We're going to be on in Lansing starting next week. WVFNAM joining there. And a guy who has visited that station and those airwaves a number of times, has been doing it for a long time, Mick McCabe. Nobody's been better at his job fifty four years with a Detroit Free Press. At one point he retired, that lasted ten months and now I'm not sure there's any website that gets as much clicks as Mick McCabe and the stuff that he writes on a regular basis about Michigan high
school football and basketball as well. And he joins us here on exus and Bros. Make hope you have a good weekend. How are you today?
Just lovely? How are you?
I'm doing fine, fantastic.
Thanks. You've come out with your top ten high school football teams that I want to get to in a moment.
But first, with all your.
Years of experience fifty four years, you see what has happened in high school football and high school sports in general. Where do you think it's at today? Do you like the positioning that it's at or are you concerned? And if so, what would that be?
Well, my concern is the transfer portal, which we don't have. But kids are trying to transfer all over the place, and it's a lot of the problems stem from these coaches, not the high school coaches, but they're personal trainers who say, man, they're just not using you right, and you got to find a place that they're going to showcase you and things like that, and that's where we end up with kids transferring all over the place and really not working
out for the best. And they just kill the high school coaches who don't know anything because they don't know how good you are. And they feed all this stuff to the parents who want to believe that their kid is so special they're going to be one of the two percent to get the scholarship. Of that two percent, over half of it aren't even full scholarships. And there's so much more academic money available athletic money available, but these parents just think athletics is a way to go to college.
One of the things that concerns me, not just necessarily at the high school level, but more at the collegiate level. And because you've been in this business for such a long time, you could speak to this. My fear is with all the nil money Mick that what's going to happen is you're going to see a lot of other sports outside of football and basketball loose scholarships, the let's call them the Olympic sports that don't bring in a
lot of money. Because you've got teams like USC and UCLA and Oregon and Washington now in the Big Ten and travel costs so much.
Are we in danger of venturing into.
A society where we're basically two sports and everything else is club sports?
Do you think, well, I think what's going to happen. Our schools are going to just start dropping sports, just eliminating them all together, and which would be like what you're saying, you know, turn them in the club sports without scholarships. You know, they're they're basing everything on TV money and how much money all this stuff is going to bring into the department. And I just think, like the Big Ten, adding the teams they've added is just
a recipe for disaster. I think that they should have the Big Ten, should have a football conference where they do have those teams for the West Coast, but then basketball, baseball, softball, I mean in Michigan or Michigan State, they're going to send somebody out to Southern their softball team out the Southern Calf for a weekend. How expensive is that going to be? And you know, I think they should just have a football only conference and then keep the Big Ten the way it is.
One hundred percent agree with that mc mcab But the free press joining has fallen on Twitter at make McCabe one your top ten high school programs in the state of Michigan. How did you come to believe that this is the way to go Where you've got number one Belleville, and Dakota is at number three and Muskige getting number four. Our audience spans the entire state. Give us the top ten, and how you came to the conclusion that these are the best teams?
Well, Belleville, they've got so many kids back from last year's team that was upset in the D one state championship game by Southfield A and T. And Isaiah Marshall, who was just fabulous. He's a freshman, a freshman quarterback at Kansas now. And then they picked up Eli Dotson from you know, a transfer from you d Jeshua who's really good, who's committed to Pittsburgh. They've got a couple
of kids going to Miami. I'm Miami, Ohio. And of course the number one thing is Bryce Underwood, who was allegedly the number one quarterback in the country, you know, by twenty four to seven Sports and Rivals and those people. I don't know how you know, anybody can say this is the best quarterback in the country, you know, because it's a big, big country. But he's really talented, I mean really talented, and he's got enough pieces around him.
I think they're the best team in the state. And Dakota this is the best team they've had in ten years, and they won a couple of state championships, so they know what it's like. And I think that they got a lot of beef upfront, and they got eight starters back on defense, and you know, their offensive line is really good, you know. And then Muskegan, you know, they've they've done everything at that school except repeat as state champs.
