Hey guys, welome to the marcast read here. Well, here we are.
We have finally done it. We have succeeded. We have eclipsed thirty
five hundred subscribers on YouTube as of this week. Thank you all so much
for your support. Long time coming here, lots of hard work, lots
of smart, passionate people taking time out of their days to come on the
show to talk with us about football and you know, TV ratings and attendance
and everything else in between. Really appreciate that. Like I said, really
a collection of just everybody's time and energy here over the last three and a
half years got us to this point. Didn't have to buy it in the
UFL games, didn't have to steal anyone else's content every purposes. This is
our own. So really appreciate it. A big testament, a big milestone
today. So we will be announcing our big thirty five hundred subscriber giveaway at
the end of the show rules how to inter So stick around for that.
Remember your chance to win two free tickets to the UFL Championship game. They
have already been purchased. I got them today in hand, and then I
kind of forgot. We have a ton. I got a bunch of these
jerseys the Dustin at Royal Rotros had sent over to me, so we're gonna
be giving those away too, raffling those off. So even if you aren't
gonna be able to make it to the Saint Louis Championship game, you still
have a chance to win a prize, So stay tuned. At the end
of the show, we will be doing the rules about how to get submit
your name and kind of get involved with all of that stuff. But,
like I said, thank you all so much. A lot of hard work
from everybody involved, all the guests, everybody, listeners, viewers getting us
to this point, So thank you. Big show today basically previewing the UFL
playoffs. A couple of weeks of gameplay left, but for all intents and
purposes here we're really kind of solidified here with the conference. You know,
could have a little seeding changes, but you know, if Birmingham takes care
of business and the Ballahawks take care of business, we kind of know where
we sit. So every hunt joining today was with us for the exit the
UFL kickoff show for you know, remotely here when we were in Arlington for
that Emory Hunt coming on the show, sharing his thoughts of the season,
what worked, what didn't work, What coaches he has, you know,
succeeded, exceeded his expectations, Which coaches didn't. You know, what changes
in the store for next year standout players? Is the UFL working all that
sort of stuff, And then a deep dive into the playoff you know matches
and between the you know, the BattleHawks and the Brahmas and then the Stallions
and the Panthers. So really appreciate Emory coming on. And then we are
in a CFL season here, pregate. You know, preseason games happened earlier
this week and then this weekend. So we have Ted Wyman on the mend
here coming on. Ted's got some stuff going on. I appreciate him taking
the time to come on. We are previewing the Blue Bombers here who are
playing this weekend. And then we got old friend of the show, and
not an old friend, but you know he's a long time friend of the
show, Dave Campbell coming on. We're talking to Edmonton malk So lots of
UFL playoff talk today football after kind of our big expansion episode last week.
We'll see how this episode performs and then Ted Lineman and Dave Campbell coming on
talking CFL. I'll let you get to the interviews here. Like I said,
tune back in at the end. We'll give you all the details for
the giveaways. Hope you enjoy, like and subscribe picks. Well, this
is exciting. We might have to get you back on for ELF talk as
well here. I didn't realize that, but yeah, Emory Hunt here talking
and Anthony Miller is involved in that. With the season four here come up.
We have Emory Hunt back here again. Had you on for the pregame
show before the kickoff and now we're here. It's basically the playoff previews.
We're going into week nine here. How are you doing serve the ulf UFL
season? So I got my hack. I'm doing fine. Man. It's
always a pleasure, big fan of the show. Listen every week multiple times
a week with a different show that you do, and I'm glad to be
on again. Well, I appreciate it. So we did our big expansion
talk last week. We had John Lewis on for that. This week we're
gonna do a little bit more football stuff. Is always great for that and
Emory watches all the games, like general thoughts here, you know, we're
going into week nine. What do you think about the UFL season? You
know, I love the fact that we are now focusing on the football part
of it, you know, and that's the that's the biggest key, because
that means it's going to be sustained. Obviously, all the other stuff matters,
but the football has to be good. And the football isn't good,
then nobody's watching, nobody's going, nobody cares, uh. And I do
feel like I tweeted this out last week where you know, even though you
kind of like how they've sold, we consolidated the teams so it's tougher to
meet the rosters. It's not quite w nb A tough, but it is.
You know, they kind of got the best of the best. But
then you lose some of those, uh, those little idiosyncrasies that are involved
with different teams, Like how you knew the Pittsburgh Malars defense was gonna be
the reason why they would be in a game or perhaps win a game.
You knew new Jersey was going to come in with their unique two quarterback system
and be the only team running that system. And you knew Philadelphia was gonna
air it out and just kind of you know, go balls to the wall
with their passing game. And in the XFL you knew how DC had their
two quarterback system and it kind of worked. When one was struggling, Okay,
we'll take him, I'll put the other one in and get the jump.
The offense jump started again, So you kind of lose that. I
think that's why I always want more teams to to kind of help want to
get more players opportunities and more jobs, but also kind of build that uniqueness
that is in the you know that we see in the college game or even
in the NFL game when some teams are zigging, other teams are zagging,
and it makes for fun you know, brands so people can tune in.
Oh yeah, you know, it's because I think what happens people get kind
of stale in terms of, Man, we watched this team already like three
times. I kind of want to see somebody else play. But when you
only have eight teams, you kind of only had that at your you know,
only had that at your disposal. Are you surprised because you talked about
that, like the consolidation of talent and they're like, oh, these are
all going to be all stars, super teams and all that stuff. But
then you know, like the Rennegades haven't been great, right, the USFL
Conference has a couple really weak. You know, the show the show Botes,
right. Are you surprised with that that there wasn't more parody this season?
I mean we're approaching we have two weeks left of the season, and
I know, like home field advantage is kind of up, even though I
guess the Panthers couldn't even play at Ford Field if they wanted to for the
playoffs I found out. But like, except for that, everything's kind of
locked up. Were you surprised that there was so much disparity between the teams?
Yes, because you kind of thought it would be everybody would be you
know, three and three and three right now? You know what I'm saying,
A four and four with two weeks agos like, man, who's gonna
end? But but like we talked about before, whether it was the XFL
twenty twenty one or twenties on last year or USFL twenty twenty one, it
really comes down a quarterback play and a lot of teams pick the wrong quarterback
and not saying that you know, the guy can't play. But sometimes it's
just hey, man, if you're in a secondary league where you know the
focus will be on can we protect the quarterback, you better have a mobile
quarterback back there uh to kind of help that offensive line. If you don't,
you kind of get left in the you know, left behind. And
I thought, hey, if if you're gonna cut eight teams, your depth
chart, a quarterback is probably gonna be super strong to where we wouldn't see
a one to seventeam going into week nine, we'd see a team that's four
and four. So I felt that's the that's the biggest shock. And then
when you notice, you know, some of these teams don't even have uh
you know, some teams are explosive, some teams lack speed. And he
like, man, you know, why are we you know, traveling down
the road of the uh you know, the thirty year old running back or
the you know, thirty three year old quarterback. Like, yeah, you
want a place for guys that still want to play to play, But man,
you got this is supposed to be the League of Opportunity, which to
me sounds like a league of twenty two to twenty seven year olds, you
know what I'm saying, But it's just it's just I think a lot of
it really boils down to teams hitching their wagon to quarterbacks that can help play
above the ex's and o's. Uh yeah, and you I remember famously at
you're an advocate for getting the younger town than these and you don't want to
see you know, year seven and whoever are you some of these? I
know obviously you know mccaren has done well with the battle Hawks. We've seen
Tayamu struggle like not. You know, it hasn't been a hit for all
these quarterbacks coming in. I know that the Martinez thing with the Stallions has
been phenomenal, and they really you know, skip holes. It seems like
an plug in whoever they're and kind of make it work. But I used
to rise, I guess specifically with the defenders in Tama, specifically that they
really haven't reached. And I know they had injuries and people moving on and
stuff going then, but uh, kind of a Shallo of its former team
that looks like yeah, it's I mean, you really start to realize,
like how much they missed Derek King in terms of what he brought to the
change of pace, like he was the one that kind of helped get the
run game started, you know, and that's when you start to see Abram
Smith have his success. Then they switched back to Tiama and now you have
to play action passing game, and you know, he's able to make some
throws deeper down the field. Like Granted, you're right, they did lose
like a quartet of receivers. They don't have Abram Smith because he got hurt
in the preseason, and they don't have Dereck King, and I was surprised
they didn't go back to that model that worked for them, that bade them
such a you know, such a formidable offense. But man, a lot
of their defensive pieces are still there, and they stink defensively, to be
completely fair and honest, like they can't stop anybody. And that was the
hallmark last year. Their defense was strong and tough, and they turned the
ball over the high clip. I know that's a high variance where you can't
depend on turnovers and count on that week in week out, but man,
they to see DC's defense look like it looked this season has been has been
a big problem. And I also feel like with Arlington. Yeah, we
love the Luis Perez story and and you know, I'm glad they've leaned off
the bowling part of it during the broadcast. I think we got that part,
but you know, you got Lindsay Scott. Oh, like, this
is somebody that everybody wants to see and it's I like, I would like
to compare that situation to what we will potentially see with Pittsburgh the Steelers,
where you should have the you know, you should have the freedom to start
the young guy, the guy that's still ascending, because you know, if
he doesn't do right or if he fails, you can lean back on the
Russell Wilson the veteran or the Luis Perez the veteran to stabilize the offense.
