FRIDAY SPORTS TALK | Build Culture before Talent (Reaction to Cole Cubelic Rant)

In this episode, Bo and Cartwright dive into a passionate discussion about the current state of college football, particularly focusing on Auburn's recent player departures and the mindset surrounding them. They reference a notable rant by Cole Cubelic, emphasizing the flawed obsession with individual players who have not significantly impacted the team's success. They highlight the changing landscape of college football, where success is increasingly tied to the maturity and cohesion of the team rather than just star recruits.

The conversation also touches on the cultural issues within Auburn's football program, suggesting that the university has historically struggled to maintain a winning mentality. Bo and Cartwright advocate for a shift in mindset among fans and the program itself, urging them to trust the current coaching staff and their approach to building a competitive team. They conclude by stressing the importance of prioritizing culture over talent, arguing that a strong foundation will ultimately lead to better performance on the field.

Listen to the Cole Cubelic rant on X: https://x.com/macandcube/status/2011090485155086384?s=20

Watch to the Full Episode of McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning: https://www.youtube.com/live/fofV_5Zm_yA?si=8QyexnvHCr9L8GOT

Auburn football, Cole Cubelic, college football culture, player mindset, team building, NIL impact, recruiting strategy, sports commentary, college football analysis

Takeaways

No player cripples a program when they leave.
We need to stop obsessing over individual players.
It's about building a culture, not just recruiting talent.
The landscape of college football has changed significantly.
Trust the coaching staff's vision for the program.

Sound bites

"That is a loser mindset to think, oh, he's leaving."
"It's about getting the most grown men and experience."
"We need to stop trying to be like them."

Chapters

00:00 The Cole Cubelic Rant: A Wake-Up Call for Auburn Fans
02:54 Shifting Mindsets: Moving Beyond Individual Players
06:07 The Changing Landscape of College Football
09:07 Building a Winning Culture vs. Relying on Talent
12:10 The Role of Coaching in Player Development
14:53 Auburn's Cultural Challenges and Future Directions
17:33 Conclusion: Embracing Change and Trusting the Process

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Transcript

Bo Morgan (00:00.974)
All right. So I got to talk to you about this epic rant by Cole Cubelic this morning. He probably didn't. It's, only like on three and stuff. Oh, it wasn't on the show. It was on the show. Okay. Um, but okay. that. So, so basically

Yeah, we probably can't play it, can we? Can we play it? we can? Yeah, let's play it.

Cartwright Morris (00:38.476)
two individuals. The obsession with attempting to build a team on two individuals that have had limited time proving themselves and had shown some clown tendencies and doing show is beyond irresponsible, is beyond ignorant and is just flat out flawed.

But then you go out and you wear pink ski masks to be different from everybody else on the team. That's the guy that's going to take the reins and pull the program? We're going sit around and cry about a guy that's got less than 100 catches in two years. We're going sit around and cry about a guy that's played in one game. You got to stop. You got to stop. Seriously. No player cripples a program when they leave. Not a single one. No. Not to the draft.

Not to the portal, not to enterprise rent a car to start a career. None of them cripple the program when they leave. And if your mindset is of so, that is a loser brain. 100%. That is a loser take. That is a loser mindset to think, oh, he's leaving. can't win. You can't think that way.

in this obsession with these two guys that they've propped up 80 % of the program, what games did Auburn win because of two said players? I wait. Mercer. Mercer. Congratulations. Just saying. What FBS games did Auburn win because of the two said players? Vanderbilt, when Cam Coma went off with all the one-handed catches? Give me...

20 Jeremy Bernard's before one cam Coleman. Sorry. I know that hurts people's feelings I know I'm probably really mean for saying that you know what I'll go use another Auburn example Give me 1,000 Courtney Taylor's before one cam Coleman I'll take Duke Williams chains before I'll take it. Whoa I Do stab you in the throat to catch a football. I don't I don't care I want him on my team. my gosh

Cartwright Morris (02:54.316)
Texas has along their core. Anyway, I had to, mean, how perfect was that? By the way, Cole, please come on the show, man. We would love to have you. Cause we know you don't ever get invited on podcasts. Right. Yeah. You know, as prestigious as ours. Yeah. But we're not that far away. I think you live in Homewood. Yeah.

