This podcast is being brought to you by WXAV 88.3 FM and WXAV.com WXAV bringing the best podcast to you. Hello and thank you for tuning into the debut episode of The Coaches Show. This week, St. Saver football head coach Mike Feminis joins Mike Rankin and Christine Manica to preview opening night of the 2017 season.
Later, senior defensive lineman Jesse Gonzalez and senior defensive back Glenn Smith jump on to share their thoughts as they begin their final season. Without further ado, here's Mike Rankin. Welcome back to WXAV and The Coaches Show. We are pleased to be joined by head coach Mike Feminis.
First of all coach, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us I'm Mike Rankin, Christine Manica here. It's the first week preparing for opening night. It was a long off season, a lot of turnover, you were hard at work in the recruiting process. First of all, how does that work for you?
I know you have experience in bringing in recruits of course this year, 19 season. What's that process like going into the off season after losing 16 seniors? Well, the recruiting process is a long one and it's actually with technology today and the way the films are distributed on the internet. Our recruiting season really starts in May and June going into that season from this little bit different from the years and past where the recruiting season really didn't kick off until October, November, December.
So it kind of makes the season a little bit crazier in itself because we're already working on kids that have to even play their first senior game yet. But we've had two great recruiting classes in a row that we're really excited about and I think we've improved dramatically our team speed and athleticism. And you know, there'll be some young guys playing again tomorrow just like there were last year, but we're really excited about what we're at right now. So coach, you do have a lot of fresh legs this season, a lot of young players.
And I just want to know, is there any advantages with that? Any disadvantages with having such a young team? Well, depending on how you look at it, they're young, but they're very talented. And these guys are going to be playing.
Now we're going to redshirt probably almost half our class, but the guys are going to be playing on Thursday and the rest of the year. And even the guys that are sophomores and other players are too freshmen. They were college ready. They were physically ready to play college football game.
The only thing that's lacking there is experience. It's a lot different than the high school game and you're playing against bigger, faster, stronger guys. So there's a little bit of an adjustment period there. But I've never been afraid to play a freshman.
We've done it forever and we've always had freshmen that have had to come in and make an impact for us. And it's probably no different than it's been the past except for probably a few more on each side of the ball. Talking about the underclassmen, you always hear so much hype about the upperclassmen and who to expect and who we should really look out for. Out of the underclassmen, who do you think is one to look out for either tomorrow or throughout the season?
Well, I think probably the key on the offense side of the ball is going to be to review the freshman offensive lineman that we brought in Bruce Mesa, JT, Iblo, and the Anthony Sorrow. Those are all kids that they're going to be playing. You know, it's true freshmen and they're certainly big enough and physically ready to play. You know, the Anthony's the smallest of 260 and the other ones are 280, 290.
So those guys are ready to play, you know, again, just a matter of what's a little bit different than high school and then the speed and the size of the guys are going up against them, going to be different than the guys they dominated in high school. So those are probably the key guys on the offensive side of the ball. The defensive side of the ball, not necessarily having to rely on a freshman to come in and play right away, you know, from a starter standpoint, we think Kevin Blox can be an outstanding cornerback for us, defensive back, but he's going to be out for a few weeks with an elbow injury. Todd Jellivers did that we really like, you know, we're not going to count him to step in right away unless there's injury.
So defensively, it's going to be more of guys that played last year in line. I'm quite a few of them were freshmen, but I'm very excited about just coming off tomorrow. Hey, Coach, Mike Fomen is joining us here on the coaches show on WXAV and Coach, one of the main story lines of the offseason is the quarterbacks. One of the recruit is Justin Hunterford, a junior coming in.
He talked about the youth last year Alex Martinez was asked to step in. He performed pretty admirably given the circumstances, went three and three over 1500 yards passing 17 touchdowns. The competition is neck and neck. I'm not going to ask you to name a quarterback and who's going to be the starter, but I just want to just kind of get an inside look of maybe who what you saw from each player and why the competition has been so fierce.
