Coming up this week on the Mark Cast, Happy NFL Draft week everyone.
While the rest of the world tracks the future prospects of the NFL, the
XFL or USFL. Here coming up in the near future, we here are
still talking spring football. It's XFL playoff weekend. In the words of the
ruthless ruler of Dulock, Lord fire Quad, let the tournament begin. Some
of you made on when it's a sacrifice. I am willing to make the
tournament begin. That's right. A Shrek reference here. In twenty twenty three,
the gym more one's kind of played out. Playoffs. Playoffs, we'll
talk about playoffs. You're kidding me. Playoffs. That's kind of played out
here. So we are talking tournament football here with the XFL. First up
on the show, we have Emery Hunt, busy guy with the draft week
and everything else. Emry is coming on to preview everything XFL playoffs as well
as USFL Week three. I feel like this is going to be a game
where DC shows that they're the most complete team on both sides of the ball.
Now they have to stay locked in because there's no you know, no
other game. This is a one game season, and I feel like they'll
take care of business against Seattle, and then returning to the program, we
have Tom Lugain Bill here kind of a retrospective what did we do right,
what did we do wrong? In XFL three point out, and then looking
forward towards the XFL playoffs. This is going to be a battle for the
ages. I actually think this is the championship game. I do. I
think these are the two best teams, two of the hottest teams. It's
interesting because I do think Seattle has a great opportunity here. I think I
know a lot of people are going to vote for a. J. McCarron
as the MVP, and maybe statistically you should, but I'm not so the
best overall player in the league's not been Anichi. And then finally you have
watched them on the sidelines all season. Tebuck, we have Terrell Buck,
league coach of the Orlando Guardians, stopping by. Extended talk with Terrell.
I really appreciate his time. Just the opportunity was an a plus. Obviously,
execuse Foods one in nine got off to one of the worst starts that
that you can imagine. I can even picture at changing the roster. Some
of the details on how the makeup of the team and the expectations and all
those things we really didn't get correct. We corrected a majority of that probably
after week four and we started to play obviously a lot better and was in
a lot of games, so very very exciting and learning experience, growth opportunity
for me, a very big growth leap. So it was good. It
was good. Hope you guys enjoyed the episode. Like and subscribe. Hey
guys, welcome to the Mark Cast. Read here. Busy week this week
everything, like I said, off the top with the NFL Draft, a
lot of regulars or maybe potential people that I was trying to get on this
week busy with the NFL Draft. I still think we have a tremendous show
for you. A three blockbuster guest. We'll look to get some more ratings.
Talk with some of our normal sports business people next week. Like I
said, a lot of them tied in with the NFL Draft this week.
Also want to get more CFL stuff we were I was kind of debating doing
the CFL Draft show with going to DC and everything. I don't know if
that's going to be possible for the playoffs. We will be doing this CFL
Draft the post talk. I already have guests lined up for that next week,
so we'll be getting back to more CFL stuff as well. Just busy
with work and then balancing cheering for the crack in and getting all the XFL
and USFL stuff. So we'll work towards that. But I know a lot
of the players are headed out of Arlington and coaches and stuff, and so
I appreciate obviously coach trub Buckley coming on, and the Guardians is always,
but we'll look towards that. Just a weird week with the draft and everyone
kind of leaving Arlington, but three tremendous guests. Like I said, Emory
Hunt coming on, busy guy getting ready at Emory. I'm like, Emory,
am I crazy to even ask you to come on this week? And
he goes, oh no, that's fine, happy to come on. So
appreciate Emory, and then obviously Tom Lugabell making time as well between his radio
hits, and then trub Buckley. That's going to do it for me today.
I will be in DC this weekend for the playoff game. I have
a ticket over in the beer snake sections, so I've already had some people
DM happy to meet up. I'll be flying in a Saturday night and then
hanging out all day Sunday and flying out Monday. I know listener Seth is
going to be around as well, so I'll be at the bar somewhere drinking
before and then we'll be at the game hanging out. Look for a Monday
recap show. We're trying to figure out. I think Evan Wilsmore is going
to be coming on, so we'll figure out the timing of all of that,
and then, like I said, I don't know if we're going to
do the CFL Draft show a live stream, but at least we'll do post
draft coverage here next week as well. Like to subscribe, you know two
tickets you get them to the USFL Championship game if you want. When we
hit thirty five subscribers, thank you all for your support. Like I said,
did my best this week. Hope you guys enjoy. We'll see at
the end well in a busy week. I certainly appreciate Emory Hunt taking the
time here back on. I'm trying to remember the last time we had you
on talking and I think pre XFL. But we have Emory Hunt back on.
How are you doing, sir, doing fine. Read man, I
appreciate you having me on and again love the show. I'll watch religiously.
Man, your show is great for the trip mill. I'll tell you that.
I trying to keep it long. Sometimes my wife says, how many
guys you have on this week? So we have every here. We're talking
able to get USFL as well talking in the big XFL playoffs, you know,
the C Dragons. I'm gonna be there. I have my I'll be
in the beer snake section. I have my flight bucked as of last night.
Whether you make just overall XFL thus far, how has it been for
you? It's been great, man. You know, I'm glad they were
able to put the cleats in the grass, football in hand and get out
there and give it a go. Now we have another spring league that was
able to finish the season. Knock on wood, nothing that's gonna happen.
They'll finish this one as well. But I love it. You know.
I was religiously watching every week, you know, whenever there was a game,
because again, you got to be locked into these spring leagues. We
as media and pundits and journalists and analysts. If we don't show interests.
We can't expect the public to show interest. So I was locked in each
and every week. Has it. Has XFL done a good job kind of
reaching mainstream outside of it If I'm not someone that's like totally involved in string
football, not yet, And that's the next step, I believe, you
know, in terms of what can grow, how they can grow this thing.
I feel like the football product takes care of itself. They're good on
that part, but it's about making sure you get that outreach. So in
a way, it's almost like how folks were thinking, well, the USFL
played in the Hub for one year. No one outside of Birmingham knows about
the USFL. But now we see when certain teams go to market, go
in their markets, how different it is when they're living there and you know,
in that city from a Michigan to what we're seeing in Birmingham. I
know they probably had more of a dip in their attendance. But for the
XFL, we'll thought, well, they're gonna be playing their cities and it's
gonna be cool because they're playing in the cities and playing in the stadiums,
But if you're not living there, is not the same it's no different than
playing the Hub. So I feel like if they go into their markets.
Now. I haven't been to Arlington. I was there for I was there
for the College Ground, a showcase in Dallas Fort Work, and I was
on a flight with a couple of guys that were going on there for their
training camp or you to the training camp in January. But outside of that,
you didn't see anybody talking XFL. You didn't see anybody any banners hanging
around. But when you're in the city like we see in Michigan and Detroit
and also in Birmingham, it's a difference. It was, I mean,
and I was. We were there for the kickoff last year the USFL.
It did feel like Birmingham was like we are at home of the USFL.
You can't go anywhere here without seeing that. I am, you know,
kind of I guess, not concerned, but confused it maybe why or I
think the XFL could lean more into that. I know Andy and I talked
on the show a couple of weeks ago, like, let's sure they market.
If you're gonna be in the Hub, let's market that. Yeah,
God forbid. You let a couple of people in to go watch practice.
I mean, even if you're just in Arlington, it's something to do there
in terms of the football product. Has it been up to what you were
expecting? Yeah? Absolutely, But we see the same things over and over
again with a lot of these springleys. I saw this in the USFL last
year. We saw it in the first iteration of the XFL, and we've
seen it again now in the XFL in some early simblance of that in the
USFL Season two, say, hey, man, play your best players,
Like for Vegas, Why did it take you so long to realize Jella McClinton
is your best option out there. Let the guy play, Let him out
there, let him make his mistakes. In growth, the offense looks significantly
better. You see what happens when you allow a guy to play through those
mistakes. And so I feel like, right at this point, it's not
a knock on Luis Perez. I like the guy, but he's probably better
as a QB two now on a roster than a starter. So you got
to give a young guy a chance. Look what Josh Love is doing for
the Michigan Panthers and his second time around, and now he's back in on
the team. Familiarity with a lot of the players on there, and he's
playing better. We see it with Kase Cookis and how well he played,
you know when they went to him over Brian Scott. A master trying to
figure out what to Just play your best players, man, and the especially
at that position, because everything else is gonna take care of itself. People
tuned into XFL twenty twenty because p J. Walker was lightening up and it
was like, man, let's let's tune in it. Nobody wants to watch
as good as their offense was in this last game, or you know,
as great as the story is, heartwarming story. No one's tuning in to
check out AJ McCarron period. Like they want to see the young guy,
you know, and people want to see that from these spring leagues. So
play your best player. I'm not saying McCarry wasn't their best quarterback. I'm
just saying, give these young dudes a chance to play. That's how you
attract new fans. I think were you were a critical of the AJ signing,
right? I think if my memory serves yeah, because it was like
he's thirty plus, we know what he is. I thought this was a
league of opportunity, right, So why did not get the young guys in
there? Man? And granted you want to have guy you like, guys
like Aji McCarron because he's here's what I like about Aji McCarron and playing in
this league. If he's not going to be a starter in the NFL,
fell, we would have known. We should have known that by twenty seven.
