Mornings with Greg & Eli 10-2-26-hr1

0:00Time to get up and get your day started. Get up! Get up! It's morning with Greg Gaston and Eli Savoy. Good morning, everyone! Good morning! Morning! Morning! Good morning! The first hour the show is brought to you by Old Dominic Distillery in downtown Memphis. Now, here are your hosts, Greg and Eli. Hey, I'm just not here! Hey, I'm just not here! You're just not here, not here, not here, not here! Welcome in everybody. Happy Friday, too. Time for our final show of the work week. And that is the Friday, October 2nd, 20th, 26th edition of Mornings with Greg and Eli right here on Sports 56 on 1075. Getting you set for the sports week. And I am Greg Gaston. My partner and crime Eli Savoy has the day off. He will return on Monday. Jay Ham with me, producing as usual. We're broadcasting live and local from the Family Leisure Studios. Family Leisure, that's where Family and Fund come together. But you know that by now. World's biggest spa sale is going on with the largest

1:01selection at the best prices. And that's a guarantee from Family Leisure, 2120 Witten Road just north of I-40. Whether today, it's going to be a little dicey. The high temperature today is only going to reach, and I say only 80 degrees, which is a nice change from the last couple of days where the temperatures rose back into the mid-90s. But the problem's going to be some rain and we could have some thunderstorms. Right now, cloudy skies, showers in a possible thunderstorm late this morning, early this afternoon, into later this evening. Possibility of some heavy rainfall in that chance of rain is 70%. Tomorrow, high only 76 degrees. We'll see some sun, but we will see some clouds and likely some showers in the afternoon as well. So good chance for some rain today. And tomorrow, things clear out of been on Sunday after some early morning clouds. And the next week looks like we're going to have temperatures starting in the low 80s, but getting back into the upper 80s by the end of the week.

2:02So yeah, it's fall technically, but still a little feel that summer, but at least not that 105, 110 heat index, which will feel much better. What will also feel better is for the tigers and all their fans to hopefully avoid all the bad weather that's headed to Charlotte, if fans are headed there themselves driving the Charlotte flying the Charlotte, good luck with everything as far as the weather will give you all the details on tomorrow's game between the tigers and the Charlotte 49ers being changed, being moved, not the date, not the day, but the time of the kickoff. We'll get to that a little bit later on in the program. We got lots to talk about, including a while night last night in both the NFL and college football. There were a lot of games just one in the NFL, two in college football, but two do'sies, two great finishes. The Tolston, North Texas game and college football, of course, that's an American conference battle and the NFL game between the Browns and the Steelers. We got NBA news, including news on the former Memphis Tiger

3:04Jalen Durn will talk some Grizzlies today as well. We got basketball news, the University of Memphis with their tip off to the season will give you all those details that were announced yesterday. John Varlis will join us at 725 to talk all things. Perhaps we got that huge game tonight between Briar and Chris and Christian brothers, but he's in Nashville. He'll join us from Nashville because they had some meetings yesterday, some important meetings now with the defection of Christian brothers high school and M.U.S. and some other private schools in the state will get all the details from John Parker Fleming on the Grizzlies one more day of camp. Then they head back. They'll have the open practice on Sunday, which is free for everybody to go watch the Grizzlies get a sneak peak of the team. And then Monday, they'll play their first preseason game that will be in Atlanta. Joe Dalyone will join us at 825 to talk all things college football will play 10 in a row. The game show that is swept the nation brought to you by Napa Cafe. That'll be at 905 and then Brandon Lang at 925 will give us

4:04some of the picks that he has in mind for both the college football and the NFL weekend handicapper extraordinaire, Brandon Lang. Our number one of the program brought to you by old Dominic this story. Hopefully some folks went down yesterday took advantage of a great happy hour every Thursday, four to seven at the old Dominic this story bar. It is a fantastic bar adjacent to the distillery. If you want to find out more about old Dominic, their history, how it's made from grain to your glass. You can take the guide at tour. Just go online to old Dominic dot com for more information. They'll they'll do groups as well. Now, of course, old Dominic, the story produces Tennessee whiskey, bourbon whiskey, honey, Bel sutra, Zvodka formula 10, Jen again, they do it right there in downtown Memphis at 305 South Front Street. You can find out more about them online. As I mentioned, old Dominic dot com old Dominic, the story come for the spirits. Stay for the experience. Cheers to Memphis cheers to J.

5:07Ham. I'm sure like myself. You were up late last night watching the finish of that NFL game and really a real really good day in sports other than the fillies. Losing there was a lot going on a nice variety of things. A whole lot going on and I actually fell asleep like right at the start of second half. I just nodded off. So you never saw the finish of the NFL game. I saw it this morning. I played it back left. The beauty of streaming is dead by the time you fall asleep by the time you wake up, everything's our guy. The advantages that technology have brought us exactly in this modern age. I am not a huge hockey fan, but I am a fan of the flyers. They're my team. I grew up with the flyers, but I don't. Watch too much. I don't obviously talk about it very often here on the show, even though there are some, some fans out there. But I just noticed I was looking at the scores because I was trying to catch up with some other things that were happening, taking a look at the two college football games from last night, which I didn't get a chance to watch either one, but I did. See the highlights of the Tulsa North Texas game.

