September 4, 2025 • 43 mins
Coach Blaise Faggiano reflects on his journey as the longest-tenured football coach in New York State and the evolution of Utica University's program. He shares insights about team leadership, the upcoming season, and the special traditions that make Utica football unique.
• Program transformation from facilities improvements to academic expansion
• Development of a coaching tree with over 70 former assistants now coaching across the country
• Team captains Eli Douglas, Antonio Cianfarani, Jordyn Davis, and Tyler Szalkowski bringing energy to 2024 season
• Believe Bowl tradition honoring cancer fighters and supporting the Believe 271 Foundation
• Game preparation strategies focusing on ball protection, balanced offense, and special teams
• Preview of season opener against Washington & Jefferson College
• Analysis of Empire 8 conference competition with four new head coaches
Tune in every Thursday at 8:00 pm throughout the season for Inside Utica University Football Podcast with Coach Blaise Faggiano. As we always say on The Rock Pile, this is where dreams become reality.
Thank you for listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rocky (00:08):
Thank you.
Coach Faggiano (00:36):
Good evening everybody.
Welcome to the Rock Piletonight.
The Rock Pile tonight bringsyou Inside Utica University
Football Podcast with head coachBlaze Faziano, who's set to
join me in just a little bit.
I want to make sure that Ithank all the subscribers here
tonight.
If you're watching on YouTube,hit subscribe.
If you're watching on any ofthe social media channels, I
appreciate you following us heretonight.
(00:57):
Coach and I are going to try toair every Thursday night at 8
o'clock throughout the season.
So if you have any questionsfor Coach, I'll try to pull as
many over as I can.
We'll have some fun with Coachtonight.
At the end We'll get Coach'sblazing picks here in college
football.
I told him I'm going to keeptrack throughout the season of
his record, so we'll see howCoach does.
And then, if you follow on anyof the other platforms, a lot of
(01:21):
it will be on iHeartRadio,apple Podcast and more so.
A lot of it will be oniHeartRadio, apple Podcast and
more so.
I appreciate everybodyfollowing us here tonight.
So, without further ado, let'sbring Coach on.
Let me just get him on.
Let me fix us Coach.
We got to get all fancy heretonight.
How are you?
Rocky (01:37):
Excellent, I'm getting ready for week one here, getting
ready to get on a bus and drivesix hours to Pittsburgh
tomorrow.
So we're locked and loaded.
Coach Faggiano (01:45):
You got a nice little bus ride down, but I'm
sure the guys are ready.
So I know I was joking with youbefore we came on a little bit
ago, but I said I didn't know.
You were the longest tenuredcoach in New York State.
You've been around a long time,coach.
Rocky (01:59):
I'll tell you what you coach, you love, what you do,
you know love education.
And then when there was Iforget I think it was the
College Football Network putthat out there and a couple
people saw it and it definitelylooked cool when the whole state
of New York had the giant Mooselogo.
But then when I kind of read itand looked at it, I'm like what
you know, how did that happen?
How did all of a sudden, Iguess you know to be the longest
(02:22):
tenured football coach in NewYork but I blame Coach Vosberg
for retiring because he wasprior and so we had a great
relationship with him theprevious head coach at Fisher.
He was 27 years there, so thatwas a bit of a shocker Rock, I
got to tell you.
Coach Faggiano (02:38):
Well, Coach, I remember when you got the job
and you brought so muchenthusiasm and life to the
Mohawk Valley and, you know,started recruiting a lot of the
local kids.
What are your thoughts would belike from where the program is
now to when you first took itover?
Oh wow, how much different isit.
Rocky (02:55):
You know there's so many things different at the
university.
You know what I mean From thebuildings.
Oh my gosh.
You know the Laura Cosimentotrack and field complex, the
dome right, the largest.
I think it still might be thelargest bubble in America, as we
call the hut after Dr ToddHutton.
You know the Pioneer Villageapartments, which are better
than any apartment I ever rentedin my life.
(03:19):
You know the science buildingscience building it was funny.
Right as I got hired they hadjust completed the new, the
criminal justice building, whichthey just put in their second
crime lab.
It's pretty wild crime scenelab so it is.
You know, being a part of theuniversity is how it's evolved
and changed.
Is has been a lot of fun.
You know the majors.
(03:40):
Just alone I used to jokearound and say if you ever had
an indoor facility in phys ed,that would really help us.
You know, because we had a lotof other.
You know criminal justice andconstruction management and some
other.
You know great majors that.
You know football guys want tostudy and you know we're way
into the phys ed program now.
I've got guys teaching phys edall over the Northeast and even
(04:02):
in the really I.
I got guys in Florida teaching,because that is pretty wild,
but uh, so I think being a partof that's been been a lot of fun
.
Coach Faggiano (04:09):
So the universities went through a lot
of changes, but personally coachfor you.
How have you changed over theyears?
Rocky (04:15):
Are you?
Coach Faggiano (04:15):
tougher or are you more mellower now?
Rocky (04:17):
You know I think I am a little, a little mellower, a
little more patient at times,you know.
You know it's funny the firstTuesday practice.
You know, getting ready thisweek maybe the scout team saw a
little different side of me, alittle louder, a little more
sense of urgency, but theyalways bring it right back down
and have fun with them and busttheir chops and, you know, dance
(04:37):
to some of the music we gotgoing on in practice.
But you know, you know how am Idifferent?
You know, just more experienced.
You know what I mean in thedetails of little things.
I think one of the things thatI've really enjoyed is
developing, obviously developingour players, but developing our
young coaches.
And I can remember, you know,doc Spartano and Jim Spartano,
the athletic director that hiredme.
(04:58):
You know, talk about the onegreat thing he had, that
high-pitched voice.
You know that high-pitchedItalian voice.
You know that high-pitchedItalian voice.
The one great thing aboutcoaching is they keep you young.
You're around kids.
It keeps you young.
And he talked about.
You know he's miserable in thevillage, he's retired because he
goes.
I'm not used to being aroundall these old people.
He talked and I'll tell youwhat being at the university and
(05:20):
the college and around not justthe student athletes but our
young coaches.
That's something that has beena lot of fun.
We have a really young coachingstaff right now, outside of my
full-time staff, and CoachOliver we're kind of the
veterans out there the formerhead coach of BVS.
We have a lot of young guys butthey have a lot of energy,
passion.
Coach Faggiano (05:42):
They're going to be great coaches and it makes
it fun, for sure.
And, coach, before we jump intoit, it's funny.
You bring that up because Iknow when I've interviewed you
over in the past I've alwaystalked to you about, you know,
bill Belichick has his coachingtree.
All these coaches have thecoaching tree, especially in
college, and I look around thearea and I'm friends with a lot
of the guys that you know thatyou've had under you.
What's it, what's it mean toyou to see a lot of these guys
around the area having success?
Rocky (06:05):
I can remember getting hired and think, oh, wow, okay,
we're going to have four gradassistants.
Now, when I was at UAlbany backin 93, 94, with the current
head coach at UB, pete Lembo,and I GA'd together we had eight
GAs and I can remember vividlythinking, wow, four GAs, maybe
someday we could have a littlecoaching tree.
(06:26):
And we would even joke yearsago we'd say, ah, we've got like
a little bush, you know, andguys are out there James Linehan
at Fordham, who you know, yes,and guys are out there.
And then you know, it's likeanything that you wake up and
it's like I think it's over 70now.
You know, and Coach Fitzpatrick, you know, very proud of the
(06:47):
things that he's done atMorrisville, Cortland and El
Colgate.
I was so excited he brought JoeGerbino back to the Mohawk
Valley.
You know, laz Morgan, I mean youtalk about.
I was actually talking aboutthis with the players the other
day.
There's Sherwood-VolartConference Room, it's right in
the residence hall and we hadour leadership council meeting
in there and we also had ourFellowship of Christian Athletes
(07:08):
meeting in there and I wastalking to the guys how that
space is special to me andthey're like you know, what do
you mean I said, well, when Iinterviewed this room was full
of the entire team and when theguys all left, laz Morgan was
still there, tracy Branch wasstill there, tracy Branch was
still there, Marcus Gerdnir wasstill there and I stayed with
those guys for another hour.
Shamel Turnbull you knowTerrell Cunningham and you know
(07:30):
to see Laz head coach at BuffState.
And you know, most recently,matt Rogers, right the section
Central New York guy, you know,being the head coach of Hartwick
.
That's crazy to me but that'ssomething that I really don't
mind talking about and certainlyvery proud of that.
And it wasn't just me.
The coaches, the coordinators,the Jim Cramers, all those guys
(07:54):
coached for Coach Cramer thatare coaching right now.
And Will Ploff and some of myformer coordinators all kind of
took pride as we watched the GAsgo on.
And Ben McCaig, now that's theoffensive coordinator at Bryant.
You know things like that.
You know Ryan Wilson now isfull-time in New Hampshire Just
watching these guys go A localguy.
You can't forget Jared Kite.
You know Holland Patton,defensive coordinator at UMass,
(08:17):
and he hired another Utica guy,joe Castellito.
So that's something that'sreally one of my favorite things
is going to the coachesconvention and then having the
utica night.
No doubt that's awesome, havingall those guys back.
So that's something that, um,you kind of wake up one day and
go how did that?
happen, but uh, yeah, it'spretty wild so, coach, let's
(08:37):
talk.
Coach Faggiano (08:37):
You got a game coming up this week and, uh, I
want to get your thoughts on howyou know, how was camp, how was
the off season for you guys andthe team?
Uh, what's your thoughts?
Rocky (08:46):
you know we always say like every team has a one-year
life expectancy and they kind ofhave their own character and
their own and I can tell you allI can say this group is.
It's like energy and enthusiasm, you know, like just some of
the stuff.
I don't you know what I couldtell you or not tell you how
these guys are, just why, liketheir right, you know, they
decide to all lift weights withtheir shirts off and run on the
(09:08):
track like a bunch of wild menand like just the energy of this
group is really unmatched.
They're a pretty special group.
They know about, you know,welcoming in the young guys and
again you talk about you kind ofwake up and look like this
group, you know experienced.
You know three.
You know a couple of great,great seasons.
(09:28):
You know so Eli Douglas andMason Payton.
They played in the Susquehannagame.
You know I was a freshman andyou know so they experienced 10
and 2 and 9 and 2.
And then they experienced lastyear, which was tough, you know,
5 and 5.
And losing those three likelike really close games that we
(09:49):
found a way to win and so um,they're, the guys are really
going back to how the, theplayers that brought them in
talked about how we respondedafter the grove city loss.
Right, so we six and four, weget the bowl game against grove
city.
We know it's very good team,right, they think we're make a
field goal of beating CortlandNew York.
Cortland won the nationalchampionship, right, and we go
down there and get smacked.