Then this would have been perfect for him to play five years and be
thirty two on the other side of it, right, instead of waited till
thirty two and jumping in this league. So now people look at this league,
like agent mccaron, like, I'm not watching that, even though you
won a league for a guy that's probably not going to be the starter,
a starter in the NFL to play somewhere else. So a league like this
or the USFL would be ideal for those guys. There is a market for
that. But you can't go out and sign guys that people who have seen
in the NFL at times they've seen maybe a decade ago in college football.
That's not gonna work. And I also feel like a lot of these leagues
made the same mistake every time they come out thinking, oh, well,
we have a team in Orlando, or we have a team in you know,
Detroit, let's get a lot of the players from that college. I'm
gonna tell you a secret. College fans do not care about former college stars
that are not currently playing for their college team. It's not gonna work,
Pat Raffinale right now, I'm sure it's headed seeing with your AJ mccaren smacktick.
But that was like that was the story of the XFL this year.
I mean, I you know, just to be contrariot the year you say
no one's watching, like Nave marketed the crap out of that, Like here's
AJ and he's playing for his kids and turned down all this mood. Like
that was one of the major you know, football or otherwise storylines coming out
saying we're seeing now in the USFL with mc McLeod Bethel Thompson, great story,
phenomenal, you know, wants to be by his family. YadA,
YadA, YadA. Bro, you gotta quill glass there, who needs experience
play him? Yeah, let's we've seen McLeod Bethel Thompson with a great cup,
fantastic, Like I don't want to see him playing in this league that
y'all are saying is developmental, Like, at worst, play the guys and
if they struggle, go to your McLeod Bethel Thompson's or your AJ mccameron's and
let's because otherwise people gonna think, oh, this is just a league for
guys that want to playing from their families. I'm not going to play,
you know, I need to go. Matter of fact, let me get
married, to have a couple of kids, and then I can use that
story to get into one of these leagues. Like no, let it be
about the guys like you Cole Kelly's guys like you're a quill glass to go
in there and play, because they're not getting the opportunity as young talent to
play in the NFL. So you go in there as a quill glass or
a Cole Kelly and you play really well for a season and now you bounce
right up. The creamwood rides to the top and the legal pluck regardless.
So play the quill glass, play the case cookers, play your Kyle Sloters,
you know, and roll with it like that. Man, don't bring
the elderly back in. Let the guys grow into the elderly within your own
league. How how is my what are your thoughts about my boy Ben Junichi
here, carterback for the c Dragons. It's funny because the Nucci is able
to play through all his mistakes. It makes you wonder, you know,
any other quarterback that had the amount of turnovers that he has had, m
would have been pulled. But this is why these leads exist. You want
to see him stay out there, don't go to the backup. Let the
Nucci play through it and let them just you know, ride the wave,
and then you reevaluate the position in the off season. So I like the
decision to stick with him, you know, otherwise you'll see what went down
in in Orlando Dormandy, you know, and and Francoise And it's like,
man, which guy can get a rhythm? If you're constantly pulling guys and
then one guy has six touchdowns, the next week had six turnovers, and
it's like, you could have won that game, But why aren't you playing
a guy that's younger, You're a little bit more dynamic, you know what
I'm saying this. There's a lot of things that go into the coaching decision,
and we don't know that because we're not at practice and we don't have
the benefit of daily news coming out of these practices, which we would have
if they were in cities. Hey. Interesting, we were talking today on
the show at the ecotomy of and I want to take your thoughts on the
playoff thing too here. But you know, people from outraged Saint Louis didn't
make it, but you have kind of what it feels to be more of
a family coach backed. Okay, we have everything and where we're like living
and dying. Where Seattle feels a little bit more like a super team,
right, like we brought and Josh Gordon and Philip lindsay, we've got d
Nucci and Jim haslet like, maybe isn't this connected to like it feels,
you know, and I've been on the sidelines. Area doesn't feel as cool,
he said, what do you make of the difference of those two teams.
That's a great point because when you feel you feel like Saint Louis,
even though every team in the XFL is homegrown, you feel like Saint Louis
is more homegrown than anybody else because you know them playing in Saint Louis.
The fan base, you feel like they're more locked into what the Battle Hawks
are doing. As opposed to Seattle. You feel like, man, I
feel like these guys just kind of collected great parts and just PCs these guys
together. And um, it's I think what people have the dismay because I
feel like we've constantly seen even though this is so weird to say this,
everybody's played on TV, right, We've seen all the games, but it
feels like Saint Louis has been on TV more than everybody else, even though
everybody has been on TV the same. But so people have connected. The
nation has connected with Saint Louis, you know, the whole cause the law.
You have Anthony Beck, who is very vocal on social media since the
inception, since he was announced as the head coach. So all of that
buys into why people have followed Saint Louis and they just don't feel like Seattle
brings the same cachet. But I will say this in defense of Seattle,
they just have to tweet out beat us. Last. All you had to
do is beat us and guess what we are in the playoffs that didn't happen
and guess what now you're out looking at. I saw lots be made if
the coaches that didn't make the playoffs, and you know the first year head
coach isn't you know we got Blackley and backed and all that, any any
thought of that and the coaches that rable to kind of make a long run
here. I know back then we'll get the playoffs, you know with I
want to hear get your thoughts at the ceding on that, but thoughts about
the coach is not making that, you know, I thought at they started
to figure it out. And these are first time head coaches, so you
like that they're figuring it out on the fly. And when you have a
young coach in a Buckley or you know, Rob Woodson, first time head
coach, and you start to see them figure it out and their teams start
to play better, which just gets you excited for next season. If they're
able to do that and build on what they learned, and this this iteration
hines War start to figure some things out as well. The next thing you
know, next season, these guys would be more experienced, they have a
better idea of how to manage. They won't be as emotional on the sideline.
I think Buckley and Award a little bit more emotional than back back really
was even killed and when you're overly emotional on the sideline, your players tend
to reflect that out there on the field. That's why they're making mistakes or
that's why they're afraid to make the mistakes on the fly. So that's what
I feel like we should see in the next season from Buckley and Ward.
I think and us I felt like you could have created a whole show about
Rod Woodson versus the refs because every week it was chaotic on the sideline.
So I feel like with those guys having you know, now gotten their first
year as a hit coach beneath their belt, next year their teams will be
much more blocked in, which will make it competitive across support because it's that
tough mix. Yeah, because I think back to portrays a little bit more
than every man, like I'm one of you guys here where what's in?
It does feel like you still have that player of mentality like oh come on,
raff, like come on you, where's the flag? And I don't
know what the balance is there. I mean, obviously all the teams played
competitively for their coaches, even the losing team, so I guess you can't
nippick too much. But was there any of the coaches that maybe didn't deliver
in your minds. No, no, I felt like everyone and again,
first year, I want to go in and give everybody a clean slate and
just say, hey, man, I understand this is the first year,
first time GM coach working together. You're figuring things out on the flies.
An unusual situation because you're not in a home place, you don't have a
place to call home. You're kind of working together. You beat a team,
is you know, and then you got to get back on the plane
with the same team. So there's a lot going on. So I'm not
holding anything against any coach. I just like the fact that coaches seem engaged,
they seem locked in, they seem like they want to be there.
They didn't seem like they checked out. So it was good for me to
see that week to week from the XFL are you as outraged as the world
seems to be about the playoffs and have the Battot Hawks and the Nest and
they're seven and three and being somehow Arlington's in. People are hilarious, like
we've had divisions in sports since been right, this is how divisions work.
And Saint Louis all they had to do is beat Seattle, and this would
be a conversation. You had a winning and get in situation. Guess what,
you didn't win and you didn't get in. So that happens all the
time in the NFL, where you got a team that plays earlier in the
day and does what they're supposed to do, but the team later in the
day they need to lose, ends up playing a game in their life and
they get out the playoffs. Well, if you would have did what you
had to do earlier in the season and not let it come down to this,
then this wouldn't be a problem. So I had no issue with it.
