It's once again time for TIGER TALK on the radio waves throughout the Southeastern United States!
LIST OF AFFILIATES AND LINKS
PREDICTION: Big game this week. We've got to clean up the mistakes and find a way to compete with one of the truly elite teams in the entire country.
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Freeze offers a happy "War Eagle" to open.
ANDY asks a meandering question about the team's situation. "Our kids played so hard. The effort was there. The ... plans on both sides were really, really good. It just hurts. I know it hurts our fans. They've done their part. To not be able to deliver for them, truthfully ... is hard to swallow. You want to deliver a product to them that they're excited about."
NOT ANDY asks if someone can be disappointed and encouraged by improvement. "They're both true. We live in a world that's result-driven. Thankfully, I don't have to get my identity from that ... but I get judged on that. I see (players) getting better each week even though the competition has stepped up a notch. You watch the tape and say: 'That team is not far off.'"
(He talks about how there's a lot of pressure on every call because the team's margin for error is small. "Every single call feels like life or death.")
ANDY asks about Payton Thorne's game. "He played his guts out. We had 79 plays in that game and, God as my witness, 73 of them were pretty dang positive. If I had to do it over again, I'd run the ball on that 3rd-and-4 and hopefully our defense would hold them and we win."
***COMMERCIAL BREAK***
Question on the defense. He loves the young guys. "He doesn't know which way to line up right now, but ... he ran that quarterback down a few times. Riddick really stood out. That's what we've got to get more of right there."
NOT ANDY asks about Jay Crawford. "I don't know why they didn't go after a true freshman that hasn't played hardly any snaps. He'll get thrown at this week, certainly." GUFFAWS ALL AROUND.
ANDY asks about Kaleb Harris. "I'm so glad we took him. He did not have an offer for a long, long time. I watched them practice and I said I wanted to take this kid. He's a leader. He has the tangibles you want; he's a winner."
NOT ANDY asks about the Auburn run game and Jarquez Hunter specifically. "He's one of the toughest kids I've ever coached. Not many people are urning the ball on Oklahoma. We were able to effectively run the football on them and Jarquez is a big reason why. We've got to keep feeding him. He's sore today. It was a physical, physical game."
ANDY asks if the team's culture keeps the team from getting down when it loses big games. "If I start worrying about that ... we've got the wrong guys in the locker room. In life ... you probably have some percentage of (people) when things aren't going your way ... looking for an escape route or you're mentally not into it. I just won't let my mind go there. I trust in our staff and trust in the leadership of our team. Checking out is not an option. You've got to fight. You can't just check out. That's the expectation I have."
***COMMERCIAL BREAK***
GLENDA is in the house. She wants to know about Alex McPherson. "He's a great kid and a great kicker for us (last season). He continues to slowly improve, but he just doesn't have the strength. He did kick some in practice last week. You could tell that he's still weaker than what you'd hope."
NOT ANDY wants to talk about how Georgia doesn't run the ball a lot. "That's kind of shocking, really. I know Kirby really well and I don't think that's the design he's looking for. I'd anticipate it getting back to pretty normal against us, trying to be balanced, I would think."
(Hugh notes that he didn't watch that UGA-ALA game due to recruiting dinners.)
FAY/FAYE is in the house. She wants to know if they'll have a reverse Tiger Talk for this game. Hugh doesn't know exactly. "I'm still learnin'. I know our buses leave at 2 o'clock Friday."
NOT ANDY wants to talk about the gameday schedule — before and after the game. "We stay out in Opelika for home games. We've had incredible recruiting days on our home games. I'm big on trying to visit with all those people. Then you added to Saturday that SEC Nation was here, so I felt like I needed to represent our program on it."
(He adds several other relative banal things he does on a game day. "It was a long day.")
***COMMERCIAL BREAK***
(Hugh commends the soccer team for "crushing it." CLAPPING ALL AROUND. He also commends the volleyball team.)
ANDY wants to talk about the team's freshmen. "We knew the '24 class was very talented and they're starting to show it. That's the way we're going to build it — hopefully through recruiting continuous classes like that and then developing them. We're in the developing stages of this '24 class. To me, that's the way a program is built. You try to build geniune, dynamic relationships with them."
NOT ANDY thinks the defense did a pretty good job against OU. "We gave up three explosives. Two really hurt us ... and gave them their 14 points. We did better on it. You're playing teams that have some of the best athletes in the nation. They're going to get you at some point."
ANDY asks about the UGA defense. "They're incredibly talented up front and at linebacker and everywhere. They don't have any real weaknesses. You've really got to know what you're doing to attack this defense. You have to win ... some 1-on-1s and blocking. We'll have a good plan. I've played Kirby a long time. We've had some successes at times against him and obviously he's had successes against us at time. I understand how they play 'rip-liz-match.' I have a total understanding of it. I know what gives it problems, but you still have to have the right call at the right time."
NOT ANDY asks about the small margin of error and does Freeze talk to his team about that. "We talk about being resilient, being tough and being composed."
ANDY wants to know how they do that with so many young guys. "It'll be really loud at practice to see how we handle it there and hopefully it prepares them for what's coming Saturday."
NOT ANDY asks about the helmet comms on the road. "I'm curious to see how they goes. We really, really utilized that Saturday and it was beneficial to us. We really called a lot of things through the helmet at the line of scrimmage. We got into the right plays ... with coaches calling that."
ANDY asks about last season's game against UGA. "I've watched it. I've watched a lot. I watched what we did against Alabama because it was the same when Nick was there. I've got a lot of years of ... alright, let me remind myself of what we did in 2014, 2015. It's still the same system. The worst thing you can do is watch all those games and carry too much."
(Hugh notes that they're off next week so they won't meet at Baumhauer's. "Y'all have been awesome. We'll gather back soon. Y'all have been so good.")
BE GOOD. BE YOU.
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