Look out, Alabama, Georgia and the rest of the SEC. Texas is now a problem

Welcome to the new SEC, where "It Just Means More" meets "Everything's Bigger in Texas." The Longhorns have become the first SEC school to reach No. 1 in the nation in four of the five major sports - football, women's basketball, baseball and softball - in the same academic year, and they did it in their first year in the league. Scott Griffin of CBS-42 in Birmingham joins Kevin Scarbinsky to break down the UT surge and Alabama's fading dominance in the NFL Draft.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00: 0:42

Hey, everyone. Welcome into Scarbo Knows with Kevin Skarbinski. That's me. I'm Kevin. College football season now is officially over now that we have gotten through the NFL draft. Well, it's officially over. It's never spiritually over. Not here in the Deep South where we talk football 24-7, 365. That's just what we do. That's just what we love. And a lot is going on. No games being played on the field, but lots of games and shenanigans happening off the field. We're going to talk about the SEC where it just means more meets everything's bigger in Texas. And look out, Alabama. Look out, Georgia. Here come the Longhorns with an incredible roster. Financially speaking, we're going to talk about the payroll. that the Longhorns will field this coming season in 2025 after winning the SEC regular season last year. And we're going to talk about what happened in the NFL draft, a major shift in power there. And we're going to show you some details. We're going to show you some numbers. We're going to show you some receipts to let you know how Alabama is no longer the dominant SEC football program on signing day on game day, or on draft day where they ruled for so, so long. And to help us sort it all out, break it all down, figure it all out, longtime SEC football observer, longtime media member in the Birmingham market, personal friend from CBS 42 in Birmingham, let's say hello to Scott Griffin. Kevin Nader. Is that what they call you now? Kevin Nader. That's a new one. What is this? A Saturday Night Live skit? The Kevin Meister? The Kevin Nader? What am I doing? Making copies? That's an old Saturday Night Live skit. How are you doing, Scotty? I'm doing good. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. I know you are a draft maven. Yes. I know you are someone who, for years and years, has studied the NFL draft. tried to understand what it means. What does it mean for the college programs, the college players making that transition? Why do the NFL teams get it wrong so often on quarterbacks? We're going to talk a lot about that. First of all, let me just ask your initial impression, and obviously we're focusing on the SEC, on Alabama, Auburn, et cetera. Just your initial impression on what you witnessed for those three days during the NFL draft.

UNKNOWN: 3:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:26

Boy, I saw a lot of, I guess, surprising picks, maybe picks that the expectations were of someone else going. We saw Detroit move up, actually trade a couple of third rounders, third round this year and next year to grab an Arkansas receiver that had really not done a lot, but he was 6'4", and I'm trying to remember his name, 6'4", 210 pounds that ran a 4-4-40. And they just, you know, nobody expected that. Everybody had this guy as a fifth and sixth rounder. So I saw a lot of surprises on that. Obviously, normally, I think quarterbacks are kind of overstated in the draft and so many of them go early. This draft, we had, what, two in the first round, three in the first three rounds, I think, or something. So we obviously know the Shador Sanders story. So quarterback kind of took a backseat a little bit. And then defensive linemen, and there were certain hot topics there. It seemed like defensive line was the hot topic this year. Everybody wants linemen, offensive linemen, defensive linemen, because for all of the high-powered offenses that we see, both on the college level and at the NFL level, you still have to have the horses up front if you want to win championships. Let's talk about quarterback, and not about– the quarterback that everybody else in the free world has been talking about, and who's gotten more publicity and discussion and set off more debate than any fifth round pick in the history of college NFL. Far more than Brady. Far more than Brady, who was selected 55 picks later. Shadur was 144. Brady was 199. He didn't get this kind of firestorm following his selection. I'm more interested, and I think our listeners would be more interested, our viewers, on Jalen Milrow going in the third round. He was picked number 92 going to the Seattle Seahawks. And that breaks a streak. And this is really incredible, Scott. From Jalen Hurts through Bryce Young, Alabama had either a second-round pick or a first-round pick at quarterback from 2016 through 2022. That's an extraordinary run. In fact, the last quarterback who went lower in the draft, last