Well, one of the tough things that happened last year was we had a fifth year senior quarterback that, you know, frankly, we couldn't keep healthy, you know, John only been playing five games last year and then you're pressed into service with a freshman who we think the world of, you know, but to have a true freshman come in and play is probably not the best case scenario for that particular season. And yet, Alex did a really, really good job on the flip side. Now that you've passed forward in 2016, this kid that now has college experience and we think the world of him and I obviously think very highly of Justin Hunterford. Justin was giving recruit a few years ago and we probably would have gotten out of high school, but he had gone to another school just simply because John Roy was a sophomore at the time.
So these are two local kids. They had great high school careers both individually and with their teams. Alex and they go in front of the very similar offense to what we do at St. Xavier.
So Alex took his team to the Class 5, a semi-finals playing the Catholic League and Justin was the player of the year in State of Illinois, his senior year of Providence and in the 17th State Championship. So these guys have been neck and neck. We've given them equal reps from a one of spring ball up until now. They're both number one quarterback as far as I'm concerned and as a coaching staff, we are just ecstatic with both of them.
And the only I'll tell you they're both going to play this year because they're both really good and they both deserve to play. So they're both in your shot. I think something sorry, Christine, that should be mentioned too on the offensive side of the ball and it kind of takes away the pressures of both quarterbacks. It relates to the offensive line play.
You mentioned the three freshmen, but also the run game. And last year you were like headway on the run game. You're losing a lot in Stevenson, but you're getting to marry Watson and like I've got low back. How important is the offensive line to this offense as well as balancing the passing game one with the run?
Well, it all starts up front and you know, one of the last year we were hoping and thought that the old line was going to be our strength, but we got we really got dinged with the injury bug up front. So again, the flip side of the injuries is we had some guys that ended up playing quite a bit last year that were probably a year away. You know, Michael Rabando was going to be an offensive tackle and he was probably a year away from where we wanted to play him a year ago, but he was pressing the service in week three. You know, so he's now got eight college games under under his belt.
So the unfortunately the negative is the last year, you know, probably it cost us our first winning season in 18 years. And yet from a game experience, college football game experience, we had a lot of young guys that got that a year ago. And I think they'd be ready to go. Talking about having players stay healthy and making sure that they're ready to go, especially in the off season, it's just as important as the regular season.
So how did you make sure you guys stay healthy during the off season and what did you particularly focus on during that time? Well, if there was a if there's a magic bullet to be able to keep everybody healthy, I'd like to see it, but there's in our sport, it's just not possible. You know, injuries are part of our sport more than more than any other. And you know, there's there's a balance between, you know, practicing the physicality that you got to have and to be ready for for a game day, you know, versus keeping the guys as fresh as possible, you know, it is a delicate balance.
You know, you don't want to you don't want anybody hurt and practice and you want them to be ready for Saturday. But by the same token, you know, they're gonna get a beating setter. There is gonna be a physical beating and they have to get used to that at times in practice. So it is a delicate balance.
I would say we are probably as healthy as we've been in a long, long time, going to week one. So we'll see what happens. I think we're very fresh and I think the guys ready to play football. I think it's probably safe to say too that you hadn't had the best of all the Marian within the past couple of seasons.
What is one quality that this team has this season that Mary does not have? Well, I don't know, a Marian has as far as I'm seeing them at camp, but I saw a renewed energy and focus in camp this year, you know, that I maybe have not seen the last couple of years. You know, when you go through a two and a half three week camp like we have usually have, you know, at least a couple, two, three bad practice here and there because things just get redundant, you know, and when you're hitting the same guy for three weeks, you know, you're usually open to having a done practice every now and then and that didn't happen. You know, these guys, they stay focused.
I think last year was an eye opener for a lot of them and certainly, you know, so the coaching staff, you know, we were quite honestly, we were humbled as a program, you know, because we experienced a season that we had not, I mean, since before, some of these guys were even born. So, you know, I think those were a new focus right after the last game of a year ago. And I think we had a great offseason and we had a great spring ball and I could have been happy with the way camp went. So, I'm just, I'm excited to tee it up and you know, what you guys talked about earlier is we're jumping right in the fire and Marion's a great team, great program and but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Like, feminist joining us, the head coach of St. Xavier football, a couple more questions Mike and then we're going to let you go. We really do appreciate your time. Tomorrow night, six o'clock Thursday at home, the opener against Marion.
