Is Auburn soft?! | Can cut NFL players return to CFB | Paul Finebaum talks SEC | Mac & Cube

Summary

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Podcast Summary: McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning

Episode Title: Is Auburn soft?! | Can cut NFL players return to CFB | Paul Finebaum talks SEC | Mac & Cube
Date: August 10, 2026
Hosts: Greg McElroy & Cole Cubelic
Notable Guest: Paul Finebaum
Network: Jox-FM / Cumulus Media Birmingham

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Episode Overview

This lively episode dives into multiple hot-button topics as college football heads into the 2026 season. The hosts dissect current overreactions swirling around fall camp, the eligibility of NFL training camp cuts returning to college football, and—most heatedly—the question: is Auburn “soft” for moving fall camp to a luxury hotel? Joined by SEC insider Paul Finebaum, the conversation pivots from rule clarifications and team chemistry to media narratives, social media-driven perceptions, and what really constitutes “toughness” in today's game.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Overreactions in Fall Camp

• Opening banter notes how the return of fall camp brings both fun and sometimes “annoying” fan/media overreactions (00:51-01:16).
• Greg highlights the “overreaction” to the 2022 recruiting class receiving an extra year of eligibility, and how speculation about NFL cast-offs returning to CFB is “wildly overblown.”

  “The amount of people freaking out… Oh, all these guys in the NFL that are in camp are going to get cut and all of a sudden go play college football. By the way, I believe you have to sign an NFL contract to participate in camp.” — Greg McElroy (01:43-02:33)

2. Can NFL Training Camp Cuts Return to College Football?

• Eligibility Reality:
  • Only those not under official contract can return; rookie minicamps don't count, but actual camp does.
  • NCAA rules prohibit re-entry to college after signing a pro contract—this is not new (04:10-07:30).
• Logistics & Team Impact:
  • Timing is tricky; rosters are mostly set. "If you can bring back a guy that was on your roster last year, by all means... But the notion of bringing in several new cut guys is just not practical."
  • Locker room impact: What does it do to team chemistry to suddenly add roster cut veterans after months of work?

    “There are guys that have been waiting their turn… Your reps are going down, you're losing reps. Put yourself in that position and that's what folks have not done.” — Cole Cubelic (09:28-10:40)

• Movie Analogies: Both draw on “Invincible” and “Miracle” to illustrate outsider additions disrupting team cohesion and spirit (05:10-09:28).

Memorable Quote

“Couldn’t imagine a coach bringing a guy in out of camp… Would a coach really want to do that? I have a hard time seeing it.” — Greg McElroy (12:00)

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3. Is Auburn “Soft” for Hosting Fall Camp at a Luxury Hotel?

• The Accusation:
  • An AL.com opinion article derides Auburn head coach Alex Golesh for moving the team into a plush hotel for 13 days of camp, calling it a “spa staycation” and “trading toughness for comfort.”

    “Auburn football coach goes soft, trades toughness for spa staycation.” (28:05)

• Host Reactions:
  • Both bristle at the headline, arguing it’s a manufactured controversy. Greg notes that facilities and living conditions for today’s athletes are already far above those of the “toughness” era.
  • Cole: “When I first saw the headline, I thought it was awesome. I thought it was great… It removes distractions, creates more of a team atmosphere with a bunch of guys who have never done fall camp together” (31:16).
  • Greg points out the only downside to a hotel camp is financial, not team culture.

    “Nothing about it is soft… The only downside is the expense. Everything else is upside—more time together is a net positive.” (34:37–35:41)

• Paul Finebaum’s Take:
  • Says critics are driven more by social media voice-amplification than substance.

    “It’s not exactly Junction from Paul Bryant in the late 50s… but I do like what he’s doing… There’s a method to that madness… I really like almost everything I’ve heard from Alex so far.” (16:14–17:10)

Memorable Quotes

“If you’re tough, you camp. You ought to put dang foldables out on the practice field so you can be immersed in it… It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” — Greg McElroy (32:42–32:57)

“Let me tell you what doesn’t factor into physicality: Where you sleep at night!” — Greg McElroy (39:45)

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4. Media, Social Media & the Power of Narrative

• Finebaum on Media Dynamics:
  • “Now everyone thinks their voice is… really important… Some of these voices get metastasized or blown up all over… then they take on a life of their own.” (17:37)
• Practice Highlights and Overreaction:
  • Paul warns that analysts and fans alike overreact to team-generated highlight clips, and cautions against buying the hype.

    “One play… makes you think every SEC receiver is the next Jerry Rice. But when analysts start buying it, you have to question every analyst.” (19:05–20:21)

5. Alabama, DeBoer, and Analyst Criticism

• Greg questions Paul on the ongoing narrative about Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer, and the seeming contradiction between Paul's on-air tone and his personal opinion.
• Paul clarifies: He does like DeBoer and is “relatively optimistic”—predicts 9–3 for Bama, not a disaster given schedule/luck variance (22:47–24:11).

Memorable Finebaum Quote

“I am not out to get Kalen DeBoer… I’ve told you guys many times I like him. I think he is an elite coach… But in the long run, is he the right coach at Alabama? That’s the only part some people don’t like.” (21:00–22:23)

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6. Senate, NIL, & The Protect College Sports Act

• Paul relays a recent chat with Tommy Tuberville, notes that political headwinds may have doomed the NIL/national statute push this session:

  “I think this thing needed to go last week… I think the worm has turned on it somewhat.” (24:30–25:12)

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7. Old School vs. Modern Toughness

• A caller reminisces about “Oklahoma drills, bull in the ring, grass drills and gauntlets” to “weed out” the weak in camp—both hosts mock the dated notion that “getting blindsided” is a useful modern football skill (38:10–39:45).

