September 2, 2025 • 19 mins
Spartans play-by-play voice Kevin Richardson joins the program to highlight key players to watch as San Jose State takes on Texas this Saturday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, it's a Tuesday afternoon here on the program
on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
My name is Craig Way.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Glad to have you with us, and also pleased to
be joined by the play by play voice of the
San Jose State Spartans who joins us from beautiful San Jose, California.
That's Kevin Richardson, who joins us on the hotline. Now,
I appreciate the time. Kevin, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You know I'm doing great, And Craig, you know you
and I traded emails that I said I was a
fan and I mean it.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I mean it.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
You and Roger Wallace, you guys set the standard in
college football for radio broadcast and in the playoffs when
they were running the ESPN game with your audio. I'm
in for that every day. That's good stuff. And you
guys are outstanding, so well you have to be on
your show.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, I'll tell you what the.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
We're members of the Mutual Admiration Society because I've heard
you work before and I really enjoyed as well.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
And correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
See this is where this is where Kevin is a
much smarter man than I am. Whereas I've been a
talking dog in this business for the better part of
forty years. Kevin is a by daytime mightas touch everything
he touches, turns to gold Financial Advisor, and your side
(01:19):
hustle was doing the spartans.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Is that even close to the truth?
Speaker 4 (01:23):
You know, that is the truth.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
About twenty years ago, I bought some gears, started doing
some high school stuff, and then picked up the job
as the color analyst for San Jose State and I
did that for fifteen years. And then Justin o'lagry who
left to go become the voice of the California Golden Bears.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
He was the play by play guy.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Well, I'd done play by play at the high school level,
and if memory serves me right, you've.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Done a lot of that.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
And I was like, oh my gosh, what a joy
it would be to call play by play at the
college level because it would be so much eat year
than the high school level. Right, Yeah, and slid over
into that share and yeah, it is my weekend gig.
I feel like I have two jobs, but they're both
jobs that I really really enjoy.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Well, that's great, that's great. I want to get your
thoughts on the Spartans team. But before but even even
factoring that into it, I wanted to give you a
chance to get folks a little bit of background on
how this program has progressed, especially over the past few years,
and especially with ken Neo Manta Fole being able to
(02:35):
take over and and in his second season coming off
that crazy five overtime Bowl game last year. What he's
trying to set forward, I guess and really put his
tamp on the program.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting because coach Neia montalolo I
had interviewed him, oh gosh four times, I believe San
Jose State had played them over the years, and and
you know, us broadcast as we always have our tricks,
but that was back in the day when you could
get a pregame interview with a head coach, and you know,
(03:07):
you could pre record it during the week, and I
would always use the trick of I'd say, coach, the
recorder's not on, but I'd ask a question that was
real intimate to that coach, and the coaches that opened
up about that question always ended up going on and
doing really well, and the guys that didn't kind of
faded really quickly. And Kim was always that guy that
(03:28):
listened to that first question and answered it very thoughtfully,
and that's who we've got as a head coach. He's
got a couple of great sayings. One of them is,
I don't know what else I'd do if I didn't coach.
I'm a coach, right, That's what I do, and I
know what football should look like. And for him, football
should look like a pretty disciplined group of guys that
(03:49):
are playing super physical And that was the thing that
I feel like was the biggest transition last year for
the Spartans from Brent Brennan to kim Nea Montalolo. It was, hey,
let's play some physical football and let's not sit around
and wind. If somebody punches us in the mouth, we've
got to punch him back. So it's been a great
(04:10):
step for San Jose State. And he's a guy that
knows what it's supposed to look like, having been at
the Naval Academy for so many years. And again we're
trying to you know, last time we were in Texas
in twenty seventeen, that was pretty ugly, right, fifty six
to zero, and this is, you know, a lot different team,
and it is it's fun watching kN coach because the
(04:33):
game means a lot to him.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I was going to ask you another question about coach
Neia Mato Lolo, and that is, here's a man who
is of Polynesian descent and had lived that went to
University of Hawaii, did a tremendous job at the Naval Academy.
