that... lost its best player in Myrick, hasn't been able to generate a pass rush, couldn't stop the run last year,
Speaker: and you throw a new defensive coordinator on top who is a proven, what's the opposite of a commodity? um Like mean an impetus. Like, i don't know what you, like, I'm serious. I'm like, I don't know what you do with that. It's like, you don't have the personnel.
Speaker: You might not have the, even the coach to run anything. Even if you, even if you put Belichick back there to run the defense only, it's like, okay, well, I have no pass rushers and our linebackers, you know, are a sophomore who had one start last year and and played in eight games.
Speaker: And then our other linebacker, um... had 19 tackles over the past two years. That's our linebacking core on top of Terrell Johnson, who's like an in-betweener. um This is not to say So, i don't know. Especially because if, the you know, like scheme-wise, like s sacks are not necessarily, or or quarterback pressure is not necessarily like absolutely necessary to have a cogent defense, right? But the problem is that it's not like, oh, we couldn't sack the guy, but
Speaker: When you ran the ball, we were swarming like that 2022 defense was where it's like, yeah, you get a yard pass the line of scrimmage, but we've got four guys on you, right? Or defensively, sure, we're not going to get pressure, but guys are draped over you. By yards per game, this was a a very poor defense in both the pass and the rush game. Yeah.
Speaker: So so there there was no compliment. It's like, sure, we give up some of our – we're willing to scheme without a pass rush or we're willing to build a roster around ah without having guys who are able to play this type of role.
Speaker: it None of it was there. So this this is not like a ah this is not just a defensive line failure, not just an edge rushing failure. um that It was a ah complete and total mess that, again, it's like – Even, you know, I mean, your best games were holding teams. that This isn't fully true because you've got like the, I think they held Arkansas State to 15, right? But it's like your wins were allowing 20 some odd, 30 some odd to to Georgia State and to ULM.
Speaker: Yeah, your wins last season were Morgan State in the opener ah at Georgia State by seven. You beat ULM by 12 and then you beat Southern Miss, which is easily the best win. But that was Braylon Braxton coming back off of an i a shoulder injury at that point.
Speaker: um Yeah, I mean, outside of Southern Miss, there wasn't an impressive win in the other three games. So it's like, you basically were the best of the bottom of the conference. You beat ULM, you beat Georgia State, and you you sprinkled in an FCS win, and then you beat a team that was like spiraling at the end of the season. which is And that those were your fours. They're two points away from beating Tulane.
Speaker: And like yeah i you know you don't want to play what-ifs, but it's like, how different is that season if you beat Tulane? What happens then? like do you know They play Auburn the next week after that. They lost 15-31. And so that's a tough way to parlay.
Speaker: like You're not giving yourself a chance to parlay an upset into another like string of wins when you kind of schedule like that. um But like, how different is this season if they pull, if they make that win? Because now it's like, they didn't win after, after that Morgan State win. It wasn't until like October.
Speaker: might've been Halloween by the time they won their next game. So yeah. I don't, I curious again, this is all what ifs at this point and we're a year removed. So, you know, at this point, this is not going to go down in the annals ah of Sunbelt. What if college football, what if history, but it's like, what if that had happened? How how different does this play out?
Speaker: um But even in that game where, you know, I'm saying this could have been like a really big moment for you. They still allowed 33 points, man. Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I mean, yeah, it it is it kind of is what it is. And it's like, all right, I know I talked about it, but it's like Caleb Dozier and Parker Shattuck are your two linebackers. um we'll We'll see how that goes. Neither one of them have like a ton ah ton of experience. Dozier played a bit last year.
Speaker: your Your defensive backs are ah damn... Demirian Darby, ah who played in 10 games but only started one game last year.
Speaker: ah Javon Henderson ah had 12 starts. He's easily like the most um you know experienced member of this defense. ah And then Trey Webb is your other corner. He came from a junior college.
Speaker: um And then you got two safeties. you know One guy had four starts last year in Dallas Young, and then another guy had... ah what appeared in two games for Georgia tech DJ more, not the famous DJ more that plays for the bills. The other DJ more.
Speaker: Yeah, it it's, it is, it's an inexperienced unit coached by a questionable defensive coordinator with, guys that on the surface look like they're not going to be able to get to the quarterback or even even have the pressure rate that you would need to because I understand what you were saying earlier about you don't necessarily need to have a ton of sacks to be a great defense however if you look at most great defenses they do have a ton of sacks yeah so it's really hard to go through the annals of time and go
Speaker: oh The 85 Bears were a great defense. They had like 10 sacks in a 14-game season, and you're like, well, how does that work? like The math doesn't add up like ah and It's just one of those things where it's like, yes, you don't necessarily need to have a ton of sacks to have success, but you can't have 12 of them. that that is That's non-starter. You need more than one a game, yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, while we're on the defensive backs, also worth mentioning South Alabama loot lost to the portal.
