This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Sound Fox Sports
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R two, SAG and iHeart Radio Station Yet the good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to Eye on the Ball Hero Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera,
He's jagan Zaaliz and we have our guy Sammy. Sammy, how are
you? I haven't seen him good since about a month ago. I know
Steve's been off doing whatever. I've been off doing whatever. Yeah, and
Jay's been doing all We're doing whatever whatever, because we're all doing whatever.
That seems to be the theme. Whatever is at this point. It's whatever.
Basketball season's over football season though, I was gonna I know, you
know, Sammy and I are into the baseball thing, but it's kind of
whatever. It's Master's Week. It's Masters week. That's that's I'm exciting att
Yeah. In fact, we're canceling the next two shows, but oh really
we are at because of Steve though, because I'm leaving one Phoenix's Scott.
He's heading out again. So the day on my hometown. Yeah, I'm
tired of being here all by myself with an intern, and I just don't
want to be here. I think that's smart. Take take, take a
couple of days off. I got some catching up to do after this month
of n C Double A tournament. Stuff. Well, the good news today
is, as of a minute or two ago, at least I didn't check.
Uh, no one's gotten to the portal. No one else in the
portal. Yeah, I think, uh, you know, I would imagine
the thing will thing will settle fairs on in terms of guys leaving, you
know, the rest of the guys that are here seemed to be the guys
that Tommy Lloyd would probably be counting on for next year. He's got to
get some new guys and we'll see how We'll see how it turns out.
But you know, it's gonna be a whole new starting five next year,
assuming that Kylon Boswell does ultimately leave. And that did that lineup started all
but one game, and that was on Senior Day when when uh, Tommy
let Grant Whiteman start Senior Senior Day game. So and he too has entered
the point, and he too has entered the poort. You know, he
he could go somewhere and play. Yeah, sure, you know, small
schools somewhere maybe, I don't know, you know, just one of those
great academic schools. Get a nicety. He's got a degree from here.
Just get to find a place to play, you know where he'll get to
play. Sure he put in the work. He played well in that last
game, in that one game. Yeah, but you know, you you
come in as a walk on you you almost never get to play. But
you do all the work. You know. He deserves to go off and
get a chance to play. That's what you'll do. Okay, back to
business here at the station. There's it's pretty quiet. It's been quiet with
now. You know. What we haven't talked about, and I don't know
enough to talk about it at length, is the football spring train and spring.
Wow. Yeah, we haven't gotten that. They play. They do
it at our time. They do. We can't go to the practice.
So there was a scrimmage on Saturday, but we were a little busy.
We were up in Phoenix. Yeah, so I think. But what I
here is things are going well. They're putting in new things and burbage and
all that. Yeah. Uh so we'll see what happens on the Spring Games
later in two weeks. It's I think it's two weeks from this Saturday,
yeah, twenty seventh. Yeah, Ok, yeah, I think it's two
weeks from Saturday. You know, we'll be definitely go out to check that
out, but you know, having had chance to get out there. But
you know, what you hear is that it's kind not easy going. But
I think what we what I heard from somebody is they're just more involvement,
you know, of guys, more more people, more more guys you know,
playing and practicing, and a lot less standing around. Well really you
know by that, I mean, you know, just a lot of guys
getting time in. And maybe it's just because, you know, because Brandon
wants to see what he's got, Right, you're checking everybody out, not
just not just the guys who are on the too deep or whatever. You
know, they're kind of checking everybody out so that you're getting a lot of
a lot of looks at a lot of different guys. That makes sense,
And it's not to say that Jed didn't do that and something didn't do just
just the point being that you know, he's out there trying to learn who
these guys are. Sure, because he didn't recruit him most of them.
Okay, what else nothing? Nothing from the women's too basketball. No,
you know it's hard to leave lose players when you don't have very many.
Yeah, yeah, exactly those seven you know, we're key and two of
them are gone because of because of used having used eligibility. So you know,
I think you'll start seeing people. You know, the portal is open,
so guy, you know, players are looking all around trying to find
out. You know, I did see something. One of the Purdue guys,
one of their one of their guards has jumped into the little Yeah,
Gillus has jumped into the portal. And it's not a case of today today.
Uh, you know, it's still something that really gets me, hurts
me is the Facebook and what's going on Tommy? You know this and they're
jumping ship. Tommy must be doing this whatever, you know, not making
people. It's the way of the world, right, It's it's what it
is, Steve, you know, and we we we talked about them,
spend a good time talking about it at lunch today. Is that guys,
it's professional sports with unlimited free agency, right, pretty much a guy,
you know, a guy or a girl, you know, anybody is playing,
they're at a place, they like it there. But then somebody comes
along and says, well, you know, we can get to another one
hundred g's if you come over here. Do you think that's really the case?
