Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 460 - Week 8 Gatorade Gameday Football Preview

WEBVTT
1
00:00:10.830 --> 00:00:13.929
Greetings and welcome into the Whatcom Preps podcast. This is
2
00:00:13.990 --> 00:00:18.769
episode 460. It's the week eight Gatorade game day football preview.
3
00:00:19.350 --> 00:00:22.850
And I am Tyler Anderson of Whatcom Preps. Walton Beverage
4
00:00:22.870 --> 00:00:25.670
has been a staple in our community for 95 years,
5
00:00:25.730 --> 00:00:28.190
and I will continue to work harder every day to
6
00:00:28.230 --> 00:00:31.269
make the fantastic people at Walton Beverage proud to sponsor
7
00:00:31.329 --> 00:00:36.090
youth sports in our community. They deliver superior quality and commitment,
8
00:00:36.450 --> 00:00:39.179
and I plan to do the very same. Also, do
9
00:00:39.219 --> 00:00:42.179
you live in Whatcom, Skagit Island, or San Juan County
10
00:00:42.500 --> 00:00:45.460
and want to become an official? Officiating is a great
11
00:00:45.479 --> 00:00:48.119
way to give back to your community and ensure our
12
00:00:48.200 --> 00:00:53.729
youth have an opportunity to compete in athletics. Go to nwofficials.com
13
00:00:53.770 --> 00:00:57.509
and find out how you can get involved today. All right, well,
14
00:00:57.530 --> 00:00:59.429
we got a full docket again, and this time it's
15
00:00:59.530 --> 00:01:02.909
spread out like I'm like last week where all the games,
16
00:01:03.270 --> 00:01:06.049
every team in Whatcom County was playing on Friday night.
17
00:01:06.590 --> 00:01:08.629
We got a Thursday game. We got a Saturday game
18
00:01:08.689 --> 00:01:12.299
and a bunch of Friday night games. It's going to
19
00:01:12.329 --> 00:01:17.120
be another tremendous weekend of football. So starting off, let's
20
00:01:17.159 --> 00:01:19.980
go in chronological order. We'll start off with the Thursday
21
00:01:20.040 --> 00:01:22.560
night game as Sultan comes to town to take on
22
00:01:22.579 --> 00:01:25.950
the Blaine Borderites and Sultan three and four on the
23
00:01:25.989 --> 00:01:29.500
year facing really tough competition this year in the Northwest
24
00:01:29.540 --> 00:01:33.680
conference to a classification. Um, we've seen them with wins
25
00:01:33.739 --> 00:01:36.980
over see home wins over Bellingham and they like to
26
00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:39.640
run the ball quite a bit right now. Max preps
27
00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:44.030
has them ranked 34th in class to a, uh, the
28
00:01:44.069 --> 00:01:46.469
blame border rights two and five on the year. Uh,
29
00:01:47.230 --> 00:01:49.390
one of those wins coming by forfeit. The other one
30
00:01:49.430 --> 00:01:54.269
came in week one. So, uh, They are looking to
31
00:01:54.310 --> 00:01:56.680
get a big win. They are at home. Like I said,
32
00:01:57.140 --> 00:02:01.340
they're ranked 23rd in maps and max preps ranking in
33
00:02:01.379 --> 00:02:04.680
class one. I'm now joined on the Gatorade game day
34
00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:08.330
podcast by Blaine head football coach, Andy Olson coach. Thank
35
00:02:08.349 --> 00:02:10.349
you for joining me today. How are you doing? I'm
36
00:02:10.389 --> 00:02:11.150
doing well, Tyler.
37
00:02:11.189 --> 00:02:11.629
How are you?
38
00:02:12.310 --> 00:02:15.830
I am also doing well. You're on a road trip
39
00:02:15.949 --> 00:02:18.610
for at least five hours. What snack do you have
40
00:02:18.629 --> 00:02:19.150
close by?
41
00:02:19.169 --> 00:02:20.819
Hmm.
42
00:02:21.259 --> 00:02:24.599
You know, there's the, At Blaine, there's the new gas
43
00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:26.219
station kind of across the road from the high school,
44
00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:28.580
that Ben's Hill Market that's just gigantic. It's like a
45
00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:33.439
superstore for gas stations. And they usually have, like, this
46
00:02:33.539 --> 00:02:36.680
random assortment of trail mix. And I've been kind of
47
00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:39.840
into the Cajun, like, sweet, spicy trail mix.
48
00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:41.000
Oh, interesting.
49
00:02:41.400 --> 00:02:43.580
Yeah, and I actually don't even know the brand of it.
50
00:02:43.810 --> 00:02:46.840
But I just walk in there, and there's usually, like,
51
00:02:46.930 --> 00:02:48.870
six different variations, and I try one.
52
00:02:49.810 --> 00:02:50.490
That's the go-to.
53
00:02:50.930 --> 00:02:54.620
That's awesome. I think I know the guys that you're
54
00:02:54.659 --> 00:02:57.280
talking about. I think is that the one that has
55
00:02:57.300 --> 00:02:59.580
a big TA over it? And I'm like, hey, that's
56
00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:04.169
my initials. So it's like that's calling me in there.
57
00:03:04.610 --> 00:03:05.830
There you go.
58
00:03:06.270 --> 00:03:08.789
On Friday, you went out to Deming. And on the scoreboard,
59
00:03:08.830 --> 00:03:12.810
things didn't go your way as you came away with
60
00:03:12.849 --> 00:03:14.949
a loss. But I thought you accomplished some good things
61
00:03:15.009 --> 00:03:15.370
in the game.
62
00:03:16.090 --> 00:03:17.030
Yeah.
63
00:03:17.069 --> 00:03:19.879
You know, there's times when we talk about, you know,
64
00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:23.539
the idea of a glorious defeat. when you walk off
65
00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:26.379
the field and you feel proud of your efforts and
66
00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:28.680
what that feels like, and even though the scoreboard doesn't
67
00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:30.819
say what you want it to say, you're like, man,
68
00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:33.069
we got better and we played hard and we did
69
00:03:33.090 --> 00:03:35.810
the little things right and we represented ourselves well.
70
00:03:36.889 --> 00:03:38.889
And we felt like we did that on Friday.
71
00:03:39.009 --> 00:03:41.789
So even though we lost, we didn't feel like necessarily
72
00:03:41.830 --> 00:03:44.629
we lost in our own standard. We talk about often,
73
00:03:45.150 --> 00:03:48.000
you know, we're competing against ourselves and then there's obviously
74
00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:49.919
opponents on there, but it's about, you know, trying to
75
00:03:49.939 --> 00:03:50.759
play our best self.
76
00:03:51.430 --> 00:03:51.669
Yeah.
77
00:03:51.710 --> 00:03:55.550
And I really felt like the kids played hard all
78
00:03:55.610 --> 00:03:58.870
four quarters. And I mean, seriously, it felt like they
79
00:03:58.990 --> 00:04:01.370
were not looking at the scoreboard. They were looking at
80
00:04:01.590 --> 00:04:04.330
their teammates and getting each other going. And it just
81
00:04:04.490 --> 00:04:06.650
had that feel to it. And it made for a
82
00:04:06.710 --> 00:04:11.300
really fun game to watch. So, yeah, it was pretty cool.
83
00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:12.500
Yeah, absolutely.
84
00:04:12.539 --> 00:04:14.740
I mean, we talk about that going into the year.
85
00:04:14.819 --> 00:04:17.459
What is our goal as a coaching staff with a
86
00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:20.000
young group of kids? And we want to maximize the
87
00:04:20.040 --> 00:04:23.439
talent that we have and also teach them life lessons, right?
88
00:04:23.459 --> 00:04:26.660
So football is football and it's great.
89
00:04:26.699 --> 00:04:28.879
It's a wonderful mechanism to teach lessons.
90
00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:31.800
And, you know, ultimately sometimes you're going to have, you know,
91
00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:34.560
really tough days or tough situations in life, but how
92
00:04:34.600 --> 00:04:35.420
do you approach that?
93
00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:36.360
Who do you lean on?
94
00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:39.259
Can you focus on your controllables and not worry about
95
00:04:39.300 --> 00:04:42.600
those other things? And it's fun when you get to
96
00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:43.939
this point in the year and you can start to
97
00:04:43.980 --> 00:04:47.350
see that maturation happen for kids, right? where they were
98
00:04:47.410 --> 00:04:49.810
becoming better young men through the game of football, and
99
00:04:49.829 --> 00:04:51.149
I felt like we did that on Friday.
100
00:04:52.420 --> 00:04:57.000
Speaking of maximizing efforts, Isaac Bauma, my goodness, 13 catches
101
00:04:57.060 --> 00:05:00.259
for 201 yards. Is it true that he just started
102
00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:01.399
playing football last year?
103
00:05:02.379 --> 00:05:07.399
Yeah. He didn't play as a freshman. He loves the
104
00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:10.750
weight room. We got him out as a sophomore. I
105
00:05:10.790 --> 00:05:13.149
think he had some hesitations about playing, and then he
106
00:05:13.209 --> 00:05:17.970
realized that he enjoys the game. um and he's just
107
00:05:18.009 --> 00:05:21.230
grown so much and physically and you know as a
108
00:05:21.269 --> 00:05:26.850
competitor too um just terrific effort and he's a one
109
00:05:26.889 --> 00:05:28.490
of those iron men for us like he doesn't come
110
00:05:28.529 --> 00:05:31.209
off the field as we play him on defense too
111
00:05:31.230 --> 00:05:33.129
so he walks a lot of miles on a friday
112
00:05:33.170 --> 00:05:35.750
night but uh i think you're gonna see the grit
113
00:05:35.769 --> 00:05:37.860
in the fourth quarter when he's still sprinting his routes
114
00:05:37.939 --> 00:05:41.019
and stemming them appropriately and going and playing the football
115
00:05:41.079 --> 00:05:44.139
and You know, he's also so critical of himself while
116
00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:46.689
he had the 13 catches for 200-whatever yards.
117
00:05:47.259 --> 00:05:49.970
I mean, his first comment was, well, I dropped three passes.
118
00:05:50.569 --> 00:05:50.709
Yeah.
119
00:05:52.410 --> 00:05:54.870
I'm like, that's relatable. That sounds like me at that
120
00:05:54.930 --> 00:05:57.350
age a little bit. Granted, I never got the ball
121
00:05:57.370 --> 00:05:58.069
thrown to me, Tyler.
122
00:05:58.110 --> 00:06:00.259
Hey, you touched the ball every play.
123
00:06:00.300 --> 00:06:01.279
I missed this block.
124
00:06:02.939 --> 00:06:05.540
Yeah, Coach, you touched the ball every play, let's be honest.
125
00:06:05.819 --> 00:06:06.139
Yeah.
126
00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:11.139
So, I mean, it was really cool. He just kept
127
00:06:11.180 --> 00:06:14.970
going and going, and so I'm so excited. And, you know,
128
00:06:16.389 --> 00:06:19.790
it's really sad about his brother not being able to play,
129
00:06:20.810 --> 00:06:23.389
but him kind of stepping into that role, really, and
130
00:06:23.430 --> 00:06:27.350
being that go-to target has been awesome. And you played
131
00:06:27.389 --> 00:06:29.649
a different style of offense. We talked about it last
132
00:06:29.709 --> 00:06:32.389
week and how you prepared for it. And it kind
133
00:06:32.439 --> 00:06:34.939
of allowed you to play perhaps a little different style
134
00:06:34.980 --> 00:06:38.600
of defense with some extra linebackers. You insert sophomore James
135
00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:41.019
Luce into the lineup, and he made some great plays.
136
00:06:41.060 --> 00:06:41.600
How about that?
137
00:06:41.620 --> 00:06:43.199
I love James Luce.
138
00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:47.899
James Luce has been kind of our lead-by-example kid, even
139
00:06:47.939 --> 00:06:49.350
since he was a freshman.
140
00:06:49.750 --> 00:06:52.589
He works really hard. He's pretty soft-spoken.
141
00:06:53.050 --> 00:06:55.980
He shows up, and on the scout team, he's just
142
00:06:56.040 --> 00:06:58.839
a menace. And, you know, we got to the point
143
00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:01.660
where we're like, man, you know, he's pretty small. I
144
00:07:01.699 --> 00:07:06.120
think he's probably weighing about $ 1. 38 right now. But he
145
00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:08.519
just tackles everything at practice. We're like, hey, we've got
146
00:07:08.540 --> 00:07:11.750
to give this kid a look. And when we told
147
00:07:12.050 --> 00:07:13.589
the team that James Lewis was going to start for
148
00:07:13.649 --> 00:07:16.829
us at linebacker, they all erupted. They were fired up
149
00:07:16.870 --> 00:07:19.459
for him, so. Just a really great kid with a
150
00:07:19.540 --> 00:07:23.279
bright future who continues to grow and work. And you're
151
00:07:23.300 --> 00:07:25.379
going to be talking about James Lewis for a couple
152
00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:25.860
of years here.
153
00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:29.170
Yeah, I'm excited about that. And that was, you know,
154
00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:31.350
it was so funny because, you know, I watch all
155
00:07:31.389 --> 00:07:35.350
these games and your defense has been a pretty constant
156
00:07:35.370 --> 00:07:37.790
this year where it's kind of been the same 11.
157
00:07:37.790 --> 00:07:40.649
I'm used to the numbers. I'm doing the stats. And
158
00:07:41.069 --> 00:07:43.589
I had to keep looking, 25. I had to keep looking, 25.
159
00:07:43.589 --> 00:07:45.990
I'm like, okay, I got to lock that in because
160
00:07:46.269 --> 00:07:47.910
you're right. He is going to be a guy that
161
00:07:48.209 --> 00:07:50.439
we're going to be looking for for quite a while here.
162
00:07:50.939 --> 00:07:54.160
And this Thursday night, short turnaround. You're back at home
163
00:07:54.279 --> 00:07:57.720
against 2A Sultan. What can you tell us about the Turks?
164
00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:01.759
Sultan is tough this year.
165
00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:03.939
I mean, I think if you look at them historically,
166
00:08:03.959 --> 00:08:05.879
you're going to be like, you know, they've had some
167
00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:06.459
down years.
168
00:08:06.540 --> 00:08:07.199
They are big.
169
00:08:07.240 --> 00:08:10.910
They are physical. They've played a lot of games. good
170
00:08:11.189 --> 00:08:13.870
2A teams close in the last month of football. A
171
00:08:13.889 --> 00:08:16.990
lot of losing to Burlington Edison in overtime. Went and
172
00:08:17.029 --> 00:08:22.540
got Seaholm. Played close with Squalicum. Physically, they look all
173
00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:26.180
the part of the Northwest Conference 2A league. They're going
174
00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:29.399
to present us some fun challenges. It is a nice
175
00:08:29.459 --> 00:08:32.700
kind of progression. I'd love to take credit for this,
176
00:08:32.759 --> 00:08:36.879
but this is our athletic director. They run some similar
177
00:08:36.940 --> 00:08:38.460
stuff to Mount Baker, so we kind of get to
178
00:08:38.659 --> 00:08:41.309
go in from Baker to Sultan and There's a lot
179
00:08:41.350 --> 00:08:44.129
of similarities as far as the defensive game plan might
180
00:08:44.169 --> 00:08:46.289
go against Sultan because they're going to run.
181
00:08:46.690 --> 00:08:50.149
A version of the wing tee. So that part's awesome.
182
00:08:50.269 --> 00:08:51.970
And, you know, we got, we're going to play them
183
00:08:52.009 --> 00:08:53.710
on a Thursday night. So a little bit of long
184
00:08:53.750 --> 00:08:56.299
weekend and, you know, our kid's going to get out
185
00:08:56.340 --> 00:08:58.019
and get to watch some high school football on Friday,
186
00:08:58.039 --> 00:08:58.860
which will be fun too.
187
00:08:59.259 --> 00:09:01.620
Yeah, that's really, that's pretty cool. I love, I love
188
00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:03.860
seeing that when that happens is going out to a
189
00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:05.679
game on a Friday night and all of a sudden, Hey,
190
00:09:05.720 --> 00:09:06.419
there's this kid.
191
00:09:06.539 --> 00:09:07.120
Oh, that's good.
192
00:09:07.789 --> 00:09:10.730
Um, and you know, the big thing about Sultan I've
193
00:09:10.789 --> 00:09:12.750
noticed is, well, I just said it, I think the
194
00:09:12.769 --> 00:09:16.129
big thing, I mean, they are gigantic on the offensive line.
195
00:09:16.169 --> 00:09:19.120
I mean, going from like six, three to six, seven, uh,
196
00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:22.419
big dudes. And I, you know, take me back with,
197
00:09:22.500 --> 00:09:24.940
was Meadowdale maybe that big on the offensive line or
198
00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:26.139
assault even bigger, maybe.
199
00:09:26.779 --> 00:09:28.950
Um, so it might be taller. I would say Meadowdale
200
00:09:28.970 --> 00:09:29.490
was bigger.
201
00:09:29.830 --> 00:09:30.389
Okay. Yeah.
202
00:09:30.490 --> 00:09:32.789
Athletes go. I mean, Meadowdale had 27 or 29 seniors
203
00:09:32.830 --> 00:09:36.649
on the roster. And, you know, they still haven't lost
204
00:09:36.710 --> 00:09:40.289
a football game, Tyler. They're undefeated right now. So the
205
00:09:40.350 --> 00:09:43.009
Meadowdale is a little bit of a different animal there
206
00:09:43.809 --> 00:09:46.179
as far as depth and size and speed goes.
207
00:09:46.700 --> 00:09:50.200
So they are very large, and they're well coached.
208
00:09:50.259 --> 00:09:53.159
And we saw them a little bit at the Jamboree
209
00:09:53.179 --> 00:09:55.000
and Meridian throughout back to August there.
210
00:09:55.480 --> 00:09:57.470
And you kind of got the impression, like, oh, you know,
211
00:09:57.490 --> 00:09:58.950
so it's going to be all right. They're going to
212
00:09:58.970 --> 00:10:01.899
come and compete. in the 2A Northwest Conference. And they've
213
00:10:01.940 --> 00:10:02.580
done just that.
214
00:10:02.659 --> 00:10:05.279
So tribute to their coaching staff and the culture that
215
00:10:05.299 --> 00:10:05.799
they have there.
216
00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:10.320
Yeah, watching their game last week, I believe it was,
217
00:10:10.419 --> 00:10:13.299
or I'm trying to remember which one I saw. Or no,
218
00:10:13.299 --> 00:10:16.690
it might have been the Squalicum game. the halfback pass
219
00:10:16.750 --> 00:10:19.330
for a touchdown and stuff like that. So there's some
220
00:10:19.370 --> 00:10:21.690
new wrinkles that you might have to prepare for a
221
00:10:21.710 --> 00:10:25.330
little bit. And, and also I think it was this,
222
00:10:25.350 --> 00:10:28.610
I think it was a Bellingham game and the Squalicum
223
00:10:28.629 --> 00:10:31.250
game where boy, you kick it on side and that,
224
00:10:31.309 --> 00:10:33.929
that up man will bring it. And so you gotta
225
00:10:33.970 --> 00:10:37.769
be ready for that too. So they like to prepare.
226
00:10:37.809 --> 00:10:40.389
And like you said, they've kind of had some down years,
227
00:10:40.450 --> 00:10:43.370
but my goodness, this year they are, You know, I
228
00:10:43.389 --> 00:10:45.309
don't know if they're senior heavy or what it is
229
00:10:45.370 --> 00:10:47.070
or if this is kind of their year, but they're
230
00:10:47.129 --> 00:10:50.450
really challenging some teams. And it makes for a really
231
00:10:50.470 --> 00:10:51.850
good football game on Thursday.
232
00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:52.980
Absolutely.
233
00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:55.059
Yeah, I think they got a good blend. Just looking
234
00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:57.440
at their offensive line, they have three seniors and two juniors.
235
00:10:57.480 --> 00:11:02.559
So they're pretty average age, I'd say, across the board there. But, yeah,
236
00:11:02.639 --> 00:11:04.710
our scout team was real fired up about the idea
237
00:11:04.750 --> 00:11:08.230
of doing halfback passes this week. You know, that was
238
00:11:08.289 --> 00:11:11.169
exciting for them because, you know, last weekend ready for
239
00:11:11.210 --> 00:11:13.750
Baker where they pretty much get their brains bashed in
240
00:11:13.769 --> 00:11:16.019
a little bit in the scout team. They're like, yeah,
241
00:11:16.059 --> 00:11:18.220
let's go throw the ball at halfback passes and do
242
00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:18.820
these things.
243
00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:21.879
And coach, can we put in another trick play? Yeah, sure.
244
00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:24.860
Let's have some fun with it. So yesterday we got
245
00:11:24.899 --> 00:11:27.200
after a little bit doing some kind of crazy things.
246
00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:27.940
But yeah.
247
00:11:28.740 --> 00:11:29.259
Oh, man.
248
00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:31.740
Yeah, it's it's going to be a fun one. And,
249
00:11:31.879 --> 00:11:34.580
you know, it's what's great about it is. I probably
250
00:11:34.620 --> 00:11:37.000
get to go out there cause it'll be on Thursday night.
251
00:11:37.019 --> 00:11:39.440
So I'm excited about that. Best of luck on Thursday
252
00:11:39.460 --> 00:11:41.720
against Sultan. Thank you so much for joining me today
253
00:11:41.779 --> 00:11:43.220
on the Gatorade game day podcast.
254
00:11:43.659 --> 00:11:44.259
Thanks Tyler.
255
00:11:45.820 --> 00:11:47.879
All right, now let's move on to the Friday games.
256
00:11:47.950 --> 00:11:50.529
We will stay in one a here. We'll start right
257
00:11:50.610 --> 00:11:53.710
out with Mount Baker, the Mountaineers at five and two
258
00:11:53.789 --> 00:11:56.350
going on the road to take on the Linden Christian
259
00:11:56.389 --> 00:11:59.870
links who are also five and two, you know, last
260
00:11:59.909 --> 00:12:02.700
year's game was just a, The one that will be
261
00:12:02.779 --> 00:12:06.440
very memorable for many reasons. It was great all the
262
00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:08.559
way through from the beginning to the last play. A
263
00:12:09.139 --> 00:12:12.950
lot of stuff going on. And so this will be
264
00:12:12.970 --> 00:12:15.490
a great rematch as well. You know, they're not the
265
00:12:15.529 --> 00:12:17.899
same teams as last year. Both these teams went to
266
00:12:17.960 --> 00:12:21.480
the semifinals, but there's a lot of different names and
267
00:12:21.580 --> 00:12:24.539
faces right now on this year's teams for both squads.
268
00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:28.559
And as of right now, the Max Preps rankings, they
269
00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:32.299
have Mount Baker ranked 7th in the state, Lyndon Christian 3rd.
270
00:12:32.779 --> 00:12:35.110
It's a little different in the coaches poll that just
271
00:12:35.190 --> 00:12:39.110
came out. Mount Baker is ranked 5th in the coaches poll.
272
00:12:39.149 --> 00:12:42.350
Lyndon Christian is ranked 3rd. I'm now joined on the
273
00:12:42.389 --> 00:12:45.389
Gatorade Game Day podcast by Mount Baker Head Football Coach
274
00:12:45.549 --> 00:12:47.929
Ron Lepper. Coach, thank you for joining me today. How
275
00:12:47.960 --> 00:12:48.480
are you doing?
276
00:12:48.500 --> 00:12:49.620
I'm doing well.
277
00:12:49.639 --> 00:12:51.519
Always a pleasure to be able to spend some time
278
00:12:51.539 --> 00:12:52.039
with you, Tyler.
279
00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:55.960
Thank you, Coach. You're on a road trip, at least
280
00:12:56.059 --> 00:12:59.059
five-hour drive. What snack do you have close by?
281
00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:01.179
Oh, my Cheeto Puffs.
282
00:13:03.320 --> 00:13:05.320
That's a go-to right away, right?
283
00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:06.259
That's my wife.
284
00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:07.519
As soon as we get out of the county, it
285
00:13:07.539 --> 00:13:09.399
counts as a road trip, and we've got to pick
286
00:13:09.460 --> 00:13:10.240
up some Cheeto Puffs.
287
00:13:11.450 --> 00:13:14.100
You got to be careful with the orange steering wheel,
288
00:13:14.139 --> 00:13:15.960
but other than that, you think you're okay.
289
00:13:16.379 --> 00:13:17.419
I've got plenty of napkins.
290
00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:18.500
Oh, there you go.
291
00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:20.379
All set. All the way.
292
00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:25.730
Set to go. Speaking of orange, on Friday you hosted Blaine,
293
00:13:25.889 --> 00:13:29.990
came away with a 34-7 win. Tell us about the game.
294
00:13:30.929 --> 00:13:32.590
How'd you like that set up for you with the orange?
295
00:13:32.990 --> 00:13:33.590
Yeah, thank you.
296
00:13:34.929 --> 00:13:35.629
Segway, baby.
297
00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:40.000
Yeah, I mean, you know, the week lead up to that,
298
00:13:40.019 --> 00:13:44.139
you know, we come off a big win over Nooksack,
299
00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:46.120
and we want to make sure we stay focused and
300
00:13:46.580 --> 00:13:49.460
continue to work on some things. And so I thought
301
00:13:49.480 --> 00:13:51.240
the kids had a good week of prep and then,
302
00:13:51.259 --> 00:13:55.679
you know, got to win the game. And we made
303
00:13:55.710 --> 00:13:57.909
a couple little mistakes, but we were able to overcome
304
00:13:57.950 --> 00:14:00.029
those and, you know, give Blaine a lot of credit.
305
00:14:00.070 --> 00:14:02.110
They played really hard. They had a good scheme. They
306
00:14:02.129 --> 00:14:04.389
had a really good game plan, especially in the first half.
307
00:14:05.340 --> 00:14:09.080
you know, really using time to run, you know, time
308
00:14:09.100 --> 00:14:13.620
off the clock. And so that forced us to be,
309
00:14:13.700 --> 00:14:16.419
you know, we had to be really efficient on offense
310
00:14:16.470 --> 00:14:19.289
in that first half especially. And, you know, the second half,
311
00:14:19.330 --> 00:14:20.649
then they had to fill the ball a little bit
312
00:14:20.669 --> 00:14:22.529
more because we had a little bit of a lead.
313
00:14:22.690 --> 00:14:25.269
And so overall, you know, they got some yards, but
314
00:14:25.309 --> 00:14:26.970
we were able to make stops when we needed to.
315
00:14:27.029 --> 00:14:28.409
And then we were able to find the end zone
316
00:14:28.450 --> 00:14:31.750
a couple times. And overall, yeah, a good, solid Northwest
317
00:14:31.769 --> 00:14:32.370
Conference game.
318
00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:36.409
Yeah, I loved that, you know, five touchdowns, five different
319
00:14:36.450 --> 00:14:40.629
guys scored. I love that, you know, your three different
320
00:14:41.090 --> 00:14:44.080
senior running backs all scored on senior night. It kind of,
321
00:14:44.389 --> 00:14:46.149
a lot of things kind of came together in a
322
00:14:46.210 --> 00:14:49.639
good way, plus you get the win. And you talked
323
00:14:49.659 --> 00:14:51.779
about it a little bit where the defense gave up
324
00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:55.220
some yards, but only the one touchdown. Was there kind
325
00:14:55.259 --> 00:14:57.519
of a bend but don't break game plan going in
326
00:14:57.539 --> 00:14:58.419
or did it just kind of end.
327
00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:00.080
Up that way? I think it kind of ended up
328
00:15:00.100 --> 00:15:00.399
that way.
329
00:15:00.460 --> 00:15:03.399
Like, you know, they did some things on the back,
330
00:15:03.440 --> 00:15:05.440
you know, in the secondary that, you know, caused us
331
00:15:05.500 --> 00:15:07.179
a couple of issues to kind of figure out. But,
332
00:15:08.360 --> 00:15:10.080
you know, like I said, give them some credit. You know,
333
00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:14.399
they had a good game plan coming in. And so obviously,
334
00:15:14.440 --> 00:15:16.200
you know, when you go into a game, you'd like
335
00:15:16.220 --> 00:15:18.759
to shut somebody down. But theoretically, that's just not how
336
00:15:18.799 --> 00:15:21.480
it is nowadays, especially with so many different ways you
337
00:15:21.500 --> 00:15:23.940
can move the ball, you know, back to the old
338
00:15:23.980 --> 00:15:25.879
school days when, you know, pretty much everybody just ran
339
00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:28.289
the ball and you had the, you know, seven, six, 14, 13,
340
00:15:28.279 --> 00:15:31.899
you know, kind of games because, you know, run the
341
00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:35.220
ball and, you know, and playing, you know, smashing off ball. But,
342
00:15:35.720 --> 00:15:37.440
you know, throw the ball, you make one mistake and
343
00:15:37.519 --> 00:15:39.179
all of a sudden, you know, a big play happens
344
00:15:39.299 --> 00:15:41.519
and it can turn a game really quick.
345
00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:42.940
Absolutely.
