From Digital Drive, Day 1: Michael Bratton, Jake Crain, Cole Cubelic & more

Tuesday morning's edition of TexAgs Live emanated from the Omni Atlanta Hotel, the site of 2025 SEC Media Days. Today's special guests included Michael Bratton, J.D. PicKell, Jake Crain, Trey Wallace and Cole Cubelic.

Key notes from Michael Bratton interview

• “That SEC Podcast” is now somewhat respectable in this industry. We really are family. We are just piecing it together. I love the fact that you got the whole setup here. If you’re honest and have a good time, I think people appreciate that. When you’re doing 16 teams, you have a ton of takes on a lot of players and coaches. I have been wrong about A&M seemingly every year. Hopefully, I'm not wrong this year.
   
• The funny thing is, all the Texas people jumped on me. Texas’ final record is like 13-3, and A&M was 8-5. I said A&M would finish higher than Texas. It came down to that last game. Had A&M won it, I would’ve been dead right. That’s exactly what I was saying.
   
• I think it's hard for people to look around the fact, heck, I’ve said it before, “Texas A&M, Texas 8-4...” It’s fun to say. That’s not really on Mike Elko. Last year, certainly. The history of it isn’t on Elko. I look at 7-1, they were one of the hottest teams in the country. They fell flat on their face, but Steve Sarkisian didn’t go 7-1 his first year at Texas. Not Lane Kiffin, and not even Nick Saban. Not even Kirby Smart. I’m not saying Elko is better than those guys, but I think we need to put our head in that space with how far he took Texas A&M year one. If they take a jump in year two, they will go to the College Football Playoff.
   
• There’s no doubt that Le’Veon Moss was a huge loss for the Aggie offense last year. It’s funny because we can highlight running backs, but I don’t know why the SEC, not the Aggies, are down on Marcel Reed. I don’t think he was the issue. I think the defense was the issue last year.
   
• Obviously, last year, Reed wasn’t getting any of the first-team reps. It’s not just year two for him, it's year two for everyone in that offense. I don’t think he’s going to be the top quarterback in the conference, but I think he'll be a top-half quarterback in the SEC and probably one of the most underrated quarterbacks in the country.
   
• I'm over the moon for LaNorris Sellers. Look no further than the A&M game. I was joking with one of the South Carolina players, asking him if he could get Sellers to the ground. He said, “No, not really.” He's not just a physical runner. He can throw the ball, too. I think he’s the closest to Cam Newton in the SEC.
   
• South Carolina replaced the interior of the offensive line, the receivers are young and an ongoing waiver with their running back. Would you rather have an elite quarterback or not? I would.
   
• I like a guy who can run the football, but Garrett Nussmeier is kind of a statue back there. I don’t think he’s a bad player. I think he’s top four in the conference. I’m not really that big on LSU.
   
• They’re trying to revamp the receiving core as well. Aaron Anderson is a really good receiver, but they are losing four of their top five receivers. It’s very difficult to just plug-and-play at receiver. We’ve seen Sarkisian do it, but what they’re running at LSU is a little different. That's a poor comparison. I seriously question if these can come in immediately. I don’t think they’ll fall off, but I don’t know why their schedule isn’t talked about more. They haven’t won against Ole Miss in like six years. Alabama crushed them last year. At Oklahoma, I think they’ll be much improved this year.
   
• I’ve been doing this long enough to know that we don’t know anything about the strength of schedule. For all we know, A&M could go undefeated, and we'd have no clue. I think Auburn is going to be a train wreck this year. All of a sudden, it’s a tough game for Oklahoma? Michigan, really? With Chip Lindsey, it will be a disaster, too. Most of these games that look tough, I don’t know if they really are. If they had a pulse on offense last year, I think they would’ve been a pretty good team. I don't know if you saw the Missouri game, but it was one of the most awful displays of football I’ve ever seen in my life. Just don’t be awful, and I think Oklahoma wins 8 games this year.
   
• I think last year was the year for Missouri. They missed it poorly. Diego Pavia may be good, but he’s not been in that spotlight. Can you plug-and-play with a running back? I think you can. Receivers may be a little more difficult. Offensive line, certainly more difficult. Their defense could be really good. It was good last year, and they still lost. Alabama and A&M, too. Alabama was probably worse. So I don’t have much faith in Missouri. I really don't.
   
