Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHRs Playmakers.
Welcome to the show. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Have
your host, James J here, and I am joined by our good friend, Randy Paul.
Good to have you with us. Good evening, James, and everyone out there.
We appreciate the company. Everybody, the phone lines are wide open. 715-424-2600. Hit us
in the numbers. Call us up. We'd love to hear from you, everybody. Call up and join the
conversation. Big thank you to Quality Plus printing, sponsoring the hour. Every week we
are here with you Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 5 to 6. We're able to, thanks to our
great sponsors. Visit them on A Street for all your printing needs. And every Wednesday
Phil joins us on Monday at 45-ish with our wicked awesome word of Wednesday. We have some
fun with that one too. Randy and I are going to have a ton of fun today.
We're going to be talking some River Kings. We even get to talk a little rafters news as
they are in the news a little today. I got some interesting stats at the show for you at
everything. And if you don't like those, that's okay because Randy's got better ones.
Randy's at 5.30. We'll come back and Randy will have some high school coverage for us,
looking forward to that. We'll kind of lead into that with some of our rafter and river
king talk as well. Because we got to talk kings as well. Nice weekend for them. All that coming up.
And we'll get into NFL talk as well. Anything you guys want to talk about, we'll get into.
I've got to ask the audience. I've got to ask you, Randy. I have to ask for a little bit of grace
right now. Just a second. I'm going to actually do something. I didn't plan on doing this,
but just to make sure Randy can see what I'm doing. I'm going to time myself. I get a minute.
I get a minute of our hour show to complain about my Chicago Bears. And in that time, now we're
doing this show in the middle of Wisconsin. I know my audience. You guys can drink my tears,
okay? And enjoy and use that as, you know, tailgate fodder for as we go into Green Bay,
Chicago weekend. So the clock is ticking. What the what? How do you lose to possibly the worst
team in the NFL? Does that make you the worst team in the NFL? And I didn't buy any hype. I
wasn't, you know, eating all this up that they were a playoff contender or any of these things.
But I sure as all that get out, I expect a team to get better week to week. That's all I ask.
Just get better week to week. I don't think that's asking a lot, Randy. I don't think I've asked
a whole lot of this franchise. I don't think that that's a once in a lifetime generational talent.
And not only are you mucking him up and I don't think his career is over or anything like that,
but for this season is what I'm focused on. Not only are you ruining that and it's a rookie season.
And in any potential, you're certainly showing him what not to do. But I would, they went into
this game and I thought, okay, if Iberfluse could possibly beat Green Bay, he may have a chance of
keeping his job. Right now, not only do I not think it would keep his job, I don't know what could.
I don't even think a playoff performance right now could keep his job. Then winning a wild card
playoff game, I do not think would do it. And I don't, there is zero chance of that even happening.
So it's over. It's over for that regime. You're better off cutting him right now and getting an
early jumpstart where you're already the third team looking for a head coach now that we know of
going into the next season. I'm at Iberfluse. I like the makeover. You look great, sir. And I wish
you well in your next defense of coordinator position job, but it's done. It's been done. And you
lost that locker room a while ago. Thank you, everybody. I took over. I went over my time. I went over
my time. Yeah. You don't expect to lose that badly to a team that was two and seven coming in.
That's for one thing. Wasn't it just about three, four weeks ago? And maybe it was even a loss.
But I think Caleb threw for like three, four hundred yards. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Huge day passing.
Yesterday, 16 for 30 for 120 yards, 7.5 yards per catch. He is certainly,
you know, privy to hold it under the ball too long, some of the decision making. He's certainly
got some growing to do. Like you would expect out of a rookie quarterback. I don't expect that out
of a three year head coach. I don't expect that out of a coaching staff that has experience.
I don't know what it is that it was going on with that team and why things have gone this way.
In actual news, the Seattle Seahawks just cut their leading tackler, this dobson guy. Not a
household name, but a guy who came over from Buffalo high prize free agency signing, especially
for Seattle that's in somewhat of a rebuild while at the same time trying to be competitive in
that division. They just cut them. There's no reason why nothing's been said so far of why that's
happened just that he's gone. That doesn't happen very often, but it's obviously doesn't sound
like it's an injury thing. He wasn't hurt or anything like that. So we are left to think, okay,
this is probably something a locker room thing. This is an off the field issue. The talent hasn't
changed on the Chicago side. That offensive line is just as bad when it was when he was thrown
for 350 when he wasn't. So it has to almost by law of, you know, factors and averages. It has to
be a locker room thing. And it's not surprising. Like I, you can't win a locker room if you can't
win. Very few losing coaches have the locker room. I don't, I'm not even putting all this on that
either. Flues or or or Kayla Williams or our offensive coordinator that this losing doesn't
ever fall on one person unless it's Dallas. That's different. And that's where I segue into Dallas
Cowboy talk where we will spend another minute. And that's about it because we got enough people
talking Dallas Cowboys. But can we just all sit back and laugh a little bit? Like none of us are
them at least. Unless you are a Dallas Cowboy fan out there, which I, I encourage you to go ahead and
look up NFL films footage of the 1990s and just enjoy that for the rest of the season. I wouldn't
even pay attention. I would find wherever the Cowboys were in that, that first year they went on
that run. I would find wherever they were in like week 10, whoever they were playing. And I just
watch from there on and just pretend that it's that season if I was a Dallas Cowboy fan because it's
one thing to be bad where look between you and I Randy, I expected the bears to do this. I
expected them to be bad. I didn't expect this coaching staff to turn on the round in one year or
anything like that. No matter how many nice toys you give them. And no matter what the public
media is saying or anything like that, I know better. But Dallas with the, with the resources
what they have, with the, with the, what they, we are told winning is everything. And how important
that is to Jerry Jones. And for decades, literally decades, we've been told he wants to win one
to prove that he can win it. And he can win one without Jimmy Johnson. Though we're still, we're
here in the story. We're getting fed to it for 20 years, 15 years at least, but I think 20 years.
