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2025 Sun Belt Championship Game Preview w/Jack Fitzpatrick & Barry McKnight
67 Plays13 days ago
It's championship week! Brian is joined by Jack Fitzpatrick of JMU Sports News to break down the Dukes' dominant season, what advantages James Madison holds over Troy, and talks over the chances of a CFP contender.
Then, Brian and Zeke welcome Troy Broadcasting Director Barry McKnight on to discuss how the Trojans made it to yet another Sun Belt championship game, what this means for Troy as a program, and an outlook on former coach Jon Sumrall's recent hire at Florida.
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Transcript
Sunbelt Championship Preview
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome everybody back to warm weather fans. It is Brian Stone joined by Zeke Palermo and this week we're previewing the Sunbelt Conference Championship game headlined by JMU and Troy. Zeke, we can go over kind of our brief predictions on how we think this game is going to go and then throw it to those individual interviews. But before we do all that, how's it going?
00:00:37
Speaker
It's going, man. we We got conference championship week, and then after that, hopefully, some college football playoff action. um So we're we're kind of in the homestretch of the season from our perspective. Obviously, have some bowl games that are, as we record this, not yet announced, but um will be in the coming weeks. So it's just crazy that it's already over, and looking forward to some, you know, we had some good conversations this week, and, you know, just happy to share them.
JMU's Path to Victory
00:01:06
Speaker
So we will get to those talks with Jack Fitzpatrick from JMU Sports News and Barry McKnight, who is the Troy radio announcer. ah But Zeke, before we do that, what are your what are your general prediction for the Sunbelt title game? Who do you got winning? And like what what are we looking at as far as ah margin and things like that?
00:01:30
Speaker
Uh, first I want to point out that James Madison has probably been the best team in the conference the last four years, but is only just now making a conference championship game, uh, which is crazy, which is crazy. They obviously got, uh, robbed in that first year and then,
00:01:48
Speaker
Missed out by merit, um, of regular season losses over the past two seasons, but that's crazy. Cause James Madison, again, just five years ago now, uh, was planning in the FCS beating up on teams and really has not missed a step.
00:02:02
Speaker
Um, these are two teams I think that had very different trajectories. Troy was always in the hunt, uh, for this, uh, the West birth, uh, even through the middle parts of the season, but it was Southern mist that was really in control for a lot of it. Um,
00:02:21
Speaker
And over the last three weeks, and it starts by no fault of their own with Braylon Braxton's injury um that kind of tanked ah their game. I think of their third to the last game of the year.
00:02:33
Speaker
ah Southern Miss ultimately loses each of their last three, and then including a game against Troy that ah sends Troy to the the conference championship game. ah Meanwhile, James Madison, again, has been really dominant in the conference over the past four years, has been the best team in the conference all year.
00:02:51
Speaker
um And look, I'm hoping for a good game, but it's really hard to not foresee a beating like Marshall put down on Louisiana last year.
00:03:03
Speaker
um marshalls or James Madison's defense is just so obscenely good against a Troy offense that has found good things with Goose Crowder, but ultimately is very deficient in the run game. Again, they've they've got some guys. Tay Meadows has kind of turned it on at points, but James Madison is just so obscenely elite defensively that we've seen them. When they put on offensive stinkers like ah against Georgia State in the middle of the year, it does not matter because the defense is just so darn good.
00:03:35
Speaker
um I don't know what the line is. I don't know what the Vegas line is or what the books have, but I think James Madison wins this game by probably 14 points. If I were setting the spread, i would say 13.5. I
Troy's Challenges and JMU's Defense
00:03:48
Speaker
hope it's not the case. I obviously hope it's a lot closer than that. I hope it's a little more interesting, but...
00:03:52
Speaker
It's just James Madison has just been so far and away the best team in the conference all year. i agree. um You know, going back, you know, years, even back to like the Todd Centeno year, ah which I think was 2021, 2022, when when ah James Madison first entered the conference.
00:04:16
Speaker
maybe it was 21. I can't remember off the top of my head, but they, they've always had a good quarterback. They've, they've always had a good head coach. They've always had a good defense since they entered the sunbelt. And then, like you said, due to stupid NCAA rules, as far as moving up from the FCS to FBS level, they wrongly get left out of a couple of conference championship games. They wouldn't have been in the one last year because they lost to Marshall in the finale. But,
00:04:41
Speaker
Plus, Alonzo Barnett had torn his ACL, so even if they had qualified, you really wouldn't have watch wanted to watch JMU with a backup ah play against ah
Playoff Controversy: JMU vs. Tulane
00:04:50
Speaker
Louisiana. But the the the two years prior to that with the Jordan McLeod ah season when they were dominant in 23, and then I think it was Todd Centeno before that in 22, who was amazing as a quarterback – Yeah, they've they've been basically been good every year. They've either been a conference title favorite or they've been a strong contender for the conference title game. So credit to them.
00:05:14
Speaker
So Zeke, you said if you were to set a line, it would be 13 or 14 and a half. Is that if you had to guess what the actual line is, what would you say? I'll go ahead and tell you right now. Yeah, ah so I would set it at 13 and a half. I think we've seen James Madison receive some really hefty spreads this year.
00:05:34
Speaker
Is it 15 and a half James Madison? yeah This is going to blow your socks off. You ready? Yeah. It's 22 and a half.
00:05:45
Speaker
Oh, that's gross. It's in Harrisonburg. I don't know if that changes things for you as far as setting a line. It's 22 and a half.
00:05:57
Speaker
Here's the thing, though. It's in the cards. I wouldn't be shocked. I really wouldn't be. It's just this James Madison, and and we'll let them get into it. and I'm excited to...
00:06:10
Speaker
you know hear what Barry has to say about hopes for this game. so It's just so grim. it's just And that's not a knock on Troy. I think this is a Troy team that, in most other years, is probably flirt you know has a shot to win this game.
00:06:26
Speaker
Against Marshall last year, against you know they're not going to play them, obviously, because they're both in the West, but against Louisiana last year. think troy this Troy team has a shot against those guys.
00:06:37
Speaker
But James Madison is just so... So darn good. And it it would be a travesty if they get left out of the college football playoffs. um We're recording this before the the selections or the the rankings come out.
00:06:54
Speaker
So we don't know where the committee sits. um But at the moment, they're outside looking in. And it would be a travesty. We've talked, though, you know, maybe that's the best case scenario for the conference um is avoiding James Madison going in against like a number five Alabama or someone and getting whooped on national television. um But you want you want to see him at least try.
00:07:20
Speaker
Right. Yeah. um I think the implied score, if I'm doing my math correctly with the spread, the total is only 47 and a half. So this clearly implies they don't think that Troy is going score much, if at all. I think the implied score, set it's it's a half. So it's around 35 12, 35, 13 as a final score. Yeah.
