This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez on Fox Sports fourteen fifty powered by Nova Insurance Services and Sure Your most Prized Possessions katz R two, SAG and iHeartRadio Station Yet.
Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve rovera kind of running solo, but not really. Jay, as we all know, is said goodbye to the show except for Thursdays at Del Sol, but we'll let you know more about that later. I have my first guest host, friend of mine for a long time, Mike Quinn sometimes call her and what
I'm looking for, Mike, you better write down these directions. Yeah, and my hosts maybe in the future, don't You don't have to agree with me?
In fact, like it.
If you don't agree with me and you and I one of the reasons, if not the only reason, is you rarely agree with me.
Yeah.
I was gonna say, it's like going, I very rarely agree with you anyway, one of those guys. It's like when I know you're, uh, you're you're one of these sports guys that deal with facts. I'm a sports guy that deals with the motion. Yeah, you are like J. You are like Jay, just the bigger J. Which is perfect because it was when we talked about this, I want I want to get confused by knowledge, right, so
even better, so we'll have a good time. Uh. The back and forth is the best thing on the show, I think, and we've had it with Jay and and other people who have come in on the show. So just just so I want to give people the background.
That you have.
Obviously you have some sports. You played a little football back in the day. You uh tell me you played it. You were in California, right, So I grew up in southern California, Okay, and.
I gotta I gotta. It was pretty funny because uh, I get a uh, I.
Get a call from my brother and he says, hey, uh, Michael, they got the uh the coach for army is at the high school and talk to I said, man, I don't want to go to the army and he goes, no, west Point and West Point you know that army.
I'm like going.
Okay, So next thing I knew, I was on my way to West Point, uh, because my dad wouldn't let me go anywhere else. Sause I was free, uh free to him, you know. Uh. But anyway, the uh, So I went to I went to Army, played football at Army until until.
I got hurt. Was there during some lean times.
And unfortunately Jim Young, who's a big deal here in Seusan. He uh he came out and fixed the Army football team.
Uh.
Unfortunately I didn't get to play for him. He came in the last year, my senior year, but by then I'd blown out my shoulder and my knee.
Yeah.
And and part of that you were also, as a fact, faculty, remember right you were there.
Yeah.
So I came back to well I could. The Army went around, ran around, played Army book. My wife and I graduated from West Boy and then we came here to uh to Universey, Arizona for a master's degree. I came here because of Sean Elliott. And you were lucky enough to meet me back then early nineties. Ear we played. We played softball together. Yes, turned you into a winner. Yeah, he turned turned me into a winter. It was like I I.
Was a coach.
I remember, I was a coach whenever whenever I whenever it was two outs and I needed a pop up. I would bring in Steve. He was always it was always good for a week ground out to second Mike. There's the door. Don't let it hit you in the ASD.
There you go.
We leave it already there those you disagree. You just can't bring up softball. Yeah, hell I brought you a championship. Hey, uh so okay, so there, but you helped. You helped internally at the football program, which which I like, because we're going to talk about that.
Tell me how so I went.
I went to UH, went back to West Point and taught and then I taught there for many years.
The UH they have a.
Thing at West Point that they have officer representatives, so people on the faculty UH work with every sports team. So uh I was. I worked with the football team.
UH.
I was there for sixteen years UH and UH and and worked with them very closely on working with the players and everything that. So I talk about a lot about psychology, or try.
To at least, and emotions and things like that.
Did you and this is a wow ago maybe twenty thirty years ago, right, you did that that you worked in that capacity?
I was.
I was there till twenty sixteen. Also not too long not too long, not too long ago. And we know how athletes are today, at least I do. I think I do locally and otherwise. How it's a burden emotionally, psychologically. So it's a lot to deal with. Was it the same kind of issue at Army, because that's a different cat there.
Yeah, I mean, I mean it is a different cat.
You are, you are, You've got all the responsibilities being a cadet. You know, you're doing all the military stuff that is that is there, You're going to all the classes that are there there, and then you're spending your time at football practice, right, it is.
It is a lot. It is a lot for them to.
Do, and they're different, and not to say it's a bad different, they're just different because they have major responsibilities with the Army for sure. The things that they have to do, I don't even know what word to use. And athletes here today have a lot to do too, you know, school Uh, and.
Yeah, that's it.
I mean, I mean, I'm assuming the NC is still gonna want to go to school.
Uh.
That may change though in the future. See, well that's that's the thing about Army is that you know at Army now, so since I left, there's have been a lot of changes. Obviously nil uh is one of them. The uh you know at Army there is no nil. I mean you're not you're you're not getting paid for this stuff.
Yeah.
Uh. The athletes that are there, some of them are the transfer portal. Some some are fine that are doing that. But there you know a lot of the a lot of the teams are looking for a different athlete than then you're gonna get a West Point.
Uh.
Now they got to I tell you they got a great coach right now, Jeff Munkin.
Uh he uh.