It doesn't bother me because hey man, this is how sports work,
this is how competition works. And yeah, you have a better record than
san Antonio, and yeah, san Antonio is gonna get the doors blown off
their first you know, in the playoffs. But hey, had you beat
in Seattle, this wouldn't be a conversation. See, you don't like them
thinking that we need to move it and it needs to be in the top
two and then points or anything, because like that's the thing is if they
would do it a different way, none of these games wouldn't mattered this weekend,
right, Like, it's because of the playoffs situation. That's that's why,
Because that could have been a nothing game there Seattle in Vegas or Vegas
at Seattle here or something that maybe we should ask Peter King, because if
Peter King says something, then rules get changed. If he didn't like that
Brett fall of Law also against New Orleans. Next thing, you know,
everyone should touch the football. He didn't like that Josh Allen lost to Patrick
Mahons. Next thing, you know, well, everybody will need a possession
over time. So maybe Peter King when he says something, rules get changed
for whatever whatever team he wants to win. Looking to hear at the playoffs,
the more exciting one I think will be in the North. We'll talk
about that. But you know, Arlington at Houston, it feels like Arlington
has never really found there. You know, we're trading quarterbacks all that.
What do you make of the South playoffs? It's the South Playoff and the
North Playoff to me are the same thing. So the South Playoff is about
can Houston stay locked in for sixty minutes and not allow Arlington to hang around?
Because but we saw last weekend should be what we see this weekend and
nothing will change with the game plan because there's no threat from the run game
from Arlington. There's no threat from the passing game, especially vertical passing game
from Arlington. And defensively they do a great job of applying pressure and turning
the ball over that to pick six last game. So this is not gonna
be a good look for Arlington, you know what I mean. So for
me, this is a situation where it's more about Houston than it is Arlington.
Now, Arlington does have some really good defensive players. They do have
an ability to really slow down an offense. But if they can't depend on
their offense to put points up in the paint and kind of make this a
game, it's gonna be all for not. And I feel like that's going
to be the case again. Houston, you know, has been through it
trying here, you know, and Brandon kind of got hurt and everything they
looked good. Then they can't win against the North. I mean, it's
Houston a real presuming they may get onto the championship game or they're real throughout
here against ever comes out of the North. No, they're not because their
offense is too scattershot. On paper, their offense looks dynamic. You know,
they can score. They have shown flashes of brilliance. But quarterback player
is crucial in these games. And we've seen over the course of the season,
those that have had the more consistent play at quarterback have been the teams
that have won more more than they loss and they have ultimately saying Saint Louis
found themselves in the playoffs and maybe that would have been different head Aji mccarroon
now gotten hurt, right, maybe they would have found a way to win
more games. Right, So, I feel like Houston's quarterback play is too
inconsistent to win against whoever comes out the North. It's weird to me because
you know, I love a Jason had been on the show everyone and talk,
you know this, you know Wizard Football everything. Is he just getting
found out? Is he getting out coached? Is like? What's going on
with him? And it seems like Houston's has kind of had a bunch of
roadblocks. There are certain times where you feel like, and this happens in
you know, the NFL and college football. I want to say it was
maybe two weeks ago where they had a team beat and they went forward on
fourth down or went forward on thir day through it like Silver's threw an out
route and they got picked off and it was like, why are you throwing
in that situation? Run the ball forced that team to use their time out.
So and this is something that happens with these guys that left to throw
the football a lot. You know, they get enamored with their passing game
and their play calling and miss out on situational football. So for me,
it's mostly about they have to tie up the loose ends. I have no
problems with the play calling or you know what you're saying with the play calling
and how he runs his offense A J. Smith, But situational football is
what wins you games. And if they're not playing great situationally third on offense,
red zone offense, four minute offense, then they're going to find themselves
losing. And plus guys also have to make plays and that falls onto the
quarterback position. He has to be consistent and beating pressure, beating the blitz,
just like he did earlier in the season when teams wanted to blitz him
but he was finding he always had an answer. And if he can get
back to that, and I feel like that's something that can help them out.
They'll have a shot. In terms of Bob steps and everything. It
feels like he's kind of made chicken salad out of everything this year and it's
just not a great I mean, do we blame him for assembly maybe a
subpar team? Do we blame I mean, what do you put on in
Arlington? Arlington needs a quarterback and they have to go into the off season
and find one. You know, right now, there's they're not getting any
production out of the quarterback position. They're not dynamic at quarterback, they don't
have the athleticism at quarterback. All of that needs to change next year because
there's talent on the roster. But when you don't have the at least a
threat of the QB run or you don't have a game breaker in the backfield,
there's an issue. So maybe quarterback and running back or where they have
to address first. And if they can answer those questions, there'll be a
different team. Because again, they got players on defense. You know,
they're very strong in my opinion, they can rush the passer. They had
a good front point of attack play up front on a defensive line. But
offensively, nothing threatens you on offense outside of the guy on the perimeter,
but the quarterback has to get it down the field and for them to really
take effect. In terms of the North here Seattle going in. I'm excited.
I you know, I to me, it's cool that we have to
kick off there in twenty twenty and now we kind of have the playoff game
this year. You know, didn't you Chi even during an interception at the
end of the game. You know, we're like, can we just get
out of this game? Please? What do you make of this matchup?
It's gonna be a strength versus strength battle, right Seattle strength is their ability
to work touchdown to check down. They can throw the football vertically down the
field. DC has a good defense. They're opportunities that can get pressure where
DC has a problem. And I was there at the Allington game and witness
this again firsthand, Like they play with their food far too often, Like
they had Allington blown out, And if you were a Vegas guy, you
know, you just felt like, oh, this was a comfortable lead.
You know, plus nine and a half is going to cover and then they
just get tired in the last five minutes of the game and just allow them
to come back and how you find cells in overtime. Right, So the
football side is if DC keeps their foot on the gas and stays interested for
sixteen minutes throughout the whole game, then they'll have a They won't have a
problem with Seattle. They can play the run all the way to the quarterback
and do a good job of shutting down to Nucci. They know the Nuchi
is gonna give them at least two opportunities turn the ball over, so they
just have to capitalize. They haven't really dropped interceptions all season long on offense,
probably the perfect blend of utilizing the two quarterback system, knowing when and
where to fit guys in and pull guys out, as opposed to some scattershot
thing that we're seeing now with the New Jersey Generals with Mike Riley. Let
DeAndre Johnson just get out there and rock out. Man. You take prew
Coop, you put prew Coop in at the worst possible time, and your
offense goes non existence for three straight drives, right, and the other team
gets back in the game. But I feel like with DC and what they
do, they understand who they are, They get you know, Deerk king
in at the right moments and he's able to execute at a high level.
Saying for Jordan Tiama, who's played better this year than he did last year
for the Tampa Bay Bandit. So, I feel like this is gonna be
a game where DC shows that they're the most complete team on both sides of
the ball. Now they have to stay locked in because there's no you know,
no other game. This is a one game season, and I feel
like they'll take care of business against Seattle. I just care like I been
playing horrendous the first half of the game, you know, on Sunday,
and I just really bad, and I'm like, I'm looking at the silence.
I'm like, what is going on here? And then you know,
we got to touchdown before half, and then he comes back and it seems
like, you know, but then it's sustained. Well, I just it
never feels like he learns anything, and just we're still out there and we're
running, and I think he's I don't know, if it's like he's a
really emotional player and he gets like caught up in then you go, I
just I'm very scared if if we're getting going to continue to give him the
weather ball like we have oh you guys will give away to football. That
has been the most consistent thing everyone. And it's gonna be not just it's
gonna be one way. He's gonna hold the ball a long and it's gonna
he's gonna fumble, and another one's gonna be like, Yo, where were
you throwing with that? Like the dude was like either covered or that dude
clearly has on a DC Defenders uniform. So yeah, it's gonna happen.
It's about when it happens. If it happens early, not a problem,
but it happens in crunch time you're in trouble. Yeah, it was like
because and we're trying to do them out in the stands on how many points
we have to win by and then he give us up to turn them.
I'm like, can we just flean to get another dutchtownle to just get out
of here? Like it was very very scary there, very trying times listen.
And first of all, it's hard to it's hard to hate Seattle because
I've said this, they have the best uniform out there in the expel.
