Offseason Shake-Up: How 7v7 and Spring Games Impact High School Football

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
And now it's time for extra your host bill jobs.
Thank god, everything look was great. Uh, you know you start,
I drink a lot of sodas many of you know
that Pepsi is our sponsored doctor Kevin uh, doctor Kevin
Collins uh, the Houston Clinic our show sponsor as well.

(00:29):
In addition to pepsi. We appreciate those guys. Pepsi gives
us all the pepsi we want to drink. Okay, and
in addition to sponsoring our show, and so I'm thankful
for them. I love pepsy. But you start getting warning
about your blood sugar, you.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Know, yeah, that's very important.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, idiots, So I wouldn't you had obviously had that
checked and they said, no, you're good man, you know
you you know, watch out, he'll creep up on you.
But anyway, I'm just very thankful to be healthy. Everything
checked out. Well. I don't need a lot of red meat,
very I ate very little red.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Meat, especially good. You know you said it's harder to digest.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
That's what I hear. Yeah, I've heard that. Uh it's
just kind of this nasty thing. But corners have pointed
out and in balmbers have pointed out how much undigested
beef will be left in yeah my body. Yeah, I
have heard that from the from the people who actually
do they kind of thing anyway, not what you was

(01:24):
expected to hear when he thought what's on the show today,
But we do have a lot to get to. Greg
Vandergribb is gonna be joining us here in just a minute,
the former Prince Avenue Christian head football coach no longer there.
He's made a move up north, up to Tennessee. I
believe it. Yeah, Tennessee, And uh, we're gonna let him
tell you what's going on in his world while he left.

(01:46):
Where he's at and what's going on. He's got a
lot to share with us today and we're gonna be
talking to him here in just a couple of minutes.
So I'm sporting my it G next shirt, and uh
Mazzani is sporting her Valdosta I do.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
I do have a Valdosta walk ass hoodie. Yeah, I
just like it for a little bit sometimes.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, absolutely, all right. As always, we are going to
be checking in with you guys. You guys make the
show already, checking in TERRYL. Chiles, Brooks County, checking in,
what's up my man. Let's see who else we got
checking out the show? Evan Ree Hello, the sound for
the stream is really low.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yes, I fixed that, Thank you, got you y.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
I'm old on comments here. Roster Sutherland is checking out
the show. What's up? Michael Baxter says, go, Milton Eagles,
what's up? Mike appreciates you checking out the show. Obadie Farley.
Of course, it would not be the show without Obadive Farley.
Thomas County Central's number one fin was I getting too.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Loud then just in my ear, But it's okay.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Let's see here. Who else we got?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Jeffrey Rowland, he says, hey, from one of Robin's demons.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah. Robert Tallard is the checking in what's up? Robert?
Stephen k Win he is our shawl or unofficial employee
because he answers helps me with so many things. I
guarantee you at least a fourth of what I talk
about a lot of times comes from Stephen. Steve gonna
hit me up with something, you.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Know, Stephen they have he has a lot of knowledge.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
About for he really Stephen is a bright gentleman. Yeah,
I mean about a lot of different things, very bright.
I like guys good friend checking in from Trojan Nation
and Leisburg Go Trojan a great run of their final
four and the five A state boys basketball championship. So
are they still alive? Steven? Is that what you're saying?

(03:35):
Let us know on that obviously basketball is in full
swing right now. Getting down with the nitty gritty. Yeah,
Racing Boys get eliminated.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Wow, just didn't you just kind of like write a
piece about them.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Or did the thing a Jinxton?

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (03:50):
But you know the problem is, let's see the problem.
Here's the same kind of problem that we ran into
in football.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yes, exactly what the our games of the week, some
of those games?

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, well, so in you know, in football, you had
Lee County and Milton played each other. I mean, come on,
it was kind of the d the facto state championship.
A lot of people felt like those are the two
best teams. Yes, in five eight and as it turned out,
of course, you had Milton winning over Lee County. A

(04:26):
lot of people felt like that was the battle of
the city for the state title, but it wasn't. But anyway,
so now you've got Milton, I'm sorry, you've gotten Grayson
got beat by Wheeler and a lot of people felt
like Grayson and Wheeler were the two best teams and
now they're here, they are playing, you know before in
the semi finals. So I am a proponent of receding. Now,

(04:48):
I know that's controversial. I know a lot of people
are like, you can't do that. Well, you know what,
some of the best and brightest minds not saying that
I am that, but a lot of people who have
proposed quite crazy while you can't do that ideas are
usually the ones who come up with a solution eventually
when their ideas are carried through. So I'm gonna always

(05:08):
keep that alive, the possibility of receding and trying to
get and guys, I'm not saying it's easy. Somebody's that's
a little bit smarter than mezing actually got to maybe
take this and run with it. But you somehow have
got to get these teams in a situation where they're
not eliminating each other before you get to the state title.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah. Yeah, And I mean your possible receding could definitely
be a possibility because I mean we've talked about reclassification,
you know, and you just wrote about that post about
possibly going down to what just four classes, So it
seems like a lot of possibilities are up in the air.
What do you guys think do you think receiving I
think we talked about this early in the season, but
I mean, let's not limit ourselves here, you know.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, And I'm glad you mentioned that. That's one of
the many things I want to turn y'all's attention to
the story of Mazani's talking about We're getting a lot
of feedback on this already story I think just posted
this morning, and that he is talking about reclassification. As
Mazzanni mentioned possibility, albeit slight, that they could be going

(06:11):
back to far could be going to four classifications. That's
a tall order. The Monroe Area Athletic director, and I
apologize that it's in the story. I can't recall his
name right now, but he is the one that actually
proposed this. A brief survey was sent out to all
the member schools asking about how many kids out of his

(06:33):
own kids they have that are enrolled in the school.
Basically and so anyway, so he breathed, he brought it up.
I talked about it in the story. I don't think
he has much of a chance of any passing Now,
also there's the deal about enrollment not necessarily counting as
much toward how schools are classified.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, more so like talent based.

Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yes, yes, And it's competitive balance is what it's called. Yeah,
And you're take and you see how schools and I'm
giving you the very very bare voices giving away the
very bone, bare bone minimum of cleft notes on this,
which is schools will be putting classifications based on performance

(07:24):
versus enrollment. Now, it's not gonna be the soul guiding factor,
but it would be become more of a principled factor
in deciding where schools are gonna wind up.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, since they're maybe moving to more of competitive balance,
do you think that they'll be basing more of these reclassifications,
Like you said, not on the full thing, but you know,
do you think they'll take into effect the points that
these schools have, because you know, just last week we
were talking about the point system of coach sly and
how much like as far as the whole athletic program.

(07:54):
Do you think GHSA will be taking that into effect
if we're going to do more of so of a
competitive balance.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yep?

Speaker 1 (08:01):
All right, so we're gonna get Greg Vander Griff in here.
He's gonna be checking in with us. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
And then I saw a comment on here by Evan
Reesi says I have now become even more interested in
receding after Roswell had to play Hughes in the second
round for football.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yep. So all right, so be looking out for Greg
Van and Griff. I've asked him to call in and coach,
We'll ask you to call in Greg Van Riff if
you can hear us, and we'll get him here on
the line with us. And we were talking to him again.
A lot of stuff to talk about. Also, check out
this out at it g nex dot com. Guys on Facebook, Instagram.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Subscribe to the newsletter.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
Subscribe to the newsletter. As I talk about top athletic programs, uh,
top athletic talk, top high school football stadiums, my brain
is working faster than my mouth. Is great story that
should be coming out about Travis Hunter.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
I asked all the coaches, not all the coaches, but
many of the coaches at colin Seal that worked with him. HM,
where do they think he's gonna be best used in
the NFL.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
That's true, because did you just watch the combine did
you watch the combine?

Speaker 1 (09:12):
I didn't.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Okay, they look great out there. I don't think Travis
Hunter had to necessarily do some I don't know what
you call him, evince. I wouldn't want to say events.
But he did have to do some exercises. I guess
you know how sometimes they have to run the forty
yard Dad just going to voicemail.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
If you can just watch that. Make sure that he
I'm starry to interrupt you, but he's yeah, said he's
trying to call, but I'll be going to look out.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Okay, but yeah, did did they give you any answers
about Travis Hunter?

Speaker 1 (09:39):
Well, so, look, here's the thing. He's he's a good
chance he's going to be drafted number one overall. And
you guys know through high school college, both at Jackson
State and Colorado, he was used all over the field. Yes,
he's one of these few. I'm gonna let him know
what we'll call him that for me, Yes, it's part

(10:04):
part of my guys reached out here to coach vent
Greventor just but so I went back and I asked
coach Lenny Gregory, who was his head coach, Drew Swick,
who was the defensive coordinator there at the school. You know,
Travis Hunter played defense, of course, and I've talked to
several other coaches at Collins you know who who coached

(10:27):
Travis Hunter. And I wanted to know where do they
think Travis Hunter is going to be best fit at
the NFL level and what do you guys think they said?
I'd like to know your answer answer answers on I
were here on the page, guys, and I want to
get your comments before I tell you what they said.
And I don't think the story has come out now

(10:50):
yet about Travis Hunter. It will be forthcoming. You guys
can check it out on our newsletter on our website.
As I talk about Travis Hunter, asking the coaches where
is he going to be best used in the NFL
wide receiver, our defensive back or could Travis Hunter become
one of the very rare type players in the NFL

(11:14):
which is playing both ways? Dion did it.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
I wouldn't be surprised if he did it, because I mean, look,
his coach was Dion. But can you share that number
with Mealuck?

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Uh? Yeah? Is it not popping up?

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Like?