He came in with the mindset all the other coaches. And I dealt with a lot of these different coaches, including Rich Ellerson who who who coached there for a while right before Jeff Bunkin. But I talked to a lot of them, and there was one thing is like, oh, we need to recruit a different type of athlete. We need We're not going to get the really good recruits. We're going to get the other recruits. Jeff Munkin said,
forget that. I'm getting the good athletes. And so he's brought in some exceptional athletes, a lot of speed, but you don't get you know, you get a guy in there that has got a you know, he's got a really good GPA.
He's running a really good forty.
But you know, the kids five p ten, you know, and he's one hundred and sixty five pounds. He's running the option really really well. He's really scoring it up and that's not going to translate to big twelve.
Right right.
So, and in your capacity, I'm sure you had to deal with the emotional type of things, psychological kind of things, you know, you know, not so much my maybe my girlfriend's leaving me.
Whatever, the day to day school.
Ye do you think they're different there than they are here in terms of the person the problems they have. I don't think that they're different in terms of the problems that they have necessarily. I think that they have all the They have all the same pressures. I mean all you know, they all want to go out and they want to they want to get a date. They all want to go out and they want to, you know, do well in school.
They want to.
There's there's all sorts of outside pressures along the way. I think that there is a You're going to have to have a certain mindset to be at west Point that you're not going to get here. For example, I, you know, you talk to students here and you know you're like, oh, I have great anxiety. You know, it's it's very tough for me to to do this or get out there. And I and I don't like to talk to other people. You're not going to be able
to cut it at west Point. When when if you have something like that, it's just a it's a different attitude. You're going to stand up in front of you know, uh, platoon of soldiers and you're going to have to tell them what to do. So you can't have that anxiety. But we build a lot of confidence at west Point. Yeah, Henry Matthew, you guys in the house today, So you're listening to this right so so and I've said this
to you. I don't know, maybe not to both of you, but do you Henry into some of the people I talk to when I teach the journalism and this job is not a shy job. You can't be shy right now you're going out doing games? How is that?
Because you can't be You've got to kind of take like become a new person almost and step out of your bubble and you can't step away from anything. You got to take everything that comes at you, right.
I think I think you've come a long way too, I think in your time.
Would you agree, Yeah, I think that's a big thing I've learned in the last year, even since I've started on this show. That's you got to be less shy, you got to be more open and.
Right not not a lot of success comes from the shy or the past. Yeah, right, no, and then that's what you see at your player specifically. Well, yeah, that's the thing about it. I mean, Harrison is great. It's like when you're thrown into the situation, you either do or you don't.
You swim or you don't.
Yeah, and uh so, and you know that that's the way it is a lot of at West Point, let you know.
And these students get that way too.
I mean they'll they'll they'll graduate here and they'll go out there and they'll be in a room you know where they're gonn.
I have to do well, I have to be out there.
So yeah, So Matthew, real quick too, because you played you played at a pretty good school in your athlete same for you too, I would assume and We talked about this in the car right going home.
Uh, you can't just be halfway. You gotta have personality.
Yeah, and and not so much we're over the top, right, because that's that's not light.
But you have to have a swagger team something exactly, Yeah, something that stacks out.
And especially at a place like Arizona exactly if you're going to compete with teams like Arizona. Yeah yeah, yeah did you and you tried out, right, you tried out there?
Yeah?
Yeah, my my freshman year, my freshman year, yeah, position running back, oh yeah yeah, yeah, I was a little more stock here.
Yeah, I haven't waked out, but yeah, that was a little more starking.
Let's let's fat right way the same, It's just it was just put different.
Yeah.
I just lost a lot of weight, you know, because I stopped working on it. Sure, but yeah, freshman year, I tried out. It was like, what like four hundred of us and none of us made it so well, Yeah, it was that was an experience. That was Jeff fishes first jetfish. Yeah we're one to eleven. Happened mid season. Yeah, I take the experience though, So it was that was cool.
That's good, right, and it's also to you. You have to be that not pain in the neck, but you have to be vocal. You have to be out there. Yeah yeah, advocate for you. Yeah, you gotta display yourself. I guess.
Can't be sad at a tryout, you know, you gotta go home or you know. Yeah, okay, cool. So this weekend, no losses, no wins. It's a good weekend.
I heard, you know how in terms, I heard that this weekend all of these Arizona didn't lose.
Yeah.
Well, okay, after the first time, it's funny and stuff, but yeah, after a while it's Yeah. So you go to the games. What have you noticed to the games? You've seen what I'll tell you. The first thing I noticed was that the stands were a lot more full than they've been in the past, which is a great one. Yeah, I mean it's a great thing. I mean it's certainly something that we need. Yeah, I mean, if we're gonna try and you know, one, you know, build back the
athletic department's budget. Uh, if we're going to try and compete with other teams in the Big twelve, Uh, we're gonna need a lot of fans sport and it seems up to now we've been getting a lot of fans support, which is which is really really good. So now they play Utah this weekend. We'll see how that goes. We as we get closer to the game, we'll talk about it. But if it doesn't go, well, you've been here a number of years now, right, what do you think?
Uh?
