Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: W VUA FM Tuscaloosa.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Welcome to 90.7 the Capstone here on this beautiful third Saturday in October, live on the University of Alabama. This is the game day show. I am your Nazario Pengal here with my partners Kaden Johnson and Peyton Davis. How we doing this morning, fellas?
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Great. Now the revenge factor is real today, and I'm ready to see it come to fruition. Waiting a year for this one.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: And so we got on tap for the show know we're going to talk about the Arkansas Alabama game last know, the first half success, then the second half struggles that we saw. Then jump into Bama versus Tennessee, the keys to that game and how Alabama can get that revenge, as Peyton was saying. And then in the second hour of the show, we will jump into all of college football, talk about week seven, washington with a huge win at home over Oregon, notre Dame dominating USC, and then get into some of the great matchups of week eight, of course, the big one in the shoe, penn State at Ohio State. All right, so let's talk about Alabama versus Arkansas. Final score, 24 21. But let's go into the first half, shall we? There's a lot of success in the first half, 21 to six, halftime lead in the first quarter. We saw a little bit of what Peyton and I were talking about last week, a little bit of a slow start, but in that second quarter, they really started to get going.
[00:01:28] Speaker C: Yeah, this team started to sniff out a little bit of identity. At least offensively, they're going to beat you by just running it down your throat and then taking a shot over the top. And it's not like the most efficient way to run an offense, but it's what's working right now. And hopefully we see more of the deep shots and the deep plays in the future. I think we have 38 plays of 20 plus yards this year. So really like what we're seeing for Millro as far as the deep passing game goes.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: That being said, no sense of an intermediate short game. And that's what was working against Texas A M in that second half. That might be the best the offense has looked this year in terms of, I mean, you can't run the ball and the environment of Texas A M and how raucous that was, as well as the fact that they couldn't run the ball, they got the short intermediate passing game going. It really opened up their offense a little bit. You saw none of that last week. And in the first half, it was great when you were getting guys open down the field and you were throwing 50 50 balls to Jermaine Burton and he was making a play, which is great to see always. But I think in order to really, truly have Milro become a championship level quarterback, he has to become more consistent with those first and second level throws. And Milro, in the second half, that's where you saw the inefficiency kind of rack up and he was kind of off his game anyway.
But it was like anything from ten to 20 yards.
It can be rough at times for him, and man, it just kind of fell apart for you. But, yeah, in the first half, it was working a little bit. But for this offense to have sustained consistent success, that short intermediate passing game has to be as big a part of their identity as the running game does.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Right now, Jalen Milrow passes over 20 plus yards in the air. He's completing 61.5% of his passes, which is fantastic.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Fantastic.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: That is Joe Milton's season completion percentage.
Jalen Millro is doing that on deep place, but on passes under 20 yards, only 65%. As you said, I'd love to see that go up, if possible, and that's.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Not even that bad of a number, but you just see there are times when it's like the tape will tell you more. There is times the second half I'll point to again, in particular, the third quarter, I mean, he was high and outside behind second late. Like he needs to quick his mental clock up.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: Sorry. But one thing that I noticed, especially in the second half, which is a little bit OD for a quarterback that's as athletic as Milroe is, that when he's trying to throw on the run or outside of the pocket, it's really inaccurate.
On the rare occasion that he does have a really clean pocket and throws an intermediate ball, he's actually pretty accurate. But, yeah, those throws on the runs, we saw one, I don't remember who it was to, maybe Burton. He escaped the pocket, threw to him about 15 yards down the field, down the sideline, just way overthrew him by, like, ten yards.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And you see some of those where he's out of structure plays, which is like what separates the men from the boys, the quarterback position, basically, when he gets outside that pocket, and you know he can do that. And it's hard to bring down that guy. He's a big guy, he's fast. But that touch on the run, I agree with you. It's a great point because when he's throwing those crossing routes onto his right side and he's throwing there, it often goes behind or it's late and it kind of sails on him a little bit. I feel like sometimes his throws a little, they sail, they hang in the air a little bit. For a guy as strong as an arm as he does have.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Let's talk about the defense a little bit. First half held the Arkansas offense just six points, and then just talk a little bit about the first half success on defense.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it's really about so everything starts with Arkansas. It starts with the running game, and they've had little to no success. Sometimes at times this year as tenured in season as KJ Jefferson is, and we saw how well he played in the second half. It was impressive. But their offensive line gets little to no push up front. They're not able to run the ball. They did not have rocket centers last week. So when you can't do all those things, it's hard to establish much of a consistent sort of flow to your game against this Alabama team. And it was a great job by Alabama. The linebackers were moving around, they were getting push up front, pass rush was getting home. But in the second half they got a little complacent and, you know, the complacency and I think Nick Saban, when he was really talking about it throughout the week, the complacency was driven from the lack of energy in the entire stadium. I mean, the 11:00 A.m. Games are hard to get up for, we know, and Alabama fans are a little spoiled, we know all that. But when things the going gets tough in the second half and you're expecting, oh, it's 24 nine, we're going to run away with this thing, but then they get a few drives and your offense is for some reason taking shots left and right. When you're up by two scores, there's no reason to be doing that sort of stuff. And it comes a little bit on Tommy Reese, but I think just the entire gravity of the entire Alabama sideline and the student section and the entire stadium kind of went flat in the second half. And you see teams do that at times when there's not a consistency to what their identity is. It can be the short intermediate passing game, it can be the run game that pushes them. But then in those situational calls, like you run the ball right down the field in the third quarter, I believe, and you get to inside the 15 yard line. It's third down and two, and instead of running the ball again and even having a threat of the run, you do an orbit motion out of the backfield and make Jalen Miller make a full field read. There's no reason to do that if you're Tommy Reese, and it's just kind of overcomplicating things. So it's about a simple identity for this team, but today will be about the crowd, getting them going and keeping them in this game, of course, but for the offense, actually, it's about finding that simple identity at times, sticking with it, and even in those situations and trusting yourself to execute in those tough moments.