• I think Texas’ defense will be one of the best, considering the schedule. I don't mean to mock their schedule, but it is easy. The quarterbacks they’re facing, they should be able to handle most of these teams. I’m sure Arch Manning will be great, but I don’t think he'll throw 40 touchdowns and 5,000 yards and win two Heismans. If he comes back for a second year, I think he can be all that. But this year, I think they rely on their ground game and defense. Texas, I have them going back to the SEC Championship, but I don’t have them being No. 1 in the conference.
   
• The Ohio State vs. Texas game is going to be critical. Not just for Texas or Ohio State, but for the SEC vs. the Big Ten. I need it badly. I’m sure you won't be rooting for Texas, but I will be. We need these games. Will that game factor into the playoffs? Probably not for those two, but it could for an A&M or some Big Ten team. I think the perception could change for both conferences.
   
• I think that the Notre Dame vs. A&M game really hurt the SEC, but I think it really helped them with the committee.
   
• I don’t think Conner Weigman fit the Collin Klein offense at all. What do they say? Square peg in a round hole? I had heard rumblings that Reed was the guy, but I still believe in Weigman. I think in Houston, he’ll do really well.
   
• Vanderbilt returned more production on offense and defense than anyone in the conference. Their offensive line is basically totally rebuilt, but they essentially run the triple option out of the shotgun. That’s an offense that can disguise weakness in the offensive line. I think that's what Vanderbilt should forever be if they want to compete in this conference. I think they will win seven games this year.
   
• Everyone says it's an epidemic of poor offensive lines. I think 10 years ago, it could have been a real issue, but now I obviously would rather be in A&M’s position and bring everyone back. I really think you can work around an offensive line, as crazy as that sounds.
   
• The day Ole Miss hired Lane Kiffin and told the fans 8-4 or maybe a 9-3, and that's your down year, everyone would sign up for it. They’re dead last in offensive and defensive returning production. I know they hit the portal like crazy, but a lot of people think Austin Simmons is twice the quarterback Jaxson Dart is. That’s comical to me. I think they’ll take a step back. More people didn’t pay attention to how good that defense was last year. I said Missouri missed. Ole Miss really missed. They had a top-five team in the country. They could’ve won the national championship last year.

Key notes from J.D. PicKell interview

• I'm conversational, but I'm not fluent when it comes to the College Station area. They’re great people at KBTX. They got me a job during COVID-19. Ultimately, it wasn't my long-term route. Nothing but good to say. Getting introduced to the A&M fan base was very cool for me.
   
• The SID at Baylor said they heard I wanted to do media stuff and reached out. They were kind enough to let me get reps there, and I started a YouTube channel. It doesn't make sense how I started, and there's no other job I'd rather do now.
   
• Ryan Swope was the guy. It was a chapter for a lot of people who watched the Johnny Manziel season. He caught the iconic touchdown at Alabama. The way he played the game was fast, gritty and physical. He resonated with me more.
   
• A&M is polarizing because of the logo, the Jimbo Fisher era and how they recruited. When you take a step back to what they are now, Elko was at A&M previously, but he wasn’t a part of the Fisher regime. People get married to the idea of logos and jokes. When you subtract the logo and see that they were a game away from the SEC title, were top-10 in returning production, brought back a quarterback who was figuring it out on the fly and a coach made of the right things, there is so much there. Subtract the logo, and we would be excited about what A&M could be.
   
• I look at Elko, as long as he's calling the shots, I trust him on the football side. It's there in football when you have a coach who specializes on a certain side of the ball. With Elko at A&M, I trust the defense. If the defense is good and getting KC Concepcion, Terry Bussey and Reed in the offense, there's a lot that adds up. I would have a hard time seeing why they wouldn’t be a playoff team.
   
• We talked a year ago in Dallas about Elko. A lot of people see what he brings to the table. Is this what was missing in the Fisher era of having a solid culture, being tough and gritty? All these things in November, on the road, win football games. How long will that take to translate is a guess. At a certain point in time, that's the persona of what Elko is and what the football team will be.
   
