October 15, 2025 • 12 mins
Shehan Jeyarajah of CBS Sports joins the show to discuss his latest article about Grand Rapids native Trinidad Chambliss, who's suddenly making his way as a star quarterback at Ole Miss. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Where do you go for Ireland's biggest thrillers, craziest finishes,
wildest upsets and fiercest post match debates.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Good afternoon to you there. You're very welcome to the program.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
An awful lot of live sports on the way, well
over a million of you. Go to Ireland's number one
radio station, Artie Radio one. Listen now on Arte Radio Player.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Brought to you by Heineken zero zero, Get the facts,
Be drink Aware? Is it drinkaware dot I?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
He claims he brought the mullet back, his short shorts
are a bit too short, and he's nowhere to be
found when it's his round.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
There's my Heineken zero zero.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
But he's our best mate. And even though he's always
banging on about stats past completion, there's no one we'd
rather watch the match to the sports that bring us together.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Heineken zero zero throughout the great state of Michigan, and
we're very proud of our young athletes and we're very
proud of some of the things that they've had overcome,
like Trinidad Shamliss, who has done that from farri State
to Ole Miss. Nobody capsulized that better than Shehan Jiraja.
He writes for cbssports dot Com. The author has a
(01:11):
fantastic article on how the former Farri State Bulldog quarterback
is now living his dream in the SEC, and that
author joins us here on exus and Bros. Shahan, We
appreciate it very much. Hope you're well today. Fantastic work
on this article. What surprised you most about doing the
research of this young man and what he's meant so
(01:33):
far to the SEC?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
What's fascinating? I mean, so I'm down here in Texas,
and I think that one thing that characterizes so many athletes,
and especially let's be specific to quarterbacks that I see
coming up through the ranks is that they specialize so early.
I mean, you're talking about, you know, players playing primarily
quarterback and not many other sports. From the time that
(01:56):
they're you know, in middle school or at least early
high school. They're in cancer at seven on seven. They're
in all this sort of stuff year round. And it
was fascinating to learn about Trinidad because obviously he was
a basketball player at heart. That was his first love.
And it was rich to talk to coach Tony and
he's over at Farris State. He kind of told me, Look,
I didn't actually love Trinidad Shambliss the football prospect when
(02:20):
I went out and saw him at Borzill's Northern, But
when I saw him play basketball, that's when it kind
of clicked for me that he has this great vision,
he has great athleticism, he can anticipate at a very
high level. And again, I think that's just a dynamic
that you don't get with a lot of quarterbacks who
again feel like they specialize in this stuff so early.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
Yeah, it's really is well done. It's well written, it's
well researched. It's a feel good story. It's more than
just I think this is more than just football. I
think this can be something a little bit about life.
A guy who didn't have a lot of big schools
knocking on his door while at while in high school
and now took his time, improved his craft, grew within
(03:07):
himself and on the football field, and found a home
in arguably the best football conference in America. What else
do you think it tells you about, you know, life
in general, besides him just being a football player. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, first of all, I appreciate that, you know, it's
something that I really try to put in especially some
of my stories about people. And you know, my wife
is not a sports person, so whenever I do like
a big life story, I try to get her to
do a first setit of it to make sure it
connects with people. Pay you know, for me, I think
that it was it was so interesting, right because I
(03:41):
think that there are sometimes you know, when you talk
to people's families and friends, you're like, oh, here's this
one story about you know, sports or all the sort
of stuff. But with Trinidad, there almost wasn't like a story.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
It was so much just consistently doing the right thing,
you know, consistently being in the right place, consistently being
on time, consistently putting in the hard work. And I
think if I can sometimes be a difficult thing to capture,
just somebody who you know, kind of didn't have drama.
I guess you could say to a certain extent, but
(04:14):
I think that you just talk to people around him
and something. I mean, I got to talk to some
fantastic people. I love getting to talk with coach Eddie,
Austin Allen and Joe Soils over at four Stills Northern.
