Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / UWF Football Makes D1 Debut
Transcript
- Rick Outzen: Hi, I'm Rick Altson. This is We Don't Color on the Dog. UWF football kicks off on Thursday. We've got Will Kennedy, my go to guy for what's going on with football at UWF. Will, thank you for coming on. Will Kennedy: Yeah, great to be here, Rick. Yeah, it's hard to believe it, but it's already here and all of a sudden you blink and it's late August and we got football week zero game. It's a Thursday night game. Southern Illinois coming in. It's historic. There have been so many kind of historic dates with UWF football in the first decade of playing. This is kind of the next one, but this is a huge one. And I was just thinking about this this morning. It's one of those where, my God, we're gonna have Division one college football in the Panhandle of Florida, in Pensacola on the campus of the University of West Florida. It's kinda hard for an old guy like me who goes back with this university thirty plus years to wrap my head around that, but it's gonna be awesome. Rick Outzen: Well, in Southern Illinois is a powerhouse offensively. Not ranked number sixteen in in their you know, in the preseason poll. it is it's not an it's not gonna be like you said, jump it off into the deep end. There's no waiting into this one. Will Kennedy: Now, this is a really cool story talking with Coach Caleb Nobles during the week. And I'll be doing the ESPN Plus broadcast on the streaming side. We moved from Flow College and the Gulf South Conference to now playing in the United Athletic Conference and Fred Robbins from Tate High School, fellow Aggie like myself. One of us has a Super Bowl ring. I'll let you figure out which one of us it is, but Fred's gonna be my color guy, so we're excited for it. And we're you know, kind of talking with Coach Nobles this week. Caleb Noble is the head coach at UWF out here. That you know, this game came together quick. He said I called Coach Hill at Southern Illinois, and there's a connection. Austin Reed, who won the national championship in twenty nineteen as our quarterback and played for us in twenty one, he spent his first year red shirted at Southern Illinois, didn't like the cold weather, came to Pensacola, the rest is history. So there's kind of this little, you know, connection there. We got him out of the portal from there. Coach Hill, they Coach Noble said, Hey, you want to play? Caleb said within an hour, Coach Hill was Yep, we'll come to Pensacola. So it happened fast. And You mentioned it, Rick. They're they're ranked sixteenth in the country. They got a quarterback in DJ Williams, who is a Walter Payton Award finalist from last year. He's on the watch list for this year. That's the FCS version of the Heightsman Trophy. He's legit. He's an NFL prospect. So no joke, he's coming in here and and you gotta try to slow that offense down. But it's gonna be awesome. I mean, you're gonna be able to not just see great football, division one football, but see a stadium being built across from where the stands now sit. Daryl Gooden Stadium and so there's a lot of good stuff happening. But you know Coach Noble's and that team, they've been practicing, I've been hearing Got a new video board, massive jumbo video board and sound system. It sounds great, but they've been getting ready and you could see it in their it's got kind of tone and temper this week. They're itching to play. If we could line it up and play tonight, they'd they'd want to do it, but you gotta wait till Thursday. Rick Outzen: Well, you know, y you know, I I jumped the gun thinking that maybe Bubba Thompson would be the starting quarterback. Of course I should have called you first. He's still injured with a knee injury the from the spring. but what an interesting player to have on the team as a whole. Will Kennedy: Yeah, I got a chance to talk to him and and it's really cool for me. My my son works for the Boston Red Sox now. He's up in the Single A affiliate in Virginia. And so he's in that baseball world and and doing scouting and all that minor thing stuff Bubba. I mean, when you got a guy who's got a World Series ring, right? And I love the story because this is a kid out of McGill Tulin, just across the state line, won a state championship in football, then was a first round pick in baseball. So he did eight years of baseball and talking to him at practice the other day, you know, he said, you know, he'd worked his way up, made it to the majors and it just kinda Baseball had run its course and he said, you know, kind of the last offers I was getting was to go to somebody's camp and maybe double A. And he said, I always wanted to try football. You know, I was a really good high school football player, thought I'd give it a shot. So he walked on at South Alabama, you know, year before last and and didn't get a chance to play. So he came over to us in the spring. And it's unfortunate that he's he's gotten an injury, but I'm telling you, he can throw the he can throw it a country mile, he he can run, he's got all the tools. He's twenty-eight years old. you know, I you you would ask a guy like that, why do you want to why do you want to put your body on the line? But it's because they love football. And he's it's a different story, right? And honestly, this is interesting. He may be the last guy that's going to get to do what he's doing. Because of