Larry Jewell

3, 2, 1. 3, 2, 1. Again, Coach Ron Black of New Mexico Junior College. Welcome back to St. George. This has been pretty good place for your team to play well, we've really enjoyed it up here. We've had a great relationship with Dixie over the years. Of course they have a beautiful facility here and we've had some great games up here. Lets talk about your ball club this year. You have a tradition of having quick teams. It looks like you have another one. Well, I think we are quick. That's another way of saying small. We are very, very small, but we do have good quickness. Let's talk about your club so far. Probably disappointed with the record, but you played well anyway. Well, I'm pleased with how we played. We could very easily be 5:1. Of course we lost a game on a tip in at the Buzzard Odessa and we lost overtime game at home. But I was pleased with how we played last week in Hutchinson or Garden City. We came back with two wins and that was good for us because last year we went to Kansas and didn't do very well. So we're off to about the kind of start I expected really. It's tough to do well in Kansas. It really is Kansas. Tough place to play here in St. George. Some of your kids have been here before. This is your third straight year. You. Yes, we've got several kids that were with us here last year and one player, Isaac Wright, was with us two years ago and then missed all of last year with an injury. So we've got a lot of players that have been here before. Usually the fans here are treated to a show of great passing ability and fast break basketball. Is that the tradition again this year? Well, that's how we try to play and of course that's very similar to Dixie's style play. I think that's why we've had so many great games with Dixie. I think we've played Dixie probably seven or eight times now and the most lopsided game has been seven points tonight against Utah Valley. This is a rematch. Yes. This is going to be tough for us because we played them only six days ago and played very well and beat them in Garden City and I always feel like that gives the advantage to the other team when you have the rematch. Why? Well, I think they're going to be obviously wanting to beat us. I hope our kids don't take them lightly. I don't think they will. I think our kids have a lot of respect for Utah Valley, but hopefully we'll come back and play as well as we did in Kansas and win another one. But it's not going to be easy. Utah Valley has an excellent team with a lot of size matchup wise. What was the difference last time for you? Well, last time Utah Valley didn't shoot the ball real well. If they had shot the ball well and forced us out of our zone defense, it would have been very tough because size wise we just can't match up with them. But we were fortunate we caught them, I think on a night when they didn't shoot exceptionally well. And I think that's one of the reasons we were able to win this secret tonight. What will you have to do? Hope that they don't shoot well? That's about the best thing we can hope for, I think. Starting lineup tonight for New Mexico junior Colin well, we're going to go with the same lineup we've started all year and that's with three guard offense with Mark Thompson on the point and Norman Haynes and Reggie Collins on the wings and Russell Adams and Chris Burden on the post. Norman sprained an ankle against Garden City and missed most of that game and hasn't really been able to practice much this week. But I feel like he' probably at least 80% now and we're going to give him a shot and see how he does. And if he's not able to go then we'll come in with either Tim Fitzpatrick or Isaac Wright. Mark Thompson and Reggie Collins put on a show here last year and it really took the fans by storm. Well, I think the fans enjoyed it. Mark is a very, very quick player and Booby James and him had an excellent matchup last year. I think that was one the fans enjoy both at our place and up here as well. The big threat from Utah Valley, what's going to be the key? Well, Stanley Rose is an excellent big man. He's 6, 7, 6 8, very, very strong. He shoots well from outside. He's very strong inside, a lot bigger than anybody we have and we've got to control him at the same time be able to defense our three point shooters on the perimeter and that makes it a little bit tough for a small team like us because we almost have to rely on weak side help to defensive postman and the more we get spread out, the tougher it is for us to defensive player like Stanley Rose. Coach Ron Black, thank you for being with us. Good luck tonight. Thank you. We're talking with Utah Valley head coach Duke Reed. Coach, this is a rematch. It's always tough to go back to back with A team, isn't it? It's easier when you lost the first one. You know, had we won the first one, I think it'd be tougher for our kids to get up in that particular game. We played them back there. We were 331 for 93, which is around 33%. So you're not going to win many ball games with that. We feel like we're a much better team than we played when we played them back there. So, you know, we feel good about going against. They're a basketball team, and I think Dixie remembers them from a year ago, and I think it was a shootout at the OK Corral with 110 or 111, and he was talking about that one. So they do have a good program and he's a good coach and he has some great kids. Your key tonight, what will it be? Just better shooting for you? Much better. You know, if you want to win early, go into something that most people don't do. You know, we don't get a lot of zones in our league, and so we didn't practice against the zone. They did go against us with a zone, and we weren't as ready for it as we practiced it. I promise you we'll be ready with it tonight. We know to go. I can't shoot up for them, but I think we'll be ready to get the shot. Stan Rose is impressed. New Mexico Junior College. It looks like he's going to impress a lot of people this year. Well, he. He played well against them. He got 28 and 24 points, and he's a good basketball player. Didn't have a good game on the boards the other night, and so we put him down. He had 12 points with about eight minutes gone in the game, and. And we were going well without him, but he didn't play much beyond that. But, yes, he can play. He's got a lot of great schools looking at him right now. Starting lineup tonight for Utah Valley. Yeah, we'll go with Cole Cloninger and Ray Stewart on the guard line. Stanley in the four, power forward and Richard Saunders in the three, and Kerry Sherwood at the post. Coach Duke Reid, thank you for being with us. Good luck tonight. Thank you. On Saturday, whether there's a championship involved or whatever, and there's still national rankings. They're still trying to go into the bowl game with the momentum of coming off a win, and there's still the personal pride that you want to do your best every time you take the field. So, you know, for me, I know there's plenty of incentive every time we take the field, whether it's last game of the year or the first or somewhere in between, and whether you've got two losses or three and hopefully not too many more than that. But every game is a new challenge and that's why you should be playing. I know that's why I'm coaching and that's a challenge you have to accept and not worry about what's gone on on around you other than the things that you can take care of yourself. It's been a good offense this year, but on the other hand, if you look at statistical leaders, you're going in needing almost 200 yards for Teddy James to have a thousand yard season and you have a quarterback who doesn't have 1,000 yards and that's been a rarity on both cases. Well, and that's a little misleading of course. Teddy's been hurt and you put Teddy and Zed together and you would have, I think after tonight's game the possibility of having the most prolific running game we've had since I've been here. So both those guys are at 800 yards. You're right close to it. So you're looking at 15, 1600 yards out of a tailback spot wherein an ungun and a minifee didn't have much more than that in 11 game season. So that's a little misleading. The quarterback situation is one that of course we've, you know, we went with Tyler for a while, he struggled, we went with Kai and then we came back with Tyler. So in, in their behalf and we haven't thrown that much. So again, I hope that's good coaching, you know, being smart enough to realize what our strengths were and to try to utilize those and come up with wins the best way we could. And of course coming into this game at 8 and 1, I'd say we, you know, not trying to brag too much but I think the offensive guys have done a great job on utilizing the things that we have, the weapons that we have in hand. We'd certainly like to get ourselves in a position tonight where we can again build on the confidence that Tyler and the receivers have come up with the last couple of weeks and whether we have a thousand yard rusher or not, you know, that really doesn't matter because the productivity and what we're trying to get out of our offense is obviously there and you know, we'd like to see somebody have those kind of stats. But like I say, with two of them rushing for that many yards. And I think as we look back, we had this situation once before with Michonne Johnson and Fowler both rushed for about 800 yards apiece due to injuries or whatever. So in that regard, I don't feel like the offense is missing anything. It's just a little bit deceiving. And of course, Wilson, I think, has come in after missing three ball games and rushed for around 500 yards. And I think so I think our fullback spot, and if I'm not mistaken, I think our ground game is one of the tops in the country. So, you know, we don't have the individual, but I'm extremely proud of the way the offensive lines played and I'm not so sure that maybe we're not better off having the ability to have fresh runners in there. And maybe that's bore out in the statistics that the two guys seem to have more yards than the one great running back has had in the other years. And then I know, you know, we're much more at ease and at peace knowing that if one of them gets hurt, we're not going to drop off much. So in some cases, I'm not so sure that it's not an advantage rather than a disadvantage. One thing, although I'm not sure if there really are statistics readily available on it, it seems like you have controlled the football offensively more this year than in any other year coaching here. Yeah, I don't know how you determine that. I don't think there's any question. In the last three weeks, we've totally dominated the time clock. I'm not so sure. Earlier in the year, you know, we were. I was pretty frustrated defensively. I felt like we weren't as strong as maybe we'd been in other years and was pretty disappointed going into the Ricks game. I was, you know, I was. Every time you take the field, you try to win. There's no question about that. But I felt like really, I called our staff together and said, you know, going into the Ricks Snow Glendale Phoenix contest, you know, if we