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Dukes of Hazard · Troy Boyz

• Dukes of Hazard mixdown: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Troy Boys Show. Please have your tickets ready and your expectations lowered. if you are here to drink Trojan Tears after two embarrassing losses in a row, join the rest of the ULM and La La fans on the right. we didn't include any signage for you because we know you couldn't read it. tonight's program is also available in large print for anyone who thinks, still thinks they saw improvement. if you're looking for the Troy offense, feel free to check the lost and found. we've got three jackets, a set of keys, but not an entire offensive identity. please keep the aisles clear. That's a fire code requirement, although apparently leaving a wide open lane is perfectly acceptable on the football field as well. concessions are available in the lobby, beer is $8, liquor is $12, and whatever you need to forget the last two weeks requires a prescription. sir, yes, sir, you with the paper bag, you can wear that inside, but please cut out some eye holes. you're watching the Troy Boys not preparing to officiate a Sunbelt game. Thank you. if you're here to tell us these things take time, your seats are in the waiting area. You should be comfortable there by now. for those asking whether Bass will be providing a positive outlook tonight, yes. he's positive that you should have gone to Crows instead of the vet. if you are here because you want to do the wave, please sit in the corner where the best band in the south used to sit. restrooms are down the hall. If you need to throw something, please use the trash cans. we are going to provide a suggestion box, but the first suggestions all involved a fan transfer portal. and please silence your phones. If you hear someone screaming, that is a normal part of this show. if you hear someone explaining how we can still win the conference, please alert an usher. We do have a quiet room. if you are here because you want Coach Jared Parker fired, so is everybody else. So just sit wherever you want. All right, bird. I think everybody's settled and ready for the show. Play the guitar. Welcome in to the Troy Boys Podcast. we are obviously here on one of the worst nights in the history of Troy football, as far as the Troy Boys recording life goes. I am Trojan Joe, and I am not here to do this alone. I would refuse if I had been asked to. let me welcome in the fanciest fish in the Trojan Lagoon, Seabass. Welcome in, C Bass. Hey Joe. I I had to take a a small pause after that game, swim down real deep into the depths of the ocean there because I really didn't think that the bar got that low. we're we're way down there right now. you know, fortunate to have swum up for this episode. bird couldn't make it tonight. Bird bird, you know, he can't drown. Yeah, he's gotta stay up above ocean water. and the bar for the Troy Trojans is currently so low that he he won't make it. So unfortunately the bird is not with us tonight. We do miss the bird, absolutely. you know, let's go ahead and just rip this band aid off and get into this game. Troy led 14 to 3 with six minutes and 16 seconds left to play on Military Appreciation Day at the vet and lost to winless ULM 21 to 14, giving up 18 points in the final two minutes and 34 seconds. the last six on a fumbled lateral in the end zone that counted as a touchdown. Troy is now three and four, one and two in the league. the home winning streak is over. the weeping and gnashing of teeth has turned into the aggressive showing of teeth towards the athletic director and the head coach. so let's go ahead and break it down. Bass, tell us about this Troy defense for what it's worth. Yeah, this was a two-half game for our defense. Defense held ULM to only sixty-two yards in the first half. but but then they just they just led up there in the second half. They gave up a total of two hundred and forty-three yards whenever the game was all said and done. we recorded eight tackles for loss and two sacks that's this game. That's two more than last week. Donnie Smith had one of them and then Ty Clemens picked up the other. Yeah, we gave up a touchdown drives of 75 yards and eighty-six yards. That's two really long methodical drives. From a team that's just shown no pulse for years. Years. This team has really struggled. And and we talked about that in the preview of this episode. That that that they've just really struggled to have any identity, period, other than losing. so that that was it was a good move on ULM there to have two really solid drives against the Trojans defense that's known to be the wall. really wasn't a good run for them. Coach Parker in his in his postgame press conference, it was pretty brief. about our defense said that it was a great effort from our defense early, but the breakdown and the passing defense caught up with us in the end, and that's that's totally evident in the numbers and what we just talked about. so defensively, good first half, second half, not to the standard. Yeah. speaking of not to the standard, you start talking about this offense. it was you know, I was there in the vet. it was something to behold the Troy offense being this you know, ineffective. 