¶ Bethany Alumni Chat About Career Paths
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rants podcast . This is , as always , your host , mike Bono . I have a great guest for us today , but first and foremost , I have to get these new sponsors in here , and that is Buddy's Beard Care . Buddy's Beard Care provides premium men's grooming products at an affordable price .
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That being said , my guest today is a former coach of my alma mater in the Bethany Bison . He's been coaching for a while . We're going to get into what he's got going on now , but Bob Neisel joins the show . Bob , thanks for joining man . Hey , mike , thanks for having me on .
Hey , not a problem , we're always looking to have other Bethanians on here , for sure .
Yeah , it seems to be , I guess , a trend .
Yeah , a trend . We've had a lot of coaches with Upton and Weaver and Mr Askew , who's a regular anymore on this show . But yeah , yeah , when , when you have a podcast run by two Bethanians , I guess it's . It's kind of hard to have a few bison on the show from time to time .
Nice , nice , nice . Yeah , I mean , wow , when did you graduate ?
Mike , I graduated in 2012 .
Okay , okay , that's why , all right .
I think I just missed you when you came in there .
I'm trying to think I went in in 2002 , graduated in 2006 , and I left in there . I'm trying to think I went in in 2002 , graduated in 2006 , and I left in 2008 .
I went to Bethany in 2007 . I started in 2007 . I did a victory lap and did five years and graduated in 2012 . You were a GA there too as well . That was the I graduated in 2006 .
It was 2007 , as well . That was the . So I graduated in oh six , it was a oh seven , oh eight . I was the GA , a GA for with weave up to in garb , yeah .
Okay , cause I cause it was , it would have had have been 2009 and 10 . I think I was the sports director for the radio station Okay and I and I broadcast every director for the radio station Okay and I and I broadcast every home Bethany football game .
So I'm sure our paths crossed at some point , bethany for sure , with Rosie a lot , then with Rosie a little bit . Yeah , the my , my cohost was Jared Martin , the juice man , as everybody knows him . I don't know if he was still there when you were there . I think he was a year behind me .
That seems about right .
Yeah , he was the play-by-play guy . I was the color commentator when we announced the game . It was a lot of fun . I had a lot of fun announcing the games . Getting to see every home Bethany game doesn't hurt at all . No , we announced the game , so it was a lot of fun .
I had a lot of fun announcing the games and , you know , getting to see every home Bethany game doesn't hurt at all . No .
Well , most of the time it doesn't yeah .
A lot of tough losses For sure .
Yeah , for sure . I mean , I feel like it was a lot leaner whenever I went in and was playing than you know , when I was coaching it was better and went in , was playing , then , you know , when I was coaching , it was better and I felt like it took turns . You know , the more positive I think probably wouldn't .
You know you were there and doing announcing and everything . But yeah , for sure . Yeah , I mean I would say . But you know you've worked in education for a long time , you know , after bethany . You know , can you tell the listeners what you do now exactly for education and how you ended up in that role ?
Right now I'm in my third year as the Director of Pupil Services for a Bentworth School District . It's out in Washington County , pennsylvania , about 20 minutes east of Washington . I've been in the district for going on six , starting my 17th year . So in that time I started out all in special education .
Uh , started with elementary learning support , went to high school life skills , back to elementary for emotional support , went to the middle school for some uh learning support and then kind of migrated into administration . And I've been there for the last three years going on , starting the fourth year and , um , it's just kind of been a natural progression .
I guess I don't know if the coaching aspect led to moving into administration from teaching , but uh , it just has been a natural , you know move to make . Keep going that route , I mean . But all that started going back to bethany . Uh , I think of Dr Robin Kuhl . I don't know if you ever crossed paths with her . She was an English professor .
She was my freshman seminar teacher . She got me hooked into the education department with Keely Camden at the time and then took a bunch of classes with Keely . She was like , oh , yeah , you're going to be all right , try special ed . I was like don't know that much about it , I mean . And then from there I was hooked .