I want to kind of preview that matchup a little bit because when we were talking earlier in the week, you really were looking at the matchup between the offensive line of Marion and the defensive line of your guys. Defensively, you lost some seniors in the secondary, you're mixed with a nice balance of youth as well as talented experience. Your line backing course switched up a bit, you got a soft red shirt freshman jumping over the inside back, when our salaries are already returning, it's one of the leading tackles here this year, so last year, what advantage do you believe your defense can take on against Marion? Well, the first, I think the strength of their team is their offensive line.
They're big, they're physical, they're probably the best offensive line we're going to face all year and obviously we saw that last year. However, I think the strength of our, I think the strength of our team, the biggest strength of our team is our defensive line. We've got, we're going to go about eight or nine deep and they can all play and you know, five more seniors that have been through through all the wars and you know, when you have that many guys that can play that you have confidence in, you know, we're just going to be rotating those guys in and out and keep in fresh and you know, I just, I'm literally looking forward to that. It's going to be a battle between between their line and our line.
I think it's going to be key. All right, coach, I have one final question and it's for you personally, you've been head coach here for basically almost 20 seasons. What gives you the motivation to stay here at St. Xavier?
I probably might go, I don't have it, I don't have it, I don't have an ego that says I got to be a division one coach and make a million dollar year or five million or whatever they're making. I played small college football and I had the best time I like playing small college football. I think coaching at this level, I think you can have a bigger impact on kids between the ages of 18 and 22. I think when you're when you're coaching the guys at the division one level, I think the majority of them think they're going to the NFL even though that's not the case and I think sometimes it's hard to reach those guys.
You know, I just, I think the division one world is a world that I've never had the desire to be part of. I don't have to coach in front of 80,000 people to justify what I'm doing. I absolutely love it. I'm doing I love coaching the guys that I coach and you know, I've never even attempted to look at anywhere else to go.
You know, St. Xavier is a great place. I've got a great boss in Bob Holberg and administration gives us a chance to win, you know, so that that's all I can ask, you know, as a head football coach, you know, we've got a chance to win every week and I get the coach a great group of guys. Like Simon is joining here on the coaches show.
The debut of the coaches show. Opening night, tomorrow, Thursday, 6 p.m. Bruce, RD, Memorial Field. We hope to see you there if you're not there.
Tune into WXAV. We'll have the coverage all season long. Coach, thank you so much for stopping by. Thank you.
Appreciate it. We're going to take a break and when we come back, we have more guests on the show. We're going to talk to a couple football players. So stay tuned, you are listening to WXAV 88 3 FM Chicago.
Welcome back to the coaches show. We are joined now by a couple players, Jesse Gonzalez, a senior and Glenn Smith, who is also a senior. My name is Mike Rankin, Christine Manica. Also here on the call of the first show of the coaches show this season.
Opening night tomorrow, boys and Glenn, I want to talk to you first. You're part of the defensive backfield. What is it like working with kind of a mix, right? Because you guys got some youth as well as some experience going into the season.
Yeah, we've got some young guys and some old guys, but we've got a lot of people that just work hard and get after and this is like a great mess because like we came up with some of those guys and the older guys, it's a great mentor. I think we're going to have real good season in the defensive backfield. Jesse Gonzalez, I want to talk to you a bit a little bit because you're part of the defensive line. You're part of that rotating group.
Six to eight coach femme said that you guys run deep. What's it like working with that group? I mean, we're a bunch of old guys. We're used to the craft.
We're some beasts up front. I think personally that we are the best defensive line in the country and we're going to show it on Thursday night. So everyone, Greg or pop, you're ready for the show. I got to say for you Glenn, you had a massive season last year.