6:08I'll get to that in a second, but the reason I brought up the hockey was my gosh. I don't know what's going on. And it wasn't just the start of this year. It's been happening for the last few years, but do we have any more good goal tenders? What's going on? These scores, teams are scoring eight goals, nine goals, seven goals, like it's going out of style. Patrick was not welcome back to the end of the year. I mean, it used to be when I grew up, it was Bernie Parade with the flyers, two time Stanley Cup champions, but my gosh, if you give up four goals back in the day, that was an absolute offensive explosion. A barrage, if you will. I guess like every other sport scoring scoring is became the thing, right? Yeah. And it defense not so much, but it celebrate the scoring in the offense because they feel like that's what draws people in the way. Chicks dig the long ball. More home runs and baseball higher scores. You get the pitchers do it every once in a while, but it used to be where you got it. Every two out of three games, it seemed like they grew up. They'll score 140 in NBA, you know, exactly in the NBA. Scoring's up in football, but scoring is absolutely up and hockey.

7:09I think the this week three in NFL, they said was the highest scoring single weekend in any weekend in NFL history. Yeah. Maybe it's rules as well. It handcuffs the defense to a certain extent. And they go sports. Maybe it's happening in hockey too. I don't know what's going on. I know they changed the off sides a little bit over the last, I don't know when it was enacted, but I know that that's been altered a bit. They're still off sides, but it's been altered a bit. But yeah, I look, I mean, let me see if I can bring this thing up. Just it's crazy. I'm looking at these scores going. Do they have open nets? What are they goalkeepers anymore? Okay. All right. I'll give you some of these. Not oilers beat the conucks last night. Nine to seven. Nine to seven. Wow. A couple of touchdowns and a safety wanted for him. Nine to seven. Mammoth over the black Hawk six nothing six goals. Crack in six goals. Ranger scored five Blue Jacket scored six. There was only like six or seven games. And the lowest scoring game was the devil's beating my flyers three to it over time.

8:12So scoring is up all across the board. Now last night NFL what a game. And the Cleveland Browns through four weeks technically right now as I speak are your AFC North leaders. They are three and one. They beat the Steelers 27 to 24. They Schmidt with a 56 yard field goal with 10 seconds left and it was a no doubt her. Wings it for the Browns. The Steelers got the ball. Aaron Rogers a desperation pass. It got picked off to end the game. And Todd Monkin has Cleveland at three and one. The Steelers dropped to two and two. Now a couple of things from that game. Deshaun Watson. Do they get I think they give a comeback player of the year in the NFL? Don't they? They do. He's the leading candidate through four games. If you want to argue about him off the field being a slime ball that's fine. Sure.

9:12Right now he is back to playing solid football. I think he heard my boy Moe Chef to say this dude forgot how to play quarterback. And he just dided back in. Set it down. Yeah, it was it's been it's been a long road. It's been a struggle. I mean, he did it to himself. The problems he the trouble he got into. He was a great quarterback at Clemson. I loved watching him at Clemson. And well, more than likely nobody wants to go to dinner with them, especially some women out there. Um, they, I think Cleveland fans, just like any fan base, you win play hard. You're going to forget about some of the past, right? You're going to you're going to forget about maybe the slime ball that he is. I think with Todd Monkin, whoever whichever coast that said, uh, Browns going brown and Todd Monkin took that personally. That's true. They let a cold. They let a fuse in their culture in that locker room. So Dishon Watson went 24 of 33, 260, 268 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Very good stats, not mind boggling. He didn't throw five touchdowns and throw for 400 yards, but completed a high percentage

10:16of his passes. The thing that really told me that the Sean Watson is on the right track as a football player getting back to what he once was was the drive after Pittsburgh scored the touchdown, got the two point conversion led by the future Hall of Famer Aaron Rogers, who to me is still playing at a high level, even at his age. Yeah. I mean, he, he was the one who ran in that two pointer. But the drive was fantastic. Once they tied that game up, I thought, all right, stillers are winning this and overtime. And then here's Watson dissecting the Pittsburgh defense to get them into field goal range, albeit a long field goal temp, which Schmidt made. Just an amazing game down to the wire. And then some, the Browns winning to go to three and one, the Dishon Watson story. And then there was, did you, you probably didn't see this because you were just looking at the highlights this morning that Aaron Rogers and Mike McCarthy got into it. I saw I replayed the second half of the game in general.

11:17Okay. We're back on prime and just ran it back. And I saw it was a whole lot of jabbering and a whole lot of verbals going on in the Pittsburgh side of line because I saw the, um, TJ White just took the headset. He was going in. I saw Cam Hayward going to teammates. He was just, I don't like a pretty frustrating time in Pittsburgh. Well, when you have a defense that's led by TJ White and Cameron Hayward, you don't expect to get lit up like you did by Cleveland, especially in that last drive. But this was well before even that last drive. I can't imagine after the game how distraught those guys must have been upset. Yeah, they were pissed at what, what they were doing defensively, allowing Cleveland to move the ball at will. And I think it probably also had a little psychological effect, which you also traded away one of your better players earlier in the, you know, in the morning, the night before rather with Joey Porter. Yeah, but it wasn't going to work out in the long run with Pittsburgh with Joey Porter. But yeah, no, he's, he, he's a great cornerback, but you still have a lot of talent and Cleveland at times made you look silly on defense. But even with that said, Pittsburgh comes back, they roar back.

