Transcript
Speaker: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker: Welcome back to another episode of the 700 Pelham Road podcast.
Speaker: We are finally back after a long hiatus.
Speaker: It's been a while.
Speaker: It's been almost two months since we've been able to push out an episode.
Speaker: But we are back and we are going to be back hopefully for good.
Speaker: To be honest, there's not too much to talk about this week.
Speaker: Mostly just finish up spring sports.
Speaker: But we got one, well, really two big things to really talk about.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I guess we'll go ahead and get it out of the way.
Speaker: We put another national championship in the trophy case.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: First one as an FBS school.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And no, it did not come from any of the big four.
Speaker: It did not come from what many people consider a traditional sport, but our women's bowling team.
Speaker: I mean, from the jump, they went out week after week and just kicked butt.
Speaker: And they wrapped up the season with an NCAA championship.
Speaker: So, I mean, you can't.
Speaker: Can't get much better than that.
Speaker: They turned around, I think, like a week later and went to the ITC, the Intercollegiate Team Championships or whatever it's called.
Speaker: They ended up getting runner-up, but, I mean, they still are, you know, NCAA national champions, and that is –
Speaker: absolutely amazing to come in year one.
Speaker: Obviously, you know, already an established, amazing head coach.
Speaker: And, you know, she brought a lot of the women with her from McKendree.
Speaker: But I mean, still, to make that move and to be in a conference with, you know, some of the top bowling teams in the country and to come out not only on top in the conference, but, you know, to win the NCAA, that's huge.
Speaker: Yeah, it absolutely is.
Speaker: And, you know, we've talked about it over and over again.
Speaker: You know, it all starts up front with the fact that Greg Seitz went out and was willing to put money down on a program that didn't exist and go out and hire the best coach in the country.
Speaker: And now we see the fruits of spending that money is we win a title.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And now we can say we're national champions.
Speaker: And I think the last program to win a national championship was Cornell, if I'm correct.
Speaker: And I don't even know if that's technically a program or if that's a club sport.
Speaker: If we go back to what we're sure of, I'm pretty sure it was football D2.
Speaker: Yeah, back in, what, 92?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or maybe I could be – actually, I could be wrong.
Speaker: I think maybe Rifle has had some championships since then.
Speaker: I know we have a really good Rifle team.
Speaker: Got to be honest, my bad.
Speaker: I don't keep up with them.
Speaker: So maybe they have had a national championship since then.
Speaker: But I think – I don't know if Cornhole counts as a program or if it's a club.
Speaker: But –
Speaker: If we're being like, for sure, for sure, you got to go all the way back to the D2 football national championship.
Speaker: So either way, you know, to have this NCAA championship, which I know the Cornhole wasn't, Cornhole's ACL, to have this NCAA national championship is just absolutely crazy.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: You know, going forward, I'll admit I don't really know how to keep up with bowling, recruiting, or anything like that.
Speaker: But, you know, it'll be interesting to look at the turnover of the roster.
Speaker: I don't know, but I watched the first session of the championship season.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I tried to watch.
Speaker: I think I was working during it, but pretty much every chance I had, you know, I had my phone up, you know, just kind of peeking at it.
Speaker: And it was insane.
Speaker: I mean, there were some periods where it was like we were down and it was, you know, a pretty solid deficit.
Speaker: And you're thinking, OK, you know, they're going to take it.
Speaker: It's whatever.
Speaker: And our women just did not give up.
Speaker: They kept fighting, kept fighting, kept fighting.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, you know, they just showed who they were, you know, who they had been the whole season.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And ultimately came out on top.
Speaker: You know, I'm really looking forward to kind of seeing, you know, what the future holds for the program.
Speaker: Because obviously, you know, roster turnover aside, when you have a good coach, generally, even if you maybe lose talent, you know,
Speaker: Obviously, coaching can develop players, but it'll be really fun to see where the program goes from here.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, like you said, anytime you lose talent, it always hurts, but I mean –
Speaker: for a coach with, you know, the resume and the respect and just the accolades that she has, you know, for a woman coming out of high school or even, you know, looking to transfer, this is a dream destination.