346
00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:45.519
There's one senior I wanted to kind of point out
347
00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:49.659
and talk about, and that's Titan Arnold. I feel like
348
00:15:49.750 --> 00:15:52.149
when I saw, I brought this up in a podcast,
349
00:15:52.169 --> 00:15:56.279
I think when I saw him in July, there was a,
350
00:15:56.789 --> 00:15:59.990
out at Linden, there was a scrimmage out there and, and,
351
00:16:00.429 --> 00:16:02.090
and he was doing some good things, but I was
352
00:16:02.149 --> 00:16:04.669
kind of, I was kind of worried about like, he's
353
00:16:04.750 --> 00:16:07.419
not getting out of his stance quick enough. I'm like, man,
354
00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:09.960
I hope he can, I hope he can get moving
355
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.820
pretty well. He's a big kid. And this year, boy,
356
00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:16.090
it seems like, and especially on defense, like he's moving
357
00:16:16.110 --> 00:16:21.129
around quite a bit. Um, how has his progression been? And, and, uh,
358
00:16:21.169 --> 00:16:22.509
what have you liked about his game so far?
359
00:16:22.929 --> 00:16:26.879
Yeah, I think that's a fair, you know, assessment there.
360
00:16:27.259 --> 00:16:29.360
You know, he transferred into us from another school, so
361
00:16:29.379 --> 00:16:30.480
we had to kind of get used to how we
362
00:16:30.500 --> 00:16:33.279
do things. It was a little bit different there. You know,
363
00:16:33.539 --> 00:16:36.059
we don't go backwards very often on, you know, on purpose,
364
00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:39.179
up front, and so just trying to get him to
365
00:16:39.220 --> 00:16:42.159
get in and buy into what we're doing, and he's
366
00:16:42.179 --> 00:16:44.600
a great kid. You know, he's a real big part
367
00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:46.200
of the team. The kids, you know, he just gets
368
00:16:46.220 --> 00:16:49.490
along with everybody. He's you know, does some really nice
369
00:16:49.529 --> 00:16:51.590
things in the locker room with the kids, you know, keep,
370
00:16:51.629 --> 00:16:54.049
you know, has bonded well that way, but then, you know,
371
00:16:54.210 --> 00:16:56.730
continually reminding him what we need out of him because
372
00:16:57.250 --> 00:17:00.110
he is a big kid. And so we get him going.
373
00:17:00.129 --> 00:17:02.240
And if he does that, then it's good things for us.
374
00:17:02.299 --> 00:17:04.440
And so, you know, he's taken that on, he's worked
375
00:17:04.460 --> 00:17:06.759
hard and, you know, we just constantly want to continue
376
00:17:06.779 --> 00:17:09.119
to build that and keep pushing in the right direction.
377
00:17:09.819 --> 00:17:10.059
Yeah.
378
00:17:10.099 --> 00:17:13.099
And there's been, you know, there's been, you've had a
379
00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:14.940
lot of right tackles over the years that have been
380
00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:18.089
big kids that, you don't play a ton on defense,
381
00:17:18.130 --> 00:17:20.049
but he's really starting to get a lot of minutes
382
00:17:20.109 --> 00:17:22.900
on defense, a lot of snaps, I should say. And, and, uh,
383
00:17:23.180 --> 00:17:25.720
and he's really benefited and it's helped you guys out
384
00:17:25.779 --> 00:17:29.000
because it's been a, he's been playing really well. Uh,
385
00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:32.380
this Friday, you're back on the road against Linden Christian, uh,
386
00:17:32.500 --> 00:17:35.240
always a tough team. And, and, uh, this year is
387
00:17:35.299 --> 00:17:37.039
no different. Tell us about this year's links.
388
00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:37.640
Yeah.
389
00:17:37.740 --> 00:17:39.440
I mean, they're, they're a really good football team. They're
390
00:17:39.460 --> 00:17:41.089
probably as good as any team in the state at
391
00:17:41.109 --> 00:17:45.859
our level. Um, You know, they're up there. They've got weapons.
392
00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:49.259
You know, they've got some big men on the interior.
393
00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:52.420
Coaching staff does a good job, gets them prepared. So,
394
00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:55.200
you know, going in, we understand that, you know, we've
395
00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:57.549
got to make sure that we're taking care of our business.
396
00:17:57.619 --> 00:17:58.970
You know, to make sure that, you know, it starts
397
00:17:59.009 --> 00:18:01.869
with understanding what they kind of want to do, making
398
00:18:01.910 --> 00:18:04.789
sure we're aligned right and we have the right, you know, responsibilities.
399
00:18:04.829 --> 00:18:08.450
You know, one blown coverage or one, you know, mental
400
00:18:08.650 --> 00:18:11.230
breakdown because you didn't hear the play or something can
401
00:18:11.269 --> 00:18:15.119
really be a big deal. You know, for us offensively, because,
402
00:18:15.220 --> 00:18:16.799
you know, they've done a really good job fishing the
403
00:18:16.839 --> 00:18:19.539
goal line defense as, you know, offensive. We have to
404
00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:23.539
be efficient offensively. They've done a good job running the ball. So,
405
00:18:23.700 --> 00:18:25.009
you know, they can keep the ball away from you
406
00:18:25.029 --> 00:18:28.710
a little bit. So, yeah, we're excited about the opportunity.
407
00:18:28.730 --> 00:18:32.509
You know, again, you know, after the Onalaska game, you know,
408
00:18:32.529 --> 00:18:34.750
we've kind of got back after a little bit. And
409
00:18:34.789 --> 00:18:38.190
so expecting a really good football game this, you know,
410
00:18:38.519 --> 00:18:41.259
on Friday night and probably be a little physical and
411
00:18:41.299 --> 00:18:42.000
we'll see what happens.
412
00:18:42.930 --> 00:18:45.829
You know, they've played a couple of wing T teams,
413
00:18:45.890 --> 00:18:49.819
prominent ones, obviously with Bellevue and Archbishop Murphy. And I mean,
414
00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:51.900
I guess, I don't know if Archbishop Murphy is really,
415
00:18:52.819 --> 00:18:55.779
you know, wing T, but, but when you, but is there,
416
00:18:56.039 --> 00:18:58.220
so it's a benefit to them obviously because they've seen
417
00:18:58.279 --> 00:19:00.660
stuff like that, but that can, can that benefit you
418
00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:02.559
too as well and say, Hey, this is what they
419
00:19:02.599 --> 00:19:04.869
did against this team. Is there something you can pull
420
00:19:04.910 --> 00:19:05.490
from that at all?
421
00:19:05.930 --> 00:19:06.130
Yeah.
422
00:19:06.150 --> 00:19:07.970
I mean, you're always watching the film and you're looking
423
00:19:08.009 --> 00:19:10.329
for that stuff. So hopefully, you know, there's some things that,
424
00:19:10.930 --> 00:19:13.690
we might be able to take advantage of, you know,
425
00:19:14.690 --> 00:19:16.809
and seeing what other teams are able to do using
426
00:19:16.849 --> 00:19:19.170
the same kind of type of offense, just like anybody else.
427
00:19:19.230 --> 00:19:19.430
Right.
428
00:19:19.450 --> 00:19:22.119
Like, you know, if you watch the game from, you know, last,
429
00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:23.980
you know, last week against us at Blaine, you know,
430
00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:26.640
so there might be some routes you want to put
431
00:19:26.680 --> 00:19:28.859
together or something where we might've struggled a little bit.
432
00:19:28.900 --> 00:19:32.119
So, yeah, I mean, it's, it goes both ways, but.
433
00:19:32.170 --> 00:19:34.049
You know, ultimately it comes down to the kids, you know,
434
00:19:34.470 --> 00:19:37.430
play by play execute and, you know, willing to compete
435
00:19:37.470 --> 00:19:39.970
every play and then, you know, give it a great effort.
436
00:19:40.890 --> 00:19:43.980
You know, their passing attack, a lot of it is,
437
00:19:44.259 --> 00:19:46.910
you know, snap the ball, quick throw, and there's a
438
00:19:46.930 --> 00:19:48.910
receiver on the outside that's blocking.
439
00:19:48.930 --> 00:19:49.000
And.
440
00:19:49.769 --> 00:19:51.799
it just, they seem to do really well. They got
441
00:19:51.900 --> 00:19:54.299
big guys out there with Veldman and Kiewich. They got
442
00:19:54.319 --> 00:19:56.539
big tight end type bodies out there that can block.
443
00:19:58.819 --> 00:20:01.500
Coach Horsman's got his hands full with that because it
444
00:20:01.539 --> 00:20:04.519
just seems to be an extension of the run game
445
00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:06.450
almost where you can pick up a big chunk of yards.
446
00:20:06.470 --> 00:20:09.250
Is there a key to defending that or is it
447
00:20:09.289 --> 00:20:10.069
just executing?
448
00:20:10.460 --> 00:20:11.619
Well, I mean, it's both.
449
00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:14.140
I mean, obviously defending, you know, you watch, you got
450
00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:16.789
to make sure that, you know, the defensive back has
451
00:20:16.809 --> 00:20:19.250
come up as playing what he's supposed to in our defense.
452
00:20:19.849 --> 00:20:22.750
You know, watching one of the plays in one of
453
00:20:22.789 --> 00:20:25.230
their games where they did that, what you're talking about,
454
00:20:25.250 --> 00:20:27.490
threw it out there and the defensive back come up,
455
00:20:27.910 --> 00:20:30.670
got to the inside and now there's nobody outside and
456
00:20:30.710 --> 00:20:33.539
now you're in trouble, right? So, you know, our guys
457
00:20:33.579 --> 00:20:35.180
have to make sure that they don't get outside of
458
00:20:35.220 --> 00:20:38.400
there because their job is outside leverage and then Hopefully
459
00:20:38.859 --> 00:20:41.039
we see that quick enough that we get guys scrambling.
460
00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:44.759
We always try to promote on our program that we
461
00:20:44.779 --> 00:20:46.119
want to get a lot of red hats on the
462
00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:48.809
ball and then try to limit the damage of those
463
00:20:48.829 --> 00:20:49.349
kind of plays.
464
00:20:49.869 --> 00:20:52.250
Yeah, absolutely. Coach, you do a great job of that.
465
00:20:52.630 --> 00:20:56.809
Gang tackling. I don't total up as many assisted tackles
466
00:20:56.849 --> 00:20:58.829
with any other school than your school, and so that's
467
00:20:58.849 --> 00:21:01.039
something to be proud of there. So best of luck
468
00:21:01.099 --> 00:21:03.200
on Friday against the Lynx. Thank you so much for
469
00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:05.279
joining me today on the Gatorade Game Day Podcast.
470
00:21:05.880 --> 00:21:07.099
Thanks, Tyler, for having me again.
471
00:21:07.119 --> 00:21:09.000
I know I say every week, but we mean it.
472
00:21:09.319 --> 00:21:10.980
Thank you for all the work that you do for
473
00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:12.119
the kids in the county. Thank you.
474
00:21:12.460 --> 00:21:15.940
You're welcome, Coach. Thank you. I'm now joined on the
475
00:21:15.980 --> 00:21:19.000
Gatorade Game Day podcast by Linden Christian head football coach
476
00:21:19.099 --> 00:21:21.869
Greg Terpstra. Coach, thank you for joining me today. How
477
00:21:21.880 --> 00:21:22.430
are you doing?
478
00:21:23.470 --> 00:21:24.230
I'm doing great.
479
00:21:24.529 --> 00:21:28.950
I'm substituting in the Linden Christian shop class, and we
480
00:21:28.990 --> 00:21:30.230
haven't lost a finger yet.
481
00:21:32.009 --> 00:21:35.609
How many times have you been the substitute in the
482
00:21:35.650 --> 00:21:36.190
shop class?
483
00:21:36.210 --> 00:21:41.470
This will be my third day, but I'll be doing
484
00:21:41.490 --> 00:21:42.089
it all week.
485
00:21:41.950 --> 00:21:42.579
This week, yeah.
486
00:21:42.839 --> 00:21:43.380
Oh, wow.
487
00:21:44.019 --> 00:21:44.920
Yeah, yeah.
488
00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:48.859
Watch out. You look about as happy as I've ever
489
00:21:48.940 --> 00:21:51.460
seen you, Coach. This must be pretty fun for you.
490
00:21:51.799 --> 00:21:56.000
Yeah, you know, for a guy who grew up hating
491
00:21:56.019 --> 00:21:58.140
to go to school, hating to be in the classroom,
492
00:21:58.220 --> 00:22:02.250
and then becoming a teacher, a sixth-grade teacher, it's a
493
00:22:02.250 --> 00:22:04.470
little ironic, but I'll tell you what, man, this shop
494
00:22:04.490 --> 00:22:06.289
class stuff, that's pretty cool.
495
00:22:06.569 --> 00:22:11.589
I really dig it. And the ladies, they absolutely kill
496
00:22:11.650 --> 00:22:12.119
it in here.
497
00:22:12.150 --> 00:22:14.930
They're just so, they got the attention to detail and
498
00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:18.440
every tool goes back to where it actually supposed to go.
499
00:22:18.460 --> 00:22:19.819
It's phenomenal.
500
00:22:20.259 --> 00:22:22.099
You know, I've heard that from a lot of coaches
501
00:22:22.140 --> 00:22:24.799
that have coached boys and girls sports, and they say
502
00:22:24.819 --> 00:22:28.269
they love coaching girls because they, they, they, because they
503
00:22:28.309 --> 00:22:30.230
take direction and you only have to tell them something
504
00:22:30.470 --> 00:22:32.150
once that they do it the right way. So it
505
00:22:32.569 --> 00:22:35.210
kind of reflects like this, doesn't it?
506
00:22:35.230 --> 00:22:36.410
It does.
507
00:22:37.029 --> 00:22:38.670
And oftentimes they're tougher.
508
00:22:41.049 --> 00:22:41.809
Absolutely.
509
00:22:42.430 --> 00:22:44.819
All right, coach, you're on a road trip at least
510
00:22:44.890 --> 00:22:47.539
five hours. What snack do you have close by?
511
00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:52.619
Uh, I've got the, um, the little packets of the, the, uh,
512
00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:58.359
mountain mix, you know, um, You know, the M & M' s,
513
00:22:58.059 --> 00:23:03.170
the peanuts, the almonds, the, yeah, that sort of mountain
514
00:23:03.269 --> 00:23:07.589
mix stuff that you get. I make my own bags
515
00:23:07.650 --> 00:23:09.910
or get the pre-made bags. I've always got those.
516
00:23:10.410 --> 00:23:14.529
Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, that's a good one. On Friday,
517
00:23:14.549 --> 00:23:16.920
you went out to No Snack Valley, picked up the win.
518
00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:18.000
Tell us about the game.
519
00:23:20.119 --> 00:23:23.539
Yeah, beautiful night, beautiful field. Boy, they do a nice,
520
00:23:23.619 --> 00:23:27.500
nice job. The environment was fantastic. It was packed.
521
00:23:28.220 --> 00:23:30.509
It was senior night for them, so a lot of
522
00:23:30.529 --> 00:23:34.230
people there, a lot of interest. You know, they drove
523
00:23:34.349 --> 00:23:37.809
right down on us, and we had a nice stand,
524
00:23:37.869 --> 00:23:42.349
and they kicked a pretty substantial field goal there. And
525
00:23:42.369 --> 00:23:45.359
then we returned the favor, but were able to punch
526
00:23:45.390 --> 00:23:47.700
it in. And it was a little bit up and down.
527
00:23:48.940 --> 00:23:52.359
Really proud of the defense. That's what really sticks out
528
00:23:52.380 --> 00:23:55.960
to me. The defense and the goal line. Um, you know, those,
529
00:23:56.289 --> 00:24:01.490
those stands, those goal line stands were just phenomenal. Um, just,
530
00:24:01.569 --> 00:24:04.410
you know, it's almost like you never want that to happen.
531
00:24:04.450 --> 00:24:06.049
You never want them to be there.
532
00:24:06.069 --> 00:24:06.710
Right.
533
00:24:07.069 --> 00:24:10.059
Um, back close knocking on the door and getting that
534
00:24:10.099 --> 00:24:13.759
many snaps in that close, but, uh, kind of when
535
00:24:13.799 --> 00:24:16.200
you reflect on it, you kind of, you kind of
536
00:24:16.220 --> 00:24:19.380
cool with it happening because it was a, a growth
537
00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:22.769
experience where these guys could really bow up and, and
538
00:24:23.009 --> 00:24:25.279
draw a line in the sand and just kind of,
539
00:24:25.289 --> 00:24:26.029
you know, defend it.
540
00:24:26.710 --> 00:24:28.849
Yeah, there was that one moment in the game, I mean,
541
00:24:28.910 --> 00:24:31.269
a first and goal at the one, Coach, and they
542
00:24:31.309 --> 00:24:35.359
don't score. That is really tough to do on defense.
543
00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:39.660
And is there maybe a package you go to where
544
00:24:39.680 --> 00:24:41.660
you go heavy there, or is it kind of more
545
00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:44.500
of a base defense where you say, hey, look for
546
00:24:44.539 --> 00:24:45.640
this and just attack?
547
00:24:47.380 --> 00:24:49.920
It kind of depends on the squad we're going against,
548
00:24:50.279 --> 00:24:53.009
you know. if we kind of think they're going to
549
00:24:53.029 --> 00:24:57.940
get heavy, we'll go heavy. But it's no exact difficult
550
00:24:57.980 --> 00:25:01.420
because they've got so many skill position guys, so many
551
00:25:01.500 --> 00:25:04.720
weapons that, you know, you go heavy, then there's going
552
00:25:04.740 --> 00:25:08.309
to be a mismatch on the outside. So that was
553
00:25:08.329 --> 00:25:09.710
a little bit of cat and mouse game that I
554
00:25:09.750 --> 00:25:11.509
think coach Bama played really well.
555
00:25:12.089 --> 00:25:15.369
And I think the guys, the guys too kind of said,
556
00:25:15.390 --> 00:25:17.549
you know, in this case, we don't need to go heavy.
557
00:25:17.609 --> 00:25:21.170
We, we feel that we can defend all, you know,
558
00:25:21.170 --> 00:25:24.150
53 and a third just for the guys that we got.
559
00:25:24.170 --> 00:25:28.819
Yeah, and you definitely did getting the stop there. Dawson
560
00:25:28.859 --> 00:25:32.099
Hines returned from injury and stood out playing wide receiver.
561
00:25:33.119 --> 00:25:35.619
He wasn't returning kicks, wasn't playing defense, at least that
562
00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:38.200
I saw. How has his recovery been?
563
00:25:38.220 --> 00:25:44.809
Yeah, we're just managing it, you know, judiciously. Really proud
564
00:25:44.849 --> 00:25:47.029
of the guys that have filled in. Blank has done
565
00:25:47.049 --> 00:25:50.170
a great job running the offense. We have a couple
566
00:25:50.190 --> 00:25:55.619
guys on defense that have filled in, and we trust them. Receivers,
567
00:25:55.690 --> 00:25:58.519
it's nice to get a nice rotation. But, yeah, sending
568
00:25:58.539 --> 00:26:02.900
Dawson out as a receiver is a matchup problem, we think,
569
00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:07.319
no matter who's on the other side. So that was
570
00:26:07.339 --> 00:26:09.859
the plan going in, that we would use him on
571
00:26:09.880 --> 00:26:14.279
the field where it best presented a problem for the
572
00:26:14.299 --> 00:26:14.700
other team.
573
00:26:15.569 --> 00:26:15.789
Yeah.
574
00:26:15.809 --> 00:26:17.690
And that's always, you know, that's what's so fun about
575
00:26:17.710 --> 00:26:20.009
the coaching part of it. You get to see everything
576
00:26:20.049 --> 00:26:22.069
and decide, okay, I'm going to move this piece here.
577
00:26:22.130 --> 00:26:24.450
And then, and then when it happens and he has
578
00:26:24.519 --> 00:26:27.640
big plays, it's, it's such a good feeling inside that
579
00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:30.289
you did the right move and it's working and, And
580
00:26:30.349 --> 00:26:33.039
I can't even imagine how awesome that must feel.
581
00:26:34.259 --> 00:26:37.559
You know, if you could just get more coaching, good
582
00:26:37.660 --> 00:26:41.559
feelings of where things worked, this job would be a
583
00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:42.059
lot easier.
584
00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:42.160
Yeah.
585
00:26:43.900 --> 00:26:45.920
It's like, man, I might need to retire from this
586
00:26:45.940 --> 00:26:49.599
and coach and just teach a shot complete year round.
587
00:26:51.180 --> 00:26:53.930
You know, last year's team, he went on a great run.
588
00:26:53.970 --> 00:26:56.940
Obviously it was really good. good senior class and all
589
00:26:56.960 --> 00:27:00.119
that stuff. And this year, you know, it looks very similar.
590
00:27:00.220 --> 00:27:03.819
Is there, is there more similarities or differences between this
591
00:27:03.859 --> 00:27:05.240
year or last year's team?
592
00:27:07.170 --> 00:27:12.109
Boy, that's a good question. I think the leadership was great.
593
00:27:11.910 --> 00:27:15.589
From last year's seniors and this year's seniors, but it
594
00:27:15.690 --> 00:27:19.390
is different. Um, I'd say last year it was a
595
00:27:19.430 --> 00:27:24.609
more of a, um, almost a fatherly sort of leadership.
596
00:27:24.730 --> 00:27:33.390
And now it's a very energetic leadership. And as far
597
00:27:33.410 --> 00:27:37.730
as skills-wise and body types go, I think there are
598
00:27:37.750 --> 00:27:41.470
a lot of similarities. I think that we look a
599
00:27:42.869 --> 00:27:45.819
lot the same on tape probably to a team that
600
00:27:45.859 --> 00:27:47.140
doesn't know us very well.
601
00:27:47.619 --> 00:27:49.279
They watched last year's and this year's.
602
00:27:50.099 --> 00:27:53.390
Yeah, exactly. And the great thing about both these years
603
00:27:54.329 --> 00:27:56.769
is it's been a great team. It seems like with
604
00:27:56.789 --> 00:27:59.490
a lot of these younger guys coming, it's going to
605
00:27:59.529 --> 00:28:03.319
be great for a while. And one of the weapons
606
00:28:03.359 --> 00:28:05.819
that you have that we've talked about a little bit
607
00:28:05.839 --> 00:28:09.539
in the past, not a ton, is Jackson Yoon. And
608
00:28:09.579 --> 00:28:12.240
you've talked about how he's stepped up to return kicks
609
00:28:12.339 --> 00:28:15.670
and and play some offense and different things, but he's
610
00:28:15.710 --> 00:28:19.420
the school's career record holder with eight field goals so far,
611
00:28:19.460 --> 00:28:22.160
and he's just a junior. Talk about how much of
612
00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:24.779
a weapon that is because, you know, when you get
613
00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:27.740
into the postseason and you're playing on turf, that's a
614
00:28:27.779 --> 00:28:30.240
nice thing for a kicker. There's going to be close games.
615
00:28:30.279 --> 00:28:31.960
You're going to rely on him. How much of a
616
00:28:32.009 --> 00:28:32.549
weapon is he?
617
00:28:34.170 --> 00:28:35.289
Boy, I'll tell you what.
618
00:28:35.410 --> 00:28:41.089
The greatest catch Friday night was when he was back punting,
619
00:28:42.059 --> 00:28:44.259
And the snap got away from us over his head,
620
00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:47.839
and he one-handed it over his back shoulder to snag
621
00:28:47.900 --> 00:28:48.359
that thing.
622
00:28:48.980 --> 00:28:49.779
And over the.
623
00:28:51.400 --> 00:28:54.009
Communication system, I had my coaches telling me, no, no, no,
624
00:28:54.019 --> 00:28:56.660
let's just do a quarterback quick kick. And I went
625
00:28:56.700 --> 00:28:59.259
to full-on punt. Had that thing gone over his head,
626
00:28:59.359 --> 00:29:01.619
I would still not hear the end of it from
627
00:29:01.660 --> 00:29:04.950
my coaches. But that snag and getting that ball off,
628
00:29:05.309 --> 00:29:07.990
you know, just that little thing is a great weapon, right?
629
00:29:08.009 --> 00:29:08.089
Yeah.
630
00:29:08.779 --> 00:29:11.259
Aside from his kicking. But if we reflect back on
631
00:29:11.299 --> 00:29:13.700
his kicking, he's a guy that doesn't get nervous. He
632
00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:18.740
loves to kick. I mean, like I said before in
633
00:29:18.779 --> 00:29:21.079
the last interview, I think if we get stoned on
634
00:29:22.380 --> 00:29:24.920
the 25 or 30, he's all jacked up.
635
00:29:24.829 --> 00:29:27.410
Because he gets to go kick one.
636
00:29:27.950 --> 00:29:31.029
He would just love to kick eight field goals and
637
00:29:31.069 --> 00:29:32.269
win the game by field goals.
638
00:29:32.349 --> 00:29:33.490
He just thinks that's really cool.
639
00:29:34.289 --> 00:29:36.960
But now he's getting more involved yeah obviously with the
640
00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:39.720
wide receiver and he wants to get in that D-back
641
00:29:39.799 --> 00:29:43.539
so he's all around just a terrific athlete yeah.
642
00:29:43.339 --> 00:29:46.000
He's got those quick feet you're totally right about when
643
00:29:46.019 --> 00:29:48.599
he jumped up and snagged that ball reminded me of
644
00:29:48.700 --> 00:29:50.839
Ray Guy in the Super Bowl and the Raiders against
645
00:29:50.859 --> 00:29:53.609
the Redskins same exact thing and and Ray Guy who
646
00:29:53.640 --> 00:29:56.529
was an awesome athlete that actually had I think eight
647
00:29:56.569 --> 00:29:59.190
interceptions his senior year in college. And then he goes
648
00:29:59.210 --> 00:30:01.750
to the NFL and he's the first ever Hall of
649
00:30:01.789 --> 00:30:04.630
Fame punter. And it is cool to see all these
650
00:30:04.670 --> 00:30:07.690
things that he's been doing and just a junior, which
651
00:30:07.730 --> 00:30:11.150
is pretty incredible. This Friday night, you're back at home
652
00:30:11.569 --> 00:30:13.839
against Mount Baker. What can you tell us about this
653
00:30:13.900 --> 00:30:14.740
group of the Mountaineers?
654
00:30:17.740 --> 00:30:20.559
Um, you know, they really play impassioned.
655
00:30:20.579 --> 00:30:24.589
They, um, We got to watch them live in that
656
00:30:24.630 --> 00:30:27.569
Nooksack game because we played on a Thursday. And just,
657
00:30:27.789 --> 00:30:32.549
you know, you could feel their energy, their just willingness
658
00:30:32.589 --> 00:30:35.589
to do whatever Coach Lepper asked them to do. We
659
00:30:35.650 --> 00:30:39.150
saw that with their running back playing guard. And just
660
00:30:39.789 --> 00:30:43.349
they love playing football. And we love playing teams that
661
00:30:43.369 --> 00:30:45.349
love playing football because we think it makes for a
662
00:30:45.390 --> 00:30:47.609
great night and brings out the best in both teams. And,
663
00:30:48.309 --> 00:30:50.529
you know, we're going to really have to rely on
664
00:30:50.589 --> 00:30:55.240
our offensive line A guy like Dylan Haskell really showed out,
665
00:30:55.359 --> 00:30:56.500
I think, against Nooksack.
666
00:30:56.880 --> 00:30:59.799
Just not only technically sound, just moving people.
667
00:31:00.519 --> 00:31:02.599
And we're going to need those guys to do that
668
00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:05.339
against Mount Baker, too. And Mount Baker is going to
669
00:31:05.380 --> 00:31:08.359
give us everything they've got and should be a great show.
670
00:31:09.220 --> 00:31:11.859
When you prep during the week and you've been you've
671
00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:13.960
prepped for a few of these wing T teams. And,
672
00:31:14.039 --> 00:31:15.359
you know, when I say a few, I mean, like
673
00:31:15.660 --> 00:31:18.470
the best ones in the state. What kind of, you know,
674
00:31:18.569 --> 00:31:22.809
scout team look do you get? Do they enjoy, like, oh,
675
00:31:22.849 --> 00:31:24.829
we get to just run the ball over and over again?
676
00:31:24.910 --> 00:31:26.829
Or is there kind of some fun stuff to the
677
00:31:26.869 --> 00:31:29.170
slight and with the scout team guys?
678
00:31:29.930 --> 00:31:35.150
Yeah, we will use a small ball. We'll use no ball.
679
00:31:35.210 --> 00:31:37.140
We'll use a normal ball.
680
00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:44.259
The scout team has taken this mantle, and they are
681
00:31:44.359 --> 00:31:49.670
proud to do it well. Um, there are times where, um,
682
00:31:50.049 --> 00:31:52.210
they'll say, man, this wing T offense works really well.
683
00:31:52.230 --> 00:31:53.910
And I'll tell them, shut up. Don't ever say that
684
00:31:53.950 --> 00:31:58.849
because we're not going to wing T, but they, they,
685
00:31:59.099 --> 00:32:01.000
they think it's fun. And it is, it's, you know,
686
00:32:01.059 --> 00:32:05.559
it's a, it's a real, uh, um, it's a real
687
00:32:05.619 --> 00:32:11.759
difficult offense to diagnose. If you haven't seen it, um,
688
00:32:11.799 --> 00:32:14.880
you have to be very disciplined. And if you're not,
689
00:32:14.980 --> 00:32:18.670
you get burned, uh, And the scout team really celebrates that.
690
00:32:21.559 --> 00:32:22.960
And sometimes maybe too much.
691
00:32:24.259 --> 00:32:24.779
Oh, Coach.