200 total yards, 47 passing yards. That's the fewest since 2005. I am a dinosaur, and I was still on campus when that happened. three of 16 on third down, 3.1 yards per play against the 136th ranked defense in the country. goose played through the shoulder injury, he was six of fourteen. For 50 yards and he threw an end zone interception, one play after we recovered a muffed punt from ULM. Tucker Kilcrease, three for four for negative three yards. he took four sacks and threw the one touchdown. Jared Parker had this to say, which from a coach that you hired as an offensive expert, really just makes your blood boil. He said, quote, Our offense is truly inept. We can't score. We've lost our passing game. so whoever it was in the lobby earlier that I was speaking to that was going to check the loss, lost and found. If you see our passing game, yeah, please let me Stop everything. Look, man, when I heard that, I cut I cut it off. I didn't finish it. I stopped listening. Like it that was a truly infuriating statement. Like you said. He he's a he's an offensive coordinator from Notre Dame. th this is supposed to be his bread and butter, and we have developed nothing offensively, and this is the third year of it. And it's it's I I long for Gunnar Watson. Hey gosh. Amen. you know, Gunnar Watson, two times Sunbelt champion. we would love to see him out there. you know, twirling that magic bean around. you know, this is This is not a question of execution. this is obviously a question of coaching. and you know, right now, we're gonna get into it later. Jared Parker just has lost the confidence of the sideline. He's lost the confidence of all the fans. I I just think I I don't know how you come back from this, you know. on special teams, there were 18 combined punts in this game, which is just shows you how terrible this game was. Evan Crenshaw punted nine times. He had a forty-one point four yard average along with 55. but he's not been very consistent this season. He had a shankopotamus on one punt that went for about 17 yards, maybe. Keyshawn Campbell forced a fumble on a punt return, that Jordan Lovitt recovered at the 21, but of course, offense gave it right back on the next play. Ethan Head was benched for JUCO transfer, Hayden Wolf. Hayden made both extra points but missed a 55-yarder at the end of the half. Obviously, that's a huge to ask for somebody who's just been brought in. Right. Nareel White did have a twenty-six yard punt return. That was the longest punt return of the season for Troy. So obviously, you know, not a great game. in fact, I I I like I said, probably the worst game I've seen, especially at home. Troy usually does such a good job of defending the wall. and we really just I don't know. We let our guard down. We looked absolutely terrible. I mean Bass, give you a chance to kind of kind of clean the pipes out here. Let let us hear about everything you saw. I'm just gonna speak big picture right here. Now we came into this game with a lot of hesitancy. We we talked about it in the in in the last episode previewing this. That that that Jared Parker's been in this spot. We we've been in the position of a ULM coming to town and and having a letdown moment. and then we you know, we we we have just not looked the same since Missouri. You know, we we have just not looked like the team that we had the first three weeks of the season. I felt skeptical against Sam Houston, but then we kinda got right against Alabama State and we looked good against Missouri. We looked we looked like a formidable Sunbelt team at that moment. And then we go to Utah State and lay an egg. And then we play Louisiana and lay a big egg. And then we play ULM and we didn't even lay anything. And you know, I I don't know if it's just lost momentum on the season. Like we were just putting all of our, you know, wants and needs in the Missouri basket and we just didn't execute enough to get there and we knew we could. And it just kind of derailed from there. I I don't know. I I do I do not know where the issue is. And injuries, sure, every team has That cannot be the excuse. that that cannot be the thing that we lean on and say our team is absolutely wrecked and distraught because of injuries. You can't use that three years in a row, Jared. You can't. That's not an excuse anymore. y you know, you're supposed to recruit and build depth. And I understand that the landscape of college football is different, but it's different for everybody. It's not just us. And so w we have got to fix some things systematically. This is not about the players anymore. The players are doing what they're supposed to do and they're doing what they're asked to be done. This is now at a leadership level. and I know we'll talk way more about it later because I I I have a strong feeling I know what this tackle box is gonna be. I I haven't seen it yet, but I have a real strong inkling as to what it's gonna be. But we've we've got to do something different. And it's gotta happen today. You know, we t we talked in our text message thread, we will know what did what Jared Parker's