But give those young guys that that that run to go out there and try
to perform. Because if Arlington had Lindsay Scott, they could have recreated what
we saw the Houston Roughnecks do with PJ. Walker with it made it exciting
to watch, you know what I'm saying, And that's why people tuned in
for Roughnecks games in XFL twenty twenty, Like man PJ. Walker balling,
you know, and so nobody's tuned into Arlington to watch Louis Perez, you
know, one, two, three, get the ball out, Like nobody
wants to see that man. And you know, I just feel like that's
where some teams have faltered well. And there was there's something even on I
think it was the third thing that Holton Aylers or whatever, where he was
talking like, yeah, they're all in on you know, they're all in
on Louise and it doesn't matter and all that. It is funny you talk
to bowling because it's like, you know, and in the broadcast have been
hit or mess kind of across the board, but there is like, you
know, Louise present the bowling. They're like, you know, DC's got
the beer snake Ballahawks. They have a lot of fans, like the every
team, you know, they have like there's like one or two crutches for
every single one of these types. It's funny how I can't run. And
I don't know if you guys brought this up, but it's funny because you
say that, think about it. I want to say it maybe got to
like week four, will we stop seeing that damn map? What the teams
are located? Like you if you if you're born in the United States and
you know what Memphis or Saint Louis or DC is. We got a whole
nother conversation. Well, I also when they post that map and I had
said that over the Sam Schwartz team. We'll talk every once in a while,
like I had drone during the rest of the United States there and they're
like, well, I'm over here, so I'm not. That's where I'm
ready from. It's not even and god forbid, you don't have any international
viewers as well, Like it's only if you live in you know, Birmingham,
Texas. That's all we care about. We don't want to do any
of that stuff. Some of these like you talk boring football, some of
these coaches Arlington, I feel like Bob Steeps is kind of on his way
out. I'm curious here when we get the pay structures next year with some
of these XFL coaches, like are they going to take a pick up?
Like Curtis Johnson feels like moving on, like any of these guys that even
kind of disappointed in from a head coaching perspective, you know, it's it's
fascinating because if you look at what we had with Kirby Wilson in USFL twenty
twenty one. Right, for all of his faults, you kind of he
became part of the brand, right in terms of like I got to tune
in to see what they do, and then they moved on from him,
and then they bring in you know, Horton and you're like, all right,
well, this team kind of plays, you know, they have an
identity. I feel like we haven't seen the identity yet for Stoops or especially
him being a college coach, and also Courage Johnson being a former college head
coach as well. The identities aren't there, Like when you tune into a
Birmingham game, you've seen an identity. Even with Mike Nolan, who has
taken another step forward in his second season, has developed an identity and he
has to use he had to use multiple quarterbacks, and so I think those
two you haven't really seen the identity. Now with the to your comment toward
pay structure, wouldn't this be the perfect time to kind of lean in on
younger coaches like Aj Smith, right, the coordinator for the San Antonio Brahmas.
Wouldn't he be primed for a head coaching job in you know the UFL,
or you know Anthony Blevins, who should have should be the head coach
of the Vegas Vipers. Wouldn't he be primed for a head coaching job if
it's the League of opportunity, you know, let's get these younger up and
coming coaches opportunities to lead a football team and also give these young up and
coming players to you know, have a chance to get some fresh tape out
there. And I know that kind of I get why they go with the
AJ mccerren's and the Wave philps, and I get that because you got to
have recognizable names for the lay person. But man, I would go aggressive
this offseason, starting with the draft. And we talked about this before,
where you have like a future's draft, Like listen, if I'm if I'm
Who's who DJ late Bro, Listen, you're like your seventh year in college,
your third program like NFL is gonna treat you like an afterthought like I
would have. I would have gone like I would have gone heavily after to
Leah Tunguebalowa. I said this, like when we talked before, I would
have gone heavily after Stetson Bennett before he had that last year where they won
a national championship. That would have been a guy that you kind of thought
that league would be like, yeah, he's only five nine, five ten,
whatever, we don't need that, right, So you find you you
earmark some of these guys that you know, the NFL will kind of cause
if you're really competing with Day three late Day three. So if I can,
if I can get the guy like a Lindsay Scott and say, hey,
man, you know, once you're done in November or December playoffs or
whatnot, Uh, how about you just come play for us for a season
or at least four games and let the league reevaluate you. In those four
games, you still can get drafted. We've seen this before. Happened with
a you know, we just saw with quant Twist Quants Stiggers Toronto, although
he played a full eighteen game season plus playoffs. But we saw with Kenny
Robinson in the XFL, like you have a chance to still get drafted.
But man, like, I think that needs to be the aggressive approach.
Get some young stars, both coaches and players, and really try to cultivate,
you know, an interest from the college fan and also the pro foot
the pro football fan for some FL stands started screaming in the comments UFL USFL
twenty twenty two. I also lost that year because the come and it was
twenty twenty three, and then I was twenty one. Was the fangersh on
football Spring League era? That's right, that's right, that's right. That
was adulgrinds of the show we were doing, so Zoe tates, it's been
sure in terms of standouts. Obviously, special teams have been, you know,
across the board anything else because like that, and that's always great and
you want to see you know, the Brandon Aubreyes of the world and all
that, but like anyone from a you know, I don't even know quarterback,
anyone else that your non special teams stand out for you as someone that's
worth a shot in the NFL here, because I do think they've strayed a
little bit away from like every single comment is this guy's trying to get back
to the NFL. Like this guy's trying, but obviously that's kind of the
goal. So what do you think about that. That's a great point.
But it's funny because you see that, you see the guys that that you
think that the league would be attracted to. But then they then when they
you know, do the sideline interview and they show up the lower third,
You're like, wow, he is twenty eight, Like geez, I forgot
you know, like the Derek Roverson's you know what I'm saying, Uh,
the number seven for Temipino, the pass rusher for the BattleHawks, like those
guys get after the quarterback on a consistent basis, Like, man, the
league wants pass rushers. But then you know, the age may age some
of these guys out, Like you look at a Jace Sternberger who had that
opportunity but didn't really get the opportunity. And I hate that We're now seeing
Alex Magoo move the receiver resks, like what are we doing? You know
what I'm saying. So, but you look at like I say, Surat
and how he's played at tight end. But then when you start to see
the age and the time, and if you're the NFL, you're kind of
like, hey, man, we have the luxury of getting young, cheap
talent. Why would we want you know, a twenty eight year old number
three, you know, tight end or a twenty eight year old situational edge
guy when we can just get a twenty one year old, situational a guy
and pay him next to nothing. You know. I think that's why you
haven't seen a lot of these guys make that jump or they'll get an opportunity
in training camp, but they won't stick because of that. So to answer
your long window way to answer your question, it's hard because the guys that
are performing really well, Like I thought we was gonna get one last year
with the kid from Arlington that I think is Harvey or whoever had the lot
a lot of the sacks. He was a rookie, he was a part
of twenty twenty three class and bypassed, you know, the whole process to
go and play in the XFL. Was a killer on defense and didn't get
a sniff in the NFL draft despite producing at a high level on a team
that won a championship. So that kind of got me to thinking, like
maybe maybe this is what is going to be for some of these guys.