  “I have a ton of respect for the way it was done… but science started to matriculate in. We almost had built-in water breaks—not on accident, but when a guy would get hurt…” — Greg (38:16)

• Both agree: Team physicality comes from how a program practices and plays—not from its sleeping arrangements or off-field privations.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “The amount of people freaking out… I believe you have to sign an NFL contract to participate in camp. Is that contract going to make them ineligible for college?” — Greg McElroy (01:43)
• “If you go to that [rookie minicamp], then yes, you can come back because there’s been no contract signed…” — Greg McElroy (06:28)
• “There are guys that have been waiting their turn… and now your reps are going down, you’re losing reps. Put yourself in that position…” — Cole Cubelic (10:10)
• “It’s not exactly Junction from Paul Bryant in the late 50s, but… I like the idea of putting everybody together…” — Paul Finebaum on Auburn camp (16:14)
• “Let me tell you what doesn’t factor into physicality: Where you sleep at night!” — Greg McElroy (39:45)
• “It’s a manufactured controversy… What part of taking your team and removing distractions, creating more of a team atmosphere… could you drum up some sort of negative headline for?” — Cole Cubelic (31:16)
• “Heck yeah.” — Greg McElroy, sarcastically, on spa-staycation accusations (28:31)
• “Nothing about it that’s soft… in some cases, these guys are millionaires… who cares about their quote-unquote softness?” — Greg McElroy (34:37–35:41)
• “Are you expected to be number one, now you’re bumped to two or three? Lose reps by three-quarters. D-lineman, rotate; but for some, there’s got to be a conversation about locker room reaction.” – Cole Cubelic (10:20)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:51–01:22 — Show opens with reflection on pre-season hype and overreactions
• 01:43–07:46 — NFL training camp cuts & college eligibility rules
• 09:28–12:31 — Locker room impact of late roster additions
• 15:45–17:10 — Paul Finebaum on Auburn’s camp at a hotel: not “soft”
• 18:27–20:59 — Media narratives, highlights, and overreactions
• 21:00–22:47 — Finebaum clarifies DeBoer/Alabama skepticism
• 24:30–25:12 — Protect College Sports Act update
• 28:05–32:42 — Dissecting the “softness” debate at Auburn
• 39:45–41:39 — Where you sleep ≠ toughness; college athlete living standards
• 43:58–46:25 — Fan/caller questions, further debunking “toughness” myths

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Key Takeaways

• The idea that Auburn—or any major CFB program—is "soft" for improving camp living arrangements is more media/fan narrative than reality.
• NFL cuts returning to college football is a rare, tightly regulated exception—not the new normal some suggest.
• Social media amplifies fringe opinions into manufactured controversies that rarely reflect program reality.
• Physicality and team culture depend on how you prepare and play—not nostalgia for outdated, unsafe traditions.

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Episode Tone & Style

• Banter is sharp, occasionally biting, but always good-natured.
• Hosts are analytical, occasionally sarcastic, but ultimately dismissive of manufactured controversies.
• All use real-world and personal anecdotes, plus pop culture (sports movie) references to ground their arguments.

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For college football fans, this episode provides refreshing, reality-based clarity on CFB eligibility drama, a sobering debunking of “toughness” myths, and an entertaining glimpse at how narratives are built—and busted—in today’s game.

Transcript

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[Greg McElroy]

That's Millennium.

[Show Producer/Promos]

McElroy and Kubelik in the morning starts now.

[Cole Cubelic]

All right, welcome in McElroy and Kubelik in the morning. It is Monday, August 10th, 7am Right here on Jocks and we are back at it full strength at heading into football season. Fall camp underway for everyone. The overreactions plentiful over the weekend in college football, which sometimes makes it fun, sometimes makes it a little bit annoying, but it's good to be back with you guys. How's everybody been?

[Greg McElroy]

Dude, we're good. Fall camp rolling. Lots to talk about. Lots to be looking forward to.

[Cole Cubelic]

Lots to talk about last week.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah, actually, we got through a lot of things last week. I don't even know what, to be honest with you. Like, what in particular did we talk about? Can't answer that.

[Cole Cubelic]

There's only a few things happening.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah, just a few.

[Cole Cubelic]

Cruz can't. Well, Bill not going to make it.

[Greg McElroy]

We didn't talk about that.

[Cole Cubelic]

Fall camps opening for everybody.

[Greg McElroy]

Did talk about that.

[Cole Cubelic]

2022 class, going to get an extra year.

[Greg McElroy]

Did talk about that. And I'm amazed at the overreaction when it comes to that, by the way. Like, the amount of people that are freaking out. Like, I was listening to a show, a good show, by the way, one that I listen to regularly, and they were sitting there saying, oh, all these guys in the NFL that are in camp are going to get cut and all of a sudden go play college football. Like, in camp. By the way, I believe, double check my math, I believe you have to sign an NFL contract to participate in camp. Like, that's, you know, just. You don't just go say, hey, I'm here, give me a helmet. You have to sign a contract. So is that contract going to make them ineligible for college?

[Cole Cubelic]

Also, this my biggest question with this. And obviously the bigger names that have come down have been on the Indiana defensive line, which I do think adds some help and I do think makes them different. But I don't look at those two names and say all of a sudden my view on Indiana completely changed. And maybe those people that say that were a little bit more down on Indiana than I was coming into the season. Really good players. Great to be able to add guys that are going to be able to do those things. But if you go to. There's one. There's one Twitter portal transfer account. I think it's like I can. I can find it for you. If you were to go through and just look at this account. It's the 247-sports transfer portal. The last, probably 40 of the last 50 posts are guys that are looking to find an extra year in college football this year.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah.

[Cole Cubelic]

Which is great. Some of those are FCS, some of those are Power 4. Where are you. Where are they going to find a spot? How many teams just have extra spots sitting around for that position? In need that guy and want that guy are going to be able to come to an agreement. Personally, they understand who he is, what he is.

[Caller/Listener]

Cool.

[Cole Cubelic]

Bring him in when you're a weekend of practice. Yeah, I just. The timing is going to have to work out also. And I'm with you. The reaction of when it came down was every team's going to have five or six guys, they're going to be a year older, going to come in and completely change their program totally. And I just don't see that taking place.

[Greg McElroy]

I don't think it's likely. I think you got what you got at this point. If you can bring back a guy that was on your roster last year, then, and he can help you, then by all means. Like, I could see that happening. But at the end of the day, like, there is a rule right now in the NCAA that if you sign a contract with a professional sports league, you cannot come back and play in the United States domestically. Now you can tell, well, they played at Europa, Europa Basketball Association. Whatever. I mean, whatever it is.

[Cole Cubelic]

How would the situation with like a Cole Hudson work? Did he just go to camp and he didn't sign a deal?

[Greg McElroy]

He was at rookie training. Rookie minicamp, which you don't sign. That's literally a tryout any one of us could go to. Rookie minicamp is the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the barrel. For example, as a rookie, I didn't even participate in rookie minicamp. So it's like, it's like literally. You ever seen the movie Invincible?

[Cole Cubelic]

Most of the undrafted guys are going to be there, basically. I've actually never watched Invincible.

[Paul Feinbaum]

No.

[Greg McElroy]

Man, you are missing out.

[Cole Cubelic]

I think I watched the program in extra time.

[Greg McElroy]

Might be the worst movie I've ever

[Cole Cubelic]

seen, but I'm not going to be putting it on today.

[Greg McElroy]

I wouldn't recommend it. First of all, believing that Mark Wahlberg was capable enough to play in the NFL is tough enough to begin with, let alone Mark Wahlberg works out at

[Cole Cubelic]

like 4am every morning.

