PLAYER ROTATION SPARK: Alabama Crimson Tide NEEDS to MAXIMIZE Cederian Morgan and E.J. Crowell?

This is the Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Will we see more players on the field Saturday than we did against Georgia? You are Locked On Bama, your daily podcast on the Alabama Crimson Tide. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Luke Robinson. That's Alabama Internet Legend, Jimmy Stein. This is Locked On Bama. Thanks for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network there is. And thanks for Kalshi too, because they are the sponsor of this particular episode. You guys are the best. We appreciate you and you guys are the best. Jimmy, a lot of people talk about the day as per usual. Not the least of which, did we play enough people against... It feels like some people maybe didn't get as many minutes. But again, I don't watch losses very often. I don't re-watch them very often. So I was there live. So I mean, I've seen a few highlights. But every time I get to that defensive pass interference, it makes me mad. So I quit watching. And I mean, did we play enough, folks? Well, I'm the one that's been complaining since basically the start of the DeBoer era that they play too many guys. I'm the one I was complaining about that in year one and year two. And while complaining about it, I acknowledged why they did and why there are benefits to doing it, and that I may be wrong in my take on that. But I'm sort of married to the 17-year Saban was here when we didn't substitute a lot and kind of went with the best players almost all the time from the first snap to the last. And I got very used to it and got very used to liking it. And then along comes the new staff with a new way of doing things. And I guess, I don't know if you want to call it buy-in or, I was just slow to embrace it. But then I'm just about getting to where I'm embracing it. And then we play a game where it looked like Saban was making the decisions again. We didn't play nearly as many players on offense and defense. And particularly some players that some of y'all probably have questions about. But here to answer it after learning some things. Georgia plays slow. They do. Georgia huddles. They run the ball. Because of the style in which Georgia plays offense, there's not many plays in the game. Y'all may have noticed Alabama had the ball three times in the second half. And that is all. Three times. Three possessions. Georgia slows the game up and there's not as many plays. Georgia actually averages when Georgia's playing offense around 60 snaps. That also makes, I mean, it just slows the game down to the point of there's just not as many plays. So the staff knew that going in, so they went in with the idea that, look, we don't have 70, 80 snaps here to divvy up. We're going to have like 60 max. So we're not going to play as many guys because there's only 60 snaps. No one's going to get winded. No one's going to just be too tired to play. Georgia's not that kind of thing. Secondly, style of play. For instance, X Griffin didn't play a lot. He plays some inside linebackers. You know, he plays some outside linebacker. Well, what does Georgia do? Twelve personnel. That means they're really big up front. Twelve personnel, two tight ends, is a standard look for them. And they run the ball. So outside, when we're not playing Yonsei Pierre, this was really a Jermarion Latham game, not an X Griffin game. Jermarion Latham weighs almost, I'm not kidding, 50 more pounds than Xavier Griffin. And we needed the bulk to match up with the 12 personnel. For right now, when X plays outside, he's more likely to play outside against 11 personnel or even 10 personnel where he's not taking on head up multiple big physical tight ends. We want X in space where their offensive tackle's not getting a lot of help. So X can sort of race past him. This was more of a Latham game. So that's why we didn't see much of Griffin. As far as the other backs go, EJ Crowell didn't play a ton of snaps in the game. But let's think about how everything's on the line here. There's not as many snaps and protecting Keelan from Chris Cole, for instance, is of the utmost importance. So fewer snaps for the freshman who don't block as well in the backfield as Daniel Hill. You add all that up. Not seeing a lot of Cederian Morgan. You know why? Cederian really knows the slot position. That's what he knows best. Well, who plays the slot? Lottie. You take Lottie off the field. I mean, you know, I do think that Cederian will play more as he learns the outside spots more. But like with every freshman, it's tough to learn more than one spot. So you add all that up. And yeah, fewer players play. Now, Tennessee this week, total opposite. They're more up tempo. Call it at the line of scrimmage. Spread it out. Play a little faster. We're going to play more guys against Tennessee just because their pace of play will dictate it. So look for more kids to get on the field. Plus, it looks like we'll be missing a couple of guys. And we'll talk about that later in the show. Yeah. And so that raises the question, did we abandon the run too much? Because there were a couple of times, first of all, I can't remember which position it was, but I know we did three pass plays, and I think there were three incompletions, and we punted almost immediately. Then you put your tired defense