Is that I last, I want to get to the playoffs? I have
here? Read mean? Is that sustainable? Is that for a viewership for
people with the wanting to participate, like, hey, I want to play
football? Team know two months at three months out of the year and make
you a fifty grand I mean, it's out a sustainable thing here. That
therein lies the rub, right because in order for that to happen, the
salaries are going to have to increase. But in order for the salaries to
increase viewership and all, you know, you got to the for the productst
to increase, right, Because if you can get to one hundred k people
might people might just be like, you know what, man like this ain't
bad, man like I can do this, and then you may have to
cap your you know, as much as we love to talk about expansion,
ten teams may be the max. If you're gonna pay everybody one hundred k,
you know what I'm saying, and you know, so we'll I think
that ideally that should be the goal. Increase the salary somewhere. It's a
I hate to say Liverpool ways because you know, fifty thousand dollars to some
people may seem it may be a lot of fifty thousand dollars in some areas
may just seem like lunch money right based off where you live. But I
do feel like that's where it kind of has to be. You have to
create a second league where people can earn a living just playing ball. Because
we know the NFL based off how they are and what they are, they
have the luxury of, you know, bypassing you know what they've already bypassed.
Put it that way, looking for it here playoffs. Like I said,
most things in stone here as presuming the Birmingham host here at the USFL
conference, is it they're just head and shoulders. If i've everybody, it
feels like I know they had the close back and forth of the BattleHawks and
that came down to kind of the wire. But like is it just them
and the credit to them or are they doing things so much better than everyone
else or are teams not catching up to them? Like how do you view
where they've just it's three years now, I mean, this is kind of
an incredible run they have going on with multiple quarterbacks and all sorts of turnover
and everything else. What it shows, you read is the value of one
coaching and two continuity, Like they played together for for the most part three
years, Like a good portion of that football team combined with the coaching staff,
so that continuity is almost like a cheet code. Like okay, we
understand the system. We know what to expect, and skip Holes has shown
I know how to coach in this league under these situations, and therefore,
you know, we can make it work. And we've seen it with different
quarterbacks. We've seen it with different pass rushers, we've seen it with different
people in the secondary. But for the most part, of core of that
team has been solid. And I'd be interested to go back and look at
had they had the same offensive line coach from you know, twenty twenty two
to now. Yeah, they had the hind box on first year, and
then he is because he's with Arlington now it's I don't know who there are.
He is right because their offensive line hasn't been an issue, but a
lot of it. You know, Matt Casky has been on this team since
the start, right the tackle out of Dartmouth who played with the Rams for
a little bit. So the fact that they have a lot of guys that
have played together in the spring, that's that's what we're looking for, you
know, continuity. If we can get continuity like that, then I feel
like every team can be a Birmingham Stallions. But you know, with so
much turnover. But that's why you have what you have in Saint Louis,
right, even though this is his year two for them, in this iteration
of it, they've played together a lot. So the continuity is there.
You know, the passing game is work, the offensive line is better,
the play callers, you know, I tweeted this out back. I won't
to say, maybe about a month ago. Greg Kowski now just has a
greater grasp of how to work with this offense and what he has, and
so him and mccaren are even more so on the same page and it were
last year. So I think the continuity is what's been king for the two
teams that are really at the top. It's interesting here just say you bring
that up. So I'm gonna blencher this gentleman's last name, John David Diggle
Gimo. He was with the Giants back in twenty one, and then he's
the first season here with that. So you had Heinbach and then someone else
last year, and so I see you had three different offensive line coaches for
Wheveringham. So that's remark. Yeah, he was with the Giants back under
Joe Judge and then he had COVID and this scams and stuff. So anyway,
interesting. That very interesting. But it shows you Skip Holts once again,
man like he give him a statue, and you know what, I
like that Skip Holds, Anthony Beck and even Reggie Barlow, they've embraced the
Spring. They like embraced the spring league coach. So they so they are
the perfect I feel like champions for the league. And because they could have
had, you know, especially Skip Polts, I wonder if he had an
opportunity. I remember he uh was a consult cause yeah he got he get
calls and yeah, I'm comfortable. We'll see how comfortable he's going to be
if they cut salaries for the coaches. But for the most part, if
we can get continuity with you know, DPPs head coaches and some parts of
the roster, then I think we'll see you know, teams entering week nine,
four and four. I do feel like Skip Holtz is kind of like
the big jock on campus right now. Like I feel like he is in
a very comfortable We're like, I'm the man, this is I got my
team. I know how to talk to everybody. Like I think Skip's probably
living pretty comfortable. I mean, I know he's got to do the other
hub now in Arlington and all that. But I think his life's pretty good
for him if he wants to kind of continue doing this. That's what if
I get. Yeah, and these coaches, listen, man, these these
former hate coach at the collegiate level, they're not hurting for bread, right,
especially Stoops like stup probably has like you know that that that little piece
of Oklahoma that no one knows what's going going on out there in the Panhandle.
That's he probably owns that, like, you know, for the stuff
he's done, how long he's coached, how much money he's made. Right,
So, these dude is a sitting pretty pretty well. Uh So in
terms of that matchup here, Stallions and Panthers here, you know, and
they've maintained right, I mean, it's it's a showbutz everyone else has kind
of fallen off. But what I mean, is it the one not I
hate that place? Is it the one horse race here with the Stallions or
just the Panthers have any shot here? They do have a shot, man,
And you know why because fundamentally they're built the same weight. Their O
line and D line is pretty dog on good, especially their D line.
Their defensive front seven in Michigan. To put it even more specifically, they
really can slow down the run game, they can get pressure, they impose
their will when they hit you. Breelan speaks and all these guys play a
physical brand of football, so they can match physicality with Birmingham. The question
and what's going to come down to, is you know one who's gonna be
at quarterback for Michigan Because I feel like every other week somebody's starting new that
somebody's banged up, but they come in and play well, right and we
know they've lost Wes Hills for the season. Corbyn has done a fantastic job
running the football. They're gonna need a secondary back to merge because you can't
just hand it to him, you know, thirty times and hope that's going
to be you know your game plan. But who's going to be quarterback and
who's gonna help them, you know, make those plays that easy be made
benefit for them. We know they only have to cross the fifty to be
in field goal range, so they can kind of play nip and tuck that
way. But I think their defense and their run game will give them a
chance against Birmingham. And it's about possessions it's almost like you can't. We
saw the Knicks go through this against the Pacers, like it's in their name.
Pacers, they set the pace. They are twenty fourth in defense.
Why are you trying to run with the Pacers like slow it down, expose
their defense and make them play consistent basketball. But they want to go back
and forth. And now you're out the playoffs, right, So if you're
Michigan, you got to look at this like, hey man, if we
just limit the amount of possessions Birmingham has, we can make this a we
could put we could raise the stakes on Birmingham to not make a mistakes.
So we've seen this quite honestly. At times throughout the season for Birmingham,
they get bored. You know, they're they're dominant, but then they'll go
through a quarter where they just like they can't complete the pass, or they'll
have a mental drop here, or you know, somebody will just jump all
sides or just like they'll they'll play with their food a little bit. And
if you're Michigan, you got to try to exploit that. The best way
to do that is strength the ball game and play keep away and forcing them
to be consistently fundamentally sound all throughout the game. Yeah, I've been tracking
this the East Coast bias with the Knicks and everything, and then there's been
a lot of the Steven Aber that and there's been a lot this week about
that the Patriots. I'm not the NBA guy, but that's been interesting.
We don't know. Maybe we'll get the songs back here. And then then
the other side here with with the the BattleHawks here looking really good. You
came down to the wire against the Stallions. Brahmis is our team coming in
and obviously right now you've got Dormandy but they're talking, you know, right
garbarous might be coming back here. What do you make of that? Because
to me that's a little bit I think Stallions steamroll the Panthers here. What
do you make of the XBL conference That's another one where it's it's the same
argument I made for the Panthers and Stallions I will make for the battle Hawks
and and Bramos because fundamentally, like, yeah, the Brahma's defense has done
well, but yeah, you can run on them a little bit. Uh
Is Saint Louis disciplined enough to run the ball consistently on them or would they
hey man, we gotta throw here, you know, because you got to
former quarterback as oci talking to a veteran quarterback and and you know, so
you know that ego is there, like, hey man, we gotta we
gotta go out there and win with our arm. Like, bro, you
better run the ball because you can't, you know what I'm saying. And
we know the quarterback situation over there in Saint San Antonio. You know,
it's funny to see these guys be be uh, you know, six and
two or whatever their record is, I believe, and it's like for y'all
should be three and five, you know what I'm saying. Like they they've
they've eked out some you know what Houston comes to mind when you're guarding against
you know, they have to get into the end on a three point play
and you got your heels on the on the goal line and you backpedal,
like why, like how about you force them to make a tight window throw.
Don't let them catch at the one and fall into the end zone.
