Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'll be a coach. Yeah, you don't want to win, Well,
you better go to the bench then, because you're not
playing right. Yeah, get your rear and gear. I might
need to go to class for this. Sean Callahan's on
our phone line. I'm sure he'd be a fine coach.
Sean appreciates you being a part of the show. Happy
Global hand Washing Day. Speaking of hand washing, the Benson
(00:20):
Bunnies will not be washing their hands in the locker
room for a football game. And I just wanted to know,
you know, as a guy who's you know in Nebraska
and the Nebraska guy, you're familiar with a lot of
these schools. They had number one Millard South still on
the slate and they're not going to get to play
that game. But what happened here and how do we
fix it?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, it's just kind of a reality of where things
are in a lot of major cities right now. Man.
I think des Mooine has battled something similar Kansas City,
Saint Louis where you just no longer have like a
middle of high school football. It's the top and the
bottom and the middle. This doesn't really exist, at least
at the level it once did. I mean, I can
(00:58):
remember growing up, you went to your namehborhood high school.
You know, I grew up in South Omh. I went
to Gross. But we knew a lot of people that
played for Brian in South and they were competitive, good programs,
and you'd go watch them, busy knew people playing and
it was kind of a community event for a lot
of these schools. And you just don't get that, in
my opinion, like he used to. And then what's happening,
(01:19):
obviously is the best players are looking for other opportunities,
and we've seen, particularly this year, a record number of
transfers in the high school ranks. I think Millard South
has around twenty six transfers. They added to their team
in one year, you know, and they got the best
player from Elkhorn Norris, the best player from Papio, the
best player from Central and they transferred to Millard South.
(01:39):
And those guys were all Division one players, and they
already had Division one players. So we're seeing kind of
a creation of super teams where West Side and Millard
South have put this gap between the rest of Class
A or one and two. The drop to three, four
and five has never been this significant in my opinion
(01:59):
where you know Carney could easily be the third best
team in the state or Elkhorn South and they're getting
beat by fifty points by these teams. It's really unbelievable
when you think about the gap right now we're seeing,
and then the bottom is to the point where you
know the JV teams from these schools will probably beat
the bottom school. So I don't know how you fix it.
(02:21):
I mean, you can create these transfer rules where you
have to sit out a whole school year, but you
still can't stop people from moving and you know, having
a new doma style address that would cause them to
attend a new school. I mean there's been parents are
crazy enough to do that. They will they will do
that to make sure their kids play they wanted to play.
So I don't know if there's a quick fixed answer
(02:41):
how you correct this. I mean, there's talk about dividing
the schedules up where you have two different classes of
Class A, where there's kind of the A one grouping
and you only play A ones, and then the bottom
would be A two and then the top A two
teams would get to be the basically the bottom seeds
of the playoffs and that's been suggested before, but I
don't know how it's going to help those schools. But
(03:03):
I think if you're not at an A one school,
you know you're you're going to leave your A two
to go to an A one to play at the
highest level, and that's what the college coaches will want
to watch and whatnot. So it's it's a tough discussion.
I don't know if there's an answer to fix this
right now.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, I mean, just everything you said, I'll be honest
with you, and this isn't an indictment on the parents
trying to put their kids in the best spot to succeed,
or their students wanting to go to a certain place
and play football. But the number you just mentioned that
transferred in to Millard South, that just kind of makes
me sick, to be honest with you. I mean, it
just it wasn't what high school athletics used to be about.
How much of this has a mirror image of what
(03:41):
kids are seeing. First of all, the rules of the
state of Nebraska are allowing this, but also when you
look at the college game and how player empowerment, player
movement is now just a reality, how much of this
is a thing that we are, you know, seeing just
trickle down to the mindset of these you know, fifteen
and sixty year olds.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I think people look at opportunity in college recruiting, especially
at a young age, and they want to put their
kids at the places that are going to give them
the best opportunity to get you know, college scholarships. And
then I mean, that's that's all sports right now in
America everywhere. And you know, there was a time where
all the ops and LPs schools or places that were
(04:24):
producing a lot of athletes, and you know Benson, there
was a time when Benson had two NFL players when
I was in high school in nineteen ninety nine. I mean,
they're a class of ninety eight players. They had two
NFL players in their backfield, Randy Stella and Ken Keith,
and they played Lincoln Southeast in a playoff game and
game everything they could want. I mean, so just to
see how much it shifted to where it's at now.
(04:46):
And you know the story of Benson. Their head coach,
Terrence Mackie left Benson to go to Central and you know,
twelve fourteen of their best players that you know, he
was getting Benson back to wrest they followed their coach
to the new job at Central, and you know that's
not uncommon. I mean, West Side's number one recruit followed
Paula Maggie when he left Burke to go to West Side.
(05:09):
And you see that happening too with some of these
coaching changes, where a kid might follow a coach in
these types of situations, but OPS in general, when you
look at kind of what happened, I mean, they didn't
play football during COVID, and you know, they were the
only schools in the state of Nebraska that didn't offer
football our fall sports, and there was going to be
(05:31):
a penalty for that when Millard and West Side and
Bellevue and Lincoln and Grand Island and everybody Carney all
played football, but the OPS schools chose not to offer it,
so they lost a lot of their players to other schools.
