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00:00:01
Welcome to the 700 Pelham Road Podcast
116 Plays2 years ago
In the first ever episode of the 700 Pelham Road Podcast, we talk about the progress on the renovations to Burgess-Snow Field, the new uniforms and the rebranding, and JSU's first ever game as an FBS team.
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Transcript
Introduction to 700 Pelham Road Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first ever episode of the 700 Pelham Road podcast, your one-stop shop for all things Jack State Sports.
00:00:10
Speaker
My name is Caleb Williams, alongside co-host Jalen Cooper.
00:00:15
Speaker
Let's get going.
00:00:15
Speaker
Jalen, how are you doing today?
00:00:17
Speaker
I am doing good.
00:00:18
Speaker
I'm doing good.
00:00:19
Speaker
Just sitting here enjoying the afternoon, trying to stay cool in this hot weather.
00:00:25
Speaker
But you know how bad it is.
00:00:27
Speaker
Yeah, Alabama weather sucks.
00:00:30
Speaker
Yeah, we were hitting feels like temperatures of around 106, 107 today, at least where I am in Birmingham.
00:00:40
Speaker
So not fun.
00:00:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty hot down here at the beach, so not fun.
00:00:46
Speaker
Good to be inside right now.
00:00:48
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:00:50
Speaker
So for those of you who are finding the podcast, it is our first ever episode.
00:00:55
Speaker
We are...
00:00:56
Speaker
the official podcast of the Sidelines Jack State Twitter account.
00:01:04
Speaker
There are a lot of JSU podcasts out there, some good, some maybe not as good, but we're hoping that we can be one of the good ones.
00:01:12
Speaker
So I guess we'll just dive straight into it with the news around the university.
JSU Stadium Construction Updates
00:01:18
Speaker
I guess we'll start with the stadium construction stuff.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yeah, so for those of you who are not familiar with Jacksonville State University and especially the football program, one of the biggest things that was announced a few years back was the creation of a new stadium.
00:01:39
Speaker
As Caleb can attest, the vision for that new stadium has changed several times since it was announced.
00:01:47
Speaker
And now we're just kind of stuck in no man's land.
00:01:51
Speaker
We know for sure we're getting the field house that is projected to be done for the start of next season.
00:01:59
Speaker
But as of right now, the visitor stands are still kind of ripped apart and it's now just pure concrete.
00:02:06
Speaker
So I haven't really heard anything, any concrete updates.
00:02:12
Speaker
No pun intended.
00:02:13
Speaker
What about you, Caleb?
00:02:14
Speaker
Have you heard anything?
00:02:16
Speaker
Um, not officially.
00:02:18
Speaker
I mean, we've seen people on Twitter say that they've heard one way or the other.
00:02:23
Speaker
Um, I mean, the biggest rumor right now is after this season that they'll eventually start the, the original plan for the, for the visitor side, which is to, um, which is to add in the, I don't know if they'll actually add in the dorm building on the back of it, like they do the home side or not, but, um, um,
00:02:42
Speaker
I've heard rumors that that's what they're going to do after the season as they kind of get in towards the end of the field house construction.
00:02:49
Speaker
But nothing concrete yet.
00:02:52
Speaker
I mean, it's just rumors right now.
00:02:54
Speaker
I'm waiting for the university to actually say they're doing that before I believe it.
00:02:58
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just kind of worried, especially with us moving into CUSA and having some bigger games.
00:03:05
Speaker
I expect us to have bigger road crowds, and I just don't want that to be their first impression than just sitting on a big, giant concrete slab, not even your old-school stadium bench seating.
00:03:21
Speaker
So I at least hope there's some sort of
00:03:26
Speaker
some sort of contingency plan in place until we can bridge so we can bridge the gap, um, for whatever their final plans are for that visitor side.
00:03:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:40
Speaker
I'd love to see them.
Need for Stadium Upgrades at JSU
00:03:41
Speaker
I'd love to see them do the, do the project.
00:03:44
Speaker
I mean, the stadium mock-ups looked really good.
00:03:47
Speaker
Um, it looked more like an FBS stadium.
00:03:49
Speaker
Um, you know, I mean, it's no one's fault.
00:03:51
Speaker
We've been FCS forever.
00:03:55
Speaker
We haven't needed a bigger stadium or even really a nicer stadium because we never got any big home crowds outside of really, I guess, UNA and Kennesaw State.
00:04:05
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, you're 100% right with bigger teams probably coming in, whether it's, you know, Liberty, Coastal Carolina, you know, those type teams.
00:04:14
Speaker
Like we're going to have to have a nicer facility for them to come to because it,
00:04:18
Speaker
I know that, you know, what happens on the field is really what matters, but people are going to go on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and trash us if we have a, you know, a bad looking away stand for them.
00:04:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:29
Speaker
Especially when our home site at least looks a lot more presentable.
00:04:34
Speaker
But who knows, maybe they have a plan in place.
00:04:38
Speaker
Maybe we can talk to some people and get, you know, a better idea of what's going on and what's the plan.
00:04:45
Speaker
But, I mean, in general, I know the field house is – the construction seems to be going along pretty steady.
00:04:53
Speaker
And I know the guys are really excited about that.
00:04:56
Speaker
I've said for the longest they deserve a new facility, new equipment, you know, everything to match what we expect out of them.
00:05:05
Speaker
Because, I mean, like I said, like you know, we've always had the talent.
00:05:08
Speaker
And so I think that'll just be something that will be good for them to have and to feel like it actually lives up to the expectations that they have and the coaches have and the fans have.
00:05:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:21
Speaker
And I –
00:05:23
Speaker
I don't imagine that Rich Rod will probably accept the condition of the stadium much longer.
00:05:29
Speaker
I mean, he's a big time coach.
00:05:30
Speaker
He's coached, you know, in the, in the big East, in the big 10 pack 12.
00:05:36
Speaker
I mean, he's coaching the sec as an offensive coordinator.
00:05:39
Speaker
I mean, he's seen some big stadiums.
00:05:40
Speaker
He's coached in big stadiums.
00:05:42
Speaker
He's worked at big universities.
00:05:44
Speaker
I don't, I don't imagine that he would stay at JSU long if they weren't committed to putting together a good facility for him.
00:05:52
Speaker
So, I mean,
00:05:53
Speaker
I have some confidence, you know, just because, again, it's – I mean, it's Rich Rod.
00:05:57
Speaker
He's a big enough name.
00:05:58
Speaker
He'll get what he wants.
00:06:01
Speaker
And I imagine the university – I mean, I can't imagine that Greg Seitz is going to want probably one of our best coaches in school history.
00:06:10
Speaker
I mean, I say that – I use that term lightly just because it's only been one year.
00:06:13
Speaker
But, I mean, this is a guy who's almost made it to the national championship on multiple occasions.
00:06:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:20
Speaker
with, I think, two different schools.
00:06:22
Speaker
So I don't imagine that they will not try to appease him as much as they can.
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I agree, especially with him knowing that the game day atmosphere is so important.
00:06:35
Speaker
And one of the ways you build a great game day atmosphere is having a stadium that people want to come to.
00:06:42
Speaker
And even though it is the visitor side, our goal is to have such a big home crowd that some people are just forced to sit on that side.
00:06:51
Speaker
Sort of like an overflow side, I guess, of sorts.
00:06:56
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:06:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:58
Speaker
it's very imperative for our game day atmospheres going forward to just try and have the best and most put together looking stadium that we can find.
00:07:09
Speaker
And I have faith.
00:07:10
Speaker
I have trust.
00:07:12
Speaker
Um, so far, I mean, our athletic department has not let us down.
00:07:17
Speaker
So, uh, we, we just keep it pushing and we, we're going to see.
00:07:23
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:07:24
Speaker
Um, um, all
JSU's Uniform and Logo Redesign Debate
00:07:27
Speaker
right.
00:07:27
Speaker
Um,
00:07:28
Speaker
I guess moving on, we'll get into the uniforms and the logo redesigns, which have been a conversation that has, I don't want to say has dominated JSU Twitter the last month and a half, but it's almost dominated JSU Twitter the last month and a half.
00:07:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's been one of those that it went hand in hand with the university rebranding to Jack State.
00:07:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:56
Speaker
it was kind of a given that the logos and the uniforms were going to get a revamp going along with that.
00:08:04
Speaker
So, yeah, like you said, it's, it's been the talk of the town for a good little bit and there are definitely mixed reviews.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:14
Speaker
I, um, I could be mean and really say what I think about them.
00:08:20
Speaker
Um, I'm not going to do that because I do support the university.
00:08:23
Speaker
I mean, you know,
00:08:24
Speaker
I hold one degree there.
00:08:25
Speaker
I'm working on my second, so I'm not going to be too mean, but I'll be honest.
00:08:28
Speaker
They, they look like high school uniforms.
00:08:34
Speaker
I mean, they really do.
00:08:35
Speaker
The, the helmets are not bad.
00:08:36
Speaker
I like the Jack state on the helmet.
00:08:40
Speaker
But the, the jerseys and the pants outside of the fact that they kind of, you know, like the pants are kind of like a throwback design to like the nineties when they won the national championship.
00:08:53
Speaker
But,
00:08:54
Speaker
The jerseys are just really simple.
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:58
Speaker
It's almost like a dumbed-down version of what they were just a few years ago.
00:09:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:02
Speaker
I mean, I think a lot of that really just has to do with it being Adidas.
00:09:08
Speaker
And it is what it is.
00:09:10
Speaker
Like, Adidas is known for making some good stuff.
00:09:12
Speaker
But especially when it comes to football uniforms, with us only using Jack State, you're kind of –
00:09:21
Speaker
expecting it to be super simple, kind of like you said, the high school uniforms.
00:09:26
Speaker
I think the Jack State can work really well on your baseball, softball uniforms, and even on like basketball jerseys.
00:09:32
Speaker
But for football, you want something a little bit flashier.
00:09:38
Speaker
So yeah, it definitely kind of gives you that high school look and that high school feel.
00:09:45
Speaker
But, hey, I mean, the rebranding to Jack State definitely differentiates us because for the longest, if you just kept searching up JSU, it would pull up that other school that Deion Sanders was coaching at, good old Jackson State.
00:10:02
Speaker
Yeah, that school.
00:10:06
Speaker
I actually just typed into, I think, Google –
00:10:10
Speaker
JSU football uniforms and Jacksonville State was like the 15th link.