That much money and that much you know? Okay, well, dude,
do the math on this, okay? And that this is this is
I was like you skeptical that you have that much money. Go ahead,
John Calipari, you're gonna give me facts. Okay. John Calipari is getting
five million dollars for nil from the Tyson Food Company right in his contract to
spend on players. Well, how many players does can Kentucky basketball have?
Fifteen? So you're talking three hundred thousand or on average or more per player
they got? They get about ten because the five hundreds okay, okay,
then than ten players. This is so you're talking on average. This is
like baseball. You get scholarships, half scholarships, quarter scholarships. Okay,
Steve, but some Okay, But are you gonna tell me he's not gonna
spend it all? No? No, no. If that's by the year,
right by year, that's the case, Arizona has no chance. If
that's the case, U c l A has no chance. If that's the
case, tons of programs have no chance, have no chance. You're doing
a sense of like you of A U c l A, U s C.
There's still we're still gonna be able to give people and I OL money.
Yeah, there's fewer. There's fewer Kentucky basketballs than there are Arizona U
c l A. You know, it's just that some schools are going to
go out and buy the best players that they can buy. Sure, and
they're gonna get that. That doesn't mean they're gonna be great, though,
because you can go by a player and he can suck. No, No,
you've seen that. So all I'm saying, though, is that you're
you're you were saying, though I can't believe it's that much money. Well,
yes it is. Well let me tell you something. Okay, I
get that because he back Apparently he went back to Kentucky and said can you
do this better? And they said no, say good good luck to you,
take care of don't let the door hitch in. Yeah, okay,
now, Arizona, we don't know, realistically, we do not know what's
in that. We don't know, but we've heard I haven't tell me.
We've heard that it's in the two million dollar range. Oh really just for
just for basketball, that's what I've heard. It gets you at sweet sixteen.
Well, what did it get Kentucky or Arsaw? Well, I mean
you look at the frontal fourteen. It's like and for Steve and I that
look, I threw that number out. That's just a number I heard somewhere
that two million dollars on confirmed journals and confirmed journals. Yeah, I'm throwing
it out there that there's two million dollars in in in nil money. And
that's Tommy Lloyd may be listening right now. I'm going I wish you'd shut
the hell up because that's just not true. Well, and he's also and
we talked about this because I did the story on him. He and he
said, and I know he means this because I've heard it from other people.
Arizona's not a place that they're going to pay their guys to win,
right. You got to want to come here to win, right And if
there's if there's something there for you will get, you know, we'll get.
Yeah. No, I said, I don't see. I don't think
Arizona's out there handing out half million dollars. But you know, what do
we think Bert Lopez gave is giving uh a team act? Well, I
know they're doing there. I won't say I know the number on that.
They're doing a podcast and all that stuff. They could be making a ton
of money, who knows. But I'm going I'm going back to your point
though, right where you know where you said I can't believe it's that much
money, But yes it is. It is not everywhere, but in some
places. We're talking about that kind of money. Weas and Caleb Williams,
what do they say is making seven million bucks millions. Well he's got endorsements
too and things like that. I know, but still there's money like that
there. And it's and again it's free agent money. It's like you heard
Matt Painter. Were you at the press from Painter? He said, he
said, you know this has been going on, but now it's not open.
But this is happening. Guys are getting a lot of money to play
basketball and football. Yeah, no, I get it. It's one of
the reasons, the other reasons why we talked about these yesterday with the with
her saying I don't I don't want to do deal with this. It's I
regret this. Can you imagine what this is doing though, all the way
down to like eight year olds, a ten year old, twelve year olds
and their parents, well, what they're doing to them to drive them to
this payday? You know what? What what? What? What? What
parents were doing with their kids with golf, you know, with with Tiger
because the Tiger Woods. They were doing this in the AAUS before. Yes,
they were with the bags and say here, pick up the pick up
the water burger bag over here. But I'm not talking about it. But
you know the pressure that is going to get put on kids, no question,
to get to this when they know, now I can get to this
in college, right and I don't even have to become a professional athlete an
NFL or NBA player to make maybe a couple of million dollars in college.
What kind of what are parents going to be doing to their kids? Because
it used to be, especially in basketball, like that's why the whole one
and done thing was so big of Oh, I gotta I gotta make my
money. I gotta just go to college for a year and just make so
I can make my money. And now they've eliminated that step completely to where
now if you're good enough and you make it to college, it's now not
even about getting a free education. Of what a lot of parents were like,
Oh, I want my kid to get a scholarship for sports to so
we don't have to pay tuition. Now it's like, what can they do
for me? Well, what it could do and maybe maybe I'm thinking out
of the box share or not correctly that they stay more than one year,
Well, that's that. That's a that's they can say three years getting paid,
which means because if you're a bet, if you're a border thing,
if you're a borderline, then a guy who may not make it in the
NFL may not make it an NFL. I'm going to stay four years here
and make a half of That's why cling Look at clinging for Yukon the big
he could have gone to the G League or overseas last year, but he
realistically was probably thinking, I'll come back to Yukon. This team is great,
I'll get an I owe money and we can win a national championship.