[00:06:51] Speaker C: Yeah, and I know it's easier said than done for the defense, but one way to kind of get that energy up is by forcing turnovers. We didn't see it against Texas, and that was a game that we obviously kind of dragged out. And then this game in the second half, it started to be noticeable. Like, hey, we really haven't forced a turnover. Even though our defense played stout in the first half, it's kind of getting to us in the second half when it felt like our defense was on the field the majority of the half, and just nobody could force a turnover. That being said, key players made big time plays down the stretch. Trez Marshall, before he got hurt, he had a big play and then obviously the final drive sack from Dallas Turner was huge.
[00:07:29] Speaker B: Yeah, and then you were talking about the offensive. Just stalemate, really, after the field go drive, they went three straight, three and outs for a total of negative six yards. And another part, they only killed three minutes.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: That's what I was going to say. That's the bigger factor with that is you kill no time and you force your defense to play a lot more. So you're exactly right. And on those three and out plays, it was like I remember sitting behind obviously the team was going away from the student section. I'm sitting behind them and I'm watching kind of the entire field and seeing what the personnel groupings look like and stuff like that. And they're coming out in those three receiver sets. One tight end, sometimes play action, but usually just straight drop back. And especially with the issues that they were having on the left side, kaden Proctor is still growing as a player. He's had a lot of rough moments in pass protection. He can get beat with speed, and we know that. But still, you got to offset that by making things a little faster for your offense and click a little bit sooner and have Milro get the ball out of his hands. Instead. They were trying to take shots down the field still because it was working, and we know it was working, but in the second half it wasn't. And when that, they kept trying to do it and it still wasn't working. So obviously there's a threat for that, which is a big threat to have. That's nice to have. So that creates a lot of space for you in their intermediate game. You got to take advantage of some of that stuff. But we didn't see that in the second half.
[00:08:50] Speaker C: Yeah, I think Arkansas gambled a lot off the edge with the speed.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Counter at all.
[00:08:57] Speaker C: Jason McClellan had one catch. We could have absolutely fed him in the flats all game, and we just didn't.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: And I think that comes down to Jalen Milrow and Tommy Reese. What he's teaching him? He's got to be able to read blitzes more. You can see pre snap sometimes where the blitzes are coming doesn't he doesn't seem to realize that. It doesn't seem like you got to get the ball out quicker when there's pressure, and usually when there's pressure, someone's got to be open if they're bringing extra guys.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Yeah, and when you're going through these plays that have shots in them, sometimes it has to be low to high read instead of high to low read, and it seemed like and that takes off an extra half second. Milro, I think it's already a little bit behind in his timing as it is. So when you add another half second to that, being behind it becomes a big problem. And we saw that throughout the way the game unfolded, and three second half points, I believe, and that's just not you can't have that happen. And the best the offense has probably looked is the second quarter. I mean, you go from scoring at the end of the first quarter, and then you go right down the field, 29 yard touchdown to Amari NYBlack. And then you saw the Brotherly Shove come to play, which is a great play call with the guy who's as big and strong as Milro with an offensive line that's as big up front as they have. And so that's the good stuff. But then the bad reared its ugly head in the second half, the consistency issues, and then the team just played flat as a whole. So when that happens and you still come away with a win, that's all that matters at this point. So Arkansas has been playing people. They're probably one of the best two in five teams that you can find in the last 20 years. So you think of, like, Nebraska a few years back. Maybe they're one in six, but they're playing teams within one possession. So just to come away with a win is what you want, obviously, in this stage, but you just got to play better down the stretch. Simply put, if you play that bad for the remainder of the schedule, besides, with the exception of Chattanooga, maybe, you're going to have a lot of issues, so you got to fix those now.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Yeah, we saw the run game get a little bit better on Saturday. They ran for 177 yards, 4.2 per carry. And to me, one thing I watched was I saw a little bit more of an attempt to run the ball around the outside. Do you think there needs to be more of that with the speed that we have at running back? With Jason McCullen, justice Haynes great speed threats and Jalen Milro with his speed as well. I just feel like early in the season was a lot of just up the middle dives. Do you think there needs to be more of an intention to run around the outside?
