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FSU Football's Puzzling Start · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

0:11
Speaker 1: Five minutes past the hour. It is the third hour
0:14
Speaker 1: of the morning show with Thrustin scot Good Morning Friends
0:16
Speaker 1: Show fifty two thirty Jose, can you see over there
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Speaker 1: in Studio one A. I'm here in Studio one B,
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Speaker 1: and it's time. We decided that we would give it
0:29
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks before we talked to Irischeffell, managing
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Speaker 1: editor at warchat dot com. All Right, Iira, you've had
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Speaker 1: a little bit of time to reflect on the first
0:41
Speaker 1: two weeks of the season. Give me your big picture
0:43
Speaker 1: at this point, your takeaways?
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Speaker 2: Uh wow, yeah, man, it's a little different, a little
0:51
Speaker 2: different than when you had me on last year, after
0:54
Speaker 2: wins every week. You know, it's I think it's a
0:57
Speaker 2: combination of things. Now we've taken a couple days, couple
1:00
Speaker 2: weeks to try to like take a deep breath and
1:03
Speaker 2: reflect on everything. I mean, I think the reality is,
1:05
Speaker 2: you know, when Florida State lost so many guys to
1:08
Speaker 2: the NFL Draft last year, ten guys drafted, several other
1:11
Speaker 2: guys who signed free agent contracts. You know, I think
1:14
Speaker 2: most of us knew, Okay, this is probably gonna be
1:16
Speaker 2: a little bit of a step back year. But then
1:18
Speaker 2: Mike Norvell didn't want that. You know, he went out
1:21
Speaker 2: and got dj Uey Ungole and a bunch of high
1:23
Speaker 2: profile transfers, and I think we all kind of talked
1:25
Speaker 2: ourselves into believing that, okay, you could just kind of
1:28
Speaker 2: keep reloading through the transfer portal, and clearly that hasn't worked.
1:33
Speaker 2: So now you know, we could sit here, and we
1:36
Speaker 2: are sitting here and trying to figure out all the
1:38
Speaker 2: reasons why it's not working. But that's the bottom line.
1:40
Speaker 2: It's not going to be an overnight fix. This team's
1:43
Speaker 2: not going to get in the playoff picture. The question
1:45
Speaker 2: now is can he get it back on track at
1:47
Speaker 2: least so that the program keeps moving forward into twenty
1:50
Speaker 2: twenty five and beyond.
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Speaker 1: We're already starting to see. I'm looking at one of
1:55
Speaker 1: the lead pieces on war chand dot com right now
1:59
Speaker 1: there are players decommitting from Florida State, and I have
2:02
Speaker 1: to believe it's largely due to an zero to two start.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no question, and you know, you know, it's
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Speaker 2: just kind of the nature of the business when when
2:11
Speaker 2: you get off to this pore of a start and
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Speaker 2: play this poorly, all you're doing is giving ammunition to
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Speaker 2: all the other colleges when they're talking to these recruits.
2:20
Speaker 2: And so now you can keep you know, Florida State
2:24
Speaker 2: for people that don't follow recruiting closely. You know, during
2:27
Speaker 2: the summer, at one point, Florida State had a recruiting
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Speaker 2: class that was, you know, borderline top five in the
2:32
Speaker 2: top ten, around number seven or number eight. They missed
2:35
Speaker 2: out on a few guys late in the summer that
2:37
Speaker 2: they thought they could get, and if they had gotten
2:40
Speaker 2: those guys, it might have been one of the top
2:42
Speaker 2: two or three classes in the country. Signing days not
2:45
Speaker 2: until December, and how you play on the field affects that.
2:49
Speaker 2: And Florida State's off to an awful start. And as
2:52
Speaker 2: you said, they've lost two top defensive line recruits, and
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Speaker 2: that's you know, obviously offensive line defensive line are two
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Speaker 2: of the most important positions to recruit at the high
3:00
Speaker 2: school level, and Florida State had two, they had three,
3:03
Speaker 2: They have three, had three very highly rated defensive linemen,
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Speaker 2: three of the top defensive linemen in the country. Two
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Speaker 2: of them now committed this weekend, Myron Charles and Jamie
3:12
Speaker 2: on Hillson. And so you know, this is the challenge
3:16
Speaker 2: now Florida State has to get back on track to
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Speaker 2: preserve what's left of that class.
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Speaker 1: Let's just stay with lines. At this point, much was
3:25
Speaker 1: said about the defensive line being among the best in
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Speaker 1: the country, that the offensive line might be the strength
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Speaker 1: of the team because of returning experience. Neither of those
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Speaker 1: have been proven accurate. What do you think is the reason?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, not at all. I mean I think it's two.