Right and then get and then now he's getting talked about as being a first
round draft right, Well, look at the guy you just mentioned without mentioned
his name, Caleb Caleb, I'm not going to play in the Bros this
year. Stay here. I can make it whatever whatever that number is,
right, And you gotta know that if Caleb Love would be really dumb,
if he was not shopping himself around, right, and that's what I was
gonna say, or play somewhere else, to me, he would be he
would be really doing himself a disservice. All these guys do because of COVID.
This is the final year of COVID, this is the last straw,
so after this it should be pretty normal. Yeah. The only ones pretty
normal, pretty normal in terms of Beligi. The only ones who didn't I
think were Key Shod and uh and and even and right he can come back.
Yeah, who's key shot in? I think that may have been in
because white Man said he's going somewhere else. Key Shuttle is one can.
Then you're wondering why the universities broke because they have to more scholarships for lasting
years COVID, all this stuff. It's a wrench in the system. You
know, Hey, we'll get more on this, maybe get some calls later,
But to what do we have today? Jay we've got uh, we're
gonna get our first chance to talk to the new Sugar Skulls head coach,
Billy Back. Uh. He's uh, he's a first year he's been he's
been around the Indoor League for a lot of years. He's got five championships
under his belt in various leagues. Most recently he was with the Frisco Fighters,
one of the newer teams in the Indoor Football League. He's now the
head coach at the Sugar skull So he'll be joining us here at about three
twenty after the first break, so we'll be kind of introducing ourselves to him,
and he'll introduce himself to us well, find out a little bit about
him. They've got their home opener is sat this Sunday, three o'clock in
the afternoon at the two Sun. So it's a it's a home opener for
the Sugar Skulls. Their fifth season, the Fish twenty nineteen, twenty three.
Yeah, their fifth season, fifth season, but they didn't play one,
right, so they played in twenty nineteen, did not play in twenty
twenty, then twenty one, twenty two and twenty three. Okay, so
arena arena, Yeah, inter publy and then at four to twenty, Clancy
Shields is going to come in. They've got a big match coming up against
Utah this weekend. They want to get a big crowd out there. I
believe it's Senior Day and so they're having an incredible year. We'll talk to
him about what they're doing. They're coming off of PAC twelve Championship and looking
to win another. One one of the top teams in the country. They've
had some big wins this year. So Clancy will be joining us at after
the second break in the after the first break in the second half. Okay,
so let's get out of here and come back with Sugar Skulls. All
right, Billy, coming right up from the Tucson Sugar Skills. The window
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the exes at olls. It's Steve Rivera and Jacin Salves. This is I
on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth. They Hey, welcome back to why
on the Ball here Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jaginsaus
who are just waiting from coach black back back back back. Ye okay,
milly billy Billy Beck. That's a perfect name for something and maybe like a
cowboy football billy back. Yeah. So no, well, uh, you
know, first year for sure, but a number but he's been around a
while and he played, he played sometime. He played six years in the
in in indoor football, uh, and then went into coaching. So he's
been around the he's been around the indoor game for a long time. Went
to Miami of Ohio. Yeah, so okay, so well I have a
special question to ask him, just reading his kind of bio here. Yeah,
fairly young guy. Yeah, but you know this is this is a
year five for the for the Sugar Skulls. What do you what do you?
What do you? What do you see has to happen? Because five
years is you're not you're not young anymore. Yeah, A nice playoff run
where people get you know, because I feel like, you know, they
can have a good year, but you know, people away like the wait
for winners. Right, if you have playoffs, you know, people people
who don't normally maybe come to your regular season and say, oh, it's
a playoff, right, and you get him in the door, and then
then they you know, then you hope they become fans. Well the first
year they went to the playoffs, right, they qualified as the first they've
they've been in the playoffs two of the four years, three of the four
years, and and Tucson in the summer. You got to prove it to
him otherwise. Yeah, yeah, and it's fun, you know, I
you know, I've not been to a game as a spec dat right.
I was the media guy. I did the TV for the last couple of
years, which was fun. But I, you know, going to see
it as a spectator I think would be kind of fun. Yeah, it's
different different, Yeah, okay, so yeah, I'm texting with the media
person at uh at the Sugars to see if maybe you forgot it, got
into a meeting or something. But we're waiting for for coach back to call
it. But you know, well, well we'll see. I'm there one
in one. Uh. They they uh, they lost their opener. Uh
and then they won at Duke City last week. Uh, your boys up
in Albuquerque. Uh, you know, had a nice win. I think
I see a lot of new faces. But Mike Jones, the running back
who's been has been there from day one. He's back. Who's the quarterback?
Let him? Yes, I don't remember the day because I did that
story last year. And the kid from New Mexico, Yes, not him,
it's not him. Uh. You know, some new faces, so
we'll uh, you know, we'll see what you know, what he's got.