And then , you know , keeley even kind of guided me towards my master's at WVU , you know , as a graduate assistant at Bethany At that time .
We got our master's at WVU and then after that , you know , finally went into you know , a real job , growing up , becoming a teacher , that sort of thing but even just being in contact with her as a Bethanian now she's at Carlo .
Now I ended up getting my principal papers at Carlo , I don't know , just keeping in touch with , I guess everybody from Fiddy to Coach Upton is at W&J now . And yeah , it's just Bethany has been a great place for me . You know . It's obviously set me on a path , you know , professionally .
But you know you've met a lot of great people that you've been in contact with and stayed close with and it just it's different than everywhere else it .
Just it's different than everywhere else . But yeah , I , I think the smaller size of bethany being such a close-knit people , like you know you see everybody on campus , you know whether you you know them personally or you know it's just a passing you get to know everybody on a different level than you are . Like , I mean , you went to wvu .
I mean most people , there are just a number . You know what I mean . Like , um , I would that . That was the dream school for me was wvu . I've always been a mountaineer fan growing up in west virginia , um , and oddly enough , I'm like the only person in my family not to go to wvu .
Uh , so I mean my dad graduated from there , or no , my dad went there , my sister graduated from there and I was on the path to , to , to be a Mountaineer and ended up earning a , a scholarship to swim at Bethany . So made the choice a little easier take a little bit of money off the tuition .
So coach McGowan your coach , or was he ?
Yeah , Coach McGowan was your coach or was he Coach McGowan ? Was the coach there Loved Coach McGowan to death . He was a great coach . I've had a lot of swim coaches in my time , but no one that actually worked individually with each swimmer like McGowan did .
We butted heads a lot , like most players and coaches do , especially when he wanted to try to make me a breaststroker . But I was not a breaststroker , I could not get . I could not get the kick down , so he made me hang in the deep end , deep end , into a hundred breaststroke kicks . That was it . That was my practice for the day .
Still didn't help , I hate to say it ,
¶ Life as a Student Athlete
coach forgot . I still didn't help . I hate to say it , coach , but God , I still can't do it . But yeah , it was . It was a lot of a lot of great people . You meet , you know and you know still connect with the state Mr Askew , fetty , weaver , upton still in contact with all of them to this day and it's been great , I mean .
And you were a former player at Bethany , so what was it like playing and then coaching for your alma mater ?
So when I went in , was it Chris ? Chris Snyder was the head coach and I went in going from , I guess , a small Whitfield school to then going to college . It was just an eye-opening experience in terms of everything you know college , not it was ? it was just an eyeopening experience , you know , in terms of like everything playbook players , you know .
You know being a single way school and then you know , all of a sudden , you know every classification and three different States and even more , you know Florida , everywhere else , all you know kind of coming together and it , you know , just , it was a little awkward at times . I mean my , my first experience .
I remember walking into the weight room it was the first day I think there were 60 freshmen on the football team and I . There were kids that we walked in we're getting ready to do different tests and a couple of kids looks , you know one kid , looks another and goes , yeah , I'm not doing this .
Turns around and just like quit , before anything started I was like whoa , like you . You came , you you unpacked , your parents , dropped you off , you went through everything and you walked in , looked around , went yeah , I'm not doing this , and just walked out . That's insane to me , oh yeah .
And then you know we go in for the lifting test and a man who was actually a freshman in in my class I didn't know that at the time he gets down on the bench . 225 rep test was what they did at that point . He gets down and reps it out like 30 times Two and I'm just like , oh man , what did I get myself into ?
Like that's a grown man , this or that . Well then , later we go to positional meetings and we're , you know , introducing , getting to know people and I'm like that is a freshman , I was like what , and you know , as camp progressed , there were , you know upperclassmen .
You , I mean , you know how it is , you , you got to know every one upperclassman you bonded with , I mean , and you know , the one upperclassman was like man , like if that person is that big , that strong and they were fast , something's up .