12:20They're down a couple of touchdowns. They roar back and tie that game and I'm thinking to myself, I'm good because I played a parlay with Pittsburgh minus two and a half. And I played the over in the Texas, North Texas Tulsa game, which ended up being 45, 44 and over time. So what was the total on that one? The total was, I think it was like 56 and a half. Oh, yeah, he did. He saw it. What that one? I mean, it was 44 and 45 89 points. Right? So when I said, yeah, 45, 44 and over to 80. So that was an easy over. And I'm thinking I didn't think I had a chance at all because Cleveland was dominating. And then Pittsburgh roars back to tied, which is seconds to go under a minute. It's not a two minute drive. It's a one minute drive for Watson. I'm like, I'm sitting pretty. I bet your Pittsburgh comes back. When's it? All I need is a field goal. And of course, Cleveland goes down the field, give a lot of credit to Watson. They get the win and Cleveland again, when you look at the standings this morning, if you look at the standings, used to be a ritual for me. Open up the newspaper. Look at the standings of every sport. I miss those two.

13:20You will see Cleveland in first place at three and one. One other NFL note, Kenneth Walker from Arlington High School, the pride of Memphis, named the AFC offensive player of the month. That's how you make a he doesn't really have to make a name for himself. Everybody knows who he is. He was the Super Bowl MVP. But if you want to put yourself in the good graces of your new fan base in Kansas City, that's a good way to start. Last month, you're the AFC offensive player of the month. He leads the league in rushing with 360 yards through three weeks. Four hundred and 42 yards from Scremitch, four touchdowns, two rushing and two receiving great start to his Kansas City Chiefs tenure for Kenneth Walker. So as I mentioned, couple of college football games last night to kick off week number five, New Mexico State beat Western Kentucky 3413. That's for all you gamblers out there who didn't look at the final score this morning. The other game is of note because it's an American conference game. Now Memphis does not play North Texas or Tulsa on the regular season schedule.

14:22Who knows? Maybe they'll meet one of these teams in the conference championship game if they get that far. But North Texas who lost through Mesta maker, the star quarterback and their head coach, they went to Oklahoma State and North Texas from an offensive standpoint as as good as anybody in the league. Vastly improved. We saw earlier in the year that they were winning with defense and they had the big upset over Oklahoma State. But now you see that they can score the ball, but they had trouble on defense at home at Tulsa, that small stadium, which is a tough place to play for opponents, but North Texas able to rally from from trailing early to win at 45, 44 and over time. North Texas scored a touchdown and then kicked the extra point and Tulsa in overtime. They scored a touchdown and they went for two and they missed it. Didn't want to go to a second overtime. They went for the two right there to try to win it and they missed it.

15:22When they go to the road like that, I always think like they were ready to go get some food. They were hungry. It's a long night. Maybe they thought they had them on the ropes after scoring that last touchdown. I don't want to go to no more overtime. That's put it away. I'm hungry. Yes. And the other thing is they couldn't stop them. They couldn't stop North Texas, but maybe vice versa. But Taven Jackson. He is the quarterback now for North Texas and he threw a season high for touchdown passes. He added a one yard rushing touchdown in overtime. J.H. He waited 219 yards rushing and a touchdown. And again, they needed all of it as North Texas wins it. 45 to 44. So North Texas improves to three and two and Tulsa. They drop to three and two. Now the Memphis Tigers will play Charlotte tomorrow, but the kickoff time was changed yesterday afternoon because of this weather that's moving west to east. I know there was a lot of serious severe weather from Texas all the way up to Nebraska through

16:24Oklahoma. It's coming east and it's coming our way. As well, maybe not a severe. Let's knock on wood. But Memphis will play at 10 a.m. Central time. So it's breakfast with the Tigers. And I already had to make, like you said, it's breakfast. I had to make that adjustment. I'll be posted up in front of television now that we have the ESPN plus back because we did the unlimited thanks to direct TV saying, Hey, you guys just upgrade that. Go ahead. Oh, there you go. We, I'll make the adjustment as well. I'll have to get up earlier at the hotel in Charlotte a lot earlier as we'll go on with the pregame at eight o'clock. And then we have a pre pregame that goes on at six a.m. So that's crazy. But our travel plans did not change. We're still traveling to Charlotte this afternoon. It did not get moved up, but the game did. So again, it'll be tomorrow. It will be at 10 a.m. Central time. So that's 11 o'clock Charlotte time Eastern Eastern Standard time. The Tigers are still a very big favorite in this one.

17:27They are a 20 and a half point favorite at last check. Let me double check now. Yeah, it's still 20 and a half. Yeah, I got 20 and a half as well. 52 and a half total. And that game will be on ESPN plus is interesting that you're missing at the travel part with us reading yesterday that Alabama is heading to start real tomorrow morning. Day of the game because have you ever driven that? It's like an hour. That's what I'm saying. It's like a 85 mile terrible. I got a solid hour. They can do that one day. Come right back in the whole deal. Yeah, it's funny. When I saw before I saw that story, I was just looking at the games and I'm just thinking to myself, okay, Alabama's playing in Starkville or vice versa when Mississippi State plays in Tuscaloosa. Well, your Mississippi State, I know there's that whatever they call the tri-county, the triangle, the triangle. And there's an air. There's a small airport. You're going to fly to Tuscaloosa. It's just like Tuscaloosa. They may have a small airport where they fly out of I don't think they go to Birmingham to fly. I think they fly out of that airport in Tuscaloosa. I think the University Alabama may do now.