I think, you know, they were just so much fun
to talk to, and Ethan Erickson, the former Fair State
basketball player who's a childhood friend. But I think that
what it kind of captured, I hope, more than anything else, is,
(04:39):
you know, I think that all of these experiences that
he had of showing up and doing the right thing
have compounded themselves, right. You know, when he was growing
up and playing at four Stills Northern, it was learning
to be a competitor, learning to be a teammate. When
you get to Farris State, it's learning how to win,
it's learning how to transform your body. And when you
(05:01):
see him take the field at all, miss, I think
that you get to see all of these dynamics in
one place. You kind of see it in the way
that he plays. You see it in the way that
he carries himself. And I think that, again, you know,
more than anything else, I hope that what it communicates
is when you do things the right way, it always
does come around and pays off in the end.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
The author of a fantastic article on Trinidad Shambliss on
cbssports dot com. He is Shahan JR. Rajah and he
joins us here on x'es and Bros. Throughout the state
of Michigan. I love the picture with him and Ethan
Erickson in your article too, and how they pushed each
other on the basketball floor, and you mentioned that throughout
the article. And again credit to you for the research
(05:45):
talking to the right people in this kid's life. It's
not an opinion piece. It's quotes from high school people,
high school coaches, those who knew him best as he
reaches early startom in the SEC. But I think it's
also important that I hope other coaches are recognizing and
reading this fantastic article, and that is playing multiple sports
can help you. It's really important in a day and
(06:08):
age where we see so many kids focused on one
sport because those coaches want them to concentrate on one sport.
Here's a kid who made sure playing other sports helped
him in the sport he's playing now at the collegiate.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Level one hundred percent. And I think that again you
see sort of the point guard aptitude through you know,
I mean again, he played baseball year round as well.
Obviously he played football, and I think that the other
thing as well, that's really interesting, especially now being in
lane Kippen's offense and the SEC's like I mean for
a lot of high school you know. I kind of
(06:43):
talked to coach also, like he had to do a
lot of option concepts like this is not you know,
just drop back throw it, like this is not just
that kind of stuff. I think that he had such
a diversity of experiences as an athlete, and and again
I think that you you in so many ways and
then so many cases get to grow as just a
(07:03):
person when when you do that, now you know, again,
I talked to coach in these affairs state and he
kind of said, look, the thing that I loved about
is that he developed his his skill skill set and
toolbox and ultimately when it was time to specialize, when
he needed to build his body and add thirty pounds,
and he could focus on that. But that's an easier
thing to do than it is to develop some of
(07:24):
these fine motor skills that can really only be done
through playing multiple sports.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
And it was it was fun too.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Again, I'm from the state of Texas, I've been spent
a lot of time in Michigan, and you know, it's
almost like, you know, just just speaking as an outsider,
of course, like it was really cool to me, just
kind of how like. I mean, the only phrase I
can think of is like old school and traditional that
that Grand Rapids is like, it feels like the kind
(07:52):
of place where, like, you know, just such a supportive community,
such a such a cool environment, such a such a
great place, structured heighten it family. Like I really felt
that just talking to people around town, and again that's
just not something that's guaranteed anymore. I love that that's
what he got growing up in Grand Rapid.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Yeah, it's a community you want to reach your family.
It's sometimes it's as simple as that. It's good people
who care about one another. For the most part, I'm
generalizing here, care about one another, and it's a good
place to raise a family. When you see a kid
come from a Division two program, now it's a powerhouse.
It's Tony and Nissa hell of a football coach, and
he's got the right culture there in Big Rapids. Are
(08:36):
we going to see more of this? Do you think
that where kids are coming from smaller schools and getting
the opportunity they don't deserve to automatically get the deal
and Chamblis didn't either, But do you think they're getting
more opportunities because of the way college football is today.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, I absolutely think out. In fact, eight players from
Fair State over the off season transferred up not just
to the SDS level, trans to the FBS level, which
is jumping two levels, which is unbelievable. And I think
that this is absolutely going to become more common for
a couple of reasons. One, I mean, obviously, game tape,
(09:12):
game film is is so much easier to find these days, right, Like, Actually,
it's funny. I think that ESPN put out a story
kind of the same day, and you know, they took
it much more from the old MIDS side of things,
but it's like, you know, they're scouting departments and all
this sort of stuff. I kind of love our stories
as a compliment to each other in some way, you know.