Right, So they've been getting by, you know, I don't I don't
call it luck because it is you know, you have to really come back
and scale town all that stuff. But they be getting lucky man, and
so this will be a game where they can't make mistakes and you're gonna require
Dormanya to protect the ball because he tends to be a you know, he
puts the ball in harm's way, and if it's Garbers wasn't playing particularly well
before he got injured, So there's some questions about their passing game. We've
seen them drop a lot of passes a receiver too, so it's not like
they have those receivers that will make you pay where you kind of this guy
may drop the ball on this play and then he may catch it on the
next one. That type of inconsistency. You can't have that going into a
game against the battle Hawk. So if they were gonna have a chance to
win, If they win, that means they would have played their cleanest,
most consistent, most fundamentally sound game of the year, and that's hard to
say. I just think that that's a tougher battle in my opinion than the
Stallions in Panthers. Last thing here, real quick, just call your shot
to hear physician. Stallions and the BattleHawks after dumb here won't be there.
It should be rockets. You know, presuming the ballot Hawks are there,
but do you think they have enough of what's your early predictions for a potential
championship game. I think the Stallions can win that one, you know,
by double digits. Uh you know, we saw them play with their food
in the fourth in the fourth quarter, like what was that play call?
And then you have the block butt just what we was talking about, right,
like they should have that game should have been double digits Birmingham easily,
right, but again red zone playing with their food field goal field goal.
Then at the end of the game, you're trying to run, you get
a block punt of all situation since you're not ready for a block one.
So I feel like they, I hate to use the cliche they've been there
before, but they have been there before and so they kind of understand the
stakes are high at that at that game, and so I could say they
could win that one by ten. I will say, I am I'm close
to making a poll, but I don't want to destroy Twitter, like who
is the most annoying cham base? The Stallions are the battle Hawks because it
is getting to that point. But at least the Stallions have won, right,
I mean at least the Thallions have won, so that's to me,
they at least okay, get y up and buck up and all like,
at least you guys have won, where the BattleHawks are screaming like beat the
Sea Dragons last year at home and you're in the playoffs and it's not even
We're not even going to point spreads and point differentials and all that stuff.
So I should be exciting, Emory. I appreciate it. I will look
forward to your ELF and you know, involvement and everything else. It should
be fun here. Listen, I'm looking forward to it, man, I
expect My first game is June fifteenth. I had the Barcelona Dragons at the
hell Vectic Mercenaries. They changed their name this season, so that's a great
name for a football team. But the Barcelona Dragons has the best quarterback in
the ELF and he had even taken a snap yet in the ELF and is
yours truly from the University of Louisiana and Levi Lewis, So I'm already calling
him as the best quarterback in the game. He should be playing in the
UFL, but we'll see him in the ELF and dominate for the Barcelona dragons.
I'm excited for that one. Well, I appreciate I tell you,
we years ago we hitched our ragon to the wrong. I'm like, oh,
this USFL thing is gonna you know, in the accident, Like here
elf going into year four here and they're crushing it and selling good and everything
else. I yeah, we hitched our right wrong. So I appreciate it.
Busy guy is always thanks so much, appreciate your reed. Well,
we have Ted here today. Ted's a little on the men, but he's
taking the time to come on here. I appreciate it. Ted Wyman here,
Winnipegson. How are you doing, sir. I'm doing great, buddy.
You know, I always like it when the CFL season gets going.
It's just that's my time of year. I love training camp. I love
doing a job that you're sitting outside for most of the time, getting to
know people, hearing great stories from guys that have great stories from all parts
of this continent and even overseas. So that's a lot of fun. And
and we've bombers had a very early preseason game already this year too, which
is a little strange, but I guess I think it's good to get started
a little earlier because the league really wants to move up the Great Cup and
rightly so, the better chance of every game played without a lot of snow
and cold is the best plan you can have. And this year NBC anyway,
so I guess it doesn't matter. Well, I was surprised, yeah,
because I looked and I'm like, oh God, okay, because I
was like, are there more do I got to hit up some more people
this week. I'm like one of the rest of the games for this weekend,
they had their early game. Any indication why, just kind of getting
things rolling. Well, the Bombers start on the sixth, so if you're
going to get in two games, you have to do it over three weeks
for two week two games for each team. So someone had to start,
you know, just one game on the Victoria Day holiday here and the Riders
like to have that game because they think it's a good day to have a
football game on a holiday in Reagina. And so that started out pretty early,
and a lot of backup players played for the Bombers and we learned a
bit about them. So I think that was really good. But you know,
when they get out there for their second preseason game, which is on
May thirty. First, we're going to see a lot more what the real
real Bombers will look like. Yeah, preseason always especially the CFL and kind
of working a lot of guys. And yet what, I guess what what
major takeaways did you have from the preseason game? They won, right against
the scotchwan Man. No, it's preseason, but they didn't win. And
really after the so they didn't even start Kolaros, They didn't start a lot
of guys that you would deem as regular starters. So the guys that were
out there as starters, even those players really only played at quarter and they
were in pretty good shape. Then, you know, Chris Streveler was doing
a good job. He was doing everything that he did the last time he
was here running the football. He was seven for eight passing for I think
sixty five yards, three runs for twenty five. This typical Chris Streveler,
And so I think people are happy to see that he still looks like a
guy who was a good CFL quarterback. You know, he gave it a
pretty good run in the NFL too, but just didn't quite get there.
And then when they're second and third quarterbacks came in for that game. It
was a little uglier and when you know, a lot of lower on the
depth chart guys as well, guys who'd never been in a game together,
communicating, et cetera, it didn't go so well. Eric Barrier came in
as a backup, the first choice at backup, because I think that's the
player they want to see most. I really think he's the most likely to
be heading out of town soon anyway. But he had a horrible game,
which to help, two terrible interceptions, barely got any offensive yards at all,
and you know, just nothing went well for him. But Trey Wilson
or Terry Wilson, the other quarterback who has a nice pedigree, looked really
good. You know, he played well. He threw for over one hundred
yards, threw a touchdown pass. It was late, but nonetheless it was
and he looked pretty calm and cool in there. So that's probably going to
be your third stream quarterback here in Winnipeg. And you know a guy that
I think it looks like could probably step in and help them if any of
the one or two get hurt in terms of streveler, Is us a bit
I mean, is this a fan move? Is this that. Do you
think he still got a lot of juice in his tank here. I mean,
I know people were really excited when they posted all that stuff kind of
in the offseason. Well, he came to them, man, you know,
like he decided he wanted to keep his journey going forward in the CFL.
Still got lots of years in him for the game, and he loved
his time here in Winnipeg. So he came to them, and you know,
they did show interest right away. But then when word got out in
the league that Strebler was definitely coming back, there was a few other teams
that started to throw their hat in the ring, and you know, basically
what they served to do is get the salary bumped up. You know,
the Bombers thought it was a pretty good deal for them because they're going to
pay this guy non starter money and he was willing to do it. He
made a lot of money during his time in the NFL, so that's kind
of good on him. And eventually they got the deal done and he's a
he's sure enthusiastic. I'll tell you, he's a you know, you're losing
leaders from this team, right like you're losing JaMarcus Hardrick. He's one of
the biggest leaders this team has had in a long time. He's a long
time defensive captain. Adam big Hill's going on the six game injury list,
which you know, I don't know how long he's going to be out,
but really starting without the veteran presence that's been in the middle since twenty eighteen,
they're going to have to find some leadership in this group for sure,
and I think you know that Mike O'Shea would tell you that Chris Treveler is
the best bet to make up for what they're lacking because he's just a great
leader, a great motivator. In terms of kind of I guess wad on
the chip on the shoulder here coming into the season, Winnipeg, Are you
sensing a lot of that, I mean just after last season or what's what's
kind of the mindset of the locker room? Oh, chip on the shoulder
for sure, you know they it's pretty tough. Man like this team could
legitimately before time in a row Great Cup champions. I think anyone who watched
the last two Great Cups could say Winnipeg absolutely could have or should have won
those games. And so to lose last year to Montreal was heartbreaking. They
felt they were the much better team and they blew it, you know,
basically, and so obviously they come in with that chip on the shoulder that
they want to get back there one more time and prove it, and that
that that you know, you know, if you can get three out of
the last five, you know, that's still in the dynasty territory, isn't
it. Yeah, you're kind of stretching out the definition. But I agree,
I agree on the territory. So there's a chance there. But I
don't see the same level of quality of team right now that they had last
year or the year before. As as it goes. You know, they've
lost some really good players and they're replacing them in camp. That's what you're
supposed to do. You can't just assume that a rookie is going to be
bad. You know, there's a good chance that that rookie's going to be
good. Not long ago, the Bombers brought in Dalton shown as a you
know, number twenty three on the depth chart guy, and he ended up
making the team, became Rookie of the Year. It's been one of the
best receivers in the league for two years and they managed to get him back.
