Schwiker, Cannison, Krizak Rndio Bradley sponsors for Friday Night Drive. I'm Mike
Krizak. If you've been injured, we are ready to take on the insurance
company and get you to the end zone. We've recovered hundreds of millions of
dollars for our clients. Visit G A, N A, S, S
I M dot com. What's up everyone, and welcome back into the Friday
Night Drive Podcast. I am Kyle Neighbors along with my co host Steve Susie.
It is unbelievably week nine. Here. It is Thursday, October nineteenth.
We were recording this about eleven am on Thursday, and we got a
full, incredible slate a high school football head suits one of my favorite weeks
of the entire calendar each year. This slate does not give us any There's
a lot of good games, essentially, is what I'm trying to say here,
isn't there? Yeah? I mean you look at it just from the
top of the pile. Obviously there's the grand fan of the regular season that
we're waiting for on Saturday between Mount Carmel and Loyola. But the interesting thing
about this week is that there are so many teams that have already clinched playoff
first basically meaning they've got six wins or more at this point, that are
playing another team they're in the same situation. In Week nine. There's a
ton of six and two against six and two, games six and two,
seven and ones, pairs of seven and ones and eight no playing a six
and two. They're all over the board. There's like forty of those games
this week, which which will obviously lead to a lot of jostling on those
seed boards based on the results of those games coming in because those teams are
already in the playoffs, but they have a lot to play for. Some
of them are fighting to try to get a home game, some of them
are trying to fight to get a top five seed. I mean, there's
just a lot of intrigue in those games, and the results that come out
of them are gonna bear a lot of weight on how the brackets look On
Saturday Night. You can follow sous on Twitter at the SEUs. You can
follow myself on Twitter at Kyle Neighbors. You can find all of Friday Night
Dry content at Friday Night Drive dot com. Follow us on Twitter at fn
Drive. Also find us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Suits will
have a live updates throughout the weekend for his project Playoff Projections, which right
now you can find. Heading into week nine, his updated playoff projection at
Friday Night Drive dot Com will also have live with Friday Night Drive from eight
to eleven PM. Jake Barlson and the Seuss hosting that I'll be popping in
from time to time, will be breaking down everything that how it relates to
the playoff field throughout Week nine. And one of those games, as Sus
mentioned, it's gonna be one of the last games to come in on Saturday
afternoon, Loyola versus Mount Carmel, but it's gonna have an impact on the
way this field shapes up. But first off, before we get into that
talk about the playoff field, we're gonna start like we usually do by bringing
in Michael Duojack, who covers the Chicago Catholic League and East Suburban Catholic Conference
for Friday Night Drive dot Com. Michael, how you doing man? Good?
Are you guys doing wonderful? I'm probably tell by the tone of my
vote I'm excited for football this week. And how about you yeah, I'm
really excited. What do we have, like an hour to talk about Mount
Carmel, Loyola and nas in Saint Francis and all these other great matchups coming
up this weekend? Where did you want to start with Mount Carmel Looyal or
do you want to finish with it? Why don't we finish with it?
Because we've got a lot to impact there. I feel like, all right,
let's start with where are you going on Friday night? I'm going to
Saint Rita, Brother Rice. Saint Rita has made the playoffs, they earned
their you know bid there, but Brother Rice needing to win that game right
now. They need to pick up the number five, I think too.
So I'm not sure Brother Rice would have enough playoff points with four wins or
anything like that, but Brother Rice, Brother Rice is leading that list.
If they do end up at four and five, they're they're number one out
of all potential options for a four and five team. So if we need
four and five's, if Brother Rice is four and five, they'd be the
first team pulled. Yeah, but I'm sure the Crusaders you know, want
to win that game. But it's been a it's been kind of a crazy
season. You know, they Brother Rice started so well at ten and seven,
and then you know, injuries have just kind of played this team the
entire year. They lost their start linebacker, Christian Pierce, who has offers
from Ohio State, Michigan, Illinois, Texas. They lost two defensive line
starters throughout the season, and a lot of their secondary is young. So
that defense, you know, is a really you know, kind of patchwork
defense at this point. And the offense is you know, is good running
the ball passing wise. Their top threat wide receiver has gone as well.
So it hasn't been exactly the season Brother Rice expected at the beginning of the
year. But now the Crusaders, you know, they gotta play Saint Rito
southside rival Blue Arrival as well, so it should be a really fun game
just to watch, you know, see with Brother Rice can get into the
game and see, you know, if Saint Rita is going to you know,
play all the way out and you know, try to get a higher
seed with with a win. Two. Montini started the year five and zero
and has now lost three straight games. They sit at five and three.
