WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:04.080
Schwiker, Gannison, Krizak Rundio proudly
sponsors to Friday Night Drive. I'm Mike

2
00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:07.240
Krazak. If you've been injured,
we are ready to take on the insurance

3
00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:10.480
company and get you to the end
zone. We've recovered hundreds of millions of

4
00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:23.679
dollars for our clients. Visit GA
nassi n dot com. Well Suits.

5
00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:27.199
It's it's been a quick season.
It goes by quick every year, but

6
00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:31.000
we have made it to the final
weekend of high school football here in the

7
00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:36.439
twenty twenty two season. It is
Wednesday morning as rerecord the state championship preview.

8
00:00:36.679 --> 00:00:39.920
We'll be heading down to Champagne early
Friday morning, get ready for eight

9
00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:43.640
state championship games for coverage at Friday
Night Drive. Suits. But like I

10
00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:47.119
said, man, you know,
it always goes quick, but uh,

11
00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:51.320
you know, this year even quicker. Yeah, it felt so fast,

12
00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:54.560
especially the playoffs. I mean yeah, I felt like we got through,

13
00:00:55.159 --> 00:00:58.960
you know, to the point where
we're now almost through five complete weeks and

14
00:00:59.320 --> 00:01:02.240
that just zip to buy. It
was like zoo zoom gone, you know,

15
00:01:02.439 --> 00:01:04.159
and it was all of a sudden
we were we're in the situation that

16
00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:07.480
we are now on the eve of
the state championship games. So h,

17
00:01:08.359 --> 00:01:12.280
I guess time flies when you're having
fun. So uh, in a roundabout

18
00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:17.719
way, I guess this shouldn't surprise
me. I know the listener don't care

19
00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:19.959
about this, But from a personal
standpoint, you and I like, I

20
00:01:19.079 --> 00:01:23.000
think since we've launched Friday Night Drive
back in twenty nineteen, now that like,

21
00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:25.560
I mean, you've always kind of
had an overview of the state,

22
00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:29.480
but it's this is certainly expanded at
Friday Night Drives expanded, and I think

23
00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:34.079
because we're seeing so much data and
like we're spending so much time like football

24
00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:36.879
oriented stuff, it actually does make
it seem to go buy even quicker.

25
00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:40.359
Yeah, I would agree. I
mean there's there are times when like I

26
00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:42.519
get at the beginning of the week
and then before I know it, I

27
00:01:42.599 --> 00:01:48.200
feel like I'm you know, it's
eve of games or or night of games

28
00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:53.079
really really fast, because it just
seems to zip through and set us up

29
00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:57.239
in a way that makes the weeks
kind of fly by, and this con

30
00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:00.599
construct it's like, I mean,
it's it's funny. I mean, it

31
00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:05.519
seemed like, you know, no
more than maybe two weeks ago, I

32
00:02:05.640 --> 00:02:08.879
was sitting here analyzing two hundred and
fifty six teams and now they're only sixteen

33
00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:13.319
left, and I don't know where
the time went. So yeah, it's

34
00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:17.680
it's definitely an odd situation to kind
of grasp where the time goes. Yeah,

35
00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:21.719
I mean, everyone who's followed us
since that very first Monday of high

36
00:02:21.719 --> 00:02:24.159
school football practice, everyone who's followed
along for the twenty twenty two season at

37
00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:29.039
Friday Night Drive dot com, who's
listened to the podcast, who's interacted with

38
00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:31.560
just not Sus and I, but
everyone on staff here at Friday Night Drive.

39
00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:36.199
We appreciate all of you. It's
been great to have everyone aboard and

40
00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:38.360
see the growth here at Friday Night
Drive. If you're not following us on

41
00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:42.719
Twitter, please do so at FN
drive. You can also find us on

42
00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:45.919
Facebook and Instagram just by searching for
Friday Night Drive. You can find sous

43
00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:50.159
on Twitter at the SEUs. You
can find myself on Twitter at Kyle Neighbors.

44
00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:52.479
And right now, if you go
to Friday Night Drive dot com if

45
00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:54.199
you are not a subscriber, we've
got a Black Friday deal going for you.

46
00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:58.680
Get yourself a year subscription that I'll
take you. I mean, it's

47
00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:00.000
the best deal. You're gonna get
like the price is great right now,

48
00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:02.560
go to Friday Night Drive in the
top right hand corner. If you're not

49
00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:06.879
a subscriber, clip subscribe. You'll
find the deal for yourself right there.

50
00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:10.680
That'll take you through State Championship weekend
and then pretty much all the way through

51
00:03:10.759 --> 00:03:14.719
the twenty twenty three seasons. So
what you can do, get yourself that

52
00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:17.400
that year subscription. Now, get
yourself all the content to Friday Night Drive

53
00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:23.120
dot com local news from across Illinois, you know, Chicago Bears coverage.

54
00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:27.159
Get it now that digital subscription at
a ridiculously low price that'll take you all

55
00:03:27.159 --> 00:03:30.159
the way through the twenty twenty three
season and next Black Friday we get ready

56
00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:32.759
for State Championship. Maybe you can
jump on board again. So little little

57
00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.680
money saving tip for you there.
But like I said, um, thank

58
00:03:36.759 --> 00:03:38.879
you to everyone who's joined us this
year. And now with that, we're

59
00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:44.240
gonna go ahead, suits and work
our way through the state Championship games,

60
00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:49.000
starting with one A where we have
a matchup a Leanal Winslow in Camp Point

61
00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:53.879
Centro. And you know this is
a game that kicks off at ten am

62
00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:58.759
on Friday morning. I always worry
a little bit both the one A game

63
00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:01.199
and the five A game, but
even more so that one A game because

64
00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:04.919
it's the morning after Thanksgiving. I
know, teams traveled down early for it

65
00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:11.560
and stuff, but Lena Winslow very
used to playing in that type of condition.

66
00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:13.840
Can't Point Central. On the other
hand, this is the team where

67
00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:18.160
you know, is it's been in
the postseason consistently, but not as often

68
00:04:18.279 --> 00:04:23.519
here and I don't think anyone on
this current roster has been. No,

69
00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:28.439
they have not. Yeah, so
you know that's always a little bit of

70
00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:31.120
a factor. And then you bring
into the fact here that you know,

71
00:04:31.480 --> 00:04:34.879
and this is to take absolutely nothing
away from Camp Point Central. They've had

72
00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:39.120
a fabulous season. But I as
you put put in your your one A

73
00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.040
State preview, which is available now
on Friday Night Drive dot com, all

74
00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:45.800
eight previews will be up over the
next forty eight hours or so. Um,

75
00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:49.079
I mean, there's no way to
cut it other than Lena Winslow enters

76
00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:54.279
this game as the favorite. Yeah, I mean really, what it comes

77
00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:58.560
down to is that, I mean, you can't take away that that label

78
00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:02.560
from the NUC team heading into the
state final in almost any year, it

79
00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:09.040
doesn't make sense. I mean history
has proven over the last decade that the

80
00:05:09.240 --> 00:05:13.279
road to trying to win a one
A state championship goes directly through that conference,

81
00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:18.079
and not too many people have had
much luck in dispatching them from that

82
00:05:18.279 --> 00:05:25.560
role. And a lot of these
games haven't been exceptionally competitive. That's so

83
00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:30.040
to you know, break this game
down and using it from a historical context,

84
00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:34.000
if you don't put Lena Winslow in
the favorites role, I'd like to

85
00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:39.079
know what data and information you're looking
at to come to that conclusion. Yeah,

86
00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:42.439
I mean I almost said the Panthers
there, And I gotta remember we're

87
00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:46.000
starting off the state championship weekend in
an unfortunate scenario for any journalist here.

88
00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:49.319
We hate this when this happened.
We got the Panthers of Lena Winslow and

89
00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:54.800
the Panthers of Camp Point Central trying
to write game stories or really anything any

90
00:05:54.920 --> 00:05:59.000
kind of preview and not wanting to
use the mascot makes it really redundant really

91
00:05:59.079 --> 00:06:00.120
quickly. So I gotta be carefully
even trying to say that here. But

92
00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:05.000
Lena Winslow, you know this is
a team. We know very well what

93
00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:09.639
they're gonna do, and you look
at the stats for this current roster gonna

94
00:06:09.639 --> 00:06:13.279
bears that out. You got three
rushers at one thousand yards or more,

95
00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:17.920
Gauge Dunker with twenty five touchdowns,
Gunner Lobdown twenty five touchdowns, Jake Zel

96
00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:21.399
eighteen touchdown. They are going to
run the ball. They're going to be

97
00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:26.639
very effective. The question I have
for you, I think most people at

98
00:06:26.680 --> 00:06:30.560
this point know what Lena Winslow is
about. It's you know, particularly for

99
00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:34.399
our listeners, which is more north
part of the state oriented. Can you

100
00:06:34.519 --> 00:06:39.519
introduce them a little bit more to
Campoint Central and what does Campoint Central have

101
00:06:39.720 --> 00:06:43.399
to do to be in this game
with Lena Winslow. Well, I think

102
00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:46.600
there are you know, there are
obviously a lot of things that have to

103
00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:51.160
happen for them to be in the
game. The first and foremost being they've

104
00:06:51.240 --> 00:06:58.399
got to be really good on run
defense. I'm not talking about like completely

105
00:06:58.439 --> 00:07:01.160
shutting off Leno Winslow's runoffense, because
that's not going to happen, but they've

106
00:07:01.240 --> 00:07:06.040
got to be able to get some
stops. They can't let Leonel Winslow every

107
00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:10.959
time they touch the ball either bust
a big play for a score or sustain

108
00:07:11.079 --> 00:07:15.319
a monster drive that leads to points. This is what tends to be the

109
00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:18.319
problem for almost anyone that plays them. You can't get them off the field.

110
00:07:18.399 --> 00:07:21.160
They're going to have to be able
to get them off the field,

111
00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:28.240
maybe not so much with regularity,
but enough to give themselves a chance.

112
00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:31.959
Here. We can't have a situation
where, you know, on the first

113
00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.800
five possessions, Lena scores four touchdowns. If that happens, then we're not

114
00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:39.399
going to have We're not going to
have a I don't think a very good

115
00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:45.160
football game here. You know.
And for all the things that Lena has

116
00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:48.000
in their favor in this game,
you know, I think the one thing

117
00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:54.399
that you can't really quantify that well, but I know that this exists as

118
00:07:54.439 --> 00:07:58.519
a roster can't point. Central is
very fast. They are very athletic,

119
00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:03.639
and they're I mean, they may
have to get creative to utilize those assets,

120
00:08:03.839 --> 00:08:07.199
but if they're able to do that, that is one edge that I

121
00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:11.879
think they have. It's just a
matter of how much they can use it

122
00:08:11.439 --> 00:08:16.519
and how much it will play into
what they're going to do Lena. As

123
00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:18.800
good as they are on offense,
they're also outstanding on defense. So it's

124
00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:24.480
kind of a double edged sword,
so they can't go nuts here and try

125
00:08:24.519 --> 00:08:28.000
to you know, you know,
all kinds of wild plays to try to

126
00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:31.399
take advantage of that. But they
might have to throw, you know,

127
00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:35.519
the proverbial kitchen sink at them,
a couple of wrinkles, some things that

128
00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:41.360
maybe they haven't shown on film all
season that takes advantage of the of the

129
00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:46.200
skill sets that they have. So
I don't think if Camppoint Central plays this

130
00:08:46.360 --> 00:08:50.480
game straight up that they have much
of a chance of winning it. Yeah,

131
00:08:50.600 --> 00:08:56.720
they're gonna have to get creative offensively
and on defense. And this isn't

132
00:08:56.720 --> 00:09:01.759
just Lena Winsles specific, but this
goes to any high school team that's very,

133
00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:05.919
very run heavy. When you're defending
that, you have to be really

134
00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:09.320
really good on first and second down. You want to put them in third

135
00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:13.639
and long situation. And what you
also want to do there is you you

136
00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:16.559
got to try and avoid like fourth
in short situations because like, if Lena

137
00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:20.960
Winslow is at any kind of positive
point in the field, they're gonna go

138
00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:22.639
for it because they know they can
get one or two yards. So first

139
00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:28.320
and second down are really critical against
Lena Winslow, and that's gonna you know,

140
00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:30.559
if camp points central to me,
if they're gonna have a chance to

141
00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:33.039
win this game, they're gonna have
to win on those early downs. Yeah.

142
00:09:33.159 --> 00:09:37.200
This is like if you look up
at the board and it's a second

143
00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:41.639
and eight, you've got Lena in
a situation where I'm not gonna say you've

144
00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:43.960
got Lena in a situation where you
want them. You don't want Lena's offense

145
00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:48.519
on the field, but if they
are, it's a lot better to be

146
00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:50.399
in a second and eight than a
second and four. I mean that's yeah,

147
00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:54.639
I mean you want them at third
and six or more right, Yeah,

148
00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:58.480
that's that's a situation where you know, I mean, they're just so

149
00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:01.360
good at what they do and you
can sit here and say, well,

150
00:10:01.399 --> 00:10:03.399
you know, you know, we
know exactly what they're gonna do. We

151
00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:07.559
think we're gonna be able to you
know, No, you're not. I

152
00:10:07.639 --> 00:10:11.840
mean, that's that's the reality of
the situation. You have to just do

153
00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:16.720
the best you can to create as
many situations like you just mentioned, you

154
00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:22.080
know, down in distant situations that
they're they're uncomfortable in, because I mean,

155
00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:24.960
you can have them in third and
eight and there they might break a

156
00:10:26.039 --> 00:10:28.679
nine yard run that's just what these
guys do. They're so effective at what

157
00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:35.440
they do. They've almost perfected this
system. Um. And just from year

158
00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:39.320
to year to year, I'm constantly
impressed with their ability to just kind of

159
00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:41.399
plug and play. They lose guys
to graduation, You're like, well,

160
00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:43.679
how are they going to replace them? And then there's another guy that comes

161
00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:46.720
back the next year that looks almost
exactly the same as the guy that they

162
00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:50.039
had in that position the year before. So, uh, it's it's a

163
00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:54.440
fantastic program. I can't I can't
credit them enough for what they've been able

164
00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:58.919
to do. Um, you know. And it's it's one of those things

165
00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:01.960
when I look at Camp Points Central, I fully respect what they were able

166
00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:05.960
to they've been able to do,
um, but it's gonna have to take

167
00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:11.759
some some things in a specific way
to get them in the in the football.