And so we're six and five, andthe way that team responded to
(10:12):
that, right, that adversity andhow that was, and then we flip
around and go 10 and two.
There's some similarities tothe vibe that I'm getting you
know, going into this season.
Where guys are, you know and wehave a lot of first-time
starters that are excited tohave that opportunity, for sure.
Coach Faggiano (10:29):
And Coach, you talk about that 5-5 season last
year, but you guys, I think,lost two or three games by like
one score.
So I mean that season couldhave went a different way.
But what I was going to say issometimes the years where a team
goes 10-2, you go 9-3, I feellike some years where maybe you
(10:50):
go like five and five, seven andfive, some coaches will say you
know what that was?
The that was one of the betteryears because of how the team
developed throughout the season.
And I feel like you guys, lastyear those games could have went
either way.
Rocky (10:55):
But talk to us about that one score games yeah, even in
the two previous years we'redown three scores at Union.
The year we're 10 and 2 to comeback to beat them.
You know what I mean.
So we just found a way to winthose close games and this past
year we found some ways to losethem and you know, you see, you
learn from it.
One thing I can say is we'repretty consistent.
Like we're hard on each other,we're hard on the film, whether
(11:18):
it's eight, nine wins or five.
So it wasn't like we attackedit differently, you know.
But there's certainly a littlemore sense of urgency when the
guys see how.
You know, I use the Alfred storyall the time because I have a
lot of respect for that program.
They've been around for over100 years and you know, two
years ago we go down there andbeat them 28, nothing.
Well, they had that on their.
(11:39):
You know I say bulletin board,right, but I know not too many
bulletin boards now.
But you know, then they, theyknock us off at home.
This past year they came to playand we made some mistakes and
they made a couple more playsand I think the younger guys,
all the sophomores, trulyunderstood that.
Hey, guys, don't get caught upin the film right.
You know you may think you'rebetter than the team, but
(12:00):
they're going to give us theirbest game when they play us
right.
When you're, you're that newguy still like.
We're kind of that new kid intown and no one wants to see us
do that, no one wants to see ustake that next step.
So it gets us a little chip onour shoulder and working hard at
it.
But we certainly learned a lotfrom that, no doubt about it.
But we attacked the offseasonreally no different than any
(12:22):
other.
We're pretty hard on ourselvesand I want to stay consistent
with that.
I think the messaging, too, isthat the players always know
like we're in this together.
There's things that we would dodifferent as coaches, there's
things they would do differentas players, and whether it's a
win or a loss, we're in ittogether and the guys are really
, you know, bought into that.
Coach Faggiano (12:42):
And, coach, talk about your captains.
You guys named your captainsthis week and I think you guys
have and I was going throughsome of the umpire eight
comments and notes and all thatI think you guys are going to
return one of the best skilledgroups, I think, in the league,
from top to bottom with startingwith your quarterback.
But talk to us a little bitabout the four captains that you
guys named this week.
Rocky (13:00):
Well, you know.
First, you know Eli Douglas.
You know got some niceaccolades last year.
You know was like all ECAC, Ibelieve was the highest one that
he received.
You know, outstanding footballplayer he's been playing since
he was a freshman.
Like everyone knows that Eli'sfreshman year blocked a punt
against Susquehanna that led toa score in that big game and you
(13:22):
know so.
You know his leadership andwatching him grow as a leader is
tremendous.
So you know, glad to have hisleadership.
Antonio John Ferrani you knowAntonio is a fifth year and you
know he's had a ton of adversity.
You know he caught a highschool.
In high school in springfootball he breaks his foot.
He's a filmer.
His whole freshman year Doesn'teven play.
Finally plays as a sophomorehaving a great junior campaign.
(13:47):
Tears his ACL right, battlesback, right Battles back and had
a great spring strong leader.
And someone like Antonio was agreat leader for like a Tony
Durazinski right Local guy outof Whitesboro because Tony got
hurt playing basketball,couldn't play his freshman year
and Antonio was a great bigbrother.
We call him TD.
I don't know if they called himthat back in the borough, but
(14:09):
we call Tony Dorzinski TD andjust watching those
relationships the guys have withthe younger players, something
that's been a tradition forquite some time.
Jordan Davis he's a specialplayer, great young man, great
student, a big person, greatpersonality.
(14:30):
Really really is one of themost coachable guys that I've
had.
You know, and really lookingforward to watching him.
You know, really, reallyflourish this year at the D-line
.
And then you know TylerZolkowski.
You know Tyler flourish thisyear at the D-line.
And then Tyler Zolkowski Tyler,it was a tough spring man
because Tyler and Brett battledand I think I give Jordan
(14:51):
Ladbert some credit.
He said it best in our preseasonwe have two outstanding
quarterbacks and the way thatBrett battled and kind of
handled that tough news, if youwill like.
He's just a class act and he'sa phys ed major.
He's going to be a great coach.
You know Tyler's historyeducation, so he's going to go
on and teach and coach when he'sdone.
And it was interesting.
(15:11):
It's all about relationships inthis game.
You know Tyler played withBraden at Albany, right All, but
he didn't work out for Tyler.
Tyler transferred to RobertMorris, gets injured, never gets
a chance to play and there'sthere's a good portal story.
There's a lot of bad portalstories.
Coach Faggiano (15:28):
Yeah, that's a good one.
Rocky (15:29):
Kids transferring four or five times.
But you know Tyler, being fromRochester, being from Aquinas,
being a tough Polish kid, Itease him all the time Like he,
he's a good guy, he really fitin with our players.
He had a great spring and then,you know, as he just had a
great camp, you know his eliteover time he didn't rush it Over
time, his leadership just keptshining through, you know, and
(15:51):
so you know he and Brett have agreat relationship.
Our quarterback room, you know,matt Polaris is going to have a
piece, nas Smith's going tohave a piece.
I think that guess a reallystrong room.
And I credit, you know, brayden, uh, zanelovic, because brayden
, you know kind of timing, likecoach tribino gets coach of the
year, assistant coach of theyear goes to bethune cookman and
(16:11):
then brayden slid in as a ga,coached our quarterbacks and
then after one year got promotedto full time and uh, you know,
he's just outstanding uh, youknow for us and and has a ton of
roles in our program.
So we're definitely excitedabout those captains and they're
not going to do it alone.
We have a strong leadershipcouncil that we meet every week,
and Isaiah Thomas spoke thisweek and had a great video and a
(16:34):
quote that we shared with theteam, and we're in a good place
leadership-wise.
Coach Faggiano (16:39):
So, coach, let's talk about the Empire 8, the
conference in general, becauseone of the toughest conferences,
I think in Division III and topto bottom you know you've got
Cortland obviously is looking, Ithink, this year to win their
fifth conference title.
Alfred State's going to jointhe conference this year but
really, coach, top to bottom Imean it's a tough out every week
for you guys.
Rocky (16:57):
You can't sleep in the end player eight.
It's just great, great football.
You just look at the postseason.
You know performance of ourconference is there.
You know, I had to tell you,alfred State in their playoff
game gave Endicott man.
They got after him for a half.
You know they really you knowkind of matched punches with
them.
You know Coach Lynn's done areally nice job there, so that's
a good addition.
(17:17):
You know, I think you know one.
I think that's a great littlerival there down the street,
alfred U Alfred State.
You know good for football.
But yeah, it's one of theunique conferences that has both
state schools and privateschools.
You know, and that's what youknow kind of really makes it
unique.
But it's going to beinteresting.
You know a lot of new.
What?
Four new head coaches, Ibelieve it is.
Coach Faggiano (17:38):
Yeah, I was going to say some new faces.
Rocky (17:40):
So four new head coaches.
We've already started theprogram, as I am now the old guy
in the E8.
But you know four new coachesworking at it.
There's definitely some games,like I think Cortland's playing
Grove City this weekend.
People will be looking at that,I'm not sure whoever else.
Oh, I think Buff State,brockport they battle for the 90
bowl.
They call it for their.
(18:01):
They battle for the 90 bowl,they call it.
But this week is interestingbecause you got the President's
Conference versus the Empire.
8 doesn't happen often.
Last time it happened for us iswhen we went to Grove City and
what's really interesting isCoach Sirianni has done a great
job there and is the brother ofEagles head coach Nick Sirianni.
And they're Mount Union guysand I had my plenty of battles
(18:24):
of Mount Union at Utica a fewtimes or, excuse me, at St John
Fisher I had to deal with PierreGarçon, okay, which was yeah, I
gave him hits.
Well, first, as a freshman, hescored four touchdowns on me
when he was at Norwich.
I'm like who's this kid fromFlorida and why is he in norwich
, and you know.
And then he goes and transfersthe mountain I had.
(18:46):
So I had to play against himthree times as a dc and uh, and
I'll tell you what.
It was very special for uticato get in a bus and go to
alliance ohio after it beatsusquehanna.
You know, because no one gaveus a chance, right, and that was
that was back when there was,you know, there wasn't 40 teams
going and we were like thefourth or fifth to get in.
(19:09):
But at the end of the day, Ialways am a big Empire 8 guy and
I'm here to tell you, I don'tcare who it is.
If you're 9-1 from thisconference, you're good, right.
If you're 8-2 in our conference, you're good, you're good,
you're 8-2 in our conference,you're good and you're going to
go beat a lot of teams acrossthe country.
So we weren't surprised, buteveryone was surprised.
We went out to Susquehanna andgot that huge playoff win and
(19:33):
first time we were nationallyranked and all that good stuff.
So, yeah, it's going to be a TVgame so you can log in or watch
it.
It's a TV game for them and Ithink it's now it's a 12.05
kickoff, so that'll be uniquefor our guys with the extra
timeouts and things.
But yeah, we have engineersback-to-back weeks from W&J to
RPI.
A lot of engineers the firsttwo weeks.
Coach Faggiano (19:54):
Yeah, and that President's Conference is tough
too, top to bottom.
I was looking through them,through over the years they have
three teams, though, go withthe new NPI.
Rocky (20:02):
The NPI favored them, and they had three teams go to the
tournament last year.
So Carnegie Mellon, oh geez.
Now Grove City.
Was it Grove City?
The third one Right, and thenWJ.
Coach Faggiano (20:14):
So, coach, you mentioned Sirianni and I forgot
he was there.
And then I bopped on him.
I'm like geez, you candefinitely tell he's related
they.
And then I bopped on him.
I'm like geez, you candefinitely tell he's related.
They look exactly alike, right,they look like brothers, they
are brothers.
But he's been there a long timetoo, and they got a ton of
talent on the outside, a lot ofweapons.
I think last year they had whata couple thousand-yard
receivers.
Rocky (20:34):
The two receivers are legit.
Very good, very good players.
They're running back.
Very, very good football player, um I don't want to pronounce
his last number two very goodplayer, um.
