Latest / Troy Boyz / Did Somebody Say BeerKat?
Transcript
- THE Recording Studio: This is Brandon Silvers, and you're listening to the Chore Boys Podcast. ⁓ Welcome into the Troy Boys Podcast. I'm Trojan Joe, and we are excited to welcome you in as we get ready for the Sam Houston State Bearcats to come into the vet for the first game of the 2026 campaign. ⁓ but I'm not gonna do it alone. Let me welcome in the chairman of the board, the Troy Boy that is always devoting full time to floating, the sea bass. How's it going, Sea Bass? Yeah, it's going great. Really looking forward to kicking off this season against the East Texas Beercats. Let's get it over with. Take this dub and move on to week two. Yeah, I'm I mean, this off season's been a little strange. ⁓ there's been a lot going on just in my life and in work and I haven't really kind of yearned for the season as much as I usually do, but now that it's here, I'm reminded why we get so excited about it. So very excited to spend What I'm sure will be a very hot evening ⁓ down at the vet, even with that 6 p.m. kickoff, it is gonna be ⁓ pretty toasty. So I hope the Bearcats are ready. ⁓ we have already done a very in-depth breakdown. If you want to hear a lot about Sam Houston State, go listen to the season preview episode. Nothing has changed. Nobody's played anybody else. but just real quick, Bass, if you could, ⁓ give me one guy from your side of the line on the defense. ⁓ who Trojans should worry about or be aware of as we go into this game. Yeah, like we talked about in the preseason, ⁓ Sam Houston was one of the least effective defenses last season. ⁓ you know, opponents completed more than seventy percent of the passes, they struggled to get off the field on third down, the line was just horrendous. ⁓ so th the They've added some transfers in to bolster some things. So a transfer that I'm really looking forward to seeing is Brian Bates Jr. He's a senior linebacker transferring from Delaware State. He had eighty tackles and two sacks last season. He was named first team all mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and an HBCU All-American while at ⁓ Delaware State. ⁓ so I I feel like he's gonna have immediate ⁓ production on on the defense and and really try to bolster what What has been really a lackluster side of the ball for them. So, you know, I I look forward to seeing him ⁓ try to stop the Trojans on Saturday. Yeah, you know, on offense, ⁓ it's the same story. They they weren't great. Obviously, you only win two games in a season. ⁓ you probably don't have a ton of standouts. If they had one, ⁓ I would say the place to look if we want to know how Sam Houston's gonna do against Troy and for the rest of the season, you just need to look at quarterback Landon Locke. ⁓ he is a sophomore. ⁓ he came in late last season. ⁓ he started for both of the Bearcats wins. He started the last three games of the season ⁓ and really kind of led the team, got them back on track, so to speak. ⁓ but he wasn't lighting the world on fire. He was completing less than 50% of his passes, ended the year with six seven hundred and sixty-five yards, four touchdowns, and four interceptions. But Phil Longo, his coach, now has some continuity with this quarterback. ⁓ and you can be sure he's looking for a sophomore improvement ⁓ for landon. ⁓ we know firsthand that the air raid, which is what they run, can make or break a quarterback. ⁓ but I think Landon's chances are going better ⁓ because they've added a lot of weapons for him. ⁓ like the wide receiver Wisconsin transfer, Kyan Barry Johnson. ⁓ that's gonna be a guy that he can really utilize as kind of a safety blanket. ⁓ on special teams, if I had to name one guy, ⁓ I would say be on the lookout For Nico Otto Manelli. If things get close in particular, ⁓ the Harrington Park, New Jersey native is a junior. He transferred from Nebraska before last season. ⁓ he spent last season kind of trying to find his place. One odd place that he found kind of a home was doing onside kicks. He claimed two successfully on the season. So if things get close and the beer cats get squirrely, ⁓ look for Nico to be called upon to help flip the momentum. ⁓ so those are those are kind of some folks to watch out for, Troy fans. ⁓ I don't know that there's all that much to worry about, but ⁓ good to know who might be coming out of the bus ⁓ that could cause the Trojans some problems. ⁓ to help us get an even more in-depth look, we're very excited for the first game of the season ⁓ to bring on our friend Carter Yates in our very first Know Your Foe segment of the season. All right, everybody. Welcome into the first Know Your Foe segment of the season. We are very excited to welcome in to talk about Sam Houston State Bearcats. Carter Yates, the host of Dave Campbell's college football podcast. Carter, welcome aboard the Troy Boys, my friend. And I'm so excited. ⁓ week one, right around the corner. I can finally stop pretending to like reading books in the offseason. I just watched some football, but excited to kick off this know your foe segment with y'all. Hey, we're very excited to have you. We we tried to find a bear cat, a real live bear cat or a a fan to be on, ⁓ but I think they're afraid. Maybe that two win season last year really took it out of ⁓ But we're glad somebody like you who knows what's going on, ⁓ will come on and talk about him with us. ⁓ I guess if you'll just get started, tell us about ⁓ kind of everything you've got going on, your podcast, ⁓ and you know, what you do out there covering football, G six and otherwise in Texas. Yeah, so I work at Dave Campbell's ⁓ Texas football. Actually, Dave Campbell's Texas Sports now because we are expanding into all high school sports in the great state of Texas. But I'm a high school writer. ⁓ I was telling y'all before we started recording, it's a one of one job really. I don't know if I could be a high school writer anywhere else in the country but Texas, because ⁓ we love our high school football over here. It's a it's a religion of sorts. ⁓ and Friday night i is church. ⁓ but then I also do the Dave Campbell's college football podcast. I host that with our senior college writer, Mike Craven. ⁓ that get my keep dipping my toes in the college water. I I'm a huge college football fan. So on that college football podcast, we cover all 13 FBS teams in Texas. So all the way from the Texas Longhorns and Texas AM Aggies and the SEC to Sam Houston in Conference USA, which is ⁓ why y'all asked me to come on. Yeah, no, absolutely. And we're we're happy that you're here. ⁓ CBAS, why don't you go ahead and ⁓ and ⁓ induct Carter into this segment with a little bit of light grilling? Absolutely. Carter, thanks for joining us. ⁓ so ⁓ first yeah, just give us your thoughts on this Sam Houston squad coming in the 26th season. You have you've been in the FBS for a couple of seasons, so you've had a little bit of time to make the adjustment. So how we feel about this year's squad? It was a tough year with two wins, as we alluded to. I think the new head coach from last year, Phil Longo, though, gets a mulligan. For year one, because guys, you have to realize what he was up against. I mean, he was hired eighteen days into the transfer portal window in the winter. So really just had his hands tied behind his back in roster management. ⁓ and they didn't have a stadium last year, guys. So they would have to drive from Huntsville in North Houston to ⁓ the the Houston Dynamo Stadium in South Houston on a Wednesday night conference USA Wednesday night action, ⁓ going against rush hour traffic. It's when your team's not that good, you're not gonna have Any home atmosphere whatsoever to speak of. So I am much more positive on Sam Houston this year. They have a lot of continuity. ⁓ offensive coordinator's back. Now head coach Phil Longo still calls plays. The defensive coordinator is back. And I know Sam Houston was third to last in the FBS in allowing 70, 37. No, they allowed 70, that'd be really bad. Sorry, 37.8 points per game. I had written down here, but they didn't improve. As the season went on, and I am a fan of Freddie Audrey Lindsay, the defensive coordinator there. Cause when I did the Sam Houston preview going into last season, we sat in his office and he had furniture up on the walls. And I was trying to get him to talk to me about players and he could only name like six guys because that was all they knew they had. So again, the coaching staff cannot be judged off of last year. They have a lot more continuity going this year. This will be the true test. And so it's an exciting time in Huntsville. And I we get that here as Trojans too, you know, ⁓ the year one with a new coach, there's a lot of moving parts. Things don't always go well and coming in a little later doesn't help at all. And we could go real deep into talking about the transfer portal and all the problems that it has and that would be a totally different podcast. ⁓ but who's like a player or two that you think are