Hr1 - Ian Cunningham Breaks Down the Falcons' Crowded QB Room

0:00So the GM speaks, but did we really learn anything? Atlanta, what's going on? It's Duke's in Ballon Sports Radio 92 9th Game. We start off every day and every hour by saying, hey, man, Mike, I listen to Ian cutting him before he went on Andy and Randy. And then I listen to him after. I don't know if I learned anything today. You didn't learn anything. I don't know if I learned anything today. And here's the thing, the most important question which we have talked about exclusively on this show, probably more than others, still has not been answered. And this idea that we're carrying four quarterbacks and I told you guys two days ago, JIC just in case, break glass in case of an emergency, because we don't trust these two guys. One of them could end up hurt, which means the other guy could play, he could end up hurt. And I'm just like, okay, Ian, I was hoping for more clarity.

1:01Right. I don't think we got that. And here's the other thing. What are we waiting on? Can I tell you what I really think is happening here? I really think they are going to start my openings. And I think this is just all an excuse to give them the timetable they need to get there. And unfortunately, today when Ian was asked from our media members about what is too a done and is this because too it hasn't done enough, he skated around it. Well, we're evaluating all four quarterbacks. No, no, no, no, no. The question was, has he done enough? Because if he had Mike, you would have named the starter. So, day day, I don't know if we're the last team. I know we were arguing about this on our text thread to name the starter, the Raiders named Kurt Cousins today. That was their plan. But Cubiac played it out a little bit. Clint Cubiac was like, well, wait to see, but that has been their plan. What is our plan? What is our plan? They will evaluate what we can in the scope of what we have.

2:02What, what's that mean? They will evaluate what we can in the scope of what we have. So, that means you got this week and next week. And now, however, they set up their practices to evaluate what we can in the scope of what we have. So, I just feel that, you know, we all want to answer. And again, some of the audiences not as impassioned about this. Okay, it's only the most important position on the field that we really want to know. But I think they're just going to try to see if, number one, is he going to say he feels ready to go? Because that seems to be part of the equation, although they did not come out of Ian's mouth today. But if Stofansky and the brain trust sees what they like, then okay, then you're starting again. Then let's go. You're starting against Pittsburgh week one before he's clear to play. If he is clear to play, you're healed. He physically, he's healed. But before we play a little bit of the C in for you, here's the other thing. When we talk about these quarterbacks, and I just heard Randy, you know, go off again.

3:03No, no, no, talk about Jack Strann. He's on the team. Is this still a competition? Tell me I'm wrong, Mike. Did the general manager say they have not made a decision on who was QB1? They're still talking. And you'll hear him say it in his own words. But it's like, it's still something that I think he'd basically cop to it that they see something in Jack's strand. They don't want to lose him. Absolutely. You also said for all the Zach, again, if you're Zach Harrison Boy, he must feel like, as I said yesterday, Reggie White, you know, or something. Well, they really like it. They like it. And they hated the risk of losing. But I think that's a byproduct of this for quarterback situation. Correct. And that's what we talked about. You're going to risk a roster spot or two. And he owned that too by attempting to keep four guys. 4047260929. And Randy and Randy did a great job with Ian. I always tell you guys, you can only do what the interviewee gives you. You know, and so when you're doing these interviews, sometimes you get great stuff.

4:04And sometimes you don't. But I thought they did a really good job. And great questions were asked. But at the end of the day, what did you learn? Falcon fans, what do you know two hours ago, from two hours ago, that you didn't know, that you know now. And for many of you, like me right now, you're going, I don't know a damn thing, dude. The nothing's changed. We still don't know what a quarterback is. We take two running backs. Okay, great. Mike, it is still a cohesive thing with the front office. And by the way, when asked about, well, who's going to make the final decision? I love this answer too. Well, it's all of us. Haven't we heard that before? Yeah, that was one that was kind of surprising to me. Now, you know, getting your 53 man roster, if you watch Hard Knocks last night, you see how that process works out. You see Schneider and all the coaches and a room full of guys and scouts talking about the players. They're going to bring in her mother teams and all that. But yeah, that's, I didn't realize that that was part of the general manager's pervance to be involved in the quarterback decision. I thought that was strictly the coaches. That's what I do. I do cook and I was waiting for him to say, let's coach the fanskies job, right?