[00:11:28] Speaker C: Yeah, 100%. Especially in the last two games. I think Milro and Reese have been so focused in on highlighting those deep passes that Milro is just not really running like much at all the last couple of games. I know he had the Brotherly Shove touchdown, but other than that, I can only think of one or two designed Millrow runs that I saw, and neither went for more than two yards. And like you said, bringing pressure off the edge that would have been a great way to counter, get some read options, let Milrow fake a handoff and keep it for himself occasionally, but we just didn't see that as much. And we're going to have to see more of that today.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Yeah, and you're exactly right. And Jalen Milrow also when he has that rushing lane, it seems that he's kind of hesitant to take it sometimes, which is fine for Bryce Young, but when you're Jalen Milrow and that's probably your best trade, your speed, then that has to be more of a factor. And you have to build that into your design game as a whole. But part of it may be that Tommy Reese, he's seen what's behind, you know, Ty bookner and Ty Simpson. And if Milro were to get unfortunately hurt in that game, then that's not what you I mean, that changes your entire flow of your offense if you bring one of those guys in, jalen, it still has to be a factor, though. And you're exactly right. Running the ball off the edge is a big thing. And also using that committee that you have, you got Roydell Williams, you got Jace McClellan, of course, but you also have Justice Age. You also have Jam Miller, who both played very had a few very nice runs. And it doesn't have to be a guy running for 140 yards, one guy. It has to be multiple guys running for 60, 70 yards, which is I mean, that's a very strong identity to have in a running game. And you can get fresh legs and all that. It's arguably as important as anything when you have a committee of running backs. The best part about it is that you have fresh legs constantly. So utilizing that is very smart as well as working that outside zone game. And you saw them go under center a few more times than we've seen throughout the year. So just using all those wrinkles and not making it so simple, where you're relying on your guys to push up front, you got to make things a little harder for the defense. Because the offensive line, it's been okay in the run game the last few weeks, but it still has yet to find a dominant level of success.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: All right, we're done for our first part of the first hour. We're going to take a quick break. We will jump into Tennessee, talk about their game against A M, and then talk about the matchups for this game that's coming up in a few hours. Thank you all for listening. We'll be right back.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: WVUA FM Tuscaloosa.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. This is the game day show live on the campus of the University of Alabama. I am Nazari Pengal here with Kaden Johnson and Peyton Davis just got done talking about the Arkansas Alabama game. So let's get into Tennessee. We're going to talk a little bit about the A and M game. They won 20 to 13. Absolutely defense. Phenomenal performance. The defense allowed a touchdown on the first opening drive for A and M. Only allowed them six points the rest of the game. They played fantastic. They were getting after Max Johnson forced two interceptions, he was held under 50% completion percentage. They really just stopped their rushing attack completely. Only allowed 54 rushing yards under two yards per carry. And then they ran the ball. Incredible. 230 yards against A and M. We only ran the ball for 23 yards against A and M. So just talk a little about A and M and Tennessee and the way that Tennessee played.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: It'S really night and day. It's crazy to see this Tennessee team compared to the one last year. The identity is the exact opposite of what it was. And I think they're kind of working on the fly this year. That's why, to me, I still don't really know what I'm getting with this Tennessee team. On offense. Last year, remember, it was all about the deep shots. It was all about pushing the ball down the field, stretching the field. Hen and Hooker with Josh Heible running three plays a minute. Now. It's still that running three plays a minute, except the downfield accuracy has been nowhere to be found. It's been pretty terrible. They throw for 100 yards last week and run the ball for 230 because the backfield of Jalen Ryan, Jabari Small is as strong as you're going to find in the SEC. No question. They're averaging it's 230 rushing yards per game, 5.9 per carry compared to twelve yards through the air per game, and less than seven yards per attempt. That is a crazy number to see how efficient they were last year. And I think it's more because people I don't ever want to say that Josh Heibel got figured out, but I think people started to game plan better for that josh Heibel passing game towards the end of last year. When you stretch the field like that, reads are longer and plays are quicker because you're going so fast, but plays take longer to develop reads. It's more full field, and when you get pressure in the face of those quarterbacks, they become less accurate. And that's what you saw from Hennon Hooker last year because he was like a statue in the pocket. Milton a little bit the same way. They're both sneaky athletes, and we know about Joe Milton's arm strength. He can throw orange 110 yards, but it doesn't really matter when you can't complete passes from 15 to 25. And then those downfield shots super inefficient this year. So the efficiency numbers have been down everywhere for passing, but for the running game that's been carrying them. That's what their identity is becoming. And then defensively, the pass rush, that can really get after you. And their secondary has been strong as well. So last week, I think them running for 230 yards on A and M, you should kind of see sometimes these Jim O Fisher teams, as they start to pick up losses and their offense starts to kind of stall, then they kind of quit a little bit. They're more susceptible to quitting than other teams are. And that was just a different Texas A and M team. We saw, like, the fire just wasn't there in that defense. And Tennessee, they couldn't really make much plays. Offense, that pump returned late, got them up in that game and they held on.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:33] Speaker C: Today with Bam and Tennessee, we've got two teams that kind of just win sloppy, just kind of win by all means necessary. You talked a little bit about the offense. I'll talk about the defense. Tennessee has only given up 17 points per game. That's top five in the SEC. They're given up 300 yards per game, which is their best since 2008, and about 100 rushing yards per game, which is also their best since 2008. And what might be Alabama's Kryptonite, they've got a really experienced and strong front seven. I think we're going to see a lot of them today. I think they're going to make an impact on the game. That's probably my biggest worry from this game, is how Alabama deals with that front seven. But, yeah, as Peyton was saying, the offense is a little weird. I know a lot of Michigan fans called it, but Joe Milton's, surprising to some, has not been fantastic this year at all.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: I think I was putting it lightly.