But the quarterback looks really good. Another big guy, Lefty he's a
left hander. Let me ask you, and I want you to be as
honest as you can be. I'm always as honest as I can be,
which I mean, I may be full of craft but I can but I'm
honestly full of crafts. So when they first got here, when the Sugar
Schools decided to come here, you were not part of it. You're just
a normal dude. You were not part of the team. You were nothing.
Well no, I mean they they didn't. They announced you were when
they when they announced they were coming. It was that day that I called
Mike Vader and said, I want to be part of the team. So
that's what because I was working with my tour, so I wasn't. I
wasn't part of it. I wasn't part of them coming yet. Okay,
so this doesn't taste your thought. What did you think it'll succeed? It'll
what did you think I thought it could work? Because one, we don't
have minor league baseball in the summer, right, Okay, I thought there
was an opening for a professional I thought football would be good. They were
gonna need to sell the hell out of it in terms of this is your
community team, which they've done to a degree. I think they did it
more better. But Mike and I were you know, involved with the team.
But I do think they've got a bit of a following, and and
so I thought it could work. And look, it's this is the fifth
year. To me, that works now, you know, are they going
to be here in another five years or whatever? I don't know. I
think there was some hope that it could draw uh, you know, uh,
better than it has. But you know, the truth of the matter
is too that in the summertime a lot of people leave. Well, okay,
the owners, you know the owners, I know one of the owners.
Uh, they have this pie in the sky vision because they're in Phoenix,
right, and they have a great following, right, And they said,
if it works here, do you think that thought was in their mind?
Oh, of course it was. And it's not the case. It
absolutely well. It hasn't gotten to the level of the rattlers. And and
it's hard to know to Steve, because it was going pretty well. The
first year was really good curiosity. Uh you know, we I mean we
drew for really good crowds. There was a there was a five thousand,
a crowd of five and a couple of fours that year. COVID really really
really hurt this, you know, sports like this, because now it's like
whatever momentum you had was gone. You know, you were gone for a
year, and you were you'd only been here a year, so people were
just finding out about you. Then you were gone for a year, and
now you're trying to get those people back. And so I think that really
that couldn't come at a worse time. And and you know, uh,
but I know that hurt the hell out of the Sugar Skulls too. I
mean out of the Rattlers too, because that first year back, I remember
talking to Kevin and their attendants had been cut in half from from the from
the return. I don't know. I haven't paid attention to do whether or
not they've gotten they've gotten the number, I do know, but they've moved.
They're out at the Glendale Arena. Yeah, and and uh and so
you know, I don't know. Uh, I think I think on first
glance, you think, yeah, this will work a lot of fun to
go watch, uh some another activity to do in the summer when it's hot,
you can be indoors and enjoy a beer or two, you know,
and and I've been to a couple and it was different, but it just
hasn't cut on to what I thought it would, that makes any sense.
Yeah, and maybe that was just me, but you know, two and
a half thousand, sometimes three thousand, uh probably they probably need to get
to your four or five. Yeah, you know, the four thousand,
You know, four thousand was sort of a target in terms of if we
get four thousand a game, we're gonna be doing really, really well.
I think break even was kind of like twenty five hundred a game, which
you know, yeah, the amisture needs to but you know, you get
four thousand in the in the in the Tucson Arena, that's a good number.
It's loud, it's a lot of excitement, it feels you know,
you know, it feels like a good, good number. And they haven't
been able to get there get to that consistently. And again, like I
said, you know, winners draw Tucson fans and so uh, I mean
think, you know, I think back, this is a long time ago,
but I think back to that one year that you know, the Kenny
when Kenny Lofton was playing for for the Toros and they won a championship,
and there are a lot of people going to those years. People will follow,
you know, they'll go to your games and say, hey, you
know they're winning, let's go let's go see what that. Sure, see
what that looks like. Sure even in the summer when it's hot. Yeah.
Yeah, I just I just let the sugar Skulls know that if coach
can call maybe at three thirty five, because we're running out of time for
this segment, we wouldn't have much time to talk to them. So if
you want to move on to another another time, we were talking what were
talking about before we left. We were just talking about this whole college college
uh n, I l think it's just turned everything upside down, you know.
Again having a conversation with the old guys that at my lunch today,
they said, they say it's ruining sports, and I said, well,
if you want to say it's ruining, that's right. I sai changed.
I think I prefer to think of it's changing it. It's we just got
to get used to the effect that it's different. And if you think the
change ruins it for you, then okay, you know it's it's ruined.
Free it's not ruined because it's still happening. There's still fans, one hundred
thousand fans coming out to games. You know, Arizona's still going to draw
forty five to fifty thousand a game. We're still going to tailgate. So
it's not ruining it, it's just changing it. So, Jay, of
that two million, supposed alleged supposed whatever, you want a word and your
group of ten, you could have twenty, you can have ten on Wednesdays,
how many of that group of ten throw a little diamondto that two million
dollars? Not into that two million dollars, but we throw money in for
tickets and going to games and being a part of it and tailgate party.