But like again, it was very much like the scouting department,
(09:33):
the offensive coaches, like they were just watching film all
day and they have this time to do it in
this infrastructure, and they find this kid, right, And I
think that that's one piece of it. Of course. I
think that sort of the way that the transfer portal
and all this sort of stuff works now makes it
a little bit more common. I think that, you know,
the opportunities that are available also, you know, from a
(09:55):
strict monetary perspective, is going to create some opportunities for people.
And and again when you have stories like this and
I got a chance actually I covered cam Ward when
he was at an FCS school at Incarnate Word and
Eric Morris and all those guys like I think that
when you start having these stories that pop up, it
(10:17):
means that everybody else is looking just a little bit
harder to try to be the ones to find the
next one.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Yeah. Well, you did a great job in capsuling it.
It's a wonderful read. And it's not just because it's
in our state of Michigan, Sehan, but it's because of
the story itself of a smaller school and a kid
who knew he could play at the level just needed
the opportunity. He's kicking that door in right now and
you're educating people about it right now, and we appreciate
(10:45):
it very much. Great stuff, Keep up the great work.
Thanks for taking some time for us here on a
Wednesday morning.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Yeah, absolutely anytime. So that was that's really fun stuff
and what a fantastic read, folks to me, please Shahan
jay Rajah giving us some really good stuff on a
local kid. Bill Simonson tweeted out as well that it's
a great it's a great read, so we would suggest
you you go and do that.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Where do you go for Ireland's biggest thrillers, craziest finishes,
wildest upsets and fiercest post match debates.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Good afternoon to you here. You're very welcome to the program.
An awful lot of live sports on the way.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Well over a million of you go to Ireland's number
one radio station, Artie Radio one. Listen now on Artie
Radio Player.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Brought to you by Heineken zero zero. Get the facts,
Be drink Aware? Is it drinkaware? Dot I?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
He claims he brought the mullet back, his short shorts
are a bit too short, and he's nowhere to be
found when it's his round.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
There's my Heinegn zero zero.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
But he's our best mate, and even though he's always
banging on about stasts past compleasion, there's no one we'd
rather watch the match to the sports that bring us
to the Heineken zero zero
Where do you go for Ireland's biggest thrillers, craziest finishes,
wildest upsets and fiercest post match debates.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Good afternoon to you there. You're very welcome to the program.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
An awful lot of live sports on the way, well
over a million of you. Go to Ireland's number one
radio station, Artie Radio one. Listen now on Arte Radio Player.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Brought to you by Heineken zero zero, Get the facts,
Be drink Aware? Is it drinkaware dot I?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
He claims he brought the mullet back, his short shorts
are a bit too short, and he's nowhere to be
found when it's his round.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
There's my Heineken zero zero.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
But he's our best mate. And even though he's always
banging on about stats past completion, there's no one we'd
rather watch the match to the sports that bring us together.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
Heineken zero zero throughout the great state of Michigan, and
we're very proud of our young athletes and we're very
proud of some of the things that they've had overcome,
like Trinidad Shamliss, who has done that from farri State
to Ole Miss. Nobody capsulized that better than Shehan Jiraja.
He writes for cbssports dot Com. The author has a
(01:11):
fantastic article on how the former Farri State Bulldog quarterback
is now living his dream in the SEC, and that
author joins us here on exus and Bros. Shahan, We
appreciate it very much. Hope you're well today. Fantastic work
on this article. What surprised you most about doing the
research of this young man and what he's meant so
(01:33):
far to the SEC?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
What's fascinating? I mean, so I'm down here in Texas,
and I think that one thing that characterizes so many athletes,
and especially let's be specific to quarterbacks that I see
coming up through the ranks is that they specialize so early.
I mean, you're talking about, you know, players playing primarily
quarterback and not many other sports. From the time that
(01:56):
they're you know, in middle school or at least early
high school. They're in cancer at seven on seven. They're
in all this sort of stuff year round. And it
was fascinating to learn about Trinidad because obviously he was
a basketball player at heart. That was his first love.