out there again, who's been not necessarily pummeled, but I mean, because they only gave it 20 points, but I mean, they're going up against a running football team that does play slow, and it just wears on you a little bit. There was the other play when we did get the Bray Hubbard Interception, if you remember, something that concerns me, and nobody's talked about it much. We get the Bray Hubbard Interception, great play. The first play out of that, we split, we have people stacked wide on either side, and we throw, I don't even know, I think it was a backwards pass to EJ, who, it was going to be some kind of bubble screen, maybe. But it was so bad, and Georgia read it very well, because it didn't, you didn't have to be a scholar to read that. I mean, you could read that very easily. Coach has said we missed two blocks on that, but I think they miscounted, I think it was seven. It was, however many blocks were needed, we missed them. But, my point is, and these are some worries that we were running the ball pretty well. I mean, isn't that the play where they face mask EJ though? Then they face mask him, and then they face mask him. That's no, that's not us. That's not Grubb going, okay, here's what we're going to do. Lose five yards, and then the play is going to continue, the whistle is going to blow, then they're going to face mask you, and by God, they're going to call it. Maybe we did, maybe it's like hey, EJ, we're going to miss all these blocks because we're not very good. So when they're about to pummel you, stick your face in there. Maybe they'll stick your face in, right before they're about to just knock the crap out of you because we didn't get you by a block, stick your face right up in there, boom. I'm sure there's a Georgia fan somewhere with a still shot of EJ trying to grab the Georgia defender's hand and put it in his face mask. I've been seeing a lot of still shots here recently. Regardless, it goes back to the Grubbs, and I'm a Grubb guy, I love Grubb. But it goes back to, sometimes you can't get away from it and there was something that, I think I saw this on Twitter, that Georgia kind of knew if they just don't give up the big play, don't give up the big play, you know, you can give up some yards here and there and just do your best, Grubb is going to get impatient and maybe get a little cute. And we did, we should have capitalized big time on that interception. That was a key moment in the game, a monster moment and we ended up punting. I mean, that's kind of nuts. It's pretty bad. I think Georgia scored on the next drive, didn't they? Yeah, you intercepted in plus territory and then end up punting. You know, I think in terms of running it more, there are time, I think having a really good ground game is almost new to Ryan Grubb. I think he's still not sure what to do with this, like, because it's not something that typically that the Grubb-DeBoer offense has featured or had. So I think to some extent, he's probably getting more comfortable with it. But I'll say this about play calling. To me, it's about dudes and not plays. And, you know, there are so many intriguing skill players. I mean, let's throw it to the tight ends more. Let's throw it to Noah Rodgers a time or two and see what happens. Let's get Cederian involved. At bat, we're not playing AK Deere and he was the best back on the team in fall camp. I'm just naming all these names to point out. There's only so many plays. There's only so many. And boy, one time, you know, I saw this years ago, it's just a fan, but I saw a fan break down how many times he'd like to see these various running backs, these various wide receivers, the various tights, how many times he'd like to see them get touches in the game. Add it all up, it was 107. I mean, I'm like, well, you're probably only getting 65 plays, not 107. Everyone wants to see their favorite player, the guy they believe in more. But there's only so many plays to go around. And when you even further break it down, oh, you get the ball 65 snaps and we're going to throw it 25 times and run it 40 times. Then you're dividing those 40 runs between Keelan and end of round or two. Then Daniel Hill, then Brown, then Crowell. If there's anything left, Riley and Deer. I mean, and then you're throwing it, what, 25 times. I mean, how many times are you going to target the tight ends? How many times are you going to target the backs? OK, then wide receivers start with Ryan. And it's not about dividing it all up like it's Christmas. You take what the defense gives you and you take what's there. But the point is, I think when we get into the, hey, is this guy getting enough touches? Is this guy getting enough touches? We have to remember, there's only so many in a game. And generally, 65 or 70 is what you should expect. Now, Tennessee, they're going to run, they're going to, it's going to be a more up-tempo game that generally leads over to the other team. I think that's good for us. I think a track meet, somebody said, somebody asked me last week at an interview, not here on the show, but someone asked me at an interview, what does Alabama have to do to stay out of a track meet? My answer immediately was like, whoa, who says they want to stay out of a track meet? I think Alabama is very comfortable in a high-scoring football game. I think that might be where they're kind of Vikings in a