You know, that's going to be really helpful. And they've still got
veterans in the right places, you know, like Willie Jefferson, Big Hill
when he comes back, Brandon Alexander at safety when he comes back. He
hasn't practiced yet. And then of course you've got arguably the best quarterback in
the league in Zach Klarows and I'd say definitely the best running back in the
league Brady oli Era. And they love their receiving corps that's still pretty consistent.
They're just basically looking for one guy and as I already mentioned, you
know, you only have to look so far as Dalton's shown to realize that
sometimes you can find a jam and have somebody that really impacts your team.
And that's what happened, was shown, and of course they'll look hope that
that'll happen again with the ol Era thing. And I know because he was
kind of testing the market, right And I think, BC, I'm trying
to because this was like ages ago, I got a whole UFL season here,
I'm trying to like remember back to but because that to me would have
been a really game changing signing for a lot of teams. I mean,
I thought, with him being back now and happy with that, do you
do you sense that like that that if you got to BC, I mean,
that's like turning the tides in a big way. Dude, I would
not even be able to remember which league I were covering if I were you.
So there's been so many evolutions there. But Grady loves Winnipeg. He
loves representing Winnipeg, he loves being a huge part of the Blue Bomber organization,
and it is what he wanted all along. But he wasn't going to
let them walk all over him. He wasn't going to let them just say,
well, you love Winnipeg, we love you, so you know,
why don't you just take two hundred grand or whatever? He wanted more?
You know, he wanted to get two fifty. That was his target.
He got offered more than that. He got offered two fifty from one team
I think, and two seventy five from another, and he chose to come
back here for I think it was something like two thirty six. You know,
still the highest paid running back in the league, and rightly show so
when you're the you know, most outstanding Canadian. You were the runner up
to the most outstanding player in the league. You deserve that. And now
he's just in his happy place. But he hasn't even practiced yet. He's
been injured, so they didn't put him on the six games. So I'm
assuming that's okay. They got a little time, right, like they really
need to evaluate players this year that they don't know. So they had a
full week before their first game. Now they have a full week before a
day off, and then they have a full week to prepare for their last
exhibition game or preseason game. And I imagine we're going to see Brady back
next week. Demski two, probably, but it's hard to say for sure
because we just haven't gotten much of an update on their health situations. In
terms of the West here, you know, I know that we're Edmonton's making
the big swing with McLeod and everything else, and you know, I mean,
Calgary vade the playoffs and the kind of everything. But to me,
the road kind of goes through BC, right, And obviously there's a lot
of pressure on them this year with the Gray Cup and everything else. Do
you sense that what do you send them just the rest of the West year.
Generally speaking, I don't know about pressure. I mean, it's interesting
because it is a home Great Cup for the Lions, and man, won't
that be fun? You can wear your Lion shirt everywhere. Yeah, And
and you know, you you have a situation there where you've got a chance
to win at home and you really want to do that. The Bombers want
to do it next year, you know, they really really want to do
that. They want to keep building this momentum that's gone really well in BC
in terms of of attendance last year and the great atmosphere outside the stadium and
all that kind of stuff. So you know, they've loaded up a lot.
They lost a couple of guys too, but they've you know, I
think they I would pretty much peg them as first place in the division,
to be honest, I'm not sure there's pressure there. I just think there's
a lot of desire there to make sure they finished first in the West and
get through to the Great Cup. But second in the West would be good
too. And then you know, Winnipeg I think is right in the mix.
I feel like they're going to be a drop off there, but I
think you know, they've been they haven't lost very many games the last two
years. So if it was a drop off, is that twelve and six,
you know, is that eleven and seven? Those are both gonna be
good enough to make the playoffs. And I think they're going to recognize that
just because you know, one of the one of the two times they did
win the Great Cup they did, they came from third place. So it's
not that necessary to completely kill yourself trying to win the division and UH and
when you when you end up not winning the Great Cup. Saskatchewan I think
is my third favorite in UH in the West. I think they've got a
pretty good team, good depth at quarterback. Man, like we saw tiny
bit of Trevor Harris and Mason Fine Fine. Shape Patterson was outstanding. He
had a tremendous game. And they threw Jack Cohane in there as well,
So they had four different guys in there, but they all handled themselves pretty
well. And I really was impressed with what Shape Atterson did. So I
could see it being you know, Harris, Oh, they also had Antonio
Pipkin in there. I would thank him and Harris, Like the original idea
would have been maybe Harris and Mason Fine and Antonio Pipkin. But I think
Shape Patterson has made a great case to be one of the three guys on
that team. Former number one USFL twenty twenty two draft pick there, Shape
Patterson came in. It was not huh you pull those numbers out? Yes,
So there you go. Last question here. I won't keep you too
long on it. Like I said, you're on the men here. Biggest
questions you have here for the winning for the Bombers to figure out here in
the next what two and a half weeks here before the season kickoff? Uh
yeah, who's gonna who's going to be the fifth receiver? I've it was
going to be kJ Hill, but apparently he just wasn't very healthy and so
they let him go. I like Myron Mitchell this week. I liked Aaron
Crookshank this week. I think they really want to get a guy in there
that can, like maybe there's room for two receivers because one of them is
going to be the primary kick returner and the other one's going to be the
you know, the number five receiver in that lineup. So that's a pretty
good battle spot the defensive line there, you know, Doug Brown said before
the broadcast the other day that that was the biggest area of concern for him.
And he's an All Star Hall of Fame defensive lineman, so I think
he knows. But they've got Willie Jefferson and then they got Cam Lawson and
Jake Thomas there as veterans. But then who's going to handle the inside and
who and that'll probably be an American, And who's going to handle the outside
opposed to Jefferson. That is up in the air, and I think the
candidates are celestein Haba who was here last year, and Chauncey Rivers. He's
got some NFL experience and he looked really good in his first game, and
Taiwan Garbett who was here last year as well a bit and he got a
sack last game. He looked really good, And so that's pretty important.
Who's going to start at a linebacker? If Adam big Hull can't go,
like nothing jumps off the page for me completely there. But they're going to
have to make sure they get somebody confident in there because that's they really rely
on him. So that's going to be an interesting one. Defensive back,
will Tyrrell Ford get a chance to start in the CFL is a big question
for me. I think he's got a really good shot of playing at field
halfback, so or maybe not field halfback but field corner, I should say.
So that would be really exciting, I think. And it would be
even more exciting if Edmonton hadn't kind of not given tray Ford his opportunity and
signed to McLeod Bethel Thompson. So I'd love to see those two guys playing
against EETs other in a game and it would be a lot of fun,
real quick. Last thing, because I'm Dave Campbell's going to be onto this
weekest, Well, bit, are you just baffled by this trade forward thing
with McLeod, like we all hear stateside, just can't get over it.
But I'm just curious your thoughts real quick, and I'll let you go,
I promise. Well, it just doesn't make a ton of sense to me,
Like how are you going to develop tray Ford? But Jones doesn't want
to be in a developing position. He wants to be a contender for the
playoffs right now, and they might be. And mbt is is a good
quarterback. He showed what he could do with Toronto a couple of years ago.
They've got great receivers there that could make a real difference. But I
hope they give some reps to tray forord. I think, you know,
like there's a good opportunity to put him in there to just run the football,
use tray Ford like the Bombers used Chris Treveler, and then that might
work pretty well. But as long as nobody's taken away this guy's opportunity,
because I think he looked last year like he was on the fast track to
becoming a star, and I don't like that now he's had a little over
that shine taken off. Well there you go, Ted, go get some
rest. I appreciate you making the time today means a lot, and we'll
get you on here when you're back up to full speed. I appreciate it.
You got it, buddy, Thank you very much. Enjoy the season.