So please, But dude, how, how like, so we'll talk as Auburn fans for a second. Maybe this is an Auburn podcast. Sorry, Bammers. No, the Bammers will enjoy this more than anybody. Probably. He's right. a hundred percent. We're crying over spilt milk. Dude, we've, we've obsessed over Deuce Night and Cam Coleman for

the last 60 days scared to death that they're going to leave. One, it's a mindset from the way college football used to be. It's, you know, you, mean, cause I mean, Nick Saban got us in this mindset, like families getting all the studs and that's what we got to do to beat them because we got to get the studs. Yeah, that's right. But that's not the way college football works anymore. We just saw Indiana on,

on three ranking, they have the 77th or 76th best roster, technically, according to ratings. But you know what's interesting about that too, is I wonder, I wonder if, because they're near the top now, because they're kind of the cool thing. Right. So I wonder if their productivity dips. Because they're culture guys. Well, they're, signing all the big stars now. Yeah.

You know what mean? And so I would wonder anyway, that's besides the point, but to the Auburn thing, why are we so stuck on these guys when we just won 10 games in two years with these guys? I don't get it. I don't get it. And it stinks to lose. Like, Cam Coleman is a absolute special talent and we'll see about Deuce Knight. We don't know yet. I bet he'll do great with Archie Manning. He'll probably do great. yeah, Cam's going to kill it. He'll do great.

Cartwright Morris (05:05.208)
But like, the fact that we're like, our house is on fire because he left? We gotta get out of that mindset. Like we are such a, what is that? Yeah, It's because we've never had nice things really before like that. Right. And so when we lose the one nice, really prized recruit that we, the only one we've got, like we've never signed a receiver like him ever. No.

of his like status. I want to say Aroma Shidu was big or something or maybe Ben Obamonu was but he didn't turn out. He didn't turn out to be really good. He didn't turn out to be a stud. He was more productive than Cam.

But we're not squashing on Cam. Cam's an amazing talent. This is not about Cam Newton. This is not about Deuce Knight. Cam Coleman. Cam Newton was pretty good. Did I say Cam Newton? You did. Oh, my bad. No, he's probably the one exception. He can take your entire team and welcome to a national championship.

But like his Auburn fans, like guys drop it, guys, let's move on. Let's find some, not that these guys aren't winners, but they haven't won here. So this goes back to our episode we just recorded reflecting. Let's really reflect on modern day college football right now. Vandy just won 10 games for the first time in their history. Ole Miss will finish in the top four in the country. Why?

because the landscape has changed. It's not about getting the best 18, 19 year olds in the room. It's about getting the most, who's got the most grown men and experience in the room. Yeah, that's true. I mean, yeah, because in Indiana, don't they average like 23 years old? It's like 22, 23. Like you guys who have played together for years, who came over from James Madison, especially office of diesel. Like that's what, I mean, Vandy won 10 games because they just got, they had grown men. Yeah.

Cartwright Morris (06:58.946)
You know, and we think we got to live in this, you know, old age college football where we got to get the, you know, the prettiest little young talent. like, it's just changed. And I think Goulish is, it's got that mindset where it's like, Hey, one, we're building a culture here of like, Hey, we need to, the guys who get paid need to be at all a certain way for the culture, for the benefit of everybody being on the same page. But then two, like, let's start from the inside out. Let's don't start with the pretty little things on the outside.

Let's try to a stud off, because let's, if we're really looking down, if going back to Cam Newton, Cam Newton carried us, no doubt about it. But what did that team also have? They had like five seniors on the offensive line Yep. Yeah. Guys played together for years. Ryan Pugh. Yep.

And they had a heavy senior led defense as well who statistically was not great, but they always play great in the fourth quarter. Zach Etheridge Josh Bynes They always play great in the fourth quarter. They know how to win. When it's funny too, like looking back on our season, Auburn season, which you and our Auburn guys. But like when you're able to kind of look back and reflect, it's like, okay, I kind of think I see what was going on now. We're paying these really talented players out of high school. Overpaying.

