September 27, 2024 • 51 mins
The Memphis Showboats have a new head coach, and the gang is here to dive in!
Join The REF and Zach as they discuss the news of Ken Whisenhunt joining the Memphis Showboats as their new head coach. They'll also talk about Jim Monos jumping on as GM, and much more...
We're talking the UFL Kickoff Date, Roughnecks Returning to TDECU, Early Contenders to host the UFL Championship... and more.....
Discord: https://discord.gg/QjewyBV
Vintage Varsity: vintagevarsity901.com
USFL Merch: https://bit.ly/3OsOLwh
UFL Podcast Merch: https://usfl-podcast.creator-spring.com/
#UFL #USFL #XFL
Join The REF and Zach as they discuss the news of Ken Whisenhunt joining the Memphis Showboats as their new head coach. They'll also talk about Jim Monos jumping on as GM, and much more...
We're talking the UFL Kickoff Date, Roughnecks Returning to TDECU, Early Contenders to host the UFL Championship... and more.....
Discord: https://discord.gg/QjewyBV
Vintage Varsity: vintagevarsity901.com
USFL Merch: https://bit.ly/3OsOLwh
UFL Podcast Merch: https://usfl-podcast.creator-spring.com/
#UFL #USFL #XFL
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Memphis Showboats have a brand new head coach, and
the gang is here to talk about that. Join us
on episode ninety one of d UFL Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
One Killed three.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Welcome back, everybody to another amazing edition of d UFL podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm the rep representing Pro Football Newsroom, the leaders in
spring football news, and boy oh boy, oh, boy oh boy,
do we got a big week for you. But before
we get started, I'm joined as always by my man,
(01:05):
Zach Kleman. How you doing today, my friend?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Oh, I'm fresh off coming away from a different side
of the football universe. Uh, you know, over in Chicago,
talking a little little arena. I won't go into details
for folks, by the way, so no.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
One knows that. Don't just you know, you could drop
the nuggets here. Yeah, I see what you're doing. I
see what you're doing.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
But then I won't be getting I won't be taking
photos anymore if you catch my drift.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So they want if at the legends table anymore? Yeah,
no Legends table.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
I can't. I can't go to the winter. When I
can't go with the winners anymore, I'll be I'll be
stuck on the sidelines, and you know, not being able
to help that. But right now it's UFL Talk. I'm back,
I'm fresh, I'm ready to go. There's tons going on
in this off season with football leagues, and finally, one
of the key cogs of this UFL offseason, well at
least two of them in one combined package, gets finished
(01:58):
and finalized. We can finally talk about this.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Wow. You know, it's funny. On the last episode we
were talking about the news was coming, The news was
coming soon. We even said it could be as soon
as the day that the episode drops. We were only
just a couple days off. But before we get into
the news, you know, we got a couple things that
we got to show. Here's the deal. You know what
you're doing at UFL podcast? What the hell are you doing?
(02:23):
Follow us at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok. You know the deal.
We're even on threads. Go on threads. We don't post ever,
we're there just in case we do. You might want
to follow us, hit the bell, do all the things
since we're over on YouTube as well. Subscribe. Click the
ballot builds morale? Were you feeling down? Were you hoping
that your team got a brand new head coach and
(02:45):
it didn't. Well, I know I might have been. I'm
not saying that. I would never say a way. But
if you want to build a little bit of morell
click that bell. It feels good and it lets you
know every time that we drop a new video and
we go live just like we will be for spring Stock.
For you know it happening. We don't know many of
the details ourselves now other than it's happening. So you
(03:06):
want to make sure you subscribe clicking the bell. Following
us on social media? Hey, and hey, if you want
to support us, here's what you do. Go over to
breakingt dot com, slash USFL Newsroom or use the promo
code USFL newsroom Old school, old school, and you can
save some money on some USFL gear XFL gear. Hey, hell,
(03:29):
you into the Major League Baseball They got that gear
over there as well, and you can save yourself ten
pretty old percent off by using that code again U
SFL Newsroom. Get signed up, boil boy zach Man. We
got righted. I feel like I got I feel like
I got things to do, places to go with that intro.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Today You're on one today, you are on one today.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Isn't it amazing? Though? Zach you see pre show me
and it'd show me, and going into this show, I
was like, Man, I don't know. I don't know if
I have the energy that I need to have to
host a premiere podcast such as ours, the UFL podcast. Say,
(04:15):
I don't know. I'm not feeling very reffye today, not
feeling very reffed up. But the second that we started
going here, I am. I'm ready to go. I'm signed up.
Put me in the middle of a football field because
I'm gonna help the rough necks go twelve and oh
rough them up. That's how I'm feeling.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
That's how it goes, dude. I love class. It's classic riff.
Even with the show where we have nothing to talk
about with anything, roughnecks still gotta put it in. It's
just how it works. But I'm glad you are. You're
pumped up, honestly, the fact we need to do two
shows back to back, you know, after getting off the
summer break a little last week. It's nice, you know,
and again it's gonna be. It's gonna keep more getting consistent.
(04:57):
I get the more talk to you on show, more
and more, Hella Wust. Things are go awright with our scheduling.
We'll be back on Monday for around the UFL because
we got our whole panel over there and we're kicking
that back into gear with This pretty much takes on
the similar news we're doing today, but you know, we
give it to you and then we break it down
and get crazy on ATU. That's how this works, you know.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, you know there's differing opinions, Zach. You know, I
feel like we're the good guys. Me especially, I'm the
best guy. I mean, Mike, well, you gotta hear from Bucky.
I mean he's talkative. You never know what kind of
popcorn he's gonna bring. Yeah, you know, is it gonna
be buttered? Is it gonna be salted? Is it gonna
be buttered and salted?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Is it gonna be PC's sprinkled in with hot popcorn?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
You know, speaking to the boy, I know this is
what people tune in for, but speaking to that, you know,
I was just talking to my wife the other day
about how we haven't been to the movies and forever
and I'm trying to find a movie to go to.
I was think of Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. I still haven't found
the time to go. I know it's going to be expensive,
but there's something about it. I haven't gone to a
(06:01):
movie and had movie popcorn, and I don't know, I
don't know. There's something about it where I just go
find a movie so I can go have some crappy
theater popcorn. And I heard Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice isn't that bad.
I heard it's not too great either, But you know what,
that's fine with me as long as it's not horrible.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
No, well, I think for me, so I think just
a real quick on that movie. First off, really seeing
at the beginning of September and people are claiming the
September's Halloween season, it's not to me it's October, but
now it's closer to that. To me now it's you
get probably a little more fall esque elsewhere. Maybe not
as much in Texas, definitely not out here in Arizona,
but you know other places. But that being said, god on,
(06:45):
you need to get that to a movie, my friend.
You're talking theater popcorn. I'm getting. I'm hitting the movies
this weekend myself. I got some buddies convincing me Transformers one.
I gotta go check that out.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
See this is what I love. I do. I have
noticed that the movie theaters have been doing what I
said they should always be doing, playing old movies. Playing dude,
throw Citizen Kane in there, brand new movie.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
This is the eighties movie. No, this is brand new. Man.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I didn't even know what. I didn't know they had
a new trade. This is how far out of the
loop I am. Man. Uh, you know I was looking
for anyway we have. Let me get back to the sports.
I was about to go down.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Another movie's done. We'll chat about this. Tell you an
update next week on how our films films were, you know,
hold on.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I'll keep you posted. I'll keep you posting. Here's the news.
Here's the thing that everybody tuned in for the Memphis
flipping show boats. They don't only have a new head coach,
they got a new general manager as well. We have
a couple more details are dude, James Larson from Pro
Football Newsroom, he was on the press call this week.
He's got some of those details and we're going to
(07:48):
get into them. But the first one up, Ken wizen Hunt, Zach.
I mean, there were some of the names we heard,
some of the names that were floating around in the background.
I'll be honest, Ken Hunt wasn't one of them that
I had heard up until more closely to when everything
was revealed. There were some coaches that familiar names, people
that maybe weren't in spring football. But Ken Wizenhunt. I'll
(08:11):
tell you if I was a show Boats fan, I'd
be pretty happy. Right now. I'm curious before we jump
into all things considered, what are your initial thoughts on
this hire.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Well, I'll be honest with you, Ken was Ken's one
that I wasn't sure I would even hear about because
it feels like he's another one that kind of, you know,
when we're talking about coaches, you like, familiar name, but
like slipped into obscurity or just kind of went to
the side a little bit to the side and kind
of went out of the public light. He's one that
definitely has done that since his last ten yere are Tennessee.
(08:44):
Now many of you know him as the former head
coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Basically, one good defensive play,
possibly away, or one good defensive drive, possibly from having
his old script as a coach completely flipped from Super
Bowl forty by that being said, you know, here we
are and credit or not forty but sorry, Oh, basically
(09:05):
he was one good player and it was forty. I'm
self doubting myself here. Just forget what I said. Anyhow,
ken to me and funny enough to a few people
I talk to. Kind of reminds me of Mike Nolan
right now. How he came in. Here's a guy, very
familiar face to those that are football fans, someone that
you know. Again, I think kind of fizzled out in
(09:26):
his NFL tenure and kind of you know, he had spots,
but wasn't really getting I would say good progress in
the NFL. His last NFL gig was with the Chargers
back in twenty nineteen. He then with the college scene
as an analyst. He's been in the college scene since
twenty twenty one, and now he gets a shot to
go back pro. But it's at a smaller scale and
(09:48):
outside developmental scale. And I think that's kind of what
I feel like he's jumping in is like, Hey, what
if I can And I think he might have got
that int from college, What if I can go somewhere
and take these guys maybe they need that little extra
talent coming out or looktual help coming out. And I
think that's what's happening here. And I think there's more
analysis than the fact that not only do you have
a coach that might want to have that track again
(10:10):
like Mike is having right now. And I think Mike's,
as he said multiple times, he enjoys this is one
of his favorite periods of his coaching career. But you know,
it's a veteran, very familiar name, which as you and
I and our discord by the way in the description,
have talked a lot about what was the direction the
league was going to go. Was it going to be
a veteran name, somebody that's recognizable, someone that has some
(10:33):
draw and you know, still maybe has some stuff left
but is more gone from his NFL career or college career.
Or would it be a youth name, somebody that has,
you know, shown some promise in the league internal hire.
Well one went away and here we are.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, I'll be honest, I was a little bit surprised
by that. I thought we were going to go with
a younger candidate. I thought we would go with a
candidate maybe with the name power. I know some people
might laugh at that, but I think Wiston Hunt does
have some name power. Now, granted I did live in
Arizona when the Cardinals went to the Super Bowl, I
may be the reason that they lost it, because I
just bring that kind of bad luck wherever I go
(11:13):
to those teams. Granted I don't live in Detroit. And
look at the Lions now, they're okay, they're good enough.
But you know, the one thing I'll say about the
hire for Wisden Hunt, I think he's I think he's
actually going to be really good for spring football. You
look at when he was successful, and it is with
that Cardinals team with Kurt Warner, which Zach you know
(11:34):
more than anybody has that history with Arena ball. And
had there been a spring football alternative around back then,
there's a good argument that he would be playing in
the UFL of that time and maybe not the Iowa
Barnstormers of the AFL.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
And my god, that Super Bowl forty three run, by
the way, recorrecting myself, forty he won as an assistant
with Pittsburgh. That's what I got confused. But that superb
forty three run was impressive. He was I mean, remember,
he was an offensive genius coming in at the time.
