October 16, 2025 • 52 mins
This week the coaches welcome Russellville Coach Mikie Benton
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Coach David Buchanan coach Chuck Smith, two legendary high school
football coaches. This is the Coach's Office, a behind the
(00:33):
scenes look at Kentucky high school football.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I Love Coach Talk Time with Chuck Smith and David
bu Chennan. This is season four, episode nine. Can you
believe we're already nine weeks into this season? Wow, it's
flying by.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm Chuck Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'm joined by co hosts David Buchanan. Our podcast editor
storyteller is mike Yoakum. Our YouTube version. If you want
to watch this thing live or not live but video,
then you can go to YouTube at teacopt dot S,
dot O, dot P. If you hit like and subscribe,
(01:19):
then we appreciate it. And I'm really really excited about
our show.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
We have a.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Promising young coach, the promising young coach of Russell Will
High School as our guest.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Mikey Minton.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
He took his alma mater, Russell Well High School, to
the state championship game in that magical twenty twenty one season.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
He will will bring him on shortly. They've god bring
him on here shortly.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Next we will have our tough topic question and the
question tonight is our alternative uniforms, uniforms that are not
school colors, you know, good.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Or a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm probably going to show my age on that, but
we will admit to that question a little bit later.
Our games of the week for this week will be
Danville versus LCA and then we'll have Lexington Catholic versus Barkstown.
So it'll be two good games that we'll discuss and
then of course we'll do our rapid fire at the
(02:23):
end when we predict games without without any discussion. David
is absolutely killing that. But we'll get back to that
here in just a little bit. First, I want to
talk a little bit about coach of Minton before we
bring him one. As I said, he is the head
football coach of Russell Will High School, the Panthers.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
He was hired in twenty.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Eighteen, eight seasons, so this will be his eighth seed
or he's into his eighth season as the head football coach.
He took his team, the twenty twenty one team, to
the state championship game and that was the and if
anybody knows anything about high school football, they know that
Russell Bull High School was a powerhouse way back in
(03:05):
the day, and they had kind of some off years
and then some kind of up and down years, and
then Coachvinton took him to the twenty twenty one state
championship game.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
What a magical year that was.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It was the first time in thirty one years they've
been to the state championship game.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
So that was a.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Really really big deal. Now a little bit about Mike
in his playing career. That's where I met him, and
knowing from he went to the University of Kentucky. He
played football there from two thousand and eight to twenty twelve,
and I was there all those years, and what a player,
what a leader he was, I mean it stood out
(03:46):
all over the field. He became the starting safety. I
think Mikey. I think Mikey came as a walk on,
earned a scholarship, and then became the starting safety at
the University of Kentucky for the twenty eleven at twenty twelve.
See and he played there the last couple of years
of Rich Brooks's hen you're there, and then he played
(04:09):
for coach Joker Phillips during his three years there. So
what a great player he was. He is a great person,
a great leader.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
I know.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I think he runs that sky conference here up in
Bowling Green. Just a role model for a lot of people.
Were tickled to death to have Mikey on our show. David,
you want to bring him one?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yes, sir A Mike you might have been a little guy.
Were you at the eighty seven Russellville Paris semi final
game when Russellville won that ball game? Were you there
when you were a little guy?
Speaker 5 (04:44):
I was three years away from being boys.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Hey, my wife was a cheerleader at Paris High and
they all talked about that game. Paris had him and
Russellville got him at the end. So anyway, whenever I
hear Russellville, I think about that for so, I mean
we're getting that. We're started getting old here. Hey, Mikey,
I told Chuck, I said, I got to live in
(05:09):
when man, you will be our gifts. I'm like, I
can't believe. Like to me, it seems like you were
played at UK yesterday. And then I looked at it
like you've been the head coach there since twenty eighteen.
So that's crazy. Yeah, it really is. But hey, man,
we're excited to have you and being an old Paris guy,
I love having a class a guy that. I mean,
(05:30):
you're steeped in that tradition and you know what inside
it out. So I'm going to turn it over to Chuck.
But coach, thank you so much for being on our
show tonight.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, thank you, Mikey. We really do appreciate you taking
the time.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
The first question I have for you is, you know
you said in the past that you've learned a lot
from your time at the University of University of Kentucky,
you know, especially with uh, all of the coaching changes
that you went through. You know, you played with coach Brooke,
you played four co Coach Brooks for a little bit,
and then you and he had his assistance, and then
(06:03):
you played for coach Phillips and he had his assistance.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So you had you saw a lot of different styles
of coaching. You know.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Uh, did you see or did you see those different
styles as a way of helping you shape the way
you are as a coacher?
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Oh, it definitely did.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
You know, coming in the UK, for sure, I came.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
In on a high, uh, you know, right on the
back end of.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
The ball streak with coach of Brooks. Uh. So coming
in you know, things where you know ran in a
specific way. You know, I came in of course, you know,
being a younger guy that red shirted. I'm following the
way you know, all the coaches of the older guys
and everything, and uh you know, once Coach Brooks decided
to step away, and of course Joker took over. Uh
(06:48):
you know, of course things didn't go in our favor
for sure. Uh So with the different coaching changes, and
you know, specifically with DV coaches, you know, having Coach Brown,
you know, having him for the time per and then
going to Coach Derman as a DV coach, and then
you know, my last year with Coach Cassidy. You know,
each of them had a very extinct and different type
(07:09):
of style, that's the way the coach. But I learned
a lot from all of them. You know, I still
talk to Coach Brown and Coach Cassidy to this day. Uh,
you know, I keep in touch with them. But you know, uh,
both of them, for example, real strict guys. You know,
they're wanting things done a very specific way. But at
the same time of them coaching, you are, they're gonna
love you even hard. You know, both of those guys
(07:31):
made it a point to know you personally, you know,
and then for example, with coach Dermot, it was a
little different. You know, he wasn't as intense as those
two were, but he was probably maybe a little more
personable than what those two were. And you know, literally
all three, I absolutely love him to death, you know, Uh,
get excited to be able to talk to them, and
(07:51):
you know, they kind of keep up with my coaching
career a bit. You know, I'll get texts from them
from here and there, so you know, in the moment
at UK, of course, you know, it wasn't too fun
to you know, not of course, be as successful as
what you would want to be. But you know, hindsight's
twenty twenty. You definitely set me up, you know, to
be successful in my coaching career.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
For sure. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I think that, you know, a negative we didn't have
the success that we wanted that there at the end,
but a positive for you and your coaching career where
you were able to pick different things that you like
from each coach.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
And their style and then molded into your room.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Just to follow up question, Mikey, if what what's the
best thing that you think you learned from Coach Brooks,
and then what was the best thing you think you've learned.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
From Coach Phillops.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Okay, so with Coach of Brooks, it was an old
school style. It would show up every day and work,
you know, as simple as that. You know. The one
thing that I think Coach of Brooks gets credit for is,
you know, we were a program at that point in
time that may have not had the biggest recruits, you know,
as far with four storm five star guys, but you
(09:01):
go and look at Coach Brooks record, the way we
competed with all these teams and the sec that did
have these guys, you knew it was a tough team.
It was grit, you know, and we were truly developed.
So it was just kind of that old lunch paal
type mentality, show up, do you work, you know, and
just go after it. And honestly, with Coach Joker, for me,
what I learned from him looking back on things is
(09:22):
you know, he was somebody that wasn't afraid to take risks,
you know, not maybe necessarily worked out, you know, in
the best way, but I can honestly say, and you know,
and me probably having a conversation with him. You know,
of course you may want things to go differently, but
he was somebody that freyolously stepped into whatever decision he
may have had, and you know, to go in and
just take those risks. You know, it's something that you know,
(09:45):
you kind of have to admire about a coach, you know,
because you know a lot of times that you feeling
pressure from all these different places. But to step into
your decision like that, you know, it was something that
I definitely took with me for sure.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That's awesome. I agree with you.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
I feel the same way about both of those two guys,
and I agree with you one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
You know, I think coach Phillips was.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Was like he wasn't afraid to stick his neck out there,
even if it didn't work.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
He was not afraid to do it. And you know, of.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Course, coach Brooks, I loved his style. It's more my
style that all physical, you know, hard knows. I mean,
that's just that's the way I like football, and that's
the way he was and he he he showed that
every day with his coaching.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
He did it.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
But so coach coach Ben, you were a star at
Russellville High School, would have been the positives and negatives
about returning to your to your hometown to be the
head football coach.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Stockings. It might sound the positive and the negative are
the exact same thing. I'm from here and I know everybody,
and I have a personal relationship pretty much with everybody.
So on the positive side of it, you know when
kids want to come in and you know they're kind
a little hesitant, or you know, they want to kind
of give you a bit of attitude, and you know,
(11:05):
all of a sudden, their parents pull up and you know,
giving them a high five and we hugging or something,
and then you know they kind of got to look like,
oh my god, he knows my mom and my dad,
and it's like, yeah, played with him coach footem or
anything in the past, so you know, they It's one
of those situations to where kids have to buy in
because you can't go home and try to complain because
your parents know exactly who I am, you know, so
(11:27):
it's not gonna really work out for him. But also
the other side of it is the negative because knowing
everybody's parents, if they don't like something that you did
on Friday night, everybody's got your number. Already, so you're
coming back to text messages, calls, voicemails, whatever it is.
So you know it's it's it's a double sided, double
side of sword for sure, so you know you kind
(11:48):
of gotta take what comes with it. But honestly, I
wouldn't trade it for anything. You know, I'm Russellville to
a t die hard guy. Uh, so you know, I
love every bit of it, and that's awesome. You know,
things can be tough and still be great.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
It's easy. Easy and great don't really go together. And
I think being the head coach in your hometown stuff.
I did it for seven years and it was by
far the hardest of the four jobs by far. But
I'm still really thankful that I did it. It was
a great experience. So I appreciate what you shared. I
think that's I think that describes it. That's what it's like.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, David has done that.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
He's he's went back to his hometown and did the
same thing.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So, uh, you probably didn't. You didn't. There was a
lot of years in between you and.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Uh the way, that's true, Ith though, Mikey's fresh out
of you know, college, and.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
That would have been even tougher. That would have been
even tougher.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, well let me get the next one coach.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
So with with so many players, and this is really
a question for these UH coaches that have got smalls,
you know, and you you obviously got a small roster
because you're single a single a school, so many of
the players having to play both sides of the ball.
Does that kind of limit what you can do schematically? Uh?
