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February 18th, we're back. We're gonna try this again. Special interview episode. Chiefs

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Rain Supreme. Yanks are getting ready, loading up. In the studio, Angry J, the commish, the

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Donfather looking nice, pomaded up. Lottie, studio owner. We planned this episode weeks in advance

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as soon as we heard of a change in the high school football scenery. Speaking of planning,

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I mentioned Joe Morello, special sponsor with Capital Securities, his motto and ours,

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there's a life well planned. Skygaze are brewing, Brian's long, whatever. Audrey Tice hits a

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thousand. Congrats, Audrey. Eastern Connecticut, State University Warriors. Gonna see Angry J on

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the daily up there. All right, football show. We got a special guest, the commish getting to work.

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Commish is one of these parents is always talking to the head coach, you know, see if we can get

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more playing time. Yeah, at half time, Mike, it's a good time to talk to you. My kids playing

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time. Bristol's one word to that coach ever. I don't know. He got him here in the studio,

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but I'm trying to get him to come back here. It wasn't easy either. All right, in the house,

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Bristol's own and Selington High School football coach, Mike Trueery. Mike, why'd you hang it up?

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The people in the Blue Knight supporters got to be in tears over this. Just in time for my

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kids senior year too, which I think is great. We're probably gonna run it a lot next year,

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right? I think we're gonna have to, yeah. Mike, better run the ball. Why'd you make the decision?

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You know, it was a tough decision, kind of a multi-year decision, something I've been thinking

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about, you know, since I've had two boys, six and three year old, Georgia Murphy, and I, you know,

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I made the decision, this past off season, I said, you know, this is gonna be the last year. I

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told my wife that it's the only person, other person I told, and she didn't believe me. She

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said, I believe you when I see it. I believe when I see it. She didn't tell any coaching staff?

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I didn't tell any of the coaches. I told nobody. Not your dad? I told, yeah, nobody. I kept it

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tight. So I didn't want it to get out. I didn't want anybody, you know, I never wanted that. It's

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never about me. It's always about the program, the kids. And so, you know, when I finally decided,

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you know, it was after a real tough loss of Staples, I called my defense coordinators now,

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the head coach, Rob Lavec, and I told them, and he was in shock, you know, and I kind of slowly

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told a couple of coaches before I told all the kids on that Wednesday. So, you know, it was just

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more of a family thing. I wanted to be around and be involved in my kids a little bit more at this

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stage of their life. I've been doing it for 13 years, been a second for 14 since 2010. So, you

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know, I had a lot of success and I just, you know, I thought it would be just ready to make it just a

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little different path right now. I know I'm still young, I'm 40, 41. So, you know, if I do, I'm sure

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I'll be back at the head somewhere.

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You look like you know you're going to be back. Just we'll see where, right?

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Yeah, I definitely want to be back. I mean, I love football. I love coaching. I love the kids.

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You know where Maltby Street is? Anyway, we need to sling it around over there. Come on.

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They will. Don't look at me. We want to talk a ton about something. High school football,

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obviously, but talk about your upbringing a little bit. Jury name is iconic name in Bristol. Your

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dad, the patriarch of your family, your brothers played sports locally. Obviously, you did sports

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town, sports family. Talk a little bit about that if you can. Yeah, I mean, you know, I've been around

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sports my whole life. You know, when I was young, my dad, like, you know, he was obviously the head

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coach at Pomp

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Street. I just been around a lot. Then my brothers and sisters were all they're older. You know, my

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brother Chuck is 12 years old. They're Matt's 10 and my sister's four years older, who's also a great

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athlete, great volleyball player. So it's a great town. I mean, rich in tradition in sports. And

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during my time, the youth sports were excellent. We always had great coaches, guys who were committed,

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involved. The athletes stayed in town, played here, which was which was fun. And that's why I

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stayed here. I mean, I live on the street I grew up on. So I didn't go far. I'm right up here,

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right up a Royal Drive here like any golf course. Yeah. So Bristol through a little more elevated

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than than we are Bobby Mac. He's up on the top of the hill. I was up on Nelson's farm for years to

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at one point. So the rest of us. Yeah, yeah. So where'd you go to college, Mike? And with the

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Merris College. Okay, the red, what are they called? And you played? Yep. Biggest alum. Are you

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serious? Who's the biggest? No, no. We're gonna throw a trivia here. Yeah. 41. So like the basketball

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kid from West Harford is here on your range. Jared Jordan was up there with me. Holy cow. Is he good?

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He was a great player. I knew him well. And he walks past you and you're like, how is that the

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kid that's lighting it up? Yeah, great. Yeah, try out for the next. I thought it was a baseball

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player to from Connecticut. Chris Tras, who's now the who's now the head coach army. Okay, so

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he got out of here. Yeah, he was from Trumbull. Patrick Winiger just committed to Merris for

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for running. Oh, yeah. Red Fox. From something that Merris right now. I know I got two kids up

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there right now. I've sent several kids to play up there. So yeah, it's a who's that facility like

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um, very good now. When I was there, it was up and coming, I'd say, you know, so they've done a

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ton of work there. It's beautiful right in the Hudson River. Great, great school. So in high

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school, you know, you're a two way guy like most of the good ones are, you get to college that that

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notion is about the window, right? Like, yeah, it's one way. So would you play? I play I was a

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middle linebacker. So I started there for four years. Was that would have been your choice? I mean,

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oh, yeah, would you rather play to offense? I mean, I like tight end. I like catching the ball a

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little bit. But you know, when I played, I played it versus central. I was tight end, but we were

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black in the whole time for Timmy Washington. So you're the lap to Timmy. Yep. I had six touchdowns

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with first five games in my senior year. And then we made a decision. We wanted to have the first

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3000 yard rusher in the state. So we didn't throw the ball anymore. It was Breon on that team too.

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Yeah, that's not a soft more. Chris Perini. Chris Perini graduated with Chris. He used to live

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right next door. Yeah. And then we had his nephew on the show last week. I don't know if you've

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ever heard of him. The Charter Oak. Okay, so did you bring the noise? Like, did you start? I mean,

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you're a big blitzer. What do we got? What was your game? I was a pressure guy. Me, I was, I was an

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intense player, you know, I like to play the game way it's supposed to be played. So with high

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intensity, you know, listen, my favorite movie growing up about football was the program. So

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it was God, let's go. I mean, that was my senior quote in high school and that everyone could

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play football. We're the lucky ones. So Latimer, I mean, you know, you are a headbutt in cars,

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right? You're gonna fall. Mike, Mike, such a fine line. I like to hear you say that and I'd like to

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watch you play. And I'm thinking like, you get somebody on like a run blitz or whatever, and you

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smack them up with your boys and you get up. What's the fine line between celebrating a good

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play and what we're watching on television now, which is ridiculous. There should be a penalty

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on every play with the taunting. It really bothers me. I mean, there's a lot of that. I mean,

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it's hard because it starts at the highest level. I mean, kids see it now. It's in it. Obviously,

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a lot more is let go at the NFL level, um, terms of celebration, things like that. And that's the

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stuff you got to battle as a high school coach. You're the trickle down of all that, you know,

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and people doing a dance. Yeah, we play the same problem. But you want excitement at the same time.

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You don't want idiocy. You don't want to stifle excitement and energy, but you got to you got

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to play within that fine line. You got to act like you've been there. You know, I mean, the best

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teams and the best players, you know, they're not worried about all that. They're worried about

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winning most first and foremost. Okay. So you go to Marist. Yeah. When does coaching teaching

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enter the equation? I was actually finance major. So, um, I kind of followed my brother Matt. He was

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into finance. I want to follow his footsteps. And I knew, listen, I major in football and

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college. That's one thing, you know, I didn't take academically seriously. I should have. So,

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um, at the end of, I wanted to graduate in four years. I was like, listen, I got to get this

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finance degree done. But I knew going into my senior year, I wanted to teach and coach. I made

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that decision. I knew I was going to go into special education. So I finished my degree and

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then I went right to, right to school at St. Joe's actually for the master's program teaching. And

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then I got involved in coaching at Cromwell High School. Actually, a brist, it was a bristled

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connection that got me involved. It was, um, um, Matt, I don't know if you remember Matt Coyne

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quarterback. There's a coach at Bates right now, football, his dad, Jerry Coyne, called me up. And

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this is like two days before training camp was starting in high school. He said, you want to

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coach football? And I said, yeah, he goes, I'll pick you up to, you know, I'll pick you up on,

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you know, Saturday morning, we're going to go, we're going to go coach at Cromwell. So I started

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that coach here my first two years. And then what were you coaching there? I coached a little bit

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of everything. I coached offensive line, I coached linebackers, um, so special teams coordinator,

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little receivers as well.

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Cromwell daughter, the quarterbacks probably to punter, place kicker and safety, right? It was

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yeah, it's class S football. We played good football and we played against some great high

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level talent. Um, some, some, you know, I mean, this is the day and age where, you know, great

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division one players were all staying in state. They were playing for the public schools. There's

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a lot of great players we played against. So when did you get the job at Selington? And when did

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you start teaching there? I start there. So I, it was, it was funny. I was, I was all set. I was

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going to be at Bristol Central. Like I've been coaching track there for six years, wrestling for

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six years. I was going to be teaching there that fall in 2010. They got a call from DJ Hernandez

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called me up and he said, listen, I get in the head job. I want you to be my defense coordinator.

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So I went over there. I was teaching at Bristol Central still and I went over there as defense

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coordinator, then he left that off season and then that's, I got the job for 2011. Wow. And then I

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moved over there for, for teaching too as well.