philosophy is at who we start at quarterback this game. And we knew. We knew instantly. As soon as Goose Crowder showed up, we knew what the philosophy was. We have to win today. th this is the best he has. And we're not prepared to have anybody backed up to put in that position. And that's clear. Tucker had it was three for four with negative yards. And he threw a touchdown pass. You know, his first first his first throw in was a touchdown. So the other two were just horrendous in sacks. And and and and then what what's depth behind that look like? Clearly not developed, not trusted enough to go out against literally the weakest defense in the nation. And that that's alarming to me. That that is very suspect from an offensive-minded coach. And at the end of the day. We we're gonna be fine long term. We've been here before. We've been in really tough spots. We've been in the four, five, six win era for multiple years and we turn around and we do really well. Not worried about Troy long term, not worried about our season next year. I think we can fix it, but we've just got to get past this dull spot right now. And and people who are like, this feels like the Abilene Christian days. I don't even I think this is worse. I think this is worse than that. Because in that era from like 11 15-ish. coach Larry Blakeney, love him. Great guy, took us where we are, but he was on the downward slump there. There were some there were some rough years there after his absolute you know annihilation of the sun belt for six, seven years. And that Abilene Christian loss was a low point. But this this season was supposed to be our season. This was the turnaround moment. Everything was set up well, and the system was set up, and we were supposed to be comfortable with what we had. We had Goose and we had Tucker, two really secure seasoned quarterbacks prepared. You know, the running game was a question mark, but we knew we had players put like capable. But I I'm just I'm not very pleased with the way that this has turned out in this ULM loss i is is probably the nail in the coffin, even if the coffin hasn't arrived for another six weeks. Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. And I mean we It it is unfair to hold other coaches to the Summerall standard because he came in and just there there was a loaded cupboard. He got two years that were really, really good. but I mean, you can hold guys to the Neil Brown standard. Neil Brown had s had a tough time getting things started here. The difference from being in the stadium is that when Neil Brown was on the sideline, you looked down there and those guys wanted to win. They might not have been winning, but they wanted to. And they were trying to, get each other, cheered up and and ready to go and ready to fight out there. they wanted to run through a brick wall for Neil Brown. You look down at the sidelines at these games and This team seems like they are just waiting to to get out of the vet, and that to me is entirely a leadership issue. you know, you've got to, as a head coach, have your team at least ready to fight for you. I mean, at the end of that game, the homestands were filled with people yelling not very nice things at Jared Parker. And I didn't see a single player becoming defensive. So that that tells you something. Because if you had yelled that about Neil Brown, players would have been very upset about it. If you had yelled that even about Larry Blakeney in the last couple years of his time. Yeah, people would have said, no, no, no, that's our coach. You know, had you had guys yelling, hey, we need a leader, not a loser. and you didn't have a single player Saying anything. Yep. So that that tells you a whole lot. I wanna just make sure it's very clear. I I feel like the players want to win. Like what what what at what athlete wants to lose? Like who who wants to go out there, we're here to lose. You know, I I feel like they really want to win, but like you're saying, I don't think that this the environment, the culture that's been built has been has been encapsulated in the concept of we're coming out to win the game. Period end of story. And how we get there is up to me and I'm gonna guide you there. That's missing. That that element of the all of this is missing. You know? and I and I feel like we're we're we're we're doing a disservice to our athletes and to our program long term because they're gonna go somewhere else. In this era, it's easy for them to say, I enjoyed my X number of weeks, I'm gonna red shirt and leave. So I I'm I'm curious to see what that's about to start looking like here soon. Yeah. No, absolutely. all right, let's get on to the next segment here. Obviously, Bird not with us. so we will go ahead and still you know highlight somebody who played well, but instead of the best in the in the nest, this week, we will honor this week's Joe of the Show. all right, so you know, this is not a surprise name. This is a guy who's been winning these awards over and over. and he was one. bright spot, maybe one of the only bright spots on Saturday. Keno Jones, 12 tackles, eight of those in the first half, two tackles for loss and a pass breakup. Kino