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Welcome back to the Friday Night Drive Podcast. Officially the first offseason podcast
following the twenty twenty two season. It breaks my heart to say that,
SEUs, but here we are after fourteen weeks of football the twenty twenty two
season. It's officially in the books. We were down in Champagne for all
eight games. The Friday Night Drive crew a ton of us down. There
was a lot of fun over the weekend. We're gonna get in game by
game, of course, but let's let's talk first off, just the experience.
It was the first time we'd been back down to Champagne because of the
pandemic since twenty eighteen, and it was a fun experience and it was great
being back there. Yeah, it felt even longer when I was sitting while
going through the process. I mean it it felt like it had been a
really really long time since i'd seen state finals um in Champagne. You know,
I mean, I know that was you know, obviously I know the
reasons for that, but it just like when you say it was twenty eighteen,
I'm like, man, it just feels like it was so much longer
than that. Um, you know, And that's I mean in particular,
I mean, I've been going to state finals for I'm just gonna say quite
a long time now. Um, that's the one where that's the that's the
place where I feel most comfortable. For various reasons, Um, you know
in Champagne, it's it's maybe it's not the perfect venue, and maybe they're
they're obviously negatives about it, but of the places that I've gone for state
finals, that's the one where I'm most comfortable. So it just kind of
felt like I was back in my you know, not that I now that
I don't feel like it's my element it's of state finals because I really do,
but that Champagne and me that I have a long relationship with that place,
and it just it feels right. Yeah. I have a column up
right now at Friday Night Drive dot Com kind of going behind the scenes.
On the weekend we taught I hit on it potentially being our last state final
in Champagne I talk about of course once again the private public debate got reignited
with six out of eight winners coming from there. Those are topics that we're
gonna hit on in podcasts over the coming week. One of our goals here
over the off season. And it's not gonna be a weekly thing, definitely
not a twice a week thing like we do during the regular season. But
it will be weekly here the next couple of weeks. But after that we'll
try and at least a couple of times a month twice a month, hit
come back, go through some topic. We're gonna hit both of those topics
in the coming week. But yeah, Champagne man. It was you know,
Michael Jack. Duel Jack was down there with us as part of the
crew Friday Night Drive crew. He's a u of I grad and it's you
know, he's younger than I am. I don't I'm not quite sure which
year he graduated from. You I didn't ask him, but he talked about
how much it's changed, campus has changed and all the new high rise apartments
and stuff. And it was funny because I drove back from Champagne Saturday evening
to where I grew up, which is moments for anyone listening that down in
Kankakee County near the Indiana state line by Bradley and bourbon At because they want
to drive all the way back from to carry a much longer drive. Was
only about an hour to get back to where I grew up. But we
were staying. My wife and I were down there for Thanksgiving anyway, staying
with some friends. And my friend's wife is also a u OF. I
grad a couple of years younger than I am. I think she graduated about
twenty and ten, and we got talking about it and she said, I
think it was her senior year. They had just built the first high rise
apartment building down there. SEUs and Michael had talked about even since he graduated.
I think it's probably been about four or five years. How many more
have gone up down there, So like, yeah, not being back there
ourselves in twenty eighteen, I was I was shocked to see the growth in
right around campus there. Well, I mean, like I said, my
history was Champagne goes back a little bit farther. I think my first trip
to Champagne for any purpose, I believe it was in nineteen eighty nine for
the state basketball finals. I don't count the nineteen seventy three state finals which
my home high school went to the state finals. I was in my mother's
womb while she was watching the game of Assembly Hall. I don't count that
one. But I think my first state finals boys basketball experience was nineteen eighty
nine. And my remembrances of the town from then till now it's it's absolutely
not the same thing that it's it's it's changed quite a bit. And you
know, the other thing with this weekend that I found a feeling that I
had. I guess I can't really quantify it. There was nothing that that
stood out specifically, but we were another year removed from the weirdness of the
pandemic, and we were so we were coming back last year and we got
through the regular season. If you remember, like we were dealing with during
the twenty twenty one regular season games getting canceled and we made it through that
postseason thankfully unscathed. But it's like last year, we got to dical,
but we got through State championship, and it was almost like it was more
of a relief, if you know what I mean, than like the culmination
of a season. Yeah, and I think that's fair. I mean,
in the back of my mind and the previous postseason was are we gonna make
it? Yeah? I mean, and I knew, I knew in my
mind's eye that yeah, we probably were gonna make it. But I could
not completely released that thought from my mind. And so we were actually at
the coal making it happen, playing in games. There just was that little
fear in my mind that something might happen that we wouldn't get there. It
wasn't a large percentage, but it existed, you know. And I didn't
have that this year, and that was just like, you know, I
get all, I get built up. I'm used to my routines. I'm
a very regimented person in nature, so it's like to have just even that
little bit of instability just made me uncomfortable. And I, you know,
I guess I didn't I didn't take enough appreciation for the years and years and
years of that regular regiment and routine always kind of coming to that culmination that,
uh, that I didn't have a full appreciate it for it now now
I do. Now. I always take that moment in that blink and remind
myself, hey, guess we're fortunate to have what we have and try to
try to, you know, think to the positive in all those situations.
Yeah, it was. It was a great time down there. We appreciate
everyone who followed along, um getting in the weeds, just seeing the numbers.
For everyone that that that that you know, read the content, visited
the website to Friday Night Drive over the weekend. It was. It was
great to see um. Thank you once again everyone who's joined us over the
course of the season at Friday Night Drive dot Com. And we'll plug one
more time. It's still going. We're recording this on Monday afternoon. I'm
probably not gonna be able to record drop this, get this, edit,
and drop this until Tuesday morning. We'll see if it's still up or not.
I'm gonna feel bad though, if I say this wrong and it's not
there. But right now, as a Monday afternoon, our Black Friday sale
still running. Right now, you get nineteen ninety nine for an entire year.