high-scoring game. And if Tennessee wants to play up tempo with both teams snapping at 80 times, let's remember, that's a lot of touches for Trey Sean Brown and EJ. Crowell and Lottie Brooks, and I'd be all about it, frankly. I'm with you. I think Cederian Morgan still only has one catch this year for a touchdown, isn't that right? One touchdown. Remember Henry Ruggs in his freshman year? I think he had five touchdowns. His first seven catches were touchdowns. And I think Cederian could be like that. But again, I pointed out earlier in the show, the main problem with getting Cederian snaps is he knows the slot spot, and Lottie plays there, and I can see why we're hesitant to take Lottie out of the game when it's close. Well, not only that, I did see that Cederian was in this game, and he did miss a block that may have cost us a little bit. One other thing that I wanted to point out was that you were talking about Georgia, and we're going to do a reverse hand back, and we didn't do anything that fancy, but the thing about playing Georgia, you remember Indiana Jones when he's in the desert, somewhere he's always in the desert, I guess, but he's in the desert, and the guy with the sword comes out, and he's flinging it around, and flipping it, and doing all that, and Indiana Jones just pulls out his gun and shoots him? Yeah, really funny. Georgia is like that Indiana Jones. Alabama comes out with all this flash, and pomp, and circumstance, and they're like, we don't care about any of that, and just, pew! And it means, a lot of times, though, that kind of guy would scare somebody. If you come out there and you flip a sword around, and do it behind your back, and around the world and everything, that's wonderful. And it's gonna scare some people. It's not gonna scare Georgia. To beat Georgia, you have to be very tough. You don't need to be fancy. You need to be tough. I think that was the intent. I really think it was the intent. I think one of the analysis we did that was spot on, I mean, it really felt like Alabama going into the game wanted to prove they were the toughest team. Georgia going into the game wanted to prove they were the toughest team. Only one of them can be the toughest team. Saturday was Georgia. That doesn't mean that by December that won't flip. That's what Alabama's got to improve. That's what they got to work on. But I do admire or congratulate Alabama for making it a point of emphasis and getting it to the point where this game looked nothing like what we saw in December in Atlanta. It looked nothing like it. Alabama went toe to toe with Georgia and lost. But this was a split decision. This was not a knockout. Georgia absolutely knocked Alabama out last December in the second round, second round KO, not even a TKO, KO in the second round. This game, split decision, two judges to one. Going to talk a little Kalshi now, Kalshi's, Kalshi, that's awesome. College football is back. And so with the prediction, who makes the playoffs? Who wins their conference? Who takes on the national title? Kalshi, America's number one prediction market platform, lets you trade those predictions in a live market. You know, do you think LSU is going to beat Mississippi State this weekend? Right now, LSU is trading at a probability that makes me really want to get on some Mississippi State. I mean, that's the kind of person I am over there. I'm a buyer in Camario. So go check that out or go check out any of the games. All of them. On Kalshi, you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as the probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. Trade the traffic, the game and more on Kalshi. Download Kalshi, use code LOCKEDON to get $25 when you trade $25. K-A-L-S-H-I, Kalshi. Trade what's next. 18-hour only, restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Kalshi products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see kalshi.com/regulatory or call Jimmy on his personal cell phone, which I will give you in a second. Then there is the Pant Store. Pant Store, that's the name, that name again is Pant Store. So we were there this weekend, saw a lot of you and it was awesome. And we loved it. I got pictures with a lot of you, appreciated that and appreciate the Pant Store for having us. I did not get to sign a baby. I was so wanting you to sign a baby. Disappointing, disappointing. So you can go to pantstore.com, but I highly recommend that you actually just go to the Pant Store. That's the thing you want to do is go to the Pant Store because that's where the pants are. They're at the store and the shirts, the badass shirts. I mean, the stuff they have. Yeti products. When you talk about all they have for sale, it almost sounds like a Bucky's. I mean, there's Yetis in there. Turtle Box. They got Turtle Boxes for sale. I haven't got a Turtle Box yet. That's on my wish list. Let me tell you this. My daughter found a Squishy there. And I was talking to Michael G, the owner of the place, and he was like, I keep telling people this fad's gonna go away and people keep buying these things left and right. And if you don't know what a Squishy is, you don't have any children or you're not an aunt or an uncle. That's all I can tell you. All kids talk about our Squishies. And they actually had a strawberry Squishy that my daughter's been looking for. And you know, she was like, Dad, it's only $12. I