00:07:42
Speaker
as a final ah score i I think that seems about right. i don't know that I wouldn't bet the 22 and a half. yes All you would need is one thing to go wrong for JMU, like a punt return touchdown or something. And you're like, I'm screwed.
00:07:56
Speaker
I think James Madison has been far and away the best Sunbelt team all year Even in their hiccups, you know, Georgia State, Washington State, they still find a way to win, which is the sign of great teams. You're always scrapping, clawing, finding new ways to kind of overcome bad play or are margins on the scoreboard. I think JMU just keeps rolling here. I don't think Troy is going to present much that James Madison hasn't seen from other better Sunbelt teams this year.
00:08:26
Speaker
the number one game that comes to mind for me, Troy lost 33 to nothing to old dominion and old dominion and JMU were neck and neck. And then JMU's defense showed up for the second half and it was O V E R. Uh, and they beat them by 35 points. I think this one's going to be ugly.
00:08:44
Speaker
But I would be hesitant to bet the spread just because it's so many points and that that would just make me nervous. But I still think James Madison is easily the best team in the conference. I think in order for Troy to have a chance and we'll talk about this with Barry because I would love to get you know his his thoughts and things and we'll we'll get those.
00:09:04
Speaker
for Troy to have a chance, you have to see Georgia state, Alonzo Barnett come out and play where he can't hit the broad side of a bar and he's not in rhythm. He doesn't seem like he's eager to run or even sort of willing. He's just giving you basically nothing other than handing the ball off to Wayne Knight. And those guys, Joby Mallory, um,
00:09:24
Speaker
Either that or like barring an injury, which we we obviously don't you know root for or anything like that. like I'm just trying to think of scenarios in which Troy beats them, and those are basically the only two that I can come up with.
00:09:37
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's just a good chance. ah We'll let you hear what ah Barry has to say, hear what Jack has to say. um And we thank you all for listening. We are here with Jack Fitzpatrick from JMU sports news. Once again, we had Jack on earlier this season. Um, Jack, i I wanted to sit down and talk with you. You guys have, have already cemented your ticket to the Sunbelt title game by going, you know, up to this point undefeated in the East. We're recording this before the coastal game, just due to Thanksgiving holidays and availability and all that sort of stuff. Uh, uh,
00:10:13
Speaker
We'll get into kind of a number of different topics here. But ah first off, just to start off with, how's it going, man? It's going well. i'm I'm looking forward to a
Dominance in the Sunbelt: JMU's Season
00:10:22
Speaker
fun and final game of the season. JMU has typically owned Coastal Carolina since making the move up to FBS. And it feels even better when, you know, as a fan, you go into it knowing you don't need to win because your spot in the championship game is already set up.
00:10:36
Speaker
And it should be a really fun showdown between either Troy or or Southern Miss, whichever team is able to to come out with the win. Yeah, absolutely. So I kind of wanted to revisit last last week's win against Washington State with you. ah Just because if you guys had won in a blowout, I probably wouldn't even be discussing this really. But we had another kind of Alonzo Barnett.
00:11:02
Speaker
We talked to Zeke and I called it a Georgia State type performance where... He just, he he wasn't good, like especially in the first half. I think he threw for 29 yards or 39 yards, something like that in the first half. He completed like 35% of his passes.
00:11:20
Speaker
What, what's your level? I think of concern going into the Sunbelt title game and potentially post-season stuff, like let's say two lane screws up in their title game and, and you guys are the G five ah representative. What are your kind of, do you, does that give you another level of concern now? Because The Georgia State game can kind of be written off as like a one-time deal.
00:11:44
Speaker
Now, this is the second time this has happened in the season where Barnett has been very shaky. are you Are you more concerned now than than you were maybe before the Washington State game?
00:11:56
Speaker
I love football because you come away from that game with that takeaway. And I came away from that game thinking he played a fantastic game of football. Sure. His numbers weren't great. Like he had under 200 yards passing. He had an interception. If you go back and watch it, it shouldn't have been an interception. Alston was open. He hit him and it just fell into the defender's hand.
00:12:17
Speaker
Washington state's defense is the best defense. JMU has faced off against since Louisville. It is Jimmy Rogers led at South Dakota state. He had so much success at the FCS level. He's brought that over to Washington state and it is a tough defense to throw against. It's a tough defense to move the ball against. And Alonzo was shaky in that first half. Things looked a little rough, but, Then he comes back. He has a beautiful ball to Wislowski down the seam off of a perfectly placed play call. It was a great tendency breaker by Dean Kennedy to kind of run almost a QB power play action. He goes into the line, drops back, and he drops it into the bucket. And him showing that he still has that deep ball ability is fantastic because last season, even against Georgia State early on in the season, we We've talked about it at length on the Jamie sports news podcast.
00:13:09
Speaker
Alonzo is a quarterback. That is an emotional quarterback. When things go right, he plays his best game. You look at UNC last year, he was dealing from the start. He found the rhythm. He got in the pocket. Literally, not not not the football pocket, but like the rhythm pocket, right? And he went off for one of his best games of his career.
00:13:29
Speaker
Then you've seen on the flip side against Georgia State, a pass doesn't hit, things start to go wrong, and all of a sudden it snowballs into a horrible performance. You even saw it against App State last year when they blew a lead, against Marshall last year when they blew a lead.
00:13:43
Speaker
You saw it early on this season as well. And now it seems there were a lot of parts of that game that things could have come unhinged and it could have snowballed into something a lot worse. And instead, he kind of weathered the storm. He hit that huge ball to Wisloski
Troy's Game Plan and Season Review
00:13:59
Speaker
when it was needed most. And overall, I think it was a very solid performance. And I mean, when you look at his PFF grade compared to the Georgia State game, miles better than what that Georgia State game This was his worst PFF grade since his Louisiana Lafayette game. And that's not to say it was a bad performance. It was still like a 67 PFF grade, which is pretty solid.
00:14:20
Speaker
um I came away from that game feeling confident in Alonzo Barnett. I think he's he's showing that since... you know what the midway point of the year, he is the best quarterback in the Sunbelt. And I, maybe Colton Joseph gives him a run for his money. He has the head to head win. But I think if I'm picking a quarterback tomorrow to start a Sunbelt program with it, it's back to Alonzo Barnett and that Washington state game gave me a lot of hope moving forward.
00:14:46
Speaker
any Any Louisiana fans listening are going to mad at you for adding the Lafayette part. I know they will. But look, that's what PFF puts in it. And I get it. you're You're just Louisiana now. I understand. Until you beat JMU, you're Louisiana Lafayette. that Those are the rules. i I can call you the raging Cajuns. I get it.