The Broncos do they head to six and two. Saint loriis this week.
What are you expecting out of that matchup? I'm really curious to see.
You know, Saint Lawrence has kind of impressed me throughout the year. I
think, you know, playing Saint Rita last week, they you kind of
got the you know result you kind of expected with you know, them playing
a blue opponent like Saint Rita. But Saint Lawrence has been you know,
really impressive this year. A lot of their playmakers have really come together.
And for Montini, you know, I covered their loss to Brother Rice on
Friday and talking with coach Mike Lukowski, he has strussed that they have not
played a complete game yet. They you know, and in their game against
Brother Rice, they committed around I think it was like seven penalties that really
just you know, got in the way of long drives. And you know,
Montini has that big play potential. They got Mari who can really run
it. They they got a lot of great players and good quarterback play as
well, and the defense played pretty well against Brother Rice. Is just you
know, when the offense commits you know a fall star penalty or you know
just silly penalties that kind of stopped drives or really stops them from playing.
So I'm really curious to see, you know, is Saint Lawrence able to
regroup after a tough loss to Saint Rita last week and cam Mantini finally put
it together before heading into the playoffs. I know, obviously Montini is happy
to make the playoffs, but I don't think they really want to go into
it with a four game losing streak. Yeah. While Montini is trying to
break a losing streak, Nazareth is on a four game winning streak now at
four and four after an zero to four start to the season. I think
at this point it's pretty well known that naz started two and four last year,
came all the way back to win the Class five A state title.
Trying to take it a step further this year after starting zero to four.
But they get a really tough matchup this week against Owed and Saint Francis tein
that just knows how to win games. Michael, Yeah, Saint Francis has
been really impressive over the past four weeks. Just you know, ever since
that Fenwick loss when they lost in the field go in the last minute,
they've just been motivated ever since. In coach McMillan talked about how that field
goal lost kind of turned their season around. They have learned how to win
in this league. They've learned how what it takes to you know, put
games together. So Saint Francis is a really strong opponent, and Nazareth has
finally kind of looked the way we expected NAS to look. I think,
you know, obviously that we've talked a lot about this season about how,
you know, tough their schedule has been. You know, obviously, I
don't think there's been a bad opponent on that schedule, and they've been competitive
in all their games except probably York in Week number two. So I'm really
curious to see, you know, what NAS team comes together. They were
able to be brother Rice a couple of weeks ago. They've just been on
a tear ride now and I'm just really curious to see, you know,
is this team finally able to put it all together? And if they enter
as a five and four team, I I don't know if I'm you know,
if I'm a top seed, I don't want to play NAS because there's
that's just gonna be a tough opponent that is not a five and four team,
that is probably a quarterfinal of not a semi final matchup in the first
round for that top seed. You have Bennett and Providence matching up this week
at four and four. You got to Paul College Prep, which picked up
a marquee win a multiple overtime win last week. Get Fenwick to get to
four and four. Uh, some intriguing teams trying to crack that five win
mark. Which other matchup are you looking at around the or which other team
are you focused on here in week nine? I'm really curious, and you
know, for De Paul, you know they're they beat Fenwick in double overtime
this past week just felt like a huge program win. Probably a lot of
them, a lot of the coaches in the staff has said it's probably their
biggest win since they turned into De Paul Prep. Obviously Gordon before them,
you know, one state championships and that kind of stuff. So a lot
of football history with Gordon Tech. But De Paul has been kind of looking
for, you know, trying to figure out who they are as a program
and trying to get that buy in, and that Fenwick win might be that
buy in that coach Mike Purcell has been looking for. So I'm really curious
to see, you know, the Paul Prep, they get De la Sale.
De la Sal can't make the playoffs, but the Deal Seal has a
lot of you know, great athletes, you know who can play collegiately.
So I'm really curious to see what happens in that matchup, whether you know,
d La Sale is gonna you know, really give them a test,
and whether De Paul can finally get over the hump and make the playoffs for
the first time since twenty thirteen. And for Saint Viator in Providence, I
mean it's or for uh yeah, it's the entire Providence. It just it
feels like to win and get in for those teams. Providence has kind of
been you know, up and down after making the state championship game in four
a last year, kind of struggled to find consistency for much of the season.
