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Transcript

Tony Vance Interview · The Jake Wimberly Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And action!
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: We got that and a whole lot more around here.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: It's the Afternoon Drive with Jake Wimberly. What's the score?
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: He's got that along with the hottest sports stories of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the day on ESPN 105.9 The Zone and online at thezone1059.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: Com.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Taking you in on a Monday brought to you by
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  Speaker 1: the Mississippi High School Activities Association.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Become an official today. Go to M-I-S-S-H-S-A-A.com. 601-924-6400.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: We'll have Chris Landry, top of the hour right now.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Tony Vance, kind enough to give us some time. Head
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: football coach Meridian Wildcats coming off the practice field. Big
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: win over the weekend, 47-9 over Ocean Springs.
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  Speaker 2: Coach, how are you, brother? Welcome in.
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  Speaker 3: Man, Jake, thanks for having me, man. Doing great, doing great.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Coach, I know you're running, so I appreciate you. Let
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: you catch your breath real quick. All right, so we're
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: sitting there doing ballgames on Friday, and the score ticker
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: comes across, and it keeps getting bigger, and it keeps
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  Speaker 1: getting bigger, and 47-9. Coach, what a way to kind
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: of open up the Meridian tenure here. Take us through
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: what happened Friday night.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Well, man, first of all, I want to credit those
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  Speaker 3: top players, man. They did a great job preparing all week,
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: then going out and executing game plan. Our defense played
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  Speaker 3: a heck of a game and gave us the ball
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  Speaker 3: in some great situations. And offensively, we were able to
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  Speaker 3: execute and, you know, go down and take care of business.
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  Speaker 3: And that's really what it was. You know, got a
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  Speaker 3: running game going. And our quarterback did a great job
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  Speaker 3: of spreading the ball around to our wideouts. And, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we were able to, you know, put some points on
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  Speaker 3: the board.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: We're visiting with Tony Vance. He is the head football coach,
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  Speaker 2: Meridian Wildcats.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: They'll travel to Neshoba Central to play a ball game
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: coming up this weekend. Coach, take us through the summer
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  Speaker 1: in Neshoba. How do you get a group of young
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  Speaker 1: men who, you know, I mean, obviously we know the
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: history of Meridian. And, boy, everybody's been talking about this.
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  Speaker 1: You know, wow, look at Meridian.
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  Speaker 2: They're back. They're ready to go.
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  Speaker 1: I know you kind of probably are in the Nick
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  Speaker 1: Saban mold, like don't give us that rat poison. Let
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: us just focus on what's next. But to prepare a
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  Speaker 1: group of young men that haven't won a whole lot
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: over the last few years to go on the road
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: into a, you know, a hostile place like Ocean Springs
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  Speaker 1: and not only win, but win walking away mentally to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: prepare these young men for that and to pull that off.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Again, I think they did a great job of committing
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: to what we were trying to get done from the spring.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: From the time I got here in January, throughout the
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: spring and over the summer, I felt like it's carried
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: over into fall camp. These guys are hungry. They want
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  Speaker 3: to win. Let me tell you something. We have a
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  Speaker 3: great group of guys here at Meridian. They deserve to win.
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  Speaker 3: I think those guys understand what it takes to win.
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  Speaker 3: They're starting to understand what it takes to win. It
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  Speaker 3: starts them believing in themselves, believing in their coaching staff,
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  Speaker 3: and believing in what we're doing. And I think that
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: was kind of what you saw Thursday night was a
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  Speaker 3: group of guys that believed.
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  Speaker 2: Coach, tell us a little bit about this football team.
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  Speaker 1: I know you've got a pretty darn good quarterback who is,
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  Speaker 1: you know, yet to hit his ceiling, a big wide receiver,
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  Speaker 1: really good running back, and obviously your defense looks really,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: really good out the gate.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, let's start on defense side, Bob. We've
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  Speaker 3: got quite a bit of seniors over there, a whole
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  Speaker 3: defensive front, senior laden, linebacker, cool senior laden, and, you know,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: secondary as well. We're a little bit younger in the secondary,
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  Speaker 3: but those guys are a couple of seniors over there that,
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  Speaker 3: You know, they're hungry. And a good group of guys, man.
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  Speaker 3: Ashton Dawson's our little linebacker. Deion Johnson's another linebacker inside. And,
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  Speaker 3: you know, those two guys count on the leaders of defense.
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  Speaker 3: You know, Jalen Eason's one of our corners, probably one
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  Speaker 3: of the top-rated DBs in the state of Mississippi, man.