[00:18:20] Speaker C: Yeah, milro's been better.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: Far better.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: Yeah, far better than Milton this year. He had just 100 passing yards last game. And the decision making is really questionable and weird for a guy that I think is like a fifth year senior. So it's just weird to see someone that old like that kind of come in. And especially how Tennessee or with what Tennessee fans were treated to last year with a transfer hooker coming in and just lighting the offense up. You've got a player that plays very similar to that in Joe Milton that came out and just kind of did the opposite and is still kind of finding his way. But this team is establishing a little bit of an identity with the run. They have one of the best one two punches at running back in the SEC. The only one that I can think of off my head that's better is probably Ole Miss.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And when you see those stack formations and they create so much space, they make the defense have to cover the entire field. That makes boxes lighter, and they've been taking advantage of that a little bit. That's what it's about for this game, for Alabama. If they're racking up eight and seven, eight yard runs early on and they start to play action off that or take shots off of that, I think you might get a few like, you might get a few splash plays from Joe milton today. I think he's going to show up in some way. The lights are bright and Brian Denny, sometimes the opposing quarterbacks come out and they play extremely well. And besides themselves. I don't think that happens today with Milton, but I think there's a few plays where he takes advantage, like Squirrel White. And some of those speedsters they have on the edge, they lost Brew McCoy for the season, of course, but some of that speed that they have on the edge, I think that they'll get a few of those if they get the running game established early. If you stall that and make them have to throw 30, 40 times, maybe 45 times, that's where things can get ugly for Tennessee. And we're too far into the season to say that they're going to find something in the past game that resembles last year in any way. So at this point it's got to be about stopping the rung game early and hoping that Joe Milton or making him beat you with his arm and we haven't seen him be able to do that. We saw mean, I think, in that Florida game. Actually, I think that's what I'm talking about. When Tennessee's working through some adjustments on their offense, they were still trying to play through Joe Milton in that game to my eye, and it was unsuccessful early. They got down and they tried to come back through the arm of Joe Milton and he makes that splash play along the left side or late in that game and gets a touchdown. But it's just not sustainable for him right now. And I think that you just want to force him to keep throwing in completions, keep racking up those attempts. That's what your keys are for today.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you want to take the Florida game plan and absolutely replicate it, get out to a lead, shut down the run game and do exactly what you just, you know, let's jump right into the matchup. Let's talk about the offense first, the Alabama offense. What are going to be the keys to this game to set the tone early and try to get up and get a lead against this Tennessee team?
[00:21:13] Speaker A: It's about being efficient, I think, in both the pass and run game, always. But I think the way that you have to when you have a defense, I think they're extremely strong on the edge in terms of pass rush and they get a lot of tackles for loss. But I think those edge guys are a little small and they're a little undersized, especially compared to JC latham and Kaden Proctor. What you need to do is early, you need to have tight ends line up on that left side and chip those guys because if they just line up those wide nines, we've seen Kaden Proctor time after time, doesn't matter who we're playing. It could be Ole Miss. USF Arkansas last week. He gets beat with has. His feet are too slow. He's probably a little overweight, but he'll get better as obviously he was playing Iowa high school football eight months ago. So it's a work in progress with him. But you have to help him out. You have to have those running backs, pass protecting on that left side. You have to have CJ Dupree, Robbie Utes, chipping those edge guys before they run their routes or just leaving them into pass protect, and then get that short intermediate passing game going early. Run the ball in those heavy tight end sets. And if you do that, then you'll find a little bit of a flow and you rack up a little, sustain a few lives, and then you can work shots off of that. I don't want to see them trying to work those shots too early on unless they need a splash play and they're down to score early and they've punted a few times. If you need a splash play, go to it. Throw your 50 50 ball. Jermaine Burden, he's shown proficiency to come down with those. But as far as getting the game going, establish the run game, get a few nice easy reads, get Milrow in rhythm, and that can offset some of those pass rushers that have been so strong throughout this year.
[00:22:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I think you said it perfectly. Kind of go out and just play a consistent level of offense early, kind of like hit Jermaine Burton, get him going early. Excuse me. Get Jalen Milro going in the intermediate short passing game early, kind of give him some easy reads, because this pass rush is going to come in heavy, I think. And I think they're going to put a lot of emphasis on bringing speed off the edge. We saw last week, Arkansas did it, and then a few weeks back, South Florida did it as well. So when you got that speed off the edge, it's proven to be like Alabama's left sides of the offensive line's weakness, at least I think Tennessee is going to emphasize on that, would like to see us utilize our running backs in space, in the flats, hit them a little bit more. Have guys running like even Jermaine Burton, I know against Texas A M, we saw him run a couple slants over the middle, which is like the only time I've seen us run slants this entire season.