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I'm just interested in, uh, you had mentioned the Marist and playing at Bristol Central. As far as

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you kind of mentioned some of the, some of the coaches you played for. And then did you know, like

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right away, like, Hey, I want to be a football coach when your curve is over, or is it just kind of

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something after a couple of years, you're like, Yeah, it was, you know, to me, I was like, I was

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going to be going to the city, working in the city, doing finance, you know, but, you know, I've

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always been around great coaches. I mean, when I was in high school, we actually had three head

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football coaches in my four years. So the first one was Rob Thompson, who ended up being my defense

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coordinator for six years. Rob is maybe the greatest coach I've ever coached with. So you played

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for him? I played for him. And then he became, and then he began. So Rob, Rob was my fresh year was

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his last year as head coach. And then my sophomore year was guy Frank Fercucci. Oh my God, great

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baseball player. Frank, Frank, I mean, Frank is still, I mean, Frank went on the coach at UMass

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Fordham Central Connect. He's now he's now coaching at Western New England. Talked to him

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recently. So he was my sophomore year. And then my junior year was Brian Stroneri, who straw, yeah,

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who's a Bristol guy, but he was actually teaching in science at that time. So he, you know, when he

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came when he actually coached for me when I got the head job at Scythe. So there was a lot of

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connections there. And then my senior year was Dennis Perron. And then that's when Rob Thompson

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got back involved. He, you know, with Timmy Washington without whole offense, that was Rob's

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baby. He created that whole thing. Rob Thompson, great coach. So those guys being around him,

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you know, really kind of real quick, how I want to add Marist. I was at Marist. We had, we had some

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great coaches. This guy Jim Parity. So Jim Parity just retired this past off season. He was actually

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the longest 10 year Division one coach, I think 34 years. So he was great. And he was a great

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mentor. And they actually helped me kind of go down the road of like being a special education

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teacher, going into coaching. You know, I almost coached with them for a few years, you know,

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after high school, but I just had to get my degree. So I stayed in state here.

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Coach, I had a question. So I saw at Marist, you were first team all conference playing linebacker.

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Is it true that you are all American? And if so, what's it like to find out you've been named

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an all American and playing college football? Yeah, I was, yeah, I was all American, a second

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team all American. But that was great. I mean, it was, you know, to me, it was, you know, to me

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is a good culmination of a career. You know, I remember, I tell the kids this story now, like

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when I was in high school, like during this time period, during the recruiting process, I was like,

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I don't know if I want to play football in college. And I, you know, something switched, I said,

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I'm going to play, I'll give it a try. And I love football. I mean, I live and breathe it. So

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that was that would have been the biggest mistake of my life if I didn't. If we knew you were second,

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Jim, we probably wouldn't have had you down here. Sorry about that. Sorry about that. We were second

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team. Not good enough. So coach, Southern's in high school, get back to that, that just a little bit

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powerhouse program, the tradition, you know, what do you got a hundred guys in the program and,

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and stuff like that. Early on in your career, you go back to back in 2013, 2014. I had the

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pleasure of teaching a ton of those kids. So I know the quality of kids that were coming through

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your program. Tell us a little bit about those two years and what you remember the most besides the

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wins and losses. The great thing about that, well, when I got the job, we, the program was in a little

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bit of a disarray at that time period. They just came off of having to, you know, this is like,

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I was the third coach in the matter of like three, four years there. So, you know, the numbers were

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down. We weren't great. My first year was six and four. But we had some great talent coming up. We

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got likes of Steve Ballmer's quarterback and a lot of these great players. So kind of the building

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that up was, was an awesome experience. And then 2013, it was, you know, the mentality was like,

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we were kind of the unsung team, like people didn't know a lot about us. We were pretty good the

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year before. And, you know, that was probably the most exciting game, one of the most exciting games,

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our championship game, playing Fairfield Prep way bigger than us, enormous, you know, one of the

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greatest coaches to ever play, coach high school football, Ed McCarthy, who was at West

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Haven for ever. I remember him and I showed our kids this and, you know, the video and clip, he

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said, ah, yeah, Sintons pretty good. Got some players, but there's no way they're going to be

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on the hang. This is the best team I've seen in 20 years down here in this, that Fairfield Prep and

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show those kids that and they came out and, you know, we kicked their ass. But,

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and then we came back that next year with the goal of winning another championship and really no one,

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no one was able to keep pace with us. We're, you know, to me, it was like the greatest thing you

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think about, you know, the wins are great, but it's like the mentality that the kids had, the,

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the want to, the drive, the effort of every single day. That was an exciting time.

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I got, I got jumped. So when you took over, you said a little bit of in this array.

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So did you just start as in like the weightlifting program? I'm kind of like newer to the area,

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to the Bristol area. And it's from everything I heard, it's kind of like legendary now. Like I

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asked the commission's son the other day, I'm like, if he played in another sports, he just, well, I'd

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play football in a, in weightlifting. I'm like, I didn't know that. He's like, no, no, we just do

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a football weightlifting like year round. Can you, did you jump in, implement that right away? Oh,

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yeah. Can you get into that a little bit? Cause I'm, we asked, we had a Klingon on last week

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and he was awesome telling us about the, the Yukon basketball weightlifting stuff.

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Can you tell us a little about how, what you do and is it, is it year round? It's year round. I mean,

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it's, it's intricate. It's highly important. And first of all, every sport, it should be highly

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important. Every sport, you go to college, right? I mean, every sports training in season, out of

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season, you know, at every level, you know, it could be, I don't care if it's girl sports, boy

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sports, whatever it is, they're all strength training. So if they're not doing high school,

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then, you know, to me, I think they're losing out on something. But to me, it's, you know, one of

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the things that it was kind of engraving with my dad, you know, two state, two of his famous quotes

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that I was like, that we always utilize is like, you know, no weights, no states. It's not going

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to happen. I know it. I love it. Or WRP, weight room pounding. I mean, this is what we're looking

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to try to instill with our kids. But yeah, if the season's done in Thanksgiving or December,

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you know, we're starting, you know, usually a week or two right after that, we're right back into

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the weight room. We're training, we're, we're, you know, getting them prepared. It is, and we train

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in the morning. So we're, you know, we started at 5.50 in the morning, done at seven o'clock, kids

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are showering there. And that's, that's commitment throughout the entire year. Coach, the whole

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summer. Coach, I feel bad for these parents. I got to get up there. Hey, come on. They want to win.

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They want to win. I like the wind. I'm not that much. Coach, I know you talked about your, your dad

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a couple of times. I know him. He's salted earth guy, one of the, one of the greatest guys I've

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ever met. And I know everybody here knows him as well. Yeah. Talk a little bit about your father's

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influence and how cool was it to have him on the sideline? Regardless of the outcome, outcomes

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of games and you guys can talk after games and just some of those maybe Sunday dinner type of

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conversations and how cool that was for you. It was great. I mean, like I said, I was at

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every one of his games growing up. So I would, I saw him on the sidelines. He's cool, comic

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collective now as a grandfather and this and that, but he was a wild man as a coach. I mean,

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headsets flying this and that. He also, you know, when he was coaching JV basketball, I was embarrassed

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to go to those games, you know, next, you know, kicking the bleacher, the old wooden bleachers,

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the back heel, yeah, scream like, listen, let's comment that a little bit. But when I had the

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opportunity, when I actually was going to be offered the job, one of the kind of things,

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because I was younger, right? And they, they wanted to make sure that I had a good support

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system was like, you know, can you get your dad to come with you? So the call I made to my dad was

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like, you know, he was already just retired from teaching that year. And I said, you know, will

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you come? And I felt bad because I'm like, you know, almost forcing him to retire from

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Pound Brock, but he came obviously, and it was been tremendous. I mean, we've had some great

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wins, tough losses. But again, with us, it's, you know, we have such a really tight knit family.

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You know, we talk a ton of football, but again, it's just talking regular life stuff. And, and

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he's, he's an amazing person, you know, someone I'm not, you know, I wish I could, he strived to

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be like him, like he's a one, he's one of a million guy. So you're playing high school football,

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while he's coaching a popper, right? Yes. So he didn't see many of your games at all. Well,

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the way he kind of worked it out, you know, he was smart, like when he was, they were still playing

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on Saturdays, we were in Bristol, we were playing Friday nights. Right. So he's able to see most

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of the games there. And then when I went to college, he pushed to get the lights. So they were

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playing Friday nights. So he didn't see Saturdays. It's a good ball. Take it afforded out there.

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What's that facility like? I mean, the football field's right on campus, right?

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Yeah. So is that what they played? They don't have like a stadium or not like that? No. No.

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It'd be nice. Can we jump to Sullington? My first experience ever going to a game this year to

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support my favorite player in your team, my godson, Callipedic. You give it back.

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I got there and I heard the national anthem as I stepped out of the car and I'm like,

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perfect, I'm going to get in right on time, play in the Britain. The line I stood in was

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about 200 feet long. And I'm thinking, Oh my God, this is not like who's the tonic Gilbert, right?

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Right. Were you amazed at the following of Sullington football? You probably knew it growing

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up, but I can't believe what a big deal it is. I'm even thinking dollars and cents with a number

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of people there. I'm like, they got to make a nice nut like every home game, right? Yeah. Winning

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matters. He had something to do with that. Yeah. Winning matters are that, but there's,

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like I said, when I was growing up, our biggest rival in high school, we were pretty good for a

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few years was Sullington. It wasn't Eastern at the time. They were a little down. And you always

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look at them. We have 35 kids on our team, soft ones through senior, they got 100. You look at

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that. So the tradition's been there for a long time, like I've always said with our guys. And

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it's going to be there for a long time after. There's people who care about it in the community.

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The parents care about it. The kids are hungry. I mean, the one thing there are some myths about

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it, like, Oh, wow, it's a factory. You get all these guys, all these players. Listen, the amount

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of work that goes into it is tremendous. I mean, there's a lot of work that gets put in between

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the players, parents, coaches to play well. You know, I mean, you know, because you're only

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getting with the talent you have every year. So when you have sustained success like scientists

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had over these decades, like there's a lot of work that goes into that. But it's a great place.

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Let's talk about this season a little bit, if you don't mind, just because, you know, I was a

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follower of it. It was a great night for Connecticut football when one, two, three and four were playing

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within a matter of a few miles one night. Yeah, that was Maloney hosted Greenwich. Yep. And you

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guys hosted Staples who you would eventually fall to at the end of the season. And then one of the

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games was a weird ending. Was it yours with a weird field goal? It was the Maloney game. Yeah.

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But great night for the area to bring those powers into central Connecticut and say this is, you

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know, this is where it happens. Like, so you guys were part of, you know, the class of Connecticut,

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like, but you had you had tough luck. The Hall game, I'm sure has to be like, how did,

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if it doesn't rain that night, and I know you can't feel it, I mean, that's a different outcome,

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right? Big time. Yeah, absolutely. It was still should have won. We just, you know, we fought,

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there made some mistakes, there's personnel things, there was a lot of, you know, penalties that you

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can't have in those situations. So that was that was a tough one. But you know, the kid, like I said,

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these kids bounce back, you know, we built that into like understanding like, hey, you lose one,

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you got to you got to fight back that next week. So there was never that. The good thing about the

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season, you know, there was never that with a loss, like, oh, you deflated, you lost the team, that

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never happened. No, there was always another one that was just as important. Yeah, absolutely. So

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I go to the Manchester playoff game. I don't think I was ever colder in my life. Your kids are out

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there with no sleeves on some of them. These kids were ready. And the elements were not fun. He's

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talking about the toughness of your roster this year, the talent. I got to know some of the names.