Their uniform is phenomenal, helmet color, scheme. Everything works, so you
want to see them do well because you keep on to seeing you keep wanting
to see the uniform. But the play has to catch up right and the
play has to be consistent, and they only have one more shot to get
it done, and that's this weekend in the playoffs. I have my replica
Jersey. I think I'm getting ready to ship it back, getting ready to
getting ready to return that too. It's just not it's just not up to
snuff. The ones that they put out right now, I don't know to
me. And it's two Broncos. It looks like we were at the bar
and I saw a lady and she had at Philip Lindsay Jersey and it was
I'm like, did she get it? Like? Did she get a custom
like Philip Lindsay Jersey, like from China this quick? And then she turns
rounds the Broncos jersey. I'm like, of course like that, But I
mean it looks, it looks and we hate the Broncos here in Seattle,
cells right, oh AFC West, you know Folds. My thing is I'm
you know, I'm a I'm a mini helmet guy. Can we at least
get the XFLO to sell us many helmets, like I would buy all eight
right now, including the XFL League helmet um because right now I don't have
any XFL helmets. Like make the mini helmets available on the site easy to
do our rack those ate up right now. If they do that, well,
you know that fair Women of the League now follows me on Twitter.
So maybe maybe we can work outs at tweeted you too, like listen.
Might have to worry, Yeah, may have to bulls in the shakes there.
See, we can't get miss working on that before we get out of
here. USFL comes back, I want you know, I'm trying to watch
for what do you make of us all season two ratings? Ratings, We're
down the week one. I presume they're going to be down again this week.
Well, to me, it's we gotta focus. We gotta get people
to focus on the football. In both the XFL and USFL, we spend
so much time talking about ratings and crowd attendance. Like focus on the football,
get people talking about that. That's the real battle. And the football
has been solid, but again, play your best players. Why is DeAndre
Johnson, you know, getting pulled and being absent for three series. No
less, no figure that out, man, Like the whole thing was you
had a longer, extended off season and or you know, training camp,
so you shouldn't have had this issue. And also you guys just play those
guys that are that are like better. Let those guys play, man,
Let the young guys play. The football is still good and it's it's funny
to watch like these USFL games, and you see the benefit of having an
extended preseason. Hit the ground running in Week one. The scores are higher,
the competitive balances there, you recognize guys continuity as king. So now
teams remember fans remember who was on their team last year. You see the
difference in continuity with Alex McGoo playing much better this year than he did last
year. Uh, you know, losing Jamar Smith. So now you have
some intrigue. They're like, oh, man, jmar was good last year,
but now Magoo, who's there last year, has improved. So now
you're starting to see teams half progression. C. J. Marrable is running
better this year than he did last year. You're seeing Kingston Davis, who
was on the general's roster last year, now getting an opport to the rocket.
Now you say, Wow, they got a really good one to punch
in New Jersey. So I like the fact that the continuity that we're seeing
in season two is manifesting itself out there on the field with better play.
And I can't wait to see what it's like in Detroit for the Michigan Hub.
I'll be there Mother's Day weekend to check those two games out, just
to see. But I like the fact that we are now back and teams
are fans are invested in, you know, year or two. Everybody keeps
saying what about playing in their cities. But these people that keep saying that
are probably horrible at business. Are finances that you got to understand finances first
in order for this to really sustain itself. And I think over the long
haul, with the approach the XFL has taken and the approach that the USFL
is taken, both leagues will be able to be here for a long time,
which is what we want because everything else will increase. You know,
So we can't like people, well it's not the NFL, like well,
dug Like again, the NFL has been around since nineteen twenty, Like,
why are you even trying to compare this to something that's been around four hundred
plus years. Like, I just don't understand people's focus, but I do
like the fact that year two they can't. At first of all, let
me stop. We gotta stop saying year or two. In year one of
year two, Can we just say last season, this season, you know,
because if we said because it's gonna be, it's gonna couple of time,
we're not gonna be able to keep up with year end, right,
So just say this season, right, But this season, I'm glad.
You know, we've seen we're seeing them back, and we're seeing teams,
uh, you know, more hubs are open, which means more teams are
in their market. And the slow approach is working for the USFL. And
I think, you know, with them having that draft that they had,
I liked the draft concept and we'll see how it continues to work itself out
moving forward. But I'm just glad that we're seeing we got we still got
spring football watching. We're not Jones and for football. Imagine if there was
no USFL and the XFL just ended here, like, man, you know
what are we gonna watch now? You know, we're not gonna fake like
soccer? You know what I'm saying, we're gonna watch NBA playoffs, but
we want to watch more football and we have more football. Yeah, that
college draft was, you know, it's like, wait, I was drafted,
Like, let's go. It was. I think that I think the
execution leads a little bit to be desired there. I like the concept of
it, and I like, you know, valuing players rights and the teams
and all that kind of stuff, But I think that they needed the messaging
needed to work a little bit more on that. What they what they have
done, what what one team has done that It seems like Pittsburgh was really
locked in with who they drafted because a couple of their guys have already committed
to playing in the league, and that's where the focus has to change.
Like, hey, man, we know football players and athletes have the ego
of I'm going to the league, Like, yeah, we want you to.
But let's be realistic right here. Man. You're you just played at
Middle Mississippi Baptist. The likelihood of you getting drafted and getting an opportunity is
probably slim. Come play these ten weeks here and the league reevaluate you from
there. What if you balled out a week one a Week two in the
USFL, and now you find yourself here in week three with the NFL draft
approaching. You probably just played yourself into a draft pick because you played two
extra games here for the Pittsburgh Malors or the Michigan Panthers. That so,
I think the more of these leagues are around, the messaging for both leagues
have to change it. I think we need to stop saying NFL, stop
talking about the NFL. NFL gonna pick guys up regardless. XFL focused on
building your stars, USFL focused on building your stars. And as the leagues
grow, obviously the salaries will increase and it will become a more attractive option
for guys that are on the smaller school level that you know won't go anywhere,
so they'll be locked into the league and it'll just help the league grow
I think faster. Last question to that, I appreciate it extending the timeline
here. How terrible is the Pittsburgh Malors and how are they still sabad this
year? Common theme man quarterback play. Find you a quarter Granted you're banking
on Lindsay Scott. You know now Lindsay Scott as a phenomenal player, but
all seriousness. It's quarterback play and that's what these there's a big myth out
there read that people feel like there's not enough quarterbacks out there. Yes,
there's enough quarterbacks. There's enough athletes, enough football players. There's eight hundred
and sixty football playing colleges across the country and into Canada. There's more than
enough football players to field two spring football league. So it's about trusting what
you're seeing, playing the best player and allow that player to play. And
that's what has to happen. Once you get good quarterback play, people think
you have to be Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and whatnot.
Now you just can't be out there, you know, not being able to
evade pressure, terrible with reads and skipping the passes all over the field.
Just get competent quarterback play. It doesn't have to be spectacular. It just
has to be consistent and if you can get that, everything else will work
itself out. Pittsburgh also has a lack of speed running game wide receivers.
Right now, everything is a possession. They have possession receivers and they don't
have explosiveness in the backfield. So I think their defense is ready to win.
They got really good. They had a good defense last year. They
just didn't have the explosiveness and dynamic ability on offense coming from the quarterback,
running back or the wide receiver position. Well, wish us locked this weekend.
Big exciting South for the Yeah, XFL playoffs L three everything else and
read good luck with the draft and everything else you have going on. I
really appreciate your time to that. Appreciate your read. Always a pleasure,
man, Good luck down there in DC. I had fun when I went.
Man, I got to see the beer steak in person, and like
I said, you know, beer's fine. That's a lot of beer they
drink. But if it was a you know, Cabernet snake, I may
have gone over there and participated of If it was a you know, uncle
nearest Bourbons, you know snake, I probably would have gone over there.
But it's cool to see it live in person, and is it would be
a fun time for you. Yeah, I'll be I'll be in there.
I'm in the section. I got a ticket listeners Seth hooked me up with
the code early. I'll be a paid member there of the DC Army,
So it'll be fun. Well, I appreciate it. Here we have him
on preseason. Now we have him back, Tom Luka. But how are
you doing, sir? I'm good man, how are you doing? Thanks
for having me back. We're good making the rounds busy week NFL Draft.
I appreciate it. Uh, we're here at the playoffs. First off?
What has been this whole experience like for you XFL twenty twenty three. It's
been a blast. To be honest with you, I've had probably as much
fun as I've had in the last eighteen years at ESPN broadcast and you know
football where it's college football, high school football, being in the booth,
being on the field, um, And I think the reason why it's been
so much much fun is it's it's such a it's such a different product,
right, It's it's a it's a there's several differences to the game that make
a big difference. You know, the pace of play is fantastic. We
all know about the access and the audio, but it's how you have to
call the game that's so dramatically different than what we've done at the collegian or
the National Football League level. And it's made it a lot of fun,
a lot of adjustments. It's kind of like having to start over when you
you know you're taught, or you learn a certain way to you know,
do your traditional broadcast, and this is anything but. And so it went
about as I anticipated, some rough sledding early with teams trying to find their
footing and particularly in the offensive line. And then as we rolled around about
week four or five six, you really started to see the games become ultra
competitive. You saw more points being scored on behalf of both teams. There's
a lot more familiarity, a lot more things to scout and prepare for.