[Greg McElroy]

He's also.

[Cole Cubelic]

You'd be on board with him?

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah, I love him. 5 5.

[Cole Cubelic]

So he's kicker size.

[Greg McElroy]

A little under.

[Cole Cubelic]

Got it.

[Greg McElroy]

Like that's fine. It's beside the point. What I'm getting at is that that movie is. There's a lot of things about that movie that are inaccurate and feel over dramatized. Like most football movie. That one in particular though, I've just, just watched the first 20 minutes. You'll see what I'm saying. Dedicate 20 minutes of your life to it and you'll understand exactly what I mean. Scares guys with like pot bellies out there going through camp. It's like this is, this is a bit much. Anyways, moving on. There's a very beginning of the movie where Dick Vermeil says we're going to have open tryouts essentially for guys that they want to try to make the Eagles roster. And that is essentially what rookie minicamp is like. It's for the guys that aren't even good enough to be guaranteed a spot in camp.

[Show Producer/Promos]

Right.

[Greg McElroy]

So like if you go to that, then yes, you can come back because there's been no contract signed. The interesting thing about Indiana situation is that both the guys that are coming back were actually injured last year, so they weren't able to participate in the pre draft festivities. Haven't been able to participate in camp. Remember Stephen Daley tore his ACL in the Big Ten championship game. Like there's a bunch of weird deals around so Cole Hudson can play because he never signed anything. But if you're in training camp, you've gotten some sort of NFL contract signing bonus. Minimal, maybe 5,000, maybe 10,000, maybe in some obscure cases 50,000. But it's small and you're going through camp like you're on the. If you get hurt in preseason, the NFL you are on the roster, you get an IR benefit. So it's, it's good. But I don't think there's going to be a bunch of guys coming out of camp to get cut in a couple weeks, say, oh, yeah, I'm going back in. I don't think it's going to work like that.

[Cole Cubelic]

There should be a deadline, which maybe there is, that you have to be on a team, be added to a team's roster. I don't know what that deadline is. There has to be something. We can't just go into a season. Week three, say, oh, this guy's a part of our football team now.

[Greg McElroy]

That'd be nice.

[Cole Cubelic]

Imagine, probably not going to work that way.

[Greg McElroy]

You ever seen the movie Miracle?

[Cole Cubelic]

I have seen that one.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah. So you know the scene where they're all going through camp together and it's been really hard and really challenging. They've gotten really close, and they're starting to really play as one. And then what does Brooks do? He goes and brings in the guy from Minnesota who had been having a big year, and all of a sudden he comes in and the rest of the roster is like, well, what the heck? We've been together for five months, and this guy all of a sudden gets added at the last minute, and he's now going to be a part of our future plans. So all the captains are, you know, Rob. Rob o', Callaghan, you know, Brian Cox, you know, the other. The goalie.

[Cole Cubelic]

Yeah, him.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah, the goalie. Guy with the mask.

[Cole Cubelic]

That one.

[Greg McElroy]

Jimmy Craig. Ruzioni. Anyways, they go to her, Brooks, and like, hey, this is. This is ridiculous, Herb. Like, we've all been working our tail off for you for the last four months. We've grown really close. We've done everything you've asked us to do. Now you bring one guy in, and that's one less roster spot for the guys that have been close and that have been coming together. That's not right. And Herb says, well, I don't care. That guy can help us. He's a heck of a player. And they're like, well, he hasn't been with us. He's like, well, you think he can't help us? Like, no. Or not with us, he has it. That was Ruzioni's final line. And that's the same type of dynamic that's going to happen if you bring a guy in off an NFL training camp, put him in your roster after you've been at fall camp for three months.

[Cole Cubelic]

I wanted the same thing, and it's one of the reasons I wanted to bring this up, because I have not seen or heard a single person bring up this side of this is, you know, there's the Thomas Castellanos and those other names that are floating around about. Can you fit him in? Sure. TJ Finley's name is still floating around out there somewhere.

[Greg McElroy]

He's going back home.

[Cole Cubelic]

Can you add him? I don't think they need him right now. Good fit, but. And he is actually a name when you want to talk about being added late, someone who was added literally right before the season started. Because we had conversations with Georgia State going into that opener. They knew they were going to add him, but he wasn't officially a part of the team for that game. Nonetheless, what does the locker room say about these guys being added? I think even from an Indiana perspective, and it's not that there's anything wrong with adding Stephen Daly. There's not that there's anything wrong with adding guys that have been on your team prior, but there are guys that have been waiting their turn, went through the entire off season, program, did everything in spring ball, have been doing things in fall camp, and now all of a sudden your reps are going down, you're losing reps in practice. I just. I don't care how good a locker room guy you were juicing worth the squeeze, but put yourself in that position, and that's what folks have not done is the players who have been in the program multiple years or the players who waited their turn even one year, just last year, and all of a sudden here comes a guy that was there before. You're not. You're expected to be the number one or the number two. Now you're being bumped back to two or three. Your reps are being cut in half by three quarters. And I realized, d lineman, you want to roll them, it's good. You get more of a rotation. That could be great, but in some instances, there's got to be a conversation about what's the rest of the locker room saying about this. Yeah, this guy just being added last minute. And maybe they're just such good leaders and such good locker room guys in every instance that it's not worth the conversation. But it's the first thing I think about when I see someone potentially being added, potentially being brought in this late, and especially someone who thought they were going to be gone. So come January, the end of January, they're out of there and you hadn't even seen them for three or four months. Oh, yeah, Guess what? I'm coming to play with you guys again this year.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah.

[Cole Cubelic]

Oh.

[Greg McElroy]

Ah.

[Cole Cubelic]

Okay.

[Greg McElroy]

Love it.

[Cole Cubelic]

A little different.

[Greg McElroy]

I just don't see it. I don't see it happening. I Think the coaches are going to ask themselves at that point. It's like, is this guy really worth this? Like, is this juice really worth the squeeze? This. There could be. I mean, we all know this. What was it that made Indiana their special sauce last year? It was unselfishness. And also I think that they had a bunch of guys that worked really well together and were willing to do things that were uncommon in modern day college football. So I don't see that as like a huge factor. Like, I was. I mean, they were literally monitoring guys getting cut in camp. In this show I was listening to yesterday, I was like, this is ridiculous. Like, I couldn't imagine a coach bringing a guy in, like, out of camp. I won. I don't even know if he's allowed to. I don't even know if that guy still has eligibility. And also, too, would a coach really want to do that? I. I have a hard time seeing.