That's where he really exploded on the map for a
lot of folks. But do you get the feeling, especially
(04:56):
now in his second year, that he feels more at
home being on the West coast and say even in
Annapolis at the Naval Academy.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Well, you know what, it's an interesting subtlety that I
missed when they hired him because I saw no connection. Right,
the kid that you get at Santase State, it's going
to be a lot different than the kid that you
get at the Naval Academy. And then I come to
find out he took his LDS mission. He was stationed
in Ventura, California, so he knew California really well. And
(05:28):
a lot of the Central Valley, you know, is great
recruiting grounds and that's where he had spent a lot
of time. So there was so there was that connection.
And then I had kind of in this name image
and likeness.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
And transfer portal world.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Even though I'm an old eighties football guy that you know,
played a game for Stanford down in DKR many years ago,
I had kind of forgotten kind of what football was about.
And this guy just came in, and you know, it's like, hey,
we don't need to have forty seven different uniforms. We've
got a home and we've gotten away, and when we're
out at practice, we're going to be we're going to
(06:07):
be disciplined. And hey, radio guy, I love that you're here,
but can you stand behind that line because that's what
I have the kids do, and you know, and they
actually hit in practice and I asked him the question
about that and he said, well, you played linebacker. How
do you learn how to tackle if you don't tackle
once in a while. And so it's it's, uh, you know,
it's kind of a nineties brand of football. And the
(06:29):
kids love him, and it's not just the Polynesian kids.
He's got a great following there obviously, but you know,
he's just been really straightforward about name, image and likeness.
It's going to look nothing like what you guys have
going on at Texas. But if you want to clean
locker room and a place to practice and a place
to go get a college degree, you know, go put
(06:50):
your stuff on and let's play some football. It's been
it's been super fun from that standpoint.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Kevin Richardson, play by play voice of the San Jose
State Spartans, joining us here on the Craigway Show on
thirteen hundred The Zone and from the True Confessions. I
still do a lot of high school football. I got
two high school games this week. I still call eight
of the twelve state championship games every year, so I'm
still into it as well. And then the other thing
I got I have to a long time ago in
(07:16):
the galaxy far far away. I also did the play
by play for what is now called FC Dallas. Back
then they were Dallas Burnham Major League Soccer. So I
have done games of what was then known as Spartan
Stadium there against the San Jose Earthquakes, and I remember
what a wonderful environment that that edifice is. It's got
to be a great place to call football games.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
You know, it really is.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
The press boxes outdoor we had Central Michigan, You l
Intown on Friday, and I was telling them, I said, look,
don't be surprised when you get here and it's an
outdoor press box, but it won't matter to you because
the weather will be spectacular, so you're close to the action.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
It is.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
It is a great stadium, especially when the fans turn out.
Comes a little bit of an issue around here just
because the Bay Area has gotten so big and you know,
traffic is a thing that it wasn't twenty years ago.
But yeah, great, great old stadium to call it seth
Q Stadium now one of the savings and loans in
the area. You know, bought the naming rights. But it's
(08:19):
a fun place to go watch a football game on
a Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
You have the advantage of me, sir, and that you've
called a five overtime game. The closest I got was
four with a Texas OU game in the God Bowl
a few years ago. What was that like in that
five overtime contest? In the five overtimes which, which, by
the way, as is accurately listed in the game notes,
(08:48):
was a Bowl record for approximately thirty six hours until
Toledo beat pit in six overtimes in the game above.
Sports Bowl but in the Hawaii Bowl, you went five
overtimes with USF a south floor. Hordan Sark mentioned it
yesterday in the news conference is weekly news conference.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
You know, And as you said that, I realized I've
called two five overtimes.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
One of them is a color guy.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
The hard part on the fifth overtime as a broadcaster
is kind of remembering where you're at right because you're like, oh, gosh,
are we three deep?
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Are we four deep? On this thing? Ultimately, it was
a gut punch.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I sure wish we'd have gotten that win, especially with
coach Nia Montalolo being a guy that grew up in
Hawaii and a big portion of his staff or Hawaii guys,
and we had a lot of locals there, you know,
out to support him. But I tell you, I've kind
of gotten into this mode where I'll I'll say, hey,
you know, don't don't sleep on this guy or that guy.