said, great. I mean, I let you get it. I was being nice. I was, you know, I was on a white claw high. And then we get out of the store and she goes, oh, my bad. It was $30. I was like, okay. I lost 18 more dollars because you anyway, go to the paint store. There I am. There you are. There I am right now. So EJ Crowell had a touchdown that was really nice. It was really nice where he runs into the pile and then bounces it out. It was a very kind of high school move that most human beings couldn't do against Georgia. He can because he's special. Now, the other thing is Trashon Brown had the longest run of the night, at least for Alabama. I don't know if his longest run overall, but the longest run of the night for Alabama. And I thought he looked really good. I mean, that does bring up the question like, maybe we need a little bit more of these two. I mean, Trashon, by the way, I had to talk to some buddies that run an Auburn show at lunchtime on weekdays and they were talking about their own woes. And how they're just looking at Kentucky and going, man, Kentucky is doing it, why can't we? And one of them said, well, Kentucky went in the portal and spent a lot of money on offensive line just like Alabama did. And I had to call in and I said, Alabama went to and got Rayson Delgatti from Cal Poly. And look, I'm not saying we're not giving him nothing, but I can assure you this, he ain't getting Jordan Seaton money. And then, and I Javin James is starting, but most Mississippi State people are like, hey, don't let the door hit you in the butt. I mean, so it's not like Alabama is doing a lot of homegrown work here. And I said, but next year, Treshawn Brown, that dude may need some more money. Yeah, Alabama is shopping on the offensive line for a lot of our guys. That isn't true in every situation, but in some situations, it's more like the story of the guy that goes to the yard sale and walks out with a... A sword? Well, he finds like the dogs playing poker. And he's like, oh, I've always wanted one of these dogs playing poker paintings. And he gets home and finds there's a painting under it. And you remove that. And there's like a Da Vinci under the dogs playing poker. A Da Vinci? Isn't Da Vinci a painter? He paints stuff. I think he painted some stuff, but he did a lot of other things. I mean, maybe Picasso you're thinking of. Rembrandt. Rembrandt. Oh, now you're going to, yeah. He's white in teeth, didn't he? But anyway, go ahead. I'm just saying, we shopped in the bargain bin for some of these guys. And they ended up striking gold. You didn't pay Josh Ford a million dollars. You didn't pay Rayson Delgatti a million dollars. Now, they did pay a lot for Davin Tompkins and Terrence Green. These were pricey guys. And guess what? They panned out. But I'm with you, Luke, exactly to say, hey, Alabama spent a lot of money in the Portland offensive line. That's not true. They signed some offensive linemen, but they didn't spend a lot of money. I would say Jordan Seaton himself may have cost more than what Alabama spent totally up front on the offensive line. But they did a great job of evaluation. But one more thing, Auburn, this is what Kentucky did that you didn't. You signed a bunch of guys from South Florida. Kentucky's quarterback is from Notre Dame. I said that exact thing. Their running back is from Texas. Another running back is from Oklahoma. A wide receiver is from LSU. A tight end is from Indiana. An offensive lineman is from Alabama. Another offensive lineman is from Tennessee. I haven't said South Florida anywhere in there. Y'all did, you know, Mississippi State, found Fluff Bothwell from South Alabama. And so there's a South Florida type guy. But Fluff Bothwell was like the best freshman running back in the country. And also that's a one-off. That's a one-off. And it's a one-off. There's not other schools getting rich on former South Alabama players. So I think that explains it more than it's not. Hey, Will Stein's smarter than Alex Golish. I would just say that most of Auburn's new players, a lot of them came from the group of six. And Kentucky focused on a lot of power for transfers. Yeah, and I said that exact thing like, hey, Kenny Minchie was in the running to be Notre Dame's QB and he just couldn't beat out CJ Carr, who now people think will be a first-round draft pick. OK. And I said, Meanwhile, conversely, Byron Brown was kicking butt at South Florida, had a lot of good stats. But he's playing a lower level. And now when you bring those same people up a level, it's a different world. And yet it could have worked. I mean, Fluff Bothwell has worked out, Rayson Delgatti had played at Cal Poly, has worked out. But he's surrounded by other dudes like Jackson Lloyd and William Sanders, who have played in the SEC, have been a part of an SEC program for a while, and he can lean on. He's also got a world-class quarterback behind him that helps him out a little bit. But so, you know, Kenny mentioned by himself, if he just comes over from Notre Dame, probably not a big change. But you get a receiver from Oklahoma, slash LSU, you get offensive linemen from Ohio State, offensive linemen from Bama, Texas running back. All of a sudden, you got a bunch of dudes who've been there. That's exactly right. How many times have we said, you know, you can go to Troy and pluck Troy's best player, and he's going to help your SEC football team. But when you go to Troy and sign 20 Troy players, You got Troy. Ultra Pouches. Love Ultra Pouches. Football season means long days, early mornings, late nights, and plenty of time spent trying to stay focused and energized. 