692
00:32:24.900 --> 00:32:26.480
And, you know, I was going to ask you, too.
693
00:32:26.519 --> 00:32:29.079
I forgot to bring this up. But, you know, talking
694
00:32:29.119 --> 00:32:32.059
about you brought up shortly about their new field out
695
00:32:32.099 --> 00:32:35.920
at Sid Lambert Field at Nooksack. Was it, I mean, when, when,
696
00:32:36.039 --> 00:32:39.160
when a field is that new, it's still kind of spongy.
697
00:32:39.240 --> 00:32:43.569
It's not really broken in yet. Um, do you ever feel, okay,
698
00:32:43.609 --> 00:32:48.609
let's just say, let's say funds are not an issue. And, and, and, and, um,
699
00:32:49.630 --> 00:32:53.569
coach bomber came to you and said, coach, we have it.
700
00:32:53.710 --> 00:32:56.230
We can do a turf field. Are you in or out?
701
00:32:57.170 --> 00:32:57.809
What would you say?
702
00:33:00.730 --> 00:33:04.470
I would say I'm in, um, For this reason.
703
00:33:04.619 --> 00:33:08.799
Now, I will say the most ideal football game is
704
00:33:08.920 --> 00:33:10.900
played on really good grass.
705
00:33:12.579 --> 00:33:16.539
This year, this is quite an exception. Our field is fantastic.
706
00:33:16.940 --> 00:33:19.240
If I could choose the year, I'd say, okay, this year,
707
00:33:19.259 --> 00:33:23.900
no turf. This year, just grass. Our field is spectacular
708
00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:26.539
right now. It's never looked this good this late in
709
00:33:26.559 --> 00:33:29.619
the year that I've ever witnessed. But that is not
710
00:33:29.640 --> 00:33:34.039
a normal year. And We have Saturday morning youth kids
711
00:33:34.140 --> 00:33:37.160
on there. We have seventh grade on there, eighth grade
712
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:42.210
on there, C-team, JV, us. You know, PE wants to
713
00:33:42.369 --> 00:33:46.029
use it and that kind of thing. Cross-country meets want
714
00:33:46.049 --> 00:33:47.730
to start and finish.
715
00:33:47.509 --> 00:33:48.099
The races on it.
716
00:33:48.130 --> 00:33:52.380
So, yes, it's held up this year, but I'd say
717
00:33:52.839 --> 00:33:56.680
just in aggregate, a turf field, especially like the one
718
00:33:56.700 --> 00:34:00.890
they've got, would be fantastic. I'd love to put it in. Um,
719
00:34:01.099 --> 00:34:05.380
practices would be a lot cleaner. Um, but I also,
720
00:34:05.440 --> 00:34:09.039
I'm going to sound really, really selfish here. Uh, what
721
00:34:09.059 --> 00:34:11.679
I've heard from other schools that only have one field
722
00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:17.269
is the sharing of that, that one field gets tough.
723
00:34:17.329 --> 00:34:20.349
You get so many athletes on one field. Um, let's
724
00:34:20.369 --> 00:34:22.750
say sock, this girl's soccer wants to practice on it
725
00:34:22.849 --> 00:34:24.889
while the boys football's on it. That's a lot of
726
00:34:25.010 --> 00:34:28.369
athletes in one spot. Um, so if you're going to
727
00:34:28.389 --> 00:34:32.570
get one, do two. And I know, again, that sounds like, boy,
728
00:34:32.610 --> 00:34:35.170
you're asking too much. But if you have all the
729
00:34:35.230 --> 00:34:39.090
equipment down there, and maybe it saves you some money
730
00:34:39.130 --> 00:34:42.230
to do all the drainage at one time, and you
731
00:34:42.250 --> 00:34:45.389
put in a soccer turf field and then the football
732
00:34:45.449 --> 00:34:48.079
turf field, and then if soccer wants to play a
733
00:34:48.139 --> 00:34:51.019
game in front of the stands and a football team
734
00:34:51.039 --> 00:34:53.300
needs to go practice on the soccer field, you know,
735
00:34:53.320 --> 00:34:53.769
how about it?
736
00:34:55.039 --> 00:34:56.800
Yeah, what would I prefer? I would prefer that.
737
00:34:56.820 --> 00:34:56.980
Yeah.
738
00:34:59.570 --> 00:35:04.730
Unless you could guarantee to me a beautiful grass field
739
00:35:05.429 --> 00:35:07.869
every year, which you can't in this environment.
740
00:35:08.369 --> 00:35:10.050
Yeah, definitely up here in our corner.
741
00:35:10.170 --> 00:35:12.710
That's a really wishy-washy answer.
742
00:35:12.730 --> 00:35:14.110
No, no, it makes sense.
743
00:35:14.130 --> 00:35:16.309
But it is my feeling.
744
00:35:16.849 --> 00:35:20.110
Yeah, it's just curious because there's not a lot of
745
00:35:20.150 --> 00:35:24.320
teams left that have a grass field, right? There's only, what,
746
00:35:24.679 --> 00:35:26.719
four of them now in Whatcom County, and you're one
747
00:35:26.739 --> 00:35:29.440
of them. So I'm always curious, like, obviously they're all,
748
00:35:29.480 --> 00:35:31.800
there's a lot that goes into it. Dollars wise. I
749
00:35:31.840 --> 00:35:34.159
just thought if dollar, if money wasn't an issue, would
750
00:35:34.179 --> 00:35:36.900
you want it? And there might be schools that wouldn't.
751
00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:38.800
So I was just curious kind of how you looked
752
00:35:38.860 --> 00:35:41.389
at it and, and you're right. It's something that it
753
00:35:41.409 --> 00:35:43.590
can get multiple use and yeah.
754
00:35:46.530 --> 00:35:49.869
Now, if you, if you go with the money aspect too, though,
755
00:35:50.269 --> 00:35:55.179
I mean, there's irrigation, there's mowing, there's painting, there's the
756
00:35:55.280 --> 00:35:57.340
robot painter and the paint that goes in it. Um,
757
00:35:58.599 --> 00:36:00.280
There's just a lot of man hours that go into it.
758
00:36:00.300 --> 00:36:03.739
And thankfully, we've had lots of great people who volunteer
759
00:36:03.840 --> 00:36:07.949
or work for not very much to maintain it. I
760
00:36:07.989 --> 00:36:11.150
got my cousin, Chris Leibel, who comes in and he
761
00:36:11.210 --> 00:36:13.969
runs the painter. And he works for the city and
762
00:36:14.010 --> 00:36:16.409
he cuts things short with his family and with his.
763
00:36:16.349 --> 00:36:19.070
Job to go do it. We got guys like that
764
00:36:19.139 --> 00:36:19.780
that do that.
765
00:36:20.639 --> 00:36:24.539
And he doesn't even have a son playing. So we've
766
00:36:24.599 --> 00:36:29.500
had those people step up. but maybe it's unfair to
767
00:36:29.539 --> 00:36:30.179
keep asking that.
768
00:36:30.239 --> 00:36:31.780
I don't know. I don't know.
769
00:36:32.239 --> 00:36:34.670
Well, things are going well for you now, so you
770
00:36:34.690 --> 00:36:36.809
probably don't want to change too much, Coach. Best of
771
00:36:36.849 --> 00:36:39.489
luck on Friday against Mount Baker, and thank you for
772
00:36:39.530 --> 00:36:41.650
joining me today on the Gatorade Game Day Podcast.
773
00:36:42.670 --> 00:36:43.889
Appreciate all you do, Tyler.
774
00:36:43.909 --> 00:36:44.269
Thank you.
775
00:36:45.550 --> 00:36:48.079
And the final 1A game of the weekend will also
776
00:36:48.119 --> 00:36:52.760
take place Friday night, 7 o'clock, Bob Ames Field, Nooksack Valley.
777
00:36:52.800 --> 00:36:55.380
The Pioneers come to town to take on the Meridian Trojans.
778
00:36:56.010 --> 00:36:59.409
Noxac Valley, 5-2 on the season. They started out 5-0,
779
00:36:59.650 --> 00:37:03.469
but they've dropped their last two. Two really good teams, though,
780
00:37:03.489 --> 00:37:05.610
and we'll have to see if they can get things
781
00:37:05.690 --> 00:37:09.239
back together. They're ranked 6th in the state as far
782
00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:12.099
as the coaches' poll goes. They're also ranked 6th in
783
00:37:12.119 --> 00:37:15.400
the state as far as Max Prep's rankings go. Meridian,
784
00:37:15.940 --> 00:37:18.559
they've been showing a hot hand recently, and they're one
785
00:37:18.579 --> 00:37:20.880
of the best teams, especially airing the ball out. They're
786
00:37:20.900 --> 00:37:24.730
4-3 on the year. They're ranked 8th in max preps
787
00:37:24.869 --> 00:37:27.550
in the state of Washington for Class 1A. They are
788
00:37:27.610 --> 00:37:30.730
not ranked in the top 10 in the coaches poll.
789
00:37:31.530 --> 00:37:33.869
I am now joined on the Gatorade Game Day podcast
790
00:37:33.929 --> 00:37:37.309
by Nooksack Valley head football coach Craig Bartle. Coach, thank
791
00:37:37.329 --> 00:37:38.789
you for joining me today. How are you doing?
792
00:37:39.269 --> 00:37:41.630
Good, thank you. Thanks for having me again.
793
00:37:42.050 --> 00:37:44.989
You bet. Okay, you're on a road trip, at least
794
00:37:45.010 --> 00:37:48.719
a five-hour drive. What snack do you have close by?
795
00:37:49.679 --> 00:37:50.110
Snack?
796
00:37:54.010 --> 00:37:54.550
Twizzlers.
797
00:37:55.489 --> 00:37:57.739
Oh, yeah, nice.
798
00:37:57.840 --> 00:37:58.179
Twizzlers.
799
00:37:58.239 --> 00:37:59.659
Strawberry flavor.
800
00:37:59.960 --> 00:38:03.019
Oh, strawberry flavor. Now we're getting a little detailed here.
801
00:38:03.800 --> 00:38:06.409
Those are pretty good. That reminds me of Wayne's World
802
00:38:06.449 --> 00:38:11.449
when they had the red ropes coming out the light
803
00:38:11.510 --> 00:38:16.250
fixture thing. Oh, that was awesome. Um, yeah, that, that,
804
00:38:16.510 --> 00:38:18.050
that's a good one. I'm getting a lot of different
805
00:38:18.110 --> 00:38:20.349
answers this week with this one. And it's always, uh,
806
00:38:20.510 --> 00:38:23.019
it's always interesting. Everyone's done the, you know, the long
807
00:38:23.099 --> 00:38:27.280
road trips and, and, um, you know, it's, uh, it's gotta,
808
00:38:27.300 --> 00:38:29.280
you gotta have something there that, you know, you can
809
00:38:29.320 --> 00:38:31.159
rely on that. You can just go, go, go.
810
00:38:31.239 --> 00:38:34.579
So, um, the last, the last long road trip.
811
00:38:35.079 --> 00:38:38.110
So we were down, we picked up my daughter in
812
00:38:38.170 --> 00:38:40.429
Texas and we went to South, I guess, kind of
813
00:38:40.449 --> 00:38:43.110
told you this. We went to South Carolina, visited clubs
814
00:38:43.130 --> 00:38:46.389
and got to meet Davo Sweeney. Went down to Florida.
815
00:38:47.269 --> 00:38:49.670
So on that type of trip, it's a Buc-ee's stop.
816
00:38:49.690 --> 00:38:53.710
You've got to stop at Buc-ee's somewhere. And it's Buc-ee nuggets.
817
00:38:54.130 --> 00:38:56.969
The little popcorn things. Got to have Buc-ee nuggets. So
818
00:38:57.030 --> 00:39:00.619
if you're down south and you can stop by a Buc-ee's,
819
00:39:00.659 --> 00:39:01.500
you've always got.
820
00:39:01.420 --> 00:39:04.019
To stop by a Buc-ee's.
821
00:39:04.059 --> 00:39:06.940
That's the region of the country. I'm not a big
822
00:39:06.980 --> 00:39:09.639
traveler at all. Five years ago, I went on a
823
00:39:09.679 --> 00:39:12.489
big trip where I did a Checked off a lot
824
00:39:12.510 --> 00:39:14.010
of stuff off the bucket list going to all the
825
00:39:14.030 --> 00:39:16.130
Hall of Fames and everything. But the one spot in
826
00:39:16.150 --> 00:39:18.760
the United States, well, other than like Hawaii and Alaska,
827
00:39:19.199 --> 00:39:21.039
that I haven't– the region I haven't really hit is
828
00:39:21.079 --> 00:39:25.010
the south and the southeast there. You know, been to,
829
00:39:25.150 --> 00:39:29.280
you know, Northeast and the Midwest, you know, Michigan and
830
00:39:29.590 --> 00:39:31.639
Ohio and stuff like that. I just haven't. So I
831
00:39:31.679 --> 00:39:33.800
got to, I'll have to check that out sometime.
832
00:39:34.900 --> 00:39:38.119
It's a very pretty drive and it's, you know, you don't,
833
00:39:38.219 --> 00:39:41.340
you don't realize how close things are, you know, five
834
00:39:41.460 --> 00:39:42.199
hour drive here.
835
00:39:42.219 --> 00:39:43.980
It seems like that to get you across the state.
836
00:39:44.380 --> 00:39:44.639
Right.
837
00:39:45.260 --> 00:39:47.340
Once you get out of Texas, it, the five hour
838
00:39:47.380 --> 00:39:50.610
drive gets you maybe into, two or three states just depends.
839
00:39:50.650 --> 00:39:53.369
Yeah that's that's one thing I really noticed about when
840
00:39:53.409 --> 00:39:56.030
I went on my trip five years ago was man
841
00:39:56.090 --> 00:39:58.469
it seemed like I mean there was 10 nights in
842
00:39:58.510 --> 00:40:01.239
a row I woke up in a different state now
843
00:40:01.300 --> 00:40:03.139
that doesn't mean I was in 10 different states but
844
00:40:03.460 --> 00:40:05.119
I didn't I woke up in a different state from
845
00:40:05.239 --> 00:40:07.719
the from the day before that I woke up in
846
00:40:07.760 --> 00:40:10.719
if that makes sense yeah so it was uh so
847
00:40:10.809 --> 00:40:13.969
it is crazy you're absolutely right when you're driving around
848
00:40:14.010 --> 00:40:17.659
especially like in the Northeast when they're all really small States,
849
00:40:17.739 --> 00:40:20.860
it's like boom, boom, boom. And your little, your little, uh,
850
00:40:21.019 --> 00:40:21.699
your phone is.
851
00:40:21.619 --> 00:40:23.460
Like, welcome to Vermont.
852
00:40:23.519 --> 00:40:25.980
And they're like, Whoa, okay. I'm in Vermont. I didn't
853
00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:28.820
know that. So, uh, yeah, that, that would be fun
854
00:40:28.860 --> 00:40:30.639
to go out there and check that out. That's a,
855
00:40:30.739 --> 00:40:33.980
definitely a bucket list for me. And, and, uh, where,
856
00:40:34.039 --> 00:40:36.550
like you've been to Baylor university quite a few times
857
00:40:36.590 --> 00:40:39.980
now with, with two daughters there, but what, like, uh,
858
00:40:40.469 --> 00:40:43.099
what city is that in or what, like what's the,
859
00:40:43.329 --> 00:40:45.409
what's the closest big city in Texas?
860
00:40:46.590 --> 00:40:49.849
So Baylor's in Waco and then it's in between Dallas
861
00:40:50.130 --> 00:40:50.869
and Austin.
862
00:40:51.250 --> 00:40:51.889
So, okay.
863
00:40:51.909 --> 00:40:53.010
So it's kind of, yeah.
864
00:40:53.449 --> 00:40:55.619
South of Dallas and an hour and a half North
865
00:40:55.679 --> 00:40:56.260
of Austin.
866
00:40:56.760 --> 00:40:57.239
Gotcha.
867
00:40:57.340 --> 00:40:57.619
Okay.
868
00:40:57.820 --> 00:40:58.039
Okay.
869
00:40:58.059 --> 00:40:59.719
I'm just trying to, in my head, I'm trying to
870
00:40:59.780 --> 00:41:03.380
picture where that would be. So yeah, I was going
871
00:41:03.400 --> 00:41:07.019
to say that's pretty much in the middle. So nice.
872
00:41:07.260 --> 00:41:07.539
Awesome.
873
00:41:07.579 --> 00:41:07.780
Yeah.
874
00:41:07.820 --> 00:41:11.949
Well, and, And my girlfriend, Laura, she's from Arlington. So
875
00:41:12.090 --> 00:41:14.710
she would probably like to go back sometime and check
876
00:41:14.750 --> 00:41:17.309
it out. So that might be happening. Plus, I want
877
00:41:17.329 --> 00:41:22.110
to check out the Dallas JFK assassination area. I think
878
00:41:22.630 --> 00:41:26.659
that's something I really want to see someday. But, you know,
879
00:41:26.739 --> 00:41:30.380
I guess we'll talk football and shift gears a little bit.
880
00:41:31.199 --> 00:41:33.119
So the fun part about going on the road trip,
881
00:41:33.500 --> 00:41:35.420
just to go back to that, this is much more
882
00:41:35.440 --> 00:41:40.820
exciting than it is. So Luke, my son and I,
883
00:41:40.849 --> 00:41:43.070
the goal was wherever we stopped if there was a
884
00:41:43.110 --> 00:41:46.420
college stadium there was to get into the stadium. So
885
00:41:46.480 --> 00:41:49.539
we would walk around the entire stadium and find a
886
00:41:49.659 --> 00:41:53.420
gate or find a way to get in. We snuck
887
00:41:53.480 --> 00:41:59.159
into LSU Stadium, Clemson Stadium. I've been into Alabama. We
888
00:41:59.179 --> 00:42:04.400
went to Auburn. So that's Texas A & M.
889
00:42:04.420 --> 00:42:08.739
I've been to their stadium. So that's the That's kind
890
00:42:08.760 --> 00:42:09.239
of the goal.
891
00:42:09.679 --> 00:42:12.280
Him and I sneak around and pretend like we're construction
892
00:42:12.300 --> 00:42:15.340
workers and somehow try to get into the stadiums just to.
893
00:42:15.260 --> 00:42:15.820
Get a picture.
894
00:42:16.579 --> 00:42:21.059
That is crazy because that would be fun to do.
895
00:42:22.480 --> 00:42:27.610
I'm not into college football as much as most people
896
00:42:27.679 --> 00:42:30.829
only because my Saturdays are just crazy and I have
897
00:42:30.889 --> 00:42:33.829
no clue what's going on. A couple years ago, I
898
00:42:34.150 --> 00:42:39.480
went to Wyoming for a wedding with my girlfriend's cousin
899
00:42:39.500 --> 00:42:43.940
was getting married. And Wyoming, there's just nothing there. But
900
00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:48.409
they live in Laramie. And for some reason in my head,
901
00:42:48.429 --> 00:42:51.869
I went, Laramie? Isn't that where the Wyoming Cowboys play?
902
00:42:51.909 --> 00:42:53.670
Like that's where the stadium is? And I went on
903
00:42:53.690 --> 00:42:55.639
my phone and it was two miles away.
904
00:42:55.659 --> 00:42:57.119
I saw your picture.
905
00:42:57.320 --> 00:42:59.900
So I just walked over there and I walked into
906
00:42:59.940 --> 00:43:02.980
the stadium and took pictures and I pretended like I belonged.
907
00:43:03.679 --> 00:43:06.940
And that's exactly what I did. I was like, I
908
00:43:06.980 --> 00:43:08.199
wonder if there's a gate that's open.
909
00:43:08.239 --> 00:43:09.280
And I just found one.
910
00:43:09.300 --> 00:43:09.639
That's the key.
911
00:43:09.679 --> 00:43:12.150
You have to act like you belong and that you
912
00:43:12.170 --> 00:43:13.550
know what you're doing. Just walk in.
913
00:43:13.570 --> 00:43:13.650
Yeah.
914
00:43:14.300 --> 00:43:16.420
We've actually like waved to somebody like, Hey.
915
00:43:16.440 --> 00:43:17.480
Yeah, we know what we're doing.
916
00:43:17.820 --> 00:43:21.000
Yeah. Yeah. And it was awesome. I mean, all I
917
00:43:21.019 --> 00:43:22.860
can tell you is that Josh Allen played there. That's,
918
00:43:23.010 --> 00:43:24.789
I mean, I, you know, I don't know that much,
919
00:43:24.849 --> 00:43:28.230
but it was so cool to see that up close and,
920
00:43:28.829 --> 00:43:31.469
and to check that out. So that was a, what
921
00:43:31.489 --> 00:43:33.849
a weird spot because there's nothing there. And then there's
922
00:43:33.869 --> 00:43:38.130
just a stadium, but that's kind of college football for you, right?
923
00:43:38.230 --> 00:43:42.730
Most places on Friday, you hosted Linda Christian. They took
924
00:43:42.750 --> 00:43:46.400
a 31 to 10 win. And tell us about the game.
925
00:43:48.269 --> 00:43:50.269
So I'll talk about the game kind of like how
926
00:43:50.309 --> 00:43:51.730
we talked about the game with the kids.
927
00:43:52.690 --> 00:43:53.050
We didn't.
928
00:43:54.929 --> 00:43:58.949
You know, it's one of those, we didn't.
929
00:43:58.869 --> 00:44:01.860
Watch film on it, and we kind of took a
930
00:44:02.420 --> 00:44:05.340
weekend off. You know, normally we do something on Saturday,
931
00:44:05.619 --> 00:44:09.880
and we, as a team, we just took it off.
932
00:44:09.980 --> 00:44:13.119
So it was time to... kind of just sit back
933
00:44:13.179 --> 00:44:14.860
and just take a break. And, you know, I think
934
00:44:14.900 --> 00:44:17.900
sometimes we forget that these kids have been going since August.
935
00:44:19.550 --> 00:44:22.389
And for us, I mean, you get a Sunday off
936
00:44:22.429 --> 00:44:24.730
for the kids, and usually it's lifting or film or.
937
00:44:24.929 --> 00:44:25.889
Some Saturday games.
938
00:44:25.989 --> 00:44:28.449
So I think it was just time for us to
939
00:44:28.489 --> 00:44:32.829
take a break and just kind of relax and just
940
00:44:32.889 --> 00:44:36.800
get back to– Try to remember.
941
00:44:36.500 --> 00:44:38.300
When we're having fun.
942
00:44:38.340 --> 00:44:45.730
I saw a video from the Brewers manager, Pat Murphy.
943
00:44:46.469 --> 00:44:48.869
He said his job, and this.
944
00:44:48.769 --> 00:44:51.429
Relates to us as well as the high school coaches,
945
00:44:52.469 --> 00:44:55.090
basically our job is not about wins and losses.
946
00:44:55.199 --> 00:44:56.940
It's how do we impact players.
947
00:44:59.480 --> 00:45:02.519
Sometimes we put a lot on wins and losses, but
948
00:45:02.900 --> 00:45:07.400
our job is to get these kids to believe and
949
00:45:07.559 --> 00:45:09.940
do things better than they think they can and to
950
00:45:10.019 --> 00:45:13.239
push them to be the best versions of themselves.
951
00:45:12.800 --> 00:45:15.659
In everything they do, whether it's schoolwork or football or
952
00:45:15.739 --> 00:45:16.440
whatever it is.
953
00:45:17.619 --> 00:45:21.869
And, you know, sometimes you get lost in just kind
954
00:45:21.889 --> 00:45:25.130
of the everyday stuff of the season. And we thought
955
00:45:25.170 --> 00:45:27.369
this was a good time to kind of just take
956
00:45:27.409 --> 00:45:30.650
a step back and kind of reflect on that from top.
957
00:45:30.510 --> 00:45:31.889
To bottom, from me all the way down.
958
00:45:31.909 --> 00:45:35.460
And so, yeah, We had a good discussion, good team
959
00:45:35.480 --> 00:45:39.219
meeting yesterday, and we'll see what practice is like this
960
00:45:39.280 --> 00:45:42.679
week and what happens on Friday.
961
00:45:42.739 --> 00:45:45.440
But I think it was much needed for us.
962
00:45:46.179 --> 00:45:48.639
Yeah, that's such an underrated thing that probably a lot
963
00:45:48.659 --> 00:45:52.159
of coaches don't think about is maybe at the end
964
00:45:52.199 --> 00:45:54.570
of the season, you kind of just wipe your brow
965
00:45:54.590 --> 00:45:56.389
and go, man, it would have been nice to take
966
00:45:56.429 --> 00:45:59.130
a break at this point or here. And when you
967
00:45:59.170 --> 00:46:02.079
have a veteran staff and it was probably, everyone probably
968
00:46:02.119 --> 00:46:03.699
agreed and said, you know what, this would be a
969
00:46:03.699 --> 00:46:05.980
good time. And so for it to work out well
970
00:46:06.019 --> 00:46:09.739
like that, you know, I think that's, I think that's
971
00:46:09.800 --> 00:46:11.619
really wise. And I think a lot of young coaches
972
00:46:12.139 --> 00:46:15.690
might hear this and go, man, that's, there's definitely something
973
00:46:15.750 --> 00:46:17.949
to that and it's kind of finding the right spot.
974
00:46:17.989 --> 00:46:20.469
So I think it's, I think that's a, that's, that's
975
00:46:20.530 --> 00:46:24.239
well put. You have a new offensive coordinator this, this year.
976
00:46:24.699 --> 00:46:24.900
Yeah.
977
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:28.150
In a Tyler Dubuque. who has been the offensive coordinator.
978
00:46:28.210 --> 00:46:31.329
He's won state championships as an offensive coordinator out of Anacortes.
979
00:46:31.809 --> 00:46:34.070
How has that worked out, and what has been the
980
00:46:34.110 --> 00:46:36.610
biggest change in your offensive philosophy this season?
981
00:46:38.150 --> 00:46:42.650
Yeah, he's doing a great job. The kids are getting
982
00:46:42.750 --> 00:46:43.530
used to him.
983
00:46:43.769 --> 00:46:47.829
The hard part when he first came up is how
984
00:46:47.869 --> 00:46:50.469
do we marry the two lingos? How do we marry
985
00:46:50.590 --> 00:46:52.860
what we call plays and what we call stuff into
986
00:46:53.400 --> 00:46:55.320
what he's used to calling stuff, and how do we
987
00:46:55.360 --> 00:46:57.800
make it easier for for him and the kids. So
988
00:46:57.820 --> 00:47:01.679
we kind of worked out a system and, um, you know,
989
00:47:01.699 --> 00:47:04.969
we kind of morphed both of them into, you know,
990
00:47:04.989 --> 00:47:09.170
a common language. Um, he's, he's brought, uh, you know,
991
00:47:09.250 --> 00:47:13.869
similar offenses, but he, he, he, he brings a little
992
00:47:13.889 --> 00:47:17.329
bit of a different dynamic as far as, you know,
993
00:47:17.349 --> 00:47:21.050
trying to get guys in motion and, um, just some
994
00:47:21.090 --> 00:47:24.619
of the things that he sees is, is beyond, you know, what,
995
00:47:24.760 --> 00:47:27.110
what a lot of people see. And so, We call
996
00:47:27.119 --> 00:47:33.449
him Mini Sarkeesian. If you ever listen to Steve Sarkeesian
997
00:47:33.469 --> 00:47:37.070
talk about offense especially, that's Tyler.
998
00:47:37.269 --> 00:47:38.769
That's how he thinks of things.
999
00:47:40.130 --> 00:47:42.949
I think one of the biggest differences that he's had
1000
00:47:42.989 --> 00:47:46.230
to probably adjust to is the 2A level, you have
1001
00:47:46.250 --> 00:47:46.769
a lot.
1002
00:47:46.610 --> 00:47:49.750
More kids than you do the 1A.
1003
00:47:51.210 --> 00:47:55.210
It's easy to substitute guys in and out in that
1004
00:47:55.250 --> 00:47:57.889
2A level and he had some pretty.
1005
00:47:57.710 --> 00:48:00.610
Good players as well.
1006
00:48:02.239 --> 00:48:04.519
But we don't, you know, you don't really.
1007
00:48:04.400 --> 00:48:07.739
Have that luxury at times to just sub guys in.
1008
00:48:07.800 --> 00:48:10.719
And so, you know, we have a lot of kids
1009
00:48:10.760 --> 00:48:13.659
that are going, you know, offense and defense and all
1010
00:48:13.760 --> 00:48:16.159
special teams, and they just don't have a break. And
1011
00:48:16.260 --> 00:48:18.519
so I think that has been a little bit of
1012
00:48:18.579 --> 00:48:22.219
an adjustment for him. But the kids have, you know,
1013
00:48:22.579 --> 00:48:25.530
gotten to know him, and he's very passionate at what
1014
00:48:25.570 --> 00:48:25.860
he does.
1015
00:48:27.389 --> 00:48:28.150
We're lucky to have him.
1016
00:48:29.030 --> 00:48:29.349
Yeah.
