Welcome to the Solid Verbal.
Coll that for me, I'm a man, I'm forty.
I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for day Edith State is that woo woom? And Dan and Tye.
Welcome back to a bonus National Championship Solid Verbal. My name is ty Hildenbrandt. Joining me as always is Dan Rubinstein. Hopefully you had a chance to listen to our longer drawing out, dripping moist Belove You College Football National Championship Game previous show that we also published in tandem with this one.
Twenty eighteen Tie Working Blue.
I love it.
But one of the things that you know we did last year and had a lot of fun with, is we brought in some friends, some much much smarter friends, if I don't say so myself, to analyze all the different aspects of the football game. We don't know everything is to know about schemes, your defense of personnel, or any of that jazz really, so we brought in some
friends to do it. Well, I am going to go on record right now and I'm gonna say I Well, I'm not going to be too controversial, I promise you, Okay, One of, if not the most requested guests that we get asked about here on the program is our good friend Chris B. Brown sometimes we call it Chrispy Brown from smartfootball dot Com. Chris is a bit of a savant when it comes to all things schemes and philosophy. Philosophy.
Sure, so I sat down with Chris in the Espimination or I guess Box Media Studios and talked about I know I'm shattering the illusion, but the fact that ties
not in the interview because he could barely speak. It's probably for the best, no, philosophically, because you know, there's a lot of overlap between Nick Saban and Kirby Smart and melt Tucker obviously, and you know, Jeremy Pruitt was at Georgia, so he is familiar with Georgia personnel and just what they're trying to do defensively, how they prepare for different offenses, and you know, how do you have time for wrinkles and what is it that you know,
offenses try to do and succeed in doing against these defenses, And just generally speaking, you know, how quarterbacks operate with different levels of experience and what like levels of the playbook are available to them what they are or are not asked to do, so it's a it's a cool look if you really want to nerd out, which we are always willing to do, especially with teams as good
as Georgia and Alabama. So basically sat down with Chris for a while to get his thoughts on sort of the push and pull of this matchup.
Don't forget if you haven't listened to our longer preview show, you can do so right now. Just check your podcast feed or going out to Solidverble dot com or our Facebook or Twitter pages where you can find all of our other stuff as well. If you are going to be in Atlanta one more time, look us up on
all of our social media channels. We've not only got a big live show going down in the heart of downtown Atlanta on Saturday evening, but we've also got a whole lot of fun stuff coming up on Saturday morning throughout College Football Media Day as we talk to players and coaches, medium members, all sorts of folks who might have a better idea than us about what's going to happen in this game on Monday. In the meantime, though, Dan did a great job with our friend Chris from
smart Football. Let's have a listen, all right.
We are now joined by Chris B. Brown Smart Football Zone. You've seen them, grant Land, you've seen them, Espianation. You should buy his books. What are the name of your books? It's the Art of Smart Football.
Yeah, very creative titles, The Art of Smart Football and the Essential Smart Football.
Will there be a new book eventually once.
And there will eventually be more writing, but no guarantees on timetables for any of it.
You should go to smart football, and he goes to smartpe. Well, if you're listening to this, you should go to smart football and read all sorts of things about scheme and coaching philosophies and what players do well. And if you're college football or even an NFL nerd, you should go to smart football dot com.
Yes, sounds good to me.
Oh man, what a commercial.
Okay.
So we have Alabama Georgia in the National Championship Game, two teams that are I think pretty familiar with each other because of the head coaching styles and the assistant coaches involved in the game, and the sort of scheme styles, especially on defense. And I think that's where we'll focus
but not exclusively lay. How would you describe I guess, big picture, the defense that Alabama runs, especially since and I imagine they're not identical to Georgia's defense, even with mel Tucker the former secondary coach Alabama and Kirby Smart the former coordinator. But big picture, what do these defenses, or specifically Alabama's defense try to do each week?
Well, they try to do in terms of each season every defense ever known to man. I mean, someone pointed out if you look at Nick Sabans Miami Dolphins defensive playbook, which I think Kirby spent some time with the Dolphins as well, it's something like fourteen hundred.
Pages of defense.
And and that was before Sabin and Kirby started evolving what they were doing in response to the spread offense and read options and run pass options and all this stuff they've added in the last few years as the SEC in particulars move. So Saban wants to go in there and have the ability to do anything on any week and tailor it to an opponent. It's very comes from his Bill Belichick point of view, which is we're
going to carry a lot of defense. We're going to carry a lot of scheme because every opponent's different and we want the answers, and you know, Saban loves to have time and really think about it and figure it out.