is really becoming an absolute star on the defensive side of the ball. and I hope that he continues to grow in that position. I know the rest of the season looks pretty tough. and I don't know there's gonna be a lot of positive reinforcement. but a guy like Keno, if we can keep him around, he's gonna be a heck of a player. So would love to see him stick around for the Trojans. all right. before we turn the page on last week, let's take a look around the Sunbelt Conference and see if, as the poet on stage in the commercials says, the Sunbelt Conference has indeed continued rising. In this week's edition of The Rising Report. So, Bass, we had a bit of a chaos week, all right? I mean, obviously we we know that firsthand. ULM, Southern Mish, and Marshall, a combined four and fourteen coming in, beat us, Laha, and South Alabama. the three teams that were supposed to be contending for the West. James Madison lost for the first time all year and fell out of the AP poll entirely. La Tech. Or as Byrd calls them, LA Tech, the new kid on the block, is the only three and team in the league. and has posted, they have posted back to back shutouts for the first time since 1959. so obvious yeah, very odd time. so let's go through the games. Very few games. We're in the conference play now. JMU lost thirty-four to thirty-one at App State in overtime. Georgia State lost 38 to 32 at Arkansas State. Marshall goes ahead and beats the Alleycats for Mobile 20 to 13. Old Dominion lost to La Tech 26 to 0. and La La lost to Southern Miss 35 to 31. all right, Bass, other than our absolute debacle in the vet, which of these results surprised you the most? Yeah, I just want to ask everybody to go ahead and point and laugh. Go ahead and cue that one. Appalachian State taking one for the team. 34 31 victory in overtime against the James Madison Dukes. Get bit, y'all. Like JMU seven and eleven and a half point favorite. The only undefeated team in the group of five. And App State comes in and takes care of business in boon, sold out. Crowd, thirty-three thousand plus to watch the J Met James Madison Dukes just implode here. James Madison was leaving leading in the third quarter. And then App State comes in, fourth quarter scores eighteen points. There's an interception that sets up the go-ahead touchdown, five and a half minutes left in the game. the surprising part, Billy Napier's first loss at James Madison ended a seventeen game regular season winning streak. the Dukes went from receiving the most AP votes of any Sunbelt team to zero in one week. five of Napier's eight career losses to Sunbelt teams are to App State. So it's the Napier effect, struggling with Appalachian State. so we're you know the James Madison's kind of in a get right game situation, and one could argue the Trojans are too. So we get to play them on Thursday, Looking to see who's gonna be more a little more feisty, more more willing to put up the good fight to win this one. it remains to be seen. Yeah, absolutely. And and a big shout out to my buddy Jay from the Sunbelt Uncensored Facebook group. I know he's in his bunker right now writing his book, so he's not hearing this. but I I hope that he gets over this loss soon. I know it's tough. Yeah, yeah. I man, I look forward to to to James Madison really also coming in and just being bell beaters in their new conference against Charlotte. yeah. man. Have have a great time with them too, man. East Carolina. I mean, you can't beat West Carolina, so let's beat East Carolina. Yeah. I mean go you know, go ahead and go ahead and beat UAB in Protective Stadium. Nobody will be there to see it, but we'll be sure that you did. Right, yeah. yeah, absolutely. so for mine I I would pick Marshall beating the Alley Cats in Mobile. Tuesday night game gets a little bit lost. you know, Marshall was 0-2 in league play. and so not exactly expecting a great effort against a team from Mobile that was doing very well. Marshall's coach did say that he was picking his starting quarterback by rolling dice. so Zion Turner does go in over Carlos Del Rio Wilson, who obviously offensive player of the year. you know, so so very, very surprising. you know, I I I just think it is pretty wild that you have Marshall who hadn't been doing well, coming again against an Alley Cat team that really seemed in control of the West. But once again, we know. those guys in Mobile just can't you know, they can't hold on to anything good. So you know, really happy for the thundering herd for the big win there. all right, now it is time mercifully to turn the page, at least for a moment, and start focusing on our next game. unfortunately, our next game is a Thursday night trip to Harrisonburg, Virginia. Troy will be at James Madison 6:30 p.m. Central. On ESPN DOS at Bridgeforth Stadium, where the Dukes have won eleven straight and sold out every game. JMU obviously, as Bass said, just lost for the first time. Troy with a the worst loss probably in program history. and the Dukes are a seventeen and a half point favorite that has moved towards twenty. Bass, give us some thoughts on the James Madison University Dukes so far this season. Yeah, James Madison currently