There's point. There's my point. So all the people I see on Facebook,
yeah, bitching, complaining, don't I guarantee you they're not putting money.
They're not putting money into and they want they want this, they want
the shining car, but at somebody else's experience, Well they want better bathrooms
at the stadium, but they're they're not handing you money to help build those
better right right, right, So you know, here we are, there
are a lot of a lot of complaining, but uh no, helping,
and I'm not surprised by that. It is what it is, and that
two million, I wonder where that's gummy from, just out of curiosity.
Yeah, I like, you know, because because who do we talk to
you yesterday, let's say yesterday where it's the the booster booster where you have
to have here pie, this pie, that pie, this pie. How
many pies do you have? Well? Again, that's that's another thing.
That's another change, right. The boosters are going to have to get used
to the fact that they're gonna need to come up with more money. If
they want their if they want their their program that they love to be competitive,
they're gonna have to come up with more money. And that's just the
way it's gonna be, sure, and that's the way it's gonna be from
now on. And if you don't, then you become New Mexico State,
New Mexico State. No. No, hey, let me tell you that.
When I was going through you mextioned to watching Mexico bul Uh in December
I think it was uh, and they were doing some commercials on the radio
about nil. I'm thinking, where are they getting the money for this?
Because they're it's not a rich state. You know, you have your supporters.
In fact, when this NIL started two three, two couple of years
ago, I don't know if you remember this movie, we had this conversation,
would you rather if you're a you, if you were an athlete,
you're gonna go to LA to collect this because it's a it's a big metropolis,
but a place where nobody cares kind of, Or you're gonna go to
a college town where everybody cares. Yeah, And that's that's the thing.
It's like, you look at even like the NC State run, you're they're
dominated by Duke UNC even like other ACC teams and NC States, the team
that made this deep run, and they get overwhelmed by those programs in NIL
and whatnot. But now that you look at DJ Burns or the other guys
there, they're they're gonna be better off now than some of those like the
eighth guys on Duke or the guys that could have gone to NC State and
played and that are sitting on the bench. So it's it's one of those
things where there's a lot of give, there's a lot of take, and
right now it's very these programs are in adapt or die mode pretty much.
Sure. Well, now I think the nil game will have to be stepped
up. Give the big twelve right, Oh, absolutely, defus released basketball
right Okay, I've just got to know back coaches and try and call us
during this next break. Okay, so we should have it for the next
segment. Let's go and take Let's go take a break right now, and
he'll cost in a few minutes. We'll have him on the line when we
come back from break. So stick around and we'll hopefully have Coach Billy back
on from the Sugar Schools. We're back. If you're a basketball for you
know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a look back at
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iHeartRadio app. This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez
on Fox Sports fourteen to fifteen. Hey, welcome back to Ie in the
Ball Here Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, He's Jaginsauce now NFL.
We have Billy batd Twosons Sugar Skulls head coaching. Billy. How are
you. I'm doing great, Thanks for having me on. Great to have
you on the show. Two games in, right, Brad, Two games
in? Uh you guys, one so for you know, first year.
So tell us a little bit about what attracted you to this job. Why
are you in Tucson? Well, the city itself, you know, and
I took the job, I took the trip in and I didn't realized how
nice of the city Tucson was, the you know, the area itself,
the practice so we have here at the Keno Sports Complex. You know,
there's there's no there's nothing else like it in the IFL. And I just
feel like they've they've had a successful five years so far, and it just
was a spot where I wanted to be. Let me ask you a dumb
question from my end right away is how does a baseball guy become a football
coach? Well, when I got released playing baseball to find something to do.
It's terrible nine to five jobs, got fired from a foot locker and
finished line trying on the twos too much. I went to a flag football
tournament and there was a Columbus Ashore's AFL team passing out flyers for a tryout,
and I took it and went to it. And you know, twenty
some years later, I've been doing this for my career. Please tell me
you were a shortstop, second basement or a centerfield there. I was a
middle infielder, third stream catcher, utility guy. Okay, that makes sense.
Okay, So so you've been in this, in this sport and the
indoor sport for a long time. What why, I mean, what do
you what do you like about it? What's kept you going in this?
In this business? Well, I just you know, you get second chances.
You know, I played back in UH five, I got to work
out in you know, in Cincinnati, and I'm thinking, if I get
a chance to do this, somebody that's better than I am a football should
have a chance to do this. And so it's just been trying to get
guys second chance. It's the second Chance League, getting guys opportunity to get
you know, get seen, get film, get back to the NFL,
or get their first shot in the NFL, CFL, not the UFO.
But it's just you know, I get a coach football, get paid to
do it, be around great man, great ownerships, great coaches, and
you know, it's just been something where I've been blessed to be around great
people and have to have success, and that's propelled me to where I'm at
now. I guess that's part of your message, right you you were this
guy, now you're one of them, and now you're a coach. Yeah.