If you came to bethany , like it was all division one , everything , but you know , and it , you know it didn't pan out for that guy , you know he , you know , didn't make it , yeah , all four years on a football team or anything , I don't .
I don't remember how many years he made it , but it just that was , you know , my opening experience whenever we went in my , my class , not just football , but bethany had dropped tuition and cut it back and might drop to like 20 , 000 or something . So there was like 300 something freshmen that came in that year , which was , you know , unheard of for them .
Yeah , I mean , I think all told , when we graduated it was about 200 , a little over , maybe like 208 or something . It was smaller but it was noticeable that , you know , they in aging college people don't always make it through . They leave , they transfer , they do other stuff .
But that was , you know , kind of the Bethany experience at first and I was there with Snides for two years . I remember thinking , well , what we won ? Like three games . My freshman year I got in two games , uh , which was , you know , pretty exciting , making the travel team , like just coming in from a small school , having the little you know .
All right , these are my goals internally . You know , I want to make the travel squad . I want to , you know , play in some games . You know great experience , uh . Then then , you know , jump to my sophomore year . Snides is still there as the head coach . We , uh , I end up starting as a sophomore .
You know great experience , fine , um , one of my good buddies now started as a freshman , uh , and then he were the same class . He's , you know , started as a sophomore as well as junior senior . As you know , I , we both went on . He was a four-year starter , I was three-year starter on the offensive line . But uh , that's was .
Uh , you know he's a blast to , you know be around with and you know we're still close . Today we actually work at bentworth together . Um , in an odd twist of I guess I don't know , but we talked about , the thing is staying close and yeah if you look out for your friends and everything to keep them .
I don't know abreast or just involved in looking out for them , but after that sophomore year we had a coach . A coach came in and met with us . It was early , I feel like it was like November maybe right before J-term , Christmas break , whatever and he came in and said hey , I'm going to be resigning , I'm going to go to be the head coach at Seton Hill .
Yeah .
Whoa . So he did that and then it seemed like it took a while I don't recall . I remember I think they might have hired the coach later in the spring . And then it was kind of like over the summer things kind of developed more and we showed up , you know , the first day in fall with steve lee as the head coach .
Uh , steve was , you know , a great guy , good human being . Um , I guess in the two years that he was there it didn't , it didn't go well . It almost kind of felt like it went backwards . We were one and nine .
Both of those years , I know , senior year , they kind of went out like , I guess , on the juco route and tried to pull kids from all different places that , um , kind of fit in , kind of didn't . Maybe , maybe some of them didn't quite measure up to , I guess , college , uh , you know .
So we tried it , but you know , and then I feel like it was black monday whatever they joke in the NFL like the day after our season ended , senior year , he gets fired , the staff gets fired . The GAs obviously stayed around . They're a little different .
They let them , I guess , continue with their coursework and earn their master's degree that they were going for . But when coach lee came in , he took andrew rossi . Everyone called bunk . So I played two years with bunk and then he gravitated into a graduate assistant position . Prior to that , gino ochap was a graduate assistant .
He I missed him whenever I came in .
He was , you know , starting coaching , but there always seemed to be people that but you know , matriculated through the team and then got to the point where , all right , they're going to be a graduate assistant , go for a you know an advanced degree and it just I was fortunate enough that that's kind of how it took for me . So I was all set .
I graduated , I started interviewing for teaching positions , um , and then I got a call from bunk , who was still graduate assistant , said , hey , you know , you want to be a ga . And I was like I mean , kind of it seems so cool . Uh , you get to stay back where you want to .
You know , you stay bethany , everyone yeah , I don't know too many people that didn't have a good bethany experience . So I mean , obviously , for me I had a great one and it was all right . This is an opportunity to go back and you know , do that get a degree ? You know that was one of the few times for me .
Football , you know , I got a free degree out of it . You know I wasn't getting a degree to do , um , you know , football is playing it as an undergrad . But so I met with , uh , coach weaver was new at that time and we kind of , you know , just talked . I remember we met at the pier in wellsburg oh yeah , pier 12 , yeah .