Alabama quarterback that went lower in the draft in Jalen Milrow, didn't get drafted. It was Jay Coker after the 2015 National Championship season. He was an undrafted free agent. Is this one of those things where Seattle's going to be proven really smart down the road? Is Jalen another potential Lamar Jackson potential? Or are they drafting him on potential that he will improve as a pastor, as a decision maker? Yeah, I think it's a great gamble. I don't think he's ready by any stretch, but obviously his running ability is, that's natural anyway. You're not teaching a guy how to run, as you know, you're just running. I would argue, even with Jalen Hurts, because I think Milrow's more dangerous than Jalen Hurts because of the speed and the size. I would argue... Maybe behind Lamar and Jaden Daniels, who's a very underrated runner, that if he were to play, let's say you thrust him in as a starting quarterback, he would be the third most dangerous running quarterback right now in the National Football League. Okay, kudos to Josh Allen. Maybe fourth. I just had one come in my head. Josh Allen's not going 70, though. But you don't want him running a lot, right? No row. He's not going 70 yards when he tucks it and takes off. Right, right. But he's got a different dynamic. He can get the tough yards. So, yes, you know, you hope you can fix the accuracy problems, which I just think is footwork. I think he throws off his back foot a lot and he's off balance. And I don't think he's– sharp enough to where he's worked on it, where it's just automatic for him. We saw Jalen Hurts, if you remember, when he was in college, he was not accurate, Kevin. He was a runner and he threw, but then as soon as he got benched, and I saw it in practice, and Dan Enos was the quarterback coach at the time, who's a footwork freak. I used to watch him do drills with Tua and Jalen and all the others, and they spent 30 minutes just on footwork, not even throwing the ball. Just chopping, doing feet stuff. And your accuracy comes from your footwork. You know that. So Jalen got better. And then he went to Oklahoma and had a great year. And he's been really good in the NFL. So if Milrow can get that kind of coaching and take to it, and I think he will, then you're talking about a huge upside. I think Dan Orlovsky said it best from ESPN. He may have the most upside of any quarterback out there. There are other quarterbacks better, but he may have the most to offer if he figures it out. Obviously, his running ability is unique. Scott, we hear so much misinformation and disinformation, some of it intentional, some of it not, surrounding the NFL draft before, during, and after. One of the stories that has come out since, and I'm really curious to hear if you think there's any validity to it, was this notion, and I wish I could remember who put this out there, and I think it was an anonymous source, as a lot of this information does come from anonymous sources, that the skill players at Alabama allegedly, collectively, were all going to enter the transfer portal if Jalen Milrow had decided to come back for another year of college and play that year at Alabama. Do you buy that at all? I don't buy all, for sure. I hope some guys are picking that beyond, and I hope guys would be smarter to figure out he's probably going pros. He's our teammate. I'm sure they talk. Now, we forget, though, I think six did. Did they not? They did lose some. But the core guys, the Ryan Williams, the German. No, those guys did. They had a lot of talent leave after this year, even with Milrow left. Not knowing at the time, but you could figure he's probably going to the NFL draft. I don't think there was much debate about that. It wasn't hard to figure. But no, I don't think the entire wide receiver room would be leaving. But they did lose a lot. But that tells you that it probably isn't true because they lost a lot to what we just said. They knew Milrow was probably going pro or at least entertaining it very seriously anyway. So... I didn't put as much in there. You could see frustration, Kevin. You saw it with Ryan Williams in certain games. The body language of a ball sailed 10 feet over his head. You're wide open. Then having to recut. Then he throws it and it's not even close. Obviously, there's frustration. Another quarterback that got a lot of conversation was not named Shadur Sanders, was Quinn Ewers from Texas. He takes him to the playoff two years in a row. He doesn't get drafted until the seventh round. And now you're hearing criticism of Quinn Ewers. What was he thinking? He could have come back. Well, it was pretty much decided if he came back, he was going to have to transfer because Arch Manning has waited his turn forever. He's the heir apparent. He's the guy that they're looking to be the starter at Texas this coming season. So, Quinn Ewers, though, how many different schools would have paid him, what,$2 million,$3 million,$4 million? Somebody put out a graphic with$8 million. That wasn't enough. Well, so