And you saw that. I think against Clemson they had a month put.
Together a very very detailed report and figured out everything they that had heard him in previous years, and with particular focus on the quarterback run game, and they shut it down and he was able to take pieces of the scheme that they've been working on all year and then apply it in a very specific way to whatever
the offense is doing. And I think that's really the philosophy that Saban brings, which Kirby and Meltucker and others are now doing at Georgia, which is, we have a lot and then we'll look at specially what your tendencies are, what you like to do, what your personnelity is, and then we've got we may have a coverage. Like the coverage that Saban likes is that everybody runs a version of quarters, which is a you can do it. It can make more of a zone, more of a Manda Man.
Why Saban runs it's really a Manda Man scheme. A lot of rules about where people go.
And Carter's broadly speaking is the field is divided into four pieces.
Yes, sort of.
So basically you've got corner, your cornerbacks, and your safeties aligned across the field, and they're actually reading the offensive receivers and eligible receivers.
To figure out whether who locks onto who man demand.
Basically, it's not a true what Saban calls country zone where you just drop to a spot and try to watch the quarterback size. But within that they've got fifty calls and when they see an opponent and they know that when they're in this formation, we make this call, and then they shift or if they're in a information or they are a running lined up in a different place, they'll call a different call within that same cover. So the point of it is is that it is extremely
adaptable to whatever the offense does. He wants to figure out what you do well and take it away, and everybody says they're going to do that, but Saban really has ability to do it and within that scheme because he's got.
Answers for everything.
And and and I think the other credit to Saban over the years is he's very pragmatic.
And you've seen that on offense, and I think.
That the corollary applies on defense, where teams are hurting him with raid option stuff or mobile quarterbacks, Well he's got he's going to focus on that and try to take it away. So that's what's and then you then
you layer on amazing technique plus amazing talent. Uh and and you know, you watch the defensive line and they're in their rush lanes or tackle like pulls and blocks down and that defensive end is filling and it's it's just textbook stuff and it's just it's really fun to watch when you really really get down to it, because they're just so good.
So that's why they're so good.
As you got top talent, they have a schematic answer forever what you want to do. They've scouted the hell out of you with their thousand analysts or whoever. Then and then you're not gonna get them out of position.
And that's a recipe for being really, really good. And whether that's really good at Alabama, really good at Georgia, and that's why they're able to you know, there's talk about you know, Saban struggled with mobile quarterbacks, and some true to that just because of the numbers disadvantage, but they basically good go on defense against everybody, right.
And the teams that they have struggled against tend to take chances and throw the ball downfield, you know, horizontally. It's very difficult to beat this type of defense, the style of defense, especially when the talent can tackle in
the open field. Is there something about that specific tendency that it's guys like you know, Chad Kelly and Deshaun Watson and Johnny Manziel who are succeeding going downfield with this defense, or is it a matter of when you have an excellent quarterback, you can just beat just about everybody.
A little bit of both.
So I think in order to beat a Nick Saban defense, and I think, frankly or.
Any defense if you have an excellent right, but.
In particularly these defenses. But you know, say Georgia had a great defens this year. I think Baker Mayfield was able to do a lot of things. I think maybe people already give them enough credit for you know, having you know, points three and a half times George's average and more than doubling the yardage average against George's defense. But that helps because you have great players make great plays.
They're gonna they're gonna challenge everything. Big part of the Velosi is that you know they're not going to give up. You know, ten hitch routes just give you free access. You know Saban always you know, he coaches the secondary. It talks about you to play in practice, you do these like one on one receiver drills. He's like I said, there and watch him in the quarterback plays off and they complete eighty ninety percent of the passes and put them up in press and it's like that percentage goes
down to twenty percent. Now, the things you give up is potentially you invite them to take those shots downfield right, you know, and maybe you get a matchup and all that. You don't have a bunch of secondary players playing really deep. You know, he figures one he's gonna put a lot of pressure on you. You're not gonna have to do that. You're not going to do that consistently enough gets you three and outs and then wear you down.
On the other side.
The other thing is they try to take away the short stuff, not just by pressing you, but they're so good at matching your route. So what's the most popular route in college football, the shallow cross.
Yes, a lot of teams.