Not only is that storyline half to stop. It's about, it's about dollars. It's all that matters to
Jerry Jones. He can say whatever he wants on his public little shows that he pays for his little
puppets and everything like that. Or other talk shows that he calls into. He can say what he wants
to ESPN. He can keep saying what he wants to. He's blue in the face. It is about money. The
Dallas Cowboys are the richest franchise and almost all of sports outside of Europe and soccer
teams and everything. And they have continued to be regardless of winning or losing. And they are
constantly talked about. And why is all this? Because it's about money and not winning. So
Jerry Jones, I never want to hear him talk. I know he's going to, but I never want to hear another
word he has to say to be honest with you. I don't believe a second of it. And I don't understand
what his word is worth. If you are a Dallas Cowboy fan, what trust you put in anything he says.
And then you have the coaching staff having what they're having happen. And we have seen Mike
McCarthy lose locker rooms before. This state has seen it right up front and close.
We saw the wheels come off the last couple of years. I don't know how you bring him back after
in a playoff game. You have Ezekiel Elliott under center with two guards. And that's it.
If I was Zeke, like I am not for quitting. And I never quit anything in my life. But at that moment
in time, I'm seriously questioning my decisions that led me to this point in my life. This is what
I'm doing for a living. No matter what I'm paid, there are four, five hundred pound men ready
to destroy me. And nothing is stopping them. Literally nothing. I don't know if that was a good call.
And whenever you know led you to that point in your life, how he kept his job after that is
insane. Other than if you look at it from a business perspective, I want somebody that is my puppet.
I want somebody that is going to do what I tell them to. There's no backbone essentially from what
we can tell in this regard as a football coach. I'm not saying it's a man. I don't know
Mike McCarthy is a man. I'm not judging as a person or anything like that. Strickly talking about
him is an NFL coach. It doesn't have a backbone. And certainly hasn't it's cheaper. I got him
under contract. It's always cheaper to keep the guy than it is to sign a new one. And so again,
business decisions. Well, of course you keep Mike McCarthy. If those are your factors, but outside
of that, I don't get it, man. I don't get it. And I don't get other than why if they're literally
paying him or they're being paid the major sports networks. And why they talk about him so much.
If they were in Indianapolis, nobody would be. It's weird. Yeah. I was thinking about that a little
bit yesterday as watching just the scotch at the beginning of the game was still kind of close,
you know, and some of the cowboys were making some plays. And they're just like, well,
you know, they've got these different players that are surrounding now. And even though DAC is out
and he might be out for the rest of the year, I think they're really strongly considering surgery
on his hamstring. They think the rest of the team will rally around and, you know, you got to have
everybody raise their game and Cooper rush through 13 completions out of 23 attempts for 45 yards.
Oh, 45 yards passing yesterday. And you got CDLAM, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so they were kind of saying,
well, we got CD back, you know, and you've got the defenses improving. Well, it just always reminds me
of how in the NBA, we're seeing the Lakers all the time on TV or we're seeing the East Coast teams
of Celtics, you know, and they're good. Granted, the Celtics are good. But it's always the West Coast
East Coast baseball. You think you see the Dodgers and the Yankees game. And they finally said that
they took, they're going to take the pack or the Jets, excuse me, off of one of the prime time games
because they're just as vulnerable to watch too. And so how long are they going to keep showing
America's team in the late games or else on Sunday night and Thursday night and Monday night football.
You're just thinking, you know, at some point, this has got to have to stop because they might call
themselves America's team, but it sure isn't look like they are anymore. I mean, the record is three
and six right now. They have the same as the Patriots. Yeah. Yeah. The worst team in the league. Well,
maybe the second worst team in the league. I want to apologize to everybody. We're just finding out
in real time that our phones are not working. I just actually tried to call our number just a
double check and it does seem like they are down. I apologize for that. Everybody, we will get on
that as soon as we can. And that really, that's really rough because we love hearing from you guys.