I'd like to see some of that because we do have a lot of talent at wide receiver and it would be nice to get those guys the ball a little bit more.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: Yeah, and if you look at the game plan, you're going to look at Tennessee, they're going to want to stop the big passing game. So I think it's on Tommy Reese early in this game to make those safeties come up. You got to be able to establish which, as you guys are saying, the run game and intermediate passing game. They know what we're going to try to do. They know we're going to try to get the deep ball. They've seen that most of our passing success has been the deep ball and that there's not really been anything. So they're going to game plan it. So it's in Tommy Reese's hands to set up plays. One to help your left tackle, two to get the intermediate passing game going. He's got to figure it out. This is on him to get his playmakers the football and tell Jalen Millro, all right, you're going to throw this short pass right here. Don't even think about the deep ball right here and just get the ball.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Out of your read. Make the read low to high. Like I was saying earlier. And to me, it's about when you're talking about running game efficiency and success at times, we talk about the last half decade of Alabama football. It's been like seven yards per carry because those boxes are light now, the boxes are stacked up. That's where 5456 yard carries become much more important to get you ahead of the chains. And I think Jalen Miller has been a lot better this year than I would have thought coming in on third and longs. But it's not a sustainable way of having success. We know that by now. And it's got to be set up early. And it is on Tommy Reese. I think he's had some good moments as a play caller, but there have been moments where you're kind of shaking your head and being like, why are we doing this? Why are we doing that? And you're exactly right. It seems like a team that would be really strong in the RPO game, and it seems like they really don't.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: It'S got to be a thing that he sees in practice. It must be that Jalen Murrow can't.
[00:25:37] Speaker C: Make the read because, you know, he.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Doesn'T feel like I was talking about earlier. Jalen Murrow is a little bit behind at times. If you're behind in RPOs, then you're going to run into a lot of trouble. So that could be a part of it.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: But I think we saw KJ Jefferson, they ran a lot of play action.
[00:25:50] Speaker A: Slants well, and they do that bubble action and you have a slant coming off of that. So that makes things easy. And you saw Texas do that, too. Running, doing that up tempo offense, getting the crowd out of it and throwing those bubble screens, spreading out the defense and then going vertical off of that. That can be really a strong way to run an offense. And it just feels like this team, Tommy Reeves is kind of still, I think with the passing game, especially unsure where this team is strong. I mean, obviously, I think the deep game is where they're strongest. Obviously, Jello Miller loves throwing it and he's accurate doing it, but in terms of every part, because that's such a small part of what you I mean, you're going to hit a few of those a game, but it's not going to be like 20. It's going to be like three or four or maybe if you're lucky. And when you talk about going over the middle off of that, the gravity that the deep ball creates creates space in the middle of the field. And you like to see guys like Amari Nybach could be Jalen Miller's best friend. Tight ends are your running quarterbacks. Generally, you've seen like with Lamar Jackson, the NFL. Mark Andrews is his best friend. His security blanket as a receiver going over the middle. He's most accurate over the middle because it's an easier throw than 25 yards, ten yard. So it's like ten areas, but it's 25 real areas, but it's like a ten yard throw. Actually, you want to make those a little bit easier for Jalen Millro. I think the slang game would be a perfect way of doing that.
[00:27:15] Speaker C: Yeah, but adding on to your point, Peyton, you talked a little bit about the bubble action that kind of Texas and Arkansas run. What's something in common with Texas and Arkansas's quarterbacks? Years of starting experience already. So that's going to be something that I think Milro will kind of grow into, because I do think that we will implement that into our offense in the future. Or at least I hope so, because we have the personnel and the speed at receiver to be kind of running those plays where it's just kind of like, let's get the ball to the receiver in space behind the line of scrimmage and let him go to work.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And if you're looking at most guys around the country, especially with Joe Milton, deep efficiency is very hard to come around. And you've got one of the best deep passers in the country.
[00:27:56] Speaker A: The stats back that up. Yeah.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: Jay Lemuro has been fantastic, but now use it to make other plays work and develop his short to intermediate game. Have you seen I'm not exactly sure what they call the concept, but they take a slot receiver, they run a deep post, and then you run a dig route right in behind it, clears out the safety, gives a wide open space. I think that's a perfect type of play.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: And it's like a drive concept, is what you're referring to.
[00:28:19] Speaker B: Yeah, but use the deep game to open up the other parts of your game. Everyone knows that your deep game has been your entire passing game.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Yeah, and it has. And he's been really efficient doing it. But I think when he starts to rack up incompletions in those, it shakes him a little bit, and I think making things more efficiently. The best game he's probably played was the one he played. We threw 15 passes in against Mississippi State. That level of efficiency can happen, and it can work when those boxes are so heavy, they're so stacked. And I think when you use Jalen Millrow as sort of a level to the running game, at least having the threat of it on that handoff, have a threat for him to pull the ball or at least act like you're going to do it. You don't have to design the run for Milro. You can design the run to go to the running back. Just using him as a decoy in that running game could be a strong way of opening up a little bit of space.
[00:29:13] Speaker B: When we see a lot of offenses everywhere, really, you see the quarterback at least fake to run fake.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: That's the thing that's been frustrating because when they do that, when we talked about earlier, when they were having that simplified running game, when they were doing up the middle, every time it seemed like he would hand the ball up and put his arms down, middle school carry out the fake as the quarterback.
And I think when you're carrying out the fake for Jalen Miller, it's not act like you still have the ball you're about to throw. Act like it's like all about ball movement and ball handling and act like you're taking the ball and holding it and tucking it away and running off the edge. It'll at least make the linebacker take a maybe false step. And that is all you need at times to open up a hole. Yeah.
[00:29:55] Speaker C: And a great way to sell that fake a little bit more is to establish Milro as a runner early in the game and keep Tennessee on their toes a little bit as far as identifying Milro as a threat to run the ball. And he just hasn't been the last couple of games because we just haven't utilized his legs.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: And when you talk about the times that they do let him go to work in the run game, it's been like QB power, like simple concepts like QB sweep where he goes wide, or QB power where he goes a little bit more vertical upfield. Or like simple read options where there's no any window dressing in the backfield or any motion on it. It's just a fake. It's like if the defensive end goes with the running back, you pull it, or if he stays at home, then you give it, which can be it takes away a player. I mean, it takes away a player from the front seven. It makes him at fault whatever he does.