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Speaker 2: I think it's different reasons on each side. Defensive line,
3:46
Speaker 2: you know, I think you had, you know, you bring
3:48
Speaker 2: back Patrick Payton who had fourteen a half tackles for
3:50
Speaker 2: loss last year. Josh Farmer, who is I think second
3:53
Speaker 2: team All acc maybe, but those guys were kind of
3:56
Speaker 2: like secondary players on the defensive line to Jared Verse
4:00
Speaker 2: and Braden Fist. Well, now those guys have to be
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Speaker 2: the top guys, and they have not taken that jump
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Speaker 2: that you were hoping that they would take into being
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Speaker 2: frontline guys. They've been you know, I don't think they've
4:10
Speaker 2: been marketably worse than they were in the past, but
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Speaker 2: now they have to be the lead guys and they
4:15
Speaker 2: haven't really taken that jump. And then the other guys
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Speaker 2: who are filling in behind them have not played great either,
4:20
Speaker 2: but physically, if you look at that defensive line, and
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Speaker 2: where a lot of that hype came from was NFL
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Speaker 2: scouts come to practice, And if you look at Marvin Jones, Junior,
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Speaker 2: Patrick Payton, Josh Farmer, and Darryl Jackson, You're not going
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Speaker 2: to find a better looking defensive line in the country.
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Speaker 2: They just have not played anywhere close to that level
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Speaker 2: on the offensive line. As you said, that was based
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Speaker 2: on most of the experience, returning experience. You have a
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Speaker 2: lot of guys who've started thirty forty fifty college football games,
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Speaker 2: and I think what's different there is the reality is
4:49
Speaker 2: most of those guys played with a mobile quarterback at
4:51
Speaker 2: Jordan Travis, and I think that can make an offensive
4:54
Speaker 2: line look better than it is. And right now they
4:56
Speaker 2: do not have a mobile quarterback in DJ and they're
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Speaker 2: getting exposed, and so I think it's a I think
5:03
Speaker 2: Mike Grovel's gonna have to figure out some things to
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Speaker 2: help out that offensive one.
5:06
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Morning Show with Preston Scott, back with
5:14
Speaker 1: irischafellowarchand dot Com. I want to zero in on DJ
5:17
Speaker 1: for just a little bit. Uh Oue Ungley and you
5:21
Speaker 1: know I got I got to really some thinking about this,
5:25
Speaker 1: because it broke my heart when I heard some of
5:28
Speaker 1: the chants that were going on in the game against
5:31
Speaker 1: Boston College. I thought it was brutally unfair. Look, he's
5:35
Speaker 1: not played great, he hasn't and he's not even played
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Speaker 1: up to his normal standards going back to last season
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Speaker 1: at Oregon State. But when we're comparing him, as you
5:47
Speaker 1: pointed out earlier, to Jordan Travis, and the thing that
5:50
Speaker 1: stood out to me is, you know, Mackenzie Milton came
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Speaker 1: in and he didn't quite excel with one offseason to
5:58
Speaker 1: pick up the offense. And then you've got dj and
6:02
Speaker 1: he's got one offseason to pick up the offense. Jordan
6:05
Speaker 1: Travis literally grew up with Mike norvel in this offense.
6:10
Speaker 1: Are we expecting just too much from this guy at
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Speaker 1: this point?
6:15
Speaker 2: No, that's fair, and I'm with you. I thought the
6:17
Speaker 2: worst thing that, you know, I think one of the
6:18
Speaker 2: issues that's that's played dj if during his college career.
6:22
Speaker 2: I think it was a big problem m Clemson was
6:24
Speaker 2: he came in as you know, one number one or
6:26
Speaker 2: number two quarterback in the country. They expected him to
6:29
Speaker 2: be the next Trevor Lawrence. When he wasn't that the
6:31
Speaker 2: fans turned on him, and I think it affected his confidence.