(09:48):
And you know that USF program South Florida they kind
of showed what they were about in their opener against
Bois He Boys. Is a lot different without Ginty the
running back. But that was a good prize fight. It
just the bummer was we weren't able to get the win.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Let me get your thought, and I know it was
a heartbreaker as well. The other night in the in
the season opener home against Central Michigan. That was one
that I was watching in the hotel in Columbus late night,
and it looked like it was there.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
For the taken.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
You know, it really was.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
You know, the the hard part about the offense that
that Greig Stutsman runs is if it's working and you've
got everything spread out, it's you know, a knockoff of
kind of the Mike Leach stuff that everybody's familiar with.
When it's working, it's great, and when it isn't, you know,
it can be a problem, especially if it turned the
all over three times in the first half. And then
(10:45):
I thought it was really interesting with Central Michigan.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
They had a couple of pretty.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Darn good running backs and of course their new head
coach had been the OC at Army the last five
years and ran the ball for what three hundred and
twenty one yards a game year ago at Army, and
you know, they ran the ball well, they got one
hundred yards rushing in the first quarter, and it thought,
oh man, this is going to really get ugly, but
the defense pulled it together and was able to able
(11:13):
to flow things down a little bit and just couldn't
close it out down down the stretch. Had a chance twice,
you know, a couple of field goals there that that
didn't happen. So it's an interesting It's an interesting week
too because I had you guys beaten them in in Columbus,
and now you guys are going to be a little
(11:33):
bit salty obviously, and then you know, we're trying to
you know, kind of figure out, okay, what worked, what
didn't work. And it's such an interesting group of five
conundrum in terms of when you looked at stats last
week for that game, there were literally no stats to
look at because any of the good players have bounced
(11:54):
and gone to a power four, and then the power
four guys that have dropped down had no stats. That's
why they're dropping down. And you're putting them all together
and you're trying to figure out, okay, what does this
look like as a team, And it was. It was
an interesting game one much more so than they are
in an opener in general.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, Well, one guy who is a known commodity for
you should quarterback Walker you get and I know, you
know when you have turnovers, those who are unfortunate there,
but he still threw for over three hundred yards and
also had the touchdown pass of forty five yards that
was a career best for him. I put your thoughts
on what he brings to this offense.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yeah, Walker is you know, I always say what tough is.
The tough is the back wall of the shooting gallery, right,
I mean, he just hangs in there. He had, you know,
two interceptions, and he's like a three point shooter. If
you missed one, we'll start shooting because you're gonna make one.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Right. He's done really well.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
He started seven games last year, had about twenty five
hundred yards passing that was number six in the Mountain West.
He does a lot of things really well. And then
with this offense, as you guys know, those receivers are
reading the routes as they go and run into you know,
green grass or green turf if you will.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
And he's he's he's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
He's ahead of everybody else right now because we've got
a lot of new receivers. But we've got a kid,
Danny Scadero that we played against last year who was
at Sacramento State and grew up literally. I made the
comment on Friday night that he was further from the
line of scrimmage than he was to his house. But
he grew up right in the shadows of Sefty Stadium
there and he had a great night for us. And
(13:35):
so we've got to get a couple of more receivers
on board like that, and that'll help those numbers look
a lot better. Touchdown, the interception ratio that was a
bit of an issue last year wasn't quite where you
want it, and hopefully maybe we got a few of
those out of the way.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
In the opener, is.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
It safe to say to longborn fans if you watch
for nobody else on the San Jose State watched guy
on defense who wears number one, Jordan Pollock.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
You know what it is, it is safe to say.
I was saying, you know, he was number ten last year.
He dropped that zero and it made him even faster.
He finds his way to the football as an old
inside linebacker.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I like watching a good linebacker play, and he's good.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
He's not the biggest guy, but he's he's tough. Fifteen tackles.
In the opener, I always kind of throw that that
that thing out there on the radio, and I'll say,
what's tough for you know, ten tackles in a game
or one hundred yards rushing and then on a on
a season a thousand yards rushing over one hundred tackles.
And I'm always leaning into it's harder to get one
(14:42):
hundred tackles because you can't take any of those. You know,
you can't hit the sideline on any of those tackles.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Right.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Both of them are hard, but one's I think a
little bit harder. But he's he's good. He's a tough linebacker.
