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Speaker 2: This is State Representative Steve Reich. Since twenty sixteen. It's
Speaker 2: been my privilege to represent the sixty third district in
Speaker 2: the Illinois House. I'd like to continue representing you and
Speaker 2: I'm asking for your vote on November fifth. Thank you,
Speaker 2: paid for by citizens to elect Stephen Reich.
Speaker 3: Hello, everybody, welcome to the Friday Night Drive podcast. This
Speaker 3: is Josh Welgy joined by Steve Susi as we get
Speaker 3: ready for Week two in Illinois high school football season,
Speaker 3: and as we take this Steve on Wednesday. It's one
Speaker 3: of those things that last week was so exciting and
Speaker 3: I was purely exhausted by the end of the weekend,
Speaker 3: needing a break. But you know, usually when I get
Speaker 3: to Wednesday afternoon, I'm kind of ready for some more football.
Speaker 3: You know, how are you feeling and you know, what's
Speaker 3: your thoughts going in Week two?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's one of the one of the crazier
Speaker 4: weeks because you go all that time where you're just
Speaker 4: speculating on what things are, and for me, who loves data,
Speaker 4: finally I'm getting data. So I've been pouring through that
Speaker 4: over the last couple of days and finally got it
Speaker 4: sorted out to the where I feel like I have
Speaker 4: a pretty good handle on what actually happened in week one.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 4: But like you, it's it's the middle of the week,
Speaker 4: and I'm I'm ready for I'm ready for a refresh.
Speaker 4: I'm ready for some more. I'm ready for some more
Speaker 4: answers to some more questions that I had that bore
Speaker 4: out of what happened in Week one. I mean, and
Speaker 4: there were a lot of teams out there that had
Speaker 4: some statement victories. There were a few that had some
Speaker 4: statement losses, and I need to find out how, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, how relevant those things are over the course
Speaker 4: of the entire season. Was it a blip or is
Speaker 4: this the new normal? So it's very uh, it's a
Speaker 4: very interesting thing to have to watch. But yeah, like you,
Speaker 4: usually we get around Wednesday and especially Thursday, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 4: let's get going, let's get us another week of football here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as I said, we're taking this on Wednesday, and
Speaker 3: Steve's he mentioned data. Steve's latest playoff projections dropped on
Speaker 3: front of nightdrive dot com today, so you want to
Speaker 3: check it out. And and Steve, as I was looking
Speaker 3: at over, you know one thing that I noticed, and
Speaker 3: again it's only we've only played one game, but you know,
Speaker 3: the big conversation last year was was the number of
Speaker 3: four and five teams that made the playoffs. And there's
Speaker 3: a handful and obviously one of them, Nazareth notably, went
Speaker 3: on to win the state title. Looking at your early projections,
Speaker 3: you think that we might be seeing a few more,
Speaker 3: if not a lot more four and five teams, you know,
Speaker 3: without sharing how many you think because it's still so early.
Speaker 3: What are some of the reasons that you're seeing about
Speaker 3: why this could become an even more commonplace phenomenon.
Speaker 4: Well, there are three major things that are involved in
Speaker 4: this one. Once again, we're in a situation where we
Speaker 4: have less than five hundred playoff eligible teams in the
Speaker 4: state right now, we're where at four ninety four, to
Speaker 4: be completely honest with you, So when you need two
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty six teams, and once you're out of
Speaker 4: the segment of the season where you're playing, you're playing
Speaker 4: less and less out of state opponents. There's only about
Speaker 4: two hundred and fifty teams a week that are going
Speaker 4: to get a win in a given week. So odds
Speaker 4: are the odds of us getting two hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: six of those teams that have at least five wins.
Speaker 4: That continues to decrease because of just simple mathematics, you know,
Speaker 4: I think we're definitely going to get some four win
Speaker 4: teams in and then on top of it, I just
Speaker 4: mentioned the out of state teams. This year we saw
Speaker 4: a little bit lesser of a trend in that usually
Speaker 4: in the non conference season we have a lot more
Speaker 4: of these out of state games where teams are playing
Speaker 4: teams from Missouri or teams from Indiana or Wisconsin. There
Speaker 4: were some this year, but there were less, and like
Speaker 4: we talked about last week, some of these premiere programs
Speaker 4: kind of gave up on the out of state experience
Speaker 4: and just settled in with another Illinois opponent. So that's
Speaker 4: one less potential win that an Illinois team can collect
Speaker 4: in those weeks. So it's just there's just less wins
Speaker 4: to go around now because there are less programs. And
Speaker 4: then the third thing was a realignment of the Chicago
Speaker 4: Public League. Last year, we had twenty seven teams make
Speaker 4: the playoffs from the Chicago Public League, and based on
Speaker 4: the way that they restructured their divisions, there are now
Speaker 4: four divisions at the bottom of the Chicago Public League
Speaker 4: that have six teams each where the only qualifier that
Speaker 4: can come out of that division is the winner of
Speaker 4: that conference. So essentially, when I said there was four
Speaker 4: hundred and ninety four teams fighting for those spots, in reality,
Speaker 4: it's actually four to seventy four because there are twenty
Speaker 4: teams from the Chicago Public League that have no path
Speaker 4: to getting to the playoffs if they don't win one
Speaker 4: of those divisions, can't getting at large berth, they can't
Speaker 4: get in at six and three or five and four,
Speaker 4: seven and two, they have to win the division. So
Speaker 4: there's actually twenty less teams on the board. So that's
Speaker 4: leading to a real I think opening of the gates
Speaker 4: in regards of letting four win teams in. I would
Speaker 4: be stunned if it's not in double digits this year.