You know, I I think that there's gonna be some uh, some people that are going to still have the you know, the hope with the new coach and everything like that, but uh, certainly is gonna dwindle off as people start thinking that, hey, we're not gonna you know, we're not going to meet the expectations that we had at the beginning of the season.
And that's how fans are go there.
Yeah, I mean they're gonna they're gonna figure out how to spend their money, and they're gonna figure out how to spend their time. I mean, they just announced that Texas what is it the Texas head game?
Is that eight?
Yeah, yikes, it's it's a Pac twelve after dark again. Yeah, it's different. Oh, we're gonna go to the Big twelve. We have better time slots. Well, actually, you're gonna have worse ones. Yeah, right, because if you go and you do, you'll get home about twelve thirty maybe if you're lucky. Yeah, that's gonna be tough. You know how tough is it? Because you've been to a lot of those games? Where or did you stay?
Well? Sometimes I stay.
You know, my my wife goes to bed early, so it's like going. If she's there, we may not make it to the third quarter, but she does like to see the band, so we make it to halftime. The but you know, if I'm there, yeah, I've been there til the end. The you know, it clears out, depends on it depends on the score, depends on what's going on. The one thing I'm hoping to get these these guys on is the Zona Zoo has done a fantastic job
two games in. I won't, you know, give them them a proper shure, Yeah, because you know it's it's a it's a sprint. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Yeah, they've done well, Yeah, they have. I mean, I got a some kids here that are in the Zona Zoo and it's like they're loving it. They're spending time there. It's exciting. Uh So it's it's good. They actually limited I think they limited tickets. They used to just like everybody allowed to dot it, but I think they.
You have to. There's a new system this year.
Yeah, yeah, what is it you have to Last year it was just you had to have zonas do and share your cat card. But this year you have to reserve tickets like how you do in basketball.
Okay, is there like a lottery for that? You know what I'm saying? You have that right, yeah? So is there a certain allotment that you have to get in before that?
Yeah?
Exactly, that is I don't know the exactly on like first come for Yeah, it goes out like a week before, like ten am the week before the game, and first come, first serve.
Okay, good luck with that Colorado game. Exactly.
You got a buddy years is gonna say, get a line quickly, get it line quickly?
Okay?
Uh?
You okay? With a team so far?
Uh yeah, you know, Uh, obviously we'd like to be in a we'd like to be running a little better the uh. And I know we got Michael lev On on a little later, but and I want to ask him about this you everyone talks about and we talked about this with Fish when he came in here in lost Anau. It's like, you got to buy into the system. Okay, you got to the players have to buy into the system.
We say that over and over again. I don't know, you know, I don't know the impact of that, but I do know that it is a different bringing in a new coach. There is going to be some you know, in you know, inconsistencies in the play. We'll see if they can pull it around. They're gonna have to really get some consistency on off. I know you're not a patient meant in real life, but you'll have to be in this.
I guess I will. Yeah, Okay, Li limit my talk. You tease.
Our second guest today in our first hour, we're going to have Kent Middleton, the head coach, head football coach at push Ridge, who's doing They're doing very well, so we do invited them on.
We'll talk to him about twelve minutes. Let's take the break and then come back with Ken.
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This is I On the Ball with Steve Rivera and Jay Gonzalez Son Fox Sports fourteen fifty Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app just seargeer II on the Ball.
Hey, welcome back to Eying the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve Rivera, who hosts here with me Mike Quinn. Mike how on the phone is Brush Ridge Christian football coach Kent Middleton.
How are you.
Good?
How you guys doing?
We're doing fine, coach? How are you You're doing pretty well? What's going on up there at push Ridge?
Well, you know, we we're playing decent football. We're three and one right now, and we're playing hard and you know, we got a tough conference. So our conference season is coming up here in two weeks and and uh uh you know, we're we're looking forward to that, but we know it's gonna be a great challenge. Our kids are playing well though, and then playing playing really hard.
No, that's good that you've been there for four years as the head coach. How many years have you been there?
This will this will be my fi This is my fifth year.
This is your fifth year. Okay, So so I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna go public my my my age of sixty. Mike Quinn is a little older than me. Uh, I know you're not a young dude, because I want to get your backstory in a second. But it's like you're you're doing your dream job because it took forever to get the job.
Yeah, you know, I I really you know, at some point there, I wasn't really looking to be a head coach anymore, you know, And and I was just enjoying doing what I was doing to being an assistant coach, and and uh, you know, I get I get out of out of football and and and what I will what I like to get out of it just by being an assistant. But the opportunity came up, and and I certainly jumped at it, and and it's been a lot of fun, no doubt.
Yeah.
Yeah, could you explain to the listeners, I think you waited thirty two years for this to happen or I read somewhere that that was the case in two thousand. In twenty twenty, Yeah, So.