(13:16):
You know, and with your offense and your defense, because
I'm sure they got to play both ways. And you know,
if so, you know, how do you keep its? Yesie,
you know, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
I mean usually where the numbers fall from me roster
wise is probably between about thirty five, and it could
get as low as maybe twenty seven to twenty eight. Honestly,
the year I went to State, we only had twenty
eight kids on the team.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
So you know, for me, it doesn't limit me. The
one thing that people have to realize is from a
class A standpoint, you're never going to be in game
shape until mid season. I don't care what you try
to do, there's no substitute for being able to play offense,
defense and special teams. You know, you can try your
(14:00):
best to give your guys a break. But I mean
you all know, just like what I do, your guys
have to be on the field. You know that one
moment to where especially from a class a standpoint, like
for example, my running back is my corner, my quarterback
is my free safety, you know, my old lineman on
my d line. So and you know, most of the
(14:21):
time you're fortunate enough to have maybe eight or nine
that you could say these are guys that can absolutely play,
and then you may have three to five that you
have to develop to bring along to be able to
give you depth along the way. So it's a situation
of where conditioning in the off season it sucks. But
(14:41):
even in the same time, if you watch us play
in all of my time here in eight years, the
first three or four games, I got guys cramping up
like crazy, and I mean it's just it's no substitution
for actually playing the game. But once I get to
about game five, game six, now all of a sudden,
guys are like, hey, off the field, real quick, quick,
(15:02):
flig get whatever corrections and adjustments were making, and they're
right back out there and they can play the whole game.
They'll problem.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
You know, I'm glad you brought that up, because my
first head coaching job was at Paris and we had
some good teams that I had four or five guys
that they could play for anybody. They were really good.
But I think about this a lot. The pace of
the game in the nineties was so much lower than
it is now, and I always wonder about that because
(15:29):
I'm like, what would it have been like at Paris
because we spent half the game in the huddle? Back
then it did, and both teams spent half the game
in the hug. And if both of us spent half
the game in the huddle, you know, like our conditioning,
it sort of we would sort of be okay really
early on, but we didn't play at the tempo that
(15:50):
you guys play at now. And then we played with Anderson,
and the tempo piece has really made in my opinion,
it can be a school and a weapon. But man,
you got to coach tempo. Tempo wasn't even really a
thing in the nineties. Old is now you better? You
better handle it, right. So that's a really good point
(16:13):
that you made about, you know, the difference now. You know,
I'm sort of wanted to ask along those lines you know,
what advice do you have for coaches with small rosters?
I mean, how do you protect your bodies? Because I know,
if you're like we were at Paris, you've got a
handful of kids that are probably really, really good, and
(16:34):
you probably got a handful of kids that it's like, Man,
I gotta have a such and such at this spot. Buddy,
you're the best I got, So go in there and
hang on for all you got. What advice have you got?
What advice do you have for coaches that, man, you
got to navigate these small rosters in twenty twenty five?
(16:55):
What are you doing that you think helps you?
Speaker 5 (16:58):
For one thing that I've just over me out quite
a bit is breaking the game down more so to
whether it be filled and boundary. And what I mean
by that is a lot of half scaley takes place,
and a lot of half line work takes place. And
you know, you'd love to be able to do a
full nine on seven, you know, but sometimes based off
(17:20):
your scout guys, and you know the level that your
scout teams at, you may not be able to do that.
So sometimes you got to take from left side of
the offense, right side of the defense, and you know,
we focus on our gaps setting the edge from that
standpoint offensively, you know, taking your quarterback working messages and
everything from that standpoint, work and run game just on
(17:41):
a half line from that standpoint, because you know, you
deal with different aspects and honestly from a class a standpoint,
you deal with certain things that you don't even or
some coaches don't even consider. Like for example, every school,
at every point sometimes you hit flu season. Now on
a bigger football team, you got guys who might get sick.
(18:02):
Now to deal for six, A, five eighteen. If I
got five guys out, my entire practice and game plan
has to change. So you know, it's like little small
things like that that people may not even have to
think about. So you have to be able to adjust.
You have to be able to work half line drills,
and you know, you have to be very very good
(18:22):
in your individual time because a lot of times for
some kids, they're not going to be able to get
the work to go against someone else until Friday night.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
This you know something I wanted to add into that,
and you sort of brought back a memory for me
when I was at Paris. You know, Tuesday, I don't
know what we did for Team D. I really don't remember.
I guess we did some type of TMD, but it
couldn't have been very good. And then Wednesday tm D
was we want. We watched him, and I go back
(18:53):
to this. I still say if my coaches won't do it,
and I don't make them good, but I still say
this the best defensive prep I've seen us have. Our
secondary works routes, our linebackers do reads, and our front
does scheme. That's the best way to do it. Now.
One thing, Chris Crawley Goodman, our DC at Anderson County,
(19:15):
he's come up with something really cool. We call it fastball,
and it's a shipo thing where we work on alignment
and we go up and down the field and we
just work on getting lined up properly. I wish that
we had had that at Paris in the nineties because
we could have done fastball, and that would have been
what we did. We would have done reads, rounds, schemes
(19:38):
and fastball. But even at five A at Anderson County, when
we do Team D, I'd rather you take a baseball
bat and hit me in the mouth and knock out
all my teeth, then watch team defense because Scout offense. Hey,
if a football coach doesn't know Jesus when he goes
to Hell, it's going to be watch the scout op
(20:00):
Because the Scout offense has been terrible for thirty three years.
I mean, it's a killer. I can't hardly take it
every day. But they still want to try to do it,
so I go along with it. Oh my gosh, but
you you sort of gave me some PTSD. But but really,
(20:21):
I tell you what. I was happier at Paris when
he did schemes, breeds and routs, right, I didn't fight
all that stuff. You know. Hey, this was a good one. Hey,
I'm sorry. This is Mikey's time and I'm telling to
me stories.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
You good.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
I love it. DA One day we had a phenomenal quarterback,
Corey Dunk was a not a good player, a great
player at Paris House. I'm finally working some of the
young guys. I look over there, Corey Dump for this.
The Scout defense knows, God, what are you doing. Yeah,
he's a coach. I can do it. I'm like, Corey,
(20:57):
I know you can do it, but I'm not gonna
let the starting quarterbacks. I thought I was the best
player in Class A right, each scout team those yards today.
But it's just stuff like that drove me crazy. So
I like, I like hearing you talk about that coaching.
It it's tough, but man, it brings back some great memories,
it really, does it?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Really?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Mikey, do you manage your youth youth all the way.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Up from I do, yes, sir, so once I got
hired in twenty eighteen, at that point, it wasn't really
a Russellville soul program. So that was my first bit
of business that I did. It's create a youth league.
We actually got a pretty good program going on down
this way. We're called the Western Kentucky Football League. So ourselves,
(21:47):
Logan County, Greenwood, Hopkinsville, just a bunch of different people
have different groups. Uh so you know, again Russellville being small,
we have to combine our groups. So for example, we
have a a third grade group that play together. Yeah,
fourth and fifth grade group or I said there wrong,
first and second and then thirty fourth and then a
(22:08):
fifth and sixth grade group. And then of course they
we go and we play someone like a green Wood
or Hoppinsville or Logan County. They have a sole fourth
grade group. So our younger guys already have to get
in the mindset to be able to play up, so
you know, it just kind of puts them in a
different mindset of you know, I'm always used to playing
up a level, so you know, by the time they
get to middle school in high school, it's still the
(22:30):
same thing. It's nothing new to them. They've been playing
up since they've been in first grade.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Good idea, that's really good. I'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I've noticed too that you all, you don't play a
pretty tough schedule too. You've always taken that on that.
What's the philosophy behind that?
Speaker 5 (22:48):
I mean, in order to be the best, you gonna
have to beat the best. And you know, like I said,
you kind of talked about the old school. I guess
I took here from Coach Brooks. You know, like, we're
not gonna run from anything. And in Class A ball,
every year there's gonna be a team that is always
playing above a Class A level, you know, And I'm
sure y'all understand that when I say that. So in
the first, uh, first the second round, you know we're
(23:12):
likely going to end up having to play either Campbellsville
or KCD, you know, fortunate enough that nothing happens, and
you know where we stay healthy and able to pull
off some wins. Both of those two teams. You know,
if we've been watchingvolved, both of us two teams are
extremely tough. Campbellsville and KCD are gonna give some two
a's and three A and probably some four A teams
a run for their money.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
So you know, for me scheduling a six eighteen first
game out playing against Logan County, that's the four eight
team playing against rock Castle and Murray that are top
ranked in three A, like, these are the type games
that are gonna get us prepared when we have to
go and play at Campbellsville or KCD type team.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, I like us.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Yeah yeah, hey, that reminds me too. Another story I
won't go too much with. One night at Paris this
back when there were four class okay people playing a
three A school, and the coach told me before the game,
he said, David, he said, we're not playing after this year.
He said, I can't keep getting beat by class A school.
(24:12):
Yeah you know what, Hey we beat him that night too,
But I mean stuff like that. I got fired up
about stuff like that. I liked it, and I love
what you're doing, coach. I think it's good stuff. I
really do.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
I appreciate you. I kind of got a similar story
whenever we went on our run in twenty one. There
was a lot of coach like that year. We lost
two games, and you know, we beat some six eighteens,
we beat some five as four eighteens, and I'd have
a few of coaches text me it's like, hey man,
you're making this seat real hot over here for me,
and I'm just like, there's very few and far between
(24:47):
when I get teams like it, so I gotta take
a little advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
That's awesome, that's great stuff, coach. Well, hey, good luck
to your coach. And hey, I maybe I tell my
wife this store and talk about you. She won't have
such bad memories and hard feelings about Russellville anymore.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
So I hope I can change art.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Yeah, I'll Taylor say, now, Mikey wasn't even born when
that game happened. Maybe that'll help.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
I don't know, Mikeey, your class like, buddy, you really are.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Ever since I've known yet uka great leader and yeah,
you're just carrying it on and and uh and sharing
it with the uh, the youth at Russell Bill. We
appreciate you, and good luck to you. I appreciate that,
appreciate you all having me on the question, is uh
(25:40):
our alternative uniforms, the uniforms that are not school colors,
a good.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Or bad idea? I want to hear your young Uh.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Hey, I'm sixteen years old. Hey, thanks for calling me young.