Kids lost opportunity development, and you know, all of this
has kind of led to where we're at now. Omaha
(05:52):
North is kind of, you know, stayed strong because they
have a great coach, Larry Martin. He's state championship level coach.
Central is a competitive program, but after that, you know,
it's quite a drop when you go from North Central
to the next ops team.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, it's a set state of affairs at the high
school level. But like Sean mentioned, this is not an
Omaha specific problem. There's no doubt about that. Everything that
you just mentioned can literally be attributed to Des Moines
as well. And I was there when that was all
going on during COVID. So let's suck Huskers real quick
Indiana on the slate today, day two of a game week,
at least from from our perspective in the working world.
(06:28):
But what are some of the early takeaways that you're
seeing as the way that the coaching staff's going to
handle this matchup on the road.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, you know, they're going in as the underdog, which
is a different feel for this team. It's the first
time Nebraska has been a perceived underdog all season, so
I think they could embrace that. Indiana has their full attention.
At the same time, though, a lot of people don't
know much about the Hoosiers. I mean, yes, they're six
to zero, but they've only played on national television one game,
it was against UCLA. Other than that, they've been on DTM.
(06:57):
They are other five games, they've been heavy favorite in
almost all of their games and they've done what they're
supposed to do. So they're this untested six to zero.
But their top ten in the in defense, their top
ten in offense. Have you got a six year quarterback
in Curtis Rourke. Nearly half of their starters are from
James Madison. That's the other storyline here. Kirk Signetti came
(07:20):
from James Madison. They were a really good team group
of five last year and a lot of their best players,
particularly on defense, even our former James Madison players that
followed Signetti and his staff to Bloomington.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, and you look at as you mentioned James Madison,
you might be like, who man, they were like unbeaten.
I mean, they were a really really strong football team
last year at a lower level. But you're seeing that
translate at least to this point, even against a pretty
favorable schedule. We'll break down the offense for the Huskers
against the defense of the Hoosiers tomorrow with our friend
Sean Callahan for a Husker insider Husker buzz. Sean is
(07:57):
always appreciate the inside. Thanks for being a part of
the show.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
We'll call you tomorrow every Thanks. Emmery.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Alright, it's five seventeen, We Got more on the way
stick around on news radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Emery Songer on news radio eleven ten kfabh
I'll be a coach. Yeah, you don't want to win, Well,
you better go to the bench then, because you're not
playing right. Yeah, get your rear and gear. I might
need to go to class for this. Sean Callahan's on
our phone line. I'm sure he'd be a fine coach.
Sean appreciates you being a part of the show. Happy
Global hand Washing Day. Speaking of hand washing, the Benson
(00:20):
Bunnies will not be washing their hands in the locker
room for a football game. And I just wanted to know,
you know, as a guy who's you know in Nebraska
and the Nebraska guy, you're familiar with a lot of
these schools. They had number one Millard South still on
the slate and they're not going to get to play
that game. But what happened here and how do we
fix it?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, it's just kind of a reality of where things
are in a lot of major cities right now. Man.
I think des Mooine has battled something similar Kansas City,
Saint Louis where you just no longer have like a
middle of high school football. It's the top and the
bottom and the middle. This doesn't really exist, at least
at the level it once did. I mean, I can
(00:58):
remember growing up, you went to your namehborhood high school.
You know, I grew up in South Omh. I went
to Gross. But we knew a lot of people that
played for Brian in South and they were competitive, good programs,
and you'd go watch them, busy knew people playing and
it was kind of a community event for a lot
of these schools. And you just don't get that, in
my opinion, like he used to. And then what's happening,
(01:19):
obviously is the best players are looking for other opportunities,
and we've seen, particularly this year, a record number of
transfers in the high school ranks. I think Millard South
has around twenty six transfers. They added to their team
in one year, you know, and they got the best
player from Elkhorn Norris, the best player from Papio, the
best player from Central and they transferred to Millard South.
(01:39):
And those guys were all Division one players, and they
already had Division one players. So we're seeing kind of
a creation of super teams where West Side and Millard
South have put this gap between the rest of Class
A or one and two. The drop to three, four
and five has never been this significant in my opinion
(01:59):
where you know Carney could easily be the third best
team in the state or Elkhorn South and they're getting
beat by fifty points by these teams. It's really unbelievable
when you think about the gap right now we're seeing,
and then the bottom is to the point where you
know the JV teams from these schools will probably beat
the bottom school. So I don't know how you fix it.
(02:21):
I mean, you can create these transfer rules where you
have to sit out a whole school year, but you
still can't stop people from moving and you know, having
a new doma style address that would cause them to
attend a new school. I mean there's been parents are
crazy enough to do that. They will they will do
that to make sure their kids play they wanted to play.
