Schwiker, Gannison, Krizak Rundio proudly sponsors to Friday Night Drive. I'm Mike
Krazak. If you've been injured, we are ready to take on the insurance
company and get you to the end zone. We've recovered hundreds of millions of
dollars for our clients. Visit GA nassi n dot com. Well Suits.
It's it's been a quick season. It goes by quick every year, but
we have made it to the final weekend of high school football here in the
twenty twenty two season. It is Wednesday morning as rerecord the state championship preview.
We'll be heading down to Champagne early Friday morning, get ready for eight
state championship games for coverage at Friday Night Drive. Suits. But like I
said, man, you know, it always goes quick, but uh,
you know, this year even quicker. Yeah, it felt so fast,
especially the playoffs. I mean yeah, I felt like we got through,
you know, to the point where we're now almost through five complete weeks and
that just zip to buy. It was like zoo zoom gone, you know,
and it was all of a sudden we were we're in the situation that
we are now on the eve of the state championship games. So h,
I guess time flies when you're having fun. So uh, in a roundabout
way, I guess this shouldn't surprise me. I know the listener don't care
about this, But from a personal standpoint, you and I like, I
think since we've launched Friday Night Drive back in twenty nineteen, now that like,
I mean, you've always kind of had an overview of the state,
but it's this is certainly expanded at Friday Night Drives expanded, and I think
because we're seeing so much data and like we're spending so much time like football
oriented stuff, it actually does make it seem to go buy even quicker.
Yeah, I would agree. I mean there's there are times when like I
get at the beginning of the week and then before I know it, I
feel like I'm you know, it's eve of games or or night of games
really really fast, because it just seems to zip through and set us up
in a way that makes the weeks kind of fly by, and this con
construct it's like, I mean, it's it's funny. I mean, it
seemed like, you know, no more than maybe two weeks ago, I
was sitting here analyzing two hundred and fifty six teams and now they're only sixteen
left, and I don't know where the time went. So yeah, it's
it's definitely an odd situation to kind of grasp where the time goes. Yeah,
I mean, everyone who's followed us since that very first Monday of high
school football practice, everyone who's followed along for the twenty twenty two season at
Friday Night Drive dot com, who's listened to the podcast, who's interacted with
just not Sus and I, but everyone on staff here at Friday Night Drive.
We appreciate all of you. It's been great to have everyone aboard and
see the growth here at Friday Night Drive. If you're not following us on
Twitter, please do so at FN drive. You can also find us on
Facebook and Instagram just by searching for Friday Night Drive. You can find sous
on Twitter at the SEUs. You can find myself on Twitter at Kyle Neighbors.
And right now, if you go to Friday Night Drive dot com if
you are not a subscriber, we've got a Black Friday deal going for you.
Get yourself a year subscription that I'll take you. I mean, it's
the best deal. You're gonna get like the price is great right now,
go to Friday Night Drive in the top right hand corner. If you're not
a subscriber, clip subscribe. You'll find the deal for yourself right there.
That'll take you through State Championship weekend and then pretty much all the way through
the twenty twenty three seasons. So what you can do, get yourself that
that year subscription. Now, get yourself all the content to Friday Night Drive
dot com local news from across Illinois, you know, Chicago Bears coverage.
Get it now that digital subscription at a ridiculously low price that'll take you all
the way through the twenty twenty three season and next Black Friday we get ready
for State Championship. Maybe you can jump on board again. So little little
money saving tip for you there. But like I said, um, thank
you to everyone who's joined us this year. And now with that, we're
gonna go ahead, suits and work our way through the state Championship games,
starting with one A where we have a matchup a Leanal Winslow in Camp Point
Centro. And you know this is a game that kicks off at ten am
on Friday morning. I always worry a little bit both the one A game
and the five A game, but even more so that one A game because
it's the morning after Thanksgiving. I know, teams traveled down early for it
and stuff, but Lena Winslow very used to playing in that type of condition.
Can't Point Central. On the other hand, this is the team where
you know, is it's been in the postseason consistently, but not as often
here and I don't think anyone on this current roster has been. No,
they have not. Yeah, so you know that's always a little bit of
a factor. And then you bring into the fact here that you know,
and this is to take absolutely nothing away from Camp Point Central. They've had
a fabulous season. But I as you put put in your your one A
State preview, which is available now on Friday Night Drive dot com, all
eight previews will be up over the next forty eight hours or so. Um,
I mean, there's no way to cut it other than Lena Winslow enters
this game as the favorite. Yeah, I mean really, what it comes
down to is that, I mean, you can't take away that that label
from the NUC team heading into the state final in almost any year, it
doesn't make sense. I mean history has proven over the last decade that the
road to trying to win a one A state championship goes directly through that conference,
and not too many people have had much luck in dispatching them from that
role. And a lot of these games haven't been exceptionally competitive. That's so
to you know, break this game down and using it from a historical context,
if you don't put Lena Winslow in the favorites role, I'd like to
know what data and information you're looking at to come to that conclusion. Yeah,
I mean I almost said the Panthers there, And I gotta remember we're
starting off the state championship weekend in an unfortunate scenario for any journalist here.
We hate this when this happened. We got the Panthers of Lena Winslow and
the Panthers of Camp Point Central trying to write game stories or really anything any
kind of preview and not wanting to use the mascot makes it really redundant really
quickly. So I gotta be carefully even trying to say that here. But
Lena Winslow, you know this is a team. We know very well what
they're gonna do, and you look at the stats for this current roster gonna
bears that out. You got three rushers at one thousand yards or more,
Gauge Dunker with twenty five touchdowns, Gunner Lobdown twenty five touchdowns, Jake Zel
eighteen touchdown. They are going to run the ball. They're going to be
very effective. The question I have for you, I think most people at
this point know what Lena Winslow is about. It's you know, particularly for
our listeners, which is more north part of the state oriented. Can you
introduce them a little bit more to Campoint Central and what does Campoint Central have
to do to be in this game with Lena Winslow. Well, I think
there are you know, there are obviously a lot of things that have to
happen for them to be in the game. The first and foremost being they've
got to be really good on run defense. I'm not talking about like completely
shutting off Leno Winslow's runoffense, because that's not going to happen, but they've
got to be able to get some stops. They can't let Leonel Winslow every
time they touch the ball either bust a big play for a score or sustain
a monster drive that leads to points. This is what tends to be the
problem for almost anyone that plays them. You can't get them off the field.
They're going to have to be able to get them off the field,
maybe not so much with regularity, but enough to give themselves a chance.
Here. We can't have a situation where, you know, on the first
five possessions, Lena scores four touchdowns. If that happens, then we're not
going to have We're not going to have a I don't think a very good
football game here. You know. And for all the things that Lena has
in their favor in this game, you know, I think the one thing
that you can't really quantify that well, but I know that this exists as
a roster can't point. Central is very fast. They are very athletic,
and they're I mean, they may have to get creative to utilize those assets,
but if they're able to do that, that is one edge that I
think they have. It's just a matter of how much they can use it
and how much it will play into what they're going to do Lena. As
good as they are on offense, they're also outstanding on defense. So it's
kind of a double edged sword, so they can't go nuts here and try
to you know, you know, all kinds of wild plays to try to
take advantage of that. But they might have to throw, you know,
the proverbial kitchen sink at them, a couple of wrinkles, some things that
maybe they haven't shown on film all season that takes advantage of the of the
skill sets that they have. So I don't think if Camppoint Central plays this
game straight up that they have much of a chance of winning it. Yeah,
they're gonna have to get creative offensively and on defense. And this isn't
just Lena Winsles specific, but this goes to any high school team that's very,
very run heavy. When you're defending that, you have to be really
really good on first and second down. You want to put them in third
and long situation. And what you also want to do there is you you
got to try and avoid like fourth in short situations because like, if Lena
Winslow is at any kind of positive point in the field, they're gonna go
for it because they know they can get one or two yards. So first
and second down are really critical against Lena Winslow, and that's gonna you know,
if camp points central to me, if they're gonna have a chance to
win this game, they're gonna have to win on those early downs. Yeah.