Well, I'm excited here a familiar face, probably in better spirits,
and I think the last time we talked he was like a therapy session about
the Alex at the end of last season here. But we have Dave Campbell
here on the city a buzz, but probably not with CFL more NHL right
now, but how are you doing, sir. I'm doing great, and
you are correct read and it's just nice to see you. I know you're
a big Oiler fan. Not no, you're right. I mean, it's
it's it's fever pitch here. Just a great series against the Vancouver Canucks and
you know, the Dallas Stars. It's interesting because you know, the last
time these two played, I think was two thousand and three, so that's
twenty one years ago. There's a lot of people that are Oiler fans that
wouldn't remember really the oil Oilers and Stars rivalry, let alone the five Stanley
Cups from eighty four to ninety right, So there's a lot of new for
a lot of Oiler fans, you know, and someone from like myself,
it's just, you know, kind of cool to see these two teams meet
again. It's great. Well, no, and so I mean, first
off, and I was just reading fights at training camp. We'll talk about
here, but I want it because you know, the Elks are in the
really tricky situation here were the last couple of seasons and here, you know,
I mean, even if they do it even deeper, run here with
the Oilers and then the Elks come in trying to get those dollars from the
fans, Like do you, I mean, what's your thoughts on that.
I mean, I know it's good for the station and every that way,
but it fans, you know, trying to get these people back onto the
Edmonton Elks band legon. Well, I think it's just I mean, it's
out of their control. They can't do anything about it, right, and
I think you have to enjoy the ride, you know, support the Oilers.
I think there are a lot of fans that are fans of both the
Oilers and Elks. But no question, does this maybe affect the bottom line
initially for the Elks? It might. I mean we'll see what the attendance
is like on Saturday and how well the Rider fans travel to a preseason game
in Edmonton. But yeah, I mean there's nothing they can do about it,
you know. And it's possible that they're both their preseason games will be
inside the confines of a conference final, because the game on the thirty first
against the Lions in Vancouver is potential Game five, and there's potential that there's
a Stanley Cup Final that they have to compete with the Oilers being in it.
But there's nothing they can do about it, you know, and it's
it's probably just again, it's just circumstantially, it's not a great situation because
they're coming off of another bad season with some optimism coming into this year,
but I would say extremely cautious optimism as well. But I think, you
know, you just be supportive of the of the team down the street and
they are supportive of them as well. When they'll get going and we just
enjoy the ride, there's nothing else you can do. Yeah, what's the
vibe right now? I mean, obviously Eles have their first preseason game this
weekend with Winnipeg and Saskatchewan had their earlier this week, But like, what,
what's the what's the mood? I will get into this fight kind of
stuff, but that's always just kind of funny, sallacious whatever. But what
is the general vibe you're going into the season. Well, I think there's
a there there's a lot of intrigue about McLeod Bethel Thompson coming in as a
new starter, tray Ford now the number two quarterback. You know, there
are a lot of argo flavor on the team, you know, with Curly
Gitton's coming over and Javon Leak and you know, Boris Beatty and you know
others, and the ownership situation as well, the seventy fifth anniversary. I
mean that first week I read, before the season opener, it's almost like
another home game for this organization because so many legends and greats are coming back
and they're going to do their annual dinner again, which is usually in late
September early October, but it's going to be two days before the home opener,
right, And I think I think there's a good reason for that,
because you want to have it celebratory before the season starts instead of okay,
potentially another bad season and oh, come out to our dinner, you know,
and people are kind of turned off by the team, right. So
yeah, I mean there's a I think there's a lot of pressure on Chris
Jones to win this year, and that doesn't necessarily mean break up, but
to show that this is a team that is finally ready to win, ready
to take the next step to make the playoffs, to you know, maybe
get to a division final. But I think there's a lot of cautious optimism,
and there is some pessimism of course. I mean, this team has
to kind of earn their stripes, I think, and we'll see. I
mean there's things like the upper bowl being closed, you know, which is
unfortunate, but I think we all understand that it probably it was a move
that had to be made, and hopefully they give, you know, fans
give them a reason, the Elks to open up that upper deck at certain
points of the season as well. So yeah, it's a combination of excitement,
but I think there's a lot of Okay, let's I just don't want
to see more losses again. You know, we got to see something different.
Now. This has to be and we've talked this slow bill with Chris
Jones, you know, over the last few years. I mean, this
has to be right, meg or break. I mean, this is I
mean right, it's all the cards on the table here, right. Yeah.
I don't think he's foolish to think that it's it's not any other way,
right, Like, this is make or break here, you win or
you're done, right, And I think he realizes that. And I think,
you know, every foot ball season you think that way. But at
the same time, when you have a team that really you go back to
the twenty nineteen season, you know, the middle of the twenty nineteen season,
even though they made an East final that year, we haven't seen a
lot of wins. You know, even twenty eighteen was a struggle at nine
to nine. So this is a fan base that is starving for a winner
from their football teams. And yeah, but I agree, like this is
it for Chris Jones If we have another season like we have seen the last
two years, He's not going to be back for a fourth year of that
contract for sure. Well and just even when we were talking about the Oilers
here and obviously it's a different but similar fan bases, and I haven't seen
I've seen a lot of screenshots posted of like when it was the Vancouver their
side of the playoff tickets and how expensive they were and all of that,
And I have to imagine, Yeah, if I'm an Edmonton person and I've
just spent you know a lot of money or you know, either go into
the games or watching the game support, and then you roll into the season
like there's only so much and we deal with this without the spring football all
the time, and my people only have how much band we have the money
to do all these things. And if I've just supported the successful hockey team
it is. It just really does put the pressure on for that way as
well, because there's only so much money to go around. Yeah, absolutely,
and you know, it's it's tough right now. And even the Oilers
they had trouble selling out playoff games. It was mostly sold out. It
was, you know, ninety nine percent sold out. But yeah, there's
only so much money to go around. And I think the Elks have done
a good job of coming up with the price points to bring people in at
an affordable rate. And I think they don't have a choice really, and
you know, there's always the debate of whether you should do that, whether
you should how much you know, what is is going is too what is
too low? Basically, And again when I say when I hear people say
the CFL is expensive, I look at them weirdly and I go go go
find out what an order ticket costs. And nothing against the Oilers. It's
the National Hockey League, I get it. But you know, you are
right though, you get kind of you know, consumer fatigued, and well,
how much more money do I need? You know, should I spend
here? Right? But yeah, so we'll see what happens. I mean
I'm cautiously kind of walking into the season and kind of waiting to see what
happens, right and so, but attendance wise, you know, we'll see.
But the Elks have done a lot of work to try and bring people
in at an affordable rate. Last question here about kind of non football and
stuff that we'll get to that. I promise he look in at your article
here with the lost kind of you know, from the meetings coming out,
and then in terms of like the ownership and all of that stuff, like
any sense does that heighten there or damper expectations on any of that stuff or
I know that that's kind of outside of your purview, but just kind of
thoughts generally on that. No, I don't think so. I mean,
at one point they had twenty non disclosure agreements signed with various people or groups.
To me, that's remark arkable that an organization that has struggled financially and
has struggled, you know, in the public eye over the last few years,
has garnered that much interest. That's impressive. So even going through a
name change, that there's some power in the brand, still a lot of
power. So now they're down to the to the short straws and you know,
they've really whittled that list down. You know, there's you know,
mixture of local and not local and that sort of thing, and that it
should be all wrapped up sometime in the summer, I believe, you know,
I know that the board board chair Tom Richards was putting a lot of
runway to this and you know he said, by the end of the twenty
fourth season, but for sure by the start of the twenty five season,
we'll see private ownership. So I don't think the results on the field are
going to affect the ownership, and I think that they're pretty confident that they're
going to have a good, you know, good group to come in and
inject some cash and hopefully get this franchise in the right direction. Yeah football
here now, And this is coming from a you know, we are all
big mccob Bethel Thompson fans, right, all of us and kind of tracking
his career. But you know, we got to talk this tray forward and
everything because we saw last year the spark he gave and not only that,
but we we kind of curtailed at the end of the Ted Wyman's interview leading
into this and just even just from a trade Ford developmental standpoint, like,
what does this do? I mean, thoughts an A big fan of McLeod
and I get that this is a make or break year for the Elks,
but I really curious your thoughts on this situation. Well, I mean,
let's go back to last year. He finally, tray Ford finally gets to
start a game in the ninth game of the season and then starts the rest
of the way, but goes through a stretch where they went four and two
under him, and if you know, you look at it even further or
deeper they went. They won four or five games and got themselves kind of
back into a playoff race. Then the final four games happened and they based
the four best teams in the league, the BC Lions, the Toronto Argonauts,
the Montrealtes, and then the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, right, And I
thought trey Ford kind of came back down to earth. And it's not all
his fault, of course, I mean, they're there are other factors involved
here, but from the quarterback specifically, we saw some really dynamic things from
him, and I think it really full defenses and they couldn't handle what he
was bringing and then all of a sudden, they play the BC Lions on
September twenty second, the start of that four straight losses to end the season.