You made 55 tackles including 28 solos. Amazing tackle for a loss of eight yards. I mean, you just had an explosive season and then the season before that you were the SXU student athlete for Ron's medal winner. Tell me, you've been playing for a long time.
What has been a memory from you being a senior and like what has been your best game so far in your opinion? My best game was Concordia last year. I had an interception. I had about seven tackles.
It was homecoming. I don't know. I just came out there with like a different firing. I was like, I'm not going to lose in front of that.
I'm not. They do so much for the school. You just want to play your heart out. That's what we're going to do on Thursday.
We know it's going to be a big crowd out there. We just want to ball for everyone who's come through. SXU and put so much money into it. So you're both on the defensive side of the ball and we're not going to ask you the name who the starting quarterback is on Thursday night.
But both of you saw both. Both quarterbacks working in camp all summer and in spring ball. What was it like on a defensive side of the ball playing against each? What can you tell us about their inequalities?
I mean, as a defensive lineman, you just want to pressure them and see how they do under pressure and both of them do a great job. I mean, we were a little like the offensive line in front during the spring ball. So we were getting back there real quick. So we just wanted to make sure that they both of them were able to work under pressure.
They both got a great arm. They both are great leaders. And whoever starts on Thursday night, I have full trust in them that we could get the W. And just in years past, I mean, we always had like a starter and then probably, you know, we didn't really know who our bagger was.
But this is like one year when we have two superb quarterbacks. It's like he said, I'm neither one. That's our tomorrow. I'll be happy with.
So we're looking ahead to tomorrow night. We're joined by Jesse Gonzalez, defensive lineman, and Glenn Smith, secondary back for the Saints. If you're a six o'clock PM against Marion, you guys have come to be kind of familiar with this program. You know, a week, this is the fifth year in a row.
You guys have been playing them. Obviously, this will be your fourth time depending on of course, you guys play beforehand. But Marion, talk about Marion a little bit. What's it like being a player for Saints?
If you're going up against one of the best programs in the country right away, right off the bat start the season. I mean, that's what we want. We want to go against the best because we think we're one of the better teams in this nation. I mean, in the nation, as far as the NAIA team, coach for him every year, he does a great job of scheduling one of the toughest teams in the nation.
We don't take the tone up game. We take the best. And I mean, those guys are great athletes over there, as well as us. And we just know how we can compete without.
And we're showing off everything. And to continue that, I mean, their offensive line is top of the nation. They're the best and they're powerful. They're strong.
They're running back is good. Their wide receiving core is deep. They're just going to give us our defense test. And we're going to show up.
And it's just going to be a battle up front. It's going to be a battle across the field. It's going to be a war zone out there. When I was talking to coach from, I mentioned that you guys have not had the best luck with Marion.
And now you have the home field advantage. Will this give your team the motivation and drive to win even more so now being at home? I think we're going to protect our home turf. I think that we're going to come out and feel uncomfortable because you know, you guys probably never been to Marion.
We usually had to walk like a mile to get to their stadium. Really? Yeah. So what's the layout, like, you had to go to walk a mile?
So they pretty much would be our locker would be across their whole school, right? Yeah. And then we'd have to walk all the way over there. So with us being home, I feel like we're going to be ready to go.
We're going to wake up in our own beds. We're going to not have to travel anywhere. We're just going to come to school like a normal day and just get ready to go and go all out. So I'm looking at the roster coming into this season.
And there are a couple of big playmakers who aren't departing due to graduation. Stephen Sims, John Rodey, of course, from the event, talked about him being a fifth year senior. You got that leadership back there. Guys are returning though.
On the offensive side of the ball, J'Mari Watson, Mike Eivl in the backfield. Young offensive line. You talked about it. Jesse, you worked with him all season long.
How have they progressed? And how is this run game going to be important for your success overall as a team? I mean, we got some two studs of tackles, Justin Hunter and Robondo. Those two are probably, I'm going to give them the benefit of the top of their best tackles in the country.
And then we got some young guys in the middle. Jacobson who just got off injury and then saw Row and Mesa. But those two freshmen saw on Mesa, they developed and fast in the summer they had to. We threw them to the wolves with our defensive line.
