Teague's Take with George Teague

Send us Fan MailGeorge opens from Dallas, glad the cowbells were off his TV early, with a reminder that lands on a Monday: take care of yourself. Turn the screens off, sleep, and stop worrying about the things you can't control — advice he says he got from his son the night before. Then JT walks through a scouting report he put together on Friday, before the game. He watched the first 18 plays of Mississippi State against Missouri, asking one question: where would I attack this team? He came away thinking Mississippi State has talent but is not as good as its reputation, and that you can let them beat themselves. Kamario Taylor didn't look like a quarterback who really wanted to run. The protection left both tackles one-on-one, with the center helping one way and the back inserting the other. When the defensive ends widen, the tackles have to overset, and the B gaps open up. And the left guard, number 50, was the weakest link of all. Where Mississippi State is dangerous is against man coverage — fast, shifty receivers looking for one-on-ones. Keep the safeties high and Taylor starts taking check-downs, and when the pocket breaks down he can get inaccurate. JT also points out one of his favorite things as a safety coach: the quarterback who pulls the ball down to throw and then puts it right back, which means the coverage is winning. Then the Alabama tape, and the foreshadowing pays off. A turnover on the opening drive. Number 51 oversetting while Alabama dips back inside. A boss front that stacks the big guys to one side and forces 50 to block someone on his own. A loop stunt that brings 22 around behind 50 while 99 picks the center — and an argument about who PFF charges with that sack. And the Dijon Lee Jr. pick-six, which is the whole scouting report in one play: pressure, a deep safety, a check-down thrown right into his chest. George adds his takeaways: still too many penalties, a run game that's still working, a defense that gambles and still has to clean up some zone coverage, and Keelon Russell continuing to make big plays. Plus: even and odd fronts versus even and odd spacing, explained — and why Kirby Smart says there are only two fronts, even and under. And the debut of Project Blackwell, JT's college football rating model. It went 45-11 picking winners in its first week, 59% against the spread, and it likes Alabama over Georgia by eight this Saturday. Not betting advice. The film clips and drawings are in the video version: https://youtu.be/JB1ML7DLE2g Subscribe in your podcast app for weekly film study all season.Thanks for listening! Watch the Live Show Mondays at 8:15pm CT on YouTube.MERCHANDISE: https://millions.co/products?athleteIds=0165e442-822c-4217-ab47-f63bc3aa37eaShow Website:  https://teaguestake.comLatest VOD: https://live.teaguestake.comGeorge Teague Twitter: https://x.com/Teaguefootball

Send us Fan MailGeorge spent Saturday at Baylor-Colorado instead of Bryant-Denny, on tickets that fell in his lap from a friend on the John Paul II board. He called the game boring. Then he watched the South Carolina tape and found plenty worth talking about. Alabama won 49-18, and the number that explains it is time. Keelon Russell went 21-of-27 for 365 yards and four touchdowns at 13.5 yards an attempt, and on play after play he stood in a pocket nobody touched — two sacks and three hurries across 27 dropbacks. Alabama's passing PPA was 0.920 against a rushing PPA of 0.090. This was not a balanced win. It was a protected quarterback throwing at will. Eight plays, five on offense and three on defense. The offensive tape keeps arriving at the same place: protection bought time, and time let Alabama call things that simply do not work when the quarterback has to hurry. A long-developing concept out of a dirty bunch that JT calls fancy smash — smash with extra steps, coming from a long way away. A big-boy throw from the left hash to the far numbers, an NFL throw from a college alignment. A four-second pocket where the line passes off a twist clean. A pulled center that moves both inside linebackers the wrong way before the ball goes back the other direction. And a designed quarterback run where one motion erases a defender from the box entirely. Also on offense: why you throw to the grass and not to the receiver, how the players had to be watching film too in order to rip it that fast, and motion as a coverage tell rather than decoration. On defense: the first play of the game goes for a long run, and they spend real time working out who was actually wrong — a defensive end running at the quarterback, a three technique swimming the wrong way, two gaps left open, and whether Metz needed to loop. A disguised coverage that ends with a corner in the deep half. And the pick six, where Lanorris Sellers was throwing to Nyck Harbor and Red Morgan took it instead. Plus: why Alabama finally started fast, linebacker play that looks nothing like the last two years, coaching up Dijon Lee's press technique and why you open before you jam, teaching tackling without the hip drop, and the South Carolina ranking paradox — either Mississippi State is not as good as everybody says, or South Carolina is not as bad as everybody says. George opens the show with a message about ridiculing coaches, and it is worth the six minutes. The film clips and drawings are in the video version: https://youtu.be/qR3GaZI2w7s Just want the film? The 33-minute film-only cut is here: https://youtu.be/poNy4SMgu20 Subscribe in your podcast app for weekly film study all season.Thanks for listening! Watch the Live Show Mondays at 8:15pm CT on YouTube.MERCHANDISE: https://millions.co/products?athleteIds=0165e442-822c-4217-ab47-f63bc3aa37eaShow Website:  https://teaguestake.comLatest VOD: https://live.teaguestake.comGeorge Teague Twitter: https://x.com/Teaguefootball

