From Radio Row, Day 2: Matt Moscona, Michael Bratton, Ross Dellenger & more

Tuesday morning's edition of TexAgs Radio emanated live from the Omni Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas, the site of 2024 SEC Media Days. Today's special guests included Dave Wilson, Matt Moscona, Michael Bratton, Shane Sheridan, Ross Dellenger, Brooks Austin and Tyler McComas.

Key notes from Dave Wilson interview

• The organization is important. Coaching is a different business than it was three to four years ago. The guys who are more organized... Mike Gundy hired an NFL personnel staff member to help run things. That is what impressed me about coach Mike Elko. It was a hamstring in the last administration.
   
• One thing I have noticed is there is a warmth to, “Hey, maybe we didn't appreciate R.C. Slocum as much as we should have.” He has gotten his flowers in recent years. We realized when we beat cancer that he wouldn’t always be here. He had his challenges, but the longevity and the class... No one wanted to play the Aggies at that point.
   
• There is everything there. That is the one thing you always hear. I have been at ESPN for 14 years. Before he was my colleague, Ryan McGee wrote about A&M being a sleeping giant.
   
• A&M wasn’t a super professional athletic department until Bill Byrne came along. It's been a relatively short time since A&M has been a modern athletic department. The facilities and infrastructure are ridiculous. Look back at the 2011 games. Look at how close those games were. You had Ryan Tannehill and Johnny Manziel. Then 2012 comes. The pieces were there. It has to line up, and that's the hardest part.
   
• 8-4 and 9-3 are realistic. The talent is good. From a national perspective, it was, “Oh, A&M lost everybody.” They did lose some good players, but they gained them. They filled in the holes they needed to fill. It depends on those four losses. I think 8-4 is realistic, but I don't know if the fans would be happy with that unless it's the right 8-4.
   
• When you look at the sheet, and it says 8-5... People are sick of it. 

Key notes from Matt Moscona interview

• When I manage expectations for any team, I say, “Who has the fewest questions against the most manageable schedule?” LSU has a lot of questions and a tough schedule. I think the offensive line is outstanding. It’s a great cornerstone to start with. Your bookend tackles are both projected to be first-round draft picks, and your two guards are fourth- and fifth-year starters who have started their entire careers. The line should be really good.
   
• I think the defense is going to be good. They were atrocious last year. Quite literally the worst defense in the history of the program. You hope they’re better, but to think LSU will be a top 20 or 30 defense in the country... The “Jimmys and the Joes” got to get a lot better.
   
• Here's what I think about LSU: Vegas has them at O/U 9.5 wins, and I think that’s fair because I do think the offense is going to be very good. They’re not going to be the No. 1 offense in the country like they were last year. It’s hard to lose Jayden Daniels and everything he did and not expect them to not miss a beat.
   
• It’s a tough schedule, but the Tigers do get some breaks. What I mean by that is they get an open date before they play Ole Miss. Ole Miss has back-to-back conference road games. They get an open date before Alabama. They play Vanderbilt before they play Oklahoma. Honestly, the toughest spot on the schedule is A&M because it’s back-to-back road conference games.
   
• I think if they can manage the landmines of the first five games and start 5-0... They get an open date before Ole Miss. If they beat Ole Miss and start 6-0, I think the worst-case in the back half is 4-2. Then you’re 10-2, and you’re in the College Football Playoff. If you stumble against USC in the opener, you lose to Ole Miss, and you lose a couple in the second half, then I think an 8-4 type of season is possible.
   
• I can’t say I’ve seen enough of Conner Weigman to have a really great opinion of him, but I look at mock drafts, and I see him in round one, and I go, “You’re not there if the physical abilities aren’t there,” so I think he’s intriguing.
   
• I think Quinn Ewers, for me, would be my No. 1. Carson Beck has all of the ability. I have a little bit of skepticism because everything around him is so good.
   
• I am not a believer in Jalen Milroe. I don’t get it. I watched him play against a legit defense in Michigan, and he threw for like 113 yards. After those guys, I think you have a huge jumble. Weigman, Garrett Nussmeier, Brady Cook, we’ll see how Nico Iamaleava is. I think Nussmeier, if he protects the football, has a chance to be a top-five quarterback in the league.
   
• Jimbo Fisher was kind of the old-school offensive-minded guy. Now, you get a somewhat more new-school defensive-minded guy, so I like what they did with the Mike Elko hire. I like that he has been at A&M and understands the people, personnel, culture and all the stuff in College Station. Also, that he’s been a head coach and been successful at a place like Duke works. I think Mike Elko is going to do fine at Texas A&M. I think an eight- to nine-win season is certainly doable if you’ve got a good quarterback and a strong defense.
   