can get out of there with two wins, we're going to be pretty fortunate because I was a little nervous about the strength of our defense or inability to pass. And like I say to the kids credit, to the offensive coach's credit, we picked up on the passing game, controlled the time clock and really run game plans as close to perfect in a stretch here the last three ball games as maybe any time I've been coaching. So this team has really responded well. We've talked about problems in the middle of season and Stacy coming back and being not only a playing leader, but also an emotional leader on this team. And for whatever reason, it clicked together and they've really played. Now we just need to keep that same intensity here for the Phoenix game and then we're pretty healthy, so we'll take some time off and lift some weights and just get away from football for a week and then try to come back and prepare for what should be as good a matchup on paper as I think we've had to play. What a great opportunity it would be to play in Northeast Oklahoma, but take some time off and let everybody get recharged and excited to come back and play. So we want to end on a strong note, play well tonight and then, you know, nothing. A nine and one season is pretty tough to beat and, you know, you sit and look back and I'd love to have a chance to play Mesa again, but we were very fortunate to be to Scottsdale. We were. You know, those things work out. You just have to take them one game at a time. And here we are on the 10th game of the season. The kids have worked hard as the coaches and it's time to wrap it down and play one last good, hard football game before we prepare for the bowl. And I think that's hopefully the way we'll come out and approach this ball game. The key tonight, you've gone to the pass more than you did against Snow, and the passing game is working. What's the key tonight for Dixie? Well, you know, I don't know if you really know as you prepare for a game. I mean, obviously you have to be ready to do both. Snow is a team that's decided that they're going to take away our run at whatever cost. And of course, that gives us an opportunity to make some big plays on the pass and we were able to to convert those, and I'm very thrilled that we were able to do that. We've been working on the passing game and, you know, our bread and butter is the run and that's what we're going to go out there and try to do. And if somebody lines up and tries to take that away, then hopefully we can come off of that and throw with some play action and be prepared. I think the key is very similar, as I said a few minutes ago, to other teams you've played in games that you're the favorite or games that you should win. The emotions play as big a part as anything. You've got to come out and dominate or Establish that dominance early in the ball game because. And then the other team starts to think like, hey, maybe they're right, we shouldn't be in this game. But the longer they hang in there and stay close and answer with touchdowns or get ahead, then the more difficult that is. The momentum is such a funny thing that, you know, turnovers obviously play a big part of it, as it did in the Scottsdale game. You know, we can't do those things. We've got to go out and play our brand of football and be aggressive and try to dominate from the first. And I think if we'll hang on to the ball and, you know, I think at this point in time you have to worry your players about, hey, you better be ready for everything. It's a no lose situation for a Phoenix college. You know, I'm not going to be unaware of a fake punt or a fake kick anytime they line up, because you're sure you might see it, or a double reverse pass back or a, you know, throw on the punt or any of those kind of things, because this is a different kind of game in that there's nothing to lose. And sometimes I'd rather go out, as we've talked before, and play a, you know, a Snow or a Ricks or a Glendale and line up and, you know what's coming. And it's kind of like two heavyweights fighting. The best man wins that day. This is one of those deals where, you know, you better be prepared for every darn thing because the kitchen sink might be coming at you. Has this been as fun a season as others to coach? This seems to be a different pattern in the season than you've ever had. Well, you know, it really has, Larry. And it's, you know, we've had, you know, we've had a couple of one loss seasons and those teams were totally different. The one year we hung on and found four or five different ways to win right at the last second. The other year we were 11 and 1. We seemed to dominate people pretty regular. We lost to one close ball game in that year. This has been a different year. In a lot of ways. It seems to me that we've had either. I'm getting older, we've had a heck of a lot more personal tragedies with deaths in the family, with friends, with different things that really have sidetracked a lot of players and are things in their lives that need to be taken care of are much more important than the playing a football. And it seems like I say we've had Much more of those problems than ever before. We've had, of course, some internal problems with suspensions and different things. And for whatever reason, I don't think a coach ever knows we were going along and playing. And I wanted more than anything to be playing for a national championship on December 2 and felt like we had a team that had a chance to do that. And as it turns out, we might have had that kind of team. And I think that maybe changed my attitude a little bit earlier. I can look back and say, you know, I was playing out of the fear of losing more than as a coach, more than just coaching and letting the kids turn loose. And so, of course, after the Mesa game, that was over, and I think my personality changed quite a bit, is how I've treated these kids and approached them. And maybe that's part of the response that how they've turned around and played the last half of the season. Two, because we've, you know, I haven't been near as uptight or as tense that that goal was gone and we went back to more normal things. And so I think as people and as coaches, we're continually learning, you know, lessons. And I think it's been an interesting year in many, many ways. And like I say, I've had to take a look at some of the things I've done in my approach, and, you know, maybe part of that was me, because I was uptight. I can guarantee practice was tense and the kids were tense, and I was very tense. I think often they say the team takes on the personality of the coach, and I think that's how we were playing. We were frustrated with the passing game. Now that we've relaxed and started to make a little fun of it, it started to come around a little bit. So it has been a different year. There's been a lot of things that have come into play, and it's one that I'm proud of the kids, because we have a chance again to be a 9 and 1 football team and go into the bowl game. And I think they responded maybe to a Jekyll and Hyde type of coach situation more than in years past, but hopefully I've learned from that. And I think the bottom line is we're playing a game that needs to remain that, and we need to keep that in proper perspective. And certainly I do, too. And the kids need to come to practice and come to the games without feeling like, you know, it's a life and death situation. And I think maybe I was coaching that way a little bit the first Half of the year, Coach. It's been a great year. Anyway, and thank you for being with us. Good luck tonight. Hey, thanks, Larry. And we appreciate all the people that support us and sponsor this and look forward to another good game. And we'll look forward to talking to you after the ball game. 3, 2, 1. Talking with Dixie College head basketball coach Ken Wagner. What a trip, Coach. And it hasn't been that long since you've been home. No, we came home early this morning and, you know, it's exciting to be back at home and playing for the first time, really. We played our alumni game, but it's fun to be able to come out and play, even though it's an exhibition game against the foreign team. In all honesty, your best hope was to get one victory and a couple of good performances. You got two victories and three outstanding performances. Well, I don't know if I felt that we'd only win once. You know, I really felt the whole time that if we play good defense, we're in the game against anyone. But I felt it would be awfully difficult for a freshman team that young to. To go in a place like Hutch against the type of competition. All three of them are excellent teams. We were laughing afterwards because we said Western Nebraska went out of their own three, and they probably have a better chance to go to the national tournament than any of us, simply because they're an awfully good team and their region isn't quite as good. But it was a great confidence builder for our group, and I really feel it'll carry through and help us throughout the year. You've had a lot of heroes already in this season. We have. You know, Cliff Reed played pretty consistently over 20 points, averaging over 20 a game and about 14, 15 rebounds. But every other night someone else has stepped forward and scored. We had Jeff Semester the first night against western Nebraska score 20 and then was hurt and didn't play the other two nights. And the second night we had Blaine Bambrough and Lester Turner step forward, and right after that, we had Quincy take a step forward. So, you know, a lot of contributions from different players tonight. What about the health? I understand Jeff Semester is still hurting. Yeah, Jeff probably won't play tonight. He may play a little bit, and Sean has a bruised shoulder, but other than that, I think we're in pretty good shape. Maturing factor to go away and play as well as you did. You were talking about the maturity. Are there some things that surprised you about this team already once they're under competition? Well, not surprises. Really, I expected them to do a lot of things they did. I just didn't know if they'd do them this early in the year. And I felt that the one character I noticed about them this team is even though it looked like they'd be close to getting out of a game, they'd fight back and get right back into it. Just showed a lot of character and a lot of hard work, A lot of chemistry apparently with this team already. Well, there is, I think all of them get along well together and have a good time while they're in the hotel and traveling. It's just a fun group to be around. This is an amazing stretch of basketball games beginning with the alumni, if you want to, or if you want to begin with a Hutchinson tournament, you're going to play a lot of basketball in just a couple of weeks. Well, at first we weren't very happy. They changed the Yugoslavian game on us. Originally we told them the only time we'd play them is Friday and Saturday and they called us back a week and a half ago and said, well, we're going to leave the country, so if you want to play us it has to be Monday, Tuesday. And so that put nine games in 13 