Speaker: So, you know, not only do I trust her to be able to,
Speaker: Not only do I trust Coach O'Keefe to be able to develop somebody as a freshman, but I also know she's just going to have that draw.
Speaker: She's going to have that pull for transfers, those high-level recruits coming out of high school.
Speaker: And like you said, we don't necessarily – this is –
Speaker: totally new game for us so we're not necessarily you know up to speed on how to keep up with bowling recruits and whatnot but i have no doubt that we you know we're going to get the best of the best just simply because of being able to do what we did in year one and having the coach that we have yeah absolutely so all right well moving on to the other spring sports um
Speaker: We covered the end of basketball, which obviously neither program really had a great year.
Speaker: Baseball and softball.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Baseball and softball also did not have as great of a year as they look like.
Speaker: You know, baseball, new coach coming in to replace Coach Case.
Speaker: Tough job to do because he is the program's all-time winning coach.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A lot of roster turnover.
Speaker: Just tough season altogether.
Speaker: New conference as well, which I'm not making excuses, but I feel like they're – I mean, it was – We can accept them.
Speaker: It was a much tougher conference.
Speaker: Yeah, and Conference USA is a good baseball conference.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A lot of good – I mean, all around for our spring sports, I think –
Speaker: The biggest difference because with our spring sports moving up to FBS didn't really change much the way spring sports work.
Speaker: FCS FBS there really is no distinct line, so to speak.
Speaker: It all kind of meshes together.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But I think with us moving up and just being in a tougher conference all around, it was kind of a rough – I wouldn't necessarily call it a wake-up call because we knew moving up we're going to play tougher opponents.
Speaker: I just think it was a rough adjustment period just going – because, I mean,
Speaker: other than baseball, a lot of our teams didn't have super high turnover.
Speaker: So just going from being used to, well, basketball did, sorry.
Speaker: But just going from being used to playing the FCS schools and playing that level and then jumping up, you're playing guys that are looking to either submit themselves in COSA or even try and get a shot at the Power Five schools.
Speaker: So I mean,
Speaker: It was just a tough adjustment period.
Speaker: And it's one of those where I fully trust all of our coaches to, you know, right now is the off season for them.
Speaker: They're about to start getting into the nitty gritty.
Speaker: I trust all of them to, you know, be sitting there hitting the notebooks, hitting the film, you know, hitting the recruiting trails, figuring out what works best for them, who's going to fit that scheme,
Speaker: and just trying to figure out the overall success for the program and the university going forward.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: You know, one of the things with baseball and softball, and I think, you know, you know, it's about being big baseball fans.
Speaker: You know, I mean, it's a tough sport under the best of circumstances.
Speaker: You know, I live by the phrase, the hardest thing in sports to do is to hit a fastball.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: The second hardest thing to do is to hit a rise ball in softball.
Speaker: So, you know, you're going to have some tough years.
Speaker: Maybe we as JSU fans are used to it because we've seen this squad go to the final game of a regional against the eventual national champions, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We've gone to Oxford and nearly won the regional.
Speaker: Um, yeah, but at the same time, you know, you, you, you hate to look at it and say, Oh, well, we've done it in the past, so we should do it now.
Speaker: Um, but it's easy to slip into that mindset.
Speaker: But at the same time, I trust, uh, I trust coach Beezer.
Speaker: I think he's a, he's a good coach.
Speaker: There's a reason that he was at an SEC school before this.
Speaker: He had earned it beforehand.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: I think he's another diamond in the rough where maybe he's a good coach, just a tough situation in Missouri.
Speaker: But, you know, obviously we've got a new year coming up, and I'm all for giving people passes.
Speaker: And Coach McGinnis, as I'm sure everyone is aware, Coach McGinnis has afforded herself about as many passes as one can have.
Speaker: I mean, stadium and the street named after you,
Speaker: She's good.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: She's there.
Speaker: She ain't going nowhere.
Speaker: So, but no, it'll be all good.
Speaker: I think – I think what's all said and done, the program's going to be in good shape.