You watch them run the shallow cross, and all of a sudden, the guy pops out on the other side and he's wide open. Watch I mean, and you can look at their playbooks. It's very well designed and it's playing in there. You can't cover a shallow cross all game by having the guy lined up over the receiver, just chase him across the field, even in a man to man coverage. So what they call cut the crosser, so they you'll see the safety on the other side, if he sees a cross will come in.
He'll come down and cut that guy. So then that guy.
That's where you see those guys catch the ball and then all of a sudden they turn and then they just get upended by some safety and then this show
cross doesn't happen as much. So they're just very good at matching all the things offenses want to do to get those horizontal short throws, which, particularly in college, I mean, how many quarterbacks when you don't have the great ones, you make a living on short throws, screens, bubbles, screens, and shallow crosses to get your quarterback the ball so he can put the ball in space, put the ball
in play. If you have an NFL guy or a guy with NFL tools, whether or not he's a true NFL talent, then you have to throw the ball in some different places.
I'm glad you brought that up. So one of the things that people love to talk about with Nick Saban because he's had so much success in college recently, is could he do it at Wyoming? Could he do it at Cincinnati? Could he do it with lesser talent you know, you know cal or Minnesota or even like Texts A and M, which has not had the success even in
the same division, even recruiting. Well, how much of what he does is because he has the tools and let me make clear players or not tools, but the talent to say, oh, you can play three different positions on the defensive line, Oh your corner is hurt. This safety can come down and play corner. And so he has the depth and he has rare versatility. Could it work with you know, at Iowa something like that where you don't have you know, stars everywhere, or Michigan State or
Michigan State, Yeah, which he didn't. He didn't go eleven and one, twelve and oh every year at Michigan State.
No, no, so look, I mean you need good players, and obviously a big part of their system is having the depth, particularly on the defensive line, where you can roll guys in and out. I think you've seen a schematic shift from from from save in the last couple of years as they stopped having those like first round cornerbacks. They played a lot more sort of cover one pure man de man. You know, they've moved to those cover seven quarters concepts with a little more help and some
different concepts. So yeah, I mean, if you've got great players, that makes a big difference. If you've got you know, what was that play against Texas A and M last year where it was his name like jumped over the lineman and the running back and hit Trevor Knight in the chest?
I mean that helps, yeah.
So But but on the other hand, and Saban likes to tell the story, it was one of his first games in Michigan State. They played one of those Tom Osborne Nebraska teams and they got beat and you just come from the NFL Cleveland Brown's I guess like fifty five to three or some you know, same thing, and he and he said he was actually sitting there on the fourth court was like this was a mistake, Like
coming back to college was a mistake. Yeah, and then Tom Osborn kind of came across the building and I don't have a quotas at you, but something lean across is like not as bad as you think you are, Meaning that Tom I was were knew we had a prety darn good team that year, right, So on that day Saban had a lot of great schemes. He'd worked with Bill Belichick for years, his defensive coordinator, and but Tom Osborn had some pretty good schemes too, and Nebraska
was was awesome. So yeah, talent wins the day. But it's a it's a great scheme. It's ah. They teach it really well. They have really good teachers.
You know what.
I think one thing you see with Nick Staban is he coaches the coaches, right. I mean he drills them even you know, whether it's Lane Kiff and talking about all the mind numbing meetings about coin flips and procedures and stuff. Because he's everything is down to a t. I think you'd have success every everywhere it was. It also goes back to the point I made earlier about
the volume. I think when you've got the system they have where they're guys coming in every year and there's a ton of competition to just get on the field, you know, he may not be able to get and then maybe you've got to play the guy that you can play who maybe is talented, but maybe not as his acumen for football acumen isn't quit as high. Maybe he wouldn't be able to carry all that defense, so we'd have to simplify it and maybe do some different things.
You know.
I look at a guy like Gary Patterson, a TCU, which certain elements of what he does are similar to what parts of what Saban does, so particularly all that you know against spread teams, Saban basically plays a four two five, so it's similar, but it's the teaching is much more simplified than all the various aggustments to Staveman has.
So maybe he have to just that, But okay, I don't.
I don't think he'd go to Wyoming and go too and two and nine or anything like that.
Think you'd do Okay, Yes, I think that's the case as well. Both of these defensive coordinators, these coaching staffs have two very different offenses to prepare for. In that Georgia had Oklahoma and Baker Mayfield and Lincoln Riley spreading it out last week, and Alabama had Clemson Kelly Bryant, and you know that that sort of more open spread. Look that even if they're running power, you know, the receivers are out wide, they're doing a lot of horizontal stuff.