00:10:15
Speaker
Everything else was Jackson State.
00:10:19
Speaker
So if that tells you anything, I mean, I don't necessarily blame Adidas.
00:10:24
Speaker
I do, but I don't outside of the uniforms they were making for Texas A&M when Johnny Manziel was playing for them.
00:10:32
Speaker
Adidas hasn't really made any good uniforms in
00:10:35
Speaker
Adidas uniforms are a lot like the early Nike basketball, like NBA uniforms.
00:10:39
Speaker
They tear a lot.
00:10:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:43
Speaker
They're really tight on the pads.
00:10:47
Speaker
I just, those would be honest, they're really not high quality uniforms to begin with.
00:10:53
Speaker
But throw that in with the design, which I'll be honest, the design's not, like I said, it's not great.
00:10:57
Speaker
I don't know how you feel about that black portion of the neck.
00:11:02
Speaker
I'm not a big fan of it.
00:11:04
Speaker
It just doesn't look right.
00:11:05
Speaker
It feels like it was kind of thrown in there at the end.
00:11:09
Speaker
I mean, I don't know.
00:11:10
Speaker
A lot of these uniforms also, you know, obviously we're seeing close-up pictures online.
00:11:16
Speaker
Maybe it'll look different from the stands.
00:11:18
Speaker
Maybe it'll look a little bit better and a little bit cleaner.
00:11:21
Speaker
Just being able to see the close-ups, it's nothing impressive.
00:11:26
Speaker
It's not necessarily the worst we've seen, but it's definitely nothing that sticks out or, you know, separates us uniform-wise.
00:11:39
Speaker
Yeah, and, you know, kind of, you know, all, you know, the stadium reconstruction stuff, you know, opposing fans will notice it for sure.
00:11:50
Speaker
And I don't want to get made fun of.
00:11:52
Speaker
I really don't.
00:11:54
Speaker
Especially coming, you know, into the FPS, you know, year one, it's really easy to kind of be that school that gets made fun of.
00:12:02
Speaker
Unless you're, you know, coming out and winning by, you know, half a hundred every week, it's really easy to,
00:12:08
Speaker
become a laughingstock your first few years and I feel like just adding ammo to the cannons really it's not the best idea but I don't work for the university so I really can't say too much.
00:12:20
Speaker
I think one thing that the university should do is I've seen them posting pictures with that old school throwback rooster.
00:12:28
Speaker
They need to incorporate that somewhere in the uniforms.
00:12:30
Speaker
Maybe on a helmet.
00:12:33
Speaker
Maybe we have a throwback uniform week or something.
00:12:36
Speaker
I don't know.
00:12:36
Speaker
I just want to see
00:12:38
Speaker
that rooster involved with athletics a lot more.
00:12:42
Speaker
It looks so, it just looks so JSU, if that makes sense.
00:12:47
Speaker
I've seen a lot of our fans on Twitter raving over that.
00:12:52
Speaker
Everybody loves that look.
00:12:53
Speaker
It's just, it's classic.
00:12:56
Speaker
It's nice.
00:12:56
Speaker
It's clean.
00:12:57
Speaker
It's nothing too flashy, but it helps us stand out just a little bit.
00:13:03
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:13:05
Speaker
I mean, like you remember the, uh,
00:13:07
Speaker
like the Nike helmets that they used to make for college teams back maybe 10 years ago, where the logo was like the Boise State helmets where the Bronco was super big.
00:13:21
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:13:22
Speaker
If they could do that with a white helmet for us with the red throwback rooster and red face masks.
00:13:31
Speaker
That would look.
00:13:32
Speaker
I mean, I feel like people would lose their minds over that.
00:13:36
Speaker
All I'm saying is you do that with a red jersey and white pants.
00:13:43
Speaker
All I'm saying is that would be one of the best looks that we've had in a long time.
00:13:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:13:52
Speaker
I'm excited to see some of the combinations.
00:13:55
Speaker
With the colors that we use on our uniforms, you can't go wrong with just about any combination.
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:03
Speaker
I'd love to see a red out or a white out.
00:14:07
Speaker
Honestly, I'd love to see a blackout, but a lot of our alumni and our fans have mixed feelings on the blackout.
00:14:14
Speaker
I just think a blackout would be extremely hard, especially for a night game under the lights.
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah, especially like, you remember how North Carolina used to do the Zero Dark Thursday games?
00:14:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah, if we ever play, like, for one of our weeknight games, if we get, like, Liberty or Sam Houston in here and we go blackout on a Thursday night, you, man, that would be awesome.
00:14:39
Speaker
Yeah, honestly, just think about rolling into Jacksonville.
00:14:44
Speaker
The stands are packed on a Wednesday night.
00:14:46
Speaker
You know, the student section is actually full because it's not a weekend and kids got class the next day.
00:14:53
Speaker
So you're rolling in.
00:14:55
Speaker
The stands are packed.
00:14:56
Speaker
It's 630 at night.
00:14:59
Speaker
The lights are shining.
00:15:00
Speaker
And then the boys come out in all black.
00:15:02
Speaker
I think people would absolutely lose their minds, man.
00:15:07
Speaker
Oh, and to correct something you said earlier, there is one wrong combination with our colors.
00:15:15
Speaker
If we never pull out the digital camo ever again, I think I'll be okay.
00:15:21
Speaker
The digital camo was something that I think, I've heard a lot of fans want to forget that game.
00:15:26
Speaker
It looked kind of cool from afar, being at that game.
00:15:30
Speaker
It looked kind of cool from afar, but
00:15:33
Speaker
the longer you pay attention to it, the more of an eyesore that uniform becomes.
00:15:39
Speaker
It was definitely different because what that was, uh, was that the veterans day game or Memorial day game or something like that?
00:15:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think, I think it was veterans day that in 2015, um,
00:15:54
Speaker
Here's the thing.
00:15:54
Speaker
When they first came out with those, I was still in high school.
00:15:57
Speaker
I thought they were like the cleanest uniforms ever.
00:16:00
Speaker
So that was around the same time that Army had a digital camo uniform as well.
00:16:04
Speaker
And I thought it was the coolest thing.
00:16:06
Speaker
And the more I look at it, the more I hate it.
00:16:09
Speaker
In the stands, not knowing that that was the uniform and saying that, it was cool in the stands.
00:16:15
Speaker
But the more I look at pictures from that game and just see –
00:16:21
Speaker
see it up close.
00:16:23
Speaker
It kind of just looks like somebody took a bunch of paint and flicked it on a uniform and called a camera.
00:16:31
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't, if it had been better planned, I think they could have done something with it, but it, I mean, all they did really was take like five shades of red and start throwing them onto a canvas.
00:16:42
Speaker
And so, you know, it is what it is.
00:16:45
Speaker
I think if they had done like red,
00:16:48
Speaker
like red and black digital camo or maybe like red and white and black digital camo, that would have been pretty good.
00:16:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:56
Speaker
But multiple shades of red, not so much.
00:16:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:59
Speaker
Especially because some of that red started to look like pink.
00:17:02
Speaker
And at that point we don't have pink anywhere in our colors.
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:08
Speaker
I think that's where it kind of threw it off a little bit is if they had incorporated a little bit more black and a little bit more white, like you said,
00:17:14
Speaker
then maybe it could have looked a lot better, but trying to have so many different shades of red, it can only work out so well.
00:17:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:22
Speaker
But I mean, you know, it is what it is, you know, kind of going back to the original point.
00:17:26
Speaker
Um, yeah, there's, there's a lot of things they can do with the uniforms, whether it's, you know, you know, red out.
00:17:33
Speaker
I mean, we already do red out now.
00:17:35
Speaker
Um,
00:17:37
Speaker
We have the alternate helmets that are the throwback with the white oval with the J in it.
00:17:44
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:17:45
Speaker
We have those.
00:17:45
Speaker
Those are pretty clean.
00:17:46
Speaker
I mean, there are a lot of things I can do with it.
00:17:58
Speaker
I'm not going to lose faith.
00:18:00
Speaker
Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of the uniforms, but...
00:18:03
Speaker
I'm not going to lose faith because it's a long season.
00:18:06
Speaker
Um, and it's our first year in FBS.
00:18:08
Speaker
So they didn't really have too much time to plan.
00:18:11
Speaker
Cause we went from a son to conference USA and all literally, I mean about five months after joining conference USA, um, sorry, joining a son, uh, we got an offer from CUSA.
00:18:23
Speaker
So, uh, you can't blame me.
00:18:26
Speaker
It was like, well, we just got here and now we're leaving.
00:18:28
Speaker
Sorry.
00:18:29
Speaker
Um,
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah, I remember everybody kind of getting whiplash because, like you said, we had just joined the A-Sun.
00:18:38
Speaker
We were all, as fans, kind of excited because they were a good bit of our rivals or teams we like to consider our rivals in the A-Sun.
00:18:47
Speaker
So we were excited to see them every year in all of our sports.
Conference USA Grant of Rights Explained
00:18:51
Speaker
And then almost out of nowhere, we hear rumblings that,
00:18:57
Speaker
some of the FBS conferences are coming and calling and next thing you know, the official announcement that we're moving to CUSA drops and it's like, whoa.
00:19:09
Speaker
Like I'm obviously not upset, always excited to move up another level.
00:19:14
Speaker
But like you said, it came out of nowhere.
00:19:16
Speaker
We had just gotten out of the OVC and it almost felt like we were just kind of,
00:19:23
Speaker
throwing the ace into the side, which honestly, after the way they did us in football last year, I kind of don't care anymore.
00:19:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:32
Speaker
Well, and you know what's crazy?
00:19:34
Speaker
We hadn't even finished our first season in the conference in football.
00:19:37
Speaker
I think it was like October, November, and we heard that we were moving.
00:19:40
Speaker
And we were like, we haven't even finished the season yet.
00:19:45
Speaker
The ink had not dried on that season yet.
00:19:49
Speaker
And we were already –
00:19:52
Speaker
on to the next bigger and better thing.
00:19:54
Speaker
But I mean, that's the way it happens sometimes.
00:19:58
Speaker
Sometimes we forget that that side of college athletics is very much a business.
00:20:05
Speaker
And that's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
00:20:08
Speaker
So, you know, you pick yourself up and you keep moving.