Speaker 3: What caused the Public League to that that shift in
Speaker 3: their their team's getting in aaple plass, you know, did
Speaker 3: how do we get there with that? That's the one
Speaker 3: I was reading. I'm thinking, I wonder why that is?
Speaker 4: Well, I think, I mean, if you look at the
Speaker 4: data over a year over year over year, the public
Speaker 4: league teams on large mass are not doing very well
Speaker 4: in the state playoffs, and that's being kind a lot
Speaker 4: of these scores are really lopsided. So three, I believe
Speaker 4: it was three years ago, they went to a system
Speaker 4: where they took the you know, the sixteen best teams
Speaker 4: in their opinion, and kind of put them all in
Speaker 4: their own divisions, you know, where they're playing each other,
Speaker 4: trying to get themselves a little bit more in tune
Speaker 4: with what it will take to be in Congress to
Speaker 4: making the playoffs. But that kind of had a twofold effect.
Speaker 4: The same teams were still getting through the playoffs, but
Speaker 4: some of your better Chicago Public League teams weren't because
Speaker 4: they had to play the upper echelon's public league teams.
Speaker 4: They used to be more evenly distributed. So I think
Speaker 4: the reason that they did that was they wanted to
Speaker 4: keep that way structured for the red but the divisions
Speaker 4: underneath them were producing some really poor playoff teams, so
Speaker 4: they made it a little bit a lot harder for
Speaker 4: those teams to get a playoff ber. Certainly, some of
Speaker 4: those teams might break through and they might have a
Speaker 4: pretty good football team, but the grand majority of them
Speaker 4: that were making the playoffs for them were largely getting
Speaker 4: running clocked beaten badly in those playoff games. So I
Speaker 4: think in the long run this is a good thing
Speaker 4: for everybody, because some of those classifications were getting really
Speaker 4: cluttered with a lot of public league teams that didn't
Speaker 4: have much of a chance of actually winning those playoff games,
Speaker 4: and you'd get situations like last year where you'd have
Speaker 4: Nazareth and Prairie Ridge playing a first round playoff game,
Speaker 4: and then right below them on the playoff draw were
Speaker 4: a pair of public league teams that wouldn't get within
Speaker 4: fifty points of either one of those two teams just
Speaker 4: above them on the bracket. So I think in the
Speaker 4: long run this is better for the quality of the playoffs.
Speaker 4: It's just going to be strange and take some time
Speaker 4: getting used to the fact that there's going to be
Speaker 4: a lot more teams. When we look at that bracket
Speaker 4: with the seasonal records that have four and five records
Speaker 4: on them in the actual fields themselves.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like you said, you know, ironically, more teams with
Speaker 3: losing records in the playoffs could potentially make for a
Speaker 3: more competitive playoffs, you know, just kind of looking at that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I totally agree with you about some of
Speaker 3: the outcomes that we saw last year for the playoffs,
Speaker 3: with some of those public league results a really good read.
Speaker 3: Everybody wants to check that out. Obviously, look at the projections,
Speaker 3: everybody's interested in that. But but just also some of
Speaker 3: the you know, some the story is a good read.
Speaker 3: I encourage everyone to check it out again. On Friday
Speaker 3: Night Drive dot com, Steve's playoff projections. As we sit
Speaker 3: here again, we're looking at the week two a lot
Speaker 3: of great games on tap, and and I want to
Speaker 3: start with some of the games that are involving c
Speaker 3: C L E s CC games. I want to bring
Speaker 3: in Michael Duo Jack who covers that league for for
Speaker 3: for our company on Friday Night Drive. Michael, how you
Speaker 3: doing and how is week one for you? You had
Speaker 3: a kind of a busy weekend there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, good, Thanks for thanks for having me, guys. Happy
Speaker 6: to make my debut this year. Week one was fun.
Speaker 6: It was busy obviously, sust and I saw two games together.
Speaker 6: We saw the Mount Carmel Hun's game and East Saint
Speaker 6: Louis Loyola game and and I had a Phillipson from
Speaker 6: the Rice sandwiched in there with a big Cruciators win there.
Speaker 6: But it was good. It's fun. Obviously, it's a lot
Speaker 6: of football to start things off. I think we got
Speaker 6: a lot of fun, a lot of fun games to
Speaker 6: kind of start the year. So that was it was
Speaker 6: fun to kind of get things that started.
Speaker 3: Looking at two week two h you know, one of
Speaker 3: the marquee games on on that the league schedule, Brother
Speaker 3: Rice playing Maris. Big rivalry there, Brother Rice. They're a
Speaker 3: team that I know you like a lot. I know
Speaker 3: Steve likes a lot to really make some Nois this year,
Speaker 3: and of course Maris. Mike Fitzgerald coming home to Maris.