1017
00:48:29.429 --> 00:48:32.429
And it's been it's been fun to watch this offense
1018
00:48:32.530 --> 00:48:36.659
because you can see the little changes here. You know,
1019
00:48:36.679 --> 00:48:39.059
and it's it's you know, it's a big change with
1020
00:48:39.139 --> 00:48:42.679
a sophomore quarterback. But, you know, having kind of these
1021
00:48:42.800 --> 00:48:45.460
double tight ends and stuff, it's a little different. And
1022
00:48:45.480 --> 00:48:48.699
then you kind of see, you know, things that. that
1023
00:48:48.769 --> 00:48:51.690
have the old offense. You see those, you see staples
1024
00:48:51.730 --> 00:48:53.849
of those with the quick outs and different things. And,
1025
00:48:54.320 --> 00:48:56.400
and so it's fun to kind of see how it's
1026
00:48:56.579 --> 00:49:01.090
changed a little bit and, And then each week, I mean,
1027
00:49:01.489 --> 00:49:04.699
you know, watching that end around pass was awesome. I mean,
1028
00:49:04.739 --> 00:49:06.960
that was like, hey, look at that. Like that was
1029
00:49:07.619 --> 00:49:09.980
that's something we haven't seen yet this year. We'd seen
1030
00:49:10.019 --> 00:49:14.469
it in years past. But that was a that was fun. And,
1031
00:49:14.530 --> 00:49:17.349
you know, and, you know, talk about Ty Barron's a
1032
00:49:17.369 --> 00:49:19.530
little bit, because I really thought this was probably his
1033
00:49:19.650 --> 00:49:23.119
best game. uh, offensively and defensively caught a pass as
1034
00:49:23.159 --> 00:49:26.170
well through that past, uh, got a sack on defense.
1035
00:49:26.250 --> 00:49:28.530
And this is a kid that this is a, it's
1036
00:49:28.550 --> 00:49:31.469
a tough situation to be in when, you know, the
1037
00:49:31.489 --> 00:49:34.730
starting quarterback is you're, he's a quarterback. The starting quarterback
1038
00:49:34.750 --> 00:49:36.980
is younger than you. So you have to find a
1039
00:49:37.039 --> 00:49:40.280
place to, how can I help the team? He's been
1040
00:49:40.340 --> 00:49:44.260
great at this kind of outside linebacker spot. So how
1041
00:49:44.440 --> 00:49:46.940
has he taken to that, and how has that gone
1042
00:49:46.960 --> 00:49:47.679
so far this year?
1043
00:49:48.880 --> 00:49:53.360
I cannot say enough about Ty Burns. He, across the board,
1044
00:49:53.380 --> 00:49:56.469
I mean, in August, he's fighting for a starting job
1045
00:49:56.489 --> 00:49:57.340
as quarterback.
1046
00:49:57.699 --> 00:49:58.010
Right.
1047
00:49:58.190 --> 00:50:03.030
And, you know, we're going to, you know, Jamboree, and then,
1048
00:50:03.170 --> 00:50:05.760
you know, we had to make a decision on– who
1049
00:50:05.840 --> 00:50:08.980
is going to start and Ty really hadn't been in
1050
00:50:09.159 --> 00:50:12.389
any other spots. And so, you know, we had that
1051
00:50:12.429 --> 00:50:14.250
conversation with him that we were going to go with
1052
00:50:14.289 --> 00:50:17.650
Lucas and it took Ty's credit.
1053
00:50:17.789 --> 00:50:20.489
He, he, he took that and said, okay.
1054
00:50:20.550 --> 00:50:23.429
And, you know, we talked about the importance of, you know,
1055
00:50:23.920 --> 00:50:27.639
just being ready in case something happens to Lucas. And
1056
00:50:28.360 --> 00:50:32.929
he has been unbelievable. His attitude, like, he comes out
1057
00:50:32.989 --> 00:50:35.510
to practice every single day and he works hard. He's
1058
00:50:35.550 --> 00:50:39.389
always asking, what can I do? He's, he's playing kind
1059
00:50:39.429 --> 00:50:42.550
of our H back role now. So he still, he
1060
00:50:42.570 --> 00:50:44.559
still has to understand all the quarterback stuff, but now
1061
00:50:44.579 --> 00:50:47.639
he's playing kind of a hybrid running back, hybrid receiver
1062
00:50:47.679 --> 00:50:48.420
type position.
1063
00:50:49.159 --> 00:50:52.519
Um, so he's had to, to learn that. Um, and
1064
00:50:53.340 --> 00:50:53.719
you're right.
1065
00:50:53.780 --> 00:50:57.079
He, he's playing defense and, um, you know, I'm not
1066
00:50:57.099 --> 00:51:00.849
going to jinx him, but he has, uh, he, I
1067
00:51:00.889 --> 00:51:04.530
would agree with you. Last game was, was probably his
1068
00:51:04.570 --> 00:51:09.269
best game, but he's been really consistent lately. Just said
1069
00:51:09.289 --> 00:51:14.409
that defensive position and just, he hasn't complained once. He
1070
00:51:14.449 --> 00:51:17.760
didn't complain once about, about not being the quarterback and,
1071
00:51:17.780 --> 00:51:21.280
you know, he worked hard. So, and that's, that in
1072
00:51:21.320 --> 00:51:24.719
itself is really tough. You're coming into camp and you,
1073
00:51:24.800 --> 00:51:26.340
you're fighting for a spot and then.
1074
00:51:26.239 --> 00:51:26.800
You don't get it.
1075
00:51:26.840 --> 00:51:30.090
And how do you react to that? And so, I
1076
00:51:30.130 --> 00:51:36.329
can't say enough. I mean, overall, he has been what
1077
00:51:36.849 --> 00:51:39.829
we want all of our kids, not taking anything away
1078
00:51:39.849 --> 00:51:43.769
from anybody. But he has been that guy day in
1079
00:51:43.809 --> 00:51:47.210
and day out. And it's really, really cool to see.
1080
00:51:47.980 --> 00:51:50.369
Yeah, and it's probably one of those things where it
1081
00:51:50.829 --> 00:51:53.610
can start to rub off on other players where they
1082
00:51:53.650 --> 00:51:55.590
want to do, hey, coach, what can I do to
1083
00:51:55.630 --> 00:51:57.139
help the team? Or how can I do this? How
1084
00:51:57.179 --> 00:51:59.360
can I do that? And so that's really nice to
1085
00:51:59.400 --> 00:52:01.719
have that. And he's a presence. I mean, he's a
1086
00:52:01.760 --> 00:52:04.730
big 6'4 kid that, you know, stands out when younger
1087
00:52:04.769 --> 00:52:07.590
kids are seeing that. Then they're going to go, wow,
1088
00:52:07.710 --> 00:52:09.969
that's how you that's how to be a Nooksack Valley
1089
00:52:10.010 --> 00:52:13.889
pioneer right there. And he boots that 31 yard field goal, too.
1090
00:52:13.949 --> 00:52:16.409
I mean, he's doing so many things. And and so
1091
00:52:16.510 --> 00:52:20.139
that's what's been so fun to watch. And and I
1092
00:52:20.199 --> 00:52:23.659
love that because it's especially in 1A, like you were
1093
00:52:23.679 --> 00:52:26.960
talking about, if you know you want your best 11
1094
00:52:26.960 --> 00:52:30.409
out there and. And even if you lose the starting spot,
1095
00:52:30.710 --> 00:52:33.489
we're going to find a place for you. And you
1096
00:52:33.510 --> 00:52:37.320
definitely have in all three phases. This Saturday night, you're
1097
00:52:37.340 --> 00:52:40.840
back on the road against Meridian, Bob Ames Field. Tell
1098
00:52:40.880 --> 00:52:42.360
us about this year's Trojan team.
1099
00:52:43.280 --> 00:52:44.460
It's Friday night, right?
1100
00:52:45.250 --> 00:52:45.889
Oh, I'm sorry.
1101
00:52:45.909 --> 00:52:47.469
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
1102
00:52:47.489 --> 00:52:49.849
I'm going to have to look to make sure.
1103
00:52:49.969 --> 00:52:52.789
No, no, it is. It is Friday night. I still have,
1104
00:52:52.849 --> 00:52:55.289
I'm still looking. I had to edit my questions that
1105
00:52:55.309 --> 00:52:58.289
I had with, with the Wateco Layton. His game is Saturday.
1106
00:52:58.570 --> 00:53:02.420
So I was going to have to adjust my practice schedule.
1107
00:53:05.440 --> 00:53:05.840
You know what?
1108
00:53:05.900 --> 00:53:10.119
Meridian has got some athletes out there on the field and,
1109
00:53:10.539 --> 00:53:16.300
and you know, Trey Alexander, he's, He's a weapon.
1110
00:53:17.179 --> 00:53:17.699
He can run.
1111
00:53:20.989 --> 00:53:23.829
He's really dangerous. Not only do you have to defend
1112
00:53:23.869 --> 00:53:28.130
the pass, but you have to defend him running. They
1113
00:53:28.190 --> 00:53:30.630
have a running game. They haven't used it a lot,
1114
00:53:30.650 --> 00:53:32.030
but we'll see.
1115
00:53:33.329 --> 00:53:37.860
They're good. They throw the ball a ton.
1116
00:53:37.889 --> 00:53:41.340
Last year, they threw it 67 times against us, and
1117
00:53:41.380 --> 00:53:43.320
then When they played it on Alaska, they threw it
1118
00:53:43.340 --> 00:53:44.360
60-something times.
1119
00:53:44.400 --> 00:53:48.579
And so they're going to be– they're tough. And so
1120
00:53:49.079 --> 00:53:50.920
we're going to have to play really, really good just
1121
00:53:50.940 --> 00:53:52.019
to kind of keep it close.
1122
00:53:52.760 --> 00:53:54.460
You know, when you play a team like this where
1123
00:53:54.500 --> 00:53:56.460
you know they're going to air it out quite a bit,
1124
00:53:57.179 --> 00:54:00.639
you know, you've made adjustments defensively where a lot of
1125
00:54:00.659 --> 00:54:04.949
times against pass-heavy teams you might go three-man front, kind
1126
00:54:04.969 --> 00:54:06.329
of like a 33 instead of a 42. Do you
1127
00:54:06.349 --> 00:54:12.920
look at where– man, we're going to have to play
1128
00:54:13.360 --> 00:54:15.949
dime the whole time? Or do you look at different
1129
00:54:16.010 --> 00:54:18.449
personnel based on that? Or do you go with kind
1130
00:54:18.489 --> 00:54:20.389
of who you've been and they just have to play
1131
00:54:20.429 --> 00:54:21.289
in a different spot?
1132
00:54:22.190 --> 00:54:25.369
A little bit of both. In playing against Marini, it's
1133
00:54:25.409 --> 00:54:29.190
tough because they can do everything. So, yeah, you have
1134
00:54:29.230 --> 00:54:31.139
to drop people back, but you also have to try
1135
00:54:31.159 --> 00:54:34.719
to get a pass rush because if Trace is back
1136
00:54:34.739 --> 00:54:37.219
there all day, he's going to pick teams apart. And
1137
00:54:37.280 --> 00:54:40.449
so how do you get pressure but not enough? but
1138
00:54:40.489 --> 00:54:43.550
not too much pressure where, you know, you flush him
1139
00:54:43.610 --> 00:54:46.539
out and then he can get you that way. And,
1140
00:54:47.719 --> 00:54:51.199
you know, Leonard Christian has a really good defense. And
1141
00:54:51.239 --> 00:54:53.539
I think he had, what, 200 yards rushing or something
1142
00:54:53.559 --> 00:54:58.050
like that. And so it's– they're hard to defend.
1143
00:54:58.110 --> 00:54:58.900
And, you know.
1144
00:54:59.159 --> 00:55:02.150
We'll kind of do what we normally do, but, you know,
1145
00:55:02.190 --> 00:55:04.409
maybe have a couple wrinkles in there and kind of
1146
00:55:04.449 --> 00:55:06.289
see what works, if anything.
1147
00:55:07.110 --> 00:55:09.409
And the big thing that a lot of coaches talk about,
1148
00:55:09.429 --> 00:55:11.449
and this might be something you'll work on in practice,
1149
00:55:11.489 --> 00:55:13.489
or I don't know how you have to nail it
1150
00:55:13.550 --> 00:55:19.409
home to your defensive guys, but Meridian might have 60
1151
00:55:19.409 --> 00:55:22.360
offensive plays and they might have 40 different formations when
1152
00:55:22.380 --> 00:55:25.760
they really only ran 20 different plays. You know what
1153
00:55:25.780 --> 00:55:29.280
I mean? And so they do these little things to
1154
00:55:29.340 --> 00:55:34.960
kind of confuse 16-year-old players. They'll have a diamond of
1155
00:55:35.280 --> 00:55:37.420
receivers on one side and then the tight end leaks
1156
00:55:37.500 --> 00:55:39.599
out on the other side or something like that. So,
1157
00:55:39.969 --> 00:55:42.030
you know, how do you knock that home? Is it
1158
00:55:42.070 --> 00:55:44.889
just a lot of film study and say, look at this,
1159
00:55:44.989 --> 00:55:47.050
look at this, look at this. These are all different formations.
1160
00:55:47.090 --> 00:55:49.090
They all did the same thing. Or is it, or,
1161
00:55:49.329 --> 00:55:52.050
you know, on the field and during practice, like how
1162
00:55:52.070 --> 00:55:54.429
do you kind of knock home this, this stuff where
1163
00:55:54.469 --> 00:55:56.449
they're trying to make it tough for you, but really
1164
00:55:56.570 --> 00:55:57.010
it's simple.
1165
00:55:57.610 --> 00:55:58.309
Yeah.
1166
00:55:58.329 --> 00:55:58.530
Yeah.
1167
00:55:58.869 --> 00:55:59.250
Exactly.
1168
00:55:59.289 --> 00:55:59.429
Right.
1169
00:55:59.909 --> 00:56:00.610
It's a lot of film.
1170
00:56:01.469 --> 00:56:04.489
You know, we'll watch with the kids. We'll watch the film.
1171
00:56:05.400 --> 00:56:07.360
A little bit today, a little bit tomorrow, a little
1172
00:56:07.380 --> 00:56:08.000
bit Thursday.
1173
00:56:08.960 --> 00:56:12.199
But you're right. It's trying to figure out, okay, what
1174
00:56:12.239 --> 00:56:14.059
are they exactly trying to do?
1175
00:56:15.519 --> 00:56:18.119
And trying to identify that, which they do a good
1176
00:56:18.139 --> 00:56:19.340
job of hiding that.
1177
00:56:19.420 --> 00:56:20.940
But it's trying to figure out.
1178
00:56:20.960 --> 00:56:24.099
Okay, they have guys running all over the place, but
1179
00:56:24.179 --> 00:56:27.409
what is it exactly they're trying to do? But the
1180
00:56:27.449 --> 00:56:30.349
problem is when you figure that out, if you don't
1181
00:56:30.469 --> 00:56:34.650
adjust to all the exterior stuff, then they'll burn you out.
1182
00:56:35.239 --> 00:56:38.489
That way as well, they'll get you outmanned or outmatched.
1183
00:56:38.550 --> 00:56:42.050
And so that's the game of just trying to play,
1184
00:56:42.190 --> 00:56:44.769
trying to simplify it for the kids so they don't
1185
00:56:44.789 --> 00:56:47.639
get overwhelmed in the game when you're playing that.
1186
00:56:48.300 --> 00:56:52.110
Yeah, this is one that I'm really excited about. It's
1187
00:56:52.150 --> 00:56:55.230
always a great matchup. It's a good rivalry game. And
1188
00:56:55.409 --> 00:56:59.710
as the season has progressed, you know, in my eyes,
1189
00:56:59.789 --> 00:57:02.739
and this is just me, I look at, you know,
1190
00:57:02.760 --> 00:57:05.159
the best passing attack in the county against the best
1191
00:57:05.199 --> 00:57:07.840
secondary in the county. So that's what I personally am
1192
00:57:07.880 --> 00:57:09.619
really looking forward to. I know it's going to be
1193
00:57:09.639 --> 00:57:14.219
a fantastic game, Coach. Best of luck on Friday, everybody,
1194
00:57:14.599 --> 00:57:16.639
at Bob Ames Field. Thank you so much for joining
1195
00:57:16.659 --> 00:57:18.780
me today on the Gatorade Game Day Podcast.
1196
00:57:19.460 --> 00:57:20.039
I appreciate it.
1197
00:57:20.099 --> 00:57:20.420
Thank you.
1198
00:57:21.739 --> 00:57:23.920
I am now joined on the Gatorade Game Day podcast
1199
00:57:23.960 --> 00:57:27.199
by Meridian Head Football Coach Patrick Ames. Coach, thank you
1200
00:57:27.219 --> 00:57:28.570
for joining me today. How are you doing?
1201
00:57:29.289 --> 00:57:31.159
I'm well, my friend. Happy to do it.
1202
00:57:31.449 --> 00:57:34.469
Yeah, good. You're on a road trip, at least a
1203
00:57:34.530 --> 00:57:37.650
five-hour drive. What snack do you have close by?
1204
00:57:41.349 --> 00:57:41.829
Trail mix.
1205
00:57:43.050 --> 00:57:46.179
Yeah, that seems to be a pretty popular answer. Yeah,
1206
00:57:46.219 --> 00:57:47.400
you have a little bit of everything, right?
1207
00:57:47.840 --> 00:57:48.039
Yep.
1208
00:57:48.420 --> 00:57:51.050
Yeah the downside of trail mix though if you miss
1209
00:57:51.269 --> 00:57:53.730
right if you miss hand to mouth now you're picking
1210
00:57:53.789 --> 00:57:56.030
peanuts out of the cracks of your seats.
1211
00:57:55.829 --> 00:58:00.139
Forever yeah no especially if those trail mix are also
1212
00:58:00.159 --> 00:58:01.780
in the hand if that trail mix is also in
1213
00:58:01.800 --> 00:58:03.800
the hands of any of the kids then you know
1214
00:58:03.840 --> 00:58:05.920
that's 10x the number of peanuts you got to pick out.
1215
00:58:07.179 --> 00:58:10.090
Yeah and raisins and all sorts of who knows what's
1216
00:58:10.130 --> 00:58:14.030
his but uh Yeah, I do know that. Yeah, that's
1217
00:58:14.110 --> 00:58:16.710
just a disaster at that point. I mean, with kids
1218
00:58:16.750 --> 00:58:18.889
in a five hour drive, that's tough enough as it is.
1219
00:58:19.210 --> 00:58:19.389
Sure.
1220
00:58:19.489 --> 00:58:23.449
And, you know, so I get that. On Friday, you
1221
00:58:23.489 --> 00:58:28.360
hosted Sehome and took the 51 to 14 win. You
1222
00:58:28.400 --> 00:58:31.409
got on a roll there offensively and. One of the
1223
00:58:31.469 --> 00:58:35.010
things we were talking off there, you got everybody in,
1224
00:58:35.070 --> 00:58:37.329
which is a cool thing to do, especially at home.
1225
00:58:37.349 --> 00:58:39.690
A lot of kids maybe for the first time underneath
1226
00:58:39.750 --> 00:58:41.889
the lights, which is fun. Tell us about the game.
1227
00:58:43.550 --> 00:58:50.570
It started out a really tightly contested first couple of
1228
00:58:50.610 --> 00:58:53.630
drives where they drove down the field and we were
1229
00:58:53.670 --> 00:58:56.010
able to get a stop deep in our red zone.
1230
00:58:56.179 --> 00:58:59.469
We went three and out and punted and Got another
1231
00:58:59.510 --> 00:59:03.980
stop and then quickly we found a little rhythm offensively
1232
00:59:04.079 --> 00:59:08.489
and we stayed pretty sharp after that. And we played really,
1233
00:59:08.630 --> 00:59:11.000
really well on defense. the rest of the first half
1234
00:59:11.500 --> 00:59:14.969
um and coming into the third quarter and uh i
1235
00:59:15.010 --> 00:59:17.369
think they got on the board with a really good
1236
00:59:17.409 --> 00:59:20.989
play on defense from them they knocked a screen pass
1237
00:59:21.050 --> 00:59:22.210
up in the air and another one of the guys
1238
00:59:22.670 --> 00:59:26.769
you know picked it ran for a And I know
1239
00:59:26.789 --> 00:59:29.989
we gave up another touchdown a little bit later in
1240
00:59:30.050 --> 00:59:35.019
that game, but we played really, really well for, I
1241
00:59:35.460 --> 00:59:39.420
guess the middle, you know, three quarters, a little rocky
1242
00:59:39.440 --> 00:59:41.719
at the beginning and then maybe not as sharp at
1243
00:59:41.760 --> 00:59:45.099
the end. But that is also, you know, as, as
1244
00:59:45.119 --> 00:59:47.199
you mentioned, the opportunity we had to be able to
1245
00:59:47.219 --> 00:59:51.679
get some, some, some newer guys into that game. And, and,
1246
00:59:51.860 --> 00:59:54.340
and they played really hard also with the opportunities that
1247
00:59:54.360 --> 00:59:56.719
they had. So yeah, it ended up being a, a
1248
00:59:56.760 --> 00:59:59.110
pretty satisfying victory for, for our program.
1249
00:59:59.869 --> 01:00:02.710
You know, it, it's always interesting. I mean, everybody remembers
1250
01:00:02.789 --> 01:00:05.570
the first time they ever go onto the field for
1251
01:00:05.590 --> 01:00:09.230
their first varsity snap or kickoff or whatever it is.
1252
01:00:09.949 --> 01:00:12.739
Were there any, uh, did you see any wide eyes? Like,
1253
01:00:13.139 --> 01:00:14.400
I don't know if, I don't know if I should,
1254
01:00:14.460 --> 01:00:16.340
or was everybody pretty pumped to go out there for
1255
01:00:16.360 --> 01:00:16.920
the first time?
1256
01:00:17.460 --> 01:00:19.639
Oh, no, there's some, there's some wide eyes. And I'll
1257
01:00:19.659 --> 01:00:22.719
tell you about this one because this is a, and
1258
01:00:22.739 --> 01:00:26.849
I don't think he'd mind me saying, but, um, my
1259
01:00:26.889 --> 01:00:29.289
son who's a freshman on our team has not been
1260
01:00:29.389 --> 01:00:31.610
in a varsity game before. And, you know, we got to,
1261
01:00:31.690 --> 01:00:34.789
I think we got to 44 nothing, um, and initiated
1262
01:00:34.809 --> 01:00:36.989
the running clock in the third quarter. And, you know,
1263
01:00:37.010 --> 01:00:38.969
I turned to our, our two freshmen running backs. He's
1264
01:00:39.070 --> 01:00:41.510
one of them. Um, and I said, okay, you guys,
1265
01:00:41.550 --> 01:00:43.050
you know, the next time we've got the ball, you know,
1266
01:00:43.090 --> 01:00:46.449
you guys are on alert. Uh, and we ended up
1267
01:00:46.469 --> 01:00:50.710
driving down, uh, Pierce, uh, Brasowski makes a big run
1268
01:00:50.730 --> 01:00:53.300
down in their territory. We ended up with a, uh,
1269
01:00:54.500 --> 01:00:56.599
personnel change. And I turn around and look for the
1270
01:00:56.920 --> 01:00:58.920
two running backs. And the only guy I see there
1271
01:00:58.980 --> 01:01:01.619
is my son. I'm like, okay, this is your play.
1272
01:01:01.639 --> 01:01:04.159
You're going in. It ended up being a run to him.
1273
01:01:05.659 --> 01:01:07.659
And then after the game, you know, talking about it
1274
01:01:07.699 --> 01:01:12.230
with him, he's like, well, yeah, it happened really fast.
1275
01:01:12.429 --> 01:01:14.010
And it was too fast for me to get like
1276
01:01:14.050 --> 01:01:18.039
really scared and nervous. And Um, I think that's probably everybody,
1277
01:01:18.099 --> 01:01:21.039
most everybody's experience the first time they get in the game.
1278
01:01:21.099 --> 01:01:23.300
And I'll, I'll tell you the first time I'd been
1279
01:01:23.340 --> 01:01:25.599
in games, maybe a couple of times my sophomore year,
1280
01:01:25.619 --> 01:01:27.300
but I was going to start the first game of
1281
01:01:27.360 --> 01:01:30.460
my My junior year, it was against Nooksack on the road,
1282
01:01:30.719 --> 01:01:32.980
and I was really nervous, right? I'd grown up as
1283
01:01:33.079 --> 01:01:35.460
the ball boy for a team. I wanted, you know,
1284
01:01:35.579 --> 01:01:37.840
in the worst way to play. And all that pressure
1285
01:01:37.880 --> 01:01:40.900
I put on myself, man, it made me sick before
1286
01:01:40.940 --> 01:01:43.480
the game. And I'll never forget, my dad walks up
1287
01:01:43.500 --> 01:01:45.320
to me on the sideline, and he's like, how are
1288
01:01:45.340 --> 01:01:47.159
you feeling, boy? I said, dad, I'm so nervous, I
1289
01:01:47.179 --> 01:01:49.079
think I'm going to puke. And he just kind of
1290
01:01:49.099 --> 01:01:51.840
looks at me, he's like, Well, puke and get it
1291
01:01:51.900 --> 01:01:53.610
over with. We kick off in 30 seconds. And he
1292
01:01:53.639 --> 01:01:56.170
walks away. It's like, oh, I guess actually that's probably
1293
01:01:56.190 --> 01:01:57.610
what I needed to hear. I didn't need an arm
1294
01:01:57.650 --> 01:01:59.329
around me. He's like, well, you're going to go out
1295
01:01:59.349 --> 01:02:01.150
there anyway. There's nothing else you can do at this point.
1296
01:02:02.349 --> 01:02:05.780
So I remember that moment from the first time that
1297
01:02:06.050 --> 01:02:08.619
I had some prolonged Friday night action. And I kind
1298
01:02:08.679 --> 01:02:10.800
of try to keep that perspective with most of our
1299
01:02:10.820 --> 01:02:12.880
guys also. It's like, is this a football game? Just
1300
01:02:12.900 --> 01:02:13.860
go in and play. Have fun.
1301
01:02:14.239 --> 01:02:16.820
Yeah, you've been playing football for years. It's just a
1302
01:02:16.960 --> 01:02:18.730
different type of football. That's all right.
1303
01:02:19.369 --> 01:02:19.590
Yeah.
1304
01:02:19.610 --> 01:02:19.809
Yeah.
1305
01:02:19.949 --> 01:02:20.170
Yeah.
1306
01:02:20.349 --> 01:02:21.389
Do you like to say that?
1307
01:02:21.590 --> 01:02:25.489
Yeah. Do you remember your first carry in college?
1308
01:02:29.570 --> 01:02:31.679
First carry in college.
1309
01:02:36.599 --> 01:02:39.239
I'm just curious. I'm just curious if that is similar
1310
01:02:39.320 --> 01:02:41.840
feel to like starting for the first time on varsity
1311
01:02:41.880 --> 01:02:42.340
of the juniors.
1312
01:02:42.860 --> 01:02:44.760
You know, I thought, I think I caught some balls
1313
01:02:44.840 --> 01:02:47.019
maybe the first time. Oh, actually, you know what? I
1314
01:02:47.039 --> 01:02:48.559
remember the first time I handled the ball in a
1315
01:02:48.599 --> 01:02:52.199
college game, we were playing Western. Um, and they were really,
1316
01:02:52.400 --> 01:02:54.260
really good. And I can remember the guys that were,
1317
01:02:54.320 --> 01:02:56.360
I was on the kick return team and I can
1318
01:02:56.380 --> 01:02:58.590
remember the guys running down to cover this kick. It's like,
1319
01:02:59.010 --> 01:03:01.250
and some of their talented running backs are on, it's
1320
01:03:01.289 --> 01:03:06.260
like Ryan Wiggins. It's, uh, It's Orlando Steinauer. I remember
1321
01:03:06.280 --> 01:03:08.579
the guy who tackled me. His name is Kevin Palmer.
1322
01:03:08.599 --> 01:03:12.300
They were just legit dudes. And I remember it was
1323
01:03:12.340 --> 01:03:14.510
kind of a high kickoff. I was in the middle row.
1324
01:03:14.889 --> 01:03:16.769
And I remember like, oh, you know what? I think
1325
01:03:16.809 --> 01:03:18.250
I want to kick this ball. And I think he
1326
01:03:18.269 --> 01:03:21.230
even took two steps back into our kick returner who
1327
01:03:21.250 --> 01:03:24.079
just kind of backed off. Um, and I remember, you know,
1328
01:03:24.119 --> 01:03:26.559
field in that one and just going straight ahead, thinking, okay,
1329
01:03:26.760 --> 01:03:28.239
who knows what the next time is that I'm going
1330
01:03:28.260 --> 01:03:30.119
to touch the ball. So I better take advantage here.
1331
01:03:30.380 --> 01:03:32.119
So I do remember that the first time I handled
1332
01:03:32.139 --> 01:03:33.969
the ball in a college game, I was, I don't know,
1333
01:03:34.010 --> 01:03:34.929
freshman or sophomore.
1334
01:03:35.230 --> 01:03:36.090
Was that at civic?
1335
01:03:37.150 --> 01:03:38.550
Uh, no, that game was at UPS.
1336
01:03:38.849 --> 01:03:39.170
Okay.
1337
01:03:39.250 --> 01:03:39.590
Okay.
