Transcript
Speaker: Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the 700 Pelham Road Podcast, your one-stop shop for all things Jack State Gamecocks.
Speaker: My name is Caleb Williams, alongside co-host Jalen Cooper.
Speaker: Jalen, how are you doing today?
Speaker: I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker: I'm doing pretty good myself.
Speaker: How are you doing?
Speaker: Dog, it's a late night, but we're in it for the long haul.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: You know they say, I'm here for a good time, not a long time.
Speaker: As long as the information is good, I think the fans will be happy.
Speaker: I think I'm right there with you.
Speaker: So we got a good episode ahead of us today.
Speaker: Like we said last week, it's a lot more enjoyable when it's coming after a win, so that'll help.
Speaker: A win is a win.
Speaker: A win is a win at the FPS level, man.
Speaker: It doesn't matter who you're playing.
Speaker: So I guess we'll just jump right into it, man.
Speaker: Tough game, kind of a grindy, you know, every play counts type of game.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Kind of a typical – it's typical Rich Rod fashion, very exciting at the end.
Speaker: What wasn't typical Rich Rod fashion was we didn't really have much of an offense.
Speaker: No, not really.
Speaker: I mean, we had a good run game.
Speaker: We had 208 yards, 44 attempts, averaged just under five yards to carry.
Speaker: But I mean, the passing side of the ball was pretty much non-existent, which is kind of crazy considering with the rich rod up-tempo, you're expecting to see
Speaker: a lot of play actions, especially coming off of those read options.
Speaker: And we just, when we had the deep shots, it was either miscommunication or the ball was overthrown.
Speaker: It just never felt like the pass game could keep going.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I mean, I think one of the big issues was, um, you know, UTEP played a lot of, they really tried to zone up deep.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: I was watching the secondary pretty closely all game, and they didn't want to give up any deep shots, but they were playing man across the board.
Speaker: I mean, we had opportunities that just, you know, there weren't really any throws being made downfield.
Speaker: And really, there weren't that many throws being made underneath either.
Speaker: We had a lot of missed open, whether it's even just out routes and curl routes were just being missed.
Speaker: Just
Speaker: I don't want to say zero excuse because, I mean, I'm not a quarterback and there are a few reasons that's true, but at borderline zero excuse to be playing Division I football and you're missing the throws that we were seeing being missed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Some of the throws were definitely kind of – you definitely want to have those back.
Speaker: I think one of the biggest things is we were – we only really hit two spots.
Speaker: We're going a little saddy.
Speaker: Oh, there.
Speaker: I'm going to start over now.
Speaker: So, yeah, I would definitely agree with the pass game.
Speaker: We were missing some shots that you just cannot miss at the FBS level.
Speaker: When you're playing against bigger teams, they will make you pay for missing those.
Speaker: I think we really only hit two main areas when it came to passing.
Speaker: It was a lot of very short on the outside, like screen-wise.
Speaker: And then, other than that, we were only going for the deep ball.
Speaker: Kind of wish we had tried to go a little bit closer to the hashes, especially when you have a tight end like Sean Brown, somebody who is on awards lists for preseason.
Speaker: We got to use them.
Speaker: We got somebody like that.
Speaker: We can take advantage of the mismatch, especially on those linebackers.
Speaker: you know, tear up the middle of the field a little bit.
Speaker: And I think we just really missed an opportunity there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I, I really only remember Sean getting one target and ironically it was on, it was on the, you know, basically a back shoulder fade, um, out of the slot.
Speaker: And she was not, not a concept that he's really comfortable running cause he's being asked to, you know, to turn back over his shoulder and make a tough catch.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Yeah, I was really surprised he didn't use an old field.
Speaker: You know, the guy, you know, with his stature, his ability to run routes and, you know, make tough catches.
Speaker: Really thought it would have given – really didn't matter who was at QB.
Speaker: Would have given them a chance to make some easy throws.
Speaker: I would have liked to have seen Sterling Galvan get a few more touches.
Speaker: I feel like they got him out there, and it feels, to me, just off the surface.
Speaker: It feels like they brought him in in passing situations.
Speaker: but then they couldn't ever get him the ball.
Speaker: And we saw last year the guy came in place.
Speaker: He's a phenomenal receiver.
Speaker: He played at Texas Tech, so you know he's got talent.
Speaker: So, I just would have loved to have seen more of the intermediate, middle of the field, getting these.
Speaker: I feel like that's really where
Speaker: I feel like that's, you know, Zion specifically, I feel like that's where he's at his best is when he's not being asked to make throws to the boundary, but throwing, you know, throwing between the hashes, he's an expert anchor.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I think a lot of the hesitancy and the game calling, too, could have had to do with the fact that Rich Rod wanted to play all three quarterbacks.
Speaker: And I think he was trying to keep the game plan simple all game just in case, you know, he had that chance to throw all three quarterbacks in, you know, they would be comfortable and be able to run it.
Speaker: And I think that may have handicapped us just a little bit.
Speaker: I'm hoping we can get that quarterback situation figured out.
Speaker: Because once we can get it figured out and be able to tailor an offense around a specific quarterback, I think we'll have much more potential to open the playbook up and see more of what we know this Jack State offense is capable of.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: You know, you touched on Retro in the playoff three.
Speaker: We heard in his press conference Monday, I believe Monday,
Speaker: that he has planned, he will be playing Logan, Smothers, and Tayshaun Smooth both this Saturday.
Speaker: So we'll see all three for sure this Saturday.
Speaker: And, you know, this isn't just, you know, discounting, you know, ETSU.
Speaker: It's a little easier to do that, you know, against an FCS team versus not a bad FBS team that is looking to make a bowl game this year.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: We're going to see what we've got this week for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, I'd like to see the passing game open up a little bit.
Speaker: I know that we're running over a run first team, but I want to see them use the pass to set up the run.
Speaker: It feels like right now, just me being not a football expert, it feels like teams are really, right now they can kind of stack the box.
Speaker: Whether it's seven, eight guys in there.
Speaker: I'll be honest, even with a good zone-to-read QD like Zion Webb,
Speaker: It's tough to run just to set him in the box.
Speaker: You've got to be able to make throws on the outside and force that set and die out in the coverage.
Speaker: Yeah, but I mean, even with that stack box, we were still able to get really good results on the ground.
Speaker: I mean, I'm looking at the stats here.
Speaker: Malik Jackson, 13 carries, 76 yards.
Speaker: Ron Wiggins, 13 carries, 63.
Speaker: Zion Webb, 10 carries, 55.
Speaker: I mean, they still got it done, but we were very much one-dimensional, and I think that's where we only were able to score two touchdowns is because we never really got the passing game going.