I'm not just Friday Night Drive dot Com. They get you all,
but I get you access to all of shaw Local dot com. They get
you all of our high school coverage across northern Illinois, all your local news
all over Chicago Bears coverage. You get that deal right now twenty dollars.
It's the best price we've ever offered that. I'll take you all the way
through the entire season next year for the twenty twenty three season, and all
of the off season preview are all of the off season content we plan to
have on you or with you at Friday Night Drive dot com. So with
that, one more thing to get through, and that's the rest of the
properts here. If you don't follow us on Twitter, please do so at
F and Drive. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram as well by
searching for Friday Night Drive. You can find SEUs on Twitter at the SEUs.
You can find myself on Twitter at Kyle Neighbors and now SEUs. We're
gonna go into the more usual format here that we were using during the regularity
or during the season, with one AH through eight A and work our way
up through the state title games and of course starting with Class one A here
where not surprisingly SUS, I think we were pretty pretty confident both of us
coming into this game. Leno Winslow becoming the first team I believe in it,
first team in any class. Do I have that correct to have three
straight championships? No, that was Icy Catholic, So yeah, it's yeah,
it's it's not it's actually the second time it's happened. Even in one
A Carthage has done this. That's that what I was gonna say previously it
was the second time or the first time since Carthage in one A. I
couldn't remember if it was just one or if it was overall done. Then
the second I center I went Icy Catholic twenty sixteen to twenty eighteen. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, so that's yeah, it has happened before, but
it's not something where we're seeing constantly. Uh. And it's kind of a
testament to them and what they were able to do. Um. You know,
it makes you wonder had we played in the postseason UM with you know,
with the COVID year and based on the fact that Lena Winzel obviously had
a pretty good program, then that if they would have had a shot at
four UM in that scenario. But still, you know, showing their medals
showing their strength. It's what they do, especially this time of year.
You get to the point now where the thought process in my mind that I
always have with Lena is, um, they don't have They're they're not subjected
to the success formula, UM, so they don't have to go up.
But I keep wondering to myself, how high could they go and still be
in the mix to, you know, pretend actually win a state championship.
I'm not gonna say, oh, I think they'd win two A or I
think they'd win three. Aw how high can they go up the ladder before
they would where the numbers difference and the size difference would become too much for
them. I don't know the answer to that, but it's always a fascinating
question that I kind of play out in my mind. Yeah. I mean
this game, Lena winslow here just to get a little more granular, a
thirty to eight winner. In the contest, they took a sixteen zero lead
into halftime. It was thirty to zero. You know it just they're just
so efficient at every turn. When you talk about one a football Susan and
this is nothing to get camp points Central, But it really didn't take long
into this game to confirm what we both felt was probably going to take place.
Yeah, it didn't take that long. I mean I was wondering about
a few things early on, and I thought camp Point Central through a few
early punches that led me to believe maybe we might have something here. But
Lena is just so good at making adjustments to things. I mean, you
might get them once on something, but you're not going to be able to
go to the well over and over again on certain things against them. It
just isn't going to happen. And they make so few mistakes they seem to
do, They seem to be so prepped for everything that the opponent is going
to be throwing at them. It's just a really, really impressive program to
watch on a year and year out basis. This is typically the only time
that I get to see them, but I've always come away impressed with how
they manage, manage everything that they do inside of their program, and I'm
always intrigued to look to see how many underclassmen they have slotted into the lineup
and how much they have to overturn, because it seems like almost every year
they leave themselves in good situation that they're never graduating everything. They've got a
few kids that are coming back and key positions that will provide the foundation for
the following season. I don't know if that's intentional. It wouldn't surprise me
if it is. But it just always seems like you never look at their
roster at the end of the year and go, oh, they're losing.
They're losing eighteen seniors. This is gonna be this is it's gonna be hard
for them to maintain their standard. I just never seems to be the case.
Yeah, they just continue to reload. All right. Let's go ahead
though and move on to two A. And before I do, this is
gonna sound weird when people listen to the podcast, but they probably they might
be able to. Can you hear my dog whining right now? Sus a
little bit? Yes? Yeah, So it's we're recording this, like I
said, later than we normally do. It's four thirty, which is his
dinner time, and I forgot to give it to him before we started,
so he's he's sitting right here, swiping out the chair and whining at me
to go give it to him, sus. So we're gonna take a quick
break here for everyone that's listening. You'll just your a quick transition. But
sus, I'm gonna run upstairs give him his bowl of food so he doesn't
bother us the entire time, all right, Now, okay, now that
the dog is accounting for you getting his food, glad that um I could?
Uh yeah, Usually your dogs are the one that chime in during the
podcast. Glad mine could take part this week. My dog perked up right
there for a second when he heard your dogs, so I was actually surprised
that mine didn't burst out. But he went right back to laying here taking
his nap, So he doesn't seem to care that much. All right.
So yeah, let's let's dive into to a sus Saint Teresa getting that elusive
state title with a twenty nine twenty two win over Try Valley. This was
a game that was competitive. You were really big into Try Valley coming into
this, Um, I believe you. Did you end up picking Try Valley?