Nobody's called I've been calling a lot of names lately,
but young is not one of them. Oh, Okay. In general,
I don't like him. I don't, But if a high
school coach thinks that he needs it to get kids
(26:11):
out and generate excitement, then I think he's got to
do what he needs to. And it is interesting, even
though I don't like alternative uniforms. After I'd been at
Mason County for nineteen seasons, we buyt a black jersey
that we were gonna wear in year twenty and it
was gonna look awesome. We're gonna have our royal blue
(26:32):
helmet black jersey with you know, getting Big Jack going
UCLA insert. Jack's always cussing me about the number on
the helmet and the UCLA insert. I didn't do that
just to irritate Jack, but I'm not gonna kids. I
sort of that's a nice positive. But those black jerseys
are gonna be beautiful. But I didn't get to stay
(26:54):
there and wear them, so you know, I'm not a
big fan of it. And you know the other thing too,
with Mason and Mercer and Anderson. You know, to me,
Mason and Mercer were Bills. Anderson is a rebuild, and
I think that. I think your uniform sort of needs
to say, hey, we're serious about football and football is important.
(27:16):
And that's why I like a more traditional look because
I think a more traditional look says we're serious about football.
And I mean, I know that's a very old fashioned
thing to say, but that's why I like the type
of stuff we wear. And I'm lucky at Anderson because
we can wear navy and red. We've got twelve uniform combinations,
(27:39):
all school colors. And you know, Mason was tougher because
all we had was royal blood. I mean, that made
it tougher. But I just I just really like I
like their traditional type of work.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, that's obvious with your uniforms and your helmets and everything.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Now like Jack, I feel like I'm doing the podcast
with Jack robertson now, except you won't use quite the
same language that Jack would, and we won't even talk
about kicking tires.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
I think that coming to a new program and it's
not doing good like or hasn't done well like like
you know, like you're talking about, then I don't think
there's anything wrong with change. Try to you know, to
try to uh you know, it creates some excitement. Like
when I went to Boil. Boil always used that old
(28:32):
llowish gold.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Uh you know helmet and there it is things and.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
I love that old helmet. That don't be talking bad
about it.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
The old traditional helmet and uniforms, and then I changed
it to black.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Every time I thought they changed the black before you
got there, that's not true.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
No, I'm the one that changed.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
I got Hey, it's turned out pretty good.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah, it turned out pretty good.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
But anyway, my answer to the question is I think,
and again I think I'm going to show my age
a little bit. You know, I know that the different uniforms, uh,
you know, combinations are really popular among you know, especially
the younger players today. They really like that that's something
that motivates them, has something to get some going. But
(29:17):
my philosophy has always been, you know, if I if
I have to, uh, you know, have those pretty flashy uniforms,
you know, to get players to want to play or
to play football, then you know, that's just kind of
not what I believe in. But I understand that some
coaches doing that, and I don't have a problem with
(29:38):
it if that's what they if that's what they have
to do.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
I think when you do that, though, then it's kind
of bribery, you know, and you maybe they're playing for
the wrong reasons.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
I don't know, that's the old fashioned part of me.
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
What I do believe is that, you know, if the
players are grinding, you know, they're putting in the work,
the producing on the field, the winning ball games, and
then and then they want new uniforms, uh, then hey,
let's get that quarterback club together. Let's start ordering some
flashy uh uniforms, uh, you.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Know as a reward, you know.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Not abroad or I like that approach.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I do for the work and the can commitment. You know,
That's that was always kind of my philosophy on it.
But I this is also coming from a guy. Listen
to this guy, and this is me. Whenever I was
at Boyle.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Every year I was at Boyle. Uh, you know I
was in on the black turn you know turn around.
I of course I wanted to do that. I was
kind of by myself on that. But uh, from thereafter then,
every time we ordered the uniforms, every time the sporting
good guy came by to order uniforms or even coaching here,
(30:57):
I'd have Chris Purdue and Chris Mason after with me
after school and they would design the uniform and the
coaching year. I could really care less. I could care
less about designing that stuff. It never was the thing
that motivated me is and I really could care less.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
I didn't care what it looked like.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
They took it all and they ran with it, and
every uniform that we had really after that first one
was their design, and every bit of coaching year we.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Had after that was their design. So and I'm thankful
they did it because I did not want to do it.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I had other things to worry about, other things to do,
and I didn't want to take care of that. I
do have a story though, on uniforms and changing colors.
And you know, my first year at Allen County Scotschaw,
I was a first year head coach. I went to
Allen County that first year, we needed new uniform. So
(31:53):
here here's me I was going to I didn't know,
you know, any of the coaching staff was that. You know,
they weren't close. We weren't close. I just had hired them.
I didn't know them that well. I just hire them
based upon the resumes. But I was going to design
the uniform, is what I'm getting at. So it's probably
one of the reasons. While I never wanted to do
it afterwards, but uh, their colors were red and white.
(32:17):
But I didn't I mean just the common sense of me.
I didn't want white pants. I just didn't want white pants.
I said, man, they're gonna.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Show the stains. You know, they're gonna clean.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I mean, they're gonna look dingy. After a year or so,
I would have to order new ones. So I decided
upon myself to order grape pants.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
I got gray everywhere, so I'm.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Good with he going, Well, they weren't okay, So I
ordered gray pants.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
So I thought it was a good idea. But you know,
you would have thought that the world was coming to
an end.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
You would have thought that I ordered glasgow, glasgow blue
or feet.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I mean, you would have thought it was it was.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
It was like the most all full thing in the
world that I had ordered gray pants when our colors
weren't gray, and the people and the community were really
mad at me for that. And uh, you know, after
I left, they never took those green pants out of
that story room again.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
So that's.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You know my lesson there, I said, I'm not fulling
with these uniforms anymore.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I'm gonna let somebody else do it.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
You know, at Paris we got gray pants, and I
think it's the only time Paris has ever had gray pants.
And at first I got some grumbling about it, But
I don't think it was near as bad as what
you got at Allen Down. I really don't. Uh. And
I always thought of gray as a neutral color. Was gray.
I don't think of a gray pant I mean a
(33:47):
great pant is I mean, great pants have been around
for forever.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
You're never gonna get the white pants clean.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
Hey, I was gonna tell you this, looking at some
of the old you're gonna you're probably gonna punch me
on this. Look at some of the old throwback uniforms.
You know, they used to wear like tan and kaki pants,
like before the fifties. And so I said to Stephanie,
I said, what do you think about ten football pants
(34:17):
with navy or scarlet at Anderson County? She said absolutely not.
So that was the end of the discussion. And I'm
not even. I'm not even, but I thought that like
a tan pant like from nineteen forty with scarlet or
a navy jersey, I actually think it'd be pretty sharp.
But she she pulled the plug on that right out
(34:40):
the back. She said, no, you're not doing that.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
So and then people like uh, Oregon, they never wear
they had wore the same uniform in like five or
six years.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
You know, it's always some different And I get it,
I get all that. I'm not I think Tom, I'm
glad it's not me.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Yeah. I think for Oregon. In Oregon, their traditional uniform
is alternative. That's sort of their ideality. I think everybody
else is copying off the ward. I think that's a
good point now, But I'm like you, man, I love
old Alabama, old LSU Auburn. I love those schools that
(35:22):
look like they looked like for the last fifty years.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
I didn't say I love that. I didn't say I
love that. I said I don't want nothing to do
with it. I want somebody else.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
For at Boyle we had the same We wore black
pants every year.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
We had a white jersey and a black jersey, and yeah,
that's all I would buy. We could afford more.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
And those kids were asking me at the end, they
were saying, hey, coach, can we get some white pants?
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I go, no, I'm not filling.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
With white pants. See I think they got white pants now,
so more prior to them. I'm letting it with't me.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
I don't want to. Hey, you know what, nobody said
a whole lot. But for nineteen years at Mason, we
had a blue jersey, a white jersey, and we had
gray pants. That's it. That's all we had. And we
got some white pants one time from UK. We worked
two or three times, but we sold boats to Jackson County.
I didn't really think that was us. I thought we
(36:20):
were a white jersey, blue jersey, gray pants, blue helmet.
I mean, let's show up and play some football. Quit
worried about what color the pants are, you know, But anyway.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Go on to our games of the week, want too.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Okay, let's do it up.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Is Danville and LCA.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Well, hey, I got to see first. There's seven ones. Gary.
Their stud quarterback Dylan Krueger is a freshman. The stud
tailback who I'm not sure he's not a D one guy.
Javon Mwes, he's a freshman. They're pop wide receivers, a junior.
They're all going to be back. Uh, the Mukes at tailback.
(37:04):
They're all four good. I think Newkes is going to
be I think he's going to be really special. I
don't think Davill's gonna beat LCA this year. I don't,
but they've got some really really good players. And Steve's
doing a super job. He's doing a great job.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
I knew he would.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
He's just he's been done a good job everywhere he's been.
He's he's really a good football coach. Y he uh,
hears about the kids, he does it for the right reasons.
He's just always always been a fan of his. I
just think he's a really good football coach. And I
do think he's done a great job and I think
Daniel is uh, he's kind of rejuvenating him a little bit.
(37:44):
And they got some of those old school Danville years.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Left in them.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
I had.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
And their head football coaches Oakley Watkins, and uh, coach
Watkins has done a terrific job. He's been on staff
there with coach Charles and uh he you know he's
but he's in his first year. This is his first
year taking over as the head football coach, and he's
currently four and three. But don't let that four and
(38:11):
three fool you. They play anybody and everybody in the
top ten in any class. They play a brutal schedule,
and their philosophy is, you know that they're going to
play that tough of a schedule and then when they
get to the playoffs, they're going to be ready to go.
And he's done that and he's he's a very good
(38:31):
football coach. Their quarterback is Nash Willing, and he's a
high efficiency passer. You know, he's probably completing about seventy
five to eighty percent of his passes.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
He's probably the leading rupsher too, so he runs the
ball quite well. Also, Tyler King, Davin Hood, Jeremiah Burbage,
that Burbige name is always uh out in in the
Lexington air.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Phillip Garvers was our DC at Paris.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah yeah, it probably can somehow.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I'm pretty sure, uh Bennett, uh Goodalas, all these guys
have shown up in the stat sheet on both offense
and defense. So it's a it's one of those uh
you know, double A rosters that coach Bnton was talking
about where they got to play both ways and specialty
teams and all that other thing. I do think Lexlnon
(39:28):
Christian is a really good football team. As I said,
they played that brutal schedule. I think if Danville can
keep it from being a running clock, then they have
had a great game.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
I really got you.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
I got you. I think it might. I think Daniel
might play him tougher than that, but I do think
l C will win. Uh yeah, all right, So let's
look at Lexington Catholic and Bargetown and uh with David
Clark going back to play his old school Barstown.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah you got Barstown, Okay, I've got Barstown in and
Justin Grundy is the head football coach.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Justin was an assistant for David.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
And he was there when I was I was there
for a year and he was there as well, and
he's got him currently six and two and this is
his second season. His first season in twenty twenty four
they went nine and four and made it to the quarterfinals.