168
00:11:13.240 --> 00:11:16.159
Uh is that who's who's chiming in
here? Both dogs that they're both

169
00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:22.600
chiming in. We just had a
obnoxious car engine that has disturbed the the

170
00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:26.600
balance of of of power. I
guess in our house next door. That's

171
00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:30.720
all right, We're gonna say that
they're both taking Lena Winslow and I think

172
00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:33.240
we are as well. Right,
Yeah, that's correct. All right,

173
00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:37.159
let's go ahead and get over to
the Lass two A and we have a

174
00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:41.080
matchup here with Tri Valley in Saint
Teresa. Uh. You know, the

175
00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:46.679
first thing that stands out to me
when looking at the matchup suits is when

176
00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:50.279
you're talking about the smaller classes,
particularly one A through three eight starts.

177
00:11:50.679 --> 00:11:54.360
As you get up you see more
balanced offenses. And it's this is not

178
00:11:54.360 --> 00:11:58.360
the rule, but um, you
know, more often or not you see

179
00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:03.159
really ground heavy teams. Say Teresa
though, is a pretty balanced team.

180
00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:05.919
You start looking through it and you
know you got Blake Reginald up there with

181
00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:11.120
thirty two rushing touchdowns and I'm sorry
looking at the wrong side there lost my

182
00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:15.960
point. Royce Harper, That's why
I was looking at Royce Harper with fourteen

183
00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:18.879
hundred yards and twenty touchdowns. But
in the passing game, you know,

184
00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:22.480
you got twenty one passing touchdown from
Joe Brummer. So Saint Teresa is able

185
00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:26.600
to do it both ways, which
just makes it much more difficult for Tri

186
00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:31.240
Valley to to get out there and
defend. Yeah, it's it's definitely kind

187
00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:35.639
of I guess, not necessarily a
different Saint Teresa team than maybe we've been

188
00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:39.960
accustomed to over the last couple of
years. They've had a history of having

189
00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:45.080
these backs with incredible numbers Jaccardio,
right, Denham Cook. These are guys

190
00:12:45.159 --> 00:12:48.279
that are piling up, you know, two thousand plus rushing yards on the

191
00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:54.480
season. They maybe don't have quite
that top shelf you know, running back

192
00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:58.919
like they've had in the past with
Royce Harper, He's still very good.

193
00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:03.840
But uh, but that that element
of throwing the football, demonstrating a little

194
00:13:03.879 --> 00:13:07.960
bit more balance, it's something that, uh, you know, sometimes it's

195
00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:11.759
you get a mixed bag with these
type of teams at the lower classifications,

196
00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:18.240
might might get a weird weather to
day and in a big stadium like that,

197
00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:22.679
and it just doesn't work that well. Um, But you know,

198
00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:26.759
I think Saint Theresa's ability to do
both is a real asset in this game.

199
00:13:28.440 --> 00:13:31.639
Um. You know, I think
they've demonstrated time and time again that

200
00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:35.759
offense is not going to be the
issue for them. Um. If if

201
00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:39.639
they're gonna win the football game,
they can win it in a number of

202
00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:43.039
different ways. For for me,
with Saint Theresa, it comes down to

203
00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:46.879
whether or not they can defend Uh, you know, defend what Tri Valley

204
00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:50.600
is going to be able to do
and kind of keep them from you know,

205
00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:54.279
maybe they win a shootout here,
but I don't think the ideal for

206
00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:58.840
them is to be in a you
know, thirty eight thirty five game at

207
00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:03.639
the end here. Yeah, And
as I said earlier, Blake Reginald twenty

208
00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:09.200
three hundred almost heading towards twenty four
rushing yard on the season for Tri Valley,

209
00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:13.039
thirty two rushing touchdowns. You've you've
you know, you caught on with

210
00:14:13.159 --> 00:14:16.600
this team when you saw him Pete
Wilmington back in the second round. Uh,

211
00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:20.480
what do you think of this matchup
against Saint Theresa for Tri Valley?

212
00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:24.840
You know, I think right now
this is a class example of a team

213
00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:30.360
catching catching a lot of momentum here
in the postseason. Um, you know,

214
00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:33.919
when you look back to the regular
season, I don't know if I

215
00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:37.399
necessarily saw this coming. I mean, they finished seven and two in the

216
00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:41.559
regular season, lost to Ridge View
and then lost in the in the last

217
00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:46.000
week of the regular season, and
I didn't really know where they were at,

218
00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:50.960
you know, in the construct of
what they've you know, what you

219
00:14:52.039 --> 00:14:54.279
know, at the beginning of the
year, I figured they would probably be,

220
00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:58.159
you know, maybe a one loss
team, maybe losing to Ridge View,

221
00:14:58.840 --> 00:15:01.559
but they kind of scuffed Old even
in some of the regular season games

222
00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:07.360
and wins. But whatever they did, they started to click and got things

223
00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:13.080
going. And you know, when
I saw them beat Wilmington, they did

224
00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:15.759
it in a different way. Like
for the last couple of weeks, they

225
00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:20.639
have just been piling up these massive
rushing yards between you know, with Blake

226
00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:26.200
Reganold and he was almost a non
factor in that win against Wilmington's. So

227
00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:31.519
that kind of clued me into maybe
an ability to adapt to the situation and

228
00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:35.919
figure out how to score. When
someone says, hey, I'm going to

229
00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:39.840
throw the entire defense. I'm gonna
throw everyone in the box to try to

230
00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:43.559
stop him, and you can try
to beat me either way. Well,

231
00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:46.159
they did it, I mean,
and they did it rather well. So

232
00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:50.440
they got a couple of long runs
from their quarterback, but they also you

233
00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:54.639
know, they also threw the ball
if they needed to and did it effectively.

234
00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:58.519
So you know, I think this
is a This is a really nice

235
00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:06.679
example of a coaching staff led by
Josh Roope that that sees what they're able

236
00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:11.639
to do in a given situation,
and even if it's not the most comfortable

237
00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:15.879
thing for them, they can do
it. Their adaptability is something that's pretty

238
00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:19.440
impressive. And on the defensive side
of the ball, they just do a

239
00:16:19.559 --> 00:16:25.399
really nice job and it kind of
makes me wonder, Like, you know,

240
00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:30.200
Decatur, Saint Teresa's ability to run
and throw is going to be something

241
00:16:30.279 --> 00:16:33.039
that I don't know if Saint Theresa
will be able to adapt to. But

242
00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:37.639
if I mean that Try Valley will
be able to adapt to. But the

243
00:16:37.399 --> 00:16:42.960
run, the run heavy team,
Try Valley can handle that. I mean,

244
00:16:44.120 --> 00:16:47.799
that's that's what what it really comes
down to. So the wrinkle of

245
00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:52.639
what Saint Theresa provides in this game
gives me a little bit of pause about

246
00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:55.919
whether whether Try Valley will be able
to do what they've been doing on defense.

247
00:16:56.559 --> 00:17:00.960
But that being said, I think
this team is just riding a way

248
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.920
of a momentum right now and has
the confidences is through the roof and Try

249
00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:10.720
Valley, I you know, definitely
wants to keep this game close if they

250
00:17:10.759 --> 00:17:12.599
fall behind. Looking through stats here, I don't know if you noticed.

251
00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:17.240
I'm sure you didn't notice this,
but uh, Saint Teresa's Amari Wallace,

252
00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:19.400
you don't see this at the high
school eleven level all that often, but

253
00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:22.400
eleven sacks on the year, one
hundred and two tackles, fifteen and a

254
00:17:22.440 --> 00:17:27.039
half tackles for loss. Uh,
clearly a guy that when opposing defenses are

255
00:17:27.079 --> 00:17:30.680
passing the ball he is he is
wreaking a bit of havoc. Yeah,

256
00:17:30.839 --> 00:17:36.640
I mean, I actually I believe
I saw him on Friday night at the

257
00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:41.759
Springfield Sacred Heart Griffin game. There
was a large contingent of Saint Teresa players

258
00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:45.000
that had went over to watch that
game. Um, I'm pretty sure I

259
00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:48.160
saw him, And yeah, that's
something that Tryville is going to have to

260
00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:52.720
deal with in that game. So, um, you know, regardless of

261
00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:56.960
the situation score wise or whatever,
I think that's the kind of kid that

262
00:17:56.039 --> 00:18:02.640
can can potentially blow up a lot
of things, especially when you haven't seen

263
00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:06.839
a player of that caliber a lot
during the regular season. All right,

264
00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:10.720
Well, let's go ahead and finish
just off with our our selections for the

265
00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:12.440
Class two A game. I'll go
first. I mean, I've been picking

266
00:18:12.440 --> 00:18:17.759
against try Valley seemingly every week since
that second round game against Wilmington and been

267
00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:19.640
wrong, So I guess I might
as well stay with the team. I

268
00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:22.359
like the Saint Teresa team. I
thought they were gonna win the two A

269
00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:26.400
state title pretty much all season long. So I'm taking Saint Teresa and this

270
00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:32.200
one, sus Well, I'm gonna
I'm just gonna stay with the team that

271
00:18:32.279 --> 00:18:34.119
I that I brought me here,
that I thought I was gonna. You

272
00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:37.000
know, early in the year,
I wouldn't have said that this was gonna

273
00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:40.279
be something that I would have done. I picked Saint Teresa at the beginning

274
00:18:40.279 --> 00:18:41.640
of the playoffs. I'm changing my
mind now, I'm gonna go with try

275
00:18:41.720 --> 00:18:45.400
Vaalley. Hey, it's it's it's
carried you this far. You gotta gotta

276
00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:49.240
keep with it. Yeah, indeed, all right, let's go ahead and

277
00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:52.759
get over to Class three A,
where we got a pair of teams in

278
00:18:52.839 --> 00:18:56.480
Williamville and Icee Catholic that are really
no strangers to playing in the state title

279
00:18:56.559 --> 00:19:00.160
game. Um, you know,
sus I'm I'm gonna let you start here

280
00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:03.960
because this is it's an interesting matchup
here. You go in. I don't

281
00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:07.519
think there's any doubt about it.
I see Catholic is the favorite in this

282
00:19:07.720 --> 00:19:12.079
game, and I don't want to
I'm gonna I'm gonna throw this out there,

283
00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:15.480
um, and I don't want to
upset Williamsville fans with this. And

284
00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:19.559
this is from a more Bureau County
perspective, but Kevin horronum Is, who

285
00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:23.440
covered Bureau County, was talking to
some of the people up to Princeton after

286
00:19:23.640 --> 00:19:27.279
Princeton and Ice Catholic played to that
state or and that that overtime game in

287
00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:30.000
the quarterfinals, and they kind of, you know, the people up there

288
00:19:30.039 --> 00:19:33.599
are like, well maybe that was
the three A title game, you know,

289
00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:36.160
like they kind of feel that way
with the way I see Catholic then

290
00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:40.000
dispatched Byron thirty five zero in the
semifinals. Um, Like I said,

291
00:19:40.039 --> 00:19:44.680
I see Catholic comes into this game
as a favorite. But Williamsville is a

292
00:19:44.759 --> 00:19:48.359
program that I don't count out suits
like they know how there's a reason they're

293
00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:52.160
in this title game fairly regularly.
And there's been other years where I'm like,

294
00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:55.680
well, you know, I think
the Bullets come in as the other

295
00:19:55.799 --> 00:19:59.480
underdog and then we get there at
the end. Go back to two thousand

296
00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:02.240
and fourteen, it's Wilmington. I
really like that Wilmington game, or at

297
00:20:02.279 --> 00:20:06.400
what team they were right there at
the end against Williamston, was right there

298
00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:10.160
at the end against Wilmington, So
I don't know, I just have a

299
00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:12.640
weird feeling that this game may be
close at the end. You know,

300
00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:17.319
I kind of go I kind of
I'm a little bit of a pendulum effect

301
00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:21.039
with IC Catholic this year. There
have been times when I'm like, I

302
00:20:21.200 --> 00:20:25.119
don't know if they're the overwhelming favorite
here, and then they do things that

303
00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:29.240
make me go, well, they're
the overwhelming favorite here. So it just

304
00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:33.960
kind of goes back and forth with
me. And I think they're going into

305
00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:38.240
the state final on a lot of
momentum because you know, that win over

306
00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:42.079
Byron was much much easier than I
thought it was going to be for them.

307
00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:45.519
I mean, I thought that was
going to be an absolute dog fight

308
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:48.720
and they were going to have to, you know, scratch and claw.

309
00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:51.160
I thought they were the favorite.
I thought they would get to this point,

310
00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:53.839
but I didn't think they'd win that
game by five touchdowns in a runaway.