He plays super hard. And there's another outside linebacker, Tan
Yell a lot too, who plays pretty hard too, and
they they are as you know, if you've got a
couple of bell cows that people will follow, that sure helps.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
And those guys are good.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Uh. The one other guy I want to ask you about,
and I know we probably haven't seen too much action
there for you, but Longhorn fans remember I'm Larry Turner Gooden,
who was who was a part of the Longhorn uh
program and then transferred in prior to to last season.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, isn't that isn't that crazy, right. Yeah, he has
kind of transformed his body in the offseason, dropped a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Of weight and in a good way and looks pretty good.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I know, got some got some reps on special teams
last week and a guy that I know that they
think a lot of him. So you know, that is
kind of the the fun part. I guess if you
will in this name, image and likeness and transfer portal
era where you know, you get to go back and
play against your former team, so that that that is
pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Final thing I wanted to ask you, Kevin, is other
than obviously if you know, if everything aligned properly and
the Spartans are in position for win on Saturday, that's
one thing.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
In addition to that, what do you think that.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Coach Neo Matalola wants to see out of his group
this Saturday in the game against Texas?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
You know the part that coach Nea Montalola really leans
into hard and obviously I think it's probably from the
you know, the Academy days, is when you're at the
Naval Academy, you don't get the silly penalty and in
the second half, I think it was second drive of
the second half, first drive went down and scored second drive.
(16:40):
Things are starting to work, and they got had a
silly penalty, and they had a couple of misfires like
that along the way that I know are really things
that he leans into hard and like, hey, we have
to get these things right, and if we don't get
these things right, we won't be as good as we
want to be. The other thing that I know that
(17:01):
he wants is he wants the run game to be better.
Seventy five yards last week, eighty eight per game last year.
He you know, talked about it last year beginning middle
end of season, off season fall camp, and.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
We didn't run the ball very well.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
And I know that he's going to want to see
that improve on Saturday too. And you know, obviously our
herculian task to come in there with one hundred thousand
Longhorse fans that are going to be pretty fired up
after what you guys had to go through last week.
But you know, sometimes those things are super fun for
the you know, the student athletes to go see that
(17:38):
stadium full of one hundred thousand people. So I'm again
in nineteen eighty six when Stanford Playton won thirty one
to twenty. I keep trying to handle some positivity that way,
but we'll see if that helps it all.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Okay, And by the way, just as an advisory, not
a warning, an advisory, just let you know since you
were in that visiting radio booth eight years ago, it's
still there. It's still in the same spot.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Now.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
The stadium is undergoing some renovation. They're going to put
in all new suites that the places where we're working
this Saturday will not be the places where radio is
working starting next year. But that's another story. The photo
deck has kind of been raised up a little bit
so to accommodate the broadcast crews, not just your crew
(18:25):
and my crew, but also even Network TV. They've had
to bring in like riser platforms into our boot to
raise our level up so we could see over the
coaches cameras over the You'll still be able to see it,
but it's it's a little bit of an adjustment to
make I saw it for the first time yesterday. I
was like, Okay, at least we can see.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
So that's I want to give you the heads up
on that.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Well, and again, you and I, You and I have
done a lot of high school football. So as long
as I can kind of see everything, everything works out
pretty well. And maybe the next time I get on
your show, I can tell you about the old days
in Schaffter, California, where.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
I grew up in the neighbor down the street.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
My dad was a teacher and a coach, and this
guy down the street was a teacher and a coach,
and he was only there one year and his name
was Burl McCoy and he was a great track coach.
And of course Colt McCoy's grandfather. Yes, not that story. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
In fact, Cold is going to be on our show
tonight tomorrow night that we're recording with Coach Stark.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Great to visit with you. I look forward to see
you on Saturday morning. I know the kickoff will be
nine am California time there. Even eleven am is early
for folks in these parts, but I know it's got
to be a little bit eary. But I look forward
to seeing you on Saturday. And I appreciate you taking
the time today.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Oh you bet, Thanks for reaching out and again you
guys are the gold standard. Thanks so much for having
me and it was an honor.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Thank you, Kevin.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
That is Kevin Richardson the play by play voice of
the San Jose State Spartans,
All right, it's a Tuesday afternoon here on the program
on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
My name is Craig Way.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Glad to have you with us, and also pleased to
be joined by the play by play voice of the
San Jose State Spartans who joins us from beautiful San Jose, California.