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Lottie has coached some. Oh, and by the way, where are the tougher kids from? Kennedy or DePauw?

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Oh, come on. There's listen, I'm judging the phys ed teacher. There's no difference. They're

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both tough. Right. Love them both. Good answer. Yeah. Yeah, these are tough. Yeah, these are

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hard notes kids. These kids love football. They live and breathe it. They have their entire lives,

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their youth program. That's one thing I'll say is the youth program is excellent in town. You know,

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I had my kid playing flag football there and it was legit in terms of the coaches and their

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commitment and dedication. So these kids now, you know, it's 10 degrees, it's 20 degrees,

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it's a five degree windshield, like you're going no sleeves. Let's go, especially the offensive

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linemen. Yeah, Bobby, you mentioned Maloney. I wonder this interesting story there. Last year,

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you guys are one and two when you played a big game this year against them. Talk about Kevin

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Frederick in your relationship with him. You go with the Marist together. Yeah, yeah, coach Maloney.

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Yeah, so we were together. He lived with me up in Marist for he was two years younger than me. So

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he lived with me for a year and then, you know, we've just stayed extremely close ever since he

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coached with me in 2010 with with DJ and then in 2013 he came back and he coached with me during

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the championship here. Yeah, we're, you know, in each other's weddings. We just went away

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together last weekend on a ski trip, you know, with our family. So we're very tight, but very

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competitive. Playing against each other though. What's that like? Oh, listen, we're both as

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competitive as they come. So, you know, we hate each other that week. I saw it. I think this year

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before the game, your kids went over with the flag in front of them. There's little dust up.

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And then you guys were having words, I think, before the game. I actually was rewinding on tape

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because I think so these guys are talking to each other was like cross the field, you're waving

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at them, then you're walking away, walking back at them. Just you put that friendship aside during

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the games, obviously. Sometimes it happens. We both get fired up, you know, you know, even when

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we were playing college, like he was in the offensive side, I was on defense side with a lot,

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you know, there's a lot more chatter and talking in college than there is in high school, right,

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even in practice and stuff like that. So, yeah, he's, yeah, he's done a great job there. They got

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a good, you know, they get great talent in meridian, you know, they always have. And I think like he's

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cultivated it really well. You talk a little going back to your previous answer. Talk about kids

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that are committed to the sport and love football in the South and on a Friday in these middle

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schools, every boy has their jersey top on. So, I mean, talk about what you guys have cultivated

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through the youth system. We try to do that, I think, what we know here in the boys basketball

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with the boys and girls club with the travel stuff. But at that lower level, that's your farm system,

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that's your feeder system. And they have done a great job. Can you talk a little bit about

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what makes Coach Levec the right fit coming in to take the tradition over and everything that you

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built? Yeah, and if you know, Rob came on with me in 2017, working on the defense side of all under

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Rob Thompson that year. And then he's been our defense coordinator ever since. Rob's in the

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building, which is huge. You know, to have that job, you got to have someone who's in the building.

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It's important. I think any head football coaching job. He's been committed. He's been my right

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hand man for the past several years. And, you know, he's got a great relationship with the kids.

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He's hungry. He's competitive. He wants to win. Like, you know, and you want to have someone in

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that position who wants to win. And, you know, we're going to have a lot of our same staff and

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that's going to continue on. I think he's going to create a great structure. So, I'm excited to see

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how he's done. He's been a head coach of wrestling for a bunch of years at Glassenbury in at Manchester.

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So, he's been around the game his whole life. You know, he knows the game. So, we're excited for

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that. We're excited for that. I wanted to ask you that the fact that you're losing

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quite a few offensive weapons, that playing through your decision at all or not at all?

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No, not at all. Like I said, I made the decision, you know, listen, I knew that we have a great

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couple of groups coming up right now. You know, you have your, the freshman class

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is one of the best classes we've ever had. The eighth grade class coming in

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has lost like one game in four years, five years, something like that. So, there's some great

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talent coming up. And like I said, the only decision was based off my kids and me wanting to be

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involved in this stage in their life a little bit more. And I knew if I was going to stay this year,

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I'm staying for the next six, you know, because that's, there's going to be great, you know, and

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that's the hardest thing. There's never a good year, you know, you get kids like your son, you know,

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who are great kids, who I love them. And it's like, you don't want to let them down, right?

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But you know, at one point it's like, you're going to have to let somebody down.

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Right. Otherwise, you're going to, you're locked in. And I just, you know, I felt I needed that

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little time right now. Do you see yourself going to games and how much will you still stay involved

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with the program? Opening night next year? Are you there? I got to see what I'm doing. I mean,

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that's it. Yes, I'm still involved. I mean, I talk to Rob every single night. I talk to a lot of

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the coaches every single night. So I'm still heavily involved and kind of help them through the

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transition of everything, getting everything going. I was in the weight room this Friday morning. So

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I'm still going like about once a week with the kids. You know, I just got to see what, what that's

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going to look like. I don't want to, to be an awkward or weird situation, you know, what I mean?

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Like former head coach, like it wouldn't be for me. It wouldn't be for Rob or the kids, but you

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know, outside people looking at things like that. I got to jump in real quick. Were you involved

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with who was going to get the position? Because you obviously are leaving it in a fantastic spot.

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Were you with the, did Steve Risner, did he ask for your input or did you have any?

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Were you on an interviewing committee? I was going to be on the committee,

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but then three of my coaches were going for the job. So I didn't want to be on that. And

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you know, they, you know, I have a great relationship with the administration in, in, in town,

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you know, and Steve Risner and my cracker principal who were kind of spearheading the

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hiring process. He's got the O in the end. But he, you know, so they, they took my input,

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but I didn't want to, I wanted them to make the decision. I said, listen, these guys, they're

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all going to be excellent candidates and all of them can do the job. You know, and they made the

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decision based off that. So I didn't want to be, I didn't mean to put you on a spot. But they kept

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me abreast. What was, you won two state championships, correct? So what was the difference like between

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getting back to the top of the mountain and, you know, staying up there? Like, what's the

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difference between the two teams? And did you have to approach the seasons or your opponents

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differently after you're already up there? You know, to me, it's like, you know,

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Scythons always had a bull's eye on its back. You know, teams are always going to be looking at

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like, Hey, this, you know, when, when teams beat us over the years, you know, there weren't many

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teams that did like, especially within the conference, but you know, when it happened,

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you know, it was the Super Bowl for them. It was like the biggest game ever, you know, so,

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that, you know, that's one of the things with the kids. It's like, listen, you are going to have,

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you're going to get everybody's best. So you have to give everything that you got, you know,

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in our mentality, always in the off season, all our training is like, we're looking to compete.

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It doesn't matter who we're playing that week, we want to compete and play with the best

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in the entire state, you know, so it's hard. You got to stay up there. You got to keep,

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you got to work that much harder. We've all coached at different levels. And a lot of us here are

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educators as yourself. What has changed the most in coaching from the time you started until the

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day that you retired? Is it, is it the parents? Is it the kids? Can you talk a little bit about

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some of the adjustments you had to make as years went by? Because as educators and coaches, Bobby

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Mack and I talk all the time, how much different it is nowadays than it was just like 10 or 15 years

360
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:37,040
ago. Yeah. You're always going to have that difference. But to me, it was like, I thought in

361
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:41,840
my experience, you know, we've had great parents, you know, I really have had, I mean, I can count

362
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:47,200
the amount of parent issues on like two fingers in my career, which has been great. But in the kids

363
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:52,720
are hungry, the kids are tough, there's not a lot changes there. But I think with like social media

364
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:56,320
and that whole aspect of it, I mean, that has been the biggest change to me. It's like, how do

365
00:30:56,320 --> 00:31:00,080
you manage that? How do you do this? You got to do these different things. And the recruiting process

366
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:04,480
is totally, you know, that's that's been flipped upside down, you know, from the college level,

367
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:07,920
all the way down to the high school level. So that those have been the biggest, the biggest

368
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:11,600
challenges and changes. But other than that, I mean, the kids are kids, parents are parents,

369
00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,400
they care about their kids, if you're doing the right thing, you're doing the right thing by their,

370
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:19,040
by their kids, you're not going to have a lot of problems. Coach, do you think football lends itself

371
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:26,560
to maybe people staying in their lane? Because, you know, with the amount of film that the experts

372
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:34,640
watch, really, the average, you know, Joe parent shouldn't be questioning the expertise of coaches.

373
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:41,360
And you can play if you want to on a given night, 40 guys, right, have a significant impact on a

374
00:31:41,360 --> 00:31:47,360
game where if you're coaching, let's say hoops, five guys are going out there and everybody

375
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:52,400
else's parents are pissed off. Like, do you think that football maybe lends itself to that?

376
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:56,000
It's not a cut sport, you know, whenever you're involved in cut sports, baseball, basketball,

377
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:59,200
you know, that's tough, you know, someone's gonna cut, then you got your kids made a team,

378
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:02,640
then they're not getting enough playing time and this and that and the other. And then there's a

379
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:08,960
lot more to on top of that. With the other sports, you know, with youth sports, all the outside teams,

380
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:14,080
the travel teams, club teams, this, that and the other. So, you know, this kid is a starter on

381
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:17,760
this team, this club team that time, but he comes to his high school and he's not, you know, and

382
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:23,520
his parents are paying five grand a year to play on these things and they expect it to translate.

383
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:27,920
It doesn't a lot of times, you know, as you guys know, but in football, yeah, you got a lot more

384
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:33,840
kids playing. You know, if you set the X, I think the big thing is you set the expectation with the

385
00:32:33,840 --> 00:32:39,440
parents, how you want the communication to go, you know, how the program is organized, you know,

386
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:45,440
and listen, I've never not played a kid because he was better than another kid, you know, or, you

387
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:49,200
know, so, you know, we want to get the best players in the field. I mean, that's what I'm trying to

388
00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:52,640
win. And like you said, the weight room is the great equalizer too. You can tell a kid, if you

389
00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:56,400
go in that weight room and you work your ass off, you're gonna play. Yeah, you'll get a chance.