And Saint Vidor is kind of the same way, where in the last
you know, four games, they've averaged fourteen points and given up an average
of thirty five point three points per game. Obviously they'll want to turn that
around moving forward here as they we enter week nine, and of course we
come to the big one, Loyola Mount Carmel one pm on Saturday. Is
it one pm or one thirty one? Because of the sun no lights at
Loyola. Yes, I think it suits before they start from at one thirty
and they got told like they have to start no later than one You can't.
It's actually in the bylaws. You cannot start a Saturday game that has
playoff implications of any kind after one pm. Yeah, you're not allowed to.
Yeah, So if you are going out, by the way, if
you're going out to that game on Saturday afternoon, Loyol is also hosting another
athletic event. Parking is going to be tight out there with a lot going
on. That's already gonna be a big crowd for football, So make sure
you get there early. Michael, just give us a little bit of a
breakdown on this one. What are you expecting. I'll just start things up.
People probably won't want to hear this from me, But I have no
idea what's going on. But what's going to happen with this game? It
could be an defensive you know, it can be a defensive battle. It
can be a shootout like it was last year. I don't know what could
happen. These are two you know, elite teams, that have just battled,
you know, in week number nine for the Blue Championship. Loyola won
it in twenty twenty one, twenty one to nineteen, and then Mount carl
obviously won that thriller forty two to thirty seven last year. Just some stats
for you guys. Loyola holds the overall advantage nine to eight in the past
seventeen years, but ever since Jordan Lynch took over, Mount Carmelo leads three
to two. In those last five games, the average margin of victory has
been six point six points. The two teams, you know, they know
what it's like, they know what it's like to compete against each other.
And if I'm talking about a huge matchup them looking forward to I'm very curious
to see the matchup of Mount Carmelo's offense, primarily Darien Deprie against Loyoli's defense.
Loyola's defense has been elite this year. They only average, you know,
giving up seven points per game, and a lot of those points have
come up in garbage time when the backups have been getting in the second half.
So this Loyola defense has been elite. But you know, Mount Carmelo's
offense has been the elite as well. And last year, Darien DePree was
really having a great game against Loyal. He got a lot of big runs
before he got injured in that game, and obviously that took him out from
the playoffs. But I'm very curious to see how this Loyola defense, you
know, they have great senior leadership all the way up, starting with Joe
Kelly as a defensive lineman. He's been a really strong lineman who's created a
lot of pressure on quarterbacks and running backs this year. So I'm very curious
to see how does Darien Depre, you know, not only run against this
defense, but he's a there have been some games where he's had more receiving
yards than rushing yards. He's like a great pass catcher. He can do
a lot with the ball once he catches the ball. So I'm very curious
to see how, you know, Jordan Lynch and this Mountcarmol offense can go
against the defense that has not really had a slow game at all this year.
Make sure you follow Michael on Twitter at m dwo Jack ninety four.
You can also find him on Instagram and threads Michael. Before we get out
here, I'm going to put you on the spot. I know you said
you don't know how this is gonna play out, but I'm gonna make you
pick a winner here. I you know, I'm just gonna go last year
with when I made my prediction, I gave Loyola the toss up just because
it was a Loyola. So obviously Mount Carmel doesn't have a doesn't have trouble
traveling up to Loyola and competing in that environment like most teams do. I
am on the record saying that I think Mount Carmelo's going to win this game.
I think it's actually going to be a fourteen to thirteen win for Mount
Carmel. I think the defense is kind of shining this game. I know
the weather might be a little sloppy in the morning, but I think we'll
be fine by the time the game kicks off at one o'clock. But I
just think these defenses are really good. I think both offenses have experience.
But you know, I'm very curious to see how does Ryan Fitzgerald do in
this first, you know, big time game like this. Jack Elliott obviously
did it against eat St. Louis in game number one for Mount Carmel.
But I think it's a tight game. I think Mount Carmel pushes off,
gets a late game interception or fourth game stop, fourth downstop, and I
think Mount Carmel wins this one fourteen to thirteen. All right, well,
thank you for joning us this morning, Michael. We'll be right back to
talk to Joe Stevenson about everything happening around mckenry County. This is State Representative
Steve Reich, and I'm happy to sponsor this year's Friday Night Drive. There'll
be plenty of time for politics down the road, but for now, let's
enjoy some high school football. Whichever school you follow, give him your support.