5:05Right. My job is to supply the players. I've done that. His job is to figure out who's playing best and play them. He didn't say that. So does that mean Matt Ryan sitting in that big cheer mic at the end of the table going, guys? I really like that guy. Yeah. Well, I mean, look, I would like to see if ever there's going to be, you know, and again, it's the side. It's everything that we talked about. It's the most amateur off in Dan Quinn, a collaborative effort, a collaboration, if you will. There was a tie then the vote goes to Rich McKay. No, but that was that was then. This is now. If there is any kind of discussion about the quarterback and Matt Ryan is there to see everything that's the fanskie saying, who better than Matt Ryan to be involved in part of that evaluation? I know, but, but like again, to me, that's a simple answer. Who's decision is this? It should ultimately it's the coaches. It should be he made it out to be Mike, like it's a group project. Maybe he meant the Royal League as in everybody in the building, but you know, but the coach ultimately will make the call. And you know what that comes down to? Let's be honest. If it goes wrong, let's be honest.

6:05If it goes bad, who made this decision? Who made the call? Right? That's what this comes down to. For everybody that says, hey, we want to see pinnocks and we do, and it doesn't turn out to be the way that we think it's going to be. Somebody's got to own that. Or if it's the other way around. 404-726-0929. Here's Ian Cuttingham in his thought process on keeping four quarterbacks as he spoke today for the first time since training camp started. You know, when we first, when we got into training camp, you know, we came in with four quarterbacks and three of those four were banged up, were injured. And so, you know, you try to come in with the mindset of like, all right, the sky's not falling. But you have three of your four quarterbacks that are injured the first day of training camp. We're fortunate enough to have a guy like Cooper Rush that was available at that point, where as a guy that started games in the league has been a really good backup for a number of years. So for us to be able to get a player with his caliber at that point, we were fortunate. And then for a kid from D2, Minnesota state, more had to come in and be work with the ones and actually do an admirable job.

7:13Says a lot about him and his maturity. And then to see Cooper and Jack continues to get better throughout while too in Mike, we're getting healthy. So that kind of put a coming in with that thinking, all right, there's some injury risk, right, with those guys trying to protect against that. There's a little bit of an insurance policy, but there's also these guys have been productive during the preseason. And so if you let a guy like Cooper go, there's a potential that he may be able to get an opportunity to go to another team. If you let a guy like Jack Strango, he's subject to waivers. And the way he played, we talk about all the time, draft, develop, retain. In his case, he was undrafted, but to develop. There's a chance that somebody could have claimed him. So I think it's about living in the now, but also living in the future with Jack. So that kind of went into the four quarterback thought process. That is our general manager's explanation of why they kept four quarterbacks.

8:14And it makes sense. Just in case I got to cover my butt and make sure that we have a guy that we feel comfortable with in case some of this goes not as planned. And guys, it's a football season. Guess what? It's going to go at not as planned. Something's going to happen. And I'm not saying that the quarterback spot, but last year again, Mike, Pinnix is rolling. We're feeling good. He's taking hurt. You just never know how the season is going to play out. So from that standpoint, I get it. But once you make that decision, then there has to be a pecking order. And that is what we're waiting on. And that is what we're saying that that decision is yet to be made. As we talk about in cutting him in the comments he made today, here he is talking about the decision. Mike, this is the question where who's going to make the decision about QB1? Yeah, it's still a feel like that's us talking. We talked constantly. We've talked about every single position. Every single position on this roster, we've discussed what we think. But ultimately, that will, when the coaches are ready, when the players are ready, we'll make that decision.