Speaker: I think you just – you know, to have that adjustment year, not everyone is going to go nine and three and win a – you know, and show the people that they're already at that level when they join a new conference.
Speaker: Yeah, I –
Speaker: At least from what it seems like, JSU fans are not hitting the panic button on our spring sports yet.
Speaker: And I hope they don't because what we did in football was an anomaly.
Speaker: Being your very first year in FBS and then, you know, going nine and three and then winning the bowl game on top of that.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: It does not happen.
Speaker: We were not even guaranteed a bowl game.
Speaker: We were the first program to ever win a bowl game in their first full year at FBS.
Speaker: So, you know,
Speaker: I'm glad they're not hitting the panic button on spring sports because what we did in football is not the norm.
Speaker: And you know how our spring sports went is not necessarily like super, super bad.
Speaker: Do we have built in higher expectations just because of what our past success has been?
Speaker: Yes, but we also have to be realistic and acknowledge that we're playing tougher competition and it's just going to take some time.
Speaker: And I hope our fans understand that.
Speaker: Obviously, you know, we completely trust sites.
Speaker: He knows that he's not going to jump the gun.
Speaker: He's not going to do anything rash.
Speaker: Because these coaches, they need time.
Speaker: Now that, you know, they're working with a totally different pool as far as recruits go, as far as transfers go.
Speaker: They're
Speaker: pretty much everything they knew as coaching, especially because other than baseball, all these coaches were here for FCS.
Speaker: Pretty much everything they knew as coaching and, you know, their strategies and what to work with, they've completely changed.
Speaker: Well, maybe not completely changed, but they've changed a good bit considering now that we're FBS.
Speaker: And just, you know, people are naturally going to want to –
Speaker: be more inclined to come here now as opposed to when we were our lower school.
Speaker: So, you know, just give it time.
Speaker: Let these coaches work their magic.
Speaker: If they were good at working, you know, doing more with less, just imagine, you know, what happens when the dust settles and, you know, they're doing, they, you know, get,
Speaker: even more talent, even more riches.
Speaker: So any JSU fans out there worried about our spring sports, just wait.
Speaker: Give it a year.
Speaker: Give it two years.
Speaker: Next year may not be completely fixed either.
Speaker: Just be patient.
Speaker: Sit back.
Speaker: We're not dealing with the prime Nick Saban.
Speaker: I think the Nick Saban effect has...
Speaker: tainted not only a lot of administrations, but a lot of fans.
Speaker: They just expect immediate success when a coach steps in.
Speaker: So, yeah, we just really have to be realistic.
Speaker: We have to sit back.
Speaker: We have to watch the progress, even if it's slower than what we want.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker: And, you know, I think, you know, fortunately for, you know, being the school that we are,
Speaker: as my wife exits the room.
Speaker: You said the W word.
Speaker: I said the W word.
Speaker: Still somewhat getting used to it.
Speaker: Hey, it's okay.
Speaker: Every now and then I slip up and almost say girlfriend, but I have a fiance now.
Speaker: Yes, you do.
Speaker: You have a fiance.
Speaker: Which we'll get to in a minute.
Speaker: But no.
Speaker: Fortunately, us being Jacksonville State, you don't have
Speaker: those bandwagon casual fans that are here only, you know, when we're on national TV and winning, you know, virtually every JSU fan is either a graduate or a family member or a graduate.
Speaker: Or a townie.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Or, or they're just a resident.
Speaker: But, you know, so, so,
Speaker: We've all seen the highs and lows of every program over the years.
Speaker: I mean, even in the time that you and I have been in school, we've gone from, you know, going to Frisco to the national championship against North Dakota State to winning five games in football just three years ago before Rich Rod got here.
Speaker: So, you know, we've seen every program at its best and at its worst.
Speaker: So, you know, the good news is I think most of our fans will afford both Coach Beezer and Coach McGinnis as much patience as they need.
Speaker: to get the job done.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I mean, Coach Harper has taken us to the big games twice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: One time you can put an asterisk next to it if you want, whatever.
Speaker: He's taken us twice.
Speaker: You can't help but trust the man.
