.@BamaPrepsFB @VladValasuik joins @ONTHEDMARK1 talking @AHSAAUpdates Football July 22

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I think it went really well.We're going to start it with number two.
What will be a regular throughout theyear. We go to Birmingham every
Monday morning at seven thirty or rightaround that time, and Jeff, we're
going up to the Thompson, Alabastaarea to bleep blinging lad with Bama Preps.
Good morning, Glad. How areyou this morning? Mark? Jeff?

(00:20):
How are we doing? Very well? And good morning to Unicorse.
He is live on the Hamilton's hotline. Hamilton's has a location on Magnolia and
Auburn and the location on Ogle Treeand albur Glad you've been to Auburn.
Much trip to Auburn was for theCentral Phoenix City game in the regular season
where cam Coleman scored I think likefour touchdowns and ran away with it.

(00:43):
You know what that was when Auburnwas down the goal line and fourth down
and the boy ran it back.Had that picked pick out of the end
zone that night? Is that right? No? No, it wasn't.
Which game was that was Enterprise?You talked? That's right, the Enterprise
game I'm talking about. I wasI was confused. I know which game
you're talking about? You're talking abouthow many years ago that would have been?

(01:07):
That was that was this year.That was this past season, you
know, Auburn dealing with a quarterbackthis year, you know, talking high
school football. Yeah, I wentto uh, I went to Enterprise.
In my mind you said Central,So yeah, that was a tough time.
I Enterprise upset. Yeah, theydid. I was at that game.
That's why I'm saying the And Iwent over to the to the Central

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game too, so the second ofthat game. But anyway, lad,
when you get down here one day, we'll get you over to Hamilton,
how about that? Absolutely? Yeah, yeah, So look, we're glad
to have you with us on themark. I appreciate you, Jordan forces
with us and you and vice versasto bring us your knowledge in the metro
Birmingham area. And now, what'dyou do? You went to some practices
last week than you've led. Youmoved around, did you? Yeah?
Yeah, I know, we weresort of all over the place earlier.

(01:52):
Like I mentioned, I was atcar of Montgomery, but you know,
I've made some stops around the statea little bit, and coming up I'll
be actually at a media day longergame media day this Wednesday, and that's
going to be up north, andthere's going to be a bunch of you
know, four A schools, threeA schools that you don't really get a
chance to get a look at.And I don't have that complete list yet,

(02:13):
but I'll be up there looking atsome of those, you know,
Huntsville area schools that I think getsort of overlooked, you know, sort
of not as much media up therethat part of the state. You know,
you're sort of Tennessee Valley area,so it's a different media group covering
that part of the state. Andit's still Alabama, so you still try
to get it covered. Got yougot you? Well, I understand that

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car h that's it. What doyou see a car run. I know
they got some they got a goodcoaching staff, they got a big school.
I look for that team to bea sleeping giant right there. Absolutely.
Yeah. Carver's a school that's alwayshad a lot of talent, in
my opinion, just hasn't been utilized. And especially this year. You know,
Bobby Carr, he's making a bigjump, you know, from AISA

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ball all the way up to seveneight. It's it's gonna be a challenging.
When I talked to him, hesaid. One thing that's stuck with
me, He said, ball isball, no matter what classification you play
it in. And you know,Carver's got a really good quarterback and TJ.
Russell Junior. They've got a fivestar Alabama commit at running back.
That always helps. Moving back upfrom IMG Academy have they're in Brandton,

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Florida. You know how they doit in IMG, and he's going to
bring all that to Carver. T. K. Gorman really good receiver,
They've got a lot of weapons onoffense, and they've just got to put
it together there and arguably the toughestregion in the state this year. You
know, whether your Auburns and yourcentrals and your dop ens and enterprises,
all those really good teams like Iheard earlier, you know, you coach