You know, that's how he got the job with Arizona.
That's you know, brought Kurt Warner in, helped revitalize his career.
(12:10):
Remember Kurt Warner when he came to the Cardinals, he
came as a backup. By the way, he was a
backup in New York for the Giants under Eli Manning.
A lot of people thought his career was dead. He
was that he had no gas left in the tank.
He helped revitalize him. Probably, I would argue, give that
final bit left to Kurt's Hall of Fame career. I
(12:31):
think I'm not saying that he wouldn't have gotten in
without it. But Kurt Warners remembered not only as a fan,
is an incredible greatest show on turf, the driving force
behind those rams, but that Cardinals era where he stepped in,
that's some of the best football he's ever played. And
Ken Wizn't is responsible for a lot of that, for
helping get his career back on track.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah. Now, what's interesting about this, and we may have
touched on this a little bit earlier. We'll dive in
a little bit now, Ken Wisenhunt is the one that
actually reached out to the UFL. Once he heard about
the opening in Memphis, he was intrigued. He was looking
back to get back, you know, in a more fulfilling role,
I would say, And you know, Darryl Johnston, he spoke
(13:15):
about it. They had a you know, they had a
press call earlier this week. I think I mentioned James
Larsen he had joined the call. But here's what Daryl
Johnson had to say. When Ken called, I was very,
very excited, and I was hopeful that he was calling
in regards to the Memphis opening, which, as we spoke about,
he was, which is a great thing all involved. I think, well,
(13:35):
when he let me know that it was something he
would love, he would love the opportunity to compete for
as part of the UFL moving forward, Johnston was excited.
We always talk about trying to get the best coaches,
who are the best teachers, who have the best contacts
and our staffs in the UFL. Those little details they matter,
and you know what, again kind of going to those
He's not just a coach in my mind. I think
(13:56):
he's a guy that can be a teacher for a
lot of these guys, and realistically, a rebuild, this is
arguably the largest rebuild, maybe tied with Houston when it
comes to you know, players, But if you even look
at this, the whole staff is going to be different.
(14:17):
Basically it seems like maybe not all of it, but
you have a new head coach, you have a new
general manager, which we'll talk about here a little bit later.
I think this is a good opportunity for wizen Hunt
to kind of show the football world. Hey, like you said, Zach,
I'm not done yet. Look at this thing I'm doing
over here. Yeah, you know, Okay, every coach has their
(14:37):
bad day, and maybe he didn't end things off the
greatest with the Titans, but you do you maybe have
All you need to do is get him in the playoffs.
You get him in the playoffs. You look at you
look at what the Malers did, going from having that
worst season, winning the Puper Bowl, getting into you know,
getting the draft picks, all of that, going to the
(14:59):
champion Chip. You didn't win it, but you went to
the championship. I mean that goes a long way. And
if he can do that for the show Boats, I
got a feeling that the Liberty Ball is going to
be looking pretty good. Which interjection here real quick they
put out the pricing structure for the season tickets for
the Liberty Bowl. Yep, it is so damn cheap. It
is like half the price of the of the rough
(15:21):
next season tickets. Oh and those are cheap, and those
are cheap, but yeah, you can still get like I
think it was around one hundred, one hundred and twenty
bucks for the cheapest season tickets ahead.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Well, I mean I'll tell you here that you got
to think you have to You're replacing your head coach
and GM, so you have to keep fans honest with
bringing in a whole new regime of personnel department essentially,
and you know, play on field guys that you're going
to be able to get the best out of what
you're going to bring on turf. That's not going to
be a train wreck of a year where it's two wins.
(15:53):
You know, that's the hope. You know. The other part
of it is, I mean, hey, that's stadium construction. You know,
I'm not saying it's the worst thing in the world,
but you have to play around it. And you also
kind of have not saying it's you can't get people,
but I almost feel like you have to entice people
more with stuff in the background just happening because they
(16:14):
kind of have to play through it with what they're doing.
No credit on the other side of this league keeps going,
They're gonna have one of the best venues in the
entire league once this is upgraded. Some of these shots.
If you've seen the renders here, here's the fun they are.
They're fantastic, but you gotta get through that first. So yeah,
you know, and again with with hiring Ken, I think
that's again recognizable name, you know, I think it's a
(16:38):
guy that again it's someone that I feel like is
like a Mike Nolan type. And it's not just me, like,
you know, I'm not associating My life is like instant analysis,
but like it's funny. I'm talking to my dad immediately
as this happens, and he and I were like on
the exact same page too. He's like, this is like
Mike Nolan, you know, again, someone that needs to get
a restart. You know, he's out of the NFL scene.
He got kind of an outside perspective look and getting
(16:59):
that itch back. So there's that. And then again you
finally get your GM set up so now you can
start taking guys in that you know, maybe aren't say
off of opinions of certain people as we might read
a little later, because it's interesting, like signings have happened,
just neither of them have been in the building yet
(17:20):
or on call yet to do that really.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Well, it's yeah, well it's interesting, right. So we kind
of brushed over this a little bit. So we had
twelve candidates for the job. It kind of got whittled
down to a handful. Wizen Hunt made the cut. Like
you just stated, though, James Larson quick to ask at
the press the press call that they had on you know,
the number of signings that were happening prior to the
(17:46):
prior to Wizon Hunt and being named. Honestly, you did
a better job of explaining it prior to us getting
on to this call. No curtains, I have no shame here. Okay,
do you want to dive into more detail on kind
of the earnings from that front.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Yeah, so, I mean, I I'll read off the quote
after this, but basically what they did to keep some
player base to come in with and to kind of
help with not starting from bare bones, because keep in mind,
it's been several months since the season has been over.
Free agency has been open now for near two months
at this point, so you know, they basically went in
(18:24):
and said, hey, we might not have the head coach
in GM, but we can at least go and talk
to them the coaching staff that was under flip and
kind of get analysis on who you think would be
a guy that they would essentially hire on bring back
in any way, and that was good talent from last
year they would be able to hire on that was
interested in coming back. So that's really what they did,
(18:48):
is what in that dead period, and it's just to
give some base for Ken Wizdunt and who will be
talking about Jim Monos here momentarily to at least start with.
And here's the full quote that Jamie. This is the
full quote from the media call, by the way, so
just quote and it's from Darryl Johnston, by the way, quote,
I think the big thing is with the structure of
(19:09):
our contracts and vulnerability of where we could have been
with another competitive league, we want to make sure that
we had a good foundation for the new h HC
and GM when they came in, that they wouldn't have
a roster that lost several of their key players. We
made a decision that was in the best interest of
the league moving forward. We sat down with coaches on
staff for Memphis and asked them to help us structure
(19:31):
something that would leave Memphis with a good foundation. We
wanted it to be throw And you know, the part
that I think also drives this home, you know, is
the competition piece, because again this isn't just you know,
we're not talking only UFL is the main one in
the door. You know, we're starting up with you know,
not saying that you want to if you can't, if
(19:51):
you go to the UFL, fine, but you know, you
got multiple different arena leagues that are starting their free
agency in October, like for new players you've got, you know,
as much as I know, we haven't talked as much
on this too big, but the IFA exists, and who
knows when they're going to kick things off soon enough,
you know where details coming soon apparently apparently. And then
(20:13):
also the CFL is still in season and they're going
to have guys that they're going to request to get
contracts or not. You know, so if you want, especially
with guys in North America, if you want to compete
and keep those players and there's some great players and
you can still be competitive and they don't want to leave.
Don't leave them hanging. You know, one thing I've learned
that you and I have learned. I think talking with players,
(20:34):
or like at least having players discussed with us and
colleagues here at PFN. These guys want to know what's
going on and if they like, if they want an
option that they enjoy, want to come back to you know,
they don't they can't wait around forever they have if
they are if people are coming to them in their
inbox and they're giving them opportunities to go somewhere they can,
they can talk with their agent and that agent goes,
(20:55):
you know what, maybe it's best you go take something
and get that film now. So you know, reading that analysis,
I kind of get it. You know, there's been some
great signings that Memphis has brought back that were pretty
good talents already or people that showed potential. So that
being said, like, you don't want to lose out on
those guys if you don't have to, So I get it.
(21:17):
Plus it's associating. You talk to coaches. The coaches at
least know a decent amount of what roster they feel
be a great fit to bring back. So that's a
nice sentiment to hear that they at least consulted with
at least the staff that may or may not stay
and Ken still gets to decide, but at least the
former of De Filipo staff they talk to in an
extensive amount when making these decisions for the show boats, which.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
You guy have to imagine probably puts those coaches a
little bit at ease too, because there's probably uncertainty, like
you mentioned, oh there's a new coach coming in, there's
a new GM. We don't even know what it is.
Do we even have a job, And so if they're
kind of consulting back and forth, they make them a
little bit less likely to start looking for jobs elsewhere
as well, because again, like you mentioned, there's opportunities all
(22:02):
over the place. Who would ever thought if you would
ask me, you know, two years before the AAF kicked off,
if we would have this much alternative football available, I
would say probably not. But here we are because we
have numerous arena outlets. We have the CFL, we have ELF,
we have i f A potentially, you know, it seems
like news is coming out soon and we have, of
(22:23):
course the UFL, which is really if you're combine everything
all up, we're looking at you know, like your season five. Yeah, right,
four and a half.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Shout out to Ryan Fire by the way, back to
back camps, Baby, let's get that up.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Sign them up.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled. Also ram thing Ben Holmes, good
to see he's doing well. He was Vikings by the
way in that championship and.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
They locked him down right away. They said, you know what,
we're not letting you go to the UFL. We want
you back this thing.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
There's competition, even if that's like minimum in the ELF. Look,
they're still looking for good American people to hire on.
So you got it. There's a lot more in the
space now that's gonna be asking around trying to get people.
So it's good to hire on. I'll tell you one
that I was happy that I saw go across the wire.
They got Troy Williams back, who ended the season starting
as quarterback for the Showboats. And again, these guys could
(23:17):
scatter to the wind if they wanted to, if they
didn't feel comfortable coming back, you know, So having someone
like a Troy Williams who's under under your belt right now.
At least you have a quarterback that was pretty solid
at the end of the season. And as we remember,
Memphis just needs to figure out what's going on with
their front line. Their defense did the best they could
(23:39):
to maintain things. Because you and I have talked in
multiple extensive times and this will be the responsibility of
Jim Monas, who will talk about slight a little bit
momentarily and Ken wizen Hunt figure out your front five.
On that side, Troy's an athletic being. We saw he
can make plays, but you can't escape sacks forever. That's
what we saw last year.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
No, not at all. So, like you mentioned, Jim Anos
coming in as general manager now interesting, See, this is
one thing that I always love to see. He has
prior Spring league experience and on a couple numerous occasions,
so he was let's see here, he was the director
of player Personnel for the San Diego Fleet of the
AAF in twenty nineteen, so at least for the half
(24:22):
a little bit over half season that they were around.