This is like if you look up at the board and it's a second
and eight, you've got Lena in a situation where I'm not gonna say you've
got Lena in a situation where you want them. You don't want Lena's offense
on the field, but if they are, it's a lot better to be
in a second and eight than a second and four. I mean that's yeah,
I mean you want them at third and six or more right, Yeah,
that's that's a situation where you know, I mean, they're just so
good at what they do and you can sit here and say, well,
you know, you know, we know exactly what they're gonna do. We
think we're gonna be able to you know, No, you're not. I
mean, that's that's the reality of the situation. You have to just do
the best you can to create as many situations like you just mentioned, you
know, down in distant situations that they're they're uncomfortable in, because I mean,
you can have them in third and eight and there they might break a
nine yard run that's just what these guys do. They're so effective at what
they do. They've almost perfected this system. Um. And just from year
to year to year, I'm constantly impressed with their ability to just kind of
plug and play. They lose guys to graduation, You're like, well,
how are they going to replace them? And then there's another guy that comes
back the next year that looks almost exactly the same as the guy that they
had in that position the year before. So, uh, it's it's a
fantastic program. I can't I can't credit them enough for what they've been able
to do. Um, you know. And it's it's one of those things
when I look at Camp Points Central, I fully respect what they were able
to they've been able to do, um, but it's gonna have to take
some some things in a specific way to get them in the in the football.
Uh is that who's who's chiming in here? Both dogs that they're both
chiming in. We just had a obnoxious car engine that has disturbed the the
balance of of of power. I guess in our house next door. That's
all right, We're gonna say that they're both taking Lena Winslow and I think
we are as well. Right, Yeah, that's correct. All right,
let's go ahead and get over to the Lass two A and we have a
matchup here with Tri Valley in Saint Teresa. Uh. You know, the
first thing that stands out to me when looking at the matchup suits is when
you're talking about the smaller classes, particularly one A through three eight starts.
As you get up you see more balanced offenses. And it's this is not
the rule, but um, you know, more often or not you see
really ground heavy teams. Say Teresa though, is a pretty balanced team.
You start looking through it and you know you got Blake Reginald up there with
thirty two rushing touchdowns and I'm sorry looking at the wrong side there lost my
point. Royce Harper, That's why I was looking at Royce Harper with fourteen
hundred yards and twenty touchdowns. But in the passing game, you know,
you got twenty one passing touchdown from Joe Brummer. So Saint Teresa is able
to do it both ways, which just makes it much more difficult for Tri
Valley to to get out there and defend. Yeah, it's it's definitely kind
of I guess, not necessarily a different Saint Teresa team than maybe we've been
accustomed to over the last couple of years. They've had a history of having
these backs with incredible numbers Jaccardio, right, Denham Cook. These are guys
that are piling up, you know, two thousand plus rushing yards on the
season. They maybe don't have quite that top shelf you know, running back
like they've had in the past with Royce Harper, He's still very good.
But uh, but that that element of throwing the football, demonstrating a little
bit more balance, it's something that, uh, you know, sometimes it's
you get a mixed bag with these type of teams at the lower classifications,
might might get a weird weather to day and in a big stadium like that,
and it just doesn't work that well. Um, But you know,
I think Saint Theresa's ability to do both is a real asset in this game.
Um. You know, I think they've demonstrated time and time again that
offense is not going to be the issue for them. Um. If if
they're gonna win the football game, they can win it in a number of
different ways. For for me, with Saint Theresa, it comes down to
whether or not they can defend Uh, you know, defend what Tri Valley
is going to be able to do and kind of keep them from you know,
maybe they win a shootout here, but I don't think the ideal for
them is to be in a you know, thirty eight thirty five game at
the end here. Yeah, And as I said earlier, Blake Reginald twenty
three hundred almost heading towards twenty four rushing yard on the season for Tri Valley,
thirty two rushing touchdowns. You've you've you know, you caught on with
this team when you saw him Pete Wilmington back in the second round. Uh,
what do you think of this matchup against Saint Theresa for Tri Valley?
You know, I think right now this is a class example of a team
catching catching a lot of momentum here in the postseason. Um, you know,
when you look back to the regular season, I don't know if I
necessarily saw this coming. I mean, they finished seven and two in the
regular season, lost to Ridge View and then lost in the in the last
week of the regular season, and I didn't really know where they were at,
you know, in the construct of what they've you know, what you
know, at the beginning of the year, I figured they would probably be,
you know, maybe a one loss team, maybe losing to Ridge View,
but they kind of scuffed Old even in some of the regular season games
and wins. But whatever they did, they started to click and got things
going. And you know, when I saw them beat Wilmington, they did
it in a different way. Like for the last couple of weeks, they
have just been piling up these massive rushing yards between you know, with Blake
Reganold and he was almost a non factor in that win against Wilmington's. So
that kind of clued me into maybe an ability to adapt to the situation and
figure out how to score. When someone says, hey, I'm going to
throw the entire defense. I'm gonna throw everyone in the box to try to
stop him, and you can try to beat me either way. Well,
they did it, I mean, and they did it rather well. So
they got a couple of long runs from their quarterback, but they also you
know, they also threw the ball if they needed to and did it effectively.
So you know, I think this is a This is a really nice
example of a coaching staff led by Josh Roope that that sees what they're able
to do in a given situation, and even if it's not the most comfortable
thing for them, they can do it. Their adaptability is something that's pretty
impressive. And on the defensive side of the ball, they just do a
really nice job and it kind of makes me wonder, Like, you know,
Decatur, Saint Teresa's ability to run and throw is going to be something
that I don't know if Saint Theresa will be able to adapt to. But
if I mean that Try Valley will be able to adapt to. But the
run, the run heavy team, Try Valley can handle that. I mean,
that's that's what what it really comes down to. So the wrinkle of
what Saint Theresa provides in this game gives me a little bit of pause about
whether whether Try Valley will be able to do what they've been doing on defense.
But that being said, I think this team is just riding a way
of a momentum right now and has the confidences is through the roof and Try
Valley, I you know, definitely wants to keep this game close if they
fall behind. Looking through stats here, I don't know if you noticed.
I'm sure you didn't notice this, but uh, Saint Teresa's Amari Wallace,
you don't see this at the high school eleven level all that often, but
eleven sacks on the year, one hundred and two tackles, fifteen and a
half tackles for loss. Uh, clearly a guy that when opposing defenses are
passing the ball he is he is wreaking a bit of havoc. Yeah,
I mean, I actually I believe I saw him on Friday night at the
Springfield Sacred Heart Griffin game. There was a large contingent of Saint Teresa players
that had went over to watch that game. Um, I'm pretty sure I
saw him, And yeah, that's something that Tryville is going to have to
deal with in that game. So, um, you know, regardless of
the situation score wise or whatever, I think that's the kind of kid that
can can potentially blow up a lot of things, especially when you haven't seen
a player of that caliber a lot during the regular season. All right,
Well, let's go ahead and finish just off with our our selections for the
Class two A game. I'll go first. I mean, I've been picking
against try Valley seemingly every week since that second round game against Wilmington and been
wrong, So I guess I might as well stay with the team. I
like the Saint Teresa team. I thought they were gonna win the two A
state title pretty much all season long. So I'm taking Saint Teresa and this
one, sus Well, I'm gonna I'm just gonna stay with the team that
I that I brought me here, that I thought I was gonna. You
know, early in the year, I wouldn't have said that this was gonna
be something that I would have done. I picked Saint Teresa at the beginning
of the playoffs. I'm changing my mind now, I'm gonna go with try
Vaalley. Hey, it's it's it's carried you this far. You gotta gotta
keep with it. Yeah, indeed, all right, let's go ahead and
get over to Class three A, where we got a pair of teams in
Williamville and Icee Catholic that are really no strangers to playing in the state title
game. Um, you know, sus I'm I'm gonna let you start here
because this is it's an interesting matchup here. You go in. I don't
think there's any doubt about it. I see Catholic is the favorite in this
game, and I don't want to I'm gonna I'm gonna throw this out there,
um, and I don't want to upset Williamsville fans with this. And
this is from a more Bureau County perspective, but Kevin horronum Is, who
covered Bureau County, was talking to some of the people up to Princeton after
Princeton and Ice Catholic played to that state or and that that overtime game in
the quarterfinals, and they kind of, you know, the people up there
are like, well maybe that was the three A title game, you know,
like they kind of feel that way with the way I see Catholic then
dispatched Byron thirty five zero in the semifinals. Um, Like I said,
I see Catholic comes into this game as a favorite. But Williamsville is a
program that I don't count out suits like they know how there's a reason they're
in this title game fairly regularly. And there's been other years where I'm like,
well, you know, I think the Bullets come in as the other
underdog and then we get there at the end. Go back to two thousand
and fourteen, it's Wilmington. I really like that Wilmington game, or at
what team they were right there at the end against Williamston, was right there
at the end against Wilmington, So I don't know, I just have a
weird feeling that this game may be close at the end. You know,
I kind of go I kind of I'm a little bit of a pendulum effect
with IC Catholic this year. There have been times when I'm like, I
don't know if they're the overwhelming favorite here, and then they do things that
make me go, well, they're the overwhelming favorite here. So it just
kind of goes back and forth with me. And I think they're going into
the state final on a lot of momentum because you know, that win over
Byron was much much easier than I thought it was going to be for them.