[Cole Cubelic]

Yeah, I do think there are some places that just the numbers are down and the culture is not towards the top of the list. And they're just, it's a little bit of desperation where they'll say, man, we can get this dude in, is more talented than what we got. Yeah, let's, let's, let's go. We'll take him. But I just, I'm kind of with you. I think there was a bit of an overreaction to it that there's these floodgates were going to open. The guys that were going to come in play college football that were, we thought were going to be out and now all of a sudden it was going to be totally different. There was a part of. And I believe you guys had this conversation because I had some people, I had people text me about multiple conversations you had. I learned a lot. Even though I wasn't able to catch much of the show. Like, I learned a lot about your travel problems. Oh, yeah, people told me all about that.

[Greg McElroy]

That was a lot of fun.

[Cole Cubelic]

Learned a lot about how you handle your fall camp. And there has been some discussion, a new discussion about something that I guess has been uncovered about Alex Golish, and that is that he is soft.

[Greg McElroy]

Yes.

[Cole Cubelic]

And he ain't tough country club. But, you know, that's something that we need to discuss on the show today. We'll have Paul Feinbaum after our next break. Nick Kelly of ale.com Quick update on Alabama. Phil Steele gives us his preseason thoughts heading into 2026. Certain teams that he likes. From an experience standpoint, who does he think have big advantages? J. Tate gives us an Auburn update at 9:30 today. So we'll hear from some other folks. It'll generate our conversation. Phone's always open. 205-834-9450. Before we go to Paul Feinbaum. Greg, tell our listeners about Bromberg's been

[Greg McElroy]

serving this community for almost 200 years. They've done a great job. Always appreciate the experience I get when I go in the door and work with their amazing sales staff. Just go and check them out for yourself. I mean, you're going to buy items that might live in your family for multiple generations. That's the beauty of Bromberg's, that they have timeless, priceless jewelry like natural diamonds, gold, silver, you name it, they got it. They have luxury watches. But it's really the service and the experience that takes you to the next level. It's an experience you can trust, and people in Birmingham have trusted that experience for nearly 200 years. Go and see him in Mountain Brook Village or at the Summit. You can also shop [e-mail] Is Auburn soft?

[Cole Cubelic]

Well, that's Paul Feinbaum. Next on Jocks.

[Show Producer/Promos]

Don't leave Jocks back at the house. Download the Jocks 94.5app and take us anywhere in the car, at work or at the game. Live audio, video and podcasts on your schedule, the Jocks94.5 app, wherever you may be. All right.

[Cole Cubelic]

Welcome back in McElroy and Kublick in the morning. 7:17am Monday, August 10th right here on Jocks. As we inch towards college football season, week zero is right around the corner. We'll talk Alabama. We'll talk Auburn. He joins us each and every week at this time from espn, the SEC Network. And you can hear him right here on Jocks 2 to 6pm thanks to our friends at Craneworks is Paul Feinbaum. Lift it, load it, grade it, grind it, move it, haul it, rig it, dig it. Crane works, rental works. Yeah, the big dog's got it.

[Show Producer/Promos]

Paul Feinbaum on Mac and Cube in the morning is brought to you by craneworks. Lift it, buy it, rent it, the big dog's got it now. Paul Feinbaum.

[Cole Cubelic]

Paul, always great to have you in on a Monday. And as someone who has been a writer for multiple platforms here in the city of Birmingham, I'm sure this one has crossed your desk. I was out last week, so we didn't get a chance to discuss it, but interested in how much your opinion has changed on Alex Golis, Auburn head coach, since he's gone soft and decided to move his team into a hotel to prepare for the season and hold fall camp there.

[Paul Feinbaum]

Well, I mean, it's not exactly junction from Paul Bryant in the. In the late 50s, but. But I do like what he's doing. And yeah, I've stayed there before and you have, too. And it's a luxury hotel on a beautiful golf course. But I still like the idea of putting everybody together. I like the idea of however long this lasts, taking phones away and keys away. And I think there's a method to that madness. I was in south Alabama on Saturday morning and running into both Auburn and Alabama fans, and they all seem to think he's got the right idea. I'm not saying that I know what's going on at Caitlin DeBoer's camp, but we do feel like we know what's going on in Auburn and it's a significant step up from what we've seen in a long time. So I really like, like the whole concept of it, and I like almost everything I've heard from Alex Gore so far.

[Greg McElroy]

Clearly, you're not a pet lover, Paul, because I even saw some people saying, well, what that's so. I can't believe you're taking them away from their pets. Like, I mean, it's like if people are just going to be critical, just to be critical, it's absolutely absurd. Like, why is it that we're. And it honestly applies a little bit to Kaylin DeBoer, too. It's like he can't win for losing. Like, if you like him, you like him. If you don't, you don't seem to be said with goal is say, to be said with any coach right now. Why is it that way?

[Paul Feinbaum]

Because I think everybody's got a voice. I mean, Greg, you go back any number of years and it was hard for an average fan to be heard 30 years ago. You had to write a letter to the editor and hope it got published. 25 years ago, Talk radio started emerging in a very big way and then the Internet. So now everyone thinks their voice is not only being heard by tens of thousands. They think it's really important. And what's really strange is that some of these voices get metastasized or blown up all over the place, and then they take on a life of their own. So I'm not. I'm not about to say that everybody doesn't count, but some of the critics, and I'm certainly familiar with a number of them, probably get heard a little bit louder than others.

[Cole Cubelic]

I don't believe this will surprise you. And Paul Feinbaum joining us thanks to craneworks. He does it every year, but I continue to be surprised almost annually by individual highlights coming out of team practices that I understand they are what they are. But some people, Paul, will generally change their opinion about a team when they see one guy make one play. And it's mind boggling to me. Do you, do you sort of warn people, be careful that these are the actual teams that are putting this out? There's a reason that they want you to feel a certain way about what you're seeing. But I see college football analysts that are legitimately changing their opinion on teams because of one play they saw in one practice.

[Paul Feinbaum]

Well, there's a reason for that, I think, because the media is so different and this is not a discourse on the state of sports media because it's almost all media coal. But the teams now have all the power, the schools have all the power. They can control the narrative because the so called media that we talk to every day don't really have any independent. They don't have any ability to go in there and report or maybe they do, they just don't use it. So they're taking what the team gets them. They're putting it on a big platform. One play makes you think that a quarterback who you weren't sure about can get the ball to a receiver. One catch, and we see this every year, makes you think that every, every receiver on every SEC team is, is going to be the next Jerry Rice. And yeah, it's all blown out of proportion. But, but you said something that's even more disturbing. It's one thing for fans to believe it. Fans, fans should believe all that. But when analysts start buying into it, it just starts to show how, how much you have to question almost every analyst because there's a tributary that their platform is coming from. And I know I'm getting deep into the weeds here, but it's the reality of the situation.