But then he came on as senior director of football
Operations for the XFL from twenty twenty two to twenty
twenty three, so he has even closer ties to what
is now the UFL because, as we all know, the
USFL and the XFL merged last year ish going into
you know this year, you know you get my point.
(24:44):
So one, I love to see that because he, to me,
you kind of want, especially as a GM who's kind
of helping find those players to build out the team.
He's a guy, a guy that's been around the Spring
Football League, seen spring footb ball scene, and I don't know,
there is a certain kind of player that I think
(25:04):
does excel in spring football.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
A good player is going to be a good player
no matter what. But there are certain players that I
feel like and similar to what we've seen in Arena
in the past, there's players that will become the superstar
of that league and maybe not move on to the NFL.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. That's not a
bad thing. Sure, everybody's goal is to move up, but
you know what is even nicer having the opportunity to
(25:29):
do the thing that you love, your dream for a
few more years. And I think somebody like this is
going to be able to help kind of scout that
out and help bring some of those people to the team. Again,
like we said, they're rebuilding now. He doesn't just have
spring experience. He has experience with the Bills Serbians director
of player Personnel from twenty thirteen to twenty seventeen. Interestingly enough,
(25:53):
overlapped with the CEO of the UFL's time with the Bills. Right. Yeah,
there's a lot of Bills stuff have been in the
Spring football, whether it's people there currently, people there in
the past. Uh. But this is just another one of
those names. Now again, if I was a Showboats fan,
I'd be pretty happy right now in comparison to having
(26:14):
no coach, no general manager. You know, to me, these
are these are some good names to join on board. Now,
there were some people clowning on them because he had
his Uber eats listed on his on his LinkedIn And
you know what, there's no shame in that game he's got.
You know what, you gotta keep your electricity on and
pay the bills. I mean, you know what, he didn't
even have to put it on LinkedIn. That's how much
(26:36):
of a man Jim Mono says. He said, you know,
you know what, I'm keeping my family fed, eat it,
you know what, So you know what, Luke, I'm looking
at you. Everyone ever, it's all it's all funny games.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Here forgot for God's sake. If you want me to
go into my list of stuff, let me just double
check if I still this is on my LinkedIn. Yeah,
I still got what we were to lift drive experience
up there too.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
I got PFN on my LinkedIn.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
I need to add that on myself, so I need
to get that on that. I don't know why I haven't
done that yet, but we'll get that sort of later.
You and I can talk anyway. I think the thing
that grabs me, you know, yes, the the Buffalo Bill's portion.
That's the clear, clear connection. Okay, that's right there. You
can look at that and say, oh timeframe boom, easy
(27:28):
that Rus Brandon was there. That's a pretty quick phone
call if he's out and about the Sandy. The experience
with the fleet I think is pretty valuable. I think
now we've seen enough in the last five years of
people that have been in the alternate and spring football
scene now, not just the NFL, but we're seeing guys
(27:49):
that are used to like, Okay, what does it take
for me to run this type of operation where you know,
different salaries, different budgets, different talent pool. That's not the
cream of the crop, but it's guys that you're you know,
it's the next half step below or something like that
for a lot of them, or guys that are just
trying to get back up that are there. They just
(28:10):
are looking for that place to get in because competition's tight,
and so having someone like that, you know, and you know,
I think is really great to have. You know the
fact he also again worked with one of the better
teams in the AAF, you know, in terms of I
think helping build that roster out that was a playoff
team before things shut down later in that season. So
(28:31):
you know, I think that grabs me the most, honestly.
So I'll take that again. Connections to the XFL as
well in the last few years, it seems like it's
a quick, pretty quick and easy, quick and easy replacement
for Dennispollon and somebody that you know, I think a
little less than Dennis has even more background to what
(28:51):
we follow. You know, you know, what, where can I
find these guys that are the diamonds in the rough,
because that's what you're trying to do. It's diamonds in
the rough. Guys, your stars are the ones that the
NFL scouts or college scouts missed out on and didn't
fully appreciate. That's the people you're going to see that
blow up and do this thing like a ricky person.
(29:12):
I think, like last year, we saw someone that came
up through the indoor scene and was scouted out by
Zach Potter and crew, and look at him. He was
basically at one point going to be their belcal back
and was one of the main reasons they won the
UFL championship last year. So those are the people you're
looking for. And it takes good personal people like that
that know the scene and know what they're trying to
(29:33):
look for. Just take his little extra glance deeper into
the microscope when you're checking a player out.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah. Now, I'll be curious to see how much does
this team rebrand itself in the vision of Wizzen hunting Monos, right,
so we question, you know, I think we'll see a
lot of new players join on board. I think they'll
do their best to kind of scout a whole bunch
of guys going into training campus to kind of test
the waters see what works best for them. But it'll
(29:59):
it'll be it t to see. I'll be keeping my
eyes on the coaching staffs right the rest of the staffs,
and kind of seeing, okay, is anybody leaving, is anybody
new coming in? Because I think there's an opportunity here
to shake things up, right, Whenever there's a new coach,
there's an opportunity to shake things up. So it'll be
an interesting couple few months, I think as we head
(30:20):
into the new year and get closer to training camp. Always,
you know, it's funny, even though we're deep into the
off season every year, it feels like it rings true.
Once you get to September, that's when the ball starts
all in a little October maybe a little bit more
maybe similar November, December, and then by January we're going
(30:40):
to be running on all full cylinders, going full steam
ahead with UFL news left and right, and I'm looking
forward to it. But the fact that we get to
we're getting some of these I would say, feeling like
bigger nuggets earlier than we would have in the past,
especially last year. Last year was a little bit different
with the merger. Everything was really tight lipped and a
(31:01):
couple things leaked out and bits and pieces came out
and half of a thing came out. But it wasn't
even really until the new year, until you know, the
news became official, the teams became official, and then what happened.
It was full onslaught of news. What I would like
to see though, I would like to see Fox throw
(31:23):
some UFL promos during some of these NFL games. Maybe
I missed them, but I haven't seen it in this
season yet. Maybe we'll wait till the playoffs. I know
they've done that in the past, but I would like
to see it. Yeah, And we talked about the venue
thing in the past. You know, if you have any
(31:44):
doubts that the UFL was only leveraging or Fox was
only leveraging the UFL to have extra content on venue,
I mean, some are saying it could be dead in
the water, it could be over before star, which is
right now. That but I'll I'll say you this, by
them bringing on wizen Hunt, to me, that's that's a
(32:06):
that's a stronger play to me. There's there's a message
there that says, hey, look, we're here, and we're like
Daryl Johnston said, like Moose said, we're looking for the
best of the best of the coaches, the teachers, whatever
it is. The people that want to come join our league,
we want them here. And I feel like the signing
(32:28):
kind of rings true when it comes to that statement. Uh,
I know there was a lot of folks that were
looking for that younger head coach me included. I would
love to see it, but I'll say there is there
is something positive to the to them hiring a bigger name.
You could argue for good or bad, but I would
say I think there is something good to it, at
(32:49):
minimum from the messaging standpoint that they're not messing around.
They're they're here, They're they're going to be they want
to be as good as they can be. And again,
if he take that tam team to the UFL Championship
or even the playoffs, you get them to the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Honestly, yeah, that's a win. Just get them to the
playoff matchup. I think that would do wonders ether that
or he'd just be even more competitive, you know, I
think you know, if you followed any of this roster,
you know, remember we're talking this is the former Tampa
Bay band. It's that did get converted. You know, it's
been a five hundred team best and last year was
(33:29):
the low point, and I think that's something that they're
trying to see, can we get someone they can break
through now. And you know it's some people got to
lose to people gotta win. That's how it is. It's just,
you know, I think one thing that showed last year
just listening to comments, listening to talk and conversation about
the league, they really want to fix Memphis, I think
as a market, or at least get that interest back.
(33:49):
It felt like last year that some people, it seemed
in comments if I don't know if you agree, but
they felt like they missed the mark in that market
really bad and that they know they they know they
have it. They've seen it, we've seen it. That it's
an interested market, but they got to get it re energized,
is the thing. And this is a big year I
think for the Memphis market for them. I think you're
(34:09):
gonna see a lot of push to get that market
back up to where they want it to be at
least a step in the right direction. Because again, I
think it's just I think there's great people down there
we've talked to, and there's great fans down there. You know,
they just got to get winning football and not to
mention you get the fans back. I'm telling you within
come next season, the next season, they will have one
(34:31):
of the gems of this league when it comes to venues.
That that mockup they're doing for Memphis. It looks fantastic,
But you got to get to that point. You don't
want to I don't want to talk about any potential changes,
but you know, it feels like it's uh, it feels
like this year is a big year to get the
Memphis market going again, or at least to get it
(34:52):
to where it was in the USFL when it was
two seasons ago.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
For sure. Well, we know in the past there was
rumors that that there was different ownership teams that may
be interested in different teams across the league, one of
which may have been Memphis. I mean this this signing
or signing, but the with bringing on wizen Hunt, I
mean that could not I I only this is speculation zone.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
By the way, Yes it is, definitely, but I don't know.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
It feels to me that they're they're yeah, they're they're
trying to put at minimum extra attention into Memphis show
the fans because you said deck. They have a strong
community already out there. They got the yacht club, they
got they got they got, they got their barbecue and
all sorts of things, I mean, sponsor of Springstock three
(35:40):
and two and all sorts of different events we've had.
So yeah, I know there. I think that I hope
at least good things for Memphis. Now, I can't say
I know they're not going to make it to the
championship Sumy, but we already know who is. It's the
Houston Roughnecks because we're gonna go twelve and oho, So
that means they're at least two games now. If they
(36:01):
can get out of the rest of those eight games,
if they can win like six to seven of them,
they're probably looking in pretty good shape. Can they beat
the Stallions, I don't know. We'll see, but I can
tell you they're not going to beat the Roughnecks because
we're going twelve and zero. Rough them up and their
stadium might be nice in you know, not this upcoming
(36:22):
season but the season after, but it will still only
be second only to TDECU Stadium. Talk about beautiful, beautiful
TDECU Stadium.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
I mean, I mean, just think about this. You get
TDCU back this coming year. You know, we get the
we get the Ford Field items, which I mean I
haven't heard a minute about that, but I mean it's
they seems like they're talking with them again to get it, Doug,
because again, it's a gorgeous it's one of the best
venues they have in their disposal. You get this, you
get the Livery Bowl essentially marked up and set up
(36:54):
the way it is. I mean, we're talking some great
places these teams are playing at.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
And you got new terms from Saint Louis now, which
I would always that was always my hang up with
the dog, and.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Yeah it's fifteen anymore. It's gonna look like it's, you know, again,
brand new venue. And they're trying to get more funding
for the venue too, besides the turf, Like yeah, there's
good place to just keep that's building that direction. So
you know, it's got to keep the markets interested. They know,
we know.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the
first game back at TDCU. I'm looking forward to that
first damn tailgate at td e c U. I'm looking
forward to it all man. It is I know, with
the the select few people that I talked to in
the area that are interested in the league. They are
amped up, they are ready to go. And I'll tell
(37:44):
you I wouldn't even be shocked if the fans, you know,
fans of the Renegades and fans of the Brahmas, are
a little bit happy that tdecus back because I know
a lot of those guys travel Brama Babe, she's one
of them. I've seen her at both those Rough Next games.