Speaker: Coach Petrie is one of the most determined, most passionate, most fiery coaches I've ever seen.
Speaker: If there's anybody that's going to turn that women's program around, it's him.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: So, I mean, I am not worried about spring sports one bit.
Speaker: We very well could be, you know, coming back here on the podcast next year talking about, you know, all four being in the conference tournament and, you know, being contenders.
Speaker: Or we could come back and talk about how they made some progress, but, you know, maybe not exactly where we wanted to be.
Speaker: You never know.
Speaker: All four absolutely phenomenal coaches.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And only time will tell.
Speaker: Yep, for sure.
Speaker: Now, speaking of when Rich Rod got here a couple years ago, obviously we all saw the news a little less than a month ago.
Speaker: Rich Rod has been extended, I believe, through 2030.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Now, the details of the extension have not been released.
Speaker: We don't know the exact details.
Speaker: numbers, whether or not he was raised or not.
Speaker: I imagine he was raised at least a couple hundred thousand dollars from the million.
Speaker: With the nine and three season in the bowl win, he got a raise.
Speaker: Yeah, because with bonuses, he was at a million.
Speaker: So I'm sure that his base salary is up close to a million now.
Speaker: But we've got Rich Rod locked up for...
Speaker: we'll see it's 2024.
Speaker: So now seven, the next seven seasons he is on, he's on contract.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: For everybody out there saying a contract only means so much.
Speaker: If a P5 comes school comes calling, they can buy him out of it.
Speaker: Yes, we know we are not stupid.
Speaker: We're not, you know, super ignorant to, you know, the business that is NCAA football.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: Obviously, if a P5 comes calling and he wants an opportunity, he's gone.
Speaker: More power to him.
Speaker: He's more than earned another shot somewhere big if he wants it.
Speaker: But yeah, we're not ignorant to the fact that we can't keep him if somebody else comes calling.
Speaker: We know it, but we are enjoying the fact that he has pretty much put pen to paper and
Speaker: done on paper officially what he said in his introductory press conference that he's here for the long haul.
Speaker: So, you know, we're just excited to see that play out in an official manner, whether or not that actually is the case going forward.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, you know, when I look at, I'm a big,
Speaker: When it comes to sports, I love the analytical side of it.
Speaker: Contracts to me are huge.
Speaker: Love looking into them.
Speaker: Looking at a contract for a guy at a school of this level to be extended, I'm not sure when his contract was originally going to end.
Speaker: I think it was next season.
Speaker: I think he had either a four or five year contract originally.
Speaker: I think this might be a five year extension.
Speaker: Okay, so five-year extension at a school of this level where we have one of the lowest operating budgets at the FBS level and you extend a coach of this magnitude, a guy who has coached at Michigan, a guy who turned down the Alabama job before Nick Saban was offered.
Speaker: I mean, that's how high Rich Rod was in the coaching stratosphere 15 years ago.
Speaker: You know, I mean, it's big for one of two things.
Speaker: One, we have our coach locked up.
Speaker: He is clearly a winner.
Speaker: He's won a conference title and a bowl game in his first two seasons.
Speaker: And he's locked up for the next seven seasons.
Speaker: But also, like you said, if an FBS team comes calling, we get all of that contract money back because the school inevitably that hires him will pay it.
Speaker: And with that money, you go hire another coach.
Speaker: Who knows who it will be.
Speaker: And honestly, depending on how, you know, the rest of the seasons go that we do have with him, he could make Jacksonville State a very attractive and desirable spot for, you know, a coach trying to rehabilitate, you know,
Speaker: their resume, their look, whatever it is, especially if the case for him is going back to a P5 school, because then at that point, he will have rehabilitated and revamped what people think of him and how people view him.
Speaker: Because I mean, before this, he was an assistant coach at ULM.
Speaker: So it's not like he came from a head coaching spot and took this job.
Speaker: He was an assistant.
Speaker: at a G5 school, went down to an FCS school that was making the transition, and has pretty much catapulted us to a level where nobody expected us to even be from the beginning.
Speaker: So in the world where he were to leave, assuming in order for him to leave, he has to make us look super good.