Speaker 3: You know, he had a lot of success at Maris
Speaker 3: as an offensive coordinator, you know, winning a state title there,
Speaker 3: and then of course he did great things ATW York
Speaker 3: and now he's back. You know, what's your thoughts going
Speaker 3: into that game on Friday. I believe you're going to
Speaker 3: be there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'll be at that game on Friday. You know,
Speaker 6: the Battle of Pulaski is always a fun game. Obviously,
Speaker 6: neighborhood rivalry schools just down a couple of blocks separated
Speaker 6: on plask Obviously, we got the question because there might
Speaker 6: be one of the top games in the state this
Speaker 6: upcoming week. And you know, it's always interest because I
Speaker 6: feel like it's so cliche to say, you know, throughout
Speaker 6: the record books when you have a rivalry game like this,
Speaker 6: but it does kind of feel like that, especially since
Speaker 6: this game is happening in week two. Obviously, Brother Rice
Speaker 6: won fifty to nothing last week against Phillips, but you know,
Speaker 6: the offense only played the first half. They get a
Speaker 6: limited snaps. Coach Casey Quentinfield actually was kind of disappointed
Speaker 6: because he felt like they had too many penalties and offensively,
Speaker 6: I think they only ended up scoring thirty four points
Speaker 6: and the rest was a safety and a couple of
Speaker 6: defensive touchdowns. But the big thing with them is just
Speaker 6: you know, offensively, they're so young, They're still trying to
Speaker 6: figure things out.
Speaker 3: CJ.
Speaker 6: Gray comes in as a quarterback. You got Tyler Lofton
Speaker 6: transferring into the program as they're running back a lot
Speaker 6: of offensive talent, but they're al still trying to come together,
Speaker 6: so Marris will be a pretty tough test. You obviously
Speaker 6: saw what they were able to do against Morgan Park
Speaker 6: in Week one. Obviously they've got Brad Fitzgibbon and Iowa commit,
Speaker 6: they got archie Le's Anderson a Harvard commit that deep.
Speaker 6: This was really good against Morgan Park and you know,
Speaker 6: limiting and what they're able to do. So I think
Speaker 6: it would be a really interesting matchup and I'm curious
Speaker 6: to see you know what Seuss thinks about it as well,
Speaker 6: But it does feel like a matchup that's going to
Speaker 6: be decided by a field goal, maybe a lad touchdown
Speaker 6: the four points, and then a strong and defensive stop
Speaker 6: either by Brother Rice or Mayrist.
Speaker 4: What were I guess what were your impressions, Michael. I
Speaker 4: know you didn't get to see them for very long,
Speaker 4: but with a full strength Brother Ice team on the field,
Speaker 4: because I know last year obviously there were times where
Speaker 4: they just didn't have all their personnel, all their elite
Speaker 4: personnel at their disposal. I guess what was it even
Speaker 4: though it was a limited amount of time, particularly, what
Speaker 4: were your impressions with the Brother Rice defense.
Speaker 6: I think the defense just you know it, when it's healthy,
Speaker 6: it's great. I mean, you've got so many talents everywhere.
Speaker 6: Obviously it starts with Christian Pierce as it's leading a linebacker.
Speaker 6: You've got talent on the inside of the line. In
Speaker 6: the outside of the line, you've got Condostick King Liggins,
Speaker 6: so many other talented guys in the secondary as well.
Speaker 6: So you've just got a team where a defense that's
Speaker 6: just really strong. And if they're all on the field,
Speaker 6: I don't really see how you can run against this defense.
Speaker 6: Maybe you could pass a little bit, but that secondary
Speaker 6: is really good too, So it'll be a really interesting
Speaker 6: test for you know, Maris. Obviously, with Jacob Ritter taking
Speaker 6: over at quarterback, they got John mccaff who's obviously a
Speaker 6: talented running back who also you know as a pass
Speaker 6: catching threat. It'll be interesting to see because Marys will
Speaker 6: face a tough test against this defense that you know,
Speaker 6: really limits you and takes away the run. And once
Speaker 6: you take away the run, obviously that limit you can
Speaker 6: really focus on the past game as well, so you know,
Speaker 6: once healthy, Like obviously that Brother Rice defense is great.
Speaker 6: We didn't get to see them fully against Phillips just
Speaker 6: because of how out of hand the game kind of
Speaker 6: got pretty quickly, but from what we were able to
Speaker 6: see pretty early, that defense looked as good as advertised.
Speaker 3: Another good rivalry game. And then CCL this weekend, Mount
Speaker 3: Carmel playing at Sainte Rita. Mount carmellly kind of a
Speaker 3: unique situation coming in off of a loss. Albeit if
Speaker 3: that wasn't the game of the weekend on Thursday night,
Speaker 3: it's in the short list. That game with the Hunt
Speaker 3: school you're there on Thursday night. I admittedly don't know
Speaker 3: as much about Saint Rita. You know, what are you
Speaker 3: looking at with that match up, Michael?
Speaker 6: I think we're all still trying to figure out a
Speaker 6: little bit more about Scene Reta. You know, obviously they
Speaker 6: picked up a it was kind of close and then
Speaker 6: they ended up winning. I think it was by ten
Speaker 6: points against Sanford, So that was a good start to
Speaker 6: the season for the Mustangs, especially kind of a closer
Speaker 6: rivalry game. But yeah, I think we're still trying to
Speaker 6: figure out a little bit more about the Scenerta team.
Speaker 6: The offense obviously as a new quarterback. Nick Herman comes
Speaker 6: back obviously as a key running back, but we're still
Speaker 6: trying to learn more. And it was funny just listening
Speaker 6: to you know, Matt Muka, Mount Carmel's linebacker, talking about
Speaker 6: that Hunt game. Obviously, you know they Mount Carbo gave
Speaker 6: up forty two points. That's the most points that they
Speaker 6: gave up since twenty eighteen as a defense. So you know,
Speaker 6: it'll be really interesting to see because he said, like
Speaker 6: I wouldn't want to be by week our week two opponent.