It's a home game, and the Lions adjust to trey Ford by sending
defensive backs this way. Okay, fine, We're just going to get speedy
defensive backs to run right at you and to trap you and confuse you.
And it worked, right. Look, trey Ford is exciting, dynamic,
athletic, but really raws a starting quarterback, I believe. Now there's an
argument I've heard this as well. If trey Ford started earlier or started week
one, which I don't think was realistic, But what if he started week
one in twenty three, could they have made the playoffs? Could they have
found a few more wins? And could they have made the playoffs? Because
remember Calgary made the playoffs with six wins, so all you needed was seven,
So you got to find three wins somewhere. Could they have been found?
You know, I think there's a good argument to that. But you
go into this year where the pressure to win is so immense. You know,
this is make or break for Chris Jones and a lot of people within
the organization from a football side of things. Can you really trust trey Ford
with that at this point? Is it fair to tray Ford? No,
if circumstances were different, might be more, you know, a fair for
trey Ford to you know, take take a flyer on him, but you
bring him McLeod Bethel Thompson, who is an experienced quarterback who's been part of
two great Cups. You know, he was behind Ricky Ray for one in
seventeen and then he won in twenty two. I know he didn't play well
in the greakup game, but he was very good in that season. You
know, in twenty one he was a full time starter as well, and
we saw him and you know spots in you know, eighteen and nineteen as
well. But you know, he really came into his own in twenty one.
Then he left for the USFL because his wife is really big up in
Marvel, and you know he plays in the USFL. And look, it's
the USFL. I know a lot of people, it's the USFL. It's
the USFL. It's a pro football league. And he played very well,
okay, and then he got the itch to come back and I can tell
you, I mean Chris Jones and ger Roy Simon had their eye on McLeod
after the USFL season, But that's a lot of football for one man to
play, right, and I think McLoud comes in and we've seen the leadership
that he brings. We've seen the the fact that he talks to everyone.
He talks to the other quarterbacks, he talks to the running backs, receivers,
offensive line, The defense takes notice of him, and that's good to
see. His mechanics are good. You know, his decision making is usually
good. He's going to make mistakes. Every quarterback does. For Trey Ford,
I think this is important for him to take a step back and to
learn from a veteran how to prepare, how to read defenses, how to
lead that all those sort of things. Trey was upset when when McLeod was
signed. I don't blame him. Of course, when you're told you're going
to be number one going into camp at the end of the twenty three season
and then you know they changed their basically change their tune management, does you're
going to be upset? He wants the football. If he wasn't upset,
I'd have a I had more concerns about him, but McLeod got on the
phone right away and started building that relationship with with Trey, and they talked
constantly and you could see it in camp that Trey and McLeod have a really
good relationship and Trey is learning a lot and I think his camp has been
pretty solid. McLeod is far and away the best quarterback there and I think
it gives the Elks more than a puncher's chance to have a good season.
It's interesting. Yeah, I know McCloud. I think they were. I
think he was undefeated in the USFL until he came on the show and it
was you. I think it was well so so Ben Holmes famously no showed
the show and then went on and won a great cup in the CFL and
Cloud came on the show and then so it's it's kind of the inverse relationship
that way. But because I I just you know, to me and I
absolutely and the way that you phrased that is really great. Where if if
Trey had started earlier and what if and all that, and there's certainly no
ill will towards McCloud coming in. I mean he wants to you know,
everyone wants to play and lookout but I mean McLeod Thompson is two years younger
than me. I mean, this isn't like exactly like a spring chicken here.
But you know, to me, the besides like Nathan Wark being Nathan
Worke, what made that BC a Lions team so cool was we could spend
so much money on everybody else because Nathan work was making you a penny.
Yeah, and here you could have had Trey Ford right, his rookie deals
ending up here and so like, I don't just surround that where they dumped
so much money in McLeod, And that to me is the concern where it's
not like we're getting them for what he's like five fifty. I mean it's
a big contract, right, It's big. Yeah, absolutely, So they
had to make decisions in other areas that I think it affected. You know,
you know a C. Leonard wanted a lot of money to come back
and they couldn't do it. They let him go, They let Ed Gainey
go, they let Adam Conar go. He was making a good coin as
well. Yeah, it does affect other areas of the football team. But
it's the pressure to win and they trust him and they've worked with him because
a lot of this coaching staff, including Chris Jones, including the offensive coordinator,
Jerry's Jackson, and Marcus Howell, who's the receivers coach, who has
a big hen in the offense as well. They all know him and McLeod
knows them, and there's a trust there, So you know, I think
that's why they went out and did it. Looking here, like I said,
first preseason game coming up this weekend and then you've got a couple more
weeks in camp. Whether are the big kind of questions you're looking at here?
I mean besides obviously McLeod, but kind of anything else team wise for
that, or you know, how they protect him or anything else kind of
that you're going to have your eye out for. Yeah, definitely the offensive
line for sure. Now McLeod gets the ball out asked what's the old line
will like? So that's going to help the old line for sure. But
beyond that, I mean, mcloud's limited when you compare him to Tray,
right, So it'll be interesting to see how McLeod handles some pressure if if
the writers you know, are able to you know, send some blitz and
and see what McLeod is able to handle and Mcloud's gonna want to know what
he can handle. I look at the D line. The D line has
all kinds of question marks. Robert and Dci has come in former first round
pick in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals and has been, you know,
underwhelming in his pro career, especially in the NFL. He's come in hungry
and determined and has been a force on the inside. Jamion Pelly has had
an interesting camp where they spent a lot of time at jam in trying to
have him more in shape, but they still see him as a starter and
we'll see what happens there. Elliott Brown's coming in to kind of be that
Ac Lenard replacement. Noah Curtis came in and he's thirty pounds heavier, you
know, one of these American Cans, and that's to me, it's it's
all about the D line, uh. And after that the secondary. You
know, you've got Kay Gray coming back West nominee for Most Outstanding Rookie,
Darius Bratton's back, Marcus Lewis in a limited time, had foreign receptions before
being hurt, and they look like they're more confident, but they've lost leaders
on that team, like I said, you know, Gainey Conard Resna traded
lender not brought back. You got Purefoy and you Gotnles Morgan as your as
your established leaders on that team. So it'll be interesting to see what happens
with this young defense. The return game Javon Leak is going to be exciting.
But they got Deontes Alexander who had that kickoff return for a touchdown in
the final game for the Elks in Winnipeg. And you got Malik Flowers back.
And we're going to see them in the receiving core too, because Dylan
Mitchell is not going to play on Saturday, so can American rece maybe bump
Dylan Mitchell off the pedestal right, and he's coming off a tough year too,
So but for me, that D line is going to be very interesting
to see how they performed because that's probably the biggest question mark for the team.
I think the whole defense is the is a big question mark and they
have to be a lot better than they were last year. But no doubt
the D line. It starts up front, and that'll be very interesting to
see how they can handle the game situation. I was just tracking. I
guess I hadn't realized that stress and I got traded there over to the Argo.
So, yeah, that's a big I mean, he's he I think
they'd send them on the show here a couple of seasons ago. But certainly,
I mean he's right. He had some kind of injury staff where he
was hurting people. I mean, he's played very well. I mean that's
kind definitely a big standout. Lost there anything else from you? I know
you're you're bubbling with excite me here for the oilers, and I have anything
else about the Alex before we get out of here? Yeah, well you
don't want to talk about the fights? Oh yes, we got to talk
about the good Yes, well I kind of because I kind of. Yes.
So what happened with the big kerfuffle here? I saw the three down?