But when you don't have any window dressing to kind of implement, you're not going to see those splash plays when you do that and you can move down the field a little bit, you can have some success in the short yardage doing that. But if you want those long runs, which we've seen Jason McClellan hit throughout, I mean, we know how fast he can be. Justice Hayes jam Miller Royale is a little bit more of a powerback, but if you see mean, you can get all those players a lot more space if you use Jalen Miller as at least a wrinkle in the running game.
[00:31:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I think late in this game, after this game even, we're going to think, why did we win this game or why do we lose this game? It's going to be in the hands of Tommy Reese and Jalen Milrow. Most importantly, they're the ones that's going to have to do this because there's talent at the running back and wide receiver positions. But if they don't call the right plays and Jalen Mill doesn't get them the ball, nothing's going to happen. Let's jump in a little bit more to the defense. We briefly touched on what is the game plan, but what specific players do you guys think can make a huge impact in this game and help the offense get them the ball back and even get them the ball in great field position?
[00:31:52] Speaker A: Well, so I think I was thinking about this earlier, and when you talk about they're going to want to get the running game going early, obviously, but they're still going to have those spread formations. They're going to go fast. They run 2.7 plays a minute, I believe, is what David said earlier. They're going to go fast. We know that. They're going to still have those wide formations, the stack formation on the outside, you'll see that somewhat that makes the boxes lighter. So you need strength at linebacker to kind of take those away. And I think a guy like Jihad Campbell could play a factor in this with how he's bigger than Tresmond Marshall. He's bigger than they haven't really shown. He played a little bit off the edge last week, I believe. But I think this is a game where he could thrive a little bit if they give him a little bit of playing time, making tackles and making sure those runs don't turn to nine yards. They're more like three yards. If you can do that, then I think that's a big factor of this game is obviously we talked about stopping the run game, but it's the linebackers in doing so. And then off of that, if they have a little bit of success and they try to go down the field, you have to see they still have a little bit of speed at receiver. They don't have Jalen Hyatt running in four two. But you can't get burned on those deep routes because if you want anything that'll get Joe Milton going is him unleashing his deep ball and showing off all that throwing easy 70 yard throw area throws. We know he can do that, but he hasn't been super accurate in doing so. But if he hits a few or if he hits one, even, that could get him going a little bit. So you need to stop the run game before and make him have to work in the third and long.
[00:33:25] Speaker C: Yeah, odly enough. A big key for this defense is actually the offense getting out to a good start. We kind of saw that with the Florida Tennessee game. Florida gets up a little bit early. Milton gets scared. He gets under pressured. He makes terrible throws. I know y'all remember the throw out of a sack just kind of tossed up in the air.
Plays like that need to happen. Alabama needs to force turnovers. I talked about how you kind of lack that energy last week when you let a team hang around. You don't force turnovers. You don't have the electric plays on offense. So your defense is just out on the field all of the half. And then we kind of saw that against Texas as well. Texas, not only were we not able to force turnovers, but we didn't get any pressure on Ewers as well. That's going to be huge for this one. I know Trez got hurt last week, but I don't know his status going.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: Into I saw he said something. He said that he's going to give it. He could be good to go. But I think another thing is, is Malachi Moore going to be back and mean, we know he didn't go last week, but he's a game time decision. Will he play this week? I think that's a big factor, too, because we know how good he is in coverage. And compared to a guy like Christian Story, who's a little less experienced, trey Amos, who's a little less experienced coming from Ull, that's a transfer. So Malachi Moore, who can be one of the leaders of this defense at times in the secondary at that star position, and he's gotten a lot better at tackling, but he's always been strong in coverage. If he can play and go today, then that'll take some of those middle of the field. I think, playing in the slot, when they try to do those, I mean, they're going to have something deep every single play, creating space in the middle of the field. As we talked about what you want for Alabama. That's what Josh Hypo likes to do. And gets those digs going over the middle. Those take longer to develop. Get pressure in his face. That's how you offset that. That's what we saw South Carolina do to this high level offense last year, more so Georgia. It was a rainy day that day. I'm talking about last year right now when they were trying, you know that that offense took the league, the league, the country by storm, basically, getting those shots down the field, averaging easy 40 points per game. As explosive an offense as there was in the country. Get pressure in their face, they're less accurate. We know that. We talk about that every week with these college quarterbacks. You get pressure in their face, they're going to be less accurate. Take away their feet. That's what you want to see from Joe Milton, who's already struggles with accuracy himself. If you can get him out of rhythm and get pressure in his face, he has plenty of athleticism as well as a six five quarterback. I mean, he can get moving and also be hard to take down. So you want to contain him in the pocket and get pressure up the middle.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: You were talking about the linebackers. I think the interior defensive line is what's going to stop this run game, because if you look at it, there's max of six guys usually in the box against the Tennessee offense because of the spread of the wide receivers. If you don't get a push up front and they're able to get to the second level, that's when they pop off those big runs. Because there's only two linebackers, there sometimes only one. And if they're able to do that, that's where you really see, because then Kevin Steele's got to bring more guys in. Then the wide receivers got one on ones. But I think one thing is going to be how much does Kevin Steele blitz this game? With his linebackers, it's been fantastic, but with this offense, a little bit different because if you don't, there's nobody there. If the linebackers don't get home, there's usually going to be nobody there because all the secondary is out wide. That'll be an interesting matchup as well. And last week against A and M, he only threw for 100 yards. But watching it back, he did develop a little bit, some slant routes. He seems to like those crossing routes over the middle of the field. And if you blitz the linebackers and they get beaten coverage on slants, that's where you see a lot of big plays as well, because they're getting the ball right in rhythm and they're able to run if they got speed on us.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: Yeah, think all those things you're saying, that thing that plays in Alabama's favorite, because you see guys like Jaheem Otis and just as a boy, they're playing like the best game and the best.