You know, so, you know, great year he and he's
done a terrific job since he's took over. You know,
(40:28):
he's you know, he's really working the younger programs and through.
You know, Justin's a really classy guy by the way,
and he's really a good football coach. They are coming
off of a kind of an upset. They got beat
by our man Jeff Hester and Spencer Crutchfield over at
Garren County and Ben got Smith, so they're coming off
(40:52):
of that. So I'm sure they're getting after it this
week in practice. I think that's probably a wake up
called in it. Then again, they're playing their old head
football coach and David Clark, so I look for Barkstown
to be.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
Ready to go. Their quarterback is Karon Riley, and their leading.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Rushers have been seven Hamilton and Tallan Spaulting. The receivers
are Chief Pointer and Tylan's and Lucas Kaiser. So you know,
these are some names that show up as either receiving,
rushing or being the quarterback. But that justin Coach Grundy
is going to have them ready to go. I'm sure
(41:31):
they're going to be self motivated to go against Lexton Catholic.
I don't think they can beat Lexton Catholic. I think
Lexton Catholic and I think Davis done a great job there,
and I think they've got a nice football team.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
And never count them out. Never count bar sound out.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
Though, Yeah, well, hey, I've got Katholic and again David
is their head coach, David Clark. Their quarterback is Brady Wassick,
which I'm guessing that's Jackson's little brother who Jackson has
been a very successful quarterback at Lexton Katholic. He's now
the starter at Kentucky Christian. He's having a lot of
(42:08):
success there. Brady averages one hundred and seventy yards of
offense both rushing and passing, and he's the third leading
tackler on the team. Duncan Gonson is their top wide receiver.
Barred Woodall only a sophomore, has got two interceptions, once
for a touchdown, and then Jack Wedding and Matt Kozinski
(42:29):
both lead the defense, but they're both gonna play some offense,
so you know, Davis playing a lot of guys both
ways right now. But they're playing really well. And I
would think, I don't know, if you look at three A,
I think Kal is head and shoulders number one. I
think probably two is pretty tight between Bell County and
(42:51):
Lexton Catholic. I just think they've sort of separated themselves
to an extent, especially with the win over Boil. I
would probably with the win over Boil and I probably
give lex Cat the edge Overbell Him.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Yeah, yeah, I do. Lexi Katholic is uh, it's kind
of nice and they've it's done a good job. But
don't count Barkstown out. But I do think Lexon Catholic
will probably win the game. Uh, the game, but the
game is played at Barstown. Wonder how they'll treat coach
Clark there. Uh you think they'll uh they should appreciate you.
(43:24):
But I know the Barstown people can be rough on
sometimes on the uh on the pond.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
It so, uh, we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
I'll be interesting. But but I would think though, I mean,
story of the way I look at it, man, Uh,
I think, shoot, I I gotta think if I'm a
Barstown fan, man, I've got to appreciate David.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Clark, and he's a really good guy and a very
good football coach.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
Yeah, you know he Uh it meant a lot to
me that year I didn't have a team. Uh, he
invited me down to do that fry lunch talk to
his team.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:02):
Now I had a blast. It really meant a lot
to me, you know, being a coaches kid. I can
remember being with my dad at Bull County and Garness
Martin and Barstown was on the other side. Yeah. I
mean that's a great memory and well sort of. My
dad has some tough years there and that was a
tough year. But I think Barstown that night got him
(44:22):
ten to nothing or fourteen to nothing. I mean it
was a dang war. But you know, Barstown's that's one
of those cool Kentucky high school football places I love.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Hey, David, let's get into our rapid fire, your favorite
part of the show.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Hey, last week, you are nine out of ten?
Speaker 4 (44:45):
What was what I missed?
Speaker 3 (44:48):
You missed one? You missed one time. I'd have to
go back and look.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
But I thought I was ten out of ten.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
No, no, no, no, no, no, I don't think you were.
I was eight out of ten, so I was right
there on your heels. I'd have to go back and look.
I don't have time to do that now. For the
I'll double check it when we're finished. But for the season.
Right now, you are sixty out of seventy four, which
(45:17):
is about eighty one percent. That's pretty good. And I'm
forty seven out of seventy four, which is sixty three percent.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
I got you right there.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Not great, But let's get into our this week's rapid fire. Okay,
this week's rapid fire. I got some good game skit
on the list right here. Let's see how you do.
First game up is Apollo and Madisonville North Hopkins.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
Madisonville North Hopkins.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
I'm with you on that one. That is uh, they
are having a really good year.
Speaker 4 (45:56):
Yeah, I wish I could remember his name. That they
have a f i'minal run. I think it's high Tower.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
I think you're right.
Speaker 4 (46:03):
I think yeah, he is really really good, really good.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
How about Parkstown Bethleem and k c D k c D.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
I'm with you on that one too.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Uh K is having a great year. Yes, how about
uh here we go Crintindon County and Fort Campbell.
Speaker 4 (46:24):
I'm gonna go Critton, Gaily.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
I'm gonna go with uh Fort Campbell on that one.
Speaker 4 (46:31):
I got you.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
How about the sales and Central Louisville Central, WHOA yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
I tell you what. I'm gonna go with the Sales.
I'm gonna see him in two weeks. I don't need
to make him any matter than they'll already be.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
I'm going with Loutill Central.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
I got you.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Louisville Central has been down this year, though they have yeah, uh,
you know, according to his stand you know.
Speaker 4 (46:56):
Yeah, yeah, he's still gotta. They're still good, there's still.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Yeah, but he expects more.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
How about Dickie Heights in Boom County, Dixie Heights, Dixie Heights.
I'm gonna go with Dixie Heights. And how about Henderson
County in Hoptown, Henderson County all real, hoptown all the way.
Speaker 4 (47:25):
I got you.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
I think I got you on that one. John Harden
and h Taylor County.
Speaker 4 (47:33):
Taylor County.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yeah yeah, I'm with you on that one. How About
here we go Monroe County and Somerset Somerset, I'm going
with Monroe. Monroe's had a pretty good year. How about
Scott County and Woodford I'm back in your district again.
Speaker 4 (47:58):
It might be the I mean the time two teams. Uh,
I'll tell you what. I think they're both really good.
Since I gotta play Woodford County a week from Friday,
I'll pick Woodford County.
Speaker 3 (48:13):
They're gonna pick Woodford.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
I'm gonna pick Scott County, Warren Central, and Grayson County. Uh.
Speaker 4 (48:23):
I think I'm gonna go Warren Simper.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
I'll take Grayson and there we go, there we go.
Uh that that that'll be a rapid fire for this week.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
I'll double check your uh question of my.
Speaker 4 (48:39):
Uh yeah, I mean this this episode is under protest
right now.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
Yeah yeah, and it's also recorded, so I can't you know.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
All I gotta do is go back and listen to.
Speaker 4 (48:55):
I'm Worse than Kurby Smart with the Time Out. Uh
I didn't say I had I'm worse thing Kirby Smart
with the Time Out.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Man, I'll crack myself on the next show. But hey, hey,
let's have a little fun with it.
Speaker 4 (49:11):
If I really was nine out of ten, blast me
next week. Let me have it. It's all it's all good.
It's all good.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
Yeah, I'll double check it.
Speaker 4 (49:22):
I got you. Hey yeah, well hey, for next week,
we're gonna do another one of those episodes that these
have been great. I've loved him. We've got coach Johnny
Hines and coach Steven Nelson South and North laurel Or
getting ready to play each other. It's gonna be a
big district game. They're both having really good seasons, and
(49:44):
they're both in spots that it's been tough there over
the years. So I'm really excited about that. And they're
both really good football coaches. And then our tough Topic
it comes from Wattusie on Bluegrass Preps. Hey, if you're
a Bluegrass Preps fan, We've got and like the next
five or six of our Tough Topic slash listener questions,
(50:05):
uh from Bluegrass Preps, And we've even applied it out there.
I may put it on social media, but uh, I
thought this was a good question. If you got a
tougher an easy district game, how do you prep your team?
And I've been on both ends of that, you know.
Right now, I'm I'm facing really tough district games. You know,
A Mason Uh, not as much of Mercer, and you
(50:28):
know what, at Mercer, we're playing Allen to sales at
the end. I mean, good grief. But uh, you know,
at Mason, we did have a lot of easy district games,
and uh that could be a challenge. It could be
a challenge. So uh, you know, I'll have to I'm
gonna have fun talking about you about how I could
(50:50):
get the crisis of the week from you on Sunday
and then on Wednesday Chris Mason would say verbatim what
you said on Sunday, But you can manufacturer. Charlie Cox
still thinks the world was gonna end. Hey, you all
got beat by the Creerry Central. I mean you had,
(51:11):
you had. I think Charlie still has nightmares about what's
going to happen if we don't win that game. So, well,
you're you're you're the king of that. I'll do my best,
but you are the key, uh getting everybody to buy
into a scenario of thusday and we got to pull
together and so you're the king.
Speaker 2 (51:32):
Well we'll get to that next week and it'll be
a fun episode. I really enjoyed this episode. Mike, Mikey
Benton is a class act. Well, I mean you'd want
your son to play football for him.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
He's a rule.
Speaker 4 (51:45):
He was impressive and I tell you he is impressible.
He brought back a lot of memories of being at Paris. Yeah,
class a foot I mean I don't have the guts
for it anymore because of the numbers, but class a
foot ball is really cool. It's really it's a it's
a cool Kentucky as school football. It really is.