6:34
Speaker 2: I really thought he needed to get off to a
6:36
Speaker 2: good start at Florida State and for the fans to
6:39
Speaker 2: support him, to really kind of help him become whatever
6:42
Speaker 2: he can be. Once he got off to a poor start,
6:44
Speaker 2: and like you said, it wasn't all his fault, even
6:46
Speaker 2: in that first I don't blame the Georgia Tech loss
6:49
Speaker 2: on him. I agree, And even that first the first series,
6:52
Speaker 2: on third down he hits the running back with the
6:54
Speaker 2: I mean, it looked like a perfect pass and the
6:56
Speaker 2: running back just doesn't catch it. And so now it's
6:59
Speaker 2: two series he's in, We're channing, we want Brock and
7:02
Speaker 2: I think that I agree. I think that was unfortunate,
7:04
Speaker 2: but it's the nature of the business. He's getting a
7:06
Speaker 2: lot of money from Nil because he's a quarterback, so
7:09
Speaker 2: that's part of the deal. You get it. But as
7:11
Speaker 2: far as what we expect from him, yeah, to a degree,
7:14
Speaker 2: but you only have him for one year. And I
7:16
Speaker 2: think this is where you point to the head coach
7:18
Speaker 2: and say, listen, you know, because look, I was the
7:20
Speaker 2: first one to blame Jimbo Fisher when he I felt
7:23
Speaker 2: like he too much on James Blackman as a true
7:25
Speaker 2: freshman who got thrown into playing time, and that's just
7:28
Speaker 2: the nature of it. The head coach has to figure
7:30
Speaker 2: it out. There are quarterbacks in college football Dylan Rayola Nebraska,
7:36
Speaker 2: They're Lagway DJ, Lagway of Florida. There are young quarterbacks
7:40
Speaker 2: who are thrown into the action and the head coach
7:43
Speaker 2: or offensive coordinator figures out a way for them to
7:45
Speaker 2: have success. That's not Mike Norvell. Now, he may have
7:48
Speaker 2: thought DJ could do more than he could do and
7:51
Speaker 2: made a misjudgment there, but he's got to figure that out.
7:54
Speaker 2: I mean, DJ's played a lot of college football. He
7:57
Speaker 2: only has one year. They have to figure out a
7:58
Speaker 2: way to get him to be more SUCCESSFU Mike Norvel.
8:01
Speaker 1: I think everyone, most anyone that has a head on
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Speaker 1: their shoulders IRA understands this guy's a really good coach
8:07
Speaker 1: and he's not going anywhere, and we don't need him
8:09
Speaker 1: to go anywhere. Uh I full faith and trust in
8:13
Speaker 1: the guy that said. On the outside looking in, I'm
8:17
Speaker 1: thinking he's given DJ another couple of starts, and if
8:20
Speaker 1: the team's not turning it around, at least on his
8:23
Speaker 1: side of the ball. I don't think he has a
8:25
Speaker 1: choice but to go to one of the young guys.
8:28
Speaker 2: No, I agree. Part of the problem is you if
8:31
Speaker 2: the quarterback's not performing, then it affects everything else. Yep,
8:35
Speaker 2: and so he needs I think if I'm Mike Norvello,
8:39
Speaker 2: I'm figuring out a way to get brock Glann maybe
8:41
Speaker 2: a series or two, just to give a different look
8:44
Speaker 2: and let let let the players know that you are
8:46
Speaker 2: evaluating it. You're not just gonna ride with this guy
8:48
Speaker 2: because you signed him and you're stuck with him. And
8:51
Speaker 2: so yeah, he's definitely gonna have to The challenge there
8:54
Speaker 2: is you know everybody, and you know this as well
8:56
Speaker 2: as anybody, or better than anybody. You know, everybody loves
8:59
Speaker 2: the back of quarterback sometimes until you see him. And
9:02
Speaker 2: so we'll see how that goes. I mean I have
9:05
Speaker 2: not I've watched a lot of practices. I have never thought, Okay,
9:08
Speaker 2: brock Land is totally the answer. He still a red
9:11
Speaker 2: shirt freshman, so we'll have to see. Now, maybe when
9:13
Speaker 2: the lights come on, he gives you that spark because
9:15
Speaker 2: he can run a little bit and he is a
9:17
Speaker 2: competitive kid, and maybe just giving DJ some time off
9:21
Speaker 2: might help him. Decompress a little bit. But yeah, he
9:24
Speaker 2: can't just ride with DJ every series of every game
9:28
Speaker 2: if they keep losing.
9:29
Speaker 1: W s l A on your phone with the iHeart
9:31
Speaker 1: radio app and on hundreds of devices like Alexa, Google Home,
9:34
Speaker 1: Xbox and Sonos and Ihearts radio station. He's the managing
9:42
Speaker 1: editor at war chand dot com, Irischaffell, covering Florida State
9:46
Speaker 1: Athletics longer than either of us are willing to admit. Ira,
9:53
Speaker 1: let me just ask you before we kind of move
9:55
Speaker 1: on a little bit. Luke Chromehook, is that his name, Chromehawk, Kroumenhawk, Chromanhawk.