390
00:32:56,400 --> 00:33:00,560
A lot of guys are gonna play. You stick with it, you work hard, you got a chance, which is amazing

391
00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:05,600
for sports. Yeah, you know, yeah, and that is an equalizer because, you know, other sports, you

392
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:10,640
might just have the talent to set the other in and this can kind of like level that playing field.

393
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:18,400
Coach, NFL, PA, they shut down a lot of pad work, a lot of tackling during the

394
00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:23,520
week. And as they probably should, I mean, now that we're learning more about what's happened to

395
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:28,320
these people over time with concussion and, you know, Earl Campbell, you know, can't walk,

396
00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:35,200
yeah. What is, first of all, what does a college practice look like in terms of how much contact

397
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:41,040
there is? And then what does a high school practice look like in that? And do you do not no pad days,

398
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:44,880
walk through days? Are you getting after it every day? I mean, you know, you talk about, you know,

399
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:50,480
college, it's different, you know, there's, there's places like, you know, I've met with a lot of

400
00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:55,360
high level college coaches from a lot of different programs, you know, every year we, us as a staff,

401
00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:59,760
we go to the Penn State, we do a coaching clinic there, we watch their practices, we're meeting

402
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:05,280
with all their coaches. And, you know, you're seeing the differences, but you know, some places,

403
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:08,480
there's some programs, even high level programs where they are tackling every single day.

404
00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:12,960
What do you think about that? I don't agree with that. I don't think you need to, but some places do.

405
00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:17,840
I mean, you know, I remember some of the coaches at Temple, you know, they were like, we tackle

406
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:22,000
every day and they were really good at that point. And those coaches, coaches went on to coach and

407
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:28,240
high level, a lot of those guys in the NFL. But to me, it's like, you know, there's definitely

408
00:34:28,240 --> 00:34:33,360
less contact nowadays from when we played in terms of like, bring people to the ground,

409
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:38,480
things like that. The one thing that you do have is you have a lot more plays, the pace of the

410
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:43,200
games faster, you're getting, you know, which is great. I love it. You know, I was watching the,

411
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:48,160
this is what I was watching the other day with my son, we were watching the Bills

412
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:53,440
dynasty, you know, about their four years in a row. It was awesome. But it's a little fast.

413
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:57,040
They were playing back then. I go, this is what I love. This is the way I've always coached and

414
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:01,680
played like basketball. You know, this is, we're going fast break, you know, every single day. So

415
00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:05,760
you do more than that. You know, but the biggest thing is you want to keep the kids healthy,

416
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:09,200
you know, so you're not, you know, we're not bringing kids to the ground. We, our kids,

417
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:14,160
last year, we invested in the program to get the guardian caps for all the kids. Oh, wow.

418
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:17,920
And I went down to Penn State and I saw that and I said, they're all wearing them. I'm like,

419
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:21,680
well, you know what, these guys are, you know, we got to be doing, let's do this.

420
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:24,960
So do the kids wear those every day? They wear them every day. Just practice.

421
00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:29,760
So do you like to follow up on Max's question? Do, is there just certain days you tackle,

422
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:32,000
do you not tackle at all during the week? We don't.

423
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:36,480
As the season goes on, is it less and less or? It's, it's, it, we don't tackle a lot during the

424
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:41,520
week, but, you know, there's usually like one or two periods that we're going ones versus ones

425
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:46,160
where it's competitive. Even still then we want to try to stay up, but there are some tackling,

426
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:50,480
but we try to keep them up the whole time. But again, it's not necessarily the tackling,

427
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:55,280
you know, it's the constant, you know, the continuous stuff. So the, the position groups

428
00:35:55,280 --> 00:36:00,000
where you got to kind of manage it and keep it under control is up front. It's the whole line,

429
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:04,080
D line in the box, you know, linebackers, those are the guys are getting hit. Those are the guys

430
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:07,200
are taking those little hits all the time. So those are the ones you got to make sure that,

431
00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:12,240
you know, you're, you're managing the repetition, you're managing the tempo and speed of a practice

432
00:36:12,240 --> 00:36:17,440
you get, you have some of them where you're thud, which is more full speed to walk through to on

433
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:24,720
air. So, but you know, we're in pads every day. Okay. So we, one thing we do on this podcast,

434
00:36:24,720 --> 00:36:31,920
we throw random weird trivia questions that nobody really knows. You mentioned the bills dynasty,

435
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:37,440
the force were both, or the name of their, their offense, what did they call it? Their offense was

436
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:48,720
the Zen be no, it was the, I just saw yesterday. I could be wrong. Was it a K gun? K. It was the

437
00:36:48,720 --> 00:36:53,840
K gun also. They get a lot of credit for the bills, but somebody, another team actually started

438
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:58,880
doing that before them. Does that mean know what that is? Oilers. Dolphins. No Cincinnati

439
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:03,120
Bengals. There was boomers size and was calling the plays at the line with four. I think it was

440
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:09,840
a force. No, same way. Same way. What was the name of Warren moon's offense? Buddy Ryan called

441
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:17,760
the truck and duck. He did. Was it the red gun? Something like that. But that mode, those guys

442
00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:23,280
weren't stopable. He's too young. He might not know that. Oh, he know he's 41. He got it. Coach,

443
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:28,080
speaking of, you know, you've been a little younger than us here, like, and you obviously keep

444
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:34,160
yourself in decent shape. Wasn't the last time in a practice you said, that's it. I'm going to

445
00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:39,360
show this guy. And did you ever like it? I'm sure you mix it up with the line. I got to mix it up.

446
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,400
I got to mix up with those guys a little bit sometimes. You know, I'll mix it up a lot in the

447
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:46,480
weight room. Let them know I still got it. Yeah, we get after with them in there. And then, you

448
00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:50,640
know, I have a good arm. Like I was going to be a quarterback my senior year in high school until,

449
00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:54,640
you know, Rob Thompson was like, no, we're actually going to put Timmy Washington at this,

450
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:59,120
you know, but I can throw the ball. I can throw it. So I'll throw a lot in practice with our kids.

451
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:03,760
And, you know, so get competitive that way. But, you know, sometimes I got to let them know, like,

452
00:38:03,760 --> 00:38:08,560
hey, listen, I still got a little something in me, you know, they got to feel it. Hey, speaking of

453
00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:13,680
quarterbacks, your quarterback, I don't know much about him, but it seems like an amazing story.

454
00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:17,760
I heard he can't throw a baseball, but he can sling the football. You see the brace on his arm. I

455
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:21,600
think he had a brace on his arm, right? Can you just talk about what that kid went through and

456
00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:26,800
and what it's like, you know, what people don't know that these kids go through? Listen, you know,

457
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:31,840
that's one thing about science and we've had, you know, our kids have injured or this or they have

458
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:37,120
to have surgery or stuff like that. They're they're they're doing everything in their power to get on

459
00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:42,000
that field, you know, delaying surgeries. This sat in the other at a quarterback years ago, Jay Rose,

460
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:45,520
who was getting novocaine shots in the shoulder because he had separated shoulder for the first

461
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:51,840
six weeks of the game without us doing it. But it was a CJ D Benedetto was a quarterback at the

462
00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:56,880
baseball baseball first guy, great kid, you know, was playing in a, you know, getting ready for the

463
00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:01,120
playoffs last last year in the spring and they were playing a scrimmage. Each picture was just

464
00:39:01,120 --> 00:39:06,320
one any and he's really a closer reliever type guy. And he just hears a pop and he tears his UCL.

465
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:10,720
So us as a staff, we are, you know, our hearts are dropping. We're like, Oh, God, what are we going

466
00:39:10,720 --> 00:39:16,080
to do here? And, you know, a couple weeks later, he's like, I still want to, you know, we're,

467
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:20,800
I'm talking through the whole thing and he comes to a Yukon seven on seven rubber Yukon doing a

468
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:24,720
passingly tournament and, you know, first, he's like getting warmed up, I'm feeling good, I'm

469
00:39:24,720 --> 00:39:29,040
feeling good. I'm like, okay, all right, let's see the first play you throw as it kind of goes into

470
00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:32,640
the dirt and it hurt. And then he was out and we had another kid play the rest of the day and

471
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:36,640
in to me, I thought that was going to be it. He wasn't going to be able to do it, but did PT,

472
00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:40,080
got himself ready, didn't want to leave, you know, didn't want to lose his senior year with

473
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:44,960
his guys and played the whole season with the tour and UCL and threw the ball down the field.

474
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:49,360
Oh, he led the state and passing yards and passing touchdowns from a different arm slot too. Right.

475
00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:53,600
He was, he was slinging a little bit too. The way he was throwing was different arm slot a little bit

476
00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:58,000
from Monday because he still a little bit. Yeah. But he was, you know, and he threw the ball ton of

477
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,200
practice. We didn't have to manage his reps. I mean, initially I thought we really reworked,

478
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:06,800
didn't have a lot of pain, didn't have anything. He was able to, to fight through it. And they said

479
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:11,520
he led the state in, you know, all quarterback passing categories. What about your, what about

480
00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:15,680
the weapons you had on offense? I mean, there's like five of them. Yeah, that's great receivers.

481
00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:21,120
Yeah, we really did. I wonder, one of those weapons was Evan Anderson. Yeah. Overcame injuries a

482
00:40:21,120 --> 00:40:26,880
couple of times. Great player. Had his dad pass away while you're, you know, last year during the

483
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:31,040
season, you had another kid lose a dad in the program. How do you, how did you handle that kind

484
00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:36,640
of stuff? I mean, those things, you know, when you become a coach, there's no like, okay, coaching

485
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:41,440
class that tells you how to handle those things. No script. No. You know, that was, we were getting

486
00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:46,800
ready for a game Thursday night and I got a call from another kid's parent, John Flynn, and it was

487
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:50,560
another great receiver for us this year. I mean, his mom would never call me during the practice

488
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:55,920
and I'm like, what is going on here? She let me know that, fortunately, his dad passed away,

489
00:40:55,920 --> 00:41:01,520
workplace accident. So, you know, it was, it was a horrific thing. I went to his house that night,

490
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,400
you know, a deal on that little thing. He said he wanted to play the next day, the very next day,

491
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:08,000
he gets hurt and loses the rest of his season. But he scored two touchdowns.

492
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:11,360
He scored two touchdowns. First play of the game, he scored a touchdown. It was impressive.