I seeing her up in Arlington, I've seen her at
the Championship. So I mean, these people travel around, and
(38:06):
so you know, the better you can make it, the
better all around. Now I would love to see and
I know we're basically wrapping up the show, but this
is something I would love for the UFL to do.
You got three teams in Texas, yep. Throw something out
there where you do a deal where you do a
bus ride. You rent a bus and you say, hey,
(38:26):
if you're in Houston and Houston's playing in Dallas this week,
you can spend fifty bucks and you take the bus there,
you get a seat, and then you take the seat,
you get a bus trip back and you roll deep
with a whole bunch of people that are you make
you create traveling fans that way.
Speaker 4 (38:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
I know I and my wife would get on. I
will probably drive to the game. But if there was
a bus where I'm like, you know what, I can
chill with my tailgate folks and just do a road
trip in a bus with them, I'll probably take the bus,
you know what I mean? Screw it. Maybe the liches
aren't there, maybe it doesn't make sense. Maybe it's sky
more than fifty bucks. I don't know. I don't feel
(39:05):
like there's a price point that could work.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
I was gonna say, I doubt that it's not logistical
or it can't work, because I'll tell you this has
been a thing that's been going on in arena leagues
for years now. They use these bus store things when
it comes to close by opponents. I mean, for Christ's sake,
when they were both in the NAL, Jacksonville Orlando used
to do this on the regular where they would bust
guys up and back, and it created good rivalries because
(39:29):
you would bring in fans to those venues and you know,
engage more in credit. Some of these are UFL fans
out there are fantastic at driving venues. I've seen Again,
the Brahmas do really well getting their group to travel,
you know, and again we've seen I've seen Houston fans
out in Arlington. I've seen Arlington fans go elsewhere and about.
But you can you can help bring that up if
(39:49):
you are able to with the right packages. I think
what it doesn't help right now, and maybe you'll agree
with me on this is a ticketing office is still
kind of only located really in r that I'm aware of,
So like you do have people that go out to
these markets, is per se, but you know, it's still
run everything into the central hub. All the illegue offices,
personnel and such are in Arlington, Texas, so that with
(40:13):
the organizing things. I don't know if that's just a
logistical problem because it's that the buses you should do though,
I mean the Texas teams, it's the Texas Triangle. They're
all drivable within reason. For fans to ride on a
bus to go and rally for your troops, I think
that's a gricking idea. They need to talk about it.
If they haven't talked about it, or at least have,
someone's got to get the executed soon, because I mean,
(40:33):
it should make more sense in a league like this,
even more so than even Arena because there's I mean
more expenditures and I think flexibility in this case. So
that's my thought.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
With three Texas teams, you're looking at what three times
what six games a year, ten to thirty games, I
don't know, whatever it is something like that. So six
games a year, I think that is what it will
come out to. Yeah, so minimum, that's not even if
you do it for half of them. Do it do
it for one, Do it for one, you know what
I mean, test it out, see what happens. I know
it is something they were talking about doing in twenty
(41:04):
twenty when the Roughnecks went up to play the Dallas Renegades.
At the time, they ultimately didn't do it, but we
had a whole boatload of Roughnecks fans come out there.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
And now think about this, so Houston, remember they're not
This is one thing I always is interesting that we
remember Houston's not in the same conference as San Antonio
or Arlington. And right, you know, we used to talk
about how in the twenty twenty XFL, you know, Texas
Throwtown was a two part series. Now, okay, it's one
(41:35):
game a year, like, you can make that essentially like
a college rivalry day because they get one shot. You
get one shot to beat your your big rival up
in Dallas or well, Dallas Metro. You get one big
shot to beat your rival down in Southern Texas in Houston,
in h Town, like pump that up. They kind of
did last year, they didn't twenty twenty. Get back to that.
(41:57):
That's a rivalry people like, let's do this. The Texas
teams keep pumping.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
That and this year if they make because they did
make a Texas Throwdown T shirt which I had to buy,
but I would say one critique, if you do another
one for this next season, instead of using silhouettes of players,
use real players. Put the player. That's the one thing
I loved about those breaking T shirts. I loved in
the original, well not the original, but the twenty twenty
(42:21):
XFL because I had a whole bunch of PJ Walker gear,
Like they were really good at churning out gear for
the players. I would love to see more of that.
I would love to see more of that. Maybe we will.
Now that things you know, the merger, I'll give them
the reasons all day and night that merger was rough
and the fact that they got on the field on TV,
minimum minimal issues. Sign them up, Sign them up. We
(42:44):
have a lot more leeway, a lot more runway this time.
Let's let's get back into some of more of those things.
I would love to.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
See it right right, man, I'm in.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Any any other topic, Zach. I know it's off season.
We could go off topic. I don't know if you
have anything.
Speaker 4 (42:59):
I mean, nothing crazy. I mean I'll pound my chest
and say thank you cool Hikotini for coming back to
Michigan Panthers. So like again, it's a lot of if
you guys aren't keeping up, transactions are still regularly ish
coming in. There's still got days where it says there's
nothing going on, which those are the funniest ones. There
are no transactions today, guys breaking at least they're.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Telling us though, when everybody has to wait around because
they know they know there's people that are like, where
are the transactions are?
Speaker 2 (43:26):
They?
Speaker 1 (43:26):
I gotta update my spreadsheet so you know what they're
doing to my cell? They say, you know what, take
the night off, go play some sudoku or whatever you
want to do. You're good.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
But yeah, but yeah, I'm uh I'm happy for that.
Samson Nakua is back as well, so like it's more
Michigan stuff, but like we're bringing bringing the squad back
this time or make it different, goull pull out all
the stops feeling it. Maybe we'll get our shot.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
We'll see, we'll see, we will see. Well, that's another
big fun week of the UFL podcast. It's you know,
maybe not the longest episode, but not all of them
need to be like hour two hour long bangers. I'm
sure a tou we'll ramble on for twenty hours on
that show. So you know what, another reason to subscribe
click the bell, It builds Morella also lets you know
(44:14):
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(44:35):
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(44:59):
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(45:21):
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I think that's all. Make sure you follow us.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Make sure you.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Follow Zachy Boy because he plays video games on Tuesday
and he's always dropping soda reviews, pop reviews. We never
talk about that on the show, but I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (45:46):
I appreciate the plug, and yeah, if you want to
check it out. Tuesday's eight o'clock Eastern time. We just
right now. It's mostly football games. That being said, though,
him and I before we are been scheming we're gonna
get a we're gonna get a special UFL podcast edition
of the stream. Just need to pick a game and
get some things sorted out. You know, it's all technical,
but we'll get it done. But yeah, Tuesday's eight o'clock.
(46:07):
Every week you can sit with me. We'll chat football,
Washington play NFL Street right now. Are gonna be blitzed
the league soon? So yeah, thanks to the promo, my friend,
you didn't have to do that.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Well, you know, you know, I'm I felt like this
show is so short. I was like I got a
slide something I was saying here. We never damn talk
about it, We never damn talk about it, but you
do in it like I always see. That's all I
see is your posts about something. How real quick? I
got to ask, how was the oreo the both ways?
I guess I assume probably not.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
Very Yeah, because I did try the cookie while I
was in Chicago, I was like, screw it. It's at
this seven eleven. I'll pick it up. To those that
want to try, I'll give you the quick Okay, the TLDR.
The soda is much better than the cookie. I'll give
it that much more enjoyable experience the cookies, like if
(47:00):
I dumped coca cola on the cookie and that's what
it was.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
So we drink like a creamy cola almost.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
It's like it was more like light because it's it's
coke zero, but like it was a little lighter. It
wasn't creamy. It's like, but it does that one I
like because it does taste like an oreo mostly and
they don't like distract you with the cola flavor. So
that was okay. It was like a liquid oreo. The
other ones, like if you have an oreo and you
just freaking spilled your coke on it and it just
(47:30):
Coca cola. By the way, I'm not getting freaking demonetized
over something like that.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Half of our crowd's like, oh hell yeah, they're running
to the.
Speaker 4 (47:42):
Gonna give me, give me. But yeah, I saw try it.
Try it at least once. Try once.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
I still have to and I have to do it sooner.
They're all gonna go bad. But I have all sorts
of snacks from the UK, uh, like roasted chicken, potato chips,
oh my god, like beef rings and all sorts of
weird and wacky things that I have to do soon.
Otherwise they're just gonna go bad. They're just gonna be
grosser than they potentially could be. So I'm probably gonna
(48:10):
record that this weekend. And I don't know. I'm working
on all sorts of things. Zachi boy, You know me,
I never stop. I just got a promotion at work.
We're doing this show, we're doing a tou I'm looking
at even addings a couple other things to the list.
I you know what, Yolo, yolo baby, you only live once.
Speaker 4 (48:27):
You got it, man, one.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
Of these days I'm gonna be old. I'm gonna it's
gonna be like, I don't know, one of those movies
where they're talking to a grand kid and they're like, well,
one of these days, that's gonna be me. And you
know what, there's two paths to that. There's one path
where I said, you know what, I just sat around
and I worked and I worked hard, and I have
this house. And there's another path where I say, I worked,
I worked hard, and I have this house, and look
at these cool press passes from spring football, and look
(48:51):
at this podcast that I do with my buddy, and
and and and and sooner or later, I'm gonna be
too old, too old to do any of it, So
I might as well do it now while I can.
And so that's why we do these things. And this
is why I always encourage people. If you want to
do a podcast, you want to do a thing, you
should do it. I mean competition, Who cares about competition?
Everybody's got competition. You think the best rapper in the
(49:13):
world became the best rapper in the world by not
having competition. I mean, somebody's got to be the best,
somebody's got to be the worst. But I mean, you know,
even the best isn't always solidified to be the best, right,
So I think everybody should do it. Build bird houses,
build bird houses. You should do whatever you do. Sign
you up doing anything, but sitting around doing nothing. Sitting
(49:35):
around doing nothing is like the enemy of your soul.
It'll you'll quickly dwindle away and be tired. And case
in point, I was so tired going into this. Now
I'm full of life. I could rip a phone book
in half, maybe with just my pinkies.
Speaker 4 (49:53):
Hey, I think it helps when you get when you
get talk with a friend. Hell yeah, football has been
kind to us. I gotta say it's for the sport
in general, it has been kind to us, and I
I know you and I will forever be grateful. Wherever
the hell happens down the road. This time frame, it's
(50:15):
been wonderful.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
The stories that we have already alone have made it
worth it, right, The things that we've done alone have
made it worth it. The things that we were able
to accomplish, the fact that we've done not a live show,
multiple live shows every year. This show kind of went
right into it and did our thing. Hey, sign us up.
Doesn't always work that way, trust me. I know I
have a whole basket of failures. But yet it's the
(50:40):
thing you need. Nobody doesn't fail in life, right, And
if you don't fail, that means you're not doing any
of this.
Speaker 4 (50:47):
How you pick yourself up and move forward from things
you learn from that stuff.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
I love to fail. I love failing. Failing is my
favorite thing to do because then it just means, Okay,
I'm done with that project and I started a new one.
And when it doesn't fail, then I just We're going
on almost seven years in newsroom, Zach is not hadn't
failed yet, and so sooner or lady, you keep doing things.