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over at Oplawika, he's going tohave a chance to really turn that team
around. You know, he's gota good young team this year. And
there's a lot of competition in thatregion too, So we'll see where Carver
slots into that. We project themto be a playoff team this year,
but you know it's to be tough. They get they got a lot to
go up against the season. Well, you're right about that. I'm going

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to say one thing, football isfootball there as you will know, you
kind of get on open class.It kind of gets a little speed of
the game kind of right moves onup there. But you're right, it'll
be interesting. So you want todive into seven eight? Is that what
you want to dold? You wantto yeah? Absolutely all right, Yeah,
So sort of give an outlook ofseven A this year, talk about
some of your front runners in eachregion, and then we'll sort of do

(04:27):
an overall classification and then sort ofmaybe talk about some of the underdogs this
year. You know, maybe notas much as some regions as in other
regions. But we can start inRegion one, right ro ye if we
get ready right here, big women, right, go ahead? Yeah,
So Region one is really interesting.Last season, you know, Mary G.
Montgomery, which has been in thegutters for so many years, you

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know, just really popped out ofnowhere this season and went twelve and two,
made it all the way to thethird round of the seven A and
they hanged on with Central Phoenix City, which is more than what most teams
can say. They kept that areally close game in the semifinal, but
you know eventually got put away.You know, I don't project mary G

(05:11):
to be as good this season.They're losing a lot of talent offensively,
They're going to lose their starting quarterbackJared Hollis. They're going to lose some
of those really good receivers that theyhad last season. So I think they'll
take a bit of a step backthis year. But they've looked really good
and seven on seven so far.We still project mary G to win the
region, but outside of that,there's not much Daphne. It's going to
be a much better team this year. They have some talent down there and

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got a chance to see them onthe NFACHESS Network when they played Thompson in
their spring game. You've got agood team in Davidson, You've got Baker,
who has a new head coach,and jan Johnson so Baker last season,
you know, with Bryce Kane obviouslyan Auburn guy. Everybody knows him.
Josh Flowers, who's your quarterback?Last year's at Arkansas State. Now

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there there was a lot of talentleaving the Region one area, and it's
going to be really hard to projectwho's going to be a playoff team.
This year. You know, you'vealways got fair Hope, you know,
Foley, who just missed the playoffslast year with Perry Thompson on that team.
So when you when you missed theplayoffs with a five star receiver like
that and then you lose him thenext year, it's really tough to you

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know, project how they're going todo this season. But what we're looking
at it right now, probably marriageto Montgomery, Baker, Daphney, and
then it'll probably be Davidson or fairHope fighting out for that fourth spot.
Interesting. Interesting, what do youthink overall about that area, that whole
region right there? Last It's tough, it's tough. It seems like it

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seems like, you know, there'salways talent and mobile, you know,
whether it's that Buiger, whether it'sthat Theodore, But it seems to be
a lot more spread out than yourBirmingham areas. You know, you're you
know, Auburn, Opleleka areas ofthe state. It's it's really hard to
put a team together, and especiallyin these recent years. I can't remember
the last time there's been other thanreally MGM, there's been a Region one

(07:02):
runner to make it all the wayto this you know, the state championship
game. You'd have to go backfrom the Bill koolt and when they were
having their run in seven A.Obviously they're a six eight. Now they've
sort of, you know, felloff the map a little bit. It
seems really tough to win in thatregion this year, and I think that's
just because of how much Region twohas emerged in these three sen years.