So I don't know if there's a quick fixed answer
(02:41):
how you correct this. I mean, there's talk about dividing
the schedules up where you have two different classes of
Class A, where there's kind of the A one grouping
and you only play A ones, and then the bottom
would be A two and then the top A two
teams would get to be the basically the bottom seeds
of the playoffs and that's been suggested before, but I
don't know how it's going to help those schools. But
(03:03):
I think if you're not at an A one school,
you know you're you're going to leave your A two
to go to an A one to play at the
highest level, and that's what the college coaches will want
to watch and whatnot. So it's it's a tough discussion.
I don't know if there's an answer to fix this
right now.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, I mean, just everything you said, I'll be honest
with you, and this isn't an indictment on the parents
trying to put their kids in the best spot to succeed,
or their students wanting to go to a certain place
and play football. But the number you just mentioned that
transferred in to Millard South, that just kind of makes
me sick, to be honest with you. I mean, it
just it wasn't what high school athletics used to be about.
How much of this has a mirror image of what
(03:41):
kids are seeing. First of all, the rules of the
state of Nebraska are allowing this, but also when you
look at the college game and how player empowerment, player
movement is now just a reality, how much of this
is a thing that we are, you know, seeing just
trickle down to the mindset of these you know, fifteen
and sixty year olds.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I think people look at opportunity in college recruiting, especially
at a young age, and they want to put their
kids at the places that are going to give them
the best opportunity to get you know, college scholarships. And
then I mean, that's that's all sports right now in
America everywhere. And you know, there was a time where
all the ops and LPs schools or places that were
(04:24):
producing a lot of athletes, and you know Benson, there
was a time when Benson had two NFL players when
I was in high school in nineteen ninety nine. I mean,
they're a class of ninety eight players. They had two
NFL players in their backfield, Randy Stella and Ken Keith,
and they played Lincoln Southeast in a playoff game and
game everything they could want. I mean, so just to
see how much it shifted to where it's at now.
(04:46):
And you know the story of Benson. Their head coach,
Terrence Mackie left Benson to go to Central and you know,
twelve fourteen of their best players that you know, he
was getting Benson back to wrest they followed their coach
to the new job at Central, and you know that's
not uncommon. I mean, West Side's number one recruit followed
Paula Maggie when he left Burke to go to West Side.
(05:09):
And you see that happening too with some of these
coaching changes, where a kid might follow a coach in
these types of situations, but OPS in general, when you
look at kind of what happened, I mean, they didn't
play football during COVID, and you know, they were the
only schools in the state of Nebraska that didn't offer
football our fall sports, and there was going to be
(05:31):
a penalty for that when Millard and West Side and
Bellevue and Lincoln and Grand Island and everybody Carney all
played football, but the OPS schools chose not to offer it,
so they lost a lot of their players to other schools.
Kids lost opportunity development, and you know, all of this
has kind of led to where we're at now. Omaha
(05:52):
North is kind of, you know, stayed strong because they
have a great coach, Larry Martin. He's state championship level coach.
Central is a competitive program, but after that, you know,
it's quite a drop when you go from North Central
to the next ops team.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, it's a set state of affairs at the high
school level. But like Sean mentioned, this is not an
Omaha specific problem. There's no doubt about that. Everything that
you just mentioned can literally be attributed to Des Moines
as well. And I was there when that was all
going on during COVID. So let's suck Huskers real quick
Indiana on the slate today, day two of a game week,
at least from from our perspective in the working world.
(06:28):
But what are some of the early takeaways that you're
seeing as the way that the coaching staff's going to
handle this matchup on the road.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, you know, they're going in as the underdog, which
is a different feel for this team. It's the first
time Nebraska has been a perceived underdog all season, so
I think they could embrace that. Indiana has their full attention.
At the same time, though, a lot of people don't
know much about the Hoosiers. I mean, yes, they're six
to zero, but they've only played on national television one game,
it was against UCLA. Other than that, they've been on DTM.
(06:57):
They are other five games, they've been heavy favorite in
almost all of their games and they've done what they're
supposed to do. So they're this untested six to zero.
But their top ten in the in defense, their top
ten in offense. Have you got a six year quarterback
in Curtis Rourke. Nearly half of their starters are from
James Madison. That's the other storyline here. Kirk Signetti came
(07:20):
from James Madison. They were a really good team group
of five last year and a lot of their best players,
particularly on defense, even our former James Madison players that
followed Signetti and his staff to Bloomington.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, and you look at as you mentioned James Madison,
you might be like, who man, they were like unbeaten.
I mean, they were a really really strong football team
last year at a lower level. But you're seeing that
translate at least to this point, even against a pretty
favorable schedule. We'll break down the offense for the Huskers
against the defense of the Hoosiers tomorrow with our friend
Sean Callahan for a Husker insider Husker buzz. Sean is
(07:57):
always appreciate the inside. Thanks for being a part of
the show.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
We'll call you tomorrow every Thanks. Emmery.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Alright, it's five seventeen, We Got more on the way
stick around on news radio eleven ten kfab.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Emery Songer on news radio eleven ten kfabh
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