1338
01:03:39.809 --> 01:03:43.559
Oh, I love that. That's so cool. Um, Yeah, I
1339
01:03:43.599 --> 01:03:46.219
want to talk about you kind of brought up your defense,
1340
01:03:47.139 --> 01:03:49.579
you know, playing pretty well. And I want to talk
1341
01:03:49.599 --> 01:03:52.539
a little bit about your senior linebacker, Ethan Valich. And
1342
01:03:52.599 --> 01:03:54.260
he's a kid that if he gets his hands on you,
1343
01:03:54.300 --> 01:03:57.699
he's tackling you. And when you faced these big running teams,
1344
01:03:58.119 --> 01:04:00.380
he seems to have his best games. I know he's
1345
01:04:00.420 --> 01:04:03.260
getting the most opportunities in those games, but he's making
1346
01:04:03.280 --> 01:04:05.320
the plays. What makes him such a great football player?
1347
01:04:05.949 --> 01:04:09.630
I think you probably would, this wouldn't shock you if
1348
01:04:09.670 --> 01:04:12.050
you knew him or watched him play, but he's a
1349
01:04:12.090 --> 01:04:16.639
really good wrestler. And, you know, when he's got his
1350
01:04:16.800 --> 01:04:20.480
arms around you, like, chances are he's going to take
1351
01:04:20.500 --> 01:04:23.340
you down, right? Because that's what he does during football season.
1352
01:04:23.360 --> 01:04:27.590
That's what he does during wrestling season. And so he's become,
1353
01:04:28.030 --> 01:04:32.139
you know... that's his greatest strength probably is just the
1354
01:04:32.199 --> 01:04:35.059
way that he could get guys to the ground. Um,
1355
01:04:35.179 --> 01:04:38.519
because he's undersized, right. Uh, for a linebacker playing in
1356
01:04:38.619 --> 01:04:43.269
our league. Um, so taking the right angles, um, using leverage,
1357
01:04:43.469 --> 01:04:47.869
those kinds of things are part of his game. And
1358
01:04:48.230 --> 01:04:50.199
you're right, like in a lot of these games that
1359
01:04:50.219 --> 01:04:52.559
we've played where he's going to have lots of opportunities,
1360
01:04:54.159 --> 01:04:57.199
he's made the most of those chances, right? And he's
1361
01:04:57.239 --> 01:04:59.699
become a really important part of the middle of our
1362
01:04:59.719 --> 01:05:02.199
defense as we're trying to stop all these great teams
1363
01:05:02.219 --> 01:05:04.179
that we've played who run the ball right at you.
1364
01:05:05.079 --> 01:05:08.099
And this Friday night, you're back at home against Nooksack Valley.
1365
01:05:08.480 --> 01:05:10.320
What can you tell us about this year's Pioneer team?
1366
01:05:12.099 --> 01:05:15.679
Uh, they look pretty sharp and I, I know they've played,
1367
01:05:15.780 --> 01:05:18.210
you know, Lynn and Christian and, and Mount Baker, the,
1368
01:05:18.389 --> 01:05:22.170
the last couple of weeks, um, and played pretty competitive games,
1369
01:05:22.250 --> 01:05:24.489
even though they haven't come out on the winning end. But,
1370
01:05:24.570 --> 01:05:29.869
you know, before that, like they hadn't lost obviously. So, um, they've,
1371
01:05:30.150 --> 01:05:32.570
they've done a lot of really good things. They, they
1372
01:05:32.590 --> 01:05:35.840
look a little differently than they do on off on
1373
01:05:36.000 --> 01:05:38.780
offensively than they have, um, for the last several years.
1374
01:05:38.900 --> 01:05:41.530
And they've kept the things that, you know, they've, they've
1375
01:05:41.590 --> 01:05:43.849
liked over the last 20 and kind of filtered out
1376
01:05:43.889 --> 01:05:45.929
some of the things that maybe don't fit them as well. And,
1377
01:05:46.679 --> 01:05:49.679
added some things, and it makes them really dangerous to
1378
01:05:49.699 --> 01:05:53.530
try to defend, and they're just super, super solid on defense, right?
1379
01:05:53.550 --> 01:05:56.750
You really like the way that their linebackers tackle, the
1380
01:05:56.789 --> 01:05:59.409
way that their two safeties come downhill and tackle. That's
1381
01:05:59.449 --> 01:06:00.230
really impressive.
1382
01:06:01.010 --> 01:06:04.309
Yeah, that's what I'm really looking forward to is I
1383
01:06:04.969 --> 01:06:09.369
really think it's, you know, I think it's the premier
1384
01:06:09.429 --> 01:06:13.530
passing attack versus the amazing secondary, right? I mean, this
1385
01:06:13.610 --> 01:06:16.400
is the great, great matchup. for a, from a fan's
1386
01:06:16.460 --> 01:06:18.739
perspective and, and how does this, how is this going
1387
01:06:18.760 --> 01:06:21.320
to balance out here? And, and speaking of balance, you know,
1388
01:06:21.360 --> 01:06:24.639
Nooksack is very balanced on offense. What's the biggest difficulty
1389
01:06:24.980 --> 01:06:27.119
in preparing for a team that can run as well
1390
01:06:27.159 --> 01:06:27.840
as they can pass?
1391
01:06:30.099 --> 01:06:33.380
Um, I don't know if there's a, the biggest, right?
1392
01:06:33.480 --> 01:06:35.769
Like at that point, and it just comes down to
1393
01:06:35.809 --> 01:06:38.909
being sound, right? You can't, maybe you can't quote unquote
1394
01:06:38.989 --> 01:06:42.130
cheat as much, right? You don't have to, sometimes when
1395
01:06:42.150 --> 01:06:45.159
you're playing people that, um, that are going to be,
1396
01:06:45.300 --> 01:06:47.699
you know, are going to lean heavily toward, toward running
1397
01:06:47.739 --> 01:06:50.699
it versus throwing it. And, and that's not easy, right?
1398
01:06:50.820 --> 01:06:53.619
I'm thinking about like when we played on Alaska a
1399
01:06:53.880 --> 01:06:55.420
month ago, when we knew they were going to try
1400
01:06:55.440 --> 01:06:58.440
to run it 60 times and throw it three, maybe right. That's,
1401
01:06:58.659 --> 01:07:00.889
that's different because they're obviously going to be really, really
1402
01:07:00.949 --> 01:07:03.840
good at, at, at running the ball, but playing somebody
1403
01:07:04.070 --> 01:07:08.050
who is balanced, um, you, you just try to prepare
1404
01:07:08.070 --> 01:07:10.269
your kids, especially the ones who are, who are standing
1405
01:07:10.329 --> 01:07:14.739
up your linebackers and your DBS, um, to be fundamentally sound,
1406
01:07:15.219 --> 01:07:17.559
try to get it prepared for, you know, the, what you,
1407
01:07:18.099 --> 01:07:21.489
you think the looks are going to be for, you know, the, um,
1408
01:07:21.989 --> 01:07:24.530
the shifts and emotions that we know, uh, Nooksack is
1409
01:07:24.550 --> 01:07:28.469
going to, to attack us with, um, on top of
1410
01:07:28.550 --> 01:07:30.309
then the balance that can come out a lot of
1411
01:07:30.349 --> 01:07:32.389
those looks. So I don't, I, I wouldn't know what
1412
01:07:32.409 --> 01:07:34.030
to tell you as far as like what the biggest
1413
01:07:34.070 --> 01:07:36.349
challenge is other than, yeah, you're right. It is, it
1414
01:07:36.409 --> 01:07:39.289
is a challenge. Um, and the time that you, you
1415
01:07:39.329 --> 01:07:41.300
have to spend in practice to get ready for it is,
1416
01:07:41.530 --> 01:07:42.199
is significant.
1417
01:07:43.179 --> 01:07:43.280
Yeah.
1418
01:07:43.400 --> 01:07:45.820
It's, it's kind of, I guess maybe the way I
1419
01:07:45.860 --> 01:07:48.559
should have phrased it is how big of a challenge
1420
01:07:48.699 --> 01:07:49.579
is it to face it?
1421
01:07:49.679 --> 01:07:50.659
Because it, because you're right.
1422
01:07:50.739 --> 01:07:52.880
It all kind of goes into, it all kind of
1423
01:07:52.920 --> 01:07:56.639
goes together where, you know, let's be honest. A lot
1424
01:07:56.659 --> 01:08:00.610
of high school teams are, are not as balanced as Nooksack.
1425
01:08:00.730 --> 01:08:04.190
Usually they lean heavily or quite heavily and you face
1426
01:08:04.210 --> 01:08:06.949
some teams going kind of back and forth with that.
1427
01:08:06.969 --> 01:08:07.369
Yeah.
1428
01:08:08.070 --> 01:08:12.079
Blaine is very pass heavy and, So it's interesting, you know,
1429
01:08:12.519 --> 01:08:15.019
and when you have a game like this, and obviously
1430
01:08:15.079 --> 01:08:17.119
two staffs that know each other very well are probably
1431
01:08:17.140 --> 01:08:20.699
not going to be a ton of surprises. And it
1432
01:08:20.729 --> 01:08:23.670
really makes for a big, big game. And, you know,
1433
01:08:23.689 --> 01:08:26.909
not going to say all the details, but there's a
1434
01:08:26.930 --> 01:08:28.529
lot on the line in this one, too. So it's
1435
01:08:28.550 --> 01:08:31.329
going to be a really fun one, Coach. Best of
1436
01:08:31.369 --> 01:08:34.949
luck on Friday against the Pioneers at Bob Ames Field.
1437
01:08:35.069 --> 01:08:36.869
And thank you so much for joining me today on
1438
01:08:36.890 --> 01:08:38.149
the Gatorade Game Day Podcast.
1439
01:08:39.029 --> 01:08:40.340
Always a pleasure, Tyler. Thank you.
1440
01:08:41.319 --> 01:08:43.380
All right. Thank you very much to both coaches. We're
1441
01:08:43.399 --> 01:08:46.359
going to jump up to 3A right now for our
1442
01:08:46.439 --> 01:08:49.640
lone 3A game in the county. Of course, that involves Ferndale,
1443
01:08:49.680 --> 01:08:52.239
the Golden Eagles, who are 5-2 on the year, coming
1444
01:08:52.270 --> 01:08:56.189
off a tough loss to Stanwood. They're ranked 18th in
1445
01:08:56.250 --> 01:09:00.489
the Class 3A rankings, and they will be going down
1446
01:09:00.529 --> 01:09:02.699
to take on the cedra woolley cubs in a great
1447
01:09:02.760 --> 01:09:05.319
matchup both teams five and two cedra woolley is ranked
1448
01:09:05.460 --> 01:09:09.579
13th in max preps rankings i'm now joined on the
1449
01:09:09.600 --> 01:09:12.859
gatorade game day podcast by ferndale head football coach jamie
1450
01:09:12.920 --> 01:09:15.239
plankovich coach thank you for joining me today how are
1451
01:09:15.260 --> 01:09:20.039
you doing good how about yourself doing okay You're on
1452
01:09:20.079 --> 01:09:23.850
a road trip, at least five-hour drive. What snack do
1453
01:09:23.869 --> 01:09:24.750
you have close by?
1454
01:09:27.630 --> 01:09:28.289
Oh, man.
1455
01:09:31.909 --> 01:09:35.800
Well, if I'm riding with my wife, it's something healthy.
1456
01:09:35.979 --> 01:09:37.000
So nuts or.
1457
01:09:38.140 --> 01:09:41.380
vegetables or something if i'm riding by myself it might
1458
01:09:41.420 --> 01:09:42.460
be cheetos.
1459
01:09:44.270 --> 01:09:47.789
I love that answer and it's about as honest as
1460
01:09:47.850 --> 01:09:51.550
it gets right there so uh you know and uh
1461
01:09:51.789 --> 01:09:55.119
coach plankovich understands that i don't have many listeners so
1462
01:09:55.159 --> 01:09:58.119
this won't get back to his wife so this is
1463
01:09:58.279 --> 01:10:04.170
uh that's fantastic um Well, on Friday, you traveled down south,
1464
01:10:04.329 --> 01:10:06.390
not a five-hour road trip, but a little bit of
1465
01:10:06.409 --> 01:10:09.850
a road trip to take on Stanwood and the undefeated Spartans,
1466
01:10:09.890 --> 01:10:13.640
and unfortunately, they remained undefeated as they picked up the
1467
01:10:13.649 --> 01:10:16.060
31-7 win. Tell us about the game.
1468
01:10:17.100 --> 01:10:19.199
Well, got to give a lot of credit to them.
1469
01:10:19.220 --> 01:10:23.060
They came out. They are a very good football team.
1470
01:10:23.359 --> 01:10:27.850
Their quarterback is exceptional. We held them down under 100
1471
01:10:27.850 --> 01:10:30.890
yards rushing, but They were able to get some big
1472
01:10:30.930 --> 01:10:34.750
plays in the passing game and did a really good
1473
01:10:34.789 --> 01:10:37.890
job against us on defense. And, again, we turned the
1474
01:10:37.909 --> 01:10:41.710
ball over a couple times, which against a good team
1475
01:10:41.750 --> 01:10:42.770
you just cannot do.
1476
01:10:43.329 --> 01:10:46.090
Yeah, and you were right on the money about their quarterback.
1477
01:10:46.970 --> 01:10:49.029
A lot of these teams that you play, I don't
1478
01:10:49.109 --> 01:10:52.930
see them very often, so I really listen closely to
1479
01:10:52.989 --> 01:10:55.350
what you say. And then when I watched the film,
1480
01:10:56.329 --> 01:10:59.310
I kind of see how that goes, and boy, scouting
1481
01:10:59.329 --> 01:11:03.390
report was dead on with that. And like you just said,
1482
01:11:03.409 --> 01:11:07.069
I also felt like their defense was extremely impressive, limiting
1483
01:11:07.109 --> 01:11:09.949
the big plays, which seems like nobody has really done
1484
01:11:09.989 --> 01:11:12.880
against you until that point. Did they scheme well? Did
1485
01:11:12.899 --> 01:11:15.840
they execute well? Was it both? What do you think
1486
01:11:15.880 --> 01:11:16.199
it was?
1487
01:11:16.560 --> 01:11:18.420
Yeah, I think it was a combination of both.
1488
01:11:19.000 --> 01:11:24.020
Obviously, they loaded up the box against us, but their
1489
01:11:24.239 --> 01:11:30.239
kids– They're athletic. They're not super big, but they've got
1490
01:11:30.279 --> 01:11:33.060
really good speed on that side of the ball and
1491
01:11:33.100 --> 01:11:37.819
their kids are coached well. And yeah, they limited us
1492
01:11:37.899 --> 01:11:40.670
from having big plays, which like you said, we've got
1493
01:11:40.750 --> 01:11:45.149
big plays in our run game really every game this year.
1494
01:11:45.229 --> 01:11:49.189
So yeah, credit to them for making it really hard,
1495
01:11:49.229 --> 01:11:51.600
making us to have to chunk it down the field
1496
01:11:51.720 --> 01:11:54.890
and And, and again, like I said, we, we can't
1497
01:11:54.930 --> 01:11:57.090
turn the ball over and expect to beat good teams.
1498
01:11:57.529 --> 01:11:57.789
Sure.
1499
01:11:58.850 --> 01:12:01.170
I'm always curious about that with loading the box. I mean,
1500
01:12:01.189 --> 01:12:03.630
I understand the concept, you know, against a run team
1501
01:12:03.689 --> 01:12:06.430
and everything like that, but there's gotta be plays that
1502
01:12:06.470 --> 01:12:08.430
you have, like, you know, you have a running play
1503
01:12:08.489 --> 01:12:11.840
called and they, and they do load the box. And
1504
01:12:11.979 --> 01:12:15.039
it's almost, wouldn't that sometimes be a good thing depending
1505
01:12:15.100 --> 01:12:17.380
on the run play? Cause you're like, man, they're all
1506
01:12:17.460 --> 01:12:21.180
right here. this specific play can really break it. Is
1507
01:12:21.220 --> 01:12:22.359
there some truth to that?
1508
01:12:22.380 --> 01:12:24.220
Yeah, there's some truth to that.
1509
01:12:24.279 --> 01:12:25.260
And, and.
1510
01:12:26.760 --> 01:12:29.979
Although what it does is you got, everybody's got to
1511
01:12:30.020 --> 01:12:34.689
do their job. We had some breakdowns in that area
1512
01:12:34.750 --> 01:12:37.449
where you can see, as we go back in film,
1513
01:12:37.569 --> 01:12:41.270
if we, you know, if we get one guy to
1514
01:12:41.350 --> 01:12:43.989
finish what he was supposed to do or pick up
1515
01:12:44.609 --> 01:12:48.210
a guy, we were going to have a much bigger play.
1516
01:12:49.520 --> 01:12:54.020
and again, they did a good job of making that play. Oftentimes,
1517
01:12:54.119 --> 01:12:58.460
even when you're not perfect, Elliott was able to make
1518
01:12:58.479 --> 01:13:01.500
guys miss or run through tackles, and they just did
1519
01:13:01.539 --> 01:13:04.729
a really good job tackling in the open field and
1520
01:13:04.810 --> 01:13:06.289
getting guys to the football.
1521
01:13:06.750 --> 01:13:10.649
Yeah. This Friday night, you're back on the road once again,
1522
01:13:10.710 --> 01:13:14.409
and it's going to be another tough one against C.J.
1523
01:13:14.449 --> 01:13:14.689
Woolley.
1524
01:13:14.710 --> 01:13:17.800
It seems like every year, there's just something about them
1525
01:13:17.880 --> 01:13:21.250
that's it's kind of a mirror image of you guys, right? It's,
1526
01:13:21.390 --> 01:13:24.670
it's hard nosed. It's a little misdirection here and there. Um,
1527
01:13:25.869 --> 01:13:29.229
but just good sound football. And I, and is coach
1528
01:13:29.340 --> 01:13:30.439
Ward still there?
1529
01:13:30.460 --> 01:13:31.420
Oh yeah.
1530
01:13:31.699 --> 01:13:31.979
Yeah.
1531
01:13:32.060 --> 01:13:35.140
So, I mean, it's, it's part of that continuity, right?
1532
01:13:35.180 --> 01:13:37.899
Just like with you guys. So, um, what do you,
1533
01:13:38.060 --> 01:13:39.640
what do you know about this year's cub team?
1534
01:13:40.239 --> 01:13:42.039
Well, you kind of hit a lot of it on
1535
01:13:42.060 --> 01:13:45.470
the head there. They're going to be really disciplined. Um,
1536
01:13:46.109 --> 01:13:49.069
They are a physical football team on both sides of
1537
01:13:49.109 --> 01:13:54.109
the ball. Their kids play really hard. They have a
1538
01:13:54.149 --> 01:13:57.779
good plan on offense. They do a great job in
1539
01:13:57.800 --> 01:14:00.899
their screen game, so kind of an extension of their
1540
01:14:01.000 --> 01:14:05.720
run game. They're going to make you defend a lot
1541
01:14:05.760 --> 01:14:10.850
of different screen styles that they like to deploy. So
1542
01:14:11.789 --> 01:14:15.470
they're a challenge to defend, and again, We've got to
1543
01:14:15.510 --> 01:14:18.800
get guys to the football and tackle well in space
1544
01:14:18.880 --> 01:14:22.460
when they stretch you out that way with their screen game.
1545
01:14:23.239 --> 01:14:26.279
You know, it's interesting you mentioned that because I remember
1546
01:14:26.340 --> 01:14:30.409
going to a scrimmage in July out at Linden and
1547
01:14:30.470 --> 01:14:34.029
Cedro was out there, Baker, I think Mount Vernon and Linden,
1548
01:14:34.050 --> 01:14:34.529
of course.
1549
01:14:35.310 --> 01:14:36.750
And it was like the.
1550
01:14:36.750 --> 01:14:40.649
Third play and Cedro did a screen and I was
1551
01:14:40.710 --> 01:14:43.239
standing with Coach Kamink and a few other people down
1552
01:14:43.260 --> 01:14:46.819
at the goal line and And he goes, wow, already?
1553
01:14:46.859 --> 01:14:51.979
That's like a week four play. That's not a July play.
1554
01:14:52.420 --> 01:14:57.159
Defending a screen, is it about seeing it early, especially
1555
01:14:57.180 --> 01:15:00.699
for the defensive linemen? Because all of a sudden they're
1556
01:15:00.739 --> 01:15:04.029
coming free and they have to realize, why is this
1557
01:15:04.069 --> 01:15:07.210
so easy to get to the quarterback? Is it about
1558
01:15:07.270 --> 01:15:08.989
timing and how quickly you can read it?
1559
01:15:09.989 --> 01:15:12.100
Yeah, and it's really hard for D linemen.
1560
01:15:12.539 --> 01:15:16.000
They're so built on getting to the quarterback, and, you know,
1561
01:15:16.140 --> 01:15:19.640
all of a sudden you're through the line of scrimmage, and,
1562
01:15:19.920 --> 01:15:21.119
you know, there he is.
1563
01:15:21.180 --> 01:15:22.100
There's the quarterback.
1564
01:15:22.140 --> 01:15:25.539
So it takes a while for them to be able
1565
01:15:25.579 --> 01:15:29.479
to– you almost have to feel it, right, and understand, yeah,
1566
01:15:29.500 --> 01:15:32.359
the O-line got his hands on me for a second,
1567
01:15:32.779 --> 01:15:38.640
but something's up here, and it's difficult to– get high
1568
01:15:38.680 --> 01:15:44.260
school guys trained to react to that pressure.
1569
01:15:43.979 --> 01:15:44.850
Of a screen.
1570
01:15:44.899 --> 01:15:49.829
And then you're largely on the perimeter and you've got
1571
01:15:49.850 --> 01:15:52.949
to be aggressive out there at the point of attack
1572
01:15:53.010 --> 01:15:57.090
and defeat blocks so as to not give up a
1573
01:15:57.109 --> 01:16:02.529
big play. All the while being able to defend, you know,
1574
01:16:02.770 --> 01:16:04.130
all of them are going to have some sort of
1575
01:16:04.170 --> 01:16:07.310
concept which looks like screen and then is screen and
1576
01:16:07.329 --> 01:16:09.810
go or something downfield. So you've got to be really
1577
01:16:09.869 --> 01:16:15.079
disciplined in your reads and trying to get guys to
1578
01:16:15.260 --> 01:16:18.220
identify the screen. Cedar Woolley does a good job of
1579
01:16:18.279 --> 01:16:22.020
mixing in motion and play action away from where the
1580
01:16:22.060 --> 01:16:23.000
screen's going.
1581
01:16:24.119 --> 01:16:25.079
So they do.
1582
01:16:24.960 --> 01:16:27.560
A really good job of messing with your eyes on
1583
01:16:27.600 --> 01:16:32.029
defense and setting those plays up. And it's their base offense.
1584
01:16:32.050 --> 01:16:35.510
That's why you're seeing it in a scrimmage. July, because
1585
01:16:35.550 --> 01:16:39.250
that is just part of their base offense and another
1586
01:16:39.310 --> 01:16:41.210
way for them to essentially run the ball.
1587
01:16:41.710 --> 01:16:45.170
Yeah, I mean, they do it so well, and you're right.
1588
01:16:45.250 --> 01:16:48.729
I mean, it would be like you guys running crisscross, right,
1589
01:16:48.890 --> 01:16:51.020
in July. I mean, it's part of what you do,
1590
01:16:51.859 --> 01:16:55.659
and yeah, it's one of those things where, I mean,
1591
01:16:55.680 --> 01:16:58.180
we used to see Cedric Woolley all the time against
1592
01:16:58.560 --> 01:17:00.899
the two-way schools and then You guys both jump up
1593
01:17:00.939 --> 01:17:02.779
to 3A. So now I just see him once a year.
1594
01:17:02.840 --> 01:17:05.039
And it's kind of all these reminders of coming back
1595
01:17:05.100 --> 01:17:07.319
to me as I'm talking to you like, oh, yeah,
1596
01:17:07.359 --> 01:17:10.159
there's this, there's that. And man, it makes for a
1597
01:17:10.199 --> 01:17:14.119
really good football game, but a tough one. And as
1598
01:17:14.199 --> 01:17:17.359
of now, your week nine game is not scheduled. I
1599
01:17:17.380 --> 01:17:20.840
believe it's based on results and all that stuff. So
1600
01:17:20.880 --> 01:17:23.460
help me out. When will you know who your opponent
1601
01:17:23.479 --> 01:17:26.100
will be next week? Is there a timing for that?
1602
01:17:26.489 --> 01:17:30.560
Yeah, we'll know Saturday morning. So the West Coast will
1603
01:17:30.600 --> 01:17:37.060
get seeded between all three divisions, number one through number 16.
1604
01:17:37.060 --> 01:17:41.239
And one will play 14, two will play 13, three
1605
01:17:41.560 --> 01:17:45.510
will play 12, and so forth. So we will know
1606
01:17:46.189 --> 01:17:49.189
pretty early Saturday morning who our opponent will be in
1607
01:17:49.229 --> 01:17:50.310
that crossover game.
1608
01:17:50.770 --> 01:17:54.039
Okay, so none of the week these week eight games
1609
01:17:54.119 --> 01:17:56.539
are being played on Saturday for Westco. They're all playing
1610
01:17:56.579 --> 01:17:57.020
Friday night.
1611
01:17:57.140 --> 01:17:57.420
Okay.
1612
01:17:57.460 --> 01:17:57.680
Yeah.
1613
01:17:57.840 --> 01:17:59.659
So then you'll know everything. Is it, is it one
1614
01:17:59.680 --> 01:18:05.199
of those things where each divisions champion or whatever gets one, two, three,
1615
01:18:05.239 --> 01:18:06.960
no matter what, or is it, is it a complete
1616
01:18:07.000 --> 01:18:07.500
seated thing?
1617
01:18:07.680 --> 01:18:07.960
Oh, okay.
1618
01:18:07.979 --> 01:18:08.239
Yeah.
1619
01:18:08.560 --> 01:18:12.079
So the division champion can't be worse than a three.
1620
01:18:12.470 --> 01:18:12.619
Right.
1621
01:18:12.649 --> 01:18:16.569
And then everything else is a straight seat. So you
1622
01:18:16.590 --> 01:18:19.189
could have two teams from the same division at four
1623
01:18:19.229 --> 01:18:19.649
and five.
1624
01:18:19.970 --> 01:18:20.689
Sure. Right.
1625
01:18:21.170 --> 01:18:21.470
Okay.
1626
01:18:21.590 --> 01:18:24.890
So, and then the, higher-seeded team or the better-seeded team
1627
01:18:24.909 --> 01:18:25.390
would host.
1628
01:18:25.710 --> 01:18:26.069
Correct.
1629
01:18:26.470 --> 01:18:29.069
On Week 9. Okay, well, we'll keep an eye out
1630
01:18:29.130 --> 01:18:29.989
on all that, Coach.
1631
01:18:30.050 --> 01:18:30.590
It's a.
1632
01:18:32.069 --> 01:18:34.439
Lot riding on this, but you know that better than
1633
01:18:34.520 --> 01:18:37.420
I do. So best of luck on Friday against the Cubs.
1634
01:18:37.460 --> 01:18:39.340
Thank you so much for joining me today on the
1635
01:18:39.359 --> 01:18:40.640
Gatorade Game Day Podcast.
1636
01:18:40.920 --> 01:18:42.100
Thanks, Tyler. Anytime.
1637
01:18:42.810 --> 01:18:45.069
All right, now let's go to the Northwest Conference to
1638
01:18:45.130 --> 01:18:47.770
a classification where we have the Bellingham Bay Hawks who
1639
01:18:47.810 --> 01:18:51.029
are two and five going on the road to Kirkby
1640
01:18:51.130 --> 01:18:53.750
field in Burlington Edison to take on the tigers. They
1641
01:18:53.789 --> 01:18:57.609
are four and three, always a tough play place to
1642
01:18:57.670 --> 01:19:01.100
play down in Burlington. You know, a lot of fog,
1643
01:19:01.189 --> 01:19:02.939
usually this time of year, we'll have to wait and
1644
01:19:02.979 --> 01:19:05.449
see what the weather will be like right now. Max
1645
01:19:05.489 --> 01:19:08.579
preps has Burlington Edison ranked 17th in the state in
1646
01:19:08.600 --> 01:19:12.390
class two way. Although I would imagine they're going to
1647
01:19:12.630 --> 01:19:15.069
do pretty well, I think, in the round of 32
1648
01:19:15.069 --> 01:19:19.590
and get into that state tournament. So only 16 teams
1649
01:19:19.630 --> 01:19:21.760
get into that. And right now they're ranked 17th. So
1650
01:19:21.770 --> 01:19:23.319
it's going to be a tough game for Bellingham, who's
1651
01:19:23.340 --> 01:19:27.539
ranked 47th going into this game with Max Preps. I'm
1652
01:19:27.579 --> 01:19:30.479
now joined on the Gatorade Game Day podcast by Bellingham
1653
01:19:30.520 --> 01:19:33.039
head football coach Adam Leonard. Coach, thank you for joining
1654
01:19:33.060 --> 01:19:34.000
me today. How are you doing?
1655
01:19:34.500 --> 01:19:35.619
I'm doing all right. How are you, Tyler?
1656
01:19:36.020 --> 01:19:39.680
Doing all right as well. So you're on a road trip,
1657
01:19:39.899 --> 01:19:43.800
at least five-hour drive. What snack do you have close by?
1658
01:19:43.819 --> 01:19:52.470
Oh, gosh, there's so many options here. See, the thing is,
1659
01:19:52.489 --> 01:19:54.770
my favorite snack in the world are chips and salsa.