493
00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:16,160
That was probably one of the most powerful moments of my sports career. You know, first play of the

494
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:19,440
game, we're like, we're going to get him in the ball quick. Boom, takes the six yards of the house

495
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:25,840
and everyone's crying. We're crying on the sideline. Oh, geez. But then sports will kick you in

496
00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:28,800
the ass every now and then he gets hurt and he's basically two minutes later, he's hurt and he

497
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:32,800
misses the whole season. Has that surgery? Oh my God. In that game? Yeah. Very next day after

498
00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:38,960
his dad died. So it was a horrible situation. Was he out for the hall game this year too? Oh, no,

499
00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:42,640
he was in. He was in, but he was still banged up a little bit. He was limited through the first

500
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:48,240
part of the year. But he never missed a game. He was tough as nails. I guess that game didn't

501
00:41:48,240 --> 00:41:51,040
really hurt. I mean, I know you brought it up now three times. You're probably like, what are you

502
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:55,920
talking about? But like, I mean, you guys are in the semis. So like, right? I mean, you got to beat.

503
00:41:55,920 --> 00:41:58,960
Hate losing them. Yeah. Coach, the season a long haul.

504
00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:05,040
Coach, you talked a little bit about going down to Penn State and knowing some of the

505
00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:11,040
temple coaches and things like that. Football lifer, who influenced you or some of your idols,

506
00:42:11,040 --> 00:42:17,920
maybe other high school coaches, maybe college coaches, some NFL stuff, or maybe you've been

507
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:21,920
to some clinics and something just clicked. Somebody said, you know, something during the

508
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:27,360
presentation. And can you talk a little bit about besides your father, who we know was a huge influence,

509
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:33,680
some of the coaches that you kind of look up to? Yeah, just being around it. I mean, you know,

510
00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:38,560
if you look at just Bristol, for example, a lot of my experiences there, you know, guys like,

511
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:42,560
even like Joe DeFlippi, I mean, Joe DeFlippi, I was at every practice with him growing up with my

512
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:47,360
dad and just seeing him, the passion he coached with. And even a guy like Eddie Phelan had that too.

513
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:52,640
I mean, I was, you know, he was a madman, but, you know, he was he was fun. You know, Dennis

514
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:57,840
Sigmund was a big, you know, big guy for me just because I was involved in the wrestling world.

515
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:03,760
I still am. I'm helping coaching his grandson now and the gladiators. Brian Archibald Archie,

516
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:07,360
you know, Archie was, you know, he's in my wedding. I mean, we became very close. And,

517
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:12,880
you know, I started coaching with him and just people like that who have been like around great

518
00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:18,160
coaches, you know, growing up. He's a hell of a wrestling coach. Oh, he was great wrestling coach.

519
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:22,720
You know, talking about another thing in Bristol, this is 2000, probably six, seven.

520
00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:28,320
And Lou Holts comes to Bristol Central High School to get to give a talk. I remember that. Yeah. And

521
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:32,880
it was, you know, I remember just sitting there listening. I'm a young coach and I'm like,

522
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:36,640
I'm dialed in when I'm a type of guy where I go to a clinic where I go to see someone talk, I'm

523
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:41,280
going to I have pages, I have books of notes. I'm a handwritten note guy. I'm going to write a thousand

524
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:46,400
notes, everything they do. And he was talking about his, you know, what's important now,

525
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:51,760
you know, portion of the philosophy of how he coaches, you know, of every little piece of like,

526
00:43:51,760 --> 00:43:55,280
hey, we're here right now doing this is podcast. This is the most important thing right now going

527
00:43:55,280 --> 00:44:02,720
on in my life. So, you know, to me, it was like an after every, every practice plan, every email,

528
00:44:02,720 --> 00:44:07,760
all that stuff at the end of it was WIN, when, you know, what that means, and what's important now

529
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:12,720
and the focus of that. So, you know, the things like that stuck with me. I love that. What's

530
00:44:12,720 --> 00:44:16,560
important. We were at that presentation, or that new holds, I think it was out South Carolina,

531
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:21,600
might have just gotten that job if I recall, and he was fantastic. He was great. How did you get to

532
00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:27,280
go? I know people. All right, I'm going to throw some Connecticut high school coach. I'm not an

533
00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:34,320
expert. We didn't, we didn't have it in our high John and I, the commission we played for an undefeated

534
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:41,360
program and coach Arlo angry Jake, because we didn't have a team like. So, I love this, this whole

535
00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:48,800
like football community and the competitiveness of it. Jim Wanker, do you remember that name?

536
00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:55,520
It was at Windsor. I do. Any thoughts of him? Jack Cochran. Jack Cochran? Absolutely. Good or bad.

537
00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:59,280
What are we thinking? Listen, there's a lot of mix. I've always had a great relationship with Jack.

538
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:05,520
You know, just, just as another colleague as a coach, he was a tremendous coach. Does the

539
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:10,560
rules still exist? The rules out. And now they have the running time changed. So that rules out.

540
00:45:10,560 --> 00:45:14,640
I didn't know that. Jimmy Cochran. Jimmy Cochran. You know, I almost, you know, I brought him in,

541
00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:18,880
interviewed him a few years ago, probably 2018. He came in, he was going to join, but then he

542
00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:24,960
ended up going to Holy Cross at that point. A lot of energy, you know, you know, great coach. You

543
00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:30,720
know the name Rob Plasky? Was he at Nogatuck? Yes. Yes. I didn't know him. Was he at Nogatuck?

544
00:45:30,720 --> 00:45:37,040
Yeah. Had to step away. Right. Coach or two part. First, but who's that player you have,

545
00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:41,280
or do you wish like every year I wish you had one of them? I wish I had one of them. And then

546
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:44,640
second part is who was the hardest like player you ever had to prepare for? Which is like a

547
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:48,560
nightmare having the game plan. You know, people talk about Belichick taking the other team's best

548
00:45:48,560 --> 00:45:53,360
player out like as a coach, do you have that philosophy? Like we got to limit this guy to this?

549
00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:58,720
Yeah. I mean, the player I would say would be, I've had a lot of them and it's hard to kind of

550
00:45:58,720 --> 00:46:03,520
pinpoint one kid with Alex Tramelli who coached with us, was our receivers coach the past several

551
00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:12,560
years. Receiver, defensive back, as tough as they came. The type of guy you had to like pull back

552
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:16,080
and how hard you practiced. It wasn't like you had to say, all right, Alex, who needs you to pick

553
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:21,040
it up? Like he set the tone. He was a difference maker. I mean, he's, he's got every, you know,

554
00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:25,600
a ton of, he's number one in the state of Connecticut receiving touchdowns in a career with 50.

555
00:46:26,320 --> 00:46:32,240
Number one in the season with 29. So he caught one, he caught one. Yeah, and that led the nation

556
00:46:32,240 --> 00:46:38,080
that year. So you ran the ball out that year, huh? Yeah. We actually did, we actually 50-50,

557
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:42,800
which is, but that was, that was a great year. But just guys like that, you know, who just,

558
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:46,080
you don't have to tell them to do anything. It's, it's everything they're going to do is going to

559
00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:50,880
be hard. It's going to be tough. It's, they brought energy and excitement and intensity to the game.

560
00:46:50,880 --> 00:46:57,840
Probably the hardest guy we've ever had to prepare for. There's been a few. There was one kid,

561
00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:02,800
and I'll go back some years. There was one kid in 2013. And we had to beat him pretty handily.

562
00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:08,400
This is NFA. It was a quarterfinal game. This is 2013. But the player was a fifth year senior.

563
00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:13,040
He got granted a fifth year, but his name was Tuzar Skipper. Oh yeah. And this dude, yeah,

564
00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:16,560
I mean, he ended up actually coaching in the all-star game that he was a great kid. But

565
00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:20,400
he ended up going to a junior college and then, I forget we're going to college, but he was in

566
00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:27,280
the NFL for nine years. He was like DN though. He was like 6'3, 250. He could run like a deer.

567
00:47:27,280 --> 00:47:30,160
He was a twin, dude. He had a twin brother. Yeah. Yeah. He was pretty good too. Absolutely

568
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:37,600
freak. Another kid was that same year was, you know, anytime a guy does his ball in his hands

569
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:46,320
every single play. It was a quarterback for Fairfield Prep that year. And they ran him a lot.

570
00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:52,720
Him and another kid who played at Glacierbury, then played at UConn, a receiver here, and

571
00:47:52,720 --> 00:47:56,960
been a receiver at UConn, but he was a quarterback. Keon Dixon. These guys were quarterbacks with

572
00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:01,920
the ball in their hands. They were elite level athletes. You have to change things defensively

573
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:08,080
to stop those guys because, you know, one miss tackle, one miss, they're bringing it to the house.

574
00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:13,680
So you said the first one was a linebacker. Like, in my mind, I'm thinking of preparing for an

575
00:48:13,680 --> 00:48:18,560
offensive weapon. How do you prepare for a defensive weapon? Well, listen, you look in the NFL, who

576
00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:22,880
the highest-paid guy in the NFL? Obviously, quarterbacks are in there. But defensive end,

577
00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:29,440
Ed Rushers, right? Offensive tackles and cornerbacks. So you get an edge rusher. You know,

578
00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:34,480
what happened to us this year against Jester, they had a very good edge rusher. We did a really

579
00:48:34,480 --> 00:48:39,840
good job against them, but he impacted the game. When you get a guy defensively who can impact

580
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:45,920
the game so much, you know, that's hard. Because you got to double them. Actually, I shouldn't

581
00:48:45,920 --> 00:48:53,360
name one other kid. We played Darian back to back in the semifinals, 2015, 2016. Really wish they

582
00:48:53,360 --> 00:48:58,400
stayed down in class. So we went four and we're all at that point. But anyway, it was the best

583
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:04,240
high school teams in 20 years that I've seen around the state. They had two guys. One of them was

584
00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:12,960
I think it's Evan. I forgot his first name. His last name was Evanchek. I can't remember his first

585
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:18,320
name right now. But he broke Dwight Feeney's sack record in the state of Connecticut. This kid was

586
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:23,680
a Gatorade player of the year. All right, two-time Gatorade player of the year in La Crosse.