Welcome back into the Friday Night Dry podcast. I am Kyle Neighbors,
and now we welcome in Joe Stevenson, who covers McHenry County for the Northwest
Herald in Friday Night Drive dot com. Joe, how you doing. I'm
gonna borrow the line from Bill Walton this week. If I were any better,
there'd be a have to be an investigation. I'm looking forward to basketball
season. Get in some more Bill Walton highlights. Those are some of the
most bizarre, wonderful things you can find. What I love is when they
get Frank kelliendo doing Bill Walton. Those are just hysterical. That guy's that
guy's great. He is quite wonderful. But Joe, let's let's dive in
here to week nine up in your neck of the wood, and I want
to start with Marion Central. We've seen this team have to battle all year
long to get itself into position week nine here against Weedon Academy. It's a
tough matchup. What kind of vibe are you getting for the Hurricanes going into
this one? Well, you know, I think Mary is capable of winning
this game. I think it's a possibility because you know, the Hurricanes can
throw it all over the place with with Cale mcfinea, Christian, Benton Kerr,
Ryland Dolter, some of those other receivers they have. Man, this
is gonna be a tough one. They're on the road and Wheaton Academy just
beat a good Aurora Christian team last week. I was at thirty to seven
I think it was, and Aura Christian beat the Hurricanes by twelve the week
before. So it's gonna it's gonna be a tough task for them. You
know, I don't know what you know SEUs has an idea on you know,
possible four and five teams if if Marian were to lose, and you
know what if it still have a chance to get in or not. I
know, the Hurricanes are like one of the top what four or five would
they be? SEUs And actually, actually they've slipped a little bit over the
last couple of weeks. And I don't know which of you I talked to
about this, but I think the biggest problem for Maryon Central Catholic and their
point accumulation was earlier in the season, they played the Milwaukee Academy of Science
and lost to them, but that team actually has not played since Week seven,
so they're not accumulating any points. So they had kind of a weird
schedule. And while they were getting points from them because they kept winning early
in the year, Now every time Marion Central Catholic wins, they're getting three
points from their conference opponents, and if Richmond Burton wins, which they usually
do, a fourth. So the maximum number of points that they're going to
get per week right now is four if they win, and four a week
is not keeping you at the top of the list. You need more than
that. So they've been slowly slipping down. Now. I believe they're probably
eleventh or twelfth on the list of teams that would if they finished four and
five, would get into the field. So that would be really unlikely to
happen, to be honest. So this pretty much means winning in for Marion.
Yeah, and I still think Marion would be a really tough out in
two A if it can get there, because that's a that's a high powered
offensive team, and I just provide some real matchup problems with Benton KERR.
Yeah, yeah, Bennenker. That's why I wanted to mention here, Christian
Bennenker. Watch now at two hundred and ten career receptions, tied for eighth
all the time with Cretemontigue wide receiver Lakwan Treadwell. He's done af K for
himself right well. And then listen listen at Christian Bennenker's numbers this year.
Just hilarious so far through eight weeks, seventy one reception, one and sixty
two yards and eighteen touchdowns. He put in out player some Calvin Johnson numbers
in the high school level here. I think he's had four two hundred yard
games I'm pretty sure there's four games where he's had two hundred yards receiving.
When I saw one, yeah, you saw one, and I saw the
opener of Richmond Burton he had he almost had two hundred yards at halftime of
that game. Oh my yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, and
three touchdowns and almost a fourth. I think he caught one just and just
had stepped out of bounds onlike the last play of the half. So yeah,
he's something else, you know, and cheap. In mind, those
career numbers include a freshman year that was the COVID year, so they only
played five games that year, and he still had like thirty eight in that
year. So yeah, just crazy stuff. Heading over to the Fox Valley
Conference, you got four teams into the playoffs so far, with Perry Ridge,
Huntley, Kerry Grove and Jacobs the four teams we typically expect to see
at the top of the FBC standings battling behind them. He got two more
teams that have a chance this week to fight their way into the playoff field.
That's Burlington Central and Crystal Lake Central. Burlington Central has a tough matchup
against Huntley, while Crystal Lake Central has a winnable game against Hampshire Joe.
But they're going to be doing that without starting quarterback Jason Penzen, who left
the last week with an injury. Yeah, Jason Pinza injured his shoulder early
in the game against Prairie Ridge. He actually stayed in and played a couple
more series and threw a touchdown pass to George Demopolis. He caught it over
the middle and took it like eighty seven yards. It was a long play.