1660
01:19:54.909 --> 01:19:56.760
That's my favorite snack in the world. We can't go
1661
01:19:56.800 --> 01:19:58.960
chips and salsa when you're in the car.
1662
01:19:59.520 --> 01:20:01.380
Right, that's a little tricky, yeah.
1663
01:20:01.520 --> 01:20:04.399
Yeah, you know, I try to get the little McNuggets. uh,
1664
01:20:04.500 --> 01:20:06.619
sauce containers in a certain row so I can dip,
1665
01:20:06.659 --> 01:20:10.609
but that's also messy too. So, um, you know, I'm
1666
01:20:10.649 --> 01:20:13.430
going to go, I'm just going to go with the
1667
01:20:13.569 --> 01:20:16.770
tortilla chips and a soda, you know, you know, I'd
1668
01:20:16.810 --> 01:20:18.529
love to have the salsa there. Maybe if I have
1669
01:20:18.569 --> 01:20:20.529
a co-pilot, one of my kids or something that can
1670
01:20:20.550 --> 01:20:24.449
just be, you know, passing me the salsa, I'll do that,
1671
01:20:24.470 --> 01:20:26.439
but that can just be messy. But I would say
1672
01:20:26.479 --> 01:20:31.020
chips and salsa, my favorite snack in the world. Um, and, uh, yeah,
1673
01:20:31.060 --> 01:20:33.199
I'll just go with tortilla chips and a soda.
1674
01:20:33.939 --> 01:20:36.079
You know, and you're from Las Vegas, and I know
1675
01:20:36.100 --> 01:20:38.819
you go back home quite a bit. Is that ever
1676
01:20:38.840 --> 01:20:42.119
a drive, or is it a flight most of the time?
1677
01:20:42.840 --> 01:20:45.020
Well, the cool thing about living in Bellingham is we
1678
01:20:45.050 --> 01:20:47.489
have Allegiant Air, and it's the direct flights, you know,
1679
01:20:47.529 --> 01:20:50.170
that are inexpensive down to Vegas. When I first moved here,
1680
01:20:50.189 --> 01:20:52.470
I was a little homesick back in 2006, so I
1681
01:20:52.510 --> 01:20:54.789
would probably go down two or three times a month.
1682
01:20:55.729 --> 01:20:58.510
And my oldest was a little kid, so, you know,
1683
01:20:58.529 --> 01:21:01.430
a baby, so it wasn't too bad of a, you know,
1684
01:21:01.449 --> 01:21:02.310
getting away out of town.
1685
01:21:02.350 --> 01:21:04.869
But I've done my... a funny story.
1686
01:21:04.949 --> 01:21:08.460
My, my son was, my son, Josh was down there
1687
01:21:08.479 --> 01:21:10.520
at the end of summer before he started back up
1688
01:21:10.579 --> 01:21:13.479
at college. And we needed to bring a vehicle up
1689
01:21:13.500 --> 01:21:16.439
for my parents. And he drove the truck up, a
1690
01:21:16.479 --> 01:21:18.680
truck up for me. And he stayed in Boise on
1691
01:21:18.720 --> 01:21:20.579
the way. And I visited some friends at Boise state.
1692
01:21:21.399 --> 01:21:23.170
And he's like, dad, that's a long drive. I go,
1693
01:21:23.189 --> 01:21:26.250
I've done that driver. You know, so many times, you know,
1694
01:21:26.289 --> 01:21:27.909
you get, you start to piece it together. You're like,
1695
01:21:27.989 --> 01:21:29.510
all right, I got four hours here. I got four
1696
01:21:29.550 --> 01:21:31.750
hours here. And you kind of place it together and
1697
01:21:31.789 --> 01:21:34.479
you're home in about 16 to 18 hours. But, done
1698
01:21:34.500 --> 01:21:37.800
that very many times, but jumping on the flight from
1699
01:21:37.859 --> 01:21:39.920
Bellingham to Las Vegas is a pretty quick trip.
1700
01:21:40.600 --> 01:21:42.720
Yeah, it is. And you're right with the Legion. It
1701
01:21:42.760 --> 01:21:45.819
makes it great. And I kind of learned about, you know,
1702
01:21:45.920 --> 01:21:49.199
I went, I flew a few times in high school,
1703
01:21:49.399 --> 01:21:52.810
you know, with a buddy to Colorado and I flew
1704
01:21:52.890 --> 01:21:55.829
to the, my, to a band trip to Disneyland and
1705
01:21:56.210 --> 01:21:57.649
didn't have a lot of flying. And then all of
1706
01:21:57.689 --> 01:22:00.470
a sudden I didn't fly for 20 years. And then
1707
01:22:00.510 --> 01:22:02.430
the next time I actually was on a plane was
1708
01:22:02.449 --> 01:22:05.210
I flew, I really want to go down to spring training.
1709
01:22:05.229 --> 01:22:07.310
And I was looking at all these options and same
1710
01:22:07.350 --> 01:22:10.689
type of deal. Allegiant goes straight to, well, to Mesa,
1711
01:22:11.430 --> 01:22:13.210
which is a little ways away. But, you know, you
1712
01:22:13.229 --> 01:22:16.369
get on the loop and you go around and you
1713
01:22:16.390 --> 01:22:20.399
go over there to the other side for spring training.
1714
01:22:20.479 --> 01:22:23.680
And I've made that flight a lot now and same
1715
01:22:23.699 --> 01:22:26.579
thing with Vegas. And so I am very happy with
1716
01:22:27.020 --> 01:22:28.840
Allegiant that they are able to do that.
1717
01:22:29.250 --> 01:22:31.930
Legion's great. It's been great for me, too, being a
1718
01:22:31.949 --> 01:22:34.529
Las Vegas native, being able to go back home, visit family.
1719
01:22:34.560 --> 01:22:37.500
My sisters live down there and my parents. So it's
1720
01:22:37.520 --> 01:22:39.399
great for me. I love it. I just don't, I
1721
01:22:39.439 --> 01:22:40.939
hope it never, Legion never goes away.
1722
01:22:41.520 --> 01:22:43.859
I know. They've canceled some of the flights. You don't
1723
01:22:43.880 --> 01:22:47.619
see flights to Oakland or L.A. anymore on there, I've noticed.
1724
01:22:47.960 --> 01:22:50.699
And so, but they still have Vegas. They still have Mesa.
1725
01:22:50.720 --> 01:22:50.840
So.
1726
01:22:51.340 --> 01:22:54.930
That's what I need. On Friday night, you went down
1727
01:22:54.939 --> 01:22:57.689
to Anacortes and they did what they do. You know,
1728
01:22:57.750 --> 01:23:00.489
Ryan Harrington threw for over 300 yards, six touchdowns in
1729
01:23:00.510 --> 01:23:03.189
the first half. And you know, going into the game, that's,
1730
01:23:03.409 --> 01:23:06.350
it's an extreme uphill battle. So what do you tell
1731
01:23:06.369 --> 01:23:07.310
your kids in pregame?
1732
01:23:08.229 --> 01:23:10.489
You know, we had this mentality this week. It was
1733
01:23:10.569 --> 01:23:12.970
pulled up from a clip from Nick Saban from when
1734
01:23:13.010 --> 01:23:14.970
he was coaching in Alabama. You know, you want to live,
1735
01:23:14.989 --> 01:23:17.149
actually it wasn't when he was coaching in Alabama. He
1736
01:23:17.170 --> 01:23:21.199
was at michigan or michigan state michigan state yeah state
1737
01:23:21.659 --> 01:23:24.149
and at that time they were kind of an underdog
1738
01:23:24.270 --> 01:23:27.350
program in there and he was saying you know you
1739
01:23:27.369 --> 01:23:29.670
gotta live you gotta live within this these six seconds
1740
01:23:29.729 --> 01:23:32.250
at a time and we we want to we were
1741
01:23:32.289 --> 01:23:35.380
preaching you know live play by play you know six
1742
01:23:35.420 --> 01:23:37.479
seconds at a time within the game and try to
1743
01:23:37.500 --> 01:23:39.479
win those battles try to win those battles each one
1744
01:23:39.500 --> 01:23:41.199
you know regardless of the score at the end of
1745
01:23:41.239 --> 01:23:43.060
the day we want to you know, we're going against
1746
01:23:43.079 --> 01:23:45.640
some of the top teams. I mean, we've played Archbishop Murphy,
1747
01:23:45.680 --> 01:23:49.319
we've played Lyndon, we've played Anacortes. I mean, these teams
1748
01:23:49.720 --> 01:23:51.819
in many polls, these three teams are in the top
1749
01:23:51.859 --> 01:23:54.529
five in the entire state in most polls. And we've
1750
01:23:54.550 --> 01:23:55.770
played them all and we knew it was going to
1751
01:23:55.789 --> 01:23:58.090
be a battle. And Ryan Harrington, you know, I've seen
1752
01:23:58.130 --> 01:23:59.789
him play since he was in middle school. He's a
1753
01:23:59.829 --> 01:24:04.970
tremendous quarterback, tremendous athlete, Division I commit at Washington State. And,
1754
01:24:05.010 --> 01:24:07.109
you know, we also had, you know, we had a
1755
01:24:07.149 --> 01:24:09.069
lot of guys out and so some other younger guys
1756
01:24:09.109 --> 01:24:11.140
had to step up and some of our freshmen that
1757
01:24:11.180 --> 01:24:12.960
had to play corner were like, wow, this guy's really,
1758
01:24:13.000 --> 01:24:16.279
really good. I feel like I'm covering, I feel like
1759
01:24:16.300 --> 01:24:20.109
I'm covering these receivers for 10, 12 seconds. And, you know, um,
1760
01:24:20.289 --> 01:24:23.430
he's a special talent. And, uh, it was, uh, for us,
1761
01:24:23.489 --> 01:24:24.949
it was like, Hey, let's win the battle. We got
1762
01:24:24.970 --> 01:24:27.050
down big at halftime. You know, we went in the
1763
01:24:27.090 --> 01:24:28.489
locker room and said, Hey, let's go out there and
1764
01:24:28.510 --> 01:24:30.850
win this half. And actually we did win the half. So,
1765
01:24:31.020 --> 01:24:32.819
you know, obviously they're going to put some backups in,
1766
01:24:32.840 --> 01:24:34.880
but we got to keep grinding and we need to keep, uh,
1767
01:24:35.569 --> 01:24:37.729
you know, battling until the final whistle. And I was
1768
01:24:37.770 --> 01:24:39.930
proud of the guys for getting a couple scores late and,
1769
01:24:39.970 --> 01:24:43.039
you know, getting a stop. You know, we had Bryce Shupak, freshman,
1770
01:24:43.079 --> 01:24:44.939
got an interception at the goal line on a tip play.
1771
01:24:44.979 --> 01:24:47.640
So there's some positives to pull out of that game.
1772
01:24:47.680 --> 01:24:50.649
But when you're on the lopsided, you know, end of
1773
01:24:50.659 --> 01:24:52.649
a game like that, it's tough. But I thought for
1774
01:24:52.670 --> 01:24:55.729
the most part we came out mostly healthy and moving
1775
01:24:55.770 --> 01:24:56.270
on to next week.
1776
01:24:57.109 --> 01:24:59.829
Yeah, and I want to talk about Matthew Steele again
1777
01:24:59.909 --> 01:25:01.609
for a second. It seems like we talk about him
1778
01:25:01.890 --> 01:25:04.810
every other week, if not every week, and eight receptions,
1779
01:25:04.810 --> 01:25:07.649
116 yards. He leads the defense with eight and a
1780
01:25:07.670 --> 01:25:11.489
half tackles, two for loss. You kind of told me
1781
01:25:12.510 --> 01:25:14.449
coming into the season, like, hey, he's been starting at
1782
01:25:14.529 --> 01:25:17.520
corner the last couple years, but just the way he's
1783
01:25:17.600 --> 01:25:20.779
such a good downhill tackler, moving him to strong safety
1784
01:25:20.819 --> 01:25:22.800
was going to be effective in the run game, which
1785
01:25:22.819 --> 01:25:25.760
he was. I know he's been battling injuries all year.
1786
01:25:25.800 --> 01:25:26.659
How tough is that kid?
1787
01:25:27.619 --> 01:25:29.079
He's tough, but I mean, you get up close, he's
1788
01:25:29.119 --> 01:25:34.079
not super big, but he's physical, he's athletic, he's very athletic,
1789
01:25:34.100 --> 01:25:37.939
you know, huge vertical, he's quick, he's a great route runner.
1790
01:25:38.000 --> 01:25:40.760
He and Ben Leonard have just tremendous chemistry this year.
1791
01:25:41.539 --> 01:25:44.479
And defensively, he loves to come downhill and hit, and
1792
01:25:44.539 --> 01:25:46.779
he really packs a punch for his size. And, you know,
1793
01:25:47.239 --> 01:25:48.859
you look at him offensively, and I was looking at
1794
01:25:48.890 --> 01:25:52.710
the other receivers in the Northwest Conference 2A, he's right
1795
01:25:52.729 --> 01:25:55.359
in the top three in the conference defensively. receiving, and
1796
01:25:55.399 --> 01:25:58.060
most of those guys are coming from Anacortes, too, with
1797
01:25:58.090 --> 01:26:00.789
that passing attack. But defensively, you know, leading our team
1798
01:26:00.829 --> 01:26:03.130
last week in tackles, and he just kind of sets
1799
01:26:03.170 --> 01:26:06.010
the tone at that safety position. So he's had an
1800
01:26:06.609 --> 01:26:09.000
amazing senior year so far. We have some games left,
1801
01:26:09.060 --> 01:26:12.979
but he's on pace to break some offensive records, too,
1802
01:26:13.020 --> 01:26:13.920
as we finish out this year.
1803
01:26:14.399 --> 01:26:16.739
Yeah, he's just been such a joy to watch, and
1804
01:26:17.210 --> 01:26:19.109
You know, he did a little bit of stuff on
1805
01:26:19.130 --> 01:26:22.569
offense last year, and I kind of was thinking, well,
1806
01:26:22.609 --> 01:26:24.470
he's probably going to be that go-to guy. And then
1807
01:26:24.510 --> 01:26:26.890
the spring game, he has a great game offensively, and
1808
01:26:26.909 --> 01:26:29.590
I thought, okay, maybe he will be that go-to guy.
1809
01:26:29.630 --> 01:26:31.170
And then all of a sudden, it's been boom, boom,
1810
01:26:31.189 --> 01:26:33.350
boom every week, and he's just been able to put
1811
01:26:33.409 --> 01:26:35.590
up big, big numbers. I also want to talk about
1812
01:26:35.630 --> 01:26:38.329
Lucius White. Here's a kid that I admit I didn't
1813
01:26:38.369 --> 01:26:40.689
know that much about coming into the season, and he's
1814
01:26:40.710 --> 01:26:43.289
been a really reliable player for you all season. Tell
1815
01:26:43.329 --> 01:26:45.989
us about what you've liked about him with his development.
1816
01:26:47.090 --> 01:26:49.409
So, yeah, Lucius, you know, it's kind of been Lucius
1817
01:26:49.770 --> 01:26:52.140
was a defensive player primarily. And we were like, we
1818
01:26:52.159 --> 01:26:54.000
need to look at offense. You know, we start bringing
1819
01:26:54.020 --> 01:26:57.100
some freshmen up from our varsity team. And then I
1820
01:26:57.140 --> 01:26:59.119
think kind of it kind of motivated Lucius to say, hey,
1821
01:26:59.140 --> 01:27:00.260
wait a minute. You know, here I am.
1822
01:27:00.300 --> 01:27:00.800
I'm a junior.
1823
01:27:00.819 --> 01:27:01.340
What about me?
1824
01:27:01.800 --> 01:27:04.439
I can play offense, too. I think he started getting
1825
01:27:04.510 --> 01:27:07.770
into the playbook, started understanding Coach Nixon's offense a little
1826
01:27:07.810 --> 01:27:10.750
bit better. And, you know, he had an electric return.
1827
01:27:10.770 --> 01:27:13.510
I believe it was against Sultan earlier this year. We
1828
01:27:13.529 --> 01:27:15.430
were like, man, he's showing off the wheel, showing off
1829
01:27:15.449 --> 01:27:18.069
the speed, his ability to cut and move, and getting
1830
01:27:18.109 --> 01:27:20.220
him caught up to speed on the playbook. You know, he's,
1831
01:27:20.279 --> 01:27:22.579
you know, he had a great game against Anacortes in
1832
01:27:22.600 --> 01:27:24.720
that second half. And, you know, we think he's, you know,
1833
01:27:24.779 --> 01:27:27.239
he's kind of emerging as kind of into a starting role.
1834
01:27:27.659 --> 01:27:30.279
He is a slot receiver as we go into this
1835
01:27:30.340 --> 01:27:32.279
next week. And definitely, you know, he's been a staple
1836
01:27:32.319 --> 01:27:33.100
for us on defense.
1837
01:27:34.350 --> 01:27:35.050
He's a junior.
1838
01:27:35.069 --> 01:27:37.069
I like to see him a little bit bigger and
1839
01:27:37.109 --> 01:27:39.930
stronger for the linebacker position, but I think that's something
1840
01:27:39.949 --> 01:27:41.890
he's definitely want to work on in the offseason. But
1841
01:27:41.909 --> 01:27:43.909
he's a tremendous athlete. He's a big part of what
1842
01:27:43.930 --> 01:27:45.229
we're doing now and in the future.
1843
01:27:46.050 --> 01:27:48.210
Yeah, that's a good, you know, it's interesting because once
1844
01:27:48.229 --> 01:27:49.850
you get near the end of the year, you do
1845
01:27:49.909 --> 01:27:52.029
have to look into the future a little bit. And
1846
01:27:52.680 --> 01:27:54.600
when you look at, although you don't have a ton
1847
01:27:54.619 --> 01:27:58.239
of seniors on your team, you're kind of linebacker senior
1848
01:27:58.260 --> 01:28:00.760
heavy with Van Hoffwagen and McGurr. And so you got
1849
01:28:00.779 --> 01:28:02.739
to look at, that's a spot where you're going to
1850
01:28:02.779 --> 01:28:05.579
have to replace some guys. They're going to graduate. And
1851
01:28:05.600 --> 01:28:09.000
when you watch, when you watch Lucius White tackle, he's.
1852
01:28:08.899 --> 01:28:09.579
A good tackler.
1853
01:28:10.020 --> 01:28:12.100
So, you know, that, you know, he can move up
1854
01:28:12.140 --> 01:28:14.420
from the secondary and play that linebacker spot. That's always a,
1855
01:28:14.699 --> 01:28:18.020
I'm always curious how coaches are looking into the future
1856
01:28:18.039 --> 01:28:19.939
a little bit to see that. And that's a, that's a,
1857
01:28:20.300 --> 01:28:22.760
that's a keen observation on your part because I think
1858
01:28:22.779 --> 01:28:26.439
he could fill that role pretty well. This Friday night,
1859
01:28:26.460 --> 01:28:28.899
you're back on the road against Burlington Edison. What can
1860
01:28:28.939 --> 01:28:29.939
you tell us about the Tigers?
1861
01:28:29.939 --> 01:28:34.000
Well, you know, we think Burlington's a very physical team,
1862
01:28:34.000 --> 01:28:38.140
and they are a very physical team. They're well-coached. They're,
1863
01:28:38.609 --> 01:28:41.380
you know, they execute really well. You know, you look
1864
01:28:41.399 --> 01:28:43.739
on their team, it's like everybody just, you know, they're
1865
01:28:43.800 --> 01:28:45.960
very good players across the board in offense and defense.
1866
01:28:46.239 --> 01:28:47.880
I don't know if anybody really stands out as a, hey,
1867
01:28:47.899 --> 01:28:51.319
there's a superstar. They're all very, very, very strong football players.
1868
01:28:51.380 --> 01:28:54.539
And like I said, just an extremely well-coached team. I
1869
01:28:54.579 --> 01:28:58.439
know they were on a lopsided 35-0 lead. lost to Linden,
1870
01:28:58.600 --> 01:29:00.670
but I watched that film 10 times, and I'm telling you,
1871
01:29:00.680 --> 01:29:04.119
it was a lot closer than 35-0. And they're going
1872
01:29:04.140 --> 01:29:06.979
to be, you know, they're a playoff team. They're scheduled
1873
01:29:07.000 --> 01:29:09.359
right now with some key wins they have in the
1874
01:29:09.399 --> 01:29:12.159
conference right now to be a playoff team. And I
1875
01:29:12.199 --> 01:29:15.170
believe they're a top 10 to 15 team, the 2A
1876
01:29:15.210 --> 01:29:15.710
in the state.
1877
01:29:15.770 --> 01:29:16.869
So they're going to be a.
1878
01:29:16.890 --> 01:29:18.949
Really tough challenge for us to come Friday night. It's
1879
01:29:18.970 --> 01:29:22.390
their homecoming game on the road. I've said this before
1880
01:29:22.409 --> 01:29:27.149
to you, Tyler, at Burlington, Around Halloween, near Halloween, is
1881
01:29:27.229 --> 01:29:31.510
a spooky, weird place to play. And, you know, our
1882
01:29:31.529 --> 01:29:33.170
kids are going to have to understand what a grass
1883
01:29:33.229 --> 01:29:37.140
field is on Friday. And it's going to be a
1884
01:29:37.149 --> 01:29:38.979
challenge for sure, but we feel like we have a
1885
01:29:39.000 --> 01:29:41.199
good game plan. And we're going to have to master
1886
01:29:41.239 --> 01:29:43.380
physicality if we want any chance in this game because
1887
01:29:43.420 --> 01:29:44.560
they're going to be a very physical team.
1888
01:29:45.180 --> 01:29:47.560
Yeah, they, you know, they have kind of that two-headed
1889
01:29:47.600 --> 01:29:50.090
monster in the backfield. They like to run the ball
1890
01:29:50.170 --> 01:29:52.890
quite a bit. And, you know, you've kind of said
1891
01:29:52.949 --> 01:29:56.720
in the past that, you don't have necessarily the size
1892
01:29:56.859 --> 01:29:58.939
on defense and you're gonna have to rely on speed
1893
01:29:59.079 --> 01:30:01.420
on the defense. And this is one of those games where, boy,
1894
01:30:01.439 --> 01:30:04.539
you probably really wish you had size on defense because
1895
01:30:04.590 --> 01:30:06.859
they're going to try to just, you know, just push
1896
01:30:06.899 --> 01:30:08.930
it in the middle and just go, go, go. And,
1897
01:30:09.350 --> 01:30:12.109
and there's not a lot of, uh, razzle dazzle. It's
1898
01:30:12.210 --> 01:30:15.409
more kind of in your face and just, and go downhill.
1899
01:30:15.489 --> 01:30:19.390
And so, um, you know, how, how can you use
1900
01:30:19.609 --> 01:30:22.350
your defensive speed to combat that kind of offense?
1901
01:30:24.010 --> 01:30:26.189
Well, you know, we need to get our guys in
1902
01:30:26.210 --> 01:30:27.970
the right spot in the right space. We need to
1903
01:30:28.010 --> 01:30:31.329
come up with some schemes to combat their physicality and
1904
01:30:31.390 --> 01:30:34.060
size up front, you know, on both sides of the ball, too.
1905
01:30:34.109 --> 01:30:36.600
You know, last week watching Burlington, you know, they're trying
1906
01:30:36.619 --> 01:30:39.739
to out-bully a bully, which is Linden. You're not going
1907
01:30:39.760 --> 01:30:43.319
to out-bully and be physical over a Linden team. They're
1908
01:30:43.340 --> 01:30:46.800
just too strong, too well-coached as well. And we're going
1909
01:30:46.819 --> 01:30:48.880
to have to come up with some things to just
1910
01:30:48.899 --> 01:30:51.850
negate their strength, give the ball away. outside, get the
1911
01:30:51.869 --> 01:30:53.470
ball out quick. You know, we played them last year
1912
01:30:53.510 --> 01:30:56.409
at Civic. They were dropping eight in the coverage and
1913
01:30:56.430 --> 01:30:59.489
making things really difficult on Ben.
1914
01:30:59.770 --> 01:31:00.630
The windows were tight.
1915
01:31:00.649 --> 01:31:03.300
So if they do approach us that way again, we're
1916
01:31:03.310 --> 01:31:04.449
going to have to be able to run the ball.
1917
01:31:05.760 --> 01:31:07.380
I know with Linden, they loaded up the box, tried
1918
01:31:07.399 --> 01:31:11.039
to stop their run game. And, you know, that was
1919
01:31:11.079 --> 01:31:13.960
just two really, really strong offensive and defensive lines going
1920
01:31:13.979 --> 01:31:16.420
against each other last week. For us, you know, we'll
1921
01:31:16.439 --> 01:31:19.100
see how they approach us. If they try to bring pressure,
1922
01:31:19.119 --> 01:31:20.680
which they love doing, You know.
1923
01:31:20.699 --> 01:31:22.380
We're ready for that. We'll get the ball out quick.
1924
01:31:22.760 --> 01:31:26.130
If not, we're going to have to establish the run.
1925
01:31:26.289 --> 01:31:30.289
And I think we have a freshman running back coming
1926
01:31:30.350 --> 01:31:33.210
back this week. We might get some opportunities. Keon Rich,
1927
01:31:33.270 --> 01:31:35.220
he's a very strong running back for the future. I'd
1928
01:31:35.800 --> 01:31:37.319
like to see him as he's coming off a torn
1929
01:31:37.359 --> 01:31:40.060
hamstring from week one in sub-varsity. See him maybe get
1930
01:31:40.079 --> 01:31:42.300
some carries and get some other guys some opportunities. We'll
1931
01:31:42.319 --> 01:31:44.649
see how they play us, but I'm expecting they're going
1932
01:31:44.659 --> 01:31:46.149
to try to bring pressure. We're ready for them.
1933
01:31:47.199 --> 01:31:50.100
Awesome, Coach. Best of luck on Friday against Burlington Edison,
1934
01:31:50.140 --> 01:31:52.020
and thank you so much for joining me today on
1935
01:31:52.039 --> 01:31:53.439
the Gatorade Game Day Podcast.
1936
01:31:54.239 --> 01:31:54.939
Thanks for having me, Tyler.
1937
01:31:54.960 --> 01:31:55.600
Have a great week.
1938
01:31:56.359 --> 01:31:58.659
And now we move on to the Sehome Mariners, who
1939
01:31:59.699 --> 01:32:01.979
took one on the chin last week at Meridian. They
1940
01:32:02.000 --> 01:32:05.079
are 2-5. They'll be back in conference play, and it
1941
01:32:05.100 --> 01:32:07.270
doesn't get any easier as they will have to defend
1942
01:32:07.310 --> 01:32:10.229
the pass once again, going on the road to take
1943
01:32:10.310 --> 01:32:13.989
on the Seahawks of Anacortes. Anacortes is ranked 6-1 on
1944
01:32:14.010 --> 01:32:15.829
the year. They're ranked 5th in the state as far
1945
01:32:15.869 --> 01:32:19.550
as max preps goes. And as the coaches poll goes,
1946
01:32:19.590 --> 01:32:22.489
they are ranked third in the state. You know, the Mariners,
1947
01:32:23.750 --> 01:32:26.789
they have to, the big thing about them is they
1948
01:32:26.850 --> 01:32:29.310
really want to run the ball, although they definitely can
1949
01:32:29.449 --> 01:32:32.609
throw the ball, but they've really found an identity running
1950
01:32:32.649 --> 01:32:34.869
the ball. And so that's going to be the tough time,
1951
01:32:35.630 --> 01:32:38.050
the tough task, I should say, against Anacortes. When you're
1952
01:32:38.069 --> 01:32:40.189
going against a really good team, it's really easy to
1953
01:32:40.289 --> 01:32:41.979
fall behind early. You know, if you're down 14-0, 21-0,
1954
01:32:41.970 --> 01:32:44.109
it's really hard to depend on the run at that point.
1955
01:32:44.149 --> 01:32:50.140
So we'll have to wait and see, see home, you know,
1956
01:32:50.159 --> 01:32:53.399
if they can have some long sustained drives, put together
1957
01:32:53.439 --> 01:32:55.119
some good things, and then they have to, you know,
1958
01:32:55.140 --> 01:32:57.060
hope for some big things to happen in special teams.
1959
01:32:57.119 --> 01:32:59.619
We've seen what Nikki Smith can do in the return game.
1960
01:33:00.199 --> 01:33:04.800
Ollie Johnson's another great returner. You know, I mean, you just,
1961
01:33:04.840 --> 01:33:07.260
you just never know. And hopefully the secondary will be
1962
01:33:07.359 --> 01:33:10.340
up for the task going against Ryan Harrington. Look for
1963
01:33:10.420 --> 01:33:14.819
Callum LaPlante, you know, Nikki Smith, Gunnar Anderson, Ollie Johnson,
1964
01:33:14.880 --> 01:33:17.489
Avery flag, all those guys, are going to be tested.
1965
01:33:17.789 --> 01:33:19.800
You might see some of the linebackers drop back in
1966
01:33:19.850 --> 01:33:24.920
coverage too. Devin Bankson, Evan Hatzell, Elgis, Lada, Elias Lada,
1967
01:33:24.939 --> 01:33:27.619
I should say. And Lada had a pick six last week.