I mean, I thought that was going to be an absolute dog fight
and they were going to have to, you know, scratch and claw.
I thought they were the favorite. I thought they would get to this point,
but I didn't think they'd win that game by five touchdowns in a runaway.
I didn't. And then I mean, they go the week previous and
I don't mean to say anything bad about Prince, but I think I think
I thought that game would be easier for them, So, you know,
so It's just I never seem to know where I fall on, you know,
on the scale of how dominant I think they are, you know,
heading into this game, I think they're a pretty substantial favorite. I've thought
that all along. I thought the team whoever emerged from this north side of
the bracket would be the favorite in the state final. But like you said,
it's just hard to count Williamsville completely out of this game. It's a
program that's demonstrated, you know, year after year, that they can get
themselves deep into the playoffs. They've been in title games, and when they've
been there, they've been extraordinarily competitive in those games against in situations where the
other team was probably the favorite going in. So they're not going to back
down, and I have a lot of confidence in this coaching staff's ability to
make this a quality game. Now that being said, making it a quality
game is going to be a real challenge because they're just like, when you
look at everything that I see Catholic has going on right now, I don't
know how you effectively scheme, especially against this offense, especially when they're throwing
wrinkles like Joey Gliata into the mix, you know, which for those of
you that don't know, has had an absolute monster last two weeks of the
playoffs, as as I see Catholics running back after having a grand total of
six carries through the first eleven games of the season. So, I mean,
it's not like they've got a lot of film on what are they what
are they doing with this guy? Because it just hasn't they haven't done it
very much. So so just there's a lot going on in this game,
and there's a lot that make it kind of interesting. I'm still picking I
see Catholic. I do think that the game could potentially be a lot more
interesting than I think some people are giving a credit for. Yeah, I
think I see Catholic. I'm paging. I see Catholic in the game.
The wrinkle here the X factor to me, I mean, we if Williamsville
is gonna win this game, I think it's going to be a shootout.
And you know, like there's icy Catholic is too dynamic on offense. I
think that the Knights are going to be able to move the ball up and
down the field. The thing that I do wonder about is Williamsville is a
much heavier pass team than there's not many teams. You look back on Icy
Catholic schedule this year, they have not faced a lot of pass eavy team.
Williamsville has thrown the ball over three hundred times on the year. Both
offenses actually have our starting quarterbacks with thirty three passing touchdowns. You don't see
that a lot, particularly at the three A level. So that's kind of
the wrinkle is if when Williamsville goes into that spread offense and and and is
you know, if they're able to put points on the board, is Ice
Catholic you know, are they able to adjust or is this going to turn
into a shootout? Yeah? I mean I think that's that's an interesting tack
to take with it. I think there are the problem that I would have
with was saying, well, maybe they can't do that, is that I
think a lot of Icy Catholics top performers are you know, two way guys,
and a lot of them land in the secondary. Yeah. That's I
think that, you know, when it comes right down to it, Um,
if if you know, if williams Well has a lot of success throwing
the ball out of the spread, I'll be somewhat surprised, Um, because
that's I think they can have some success. They do it all well,
I guess what I'm saying here's like you look at back at Byron and like
we know what they want to do. They're gonna be a run heavy team,
like very compact. I think spreading it out and at least making icy
Catholic have to recognize and and um, you know, at least have to
to prepare for multiple possibilities is different than they've seen over the last several weeks
at least. Yeah, it's kind of a fun thing when I when I,
you know, I could get real granulo with some of these things when
I start looking at things and the fact that you bring up whether or not
they'll be prepared for you know, you know, a efectively prepared for the
spread. I think back to the fact that like, uh, I see
Catholic has a former NFL secondary guy. Yeah, that's very true, Matt
Bowen. Probably. I think they'll probably be okay with being prepped in the
secondary. So well, I shouldn't say that. I'm absolutely sure Bill Kreft
and the and the staff will have the team uh prepped. It's but it's
different though a game set. I'm saying, yeah, I give it.
Yeah, I know what you're saying. I'm just I'm just playing around to
be completely honest. No, No, it's good. I like the banter.
It's it's it's entertaining. Uh So, okay, let's let's go ahead
and let's get over to four A. One more class and we'll take a
quick commercial break here. I gotta pull up the right thing. I grabbed
the wrong thing here one second us. Yeah, so Sue's uh, we're
looking at a matchup here with Providence coming into this game, not a team
that we expected to see here. We've talked about it a lot, though,
Uh, going against Sacred Heart Griffin, a team that we did expect
to see. That said, I'm really having a tough time picking this one,
you know. I keep trying to convince myself of ways that Providence can
win this game, and I'm not having as hard a time as I thought
I was going to. Even after seeing Sacred Heart Griffin in in that game
on Friday night, and I was very impressed with what they were able to
do, especially in rallying the way that they did, I don't feel like
Sacred Heart Griffin played as well as they are capable of on Friday night,
and one fear, at least looking at it from Providence's side of things,
is that what happens if they do, because if they do play at the
level of that they are capable of playing. I don't know how much I
like Providence as odds in this one. I mean, they have size,
they have speed, they have skill. It's it's it's a very talented football
team. Um. And once they get momentum on their side, it's almost
impossible for for anyone to stop them. Um. All of that being said,
Providence almost for the entire season, even when they lost some regular season
games to some real titans of Illinois football. Um, they played one of
the best schedules in the state, regardless of class. Have just done a
fantastic job of figuring it out. It doesn't look like it on paper,
like matchup for matchup that they can they can be in this football game.
But I refuse to just acknowledge the fact that they can't be. Um,
they figure it out. That's really what it comes down to. So out
of all the state time, all sixteen teams that are in the state championship
game, and I know it's it's hard to compare class by class, but
I would have you know, when you when you do kind of look over
the different path these teams take, I would have a hard time saying any
team had a more difficult path getting to Champagne than Providence. You go Joliet
Catholic in the first round, Richmond Burden in the second round. We didn't
Saint frank I'm sorry. It was a we didn't Academy in the first round,
wasn't it. Yeah, Yeah, we didn't Academy in the first round,
Joliet Catholic in the second round, Richmond Burden in the quarterfinals, we
didn't Saint Francis in the semifinals, and now a matchup against Sacred Heart Griffin.
That is, you know, on top of the regular season schedule that
I mean, they've played a lot of the best teams in the state.