He'll be back.
So, yeah, they're, they're,they're solid.
Their defense is tough.
You know they're gonna pressureyou and and give you some
problems.
So they're well coachedfootball team yeah, and I was.
Coach Faggiano (20:53):
I was looking, I think last year.
I think they were averagingabout over 300 yards a game
through the air.
Well balanced though.
Well well balanced on.
And I think the one kid back isMcCaskill, the receiver, who's
back from a year ago, and then Ithink DeRosa, the running back,
is back last year.
Yeah, derosa.
Rocky (21:10):
Yep, very good, very good .
So it'll be interesting to seelike they think.
I forget how many seniors theygraduated, but they graduated a
lot kind of similar to us, and Ithink for them they have a lot
of first-time starters.
But again they have such astrong program they play six or
seven JV games as well, kind ofthat Mount Union philosophy,
(21:34):
which was an old Ithacaphilosophy back in the day,
about having a bigger roster andplaying JV games, giving those
young guys an opportunity toplay.
So they're a big hate develop.
Some of his guys may play JVfor two years and all of a
sudden they're all conferenceperformers, and that happens to
us as well.
So I think the biggest thing isjust keeping them calm.
They're all going to be excitedthat first game jitters and
just have fun playing football.
(21:55):
I know that.
I think we play better when wejust play loose.
We play loose and have fun andnot build games up.
It's easy to do.
My college coach always talkedabout the bulletin board and now
it's like the bulletin board'sin their hand.
The bulletin board is reallyeasy for them to get to.
Don't read all that stuff.
All that matters is blow thewhistle, put the football down
(22:20):
and let's go play for fourquarters.
I tell all the guys they thefootball down and let's go play
for four quarters.
I tell all the guys they know Ibust chops about the three or
four hours of pregame.
I said, guys, we're not goingto take videos of you, what
you're wearing, walking to thelocker room.
I had them all laughing theother day, all the pregame stuff
.
What matters is how you executeand your discipline and just
(22:41):
play for a passion and love foreach other.
Coach Faggiano (22:45):
Coach.
We've got a few comments onhere.
I know you know Mr BrianMcQueen oh the man, he's the
best as coach.
Teaches family first onfootball.
You see it being around thoseplayers Best thing that's
happened to the program in ourcommunity.
He's great Love following him.
Rocky (22:59):
He's great.
The job came open and some ofthe first people I talked to
were brian mcqueen, tony leone,dave lupia you know all guys
from the area that I hadconnections with.
A couple of them, dave, Icoached at ithaca um and brian
and tony's sons played for merock or curry, oh yeah okay,
(23:19):
played for, played for merecruited him to fisher.
Um, oh yeah, a son played for me, recruited him to Fisher John
Wade, mike Donnarumma, like allthese guys.
And my phone was ringing offthe hook and I remember my wife
was like, oh, I mean, I haven'teven interviewed yet.
She's like, oh, we're going toUtica, like what?
She's like, no, I just have afeeling we're going to go to
Utica, so gonna go, you guys?
(23:39):
So, um, we had, you know, brian, just uh, class act and what
he's done with that belief.
271 foundation is just truly anamazing thing, truly uncommon,
and love, love having guys likethat around our players well,
coach, while we're on that, youmentioned that the september
13th it'll be the believe bowl.
Coach Faggiano (23:56):
I think you guys are playing rencelier that that
weekend.
Rocky (23:59):
Talk to us how special that day is for you guys well,
the Blue Bowl is, you know,people ask, hey, who's your
rival?
And we joke around saying, well, we don't really like anybody,
you know, because we're so young.
There was a little talk at onepoint that maybe the Hartwick
game, because when I got hiredthey had that 72-70 crazy game,
you know, and we thought aboutit and just couldn't figure it
(24:22):
out with the presidents and ADsat the time.
And so it's just funny when youknow when things just come
together, you know and and umand when good things could come
from from some adversity.
And if you don't, I lovetelling the story, if you don't
mind me telling it, so no, goright ahead.
So Brian, through his fireservice, uh, had come down with
(24:42):
cancer and it was in his thyroidand it's amazing the chemicals
that are in fires today and whatI've learned from Brian in
studying this stuff.
And so you know he's going toSloan Kettering and he's getting
his treatments and while he'sdoing this he's a volunteer like
coach on our staff helpingpromote our games and we're
having like youth day and highschool day and we're trying to
(25:03):
we had a veterans day game andhelp me get that going and just
promote.
You know what we do at Utica inthe area.
And so now his friends gotgreat friends in the fire
department and the Whitesboroschool district and people start
raising money for him and hesells them.
Nah, I don't want the money,let's put it in the fund to help
other people.
And just that's what sparkedand started that amazing
(25:27):
foundation.
And even more for me, like myfirst name is Blaze.
St Blaze is the patron saint ofthe throat.
I know Brian has a St Blazemedal that he wears and a St
Blaze mask card that I got himand just a great relationship.
And then so one of his players,cause Brian, coached high school
football at a risk and he youknow Matt, matt Wilsey, who was
(25:47):
the former owner of New Yorkstate tool.
They had lunch and they're likelet's call it the believable.
And that happened, you know,and for I think it was at least
five years or more that we hadthe New York state tool
believable.
And then Matt and Lisa sold thecompany and they're doing great
things and their kids are doinggreat things.
And then so we went to FrankMastrovito and he jumped right
(26:07):
on board and what a giving guyin the community.
You know Frank and his wifeColleen, they're just awesome.
And so you know having ourhonorary captains that are
battling cancer and have themcome to practice and talk to the
team and you know, get, youknow.
Then all the fun stuff comeswith it, the helmet stickers and
all that good stuff.
(26:27):
But, like so, the blue bowl isour game and it's our game to
get back to the community, soit's not always it's a different
team every year.
We've liked it being the homeopener and doing the orange out,
so that's kind of what we'vedone pretty consistently.
So so last year was Union,which is a great atmosphere.
This year will be, you know,rpi, a very good program just
down the three-way.
So we'll have that game atseven, but it's going to be at
(26:50):
six and we'll get at least thatsecond half will be under the
lights.
But that's a really specialgame for us and our guys really
look forward to it.
Coach Faggiano (27:00):
I know another friend of mine that does the
radio with me is Pete Pagliaro.
Rocky (27:06):
Trying to watch the game too, huh.
Coach Faggiano (27:08):
He's trying to watch the game too Cowboys in
Philly tonight.
But he mentions the BelieveBowl, how amazing it is, and you
had him speak to the team inthe past, and his brother, of
course, who passed away ofcancer.
You guys had honored him toofor one of these games.
Rocky (27:25):
Yeah, it was.
He brought his whole family topractice and talk to the guys.
And you know, with passion, youknow for his brother and the
brotherhood of the firefighters,you know like there's so many
parallels to that.
And you know, just have youknow when I can have some of the
community members come out andtalk to the guys, and you know,
uh, that was a real specialmoment.
So you know, once, once, a oncea pioneer, always a pioneer.
(27:49):
So so pags, his family and hisbrother are, you know, pioneers
forever for sure so, coach,couple keys to the game
offensively and defense.
Coach Faggiano (27:56):
Let's start with offense for you guys first.
What are a couple keys to thegame for you guys on the road?
First game against, against areally talented team, what's the
offense got to do to put you ina position to win?
Rocky (28:07):
this week.
I'm pretty consistent with this.
It's about protecting thefootball, not turning the ball
over.
That's a big thing.
Not giving another team moreopportunities.
Being balanced I think we'realways at our best when we're
balanced run pass.
We've done it all.
If we have to throw it 50 timesto win a game, we will.
If we run it 50 times to win agame, we will.
(28:28):
But I think we're best whenwe're balanced in the run in the
pass game.
One of the things I think I takepride in in our pass game and
Coach Klaus is a second yearoffensive coordinator along with
Coach Zinolovic.
You know those guys.
You know you look at our statsthe last couple years and
there's like eight, ten guys indouble-digit catches right, and
(28:49):
that just speaks to theefficiency of the offense, you
know.
And Brett's first year startingand Braden coaching him, you
know like he broke a record forlike completion percentage, just
his efficiency.
So you know, know, I thinkthat's what's tough is you can't
you just kind of hone in on oneguy within the pass offense?
That's something that'scertainly a strength and you
(29:09):
know they guys all know I'm abig special teams guy.
Uh, you know I love coachingthe d-line but I love coaching
special teams.
It allows me to coach receiversand dbs and all the different
positions and you, so it's ahuge part of the game and field
position, you know, and fieldposition, so I think I always
think it comes down to turnovers, special teams, the hidden
yards and penalties, being amore disciplined team, you know,
(29:32):
particularly on the road andcoach defensively.
Coach Faggiano (29:37):
Obviously they present their offense for your
defense a lot of skilled guys onthe outside.
They bring some experience backdefensively.
Rocky (29:44):
What's going to be some of the keys defensively for you
guys just, you know, thereceivers are going to make some
plays now that's just going tohappen, right, and having our
guys just kind of, you know, uh,you know, play, play great
defense on third down, playgreat red zone defense.
Um, you know, try to createsome turnovers if we can really
really kind of hawk the football.
You know, try to create someturnovers if you can Really kind
of hawk the football down.
You know, getting two, threeguys to the ball, you know.
(30:05):
But again, they're awell-coached team and I think
you've got to make teams earn it.
You've got to make them go thelength of the field.
But yeah, you know, I thinkwhen I get that question, I
think I always answer it thesame way.
Same way I do.
I go back to creating aboutexplosives, it's about turnovers
(30:25):
and it's about special teams inthe field position for sure.
Coach Faggiano (30:29):
Coach, I told you before coming on.
I said we were going to havesome fun at the end here and do
the blazing picks, and you saidyou don't really watch a lot of
football.
Obviously you watch your guys'stuff, you watch some of your
favorite teams or whatnot, butI'm going to keep track of your
wins and loss record herethroughout the season.
Rocky (30:47):
We'll see how you end up.
We'll have to do a little moreresearch then.
Coach Faggiano (30:50):
I'm going to try to pick like a handful of games
and there's not really a lot ofbig games this week, okay, but
we'll pick some.
I'm going to keep week, okay,um, but we'll pick some.
I'm gonna.
I'm gonna keep track of ourrecord and see, maybe at the end
of the year, who's got a littlebragging rights here, all right
.
So I'm gonna start with thefirst one here, okay, and the
first one we got is iowa, atiowa state, and iowa state's
already played two games.
(31:10):
Uh, they've already played acouple.
They played I think was it downin ireland they opened up and I
love and I love matt campbell II think he should get another
job, but he's happy where he'sat.
Rocky (31:21):
But I'm a big Matt Campbell guy.
Coach Faggiano (31:24):
Yes, he is, he is.