Speaker 6: That's exactly what Saint Rita is this week. So it'll
Speaker 6: be interesting. This rivalry has kind of been a little
Speaker 6: bit lopside of the last couple of matchups, with Mount
Speaker 6: Carmelo taking getting the best out of Saint Rita. But
Speaker 6: you know, it'll be really interesting to see, especially early,
Speaker 6: if Saint Rita can kind of limit that offense or
Speaker 6: whether Mount Carmel is just going to do what it
Speaker 6: did last week and just end up with a big win.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll see, you know, really eager to see, you know,
Speaker 3: how Mount Carmel responds, and then also to see what
Speaker 3: Saint Rita is all about. Obviously stepping't playing Mount Carmel
Speaker 3: and in week two a Saturday matchup that I'm going
Speaker 3: to be at Loyola is at Glenbard West Loyola on
Speaker 3: their Saturday game is kind of one of the more
Speaker 3: eye opening results the Week one I would say, Loyola
Speaker 3: having their nineteen game losing streak or ninety came winning
Speaker 3: streak sorry, snapped against East Saint Louis Saturday night down
Speaker 3: in Illinois State. They go to Glenbard West, who actually
Speaker 3: also lost their Week one game as well last Saturday Batavia. Michael,
Speaker 3: what's your what's your thoughts on just Loyola particularly, you know,
Speaker 3: going into that and just kind of where they're at.
Speaker 6: You know, it was interesting because you know, watching that
Speaker 6: game on Saturday, and I feel like I said this
Speaker 6: the suse a couple of times about that, was that
Speaker 6: felt like the most disorganized and kind of dishovel that
Speaker 6: I've ever seen Loyola just based on offensively, just like
Speaker 6: with what eastin Lewis was able to do to them,
Speaker 6: Like you could see that that kind of rocked them
Speaker 6: with their pressure, with their speed, with their size, and
Speaker 6: you know, Loyola is not used to that. They have
Speaker 6: an offensive line that usually protects them pretty well. Like
Speaker 6: they're running, you know, joke has been like you can
Speaker 6: throw back whoever back there. That offensive line is just
Speaker 6: going to protect them and they'll do a good job
Speaker 6: running the ball no matter.
Speaker 4: Who the running back is.
Speaker 6: But obviously I guess against East Sint Lewis it didn't
Speaker 6: really happen, but it'll be interesting to see. Obviously, Glenbard
Speaker 6: West gave Batavia a really good game in the first
Speaker 6: week to start things off, and you know, it's kind
Speaker 6: of the same mindset where maybe Loyla didn't really say this,
Speaker 6: but I've really I wouldn't want to play Loyola in
Speaker 6: week two, specifically because Loyola hasn't lost the back to
Speaker 6: back game since twenty eighteen and they're now really used
Speaker 6: to a loss like that. That was their biggest loss
Speaker 6: in twenty eighteen as well, So it'll be really interesting.
Speaker 6: I don't think, you know, if they were playing anyone else,
Speaker 6: or mostly anyone else, I would say that this would
Speaker 6: probably be a blowout win for Loyola, But Lombard was.
Speaker 6: You know, they can challenge them, and based on what
Speaker 6: we saw from that offense, for Loyola, that's something that
Speaker 6: I'm really interested to see. How are they going to
Speaker 6: respond because they did not look good on Saturday at all.
Speaker 6: They have an experienced quarterback obviously in Ryan Fitzgerald. There's
Speaker 6: going to be a walk on in Iowa. Drew McPherson
Speaker 6: is a running back who has a scholarship at Iowa.
Speaker 6: So they have talent on this offense. It's just putting
Speaker 6: it together. And other than the fifty yard run, we
Speaker 6: didn't see that offense look good at all against e. St. Louis,
Speaker 6: So I'm curious to see can they regroup and can
Speaker 6: they kind of get better against a pretty talented, you know,
Speaker 6: Glenbard West defense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and on the opposite I mean, Seve was there
Speaker 3: for this was Glenbard West Batavia. There is a there's
Speaker 3: several times in that game that I thought the game
Speaker 3: could get away from Glenbard West Patavial led by a
Speaker 3: couple of touchdowns on a few occasions. But to Glenbard
Speaker 3: West credit, they able to hang around, hang around, hang
Speaker 3: around to the end, and they almost were able to,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, maybe tie and go to overtime.
Speaker 3: Significantly for Glenbard West, their their best offensive player, tay
Speaker 3: On Oriental, a senior running back. He left the game
Speaker 3: when the second and last drive of the game with
Speaker 3: you know, I talked to him afterwards. Looked like he
Speaker 3: had a hand in hand injury. Wasn't sure the extent
Speaker 3: of that. But but if they don't have him, I
Speaker 3: mean he is he is an enormous part of their offense.
Speaker 3: I mean he's a game breaker, He's a guy that
Speaker 3: can make plays for them, So that that would be
Speaker 3: something to watch as we look forward to that game
Speaker 3: and Glenbard West Man Steve, you touched on on your
Speaker 3: podcast with Matt Rodewald or this week, if there is
Speaker 3: a more difficult first four game schedule the season, I
Speaker 3: don't know what it is with Glenbard West.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it really is kind of ridiculous. I mean, they
Speaker 4: follow these two these two games to start the season,
Speaker 4: then they have counters Grove North, then they have Lions
Speaker 4: downers Grove North, the top ten team in the Friday
Speaker 4: Night Drive Power rankings. Lions. I just put them in
Speaker 4: this week after their win over Prospect in Week one.