9:19Us. Yeah, I mean, I heard that. I was like, okay, all ready. All right. I mean, the GM, and this is the great debate as we said, we've had it here in Atlanta. The cities have had it. Sometimes coaches, they get hired first. They're the guy. In the case of Mike Smith, seemed like he had a little more juice on Tarifano. Certainly in the big picks in the first couple of years, who picked Kyle Pitts? I think that was Arthur Smith, who wanted to Sean Wasis. I think that was Arthur Blank. But in the case of this, you got a brain trust that's involved in the process. Now, some guy said there's nothing wrong with that. But someone said the coaches, like the coaches there every day evaluated the quarterbacks. He's an offensive minded coach. That's his call. I agree. Let him make that call. That's where I'm at. He said us. I mean, if you guys that to me, that includes all of these people in front of us. Oh, you guys are going down the semantics highway. Well, guess what? You know, he said us, you know, as in he's involved. I didn't say it. He said he said it. I already got the guys in the text. I'm here. We go. I didn't say that. We're not manufacturing a cow. What how does that? Do you?

10:20Do you speak English? Is it your first language? He said us. Okay. Who's us? I would say that's him. That's the assistant general manager. That's Matt Ryan. That's Kevin Stofansky. That's Tommy Reese. I think it's Alex Van Pelt. You want to go on? Because all of those guys are going to be involved in this quarterback decision. Right. But it should be one guy. But that said, one more thing from Ian. And we have a lot to get to today when it comes to the Falcons. Because again, first time he spoke and he owned that too, by the way. Right. You know, I hadn't talked to you guys since I've been hired. Yeah. We know Ian. Like we'd love to hear more from you. But Mike, he's like, hey, I'm trying to do this. Put the team together. And by the way, the one thing I will tell you that I did respect today. And I love was his idea. Like we're trying to win. Don't care about the sacks. Don't care about all this stuff. Like at the end of the day, we're trying to get to the playoffs. And I know many of you don't believe that that's what this team in this organization wants to do. We've been saying it. They do. Nobody in the building wants to lose. Okay. Nobody wants to be a perennial loser. Nobody wants to be tied to that. Mike said it.

11:21Nobody wants to be considered the worst franchise in the NFL over the last decade. So this new blood that's in the building is coming in just like you are energized when you got your new job. Right. You want to win. So don't think for a second that they're not going to try to do that. The problem is do we have the guys? Do we have the quarterback? And does the coach and the coaching staff have the wherewithal to put it all together? Right. That's the question. Now Ian Cudham did say they want to see more from the quarterbacks specifically. You know, Mark Ramon, he had this earlier seen penics in more full practices. So there you have it. I mean, he did say we need to see more full practices of Michael Pettics. And hopefully he gives them enough to say you're over to it and you start. But there's still not there yet, guys. And this is the problem when you draft an injury prone quarterback. Here we are ready to start the season. And you know, I mean, you guys don't want to say it's no big deal. It is a big deal. Okay. You're trying to evaluate what this guy is. You know, is he my franchise quarterback? Am I going to try to do something to get into the top 10? Or am I just going to be in the top 10 next year?

12:23You know, to get that quarterback. It's a big thing. You know, and I'd like to know for once and settle this argument. You know, well, it was all yeah, because I blame Zach Robbins. Yeah, there are a lot of things that were wrong last year. But Michael Pettics also made mistakes. Let's go. 4047260929. Did you expect to hear from the general manager who the starter was today? Did you hear anything that caught your ear whether it was with Andy and Randy or in his press today? 4047260929 opening week on sports radio 92 9 the game is presented by hands free. Sketchers slip ins. Just step in and go. We're coming back with a lot more including we're going to get a chance to talk to coach Jerry Mack. Head coach at Kennesaw State. Mike Wurick, twin peaks tomorrow. Right. They're taking on West Georgia up there at Kennesaw big game at seven o'clock. We're going to talk to coach Mack coming up here in about 20 minutes. Stay there. So the Falcons do sign Zach Harrison. And Mike and I had discussed this back to the practice squad. And you said it. They gave him ray reviews. I mean, hearing from me and cutting him and talking about the makeup of the person that he is