One of these things will stick. Is it gonna make
you a millionaire? No, I'll tell you firsthand, I'm not
(51:13):
a millionaire. I'm not even one hundred thousand air, you
know what I mean. But you know what, I'm a
happy air. I'm a happy air. And that's sometimes Sometimes
that's all you got. Sometimes that's all you got is
your look at life. Anyway, once I start talking and
rambling like that, it's probably a sure sign that we
should wrap things up. I already went over all the
shill stuff. You know where to find us, you know
(51:34):
where to follow us. But do the things. Do it,
click the discord, all that until next time, folks, sign
you up.
The Memphis Showboats have a brand new head coach, and
the gang is here to talk about that. Join us
on episode ninety one of d UFL Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
One Killed three.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Welcome back, everybody to another amazing edition of d UFL podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm the rep representing Pro Football Newsroom, the leaders in
spring football news, and boy oh boy, oh, boy oh boy,
do we got a big week for you. But before
we get started, I'm joined as always by my man,
(01:05):
Zach Kleman. How you doing today, my friend?
Speaker 4 (01:09):
Oh, I'm fresh off coming away from a different side
of the football universe. Uh, you know, over in Chicago,
talking a little little arena. I won't go into details
for folks, by the way, so no.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
One knows that. Don't just you know, you could drop
the nuggets here. Yeah, I see what you're doing. I
see what you're doing.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
But then I won't be getting I won't be taking
photos anymore if you catch my drift.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So they want if at the legends table anymore? Yeah,
no Legends table.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
I can't. I can't go to the winter. When I
can't go with the winners anymore, I'll be I'll be
stuck on the sidelines, and you know, not being able
to help that. But right now it's UFL Talk. I'm back,
I'm fresh, I'm ready to go. There's tons going on
in this off season with football leagues, and finally, one
of the key cogs of this UFL offseason, well at
least two of them in one combined package, gets finished
(01:58):
and finalized. We can finally talk about this.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Wow. You know, it's funny. On the last episode we
were talking about the news was coming, The news was
coming soon. We even said it could be as soon
as the day that the episode drops. We were only
just a couple days off. But before we get into
the news, you know, we got a couple things that
we got to show. Here's the deal. You know what
you're doing at UFL podcast? What the hell are you doing?
(02:23):
Follow us at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok. You know the deal.
We're even on threads. Go on threads. We don't post ever,
we're there just in case we do. You might want
to follow us, hit the bell, do all the things
since we're over on YouTube as well. Subscribe. Click the
ballot builds morale? Were you feeling down? Were you hoping
that your team got a brand new head coach and
(02:45):
it didn't. Well, I know I might have been. I'm
not saying that. I would never say a way. But
if you want to build a little bit of morell
click that bell. It feels good and it lets you
know every time that we drop a new video and
we go live just like we will be for spring Stock.
For you know it happening. We don't know many of
the details ourselves now other than it's happening. So you
(03:06):
want to make sure you subscribe clicking the bell. Following
us on social media? Hey, and hey, if you want
to support us, here's what you do. Go over to
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save some money on some USFL gear XFL gear. Hey, hell,
(03:29):
you into the Major League Baseball They got that gear
over there as well, and you can save yourself ten
pretty old percent off by using that code again U
SFL Newsroom. Get signed up, boil boy zach Man. We
got righted. I feel like I got I feel like
I got things to do, places to go with that intro.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Today You're on one today, you are on one today.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Isn't it amazing? Though? Zach you see pre show me
and it'd show me, and going into this show, I
was like, Man, I don't know. I don't know if
I have the energy that I need to have to
host a premiere podcast such as ours, the UFL podcast. Say,
(04:15):
I don't know. I'm not feeling very reffye today, not
feeling very reffed up. But the second that we started
going here, I am. I'm ready to go. I'm signed up.
Put me in the middle of a football field because
I'm gonna help the rough necks go twelve and oh
rough them up. That's how I'm feeling.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
That's how it goes, dude. I love class. It's classic riff.
Even with the show where we have nothing to talk
about with anything, roughnecks still gotta put it in. It's
just how it works. But I'm glad you are. You're
pumped up, honestly, the fact we need to do two
shows back to back, you know, after getting off the
summer break a little last week. It's nice, you know,
and again it's gonna be. It's gonna keep more getting consistent.
(04:57):
I get the more talk to you on show, more
and more, Hella Wust. Things are go awright with our scheduling.
We'll be back on Monday for around the UFL because
we got our whole panel over there and we're kicking
that back into gear with This pretty much takes on
the similar news we're doing today, but you know, we
give it to you and then we break it down
and get crazy on ATU. That's how this works, you know.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, you know there's differing opinions, Zach. You know, I
feel like we're the good guys. Me especially, I'm the
best guy. I mean, Mike, well, you gotta hear from Bucky.
I mean he's talkative. You never know what kind of
popcorn he's gonna bring. Yeah, you know, is it gonna
be buttered? Is it gonna be salted? Is it gonna
be buttered and salted?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Is it gonna be PC's sprinkled in with hot popcorn?
Speaker 1 (05:39):
You know, speaking to the boy, I know this is
what people tune in for, but speaking to that, you know,
I was just talking to my wife the other day
about how we haven't been to the movies and forever
and I'm trying to find a movie to go to.
I was think of Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. I still haven't found
the time to go. I know it's going to be expensive,
but there's something about it. I haven't gone to a
(06:01):
movie and had movie popcorn, and I don't know, I
don't know. There's something about it where I just go
find a movie so I can go have some crappy
theater popcorn. And I heard Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice isn't that bad.
I heard it's not too great either, But you know what,
that's fine with me as long as it's not horrible.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
No, well, I think for me, so I think just
a real quick on that movie. First off, really seeing
at the beginning of September and people are claiming the
September's Halloween season, it's not to me it's October, but
now it's closer to that. To me now it's you
get probably a little more fall esque elsewhere. Maybe not
as much in Texas, definitely not out here in Arizona,
but you know other places. But that being said, god on,
(06:45):
you need to get that to a movie, my friend.
You're talking theater popcorn. I'm getting. I'm hitting the movies
this weekend myself. I got some buddies convincing me Transformers one.
I gotta go check that out.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
See this is what I love. I do. I have
noticed that the movie theaters have been doing what I
said they should always be doing, playing old movies. Playing dude,
throw Citizen Kane in there, brand new movie.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
This is the eighties movie. No, this is brand new. Man.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I didn't even know what. I didn't know they had
a new trade. This is how far out of the
loop I am. Man. Uh, you know I was looking
for anyway we have. Let me get back to the sports.
I was about to go down.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Another movie's done. We'll chat about this. Tell you an
update next week on how our films films were, you know,
hold on.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I'll keep you posted. I'll keep you posting. Here's the news.
Here's the thing that everybody tuned in for the Memphis
flipping show boats. They don't only have a new head coach,
they got a new general manager as well. We have
a couple more details are dude, James Larson from Pro
Football Newsroom, he was on the press call this week.
He's got some of those details and we're going to
(07:48):
get into them. But the first one up, Ken wizen Hunt, Zach.
I mean, there were some of the names we heard,
some of the names that were floating around in the background.
I'll be honest, Ken Hunt wasn't one of them that
I had heard up until more closely to when everything
was revealed. There were some coaches that familiar names, people
that maybe weren't in spring football. But Ken Wizenhunt. I'll
(08:11):
tell you if I was a show Boats fan, I'd
be pretty happy. Right now. I'm curious before we jump
into all things considered, what are your initial thoughts on
this hire.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Well, I'll be honest with you, Ken was Ken's one
that I wasn't sure I would even hear about because
it feels like he's another one that kind of, you know,
when we're talking about coaches, you like, familiar name, but
like slipped into obscurity or just kind of went to
the side a little bit to the side and kind
of went out of the public light. He's one that
definitely has done that since his last ten yere are Tennessee.
(08:44):
Now many of you know him as the former head
coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Basically, one good defensive play,
possibly away, or one good defensive drive, possibly from having
his old script as a coach completely flipped from Super
Bowl forty by that being said, you know, here we
are and credit or not forty but sorry, Oh, basically
(09:05):
he was one good player and it was forty. I'm
self doubting myself here. Just forget what I said. Anyhow,
ken to me and funny enough to a few people
I talk to. Kind of reminds me of Mike Nolan
right now. How he came in. Here's a guy, very
familiar face to those that are football fans, someone that
you know. Again, I think kind of fizzled out in
(09:26):
his NFL tenure and kind of you know, he had spots,
but wasn't really getting I would say good progress in
the NFL. His last NFL gig was with the Chargers
back in twenty nineteen. He then with the college scene
as an analyst. He's been in the college scene since
twenty twenty one, and now he gets a shot to
go back pro. But it's at a smaller scale and
(09:48):
outside developmental scale. And I think that's kind of what
I feel like he's jumping in is like, Hey, what
if I can And I think he might have got
that int from college, What if I can go somewhere
and take these guys maybe they need that little extra
talent coming out or looktual help coming out. And I
think that's what's happening here. And I think there's more
analysis than the fact that not only do you have
a coach that might want to have that track again
(10:10):
like Mike is having right now. And I think Mike's,
as he said multiple times, he enjoys this is one
of his favorite periods of his coaching career. But you know,
it's a veteran, very familiar name, which as you and
I and our discord by the way in the description,
have talked a lot about what was the direction the
league was going to go. Was it going to be
a veteran name, somebody that's recognizable, someone that has some
(10:33):
draw and you know, still maybe has some stuff left
but is more gone from his NFL career or college career.
Or would it be a youth name, somebody that has,
you know, shown some promise in the league internal hire.
Well one went away and here we are.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, I'll be honest, I was a little bit surprised
by that. I thought we were going to go with
a younger candidate. I thought we would go with a
candidate maybe with the name power. I know some people
might laugh at that, but I think Wiston Hunt does
have some name power. Now, granted I did live in
Arizona when the Cardinals went to the Super Bowl, I
may be the reason that they lost it, because I
just bring that kind of bad luck wherever I go
(11:13):
to those teams. Granted I don't live in Detroit. And
look at the Lions now, they're okay, they're good enough.
But you know, the one thing I'll say about the
hire for Wisden Hunt, I think he's I think he's
actually going to be really good for spring football. You
look at when he was successful, and it is with
that Cardinals team with Kurt Warner, which Zach you know
(11:34):
more than anybody has that history with Arena ball. And
had there been a spring football alternative around back then,
there's a good argument that he would be playing in
the UFL of that time and maybe not the Iowa
Barnstormers of the AFL.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
And my god, that Super Bowl forty three run, by
the way, recorrecting myself, forty he won as an assistant
with Pittsburgh. That's what I got confused. But that superb
forty three run was impressive. He was I mean, remember,
he was an offensive genius coming in at the time.
You know, that's how he got the job with Arizona.
That's you know, brought Kurt Warner in, helped revitalize his career.
(12:10):
Remember Kurt Warner when he came to the Cardinals, he
came as a backup. By the way, he was a
backup in New York for the Giants under Eli Manning.
A lot of people thought his career was dead. He
was that he had no gas left in the tank.