Speaker 4: That is one heck of a gauntlet. But you know,
Speaker 4: like we were talking about at the beginning of the
Speaker 4: beginning of the podcast here, obviously, if you're Glenbard West,
Speaker 4: you don't want to dig yourself too big of a
Speaker 4: hole here, but it is survivable more this year than
Speaker 4: I think it has ever been. If that does end
Speaker 4: up having, if they end up coming out of it,
Speaker 4: let's just say, for our sake of argument one in
Speaker 4: three or or god forbidzho and four, there's still a
Speaker 4: window there that maybe didn't exist in the past.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, that's that's very true, and uh, yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 3: I mean that is I you know, when we first
Speaker 3: saw the schedule in July, I said to myself, Wow,
Speaker 3: that's the really that's the really first four games. And
Speaker 3: then the way Lions Township like week one beating you know,
Speaker 3: beating Prospect, I thought, wow, that's even more difficult. So yeah,
Speaker 3: we'll see. It should be a one on Saturday, Loyola
Speaker 3: at one Bard West. Mike, before we let you get
Speaker 3: out of here, what are some other games involved in
Speaker 3: CCL teams that that you're really keeping an eye on
Speaker 3: this this weekend.
Speaker 6: I think the biggest game I'm kind of interested in,
Speaker 6: you know, keeping an eye on, is probably gonna be
Speaker 6: saying Nacious and Fenwick mostly other than you know, it
Speaker 6: being a rivalry game. You know, these two teams like
Speaker 6: the really clashed in the White Division before they kind
Speaker 6: of change divisions with Dignatius going to the Blue. I'm
Speaker 6: just kind of curious just to see what Saint Ignacious
Speaker 6: is at this point. Obviously, they had a huge forty
Speaker 6: point win against the team from Milwaukee, so it's kind
Speaker 6: of tough to tell, you know, exactly, you know, what
Speaker 6: that means in the grand scheme of things, but I
Speaker 6: am interested. Obviously, Saint Ignacious doesn't have Justin Scott anymore.
Speaker 6: He is with Miami, you know, at the University of Miami.
Speaker 6: So but they're still gonna run that's you know, triple
Speaker 6: you know, triple option offense. There's still got a lot
Speaker 6: of guys that have kind of grown into the program,
Speaker 6: and obviously they they had more talent other than just
Speaker 6: you know, Justin Scott last year. So I'm really interested
Speaker 6: just to see what they're going to look like against
Speaker 6: the Fendwick team that has talent as well. Obviously, you
Speaker 6: know Nate Marshall, he's going to Auburn. He's a very
Speaker 6: talented defensive end and we saw in Week one he's
Speaker 6: a pass catching threat as well. And obviously you have
Speaker 6: Jack Harris who's a big defender for Fenwick, and Tommy
Speaker 6: theas is also very good for Fenwick. So these are
Speaker 6: two talented teams. I'm really interested to see how, you know,
Speaker 6: who kind of comes out in that one. Because if
Speaker 6: City Nations can come out in that one, I think
Speaker 6: that's really good momentum to start the year. Obviously they'll
Speaker 6: have a tough task in starting to Blue, but if
Speaker 6: they can start the season two and one three and
Speaker 6: know even heading into that Blue matchup, I think that'll
Speaker 6: be really interesting. But that's my top matchup obviously, Gonna
Speaker 6: keep track of other games. Obviously ken Win and Nazareth
Speaker 6: are gonna play against each other. Interested to see how
Speaker 6: Nazareth kind of responds after playing in the tight game
Speaker 6: in Week one against kan Kaki. I'm always gonna keep
Speaker 6: looking at Carmel just to see what Trey Taylor is
Speaker 6: doing because he had he already had an impressive first week,
Speaker 6: only played one half and through four touchdowns and made
Speaker 6: it look pretty easy. So obviously going to keep tabs
Speaker 6: on them. But yeah, I mean, there are a lot
Speaker 6: of good storylines in the Mega Conference. Maybe not as
Speaker 6: exciting as a week as we had a Week one,
Speaker 6: but a pretty good Week two slave before really get
Speaker 6: things started in a Week three and Week four.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like Trey Taylor is sort of like
Speaker 3: Jonas Williams the first couple of years that you know,
Speaker 3: even if you're not paying attention to him, he's still
Speaker 3: have the out of the corner the eye. You just
Speaker 3: want to keep an eye because you never know what
Speaker 3: he might be doing, except it's gonna be doing a
Speaker 3: lot of good things.
Speaker 6: So he's definitely going to do a lot of good stuff.
Speaker 6: And obviously that Carmel team is more than Trey Taylor.
Speaker 6: Obviously the got Devonte Allison, a lot of a lot
Speaker 6: of great guys there that Jason McKee and a lot
Speaker 6: of the former Bears are running over there, so that'll
Speaker 6: be a really fun team to kind of keep track
Speaker 6: off throughout the year.
Speaker 3: That's Michael Duwell Jack. You'd follow m Duwell Jack ninety four.
Speaker 3: He has his ccl SEC notebook that dropped today on Wednesday.
Speaker 3: A lot of good stuff. I read it, really great stuff.
Speaker 3: You'll want to be found this weekend at the Battle
Speaker 3: Plaste Friday and that'll be covering the Bears this weekend,
Speaker 3: So a very busy weekend for Michael. You want to
Speaker 3: you want to pay give him a foul, Michael, thanks
Speaker 3: for joining us.
Speaker 6: All right, thanks for having me. Guys. Hey football fans,
Speaker 6: listen up.