Yeah, And I mean the one thing when I look at that is,
like, you know, during the regular season, they played a lot of
these teams. The one thing that just really kind of just keeps jarring at
me in terms of this is despite that difficult playoff run that they've had to
go through, they haven't really seen a team with the explosive speed that Sacred
Heart Griffin has and just kind of an ability to run up and down the
field. And it's not about containing one guy, it's about containing like five
different guys. To be completely honest with you, I mean, that's and
I think that may be the problem here. While they ran through an impressive
gauntlet, a lot of those teams that they played were kind of similar in
what they like to do. Sacred Heart Griffin is a different nut to have
to crack here, and that's I mean, I like it. Once again
refused to say that Providence can't do it. I'm sure they will be prepped
and will will throw everything that they have at them, but you know,
defensively especially, I think this is where you know, the the unit is
really going to have to rise up for Providence, get some stops, and
then you know, grind figure it out and move it down the field against
them and try to play maybe not full on keepaway with Sacred Heart Griffin,
but sustain some drives, you know, chunk five to six minutes off the
clock, frustrate Sacred Heart Griffin in a way because they don't have the football.
We saw a little bit of that in the semifinal game where Rochester kind
of kept the ball away from him and didn't let them have it, so
when they did get it, they almost felt forced to attack, attack,
attack because they hadn't had it in a while. I think they've got to
follow something like that blueprint to have a chance to make this a game.
Yeah, I completely agree with that. And at the end of the day,
like I love what Providence has done, I love what Tyler Plants has
done with that program in his first year, and really the way that they've
they've put this together. It's a great story. But Sacred Heart Griffin,
you know, has a great story in itself and is the more I like
the roster a little bit better, so I give them the edge there,
but they also have a good story in itself. And I'm going to play
for a lot with Ken Leonard retiring after this game. It's fifth hundred career
game one an awesome way to go out at an even five hundred, getting
a chance at another state title. So you know, it's it's one of
those things where I don't think either team's gonna lack any kind of motivation.
It's gonna be a fun game. Both of these teams I expect to come
out. I don't expect it to be any nerves sometimes you get that with
teams. I expect these programs to be exactly prepared for this game, and
we'll just have to see how it plays out. I guess yeah. I
mean, it's definitely a situation that if you would have said before the season,
here you're state class for a state championship combatants, I would add I
absolutely would not have blinked its Sacred Heart Griffin being in this game, Providence
being here. I just it's been a fun story to get them to this
point, and I'm sure they want to finish it off, but you know,
winning the ring and hoisting that championship trophy, and I once again don't
dismiss it, but I think it's gonna take a pretty huge effort for them
to knock Sacred Heart Griffin off that perch. So that's that I'm taking Sacred
Heart Griffin in the game. All right, Well, we're gonna take a
quick commercial break. Stay with us here, we'll come back and break down
Class five A through A A state title games. Schweiker, Gannison, Krizak
Rundio proudly sponsors to Friday night Drive. I'm Mike Krizak. If you've been
injured, we are ready to take on the insurance company and get you to
the end zone. We've recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for our clients.
Visit GA N A, SSI N dot com. All right, SEUs,
Well, let's go ahead and dive into Class five A. And much like
in four A where you had a Providence team coming too the postseason at five
and four and really take off, you got a similar thing here and Nazareth
coming in now at nine and four, winning four postseason games, after coming
into the postseason at five and four and a match up against Peoria. You
know, you wouldn't have surprised me to say Nazareth but in this game.
But I don't think it was by any means a shoe in. Um.
So what I guess what I'm trying to say overall is this is not a
matchup I predicted when we when we broke into the five A bracket here and
in late October. You know, I when I looked at it in the
long run, I had Nazareth going pretty deep. I just felt like it
was it was one of those situations that you know, like we talked before,
I finally convinced myself about Sycamore, But um, you know, I
had Nazareth running all the way out until last week and my original predictions.
So it was a team that obviously I felt like had gained a whole heck
of a lot of momentum. Um, if you would have asked me about
this in like week five or week six of the season, I would have
said, I don't even know if they're getting in guys. Um, that's
that was where we were at. I mean, they they powered through the
back end of their seat their season. Granted, I mean their schedule was
very much front loaded, so you had to look at that and the grand
scheme of things that it was probably not going to go so well. But
I keep looking back to the one thing that makes me, I guess,
chuckle a little bit about the situation is they won their first game of the
season two to nothing. If they if they hadn't recorded that safety and maybe
that game had gone into overtime and gone another way, they wouldn't have made
the playoffs. Like that's that's what we would have had here. So I
mean it just the narrow margins sometimes between you know, not being in the
playoffs and now playing for a state championship. That's just kind of a remarkable
situation. And you look at the roster for the starters for for naz too,
and this is actually a pretty young team. I mean, obviously Logan
Malichuck the sophomore starting at quarterback. But you know, Alex Angelou, Um,
you know, you have a sophomore listed as a starter at running back.
You had a sophomore listed at starter at right garden Sam's Jaden Fosky at
a wide receiver, James Penley, a wide receiver listed as a sophomore here
as a starter. Same thing. On the opposite side of the ball,
I see one, two, three, four sophomores on the defensive side and
a freshman in Les roid Tittle who had a good game in the semi finals.
It's a young Nazarick squad. Suits Yeah, I mean, these guys
aren't going anywhere, that's for sure. That's that's the situation where um,
you know, they're they're trying to put it together with you know, a
mixed bag of experienced players and guys that are kind of growing into their roles.
So um, I have absolutely no idea what when dogs are barking about
Now, I have no opinion about this, So they've they've got a conversation
going on with something that I don't know what it is. So the comedy
is the dog that never barks is the one that's barking right now. So
um but uh so you know, it's it's been interesting to watch the development
of Nazareth over the course of the season. It was kind of the expectation
that maybe it might take a little while for them to kind of grow into
themselves, but during what has amounted to a seven game winning streak, they
have been almost overpowering almost everyone that they've played, other than the semifinal game,
which they kind of squeaked out over Sycamore, But those other games getting
here, they were the dominant team, So it was, you know,
they're clearly coming into their own at the right time. It makes it makes
for an interesting kind of case study for uh, you know what happens when
you really get the momentum on your side and you start to play better as
the season goes along. So Nazareth a really good study in that. So
before we get into the individual players on Peoria, because there's some fun stuff
to talk about there. They do have a common opponent, and it's it's
you mentioned that game, and it's so weird and it's it's hard to really
take anything away from it, but it's it's fun, I guess from our
perspective to at least bring it up here. So you mentioned the Kanka Key
naz game in week one that nas won two zero. Peoria played Kanka Key
in the playoffs and that game was forty eight to twenty one. Peoria won
that game. Suit you, is there anything you glean from that or do
you you know, when the fact that how much Nazareth progressed over the course
of the season and you just kind of throw it out. Yeah, I
think you kind of have to. I mean, when you look back at
it, it was definitely a situation where obviously some things have changed on those
those two playoffs, you know, the two playoff teams. But you have
to go and and kind of break it down, you know, kind of
granuarly and think about, well, U Nazareth obviously got better in a lot
of ways. Um Peoria was able to put up a lot of points against
that, you know, against that Kankakee defense. Nazareth wasn't able to um.
So you know, when you look at it from that perspective, I
don't know how much you can take out of it. Um. It was
that that kinky Nazareth game. From everything I've been told, I wasn't there,
but I've been told by several people was just a weird game. And
so have those. Yeah, particularly week one, you know, and NAS
was a young team. Kankakee was coming off that state title, but still
was trying to figure out our state title appearance, was trying to figure out
some things. So yeah, I if anyone's looking at that, I would
say pretty much toss that out. But Peoria, you know, there's they're
gonna score points in this game. NAS is gonna have to score as well.
Malachai Washington forty seven rushing touchdowns on the season, three thousand yards.