So we went in there or we actually ate outside and we're talking and bunk was there and he was like , hey , you know , if coaching's , you know , if you do this and coaching's your thing , in a couple years , years he's like , well , look , I'll try to get you somewhere else . We'll try to have contacts in lots of places , we can go that route . Or he goes .
If you just want to come get your degree and then be done , we can do that too . So that's where I then moved into coaching there and then there with weave and with garb .
Those are guys that had been a few places in ivy league places that knew a lot of football , had experienced a lot of football , coached a lot of players that you know in the nfl at right , you know different levels and you know so they . That was just a wealth of experience and knowledge that I was able to pull from that , which was , you know , phenomenal .
Uh , I mean I remember after the first year our defensive coordinator , bethany Kevin Loney . He ended up um going to work for Notre Dame . Yeah , so you know we was able to help , you know facilitate that because he knew um I guess .
I guess it was kind of like the football operations guy pretty well and they had an opening and it , you know , worked out for Loney that he went and , you know , got that . I know Leib , brian Leib was a intern graduate assistant . He also played at Bethany .
He ended up leaving after my first year of coaching and went to , I want to say , bridgewater , virginia . So I mean again , just like going out those different directions For me . It me was I finished that that degree , um , at that point it was a . I had my undergrad was elementary ed , special ed from bethany .
Then I did reading specialist from wvu , just all staying in education field . And then , you know , we were looking and I guess at that time it was my girlfriend who is now my wife . We were just talking and you know she was a nurse , is a nurse . She was like what do you want to do ? I can get a job anywhere .
Do you want to go chase this coaching thing or do you want to be a teacher ? I just felt more tied to , I guess , my family and everything you know near Pittsburgh and , all right , that's what I'm going to do .
So we , you know , ended up living outside of pittsburgh in the south hills and I , you know , commute down to washington county for work and I've just continued to do that because I like there I mean it has some ethnic qualities , being a small , single-weight district . You know that you can build relationships . That it's just . I don't know , it's something .
When was in high school it was my high school swim coach . I know it's funny . I swam one year in my senior year . He looked at me and he said you know , in life it's more important who you know than what you know 100% . I mean , that's how a lot of things came to be Like that's how I ended up .
You know , being a GA , a lot of things came to be like that's how I ended up . You know , being a GA , that's how I ended up getting a job at Benworth . Knowing someone that I graduated with at Bethany , that was like hey , put in for a job here , I did I just how it all kind of worked out ,
¶ Networking and Memories From Bethany
yeah , yeah .
Yeah , I've always said that . You know I it's not what you know , it's it's who you know , especially in life later on , and you know it's it . It brings truths and so many different things . You know being , you know , I guess , still right now a part-time stand-up comedian . You know it , I'm getting shows , you know . I know somebody who's producing that show .
I know somebody who's booking a room for this club , but you know I'm getting shows that way and you know it's not what I know about the , the business of comedy . It's who I know to get me booked onto these shows and you know it , it even to this day .
I mean going back to Bethany Ties Fitty , you know , coming on board and helping out with the , this show here . You know it's taking it up to a new level , that you know we're now having guests and everything like that .
When before , when it just started , it was just me kind of ranting about my day , you know my day job , which is um , which was still fun . But you , you know , you know somebody , and then now we're running a podcast together . You know it's all ties together and it seems to be all coming back to Bethany for me .
Unfortunately For me , you know Bethany wasn't the first choice for me . I say that to everybody .
I mean I've said it on here before but glad I went there a lot of , a lot of people that are still in , in contact with , like we've been talking about with the weaver , upton bitty , mister uh , garvey and and all those , all those guys and everything like that and even , um , some you know fraternity brothers I was a part of uh , the delta fraternity .
Uh , delta , delta . There know still talk to a lot of those guys today . You know it might not be every day but you know , every now and again you know you get a text from somebody . It still makes you feel good , somebody from from back in the day and you know it's . It all stems to the one place Bethany was that smaller school .