18:29We thought they'd have a room for the big planes, but you're not flying from, you're not flying from Tuscaloosa to Starkville. That's a bus ride. And not even the night before they go into morning. Right. Right. So did LSU. I mean, it's a longer, a longer distance, but the LSU bus to Memphis where they stayed for the plane. No, but did they fly to Memphis or did they bus to Memphis? That's a good question. I don't know if they do which one they do. But that's a little bit more distance to have the guys on the bus. And then of course, Lane just kind of wanted to have them as far as way as they possibly could without being too far away from all of them. Oh, no, no. A lot of teams stay when they play. When they play, they'll miss a lot of teams. And that's a thing they want to say. They want to say that. They want to say that. They want to say that. They want to say that. They want to say that. That's not like all of his fans aren't here in Memphis. You know, if they wanted to make trouble, you know, hit those fire alarms or do some stuff to, uh, to mess around with LSU. But I was just curious because I have to believe 100%.

19:32That that's a bus ride from Starkville to Tuscallus or vice versa from Baton Rouge to Oxford. Again, going all the way to Memphis, that has to be a flight. I would imagine because it's a little bit longer. And again, you know, you have huge dudes that are all bunched up on a plane or on a bus. And you know, you want to get stretched out. I've been on two long trips with the Tigers this year. It's not like you made a stop. You went three hours to Vegas and three and a half hours to Boise. It is what it is. For those big dudes, those big lineman, man, it's, it's a very tight quarters. They're quite uncomfortable. I can imagine because I'm uncomfortable on just a regular standard flight and I'm a smaller guy. Absolutely. Okay. Also from the University of Memphis, they not only announced the change of the kickoff time for the Tigers and Charlotte. They also announced that they will host their Memphis, madness, annual basketball event, which has been held at FedEx Forum. It's been held on Beale Street. They mix it up. This time it will be held at the Memphis Zoo. It's Memphis, madness presents zoo hoops.

20:34It will be on Tuesday, October 13th. So a week from this Tuesday, it's a free event. They'll transform the zoo into a one of a kind festival featuring Tigers, basketball, family friendly entertainment, music, interactive activities. I think it's great. The doors open at five. Fans and the festivities begin at six. So fans can start rolling in at five. And then for some, they've never seen the zoo before. They could check out the zoo. I'll be at night time. You know, the animals start to go to sleep, but you're going to have some time to see the animals as well. It's free of charge. There are people that are actually complaining about this online. I don't understand what do they think. The basketball team's not serious because this is a great idea by the university. I mean, I don't mind if they mix it up. They go on B.O. Street one year, go to the zoo. Every now and then you can come back to their arena and do the big event, you know, like they normally used to do probably not as an extravagant because they cost a little bit more, but mix it up a little bit. Well, you hit it on the head. It's costly to do it at FedEx form. You're not getting the huge crowds. I get the crowd.

21:35It makes sense not to do it anymore at FedEx, or maybe they will look back at that. I wonder how many of them in the future. How many of them even know the big program, I know, imagine the big program. They still rolling out like that, you know, for like, you know, madness and first practice and a whole deal. You know, some do, but we've kind of gotten away from it. Yeah, I think it's changing. I think it's changing. We've kind of gotten away from it. Yeah, I think it's changing. I remember when it was midnight, man, it was midnight. Exactly. It was midnight. They may have moved it up, then it was like an earlier in the day, then it was 24 the day of the 24 hour thing. They're always looking for something to try to fire up people for the start of basketball. The problem is that you have football. Exactly. And it takes a while for people to get into the basketball mode. Well, then, and I kind of also look at those events, kind of like the NBA all star events and the other all star events in a lot of cases with the exception MLB with the home run derby. We've kind of grown a lot of that stuff. But again, mark it down your calendar. That will be coming up on Tuesday, October 13th. Real quick, we got to go to a break and coming up after we return. John Varlis will join us from Nashville. Jalen Dern, I said it yesterday. I had a feeling something would happen with that deadline.

22:37Jalen Dern, look. He's not a stupid guy. After a while, you got to look at that and go, what's the risk reward factor? 200 versus a qualifying offer of nine million. Right. You're getting $200 million, man. I know you wanted to 68 or whatever it was. So Duran signs five years, 200 million back in the fold, big news for Detroit because they were dead in the water without him knowing that Isaiah Stewart's now in Memphis. And then of course, I saved the my my Ajita, my problem from yesterday to last year in segment number one, the Braves. I know there's a lot of Braves fans out there. Congratulations, you jerks. You beat the Philly 62. You win this year. You finally beat the Philly's in a playoff series. You win two to one. Good luck. And now face the Dodgers for goodness sicks. That was the first win over the first in the playoffs. Yes. Michael Harris set the tone three run home run in the first Ozzy Albies, Matt Olson, also in the home. Jonathan Bowling got in the game for the Philly's in relief. He gave up around the former Memphis Tiger. But the problem was, what did I say yesterday?

23:39I would rather go with Wheeler, Zach Wheeler on three days rest at Aranola and four Aranola who's been a really good picture for Memphis for the Philly's over the years. Certainly not up to standards. I thought I I would take a chance with Wheeler. Now Wheeler came in the game and gave up around later, but I thought he was the best option to start the game to set the tone. Instead it was Nola. He gives up the three run bomb in the first and the Philly's just couldn't put enough offense to catch up. They end up losing that game six to two. They lose the series two to one. So now all the Wildcard series are over. We move into the respective league semi finals, if you will. So we are down to the final eight teams in the Major League Baseball playoffs. Once again, hour one of the program brought to you by old Dominic Distory producing Tennessee whiskey, bourbon whiskey, honeybell Citrus vodka formula 10 gin. They do it at that. That the story in downtown Memphis at three oh five South Front Street for more information go to old Dominic dot com old Dominic Distory come for the spirit.