true standouts that that the Trojan faithful need to know their name before we go into the vet? I'll start off with quarterback Landon Locke. So at the end of last year, Sam Houston was rotating their quarterbacks, and Landon Locke basically came to Phil Longo and said, You know, I can help this team right now. He was committed to Phil Longo when Longo was the offensive coordinator at Wisconsin, followed him to Sam Houston. ⁓ was up and down at the end of last year, but far superior to the other two quarterbacks they had playing. ⁓ I was looking at the athletic quarterback rankings. And a G6 general manager said the Landon Locke is a P4 caliber quarterback. He just doesn't know how good he'll look because of the lack of talent around him. ⁓ but I do think the overall supporting cast is much improved on the offensive side. Alton McCaskill and Coco, Landon, Coco Brown are kind of a two-headed monster at running back. And okay, two-headed monster, like Troy fans should not say, like, okay, we got, you know. Reggie Bush and Lyndale White back there, but they're pretty good for the Sam Houston conference USA level. ⁓ and then I also love the transfer wide receiver, Kyan Barry Johnson. He's a former four-star. Again, was at Wisconsin with Longo. And they're able to get a guy like Kyan Barry Johnson because the budget at Sam Houston has increased 15 to 20x from last year to this year. Part of that's because Bauer Stadium. Their home stadium is finished with the renovation. So they'll be playing home games now. And then part of that is because Conference USA put in an eight point two five million dollar minimum. So Sam Houston had to step up their ref share and NIL. The roster looks day and night better from what it was last year. So those are kind of the biggest guys I would say on offense. And then on defense, the front seven is the deepest group on the team. Again shows how they were able to resurrect this roster a little bit with a little more cash and and funds. Because front seven, that's the most important part of your defense, I would say. ⁓ and it's headlined by Dylan Frazier and DJ Jackson on the interior of that defensive line. Dylan Frazier is kind of a manimal out there. I mean, he had 14 tackles against Oregon State alone in that game they won. So he should be a big time player coming up this year. And I and I'm gonna get one more in before I let Joe take over. So yeah, given all that you know. What's your prediction for this coming Saturday against the Trojans? ⁓ they're gonna lose to Troy. I think I it's an exciting time at Huntsville, but it's not that exciting yet. Troy, ⁓ they were in the Sun Belt Championship last year. Sam Houston was unfortunately last in com to say. I think Sam Houston will be better, but they're not on Troy's level yet. ⁓ I worry a lot about the defensive lineman y'all got at Troy, Donnie Smith, who was reading up first team all sunbelt guy last year. Sam Houston had a full line change on the offensive line, and Phil Longo did say at a ⁓ THSCA coaching school in Texas this summer, that he doesn't think there's an offensive lineman they had last year that could start on the line this year, which is a little bit hyperbolic. ⁓ but also there is some truth that they have a lot more depth on that offensive line. I just think there's too many moving parts, ⁓ and Donnie Smith is gonna have a field day, especially in week one. Yeah. D Donnie Smith worries me, and I'm a Troy fan. I'm I'm scared just that he exists somewhere out in the world. so you know, usually we end this segment by talking about food. You admitted you haven't spent a great deal of time in Huntsville. ⁓ I love s being someone that's lived in Houston before, I loved that you referred to it as northern Houston. ⁓ that shows how giant that city has just sprawled and sprawled. ⁓ but if there's one thing that the Troy boys love more than food. It is hot takery. We worship at the altar of hot takes. ⁓ you know, with there's a statue of Stugots in each of our prayer gardens. ⁓ and I've gotta say, man, I listened to your episode about the G6 schools in Texas, and you and your co host had some absolute epic canon level hot takes. So I'm gonna break just a couple down. One for your co host is a little bit more serious. He kept talking about Texas State and he does this thing that drives Sunbelt fans crazy because he kept saying, Well, you know, if Texas State had been back in the Sunbelt, then they probably'd be contending for a champion. They'd probably be this, but