That's Kevin Richardson, who joins us on the hotline. Now,
I appreciate the time. Kevin, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You know I'm doing great, And Craig, you know you
and I traded emails that I said I was a
fan and I mean it.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I mean it.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
You and Roger Wallace, you guys set the standard in
college football for radio broadcast and in the playoffs when
they were running the ESPN game with your audio. I'm
in for that every day. That's good stuff. And you
guys are outstanding, so well you have to be on
your show.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, I'll tell you what the.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
We're members of the Mutual Admiration Society because I've heard
you work before and I really enjoyed as well.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
And correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
See this is where this is where Kevin is a
much smarter man than I am. Whereas I've been a
talking dog in this business for the better part of
forty years. Kevin is a by daytime mightas touch everything
he touches, turns to gold Financial Advisor, and your side
(01:19):
hustle was doing the spartans.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Is that even close to the truth?
Speaker 4 (01:23):
You know, that is the truth.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
About twenty years ago, I bought some gears, started doing
some high school stuff, and then picked up the job
as the color analyst for San Jose State and I
did that for fifteen years. And then Justin o'lagry who
left to go become the voice of the California Golden Bears.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
He was the play by play guy.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Well, I'd done play by play at the high school level,
and if memory serves me right, you've.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Done a lot of that.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
And I was like, oh my gosh, what a joy
it would be to call play by play at the
college level because it would be so much eat year
than the high school level. Right, Yeah, and slid over
into that share and yeah, it is my weekend gig.
I feel like I have two jobs, but they're both
jobs that I really really enjoy.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Well, that's great, that's great. I want to get your
thoughts on the Spartans team. But before but even even
factoring that into it, I wanted to give you a
chance to get folks a little bit of background on
how this program has progressed, especially over the past few years,
and especially with ken Neo Manta Fole being able to
(02:35):
take over and and in his second season coming off
that crazy five overtime Bowl game last year. What he's
trying to set forward, I guess and really put his
tamp on the program.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Yeah, you know, it's interesting because coach Neia montalolo I
had interviewed him, oh gosh four times, I believe San
Jose State had played them over the years, and and
you know, us broadcast as we always have our tricks,
but that was back in the day when you could
get a pregame interview with a head coach, and you know,
(03:07):
you could pre record it during the week, and I
would always use the trick of I'd say, coach, the
recorder's not on, but I'd ask a question that was
real intimate to that coach, and the coaches that opened
up about that question always ended up going on and
doing really well, and the guys that didn't kind of
faded really quickly. And Kim was always that guy that
(03:28):
listened to that first question and answered it very thoughtfully,
and that's who we've got as a head coach. He's
got a couple of great sayings. One of them is,
I don't know what else I'd do if I didn't coach.
I'm a coach, right, That's what I do, and I
know what football should look like. And for him, football
should look like a pretty disciplined group of guys that
(03:49):
are playing super physical And that was the thing that
I feel like was the biggest transition last year for
the Spartans from Brent Brennan to kim Nea Montalolo. It was, hey,
let's play some physical football and let's not sit around
and wind. If somebody punches us in the mouth, we've
got to punch him back. So it's been a great
(04:10):
step for San Jose State. And he's a guy that
knows what it's supposed to look like, having been at
the Naval Academy for so many years. And again we're
trying to you know, last time we were in Texas
in twenty seventeen, that was pretty ugly, right, fifty six
to zero, and this is, you know, a lot different team,
and it is it's fun watching kN coach because the
(04:33):
game means a lot to him.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
I was going to ask you another question about coach
Neia Mato Lolo, and that is, here's a man who
is of Polynesian descent and had lived that went to
University of Hawaii, did a tremendous job at the Naval Academy.