Yeah, those who can do those who can't coach. So that's what
we're doing now. All right. So so you're in Tucson. You know
you've had You're in this industry. You're gonna have a lot of different jobs,
different places. You were in Frisco most recently. When you come to
when you come to a new place, well, what are some of the
first things that you do? What do you what are you trying to establish
right away? What do you what are you looking for right away when you
walk in the door. I want to establish the culture I want set,
you know, I want certain guys, I want certain chemistry, you know,
we're gonna look a certain way. We're not gonna have shirt tails untucked.
You're not gonna have the white T shirt hanging out past our butts.
You know, I'm I'm big on addressing for the job you want, not
the job you have. And so the first things firstus. You know,
I got a strict how we look. You got to look the part,
You got to act the part. You know. Then I want that in
the attitude. So just building the culture and then finding the people we want
to build that culture with just the mentality. I'm okay. We led the
league and Personal Files the last two seed three seasons with the best record last
three seasons, So you know, I'm okay to having bullies out there that
we's got to produce too. Right when you come to it, you place,
like Jay said, do you look at film and say I want that
guy, that guy, don't want that guy, don't want that guy.
How do you how do you find your guys? Yeah? Wee hundred percent.
I looked at the films, We looked at the players that were on
the roster last year, what defense went under, run, what offense we
wanted to run, and we kept the ones that we thought weren't soft.
You know, we had a couple of soft players from last year's team.
They ran a more of an umbrella defense. We want to be attacking,
you know. And so we we only signed back five players from last year's
team and just felt like that we could build with young guys and build a
new culture, a new attitude. You know. Our first thing there told
me, the ownership said, we haven't won ten games since we've been in
existence, and so I'm thinking we'll shoot that's that's a goal then, yep.
And so you know, to teach young guys what we want him to
do, how we wanted to do it, opposed to going with guys said,
well we did it this way last year. You know, you don't
want that kind of attitude. You want guys that are bought in and we'll
run through a brick wall for you. So walk us a little bit through
the process of Okay, so you only kept five guys from last year,
so you got to build a roster of twenty five. You know, where
are you looking for players? You go get players that have played for you
before, players who played for you last year. What's that process? Yeah,
I got a director of player personnel who lives in Spokane, Washington,
who absolutely knows everybody across the country. And we just started off with the
quarterback position. When to find a guy that's athletic, that's that's calm,
it's poised, tough. You got to find the right center, right nose
guard. You build up the middle. You know your quarterback, your center,
your nose guard, your middle backer. We love t Ferrell from last
year's team, one of the best linebackers in the league. He's fast,
physical, first gay, we offer back. We love Mike Jones, he's
been a staple in the indoor game for years. And then we build off
those guys and you know, the left guard, Dallas Rains or just pieces
we wanted. And we had to find man beating receivers to you know,
you know, staytionary. You want you don't want to get too many,
too many chiefs. You got to have some Indians with the chiefs, you
know, some some some jag players that just that know their role. And
we found a good group of guys that are hungry. They're still learning the
game. We make mistakes still, but you know, you build from the
quarterback down and we think we got a pretty good one and a middle linebacker's
pretty solid too. Just from listening to you, I either feel inspired or
scared. I'm not I'm not too sure. But how did the players take
you? They taken you all right? Well, I mean I'm five nine,
one hundred and eighty five pounds, so it's kind of like a little
chihuaha run around here. You know. My nephews call me Lord fardquad Track.
So but no, I just I'm straightforward with them, and I tell
them what they don't want to hear, you know, what they need to
hear now. They don't want to be sugar coated. I'm telling you,
if you're terrible, you're terrible. You know, you got to get better
at this. And you know, I grew up watching Bob Huggins and coach
the Unison University Sincinnati Bearcats, you know. And if I said customerd to
the player, he can say it Cussford back to me. Now we're communicating,
That's what's the most important. And so you know, we just got
to get it any way we can. All right, So you're you're one
and one. Uh. I got beaten the opener, but came back with
a nice win up a Duke City next week. You got your home open
home up and on Sunday, tell us a little bit about what you've seen
so far, you know, areas that you're doing well, areas that you
think you need some work. After the first couple of games, yeah,
you know, for the first game, that was the first time our guys
have been between the walls, you know, we practice outside. We had
four players that's played this game before everybody else were rookies, and to compete
and have a chance to beat nas like we should have, you know,
who had a game prior to us, who practiced the entire bye week,
which you're not supposed to, and then for those guys to look as crisp
as they did us and us look as bad as we did, but still
should have won the game. Late. You know, we were kind of
inspired coming out of it, and we made some changes after that game because
we had some soft some soft tail tails and some situations we had to had
to change some players out. And then going to Duke City, you know,
it was kind of a different adversity situation where you know, defensively we
were still filling things out, you know, and it was a tough dog.