00:15:04
Speaker
But until ah you beat JMU in football, it is a Louisiana Lafayette. However, in basketball, I'll respect the Louisiana. ah That's fair enough. um Okay, so as as I said at the top, you know, you guys have already punched your ticket to the Sunbelt title game. but According to CFB graphs, JMU has an 83.5% win probability against Troy. But honestly, seeing JMU, though, just with the best defense...
00:15:32
Speaker
You could argue they have the best defense in the group of six. I think they have had an uncanny ability to make second-half adjustments, and that always feels like coach speak, where we just got to get into the locker room and we can make adjustments. For JMU, that's held true because there was a stretch there for three or four games. They held opponents to zero points in the second half.
00:15:51
Speaker
against Washington State, who moved the ball fairly effectively in the first half, only had three points in the second half. And that defense is just so damn good that it's going to be a difficult task.
00:16:04
Speaker
Troy has has not done that at all. Troy's is worse. Troy's is horrible. They're so brutal, in my opinion, to watch because it's like they run the ball, but not efficiently with like Tay Meadows. There are a number of we have a a preview that came out last Thursday ah where I went back and looked.
00:16:26
Speaker
Tay Meadows, who's their leading rusher with 591 yards, has not run for 100 yards in a game against an FBS opponent this season. His only 100-yard game is against Nichols in the opener.
00:16:40
Speaker
Uh... he li And to put this even further, he has not topped 80 yards this season against an FBS opponent. So he's averaging like 4.5 yards per carry, which, again, they may just say, screw it. But here's the problem with doing that with Troy. They...
00:17:02
Speaker
They cannot do it with kill crease and goose Crowder, frankly. Like, I don't think that it is um feasible in order to do that. So I think it's going to be really, really rough if if they try to do that.
00:17:16
Speaker
Look, I got some numbers for you to Brian here against FBS opponents. So we're throwing out nickel state completely. Tay Meadows has a 34% success rate on his rushes.
00:17:27
Speaker
Absolutely abysmal. And what success rate is, is on first and 10, do you pick up 50% or more of the necessary yards to gain a first down on second down? Are you doing the same thing on third and fourth down? Are you picking up a hundred percent of the yard? So on first and 10, Do you make it second and five on second and five? Do you make it third and two? And on third and two, do you make it first and 10? Tay Meadows is doing that 34% of the time, which is downright abysmal.
00:17:50
Speaker
And against FBS opponents, he's averaging 2.85 yards per rush. Like the the Troy offense just does not do anything all that particularly well. Kill crease, 45% success rate on dropbacks. He's averaging 5.57 yards per drop back against FBS opponents. Not very good. And he has total 71.16 EPA this entire season. Again, not good, but you look at the other quarterbacks who've at least attempted 10 passes or more. It's Crowder and Ali. or ale i i always forget how to how to pronounce it um i want to put a little accent on it and make it sound fancy uh but they they both have negative epa there's this season it's it's it's rough going for troy's offense but i mean overall troy does face an uphill battle and i know we're talking you're listening to this now after the game happens and if troy pulled it out congratulations to them. But this is just a long winded way to say both teams, Troy Southern Miss are going to have to have the games of their lives, force a couple of turnovers and hope that like what Brian was saying at the start, Alonzo Barnett has morphed back into a pumpkin where, where I disagree that he was a pumpkin, but then that might be the only route forward for Troy. yeah,
00:19:05
Speaker
Let's say, you know, the chances of JMU winning the Sunbelt title are are pretty much, it seems like, in hand. You know you you cited the the win percentages against potentially Troy, Southern Miss. ah You know, both of those teams kind of I would say one dimensional in what they're able to do.
00:19:24
Speaker
i just don't, I don't see a world in which goose Crowder goes out there and wins a Sunbelt title single-handedly as they run for two yards per carry. I just don't, we've seen, we've seen teams attempt to do that against JMU app state, notably, you know, go out there and run for two yards of carry. And you see, how you see how that game ended up. So if you can find a way to average four yards of carry and you play the most clean game of football, like That's what's so difficult against, especially at the college level, when you're averaging four yards of play. If we think about it from a mathematical perspective, right? You have three downs to pick up a first down three times, four, 12 yards in theory, you should be able to move down the field. But the second you get off schedule, things are going to be completely haywire. And that's what JMU has done an exceptional job of creating that TFL, creating that sack.
00:20:15
Speaker
They haven't really been great at turning the ball over, but they've been able to keep teams off schedule and app state struggled mightily with that. I mean, they got out gained by 500 yards. So, Good luck. if That's your plan of attack is we're just going to pound the rock and average four yards of play. It's like, ah okay. But JMU is one of the most explosive offenses in the Sunbelt. So you could blink and all of a sudden you're down 21-0. And that that happened to App State. They had a very solid first 10 minutes of the game. We blinked.
00:20:45
Speaker
And as JMU fans, we were I was at a watch party down in Charlotte. You look up and you're like, wait, I just i just got back from getting my fourth beer and we're already up 21-0. How did that happen? um Yeah, we have a we have a ah a friend of the show who's an App State fan, and he was texting me during that game. And I i don't know if you like saw the photo of Dowell Loggins on the sideline like talking to his kid. like I was just like, what is going on look in Boone right now? Chesney also has like his father as like an assistant like a volunteer assistant or something on the staff. His kid was around. I don't know if his his son has been on the sidelines as much this year as he was last year.
00:21:23
Speaker
I do have a... potentially hot take. I don't know if it is a hot take. I don't know if because I don't have children and I just don't understand it. Get kids off the sidelines. Get fathers. I don't want to see your kid like for App State fans. My blood would boil if JMU just got blown out and I see my coach talking with his son looking at an iPad. I'd be like, fire him. Fire him right now. I don't care if he has a 75% win percentage. Get him off of my team.
00:21:50
Speaker
Maybe he was cutting Bluey on for him to watch or something. I mean, that game was long over by that point. It's like, here's here's something to entertain you. ah on that Just really quick on the Troy side of things. You know you cited those stats, and those those are great. I think the the thing that gets me, and I always... zeke does this thing on our podcast and this is not like a shot against him. He knows that he does it where he, he kind of just gets enamored with the win loss record.
00:22:15
Speaker
And I keep reading, i keep doing this thing where i read off the teams that Troy has beat in our conference this year. they are the clear like regression candidate for me heading into next year. Because let me read you their wins. I don't know if you've if you've looked deep into this.
00:22:32
Speaker
In the conference, their wins are against South Alabama, Texas State, UL Monroe, Louisiana, and Georgia State. And then the one team that they played that was like an actual contender, they lose 33 to nothing against Old Dominion. So in my mind, to like we...