He helped revitalize him. Probably, I would argue, give that
final bit left to Kurt's Hall of Fame career. I
(12:31):
think I'm not saying that he wouldn't have gotten in
without it. But Kurt Warners remembered not only as a fan,
is an incredible greatest show on turf, the driving force
behind those rams, but that Cardinals era where he stepped in,
that's some of the best football he's ever played. And
Ken Wizn't is responsible for a lot of that, for
helping get his career back on track.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Yeah. Now, what's interesting about this, and we may have
touched on this a little bit earlier. We'll dive in
a little bit now, Ken Wisenhunt is the one that
actually reached out to the UFL. Once he heard about
the opening in Memphis, he was intrigued. He was looking
back to get back, you know, in a more fulfilling role,
I would say, And you know, Darryl Johnston, he spoke
(13:15):
about it. They had a you know, they had a
press call earlier this week. I think I mentioned James
Larsen he had joined the call. But here's what Daryl
Johnson had to say. When Ken called, I was very,
very excited, and I was hopeful that he was calling
in regards to the Memphis opening, which, as we spoke about,
he was, which is a great thing all involved. I think, well,
(13:35):
when he let me know that it was something he
would love, he would love the opportunity to compete for
as part of the UFL moving forward, Johnston was excited.
We always talk about trying to get the best coaches,
who are the best teachers, who have the best contacts
and our staffs in the UFL. Those little details they matter,
and you know what, again kind of going to those
He's not just a coach in my mind. I think
(13:56):
he's a guy that can be a teacher for a
lot of these guys, and realistically, a rebuild, this is
arguably the largest rebuild, maybe tied with Houston when it
comes to you know, players, But if you even look
at this, the whole staff is going to be different.
(14:17):
Basically it seems like maybe not all of it, but
you have a new head coach, you have a new
general manager, which we'll talk about here a little bit later.
I think this is a good opportunity for wizen Hunt
to kind of show the football world. Hey, like you said, Zach,
I'm not done yet. Look at this thing I'm doing
over here. Yeah, you know, Okay, every coach has their
(14:37):
bad day, and maybe he didn't end things off the
greatest with the Titans, but you do you maybe have
All you need to do is get him in the playoffs.
You get him in the playoffs. You look at you
look at what the Malers did, going from having that
worst season, winning the Puper Bowl, getting into you know,
getting the draft picks, all of that, going to the
(14:59):
champion Chip. You didn't win it, but you went to
the championship. I mean that goes a long way. And
if he can do that for the show Boats, I
got a feeling that the Liberty Ball is going to
be looking pretty good. Which interjection here real quick they
put out the pricing structure for the season tickets for
the Liberty Bowl. Yep, it is so damn cheap. It
is like half the price of the of the rough
(15:21):
next season tickets. Oh and those are cheap, and those
are cheap, but yeah, you can still get like I
think it was around one hundred, one hundred and twenty
bucks for the cheapest season tickets ahead.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Well, I mean I'll tell you here that you got
to think you have to You're replacing your head coach
and GM, so you have to keep fans honest with
bringing in a whole new regime of personnel department essentially,
and you know, play on field guys that you're going
to be able to get the best out of what
you're going to bring on turf. That's not going to
be a train wreck of a year where it's two wins.
(15:53):
You know, that's the hope. You know. The other part
of it is, I mean, hey, that's stadium construction. You know,
I'm not saying it's the worst thing in the world,
but you have to play around it. And you also
kind of have not saying it's you can't get people,
but I almost feel like you have to entice people
more with stuff in the background just happening because they
(16:14):
kind of have to play through it with what they're doing.
No credit on the other side of this league keeps going,
They're gonna have one of the best venues in the
entire league once this is upgraded. Some of these shots.
If you've seen the renders here, here's the fun they are.
They're fantastic, but you gotta get through that first. So yeah,
you know, and again with with hiring Ken, I think
that's again recognizable name, you know, I think it's a
(16:38):
guy that again it's someone that I feel like is
like a Mike Nolan type. And it's not just me, like,
you know, I'm not associating My life is like instant analysis,
but like it's funny. I'm talking to my dad immediately
as this happens, and he and I were like on
the exact same page too. He's like, this is like
Mike Nolan, you know, again, someone that needs to get
a restart. You know, he's out of the NFL scene.
He got kind of an outside perspective look and getting
(16:59):
that itch back. So there's that. And then again you
finally get your GM set up so now you can
start taking guys in that you know, maybe aren't say
off of opinions of certain people as we might read
a little later, because it's interesting, like signings have happened,
just neither of them have been in the building yet
(17:20):
or on call yet to do that really.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Well, it's yeah, well it's interesting, right. So we kind
of brushed over this a little bit. So we had
twelve candidates for the job. It kind of got whittled
down to a handful. Wizen Hunt made the cut. Like
you just stated, though, James Larson quick to ask at
the press the press call that they had on you know,
the number of signings that were happening prior to the
(17:46):
prior to Wizon Hunt and being named. Honestly, you did
a better job of explaining it prior to us getting
on to this call. No curtains, I have no shame here. Okay,
do you want to dive into more detail on kind
of the earnings from that front.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Yeah, so, I mean, I I'll read off the quote
after this, but basically what they did to keep some
player base to come in with and to kind of
help with not starting from bare bones, because keep in mind,
it's been several months since the season has been over.
Free agency has been open now for near two months
at this point, so you know, they basically went in
(18:24):
and said, hey, we might not have the head coach
in GM, but we can at least go and talk
to them the coaching staff that was under flip and
kind of get analysis on who you think would be
a guy that they would essentially hire on bring back
in any way, and that was good talent from last
year they would be able to hire on that was
interested in coming back. So that's really what they did,
(18:48):
is what in that dead period, and it's just to
give some base for Ken Wizdunt and who will be
talking about Jim Monos here momentarily to at least start with.
And here's the full quote that Jamie. This is the
full quote from the media call, by the way, so
just quote and it's from Darryl Johnston, by the way, quote,
I think the big thing is with the structure of
(19:09):
our contracts and vulnerability of where we could have been
with another competitive league, we want to make sure that
we had a good foundation for the new h HC
and GM when they came in, that they wouldn't have
a roster that lost several of their key players. We
made a decision that was in the best interest of
the league moving forward. We sat down with coaches on
staff for Memphis and asked them to help us structure
(19:31):
something that would leave Memphis with a good foundation. We
wanted it to be throw And you know, the part
that I think also drives this home, you know, is
the competition piece, because again this isn't just you know,
we're not talking only UFL is the main one in
the door. You know, we're starting up with you know,
not saying that you want to if you can't, if
(19:51):
you go to the UFL, fine, but you know, you
got multiple different arena leagues that are starting their free
agency in October, like for new players you've got, you know,
as much as I know, we haven't talked as much
on this too big, but the IFA exists, and who
knows when they're going to kick things off soon enough,
you know where details coming soon apparently apparently. And then
(20:13):
also the CFL is still in season and they're going
to have guys that they're going to request to get
contracts or not. You know, so if you want, especially
with guys in North America, if you want to compete
and keep those players and there's some great players and
you can still be competitive and they don't want to leave.
Don't leave them hanging. You know, one thing I've learned
that you and I have learned. I think talking with players,
(20:34):
or like at least having players discussed with us and
colleagues here at PFN. These guys want to know what's
going on and if they like, if they want an
option that they enjoy, want to come back to you know,
they don't they can't wait around forever they have if
they are if people are coming to them in their
inbox and they're giving them opportunities to go somewhere they can,
they can talk with their agent and that agent goes,
(20:55):
you know what, maybe it's best you go take something
and get that film now. So you know, reading that analysis,
I kind of get it. You know, there's been some
great signings that Memphis has brought back that were pretty
good talents already or people that showed potential. So that
being said, like, you don't want to lose out on
those guys if you don't have to, So I get it.
(21:17):
Plus it's associating. You talk to coaches. The coaches at
least know a decent amount of what roster they feel
be a great fit to bring back. So that's a
nice sentiment to hear that they at least consulted with
at least the staff that may or may not stay
and Ken still gets to decide, but at least the
former of De Filipo staff they talk to in an
extensive amount when making these decisions for the show boats, which.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
You guy have to imagine probably puts those coaches a
little bit at ease too, because there's probably uncertainty, like
you mentioned, oh there's a new coach coming in, there's
a new GM. We don't even know what it is.
Do we even have a job, And so if they're
kind of consulting back and forth, they make them a
little bit less likely to start looking for jobs elsewhere
as well, because again, like you mentioned, there's opportunities all
(22:02):
over the place. Who would ever thought if you would
ask me, you know, two years before the AAF kicked off,
if we would have this much alternative football available, I
would say probably not. But here we are because we
have numerous arena outlets. We have the CFL, we have ELF,
we have i f A potentially, you know, it seems
like news is coming out soon and we have, of
(22:23):
course the UFL, which is really if you're combine everything
all up, we're looking at you know, like your season five. Yeah, right,
four and a half.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Shout out to Ryan Fire by the way, back to
back camps, Baby, let's get that up.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Sign them up.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled. Also ram thing Ben Holmes, good
to see he's doing well. He was Vikings by the
way in that championship and.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
They locked him down right away. They said, you know what,
we're not letting you go to the UFL. We want
you back this thing.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
There's competition, even if that's like minimum in the ELF. Look,
they're still looking for good American people to hire on.
So you got it. There's a lot more in the
space now that's gonna be asking around trying to get people.
So it's good to hire on. I'll tell you one
that I was happy that I saw go across the wire.
They got Troy Williams back, who ended the season starting
as quarterback for the Showboats. And again, these guys could
(23:17):
scatter to the wind if they wanted to, if they
didn't feel comfortable coming back, you know, So having someone
like a Troy Williams who's under under your belt right now.
At least you have a quarterback that was pretty solid
at the end of the season. And as we remember,
Memphis just needs to figure out what's going on with
their front line. Their defense did the best they could
(23:39):
to maintain things. Because you and I have talked in
multiple extensive times and this will be the responsibility of
Jim Monas, who will talk about slight a little bit
momentarily and Ken wizen Hunt figure out your front five.
On that side, Troy's an athletic being. We saw he
can make plays, but you can't escape sacks forever. That's
what we saw last year.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
No, not at all. So, like you mentioned, Jim Anos
coming in as general manager now interesting, See, this is
one thing that I always love to see. He has
prior Spring league experience and on a couple numerous occasions,
so he was let's see here, he was the director
of player Personnel for the San Diego Fleet of the
AAF in twenty nineteen, so at least for the half
(24:22):
a little bit over half season that they were around.
But then he came on as senior director of football
Operations for the XFL from twenty twenty two to twenty
twenty three, so he has even closer ties to what
is now the UFL because, as we all know, the
USFL and the XFL merged last year ish going into
you know this year, you know you get my point.
(24:44):
So one, I love to see that because he, to me,
you kind of want, especially as a GM who's kind
of helping find those players to build out the team.