24:41Stay for the experience. Cheers to Memphis. We head to Nashville when we return. John Varles will join us to talk some prep's football. You're tuned into mornings with Greg and Eli on sports 56 on one oh seven five. The sports talk is turned it up sports 56 now on one oh seven five. Now back to mornings with Greg and Eli. This hour brought to you by old Dominic Distillery in downtown Memphis. Here once again are Greg Gaston and Eli Savoy. Welcome back everybody. No Eli today. Greg Gaston, Jay Ham with this seven thirty the time hour one here on mornings with Greg and Eli coming up in about an hour or so. We'll be talking some college football with Joe daily own in about thirty minutes thirty five to be exact Parker Fleming on the Grizzlies right now though. It's time to talk to John Varles. It's time for Greg and Eli's weekly visit with John Varles of the Daily Memphia.

25:44Check out John's prep sports coverage and much more at dailymemphian.com. John is brought to you by shoot 360 Memphis with a pros and preps go to get their shot on shoot 360 Memphis. Now here's John Varles with Greg and Eli. He is a one when he prep reporter for the Daily Memphian but he's so much more. He's John Varles of course. You can follow him on Twitter at John Varles and listen on every Friday right here on sports 56 or mornings with Greg and Eli. John is brought to you by as Mr. announcer man said shoot 360 Memphis. They are in cordova at that fifty thousand square foot facility. If you want to get your shots up if you want to become a better all-around basketball player this is the place for you with the expert one on one coaching with the analytical information you get every time you step into one of those shooting bays with the shoot 360 technology and just a lot of fun really cool place. Big orange road in cordova call them at 901-779-3176 or just stop by ask for the tour get the free evaluation and then join you can join on a monthly basis a monthly membership.

26:49So you're not bogged down with some long term commitment but you could be if you want if you want to sign for six or a year you can do so as well. I'm telling you you're going to love it. The future of basketball training is here at shoot 360 Memphis. You know it's an important time in high school football because the T double S double A put the bat signal up and John Varles saw that bat signal got in his car drove the Nashville and that's where he joins us from. Good morning John. Hey, good morning Greg. Thank you for the kind introduction. I always are you. I'm doing good. I got it before we get to your bone and we got a lot of important stuff to get to. I'm laughing at this tweet you just threw out there. So I was at the presser earlier this week for the Tigers and it was Marcus Stokes and he was asked about local rap music. Jay Ham are you well versed with with rap today's rapper or are you like old school like man. I'm old school. Yeah, I'm old school as well. So a lot of these new cats. Okay. All right. So Marcus Stokes is is in the rap is are a lot of lot of athletes and he was asked about

27:53his favorite rappers locally a ride on them off and so somebody tweets it out with the clip and it says University Memphis quarterback Marcus Stokes names big 30 little double O Fox B.D. and Y. T. B. Fat among the artists on his playlist John wireless tweets his playlist sounds a lot like he's calling plays it does. John that's why it's only one of me with his big 30 that's the old and just for middle year. I don't know any of his lyrics or songs that could easily be plays John. Well, I mean, yeah, and it's no, you know, not a disrespect to Marcus Stokes at all. You like what you like what you like, but yeah, I mean, I mean, you tell me that you know, if you look, if you walked up to the line of scrimmage and say big 30 Y. T. B. Fat, you know, that doesn't sound like a formation or your column play that sounds like what you would, you know, if you're on the NFL films with with Peyton Manning and, you know, when they're Mike depth. I think you're absolutely right. I saw that I left because it's true.

28:55I appreciate you being a good audience this morning. Great. Thank you for that. I work. I work. I work hard. Thank you for that. I'll be here all week. Try the wheel. John, you got a bone to pick. Well, just a really quick one because I know we got a lot to talk about on the regular stuff, but and you and Jay probably talked about it in the first segment. I'm sure, but, you know, all we heard in the pre and breakfast is by saying, you know, setting aside all his legal questions and, you know, the things he's alleged to have done, but all we heard is this preseason was how how stupid the Cleveland Browns were for, for, you know, going with D'Shaun Watson is their starting quarterback is not should there are sanders and, you know, I, there's three and one and it's a small sample size maybe, but I don't know Greg. I'm wondering if maybe the coaching staff of the Cleveland Browns knows a little bit more about their quarterback room than Stephen A Smith and some of these other guys.

29:57Amazing how that happens, right? And, you know, and, and, and nobody's ever going to say they're wrong either, right? And, and, and should there are sanders may well be end up being a great quarterback at some point in the future, but, you know, for this season, it looks like the Browns, at least four games in it looks like they got their decision right. And I just wish, you know, with some of these hot take people, you know, just, I was just one time I would like to see somebody come back and say, you know, maybe I, maybe I spoke in haste or maybe I didn't have all the information in front of me when I commented and, and just, you know, just maybe admit you're wrong, but I know there's, you know, probably a better chance of aliens landing on the White House long than that happening. I pride myself on emitting when I'm wrong. I mean, that's, there's a lot, you're right, not just national people, local people as well, they're never wrong. I, I said across from one, you're usually not going to admit when he's wrong, but I said all off season that the Sean Watson is going to start.

31:01Should our Sanders is, is okay. He's serviceable. But the Sean Watson with the money they spent, there was no question that Haslam was talking to Munkin, maybe several times over dinner, telling him that you, you got a role with Watson. But Munkin probably did enough with his, with his history of coaching to really get the guy in the right frame of mind to be able to perform the way he has. And I think it's a combination that has worked well, but there was no, no, I'm not going to sit here and say, I thought Watson and Cleveland, we're going to be three one to start the season. But I will say that I thought he was going to start the season as their quarterback. And right now they are a great story. But John, a big story here locally is what's happening in high school football in the private sector, division two, triple way to be exact. We had the news earlier this week that you broke that and we had her rumors, of course, in the US and Christian brothers high school that they're leaving the TWS double a during this next cycle, which will run the next couple of years.