many of these numbers are just ridiculous. That's a life of four years, maybe. But somebody probably would have paid him two or more. Yeah, sure. And you had to love... The backdrop. Apparently, they have a family hunting lodge or something, and there were a lot of dead animals on the wall behind him. But he said, in effect, he wanted to be known as the quarterback of Texas, even though he transferred from Ohio State, even though he's a Texas State guy. He's from there in high school. Went to Ohio State. Didn't work out. Went to Texas. Had a very nice career. Got him in the playoffs twice. Did he make a mistake, or should we– We who complain about how much money these college players are making. Here's a guy that didn't go for the money. He's going to make less money as if he even makes an NFL roster. Yeah. He may end up in the UFL. Who knows? But he decided I don't want to play at another school. I want Texas to be the last school that I sued up for in college. Shouldn't we be applauding that? Absolutely. Uh, The Chad Baker Mazaras of the world that are 47 years old that want to stay in college to make a million dollars. I get that because they're not doing anything at the next level. But to your point, Ewers has a chance. And look, he made money in the past. He's probably still got a lot of it. We so worry about it. It's so overstated because look at the money you could possibly make. And I think a lot of rookies come out, especially in basketball, as you know, go to the draft early because they see that immediate, oh, 15 million, which is life-changing money for me and you. But at the end of the day, if you and I could get 10 or 15, but we had that possibility of, hey, Kevin, if you really improve your skill and do well, and it looks like you're on track with it because you're very talented, you'd probably get 100 million on the second deal. then that's how you're going to make your decision because I know you will have to do it. That's how I'm going to make my decision. And that's what Ewers did. He sees the long-term, the future money. I want to get out and start my career. I'm tired of college. It's time to go career. But so many guys don't do that because they get family pressures or whatever. Oh, this guy's going to pay you a million or whatever. But after this year, it's gone. Not to mention, and obviously, there is an outbreak. Like Travis did, and we just saw Jordan Travis had to retire from the NFL because of a horrible knee injury. That's so rare, but it still can happen. You get that because you came back for a million and a half or two million, and now you've canceled that future earnings you could possibly make.

UNKNOWN: 14:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:36

I agree with you. I think you're looking at long-term plans here. There is an epidemic of nearsightedness among young people in athletics and beyond. Let's be honest. Not just young people. Everybody sees the immediate payoff or payday. But let's also look at it like this. And look, we have seen it in this state. If you... play football at the University of Texas and you have some success, as Quinn Ewers certainly did, he will be taken care of. Whether he plays professional football or not, how popular is he going to be for the rest of his life? Because he was the starting quarterback at Texas when they actually are back. You remember the nonsense, we're back, when they beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and not so fast. They clearly weren't, and Tom Herman wasn't the guy as head coach, but they are back now, and Quinn Ewers was a big part of that. He's set for life in that state. Like a lot of football players in this state, from Alabama, from Auburn, you don't even have to be a star. Just be an insurance guy. Ask David Smith. SEC official, S. Stan White. Former Alabama quarterback, former Auburn quarterback, yeah. S. Tyler Watts. Yes. Are you doing okay? Yeah, they're doing okay. They're known. They established themselves in this state, and because people love football and they love their school, they are remembered fondly for a long time. And there's value in that. It's the most understated deal ever. And it's got to be that way in every state, as you know. I mean, if you're at the University of Oklahoma, you can sell insurance and be great or be a whatever salesman. And they're going to do business with you. And to your point, you don't have to be the star. You can just say, man, I played at Maryland or I played at Florida State. That's an advantage in business immediately, whatever you do. But it's understated because of that immediate grab, that nearsightedness you talked about that we worry about. And let's be honest, if you're pulling a T.J. Finley and transferring every nine months and you've had six schools on your resume, that's not going to be the case. You have no roots. You can't go to Auburn or LSU or whatever state is indigenous to that. No, because that's the guy that left. So that probably worked against you, actually.