• We were at Digital Dash, and the number of times LSU said “national championship...” I thought that was just a thing they would say internally. We all expect to be there. When that is where the goal is set, it’s intense. It's what you sign up for in the SEC. To go back to A&M, I was talking about when Elko got announced. At the press conference, they did the War Hymn and were rocking back and forth. That's jarring for an outsider, but he knew every word and gets it. A&M will do wonders for him.
   
• Notre Dame’s schedule is one of the most suboptimal scenarios. You break in a new quarterback a week after Miami, and then have A&M at home. If you're CJ Carr, play awesome and light it up, you have a full week where you've never been the starting quarterback. Your name is trending on Twitter, and Rece Davis has you as a frontrunner. Then you play A&M. Same thing if you struggle and hear how you suck, it's what headspace you are in.
   
• I watched Reed against Florida. I don't know the exact timeline when he was asked to start, but it probably wasn't a super long runway. He was dealing with Florida, and it was a swampy game.
   
• Is he a psychopath? The only other player I saw the entirety of the season to be that casual in The Swamp was that first game with Cam Ward. But still, to have that presence tells me everything to know about Reed.

Key notes from Jake Crain interview

• "Crain & Company" is something we love and something we’re passionate about. We love the game. We’re very blessed. I try not to sit back and look at being here now, because we’re not where we want to be. It’s been incredible, and the audience has been really incredible. We’re just being ourselves, which is half the thing.
   
• We talk a little NFL, but we want to be an all-around college sports lover show. Football is out. Obviously, you do well when you can talk about it, but what I think is intriguing is that our numbers with college basketball and baseball were better than they’ve ever been. College baseball was insane. We started with having Kendall Rogers on in the postseason, and it just took off. We want to be like a dual-threat athlete. The entree is college football, but we have some really good appetizers with baseball and basketball.
   
• If something’s breaking, we pine on it. At the end of the day, we dance with the one that brought us, which is mainly college football and college sports in general. Even with all of the changes, that’s where our bread and butter are.
   
• The off-the-field stuff is important to SEC Media Days. It’s half-good and half-bad. It’s half-bad because I don’t think many of the commissioners know all the rules and things going on, but there’s always something new to talk about, which helps us. I’m interested in how a coach in any sport can keep and establish a culture where he wants it to be, especially if you live in the transfer portal early. As a coach, you have to walk a tightrope and have your identity. That’s harder to do now, and coaches have a lot more going on with recruiting new guys and keeping guys from the transfer portal. That’s something I’m going to ask Shane Beamer later.
   
• I’ll say this about A&M. If you’ve ever coached a high-level sport, you know that every year is different. There are patterns with the 8-4 jokes, but it drives me nuts seeing media people I respect say it because I know they don’t mean it, people saying they’ll be a certain way this year because of last year. It’s different every year. New coaches, new players, new schedule.
   
• When I look at something like Elko, I think he’s perfect for A&M. His culture feels more gritty, grinding it out, worrying about blocking and tackling, not having disco balls in the coach’s office and turning it into a TMZ factory. Elko is about ball. He gets guys who want to do the little things right. That’s the difference for A&M. No one’s talking about it. I think that’s exactly what Elko wants. Everyone’s talking about Manning, Sellers and DJ Lagway. But no one’s talking about Reed. It blows my mind talking about people we’ve barely seen play, but not a young guy that came in last year in a big moment and did really good things, despite going through normal up-and-downs. When I talk about A&M, people are like, “Oh, here we go again.” It drives me nuts, but I think it’s how Elko wants it.
   
• I think A&M is a legitimate contender to be in the SEC Championship game. I don’t think they’ll win it, but if you play in that game, you have a good chance of making the playoffs. People ask first where you’re best at, but I look at where you’re worst at. Looking at A&M, I don’t see a glaring weakness. I don’t think they’re more elite than anyone at a certain position group. I see balance, structure, depth and an offensive line that I know will fight their guts out and is talented. A&M just hasn’t been able to match the purse with the power with a head coach. I feel like Elko is a coach who fits. I look at 9-3 and think the answer is somewhere in the middle, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they are 10-2. People can make jokes and sleep on them, but when they hired Elko, it was like, “Here we go.” I really believe that.
   