311
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:56.960
I didn't. And then I mean, they go the week previous and

312
00:20:57.240 --> 00:21:00.440
I don't mean to say anything bad
about Prince, but I think I think

313
00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:03.920
I thought that game would be easier
for them, So, you know,

314
00:21:04.119 --> 00:21:10.599
so It's just I never seem to
know where I fall on, you know,

315
00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:14.400
on the scale of how dominant I
think they are, you know,

316
00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:18.200
heading into this game, I think
they're a pretty substantial favorite. I've thought

317
00:21:18.279 --> 00:21:22.440
that all along. I thought the
team whoever emerged from this north side of

318
00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:26.160
the bracket would be the favorite in
the state final. But like you said,

319
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:30.400
it's just hard to count Williamsville completely
out of this game. It's a

320
00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:34.240
program that's demonstrated, you know,
year after year, that they can get

321
00:21:34.279 --> 00:21:37.319
themselves deep into the playoffs. They've
been in title games, and when they've

322
00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:44.599
been there, they've been extraordinarily competitive
in those games against in situations where the

323
00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:48.640
other team was probably the favorite going
in. So they're not going to back

324
00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:52.920
down, and I have a lot
of confidence in this coaching staff's ability to

325
00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:59.960
make this a quality game. Now
that being said, making it a quality

326
00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:02.880
game is going to be a real
challenge because they're just like, when you

327
00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:07.920
look at everything that I see Catholic
has going on right now, I don't

328
00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:11.799
know how you effectively scheme, especially
against this offense, especially when they're throwing

329
00:22:11.960 --> 00:22:17.279
wrinkles like Joey Gliata into the mix, you know, which for those of

330
00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:22.480
you that don't know, has had
an absolute monster last two weeks of the

331
00:22:22.519 --> 00:22:26.079
playoffs, as as I see Catholics
running back after having a grand total of

332
00:22:26.200 --> 00:22:30.119
six carries through the first eleven games
of the season. So, I mean,

333
00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:33.640
it's not like they've got a lot
of film on what are they what

334
00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:36.880
are they doing with this guy?
Because it just hasn't they haven't done it

335
00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:41.240
very much. So so just there's
a lot going on in this game,

336
00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:45.039
and there's a lot that make it
kind of interesting. I'm still picking I

337
00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:48.799
see Catholic. I do think that
the game could potentially be a lot more

338
00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:52.799
interesting than I think some people are
giving a credit for. Yeah, I

339
00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:55.839
think I see Catholic. I'm paging. I see Catholic in the game.

340
00:22:56.680 --> 00:23:02.079
The wrinkle here the X factor to
me, I mean, we if Williamsville

341
00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:03.200
is gonna win this game, I
think it's going to be a shootout.

342
00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:08.960
And you know, like there's icy
Catholic is too dynamic on offense. I

343
00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:11.480
think that the Knights are going to
be able to move the ball up and

344
00:23:11.519 --> 00:23:15.680
down the field. The thing that
I do wonder about is Williamsville is a

345
00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:21.640
much heavier pass team than there's not
many teams. You look back on Icy

346
00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:25.000
Catholic schedule this year, they have
not faced a lot of pass eavy team.

347
00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:29.400
Williamsville has thrown the ball over three
hundred times on the year. Both

348
00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:33.799
offenses actually have our starting quarterbacks with
thirty three passing touchdowns. You don't see

349
00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:37.480
that a lot, particularly at the
three A level. So that's kind of

350
00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:41.079
the wrinkle is if when Williamsville goes
into that spread offense and and and is

351
00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:45.279
you know, if they're able to
put points on the board, is Ice

352
00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:48.000
Catholic you know, are they able
to adjust or is this going to turn

353
00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:52.480
into a shootout? Yeah? I
mean I think that's that's an interesting tack

354
00:23:52.559 --> 00:23:56.359
to take with it. I think
there are the problem that I would have

355
00:23:56.559 --> 00:23:59.799
with was saying, well, maybe
they can't do that, is that I

356
00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:04.880
think a lot of Icy Catholics top
performers are you know, two way guys,

357
00:24:06.440 --> 00:24:08.759
and a lot of them land in
the secondary. Yeah. That's I

358
00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:11.880
think that, you know, when
it comes right down to it, Um,

359
00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:17.519
if if you know, if williams
Well has a lot of success throwing

360
00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:21.279
the ball out of the spread,
I'll be somewhat surprised, Um, because

361
00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:23.839
that's I think they can have some
success. They do it all well,

362
00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:26.519
I guess what I'm saying here's like
you look at back at Byron and like

363
00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:29.920
we know what they want to do. They're gonna be a run heavy team,

364
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:33.839
like very compact. I think spreading
it out and at least making icy

365
00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:38.599
Catholic have to recognize and and um, you know, at least have to

366
00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:45.240
to prepare for multiple possibilities is different
than they've seen over the last several weeks

367
00:24:45.319 --> 00:24:48.720
at least. Yeah, it's kind
of a fun thing when I when I,

368
00:24:48.920 --> 00:24:52.960
you know, I could get real
granulo with some of these things when

369
00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:56.240
I start looking at things and the
fact that you bring up whether or not

370
00:24:56.440 --> 00:25:00.039
they'll be prepared for you know,
you know, a efectively prepared for the

371
00:25:00.119 --> 00:25:04.400
spread. I think back to the
fact that like, uh, I see

372
00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:10.599
Catholic has a former NFL secondary guy. Yeah, that's very true, Matt

373
00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:14.640
Bowen. Probably. I think they'll
probably be okay with being prepped in the

374
00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:18.279
secondary. So well, I shouldn't
say that. I'm absolutely sure Bill Kreft

375
00:25:18.319 --> 00:25:22.799
and the and the staff will have
the team uh prepped. It's but it's

376
00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:25.599
different though a game set. I'm
saying, yeah, I give it.

377
00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:27.279
Yeah, I know what you're saying. I'm just I'm just playing around to

378
00:25:27.319 --> 00:25:30.880
be completely honest. No, No, it's good. I like the banter.

379
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:33.720
It's it's it's entertaining. Uh So, okay, let's let's go ahead

380
00:25:33.759 --> 00:25:36.880
and let's get over to four A. One more class and we'll take a

381
00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:41.160
quick commercial break here. I gotta
pull up the right thing. I grabbed

382
00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:45.799
the wrong thing here one second us. Yeah, so Sue's uh, we're

383
00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:51.559
looking at a matchup here with Providence
coming into this game, not a team

384
00:25:51.640 --> 00:25:52.960
that we expected to see here.
We've talked about it a lot, though,

385
00:25:53.359 --> 00:25:56.720
Uh, going against Sacred Heart Griffin, a team that we did expect

386
00:25:56.759 --> 00:26:03.799
to see. That said, I'm
really having a tough time picking this one,

387
00:26:04.880 --> 00:26:11.920
you know. I keep trying to
convince myself of ways that Providence can

388
00:26:12.119 --> 00:26:18.559
win this game, and I'm not
having as hard a time as I thought

389
00:26:18.599 --> 00:26:23.880
I was going to. Even after
seeing Sacred Heart Griffin in in that game

390
00:26:23.960 --> 00:26:26.440
on Friday night, and I was
very impressed with what they were able to

391
00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:32.480
do, especially in rallying the way
that they did, I don't feel like

392
00:26:32.680 --> 00:26:37.240
Sacred Heart Griffin played as well as
they are capable of on Friday night,

393
00:26:37.839 --> 00:26:41.759
and one fear, at least looking
at it from Providence's side of things,

394
00:26:42.039 --> 00:26:47.319
is that what happens if they do, because if they do play at the

395
00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:52.279
level of that they are capable of
playing. I don't know how much I

396
00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:56.640
like Providence as odds in this one. I mean, they have size,

397
00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:00.880
they have speed, they have skill. It's it's it's a very talented football

398
00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:07.400
team. Um. And once they
get momentum on their side, it's almost

399
00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:12.759
impossible for for anyone to stop them. Um. All of that being said,

400
00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:18.599
Providence almost for the entire season,
even when they lost some regular season

401
00:27:18.680 --> 00:27:23.599
games to some real titans of Illinois
football. Um, they played one of

402
00:27:23.640 --> 00:27:29.440
the best schedules in the state,
regardless of class. Have just done a

403
00:27:29.559 --> 00:27:33.720
fantastic job of figuring it out.
It doesn't look like it on paper,

404
00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:37.920
like matchup for matchup that they can
they can be in this football game.

405
00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:44.079
But I refuse to just acknowledge the
fact that they can't be. Um,

406
00:27:44.319 --> 00:27:48.000
they figure it out. That's really
what it comes down to. So out

407
00:27:48.039 --> 00:27:52.079
of all the state time, all
sixteen teams that are in the state championship

408
00:27:52.160 --> 00:27:57.160
game, and I know it's it's
hard to compare class by class, but

409
00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:02.240
I would have you know, when
you when you do kind of look over

410
00:28:02.599 --> 00:28:06.559
the different path these teams take,
I would have a hard time saying any

411
00:28:06.680 --> 00:28:11.680
team had a more difficult path getting
to Champagne than Providence. You go Joliet

412
00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:15.279
Catholic in the first round, Richmond
Burden in the second round. We didn't

413
00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:18.480
Saint frank I'm sorry. It was
a we didn't Academy in the first round,

414
00:28:18.519 --> 00:28:21.799
wasn't it. Yeah, Yeah,
we didn't Academy in the first round,

415
00:28:21.880 --> 00:28:25.519
Joliet Catholic in the second round,
Richmond Burden in the quarterfinals, we

416
00:28:25.599 --> 00:28:30.079
didn't Saint Francis in the semifinals,
and now a matchup against Sacred Heart Griffin.

417
00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:33.480
That is, you know, on
top of the regular season schedule that

418
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:37.440
I mean, they've played a lot
of the best teams in the state.

419
00:28:37.559 --> 00:28:41.279
Yeah, And I mean the one
thing when I look at that is,

420
00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:44.559
like, you know, during the
regular season, they played a lot of

421
00:28:44.599 --> 00:28:48.279
these teams. The one thing that
just really kind of just keeps jarring at

422
00:28:48.359 --> 00:28:55.079
me in terms of this is despite
that difficult playoff run that they've had to

423
00:28:55.200 --> 00:29:03.519
go through, they haven't really seen
a team with the explosive speed that Sacred

424
00:29:03.559 --> 00:29:07.240
Heart Griffin has and just kind of
an ability to run up and down the

425
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:11.200
field. And it's not about containing
one guy, it's about containing like five

426
00:29:11.319 --> 00:29:15.319
different guys. To be completely honest
with you, I mean, that's and

427
00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:19.640
I think that may be the problem
here. While they ran through an impressive

428
00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:25.279
gauntlet, a lot of those teams
that they played were kind of similar in

429
00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:30.640
what they like to do. Sacred
Heart Griffin is a different nut to have

430
00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:36.480
to crack here, and that's I
mean, I like it. Once again

431
00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:41.559
refused to say that Providence can't do
it. I'm sure they will be prepped

432
00:29:41.640 --> 00:29:45.480
and will will throw everything that they
have at them, but you know,

433
00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:51.839
defensively especially, I think this is
where you know, the the unit is

434
00:29:51.960 --> 00:29:56.079
really going to have to rise up
for Providence, get some stops, and

435
00:29:56.279 --> 00:30:00.960
then you know, grind figure it
out and move it down the field against

436
00:30:02.039 --> 00:30:06.640
them and try to play maybe not
full on keepaway with Sacred Heart Griffin,

437
00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:11.559
but sustain some drives, you know, chunk five to six minutes off the

438
00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:15.559
clock, frustrate Sacred Heart Griffin in
a way because they don't have the football.

439
00:30:15.839 --> 00:30:18.240
We saw a little bit of that
in the semifinal game where Rochester kind

440
00:30:18.240 --> 00:30:21.960
of kept the ball away from him
and didn't let them have it, so

441
00:30:22.119 --> 00:30:25.799
when they did get it, they
almost felt forced to attack, attack,

442
00:30:25.799 --> 00:30:29.079
attack because they hadn't had it in
a while. I think they've got to

443
00:30:29.119 --> 00:30:33.240
follow something like that blueprint to have
a chance to make this a game.

444
00:30:33.839 --> 00:30:37.519
Yeah, I completely agree with that. And at the end of the day,

445
00:30:37.519 --> 00:30:40.880
like I love what Providence has done, I love what Tyler Plants has

446
00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:44.400
done with that program in his first
year, and really the way that they've

447
00:30:44.559 --> 00:30:49.559
they've put this together. It's a
great story. But Sacred Heart Griffin,

448
00:30:49.799 --> 00:30:55.880
you know, has a great story
in itself and is the more I like

449
00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:57.119
the roster a little bit better,
so I give them the edge there,

450
00:30:57.160 --> 00:31:00.559
but they also have a good story
in itself. And I'm going to play

451
00:31:00.559 --> 00:31:03.799
for a lot with Ken Leonard retiring
after this game. It's fifth hundred career

452
00:31:03.880 --> 00:31:07.000
game one an awesome way to go
out at an even five hundred, getting

453
00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:10.960
a chance at another state title.
So you know, it's it's one of

454
00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:14.519
those things where I don't think either
team's gonna lack any kind of motivation.

455
00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:17.880
It's gonna be a fun game.
Both of these teams I expect to come

456
00:31:17.960 --> 00:31:22.160
out. I don't expect it to
be any nerves sometimes you get that with

457
00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:25.880
teams. I expect these programs to
be exactly prepared for this game, and

458
00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:30.200
we'll just have to see how it
plays out. I guess yeah. I

459
00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:33.599
mean, it's definitely a situation that
if you would have said before the season,

460
00:31:34.200 --> 00:31:38.279
here you're state class for a state
championship combatants, I would add I

461
00:31:38.279 --> 00:31:44.279
absolutely would not have blinked its Sacred
Heart Griffin being in this game, Providence

462
00:31:44.359 --> 00:31:48.440
being here. I just it's been
a fun story to get them to this

463
00:31:48.559 --> 00:31:51.200
point, and I'm sure they want
to finish it off, but you know,

464
00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:56.319
winning the ring and hoisting that championship
trophy, and I once again don't

465
00:31:56.359 --> 00:32:00.759
dismiss it, but I think it's
gonna take a pretty huge effort for them

466
00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:07.039
to knock Sacred Heart Griffin off that
perch. So that's that I'm taking Sacred

467
00:32:07.039 --> 00:32:08.880
Heart Griffin in the game. All
right, Well, we're gonna take a

468
00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:13.480
quick commercial break. Stay with us
here, we'll come back and break down

469
00:32:13.559 --> 00:32:19.000
Class five A through A A state
title games. Schweiker, Gannison, Krizak

470
00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:22.880
Rundio proudly sponsors to Friday night Drive. I'm Mike Krizak. If you've been

471
00:32:22.920 --> 00:32:24.839
injured, we are ready to take
on the insurance company and get you to

472
00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:29.200
the end zone. We've recovered hundreds
of millions of dollars for our clients.