587
00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:28,400
But he was also a defensive end, like 250 pounds. Moved great. Ended up going to like Penferla

588
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:33,360
Crosse. I was like all American there. But an unbelievable defensive end. Like, we had to really

589
00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:38,240
prepare for that kid. And we had some great teams. The other one was this kid Andrew Stuber. So it was

590
00:49:38,240 --> 00:49:42,480
him and this kid Andrew Stuber. We went to go play in Michigan. And now he's starting, starting

591
00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:46,560
tackle in the NFL. So we have, and he was, but he was playing defensive tackle too as well. So you

592
00:49:46,560 --> 00:49:52,000
got these two guys here. It's, you know, that becomes a real tough thing to run the ball. Does

593
00:49:52,000 --> 00:49:55,760
football get two Gatorade players, one offense, one defense, or is it a player to you? Just a single

594
00:49:55,760 --> 00:49:59,840
one. Yeah, just one. That's kind of ridiculous. Really? Yeah. They get one, just Gatorade play

595
00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:04,480
of the years. This year was the guy from Avon Old Farms. Have you had one? Have you had one?

596
00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:08,800
Went or something to? Have not. We had two guys who could have been right there, but you know,

597
00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:14,080
they didn't get it. You said Avon Old Farms. It just makes me think, I know a couple of the

598
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:18,000
Bristol Eastern players ended up going there to play this year. What do you think about like

599
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:22,800
making that move and like, what's the point if you're not reclassing? And what do you think of

600
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:27,760
just that move? I mean, you know, to me, it's like, you know, if a kid needs to reclass, if,

601
00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:32,320
you know, it could, it depends on the situation, right? Depends on what's going on at their school.

602
00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:36,240
You know, I know those coaches very well there, former Sutherlandton alumni, John Hoolie,

603
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:40,880
you know, played at Sutherlandton graduate 2000. But the UConn too. Yeah, went to UConn,

604
00:50:40,880 --> 00:50:44,720
coached up there. So he's been coached. He's been a guy who I've been tight with for a long time.

605
00:50:44,720 --> 00:50:49,760
You know, it just depends on the kid situation, you know, is it going to be the, is it going to,

606
00:50:49,760 --> 00:50:53,920
what's going to match for that kid? But I do know those kids who both, I know both kids who went

607
00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:58,960
there. I saw that. Yeah. So it's tough. You got to, and that's another thing. One of them checks all

608
00:50:58,960 --> 00:51:04,000
the boxes as far as what our linemen should look like. Yeah. He, yeah. Yeah. Big good looking.

609
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:08,160
Big dude. Yeah. So I mean, that's the thing, like as a coach, you got to promote your kids, you got

610
00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:12,800
to, you got to recruit your kids. I mean, it's like that now at the high school level. And it's

611
00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:16,320
unique here because you go throughout the country. There's not prep schools throughout the country.

612
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:20,400
You know, you go down to Florida, kids are going to prep schools, you know, they're playing for their,

613
00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:24,240
you know, they're playing for their schools. You go down to Alabama, you go to California.

614
00:51:24,240 --> 00:51:28,080
There's not all these preps where it says now there's movement and things like that where kids

615
00:51:28,080 --> 00:51:32,400
are going, but it's public school still ran supreme. You know, it seems great about football.

616
00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:39,200
And if I'm wrong about this, please enlighten anyone listening like travel and a you ball has

617
00:51:39,200 --> 00:51:44,880
ruined the high school experience for a lot of people on every level from the coaches having

618
00:51:44,880 --> 00:51:49,840
to deal with it to the players being yanked in different directions and lied to, to,

619
00:51:51,200 --> 00:51:55,840
to the parents who believe this stuff and then think that they're entitled to X, Y and Z.

620
00:51:56,640 --> 00:52:00,000
Because the travel coach said so or the guy they take lessons from, which is just,

621
00:52:00,960 --> 00:52:06,240
it's disheartening. Yeah, there's no travel football or a football, right? There isn't. And

622
00:52:06,240 --> 00:52:10,800
that's, that's the great thing about it. And to your point, we were talking about before with,

623
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:16,240
you know, with parents and this and that expectations, like, this is what they have,

624
00:52:16,240 --> 00:52:19,360
like there's not this other team that they're playing for where this coach is feeding them this

625
00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:23,040
and this or they're playing in this position, but now they have to play this position at your school.

626
00:52:23,040 --> 00:52:26,800
So you don't have that, which is, which is unique and which is great. I mean, there's,

627
00:52:26,800 --> 00:52:31,120
there's some start stuff starting to kind of build, like there's some off season seven on seven

628
00:52:31,120 --> 00:52:35,520
travel teams and this and that. But, you know, really where the kids are going to learn the most

629
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:40,080
and benefit the most or be being involved with their high schools. And then with the changes in CIC,

630
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:45,760
working with kids, like you guys didn't have the same rules as like a basketball or baseball coach,

631
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:51,120
right? I think all the rules are similar. Like, so you can't do skill work with your guys. No,

632
00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:56,720
you're not supposed to. And what are you allowed in the spring? Nothing right now. I mean, that's

633
00:52:56,720 --> 00:53:00,720
the, did you used to get spring? We used to have spring ball games. Yeah. Yeah. We had spring ball,

634
00:53:00,720 --> 00:53:07,280
spring practice. And I was on the CIC football committee for seven years and until they kicked

635
00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:12,000
this all off because we were pushing back because we wanted spring ball. We wanted these things.

636
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:15,680
And, you know, and they wanted to clean house on that because we were kind of pushing back because

637
00:53:15,680 --> 00:53:20,160
it was always, in my opinion, it was always talking about the game being safe. You talk about, you

638
00:53:20,160 --> 00:53:24,560
know, you know, the contact, you know, you can do a lot less contact in the NFL. You want to

639
00:53:24,560 --> 00:53:27,760
why? Because those guys are elite level athletes are the best players in the world. You know,

640
00:53:27,760 --> 00:53:30,960
the high school level, you got to learn these kids even learn a block and tackle

641
00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:36,720
things like that. So the less time you get for that, the more contact you have to do effectively,

642
00:53:36,720 --> 00:53:41,360
you know what I mean? So my, my opinion was we need to have more time for these kids to develop

643
00:53:41,360 --> 00:53:44,240
them and things like that. Because guess what? The teams that are going to do it, they're going to

644
00:53:44,240 --> 00:53:49,200
do it regardless. You know, you mean there's shooters out there? I think there is. Come on, man.

645
00:53:50,080 --> 00:53:55,040
Not basketball. I think everybody's on the up. But we agree with everything you said. I think

646
00:53:55,040 --> 00:53:59,760
basketball, the CIAC is changing a little bit where there's a window during the summer where

647
00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:04,000
maybe you could work with some kids. I don't know how much college football you get a chance to,

648
00:54:04,720 --> 00:54:10,960
to watch only because, you know, like the commission said with the with the film stuff until 2am.

649
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:16,800
Can you talk a little bit about the landscape of college football in particular with the transfer

650
00:54:16,800 --> 00:54:24,560
portal, the NIL stuff? Do you agree with it? Do you think it's good for the game or where do you

651
00:54:24,560 --> 00:54:29,040
see the game 5, 10 years from now? Because, you know, Alabama's losing guys in the portal.

652
00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:34,480
And you see in college basketball, a lot of coaches are stepping away from college basketball

653
00:54:34,480 --> 00:54:39,280
because like the J writes or the Roy Williams and some other people, they just didn't want to deal

654
00:54:39,280 --> 00:54:43,520
with that stuff anymore. Can you talk a little bit about that? I've talked, I know a lot of guys

655
00:54:43,520 --> 00:54:48,400
are coaching high level college, college football. I've talked to guys who are NFL coaches and

656
00:54:48,400 --> 00:54:52,400
college coaches and I always ask, what do you like better? They said NFL by far because the

657
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:55,760
schedule's better. You know, the recruiting, you have to deal with all that and that's before all

658
00:54:55,760 --> 00:55:01,680
this stuff came out. So it's very difficult because as a college coach, you're recruiting these kids,

659
00:55:01,680 --> 00:55:07,680
right, from your to your program and now you have to re-recruit them every single year to keep them

660
00:55:07,680 --> 00:55:13,600
and to retain the talent to retain your kids. To me, I think there's going to be a tipping

661
00:55:13,600 --> 00:55:18,960
point because you can only do so much. How far is this going to go? I mean, kids are getting

662
00:55:18,960 --> 00:55:22,720
million dollar deals, you know, coming out of high school. I mean, yeah, it's great and I think

663
00:55:22,720 --> 00:55:26,400
that the kids should be some compensation but once you kind of open that Pandora's backs,

664
00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:29,840
the richer you're going to get, the richer, the middle of the road guys are going to stay

665
00:55:29,840 --> 00:55:33,680
middle of the road or less. You're never going to be able to have a lot of that parity. But

666
00:55:33,680 --> 00:55:37,600
I think it's difficult for me because, you know, in kids going to the transfer portal, you know,

667
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:40,800
I'll get a kid and help them get recruited to college and then three years later, I've had this

668
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:44,640
happen several times, kids are going to transport and like, coach, you know, it's like now I got to

669
00:55:44,640 --> 00:55:51,200
help them get re-recruited again. It's just like a continuous cycle. It's hard. I think it's exhausting

670
00:55:51,200 --> 00:56:00,000
for the coaches, you know, to an already exhausting sport to what you have to do. But right now,

671
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:03,920
unless things are put into place, legislation, I guess, will be the only thing to be able to control

672
00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:10,320
it. That's a problem that that's not happening. Like people, the states have said like, to the

673
00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:15,920
NCAA like our NCAA said, oh no, you states you figured out. NCAA is in trouble. You guys know

674
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:24,400
what now the NIL stands for. Now it's legal. Now it's legal. Well, that's true. You had a lot of

675
00:56:24,400 --> 00:56:28,640
places that things were, you know, this stuff was going on, but you know, that was, you know,

676
00:56:28,640 --> 00:56:36,240
blue chips and things like that. Great. But it's now it's legal. So now you get in the states that

677
00:56:36,240 --> 00:56:41,200
have these, you know, they're down in the SEC and they have these huge programs with these huge

678
00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:45,360
amount of monies and donors and people able to deliver that type of money. They don't care.