32:01And then meetings were, we're called in Nashville. You were alerted to it as a prep reporter. So you were there in Nashville yesterday. What came out of those meetings? Well, it was, it was especially called board of control meeting Greg and, and, and nothing, so huge significance really came out of it. The most important news of the day is there had been a, I guess, you know, something in the bylaws that said, division two, triple A, the largest private school classification would consist of 12 teams. Well, if you have them, you ask Christian brothers and, you know, a couple of these others dropping out, then obviously your, your 12 teams drops down to, you know, eight or nine teams. Well, where do you get the other teams from? Well, they would come from the next classification. So the line of thinking Greg was that, you know, if some of these teams were forced to move up to the largest classification from the middle classification that then they do would

33:06decide to, you know, play a non-region schedule and then you get to a situation. Well, is anybody going to want to play it? But what, what they did basically yesterday was just kind of say, okay, we're going to go forward with eight teams in the, in the largest classification instead of 12. And I think that works well because you can split those eight teams into two, 14 regions. You obviously have a convenient 18 bracket for the postseason. And now that was the, the, the, the main thing I think they came out of the meeting yesterday. Okay. And that does not count this year. Correct. This year is 20 years. This year. Yeah, we're going to play this year like we, like we started it. This all comes into play for 2027 and 2028. All right. So the cycle ends after 2028, 2728. Understandable that the first thing they did was figure out what they're going to do for the next couple of years. But when did they start the conversation of what could happen long term?

34:09And we've thrown that around on this segment for several weeks now about the possibility that maybe they have the private schools that are the boarding schools that are paying the players the big money. You know who those schools are that they are kind of pushed into a separate category. What do you think happens in the long run? And they need to start discussing that sooner than later, correct? Well, they are. I mean, those discussions are kind of constantly going on now. I think the important thing is that yes, there, there's two years now. And I like to try to separate a trial separation if you're having problems in a relationship. You're going to say, OK, we're going to take a couple of years. You know, I'm going to do my thing over here. You guys do your thing over here. But at the same time, we're going to talk and kind of dialogue and try to bring about some changes. And I think that's what you're going to see a lot of in these two years is a lot of these conversations and issues that are specific to a division to kind of come to the forefront.

35:10I think one thing, another thing, Greg, that came out of this meeting yesterday, which, you know, a lot of people have said, why don't you just do an open division? You know, you take the top eight or 12 or whatever teams in Tennessee, regardless of private or public and make them like a separate, you know, elite division and just let them compete among themselves. It's something that Florida does. I don't know if other states do it. Florida definitely does it. You know, but talking to Mark Reeve yesterday ahead of the T double S double A, he's pretty certain that there won't be anything like an open division going forward. You know, the structure will kind of stay what it is. So that means that, you know, we're going to have to figure some of these things out over the next two years going forward. Has there been reaction? I assume there has been, but have you heard any reaction from the division to AAA schools that have decided to stay put, but don't really, they're not boarding schools.

36:10They may give players some benefits, but they don't do it the way, let's use Baylor as the example, the way Baylor does. And have you heard from Baylor, for example, or a couple of the others that fall in that category? Have they sent anything about this? No, they haven't said anything about it. And in fact, Baylor and McCauley played tonight. You've been on social media this week. It's hard to miss that. Right. But yeah, no, that's going to be a big game in Chattanooga tonight. But no, I mean, people have commented. I think people were generally supportive of the US and Christian brothers and father Ryan and these schools that decided to go non-region. I think they understand kind of the thinking of it. And full credit to headmaster Pete Sanders and brother David Poo so we're there at a Christian brothers, the statements they sent out very clearly outlined the reasoning and the thinking and it was all in the story.

37:12And even if you don't agree, you can respect where they're coming from. And by the same token, a school like Ryarkrest is going to stick with the TWSAA. You can kind of respect where they're coming from too. So everybody Greg is just trying to do right now what they think is best for their school, what they think is best for the overall mission of their school. While still also trying to keep football in its proper perspective. So it's a tough balancing line. Not everybody's going to look at it the same way. Not every institution's going to look at it the same way. But I think generally people can look at MUS and Christian brothers and say, I kind of understand the thinking and respect for these guys for sticking to their principles. I got a text from the 901. They said Christian brothers is not leaving the TWSAA in football. They're starting an independent league within the TWSAA.

38:12They'll still be using TWSAA resources including game officials. Correct? Well, sort of, and again, I'm trying to be careful with the words here because people are throwing around independent and things like that and it makes you think they're not part of the TWS. They're just not going to play a region schedule. They're not leaving the TWSAA. They're just not playing a region schedule. So they're going to put together a 10 game schedule as best as they can. They're going to play it. They're still going to abide by TWSAA rules. Yeah, they'll still use TWSAA officials because they'll still be playing TWSAA games and they're still TWSAA members. The only thing Greg that they're not going to be eligible for in 2027, 2028 in the US Christian brothers in the playoffs. Playoffs and state championships. So yeah, so they're not forming a separate league. They're not, you know, their other sports are not affected. baseball, track golf, tennis, whatever, those aren't affected.