sitting seven and one on the season, four and one in conference under the first year coach Billy Napier, who left Florida under not great circumstances. he takes over from Bob Chesney, who's left for UCLA. James Madison offense is electric. They have been, they continue to be. They score an average of forty-one point four points a game and allow only 18.3 defense can be stout. their turnover margin is really good. They're plus six this season so far on turnovers. Star quarterback Camden Coleman has 1,567 passing yards and four touchdowns. Running back George Petaway is a UNC transfer. He leaves the Sunbelt with 824 rushing yards, averaging about 6.6 yards a carry. but he left that lot, that App State game with a no contact lower body injury. His status at this point is still not known. We'll look into that as we get closer to the game on Thursday. defense can be a problem. They picked up twenty-one sacks so far this season. only a hundred and ten rushing yards allowed on average a game. And so for us, struggling to to set up a run, you know, a hundred is is usually the magic number for our offense. If we can get a hundred yards rushing, I feel like our passing attack has an opportunity. and they they allow just over that. So maybe a running game getting established can be beneficial for our offense to find a pulse, find some life against this team. DJ Kelly has a league high of four interceptions. Like I said earlier, they have a really good turnover margin so far this season. tackles, JT Wooten and Nake and Jackson each have over fifty tackles. That's a lot. so that they are monsters back there. be prepared for them to be a problem. Morgan Suarez, for for the kicking game, he's 13 for 18 on field goal. that's an opportunity for us. If we put him in a situation for a field goal, they have a kicker that's not a hundred percent. So if we can get them get them just outside that red zone, make things a little squarely for them offensively, perhaps we can keep them off the board. Michael Scott, the the office, leads the nation in combined yards for returning in their kickoff return game. in this series, James Madison has kind of had our number. They lead us two to one. Troy's only win in the series comes from in 1999. So it's been twenty-seven years since the Trojans have beaten James Madison. they came to the vet in 2023, took us out by two points. Man, that was a tight game. That was that was a heartbreaker. felt like we could have handled that. And then of course last season in the frigid cold, the coldest game in Troy Trojans history, 26 degree game. and we lost that one there in the in the last quarter. We kind of unraveled. And it also didn't help that their student section was pelting our team with with snow snowballs. so the this team has cracks. They they have some problems. I just don't know given what we've talked about already at this point, our team is gonna be able to gel and solidify and and and execute in a manner to take advantage of their weaknesses. and I feel like this team i is just well put together. It it's very well designed, especially offensively. Man, they're electric. They're not afraid to to to put some some balls in the air and score on you and let streamers fly. so I I feel like if we play safe methodical football and our defense is really stout, keep the points low and rush more than we're used to. I feel like we have a better chance than people are willing to accept coming into this. but it's gonna be a big uphill battle against James Madison. absolutely. I I'm kind of I I am impressed with your optimism. I I keep looking at the schedule you know, every so often and and I just I don't see another win. not for the team that I watched y yesterday. Well, we talked about it in our group chat a little peek beyond, you know, the the visor or whatever you want to call it behind the curtain. Is that our our current remaining schedule, ESPN's FBI has us not winning any of Our our our our like our our current best game odds to win is against Georgia Southern at thirty seven point four percent. And the rest of are sub that. So one third chance or less for every game remaining. Not a good number. and if that actually runs chalk, if we wind up losing every game that's remaining, we'll end the season three and nine. which the last time we did that was in twenty fourteen. and that was the same year we lost Abilene Christian. So funny we talked about that earlier. and it I I would I I hope that that doesn't work out. I hope that that doesn't happen. I I really feel like we can turn some things around. We can fix some things. I'm just I'm real hesitant to say it's gonna happen. Yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm I don't have even that much hope, unfortunately. so obviously if you just heard that, and your thought is, man, I want to put some money down on the Trojans. I don't know how to help yet, but the one way I can is to turn it over to the bass who's been swimming down the Tom Bigby waterways all the way to Pascagoula to figure out what the wise guys in Vegas are up to in this week's edition of Makin' Moolah in Pascagoula. All right, Bass, so what have you seen? What are the