But after that throw, he came to the sideline and told coach Derek
Stangers as coach, I just can't go. I can't do it anymore.
He was hurting too bad. So I'm pretty sure he's not going to play,
and I don't know what his status would be for next week if the
Tigers are to win and get in. You know, Sophomore Abraham Quinn came
in and really looked pretty good. Made some nice plays, some nice throws,
some good decisions, had a couple of good runs for first downs,
and he will have the whole week, you know, this week to practice
with the first offense and so so that will be to their advantage. They
got some great receivers over there, Uh, Hampshire is this is not a
given Hampshire's two and six, but this is a pretty good two and sixteam,
and you got to deal with their running back Cole Klaubakowski, who's just
a real workhorse and real productive runner over in the Kishwaukee River Conference in interstate
A. Uh, we got Marengo this week, had fought its way back
to four and four. Here a win over Sandwich last week that I'll be
honest, they caught me a bit by surprise, Joe. But now have
a game against four and four Plano me and that that one caught me by
surprise as well. What a what a great win for the Indians to make
this week nine game. Really need something now it's them and planoh both you
know, both four and four. So the winner winner gets to keep playing.
The loser is going to have to go home. But yeah, what
a great story last week too. Maringo Alton Bergbrider, the kid who was
had the scary situation there against Johnsburg in week four where he was on the
field for like a half hour. They helicoptered him to Lutheran General because of
the neck injury and he recovered in time to actually come I thought it was
just kind of like the doctors, you know, kind of holding the carrot
out there. Hey, you know, maybe you can do this to keep
him from you know, keep his hopes up and stuff. But it was
real. He actually you know, you know, young people can recover quickly.
He recovered quickly, and he came back had nine catches and a touchdown
last week in that win. So it was a great story. Yeah,
one of the best storylines of the season. I mean, that was absolutely
awful when that when that story came across, and it's great to see him
on the mend and back on the football field. Yeah, yeah, it
was all right, Joe, before we let you go, you got anything
else you want to share with us? Last week, well we have well,
you know, and I get to see Richmond, Burton and Rochew on
Friday night, and I'm looking forward to that because I think that's going to
be a good game here. The scheduling worked out nicely for the second year
in a row, the two teams in the Blue division of the krc I
eight and it's coming down to that and I think that's going to be a
fun game. All right. Make sure you follow Joe on Twitter. At
at nwh underscore Joe prepso and Joe have a good Week nine. I will
all right, everyone, still, we're gonna do one more commercial break than
stick with us, Susan, I'll be brack to break down the Week nine
slate. This is State Representative Steve Reich and I'm happy to sponsor this year's
Friday Night Drive. There will be plenty of time for politics down the road,
but for now, let's enjoy some high school football. Whichever school you
follow, give him your support. All right, welcome back into the Friday
Night Drive podcast, and now we get to breaking down Week nine with SEUs
SEUs. We got, like I said at the top, we got a
really good slate of game. When you when you strap in where you started,
you know, for me, it's all about, you know, factoring
in what's gonna happen at the back end of the playoff field, who's getting
in who isn't, especially with a lot of focus on whether or not we
have the four and fives getting in. Because the reason that that's so important,
I think in the grand scheme of things is the list of teams that
could get in at four and five are some big names and because of the
way that the playoff field is put together, those four and five teams go
into the bracket last, so you know, potentially you're talking about teams like
Brother Rice and Nazareth and teams of that nature. If they do end up
being four and five teams that get in, they're going to enter their respective
brackets. Is probably the last seed. So imagine opening up your playoff pairings
as a top seed and discovering that the sixteen seed or the thirty two seed
is a Brother Rice or a Nazareth. Not exactly a great reward for getting
the top seed. So that's kind of where I'm really focusing a lot of
my energies. There are so many intriguing, interesting stories in the groups of
teams right now that sit at four and four that are trying to fight their
way in some schools, trying to end some long playoff droughts, you know,
some other teams trying to extend some very long playoff runs. So for
me, that's where it really comes down to. There are you know,
fifty six teams that are on that list that still have an opportunity to get
to five victories. Some situations are better than others, But what We've always
learned in the history of this is if you just look at that chart and
say, oh, they're playing a six and two team, they're probably not
going to win, that theory will blow up in your face. Several times
in Week nine. It always does. I feel like we're having a sense
of deja vu from last year because I think as we went into Week nine
last year, you had four or five teams of with four wins in the
playoff projection, we ended up with just one because of upsets in Week nine.