Speaker: So they were okay giving you three, four, five yards because they knew at least once in that sequence you were going to try for a pass, and that's all – the way we were playing, that's almost an automatic, you know, loss of down.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: I mean, shoot, I'd do the same thing.
Speaker: If I knew that I was facing a team that couldn't throw the ball, I would gladly stack the box because I know that, you know, even if you go, you know, man on man,
Speaker: across the board, four on four, what are the odds that you're going to make a throw?
Speaker: For us, it's pretty low.
Speaker: You've got to credit UTEP.
Speaker: They had a good defensive game plan.
Speaker: Stack the box, force Zion to throw the ball, and make throws he's not comfortable making.
Speaker: It worked.
Speaker: You've got to give him credit.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, it definitely worked, but luckily we were able to
Speaker: come through with the win, you know, had two touchdowns on the ground, one each to Malik Jackson and Ron Wiggins.
Speaker: And you also have to remember we didn't have Anwar at all.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, I was thinking we were on until you go into the season with a one-two punch of Ron Wiggins and Anwar.
Speaker: But, I mean, Malik Jackson gives us three solid running backs.
Speaker: After seeing his performance, I mean –
Speaker: He had that one big run, I think it was like 45 yards, and then punched it in right after.
Speaker: Dude proved that he can hang around with the guys in the FCS.
Speaker: Again, it's UTEP, so it's not like it's some top 25 team, but the talent level is still different than the FCS.
Speaker: These guys definitely proved that they can hang around.
Speaker: They have the
Speaker: the size, they have the talent, they got everything they need, you know, to get a win, no matter how it came across.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
Speaker: You know, Malik, he's kind of that, you know, change of pace back, you know, from Ron and from Amwar who, you know,
Speaker: a little more sturdy between the tackles guys and the lead.
Speaker: He's kind of that one cut, find a hole, and run as fast as he can top running back.
Speaker: Like you said, that big play was a big reason we scored.
Speaker: I think our first touchdown was he broke down the hole, down grass, and got into the red zone.
Speaker: From there, it's just a matter of punching it in.
Speaker: I think when Anwar comes back, whether it's this week, next week, before, I don't know.
Speaker: Like I said, we've got three really good running backs.
Speaker: Really, regardless of who is a quarterback, a good runner.
Speaker: We even saw Logan pull his first read option.
Speaker: He got hit pretty hard.
Speaker: He got smacked.
Speaker: He
Speaker: he showed you that he's willing to run.
Speaker: I think that's the big thing in a rich rod offense.
Speaker: It's not so much whether you can, it's whether or not you are willing to.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And we know that Tayshaun and Zyland are willing to run.
Speaker: I mean, Tayshaun runs like 4-4.
Speaker: He's insanely fast.
Speaker: So, yeah, I mean, hey, I mean, there are some positives, though.
Speaker: We didn't have any turnovers.
Speaker: Yeah, huge.
Speaker: No turnovers, very few penalties.
Speaker: Yeah, you know, we had
Speaker: one really bad pass interference call in the end zone that cost us.
Speaker: Yeah, I went back and watched that one, and I don't agree with the pass interference whatsoever.
Speaker: No, I mean, the receiver was pushing off, and it looked like it was contact both ways, and our guys just wanted to get caught.
Speaker: It shouldn't have been a P.I.
Speaker: call.
Speaker: Again, it was a bad call, and that's really one of the only big penalties we had.
Speaker: We had the targeting, which was close.
Speaker: I still think that's a bang-bang play.
Speaker: I think they should have just left it.
Speaker: It looked like the contact was shoulder first on the screen.
Speaker: And live, it certainly looked like targeting it.
Speaker: Usually, you watch on TV whenever they say that slow motion kind of makes things worse than it actually is.
Speaker: If something doesn't look like targeting live, it probably isn't targeting.
Speaker: But that's neither here nor there.
Speaker: I think it was the first half penalty, so he'll be back for this week.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, we didn't play sloppy.
Speaker: It was just execution, really, offensively.
Speaker: Defense was outstanding.
Speaker: Absolutely outstanding.
Speaker: I think we had two forced turnovers, I think, fumble and interception.
Speaker: Yeah, so we had three.
Speaker: So we had the Larry Wirth sack, the strip sack.
Speaker: That one was amazing, which he's the one who ended up picking up the targeting.
Speaker: So that hurt us a lot in the second half.
Speaker: But Colby Fuquay had the interception.
Speaker: on their first drive of the second half.
Speaker: I mean, they looked like they were going to march down the field.
Speaker: You know, they were picking up some momentum, which was huge because they had just scored a touchdown going into the half.
Speaker: So for us to kill that drive for them coming out of the locker room, Colby Fuqua, that was a solid, solid interception.
Speaker: And then, of course, you know, the interception that everybody will watch, you know, several replays of throughout the CUSA season, Jeremiah Harris taking us to the promised land.
Speaker: Yeah, J-Romey, it was a – here's the thing.
Speaker: I mean, I think it's been talked about on Twitter, like how poor UTEP's offensive play calling was the last two downs.
Speaker: And it's third and one and fourth and one, you know, try to run it once.
Speaker: with timeouts on the board.
Speaker: Yeah, it didn't make any sense.
Speaker: But, I mean, even if that fourth down play call is a good play call, it was a late throw.
Speaker: He also lobbed it up there.
Speaker: It wasn't a direct pass whatsoever.
Speaker: Watching the replay, Jero had plenty of time to sit back and see exactly where that ball was going.
Speaker: yeah yeah he made a great read um great read on timed it well so he didn't have any contact um you know i mean three turnovers to start the year i don't think we had i mean obviously we didn't have any so that's i mean you're already starting with a plus three turnover margin which i imagine
Speaker: If you keep winning the turnover margin, you're going to win a lot of games.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let's just call it how it is.
Speaker: That's how you win games in college football.
Speaker: So don't turn the ball over and you force turnovers.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I mean, honestly, overall, that's a really solid game.
Speaker: Obviously, it's not a great game, but it's not a bad game either, you know.
Speaker: It shows you that our defense is good enough to help win us a game if our offense is struggling.
Speaker: Because I think even if I remember right, even though we did score two touchdowns, we had short fields on both of those relatively.
Speaker: So, you know, our offense struggled a little bit, but that just proves that our defense can help us win a game when we need it.
Speaker: And hopefully the refs can get a little bit better as the season goes along.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: I mean, we got a good week this week, and we'll get into it here a little bit.
Speaker: This is a good kind of get-right week.
Speaker: I don't want to say open things up too much.
Speaker: You don't want to put too much on tape before Coastal Carolina.
Speaker: But it's a good week to kind of iron out some kinks, get ready for a really, really tough stretch of games.
Speaker: I think to play five or six straight bowl teams in a row, maybe even more than that.