Keo, just our guests, I'm not sure how you pronounced that last name
there, but you know, twenty nine passing touchdown, twenty two un passing
yards, two hundred and forty four attempts. You got two receivers at over
eight hundred receiving yards and forty reception sixteen combined touchdown from them. This is
a dynamic offense. They're putting up a lot of points. The way they
scored against Morris last week with seventy six points was incredibly impressive suites. It
makes this game really difficult on my end to pick. You know. It's
it's interesting when you look at what Peoria is done over the course of the
season, When I look at their body of work, I wonder what Normal
West did. That's why that was actually what I was gonna say. The
reason I'm hesitant to just not pick Peori in the games because I look back
at that Week eight game and I see that Normal West like shut them down
thirty to six, and I'm like, okay, what happened there? Yeah,
And it's that's you know, really, what it comes down to to
me is that, like I know that it's not you know, and then
I get into all kinds of weird you know, maschinations. Beyond that,
it's like, okay, so normal West held Peoria to six points. Normal
West got beat rather convincingly by Richmond Burton, you know. So I just
start like pulling all these threads and I can't really get a clear answer.
Maybe it was just a weird game. Maybe it was one of those games
that just got away from him, and I'm taking too much stock in it.
It's well, now I think week eight, and I might be wrong
here. I think Week eight was a week it rained. Yeah, So
because yeah, you look through I'll just quickly, I'll quickly lets these off.
These are their score by week for Peoria over the course of the season.
Thirty four, thirty six, sixty two, sixty four, sixty four,
sixty six, fifty four six, forty eight, sixty two, forty
eight, thirty six, and seventy six. Yeah. That that that six
just sticks out like a sower thumb. Yeah, and it's it's that's just
one. That's just one of the things that I think has given me pause
the entire time with them in the playoffs is that it's obviously a good offense.
It's not. It's not it's not what you traditionally think of from Peoria,
like when they won the twenty sixteen championship, when they were they were
running and passing all over the field. This is definitely a very ground heavy
offensive attack. Malakai Washington over three thousand yards rushing this year. They are
very heavily ground based. It was so, I mean, they're not going
to throw the ball a ton. They're gonna throw it enough to keep you
honest. But but I will say that it's funny that they're so heavily ground
based, but because of how quick their offense moves, they still have a
quarterback with you know, two forty four passing attempts. Yeah, it's so,
I mean, and that's that's the thing. I mean, it felt
like in that Granted, they ended up with seventy six points, so it
should have felt like this, but it literally felt like in that semi final
game they were scoring every couple of minutes. Yeah, I mean in real
time. I'm not talking about game clock time. I'm talking about like literally
it felt like how are they getting the ball back so quickly? It's just
like so they just score, score, score, score, score, and
and they tend to give up a lot of points too. So um,
against better opponents, there have been some obviously runaways in their in their conference,
but um, in the in the grand scheme of things, it makes
it difficult to pick up because you know, they're very different football teams.
That's just really what it is. It's not one of those situations where you
know they're doing the Spider Man thing. I mean, it's definitely not you
know, they're not sitting there a point at each other with recognition of what's
going on on the other side. So I'm picking Nazareth here, and it's
just kind of a nod to everything they've done and everything that maybe that they've
done in the past, just knowing that they're when they are here, they
tend to perform very well. It's it's still but it's a very difficult game
for me to pick. I think it's the one that I've had honestly the
hardest time coming to a conclusion on of all all all of the eight games.
Me too as well. Um, I'm gonna take Peoria, and I'll
be completely honest, I don't feel confident in it, Like this really feels
like a coin flip to me, and until I think it's probably gonna take
about a quarter of that game of watching these two teams and how they match
up against each other before I'm able to really have a better field for this,
because I honestly, I kind of just feel like I'm kind of a
you know, reaching in the dark here to figure out what way I want
to Lenk. Yeah, it's it's not it's not easy. That's that's for
sure. It's it's you know, these are two programs that don't have like
our kinds of programs that don't often meet up in these types of situations,
see, don't have a lot of like back history on them. The potential
matchup, Um, it's it's uh, it's it's complicated, as I think.
I think this game could end up going in a whole bunch of different
directions, and it makes it fascinating as someone who's watching the game, you
know, with with you know, ultimately no investment and who wins it.
I just want to see a good football game, and I think the potential
for having it, Um, you know, it's pretty high. I think
we're gonna have what could be a pretty entertaining football game here. Um.
I don't think it's gonna be you know, seven seven at the end of
three quarters, I'll put it that way, but you know, I think
we could have a pretty entertaining football game here. All right, let's go
over to Class six A, where we have a matchup that frankly is given
me more pause than I expected, particularly at the beginning of the season.
You know, we come into this East Saint Louis in the title game.
I don't think there was anyone in the state that didn't expect East Saint Louis
would be here. Now, you know, weird things happened. The Flyers
could have got knocked off, but they were the favorite coming out of that
South bracket. They get up matchup against Prairie Ridge, and I'm gonna try
and just break this down as quickly and as succinctly as I can. You
look at it, East Saint Louis the favorite, but you go back to
last year against Carry Grove within the same conference, within the same school district
as Prairie Ridge, Carry Grove pulls off what many people consider the upset in
quite possibly the best state title game of of of all time. To do
that, or going into that game, last year, Saint Louis had the
same semifinal matchup against Lamont, Right, Yeah, very close game. You
know, Eas Saint Louis pulls it out, ends up losing the Carry Grove.
This year we have a matchup where East Saint Louis squeaks by Lamont in
the semifinals again. Now gets another triple option team, which you know they
joked after the game last year. They didn't want to have to see another
triple option team in the in the in the championship game. So what I'm
trying to say is I think East Saint Louis is a favorite in this game.
I'll say it right now. I'm picking the Flyers to win this game.
But based on what we've seen over the last year and how things have
played out here this past weekend, I once again find myself going, well,
you know, it's pr maybe they find a way. Yeah, you
know, it's It's not something that I would have expected to be saying here
in this situation, you know, even as recently as a couple of weeks
ago, But you know, I feel like Prayer Ridge has got a puncher's
chance in this game for many of the reasons that you just said. And
then, you know, it's kind of hard to quantify the way that I
am with E. Saint Louis right now after seeing them in the semifinal game.
I don't want to call it malaise because that's not quite the word,
but they didn't seem very plussed in that game against Lamont, and I felt
like, while that's you know, nobody wants you to panic in a situation
like that, I just didn't feel like they were all that invested in like
the energy. The energy felt wrong. It just felt weird. Yeah,
that's really the way that I can describe it. It was like, I
think maybe it was a little bit of hubris, like eventually, it'll be
fine, We're gonna win this game anyway, But it just didn't seem like
for a while that you know, that East St. Louis seemed all that
concerned about the fact that they weren't really playing very good football. Um and
I think somebody like prayer Ridge that has shown time and time again an ability
to, you know, kind of squeeze every last drop out of what they
have on their roster. Um, maybe they get East Saint Louis in a
bad situation and that kind of attitude crops up again, and maybe they can't
flip the light switch. Like I mean, that's that's kind of where I'm
at right now. More talent than anybody pound for pound on the roster in
any classification. I won't dispute that for any second. Um And Prayer Ridge
has got a nightmare on their hands trying to deal with that offensive line.
That those are facts. Yeah, Chris took a PR coach Chris Trump.
I'm not sure. I know I've seen the quote. I'm not sure if
it's a story we've published it or not. But uh, I'm not even
sure if when I was I just remember seeing it, he said like if
if ore like, if we stand up against that offensive line, the games
can be over really quickly. Yeah, yeah, it's not. It's almost
unlike any offensive line at the high school level that I've ever seen, I'll
be completely honest. That's I mean, Miles McVeagh is what he is.
I mean, i've known about Miles McVay since he was in seventh grade.
But we saw him at Batavia when he was in eighth grade on the sideline
when they played hub Betavia, and we were just done by his sides even
then. Yeah, so it I mean, he's an obviously gifted player.