1968
01:33:27.659 --> 01:33:29.739
Now he wasn't dropping back in coverage. That was a
1969
01:33:29.800 --> 01:33:32.350
great tip by Logan Rogers. Ball goes up in the air.
1970
01:33:32.689 --> 01:33:35.369
Lada snags it out of the air and goes 16
1971
01:33:35.369 --> 01:33:38.789
yards for the touchdown. So the defense will be tested.
1972
01:33:38.810 --> 01:33:40.970
I think that they, you know, had a pretty good
1973
01:33:41.010 --> 01:33:44.189
test against Meridian. So They should be used to this
1974
01:33:44.310 --> 01:33:45.970
passing attack. It's just going to be a little bit
1975
01:33:46.010 --> 01:33:49.489
more efficient against Anacortes, and it's going to be a
1976
01:33:49.550 --> 01:33:51.609
tough one. They had a great game there last year,
1977
01:33:51.649 --> 01:33:55.710
but again, a lot of big-time changes, a new cast
1978
01:33:55.770 --> 01:33:58.800
of characters on both sides, but the big one that
1979
01:33:58.850 --> 01:34:02.859
remains is Ryan Harrington at quarterback for the Seahawks. So
1980
01:34:03.520 --> 01:34:08.100
the Anacortes Seahawks, 6-1 on the year. Seaholm ranked 35th
1981
01:34:08.159 --> 01:34:09.699
as far as max preps goes. They are 2-5 on
1982
01:34:09.739 --> 01:34:13.819
the year. The last game on Friday night has the
1983
01:34:13.880 --> 01:34:17.239
Linden Lions coming to Bellingham to go take on the
1984
01:34:17.300 --> 01:34:21.359
Squalicum Storm at Civic Stadium. That will also be a
1985
01:34:21.359 --> 01:34:24.140
7 o'clock kickoff, as are all these Friday night games.
1986
01:34:24.720 --> 01:34:27.800
Linden is 6-1 on the season, and they're really riding
1987
01:34:27.859 --> 01:34:30.300
high right now. Things are going pretty darn well. They're
1988
01:34:30.340 --> 01:34:33.380
ranked third in the state in max preps. They're ranked
1989
01:34:33.739 --> 01:34:36.119
second in the state as far as the coaches' polls go.
1990
01:34:36.180 --> 01:34:39.140
And I do believe– I really like the coaches' poll.
1991
01:34:39.159 --> 01:34:42.539
They only do the top 10. And Max Preps says
1992
01:34:42.579 --> 01:34:46.180
the entire state. But these coaches kind of know what's
1993
01:34:46.260 --> 01:34:48.840
up right now. And Linden is just one spot behind
1994
01:34:48.899 --> 01:34:51.579
Tumwater for the best in the state. Squalicum's on a
1995
01:34:51.600 --> 01:34:53.460
little bit of a winning streak, though. They've won two
1996
01:34:53.479 --> 01:34:56.199
in a row. They're ranked 27th now in the Max
1997
01:34:56.239 --> 01:34:59.689
Preps rankings. So this should be a pretty good game.
1998
01:35:00.170 --> 01:35:03.890
The first quarter will be really telling. Squalicum played them
1999
01:35:03.970 --> 01:35:06.050
tough last year. I think got out to a two-touchdown
2000
01:35:06.109 --> 01:35:08.729
lead over Linden last year. And that was a little
2001
01:35:08.750 --> 01:35:10.630
bit of a surprise. But Linden was able to close
2002
01:35:10.670 --> 01:35:12.670
the deal. And we'll have to wait and see what
2003
01:35:12.689 --> 01:35:15.569
happens this year. I am now joined on the Gatorade
2004
01:35:15.609 --> 01:35:18.750
game day podcast by Linden head football coach, Blake Van
2005
01:35:18.770 --> 01:35:20.909
Dalen coach. Thank you for joining me today. How are
2006
01:35:20.949 --> 01:35:21.369
you doing?
2007
01:35:22.430 --> 01:35:22.949
Awesome.
2008
01:35:23.029 --> 01:35:25.560
I'm actually enjoying a day off today. We have no
2009
01:35:25.640 --> 01:35:28.819
power at school. So you're my only appointment today.
2010
01:35:30.319 --> 01:35:33.100
Well, I'm sorry to be that a little stick in
2011
01:35:33.119 --> 01:35:34.680
the mud right in the middle of the day, but
2012
01:35:35.300 --> 01:35:40.149
hopefully it's enjoyable. And, um, Speaking of long days, if
2013
01:35:40.189 --> 01:35:43.069
you're on a road trip, let's say at least five-hour drive,
2014
01:35:43.470 --> 01:35:45.050
what snack do you have close by?
2015
01:35:46.750 --> 01:35:49.989
Usually the peanut butter M & Ms. I just kind
2016
01:35:50.010 --> 01:35:54.149
of pop one of those in my mouth every so often,
2017
01:35:54.250 --> 01:35:57.560
and then I can drive forever. It's like my power pellet,
2018
01:35:57.600 --> 01:35:57.960
I guess.
2019
01:35:59.079 --> 01:36:00.920
I love peanut butter. You know, I feel like I
2020
01:36:00.979 --> 01:36:03.899
don't see them as much as I used to, or
2021
01:36:04.199 --> 01:36:06.060
am I just not looking hard enough? Are they out
2022
01:36:06.100 --> 01:36:06.479
there still?
2023
01:36:07.970 --> 01:36:12.270
My wife gets them regularly, so I benefit from her
2024
01:36:12.350 --> 01:36:13.489
favorite snack, I guess.
2025
01:36:14.529 --> 01:36:18.010
I guess that works out. Another thing that worked out
2026
01:36:18.069 --> 01:36:20.729
was Friday when you hosted Burlington Edison, came out with
2027
01:36:20.770 --> 01:36:25.399
a 35-0 shutout win over the Tigers. Really impressive. First
2028
01:36:25.420 --> 01:36:28.539
shutout win over Burlington since 2009. Tell us about the game.
2029
01:36:30.880 --> 01:36:34.560
Yeah, I mean, from an offensive standpoint, initially it was
2030
01:36:34.619 --> 01:36:36.819
a little frustrating, you know, kind of banging your head
2031
01:36:36.859 --> 01:36:38.819
against the wall, so to speak. We knew they were
2032
01:36:38.840 --> 01:36:40.880
going to be really tough. We knew they were going
2033
01:36:40.899 --> 01:36:44.119
to be really physical. At one point, I give Coach
2034
01:36:44.159 --> 01:36:46.659
Whitman credit. He's on the headset, and he goes, hey, Coach,
2035
01:36:47.130 --> 01:36:49.569
we're fine. They're not going to score, so just take
2036
01:36:49.590 --> 01:36:53.229
your time. And so I give him credit. He felt
2037
01:36:53.289 --> 01:36:57.550
very confident in what we were doing and our matchups.
2038
01:36:58.119 --> 01:37:00.159
And so that's exactly what we did. We kind of
2039
01:37:00.199 --> 01:37:04.220
found a formation that we liked. And I think you
2040
01:37:04.279 --> 01:37:06.739
noticed that on the first scoring drive, we were pretty
2041
01:37:06.880 --> 01:37:10.380
conservative and got down and just basically got some points.
2042
01:37:11.039 --> 01:37:13.899
Then it was kind of fun because we kind of
2043
01:37:13.939 --> 01:37:17.229
got into our two-minute offense. We used our timeouts on
2044
01:37:17.289 --> 01:37:20.810
defense to stop them three and out. They punted, and
2045
01:37:20.829 --> 01:37:22.729
I think we had like a minute eight, and we
2046
01:37:22.770 --> 01:37:26.010
had to go like 80 or 75 yards, something like that.
2047
01:37:26.579 --> 01:37:29.479
And I just thought Gordy, you know, we practice that
2048
01:37:29.649 --> 01:37:33.329
every Thursday night. And we've got a great sequence that
2049
01:37:33.350 --> 01:37:35.369
we go to. And I think the kids feel comfortable
2050
01:37:35.409 --> 01:37:37.010
in it. But in the end, they got to run
2051
01:37:37.029 --> 01:37:38.949
the routes. They got to make the plays. They got
2052
01:37:38.970 --> 01:37:41.470
to hurry to the ball and spike it. And so
2053
01:37:41.489 --> 01:37:44.970
to go down, I think there was still 20 seconds left.
2054
01:37:45.470 --> 01:37:48.390
So we went, yeah, 75, 80 yards in under a minute.
2055
01:37:49.109 --> 01:37:51.649
And only I think might have used one time out,
2056
01:37:51.670 --> 01:37:54.189
but maybe not. So I was really proud of the kids.
2057
01:37:54.880 --> 01:37:57.180
You know, because then that kind of broke the ice.
2058
01:37:57.260 --> 01:38:00.239
Now it's a two-score game at halftime. And I felt
2059
01:38:00.279 --> 01:38:03.199
like in the second half, we had one or two
2060
01:38:03.239 --> 01:38:05.619
little hiccups. But for the most part, we got dialed
2061
01:38:05.760 --> 01:38:10.039
in and really, you know, this is a good football team.
2062
01:38:10.060 --> 01:38:12.819
I keep telling everybody, you watch Burlington. When they get
2063
01:38:12.859 --> 01:38:16.460
in the playoffs, they're going to beat people. And it's
2064
01:38:16.500 --> 01:38:18.899
just unfortunate for them. They're in a conference that's just
2065
01:38:18.960 --> 01:38:22.420
loaded this year once again. But they'll make the playoffs.
2066
01:38:22.819 --> 01:38:24.920
And they'll do a great job. And Dalton Schwartz does
2067
01:38:24.960 --> 01:38:28.310
a great job with those guys. So very, very satisfying win.
2068
01:38:28.329 --> 01:38:29.390
Yeah.
2069
01:38:29.989 --> 01:38:33.460
I loved that two-minute drill. And I thought it was
2070
01:38:33.500 --> 01:38:35.619
a good thing. I mean, I saw you taking the timeouts,
2071
01:38:35.640 --> 01:38:38.880
and I thought, okay. And knowing the final score when
2072
01:38:38.899 --> 01:38:40.300
I'm watching the film, but I don't know when the
2073
01:38:40.319 --> 01:38:43.520
touchdowns happen. So I was really intrigued watching that. And
2074
01:38:43.539 --> 01:38:46.000
then to see how well it was executed. You know,
2075
01:38:46.039 --> 01:38:49.239
that first pass to the left, to Dawson Van Dalen,
2076
01:38:49.619 --> 01:38:51.699
if he doesn't step out of bounds, it doesn't matter, right?
2077
01:38:51.720 --> 01:38:53.760
He's going, he's going all the way. That was a,
2078
01:38:54.090 --> 01:38:56.850
that was a nice play there, but were there, are
2079
01:38:56.869 --> 01:38:59.970
there moments in, in, in, in drives like that, where
2080
01:39:00.210 --> 01:39:03.470
are you calling maybe two plays at a time saying, Hey,
2081
01:39:03.489 --> 01:39:05.369
if you get a first down that do this one next,
2082
01:39:05.840 --> 01:39:07.600
or how does that work? How is this different than
2083
01:39:07.640 --> 01:39:08.920
just regular calling plays?
2084
01:39:09.359 --> 01:39:09.579
Yeah.
2085
01:39:09.619 --> 01:39:09.859
Yes.
2086
01:39:09.960 --> 01:39:14.189
And no, um, um, like that place specifically it's, it's,
2087
01:39:14.409 --> 01:39:16.600
it's two. Yes, it is two plays in one. You know,
2088
01:39:16.640 --> 01:39:19.380
the right side is doing one thing that not the line,
2089
01:39:19.420 --> 01:39:21.680
the lines all on dialed in. They know what they're doing,
2090
01:39:21.720 --> 01:39:24.399
but for Gordy, he gets a pre-snap read and he
2091
01:39:24.439 --> 01:39:28.659
knows that he's working one side or the other, other plays. Um,
2092
01:39:28.859 --> 01:39:31.539
you know, our goal is to get the playoff quickly.
2093
01:39:32.000 --> 01:39:35.350
And that way, if it's, if it's successful, then, um,
2094
01:39:35.409 --> 01:39:38.069
we get some yards. If it's unsuccessful, the clock stops.
2095
01:39:38.090 --> 01:39:40.760
So you kind of have those plays dialed in. Um,
2096
01:39:41.460 --> 01:39:43.960
If you know you're going to be– say you get
2097
01:39:44.000 --> 01:39:46.739
a second and one, you can actually run the ball
2098
01:39:46.779 --> 01:39:50.069
in high school football because they stop the clock to
2099
01:39:50.130 --> 01:39:52.989
move the chains. And we can usually get our offense
2100
01:39:53.130 --> 01:39:57.659
set and another play called before they wind the clock.
2101
01:39:58.020 --> 01:40:01.600
So for us, it really, you know, get first downs.
2102
01:40:01.699 --> 01:40:04.159
It's kind of what I tell the kids. I go, yeah,
2103
01:40:04.199 --> 01:40:06.720
getting a home run would be great, but getting first
2104
01:40:06.760 --> 01:40:09.340
downs is almost like getting an extra time out. If
2105
01:40:09.359 --> 01:40:11.930
you're organized and you know what you're doing now, this
2106
01:40:12.010 --> 01:40:15.350
comes back to we use hand signals. Well, there's an
2107
01:40:15.510 --> 01:40:19.010
upside to using hand signals and a downside, obviously. The
2108
01:40:19.149 --> 01:40:22.130
upside is we can go as fast as we want,
2109
01:40:22.210 --> 01:40:23.850
you know? And so it's kind of funny. My wife's like,
2110
01:40:24.340 --> 01:40:28.079
why don't you do that all the time? And I say, well,
2111
01:40:28.239 --> 01:40:30.539
when it works, it looks really great. When it doesn't work,
2112
01:40:30.600 --> 01:40:33.289
now you just punted the ball after only one minute
2113
01:40:33.329 --> 01:40:36.020
of Time went off the clock and you're kind of
2114
01:40:36.300 --> 01:40:39.020
putting your defense in a bad spot. So, yeah, I
2115
01:40:39.060 --> 01:40:41.380
think for me it's a lot of fun because it
2116
01:40:41.399 --> 01:40:43.039
reminds me of the good old days when I would
2117
01:40:43.060 --> 01:40:46.319
do JV football and there was no script and you're
2118
01:40:46.340 --> 01:40:48.840
shooting from the hit and nobody cares what the score
2119
01:40:48.899 --> 01:40:50.119
is at the end of the day and you just
2120
01:40:50.159 --> 01:40:51.220
get to have a lot of fun.
2121
01:40:52.460 --> 01:40:56.359
Yeah, and it looked fun. It looked organized. And, you know,
2122
01:40:56.380 --> 01:40:58.640
a lot of times, and, you know, correct me if
2123
01:40:58.680 --> 01:41:01.079
I'm wrong, but when it's a normal part of the game,
2124
01:41:01.140 --> 01:41:06.189
not a two-minute offense, you're calling a play. And, you know,
2125
01:41:07.289 --> 01:41:11.430
Gordy or Austin or whoever is barking out numbers and stuff,
2126
01:41:11.449 --> 01:41:13.529
but then they look over again, and then you might
2127
01:41:13.569 --> 01:41:15.270
change it or you might say, go ahead and go
2128
01:41:15.310 --> 01:41:17.890
with it. But I would imagine in a two-minute drill,
2129
01:41:18.430 --> 01:41:20.560
you're just giving a play and saying, go, right?
2130
01:41:21.100 --> 01:41:24.779
Yes, but you also understand if you've done your film study,
2131
01:41:24.899 --> 01:41:29.300
most teams, when they're in hurry-up defense, they're not able
2132
01:41:29.340 --> 01:41:31.649
to get in all of their stuff either. So a
2133
01:41:31.729 --> 01:41:35.170
lot of times, once you get them locked into something–
2134
01:41:35.590 --> 01:41:37.270
You go, OK, we lined up like this. And so
2135
01:41:37.289 --> 01:41:39.810
that's where the coaches in the booth are very helpful
2136
01:41:39.850 --> 01:41:43.369
because they'll see, OK, they're in this. Most likely, if
2137
01:41:43.409 --> 01:41:45.750
you go hurry up, they'll be in that again. And
2138
01:41:45.850 --> 01:41:48.319
now you start to get a feel for what plays
2139
01:41:48.359 --> 01:41:51.539
will work if you speed it up.
2140
01:41:53.239 --> 01:41:55.640
Coach, your defense, you know, I love what Coach Whitman
2141
01:41:55.680 --> 01:41:58.020
said to you. Hey, don't worry about it. We're not
2142
01:41:58.050 --> 01:42:00.470
going to score. Take your time. You know, you're good.
2143
01:42:01.649 --> 01:42:04.449
you've been in that spot with Coach Cramie. Has there
2144
01:42:04.470 --> 01:42:07.970
been moments where the offense just wasn't working and you
2145
01:42:08.010 --> 01:42:10.590
had to kind of relay to him, hey, don't worry,
2146
01:42:10.630 --> 01:42:12.789
we're good, or he just kind of had a different mindset?
2147
01:42:13.229 --> 01:42:16.859
It's so funny because I think you mentioned that 0-9
2148
01:42:17.319 --> 01:42:19.720
was the last time we shot Burlington out. Is that right?
2149
01:42:19.880 --> 01:42:20.159
Yes.
2150
01:42:20.800 --> 01:42:23.199
That was my first year as defensive coordinator, and we
2151
01:42:23.239 --> 01:42:28.000
had seven shutouts that year. And there were times where
2152
01:42:28.680 --> 01:42:31.569
literally after the first drive– I would be in the
2153
01:42:31.609 --> 01:42:34.189
booth and I didn't always say it to coach just because,
2154
01:42:34.350 --> 01:42:38.020
you know, then you're putting a target on yourself. But
2155
01:42:38.100 --> 01:42:40.060
you feel it. You're like, wow, they are going to
2156
01:42:40.079 --> 01:42:43.520
have an extremely difficult time scoring on us tonight. You know,
2157
01:42:43.539 --> 01:42:46.100
the kids are playing great. The scheme is dialed in
2158
01:42:46.119 --> 01:42:48.340
really well and it's a good matchup. That's also a
2159
01:42:48.380 --> 01:42:52.020
big part of it. There's times that 09 year where
2160
01:42:52.229 --> 01:42:55.350
we were in dogfights with people because their offense didn't,
2161
01:42:55.789 --> 01:42:57.729
match well with our defense. And so you're not going
2162
01:42:57.770 --> 01:43:01.100
to just totally change your defense every week. So, but yes,
2163
01:43:01.189 --> 01:43:04.619
I do remember having moments where I remember one year
2164
01:43:04.659 --> 01:43:07.880
we had Zach. This was a safety for us and
2165
01:43:08.140 --> 01:43:11.899
we played Ferndale and we have a little call. We
2166
01:43:11.930 --> 01:43:14.510
call it blood basically where, where Zach gets the blitz
2167
01:43:15.029 --> 01:43:17.449
and I must've called it 10 times in a row.
2168
01:43:17.470 --> 01:43:19.649
And it was just kind of for that one night,
2169
01:43:19.789 --> 01:43:22.789
it was kryptonite. And it was working, and so I
2170
01:43:22.810 --> 01:43:25.930
just kept calling it again and again and again. So
2171
01:43:27.189 --> 01:43:29.859
we often have a lot of jokes about that one.
2172
01:43:30.000 --> 01:43:33.420
That's crazy because you hear a lot of times that
2173
01:43:33.600 --> 01:43:36.300
offensive play callers will go to something over and over again.
2174
01:43:36.319 --> 01:43:39.479
Maybe it happens a lot on defense, but you just
2175
01:43:39.520 --> 01:43:41.350
don't hear about it a lot that you'll go to
2176
01:43:41.390 --> 01:43:44.229
something over and over again on defense when something's working.
2177
01:43:44.270 --> 01:43:47.140
So it's pretty cool. Speaking about something that was working
2178
01:43:47.159 --> 01:43:52.899
on defense, Landon Tolsma, my goodness, he just tackled everything.
2179
01:43:52.960 --> 01:43:57.060
And when he gets his arms around you, you're going down, period.
2180
01:43:57.539 --> 01:43:59.819
He had a great game. He's really come on strong
2181
01:43:59.859 --> 01:44:02.649
this year. What has been that big strength for him
2182
01:44:02.689 --> 01:44:03.329
so far this year?
2183
01:44:03.829 --> 01:44:06.409
You know, I'm really proud of Landon because he was
2184
01:44:06.470 --> 01:44:10.229
part of– there was actually four of those seniors were
2185
01:44:10.289 --> 01:44:15.369
all linebackers their freshman and sophomore year. And he was
2186
01:44:15.430 --> 01:44:19.689
identified right away, Malachi Kane and him, Adam Holman, Dawson
2187
01:44:19.710 --> 01:44:23.149
Van Dalen. So we moved Dawson to safety, and Adam
2188
01:44:23.189 --> 01:44:26.000
and him rotated at the other spot. And Malachi ended
2189
01:44:26.060 --> 01:44:28.560
up being the 2A Defensive Player of the Year last year.
2190
01:44:28.960 --> 01:44:33.300
And he never once complained or said, why not me, whatever.
2191
01:44:33.699 --> 01:44:37.079
But when Malachi moved, he was one of the– remember
2192
01:44:37.119 --> 01:44:39.090
I always talk about these eight players that I called
2193
01:44:39.229 --> 01:44:41.100
in– He was one of the ones that I called
2194
01:44:41.140 --> 01:44:43.880
in and said, hey, this is a great opportunity for you.
2195
01:44:44.439 --> 01:44:46.699
And he went right to work. He's always been a
2196
01:44:46.729 --> 01:44:50.949
hard worker in the weight room. He's always loved football. And,
2197
01:44:51.869 --> 01:44:54.470
you know, he's putting up some amazing numbers. And he
2198
01:44:54.489 --> 01:44:58.250
was in a groove Friday night where there was times–
2199
01:44:58.600 --> 01:45:01.779
He was just on his own. He was following our rules,
2200
01:45:01.819 --> 01:45:04.000
don't get me wrong, but he would see it a
2201
01:45:04.079 --> 01:45:07.260
step quicker than everybody else. And when that happens, that's
2202
01:45:07.300 --> 01:45:10.239
a pretty special feeling. And anybody who's played linebacker will
2203
01:45:10.260 --> 01:45:13.609
tell you the whole game slows down. And you're just
2204
01:45:13.670 --> 01:45:16.310
moving at normal speed. It just feels like everybody else
2205
01:45:16.729 --> 01:45:18.850
is in slow motion. And that's kind of what you saw.
2206
01:45:18.890 --> 01:45:22.529
He got dialed in. He felt comfortable and he was
2207
01:45:22.909 --> 01:45:24.590
all over the place. It was pretty fun.
2208
01:45:24.609 --> 01:45:27.829
Yeah, it was a lot of fun to watch. And boy,
2209
01:45:27.869 --> 01:45:30.930
you've had some great inside linebackers over the years. And
2210
01:45:31.430 --> 01:45:33.430
it seems like there's just never a drop off. And
2211
01:45:33.470 --> 01:45:36.100
it's awesome to see a couple of seniors in there
2212
01:45:36.149 --> 01:45:39.039
doing their job. And this Friday night, you'll be back
2213
01:45:39.090 --> 01:45:42.710
on the road at Civic Stadium against Squalicum. They've won
2214
01:45:42.750 --> 01:45:44.229
two in a row now and they've got a key
2215
01:45:44.250 --> 01:45:47.470
player back last week. And so things are kind of
2216
01:45:47.510 --> 01:45:49.590
trending up for them. Tell us about the storm.
2217
01:45:50.369 --> 01:45:53.220
Yeah, it's a Nick Lucy team. And that means that
2218
01:45:53.239 --> 01:45:56.659
if you don't prepare for everything, they'll figure out what
2219
01:45:56.720 --> 01:45:59.420
you didn't prepare for and they'll make you pay. Just
2220
01:45:59.739 --> 01:46:02.199
I mean, remember last year with Anna Cordes, they had this.
2221
01:46:02.640 --> 01:46:06.119
huge win and, and they're, they're on the up and
2222
01:46:06.159 --> 01:46:09.720
everything's going great until it wasn't. And they didn't take
2223
01:46:10.100 --> 01:46:13.449
Squalicum seriously enough. And so they're a team that if
2224
01:46:13.489 --> 01:46:16.670
you go through those two years, we won the championships
2225
01:46:16.970 --> 01:46:20.550
both years. We beat Squalicum by three points. I mean,
2226
01:46:20.590 --> 01:46:22.439
it was, those were, yeah.
2227
01:46:22.609 --> 01:46:22.779
Yeah.
2228
01:46:22.819 --> 01:46:24.979
I think it was 10 to seven and nine to six,
2229
01:46:25.060 --> 01:46:27.100
I think was the two scores, you know, and they
2230
01:46:27.119 --> 01:46:30.810
had Schlembacher and those guys. And it was, um, It's
2231
01:46:30.840 --> 01:46:34.579
just always Squalicum finds a way to make sure that
2232
01:46:34.619 --> 01:46:37.460
they don't hurt themselves. And so, you know, for us,
2233
01:46:37.539 --> 01:46:39.279
it's the same thing. Our goal is to go in
2234
01:46:39.319 --> 01:46:42.479
and have a great game plan and then match the
2235
01:46:42.520 --> 01:46:45.039
intensity of the moment. They're playing for their lives and
2236
01:46:45.060 --> 01:46:47.939
they want to get into the playoffs and they want
2237
01:46:47.960 --> 01:46:51.560
to finish their season the right way. And I think
2238
01:46:51.600 --> 01:46:54.800
that's almost every week. Everybody's season can be made or postponed.
2239
01:46:56.390 --> 01:46:58.270
make it or break it if you beat Linden kind
2240
01:46:58.289 --> 01:47:00.369
of a deal. And so for our kids, you know,
2241
01:47:00.449 --> 01:47:04.529
no letdown. You know, we're not worried about next week's game.
2242
01:47:04.560 --> 01:47:08.220
We're worried about this week's game. And we'll give them
2243
01:47:08.239 --> 01:47:10.000
a ton of respect because they deserve it.
2244
01:47:10.000 --> 01:47:12.800
You know, that's a great point you brought up about
2245
01:47:13.000 --> 01:47:18.340
how teams in Linden week for them is a big thing.
2246
01:47:18.380 --> 01:47:20.340
So it's not something you have to deal with every
2247
01:47:20.380 --> 01:47:22.699
single week. How do you, I mean, how do you
2248
01:47:22.760 --> 01:47:27.729
keep your guys kind of, you know, focused on just
2249
01:47:27.979 --> 01:47:31.140
the task at hand, because for that, for the other team,
2250
01:47:31.220 --> 01:47:34.060
it's the Superbowl every single week. So it's, it's an
2251
01:47:34.119 --> 01:47:37.300
interesting thing that, you know, you, you go into it with,
2252
01:47:37.560 --> 01:47:41.760
there is a certain expectation at Linden. And so there's
2253
01:47:41.800 --> 01:47:44.619
this added pressure, but they don't seem to play like
2254
01:47:44.640 --> 01:47:46.119
there's an added pressure. Why is that?
2255
01:47:47.409 --> 01:47:50.510
Well, you know, hopefully it's because we're mentally prepared for
2256
01:47:50.550 --> 01:47:53.770
the situation. You know, I'd like to try and relate
2257
01:47:53.789 --> 01:47:56.029
it to something that we understand. You know, think about
2258
01:47:56.050 --> 01:47:59.390
when we played Anacortes this year, these seniors had never
2259
01:47:59.430 --> 01:48:01.869
beat them in a varsity game. And so I said,
2260
01:48:01.909 --> 01:48:04.850
now you need to transition and think about how motivated
2261
01:48:04.939 --> 01:48:09.039
you were, how prepared you were for Anacortes. That's how
2262
01:48:09.140 --> 01:48:13.840
Squalicum feels. These kids have not beat Linden. And so, so,
2263
01:48:14.590 --> 01:48:17.399
I try and make a connection that way. Also, the
2264
01:48:17.439 --> 01:48:20.399
way we practice. I hope that if we're doing our
2265
01:48:20.430 --> 01:48:24.170
job as coaches, that we're practicing in a way that
2266
01:48:24.270 --> 01:48:27.229
prepares them for what they're going to see on the field.
2267
01:48:27.250 --> 01:48:29.149
You know, we never want to beat ourselves. You know,
2268
01:48:29.170 --> 01:48:32.470
if someone's going to beat us, I would like to
2269
01:48:32.510 --> 01:48:35.409
think it was because they physically beat us. They outplayed
2270
01:48:35.449 --> 01:48:38.989
us in every aspect. not because we were aligned wrong
2271
01:48:39.090 --> 01:48:42.489
or missed keys or things like that. So if we
2272
01:48:42.529 --> 01:48:46.420
practice the right way all week and mentally prepare, you
2273
01:48:46.479 --> 01:48:50.000
limit the opportunity for a letdown or maybe not taking
2274
01:48:50.039 --> 01:48:54.659
someone seriously. And then we go back to playing to
2275
01:48:54.699 --> 01:48:59.699
a standard. We watched film Monday of our Burlington game. Well,
2276
01:48:59.739 --> 01:49:02.329
we erased the score and we say, would you accept
2277
01:49:02.390 --> 01:49:04.770
this play if we had lost the game? And the
2278
01:49:04.829 --> 01:49:06.850
answer is yes or no. And obviously it's no if
2279
01:49:06.890 --> 01:49:09.189
you didn't do something good. So then we address it
2280
01:49:09.270 --> 01:49:11.149
and work on it and try and fix it. And
2281
01:49:11.189 --> 01:49:14.029
so I think I guess the mindset would probably be
2282
01:49:14.069 --> 01:49:16.109
the number one thing. And then the attitude and effort
2283
01:49:16.250 --> 01:49:20.449
both during the week in practice and in the game.
