Latest / The Jake Wimberly Podcast / Ryan Earnest discusses his Golden Tornados Football Team for 2025

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Ryan Earnest discusses his Golden Tornados Football Team for 2025 · The Jake Wimberly Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On the caravan here on a Wednesday. It is the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: afternoon drive. We're at the m AC Multi Sports Clinic
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: here after Refuge in Flowwood. Our next guest, Ryan Ernesty,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: is the head football coach of the Laurel Gordon. It's
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: gonna be Laurel Golden Tornadoes coach. Can't get that golden
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: out of sitting right there, but it's a beautiful gold
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  Speaker 1: How are you, sir? I'm doing great, man. It's always
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: good to see you.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I love these events because you like, for instance, during
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the season, I don't ever see you right, but I
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: see you on the coast in January and I see
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: you at this event. So how's your summer bend, how's
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: your spring bend? How's everything going going?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's been busy. Professionally has been great. Kids been
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: working hard. I'm really excited about the season. Personally, it's
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: been been fun. It's been real hectic with a two
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: year old and twin nine month old. Don't get a
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: whole lot of sleep, but it's been exciting. Really enjoying
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: that aspect of it, but professionally, just enjoying the work
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: that our kids have done. Our coaches have done a
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  Speaker 3: great job of getting it prepared over the spring, in
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: the summer, and really looking forward to getting follow camp
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: kicked off of the season.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Talk about this event. We will make sure we always
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  Speaker 1: highlight this event because we're here for that. Just the
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: importance of this event. You know, it was talking to
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  Speaker 1: Blake Panic earlier. And you pull up out here and
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: there's nowhere to park, and you gotta park on Airport Road.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Almost.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, this is a high school version of SEC
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  Speaker 1: media Days.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, absolutely, this is my favorite time of the year.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: It's an opportunity. A lot of times you see a
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: lot of these guys, you get to talk on the
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  Speaker 3: phone with them, a lot of great coaches here, but
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: this is the opportunity to sit down, have face to
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  Speaker 3: face conversations with them, interact with them, pick their brain
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  Speaker 3: on a personal level.
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  Speaker 2: And so again it's it's my favorite time of the year.
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  Speaker 2: I love them. May see cleansions of types of offenses.
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  Speaker 1: You go to the military academies, they're still gonna run
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  Speaker 1: under center to tight end. They may go you know,
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  Speaker 1: power eye formation, wing to whatever. The state of Mississippi
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: is unique because you'll have teams that will run a
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: bonafide spread.
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  Speaker 2: Some go power spread.
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  Speaker 1: You know, some go still you go down to pick
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  Speaker 1: a unit and they're still gonna, you know, run the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: old fashioned uh you know, wing tea, or they're gonna
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: run trap, you know, and gap and that kind of stuff.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: You've done a little bit of all of it. So schematically,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: is it a mindset for a coach or is it
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a personnel or is it a fit of our school?
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: How does that work? I think every day?
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: And I think that's what makes high school football special
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  Speaker 3: is that every year you're basically starting over.
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  Speaker 2: Right. You don't get to recruit, you don't get to recruit.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: To a specific scheme or a specific you know, whatever
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: it is that you want to do. Every year you're
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: starting over, and so you're basically building your team around
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: your personnel. And so I think that's what makes places
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: clinics like this great is because if look, I say
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  Speaker 3: last year, I was more of a power spread team,
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  Speaker 3: and this year we're going to be more of a
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  Speaker 3: traditional ten personnel. If there are things that I need
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  Speaker 3: to pick up, this is a perfect place to do it.
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  Speaker 2: And so every year's new and.
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  Speaker 3: You get to start over and get to build it over.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that's kind of what makes high school
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: football exciting because you kind of get.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: To build it every year. There's ain't an ryder innes.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Sty's the head football coach, Laurel Golden Tornadoes on your
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: radio Wednesday edition of the program. Coach talking to me
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  Speaker 1: a little bit about your football team. Y'all played for
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: straight a couple of years ago. Last year, kind of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a rebuild, a younger team. Talk
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: about this version of Lauria football. Really excited about this group.
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  Speaker 3: It's a senior laden group, group of kids I've had
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  Speaker 3: since the ninth grade, filled with some really really good athletes,
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  Speaker 3: but some really high character kids. Really excited about what
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: they're going to do this year. Injury bug hit us
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  Speaker 3: a lot last year. Hoping to stay healthy this year.
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  Speaker 3: I think if we can do that, we have a
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  Speaker 3: chance to be competitive. Got another tough schedule, but I
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: think that's kind of the way you have to do it.
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  Speaker 3: I think the tough games in August and September make
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: you get you ready for November and December, and so
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  Speaker 3: really excited about the team we have this year. Obviously
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: have to stay healthy and catch some breaks, but five
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  Speaker 3: days really competitive. But I think if you know if
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: we stay healthy, stay consistent, I think we'll have an
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  Speaker 3: opportunity to play some really good football down the road.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Region.
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  Speaker 1: I believe me, and you just told me this is
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  Speaker 1: region uh three three fivees So Brookhaven, you guys, Niches,
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  Speaker 1: North Pike, South Jones, and Summer Off. Since the reclassification
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: they make you say we got seven classification, it feels
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: like they've even been able to tighten up these regions more.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you talk about that area, you're not having
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  Speaker 1: to travel too far to play some really good football.
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  Speaker 3: No, I think with you know, I think the biggest
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  Speaker 3: concern initially with the seven classes was to travel. But
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  Speaker 3: I think once we actually got down and looked at it,
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  Speaker 3: the travel is not much different. I mean we traditionally
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: always had to travel to brook Haven, We've had to
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  Speaker 3: go to the coast in the past. I mean, know
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  Speaker 3: where we're traveling is exceeds an hour fifty or.