And now they're preparing for still two different types of offenses. Georgia is preparing for, I think, a little more open up an offense with what Jalen Hurts can do with the ball, and Alabama is preparing for and I don't want to say pro style, I don't even want to say more traditional, but Jake From's understander a little bit more and he's not going to run for one hundred yards, we don't think. So whose job do you envy less in preparing for this week?
Defensively, Yeah, it's a hard question. I put it this way.
I think the offense is actually very very similar, with the exception of the styles of quarterback or one hundred percent different, right, And I think from there they're both very multiformational. They both Alabama basically to stop using the under center with Hurts, but they could do that, but a lot of the stuff that Georgia doesn't understand. They'll do it from spread, they'll do it from condensed. They
both use a lot of tight ends. They both have unbelievable stables of running backs, unbelievable players there, and they have skill on the outside. Alabama probably is a little more though they throw it less, so that that is the big difference. I do think it's you know, I don't. I don't know that either offensive coordinator totally scares.
You in this game.
I think the Alabama offensive corner is a little more of an unknown factor, you know, Dable being in the NFL, and then I think he's brought in to do more passing game stuff that you haven't really seen.
Maybe you see that when the other guy gets in one day.
But with Hurts, I think it looks very similar to what they've been doing the last couple of years, which is basically trying to run a spread option system. They're kind of going to play three carne monte with with Hurts and those amazing running backs, which is a challenge. But they're not particularly explosive in the passing game. They take some shots, but they're not always efficient at converting them.
And I think what you'll see from Alabama will look a lot like what it did a gets Clemson, which is just trying to grind it out. Maybe maybe some of those running backs step out of a few tackles and run a long way, but otherwise it's, you know, they're going to try to wear you down. It's basically a version of what they look like in the late two thousands, from more pro style, where they're going to grind it out, maybe take some shots.
They just do it from a different look.
George is interesting, and I think Jim Cheney is probably the most interesting man other than the players in the game, you know, and he's bounced around a lot, you know, interesting long career. Obviously, people talk about, you know, coach Drew Brees. Back in the day, it was with Joe Tiller, but then he went to the NFL with Scott Lenahan and Greg Olsen who is with at Purdue, and then he he ran Lane Kiffin's offense for a year at Tennessee and then and then.
You know it with billiam.
Oyle and yah, yeah, and so which is interesting and that that if you think about it, you know, no one looks at Jim as, you know, some kind of offensive guru in a sense, I think that's kind of refreshing in the age where everybody's got to be an offense in guru.
And I've got my system. He's very amolleable.
He run Joe Taylor system, he ran Lane Kiffin's system, he ran a pro style system. Obviously, defensive coaches generally like him, and Kirby hired him after facing him at Tennessee and at Arkansas. So clearly Kirby thought, this is a guy who's given us some problems, and we'll run something more traditional, releast sensibly more traditional, and he's clearly done a great job with from though obviously the challenge against Alabama will be so different than what it was
against Oklahoma's defense. They do a really good job of moving formations, they move guys around, they make it defend gaps.
You saw that against Oklahoma.
I mean, Oklahoma was a little undisciplined and just made some mental errors they shouldn't have made, but they also presented them a lot of looks that got him out of position.
And I think.
That will be an interesting challenge for for Saban because you know, when he prepare for Clemson. I think the scouting import on Clemson they're in eleven personnel with that sort of hybrid tight end HVAC ninety eight percent of the time. That will not be the case against Georgia.
They will be in a bunch of different formations. They'll they'll do four wides, you know, two tight ends, full backs, they'll move different things around and which is gonna put more burden on the players to get them lined up right.
And they're really going to search for we can run stretch, we could run this.
They obviously showed some wildcat against Oklahoma, so that'll be interesting. I think the knock on a Cheney is that maybe something can get a little too cute or hey, it's working. Why don't we just keep handing it off to those guys, which was the case in the first half against Oklahoma. Why are we going four wides here to sort of trick them with a run play?
Why don't you just run at them?
So the other thing being the other element is that, and Kirby's talked about this a lot, which is you know, Alabama's known as a three four defense. Interestingly, they play a three to four defense against traditional sets, So they were three four defense and they used to play LSU.