473
00:32:29.480 --> 00:32:35.000
Visit GA N A, SSI N
dot com. All right, SEUs,

474
00:32:35.160 --> 00:32:38.200
Well, let's go ahead and dive
into Class five A. And much like

475
00:32:38.359 --> 00:32:43.039
in four A where you had a
Providence team coming too the postseason at five

476
00:32:43.119 --> 00:32:46.519
and four and really take off,
you got a similar thing here and Nazareth

477
00:32:47.160 --> 00:32:51.799
coming in now at nine and four, winning four postseason games, after coming

478
00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:55.000
into the postseason at five and four
and a match up against Peoria. You

479
00:32:55.079 --> 00:33:00.680
know, you wouldn't have surprised me
to say Nazareth but in this game.

480
00:33:00.759 --> 00:33:04.759
But I don't think it was by
any means a shoe in. Um.

481
00:33:05.160 --> 00:33:07.680
So what I guess what I'm trying
to say overall is this is not a

482
00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:13.640
matchup I predicted when we when we
broke into the five A bracket here and

483
00:33:13.960 --> 00:33:17.079
in late October. You know,
I when I looked at it in the

484
00:33:17.200 --> 00:33:22.000
long run, I had Nazareth going
pretty deep. I just felt like it

485
00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:27.319
was it was one of those situations
that you know, like we talked before,

486
00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:30.960
I finally convinced myself about Sycamore,
But um, you know, I

487
00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:35.759
had Nazareth running all the way out
until last week and my original predictions.

488
00:33:35.839 --> 00:33:39.359
So it was a team that obviously
I felt like had gained a whole heck

489
00:33:39.400 --> 00:33:43.319
of a lot of momentum. Um, if you would have asked me about

490
00:33:43.400 --> 00:33:45.960
this in like week five or week
six of the season, I would have

491
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.279
said, I don't even know if
they're getting in guys. Um, that's

492
00:33:49.640 --> 00:33:52.640
that was where we were at.
I mean, they they powered through the

493
00:33:52.680 --> 00:33:57.799
back end of their seat their season. Granted, I mean their schedule was

494
00:33:57.960 --> 00:34:00.680
very much front loaded, so you
had to look at that and the grand

495
00:34:00.759 --> 00:34:06.440
scheme of things that it was probably
not going to go so well. But

496
00:34:06.759 --> 00:34:09.280
I keep looking back to the one
thing that makes me, I guess,

497
00:34:09.400 --> 00:34:14.039
chuckle a little bit about the situation
is they won their first game of the

498
00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:19.000
season two to nothing. If they
if they hadn't recorded that safety and maybe

499
00:34:19.039 --> 00:34:22.239
that game had gone into overtime and
gone another way, they wouldn't have made

500
00:34:22.239 --> 00:34:28.599
the playoffs. Like that's that's what
we would have had here. So I

501
00:34:28.679 --> 00:34:34.320
mean it just the narrow margins sometimes
between you know, not being in the

502
00:34:34.400 --> 00:34:38.280
playoffs and now playing for a state
championship. That's just kind of a remarkable

503
00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:45.519
situation. And you look at the
roster for the starters for for naz too,

504
00:34:45.599 --> 00:34:49.360
and this is actually a pretty young
team. I mean, obviously Logan

505
00:34:49.400 --> 00:34:53.119
Malichuck the sophomore starting at quarterback.
But you know, Alex Angelou, Um,

506
00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:55.719
you know, you have a sophomore
listed as a starter at running back.

507
00:34:55.760 --> 00:35:01.079
You had a sophomore listed at starter
at right garden Sam's Jaden Fosky at

508
00:35:01.079 --> 00:35:06.159
a wide receiver, James Penley,
a wide receiver listed as a sophomore here

509
00:35:06.199 --> 00:35:07.599
as a starter. Same thing.
On the opposite side of the ball,

510
00:35:07.599 --> 00:35:10.880
I see one, two, three, four sophomores on the defensive side and

511
00:35:12.039 --> 00:35:15.440
a freshman in Les roid Tittle who
had a good game in the semi finals.

512
00:35:15.679 --> 00:35:19.960
It's a young Nazarick squad. Suits
Yeah, I mean, these guys

513
00:35:19.960 --> 00:35:22.840
aren't going anywhere, that's for sure. That's that's the situation where um,

514
00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:27.400
you know, they're they're trying to
put it together with you know, a

515
00:35:27.559 --> 00:35:30.119
mixed bag of experienced players and guys
that are kind of growing into their roles.

516
00:35:30.840 --> 00:35:35.079
So um, I have absolutely no
idea what when dogs are barking about

517
00:35:35.159 --> 00:35:37.840
Now, I have no opinion about
this, So they've they've got a conversation

518
00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:42.440
going on with something that I don't
know what it is. So the comedy

519
00:35:42.599 --> 00:35:45.400
is the dog that never barks is
the one that's barking right now. So

520
00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:52.400
um but uh so you know,
it's it's been interesting to watch the development

521
00:35:52.440 --> 00:35:54.599
of Nazareth over the course of the
season. It was kind of the expectation

522
00:35:54.679 --> 00:35:59.119
that maybe it might take a little
while for them to kind of grow into

523
00:35:59.159 --> 00:36:04.119
themselves, but during what has amounted
to a seven game winning streak, they

524
00:36:04.239 --> 00:36:08.639
have been almost overpowering almost everyone that
they've played, other than the semifinal game,

525
00:36:08.679 --> 00:36:13.719
which they kind of squeaked out over
Sycamore, But those other games getting

526
00:36:13.800 --> 00:36:17.400
here, they were the dominant team, So it was, you know,

527
00:36:17.840 --> 00:36:22.320
they're clearly coming into their own at
the right time. It makes it makes

528
00:36:22.400 --> 00:36:28.039
for an interesting kind of case study
for uh, you know what happens when

529
00:36:28.079 --> 00:36:30.639
you really get the momentum on your
side and you start to play better as

530
00:36:30.719 --> 00:36:36.119
the season goes along. So Nazareth
a really good study in that. So

531
00:36:37.159 --> 00:36:39.559
before we get into the individual players
on Peoria, because there's some fun stuff

532
00:36:39.559 --> 00:36:44.960
to talk about there. They do
have a common opponent, and it's it's

533
00:36:45.320 --> 00:36:47.119
you mentioned that game, and it's
so weird and it's it's hard to really

534
00:36:47.159 --> 00:36:51.360
take anything away from it, but
it's it's fun, I guess from our

535
00:36:51.400 --> 00:36:53.280
perspective to at least bring it up
here. So you mentioned the Kanka Key

536
00:36:53.800 --> 00:36:58.760
naz game in week one that nas
won two zero. Peoria played Kanka Key

537
00:36:58.880 --> 00:37:01.199
in the playoffs and that game was
forty eight to twenty one. Peoria won

538
00:37:01.320 --> 00:37:05.360
that game. Suit you, is
there anything you glean from that or do

539
00:37:05.440 --> 00:37:08.119
you you know, when the fact
that how much Nazareth progressed over the course

540
00:37:08.199 --> 00:37:10.519
of the season and you just kind
of throw it out. Yeah, I

541
00:37:10.679 --> 00:37:14.679
think you kind of have to.
I mean, when you look back at

542
00:37:14.760 --> 00:37:19.880
it, it was definitely a situation
where obviously some things have changed on those

543
00:37:19.960 --> 00:37:22.679
those two playoffs, you know,
the two playoff teams. But you have

544
00:37:22.840 --> 00:37:27.280
to go and and kind of break
it down, you know, kind of

545
00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:31.519
granuarly and think about, well,
U Nazareth obviously got better in a lot

546
00:37:31.599 --> 00:37:37.159
of ways. Um Peoria was able
to put up a lot of points against

547
00:37:37.199 --> 00:37:40.559
that, you know, against that
Kankakee defense. Nazareth wasn't able to um.

548
00:37:40.920 --> 00:37:45.760
So you know, when you look
at it from that perspective, I

549
00:37:45.880 --> 00:37:49.000
don't know how much you can take
out of it. Um. It was

550
00:37:49.599 --> 00:37:52.320
that that kinky Nazareth game. From
everything I've been told, I wasn't there,

551
00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:55.960
but I've been told by several people
was just a weird game. And

552
00:37:57.039 --> 00:38:00.360
so have those. Yeah, particularly
week one, you know, and NAS

553
00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:05.760
was a young team. Kankakee was
coming off that state title, but still

554
00:38:05.840 --> 00:38:08.159
was trying to figure out our state
title appearance, was trying to figure out

555
00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:13.440
some things. So yeah, I
if anyone's looking at that, I would

556
00:38:13.440 --> 00:38:16.320
say pretty much toss that out.
But Peoria, you know, there's they're

557
00:38:16.360 --> 00:38:20.119
gonna score points in this game.
NAS is gonna have to score as well.

558
00:38:20.440 --> 00:38:23.920
Malachai Washington forty seven rushing touchdowns on
the season, three thousand yards.

559
00:38:24.199 --> 00:38:28.639
Keo, just our guests, I'm
not sure how you pronounced that last name

560
00:38:28.679 --> 00:38:32.519
there, but you know, twenty
nine passing touchdown, twenty two un passing

561
00:38:32.599 --> 00:38:37.400
yards, two hundred and forty four
attempts. You got two receivers at over

562
00:38:37.599 --> 00:38:43.480
eight hundred receiving yards and forty reception
sixteen combined touchdown from them. This is

563
00:38:43.519 --> 00:38:45.320
a dynamic offense. They're putting up
a lot of points. The way they

564
00:38:45.400 --> 00:38:52.400
scored against Morris last week with seventy
six points was incredibly impressive suites. It

565
00:38:52.639 --> 00:38:57.360
makes this game really difficult on my
end to pick. You know. It's

566
00:38:57.519 --> 00:39:00.039
it's interesting when you look at what
Peoria is done over the course of the

567
00:39:00.079 --> 00:39:06.400
season, When I look at their
body of work, I wonder what Normal

568
00:39:06.480 --> 00:39:08.760
West did. That's why that was
actually what I was gonna say. The

569
00:39:08.880 --> 00:39:13.199
reason I'm hesitant to just not pick
Peori in the games because I look back

570
00:39:13.360 --> 00:39:16.440
at that Week eight game and I
see that Normal West like shut them down

571
00:39:16.559 --> 00:39:20.639
thirty to six, and I'm like, okay, what happened there? Yeah,

572
00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:23.199
And it's that's you know, really, what it comes down to to

573
00:39:23.280 --> 00:39:28.119
me is that, like I know
that it's not you know, and then

574
00:39:28.159 --> 00:39:31.079
I get into all kinds of weird
you know, maschinations. Beyond that,

575
00:39:31.280 --> 00:39:37.280
it's like, okay, so normal
West held Peoria to six points. Normal

576
00:39:37.400 --> 00:39:42.960
West got beat rather convincingly by Richmond
Burton, you know. So I just

577
00:39:43.079 --> 00:39:46.679
start like pulling all these threads and
I can't really get a clear answer.

578
00:39:47.159 --> 00:39:51.079
Maybe it was just a weird game. Maybe it was one of those games

579
00:39:51.119 --> 00:39:52.679
that just got away from him,
and I'm taking too much stock in it.

580
00:39:52.840 --> 00:39:55.400
It's well, now I think week
eight, and I might be wrong

581
00:39:55.480 --> 00:39:59.639
here. I think Week eight was
a week it rained. Yeah, So

582
00:40:00.159 --> 00:40:02.719
because yeah, you look through I'll
just quickly, I'll quickly lets these off.

583
00:40:02.719 --> 00:40:07.199
These are their score by week for
Peoria over the course of the season.

584
00:40:07.519 --> 00:40:10.400
Thirty four, thirty six, sixty
two, sixty four, sixty four,

585
00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:15.639
sixty six, fifty four six,
forty eight, sixty two, forty

586
00:40:15.679 --> 00:40:20.880
eight, thirty six, and seventy
six. Yeah. That that that six

587
00:40:21.039 --> 00:40:23.559
just sticks out like a sower thumb. Yeah, and it's it's that's just

588
00:40:23.760 --> 00:40:27.639
one. That's just one of the
things that I think has given me pause

589
00:40:27.719 --> 00:40:32.400
the entire time with them in the
playoffs is that it's obviously a good offense.

590
00:40:32.559 --> 00:40:37.159
It's not. It's not it's not
what you traditionally think of from Peoria,

591
00:40:37.280 --> 00:40:40.719
like when they won the twenty sixteen
championship, when they were they were

592
00:40:40.800 --> 00:40:45.480
running and passing all over the field. This is definitely a very ground heavy

593
00:40:45.639 --> 00:40:51.800
offensive attack. Malakai Washington over three
thousand yards rushing this year. They are

594
00:40:52.039 --> 00:40:55.760
very heavily ground based. It was
so, I mean, they're not going

595
00:40:55.800 --> 00:40:58.960
to throw the ball a ton.
They're gonna throw it enough to keep you

596
00:40:59.079 --> 00:41:01.920
honest. But but I will say
that it's funny that they're so heavily ground

597
00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:06.320
based, but because of how quick
their offense moves, they still have a

598
00:41:06.400 --> 00:41:09.119
quarterback with you know, two forty
four passing attempts. Yeah, it's so,

599
00:41:09.480 --> 00:41:13.440
I mean, and that's that's the
thing. I mean, it felt

600
00:41:13.480 --> 00:41:15.000
like in that Granted, they ended
up with seventy six points, so it

601
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:17.679
should have felt like this, but
it literally felt like in that semi final

602
00:41:17.719 --> 00:41:22.159
game they were scoring every couple of
minutes. Yeah, I mean in real

603
00:41:22.239 --> 00:41:24.679
time. I'm not talking about game
clock time. I'm talking about like literally

604
00:41:24.840 --> 00:41:29.159
it felt like how are they getting
the ball back so quickly? It's just

605
00:41:29.320 --> 00:41:31.280
like so they just score, score, score, score, score, and

606
00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:36.840
and they tend to give up a
lot of points too. So um,

607
00:41:37.119 --> 00:41:40.480
against better opponents, there have been
some obviously runaways in their in their conference,

608
00:41:40.599 --> 00:41:45.320
but um, in the in the
grand scheme of things, it makes

609
00:41:45.360 --> 00:41:50.639
it difficult to pick up because you
know, they're very different football teams.