He's going to Alabama next year. But the thing that kind of gets underserved
is right next to him are two other excellent offensive linemen, you know,
and the other two on top of those three pretty darn good too. But
when you're when you're I mean, i've never i've never seen this. McVay
was the first team All Stater with the Coaches Association, and the two other
ones were honorable mention picks. So three offensive linemen from the same line get
All state recognition, like you might you might be lucky if one offensive lineman
gets singled out for that kind of accolade. But to have three of them
on the same line, it's unprecedented. I mean, it's they they rode
graded their way to that win over Lamont. They simply just put their head
down and said, we're gonna just bull our way through you. And and
Lamont ended up giving up four hundred plus rushing yards. And I thought Lamont
played really well Like that seems crazy to say that, but I mean,
they gave up a ton of offensive yardage, but I thought they played about
as well as they could, Like I mean, they gave them so they
had an opportunity to win that football game. But there's just so many components,
so many things in place with East Saint louis Um that that make it
very difficult. But they can make mistakes, they can be penalty prone.
They you know, like I said, malaise is not the right word.
I still haven't come up with the right word. But there's there's a certain
amount of of you know, we're we're fine about them, that maybe goes
a little too far sometimes. Uh, you know, I still I mean,
they smashed right through the first three rounds of the playoffs. But in
person, I've seen this a few times before. This isn't this isn't something
that that I just witnessed for the first time in this game. So um,
I don't dispeat their talent. I think it's entirely possible that they could
run pray Ridge right off the field. Um, But for some reason,
there's just a thing that's kind of scratching at the back of my head that
says, I don't think that's going to happen. Well, so yere and
I think this is the best way I can I can demonstrate it. So
I'm looking at the box score from last year's state title game with Carry Grove.
Carry Grove ran the ball sixty times for three hundred and ninety four yards
and five touchdowns that included so Nick he Song, their fullback, had two
hundred and twenty four yards and two touchdowns in the game. Jamison she and
the quarterback in their triple option offense, had three touchdowns in one hundred and
four yards. Now you're gonna face a PR team that, like Jamison,
she had a fantastic senior season, don't get me wrong, but like Tyler
Vasey is a different animal than what Carry or than what EAS Saint Louis saw
on the state title game last year. And it actually kind of harkens back
a little bit if you remember back in twenty I want to say twenty eighteen.
I'm sorry if it was twenty eighteen, yeah, twenty eighteen, PR.
I want to say it was twenty eighteen. Sorry, I'm getting the
year around twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen. PR and East Saint Louis played in
state title game. EAS Saint Louis pulled away in the second half, but
that game was fourteen fourteen at halftime. The PR actually lost t In FROs
Which who was a very explosive athlete in that game at halftime to the tour
in acl Or in the first half. And I bring it up because I
find him and Tyler Vacy to be very similar in the time, in the
type of speed that they bring to the field. So what I guess I'm
trying to say is I expect PR to put up points in this game,
I think Tyler Vacy is gonna be a handful free Saint Louis. But at
the end of the day, I've had doubts about the PR defense throughout the
season. It's gotten better as a postseason went along, after giving up a
lot of points in that first round matchup against Krystal Lake South, the team
they're very familiar with. But despite the fact I think PR is gonna score,
I just I think this is going to be a high scoring game,
and at that point I give thee Saint Louis and I just have to take
the talent. Overall, I do think it's still gonna be a game come
the fourth quarter. Though, Well, I didn't get the Holy Saint Louis
experience last week because, like I've mentioned multiple times this week, Eas Saint
Louis did not complete a pass. Yeah that's the other thing too. You
look at last year's game, a very competitive game against Carrie Grow. Part
of that was Luther Burden, you know, had a kick return for a
touchdown. He had two incredible touchdown catches. Luther Burden's gone. He's at
Miszoo. Now. This is a much more run heavy offense than what we've
seen for me Saint Louis. But that being said, they've still thrown for
nearly two you know, over two thousand yards. It's not an element that's
out of their game. You also, I mean you also if you have
that part available to you, Lamont, you know, wasn't able to kind
of do what they had to do to try to maybe slow down the running
game. When you have both of those elements available to you, it just
opens up things for East Saint Louis to a level that most imposing defenses can't
match. And then what you're saying about Prairie Ridge having defensive struggles if the
pass game is available East Saint Louis, I just think there are way too
many moving levers for maybe a defense that probably doesn't have a shutdown effort in
its bag. Like they may get a few stops, but are they going
to be able to routinely get stops and and get E Saint Louis off the
field? I don't know if that's the case. And you know that's so
for me, it's like if if the passing, if the passing game is
open to them, it creates a whole other monster for a Prairie Ridge to
have to defend um. And it's it's it's been proven time and time again
this season when they have all of their weapons available to them and can utilize
that. And there's no guarantee that that's going to be the case this weekend.
But if it is, no one's really been able to fully defend them.
Um. And that's I mean that that's a real big challenge for Prairie
Ridge to have to overcome. So, I mean, and another thing that
like, Tyler's had an amazing season, um, but there's one little wrinkle
in this game that UM that I think is interesting to keep an eye on.
One of East Saint Louis's linebackers, Dominic Dixon, extremely productive and talented
player in the middle of that defense. He has a nose for the football,
he knows how to get to it, and sometimes he absolutely blows up
the ball carrier. So I mean, almost unlike any player I've seen this
season. So I hope for Tyler's sake that he has that ability to not
get squared up, because if that happens, he's gonna get his bell run.
I'll put it that way. That's really what it comes up becomes.
I mean, some ball carriers have that knack to maybe not take a full,
full on hit. But there were a couple of them, specifically in
last week's game. And I've seen him on tape where my immediate reaction was
like, oh, so, yeah, that's I mean, that's I'm trying
to think there was. They've had a they had a linebacker a couple years
ago East Saint Louis two with it Witherspoon. Yeah, yeah, and he
was kind of the same way. Yeah, I mean, that's just I
mean, he's got over one hundred Dixon's got over one hundred and fifty tackles
on the season, and it wouldn't be it wouldn't surprise me at all to
find out that that was a little bit of an undercount. It seems like
he's everywhere. So just another yet another player on that team that you know
that you have to account for because if they don't block Dominic Dixon, well
oh my yeah, that's gonna be problematic. All right, let's go over
to Class seven A. Here, we're already approaching an hour, Susan,
this is a matchup we can we can, you know, shave off a
little time and try and get through this one. Quickly. And it's not
because I don't want to talk about the game, but it's actually because I
want to go ahead and plug Jake Barlston and Josh Welgi, who do the
Western Suburb podcast for Friday Night Drive every week. Uh, go over and
listen to that. They've previewed this game pretty extensively, So I don't want
to I don't want to repeat ourselves, but also want to make sure you
can get people over there and listen to those guys. Um So, and
I'm gonna really quickly touch on it because I don't want to spend a lot
of time on this aspect of the game because honestly, I don't think it
really is going to play much of a factor. But the Batavia Mount Carmel
there's talk. I know they've already addressed it on the cause this week.
I think both teams are ready to just move on. Like I said,
I don't think it's gonna be a factor. But this game, this is
a game that ended in controversy last year in the playoffs, so that that
storyline from a media perspective, from an outside perspective, I think it's probably
being overblown. Actually, I think these are two programs that they're not strangers
to state title games. So I think they're like they're just more focused on
this specific matchup than they are and trying Like Batavia, I don't think has
any care about getting revenge. Like maybe there's some kids that talk about it,
but like as a staff overall, I just don't think it's something that
they're really worried about. Yeah, I would, I would tend to agree,
you know. I mean, like you said, there was obviously some
issues in that. I mean, I out of curiosity when I realized that
this was the matchup, and I mean I hadn't forgotten about it, I
went back and pulled up the video because I wanted to look at it.