Right? It was the only game I missed all weekend. Yeah,
and you know what, early on I was I was ready to start bowing
to uh, bowing to Sus once again. But Saint Teresa able to right
the ship and and get going there, um and and and end up winning
that game, which was a really good game. Try Valley took the lead
twenty three twenty two early in the fourth quarter before Saint Teresa got the game
winning score with six minutes left. I was able to get a stop at
the end of the game. The quality two way football game series, Yeah,
it was. And looking at that game on paper, it kind of
almost played out other than the end outcome, it almost kind of played out
exactly the way that I thought it would. Uh. Saint Teresa got some
big plays that kind of kind of sprung them a little bit. Try Valley
had, you know, a much more lunch bucket approach to things for about
twenty hours. I think it was Blake Renigold held the state record for carries
in a game. You know, they just kept hammering the ball in there
with him, and he was up to the task. Did a really really
nice job for Try Valley. But like I said, this was one of
those games where I felt like on paper it was really evenly matched. It
turned out to be that way, kind of a contrast in styles, but
Saint Teresa was able to make one one or two more big plays along the
line, Try Valley ran out of answers to those, Saint Teresa comes home
with their first state championships since nineteen seventy nine. This so to give a
little more context for talking about explosive plays and contrasting styles Try Valley, let's
start with first down. Try Valley had twenty seven first down, Saint Teresa
had eleven time of possession. Try Valley at thirty three minutes and two seconds,
Saint Teresa fourteen minutes and fifty eight seconds. And at the end of
the day, Try Valley ran eighty one plays for four hundred and four yards,
Saint Teresa thirty three plays, but for three hundred and thirty four yards.
They had touchdowns of eighty seven and seventy six yards the two big ones
there. They also had a twenty two yard touchdown. But some big plays,
very explosive, and it's it's just that's that's kind of wild to see.
You don't see disparities like that very often, and the team that's on
the lower side of those in terms of you know, they had eleven first
down compared to twenty seven and they won the game. Yeah, it was
one of those things where after the game I'm a big obviously, I'm a
huge numbers guy, but it was one of those things where the numbers were
lying about a lot of things after that game that you would usually look to
as benchmarks to decide who control the football game. It was that they were
just wildly askew as the ones that you just you went through there, and
there were other ones too, Like if you look through that that full game
statute, you'd look at that and go, boy, if if I would
have had the stats lines that try Valley was able to produce in that game,
I would have bet ninety nine out of one hundred times that would have
ended up in a victory for them. Yeah, it's it's definitely one of
the more unique box scores that I've come across anything else. Suits in two
way that stood out for me in that game that I didn't hit on I
don't think so. And like I said, it was a very good,
you know, competitive game. It was the it's what you kind of hope
to get to out of a state five know, the situation where I think
we might have actually gotten the two best teams in the class playing each other,
and we always are constantly you know, griping about that. You know
in the post, you know with the one to sixteen classes that we're not
getting the best possible state championship games. I think we might have got it
here. Yeah, it was. It was a quality game, one of
the best of the weekend. But okay, let's go ahead and head over
to Class three A, where Ice Catholic was a forty eight to seventeen winner
over Williams Sorry Williamsville. And this game played out and really kind of weird
fashion. You were sitting there at the end of the first quarter and Williamsville
had a three zero lead, opened it up to ten zero within the first
couple of minutes of the second quarter. And I think pretty much anyone you
talked to went into that con test thinking Icy Catholic was a considerable favorite,
right, And all of a sudden they're down ten zero and Williamsville is controlling
the clock. They're playing really good football, and then kJ Parker ripped off
a sixty five yard touchdown reception from Dennis Mandela, and boom, it was
off to the races. They score another time before half to take a thirteen
ten lead. They end up getting another touchdown before halftime. I believe there.
No, actually it was it was No. It was thirteen ten at
half time, wasn't it. Yeahah, it was thirteen ten at half time.
Yeah, thirteen ten at halftime. Sorry, trying to so many games
over the weekend, honestly, I just like you, trying to get my
bearings still straight from that long week and so, but yeah, thirteen ten
aut a half time. But they end up making it forty eight straight points.
Really, once they got going, man, it was kind of what
you expected. It just took a while. Yeah, I meaney when they
dropped the hammer on somebody, they dropped the hammer they I mean, they
are not fooling around. And it just felt like through that first half you
started to wonder, is the other shoe gonna drop here? I mean,
he expected that it was going to happen, but it just it didn't seem
like there there were a lot of indicators or signs that was going to For
me when I looked at this game. You know, Denzel Gibson, you
know, has not carried the ball a lot the last couple of weeks.
I'm not really sure what the genesis or reason for that was. They had
switched some things around in the backfield and got some really great production out of
Joe Igliata. But Denzel Gibson when he was put back there and was able
to go and just kind of cut it loose, He's a special talent,
and it was one of those things where I think heading into that game,
Williamsville was probably just as confused as I was about what Denzel Gibson's role was
going to be. So it had to be difficult to plan for or the
potential that he would be there and not be there or not maybe play in
that position. So that had to have been tricky because I mean, let's
be honest, you can't you can't properly scout that regardless, but to not
know at all adds another layer and dimension to what you're trying to do.
So um, for me, that was the difference in this game with him
and his ability to do things, and then that giving that kind of one
two punch with Dennis Mandala going out there and using the great talents that kJ
Parker has and his other wide receivers. I mean, the whole the whole
gamut of things available to this IC Catholic offense when it's right, is a
pretty hard task for a three A defense to try to stop. I mean,
so yeah, with the way that that game ends up going downhill suits,
I don't really feel like there's a ton left hare to talk about honestly,
Um, you know there there's a conversation to be had that we're going
to have in a couple of weeks. And this is where we really start
diving into that private, you know versus private versus public talk about ice.
Catholic would have been a two A school by enrollment, chose to play up
to three A. This is kind of a tease that conversation we'll have though.
This is where it felt like around the stadium where people really started to
talk about it more. When you started having a program like I see Catholic
dipping down into three A where they had had success at the four A level
back in twenty eighteen winning that title. That's those are the type of games
that are going to make that conversation crop back up. Yeah, And I
was telling somebody who was asking me about this at one point, you know
that didn't realize that I see Catholic, for one, was not multiplied.