10:04
Speaker 1: Is he remotely on the horizon or is it brock Glenn,
10:07
Speaker 1: the guy that maybe if we go Kentucky Derby like
10:10
Speaker 1: the old days about and I thought that was one
10:12
Speaker 1: of the most brilliant things that they used to do,
10:14
Speaker 1: is they'd get guys experience, given them series of plays
10:18
Speaker 1: in meaningful parts of football games.
10:21
Speaker 2: You know, honestly, that's something that they could do. I
10:23
Speaker 2: don't know if like Norvell is even aware of the
10:25
Speaker 2: Kentucky Derby or if he would ever do it. But
10:28
Speaker 2: it wasn't just a quarterback. He would bring in that
10:30
Speaker 2: second team offensive line too, and I think you've got
10:32
Speaker 2: enough linemen to do that. The problem is you're not
10:35
Speaker 2: winning games handily anymore. But oh there's that, There is that.
10:40
Speaker 2: But yeah, no, I like Luke Trumpenhawk a lot. I
10:43
Speaker 2: think he might be the future. I think if everything
10:46
Speaker 2: had gone well, I felt, you know, DJ would be
10:48
Speaker 2: the guy this year and he'd have a great battle
10:50
Speaker 2: next year by Luke Crumenhawk, who's just a true freshman
10:53
Speaker 2: in Brock Glenn who's got a year older. But the
10:56
Speaker 2: problem is, you know, he may need one or one
10:59
Speaker 2: of them to step in at some point this year.
11:01
Speaker 2: I would Brockland, I think is further along because he's
11:03
Speaker 2: just been here longer, he's been in that system. But
11:05
Speaker 2: Luke Kremenhawk's a big time talent and I think he's
11:09
Speaker 2: going to be a big factor in this thing as
11:10
Speaker 2: they go on, maybe next season. But if somebody needs
11:13
Speaker 2: to step in now, would be Brocklyn.
11:16
Speaker 1: The coaching, let's just big picture of the coaching at
11:19
Speaker 1: this point. Offensive scheme, defensive scheme. I believe coach Norvell
11:24
Speaker 1: was very stubborn against Georgia Tech. Should have been throwing
11:27
Speaker 1: the football and we might be in a very different
11:29
Speaker 1: place right now, to be honest with you, because I
11:31
Speaker 1: think if they if they win that game, I don't
11:34
Speaker 1: think they lose to BC. I don't necessarily think they're
11:36
Speaker 1: a juggernaut, but I just I think that they've been
11:40
Speaker 1: lacking on that side. What are your thoughts on the
11:42
Speaker 1: offensive and defensive play calling?
11:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I probably agree with you. I think, you know,
11:48
Speaker 2: the first game, he really wanted to establish the run.
11:50
Speaker 2: I think he personally was over confident. I think he
11:54
Speaker 2: believes so much in their running game that if they
11:56
Speaker 2: just kept at it, kept plugging away, they would bust
12:00
Speaker 2: through in control take control of the game. The problem
12:02
Speaker 2: is they can never get the ball back on defense,
12:04
Speaker 2: so they only got seven possessions in the game. This
12:07
Speaker 2: pass game. I think he wisely figured BC was gonna
12:11
Speaker 2: be a little bit more aggressive top in the run
12:13
Speaker 2: and try to throw the ball. But the problem was
12:15
Speaker 2: the passing game didn't perform either. So he's kind of
12:17
Speaker 2: over too on his hunches of what they needed to
12:20
Speaker 2: do defensively. I don't think it's scheme related. I just
12:24
Speaker 2: think that you have some new pieces that are just
12:28
Speaker 2: not coming together. Yet. You have guys trying to do
12:30
Speaker 2: too much. Some guys pressing and trying to make big
12:33
Speaker 2: plays instead of just doing their job. And defensive football
12:35
Speaker 2: is all about just doing your job. You could have
12:38
Speaker 2: eleven not even great players, but if they work together,
12:41
Speaker 2: you could have a really good defense. Right now, those
12:43
Speaker 2: guys are not working together. It's all fixable. I think
12:46
Speaker 2: they can be better, but you know, you just it's
12:48
Speaker 2: hard to predict when that's gonna happen. Overall, I think
12:51
Speaker 2: Mike Grovell is gonna have to tweak some things, I
12:53
Speaker 2: think offensively to get them going. And again maybe that's
12:57
Speaker 2: some wildcat. Maybe they just need to get some drives extended.