13:26and how hard he works. And there is a personal relationship there. They were trying to keep him and they're able to get him back. They released Kobe Bryant Mike. That was the kid we were talking about over the last couple of years who again was undrafted. But you know, we thought he might have had some promise corner and then Cam sample also released. But they added and when he was asked today at his presser, the general manager for the Falcons about, hey, how much of this is going to change between now and the start of the season? He was like not much with the 53 practice squad guys. That could change. Yeah. I mean, sometimes it's injuries. I mean, again, the uniqueness of having four quarterbacks does sort of hamstring you. But you have seen guys, especially over the years. I mean, we talked about, you know, that special team or the cadarrel, Hodgotype guy. If he's not under contract, bouncing back and forth, only so many times you can move them by the way. But you got to basically blanket off the pot with some of your practice squad people. But this is, you know, a system that is set up for guys to practice. They make decent coin. And then hopefully you can, you can be a practice squad guy and then become a starter and emerge. Now the idea that Zach Harrison, who was just coming into his own with the injuries. Guys, don't take it from me.

14:27Take it from Nate Olley. He's position coach. You said they love the effort. It's all about the health. They just were disappointed. Couldn't stand the field last year. Yeah. And look, the size thing is real. We are bigger upfront. We talk about nose and doorless and, you know, Smith Mason Smith. All these guys are bigger. Great. Can we stop the run? That's what I want to know. And we'll figure that out and find out here pretty quickly. But if you're wondering, all right, man, did they name the starter today? No, they did not. The general manager said they are still evaluating. As a matter of fact, he was asked, how do you evaluate pinnocks without seeing him in any way? That's not what he said. Those are the cards that we were dealt, right? And I think that's where you've got to be able to evaluate the practice, evaluate, you know, the operation, evaluate the accuracy, the anticipation, the movement, the comfortability in the pocket. So, you know, those things are we're going to be evaluating in the game too. It's just we weren't, we didn't have the luxury to do so, right?

15:28So, at the end of the day, we've got to evaluate what we can in the scope of what we have. And then, you know, when he's ready, when the other guys are ready, we'll make that decision. So basically, feeling good enough to throw him out there in a real game situation, even though you haven't had him be in those real game situations. Right. As best we could, the 11 on 11s. And again, we never have 11 on 11s versus 7 on 7s. It's been broken down more than on this program. But now, it's just a matter of the coaches, are you going to throw some blitz packages? Obviously, there's no contact, but are you going to throw some things which get him off the spot, which create, you know, some reactions? And how does he do and how do you evaluate? That's best guess I could give you, right? And how you do anything other than that in 11 on 11? What else is the same old same old? Isn't it? I think so. Didn't tell you anything. No. I don't think it tells you. I'm not expecting less. Not expecting to say with dabbo said, well, we're going to go up against LSU.

16:28We're going to see what we got. You know, you got to know what you got going up in the Pittsburgh. Yeah. I'm with you, Mike. I don't know if it changes anything. Here's the good news. If you're cheering for Michael Pinnix and we all are, I would hope whoever's going to be under center, you want him to have success. Right. It's been the thing, whether you like or dislike a guy that's been my whole thing. And part of this is he has played in the NFL. He started games. He knows what it feels like. The issue for all of us right now is how is it going to look coming off of this third ACL? That's the issue. It's not that Michael Pinnix is like, you know, dear in the headlights. Oh my God. What do I don't know what to expect? He's done this. But what does it look like and does he trusted enough to make the plays necessary? That's the only way to get the ball forward. It's one of our callers said yesterday. He plays scared, man. Is that the situation? Because I'm not holding on this damn ball. I got to get rid of him. Yeah. I mean, the ball's got to come out quickly. He's got a process quickly. And he's also going to make the determination to pick it up and put him down. Take four yards. Take three or four yards.