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  Speaker 2: Two hour radius.
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  Speaker 3: And again playing some some really good football teams book
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  Speaker 3: brook Haven is going to have a phenomen are Thank
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  Speaker 3: god we got them between the bricks, but they're going
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  Speaker 3: to be really good. Our district is going to be
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  Speaker 3: very very deep, and so we're going to play really
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  Speaker 3: really well weekend and week out to be successful.
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  Speaker 2: Talk about it.
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  Speaker 1: We've talked about this before, but again I always feel
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: like its supported to highlight pockets and Mississippi Laurel. What
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: this means to Laurel, the football program, between the bricks,
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  Speaker 1: the history there U you know. Coincidentally, now Laurel's a
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  Speaker 1: destination point because I'm television, So just a lot going
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: on there, and of course the pride and in the
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  Speaker 1: history of football there is amazing yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Special places. It's a home in the oldest stadium. Like
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  Speaker 3: I said, between the bricks, there's a lot of tradition,
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  Speaker 3: a lot of pride, a lot of great coaches, and
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  Speaker 3: a lot of great football players have come there. Expectations
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  Speaker 3: are high, but I think you always want to be
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: at a place where the expectations are high, and so
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: with that comes a great deal of responsibility. But it's
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: something that gets me out of bed every morning. Laws
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  Speaker 3: are very very special place. They love their football, they
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: love their athletics, and consider myself very blessed to be there.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: And you know, not just well you got Law right there,
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  Speaker 1: and then you've got you know, obviously the rival game.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about that because we have great
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: rivals around the state.
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  Speaker 2: That's gonna be if I'm putting like a top five together,
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  Speaker 2: that's right there at like one, two three. Oh.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely a little brown jug against the oldest rivalry in
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  Speaker 3: the state of Mississippi.
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  Speaker 2: It's always the great thing about it.
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  Speaker 3: It's always been a healthy rival Sure, there's a great
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: deal of respect. You know, Tony vance Is is a
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: great friend of mine, and now that he's he's moved
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: on and kend the lacy, he and I start to
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  Speaker 3: kind of ford a relationship. I think that that rivalry
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  Speaker 3: kind of brings also some camaraderie. Sure, and it kind
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  Speaker 3: of indirectly, but it's a great rivalry. There'll be seven, eight,
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  Speaker 3: ten thousand people at the game. It's a great atmosphere
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  Speaker 3: and it's something again that those kids will be able
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  Speaker 3: to tell their kids.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: About having a conversation with Ron Ernsty's that had football
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: coach Laurel High School. Of course, the Tornado is getting
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  Speaker 1: ready to kick off the twenty twenty five season, and
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  Speaker 1: not just Laurel and then Hattiesburgh, I mean that whole
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  Speaker 1: Pine Belt area, Oak Grove Pedal, you know, Forrest County HS.
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  Speaker 1: You get down even to what Nick Griffin's trying to
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: put together there Perry Central West Jones. I mean, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: there's just a ton of good football that area.
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  Speaker 2: I think it rivals the Golden Triangle, I really do.
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  Speaker 3: The Golden Triangles is probably where, you know, arguably the
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  Speaker 3: best football to play, but I think they're in the
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: Pine Belt is close, you know, if not equal to
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  Speaker 3: So again, some some really great programs, some really great coaches.
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  Speaker 3: Just consider myself fortunate to be in that area. Talk
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  Speaker 3: a little bit. We'll get to keep you a few
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: more minutes.
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  Speaker 1: RHN Eerst on your radio, and I appreciate you today
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  Speaker 1: about uh, you know, the five A classification because I
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: mean you look at what you know West Point has
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: been able to do and then some others what you
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: guys have done. You go top to bottom though in
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: the state, and in five a's as competitive as any
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  Speaker 1: classification in the state.
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  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: I think one of the best things that the new
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  Speaker 3: seven classifications did.
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  Speaker 2: It brought a lot of parody.
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  Speaker 3: There are no really big eyes and little us every
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you got to bring it every week though
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  Speaker 3: you're right and so and you've got a small margin
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  Speaker 3: for error, and so.
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  Speaker 2: If irate football igin it's it's some of the best
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  Speaker 2: in the state.
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  Speaker 1: And then you know, when you talk about the seven
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  Speaker 1: Classifications still, you know, so much change over the last
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  Speaker 1: few years from the championships moving out of Jackson about
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  Speaker 1: sven or eight years ago. The seven Classifications championships now
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  Speaker 1: pivot back to North Mississippi. I know South teams kind
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: of go oh man, because for a while we've been
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: we stayed in Pettisburg.
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  Speaker 3: Now having to start well this year. I mean, I'm
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: of the mindset they can play it on the moon.
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  Speaker 3: We gonna figure out a way to get there. We're
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  Speaker 3: playing in it.
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  Speaker 2: So whether it.
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  Speaker 3: Said Old Miss, whether its Mississippi State, Southern Miss, I
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: think all three are great venues.
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  Speaker 2: I think it gives our kids a great experience.
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  Speaker 3: Been fortunate enough to do it three times, and every
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: every time it's been a It's a great experience and
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  Speaker 3: it's something that our kids can tell their kids about.
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  Speaker 1: Coach, thank you again for taking time on a short
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: notice today. Best of luck this year, and we're gonna
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: talk to you again. Absolutely, Ryan Ernest on your radio,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: we got to take a time out. We're at the
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: m AC Convention twenty twenty five, back with more of
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: that