Speaker 2 (11:27):
No, I don't see the recens on here one moment
that he can call that one more.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Time, guys, bear wellers, we're trying to get Greg vander Griff.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
While we get him, I'm going to read some of
these comments.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
Let me see here bear Wethers. Guys.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
So Jeffrey Rowland, he mentioned the first game of the
week was one of Robbins in Lee County. He says,
our first game would be Lee County up here? Might
it be Phil's game of the week again?

Speaker 1 (11:58):
So that's another thing, uh we're talking about. I wrote
a story on season openers, and I would say right
now that we got him, okay, Coach Vandergriff, Yes, sir,
hey man, sorry about that. We finally got you in here.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Don't worries. Technology great when it works.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
These cell phones, man, let's tell you a lot. They're great,
but man, there's a lot of work to be done
to try to get.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Them to working right and definitely update at the wrong time.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yes, all right, Greg Vandergriff on the line with us
and coach that is misproducer Bazonnie Matthews. That took your
call there, Coach, welcome.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
In, Thank you, thank you so much. Appreciate you guys
reaching out. Always an honor to be on the program.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Well, thank you. It's an honor to have you coach.
Of course, you were at Prince Avenue Christian for a
long time. How long? How how much time did you
spend there?

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Nine years?

Speaker 4 (12:55):
We are the we are the winningest program in the
state for the last nine years.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Now, yeah, think about what he just said. Yeah, the
winning his foot and he said the winning his program. Okay,
he's being modest. Coach, Great Van de Griff is the
winning his high school football coach over the last nine
years in the state of Georgia. Okay, how about the time? Yeah,
how about that. And there's a lot of great coaches
in this state, but nobody won more games, nobody had

(13:22):
a better winning record than coach vandergriff who's on the
line with us. Now, Coach, that's quite an accomplishment. Congratulations
on that.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
Well, it's what it is is unbelievably humbling, just because
we're not talking about like a state that just has
sort of media football, ridiculously well coached football, and so
it was just you know, a pre obliged honor and
good coaching and good players and it all just worked out.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
I got you, well, coach, So let's talk about real quick,
like and I know we're gonna have you here for
a few minutes, but got a lot going on in
your world. So we just talked about the fact that
you're winning his football coach in George over the last
nine years, but you're no longer at Prince Avenue, Christian coach.

(14:11):
Let's just skip right to the you know, the the
middle part, and let's get right to the end here.

Speaker 4 (14:16):
What happened, Well, you know, sometimes just you get a
feeling that you know, maybe you know, like they old
meet that you know, it's things starting to maybe go
bad or maybe need to move, or you know, people
get aggravated, you know.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
And it wasn't necessarily that happened, but sometimes it gets
like that.

Speaker 4 (14:37):
And then somebody knocked on the door offered me another
job with about a sixty percent pay raise, which I
couldn't really afford to pass up.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
WHOA yeah, I would say, so did you say sixty percent?

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Sixty percent?

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Well, coach, I know we don't get in a specifics,
I can kind of take a gander what you were
making and sixty percent. You know, matth wasn't my best subject,
but I wasn't that awful at it either, So bottom line,
is it's hard to a hard situation to pass up.
And the school you are at now is where tell
us something about it.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
It's it's thirty miles east of Knoxville, going towards like
you know, Severe County or east to you know, East Tennessee,
and it's five years old. The facilities are unbelievable. They've
honestly been been successful in everything but football.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Okay, so this is a startup for I mean for
all intents and purposes.

Speaker 4 (15:43):
Oh yeah, I mean, now I understand when I went
to Prince it was only ten years old.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Okay, all right, and we know what you did there
at Prince Avenue Christian I mean, you know, arguably how
many went state championships did you win there?

Speaker 3 (15:54):
We played for five to one to three.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Wow, so half the over half the time you were there,
you took the team to a state title game.

Speaker 4 (16:05):
Yes, sir, we just another good stat you know, I
like stats called the number.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
There's numbers that tell us story.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
So I do too.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
We played five in a row and there's only six
programs in the state history.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
To do that.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Wow. Fantastic job. Again, just amazing that you know, uh,
you're not still there, but again we get it. Uh,
you know, the opportunity comes knocking, you answer the door.
And a couple of things I wanted to tell you,
by the way, coach, if we have some I'm gonna
put some questions out have the audience again, send you
some questions. You don't mind answering some questions while we

(16:40):
got you here, No, go ahead. If you have questions
for Coach Greg Vandergriff, Okay, send them to us. You
guys know the drill and Mazzani and I will pass
them along to Coach Vandergriff while we've got him on
the phone. So Coach, you know we're gonna of course,
Coach Vandergriff has just written a book that going to
let him talk about. It's a big deal. Before we

(17:03):
get there, talk about the Class A three A split
that came about this past year. And you know, it
seems like, you know, there's not Jesus not really quite
sure what to do, you know, when it comes to
the private schools and and how to properly you know,
balance things out. Talk a little bit about your thoughts
on the age through three A split public private split

(17:26):
this year.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
Well, what's nice is I'm not in the States so
I can say anything.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
I want, right, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 4 (17:33):
So all right, here's the here's you know, there's always
a game within the game, and what that means is
there's what you see and then there's something that's happening
behind the curtain, like the.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Wizard of Mine.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
So what's going on in the state is you got
the single, a double, a mostly single, a double, A
small public schools that complain then get mad and get
upset about the you know, private Christian schools or the
private schools, not Christian, but the private schools, and so

(18:09):
they all gang up, get together and then don't want
to play the privates. So some years they get their
act together, and when they get to act together, they kick.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
All the privates out. And some years when they can't.

Speaker 4 (18:21):
Get their act together and they get mad and they
in fight against each other. You create the Swainsborough situation
or we play them back to back years, you know,
And so so there's always that politics that's going on
between those situations where did the publics get their stuff
together and okay, they kicked out the privates or did

(18:42):
they not? And really that's really when it comes down to.
And then the other irony is they have, like you know,
seventeen members or eighteen members or sixteen members of this
board for the GHSA, and there's if they're sixteen of them,
there's fourteen that are public and the two that are privates.
So how much you think the voting is gonna go balanced?

(19:04):
It's never going to be balanced.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
I got you, I got you. What do you see
as a possible Well, let me ask you this. I
just wrote a story on competitive balance, and you know
there's some talk about possibly reclassifying, going to four classes.
I don't think that's gonna happen, but anyway, it's you know,
it's it's good to you know, talk about Hey, this
is a good stuff to talk about, you know, when
football seatus is not going on, you know, at least

(19:26):
we can talk about something. But what are your thoughts
on the way classification is set up now? The process
of reclassification?

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Well, you know, how.

Speaker 4 (19:39):
Does this how's how do we have to It's constantly
being addressed every two years?

Speaker 3 (19:43):
Correctly insane, you know and fair point.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
You know, they could easily go four years or three years,
you know, I mean, I guess you don't do three
because it doesn't go home and away equally.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
So to me, it should probably go four years and and.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
Then you just sort of evaluated as you is or
as you can. Now, let me go back just a
second to the public private thing. The issue is everybody recruits. Okay,
everybody recruits. Now when I say everybody recruits, I don't
necessarily mean the coach, all right, Like, for example, Milton

(20:21):
has twenty one transfers.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
How does that happen?

Speaker 5 (20:25):
You know?

Speaker 4 (20:25):
I mean, how does Milton have twenty one transfers and
yet they're all legal?

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Like really?

Speaker 4 (20:31):
Now I'm not saying like, I'm not saying they're cheating.
I'm just saying, how is this possible?

Speaker 1 (20:35):
All right?

Speaker 4 (20:36):
So now I'm here in Tennessee and I'm trying to
learn the Tennessee rules.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
All right, Okay, here's some of their rules. Okay.

Speaker 4 (20:44):
One, you have to move outside of twenty miles of
your like of your your area to be eligible. Like
you can't go from you know, you couldn't go like
in Gwinette. You can't go from once go to the
XT cause you're not you know, you wouldn't be with
that that twenty mile yere, you know, So you can't
go across the street and be eligible with some you

(21:06):
know BONIFID move.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, and so so that's one.

Speaker 4 (21:12):
And then like today in Tennessee they just passed you
can transfer once or no like without any issues.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
So one time transfer rules. So you know that's different
as well.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Au Coach, listen, for the sake of time, I want
to go ahead and uh, while we got you, I
want to give you some you know, some minutes here
to talk about your your book. You've written a new
book and I think people need to know about this
and hear about it. Coach, for the time we have
left with you, talk about the new book that you
ever written, and tell our viewers and what's all was

(21:47):
involved with this? How how this book came about?

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Okay, so thank you first for the opportunity. I really
appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
And this is like, it's really like a lifetime project
that I finally figured out the way to write it
that I thought would make the most and be useful
for people that were reading it. So my target audience
mostly is is our dads that sort of feel it
could be any dad, but particularly for dads that maybe

(22:13):
their dad didn't do a good job raising them and
when they've become parents.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
They're not exactly sure how to be a father, you know.

Speaker 4 (22:21):
And so the book is called The Power of the Patch, okay,
and the and the patch represents like a patch you
earned for your letter jacket and so and so.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
The way I tell the story is.

Speaker 4 (22:36):
When you're born, you're born onto a team, and the
team you're born onto is your parents team. Okay, So
I grew up in a trailer park. So my team
was the trader Park, white trash, all right. And it's
like the Hatfield's talking about the McCoy's, they can't do that.
But since I grew up in the trailer park, I
can talk about the trailer park.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
So I talk about I.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
Tell four stories, four patches I earned while being on
this bad team. And all the time I would notice
my friends at school maybe their dad was like a
you know, a good dad, or you know, he's always
interacted with his son or whatever.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
And I was always watching this other dad, going, man,
I want to be a dad like that guy. And
so I wanted to.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
So the story is I had to change who I
was to get off of the bad team to get
on the Dad Legends team.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
I wanted to be a I wanted to be a legend.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
To my kids, and so to do that, I had
to change who I was as a human being.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
And so I tell.