That's a whole discussion for another time. They voluntarily elected to play up to
three A. They're non multiplied. Enrollment kept them dangerously close to actually the
one A line. There were really I didn't realize that. There were times
when I was running the running the mock, and when I do that,
I don't move the playing up play teams until after I run it because I
stored it by enrollment. There were times when I see Catholic was popping up
as thirty two, thirty three, thirty four on the enrollment list of teams
that I thought were going to make the playoffs. Thirty two would have got
you in one A. So if they had not elected a playoff, there
was there was a possibility that they could have been in the one A playoff.
My twisted mind is thinking to myself, boy, i'd like to see
that I see Catholic Leana winslow game, but it wouldn't be a final because
they've both been in the North bracket. So but you know, that's a
whole other nonsensical conversation. But that's the thing that I look at when I'm
to that. It's like when you start talking about you know, multipliers and
success formulas and all these other things. You know, the way the current
system is designed if I see Catholic is going to go up in the future,
it's going to have to be by their own hand. The multiplier system
probably is not going to move them as high up the chain as a lot
of people think that they the program success really indicates that they should do so,
because I mean, once again, it's another it's a pedantic argument at
this point because they're they're the highest that they're going to go next year unless
they choose to voluntarily is once again three A. Because now they're going to
be officially multiplied up to three that you not qualify for the success formula,
and even if they did, you cannot jump to classes. So so that
would be the situation where, um, you know, if they were going
to go up to four A, they'd have to do it themselves. Yeah,
So, as we were talking about our teas in there, that is
a podcast we plan to kind of dive into here in a couple of weeks
and look at that because there you know that that discussion needs to take place.
Um, and there's a lot of wrinkles that go into that. It's
not nearly as clear cut I kind of get into it. If you do,
go and check out the hut the column that's right now at Friday Night
Drive dot com. But sus let's let's get one more class in here before
we take a quick commercial break and look at class for a Sacred Heart Griffin
winning the game over Providence Catholic forty four to twenty. Ken Leonard going out
in his five hundred game, retiring at the end there picking up one more
state championship, and you know, for all of the fireworks and all of
the surprise of Providence continuing to play so well, it just kind of the
team finally ran out for the Celtics in this game against a team that we
both felt was superior on paper. Yeah, I think in a lot of
ways, the pressure and the things that were on the shoulders of the Sacred
Heart Griffin team was kind of released after the Rochester win and in the way
that they did it, and I felt that kind of allowed them to come
into this game with maybe not necessarily, you know, completely relaxed, but
in the sense of, Okay, we got here, we survived that game
that did not look very good for us. Let's just go out roll it
out there for coach Leonard in our last outing and play a good game.
Of football and that's what they did. So it just it didn't seem like
and I had talked to several people around the Sacred Heart Griffin program heading into
that game, it just felt like they they were okay, now, they
were good. They just they there seemed to be an ease about them heading
into this game. And I knew heading into this, and I set it
multiple times to a lot of different people, including here, that Providence had
been playing the entire string of this postseason so well as a unit, making
so few mistakes and exercising every edge that they could find, and on Friday
night, they frankly, they just couldn't find any edges. They couldn't find
anything to take advantage of. Sacred Heart just wasn't allowing it, wasn't letting
it happen. And then when you combine that with the amount of talent that
that team has, which is pretty high for a Class four A squad.
To be completely honest with you, those two factors it just made it way
too tall of a mountain for Providence to climb. All of that being said,
fantastic season for Providence. If you would have told me at the beginning
of the season that I'll be honest. If you had told me the beginning
of season Providence was a quarter final team, I would have told you you
were crazy, like out of your mind, Like that's where I felt like
that team was at in terms of its youth, it's inexperience, it's transitioning
to a new coach. I would have thought, best case scenario, maybe
this team sneaks into the playoffs. That would have been like that would have
been enough for me to say complete and total success for Providence. Now I've
changed that evaluation completely and started to think about, oh my, if Tyler
Plants can do what he just did basically in a year, Providence might have
a juggernaut on their hands if he can sustain this kind of momentum, And
they're back in the conversation as a as a potential powerhouse type of program.
And we haven't talked about Providence like that in a while, so I Tyler
being a new coach. I've actually never had a chance to talk with Tyler
Plants yet didn't have a chance to over the weekend. You obviously have gotten
to know him a bit this year, even not talking to them, just
the way watching him on the sideline and I mean you could say this about
many coaches, right, but clearly a very very competitive guy. And when
you combine that with the fact that he found a way to get this team
to the not just into the playoffs, but then to the state final.
I'm looking forward to see what a setback like that well kind of the fire
that lights under Tyler Plants and his coaching staff in that program, because I
guarantee you he's already going to thinking to himself, not that I'm not letting
that happen again. Yeah, it was. It was one of those things
where like as these things developed and they kept doing things that I was like,
this is a surprise, this is a surprise. And I could never
get Tyler Plants to say that anything that they were doing was a surprise.
He would not say it. Like I could frame the question anyway that I
wanted to. He was never going to say that. Like I mean,
I could have said, hey, coach, you're you're playing the Kansas City
Chiefs next week and you don't have a chance to win that football game,
and I don't think he would have backed down to that. He would have
been like, no, We're gonna go play like you know, we'll see
like that's I mean, and some people call that hubrists, I mean,
some people call that against I don't think it's either of those things. I
just think that he's just he thoroughly believes in what he what they can do,
and what his players can do because of their commitments to him. It's
it's been interesting to watch and I'm real interested to see what the next the
next few steps. And this was and I found it interesting in the postgame
press conference that coach Ken Leonard had said that he made sure that he had
a conversation with coach Plant's pregame that he do his best to enjoy the experience
with whatever happened that night, because this is not easy to do. What
you've done is incredibly hard, and you should take some stock in that and
appreciate it. No matter what happens tonight, win, loser, draw,
whatever whatever ends up, please appreciate it for what it is, because this
is not difficult. I mean, this is very very difficult. And I
thought that was that was pretty nice for coach Leonard to point out that situation
and a conversation to uh, you know, I'm not saying he's passing the
torch to Tyler Plants, but hoping, you know, passing words of wisdom
along to a young coach. Hey, you know, soaked this in because
it doesn't happen every year. Yeah, and I'm you know, bringing up
a coach Leonard again, Ken Leonard. I would have preferred a more competitive
game. But the the upshoot of that was that it was kind of nice
really as that game ticked down to kind of be able to sit back and
enjoy that for for coach Ken Leonard in his final game, seeing him and
it was cool. Uh, you know the game broadcast obviously, I think
most people know, but Derek is his son coaching over at Rochester. It's
always been a lot of fun those two playing each other in the Leonard Bowl.