I mean not that I was trying to dredge anything up. I just wanted
to look at it. And I'm I'm always very very reluctant to you know,
say something you know about officiating in a negative light, because it's it's
not something I mean, yeah, we we sometimes calls get missed, they
dotime. I get angry when people start talking about like, oh the fix
was in and this is nefarious and all this other stuff. Sometimes calls get
missed. Well, I mean there's there's no there's no denying that when you
look at the video that that call got missed. Yeah, and it sucks.
It sucks that it happened, you know, for Batavia. Uh but
yeah, like yeah, when people start talking about the fixing, I've heard
that during you know, you hear it in any close game. I mean,
hell, you hear it didn't blow out people from the stand talking about
the officiating. Um, so yeah, we're always hesitant to talk about it.
You see blowing call, I mean, helping with our Bears coverage.
I watched the Bears every single week, unfortunately, and you know, any
NFL game, like you're talking about professional officials that are at the top of
their game and you see blowing calls. So like you're at the high school
level, and even when you're talking about the playoffs, you're talking about some
of the best officiating crews in Illinois, there are going to be misscalls.
I saw a bad miss call last week between PR and saying ignatious happen and
it's not because someone dislikes your team, right, Yeah, but so,
and like I said, I think, I mean coach Pyron kind of expressed
that and the coaches calls that he was like, you know, I'm not
gonna lie. We've I mean, i feel like I've talked about this so
much. I'm just ready for it to be over. Yeah, just let's
let's I'm glad that I just I don't I'm glad that we're getting to this
game. We're now going to have a more you know, a more recent
record of this game, so we can stop talking about that one. So,
I mean, whatever happens as far as I think both parties are concerned,
that's in the past. Now let's focus on having a good Class seven
eight football game, and I think that's something that we're probably going to have
here. You know, Mount Carmel is your favorite. I'm picking Mount Carmel.
But you know, you can't count Batavia out in situations like this,
you just can't. These guys figure out ways. And that's the great coaching
staff, solid program, they're all. They all seem to be on the
same page. Particularly in the postseason. I'm sure they'll have they'll they'll have
a game plan that will allow them to be in this game with the caravan.
Well, I mean, you go back to the beginning of the season
and they lose this is Batavia. I'm talking about, Like they lose that
Week two game against Lincoln Way East and I didn't think much of it.
Was a little surprised with how quickly Lincoln Way East got the lead and kind
of ran away and hit in that game. They lose the next week and
a competitive game to the defending state champion, and we didn't Saint North the
you know, opening up to Ducane Conference play. They're only other loss to
Saint Charles North. Again, Ducane cons is one of the best conferences in
the state. That's a one point loss. What I'm trying to say is
you just after Week three, though, I was a little I was wondering.
I'm like, maybe the Bulldogs took a step back, and then you
just saw some things start to come back together. Even in that Week eight
loss to Saint Charles North, they didn't really concern me. They got into
the playoffs, they've given up. You know, I'm not at all surprised
to see them dominate Rockford Guildford, but like they played a good hearsty team,
held him the thirteen point. They held Yorkville to seven points, I'm
sorry to six points, Lake Zurich to seven points. That is a much
tougher task this week against Mount Carmel. But this is a game where I
don't expect there to be a lot of points scored. Yeah, I would
tend to agree with that. I mean, after I mean seem Beatavia.
I haven't seen Beatavia since that Lincoln Waitis game. But they appear to be
more to form now, you know, and put themselves, you know,
in good position. They're just fundamentally sound. They're not going to make a
lot of miss stakes. Um, they probably won't hurt themselves, you know,
by giving Mount Carmel extra opportunities. Um, you know, Mount Carmel
hasn't breathed through these playoffs in a way that I thought that they would if
they've had to grind a little bit more than uh than I expected. Um,
they're okay with grinding. There's there's still a very talented football football team.
But you can't you know this, this might be the ultimate grind for
them in this situation, having to get past the program that is perfectly capable
of of making this game kind of a drag out slug fest. And and
I'm expecting a pretty good game here. Yeah, I'm sorry, I got
distracted for a second, I'm looking at Batavia's defensive starters and on the i
A forum it only has a C for their cornerbacks, and I got very
confused for a second. I'm like looking through and like counting the linebackers.
I'm like, are they running a weird defense that I don't realize what it
is? But no, I'm pretty sure the seas are just supposed to be
the cornerbacks. Yeah, there were several teams that were marked that way,
and it took me a few minutes as well to figure out what they were
doing. Uh. Yeah, I'm taking Mount Carmel in this game. Like
I said, I think it's gonna be pretty low scoring. Anything else those
suits that stands out in this game that you wanted to hit on, you
know. The interesting thing for me has been how Batavia has been using uh,
you know, Tyler jan Zy over the course of the playoffs and the
end of the regular season. He's kind of an X factor in this game,
you know. I mean, I don't know if Mount Carnival has a
really good a good guy on the other side that can kind of, you
know, rain him in when they're using him as kind of a bully out
of the backfield. So I think that should be interesting to see how they
use him and how often they use him as kind of a kind of a
powerback option. And uh and so that's that's kind of what I'm looking at
in this one. All right, one class to go here. We're looking
at Lincoln Way East in Loyola playing at seven pm on Saturday, closing out
the final game of the twenty two or twenty twenty two season. I expected
to be a good one. These are the two teams that, at the
end of the day, I think everyone expected to see in the ADA title
game. And I should say when I say everyone, any unbiased looking at
the field expected to see Lincoln Way East and Loyola there. But that being
said again, the eight A playoffs are so insane, Like you just look
through the path that these two teams took to get here. Uh, you
know Conit for Conit, Nico Valley Warren and Glenbard West for Lincoln Way East,
and then you go over to the other side with Loyola and you got
playing field South Edwardsville Lions York. I mean, these are our teams.
The eight A field is never easy to get through. Both of these teams
did a really solid job navigating it, though never left much doubt, and
it makes for a very com petitive matchup. Sus. You know the thing
about both of these teams, and I mean you look at the just the
scores, and it might be lie to the point that I'm trying to make,
but I think the thing that I've been most impressed during the playoffs string
for both of them has been just kind of how they've both dissected each of
these teams along the path. There have not been really a game where they've
been, let's say, scared. Like you look at the lincoln Way East
seventeen fourteen win over an Equa Valley and you're saying, well, what are
you talking about. I mean, Niqua Valley scored in the final minute of
that game. I mean that is a game that Lincoln Way East, despite
the relatively low score, controlled it all game long. I mean, and
that's the one thing when you look at both of these two teams, they
have controlled pretty much. They're every one of their playoff games almost from the
outset, and some of these teams that they've played are not the kind of
programs that are used to being controlled like that. So it's been precision.
It's been precise. Neither one of them are exceptionally flashy. Neither one of
them have have what I like to call a dude, a guy that is
just, you know, capable of just blowing up for you know, giant
statistical numbers on the offensive side of the ball. You know, they're they're
very much They may not run the same sets or do the same things,
but the way they go about things is extremely similar. I mean, they
don't make a lot of mistakes. They know exactly what they're supposed to be
doing. They're all kind of pulling on the same rope. They don't care
who gets the individual acclaim. There's so many things about the two programs that
when you look at them, it's almost like they're kind of looking at a
mirror at one another. And it's been fascinating to kind of watch the development
of this rivalry over the last few years. They've had kind of a knack
for running into one another in the postseason. I've witnessed quite a few of
those games in person. You know, one of the semifinal games is one
of the better high school football games I've ever seen between the two of them.
Yeah, it's it's been, it's developed into an outstanding large school rivalry
over the last couple of years. And when I got the brackets on pairings
night, you know, and I kind of looked at him, you know,
I flashed back to a conversation that I had had with Lincoln Way East
coach Robs Vonar before the pairings were released, and he was asking me what
I thought in terms of like who they might be paired with and how the
bracket might line up. And at one point he just asked me, he
goes, where are they at? And I didn't even have to blink.