Speaker: We have to be looking amazing.
Speaker: And all that to say he was already named and some had coaching searches for, you know, lower P5 schools.
Speaker: If we turn around again and go 10-2, 11-1 undefeated bowl game win, of course, schools are going to come calling again, say he leaves.
Speaker: Just doing that in his first two seasons makes us look so good and will –
Speaker: we will have so many solid coaching candidates, you know, wind up out the door just waiting to get their chance to say, hey, I continued or even, you know, took this program to the next level of success.
Speaker: So, yeah, I mean, it's really this this contract extension is a win win for us in the sense that we either get our guy until 2030 or, you know, we parlay.
Speaker: Him, you know, building this foundation into, you know, just next coach, next coach, next coach.
Speaker: And, you know, who knows where we go from there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, you know, when he was – when it was first reported that he was taking the job, you know, two and a half years ago, the names that got thrown out for his assistants, you know, like him, they were –
Speaker: former Power Five head coaches, we saw Kevin Sumlin's name floated for offensive coordinator.
Speaker: We saw Kevin Steele's name thrown out there for defensive coordinator.
Speaker: These were guys that have been head coaches and coordinators at the Power Five level and done really, really well at it.
Speaker: I mean, obviously Kevin Sumlin is responsible for Johnny Manziel, right?
Speaker: Kevin Steele, Auburn's defensive coordinator, Alabama's defensive coordinator, just a stud of a defensive mind.
Speaker: So even, you know, just in the 24 hours from when he was offered to when he accepted the job, the program became immediately way more desirable.
Speaker: Now, yes, it helps.
Speaker: Now we're an FBS program.
Speaker: You would have never gotten these hires if we weren't moving up.
Speaker: But at the same time, you also wouldn't be getting those hires if we were already a G5 that was in bad shape.
Speaker: If we were like a San Jose State, and I don't want to crack on San Jose State because they're a solid team, but think of a G5 that has not won a lot of games, four or five games a year, just kind of stragging along.
Speaker: If we were in that shape, we wouldn't be getting the high residers.
Speaker: That tells you already where our program was even before he took the job.
Speaker: People knew that they could win here.
Speaker: It was just a matter of having the right guy to set the right foundation.
Speaker: So, yeah, you know, to piggyback off of you, I mean, if he leaves, who knows who we'll get.
Speaker: I mean, we could get – I mean, there are guys right now who have coached and won at Power 5 schools that aren't even – they're not working right now, right?
Speaker: They're still making buyout money.
Speaker: I'm not going to float the redacted name.
Speaker: Oh, don't even.
Speaker: Because you said buyout money, and I immediately was like, don't you dare.
Speaker: I'm not fooling that man because I would never wish that evil on anyone.
Speaker: Please, no.
Speaker: But, you know, there's a guy like – no.
Speaker: But there's a guy like Dana Holgerson who's sitting out there.
Speaker: He was fired from Houston, and, I mean, he's just making buyout money.
Speaker: He's not a coordinator.
Speaker: He's not a QB coach.
Speaker: He's not even coaching high school ball, right?
Speaker: He's out there.
Speaker: You know, there's – there are a handful of guys coaching UFL who I'm sure would not mind the jump in, you know, from UFL spring ball to Division I FBS college football.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Now, with that being said, I'm not saying I want Rick Tron to leave.
Speaker: I don't think anyone is.
Speaker: But I – I recognize –
Speaker: There is a future if he does.
Speaker: And this extension is the reason for it.
Speaker: So I guess the next big news, and it kind of folds into what we were just talking about and where our program is, CFB 25 comes out in almost exactly two months.
Speaker: And for the first time ever, you do not have to create a team to have Jacksonville State in the game.
Speaker: Well, I won't say first time ever because there was one of the NCAAs where FCS teams were in there.
Speaker: But there are no FCS teams in this game.
Speaker: But Jacksonville State is in the game because we are FBS.
Speaker: Of course, I will be pre-ordering.
Speaker: I'm still trying to decide if I want to do deluxe or if I want to get the MVP bundle.