You know, they always play your hard they're like those kids across the
rairoad tracks where you're going to get a good game, but you may not
want to come back with your basketball. That's how Duke City always always plays,
and so we feel like we should be too. And oh, but
at the same time, we look at that first game as kind of a
component game find of what we have, what we need, how we're going
to fix it. And then game two is basically game one. You know.
Then now we got game three against the top team in the league,
you had, defending champions, and so we'll see how good we are going
up to them. We feel like we had a good a good chance,
a good game plan. It just comes down to execution. Now, so
as we go, we've we've seen the team a couple of times here over
the years. Who's your quarterback and what do you like? The name is
Malite Mitchell from Cleveland, Ohio. Went to Kent State and the mac transferred
to Farris State up in Michigan on two national titles with Farris State. He's
a left He's about six' four two fifteen smooth operator, doesn't get flustered.
Left. He throws small arm angles. He's athletic and he's a kid
that should get a shot at the next level. He's the type of guy
at the CFL. They look at him the Canadian Football League. He's a
third down quarterback up there that can sling it across the field but also can
carry it toe to and run it. But he's a guy that we hope
to have here for as long as we can. But he's he's a special
character. Looking at the quarterbacks and the Sugar Skulls previous teams, they've all
been big guys except for one year, and that was just because the guy
they had decided not to play that year and they had to scramble for a
quarterback. But they've all been big guy, big sixty four six three sixty
four, physical guys. I mean, is that the formula you do?
You have to have a guy like that? No? No, last year
I had a quarterback in Frisco the league MVP named TJ. Edwards. He
was six. He just was a smart, smart player, great runner.
It's where my league. You know, it happened to be the size he
is, and uh it just as long as they're smart and athletic, that's
what's important this league. So before you got here, we don't. Jay's
related to the to the not related to that's wrong word. He's been in
the system with the shooter skulls. I've covered it as a journalist. Uh
what did you think when you were coming here? For the guys? They
love to win, They love to win, so pressure, what what's that
thought? Wow? I love to win too, and so I think it's
a great combination with this, you know, the last you know, we've
had a couple, you know, two losing seasons in my entire career.
I just feel like that each game has got to be focused on that game.
But coming in here and the expectations of having at least ten wins is
reality. You know, we don't want to be eight and eight and we
want to be shoot ten and six in the West is going to get you
a one or two seed right now? The way that the parody is to
out. So our goal is to win the rest of the games from here
on out, But the most important goal is to win the last game.
Okay. So we build these guys each game, we should be better and
better each week. Okay, So we have to ask this because it's just
it's just a thing. Your ownership group, your your ownership has is one
of the owners is the coach of the Arizona Rattlers. How well do you
know Kevin guy? And what's that relationship like in terms of your teammates,
but your opponents as well competitors. How's that working for you? It's it's
working great. You know. Kevin's Kevin is the best coach to do ever
do. That's going to be honest. I mean he's been successful on and
off the field with the Rattlers the years he's been there, and he's been
great. He's the one that actually, you know, flew me in and
showed me around the city and he and I you know, we talked football,
we talked everything around. You know, we laugh and joke about,
you know, his love for the University of Alabama. You know, even
play Sweet Home Alabama his games because he's he is from Alabama. So but
he's been terrific. You know, he's been great with us, and you
know he wants to Song to be successful. You know, he wants to
win in Arizona, but you know he wants Tusson to be successful also,
as long as it's not against Arizona. And so you know, our plan
is to beat him and we've we've had success against him the last couple of
years. Yeah, you know, he's a competitor, all right. So
your opener is, as you mentioned, against the Bay Area, they're the
defending champs. What do you know about them? And you know, what
can we expect to see in terms of what's that game gonna look like for
the fans who show up. Well, Bayer has got two great head great
coaches. You know, Dixie Wooten was a head coach here in the past.
He's now the offensive coordinator in Bay Area. He's got his quarterback that
was also here to Kwan Neil at Bay Area. Those two guys know their
offense like the back of their hands, and so they're gonna be They're gonna
be fast, they're gonna be efficient, they're gonna be physical. It's gonna
be a tough game. You know. Their defensive coordinator, coach Keith,
has been in the in the indoor game for years and he's very fundamentally sound
when it comes to mixing up defenses. So it's going to be a chess
match for sure for us to figure out what they're doing, for to figure
out we're doing and try to stop each other. So it's I'm looking for
it to be a high scoring game, but ultimately hopefully we come out with
the victory. Well, coach, we really appreciate your time. Good luck
this weekend. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. All right,
thank you, coach, good luck. Coach. Back, he sounds
like a defensive back. You will knock you, Yes, he does sound
like he would beat your ass. Yes, and just in a heartbeat,
just for the hell of it. How you doing and give you a chest.
Well, it's interesting because you know, uh, there's look, there's
always a lot of movement around the league, both players and coaches. This
is the Sugar Skulls fourth coach in their five and this is their fifth year.
Well that kind of tells you how how important winning is to that.