instead they're in the Pac twelve. Well, just remind him the next time you talked to him, we gave them thirteen seasons in which to do that. And they decided instead to win thirty two games and lose seventy-two. So I mean they contributed nothing to our conference. So we're just shocked by all this feeling that they're all of a sudden really great. I get that their market is great, but they aren't. And and part of it, he talked about how great the market was. And then he said, you know, ⁓ well, but it's hard to drive past Daryl K. Royal Stadium to go down to San Marcus when Texas is in town. And we all, we all fight that. So just giving him a little bit of a hard time. But the real best hot takes from your episode came near the beginning. You were talking about being in an unair conditioned studio. You referred to it as, quote, your Michael Jordan flu game. And then this is my absolute favorite. This might make it into the name of the podcast, Episode some out. Quote, I don't throw the I don't throw the word hero around lightly, but I'm a hero for recording in here. Yeah. Well when they're you're a maestro. You are a maestro, my friend. It's funny because, you know, our office, and this is way too inside baseball, but it's like our office is usually sixty-five degrees and I gotta wear a ⁓ like fur coat in there basically. ⁓ our AC broke that day. And ⁓ everyone's got sent home from the office 'cause it it's in Texas in the summer, dude. It's hot as hell out there. I, you know, stayed in the office to, you know, grind it out, get those hot takes out. And look where it led me on the Troy Boys podcast. So that's that's what you do in the case. Yeah, man. Uh-huh. Well, that is great. W I really enjoyed that. And I hope people will go out and find the podcast because y'all do an excellent job. ⁓ and it very certainly for people that are interested in G six football, ⁓ there's so many schools out there that you really get to hear about a lot of different conferences, ⁓ even though we don't have a Sunbelt squad out there anymore. ⁓ Carter, we really, really appreciate you coming on, my friend, and ⁓ helping to get us ready for the Bearcats. We wish you all the best of luck ⁓ this season. ⁓ and hope you have a great time out there covering high school and college football. Yes, sir. Thank you all so much for having me on. All right, a special thanks to Carter. Please go check out the Dave Campbell's College Football Podcast. It really is very good and covers a whole lot in a very entertaining way. So now that we're ready for this game, obviously some people might be thinking, hey, it's time to try my luck at a at a little place, a little wager. ⁓ and Mimaw says, Don't do that. Not here, you don't. Not even not even in Atmore, which is the Las Vegas of Alabama. ⁓ so what we do is we put bass in the water. ⁓ and he gets himself down to Pascagoula to answer that payphone and find out what the wise guys in Vegas are up to in this week's edition of What's the Word from Pascagoula? All right, Bassman, what what are you hearing? Yeah, I mean a lot I've always been a fan of the Wind Creek and Watumka myself, but ⁓ there you go. Yeah, ⁓ I mean I yeah, but you know, Atmore's a nice place too. So ⁓ Troy is currently sitting as a sixteen and a half point favorite with the over under sit right now at fifty three and a half. So Vegas' predicted score is Troy thirty five, Sam Houston nineteen. I think that sounds rational. I mean that's ⁓ It's always interesting. Sixteen and a half sounds like a lot, but then when you put it like in real score, you know, that I could definitely I could see, you know, Troy scoring every quarter and then scoring kind of a ⁓ a dynamic, you know, an interception or a fumble return or something like that and end up at thirty-five. Yeah. I look I see this as be yeah, I see this as being one of those games where we get out twenty-four three, twenty-four seven at halftime, and then Sam Houston, when we're kind of pulling back, they come up with these nineteen. So I I agree. I feel like that I agree. This is pretty reasonable kind of a score in a line, especially for week one. ⁓ you know, I think this is pretty safe. Yeah. All right. ⁓ so now it's time for the the last bit of hard work that we're gonna put bass through this evening. ⁓ and we're gonna let Tro Troy Faithful ⁓ from across social media come to the edge of the pond where the bass lives and throw in some lures in this week's edition of the tackle box. All right, Bass. So this is a