00:20:13
Speaker
And obviously, like I said, all the fans loved it.
00:20:15
Speaker
We were excited.
00:20:17
Speaker
And CUSA, it's going to be a challenge, but
00:20:21
Speaker
I'm looking forward to it.
00:20:22
Speaker
We got some big hitters and after the big news of the grant of rights deal, it looks like we'll be pretty much locked in to play these dudes going forward for at least the next six years.
00:20:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:38
Speaker
And I'm pulling it up right now.
00:20:40
Speaker
Um, I mean, that was a great segue to kind of get into that.
00:20:43
Speaker
Um,
00:20:45
Speaker
you know, we've seen a lot of grant grant of white rights deals with, um, like power five conferences.
00:20:51
Speaker
Um, and we've also seen the lack of a grant of rights deal be the end of, of certain conferences.
00:20:59
Speaker
Um, you know, like PAC 12, they can never get a media deal.
00:21:02
Speaker
So naturally no one even stay in the conference.
00:21:04
Speaker
Whereas, you know, the ACC and like the SEC just signed huge grant of rights deals.
00:21:10
Speaker
Um,
00:21:12
Speaker
And I think the Big Ten did too with CBS, and it locks their teams in.
00:21:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:19
Speaker
And so, you know, to have an FCS conference with a grant of rights deal with both ESPN and CBS, you know, it's huge for stability because you can still add teams.
00:21:30
Speaker
in that period, but the teams in the conference would have to pay to leave, which, which I think is good.
00:21:36
Speaker
I mean, you know, just from, you know, from a non-biased, you know, standpoint of someone who's, you know, if I weren't a fan of the team in the conference, it's good.
00:21:44
Speaker
You don't want to see teams just, you know, bar hopping around the country, um, you know, for the next, for the next best conference.
00:21:51
Speaker
Um, you know, you want to see stability.
00:21:53
Speaker
You want to play a lot of the same teams over and over again and build those rivalries, build those traditions.
00:21:58
Speaker
Um,
00:22:00
Speaker
Kind of like I mentioned, we didn't get to do that with the A-Sun, which is fine because it's not like we went from A-Sun back to OVC.
00:22:06
Speaker
We went from FCS all the way up to FBS.
00:22:09
Speaker
So, I mean, I like it.
00:22:13
Speaker
I would have loved to have seen the deal maybe be a little bit longer, maybe closer to 10 years.
00:22:18
Speaker
But, I mean, six years is still six years that we're locked into an FBS conference.
00:22:24
Speaker
I don't have to look for another place to play.
00:22:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:28
Speaker
For those of you who may not know what a grant of rights deal is.
00:22:33
Speaker
So basically the conference went to all of the teams, all of the teams in our conference and came to an agreement that all of the media rights for each school will be basically, they will become property of the conference.
00:22:50
Speaker
for the next six years and if a team were to want to leave the conference they would basically have to buy their way out of the deal or else the conference would still own their rights for media whether it be radio or tv broadcasts or anything of the sorts which would make leaving for another conference extremely extremely difficult
00:23:17
Speaker
because then that new conference wouldn't get any of the revenue from your media deal.
00:23:23
Speaker
So yeah, it essentially locks all the teams that are currently in the conference in for another six years.
00:23:30
Speaker
And like Caleb said, other schools can join.
00:23:33
Speaker
Like Kennesaw State will be officially joining before next year.
00:23:39
Speaker
And I know CUSA has their eyes on a couple of other teams.
00:23:43
Speaker
So whenever they join...
00:23:45
Speaker
they essentially have to agree to the grant of rights as well, um, for the period that it is in effect.
00:23:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:55
Speaker
You know, you mentioned, I mean, I think, I think we both mentioned it is like teams buying their way out.
00:24:01
Speaker
Um, you know, for example, you know, Texas and Oklahoma bought their way out of the rest of the big 12 deal, um, to join the sec.
00:24:07
Speaker
And we all thought it was going to happen, you know, for 2025.
00:24:10
Speaker
And then they bought out to join next season.
00:24:13
Speaker
Um,
00:24:15
Speaker
So, you know, not to say that JSU is going to the SEC or the Big 12 anytime soon, but let's say a Power 5 conference were to come calling, there is a route to, you know, to go to that conference.
00:24:27
Speaker
I don't see it happening.
00:24:28
Speaker
I really – I don't want it to happen.
00:24:29
Speaker
You know, I'm happy where we are.
00:24:32
Speaker
But in that instance, you know, any team that maybe wants to go to a different conference, I mean, they have the ability to do that.
00:24:38
Speaker
They just – they've got to pay out their remaining portion of the deal.
00:24:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:50
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like you said, it's one of those to where it just, it essentially makes sure that we lock in those rivalries and we just don't have teams leaving for greener pastures, which makes games better year after year after year because
00:25:09
Speaker
then the fans and the athletes and the coaches themselves can go into next year, you know, circle that game on the calendar.
00:25:17
Speaker
No matter how many times people admit they don't, everybody circles certain games on the calendar.
00:25:23
Speaker
And I think making sure you have teams locked into a deal, especially in this day and age of conference realignment, being able to know, hey, we may have gotten our butts kicked by so-and-so this year,
00:25:38
Speaker
But next year, I know they're going to be on that schedule, so I'm watching, waiting for that schedule to come out.
00:25:43
Speaker
So I know, hey, this weekend I've got to be at the stadium because we're going to get them back.
00:25:50
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I know that Liberty, I think, is a Tuesday or Wednesday night game this week.
00:25:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:00
Speaker
Look, I work in Clanton.
00:26:03
Speaker
I could see myself taking the day after off and driving up there for the game just because it's Liberty.
00:26:09
Speaker
It's a good school, good team.
00:26:14
Speaker
Like you said, I'd love to see us have a rivalry with Liberty, with Coastal, for several years.
00:26:20
Speaker
Because like you said, losing to them sucks, but the next year, if you beat them, it's all that much better.
00:26:28
Speaker
Yeah.
JSU Rivalry Discussions
00:26:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:29
Speaker
I, and I just want natural rivalries.
00:26:32
Speaker
I don't want the force stuff.
00:26:35
Speaker
I love that.
00:26:36
Speaker
We're a part of CUSA, but them trying to force this gravy bowl versus Sam Houston down our throats.
00:26:42
Speaker
I just, I don't get it.
00:26:44
Speaker
We didn't play them that much in the FCS.
00:26:48
Speaker
It's not a game where fans can just casually drive over.
00:26:53
Speaker
I think they should have waited for more of a natural rival who's
00:26:58
Speaker
already set to join the conference cough cough Kennesaw state um and just called it the battle of i-20 or something i don't know the the gravy bowl and it being sam houston which is like a 12 13 hour drive both ways for fans it just doesn't seem like it should be our rivalry but that's a that's a conversation for another day yeah for sure um
00:27:27
Speaker
You're not wrong, though.
00:27:30
Speaker
But, you know, I mean, it is what it is.
00:27:33
Speaker
You know, at the end of the day, like you said, Kennesaw is joining next year, and they can not recognize it as a rivalry.
00:27:41
Speaker
There's not a team on our schedule I'm going to want to beat more than Kennesaw State next year.
00:27:45
Speaker
Exactly.
00:27:47
Speaker
It won't even be close.
00:27:50
Speaker
Yeah, the closest one will be Liberty, and even then, it's nothing on Kennesaw State.
00:27:56
Speaker
It's one of those where the opposing team may not be as good as other teams on your schedule, but there's just something there.
00:28:04
Speaker
And JSU fans and KSU fans can tell you there's something there.
00:28:11
Speaker
We don't like them.
00:28:12
Speaker
They don't like us.
00:28:14
Speaker
And as much as they like to say it's a one-sided rivalry, they have been close games, and the game at SunTrust, now Truist,
00:28:23
Speaker
We should have won because that was a fumble.
00:28:26
Speaker
It was a fumble, and you can't change my mind.
00:28:29
Speaker
It was a fumble.
00:28:30
Speaker
I don't care what anybody else says.
00:28:32
Speaker
That was clearly a fumble.
00:28:34
Speaker
I've gone back and seen that replay at least 20 times since that game.
00:28:39
Speaker
It's clearly a fumble.
00:28:41
Speaker
The refs were just ready to get home, and then oddly enough, we were there for about 30 overtimes.
00:28:49
Speaker
And still, you know, I don't want to harp on that game too much because it will make me mad.
00:28:54
Speaker
Still, Zarek is doing some stupid stuff in OT.
00:28:56
Speaker
I don't even know how he threw that one touchdown pass when he was nearly out of bounds.
00:29:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:03
Speaker
Man.
00:29:04
Speaker
You know, like, I mean, it is what it is.
00:29:05
Speaker
You know, in Kennesaw State, it's weird because they didn't have football until 2016 or 17.
00:29:11
Speaker
Somewhere around there, yeah.
00:29:15
Speaker
It may have been 2017.
00:29:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:17
Speaker
immediately like it became a rivalry because we were playing them every year in the playoffs.
00:29:21
Speaker
And then we joined the ACE son and they did.
00:29:23
Speaker
And so then we were playing them every year and right in, you know, in regular season play.
00:29:27
Speaker
And it's just, that was one of those that it wasn't forced.
00:29:30
Speaker
It just naturally became a rivalry really quickly.
00:29:34
Speaker
And, you know, partly just because we're so close to each other, we're an hour and a half away from their campus.
00:29:39
Speaker
Um,
00:29:39
Speaker
Not that they – I mean, it's not like they play on campus or anything.
00:29:42
Speaker
They play across the street from their campus in the soccer stadium, but that's not the conversation.
00:29:48
Speaker
I don't want to go too far down that road, but I'm not lying.
00:29:51
Speaker
That's what it is.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:29:54
Speaker
You're right.
00:29:55
Speaker
You're right.
00:29:57
Speaker
But enough of looking in the past.
Week One Game Preview against UTEP
00:30:00
Speaker
Let's look to the future.
00:30:02
Speaker
Week one, week one, we have an opponent that I'm not sure we have seen before.
00:30:08
Speaker
I could be wrong.
00:30:08
Speaker
I should have looked that up.
00:30:10
Speaker
But we are playing UTEP, University of Texas at El Paso.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah, let me look it up real quick.
00:30:19
Speaker
I don't know if we've played UTEP, but we can find out really quickly.
