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December 16, 2025 • 14 mins
Color Analyst of Fighting Hawks Radio Network football broadcasts, Mike Berg joins Tim & Paul to discuss the FCS Playoffs, what teams struggling for wins need to look to and more.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The color analysts for you any football it's Mike burg mort.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
And Mike gentlemen, good morning, Good morning coach, gentlemen.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Happening to analyze right now.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Well, who's gonna win the FCS.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Well, I know who I hope wins the FCS, which
happens to play in the Missouri Valley. Just as soon
see it, stay in the Missouri Valley. If that's not
to be, I would just soon have it be from Bozeman.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
I know the Vegan family pretty well, and you know,
I have followed his success his career from you know,
when he was at NDSU even as a player, and
know his dad well, so that would that would be
wonderful and I'd be okay with that too.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I remember when he was part of a Central Valley
boys basketball team from back in the day, all the
way to the state tournament. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Yes, we're refereeing that actual team in some games, so yes.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, So it's just down the neighborhood, so yeah, I
get that, but yeah, all stay in the valley as well.
You know, the Redbirds have been I think because we
just didn't see them. I think they've been lying in
the weeds a little bit because I think we saw
him late last year. They're a pretty good football team
then and had a good quarterback. And we say that

(01:27):
about every team in the valley. Oh they got a
good quarterbacks. A common theme, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, they've they've been very competitive and very solid forever. Yeah.
At Illinois State, I mean, they always have a team
that is considered to be right there. So that'd be fine.
But again, I hadn't seen Villanova until the other day
on TV. They look pretty darn good to me. They do,

(01:54):
and they'll be tough, and you know, we know what
Montana's like, and so yeah, I think the four teams
that are in any one of them could be the one.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, I watch that Tarlatan stayed villain over game. That
was an entertaining game. I didn't want to turn away.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I did.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
It really was I I just kind of thought, well,
I'll watch a little bit of it and see what
it is. But yeah, I stayed with it till the end.
It was. It was a good one.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Cay coach. A tough subject here when teams are struggling
finding wins men's women men's and women's basketball right now,
tough times. You have a team you've coached teams where
they're struggling to find wins? What do you what? What?
What do you do as a coach or what do
you try to rely on? What do you try to

(02:44):
convey during those tough times? Basically? What what did you
come across when you navigated those waters with teams that
maybe were we're playing hard, trying hard, but just not
necessarily getting the results. What were some of the things
that you encounter during those times.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well? I'm no genius or expert, but can I answer
a question with a question? Sure? What wins games? Strategy
or fundamentals?

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Well, I think probably a little bit of bolt, but
I'll start with fundamentals.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah, and I would end with fundamentals. If you're getting
your butt kicked, you just can't beat people. Excuse me,
Maybe you don't have the talent of the teams that
you're playing, but you can't let your fundamentals drop right,
so you don't put more effort into strategy or how
can we win the big game? How can we put

(03:38):
this new play in? Or do have this new scheme? No, no, no,
we go back and we go back to fundamentals. You
know why we're getting beaten? Football because we're not tackling people.
We're not blocking people. And even if they're better than us,
be sure sec better be able to execute the fundamentals.
And I would say it would be no different in

(04:00):
any sport. Right, So, I think what happens is when
you're struggling, you kind of expande, look at all the
reasons why things are going wrong. Start what they're going
wrong for one reason, you are not executing the fundamentals.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Great point simplification sometimes is gets you back into us.
You know, a good foothold, at least at the very least.
If you get good at that, you may still lose
a few, but you also may win a few along
the way.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, you can't do anything about your opponent's talent, and
you know there are things out of your control that
you can do a whole lot about the way you
prepare your team. And you know we can't stop anybody.
We're not playing defense. Why is that? Well, because our
fundamentals are not good. And I would use some other
more colorful terminology, but that's why we can't score. Why, Well,

(04:54):
here's why. Because you haven't blocked anybody, and you know,
maybe you did that we could move the chains or
you know, you know, or it's basketball. You know, hey,
maybe we're we're not passing the ball, or maybe we're
we're not helping each other on defense, or maybe we're

(05:14):
not getting back, or maybe we're not moving our feet.
Those things. Those things aren't some brilliant strategy. That's where
you started when you first picked up a ball and
you went to play pee wee league.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah, you gotta gotta cut the score, you know, cut
hard to score.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, yeah, you're pick a thing that's not going right.
That's why you're getting beat. And then you you want,
especially in the college level, you want you need better athletes. Well,
and then I guess somebody the fundamental of college coaching
would be, let's go recruit some good athletes. So we're
not good enough. Yeah, yeah, that doesn't take a genius

(05:50):
to figure out.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
No, sure doesn't. So yeah, that awesome stuff there. Really
appreciate it, uh because you know, sometimes you know, years
of being around stuff and sports gives a person a
little insight or dare I say wisdom, And appreciate you
sharing with us about those types of things. So I

(06:13):
don't know if Tim saw this, but we've seen some
guys being acknowledged for some All American type of awards,
including Seth Anderson, including Lance Rutcker, including Malachi McNeil, and
I guess when you say those three guys, should we
all be all that surprise?