I went to Brook High School , which was a bigger . At the time it was a 4A school which in West Virginia was one of the top two leagues and divisions . We had a lot of kids there and a lot of people Going to Bethany .
It still felt like I was at , you know , brooke and with that bigger uh , I guess you could say conference or division that we were in , especially with uh with swimming . But you mentioned it earlier , when you , you know , walked in as a freshman into the weight room and you know you were kind of show shocked with with how it was .
You know I had walked into swim practice and you know I would . I was always the the best guy on the team at Brooke and him and it's like I am dog crap compared to some some , how fast some of these guys are here , so it may bait you up your game a little bit , but it's , it's a great experience .
Um , but what was it like when you got to coach with weaver upton garvey and , uh , mister , well .
So the it was , so mister was there and bunk were there , both with steve lee . So , bunk , I played like he was the center , I was guard , he matriculated , you know , to GA with whenever Steve Lee was there .
And then Mr Weave came in with Steve Lee and those guys hung on whenever , you know , steve Lee left , so and Upton was a full-time coach at that point with Steve Lee and he , you know , stayed on as well . So then , essentially , weave came in , garvey came in , upton stayed on staff , bunk was there , uh , mister was there .
Uh , lee was there , is , uh , the other , like intern slash , ga , and then they brought in kevin looney's , the , to be the dc . So , just going in , I guess you only know the player side and you , you know , you have a pretty good idea about what that's like and interactions and you know different things .
And then , moving to the coach's side , there was just , I mean everything like it , like the one thing , like I guess Garv did it at his other stops , but he was like our overnight trip coordinator , you know , along with recruiting coordinator , and just , I mean he was meticulous on details and everything like I remember we'd sit down at staff you know just
football staff meetings . And he would , you know , all right , we're traveling to this game here , this is the hotel we're staying at , this is , you know , the food we're going to eat after the game , this , this , like he just had all these details , you know .
And then , like the next year , we were to talk about something and I , you know , I said , hey , how do you ? He's like , oh , you know , I have to do research , I look ahead at all this stuff . And I think we were going to I don't know if we were playing cmu at the time or what we were doing and I told him . I said , hey , let's get sandwiches .
You should see how much sandwiches for peppies are . You know just a little sandwich shop on the north side of Pittsburgh and see , you know what they would do . So he's like all right , I'll look into it . He's like , hey , it's a pretty good deal . It's better than you know us buying . You know they used to get you like a pizza
¶ Teammates Reflect on Career Experiences
person , you know , for the bus ride , yeah . And he's like , yeah , it's a pretty good deal , you know , squared away . And I mean , I went up at this point . I guess it was probably five or six years ago . I took you know , at this point I had two kids , my wife and I . We all went up to uh cmu for the game .
Bethany came up and garb , you know , was the head coach at that point , you know , and I was laughing because afterwards I'm talking with them at the buses . They're all teams , you know , showered up and they're leaving and here comes the peppies guy down . You know I said you still , he goes , he goes , I , he goes .
I can't not get this sandwich if we come here . So it was funny in that regard , but I mean everything . I went to the Florida trips with Garv when we were recruiting , you know , out of state kids Cause Florida at the time might still be the case has no division three .
So you know , all the division three schools from you know everywhere would go down and there were like three big uh recruiting events , you know , and the high school coaches would were there and they just have video and give you information on kids .
Sometimes they'd have a kid , you know , around for the different things to meet with , talk with all you know , trying to get them . You know everyone was looking for a division three football . You know , hey , look , these are opportunities we have . This is coming to school .
You don't have all these opportunities down here if you're not getting division one scholarship , um .
So that was again another experience that didn't even realize as a player , that matriculating to coach and , like I said before , just like all of the knowledge that those guys had , ivy league wise , and you know the other stops they had and the different people they you know had coached with and they brought those ideas .