00:30:23
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think so.
00:30:26
Speaker
I know for week one, this is a pretty good warm-up game for us.
00:30:31
Speaker
UTEP is not, not, not a bottom of the barrel team.
00:30:36
Speaker
They're not necessarily one of the people picked to win the conference, but I think it'll be a good warmup game for us being our first game in FBS.
00:30:46
Speaker
And it's our first conference game, which, which is weird to start the season off with a conference game.
00:30:51
Speaker
You, you really don't get that.
00:30:54
Speaker
Uh, we can throw this game away type feel because it matters for our conference standing.
00:30:59
Speaker
So, uh,
00:31:01
Speaker
It'll be a good one.
00:31:02
Speaker
I know we get that game at home, and I think it's like a 4.30 kickoff, or maybe it's a 3.30 kickoff, somewhere around there.
00:31:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's 4.30.
00:31:12
Speaker
With it being a 4.30 kickoff and it being week zero, I expect us to have a good bit of fans in the stands.
00:31:20
Speaker
Hopefully the weather will chill out just a little bit.
00:31:24
Speaker
But with it being 4.30, the sun will start to go down, and we'll just be a little muggy, that's all.
00:31:31
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think it's going to be too bad.
00:31:34
Speaker
Oh, well, never mind.
00:31:35
Speaker
Never mind.
00:31:36
Speaker
It's a high of 97, which is the highest over the next week and a half.
00:31:43
Speaker
Hopefully that humidity stays down.
00:31:47
Speaker
It's going to be 96 degrees at kickoff.
00:31:51
Speaker
Yeah, never mind.
00:31:53
Speaker
And the real field is going to feel like 100 at kickoff.
00:31:57
Speaker
This is one of those games where I am glad I am no longer in the marching band because I'm going to feel bad for those guys.
00:32:07
Speaker
That's not going to be fun.
00:32:08
Speaker
It's not going to be fun for the football players either.
00:32:12
Speaker
That's one of those games where it's the first game of the season.
00:32:17
Speaker
You can try and emulate game speed and practice all you want, but you don't ever get game speed until you get to a game.
00:32:25
Speaker
So that first game of the season and with it being that hot, even though both of these teams are from, you know, hotter areas, you just worry about stuff like cramps, you know, affecting the game and the speed of gameplay and just guys in general.
00:32:43
Speaker
You really want to make sure they're hydrated before the game and trying your best to avoid any sort of health scares as far as heat stroke cramps and that kind of stuff goes.
00:32:56
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I've even seen, you know, night games, you know, in high school where the other – you know, my high school, we went really fast and we would put a lot of people in cramps.
00:33:08
Speaker
But even night games, you know, in October, we'd have people cramping up.
00:33:13
Speaker
So, they're going to have to keep an eye on it.
00:33:17
Speaker
What's crazy is the temperature is going to drop like two days after the game.
00:33:20
Speaker
It's going to get down into the 80s.
00:33:22
Speaker
But, no, Saturday, it's going to be the hottest it's been all week.
00:33:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:27
Speaker
Also, not just the players, any of you fans listening, if you're going to the game, be safe, be careful.
00:33:35
Speaker
Make sure you're drinking enough water before the game.
00:33:39
Speaker
Make sure you're drinking enough water and Gatorade during the game.
00:33:42
Speaker
Yes, I know we sell beer at the game, but don't just drink beer the whole time.
00:33:50
Speaker
It doesn't hydrate you.
00:33:52
Speaker
It does not.
00:33:53
Speaker
Especially because I know a lot of y'all, especially the younger ones, will not just finish at the game.
00:34:00
Speaker
You will go somewhere around town and continue to party throughout the night.
00:34:05
Speaker
And odds are a lot of you will have already pre-gamed, so we know where your bodies are going to be.
00:34:11
Speaker
So please take care of yourself.
00:34:13
Speaker
We're begging of you.
00:34:14
Speaker
We don't need 5,000 students dropping out in the middle of the game.
00:34:18
Speaker
It would be a PR nightmare waiting to happen.
00:34:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:24
Speaker
Speaking of pre-gaming, this will be our first week seeing what the tailgating atmosphere is like now that we're FBS.
00:34:33
Speaker
I really expect a lot of those fans that we see coming back year after year that reserve tailgating for the whole season, I really expect a lot of them to go all out for that game.
00:34:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:49
Speaker
Let's say this.
00:34:49
Speaker
If you're a UTEP fan and you're coming to Jacksonville, there will be plenty of places to eat because I guarantee you some fans are going to offer you some food.
00:35:01
Speaker
Like Jalen said, I bet we go all out.
00:35:05
Speaker
I know I'm going to be there.
00:35:06
Speaker
I know my dad's going to be tailgating.
00:35:08
Speaker
I know we're going to have food set up.
00:35:09
Speaker
It's going to be one of those weekends where I'm hoping we have one of the best atmospheres we've had in a while.
00:35:16
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:35:17
Speaker
For, for any UTEP fans that may be going to the game, just know that we are the friendliest campus in the South and you can walk up to just about any of those, uh, tents or grills or whatever they got going on.
00:35:33
Speaker
And they will offer you food.
00:35:35
Speaker
They will offer you a drink conversation.
00:35:38
Speaker
There might be some lighthearted trash talk, but you know, nothing too crazy.
00:35:42
Speaker
Our, our fans are pretty cool.
00:35:46
Speaker
Um,
00:35:46
Speaker
We got a couple of guys who tailgate that our fans know are like the tent to go to or the person to hang out with.
00:35:56
Speaker
So don't hesitate to walk up to some of our resident JSU tailgaters and get to know people and try to build those friendships since we are going to be playing each other and seeing each other year over year and across all of our various sports.
00:36:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'm looking forward to it.
00:36:17
Speaker
I'd love to meet some new people this week.
00:36:19
Speaker
I'd love to – I mean, you know, in the spirit of good sportsmanship, I'd love just to, you know, maybe make some new friends and, you know, have some friendships that we can have some lighthearted trash talk to, you know, over the years.
00:36:34
Speaker
It's not like – no offense to you KSU fans, but sometimes it gets, you know, we go a little over the top because we genuinely just do not like each other.
00:36:41
Speaker
UTEP, it's probably going to be a little bit different, you know.
00:36:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:36:47
Speaker
So, you know, I'm hoping for a good tailgating atmosphere.
00:36:50
Speaker
Week one, you know, oh, sorry, week zero.
00:36:54
Speaker
And, you know, looking at week zero, there really aren't any big matchups, right?
00:36:58
Speaker
I mean, it's just – I mean, we're – honestly, sadly enough, because of who our coach is, we're one of the bigger games.
00:37:06
Speaker
So, a lot of eyes will be on Jacksonville, Alabama.
00:37:08
Speaker
I'm really – you know, I'm hoping it'll be one of those atmospheres we look back on and think, yeah, that's the –
00:37:14
Speaker
that's the JSU that we expect to have week in and week out.
00:37:18
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:37:19
Speaker
There have been a couple of week one or week zero games in Jacksonville in my time that have just been insane lights out.
00:37:30
Speaker
We had a couple of years where our week zero game was in Montgomery, and we had mixed results there.
00:37:35
Speaker
But the week zero or week one games that I've been to that were in Jacksonville –
00:37:41
Speaker
Fans did not hesitate to show up.
00:37:43
Speaker
It was a great atmosphere from start to finish.
00:37:46
Speaker
Just everybody finally ready to have football back.
00:37:50
Speaker
It's the South.
00:37:52
Speaker
Everybody knows in the South.
00:37:54
Speaker
On a Saturday, you're in the stadium or you're on your couch glued to the TV from sunup to sundown.
00:38:02
Speaker
Everybody's ready for football.
00:38:04
Speaker
And I just know before we even step foot in that stadium, it's going to be electric and I'm ready.
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah, man, it's going to be electric.
00:38:15
Speaker
I need football badly, and I know it's only four days, but still, I need some, not even four days, it's Wednesday.
00:38:25
Speaker
No, it's Tuesday.
00:38:26
Speaker
Four days to football, so I can't come soon enough.
00:38:30
Speaker
The countdown is starting, and I mean, hey, we're expecting it to be electric inside.
00:38:36
Speaker
I can assure you once the clock starts running,
00:38:42
Speaker
It's going to be electric inside.
JSU Quarterback Analysis
00:38:45
Speaker
I mean, just look at our offense.
00:38:48
Speaker
Zion Webb will most likely be our week one starter.
00:38:54
Speaker
For all of our JSU fans out there, we have become very familiar with that man.
00:38:59
Speaker
It feels like he has been at the university for about 20 years now, but he never fails to put on a show.
00:39:08
Speaker
No, I mean, he's been here.
00:39:10
Speaker
This will be his sixth year.
00:39:12
Speaker
He redshirted in 2017.
00:39:17
Speaker
He played in 2018-2019, started in 2020 after Zarek got hurt in the fall and ended up turning into a pretty solid, you know, duals wreck QB, put up some good numbers.
00:39:30
Speaker
And then in the playoffs against, was it?
00:39:33
Speaker
I think that was Delaware.
00:39:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:36
Speaker
It was Delaware.
00:39:36
Speaker
Yeah, he didn't tear his MCL, but he strained it pretty badly and just ended up getting surgery on it and was out all last year.
00:39:52
Speaker
Well, sorry, out all of 2021.
00:39:55
Speaker
2022, he came back and ended up becoming a really good player for Rich Rod.
00:40:01
Speaker
And so this is year, actually year seven for him.
00:40:04
Speaker
on campus because of his medical red shirt and his COVID year.
00:40:08
Speaker
Um, so it, um, it's weird.
00:40:12
Speaker
This doesn't show his 2022 stats, but, um, but yeah, this is going to be year seven for him on campus.
00:40:17
Speaker
So it's his last ride regardless.
00:40:20
Speaker
Um, um,
00:40:25
Speaker
Look, I think he's going to have a big year if he stays healthy and if he's improved as a passer.
00:40:29
Speaker
I think that, you know, that was kind of his one whole, you know, even in 2020, you know, I know different offensive staff, different system, and, you know, we can get into that another time.
00:40:41
Speaker
But, you know, his one issue is that he's never been the most accurate downfield passer.
00:40:48
Speaker
And, you know, I feel like at times that kind of – at times it hampered the offense last year.