I've been I've been an assistant coach, defensive coordinator and and all that kind of stuff at h at four different schools in Tucson, Katlan, Foothills, Ironwood Ridge, Mount View and and then of course at push Ridge Christian Academy, and and I just love it. I mean, it's a it's a passion, it's a calling. I you know, I think the Lord has called me to do this. And and but I, like I said, I really wasn't looking
to to uh move up so much. You know, after the first twenty years, I think, you know, I kind of was like, you know, I don't I don't need to be a head coach. But I enjoyed being around the kids and being around the game of football, and and at push Ridge Christian, you know, uh, being able to celebrate Christ and what he's done in my life and what he what he does in other people's lives.
Okay, Hey, yeah, hey coach the uh uh, first off, thanks for doing what you're doing, because I tell you, you know, uh haven't played football myself. I know the impact that a coach can have at that level. And I'm sure you're doing great things by this kid, not just teaching them about football, but it looks like you're teaching them a lot about football. Uh.
Seems like you got a pretty good running game. What kind of offense are you running up there?
You know, you know, it's kind of it's kind of interesting because before the season started, you know, even into the summer, we were concerned about our running game because we had one of our running backs was had a hold hamstring the whole summer. We didn't know what we're
gonna get out of him. And then we had another running back that we were we were hoping to get cleared by the AA to play, and we didn't know up until you know, the end of August or you know, the middle of August, whether that was gonna happen, and and it happened, so they cleared him and Blake Read and Sawyer Allen have done a great job. And our quarterback Jacob Newborn have have done a great job of
running running the football. We've run it really well. Uh. They're talented young men and all very strong, and and our line has done a great job. I mean our line is is undersized, but they're tough and and gritty and and they get they get bodies on bodies and and we've been run run the football pretty pretty effectively.
In addition to the age thing.
Uh, and we know this because you're probably a competitor back in the day, the kids must keep you young.
Oh absolutely, although I don't look it, but they they definitely keep you young. I'll tell you what. Kids today, You know, they're so uh they're so quick witted and and you know, if you if you get into a trash talk game with them, you better be ready to go because they can, uh they can get your pretty.
Some of them keep you young, and some of a fast no.
Doubt about that either, No doubt about that. Yeah, thats uh.
Kids.
Kids are great. I mean they're they're you know, they're they're bright, they're uh uh exploited, you know, they're they're just you know, they're at that age where they're learning a lot about life and they have a lot of opinions and and uh and they're very refreshing, no doubt about it.
So Mike, and like we're talking about stuff like that in psychology of the sport and emotions of the of the game.
You've been coaching a long time.
Obviously, Uh, has has the philosophy of the kids changed much in your thirty some years? Uh? What nineteen ninety five ish, nineteen ninety two whatever it was done?
Now?
Yeah, definitely. My first year of coach was actually nineteen eighty nine, so you know, I go way back. But yeah, there's no doubt. I mean, kids, kids, did you know everybody talks about, you know, whether athletes were better back then or they're better today. You know, I think, you know, I think it's I think athletes are the same. I
think they're trained better today. You know, get a lot of you gotta get a lot of athletes that's sports specific train now, which I think for shame, because I think playing all the sports you can, you know, up and through your high school years is real important to develop you know, all different towards all different uh parts
of of an athlete. And you know, so uh and and they're just they're they're the athlete today now are exposed to so much more, you know, with the training and with the nutrition and with you know, I mean, you know, uh a lot of them have their own little separate teams, you know, and with the nutritionist and with U exercise physiologists and all that kind of stuff.
So but at push Ridge, you know, uh, our kids are truly there to uh to celebrate their Christianity and their education first and and so that that's that's real nice. That that's real nice to be part of, no doubt.
Give some some some other things out there. Do you have your athletes to encourage your athletes to do other sports? So do you have encourage them to just focus on one because I know back when we were on we played everything.
Yeah, and our kids, our kids at push Ridge do they play everything. And we encourage that. I mean, I want to see you compete.
Go out and compete.
Yeah, that's very best training you can get. It is important you know for football players, I guess all athletes nowadays, oh, I know all athletes nowadays to you know, that's that you get in a good strength and conditioning program and you can do that and while you're playing other sports too. So we really encourage and most of a lot of our kids are three and two sport athletes because we're a small school. Three hundred, right, Yeah, you have to be.
Yeah, that's good.
I tell you how they hate the uh, the coaches that say it's like you got to pick one or another. We had a kid, uh in the high school that I was near in New York, and a kid there was all state as a freshman in football and an all state and basketball, and his football coach said, you got to pick one.
And I just can't. I couldn't believe that.
You're you're doing a major disservice to a young athlete and a young person if you do that. I mean, you really are. I mean, this is the only time in your life where you can even think about playing three sports and or two sports and and having a great time with it and learning and and the coaches that that, you know, pressure kids to play one sport. I don't get it.
Yeah, I really don't.
That's great to know. And I know you become better competitors because they're doing it year round. Uh, and they're all very good. Let me ask you how does it having Lamar love It on the staff and and maybe having his son on on the team.