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Speaker 3: They have it all, Steve. As we look ahead to
Speaker 3: some of the other games this weekend, you know one
Speaker 3: game involving a CCL team that that we didn't touch
Speaker 3: on with Michael, that you know, I'm kind of interested in,
Speaker 3: uh Joiet Kathlic playing Oswego aswego coming off with a
Speaker 3: very you know, impressed the week one went over a
Speaker 3: Nicua Valley Joy Catholic beat a team from I as well.
Speaker 3: I talked to coach Brian Kons from Oswego and I said,
Speaker 3: you know, when's the last time you guys played them,
Speaker 3: and he wasn't sure, but he was bringing up the
Speaker 3: name Mike Alstott involving Juliet Catholic. And if people don't
Speaker 3: know who Mike Alstadt was, you might want to look
Speaker 3: him up. They played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But uh,
Speaker 3: it's been a while, Uh, but I'm really looking forward
Speaker 3: to that matchup. Just see, you know, if I sweel
Speaker 3: can kind of step and up and play at that
Speaker 3: level against the team with Joey Catholic, what are you
Speaker 3: looking at for that one?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a really interesting, uh situation with that
Speaker 4: game in particular. You know, I looked at it. That
Speaker 4: game didn't actually get scheduled until I believe sometime in
Speaker 4: mid May, which if you're unfamiliar with how the scheduling
Speaker 4: process works, that's really really late. And it was a
Speaker 4: situation that was kind of hatched out of both teams
Speaker 4: kind of needing a game. And we've talked about this
Speaker 4: a lot, you know, basically just kind of just saying, well,
Speaker 4: we were both gonna have to play a good football team,
Speaker 4: and I just out of curiosity while we were talking here,
Speaker 4: I actually heard you make mention of that. The answer
Speaker 4: to your question of when Oswego and joy At Catholic
Speaker 4: played last nineteen eighty nine, is the answer. So yeah,
Speaker 4: so that's that's uh, you know, it's a long time
Speaker 4: since these two teams have played. When I originally heard
Speaker 4: about this game being scheduled, I wasn't sure if I
Speaker 4: liked it too much from Oswego's perspective. But the more
Speaker 4: I learned about Oswego, I think they're using this as
Speaker 4: a really good opportunity to take a measuring stick of themselves,
Speaker 4: how good really really can they be? And challenging themselves
Speaker 4: and playing Joli at Catholic will certainly provide that opportunity.
Speaker 4: So I'm a lot more intrigued by this game than
Speaker 4: I was a month ago. I will say that I
Speaker 4: think I think Joey Catholic is still the favorite to
Speaker 4: win this game, but I do think it's going to
Speaker 4: be considerably more competitive than what I originally might have
Speaker 4: thought it would have been.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I mean you know talking, I mean, obviously
Speaker 3: players gonna be confident. Even talking to to Bran Coone
Speaker 3: this week, I mean he wasn't given anything for this matchup.
Speaker 3: I mean he he likes his guys. He has sixteen
Speaker 3: returning starters back from last year, and obviously most notably
Speaker 3: his son Carson Cooney, a linebacker going to Iowa. So
Speaker 3: you know, yeah, that that that should be a fun
Speaker 3: matchup kind of learn a little bit more about both
Speaker 3: of those teams. Joey Kathley got a sweek on Friday night.
Speaker 3: If there was a better performance in Week one by
Speaker 3: a running back than the Warren running back Aaron Stewart,
Speaker 3: I'm I'm yeah, I don't know who. I don't know
Speaker 3: who would be. I think he he had like two
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy yards and five touchdowns or something crazy
Speaker 3: like that in the first half in Week one. And
Speaker 3: and now Maine South, who had to deal with Jonas
Speaker 3: Williams in Week one, Well now they got to deal
Speaker 3: with with with Warren. Apparently they have an explosive offense.
Speaker 3: I didn't know they did those kind of things. And
Speaker 3: Warren Warren in Maine South, what are you looking at
Speaker 3: for that matchup? Yeah, this is this is definitely a
Speaker 3: really interesting game, and like you just said, with Warren
Speaker 3: kind of demonstrating that they have the ability to put
Speaker 3: some points on the board. And I mean it's not
Speaker 3: like they were playing a slouch last week. I mean
Speaker 3: they beat Hercy, a team that has been very, very
Speaker 3: good and almost never lose those regular season games at
Speaker 3: this point, so a good, a great start for them
Speaker 3: on both sides of the football. Usually you think of
Speaker 3: Warren as a defensive minded team that maybe they'll scratch
Speaker 3: out enough points against quality opponents to pick up these wins.
Speaker 3: And despite the result last week, I mean, I think
Speaker 3: Main and South's a really good football team. So I
Speaker 3: mean a lot of teams are going to have those
Speaker 3: kinds of troubles with Lincoln Way East. So Maine South's
Speaker 3: got to really, you know, really bounce back quickly here
Speaker 3: to avoid that zero and two start.
Speaker 4: I think. Fortunately for them, I don't think their schedule
Speaker 4: is really all that treacherous the rest of the way,
Speaker 4: so if they did drop to zero to two in
Speaker 4: this game, they have plenty of opportunity to recover from that.
Speaker 4: Not the ideal though they certainly don't want to do that.
Speaker 4: So just a really really interesting game there, just because,
Speaker 4: like I said, Warren's a little bit out of character
Speaker 4: for themselves from that first game result. If that's sustainable,
Speaker 4: I'll raise that eyebrow and say, boy, we maybe have
Speaker 4: to change our conversation about you know, who is who
Speaker 4: belongs in the top of a A in the classification,
Speaker 4: because right now it's a two horse race. Do we
Speaker 4: need to bring a third horse into that. I mean,
Speaker 4: it's a valid question. I think at this point.