Speaker: I mean, I think –
Speaker: I actually think every team left on the schedule besides Louisiana Tech and Mexico State, I think nine of the last 11 teams on the schedule made a ball game last year.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, sorry, eight of 11 because ETSU is FCS.
Speaker: But still, that's eight of your 12 teams on your schedule that made a ball game.
Speaker: In your first year in FBS, that's a pretty tough schedule.
Speaker: Yeah, it's not a super cupcake schedule, but I think the first game proves that at least a good majority of this conference we can hang around with, if not come out with a win one way or another.
Speaker: Yeah, I think we were talking outside the episode, we
Speaker: seeing the way that we played defensively and knowing that the offense has so much room to grow, I mean, I see, if they keep working, I see six, seven wins on schedule.
Speaker: I mean, I really do.
Speaker: 100% looking at how some of the other CUSA teams played in the week zero, um,
Speaker: It seemed like everybody kind of has a lot of rust or had those jitters for the first game, which I think also may have been a big thing for us.
Speaker: First game of the FBS, I'm sure there was some locker room jitters and some nerves that just kind of naturally creep in no matter what any athlete will say.
Speaker: So I think having this second game before Coastal will definitely help.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: Um, I guess before we get into the week two preview, we should probably talk about the quarterbacks.
Speaker: Cause I, I know, you know, being at the game, leaving the game, um, you know, talking with some people afterwards that I'll be honest, quarterbacks are under one.
Speaker: Um, we only saw two of the three.
Speaker: Um, and we only saw one of them for a single possession.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Still think that was one of the weirdest decisions of the game.
Speaker: Yeah, I feel like if you're going to bring in Logan Smothers, you bring him in at the beginning of the second half when you're not moving the ball.
Speaker: You just want to try something new out of the half.
Speaker: Now...
Speaker: Logan obviously is very talented.
Speaker: I don't think anyone would deny that.
Speaker: He's a former four-star, really good player.
Speaker: He went to Nebraska, and Nebraska is one of the best football programs in the country, regardless of how many games they win.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And first play, I think, was the zone replay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: and he kept it.
Speaker: He got hit really hard.
Speaker: I mean, he just got popped, but then he got right back up.
Speaker: Now, that was probably adrenaline, but you give him credit for being willing to keep when he was supposed to and not being afraid to take a hit.
Speaker: I don't really remember the second play too much.
Speaker: I think the second play was another zone read.
Speaker: Okay, and he may have given on it, but I can't remember.
Speaker: But then the third play...
Speaker: which was just a bizarre play from start to finish.
Speaker: I think they went five wide, and he got the snap, looked downfield for maybe a second and a half, and then scrambled.
Speaker: And it wasn't a draw because there was no blocking downfield.
Speaker: I mean, everyone was running routes.
Speaker: It was just, it was almost like he saw, I mean, I hate to make a joke about Sam Darnold because I know that
Speaker: Jets fans and I guess even USC fans, it's probably a sensitive topic.
Speaker: I mean, you look like you were seeing ghosts on that play.
Speaker: I mean, he just literally just for no reason scrambled out of a pretty clean pocket.
Speaker: I went back and watched it.
Speaker: He had good protection.
Speaker: I mean, no one was open at the time.
Speaker: None of the routes had developed at all.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, it was a weird weird three and out there.
Speaker: And I get that Zion wasn't playing well, but
Speaker: I feel like if you're going to put Logan in, you put him in earlier and give him a few possessions to get the rust off.
Speaker: Yeah, that was just overall that was very weird because you see him come out.
Speaker: And so I'm thinking, okay, Rich Roder wants to take the offense in a totally different direction for this last quarter.
Speaker: And to see, I know it was three straight, well, it ended up being three straight run plays.
Speaker: I can't remember if he –
Speaker: ticket or kept it on the second one, but to see three straight run plays and then no more of him was very weird.
Speaker: And then also on that last play, like you were talking about, I know live, it felt like maybe he thought the pocket was collapsing, but like you said, you go back and look and for the most part, protection was pretty solid there.
Speaker: Just could have been a, you know, high adrenaline, high intensity, you know,
Speaker: maybe nerves kind of situation of the pocket was closing maybe a little bit faster than he wanted.
Speaker: So, you know, in his mind, the only option was to get out.
Speaker: I mean, to be fair, if you go back and look, if he had been able to get through that hole clean, then there was a good chance he picked up the first down.
Speaker: So, you know, maybe he thought he had a little bit more of a hole or a little bit more time, you know, to get through than he actually did.
Speaker: You know, who knows?
Speaker: I just hate throwing him in there, especially since I think at that point we were only up three.
Speaker: So it is just a really weird spot to put him in.
Speaker: You'd prefer to see him come out of half, give him multiple possessions to work with.
Speaker: But the one at the beginning, I think it was the beginning of the fourth quarter, it just felt really weird and it didn't feel like it was strategically planned at all.
Speaker: I don't know what it was.
Speaker: I think the writing was kind of on the wall because you could tell that the offense wasn't moving well with Zion.
Speaker: Here's the thing.
Speaker: I like Zion.
Speaker: It's year seven.
Speaker: We know what he is at this point.
Speaker: At this point, at the collegiate level, we've had, I think, maybe five offensive coordinators in seven years.
Speaker: for better or for worse, there's just not much for him to grow in that situation.
Speaker: And, I mean, outside of his, when he became the starter after Zarek, you know, hurt his leg, I mean, this has kind of been who he is.
Speaker: I mean, he's been a pretty good runner who was an inconsistent and streaky passer.
Speaker: And we saw the down part of his streak in this last week.
Speaker: Now,
Speaker: Detroit's probably going to play all three Saturday.
Speaker: We may see the better side of them.
Speaker: It's clear the QB competition is over yet.
Speaker: They don't know who to start playing.
Speaker: Yeah, not at all.
Speaker: At this point, it very much seems like it could still be any of the three of them.
Speaker: Of course, like I said, we haven't really seen some others, you know, a true drive from some others, and we haven't seen Smith at all.
Speaker: So I think this weekend, even though it is ETSU, it'll definitely give us a better picture of, you know, who's actually up there fighting for that QB1 spot.
Speaker: Because the last thing I want is a season-long QB battle.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker: I will say, I'll just make this last comment before we move on.
Speaker: Watching warm-ups, both pregame and then when they were making the change, you saw both Tayshaun and Logan warming up.
Speaker: Just watching Tayshaun throw the ball comes out of his hands.
Speaker: I mean, it...
Speaker: It looks like it's got more zip to it.
Speaker: It spins better.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I really think, and this isn't a knock on Logan or Zion, I just really think Tayshaun has the most growth potential and probably the most current potential.
