Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome back to Sports Talk nine ninety five. Randy Kennedy
in the thread at Faster and Studio Hay School Media
Days twenty twenty five. One of the teams in the
spotlight the Theodore Bobcats. Their coaches Steve Mass. Who's in
with me in studio right now?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Steve, Hey doing man, Randy? I'm doing great. How about yourself?
I hope you had a great off season. It's it's
time to go back to work. I know you're working
a little bit, but it's time show enough to go
back to work now.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, but it's the fun part of work, after right,
the fun part of it, all right. So you're like
Nick Saban at SEC media Days. You always come with
an agenda. What's the talking point this year for Theodore
coach Steve Mass?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
To make the main thing be the main thing. I
think that we've sort of lost focus of what we're
doing here, and the main thing is to try to
win as many games as we can for Theodore High
School and to represent the entire football team and not
just a little bit of a few that we've seemed
to not only at Theodore but everywhere in high school
football to it. We're so people are so concerned about
(01:05):
who's gonna do what at the next level that we've
forgotten about what the main thing is. And the main
thing is to win many games at Theodore and getting
the playoffs and try to win a state championship. The
rest of that stuff is a by product of a
successful year. It will take care of itself. Yep.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And you say that as a coach, who I mean,
you've got some You've got at least a couple of
SEC guys on your roster.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
This year, Well, we've got two. Devon John's committed to
Mississippi State and then JJ bush Is committed to Arkansas.
They both had multiple offers and you know, yeah, they
deserved all that, Randon, Please don't misread what I'm saying that.
I still think that's very, very important. And over the
years we've had a lot of really good players that
goes to the next level. But it just seems like
in this age of new football that we've forgotten about
(01:50):
the team part of it, and we're so concerned about,
you know, who's gonna get what after where they are
right now. And we're both little bit old heads. We
remember there was seeing b where your feed are and
we need to concentrate where our feet are. Our feet
are at Theodore High School trying to win as many
games as we possibly can.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
All right, I saw you in the spring. I was
impressed with your quarterback in the fact that it looks
like you guys are going to be able to throw
it around. Some talk about that just the passing game
in your quarterback.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
This year, well, we hired a guy named Tony Vance
from Hattisburg High School that was very successful as a
heads coach over there, and you know, and coached in
four state championship games and was fat was the head
coach the Alabama Misissippi game last year from Mississippi. And
so Tony is such a great guy. It's a great
offensive mind. And now for the first time, christ Shawn
(02:39):
has actually got Chris show overton has actually got a
quarterback coach that's spending time with him, that's in his
ear all the time and teaching him, I think, how
to play the position, the finer points of it. You
know that one position gets a whole lot of credit
when things go really, really good. It gets a whole
lot of negative credit when things go bad. But now
(03:01):
he's actually got a quarterback coach, I think you're gonna
see a different version of cross Sean Overton this year.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
How do you describe his skill set? Because clear he's
a good athlete, but he's got quarterback skills.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, I think he's really worked hard to learn to
be a passer and not a thrower. You know, a
lot of the great passers know when to take a
little something off the ball. They may have a receiver
that might not be as far along as the other
guy that Ken handled a fastball. You might want to
throw him a change up, give him a chance to
catch the ball. And I think that he's really gotten
(03:34):
better at that, and he's learned to throw on the
move a little bit better, and you know, and then
he's always had the ability to run the raid option
and to tuck it and do some things. So I
do I think you'll say, just a better version of
him this twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Twenty five team. Is it going to be typical what
I think when I think of Theodore of Bobcats, which
is big guys mashing people.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
That element will always be there. I think you you
can't lose your identity, and that's what that school was
built on football wise, is being tough, hard on those kids.
We still have that, but I can't and we can't
more so than I. We can't be hardheaded enough not
to take advantage of of some athletes in space and
to put them in situations with some with some matchups
(04:19):
and create some mismatches there to where we can take
advantage of everybody's athletic skilled and not necessarily one or
two tailbacks here and there or whatever. So uh, we
still when it gets right down to it and we
need three yards, we canna get three yards at least
try to get that three yards.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, when you're playing the region you're playing in, you know,
you got to be good and basically every area to
have a chance to be as good as the best
teams in your region.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Well you know, if you better be balanced, and that's
for sure. And uh uh you know, I think one
thing that Cross Shawn said earlier today was that, you know,
we've got to be able to get people out of
the box and not let them just load up against
the run, which people have done that to us the
last couple of years. I think that's uh something that
people have a hard t I'm doing to us this year.