13:00
Speaker 2: So I think he's We've seen him do it in
13:02
Speaker 2: the past when he had limited talent. He's got to
13:05
Speaker 2: help this offense out because just running the offense isn't
13:08
Speaker 2: getting it done.
13:09
Speaker 1: How big of a difference will it be when and
13:12
Speaker 1: if we see Hikim Williams back on the field.
13:15
Speaker 2: Big difference. And it's a great point, and we don't
13:18
Speaker 2: talk about it enough, but you're right, I mean, well, listen,
13:21
Speaker 2: you know, in the spring, maybe their top two receivers
13:24
Speaker 2: or two of the top three, where hai Kim Williams
13:26
Speaker 2: and Dustin Hill, they're both not available. Dustin Hill had
13:28
Speaker 2: a knee injury. We don't know when he's going to
13:31
Speaker 2: be back. Maybe late in the season, maybe next year.
13:33
Speaker 2: Haikim Williams has missed the first couple of games. He's
13:35
Speaker 2: not only a big target at you know, six two
13:37
Speaker 2: sixty three, big body, but he's also a great blocker
13:41
Speaker 2: and that's one area they've really struggled in the running
13:43
Speaker 2: game is the perimeter blocking has not been good because
13:45
Speaker 2: they don't have any big bodied receivers. So yeah, there's
13:48
Speaker 2: no question he would be a big help.
13:50
Speaker 1: Is there any word on him being back anytime soon?
13:54
Speaker 2: I would expect to be back this week. I thought
13:56
Speaker 2: there was a chance he could have played against Boston College.
14:00
Speaker 2: He didn't get to play against Roscots. He actually suited
14:02
Speaker 2: up and went through some pregame warm ups that day.
14:05
Speaker 2: I would be shocked. Unless he has a setback, I'd
14:07
Speaker 2: be shocked he doesn't play this week.
14:10
Speaker 1: For all of the FSU faithful out there that are
14:12
Speaker 1: trying to find reasons to go Saturday, what would you say,
14:17
Speaker 1: do you think they find a way to cobble together
14:19
Speaker 1: and get a win and get something going the other way?
14:23
Speaker 2: I think so. I mean, I just I really feel
14:24
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna write something about this. I just feel
14:26
Speaker 2: like everybody needs just reset, you know, just reset, recalibrate
14:30
Speaker 2: kind of what this team is. Again. I this was
14:34
Speaker 2: not supposed to be a year if you went back
14:35
Speaker 2: six months, you know, eight months ago, ten months ago,
14:38
Speaker 2: twelve months ago. This was not supposed to be a
14:40
Speaker 2: year where Florida State was going to be in the
14:41
Speaker 2: playoff contention again because you lost Jordan Travis and Jared
14:45
Speaker 2: Versus Braden Fisk and all those guys. But we kind
14:48
Speaker 2: of made ourselves feel like, Okay, there's a quick fix
14:51
Speaker 2: here with the portal, and it really isn't. And it
14:54
Speaker 2: was never when Mike Norvella, this was first couple of years.
14:56
Speaker 2: He didn't see the portal as a quick fix. It
14:58
Speaker 2: was just trying to get better place in the program. Yeah,
15:01
Speaker 2: this year kind of all fooled ourselves into it being
15:03
Speaker 2: a one year wonder and I just don't that's clearly
15:06
Speaker 2: not going to happen. I think if you reset to
15:08
Speaker 2: the mindset of, hey, they're just going to get better
15:12
Speaker 2: again and start making progress for next year, which was
15:14
Speaker 2: always I always felt like this could be a better
15:16
Speaker 2: year because you have so much young talent that's going
15:19
Speaker 2: to be There is a lot of young talent on
15:20
Speaker 2: this team that I think will be ready to contribute
15:23
Speaker 2: next year. So that would be my thought process is
15:25
Speaker 2: just focus on getting better and maybe twenty twenty five
15:29
Speaker 2: is a great year, as opposed to being mad the
15:32
Speaker 2: rest of the season that this season isn't what anybody
15:35
Speaker 2: expected it to be.
15:36
Speaker 1: I re, I think you just did it. I think
15:38
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of guys right now and they're lazy
15:40
Speaker 1: boys saying darn it, Margaret, that's it. We're going all right.
15:44
Speaker 2: Sounds good success victory.
15:47
Speaker 1: I ra thanks for the time. We'll talk next week.
15:50
Speaker 2: Appreciate it.
15:50
Speaker 1: Thanks Presdon, Thank you, Sir. I Rishafelle with us on
15:52
Speaker 1: The Morning Show with Preston Scott