Right. Overpaying for these guys. And then they come and it feels like there's just not that big a value on winning. Yeah. It's because we've already made our money. Like I'm not saying they purposely did that, but like in your subconscious, Hey man, I've made my million dollars. You know, if we beat Texas sand on the road, that'd be cool, but it's not like gotta have it. Like,

throw me the ball so we can win. Like, you know, let's find a way to win. That had to be a piece of that, don't you think? 100%. And so you have to change from that to not only incentive based stuff to where they really are incentivized to win, but also like, I don't know, you just gotta like.

Cartwright Morris (09:07.49)
But it's such a delicate balance. You gotta have great players. Well, one, you gotta have great players. But I think what I would say is maybe Kurt Sinetti's doing it Indiana is he is maybe holistically looking at the player and the way he evaluates, is this a character guy that's gonna want to contribute? He's gotta have that part before the money. Like, I'm gonna be a guy who grinds. Which if that doesn't work, like you...

I guess the risk in that is that if that strategy doesn't work, you really look pretty stupid. Because then it's like, well, it's simple. You don't have as good of players. Right. Exactly. But he had a long leash being Indiana. I they're the most losses in power four, man. Hugh Freese was just like, give me anybody. So that's not so talking about from the oil drips from the head, like that guy. So to what you're talking about, that was the culture he created. 100 % because he, I think, thought the old way of, hey, let me

recruit my rear end off and get the best dudes in the building. our roster was just in shambles. we didn't have... Yeah. Like we had Marcus Harris. So that's where it went wrong. Like I would say Brian Harson did it the wrong way. You know. Right. Yeah we've seen like both sides of this. Yeah. Like we've seen Harson who's like I don't recruit anybody that doesn't have you know like... I think you said he didn't have a father in the home or something like that? Yeah. Like what?

And we're not sure, I mean pretty sure that's That's maybe an allegation, sorry. Could be an allegation. That's an allegedly statement. Is that how you say that? Yeah, allegedly statement. And then we had Freeze I was just like, get anybody in the door, man. Let's start throwing money at him. And then you don't know how to win. Isn't that interesting? Yeah.

Like you don't know how to win. Dude, how else can you define the last two years other than just flat not knowing how to win? And then we did not know how to win. And then at the press conference, he would say that and be like, it's like everybody's looking at each other like, that's your job. But it almost was like he was surprised. Like, what do you mean? Like, I don't get why this doesn't work. Yeah.

Cartwright Morris (11:13.454)
because he was thinking, you know, 2014. Because these guys are getting the massive paycheck whether you win or not. And so not saying there's some massive conspiracy where like the Auburn players were like, we don't care if we win. I bet they did. Like, Cam Coleman, like, he went out there and competed. Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Yeah. But I imagine for, if I was a 19, 20 year old kid, and I had six bills, seven bills being stroked to me a year, motivation's lower. Yeah, absolutely. You can't help that.

And not just as a 20 year old guy, it's a 40, 50 year old guy. And there's another thing that I think is what we miss with the Cursigneti thing that a couple guys have brought up and I want to say Cole has brought up, and people keep saying the SEC is down because they don't have the NIL money that the Big Ten has. I don't think that's it.

I keep hearing, Cole said this, and I think it is, we're paying these guys millions of dollars to come play football, but we've got like a $10 coach, coach. We don't have this quality of coaches top to bottom actually training them up. And I would say that may be one of the big secret sauce of Saban, you know?

was he just had dudes who were constantly... He was the one guy that could really truly do both. Yeah. Because I believe Saban, like if you gave him an average roster, he would still win. Yeah. But we gave him year year... You saw all the coaches in the playoff. yeah, the Saban guys. And so like Saban, we're not saying Saban like was successful only because of the players. That's not true. He could have won with a... Like if he had Auburn's rosters the past 10 years, which he wouldn't have because he's a great recruiter, but say he did.