Speaker 3 (52:06):
Thank you guys for tuning in and we'll see you
next week. Appreciate it. Yeah, yeahm
Speaker 4 (52:18):
Hm
Coach David Buchanan coach Chuck Smith, two legendary high school
football coaches. This is the Coach's Office, a behind the
(00:33):
scenes look at Kentucky high school football.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I Love Coach Talk Time with Chuck Smith and David
bu Chennan. This is season four, episode nine. Can you
believe we're already nine weeks into this season? Wow, it's
flying by.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm Chuck Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'm joined by co hosts David Buchanan. Our podcast editor
storyteller is mike Yoakum. Our YouTube version. If you want
to watch this thing live or not live but video,
then you can go to YouTube at teacopt dot S,
dot O, dot P. If you hit like and subscribe,
(01:19):
then we appreciate it. And I'm really really excited about
our show.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Tonight.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
We have a.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Promising young coach, the promising young coach of Russell Will
High School as our guest.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Mikey Minton.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
He took his alma mater, Russell Well High School, to
the state championship game in that magical twenty twenty one season.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
He will will bring him on shortly. They've god bring
him on here shortly.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Next we will have our tough topic question and the
question tonight is our alternative uniforms, uniforms that are not
school colors, you know, good.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Or a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I'm probably going to show my age on that, but
we will admit to that question a little bit later.
Our games of the week for this week will be
Danville versus LCA and then we'll have Lexington Catholic versus Barkstown.
So it'll be two good games that we'll discuss and
then of course we'll do our rapid fire at the
(02:23):
end when we predict games without without any discussion. David
is absolutely killing that. But we'll get back to that
here in just a little bit. First, I want to
talk a little bit about coach of Minton before we
bring him one. As I said, he is the head
football coach of Russell Will High School, the Panthers.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
He was hired in twenty.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Eighteen, eight seasons, so this will be his eighth seed
or he's into his eighth season as the head football coach.
He took his team, the twenty twenty one team, to
the state championship game and that was the and if
anybody knows anything about high school football, they know that
Russell Bull High School was a powerhouse way back in
(03:05):
the day, and they had kind of some off years
and then some kind of up and down years, and
then Coachvinton took him to the twenty twenty one state
championship game.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
What a magical year that was.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It was the first time in thirty one years they've
been to the state championship game.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
So that was a.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Really really big deal. Now a little bit about Mike
in his playing career. That's where I met him, and
knowing from he went to the University of Kentucky. He
played football there from two thousand and eight to twenty twelve,
and I was there all those years, and what a player,
what a leader he was, I mean it stood out
(03:46):
all over the field. He became the starting safety. I
think Mikey. I think Mikey came as a walk on,
earned a scholarship, and then became the starting safety at
the University of Kentucky for the twenty eleven at twenty twelve.
See and he played there the last couple of years
of Rich Brooks's hen you're there, and then he played
(04:09):
for coach Joker Phillips during his three years there. So
what a great player he was. He is a great person,
a great leader.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
I know.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I think he runs that sky conference here up in
Bowling Green. Just a role model for a lot of people.
Were tickled to death to have Mikey on our show. David,
you want to bring him one?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yes, sir A Mike you might have been a little guy.
Were you at the eighty seven Russellville Paris semi final
game when Russellville won that ball game? Were you there
when you were a little guy?
Speaker 5 (04:44):
I was three years away from being boys.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Hey, my wife was a cheerleader at Paris High and
they all talked about that game. Paris had him and
Russellville got him at the end. So anyway, whenever I
hear Russellville, I think about that for so, I mean
we're getting that. We're started getting old here. Hey, Mikey,
I told Chuck, I said, I got to live in
(05:09):
when man, you will be our gifts. I'm like, I
can't believe. Like to me, it seems like you were
played at UK yesterday. And then I looked at it
like you've been the head coach there since twenty eighteen.
So that's crazy. Yeah, it really is. But hey, man,
we're excited to have you and being an old Paris guy,
I love having a class a guy that. I mean,
(05:30):
you're steeped in that tradition and you know what inside
it out. So I'm going to turn it over to Chuck.
But coach, thank you so much for being on our
show tonight.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, thank you, Mikey. We really do appreciate you taking
the time.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
The first question I have for you is, you know
you said in the past that you've learned a lot
from your time at the University of University of Kentucky,
you know, especially with uh, all of the coaching changes
that you went through. You know, you played with coach Brooke,
you played four co Coach Brooks for a little bit,
and then you and he had his assistance, and then
(06:03):
you played for coach Phillips and he had his assistance.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So you had you saw a lot of different styles
of coaching. You know.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Uh, did you see or did you see those different
styles as a way of helping you shape the way
you are as a coacher?
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Oh, it definitely did.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
You know, coming in the UK, for sure, I came.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
In on a high, uh, you know, right on the
back end of.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
The ball streak with coach of Brooks. Uh. So coming
in you know, things where you know ran in a
specific way. You know, I came in of course, you know,
being a younger guy that red shirted. I'm following the
way you know, all the coaches of the older guys
and everything, and uh you know, once Coach Brooks decided
to step away, and of course Joker took over. Uh
(06:48):
you know, of course things didn't go in our favor
for sure. Uh So with the different coaching changes, and
you know, specifically with DV coaches, you know, having Coach Brown,
you know, having him for the time per and then
going to Coach Derman as a DV coach, and then
you know, my last year with Coach Cassidy. You know,
each of them had a very extinct and different type
(07:09):
of style, that's the way the coach. But I learned
a lot from all of them. You know, I still
talk to Coach Brown and Coach Cassidy to this day. Uh,
you know, I keep in touch with them. But you know, uh,
both of them, for example, real strict guys. You know,
they're wanting things done a very specific way. But at
the same time of them coaching, you are, they're gonna
love you even hard. You know, both of those guys
(07:31):
made it a point to know you personally, you know,
and then for example, with coach Dermot, it was a
little different. You know, he wasn't as intense as those
two were, but he was probably maybe a little more
personable than what those two were. And you know, literally
all three, I absolutely love him to death, you know, Uh,
get excited to be able to talk to them, and
(07:51):
you know, they kind of keep up with my coaching
career a bit. You know, I'll get texts from them
from here and there, so you know, in the moment
at UK, of course, you know, it wasn't too fun
to you know, not of course, be as successful as
what you would want to be. But you know, hindsight's
twenty twenty. You definitely set me up, you know, to
be successful in my coaching career.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
For sure. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I think that, you know, a negative we didn't have
the success that we wanted that there at the end,
but a positive for you and your coaching career where
you were able to pick different things that you like
from each coach.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
And their style and then molded into your room.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Just to follow up question, Mikey, if what what's the
best thing that you think you learned from Coach Brooks,
and then what was the best thing you think you've learned.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
From Coach Phillops.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
Okay, so with Coach of Brooks, it was an old
school style. It would show up every day and work,
you know, as simple as that. You know. The one
thing that I think Coach of Brooks gets credit for is,
you know, we were a program at that point in
time that may have not had the biggest recruits, you know,
as far with four storm five star guys, but you
(09:01):
go and look at Coach Brooks record, the way we
competed with all these teams and the sec that did
have these guys, you knew it was a tough team.
It was grit, you know, and we were truly developed.
So it was just kind of that old lunch paal
type mentality, show up, do you work, you know, and
just go after it. And honestly, with Coach Joker, for me,
what I learned from him looking back on things is
(09:22):
you know, he was somebody that wasn't afraid to take risks,
you know, not maybe necessarily worked out, you know, in
the best way, but I can honestly say, and you know,
and me probably having a conversation with him. You know,
of course you may want things to go differently, but
he was somebody that freyolously stepped into whatever decision he
may have had, and you know, to go in and
just take those risks. You know, it's something that you know,
(09:45):
you kind of have to admire about a coach, you know,
because you know a lot of times that you feeling
pressure from all these different places. But to step into
your decision like that, you know, it was something that
I definitely took with me for sure.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That's awesome. I agree with you.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
I feel the same way about both of those two guys,
and I agree with you one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
You know, I think coach Phillips was.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Was like he wasn't afraid to stick his neck out there,
even if it didn't work.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
He was not afraid to do it. And you know, of.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Course, coach Brooks, I loved his style. It's more my
style that all physical, you know, hard knows. I mean,
that's just that's the way I like football, and that's
the way he was and he he he showed that
every day with his coaching.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
He did it.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
But so coach coach Ben, you were a star at
Russellville High School, would have been the positives and negatives
about returning to your to your hometown to be the
head football coach.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Stockings. It might sound the positive and the negative are
the exact same thing. I'm from here and I know everybody,
and I have a personal relationship pretty much with everybody.
So on the positive side of it, you know when
kids want to come in and you know they're kind
a little hesitant, or you know, they want to kind
of give you a bit of attitude, and you know,
(11:05):
all of a sudden, their parents pull up and you know,
giving them a high five and we hugging or something,
and then you know they kind of got to look like,
oh my god, he knows my mom and my dad,
and it's like, yeah, played with him coach footem or
anything in the past, so you know, they It's one
of those situations to where kids have to buy in
because you can't go home and try to complain because
your parents know exactly who I am, you know, so
(11:27):
it's not gonna really work out for him. But also
the other side of it is the negative because knowing
everybody's parents, if they don't like something that you did
on Friday night, everybody's got your number. Already, so you're
coming back to text messages, calls, voicemails, whatever it is.
So you know it's it's it's a double sided, double
side of sword for sure, so you know you kind
(11:48):
of gotta take what comes with it. But honestly, I
wouldn't trade it for anything. You know, I'm Russellville to
a t die hard guy. Uh, so you know, I
love every bit of it, and that's awesome. You know,
things can be tough and still be great.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
It's easy. Easy and great don't really go together. And
I think being the head coach in your hometown stuff.
I did it for seven years and it was by
far the hardest of the four jobs by far. But
I'm still really thankful that I did it. It was
a great experience. So I appreciate what you shared. I
think that's I think that describes it. That's what it's like.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, David has done that.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
He's he's went back to his hometown and did the
same thing.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So, uh, you probably didn't. You didn't. There was a
lot of years in between you and.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Uh the way, that's true, Ith though, Mikey's fresh out
of you know, college, and.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
That would have been even tougher. That would have been
even tougher.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, well let me get the next one coach.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
So with with so many players, and this is really
a question for these UH coaches that have got smalls,
you know, and you you obviously got a small roster
because you're single a single a school, so many of
the players having to play both sides of the ball.
Does that kind of limit what you can do schematically? Uh?