Rocky (31:26):
He was actually coaching at Mount Union when I was
coaching at Fisher.
Coach Faggiano (31:31):
Oh, okay.
Rocky (31:32):
I'm going with all the tight ends, Iowa state.
We're going to go with Campbell.
Coach Faggiano (31:35):
All right, you're going to go with Iowa
state.
Okay, I'm going to make it easy.
We're going to go with Campbell.
All right, you're going to gowith Iowa State.
Okay, I'm going to make it easy.
I think I'm going to make iteasy on this, though I think
what we'll do is we won't eventake the spreads, because if we
go with spreads, that's reallygambling.
I don't want to do that.
We'll just go with picks here.
Rocky (31:47):
No, we're going to take that.
Coach Faggiano (31:48):
So I do like the rivalry games early.
I like it early in the season.
Home field advantage man it is.
I'm a Michigan guy, my wife'san Ohio State person.
(32:09):
Her and I battle it out duringthe season.
She's got bragging rights fromlast year.
We beat them four years in arow.
Now we're going on five.
Rocky (32:25):
Michigan, a big one at Oklahoma.
Let's see here Michigan,oklahoma.
Coach Faggiano (32:27):
I'm going to go with Michigan.
Ooh, okay, I like it.
I like it.
I'm going to have to go withthem just because I'm a homer.
I love Brent Venable, so Ithink he's a great defensive
coordinator.
We'll see what he can do, but Ithink that Bryce Underwood, kid
the quarterback's a specialtalent for Michigan.
Another one of my favoritecoaches Lane Kiffin, old Miss at
(32:52):
Kentucky.
Rocky (32:54):
Oh man.
Coach Faggiano (32:54):
This is a big line.
Rocky (32:57):
I'll tell you what it's funny.
Watching those basketballschools get better has been good
for football Kentucky, kansas,Coach Light pulled a Kansas.
I got that right, right, yep,yeah.
Kentucky is Stoops, right, yep,okay.
All right, I'm hanging in there.
Stay in there.
You're doing good, you'reholding your own.
This will be my upset one.
(33:17):
I'm going to go with Stoops andKentucky.
Coach Faggiano (33:19):
Are you Okay?
Rocky (33:20):
That's my upset pick.
Coach Faggiano (33:22):
I got to imagine .
Rocky (33:23):
I don't know the point spread ever I got to imagine Ole
Miss is the favorite.
Coach Faggiano (33:28):
Ole Miss is giving Kentucky nine and a half.
Rocky (33:35):
Okay, I don't even know, what that means.
Coach Faggiano (33:42):
I kind of do, but not really so.
Ole Miss is favored by 9.5 inthis one.
I think Stoops is a little biton the hot seat.
They had a little bit of a downyear the last couple years.
But I'm going to go with OleMiss.
I do like Lane.
Rocky (33:53):
You've got to go with one of these ones.
Coach Faggiano (33:54):
Come on All right, this is another iffy one
here.
Baylor didn't look too goodlast week.
Smu and the ACC last year.
They made the playoff and Ithink they're well coached.
I like SMU, but you're goingwith uh, you're going to try to
go.
This is a close one.
Rocky (34:10):
This one's only two and a half on my heart because I
actually spent some time withcoach Aranda and, um, you know
he's a he's a great coach.
He was at geez.
Now was he at.
He was at was he at nebraskafor a while before that and yes
and uh, you know he's a reallysharp guy.
You know I spent some time withhim on the rules committee at
the afca convention and we'regonna go with baylor all right,
(34:31):
we we disagree on the last twobecause I I do like I had baylor
last week.
Coach Faggiano (34:35):
I thought they would have put up a little bit
about a better fight last weekin their first game.
So I'm going to stick with SMU.
And then everybody's on me,coach, because I'm not a diehard
Syracuse fan.
I root for them.
But a lot of my buddies willsay, ah, you just don't like
Syracuse.
Because in my preseason Ipicked Syracuse to go 4-8.
Okay, because I don't know someof those middle-of-the-pack
(34:59):
teams.
I don't know what you're goingto get out of.
Nc State, pittsburgh, georgiaTech.
Those are probably 50-50 games.
Syracuse can win those easily.
I just don't know enough aboutthem.
So I went four and eight.
But UConn last year had a greatyear under Coach Moore.
They did.
They're doing some really goodthings there.
This one's six and a half.
Rocky (35:17):
This is at Syracuse, if I recall was it a Tennessee game,
a one-score game in the thirdquarter, was it?
Did I just hear someone saythat it was like 37-28?
They did.
Syracuse scored.
Coach Faggiano (35:28):
They had a tough time stopping them, but they
scored.
Rocky (35:31):
You know, and I think it very well may be one of those
years for Syracuse where thoseone score games right or it's
like you're 500, you're goingbowling Right.
And I'll tell you, I am a hugeFran Brown fan.
I love listening to him talk.
I listened to all hisinterviews when all the portal
stuff was going down and I'mtrying to figure it out myself
with a couple of my guys on howit works.
(35:53):
You know, hey guys, noteveryone, everyone's going to go
with these three and get ascholarship Right.
I scholarship right.
I just love his style.
You know, I went out andwatched him and just how he
talks to everybody.
So I'm going to definitely gowith Syracuse on that one.
Coach Faggiano (36:07):
Yeah, I actually am too.
I think people are going to say, oh okay, you're going with
Syracuse, but I am going to gowith Syracuse, but I think he's
great.
I think their schedule is a lottougher this year than what it
was last year.
I think it's a lot morechallenging this year for Fran,
but you know him and some ofthose coaches that he brought in
with him from Georgia.
They're some of the bestrecruiters in the country Great
recruiters.
Rocky (36:27):
He has a great staff.
New Zealand's great.
They have a great staff there,you know, and good to see
Ambrose get back on the staffthere.
The Syracuse guy, you know, hewas out at UConn or he was out
at Central Connecticut last timeand came back to coach as like
the assistant on-line coach.
So I know a couple of theircoaches pretty well.
I think he's doing a great job.
I thought they hung prettytough with a top-tier team last
(36:50):
week.
Coach Faggiano (36:51):
So, coach, last thing I wanted to ask you are
there some guys that you knowfrom camp, or maybe not some of
the main name guys that stoodout during camp, and maybe we'll
hear their names throughout theseason?
Rocky (37:04):
You know, like special teams-wise, you know a young man
that hasn't had an opportunityto return yet.
Nick Emeritato, who's a juniorin our program, will be our punt
returner and one of our kickreturners Just had a great,
great camp.
Really proud of him and whathe's done.
Mikey Mecca is a dual sportfootball lacrosse guy, tough as
(37:24):
nails, strong leader, brings aton of energy to practice.
You know he'll be playingcorner as well as special teams.
So those are some names therethat you'll hear and you know
really looking forward to.
You know our kicker and ourpunter those guys.
Devin Taylor out of Tampa hearand you know, really looking
forward to.
You know, our kicker and ourpunter, those guys.
Devin Taylor out of Tampa,florida, and Nico Duarte.
Nico was a transfer out ofSacred Heart from New Jersey.
(37:46):
You know, give a littleshout-out to our special teams
guys.
You know they had a reallystrong camp and have been
working hard at it.
I'm looking forward to gettingthose guys out there and showing
us what they can do so theycould be the difference in the
in the field position of the ofthe game.
Coach Faggiano (38:00):
So let me, I'll pull over a few.
We got some, some comments here.
So Pete says good call, coach,go blue, we must have a.
A must have a Michigan fan.
Pegs, everybody's going to.
They always break my chopsbecause nobody used to follow
Fordham football.
Now everybody always breaks mychops when they see Fordham.
Rocky (38:20):
So peg says he wants to hear Coach Fahs break down
Fordham football have you everbeen out to the Bronx Coach?
I have.
I went out and I need to do itmore often.
I went out and talked footballwith Coach Lenahan and we went
out to Arthur.
Avenue.
Everyone that knows me knows mynumber one movie hands down is
the Bronx Tale I even saw it on.
Broadway with my dad, which wasamazing, and the guys will watch
(38:44):
it on the bus at some point.
They've seen videos in meetingsabout there's nothing worse in
life than wasting time Right andhow you can do it.
It's just a great, great quote.
But this summer I just had agreat moment with my son.
Jamesames was a sophomore atutica.
My dad and we went down and hadlunch on arthur avenue uh, may
(39:06):
have had a couple cigars andhung out in the open market,
yeah, and then went watch theyankees get a great win and this
is when they first played soto.
So this was back.
It was.
It was in june, I think oh yeah,it was early my son's apple
watch, which I don't have one ofthose yet.
Right, he's like his watch isgoing crazy because of the
decibels in the stadium.
How loud they were booing sotoit was.
(39:28):
It was incredible so, and therewas a game that they won.
Um that that.
Those are like.
Those are some of my moments,if I can go catch a yankee game
with my dad and uh you knowwhere my judge?
Yes, I have a 99 with Judge'sname on it yeah.
Huge fan.
What a classy guy.
Hopefully we can pull ittogether here.
I don't know what's going onright now, but you know.
(39:51):
But yeah, arthur Avenue is thebest.
Can't go there enough.
Coach Faggiano (39:56):
Well, coach, listen, I told you I I was
probably gonna keep you about ahalf hour.
This is awesome.
I I first I want to thank youfor for reaching out.
I know we've been talking aboutdoing something like this for a
little while and I'm happy tobe able to do this throughout
the season with you and give methe opportunity to learn more
about, obviously, uh, theprogram and follow you guys
throughout the season and, uh,it'll be fun, I'll look forward
to it and, uh, the next week Ishould have the UC shirt on.
(40:19):
I should have the UC shirt onnext week and but I really do
appreciate you taking the timewith me and throughout the fall.
Rocky (40:26):
I appreciate the opportunity.
This will be a lot of fun.
Coach Faggiano (40:29):
And I'm keeping track of those, those picks,
coach, we'll see how you do.
You might have to turn on ESPNSunday morning and see how you
did.
Rocky (40:35):
Yes, sir.
Coach Faggiano (40:35):
As always, fear the moose.
All right coach.
Thank you.
Good luck this season.
Good luck this week.
Thank you, all right coach.
So that was Utica Universityhead coach Blaise Faziano, and
I'm excited to talk to coachthroughout the season.
He's always been so kind to meand even my dad when we were
both coaching together atWaterville when my dad was the
(40:58):
head coach coach and he's doneso much for the area, so much
for the Mohawk Valley, not just,not just coaching, but just
with the community andrecruiting local kids, and just
he brings a lot of excitement.
It's hard to believe he's beenthere so long but I'm really
excited to talk Utica universityfootball with him throughout
the season.
We'll preview the upcominggames, we'll talk about their
(41:22):
current game.
I'll have him do his picks atthe end of the show, probably
try to keep it to about ahalf-hour show with him because
I don't want to take too much ofhis time.