Speaker: I think in the current situation, knowing that he
Speaker: He's a willing passer, and I think he's probably the most accurate of the three.
Speaker: But he's also got the running ability of Zion, which, and yes, Rich Rod's probably worried he'll miss.
Speaker: You know, I mean, that is, he does help the running game, because edge rushers have to respect him.
Speaker: Otherwise, he'll burn you for 30, 40 yards pretty easily.
Speaker: I'd like to see Tayshaun.
Speaker: I mean, I've been riding hard for him until last year.
Speaker: I've said, I think, he needs a chance.
Speaker: I mean, he's got the body.
Speaker: I think he's 6'2", about 195.
Speaker: He's fast.
Speaker: He's got a good arm.
Speaker: Live arm, too.
Speaker: I mean, like I said, the ball moves out of his hands.
Speaker: So we'll see.
Speaker: We got Coastal next week.
Speaker: Can't really afford not to have a starting quarterback in place for that game.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Yeah, that's why those games where we definitely want to go ahead and have it, you know, pen to paper who is QB1.
Speaker: Because Coastal is not one of those teams you want to go in still trying to figure it out and trying to plug and play three different guys or even two different guys.
Speaker: You want to have your main QB and then, you know, a guy you can throw in for trick plays, you know, if you have something up your sleeve.
Speaker: And, I mean, we'll get into it next week and back in the next episode of Talk About QB.
Speaker: They've got one of the best quarterbacks in the country, in Grayson McCall.
Speaker: And I'm telling you right now, he's better than QB, who just pays, you know, from UTEP.
Speaker: He is... This is a guy who had transfer portal offers from
Speaker: bunch of schools he nearly ended up at Auburn in the winter window he is a racing call is a baller early preview if you're expecting the secondary to have the game they did on Saturday it's mostly buckle up
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Coaster would tear us up.
Speaker: But anyways, yeah, that's really young QBs.
Speaker: I mean, just long story short, we need to see all three this week because next week we can't have one half.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Do you want to hit soccer and volleyball and then hit week two?
Speaker: Yeah, so we definitely want to make sure we show a lot of Tina all the Gamecock sports.
Speaker: Oh, she's got the notepad.
Speaker: Look at you.
Speaker: Sure do.
Speaker: Sure do.
Speaker: So far, when I looked it up at least, women's soccer sitting at 2-2 on the season.
Speaker: started off the season with two wins against Alabama A&M, 5-0, and then South Carolina State, 13-0.
Speaker: Yeah, you don't see double digits in a soccer game.
Speaker: But the last two games, we have had losses to, you know, in-state roommates, Sanford, we lost 0-6, and then UAB the other night, we lost 0-3.
Speaker: Their next home game is... Oh, yeah, 100%.
Speaker: There are a lot of teams down south that have really good soccer teams.
Speaker: I think I saw JCU at the lot two years ago, maybe.
Speaker: and UAB is a pretty solid team as well.
Speaker: So the fact that they don't, I mean, I'm not about moral victories.
Speaker: I think you know that.
Speaker: You've known me for a while.
Speaker: I hate moral victories, but only giving up 3-0 a team like UAB, you've got to give them credit or credit too.
Speaker: I mean, you put up a 13 spot, you're probably due.
Speaker: You're due to lose some games every now and then.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Look, 2-2 is not a bad start though.
Speaker: No, not at all.
Speaker: They got a long season ahead of them.
Speaker: Their next game actually is at home Friday, September 1st.
Speaker: So the episode will drop shortly before.
Speaker: But Friday, September 1st, at home versus Alcorn State.
Speaker: And as always, every home game for them, free admission.
Speaker: So Jack State fans, if you're in Jacksonville looking for a chill Friday night,
Speaker: Go on and head over to the soccer complex right there next to the Pete.
Speaker: Catch a women's soccer game.
Speaker: Like you said, it's free, so there's no excuse not to go.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, 100%.
Speaker: It's free.
Speaker: And, you know, there's stuff to do around Jacksonville on a Friday night afterwards.
Speaker: Go ahead and start.
Speaker: Go ahead.
Speaker: Yeah, you go to Starmark.
Speaker: Start your Friday off, you know, with some Jack State soccer.
Speaker: I think all of our sports deserve some love.
Speaker: I know when we were at JSU, we tried to, you know, hit some of the games and the events that had smaller crowds just because they all deserve love.
Speaker: Speaking of the Pete, the women's volleyball team, off to a little bit of a rocky start, one and two.
Speaker: But we know from past seasons, one and two is a slow start, but we will definitely rebound.
Speaker: Those women are absolute beasts on the court.
Speaker: The monsters.
Speaker: Started off the season with a W against McNeese.
Speaker: And then we took two losses, one to Coffin State and one to Auburn.
Speaker: You can't blame them losing to Auburn.
Speaker: Auburn volleyball is actually pretty good.
Speaker: Yeah, you know, that one you definitely can understand.
Speaker: But, hey, like I said, maybe a rough start, but our women are insane.
Speaker: They're going to finish the season strong.
Speaker: Next up, they'll be up in Chicago for the Windy City Classic.
Speaker: They have two games on Friday, one against CIMO, or two matches, I'll say.
Speaker: One against CIMO and one against Chicago State, and then one on Saturday against UC Irvine.
Speaker: So I'll be curious to see what that will be.
Speaker: We can't get rid of CIMO, can't we?
Speaker: No, can't get rid of him.
Speaker: I don't think we ever will.
Speaker: Probably not.
Speaker: Just as long as they don't join CUSA, I'll be good.
Speaker: But yeah.
Speaker: I don't know, man.
Speaker: I've been looking forward to getting someone kicked out, kicked off the team for punching the student.
Speaker: We got to love SEMO and their extremely classy athletes and fan base.
Speaker: But yeah, that's...
Speaker: All that I have seen so far for our women's sports, we're getting closer and closer to a softball season led by the ever-famous Coach McGinnis.
Speaker: I can't wait for some JSU softball, baby.
Speaker: They always defy expectations.
Speaker: Insane team.
Speaker: Insane coaches.
Speaker: Can't wait to see what that season's like.
Speaker: Our diamond sports in general, uh,
Speaker: I can't remember who our new head coach is for baseball, but I'm excited to see what he does there.
Speaker: I hate that we lost two pretty heavy hitters to the Auburn program, but best of wishes to Javon Hernandez and Mason Maynard.
Speaker: We are going to miss those two guys.
Speaker: Those were two that always drew the fans' attention when they stepped up to the plate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Best of luck to them, but definitely going to miss their presence.
Speaker: I found our new baseball coach, by the way.
Speaker: His name is Steve Beezer.
Speaker: He was the coach at Missouri for the last, I think, seven years.