Send us Fan MailJT goes solo again. The Monday show got bumped by a softball game, and by the time Tuesday came around his dad wasn't available — so it's one host and the film. Alabama beat Florida State 50-36. JT was in New York, checking the score at dinner, watching it sit at 21-6 and wondering whether this was Kentucky all over again or whether Florida State just had Kalen DeBoer's number. Then he watched the tape. Thirteen plays, and the argument is simple: Alabama has a run game. It doesn't look like it in the first half. It looks like it by the end of the second quarter, when the offensive line made Florida State quit. Most of this episode is about how small the difference is. A down block where the lineman gets a half-step too far in front. A center losing three feet of ground and muddying the running back's read. The same play that goes for negative one goes for twenty when the hand placement is right. Plus the best blocking tight end room in the country, single-double-triple O-line communication, outside zone convoys, pin and pull, and what it must feel like to escort a freshman running back untouched into the end zone. On defense: 36 points and too many big plays. A screen Alabama should have read and tackled better, a 56-yard cover two bust where the safety sits down instead of climbing the hash and picking up trash, a 40-yard gain that turns into a race to space because nobody got hands on at the line. Spill versus box, and why the sideline is the best tackler on any team. Then two interceptions — one serendipitous, one earned, because the ball finds effort. The film clips and drawings are in the video version: https://youtu.be/6VKfrU5PU-8 Subscribe in your podcast app for weekly film study all season.Thanks for listening! Watch the Live Show Mondays at 8:15pm CT on YouTube.MERCHANDISE: https://millions.co/products?athleteIds=0165e442-822c-4217-ab47-f63bc3aa37eaShow Website:  https://teaguestake.comLatest VOD: https://live.teaguestake.comGeorge Teague Twitter: https://x.com/Teaguefootball

Send us Fan MailGeorge's internet got cut by a crew digging at his neighbor's house, so JT goes solo. The show goes on. Alabama beat Kentucky 45-17, but the first half was an abject disaster: pick six, fumble, field goal, field goal, interception. Then the second half was 32-0. Four sacks allowed before halftime, zero after, and Kentucky finished 1-for-14 on third down. Thirteen plays — ten on offense, three on defense — aimed at the question everybody is asking: is it Keelon Russell, is it the play calling, or is it the offensive line? The answer keeps showing up the same way, on run plays and pass plays alike: linemen running past the man they are supposed to block. Plus the flood concept and why you don't eat the green bean, fourth-and-one big boy football, and what good pass protection actually looks like when the quarterback finally gets time. On defense: the pick six, a simulated pressure with a hug rush, and a fourth down stop. The film clips and drawings are in the video version: https://youtu.be/BBBljQ2FKcs Subscribe in your podcast app for weekly film study all season.Thanks for listening! Watch the Live Show Mondays at 8:15pm CT on YouTube.MERCHANDISE: https://millions.co/products?athleteIds=0165e442-822c-4217-ab47-f63bc3aa37eaShow Website:  https://teaguestake.comLatest VOD: https://live.teaguestake.comGeorge Teague Twitter: https://x.com/Teaguefootball