You know, Lamar is uh, Lamar is a great man. He is a u It's awesome having him on staff. He he uh, you know, he's been on he's he's been on staff there since the school opened back in two thousand. So he's this is his twenty fourth season being a push Forridge Christian Academy and uh, you know, with his background and being a football player from the u of A and and uh, you know, he's obviously a uh, a very Christian man. He you know, he's
been He's he's a no brainer. He's gonna be on your staff as long as he wants to be there. And with Elliott, you know, Elliott's really come into his own this year. And you know, he had two other boys that played in the program, and so it's kind of a a routine thing to have to have a love It out there and and Lamar certainly does a great job.
Yeah.
Nice, nice, Hey the so uh get getting back to your your future here, Okay, I mean you're doing good up to now. You got you got two weeks of SaberCats in front of you. Uh and uh, I know you're I know, you got one one game coming up here, but then you jump into the season and I know you don't want to look past that, but uh, Sabino should be a little tough.
Well, Sabino is always tough because they're very talented and and they do things well and and uh football, football is very important to them and uh so they're they're always you know, top of the line. Uh, but really be honest with y'all, as I'm thinking about right now, santan Fu Hills. You know, we want to get that one under our belt. And certainly, you know, we know Sabino's lurking in the background, and our whole conference is
lurking in the background. Yeah. So uh and we got you know, we got the toughest three A conference in the state. Every team in our conference last year made the playoffs and that's you know, that's really unheard of. So you know, we got we got a lot of work to do before that. But you know, certainly, uh, uh you know Sabino.
We we know all about Sabino, no doubt, did you I know we talked about this in terms of waiting a long time to become the head coach at some point along the way, do you kind of wish that you had done it before, to try to make that leap as a head coaches?
Yeah, you know, I think yeah, you know, I mean I think things work out for a reason. You know, Yeah, there's a plan and and so like I said, after, you know, after a while, it was wasn't that important for me anymore. Uh, there was a time where I really wanted to be because you have you know, when you're younger, you have so much energy and and and you know, you think it's a double edged swords. You think like a young person, which is you know, energetic and all a lot of ideas and and uh, you
know the stuff that you really want to do. But you know, with age comes wisdom and and you look back and you say, well, you know, if I had tried to done some of that stuff, maybe it wouldn't work now. And and so I think, you know, I think I got I got the position. I got uh at the right time.
I really do.
And I mean I know, I'll say what I've learned that there's some great, great, great coaches, uh, you know, Hall of Fame coaches here in the city of the state and uh certainly. Uh, They've had a great effect on me. So you know, I've been blessed, no doubt about it.
Yes, I have the age. The wisdom is still yet to come through the door. Sorry to say, but that's okay. I'm a patient man for this. Uh real quick. You were you were a hockey guy, ice cap guy. Uh back in the day. How does that translate to football or or does it he just kind of universal as a coach or tell me how that situation is.
Well, you know, football and in hockey are very similar, uh in the fact that their collision sports. Uh, the intensity level is is tremendous. Uh. The locker rooms a lot of the same. Uh with the intensity and and the fact that you know you're you're going out there and the object is to hit other people. And you know that that that's rare in sports. So uh uh so so they they you know that that's a great trade off there. Uh. I played I played hockey for a long time, uh and loved it. It's the sport
I exceled at the most. And and and uh you know, certainly, the the mentality that you have to be a hockey player, you have to have the same to be a football player. And uh, I mean those are great times back then. And but but you know, I say back then, it's really getting to be back then.
Right right?
Hey, so, uh you mentioned your undersized line. Those guys must be crazy getting at it then. I mean, if they're if they're making goals, for these guys, they got to be uh you got to be really excited about their intensity.
Yeah, their intensity is fantastic. I mean they're number one, they're really good athletes. Okay, so they're they're really good athletes. They move real well, they got great agility, and they're strong. They spend a lot of time in the weight room. So we may not be the biggest team, but you know we got we got good athleticism and and and and then I'll tell you what the biggest part of
it is their tough nose. You know, they'll they'll they'll they'll put a face mask onya and uh, you know, whether you know how much Google will we get you know, will depend on on uh, you know, getting help and all that kind of stuff. But I'll sell you what. They're tough. They're very very tough, and and all of them are fantastic. I mean, our center is Patrick Coyle, and our guards are well, our tackles are Aaron Kenworthy
and and Charles Palmer. And our guards are Tyler Chouf and Noah Morris and so they, you know, they they really have done a great job this year.
How many of those guys are you know, we do we we.
Do throw the ball quite a bit too.
Yeah, yeah, you do it pretty well.
Yeah, you know, yeah at times, you know, we that's one area that we really want to get better at. Uh, we really want to improve and and and and you know as the season goes on, is is get that part of our game really clicking? And and you know, you know I mean that that that would really benefit us a lot. But those guys up front, they do a great job and and uh you know, they keep our quarterback safe and they open holes for our guys. So that's all you can ask.
Yeah to Kent Middleton, the head coach at the Push Ridge Christian, maybe one more quick question, So of the front line, how many of those kids are wrestlers? Because in my in my mind, those those kids are tough as nails and and you can't get past those guys.
You know, we don't have any wrestlers we don't have wrestling at the school. Oh okay, well, but I'll tell you what we got. We've got a couple of guys that will make great marines, that's for sure.