We are veterans. We know how to do our stunts. We know how to get nasty. And the first couple of days they struggled.
But eventually, you know, at the end of this camp, they picked it up and they showed that they belong up in the top of the tier. If a game say tomorrow, perhaps, with Mary, it doesn't go your way. How are you going to keep that energy up for your team as well as the crowds? I mean, you can't do any damn bouncing back.
I mean, through adversity. But I mean, the whole time, we just gonna stay up just like, we don't have a great cloud crowd. The alumni, we don't feed off the energy the entire game. We're not going to turn it off.
We'll go hard. We're looking ahead to tomorrow. We're joined by Glenn Smith, Jesse Gonzalez. Guys, thanks so much for joining us, by the way.
It's a lot of fun. This is the debut show of the Coach or so here on WXAV. Also, we're giving away Ryan Fess tickets. So, come on down to Regina Hall to enter for your chance to win.
So, guys, it's another opening night for you. Potentially your last as seniors. What's the feeling going into tomorrow night as opposed to maybe in years past? And is it a different kind of feeling?
I mean, it's surreal because I've been playing football since I've been six years old and knowing that this is probably going to be my last season and this is going to be my last home, like home opener. It's crazy. It's just like, it's reality setting in that football is not forever for most people and you want to win. You want to go out on top of my goal for the season's and actual title.
So, I want to go out and win every game. For me, it's just like a lot of people just been asking me, like, you nervous for the game tomorrow. It's just an excitement. It's just a lot of excitement.
It's around this team. Like, I'm very excited to see how we performed tomorrow because I feel like we have a very talented group and I just want to show everybody that. Everybody has their own pre-game patrols. So, what do you guys like to do before a game to get you excited or to get you pumped up?
Actually, I take a shower and like, I work out, like do like a miniature workout and they kind of like decide to prepare my body and push me in that zone before the game. So, that's my pre-game ritual. Usually, I just go off in the corner somewhere and the, uh, the D line, we do D line phase and begin the game. So, because we don't really catch the ball.
We don't get to throw the ball that often. So, we like to show our athleticism. We like to have a little fun. Our group is a fun group.
We like to talk a lot of trash to each other. But right before the game, I go in the corner and probably listen to old school 3-6 mafia and get ready to go. All right, guys. I'm going to let you guys go after this question.
For me, Kristin, if you have one, you can have it otherwise. This is the last one for you guys. On the coaches show here, Blenz, and Jesse Gonzalez, what is it like being a part of this group? Right?
I played sports as, you know, in my history, but I never played football. So, I've never been a part of that kind of locker in that kind of atmosphere. What's it like? Is it really true what they say?
Is it a brotherhood? No doubt. No doubts about the brotherhood. Me and Glenn, we grew up in different parts of neighborhoods.
And, you know, we became brothers instantly. A lot of people grew up in Idaho or Wisconsin or anybody, but you're in the South Side of Chicago. You and some of you come brothers. Because you guys are going after the same prize.
Like, individual sports, you're going out for yourself. But football, if one person doesn't do their job, another person's going to back them up. So, we're always there to pick each other up, keep motivating each other. And we're here just to win as much as possible.
Yeah. The same thing is 50 plus brothers. You have just walking around campus, you're saying I'm in a cat. You know, you have someone to sit with.
I mean, here's a smile at school. We don't have a fraternity and stuff like that here, but I would definitely say football is time to that for us. You see anything else for them? Good?
Yeah, they got it. Awesome. You guys are great. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us.
We're looking forward to tomorrow night. I know you guys are as well. We're going to be there the whole way. So, good luck the rest of the way.
And we'll see out there tomorrow. Thank you. Appreciate you. Come on, everyone, come out.
6 o'clock. Absolutely. 6 o'clock at home on the football field. We are in Regina Hall right now doing the first ever coaches show for the 2017 season.
We're going to take one more time out. And when we come back, we'll recap the show. We'll go over some game preview tomorrow. Come on down to Regina Hall.