And going back to connections , I mean there was a guy that upton knew that you know , we knew from one stop , you know that was it at some other , you know state school in west virginia . You know , at that point it was just so odd how they had all these different connections .
At one point , going to Florida with Garv Raheem Morris , who's the head coach , raheem went to Hofstra . We've actually recruited him to come play at Hofstra . Garv knew him because Garv was coaching at Hofstra . After that Garv and I go down . We spent the night at Raheem's house , one night that's insane . He was the DC .
I think he was the DC under Gruden in Tampa .
Tampa yeah .
We were down there doing the recruiting thing . It might have been a month or two later , I think , gruden got canned . Like we were down there doing the recruiting thing and it might have been like a month or two later , I think Gruden got canned and then Raheem was like elevated or something happened . It was like holy cow , like what is this ?
An NFL head coach's house ?
Yeah , you're exactly right . I'm a huge Buccaneers fan , so that's exactly how that lined up . He was under Gruden . I don't know why they got rid of Gruden , but Gruden gets canned and then Morris steps in . That's just the connections you make . It all ties back to that too , as well .
You played with and then coached another former guest , obviously enough , tj Parker . Oh , yeah , parker . So what was it like playing and then coaching TJ ?
Playing . So we were a little older than him and he came in and it was he one of the first . No , there was like Murs was before him .
There always seemed like somehow there was like a I won't't say like just just a very strong receiver , like a someone who was a number one and you know , you know I , I forget what mers , maybe mers had , like the , you know , for for one point he had like the catching or receptions in a game record and it was like oh , it's pretty big deal , like oh ,
thanks , we said that and parker came in and he went , went um , you know he , just like he and murs were like , you know , one and two . And then I feel like Parker , you know , quickly ascended obviously to , you know , he was wide receiver one , probably while I still played .
And then afterwards , while I still played , yes , and then , like I think it was , cruz came on a little bit .
Yeah .
Right , you know , and then after Cruz , who was the kid , I mean I was gone , the kid from , uh , I want to say Beaver Falls , it was real good , I can't remember there's Walker no , he was the running back . I would say , yeah , running back . I see , uh , that's , maybe it was .
It was someone who was a receiver , I mean , he was up there with now you need up to for that , uh . But I mean parker , the 120 you know , playing with them . I mean you probably did similar things . But so parker came in .
He must have been , we must have been sophomores and he came in as a freshman and snides had went to some the chris snyder was the uh head coach . He went to some barber in wellsburg and had a unique haircut where , like just , he had real high uh side heights , yeah , and they had like you know , like they were notched and stuff .
It was just it was his style . Whatever he did it so it might have been bunk was like he's , you know , parker's like I need to get a haircut . He's like , hey , go into wellsburg and say , tell me what the snides he's like , all right , I will . He comes back to practice . You know that . You know , the next day he's like you guys , look what you did .
Like it , I mean it just he looked exactly like coach snyder , like had to nod , the high sideburns and notches up the side of the head was just hilarious , um .
But you know , like I mean like anyone you know , if you can be reflective , you can see what changes you , how you grew in your time at Bethany and then you also , you know , have the opportunity to see kids .
You know , I guess others grow I shouldn't say kids , maybe it's older now , but you , so Parker , I can remember seeing him grow to the point where , like I'm coaching , and then Parker's the leader , he's looking to get all these I guess stats Not in a greedy wide receiver type of way , deal away , but more just as he's competitive he still is , he's a head
coach now . He's just very competitive . It's who Parker was , from video games in the dorm room to anything and everything . Yeah , that was his haircut this night . So that was pretty good , almost as good as convincing . I don't remember who it was . It was a kid from Florida .
We told him that snow would burn his eyeballs so he had to wear goggles around campus and he said , well , well , how come you guys don't have to ? And we said , well , it's because we grew up here and we lived here . You're from florida , you know , gonna cause you damage if you don't do it .
So it was like three solid days when you know you had the flurries in the air and he's wearing goggles going between classes . That's hysterical .