Back in the day with tight arnifles.
Yeah, when they started playing more spread teams, they were a four down team, which maybe is backwards what you would think, but it's because of how they nickel packets would work. And then eventually the last few years they they've continued to recruit to a three four, but they because he got much more spread, they basically were in the four, two five sixty seventy percent of the time.
I think Kirby will use some of that knowledge to try to find ways and figure out what personal groups that they want to go against where they think they're you know, a little more weakness.
Almost like an NBA style, like find that the advantageous match.
Up exactly exactly and also, you know, who are the guys who worried about an alibamus defense other than all of them, right, But then try to figure out where where can we put those guys like Mika Fitzpatrick and those people to where they can hurt us the least.
So I think I think it'll be really interesting. Now.
You know, you'll find out pretty quickly can Alabama or George's offensive line hold up and if they can turn around and hand the ball to those running backs and they can get in the second level and do some damage, I think that'll be interesting.
But if it, they're going to have to throw a little.
Bit and it will not look like it did against you know, Oklahoma, much more challenged, much more tight window throws. So that that's going to be the big challenge because I think you know, say we talked about cover seven and they're on these two shell and all this stuff. I think this is a game he's going to try to put guys in the box and try to stuff the run. I think Kirby will do something similar, but it'll look a little different because Alabama comes at it
in a different way. They've got to be more options sound, that kind of thing.
And in a game like this, when coaches are so familiar with each other, we'll say, you know, mel Tucker go into an offensive meeting and say, I know this Alabama defense. Here's X, Y and Z, Like, will there be that sort of crossover? I know this is probably unique to each and every program when there's familiarity, but when you do have that understanding of a scheme and it's a huge game like this, will you have that crossover?
Yeah, you know, I think though on the short week, I think you won't see a ton of that. I also think, you know, as I said, the fourteen hundred page playbook, it's like, oh, he could do any of these four hundred things. I think the real experience is bal teams practiced against the same defense they'll be facing all through spring, yes, all through the fall, so they should have a pretty good familiarity with it. They got to learn the personnel, they got to learn where the
matchups are. But uh, it should it shouldn't be a deep reserv difficult to find a deep reservoir of ideas about things that that that could work. And then I think it's really going to be what does that first quarter look like in terms of both teams feeling each other out, what's their plan? I mean, we saw that with Georgia where they came out against Oklahoma and try to do some no huddle and do different things. And it'll be really interesting, particularly from George's perpective, what do
they think they can do to get some some some advantage. Sure, I think I think Alabama you're going to get what you get, especially with hurts because They're gonna try to emplize what he does well, put the ball in the hands of the running backs, do some option stuff, try to keep those guys sound, and then maybe try to you know, I do think Nick will maybe have dialed up some some kind of shot plays or maybe even some trick plays early on to kind of get an advantage,
which I think could be huge in this game. But otherwise, I do think Alabama's it'll be a little more of status quo because the quarterback does what he does. He's he's very good at what he does. He doesn't make many mistakes, which is I.
Don't think Jalen Hurts has thrown an interception against like a winning record team this year.
Yeah he does. I mean he'll throw it away.
Yeah, I mean he may not fit it in there, right, He'll throw it away and then live to play another down and then kick punt and play defense and then wait around for the you know the defense you know, Deron Pain that intercepted or something crazy, and then then have a ten yard drive for a touchdown. But so that'll be interesting to see. Sure, I think it's going to be a grinded out game. I think there's a
chance maybe some big plays in special teams. But think it'll look a lot like the Clemson game did.
Fair and you mentioned Jalen Hurts. We haven't really talked about Jake From and you know, he's another wild card with Jim Chaney. What is Jim Chaney going to do? What is he going to do with Jake From? Who is a true freshman sort of at this point this will be what his fourteenth game or something. But Jake From as a freshman, you hear a lot of times that coordinators or coaches or media will say, well, they're
pairing down the playbook. They're you know, they're not. He doesn't have the full playbook at his at his disposal. What does that mean big picture? It is sort of like they're not giving him three progressions on every pass play. They're not giving him a lot of pre snap responsibilities and adjusting protections and stuff like that, or he's not making anticipatory throws. Typically, What does it mean to be a true freshman quarterback with a sort of limited playbook?