Speaker: ah Their only first team defensive player last year Nehemiah Chandler played corner for them. He was locked down. He had something stupid. Like he was breaking up a pass.
Speaker: and like at the same rate that his front seven guys were making sacks. So he he was making plays. I don't remember him coming up with a ton of interceptions, but it was like, I mean, it it was like seriously no fly zone over there.
Speaker: um He's now at Florida State, Nehemiah Chandler is. And so it's like, that was your thing. You lose him. And then obviously you talked about Myrick, who, ah you know, one level below.
Speaker: Without those guys, it's hard to... someone's going to be the leader on the defense, right? At the end of the year, it's not, but we're not in a position where it's like, oh man, at the end of the year how did we not think about this guy as being, it's just gonna be like, well, someone has to lead the league, the team in tackles.
Speaker: Someone has to. Right. So. ah Okay. So let's get to the schedule. um A little similar to last year, especially how it starts out. So you get an FCS team in Southeastern Louisiana to open.
Speaker: You go at Tulane. Will Hall's two lane team might, might be a win if you keep that same level of effort if that you had last year, because ah there are several tiers of head coach between John Summerall and Will Hall. um But just South Alabama, I just, I can't put anything, i can't give them credit for anything until I see it. It's just one of those, like, I have nothing to sort of fall back on here. It's like,
Speaker: So you play an, a Mac team in Ohio at home, uh, September 19th. That could be a win. Typically those max schools are kind of just pushover teams, uh, at Kentucky is interesting. Kentucky now has Oregon's last offensive coordinator. I don't remember that guy's name either.
Speaker: Um, but he is another offensive coordinator hire who became a head coach and then decided I'm not calling plays anymore. And I'm like, I don't get it. Like, that's what they brought you in for. That's literally, like, what what got you this job. Like, i don't I don't really understand. Give it up, play calling. jump in real quick?
Speaker: Because i don't necessarily disagree, but I'm noticing it in because we're clowning Dowell Loggins for a similar situation. No, we were clowning him for not having an OC at all and not having any help and then being like...
Speaker: it if it does it was one of the i mean I kind of feel the same as Applewhite. If it doesn't work, he's done. like he has no more moves to make. like He didn't have play calling duties. He took play calling duties. Now he doesn't have an OC and he has to play calling duties. If it doesn't work, it's all on him. And that's the way I felt about Loggins is like...
Speaker: you don't give yourself any room for error when you come in and go, i don't have an offensive coordinator. I am calling the plays. I'm not hiring one. So that's another thing. When it fails, like it did last year, people can point to and go, well, why didn't we have an offensive coordinator?
Speaker: Like how, how would that have hurt? What, where did that money, like that money that we would have had set aside, where did that go? You know, what did we make some crazy pickup in the portal with that money? Probably not.
Speaker: So like, Again, it's basically just like, you know how some companies, like they budget out more than they're going to spend because they're like, if I don't write this down, I won't get it back next year.
Speaker: that's That's the way I viewed it was like, you can't budget. If it's, let's say it's a hundred grand or whatever, just for the sake of argument. I don't know what they make. 125. And you say, I don't need an offensive coordinator. We'll just take that 125 and do whatever with it. Throw it into the wind, whatever you want to do.
Speaker: Okay. And it doesn't work. And then next year you come back and go, okay, well now i need offensive coordinator. They're going to go, well, we didn't budget the one 25 because you said last year you didn't need it. So that's, that's where I'm sort of at with it. yeah no I am clowning a little bit just for that, where it's like, you might not be in this position if you called plays and had an offensive coordinator. I don't know why it has to be either, or that's, that's the thing I don't understand. Yeah. Um, yeah,
Speaker: October 3rd, you play ULM. Very winnable game. Was one of their victories last year. They should have a good shot of picking up a win in that one. That may have you at two, three wins throughout that chunk.
Speaker: um I'm trying to do i'm trying to do like some head math. and then Before in this six game stretch before you get to your bye week on October 17th, October 8th, a Thursday night you play at Arkansas State. That's another winnable game. Arkansas State still has yet to field of a complete defense. They lose Jalen Rayner.
Speaker: They lose Jaquez Cross. Corey Rucker, I assume, is finally done with college football. They're they're rebooting basically their entire offense, it feels like. So ah that's another winnable game. You get the bye on the 17th.
Speaker: You come back on a Tuesday, October 20th, and you play Marshall. Marshall's an interesting team. I think Marshall will win that game, provided that Marshall's not like a total train wreck. They were sort of all over the place last year, but they they could win games. It wasn't like a, oh my gosh, they're so inept type team.
Speaker: ah Louisiana Tech don't really know what to expect from them. That's going to be an interesting one to see. and then at Louisiana on November seventh In theory, they're supposed to be a good team. We talked about it with Aikman. It's like their win total is seven and a half, so they should be, in theory, a good team. We'll see how it goes.