Outstanding, very deatated. What about track? What about track? Do they do track?
You got a lot of track?
Yeah.
Almost all of our football players participate in track. Our our associate head coach is the head track coach. So we try to get all the players we can in the track, you know, or baseball, whatever, as long as they participate in this sport. But a lot to do participate in track, no doubt.
Yeah, well, coach, we appreciate your time. Good luck the rest of the way. Yeah, thanks, coach, appreciate.
It all right, guys, I appreciate it. Appreciate all you do for high school sports.
And and hang in there, right, thank you, Ken, appreciate it, Take care, take care, good luck, push rich. All right, let's take a rank here and come back and then take some calls maybe on the other side. You're and Aorason, a men's basketball fan. You know, it's been successful for newly forty years now. Take a look back at the
Ludolson era. In my new book Lessons from Loot. It was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players, coaches and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who led them, competed against them, and inspired them. Twenty five chapters for his twenty five years as Arizona's loved coach. Lessons from Loot is an insight to how he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at Steve dot RIVERA ninety five at gmail dot com.
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Breaking down all the exes at OHS, It's Steve Rivera and Jagen SALVIAX. This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteenth fifty.
Hey, welcome back to my I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve rivera geez My Quinn my guest host today on Monday. I got a guy Henry and our guy Matt in today helping me out. I'm moving forward. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with guest hosts, but you might take over Monday. Maybe we'll take over. Either Matt really likes you or he's really sucking up pretty quickly. Yeah, I'll take over until you kick me out, I guess, or until I kick you out.
Yeah, I don't know.
We've got callers coming in. They made one while the show, that's right, while he piped me.
Thank you very much.
Yeah yeah, yeah, what did you say? He was got some He's a natural. He's a natural bs or that's what he is. That's why he's here. That's why he's here. If you want to call, please do five two zero four one six seventy four forty. Uh, well, appreciate your call and moving forward. It was good to talk to him. Uh push Ridge his way up in my area, but way up there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's up near you know, uh, North and Oracle. Yeah, that's a that's why they're good,
good plays. I mean, it's a it's a neat school. I think what he did was he hit it on the head where if you're a small school, you have you need everybody playing yeah yeah, you know every sport yeah kid, Yeah, and you get everyone together, you know that, you build a lot of cohesiveness, which is important for a team.
And most of the time those kids grew up together.
Yeah yeah, yeah, a lot of them, so you know, and it's it's a Christian academy, so you can kind of quasi recruit, I guess, you know, you you encourage people to attend.
Yeah, but it's a uh that's a good school.
I mean, it really is. Can't say enough good things about it. And I'll tell you what. The fact that he is you know, you know, I just I just met him here. But he is really interested in the kids and their development and the fact that they do well. And you know, I see, like I said, I see these coaches that are out there. It's like you're not playing another sport, You're playing my sport.
You know.
It's like they don't even care if they go to school. They just want them to be good in football. He wants them to be developed and uh and that's exceptional. Yeah, okay, cool, if you want to call you, okay, I mean that's kind of me agree with you. That's how I agree with it. That's it's just even if we weren't on phone, I'll say, yeah, okay, good, but you'd be back on your phone. The uh pretty much my phone out all time. Yeah, I wondering, wondering when I was going to buy lunch again?
Oh yes, what is that? I don't know.
Yeah, when you made three times money if you but you make three times more money show, what does that mean?
Because he couldn't afford the show. It's you know, it's like.
He told you that this is not a money making a venture. That's why any more sponsors anybody interested.
We do it.
We do it for fun. Yeah, if you if you want to sponsor me, that'd be great to be on Mondays, right, But no, okay, so you know you're a Miami Dolphins fan. We're just kind of joking.
Good luck with that. Yeah, I was gonna say, it's it's it's sad.
The Miami Dolphins, guys, the Dallas Cowboys. Uh, who else pretty much sucks. Yeah, there's well, you know, it's kind of weird.
You know.
I I heard I heard a statistic that there were of the own two teams is this week the oh and two teams were six and one this week in the NFL. I mean that's crazy. It just goes, you know, it goes to show it really is any given Sunday. I mean, it's it's just amazing the fact, well it was any given fourth quarter. The forty nine ers, yeah, collapse, they did. The Ravens. The Raves played three great quarters and then they go back into the locker room.
Uh, they're horrible in the fourth quarter. I don't know whether that is a conditioning thing or.
You know. Wilbon, Michael Wilbon was talking about all about the monk and the offensive coordinator not running Derrick Henry, but they ran him in the fourth quarter against the Cowboys, and they still didn't. They still almost gave it. And then the team that was scoring in the eighties forties each two games on Orans scores.
Like yeah Orleans. Yeah.
Well, and then the Buccaneers, Yeah, you know, you get Baker Mayfield. He must have found out that I got him on my fan of c team, because as soon as he gets on my fantasy team, he crumbles like a paper doll. You you and Jay have the same type of thing. Yeah, just picking pick him and the pick the opposite.