00:22:49
Speaker
when we did our preseason previews, I called out a couple of teams that I'm like, these are clear. Like this is not going to be able to be replicable. And it was like Arkansas state. You see how they've kind of gone this year, Georgia Southern. I knew the eight win season last year was total smoke and mirrors. Like they won two games.
00:23:08
Speaker
Um, Marshall, that 21-point comeback, you can't replicate that. South Alabama, they also had a big comeback in, and South Alabama just totally forgot how to play football in the second half of that game. So I was like, they're not going to be able to do this again, and you see how this season's gone.
00:23:24
Speaker
yeah And then
Future Outlook: Troy's Next Season
00:23:25
Speaker
ULM... wasn't even a super, super successful team, but they had a a running back that just stepped in at an sec school and became one of the leading rushers in the conference. So I'm like, you're not going to get an Ahmad Hardy to come back through there. So go ahead and prepare for what this season could be. And all three of those teams could regress. I feel like Troy is in a similar boat moving to next year where I'm like,
00:23:50
Speaker
Look at the teams they played. yeah Unless this continues to be kind of a down period for the conference as a whole, I don't know that they're going to be able to turn around and win seven, eight games next year. if you're I don't know what Crowder and Kilcrease's eligibility stuff looks like, but this team is like not efficient on offense unless they're playing a Georgia State, a Texas State-level defense, which is some of the worst in the country.
00:24:15
Speaker
the The good news for Troy, I would say, and and the West, and some fans might get mad at me for saying this, especially if they're a fan of a Western team, the West sucks. like And I don't see a route forward, really, for the West to get like exponentially better. Southern Miss is just going to continue dominating teams because Charles Huff, I think, by far is the best coach in that conference.
00:24:38
Speaker
And that pains me to say as a GJ Kinney stan. I mean, when Virginia Tech fired Brent Prye, was like, well, that was like week three or four of the season in Texas State was still good. i was like, man, GJ Kinney, that's a dark horse to land that Virginia Tech job. Now at two and five in conference play, I'm like, he may just stink as a football coach. Like ULM, Brian Vincent, I think he's a very good football coach. He might be the second best coach in the West.
00:25:03
Speaker
ULM sucks. Like they've got no resources. They've got no buy-in from admin. South Alabama, I don't know. Like, i've ah who knows? The Gio Lopez apparently was their entire team, and now he stinks at UNC. I think they have to fire Applewhite after the season. i don't I don't think from a fan perspective that you can bring him back next year after winning, what, three, four games?
00:25:26
Speaker
and And the way that that's another big regression team that I was like, I think they'll win six. They've been way worse than I even anticipated. So I... Arkansas State stinks. Louisiana, like they're up and down. Like the West is just in a spot where for Troy, they might be able to pull something out of their their butt again, you know, because like the teams they are facing off against in a week in week out type of scenario just aren't that good. And Troy's yeah not that good.
00:25:56
Speaker
And if they pull, I don't know who their two games against the East will be next year, but say it's Southern after they fire Clay Helton. I know that they're not going to fire Clay Helton because somehow he's they'll fire him mid season and then, and then waste all of 2026 being like, we didn't know he was bad at coach. It's like, all right, like maybe they get that in app state because app state, it seems to be, they may have made made a wrong hire. I don't know. Maybe it's too early to say, but Marshall looks pretty good under their first year head coach, but that's a whole other discussion.
00:26:26
Speaker
So I think that's my way of saying in the West, you're right. They are a prime regression candidate. But for any team in the West, like if next year, ULM's like four and two going into the final stretch of the season, i'd be like, yeah, it does not shock me. If Louisiana is one in six, I'd be like, that doesn't shock me. That that that is such a volatile division.
00:26:45
Speaker
i think i I think my prime candidate, and I don't know, again, eligibility-wise with like lunch Winfield, i think my prime candidate for a bounce-back team is Louisiana. Now, offensively, it's going to be easier said than done because their problem is their offensive line is not good. Like I went and looked at, I mean, there's no other way to say it. They rate like as some of the bottom run and pass blocking units, like on PFF in the conference, it's, they can't do anything other than run lunch Winfield or have him launch bombs because their, their team, like the running game that has been the backbone of that team is gone because they can't, they literally cannot run the ball with the offensive line they have. So they, if, if, if,
00:27:31
Speaker
DeSormo can rebuild that unit. And again, that's easier said than done. i I think they could get back to being, you know, the Troy of this season and be like an eight, eight win team, be competitive with Southern Miss. And then Troy kind of falls back to a six win ish team back in the middle of the pack is, is kind of where I'm at with them.
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah. And I think in the long run, as long as Southern Miss has Charles Huff, they are going to be just the team to beat in the West. They an absolute coup for him to go down to Hattiesburg. I don't know what happened behind closed doors in Huntington, West Virginia. It seems like both teams maybe came away positive from it. Tony Gibson looks like a good coach, but I mean,
00:28:14
Speaker
that is an absolute coup to get Charles Huff down there. Cause he in year one in Hattiesburg, Mississippi to turn them around the way he has is just super duper impressive.
00:28:25
Speaker
It seems like ah as far as that Marshall Charles Huff divorce, it was a little bit of a he said, he said, because we had been getting kind of conflicting information where it's like the extension's been on Charles Huff's desk since week one of 2024 and he just never signed it and was done. And then the other half was like,
00:28:45
Speaker
there were assistant coaches with that Marshall team that were like, the AD has not talked to Charles Huff all season. Like he won't speak to him. yeah So yeah I don't know what happened again. It's Marshall fans. It seems like there are factions almost yeah within Marshall fans. So I, I don't know, but like you said, it's kind of worked out for both teams except for Braylon Braxton leaving. Cause that has been huge for Marshall. I think they'd be,
00:29:10
Speaker
eight, maybe nine win team with Braylon Braxton over like the Carlos Del wheel Rio Wilson, this is Zion ah Turner, like all those guys, that mishmash of quarterbacks. Although I love Del Rio Wilson. I don't know his eligibility status still. because I, you know, post COVID world eligibility is just ah ah ah a thought. yeah But if he's back in Marshall next year, i think Del Rio Wilson could lead a very fun offense in Huntington.
00:29:36
Speaker
And ah last little thing I wanted to ask you about. So you guys right now at ah the the ah college football playoff rankings just came out. ah We're recording this on the 26th. Tulane is still primed for that that G5 spot.
00:29:53
Speaker
what What is you guys' this general feeling? Do you feel as if you guys deserve that spot and Tulane is just kind of occupying you guys' as space? I think as far as the... They're still in the American? Yeah. are they in the Big 12? Okay. then there they There were a lot of teams that exited the American to go to the Big 12. The mass exodus, yeah. Yeah. ah Do you guys think like...