00:40:52
Speaker
And they ran the ball well.
00:40:53
Speaker
I think they led the A-sun in rushing yards per game, I think even over Kennesaw State, who was running triple option.
00:41:02
Speaker
Even though they're not doing that anymore, and we'll get to that at some point this year.
00:41:07
Speaker
But, you know, if he's improved, I think he's got all CUSA written all over him because, I mean, he averages about six yards of carry.
00:41:15
Speaker
You know he can run the ball.
00:41:17
Speaker
And he's made some good throws.
00:41:19
Speaker
He just needs to do it more often.
00:41:22
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely agree.
00:41:24
Speaker
He has all CUSA potential.
00:41:27
Speaker
I think the only roadblock for him is his teammates, his quarterback roommates, because we say he's most likely the starting quarterback because that's what was reported by our friends over at the Aniston Star.
00:41:43
Speaker
But apparently it was really close, and Rich Rod said if all goes well this week,
00:41:49
Speaker
all signs point to Zion, but he expects to see some of Logan's, some others, and possibly even Tayshaun Smoot.
00:41:58
Speaker
Yeah, I've been Tayshaun Smoot's biggest advocate all offseason.
00:42:04
Speaker
I think anyone who knows me and has listened to me talk JSU football, they know that I've been on the Tayshaun Smoot train pretty much ever since we saw him in the spring game.
00:42:13
Speaker
I think the kid is just a phenomenal –
00:42:17
Speaker
player within Rich Rod's offense, especially, you know, you know, running zone read.
00:42:21
Speaker
He's got really good arm talent, you know, underrated arm talent for being a three-star, you know, committing to an FCS school when, which we were when he, when he first got on campus last year.
00:42:35
Speaker
I mean, the dude can absolutely, he can play.
00:42:37
Speaker
I think
00:42:40
Speaker
Like you said, if all goes well, we're going to see all three QBs because we're hoping that we'll be up 40, 50 points.
00:42:45
Speaker
And I'm not saying UTEP's that bad of a team.
00:42:50
Speaker
You hope that you're going to blow out everyone.
00:42:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:42:54
Speaker
I think Tayshaun is a –
00:42:57
Speaker
Like I said, I think he's a phenomenal player.
00:42:58
Speaker
But, you know, Logan Smothers, he's a guy who's a four-star committed to play, you know, for Scott Frost at Nebraska.
00:43:06
Speaker
He's a good athlete.
00:43:08
Speaker
He's a really good thrower at football.
00:43:10
Speaker
I think they're just working on making him a good passer at football, right?
00:43:13
Speaker
I mean, he spins it well.
00:43:14
Speaker
I think they're trying to make sure, you know, improve his decision-making, improve his consistency.
00:43:19
Speaker
You know, if he's consistent, if he's performing well, he's by far the best QB in this room.
00:43:25
Speaker
That's not a knock on Zion or Tayshaun, but I mean, this is a guy who committed to go play for, I should be honest, one of the biggest programs in college football history in Nebraska.
00:43:38
Speaker
And we already kind of have a history of taking guys that were committed at bigger universities and having them ball out with us.
00:43:46
Speaker
Yeah, shout out to you, Zarek.
00:43:50
Speaker
But yeah, I mean,
00:43:53
Speaker
We have a problem in our quarterback room that a lot of teams, a lot of fans, a lot of coaches would love to have is looking at three guys that you could trust to plug into that position and manage the game, take over the game, go win the game.
00:44:09
Speaker
And if there's one thing about Rich Rod...
00:44:13
Speaker
He's used to having multiple quarterback options, at least at his last school.
00:44:18
Speaker
I remember that was one of the first things he told us in the press conference here at JSU.
00:44:24
Speaker
He had, I think he said like seven or eight quarterbacks on his depth chart.
00:44:29
Speaker
And it was not a guarantee of who was going to play, you know, weekend and week out.
00:44:35
Speaker
It was just whoever worked the hardest, whoever, you know, showed and proved that they could hang and they could, they could, uh,
00:44:43
Speaker
win the day.
00:44:44
Speaker
So it's a great problem to have, but definitely not something that Rich Rod is a stranger to whatsoever.
00:44:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and I remember when he was the OC at Ole Miss, I think in 20...
00:44:58
Speaker
I think, yeah, it was 2019 was his year at Ole Miss.
00:45:04
Speaker
And, I mean, the QBs he had, he had Matt Corral, who got drafted by the Panthers last season, and I think led the SEC in passing in 2020.
00:45:14
Speaker
He had John Rhys-Promley, who's now...
00:45:16
Speaker
who I think just led the ACC in total yards.
00:45:20
Speaker
Not started the ACC, the American Conference with UCF and noted offensive guru, Gus Malzahn.
00:45:28
Speaker
So, you know, he's used to having, like you said, multiple QBs who can do it.
00:45:36
Speaker
You know, obviously he favors a running guy because his offense is a lot of his own read.
00:45:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:42
Speaker
But, you know, to his credit, look at what he's got.
00:45:46
Speaker
Zion Webb, who I would say probably runs in the 4-5 to 4-6 range.
00:45:50
Speaker
He's got Tayshaun Smoot, who I'm sure, from what I've seen, runs in the 4-6 range.
00:45:54
Speaker
I think Logan Smothers ran in the 4-6 to 4-7 range in high school.
00:45:58
Speaker
So he's got three guys that can carry the rock and can throw it.
00:46:01
Speaker
And when he's got that, his offenses are deadly.
00:46:04
Speaker
I mean, they're absolutely deadly.
00:46:05
Speaker
We all saw what he did at West Virginia with Pat White, what he did at Arizona with –
00:46:11
Speaker
Cheese, what's his name?
00:46:15
Speaker
Oh, Anu Solomon.
00:46:18
Speaker
He's had good QBs and he's a good QB coach.
00:46:20
Speaker
I'm looking forward to see not just how Zion builds off of last year, but how these other two guys do.
00:46:27
Speaker
If you've got three quarterbacks, yeah, technically they say if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have any, but year one of FBS, you're going to throw the kitchen sink at people trying to win games.
00:46:37
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:46:39
Speaker
To go along with those
00:46:40
Speaker
Three quarterbacks, I mean, you can't just base your offense solely off of passing.
00:46:46
Speaker
You become two one note.
00:46:48
Speaker
So it's a good thing we have three running backs that can complement those guys just as well.
00:46:55
Speaker
I mean, coming out of the backfield, we got Anwar Lewis, Ron Wiggins, and Malik Jackson.
00:47:01
Speaker
Now, I'd say we have three, but I know for at least the first week we will be down one.
00:47:07
Speaker
As of right now, Anwar Lewis is not on the depth chart.
00:47:12
Speaker
Rich Rod said it's not a huge deal, nothing to freak out over.
00:47:17
Speaker
So I am assuming we will see him at some point this season.
00:47:23
Speaker
But even if we don't, Ron Wiggins, that man is a beast.
00:47:29
Speaker
And I fully expect for him to step right in, take on those running back one
00:47:37
Speaker
responsibilities and carries and keep us going, keep us chugging right along.
00:47:44
Speaker
Yeah, and, you know, obviously, you know, we wish the best to Anwar.
00:47:49
Speaker
I mean, we don't know why he's out.
00:47:51
Speaker
But you mentioned it.
00:47:52
Speaker
You know, we got Ron and Malik who behind him, you know, we saw Ron last year.
00:47:58
Speaker
The Duke could absolutely play.
00:48:01
Speaker
When Anwar wasn't on the field, Ron Wiggins was – realistically –
00:48:05
Speaker
basically running back 1B.
00:48:09
Speaker
I mean, so it's a stacked room.
00:48:11
Speaker
You know, even without Anwar, I think we've got really, you know, three, whoever plays at QB plus two running backs, we've got three really good runners in the backfield on any given snap.
00:48:26
Speaker
Obviously, we want Anwar back.
00:48:27
Speaker
The dude's just insanely talented.
00:48:30
Speaker
I mean, I think he could start at a lot of Power 5 schools just because of his vision and his path protection.
00:48:36
Speaker
I mean, he's really an overall all-around back.
00:48:40
Speaker
So, I mean, yeah, Anwar, you know, best wishes to you.
00:48:42
Speaker
Hopefully you get better, you know, whatever it is.
00:48:45
Speaker
Can't wait to have you back.
00:48:46
Speaker
But, you know, looking at these other guys, will you?
00:48:50
Speaker
I'm not saying we're not going to miss a beat, but we won't miss too much just because of how good Ron Wiggins and Malik Jackson are.
00:48:58
Speaker
Oh, 100%.
00:48:58
Speaker
And from what I've been reading and seeing, Malik Jackson is apparently an A1 pass catcher out of the backfield, which a lot of people –
00:49:12
Speaker
value running backs differently.
00:49:14
Speaker
I think a running back who can basically turn into a slot receiver or even, you know, catch some of those wheel routes and whatnot out of the backfield, I think that makes the game much more deadly, especially with the kind of offense that we're running or that, you know, we expect Rich Rod to run some of that up-tempo stuff.
00:49:34
Speaker
If you can find the right mismatch coming out of the backfield and you can keep those guys on the field,
00:49:40
Speaker
that's lights out you can chug right on down the field and put it in the end zone yeah absolutely and you know one of the things about rich rod you know he did it at arizona and west virginia didn't really do it well at michigan i think part of that was just they didn't have the right personnel for him but he did almost to his obviously five offensive linemen and a qb but
00:50:05
Speaker
After that, he looked and said, all right, who are our five best weapons and how do we get them on the field?
00:50:10
Speaker
So if he had two elite tight ends, he'd run a lot of 12th personnel.
00:50:14
Speaker
If he had five elite wide receivers, he'd go five wide.
Rich Rodriguez's Offensive Strategies
00:50:18
Speaker
And, you know, same thing, two great running backs, they're running a lot of two-back sets.
00:50:22
Speaker
So he's all about getting the five best players on the field as much as possible to make it as hard to defend as possible.
00:50:29
Speaker
So if that's Anwar Lewis and Ron Wiggins in the backfield,
00:50:35
Speaker
We'll see it, and that's just the offense that we're going to see.
00:50:40
Speaker
You mentioned Malik catching passes out of the backfield.