UNKNOWN: 17:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:12

Very understated. Very understated. But again, they're not thinking about the future. Just like on the short-term money. Everybody should be thinking about Texas. Listen to this. I asked the SEC. I reached out. I wrote a column that you can read in the Birmingham News. You can see a snippet of it on AL.com. You have to subscribe. It's now a subscription publication. Not AL.com, but... Is it on your website? It's not on my website yet. I will tease a snippet of it on there. Okay. That Texas has done something that I don't believe has ever been done in the SEC. And listen to this. In football, obviously, for two weeks, they were number one in the country in the AP poll. Yep. Made it to the semifinals, got farther than anybody in the SEC, had the best regular season record, lost it in Georgia, of course, in the SEC championship game. But they got to number one. Women's basketball. They got to number one for a couple of weeks. They got to the Final Four and lost to South Carolina, but they were one of the best teams in the SEC. Baseball right now, number one in the country. They are 19-2 in the SEC. Only two other teams since the SEC went to a 30-game conference schedule in 1996. That's a long sample size, large sample size. Only two other teams had gotten to 19-2. They're number one right now. And their softball team was number one a few weeks ago. They've dropped back to number five. They just got swept by Oklahoma. That's four of the five, I would say the five major sports. Those four plus men's basketball. In NCAA, yes, I agree. In one academic year, Texas has had four of those sports get to number one in the country. I don't think that's ever happened in the history of the SEC based on my research. I asked folks at the SEC office and they said, Man, that's going to take some research. We don't know that off the top of our heads. I would say it's never happened even in minor sports, like Alabama being number one in gymnastics and football. I would bet any sport you would not admit. Four of your teams to be number one in the country in the same academic year. And I chuckle, and I reference this in my column today. You remember last SEC media days, first year Texas and Oklahoma were coming into the league, football media days last July. And Nick Saban saying, everybody says Texas has always run whatever league they were in. The Southwest Conference, the Big 12. They ain't going to run the SEC. There's arrogant people at every SEC school. That ain't happening here. Yeah. Not so fast, my friend. I think Texas is a problem. for the rest of the sec in terms of winning championships because if they've done something in their first year in the league that no one's ever done in the league which has been around since 1933 that's a scary thought is it not it is what they're capable of no absolutely and the only blip might be men's basketball is not in there so if craig beard had stayed there It might have been Chris Beard. Chris Beard, yeah. I mean, yeah, Chris Beard. Sorry, Big Beard Sanford. Chris Beard, if he had stayed there, we really could be talking about some different things. So, yeah, nobody expected that. I mean, that knew of anything. And let's look at Oklahoma, how understated they are. Their basketball was pretty good. Their football wasn't. But if their football was, they've got softball, which is– Nuts. They've won four straight national championships. Yeah, I mean, so both of those have come in and done very, very well in most sports. Some of the sports they've struggled in. But Texas, to your point, has certainly come in and not had an issue yet. Of course, again, when you have an Arch Manning and Sarkisian, and it wasn't long ago where they were not also Rams, but kind of middling around two years maybe. But they certainly have come to fast track here, especially in football, to be fantastic. Under Sarkeesian, who's just revitalized himself, just like Lane Kiffin has done. They've suddenly become top-notch coaches after they graduated from the Saban School. They're taking advantage of their natural advantages in a way, as you said, they hadn't for a long time. the way Florida had never had, certainly in football until Steve Spurrier got there. That's right. And then Urban Meyer did it as well. And so you get the right guy and you have the advantages that a state school like Texas has or Florida has. Let's look at, you know I love numbers and stats and especially as a way to reinforce a point or try to discern patterns and trends. Let's look at the performance, and we're going to go back to football exclusively here, Let's look at the performance of SEC schools in the NFL draft vis-a-vis their record on the field over the same period. Brendan, can we pull that up, that graphic that has every SEC school, what they've done in the last? Well, let's talk about this one first, and we've got two graphics to look at. This is a pretty powerful indication, Scott Griffin, that the teams with the best talent are the teams that win the national championship. Six straight years, the team that won the national championship, the next spring had the most picks in the NFL draft. That's a pretty powerful indication of the importance of