Speaker 4 (06:27):
Those guys were the good guys To argue with any
of those, yeah, oh absolutely, they were the lynch pins,
so to speak, of a football team that was and
you know, actually finished the season on a successful note.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
I didn't win the last game the season as a whole,
and they were a big part of it, and of
course other teammates, but yeah, they stood out. I can't
argue with their selection there, and there are a lot
of All American teams. There'll be others, but yeah, these guys,
they would have been the first three, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Tim what you were doing the fundamentals.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
That's true.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, you know, sometimes you can execute the fundamentals, but
guess what, you're just not quite talented enough to play
on this level. So you do things right. You know,
everything is exactly as we would teach it, and you're
working your butt off to execute this, but you lack
the speed, or you lack the athleticism, or you lack

(07:25):
the lateral movement. Or the quickness or the jumping ability,
whatever it is, there is some physical thing that's holding
you back. So this might not be the best level
for you to play. You'd have more fun playing on
a different level because you can play, just not here.
So there's those white guys too.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
I've been thinking that maybe you're the guy to try
and answer this, because we hear it all the time
about teams, whether it's football, basketball, hockey, whatever it might be,
they have to learn how to win. Explain as you can.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Well, I think, first of all, I don't think you
emphasize winning and losing. You don't even need to bring
those words up. It's your culture. We win at practice,
we win in the weight room, and again we don't
talk about winning. Obviously, nobody plays to lose. Nobody plays
to just show up and put on a game. So

(08:25):
if you're a competitor, if you are part of a
team where the culture is hard work and competitiveness and
that we you know, we bring it every time we
go out there, whatever the sport is, I think the
winning takes care of itself, and then again the losing.
Sometimes you do everything right, but guess what if you're

(08:46):
playing a team that has more talent than you do.
All the preparation, all the coaching, all the scouting, all
the stuff that you do to win might help you
play as well as you can play, but it doesn't
necessarily mean the scoreboard is going to end up in
your favor. And I'm good with that. You better be,
or you're in the wrong business.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Ah right, really, well said there, coach. I've got something
for you you being a history guy. On this date,
two hundred and fifty two years ago to day, in
seventeen seventy three, a little incident known as the Boston
Tea Party went down with when some colonists boarded a
British ship and dumped more than three hundred chests of
tea overboard to protest te taxes. And we were on

(09:31):
our way then to becoming a country. But that was
one of the instigating moments of American history basically to
get us where we are today, the Boston Tea Party
on this date, and.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Turn on the news tonight and guess what one of
the first words out of the David Muir or any
of the other folks of the anchor person's mouth is
going to be taxes. Well, that hasn't disappeared. Has right,
we're still.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
There well and that you know, but again, taxation without representation.
That has always been the mantra going back to the
Revolutionary day. Now we have representation and we still get taxes.
Sometimes that makes us angry at our representation, but at
least we have representation of the Well.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Taxation is a pretty common thread and so yeah, and
you can go back to biblical times where you know,
somebody in charge has got to figure out how do
we make money? I know, well, that's the folks that
live here to give us money, and if they don't
want to give it to us, we'll just tax them

(10:43):
and make it a law they have to give it
to us.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
So yeah, well I was just watching let's yeah, I
was just watching a documentary about the thirteen hundreds peasant
uprising in England and a lot had to do with
the British Crown at the time over taxing the peasants
because they were trying to pay for the one hundred
Years War with France. So you know, it's always taxation

(11:05):
in one way, shape or form. Okay, Because of the
Boston Tea Party, one of the instigating incidents of the
Revolutionary War, who is your favorite I guess historical person
from the revolutionary period? Is it Washington? Jefferson, Franklin Madison,

(11:27):
is it Sam Adams? John Adams? Who do you like
from that that era?

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Well, this is probably the ninety percent of people would say,
how do you not go with George Washington? But but
you you were saying you were watching a documentary. I
can't believe. First of all, you're watching documentary was thirteen
hundred uprising when there was probably Bowling Green playing Kennesaw

(11:56):
State in a women's basketball game that you would have
more likely watched. But I just I just actually got
done reading some material on the number of mistakes Washington made. Yeah,
as commanding General of the forces, and actually luck Wather

(12:16):
and everything else changed some things. Otherwise, you know, it
would have been over in a hurry. Yes, So I'll,
you know, I'll, how do you not go with Washington?

Speaker 2 (12:26):
But I think you can go with a lot of
people there. But obviously that's an easy go to. But
you know, I'll give Washington a big thumbs up when
you say after serving two terms, He's just like, no,
that's good enough for me. Thanks, thanks for everything. It's
time for me to go work on my on my farm,
so I think there's something to be said about that

(12:48):
as well.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
And there was no internet, you know, so he had
to make make his policies and his decisions known, and
even today we think the internet is now if you
read some of the old newspapers and the historials and
what they used to throw out, oh boy, and the
names they would call and I mean people would be
just absolutely shredded. Yep. In the newspapers of those days.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Jefferson and Adams were friends until they were running against
each other and putting nasty bits, especially Jefferson's people about
Adams and the papers back in the day, horrible things.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
But well, yeah, Adams did rub some people the wrong way,
though most.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
People, asked Tim, a lot of people from Boston do,
except for maybe Jackie Parker And what was who was
the guy from BC for a long time? Tim, Jerry,
Jerry York two very nice men. Yes, yeah, So anyway,
coach Berg, thank you so much for joining us. Will
we be able to count on you next Tuesday, the

(13:49):
twenty third.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
I don't know why not?

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Awesome?

Speaker 3 (13:54):
I'm not going anywhere, okay, okay, my phone will ring
if I'm someplace else.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
We're glad that you're able to join us. We'll talk
to you next Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (14:03):
Okay, thanks guys,
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