And they've got enough kids coming back from last year's state championship which upset the LaSalle I think they're going to be talented again. Cast Tech at number four, they're they've got a lot of kids back Ninas turner starters on defense, and and they play, you know, usually really good defense and uh, you know the lot. One of the problems, one of the question marks is they've got a couple of kids, uh going at it for quarterback, and one of them is only a freshman and we'll
see how he can do. But Davison the number five, uh A J. Hill who's their tailback. He's committed to Farris and and Ben Nichols is a big time offensive tackle and uh they open up with del Sal that will be really one good game West Bloomfield at number six. They're talented again. They got they lost on the last play of the game last year to Southfield A and T in the semi finals. And uh Lisia Durham and Cameron Flowers are two outstanding receivers. If they get a
good quarterback play, they're capable of the long run. And Delasal number seven the Sante Gasparoni had a really good junior year last year. And then you throw in Phoenix Glassner a receiver, and they've got Isaiah Jones who's a very good defensive back. And Damian King could be another he could be a game changer at a wide receiver spot. Byron Center's got a ton of people back, especially at the skill positions. Isaiah Lee is a wide receiver defensive
back who's also an outstanding basketball player. Landon Tounggate was a very good quarterback last year and won't be again. And number ten, I've got Lake Orion and this is Chris Bell's twenty second season. They won state championship. They've got a lot of kids back on offense and defense actually, and their entire secondary is back. So they're going to be very very good this year in a tough conference of the Oyer Red. Yeah.
And then you've got Rockford at number eleven, which is interesting too. I mean, there's an awful lot of depth in Michigan. How often are you talking to coach in order for you to come together with all this and all these names that you're constantly following. I mean, Donovan Peoples Jones is fighting for a spot. You covered him in high school. It's amazing the amount of people that
you've covered. How many coaches are you talking to on a regular basis to determine the depth and the strength of these teams?
A lot? Yeah, And you know, just to get to the twenty five, how many calls do they have to make to we're not that good, but these guys are that good. And yeah, you talk to a lot of people.
Yeah, yeah, the rolodex has got to be thick. And for sure for Mick mckab follo him on Twitter at Mick McCabe one, he had the Detroit free press over fifty four years doing it and nobody doing it as well as heat is joining this here on X's and bros. All right, so you look at this team, you look at where it's at. It begins on Thursday. There are certain Marque matches. We know that there's a different playoff system these days in Michigan football.
Do you like the playoff system that is currently in place or did you like it when there was more of a select number of teams and there was a different requirement to get there.
Well, it was the problem was that all coaches care about and still to this day, is getting a win. And now they've skewed the playoff points system. You know, I don't mind two hundred and fifty six teams because football is the only sport than not every I mean, you can be er in twenty in basketball and you're still in the state playoffs. So it's the only sport where you don't get an automatic chance to win a state championship. So two hundred and fifty six seems to
work well. And now the playoff point average, so you get some points for a loss depending on you know, how good that team is. So you know, some schools are saying, you know, what the hell, you know, we'll give it a shot. We're going to test ourselves against the team that we think is, you know, better than us, and if we do well, you know, we want to win, of course, but if we don't, well it's not the end of the world. We're going to get We're going
to get points. I remember in nineteen seventy five there were four teams in eight classes and that was the state playoffs. I mean, can you I mean I was at Trenton and they the final game of the year. I think they beat Riverview Some'm like sixty three to nothing and they were, by far, I thought, the number one team in the state and they just missed out because caml lou Centro beat somebody three to nothing and they're in the state playoffs instead of Trenting.
You you get teams, you get players, you get coaches. I feel like they've been cheated. I remember it was about I would say twenty years ago. I did a special on the best athletes the state has ever produced, and you were one of my key resources, and you actually joined me on screen as well. Tell me who are some of the best athletes you've ever covered and why you think they are among the best you've ever covered.