days. And then this game tonight was in addition and we just thought it would be fun to play against a team that plays against Utah State and BYU and Southern Utah State and some of those teams. So it works out that we play an awful lot of games in a short period of time and yet right after that we have Thanksgiving break and we've worked hard and that may be a good time to give them a two or three day rest and then come back and we have one game in one week against BYU jv, which will really allow us to go over and improve the things that we haven't been doing well, turn around and then play Snow College at Snow and then go on play CSI in Treasure Valley. So a lot of games right now we can look at a lot of different players and winning isn't as critical right now as making sure it's preparing us to win in March against this Germany, this team from Germany, the ULM team from Germany. You're going to be facing a lot of former collegiate major college stars. Well, probably a lot like our alumni group, except I think this particular group they have is a lot stronger and bigger, although maybe not quite as good a shooter as the alumni. What about this team tonight? It's going to be playing four year schools. You're a junior college stuck right in the middle of their schedule. Well, it is. And they may have a lot of pride and say there's no way we're going to let a junior college beat us and play harder than they do at the other places or they may overlook us tonight. Starting lineup for Dixie? To be honest, I haven't decided yet. I think we're going to try a little new lineup tonight. But a lot of the same players that have been playing, you go deep, apparently. Well, we just have to let them play until we find out who's scoring and then let them go after it. Defense must be coming along a lot faster than you expected. Well, it's a group that they're extremely hard workers. They do what we ask of them and play very well defensively, especially at stretches. And, you know, when you're quick and little, you have to be able to play good defense. Coach, good luck tonight. Thank you for being with us. Well, thank you. And we'd like to thank the fans that are listening and the ones coming to the game and hope all of them are ready for an exciting week of basketball with our classic Smith Food and Drug Classic. Coming up this weekend, we're talking with the OLM head coach, Jim Kelly. And Jim, with a name like Kelly, you must be German. Well, I come from the Irish side of Germany there. Let's talk about this, Dave. You do have a lot of American players? Well, we really only have two American players. I should say three. Mike Bourne's half German, but we have Archie Johnson who played at Alabama, Birmingham, Victor Fleming who played at Xavier, and we're trying out a player by the name of Mike Bourne who played at Iowa State. And we've been trying him out for the last two weeks. Everyone else is a German player, but probably what is not known here in the States is that a big part of the German basketball, a really big part of German education system, is when students or players get to be the age 18 or 19, they're not really old enough or physically mature enough to be able to play in the first league of Germany. Because of that, about 10 years ago, the German Basketball Federation started working very closely with high schools and universities here in the States. And for about a two or three year period between when a player is 18 and say, 21 or 22, sending them to the States to school and what have you there for basketball and educational purposes. Now, the real, the real byproduct of that has been the Detlev Shrimp, the Christian Belt, the Olof or the Uwe Blob. And everyone knows about those people, but I would say every year There is about 25 or 30 German student athletes or here somewhere in America, anywhere from high school to junior college to four year schools. Now when, when they come back to Germany, they get involved in this league, then yeah, that, then they're about ready to play in what they call the first league of German or the Bundesliga. I'd have to say if you look down the rosters of the Bundesliga players between the ages of 18 when they stop being a junior and 20 or 21 or maybe one a team or maybe two a team, so it's really that three or four year age period where they need to develop their basketball if they're going to play in the first league and they could play in the second or third league. But I think the German people feel, and I'm in agreement that if they come to America, they get a total basketball experience and I think it helps them out in the long run. Basketball and also personally, what brought you to Germany? What took you to that country? Well, I've been coaching 18, 19 years now. I've coached in Greece, I coach in England, I've coached a few places here in the States and now I'm in Germany. The world's not such a big place when you're associated with a, a sport that's. Well, you can just go about anywhere in the world. We've played in Philippines, China, Asia, Europe, played America. Now your, your tour, now your, this is fourth game, isn't it, in the middle of your tour? Yes, it is. And it's really, it's pretty hard to understand why would you have a tour in November when your season started in September? But the way the internationals scheduling goes and scheduling by countries at this time, in Germany, the national team. The German national team is involved in a qualification tournament for the next European championship, which is two years away, which sounds very complicated. But what it really comes down to is the league stops playing for three and a half weeks. We have no players on the national team. Our alternative is to stay at home and practice for three and a half weeks or make the best we can. And we think this is a great experience for our younger players to see American basketball and gain some experience here. When you come to the United States, do you use European or collegiate rules? It's supposed to be a mix, but usually the rule of thumb is you play the NCAA rules over here and when the American teams come to Europe, they play the international rules. Your basketball background from the United States? Originally I went to school in Connecticut, Central Connecticut College, coached at American International College, coached also at Marshall University in West Virginia. And there's a slew of other teams in there from other countries, but I've been around a bit. I guess you must enjoy it. I do enjoy the game very much. You know, everyone says, well, what are you going to do when you stop coaching? I've never really thought of it that way. You always really think what's going to happen next season and always sort of looking for the future here. Starting lineup tonight for your squad. I think we're going to start tonight. Victor Fleming, A1 guard, Horst Vester, another guard, Martin Vigan at forward, Archie Johnson at forward and Claudius Frachstein at center. Now, he's Polish native, isn't he? Well, this gets even more complicated. Back in the 20s and 30s, the German Republic stretched pretty much all over Europe. And at that time, when Claudius parents were born, his parents were born in Germany after the boundaries of Poland were rearranged after World War II. Where his parents were born now became Poland. However, because when his parents were born and they were German citizen, he has a right to claim German citizenship. And I'd say he had, he had a choice. He was in Poland. He used to play for the Polish national team, but he elected to come over to Germany and he's been in Germany now for about eight or nine years. That sounds like fun. It must be great trying to find genealogy among all of these, all of these ball players. There's a lot more going on other than just basketball, but I hope we get some basketball going here tonight. Thank you, Coach Kelly. Good luck tonight. Thank you. Why pass when you don't really have to? We ran the ball for about 7 or 8 yards of carry and that's what we do best. And so if that's working, then why, why do anything else? I think our drives, the only thing that stopped us a week ago was ourselves, our turnovers and the things that, that we made happen rather than what they were making happen. So the 80, the 86 yard drive, I think we went 10, 11 plays on each of them without throwing the ball and that's 8 yards on average carry. So really, why. But I think against Mesa, yeah, we're going to have to be able to pass the ball and do a pretty good job of it and we've continued to work on that and hopefully we'll be able to take advantage if they stack up there and play the run. But if we don't, then, then, if we don't have to, then we probably won't throw it just because that's our style, but I would anticipate that we're going to have to throw it and I would certainly hope that we do a good enough job to make it productive and help us open up our running game. Any changes in the starting quarterback this week? No, we looked at it and basically had tryouts again all over, filmed every practice, all the skelly, charted all the catches and really tried to cut down our passing game, really work hard on changing the routes according to the defenses and give everybody a shot. But Kai did the best job in practice and therefore I think deserves to play in the ball game. So that's the way we'll start. You know, it's of a great concern. We work very hard on it. Coach Smith and Coach Van Valkenburgh with the running backs, receivers and quarterbacks. I think the protection has been there all year. Maybe we've had too much in. It's hard to say, but we're working on it. And I think to carry us through tough ball games like this, we're obviously going to have to throw better than 36, 37%, which is what we've done. And sometimes that's misleading because occasionally there are good throws that receivers don't catch or whatever may happen. So it's not just, hey, it's one person's fault. We're in the thing together and we all have to be be able to pass, protect, to catch the ball when it's thrown and of course, get the ball to the right receiver. So hopefully we'll be able to do that. Injury factor, it's been a fairly healthy ball club so far for you. Well, it has. We're at the point of the season where we've got some bumps and bruises and I hope that they don't play a factor in tonight's game. Dave Walsh pulled a quad and is going to go, but for how long, we don't know. Thad De Hart pulled a hamstring down to Scottsdale, had to miss the fourth quarter and has been nursing that all week. He'll go and I don't know quite for how long. And then, you know, we've got guys like Roger Horn and some that are beat up, but that's normal. I mean, you get this point of the season and that's normal. You have to play through those and I think he'll certainly do that in Horn's case. So we do have most everybody there. They, I think, will give it everything they. They've got as long as they can, and we'll just have to hopefully get along without getting hit on those sore areas and maybe be able to get through the ball game. One of the key men against Arizona Western, Wilson Kawaka. He