I know he's got a lot of thingsto worry about other than
jumping on here with me, but Ido appreciate Coach coming on
tonight.
Make sure to tune in nextThursday night at 8 o'clock To
another episode of Inside UticaUniversity Football Podcast With
(41:43):
Head Coach Blaze Faziano andmyself.
So, as I say All the time, onthe Rockpile.
The Rockpile Is where dreamsbecome Reality.
Have a good evening, everybody,thank you.
Thank you.
Coach Faggiano (00:36):
Good evening everybody.
Welcome to the Rock Piletonight.
The Rock Pile tonight bringsyou Inside Utica University
Football Podcast with head coachBlaze Faziano, who's set to
join me in just a little bit.
I want to make sure that Ithank all the subscribers here
tonight.
If you're watching on YouTube,hit subscribe.
If you're watching on any ofthe social media channels, I
appreciate you following us heretonight.
(00:57):
Coach and I are going to try toair every Thursday night at 8
o'clock throughout the season.
So if you have any questionsfor Coach, I'll try to pull as
many over as I can.
We'll have some fun with Coachtonight.
At the end We'll get Coach'sblazing picks here in college
football.
I told him I'm going to keeptrack throughout the season of
his record, so we'll see howCoach does.
And then, if you follow on anyof the other platforms, a lot of
(01:21):
it will be on iHeartRadio,apple Podcast and more so.
A lot of it will be oniHeartRadio, apple Podcast and
more so.
I appreciate everybodyfollowing us here tonight.
So, without further ado, let'sbring Coach on.
Let me just get him on.
Let me fix us Coach.
We got to get all fancy heretonight.
How are you?
Rocky (01:37):
Excellent, I'm getting ready for week one here, getting
ready to get on a bus and drivesix hours to Pittsburgh
tomorrow.
So we're locked and loaded.
Coach Faggiano (01:45):
You got a nice little bus ride down, but I'm
sure the guys are ready.
So I know I was joking with youbefore we came on a little bit
ago, but I said I didn't know.
You were the longest tenuredcoach in New York State.
You've been around a long time,coach.
Rocky (01:59):
I'll tell you what you coach, you love, what you do,
you know love education.
And then when there was Iforget I think it was the
College Football Network putthat out there and a couple
people saw it and it definitelylooked cool when the whole state
of New York had the giant Mooselogo.
But then when I kind of read itand looked at it, I'm like what
you know, how did that happen?
How did all of a sudden, Iguess you know to be the longest
(02:22):
tenured football coach in NewYork but I blame Coach Vosberg
for retiring because he wasprior and so we had a great
relationship with him theprevious head coach at Fisher.
He was 27 years there, so thatwas a bit of a shocker Rock, I
got to tell you.
Coach Faggiano (02:38):
Well, Coach, I remember when you got the job
and you brought so muchenthusiasm and life to the
Mohawk Valley and, you know,started recruiting a lot of the
local kids.
What are your thoughts would belike from where the program is
now to when you first took itover?
Oh wow, how much different isit.
Rocky (02:55):
You know there's so many things different at the
university.
You know what I mean From thebuildings.
Oh my gosh.
You know the Laura Cosimentotrack and field complex, the
dome right, the largest.
I think it still might be thelargest bubble in America, as we
call the hut after Dr ToddHutton.
You know the Pioneer Villageapartments, which are better
than any apartment I ever rentedin my life.
(03:19):
You know the science buildingscience building it was funny.
Right as I got hired they hadjust completed the new, the
criminal justice building, whichthey just put in their second
crime lab.
It's pretty wild crime scenelab so it is.
You know, being a part of theuniversity is how it's evolved
and changed.
Is has been a lot of fun.
You know the majors.
(03:40):
Just alone I used to jokearound and say if you ever had
an indoor facility in phys ed,that would really help us.
You know, because we had a lotof other.
You know criminal justice andconstruction management and some
other.
You know great majors that.
You know football guys want tostudy and you know we're way
into the phys ed program now.
I've got guys teaching phys edall over the Northeast and even
(04:02):
in the really I.
I got guys in Florida teaching,because that is pretty wild,
but uh, so I think being a partof that's been been a lot of fun
.
Coach Faggiano (04:09):
So the universities went through a lot
of changes, but personally coachfor you.
How have you changed over theyears?
Rocky (04:15):
Are you?
Coach Faggiano (04:15):
tougher or are you more mellower now?
Rocky (04:17):
You know I think I am a little, a little mellower, a
little more patient at times,you know.
You know it's funny the firstTuesday practice.
You know, getting ready thisweek maybe the scout team saw a
little different side of me, alittle louder, a little more
sense of urgency, but theyalways bring it right back down
and have fun with them and busttheir chops and, you know, dance
(04:37):
to some of the music we gotgoing on in practice.
But you know, you know how am Idifferent?
You know, just more experienced.
You know what I mean in thedetails of little things.
I think one of the things thatI've really enjoyed is
developing, obviously developingour players, but developing our
young coaches.
And I can remember, you know,doc Spartano and Jim Spartano,
the athletic director that hiredme.
(04:58):
You know, talk about the onegreat thing he had, that
high-pitched voice.
You know that high-pitchedItalian voice.
You know that high-pitchedItalian voice.
The one great thing aboutcoaching is they keep you young.
You're around kids.
It keeps you young.
And he talked about.
You know he's miserable in thevillage, he's retired because he
goes.
I'm not used to being aroundall these old people.
He talked and I'll tell youwhat being at the university and
(05:20):
the college and around not justthe student athletes but our
young coaches.
That's something that has beena lot of fun.
We have a really young coachingstaff right now, outside of my
full-time staff, and CoachOliver we're kind of the
veterans out there the formerhead coach of BVS.
We have a lot of young guys butthey have a lot of energy,
passion.
Coach Faggiano (05:42):
They're going to be great coaches and it makes
it fun, for sure.
And, coach, before we jump intoit, it's funny.
You bring that up because Iknow when I've interviewed you
over in the past I've alwaystalked to you about, you know,
bill Belichick has his coachingtree.
All these coaches have thecoaching tree, especially in
college, and I look around thearea and I'm friends with a lot
of the guys that you know thatyou've had under you.
What's it, what's it mean toyou to see a lot of these guys
around the area having success?
Rocky (06:05):
I can remember getting hired and think, oh, wow, okay,
we're going to have four gradassistants.
Now, when I was at UAlbany backin 93, 94, with the current
head coach at UB, pete Lembo,and I GA'd together we had eight
GAs and I can remember vividlythinking, wow, four GAs, maybe
someday we could have a littlecoaching tree.
(06:26):
And we would even joke yearsago we'd say, ah, we've got like
a little bush, you know, andguys are out there James Linehan
at Fordham, who you know, yes,and guys are out there.
And then you know, it's likeanything that you wake up and
it's like I think it's over 70now.
You know, and Coach Fitzpatrick, you know, very proud of the
(06:47):
things that he's done atMorrisville, Cortland and El
Colgate.
I was so excited he brought JoeGerbino back to the Mohawk
Valley.
You know, laz Morgan, I mean youtalk about.
I was actually talking aboutthis with the players the other
day.
There's Sherwood-VolartConference Room, it's right in
the residence hall and we hadour leadership council meeting
in there and we also had ourFellowship of Christian Athletes
(07:08):
meeting in there and I wastalking to the guys how that
space is special to me andthey're like you know, what do
you mean I said, well, when Iinterviewed this room was full
of the entire team and when theguys all left, laz Morgan was
still there, tracy Branch wasstill there, tracy Branch was
still there, Marcus Gerdnir wasstill there and I stayed with
those guys for another hour.
Shamel Turnbull you knowTerrell Cunningham and you know
(07:30):
to see Laz head coach at BuffState.
And you know, most recently,matt Rogers, right the section
Central New York guy, you know,being the head coach of Hartwick
.
That's crazy to me but that'ssomething that I really don't
mind talking about and certainlyvery proud of that.
And it wasn't just me.
The coaches, the coordinators,the Jim Cramers, all those guys
(07:54):
coached for Coach Cramer thatare coaching right now.
And Will Ploff and some of myformer coordinators all kind of
took pride as we watched the GAsgo on.
And Ben McCaig, now that's theoffensive coordinator at Bryant.
You know things like that.
You know Ryan Wilson now isfull-time in New Hampshire Just
watching these guys go A localguy.
You can't forget Jared Kite.
You know Holland Patton,defensive coordinator at UMass,
(08:17):
and he hired another Utica guy,joe Castellito.
So that's something that'sreally one of my favorite things
is going to the coachesconvention and then having the
utica night.
No doubt that's awesome, havingall those guys back.
So that's something that, um,you kind of wake up one day and
go how did that?
happen, but uh, yeah, it'spretty wild so, coach, let's
(08:37):
talk.
Coach Faggiano (08:37):
You got a game coming up this week and, uh, I
want to get your thoughts on howyou know, how was camp, how was
the off season for you guys andthe team?
Uh, what's your thoughts?
Rocky (08:46):
you know we always say like every team has a one-year
life expectancy and they kind ofhave their own character and
their own and I can tell you allI can say this group is.
It's like energy and enthusiasm, you know, like just some of
the stuff.
I don't you know what I couldtell you or not tell you how
these guys are, just why, liketheir right, you know, they
decide to all lift weights withtheir shirts off and run on the
(09:08):
track like a bunch of wild menand like just the energy of this
group is really unmatched.
They're a pretty special group.
They know about, you know,welcoming in the young guys and
again you talk about you kind ofwake up and look like this
group, you know experienced.
You know three.
You know a couple of great,great seasons.
(09:28):
You know so Eli Douglas andMason Payton.
They played in the Susquehannagame.
You know I was a freshman andyou know so they experienced 10
and 2 and 9 and 2.
And then they experienced lastyear, which was tough, you know,
5 and 5.
And losing those three likelike really close games that we
(09:49):
found a way to win and so um,they're, the guys are really
going back to how the, theplayers that brought them in
talked about how we respondedafter the grove city loss.
Right, so we six and four, weget the bowl game against grove
city.
We know it's very good team,right, they think we're make a
field goal of beating CortlandNew York.
Cortland won the nationalchampionship, right, and we go
down there and get smacked.
And so we're six and five, andthe way that team responded to
(10:12):
that, right, that adversity andhow that was, and then we flip
around and go 10 and two.
There's some similarities tothe vibe that I'm getting you
know, going into this season.
Where guys are, you know and wehave a lot of first-time
starters that are excited tohave that opportunity, for sure.
Coach Faggiano (10:29):
And Coach, you talk about that 5-5 season last
year, but you guys, I think,lost two or three games by like
one score.
So I mean that season couldhave went a different way.