Um, but you know, they were They had the photos of Derek
when he was younger and as now as an adult, and the grant Ken's
grandkids and all that, and just being able to know that game was in
hand and knowing that Ken was able to hopefully on the sideline enjoy that a
little bit. It was a nice moment. Yeah, And considering what they
had gone through in a couple of previous weeks in the playoffs to be able
to kind of like soak that in and the last quarter, I think from
what he had said, he was able to do that a little bit was
just kind of taken the moment rather than being you know, intensely grabbed towards
you know, a third down conversion or something that might have been the situation
had the game been closer. So yeah, it was, you know,
ideally the competitor in him, Yeah, probably would have you know, wanted
to, you know, have to fight tooth and nail. But looking back
at it, I'm sure it didn't really matter all that to him, you
know, as it closed down. But a wonderful coaching career for coach Leonard
that comes to an end. It will be very very strange next year with
him not around in that capacity anymore, because I don't remember a football season
where he was not the coach of that program. I'm old, so that's
saying something because it's I mean, I literally I've been I've been somewhat following
high school football since I was ten years old, so and I don't remember
ever not having his name connected to that program. So it will be a
very very strange adjustment for a lot of people next year. I wonder,
and I haven't had this conversation. I wonder if you had yet. I
wonder what his plans are after this season, um, you know, retiring.
I don't know if I assume he probably planned to stay in the area
with the Derek coaching and the grand kids around. So if that's the case,
next fall would be interesting to see on Friday nights if he's overwatching the
Sun coach or if the pull of Sacred Heart Griffin might get him over there
at least a couple of times. I would kind of imagine that Rochester might
have a special advisor on staff next year. I haven't had this specific conversation,
but yeah, it will be interesting to see what what the we can't
call at the Leonard Bowl anymore, but what the Rochester Sacred Heart Griffin game.
What he'll do in that scenario next year, because I can't imagine he's
going to just go cold turkey here. I'm sure there still be there'll still
be somewhere around a program somewhere, you know, but he's turning the program
over to a long time assistant there. I'm sure his phone line will be
open for consultation with not only his son but what John Allison as well.
All Right, we're gonna take a quick commercial break stick with us. We're
gonna come back and break down the Class five A through eight A state championship
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Okay, well, thank you once again to sgk R for sponsoring the
Friday Night Drive podcast and everything we do at Friday Night Drive and sues.
We're gonna jump into five A here my every game of the weekend. I'm
share a lot of people's favorite game of the weekend. High scoring close came
down to the end Nazareth with a forty five forty four win, but had
to hold it off Peoria scoring with uh with five fifteen last left out of
Malachi Washington touchdown. Malchai Washington an incredible performance in this game, six touchdowns.
Trying to find the rushing total here as I go through stats. Uh.
There it did two hundred and eighty seven rushing yards on forty seven carries.
Suits UM. Like I said, it was my favorite game, how
about you? Yeah, it was for me too. I mean there were
a lot of layered reasons to it. And I said this multiple times over
the course of the weekend the people that had asked, UM, I have
no background in uh scouting for the next level. UM, but I find
it absolutely ludicrous that Malachai Washington has no offers at this point in time.
If there has to be a program at some level that can use that kid,
and if there if that, if it's truly honestly that no one can
I know even less about football than I think I do. Um, that's
a truly remarkable performance by him. A human battering ram ran through tackles all
day long. He's just so hard to bring down, asking for more work.
If there has to be somebody out there that can use that, I
can't. I can't. I find it impossible to believe that that there's not
a college program that could use somewhat a performer like him. Incredible. That's
That's really all that I can say about what he did. Uh. I
I feel bad that that's the only time I've ever seen him live. I
wish I would have sought it out before. Then that's really a gifted player,
and that's that's on the losing team in that situation. And then the
other the other thing that struck me so much about that, the Nazareth side
of things, was how incredibly young that football team is. Yep, that's
where I was going. It's way too early to talk about this stuff right
now, but I feel like I want to use the meme that I see
all the time and at the sign in front of my table reading says Nazareth
is the number one team heading into twenty twenty three. Change in my mind
because there's so much talent coming back on that team next year. Yeah.
Absolutely, I'm trying to go through here and make sure I don't say anything
dumb. Let's see. Yeah, I mean like they're gonna lose justin Taylor
Wisconsin commit. But outside that a lot coming back obviously, Logan Malichuck,
the quarterback had a good game on Saturday. Coming back only a sophomore.
You look well, I mean, who like Gabe Kaminski, a defensive defensive
player on the defensive line there for Naz had a big game there, ten
tackles, several tackles for loss. I believe he's only a sophomore as well.
I mean there's just you're right, there's talent up and down the board,
and they were making plays on Saturday in a state title game. Yeah,
I mean you got, you know, five sophomore starters on the offensive
side of the ball. On the other side of the ball, you've got
four more sophomore starters, a freshman, you know, two juniors. I
mean it's like, yeah, they're losing some key people to graduation that were
like justin Taylor, like you mentioned, Zach Hayes brings a lot to the
table for that team. But there's just so much there and so young and
really very few indications of that youth on the field. Usually with a team
that young, you'll see sometimes you'll see some explosive plays, but you'll see
a lot of mistakes that, you know, kind of counteract some of that
explosiveness. Man, that just really wasn't the case here, That just that
did not happen. There were times I looked down there and the freshman was
involved. Then almost everything, I mean, less Roy Tittle just just makes
plays, and he's a freshman. You just don't have that happen very often.