(05:07):
Uh but you know, you the people we play on
our schedule and our non regions schedules are brutal. We've
opened up with a really good Baker team. Then we've
got Fair Hope middle of the year, along with the
two schools that are bigger than you and bigger than
we are in Baker Baker's watch, second artist school in state,
that's and so they're not the old Baker of old
that's for sure. So you better be able to do
(05:29):
some things and be balanced and because everybody else in
our region for sure, is going to be that way.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
JJ Bush is your safety. Does everything for you guys.
He's committed to Arkansas already. Tee. I've been around him
a lot. I think that Steve. You see him every day.
You might not notice as much, but he looks better
today than I've ever seen him. He looks like he's
say he's growing into it, man.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
He's growing into it. And I think one thing. Once
he made the commitment to UH to graduate early in December,
it took away a lot of his summer basketball stuff
that he's done the last couple of years. He's been
able to devote and rightfully so, he should have been
playing basketball because I've ever seen him play basketball. He's
a really good basketball player. But I think now with
not running up down the floor as much as he's
(06:13):
done the last couple of years, it's allowed him to
get in the weight room a little bit more. He's
put on probably twelve fourteen good pounds. But I think Randy,
the thing that impresses me most about him, there's a
fine line between cocky and confident. I think right now,
if you see him, he's a very confident player. And
(06:34):
that's where I think the difference comes from. We won't
ever allow him to be cocky, but we want him
to be very confident in what he does. And I
think that's what you see when you see him walking around.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
He's also just got a good personality. Great, it's fun
to be around.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
He's got a you know, it's a very likable kid.
You know, we have a bunch of JJ he's running
around the very likable kids. But you know, with the
with the attention he's gotten, comes a lot of responsibility.
And so that's the one thing that we've really tried to, uh,
to instill up on him, is to to take take
that responsibility, to be accountable for what he does. And uh,
(07:13):
you know, that's the biggest thing. And to be humble.
You know, it's real easy at any level in football.
We think you better all that and a bag of chips.
And we've really tried to work on that with him
and and and a lot of our players.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Looking to Steve Mass, head coach of the Theodore Bobcats, Steve,
you're one of the very few coaches who could sit
in that seat with multiple state championship wins. I mean
Hall of Fame career. Obviously, you've been doing it a
long time. How much long do you think you.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Got Well, that's a great question, you know. I answered
that question very simple, and it's not being uh uh
coy about it anything like that. I do hear the
training coming, you know, and so it's a I don't
know if it's around the band, Johnny Cash, I don't
know if it's around the band, but I don't hear
it coming, and uh, you know, I think I think,
(08:02):
I think I know when it's time. Has it crossed
my mind. I'm not going to be flipping about it. Yes,
definitely crossed my mind. When you look around, and uh,
I ain't got any guys left much, you know. I
think when Terry left last year. That was really emotional
for me and uh and him, and uh, you know,
there's just not many of us left. There's not many
(08:22):
dinosaurs left. And uh that doesn't mean that I don't
think I can coach several more years and you know,
who knows, but uh, I just think that sometimes you
take a step back and you know, I've been sixty
nine years old. Next Saturday, maybe it's this Saturday, not
on that Saturday's this Saturday. So you know, uh, you's
got to take a good hard look at it. But
I've always said that I would know what it was time,
(08:44):
and especially if I felt like the kids weren't listening
to me. I still believe the kids are listening to me,
and I would if I do decide to retire at
whenever time, I want to be able to walk out
saying I did it on my terms. And uh, the
kids still believe in what I did or what we did.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Great stuff with the Hall of Famer Steve mass Head
football coach at theatore coach. Always a pleasure to have
you in studio, man right so much in season, but
I love.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It, well, it's so much fun to come down here
with you and of course, I love it with me,
You and I and Ben get together and have a
good time, and uh, you know that's I said this
in the press conference this morning this afternoon. I enjoy this.
I mean I really do. And it's one of the
things that I already look forward to every year. And
we try to be as honest as we can be
in forth right and forthcoming. I don't, I don't, I've
(09:33):
reached that point. I say what's on my mind a lot.
Sometimes maybe I shouldn't, but just really enjoy coming down
here and talking with you like this. And you know,
friendship means a lot. You're a good friend.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Same to you, sir, Same to you. Man. It's great
to be watching you. And I looks like it's going
to be a good year for Theodore. Though that schedule
is absolutely brutal, but I think it's going to be
a good year for Theodore. And can't wait to see
you guys.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Sleaven me too. Let's let's go play.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Let's do it. Steve Mask is the head coach at
Theodore Hall, one of the all time greats in Alabama,
and he's got some good talent this year as well
with Theodore. We'll be back after this. I'm Randy County
in the thread at Fastener Studios on Sports Talk ninety
nine five
Welcome back to Sports Talk nine ninety five. Randy Kennedy
in the thread at Faster and Studio Hay School Media
Days twenty twenty five. One of the teams in the
spotlight the Theodore Bobcats. Their coaches Steve Mass. Who's in
with me in studio right now?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Steve, Hey doing man, Randy? I'm doing great. How about yourself?