has been quite a fine for you. Well, he really has. We knew he was a tremendous football player, and as coaches, we debated early on where to play him, but didn't really think of him that much as a fullback, although he did it in high school and he's got tremendous size. We looked at him as a defensive lineman and of course, we've talked a little bit about Wilson having to pass the high school equivalency test. So he missed two weeks, but that was our need at the beginning of the year was that defensive line. So he hung in there and was persistent and wasn't complaining a bit. And then we put him in a couple weeks ago to utilize him on short yardies at £250 and. And he did such a good showing that we said, hey, maybe we better move him over there and give him a shot to do it. And he's really responded with his blocking, with his running of the ball. He needs to take care of the ball a little better. And hopefully we worked on that so we don't lay it on the ground as many times as we did last week. And that was strange, I don't think, to my knowledge. I'm not, I don't believe, recalling us. You know, I've seen games where you find fumble seven times, but I don't think I've ever seen a game where you lost all of them. And I don't recall us ever getting one that was on the ground. We just weren't in the right spot or whatever it was. But again, that's going to be a key factor and we need to take care of that football. I assume you have some time. 3, 2, 1. We're standing out in the middle of sunny Hansen Stadium. Coach Greg Croshaw just prior to really the game before the break for you. Yeah, it really is. You know, this is the first time we've done that, too, Larry. I think I believe in my career. It's the first time I've had a bye in the middle of the year. And I've heard people talking pros and cons about it, and I guess I'll just have to find out for myself. But big game for us, obviously, after last week getting beat, we'd surely like to have a win and then be able to take the week off with much better feelings than we've had this week. I don't Know if I could survive two weeks feeling the way I felt this week. So it's a big game for us, one we need to win and then take a rest and then finish with four conference games right after that. It's always interesting. You're four and one in the first five games, but after a loss, suddenly all the question marks that may have been there before suddenly appear. Well, I think that's true in any sport. You know, you go along and if you're winning, it's easy to skip over what might be potential problem areas or whatever. And hopefully as coaches you're smart enough to figure out you've got those problem areas and try to work on them and get them taken care of before they do come back to hunt you. And you know, we obviously haven't got that accomplished this year with our passing game and that's very frustrating because the amount of time and the amount of effort we spend on it in practice probably emphasized it more than we ever have because we felt like there was a problem there and yet haven't been able to get that accomplished. So that's going to be a main goal for us, especially now with the week off coming off to really go back and concentrate. And we did that again this week trying to emphasize and make sure we're able to throw the ball a little bit. Let's talk about the passing game. I guess the first wrinkle to ask for is who's going to be the starting quarterback today. I guess we'll go with Tyler De Hart. Been up in the air all week. Had Nathan Walker I thought was going to do it. Then we had a horrendous practice the other day and Kai's been out with some back spasms and probably might have had something to do with his ineffectiveness the last two or three weeks he's been trying to play through that and that and it's been very painful and he took a couple days off. So the guy that had the best week practice and the guy we're going to go with to start out was Tyler De Hart. The other half of the passing game is the receivers. Any changes in the receiving core? Well, we're going to go with a little different look maybe today that we're going to run some two tight end formation for a couple reasons. One, to try to take advantage of our running game and that extra tight end doesn't enable a defense to stack up quite as many people. Although sometimes you think, well, another tight end will just bring another man down. But you still have to play Pass defense and you still have at least three DBs in there. So that other tight end makes the defense spread out one more man and gives you an opportunity to loosen up the run a little bit. So we're going to try some of that formation. We've moved Zed Robinson, we're going to give him a look out at wideout and see if we can. You can't get the ball to him on some quick kind of things and let him use his running ability. So there are a couple of changes and we'll just kind of toying with them to see how they'll look and how they'll work under game type situations and then maybe utilize them more as we get into the last half of the season. Also, offensively, her beard has been non existent for the last two games. Is he going to be playing more today? Well, and that's, you know, that has to do, I guess with a depth of at running back. And that's another thing we're trying to take advantage of as coaches. We feel like we've got Teddy James and Zed Robinson and of course with the emergence of Wilson Kovaca at fullback, that's just some of the things we're trying to do. So I would say yes, it doesn't have anything to do with his personal ability. It has to do with the guys that are playing there in front of him. But along with Blake Hart. Now that's one of the moves we've made. We've made two moves. One in Zed wideout, the other one to Blake Hart at the other tight end trying to utilize kids that are good football players and get them in the ball game rather than on the sideline. So with a move of Blake to tight end and playing quite a bit then that will put Herb as probably our number one backup at both tailback and fullback. And I would suspect that, yeah, he'll see some more playing time. Another question mark on the defensive side. Stacy Munro was not with you last week. Is he still on the sideline? Yeah, he's not even on the sidelines. He's been suspended and he has some things he has to take care of and then we'll reevaluate it starting next week. He got in some trouble, decided to take on an automobile and did some damage to it and you know, he has to face those consequences and learn to be responsible for his actions. So he's been suspended and will continue that until we reevaluate after this week. He needs to. I'm going to run some grade checks on him. He needs to do some things with, you know, with the trouble he had to get that taken care of. And if all things are in place, then there's a possibility we'll reinstate him, but it's not, at least until we reevaluate it Monday. Johnny Wright stepped in very well last week, did a good job, but he maybe isn't quite the gambler on defense that Stacy is. Well, he doesn't quite have the natural ability that Stacy does. Stacy's got great quickness and instinct, and we try not to, you know, on defense, we try not to gamble and get out of position. But I think he makes bigger plays because of his quickness and his, you know, maybe a little more experience, having played in the PAC 10 and some of the things that maybe give him an advantage. But I thought Johnny did an outstanding job, played very solid for us last week. And, you know, defensively, we need to tighten it down a little bit. Of course, again today we're playing a team that will throw it probably 50 or more times, and a lot of things can happen. So we're going to have to keep our composure and if they get a quick score, come back and realize that the game lasts 60 minutes. But, you know, defensively, I think we've done a fairly good job all year. There's room for improvement, obviously, but, you know, we'll line up. We made a couple moves there, too. We put George Kahue in the secondary. He'll start at free safety. I think Chuck Porter had his best game since he's been here, but he hurt his neck and hurt his knee a little bit. And George, of course, played some DB for us before he went on his mission. And so we've made that move. And then we're going to run some nickel package where we have an extra DB in. And of course, we'll have to call on that as we finish because we play Rick Snow and Phoenix, who are teams that will pass 50 or 60 times. So it's a good ball game for us here today with BYU to experiment, to do some things and hopefully get us prepared for the push on those last four league games, personnel wise. Do you know if they've loaded up? I don't, you know, I don't know. They've got some good kids. I know they've got some kids that we tried to recruit. They got a big Kyle Harris kid out of Richfield, the big lineman. I know they. They've got Chad Knowles, four amvp. They've got the Cooper youngster who was probably the most recruited kid in the state of Utah last year out of bountiful, a wide receiver. So I know they have some good kids. I don't suspect that they really load up ever. You know, you can only play so many games and if you're playing a game here then you cannot get in a game. You only can play 12 and they play a 12 game schedule. So if a kid's on their kicking team or he's going to be utilized in a ball game or they even think he's going to be utilized, then they usually don't use him. Now I understand they may have loaded up a little bit at Snow only in the fact that they played Washington State the day before and that makes a little difference because then you know the kids who did not play in that ball game, they have a free game and they can go down then. And so some of the second team offensive linemen are I guess went down and played. So I don't think they, they really load up really. Their intent is to play their freshmen. They're a little different than most four year schools. BYU plays their scholarship freshmen and then saves the red shirt year for their sophomore year or for when they return from missions and gives them a chance to watch the young players see what kind of talent they have and whether or not they feel like they can fit in their program. So a little different scheme than most four year schools but a very solid program and I think it gives these kids a chance to play games and, and after going all week having run Wyoming's offense and defense, I'm sure they're eager to play. What should we look for today as the key? Well, I think anytime we've talked about it now for a long time, eight years I guess. Larry, it doesn't change, I don't think. I think you play a junior varsity team. I think their talent is obviously as good as you'll find because they're mostly scholarship kids in a very top notch program. I think the thing we have to take advantage of is their, their lack of practice time. If we can make them sustain drives or make them do things over and over again, the chances are they may make a mistake just because of lack of practice time. And so we need to take advantage of that