Speaker: I'm not quite sure.
Speaker: I need to figure out if we can import rosters from CFB to Madden.
Speaker: Yeah, that's the only reason it's worth it.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: I'm at least getting deluxe.
Speaker: I hate the deluxe is digital only because that cover goes so hard.
Speaker: I really wish I could get my hands on a physical copy of that, which honestly later on down the line, I may just buy it.
Speaker: If they ever have a deluxe physical copy, I may just buy it just to have it.
Speaker: But yeah, JSU is in the game.
Speaker: You don't have to,
Speaker: Create anything.
Speaker: You don't have to do anything.
Speaker: Whenever you load that bad boy up, whether you pre-order and you get it three days early or you get it the day of or you get it later on down the line, you just fire that bad boy up and scroll through, go to the Jays.
Speaker: We'll be right there.
Speaker: I can't wait.
Speaker: Not only are we in the game, but now there will no longer be
Speaker: QB number 10 at 6'1".
Speaker: Now, well, I say QB number 10.
Speaker: I can't even remember what number Logan wears.
Speaker: Whatever number Logan Smothers wears, you will be actually looking at Logan Smothers on the field in red and white, for which, obviously, if you're not three years old, you know, sorry, if you weren't three years old when 14 came out,
Speaker: You know that's a big deal.
Speaker: And I stand by what I'm about to say, and it might qualify as bullying.
Speaker: But I think that anyone who didn't buy 14 when it came out, they should be required to put the entire roster in by hand the way we did.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: They should be required to know what we went through.
Speaker: Honestly, having to do that back then, like if you wanted to see your guy's name
Speaker: you had to go through, hand type everything.
Speaker: If the attributes weren't right, you had to go and change every single thing.
Speaker: It was an absolute pain.
Speaker: Luckily for us, EA Sports was shady, and all of the players looked like the player it was supposed to be.
Speaker: They just didn't have the name attributed to them.
Speaker: But yeah, no...
Speaker: just being able to fire up the game.
Speaker: And we're just assuming Logan Smothers opted in because judging on the numbers of return, I'm pretty sure pretty much everybody except for Arch Manning, pretty much everybody opted in.
Speaker: So I'm assuming, you know, pretty much the entire JSU roster, when you fire it up, you'll see names, um,
Speaker: I know coaches are not included in this first one.
Speaker: So whenever you go to play, Rich Rod will not look like Rich Rod.
Speaker: I think they're somewhere negotiating.
Speaker: They have to do with the coaches association or whatever it is.
Speaker: So it may not be until next year.
Speaker: I don't know if they're releasing every year or every other year or what.
Speaker: But whenever the next game drops, it might not be until then that we see official coaches on the sidelines.
Speaker: But, yeah, I mean, I can't wait.
Speaker: I'm so excited.
Speaker: It's going to be insane.
Speaker: And obviously –
Speaker: I'm sure everyone watching this has seen the trailer.
Speaker: So you know that the trailer is engine footage, not gameplay footage.
Speaker: But looking at the graphics, looking at a stadium, even as small as App State's, I'm really excited to see what Bird Snow looks like in this game, especially with, you know, I don't know if they sent in like the updated renderings of what the away stadiums are going to look like or if they or if EA took pictures of the old stadiums.
Speaker: But either way, we're going to be playing in birds of snow.
Speaker: And hopefully we'll have the AKC uniforms.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: And like I said, hopefully you'll have Logan Smothers dropping the dines.
Speaker: Dude, if they don't have the AKC uniforms, I am – I'm driving down the floor.
Speaker: If they don't have AKC uniforms, I'm writing to somebody.
Speaker: Yeah, that would be an all-time travesty on EA's part.
Speaker: But either way, this game is going to be phenomenal.
Speaker: I am fully prepared for the amount of money I'm going to have to spend to get a console and get just that one game.
Speaker: I'm fully prepared for that.
Speaker: Luckily, I have a PS5 sitting right across from me, so I just have to drop the ungodly amount of money to get the game itself.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't have that.
Speaker: I have to be on good behavior until then.