[Greg McElroy]

I think it's fair to question anybody that uses social media as an evaluation metric. I wouldn't do that. I think that's a safe assumption. If an analyst does that, discredit them immediately. Paul, you've been very outspoken. You alongside Stephen a. About Kalyn DeBoer and maybe just some of the frustrations that you have with Calyn DeBoer. I'm just curious where it's coming from. I feel like he hasn't said much and I, I think that's probably the right approach, frankly, given the youth of his team and given the chip that I think the team collectively has on their shoulder. So where, where are some of your doubts coming from over the last couple weeks?

[Paul Feinbaum]

Well, listen, I don't need to tell either one of you what happens when, when Kaylor DeBoer speaks and says something that somebody miss either misinterprets or looks at very narrowly. Then they'll put somebody like me be on a show and then the reaction is specifically to what he just said and not what he said in a maybe a 15 or 20 minute discourse. I know that sounds like I'm quantifying or alib I'm not because I sat there last week twice with Mike Greenberg as you have done many times and responded to a very direct question. As far as Stephen A. I won't answer for him but I think his answers are self explanatory. You know, he loved the Nick Saban era and it's not going to change for him. It has changed for me in varying degrees and I get a kick out of, you know, some of the criticism I get on our show and on social media. There we go again. That I'm out to get Kalen deboer. I am not. I've told you guys many times I like him. I think he is an elite coach. The only part of that that some people don't like is I have questions in the long run, is he the right coach at Alabama? Some of that is a representation of man on the street. Some of it is a reputation of my own opinions and some of it is obviously a direct result of what we have seen here in two seasons.

[Greg McElroy]

Well, it's funny is like a lot of people have asked me over the years like what's Paul's deal with Kaylan? I'm like every time I've talked to him he seems to really like him. That's why I've been a little taken aback. I didn't know if something had changed in your eyes with the trajectory of the program because I feel like if anything you've been fairly supportive. So are you still relatively optimistic about this upcoming season for the Tide to

[Paul Feinbaum]

confuse people even more? The answer is yes and I do. And listen, I don't, I don't know him like some of you, but I feel like I've gotten, I've been around him enough where I really do like him. And you know, we've had talks, you know, we don't sit there and talk. Xos. The last time I was around him for a long time we talked about his daughter because I just found that story to be really interesting. But But I look at Alabama and I've landed on nine and three and that is not a terrible season. Anytime you land on a specific number, most analysts are going to say, yeah, but it could go this way or could go that way. Everyone listening knows that. Okay, so that's why you, that's why you try to land on a specific I think the reason not is the reason I've said 9 and 3 is I maintain that contrary to some people's opinion, I, I like the schedule and I think some of the whether Alabama ends up at 10 and 2 or at 8 and 4 is primarily going to depend on whether other schools like Tennessee, like South Carolina and maybe even like LSU late in the year where they are. When you, when you play a team in November, they may have checked out or they may be playing for a CFP birth. When you play a team like South Carolina, you don't know which you're going to get the evening year, Shane Beamer or the odd year. Shane Beamer is usually pretty good in even years.

[Cole Cubelic]

Paul, also just wanted to ask you about the Protect College Sports act that looked like was not able to get in before the Senate for summer recess. Does this kill it? Does it remove most likelihood that this is able to be passed? What does this do for this big picture, in your opinion?

[Paul Feinbaum]

Well, let me, let me, let me answer the question by leaning on the senior senator from Alabama. Was that a function Saturday morning and you wait in a green room and it was about 40 or 50 minutes behind and I happened to spend 30 minutes talking to Tommy Tuberville, who was in Washington a couple of hours earlier and waiting for that to be heard. He came on, he gave me the impression there's a lot of headwinds up there and you already know that, but I think it could spell trouble. I think this thing needed to go last week. Cole had it gone last week, it would have passed. I don't count votes in the Senate, but I think the worm has turned on it somewhat.

[Cole Cubelic]

Paul, always appreciate the time. Great stuff as always. We'll catch up again next week.

[Paul Feinbaum]

Georgia, thank you.

[Cole Cubelic]

Paul Feinbaum joining us on the Higginbotham hotline, joins us. Thanks to craneworks each and every week. Interesting thoughts there on a couple of different topics, but we probably need to follow up on one thing that we asked Paul and that again is is Auburn soft? We'll discuss it next on jocks keys check.

[Show Producer/Promos]

Seat belt check. Shocks 94.5 on your presets locked in. Your ride's not ready till jocks is on jocks 94. 5, your daily drive. Done. Right. Turn it on, lock it in.

[Cole Cubelic]

I will fully admit that there are hesitations to make certain references here. We'll open up the phones for you guys as well. 205-834-9450-2058-349450. If you would like to get in, you can also tweet in at Mac and Cube. Jolly tweets in at Mac and Cube. That was a great question for Fine Bomb. I listen to his show. He absolutely takes a different tone on his show in regards to DeBoer. Good job GMAC. And for everyone who says he's not the guy and he's terrible, I want a realistic replacement, not Fever Dream hallucinations. I mean, Paul does host a show which I believe by definition is there

[Greg McElroy]

to entertain and or to elicit response potentially.

[Cole Cubelic]

He may or may not have been

[Greg McElroy]

known to mission accomplished. And I love Paul. I just know, I know Paul likes to stir it up. I'm not mad at him. No, I'm not mad at him for that. I disagree with him, but I'm not mad at him at all.

[Cole Cubelic]

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[Greg McElroy]

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[Cole Cubelic]

I hesitate to even do this. Oh boy. One of the frustrations that I had is when this was released by said entity here in Birmingham. The amount of people who jumped at the opportunity to respond to it, which I have chosen normally to just steer clear of because honestly I don't think it's worth it.

[Greg McElroy]

Mission accomplished.

[Cole Cubelic]

However, while on vacation last week, I probably had close to double digit Auburn fans ask me why this was the opinion, which I do feel like specifically the graphic that the entity put out which reads, auburn football coach go soft trades toughness for spa staycation.

[Greg McElroy]

Heck yeah.

[Cole Cubelic]

But right above that, it says in yellow writing opinion, which I feel like we removed from this. And some people are taking it as fact. Some people may be even taking it as knowledgeable on current situation, which I would remove that from. Some people may be even taking it as knowledgeable as how to fall football camp operates, which I may remove that from as well. But when you heard about it, when you saw it, and I believe you saw the headline, Greg, and decided not to dig any deeper. But when I saw the fact that Alex Golis was going to take the Auburn football team for, I believe 13 days to the Marriott grand national, which is actually kind of funny because I feel like I have pretty good knowledge of it. My family, we went down there for kind of a summer vacation this year.