Yeah , yeah , that was rough , and then he finally like ferret out of the joke where I go .
So I , you know , I got to ask this , cause I ask everybody who knows who knows Betty , you know , you , you , you coached him for two years when he was there and played with him yeah , yeah , and play with him for two years when he was there and played with him yeah , yeah , and played with him .
What was Fiddy like as a player and then going as a teammate and then getting to coach ?
Fiddy as a teammate . He kind of I'm not always a big fan of Rudy now , but like Fitty had , like the the , the qualities you liked about Rudy , like I mean he'd jump in everywhere . I mean he was like you know , hey , we need a scout team , whatever he'd jump in , you know he .
And he wasn't doing it to get attention or to , I guess , promote himself at all or get he get reps . I think it was all . For Fitty was always about the team and he was . He just it seemed like he loved the team , always wanted to give everything to the team and it was genuine , which is why I mean everyone likes Fitty . So that's the part that comes .
His genuineness has to come through with that . Otherwise I think you just think he's annoying . You know you wouldn't care . So you know . And that's where I kind of think like Rudy is kind of annoying For a matter of , but from the movie , I guess , at times , and then coaching him , it was the same thing , like you could see . You just saw it amplified .
He did care , he was genuine , he loved football , he loved Bethany , he loved the team . You always want to have him around Absolutely . He was good for morale , he was probably good for your mental health overall . No , yeah , I still wish , even to this day , that .
I could bottle his energy . He's good for you know , probably good for your mental health overall . But no , yeah , he's great . I still wish , even to this day , that I could bottle his energy that he has and sell it , because I'd never have to work again .
He's always 150 miles an hour from the time his eyes open until the time they close , and I love that about Fitty he doesn't have an off switch .
And he always makes you comfortable . I ended up a few years ago they had what the 125th anniversary of football , so I had like dinner and there were a lot of older guys that you know were there , that you know helped organize and donate more money than you know anyone like I do , and Fitty's there . So I ended up sitting at the table .
I think up and style with us at fitty's like hey , can I sit here ? I was like , yeah , fitty , why wouldn't you be able to sit here ? You know so he sits down . He's like you know , hey , coach is when he just starts . I was like fitty , it's like , just call me bob , like we played together . He's like you know you know , just 100 miles an hour .
But he , you know you could just jump in and he , you pick up where you left off on things . But then he also , just you know , he , he cares , he's interested , he's well fit yeah , I , yeah .
There's no other words that to describe it . You know I love pity to death , um , but you know I want to . I want to get your take on this because we are running down here near the end of the show . But what is your outlook ?
Uh , you know , being former player , former coach of the NFL season this coming up , do you think there's going to be any surprise teams this season ?
yeah , I really hope to be a surprise . You have to . What quarterback's going to do something ? You know CJ Stroud was the surprise last year . You know he was fantastic . Does Bryce Young make that leap ? I mean NFC South isn't great . I don't feel great about that , you know idea . I mean Herbert's good .
Does Harbaugh make that big of a difference that maybe they take the West ?
¶ Football Season Predictions and Fast Questions
I mean I don't know . Is the surprise going to be someone rising up or is it going to be the Chiefs not making it to the NFC .
They're winning their third straight Super Bowl .
Yeah , I guess that's . I can't even say that's an outlook .
I mean they're still strong and stacked yeah , I feel like they just , they just keep reloading like there's no , like all right , they're gonna have to rebuild .
They just reload every year it's andy reeds like found a secret , like , hey , I'm gonna target these players there . Other people would say they're good , but they're going to be really good for us . And he just well , even last year , with no receivers that were strong , he was like , hey , look , we can do this . You know , I don't know .
For me it's going back to I hope the Steelers do something in the playoffs for the first time in a decade . Yeah , that's my big one , maybe I'm with you on that .
Uh , we'll . We'll ask this what do you think about ross being named qb1 ?
you know everyone complained about denver , but if you look back at his stats , you would have taken those in a heartbeat last year . Yeah , you know what was . What was it ? 26 touchdowns last year . That's more than you know . The quarterback More than Pickett . Yeah , yeah , so no , I mean I'm all for it until we need not be for it .