Yeah, you know you you heard Dixie Wooton is that is at the Bay
Area And actually if you recall one, you recalled their head coach got let
go somewhere time the middle of the year. Dixie sat stepped in as to
finish as the head coach and won a championship his second. So it's interesting
how things are in you know, in this game, it's just uh,
you just never know what you're gonna wind up with. Yeah, well,
let me ask you. We get five minutes left. If anyone want to
call police, do five to two four one, six, seventy four forty
And I don't want to poo pooh an answer, an answer from you.
But so you've seen rosters from all over of the rosters twenty how many twenty
two, twenty two in the roster twenty five or twenty five? Okay,
so you saw a lot of people play, yeah, good enough to play
at the next level. How many I probably saw three or four of the
not just here. I'm talking all low all over, so three times a
handful. Yeah, you know, like like like that's the dream, like
he mentioned to kwan Nea, Okay, you know, in the right situation,
he's he's not as good obviously, but he's Lamar Jackson, all right,
a bigger one because the March is not a big guy, right,
He's not like six four He's like Dakwan Neil is a big dude with a
rifle arm. But I think maybe just missing a few of the intangibles.
Uh Physically, I will say I've seen a lot of guys who look physically
uh, the part to be able to play in the NFL. You know,
big dudes, stronger, they have the body right, but you know
there's a little piece of that, the the the the the mental, the
mental piece of it, the mental like you that's what trying to get it,
The mental like q of being you know an NFL player. Uh maybe
the want you know how hard you're gonna work to get there, uh be
being able to pick things up. So I'm gonna say, I've seen a
lot of guys who look the part that you know walking through the airport,
they look like they could be an NFL well, but then but then you
see some of the things that they do, like in a game, and
you go, Okay, that's why he's not in the league. Bad judgments,
bad decisions, bad judge like Mike Jones get the running back. Guy's
got the heart of anybody who could be in the league. But he's just
he's not fast enough. But essentially he's just not big enough and faster.
He's for the size he is, he's not fast enough. Okay, if
he was a little bigger and as fast as he is, then he could
probably play in the league. So he's missing a piece, right, he's
just you know, but he's a really good Football League player, you know,
And there's no shot, there's no shame in the no, no hell.
You know, guys getting played paid to play professional sports. You and
I have never got paid to play for professional sports. No, none at
all, not yet yet. I got his golf kid. So the one
thing that I thought was funny was the big dude, the big dude who's
like temper Oh, Antonio Rosal who finally got kicked again again. There's a
dude had everything except that. Yeah, he's a big dude, physical,
mean, is all hell, but to the point of being a detriment to
his team, right, he couldn't and he couldn't get there, you know,
nice off the field, nicest guy you'd never you know, sir,
this sor that, you know, just totally nice guy. And I'm like,
who's that guy that's just creating chaos on the field. I remember that
game. Yeah, got thrown out and you never saw him again. We
never saw him again. Actually I did see him once somewhere. He was
working a security guard somewhere. You're not going to mess with him, Okay,
okay, cool. You have plenty of breaking news in the complement.
I got a decent amount. All right, good stuff. It's it's I
feel like sports is winding down. It's not because going on, but I
just feel like, Okay, the Final four is over. It's a big
breath as soon as it's called basketball, and then it's a whirlwind for a
month essentially, even before like conference tournament, and then you lack that uh,
that dopamine of watching your team win lose. But you know, I
like having baseball on every day, you know, you know, it's like,
you know, I've got an investment in the Major League Baseball package.
I've got baseball on if I watched you know, I was working this morning
at my desk and the Dodgers were playing the Twins today. You know what's
really weird and baseball is really the only sport that can do it. And
just this speaks to baseball. But it's like random Wednesday at ten forty and
guys, are we got four games on? Right? It's like, well,
what are we doing? Yeah? Yeah, which which it's it's neither
here nor there. But I love it. You love it. You can
have it on, yeah, And you know what, while I will not
sit down to watch an NBA game. If it's not in the playoffs,
I will sit down and watch a baseball game. Come on, Jay,
we got a good slate tonight of NBA games. Games that means something tonight,
Well, yeah, because we're it's in the season right about that.
The three to four against Sons were horrible. I don't want to talk.
I'm assuming that's nothing your breaking. We played it down like six or so,
yeah, but then we did. We came back and we had it
within nine in the fourth quarter, and we played we played the Clippers again
tonight. Do you know do you get points for almost nothing? But like
at least I don't know. I'm overreat. Come on a break, talk
about the talk about Arizona fans getting on Arizona. These guys were brutal on
the We can we can talk about it in some of the breaking news,
Okay, all added in there, All right, breaking news coming up with
with Sammy and then uh after the first after the break, uh, next
hour, we're gonna have Clancy Shields uh talking some U of a men's tennis.
They're they're raging through the Pac twelve and he had a big match against
Utah this coming weekend. So stick around for breaking news,