But what I was going to say issometimes the years where a team
goes 10-2, you go 9-3, I feellike some years where maybe you
(10:50):
go like five and five, seven andfive, some coaches will say you
know what that was?
The that was one of the betteryears because of how the team
developed throughout the season.
And I feel like you guys, lastyear those games could have went
either way.
Rocky (10:55):
But talk to us about that one score games yeah, even in
the two previous years we'redown three scores at Union.
The year we're 10 and 2 to comeback to beat them.
You know what I mean.
So we just found a way to winthose close games and this past
year we found some ways to losethem and you know, you see, you
learn from it.
One thing I can say is we'repretty consistent.
Like we're hard on each other,we're hard on the film, whether
(11:18):
it's eight, nine wins or five.
So it wasn't like we attackedit differently, you know.
But there's certainly a littlemore sense of urgency when the
guys see how.
You know, I use the Alfred storyall the time because I have a
lot of respect for that program.
They've been around for over100 years and you know, two
years ago we go down there andbeat them 28, nothing.
Well, they had that on their.
(11:39):
You know I say bulletin board,right, but I know not too many
bulletin boards now.
But you know, then they, theyknock us off at home.
This past year they came to playand we made some mistakes and
they made a couple more playsand I think the younger guys,
all the sophomores, trulyunderstood that.
Hey, guys, don't get caught upin the film right.
You know you may think you'rebetter than the team, but
(12:00):
they're going to give us theirbest game when they play us
right.
When you're, you're that newguy still like.
We're kind of that new kid intown and no one wants to see us
do that, no one wants to see ustake that next step.
So it gets us a little chip onour shoulder and working hard at
it.
But we certainly learned a lotfrom that, no doubt about it.
But we attacked the offseasonreally no different than any
(12:22):
other.
We're pretty hard on ourselvesand I want to stay consistent
with that.
I think the messaging, too, isthat the players always know
like we're in this together.
There's things that we would dodifferent as coaches, there's
things they would do differentas players, and whether it's a
win or a loss, we're in ittogether and the guys are really
, you know, bought into that.
Coach Faggiano (12:42):
And, coach, talk about your captains.
You guys named your captainsthis week and I think you guys
have and I was going throughsome of the umpire eight
comments and notes and all thatI think you guys are going to
return one of the best skilledgroups, I think, in the league,
from top to bottom with startingwith your quarterback.
But talk to us a little bitabout the four captains that you
guys named this week.
Rocky (13:00):
Well, you know.
First, you know Eli Douglas.
You know got some niceaccolades last year.
You know was like all ECAC, Ibelieve was the highest one that
he received.
You know, outstanding footballplayer he's been playing since
he was a freshman.
Like everyone knows that Eli'sfreshman year blocked a punt
against Susquehanna that led toa score in that big game and you
(13:22):
know so.
You know his leadership andwatching him grow as a leader is
tremendous.
So you know, glad to have hisleadership.
Antonio John Ferrani you knowAntonio is a fifth year and you
know he's had a ton of adversity.
You know he caught a highschool.
In high school in springfootball he breaks his foot.
He's a filmer.
His whole freshman year Doesn'teven play.
Finally plays as a sophomorehaving a great junior campaign.
(13:47):
Tears his ACL right, battlesback, right Battles back and had
a great spring strong leader.
And someone like Antonio was agreat leader for like a Tony
Durazinski right Local guy outof Whitesboro because Tony got
hurt playing basketball,couldn't play his freshman year
and Antonio was a great bigbrother.
We call him TD.
I don't know if they called himthat back in the borough, but
(14:09):
we call Tony Dorzinski TD andjust watching those
relationships the guys have withthe younger players, something
that's been a tradition forquite some time.
Jordan Davis he's a specialplayer, great young man, great
student, a big person, greatpersonality.
(14:30):
Really really is one of themost coachable guys that I've
had.
You know, and really lookingforward to watching him.
You know, really, reallyflourish this year at the D-line
.
And then you know TylerZolkowski.
You know Tyler flourish thisyear at the D-line.
And then Tyler Zolkowski Tyler,it was a tough spring man
because Tyler and Brett battledand I think I give Jordan
(14:51):
Ladbert some credit.
He said it best in our preseasonwe have two outstanding
quarterbacks and the way thatBrett battled and kind of
handled that tough news, if youwill like.
He's just a class act and he'sa phys ed major.
He's going to be a great coach.
You know Tyler's historyeducation, so he's going to go
on and teach and coach when he'sdone.
And it was interesting.
(15:11):
It's all about relationships inthis game.
You know Tyler played withBraden at Albany, right All, but
he didn't work out for Tyler.
Tyler transferred to RobertMorris, gets injured, never gets
a chance to play and there'sthere's a good portal story.
There's a lot of bad portalstories.
Coach Faggiano (15:28):
Yeah, that's a good one.
Rocky (15:29):
Kids transferring four or five times.
But you know Tyler, being fromRochester, being from Aquinas,
being a tough Polish kid, Itease him all the time Like he,
he's a good guy, he really fitin with our players.
He had a great spring and then,you know, as he just had a
great camp, you know his eliteover time he didn't rush it Over
time, his leadership just keptshining through, you know, and
(15:51):
so you know he and Brett have agreat relationship.
Our quarterback room, you know,matt Polaris is going to have a
piece, nas Smith's going tohave a piece.
I think that guess a reallystrong room.
And I credit, you know, brayden, uh, zanelovic, because brayden
, you know kind of timing, likecoach tribino gets coach of the
year, assistant coach of theyear goes to bethune cookman and
(16:11):
then brayden slid in as a ga,coached our quarterbacks and
then after one year got promotedto full time and uh, you know,
he's just outstanding uh, youknow for us and and has a ton of
roles in our program.
So we're definitely excitedabout those captains and they're
not going to do it alone.
We have a strong leadershipcouncil that we meet every week,
and Isaiah Thomas spoke thisweek and had a great video and a
(16:34):
quote that we shared with theteam, and we're in a good place
leadership-wise.
Coach Faggiano (16:39):
So, coach, let's talk about the Empire 8, the
conference in general, becauseone of the toughest conferences,
I think in Division III and topto bottom you know you've got
Cortland obviously is looking, Ithink, this year to win their
fifth conference title.
Alfred State's going to jointhe conference this year but
really, coach, top to bottom Imean it's a tough out every week
for you guys.
Rocky (16:57):
You can't sleep in the end player eight.
It's just great, great football.
You just look at the postseason.
You know performance of ourconference is there.
You know, I had to tell you,alfred State in their playoff
game gave Endicott man.
They got after him for a half.
You know they really you knowkind of matched punches with
them.
You know Coach Lynn's done areally nice job there, so that's
a good addition.
(17:17):
You know, I think you know one.
I think that's a great littlerival there down the street,
alfred U Alfred State.
You know good for football.
But yeah, it's one of theunique conferences that has both
state schools and privateschools.
You know, and that's what youknow kind of really makes it
unique.
But it's going to beinteresting.
You know a lot of new.
What?
Four new head coaches, Ibelieve it is.
Coach Faggiano (17:38):
Yeah, I was going to say some new faces.
Rocky (17:40):
So four new head coaches.
We've already started theprogram, as I am now the old guy
in the E8.
But you know four new coachesworking at it.
There's definitely some games,like I think Cortland's playing
Grove City this weekend.
People will be looking at that,I'm not sure whoever else.
Oh, I think Buff State,brockport they battle for the 90
bowl.
They call it for their.
(18:01):
They battle for the 90 bowl,they call it.
But this week is interestingbecause you got the President's
Conference versus the Empire.
8 doesn't happen often.
Last time it happened for us iswhen we went to Grove City and
what's really interesting isCoach Sirianni has done a great
job there and is the brother ofEagles head coach Nick Sirianni.
And they're Mount Union guysand I had my plenty of battles
(18:24):
of Mount Union at Utica a fewtimes or, excuse me, at St John
Fisher I had to deal with PierreGarçon, okay, which was yeah, I
gave him hits.
Well, first, as a freshman, hescored four touchdowns on me
when he was at Norwich.
I'm like who's this kid fromFlorida and why is he in norwich
, and you know.
And then he goes and transfersthe mountain I had.
(18:46):
So I had to play against himthree times as a dc and uh, and
I'll tell you what.
It was very special for uticato get in a bus and go to
alliance ohio after it beatsusquehanna.
You know, because no one gaveus a chance, right, and that was
that was back when there was,you know, there wasn't 40 teams
going and we were like thefourth or fifth to get in.
(19:09):
But at the end of the day, Ialways am a big Empire 8 guy and
I'm here to tell you, I don'tcare who it is.
If you're 9-1 from thisconference, you're good, right.
If you're 8-2 in our conference, you're good, you're good,
you're 8-2 in our conference,you're good and you're going to
go beat a lot of teams acrossthe country.
So we weren't surprised, buteveryone was surprised.
We went out to Susquehanna andgot that huge playoff win and
(19:33):
first time we were nationallyranked and all that good stuff.
So, yeah, it's going to be a TVgame so you can log in or watch
it.
It's a TV game for them and Ithink it's now it's a 12.05
kickoff, so that'll be uniquefor our guys with the extra
timeouts and things.
But yeah, we have engineersback-to-back weeks from W&J to
RPI.
A lot of engineers the firsttwo weeks.
Coach Faggiano (19:54):
Yeah, and that President's Conference is tough
too, top to bottom.
I was looking through them,through over the years they have
three teams, though, go withthe new NPI.
Rocky (20:02):
The NPI favored them, and they had three teams go to the
tournament last year.
So Carnegie Mellon, oh geez.
Now Grove City.
Was it Grove City?
The third one Right, and thenWJ.
Coach Faggiano (20:14):
So, coach, you mentioned Sirianni and I forgot
he was there.
And then I bopped on him.
I'm like geez, you candefinitely tell he's related
they.
And then I bopped on him.
I'm like geez, you candefinitely tell he's related.
They look exactly alike, right,they look like brothers, they
are brothers.
But he's been there a long timetoo, and they got a ton of
talent on the outside, a lot ofweapons.
I think last year they had whata couple thousand-yard
receivers.
Rocky (20:34):
The two receivers are legit.
Very good, very good players.
They're running back.
Very, very good football player, um I don't want to pronounce
his last number two very goodplayer, um.
He'll be back.
So, yeah, they're, they're,they're solid.
Their defense is tough.
You know they're gonna pressureyou and and give you some
problems.
So they're well coachedfootball team yeah, and I was.
Coach Faggiano (20:53):
I was looking, I think last year.
I think they were averagingabout over 300 yards a game
through the air.
Well balanced though.
Well well balanced on.
And I think the one kid back isMcCaskill, the receiver, who's
back from a year ago, and then Ithink DeRosa, the running back,
is back last year.
Yeah, derosa.