defensively. I think we need to take advantage of blitzing and changing up the defense as so maybe to cause a little bit of confusion and cause a mistake because I really believe person wise, player wise, they'll be able to line up and physically match up. They're good Quality kids, so you have to keep them off guard. And then the turnover factor every week is a big, big factor. Coach Greg Croshaw, thank you for being with us. Good luck today. Oh, thanks, Larry. And we'll see you after the ball game. Okay. Across the street from my home, I watched two old people the other night. Edwin, Sam, Ralph, Miralda. Reached over and hit Ed to the side of the head and knocked him off his chair and into the daisies. Then he picked himself up and got back in his chair, and he said, well, I wanted that for. And she said, that's for being such a terrible lover all these years. I sat there for a while, and Ed reached over to get Morella to the side of the head and wrote her off her chair into the daisy. And she got back up and sat in her chair, and she said, ed, what was that for? And he said, that's for knowing the difference. I want you to know. Know the difference. This year, Dixie College has been very, very fortunate in receiving a federal grant for two years. We're now entering our second year. It has enabled us to put together a drug and alcohol program with its outreach facility. That drug and alcohol program is designed for the students not only at Dixie College, but for Hickey High School in Pine Du and Hurricane and Kanab and the elementary schools in Washington county, as well as in Arizona and Nevada. So we'll be very busy this year, and we'll ask for your support. Often. We'll ask for you to become involved in our drug prevention program, our drug prevention club, which is already organized and is ready to go. More than that, we will need you as people who are looking for differences in your lifestyles. There are many of you who have never really experienced drugs. We're not asking you to come to Dixie College and make this an experimental place. We're asking you to stand firm and fast on not experimenting with drugs. We also know that there's a number of you who have had experiences with drugs that may see a time in your life when you would like to change that. The Drug and Alcohol center, which is located at the south entrance of the old gym, right next to the old Colonel Room, right next to the dressing room, is not attractive, but believe me, it's functional. We have an expert staff, which I'll introduce in just a second, and you will find the win. 3, 2, 1. Dixie College Coach Greg Croshaw. You've had two big wins in a row over Riggs College. That's. It's almost dangerous. Well, I'm sure it really is Larry. You know, it would be nice to be able to carry in the extra 70 or 80 points or whatever it is, but they won't let us do that. So every time's new. And, you know, I really think the one 2 years ago up here, I don't know if there's very many people around that were playing. And that's one interesting thing about junior college football is I don't really believe there's as many people around that played here two years ago. It's too soon for missionaries to be back and it's. Unless a kid red shirted, they would be gone by now. So really it's difficult, difficult to get any kind of emotion or anything going off of what happened two years ago. Now last year, of course, that's a different story. There's probably quite a number of kids that were involved on both ends of the scale, but I think with a rivalry like this and intensity, I'm sure that this game will start new. And I really wasn't looking forward to that kind of scoring or that big a difference the last two years, and I'm not again this year. Two years ago, it was an amazing game. There was a lot of celebrating afterwards, and yet it was somewhat subdued celebrating. It seemed like the team was almost in shock that they were able to dominate. Rick. Well, you know, after 25 or 27 or however many years it was that Dixie never won up here in that span of time, I'm sure that's, you know, fairly normal because a tremendous amount of energy and effort were put into the ball game and, and even as it was going and we'd get a little further ahead and a little further ahead. I don't know if everybody was still sure whether that could hold up or what really would happen. I can remember five years ago being up here and being ahead by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, feeling pretty good about it, and they end up losing that one with three turnovers, I think, in the fourth quarter down deep in our territory. So, you know, it's not that unusual. I think it's was a tremendous amount of effort put in there and drained the kids and the coaches and everybody involved and probably a little bit of a shock factor to boot. So, you know, that's. And I'm not sure that we as a staff or we as a team do a tremendous amount of celebrating. I mean, we go out and try to do our job to the best of our abilities and when that one's over, we enjoy it for a minute, but usually get thinking and Try to get after the one that follows in the next week. So all those things in combination probably are part of the reason turnover is a big part of both of the last two games. You forced a lot of them, especially pass interceptions. Yeah. And I don't fool myself and think that that won't be a big part again today. Rick's going to be able to move the football just as they were two years ago. And last year our key was that we were able to not have very many turnovers and keep possession and take advantage. And they did have thrown quite a few interceptions the last two years. And hopefully that's a trend that we can keep going. I think as a key of the ballgame, it's got to be one that we've got to look at. We've got to at least be, I think, on the even part of the turnover ratio. And anybody that gets an advantage there I think is probably going to, as much as anything, weigh be the difference in the ball game as to who gets the most turnovers. Normally you look at Ricks as a passing team, but a team that actually does have good balance pass and run. You as a running team, but actually has good balance, pass and run. What do you see the two teams, how do you see them shaping up this year? Well, it's really kind of interesting because we obviously people, our fans probably notice and realize and we've talked about a lot, we aren't three throwing the ball as well as we have in years past. And that's been something that we've tried to work on and tried to get straightened out. Interestingly enough, Ricks hasn't run the ball this year as well as they have in the past. So they're relying heavily or more heavily on the pass, at least up to this point, and we're relying more heavily on the run. So really we've become, I think more. Both teams have become more dependent on what they do the best. And I'm sure they're probably disappointed in their running game and trying to get it going or stepped up a notch as we are with our passing game. But I think, you know, Coach Ron's been in this position for 8 years, same amount of time as I have. They've had a tremendous amount of success. I think the wins are, even if I'm not mistaken, career wise. You know, I don't see him changing his strengths. I don't see me changing mine. I think it'll just be a matter of who executes and goes out and is able to handle the pressure. Of the game, the best. And with the turnovers, I think that'll really be the difference. Defense seems to be a key then too. Well, I don't think there's any question, and that's something that's been very surprising in the past couple years. Although we've had some pretty high scoring games in years past. I really believe that good teams at any level are able to play good defense and oftentimes maybe they're lost in the press or all the hoopla with the offense, which people really like. But good football teams have to play good defense. And I would be very surprised if either one of us reach our season average today in offense. And I've said that the last couple years and been totally wrong. So that shows you what I know. But I really think that that's going to be a key. The winning team is going to have to go out and execute and do a good job and play a good sound defense. Stacy Munro is back with you. Yeah, he's back. It's been almost a month, I guess, and has gone through some difficult times and has got himself back on the right track and we're glad to have him back and hopefully he's learned some lessons from the problems that he got himself into. And you know, like I said, we're glad to have him back and hope that he's learned from it and hope that he's a better person. And we'll just have to see how that layoff has affected him. I visited with him just briefly. Legal hassles apparently are taken care of now, but he seems much subdued from what he was before. Well, and I guess that might be normal or to be expected when you go through some problems like he has dealing with lawyers and of course, with the law. And we all are responsible for things that we do. And I think you have to learn that lesson too. And that's got to be the. Hopefully the biggest thing that comes out of this is that you just can't do whatever you want. You know, people's property have to be respected and if you do things that are out of line, then you, you need to be held accountable. And I hope he's learned that lesson. I think he has. All the things that I've asked him to do, he's complied with and that's why he's back. And I would hope that he's learned those lessons and is now going to be a good part of society and hopefully be back with us and be a good part of our football team, which is the least important of all those things, but part of the motivating factor to help get him back on the run, I really believe so. That's where we're at. Any changes in the starting lineups today? Well, we'll have Stacy back and he'll go on defense. Other than that, I think we'll be pretty much the same that we've been. Tyler DeHart will go at quarterback, and we move Zed back into running back for a couple reasons. Teddy James had some back spasms the last 10 days, and so we made that move, and those two guys will probably be sharing time at tailback, but we'll be back to basically our normal guys who played most of the year. Will the passing game come around? Are you sure, or are you just saying, well, let's find out and see what happens? No, you know, we've been working on it, and I don't think we'll quit working on it. I mean, we need to try to get that going for whatever reason, and I think there's probably quite a few. I think, you know, most of the focus on comes on the quarterback, but I'm not sure they deserve all the credit. Receivers need to do their part, run the right routes, catch the ball when it's there, and we need to be able to throw the football. There's no question about it. You can't just line up and run down after down. We'll come out and try to do that and try to throw in positions where we don't put ourselves in a hole, but hopefully we can get some success and get the thing rolling. I think at this point, it's