And compounded on top of that, I mean, he was constantly locking
horns with offensive lineman that we're still on the other side, that we're you
know, three hundred and fifty pounds, and he just kept making plays.
So, I mean, it's just it was remarkable to me to see how
good that team is right now and how good it could potentially be as long
as it all stays together in the form that it is. So they will
do they go up to six A for this, right they they will get
h successful RelA. It will not get the success formula because the only way
to get the success formulas if you trophy. And there's nazar things last year.
So again, that's the kind of the conversation we'll be talking about in
a couple of weeks, um, So I wanted to double check on that.
All right, SEUs, Let's go on to Class six A here where
East Saint Louis fifty seven to seven winner over Prairie Ridge. I guess the
place you have to start is let's I guess you go to the beginning.
John Howe, who uh, let me see if I can, I don't
want to get it wrong. The website that he helps run he's based out
of the Saint Louis area, covers both Missouri high school football and Illinois high
school football in the Saint Louis area GSV Saint Louis Gateway Sports Venue. So
John was at midfield for the coin toss between East Saint Louis and Prairie Ridge
and got an incredible shot showing the size difference between the two sides. I
retweeted it and like his tweet went completely viral, but just me retweeting it
with a comment it was an incredible scene and go find that on either john
Twitter account or fine mine u and look at it because it is. It's
hilarious. I mean, that's only thing, the only way to put it.
It's like you see East Saint Louis, Miles McVeigh, Corey or Patterson
um uh, and then like the the just the line down and then East
our Prayer Ridge on the other side, and Chris Stramp kind of at the
end, coach Chris Stramp looking on and it's just it's it's comical how big
they are. Well, for me, it was about East Saint Louis playing
up to its potential on Saturday. And if they did that and played relatively
clean, um, I don't know if anybody can match up with them.
And it was, uh, you know, a situation that quickly escalated and
got to the point where I think it may have been heading towards anyway.
Uh deceived us a little bit. Prayer Ridge put together a really nice drive
to start the game. We might have just a back and forth battle on
our hands again. But uh, that was that was very fleeting. It
didn't happen much for Prairie Ridge after that that one initial drive, and H
E. St. Louis showed exactly what they're capable of when the full playbook
is available to them. They struggled a little bit in a semifinal game.
While they don't pass a ton, they pass effectively when they do, and
they couldn't really pass in that semifinal game. Granted Lamont couldn't do it either,
but E. Saint Louis becomes an absolute enigma to try to defend when
you have to deal with both elements of that game. It's just if you
can't you know, stack up in the box to try to deal with that
offensive line in some capacity to stop the running game. You just got to
take that. Man for man, you're gonna be in trouble. And if
you if you don't provide some extra help to some of those outside wide receivers,
that's a problem too. So just a real, you know, a
real situation where whatever choice you make is going to have some potential negative consequence.
And it really showed itself over the course, especially late first half early
second half when they really kind of put the hammer down. They showed why
that team feels pretty comfortable playing in nationally ranked opponents because they know that they
have the ability to match up with those teams. It's a couple of things
there, or several. Thing I want to make sure I hit on first
is I appreciate the fact that as I went to say Paris Patterson, I
said Corey Patterson, because my brain is melted at this point, and you
didn't immediately make fun of me, because I've almost started laughing when I realized
it. I don't know why Corey Patterson of all people, popped into my
head there, but they did. My brain is a strange place. But
he also had a great game on Saturday too. By the way, he
was leading that he was leading the charge sometimes on some of those polling plays.
And to be honest with you, if I was a Prayer Ridge defender,
I probably would have just said, nope, I'm out. Yeah,
I mean, that's probably I mean, he played very well, I thought,
but that, like I said, they were they were in really,
really good East Saint Louis Forum. It's one of the reasons why I'm so
connected to that program in regards to talking about the best teams in the state
every year, because that's the kind of thing that I think they're capable at
the top of their game. And on the other side, it was obviously
a tough day for Prairie Ridge. But you know, I we've mentioned it
before on the podcast. I think we did on the preview podcast. Prairie
Ridge or Kerry Grove have now represented the Fox Valley Conference. And these are
two schools and within the same school district even have now represented the FVC in
every state championship since going back to twenty sixteen. And there have been several
times where they've come into that game as pretty much a juggernaut, both of
those programs. That was not the case this year, and and listen,
this was a really good Prairie Ridge team. You know, I all along
going back to the beginning of the season. Joe Stevenson, I Joe Stevenson,
the long time reporter here that covered McHenry County for Friday night driving the
Northwest Herald. You know, we assumed pr was going to be the team
this year, but you know, talk with the way things developed, and
even if Chris Remp admitted, you know, coach Chris Remp talking about not
knowing if this was a team that could get that far, the amount of
progress you saw from them late into the season and into the postseason really impressive.
Tyler Vacy, after having back to back years where he struggled through injuries,
coming back playing quarterback this year, setting the all time state record for
Russian yards really really an impressive season for the Wolves, despite what happened on
Saturday. Yeah, I mean, you really can't say enough about about what
they were able to do over the course of the year, especially in the
playoffs. It was just one of those things where you know, really kind
of caught a way of a momentum and maximized what they had to offer their
I mean, we had talked about it a little bit over the course of
the year. I mean, defensively, they've had some issues at times,
and that's not a great recipe to go up up against the Saint Louis with.