Yeah.
It's like when I finally this year, I'm like, forget it. I picked Travis kelcey Early killed him. It's like it's like one of those cuckoo dolls or what are those? Yeah, those voodoo dolls. Voodoo dolls pick him up and they died. I think Taylor did that. Yeah yeah, well yeah, I belave. I've been Taylor Swift. Yeah, he is also like thirty six. He was throwing thirty five thirty five last year. I mean it's you know, it's not like you know, yeah
he jumped too great. Come on, you whipper snuffers, your young guys.
I haven't fantasy too. Oh yeah, I'm suffering. He's just not catching.
You know, they're not going to one when they're they're covering him like crazy, okay, uh and opening it, which is opening and Mahomes is not doing that well right, he's not. He seems to be uh guess and guess what the three you know, yeah, they are three and O. That's thing about it. I mean a lot of people will say that that's because of the refs. Oh yeah, they did get a favorable call yesterday. They did get a pretty favorable call yesterday. I don't ye know, would have made a difference.
I don't know.
Yeah, that would have given him Mahomes plenty of time to go take the ball down the field, right, and we all know how that ends up, right. Well, So in the next hour we're gonna have Michael lev talking about UA sports, all things u A sports. He I think he went to the press conference today with with Brennan to see how that is. So we're kind of reserving our thoughts on that right now, but if you like to call and talk about it, please do. Maybe in depact I'll just say that and then and then
mess with it. What are you hoping to see? Because you probably be there, you'll not be there in two weeks, but you won't be there this this weekend. What are you hoping to see? Because they're like a ten point dog, not a lot of hope. Uh So, yeah, so Utah looked pretty good. You know, they always look they always look really good. I think that what I'd like to see,
really is better defensive line play. I mean, if we go in there and we're able to really come up on on the defensive line and uh and shut down some of the run, I think he gives us a pretty good, pretty good chance of having it being a competitive game. But I'm concerned that, you know, Utah comes in, We're not gonna surprise him what we did last year. Uh, They're gonna they're gonna come in and be uh try and be all over us from the very beginning, especially
there they look pretty good against Oklahoma State. So uh, I'd like to see our our defense really come up and step up and play. We'll see how We'll see how that goes. Yeah, Okay, I've talked about this very little, but we have a pretty good deal here with when Jake comes back, he'll be here with me once a month. Every Thursday, we go down there to Casino del Sol and and we're excited obviously get a good, big sponsor and so we have some things every Monday.
Enjoy get invited.
You know, we don't even know who you are on Thursdays and can come and support us A buy you margarita for five bucks even get a drink.
That's what I buy. I get water water. I go out and break you divas, you divas and you and the.
Break.
I get to go and get a water. I known this.
You never would have come into the everybody enjoy five dollars. Margarita is made with fresh squeeze, lime juice, Gabi syrup, and legal mescal. That's gonna be on Mondays at at Del Soul and uh bliss the most seasonal selections. Pretty pair were caught up filled Rabbioli.
What was that word? I said? Do you remember while that?
Yeah?
That was oh yeah, what was on?
Instead of one? It's one disregard That was so funny. Well, you know, I'm not I'm not, I'm not known. That's a good story. One disregardsgard. So we'll get to more of this, uh and later in the show about stuff that we're gonna be doing it though, so we can't wait. We're hoping to get there Thursday, but I don't think
we're going to do that this Thursday. We'll see, Well, okay, anything with you guys, you guys uh excited not excited for you a football because you guys, you guys kind of don't care.
Or do you that's disrespectful. I care. It's there school, Yeah year here, of course I care. You you Uh don't. You've been on the show enough to know that. I I know you don't care. Yeah, tell me how you care. I'm trying to, you know, Big twelve Championship. I'm trying to.
Expectations are high, and I don't want to go out with such a bad season. But I mean no, I mean I knew coming into the season this team wasn't gonna be as good as last season. But because of losing so many players to the NFL, that's and coaching Brennan was a mystery. He still kind of is a.
Mystery, right right, Yeah, no question.
And I was gonna ask coach camp to Middleton, Uh, maybe you guys too, and Mett and Mike because we haven't really talked about it because they're talking about with Jay uh at some When you have a head coach, whether he's a good guy, about a guy whatever, you need no matter what he is.
You need a guy to be kind of a pain in.
The ass to be a good coach, to be a good coach because when the players play hard for you, they respect the hell out of you. If you're not that coach, you don't get And I'll say this, and he's a friend of mine, a good friend, Steve Lavin, who he's a good dude.
He's a good dude.
Now maybe a basketball guy, but he's a really good dude. Right, Sometimes you have to be a jerk. Yeah, I mean, you know that's the thing about it, you know, you do you know you hear all these things. Always a player's coach. Yeah, players coach, And it's like going, Okay, you know, if if I was playing, I'd like to have a player's coach. Okay, if I'm a fan that it wants to win, it's like, I don't want to players coach. You need a coach. What you need is
a coach that is into attention to detail. Okay, you can't make mistakes. You're not fumbling the ball, you're not getting off side penalties, you're not making the little missay, you're not doing I mean, we get personal personal fouls. I mean, come on, you know that's that's just uh poise. Yeah, uh, Matthew, Because you've you played the game and you have coaches. Uh you know what I'm asking right, Yeah, I think coaches have to be national leaders at least.