Speaker: Yeah, you saying that name sparked it.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm excited to see what he does.
Speaker: I think whenever they first announced the hire, we looked it up in his resume.
Speaker: Pretty impressive, which is exactly what we need following Coach Case because that man left a pretty unbeatable legacy here at JSU.
Speaker: So I think we'd like to see
Speaker: It'll be great to see what he can do on the diamond.
Speaker: Yeah, there are many coaches who can look up at the stadium and be actively coaching in the stadium and be named after them.
Speaker: Coach Case is one of them.
Speaker: Yep, Coach McGinnis too.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, the sophomore field is McGinnis Field.
Speaker: So, yeah, I mean, Coach Case is the GOAT for JSU.
Speaker: Let's be honest, like him, Coach McGinnis, and then Coach Burgess, those are the big three.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think Coach Case, I think, might have been fourth among Dakis coaches last year in wins.
Speaker: I think.
Speaker: I know he was top five.
Speaker: Yeah, like you say, he –
Speaker: I mean, he's won a lot of games.
Speaker: So, obviously, Coach, best of luck to you in your retirement.
Speaker: Hope you go travel a lot.
Speaker: Have a lot of fun.
Speaker: Thank you for your time at the university because you made JSU baseball fun.
Speaker: Sure did.
Speaker: Sure did.
Speaker: I mean, shoot, he even went to the regional final game against Ole Miss a few years ago.
Speaker: He nearly made a Super Regional with Cox.
Speaker: Best of luck.
Speaker: Looking forward to baseball season and softball season.
Speaker: Like you said, Diamond Sports and the Ville are pretty good.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, I honestly think all of our sports are pretty good.
Speaker: We are overlooked because we are not super flashy at all.
Speaker: I think a lot of our sports are good.
Speaker: I mean...
Speaker: The hard court, those guys are pretty good too.
Speaker: Those men and women.
Speaker: I was going to say, women had a really good year last year.
Speaker: We're going to have to get into that here in a few episodes.
Speaker: A month and a half from basketball really starting to get out of the way.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: We'll definitely spend a good chunk of an episode probably about a month from now.
Speaker: talking about the excitement there because there is a lot to look forward to.
Speaker: Like we said last episode, come to the Pete for a game.
Speaker: It's going to be fun.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, especially since we got Liberty that's going to be coming in.
Speaker: That's a game our fans will show up for.
Speaker: They're going to pack the house up.
Speaker: They're going to make sure, you know,
Speaker: the fan presence is felt for that game.
Speaker: So yeah, definitely try and come out to a game at the Pete.
Speaker: Um, it's an experience that's for sure.
Speaker: Nope.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, I guess that leaves us one, one big ticket item left.
Speaker: Um, we got a preview of this football game on Saturday.
Speaker: Yeah, we sure do.
Speaker: East Tennessee State.
Speaker: At home, I think it's a 1 o'clock Central Time kickoff.
Speaker: It is also band day for the Marching Southerners.
Speaker: For those of you out there who don't know, the Marching Southerners is JSU's marching band.
Speaker: And band day is basically when we invite all the area middle school and high school band kids to
Speaker: come out and play a couple of tunes on the field with the southerners pregame you know that always brings a pretty good crowd um it's usually a couple hundred students and of course you know their parents and their families are going to come too because it's a big day for them it's fun they get to play with the southerners you know for a lot of the kids in the area it's a pretty big deal a lot of their band directors were part of the southerners so
Speaker: These kids always love that day and look forward to it.
Speaker: So we should have a pretty good crowd.
Speaker: 1 p.m.
Speaker: kickoff should be considerably cooler.
Speaker: I think when I was looking, it's mid to low 80s is the high, which is a lot different than, you know, 96, 97.
Speaker: So, you know, hopefully we get a better crowd for that too.
Speaker: And I know Bama and Auburn don't play until late, so hopefully they don't draw too much from our crowd.
Speaker: I don't think Auburn will.
Speaker: I mean, it's a 2.30 kickoff, but we're playing UMass.
Speaker: The only reason that it'll fill up is because it's Hugh Freeze's first game.
Speaker: But yeah, you know, fan day is a big, it's a big deal with JSU.
Speaker: And like you said, the crowds are always, that seems like it's always the most well-examined game of the year.
Speaker: And part of it's because you've got seven, eight hundred extra people between students and parents who are there.
Speaker: Sometimes more.
Speaker: But, yeah, I mean, looking back at ETSU, I only remember us playing them once.
Speaker: I think that was the first round of the playoffs in 2018 before we became named.
Speaker: I'm correct.
Speaker: First round.
Speaker: I thought beat them pretty good, but I can't really see it before that.
Speaker: I'm not sure.
Speaker: If it was the playoffs, I can say for sure since then, they have gone downhill.
Speaker: I was looking earlier, their record last year was three and eight, and they were one and seven in their conference.
Speaker: And, I mean, their three wins were not against anybody super remarkable.
Speaker: They had Mars Hill, which I think is a D2 school, or very, very low FCS.
Speaker: Then they have VMI and Robert Morris, two schools who are not necessarily widely respected when it comes to football in the FCS.
Speaker: And, I mean, yeah.
Speaker: They had losses to some pretty solid teams.
Speaker: They lost to UTC, who I know was ranked last year in the FCS, at least when they played.
Speaker: And then they had Sanford, a loss to Sanford and a loss to Furman.
Speaker: So, I mean, it's at least looking off of last year, they're not a very strong team.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: not somebody we should be worried about, also not somebody we should be toying around with.
Speaker: Not to sound cocky or overly confident, but we should walk in there and walk out with no less than 42, 45 points.
Speaker: I'll be a little concerned if we don't.
Speaker: Again, it's not a knock.
Speaker: You're just saying ETSU, you're out, you know, terrible football, whatever.
Speaker: When you're facing a bad FCS team,
Speaker: And you're a team that went 9-2 last year, won their conference, coming off a big week one win, sorry, week zero win.
Speaker: You can't come in after having a week of offensive struggle and then fillet another egg.
Speaker: So yeah, I'm looking for Rich Rod to run up in that field.
Speaker: Even if it's keeping the shit on the gas late, just to get these guys some experience and go in full speed late in the game.
Speaker: I wouldn't really care if we ran the score up.
Speaker: Just get these guys to go in full speed late in the game.
Speaker: Let's be honest, we're not going to run away with every game this year, and we're not going to get blown out in every game.
Speaker: That being a lot of one possession games late, these guys are going to have to know what it's like to be running a game since they're 60 minutes.
Speaker: I did look it up, though.
Speaker: So we did play in round one in 2018.
Speaker: I thought we won bigger than we did.
Speaker: It was 34-27.
Speaker: Gotcha.
Speaker: I think it was one of our rain games.