You'll have a chance to win right. Fess tickets if you want to join in and enter. So one more time. Jessica D'Alz-Blin Smith.
Thank you guys for joining us. We're going to take a break when we come back. More coaches show right here on WXAV. I'll come back to the coaches show here on WXAV 883 FM.
Chicago, Mike Rankin, Christine, Manica here with you. It is Regina Hall. That is the scene in which we are set up. One more chance to sign up for a couple passes to right.
Fess two weeks away. And Christine, I know you're excited about it. Unfortunately though, we can't let you win. I know, but I heard it's going to be a great time.
Oh, hey, right. Wow. All right. We're cooking.
That was a pretty exciting and fun episode of the first ever coaches show at Christina. I don't know about you, but Coach Fenn had a lot of value inside. It was awesome to see Jessica and Alison Glenn Smith take the time. Are there busy schedules to talk to us?
How do you think that went? I think it went smoothly. It has as great as any first show can go. I definitely enjoyed it.
I enjoyed talking to the players, talking to Coach Fenn about his experience and about this team this year. And I have a feeling it's going to be a good show tomorrow for sure. They're ranked 24th coming into the season during the coaches preseason poll. And I guess for them, nationally, Coach Fenn said, you know, it's more for the public, right?
It's more for the fans to understand that they're recognized as a nationally ranked team in the NII. But overall, for them, it's just about taking care of business. I guess what I'm trying to say is without the added expectations of being on top seed in the NII this year, it kind of takes the pressure off a little bit. It allows the guys to go out and play.
And not only takes off the pressure, I think it also will show fans that, hey, they're the underdogs, they can shoot right back up to the top. And I think this team has the ability to do that. I'm really looking forward to this squad all coming together. There's some specific players that I want to kind of mention and who I feel like are going to stand out in this ballgame tomorrow night.
Dre Devorow is going to have to come up in the wide receiver spot and fill that all-purpose role that Steven Sims kind of just took on last year. I mean, Steven Sims is really hard to replace in terms of value. But, you know, she was half to be filled. It's one of those things in his 19th season.
Coach Fenn has done this over and over and over again. He's done a good job in bringing in quality recruits. He even mentioned it. Half of them are going to be registered.
So you got to look at the guys that they have, the guys who are going to be returning, guys who are healthy. And we look and continue in the conversation. Josh Hetiger, he's going to be stepping in at Inside Backer this year. He started on the defensive line last season as a freshman.
Now he's a sophomore. Inside linebacker, next to Omar Salazar, actually I should say, he's going to be next to Danny Serrocco who, as a true, he's going to be a registered freshman. Excuse me, he didn't play last year, registered last year. So he's a registered freshman as a sophomore this season.
He's going to be asked to step up in the middle linebacker position. So you have Salazar, Serrocco, Hetiger, and you feel pretty good about that going in defensively. I think what we really have to see is them staying disciplined on the run as well as recognizing the play action and know when it's time to attack a gap or attack the quarterback when they have it. But really, in the linebacker position, it's there to scan the field watching the quarterback.
Mary and last year could have won the national championship. They went 11-0 and then in the last game of the season and then losing, they got shot out. I believe it was like 17-0 and a lot of the reason to that, to that point, is that they lost their quarterback and that was some kind of the similar storyline as the St. David Krieger's last season on a different level.
John Rodey went down and talked about it with coach femme fifth year senior. You got two quarterbacks coming in, Christine. This is something that I'm really excited to be looking forward. I'm excited to see develop a little bit with the two quarterbacks here.
Alex Martinez and Hunterford, Justin Hunterford. I just don't know how this is going to play out though. If you have two capable guys who are competing every single week, how are they both going to get playing time? You know, femme's just going to have to find a balance.
Like he says, they're both good quarterbacks. There's a reason why he recruited both of them. And so he's just going to have to really do a pro and con list, I would say, to say, I would say, say, ha ha, that makes sense, right? Just to put on like what they're specifically good at, what they specifically need to work on and stuff like that.