(13:16):
You know, and with your offense and your defense, because
I'm sure they got to play both ways. And you know,
if so, you know, how do you keep its? Yesie,
you know, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
I mean usually where the numbers fall from me roster
wise is probably between about thirty five, and it could
get as low as maybe twenty seven to twenty eight. Honestly,
the year I went to State, we only had twenty
eight kids on the team.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
So you know, for me, it doesn't limit me. The
one thing that people have to realize is from a
class A standpoint, you're never going to be in game
shape until mid season. I don't care what you try
to do, there's no substitute for being able to play offense,
defense and special teams. You know, you can try your
(14:00):
best to give your guys a break. But I mean
you all know, just like what I do, your guys
have to be on the field. You know that one
moment to where especially from a class a standpoint, like
for example, my running back is my corner, my quarterback
is my free safety, you know, my old lineman on
my d line. So and you know, most of the
(14:21):
time you're fortunate enough to have maybe eight or nine
that you could say these are guys that can absolutely play,
and then you may have three to five that you
have to develop to bring along to be able to
give you depth along the way. So it's a situation
of where conditioning in the off season it sucks. But
(14:41):
even in the same time, if you watch us play
in all of my time here in eight years, the
first three or four games, I got guys cramping up
like crazy, and I mean it's just it's no substitution
for actually playing the game. But once I get to
about game five, game six, now all of a sudden,
guys are like, hey, off the field, real quick, quick,
(15:02):
flig get whatever corrections and adjustments were making, and they're
right back out there and they can play the whole game.
They'll problem.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
You know, I'm glad you brought that up, because my
first head coaching job was at Paris and we had
some good teams that I had four or five guys
that they could play for anybody. They were really good.
But I think about this a lot. The pace of
the game in the nineties was so much lower than
it is now, and I always wonder about that because
(15:29):
I'm like, what would it have been like at Paris
because we spent half the game in the huddle? Back
then it did, and both teams spent half the game
in the hug. And if both of us spent half
the game in the huddle, you know, like our conditioning,
it sort of we would sort of be okay really
early on, but we didn't play at the tempo that
(15:50):
you guys play at now. And then we played with Anderson,
and the tempo piece has really made in my opinion,
it can be a school and a weapon. But man,
you got to coach tempo. Tempo wasn't even really a
thing in the nineties. Old is now you better? You
better handle it, right. So that's a really good point
(16:13):
that you made about, you know, the difference now. You know,
I'm sort of wanted to ask along those lines you know,
what advice do you have for coaches with small rosters?
I mean, how do you protect your bodies? Because I know,
if you're like we were at Paris, you've got a
handful of kids that are probably really, really good, and
(16:34):
you probably got a handful of kids that it's like, Man,
I gotta have a such and such at this spot. Buddy,
you're the best I got, So go in there and
hang on for all you got. What advice have you got?
What advice do you have for coaches that, man, you
got to navigate these small rosters in twenty twenty five?
(16:55):
What are you doing that you think helps you?
Speaker 5 (16:58):
For one thing that I've just over me out quite
a bit is breaking the game down more so to
whether it be filled and boundary. And what I mean
by that is a lot of half scaley takes place,
and a lot of half line work takes place. And
you know, you'd love to be able to do a
full nine on seven, you know, but sometimes based off
(17:20):
your scout guys, and you know the level that your
scout teams at, you may not be able to do that.
So sometimes you got to take from left side of
the offense, right side of the defense, and you know,
we focus on our gaps setting the edge from that
standpoint offensively, you know, taking your quarterback working messages and
everything from that standpoint, work and run game just on
(17:41):
a half line from that standpoint, because you know, you
deal with different aspects and honestly from a class a standpoint,
you deal with certain things that you don't even or
some coaches don't even consider. Like for example, every school,
at every point sometimes you hit flu season. Now on
a bigger football team, you got guys who might get sick.
(18:02):
Now to deal for six, A, five eighteen. If I
got five guys out, my entire practice and game plan
has to change. So you know, it's like little small
things like that that people may not even have to
think about. So you have to be able to adjust.
You have to be able to work half line drills,
and you know, you have to be very very good
(18:22):
in your individual time because a lot of times for
some kids, they're not going to be able to get
the work to go against someone else until Friday night.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
This you know something I wanted to add into that,
and you sort of brought back a memory for me
when I was at Paris. You know, Tuesday, I don't
know what we did for Team D. I really don't remember.
I guess we did some type of TMD, but it
couldn't have been very good. And then Wednesday tm D
was we want. We watched him, and I go back
(18:53):
to this. I still say if my coaches won't do it,
and I don't make them good, but I still say
this the best defensive prep I've seen us have. Our
secondary works routes, our linebackers do reads, and our front
does scheme. That's the best way to do it. Now.
One thing, Chris Crawley Goodman, our DC at Anderson County,
(19:15):
he's come up with something really cool. We call it fastball,
and it's a shipo thing where we work on alignment
and we go up and down the field and we
just work on getting lined up properly. I wish that
we had had that at Paris in the nineties because
we could have done fastball, and that would have been
what we did. We would have done reads, rounds, schemes
(19:38):
and fastball. But even at five A at Anderson County, when
we do Team D, I'd rather you take a baseball
bat and hit me in the mouth and knock out
all my teeth, then watch team defense because Scout offense. Hey,
if a football coach doesn't know Jesus when he goes
to Hell, it's going to be watch the scout op
(20:00):
Because the Scout offense has been terrible for thirty three years.
I mean, it's a killer. I can't hardly take it
every day. But they still want to try to do it,
so I go along with it. Oh my gosh, but
you you sort of gave me some PTSD. But but really,
(20:21):
I tell you what. I was happier at Paris when
he did schemes, breeds and routs, right, I didn't fight
all that stuff. You know. Hey, this was a good one. Hey,
I'm sorry. This is Mikey's time and I'm telling to
me stories.
Speaker 5 (20:35):
You good.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
I love it. DA One day we had a phenomenal quarterback,
Corey Dunk was a not a good player, a great
player at Paris House. I'm finally working some of the
young guys. I look over there, Corey Dump for this.
The Scout defense knows, God, what are you doing. Yeah,
he's a coach. I can do it. I'm like, Corey,
(20:57):
I know you can do it, but I'm not gonna
let the starting quarterbacks. I thought I was the best
player in Class A right, each scout team those yards today.
But it's just stuff like that drove me crazy. So
I like, I like hearing you talk about that coaching.
It it's tough, but man, it brings back some great memories,
it really, does it?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Really?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Mikey, do you manage your youth youth all the way.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Up from I do, yes, sir, so once I got
hired in twenty eighteen, at that point, it wasn't really
a Russellville soul program. So that was my first bit
of business that I did. It's create a youth league.
We actually got a pretty good program going on down
this way. We're called the Western Kentucky Football League. So ourselves,
(21:47):
Logan County, Greenwood, Hopkinsville, just a bunch of different people
have different groups. Uh so you know, again Russellville being small,
we have to combine our groups. So for example, we
have a a third grade group that play together. Yeah,
fourth and fifth grade group or I said there wrong,
first and second and then thirty fourth and then a
(22:08):
fifth and sixth grade group. And then of course they
we go and we play someone like a green Wood
or Hoppinsville or Logan County. They have a sole fourth
grade group. So our younger guys already have to get
in the mindset to be able to play up, so
you know, it just kind of puts them in a
different mindset of you know, I'm always used to playing
up a level, so you know, by the time they
get to middle school in high school, it's still the
(22:30):
same thing. It's nothing new to them. They've been playing
up since they've been in first grade.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Good idea, that's really good. I'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I've noticed too that you all, you don't play a
pretty tough schedule too. You've always taken that on that.
What's the philosophy behind that?
Speaker 5 (22:48):
I mean, in order to be the best, you gonna
have to beat the best. And you know, like I said,
you kind of talked about the old school. I guess
I took here from Coach Brooks. You know, like, we're
not gonna run from anything. And in Class A ball,
every year there's gonna be a team that is always
playing above a Class A level, you know, And I'm
sure y'all understand that when I say that. So in
the first, uh, first the second round, you know we're
(23:12):
likely going to end up having to play either Campbellsville
or KCD, you know, fortunate enough that nothing happens, and
you know where we stay healthy and able to pull
off some wins. Both of those two teams. You know,
if we've been watchingvolved, both of us two teams are
extremely tough. Campbellsville and KCD are gonna give some two
a's and three A and probably some four A teams
a run for their money.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:33):
So you know, for me scheduling a six eighteen first
game out playing against Logan County, that's the four eight
team playing against rock Castle and Murray that are top
ranked in three A, like, these are the type games
that are gonna get us prepared when we have to
go and play at Campbellsville or KCD type team.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, I like us.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Yeah yeah, hey, that reminds me too. Another story I
won't go too much with. One night at Paris this
back when there were four class okay people playing a
three A school, and the coach told me before the game,
he said, David, he said, we're not playing after this year.
He said, I can't keep getting beat by class A school.
(24:12):
Yeah you know what, Hey we beat him that night too,
But I mean stuff like that. I got fired up
about stuff like that. I liked it, and I love
what you're doing, coach. I think it's good stuff. I
really do.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
I appreciate you. I kind of got a similar story
whenever we went on our run in twenty one. There
was a lot of coach like that year. We lost
two games, and you know, we beat some six eighteens,
we beat some five as four eighteens, and I'd have
a few of coaches text me it's like, hey man,
you're making this seat real hot over here for me,
and I'm just like, there's very few and far between
(24:47):
when I get teams like it, so I gotta take
a little advantage of it.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
That's awesome, that's great stuff, coach. Well, hey, good luck
to your coach. And hey, I maybe I tell my
wife this store and talk about you. She won't have
such bad memories and hard feelings about Russellville anymore.
Speaker 5 (25:06):
So I hope I can change art.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Yeah, I'll Taylor say, now, Mikey wasn't even born when
that game happened. Maybe that'll help.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
I don't know, Mikeey, your class like, buddy, you really are.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Ever since I've known yet uka great leader and yeah,
you're just carrying it on and and uh and sharing
it with the uh, the youth at Russell Bill. We
appreciate you, and good luck to you. I appreciate that,
appreciate you all having me on the question, is uh
(25:40):
our alternative uniforms, the uniforms that are not school colors,
a good.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Or bad idea? I want to hear your young Uh.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Hey, I'm sixteen years old. Hey, thanks for calling me young.