• Another thing that drives me nuts is people saying that a team wasn’t very good last year, but they returned a lot of players, so they’ll probably be good this year. If my car doesn’t work in 2024 and I keep it in 2025, it still won’t drive. We have to prognosticate the schedule, but there are always good and bad surprises. The way Florida ended last year, a lot of people had written them off. You make your best guess, but A&M has a schedule that they should be able to navigate relatively well and give themselves a chance at the end of the year.
   
• I think A&M upgrading is a fair assessment. When you bring talent like A&M does and has, you’re giving yourself the best chance possible. But Elko gets a lot of juice out of the squeeze. A&M should be able to bring in the most talented players and get the most out of them. Replacing names, I’m not so worried about. I know how this team will be built and the little things they will do right. Elko’s track record is fixing things that were a problem the year before. He understands how to tweak things within his identity. You put him at a golden egg location that has the funds and plays in the SEC. Not that they’ll be perfect, but I think you’ll see A&M thrive this year. I expect them to play smart, physical, and be able to adjust in-game.
   
• People will think I’m saying this because I’m on TexAgs, but I’ve been saying this. I think Texas is going to be really good. The roster around Manning… You look at Ohio State, who they play Week 1. You’re going to go through ups and downs with a young quarterback. How high are the highs, and how low are the lows? With Quinn Ewers, you went up and down, but he had a lot more experience. Not saying they won’t make the College Football Playoff, but I don’t see Texas being as dominant as they were last year when we saw what they did to Michigan. I’m not ready to anoint them as the best team in the SEC or the country. This year is fascinating because so many big brand teams have good rosters starting a new quarterback. Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia and Texas. It will be interesting to see which offensive coordinators trust their quarterback early. That’s why the Texas vs. Ohio State game in Week 1 will be interesting. I think Manning will want to prove people wrong or right.
   
• We often forget about the moment in time teams play. I think a lot of it goes back to play calling, too. I don’t think people realize that playing quarterback, there is so much motion involved pre-snap. It’s not just picking one of two plays. Ewers knew the motions. It’s why there’s always pre-snap motion. I want to see how Manning handles the order of operations when he goes to the Horseshoe when it’s loud. Halfway through the year, he will be a lot better at that. Going on the road early is when it will be tested. It’s not just during the play, it’s pre-snap too. Obviously, you want to play guys earlier in the year. Auburn, for example, I’m a lot happier that they're playing Georgia earlier in the year when Gunner Stockton has more experience under his belt. Timing is everything in life, and it’s that way in college football.
   
• Schematically, how you see the game changes all the time. Defense always catches up to offense. It’s always cat and mouse. The on-field stuff, if you know ball, you know ball. You can’t be a defensive coordinator and not know offense. You have to know what you’re going against. Terminology will change, but everybody runs the same thing. They just call it something different. I think the off-the-field stuff is the toughest. I don’t know if it’s easier being all about the money in recruiting, and not just paying under the table and who likes who the best. The retention aspect would drive me crazy.
   
• If you want me to count on the government to figure something out, we’ll be here for a while. What I don’t understand with the market value stuff is why we didn’t have around a $20 million cap that you can spend how you want? If you want to pay a quarterback $10 million, sure. Now, you have $11 million left. But market value changes. Manning’s market value the day before and after the Ohio State game is going to be totally different. I think you’re worth what someone is willing to pay you. It’s like people trying to be cute, blitzing Nussmeier and screwing it up when the answer is right there in front of your face.

Key notes from Cole Cubelic interview

• I still think retention of the offensive line hurts you the same. It's just that more people are finding ways to offset it. With the transfer portal, I think it's the position that's been hurt the most. To be a great offensive line, you have to operate together. There’s chemistry, continuity, wherewithal, know-how and a lot of times, if I'm playing at Auburn, then I go play at Kyle Field... We can’t get every play, and we can’t get the message to our tackles on every play. We have to know how to operate together. You need to know if something’s going to change late. You and I are going to work together instead of not working together to double-team that linebacker. If that linebacker walks up the A-gap, you need to know the running back has him and not bail out of your three-technique.
   
• To be a great offensive lineman, you have to do it at full speed against someone trying to make you look bad regularly. We’ve gotten far away from that. The practice time isn’t near where it needs to be to develop that position. They aren’t wearing full pads and going full speed enough. I think that's why you see teams change from Week 2 or Week 3 to Week 12, because the game reps are becoming valuable practice reps. Now, taking all that into consideration, you have a guy who hasn’t played in that system next to you. He hasn’t even been in the locker room next to you. Y’all haven’t even had friendly conversations before. All of that has to start to change.
   