Speaker: ah Troy on November 14th, they're probably going lose that game to Troy unless Troy underperforms again and they then they have to go to overtime. At Southern Miss on the 21st of November, you Southern Miss is rebooting as well.
Speaker: And then App State on November 27th, that's a Friday night game. ah App is sort of... I mean, Aikman made it sound like they were on the upswing, but you never know with Dowell Loggins, like what you're kind of going to get. This is sort of like the ULM schedule a little bit for me where I'm like, if this was a good team, like we projected them as a middle of the pack team, like this would be an excellent schedule to have. But you just never, you have no clue what you're going to get from South Alabama. Yeah, drawing Marshall and App State as your ah East Division opponents is as good as it's going to get. It's like unless you're banking on getting Coastal and Georgia State this year, it's like who who do you want to pull out of that conference or out of that division?
Speaker: I think this is a path to a very unsexy, unattractive bowl game. Like this is this is, this is a, this has six and six all over it. You go into the buy with three wins over, you know, you get a Southeast Louisiana, probably Ohio. And then you pick up one of either ULM or Arkansas state, probably ULM at home.
Speaker: And then you come out of the buy and it's like, you, I don't know. you You can definitely win three of Marshall, ah Louisiana, Southern Miss App State. I don't know if that's necessarily, like, the most likely outcome, but of those four, or three of those games, you can definitely win.
Speaker: um So, I, like... I could very well see, and actually because I think one of their wins is an FCS win, it's like South Alabama could be one of those teams that's bubbled out.
Speaker: I know we saw some teams last year bubbled in ah to the bowl games. We could see them bubbled out just as well. I don't know. We'd have, I'm sure someone, some big P5 school is going to miss the playoff and then act all like super huffy and, you know, like Notre Dame or something last year where they like cross their arms and like, well, if I can't be in the playoff, I'm just not going to try. And you're like, yeah all right, dude, whatever. um Yeah, I mean, if there are if if you've got five and seven teams like App going to bowl games last year and they can't even field like a complete offense, like, sure, I could see South Alabama like sneaking their way in. That's not that's not anything crazy. Yeah, they're they're honestly like a ah leveled up version of ULM, like where it's like the scheme in theory is sort of the same.
Speaker: and They've got a quarterback with a lot better completion percentage, but they still don't really throw it down the field. They run the ball. Defense is a, like, who really knows what you're getting out of that? And then the pass catchers are all up in the air and you're, you're like, it's all a wait and see. So, yeah, I mean, I could see them winning six and going to a bowl game for sure, but I'm just like, ah again, you're, you're sitting here going, okay, will ah Davenport be the quarterback at the end of the season?
Speaker: will this team tank somehow and Applewhite's out of a job by by the, you know, the, the Marshall game, by the beginning of the Marshall game, like, there's so many ways that this could go where it's like,
Speaker: i i didn't I don't think we quite anticipated them being as bad as they were last year. like Even with the loss of Lopez, we were like, Davenport showed us a little bit. like He could probably step in and they could win some games, and then it was like four eight so I mean, it right I definitely, because you had back-to-back 7-6 seasons after 2022, including that first one under Applewhite. was still...
Speaker: I think there was still like some at least personal hangover from that 10-2. That's still very fresh in my memory. and like the It is doable here. right This isn't a team like ULM where we are just kind of digging our grave every year and waiting for next our next coach um year after year. so it there is But i think like this is...
Speaker: and i maybe I said the same thing last year. It's very plausible, but I think this is the year where it's like, my my any good grace that you earned from that season has officially worn off, and it's like, all right, now we got to see South Alabama. We need to see Apple White. like this This is your team now.
Speaker: ah yeah Year three is like, I mean, we're seeing this with, we have a bunch of guys in year three across the conference um and where it's like, all right, you This is your chance. Either do it or don't.
Speaker: um yeah Was Tim Beck, was that year three for Tim Beck last year? That was three last year, yeah. Where we saw, I mean, we he made a bowl game and got cut loose. And went six and six, and they canned him. Here's the thing. they made They probably made, in the long term, think we both agree he they made the right call. So that's just kind of the position is it is for Major Applewhite right now.
Speaker: Yeah. All right. Well, that pretty much does it. I don't know if you have any last minute thoughts, but if not, we go ahead and tell folks where they can find you and then we'll get out of here. At Zeke Palermo, Z-E-K-E-P-A-L-E-R-M-O on X. And then as always, you can follow the show on X at Warm Weather Fans. You can follow me on X at WatchTheStone. We are also on TikTok, Warm Weather Fans. Um...
Speaker: Yeah. Thanks everybody for, you know, tuning in for another episode. We'll be back next week and we will get back to reviewing all the Sunbelt action. Take care.