question ⁓ from a Facebook friend of ours. ⁓ thanks everybody for sending your questions. We got several ⁓ and I will spread them across the season and keep submitting those questions. We love to get ⁓ so here's this week's if you had to choose one, ⁓ and and both both would result in us winning. So we're going into a crystal ball world here. We've won the game. ⁓ it is a crystal ball perfect world. Yeah, everything's great. Okay, so if that was true and you had to choose one of these stats to be true on the Sunday after the game, which one would you want and why? Would you want Troy to have two hundred plus rushing yards or four hundred plus passing yards? Can you say those again? Would you rather ⁓ Troy have two hundred plus rushing yards or four hundred plus passing yards? I mean, both sound really really nice. I mean, can we say both? Is that a rule? Is that there are no rules. There's no commissioner here. I I mean, I look, we've been saying for years that like a good established run game is a good thing. So I mean, two hundred plus yards on the run game would Tell me that the offense is in good shape. It's more stable than years past. The O-line likely has a better control than they had last season. ⁓ and w and like we talked about in the preseason ⁓ episode that we just we didn't really know who was gonna really be in the RB1 slot, and I still feel like that there's some insecurity on that. So I feel like if we have a 200-plus yard game rushing, we know what that pecking order looks like, we know who RB1 is. We know who the backup is 'cause clearly they would have come in at some point. No not one guy is gonna do two hundred yards. ⁓ But I'm gonna say that four hundred plus passing yards is also really cool. because we also talked about on the pod that Goose never really had stability in his tenure. He hasn't had that yet. And Tucker has not really shown up and showed out whenever he was put in the spot to do that. So in order to get four hundred plus yards passing, Goose and Tucker will have to have a hell of a game. ⁓ You know, or or even, you know, one of the others, ⁓ you know, like ⁓ James, the p other Padu ⁓ bazooka from Baduka, the next kid coming up. so I I feel like I'm gonna I think I'm gonna go with the passing yards, four hundred passing yards. It'll show strength in in our depth in receivers and tight ends. ⁓ again, the O line has to be stout for this to make sense. and with that kind of yardage, the completion rate's gonna be high, which is a stat that I like seeing. ⁓ And then our new offensive coordinator is known to build this big pass oriented offense. And so I feel like if we can do that week one, it'll show that this vision does work with the team that we have right now. It shows that we have built our quarterback room to be able to handle that. We have receivers that are i in lock and step with the way the quarterback position is currently built for the team schematically. and so hopefully this will be an indicator that we'll have a A hell of an offensive seed. If if we can manage 400 plus yards, given what we've seen the last couple seasons with the quarterback situation that we've had. Yeah, and it's not anyone's fault. It's just we've had lack of stability for various reasons. I I think that'll be a good thing for Troy for Troy to see. ⁓ especially some of the older fans who are used to seeing nothing but lobbing the ball. I think that'll be a good thing for us. So I'm gonna go with the opposite of what I would ordinarily say. I'm gonna go with the passing cards. I think it would just it would just be nice to see us kind of dominate a game and like actually kind of do what we want to on offense instead of every you know, every drive feels like a movie. Like we just have to find some way to put things together. And Bird kind of talked about it lightly, but I feel like that that's been like Jared Parker's not even MO, just the kind of problem that he has to deal with, and everybody gets up in arms about it. But like there's just been like a clear like struggle to get o the offense to just get past second or third year. You know, we we've never gotten to fully just stretch our legs and run down the interstate. And so maybe this will be the season to make that happen. ⁓ what remains to be seen. And and that that would be a good indicator to me that if we manage that, yeah, we're there. We we we're we've made it. Yep, absolutely. ⁓ excellent. I'm I'm I'm just glad we're living in a world where we've already won. That's very