Nobody's called I've been calling a lot of names lately,
but young is not one of them. Oh, Okay. In general,
I don't like him. I don't, But if a high
school coach thinks that he needs it to get kids
(26:11):
out and generate excitement, then I think he's got to
do what he needs to. And it is interesting, even
though I don't like alternative uniforms. After I'd been at
Mason County for nineteen seasons, we buyt a black jersey
that we were gonna wear in year twenty and it
was gonna look awesome. We're gonna have our royal blue
(26:32):
helmet black jersey with you know, getting Big Jack going
UCLA insert. Jack's always cussing me about the number on
the helmet and the UCLA insert. I didn't do that
just to irritate Jack, but I'm not gonna kids. I
sort of that's a nice positive. But those black jerseys
are gonna be beautiful. But I didn't get to stay
(26:54):
there and wear them, so you know, I'm not a
big fan of it. And you know the other thing too,
with Mason and Mercer and Anderson. You know, to me,
Mason and Mercer were Bills. Anderson is a rebuild, and
I think that. I think your uniform sort of needs
to say, hey, we're serious about football and football is important.
(27:16):
And that's why I like a more traditional look because
I think a more traditional look says we're serious about football.
And I mean, I know that's a very old fashioned
thing to say, but that's why I like the type
of stuff we wear. And I'm lucky at Anderson because
we can wear navy and red. We've got twelve uniform combinations,
(27:39):
all school colors. And you know, Mason was tougher because
all we had was royal blood. I mean, that made
it tougher. But I just I just really like I
like their traditional type of work.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, that's obvious with your uniforms and your helmets and everything.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
Now like Jack, I feel like I'm doing the podcast
with Jack robertson now, except you won't use quite the
same language that Jack would, and we won't even talk
about kicking tires.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
I think that coming to a new program and it's
not doing good like or hasn't done well like like
you know, like you're talking about, then I don't think
there's anything wrong with change. Try to you know, to
try to uh you know, it creates some excitement. Like
when I went to Boil. Boil always used that old
(28:32):
llowish gold.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Uh you know helmet and there it is things and.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
I love that old helmet. That don't be talking bad
about it.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
The old traditional helmet and uniforms, and then I changed
it to black.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Every time I thought they changed the black before you
got there, that's not true.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
No, I'm the one that changed.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
I got Hey, it's turned out pretty good.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah, it turned out pretty good.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
But anyway, my answer to the question is I think,
and again I think I'm going to show my age
a little bit. You know, I know that the different uniforms, uh,
you know, combinations are really popular among you know, especially
the younger players today. They really like that that's something
that motivates them, has something to get some going. But
(29:17):
my philosophy has always been, you know, if I if
I have to, uh, you know, have those pretty flashy uniforms,
you know, to get players to want to play or
to play football, then you know, that's just kind of
not what I believe in. But I understand that some
coaches doing that, and I don't have a problem with
(29:38):
it if that's what they if that's what they have
to do.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
I think when you do that, though, then it's kind
of bribery, you know, and you maybe they're playing for
the wrong reasons.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
I don't know, that's the old fashioned part of me.
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
What I do believe is that, you know, if the
players are grinding, you know, they're putting in the work,
the producing on the field, the winning ball games, and
then and then they want new uniforms, uh, then hey,
let's get that quarterback club together. Let's start ordering some
flashy uh uniforms, uh, you.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Know as a reward, you know.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
Not abroad or I like that approach.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I do for the work and the can commitment. You know,
That's that was always kind of my philosophy on it.
But I this is also coming from a guy. Listen
to this guy, and this is me. Whenever I was
at Boyle.
Speaker 5 (30:35):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Every year I was at Boyle. Uh, you know I
was in on the black turn you know turn around.
I of course I wanted to do that. I was
kind of by myself on that. But uh, from thereafter then,
every time we ordered the uniforms, every time the sporting
good guy came by to order uniforms or even coaching here,
(30:57):
I'd have Chris Purdue and Chris Mason after with me
after school and they would design the uniform and the
coaching year. I could really care less. I could care
less about designing that stuff. It never was the thing
that motivated me is and I really could care less.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
I didn't care what it looked like.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
They took it all and they ran with it, and
every uniform that we had really after that first one
was their design, and every bit of coaching year we.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Had after that was their design. So and I'm thankful
they did it because I did not want to do it.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I had other things to worry about, other things to do,
and I didn't want to take care of that. I
do have a story though, on uniforms and changing colors.
And you know, my first year at Allen County Scotschaw,
I was a first year head coach. I went to
Allen County that first year, we needed new uniform. So
(31:53):
here here's me I was going to I didn't know,
you know, any of the coaching staff was that. You know,
they weren't close. We weren't close. I just had hired them.
I didn't know them that well. I just hire them
based upon the resumes. But I was going to design
the uniform, is what I'm getting at. So it's probably
one of the reasons. While I never wanted to do
it afterwards, but uh, their colors were red and white.
(32:17):
But I didn't I mean just the common sense of me.
I didn't want white pants. I just didn't want white pants.
I said, man, they're gonna.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Show the stains. You know, they're gonna clean.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I mean, they're gonna look dingy. After a year or so,
I would have to order new ones. So I decided
upon myself to order grape pants.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
I got gray everywhere, so I'm.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Good with he going, Well, they weren't okay, So I
ordered gray pants.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
So I thought it was a good idea. But you know,
you would have thought that the world was coming to
an end.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
You would have thought that I ordered glasgow, glasgow blue
or feet.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I mean, you would have thought it was it was.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
It was like the most all full thing in the
world that I had ordered gray pants when our colors
weren't gray, and the people and the community were really
mad at me for that. And uh, you know, after
I left, they never took those green pants out of
that story room again.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
So that's.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You know my lesson there, I said, I'm not fulling
with these uniforms anymore.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
I'm gonna let somebody else do it.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
You know, at Paris we got gray pants, and I
think it's the only time Paris has ever had gray pants.
And at first I got some grumbling about it, But
I don't think it was near as bad as what
you got at Allen Down. I really don't. Uh. And
I always thought of gray as a neutral color. Was gray.
I don't think of a gray pant I mean a
(33:47):
great pant is I mean, great pants have been around
for forever.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
You're never gonna get the white pants clean.
Speaker 4 (33:55):
Hey, I was gonna tell you this, looking at some
of the old you're gonna you're probably gonna punch me
on this. Look at some of the old throwback uniforms.
You know, they used to wear like tan and kaki pants,
like before the fifties. And so I said to Stephanie,
I said, what do you think about ten football pants
(34:17):
with navy or scarlet at Anderson County? She said absolutely not.
So that was the end of the discussion. And I'm
not even. I'm not even, but I thought that like
a tan pant like from nineteen forty with scarlet or
a navy jersey, I actually think it'd be pretty sharp.
But she she pulled the plug on that right out
(34:40):
the back. She said, no, you're not doing that.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
So and then people like uh, Oregon, they never wear
they had wore the same uniform in like five or
six years.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
You know, it's always some different And I get it,
I get all that. I'm not I think Tom, I'm
glad it's not me.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
Yeah. I think for Oregon. In Oregon, their traditional uniform
is alternative. That's sort of their ideality. I think everybody
else is copying off the ward. I think that's a
good point now, But I'm like you, man, I love
old Alabama, old LSU Auburn. I love those schools that
(35:22):
look like they looked like for the last fifty years.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
I didn't say I love that. I didn't say I
love that. I said I don't want nothing to do
with it. I want somebody else.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
For at Boyle we had the same We wore black
pants every year.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
We had a white jersey and a black jersey, and yeah,
that's all I would buy. We could afford more.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
And those kids were asking me at the end, they
were saying, hey, coach, can we get some white pants?
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I go, no, I'm not filling.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
With white pants. See I think they got white pants now,
so more prior to them. I'm letting it with't me.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
I don't want to. Hey, you know what, nobody said
a whole lot. But for nineteen years at Mason, we
had a blue jersey, a white jersey, and we had
gray pants. That's it. That's all we had. And we
got some white pants one time from UK. We worked
two or three times, but we sold boats to Jackson County.
I didn't really think that was us. I thought we
(36:20):
were a white jersey, blue jersey, gray pants, blue helmet.
I mean, let's show up and play some football. Quit
worried about what color the pants are, you know, But anyway.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Go on to our games of the week, want too.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Okay, let's do it up.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Is Danville and LCA.
Speaker 4 (36:39):
Well, hey, I got to see first. There's seven ones. Gary.
Their stud quarterback Dylan Krueger is a freshman. The stud
tailback who I'm not sure he's not a D one guy.
Javon Mwes, he's a freshman. They're pop wide receivers, a junior.
They're all going to be back. Uh, the Mukes at tailback.
(37:04):
They're all four good. I think Newkes is going to
be I think he's going to be really special. I
don't think Davill's gonna beat LCA this year. I don't,
but they've got some really really good players. And Steve's
doing a super job. He's doing a great job.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
I knew he would.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
He's just he's been done a good job everywhere he's been.
He's he's really a good football coach. Y he uh,
hears about the kids, he does it for the right reasons.
He's just always always been a fan of his. I
just think he's a really good football coach. And I
do think he's done a great job and I think
Daniel is uh, he's kind of rejuvenating him a little bit.
(37:44):
And they got some of those old school Danville years.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Left in them.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
I had.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
And their head football coaches Oakley Watkins, and uh, coach
Watkins has done a terrific job. He's been on staff
there with coach Charles and uh he you know he's
but he's in his first year. This is his first
year taking over as the head football coach, and he's
currently four and three. But don't let that four and
(38:11):
three fool you. They play anybody and everybody in the
top ten in any class. They play a brutal schedule,
and their philosophy is, you know that they're going to
play that tough of a schedule and then when they
get to the playoffs, they're going to be ready to go.
And he's done that and he's he's a very good
(38:31):
football coach. Their quarterback is Nash Willing, and he's a
high efficiency passer. You know, he's probably completing about seventy
five to eighty percent of his passes.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
He's probably the leading rupsher too, so he runs the
ball quite well. Also, Tyler King, Davin Hood, Jeremiah Burbage,
that Burbige name is always uh out in in the
Lexington air.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
Phillip Garvers was our DC at Paris.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah yeah, it probably can somehow.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I'm pretty sure, uh Bennett, uh Goodalas, all these guys
have shown up in the stat sheet on both offense
and defense. So it's a it's one of those uh
you know, double A rosters that coach Bnton was talking
about where they got to play both ways and specialty
teams and all that other thing. I do think Lexlnon
(39:28):
Christian is a really good football team. As I said,
they played that brutal schedule. I think if Danville can
keep it from being a running clock, then they have
had a great game.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
I really got you.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
I got you. I think it might. I think Daniel
might play him tougher than that, but I do think
l C will win. Uh yeah, all right, So let's
look at Lexington Catholic and Bargetown and uh with David
Clark going back to play his old school Barstown.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah you got Barstown, Okay, I've got Barstown in and
Justin Grundy is the head football coach.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Justin was an assistant for David.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
And he was there when I was I was there
for a year and he was there as well, and
he's got him currently six and two and this is
his second season. His first season in twenty twenty four
they went nine and four and made it to the quarterfinals.