Okay , he's got the first eight weeks . If it's going poorly , then Justin Fields has a lot of up and down .
You get a solid back , so you get a little solid backup . Fields , yes , and Tomlin has already even said that there's going to be fields packages in these games . So like I think there's going to be , for the first time in forever , a two QB system in Pittsburgh , I never thought I'd say that .
You know , growing up in West Virginia about 45 minutes outside of Pittsburgh , I've seen every sealers game for the past 35 years that I've been alive and you know it's just it's . I've never I don't remember ever seeing a two QB system .
No , I mean they had what Cordell Stewart , cordell , yeah , he , you know he wasn't , I don't know . There was a court to quarterback system . It was just like we got these plays , we're going to sneak them in there . Yeah , a little package for him . But I mean , yeah , fields could truly have , you know , a couple . Have packages of multiple series in a game .
Yeah , yeah , I agree , I agree on that . But , bob , we are running down near the end of the episode here . I do have to get this segment in before we end and that is the Fast Fitty Five . Five random questions from the wonderful manager of the podcast , johnny Fitty Falcone and , as you know , fitty , I'm sure he had these kinds of questions .
They have nothing to do with what we've been talking about for the entirety of the show , bob . So , if you , if you're ready , we'll go ahead and get started . I'm ready , all right , who wins in a fight , five kangaroos versus Mr Askew , a golden retriever dog , and Elon Musk ? Wait , who wins ?
in the fight .
The five kangaroos and they're facing , mr Ask you , a golden retriever , and Elon Musk at the same time , mr Ask you , elon Musk in the retriever ?
Okay , yeah .
Question number two what's more terrifying a clown or a herd of stray cats walking down the road ? A herd of stray cats , A herd of stray cats ? Okay , I don't like clowns , so that's an easy one for me . It's a clown , yeah . But question number three if you flip a coin , what side are you picking ? Heads or tails , Tails ? What is the best lunch meat ?
Yeah , he threw a tough one in here .
Yeah , it is .
Ugh , ugh .
The best Not fitting Um the best not fitting um hard salami okay , solid choice , solid choice .
Last question here would you rather be a transformer or a wizard ?
or a wizard or a wizard transformer okay .
Yeah , I feel like he had to give you an easy one after that lunch meat question at the end of that one . But that was the Fast 35 . I'm kind of glad to see he's going back to the fighting questions . He kind of has a theme and he got away from those types of fighting questions like we had in the first one there .
But he doesn't send me these till the day we record . So like I don't get to see these until like the day of and like be like all right , what do we , what do I got to deal with here at the end of the show . So I think he just want I think I'd make the guy who's trying to be a comedian laugh . So I don't know , but love it it's .
It's a fun way to to end the show here . But , bob , I do give every guest this opportunity at the end of every show . If there's anything you want to get out there , whether it's just a good message , promote your school , that you're working at , anything like that I'm going to give you about a minute and the floor is yours .
I mean , I guess , just promote public ed . I
¶ Reflecting on Bethany and Good Messages
mean everyone has the opportunity , it's free to the students . I mean , obviously the taxpayers foot the bill . But yeah , I mean , go make advantage of your education what you want it to be , Seize the day Okay . Yeah , I love it when people what you want it to be you know , seize the day , okay .
Yeah , I love it when people would just have a good message like that at the end of the show , because we have a lot of fun talk during the show , but I love it when there's a good message to end the show . So thank you for that . Thank you for joining us here , but that is going to do it for this week's episode of the ride home rants podcast .
I want to thank my guest , bob , for joining the show and getting to reminisce a little bit and talk everything you know about Bethany and everything like that . That was a lot of fun to hear and , as always , if you enjoyed the show , be a friend , tell a friend . If you didn't tell them anyways , they might like it just because you did .
That's going to do it for me and I will see y'all next week .