the way Rick Outzen: Yeah. Will Kennedy: these rules have changed, this five year thing now. You know, if you went and played baseball for eight years, you can't come back and play college football. And there's been a bunch of guys, Chris Winky, Drew Henson through the years that have done that kind of thing. I think Bubba may be the last one to do it. So hopefully he gets healthy. Not sure if we'd see him maybe in the back half of the year. Depends on what the doctors and the trainers say. But he's looking, he's at practice. He's throwing the football. He's moving around. It's just a matter of trying to get him right. But I love that story. I mean, you know, there's so Rick Outzen: yeah. Will Kennedy: many negative stories in college football right now with judges with temporary restraining orders and guys leaving NFL camps to go play college football again. to see a guy like that who just wants that's why I mentioned it. Just I like football. I want to see what I can do. I don't wanna go into the next phase of my life without knowing that I you know, I I didn't take that shot. Rick Outzen: Well, he they they've got two other good quarterbacks in the wings that'll that'll definitely play on Thursday. Talk a little bit about them. Will Kennedy: Yeah, Tyrae Davis was a freshman last year. He's the kid that got in behind Marcus Stokes. And for those that maybe don't know, our quarterback from the previous two seasons, he he got a bunch of money to go to Memphis, Tennessee, and he's fighting for that Memphis Tigers starting job at that level. And so you got to replace him. And so somebody's got to step into this kind of nice lineage of UWF quarterbacks. Pee Wee Jarrett, Austin Reid, who I mentioned before, who's in Baltimore Ravens camp trying to make a NFL roster. But Tyrae came to us. He's a Florida guy. you know, red shirted. Got to sit, and then he gets in there a couple games, running the football, mixed, kind of changing it up last year with Marcus. And then we brought in Blake Boda from Arkansas. He here's his claim to fame. He's got a perfect passing percentage in the SEC at Arkansas. Thousand percent Rick. He was one for one. So he hadn't he hadn't Rick Outzen: Yeah. Will Kennedy: played a ton, but he's a talented kid, also a Florida guy. And then a kid from New Jersey who was at two lane playing for new Florida coach John Sumerall, Donovan Leary, he's come over you know, as John's gone down to Florida. And so there's an opportunity for for Donovan to compete for the job. And coach Caleb Nobles is he's got a little Bill Belichick in him. He's gonna play his cards close. He says, You'll know who the starter is at six two on Thursday night when we take the field. I said you gotta tell you gotta tell me for the broadcast so I can at least plan, but no, it's that close of a competition. And you know, in this day and age, you know, you have to have more than one quarterback on your roster that you trust that can play because it's hard to get through a season without an injury. or something happening and you just wanna have a a back computing count on. So I do expect maybe to see more than one quarterback in this first game and they're gonna be going against a good one, as I mentioned, on the other side of the football. But we've got something, Rick, like seventy, that's seven, zero, new guys on the roster that were not with us for the last season. And that's college football today, which is crazy. Rick Outzen: It really truly is. Tell us about your broadcast. You've got you know, you've got you got big money, Fred Robbins, who is wealth of experience, of course college, high school, definitely i in the pros with Minnesota and and the Rams and and of course with won his ring with the Giants. that's a different matchup for you. Will Kennedy: It's awesome to have a guy like Fred. And Fred's Fred's been a friend of mine for a while. you know, we have that tape connection, but I've just gotten to know him along with Josh sitting here in town. And Fred's been like, hey, I want to get into the broadcasting side of it. And Fred trains guys for the NFL Combine with Exos out at Andrews over there in Gulf Breeze. And so he's he's been working in this sphere, and so he's perfect for this because he's he's a student of the game. And and listening to him talk, he talked to the UWF team the other day last week. And he he played for Jim Caldwell at Wake Forest, who went on to become the Colts coach. And he played for, you know, Steve Spagnola, who was the Rams coach, the defensive coordinator. He played for Tom Coughlin. I mean, he's but Denny Green, the legendary Denny Green with the Vikings. So Fred's got this this unique experience, played with great players, Strahan, Eli Manning, all those guys. And the you know, the claim to fame, you mentioned it with the Giants. I mean, he was part of that team that beat that unbeaten Patriots team. And so all Rick Outzen: Right. Will Kennedy: those Dolphins from 72 were thanking him. I think there's a lot of fans around the country that are like we we couldn't have handled an unbeaten Patriots team with Tom Brady and all that. So, you know, Fred, it's it's it's you know, w I talk all the time about Pensacola and the NFL connection and the great players we've had, from Derek to Emmett and all those guys. But Fred, Fred's a treasure and, you know, he's gonna I I told him I said, All you've got to do is you've got