That's where he really exploded on the map for a
lot of folks. But do you get the feeling, especially
(04:56):
now in his second year, that he feels more at
home being on the West coast and say even in
Annapolis at the Naval Academy.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Well, you know what, it's an interesting subtlety that I
missed when they hired him because I saw no connection. Right,
the kid that you get at Santase State, it's going
to be a lot different than the kid that you
get at the Naval Academy. And then I come to
find out he took his LDS mission. He was stationed
in Ventura, California, so he knew California really well. And
(05:28):
a lot of the Central Valley, you know, is great
recruiting grounds and that's where he had spent a lot
of time. So there was so there was that connection.
And then I had kind of in this name image
and likeness.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
And transfer portal world.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Even though I'm an old eighties football guy that you know,
played a game for Stanford down in DKR many years ago,
I had kind of forgotten kind of what football was about.
And this guy just came in, and you know, it's like, hey,
we don't need to have forty seven different uniforms. We've
got a home and we've gotten away, and when we're
out at practice, we're going to be we're going to
(06:07):
be disciplined. And hey, radio guy, I love that you're here,
but can you stand behind that line because that's what
I have the kids do, and you know, and they
actually hit in practice and I asked him the question
about that and he said, well, you played linebacker. How
do you learn how to tackle if you don't tackle
once in a while. And so it's it's, uh, you know,
it's kind of a nineties brand of football. And the
(06:29):
kids love him, and it's not just the Polynesian kids.
He's got a great following there obviously, but you know,
he's just been really straightforward about name, image and likeness.
It's going to look nothing like what you guys have
going on at Texas. But if you want to clean
locker room and a place to practice and a place
to go get a college degree, you know, go put
(06:50):
your stuff on and let's play some football. It's been
it's been super fun from that standpoint.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Kevin Richardson, play by play voice of the San Jose
State Spartans, joining us here on the Craigway Show on
thirteen hundred The Zone and from the True Confessions. I
still do a lot of high school football. I got
two high school games this week. I still call eight
of the twelve state championship games every year, so I'm
still into it as well. And then the other thing
I got I have to a long time ago in
(07:16):
the galaxy far far away. I also did the play
by play for what is now called FC Dallas. Back
then they were Dallas Burnham Major League Soccer. So I
have done games of what was then known as Spartan
Stadium there against the San Jose Earthquakes, and I remember
what a wonderful environment that that edifice is. It's got
to be a great place to call football games.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
You know, it really is.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
The press boxes outdoor we had Central Michigan, You l
Intown on Friday, and I was telling them, I said, look,
don't be surprised when you get here and it's an
outdoor press box, but it won't matter to you because
the weather will be spectacular, so you're close to the action.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
It is.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
It is a great stadium, especially when the fans turn out.
Comes a little bit of an issue around here just
because the Bay Area has gotten so big and you know,
traffic is a thing that it wasn't twenty years ago.
But yeah, great, great old stadium to call it seth
Q Stadium now one of the savings and loans in
the area. You know, bought the naming rights. But it's
(08:19):
a fun place to go watch a football game on
a Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
You have the advantage of me, sir, and that you've
called a five overtime game. The closest I got was
four with a Texas OU game in the God Bowl
a few years ago. What was that like in that
five overtime contest? In the five overtimes which, which, by
the way, as is accurately listed in the game notes,
(08:48):
was a Bowl record for approximately thirty six hours until
Toledo beat pit in six overtimes in the game above.
Sports Bowl but in the Hawaii Bowl, you went five
overtimes with USF a south floor. Hordan Sark mentioned it
yesterday in the news conference is weekly news conference.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
You know, And as you said that, I realized I've
called two five overtimes.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
One of them is a color guy.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
The hard part on the fifth overtime as a broadcaster
is kind of remembering where you're at right because you're like, oh, gosh,
are we three deep?
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Are we four deep? On this thing? Ultimately, it was
a gut punch.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
I sure wish we'd have gotten that win, especially with
coach Nia Montalolo being a guy that grew up in
Hawaii and a big portion of his staff or Hawaii guys,
and we had a lot of locals there, you know,
out to support him. But I tell you, I've kind
of gotten into this mode where I'll I'll say, hey,
you know, don't don't sleep on this guy or that guy.