Send us Fan MailAlabama beat East Carolina 48-10, and the box score says the run game is fixed. The tape says something more interesting. Labor Day practice and a late film delivery pushed this one off Monday night, so JT goes solo and goes straight to the tape. The first five snaps of the Alabama offense: a DeBoer and Grubb formation from snap one, a CT counter with the center pulling, a muddy four-eye read, and an empty protection with six coming and only five to block it. Then the part that actually matters — five linemen pointing, talking, IDing the mic, and moving people off the ball. Plus one defensive play by request: the big pass Alabama gave up, and why it's eye discipline rather than a blown assignment. If he's even, he's leaving. The film clips and drawings are in the video version: https://youtu.be/ycw9C89HyOA Subscribe in your podcast app for weekly film study all season.Thanks for listening! Watch the Live Show Mondays at 8:15pm CT on YouTube.MERCHANDISE: https://millions.co/products?athleteIds=0165e442-822c-4217-ab47-f63bc3aa37eaShow Website:  https://teaguestake.comLatest VOD: https://live.teaguestake.comGeorge Teague Twitter: https://x.com/Teaguefootball

Send us Fan MailKeelon Russell has the job. The offensive line in front of him is the question — and East Carolina's front is the first real test of it. George Teague and JT open season seven with the numbers, then the tape: ECU's 28.5% stuff rate, 31 rushing touchdowns, a plus-10 turnover margin, and a defensive front that changed its look on nearly every snap of its bowl game. Plus what an Alabama line replacing a third of its room has to identify before it can block anybody. George also has news — he's been named a 2026 Bryant Alumni Athlete Award winner, one of two honorees this year, and will be recognized at Bryant-Denny on Saturday. The film clips and drawings are in the video version: https://youtu.be/_REIc4jtpPQ Subscribe in your podcast app for weekly film study all season.Thanks for listening! Watch the Live Show Mondays at 8:15pm CT on YouTube.MERCHANDISE: https://millions.co/products?athleteIds=0165e442-822c-4217-ab47-f63bc3aa37eaShow Website:  https://teaguestake.comLatest VOD: https://live.teaguestake.comGeorge Teague Twitter: https://x.com/Teaguefootball

Send us Fan MailRyan Grubb came to Bama from Washington before leaving abruptly to take the Seattle Seahawks job. Now we look back at his tenure at the NFL to see what he likes to do now.Thanks for listening! Watch the Live Show Mondays at 8:15pm CT on YouTube.MERCHANDISE: https://millions.co/products?athleteIds=0165e442-822c-4217-ab47-f63bc3aa37eaShow Website:  https://teaguestake.comLatest VOD: https://live.teaguestake.comGeorge Teague Twitter: https://x.com/Teaguefootball

Send us Fan MailTim Smith may be returning for another year but we are going to take a look at his tape to see where he may shine at the next levelThanks for listening! Watch the Live Show Mondays at 8:15pm CT on YouTube.MERCHANDISE: https://millions.co/products?athleteIds=0165e442-822c-4217-ab47-f63bc3aa37eaShow Website:  https://teaguestake.comLatest VOD: https://live.teaguestake.comGeorge Teague Twitter: https://x.com/Teaguefootball

Send us Fan MailGreg Byrne has fabolous idea to stop rushing the field. Alabama State Legislature wants to tax exempt NIL and we look at film of Germie BernardThanks for listening! Watch the Live Show Mondays at 8:15pm CT on YouTube.MERCHANDISE: https://millions.co/products?athleteIds=0165e442-822c-4217-ab47-f63bc3aa37eaShow Website:  https://teaguestake.comLatest VOD: https://live.teaguestake.comGeorge Teague Twitter: https://x.com/Teaguefootball

Send us Fan MailTrumaine Watson of Alcorn State joins us to talk about how we get the big boys up front coached up and improving next season.Thanks for listening! Watch the Live Show Mondays at 8:15pm CT on YouTube.MERCHANDISE: https://millions.co/products?athleteIds=0165e442-822c-4217-ab47-f63bc3aa37eaShow Website:  https://teaguestake.comLatest VOD: https://live.teaguestake.comGeorge Teague Twitter: https://x.com/Teaguefootball