I still think we win more games. 100 % you know I mean because he's a winner. We had some really great You know I want to say that 19 defense had like 5 or 6 NFL guys. Derrick Brown, Marlon Davison, Carlton Davis all those guys that whole D line Jeff Holland remember him? Yeah, it's so fascinating. I mean the way that but I will say I think now though

Cartwright Morris (13:29.942)
And I guess we're recording, so I'll always be hold of this. Dude, I really, really like Goulash. Yeah. Because I think Goulash is, he's able, he's, he's kind of showing right now that he kind of has the mindset of being able to blend both of those worlds. Like, of course you got to have talent, right? But you also do, there's just something to know and how to win. Like some, some programs know how to win. Like they just,

I don't know. It's like you can't put your finger on it, but like I know that when Indiana is going to have a fourth down on Monday night against Miami and they got to have it, there's no doubt they're going to get it. Like somebody's going to make a play. And I feel that in goal ish right now. And you kind of saw that with him at South Florida, right? You know, cause what were they three and eight before he got there? And then he slowly got them back. like Auburn needs that so bad. in a way, of course you don't want to lose cam Coleman.

And of course you don't want to lose to Deuce Knight. Yeah, that sucks. Don't give me a wrong... And I think that's Cole making that point. No, Cole, yeah. No, Cole was saying... Yeah, you don't want to lose to Cain Coleman. It's a disappointment. He's a top 10 pick in it's not the world's ending type thing. No, it's not like A goal is enough for the job because... Come on, guys. Yeah, that is... The allegations are like, God, he's been there a minute. Let him build the program how he wants to build it. Well, what other coach shows up at a university and doesn't lose good players?

Especially today, but like in Auburn for some reason we're like like I Really? I kind of think it's because we've never had somebody like Kim Coleman before And do tonight in a way yeah, well yeah, man we not that we haven't had somebody like this night QB evaluating we is gone. It was it's been terrible at all in the last ten years You know and we thought Gus Malzahn knew and you know when was that it's absolutely low

is when we shove the guy out of campus who's hosting a playoff game this weekend as the number one seed in the AFC Bo Nix. Said, nah, he's not really a culture fit. Get out of here. Are you kidding me? That's nonsense. It's nonsense. Yeah, the one guy we had who really could. Yeah. Grew up an Auburn guy. Yeah. Grew up going to Auburn games. Graduated, finished at Auburn. Yeah. We don't really feel like he's the right guy. We think it's probably TJ Finley, you know? And,

Cartwright Morris (15:49.742)
The guy who's trying for his seventh school in seven years or something. my Which by the way, not blaming TJ, not blaming any of these players. It's an Auburn thing. Carly, my wife who knows nothing about football, and I coached football for five years and she went to every game. You feel like she would pick up on few things. Just not interested, which is totally cool. It's kind of fun. We laugh about it at our house, but she'll be like,

you know, she'll hear me ranting and raving about to my buddies about what's going on with it and stuff. And she's like, there's a common denominator here. Like you keep blaming these 50 players that are 18 years old. We're the university that keeps screwing this up. a hundred percent. you want to talk about a culture issue? Yeah. I mean, that, is a conversation I would love to have is like, yeah, culture over talent. But I think that's, we keep thinking.

Yeah, there's a cultural thing going on with Auburn that keeps screwing this up that they don't even know how to get the right guy in the door. And I think we do now, but there was something that has been, I mean, yeah, I don't want to have another allegation thrown out there, but I just think though. I mean, one, think, you know, the AD who was there when Harson came in, I want to say it was him making a...

I think he was fed up with who we all had to work for at Auburn. And he kind of made a decision, you know, on his own and he was kind of a screw you to all of them. And we saw what happened. know, I almost feel like in a way we need to have that Cole Kublick clip like in the stadium before games. know, yes, that is a brilliant, like, of like, we can have Cole Kublick or the enterprise rental car.

Anyway Cole we'd love to have you on and talk more about it. We won't just talk about that we'll talk about other stuff too. You know who would be a great actually I thought of this the other day we're just kind of spitballing here maybe we'll turn this an episode or not I don't know a Birmingham guy would be a great guest I realized this the other day he graduated from

Cartwright Morris (18:10.542)
to say it was Jeff Lanier which is now not even in school anymore. He was on TV last night. Follower of Jesus. Head coach of the Texans. D'Amico Ryan's. But he is a Bama guy. But a stud! Yeah, anyway, I thought about that last night with a little bit I got to watch of Did you see where he's 41 and Aaron Rodgers last night is 42? That's wild.

And they showed a clip of Damico sacking Aaron like 10 years ago. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, D'Amico is a year younger than Aaron Rodgers. my Who they played last night. That's right. Yeah, he was at Bama when I was at Auburn. So yeah, that makes sense. man, he was pre-Saban. Was he? Yeah. He was Shula? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Great player.