talent. No, no, it's no deviation. That's six straight. No, yeah. And that one year, Georgia in 2023, as it's noted on the graphic date, Alabama also had 10 picks that year. Yeah. And the last team that didn't have the most picks after winning the national championship was Clemson 2018. Of course, they did. They had six the next year, but they also had the number one overall pick the following year in their quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, who hasn't been in the NFL when he was in college. But this tells you how important it is. And that's you see the comment. Nick Saban made that offhanded comment during the NFL draft coverage on ESPN. That's why Ohio State won. They had the best players. Simplistic sounding, but it's true. Exactly. The interesting thing is Michigan because normally they don't have the draft picks, but to your point, the graphic pointing out, when they did surprise people somewhat and broke into that Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State threesome and wrecked it a little bit, they still had the most draft picks. That's surprising. They always have a number of draft picks because they've recruited well and they're horrible and he's got the NFL connection. But to have the most right there with Georgia, Ohio State, and Alabama still in the mix, that's saying something. So that is a very telling graphic for sure. It also indicates the importance of experienced talent because that means they had more than two handfuls of guys who, were draft eligible they were either juniors or seniors right that played an important role in driving them to a national championship now let's look at the other graphic that we've got i wonder how many transfers on that one that would be yeah that's a good question yeah i didn't i didn't break it down that far i gotta do more homework for next time on that now let's look at this uh scott this really is intriguing to me total this is nfl draft picks total from 21 to 25, including the last draft from a week ago, and then compare that with how those teams have done their overall record, not conference record, because I wanted to include Texas and Oklahoma, and obviously they've just played one year in the SEC. So you can see, you get a pretty good indication, Georgia-Alabama right at the top. Most draft picks, best overall records. Then you start to see some differences, teams that I... In my opinion, they either overperform their talent or underperform their talent. You know, look at, for example, Missouri in 13th place in draft picks over the last five years, but they're in eighth place in record among SEC schools. That tells me Eli Drinkwitz is getting the most out of his guys and they're overperforming their talent. Whereas LSU third in draft picks, but only seventh in record. Maybe they're underperforming their talent. I think most people would agree with my last statement for sure. It always seems like they're going to live up to it, and then it kind of crumbles there somehow at the end. Certainly, there's no argument with Georgia-Alabama. Texas-Oklahoma has a little gaudier records because they were better in a weaker league, and we only have one year here to win. you know, look at that in a better league. And we saw what Oklahoma did, obviously. Good point. And saw what Texas did. So Florida, it's kind of interesting. They're kind of down too, right? With the draft picks, they're up. So they're getting talent, but they've just had so many issues. They're barely above 500 for the last four years. Although they finished the year strong and got Napier another year last year. So that is interesting. South Carolina is a little high for their, record as well. So to your point, yeah, I think Eli Drinkwood is really good. And yeah, and where's Tennessee? Tennessee and Tennessee's kind of outperformed their draft picks a little bit. Yeah, they have not performed as well in putting people in the NFL. Right, right. I think they're better, but that's going to be interesting to see how this develops. But certainly the first two have no issues. And LSU is kind of glaring to the negative side for sure. We know that that state puts out crazy talent, as you know, especially per capita. And then they're bordering Texas. So they're going to get some Texas guys as well. They really have no excuse to not be in the top three or four. What about Auburn? What about Auburn, Scott? I mean, look, you know, they did not have, they didn't have a first round draft pick for the fifth straight year. Only Vanderbilt among SEC schools didn't have a first three rounder. They didn't have a pick in the first three rounds for the second straight year. And that hadn't happened to Auburn since 1982 and 1983. That's part of the wreckage left behind from the Harsin era, but also the end of the Gus Malzahn era. We can't exempt him. Both of them were not good recruiters. They didn't like it, as you know. They just didn't like it. Didn't put the effort in. Didn't put the emphasis on it. Exactly right. Didn't put the effort in. That Kirby Smart does. That Nick Saban did. That's right. And you see that. But Auburn, look at the difference. They're tied for 11th in overall draft picks in the last five drafts. But they're 14th in the league in overall record.