He's a guy, a guy that's been around the Spring
Football League, seen spring footb ball scene, and I don't know,
there is a certain kind of player that I think
(25:04):
does excel in spring football.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
A good player is going to be a good player
no matter what. But there are certain players that I
feel like and similar to what we've seen in Arena
in the past, there's players that will become the superstar
of that league and maybe not move on to the NFL.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. That's not a
bad thing. Sure, everybody's goal is to move up, but
you know what is even nicer having the opportunity to
(25:29):
do the thing that you love, your dream for a
few more years. And I think somebody like this is
going to be able to help kind of scout that
out and help bring some of those people to the team. Again,
like we said, they're rebuilding now. He doesn't just have
spring experience. He has experience with the Bills Serbians director
of player Personnel from twenty thirteen to twenty seventeen. Interestingly enough,
(25:53):
overlapped with the CEO of the UFL's time with the Bills. Right. Yeah,
there's a lot of Bills stuff have been in the
Spring football, whether it's people there currently, people there in
the past. Uh. But this is just another one of
those names. Now again, if I was a Showboats fan,
I'd be pretty happy right now in comparison to having
(26:14):
no coach, no general manager. You know, to me, these
are these are some good names to join on board. Now,
there were some people clowning on them because he had
his Uber eats listed on his on his LinkedIn And
you know what, there's no shame in that game he's got.
You know what, you gotta keep your electricity on and
pay the bills. I mean, you know what, he didn't
even have to put it on LinkedIn. That's how much
(26:36):
of a man Jim Mono says. He said, you know,
you know what, I'm keeping my family fed, eat it,
you know what, So you know what, Luke, I'm looking
at you. Everyone ever, it's all it's all funny games.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
Here forgot for God's sake. If you want me to
go into my list of stuff, let me just double
check if I still this is on my LinkedIn. Yeah,
I still got what we were to lift drive experience
up there too.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
I got PFN on my LinkedIn.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
I need to add that on myself, so I need
to get that on that. I don't know why I haven't
done that yet, but we'll get that sort of later.
You and I can talk anyway. I think the thing
that grabs me, you know, yes, the the Buffalo Bill's portion.
That's the clear, clear connection. Okay, that's right there. You
can look at that and say, oh timeframe boom, easy
(27:28):
that Rus Brandon was there. That's a pretty quick phone
call if he's out and about the Sandy. The experience
with the fleet I think is pretty valuable. I think
now we've seen enough in the last five years of
people that have been in the alternate and spring football
scene now, not just the NFL, but we're seeing guys
(27:49):
that are used to like, Okay, what does it take
for me to run this type of operation where you know,
different salaries, different budgets, different talent pool. That's not the
cream of the crop, but it's guys that you're you know,
it's the next half step below or something like that
for a lot of them, or guys that are just
trying to get back up that are there. They just
(28:10):
are looking for that place to get in because competition's tight,
and so having someone like that, you know, and you know,
I think is really great to have. You know the
fact he also again worked with one of the better
teams in the AAF, you know, in terms of I
think helping build that roster out that was a playoff
team before things shut down later in that season. So
(28:31):
you know, I think that grabs me the most, honestly.
So I'll take that again. Connections to the XFL as
well in the last few years, it seems like it's
a quick, pretty quick and easy, quick and easy replacement
for Dennispollon and somebody that you know, I think a
little less than Dennis has even more background to what
(28:51):
we follow. You know, you know, what, where can I
find these guys that are the diamonds in the rough,
because that's what you're trying to do. It's diamonds in
the rough. Guys, your stars are the ones that the
NFL scouts or college scouts missed out on and didn't
fully appreciate. That's the people you're going to see that
blow up and do this thing like a ricky person.
(29:12):
I think, like last year, we saw someone that came
up through the indoor scene and was scouted out by
Zach Potter and crew, and look at him. He was
basically at one point going to be their belcal back
and was one of the main reasons they won the
UFL championship last year. So those are the people you're
looking for. And it takes good personal people like that
that know the scene and know what they're trying to
(29:33):
look for. Just take his little extra glance deeper into
the microscope when you're checking a player out.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah. Now, I'll be curious to see how much does
this team rebrand itself in the vision of Wizzen hunting Monos, right,
so we question, you know, I think we'll see a
lot of new players join on board. I think they'll
do their best to kind of scout a whole bunch
of guys going into training campus to kind of test
the waters see what works best for them. But it'll
(29:59):
it'll be it t to see. I'll be keeping my
eyes on the coaching staffs right the rest of the staffs,
and kind of seeing, okay, is anybody leaving, is anybody
new coming in? Because I think there's an opportunity here
to shake things up, right, Whenever there's a new coach,
there's an opportunity to shake things up. So it'll be
an interesting couple few months, I think as we head
(30:20):
into the new year and get closer to training camp. Always,
you know, it's funny, even though we're deep into the
off season every year, it feels like it rings true.
Once you get to September, that's when the ball starts
all in a little October maybe a little bit more
maybe similar November, December, and then by January we're going
(30:40):
to be running on all full cylinders, going full steam
ahead with UFL news left and right, and I'm looking
forward to it. But the fact that we get to
we're getting some of these I would say, feeling like
bigger nuggets earlier than we would have in the past,
especially last year. Last year was a little bit different
with the merger. Everything was really tight lipped and a
(31:01):
couple things leaked out and bits and pieces came out
and half of a thing came out. But it wasn't
even really until the new year, until you know, the
news became official, the teams became official, and then what happened.
It was full onslaught of news. What I would like
to see though, I would like to see Fox throw
(31:23):
some UFL promos during some of these NFL games. Maybe
I missed them, but I haven't seen it in this
season yet. Maybe we'll wait till the playoffs. I know
they've done that in the past, but I would like
to see it. Yeah, And we talked about the venue
thing in the past. You know, if you have any
(31:44):
doubts that the UFL was only leveraging or Fox was
only leveraging the UFL to have extra content on venue,
I mean, some are saying it could be dead in
the water, it could be over before star, which is
right now. That but I'll I'll say you this, by
them bringing on wizen Hunt, to me, that's that's a
(32:06):
that's a stronger play to me. There's there's a message
there that says, hey, look, we're here, and we're like
Daryl Johnston said, like Moose said, we're looking for the
best of the best of the coaches, the teachers, whatever
it is. The people that want to come join our league,
we want them here. And I feel like the signing
(32:28):
kind of rings true when it comes to that statement. Uh,
I know there was a lot of folks that were
looking for that younger head coach me included. I would
love to see it, but I'll say there is there
is something positive to the to them hiring a bigger name.
You could argue for good or bad, but I would
say I think there is something good to it, at
(32:49):
minimum from the messaging standpoint that they're not messing around.
They're they're here, They're they're going to be they want
to be as good as they can be. And again,
if he take that tam team to the UFL Championship
or even the playoffs, you get them to the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Honestly, yeah, that's a win. Just get them to the
playoff matchup. I think that would do wonders ether that
or he'd just be even more competitive, you know, I
think you know, if you followed any of this roster,
you know, remember we're talking this is the former Tampa
Bay band. It's that did get converted. You know, it's
been a five hundred team best and last year was
(33:29):
the low point, and I think that's something that they're
trying to see, can we get someone they can break
through now. And you know it's some people got to
lose to people gotta win. That's how it is. It's just,
you know, I think one thing that showed last year
just listening to comments, listening to talk and conversation about
the league, they really want to fix Memphis, I think
as a market, or at least get that interest back.
(33:49):
It felt like last year that some people, it seemed
in comments if I don't know if you agree, but
they felt like they missed the mark in that market
really bad and that they know they they know they
have it. They've seen it, we've seen it. That it's
an interested market, but they got to get it re energized,
is the thing. And this is a big year I
think for the Memphis market for them. I think you're
(34:09):
gonna see a lot of push to get that market
back up to where they want it to be at
least a step in the right direction. Because again, I
think it's just I think there's great people down there
we've talked to, and there's great fans down there. You know,
they just got to get winning football and not to
mention you get the fans back. I'm telling you within
come next season, the next season, they will have one
(34:31):
of the gems of this league when it comes to venues.
That that mockup they're doing for Memphis. It looks fantastic,
But you got to get to that point. You don't
want to I don't want to talk about any potential changes,
but you know, it feels like it's uh, it feels
like this year is a big year to get the
Memphis market going again, or at least to get it
(34:52):
to where it was in the USFL when it was
two seasons ago.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
For sure. Well, we know in the past there was
rumors that that there was different ownership teams that may
be interested in different teams across the league, one of
which may have been Memphis. I mean this this signing
or signing, but the with bringing on wizen Hunt, I
mean that could not I I only this is speculation zone.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
By the way, Yes it is, definitely, but I don't know.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
It feels to me that they're they're yeah, they're they're
trying to put at minimum extra attention into Memphis show
the fans because you said deck. They have a strong
community already out there. They got the yacht club, they
got they got they got, they got their barbecue and
all sorts of things, I mean, sponsor of Springstock three
(35:40):
and two and all sorts of different events we've had.
So yeah, I know there. I think that I hope
at least good things for Memphis. Now, I can't say
I know they're not going to make it to the
championship Sumy, but we already know who is. It's the
Houston Roughnecks because we're gonna go twelve and oho, So
that means they're at least two games now. If they
(36:01):
can get out of the rest of those eight games,
if they can win like six to seven of them,
they're probably looking in pretty good shape. Can they beat
the Stallions, I don't know. We'll see, but I can
tell you they're not going to beat the Roughnecks because
we're going twelve and zero. Rough them up and their
stadium might be nice in you know, not this upcoming
(36:22):
season but the season after, but it will still only
be second only to TDECU Stadium. Talk about beautiful, beautiful
TDECU Stadium.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
I mean, I mean, just think about this. You get
TDCU back this coming year. You know, we get the
we get the Ford Field items, which I mean I
haven't heard a minute about that, but I mean it's
they seems like they're talking with them again to get it, Doug,
because again, it's a gorgeous it's one of the best
venues they have in their disposal. You get this, you
get the Livery Bowl essentially marked up and set up
(36:54):
the way it is. I mean, we're talking some great
places these teams are playing at.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
And you got new terms from Saint Louis now, which
I would always that was always my hang up with
the dog, and.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Yeah it's fifteen anymore. It's gonna look like it's, you know, again,
brand new venue. And they're trying to get more funding
for the venue too, besides the turf, Like yeah, there's
good place to just keep that's building that direction. So
you know, it's got to keep the markets interested. They know,
we know.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the
first game back at TDCU. I'm looking forward to that
first damn tailgate at td e c U. I'm looking
forward to it all man. It is I know, with
the the select few people that I talked to in
the area that are interested in the league. They are
amped up, they are ready to go. And I'll tell
(37:44):
you I wouldn't even be shocked if the fans, you know,
fans of the Renegades and fans of the Brahmas, are
a little bit happy that tdecus back because I know
a lot of those guys travel Brama Babe, she's one
of them. I've seen her at both those Rough Next games.
I seeing her up in Arlington, I've seen her at
the Championship. So I mean, these people travel around, and
(38:06):
so you know, the better you can make it, the
better all around. Now I would love to see and
I know we're basically wrapping up the show, but this
is something I would love for the UFL to do.
You got three teams in Texas, yep. Throw something out
there where you do a deal where you do a
bus ride. You rent a bus and you say, hey,
(38:26):
if you're in Houston and Houston's playing in Dallas this week,
you can spend fifty bucks and you take the bus there,
you get a seat, and then you take the seat,
you get a bus trip back and you roll deep
with a whole bunch of people that are you make
you create traveling fans that way.