And based on that chart, that's how I think he'll make his decision. It also depends on practice performance too, because practice is just as important as a game situation because you're facing your own team members, basically. So we're looking ahead to tomorrow. It is opening night for the St.
David Krieger football team last season and disappointing five and six campaign. We talked to my co-ch Mike Feynman this year on the Coaches Show. We also talked to Jesse Gonzalez and Glenn Smith. Senior defensive back.
Jesse Gonzalez, one of eight interchangeable defensive linemen who have talent. And Jesse was extremely excited about the group that he was working with, specifically in the front line there defensively. They're going up against a Merrion squad with an offensive line that's considered one of the best in the country, if not the best in the country. So there's going to be a lot of precedent on the defensive line to get pressure on the opposing quarterback.
That'll probably allow the secondary field with youth as well as experienced talent to kind of take the load off, take the pressure off. If you can get the recorder back, that secondary can fly around the field and look pretty explosive. Just to recap what we went over, we began the show with just a preview of the Merrion game. That is tomorrow at 6 p.m.
We need to see you out there, Cougar Nation. Hopefully you can make the trip. I mean, it's only if you're on campus a couple steps over to your right or left or wherever you may be right now. We're straight ahead.
Speaking of straight ahead, we can see the field from Regina Hall. You guys should stop by and have a chance to win right best tickets. We're going to give that away in about 15 more minutes. We're about at our end here for the first ever Coaches Show.
We're going to wrap it up a little bit, but I'd like to continue talking about the Merrion and St. David game tomorrow. Jamari Watson, Mike Ivelow. I think those two guys are going to be keyed on specifically on the offensive side of the ball, whether it's Hunterford or whether it's Martinez.
A lot of the load is taking off the starting quarterback shoulders if those two can't perform in the backfield and it's going to be a healthy balance. You can mix in a play action to open up the run game. If you have a guy like Hunterford or Martinez who we know can stretch the field, that'll just allow Watson and I will take advantage of that much more. Young offensive line though, Christine, especially on the interior.
What are you looking forward to and what do you kind of what you expect out of the scenes of your offense coming out in game one because they don't even know who the quarterback is, at least to our knowledge. At least our knowledge. That's right. You know, for me personally, I'm looking forward to seeing the team getting to know the team a little bit better and how they work, who the main players are and just who to really watch out for for the entire season.
Because like you mentioned, Mike, before I'm completely new to this. So I'm going at this blind at this point, but you know, I'm willing to learn. I'm willing to see what Kubernation can bring and all in all, I'm just excited to see the show and put on, see the game, put on a good show. That is Christine Manica.
She will be alongside me, Mike Rankin on the call tomorrow night right here on this very station. WXA V8A 3 FM. We're gonna have a pregame show. We're probably gonna play this as a part of the pregame show, but join us for a pregame about 15, 20 minutes before the start of opening kick.
So about 542 into WXA V. We'll be on air talking to you and being along the entire way here in the 2017 season as we are just about set to get underway. This has been the first ever coaches show, Christine. I'm looking forward to continuing this kind of trend going forward.
I know you are excited as well. I'm very excited at the WXA V listeners. They're not going to get enough of us. It's going to happen.
It's going to be a dynamic duo for the remainder of this semester. Who has checked that dynamic duo? We can make it happen. Here we go.
Follow us on Instagram, by the way. We made an appearance today as well as on our Twitter page at WXA V8A 3 FM. And we're looking forward to tomorrow night. So this will do it officially for the first ever coaches show for week one.
It'll be the 24 ranked Cougars taking on the fifth ranked Marion Knights tomorrow night at home on Bruce RD Memorial Field 6 p.m. is the kickoff. Christine, thank you so much for joining us. We want to give another shout out to coach Mike Feminis as well as Glenn Smith and Jesse Gonzalez for hopping on the show with us.
My name is Mike Rankin for Christine Manica. Until tomorrow night, ladies and gentlemen, this has been the first coaches show. Thank you all for listening here on 88 3 FM. Thank you very much for listening to this WXA V 88.3 FM podcast.
Be sure to visit our website WXAV.com for more information on your skate from ordinary radio.