to take the viewers and that audience inside the mind of the player, what's happening on the sidelines, what what are they talking about in the locker room at halftime, and just share that experience with us. And I told him it's TV, so you if you're in the middle of a story, as long as it's not a touchdown play, you just keep going. I'll I'll I'll cut you off if I have to. Rick Outzen: Yeah. Will Kennedy: But he's a big old dude, so we've got to fit him up in that press Rick Outzen: Yeah. Will Kennedy: box. That's the fun part. Rick Outzen: That's right. You you may not be able to sit. But it's it's great. I think having Fred a part of it again, another pencil coli in there. I've talked you know, I l I'm an you know, I'm an old Miss guy. I love to talk about Eli and and he's you know, locker room stories, what's goes through the mind players, you know, how the schemes, all those things is is what he's really, really good at and in such an unassuming way. So I think it's a perfect fit for what y'all are trying to do. Will Kennedy: Yeah, yeah, I think you y the Manning cast, right? You know, Eli and Peyton together doing that kind of thing. I I I think that that element of broadcasting football has changed. And so, yeah, there's the traditional let's put suits and blazers on and, you know, do that thing. But I think more and more the best compliment I ever get when you're broadcasting a game is people say, Man, it feels like we're sitting in a sports bar just talking about football, you know, or basketball or whatever the game is that we're doing the broadcast of, and that's that's the vibe we want. So You know, I'm gonna help Fred. We're we're gonna bring that to you. And you know, we're gonna do a segment at halftime called, you know, football one on one with Fred Robins. So when we talk about cover two or you know weak side blitz and all that, we can explain to you if you're not a hardcore football fan what that means. And that's part of what I like to do with it too. As an educator, as a professor, I'm trying to, you know, let let's teach some people because I think that's that's the beauty of it is you don't have to be s somebody who's into stats and really knows whatever that sport is inside and out to enjoy the game because It's unscripted. We don't know what's going to happen. You know, we that that's Rick Outzen: Ha ha Will Kennedy: the that's the it's the best. I always say it's the best reality TV, because we don't know. We don't know what the outcome is going to be, the winners or losers are going to be. And there's no producer saying to you know, spice that up by getting in an argument and throwing food across the table. Rick Outzen: Right. Will Kennedy: Like we're just gonna play football. And you know, it it's religion in the South. You that as an old miss guy. And I love to see the building of the hype around this UWF team, the move to Division Rick Outzen: Right. Will Kennedy: One, and we we've said this before. on your shows and your podcasts that you know you can be an Ole Miss fan or a Texas Longhorn and an Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, and you can still root for UWF and come out and enjoy that game and enjoy some now Division One FC FCS is some dang good football. Division two was too, but there's some good teams, you know, at this level and it's gonna be it ain't gonna be easy, that's for sure. Rick Outzen: No, but it'll it'll be exciting to watch. And you only have the first one time and this is the first one. So should be a huge crowd. Tickets, you know, i I've got it on the blog where you can get tickets. Will Will, when do y'all sign on? When will you be starting the broadcast? Will Kennedy: We'll we're gonna go right at six o'clock. I think the radio is on Sports Radio Pensacola. They'll do a pregame show at five thirty. We'll go right at six on ESPN plus, which you know most people have now. It's an e easy one to pick up on your your cable channels. It's a white out game, so they're you know, everybody wear white for UWF. They move the bleachers across all to what was the visiting side, but the the team is still gonna be across the way. So you'll get to see a stadium being built behind them almost like a time lapse over the course of the season. And I love football so Rick Outzen: Cool. Will Kennedy: much, right, that I'm now getting up at five thirty in the morning, so seven to nine Monday through Friday on Sports Radio Pensacola in the Pensacola area, ninety-nine one FM, thirteen thirty AM, or s or stream it through their website, sportsradiopensacola.com. I'm doing a show and it's a little bit different type of sports talk show. You know, we get into football, obviously, UWF and SEC and NFL, but we do like we're doing a thing on Wednesdays called Gulf Coast Legends, where we get into Carl Madison, the legendary high school football coach. I got Dan Schugart and other people, Bill Velona. You know, been around like me a long time and you know, this this week we're talking about Carl Madison and what a what a treasure he was and what a legend he was in this area, winning multiple state titles at different high schools and people have written books about him and many of the stories are true. Great man. Rick Outzen: Well, Will he really is. Well, thank you for coming on. We'll do this again soon. Will Kennedy: Absolutely. Thank you, Rick. Appreciate it. Rick Outzen: All right, take care.