Speaker: That way when the game drops, I can put in an obscene amount of time.
Speaker: Just absolutely going crazy because I'm going to tell you right now.
Speaker: And once I pre-order in those three days early access, I will take JSU to a championship within those three days.
Speaker: That's how many hours I'm about to put in on this game.
Speaker: Yeah, you're going to have to have your brownie points in so that you get a little free time.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: And speaking of brownie points, Jalen is engaged and I am married.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Part of the reason that we have not recorded since March 6th is that I got married and Jaylen got engaged.
Speaker: I know most guys don't have an engagement ring, but I do.
Speaker: I also got this very cool watch.
Speaker: This man over here, he got married.
Speaker: went off, did not touch earth again for the next two weeks.
Speaker: And then turn around, I think a week after you got back, I got engaged.
Speaker: And we have just been going, going, going, living life, going crazy.
Speaker: So of course we apologize for not being around, but also sometimes life is just,
Speaker: We don't have any contractual obligations as far as this podcast goes.
Speaker: It's really just for fun.
Speaker: So sometimes if life comes up, we just kind of roll with it.
Speaker: And obviously those are two very big milestones where we truly just kind of wanted to disconnect and enjoy it.
Speaker: Luckily, we were both able to be there for each other's huge milestone.
Speaker: So that was really nice.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But yeah, just absolutely amazing moments and milestones for both of us within this time that we've been gone.
Speaker: Yeah, it's been, you know, I mentioned it off screen before we started recording that we may not even
Speaker: have our sponsorship anymore just because we took so long off, which is our, you know, life happens.
Speaker: But either way, we're still, we're still grinding.
Speaker: We're still trying to give you all as much content as we can.
Speaker: Um, but we're certainly glad to be in the position we are because of the loved ones around us, including my wife, who was just throwing things at me, um, which is why I kept looking over to my left.
Speaker: But, um,
Speaker: Well, I guess we better preview the future of the podcast for the summer and then get into fall.
Speaker: We can't release any names yet because we're still working on nailing down dates.
Speaker: We already know who it is.
Speaker: We already have confirmation that they agreed to be on the show.
Speaker: We just have to get dates nailed down.
Speaker: And we're not going to tell you until we have dates nailed down.
Speaker: So y'all can just sit in limbo.
Speaker: How about that?
Speaker: Yeah, you're going to have to struggle and scratch and claw your way to try and figure it out.
Speaker: But we do know, like Jalen said, we know that they said yes.
Speaker: We have confirmation from all three big-time guests.
Speaker: They're big names.
Speaker: JSU fans, you will know all three of them, and you will be excited.
Speaker: You'll get your chance to send in questions and whatnot.
Speaker: You'll want to send in questions.
Speaker: Just know that.
Speaker: And also, just keep in mind how small the operation is on this podcast.
Speaker: Not only do we make no money, but we're both sitting here with a laptop and who knows how little money into our microphone equipment.
Speaker: Hoping that our internet doesn't crap out.
Speaker: but these guests are big time.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: But, um, so it's, it's really exciting.
Speaker: Um, and we, I, I think the plan is once we have them nailed down, we will release one a month, um, so that we have plenty of time to get in questions, get ready for the fall and winter and spring.
Speaker: Uh, we're going to continue to work on more, uh, big name guests in the Jack state community.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: uh one god see what y'all know those in due time um another one um should do we announce or do we wait we can announce all right um he's not on it on this episode it might not be on the next depending on when we record yeah we're figuring out the exact timeline when he starts but we do have a third member of
Speaker: joining 700 Pelham Road Podcast.
Speaker: And his name is Kevin Lunsford, good buddy of ours from school.
Speaker: Some of you may know him.
Speaker: Many of you won't, but you'll meet him here soon enough once he gets everything figured out with work and everything.
Speaker: But we will have a new full-time co-host coming on to join us, which will be huge because one of the big issues for Jalen and I is when one of us
Speaker: can't record, we have to decide if we want to do a solo episode or not.
Speaker: And more often than not, that answer has been no.
Speaker: Well, now one of us can't, the other two can still record.