Speaker 3: It's not in the past with Warren you know, they
Speaker 3: brought the defense to the party. Now if they can
Speaker 3: bring a pretty explosive offense to join them, well then
Speaker 3: we're onto something. I mean, they're gonna be a program
Speaker 3: that's gonna be a force to be reckoned with regardless,
Speaker 3: but maybe maybe they go to the next level if
Speaker 3: they can have that. We'll see. I mean, it's week one,
Speaker 3: but obviously a good start for them, a matchup that
Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to. Interested in Lion's downship plane at
Speaker 3: Wheaton Warrenville South, both coming off of good Week one
Speaker 3: wins Lion statue. Of course, their head coach, John Bucher,
Speaker 3: was a great quarterback for Wheaton South back in the
Speaker 3: day when I had way less gray Hairs. But a
Speaker 3: metch of there that they're kind of two teams in
Speaker 3: very strong leagues, the West Suburban Silver the Dukene. I
Speaker 3: think they're kind of like right there to maybe go
Speaker 3: to the next level in their conference, but you know,
Speaker 3: I want to learn a little bit more about them.
Speaker 3: What do you think, Well.
Speaker 4: This is one of those games when you look at
Speaker 4: it and both these teams got wins in week one,
Speaker 4: that's a good stride. But I never like to say
Speaker 4: this in week two. But looking forward, this this game
Speaker 4: has a lot of weight for both of these two teams.
Speaker 4: I mean, I think especially for Wheaton Warrenville South, because
Speaker 4: if you look at the conference play that they go into,
Speaker 4: I mean you can make an argument that there are
Speaker 4: four teams in that league that are a little bit ahead,
Speaker 4: a little bit or quite a bit ahead of them
Speaker 4: right now, even with where they're at. So if they
Speaker 4: don't figure out a way to not only win the
Speaker 4: games beneath with the teams that maybe are a little
Speaker 4: bit behind them, but pick off one of those games
Speaker 4: against one of those teams ahead of them, they're they're
Speaker 4: on that fence. Then there, I mean, it's really the
Speaker 4: that's the situation, because I mean in the Dukeune, you've
Speaker 4: got Batavia, You've got Saint Charles North, You've got Geneva.
Speaker 4: Those are three teams right there that I think are
Speaker 4: are problematic to try to to try to beat. And
Speaker 4: then you've got Wheaton North too, who picked up an
Speaker 4: impressive win over Providence in week one. So with those
Speaker 4: four teams right there, Wheaton Warnville South, if they were
Speaker 4: to lose this game to Lions, needs to figure out
Speaker 4: how to beat at least one of those teams as
Speaker 4: well as everyone else on their schedule, just to get
Speaker 4: to five wins. So I mean that it's way too
Speaker 4: early to use the phrase must win, but this is
Speaker 4: a really really important game for them and Lions. It's
Speaker 4: it's almost the same conversation because you talk about the
Speaker 4: fact that there are teams in the conference that are
Speaker 4: you know, right there with them or maybe a step
Speaker 4: ahead of them, and you just have that you have
Speaker 4: to go through for them after this game is over too.
Speaker 4: So Lions and Wheat and Warville South are and there's
Speaker 4: a laundry list of these teams where it's really really
Speaker 4: advantageous for them to get through the non con with
Speaker 4: a two to zero record, just to give them a
Speaker 4: little bit of breathing room when they get into their
Speaker 4: brutal conference Lates.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's one thing I've noticed. I mean, I look
Speaker 3: at the Ducane Conference in particular, is their non conference
Speaker 3: schedules by some of these teams have been really put
Speaker 3: themselves in a position where you said, they really need
Speaker 3: to win them, but easier said than done situations. You know,
Speaker 3: this that game in particular, you know, definitely stands out
Speaker 3: as a tough one to look forward to. That matchup
Speaker 3: on Friday. The Mid Suburban League, a league that are
Speaker 3: former colleague Kyle Nighbors. I think that might have been
Speaker 3: his favorite league. It was definitely in the conversation. They
Speaker 3: had some teams that had some tough Week one losses
Speaker 3: and there's setting up some interest seeing Week two matchups.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at Palatine Prospect, I'm looking at Barantee, Hurt, Barrington,
Speaker 3: Percy Well Barrington won Week one. You know, what are
Speaker 3: you looking at with some of those games?
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's just a it's just an interesting league.
Speaker 4: And it was one of those things where like you
Speaker 4: look at that league on paper and you can kind
Speaker 4: of get a scope of where you know where certain
Speaker 4: teams are likely to fall. But then then you had
Speaker 4: a couple of really really in my mind, big surprises
Speaker 4: in Week one that also emerged out of that league.
Speaker 4: From handling Lake Zurich in the in the fashion that
Speaker 4: they did really surprised me. Schomberg with a regular season
Speaker 4: win over Antioch. I think Antios lost like three or
Speaker 4: four regular season games in the last six years. I mean,
Speaker 4: so it's for those two teams to kind of invite
Speaker 4: themselves to this party. Means that, especially in this crossover period,
Speaker 4: almost every week, you're gonna have some really interesting games
Speaker 4: between these two divisions. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: I think instead of going into the conference season of
Speaker 4: this with a couple of teams that are maybe undefeated
Speaker 4: and are kind of trying to go through the string,
Speaker 4: I think you're gonna have a bunch of teams that
Speaker 4: are sitting there at maybe three and one or two
Speaker 4: and two, or maybe even one in three where you
Speaker 4: feel like on paper the game's a toss up. So
Speaker 4: I think we're looking for some looking forward to some
Speaker 4: wild days in mid Suburban conference play when we get
Speaker 4: to the divisional portion of the schedule.