I hope you had a great off season. It's it's
time to go back to work. I know you're working
a little bit, but it's time show enough to go
back to work now.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, but it's the fun part of work, after right,
the fun part of it, all right. So you're like
Nick Saban at SEC media Days. You always come with
an agenda. What's the talking point this year for Theodore
coach Steve Mass?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
To make the main thing be the main thing. I
think that we've sort of lost focus of what we're
doing here, and the main thing is to try to
win as many games as we can for Theodore High
School and to represent the entire football team and not
just a little bit of a few that we've seemed
to not only at Theodore but everywhere in high school
football to it. We're so people are so concerned about
(01:05):
who's gonna do what at the next level that we've
forgotten about what the main thing is. And the main
thing is to win many games at Theodore and getting
the playoffs and try to win a state championship. The
rest of that stuff is a by product of a
successful year. It will take care of itself. Yep.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
And you say that as a coach, who I mean,
you've got some You've got at least a couple of
SEC guys on your roster.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
This year, Well, we've got two. Devon John's committed to
Mississippi State and then JJ bush Is committed to Arkansas.
They both had multiple offers and you know, yeah, they
deserved all that, Randon, Please don't misread what I'm saying that.
I still think that's very, very important. And over the
years we've had a lot of really good players that
goes to the next level. But it just seems like
in this age of new football that we've forgotten about
(01:50):
the team part of it, and we're so concerned about,
you know, who's gonna get what after where they are
right now. And we're both little bit old heads. We
remember there was seeing b where your feed are and
we need to concentrate where our feet are. Our feet
are at Theodore High School trying to win as many
games as we possibly can.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
All right, I saw you in the spring. I was
impressed with your quarterback in the fact that it looks
like you guys are going to be able to throw
it around. Some talk about that just the passing game
in your quarterback.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
This year, well, we hired a guy named Tony Vance
from Hattisburg High School that was very successful as a
heads coach over there, and you know, and coached in
four state championship games and was fat was the head
coach the Alabama Misissippi game last year from Mississippi. And
so Tony is such a great guy. It's a great
offensive mind. And now for the first time, christ Shawn
(02:39):
has actually got Chris show overton has actually got a
quarterback coach that's spending time with him, that's in his
ear all the time and teaching him, I think, how
to play the position, the finer points of it. You
know that one position gets a whole lot of credit
when things go really, really good. It gets a whole
lot of negative credit when things go bad. But now
(03:01):
he's actually got a quarterback coach, I think you're gonna
see a different version of cross Sean Overton this year.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
How do you describe his skill set? Because clear he's
a good athlete, but he's got quarterback skills.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Well, I think he's really worked hard to learn to
be a passer and not a thrower. You know, a
lot of the great passers know when to take a
little something off the ball. They may have a receiver
that might not be as far along as the other
guy that Ken handled a fastball. You might want to
throw him a change up, give him a chance to
catch the ball. And I think that he's really gotten
(03:34):
better at that, and he's learned to throw on the
move a little bit better, and you know, and then
he's always had the ability to run the raid option
and to tuck it and do some things. So I
do I think you'll say, just a better version of
him this twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Twenty five team. Is it going to be typical what
I think when I think of Theodore of Bobcats, which
is big guys mashing people.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
That element will always be there. I think you you
can't lose your identity, and that's what that school was
built on football wise, is being tough, hard on those kids.
We still have that, but I can't and we can't
more so than I. We can't be hardheaded enough not
to take advantage of of some athletes in space and
to put them in situations with some with some matchups
(04:19):
and create some mismatches there to where we can take
advantage of everybody's athletic skilled and not necessarily one or
two tailbacks here and there or whatever. So uh, we
still when it gets right down to it and we
need three yards, we canna get three yards at least
try to get that three yards.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, when you're playing the region you're playing in, you know,
you got to be good and basically every area to
have a chance to be as good as the best
teams in your region.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Well you know, if you better be balanced, and that's
for sure. And uh uh you know, I think one
thing that Cross Shawn said earlier today was that, you know,
we've got to be able to get people out of
the box and not let them just load up against
the run, which people have done that to us the
last couple of years. I think that's uh something that
people have a hard t I'm doing to us this year.