SPEAKER_01: 29:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:04

With a losing overall record. There's only four schools on that list that have a losing overall record in the last five years. And Auburn is one of them. And only Mississippi State and Vanderbilt have been worse. Is this the make it or break it year for you, Freeze? Not necessarily whether he's going to get fired. Maybe he will. Maybe he won't. But if you're going to have any confidence in him improving that program and becoming competitive again, forget about winning championships. How about getting in the top half of the league? It's got to be this year, right? You've got to see signs this year. Yes, but we're wondering about his whole career, are we not? Because when he was sterling in his performance, we have that asterisk of all the stuff that happened at Ole Miss, right? When it was kind of illegal. So now, yeah, he did well at Liberty, but Liberty is not Auburn. And he took a Division I player, Malik Willis, to even get Liberty to the levels that that they are. And he's recruited well at Auburn. I think the talent is better. I think the wide receiver talent is better. His first year, there was zero wide receiver talent, as you know. I think now they're better at wide receiver. He's not recruiting a lot of great running backs, but he's getting better linemen and defensive guys. So it should be better. But last year was a very negative thing. We've talked about it before on CBS 42. You start with five home games, even with a young team, which is all he talked about, you better be four and one at worst. Three and two on your horrible day. And that was abysmal what happened. He just lost it. And I don't know. Yes, to your point, to your question, This is the make or break here. He's got another quarterback in. They spent a lot of money on, what, two and a half is what they say for Jackson Arnold, who's supposed to be great and was a five-star and all these things. And now you've got wide receivers. You don't have Jarquez Hunter anymore, but I don't think he cares about running the ball anyway because we were screaming last year to get Hunter the ball on several occasions. Yes. He does fall in love with the passing game. To his own detriment too often, I think. He could have handed– 27 of all against Oklahoma, but he threw a slant with four linebackers dropping. You remember that? At the goal line. Short yardage at the goal line. Yeah. Yes. This is his make or break year. Jackson Arnold really has to come through. I think he's better than Peyton Thorne, but we'll see. He's certainly got more weapons. So there'd be no more excuses. No more young. He'll use the young when he loses, but okay. You can't be young for three and four years. Yeah. Yeah, good point there. Well, hey, let's, and there's one, I want to get to this too before we get out of here. Alabama, I think, is in a bit of a danger zone. And here's some more, I didn't put these on a graphic, but if you go back eight years, Scott, and that was after Kirby Smart's first full year at Georgia, first full year recruiting, Alabama and Georgia over the last eight NFL drafts have the exact same number of picks. They've each had 75 players drafted.

SPEAKER_01: 32:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 32:29

And how smart are the Eagles? Because they either drafted Alabama guy or a Georgia guy, it seems, every other pick. And there's a reason why they're the Super Bowl champions, because they recognize where talent's coming from in college. But, okay, Alabama-Georgia tied over the last eight years. If you go back four years, though, Georgia's had 46 players drafted. Alabama's had 34. That's plus 12 advantage for Georgia. And over the last three years... Both Georgia and Texas have had more draft picks than Alabama. So Alabama is trending in the wrong direction. They're not Auburn in this conversation, but they're not what they used to be. And how hard is it going to be for them to become the dominant program in terms of signing, developing elite talent, and turning it out into the NFL the way Saban did with Kirby doing his thing, in Athens with Sark doing his thing in Austin? Well, what was the big question mark we had about Kalen DeBoer and his staff? Recruiting. Recruiting. He's never recruited here. He was famous almost for recruiting three stars and some four stars and really developing them well in Washington. Well, developing wasn't the question, but you can't win in the SEC. You just had the graphic up there a few minutes ago. Nick Saban. Why did Ohio State win? They had the best players. You can be a great developer, but you can't get three and four stars like Harsin tried to do and Malzahn tried to do and win big in this league. You might win, but eight and nine wins is not going to cut. You're not going to save your job eight or nine wins. You better be 10 or 11 and throw in a championship in the ring every three, four years at minimum to keep your job at Alabama. These are things you know. So Yes, they've got to get better recruiting. It seems like, because I know you follow it somewhat too, it seems like, just keeping up with it, that they're