the folks that are doing this for a living, what do they have to say? Yeah, Joe, this game opened James Madison as a seventeen and a half point favorite, and that line has shifted dramatically. We're now a twenty and a half point dog. and that's a number that yeah, that's a number that Vegas doesn't like to really sit at. It's really close to that three touchdown threshold. so you you can expect it to shift one way or another. That's in that that gray area zone that they're really not comfortable with sitting at. Over-under for this game set at 50 and a half. Money line for this game, the Trojans plus 550. So if you feel like the Trojans can do it, there's some serious cash right there for you. FPI for this game has the Trojans with a nine, or I'm sorry, that's changed now, an 8.5% chance to win this game. The Vegas predicted score. James Madison 35, the Trojans 17. and if you're curious how we fared last week, the Trojans were a 14 and a half point favorite, and we lost. so Troy is two and five against the spread and one and six to the over. Good grief. all right. Hey, Jared, if you're listening, I hope the Wi-Fi has stayed connected. because these are not good things for you, my friend. I mean we are getting serious syntax errors here. Some four some some four four error codes real strong over here. All right, Bass. So usually I talk about the last segment as being when we head into some heat. but this is gonna be the segment I think for this episode, where we feel a little bit of the flames, even more than my own. here's the question. some of Jared's own words on Saturday. quote, our offense is truly inept. We can't score. we've lost our passing game. And the team is a reflection of me first. so Bass, we've benched the kicker. we're rotating quarterbacks, and we had 47 passing yards against ULM. If you're the athletic director, if I fire Kyle George, which I heard several people a few boats deep on the home side screaming to do at the end of the game, what would happen between now and the end of November? and if a change comes first, is it the offensive coordinator, Adam, who we've never been allowed to hear from, the quarterback, or Jared Parker, the head coach? Goodness, this is a good one. If I'm the athletic director, okay. Alright, we're gonna we're gonna start talking now. We're gonna get serious. if we're gonna go ahead and put out the disclaimer as well. If you can't handle the heat, it's time to get out the kitchen. If you can't handle Getting your feelings hurt. It's time to leave. It's time to it's time to sign off for the Troy Boys. Please like, rate, subscribe, review. Three seasons is at this point enough in the landscape of college football. I feel like it's enough. You are an offensive minded individual. You know what's wrong. You know the problems. Fix it. This is this literally is your job. Fix it. Your your your job is to develop players and athletes. You have had the quarterbacks in your room your entire tenure. Why are they not developed the way you want them to? Why is the offensive scheme not built in the way that you want it to be ran and devi and and like why has that not happened? And we brought in a new coordinator this year, and I've heard zilts from this guy. I've heard nothing. I know nothing about what's supposed to be happening. This is supposed to be An air raid minded individual, right? Where we're supposed to be lobbing balls. We're supposed to have real sound quarterback play with a stout line. And none of that's come to fruition. Why? Why hasn't that happened? I I don't I I don't know that it I don't know that we could blame the OC because he's new. he came into this. And look, if I'm Kyle George, I'm sitting down and having a serious conversation. Like a an honest to God serious conversation. I don't know I don't know what marbles you want to put on the table, but we have five games remaining. And At the Troy Boys Podcast, we have we as a podcast, we're not speaking for Troy fandom, but as a podcast, we have said that the bar minimum standard is a bowl game. Six and six, five hundred, half is the is the baseline. You gotta win three games, and one of those three must be south. Can it be done? And I don't know. I don't know that that's gonna happen. You know, I I would hate for us because it was around this time of the year of the third year of the Chip Lindsay era that we said this is enough's enough. The fan base started saying enough is enough and our spineless AD at the time, thank God he's in Atlanta, waited until the penultimate game to make the change. And he ha and then that smug individual had the gumption to shake everybody's hand in Atlanta. And say everything's great. We're gonna fix it. He did, praise God, for two years. And then we hired this guy and then left. Kyle, this is your chance to actually step up and be an AD. This is this is your opportunity to for the van for the fan base to see that you're serious about Troy Athletics not being subpar. This is your opportunity. Okay. You you you you have rested on the laurels of basketball success and baseball success. Of which you did none of the hiring, you were just present in the room. And now you as the