And it was rich to talk to coach Tony and
he's over at Farris State. He kind of told me, Look,
I didn't actually love Trinidad Shambliss the football prospect when
(02:20):
I went out and saw him at Borzill's Northern, But
when I saw him play basketball, that's when it kind
of clicked for me that he has this great vision,
he has great athleticism, he can anticipate at a very
high level. And again, I think that's just a dynamic
that you don't get with a lot of quarterbacks who
again feel like they specialize in this stuff so early.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
Yeah, it's really is well done. It's well written, it's
well researched. It's a feel good story. It's more than
just I think this is more than just football. I
think this can be something a little bit about life.
A guy who didn't have a lot of big schools
knocking on his door while at while in high school
and now took his time, improved his craft, grew within
(03:07):
himself and on the football field, and found a home
in arguably the best football conference in America. What else
do you think it tells you about, you know, life
in general, besides him just being a football player. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Well, first of all, I appreciate that, you know, it's
something that I really try to put in especially some
of my stories about people. And you know, my wife
is not a sports person, so whenever I do like
a big life story, I try to get her to
do a first setit of it to make sure it
connects with people. Pay you know, for me, I think
that it was it was so interesting, right because I
(03:41):
think that there are sometimes you know, when you talk
to people's families and friends, you're like, oh, here's this
one story about you know, sports or all the sort
of stuff. But with Trinidad, there almost wasn't like a story.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
It was so much just consistently doing the right thing,
you know, consistently being in the right place, consistently being
on time, consistently putting in the hard work. And I
think if I can sometimes be a difficult thing to capture,
just somebody who you know, kind of didn't have drama.
I guess you could say to a certain extent, but
(04:14):
I think that you just talk to people around him
and something. I mean, I got to talk to some
fantastic people. I love getting to talk with coach Eddie,
Austin Allen and Joe Soils over at four Stills Northern.
I think, you know, they were just so much fun
to talk to, and Ethan Erickson, the former Fair State
basketball player who's a childhood friend. But I think that
what it kind of captured, I hope, more than anything else, is,
(04:39):
you know, I think that all of these experiences that
he had of showing up and doing the right thing
have compounded themselves, right. You know, when he was growing
up and playing at four Stills Northern, it was learning
to be a competitor, learning to be a teammate. When
you get to Farris State, it's learning how to win,
it's learning how to transform your body. And when you
(05:01):
see him take the field at all, miss, I think
that you get to see all of these dynamics in
one place. You kind of see it in the way
that he plays. You see it in the way that
he carries himself. And I think that, again, you know,
more than anything else, I hope that what it communicates
is when you do things the right way, it always
does come around and pays off in the end.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
The author of a fantastic article on Trinidad Shambliss on
cbssports dot com. He is Shahan JR. Rajah and he
joins us here on x'es and Bros. Throughout the state
of Michigan. I love the picture with him and Ethan
Erickson in your article too, and how they pushed each
other on the basketball floor, and you mentioned that throughout
the article. And again credit to you for the research
(05:45):
talking to the right people in this kid's life. It's
not an opinion piece. It's quotes from high school people,
high school coaches, those who knew him best as he
reaches early startom in the SEC. But I think it's
also important that I hope other coaches are recognizing and
reading this fantastic article, and that is playing multiple sports
can help you. It's really important in a day and
(06:08):
age where we see so many kids focused on one
sport because those coaches want them to concentrate on one sport.
Here's a kid who made sure playing other sports helped
him in the sport he's playing now at the collegiate.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Level one hundred percent. And I think that again you
see sort of the point guard aptitude through you know,
I mean again, he played baseball year round as well.