Could you remember those first two weeks? You know, what are you watching
to prepare for the opponent? And so I thought it materialized and grew and
matured the way the league hoped it would. The viewership, I think went
the way the league hoped it would. And you know, you're looking the
last couple of weeks of the regular season. You know, we finally get
a two overtime games in one weekend, and then you get a third one,
and then you know, you find yourself in these one point games or
these one possession games, and that's competitive football, top to bottom. And
I will say this it was a dream come true for the league because they
could have no way they could have scripted. Having every single game in the
last weekend has some sort of impact on the playoff pitch, and that's exactly
what you want to have happen. I still see people upset with the playoffs.
I saw I coach back, I think it was yesterday, even still
tweeting about it, like I reover it now. What do you what do
you make of this? As with anything in startup leagues and startup franchises,
and I've been a part of a lot of them, you're gonna take stock,
you're gonna sell scout, and you're gonna go back and you're gonna say,
what do we need to correct, What do we need to fix,
What did we get right? And what do we want to leave alone?
How can we add? How can we subtract? And I don't think there's
any question that you know Russ Brandon and you know even Danny Garcia and Dwayne
Johnson, everybody affiliated at the league level. Dean Blandino, from a rules
perspective, do we need to evaluate having division champs, which is fine,
North and South division champs, but then also ensure that the top four best
records get into the playoff, and that's really where the beef has come from
from fans. And I get it right, this was an unfortunate byproduct of
something that really couldn't be foreseen. I mean, if if you're everybody,
you can sit there and say they've got all the answers. But if you
were heading into the season as an executive at the XFL and you said,
hey, at the end of this deal, we're gonna have a four to
six team make the playoff, but we're gonna have a seven and three team
not make the playoff, they'd be like, what, oh, way,
what is this distical chance that happens. Well, it happened, right,
and so now they'll have to figure out how they want to address it,
if they want to address it, and those will be decisions made by people
a way above my bagorite. Yeah. I mean I if anything, you
have to ride it out at least now. I mean, I think that
it would be worse if midway through the season they're like, oh no,
we need to kind of adjust here and this isn't working now. I mean,
if anything, you ride this out, you reflect later, because it
would be worse the other way. Yeah, you know, I do think
it would have been worse off for them to make any changes based off of
what they started to see could potentially happen, because then it looks like you're
scrambling right, and then it looks like you're trying to write it wrong.
And I think they were smart just to stay away from it. Let it
play itself out. You'll deal with it in the offseason. But it's just
like, you know, there are going to be rules, they are going
to be looked at, Like, for example, there was a rule that
happened. It was either an unsports bike conduct or a personal found it was
after an extra point trial, and it was on the offense. So what
would happen is the penalty would be assessed after the kick, all right,
but all it, excuse me, would be assessed during the kick. But
it didn't actually give the team that should have gotten the yardage the yardage.
It actually just moved the kick closer to the zone that they had to get
in the twenty yard line. Whereas if you make that a post kick penalty,
then the team that should have received the fifteen yards gets fifteen yards on
top of the kick return. So you know, little things like that that
are going to be looked at and examined. It's sorry we were talking about,
you know, radiance and everything, and obviously we don't know their metrics.
But I think going into this season maybe XFL twenty twenty fans had that
maybe a grander vision of what this would be. I think maybe this was
kind of a test pilot. We got through, we kind of maintained the
whole way through. How do you view that success or not in terms of
maybe what expectations were versus what actually happened. I think it carried over supremely
from the end of Week five in twenty twenty, because what was happening in
twenty twenty was fantastic and it was very well received. The product on air
was fantastic, ironed out the kinks and got rid of the troublesome approaches that
that played two thousand and one, and then the pandemic hit and unfortunately that
that you know, we all we all know what took place and the rest
is history. So I think that when you consider that there was a foundation
there in twenty twenty that was really successful, and so you know, you
can see, you can envision that it can happen, it can work.
And then I thought it was really really important that the XFL did not just
jump in and decide to go that very what next year after the pandemic and
go twenty twenty two. They decided to wait and really map things out and
play the slow game, which I thought was a smart strategic move probably made
the league more organized and better as a whole. And so you know,
again, now you know, moving forward, I think the fans got what
they were clamoring for. They got access, they got audio, they learned
about the game. Um, you know, they hear things, whether it's
an X is an O type of element or it's it's some type of verbiage
type of element. Hey what does that mean? You know how when I
hear that, what am I supposed to know? And I think that really
benefited the fan And listen, this this league is about the fans. And
when you look at you look at DC, and you look at Saint Louis
and even even you know, San Antonio, who didn't have the season maybe
on the field that they would have liked to have had. They had a
pretty good team that was just ravaged with injuries, and they had tremendous support
at home and so, uh, there's a good foundation to build upon.
Now, whether that foundation, whether that that that building includes expand after year
one or doesn't include expansion after year one, whether it includes you know,
playoffs scenarios or tidebreaker changes, that remains to be seen. But I think
as far as and not just on a linear perspective of ABC, ESPN,
ESPN two in FX, but I think the league felt really really good about
how the league was received digitally, whether it's through social media platforms, the
digital program we did at ESPN each and every week, social media engagement.
There was a lot of interest there and there was a lot of fun and
a lot of banter back and forth. If they gave you the clipboard,
you know, headed into next season and said, Tom, what would you
do? What would be your advice for us to maximize kind of year one
to year two, you know, growth, whatever, viewership everything, What
would you say, m operationally or from a football perspective, in what way
whatever way you see? I mean, I think the football, I think
the product on the field was good. I think they could have a better
job of cultivating some of the local fan bases that weren't already built in right,
like I think I think they inherited Saint Louis, right, I don't
know what was done there to further kind of growth in DC. Yeah,
yeah, you know, I think the one thing that could be important going
forward is to really examine cities that have MLS teams, because those stadiums are
perfect, absolutely perfect for the XFL. You know, it's eighteen to twenty
two thousand, that right on top of you. It makes for a great
game they experience. I think that's something that's that that could be really interesting,
you know, moving forward and looking forward, because the venues just seem
to be really really good in that regard. And then I think what you'll
see this isn't something I do. This is what I think you will see
happen naturally. Is the player pool by which the teams will be able to
draw from will get more experienced and more talented with each and every offseason because
agents and players and their representatives are going to start to realize that if I've
got a guy, let's just say, made it a practice squad, then
he made an active roster for one year, and you know he's just he's
this close well, is my client better served signing an NFL future or is
he better served playing ten games or eleven games or twelve games. And there's
a lot of validity to that question because if these guys start realizing if I'm
playing, I'm going forward, I'm not moving backward, and I'm giving more
people more opportunities to evaluate me. That's going to get better, bigger name,
higher profile players to jump into the player pool, which is in turn
is going to make each and every team's roster more talented. And I think
you'll see that naturally occur over over the course of time. Um, you
know, obviously with Vegas in their and their field set up, I think
that you know, that's going to be something that will will be addressed.
Aside aside from that, like I really I really kind of liked how things
played out. I like the director of place, player personnel and head coach
relationship on each team and how they manage that and how they managed it was
just it was And again, there are a lot of young, when I
say young, young in the coaching profession, inexperienced coaches that were first time
head coaches, right, and so they've learned a time and they're gonna go
back and they're gonna sell Scott and they're going to examine and say, well,
what we maybe do wrong in draft? You know, for me,
I think that there were so many more positives and outweighed any negatives that came
from your one coaches that you were impressed with. You know, obviously we
have a lot of the new head coaches not make the playoffs. But who
do you think really them excelled? I thought Anthony Beck does a fantastic job.
They were extremely organized. They did a really good job of identifying exactly
what they wanted at each position and who fit and who didn't, and they
didn't deviate from that. I thought Reggie Barlow and his staff and the approach
they took offensively was brilliant because in professional football you barely have to deal with
quarterback run and defending quarterback run. So what do they do. They look
like a college team on offense, and then they go out and they signed
a draft three athletic quarterbacks, so if something happened to one of them,
they don't have to change the offense. They just plugged the next guy in.
And as we could see, particularly throughout the first five or six weeks
of the season, people had a hard time figuring them out because you just
in professional football, guys don't have to prepare for that, and you do
every day in college. So I thought that was really really well done on
behalf of Reggie Barlow in the DC staff, I felt or I felt for
Hines Ward because that team was just crushed, crushed with injuries, particularly at
quarterback. But really, what the common denominator is, and the coaches would
tell you this, and it's true at every level anyway, but the teams
that ended up hitting the market quarterback, we're the best teams, all right.