39:17It's just football and it's just not being, you know, participating in the playoffs. And I'll add to Greg for you and the listeners, they're schools that have done this non-region thing in the past too. It's usually a thing where maybe your numbers are a little down. Let's say you've only got, you know, maybe 15 or 20 kids in your football program and you're, you know, you're trying to get your numbers up. So you want to take some time off and not play a region schedule and not worry about the postseason kind of thing. So it's been done before. It's been done before, but this is different. This is a protest. Yeah, this is a protest. This is more serious. Yeah, exactly. You're right. This is for different reasons, but it has been done before it. And I'm just saying it's not a black thing. Right. You have permanent record if you do this or anything. Exactly. I'm sure I misspoke earlier by saying that they left the Tito last all the T double last double a the texture is absolutely right. And you just pointed out why they're still part of it yet they're going to play an independent

40:18schedule. Okay, John, standby. We come back. Let's talk about the games. There are a couple of games last night of significance. A lot of games tonight will roll through them. If you got a game you want John to talk about, hit us up on the CISC's log cabin list of lines at 901 360 8255. More with John Varlas when we return to mornings with Greg and Eli. John again brought to you by the great folks at shoot 360 Memphis. Call them at 901 7 7 9 3176 or go see them at Big Orange Road in Cordova. Get your free evaluation. The future of basketball training is here at shoot 360 Memphis. This is mornings with Greg and Eli on sports 56 on 1075. Same great sports conversation with a new presets. Now back to mornings with Greg and Eli. This hour brought to you by old Dominic Diskillerian downtown Memphis. Here once again Greg Gaston and Eli Sevoort. John Varlas joining us from Nashville but you'll be headed back pretty soon to Memphis.

41:25I'm sure John you'll be at that Christian Brothers Briar Cress game tonight. I'm sure will Eli and Bryant be there? Yeah Eli took the show off but he's he'll be calling the game. Okay good I'm a creature of habit Greg. If I go to a game and Eli and Bryant are going to be there then I'm going to be all discombobulated for the whole night so that's why I was just checking. Yeah and obviously it's a huge game but it's now got a little bit even obviously the rivals not as big as Christian Brothers M.U.S. But Christian Brothers and Briar Cress are really arrival. All these teams in the D2 triple A in this area those three just pounding each other but Briar Cress has been having a great great season. We had Seth Henigan on last week who's now helping out the coaches. Coach Massey's done a great job but they are the one that decided we're not leaving. We're not going to go independent with the independent schedule the next two years. There's even a little bit more on the line tonight other than just the normal rivalry.

42:28How do you see this one tonight with the way Briar Cress has been playing? Christian Brothers got off to a great start. Their quarterback Brick has been tremendous. They've gotten beaten up a little bit of late. How do you see this one? Well it's interesting Greg so with Briar Cress you look at their schedule. They're coming off that impressive victory they had last week against South Wind and it was 38 to 30 but that was a 16 point game with 19 seconds left. They played really really well and now they got and next week they have to travel to play Brentwood Academy. They kind of got Christian Brothers in that spot where they're coming off a big victory. There's a huge game next week. I know they're not overlooking Christian Brothers or anything like that because the brothers are always a tough physical opponent and this is a region game and this is important for playoffs positioning and like you say there's going to be a lot on the line but just scheduling wise it's kind of come up at an interesting time.

43:29I think it's going to be a terrific game. I'm looking forward to seeing the two quarterbacks Nate Brick like you say and and Kaden Dixon for Briar Cress is interesting. Nate is completing 71.9% of his passes this year Greg and Nate Dixon is well Kaden Dixon is completing 71.8% of his passes so they're virtually identical on that and you mentioned Seth Innington the good work he's doing over there with Kaden and the rest of that offense. It's a fun offense to watch. It's diverse. It's a lot of different plays and different formations, a lot of creativity, a lot of guys that can beat you, not just Kaden Dixon but Octavius Flynn and JD Donaldson of course the receivers they have Kaden stage and those guys. It's just a really, really talented offense and a really fun team to watch and I'm expecting a good fun competitive atmosphere tonight at Christian Brothers. You mentioned Briar Cress will play Brentwood Academy next week.

44:29Brentwood Academy in Memphis tonight or this yeah tonight to play MUS, MUS at three and three. Brentwood at four and two big challenge for the Ales. Yeah huge challenge. I mean that Brentwood Academy team Greg and you know and that's you know they're kind of one of the targets too with you know along with Baylor and McCauley with these you know that the you know some of these schools are concerned about. They have eight of the top 55 players in the state of Tennessee and in the high school recruiting rankings. It's just a loaded loaded team and it's going to be a very tough challenge tonight for for MUS. I don't know I don't know any other way to put it. I mean you know in MUS is always going to be well prepared and well coached and you know nothing but respect and love for those guys over there but it's just going to be a huge task for them tonight. Southwind looks to bounce back after the loss to Briar Cress. They're five and one they'll host Kirby at four and two. They will and I think they will bounce back.