(07:25):
Very good, Oh ahead, you'llgo ahead. Yeah. The the playoff
format for seven A this year,you know it'll be four against one then
the playoffs and two against three.I mean we're probably looking at having a
state championship game in the semi finals. Yeah, absolutely, so I never
actually got confirmation on that. Soit will be four against one. Yeah,

(07:47):
we looked it up. Lad,they've actually posted it now. So
you got four and one and twoand three. Oh my goodness. So
you get ready to bat assass Reallythat's really interesting. Yeah, No,
I have to think on the flynow, Mark, that's that's gonna mix
some things up because four isn't exactlyknown for their football. I'd say,

(08:09):
were no doubt sash Field in onthat, didn't you right? Yeah?
Oh yeah? Learning first it wasthe dead school or whatever. Failing school
last year, that's right, failingschool last week. Yeah, we got
I tell you, I learned,you learned me. I learned You got
about that? Right? How manyathletes with the with the uh N I

(08:31):
l all over in every state aroundUS? I guess have we had some
kids leaving the state, especially theborderline. You see it every year,
you know the best. I don'tunderstand why Florence didn't win. They're right
there in the corner. They gotMississippi and Tennessee. Man, they could
just Mars Hill Bible wins. Yeah. Absolutely. I saw Mars Hill Bible
last year play against Madison Academy andMarcell You know, they're gonna run the

(08:56):
flex bone, they're gonna run thatwing offense. But they do it just
as well as anybody. You know. They You know, it's hard because
Alabama doesn't have nil and it's oneof the issues that I think doctor Harmon
needs to address. And it's reallyimpressing issue because you know, I think

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probably the biggest player to leave isColvin Langer from Thompson High School. A
really good receiver and he's a fivestar prospect in basketball, and he went
to Georgia Prep Academy, where he'sgoing to get a boatload of nil money.
You just don't have that opportunity inAlabama, not at not even not
at a public school level, notat a private school level. You just
you can't offer the kids any money. You can't offer them any nil because

(09:41):
the state doesn't have it. AndI think more players will leave until it
gets addressed. And we've already startedto see the framework of that start to
happen. Here's where I kind ofconfused by that blad who pays this money?
What kind of person business? Imean, who's paying high school kids?
What benefit for that person paying?Well, I think right now it's

(10:01):
probably you know, the schools can'tpay the schools can't pay money. But
if we're going to be realistic careit's it's a booster. It's you know,
somebody who's got a business in thatarea that says, hey, you
know here, here's where the nilmoney is going to be. And officially
you're not allowed to. But aswe've seen in the college ranks, it's

(10:24):
going to find a way to happen. With the transfer portal. In college,
you have you know, nil opportunitiesand other parts of the country that
you go to, and you know, you have actual school nil collectives,
and I don't know how thoroughly that'sgoing to be implemented in the state of
Alabama. From everything I've seen,it's not going to be like a school

(10:46):
collective. If that was the case, then you know you'd have the richest
areas of Alabama, so you know, Shelby Counties, that sort of stuff
really start to dominate high school football. But you just don't know what level
of implementation, you know. Icouldn't can't really give you a good answer
on that because you just don't know, you know, what the level of
how far you're going to go withthat. I am, Yeah, I

(11:09):
kind of agree with you. Gladbeasuit with us on the Hamilton's hotline with
Bama prips and we're going over tomaybe had about four minutes. Lad,
let's go back to your seven eightregion. Go to your next one real
quick if you will. Yeah,absolutely so. Region two this year,
you know the sort that's your neckof the woods, d Mark. You
got a lot of good teams,like we just talked about with Carver,
Montgomery, You've got Phoenix City,Auburn, Dothan, and Enterprise. All

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five of those teams would playoff teamslast year. Carver Montgomery got shut out
by Briarwood and the six eight playoffslast season, and honestly, I think
those five teams will be the onesyou know, to be out for the
playoffs. I project Auburn to bea much better team this year. I
think that they have a real goodshot at BT Phoenix City this year,

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after you know, Phoenix City losingone of the best players in the state
in cam Coleman going to Auburn University. So it'll be interesting to see who
wins that region, especially with thefact is that, hey, now you're
playing reason three, so you're eithergonna play you know, hewittt or a
Hillcrest, or you're gonna play youknow, Thompson or Hoover. So you