Yeah, I think it depends on the quarterback. It depends on the opponent, which I think a big thing with Alabama is just not trying to put the guy in a position where he can make the critical mistake and sort of get overwhelmed, and also to keep him up right a little bit, whereas maybe a more experienced guy you let him de Shaun Watson, let him deal with the pressure and maybe you can withstand some of the
physical beating. And then it depends on what your offensive scheme is and how much you expect the quarterback to do anyway. You run an air raid, you want to spread offense, you run a pro sell offense.
I think it's all the above things you said.
I think all coaches, and I think particularly Cheney I think is known for this is you try to get quarterbacks some easy throws early to get that confidence up.
Even saw that a little bit against Oklahoma.
I mean the first play of the game was a five yard hitch, and then the second drive of the game, when they scored a touchdown, it was play action, dump into the running bag, play action, hit the tight end on across to try to get those kind of confidence building throws. I mean, there was years and years and years where Southern col back in the Pete Carroll days, I mean the first or second play of air every
game was a bootleg to the tight end. Yes, So you try to build those things in to get the confidence up to where they can have some comfort level and just play football and do.
The things that they do well.
You probably put a little more emphasis on making sure that he's comfortable with everything in the game plan, because a more experienced guy say, we're running this, this is what's going to work, and you'll figure it out, whereas a young guy, it's like, do you not feel good about this because we don't want to do like exactly, and then all the pre snap stuff, and I don't know exactly how much burden they've given from in terms of you know, I'm sure he has the ability to
say there's a lot of people over here to the right, I'm going to run it left, but beyond that, probably not a lot. The past protection stuff is probably you don't want to give him a ton of responsibility for that, especially gets an Alabama defense. They can bring guys some different places in the skies well, so they probably don't want to call a lot of true dropback passes anyway.
So everything will probably at least for the first quarter or two, a lot of play action, a lot of you know, maybe some RPO stuff where they do a little bit of it. We're just you know, throw a hitch route or running the ball off. So I mean, it's not rocket science. It's just it's just putting the guy in position to do things that are simple, and hopefully you're doing enough other things that they have to
defend them. It's tough if Alabama is stuff in the running backs and you're like, it's third nine, we got to go make a play and you can only run the draw play so many times. But again, you saw that against Oklahoma they ran draws on third down. They did some of those things, but then when they had a few critical downs, he was able to make throws. And the guy's talented, so you know, if he can get the confident he can make some throws.
What's easier to adjust in? You know Nick Saban was talking about he wasn't super pumped that they only had a week before a game like this. Typically there's ten, twelve, thirteen days whatever. What is which side of the all? I suppose is easier to say they've seen twelve, thirteen, fourteen games of us. We need to add wrinkles here
there wherever? Is it easier on offense to sort of add in new things or is it easier on defense when you talk about you know, Nick Saban and I'm sure on a different level, Kirby Smart they are throwing in new packages for this specific offense they're facing. Is it easier on offense or is it easier on defense to say we're changing twenty three percent of what we're going to do for this game.
I don't know that you can generalize.
I think it really depends on the opponent and who you're going to play, and obviously what their strengths are. I mean, if you were playing Oklahoma, you'd be more worried about defending Baker Mayfield and all the wrinkles they do. A different team might be different. I also think this game, where there's so much familiarity about the defensive schemes, I think Nick Saban can walk over to the offensive court and be like, here's what they're going to do, especially
against our offense, right. I mean, you know, I think Kirby and Hurts didn't quite overlap, but they did a lot of the things that they were doing now like versions of them, and they just evolved a little bit.
So I think that's why I.
Said Jim Cheney is probably the most important guy. Is because I think Saban would like to have more time to break down every single one of his games the last couple of years, and particularly against you know, Auburn with Kevin Steele as defensive coordinator. Like teams will overlap to get a better flavor because they do a lot of things. They got a lot of talent, and also Saban's over prepare so surely just wants more time no matter what. So in this game, I think it's harder
on the defenses. I don't know that that's the case in every game, though.
I think it's very easy to sort of fill in the blank by saying Alabama will win this game if because Alabama is Alabama, and you know what an Alabama win will probably look like in this game, that they'll just be successful enough on offense and they will probably succeed more stifling on defense than not. What does a Georgia win in this game look like to you?
I think it looks exactly the same. It's just flip in the script.
I mean, the thing Kirby has done in two years, and I actually was not one of the people in detriment to me, is that thought this is a slam dung higher and he's going to come men and set the world on fire and and certainly improve upon what Mark Rick had done.