[00:37:12] Speaker B: Tim Keenan as well.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: Tim Keenan as well. They're all playing like the best football of their career right now, which bodes well for you. And when you talk about those blitzes coming from the middle and you throw where the blitz comes from, it's like basic football. That's where you have to disguise where you're coming from and make things hard for an extra thing for him to have to process. And that extra half second can lead to a sack. It can get you home. So you got to bring them from different sides. You got to show somewhere, bring it from another place, drop people back, some of this disguise coverage stuff. And I think Kevin Steele excels at, I think one of the best things that he is as a play caller is a blitz designer, disguising where it's coming from and making things hard. Delayed linebacker blitzes sometimes. And you can run stunts off of that. So if you can have success, an extra wrinkle to Joe Milton for him to have to process, then it can get him out of rhythm. And again, sometimes I think the difference is like a M secondary is a little weaker than Alabama's. The front seven is as strong, probably stronger, even if you you could argue.
You gotta be able to get pressure from all sides because at times when you rush forward, we've seen it throughout whatever. I think it's a different team than it was during Texas. But when you rush forward times, they weren't getting home. The pockets are clean. That's when things are the easiest for quarterbacks. So you got to be able to design and wrinkle in mix in blitzes in this game especially.
[00:38:31] Speaker B: Okay, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we'll make our predictions for this game. Thank you all for listening. We'll be right back.
[00:38:49] Speaker A: W v UA f M tuscaloosa.
[00:39:06] Speaker B: Welcome back, everyone. This is 90.7 the capstone. This is the Game day show. Live from the University of Alabama. And just in a couple of hours, we will have Tennessee versus Alabama, third Saturday in October. Give us your predictions for this game and give me a score.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: So I'm going to say that the defense gives up a score early on.
It's like ten to three, Tennessee in the middle of the second quarter. Alabama gets a score before half and then gets a field goal. And then it's 13 to ten at half. I think the second half favors Alabama a lot more in terms of field position. And they make the run game more inefficient in the second half than it is in the first half, forcing Joe Milton to get out of structure, out of rhythm. And I think that he will struggle at times with doing that and with his efficiency. There's some turnovers. There might be a turnover, but I'm just saying field position favors Alabama a lot. 20 717. Bama wins revenge.
[00:40:00] Speaker C: Yeah, I like that. I think it's going to be a low scoring game. I was talking to Nazario about before the show. I think that the under will probably hit in this one. I think it's 48 and a half, 47 and a half, something like that.
But that being said, I think Alabama, aside from the Arkansas game, has been really good in the second half this year.
[00:40:17] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly right.
[00:40:18] Speaker C: I think Milton is going to come out fired up because the media narrative behind Milton has been that he's of disappointment this year. I think they're coming in with a chip on their shoulder even though they did win last year. I think they get off to that hot start like Peyton was talking about, but I believe that the second half will belong to Bama. I have faith in the defense to make those plays that I was talking about before, those electric plays, that kind of get everybody going. I think we force turnovers. I think we get in Milton's head a little bit in the second half. But I do think it'll be close down the stretch. I've got Alabama a 24 21.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: All right, good. I like the picks. I'm going to go a little bit more low scoring than you guys. I think it's going to be extremely low scoring. Even though you guys already said it was going to be low scoring.
[00:40:59] Speaker A: I think even more well, we're sending unders hitting is what we're all saying.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: Exactly. For sure. I think lock that in.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: But I think a lot of these offenses, I don't know if they can finish drives, score touchdowns, and Tennessee scored a special teams touchdown last week. Cannot happen. Special teams got to be locked in. But I think the final score ends up being 19 to 17, Alabama. Very close game.
It's not that I don't think we're a good team, but I don't think we're good enough to run away from this Tennessee team. I think they're very solid. And I think the problem is if we get behind in our drives, behind the line of script or behind the change?
[00:41:35] Speaker A: Behind the change.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: Third and long is not going to be good for us today because I believe their secondary is better than, not maybe the best secondary we played, but.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Better than A m. And then their pass rush is almost as good or exactly.
[00:41:46] Speaker B: So I think scoring is going to be hard, but I think we get a couple of drives and we get in Will Rikert's position. I think he kicks a lot of field goals today.
I think we find one touchdown, hopefully two. But I think the defense plays well. Including Dallas Turner. I think he comes up with a big sack late in the game like he did last week 1917 thriller. And Brian denny.