Rocky (21:10):
Yep, very good, very good .
So it'll be interesting to seelike they think.
I forget how many seniors theygraduated, but they graduated a
lot kind of similar to us, and Ithink for them they have a lot
of first-time starters.
But again they have such astrong program they play six or
seven JV games as well, kind ofthat Mount Union philosophy,
(21:34):
which was an old Ithacaphilosophy back in the day,
about having a bigger roster andplaying JV games, giving those
young guys an opportunity toplay.
So they're a big hate develop.
Some of his guys may play JVfor two years and all of a
sudden they're all conferenceperformers, and that happens to
us as well.
So I think the biggest thing isjust keeping them calm.
They're all going to be excitedthat first game jitters and
just have fun playing football.
(21:55):
I know that.
I think we play better when wejust play loose.
We play loose and have fun andnot build games up.
It's easy to do.
My college coach always talkedabout the bulletin board and now
it's like the bulletin board'sin their hand.
The bulletin board is reallyeasy for them to get to.
Don't read all that stuff.
All that matters is blow thewhistle, put the football down
(22:20):
and let's go play for fourquarters.
I tell all the guys they thefootball down and let's go play
for four quarters.
I tell all the guys they know Ibust chops about the three or
four hours of pregame.
I said, guys, we're not goingto take videos of you, what
you're wearing, walking to thelocker room.
I had them all laughing theother day, all the pregame stuff
.
What matters is how you executeand your discipline and just
(22:41):
play for a passion and love foreach other.
Coach Faggiano (22:45):
Coach.
We've got a few comments onhere.
I know you know Mr BrianMcQueen oh the man, he's the
best as coach.
Teaches family first onfootball.
You see it being around thoseplayers Best thing that's
happened to the program in ourcommunity.
He's great Love following him.
Rocky (22:59):
He's great.
The job came open and some ofthe first people I talked to
were brian mcqueen, tony leone,dave lupia you know all guys
from the area that I hadconnections with.
A couple of them, dave, Icoached at ithaca um and brian
and tony's sons played for merock or curry, oh yeah okay,
(23:19):
played for, played for merecruited him to fisher.
Um, oh yeah, a son played for me, recruited him to Fisher John
Wade, mike Donnarumma, like allthese guys.
And my phone was ringing offthe hook and I remember my wife
was like, oh, I mean, I haven'teven interviewed yet.
She's like, oh, we're going toUtica, like what?
She's like, no, I just have afeeling we're going to go to
Utica, so gonna go, you guys?
(23:39):
So, um, we had, you know, brian, just uh, class act and what
he's done with that belief.
271 foundation is just truly anamazing thing, truly uncommon,
and love, love having guys likethat around our players well,
coach, while we're on that, youmentioned that the september
13th it'll be the believe bowl.
Coach Faggiano (23:56):
I think you guys are playing rencelier that that
weekend.
Rocky (23:59):
Talk to us how special that day is for you guys well,
the Blue Bowl is, you know,people ask, hey, who's your
rival?
And we joke around saying, well, we don't really like anybody,
you know, because we're so young.
There was a little talk at onepoint that maybe the Hartwick
game, because when I got hiredthey had that 72-70 crazy game,
you know, and we thought aboutit and just couldn't figure it
(24:22):
out with the presidents and ADsat the time.
And so it's just funny when youknow when things just come
together, you know and and umand when good things could come
from from some adversity.
And if you don't, I lovetelling the story, if you don't
mind me telling it, so no, goright ahead.
So Brian, through his fireservice, uh, had come down with
(24:42):
cancer and it was in his thyroidand it's amazing the chemicals
that are in fires today and whatI've learned from Brian in
studying this stuff.
And so you know he's going toSloan Kettering and he's getting
his treatments and while he'sdoing this he's a volunteer like
coach on our staff helpingpromote our games and we're
having like youth day and highschool day and we're trying to
(25:03):
we had a veterans day game andhelp me get that going and just
promote.
You know what we do at Utica inthe area.
And so now his friends gotgreat friends in the fire
department and the Whitesboroschool district and people start
raising money for him and hesells them.
Nah, I don't want the money,let's put it in the fund to help
other people.
And just that's what sparkedand started that amazing
(25:27):
foundation.
And even more for me, like myfirst name is Blaze.
St Blaze is the patron saint ofthe throat.
I know Brian has a St Blazemedal that he wears and a St
Blaze mask card that I got himand just a great relationship.
And then so one of his players,cause Brian, coached high school
football at a risk and he youknow Matt, matt Wilsey, who was
(25:47):
the former owner of New Yorkstate tool.
They had lunch and they're likelet's call it the believable.
And that happened, you know,and for I think it was at least
five years or more that we hadthe New York state tool
believable.
And then Matt and Lisa sold thecompany and they're doing great
things and their kids are doinggreat things.
And then so we went to FrankMastrovito and he jumped right
(26:07):
on board and what a giving guyin the community.
You know Frank and his wifeColleen, they're just awesome.
And so you know having ourhonorary captains that are
battling cancer and have themcome to practice and talk to the
team and you know, get, youknow.
Then all the fun stuff comeswith it, the helmet stickers and
all that good stuff.
(26:27):
But, like so, the blue bowl isour game and it's our game to
get back to the community, soit's not always it's a different
team every year.
We've liked it being the homeopener and doing the orange out,
so that's kind of what we'vedone pretty consistently.
So so last year was Union,which is a great atmosphere.
This year will be, you know,rpi, a very good program just
down the three-way.
So we'll have that game atseven, but it's going to be at
(26:50):
six and we'll get at least thatsecond half will be under the
lights.
But that's a really specialgame for us and our guys really
look forward to it.
Coach Faggiano (27:00):
I know another friend of mine that does the
radio with me is Pete Pagliaro.
Rocky (27:06):
Trying to watch the game too, huh.
Coach Faggiano (27:08):
He's trying to watch the game too Cowboys in
Philly tonight.
But he mentions the BelieveBowl, how amazing it is, and you
had him speak to the team inthe past, and his brother, of
course, who passed away ofcancer.
You guys had honored him toofor one of these games.
Rocky (27:25):
Yeah, it was.
He brought his whole family topractice and talk to the guys.
And you know, with passion, youknow for his brother and the
brotherhood of the firefighters,you know like there's so many
parallels to that.
And you know, just have youknow when I can have some of the
community members come out andtalk to the guys, and you know,
uh, that was a real specialmoment.
So you know, once, once, a oncea pioneer, always a pioneer.
(27:49):
So so pags, his family and hisbrother are, you know, pioneers
forever for sure so, coach,couple keys to the game
offensively and defense.
Coach Faggiano (27:56):
Let's start with offense for you guys first.
What are a couple keys to thegame for you guys on the road?
First game against, against areally talented team, what's the
offense got to do to put you ina position to win?
Rocky (28:07):
this week.
I'm pretty consistent with this.
It's about protecting thefootball, not turning the ball
over.
That's a big thing.
Not giving another team moreopportunities.
Being balanced I think we'realways at our best when we're
balanced run pass.
We've done it all.
If we have to throw it 50 timesto win a game, we will.
If we run it 50 times to win agame, we will.
(28:28):
But I think we're best whenwe're balanced in the run in the
pass game.
One of the things I think I takepride in in our pass game and
Coach Klaus is a second yearoffensive coordinator along with
Coach Zinolovic.
You know those guys.
You know you look at our statsthe last couple years and
there's like eight, ten guys indouble-digit catches right, and
(28:49):
that just speaks to theefficiency of the offense, you
know.
And Brett's first year startingand Braden coaching him, you
know like he broke a record forlike completion percentage, just
his efficiency.
So you know, know, I thinkthat's what's tough is you can't
you just kind of hone in on oneguy within the pass offense?
That's something that'scertainly a strength and you
(29:09):
know they guys all know I'm abig special teams guy.
Uh, you know I love coachingthe d-line but I love coaching
special teams.
It allows me to coach receiversand dbs and all the different
positions and you, so it's ahuge part of the game and field
position, you know, and fieldposition, so I think I always
think it comes down to turnovers, special teams, the hidden
yards and penalties, being amore disciplined team, you know,
(29:32):
particularly on the road andcoach defensively.
Coach Faggiano (29:37):
Obviously they present their offense for your
defense a lot of skilled guys onthe outside.
They bring some experience backdefensively.
Rocky (29:44):
What's going to be some of the keys defensively for you
guys just, you know, thereceivers are going to make some
plays now that's just going tohappen, right, and having our
guys just kind of, you know, uh,you know, play, play great
defense on third down, playgreat red zone defense.
Um, you know, try to createsome turnovers if we can really
really kind of hawk the football.
You know, try to create someturnovers if you can Really kind
of hawk the football down.
You know, getting two, threeguys to the ball, you know.
(30:05):
But again, they're awell-coached team and I think
you've got to make teams earn it.
You've got to make them go thelength of the field.
But yeah, you know, I thinkwhen I get that question, I
think I always answer it thesame way.
Same way I do.
I go back to creating aboutexplosives, it's about turnovers
(30:25):
and it's about special teams inthe field position for sure.
Coach Faggiano (30:29):
Coach, I told you before coming on.
I said we were going to havesome fun at the end here and do
the blazing picks, and you saidyou don't really watch a lot of
football.
Obviously you watch your guys'stuff, you watch some of your
favorite teams or whatnot, butI'm going to keep track of your
wins and loss record herethroughout the season.
Rocky (30:47):
We'll see how you end up.
We'll have to do a little moreresearch then.
Coach Faggiano (30:50):
I'm going to try to pick like a handful of games
and there's not really a lot ofbig games this week, okay, but
we'll pick some.
I'm going to keep week, okay,um, but we'll pick some.
I'm gonna.
I'm gonna keep track of ourrecord and see, maybe at the end
of the year, who's got a littlebragging rights here, all right
.
So I'm gonna start with thefirst one here, okay, and the
first one we got is iowa, atiowa state, and iowa state's
already played two games.
(31:10):
Uh, they've already played acouple.
They played I think was it downin ireland they opened up and I
love and I love matt campbell II think he should get another
job, but he's happy where he'sat.
Rocky (31:21):
But I'm a big Matt Campbell guy.
Coach Faggiano (31:24):
Yes, he is, he is.
Rocky (31:26):
He was actually coaching at Mount Union when I was
coaching at Fisher.
Coach Faggiano (31:31):
Oh, okay.
Rocky (31:32):
I'm going with all the tight ends, Iowa state.
We're going to go with Campbell.
Coach Faggiano (31:35):
All right, you're going to go with Iowa
state.
Okay, I'm going to make it easy.
We're going to go with Campbell.
All right, you're going to gowith Iowa State.
Okay, I'm going to make it easy.