00:30:15
Speaker
We're just kind of like we deserve to go and Tulane is just sort of taking up our space or what's what's your general feeling around that? So I might be in the minority and how JMU you fans are feeling about it, because my thought process is.
00:30:33
Speaker
I. How do I word this in a nice way, right? i I don't care. Like for me, Sunbelt East, win the Sunbelt East. They did that. Now win the Sunbelt. And then,
00:30:48
Speaker
Where the chips fall, the chips fall. Literally, and like, I hate coach speak. Coach speak is my least favorite thing in the world. I hate it when fans start reciting coach speak. When when you're talking to fans, you're like, yo, our game in three weeks is going to be so intense. and And like the fan you're talking to responds, we focus on the week at hand. Man, shut up. Like, shut up.
00:31:08
Speaker
But here i'm here am i This is the one time I will go against myself. Control what you can control. When the Sunbelt Jamie's never won the Sunbelt last year, they were damn 500 in the conference. Like, yeah, Jamie's not won anything at the FBS level. Win something at the FBS level. And then next year, I'll dive into the college football ball playoff discussion.
00:31:29
Speaker
I'm in the minority. Like I said, I do think a lot of fans feel JMU deserves to be in that G5 spot. And I know ah The herd bros are going to get mad at me for calling it the G5 spot because it's technically the five highest ranked conference champions. But let's be real.
00:31:46
Speaker
There's no way that there is a scenario. There's a chaos scenario we were talking about on the Jamie Sports News podcast where Duke could be the ACC champion and be the sixth highest rated conference champion.
00:31:58
Speaker
That's a crazy scenario. I guess it could happen, but Tulane's the better team. Like Tulane has wins against Duke. They've got a win against who who's their other P. Oh, it's Northwestern to start the year. And I know Northwestern is not a great big 10 school, but you still get that.
00:32:17
Speaker
yeah You got to blow out loss against Ole Miss, but you have three P fours on your schedule and JMU fans are like, well, if JMU had three P fours on their schedule, we could be in the discussion. like, yeah, but they don't like ah two lanes got money. Like, let's be honest. two la they They poached John Summerall, a G five G five crime. You hate to see it, but it happened. It shows they've got boosters. They've got money. They got money to bring Northwestern to NOLA. They've got money to bring Duke to NOLA and they get the wins. Like that is awesome for them. And then also so they got a very beneficial American athletic conference schedule.
00:32:54
Speaker
They got Memphis on the road. They got an ECU team who's pretty good. And like you got wins in those two contests. You did stumble against UTSA, which is a real blemish on their on their schedule.
00:33:09
Speaker
But you look, they've just got more quality wins than JMU does at this point. All that's to say, though, if JMU blows out Coastal by 50 and then gets a quality win against, I would assume, Southern Miss, maybe the calculus changes a little bit. But the strength of schedule, the strength of record, all of that favors Tulane. So as it stands now, if they're the American Athletic Conference champion, I understand them getting in.
00:33:31
Speaker
I don't understand North Texas. If North Texas gets in over JMU, I'll have a bone to pick there. However, we don't know how the committee feels about North Texas because they've not ranked them yet. They don't know. We don't know how the committee truly feels about JMU because they aren't ranked in theory. JMU could be 26.
00:33:48
Speaker
North Texas could be 27, but we just don't know that because we don't get an receiving vote section of the committee poll. But Tulane, it's a worthy college football playoff team. and And in my humble opinion, I don't give a flying bleep about the college football playoff because JMU's never won anything at the FBS level in terms of they won the Boca Raton Bowl. Woo-hoo!
00:34:11
Speaker
I want a Sunbelt championship as a fan. Then if they win that, let the chips fall where they may in 2026, when they come in as the defending Sunbelt champions and maybe a preseason ranked team, then we can have the discussion of college football playoff. But for me right now, I'm just like, good job, Tulane.
00:34:28
Speaker
it Good job. But North Texas, I got, I'll have something to, I'm a bone to pick with them. Well, ah at least on our side of things, I said this to Zeke on ah on a recent episode we did. i ah The reason I want JMU in so bad is I think this is the prime opportunity for a Sunbelt school to get in the mix. ah Because obviously going back a couple years, it's like,
00:34:54
Speaker
Marshall had, you know, last year they won the conference, but they had a bad like 21 point yeah comeback loss against Georgia Southern. They had lost some other games, so they were never really in contention.
00:35:08
Speaker
And then those Troy teams with Summerall were really good. but it was before they expanded the playoff. That was back when the playoff was just the four teams. So there was no chance anybody from the Sunbelt was ever going to touch the the playoff. yeah My thing is like, I just really want like a representative to show up and be able to like, say like, Hey, the Sunbelt got a team in the college football playoff. Like now we can, you can pitch that to recruits. Like that's great for the individual team, but from like a, a mass media perspective, like,
00:35:40
Speaker
Maybe you finally get some respect like as a conference instead of being like, oh, this is a fun conference. They play like those Tuesday night games where it's 44-41 and you're just like, oh, that's nice. And then you just cut the TV off and you never think about them again.
00:35:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think that is coming. I think we're in this stage of college football, and it's already beginning with the American Athletic Conference with their head coach taking the Oklahoma State job still with a season left to play. um But I think what you're going to see is he's gone.
00:36:09
Speaker
Alex Golish from South Florida. probably gone who knows with memphis um i'm trying to think of the uh two lane john summerall he likely gets poached maybe yeah not but there could be a mass exodus if you're florida what's why would you like if you don't do the wing kiffin thing why not just hire john summerall like especially if he takes two lane to the playoff this year exactly and so it's just like just like how the Sunbelt two years ago had John Summerall, Kurt Signetti, Charles Huff was at Marshall.
00:36:40
Speaker
And now you blink and Charles Huff is at Southern Miss. So just a little, little switch up there, but Summerall is now coaching a college football football playoff team in Tulane. Kurt Signetti is coaching a potential big 10 champion. And those are,
00:36:54
Speaker
Two coaches you completely lost who JMU Troy could have been kind of, if Summerall and Signetti stayed in this theory, they could be competing and and the Sun Belt would be the upper echelon of these G5 conferences. But just the cyclical style of it all. yeah you're going to The Americans now going to lose a bunch of coaches. The Sun Belt now will be in years two, three of their new coaches.