00:50:45
Speaker
I saw a lot last year, even in week one, he really likes to put Anwar not necessarily in the slot, but almost in a wing, tight end, almost like an H-back position at times, and they run him almost like a little out route
00:51:05
Speaker
from there just to get a quick first down.
00:51:09
Speaker
I'd love to see Malik in that role because he's a little bit faster than Anwar.
00:51:12
Speaker
I think he can get space a little bit better.
00:51:14
Speaker
And when he turns up field, he's still got the size to hit someone.
00:51:20
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:51:21
Speaker
I know you mentioned just the varying formations and plays that we can run.
00:51:28
Speaker
I'm curious to see with the breadth of talent that we have.
00:51:32
Speaker
I'm curious to see some of the trickery and
00:51:35
Speaker
some of the slight of hand that Rich Rod has up his sleeve for some of these interesting situations that we will inevitably end up in.
00:51:48
Speaker
Because, you know, everybody loves a good trick play or a good flashy play that you just did not see coming.
00:51:56
Speaker
Yeah, obviously you don't want to do it too often because you can play your way into some turnovers pretty quickly.
00:52:02
Speaker
But, you know, a well-timed trick play with the amount of weapons we have, I mean, the ball could really go anywhere.
00:52:09
Speaker
You know, you could run a reverse and the ball end up back in the QB's hands on a little throwback.
00:52:15
Speaker
Or they could run a reverse and then turn it into a flu flicker and throw a deep ball.
00:52:18
Speaker
There's so many ways that they could dress up the talent this year.
00:52:22
Speaker
I'm really looking forward to it.
00:52:23
Speaker
And, I mean, obviously we've got some big games.
00:52:26
Speaker
or they're going to have to pull it out.
00:52:28
Speaker
So we'll see pretty quickly, especially against Liberty.
00:52:31
Speaker
But, you know, like you said, Rich Rod can design up plays with the best of them.
00:52:35
Speaker
So I think we're in for a fun year on offense.
00:52:38
Speaker
Man, I really hope that we have a solid O-line and they can hold up because if we can run some plays and get some deception in there, we have some burners at the wide receiver position.
00:52:52
Speaker
that could flip the game on its head in a heartbeat.
00:52:56
Speaker
I mean, like you mentioned Flea Flicker.
00:52:58
Speaker
I could just see one of those going to Michael Petway for like a 60-yard touchdown.
00:53:03
Speaker
And if that was at home, I'm telling you right now, that stadium would go nuts.
00:53:12
Speaker
They may want to stay on their feet.
00:53:13
Speaker
They may knock down the construction project.
00:53:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:18
Speaker
Oh boy.
00:53:19
Speaker
I mean, you're not kidding.
00:53:21
Speaker
We've seen our fair share of trick plays and big plays in Jacksonville.
00:53:26
Speaker
And when I tell you, like if that, if that, if those stands are full, everybody in the city of Jacksonville, which is not big to be fair, everybody in the city of Jacksonville will hear it.
00:53:38
Speaker
Everybody will know that something just went down in Burgess snow field.
00:53:43
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:53:43
Speaker
It,
00:53:45
Speaker
for it only being a 24,000 seat stadium, it, like you said, you can be a Walmart and you'll know pretty quickly if something's happened.
00:53:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:55
Speaker
Because Walmart's like a mile and a half, two miles down the road.
00:53:59
Speaker
But I mean, I've been in Walmart during, I think, I can't remember what, what game it was during COVID.
00:54:08
Speaker
I didn't go.
00:54:10
Speaker
And so I went to Walmart during halftime to pick up something.
00:54:15
Speaker
And I walked out and I think Zion threw a bomb like on the first play of the second half.
00:54:25
Speaker
And I even just the small amount of people that were there during COVID, I could hear it from there.
00:54:30
Speaker
So, you know, packed house.
00:54:32
Speaker
We run a little flea flicker for a touchdown.
00:54:35
Speaker
You might hear it from McClellan.
00:54:38
Speaker
I'm telling you, man, I'm honestly just excited.
00:54:42
Speaker
We have so much potential on offense.
00:54:47
Speaker
It's probably, and this is crazy to say because we've had a lot of talent in general in our years, at least in the years I've been a fan.
00:54:55
Speaker
I think this has the potential to be one of the most talented offenses that we've seen in a good little bit.
00:55:04
Speaker
Yeah, I agree.
00:55:05
Speaker
You know, I look at 2018, you know,
00:55:08
Speaker
really that's the last time we've had a truly elite offense.
00:55:11
Speaker
That's when we had Zarek, Josh Pearson, Trey Berry.
00:55:20
Speaker
Man, what was his name?
00:55:21
Speaker
The 6'7 receiver?
00:55:22
Speaker
That other dude that they lined up opposite of Josh and you just couldn't guard him?
00:55:29
Speaker
I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but I know exactly who you're talking about.
00:55:33
Speaker
We also had Dalton Screws, man.
00:55:35
Speaker
He was underrated.
00:55:38
Speaker
And that was also when we had like four running backs who were all toting the rock.
00:55:44
Speaker
Or even, you know, you go back to 20, I think it was, yeah, 2015, the championship year, when you had, obviously had Eli, you know, the next year he then got, we had Rock Thomas.
00:56:04
Speaker
Yeah, we've had some hitters.
00:56:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:11
Speaker
Some of those guys were hitters in other ways, but we won't talk about that.
00:56:15
Speaker
Oh, goodness.
00:56:19
Speaker
We remember the discipline issues under the previous staff for sure.
00:56:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:27
Speaker
Luckily, based on last season, it seems those days are long, long behind us.
00:56:32
Speaker
Yeah, but you're not wrong.
00:56:35
Speaker
This has potential to be one of our most talented offensive units ever.
00:56:38
Speaker
And the defense, defense ain't going to be too bad either.
00:56:42
Speaker
Colby Fuquay is playing his 30th year of college football, but other than that, I swear that man, I swear he transferred from Auburn in 2019 and he's been here for like four years.
00:56:54
Speaker
And I swear, like,
00:56:57
Speaker
on everything that I have earned at my job.
00:57:00
Speaker
I swear he was a junior at Auburn when he transferred.
00:57:02
Speaker
That's how old it feels like he is.
00:57:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:05
Speaker
There's a couple of guys where it just seems like, even if they're not there for that long, it just seems like you hear their name at a game for about six or seven years in a row.
00:57:15
Speaker
And it's like, how long are you here?
00:57:18
Speaker
How do you still have eligibility?
00:57:20
Speaker
How much longer do you have?
00:57:22
Speaker
Like, what is going on?
00:57:25
Speaker
Well, for example, like,
00:57:29
Speaker
How many years in a row did we listen to the starting lineups waiting to hear Your Majesty Sanders' name called?
00:57:37
Speaker
Dude, I swear that man was at JSU for about 20 years.
00:57:41
Speaker
But I also think that was just because he has a really cool name.
00:57:45
Speaker
So people were just waiting to hear his name called.
00:57:49
Speaker
Yeah, he was there for five years.
00:57:51
Speaker
But man, it felt like it was longer than that.
00:57:54
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:57:55
Speaker
He got here in 17, and his last year was fall 21.
00:57:59
Speaker
But, man, it felt like he was there for like seven or eight years.
00:58:03
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:58:04
Speaker
I mean, going back to the defense, another guy who just feels like he's been here that long, he really hasn't.
00:58:11
Speaker
I'm ready to see what J-Rock Swain can do in his first year in the FBS.
00:58:16
Speaker
Because if there's one thing that he is known for, it is disrupting.
00:58:22
Speaker
the QBs and making them uncomfortable.
00:58:25
Speaker
That man, that man is almost like a bullet coming off the line.
00:58:30
Speaker
If, if you don't double team him, there is a good chance he will at least have his face in the face mask of your quarterback.
00:58:38
Speaker
If not putting him on the ground.
00:58:41
Speaker
Yeah, man.
00:58:41
Speaker
Jay rocks.
00:58:42
Speaker
He's a monster and it's, it's wild because when he got here, you know, we knew about the athleticism, but we weren't sure if he'd have enough size or,
00:58:50
Speaker
And I think year one, he put on about 20, 30 pounds, and now he's one of the best edge rushers in the conference.
00:58:59
Speaker
I expect that he will be an all-CUSA performer this year.
00:59:02
Speaker
I think he's that good.
00:59:05
Speaker
I'm hoping they just let him loose and just let him go play football because he's, I mean, I know we, you know, you know, in the last few years we've had Will Anderson, Aiden Hutchinson, you know, those type of guys who, you know, you can line up kind of whether it's a standup D lineman, whether it's an edge rusher, whether it's an outside linebacker.
00:59:23
Speaker
He's obviously he's not, you know, Will Anderson, but he, he has that kind of versatility where you could put them in three or four different positions and send them after the QB and just dress up blitzes different ways.
00:59:35
Speaker
And it's so hard to stop them because he could be coming from like, he, he could almost line up.
00:59:40
Speaker
I don't want to say line up and nickel.
00:59:41
Speaker
Cause he's not that fast, but you know, he could come off, off the edge, you know, almost out of the slot.
00:59:46
Speaker
He could come out of the defensive backfield.
00:59:49
Speaker
He'd come off the line.
00:59:50
Speaker
He, he really could come out of everywhere.
00:59:52
Speaker
He's, he's that good.
00:59:54
Speaker
Yeah, he's one of those guys.
00:59:56
Speaker
We don't have a long list of guys playing in the league, but he's one of those guys that I could see leaving good old Jacksonville, Alabama and ends up playing somewhere on Sunday nights.
01:00:08
Speaker
And, I mean, with a name like that, he almost has to make the starting lineup or at least make a team somewhere because I definitely want to hear that name being called on an NFL broadcast.
01:00:21
Speaker
Yeah, maybe we could get him to Buffalo, play with Saran.
01:00:24
Speaker
Oh, dude, that would be awesome, man.
01:00:28
Speaker
Saran, you know, he got drafted in 18.
01:00:30
Speaker
He's been with the Bills every year since then on the active roster.
01:00:34
Speaker
He's got 93 tackles in five years, which is not bad, you know, for a guy who's mostly, you know, special teams.
01:00:43
Speaker
He's made some impact plays on defense, too.
01:00:45
Speaker
There have been a couple of times where he'll have a highlight that will make it on ESPN, and I'm just like, dang.
01:00:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and he just signed a three-year extension, so obviously we've got some guys that are, you know, that they're having prolonged NFL careers.