I think I'm going to make iteasy on this, though I think
what we'll do is we won't eventake the spreads, because if we
go with spreads, that's reallygambling.
I don't want to do that.
We'll just go with picks here.
Rocky (31:47):
No, we're going to take that.
Coach Faggiano (31:48):
So I do like the rivalry games early.
I like it early in the season.
Home field advantage man it is.
I'm a Michigan guy, my wife'san Ohio State person.
(32:09):
Her and I battle it out duringthe season.
She's got bragging rights fromlast year.
We beat them four years in arow.
Now we're going on five.
Rocky (32:25):
Michigan, a big one at Oklahoma.
Let's see here Michigan,oklahoma.
Coach Faggiano (32:27):
I'm going to go with Michigan.
Ooh, okay, I like it.
I like it.
I'm going to have to go withthem just because I'm a homer.
I love Brent Venable, so Ithink he's a great defensive
coordinator.
We'll see what he can do, but Ithink that Bryce Underwood, kid
the quarterback's a specialtalent for Michigan.
Another one of my favoritecoaches Lane Kiffin, old Miss at
(32:52):
Kentucky.
Rocky (32:54):
Oh man.
Coach Faggiano (32:54):
This is a big line.
Rocky (32:57):
I'll tell you what it's funny.
Watching those basketballschools get better has been good
for football Kentucky, kansas,Coach Light pulled a Kansas.
I got that right, right, yep,yeah.
Kentucky is Stoops, right, yep,okay.
All right, I'm hanging in there.
Stay in there.
You're doing good, you'reholding your own.
This will be my upset one.
(33:17):
I'm going to go with Stoops andKentucky.
Coach Faggiano (33:19):
Are you Okay?
Rocky (33:20):
That's my upset pick.
Coach Faggiano (33:22):
I got to imagine .
Rocky (33:23):
I don't know the point spread ever I got to imagine Ole
Miss is the favorite.
Coach Faggiano (33:28):
Ole Miss is giving Kentucky nine and a half.
Rocky (33:35):
Okay, I don't even know, what that means.
Coach Faggiano (33:42):
I kind of do, but not really so.
Ole Miss is favored by 9.5 inthis one.
I think Stoops is a little biton the hot seat.
They had a little bit of a downyear the last couple years.
But I'm going to go with OleMiss.
I do like Lane.
Rocky (33:53):
You've got to go with one of these ones.
Coach Faggiano (33:54):
Come on All right, this is another iffy one
here.
Baylor didn't look too goodlast week.
Smu and the ACC last year.
They made the playoff and Ithink they're well coached.
I like SMU, but you're goingwith uh, you're going to try to
go.
This is a close one.
Rocky (34:10):
This one's only two and a half on my heart because I
actually spent some time withcoach Aranda and, um, you know
he's a he's a great coach.
He was at geez.
Now was he at.
He was at was he at nebraskafor a while before that and yes
and uh, you know he's a reallysharp guy.
You know I spent some time withhim on the rules committee at
the afca convention and we'regonna go with baylor all right,
(34:31):
we we disagree on the last twobecause I I do like I had baylor
last week.
Coach Faggiano (34:35):
I thought they would have put up a little bit
about a better fight last weekin their first game.
So I'm going to stick with SMU.
And then everybody's on me,coach, because I'm not a diehard
Syracuse fan.
I root for them.
But a lot of my buddies willsay, ah, you just don't like
Syracuse.
Because in my preseason Ipicked Syracuse to go 4-8.
Okay, because I don't know someof those middle-of-the-pack
(34:59):
teams.
I don't know what you're goingto get out of.
Nc State, pittsburgh, georgiaTech.
Those are probably 50-50 games.
Syracuse can win those easily.
I just don't know enough aboutthem.
So I went four and eight.
But UConn last year had a greatyear under Coach Moore.
They did.
They're doing some really goodthings there.
This one's six and a half.
Rocky (35:17):
This is at Syracuse, if I recall was it a Tennessee game,
a one-score game in the thirdquarter, was it?
Did I just hear someone saythat it was like 37-28?
They did.
Syracuse scored.
Coach Faggiano (35:28):
They had a tough time stopping them, but they
scored.
Rocky (35:31):
You know, and I think it very well may be one of those
years for Syracuse where thoseone score games right or it's
like you're 500, you're goingbowling Right.
And I'll tell you, I am a hugeFran Brown fan.
I love listening to him talk.
I listened to all hisinterviews when all the portal
stuff was going down and I'mtrying to figure it out myself
with a couple of my guys on howit works.
(35:53):
You know, hey guys, noteveryone, everyone's going to go
with these three and get ascholarship Right.
I scholarship right.
I just love his style.
You know, I went out andwatched him and just how he
talks to everybody.
So I'm going to definitely gowith Syracuse on that one.
Coach Faggiano (36:07):
Yeah, I actually am too.
I think people are going to say, oh okay, you're going with
Syracuse, but I am going to gowith Syracuse, but I think he's
great.
I think their schedule is a lottougher this year than what it
was last year.
I think it's a lot morechallenging this year for Fran,
but you know him and some ofthose coaches that he brought in
with him from Georgia.
They're some of the bestrecruiters in the country Great
recruiters.
Rocky (36:27):
He has a great staff.
New Zealand's great.
They have a great staff there,you know, and good to see
Ambrose get back on the staffthere.
The Syracuse guy, you know, hewas out at UConn or he was out
at Central Connecticut last timeand came back to coach as like
the assistant on-line coach.
So I know a couple of theircoaches pretty well.
I think he's doing a great job.
I thought they hung prettytough with a top-tier team last
(36:50):
week.
Coach Faggiano (36:51):
So, coach, last thing I wanted to ask you are
there some guys that you knowfrom camp, or maybe not some of
the main name guys that stoodout during camp, and maybe we'll
hear their names throughout theseason?
Rocky (37:04):
You know, like special teams-wise, you know a young man
that hasn't had an opportunityto return yet.
Nick Emeritato, who's a juniorin our program, will be our punt
returner and one of our kickreturners Just had a great,
great camp.
Really proud of him and whathe's done.
Mikey Mecca is a dual sportfootball lacrosse guy, tough as
(37:24):
nails, strong leader, brings aton of energy to practice.
You know he'll be playingcorner as well as special teams.
So those are some names therethat you'll hear and you know
really looking forward to.
You know our kicker and ourpunter those guys.
Devin Taylor out of Tampa hearand you know, really looking
forward to.
You know, our kicker and ourpunter, those guys.
Devin Taylor out of Tampa,florida, and Nico Duarte.
Nico was a transfer out ofSacred Heart from New Jersey.
(37:46):
You know, give a littleshout-out to our special teams
guys.
You know they had a reallystrong camp and have been
working hard at it.
I'm looking forward to gettingthose guys out there and showing
us what they can do so theycould be the difference in the
in the field position of the ofthe game.
Coach Faggiano (38:00):
So let me, I'll pull over a few.
We got some, some comments here.
So Pete says good call, coach,go blue, we must have a.
A must have a Michigan fan.
Pegs, everybody's going to.
They always break my chopsbecause nobody used to follow
Fordham football.
Now everybody always breaks mychops when they see Fordham.
Rocky (38:20):
So peg says he wants to hear Coach Fahs break down
Fordham football have you everbeen out to the Bronx Coach?
I have.
I went out and I need to do itmore often.
I went out and talked footballwith Coach Lenahan and we went
out to Arthur.
Avenue.
Everyone that knows me knows mynumber one movie hands down is
the Bronx Tale I even saw it on.
Broadway with my dad, which wasamazing, and the guys will watch
(38:44):
it on the bus at some point.
They've seen videos in meetingsabout there's nothing worse in
life than wasting time Right andhow you can do it.
It's just a great, great quote.
But this summer I just had agreat moment with my son.
Jamesames was a sophomore atutica.
My dad and we went down and hadlunch on arthur avenue uh, may
(39:06):
have had a couple cigars andhung out in the open market,
yeah, and then went watch theyankees get a great win and this
is when they first played soto.
So this was back.
It was.
It was in june, I think oh yeah,it was early my son's apple
watch, which I don't have one ofthose yet.
Right, he's like his watch isgoing crazy because of the
decibels in the stadium.
How loud they were booing sotoit was.
(39:28):
It was incredible so, and therewas a game that they won.
Um that that.
Those are like.
Those are some of my moments,if I can go catch a yankee game
with my dad and uh you knowwhere my judge?
Yes, I have a 99 with Judge'sname on it yeah.
Huge fan.
What a classy guy.
Hopefully we can pull ittogether here.
I don't know what's going onright now, but you know.
(39:51):
But yeah, arthur Avenue is thebest.
Can't go there enough.
Coach Faggiano (39:56):
Well, coach, listen, I told you I I was
probably gonna keep you about ahalf hour.
This is awesome.
I I first I want to thank youfor for reaching out.
I know we've been talking aboutdoing something like this for a
little while and I'm happy tobe able to do this throughout
the season with you and give methe opportunity to learn more
about, obviously, uh, theprogram and follow you guys
throughout the season and, uh,it'll be fun, I'll look forward
to it and, uh, the next week Ishould have the UC shirt on.
(40:19):
I should have the UC shirt onnext week and but I really do
appreciate you taking the timewith me and throughout the fall.
Rocky (40:26):
I appreciate the opportunity.
This will be a lot of fun.
Coach Faggiano (40:29):
And I'm keeping track of those, those picks,
coach, we'll see how you do.
You might have to turn on ESPNSunday morning and see how you
did.
Rocky (40:35):
Yes, sir.
Coach Faggiano (40:35):
As always, fear the moose.
All right coach.
Thank you.
Good luck this season.
Good luck this week.
Thank you, all right coach.
So that was Utica Universityhead coach Blaise Faziano, and
I'm excited to talk to coachthroughout the season.
He's always been so kind to meand even my dad when we were
both coaching together atWaterville when my dad was the
(40:58):
head coach coach and he's doneso much for the area, so much
for the Mohawk Valley, not just,not just coaching, but just
with the community andrecruiting local kids, and just
he brings a lot of excitement.
It's hard to believe he's beenthere so long but I'm really
excited to talk Utica universityfootball with him throughout
the season.
We'll preview the upcominggames, we'll talk about their
(41:22):
current game.
I'll have him do his picks atthe end of the show, probably
try to keep it to about ahalf-hour show with him because
I don't want to take too much ofhis time.
I know he's got a lot of thingsto worry about other than
jumping on here with me, but Ido appreciate Coach coming on
tonight.
Make sure to tune in nextThursday night at 8 o'clock To
another episode of Inside UticaUniversity Football Podcast With
(41:43):
Head Coach Blaze Faziano andmyself.
So, as I say All the time, onthe Rockpile.
The Rockpile Is where dreamsbecome Reality.
Have a good evening, everybody,thank you.
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