Obviously he played football, and I think that the other
thing as well, that's really interesting, especially now being in
lane Kippen's offense and the SEC's like I mean for
a lot of high school you know. I kind of
(06:43):
talked to coach also, like he had to do a
lot of option concepts like this is not you know,
just drop back throw it, like this is not just
that kind of stuff. I think that he had such
a diversity of experiences as an athlete, and and again
I think that you you in so many ways and
then so many cases get to grow as just a
(07:03):
person when when you do that, now you know, again,
I talked to coach in these affairs state and he
kind of said, look, the thing that I loved about
is that he developed his his skill skill set and
toolbox and ultimately when it was time to specialize, when
he needed to build his body and add thirty pounds,
and he could focus on that. But that's an easier
thing to do than it is to develop some of
(07:24):
these fine motor skills that can really only be done
through playing multiple sports.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
And it was it was fun too.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Again, I'm from the state of Texas, I've been spent
a lot of time in Michigan, and you know, it's
almost like, you know, just just speaking as an outsider,
of course, like it was really cool to me, just
kind of how like. I mean, the only phrase I
can think of is like old school and traditional that
that Grand Rapids is like, it feels like the kind
(07:52):
of place where, like, you know, just such a supportive community,
such a such a cool environment, such a such a
great place, structured heighten it family. Like I really felt
that just talking to people around town, and again that's
just not something that's guaranteed anymore. I love that that's
what he got growing up in Grand Rapid.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Yeah, it's a community you want to reach your family.
It's sometimes it's as simple as that. It's good people
who care about one another. For the most part, I'm
generalizing here, care about one another, and it's a good
place to raise a family. When you see a kid
come from a Division two program, now it's a powerhouse.
It's Tony and Nissa hell of a football coach, and
he's got the right culture there in Big Rapids. Are
(08:36):
we going to see more of this? Do you think
that where kids are coming from smaller schools and getting
the opportunity they don't deserve to automatically get the deal
and Chamblis didn't either, But do you think they're getting
more opportunities because of the way college football is today.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, I absolutely think out. In fact, eight players from
Fair State over the off season transferred up not just
to the SDS level, trans to the FBS level, which
is jumping two levels, which is unbelievable. And I think
that this is absolutely going to become more common for
a couple of reasons. One, I mean, obviously, game tape,
(09:12):
game film is is so much easier to find these days, right, Like, Actually,
it's funny. I think that ESPN put out a story
kind of the same day, and you know, they took
it much more from the old MIDS side of things,
but it's like, you know, they're scouting departments and all
this sort of stuff. I kind of love our stories
as a compliment to each other in some way, you know.
But like again, it was very much like the scouting department,
(09:33):
the offensive coaches, like they were just watching film all
day and they have this time to do it in
this infrastructure, and they find this kid, right, And I
think that that's one piece of it. Of course. I
think that sort of the way that the transfer portal
and all this sort of stuff works now makes it
a little bit more common. I think that, you know,
the opportunities that are available also, you know, from a
(09:55):
strict monetary perspective, is going to create some opportunities for people.
And and again when you have stories like this and
I got a chance actually I covered cam Ward when
he was at an FCS school at Incarnate Word and
Eric Morris and all those guys like I think that
when you start having these stories that pop up, it
(10:17):
means that everybody else is looking just a little bit
harder to try to be the ones to find the
next one.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Yeah. Well, you did a great job in capsuling it.
It's a wonderful read. And it's not just because it's
in our state of Michigan, Sehan, but it's because of
the story itself of a smaller school and a kid
who knew he could play at the level just needed
the opportunity. He's kicking that door in right now and
you're educating people about it right now, and we appreciate
(10:45):
it very much. Great stuff, Keep up the great work.
Thanks for taking some time for us here on a
Wednesday morning.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Yeah, absolutely anytime. So that was that's really fun stuff
and what a fantastic read, folks to me, please Shahan
jay Rajah giving us some really good stuff on a
local kid. Bill Simonson tweeted out as well that it's
a great it's a great read, so we would suggest
you you go and do that.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Where do you go for Ireland's biggest thrillers, craziest finishes,
wildest upsets and fiercest post match debates.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Good afternoon to you here. You're very welcome to the program.
An awful lot of live sports on the way.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Well over a million of you go to Ireland's number
one radio station, Artie Radio one. Listen now on Artie
Radio Player.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Brought to you by Heineken zero zero. Get the facts,
Be drink Aware? Is it drinkaware? Dot I?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
He claims he brought the mullet back, his short shorts
are a bit too short, and he's nowhere to be
found when it's his round.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
There's my Heinegn zero zero.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
But he's our best mate, and even though he's always
banging on about stasts past compleasion, there's no one we'd
rather watch the match to the sports that bring us
to the Heineken zero zero
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