what are some narratives in 2024 that we just quite frankly aren't buying there's a lot of things that are said this time of year and some of them are said out of good faith some of them are said out of the effort to get clicks but what are some things that are being said that again they kind of created a narrative that we're just not on board with and the first one that I think needs to be addressed is that Alabama somehow isn't still going to be Alabama all right now Nick saan it's it's very true he is no longer the head coach there it's been well documented not just throughout the course of this week with him not getting uh or not having credentials to walk into SEC media days on radio row which is essentially Fort Knox if you don't have your credentials but also over the course of I guess really since he retired like it's been a talking point for a very very long time but here's the deal man uh Nick Sabin as good a coach as he is and he's the greatest of all time Undisputed did he make any plays at Alabama he throw any touchdowns did he make any interceptions no right so what did Sabin do that was really what allowed them to be so successful recruited at a high level that's obvious game planed at a really high level adapted with the game the biggest thing that I think he brought to Alabama which is hard to really pinpoint one but if I had to pick one it would be the standard setting and when I look at the intensity internally at Alabama from what we can gauge seeing Jayla milro during that Spring football game throw his helmet and again Spring football game now it's like a glorified scrimmage you're not not really showing too much but he was he was pissed he was upset with their execution that last drive and he's the starting quarterback he's not battling for his job but he was upset with what they had done on that final drive which is one instance you know you're kind of getting a a peak into the house via the window instead of actually being in the house to kind of refer to what Dan Dan Lanning says about how we view football teams but like I think that point stands the same Jayla milro and the I would say overall feeling within that operation Tuscaloosa is still dialed into their Championship standard that Nick saan installed and I think kayin dbor is going to work to uphold so the idea that Bama's not still G to be Bama I have a hard time getting behind that one more thing I'll say here all those players that Nick Sabin brought to Alabama a lot of them are still there now some of them especially on the defensive side of the football haven't played quite as much Ball but doesn't mean they don't still have a whole lot of stars next to their name so Alabama not still being Alabama I'm not calling my shot to win the national championship now but to say they're not going to factor in I think is a wild narrative that isn't getting too much traction but it is getting some air time we don't buy that narrative Bama I think will still be Bama in 2024 here's another narrative that Texas is in for a roote Awakening in the secc and this is usually coming from like the SEC home turfers is what I like to refer to this group as folks that really instead of being worried about their football team are more worried about the patch they get to wear on their Jersey or the sticker on the back of the helmet that says SEC like they stand behind that logo as opposed to their own team's logo and I think it's honestly kind of an ignorance as Bliss situation because if you actually look at what Texas has on the roster and what they did a season ago and quite frankly what they did in Tusc loose Alabama last year that myself and Trey anity saw live and Living Color like Texas is not in for roote awakening now will they dominate the SEC I don't think that's necessarily something that you would aspire to your first day there but Steve sarkeesian kind of echoed that same sentiment yesterday when he took the podium at media days he said for us it's about respect like we want to respect this conference we want to respect everyone that is a part of this operation we want to respect how competitive this league has been but at the exact same time they need to respect us and so I think that's kind of the mantra for Texas from a internal standpoint and from a fan based level and we talked to J Baron yesterday on this show and uh we'll likely get that conversation to you here in the uh in the coming weeks but the overall I guess attitude for him was like Texas was not satisfied with last year and if you're a Texas Fan that should fire you up because in some way shape or form you could you could pitch the idea to me of well Texas they got to the Mountaintop of the Big 12 they got to the college football playoff they had a lot of folks grabbing microphon saying Texas is back great okay you can you can rest on your laurels there right no I think this team wants to do more than that and I'm excited to see what they do will they win the SEC again I'm not calling my shot right now we're going to do that here in the coming weeks but I do think that when you talk about Texas going forward they will be a top tier team in the SEC so I think there's there's a split opinion on Texas some think they're going to be in Atlanta some think that they're going to just be absolutely body bagged I have a hard time getting behind the ladder there I think Texas will factor into the SEC title race without a shadow of a doubt now speaking of factoring into the SEC title race this is another one that I think isn't getting enough love or maybe a narrative that's getting too much love is that LSU is somehow going to go quietly into that good tonight and they won't factor into the SEC Championship race currently in Vegas LSU has the fifth best odds to win the SEC I'm looking at Trey anity off camera fifth best odds win the SEC now I'm not telling you that's an incorrect place to have them right now there's a lot of good teams in the conference but I mean you're telling me fifth best odds fifth I mean what that's telling me is you don't think LSU will factor in and that's fine believe what you want to believe but to me to make that kind of a bet is betting against Brian Telly in year three there's several things in the sports world that would make me concerned if I were on the other side of the field and that was probably Carmelo Anthony when he had the hoodie on like hoodie mellow is a dangerous thing uh Kyrie Irving untucked Jersey would make me nervous and Brian Kelly in year three year three Brian Kelly is a dangerous thing he has proven on many occasions that he is in his bag in year three that's when his team really becomes his team for lack of a better phrase year three is Cincinnati we've said it