Speaker 4 (23:44):
Four other stories that shaped me into that situation.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
I think a lot of people can relate to that.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, yeah, coach. Now let me ask you this. I mean,
if what I'm hearing is this auto by auto bike? Yeah, autobiography, Yes.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
In essence it is. I mean, all the stories are real.
It's eight events.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
Autobiographical is what I was trying to say, Thank you.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yes, there's again. There was eight stories.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
Like the first stories when I'm ten years old and
like what my like the story is.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
About my mother.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
You know, we had no money and she had the
innate ability to always come through that one present.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
So so I'd asked for a bike that year.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
I didn't have a bike. I'd asked for a bike,
and so so we would our big deal. We would
open a present before Christmas and she had this big box,
like a box, you know, three or four feet big,
all right, big box.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
So I'm thinking the whole.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Time, as a ten year old, how the world did
my mom get that bike in that box? You know,
I'm trying to think, how did that happen. So, you know,
I opened the box. There's nothing in there except for
you know, newspapers. I dig to the bottom and she's
got this little scroll in there with a little riddle
on it. And so like the riddle takes me through
the trailer, into the back, into the bathroom, and I

(25:14):
find another little scroll. And so through the course of
the evening there's six or seven little scrolls, like an
Easter egg hunt. And she's taken me throughout trying to
find all these little scrolls to find the present. So
with so with every with every scroll I open, I'm
getting a little bit more excited. And I know, I

(25:37):
know my mother has come through on this mic because
she did this every year, and like you know, we
would have nothing.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
She'd create do a miracle. I don't know how she
did it.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
So so as it turns out, it sends me this
This next one sends me into the seventh one sends
me into my bedroom, and it tells me, you know,
to open this drawer. And I open this drawer and
I pull out this box. Now the box is like
half an inch stick, an inch stick.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
It's like an.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
Eight and a half by eleven box, like a portrait
sized picture, you know, eight eight by ten and eight
by left whatever.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
And I get this box. And when I get the box,
I look.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
At my mom and tears start swelling up and coming
down her eyes. And I'm thinking, okay, something BIG's about
to happen right here. So, you know, So, so I
pulled the picture out. I'm pulling this out. I realized
it's a picture. Well, the issue is it's a picture
of my mother. And so I look at my mom.

(26:40):
She's crying. Well, I realize this is my presence. So
guess what, I start crying, right we're crying. Hey, we're
crying for different reasons.

Speaker 6 (26:48):
Yeah, and so, so she throws her arms around my
neck and she says, you know, son, someday you're gonna
want to picture when I'm dead and gone, You're gonna
want to picture me.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Oh wow, that was meaningful.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
But I mean, of course, at your age, you probably
wasn't thinking that. Do you want to it?

Speaker 3 (27:07):
Well? I looked at her and I said, Mom, you're
thirty years old. What are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (27:14):
It sounds like you're a book. Your book will really
take us on an incredible journey, you know, throughout your
life and I feel like a lot of people. Can
you know we'll be able to relate to your story
in many ways, but can you tell us where can
we find your book?

Speaker 3 (27:27):
Okay, it's again the power of the patch. So it's you.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
We're talking about a patch for your letter jacket. And
it's on Amazon. I mean, like when it came out.
It came out two weeks ago. I think this is
week three. It was number two on the New New
Books list. It's under football Boggray.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Great, so let me ask you a quick and code.
Wait about about five minutes with you, and we do
appreciate you coming on. So so obviously we've got a
lot of high school football fans that are that are
watching the show. I mean that's what the show targets.
Is your book tailored? And I mean, I know you
just told us the story, but do you think this

(28:07):
has a certain appeal to football fans, especially football dads,
or maybe will be for you know, football dads in
the near future. Maybe you know that.

Speaker 4 (28:16):
I think I think especially any athletic.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
Dad, it's for them.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
That's what I was.

Speaker 4 (28:22):
Any athletic dad, because I mean, if you look at
if you look at the end story today, I have
three Division I players as kids. You know, my daughter,
my youngest, who's a freshman, leads Alabama and hitting hitting
four eighty right now, and she's the lead off fitter.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
And she broke the single game stolen base record, did
she not?

Speaker 3 (28:45):
In her fifth game? And right now, right now, she's either.

Speaker 4 (28:49):
First or second in the country in the NCAA and
stolen bases with twenty five.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
And her name is Audrey, Audrey van de Griff. Okay.
And the other two.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Okay, the middle one is in her senior year.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
And a career, in her senior year at Eastern Kentucky
playing volleyball, and she's already working.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
On her master amazing, amazing.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
And then Brock, you know, graduated from Georgia and then
started his master's at Kentucky and then just had an
opportunity to get a really good.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Job and he just felt like it was the right time.

Speaker 4 (29:23):
So he's graduated and he's doing medical sales in Middlechville.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
But he goes, you know, to again. He goes to
hospitals every day.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
So Brock is not gonna go pro No, no, he
didn't know.

Speaker 4 (29:38):
He wants to get married and you know, be a
father and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
So who am I nd A stand in the way
and he's a great kid.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah and close Randogriff. It definitely shows like you have
definitely made that legendary dad team that you were speaking
about earlier. And you know your son is a testimony.
You know, he has you to look at for being
a great father.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Well, thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (29:59):
And you know it's very humbling because you know there's
days you wake up when you were okay, like a
little slight story when I was thirteen, my second step
dad takes a gun and puts it to his head.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
You know, and so you wake up at thirteen and
fifteen and you're wonder what kind of dad? You know,
am I ever going to be a dad? What kind
dad will be? Who are these examples I had?

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yep?

Speaker 3 (30:23):
Yeah, and so you know, just things like that.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
So last thing we got for you, coach, again, we
really appreciate you coming on. The Power of the Patch
is the name of the book, yep.

Speaker 4 (30:34):
And it's actually okay, if you look at the picture,
it's got a guy in a letter jacket that says
Legends on the back and he's holding his daughter and
in his left hand he's got his hand to his
other daughter. That's John Rick, my offensive coordinator at Prince
that's now the head coach.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
How about that? How about that? So obviously john Rick
the son of mart Rick, long time Georgia Bulldog head
football coach. So a lot of connect the dots stories here, coach,
that really makes this I'm sure a great read. And listen,
coach Greg Van der Griff, you have had an absolutely

(31:14):
fantastic career over the nine year stretch you re at
Prience Avenue Christian, Georgia's George High School football is winningest
football coach. And boy, I tell you, man, think about
the impact that has when we say that last thing
I got for you, your ability to overcome all the
things you talked about, all the obstacles. I give you

(31:35):
the final word here. What is your message to those
out there listing that may find themselves in a similar situation,
you know, maybe trying to crawl out of some of
the demons from their past. What's your advice to them?
And I'll give you the final word.

Speaker 4 (31:51):
Well again, Phil, you know, I just want to say
thank you guys.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
Because you know, in this journey of life, you just.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
You know, there's days you wake up and again you're
living in a trailer park, and you know you think
about it. Am I going to survive the day? And
the greatest bit of advice I could give.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
You is just when today?

Speaker 4 (32:20):
Yes, you know, and again Matthew six, I think it's
like twenty six or thirty four talked about again God
the birds do not worry about what they're going to eat,
and God cares more about.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
You than the bird.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
You know that tomorrow has enough problem of its own.
Worry about today, and so the best advice I could
give you is just you know, when today?

Speaker 3 (32:46):
When today? Because tomorrow is still coming. But when today?

Speaker 4 (32:51):
You know, you can't change tomorrow and you can't affect yesterday.
So just you know, how do you how do you
get on the straight?

Speaker 1 (32:58):
You know?

Speaker 4 (32:58):
How do you eat an elephant one body of the time?
How do you run a marathon? One? You know, one
step at a time? How do you climb them out
in one step at the time? But in reality that's light. Yeah,
you know, you become a great person by making by
stacking great days one after another. And then the next
thing you do is you realize, like our football program,

(33:22):
I wanted them to be in better shapes than everybody
who's played, and I wanted it to show. And then
after a while, next thing, you know, we're working at
a level nobody else can keep up with.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
Well, the results certainly speak for themselves, Coach. We're out
of time, my man. But again, Power of the Patch
the book. You can get it on Amazon, you can
get it anywhere where you know books are sold. You
can even go to uh, I'm sure Arns and Noble
ye and get it. And as coach said, it is

(33:56):
a hot sellar gonna wind up being a New York
Times bestseller. I'm sure in that particular category. Coach. We'll
continue to put the word out for you, my man.
People can archive this show, they can watch it, go
back and watch it, and we encourage him to do
so and learn more about Power of the Patch, the
new book from former Prince Avenue Christian football coach Greg
vandergriff and now the head football coach at Lake Way Academy.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
Yeah, Lake Wake Christian and Ken Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Coach. We wish you the best of luck there at
your new job. And look, who am I to say, man,
the best of winning high school football coach over the
last ninety years. Man You're gonna do great things up there.
They are very lucky to have you, and I know
that they know that.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
Thank you guys so much, God bless you, and I
appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
He yes, thank you, Coach, appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
Coming on all right, take care behind there.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
He has got a great man, Griff. Wow, what a
powerful story that was.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
It was it was a great story and it made
me want to go get in and read it.