I knew who he was talking about, So I knew he was asking me,
Where's Where's where do you think Loyal is going to be? Are they
going to be on the opposite side? Are they going to be on our
side? Are we gonna have to play them again? And you know in
an earlier round, I mean, what's it going to be? And I
mean that just kind of speaks to, you know, how both of them
feel about one another. I mean, coach Holisek was talking about like he
all the way back in September. He was kind of like, if the
bracket falls the way it's it could I think I think we couldn't see them
in the state final. I mean, and he didn't make a list of
teams. He listed one teams, Lincoln Way East. I mean, so
the kind of the expectation that these uh, you know, that these two
teams would meet if the Brackett cooperated and it did U is really what for
me? It's kind of neat to see that it played out that way because
sometimes you get upsets, sometimes things happen. But to have something like that
play out, I think it's going to be an interesting finish to the high
school football season. And I talked before in this podcast about game is being
very difficult to pick. This was another one that I really really wrestled with
before coming to the conclusion that I came to and I don't feel comfortable with
it, like I just like, I don't know. I like it.
Science, the science behind it is just as close to me flipping a point
more than anything else. Yeah. A couple of just side notes here.
It's always funny like here we in on a day after starting with one A
and the rosters. Obviously, when you're talking about school sides are going to
get larger. The classes go up. But I always laughed when I get
to eight A and I particularly these two programs, looking Weigh East and Loyola
and seeing it on the IHSA website, I just feel like I have to
scroll down for about thirty seconds before I get through their entire roster for both
of them, just giant. They look like college college team when they have
their roster and all the kids on the sidelines and the other thing. And
this is more just the I find it interesting. I haven't even asked these
guys yet. So Sean Hammond, who used to cover work with us for
Friday Night Draw, eventually we um we actually promoted him onto our Chicago bearsby
his replacement that we brought on board, and I didn't realize that at the
time. Michael dwell Jack, who now covers, he actually took over Sean's
beat. They're actually friends. They went to college together at UOVA. Sean
is a Lincoln Way East grad, Michael is a Loyola grad. I didn't
know Michael, Okay, Yeah, So I just now going through this realize
that, So I need to reach out to those guys. We gotta we
gotta get a we gotta get an Alma mater boxing match going or something for
those two. Well, yeah, I did not know that about Michael.
It's it's funny, uh I was. I was about three or four years
ago. I was going through some old basketball score books and I found one
where Sean Hammond was listed in a Lincoln Way East roster that uh I actually
uncovered the game. So did know Sean at the time. Um, but
it was I did know Sean was Lingway East, but I did not know
that about Michael. So interesting. Yeah, so I'll have to see if
they're sticking with the Alma maters in their picks or where they're going. But
yeah, I'm with you that would pick in this game. There's not a
lot of science and it's pretty much a coin flip. I'm gonna taken or
take Lincoln Way East. I'm not confident. I did really like and I
don't even have like there's a lot of data points at least in these games
like that are closed where I feel like I can kind of splice it and
say, Okay, I'm I'm gonna lean that way. I'm just going with
a gut instinct here. Yeah I'm going the opposite way. But like you,
I don't feel good about it. I'm taking Loyola. I I don't
know. I really can't. I can't sit here and tell you why I'm
doing it other than the fact that I have to pick the games. So
you know, I got picked somebody. But I raise your thin margin.
Like anytime I come up with something that like justifies that pick in my mind,
I can quickly counter it with something else that makes me not so sure
about it. So I guess that's what you would hope for in a state
championship game in a lot of ways. You want that to be the kind
of matchup that you're going to see. The only thing that would really surprise
me is if one of these two teams ran away from the other one.
That would be that would really surprise me, like a lot, like if
this was not a close football game, I would be I'd be floored if
that happened, so really quickly before we get out of here, Like I
said, really quick, we're already way over an now we're here. But
as I've as I've been thinking about it, as it's getting closer, this
is potentially the last state championship game in Champagne, at least for the foreseeable
future here. The contract is up, we do not know where the state
title games are going to be next season, and I find myself a little
sad because there are some things about Champagne that I don't like. For instance,
like I actually think the stadium is a little bit too large in terms,
like it can kind of feel a bit empty in some of the game,
particularly the smaller classes. But overall, I've really have enjoyed the state
experience at Champagne over the years, and I'm a little bit sad to think
that this could be our last time going down there for this event. Yeah,
and it's kind of weird too, because, like the way that the
bidding process is done, I'm not even sure if you have I is bidding
on it again because of the specifics of what the contract entails this year,
I don't know if Ellinois can because instead of doing the rotational basis between Illinois
and Northern Illinois, which they are doing or they have done primarily because Illinois
needed a home date available on alternating years inside of the Big ten schedule,
the HSA said, we want to five year contract and we're not doing the
rotation thing anymore. So I'm pretty confident that you have, I has put
in a bid for it. I don't know how that works, Like,
to be completely honest with you, I don't know how. Maybe they're gonna
look into a different arrangement for what has historically been the Northwestern week on their
schedule. But I talk to some people at you of I early in this
process, saying, can you guys even bid? And they were early in
the process. They didn't confirm one way or another. We don't even know
who has put in a bid for it, so I don't know if it's
the last time. I know. There was some quotes on record with coach
Biona this week saying that he really really wants to keep it there and feels
like it's a big asset for the program in the university did to have it.
So I have a feeling they're going to make a play for it,
but I don't know if they're going to be able to meet all the conditions
of the contract. So, you know, I don't know what might happen.
We might be back at Northern, we might be somewhere completely entirely different.
You know, That's that's what it really comes down to. But I
too, like I've been going to state championships in Champagne for a very long
time. Like I'm not going to date myself here and tell you first state
championship get games that I attended, but it was it's been a while and
I always no disrespect to the other sites that have hosted it in the past.
Um, but that one feels like it's where it almost should be.
Yeah, and particularly since the renovations at Memorial Stadium too, Like it's it's
it's a nice it's a great facility. Now, yeah, there are there
are drawbacks to it, and I mean there's really no solution or way around
that. But um, I uh, you know, given the options that
supposedly are available to it, I kind of hope that ends up back there
again, but I understand if it does not. So yeah, that's really
what it comes down to. When do you expect we're going to get some
news on that. I think it's going to be in early December. I
think it will be relatively soon. There will be rumors flying this weekend,
um that there always are when when this bid has been in play. Um,
I fully expect to unofficially here who has a bid for it? Probably
at some point during the time this weekend. Um. I think I know
the answer to that right now, but I don't have that on any authority.
But and I fully expect it to be no later than mid December.
Will we have a It's always whenever they've gone through this process, it's always
been kind of resolved before Christmas to my recollection, So I would expect it
mid December would be when we're we're gonna have and like, like I said,
this will be a weekend full of rumors flying about the decisions already been
made, even though I don't think that it actually officially has been. But
yeah, I think we'll get some answers to that question relatively soon. All
right, well, that's a good reason to stick with Friday Night Drive way
after the season ends. But for now, we're going to go ahead and
get out of here. It's been great previewing everything this week with you guys.
I hope everyone enjoys Thanksgiving. Make sure you stick with Friday Night Drive
dot Com. We're gonna have coverage at State football all eight games all week
and long. Get a lot of preview content already starting to post to the
website. Stick there. You know you're traveling around on thanks Giving you.
If you're in the car, you know, don't do while you're driving,
obviously, But if you're a passenger in the car, pull up this website,
read some preview content past the time, then you know, try and
join us down there in Champaign. Say hi if you see us walking around.
It's gonna be a fun weekend, but we're gonna get out of here
for Steve Susy, I am Kyle Neighbors. Everyone, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Hopefully we'll see you this weekend end champagn and if not, we'll talk
to you next week. Schweiker, Gannison Krizak Rundio proudly sponsors to Friday Night
Drive. I'm Mike Krizak. If you've been injured, we are ready to
take on the insurance company and get you to the end zone. We've recovered
hundreds of millions of dollars for our clients. Visit GA nassi n dot com.