(09:48):
And you know that USF program South Florida they kind
of showed what they were about in their opener against
Bois He Boys. Is a lot different without Ginty the
running back. But that was a good prize fight. It
just the bummer was we weren't able to get the win.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Let me get your thought, and I know it was
a heartbreaker as well. The other night in the in
the season opener home against Central Michigan. That was one
that I was watching in the hotel in Columbus late night,
and it looked like it was there.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
For the taken.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
You know, it really was.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
You know, the the hard part about the offense that
that Greig Stutsman runs is if it's working and you've
got everything spread out, it's you know, a knockoff of
kind of the Mike Leach stuff that everybody's familiar with.
When it's working, it's great, and when it isn't, you know,
it can be a problem, especially if it turned the
all over three times in the first half. And then
(10:45):
I thought it was really interesting with Central Michigan.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
They had a couple of pretty.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Darn good running backs and of course their new head
coach had been the OC at Army the last five
years and ran the ball for what three hundred and
twenty one yards a game year ago at Army, and
you know, they ran the ball well, they got one
hundred yards rushing in the first quarter, and it thought,
oh man, this is going to really get ugly, but
the defense pulled it together and was able to able
(11:13):
to flow things down a little bit and just couldn't
close it out down down the stretch. Had a chance twice,
you know, a couple of field goals there that that
didn't happen. So it's an interesting It's an interesting week
too because I had you guys beaten them in in Columbus,
and now you guys are going to be a little
(11:33):
bit salty obviously, and then you know, we're trying to
you know, kind of figure out, okay, what worked, what
didn't work. And it's such an interesting group of five
conundrum in terms of when you looked at stats last
week for that game, there were literally no stats to
look at because any of the good players have bounced
(11:54):
and gone to a power four, and then the power
four guys that have dropped down had no stats. That's
why they're dropping down. And you're putting them all together
and you're trying to figure out, okay, what does this
look like as a team, And it was. It was
an interesting game one much more so than they are
in an opener in general.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, Well, one guy who is a known commodity for
you should quarterback Walker you get and I know, you
know when you have turnovers, those who are unfortunate there,
but he still threw for over three hundred yards and
also had the touchdown pass of forty five yards that
was a career best for him. I put your thoughts
on what he brings to this offense.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yeah, Walker is you know, I always say what tough is.
The tough is the back wall of the shooting gallery, right,
I mean, he just hangs in there. He had, you know,
two interceptions, and he's like a three point shooter. If
you missed one, we'll start shooting because you're gonna make one.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Right. He's done really well.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
He started seven games last year, had about twenty five
hundred yards passing that was number six in the Mountain West.
He does a lot of things really well. And then
with this offense, as you guys know, those receivers are
reading the routes as they go and run into you know,
green grass or green turf if you will.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
And he's he's he's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
He's ahead of everybody else right now because we've got
a lot of new receivers. But we've got a kid,
Danny Scadero that we played against last year who was
at Sacramento State and grew up literally. I made the
comment on Friday night that he was further from the
line of scrimmage than he was to his house. But
he grew up right in the shadows of Sefty Stadium
there and he had a great night for us. And
(13:35):
so we've got to get a couple of more receivers
on board like that, and that'll help those numbers look
a lot better. Touchdown, the interception ratio that was a
bit of an issue last year wasn't quite where you
want it, and hopefully maybe we got a few of
those out of the way.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
In the opener, is.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
It safe to say to longborn fans if you watch
for nobody else on the San Jose State watched guy
on defense who wears number one, Jordan Pollock.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
You know what it is, it is safe to say.
I was saying, you know, he was number ten last year.
He dropped that zero and it made him even faster.
He finds his way to the football as an old
inside linebacker.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I like watching a good linebacker play, and he's good.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
He's not the biggest guy, but he's he's tough. Fifteen tackles.
In the opener, I always kind of throw that that
that thing out there on the radio, and I'll say,
what's tough for you know, ten tackles in a game
or one hundred yards rushing and then on a on
a season a thousand yards rushing over one hundred tackles.
And I'm always leaning into it's harder to get one
(14:42):
hundred tackles because you can't take any of those. You know,
you can't hit the sideline on any of those tackles.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Right.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Both of them are hard, but one's I think a
little bit harder. But he's he's good. He's a tough linebacker.