01:01:01
Speaker
And like I said, I think J-Rock, one of those guys who can do it because he's got the talent, he's got the athleticism.
01:01:07
Speaker
And that's what they're looking for in the NFL is athleticism.
01:01:09
Speaker
You can put size on later.
01:01:12
Speaker
You know, you can coach size and strength.
01:01:14
Speaker
You can't coach fast.
01:01:16
Speaker
Nah, not at all.
01:01:16
Speaker
You either got speed and quickness or you don't have it at all.
01:01:21
Speaker
I mean, between him and the rest of the defense and just our team in general, not only do I like our chances in week one, I like our chances on the season.
Optimism for Upcoming Football Season
01:01:34
Speaker
Obviously, you have to be realistic.
01:01:36
Speaker
We're not going to go 12-0.
01:01:40
Speaker
But I don't see us hitting the floor or I don't see our ceiling being what some of
01:01:50
Speaker
These guys on Twitter are saying, I've seen a lot of people saying our ceiling is 4-8, or I've even seen 3-9.
01:01:58
Speaker
I honestly think that's more of our floor, because this team is just way too talented.
01:02:05
Speaker
I think
01:02:06
Speaker
we can easily go in and win enough games to where we would have been bowl eligible.
01:02:11
Speaker
Um, we just have a lot of guys that are FBS ready that are CUSA ready, even though we have to go out there and prove ourselves.
01:02:21
Speaker
I think they're going to step up to the plate.
01:02:23
Speaker
I think they're going to, they're going to go out there and do it.
01:02:27
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:27
Speaker
And you know, you know, you mentioned people saying our ceilings at four and eight, um,
01:02:34
Speaker
I just want people to keep in mind we've won in the last three years two games against FBS opponents, one of which is in our conference.
01:02:45
Speaker
I think actually we've beaten them twice as FIU.
01:02:49
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:49
Speaker
I think we beat them two straight years.
01:02:53
Speaker
And then almost beat Florida State two straight years.
01:02:55
Speaker
Yeah, we had Florida State.
01:02:57
Speaker
I think we were winning at halftime the first year.
01:03:02
Speaker
I'm not saying we're going to come out and we're going to be 2017 UCF or 2021 Cincinnati where we're going to play off, but we're not, we're not going to be scrubs.
01:03:10
Speaker
You know, we, yeah, we have a gauntlet of a schedule because we got Liberty Coastal.
01:03:17
Speaker
I think we play, I think we have like six straight weeks for every team we play one, at least nine games last year.
01:03:22
Speaker
So yeah, that's tough considering they're all FBS teams, but we still have teams we can beat.
01:03:27
Speaker
And, you know, a few of those hard games are at home, right?
01:03:32
Speaker
Liberty's at home.
01:03:33
Speaker
Eastern Michigan's at home.
01:03:34
Speaker
Louisiana Tech is what didn't make a bowl last year, but they should be better this year and they're at home.
01:03:42
Speaker
Coastal's on the road, but Coastal Carolina isn't necessarily known for being this insane atmosphere.
01:03:49
Speaker
And they've got a new coach with Jamie Chadwell having left.
01:03:54
Speaker
There's a route for us to win six, seven maybe.
01:03:57
Speaker
I think eight or nine is pushing it, but I'm not going to rule it out just because I know who our coach is.
01:04:04
Speaker
And he's won games outside of Michigan.
01:04:07
Speaker
He's won everywhere he's been, so I'm not going to rule out him doing it in year one now.
01:04:12
Speaker
Yeah.
01:04:13
Speaker
I hate that we have to wait so long to be able to play a bowl game because I genuinely believe that we could
01:04:19
Speaker
we could be bowl eligible after this season.
01:04:23
Speaker
But, you know, it's the transition rules and we knew it when we were, when we were joining, but yeah, I definitely don't, I definitely don't see our ceiling being four and eight.
01:04:34
Speaker
If we end up, you know, hitting four and eight and those guys were correct.
01:04:37
Speaker
And so be it.
01:04:39
Speaker
My main thing is, and I said it on the podcast, we were on the last time.
01:04:44
Speaker
I just want, I want our guests to go out there and play hard.
01:04:48
Speaker
and give 110% effort the whole game and try and make them as close of a game as possible.
01:04:53
Speaker
Because, I mean, if we do go 4-8 and we lose some of those really big games by 10 or less or even 7 or less, I know people don't like the phrase moral victories, but I would think that would be a moral victory in a sense.
01:05:10
Speaker
Because, I mean, first year in FBS, if we go out there and we can prove to them that we're hanging around our first year,
01:05:18
Speaker
that's enough said right there.
01:05:20
Speaker
We can prove that, you know, we're here to stay.
01:05:23
Speaker
We're not messing around.
01:05:24
Speaker
You're not just going to come in and it's not going to be a cupcake game that you can just say, Oh, we're going to win.
01:05:30
Speaker
We don't have to worry about them.
01:05:32
Speaker
No, I want them to know that year in and year out, whether it's in Jacksonville or we're coming to them, it's going to be a knockdown drag out fight.
01:05:43
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
01:05:44
Speaker
I, I mean, I totally agree with you.
01:05:46
Speaker
Um,
01:05:49
Speaker
Yeah, I'd love to see us win six, seven, even eight games.
01:05:52
Speaker
But like you said, if we can come out with moral victories and, you know, at least push some teams to the edge and let them know that, you know, year two, year three, we're going to be coming for them.
01:06:05
Speaker
Teams are going to get uncomfortable real quick, I think.
01:06:09
Speaker
I mean, just knowing, you know, the kind of coach Rich Rod is, you know, he's hard-nosed.
01:06:13
Speaker
Obviously, we've all heard the phrase hard edge, you know, the last two years.
01:06:18
Speaker
You give him a year to really get these guys accustomed to FBS football, watch out because he knows this level.
01:06:25
Speaker
He has been there and done that.
01:06:28
Speaker
I knew he was itching to get back to it when they hired him.
01:06:34
Speaker
I feel like that's the reason he said yes because he knew that we were going FBS and he wanted back.
01:06:39
Speaker
So, you know, look out.
01:06:41
Speaker
For those of you who are maybe, you know, doubting us early, all I'm going to say is, is, you know, just watch.
01:06:46
Speaker
I hate saying just watch because that's what Brian Harsin said last season.
01:06:50
Speaker
And then it just, and then, and then Auburn tanked.
01:06:54
Speaker
Um, but they feel like just watch, like, I'm not saying we're going to come out and win the conference, but we ain't going to lay down and go and 12 either.
01:07:03
Speaker
Yeah, no, definitely.
01:07:04
Speaker
I don't, I don't see us going to win 12.
01:07:06
Speaker
We're going to come out fighting no matter what our record is.
01:07:10
Speaker
Um,
01:07:10
Speaker
But, I mean, I think that's pretty much it as far as, like, the football talk goes.
01:07:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think so.
01:07:18
Speaker
I mean, as we're wrapping it up, do you have a prediction for how the week one game is going to go?
01:07:26
Speaker
Let me see if I still have it pulled up.
01:07:28
Speaker
I made a lot of notes on that other podcast that we did.
01:07:33
Speaker
Shout out to the –
01:07:36
Speaker
Man, I can't even remember the name of the podcast.
01:07:38
Speaker
I'll have to look it up.
01:07:40
Speaker
We'll plug it again on our Twitter.
01:07:44
Speaker
But I think I had some notes, and I mentioned that they were kind of in... I don't want to say transition, but... Let's see here.
01:07:58
Speaker
I don't still have it, but I mean...
01:08:03
Speaker
I don't know if we're going to run them off the field, but I do think that we'll be able to come out and win.
01:08:12
Speaker
You know, if we play a clean game, you know, so whoever's at QB, whether it's Zion, Logan, Tayshaun,
01:08:19
Speaker
They take care of the football and make good decisions.
01:08:21
Speaker
Don't try to do too much.
01:08:24
Speaker
If the offensive line is disciplined, receivers aren't dropping passes, I think we have a chance to win maybe one or two scores.
01:08:32
Speaker
UTEP, I think, won four or five games last year, so they aren't terrible by any means.
01:08:38
Speaker
Let me pull it up real quick, and I'll give you the final prediction before I let you do yours.
01:08:45
Speaker
Let's see if I can get it pulled up real quick.
01:08:52
Speaker
While I'm looking for it, why don't you go ahead and do yours?
01:08:56
Speaker
I definitely think we walk out of there with a win.
01:09:01
Speaker
It can easily go either way, but I'm going to go with us coming in.
01:09:06
Speaker
First game of the season.
01:09:08
Speaker
First game FBS.
01:09:11
Speaker
It's not a night game, but it's an afternoon game.
01:09:14
Speaker
The sun will be going down.
01:09:16
Speaker
I think all of our fans have been itching for some JSU football.
01:09:19
Speaker
I think the energy is flowing.
01:09:21
Speaker
I think once we hear the Southerners hit that first note pregame and then again in the stands, I think between all of that and then not to mention UTEP, they're on the complete other side of Texas.
01:09:36
Speaker
They're a long way from home.
01:09:38
Speaker
We got the home cooking and I would say their own beds on their side, but I know they don't stay on campus the night before the games, but either way,
01:09:50
Speaker
You got the home cooking and, you know, I think these guys are going to come out just ready to fight, ready to fire it off.
01:09:58
Speaker
I could easily see us winning with a score of like, like a 42 to 17 type deal, but I can also see it being a little bit of a, a little bit of a fight.
01:10:12
Speaker
I could see it either being like a 42 to 17 or maybe like a 35 to 28 type deal.
01:10:21
Speaker
All right, all right.
01:10:22
Speaker
I like it.
01:10:25
Speaker
You know, look at how they played last year.
01:10:27
Speaker
They had some good wins.
01:10:28
Speaker
They beat Charlotte.
01:10:31
Speaker
They beat Boise State.
01:10:35
Speaker
They beat FIU and FAU.
01:10:39
Speaker
But they also – and, you know, they even hung close with UTSA, who I think finished as like the –
01:10:50
Speaker
I mean, they wouldn't.
01:10:51
Speaker
I remember UPSA was ranked going into bowl season.
01:10:55
Speaker
Had some good wins, had some good losses, but they also got ran off the field by some teams that really aren't that good.