• A&M is an interesting test case because there’s an expectation, you paid Jimbo the buyout money, and there’s all the turnover.
   
• It’s pretty fascinating what Bud Elliot has done with the Blue-Chip Ratio. It’s so simple, but it’s also been 100 percent fail-proof. If you have more four and five stars on your team than not, then you have a chance to win a championship.
   
• The other thing I think will be interesting is the chances of winning in a down division and your shot to get into the College Football Playoff doesn’t exist anymore.

Key notes from Michael Bratton interview

• We can only go 90 seconds here without being asked about the Longhorns, and it’s ridiculous. It’s not even the best program the SEC is getting from the Big 12. Oklahoma is a better program. I’ve had a good time, but Dallas doesn’t feel like Southeastern.
   
• I’m fascinated to see how many Texas questions coach Mike Elko gets because I think that’s going to be annoying for him. I think it’s going to be half of the questions.
   
• The national media has Steve Sarkisian as one of the top five coaches. I have no idea why. Are we even sure that Texas has a better coach than Texas A&M? I don’t think we are, and I think this year will really expose one of them and show which one is an elite coach.
   
• 9-3 is typically good in the SEC, especially in an expanded SEC without divisions. I’m not saying Texas is awful. I’m not some idiot who hates Texas, but I think they’re far from the best team in this league.
   
• I think ten SEC teams will be in the conversation for the College Football Playoff. That will get weeded out. By late November, it’ll probably be down to six. I throw A&M in there. I throw LSU in there. Honestly, I don’t think A&M and LSU make the College Football Playoff, but if things break right, they could. I’m right there with Tennessee, also. I would throw Texas into that category as well, but I don’t think they make the College Football Playoff. I really don’t.
   
• I think Missouri is going to make the SEC Championship game. I’m not necessarily saying they’re the second-best team in the SEC, but because of the path and what they have coming back? I have them as the fourth-best team right now. I think they’re that good. I think they’re going to be great on offense. I think Luther Burden III is the best player in the country and Brady Cook, by the end of the season, I’ve got him as the best quarterback in the SEC.
   
• We have a milk-chugging contest on the line. I’m telling him the Aggies are going to be favored in that game vs. Missouri. Cousin Shane Sheridan likes Missouri in that one. We’re not picking the winner, just the betting spread. That’s going to be one of the better games. If A&M can beat Missouri, they’re probably going to be 7-0 to start the season. I think Missouri is certainly going to be undefeated going into that game. Missouri has got to beat A&M, Alabama or Oklahoma at home to be in the College Football Playoff.

Key notes from Ross Dellenger interview

• It’s been one thing after another. I explain it as college athletics is bursting from the amateurism structure. This is what happens when an entity has, for so long, been this amateur and now is trying to become professional. You just have all these transformational periods, and we’re in one.
   
• I think that we’re losing some of what makes college sports different and, in a way, better than the NFL and professional athletics, which is a vast majority of programs competing against each other despite differences in resources. For so long, you saw the NCAA, which is just the makeup of the membership, try to legislate competitive equity to continue that feel. When the top of the sport is making so much money, they want to spend that money. The courts have basically told them, “You have to share that money now.” The legislative competitive equity is over.
   
• You never say never in realignment. You try to never report in realignment because it’s always changing. It’s so fluid. Right now, there seems to be little to no interest in expanding from the Big Ten and the SEC.
   
• Texas A&M vs. Texas is a game everyone is looking forward to. I hope that game has College Football Playoff implications because it's probably the only way I can get there.
   
• Texas and Georgia are probably two of the favorites in the league. There are some new interesting matchups, like LSU vs. Oklahoma, to end the year. Florida vs. Oklahoma will play at some point. Also, Alabama returns to Tennessee this year after two years ago and what happened there. What I grew up on was the old Egg Bowl, which could have College Football Playoff implications for the first time in a while.
   
• I think Mississippi State looks at Ole Miss and what they’re doing with Lane Kiffin offensively, and they want something like that. They want somebody that’s going to fire up the fanbase and be electric on offense. I think that’s where that hire drifted toward. Obviously, Zac Selmon had a relationship with Jeff Lebby going back to Oklahoma. Defensively, I don’t know where they’re going to go.
   
• I always said the NIL era would be most beneficial to the segment of schools that have really wealthy donors, who are very passionate and want to see a program that either has never gotten there to get there or that has been there and hasn’t been there in a while. There’s a group of 10 to 15 programs after the blue bloods.