He plays super hard. And there's another outside linebacker, Tan
Yell a lot too, who plays pretty hard too, and
they they are as you know, if you've got a
couple of bell cows that people will follow, that sure helps.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
And those guys are good.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Uh. The one other guy I want to ask you about,
and I know we probably haven't seen too much action
there for you, but Longhorn fans remember I'm Larry Turner Gooden,
who was who was a part of the Longhorn uh
program and then transferred in prior to to last season.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, isn't that isn't that crazy, right. Yeah, he has
kind of transformed his body in the offseason, dropped a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Of weight and in a good way and looks pretty good.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
I know, got some got some reps on special teams
last week and a guy that I know that they
think a lot of him. So you know, that is
kind of the the fun part. I guess if you
will in this name, image and likeness and transfer portal
era where you know, you get to go back and
play against your former team, so that that that is
pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
No doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Final thing I wanted to ask you, Kevin, is other
than obviously if you know, if everything aligned properly and
the Spartans are in position for win on Saturday, that's
one thing.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
In addition to that, what do you think that.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Coach Neo Matalola wants to see out of his group
this Saturday in the game against Texas?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
You know the part that coach Nea Montalola really leans
into hard and obviously I think it's probably from the
you know, the Academy days, is when you're at the
Naval Academy, you don't get the silly penalty and in
the second half, I think it was second drive of
the second half, first drive went down and scored second drive.
(16:40):
Things are starting to work, and they got had a
silly penalty, and they had a couple of misfires like
that along the way that I know are really things
that he leans into hard and like, hey, we have
to get these things right, and if we don't get
these things right, we won't be as good as we
want to be. The other thing that I know that
(17:01):
he wants is he wants the run game to be better.
Seventy five yards last week, eighty eight per game last year.
He you know, talked about it last year beginning middle
end of season, off season fall camp, and.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
We didn't run the ball very well.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
And I know that he's going to want to see
that improve on Saturday too. And you know, obviously our
herculian task to come in there with one hundred thousand
Longhorse fans that are going to be pretty fired up
after what you guys had to go through last week.
But you know, sometimes those things are super fun for
the you know, the student athletes to go see that
(17:38):
stadium full of one hundred thousand people. So I'm again
in nineteen eighty six when Stanford Playton won thirty one
to twenty. I keep trying to handle some positivity that way,
but we'll see if that helps it all.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Okay, And by the way, just as an advisory, not
a warning, an advisory, just let you know since you
were in that visiting radio booth eight years ago, it's
still there. It's still in the same spot.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Now.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
The stadium is undergoing some renovation. They're going to put
in all new suites that the places where we're working
this Saturday will not be the places where radio is
working starting next year. But that's another story. The photo
deck has kind of been raised up a little bit
so to accommodate the broadcast crews, not just your crew
(18:25):
and my crew, but also even Network TV. They've had
to bring in like riser platforms into our boot to
raise our level up so we could see over the
coaches cameras over the You'll still be able to see it,
but it's it's a little bit of an adjustment to
make I saw it for the first time yesterday. I
was like, Okay, at least we can see.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
So that's I want to give you the heads up
on that.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Well, and again, you and I, You and I have
done a lot of high school football. So as long
as I can kind of see everything, everything works out
pretty well. And maybe the next time I get on
your show, I can tell you about the old days
in Schaffter, California, where.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
I grew up in the neighbor down the street.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
My dad was a teacher and a coach, and this
guy down the street was a teacher and a coach,
and he was only there one year and his name
was Burl McCoy and he was a great track coach.
And of course Colt McCoy's grandfather. Yes, not that story. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
In fact, Cold is going to be on our show
tonight tomorrow night that we're recording with Coach Stark.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Great to visit with you. I look forward to see
you on Saturday morning. I know the kickoff will be
nine am California time there. Even eleven am is early
for folks in these parts, but I know it's got
to be a little bit eary. But I look forward
to seeing you on Saturday. And I appreciate you taking
the time today.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Oh you bet, Thanks for reaching out and again you
guys are the gold standard. Thanks so much for having
me and it was an honor.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Thank you, Kevin.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
That is Kevin Richardson the play by play voice of
the San Jose State Spartans,
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