athletic director actually have a difficult choice of changing the head coach for college football. And I think that it's time that you make that executive decision sooner rather than later because you want the you want the fan base to keep buying season tickets. You want the student athletes that you currently have to remain at Troy. And the longer you wait, the the worse that gets. Homecoming will be an absolute disaster if you have Jared Parker on the sidelines and we lose to Louisiana Tech. The new kids on the block. I would be willing to forgive and forget if you let him go beforehand and you have somebody else on the sideline and just say, This is interim. We're doing enough to make the team, you know, cohesive and make it to the end of the season and do it again next year. I I could look the other way on that and then fix it next year. But that would be detrimental to the fan base. Especially for fans that don't actively pay attention all the time, then all of a sudden they show up to homecoming and you're playing a Louisiana tech team that historically has not been great and they're gonna come in and they're actually doing really well this year. And they're people are gonna say, What's g what's happened? So there there's a lot going on. I understand it. I I get that this is much more complex than a, you know, higher fire. I get that. I know that there's a lot of layers here. I know there's a lot of paperwork and money and this, that, the other. But buddy, this is your chance. This is it. And if you were sitting here, I'd say all the exact same stuff. 'Cause it's a fact. And if we're willing to run from facts, then maybe you shouldn't be A D. So there it is. That I think that this starts I th this is above him at this point. That this is not a coaching problem anymore. This is a culture and administrative problem now, in my opinion. Yeah. You know, and and and that's my one kind of addition. I I obviously I think you gave a great answer there. you know, I think Kyle George is a great guy. Everybody that knows him does. The problem for Kyle is, just like in The Lord of the Rings, at one point, you know, the Hobbits are saying to Gandalf, like, We don't want to have these terrible things happening that we have to try to address. and Gandalf says, Well, that's what everybody says that that lives through these kind of times. the fact is, Kyle, you're the athletic director who is going to oversee what Troy athletics looks like. When Dak Dr. Jack Hawkins Jr. retires. And so you have a sacred duty, even though I know you weren't left anything but a trunk full of ugly, ill fitting two small suit blazers from the guy who had the job before you. Look, those those things hit though. I'll say it. The blazers hit. I mean, yeah, but if you say Kyle Kyle George is twice the man that that that guy was, okay? You can't wear those blazers. but but but Kyle, you have been left with how do we send Dr. Jack Hawkins, who when you talk about the Troy Mount Rushmore, that's the first face we're gonna carve. You cannot let him leave his position with Jared Parker, a three and nine head coach going into a fourth season. It just it's simply God simply can't happen. It it can't happen. it's Jack means too much. He's made too many sacrifices for this program. and so it's up to you. You've got to do the right thing. I know that there are tons of issues and there are tons of challenges, but you've got to make sure that that at least Uncle Jack leaves with hope that the next season is gonna be better. I hate the fact that we can't send him out. at least on a bowl game. that's you know, he deserves so much and so much more. but you've gotta get this figured out. for Dr. Jack, for the fan base, for everybody involved. and I know that's a lot, but that's your job. So I wish you the best, Kyle. Agreed. And and yeah I would like to just th now this is a nice aside. We can cut this out, Bert, if you really want to. I would like to say that whenever we hired this individual that we have as head coach, I don't think any of the three of us were a fan. And everybody thought we were stupid. Everyone called us idiots with microphones. And look at where we're at now, everybody. I I'm not saying that we're omnipotent and know everything, but by golly, whenever their own fan base didn't want them and we hired I'm just saying. Yeah. No, I think that I think you're absolutely right. I think that's a great point. That's something that you've been seeing on Troy fans a lot is when is our administration gonna learn that like when have the fans been excited? The fans were excited when we hired Neil, they weren't excited when we hired Chip. The fans were excited when we hired John, they weren't excited when we hired Jared. So at some point, I know that I know the whole thing about like fans are just Morons and microphones, sitting back, drinking their Bud Light, enjoying the games. Fine. But at some point you gotta go, man, these morons sure seem to make great decisions. and when you ask them in mass. So go to the fans. If you have an idea, I mean it's not gonna scare a guy off. Go to the fans and go. Hey, what do y'all think about these three guys? And if