[Show Producer/Promos]

Wow.

[Greg McElroy]

Soft.

[Cole Cubelic]

We are soft family. We had. We had two basketball camps in Auburn, so we just decided to stay.

[Greg McElroy]

That must be nice.

[Cole Cubelic]

Or we're going to drive them from Birmingham every morning. Yeah, that'd have been good.

[Greg McElroy]

If you want to teach your kids real life lessons.

[Cole Cubelic]

Yes.

[Greg McElroy]

This is what two eighty is.

[Cole Cubelic]

Kids at 3am awesome.

[Greg McElroy]

These are champions hours. Here's kids. This right here is a Starbucks.

[Cole Cubelic]

And so like we were able to go over to the football facility, see how soft they were. You know, boys got to hit in the batting cages at the baseball facility. Like, we made a week out of it. It was awesome.

[Greg McElroy]

That's awesome. Glad you had a good time. Soft.

[Paul Feinbaum]

And

[Cole Cubelic]

there's no part of walking around that facility that says, like spa first off.

[Greg McElroy]

Okay.

[Cole Cubelic]

If you've been in the facility, the spa is at one sort of different end. Now is there a really cool, like pool for the kids out back? Yes. There are multiple places to eat. Yes. Can you see a golf course? Yes.

[Greg McElroy]

Soft.

[Cole Cubelic]

Is there a lot of things for a college kid to do out there?

[Greg McElroy]

No.

[Cole Cubelic]

If you're into a little ring toss game, like the ring on a string, you try to get it on the hook now, I guess they could waste their time doing that. The giant plastic tic tac toe. Be careful. Byron Brown might be out there doing the giant Connect four in the lawn. Not focused on Baylor. There are pickleball courts, so maybe be careful saying you don't want Xavier Atkins to roll an ankle playing pickleball. Be careful. They're deer too, when you're driving back and forth on the roads. So like the buses, I'm assuming they bus back and Forth the facility. Like, be careful. That could be an injury for anybody. But what part of taking your team and removing. We always talk about all these distractions, not even in college football, but just in life for us specifically, people this age, trying to remove a lot of those, trying to create more of a team atmosphere with a bunch of guys that have never done fall camp at the same time on the same team and facilitate that further. Could you drum up some sort of negative headline for beyond my imagination. But since I had a large group of Auburn fans reach out to me and say, can you at least discuss your opinion on this? Of Is this good? Is this bad? When I first saw the headline, I thought it was awesome. I thought it was great because I don't view it as nothing against the facility. Like I said, we just stayed there for a week. You should go do it. It's a great place, but it is removed from the town and it is meeting space. I'm assuming they're going down there doing their walkthroughs, having team meetings, watching film. It's great. Great place to do that. The team, actually, I believe it was under Malzahn, used to go stay there on Friday nights before games. That's probably why he got fired, because he chose the round of softness tough. So I'm not sure what the alternative that would be better, that would roughen things up or make them more rugged would be. But I disagree with this mindset and I'll just let it stay there.

[Greg McElroy]

Well, I mean, if you're tough, you camp like fall camp. Yeah, fall camp is called fall camp. You ought to put dang foldables out there on the practice field so these can be immersed in it.

[Cole Cubelic]

Yeah.

[Greg McElroy]

Like y'.

[Motivational Speaker (Mike Ritland)]

All.

[Greg McElroy]

It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[Cole Cubelic]

Rick Tricky's asleep in his office.

[Greg McElroy]

It's not about. It's not about trading. Here's a couple things that are beneficial here. One, you have maid service. That's really nice, actually, because now you get to. You don't have to worry about making your bed. You don't have to worry about, like organizing your room. Like, that's 10 extra minutes. And we said this earlier, you get 10 extra minutes in which you can kind of be together in ball whatever. Like hotel rooms with the roommate get a little cramped. You probably want to spend a little time in the areas in which there's a little more room. Like just telling you, as someone that lived in the New York market and as someone that had to. Had to go to camp in Cortland for our fall camp. Like, we didn't want to be in the room because it's like, this is not comfortable. It's not comfortable at all. So we ended up in the group meeting spaces and we spent more time together. And the only downside of this is the expense. Don't cry poor. When you spend a lot of money at a hotel for 13 days, which at 100 rooms or 50 or 80 rooms or whatever, plus the conference center, like, that is an expense. And in an era where you're constantly working through the line items, they say, oh, we can't do this, we can do this, we can't do this, can do this. Well, that's a pretty decent size expense over the course of time. So that's the only downside. Everything else is upside. And I would say that the. That the expense is not a big deal because you probably had one booster that wrote the check, like, who cares? To me, everything about this is a positive. More time together, especially in today's day and age where there's so much new on an annual basis and the guys don't have a ton of time to get to know each other. Yes, they've been together for seven, eight months, but immersed in football collectively, 100% of the time is a net positive. Nothing about it that's soft. And also, by the way, these guys are millionaires in some cases, so, like, who cares about their quote unquote softness? Do you think their apartment's nicer than a hotel? I've never stayed at that hotel. I can't tell you. I have no idea. But I would imagine that their stuff is probably pretty dang nice. I can Thomas. See, their cars are probably a little nicer than the buses that they'll get on.

[Cole Cubelic]

And where they're staying now is nicer than this hotel. I can almost guarantee you that where

[Greg McElroy]

they're staying now is nicer than what?

[Cole Cubelic]

Where all the individual players live?

[Greg McElroy]

100%.

[Cole Cubelic]

So, like, they're not. They're not living at Eagles west like I did.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah.

[Cole Cubelic]

Growing up in Auburn. Like, they're not living out in the trailer parking. That's not a joke. Like, a lot of college kids do that down Wire Road. Like, it's a real thing. That's not where these guys are living.

[Greg McElroy]

No. And everyone goes their own way after school. Like, everyone lives off campus most of the time. Like, it's not like you're living in dorm rooms like back in the day. Like, I think it's great.

[Cole Cubelic]

This actually. I'm sorry to interrupt you but this actually made me think of that. Are there any athletic dorms at all anymore? Like, even starting out?

[Greg McElroy]

I don't know if, like, freshmen are quote unquote, required to stay in dorms. Like, we had to stay in dorms for two years on campus. But I can promise you this. If I had the means that these guys have, I'd have my dorm and I would also have an apartment. There's not bed checks. I can promise you that. Right. They're going through Bryant hall right now and making sure the freshmen are asleep at 10.