01:11:01
Speaker
You know, like you said, we can have home cooking.
01:11:05
Speaker
Hopefully that's also on the officiating.
01:11:07
Speaker
I'd love to see some calls go our way.
01:11:08
Speaker
You know, fans have been itching for football, itching for that first year at FBS.
01:11:14
Speaker
I know Rich Rod's probably going to be foaming at the mouth ready for some football.
01:11:19
Speaker
I think I'm going to go into like a 35 to 24 type game.
01:11:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think we can definitely win it easily.
01:11:32
Speaker
It's one of those games where as long as we show up and take care of business
01:11:35
Speaker
with it being a home game and with it being an afternoon game, I think we should have absolutely no problem going in there, taking care of business, coming out with a big win to start the season and hopefully, you know, to jumpstart our momentum and keep it going and carry us so that we can get to that gauntlet and get through it.
01:11:56
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
01:11:58
Speaker
Hopefully –
01:12:00
Speaker
We're going to find out for sure one way or the other in four days, um, at Burgess snow.
01:12:05
Speaker
I don't know about you.
01:12:05
Speaker
I know I'm going to be there.
01:12:07
Speaker
I'm going to try to be there.
01:12:09
Speaker
I'm going to try to be there for sure.
01:12:11
Speaker
Love me some JSU football.
01:12:14
Speaker
Nothing better than being there in the stadium when the lights are going.
01:12:19
Speaker
And, uh, I mean now JSU or not JSU, the city of Jacksonville has a little bit of nightlife going.
01:12:25
Speaker
So, uh,
01:12:26
Speaker
You might just catch me at Apothecary after the game.
01:12:30
Speaker
For all the people that are going to be in Jacksonville, definitely hit up Apothecary.
01:12:36
Speaker
Definitely hit up Jefferson's, Cooter Brown's, The Rocket, several places.
01:12:43
Speaker
Local mom-and-pop restaurants in Jacksonville.
01:12:46
Speaker
Hit them all up.
01:12:47
Speaker
They're all good.
01:12:50
Speaker
Yeah, there's plenty of places to hit up, whether it be food, drinks, anything.
01:12:55
Speaker
We...
01:12:56
Speaker
We might be small town, but we've got a decent amount now.
01:12:59
Speaker
So, yeah, looking forward to it.
01:13:02
Speaker
And then I want to do one little final shout-out because I know we have it on our notes.
01:13:06
Speaker
JSU has a bowling team now.
01:13:09
Speaker
Yeah, we do.
01:13:12
Speaker
I mean, that was one of those things.
01:13:14
Speaker
Obviously, when you move up to FBS, there's a lot of sports that are a little bit more – I say secondary, but –
01:13:25
Speaker
No disrespect to any of those sports whatsoever.
01:13:30
Speaker
Bowling is one I did not expect us to ever add, but hey, we got a bowling team.
01:13:36
Speaker
I know I can't bowl enough to be on a team, but I can't wait to see what our bowling team can do.
01:13:42
Speaker
We do have a history of our secondary sports winning championships.
01:13:49
Speaker
Shout out to our cornhole team.
01:13:51
Speaker
I was about to say.
01:13:53
Speaker
I can't remember what year it was.
01:13:55
Speaker
I think it was like 2018, 2019.
01:13:57
Speaker
But now, yeah, Cornhole won the natty.
01:14:00
Speaker
I just remember scrolling Twitter and it's like, JSU has won the collegiate doubles championship for Cornhole.
01:14:07
Speaker
And I was like, oh, I didn't even know we had a team.
01:14:12
Speaker
Hey, but you know what?
01:14:14
Speaker
You know what they say.
01:14:15
Speaker
Okay, they don't say it, but we say it.
01:14:17
Speaker
We're the school of champions.
01:14:18
Speaker
We just win championships.
01:14:19
Speaker
It doesn't matter what sport.
01:14:20
Speaker
We won it.
01:14:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:14:22
Speaker
I mean, I can't wait to
01:14:24
Speaker
get more into it and see how they do throughout the season.
01:14:28
Speaker
Um, and all of our sports, uh, on our next episode, I hope to have a little bit more information on all of our sports in general, because, uh, we're not just a football podcast.
01:14:39
Speaker
We want to include all of our athletics.
01:14:42
Speaker
We are blessed to have a lot of really strong, uh, sports programs, a lot of great coaches that have graced our courts and our fields.
01:14:53
Speaker
Um,
01:14:54
Speaker
So we definitely want to make sure everybody gets the proper recognition they deserve.
JSU Basketball Game Atmosphere
01:15:00
Speaker
Absolutely, man.
01:15:02
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:15:03
Speaker
Hopefully we can – hopefully the next few weeks we'll have some basketball news we can touch on.
01:15:07
Speaker
That's what I'm looking forward to is seeing how we – how the basketball teams match up in the new conference.
01:15:12
Speaker
Because for those of you who haven't been to the Pete for a basketball game on Saturday nights, it is something else.
01:15:19
Speaker
Oh, the Pete is –
01:15:22
Speaker
When it's a packed house, the Pete, I think, could rival almost any atmosphere outside of your super, super major ones.
01:15:30
Speaker
I think it could rival just about any other atmosphere in college basketball.
01:15:34
Speaker
So, yeah, definitely for any of the fans out there, whether you're a fan of one of the teams on our schedule or just a fan in general, make your way to Jacksonville once basketball season starts because you're definitely going to want to be there for a game.
01:15:52
Speaker
hear the amazing pep band, hardcore, watch Coach Harper just conduct magic on the court.
01:16:03
Speaker
It's one of those venues that you show up, it doesn't look super overwhelming, but then you leave and you're like, wow, that was a really great game from start to finish.
01:16:16
Speaker
Yeah, and the student section, I tell you what, now that I'm not in hardcore and I can be down in the student section for games and not, you know, not get in trouble for doing stuff I probably shouldn't, you know, when I'm in uniform.
01:16:29
Speaker
Student section, yeah, and I know you can attest to it because you've been in the cock flock for a while now.
01:16:37
Speaker
Our student section for basketball is wild.
01:16:41
Speaker
Rowdy.
01:16:42
Speaker
Most of us stand up the whole time.
01:16:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
01:16:46
Speaker
You will rarely ever see the students and the band sitting down.
01:16:52
Speaker
It's just one of those environments where opposing coaches have even come up to the students and the band after the game and just remarked on how wild and how insane of an environment it is.
01:17:06
Speaker
I mean, we've even seen during timeouts where coaches have to set up their timeout huddle
01:17:13
Speaker
damn near a half court because the atmosphere is just way too rowdy for them to be able to get the information they need to get across.
01:17:23
Speaker
And we've definitely gotten under the skin of a couple of players.
01:17:27
Speaker
We've gotten at least one player kicked off the team.
01:17:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's gotten physical before.
01:17:34
Speaker
And that doesn't mean that we're afraid of it.
01:17:36
Speaker
If you want to get physical, get physical.
01:17:37
Speaker
We're more than willing to see that Facebook post that you're not playing anymore.
01:17:41
Speaker
Trust me.
01:17:42
Speaker
Hey, but they're lucky now.
01:17:43
Speaker
Now, JPD and UPD, they stand right there in between the student section and the opposing team as they're leaving.
01:17:52
Speaker
So maybe nothing will happen going forward.
01:17:55
Speaker
But, you know, all that to say the atmosphere and the beat on a good night.
01:18:02
Speaker
Pretty electric.
01:18:03
Speaker
It's electric, man.
01:18:05
Speaker
Yeah.
01:18:06
Speaker
All right.
01:18:07
Speaker
I think that pretty much wraps it up for us.
01:18:08
Speaker
I think it was a successful episode.
01:18:11
Speaker
Yeah.
01:18:12
Speaker
I mean, this was our first week.
Listener Feedback and Future Topics
01:18:15
Speaker
So if any of y'all out there have any advice, any critiques, I mean, we're genuinely open to anything you have to say.
01:18:22
Speaker
This is our first episode, so we know it's not perfect.
01:18:26
Speaker
Whatever you have to say, any advice you have, any suggestions you have,
01:18:30
Speaker
Please don't be afraid to send them our way.
01:18:34
Speaker
You can DM us on our Twitter page, SSN underscore Jack State.
01:18:41
Speaker
That is SSN underscore J-A-X-S-T-A-T-E.
01:18:47
Speaker
Yeah, send us – and it's not just even like suggestions.
01:18:50
Speaker
Like give us, you know, ideas on what we should talk about.
01:18:55
Speaker
You know, I think outside of the uniform stuff and the stadium stuff, we came up with pretty much everything this week.
01:19:01
Speaker
So I'd love to get, you know, some, you know, fan feedback.
01:19:05
Speaker
whether it's from the other Sidelines accounts, whether it's from JSU fans.
01:19:09
Speaker
We want to know what you guys want to hear from us so we can talk about it.
01:19:12
Speaker
Because at the end of the day, I mean, yeah, doing a podcast is fun and all.
01:19:15
Speaker
We want to do it for y'all, give y'all something to listen to on the ride home from work.
01:19:20
Speaker
So give us suggestions.
01:19:22
Speaker
Like Jalen said, we are a blank canvas right now as a podcast.
01:19:28
Speaker
We have a name and we have –
01:19:31
Speaker
that's about all it.
01:19:32
Speaker
That's, that's literally all we have right now.
01:19:34
Speaker
So hopefully, hopefully we can get a theme song or something down.
01:19:38
Speaker
So, uh, and something to play so you can have a little break and don't have to hear us talking for an hour and a half, two hours straight.
01:19:46
Speaker
But, uh, we're, we're, we got some things in the works for sure.
01:19:50
Speaker
No question.
01:19:51
Speaker
Uh, well, I guess that wraps it up.
01:19:53
Speaker
Uh, we'll be back next week for episode two.
01:19:56
Speaker
Um, and,
01:19:57
Speaker
Hopefully at that point we'll be talking about a big JSU win against UTEP.
01:20:02
Speaker
But whether or not, regardless, we will be there.
01:20:05
Speaker
So good night to everyone.
01:20:07
Speaker
Hope everyone has a great week.
01:20:09
Speaker
Hope to see you Saturday at Burgess Snow.
01:20:11
Speaker
Let's go, Cox.
01:20:12
Speaker
Let's go, Cox, baby.
01:20:13
Speaker
See you all later.