2284
01:49:21.109 --> 01:49:23.810
Yeah, that's I love hearing that. And I hope hopefully
2285
01:49:23.829 --> 01:49:26.029
a lot of coaches, even not even from Whatcom County,
2286
01:49:26.050 --> 01:49:29.489
but from around the state, hear that and understand because,
2287
01:49:30.739 --> 01:49:33.119
to get to a certain level, it's hard to get there,
2288
01:49:33.180 --> 01:49:35.260
but once you're there, it's hard to stay there. And
2289
01:49:35.319 --> 01:49:37.340
you guys have been able to stay there and there's
2290
01:49:37.359 --> 01:49:40.189
a lot of good points there to point to why
2291
01:49:40.449 --> 01:49:42.529
you've been able to stay there. So best of luck
2292
01:49:42.590 --> 01:49:44.710
on Friday against the storm coach. Thank you so much
2293
01:49:44.729 --> 01:49:47.050
for joining me today on your day off at the
2294
01:49:47.069 --> 01:49:48.390
Gatorade game day podcast.
2295
01:49:48.850 --> 01:49:49.109
Thanks.
2296
01:49:49.449 --> 01:49:49.989
Have a great day.
2297
01:49:50.310 --> 01:49:54.539
You too. And then finally the Darrington loggers who have
2298
01:49:54.579 --> 01:49:57.840
a six and one record and they will come to town.
2299
01:49:58.289 --> 01:50:02.329
to take on Lummi Nation. That will be a Saturday
2300
01:50:02.489 --> 01:50:05.130
kickoff at 5 o'clock, so be ready for that. That
2301
01:50:05.149 --> 01:50:09.149
was a change from Friday to Saturday. Right now, Darrington
2302
01:50:09.250 --> 01:50:12.609
ranks 6th in the state in Max Preps rankings in
2303
01:50:12.640 --> 01:50:17.760
8-man football, 9th in the coaches' poll. Lummi Nation has
2304
01:50:17.800 --> 01:50:21.300
the 10th ranking in Max Preps. They are not ranked
2305
01:50:21.380 --> 01:50:23.939
in the coaches' poll. This is going to be a big,
2306
01:50:23.979 --> 01:50:27.810
big test. Lummi Nation coming off A really just tough
2307
01:50:27.949 --> 01:50:31.630
loss against LaConner last week. They had that one in
2308
01:50:31.649 --> 01:50:34.510
their minds. They scored the game-winning touchdown with less than
2309
01:50:34.510 --> 01:50:37.220
10 seconds to go, and they end up losing the game.
2310
01:50:37.300 --> 01:50:40.100
So a lot of highs and lows from that game,
2311
01:50:40.140 --> 01:50:42.119
and it's going to be how they recover from that
2312
01:50:42.479 --> 01:50:45.100
that we'll have to wait and see how that will
2313
01:50:45.119 --> 01:50:48.350
happen because you've got to face a really talented Darrington
2314
01:50:48.369 --> 01:50:51.279
team that's coming into town. I'm now joined on the
2315
01:50:51.319 --> 01:50:54.380
Gatorade Game Day podcast by Lemmy Nation head football coach,
2316
01:50:54.439 --> 01:50:56.960
Watiko Layton. Coach, thank you for joining me today. How
2317
01:50:56.979 --> 01:50:57.439
are you doing?
2318
01:50:57.960 --> 01:50:59.479
Doing pretty good. Thanks for having me, Tyler.
2319
01:50:59.899 --> 01:51:03.069
You bet. You're on a road trip. Let's say at
2320
01:51:03.109 --> 01:51:06.390
least a five-hour road trip. What snack do you have
2321
01:51:06.449 --> 01:51:06.970
close by?
2322
01:51:06.989 --> 01:51:11.329
I got to get the white cheddar Cheez-Its.
2323
01:51:12.949 --> 01:51:15.350
I need an energy drink, so I'd say a Lotus.
2324
01:51:15.890 --> 01:51:22.939
And then probably... Oh, I would say just some water.
2325
01:51:22.960 --> 01:51:25.270
I can live off that for five hours.
2326
01:51:25.470 --> 01:51:30.310
Yeah, yeah. White cheddar Cheez-Its. I love Cheez-Its. I grew up,
2327
01:51:30.390 --> 01:51:33.289
my dad loved them, I loved them. I've never tried
2328
01:51:33.390 --> 01:51:34.510
the white cheddar Cheez-Its.
2329
01:51:35.189 --> 01:51:35.489
What?
2330
01:51:35.569 --> 01:51:37.979
Yeah, I do the extra toasted.
2331
01:51:38.520 --> 01:51:39.300
Oh, okay.
2332
01:51:39.579 --> 01:51:42.159
Those ones, because back in the day, you know, when
2333
01:51:42.239 --> 01:51:43.920
I was a kid, they just had Cheez-Its.
2334
01:51:44.399 --> 01:51:45.500
And that was it.
2335
01:51:45.659 --> 01:51:47.439
And every once in a while, there would be that
2336
01:51:47.600 --> 01:51:49.529
one that was a little burnt. And I was like, oh,
2337
01:51:49.569 --> 01:51:51.189
that's the one I want. And my dad and I
2338
01:51:51.210 --> 01:51:53.430
had to fight over it. And now they make a
2339
01:51:53.449 --> 01:51:55.979
whole thing full of just those ones. And I'm looking
2340
01:51:56.020 --> 01:51:58.520
at a box right now, actually. But I'll have to
2341
01:51:58.560 --> 01:52:00.500
try those white cheddar. That's the way to go, huh?
2342
01:52:00.800 --> 01:52:02.199
Yep. Yeah, they're delicious.
2343
01:52:02.640 --> 01:52:02.979
Awesome.
2344
01:52:03.729 --> 01:52:04.109
All right.
2345
01:52:04.170 --> 01:52:08.670
Well, on Friday, you hosted the Connor in a wild game.
2346
01:52:08.689 --> 01:52:13.890
They got off to a quick start. It just kind
2347
01:52:13.930 --> 01:52:18.109
of went back and forth. And, you know, without talking
2348
01:52:18.130 --> 01:52:20.529
about the last 15 seconds, because we'll get into that,
2349
01:52:20.550 --> 01:52:22.369
but tell us about the rest of that game.
2350
01:52:22.390 --> 01:52:27.470
So it was a real nice disciplined game on our end.
2351
01:52:27.510 --> 01:52:30.170
You know, we had our few hiccups, but when it
2352
01:52:30.210 --> 01:52:32.890
comes to eight-man football, if one person has that hiccup, it's...
2353
01:52:33.569 --> 01:52:37.149
you know, open field for that offensive team. So we
2354
01:52:37.170 --> 01:52:40.229
had our little mistakes that resulted in big plays, but
2355
01:52:40.289 --> 01:52:43.939
our kids stayed real resilient and battled that adversity for
2356
01:52:43.979 --> 01:52:46.399
the whole game and was able to, you know, stay
2357
01:52:46.420 --> 01:52:49.619
in there with a real tough physical La Conner football team.
2358
01:52:50.279 --> 01:52:50.460
Yeah.
2359
01:52:50.500 --> 01:52:52.659
I mean that, like you, I mean, you hit the
2360
01:52:52.699 --> 01:52:54.689
nail on the head that they, they don't throw the
2361
01:52:54.699 --> 01:52:58.560
ball very often. They are double winged. And that kind
2362
01:52:58.600 --> 01:53:01.760
of offense with so much sleight of hand and deception
2363
01:53:01.819 --> 01:53:05.010
and misdirection, boy, that's kind of a good way to
2364
01:53:05.069 --> 01:53:07.210
go in eight-man football if you can pull it off, huh?
2365
01:53:07.770 --> 01:53:09.090
Right, right.
2366
01:53:09.529 --> 01:53:11.569
It's interesting. I mean, you know how it was playing
2367
01:53:11.609 --> 01:53:14.489
in that. And so in eight-man, it really opens that up.
2368
01:53:15.229 --> 01:53:18.069
And all right, so let's get into it now. The
2369
01:53:18.130 --> 01:53:21.039
final seconds of the game. Okay, so the game's tied, 34-34,
2370
01:53:22.739 --> 01:53:25.100
with 15 seconds to go in the game. You have
2371
01:53:25.119 --> 01:53:28.520
the ball at the 10-yard line. and it's fourth and five.
2372
01:53:29.300 --> 01:53:32.680
So it's, it's such a crazy scenario because you can
2373
01:53:32.699 --> 01:53:35.800
get a first down without scoring a touchdown. I believe
2374
01:53:35.840 --> 01:53:38.199
a timeout was called before the play. Did you guys
2375
01:53:38.239 --> 01:53:39.770
call that or they call the timeout?
2376
01:53:40.399 --> 01:53:44.310
I believe we called it and burnt our last timeout.
2377
01:53:44.710 --> 01:53:44.930
Yeah.
2378
01:53:45.130 --> 01:53:47.289
Um, I wanted our receivers and quarterbacks to be on
2379
01:53:47.329 --> 01:53:49.750
the same level, um, for the passing around. We kind
2380
01:53:49.770 --> 01:53:52.090
of had a real good game with our passing, uh,
2381
01:53:52.130 --> 01:53:55.560
this week, um, with the mismatches that we had.
2382
01:53:55.729 --> 01:53:58.800
Um, So we're just getting the quarterback and receivers on
2383
01:53:58.840 --> 01:53:59.399
the same level.
2384
01:53:59.840 --> 01:54:01.899
So you call the timeout. Like I said, it's fourth
2385
01:54:01.939 --> 01:54:05.260
and five. It's tied at the 10-yard line. What do
2386
01:54:06.220 --> 01:54:08.340
you tell your team? Are you kind of designing the
2387
01:54:08.380 --> 01:54:10.359
play at that point, kind of saying you want to
2388
01:54:10.399 --> 01:54:12.039
make sure to go through every single thing and kind
2389
01:54:12.100 --> 01:54:14.510
of go through that with, like you said, your quarterback
2390
01:54:14.550 --> 01:54:15.020
and receivers?
2391
01:54:15.619 --> 01:54:18.850
Yeah, so we're aiming for the bottom of the goal line,
2392
01:54:19.069 --> 01:54:20.329
so hopefully we can get the touchdown.
2393
01:54:20.390 --> 01:54:21.869
If not, we're going to get that first down.
2394
01:54:22.949 --> 01:54:28.149
But really– Letting Landon LaFontaine know where he's aiming for
2395
01:54:28.189 --> 01:54:30.109
that throw and where the receivers need to end up
2396
01:54:30.149 --> 01:54:33.409
for that route for it to work. And Landon LaFontaine
2397
01:54:33.430 --> 01:54:36.069
just put a perfect pass right in the pocket for,
2398
01:54:36.090 --> 01:54:39.109
I think it was Anthony Solomon to take the lead.
2399
01:54:39.489 --> 01:54:41.130
But yeah, it was a real good play.
2400
01:54:41.590 --> 01:54:45.149
It was crazy because we're kind of following it live
2401
01:54:45.210 --> 01:54:47.229
on the show. I mean, at that point, that's the
2402
01:54:47.270 --> 01:54:50.909
game right there that has the most, you know, weighing
2403
01:54:51.050 --> 01:54:54.239
on it. And so we're dialed in on that. And
2404
01:54:54.779 --> 01:54:56.920
what I thought Landon did a great job of, too,
2405
01:54:57.100 --> 01:54:59.399
is that he was looking his left the whole time
2406
01:54:59.600 --> 01:55:01.699
and then he went to his right. Was that a
2407
01:55:01.760 --> 01:55:03.939
design thing? He did a great job of kind of
2408
01:55:04.000 --> 01:55:06.600
looking off everybody on the left and then going to
2409
01:55:06.619 --> 01:55:08.510
the right. Was that, like I said, is that a
2410
01:55:08.520 --> 01:55:10.770
design going in or was that just him playing quarterback?
2411
01:55:11.270 --> 01:55:12.930
That was just his natural instinct.
2412
01:55:12.949 --> 01:55:16.689
He's a real good pocket reader, so he's good at
2413
01:55:17.270 --> 01:55:19.520
reading the defense. But we had a good mismatch on
2414
01:55:19.560 --> 01:55:22.859
Mason Revy and his defender the whole game, so I
2415
01:55:22.899 --> 01:55:24.439
think he was trying to key on that. But once
2416
01:55:24.479 --> 01:55:27.539
he saw that closed up, he looked to one of
2417
01:55:27.579 --> 01:55:31.340
his best friends, Anthony Solomon, and saw him. From what
2418
01:55:31.380 --> 01:55:34.729
I saw from my angle, it was a small area
2419
01:55:34.739 --> 01:55:35.260
to throw.
2420
01:55:35.100 --> 01:55:37.050
It to, and he hit it perfectly.
2421
01:55:37.310 --> 01:55:39.529
Yeah, I don't know how. I mean, once I saw
2422
01:55:39.550 --> 01:55:42.289
the ball go up, I kind of put my hands
2423
01:55:42.369 --> 01:55:44.949
up and went, Oh, because I thought there's no way
2424
01:55:44.970 --> 01:55:49.260
that can be caught in bounds and get a touchdown
2425
01:55:49.340 --> 01:55:51.359
out of it. And then he did. And I, I
2426
01:55:51.380 --> 01:55:53.560
looked over at my partner, Jim calling it. And I
2427
01:55:53.619 --> 01:55:57.140
was like, how in the world? Because it was, it
2428
01:55:57.180 --> 01:56:00.500
was just crazy. We couldn't believe it. You score the touchdown. Um,
2429
01:56:01.539 --> 01:56:04.640
I think at that point there was eight seconds, maybe
2430
01:56:04.659 --> 01:56:07.159
something like that. You go for two, you don't get
2431
01:56:07.199 --> 01:56:10.239
the two point conversion and it ends up being a pretty, uh,
2432
01:56:10.859 --> 01:56:13.939
pretty big deal you get so now you're up six
2433
01:56:14.819 --> 01:56:18.000
and and you know eight seconds left and I looked
2434
01:56:18.039 --> 01:56:19.640
over at Jim and I said man I think this
2435
01:56:19.720 --> 01:56:22.220
is when Hooper brings out the sand wedge again because
2436
01:56:22.979 --> 01:56:27.260
it's been it worked previously I think it worked like
2437
01:56:27.359 --> 01:56:31.149
right before that right to go in and so now
2438
01:56:31.369 --> 01:56:34.010
the ball goes up help me with this now because
2439
01:56:34.029 --> 01:56:37.750
a flag gets called now can it not be touched
2440
01:56:37.869 --> 01:56:39.510
before the ball hits the ground is.
2441
01:56:39.470 --> 01:56:42.369
That the penalty Correct. I was unaware of that. I
2442
01:56:42.409 --> 01:56:44.789
thought if it's in the air past 10 yards, you know,
2443
01:56:44.829 --> 01:56:48.310
it's a free catch. But I was informed even after
2444
01:56:48.350 --> 01:56:50.409
the game, we had to look it up. But the
2445
01:56:50.449 --> 01:56:53.350
ball has to touch one of the people on kickoff
2446
01:56:53.649 --> 01:56:57.100
return or touch the ground after 10 yards.
2447
01:56:58.560 --> 01:57:03.260
That's so great. We'll see. I'm wondering if it's. Because
2448
01:57:03.359 --> 01:57:06.270
Hooper does it different, right? Most kickers will kick it
2449
01:57:06.279 --> 01:57:09.189
into the ground, and it takes like the second hop,
2450
01:57:09.250 --> 01:57:10.850
it goes up in the air, and then you can
2451
01:57:10.909 --> 01:57:13.569
catch it after it goes out for 10 yards. I'm
2452
01:57:13.609 --> 01:57:17.340
thinking because he scoops it up and it never hit
2453
01:57:17.350 --> 01:57:19.319
the ground at any point, I guess that would be
2454
01:57:19.359 --> 01:57:19.880
the penalty?
2455
01:57:20.279 --> 01:57:20.680
Yeah.
2456
01:57:20.939 --> 01:57:24.000
Yeah, so that's just crazy. And you could see somebody
2457
01:57:24.359 --> 01:57:27.479
during kickoff is pointing like, kick it there, kick it there.
2458
01:57:27.520 --> 01:57:29.020
Like somebody on the sideline, I don't know if it's
2459
01:57:29.039 --> 01:57:31.939
an assistant coach or a player that was, that was not,
2460
01:57:32.020 --> 01:57:34.729
not in uniform. And I'm, and I'm, and I'm calling it.
2461
01:57:34.729 --> 01:57:37.109
I'm like, they're, they're instructing him to kick it there.
2462
01:57:37.170 --> 01:57:40.550
And it was just crazy. So at that point, is
2463
01:57:40.649 --> 01:57:43.720
it the opposing coach has the, like he can say
2464
01:57:44.560 --> 01:57:46.819
re-kick or we'll take the ball at this place. Was
2465
01:57:46.859 --> 01:57:48.600
that kind of the, how that went?
2466
01:57:49.020 --> 01:57:50.310
So it's supposed to go like that.
2467
01:57:50.359 --> 01:57:52.529
So it's either supposed to be a penalty where they re-kick,
2468
01:57:52.670 --> 01:57:55.810
where we move back, which would give them better field position,
2469
01:57:56.550 --> 01:57:59.310
or they can just decline it. But the refs didn't
2470
01:57:59.390 --> 01:58:01.609
give them the option to do that, and they just
2471
01:58:02.430 --> 01:58:03.170
they just gave him the.
2472
01:58:03.109 --> 01:58:04.770
Ball right yeah.
2473
01:58:04.850 --> 01:58:07.470
Okay so that was because that was another interesting thing
2474
01:58:08.130 --> 01:58:11.220
and then uh and then uh and that was it
2475
01:58:11.260 --> 01:58:13.060
right that was no i'm just kidding there was one
2476
01:58:13.079 --> 01:58:16.199
more play unfortunately it was just and they went back
2477
01:58:16.260 --> 01:58:19.800
to pass and which you know you got 58 yards
2478
01:58:19.859 --> 01:58:22.500
to cover but the quarterback takes off and runs and
2479
01:58:23.420 --> 01:58:26.300
man he had a couple receivers downfield that made some
2480
01:58:26.340 --> 01:58:32.979
big blocks they swore which ties the game. And, you know,
2481
01:58:33.619 --> 01:58:36.220
what's too bad about that is obviously that they tie,
2482
01:58:36.260 --> 01:58:38.270
but now there's no time left, and it all comes
2483
01:58:38.289 --> 01:58:40.890
down to the two-point conversion, where this team is kind
2484
01:58:40.930 --> 01:58:45.989
of built for two-point conversions, right? They're a running team, and,
2485
01:58:46.470 --> 01:58:50.390
you know, talk about that two-point conversion. Was there a
2486
01:58:50.430 --> 01:58:53.289
little bit of a hangover from the touchdown going into
2487
01:58:53.310 --> 01:58:56.619
the two-point conversion, or was it just a good executed
2488
01:58:56.659 --> 01:58:57.659
play by the Braves?
2489
01:58:58.659 --> 01:59:01.079
So, you know, their offense is that double wing.
2490
01:59:01.100 --> 01:59:04.319
So they're they're always looking to guarantee a three yard run.
2491
01:59:04.699 --> 01:59:05.020
Yeah.
2492
01:59:05.100 --> 01:59:07.350
So that's that's real hard to defend.
2493
01:59:07.409 --> 01:59:10.050
But I think our kids were kind of like you said,
2494
01:59:10.069 --> 01:59:14.329
we're hung over on that that big touchdown. And some
2495
01:59:14.369 --> 01:59:15.949
of them are ready for the extra point. But you
2496
01:59:15.989 --> 01:59:17.649
could tell a lot of them are still just thinking
2497
01:59:17.689 --> 01:59:20.500
about that big touchdown and not trying to convert it
2498
01:59:20.539 --> 01:59:21.220
into overtime.
2499
01:59:21.689 --> 01:59:25.569
It's just a crazy, the emotions back and forth because
2500
01:59:25.590 --> 01:59:28.029
you rode the highest of highs, the lowest of lows.
2501
01:59:28.510 --> 01:59:31.350
And it's, and it's such a, you know, as a coach,
2502
01:59:31.390 --> 01:59:35.390
I can't even imagine, you know, what you're feeling going,
2503
01:59:35.489 --> 01:59:38.390
going through that. And, and even though you're a young guy,
2504
01:59:38.409 --> 01:59:40.180
you've been coaching for a while now. And so you've
2505
01:59:40.189 --> 01:59:43.920
seen a lot, but it is, it is pretty crazy. So,
2506
01:59:44.100 --> 01:59:46.659
you know, you have to bounce back and how do you,
2507
01:59:47.560 --> 01:59:49.659
how do you kind of wash that away going into
2508
01:59:49.720 --> 01:59:51.810
this week? Is there a, do you just talk to
2509
01:59:51.850 --> 01:59:54.189
your team and say, Hey, we can't change the past
2510
01:59:54.210 --> 01:59:56.130
or how does that work going into this week?
2511
01:59:56.569 --> 01:59:56.869
Yeah.
2512
01:59:56.909 --> 01:59:59.529
So we tend to not to look in the past. We,
2513
02:00:00.090 --> 02:00:03.149
so when we have our films and our early practices
2514
02:00:03.189 --> 02:00:06.859
throughout the weeks, we just, we focused on the small mistakes,
2515
02:00:06.880 --> 02:00:09.899
you know, we, we uplift them with their, their positive
2516
02:00:10.039 --> 02:00:13.739
plays and all their good responsibilities. So we try to
2517
02:00:14.020 --> 02:00:16.859
avoid the past and the bad and try to look to,
2518
02:00:17.409 --> 02:00:18.810
grow and get better each week.
2519
02:00:19.149 --> 02:00:21.899
Yeah absolutely and that's just the that's the way you
2520
02:00:21.920 --> 02:00:25.140
got to go forward because uh you know you only
2521
02:00:25.199 --> 02:00:27.020
get one chance at high school football and it goes
2522
02:00:27.119 --> 02:00:30.140
so fast and so when they're going to remember a
2523
02:00:30.199 --> 02:00:32.979
lot of stuff obviously they'll remember losses as well as
2524
02:00:33.020 --> 02:00:37.199
wins but um it's it's good to reinforce the positivity
2525
02:00:37.239 --> 02:00:40.029
like you said and and this this saturday night you're
2526
02:00:40.069 --> 02:00:43.850
back at home against derrington uh six and one record
2527
02:00:43.890 --> 02:00:45.010
man uh what can you.
2528
02:00:44.949 --> 02:00:47.899
Tell us about the loggers Um, so they're another, uh,
2529
02:00:47.979 --> 02:00:51.029
power team. They got, they run their, um, I formation with,
2530
02:00:51.289 --> 02:00:54.750
or split back under center. Um, they do space it
2531
02:00:54.789 --> 02:00:56.310
out a little bit and air it out. They have
2532
02:00:56.329 --> 02:00:59.569
a nice quarterback that has a pretty good arm. Um,
2533
02:00:59.829 --> 02:01:04.439
but another just disciplined physical team. Um, they, they were
2534
02:01:04.460 --> 02:01:07.920
neck and neck with the Connor throughout the first half.
2535
02:01:07.979 --> 02:01:12.439
And then the Connor had multiple injuries, which, um, which
2536
02:01:12.460 --> 02:01:15.689
Darrington took advantage of and, uh, aired it out and
2537
02:01:15.949 --> 02:01:19.550
took those leads, but just another physical discipline team.
2538
02:01:20.609 --> 02:01:24.670
I did notice too, that I, you know, against Tulayla Paradich,
2539
02:01:24.729 --> 02:01:27.390
who's obviously a really good team. They, they weren't, they
2540
02:01:27.409 --> 02:01:29.770
were not able to get on the scoreboard. You guys
2541
02:01:29.890 --> 02:01:32.399
were able to, is there something you can take from
2542
02:01:32.439 --> 02:01:34.489
that and say, Hey, you know, you could tell your guys, Hey,
2543
02:01:35.119 --> 02:01:37.039
you know, we were able to score against this team
2544
02:01:37.100 --> 02:01:39.420
and they, they weren't. So you try to pick them
2545
02:01:39.500 --> 02:01:42.000
up and show things or maybe see things that, uh,
2546
02:01:42.119 --> 02:01:43.880
on film that made that happen.
2547
02:01:44.409 --> 02:01:46.130
Yeah, so I think you're reading my mind, but I
2548
02:01:46.149 --> 02:01:48.189
was thinking that exact same thing. So I've been watching
2549
02:01:48.210 --> 02:01:54.000
their film against Tulalip and see what they did differently than.
2550
02:01:52.880 --> 02:01:54.680
How we execute our defense and offense.
2551
02:01:54.739 --> 02:01:57.880
So I was trying to mismatch and find some little
2552
02:01:58.619 --> 02:02:01.920
tendencies that Darrington does that we could use against them.
2553
02:02:02.590 --> 02:02:03.520
I mean, this is.
2554
02:02:03.479 --> 02:02:03.989
Huge, right?
2555
02:02:04.010 --> 02:02:06.789
They're a pretty highly ranked team, and you got them
2556
02:02:06.810 --> 02:02:09.649
at home. It's kind of like, man, it's almost like
2557
02:02:09.689 --> 02:02:12.829
the perfect storm because after a game like you just had,
2558
02:02:13.409 --> 02:02:15.829
your guys are probably really hungry to get back on
2559
02:02:15.850 --> 02:02:18.510
the field and prove themselves. And at the same time,
2560
02:02:19.029 --> 02:02:21.479
you know, you get, you get an extra day, right.
2561
02:02:21.539 --> 02:02:24.180
To recover from everything as well. So there'll be kind
2562
02:02:24.220 --> 02:02:26.479
of probably a little extra hungrier because they have another
2563
02:02:26.479 --> 02:02:30.079
24 hours to wait. Darrington comes to town. Yeah. They're
2564
02:02:30.119 --> 02:02:30.739
riding high.
2565
02:02:30.779 --> 02:02:31.020
Yeah.
2566
02:02:31.060 --> 02:02:31.279
Yeah.
2567
02:02:31.340 --> 02:02:31.600
Yeah.
2568
02:02:31.960 --> 02:02:33.859
And then all that. And then it's, it kind of
2569
02:02:33.939 --> 02:02:37.039
works as this is the perfect time to get them. And,
2570
02:02:37.680 --> 02:02:40.140
and yeah, I just, I really think it's going to
2571
02:02:40.180 --> 02:02:42.600
be a great game. And it's going to be, and
2572
02:02:42.640 --> 02:02:45.039
it's the only game in town Saturday night. So pack
2573
02:02:45.079 --> 02:02:47.060
the house at alumni nation high school. It's going to
2574
02:02:47.079 --> 02:02:50.319
be awesome. Best of luck on Saturday against Darrington coach.
2575
02:02:50.359 --> 02:02:52.000
Thank you so much for joining me today on the
2576
02:02:52.039 --> 02:02:53.300
Gatorade game day podcast.
2577
02:02:53.720 --> 02:02:53.899
Yeah.
2578
02:02:53.920 --> 02:02:54.720
Thanks for having me, Tyler.
2579
02:02:54.739 --> 02:02:55.060
Take care.
2580
02:02:55.960 --> 02:02:56.260
All right.
2581
02:02:56.279 --> 02:02:58.300
I want to thank all the coaches for joining me.
2582
02:02:58.340 --> 02:03:01.500
And it's a, it's another great week to be on
2583
02:03:01.539 --> 02:03:04.340
the lookout for all these football games. Of course, Friday night,
2584
02:03:04.960 --> 02:03:07.090
you'll be able to check out the Gatorade game day
2585
02:03:07.189 --> 02:03:10.850
live on broadcast on the Wacom Preps YouTube channel where
2586
02:03:10.890 --> 02:03:13.409
myself and Jim Bring will bring you all the action
2587
02:03:14.300 --> 02:03:16.779
going on with all six of the Friday night games.
2588
02:03:17.199 --> 02:03:20.199
We'll also preview, we'll also preview all the games in
2589
02:03:20.260 --> 02:03:23.239
our pregame show that starts at six o'clock. We'll preview
2590
02:03:23.279 --> 02:03:25.960
also the Saturday game and show you highlights from Thursday
2591
02:03:26.000 --> 02:03:29.199
night's game, Sultan at Blaine. So a lot of stuff
2592
02:03:29.239 --> 02:03:31.289
going on. Be sure to check that out. You can
2593
02:03:31.590 --> 02:03:34.770
follow along with all the live scoring and And tell
2594
02:03:34.810 --> 02:03:38.510
them this has been Episode 460, the Week 8 Gatorade
2595
02:03:38.529 --> 02:03:41.899
Game Day Football Preview. I am Tyler Anderson of Wacom Preps,
2596
02:03:41.939 --> 02:03:43.460
and I will talk to you next week.