Speaker: I think we had like between 2018 and 2019, we had so many hurricanes, those two falls, that we had like six or seven rain games.
Speaker: Yeah, rain games are never fun.
Speaker: And of course, that was Zarek's first year.
Speaker: So a lot has changed when we've gone through.
Speaker: Three offensive coordinators in the line.
Speaker: I think this is year five since then.
Speaker: We've had three offensive coordinators in that time.
Speaker: So the team you see today looks nothing like
Speaker: Oh yeah, no, not at all.
Speaker: Um, both schools looking totally different.
Speaker: Like I said, they were in the playoffs then.
Speaker: And then last season they were three and eight.
Speaker: Um, and then obviously we are now playing at the FBS level, new head coach, new offensive coordinator, overall looking like a much, much better team.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So, yeah, it's definitely going to be a different story.
Speaker: And, again, like we're saying, no disrespect ETSU, but I expect us to run away with this one and kind of put it to bed early.
Speaker: I think we should be in a position where the first stringers probably only play maybe two drives coming out of the locker room, and then, you know, you start getting those –
Speaker: bench guys and they're giving them a little bit more time um so hopefully we can go go and take care of business it's a home crowd it's gonna be a good a good-sized crowd weather's not going to be too much of a factor you know heat's not going to be too bad so we shouldn't have guys you know cramping up left and right so you know i'm hoping that first game you know we were able to shake off the rust
Speaker: In this game, we can kind of build on momentum and get that momentum going and get those reps in heading in the coastal.
Speaker: And then also, I hope they get a nice crowd so they can get that feeling in.
Speaker: Because I think after this, we have...
Speaker: and then after that it's the midweek games.
Speaker: And I just don't know what to expect out of our fans for those midweek games.
Speaker: I don't have any expectations for that.
Speaker: I'm going to go to the Liberty game.
Speaker: I'm going to take a couple days off for work and go to the Liberty game.
Speaker: I'll find out real quickly what the fans will like for that one.
Speaker: I hope they'll be good because you've got a lot of alumni who live in Jacksonville.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or even live, you know, whether it's Oxford, Aniston, Gallagher.
Speaker: They live within an hour.
Speaker: So I'm hoping that if we get a good student crowd for that game and for Western Kentucky, that we'll have, you know, good of our crowd.
Speaker: But, you know, like I said, yeah, we need to – we just kind of step on the gas Saturday just from start to finish.
Speaker: Um, I certainly would love to see, you know, first half kind of run away with it.
Speaker: Selfishly, I'll be at the Auburn game.
Speaker: I, I don't need to feel like I'm missing something in the second half.
Speaker: Selfishly, I really don't want to feel like I'm missing something in the second half.
Speaker: I'd love to see us put up 20, 30 points in the first half, you know, kind of get back into that rich rod tempo rhythm that we really didn't see much of this last week.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: You know, we saw – obviously we saw tempo, but we didn't see it consistently just because we weren't getting enough first downs.
Speaker: So, you know, I'd love to really see them step on the gas and just kind of leave it there.
Speaker: Like I said, I think – I think 40 points is a good goal.
Speaker: I could see us scoring a lot more.
Speaker: I mean, I know ETSU is better than Mississippi Valley State.
Speaker: but I've seen a score 71 in a game before.
Speaker: So we – not saying it's going to happen this week, but I've seen it happen before.
Speaker: Cox by 90.
Speaker: Cox by 90.
Speaker: That's every week.
Speaker: Yeah, honestly, like you were saying, I really hope this game is kind of put away in the second half.
Speaker: I won't be able to be at the game this weekend.
Speaker: And I'll be busy right around when the second half starts.
Speaker: So I don't want to, you know, have to be worried to check my phone during that second half.
Speaker: I want to be able to put my phone away, you know, and know that, you know, when the second half starts, you know, it is what it is.
Speaker: And, you know, we're walking out of there with a W.
Speaker: So, yeah, I obviously not to beat a dead horse, but, yeah, we really just got to come out.
Speaker: We got to get this quarterback situation under control.
Speaker: One of these guys just has to be confident walking in there.
Speaker: You know, this is my job.
Speaker: I'm going to make coach take it away from me.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I think that's the mentality they have to walk in there with not I'm trying to win the job.
Speaker: I want them to walk in there with the mentality of this is my job.
Speaker: Let coach come and try and take it from me.
Speaker: Um, cause I think if you go in there with that mentality, one, it'll just lead to better play overall.
Speaker: Cause when the quarterback's confident, it kind of bleeds out into the rest of the team, um, which will up the level of play.
Speaker: But not only that, you just want the leader of your team or, you know, who most people consider to be the leader of the team.
Speaker: You want your quarterback to be super confident in his abilities and, you know, be able to go out there and lead the team even when, you know, it gets a little rocky or it gets a little rough.
Speaker: Those guys, you know, are able to look back at him and say, okay, yeah, we're good.
Speaker: You know, he's under center.
Speaker: He's back there.
Speaker: We ain't got to worry, you know.
Speaker: So –
Speaker: This week will definitely be a good week for one of them to kind of shine and stand out above the rest.
Speaker: Yeah, no question.
Speaker: I'll tell you what I look for in the QBs this week.
Speaker: I know I've mentioned his name before.
Speaker: I really think that this is a week where if Tayshaun's going to have any chance at getting a job, this is going to have to be the week for him to do it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, if he doesn't, I just don't, it's going to be tough to find playing time for him where he's not going up against a defense that's better than what he's used to facing.
Speaker: I think, I mean, you look at the stretch coming up, we've got Libert, Coastal, Eastern Michigan, Liberty, MTSU, Western Kentucky, South Carolina.
Speaker: I mean, we...
Speaker: just about every team we play, defense he's going to be facing is better than what he would have seen last year.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: So, knowing that he will be playing this week, assuming Rich Rod keeps his word, this is the week for him to really take advantage of playing time.
Speaker: It's going to be tough to get him playing time after this week if he doesn't take advantage of it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Definitely looking for the quarterbacks to step up.
Speaker: I'm hoping naturally that gets a lot of our other receivers involved.
Speaker: Definitely looking at, you know, Perry Carter Jr. Looking for Sterling Galvan, looking for Michael Petway, Sean Brown.
Speaker: You know, a lot of guys that we were used to hearing their names called last year, we just –
Speaker: weren't able to hear them, you know, hear their names called as much as they should have this past week.
Speaker: Um, definitely hoping that changes a little bit.
Speaker: And, you know, I'm also looking for, you know, hopefully get J rock swing going this week.
Speaker: I know last weekend he had a couple of tackles, a couple of tackles for loss, but it seemed like they were definitely, you know, aiming to double team him and kind of do whatever they could to keep his impact low.