Just kind of get that feeling that where you're going to have upstarts again
this year, don't you always do? I mean, and that's kind of
what I tell people. It's like, when you do what I do with
the playoff projections, you have to kind of read it as you would read
it. You can't anticipate, you know, four and four upsetting a six
and two or a seven and one, but you know it's going to happen.
It's going to happen. Pegging which team that is is much more difficult.
But when I look at that list, I see a couple that I'm
like, you know, I really think they can win that game, and
it's and that's maybe don't project them to get into the field, but I
definitely have I guess a red alert on those particular teams, keeping a close
eye on them to see if they do what I think they're capable of.
When all the chips are on the table. What what are some of the
most impactful games this week in terms of like if so and so wins,
it would really mess with the projection. Well, I think the first one
that you look at is is Nazareth and Wheat in Saint Francis, because,
like we talked about before, if Nazareth doesn't win that game, they'll they'll
go in as a last seed. But if they do win it and get
to five victories, they have so many playoff points that they actually move considerably
up the draw in five A to almost the middle of the brackets. So
it's it's very interesting to kind of look at those situations because you know,
if these teams that are sitting here right now that you know are projected to,
you know, finish with five wins, and I look at the Catholic
League in a lot of these situations, will Fenwick beat Icy Catholic and get
themselves into the field. That changes a lot of things because you know,
right now, I don't have Fenwick win that game, but if they do
win that game, they go into the seven A field, and then we
start talking about moving teams not only in the seven A field, but almost
across the entire field. Because Fenwick is a bubble team between six and seven.
Which side of the fence did they land on? And then when they
do, how does the field shift does it go? Does it push out
a small school and move all of those teams that are kind of sitting on
the bubble, or does it does it push out a large school and basically
make limited to no change. So those are all variables that you know,
will start to get really kind of focused in on as we get through Friday
night. But you know those are two right there that really are are very
interesting to me in regards to I'll be watching them carefully to see the potential
impact that if the if the game goes differently than what I have it projected,
how much of a I guess of a sweeping wave across the entire field.
That sounds extreme, but there are certain teams that can really make a
big move with an unexpected win this week up or down the draw, are
in the draw and not in the draw. It's there are just so many
variables right now. And the other facet of all of this, when we
start talking about moving teams in and taking teams out, where do they come
from? Because the bubbles still contain some real power teams. You've got you
know, Wilmington drifting between two and three A. They've been bouncing back and
forth. They've settled into three right now, they might be back into Morris
Is another one, four or five A. You know which one? Which
side of that fence are they going to land down? Right now? It
looks like five, But there are enough variables out there to believe they could
get moved back to four and I that's a big deal. I have to
assume in five A. If they fall in five A, they have to
be pretty close to that north south dividing line, too, don't they.
They always are. You know, it's kind of the situation they are in
both in four and five A. I think that they're in the they're in
the south bracket. But you know, it's funny because if they go to
five and they're playing Sycamore this week, and I was talking to somebody about
this, earlier this week. Morris has so many playoff points, and the
five A bracket lacks undefeated teams in many of the brackets, so they will
have they will actually it doesn't matter if they win or lose, they'll be
the if they end up in five A, they'll be the one seed in
the South bracket. So that's that's how many points they have. So it's
kind of an interesting thing. Some of some of the undefeated teams are congregating
in in certain classes and not leaving a lot for the other classes. I
think we're we may go into its potential that we may go into the postseason
in six A without a single undefeated team. Kanka Kei is the only one
left, and they have a what I would classify as a difficult game against
Cretemony this week, so there's no guarantee that they will run the table undefeated.
So we might have a single undefeated team in the six A bracket when
it's announced on Saturday night. If you want to hear more about that more
Sycamore matchup, you can listen to the Illinois Valley edition of the Friday Night
Drive podcast hosted by Eddie Carriffio and JT penalty. That is live right now.
You can get that anywhere you download your podcast from suce. We also
had Eddie. Eddie got a fan mail I'm sure you saw it who was
upset with our pick that we took Morris over Sycamore, and I, while
I think it's gonna be a competitive game, I felt pretty strongly about our
pick. This is a Morris team. You look over the course of the
season, They've They've done everything you can ask for or ask of them,
including a big win over Richmond Burden, who they lost to last year.