I'm super excited that he's doing well coaching. he's like, he should be coaching here. Who else would be coaching? Ben Johnson, the Bears. Bears haven't done much in last 30 years. Yeah. Do you think Aaron Rodgers is done? I would hope so, but.

I mean not for any other reason than you're just like dude at 42. He'll decide in August. Yeah. Yeah. Like you normally does. Yeah right after the end of training camp. Yeah. You'll have to go through that. Go to some ayahuasca. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I wanted to, I kind of threw this on Cartwright last second, but I wanted to share that clip with you because it was like, thank you. Yeah. You said it a lot better than I've heard anyone say it or I've been able to articulate it.

But as Auburn people, we've got to stop with that, Yeah. You know? It's like we're just grasping at anybody that wants to be a part of them. You know, like, no, we got to keep him because he could go other places. No, let's be a great program. Yeah. Well, if I want to spiritualize this here, Bo, is the orphan mindset, right? That belief that there's a scarcity mindset. You know? I think that's what Auburn fans, because we've just...

Cartwright Morris (20:27.82)
We are the younger brother to both of our rivals in so many ways. Another allegation. That I disagree with. But... Nah, how could you disagree with that? We have that mentality sometimes and we need to just stop trying to be like them or be respected by them and just like, hey, we're going to do our own thing. We do, and maybe we say that out loud, but we don't actually do that in practice. We try to...

basically beat them at their own game. So we live in a scarcity month, we lose the talent and we're like, oh no, know, the sky's falling versus going like, no, like there's something unique we're building here and we have to do it in a unique way.

This era of college football is still young. Next year will be the third or fourth year of NIL in transfer portal. So it's like you just gotta, I think trust what Golis is doing. I think he's, and that's why think Cole was really ripping into it, because I think he really does respect Golis. But it's like we do gotta get out of that mindset.

and just trust what's happening that we've got the right guy. He's doing it the right way. He's bringing in offensive linemen, offensive linemen that's already been playing together. He's bringing in D linemen. He's bringing it like most of the guys who left were skill position guys.

who we told allegedly that, we're not going to pay you what you got last year. it's no hard feelings. It's just like, it's got to be different. You guys went five and seven and like, we got to change the way we're doing stuff and.

Cartwright Morris (22:09.646)
So naturally, guys are gonna leave. Talented guys are gonna leave. And yeah, like, Ken Coleman's gonna go to Texas, he's gonna be great at Texas, he's gonna have a long career in the NFL, there's no doubt. I wouldn't be surprised if Deuce Knight does too. Oh yeah. I mean, you know what mean? Deuce Knight's gonna go wherever he I think we do have to play Ole Miss and Texas next year, which is, I hate that. You know, I hate it if they, you know, they both just.

dominate us, but no that would be painful that would be very painful, but the same time it does not justify Having a freakout moment Over we're trying to build culture before talent you need talent But you got to have culture first and I don't think Hugh freeze just build a culture as much as he liked to preach and

Man you want to get me on a rant some of the stuff I heard about Hugh Freeze just like Blaring Christian music over the sound speaker like that builds culture get out of here man Like that's a generational thing that thinks if you could just throw like nice Christian stuff around that it's gonna You know, it's like just saying like it's just like reading a book without practicing any that's in it It's like you can't just say you just read the book and now everyone thinks you're great because you read the book You actually got to put the stuff in practice and so I think there's

gotta be yeah like just got to be embedding of a culture this is values things that we're gonna prioritize things that we're gonna be about over you know a guy who's 6'5 220 it runs a you know a 4.4 right you know you just gotta you just can't and plus like I mean go back to quote like from a productivity standpoint I get it maybe you didn't have the greatest quarterback but you're like

You know, I don't know. I don't know. And like, we don't know, as Auburn fans, how much do we know of quality to the culture they were? Like, Cole kind of said something, speaking of allegations, the pink ski mask, I don't even know what he's talking about. Cam Coleman where's pink, pink, sweat, ski mask? Oh. See, like stuff like that, where you're like.

Cartwright Morris (24:21.93)
don't know. interesting topic. Interesting topic. Yeah. I'll just set that with you. Yeah, that's good.