Yeah, it was, you know, altercation wise, it was a
little it was a little more than what you normally expect. You know,
usually it's two guys one on O, one on D. They don't like
each other, so they tussle for a few few minutes here or a few
seconds, and yeah there is love it great headline, and this was a
little bit different. You could see that this was brewing. You know,
there's a lot of It was a twelve on twelve a drill. It was
between the A group offense and defense, and you could tell there was some
tension there and and then all of a sudden it just boiled over. And
yeah, I'm trying to remember who the principal people were. I can't really
remember because some everyone just kind of got in there. But Javon Leak ended
up throwing a helmet, not at anyone, but just threw it an open
field. And you know, pier Foy was getting at some people and some
other members of defense and the offense, and you know, Chris Jones put
them all to the sidelines and made him run with the field a few times
and had to change the whole schedule, or he chose to change the whole
schedule practice schedule, So he wasn't happy. But at the end of the
day, I mean it's eleven days in now it's twelve. They haven't played
anyone yet but themselves, and they're sick of each other, right, I
mean they were sick of each other by day two or three last week,
you know, and people got to realize. I mean in the CFL any
league, I mean training camp's grueling at six am to almost ten pm at
night, it's brutal, it's long days. It's basically hotel to facility,
back to the hotel, sleep as much as you can, and go back
right and they need to play against someone else. So I'm not overly concerned
about it at all. I remember one year was oh seven or eight,
when Danny Machoca was the head coach here in Edmonton. I think in the
first seven days of camp there were six fights and there was real Donnybrooks,
just real concern and there is a lot of a lot of you know,
a lot of tension and a lot of bad feelings, and I don't think
Danny handled it well. Where you know, Chris Jones has done a good
job of handling that stuff. It's like, you get that out of your
system now, because in the regular season you can't do this. In the
playoffs you can't do this. And I think that's important to note too.
When the days are long and your emotions are afraid, and your body hurts
and your mind is tired, and you're all you are is playing against your
teammate, and that's nothing about campus your teammates. But during Camp sessions.
You're not your enemies. Your enemies. It can get to you, right
and get it out of the way now because when the regular season comes,
you know, we don't really see that. So I think Camp is really
good at getting all that fleshed out. But you just got to be careful.
You know, the line has to be it's a very thin line between
that's no big deal to a point. We got a problem here. So
I think Chris Jones knew that and he dealt with it yesterday. I'll tell
you, I think that you guys made a tweak last year. These jerseys
are fire. I really like these right, they a little bit I do.
Do you not like them? Some people don't like them because of the
white numbers. Oh, I like it. I think that's really clean.
Yeah, I can't invest it. I have too many jerseys investments. I
can't get back. I have one my one VC Lions jersey that someone sent
me. I can't get in anywhere leagues. My wife will divorced me.
Well, Dave, I appreciate it. Like I said, you certainly have
a fan with me with the oilers because Stars took us out last year.
So I have no ready interest in that and Anthony Miller covers them and he
can just go the heck, and so I appreciate it, Like I said,
taking time to come on. Hopefully the season starts better. You know
last year we can get you back on here doing non therapy sessions. But
no, I mean, I think people are excited, at least mcclott,
at least it's a story. I mean, it's a big story to track
in the West, and so I think if nothing else, they should attracted
fans for the first few weeks because of that, no question. Yeah,
it's good to talk ELX. This is the best time of the year to
talk about the football team you cover because everyone's on it all right, and
optimism is highest. So hopefully the next time we talk we're talking about good
things. That'll be good. Dave Campbell, thank you so much, appreciate
it, Thanks read talk you everybody. Huge special thanks to all of our
guests for coming on today and we Hunt taking time out of his busy week
here at covering Giants' training camp, and then obviously Ted Wyman coming on taking
time on the man. Dave Campbell busy with Edmonton, you know, the
Oilers in the Stanley Cup, playoffs and everything else. So really appreciate everyone
coming on this week and that you know, and like I said, this
is it is all the collection of voices and people taking the time out of
their day to come on. That as what makes this program with it this
I really appreciate that. I hope you guys enjoy. And now drum roll
please, it is time to announce the rules here to get involved in the
thirty five hundred subscriber giveaway two free tickets to the UFL Championship Game. And
then I have a cavalcade of Royal retros custom jerseys here. I'll show them
all off here. But here's the rules to enter. Remember big grand prize,
two free tickets to the UFL Championship Game. I've already purchased them.
You'll be sitting with the Professor Andrew Murray. I'm going to try to be
in the press box just to kind of save some cash here on the back
end, we have fights, some hotels and all that stuff on my end
to get to the Championship game. But two free tickets. It's like row
m behind the XFL bench here at the BattleHawks Dome. Basically it was the
best seats that were available today once kind of the pre sale because I we
didn't know if we were going to hit the thing and all that stuff.
So two tickets. I think they're one ten at piece. So it's like
the best basically the best tickets you can get at this point based it like
seats five, six, seven, whatever, row M you will be like
so with the Professor Andrew Murray hopefully he guys, I'll get along. Andy
was posting funny gifts about that, him and the Joker makeup. Andy's Andy's
good to talk to the football game. I think you'll have. But so
that's the main gift. That's the main prize. We will announce everything next
week, so you'll have time to kind of figure out all that stuff.
But like I said, make sure you're subscribed, get involved with all of
that stuff and get you gotta be subscribed to win. That's grand prize number
one, and I'll tell you how to enter and then all the other ones.
I have a bunch of these Royal retro jerseys. I kind of forgot
Dustin had sent me all of these, and it was like right at the
start of I think there was like some jersey merch issues last year with the
XFL, and I was like, I better not talk about these right now,
but that these are all custom, like they know Dustin doesn't sell XFL
twenty twenty jerseys. And I have a USFL one here as well. But
if you want any of these, I think they're all sites large. But
we have a Jordan Tayamu. Look at this battle Hawks BattleHawks Jersey XFL twenty
twenty. This is hot. It's kind of hard to do when I'm sitting,
but you hopefully you get the IDEA brand new tag still on Jordan Taomu
BattleHawks Jersey. We have old reliable. We got Brandon Silver's here, Seattle
Dragons Jersey number twelve again, Brandon Silver's here. And I can certainly post
photos of Indy of these if you guys want them. I posted one on
Twitter. We got old PGAs Walker here, Houston Roughnecks Old School here XFL
Jersey. Hopefully the Mike's picking all this stuff up XFL. And then we
have a USFL. We have a Kafante Chirpin, New Jersey, General's Jersey.
This is hot. This is a hot one. Excuse me, I
broke my microphone. This is a hot one as well. Even Mike Mitchell
said he's interested in that one. Maybe Mike wants to win, you know,
certainly, I you know, there's no rules regulations against that. So
this is what we're gonna do. Like I said, make sure you're subscribed,
and how you enter is comment on the video. You do one comment
per each item. So because we're trying to you know, let's boost the
algorithm, boost the comment. So if you want the jersey, comment,
you know, want the jersey, which one you want the Brandon Silver jersey?
PJ Walker, Jointyamu Kvanti Truppin want the jersey? And if you want
the ticket, do a comment for that. So like if you wanted to
enter into all five, you would have five comments like that. That what
And then I'll go through We'll do kind of a collection of everything here on
the Thursday night before all all this will be all legit, Like I'll randomize
all this because I know it's a big time gift here, a lot of
money going into the grand prize and then all paper shipping for you know,
for the jerseys for everyone thing else and then you know we can eat transfer
the tickets. But comment, like I said, if you want all five,
you would have five comments each one that you want if you only want
the if you only want the Brandon Silver's won, you only want to whatever
comment that, and I'll search through and be able to kind of filter all
the comments and keywords that way in the YouTube. Again, remember we got
these four awesome jerseys here and then the two free tickets to the UFL Championship
game. So I think when we get to four thousand, hopefully and maybe
we could do like a season ticket pack next year, I don't know.
Let me know also in the comments, like what do you want for that?
Like what should be the next game? Because it took us spoiler,
there's supposed to be like the pregame kickoff last year, we're supposed to give
these tickets away, So championship game tickets, the jerseys submit, we should
be lots of hopefully lots of comments on this drive the algorithm share. We
really appreciate that. A lot of money going into all the given all this
stuff away, so appreciate that. But your comment which ones you want?
And then also then separately let me know like what should be the next giveaway?
Happy to do like a two ticket packed you know, season next year,
maybe you know, we get four thousand subscribers or yeah, we'll be
four thousand subscribers before the next UFL season. That would be pretty cool.
CFL stuff is harder to do giveaways just because like some of the international and
all that stuff. But we always, you know, we always support our
CFL friends as well, but it's a little bit easier to do with the
UFL, your XFL USFL stuff. So, like I said, appreciate everyone.
Lots of time here, energy, everyone watching and all the guests and
everything else. If you be subscribed, stay subscribed, get subscribed anyone that's
subscribed, if I could say that enough here, by the end of you
know, this video, by the end of the week, you're all eligible
as long as you comment. Just let me know. There's no restrictions the
video of that stuff. We'll send that over Mike Mitchell, Anthony Miller,
get your comments in everyone else, you know, even and you could win
a jersey. And you could win a jersey. I could bring it in
if you could be aware to the championship game. So anyway, we'll see
you guys next week. I like to subscribe, but take care and thanks
again. M hm h