17:30Get out of bounds. You know, give it to your slide. You know, take what that defense is giving you. But I mean, the reason I'm down with him getting the job. That's why for all the things that's been said and we've had fun talking about the quarterback battle and some guys don't get it. The thing for the franchise is for him to establish himself as the man. And then we have traction with this guy or not. Or not. And then we get off the pot and we move on. Right. Because guys, look at the jets. All right. The jets have gone decades and without having their quarterback without having a guy. All right. The dolphin since Dan Moreno, the the the the the saints are hoping now that it's a five year play after New Orleans. They're trying to find the guy after drew breeze. Right. And we're trying to find the guy after Matt Ryan. You know, and this is this is where we've got to get this right. And we've got to know that's why we are so upset about not knowing who this quarterback is going to be two weeks out. Ten days out. Yeah. I don't disagree. You guys can chime in on that. 4047 260929. Coach Jerry Maxkina join us here in about 10 minutes for Kennesaw State. He's an opener tomorrow against the University of West Georgia. And we'll be up at Twin Peaks guys. If you go into the game, stop by.

18:31Have a cold brew and stop in, man. We'd love to get a chance to see you tomorrow. We'll be up that way. I also want to play this for you, which was Ian talking about completing competing for the playoffs. And I thought this was important. Like guys, we're just not going through the motions. These guys worked too hard to just show up and go, yeah, we're going to lose 10 games. If you lose 10 games, then you just want that good. And that's what happens in the NFL, but Mike, nobody right now, even the worst team. Who do you think the worst team is? Whoever you think it is, right is not showing up week one going. Yeah, I know we're about to lose 10 games. It's just that's not how these guys are built. So when asked today about, hey, are you competing for the playoffs? Because this notion like what you haven't figured this quarterback thing out. So you guys might just be, as Mike said, is this a gap here? And here's his response to competing for the playoffs. We're competing to make the playoffs. That's what we're doing. That's why we play, right? You want as many shots on that to allow yourselves the opportunity to get into the dance. And once you get in, who knows what may happen? So we're constantly, we're going to continue to invest in the roster. That's the main goal. That's why we do what we're doing.

19:38So whatever we can do to continue to push us forward, that's what we'll do. That's he and cutting him and look, as a general manager again, supply the players last year or even the last two years, Mike, some people will say that the players have been on the field. It was the coaching that failed us. Right? It's been the coaching that has failed us or our inability to get over the hump and win a couple of games that would have gotten us to the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, you know, the 40 managers game we've talked about, you know, just basic stuff late in the game. You know, not having a kicker to get you to overtime in the first game of the season, not having a guy that can, you know, get you a kick you need an extra point against the Patriots to force it over. I mean, the kicking game alone. See, that's on the general manager, fought no one, Raheem Morris had their heads up their butt. When it came to the kicking game and we had this publicity stunt of some German guy, Lenny Krieg, nice guy. You know, he could kick at 70 yards. No idea where it was going to go. No, you know, but that's it. You, you, the, but because there's no adults, that's right when we talk about adults in the room. That's a prime example. Who lost it? Everyone knew it and you didn't bring in real competition.

20:41So guess what? Who screws up again? You cut, then you go to that revolving door of, let's be honest, journeyman kickers who have their run and then they crap out too because they're not any good. So that's the franchise. So there's two games right there. Well, those two wins make us division champions. Yeah. But that's how this team has been, has been run and it took our third plank, having to spend millions out of consulting, having to go, you hired some idiots, you know, who really didn't have their ducks in a row. And now we're trying to clean up. There was some good, some guys were drafted, they're really, really done well. You know, but some have not the 2024 draft classes looking like a freaking disaster, saber Brandon Dorless. True. No, I mean, if you go man by man right now, it's not cute, right? So that's when I said gap year to you a couple of weeks back. I think there's elements to that. I think you've got to, they're trying to get better against the run. They're going to, I guess, issue some sacks to get better against the run. He was asked about that today in the press conference. He sure was. We got a lot more to play. Mike, one more thing here before we talk to coach, Mac,