doing that. But we'll see. They did get Keelan Russell, a five-star quarterback. But these days, is he going to play at Alabama? We don't know that. He'll be gone in a year. So this is a critical year for them too, kind of like Auburn from the standpoint of, Does Ty Simpson take that step forward? He's a former five-star coach's son. He should take that step forward and be a high draft pick. Will Ryan Williams continue? Will Bernard be a draft pick? Maybe some of these other guys they have. Will the linemen, Jayden Roberts and Thornby, some of these guys develop into NFL players. Is Parker Brailsford good enough to be in the NFL? This is a key year for their development and their talent to get better to try to Do that. But let's be honest, to your point, Georgia and Texas aren't going backwards. So at this point, you're going to hope to be close to where they are. You're not going to get 12 and they're going to get five. That's not going to happen. All right, let's close it out with this. What they really need is Ty Simpson to be Mac Jones 2.0. Absolutely. And he runs better than Mac Jones. I think he's a very underrated player. You run better than Mack. That's true. But yes, he definitely needs to be... That's a low bar, Scott. I've got a sneaky feeling he's going to have a big year for me. I really do. I think the floor is comfortable. There's a lot of speculation that he let Milrow and Booker and some of those guys kind of run the program. Maybe he wasn't comfortable with Milrow taking him out a lot. Now, even though Simpson's not his guy... I think he buys into it. So this is a key year to look at that to your point. All right. The last point, Texas, supposedly a roster, according to Kirk Bowles, longtime columnist, 35 to$40 million payroll for this year's roster. And I did some math, Scott. If they institute roster limits, and they put a 105 roster limit on football this year, you could pay, for that amount of money, you could pay every single player on a 105-man roster$380,952 to play this season for Texas. They're not going to do it that way, of course. Bottom line, last question. Can Auburn and Alabama... compete? Can anyone in the SEC compete financially with Texas in this crazy new world of college football? I'm not sure because you'd have to find enough great players that want to come to your school to play for Alabama, play for Auburn. Always been my dream. All those stories we used to hear that were great. Is that relevant these days? I don't think it's very relevant. And do they have the long-term goals of of, yeah, I want to go to Alabama and play because that's where I want to play, but also they're going to develop me into an NFL guy. I think people say that, but I don't think they truly mean it because they'll leave. If somebody offers$100,000 more, they're gone. They'll do a Ryan and Griffin, go somewhere. You were getting developed for the NBA at Alabama, and you left for a little more money in Kansas. How'd that work out? You got your stats cut. Not well. Yeah, and now you're looking at coming back to Alabama. I think there's still that short-term... decision-making process that will get there. But Alabama and the Auburns, there's no way. I think Alabama is trouble now. I'll tell you this. You may not know this. I don't think we've talked about this. This is kind of a little nugget that I found shocking. After the Alabama spring game, the media could not do interviews with DeBorah players. Did you know that? I did hear that, yes. And for fans listening in, they didn't do that. They still interviewed them, but it was behind an NIL paywall. Ah, for Alabama, their collective. So is that the future? I thought, wow, Alabama did that. That means it's going to be this way for everybody. And who's to say that won't happen in games in the future, Kevin? You and I can't go into the locker room and get interviews. We can the next day on Monday. They'll make them available. But right after the game? No. If you pay us 100 a month, you'll get... So they're doing that because they've got to catch up to the Texases of the world. So it's going to be interesting. And we all know what Texas A&M basketball just did with Bucky McMillan. So Texas is the land of some cash right now. Yes, it's the land of milk and honey. We'll see if they can become the land of national championships again. It's been a while since Vince Young's days. Scott... Thank you so much for breaking this down. How much NIL money do I get for sitting in on the show? The N and NIL for you is none. That's what I deserve, actually. I don't have a problem with that. No, no. You're the best. Thank you so much. This has been fun. If you want to know what's happening in the NFL draft, the SEC, don't listen to Mel Kiper. Listen to Scott Griffin. Here's my endorsement, Scott. Thank you, man. Have a great day. You too. All right. We're going to get out of here. I'm Kevin Skarbinski. Thank you so much for checking out Scarbo Knows. Thank you to executive producer Brendan Martin. He's the best in the business. We have a lot of fun talking about SEC football and basketball. We'll do it again next week. Hope everyone has a great day. Take care.