45:30I mean you know they did some things well against Briar Cress. They were able to to run the ball pretty pretty good with with Camanne Williams and Logan Hughes and even even Malcolm Jack at quarterback you know got out there and made some plays in some positive yardies. So they'll be fine. I mean I think that game last week Greg was you know less about Southwind and just more about Briar Cress and really how complete and how well coached and just you know just how good this particular team is. I think I still think Southwind is going to be fine. That loss really didn't hurt him too much in the state rankings or anything like that. So yeah I mean still 20 of reason to be excited if you're a Southwind fan and I think they they get back on track tonight against Kirby. So here we are in October and there are still some big non-region games including Germantown at two and four but maybe better than the record would indicate hosting a very good the Soto Central team at three and one and Haddie's Berg Mississippi Oak Grove

46:32at three and one will travel to Houston at three and three so with Germantown Houston of challenges from teams from Mississippi. Yeah and you know and I think those games came up because you know the Sixth A region or the Sixth A schools in Memphis had to be split up into two regions so you have to find you know so many non-region games to fill out your schedule and that's you know led to some of these cross-state matchups. I think I think that Houston Oak Grove game in particular could be pretty interesting you know Oak Grove won that game last year but it was only by a field goal and and I think you know as we've talked about so many times I think Houston is just so much better and so much improved already from from last year to this year so much talent on that team and you know they're only going to get better can-and-day you know Kaplan Cruz at defensive in and tied in Rodriguez Roberts and so many talented guys over there at Houston and and I think I think they might have a little bit of revenge on their minds tonight over there at Houston.

47:35Division two double a couple of interesting games. St. George is a very quiet five and one. How good are they? They'll play at North Point struggling a bit at two and four and then ECS at Lausanne that's one where you think look we know Lausanne has played a rugged schedule and they're sitting at one and three and ECS is four and two but Lausanne to me seems to be the better team even though they don't have the better record how do you see those two matchups? Lausanne certainly the more battle tested Greg and it's really interesting I mean again with you know like we talked about all year they don't have Thomas Hathner and but still they up they have the second best offense in our area their average in right at 400 yards per game with total offense with you know with Lawrence Britt and Antonio Huntsman and and Keon Cooper and those guys so you know it's a really potent offense coach Will Hudgens and the guys over there have you know been able to compensate for not having Hathner and they've gotten creative and been able to do some things and

48:40yeah that's that's still a very good team and now that they're in region play I think you're going to you know start to see how good they are you mentioned St. George is too the the job that you know coach Rice is doing over there in his second season you can't say enough about it they've brought in some some good young talent too especially Ford Lamar at quarterback and they got a freshman over there a wide receiver named Chase Wilkes that's I think that coach D Wilkes on the basketball coach yeah I think that's his son so yeah they've got some good young talent over there they can clinch a winning season tonight you know down there at North Point and and and but most importantly you know that one's for for you know for playoffs positioning as well you figure Lausanne is still the team to beat in that region but you know you want to get in that second spot if you can last minute for you John from last night couple of interesting results including mace mace plays that tough non-conference schedule to start maybe some buy games and then

49:40they turn around they get into the region they usually kick tail they're undefeated in the region they got the win last night who they play chef field I believe chef field and you know the the longer we go into the season the the more impressive it is that that mace held you know west view to just 30 points in week one because you know west view scores touchdowns like like you and I you know blow our nose I mean they just they just they just they just put up points at a prodigious pace and to hold those guys to 30 points you know it just to really impressive feed is it strangers it sounds but yeah they beat chef field last night they're undefeated in the region fairly also one last night very convincingly over Memphis business academy so they're four no in the same region and those two teams those two guys will meet at the end of the regular season in the in the last game there are not I think the 29th or the 30th whenever it is so that one looks like it will most likely be again for the region title and uh and you know

50:41yeah it that's a very competitive region that region eight two way with uh with with mace and fairly and then you throw Mitchell in there as well that's going to be interesting to see how that all shakes out and a region seven three a comington beat Bolliver central right last night to improve to season one where do you think that your dandy doesn't coming to now the charge uh let me let me run it down they are where are they they're pissed so yeah they're fifth they're very good um especially that run game that offense they have Greg um you know it's hard to stop it's hard to prepare for and uh you know they've got martin westview at the end of the regular season so that's going to be a huge one as well you know once again the the schedule makers have blessed this with some some really good games in that final week of the regular season you'll have Kevin can in westview you'll have fairly amazed Houston and call your bill will play that last weekend of the regular season i'm sure i'm probably missing a couple of others as well um so it's

51:41going to be fun we you know october share we still got some lot of regular season football left to play and a lot of things still to be sorted out and uh and we will get it all sorted out but there's going to be a lot to talk to and look forward to going forward make sure to follow john especially on friday night if you got some scores some stats hit them up on twitter follow me john varlas scores read them at the daily menthean save travels back to menthas from nashville john will talk to next week okay look forward to it thank you Greg have a great rest of the show buddy thank you john that is john varlas from the daily menthean caramel apples are here they've been a dintestels for several weeks now but this is candy apple season fresh crisp granny smith apples covered in dintestels chewy caramel you can choose from the plain caramel or the rolled in chopped pecans or the dipped in milk chocolate or the rolling cashew crunch crumbles or the ultimate the turtle apple caramel pecans and chocolate it is absolutely out of this world the only time of the year that really they make them like this and i just think candy apples in october and haloween i just

52:45think candy apples candy apples are look they're a challenge but they are delicious you can pick up several for your watch parties this weekend as we get closer to haloween of course dintestels for all your fine candies all your sweets all your chocolates for over 126 years and counting that's crazy they've been around that long that's how good they are five locations downtown menthus that's right near the orphium they're in kagarville churman town pleasant view that's an east menthus and oh i should say pleasant view that's where they make the candies that's the factory lora wood that is an east menthus just off popular avenue it's dintestels dintestels fine candies and chocolates for 126 years and counting when we come back we open up our two talking some grizzlies with parker Fleming you're tuned into mornings with Greg and Eli on sports 56 on 1075 sports 56 is now in fm stereo find us and change that preset to 1075 fm

53:52you