Speaker: So, yeah, I definitely hope that he gets going here a little bit.
Speaker: And, I mean, Larry Worth definitely showed just how much he is worth, no pun intended, in that first half that we did see him.
Speaker: And you could definitely tell they were hurting a little bit when he was gone.
Speaker: Definitely having him off to J-Rock and whatnot, it was...
Speaker: We definitely are going to need him back.
Speaker: Glad that I'm pretty sure he got ejected in the first half.
Speaker: So we'll see him, you know, beginning of the game.
Speaker: If it was second half, then we'll see him in the second half of the game.
Speaker: So, yeah, definitely looking to see him, you know, get going.
Speaker: I love the last one of the Colby Fuquay.
Speaker: Awesome name, by the way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But I hope we get to hear his name called a lot more, you know, this weekend.
Speaker: And same with the offense.
Speaker: I want these guys to build off of that momentum.
Speaker: All it takes is, you know, one guy getting a couple sacks or tackles for loss, one guy getting, you know, a pick or two.
Speaker: You know, those big impact plays.
Speaker: And a lot of those plays can carry momentum, you know, week to week.
Speaker: So I'm hoping we see a lot of that this weekend.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: You know, you mentioned, and I want to touch on it before we kind of move into our closing stuff.
Speaker: You mentioned J-Rock kind of having a, I don't want to have a talk, I don't want to say quiet game, but not up to his normal standards.
Speaker: I was noticing a lot that they made a point to run a lot of outside zone away from him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They were doing whatever they could to avoid him for sure.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, in the running game, they ran away from him.
Speaker: In the passing game, those of you who know football, you'll know what I'm about to say.
Speaker: I saw a lot of full slide protection in their play-action game in his direction, making sure that he was having to go up against...
Speaker: guards and centers instead of tackles and tight ends.
Speaker: So he was facing, you know, a lot bigger offensive linemen than he was originally supposed to be matched up on in the passing game.
Speaker: And then, you know, in the running game, they made sure not to, they didn't, they didn't put the ball anywhere near him.
Speaker: And now the few times that they did, you saw him disrupting the play.
Speaker: They made sure to,
Speaker: get in the place where they want running straight up JROC I mean I don't I don't blame him he's one of the best players in conference but
Speaker: I'd love to see maybe, I don't mean this the wrong way, maybe against an ETSU team that maybe isn't as good as game planning.
Speaker: We hope we can see J-Rock get some big hits.
Speaker: Because, I mean, I know you remember some of the hits he had last year.
Speaker: You can feel them from the stands.
Speaker: Dude is a monster.
Speaker: An absolute monster.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Hopefully this week goes well.
Speaker: I'm sure it will.
Speaker: Rich Rod is not the kind of guy to lose games to... Again, I don't mean this slightly, but he's not the kind of guy to lose games to inferior opponents.
Speaker: His knock was always not being able to win the big game when it mattered most.
Speaker: But
Speaker: There's no pressure, really, this year.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We can just kind of get this one in.
Speaker: I mean, starting off our FBS campaign 2-0, even if one of those losses will – even if one of those wins would be to an FCS team, starting your FBS campaign off 2-0 is a really big step in the right direction, especially when I saw a lot of predictions on Twitter and otherwise that had us losing to UTEP, like –
Speaker: 10, 13, 17 points.
Speaker: So for us to win, albeit close, we still won.
Speaker: And now hopefully, you know, going to this getting a win and starting off 2-0, really big momentum, you know, really big kind of punch in the mouth to all of our haters.
Speaker: You know, one step closer to beating that 4-8 ceiling I saw a lot of predictions about.
Speaker: So, yeah, good secondary game after kind of dipping your toes in the water in that first week.
Speaker: Good secondary game to step back, reanalyze, and kind of use as a springboard going into our gauntlet of a season.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: So, I guess that pretty much wraps it up.
Speaker: I do have one thing I want to say, though.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: this kind of pops.
Speaker: So we're recording this late Thursday night in the Friday morning, and it's going to be edited and released Friday morning.
Speaker: So it's going to be a long night.
Speaker: But for those of you who are watching Florida, Utah, and you had Spectrum tonight, David, did you hear about this?
Speaker: No, what happened?
Speaker: Did it just like completely black out or something?
Speaker: So Spectrum and Disney are in a standoff right now.
Speaker: So at around 8 Eastern, anyone who had Spectrum and was watching the game, the game cut out, and then a message displayed on the screen from Spectrum talking about how Disney wanted the super high fee from them in their new deal.
Speaker: Oh no, you can't cut out mid-game like that.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Now, I'll say this.
Speaker: So on my phone and, like, on my laptop, I couldn't watch games on my Spectrum.
Speaker: I had to go to my dad's Dish account to watch games.
Speaker: But on my TV, it was the weirdest thing.
Speaker: I'd never had issues, and I would, like, exit the app and come back in to ESPN, and it would still let me watch the game on my Spectrum account.
Speaker: It was the weirdest thing.
Speaker: But, like, across the world, people who have Spectrum...
Speaker: Um, every Disney channel that, that is on the package just was removed at eight o'clock.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For, for what was supposed to be a big game that sucks.
Speaker: It cut out right at eight o'clock.
Speaker: That's insane.
Speaker: And think about it.
Speaker: Disney owns ESPN.
Speaker: They own FX.
Speaker: Um, ABC.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like they own the sec and ACC channels.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Look, I'm no mathematician here, but week one of college football, you can't be cutting out 95% of your college football networks.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, as crazy as to say, it's good it happened on a Thursday, and hopefully they can rectify the situation before Saturday.
Speaker: Because if that had happened in the middle of a big game on Saturday, you would have some angry, angry, angry fans.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, you have people switching from Spectrum to other places overnight.
Speaker: I mean, I even looked in, like, after it happened, I started looking into, like, YouTube TV and stuff.
Speaker: I was like, I can't not have ESPN.
Speaker: Like, I know that I have Dish with my parents.
Speaker: It's like I can cheat the system.
Speaker: I cannot imagine someone not, like, a football fan who has Spectrum not being able to watch ESPN.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know how long it's like I don't know how long it takes to resolve it.
Speaker: Man, I nearly put something I knew I meant to text you about it before we started recording, but it it I called my dad and he was like, yeah, the Internet is blowing up right now about it.
Speaker: I was like, yeah, I bet.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm sure their customer service line definitely was extremely busy all night.
Speaker: So I'm sure they will try and get a resolution as quick as they possibly can.
Speaker: Because like you said, if not, they're going to lose customers quite literally overnight so that people will be able to watch the games this weekend.
Speaker: It's week one of college football.
Speaker: People are going to make sure they're able to watch the games.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Let an LSU fan or a Florida State fan not be able to watch the game on Sunday night.