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  Speaker 3: One of the most underrated DBs in the state of Mississippi,
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  Speaker 3: if you ask me. You know, but he did a
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  Speaker 3: great job Friday night. I think he had five tackles
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  Speaker 3: and four pass breakups with an interception. So, you know,
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  Speaker 3: that's a great group of guys over there that's been
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  Speaker 3: playing for a while, man. And, you know, they led
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  Speaker 3: the charge. You know, offensively, like I said, starts with
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  Speaker 3: a quarterback. taking care of the football, doing things it
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  Speaker 3: takes to, you know, get the ball in the hands
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  Speaker 3: of the people who need to get in the hands of.
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  Speaker 3: And I thought our running backs did a great job. Grant,
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  Speaker 3: he obviously had a big night, rushing with five touchdowns.
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  Speaker 3: But I think the other one was, you know, Vincent
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  Speaker 3: Shannon had a really good night running the football as well. So,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I give credit to offensive line. They did
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  Speaker 3: a good job of opening up some holes for those guys.
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  Speaker 3: But overall, it was a great team effort. You know,
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  Speaker 3: a kicker made, you know, four or five or six
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: extra points. You know, so overall, it was a great
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: team win. It really was.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Coach, is this schedule correct? Are you guys playing the
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: first three weeks on the road?
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's absolutely correct. You know, it's a tough schedule
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: in here, man. And I said, wow, y'all only have
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: four home games. I said, well, they had six home
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  Speaker 3: games last year. It's just what we failed this year. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: first three games on the road, man. And, you know,
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  Speaker 3: none of them easy. You know, we're going to play
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  Speaker 3: a tough and a shovel central team this week. And,
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  Speaker 3: you know, they're really talented, man. They got eight starters
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  Speaker 3: back on both sides of the ball. So, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we'll have our hands full again this week, but that's
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  Speaker 3: just what it is when you're playing 7-8 football in
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  Speaker 3: the state of Mississippi.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Coach, how do you, and you've been doing this a
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  Speaker 1: long time, you're one of the best ones at doing it,
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  Speaker 1: how do you pull now the guys out of the
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  Speaker 1: clouds and say, hey, look, we want you to celebrate
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  Speaker 1: what happened the other night, but hey, we got a
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  Speaker 1: big one coming up here in just a few days?
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: I think just what you mentioned earlier, man, you know,
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: you said rat poison, I've used that phrase as well, but,
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: you know, I talk to them, you know, about the noise,
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: you know, noise is just that, sometimes it's good, sometimes
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  Speaker 3: it's bad, but Either way, if you get caught listening
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  Speaker 3: to the noise, you're going to regret it in the end.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: So we can't get caught listening to the noise, what
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  Speaker 3: is good or bad right now. So we've got to
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: focus on things that we can control, and that's our effort,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: that's our attitude, and that's executing the game plan and
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: coming to practice each day with a purpose, and that's
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: just to get better every day. And our guys have
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: done that so far, and I look forward to them
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  Speaker 3: continuing to do that. And it's a fun group to coach, man.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: I will say that, man. And, you know, it's been
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: fun for me, you know, taking a year off from
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: being a head coach, man, going to be an offensive
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: coordinator kind of gave me an opportunity to rediscover you know,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: myself as a play caller, man. And, you know, so
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  Speaker 3: I'm having fun calling plays again. So, you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: a fun time to be a Meridian Wildcat.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Coach, let's finish it up with this, and I appreciate
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  Speaker 1: your time. For the city of Meridian, this has got
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: to be big. I mean, just, you know, to have
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: a winner there, to win big on Friday, I would
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  Speaker 1: imagine the atmosphere, the air is a little lighter, and
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the steps are a little lighter.
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  Speaker 2: As well over there.
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  Speaker 3: Well, no doubt. You know, I think when– Football is
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  Speaker 3: good in the state of Meridian. Life's a lot better
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  Speaker 3: in the state of Meridian. When football is good in Meridian,
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  Speaker 3: football is good in the state of Mississippi.
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  Speaker 2: There is no doubt.
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  Speaker 3: Football continues to be good in Meridian. Football continues to
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  Speaker 3: be good in the state of Mississippi. So we don't
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  Speaker 3: take for granted that we get the opportunity to coach
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  Speaker 3: one of the most stellar programs in the state of
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  Speaker 3: Mississippi in Meridian Wildcats.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Well, Coach, congratulations again on the big win over at
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  Speaker 1: Ocean Springs. Best of luck at Neshoba Central. We'll catch
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: up and visit soon, Coach. We appreciate your time.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Best of luck.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: Sound good. Thanks for having me.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Coach. Tony Vance on your radio.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Meridian, big winner over the weekend, 47-9 over the weekend
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: at Ocean Springs. They'll go to Neshoba Central then to
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: start before first home games September 19th versus Columbus. We'll
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: take a timeout. Chris Landry will get us teed up
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: for the weekend of college football.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Back in a bit.