610
00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:53.880
That's just really what it is.
It's not one of those situations where you

611
00:41:54.000 --> 00:41:58.840
know they're doing the Spider Man thing. I mean, it's definitely not you

612
00:41:58.920 --> 00:42:00.840
know, they're not sitting there a
point at each other with recognition of what's

613
00:42:00.880 --> 00:42:09.039
going on on the other side.
So I'm picking Nazareth here, and it's

614
00:42:09.239 --> 00:42:15.320
just kind of a nod to everything
they've done and everything that maybe that they've

615
00:42:15.360 --> 00:42:19.159
done in the past, just knowing
that they're when they are here, they

616
00:42:19.239 --> 00:42:24.360
tend to perform very well. It's
it's still but it's a very difficult game

617
00:42:24.440 --> 00:42:28.880
for me to pick. I think
it's the one that I've had honestly the

618
00:42:29.639 --> 00:42:32.519
hardest time coming to a conclusion on
of all all all of the eight games.

619
00:42:34.239 --> 00:42:37.960
Me too as well. Um,
I'm gonna take Peoria, and I'll

620
00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:43.679
be completely honest, I don't feel
confident in it, Like this really feels

621
00:42:43.719 --> 00:42:46.480
like a coin flip to me,
and until I think it's probably gonna take

622
00:42:46.480 --> 00:42:51.159
about a quarter of that game of
watching these two teams and how they match

623
00:42:51.239 --> 00:42:54.119
up against each other before I'm able
to really have a better field for this,

624
00:42:54.239 --> 00:42:59.000
because I honestly, I kind of
just feel like I'm kind of a

625
00:42:59.480 --> 00:43:02.400
you know, reaching in the dark
here to figure out what way I want

626
00:43:02.400 --> 00:43:07.159
to Lenk. Yeah, it's it's
not it's not easy. That's that's for

627
00:43:07.320 --> 00:43:12.360
sure. It's it's you know,
these are two programs that don't have like

628
00:43:12.920 --> 00:43:17.000
our kinds of programs that don't often
meet up in these types of situations,

629
00:43:17.039 --> 00:43:21.800
see, don't have a lot of
like back history on them. The potential

630
00:43:21.920 --> 00:43:28.119
matchup, Um, it's it's uh, it's it's complicated, as I think.

631
00:43:28.519 --> 00:43:30.480
I think this game could end up
going in a whole bunch of different

632
00:43:30.519 --> 00:43:35.360
directions, and it makes it fascinating
as someone who's watching the game, you

633
00:43:35.440 --> 00:43:37.840
know, with with you know,
ultimately no investment and who wins it.

634
00:43:38.119 --> 00:43:42.000
I just want to see a good
football game, and I think the potential

635
00:43:42.159 --> 00:43:45.639
for having it, Um, you
know, it's pretty high. I think

636
00:43:45.679 --> 00:43:50.920
we're gonna have what could be a
pretty entertaining football game here. Um.

637
00:43:51.119 --> 00:43:53.920
I don't think it's gonna be you
know, seven seven at the end of

638
00:43:54.000 --> 00:43:58.639
three quarters, I'll put it that
way, but you know, I think

639
00:43:58.679 --> 00:44:01.679
we could have a pretty entertaining football
game here. All right, let's go

640
00:44:01.840 --> 00:44:08.079
over to Class six A, where
we have a matchup that frankly is given

641
00:44:08.159 --> 00:44:13.199
me more pause than I expected,
particularly at the beginning of the season.

642
00:44:13.760 --> 00:44:16.239
You know, we come into this
East Saint Louis in the title game.

643
00:44:16.960 --> 00:44:22.400
I don't think there was anyone in
the state that didn't expect East Saint Louis

644
00:44:22.400 --> 00:44:23.800
would be here. Now, you
know, weird things happened. The Flyers

645
00:44:23.840 --> 00:44:27.239
could have got knocked off, but
they were the favorite coming out of that

646
00:44:27.280 --> 00:44:30.199
South bracket. They get up matchup
against Prairie Ridge, and I'm gonna try

647
00:44:30.239 --> 00:44:35.800
and just break this down as quickly
and as succinctly as I can. You

648
00:44:35.960 --> 00:44:38.480
look at it, East Saint Louis
the favorite, but you go back to

649
00:44:38.599 --> 00:44:44.800
last year against Carry Grove within the
same conference, within the same school district

650
00:44:44.880 --> 00:44:49.599
as Prairie Ridge, Carry Grove pulls
off what many people consider the upset in

651
00:44:51.840 --> 00:44:55.880
quite possibly the best state title game
of of of all time. To do

652
00:44:57.119 --> 00:45:00.880
that, or going into that game, last year, Saint Louis had the

653
00:45:00.960 --> 00:45:07.760
same semifinal matchup against Lamont, Right, Yeah, very close game. You

654
00:45:07.840 --> 00:45:10.639
know, Eas Saint Louis pulls it
out, ends up losing the Carry Grove.

655
00:45:12.159 --> 00:45:15.159
This year we have a matchup where
East Saint Louis squeaks by Lamont in

656
00:45:15.199 --> 00:45:21.079
the semifinals again. Now gets another
triple option team, which you know they

657
00:45:21.199 --> 00:45:22.559
joked after the game last year.
They didn't want to have to see another

658
00:45:22.559 --> 00:45:28.079
triple option team in the in the
in the championship game. So what I'm

659
00:45:28.119 --> 00:45:30.360
trying to say is I think East
Saint Louis is a favorite in this game.

660
00:45:30.800 --> 00:45:34.559
I'll say it right now. I'm
picking the Flyers to win this game.

661
00:45:35.280 --> 00:45:37.800
But based on what we've seen over
the last year and how things have

662
00:45:37.920 --> 00:45:43.360
played out here this past weekend,
I once again find myself going, well,

663
00:45:43.519 --> 00:45:47.280
you know, it's pr maybe they
find a way. Yeah, you

664
00:45:47.360 --> 00:45:52.440
know, it's It's not something that
I would have expected to be saying here

665
00:45:52.559 --> 00:45:57.599
in this situation, you know,
even as recently as a couple of weeks

666
00:45:57.639 --> 00:46:02.480
ago, But you know, I
feel like Prayer Ridge has got a puncher's

667
00:46:02.559 --> 00:46:07.079
chance in this game for many of
the reasons that you just said. And

668
00:46:07.280 --> 00:46:13.760
then, you know, it's kind
of hard to quantify the way that I

669
00:46:14.480 --> 00:46:17.079
am with E. Saint Louis right
now after seeing them in the semifinal game.

670
00:46:19.039 --> 00:46:22.719
I don't want to call it malaise
because that's not quite the word,

671
00:46:22.400 --> 00:46:30.239
but they didn't seem very plussed in
that game against Lamont, and I felt

672
00:46:30.320 --> 00:46:34.519
like, while that's you know,
nobody wants you to panic in a situation

673
00:46:34.679 --> 00:46:39.679
like that, I just didn't feel
like they were all that invested in like

674
00:46:42.719 --> 00:46:46.000
the energy. The energy felt wrong. It just felt weird. Yeah,

675
00:46:46.039 --> 00:46:50.159
that's really the way that I can
describe it. It was like, I

676
00:46:50.320 --> 00:46:53.800
think maybe it was a little bit
of hubris, like eventually, it'll be

677
00:46:53.840 --> 00:46:58.559
fine, We're gonna win this game
anyway, But it just didn't seem like

678
00:46:58.840 --> 00:47:02.480
for a while that you know,
that East St. Louis seemed all that

679
00:47:02.679 --> 00:47:07.360
concerned about the fact that they weren't
really playing very good football. Um and

680
00:47:07.519 --> 00:47:13.920
I think somebody like prayer Ridge that
has shown time and time again an ability

681
00:47:14.079 --> 00:47:17.039
to, you know, kind of
squeeze every last drop out of what they

682
00:47:17.159 --> 00:47:22.199
have on their roster. Um,
maybe they get East Saint Louis in a

683
00:47:22.280 --> 00:47:29.119
bad situation and that kind of attitude
crops up again, and maybe they can't

684
00:47:29.159 --> 00:47:32.199
flip the light switch. Like I
mean, that's that's kind of where I'm

685
00:47:32.239 --> 00:47:38.360
at right now. More talent than
anybody pound for pound on the roster in

686
00:47:38.480 --> 00:47:45.599
any classification. I won't dispute that
for any second. Um And Prayer Ridge

687
00:47:45.599 --> 00:47:47.920
has got a nightmare on their hands
trying to deal with that offensive line.

688
00:47:49.199 --> 00:47:52.119
That those are facts. Yeah,
Chris took a PR coach Chris Trump.

689
00:47:53.039 --> 00:47:55.559
I'm not sure. I know I've
seen the quote. I'm not sure if

690
00:47:55.599 --> 00:47:59.599
it's a story we've published it or
not. But uh, I'm not even

691
00:47:59.639 --> 00:48:01.280
sure if when I was I just
remember seeing it, he said like if

692
00:48:01.559 --> 00:48:05.400
if ore like, if we stand
up against that offensive line, the games

693
00:48:05.400 --> 00:48:12.440
can be over really quickly. Yeah, yeah, it's not. It's almost

694
00:48:12.639 --> 00:48:15.960
unlike any offensive line at the high
school level that I've ever seen, I'll

695
00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:21.280
be completely honest. That's I mean, Miles McVeagh is what he is.

696
00:48:21.519 --> 00:48:23.840
I mean, i've known about Miles
McVay since he was in seventh grade.

697
00:48:24.280 --> 00:48:28.280
But we saw him at Batavia when
he was in eighth grade on the sideline

698
00:48:28.320 --> 00:48:31.199
when they played hub Betavia, and
we were just done by his sides even

699
00:48:31.280 --> 00:48:36.199
then. Yeah, so it I
mean, he's an obviously gifted player.

700
00:48:36.239 --> 00:48:40.159
He's going to Alabama next year.
But the thing that kind of gets underserved

701
00:48:40.440 --> 00:48:46.079
is right next to him are two
other excellent offensive linemen, you know,

702
00:48:46.199 --> 00:48:52.039
and the other two on top of
those three pretty darn good too. But

703
00:48:52.199 --> 00:48:55.440
when you're when you're I mean,
i've never i've never seen this. McVay

704
00:48:55.559 --> 00:49:01.039
was the first team All Stater with
the Coaches Association, and the two other

705
00:49:01.159 --> 00:49:09.480
ones were honorable mention picks. So
three offensive linemen from the same line get

706
00:49:09.559 --> 00:49:16.039
All state recognition, like you might
you might be lucky if one offensive lineman

707
00:49:16.119 --> 00:49:22.000
gets singled out for that kind of
accolade. But to have three of them

708
00:49:22.079 --> 00:49:27.760
on the same line, it's unprecedented. I mean, it's they they rode

709
00:49:27.840 --> 00:49:30.119
graded their way to that win over
Lamont. They simply just put their head

710
00:49:30.159 --> 00:49:36.079
down and said, we're gonna just
bull our way through you. And and

711
00:49:36.280 --> 00:49:39.800
Lamont ended up giving up four hundred
plus rushing yards. And I thought Lamont

712
00:49:39.840 --> 00:49:45.199
played really well Like that seems crazy
to say that, but I mean,

713
00:49:45.280 --> 00:49:52.000
they gave up a ton of offensive
yardage, but I thought they played about

714
00:49:52.079 --> 00:49:54.159
as well as they could, Like
I mean, they gave them so they

715
00:49:54.239 --> 00:49:59.320
had an opportunity to win that football
game. But there's just so many components,

716
00:49:59.360 --> 00:50:02.599
so many things in place with East
Saint louis Um that that make it

717
00:50:02.840 --> 00:50:08.559
very difficult. But they can make
mistakes, they can be penalty prone.

718
00:50:09.119 --> 00:50:14.199
They you know, like I said, malaise is not the right word.

719
00:50:14.239 --> 00:50:16.559
I still haven't come up with the
right word. But there's there's a certain

720
00:50:16.960 --> 00:50:24.239
amount of of you know, we're
we're fine about them, that maybe goes

721
00:50:24.280 --> 00:50:29.920
a little too far sometimes. Uh, you know, I still I mean,

722
00:50:30.360 --> 00:50:35.920
they smashed right through the first three
rounds of the playoffs. But in

723
00:50:36.159 --> 00:50:38.920
person, I've seen this a few
times before. This isn't this isn't something

724
00:50:39.000 --> 00:50:44.719
that that I just witnessed for the
first time in this game. So um,

725
00:50:45.960 --> 00:50:49.599
I don't dispeat their talent. I
think it's entirely possible that they could

726
00:50:49.679 --> 00:50:52.480
run pray Ridge right off the field. Um, But for some reason,

727
00:50:52.559 --> 00:50:55.480
there's just a thing that's kind of
scratching at the back of my head that

728
00:50:55.559 --> 00:51:00.599
says, I don't think that's going
to happen. Well, so yere and

729
00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.360
I think this is the best way
I can I can demonstrate it. So

730
00:51:04.679 --> 00:51:07.239
I'm looking at the box score from
last year's state title game with Carry Grove.

731
00:51:07.679 --> 00:51:13.239
Carry Grove ran the ball sixty times
for three hundred and ninety four yards

732
00:51:13.320 --> 00:51:17.519
and five touchdowns that included so Nick
he Song, their fullback, had two

733
00:51:17.599 --> 00:51:21.199
hundred and twenty four yards and two
touchdowns in the game. Jamison she and

734
00:51:21.760 --> 00:51:24.239
the quarterback in their triple option offense, had three touchdowns in one hundred and

735
00:51:24.320 --> 00:51:29.800
four yards. Now you're gonna face
a PR team that, like Jamison,

736
00:51:29.920 --> 00:51:32.840
she had a fantastic senior season,
don't get me wrong, but like Tyler

737
00:51:32.920 --> 00:51:37.320
Vasey is a different animal than what
Carry or than what EAS Saint Louis saw

738
00:51:37.320 --> 00:51:39.880
on the state title game last year. And it actually kind of harkens back

739
00:51:39.880 --> 00:51:44.159
a little bit if you remember back
in twenty I want to say twenty eighteen.