21:41and that is Ian was asked about the collaboration thing. And I use that word, look, this goes back some years, okay? For those of you who have listened to us for, I don't know, five, six, ten years, whatever it's been. Every new front office has used this word. And it's, it's a pet peeve. It's sort of like my two things can be true, okay? No, they're not. All right? And when we talk about this collaboration, my thing has always been, you talk about the top companies in this country, the Fortune 500 companies. When decisions happen, Mike, comes from one place, one voice, I can get all the collaboration I want from everybody and you can tell me what you think. But at the end of the day, you got to have one dude making the decision or one lady. And that's why when we hear this collaboration thing from Mike and I was like, ah, don't do that because we've been in this mode of we're collaborating.

22:42And what the hell, what have we achieved? We haven't gone to the playoffs with this collaboration thing. I need decisions and I need to come from one guy and one guy only. That's me. That's how I feel. All right, we're coming back. We'll get more into the Falcons along the way, but we're going to talk some college football. We'll coach Jerry Mack next. We hope you are having a great day. Come on out and join us, man. We'll be at Twin Peaks on Thursday in Kinesa Friday. We'll be at Buffalo's Cafe Hamilton Mill as we get our Labor Day weekend started. Right? And the college football season kicks in the high gear tomorrow. No better place to get the season started. Then at Twin Peaks in Kinesa. And we'll be up there getting you ready with all of the latest news and notes on these games. Guys, drink scenic views, great eats. Obviously at Twin Peaks. And that's going to be from two till six tomorrow. Yeah. As we talk about, you know, our football team, it's front and center. We're counting down to the start of the season. I don't know if you guys realize this like Wednesday that the season starts on a Wednesday this year, which is weird.

23:45But the kickoff game is a Wednesday. Right? We get the hatred and Seattle. Right? In Seattle. And then we get the, we get the game down on, which is crazy. Because the 49ers are flying out for like a full week. And the Rams are going to basically fly out 36 hours before getting it out. Yeah. Which we'll see which one works. It's, it sucks at the 49. And by the way, how do you feel if your San Francisco you lose a home game? Hell, when you play in LA, it's a home game. That's true. You know, but you lose a home game to go to Australia and what could have, if everything goes right, potential ramifications for a number one or two seed, the NFC. Yeah. So, but the season is right around the corner. And, you know, now with the roster being what it is, I think they've got the guys in the building they want. Whether that's on the practice squad, because you can adjust that, you know, with roster moves. And, you know, this week's 53 is not the same 53 that might happen next week. So, Emel will talk, you know, more about that and what he had to say. But right now, we got to say good afternoon to a guy that's doing a hell of a job up there at Kennesaw State. Coach Jerry Max, joining us here on Dukeson, Bell and coach appreciate you jumping on with us.

24:45We're going to be up there right around the corner from the stadium tomorrow at Twin Peaks, as people make their way over to get ready for West Georgia. How you doing, Coach? Tell us about how things are going, how things winning camp, and where your team is right now. Well, right now, things are going good because we haven't played any game. That's the best part about right this moment. But, no, but, no, I mean, the camp went extremely well. The biggest thing you're trying to do when you come out of camp is trying to make sure the bodies are healthy. And we came out of what pretty good success. You know, we got everybody really locked and loaded and available for tomorrow. We saw the team grow a lot. One of the things I talk about when we start a camp is, exactly every week we're going to reveal more layers about like what we are, as far as good at the bad, ugly. And we were able to come out of those 15-17, whatever it was, practices. And we were able to figure out from a team standpoint, what do we need to attack to try to make this run and be the best versus of ourselves this year?