[Cole Cubelic]

Yeah, 205-834-9450. If you want to get in, 205-834-94503. You can text or call into that number. I actually went backwards. I remember about two, three years after I left, they built a new athletic dorm. And it was the one like Tennessee had when I. Tennessee was the only one that had it when I was being recruited. And I forget what you call it, but it was basically, it was a living room and four rooms connected. You shared the living room, and it was nice. And Auburn redid Sewell hall, which was not nice when I lived there. And I remember going back and touring this place when they rebuilt it. And I was thinking to myself, I'd move back. I'd literally move back into the dorm now that I know my way around and know how to manage things, to be able to walk right across the street. And keep in mind, they had that brand new dining facility that you could eat at as much as you want, and the food's actually pretty good. I could walk across the street to go get whatever I wanted, prepared meals, and then walk across the street to train, watch film, get treatment, practice.

[Caller/Listener]

You've been cooking.

[Cole Cubelic]

Why would you not have. But now with the. Like Greg said, with the means that these kids have now, and I don't know who makes. Who live in dorms, not live in dorms. Some teams used to move back into dorms. Greg Hendricks tweeting in. George has been staying in a hotel to start a camp for over 20 years. Why are people making a big deal? So David Hoover wants to chime in on the higginbotham hotline. Welcome in, Dave.

[Caller/Listener]

Hey, guys, couple things. My daughter's a senior at Alabama this year. Her freshman year, she did have some freshmen and Alabama players in her dorm. I think she said there were three or four in there. Me, no toughness, you know, in the high school ranks. Our senior year, my senior year, we had first day of practice. We did Oklahoma drills, bowling the ring, grass drills and gauntlets. And then the next day they did that for a reason. Next day they were like six players didn't come back, you know, but we had bad games on Friday nights. On Mondays we had Oklahoma drills and bowling ring. You know, so if you didn't. You don't want to hit somebody on Friday night, then that's what you want to go through on Monday.

[Greg McElroy]

Makes you. It makes you a better. Let me tell you what makes you a better player. Bull in the ring.

[Moto Casino Announcer]

That.

[Greg McElroy]

You know what I think about football skill sets? Getting blindsided is exactly what I need, 100%. Think about how dumb that is. Like, and this is no disrespect to the old school coaches out there. It's really not like I have a ton of respect for the way it was done because I kind of came up in the era where science started to matriculate in not. Not nearly where it is now, but started to matriculate in like, we almost, almost had built in water breaks. Not on accident, but like a guy would get hurt and we get a water break, like, guy would cramp. Like, hey, it's your turn.

[Caller/Listener]

Go down.

[Greg McElroy]

We got. We need a water break.

[Caller/Listener]

But even today. So my son just graduated his mattress from Alabama. So his sophomore year in high school in Hoover, he was a receiver. 5, 860 pound receiver. Well, when he gets to the JV team, he's on the defensive side, he's on a practice squad. They got him at linebacker. The whistle blows. He's kind of. He kind of stands up, pulling guard, comes across, blindsides him and lays him out. Everybody's laughing and carrying on, and he's like, next morning, can't get out of bed. You know, I'm like, really? So that stuff still goes on, but you're right. I mean, it's like, of course, I was taught back in the 70s to lead with your head anyway, right? How brain dead was that? No pun intended. But yeah, good point. But there's other ways they can toughen up people, but you got to be physical. Physicality is number one thing in the SEC in big time college football. Anyway, thanks, guys.

[Greg McElroy]

Let me tell you what doesn't factor into physicality. Where you sleep at night.

[Cole Cubelic]

What? Stop it.

[Greg McElroy]

Hang on a second. This is mind blowing. Give that kid a double mattress. He can't sleep.

[Cole Cubelic]

My mattress from Royal actually makes me tough every day when I wake up. So you be careful.

[Greg McElroy]

I don't think Royal would want you to say that.

[Cole Cubelic]

Fair enough.

[Greg McElroy]

Okay. Royal's great. Cole didn't mean it when I was.

[Cole Cubelic]

I just don't.

[Greg McElroy]

It's so dumb. It is, but it's. It's like searching a little bit. It's like everything. Every. If you want to be offended by the guys staying in a nice hotel as opposed to what dorm rooms?

[Cole Cubelic]

Like, I'm like, okay, the loft apartments or condos that they're staying in now or the houses that they're in together that are much nicer than anything we stayed in.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah. That are on Moore's. That back up the Moore's Mill on 7. Like. Like, where do you want them to stay?

[Cole Cubelic]

How many guys on the team, you think? Their quarters, if you will, for training camp are a severe upgrade from what they're staying in every day.

[Greg McElroy]

I would say no one.

[Cole Cubelic]

I bet there's. I bet there's 2 to 5% of the kids. Maybe two to five kids that are just looking. You always have those penny pinchers.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah.

[Cole Cubelic]

And they're just like, oh, this is. This is $250 a month. Sure, I'll stay here. And you're just like, what?

[Greg McElroy]

Literally, in the NFL, we had a guy named Caleb Schlotter off. Love him. Still love him. I think he might be in med school now. Like, the guy was just. But the ultimate penny pincher. He lived in some random dude's basement in New Jersey for like 400amonth that was making 600k. It was like, caleb, what are you doing? He went to Utah. Just a different dude. Like, yeah, there are.

[Caller/Listener]

You're right.

[Greg McElroy]

There's two to five guys on a roster that are like uniquely frugal, that will do whatever they have to do. But I would imagine that most of the guys have downgraded in their amenities when they went to this hotel.

[Cole Cubelic]

100% jolly tweets in at Mac and Cube. Hey, at Cole Cubic. Where does this negative attention come from? What are the fans looking for? I don't understand it. Generally I can get frustration in season when a team isn't winning or has problems. This I don't get. I don't think this is coming from fans. Is coming from an [e-mail] that we just wanted to help put some fans. I guess opinions that they were developing from this to rest in that we think it's idiotic. Other than that there's not a lot of other reasons to go into it. I mean the only thing that I think people would look at Alex Gollish and think soft would be the design of the offense, which is dated anyway. That in and of itself is dated that that the offense, because you have wide receivers 7 inches from each sideline is a soft offense. Tennessee has proven that the last couple of years. Their, their off season emphasis the last three years has been to find ways to bludgeon you, to find ways to beat you with physicality, become a more physical offense, more physical football team. And they've done that to a large extent and they use the other parts of it to gain advantages in beating you that way. Now, do they do it the way that Sean Alexander and Dustin McClintock did when they were in Alabama? No. It looks different, but it doesn't mean that the mindset is not there. So we can put that to rest and we can move on and we can have a conversation about some of the guys at Auburn, Alabama we're hearing good things about and we'll do that next right here on Jocks.