(05:07):
Uh but you know, you the people we play on
our schedule and our non regions schedules are brutal. We've
opened up with a really good Baker team. Then we've
got Fair Hope middle of the year, along with the
two schools that are bigger than you and bigger than
we are in Baker Baker's watch, second artist school in state,
that's and so they're not the old Baker of old
that's for sure. So you better be able to do
(05:29):
some things and be balanced and because everybody else in
our region for sure, is going to be that way.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
JJ Bush is your safety. Does everything for you guys.
He's committed to Arkansas already. Tee. I've been around him
a lot. I think that Steve. You see him every day.
You might not notice as much, but he looks better
today than I've ever seen him. He looks like he's
say he's growing into it, man.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
He's growing into it. And I think one thing. Once
he made the commitment to UH to graduate early in December,
it took away a lot of his summer basketball stuff
that he's done the last couple of years. He's been
able to devote and rightfully so, he should have been
playing basketball because I've ever seen him play basketball. He's
a really good basketball player. But I think now with
not running up down the floor as much as he's
(06:13):
done the last couple of years, it's allowed him to
get in the weight room a little bit more. He's
put on probably twelve fourteen good pounds. But I think Randy,
the thing that impresses me most about him, there's a
fine line between cocky and confident. I think right now,
if you see him, he's a very confident player. And
(06:34):
that's where I think the difference comes from. We won't
ever allow him to be cocky, but we want him
to be very confident in what he does. And I
think that's what you see when you see him walking around.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
He's also just got a good personality. Great, it's fun
to be around.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
He's got a you know, it's a very likable kid.
You know, we have a bunch of JJ he's running
around the very likable kids. But you know, with the
with the attention he's gotten, comes a lot of responsibility.
And so that's the one thing that we've really tried to, uh,
to instill up on him, is to to take take
that responsibility, to be accountable for what he does. And uh,
(07:13):
you know, that's the biggest thing. And to be humble.
You know, it's real easy at any level in football.
We think you better all that and a bag of chips.
And we've really tried to work on that with him
and and and a lot of our players.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Looking to Steve Mass, head coach of the Theodore Bobcats, Steve,
you're one of the very few coaches who could sit
in that seat with multiple state championship wins. I mean
Hall of Fame career. Obviously, you've been doing it a
long time. How much long do you think you.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Got Well, that's a great question, you know. I answered
that question very simple, and it's not being uh uh
coy about it anything like that. I do hear the
training coming, you know, and so it's a I don't
know if it's around the band, Johnny Cash, I don't
know if it's around the band, but I don't hear
it coming, and uh, you know, I think I think,
(08:02):
I think I know when it's time. Has it crossed
my mind. I'm not going to be flipping about it. Yes,
definitely crossed my mind. When you look around, and uh,
I ain't got any guys left much, you know. I
think when Terry left last year. That was really emotional
for me and uh and him, and uh, you know,
there's just not many of us left. There's not many
(08:22):
dinosaurs left. And uh that doesn't mean that I don't
think I can coach several more years and you know,
who knows, but uh, I just think that sometimes you
take a step back and you know, I've been sixty
nine years old. Next Saturday, maybe it's this Saturday, not
on that Saturday's this Saturday. So you know, uh, you's
got to take a good hard look at it. But
I've always said that I would know what it was time,
(08:44):
and especially if I felt like the kids weren't listening
to me. I still believe the kids are listening to me,
and I would if I do decide to retire at
whenever time, I want to be able to walk out
saying I did it on my terms. And uh, the
kids still believe in what I did or what we did.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Great stuff with the Hall of Famer Steve mass Head
football coach at theatore coach. Always a pleasure to have
you in studio, man right so much in season, but
I love.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
It, well, it's so much fun to come down here
with you and of course, I love it with me,
You and I and Ben get together and have a
good time, and uh, you know that's I said this
in the press conference this morning this afternoon. I enjoy this.
I mean I really do. And it's one of the
things that I already look forward to every year. And
we try to be as honest as we can be
in forth right and forthcoming. I don't, I don't, I've
(09:33):
reached that point. I say what's on my mind a lot.
Sometimes maybe I shouldn't, but just really enjoy coming down
here and talking with you like this. And you know,
friendship means a lot. You're a good friend.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Same to you, sir, Same to you. Man. It's great
to be watching you. And I looks like it's going
to be a good year for Theodore. Though that schedule
is absolutely brutal, but I think it's going to be
a good year for Theodore. And can't wait to see
you guys.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Sleaven me too. Let's let's go play.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Let's do it. Steve Mask is the head coach at
Theodore Hall, one of the all time greats in Alabama,
and he's got some good talent this year as well
with Theodore. We'll be back after this. I'm Randy County
in the thread at Fastener Studios on Sports Talk ninety
nine five
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