Um, But you know, even early on in that game, you
kind of still kind of got a little bit of a feeling that maybe maybe
they might be able to, you know, pull some rabbits out of their
hats. But it was East Saint Louis's day, and I think pretty much
everybody involved in that game, you know, at the end you just kind
of tip your cap and say, well, you know, what do you
I mean, Coach Trump even in the postgame post conference, was kind of
like, you know, what were we supposed to do? I mean,
you know, I mean when you have that and I mean where where you're
looking at that on the other side of the field. Um, unless they
unless they make a lot of a lot of things to help you out,
and they in East Saint Louis did not do that. Um, it's gonna
be it could potentially be a long day, and it was. But you
really, this is a really classic example of being able to, after a
little bit of time has lapsed, separate what happened on Saturday, from all
of the other things that you accomplished over the course of the regular season in
getting there, because that list is lengthy and it's impressive. So hopefully,
you know, the members of that Prairie squad and the coaching staff don't look
at the end result as much as they look at the journey that got them
there, because they did a lot of really impressive things. Absolutely, all
right, let's go over to class to a where Mount Carmel was a forty
four twenty winner over Batavia. You know, you came into this, you
knew it was going to take a fair amount for Batavia to win this game.
We both really really liked this Mount Carmel squad all season long. It
was really once they won the game against Loyola. You know, when you
look at our power rank in that Friday night drive and our conversations, we
were pretty confident in East Saint Louis and Mount Carmel being those top two teams.
But with that being said, I don't think any of us expected to
see that game be twenty eight to zero early in the second quarter with the
caravan up on Batavia. You know, I think heading into the game and
maybe a little bit prior to that, and we'd actually taken a little flat
from it about not talking about Mount Carmel that much. And I think some
of that is because I kind of took their quality for granted a little bit.
You know, I'm like, well, what else can you say?
They're really really good. We know they're really good, and they're performing at
that level. And I mean, but the one thing that really kind of
stood out to me about that game is how they came right out of the
gate and absolutely just threw down the accelerator and said this is what we can
do. Watch. I mean, because they really put it on Batavia early
in that game, they put it out of reach quickly and said not tonight,
boys, this isn't gonna happen. And we had we had I don't
even remember if we did it in the podcast or when we were talking about
it individually later on off the podcast. We both kind of felt like maybe
that was going to happen because there was a little undercurrent conversation about the previous
matchup and and you know, I think, you know, while both teams
didn't really want to talk about it heading into this game, I think Mount
Carmel. The undercurrent of what was going on there was, you know,
yeah we won the game, and people say we maybe didn't earn it.
We're going to show you what we're about here, and they did that and
really impressive fashion. Blaney Dowing just came out and just started swinging the ball
all over the place and it was I mean, that game was I think
of all the games over the weekend, that was the one that I felt
like was over the quickest. Yea, yeah that It was just like,
this one's over. We can you know, the final score might say,
you know, it's a little bit closer than this, but but they they
flexed the muscle really quickly and said, you know, don't forget about us,
guys, We're a darn good football team. You bring up Blaney Dowling.
I had not seen him in person this year. I had gone back
and watched some tape on him because I had heard really good things about how
much he had progressed. I was really really impressed with him though, like
beyond what I had seen on tape, a really good game from him,
particularly in that first half once I got the lead, he was kind of
able to take the foot off the accelerator, but he was slinging the ball.
He made a couple of throws down into the end zone that we were
impressive throws. Yeah, they were, and it was funny. In the
post game press conference, let's just say it was Blaney Dowling unplugged. He
was. He was kind of all over the place. And finally Jordan Lynch
jokingly stepped in and said, okay, guys, no more questions for Blaney
because he was he was kind of all over the place. But exuberant Kiddon
plays that way. I mean, that's really what it comes down to.
He he puts it out there and says, hey, let's go. And
it was fun to watch. It was definitely one of the performances over the
course of the weekend that I enjoy the lot. All right, one class
left to go here, and there are two teams. Um you know,
we talked about the best teams at the end of the year and at our
top of our rankings with East Saint Louis and and UM Mount Carmel. The
other two that we always were talking about, it felt like, was Lincoln
Way East and Loyola. And this game really really played to type thirteen three
final for Loyola. They got the lead, and you know it, it
was pretty I felt pretty confident pretty quickly by the really at the end of
the first quarter that that game was going to just kind of play out in
that fashion. Yeah, it was. It was definitely one of those games
where, even after it started in really kind of a strange, unexpected fashion,
just still kind of felt like it was just gonna be this this boxing
match where each guy was just trying to drop these haymakers, you know,
maybe not like in the consequential status. Well, they ran for eighty yards.
They I'm talking about, like you need to get in there and fight
for three yard games. That's just what I kind of felt like this game
was going to be. And then Loyola absolutely floors me. First play of
the game, they run a flea flicker. Yeah, eighty yard touchdown.
I didn't I asked the question in the postgame press conference because I really was
kind of more amused than anything else. But I asked coach Holisek how long
it had been since they'd actually run that play, and he didn't. He
didn't specifically answer that part of my question, but you know, it was
so out of character for what you expect from Loyola in that situation, and
even Jack, you know, Jake Starney backed that up and said, you
know, when we go into that formation, people have an expectation of what
we're going to do in that situation, which is, you know, run
the ball and you know, in a north south variety and then they go
and run flee flicker. And it was just it was completely out of the
box from Loyola. But I also think in a roundabout way, it was
kind of the ultimate compliment to Lincoln Way East saying, hey, we we
don't know if what we usually do is going to work here, like,
so we gotta I took it. I sorry, I took it as a
we know points you're gonna be hard to score. We need to get the
lead because whoever gets the lead is going to dictate the flow of this game.
Yeah. I think that's fair. But like for me, it was
just kind of like, you know, they no doubt about it. They
went pretty deep back into playbook for that. Yeah, that's just not Loyola.