as much a confidence factor as anything. You know, guys are trying extremely hard to make good throws and make good catches, and maybe sometimes that's as big a problem as anything because you're trying just a little bit too hard. If you just kind of relax and let things happen, and when you aren't thinking about them, it seems to click a lot better. So, you know, I would hope that we come out and complete a couple of the first three or four we throw and maybe get. 3, 2, 1. We're talking with Dixie College coach Greg Croshaw. Coach, almost the same sort of weather you had in Rexburg, only without the wind. It feels a little like Rexburg, but it's, you know, it's good fall football weather, and the players ought to be full of energy and a lot of good, crisp hitting going on. I think it's perfect weather for players. You know, the fans better bring some hot chocolate and a Blanket. But I think for players this is ideal football weather. You're talking about ideal football weather. This is one of the best matchups in the league too. There are a lot of good ones. This is a dandy. Yeah, I'm not sure. It seems like every week we talk about that, but yeah, we talked about it, I think a week or two ago. It's a special game for me because their coach is a good friend of mine, Joe Kersting, I had a chance to work with in his early stages. I was an assistant at NAU and he was a graduate assistant assistant. I recruited a lot of his dad's players down in the Phoenix area when I was at Northern Arizona. So it's, you know, it's not only a good rivalry for the kids, but it's also a good match up against a good friend. As we talked about, it's one of those games that I don't think either coach worries too much about any side effects other than just coming out and playing good, hard football. And that's, I think, what the fans will see tonight. There is more and more of that taking place in that league. I think so. And I think as we talked last week, there's some stability in coaches and as there's familiarities come about through having played each other several times now on the fourth or fifth year, whatever it is we're on, I think that really speaks highly for the caliber of programs and the people involved. And it seems to really have improved to me and I think that's really a help, healthy, good sign for the league and for everybody involved. Both teams are coming off overwhelming victories on the road. Yeah. Without any question, Glendale, of course had a big, big win down at Arizona Western which was they've kind of got their back against the wall. It's unfortunate they had a couple of teams drop them and they only get to play the eight league games. And whether that's helpful or harmful, I don't know. You know, they had some time off and they're pretty healthy. And then of course, of course our win at Rick's again was a big, big win and one that's got me concerned because I felt great after the win and I got thinking. We were in the same position a year ago, 6 and 1. When we came into Glendale, of course they were undefeated a year ago and it was at their place. But to come back off such a high played game, emotionally, we've worked tremendously hard on that this week to remind the players that we've been here before and that we need to, to come out and play the same kind of game that we played against a Ricks or some of the other games we played. You can't certainly play like we did against a Mesa or Scottsdale or somebody or you could be in trouble. So it's a big, it's a big turning point I think for our season. Is it my imagination or are you going a little more red this year? Yeah, a little more red. It's kind of interesting. I thought about maybe doing it when we played on homecoming and yet the players came up and said do you mind if we wear the red pants at home and see how. I'm not superstitious, but I guess they are. They said we wore white when we played Mesa. So I quickly agreed that we'd go ahead and wear the red pants. But yeah, the kids wanted to wear them and that's fine with me. And we're quite a bit red out there today. Reminds me of what was Aeroparsidian that had the change of uniforms or Notre Dame just in time to pull off a big victory. Yeah, I hope it works the same way. I think about every year Utah wears white pants and then wears them in warm ups and goes in and wears red ones against byu. So I hope it works better than that's worked. Although last year it didn't work too bad. But yeah, it's a little different look and like I say, the players wanted to go with it. So that's fine with me. This week Glendale versus Dixie Glendale with William Babb the returning quarterback is opening it up a little more. Yeah, and they're as we've said I think before, they're an extremely well coached team. I think every year they lead the league in the fewest amount of penalties and they're right up there, if not leading every year in turnovers, they just don't beat themselves and that's, you know, that's a real strength in coach Kersting's ability. You know, I'm a little envious. I think we'd love to be able to play with as fewer penalties and of course the turnovers play a big, big factor. So they are a quality team. They had quite a few new players come in early and I believe they lost two of the first three but they've been on a winning streak ever since. And again that I think has to do with a lot of new kids playing that maybe were on the team last year but didn't get a chance to play because of the sophomore oriented team and that. And then the only Starter on offense was bad back and he's a fine little left handed quarterback that throws the ball well. And of course they're much like we are in that they run the ball extremely well and people are up playing the run and all of a sudden they come with a play action pass and they hurt us for a long one last year with that. So we need to be aware for that. And I think they're doing a good job trying to take advantage of the solid players that they have and he's certainly one of them tonight. For Dixie, what will be the key? Will it be more emotional than physical? Well, I don't, you know, I think that's going to play a big part. I hope we come ready to play. And any coach I don't think really knows what the secret is there. You talk about it and kids are, you know, funny to try to figure out but I think we've emphasized that enough and I don't think there's any question we need to show up ready to play a good solid game for 60 minutes. If we do that, then I think, you know, it's, it's the same old thing, good solid defense, field position and we can't turn the ball over to these people because they aren't going to turn it back over to you. So all the same keys I think come into play and I think the emotions will play a big part as any of it tonight. Injuries. How do you stand Teddy James asserting last week? Yeah, I think we're good. You know, we were a little beat up after the Ricks game. We have some sore shots, shoulders and bruises and things, but that's normal at this point in time in a football season, but nothing that's keeping anybody out. I think most of our players are ready to go and Teddy's been going through some therapy and hasn't worked much, but when he has, he's looked pretty good. So we hope that that'll certainly be a plus for us so that he can give. I think we're much better as we rotate those guys, they're much more, more fresh. And especially seeing how we're relying on the run so much this year, it's really a luxury to have both those guys. So I'm hoping that at this point we're planning on going with Teddy some and I hope that he can withstand that and be able to play maybe, you know, half or 30% of the time at least and give Zed a spell. So that could be a big one for us too. But he seems healthy at this point, Coach Greg Kroshaw once again, I guess, got out the mittens a little bit on this one. Good luck tonight. My nose feels red, my ears are cold, my hands are in my pocket. But we're still in St. George, and I think when things get going here, that blood will get flowing. And we'll look forward to talking with you after the ball game. Thanks, Larry. Three, two, one. Dixie College head coach Greg Croshaw. It's homecoming. There must be some extra feelings with this one. Well, yeah, it's kind of interesting. Homecoming. Of course, I coached at snow for four years and now here for eight. But for our crowd, a lot of people back and probably, I guess, with emotions, this is probably, I think, the one that people feel the most emotions with outside of the football team. The old folks that come back for reunion, and everybody has a story or two about a snow game somewhere. And so, like I said, I think for our team, it's probably the best time to have homecoming because it's probably the oldest and strongest rivalry of all the games we play, and it's still very strong. You've been on both sides when both sides have been strong, and it's always a battle. Yeah, it really is. It really doesn't matter. And that's hopefully what you like to see happen, you know, every year. It doesn't really matter what. What's transpired before this game comes. It just when this game is here, then both sides usually are ready. And it's. And to my knowledge, I can't remember too many of them that ever been lopsided. They've always been within 10 or so points and good ball games and a lot of emotion. And like I said, I think a classic game, as you come down to the end of the year, to have that kind of game and then to have a homecoming besides, snow has similarities to each of your last two opponents. Passing game like Rick's, a slow start with a. With a head of steam coming into this game like Glendale. Yeah, you know, that's. And I think that's pretty typical for snow teams. They do so many things with formations and sets and with their passing game that may be early. It's hard on them, as hard on them as it is the people they play. But once they get in the groove of what they're trying to do and the kids catch on, then it, you know, every year at this time, they seem to be on a roll and playing pretty good football. And I think that's probably. Probably the reason why. Last two ball games, roughly 100 yards between the two teams you've allowed. That's amazing against a couple of very powerful offensive teams. Well, that's, yeah, that's, you know, totally unpredictable and totally unexpected. There's no way in the world you can go into a ball game and say we're going to hold a team to those kind of statistics and that's a two way street. Also, as we've talked other times, Larry, our offense has to run the ball and eat up time and keep the clock running. And if we can do that, then it enables your defense to do quite a few things when they're over drinking the water on the sideline. Especially so if you get on a roll and you make a team punt after three downs a couple of times and your offense is running time off the clock, pretty soon there's not much time left in the game and then they're starting to throw and do some things. And so I think it's just the way things fell together and we were very fortunate and it was two extremely well played games on our kids part. As