many times made a BCS bow when Cincinnati was a G5 school year three at Notre Dame made the national championship year three at LSU to assume they're not going to factor into the SEC title race I think is just ridiculous look at the Slate they have not horrible you got Old Miss and Bama both in Baton Rouge you go to Death Valley anything can happen and then on the road you got some tricky ones at A&M and at Florida but overall like the draw isn't horrible if you're an LSU Tiger fan so they will factor into the SEC title race I said on the show with Matt muscone yesterday I think 10- two is very attainable for them and 10- two just so we're all keeping track gets you in the college football playoff in a vacuum at least so we'll see what happens there another narrative we don't buy man we just kind of look at we laugh we chuckle that Auburn's GNA stay bad on offense the people that say Auburn's going to be bad on offense again in 2024 that take I would have to imagine if you said well hey why do you believe that well they they would probably start their sentence with something like this well pton Thorne and you can cut him off right there you say pton Thorne you mean the guy who didn't get spring practice last year pton Thorne the guy who got there with like 10 minutes to spare and said hey learn everybody's names and oh yeah you're going to start at quarterback for us is that really fair is that really fair I think where I'm sitting right now there's a lot more reasons to believe that Auburn will be substantially improved on offense then there is to believe they're going to be bad because you look at the one reason of why you would say Auburn's not going to be successful on offense you say Peyton Thorn that's fine that's one take that's one person that's your prerogative but I'm looking at the mountains of reasons for why Auburn will be improved on offense and the first is Hugh FES like last year Hugh F's offense that was as bad a unit as he's had in his career as a head coach in his career he's coached a lot of football now to assume they're not going to get back to maybe the trend that he's had over the course of his entire career in college football to me that makes no sense Payton Thorne get spring practice I've said that at nauseum but also he gets a walkie-talkie in the helmet and also he gets some weapons to throw the football too and he gets a Hu freeze offense as opposed to being like a hug freeze Philip Montgomery hybrid offense there's a reason there's not two captains of a boat there's a reason there's not two presidents of the United States usually you got to have one voice if you have two voices it gets confusing all right so to have some Unis and some alignment that's gonna be massive I have a hard time buying that Auburn's going to stay as bad as they were last year on offense now what does that mean for them in the win loss column I don't know but I think it's a lot closer to eight wins than it is six wins last one here and this is one that's kind of fun to talk about because A&M's at media days today this is one that has probably persisted from a narrative standpoint not just this season not just this media days but really for the better part of the last couple of years and the narrative is that A&M should temper expectations A&M is an entitled fan base A&M is thism is that A&M every single year they got all this hype and then they underperform full transparency the last two seasons we have picked A&M to go 8-4 they went 5- seven we picked A&M to go seven and5 the next year they went seven and five five so we are not drinking the& M Kool-Aid nationally like I think maybe a lot of folks would accuse others of like we check the comment section every time we post a YouTube video and we see folks say I've heard this guy say it's about A&M before I don't think so I haven't I mean I'm just going to say I don't I don't think those are the same videos that we're looking at here the narrative going back to this is that they are entitled they should be national champs they should be this they should be that and I'm not telling you that A&M is going to win the SEC I'm not telling you A&M is going to be the national champions but to tell A&M fans that they need to turn their expectations knob down quite a bit to me I don't think is totally fair because in college football one have not does not mean cannot also you talk about A&M input really should equate to Output you look at the input for A&M I understand a lot of guys transferred out from some of those high-profile classes but there's still a lot of Talent on that roster from the way they've recruited they still hit the portal pretty effectively grabbing Nick sorton from Purdue is going to be a massive get for them they still have I believe a sneaky good wide receiver room with Noah Thomas and moose Muhammad they got a good backfield like there's a lot of talent there's a lot of input on this roster to me that can make them really successful in 2024 I do think when you talk about A&M it is bake over microwave when you talk about Mike Elco and I said this on techs yesterday when I was sitting down with David Nuno like when you saw Nebraska last year with Matt rule the thing that we said a lot with with them is culture toughness structure that's going to benefit Nebraska that's the same way I feel about Mike Elco at Texas A&M those things though you don't necessarily flip the switch you don't hit the one minute Express on the microwave and you have it working right away it takes some time typically for a team to adapt a coach's Persona way of doing things to be a Mike ELO coach football team and so the point I'm trying to make here is if they do Buy in quicker than the average team A&M's going to be really hard to beat A&M's going to be probably in that range of a nine- win football team so the idea that A&M's entitled or they have expectations that are too high of course there's always that 15 to 10% of a fan base that is unrealistic but I think A&M fans for the most part are really just tracking the input they get to the output and they're like wait this this equation does someone check the math here I don't think the A&M fans are crazy I don't think that they're delusional I think that the input hasn't equated to the output just yet but I don't think that means it won't at some point in time so let me know the narratives that you're not buying when it comes to the SEC in 2024 a lot of nerves right now got to keep the head on the swivel we're going to do it together I'm excited to hear what y'all think hey y'all thanks so much for watching subscribe to the channel here to make sure you don't miss an episode of the hard count also be sure to check out other videos on the Onre YouTube channel