00:37:16
Speaker
um And for JMU, they'll likely lose Chesney this offseason. But then they've they've had a very good track record dating back to 2000. 13, 14 and hiring successful coaches and consecutive hires. So,
00:37:30
Speaker
You're right. This is a great year because I think JMU is poised to be a a formidable college football playoff team because they've got such a good defense. But I do think as years go on, it's the Americans time to shine right now. Next year, it might be the Sun Belt. The year after that, it might be the Sun Belt. Then they might get poached over and then I'll be back to the American. And then who knows? Jamie Chadwell, every four years, you know, every odd year he's going to have a run with Liberty for some reason. Who knows?
00:37:58
Speaker
Well, thank you. Thank you so much, Jack, for joining me, man. This was a great, you know, kind of window into how JMU fans feel about the playoff, the upcoming championship game, all that kind of stuff. Do you want to let people know where they can find you on socials before you get out of here?
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah, you can follow me at FITZ all the way, Fitz all the way. um That's my personal. If you're really interested into Richmond High School football, there's a lot of content over there as well as weird general musings on advanced stats when it comes to JMU football. Uh, then you can follow JMU sports news for all of the latest insights at JMU sports news. Um, and it's been ah it's been a fun time. It's been an eventful week over there for like the last week and a half. So, uh, give us a follow and, uh, you can find all of the latest JMU stuff.
00:38:42
Speaker
All right. Thanks so much, Jack. Well, welcome, Barry. Thank you so much for being here. I'm Warm Weather Fans. Zeke Palermo, Brian Stone with Warm Weather Fans. Barry, we're here to talk about the Troy Trojans. ah But first, if you could just let folks know why they should listen to you as a voice of authority here.
00:39:02
Speaker
Well, i have been the play-by-play voice for the Troy Trojans. This is my 24th year at Troy. um Back in the day when Troy was just a just getting started FBS, Troy.
00:39:18
Speaker
And, you know, yeah ah two years before Troy began in the Sunbelt Conference, I knew football, men's basketball, baseball, a hundred other things for Troy. And I've seen the growth of this program. Troy has won more Sunbelt Conference champions than anybody championships, even though Troy entered the league behind a lot of these teams that are in the league now. Yeah. We have played for championships. We've gone to bowl games in a sense, depending on how you measure it. It's been the most successful football program in the Sun Belt since Troy's inception.
00:39:53
Speaker
And here we are again. you know, this is a little bit more surprising than some of the other ones where Troy was really, really demonstrably better than most everybody in the league. But I'm certainly gratified to be here. And I'm certainly gratified of the way this season has gone for Troy, to be sure.
00:40:11
Speaker
Mm hmm. Yeah. So let's just kind of talk about how we got here in the first place, because as we entered kind of the back third of this regular season, a lot of things had to go right for Troy. a lot of things had to go wrong for Southern Miss. Yeah.
00:40:26
Speaker
Walk us through the past couple weeks. Well, the past couple of weeks have been the very definition and personification of a roller coaster. I'm telling you, you know, Troy began the year ah with, um you know, with Goose Crowder as a starting quarterback. We anticipated Trey Cooley to be the starting running back. Cooley never played a snap because he got hurt, done for the year.
00:40:47
Speaker
had been really good. There were some significant injuries early. Troy began one and two with losses to Clemson and Memphis. And then Goose got hurt, the quarterback. And the backup quarterback, Tucker Kilcrease, local kid, he helped lead Troy to a five-game winning streak.
00:41:06
Speaker
During that winning streak, Troy also lost its two starting tackles. for this season. So there was some significance in the injuries, a former walk on starting at running back, but Troy won five in a row and they were on the top of the, of the division, then a loss at home to Arkansas state by double digits. And then the next week, Thursday night, national television losing at old dominion, 33 to nothing. And the focus then, and it really has been all year long is gosh, you know, that puts us really out of contention for the Western division title. It was never about that. It was that we got to start playing some good football again. That was the focus. And you're right. A lot of things had to happen at that point. Troy coming back after an embarrassment on national TV needed Arkansas state to lose. And they did needed Southern miss to lose twice.
00:41:59
Speaker
And they did. And all of a sudden, here you are presented with the opportunity. Troy wins against Georgia State. And it turns out the Southern Miss game last week was for the Western Division title and for a chance to go to the playoff. And Troy, I'm sorry, to the championship game. And so Troy ends up winning that game last Saturday in Hattiesburg, 28 to 18.
00:42:22
Speaker
And here we are, eight and four, champions of the West at six and two, taking on a James Madison team at their place that looks just monolithic. I mean, James Madison, their numbers ah just blow everybody away in this league. It's definitely a challenge, no question.
00:42:42
Speaker
Yeah. So Barry, I wanted to take you back to the the preseason before this season began. You know, i went back and looked at, we did our season preview for 2024 and we were, we saw a little bit of growth in the cards for Troy. Like we didn't see this eight and four West champion season. We were kind of like, Six wins would be good progress. You know, Matthew Caldwell starts at the end of last year. He wins those three, three out of the last four to end the season, you know, after a really rough start in 2024. But he transfers out. He goes, ends up at Texas behind Arch Manning. And so you come back into this season with Goose Crowder and Tucker Kilcrease.
00:43:23
Speaker
What were expectations kind of around the fan base coming into this season? what What was a realistic outcome to Troy fans? I think six wins like you're talking about would have been realistic, although in Troy, that's that's never acceptable. I mean, it's a championship culture. It's championship expectations for our little town and our little school in southeastern Alabama. Six wins would have represented growth, particularly because, as you mentioned, after the tough start last year, Troy started one and seven in Jared Parker's first year. But they won three out of the last four. You go into the offseason with momentum, losing Devontae Ross, the wide receiver to Penn State, losing Caldwell, Phillip Lee to Arkansas, losing you know some of those other guys, ah those starting running back, Damian Taylor to Ole Miss. Those are difficult.
00:44:12
Speaker
But you know we had faith in Jared Parker. we We knew that the culture was going to be right, and a couple of guys had to step up. So you know six wins would have been – you know acceptable or will, will, would have been expected as, as a sign of growth, but eight wins, uh, for this Troy team, considering like I, like I outlined all the difficulties that Troy has had with injuries and adversity in a backup quarterback.
00:44:42
Speaker
And you really feel good about it. You feel good about the James Madison game, just you know because of you know Troy's past and the expectations and the the culture around that team. Believe me, you know eight wins is feels like a godsend, particularly you know with the difficulties in October.
00:45:01
Speaker
But, you know, there's no question that the momentum is real for Troy heading to JMU. I'm not predicting a win. i do predict that it's going to be a really good game. And Troy goes into that game with expectations to be successful.
00:45:15
Speaker
Yeah. ah What's it going to take for Troy to be successful in that game? Because you talk, I mean, JMU has just been a steamroller all year. what What's it going to take? Yesterday I was here and in in my home office going over and and putting together my spotting charts, which are pretty extensive. And you look, James Madison leads the league in total offense. They lead the league in total defense. Yeah.