Speaker: So we can keep pumping out episodes, get content in left and right, and really plan this podcast a little bit better.
Speaker: Hopefully, you know, through this fall, really turn it into a full-time operation for us that we can
Speaker: turn some great content for y'all.
Speaker: So yeah, I know this fall we are also trying to build off of the momentum we got from getting the media passes for the bowl game.
Speaker: We want to try and get some press box passes, some media passes for home games, try our luck for any of the away games we travel to.
Speaker: And of course, when we go to a bowl game again, we'll try our best to be there.
Speaker: And then, you know, depending on what life is looking like come spring, it should be a little bit more chill this time around.
Speaker: Depending on what life looks like in the spring, you know, possibly trying to get, you know, some press credentials for some spring sports too.
Speaker: So, yeah, we're really trying to, you know, dive into this thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And just actually give the fans as much insight and as much of a viewpoint behind the scenes as we can.
Speaker: Because we acknowledge that it's pretty cool for us to be able to have an opportunity like we did for the bowl game.
Speaker: And we want to do nothing less than share it with all of you.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Now, getting into the fall,
Speaker: Season two will start officially season two of 700 Pelham Road podcast.
Speaker: We'll start in August around the time that we started recording last year.
Speaker: Got to nail down the date on exactly when we want the season to officially start, but generally probably about a month before the football season will start.
Speaker: We'll start to preview football season, start to look into basketball a little bit and really get ready for that.
Speaker: But,
Speaker: The future is definitely bright for the podcast.
Speaker: And kind of like Jalen said, you know, we started it for fun, really on a whim.
Speaker: And it's taken on a whole life of its own.
Speaker: And I assure you, we never thought that we, within four months of starting this, would have press controls for the Superdome and be, you know, recognized, you know, by a few players, be recognized by our athletic director,
Speaker: by coaches even, kind of having a good idea of who we are.
Speaker: So we're certainly, we're blessed to be here.
Speaker: And hopefully this next year will bring you all even more good content.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: And speaking of the fall, be on the lookout.
Speaker: Leading in the football season, we will be teaming up with
Speaker: any of the fellows CUSA football, uh, podcasts.
Speaker: Um, I don't think there's one for every team, but any of the teams that have a football podcast and CUSA we're teaming up, we're doing a round table, um, with all of those podcasts, whenever we get dates and details nailed down, it will be all over the Twitter page.
Speaker: Um, I know for sure they want to do a season preview and I know they talked about, you know, doing, uh,
Speaker: you know, doing a roundtable episode periodically during the season two.
Speaker: So that'll be something cool to look forward to.
Speaker: You'll get to hear our perspective as well as, you know, a lot of the other,
Speaker: amazing people that we interact with on Twitter.
Speaker: If you see us, you know, interacting with other fan bases, you know, Twitter pages and whatnot, a lot of those guys, you'll be able to, you know, hear them or see them depending on whatever, uh, method we use for that round table.
Speaker: But yeah, it'll be, it'll be awesome just to, you know, talk some smack, but also just try and grow CUSA as a whole.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's going to be fun.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: I think one of the nice things is getting to connect with some of these other guys who really just love their school and want to talk about it.
Speaker: I think that's the brilliance of being in a smaller conference like this is those of us who cover these schools, we're not doing it because they're big schools.
Speaker: We're not covering it because it's Ohio State.
Speaker: We went to these schools.
Speaker: We're graduates, and we want them to do well.
Speaker: and everything.
Speaker: So yeah, definitely going to be fun.
Speaker: I'm looking forward to that a lot, especially if some of the guys that we've spoken to already in the past are going to be on it.
Speaker: So, Oh yeah.
Speaker: So, all right.
Speaker: Well, with that, you got anything else for this one?
Speaker: I don't think so.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't think I do either.
Speaker: In that case, from the 700 Pelham Road podcast, we can officially say we have wrapped up.
Speaker: spring sports and we are moving on into the summer.
Speaker: So from the boys here at the podcast, from the Sidelines Jack State account, we are signing off and we will see you all here in hopefully just a few weeks.
Speaker: See you.