Speaker 1 (34:49):
It really did me too. And so hopefully we can
get a copy of it. Maybe Coach Vandergriff will get
him to send us a copy. Coach, if a man
say that's a copy, well we'll starting to continue to
get the word out for you. Oh man, let me
tell you guys, a guy's a great guy. I forgot
how I first reached out to coach. You know, like

(35:10):
a lot of times, I just call these coaches up.
You know, you would think you know a successful family,
successful coach. You know, man, this guy is not pretensious
at all. And I think you guys just heard that.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
So we got coach law, Yes, we do it. And
I know that we were on a time constraint with Coach.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah, I saw you question. I forgot. Sorry, buddy, I'll
tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna text coach
vander Griff. Do we have anybody else that wanted to question?

Speaker 2 (35:35):
I think he have the only question.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, I'm gonna send your question, obad to Coach Vandergriff
while we're doing the show and he'll respond and I'll
and I'll call his answer to you.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
That's a good question, and it is. Yeah. So he
asked do they allow him to bring any of his
co Yeah, so that if you did, I know that
school is very happy all of them.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Look going to a program and sly hang on, just
and your brother to bring you on. Coach Coach lies
on the line. He's going to join us as he
always does every Monday. So did you guys know that
that he was the winningest head football coach during his
nine years?

Speaker 2 (36:12):
I did not know that.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
I didn't either. I didn't either. Now to think about yeah, well,
think about all the great coaches in the state.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah, it's a lot, especially in the state of Georgia exactly.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
So again, he did a great job at Prince Avenue
Christian and he's going from that to a school that
is essentially a start up. They've been in operation for
five years and this coach said they're the least successful program.
I think they had one year where they broke even
five and five.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
Definitely a challenge, but he's the perfect person to break
that record.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
All right, So without further ado, now let's go from
one coach to a former coach to former ways he's
still a coach. I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm
thinking about, but you guys know him is of course
the former athletic director at Milton coach Slide, joining US
coach hoes to going buddy.

Speaker 5 (37:03):
How you guys don't on the show with the best
producer and best host in the world. I feel great, Thank.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
You, what an intro.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
I appreciate that. Coach. Well, so, uh, do you have
a chance getch you that one with a Vandergriff coach?
Vandergriff say it again, I'm sorry, did you have a
chance to get you any of our interview with Greg Vandergriff?

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (37:22):
I heard interview is good interview, very good job.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
Appreciate that. I thought, Uh, he's a well spoken guy.
And I tell you, man, it's a great thing that
he's done writing this book. You know, comes from the
heart yeah, he was called to write this book, so
we certainly appreciate him coming and sharing this word with us.
So all right, man, we got a lot to talk about,
got a lot to get to. Again, I want to
remind you guys that we've got a lot at it

(37:47):
gg next Georgias. You guys can check out our story
about reclassification is getting a lot of readership, it's getting
a lot of views. You guys check that out if
you can. Also, I don't know if the stories are
come out, if they will top athletic program in the States,
Like I know that you were interested in reading that
once I got through with it, and it should be out,

(38:08):
if not already coming out. Also a story I just
penned and I want us to talk about this for
a second. High school basketball in the state of Georgia
is pretty good, right, I.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
Mean I think that's an understandment.

Speaker 5 (38:25):
Just yeah, yeah, Slot, we understands very good.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
I mean, you know, we've got Wheeler just be Grayson.
They're you know, they're they're two of the top twenty
five teams in the country. You know, we've got I
think two of the five highest rated college recruits are
from Georgia. In the top five. Wow. So we can
go on and on the Georgia high school basketball talent teams, programs, coaches.

(38:56):
I mean, you guys have got one of the business,
the business in Allen Whitehart at Milton, right.

Speaker 5 (39:00):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
So I say all that to say this, what happens
to basketball in this state once we get past the
high school level. The college basketball programs in this state.
And look, I'm not trying to knock anybody, I'm just

(39:22):
telling you the truth is facts. Georgia, Georgia Tech, Mercer,
Georgia State, Kennesas State. I'm missing somebody, I'm sure, but
all these programs are kind of the most well known
basketball college collegiate basketball programs.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yeah, and especially they're most well known for football. You know,
so maybe that overshadows some of the basketball hype for
those colleges.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yeah, you know so. But you know, when you start
talking about really and you can pick any basketball program
and I'm not talking about Division two, you know, I'm
talking about teams that have a chance to go to
the Big Dance. Yeah, okay, March Madness is That's what
I'm getting down to. You know, Georgia, the state of
Georgia not necessarily the basketball or the University of Georgia,

(40:07):
but they are included. Yep, Georgia colleges, guys, basketball college
programs are just not anywhere. They're not on the radar
when it comes time from March Madness. And this isn't
a one year thing. This is an ongoing thing. And
I'm just trying to scratch, you know, trying to figure
out how does this happen? And you say the same
thing with the Atlanta Hawks. Yeah, our loan entry into

(40:29):
the NBA is kind of a microcosm of the college situation.
I want to know what you guys think. We're not
gonna spend a lot of time on it, but I
want to go in and throw it out there because it
is one of my stories that I just wrote this
past week.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
I think a lot of those five star basketball athletes
don't look to stay home in Georgia. I think when
they're thinking about recruiting or again of scholarships, they're looking
out of state just because maybe of Georgia's record, you know,
they want a chance to make it a March Madness.
Georgia doesn't always make it there. Why would I go.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
I think you hit the nail on the head. Yeah,
you know, I mean that you got to keep this.
And I talked to coach Slater, who was the girls
basketball coach of Grayson, obviously one of the state's top
basketball programs. Girls are boys. Yeah, defending state champions, and
you know, he basically said, look, it's all about trying

(41:20):
to keep these kids in state. And he made a
couple of comparisons, a couple of examples. Rather Georgia Tech
women one of the very more successful collegiate basketball programs
in the state. They are doing a bang up job.
And he pointed out how they keep are able to

(41:40):
keep a lot of in state talent at Georgia Tech. Yeah,
same way with I believe it's Georgia State who went
on a pretty good run. I was talking about of
March Madness from two thousand and nineteen to now or somewhere,
I can't remember the exact period, but they went on
a pretty good run. As coach Slater pointed out to me,
this is Georgia State eight men's basketball team, and they

(42:02):
did that during those four years with a lot of
high school talent from Georgia.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Okay, so it goes to your point, Sly, I want
to get your thoughts on.

Speaker 5 (42:11):
This, Well, you know, coach Vanderger said it best. You
gotta win the day. I think Georgia basketball, all the
schools you mentioned, you got to win the state. They
gotta they gotta win the state. You gotta put a
fence around the state, kind of like what Miami did
in South Florida football years ago, and kind of Rutgers
did in New Jersey and South Florida. You kind of
gotta win the state. How do you do that? You

(42:31):
got to get into the schools early and start working
on some of these high, high profile like you said,
five star players. Now, yes, a bunch you're gonna go
to different schools already been doing well. I get it,
but nil. Now guess what you can now do it?

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 5 (42:47):
Smaller schools can now do it a little bit even
And I think that would help a lot because why
is Georgia or even Kennisaw State, like you said, uh,
not doing well and can compete for March Madness down
to road? Right, we have point of talent here. I
mean the Kis from Milton Wants state champions are at
Ohio State, different schools. Their parents went to Georgia. That happened.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
That is a head scratcher.

Speaker 5 (43:12):
So I think you have to win the state and
you have to make an effort to do that and
then it and not that they're not doing it, but
they got to do a better job. I was or
or And it's just compared to football. Real quick, look
at Georgia went in the state with football.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Yep, white are so good.

Speaker 5 (43:25):
I mean, right now, Phil, and you guys know this
to Mazzani, probably twelve percent of the combine where Georgia
high school or college athletes. That's twenty one players in
the combine.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Wait a minute, say that again.

Speaker 5 (43:37):
Twelve percent of the combine players from Georgia high school
or colleges.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Wow, that's wow, that's not that's stunning.

Speaker 5 (43:47):
Of course, yes, not by accident. So that's my two cents.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Man, great points. Uh Mazzani really, you know again you
kind of started the conversation there about, yeah, trying to
keep these players in state. Yeah, that's what it boils
down to.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Yeah, I have a mild example, you know, I mean
with women's basketball. You know that's on the uprise. But
you know, Valdosta High a couple of years ago they
had McDonald's all American since Cody. You know, I can't
remember who, like where she was getting recruited by, but
I know she ended up going to Alabama. So it's
like Georgia lost, you know what I'm saying. She ended

(44:22):
up going out of state. So and I know, for
like right now women's basketball USC University of South Carolina
is a big school for you know, athletes to want
to go to. They're doing great right now led by
Don Staley. University of South Carolina. Yeah, the game Cocks,
they're a great right now. That's like a big school
a lot of athletes would like to go to if
you're girls basketball. So again that's out of state. But

(44:43):
like I feel like Georgia colleges need to build that up.
An athletic program like that, you know, not the same,
but to want to drive talent in the state to
want to you know, keep it in state.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
Yeah, we're gonna move on, Greg Maddick said, UGA women's
team needs get the coach. They haven't been as good
as they were when coach Anders was there.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
That might be a big factor in that too.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Yeah Andy is it Andy Landers? Andy Landers, But we
know you're talking about Yeah, it definitely could be a case,
although again I like the coaches, you know, But anyway,
we'll see, So let's move on get back into some
football slot. You gave us a couple of talking points
over the weekend that I wanted to do address that

(45:30):
I wanted to let you kind of guide the conversation,
and one of those was seven on seven. I really
liked what you had to say, and I think you
were trying to point out the pros and the cons
of seven on seven. And then what I really liked
was this spring practice schedule, which I have talked about
this forever. What are you able to do with ten

(45:54):
days practice of practice? Actually it's ten practices. I think
you get fifteen days, but steal ten practices, and actually
it's nine. If you have a game, the game's gonna
count as the tenth. But those are the things I
want to talk about, and I want to get y'all's
input out there as to what you guys think about it.
Coach arslat what were you thinking about when you were

(46:16):
talking about the pros and cons of seven on sevens?

