Here, because we just got through talking to Alex Skolish, and you've been around Alex Skolish for a long time, haven't you? Yep,

I have, yeah.

And I saw what he did at South Florida.

And Summerall.

And Summerall as well, but with Golish.

I mean, he took over a South Florida program that was in trouble.

I mean, that thing was in the gutter, and he went in there with his philosophy, his recruit, and his offensive acumen, and got it to the point where last year they went into the swamp and beat Florida.

But that Florida program, it's really not on the national stage like it used to be, but how far away do you think it is?

How does Bama's defense handle that? But Kenny Menchie, to me, played really well as well.

Yeah, I mean, here's what we've been talking about in the lead up to tomorrow's show is this is not a Kentucky football roster.

I mean, they've got guys, they've got dudes.

And Will Stein, one of the youngest coaches in America, he's brought some fire to this program.

And typically you could say I think Alabama's won eight in a row in this series.

Typically, you know this, Alabama would schedule this game.

There's a foregone conclusion.

Let me get your thoughts on the biggest game of the year so far in college football in Austin.

And that's kind of how we're hoping it all works out in Arkansas.

Yeah, I just don't...

You know, every coach will tell you, every coach that I'm around...

They'll tell you when we're sitting in there for our production meetings for Thursday nights.

They'll tell you when you're at a press conference.

Whatever the case may be, they'll say, we have to not commit self-inflicted turnovers or self-inflicted mistakes or self-inflicted distraction or any of that.

They don't like anything that you can create on your own that causes a distraction to the team.

seemingly journalistic integrity brought to the set every time was there ever any temptation or did you always see yourself in that role or did you ever want to go you know what to get attention that that's what's that's what's popular now i mean just tell me about your approach i guess a little bit if you would in this era that we live in

The pageantry, the excitement, the energy, even the buzz that is generated all offseason, even for an event like this, there's just nothing like it.

Well, it's funny because coming up through local TV, one of my stops, I covered the Oklahoma Sooners and a lot in Oklahoma at the ABC station there.

So I was there when Bob Stoops was head coach.

Jason White won the Heisman that year.

Adrian Peterson was a true freshman the year after.

And then another stop, my stop before ESPN was at the NBC in Dallas.

Uh-huh.

what does he bring from his playing days?

Yeah.

And Maria Taylor, before her, Joe Tess, got the thing launched.

And so it's just one of those shows that's always had a good host.

I hope to be the next one.

But it's just fun because, like I said, Tim and I have done TV together since 2014, 2015.

Same with you and me.

Roman's been on SportsCenter with me.

Matt Berry with us, so Matt, let's talk about some of the things that we talked about on Sunday night, and obviously it will be discussed all week long, and that's something you've asked me about when you were more representing the national voice, but it's the state of the SEC.

But when you walk on an SEC campus, I mean, what's, what's the feels like for you? I mean, what are the experiences you've had, maybe one in particular that you would tell us about?

So for me, I got my first taste of it in 2005 when I was doing my local TV journey.

Uh, I was in the market, uh, Columbia, South Carolina.

And it's like market 70 something, high 70s.

And my first season there was the first season that Steve Spurrier took over as head coach of South Carolina.

And so imagine a town that had been down on its football luck really in its history to get a guy, Steve Spurrier, came back from the NFL, a guy that built Florida into a national power, and these people were just craving for a winner.

And so we were a CBS affiliate.

So how long should these programs give these coaches to kind of get things going in the right direction?