25:45Showing so much poison that conference USA Championship game against Jacksonville State, I bet on you. How much turnover on the roster, provokes, you don't follow the owls, how many of the same guys, how many new faces do you have on this year's team? Yeah, so we probably about close to like 50-50, right? So it's nowhere in that range. So we lost a lot of good players and all conference players, some second team all conference players from last year. But we did inherit some good high school students, first of all, but also to some good transfers that went through spring and went through fall camp with us and had some success. And you know, that's kind of the name of the game right now at this level football. You're going to have some attrition and new stars are born every single year. So we're looking forward to see who emerges out of this group that people did not know about last year. Kenneth saw state finish 10 and four last year, won the CUSA championship, made its first bowl game in program history. That's what Mike's alluding to only the second year of eligibility and coach Max behind that. And they open up tomorrow against West Georgia. And then Georgia state on September 12th coach.

26:47And by the way, limited tickets can be purchased at KSU owls.com. That's KSU owls.com if you want to go check them out. I want to talk to you about this retention thing and you know, keeping guys in your program. And how difficult has that been for you knowing that you know, money's just being thrown around out here, coach. It's crazy. Yeah. So we feel like at our level, we can be very competitive with some of our counterparts. Not saying that we have the most, not saying that we have the least, but we make it very competitive argument to keep some people internally. Now sometimes like you know big fish, you little fish, we're going to get healthy sometimes by you know bigger, bigger schools. But you know, the thing that we have, the biggest thing that we have going for is right now. Obviously we've had success, you know, in the my regime. And then the second thing is our community and our fan base is really been a positive thing to try to keep guys. So sometimes guys see the bigger, bigger picture and they see, you know, how they've been treating the building along with, you know, saying financial because everybody wants to get paid.

27:47Nobody wants to do a job for free. So like they they can't compare all those different things that are presented in front of them. And they feel like staying in Kinosaur is the best situation. Give you example, we were able to retain the conference because of the player of the year at our level. And normally to be honest with you, you know, you're not going to find many schools that play at the GC level. Sometimes you don't even find them at the powerful level. They're going to be able to retain their player of the year just because they're going to get, they're going to get put you by some bigger schools. You know, he saw the bigger picture. He saw that it's an opportunity to not only be successful here again. He's going to go in Hall of Fame at this university one day. He's going to, you know, get it. He has an engineer degree here. He's working on his master's degree. So he just he long term what Kinosaur state can do for him and his family. It's great to hear, man. And again, you've got to get a great staff and you got to keep that staff from getting pushed as well. Mitch Miller, tell it again, coach, for guys who don't follow the program. What talk about your style and what you're looking to do offensively? Yeah, offensively, you know, we were always kind of be the same, same situation. We're going to be high paced and you know, we're going to push the ball down the field vertical, but it all starts with the run game.

28:52We're going to always keep a load load of backs that can run the football and we're trying to continue to build our brand and get bigger and stronger upfront. So we're always looking for big strong me in a front that can move the line of scrimmage on the defensive side of the ball. And we're going to cause defenses in the league last year, especially from an aggressive style. We led the league and tackles for loss and sacks. So we're constantly continue to try to, you know, put pressure, apply pressure to offenses. So that's one of the things that on both sides of the ball, we pride our cell phone office and defense just in a tag mode, you know, always pushing the tempo on offense side of the ball and defensively always get knocked at the quarterback. By the way, coach has an undefeated team last year at home. You guys were six and oh, you've got a seven game win streak heading into Thursday's game. That dates back to 2024. Do you bring that up with the guy that we don't lose at home? I mean, like this is our defend this. Oh, we don't lose. I mean, what do you say, coach? You know, we always talk about we don't want anybody coming here, rob the bank. So we're always trying to protect that their brand at home. So so far so good is worked out for us, but we understand that everybody's going to come in here and they're going to want to knock us out the block.