00:45:39
Speaker
That's a good place to start for them. You know, they have, they're really good at home. You know, they've handled their business. All credit to James Madison. Troy's never played James Madison in, in the Sunbelt. We've never been to Harrisonburg for football. We understand that's a challenge, but a couple of things. Number one, the game plan has got to be a little bit different for Troy. You know, ah when Troy's rocking, they like to go tempo. They like to move quickly.
00:46:09
Speaker
I don't know that that's going to be the case against JMU. Limit their time. You know, when you've got the football, take as much time as you can. Keep the ball out of the the hands of the JMU offense.
00:46:21
Speaker
That isn't easy to do because JMU's defense is actually the linchpin of their whole program. I mean, i think they've given up seven touchdowns in the second half since their loss to Louisville.
00:46:37
Speaker
They've given up maybe, I think it's three touchdowns in the last seven games since their loss to Louisville. So, you know, to hold the ball like they want to do against James Madison, keep it out of that offense.
00:46:50
Speaker
is going to be really difficult because you face that defense. And another thing I noticed in my spotting charts, redshirt senior, redshirt senior, true senior, redshirt junior, all across ah for both sides of the 2D for James Madison. So I think Troy's going to have to try to limit JMU's offensive possession time. And I do think...
00:47:12
Speaker
I'm not sure how to read this because you can't quantify it. I do think the likelihood that their coach um is on the way out, hopefully that's a distraction, although I really doubt that it is.
00:47:26
Speaker
If that plays out that way, that can only help Troy. I think the other thing that kind of has to happen too is Alonzo Barnett for JMU has been good all year, but he's had these weird games sprinkled in at Georgia State where – The offense, they went 14-7 in Turner Field, and Zeke and I were just kind of left scratching our heads. They also did something similar against Washington State. It really took a game-winning touchdown run by Wayne Knight to put that game away because it was it was hanging in the balance there for a little bit. I want to ask you, so from Troy's side, you know you talked about keeping the ball out of JMU's hands. yeah The only problem is, and you you mentioned this too, JMU's run defense is like the fifth best in the country by statistics.
00:48:12
Speaker
you know, ah at least from what Zeke and I have seen of what we've watched of Troy, Troy up until this past week seemed to have struggled a little bit running the football. Like Tay Meadows, we did a ah kind of a stat breakdown going into the Southern Miss game. Tay Meadows hadn't run for 80 yards against an FBS opponent until last week against Southern Miss. Do you think that this game is almost going to be on Goose Crowder's shoulders and his ability to throw the football? I absolutely do. Yeah. And that's, ah that that's a good lead into the point. It gave me time to think about that. And that as you're talking, I arrived at that same conclusion there, Troy, you can't, you can't sugarcoat it. Troy's last in the league in rushing. And again, without without Trey Cooley, who is going to be our feature back, a Georgia Tech transfer who never got to play a snap, Meadows is a former walk-on. Tough kid, tough runner. ah Our offensive line at Troy has been in a state of flux really all season long, losing the two tackles.
00:49:11
Speaker
Two games ago, but but before the Georgia State game, Troy really had to retool their entire offensive line. Their starting center is now the guard. one of the starting guards. A six-year player is now the starting left tackle. The left tackle is now the right tackle. And that has helped. Troy ran it, outrushed Southern Miss on Saturday. That's the first time in eight weeks Troy has outrushed anybody. So, yeah, the expectation really can't be, okay, we're going to We're going to run the ball down JMU's throats. that That's not realistic out there. So what does it mean?
00:49:46
Speaker
You run enough. you you You show the run enough. ah You give Goose Crowder some time to throw, and he's been really good the last two weeks since coming back from the broken collarbone.
00:49:58
Speaker
Uh, get the ball out quick, you know, throw it to your big wide receiver, rah, rah, Thomas, get the tight ends involved. Uh, Troy put the game away against Southern miss with a bomb, uh, late in the ball game when the game got cut to three,
00:50:13
Speaker
I don't know that there's going to be time for too many of too many of those against JMU, but the controlled passing game, swing it out to the running backs, get it over the line of scrimmage to the tight ends, quick hitters to DJ Epps and Ron Thomas in the passing game.
00:50:29
Speaker
That's Troy's best chance to hold the football. It's not going to look like a traditional two-faceted offensive approach, which is which is the way it needs to be.
00:50:45
Speaker
See? Yeah. um I think we' we'll shift away from the game ah to something still Troy-related, though. ah John Summerall at Florida.
00:50:56
Speaker
ah What's your take on that hire? Have you been in contact with him at all? i have i have um I have texted him, one of probably $7 million that he's gotten. ah Very proud of him. Look, I love our coach right now. Jared Parker is the real deal, for sure. And, and you know, I've worked under Larry Blakeney, who will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, um in in a week and a half. I've worked for Neil Brown, uh, who really changed the program. Uh, Chip Lindsay did what he did. John Sumrall, uh, he is a force of nature.
00:51:35
Speaker
I knew that he was going to get an opportunity like this. You know, I knew him before when he was an assistant at Troy, uh, my whole family, I went to school at the university of Florida. My whole family is Gators. And, and I, I knew they were, I knew they were they were going to love John Sumrall. Very high upside, players will run through a wall for him. The the synergy, the um the alignment was necessary. he He demands that from the athletic director to the university president or chancellor. And I think he's got that at Florida. I sincerely, I mean, he is extraordinary and he'll win a lot of games at Florida. I have no doubt about that.
00:52:20
Speaker
I told Zeke on a previous episode, I do find it a little ironic that Florida fans... you know I know Billy Napier didn't work out, but I did find it a little ironic that they called him, in a derogatory way, Sunbelt Billy the whole time he was there.
00:52:34
Speaker
But I don't think they've looked that deeply into John Summerall's coaching history because it was ah it was a relatively short time at Tulane. It wasn't like it was 10 years... He didn't spend as long there as like Willie Fritz did. Right. I think it's a little ironic that they they knocked Billy Napier for coaching in the Sun Belt. But ah apparently, ah if you take a stopover for a few seasons, every all is forgiven as far as the fan base goes. Well, it's interesting because you know when it became a apparent that Florida had shifted their focus to Sumrall, I was reading some of the um some of the social media stuff, which you can take for a grain of salt, about, oh no, we're going to go Sun Belt again. you know We've already tried the Sun Belt. What has he done? Da-da-da.
00:53:15
Speaker
He's, you know, what whatever his record was against ranked teams, whatever statistical information you could think of to justify your preexisting belief. And I read those and i'm thinking, you just wait, you just wait.