I thought Rick is a good coach. He's obviously is.
You know, Jim Cheney was an interesting offensive coordinating but you weren't like, oh, man, I'm so excited that Jim Cheney's.
Offensive quarter and got him.
Yeah, like like you know, Georgia is gonna have a great offense now, it's like so, but he's built a bully. I mean that is when they you know that the SEC Championship game, I mean they beat up Auburn. I mean after getting blown off the field and making a lot of mistakes in that first game and looking a little shaky, they they beat up Auburn, and Auburn beat
up a lot of teams this year. That was ultimately at least the you know, in the second half against Oklahoma, I mean, the physicality started taking over and you know, they played a lot of man coverage and the.
Receivers weren't getting open.
And you know, even some of those guys like Mark Andrews and people who are really good players just were not dealing with the physicality, not just in the defensive an offensive line, so that was a big factor, but everywhere and then certainly trying to tackle those running backs and dealing with tight ends and everybody else.
So I think it's very similar.
I think probably there Georgia may require that extra oomph of of a key special teams you know, touchdown or some you know field position, that kind of thing that will'll flip the difference. I mean, I don't think it's gonna be a game that people are gonna look at and be.
Like, man, that was super exciting.
I think it's gonna be a little bit like those old school Alabama LSU games where it was like, man, that was a that was a war, and then you're gonna five years are gonna be like, look at all the NFL talent out there, and then you're gonna think about what a great punt happened in the third quarter.
I mean, it's gonna be one of those kind of games. Now, not to.
Say this is that exciting for you.
Mostly.
Like I mean, you know, this is gonna be the kind of game that's gonna be more fun to watch after.
Yes, I'll see the little oh the left guard did this kick here?
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I'm like most people. We watched the game, it's like, all right, what was going on?
Yeah, it's the TV show.
Yeah exactly.
You saw that with like that that coaches the coaches room for the ESPN that first game, it was like they were plugged in, locked in. Second game, they'd also been there for a long time, but it was like, well, you know, there's a punts and stuff. Yeah, it looks like the energy level was a little different. So it's uh, but you know, look, it's going to be a really interesting game. I mean, it's I still think, you know, Kirby's ahead of schedule, so I think that's that's probably
the key takeaway for Georgia. And then what what Alabama was able to do here in a year out of sort of just on precedent, well precedented.
But in modern current modern, very unprecedent.
Thank you very much, Chris B. Brown Smart football dot Com go buy his books. I promise you you will read them in like a day and a half. They are They're an easy read in the best possible way.
Written like a kindergartener, written like you like a first grader.
Pictures, there's diagrams, Everything's good. Chris, thank you very much for your time.
That's my pleasure. All right.
Again, that is Chris B. Brown from smart football dot Com. If you're not familiar with any of Chris's fine fine work, going out to smart football dot com. Check them out, look them up. Final question before we part, Wait, I'm ready. Did anything that he told you change your mind? Because you know, we just recorded a longer pre R show just you and I and we're releasing this one second, So now you know A plus B does it still equal Alabama for you?
So it still equals Alabama to me though, I was when he talked about the idea of his wild card being Jim Cheney and sort of Jim Cheney sort of flies beneath the surface of like he's not somebody in the way. They're like, oh, he's an offensive guru. He's a young genius. You know that we see all the
time now because everybody has to be a genius. But the fact is, Kirby Smart played against Jim Cheney a ton when he was at Alabama, when he was at Arkansas, when he was at Tennessee, and usually Charlie weis notwithstanding, when you play against somebody and I think the acumen of Kirby Smart isn't really questioned when he plays against and sees the wrinkles and sees the ways that Jim Cheney runs an offense and goes out and gets him
specifically to run his offense. I thought it was interesting that Chris that spoke volumes to him about how much Kirby Smart respected what Jim Cheney is able to do and that he is an X factor in this game. What will he do? How much does he trust Jake from how much does he attack Alabama if they have fourth and two on the Alabama forty four in the second half? Are they punting? Are they going that kind
of thing? The wild card aspect of what Jim Chaney will do in this game was I thought, struck a chord with me?
All right again, big thanks to our guest Daniel. I will see you yeah in Atlanta in a few short hours.
Bring warm clothing, Tye for that.
Gentleman over there, Dan Rubinstein for myself, tie he'll de brand. Thanks again for tuning in. We'll catch you all very soon. In the meantime, stay Sader, peace
Kains