You know, so, you know, great year he and he's
done a terrific job since he's took over. You know,
(40:28):
he's you know, he's really working the younger programs and through.
You know, Justin's a really classy guy by the way,
and he's really a good football coach. They are coming
off of a kind of an upset. They got beat
by our man Jeff Hester and Spencer Crutchfield over at
Garren County and Ben got Smith, so they're coming off
(40:52):
of that. So I'm sure they're getting after it this
week in practice. I think that's probably a wake up
called in it. Then again, they're playing their old head
football coach and David Clark, so I look for Barkstown
to be.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
Ready to go. Their quarterback is Karon Riley, and their leading.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Rushers have been seven Hamilton and Tallan Spaulting. The receivers
are Chief Pointer and Tylan's and Lucas Kaiser. So you know,
these are some names that show up as either receiving,
rushing or being the quarterback. But that justin Coach Grundy
is going to have them ready to go. I'm sure
(41:31):
they're going to be self motivated to go against Lexton Catholic.
I don't think they can beat Lexton Catholic. I think
Lexton Catholic and I think Davis done a great job there,
and I think they've got a nice football team.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
And never count them out. Never count bar sound out.
Speaker 4 (41:48):
Though, Yeah, well, hey, I've got Katholic and again David
is their head coach, David Clark. Their quarterback is Brady Wassick,
which I'm guessing that's Jackson's little brother who Jackson has
been a very successful quarterback at Lexton Katholic. He's now
the starter at Kentucky Christian. He's having a lot of
(42:08):
success there. Brady averages one hundred and seventy yards of
offense both rushing and passing, and he's the third leading
tackler on the team. Duncan Gonson is their top wide receiver.
Barred Woodall only a sophomore, has got two interceptions, once
for a touchdown, and then Jack Wedding and Matt Kozinski
(42:29):
both lead the defense, but they're both gonna play some offense,
so you know, Davis playing a lot of guys both
ways right now. But they're playing really well. And I
would think, I don't know, if you look at three A,
I think Kal is head and shoulders number one. I
think probably two is pretty tight between Bell County and
(42:51):
Lexton Catholic. I just think they've sort of separated themselves
to an extent, especially with the win over Boil. I
would probably with the win over Boil and I probably
give lex Cat the edge Overbell Him.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Yeah, yeah, I do. Lexi Katholic is uh, it's kind
of nice and they've it's done a good job. But
don't count Barkstown out. But I do think Lexon Catholic
will probably win the game. Uh, the game, but the
game is played at Barstown. Wonder how they'll treat coach
Clark there. Uh you think they'll uh they should appreciate you.
(43:24):
But I know the Barstown people can be rough on
sometimes on the uh on the pond.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
It so, uh, we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
I'll be interesting. But but I would think though, I mean,
story of the way I look at it, man, Uh,
I think, shoot, I I gotta think if I'm a
Barstown fan, man, I've got to appreciate David.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Clark, and he's a really good guy and a very
good football coach.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
Yeah, you know he Uh it meant a lot to
me that year I didn't have a team. Uh, he
invited me down to do that fry lunch talk to
his team.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (44:02):
Now I had a blast. It really meant a lot
to me, you know, being a coaches kid. I can
remember being with my dad at Bull County and Garness
Martin and Barstown was on the other side. Yeah. I
mean that's a great memory and well sort of. My
dad has some tough years there and that was a
tough year. But I think Barstown that night got him
(44:22):
ten to nothing or fourteen to nothing. I mean it
was a dang war. But you know, Barstown's that's one
of those cool Kentucky high school football places I love.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
Hey, David, let's get into our rapid fire, your favorite
part of the show.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Hey, last week, you are nine out of ten?
Speaker 4 (44:45):
What was what I missed?
Speaker 3 (44:48):
You missed one? You missed one time. I'd have to
go back and look.
Speaker 4 (44:54):
But I thought I was ten out of ten.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
No, no, no, no, no, no, I don't think you were.
I was eight out of ten, so I was right
there on your heels. I'd have to go back and look.
I don't have time to do that now. For the
I'll double check it when we're finished. But for the season.
Right now, you are sixty out of seventy four, which
(45:17):
is about eighty one percent. That's pretty good. And I'm
forty seven out of seventy four, which is sixty three percent.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
I got you right there.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Not great, But let's get into our this week's rapid fire. Okay,
this week's rapid fire. I got some good game skit
on the list right here. Let's see how you do.
First game up is Apollo and Madisonville North Hopkins.
Speaker 4 (45:48):
Madisonville North Hopkins.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
I'm with you on that one. That is uh, they
are having a really good year.
Speaker 4 (45:56):
Yeah, I wish I could remember his name. That they
have a f i'minal run. I think it's high Tower.
Speaker 3 (46:02):
I think you're right.
Speaker 4 (46:03):
I think yeah, he is really really good, really good.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
How about Parkstown Bethleem and k c D k c D.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
I'm with you on that one too.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Uh K is having a great year. Yes, how about
uh here we go Crintindon County and Fort Campbell.
Speaker 4 (46:24):
I'm gonna go Critton, Gaily.
Speaker 3 (46:27):
I'm gonna go with uh Fort Campbell on that one.
Speaker 4 (46:31):
I got you.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
How about the sales and Central Louisville Central, WHOA yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
I tell you what. I'm gonna go with the Sales.
I'm gonna see him in two weeks. I don't need
to make him any matter than they'll already be.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
I'm going with Loutill Central.
Speaker 4 (46:50):
I got you.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Louisville Central has been down this year, though they have yeah, uh,
you know, according to his stand you know.
Speaker 4 (46:56):
Yeah, yeah, he's still gotta. They're still good, there's still.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Yeah, but he expects more.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
How about Dickie Heights in Boom County, Dixie Heights, Dixie Heights.
I'm gonna go with Dixie Heights. And how about Henderson
County in Hoptown, Henderson County all real, hoptown all the way.
Speaker 4 (47:25):
I got you.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
I think I got you on that one. John Harden
and h Taylor County.
Speaker 4 (47:33):
Taylor County.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yeah yeah, I'm with you on that one. How About
here we go Monroe County and Somerset Somerset, I'm going
with Monroe. Monroe's had a pretty good year. How about
Scott County and Woodford I'm back in your district again.
Speaker 4 (47:58):
It might be the I mean the time two teams. Uh,
I'll tell you what. I think they're both really good.
Since I gotta play Woodford County a week from Friday,
I'll pick Woodford County.
Speaker 3 (48:13):
They're gonna pick Woodford.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
I'm gonna pick Scott County, Warren Central, and Grayson County. Uh.
Speaker 4 (48:23):
I think I'm gonna go Warren Simper.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
I'll take Grayson and there we go, there we go.
Uh that that that'll be a rapid fire for this week.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
I'll double check your uh question of my.
Speaker 4 (48:39):
Uh yeah, I mean this this episode is under protest
right now.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
Yeah yeah, and it's also recorded, so I can't you know.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
All I gotta do is go back and listen to.
Speaker 4 (48:55):
I'm Worse than Kurby Smart with the Time Out. Uh
I didn't say I had I'm worse thing Kirby Smart
with the Time Out.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Man, I'll crack myself on the next show. But hey, hey,
let's have a little fun with it.
Speaker 4 (49:11):
If I really was nine out of ten, blast me
next week. Let me have it. It's all it's all good.
It's all good.
Speaker 3 (49:20):
Yeah, I'll double check it.
Speaker 4 (49:22):
I got you. Hey yeah, well hey, for next week,
we're gonna do another one of those episodes that these
have been great. I've loved him. We've got coach Johnny
Hines and coach Steven Nelson South and North laurel Or
getting ready to play each other. It's gonna be a
big district game. They're both having really good seasons, and
(49:44):
they're both in spots that it's been tough there over
the years. So I'm really excited about that. And they're
both really good football coaches. And then our tough Topic
it comes from Wattusie on Bluegrass Preps. Hey, if you're
a Bluegrass Preps fan, We've got and like the next
five or six of our Tough Topic slash listener questions,
(50:05):
uh from Bluegrass Preps, And we've even applied it out there.
I may put it on social media, but uh, I
thought this was a good question. If you got a
tougher an easy district game, how do you prep your team?
And I've been on both ends of that, you know.
Right now, I'm I'm facing really tough district games. You know,
A Mason Uh, not as much of Mercer, and you
(50:28):
know what, at Mercer, we're playing Allen to sales at
the end. I mean, good grief. But uh, you know,
at Mason, we did have a lot of easy district games,
and uh that could be a challenge. It could be
a challenge. So uh, you know, I'll have to I'm
gonna have fun talking about you about how I could
(50:50):
get the crisis of the week from you on Sunday
and then on Wednesday Chris Mason would say verbatim what
you said on Sunday, But you can manufacturer. Charlie Cox
still thinks the world was gonna end. Hey, you all
got beat by the Creerry Central. I mean you had,
(51:11):
you had. I think Charlie still has nightmares about what's
going to happen if we don't win that game. So, well,
you're you're you're the king of that. I'll do my best,
but you are the key, uh getting everybody to buy
into a scenario of thusday and we got to pull
together and so you're the king.
Speaker 2 (51:32):
Well we'll get to that next week and it'll be
a fun episode. I really enjoyed this episode. Mike, Mikey
Benton is a class act. Well, I mean you'd want
your son to play football for him.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
He's a rule.
Speaker 4 (51:45):
He was impressive and I tell you he is impressible.
He brought back a lot of memories of being at Paris. Yeah,
class a foot I mean I don't have the guts
for it anymore because of the numbers, but class a
foot ball is really cool. It's really it's a it's
a cool Kentucky as school football. It really is.
Speaker 3 (52:06):
Thank you guys for tuning in and we'll see you
next week. Appreciate it. Yeah, yeahm
Speaker 4 (52:18):
Hm
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