740
00:51:44.159 --> 00:51:47.000
I'm sorry if it was twenty eighteen, yeah, twenty eighteen, PR.

741
00:51:47.440 --> 00:51:50.360
I want to say it was twenty
eighteen. Sorry, I'm getting the

742
00:51:50.400 --> 00:51:52.239
year around twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen. PR and East Saint Louis played in

743
00:51:52.400 --> 00:51:54.840
state title game. EAS Saint Louis
pulled away in the second half, but

744
00:51:54.960 --> 00:52:00.559
that game was fourteen fourteen at halftime. The PR actually lost t In FROs

745
00:52:00.719 --> 00:52:04.880
Which who was a very explosive athlete
in that game at halftime to the tour

746
00:52:04.920 --> 00:52:07.920
in acl Or in the first half. And I bring it up because I

747
00:52:08.599 --> 00:52:13.320
find him and Tyler Vacy to be
very similar in the time, in the

748
00:52:13.440 --> 00:52:15.880
type of speed that they bring to
the field. So what I guess I'm

749
00:52:15.920 --> 00:52:20.239
trying to say is I expect PR
to put up points in this game,

750
00:52:20.280 --> 00:52:23.559
I think Tyler Vacy is gonna be
a handful free Saint Louis. But at

751
00:52:23.599 --> 00:52:28.360
the end of the day, I've
had doubts about the PR defense throughout the

752
00:52:28.440 --> 00:52:31.239
season. It's gotten better as a
postseason went along, after giving up a

753
00:52:31.280 --> 00:52:34.960
lot of points in that first round
matchup against Krystal Lake South, the team

754
00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:40.599
they're very familiar with. But despite
the fact I think PR is gonna score,

755
00:52:40.639 --> 00:52:44.960
I just I think this is going
to be a high scoring game,

756
00:52:45.039 --> 00:52:47.559
and at that point I give thee
Saint Louis and I just have to take

757
00:52:47.599 --> 00:52:51.559
the talent. Overall, I do
think it's still gonna be a game come

758
00:52:51.599 --> 00:52:53.800
the fourth quarter. Though, Well, I didn't get the Holy Saint Louis

759
00:52:53.880 --> 00:52:59.400
experience last week because, like I've
mentioned multiple times this week, Eas Saint

760
00:52:59.440 --> 00:53:01.639
Louis did not complete a pass.
Yeah that's the other thing too. You

761
00:53:01.719 --> 00:53:06.000
look at last year's game, a
very competitive game against Carrie Grow. Part

762
00:53:06.039 --> 00:53:07.440
of that was Luther Burden, you
know, had a kick return for a

763
00:53:07.519 --> 00:53:13.719
touchdown. He had two incredible touchdown
catches. Luther Burden's gone. He's at

764
00:53:13.800 --> 00:53:15.920
Miszoo. Now. This is a
much more run heavy offense than what we've

765
00:53:15.920 --> 00:53:20.400
seen for me Saint Louis. But
that being said, they've still thrown for

766
00:53:20.599 --> 00:53:23.400
nearly two you know, over two
thousand yards. It's not an element that's

767
00:53:23.440 --> 00:53:29.760
out of their game. You also, I mean you also if you have

768
00:53:30.039 --> 00:53:36.039
that part available to you, Lamont, you know, wasn't able to kind

769
00:53:36.119 --> 00:53:38.480
of do what they had to do
to try to maybe slow down the running

770
00:53:38.519 --> 00:53:42.599
game. When you have both of
those elements available to you, it just

771
00:53:42.840 --> 00:53:47.239
opens up things for East Saint Louis
to a level that most imposing defenses can't

772
00:53:47.320 --> 00:53:52.079
match. And then what you're saying
about Prairie Ridge having defensive struggles if the

773
00:53:52.199 --> 00:53:55.760
pass game is available East Saint Louis, I just think there are way too

774
00:53:55.840 --> 00:54:02.119
many moving levers for maybe a defense
that probably doesn't have a shutdown effort in

775
00:54:02.199 --> 00:54:07.119
its bag. Like they may get
a few stops, but are they going

776
00:54:07.199 --> 00:54:10.760
to be able to routinely get stops
and and get E Saint Louis off the

777
00:54:10.840 --> 00:54:15.440
field? I don't know if that's
the case. And you know that's so

778
00:54:15.960 --> 00:54:19.280
for me, it's like if if
the passing, if the passing game is

779
00:54:19.360 --> 00:54:23.199
open to them, it creates a
whole other monster for a Prairie Ridge to

780
00:54:23.280 --> 00:54:29.119
have to defend um. And it's
it's it's been proven time and time again

781
00:54:29.239 --> 00:54:34.000
this season when they have all of
their weapons available to them and can utilize

782
00:54:34.079 --> 00:54:37.239
that. And there's no guarantee that
that's going to be the case this weekend.

783
00:54:37.519 --> 00:54:42.079
But if it is, no one's
really been able to fully defend them.

784
00:54:42.559 --> 00:54:46.679
Um. And that's I mean that
that's a real big challenge for Prairie

785
00:54:46.719 --> 00:54:50.920
Ridge to have to overcome. So, I mean, and another thing that

786
00:54:51.079 --> 00:54:57.440
like, Tyler's had an amazing season, um, but there's one little wrinkle

787
00:54:57.559 --> 00:55:02.559
in this game that UM that I
think is interesting to keep an eye on.

788
00:55:04.719 --> 00:55:09.719
One of East Saint Louis's linebackers,
Dominic Dixon, extremely productive and talented

789
00:55:09.840 --> 00:55:15.119
player in the middle of that defense. He has a nose for the football,

790
00:55:15.199 --> 00:55:22.639
he knows how to get to it, and sometimes he absolutely blows up

791
00:55:22.840 --> 00:55:28.639
the ball carrier. So I mean, almost unlike any player I've seen this

792
00:55:28.760 --> 00:55:35.239
season. So I hope for Tyler's
sake that he has that ability to not

793
00:55:35.480 --> 00:55:39.360
get squared up, because if that
happens, he's gonna get his bell run.

794
00:55:39.480 --> 00:55:43.639
I'll put it that way. That's
really what it comes up becomes.

795
00:55:43.719 --> 00:55:45.920
I mean, some ball carriers have
that knack to maybe not take a full,

796
00:55:46.719 --> 00:55:50.639
full on hit. But there were
a couple of them, specifically in

797
00:55:50.760 --> 00:55:53.639
last week's game. And I've seen
him on tape where my immediate reaction was

798
00:55:53.679 --> 00:55:58.360
like, oh, so, yeah, that's I mean, that's I'm trying

799
00:55:58.400 --> 00:56:00.000
to think there was. They've had
a they had a linebacker a couple years

800
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.199
ago East Saint Louis two with it
Witherspoon. Yeah, yeah, and he

801
00:56:04.400 --> 00:56:06.920
was kind of the same way.
Yeah, I mean, that's just I

802
00:56:06.960 --> 00:56:09.079
mean, he's got over one hundred
Dixon's got over one hundred and fifty tackles

803
00:56:09.119 --> 00:56:13.320
on the season, and it wouldn't
be it wouldn't surprise me at all to

804
00:56:13.360 --> 00:56:15.000
find out that that was a little
bit of an undercount. It seems like

805
00:56:15.159 --> 00:56:21.079
he's everywhere. So just another yet
another player on that team that you know

806
00:56:21.320 --> 00:56:25.519
that you have to account for because
if they don't block Dominic Dixon, well

807
00:56:27.239 --> 00:56:31.079
oh my yeah, that's gonna be
problematic. All right, let's go over

808
00:56:31.119 --> 00:56:34.719
to Class seven A. Here,
we're already approaching an hour, Susan,

809
00:56:34.960 --> 00:56:37.480
this is a matchup we can we
can, you know, shave off a

810
00:56:37.519 --> 00:56:38.880
little time and try and get through
this one. Quickly. And it's not

811
00:56:38.880 --> 00:56:42.239
because I don't want to talk about
the game, but it's actually because I

812
00:56:42.280 --> 00:56:45.360
want to go ahead and plug Jake
Barlston and Josh Welgi, who do the

813
00:56:45.400 --> 00:56:49.480
Western Suburb podcast for Friday Night Drive
every week. Uh, go over and

814
00:56:49.679 --> 00:56:52.480
listen to that. They've previewed this
game pretty extensively, So I don't want

815
00:56:52.519 --> 00:56:54.000
to I don't want to repeat ourselves, but also want to make sure you

816
00:56:54.039 --> 00:56:58.840
can get people over there and listen
to those guys. Um So, and

817
00:56:59.320 --> 00:57:00.760
I'm gonna really quickly touch on it
because I don't want to spend a lot

818
00:57:00.800 --> 00:57:05.280
of time on this aspect of the
game because honestly, I don't think it

819
00:57:05.440 --> 00:57:08.639
really is going to play much of
a factor. But the Batavia Mount Carmel

820
00:57:08.719 --> 00:57:12.639
there's talk. I know they've already
addressed it on the cause this week.

821
00:57:12.719 --> 00:57:15.119
I think both teams are ready to
just move on. Like I said,

822
00:57:15.159 --> 00:57:16.719
I don't think it's gonna be a
factor. But this game, this is

823
00:57:16.760 --> 00:57:22.159
a game that ended in controversy last
year in the playoffs, so that that

824
00:57:22.320 --> 00:57:27.559
storyline from a media perspective, from
an outside perspective, I think it's probably

825
00:57:27.599 --> 00:57:30.760
being overblown. Actually, I think
these are two programs that they're not strangers

826
00:57:30.840 --> 00:57:35.960
to state title games. So I
think they're like they're just more focused on

827
00:57:36.639 --> 00:57:39.760
this specific matchup than they are and
trying Like Batavia, I don't think has

828
00:57:39.760 --> 00:57:44.039
any care about getting revenge. Like
maybe there's some kids that talk about it,

829
00:57:44.079 --> 00:57:46.280
but like as a staff overall,
I just don't think it's something that

830
00:57:46.320 --> 00:57:50.599
they're really worried about. Yeah,
I would, I would tend to agree,

831
00:57:51.079 --> 00:57:54.159
you know. I mean, like
you said, there was obviously some

832
00:57:54.400 --> 00:58:00.400
issues in that. I mean,
I out of curiosity when I realized that

833
00:58:00.480 --> 00:58:02.800
this was the matchup, and I
mean I hadn't forgotten about it, I

834
00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:06.960
went back and pulled up the video
because I wanted to look at it.

835
00:58:07.119 --> 00:58:09.239
I mean not that I was trying
to dredge anything up. I just wanted

836
00:58:09.239 --> 00:58:15.159
to look at it. And I'm
I'm always very very reluctant to you know,

837
00:58:15.360 --> 00:58:21.039
say something you know about officiating in
a negative light, because it's it's

838
00:58:21.159 --> 00:58:25.440
not something I mean, yeah,
we we sometimes calls get missed, they

839
00:58:25.519 --> 00:58:31.320
dotime. I get angry when people
start talking about like, oh the fix

840
00:58:31.559 --> 00:58:35.880
was in and this is nefarious and
all this other stuff. Sometimes calls get

841
00:58:35.960 --> 00:58:39.840
missed. Well, I mean there's
there's no there's no denying that when you

842
00:58:39.920 --> 00:58:44.079
look at the video that that call
got missed. Yeah, and it sucks.

843
00:58:44.119 --> 00:58:47.039
It sucks that it happened, you
know, for Batavia. Uh but

844
00:58:47.159 --> 00:58:50.800
yeah, like yeah, when people
start talking about the fixing, I've heard

845
00:58:50.840 --> 00:58:52.280
that during you know, you hear
it in any close game. I mean,

846
00:58:52.320 --> 00:58:54.800
hell, you hear it didn't blow
out people from the stand talking about

847
00:58:54.840 --> 00:58:58.880
the officiating. Um, so yeah, we're always hesitant to talk about it.

848
00:58:59.119 --> 00:59:01.519
You see blowing call, I mean, helping with our Bears coverage.

849
00:59:01.559 --> 00:59:06.360
I watched the Bears every single week, unfortunately, and you know, any

850
00:59:06.480 --> 00:59:08.239
NFL game, like you're talking about
professional officials that are at the top of

851
00:59:08.239 --> 00:59:12.119
their game and you see blowing calls. So like you're at the high school

852
00:59:12.199 --> 00:59:14.440
level, and even when you're talking
about the playoffs, you're talking about some

853
00:59:14.440 --> 00:59:16.719
of the best officiating crews in Illinois, there are going to be misscalls.

854
00:59:16.920 --> 00:59:22.199
I saw a bad miss call last
week between PR and saying ignatious happen and

855
00:59:22.280 --> 00:59:25.800
it's not because someone dislikes your team, right, Yeah, but so,

856
00:59:27.000 --> 00:59:31.239
and like I said, I think, I mean coach Pyron kind of expressed

857
00:59:31.320 --> 00:59:35.800
that and the coaches calls that he
was like, you know, I'm not

858
00:59:35.840 --> 00:59:38.119
gonna lie. We've I mean,
i feel like I've talked about this so

859
00:59:38.280 --> 00:59:42.119
much. I'm just ready for it
to be over. Yeah, just let's

860
00:59:42.199 --> 00:59:45.719
let's I'm glad that I just I
don't I'm glad that we're getting to this

861
00:59:45.880 --> 00:59:49.719
game. We're now going to have
a more you know, a more recent

862
00:59:49.840 --> 00:59:52.679
record of this game, so we
can stop talking about that one. So,

863
00:59:52.239 --> 00:59:57.880
I mean, whatever happens as far
as I think both parties are concerned,

864
00:59:57.960 --> 01:00:01.239
that's in the past. Now let's
focus on having a good Class seven

865
01:00:01.280 --> 01:00:04.880
eight football game, and I think
that's something that we're probably going to have

866
01:00:05.119 --> 01:00:08.360
here. You know, Mount Carmel
is your favorite. I'm picking Mount Carmel.