you look at the snow college team, obviously a passing team, but maybe more balanced team offensive than either of the last two. I don't think there's any question they run the ball better than Rick's does and they obviously throw it better than Glendale does. So I think they're a BYU prototype team and they're going to. Their bread and butter is to throw the football. But if you're lining up very similar to what BYU does, if you're lining up in a situation where you're playing eight or nine guys off to play the pass and they have the capability to run the football and they'll run it more attempts than some of the passing teams in our league just to try to keep you honest. And I think that's good coaching. I think that's, you know, you take some of the pressure off of your passing game because people have to look at film and say we better, you know, we've got to be able to stop the run. Even though they may not use it as bread and butter, we still have to be prepared to stop it or they can hurt you with it. Now your offense is slowly getting some more of that usual balance that you've had in previous years. Well, I'd like to hope so. We, you know, that's one of the things we've tried to do. We've obviously hung our hat on the running game and tried to make that our trademark and get people to come up and play us to stop the run and that's enabled us to have a good success with a passing game over the years. And, and it was very rewarding last week to see Tyler and the different group of receivers catch the ball and put 7 for 12 up. And we're good yardies. They weren't just little short ones. And of course that's been our trademark. That's where we've been able to hit guys in man coverage and up committed to play the run. And I think for us to be successful today, we're going to have to do some of those same things. The key then? Well, I think it's very similar to what we faced against the Ricks ball club. I think our offense is going to have to keep the ball run on the ground and do the things we do best. And if we can do that, then their offense isn't on the field and the play good field position. The kicking game I think will be another big key and then we aren't going to be able to line up and run every down. We're going to have to throw it, if nothing more than just to loosen them up again occasionally. Last time Snow was here, the kicking game was the key. Matt Lombard missed the field goal at the end. Yeah, and you know, who knows what? I expect that same kind of game. And anytime you're in a close spot game, you know, oftentimes it's going to come down to a kick somewhere because if you get in that position with a, you know, a two or one or tie ball game, offenses are going to become very confident, conservative. Once you get down there close because you don't want to lose the ball on a turnover. Everybody feels like, hey, the easy way out is to get down there close and line up and kick it through and take the win by one rather than trying to throw the pass or high risk offensive play. So good hard fought ball games very often come down to the kicking game. And of course, as our fans unfortunately know, we saw that yesterday with that Dixie woods cross game where several opportunities, opportunities were had by both teams and finally a kick did make the difference. So in a close, you know, close fought ball game, more times than not it comes down to the kicking game you're missing. PP Muscatelli. Yeah, it's really unfortunate. It's, you know, a guy comes halfway around the world to play here and we dealt with, you know, with the people in our campus on foreign students. They dealt with Italian immigrations, they dealt with American immigrations in New York City coming in here. Then when they got here and got registered. They had two different visas coming to do the same thing. And our people just said, hey, let's try to change this and make it right. So they applied for a third type of visa and sent in money to do that. And when it got to the immigration office in Salt Lake, they said, no, you can't do that. They have to leave the country. And they gave them two days to get out of town. So it's, you know, and the frustrating thing, I think, is that you try to do it right. And that's what I told the immigration master. Gee, I turn on the TV and I see people getting sent back to Mexico and they don't miss a shift's work. You know, they're back the next day and a kid spends, you know, four or five thousand dollars to come over here and try to do it right. But he said, hey, I don't make the rules, I just enforce them. And I can understand that, too. So it's unfortunate for them, but I'm thankful we had an opportunity to have. I think they added a real experience and learning situation for our players, and I know they did for our coaches. So I hate to see them go on that kind of a note. But I'm sure thankful we had them for at least as long as we did. Two pronged question, will it mean any problems with eligibility in previous games? And secondly, who substitutes now? Well, eligibility is no problem. We, like I say, we checked all those things with NJCAA and they didn't just show up here the day that they came. I mean, there was a lot of legwork done prior to that. So there's no problem eligibility wise. We'll have. We're fortunate in that I think, that Rod Stone was force into service and played a full game up at Rick's and got some very valuable game experience there. So he'll be the one guard and then Tim Plank will be on the other. So it's one of those things. You have to look at it and say, hey, if he'd have broke his leg or got a knee injury or got hurt, we would have had to play without him anyway. So it's just a little different version of that song, but everybody has to go through it and you just have to go on nothing. You can't worry about looking back. So I'm sure those kids will do a fine job and I'm sure they're eager to get their chance now, too. So they'll go in there and play hard and we'll do the best we can. Any other changes in the starting lineup, we'll go with the people that have brought us this far. Somebody said it's not broke, don't fix it. So we're not going to change too many things. We're going to line up and try to do the same things we've always done and not worry about Snow or the things we can't control. We just have to play our game and do the best of that as we can to our ability, and hopefully that's good enough to come out with a win. And I think if we do that, we will be able to come out with a win. Coach Greg Croshaw, thank you for being with us. Good luck today. Thanks, Larry. It's a great day for football and look forward to seeing you after. Thank you. We're talking with Snow College head football coach Paul Tidwell. Coach, this is always a great one, Dixie. Snow has been the last time. Kind of like BYU in Utah. It is a good game and we enjoy coming down here and I don't know if they enjoy coming up to our place, but I hope this rivalry continues. Heartbreak. Two years ago, you dealt a heartbreak last year. Yeah, it's we paying each other back. We did have a good game last year. In the last six minutes, I don't know what happened, but we exploded and score 21 points to come from behind and win. Two years ago, I thought we had an excellent team. I thought we had a. Well, we did. We had a real good team and we had a conference contender and it was a heartbreaker. We had, I believe, about 19 seconds on the clock and about an 18 yard field goal and come up short and lost by two points. So that was a heartbreaker. Your team probably still has some hope for a bowl game, don't you? Yeah. And this game's important. I think the players realize that. Dixie's ranked. We're finally getting a look. You know, it's 6, 2 and 1. The last grid wire poll that came out says others to watch Snow College. And so if they're watching us this week and we win this game, you know, I think. I think they'll consider us for Snow. What will be the key today for the Badgers to win? Offensively, I believe we've got to do, I think, what Dixie wants to do, and that's control the time, control the ball, work the first downs, keep the ball out of the hands of their offense. Defensively, it's just the opposite side of the coin. We have to to stop their run game. Don't give up any big plays, keep them from getting consecutive first downs, one right after the other and eating up the clock. And we got to get the ball in the hands of our offense. Weather wise. This should be perfect for football for you. Beautiful day. Beautiful day. It's been pretty up in Ephraim all week. It's been a lot colder, 45 to 55 degrees, depending on the day. But. But yeah, this is a beautiful day. Are you healthy? Yeah, we are. We lost one of our starting offensive linemen two games ago against BYU's JV. So we've got one sophomore starting on our offensive line. The rest are freshmen, but other than that, we're healthy. Coach Paul Tidwell, thank you for being with us. Good luck today. Thank you. So the point I'm making about cocaine in particular is it is a dangerous, dangerous drug. It can do very bad things to your body. You can become so dependent on it that it ruins the rest of your life. And that's not a risk I personally wanted to take just to have a few minutes of good fun. And what I tell I speak to the same to a lot of basketball fans and such, and I speak to the kids, even, you know, who are 12, 13 years old, who are just starting to experiment with drugs a little bit. And I say, hey, how old do you want to be when you die? 70, 80 years old? Most of us like to live be that age. Correct. Why risk messing that up for five minutes of a good time? Okay, so I'm not standing up here preaching, don't take drugs, don't take drugs, don't take drugs. Because some of you will. But just think about the issues. Think about where you want your. What do you want to do with your life, where you're going with your life, and is it worth screwing up just to please your friends? You have a few minutes of good time. All right, let's talk about drinking for just a couple of minutes, okay? Because like we mentioned, it's the biggest problem in college campuses today. And my advice to you is, you know, hey, you're going to drink, that's fine. But please be responsible about it, all right? If you're going to have a party, please plan to have people there who can drive people home, all right? Take care of your friends. It's one thing to have a good time with them. It's another thing to hand them the car keys and say, yeah, see you tomorrow, because they might not make it home. So like I said, people are going to drink. But just please be responsible. Think about what you're doing and plan a little bit. Couple of final notes. I'm very proud of the fact that I went to junior college. I took business classes, some very practical classes at junior college that really have carried me a long way. Just the fact that I learned how to write a thank you note has been invaluable to me. Learning how to write a business letter, little things like that. There are a lot of things here that are available to you that you should take advantage of that will help you just deal with