Speaker 5 (46:19):
Yes, I appreciate it. So you know, just thinking about
seven on seven, it's look good, it's in needed, it's
in needed, uh, commodity entity in football, right, you need
to have seven on seven tournaments to get your timing
down with your athletes, your receivers, your quarterbacks, your dbs, right,
and audition builds off that. So it's always good to
see that, right, probably have with a lot of seven

(46:41):
on seven Phil and uh you know, and Mazani is
that day. A lot of people, if you watch some
of these tournaments, will be doing shallow routes at one
yard line. Well, guess what in the real world is
linemen there?

Speaker 1 (46:53):
Yeah, right?

Speaker 5 (46:55):
Or or they're going to go ahead and run certain
rights with the backs you know, darn wallden, they're not
going to run through line of scrimmage and not be
picked up by somebody. But they're gonna go ahead and
run a certain route or better. Yeah, the linebackers are
eight yards depth right now. When you know, darn wallf
that's the case, you're gonna run the ball against them.
So I think there's a lot of bad things that
can be developed during seven on seven. It's certain in

(47:17):
certain aspects. Then you get these tournaments that turn into
almost like fist the cuff because everybody's the competition's high,
but there's really nobody monitoring what's going on sometimes on
these fields. So there's pros and cons to this. I
always said it years ago. Look, that's not the old
school guy. Seven on seven is demise of football, right,
because it's a contact sport. I don't think it really is.

(47:38):
I think it's a necessity, I really do. However, I
think we need to modify some of the rules, limitations, parameters.

Speaker 3 (47:46):
Right.

Speaker 5 (47:46):
I know they have a time run on the quarterback,
but what is that?

Speaker 1 (47:50):
What's that? The time? How much?

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Is?

Speaker 1 (47:53):
How long does the quarterback you have to get rid
of the football?

Speaker 3 (47:54):
You know what?

Speaker 5 (47:55):
It's a great question, but I don't know the top
of my head. I know they usually have a stand there,
put the ball in the stand. When the ball goes
off the it literally starts the clock right in.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
One thousand and one, one thousand and two.

Speaker 5 (48:06):
A few seconds later it goes off right. You gotta
get the ball out. If it's ball on the ball
is dead. But I think all that does help.

Speaker 3 (48:14):
We just can't.

Speaker 5 (48:15):
We can't. I don't know. That's that's me. The pros
and cons went on both sides. What do you guys,
uh Bazagni and Phil do you like it. Do you
think it's I mean, the competition's fun, it's great. Do
you think we're creating bad habs secrets pros? That comes.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Well, by the way, Leslie Fanale says, it's four seconds,
go ahead down.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
Okay. See, I didn't know there was a time on,
you know, for the QB to get rid of the ball,
because I was thinking that could be a bad habit
that was produced from that, you know, to be keeping
the ball too long.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
But you know, and that's to simulate basically how quickly
a defensive lineman are rushing, you know, attack can get
to the quarterback. But go ahead.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah, but I agree with like a lot of the
cons that Kris Slott was making. You know, you don't
have any alignment and you know, but a pro to
that could be, like it does enhance the QB and
wide receiver chemistry and route timing, so you know, that's
a pro I think seven on seven is still need it.
You know, I don't think they should do away with
or anything like that, but like coach slid Is, there's

(49:17):
some a few conns to it. But he also mentioned
maybe some changes to the rules that can happen to
just make it better. Overall.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Yeah, I'll tell you what I've always liked with seven
on seven, and this is kind of taking a little
bit of different look at it. I really like the
fact that defensive backs get a pretty good workout.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yeah, okay, that you're.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
Able to develop defensive back so that's exactly what they're
going to be doing.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Yeah, they're covered skills.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Yes, covered skills for defensive backs learning you know, tendencies
from receivers on their route running. Yes, that's what I've
always said. And a lot of people, I think concentrate
on the offensive side, and I get it. But you know,
I really like and I think seven seven they give
they give points for defensive plays too. If I'm not
I'm not a saken. Gotta be honest with you. I'm

(50:09):
not as up on seven or seven as I should be. Maybe,
but I can't teach the last time I watched seven
on seven. But uh, but anyway, that's my take in
that one of the biggest advantages is being able to
build up and and you know, work on your coverage skills.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Yeah, and it keeps players active.

Speaker 5 (50:29):
Yeah, so ye, great point. But I think you're right
it does enhance the dB skills because a lot of
it's gonna be, you know, let's face it, a lot
of turns into man coverage, right, capball, I got that, Kint,
you get this cat, and you got and and and
and be the athlete and cover and turn and run
and read direct. So I think you've got a great
point there.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Quick question is there? I mean, how high is it?
Or how often do we hear about players being injured
in seven on sevens or spring practice and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
There's been some key uh, thankfully, I don't think it's
a lot, but I can tell you it's not so
much quantity as it has been quality players that have
gone down in spring. Yep, one of your best players
at Valdosta, I think it was Tate Rodenmaker went down
in a non contact spring drill. If I'm not mistaken,

(51:20):
slot your thoughts. I'm sure you've got a lot more
to answer than that than I did.

Speaker 5 (51:25):
Yeah, seven and seven. I'm not sure the stats. I'm
not sure how they keep them. There's so many seven
and and coming and seven between high schools. But I
can tell you in spring practice there's some injuries out there.
We lost our running back to and Achilles one of
the last plays of practice going into and I think

(51:45):
leave was spring football, and then he took him till
basically he came back with the state championship.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
He finally got back to the Oh my gosh, so
you mean like the whole season, it took him out
the whole.

Speaker 5 (51:55):
Season correct, Yes, surgery, Wow, my gosh, my sun senior year.
His last seven on seven play, he blew a.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Acl Oh, that's that's so okay, that's a huge con
But I mean maybe that's not a big enough reason
to like, you know, council seven on seven. But yeah,
of course, Well how do you think, you know, we
can kind of navigate those situations or maybe like try
to prevent injuries from happening. I'm not saying it's totally preventable,

(52:26):
but are there any measures that we can take to
you know, or that seven on seven can take.

Speaker 5 (52:33):
Well, I'll tell you it's it's hard to minimize. It's
hard to mitigate injuries when you're playing. It's Portland football. R.
I don't care if it's it's in short term pads.
It's gonna happen. It's contact is full speed, even even
though they're touching their flags. It's still contact. You're still
playing around people, getting hit, people change direction. It's gonna happen.
It's part of the sport. And I don't think we
should ever try to hinder the sport for that because

(52:56):
injuries or injuries. What I think needs to happen is
kid needs to sing great being great condition because he's distressed, properly,
kiss h Just go out there, jump out of a car,
run a lake a seven tournament, get in the field.
That's gonna hurt them. I think it's a segue to
our spring practice conversation is the same thing as great practice.

(53:17):
Like Bill said, you have ten days, you know, ten
practices nine of them. Are you know nine practices out
of ten days? You have practices one day at the game?
What do you really getting?

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Event?

Speaker 5 (53:28):
I mean, what do you really getting the complience? I know,
I know South George's having these big jamborees, were playing
some top ranked teams that Lee Counties pruaying in those games.
That's great, But are you really what are you trying
to accomplish there? I don't know. Like I know, we
try to accomplish. We want to have to win, win
the game, like we want to with However, here's the thing.

(53:48):
We're not gonna go up there and and and have
an injury or subjective player. Like our spring game last
year against against peach Stree Ridge and we love Matt,
it was kind of lopsided a little bit. We pulled
our guys early, We just wrapped it up, put other
kids in, Like there's you know, if it comes down
to I'm afraid of this. Here's my fear is to
come down to these really good scrimmages because peop playing

(54:10):
gates and you're playing teams that you're gonna go out
there and sell out and you're not ready yet and
nine practices right, Yeah, I'm gonna play all your kids
because some of your kids are not gonna get in
early because you want to try to win it. When
you're play them later on, like in the fourth quarter,
it doesn't really matter. So I think we have to
find that competitive balance. I mean, what are your guys
thoughts about that?

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Yeah? Go ahead, So you mean my thoughts on like
spring games or uh, you mean, like how long they
have to practice until the spring game?

Speaker 5 (54:44):
Well, spring games spring you get the days. A lot
of teams like here's here's a school of thoughts. Some
coaches don't play a game. They practices in. You don't
even watch them. Nobody has no clue who they have,
how talented they are or not. They're putting work in
a little bit of that little scrimmage game between dinner
squad and some hamburgers. They tell and they're done the game,

(55:05):
and most are doing it now playing the big game,
twenty gates, fish clubs, the kids showcase for colleges, and
now all of a sudden in terms of more competitive,
which it should. I'm all about competition, But what's the
point where in that short period of time again, Florida,
you have twenty days, you have twenty days of practice,
get right the amount? Now you get something accomplished.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Okay, So so I mean maybe we got like you said,
in Florida, they have twenty days. But I know down
here a lot of spring practice. What doesn't start to like,
maybe some spring practices have not started yet, you know.
So I don't think their goal is to be is
to win. Maybe I'm like, maybe their goal isn't to
win some of those games at the Genborie or some

(55:51):
of those spring games, but just to get their players
back into the field of things, you know, and like
you said, the competitive balance. It is nice to compete
and they're able to get full speed reps in, but
I don't think their main goal is to be to
win because that doesn't go that doesn't help anything for
their regular season, you know.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
So yeah, I was gonna say, and I've brought I've
talked about this, and I brought this up countless times,
you know. I mean you get ten practices again, nine
practices the game, and you know, I've had coaches tell
me that they would just soon play, you know, make
that tenth event a tenth option of practice because they

(56:32):
get more out of the practice than they do the game. Yeah,
you have more teaching ability. I guess something's got to
be done there because I mean, really, what are you
going to accomplish with ten days? And I've heard that
from so many coaches. Do you have a chance to
install at all?