867
01:00:08.840 --> 01:00:15.440
But you know, you can't count
Batavia out in situations like this,

868
01:00:15.599 --> 01:00:20.360
you just can't. These guys figure
out ways. And that's the great coaching

869
01:00:20.440 --> 01:00:22.719
staff, solid program, they're all. They all seem to be on the

870
01:00:22.760 --> 01:00:29.559
same page. Particularly in the postseason. I'm sure they'll have they'll they'll have

871
01:00:29.639 --> 01:00:31.679
a game plan that will allow them
to be in this game with the caravan.

872
01:00:32.159 --> 01:00:35.760
Well, I mean, you go
back to the beginning of the season

873
01:00:35.960 --> 01:00:38.599
and they lose this is Batavia.
I'm talking about, Like they lose that

874
01:00:38.639 --> 01:00:42.159
Week two game against Lincoln Way East
and I didn't think much of it.

875
01:00:42.559 --> 01:00:46.039
Was a little surprised with how quickly
Lincoln Way East got the lead and kind

876
01:00:46.079 --> 01:00:49.480
of ran away and hit in that
game. They lose the next week and

877
01:00:49.800 --> 01:00:52.920
a competitive game to the defending state
champion, and we didn't Saint North the

878
01:00:53.400 --> 01:00:57.679
you know, opening up to Ducane
Conference play. They're only other loss to

879
01:00:57.719 --> 01:01:00.199
Saint Charles North. Again, Ducane
cons is one of the best conferences in

880
01:01:00.239 --> 01:01:02.840
the state. That's a one point
loss. What I'm trying to say is

881
01:01:02.920 --> 01:01:07.480
you just after Week three, though, I was a little I was wondering.

882
01:01:07.519 --> 01:01:10.639
I'm like, maybe the Bulldogs took
a step back, and then you

883
01:01:10.800 --> 01:01:14.679
just saw some things start to come
back together. Even in that Week eight

884
01:01:14.760 --> 01:01:17.320
loss to Saint Charles North, they
didn't really concern me. They got into

885
01:01:17.360 --> 01:01:22.199
the playoffs, they've given up.
You know, I'm not at all surprised

886
01:01:22.239 --> 01:01:25.519
to see them dominate Rockford Guildford,
but like they played a good hearsty team,

887
01:01:25.519 --> 01:01:30.599
held him the thirteen point. They
held Yorkville to seven points, I'm

888
01:01:30.599 --> 01:01:35.199
sorry to six points, Lake Zurich
to seven points. That is a much

889
01:01:35.280 --> 01:01:38.679
tougher task this week against Mount Carmel. But this is a game where I

890
01:01:38.880 --> 01:01:43.239
don't expect there to be a lot
of points scored. Yeah, I would

891
01:01:43.280 --> 01:01:45.840
tend to agree with that. I
mean, after I mean seem Beatavia.

892
01:01:45.840 --> 01:01:50.559
I haven't seen Beatavia since that Lincoln
Waitis game. But they appear to be

893
01:01:50.960 --> 01:01:54.079
more to form now, you know, and put themselves, you know,

894
01:01:54.199 --> 01:01:59.480
in good position. They're just fundamentally
sound. They're not going to make a

895
01:01:59.519 --> 01:02:02.480
lot of miss stakes. Um,
they probably won't hurt themselves, you know,

896
01:02:02.760 --> 01:02:07.960
by giving Mount Carmel extra opportunities.
Um, you know, Mount Carmel

897
01:02:09.039 --> 01:02:14.159
hasn't breathed through these playoffs in a
way that I thought that they would if

898
01:02:14.199 --> 01:02:19.280
they've had to grind a little bit
more than uh than I expected. Um,

899
01:02:20.079 --> 01:02:23.599
they're okay with grinding. There's there's
still a very talented football football team.

900
01:02:23.679 --> 01:02:29.679
But you can't you know this,
this might be the ultimate grind for

901
01:02:29.800 --> 01:02:32.719
them in this situation, having to
get past the program that is perfectly capable

902
01:02:32.880 --> 01:02:39.639
of of making this game kind of
a drag out slug fest. And and

903
01:02:39.800 --> 01:02:45.079
I'm expecting a pretty good game here. Yeah, I'm sorry, I got

904
01:02:45.119 --> 01:02:49.159
distracted for a second, I'm looking
at Batavia's defensive starters and on the i

905
01:02:49.639 --> 01:02:52.920
A forum it only has a C
for their cornerbacks, and I got very

906
01:02:52.960 --> 01:02:55.800
confused for a second. I'm like
looking through and like counting the linebackers.

907
01:02:55.840 --> 01:02:59.519
I'm like, are they running a
weird defense that I don't realize what it

908
01:02:59.639 --> 01:03:01.639
is? But no, I'm pretty
sure the seas are just supposed to be

909
01:03:01.760 --> 01:03:05.639
the cornerbacks. Yeah, there were
several teams that were marked that way,

910
01:03:05.639 --> 01:03:07.079
and it took me a few minutes
as well to figure out what they were

911
01:03:07.159 --> 01:03:10.920
doing. Uh. Yeah, I'm
taking Mount Carmel in this game. Like

912
01:03:12.000 --> 01:03:14.360
I said, I think it's gonna
be pretty low scoring. Anything else those

913
01:03:14.360 --> 01:03:16.639
suits that stands out in this game
that you wanted to hit on, you

914
01:03:16.719 --> 01:03:22.800
know. The interesting thing for me
has been how Batavia has been using uh,

915
01:03:22.880 --> 01:03:24.719
you know, Tyler jan Zy over
the course of the playoffs and the

916
01:03:24.880 --> 01:03:29.280
end of the regular season. He's
kind of an X factor in this game,

917
01:03:29.719 --> 01:03:31.119
you know. I mean, I
don't know if Mount Carnival has a

918
01:03:31.199 --> 01:03:37.079
really good a good guy on the
other side that can kind of, you

919
01:03:37.199 --> 01:03:40.119
know, rain him in when they're
using him as kind of a bully out

920
01:03:40.159 --> 01:03:45.519
of the backfield. So I think
that should be interesting to see how they

921
01:03:45.639 --> 01:03:49.480
use him and how often they use
him as kind of a kind of a

922
01:03:49.559 --> 01:03:53.199
powerback option. And uh and so
that's that's kind of what I'm looking at

923
01:03:53.239 --> 01:03:59.400
in this one. All right,
one class to go here. We're looking

924
01:03:59.519 --> 01:04:04.079
at Lincoln Way East in Loyola playing
at seven pm on Saturday, closing out

925
01:04:04.239 --> 01:04:09.639
the final game of the twenty two
or twenty twenty two season. I expected

926
01:04:09.719 --> 01:04:13.239
to be a good one. These
are the two teams that, at the

927
01:04:13.400 --> 01:04:17.360
end of the day, I think
everyone expected to see in the ADA title

928
01:04:17.440 --> 01:04:21.440
game. And I should say when
I say everyone, any unbiased looking at

929
01:04:21.480 --> 01:04:26.400
the field expected to see Lincoln Way
East and Loyola there. But that being

930
01:04:26.440 --> 01:04:29.159
said again, the eight A playoffs
are so insane, Like you just look

931
01:04:29.320 --> 01:04:31.920
through the path that these two teams
took to get here. Uh, you

932
01:04:32.000 --> 01:04:38.599
know Conit for Conit, Nico Valley
Warren and Glenbard West for Lincoln Way East,

933
01:04:38.639 --> 01:04:41.639
and then you go over to the
other side with Loyola and you got

934
01:04:41.679 --> 01:04:46.280
playing field South Edwardsville Lions York.
I mean, these are our teams.

935
01:04:46.360 --> 01:04:50.239
The eight A field is never easy
to get through. Both of these teams

936
01:04:50.400 --> 01:04:58.239
did a really solid job navigating it, though never left much doubt, and

937
01:04:58.400 --> 01:05:02.000
it makes for a very com petitive
matchup. Sus. You know the thing

938
01:05:02.039 --> 01:05:06.239
about both of these teams, and
I mean you look at the just the

939
01:05:06.440 --> 01:05:10.800
scores, and it might be lie
to the point that I'm trying to make,

940
01:05:11.000 --> 01:05:14.800
but I think the thing that I've
been most impressed during the playoffs string

941
01:05:15.519 --> 01:05:20.199
for both of them has been just
kind of how they've both dissected each of

942
01:05:20.280 --> 01:05:26.880
these teams along the path. There
have not been really a game where they've

943
01:05:26.960 --> 01:05:30.079
been, let's say, scared.
Like you look at the lincoln Way East

944
01:05:30.360 --> 01:05:34.440
seventeen fourteen win over an Equa Valley
and you're saying, well, what are

945
01:05:34.480 --> 01:05:38.679
you talking about. I mean,
Niqua Valley scored in the final minute of

946
01:05:38.719 --> 01:05:42.199
that game. I mean that is
a game that Lincoln Way East, despite

947
01:05:42.239 --> 01:05:45.440
the relatively low score, controlled it
all game long. I mean, and

948
01:05:45.559 --> 01:05:48.760
that's the one thing when you look
at both of these two teams, they

949
01:05:48.840 --> 01:05:55.480
have controlled pretty much. They're every
one of their playoff games almost from the

950
01:05:55.599 --> 01:05:59.760
outset, and some of these teams
that they've played are not the kind of

951
01:05:59.800 --> 01:06:04.000
programs that are used to being controlled
like that. So it's been precision.

952
01:06:04.119 --> 01:06:11.400
It's been precise. Neither one of
them are exceptionally flashy. Neither one of

953
01:06:11.480 --> 01:06:15.719
them have have what I like to
call a dude, a guy that is

954
01:06:15.840 --> 01:06:20.039
just, you know, capable of
just blowing up for you know, giant

955
01:06:20.159 --> 01:06:27.599
statistical numbers on the offensive side of
the ball. You know, they're they're

956
01:06:27.800 --> 01:06:30.719
very much They may not run the
same sets or do the same things,

957
01:06:31.119 --> 01:06:35.320
but the way they go about things
is extremely similar. I mean, they

958
01:06:35.360 --> 01:06:39.599
don't make a lot of mistakes.
They know exactly what they're supposed to be

959
01:06:39.719 --> 01:06:43.840
doing. They're all kind of pulling
on the same rope. They don't care

960
01:06:44.400 --> 01:06:50.360
who gets the individual acclaim. There's
so many things about the two programs that

961
01:06:50.440 --> 01:06:54.400
when you look at them, it's
almost like they're kind of looking at a

962
01:06:54.559 --> 01:06:59.639
mirror at one another. And it's
been fascinating to kind of watch the development

963
01:06:59.760 --> 01:07:04.000
of this rivalry over the last few
years. They've had kind of a knack

964
01:07:04.119 --> 01:07:09.280
for running into one another in the
postseason. I've witnessed quite a few of

965
01:07:09.360 --> 01:07:13.039
those games in person. You know, one of the semifinal games is one

966
01:07:13.079 --> 01:07:15.159
of the better high school football games
I've ever seen between the two of them.

967
01:07:16.360 --> 01:07:24.239
Yeah, it's it's been, it's
developed into an outstanding large school rivalry

968
01:07:24.280 --> 01:07:29.400
over the last couple of years.
And when I got the brackets on pairings

969
01:07:29.519 --> 01:07:32.440
night, you know, and I
kind of looked at him, you know,

970
01:07:32.559 --> 01:07:36.239
I flashed back to a conversation that
I had had with Lincoln Way East

971
01:07:36.280 --> 01:07:41.360
coach Robs Vonar before the pairings were
released, and he was asking me what

972
01:07:41.559 --> 01:07:45.159
I thought in terms of like who
they might be paired with and how the

973
01:07:45.280 --> 01:07:47.519
bracket might line up. And at
one point he just asked me, he

974
01:07:47.559 --> 01:07:51.360
goes, where are they at?
And I didn't even have to blink.

975
01:07:51.599 --> 01:07:57.079
I knew who he was talking about, So I knew he was asking me,

976
01:07:57.159 --> 01:07:59.639
Where's Where's where do you think Loyal
is going to be? Are they

977
01:07:59.679 --> 01:08:00.559
going to be on the opposite side? Are they going to be on our

978
01:08:00.639 --> 01:08:03.280
side? Are we gonna have to
play them again? And you know in

979
01:08:03.360 --> 01:08:06.639
an earlier round, I mean,
what's it going to be? And I

980
01:08:06.719 --> 01:08:11.480
mean that just kind of speaks to, you know, how both of them

981
01:08:11.559 --> 01:08:15.920
feel about one another. I mean, coach Holisek was talking about like he

982
01:08:15.479 --> 01:08:18.199
all the way back in September.
He was kind of like, if the

983
01:08:18.239 --> 01:08:24.359
bracket falls the way it's it could
I think I think we couldn't see them

984
01:08:24.399 --> 01:08:27.199
in the state final. I mean, and he didn't make a list of

985
01:08:27.239 --> 01:08:30.840
teams. He listed one teams,
Lincoln Way East. I mean, so

986
01:08:30.359 --> 01:08:34.199
the kind of the expectation that these
uh, you know, that these two

987
01:08:34.279 --> 01:08:41.279
teams would meet if the Brackett cooperated
and it did U is really what for

988
01:08:41.439 --> 01:08:45.920
me? It's kind of neat to
see that it played out that way because

989
01:08:45.159 --> 01:08:49.800
sometimes you get upsets, sometimes things
happen. But to have something like that

990
01:08:49.960 --> 01:08:54.560
play out, I think it's going
to be an interesting finish to the high

991
01:08:54.560 --> 01:09:00.319
school football season. And I talked
before in this podcast about game is being

992
01:09:00.439 --> 01:09:03.439
very difficult to pick. This was
another one that I really really wrestled with

993
01:09:03.840 --> 01:09:09.000
before coming to the conclusion that I
came to and I don't feel comfortable with

994
01:09:09.079 --> 01:09:12.920
it, like I just like,
I don't know. I like it.