Speaker 4 (38:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
I know I and my wife would get on. I
will probably drive to the game. But if there was
a bus where I'm like, you know what, I can
chill with my tailgate folks and just do a road
trip in a bus with them, I'll probably take the bus,
you know what I mean? Screw it. Maybe the liches
aren't there, maybe it doesn't make sense. Maybe it's sky
more than fifty bucks. I don't know. I don't feel
(39:05):
like there's a price point that could work.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
I was gonna say, I doubt that it's not logistical
or it can't work, because I'll tell you this has
been a thing that's been going on in arena leagues
for years now. They use these bus store things when
it comes to close by opponents. I mean, for Christ's sake,
when they were both in the NAL, Jacksonville Orlando used
to do this on the regular where they would bust
guys up and back, and it created good rivalries because
(39:29):
you would bring in fans to those venues and you know,
engage more in credit. Some of these are UFL fans
out there are fantastic at driving venues. I've seen Again,
the Brahmas do really well getting their group to travel,
you know, and again we've seen I've seen Houston fans
out in Arlington. I've seen Arlington fans go elsewhere and about.
But you can you can help bring that up if
(39:49):
you are able to with the right packages. I think
what it doesn't help right now, and maybe you'll agree
with me on this is a ticketing office is still
kind of only located really in r that I'm aware of,
So like you do have people that go out to
these markets, is per se, but you know, it's still
run everything into the central hub. All the illegue offices,
personnel and such are in Arlington, Texas, so that with
(40:13):
the organizing things. I don't know if that's just a
logistical problem because it's that the buses you should do though,
I mean the Texas teams, it's the Texas Triangle. They're
all drivable within reason. For fans to ride on a
bus to go and rally for your troops, I think
that's a gricking idea. They need to talk about it.
If they haven't talked about it, or at least have,
someone's got to get the executed soon, because I mean,
(40:33):
it should make more sense in a league like this,
even more so than even Arena because there's I mean
more expenditures and I think flexibility in this case. So
that's my thought.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
With three Texas teams, you're looking at what three times
what six games a year, ten to thirty games, I
don't know, whatever it is something like that. So six
games a year, I think that is what it will
come out to. Yeah, so minimum, that's not even if
you do it for half of them. Do it do
it for one, Do it for one, you know what
I mean, test it out, see what happens. I know
it is something they were talking about doing in twenty
(41:04):
twenty when the Roughnecks went up to play the Dallas Renegades.
At the time, they ultimately didn't do it, but we
had a whole boatload of Roughnecks fans come out there.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
And now think about this, so Houston, remember they're not
This is one thing I always is interesting that we
remember Houston's not in the same conference as San Antonio
or Arlington. And right, you know, we used to talk
about how in the twenty twenty XFL, you know, Texas
Throwtown was a two part series. Now, okay, it's one
(41:35):
game a year, like, you can make that essentially like
a college rivalry day because they get one shot. You
get one shot to beat your your big rival up
in Dallas or well, Dallas Metro. You get one big
shot to beat your rival down in Southern Texas in Houston,
in h Town, like pump that up. They kind of
did last year, they didn't twenty twenty. Get back to that.
(41:57):
That's a rivalry people like, let's do this. The Texas
teams keep pumping.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
That and this year if they make because they did
make a Texas Throwdown T shirt which I had to buy,
but I would say one critique, if you do another
one for this next season, instead of using silhouettes of players,
use real players. Put the player. That's the one thing
I loved about those breaking T shirts. I loved in
the original, well not the original, but the twenty twenty
(42:21):
XFL because I had a whole bunch of PJ Walker gear,
Like they were really good at churning out gear for
the players. I would love to see more of that.
I would love to see more of that. Maybe we will.
Now that things you know, the merger, I'll give them
the reasons all day and night that merger was rough
and the fact that they got on the field on TV,
minimum minimal issues. Sign them up, Sign them up. We
(42:44):
have a lot more leeway, a lot more runway this time.
Let's let's get back into some of more of those things.
I would love to.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
See it right right, man, I'm in.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
Any any other topic, Zach. I know it's off season.
We could go off topic. I don't know if you
have anything.
Speaker 4 (42:59):
I mean, nothing crazy. I mean I'll pound my chest
and say thank you cool Hikotini for coming back to
Michigan Panthers. So like again, it's a lot of if
you guys aren't keeping up, transactions are still regularly ish
coming in. There's still got days where it says there's
nothing going on, which those are the funniest ones. There
are no transactions today, guys breaking at least they're.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Telling us though, when everybody has to wait around because
they know they know there's people that are like, where
are the transactions are?
Speaker 2 (43:26):
They?
Speaker 1 (43:26):
I gotta update my spreadsheet so you know what they're
doing to my cell? They say, you know what, take
the night off, go play some sudoku or whatever you
want to do. You're good.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
But yeah, but yeah, I'm uh I'm happy for that.
Samson Nakua is back as well, so like it's more
Michigan stuff, but like we're bringing bringing the squad back
this time or make it different, goull pull out all
the stops feeling it. Maybe we'll get our shot.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
We'll see, we'll see, we will see. Well, that's another
big fun week of the UFL podcast. It's you know,
maybe not the longest episode, but not all of them
need to be like hour two hour long bangers. I'm
sure a tou we'll ramble on for twenty hours on
that show. So you know what, another reason to subscribe
click the bell, It builds Morella also lets you know
(44:14):
when we drop new videos and when we go live,
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(44:35):
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(44:59):
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(45:21):
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I think that's all. Make sure you follow us.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Make sure you.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Follow Zachy Boy because he plays video games on Tuesday
and he's always dropping soda reviews, pop reviews. We never
talk about that on the show, but I wanted to.
Speaker 4 (45:46):
I appreciate the plug, and yeah, if you want to
check it out. Tuesday's eight o'clock Eastern time. We just
right now. It's mostly football games. That being said, though,
him and I before we are been scheming we're gonna
get a we're gonna get a special UFL podcast edition
of the stream. Just need to pick a game and
get some things sorted out. You know, it's all technical,
but we'll get it done. But yeah, Tuesday's eight o'clock.
(46:07):
Every week you can sit with me. We'll chat football,
Washington play NFL Street right now. Are gonna be blitzed
the league soon? So yeah, thanks to the promo, my friend,
you didn't have to do that.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Well, you know, you know, I'm I felt like this
show is so short. I was like I got a
slide something I was saying here. We never damn talk
about it, We never damn talk about it, but you
do in it like I always see. That's all I
see is your posts about something. How real quick? I
got to ask, how was the oreo the both ways?
I guess I assume probably not.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
Very Yeah, because I did try the cookie while I
was in Chicago, I was like, screw it. It's at
this seven eleven. I'll pick it up. To those that
want to try, I'll give you the quick Okay, the TLDR.
The soda is much better than the cookie. I'll give
it that much more enjoyable experience the cookies, like if
(47:00):
I dumped coca cola on the cookie and that's what
it was.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
So we drink like a creamy cola almost.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
It's like it was more like light because it's it's
coke zero, but like it was a little lighter. It
wasn't creamy. It's like, but it does that one I
like because it does taste like an oreo mostly and
they don't like distract you with the cola flavor. So
that was okay. It was like a liquid oreo. The
other ones, like if you have an oreo and you
just freaking spilled your coke on it and it just
(47:30):
Coca cola. By the way, I'm not getting freaking demonetized
over something like that.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
Half of our crowd's like, oh hell yeah, they're running
to the.
Speaker 4 (47:42):
Gonna give me, give me. But yeah, I saw try it.
Try it at least once. Try once.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
I still have to and I have to do it sooner.
They're all gonna go bad. But I have all sorts
of snacks from the UK, uh, like roasted chicken, potato chips,
oh my god, like beef rings and all sorts of
weird and wacky things that I have to do soon.
Otherwise they're just gonna go bad. They're just gonna be
grosser than they potentially could be. So I'm probably gonna
(48:10):
record that this weekend. And I don't know. I'm working
on all sorts of things. Zachi boy, You know me,
I never stop. I just got a promotion at work.
We're doing this show, we're doing a tou I'm looking
at even addings a couple other things to the list.
I you know what, Yolo, yolo baby, you only live once.
Speaker 4 (48:27):
You got it, man, one.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
Of these days I'm gonna be old. I'm gonna it's
gonna be like, I don't know, one of those movies
where they're talking to a grand kid and they're like, well,
one of these days, that's gonna be me. And you
know what, there's two paths to that. There's one path
where I said, you know what, I just sat around
and I worked and I worked hard, and I have
this house. And there's another path where I say, I worked,
I worked hard, and I have this house, and look
at these cool press passes from spring football, and look
(48:51):
at this podcast that I do with my buddy, and
and and and and sooner or later, I'm gonna be
too old, too old to do any of it, So
I might as well do it now while I can.
And so that's why we do these things. And this
is why I always encourage people. If you want to
do a podcast, you want to do a thing, you
should do it. I mean competition, Who cares about competition?
Everybody's got competition. You think the best rapper in the
(49:13):
world became the best rapper in the world by not
having competition. I mean, somebody's got to be the best,
somebody's got to be the worst. But I mean, you know,
even the best isn't always solidified to be the best, right,
So I think everybody should do it. Build bird houses,
build bird houses. You should do whatever you do. Sign
you up doing anything, but sitting around doing nothing. Sitting
(49:35):
around doing nothing is like the enemy of your soul.
It'll you'll quickly dwindle away and be tired. And case
in point, I was so tired going into this. Now
I'm full of life. I could rip a phone book
in half, maybe with just my pinkies.
Speaker 4 (49:53):
Hey, I think it helps when you get when you
get talk with a friend. Hell yeah, football has been
kind to us. I gotta say it's for the sport
in general, it has been kind to us, and I
I know you and I will forever be grateful. Wherever
the hell happens down the road. This time frame, it's
(50:15):
been wonderful.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
The stories that we have already alone have made it
worth it, right, The things that we've done alone have
made it worth it. The things that we were able
to accomplish, the fact that we've done not a live show,
multiple live shows every year. This show kind of went
right into it and did our thing. Hey, sign us up.
Doesn't always work that way, trust me. I know I
have a whole basket of failures. But yet it's the
(50:40):
thing you need. Nobody doesn't fail in life, right, And
if you don't fail, that means you're not doing any
of this.
Speaker 4 (50:47):
How you pick yourself up and move forward from things
you learn from that stuff.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
I love to fail. I love failing. Failing is my
favorite thing to do because then it just means, Okay,
I'm done with that project and I started a new one.
And when it doesn't fail, then I just We're going
on almost seven years in newsroom, Zach is not hadn't
failed yet, and so sooner or lady, you keep doing things.
One of these things will stick. Is it gonna make
you a millionaire? No, I'll tell you firsthand, I'm not
(51:13):
a millionaire. I'm not even one hundred thousand air, you
know what I mean. But you know what, I'm a
happy air. I'm a happy air. And that's sometimes Sometimes
that's all you got. Sometimes that's all you got is
your look at life. Anyway, once I start talking and
rambling like that, it's probably a sure sign that we
should wrap things up. I already went over all the
shill stuff. You know where to find us, you know
(51:34):
where to follow us. But do the things. Do it,
click the discord, all that until next time, folks, sign
you up.
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