Speaker 2 (56:53):
It seems like a rush. It seems like it's a
rush process.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
Yeah. Well, I mean it was by the time you start,
you're finished, slide. Do you know if there's ever been
any approach to to lengthen the amount of practice days.
I mean, I've never I don't think i've ever heard
anything brought to the table. Uh, you know, in terms
of the GJSA, are you aware of any conversation having

(57:19):
been had, any suggestions, Uh, any thoughts being put toward
any effort rather being put toward extending spring practice like
you mentioned Florida. Uh, they get you know, they get
twenty days. By the way that Georgia spring you get. Well,
I think I think you get fifteen days to get
in your ten practices.

Speaker 5 (57:38):
Yeah, you gotta have it scheduled out on in so
many days and you can't. It's interesting because some guys
will do like a walk through one day even though
it's out of practice. Yeah, right, I mean until everybody's
trying to stretch these rules. That's my point. If you're
going to have that, I feel I have no clue
if they ever had that conversation to extend it or not,
because let's face it, these is long enough as is. Anyway,

(58:00):
If you're playing until December like some of us are,
and you come back in January, springball usually starts endo
April the first week of May, and you're still competing
now with soccer out there and lacrossers in the same
fields as they're successful. You have problems with that now
it turns into the logistical nightmare right tracks on. So
there's a lot of other things to think about besides

(58:21):
football itself. However, I just don't think it's enough time.
I'd rather go. I'd rather see fifteen or twenty days
and even give it something accomplished. Plus, it's a great
recruiting tool for your kids because colleges come watch them
practice and they can actually see kids, and that's what
that thinks so important too as well. It's a great
place to showcase you're killed.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
What about the soya y'all want to talk about the
OTAs because I know that was part of what you
want to talk about as well. Yes, so OTA's as,
the organized team activities padded camps one of the same, right,
So it seems like I would think that teams are
getting more out of that. And tell me exactly what's

(59:06):
allowed what's not allowed? I think I know. But for
the sake of our viewers, uh, sat talk a little
bit about and you know, Mazonie can comment on it
as well as far as what is allowed in these OTAs.
What's the benefit from these OTAs slash padded camps?

Speaker 5 (59:22):
So OTAs what's your organized tea activities. You can have
uppers right, shoulder pads on in helmets. You can't have
like the pads. You can't tackle to the ground.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
You can only do do It's called thud.

Speaker 5 (59:38):
Right thud. We still wear a lot of kids still
wear a thigh pass if you want to get deemed
in your thigh and bruised for three months. So a
lot of lot of kids just do it to be
for crinal, just for being very cautious. But then also
you can't just be like, we can't go scrimmage roswal
lamar ota, right, it's sad nas the scrimmage. You can't
do that. You get to have three scenes or more
involved in it to be kind of ab like a

(01:00:00):
jam retype situation, right right, that's part of it as well.
So there's a few you know, parameters there, and I
like those parameters, be honest with you, and I do
think it's important because to your point, now the lamen
are involved. Now there's real timing evolve now the only
problem you have and here's my negative to it, and
miss honey, there's no real officials out there now. You

(01:00:21):
got coaches policing your own teams and that could be
a that could be a junk show.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Oh listen, I think about that a lot. And I'm
not trying to you know, I'm not saying that anyone's
going to be dishonest. But let's face it, if you've
got no you know, you get nobody watching the hen House.

Speaker 5 (01:00:39):
Yeah, well, what emotions? Right, you're mostly involved. You may
see something you don't like and now instead of the
referee calling, you're calling it. Now you're mostly involved. It
doesn't turn out well sometimes, So I think those would
be great. I think officials should go work those practices
or those OTAs or activities to get more practice. I

(01:01:03):
think there's a good experience, right, and they can go
do it and now they're getting better at their craft.
They can throw a few dollars in the booster club.
But I think there's things like this we can do
to really make these activities safer and still be productive.
Because I think reps are reps you said earlier, Mazzani,
reps are the best that you can do any athlete.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
Yeah are Oh sorry, I'm are OTAs shorter than like
the spring game or just regular games, because I know,
like some schools they host OTAs at their school and
you know, like a few teams come and do those things.
So I'm like, I feel like those last way shorter though.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
Well there I think I think they're done in kind
of small increments. Uh I am, I right.

Speaker 5 (01:01:43):
About one hundred percent they are there. You know, you'll say, hey,
we're gonna get uh Cambridge and Roswell Milton to go
this weekend or this friday, whatever, We're gonna go fifteen
minutes and then you're gonna flip sides and then you're
gonna jump in there, Roswell. It's really kind of a
not a it's almost like a controlled scrimmage and a
very small without going to the ground quote unquote, even
though they all do in a small area or could

(01:02:06):
you could do it in a football a whole field
could be half field, doesn't matter how you do. It
depends on what the coaches agree on. So yeah, it's
definitely smaller, but I think the product of work is
better and you get more out of those. Now here's
the thing. If you have a great if you have
a young offensive line, right, you want to do more
of that because you want them to get them reps.
Because that's how you get better. If you have maybe

(01:02:28):
a young quarterback you want to see on the pressure
because guess what, you don't have to be Game one
was under pressure with another team. So I think those
things are so positive. I just think if you can
get some better, little more parameters around as far as
official and a few things like that, I think it
could be something that that could be worthwhile. I mean,
what did the viewers stand back?

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Yeah, yeah, I was looking at that. Steve A. Kanaway,
He says, Lee plays an inter squad spring game. Can
you explain that?

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
Yeah, playing playing each other. Yes, sorry, sl I didn't
know if she was talking to me or to you,
but yeah, yeah, they're just playing basically each other instead
of playing another team, which you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
Know that before.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Yeah, and there's some people that are you know, that
are kind of against that. You know again talking about
Tamper's flare and you can get a player banged up.
I hate for a player to get injured in any
type of I guess non essential activities when it comes
to football, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
No, yeah, I agree, or like any preseason stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
Yeah, you fly your thoughts, buddy.

Speaker 5 (01:03:33):
Yeah, you know, back in the day they were doing
board drills. In this game seven still right, Some teams
and talk about that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
What that is?

Speaker 5 (01:03:39):
So a board drills. We have a board and you
put it basically a two board and you have to
stay over the board and go at it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:46):
One on one, oh, Oklahoma.

Speaker 5 (01:03:48):
Kind of like, kind of like. But there's teams that
still do that late in the season. I cant say, right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
Now, that's ridiculous.

Speaker 5 (01:03:56):
Yeah, when it gets real, we're not at all. Our
practices is actually believe it or not, And I know
some old school coaches out there won't believe this. Our
practices are about an hour and a half long, tops
tops at the end of the season, going twelfth that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
See, I think that's the way to go. And I've
heard I think a lot of programs are starting to
adopt that, and not a lot, but more and more.
I mean, come on, it's a long season. You know,
you got all. I mean, it's a physical sport. Of course,
it goes without saying. And you know, I think the
teams that are successful, it's like, I want to say

(01:04:32):
that we did something about this on on with Milton.
I want to say in a story that I think
I wrote, and I have to bring it up but
it seems like I remember talking to I think it
was you coach Reeves about that being one of the
secrets to y'all's longevity. You know, you start off in

(01:04:52):
the spring, and then you start up in the fall
and you go through hopefully it's going to be fifteen weeks.
You know, in my gosh, you're gonna wear yourself out
if you don't pace yourself.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
Yeah, that's all. It's all about pace, it is.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
And I'm pretty sure we talked about y'all's approach at
Milton and going to those shorter practice times, because again,
if you want to play fifteen weeks, that's fine, But
if you're going all out to two and a half
hour practices or whatever, and guess what's gonna happen when
come about a week eleven or week twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
They're gonna be breaked out?

Speaker 3 (01:05:26):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:05:28):
Yeah, you don't win a state championship September, you don't
do it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Well, I was gonna I had a quick question. Did
I cut you off?

Speaker 5 (01:05:37):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
Go ahead, Okay, I was wondering, how do you feel
about two a days or how is that still common?

Speaker 5 (01:05:45):
You know they are, but there's less teams doing it.
Might you know. I'll tell you a funny story.

Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
I took it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:50):
I've been a high school buddy of mine this past
week and my wife and his girlfriend and we were
having some dinner and drinks and uh, hanging out and
seeing them in the years back in nineteen how long ago,
and I sent a picture to my coach, my old coach.
I said, hey, we just want to stay to you,
and he said, you know, he just gave us some
really nice comments, and he said, hey, sometimes I want

(01:06:12):
to like apologize I might have used you guys back then.
We had three days in nineteen eighty.

Speaker 2 (01:06:17):
Oh my gosh, I've never heard of that.