[00:42:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm hoping so. Well, I go to all these games like the last few weeks hoping to see that star is born, Jalen Milro game because I just want it for him so bad. And so I think today we walk away from it. Maybe it's not the most insane stat line ever, but it's like this was like, one of his best games in terms of being composed and poised, in terms of when you're talking about growing as a quarterback, that might be the next step for him is the timing, getting the ball a little bit out a little bit faster. And then when the running game's there, take that. Keeping your eyes downfield was a great thing for Bryce Young because he's so good on the run and out of structure. Jalen Millrow is a little less proficient out of structure, but he makes up for it as a runner. And that threat when you play man coverage against him, your backs turn to him. He can hit his head on the goalpost if he gets past the line of scrimmage into the second and third level. If he does that gets a few chunk runs that'll get him going and fired up and it'll get the crowd fired up, which is another big factor when you're talking about defending a team that goes as fast as Tennessee. It's got to be loud in the stadium, but you can't keep up a level of pitch or level of decibels or however they measure sound. You can't keep that up for the entire game. So it has to be like smart know, you see like teams in the NFL. Give my New Orleans Saints home. New Orleans Saints credit for this. Nothing much goes right there these days. But the crowd is still smart in terms of when to be know throughout, when they're going fast, when they're getting plays, like, I'm someone who when they're making checks with line of scripts, I get louder myself. Obviously makes no factor me doing that. But I'm calling for the entire Alabama student body and fan base to do that same thing today.
[00:43:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Follow what Peyton section leader Peyton Davis.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: They'Re all listening too. Yeah.
[00:43:55] Speaker C: Even Saban called for the student body to be out there and loud. I think that this year and last year, I think our student section has been very great. I think it's one of the more underrated ones in the country.
[00:44:06] Speaker A: People just hate Alabama.
[00:44:09] Speaker C: And then outside of the student section, I guess we don't have the craziest fans that actually attend the game outside of this student section. But I do think it's going to be loud. I think this game is going to be the loudest game of the year. Maybe one of the loudest games in the history of the program.
[00:44:25] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, it's the first time that Tennessee is coming here off a know that has not happened in about.
[00:44:31] Speaker C: Alabama student body that last year witnessed Tennessee beat Alabama for probably the first time that they can.
[00:44:38] Speaker A: First time since we've all been in grade. Like what? When you talk about that loud environment, we said the same thing going into Texas. There was obviously crazy environment early on, but then as Alabama was getting stopped when Alabama's offense wasn't being turning the ball over, punting a lot, and Texas offense was moving down the field in terms of not a big play down the field, but like ten yards down the field, like Nickling and diming and things were getting like long drives were developing. You take the crowd out of it.
That's how football works. You got to keep that noise up today.
You got to want it today. If you're in the student section, and.
[00:45:17] Speaker B: I think you're talking about Jalen Miller earlier, we talked about him a lot, obviously, but I think one of the biggest keys is realizing and understanding where the blitzes are coming from and when the pressure is getting too much and he's got to get the ball out of his hands.
[00:45:29] Speaker A: He's made a lot of I'm sorry to cut you off, but he's made a lot of presnap. He's communication and taking accountability for being better about that. So recognizing that on his behalf and recognizing that he needs to grow there is very mature to me. And so I agree with you. He's got to be better at presnap.
[00:45:45] Speaker B: And then don't be afraid to dump it off to the running backs because let them make plays. These dudes are good in space. And he's got to realize, I know he loves the big play and I know he's great at it, but sometimes it's just not there. And sometimes you and the yards after the catch.
[00:45:57] Speaker A: It feels like the yards after the catch, even with the speed that they have at receiver, still not really much of a factor at times. You want to see that's where you talk about the over the middle stuff. These guys like Jermaine Burton isn't very fast, but he's very physical after the run. Isaiah Bond's a little smoother and faster after the run. Get them going a little bit.
[00:46:15] Speaker C: Yeah, that's what I was talking about earlier with the potential, like, screens, slants, basic stock routes to get your receiver.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: Simplifying, simplifying a little bit.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: When was the last time we ran a screenplay?
[00:46:27] Speaker C: I don't know.
[00:46:28] Speaker B: I don't know if they exist.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: We were talking about it in our.
[00:46:30] Speaker C: Production meeting about how the only short passes that we could even think of attempting was one early in the game that Brooks dropped, which is another point.
[00:46:38] Speaker A: That we haven't really and that was also like the fourth read of that play.
[00:46:41] Speaker C: Exactly. It was a safety valve Brooklyn play. But another point that we haven't really touched on as much. If we have drops as consistently and as crucial of moments as we did against Arkansas, we're not going to win this game.
I would probably say we had like five at least last week.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: Some of them were on the passes as well.
[00:47:02] Speaker A: But when those drops early on, when those happen, the passing, like Miller gets a little less confident in those he gets less confident in going to those three.
[00:47:10] Speaker C: And our offense just I mean, unfortunately, our offense just isn't good enough to be able to afford big drops like that.
[00:47:15] Speaker A: No playing behind the chains like we said.
[00:47:17] Speaker B: All right, so we've got you guys all ready for the Tennessee Alabama game that's coming up in just about 5 hours, if my math is correct.
We hope you guys tune into that game. It's going to be fantastic. One. But we are done with the first hour of our show talking about that game in all of Alabama. We are going to take a quick break and then we will get into all of college football talking about the incredible game in Washington last week and then talk about the big game happening in the shoe in just. About 2 hours. So thank you all for listening. We'll be right back.
[00:47:58] Speaker A: W v uafm tuscaloosa.