Speaker 3: Yeah, from the from isn't froms quarterback going to Northwestern,
Speaker 3: I believe, Yeah. I mean, but teams like that where
Speaker 3: you know, I know, who's some of the big dogs,
Speaker 3: but it's those Week one wins where it's like, Wow,
Speaker 3: I did not know that they could do that. That
Speaker 3: kind of puts my radar up a little bit. And
Speaker 3: I went like six the last two years. So I
Speaker 3: mean this, I don't want to say it came out
Speaker 3: of nowhere, but you just kind of get accustomed to that.
Speaker 3: I mean, Schomberg's won five games over the course of
Speaker 3: the last three seasons. So I mean, when you're establishing
Speaker 3: a preseason pecking order, there's a logical way to go
Speaker 3: about doing it, kind of based on past track record,
Speaker 3: But so far logic is being thrown out the window
Speaker 3: in regards to that league. Yeah, they didn't they didn't
Speaker 3: exactly beat nobody's week one. They beat some pretty good
Speaker 3: teams week one, So good wins there, Uh, Steve, Before
Speaker 3: we get out of here, you know, I want to
Speaker 3: look at some of the some of the some of
Speaker 3: the smaller school of big matchups around the state in
Speaker 3: Week two. I know, the Northwest up State a line
Speaker 3: I obviously one of the best leagues in that area.
Speaker 3: I know Fulton Lina Winslow is a matchup that you
Speaker 3: and I are both looking at. You know, what are
Speaker 3: what are you seeing there? And what are some of
Speaker 3: the other matchups that stand out?
Speaker 4: Well, I think for for a lot in a lot
Speaker 4: of ways, like you kind of know what that although
Speaker 4: that conference has produced a ton of like state finalists
Speaker 4: and state semi finalists, you kind of know the packing
Speaker 4: order going into things. It's Lina Winslow and then it's
Speaker 4: everybody else, at least it has been for the last
Speaker 4: five or six years. But primarily the I guess the
Speaker 4: main contender to that thrown over the last five seasons
Speaker 4: or so has been Forreston And last week Fulton went
Speaker 4: in to Forrest And and dominated them in a twenty
Speaker 4: eight to nothing victory, which raised my eyebrow a little bit.
Speaker 4: I'm not saying I think they go into Lina Winslow
Speaker 4: and knock them around in the same fashion, but I do.
Speaker 4: I'm very interested to see how it comes out, because
Speaker 4: I think Fulton's a pretty good football team. That went
Speaker 4: over Forrest and confirmed that in my mind, and I'm
Speaker 4: interested to see how good of a run they can
Speaker 4: give Lena Winslow in this game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Lena Winslow also had a pretty good Week one win,
Speaker 3: although I mean not entirely surprising, how good Lena Winslow
Speaker 3: and I believe they beat Morrison rather Handle in week one,
Speaker 3: so that should be a good Week two matchup. So
Speaker 3: a lot of good football coming up this weekend, a
Speaker 3: lot of good coverage on Friday Night Drive. See before
Speaker 3: we get out of here, any final thoughts, you.
Speaker 4: Know, I think this is an interesting week once again
Speaker 4: for you know, kind of getting a handle on confirming
Speaker 4: some of the things that we learned in week one.
Speaker 4: Maybe the schedule doesn't have quite as much fire as
Speaker 4: week one does, but it has a lot of interesting
Speaker 4: games where you look at them on paper and you're like,
Speaker 4: based on what we learned last week, I think this
Speaker 4: might be pretty interesting. I'm not sure. I mean, I
Speaker 4: think there are just quite a few fifty to fifty
Speaker 4: games on the board this week, and it's just really
Speaker 4: interesting to get those games in the books so you
Speaker 4: have a better understanding of what teams are moving forward,
Speaker 4: and I think week two has a lot of opportunities
Speaker 4: to do that.
Speaker 3: Gate a lot of great games this wee get a
Speaker 3: lot of good coverage on Friday Night Drive. You want
Speaker 3: to follow some of our other podcasts, I tape the
Speaker 3: West Suburbans podcast with Joe Bennett's you want to check
Speaker 3: that out. JT Penalty, Eddie Carriffio and Drake Landsman will
Speaker 3: be taping a podcast where they look at some of
Speaker 3: the games in northwest Illinois. And of course Friday Night
Speaker 3: Steve will be back on with Matt Rutwald for our
Speaker 3: live screen which is from nine to thirty pm to
Speaker 3: eleven pm on Fridays again. You can file me at
Speaker 3: Jay Welgy ninety six. You can follow the Seuss at
Speaker 3: the Seuss. You can file Friday Night Drive at F
Speaker 3: and Drive and also on Facebook and Instagram. Before then,
Speaker 3: I want to again thanks everybody for joining us. Enjoy
Speaker 3: week two and we'll see us soon.
Speaker 2: This is State Representative Steve Reich and I'm happy to
Speaker 2: sponsor this year's Friday Night Drive. There'll be plenty of
Speaker 2: time for politics down the road, but for now, let's
Speaker 2: enjoy some high school football. Whichever school you follow, give
Speaker 2: them your support.
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