Speaker 5 (01:06:19):
Yes, we went eight to ten one of three and
seven to nine was our practices. And my point is
that's old school. It's aniquated. It's changed. But to your point,
there's some schools still do two days. Now. Here's how
you modify it. You may go practice in the morning
hard when it's not as hot. Then in the afternoon
or evening you may do some specials or do some conditioning.
So it's a little bit of load maniculations there. I

(01:06:41):
know the rules have changed too, now been out of
it the ad roll, but rules have changed a little
bit with Georgia High School. You can't do too many
in a row. You gotta have a break where it's
there's a team meeting in there or something like that,
rather than a practice. They tried with the wet bulb
stuff like that. Really monitor that with the heat. You
have to because you get some kids. Now here's the thing.
Any good programs going all year long. They're going all

(01:07:02):
year long, meaning weight room, running, conditioning, right, it will
come out there anymore from playing PlayStation and then go
out there in August and the drive they don't usually do, yeah,
you know, but but it does happen, so I think
it's it's definitely antiquated. They're still around, but nobody's burying people,
you know back like you know, remember the Titan two
A days.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
You're watching Extra Point with Phil Jones, Mazzani, Matthews, Miss
Producer and of course we've got coach Sly on the
line with us as always checking in from up in
Milton and uh slot, we appreciate you as always. By
the way, the show brought to you by none other
than our friends at Pepsi Cola of Valdosta. In fact,

(01:07:46):
you may have heard me it just cracked open this
ice school with PEPSI. And then of course big shout
out to doctor Kevin Collins, the Houston Clinic, our other
show sponsor. Can't do it without you, guys, and we
appreciate that, all right, So talking about some other things,
a slide you had brought up a couple of other topics.
What a you got in my man?

Speaker 5 (01:08:07):
Well, you know, we started talking about the ripple effects
money and I got a really good thread go, and
I think we kind of cuts you out of it back. Uh,
we got a really good thread going with the transfer portal, right,
and what is in college? And now the ripple effects
feeling me in high school? Right? And now it's being
effect all the way down and I think people forget

(01:08:29):
how much it's really impacting the high school recruiting situation.
Do you guys? Do you guys get any how what
do our viewers feel about that? Cause I'm not gonna
say right now, it has one understand, impacted the high
school recruiting process.

Speaker 2 (01:08:40):
You mean with the transfer portal.

Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
For college, the transfer college portal, how people bouncing around
and all of a sudden now taking up scholarships. So
instead of having you have twenty five that year. But hey,
usually you give twenty the high school. But now it
was sudden only giving twelve to high school. You're taking
twelve transfers in right now of a sudden, you just
cut out twel kids for high school. Won't get a
skullar anymore. So do they commit to a lesser school,
they get to a lesser level, they go, we set

(01:09:05):
up Division one or say te board, ay're going through five?
Are they going to fcs? They going D two? Like
that's what's happening. And then eventually the water hits the beach, right,
gripple d wave hits the beach, and it's over.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
Yeah, yeah, I know, like you said, like you mentioned,
we were talking about it over the weekend, and I
was saying, like, I mean, maybe this can be a
con I mean, not excusing, not a con, a pro
with talent, talent being more you know, distributed rather than
just going to these bit schools. You know, also we
have NIO deals, but you know, maybe some of these

(01:09:39):
D two schools or JUCO schools they're getting some great talent,
you know, and it's building their program, and so yeah,
do you think that could be a possible con mean.

Speaker 5 (01:09:48):
A pro one hundred percent one hundred percent that the
other the other schools will definitely, I think, will definitely
have a better opportunity to these players. But here's the problem.
They get the same kids in college too. So now
at large school that's the NEXTGS school gets a P
five kid that drops down in the portal, he still

(01:10:09):
takes hig schoo kids opportunity up right. So that's the
thing I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
Yeah, and it's kind of a continuous cycle too, correct. Yeah,
I got what you're saying. We do have some people
commented in the comments. Let me see. We have Carlton Jones,
he said, Juco and Jerry hererisoning. He says, commit wherever
you can and show up and show out. And I
think that's the that's a big part of it too.
You know, if you're good, I feel like people are
gonna come out and to see you and eventually you'll

(01:10:37):
get recognized. But how much talent do you think is
going unrecognized?

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
Lin?

Speaker 5 (01:10:42):
Well, at first, I love that comment. Show up and
show out, Like, here's the thing. We call it high,
we call it D free. I don't care if it's
for three. If you're getting money and you're going to school.
It's d free, right, go there and put yourself on
the map. How much talent is not you know, I
don't think it's fall through the craft. I think the
kids that are out there that want to play, we'll play.

(01:11:02):
But here's the thing, a lot of kids are getting
discouraged and just rather go be a frat boy and
now play ball anymore. Kind of those tweeters, right, those
kids that are maybe not getting highly recruited in the
one level that maybe five ten years ago would have
got a Dolly or pwo. Now it's not getting those anymore,
and they're not playing ball anymore because they don't want
to go to Kansas to play football.

Speaker 3 (01:11:24):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:11:25):
I think it's an opportunity someplace in the country to
play if you want to play. I think what happens
with social media's kids get so caught up and went
in the press conference and to that viewers comment, I
love it. It's not don't want a press conference, just
go show up and show.

Speaker 1 (01:11:37):
Out, all right. So we got about a little over
five minutes left to go on the show. Gonna move
on to a couple of other things here. One of
the things that I've written about and guys got a
lot of stories in the pipeline that will be coming
out and uh, we've got a lot of well, I
say a lot. We've got some season openers that really
caught my attention. And of course Slot one of the

(01:12:00):
season openers is gonna involve you guys. So I'm talking
about too. Of the big time season openers right now,
gonna involve Beauford of course opening up their brand new
stadium with none other than you guys from Milton Sli.
That is a uh to me, that's that's quite an honor.
I mean, it's gonna be a great game. It's gonna
be a packed house, Beauford rolling out that brand new,

(01:12:24):
state of the art stadium. You guys got to be
excited about that, sly.

Speaker 5 (01:12:28):
Oh, absolutely, that's gonna be a great game. It was
a great game at our place until the rain came
in at halftime. I mean, as far as the crowd goes,
it's still a great game. But I know they're look
at their their talent that are loaded. We're gonna be young.
It'd be a great test for us to be a
great way for us to get better. Looking forward to
go up there and playing some balls and I love
that too, because in the summertime, when you play a
team like that in the first game, you can't go

(01:12:49):
into workouts sleep and you can't go into workouts not hungry.
You can't go to workouts not thinking about that. You
gotta think about that game one. But I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:12:57):
Mazie, I'm sorry I was reading the comments exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
Yeah, well, I'm just talking about the season or I
had written about one of the season openers. Of course
it was not necessarily about the Milton Beaufer game. Of course,
that is one of them. But your thoughts on these
key season openers, and of course highlighted by Milton going
to Buford to open up their brand new stadium.

Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
Oh wow, you know, it was always nice getting to
see a new facility play there. It just seems like
new energy and what a great way to open up
the season in a new space, you know, for Buford.
And also Milton's going to be able to participate in
that game as well, a lot of great season openers.
Do you have any other big season openers of mine
or anyone that you're particularly excited about.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
Well, the one that I wrote about, and again I'm
probably to a follow up with Milton. It's gonna be
kind of a series. I'm looking at the season over.
Of course, one of the things is, you know, we're
just now discovering season openers with the schedules coming out.
Here's the thing that I like so obviously on the
back end of the home and away schedule, the two years,
you know, we were just talking about with coach Vander

(01:14:02):
griff yep. And that's gonna remind me before we before
we leave, I want to ask coach Live about that
about the coach Vandergriff was talking about how he thinks
it's ridiculous for the ever too further it only be
the two year cycles with reclassed. But we'll get to it,
you know, just before we leave. But so, the thing
I love is where you have these changes in the schedule.

(01:14:25):
For example, Calkwood County they opened up with West out
of Utah last year. Okay, well, we always look forward
to the schedules coming out, but for the most part,
most of them are just simply gonna have a repeat
of last year's teams, except they're just gonna flop. Yeah,
right right, So I love where we have these changes. Now,

(01:14:48):
Milton Beauford a little of an exception, because that's a
big game no matter what. Okay, and it and it
is going to involve you know, the new stadium there
at Beauford. I think it's gonna be huge.

Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
Yeah, I think it's gonna drive a big.

Speaker 1 (01:14:59):
Crowd, no doubt. Now the Calquid County deal, so they're
not going to re up with West out of Utah
coach Calhoune told me they actually kicked around the idea
of maybe going out there, but it never really got anywhere. Yeah,
long way to go. And you know, to be honest
with you, West of Utah West High School used to
be a pretty good program. I mean they still are,

(01:15:20):
but they're just not on the same level with Cauquick. Okay.
Having said that, Sean Calhoun told me that they were
able to get together with Danny britt head coach at Benedictine,
and so we're gonna have Benedictine in Calwick County opening
up the twenty twenty five season with each other. I
just think that is so huge. That's you know, that's

(01:15:43):
I know that teams have got to take what they
can get with season openers, but by golly, I want
I think your season opener of course there's gonna be
a non reagion game for the most part. Yeah, I
think your non region your season opener should be a
big bang, you know, showcase event.

Speaker 2 (01:15:57):
Yeah, I mean I think it's great to you know,
put the program on the spotlight like that, you know,
and get a lot of people to come out to
these games. You want to give the people something to
look at.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
Yeah, well, I think it's good for the team. Slan,
I want to get your take on this. What do
you think about Calkwick County. You're very familiar with both
of these teams. I think Colchwood County of course. Uh,
there's been quite a history with you guys and cau
Quit and then of course been a dick team kind
of speaks for itself what they've been able to do,
especially under Danny Brint.

Speaker 5 (01:16:24):
Oh. So it's a Wood win for Benedictine because I mean,
if people they're a smaller school, and then Coqwood's figure
so look at if they keep it close, they win,
they win. Obviously, it's amazing either way, they're going to
get better. For col Quit. You can't go slowwalking and
sleep walking against that team because benadicting can be anybody.
So I think that's a great that's a great game.
And to your points, Phill, yeah, I think game one

(01:16:45):
should be one to open up and then and not
be a you know, a no loadgame.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
Overdie Farley, I will answer your question over are Obadi.
If Farney says it g next game of the week.

Speaker 2 (01:16:57):
I know he was pulling for that. I saw that.
I was like, are you reveal it?

