It's time for The Mailbag, presented by Whitney McNutt of Tommy Morgan Inc. Realtors, Edition 116.
I asked for your questions. You delivered. So here we go...
From nas5108: What was Christmas like in the McCready house this year?
We had a nice Christmas. Thank you for asking. We let the girls go buy their own presents on Black Friday and then we wrap them up. No surprises. No disappointments. Carson is very picky, too, so we don't try to do it on our own. We cooked for my parents and some long-time friends of ours. It was a nice day.
From nas5108: What is your overall take on the Harsin hire at Auburn? I think it is a solid hire but very curious to see what kind of staff he can put together because that could be his biggest weakness in my opinion.
Solid. That's the word. Solid. Auburn has resources and he'll assemble a strong staff. Harsin is good. That job is rough right now, though. We'll see.
From StanBReb: Best Hangover Remedies in preparation for NYD and NYD+1?
I'll tag @jaygtate here. He's got a really good one, or so I've heard. My key is drink a lot of water.
From SipRebCard: Thought the Christmas night pod was great. You should add the rest of the family more. Is that on the horizon? Even though we know Cambell is the favorite lol.
It ended up being fun. Caroline loves the spotlight, so she loves to make appearances. I do have a show planned with Carson. Honestly, it's just my attempt to sort of keep him motivated and engaged a bit. It'll be a basketball show, once a week and published on our YouTube page. It's not replacing anything and I don't expect many people to watch. Hopefully no one complains. I'll link it here but that'll be all. It won't be shoved in people's faces. I'm hoping to just give him something that motivates him a bit.
From Morningside1980: Who do you think will be the realistic hire for D-Line coach and is their any real smoke with Auburn trying to hire J. Lebby away from Ole Miss?
I simply don't know who is getting the D-line job. I won't be surprised if there's more of a shake-up on that side, but we'll see.
Lebby is a target of interest at Auburn. That's all I know. How strong? I don't know. I suspect we'll find out fairly soon.
From RebYell: I'm taking my son to the Outback Bowl. Do you now what hotel the team will be staying at? I'd like him to see how BIG the players are, thanks. BTW, are you going?
Best I can tell, it's the Westin Tampa Waterside Hotel.
No, I'm not going. Everything is on Zoom. There's really no reason for me to spend the money to go to Tampa, to rent a car to drive to the stadium, park, go to the press box, wear a mask for five hours and then do a Zoom interview I could do from my house. A lot of writers are doing it. Their newspapers are wasting money. Since I'm my own employer, I'm not wasting that money.
From petervenkman: Do you think that the politics of the pandemic might have played a role in the coaching carousel or will in the future? Just for the sake of clarification, I mean after seeing things like which states will/will not allow fans in the stadiums during this pandemic, etc., will coaches take that into consideration when weighing the pros and cons of different jobs?
Honestly, no. I just don't think that's how coaches think. They look at money and the opportunity to win.
From fbelliott: Do you think more coaches leave kiffin’s staff after the bowl game? If so how many do you think?
My gut says yes, but I don't know for sure. I just think change is normal at the Power-5 level, and I expect some change. How many? No idea. I doubt even Kiffin knows that as of this moment.
From Raylon: What will be Kiffin’s buyout? Also assistant coaches.
It's reportedly $5 million now, so I'm sure Ole Miss would love to increase that. I don't know about buyouts for assistant coaches. That stuff is typically just based on salary and contract years.
From walnutreb: What's your thoughts on sports TV dramas?I'm a sucker for One Tree Hill and Friday Night Lights. The new ones like All American are alittle over the top for me.
I've never seen One Tree Hill. I love Friday Night Lights and I really enjoyed Season One of Ted Lasso.
From hman478: How much do you think you would have made from super chats had you know about them the nights Luke was fired and Kiffin was hired?
I can't even imagine. It would have paid for this equipment in about three hours.
From SendItDownToStan: What is the ceiling for Terry Bowden and ULM?
He's about 5-foot-5, so I'll say the ceiling is just south of 5-foot-5. It's an inexplicable, unforgivable hire.
From Levi275: It LeBron James wins 2 or 3 more championships.. is he considered the best NBA player of all-time? Who do you think are the top 5 players in league history?
No, I think Michael Jordan has that tag and there's nothing LeBron James can do to take it away. As for history, I'd have to start my reference at 1980. Anything before that is an era I'm not familiar with. I'd vote:
1. Jordan
2. Kobe Bryant
3. James
4. Magic Johnson
5. Larry Bird
6. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
7. Tim Duncan
I couldn't stop at five.
From Cubilicious_16: What should be my realistic expectations for the Cubbies this coming year??
Pain.
You should realistically expect emotional pain.
From Walker Bailey: Is there any real smoke to Jeff Lebby being the potential OC at Auburn?
Sure. However, there could be multiple fires. We'll see. At some point, likely sooner rather than later, Lebby is going to leave. He's likely a future star in the coaching business.
From Hannitized: Was the MONSTER satellite dish in someones backyard a larger sign of wealth than a swimming pool when you were a kid? Can you imagine trying to talk your wife into allowing the MONSTER satellite dish in the backyard these days? LOL...Ryan Brown had a segment about this last week...I laughed for 30 minutes!!! Please discuss on a pod!!!
I remember those huge dishes were almost exotic. You knew they had access to mysterious programming you didn't.
I remember the first time we got DirecTV in Mobile. Laura hated the dish and it was small. She was certain it ruined the curb appeal of our home. Then, all of a sudden, we had access to Nickelodeon programming all day and she no longer hated that dish so much.
From Little Mike Strojny: 2 questions1) How many coaches do you see moving at Ole Miss?(Not who and other peoples money)2) Yes ,LSU lost more during the year but arguably still had more talent to lose. How many classes does it take to pile Top 4 elite SEC talent and are we on schedule?
1. Answered already
2. It takes three full classes, at a minimum, to get to the level of talent Alabama, LSU and Georgia have. It takes three classes of four- and five-star talent.
From DeuceMcccluster22: Who would u most want as your qb for one season?tebow 08Newton 10Manziel 12burrow 19????
The right answer is likely Burrow, but I remember 2008 Cam Newton and couldn't pass that up. He was dominant and he did it all by himself, or so it seemed.
From ChargerRebel: How important is it for a coach to find a dynamic QB early in his tenure to have success and why does it seem like so many coaches struggle to find one?
It's a quarterback-driven game. You're not winning big without one. Get the right one and you can recruit around him and, ultimately, past him.
From TX via TN Rebel: Rank these 3 in order of most dominant and provide your reasoning:Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods
I don't know. I'm not a golf guy. I don't watch the sport and likely will never watch the sport. I will say this for Tiger: When he was competing for a title, I was drawn to it. I know Phelps dominated his sport, but I wasn't really all that interested in it at the time. On the other hand, I was fascinated by Jordan and how he dominated a sport that is very difficult to dominate for a decade the way he did.
From OlmReb5: If Lane Kiffin could have a dream staff what would it look like?
Blonde, tall, curvy in all the aesthetically pleasing places.