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Ultra is the ultimate guilt-free pouch delivering instant focus and mental clarity without nicotine or caffeine. New customers can use code lockedoncollegefootball to get 15% off at ultra.com. That's takeultra.com for 15% off with code lockedoncollegefootball. After you purchase, they will ask you where you heard about them. Go ahead and tell them. Jimmy Stein guaranteed it. That's what you tell them. They'll know what you mean, I think. I like how you said, I'm not a pouch guy. Because I don't think when describing someone to like friends, we're like, hey, have you met Bob? Yeah, I met Bob. What's Bob like? Well, he's a pouch guy. He's sort of pouchy. He's a pouch guy. I've never described anyone like that. He's been pouchified. So Jimmy, speaking of injuries, because we spoke of Rayson Delgatti and injuries, he is, I don't know about doubtful. I don't even know if he's, I'd say questionable. I think Rayson Delgatti based on DeBoer's press conference on Monday. This is the Tuesday show. Based on DeBoer's press conference Monday, I would call Rayson Delgatti questionable. Now we'll get the first availability report Wednesday night. But it sounded to me, Rayson Delgatti questionable. And as we predicted on yesterday's show, it will be Mal Waldrop up next. Should Rayson Delgatti not go, it will be Mal. Mal was a scout team center last year when Alabama recruited Mal Waldrop. The thing I loved most about him was positional versatility. And I compared him to Bradley Bozeman. I still think that's a really good comp for Mal even to this day. And what did Bradley Bozeman primarily play at Alabama? Center. And then played center in the NFL. And I think that might prove ultimately to be Mal's best spot. So now he hadn't snapped it in the game. He certainly hadn't snapped it in Knoxville. And boy, talk about, hey, the first time you're ever snapping the ball in an SEC football game. It's in Knoxville with, I don't know how to measure decibels. It didn't like, I don't know, is a hundred decibels loud? You measure them in da Vinci's. It's 12 da Vinci's. I should tell you right there. So yeah, I mean, it's a tough spot to be snapping the ball for the first time. So it could be a thing. But I do think Mal Waldrop is, in my opinion, probably the sixth best lineman Alabama's got no worse than seventh. So this isn't a tremendous fall down to the next guy. He just doesn't have as much experience as Rayson does snapping the ball. Now Rayson's experience is lower level. But yeah, Mal Waldrop in for Rayson Delgatti most likely. But Rayson, questionable. We'll just have to see how the week goes. And then, of course, Ryan Coleman Williams will be out this weekend. Out or doubtful. I would say out. I would say out. Out or doubtful. To out and doubtful. He did. And we sat on yesterday's show, too. Probably the best thing for Ryan because it's not just the head injury. It was, you know, it's the knee. I mean, he needs some rest. So I think this is good for Ryan and good for the team because we need Ryan healthy in games after this one. I'll just once again, if the SEC office is listening, we have a player that is missing a game because he suffered a head injury because there was a targeting thing that was not even called a penalty by you, Mr. SEC, did not even call a penalty and his head injury from the targeting is so severe he's got to miss a game. Just that's infuriating, people think we're whining about the officials. I mean, I'm not saying getting 15 yards is worth losing Ryan for a whole football game. But just the very fact that he was hit in the head so hard that he couldn't play the rest of that game or next week and there's no flag, it's infuriating. It is and I have called myself, I will get over this just like I will eventually get over 2022 Tennessee pass interference. I have not done that yet. I haven't done that yet. As a matter of fact, I'm sure between last week's officiating disaster and the fact that we're going to that scene of the crime, I mean, you better win by two or three touchdowns. You know, you don't want to put it in their hands. Don't put it in their hands. You know how some people have long COVID? I have long Tennessee 2022. All right. That's going to do it for today's podcast. We'll be back tomorrow with more until then. Roll tight, everybody. Roll tight. Hey, sports fans, it's JD, the host of Locked On Cardinals. And did you know with the Discover Cashback card, it's payback time when you earn cash back on everyday purchases? Activate and earn 5% cash back at different categories each quarter on up to $1,500 in purchases. That's 5% cash back at different places each quarter, like grocery stores, on gas, and at restaurants. It pays to discover. Terms apply. See discover.com/5 for details. Hey, it's Isaac Shade, your host of Amazon Fire TV's College Football Kickoff. Join Kenyon Barner, Jesse Holley, myself, and the local hosts of the Locked On Podcast Network each week on Fire TV throughout the season to preview the biggest matchups across college football. Search College Football Kickoff on the Fire TV app.