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know they're gonna have to duke itout there. But we're right now,
we're projecting Auburn to win the regionPhoenix City and then it'll go Enterprise and
we have Carver Montgomery in that fourthslot. Rule project dopin to drop out.
What about the Dolls, Hope,like my home school last now,
they they've got some work to do. They do, but they got to

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absolutely, absolutely. I think thatthey have a very talented roster. They
have a great receiver and I'm forgettingyour name of right now, number three,
and they're gonna be a good teamand they have a chance to beat
some really good teams. You know, you look at the Auburn game last
year. If they win that game, you know they're they're looking a lot
better in their region playoff standing.You know, I think that opal Aka

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is a team that's going to competeobviously this year. We know what coach
can do. You know what hedid at Hartzel, had a great team
up there for many years, andI think coming down here was one of
the best possible hires that they couldhave made in the situation that they were
in. I think that they willcompete this year, but it is really

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hard for me to put them overand Enterprise that's just so loaded on talent.
There are a known entity and maybeCarvern Montgomery not as much, but
you're sort of really banking on thattalent that is there and knowing what coach
Carr has done and what he cando. I get that two scoos combined
and very talented. I get thatgood breakdown. Right, let's go to
the other region at about two minutes. If you can do it for me,

(13:43):
all right, Yeah, no,I'll give it a shot. Yeah.
Region three is really interesting, andthe team I wanted to touch on
was Hewett Trustville. They lose alot of talent, they lose painfully the
starting quarterback, but I think there'sstill going to be a really good team
this year. Noah Dobbins. Andthen actually see Davis, you know,
the son of Chris Davis, youknow, the kick six man. He's
going to be a freshman this year, and he's looking like a very explosive

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running back for the two trustful Huskiesright now. We project Thompson to win
that region. We project Hewitt togo second in that region. Then Hoover.
We're very high on Hoover this yearand what coach Gilmer is going to
do there. And to it HillcrestTuscaloosa as well. We think that this
year if the Stavia Hills will miss, and then you have your Prattville,

(14:30):
Yer Oak Mountains and your two counties. Well have we gone to Mobile?
Have you done yet yet? Yeah? Yeah, we did Lobil. We
did Region four, although not toomuch to talk about not much is it
now? You know you're Austen probablyis going to win that region this year.
But you've got Sparkman who's going tobe a really good team who started

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five to zero last year then droppedtheir last five. Outside of that,
you know, maybe Bob Jones who'sprojected to be a good team, James
Clements that's probably going to be yourfourth playoff teams, you know, with
a team like Florence Grissolm obviously Albertvillemissing, and you know Huntsville who's really
been meddling. They get a newcoach. So we'll see what Huntsville this

(15:13):
year. All right, glad.You know, we don't crack on kids
when we say that, we don'tmean anything by that. We just we're
just gonna go about you know,we go by past history. You know
that? All right? My man? Great job. Tell everybody where they
can get all your info at readyour read your material, blad. Yeah.
So at Bama Preps Media, weare mostly on Instagram and ex formally
known as Twitter. We have awebsite at Bama Preps dot org. Anytime

(15:35):
we do any sort of photography stuffthat'll be on there. We will be
hosting a weekly podcast during the footballseason with my great co host TP Hammock,
who has actually done in Orlando nowtrying to make his media career happen.
Did he leave our area, blad, Yeah, he's he's trying to
get a job right now at ESPN, so he's gone an working at the

(15:56):
parks. He's good for him,you know. Well, I hope he
makes Okay, well, hey,you gotta do something till you make it,
so I hope he does. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Tp.
He'll be back there during the season. We play on having him for some
of our Week one games covering withus and you know he'll be our co
host on the podcast. But yeah, Bampreps dot Org, Bama Preps on

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YouTube, Bama Preps on Instagram,and then Bama Preps FB on x Forman
notice, lad, always a pleasure. Enjoy your week. We'll look forward
to talking to you Monday. Allright, absolutely, d Mark, you
have a good day, you too. You