So and sometimes not just with one but with two. I mean Cole
McDonald and Brandon Silver's on one team, Nick Tiano a J. McCarron on
one team. The two players at DC that we referenced Derret King and Jordan
Tamu. And then the teams that struggled to settle in at quarterback struggled to
improve offensively and get enough wins. I mean, that's just kind of the
bottom line. Looking towards this weekend, you know, speaking of DC Seattle
going in, I'll be there. This Seattle will have a chance. I
mean, they've held DC close both other times. When you make of the
North Division, I think Seattle is a dangerous team in the league right now.
And when you really start to dissect their season, they're three plays,
all three of them essentially on the last play of the game for being ten
to no the fumble on the one yard line at DC all right, the
field goal to Seattle in a week two excuse me, Saint Lewis in week
two, and then the thirty five, thirty four or whatever one loss or
one point loss at home against DC. This is going to be a battle
for the ages. I actually think this is the championship game. I do.
I think these are the two best teams, two of the hottest teams
there. It's interesting because I do think Seattle has a great opportunity here.
I think I know a lot of people are going to vote for a J.
McCarron as the MVP, and maybe statistically you should, but I'm not
so sure. The best overall player in the league's not Bend Nucci. And
while he does take risks with the football and you're gonna have turnovers from him,
you're also going to have some utterly spectacular plays, players that have changed
their season players that have changed the of a game. And I think the
biggest challenge for Seattle isn't whether they can go toe to toe and match up
with DC. It's how do you handle you know, the crowd, the
road environment, which will be really really difficult, especially if you get backed
up in that one end zone. And you know, secondly, can you
get over that mental hurdle of sant kak? Can we finally get these guys
and we're so close, we feel like we should have won. We didn't
because we made more errors than they did and maybe it's now their time.
Can you get over that? You know? Do you think Ben has played
his way into a new NFL role here after the season? Oh yeah,
In fact, I think it'll have multiple options now, you know, getting
into camp, going deep into camp, whether he sticks or not, I
firmly believe will not be based upon anything talent related. It will be whether
he can prove he can consistently protect the football, because you're not going to
be able to do what he's done with the football and make a National Football
League roster. That's just they're not going to They're not going to do that,
and Ben knows that, But you don't also want to take away from
what makes him really good, right that riverboat gambler, gun slinger, guys
out in the street playing with his boys and things break down. You just
stolen them. I mean, that's what he is. And it's fun to
watch. Yeah, you wonder what Seattle would be if we didn't turn the
ball over eighty seven times? You know, right exactly. I mean,
at the end of the day, football's football, walking, tackling and who
protects the ball. I mean, it's let's get down to it. In
the bottom line is they were really, really careless with the football this year,
especially in those first four weeks. See you give you give Seattle the
edge against DC. I do. And I'm surprised that I'm saying that because
we had DC so much this year and I'm so familiar with them, But
I think that just might be due. And I think they're playing with such
confidence right now. And I don't know if you've noticed, but all of
a sudden, Josh Gordon's become a much bigger piece of the puzzle when the
other wideouts on that team started to perform, right Jordan VC, Blake Jackson,
Core Pearson. I mean, they have a group of four or five
guys, they're really good. That's enabled everybody not to just say, well,
let's focus on number zero. Now, you better defend the whole entire
field. And it's really helped him become more of a focal point of the
passenger. It's just crazy looking. And I've coached Buckley on this episode as
well, like how some of the teams were so much able to build so
much better? It seems that, you know, because everyone's starting from scratcher,
right, and is it just better DPPs and being able to scout?
Like how are some of the teams stacked so much more like Seattle? And
then you have coach Buckley, you know, I gotta go through twenty five
different guys to get a team here. Well, I think that for some
of the first year head coaches and the guys that hadn't built a franchise or
built a team. And I'm not saying this is the case, but in
supplemental leagues like this, it's all player evaluation. It's all player personnel.
And if you look at Dave Boehler at at St. Louis, over twenty
five years experience as an NFL scout, ben in Personnel's entire career, obviously
Mueller at Seattle and then the NFL pedigree of the coaches on that staff.
And I think as the newer head coaches become more entrenched, they're going to
start, I believe, to really see the value in an off season in
a league like this, it is all player evaluation. And I go back,
I go back to two thousand and one on the team that we built,
like we worked harder and longer in our offseason than we ever did on
a single day during the week of the game of a game in season.
And it was because we wanted to ensure that when we went into training camp
and came out of training camp that barring injury or something unforeseen, that we
had a chance to win, right. And that comes to research and study
and evaluation. And it's months and months and months and months. And not
to say that you know Haines or Rod or you know te Bak or any
of this, but they haven't necessarily had that background at this point, you
know, And some of the other coaches had a little bit of that,
they had some more. It was just like when Galen Hall or Jim Kriner
came over from NFL Europe and comes into the XFL in two thousand and one,
Well, they had distinct advantages over a guy like Jerry DiNardo, right,
And it's just because they'd been through that whole prep of how you do
this in professional football in a supplemental league. And so I think, again,
going back taking stock evaluating, a lot of teams will probably choose to
maybe tweak things or go a different direction sometimes. Do you think the league,
through all of their different you know, we had all the showcases and
everything, and we're finding another do you think they provided the coaches with the
best talent that they It was just who was able to kind of work with,
and that you think that the quality that they assembled for everyone was up.
I thought, let's talk about Orlando for a second, because I thought
Orlando, outside of the quarterback position until they settled on Quentin Dormity, I
didn't think they had bad players. They just self destructed each and every week.
I mean, and Tebuck will tell you that. I mean, double
digit penalties, turn over, snapping, game kicking, game snap booze.
And you can't go out when the playing fields, when you know the margin
of error is so small, you can't go out and do that and expect
to be successful, and then they compounded it because they were struggling at quarterback
and then lo and behold. If you watched the game that they beat DC,
it was the one time leading to that point that DC had actually done
what everybody on the else in the league had done, gone out there and
played bad, just flat out played bad. And on that day Orlando didn't
play as bad and the quarterback made some plays and we all know the result.
And so I I think that all of the teams had pretty good players.
I thought some of the teams lack some team speed. Other teams did
a good job at that with some of their skill. Um. I do
think that there's there's so many good players out there, really good players,
players that can make an NFL roster all right, that will be in the
player pool for an NFL draft or a showcase or a supplemental draft for the
XFL or whatever it is. That if you do your homework, you can
put together one heck of a roster. I mean you really can. But
you know that homework is going to be watching every single guy that's been cut
for the last three years and every single game he's ever played in. It's
going to I mean, it's it is an arduous, arduous process. Before
we get out of here. Thoughts on the South, I know, not
as intriguing the matter period that Bob Steve's kind of limping into the playoffs make
of Arlen Tan and Houston, Well, hopefully davey On Smith will be back
their whole offense. Really, if there's a strength that there's something you want
to look at, it's the offensive line in the run game. But they've
just struggled to come off of that with any semblance of consistency in the passing
game. And you know, outside of South Canal, Arlington hasn't had a
guy that can just run and take the top off the defense, right,
and not a lot of teams in this league had that. John Jay Kirkman
had that until he got hurt, and we saw the impact that had on
Houston's offense. So I think it's really critical for Louise Perez to have a
chance. They're going to have to run the football effectively, So getting Smith
back I think should be a help. I didn't like how Arlington went out
and played last week. It just it kind of left a sour note.
You find out that you're in the playoffs, before you kick off, Houston
comes out and plays with a vast majority of their reserves and Arlington play well,
I mean, and that's and you could hear Bob Stoops and the frustration
that he had on some of the open mic conversations and listening in, and
I don't blame him. And so now you're, like you put it,
you're kind of limping in against the team you just played, and you went
out, you kind of laid an egg. I'm really looking to see Arlington
come back and play some inspired football. That's what needs to happen for them.
And if it does, if they do, because defensively they're good enough.
Now Arlington is good enough on defense. So if they come out and
they can you know, minimize the mistakes, they'll get into the fourth quarter.