679
00:56:45,360 --> 00:56:48,400
They love it. They're like, fine, we're going to get, you know, we're going to pay, you know,

680
00:56:48,400 --> 00:56:52,720
1.5 for this kid to come play quarterback for us. Great. You know, quarterbacks are getting more

681
00:56:52,720 --> 00:56:58,400
in that. But they are. Hey, no patronage here. I mean, I've never had a lengthy conversation with

682
00:56:58,400 --> 00:57:04,080
you. But like, I mean, you obviously seem like you got all the boxes checked to like pursue a job

683
00:57:04,080 --> 00:57:08,880
at a higher level. I know you must have thought about it. I know you must have been asked about it.

684
00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:12,880
Why not just go for it? I mean, your kids are little. Have you ever thought about going for,

685
00:57:12,880 --> 00:57:18,080
you know, one of these college jobs? Start on, you know, listen, like I said, it's, I mean,

686
00:57:18,800 --> 00:57:23,360
you love the college experience because it is football nonstop. That's all you're doing.

687
00:57:23,360 --> 00:57:30,080
That's your coach. And that's it. You know, but it is a tough life. There's a lot of traveling.

688
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:34,960
The hours are really excessively tough. You're not home. You know, you miss, you know, to me,

689
00:57:34,960 --> 00:57:40,080
it's like, I've been a family guy, like for how much I love football, like, and I do it a lot.

690
00:57:40,080 --> 00:57:45,360
I think about a lot, you know, I've still watched film like crazy right now. You know, I am a family

691
00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:50,320
man first and foremost, you know, and in my dad installed and still that mean my family. So

692
00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:55,760
I've just seen too many people go there. And it's just, it's just a tough life and being able to

693
00:57:55,760 --> 00:58:00,400
uproot your family and moving here and going here. You can go coach at this level and, and

694
00:58:00,400 --> 00:58:05,200
which is great and all good, you know, but to me, it's like, I don't know. Hey, listen, I like Bristol,

695
00:58:05,200 --> 00:58:10,400
I like being in Connecticut. You know, if I do that, I'm out. Yeah. Your program, high school

696
00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:14,000
program was run like a college program though. Yeah, that's always what we want to do. We want to,

697
00:58:14,560 --> 00:58:17,520
and that's one of the things like our kids who went out, you know, we got kids playing in the

698
00:58:17,520 --> 00:58:21,600
FBS all the way down to division three right now currently. So, you know, our kids, when they went

699
00:58:21,600 --> 00:58:26,320
on to college, they would come back and calm the thread throughout all of them, no matter where

700
00:58:26,320 --> 00:58:32,640
it's like, it's easier up here. Yeah, I've heard that before. Yeah. Do you see yourself

701
00:58:33,600 --> 00:58:38,800
head coach somewhere down the line again, maybe coach your kids? What's the, have you looked that

702
00:58:38,800 --> 00:58:43,120
far ahead yet? Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely going to be involved my kids, you know, I'm involved in

703
00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:47,360
them wrestling, they're going to do baseball, you know, so I coach, you know, T ball or actually

704
00:58:47,360 --> 00:58:52,240
coach pitch last year here in town. So we'll kind of go that route. And you know, I do want to get

705
00:58:52,240 --> 00:58:55,520
involved like my son's going to be playing for the Bulldogs, you know, he's going to be, you know,

706
00:58:55,520 --> 00:58:59,680
we did flag there this year. And I couldn't get to any practices, I can just come to the game on

707
00:58:59,680 --> 00:59:03,040
Sunday mornings. And to me, it's like, I want to be a little bit more impactful, but I don't need

708
00:59:03,040 --> 00:59:07,680
to be his coach and everything. I don't want to do that. But I'll be involved in that. But I'm

709
00:59:07,680 --> 00:59:12,240
sure I'll be involved somewhere in football this fall. No judgment on the Bulldogs because I had,

710
00:59:12,240 --> 00:59:17,120
my kids played flag there. Yeah, it was fun thing. You know, we've never advanced in football beyond

711
00:59:17,120 --> 00:59:23,200
flag. We did an NFL league in Avon or whatever, like that was kind of cool. But in Sullington,

712
00:59:23,200 --> 00:59:28,960
when I went to see Colin play when he was, did they both play that? Yeah. Yeah. At this park

713
00:59:28,960 --> 00:59:32,400
in Sullington, and it was flag, I thought it was going to be like it was with the Bulldogs,

714
00:59:32,400 --> 00:59:36,720
you know, you mean we're pushing the kids here and there, you know, guy that never went out,

715
00:59:36,720 --> 00:59:42,960
there's coaching, they got the chains out, there's first downs, dude. Sullington football, dude.

716
00:59:42,960 --> 00:59:49,440
Yes. The kids are like this big. I know we did it in one year. One year we did it. Flags. Then this

717
00:59:49,440 --> 00:59:52,640
year we did in Bristol. So this is a different philosophy. So that's why I want to help get

718
00:59:52,640 --> 00:59:59,200
involved. Oh, the change is coming. Just want to help, you know, help the, you know, you want to

719
00:59:59,200 --> 01:00:04,080
help better. Yeah, 1% better every day. One is the weightlifting program, start form. Hey, listen,

720
01:00:05,040 --> 01:00:10,480
now. Listen, all body weight stuff right now with these kids. Coach, as someone who's been a part

721
01:00:10,480 --> 01:00:14,800
of the program, I first I want to say thank you. I mean, it's been an unbelievable experience for

722
01:00:14,800 --> 01:00:20,560
my son. Appreciate it. Just that what he's learned from that. I'll tell you a funny story this week.

723
01:00:20,560 --> 01:00:25,520
We're picking his classes for high school, and we're going through all the things and I want to

724
01:00:25,520 --> 01:00:30,960
take public speaking. Public speaking. Why would you want to take that? There's easier things you

725
01:00:30,960 --> 01:00:36,560
could do. Podcast. But he's hammering it home to my wife. I want to take public speaking. He'd be

726
01:00:36,560 --> 01:00:40,400
very good at that. But he said I want to be able to talk to my teammates better. And I'm thinking

727
01:00:40,400 --> 01:00:46,960
that's something that came from you. Yeah. And the culture of the program has become such that

728
01:00:46,960 --> 01:00:52,080
I see myself 70 years old in the stands at Sellington watching those kids play. Yeah. And so I

729
01:00:52,080 --> 01:00:56,560
appreciate what you did. It was an unbelievable job. Sometimes we say we have great coaches and

730
01:00:56,560 --> 01:01:00,960
this guy's a good coach. You ran a great program. I'm very proud to be part of it. And I really,

731
01:01:00,960 --> 01:01:04,720
really think that you deserve everything you get in life. I appreciate it. I really appreciate it.

732
01:01:04,720 --> 01:01:08,080
What a compliment to the whole staff that a kid says that. Yeah. It's all about the staff and

733
01:01:08,080 --> 01:01:12,240
the players. I mean, that's it. Yeah. So can the kids start next year, please? Can we get in there?

734
01:01:12,240 --> 01:01:16,080
Yes. No, he got in there. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. He earned it. He earned it.

735
01:01:16,080 --> 01:01:20,640
And you know what? We should have, you know what? Should have been earlier. Well, come on. He should

736
01:01:20,640 --> 01:01:29,280
have been in that Hall game. You guys play at Hall? That happened. All right. We're going to wrap up

737
01:01:29,920 --> 01:01:34,240
the interview stuff. Thank you so much. But we want to keep, want you to stick around and be

738
01:01:34,240 --> 01:01:38,800
involved in just some little banter that we like to have every podcast. So Angry J is going to

739
01:01:38,800 --> 01:01:44,400
take over this segment known as Who's Your Rather sponsored by Joe Morello and Capital Security.

740
01:01:44,400 --> 01:01:49,360
Thanks, Joe. All right. Who's Your Rather this week is centered around football and out of our

741
01:01:49,360 --> 01:01:54,560
guest. You guys will, we'll start with our guest. Mac will let you go second today because you've

742
01:01:54,560 --> 01:01:59,120
been complaining about having to go last, even though you might have been second. Yeah. All right.

743
01:01:59,120 --> 01:02:04,320
Chinese clean up. You pick whoever you want. If you don't know who the guy is, and we're going

744
01:02:04,320 --> 01:02:09,920
to go a little old school just for the first couple. Okay. One college football guy and then

745
01:02:09,920 --> 01:02:17,280
we'll go NFL. So NTA only. Do you want Tim Tebow or Tommy Frazier leading your team?

746
01:02:18,240 --> 01:02:20,400
Tim Tebow. Why, coach?

747
01:02:22,480 --> 01:02:28,960
You know, NFL didn't work out for him, obviously, but just the intensity and the focus that he

748
01:02:28,960 --> 01:02:34,400
had during his time there in Florida was, you know, it was unimaginable, I think, at that point.

749
01:02:34,400 --> 01:02:39,280
I mean, he just, he was impressive. Yeah, I'm going to go, he's really him. He really was and

750
01:02:39,280 --> 01:02:44,720
too good to be true, but that's why it didn't work out in NFL, maybe. Yep. I concur. Tebow.

751
01:02:44,720 --> 01:02:49,120
I'm going to give a quick Tebow story. I'd say Tebow too, but I actually heard last week at a

752
01:02:49,120 --> 01:02:54,720
Super Bowl party that he runs a dance. So like it's almost like a prom for kids with disabilities.

753
01:02:54,720 --> 01:02:59,920
And he did at the casino this week and someone's son was there. Unbelievable guy, a winner. So I'll

754
01:02:59,920 --> 01:03:04,240
go with him. Oh, he ran that? It's his foundation. But yeah, I got you. I'm actually going to go

755
01:03:04,240 --> 01:03:10,560
Tommy Frazier because the way he ran the wishbone at Nebraska, whatever. Yeah, triple option. Sorry.

756
01:03:11,360 --> 01:03:17,200
Well, yeah, I got it. I'll go with Tebow. How many NFL guys were on that roster when he was there?

757
01:03:17,200 --> 01:03:23,120
Wow. That was Urban Meyer. Pretty good recruiter, huh? Oh yeah. All right. Little old school again

758
01:03:23,120 --> 01:03:26,720
for NFL coach Fran Tardington, Kenny Stabler.

759
01:03:32,320 --> 01:03:37,360
His nickname is the snake. I mean, come on, man. They got to go with the snake. I'm going snake also.

760
01:03:37,360 --> 01:03:42,560
Fran. I'm going Fran Tardington myself. I'm going snake just because of the way he lived his life

761
01:03:42,560 --> 01:03:50,480
off the field. Like a boss. All right, coach, we're going Julio. This is NFL. Now Julio Jones,

762
01:03:50,480 --> 01:04:02,080
Antonio Brown. Julio Jones, bigger. Antonio Tuftagard. He'd never take Antonio Brown for

763
01:04:02,080 --> 01:04:06,880
obvious reasons. Julio. I'd take Antonio Brown. He could not guard him even though he wasn't big.