To be a good coach, you gotta be a leader. But the type of personality, I don't want to say, you got to have like a.
A dictatorship kind of, but the players got to have like respect and fear you a little, you know.
Yeah, I think that's number one in terms of being a good coach.
I fear not in a bad way exactly, not in a bad way, like you know, but would you make that play? Yeah, if you, if you, if you, like you said, if you make that penalty, you know what's gonna you know, the consequences that are gonna come with this place. So I feel like, yeah, just just again again being a leader, being being a uh So, let me ask you when you played, what type of coach did you have at Oh? Well, I was gonna say something that wasn't very uh air friendly.
But I.
Have multiple coaches. But I had coaches that I'll say looked after players, if that makes sense, looked they cared for the personal like they wanted the players to go out, if that makes sense, to the next level. But then I also had coaches that were more so paid a play, if that makes sense. Because I went to like a I don't want to see in a wealthy school or like a wealthy neighborhood. But kids, some of the kids that were playing, their parents were like boosters or whatever.
They were playing right right, right, right exactly. You see that. That's not a good coach. It's not a good coach. That's not a good CoA. So did you have one of those painting that coach?
Oh?
Yeah, didn't you work your ass out for them?
Running run your You know, I worked as hard as I could have worked, and still my sophomore year did not start.
So because of the situation you're talking before. Yeah, so that's not whether that's right or wrong, that's not right at all. No, And you might didn't do well. You probably didn't do well as a team.
No, that's the thing we will do. We will do well, but then playoff.
Comes and then we lose like the first game or you know, we don't go deep into the playoffs like people expect us to do like regular season, will win all these games, look amazing, and then playoff comes and then this disappointment.
Yeah, paper tiger, right exactly, Yeah, yeah, you just I mean, you do have to have a situation where if you were gonna you FuMB of the ball, you're out. Okay, right, you're gonna, but not to the point of you're looking over your shoulder every time you do.
No, No, you don't want to do that. Okay.
I mean there's coaches that are like any mistake, you know, we're subbing somebody else in.
But you got to.
You got to understand that, you know, the coaches are disappointed in you. You know those things like you know, it's like going you get that look from your dad that is just like going, come on, That's exactly it.
It matters, right, Like as a player, you got to know like if you mess up, next man up. You know, right, you don't want to have this secure spot or.
To that point.
We don't know the situation with Brendan No, you know everyone you don't want to complain is the lays and the clapping.
Yeah, in the clapping, you know you and you want that.
You want the clapping, you want encouragement. But what happens when things go back the penalties? Yeah, well you know, and that's that's the thing about it. I mean, you know you look back, uh guy, that guy that was here from any here, Dick Tomy Okay, Dick Tomy, you know, you know what he did on the sidelines.
Did he sat there and clapped? Okay? Would he wear a l A? He'd probably wear a A. It wouldn't really matter.
Yeah, if somebody wanted to, if some his starting quarterbacks mom or grandmother, right, uh, gave him, gave a laid, he'd wear the LA. But it's like he sits back and he claps, and that's what he does. And that's fine. You can manage it any different way as a head coach, you know, Nick Saban not that way. Okay, but there's ways.
There's successful people both ways. I met that concerned about the fact that he's standing on the side of without a headset and clapping and leaving it up to his coaches. You know.
It's one of those things that proof is in the pudding. Okay.
I'm not going to tell him about his style. I don't care about his style. I care about his record, his results.
Yeah. I mean, you know, you know when.
Finish cat here, Okay, you didn't start out like gang Busters to begin with. We had high expectations going into that season and we didn't start and we didn't do much at all. Yeah, we really won a couple of games. So it's like going and he turned it around. And again it's one of those things that I'm looking forward to talking to Michael about.
Uh you know what his thoughts are on you know, turnover on coaches.
So yeah, okay, did you when you went out to play two three years ago you knew that what you were getting into, right and maybe the coach.
Did you get a feel for how they were? Yeah?
When I try it out, I felt like, again, they just did it just to do it. There was there was no point of it. Maybe to get the other guys attention. Yeah, yeah, something some but I don't feel like they went into that tryout looking for players if I'm being honest, or looking to add depth to their you know team.
Definitely not.
Yeah, interesting, Yeah that was world. Maybe it was one of those things where it's like, hey, just find somebody. No, there's no question about that. But what I'm not saying they didn't even want that. There was kind of like a dog and pony show or whatever, but something that's like, hey, we're interested in the student body.
Or no, you guys, this is how this is how bad we are.
We're gonna go get some other guys to replace you, right, right, yeah, knowing they were gonna get anybody exactly right.
Yeah.
Yeah, we're good to go. Okay, let's take a break and come back to the other side. You have breaking news, a lot of stuff going on, and come back things