with life on a day to day basis, much less prepare you for a career. I think the one attitude I've had too that's carried me a long way is the fact that I've never said I'm smart enough or I'm a good enough basketball player or I'm good enough at anything. I think one attitude that I've had and I think everyone who is successful has. So you always have to be willing to learn. You always have to be willing to look at something from a different viewpoint. And I think one of the things that's helped make me a success in the NBA is the fact that I've always continued to work hard. I've never said like this year I could look back and say, well, team Mark, you were on the all star team. You were a defensive player of the year team, won 51 games, we won the Midwest Division. Why don't you just take the summer off, go down to the beach and just lay out for a while? I said no, because that's not who I am. I want to be a better player this year than I was last year, okay? I want to learn more about everything that I can. And I'm constantly looking for new ways to, whatever it is, deal with other people, deal with how to balance my checkpoint better. Whatever the case is. You've always got to have that attitude that you don't know everything because as soon as you think you know it all, you're done. There's a lot of guys that come into the NBA thinking they're great collegiate players and two years down the line because of the fact they won't listen and they won't learn their history. And I'm going to give you a great example. For those of you who are basketball aficionados, this Mike and for the rest of you all, fill it in. A guy by the name of Walter Berry three years ago, college player of the year at St. John's can anybody tell me what team he plays for now? He's been on four different teams in Three years. You know why? He thinks he knows it all. And their chances are within another year or so, he'll probably be gone. And here's a guy that wrote his ticket and should be an NBA. He has great talent. Great talent, great talent. But you know what? This doesn't have it up here. He doesn't have it. Have it right here, okay? So please take my advice and. You know, my real feeling about. About life in general is that everybody is here for a purpose, okay? Everybody here has been provided direction, all right? No matter who you believe in, in terms of whatever your religious affiliation is, I think that we all are part of a whole. You know, I'll use a quick analogy out of the. Like the Bible, out of the New Testament, where they talk about everybody being a part of the body, being a part of the body of Christ. And when you look at that, it applies to everyone. You know, we're all here for a purpose, but we all can't do the same thing. Not everyone is going to be an arm. Not everyone is going to be fingers or toes or whatever the case may be. And it's up to you, through the opportunities that are provided to you, to find out where you fit and to find out what your niche is going to be. Okay? And please, like I say, don't sell yourself short, okay? Because you'll be making a big mistake. All right, that's it for now. What I'd like to do is open it up with some questions. If we have some. We still have some time, don't we? A few minutes. Okay. I'd like to open it up with some questions. Anything you'd like to know about myself or life or. I haven't done everything, but I've done a few things. Questions? Yeah. The toughest center to play against in the NBA team. O. Some good questions. Yes, sir. The question's out. Don Conc. Contract affect me? Didn't hurt my situation, that's for sure. How many times I've been dunked on? Probably not as many as you. Some more questions down there. Okay, good question. He asked me when I was in junior college, was I directed towards any field in particular, even though I took a lot of different classes? Yeah, I was. One of the problems of being an athlete is that you don't know where you're going to end up in senior college, so to speak. And I lost a little bit in transferring. I lost almost 3/4 of a year transferring credits over UCLA. But I did have a blow. I received my associate's degree in business and I still believe that even though I lost some credit transferring, the classes I took in junior college were as valuable as anything I took. Probably more valuable than anything I took at UCLA because of what it gave me in practical knowledge and in the workings of the business world. And theories are fine and you've got to have them as far as your basic knowledge is concerned. But when it comes down to brass tax, you've got to be able to operate out there in the business world. You've got to be able to know how to approach people and know what the chain of commands are. Like I said, even learning how to write a thank you note has been invaluable. Any more questions? Yeah, Do I think the NPA season is too long? Definitely 82 games plus 8 exhibitions plus playoffs usually end up somewhere around 100. The season lasts from the beginning of October until June. It's definitely too long. But I think when people approach the NBA about the fact that, well, hey, maybe you should cut back a little bit. Cut back to 62 games or something. Of course. What are the owners going to say? They're going to come right to the players, say, well, you're only playing 20% less. Just mark that off your paycheck and that's not going to go over too well. So I think it's going to remain the same. Yeah, Most overrated and most underrated players in the NBA. The underrated. I think I got to go. John Staunton. There's a lot of guys that are overrated. You know, I think it's tough to look at a player and say he's overrated because of the fact that you don't know what kind of team situation a lot of guys are in. You can have a great player, you can go to a lousy team like the Clippers who have had some great first round picks over the last few years, but because of the working situation there, you know they're never going to go anywhere. And so you can't really look at a player and say, well, he's overrated because his team loses. It's just the fact that he's looking some losers. Myself and Rick Moran, are we buddies? Not particularly, no. In fact I was thinking about and I don't think there was a single guy that toyed Pistons that I'm real too friendly with. Yeah, Experiences and feelings on the All Star Game. It was an awesome experience. It really was. I never anticipated ever in my wildest dreams of being selected to go to that. And when they told me, I was like, I Had no answer. I didn't know what to say. It was an incredible experience. It was great. Not only, you know, playing the game was one thing, but the whole aura of everything that went on during that weekend. You know, we had motorcades going back and forth, and when Michael Jordan walked through the hotel lobby, it was like the President of the United States was there. Everybody just stopped and turned and stared at him. And, you know, I was sitting there on the bench thinking, geez, I got James Worthy over here and Kareem sitting here. Just an incredible, incredible experience. But the best part for me was watching John and Carl play so well and do their thing. Because I think that single game did more for the state of Utah, for the Jazz, for Salt Lake City, than, you know, any other thing we could have done as a team, because that game was shown worldwide. I talked to people this summer from Italy and Spain and all over the world who saw that game and said, oh yeah, I'm selling the All Star Game. I was like, great. I mean, those two hours did more for everybody concerned than, you know, 200 NBA games could have. What about the Olympics in Salt Lake? I think that it would be a good thing. Whether or not we get it or not is another thing, but definitely it doesn't hurt. I think it would be a great thing to put Salt Lake kind of on the map a little bit better and maybe provide some people here with some jobs too. Okay. The question is, if you feel you have some talent as a basketball player, how would you get some, some people to come to your school to watch you play or be recognized by the NBA? Well, that's a problem I definitely have. There's a couple different ways. If you're a great player, they're going to show up anyway. Scouts read the papers, they know what's going on. If you're some of the less known players, you've got to do things to get yourself known. You've got to play in some of these games where you might have to pay your own way. I played one game in Jersey City, New Jersey. For those you've never been there. A fine place. In fact, There was a three day tournament at a little college there called St. Peter's College. And here I come trucking in my suit coat, you know, my briefcase and everything from ucla. And they had a list of three hotels I was supposed to stay at. And this is one of those games where maybe one or two pro scouts might show up. And I go to the first hotel, it has about 45 semi trucks parked around it. You can't even get in the lobby. There's just an armor plated window there and the room rates are listed by the hour. And so I said, I've got a list of three hotels here. He says, well, you're at the best one. So anyway, that's the kind of things that some players have to do in order to kind of. You have to grovel a little bit, so to speak, to kind of get your self knowing out there. Am I going to play in the Olympics? Good question. There's a couple different schools of thought on that right now. I think it would be great for the NBA to be involved in the Olympics. Obviously the caliber of play would rise considerably on the other side of it. I think if you're an owner, if you've got Karl Malone under contract and he says I'm going to go blame the Olympics and he gets hurt over there. Now you just lost a major commodity. So I think that something would have to be worked out to protect the owners and the teams from any possible injuries that might arise. I also think there might be a little reluctance on the NBA players because of the fact that we just mentioned the schedule is so long and so enduring that by the time you got done, not too many guys would be that excited about, yeah, let's start training camp all over again right now and training for the Olympics. So. But I still think there's going to be fair amount of players out there. Okay, question what am I going to do after basketball? That's a good question. Hey, I'm keeping my options open. I'm not telling myself off short. I think that there's a lot of opportunities out there for me. I've messed around a little bit with broadcasting, I messed around a little bit in the real estate end of things. So I'm not concerned about it at the least. I mean, that's one thing I've always said to anyone who's asked me, you know, well, what happens if basketball doesn't work out? Hey, what bothered me one bit to go in my garage, get my tool flies back out and cruise down to the local Goodyear store or whatever and go back to work. It wouldn't bother me in the least because it's something I enjoy doing. And that's really all that's important to me is the fact that I'm enjoying whatever I'm doing. It.