764
01:04:06,880 --> 01:04:10,800
He couldn't be covered. Julio for me. I'm going to Julio just because he's going to have this

765
01:04:10,800 --> 01:04:16,560
grass and eagle. Come on, man. I'll go to be on a kit too. I'll go Jones. All right. Here we go.

766
01:04:16,560 --> 01:04:27,200
Des Bryant, Jordy Nelson. Des Bryant. Des easy, but Jordy had about three years or is really

767
01:04:27,200 --> 01:04:35,200
unbelievable. I'm going. I think it's pretty easy. Des nuts. I'm going Jordy. He's widely underrated.

768
01:04:36,240 --> 01:04:40,160
I think Des Bryant is underrated too. I'll take Des. How are you guys?

769
01:04:40,160 --> 01:04:47,040
Um, coach John Elway, Dan Marino.

770
01:04:47,040 --> 01:04:50,080
All day long.

771
01:04:50,080 --> 01:04:54,320
I don't want to hear this Super Bowl nonsense. The best passer of all time. Period. Marino.

772
01:04:54,320 --> 01:04:59,120
I'm going Marino also. Elway. I'm going. I'm leaning Elway too. I think if he played in today's

773
01:04:59,120 --> 01:05:05,440
era, his stats would be off the charts. You know me. I'm all about the rings. So the drive aside,

774
01:05:05,440 --> 01:05:12,720
I'm taking Elway. All right. We got three or four more. Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, coach.

775
01:05:12,720 --> 01:05:17,760
Aaron Rodgers. Oh, that's easy for you. That's easy. Listen, why? Drew Brees came and

776
01:05:17,760 --> 01:05:22,960
thrilled with his right arm right now. He could throw it back then. It's all the matter. I know.

777
01:05:22,960 --> 01:05:30,080
I know, but I just think Aaron Rodgers arm talent and, you know, I think Brees was great as well,

778
01:05:30,080 --> 01:05:35,040
but and he had a tremendous coach and that system fit perfectly. But Aaron Rodgers talent

779
01:05:35,040 --> 01:05:38,640
level is just more for me. I know nothing about football. This is obvious because I got to go

780
01:05:38,640 --> 01:05:43,600
Brees all day. Maybe it's the weirdness of Rodgers. I just can't do it. And in the cowboy

781
01:05:43,600 --> 01:05:48,720
seasons ended quite often to him. So I think Aaron Rodgers all day. Easy. I agree with the

782
01:05:48,720 --> 01:05:53,120
coach and the Donfather. Aaron Rodgers. I'm going Brees just because I want to be different.

783
01:05:53,120 --> 01:05:59,680
No, I'll go Rodgers. That one's pretty easy for me. All right. How about Matt Stafford? Matt Ryan.

784
01:05:59,680 --> 01:06:04,960
Matt Ryan's up. They're both going to be up for the Hall of Fame too, brother.

785
01:06:04,960 --> 01:06:09,600
There. Oh, Stafford obviously still playing. I'm going to go Stafford.

786
01:06:12,720 --> 01:06:16,800
Matt Eise, you know, if they could have ran that ball, maybe he's going to get some a-tongue ring.

787
01:06:18,080 --> 01:06:21,920
I got to go Stafford, man. Remember when he played with the dislocated shoulder on a two-point

788
01:06:21,920 --> 01:06:26,720
conversion one year? Yeah, in Thanksgiving. Was it again? It was against Dallas. He's a toughie.

789
01:06:26,720 --> 01:06:32,880
I like him. Yeah, Stafford. Stafford infection. Wow. I'll go Matt Ryan. He's a Hall of Famer.

790
01:06:32,880 --> 01:06:36,880
You think so? Oh, absolutely. Where do you go? BC? I think he's a Hall of Famer too,

791
01:06:36,880 --> 01:06:42,960
but I'll go Stafford. All right. We'll go, uh, okay. A couple more. Jim Kelly, Warren Moon.

792
01:06:45,360 --> 01:06:47,120
Yeah, well, we didn't combine them till the film.

793
01:06:48,800 --> 01:06:53,760
K-Gun versus the Red Gun. I'm going to go Jim Kelly. You know, I'm going to go Jim Kelly.

794
01:06:53,760 --> 01:06:59,280
I mean, Moon was awesome. He was great talent. I just think Jim was a better quarterback, in my

795
01:06:59,280 --> 01:07:05,360
opinion. It's hard to go against him, but I mean, Warren Moon in two different, uh, professional

796
01:07:05,360 --> 01:07:11,440
leagues, two slightly different rules. Um, got to go with Warren. I'm going to Warren Moon.

797
01:07:11,440 --> 01:07:14,160
He could have been the prettiest ball that's ever been thrown on the NFL.

798
01:07:16,880 --> 01:07:20,800
I'll go Warren Moon. I'm actually going to lean with Coach here. I'm going to go

799
01:07:20,800 --> 01:07:25,360
a slight nod to Jim Kelly. Just the way he ran the team. I'm going to go Moon. He elevated two

800
01:07:25,360 --> 01:07:31,840
franchises, I think. Yeah. Two NFL franchises and the CFL. And yeah, they made him, where do you

801
01:07:31,840 --> 01:07:38,000
go to college? Washington State? No, Washington University, Washington. All right. Uh, last

802
01:07:39,040 --> 01:07:45,120
football one, uh, Marshawn Lynch, Austin Eckler. Now you got to remember how you run your offense now.

803
01:07:45,120 --> 01:07:49,920
That's all I'm saying. Oh, Marshawn Lynch. All right. We were running out of the way I run my

804
01:07:49,920 --> 01:07:55,120
offense. It's more kind of spread out. It's, it's wide open. So you get a piece like that, you know,

805
01:07:55,120 --> 01:07:59,840
with a light box. I thought you might want to throw it to Eckler a little bit. I couldn't.

806
01:08:00,800 --> 01:08:04,000
One of the greatest coaches of all time, Carol, you couldn't give the guy the ball that day.

807
01:08:04,880 --> 01:08:10,320
Um, Lynch. Yeah, I'm going beast mode. Yeah, Marshawn. He would have had two, right?

808
01:08:10,320 --> 01:08:16,160
He was a headache. I'm going Eckler. No, I'll take Lynch. Oh, you guys are where do you go to

809
01:08:16,160 --> 01:08:22,640
college? West Virginia? Cal Lynch? Lynch went to Cal. Yeah. He was driving around on the golf cart.

810
01:08:22,640 --> 01:08:28,880
Must have been for the academics he was there for. Um, last one, you had mentioned it. Movie,

811
01:08:28,880 --> 01:08:30,640
the program or remember the Titans?

812
01:08:33,840 --> 01:08:38,160
If you didn't say you didn't see it, either. I want kids version. Now we're talking about,

813
01:08:38,160 --> 01:08:44,560
listen, the program for me, you know, I just love the, the whole aspect of it and just

814
01:08:45,840 --> 01:08:50,720
the kind of the rise and fall, the greatness and the, and the glory and the, and the, the tough

815
01:08:50,720 --> 01:08:56,080
things that you remember the team name? Um, East Carolina, um, East Carolina, right?

816
01:08:56,080 --> 01:09:01,600
Yeah. East Carolina. What's their nickname? Their nickname was the, not Cougars. No, what was it?

817
01:09:01,600 --> 01:09:05,360
I don't remember. Timberwolves. Timberwolves. Before, before you go to Bob,

818
01:09:05,360 --> 01:09:08,240
you've seen Vision Quest?

819
01:09:08,240 --> 01:09:12,000
Oh, sir. Yes, sir. I'm a wrestler. Of course. You don't know that. That's why I know that.

820
01:09:12,000 --> 01:09:15,200
I've never seen it, but I actually, I think it was like the anniversary I saw on Facebook or

821
01:09:15,200 --> 01:09:19,280
something this week. You need to write it up. This is ridiculous. What was the weight we

822
01:09:19,280 --> 01:09:26,720
was trying to get to? I can know that. 155. 157? 168. 168. Okay. You got up the pegboard, man.

823
01:09:26,720 --> 01:09:30,320
That's all that matters. I'll take, I'll take your word for it. It was a good movie. Is that in

824
01:09:30,320 --> 01:09:35,840
black and white? I'm going coach Boone. Six plays running the veers. I mean, come on, man. I'm going

825
01:09:35,840 --> 01:09:41,040
with the Bobby Bowden story program. I'm going program too. I'm going to remember it. Titans.

826
01:09:41,040 --> 01:09:46,640
That's one of my all time favorites. It's a great movie. Okay. Hey, uh, who's your NFL squad?

827
01:09:47,200 --> 01:09:53,280
Patriots. Come on. Too easy. So red socks, red socks too. Socks. Listen, I'm Boston all day.

828
01:09:53,280 --> 01:10:01,760
So, Celts. Let's go. How about college? College football and hoops. Hoops. You can obviously

829
01:10:01,760 --> 01:10:08,400
football. Wow. Old school. Rudy. I went old school. Rudy off sides. He's off sides. Listen,

830
01:10:09,920 --> 01:10:13,920
I never cry. I cried. I'd let the team know that I wasn't coming back to coaching,

831
01:10:13,920 --> 01:10:17,920
but I will cry a hundred percent of the time watching Rudy. I do too. Every, it does even

832
01:10:17,920 --> 01:10:21,040
multiple times throughout the world. I would cut that kid. I would have cut that kid.

833
01:10:21,040 --> 01:10:26,000
And the father in the stand. Oh, get him down there. It's like,

834
01:10:27,920 --> 01:10:33,200
in the runway to Charles Dutton character in the runway. Oh yeah. Yeah. First game you ever saw.

835
01:10:33,760 --> 01:10:44,400
You worked there forever. Come on. Hey, coach. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. The

836
01:10:44,400 --> 01:10:47,840
inevitable is we're going to see you on the sideline again as you're a young man and you're

837
01:10:47,840 --> 01:10:53,040
obviously built for this. And good luck in retirement. And we look forward to the next

838
01:10:53,040 --> 01:11:18,160
time we see you over there with the headset on. Yeah. Appreciate it. Thanks for coming. Thanks.