00:53:27
Speaker
I knew this more than anything else. I mean, I know he's going to win at Florida, but I knew he would absolutely dominate the opening press conference. He always does. Just the force of his personality is is difficult to quantify in words. And sure enough, after that, everybody's like, hey, now we got somebody special. Now they're believers in Sumrall. Now they share his vision and his passion and his drive. I knew that, you know okay, say what you want to and with your preconceived notions on social media, but wait till you hear the guy and you're going to be a convert.
00:54:04
Speaker
Sure. ah While we're here, let's talk about Jared Parker. You called him the real deal. um Brian and I look on for ah with envy ah in the ability for him to to you know sustain the success that Troy has had. ah Brian, a Georgia Southern fan, myself, a Georgia State fan, we're looking at our coaches and saying,
00:54:24
Speaker
well, why couldn't you do what he's doing there? ah what's What's the secret? What's Coach Parker like? And what's the direction with him as the coach? I do think a lot of it is the expectations. Troy, we mentioned alignment. ah Troy has excellent alignment between athletic director, head coach. It is a football school in a small rural southern town in the southeast of Alabama. It's not really near anything, but the key is is that everybody is on the same page. In Troy, everybody talks Troy football. Everybody supports Troy football. There's no, I mean, there's Auburn and there's Alabama, but there's no question that you know Troy football is important. Winning is important at Troy, and that's reflected by the commitment from the university president. Jared Parker is just another ah ah ah line long line, all the way back to people like Chan Gailey and Larry Blakeney and Neil Brown and John Sumrall. They have hit home runs on a lot of hires, and I think Jared Parker is that at Troy. They just seem to find the the guys who understand culture.
00:55:31
Speaker
In a little town like Troy, ah you've got to believe in your culture because if you're if you're trying to sell recruits on glitz and glamour and and loads of things to do outside of football, you're not going to be able to entice them to come to Troy. What Jared Parker and what all those other great coaches here have been able to sell is the fact that, look, you come to Troy, you'll go to school,
00:55:59
Speaker
You'll play football. You'll get a quality education. And you're going to spend a lot of time around the other guys. There's no mall here. You know, there's there's there's not 45 restaurants and and tons of bars and everything.
00:56:14
Speaker
This is what we do. This is who we are. You'll play football. You'll go to school. You'll be around an incredibly supportive community. And if that appeals to you, then we think you might enjoy Troy. Jared Parker gets that. He's got a terrific staff, ah you know, which which is well compensated and all buys into that as well. It's a combination of things, but he is really a culture guy. he is really a you know, no excuses guy. When Troy had all these injuries, you never heard a word about it from him. Just do your job, get better every day. And it's really easy to focus on that in a town and like that in which we live.
00:56:56
Speaker
Yeah, like Zeke said, me me coming from being a Georgia Southern fan, I kind of wish the AD and head coach were a little less aligned. That would be be nice for us in the long term. ah The last question i have I have here for you, Barry, what do you think it means to this team and this program to to rebound from the season you had last year and then to be in the Sunbelt title game in year two of Jared Parker's tenure? You know, you've talked about the long line of successful coaches that have come through at Troy. What do you think it means now to be able to say, okay, the summer all years were great, but we're right back to where kind of we want to be as a program? Yeah, because that had been kind of a stigma, right? Oh, well, sure. You had Neil Brown and Neil won a couple of championships and you had Larry Blakeney who won five championships in a row. Okay, you you know, you strike gold with John Sumrall and everything. You know, that's just it just lucky, you know, lucky that you got those guys. Well, it's not lucky because here we are at it again with yet another coach.
00:57:55
Speaker
What it means in its totality, to your question, they've gone through so much. Last year, starting one and seven and losing Goose last year, too, and finishing, you know, three out of the last four with wins. Starting out this year with,
00:58:12
Speaker
ah you know, with the injuries that they had, especially with Goose and some of the injuries, during even during the five-game winning streak. the their Their triumph over adversity last year and this year, if it tells you anything, if it tells the team anything, it's that, man, there's nothing that we can't overcome. You know, we've overcome so much just to get to this point.
00:58:37
Speaker
It's going to be hard to tell this team that has been able to prevail over so much adversity that they don't have a chance to prevail over adversity Friday night at James and Madison. Try telling these guys that they've been through so much and have still had success.
00:58:52
Speaker
It's going to be difficult to convince these guys that, man, they really don't have a chance against the adversity that awaits them in Harrisonburg Friday for the conference championship. Awesome.
00:59:04
Speaker
Well, Barry, I think that that's it. unless you had another point you think is really pertinent, uh, let folks know where they can hear you call the game. Yeah, it's, uh, we have a pretty extensive network. We're on the air two hours ahead of time. We've got a really good radio crew. You would enjoy it. Jerry Miller, Chris Blackshear and all of our guys. We are on the air, uh, central time. We're on the air at four o'clock with a pregame show, lots of different things. We have our online at Troy Trojans dot com slash listen. We've got 14 affiliates around the state of Alabama and northwest Florida. You can find all that out on the website at Troy Trojans dot com. Certainly looking forward to it. It's going to be cold and we are not used to cold down where we are, but it should be a really, really good game and hopefully a really good broadcast.
00:59:53
Speaker
Awesome. Well, thank you so so much, Barry. ah and We'll let you go and ah you know good good luck to Troy and we appreciate your time, man. Oh, listen, thanks very much for the invitation. I enjoyed it.
01:00:04
Speaker
Awesome. Thank you so much. All right. So that has been our interviews ah with Barry McKnight and Jack Fitzpatrick. Thank you to both Barry and Jack for joining us on this episode as we preview the conference championships and we get everything wrapped up and we are jumping into bowl season, potentially college football playoff, depending on how things go with JMU. ah Zeke, will let everybody know where they can find you on socials.
01:00:31
Speaker
Yeah, you can find me on Twitter at Zeke Palermo, Z-E-K-E-P-A-L-E-R-M-O. And as always, you can email the show warm of the fans at gmail.com. You can follow us on tick tock or X at warm weather fans. You can follow me on X as well at watch the stone.
01:00:49
Speaker
We will be back next week to recap this Sunbelt championship game, break down how it went, and then maybe get into some bowl selection stuff. We are still determining when the best date is for us to kind of do our year end,
01:01:04
Speaker
I would say report card for our preseason takes. I think that'll be a really fun one. There might be a point in which we hit a lull with our bowls in proximity ah that we might just drop it in as an episode to kind of tide you guys over. Or if there's not a big stretch, ah once they're announced, if there's not a big gap, we may just save that for like ah a year-end capper.
01:01:27
Speaker
um But yeah, as always, thanks everybody for listening. Stick with us. We will be back to talk over bowl season and all of that good stuff. This has been Warm Weather Fans.