Speaker: See what happens.
Speaker: Let those drunk, angry Cajuns get going if they can't watch the game.
Speaker: Yeah, they don't want to deal with that at all.
Speaker: So if they're smart, they will resolve, which we've seen several cable companies have disputes with Disney over ESPN packages.
Speaker: So, I mean, I'm sure we will see this resolved fairly soon.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: it shouldn't be a big problem going forward, but Hey, if we have to talk about it next episode, then we know something's up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: If it's still on the, uh, on the agenda for next week, something has gone wrong, but, uh, but anyways, man, it's been a good episode.
Speaker: Uh, it really has officially, we've officially recorded it on two different days.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: We started recording on Thursday and we finished the episode on Friday.
Speaker: We got it done.
Speaker: That's what matters.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: Before we head out, free plug, Apothecary in Jacksonville.
Speaker: Great place.
Speaker: Great little self-tap wall bar.
Speaker: I know last week they were running a couple specials during the game.
Speaker: Anytime JSU scored a touchdown, it was 50% off on the tap wall for the next five minutes.
Speaker: I heard that was a hit.
Speaker: Even though we only scored two touchdowns, I heard...
Speaker: One, it was a packed house in there, and whenever JSU scored a touchdown, people ran for the walls.
Speaker: So I heard that was a pretty big hit.
Speaker: And then, you know, JSU won, so they gave everybody a 10% discount.
Speaker: I know both of us actually went after the game, and I was talking to the owner, and he said as long as they can share the JSU game on TV –
Speaker: Whether it be a home or a road game, they plan on running those same promotions.
Speaker: So, I mean, if it's a home weekend and maybe it's too hot for you, you don't want to deal with the crowds, go on over to Apothecary.
Speaker: Hey, I mean, this week might be a good week to go because that tap wall might be 50% off for a good majority of the game if we can score touchdowns the way we should.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: And then, hey, I mean, if we have any road games on a major TV network that they can access, great place to go watch.
Speaker: You know, get you some cheap beer, great time.
Speaker: And you can bring your food in from any of the many amazing places to eat around Jacksonville.
Speaker: So, you know, go drink some good beer, eat some good food wherever you may choose to get it from.
Speaker: I will always shamelessly plug
Speaker: The Rocket and Jefferson's and Struts.
Speaker: And of course, Cuda Browns, yes.
Speaker: But there are plenty of other places to choose from.
Speaker: You know, you got Air Loom, you got Mongo's, you got several fast food places, you have KT Pho, and that's just kind of scratching the surface.
Speaker: So you got plenty of places to, you know, grab a bite to eat and walk on over to the apothecary and catch a game.
Speaker: The weather is going to be great, so I'm sure sitting on the patio would be quite nice.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: That's actually going to be perfect weather for that.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: So a little free plug there.
Speaker: We are not sponsored by them at all, but definitely wanted to.
Speaker: No free shout-outs.
Speaker: Definitely wanted to help them get some business because that is a place I think Jacksonville needs to keep around.
Speaker: So we will do whatever we can to keep the business going to them.
Speaker: No, no question.
Speaker: We're all about the local businesses.
Speaker: And like you said, Apothecary is one of the best.
Speaker: Good atmosphere, live music, plenty of TVs, whether it's football, soccer, baseball, they got it all.
Speaker: I don't know if you saw, but they also got a Golden Tee arcade game in there.
Speaker: I saw that.
Speaker: I saw that.
Speaker: I didn't.
Speaker: I was going to go hit it up, but I didn't.
Speaker: But I saw that.
Speaker: So I think next time I'm in, I'm going to have to go try it out.
Speaker: I'm sure that gets plenty of attention.
Speaker: You know, get a little fun in your system, go over there, and everybody tries to beat each other's high score.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I definitely got to check that out next time I'm in there.
Speaker: No doubt.
Speaker: But, yeah, I mean, they always have plenty of board games, tabletop games.
Speaker: They got a little space in the back for cornhole.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And usually on the weekends they have live music.
Speaker: So yeah, definitely a great spot to either start your day or end the night.
Speaker: Just a heads up, they are 21 and up after nine o'clock.
Speaker: So, you know, if you have any kids or stuff like that, it's definitely a better midday, early afternoon option.
Speaker: But a great place to chill all around.
Speaker: It is a good place to chill.
Speaker: It's a good atmosphere.
Speaker: Uh, plenty of, plenty of places to sit too.
Speaker: They can, they can put quite a lot of people in there.
Speaker: I feel that crowded.
Speaker: Hopefully we can, uh, record an episode of the podcast there one day.
Speaker: Yo, that'd be kind of lit.
Speaker: Do a live show.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: That'd be pretty fun.
Speaker: So, all right.
Speaker: Well, I think that pretty much wraps it up.
Speaker: I think it does.
Speaker: I'm definitely excited for the game this weekend.
Speaker: Hate that I can't be there.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Yeah, we have to have someone reporting to us from the inside for sure.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, we got plenty of people.
Speaker: Maybe we can have somebody on next week that was actually at the game.
Speaker: I know we got a couple of friends that we would trust to bring on here that we know that will be there.
Speaker: Rich Rod.
Speaker: I wish.
Speaker: We can go...
Speaker: I guess not photobomb, but, you know, video bomb, whatever, is a radio show at B-dubs on Monday.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Hey, look, I don't work Mondays, and I'm going to be in Jacksonville Monday and Tuesday.
Speaker: Hey, I mean, B-dubs sound good, too.
Speaker: Yeah, B-dubs ain't too bad, for real.
Speaker: Maybe one day we can.
Speaker: I got some new sauces that I want to try.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Always.
Speaker: They're always coming with something crazy.
Speaker: Maybe we can convince him to get on here one of these days.
Speaker: Maybe a little bit on down the road.
Speaker: That would be wild.
Speaker: That would be wild, but... Alright, well... Hopefully when you guys are listening to this, it'll be Friday and not Saturday after the game, so you won't be looking around wondering why we released the podcast after the game.
Speaker: It should drop sometime between 3 and 5 this morning, so...
Speaker: If you're listening to it, it's already released.
Speaker: So yeah, thank you guys for the support so far.
Speaker: We've had a lot of fun these first two episodes.
Speaker: We're going to try and get to a little bit better of a recording schedule going forward.
Speaker: But that's all me.
Speaker: That was my fault.
Speaker: It is what it is.
Speaker: Life happens sometimes.
Speaker: We'll figure it out.
Speaker: I'm a first responder, so it is what it is.
Speaker: Yeah, thank you guys for coming out.
Speaker: We'll see you guys next week.
Speaker: Go Cocks.
Speaker: Go Cocks, baby.