[Show Producer/Promos]

Jocks94.5 is live on YouTube every weekday, plus video shorts and podcasts. Podcasts find us at jocks 945 and smash the subscribe and like button so you never miss a moment. Jocks94.5 on YouTube.

[Cole Cubelic]

All right, welcome back in McElroy and Kublik in the Morning. 7:52 Monday, August 10th right here on Jocks. Glad you're with us. Can move on from our previous topic. Maybe we need one more. Damien, anything on the text line? Coming in. 205-834-9450. You want to text into the show tweeting at Mac and Cube. You can call in at that number as well. On our previous topic.

[Caller/Listener]

Yeah, you know, going back to an article that we had about a week or so ago with me and you, Cole, somebody texted in and says so in order for Auburn to be tough, I guess goal is needs to impale his players and make them hike down a mountain for two hours.

[Cole Cubelic]

Yes. Ten miles, I believe it was.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah, but it has to be uphill in both ways. You said down the mountain.

[Cole Cubelic]

Another, another two hour car ride.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah, walk ride.

[Cole Cubelic]

Did you see that story, Greg? You were out when we talked about that. I'll find the pictures and ZenOMG.

[Greg McElroy]

All right.

[Cole Cubelic]

The hiker impaled himself with his. What do we call it? Walking cane. Yeah, it's not a cane stick or walk stick? No, it's called something different. But there's a technical name for it. But it went through his lat.

[Greg McElroy]

His lat, like right here.

[Cole Cubelic]

Went through, went through it.

[Greg McElroy]

And he must have some big lats.

[Cole Cubelic]

He had to hike 10 miles back down and then had to Ride in a car for two hours to get to the emergency room.

[Greg McElroy]

What a baller. Yeah.

[Caller/Listener]

So are you tough.

[Greg McElroy]

That feels like a pit episode. John. We need. I'm looking forward to that one in the pit.

[Cole Cubelic]

I've seen one and a half episodes.

[Greg McElroy]

How good are you in? Is it moving for you?

[Cole Cubelic]

It's just they do a good job of it being non stop. Yeah. Now, as of someone who has frequented emergency rooms in the last two years, um. Don't feel like they're that busy. I realize it's Pittsburgh, bigger city, but I don't feel like they're that busy.

[Greg McElroy]

By the way, Pittsburgh is not that much bigger than Birmingham.

[Cole Cubelic]

I know. That's what I'm saying. A little bigger city. But I feel like that part may be slightly exaggerated.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah. Which er do you go to?

[Cole Cubelic]

Not saying exactly. Been to multiple.

[Greg McElroy]

Speaking of soft.

[Cole Cubelic]

Been to multiple

[Greg McElroy]

soft.

[Cole Cubelic]

We were. We were. We're having a conversation at dinner the other day.

[Greg McElroy]

Multiple.

[Cole Cubelic]

I have in the last.

[Greg McElroy]

Golly.

[Caller/Listener]

Soft.

[Cole Cubelic]

I am. We're having a conversation at dinner the other day and my 8 year old said. I said I wouldn't want that to happen. I said that's one of the worst injuries I could imagine. And my 8 year old says, what would be the worst injury you could have? Dad. And six year old goes kidney stones. And I was like, it's up there. It's towards the top for me.

[Greg McElroy]

I'm beyond you. That's probably not. That's probably not the worst one you could have.

[Cole Cubelic]

It's. They're not. Not many worst pains I've managed in my life.

[Greg McElroy]

I believe that. But I'm slightly worse injury.

[Cole Cubelic]

No, I'm. I'm 100%. I will keep going. I'm interested in it. Yeah.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah.

[Cole Cubelic]

It's. I've enjoyed it so far. And one of the games we went to in Pittsburgh, we missed it because we got there late. It was a Sunday game. They were doing bobbleheads of the lead actor guy. The. They. A couple of the crew members threw out first pitch.

[Greg McElroy]

Yeah.

[Cole Cubelic]

I don't know their names, but crew members.

[Greg McElroy]

Also known as the cast.

[Cole Cubelic]

Cast crew. I don't know. They might have had a camera guy thrown out. Greg.

[Paul Feinbaum]

I don't know.

[Cole Cubelic]

Maybe somebody that did the lights. One of the runners was out there throwing the first pitch.

[Greg McElroy]

I'm sure that'll get the people going.

[Cole Cubelic]

Yeah.

[Greg McElroy]

Unreal.

[Cole Cubelic]

But it. Some of the injuries too. Like you saw two people with rhabdomyolysis in the first episode. Come on.

[Caller/Listener]

Seems like a lot that threw me

[Cole Cubelic]

off by the way,

[Greg McElroy]

I'm unfamiliar with rhabdomyolysis.

[Cole Cubelic]

Yeah, do more CrossFit. You've had a calf heart attack and you even know what rhabdomyolysis is?

[Greg McElroy]

Come on, don't hate the player. Calf heart attack's a real thing, especially in high intensity workouts.

[Caller/Listener]

Were you just hurt or was it an injury?

[Greg McElroy]

That was an injury. That was like six weeks. Okay. It's like Achilles slash calf tendonitis. It's not fun. I pray that you don't have to have it.

[Caller/Listener]

I hope not.

[Greg McElroy]

I'm gonna pray for your future children that you never have to deal with a calf heart attack. You don't understand. You think kidney stones are bad? Should I have a car?

[Cole Cubelic]

Imagine a calf kidney stone.

[Greg McElroy]

Probably coming.

[Cole Cubelic]

Hey, John, hold tight through the break. We'll get to you on the other side. Back with hour two of Mac and Cube right after this.

[Show Producer/Promos]

This is McElroy in Kubelik in the U.S. soccer podcast.

[Megan Klingberg]

These players are battered and exhausted. But you don't hurt like this if you don't care about this team, about this country, about this game.

[Greg McElroy]

You can feel the intensity, the goals, the energy, the wow.

[Megan Klingberg]

Look at us here in the us I have got some news for you. There's so much more to come. My name is Megan Klingberg and we're just getting started.

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[Show Producer/Promos]

Mic drop, hosted by former Navy SEAL Mike Ritland.

[Cole Cubelic]

How would you characterize your prowess?

[Greg McElroy]

I'd say my style is that I just kind of outwork everybody till I

[Cole Cubelic]

get there because I not a quitter. It's just you and that's yourself.

[Greg McElroy]

There's everything else is team oriented.

[Motivational Speaker (Mike Ritland)]

The motivation, it was a sort of anger at myself for being weak. That ends up being the driving factor. That anger, that pride, that ego. I think it's a muscle. It gets stronger. When you take that voice seriously. You start to change your life.

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