Tyrone Weeley is the best, the best, Yeah, no question. We all know. We played in the NFL and was great and they're still talking about him up in Kingsford, which they've beaten the state finals. Just an unbelievable running back, a tremendous linebacker. They even started the season with him at quarterback, which was crazy, but then they moved him right back to back where he belonged, and and he combined the size, the power and the speed that you
know you haven't seen. And the speed comes in when he won almost want to state championship and track all by himself, you know, the long jump, the sprints, the hurdles. He was just amazing. And uh, and people don't don't even know he was a basketball player. I know a friend of mine who was the official and uh, he was under the basket as Tyrone came down on a fast break one foot and one step inside the free throw lane. He took off and dunked, and the officials
said the whistle dropped right out of his mouth. You know, he was just terrific. And he's a wonderful kid too. And he's a head coach of Wayne State. People probably don't remember Jim Pattorte Saint Mary's. He led them to a big upset they won the state championship and uh at Orchard Lake. And then he went on and led them to the basketball state championship and this for the
baseball state playoffs. He was he was a tremendous baseball player, and so he went to Michigan signed for football with the understanding he could play baseball, and then after a couple of years gave up football and concentrated I'm in baseball and made it to the major leagues.
Yeah, brother Tom, but yeah, I mean it's Jim. Jim Patark was a in case people don't remember, he was a quarterback there at Orchard Lake.
Saint Mary's. An amazing player, right, give me a couple more.
If you can't, let's see uh athletes. Well, Dan Marley, Uh, he was something at Traverse City Center, well just Travors City back then. Was a tremendous basketball player, of course, and he also played football early and then gave it up and he was There was a scout from Dallas Cowboys in at practice at football practice at Central Michigan and he's on the sidelines just screwing around and throwing the ball sixty seventy yards. Seriously, the guy scouts, who's that.
He's a basketball player and he's also he was also a pitcher, very good, oh yeah, a very good high school pitcher. In fact, his junior year, they got beat by UCLA in the NCAA tournament Salt Lake City where they were Reggie Miller was on ul UCLA's team. Anyway they got he couldn't get a shot off because they were he was an inside player then. And the day they got back, after they had said we tournament, he went out for baseball and he says, you know this,
this basketball might not work out. And then Charlie Coles over the next over the course of the spring and summer made him a perimeter player. People, people you know, just remember Dan is a really good three point player with Phoenix, but a three point shooter, but he was an inside player his first three years at Central Michigan.
And I would say the other one and this I only remember this from when you and I had that conversation on TV. You had mentioned Andre Rising Yes, right, okay, because of and Rick Leach, all the two guys that stood up.
Both troum Flint. Yeah, Ricky Leach was an option quarterback and uh, you know obviously played very know at Michigan in football, but he also was an outstanding basketball player averaged over twenty twenty points a game at Flint Southwestern and played like freshman ball when they had freshman basketball at Michigan. And then was was a terrific baseball player. That was his best sport. That's how he made it
to the Major League. And then Andre Risen was an All stater in football, basketball and track and he made the All State team as a junior as a kicker. He's a really really good punter and oh yeah, and then you know he was somewhat a really good outstanding wide receiver and you know did that at Michigan State and with Atlanta Falcons and all that. But he was a really good basketball player and then he made All state and track too.
Yeah, he and Jeff Greer. I believe I could be wrong here, but this again based on our conversation.
They were part of.
That what is it mid to early to mid eighties crew that were number one, number two in the country and they only lost like three games their entire careers.
Yeah, Glenn Rice also Gun Rice.
Yeah yeah, Rice, Yeah, that's right goo.
Yeah. And Glenn Rice was you know, he deferred to Jeff Grayer as a junior and then he came on and had an unbelievable senior season and won the half Strand Mister Basketball Award.
That's incredible stuff, man, You've seen it all.
Great information, excellent work as always on the top twenty teams in the state. We only got to top ten, but top twenty teams in the state.
Twenty five.
Yeah, twenty five rather yeah, excuse me, twenty five.
Mick McCabe fall him on Twitter at Mick McCabe one, and of course read his stuff on the Detroit Free Press every single week as he gets you ready for high school football and keeps you updated throughout what's going on in high school football and basketball all year round. Mick, Thanks as always, appreciate the friends Chip, thanks for the time, have a great week and enjoy Thursday.
Okay, all right, you too. Thank you.