That's not what you from Loyola. Like, you know, I fully
expected them to just you know, try to you know, power it down
the field, short passes, Sterning is so good at making the right decision
at the right time, you know, just a patented Loyola drive where they
put together, you know, you know, fourteen plays and figure out a
way to get it into the end zone. But nope, they went and
dropped that and it was just and then it turned out to be kind of
like what you said, points are going to be hard to come by,
but the way that they got them was very interesting to me, and for
me that the second biggest sequence in the game was, you know, Lincoln
Way East puts together this monster drive and goes the length of the field and
just is chunking it down the field. It took them forever. I think
it ultimately ended up being a nine minute drive and ends up getting inside the
Loyola ten yard line and take a sack and end up having to settle for
a field goal, which allowed Loyola going the halftime break with a seven to
three lead. And you're like, well, that's not that big of a
deal, But in a game like this, it was the fact that Lincoln
Way East wasn't able to finish that drive with a touchdown going to the break
with a tie score, I felt like that was that was. That was
a huge, huge momentum thing in a game that ultimately ended up being kind
of exactly what we thought it was going to be, an extremely low scoring
football game with very few plays that would make the difference in it. You
know, ultimately, Lincoln Waist couldn't get the kind of I guess offensive work
done that they usually do. I think a lot of that had to do
with the front seven of Loyola had a hard time blocking them, and link
Away East has not had a lot of experiences this year where they've had a
hard time blocking the opposing teams front. So I thought both teams played pretty
well in this football game. I didn't think there were a lot of times
where I were like, oh that was a mistake or I just didn't have
a lot of those moments. You know. Link Away East obviously was hoping
for a much different result than they got, but they did not make a
bad accounting for themselves. They did not get if they did not give loyala
this football game in any stretch of the imagination. The stats that really kind
of tell the story of this game and how it played out. Obviously,
the two long touched are the two touchdowns for Loyola the one start and then
and then the second one there to kind of put it out of reaching the
third quarter. But you know, when you know the identities of these two
teams wanting to be rushing offenses first, right, and you look and you
got Lincoln Way East with thirty six carries for one hundred and fifteen yards,
Loyola twenty five carries for forty four yards. Just even with that thirty six
for one fifteen, that's not a high average. You know, it was
just both teams struggling to go with their bread and butter. Loyola was able
to just get a little bit more through the age, Jake Stearney going for
fourteen for I believe fourteen and nineteen through the air, both touchdown passes.
But at the end of the day, Loyola with two hundred and eighteen yards
the total offense Lincoln Way Lincoln Way East with one hundred and ninety six yards
of offense in a state title game defensive battle. It really, like I
said, played out how I expected. Though. Yeah, it's now the
fourth time these guys have played in basically, you know, five seasons in
the postseason semifinal games, quarterfinal games, championship games. Now they're dead even
in championship game wins. You know, with Lincoln Way, he's beating Loyal
and their previous meeting in a title game. You know, it kind of
played out exactly the way that I thought it would. I didn't necessarily think
that Loyal would win, you know, by eleven points per se, thought
it might be a little bit tighter to like a one score game, But
ultimately it was just kind of what I thought it was. It was like,
I really thought, coming into this might be one play that this makes
the difference in this game, and I've oddly it turned out to be the
first play Loyal I ran from scrimmage in my mind with the police flicker that
went for a touchdown because Lincoln Way East was put in position for the rest
of the game. It's a position they have been in very infrequently this season.
And then when you combine that with a loyala defense that has time and
time again proved that you know, it takes offense at giving up yardage,
it's it's it's was really kind of a recipe for some real problems for Lincoln
Way East. You know, in a perfect world, if Lincoln waaste gets
points on the board first, maybe the whole thing is flipped around in different
you know, maybe if they break up that flee flicker, I mean,
we might still be playing. I mean, that's I mean, that's really
what it came down to for me, that there wasn't a lot of difference,
but the eleven point gap makes you think that there might be a why
between these two teams. That is not the case. I mean, these
are two very very closely intertwined football teams in terms of the margin of the
difference of their rosters. And I think if you watch that game, you
saw that. All right. See, so let's go ahead and wrap this
up and get out of here for this edition of the Friday Night Drive Podcast.
You got any final thoughts on the championship weekend? You know, it
was a good weekend and whole. I mean, the one thing that I
always worry about is that, you know, we might have some matchups that
turn a little bit lopsided. But I thought we had We had one game
that went to running clock, but but the other ones, for the most
part at least had stretches where they were competitive football games. And that's what
I'm really hoping for. Ultimately in this week. I mean, we've we've
had some bad ones in years past where there were some lopsided games. You
never want that. But we had some real doozies. We had some good
games, we had some great plays, we had some great players, you
know. And then obviously when it's over, I go into a pocket of
deep sadness that I probably won't recover from for at least a very few a
few couple of weeks after this. But my mental status aside, you know,
it was a very good state championship weekend in my opinion. Yeah,
it was a wonderful weekend. And just because the seasons over, just because
our weekly recaps are over, does not mean Friday Night Drives going anywhere.
We got a lot of postseason stuff to get into. I've already previewed a
couple of the podcasts. We plan on doing a lot of stuff to dive
into. So stick with us at Friday Night Drive dot Com. We're gonna
get out of here for now. Though. For Steve Susie, I am
Kyle Neighbors. Everyone. Hope you enjoyed the weekend. It was great being
down in Champaigne. Thank you everyone who came up to us, said,
Hi talked about listening in the podcast. It's great to have the feedback and
know that we're just not sitting here together. Susan I just kind of prattling
on to ourselves, so we appreciate it. But for now, thank you
again for Steve Susy. I am Kyle Neighbors. We'll talk to you down
the road. Schweiker, Gannison Krizak Rundio proudly sponsors to Friday Night Drive.
I'm Mike Krazak. If you've been injured, we are ready to take on
the insurance company and get you to the end zone. We've recovered hundreds of
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