995
01:09:14.039 --> 01:09:16.159
Science, the science behind it is
just as close to me flipping a point

996
01:09:16.239 --> 01:09:20.319
more than anything else. Yeah.
A couple of just side notes here.

997
01:09:21.239 --> 01:09:25.319
It's always funny like here we in
on a day after starting with one A

998
01:09:25.520 --> 01:09:30.319
and the rosters. Obviously, when
you're talking about school sides are going to

999
01:09:30.359 --> 01:09:32.680
get larger. The classes go up. But I always laughed when I get

1000
01:09:32.720 --> 01:09:36.720
to eight A and I particularly these
two programs, looking Weigh East and Loyola

1001
01:09:36.760 --> 01:09:40.399
and seeing it on the IHSA website, I just feel like I have to

1002
01:09:40.439 --> 01:09:44.399
scroll down for about thirty seconds before
I get through their entire roster for both

1003
01:09:44.439 --> 01:09:46.880
of them, just giant. They
look like college college team when they have

1004
01:09:46.920 --> 01:09:50.279
their roster and all the kids on
the sidelines and the other thing. And

1005
01:09:50.640 --> 01:09:54.520
this is more just the I find
it interesting. I haven't even asked these

1006
01:09:54.560 --> 01:09:59.279
guys yet. So Sean Hammond,
who used to cover work with us for

1007
01:09:59.359 --> 01:10:02.880
Friday Night Draw, eventually we um
we actually promoted him onto our Chicago bearsby

1008
01:10:03.279 --> 01:10:06.159
his replacement that we brought on board, and I didn't realize that at the

1009
01:10:06.239 --> 01:10:10.840
time. Michael dwell Jack, who
now covers, he actually took over Sean's

1010
01:10:10.880 --> 01:10:14.239
beat. They're actually friends. They
went to college together at UOVA. Sean

1011
01:10:14.399 --> 01:10:17.760
is a Lincoln Way East grad,
Michael is a Loyola grad. I didn't

1012
01:10:17.760 --> 01:10:23.199
know Michael, Okay, Yeah,
So I just now going through this realize

1013
01:10:23.239 --> 01:10:25.319
that, So I need to reach
out to those guys. We gotta we

1014
01:10:25.359 --> 01:10:29.199
gotta get a we gotta get an
Alma mater boxing match going or something for

1015
01:10:29.279 --> 01:10:31.279
those two. Well, yeah,
I did not know that about Michael.

1016
01:10:31.600 --> 01:10:36.600
It's it's funny, uh I was. I was about three or four years

1017
01:10:36.640 --> 01:10:40.960
ago. I was going through some
old basketball score books and I found one

1018
01:10:41.039 --> 01:10:45.399
where Sean Hammond was listed in a
Lincoln Way East roster that uh I actually

1019
01:10:45.520 --> 01:10:47.760
uncovered the game. So did know
Sean at the time. Um, but

1020
01:10:47.920 --> 01:10:51.279
it was I did know Sean was
Lingway East, but I did not know

1021
01:10:51.399 --> 01:10:55.720
that about Michael. So interesting.
Yeah, so I'll have to see if

1022
01:10:55.720 --> 01:10:58.960
they're sticking with the Alma maters in
their picks or where they're going. But

1023
01:10:59.119 --> 01:11:01.319
yeah, I'm with you that would
pick in this game. There's not a

1024
01:11:01.399 --> 01:11:04.600
lot of science and it's pretty much
a coin flip. I'm gonna taken or

1025
01:11:04.680 --> 01:11:12.039
take Lincoln Way East. I'm not
confident. I did really like and I

1026
01:11:12.119 --> 01:11:15.199
don't even have like there's a lot
of data points at least in these games

1027
01:11:15.239 --> 01:11:18.920
like that are closed where I feel
like I can kind of splice it and

1028
01:11:19.079 --> 01:11:23.720
say, Okay, I'm I'm gonna
lean that way. I'm just going with

1029
01:11:23.800 --> 01:11:28.279
a gut instinct here. Yeah I'm
going the opposite way. But like you,

1030
01:11:28.399 --> 01:11:32.960
I don't feel good about it.
I'm taking Loyola. I I don't

1031
01:11:33.000 --> 01:11:35.720
know. I really can't. I
can't sit here and tell you why I'm

1032
01:11:35.760 --> 01:11:39.199
doing it other than the fact that
I have to pick the games. So

1033
01:11:40.640 --> 01:11:44.960
you know, I got picked somebody. But I raise your thin margin.

1034
01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:48.560
Like anytime I come up with something
that like justifies that pick in my mind,

1035
01:11:49.039 --> 01:11:51.800
I can quickly counter it with something
else that makes me not so sure

1036
01:11:51.800 --> 01:11:56.880
about it. So I guess that's
what you would hope for in a state

1037
01:11:57.000 --> 01:12:00.439
championship game in a lot of ways. You want that to be the kind

1038
01:12:00.479 --> 01:12:04.199
of matchup that you're going to see. The only thing that would really surprise

1039
01:12:04.279 --> 01:12:06.840
me is if one of these two
teams ran away from the other one.

1040
01:12:08.039 --> 01:12:12.199
That would be that would really surprise
me, like a lot, like if

1041
01:12:12.279 --> 01:12:15.319
this was not a close football game, I would be I'd be floored if

1042
01:12:15.359 --> 01:12:20.520
that happened, so really quickly before
we get out of here, Like I

1043
01:12:20.560 --> 01:12:24.159
said, really quick, we're already
way over an now we're here. But

1044
01:12:25.399 --> 01:12:27.920
as I've as I've been thinking about
it, as it's getting closer, this

1045
01:12:28.119 --> 01:12:32.039
is potentially the last state championship game
in Champagne, at least for the foreseeable

1046
01:12:32.119 --> 01:12:35.520
future here. The contract is up, we do not know where the state

1047
01:12:35.560 --> 01:12:41.520
title games are going to be next
season, and I find myself a little

1048
01:12:41.560 --> 01:12:45.680
sad because there are some things about
Champagne that I don't like. For instance,

1049
01:12:45.720 --> 01:12:49.000
like I actually think the stadium is
a little bit too large in terms,

1050
01:12:49.039 --> 01:12:51.560
like it can kind of feel a
bit empty in some of the game,

1051
01:12:51.600 --> 01:12:57.159
particularly the smaller classes. But overall, I've really have enjoyed the state

1052
01:12:57.199 --> 01:13:00.279
experience at Champagne over the years,
and I'm a little bit sad to think

1053
01:13:00.279 --> 01:13:03.880
that this could be our last time
going down there for this event. Yeah,

1054
01:13:04.000 --> 01:13:06.760
and it's kind of weird too,
because, like the way that the

1055
01:13:06.840 --> 01:13:12.000
bidding process is done, I'm not
even sure if you have I is bidding

1056
01:13:12.039 --> 01:13:15.760
on it again because of the specifics
of what the contract entails this year,

1057
01:13:16.319 --> 01:13:23.079
I don't know if Ellinois can because
instead of doing the rotational basis between Illinois

1058
01:13:23.079 --> 01:13:28.600
and Northern Illinois, which they are
doing or they have done primarily because Illinois

1059
01:13:28.720 --> 01:13:32.880
needed a home date available on alternating
years inside of the Big ten schedule,

1060
01:13:34.880 --> 01:13:39.479
the HSA said, we want to
five year contract and we're not doing the

1061
01:13:39.560 --> 01:13:44.920
rotation thing anymore. So I'm pretty
confident that you have, I has put

1062
01:13:45.000 --> 01:13:47.560
in a bid for it. I
don't know how that works, Like,

1063
01:13:47.760 --> 01:13:50.520
to be completely honest with you,
I don't know how. Maybe they're gonna

1064
01:13:51.359 --> 01:13:57.880
look into a different arrangement for what
has historically been the Northwestern week on their

1065
01:13:57.920 --> 01:14:02.159
schedule. But I talk to some
people at you of I early in this

1066
01:14:02.359 --> 01:14:06.760
process, saying, can you guys
even bid? And they were early in

1067
01:14:06.800 --> 01:14:11.199
the process. They didn't confirm one
way or another. We don't even know

1068
01:14:11.239 --> 01:14:13.920
who has put in a bid for
it, so I don't know if it's

1069
01:14:13.960 --> 01:14:16.159
the last time. I know.
There was some quotes on record with coach

1070
01:14:16.199 --> 01:14:20.880
Biona this week saying that he really
really wants to keep it there and feels

1071
01:14:20.920 --> 01:14:25.399
like it's a big asset for the
program in the university did to have it.

1072
01:14:26.079 --> 01:14:28.000
So I have a feeling they're going
to make a play for it,

1073
01:14:28.119 --> 01:14:30.359
but I don't know if they're going
to be able to meet all the conditions

1074
01:14:30.399 --> 01:14:34.840
of the contract. So, you
know, I don't know what might happen.

1075
01:14:34.920 --> 01:14:39.880
We might be back at Northern,
we might be somewhere completely entirely different.

1076
01:14:41.119 --> 01:14:43.439
You know, That's that's what it
really comes down to. But I

1077
01:14:43.600 --> 01:14:48.079
too, like I've been going to
state championships in Champagne for a very long

1078
01:14:48.199 --> 01:14:53.239
time. Like I'm not going to
date myself here and tell you first state

1079
01:14:53.319 --> 01:14:59.000
championship get games that I attended,
but it was it's been a while and

1080
01:14:59.159 --> 01:15:03.560
I always no disrespect to the other
sites that have hosted it in the past.

1081
01:15:04.199 --> 01:15:08.920
Um, but that one feels like
it's where it almost should be.

1082
01:15:09.640 --> 01:15:14.960
Yeah, and particularly since the renovations
at Memorial Stadium too, Like it's it's

1083
01:15:15.039 --> 01:15:16.720
it's a nice it's a great facility. Now, yeah, there are there

1084
01:15:16.760 --> 01:15:20.880
are drawbacks to it, and I
mean there's really no solution or way around

1085
01:15:20.960 --> 01:15:27.079
that. But um, I uh, you know, given the options that

1086
01:15:27.600 --> 01:15:30.399
supposedly are available to it, I
kind of hope that ends up back there

1087
01:15:30.439 --> 01:15:34.239
again, but I understand if it
does not. So yeah, that's really

1088
01:15:34.279 --> 01:15:38.159
what it comes down to. When
do you expect we're going to get some

1089
01:15:38.239 --> 01:15:40.800
news on that. I think it's
going to be in early December. I

1090
01:15:40.840 --> 01:15:44.520
think it will be relatively soon.
There will be rumors flying this weekend,

1091
01:15:45.199 --> 01:15:49.119
um that there always are when when
this bid has been in play. Um,

1092
01:15:49.319 --> 01:15:55.760
I fully expect to unofficially here who
has a bid for it? Probably

1093
01:15:55.760 --> 01:15:59.600
at some point during the time this
weekend. Um. I think I know

1094
01:15:59.760 --> 01:16:02.560
the answer to that right now,
but I don't have that on any authority.

1095
01:16:03.880 --> 01:16:09.840
But and I fully expect it to
be no later than mid December.

1096
01:16:10.000 --> 01:16:14.479
Will we have a It's always whenever
they've gone through this process, it's always

1097
01:16:14.520 --> 01:16:19.000
been kind of resolved before Christmas to
my recollection, So I would expect it

1098
01:16:19.720 --> 01:16:24.520
mid December would be when we're we're
gonna have and like, like I said,

1099
01:16:24.560 --> 01:16:28.199
this will be a weekend full of
rumors flying about the decisions already been

1100
01:16:28.279 --> 01:16:30.720
made, even though I don't think
that it actually officially has been. But

1101
01:16:32.000 --> 01:16:35.279
yeah, I think we'll get some
answers to that question relatively soon. All

1102
01:16:35.359 --> 01:16:39.079
right, well, that's a good
reason to stick with Friday Night Drive way

1103
01:16:39.159 --> 01:16:41.760
after the season ends. But for
now, we're going to go ahead and

1104
01:16:41.800 --> 01:16:45.399
get out of here. It's been
great previewing everything this week with you guys.

1105
01:16:45.840 --> 01:16:49.279
I hope everyone enjoys Thanksgiving. Make
sure you stick with Friday Night Drive

1106
01:16:49.319 --> 01:16:53.760
dot Com. We're gonna have coverage
at State football all eight games all week

1107
01:16:53.800 --> 01:16:56.760
and long. Get a lot of
preview content already starting to post to the

1108
01:16:56.840 --> 01:17:00.359
website. Stick there. You know
you're traveling around on thanks Giving you.

1109
01:17:00.399 --> 01:17:01.680
If you're in the car, you
know, don't do while you're driving,

1110
01:17:01.680 --> 01:17:04.920
obviously, But if you're a passenger
in the car, pull up this website,

1111
01:17:05.039 --> 01:17:09.520
read some preview content past the time, then you know, try and

1112
01:17:09.600 --> 01:17:12.279
join us down there in Champaign.
Say hi if you see us walking around.

1113
01:17:12.279 --> 01:17:14.520
It's gonna be a fun weekend,
but we're gonna get out of here

1114
01:17:14.680 --> 01:17:17.159
for Steve Susy, I am Kyle
Neighbors. Everyone, have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

1115
01:17:17.279 --> 01:17:19.720
Hopefully we'll see you this weekend end
champagn and if not, we'll talk

1116
01:17:19.720 --> 01:17:26.199
to you next week. Schweiker,
Gannison Krizak Rundio proudly sponsors to Friday Night

1117
01:17:26.319 --> 01:17:29.119
Drive. I'm Mike Krizak. If
you've been injured, we are ready to

1118
01:17:29.199 --> 01:17:31.439
take on the insurance company and get
you to the end zone. We've recovered

1119
01:17:31.560 --> 01:17:36.680
hundreds of millions of dollars for our
clients. Visit GA nassi n dot com.