This will be a heck of a football game. Houston obviously coming back
down to earth, you know. And I'm trying to figure out, like
if A J. Smith kind of got found out, like you said,
we have the you know, the Kirkland injury, like what happened to Houston
here just playing against better teams in the North. It just seems like they're
not even the same team they were five six weeks ago. Yeah, I
think everybody kind of got caught up with I mean, look at look at
how DC got exposed on defense in the last four or five weeks of the
season. The first five weeks of the season, he's playing chess and everybody
else is playing checkers, right, And don't kid yourself, they do some
things on defense at DC that are on sound. Well, after about five
or six weeks of study and it, people started attacking it and having some
success. I think the same thing to be said here. Here's where Houston
had a huge advantage. Houston's offensive line was further along in the passing game
in the first two to three weeks of the season than everybody else in the
league. And Brandon Silvers did a great job of getting the ball out of
his hand, so unlike a lot of the offense is the first couple of
weeks, and not so much DC but just about everybody else, they weren't
dealing with a lot of negative plays. They were always playing with you a
pretty full deck. And then listen, he's a young offensive coordinator. He's
probably created tendencies that they came glaring. And guess what, a lot of
good coaches start studying up and now you have more to go on. And
I think John Trey Kirkland getting hurt crushed them. I really do believe that.
And then you know, Brandon Silver's got dinged up a little bit.
So it's a multitude of things, but I think it applies to the league
got better because everybody got to know each other better. So the gains became
more more competitive because there was more to prep for. And then at the
end of the day, quarterback play, who got hot late right, and
who stayed healthy. I mean that's a big part of it too, is
where we sit heading into the week one of the playoffs. It just I
liked it that everyone seemed to really give an us all year. I mean,
you know, we're having we're reliving the offensive coordinators and defensive like we're
doing all this. It just seemed like, I know, sometimes in the
USFL Season one, that felt like some of the coaches maybe we're out for
a cup of coffee a little bit. Sometimes like it felt like we really
we're all in right now, where this is our job. I'm ali,
Well, I'll say this. I think that there are young coaches, middle
aged coaches, and older coaches that would love to make a career coaching in
the XFL. I think they really enjoy it, and I think they can
be paid well enough to do that and support their families. So there is
an investment. And I think one of the reasons why there's been an investment
is the coaches can clearly see how invested Danny and DJ and you know,
the investment group is towards making this thing work. When the owners care and
the owners are visible and they're there and they're interacting with the people they've hired
because they want to support him and see him succeed, it makes for a
pretty fun work environment, you know, it really does. And so,
yeah, there's there's good football coaches that a coach I mean, yeah,
I mean Reggie Barlow to me is just I mean, here's a guy that's
won everywhere he's been all right. Now he gets a chance in professional football
and has one of the better plans of any coaching staff in the league.
They knew exactly who they were, what they were going to be, how
they were going to go about doing it. The players bought in. He
didn't deviate, and so you know he's looking at this thing is not just
an opportunity for him to move up, but even if it didn't happen.
What a great what a great gig, man, I mean, what a
great gig. So much fun. Well, Tom, I appreciate it.
Busy here making the time anything else before I let you go. Thanks for
your time today, No, man, I just looking for watching the playoffs
and saying keep I keep joking with everybody. I got this XFL Championship ring
and nobody's coming take it from me, so sooner or later, somebody's gonna
win it. I know I had my la extreme jersey on the first time
we talked. I appreciate that a lot of the time with the league and
everything else. So thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Well.
I'm thrilled today we are joined by I have been glued to my TV
every week watching this man. We have had coached srub Buckley here. How
are you doing, sir, I'm doing well, doing well. Appreciates for
asking how are you doing. I'm good. We're excited. I'll be in
DC this weekend. We're gonna be at the c Dragons Defenders game. Wish
you guys would be in the South, but you know where there's always next
year. You said, you're back home. How's your life right now?
How are you doing well? I'm kind of revealing a reliving i should say,
this past season on the good, the bad, but also very thankful
and really really excited about this weekend watching watching some more XFL football. Yeah,
how how's the process? What was the whole process like for you?
If you kind of had to grade, your experience were great? Just the
opportunity was an a plus. Obviously, Execuse's one in nine got off to
one of the worst starts that that you can imagine, I can even picture
that changing the roster, some of the details on how the makeup of the
team and the expectations and all those things we really didn't get correct. We
corrected a majority of that probably after week before and we started to play obviously
a lot better and was in a lot of games, so very very exciting
and learning. Experience, growth, opportunity heat for me, a very big
growth a leap. Uh. So it was good. It was good.
When you talk, how do you do you internalize that? Is that?
I'm you know, team building? Is it on the coaching, is it
on the players? How do you kind of where do you place that if
you had to kind of you know, look look back now of some of
the troubles you guys had. Well, remember I tried to remember this.
We we didn't have a team this time last year and no players, no
coaches. So you're talking about an entirely new league, a new staff,
uh, new players, no ota day. So we went right into training
camp, which was trying to learn each other, to learn a new system,
implement a culture, uh, in a new city of everything. And
it just did not jail. Some teams that jailed a little bit earlier and
they got off to a hot start. Uh. But if you see,
at the end, I felt like it was competing and we just couldn't get
over. We had too many turnovers. Earlier, we couldn't score in the
red zone. We couldn't stop. But I don't kick off the turn The
first part of season, defensively played pretty well out in the field. I
don't think we played very well in the red zone. And then we we
just didn't create enough negative plays on defense. We had some explosive players on
offense. At the end, too many turnovers. Just the little things again,
the errors pointing in the right direction, some of the penalies to move
in the ball to stopping them. H It was. It was a learning
experience, and I feel like we got better when you look and see you
know Houston or any of that, you know Arlingtons them being in the playoffs
and you're not were they just when you talk about jelling better, being able
to work, Like, what did they do? What happened with them that
they were able to succeed where you guys were in. I thought they got
off to a great start. They rushed the pass so pretty well. On
defense, Houston did they made more big plays and they made them when it
counted. I don't they just for us, We didn't make the plays when
it counted. Just like with Seattle, you look at halftime. I go
back to the halftime scenario we played Seattle. Well, we got a fantom
called about one of our linement moving his hands. So we go to halftime
ten nine versus thirteen six. Because it was five yards away from being in
field goal range. That could have been a huge day. We get a
plot a block punt with down one, were punting it in the fourth quarter
with seven minutes left, We're lose by seven. We lost the all of
ten by combined two games by three points. So and we got a call.
We had a big catch against all into the first game that had us
in field goal range that was overruled by Dean. Blandino still mad at Dean
for that. So we did some good things, but we didn't execute and
make the plays when it counted. Because it's tough because the obviously next year
I'll be different than people coming back, but you know, everyone's starting to
square one this year, so it's just hard. You know, I'm always
curious like where some teams were able to gel or find success earlier because everyone
started in any exact same place. I mean, it's it's challenging for all
eight teams, right, and I feel like the guys, this is what
I say, been the first time head coach and and creating that type of
environment hurt me, hurt us. But that's the great thing about it.
There's only one time, so again, moving forward, it won't be like
that. You look at Way, you look at Stoops, you look at
Ballow, look at has them. They've been head coaches. They understood kind
of with this how to build a team correctly, and they have It was
kind of dumb and Sword too they have a bunch of older players. We
kind of emphasize even in the league, we wanted a younger team, kind
of developmental. By the time I realized that was not the case, it
was too late and if you could see the turnover on the team we had
over the twenty five transaction. So we once we realized and I think this
is good for us, We realize, Okay, we made a mistake.
That's not right. Let's fix it, versus just sitting on it. Like
you see a lot of teams just sit and pump things and blame No,
I take it. DPP the minutes, we took that and we started to
make that change things you would do different going back and you said, you
know, Scott signing younger players that way? It is that the biggest thing
you would change if you had to go back and do it together. What
would that be that not not having so many and having some guys that have
gone, which will make older guys. I turned down. We as a
group, we turned out some guys like you know, it's twenty nine thirty.
I don't know, does you know kind of out of shade? Do
we do? We really want that? We run we rerun that yes,
we would take u We would take four or five of those guys, which
I think would would have made a huge difference for us. You did have
some bright spots here. We had Devin Derrington on our show a couple weeks
ago, and obviously who who stood out to you? And I wanted to
talk Quittin Dormandy separately, but who stood out to you? Uh, you
know it's bright spots on the team. Well, Devin Derrenton did a great
job, Terence Plumber, uh did a great job. Savon Patton uh,
Eli Rogers came and did a great job for us. Jordan Thomas at the
end. See, that's one of the things we wanted drawing early. We
couldn't get him to the middle of the season. Matt Brown partner. So
we have a few We have a few guys that came in uh and and
did a great job for Jayles Spady center the twenty might be the youngest player
in the league. Center that started last two games in terms of you know,
the the quarterback situation in Dermody and we don't got to have to get
into all that other stuff, but everything that he went through and playing the
way that he did, and just like, what do you think that was
like? And what is your thought process? I'm kind of seeing everything he
went through. It was a different situation, unique which I've never been a
part of. For sure, he's never been a part of. But the
way, the maturity, the professionalism on both sides of okay, this is
kind of what happened. Everybody disagree. You go through these things, but
then as a family when it comes back around and like it's like, okay,
this might have might not have. Let's water on the bridge as handle
as like men like professionals, and let's move forward. In terms of the
league overall, how do you think that this season when and if you you
know, if you had the great league, you know, management and executives
and everything from kind of a football ops. Oh man, I would say
you for a new league for I think we had over us it's gonna be
an end being able about seven hundred thousand fans to come playing in and having
a hub and playing in your home stadium. The logistics over that, and
I would give us an eight. There's a league and the first class of
it, the ownership group being available and being what we said, lion off
feetmen able to just make adjustments from not having an indoor when it got cold
to having an indoor. Just just in general, the flexibility that we was
afforded, I think is is second and none thoughts on spring football in general,
having the league like this to give these players an opportunity, I mean
awesome. I think I don't now. Obviously we had the NFL Europe before,
which was unbelievable. This being here in the States, United States and
being able to support each other like we do, I think it's unreal.