I think I think Morris wins this game. You know, I have been
slowly moving the pensulum towards Morris over the entire season. Early in that year,
I was I was with Sycamore and you have to make a pick here.
You can't say, oh, I think this is I think this is
close. I'm just gonna call it a toss up and you have to put
a name on the line, like that's the way that this works. Sometimes
I wish I could take the cop out and say, you know, hey,
I don't know, but I mean, you have to make a pick,
and you know, I kind of just kind of look back to markers
on this game. It's like, Okay, so you know Sycamore beat Caitlin
by a point earlier in the season, right, Morris beat them by ten,
and I mean it came down to the last I mean it's just like
I look at you know, compared to I mean, I know they're not
always you know, the best indicator of things, but I just kind of
look at comparative scores and both of them have had their way with most of
their opponents. But when they play those quality opponents, I think Morris has
just done a little bit better. And it's at Morris. I mean that.
I don't think homefield advantage is a huge thing, but it's enough to
where you have to what I what appear to be on paper fairly evenly matched
team. If I have to pick one and I think they're that close,
I'm going to lean towards the home team the time. So that's that's just
kind of my breakdown with it. It's you know, I can easily see
Sycamore winning this football game, but the responsibility here is to pick what we
think is going to happen, and I think Morris is gonna win it too.
Make sure you tune into live with Friday Night Drive Live at Friday Night
Drive dot com and on YouTube from eight to eleven pm with hosts Jake Barlston
Steve Sussie. I'll be popping in as well, breaking down everything in week
nine and keeping you updated with how the playoff field looks. You can also
with the IHSA. They're the bracket reveal is from eight to nine pm.
They are not doing their own pre show this year, so you can actually
join Sus and I from seventy eight pm. We'll be live here on YouTube
breaking down or given our predictions for how we think this bracket, these brackets
are gonna look sus before we sign off, though, kind of just give
us, you know, an overview a little bit more, you know what.
Yeah, we have these things that, you know, these indicators that
we come into this this week with that we're looking at and and you know,
trying to figure out who, how the back end of this field is
going to be factored in. I look at at the group of four and
fours again and That's where I'm going to be placing a lot of my focus.
You know, twenty nine of those teams are playing a team with a
better record this week twenty seven are playing a team with a worse record.
So by doing that math, you kind of got to figure out, well,
how many spots do we have to fill? You know, we're in
the low thirties basically of teams that we're going to have to get into the
field that don't currently have five wins. You know, there's there's just a
lot of machinations that go through there, So keeping an eye on those teams,
making sure that the upsets that do occur are not these giant, sweeping
ones that are going to you know, change around who is in what feeld
uh. And then there of course the Saturday games that are are always going
to have a little bit of play. There are definitely some that have an
effect on who gets in and who doesn't get in. And then there are
the big ones, like we talked about before, that Mount Carmel, you
know, Loyola game. My projection right now has Mount Carmel winning the game,
obviously huge implications for how the seven A and eight A brackets are factored
if that game goes the other way. I mean, Loyola is currently sitting
you know in my projection, you know, down in the I believe the
three seed hole. They would obviously catapult to the one seed with the strong
schedule that they play. If they were to win it, Mount Carmel would
tumble down in the seven A bracket down a little bit. So, uh,
just a lot of things, a lot of pieces in this puzzle,
and some of those pieces aren't going to be put into place until three thirty
four o'clock on Saturday. So a lot of conversation, a lot of things
to talk about as we head up towards that. But but expecting an exciting
Week nine because you never know what's going to happen with some of these teams
that realize that their football season is over if they don't get a win.
You know, those teams that are in playoff mode and have been maybe for
a couple of weeks. You never know what they're going to do in Week
nine, and you know, sometimes that leads to some fascinating games. We
really could spend all day talking about these Week nine matchup, but we're going
to sign off for now. Make sure you stick with Friday Night Drive dot
Com all week and long as we're breaking down the playoff projection. We'll have
our first round matchups up there as soon as we can on Saturday evening for
you and analysis coming over the weekend. For now, once again signing off,
everyone enjoy week nine. Make sure you join us for Live with Friday
Night Drive from eight to eleven PM on Friday Night. Everyone, have a
good weekend. We'll talk to you later. Schwiker, Cannison, Krizak,
Rundio Bradley sponsors to Friday Night Drive. I Mike Krizak. If you've been
injured, we are ready to take on the insurance company and get you to
the end zone. We've recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for our clients.
Visit G A N A S, S I N dot com