everybody in the fan base falls asleep immediately, then you'll know, like, those are some some TKGs. We don't need that. we need, you know, we need somebody that's got some real excitement. and so hopefully they'll listen to that and kind of take that into consideration. all right. I think that we have done enough. we have you know, not officially fired Jared Parker here on this podcast, but we've come as close as we're legally allowed to. so now for the final segment, I am just going to actually put on some tanning oil and go enjoy just from afar. Yeah, a little bit of the fire that is going on at TroyFans.com in this week's edition of the Troyfans.com. Hot take of the week. Woo! Names are burnt and biscuits are done. Take them out. We are burnt to a crisp, everybody. Smoked, drop, fried, crisp, blackened, ready to go. Ladies and gentlemen, the TroyFans.com hot take of the week. Absolutely. Thank you. Yes, Troy Fans has like seven, eight threads that are all basically fire Jared Parker threads. and I appreciate all of them. they've they're all wonderful. the this week's winner comes from the actual game thread against the Warhawks. and and I I know this person and so I appreciate their fanhood, certainly not mocking them, and very happy to highlight their hot takery here. this came very soon after the game ended, I will say that. so you know if you usually have a 24 hour rule, this was not followed. Okay. and instead we got this kind of hot take here. quote last night during the potential game ceiling touchdown drive, Troy completed a long pass, and the fans erupted with applause and cheers, reminiscent of closing drives and championship games. Looking around. I thought of the quote that has been attributed to three legendary football coaches Bear Bryant, Paul Brown, and Vince Lombardi. Act like you've been there before. Then it dawned on me when my wife reminded me, clever guy, it has been so long we as a fan base don't remember Brownie Crying Face. man. So this week's winner, I appreciate the crash out, but it has been less than three calendar years. We did it live since yeah, since we have been sitting in that exact same stadium stadium watching us win our second title in a row. one thousand in fifty eight days to be exact. eleven schools haven't won a title as recently as Troy. Five have never won a single one. so in the word of the Beatles of my generation, why don't you step back from that ledge, my friend? But no, seriously, like I get it. I get that Jared's terrible. I get we all wanna, you know, get pitchforks and torches and go to his house and drive him out of town. And I love that kind of energy for all of us. but like we have we have been successful very recently. so let's focus on that and focus on the fact that that is going to attract the kind of head coaching talent that we need, not Jared Parker. and so that that I think is very, very important. But to this week's winner, I want to congratulate you on being this week's TroyFans.com. Hot take the week. all right, Bass, we've done it, my friend. We have made it through the absolute saddest breakdown. In the history of my life. this has been just not a great weekend of college football. and so I applaud both of us for not doing anything crazier than we've done tonight. and we've gotten ready for the JMU game, which frankly I think is fairly scary at this point. so Bass, go ahead and give Trojan Nation some closing remarks. Yeah, rate, subscribe, review to the Troy Boys podcast. you know, find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, X, whatever you want call it. I I wanna be super duper clear here now, if you've managed to maintain through all of this, we at the Troy Boys love and support the institution, the players, the athletes, the fans, the band, all of it. We love and support everything about that. we are not here to be a coach friend. We are we are not here to do that. That is not our goal and objective. At the end of the day, we are here to support our student athletes. And right now I feel like we're failing them. It's time to make some adjustments and some changes. James Madison on Thursday, October the 29th, 6:30 Central kickoff on ESPN two. If you make it up there, travel safely. If not, watch wherever you watch ESPN two. Louisiana Tech coming up real soon. That's homecoming, November the The seventh. So be loud, be proud, get your tickets, Troytrojans.com. Absolutely. yeah, please guys make sure that you are getting ready to come and support Troy for homecoming. you know, obviously we're having a tough time of it, but we still need everybody to get to the mighty walls of Troy and remember those lifelong friends that we've made. Get down to Pell Avenue, you know, celebrate all the memories that we have, and know that there are still brighter days in our future. CBass, thank you so much for being on tonight and joining us, Birdman. we certainly missed you. and I'll say what I would say. If Jared Parker somehow offered me a magical wish and said, Joe, if all you'll do is say that I'm a nice guy, I will be able to keep my job at Troy. I would look at Jared Parker and say, Go Trojans, and God bless you, Blace Brown. Yeah.