30:01Not only because of what we've the success we've had at home, but also to just for the simple fact, you know, we've had success in the league. So that's one of the things we try to pride our cell phone protecting, you know, protecting our home base and our fan fan base, you know, our students are banned in our alumni. They're a big part of making that their environment is hostile as possible. We always say ask yourself Carl who's the Mac. He's on the show. It's coach Mac with us from Canada's state. Your quarterback is kind of a sign of the times from LSU by way of Syracuse. Talk about Ricky Collins and how we won the job. Well, the first thing you did when he walked in the building extremely impressed with how Ricky handed itself from a standpoint of just understanding football is football like you and then also to his leadership ability. He's a very charismatic character, you know, and he just gained more and more confidence as he went through the process and started back in January. He continued to learn the system and learn the offense, but most importantly, he started to earn the trust of his teammates. And that's one of the things that, you know, as we looked at, you know, the battle that we had going all the way deep into fall camp.

31:04That's one of the things that continues to separate from him and not saying that the guy that the young man that did not win the job is in his list, but Ricky just shows a little bit more poise and a little bit more understanding of what we were trying to accomplish, you know, doing that time. Now there's a second part to that, you know, we were looking to see if those things apply to when he gets under the lights on Thursday night, you know, we need to see the same thing that we've been seeing in camp when you see that come to life tomorrow night. So coach, what do you think the CUSA championship did for not only the program and the players before the school. I think it helped put the school on national stage, you know, when you go back and you watch that game, we played on national television and and just not only that just what centered around our whole program and the success that we had last year. We were on the tip of the tongue on national media outlets. We try to do a great job this all season on making sure we told our story about how we built it and how we want to try to continue to sustain it, which is even harder. So like I think that just helped bring a more eyeballs to Kinosaur State, you know, hopefully more people understand where we're located at and they look us up.

32:11They they Googlers and chat GBTS and try to find more and more out about the university itself. And I think that just helps the entire brand as we continue to grow as a school. Well, again, we always talk about the big games last year for those folks who are memory play Wake Forest really close, could have won that game and then the Indiana game went another way. But how do you get guys? I mean, is it easy just to walk you're going to kneeling stadium and just the the size and scope of it. Everyone just gets amped up for a game like that. You know, I think that the the kneeling stadium situation when you go to university Tennessee is going to be a great atmosphere. It's going to be that first night home game today going to have this upcoming season. So we understand it's going to be juicy. We understand it's going to be a hot style environment. I was there for three years on the stand what that looks like. But we try to pride ourselves on not playing logos. You know, we have a certain process that we want to go through certain things that we want to try to accomplish every single week. And if we do that piece, we feel like we got an opportunity to be in a lot of games throughout the course of the season is when you get enamored by the stadium or enamored by the logos that you end up losing focus.

33:13So we're just going to apply the same processes and same things that we always do and hopefully, you know, give us a self a chance to have a chance in the four quarter. All right, before we let you go, I got to ask you about West Georgia. Don't want to disrespect your opponent, but what have you seen? What do you know about them and what are you expecting tomorrow? Yeah, very good football team. The last couple of years, you know, they were in the game all the way to the four quarter of this last game. And they didn't kind of got out of hand really in the in the four quarter, but good football team coach has done a really good job in his career building programs and having success. And like you said, you know, there's some players on our team that played there so we understand the caliber players that those guys will bring in here. And anytime you get a chance to face a team that's in the state, these guys grew up playing P.W. football or a no one, another, we're playing high school football throughout the entire state. That's always going to be everybody's going to be on high alert. So we're looking forward to the challenge. We know those guys are going to come here ready to play a football game. You always get better from week one to week two.

34:16And the thing that they have that we don't have, they've actually played a college football game this year. So we're just trying to, we're just trying to make sure that we got eyes and cross our teeth Thursday night, seven o'clock ESPN plus and in Kinesle guys at the bank. And as he said, don't let anybody come in here, Rob, the bank tomorrow's going to be a lot of fun. West Georgia, Kennesaw State gets their season kicked off. Coach, congratulations on a great year last year, but I'm sure you said nobody cares. It's all about this year. And now the season starts for you guys tomorrow. We appreciate the time. Good luck. No, of course, we appreciate you guys. Coach Jerry Mack, ask yourself who's to mag love the guy.