I think it's needed. It's appreciated on both sides, fans and players and
coaches, and the opportunity for the XFL that it gives to guys like myself
that get the opportunity have an ups and downs, to make adjustments, to
to be the head coach, to being charged and do all that. It's
unbelievable, and for mem I'm just very very appreciative. Yeah, in terms
of yeah, I misspoke in terms of not only the players, but obviously
the coaching and staff giving you are you do you find yourself or do you
think other players former players would now be interested in utilizing this and kind of
taking a datage to this opportunity. Also absolutely, you know, I was
talking to somebody last night that I'm thinking about bringing on an old vetching coach
that has been in the NFL. The scheduling, everything about it. It's
still coaching. You're still getting i'll call them that their prose. It's almost
like that that development of part the fifth year senior. You get a little
bit of that and get a little bit of that first year of rookie guy,
and you get to keep working your craft, doing something you love and
provide an entertainment and having an impact not just on the field but off the
field. Uh. It's what it's about, I think, and that's why
I love it and appreciate it. In terms of other players and things being
involved. When you as a player, you know, seeing the head coach
and obviously you're gonna have a million different things that you think that they should
do different. Now with the shoes being on the other foot, I think
you kind of look back at maybe some of the things that you were critical
of with former coaches or players, like now that you've got to hold the
clipboards on that side. Yeah, I think there's a couple of things that
that I look back on and Will Uh says Okay, maybe I shouldn't have
said that. It uh not a whole lot because I was always respectful and
knew how tough it was. But there's a couple of things You're like,
Okay, it should not not been in this tough But I understand now what
those guys we're going through at that time, being now that I'm on this
side and some of them am actually gonna reach out to over the next few
days and get some more advice from them, like totally dungee, Dan Mullen,
you know, just different guys like Okay, how would you handle this
situation? What happened? When this happened? He looking forward the year to
hear what would you like to see from the league to help you guys be
more successful? Uh, And it's happening now. It's one of those.
Uh. We have a calendar of events that we've already started on the camps.
We already have picking out teams that we're going to visit NFL teams.
So the improvement and this is why this league is so great and gonna have
standing for They're not waiting around to decide what what can we do better?
What do we do? They've they've been doing that the entire season and been
giving us that information. And you think they're receptive of the you know,
anything that you guys might need to help success, helped set yourselves up for
more success. Absolutely. I mean they said out they said out something a
couple of weeks ago, asking about that, and I think from from Dannon
Glocer to Dwayne to Jared Carton or the owners, that's what they want,
that feedback. And then you throw a rough sprand and uh Mark Mark Marking
and Doug and you got you got a management team and the ownership group that
wants to get better. They want to put a grade grade one product on
the field. A couple more. I'll let you go here our promise.
I appreciate your time here, said. We talked with the coach back at
the beginning of the season, and he was talking, you know, his
biggest success would be to have all his players signed on the NFL camps at
the end of the season. Rebuild. You know, obviously continuity all that,
How do you view the team in your position in the league and what
would you like to say, Echoing with Beck, said, you want all
these guys to get opportunity to go to the next level. If not,
as they come back and we get them core guys going that they they really
appreciate this opportunity and stay focused on what's in hand and we're about the future
later and let's try to put this thing turning around for us the Landau Guardians
and be in the playoff and get opportunity to win the championship. Were you
impressed with the level of talent in the league or what was your thoughts from
the talent level of the players. Oh man, I was very impressed talking
about from first of all, how big and how to shape those guys were,
and then just from a playbook, the football key it is, I'm
taking schemes thematically. They're a bunch of NFL NFL coaches, former coaches on
the staff, so implement that. How quickly they received that, and the
play just kept getting better and better and better. Uh. From from everybody
around the league, the respect factor from each team was unbelievable. The professionalism,
I mean we literally would go would fly down on the same plane,
split the plane up, fly in compete, I mean, try to tear
each other apart after the game, see each other. I'm talking about literally
thirty minutes later and congratulate each other. Obviously was congratulating a team a lot
what we want. It won't be the case next year. And the professionalism
didn't get back on the plane and the bus and there was no issue.
So I can really really appreciate that for the players. Yeah, I hadn't
been. You know, I'd probably a little chippy after some of the games,
right, depending on the year who won the last Well, that's what
I'm saying. It was. It might have been initially, but after the
cool down and everything, because we had to go through the buses a part
right beside each other. We had to go through the same security gate,
and then you had the bus ride over, separate bus, and then you
get on the same plane and you get off the plane together and the buses
a part right beside each other. To the professionalism of the players, I
think need to be highlighted just across the league. That was amazing to me
and I really appreciate the players. Last question, what would you what would
be your masters for Orlando Guardians fans? Obviously a tough year trying to build
a new market, new franchise. We'd like to see more success. What
would you have to say to them, I would say, hey, have
some patients, would us if you saw us at the end of the season.
The second half was very, very competitive. We are working diligent and
trying to find guys that can and finish and make plays when it count.
We've already started the process of improving the team. So we had this saying
last year Orlando Guardians that and guard We've already changed in that we're gonna make
it the Guardian way, which is first class professionalism, playmakers, all those
things that we need to turn this around and getting the playoff and give us
a shot to win a championship. Well, I really appreciate your time.
It was fun to watch. I enjoyed you trying to ask if you can
get your time out back the other day and that was fine. I could
tell you on there about did you really think they were going to give it
back or replayed to the camera? No, I really because the relf,
you guys to hear the whole conversation, right, The relf was telling one
of the players on the field, and we had twelve guys on the field,
which was not the case. So that was their mistake. And so
I was asked, since you guys made the mistake, then you should give
us the penalty, give us the time out back. That was the whole
whole thing around that we had Dan on last week five, I bogus question
here, were you happy with the level of officiating that would you like to
see the improved? Well, just like us in the beginning of the season,
it was it was needed an improvement to like our team. I felt
like the second half it was very good. I thought it was its thought
to be fair and balanced and and all that. So in the beginning,
need a lot of work, no different than than us, and at the
end it got really good and it was unique and very exciting too. Well.
I appreciate your time. We'll see you next season, and I know
that you just enjoy the watch. And a lot of Guardians fans i'd hear
as bad as they were sometimes and it's good to see the improvement. Well,
thank you again, and they just have patience. Again, Guardians fans,
we will do better. Appreciate all the love and all all the stuff
we get too. We will come back bigger, faster and stronger next year.
Awesome, good luckily, thank you so much, appreciate it. Thank
you brother huge Sprestal. Thanks to all of our guests. Like I said,
I know it was a crazy week with the NFL Draft is kind of
engulfing everybody's time. So really appreciate Emory Tom and then chow Buckley for coming
on the Guardians media team. If we joked, if the Guardians could play
on the field as well as the comms team plays off the field, that
you know, the Guardians would be a force to be reckoned with. But
I hope you guys enjoy I hope you guys are enjoying the draft. Hope
you like the XFL playoffs. I hope ratings go good. Like I said,
I got some spokes in the fire to get one of some more sports
media people on next week to break all that stuff down. Our ratings came
out this week when I was working, sure, I'm sure Twitter was fine.
I was I was filming over at a school for an auction video.
But I'm sure Twitter was absolutely fine when the USFL ratings came out this week.
But it should be good. We'll see how they do against the XFL
playoff games, and then obviously XFL will be going away, so hopefully we'll
see some boosts in the usfl our ratings here are coming up here in two
weeks or I guess it would be that we got the bye week and then
the championship, So we'll see. I'm sure they will figure it all out.
Like I said, I can subscribe. Thank you guys so much for
your time, you know, busy and taking the time to watch the show
with everything else going on in the draft, and I hope your NFL team
got the best draft pick in the world and that you did not throw any
remotes against your TV or anything else with that. Thank you guys. We'll
see you next time.