exciting. I am looking forward to celebrating that. ⁓ all right. Now time for the everyone's least favorite segment. ⁓ and that is when we check in on Bird's wing or his forearm ⁓ and see if there is indeed an image of a goose upon it in this week's edition of Inkwatch. So Bird isn't Bird isn't here. he doesn't have a tattoo. Bird, get a tattoo. If you see Bird in the vet, tell him to get a tattoo. ⁓ and you know, that that's basically it. It's time. Troy, Troy Nation deserves this. And that's the end of this week's Ink Watch. That's it. That's it. all right. Last segment. ⁓ this is the time when it's already very hot here in the river region of Alabama. ⁓ but I'm about to get even hotter. I'm gonna go into the hottest corner of the internet ⁓ and bring all of Trojan Nation a little piece of TroyFans.com in this week's edition of the Troyfans.com. Hot take of the week. Toasty, ⁓ toasty, toasty, toasty, marshmallow. Nice. ⁓ now this this week's winner ⁓ might give me a little bit of hot water with anybody that is a Troy fan and and also a fan of that team in Tuscaloosa. ⁓ but as you know, that is never a big concern of mine. ⁓ so this week's winner is quote USA Today poll has Troy at number sixty-eight winning eight games. JMU is at number thirty-three. Everyone else in Sunbelt is below us. Now this sounds like a pedestrian kind of positive take, right? Like this is ⁓ we should be happy about this. You have to then know that the person who made this created a thread in which to post it that's titled simply rat poison. Because Nick Sabin has punished all Alabamians into thinking they must be miserable and hopeless in order to be able Anytime anybody says something nice to you, it's raw. Yeah, I mean, can you believe we've gotten to the point where, hey, this magazine thinks Troy's gonna win eight games. It's like, ⁓ they're out to get it. Yeah, I'm sure USA Today woke up and we're like, We gotta get these Troy fans. We're gonna get ⁓ now. I just I don't get it. I I find the whole rap voice thing crazy. It's at you. But ⁓ hey, you are this week's winner. Congratulations. Stay away from that rat poison. ⁓ go eat some sisters or something or go to the ⁓ barbecue house on 231. Get you something good to eat, not rat poison. ⁓ all right, Bass, we have done it. It's been a very quick episode. ⁓ obviously, again, if people want ⁓ a lot more in-depth information about the beer cats, go and listen to the very first game ⁓ on our season preview. Bass, go ahead. Give Trojan Nation some closing remarks. Yeah. Like, rate, subscribe, review to the Troy Boys podcast. Find us on our socials. We're on Facebook, Instagram, and X. ⁓ share us. You know, that that's the only way people know that we exist ⁓ that don't already listen to us is someone tells them to go listen to the Troy Boys. So ⁓ share it with a friend. ⁓ it's good, easy background listening when you're getting ready to go to the game. ⁓ get your tickets if you ain't got any. Troytrojans.com get you some tickets. ⁓ and you know, you brought up USA Today. I think we'd be remiss if we went this episode and didn't say that ⁓ the USA Today ⁓ readers poll announced today that ⁓ Troy's fight song, Trojans One and All, was nominated or ⁓ officially named the best fight song in college sports. Yeah, but yeah, ⁓ go Sots, blow shots and all that fun stuff. ⁓ so a anyway, go Trojans and I'm looking forward to taking Alan ⁓ the Beercats and bringing home a win this weekend. Yes, that's gonna be very, very nice. thank you so much, ⁓ everybody for joining us. Please get down to the vet. ⁓ we've got a great schedule. Everyone always complains about Troy's out-of-conference schedule. This is a great out-of-conference schedule. ⁓ it's gonna be a great atmosphere. We're opening up, we got two games in a row at home. Alabama State, they're gonna bring a great environment, lots of fans, great band. ⁓ Sam Houston, a team that we aren't very familiar with, ⁓ but still, it's a chance to be at home early. gonna still be a lot of energy, freshman run, all that kind of stuff. So get down there, be a part of it. ⁓ I know a lot's changing around college football, ⁓ but that doesn't mean that our relationship to it has to. ⁓ you know, we love it because they represent a school that we love and care about. ⁓ so let's keep ⁓ rooting for it and and supporting them that way. thank you so much everybody for listening. ⁓ for Sea Bass, I am Trojan Joe. As always, I will end today's podcast by saying go Trojans. And God bless you, Blaze Brown.