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
I can tell you that. I've talked to Tony Wolf.
Tony's kind of like Sly. Tony has been the guy
in the face of the athletics there at Buford, and
I don't think he's actually in the acting a d spot,
but he's the guy that I go to. He's still
very much is a big dumb decision maker over there
at Buford. I talked to Tony, said, look, we want

(01:17:22):
to be on you know, we'd love to come up
and do the game. And Tony said, I've already got
you guys on the list. So fingers crossed, I'm sure
there's gonna be, you know, talk if it's a nationally
televised game, we may be out simply because I know
that there are some exclusitivity things involved there. Do you
know if it is it's gonna be nationally televised yet

(01:17:43):
or have y'all heard.

Speaker 5 (01:17:44):
It's it's not has not been decided yet. Here's the
thing with with ESPN, there's only so many games that
can handle and do and that have one another next
next week. They want to do two in a row,
but looks like and you never know, at the end
of the day, we'd love to see you guys up there.
Look love to be you know, on on stream or
on TV. But if you guys stremely did a great
game with games, that was a great that was a
great night, So hopefully to work out that'd be fun.

Speaker 1 (01:18:07):
Yeah, So when you said two in a row, are
they doing ESPN doing the game with you guys that
following down in South Florida.

Speaker 5 (01:18:13):
It's funny you mentioned that. So we just got a
vote next week. We're waiting on ESPN to commit or
not because there's a there's been a couple of teams
that have changed in that in that Elite Classics, So
right now it's up in the air, so literally it
changed and the last time we spoke last week, that
has changed. So right now that's why it's not solidified yet.
So we'll wait and see. We want to play Saint Thomas.
That's the one we want to play, but ESPN may

(01:18:34):
have something to say about it or not, and if
they do, then we make a decision we want to do.
So once again, is this when you play these games?
It's a lot of fun, but it's also a lot
of red Tafe and a lot of politics in these games.

Speaker 1 (01:18:45):
Yeah, is Saint Thomas or American?

Speaker 3 (01:18:46):
Here?

Speaker 1 (01:18:47):
Did you guys are playing?

Speaker 5 (01:18:47):
It? Will be playing Saint Thomas. If that stakes?

Speaker 1 (01:18:50):
If that stakes, wow, wow, you don't talk about huge
h And by the way, I'm writing a story currently
working on a story on Saint Thomas Aquinas. Uh enviewed
Roger Harriet a couple of weeks ago. It was a
long interview and we talked about he and I talked
about the success that they have been able to have

(01:19:11):
six consecutive state championships, that coach Harriot has led Saint
Thomas Aquinas too. But guys, it is he's a different cat,
and I mean that with all sincerity. He's a different cat.
He does things a different way. Uh Slow. I know
you're familiar with him as well, but he's done a
great job.

Speaker 2 (01:19:28):
Downe there you have to be for six consecutive no doubt.

Speaker 1 (01:19:31):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:19:32):
Yeah, he's a great coach, great guy. And uh that
pro only only beat that program once as a coach
my whole career, so it's, uh, they're good.

Speaker 2 (01:19:41):
I have a quick question and it's posed by Obadiah.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
Yeah you gonna read that. Let's we'll end with this one.
You got it, brother.

Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
He says, what are your thoughts about a team playing
a smaller school for their opening game? So when he
asked that question, my first thought was, you know that,
I feel like that's kind of like I don't think
it's a bad idea.

Speaker 1 (01:20:02):
Yeah, I don't either. I don't like it. I like
it a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
And I say that and say, if a team like
Lowes or Valdosta played Bruce County.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
I like that. Or I was thinking maybe like Valdosta
because you have Valdosta and Buford used to I mean, Beeford,
Valdosta and Bruce County you know have played each other before.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
Yeah, that's why I said that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Yeah, and so I would like to say that slow,
We'll let you answer this and give you the final
word as we get out of here.

Speaker 5 (01:20:26):
Well, there's there's a couple different thoughts to it. I
I don't mind it either. I would say this though,
it's got to be a team that's competitive. It's got
to be I'm sure exactly that you know is going
to give you a great look, right, and conversely you're
gonna give them a great look as well. But you
just keep Sometimes those games, I'll say it that way
for you. Sometimes there are traft games and if you're

(01:20:47):
if you're worried about that, you probably shouldn't be coaching anyway.
M h. But sometimes there are trap games where you
get in there and if you win by three points
or four points or seven points out the loss, right,
and then if you beat them, you should have beat
them and beating too bad and you should like So
you gotta be careful with that. But like a Benedict
team Colquitt, that's a great game. That's not gonna be
a pushover for co Quit.

Speaker 3 (01:21:06):
By no means.

Speaker 1 (01:21:07):
Do you believe first time ever those two teams have
played well as Calquit Okay, if they were used to
moultry packers, I think in nineteen something, what fifty I
think it was, and they played with a thirteen thirteen tie. Oh,
so that's the first time the two schools we've ever
played each other. But again it was Multry Packers and Benedetein.
This will be the first time at Colquitt County as

(01:21:27):
it is. Yeah, we'll play Benedicte team, but yeah, gonna
be a great one. So so I'm sorry I cut
you off. Man, Did you have anything else say about that?

Speaker 5 (01:21:35):
No, that's just my thoughts about that. I think the
end of the day, I think it's a good thing.
It's not a bad thing. I think it's to be
a great team you're playing that's competitive. But also understand
it could be considered a trap game. If you're worried
about that, don't do it. But you shouldn't be worried
about it because guess what, you should be confident.

Speaker 2 (01:21:48):
Yeah, I feel like Green with Coach Slide, like those games,
like it's not it's a non region game. So no,
it's not even going to recount for real. But I
think you should only play the smaller school. They put
up a good competition. That's why we mentioned Brits County,
you know. And then that's why we're also going to
mention get Benedictine because they are small schools that don't back.

Speaker 1 (01:22:10):
Down Cook and calquit would be a great one. Yeah,
just trying to think of thringing some others like that,
But they were all in sant Fitzgerald. Yeah, how about
Fitzgerald in Lounges. I mean, I know that we're getting
way away from your own over there, brother, but you

(01:22:30):
know again, I think you're very familiar enough, familiar enough
rather with the football down here where you know you
can probably sympathize WHETHERUS uh CA Atlanta.

Speaker 2 (01:22:41):
I don't know who they play, but they're a small
school that's pretty tough. So whoever they might go up against.

Speaker 1 (01:22:45):
I was gonna say a slide, give us an example
from your negative wood to what we're talking about.

Speaker 5 (01:22:51):
Well, you could look at some schools like a four
A school like State Creek Side, right, Yeah, they can
play a big six stage school. People think that's not
a big difference. That's a huge difference in in the
play level. I'm not saying it's not the same, but
you know it's it's just a speed of the game,
the size of the players. There's some difference. But now
Creekside can put it anyway, So I'd say that's a

(01:23:12):
great one. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:23:13):
So all right, So I'm with you there, but stretch
it out a little bit. And we do have to
make this the final word. I know I keep saying that,
but yeah, so give us another one to stretch it
out a little bit, a little bit more extremes, like
what you got smaller school, bigger school?

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
All up here?

Speaker 5 (01:23:32):
You got what about like a team like okay, let's
go with a team like a Westminster or Wesleyan winder.

Speaker 1 (01:23:37):
Yes, there you go, brother, I love that Wesleyan or
say Westminster yep versus Milton. Yeah, hey to a one
of these atop athletic programs. Westminster they were it for
a while. In fact, I think they've won like twenty
four to twenty five Director's Cups, which is the UH

(01:24:00):
which is the award that goes to the top athletic
program in the state. Which, by the way, guys be
looking for that story. That's another, yet another story that
is in the pipeline that we'll be coming out at it.
Geni's We've got so many great things, so many great stories,
if I must say say to myself, that we've been
working on so you don't want to miss any of them.
Subscribe to our newsletter. Mazzani mentioned that earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:24:23):
Yeah, subscribe to be the first one to get No.
Five from that newsletter.

Speaker 1 (01:24:28):
Goes to your email inbox free, Yeah, no charge free.
All right, guys, anything else y'all want to ad before
we get out of here.

Speaker 2 (01:24:35):
One last thing. Okay, this is my last comment, and
I just wanted to say it was a great one
by Steve ka Way. He says, Lee County screaming just
Carver Columbus.

Speaker 1 (01:24:42):
I like that. I like it. I like it a lot.
TCC Thomasville.

Speaker 2 (01:24:49):
Yeah, that would be doing so I saw that one.

Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
Ronald dj R J wallas Man, you mean you need
another name? Uh, Ronald says, Stockbridge versus West Lakes spring
game will be a big spring game. So that is
actually happening.

Speaker 2 (01:25:03):
I guess, yes, spring game. But I just want to
say for the people that as paying attention to basketball.
I know we've been talking about football a lot, but
Georgia high school state championships that is happening this week.
So yeah, be on the lookout for those games. I
know a lot of great teams, so yeah, And.

Speaker 1 (01:25:21):
To quote Obad Farley, until next time, great show. Thank you, Obadi.
I want to thank coach Sli for joining US Coach Live.

Speaker 5 (01:25:28):
Thank you brother, appreciate you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
Mazzanie Aka is the producer. Thank you so much, great
job as always.

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
Thank you too, Phil.

Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
Thank you and guys on behalf of those two and
everybody else watching. I am Phil Jones, your host. Extra
Point with Phil Jones will be back next week as
it is every Monday, same time, same BAT channel. You
get it. You get it, and you can always watch
the show as we archive all of our shows, so
if it's something you've missed last week or last year,

(01:25:58):
just go back and watch all of our art have
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right here at it g next Georgia. Guys, have a
great week.