• A conversation I had with Saban a few years ago at a game at Alabama — It was funny because Josh Maxson was the SID at the time — I said, “Josh, he’s thinking about asking why the guys left.” You always knew when Saban was mad because the foot would start going. He went into this rant, and it was awesome information. It was prefaced by saying that he had 22 guys leave, but only two starters left. “Why are people making a big deal of this?” Saban said, “When we get a guy into our program, he doesn’t know how to lift weights with us. He doesn’t even know where his position practices on the field. We have individual drills that every guy goes through every day, and he doesn’t know how to go through those... I take my DBs through certain drills every day, he doesn’t know how you call a drop step in practice, another may call it a bucket step, sure the play verbiage is different but now all the technique verbiage is different too so to be on the same page can take a long time”. I do think that there are teams’ offensive line groups that aren’t very good, but can inject talent, and all of a sudden make them better. If you’re going to be a great offensive line, you have to be together.
   
• Going back to Kenyon Green, they were together for two to four years, so they know how things work. It’s not just knowing you and I are working together, it's like the guys playing your outside shoulder, and he works right down the middle. How do we operate that double team? If he comes over to me, do you just leave and help me a little bit? If I know you struggle with guys on the outside making an inside move and I'm uncovered, I know I need to work with you first because you tend to get beat inside first. My eyes go over here to be able to help him if he ends up getting inside. Those are things you can’t just talk about for two weeks and all of a sudden be a good offensive line.
   
• I had A&M in my top five offensive lines in the league. I think they are easily in the top three right now. They are in a similar category to how I talked about LSU’s offensive line last year. Matt Barrie already pissed me off this morning. Matt gets in there and talks about the things with the LSU offensive line, and I go, “Stop. I know where you're going”. I said, “Matt, you can’t run the ball when you don't hand it to the running backs.” I don't care how good or bad that offensive line is.
   
• You go back to that Auburn game, and I was in Charlotte in my hotel room. I watched a quarter of that game and I went, “Good God, this is a bloodletting. How is this game not 35-0, A&M?” It was eight yards, 12 yards, four yards, six yards. They quit handing the ball off. My biggest question for A&M this fall is if they will find a personality or will it be Jekyll and Hyde. I think Klein is great. I think there are some external factors of why you go to one thing and maybe leave the other thing. Consistency in football is key. They have to find a way to be something, not from start to finish, because you can grow into being other things, but getting away from things, growing into something else when you don’t necessarily have to, I think that needs to change.
   
• A&M doesn’t need to find ways to win games. They need to find ways not to lose. They were finding ways to lose. That is a real trait with some college football teams. You find ways to lose. It comes down to critical mistakes. Third and shorts, redzone offense, settling for field goals, missing field goals and botching special teams opportunities. That’s where teams find ways to lose games. Maybe that injected a little bit of “Hey, we can find ways to go win, but their roster is so different, there are so many different people. I don’t know how many will actually carry over into this season.” You have a different quarterback who has a different set of skills that need to be different in different ways. You have a receiving core that has been different than what they’ve had maybe ever. They haven’t had a lot of great wide receivers, especially wide receiver cores. I think this group will find ways to win and not worry about losing games. I think they'll excel in a lot of ways that last year's group didn’t.
   
• The A&M offensive line against Notre Dame, I think their line will be good. I think Jeremiyah Love is a top-five running back in college football. They're going to have a really good tight end room. They are not overly dynamic at wide receiver, and I think that’s where Elko can say we don't have to dedicate a bunch of bodies to you 20-30-40 yards down the field. Keep in mind, Mike Denbrock had a quarterback with a lot of wherewithal. A lot of understanding where Riley Leonard may not excel physically, I think he had the wherewithal and was a gamer. I think Denbrock called things down this year. I think he got too creative last year. There were certain games, like the Missouri game, that were dominant but chaotic. From a one-on-one perspective, you were winning a lot. I think this year he will settle guys down. Even though the personnel won't be as talented, I think it’ll be more confident because he’ll settle guys down at times and not create things on their own.