We love talking with you, especially on a Monday. Yeah. Tell, we, we love hearing from you guys
on on Mondays, especially after a long football week and everything. But if you got anything and you
want to, you know, it texts me or email me. Feel free to. I'll try to get it out there for you.
James. mail up at civic media. US. Yeah. Micah Parsons also throwing his coach under the bus,
which one of the few times, usually when this happens, it's not somebody who's actually the size
of somebody who could physically do that to actually, like a Parsons actually could do that.
Switching gears a little bit, Randy, unless you had anything on the NFL weekend. I didn't really,
there was a lot of, a lot of close games. Yeah. Kansas City again. Looks like they're going to
finally lose block of field going to play in the game. Crazy game. We're going to sold only one
by five over Jacksonville. Of course, Packers kind of struggled with Jacksonville as well.
Of the other close games, New Orleans just got a new coach. They picked up a W over Atlanta by
three points. Jets really did. No, wait, they didn't. 31. Yeah. Yeah. Steeler's Washington, huh?
About ever since they put in Russ Wilson. Right. But what they want, like four straighters,
something like that. There's seven in two. Man, it's funny. I don't hear more talk about them being
one of the better teams in the AFC though. Even though we've got such a good body of work,
with Russ Wilson, it feels like they're still waiting for some proof here and they're not believing
a Pittsburgh offense. We're used to the defense. We have no problem believing in that. They're having
a little trouble believing in that offense. They'll make people believe and they got a good
opportunity against Baltimore. That's, well, you talk about a good game. How about Baltimore and
Cincinnati last year? Man, I love that game. They took all the energy out of the NFL weekend for me.
Yeah. I was nothing led up, lived up to that game. So it was kind of like,
you know, everything was there playing right. It was just kind of like, I don't know. It felt
like the NFL weekend was, or week was over on Thursday because that game was so darn exciting.
You know, talking about coaches, though, right? And I think of Bill Tomlin was in Dallas,
or if he was on the Westeries coast coast, we'd be hearing about him all the time. All he does
is win. Yeah. Has he ever had a losing record? I don't think so. No, I don't believe so.
And how many years has he been there somewhere between 15 and 20? Yeah. Yeah. He's
longest running NFL coach and I don't think he's ever had a losing record. And he'll talk
about the man, right? Yeah. Yeah. It just keeps winning and just keeps doing his thing while also
being one of the better sound bites in the NFL, like a much really good sound bite by Tomlin.
Like a really good one. Easily, I'd say they're about three or four coaches that could get me
to go out there and get slaughtered. But they're so hyped. They get you so hyped up that, yes,
I got to go out there. And the other one, of course, is Dan Campbell. Right. And if I will say,
it wasn't as exciting, unless you are like my dad and a big fan of defense, I could tell every,
I had a class going on last night, but I could tell every time there was a turnover because I could
hear my father in the other room. No, no, no, it's like just like like he was, I don't, I know that
he wasn't necessarily rooting for anybody, although I know that, you know, an NFC North guy is
probably pulling for Detroit. So I could tell every time there was a turnover, I just didn't expect
that many. And I sure didn't expect Detroit to win that thing. No, five, five picks.
Now, this isn't a, I'm not trying to curse them with this, but what we're seeing with Kansas City
in Detroit right now is very similar to what we saw when actually the same team, it happened
for both teams, Indianapolis and Detroit or and Chicago the year they were both in the Super Bowl.
That year, Chicago couldn't lose. Like, I was dumbfounded almost every week at seeing how Devon
Hester would return a touchdown that he shouldn't or the first time somebody returned a misfield goal
for a touchdown and Brian Urlacker and Brian Urlacker and then Lance Briggs and then Urlacker,
like there was no reason they should have the record that they did and made it to the Super Bowl,
let alone even, you know, competed for two minutes, like they did. But the opening kickoff,
we were in that game until the end of that one step and got into the end zone, the game was over.
But we, uh, maybe we should spend one more minute, maybe on Preston Smith. How
the game he did have speaking for. Absolutely. Yeah. He had one sack, a quarterback hit two tackles
for loss and three solo tackles in 23 plays. Oh, there's the key stat in 23 plays.
And you know, I think in his last game with the Packers, if I remember reading it correctly,
he had 27 snaps only. His snaps were going down. He was asking for a trade about a month ago.
And on the bright side, the Packers did get something for him and saved like $25 million in two
years. So it's kind of a win-win for everybody because he was more adept at a three, four defense,
a set of four, three of the way it seems. So, but good for him. And hopefully you could continue to
do that for the Steelers. I thought that move happened so that they could make another move. I
actually thought they were going to be the ones to bring in Michonne, Michonne Latamore.
Uh, Michonne Latamore. And, uh, and there were, uh, even, even bringing into a different piece that
didn't get mentioned or something like that. I really thought that move was about freeing up
cap space for this year, not next year. But that's all right. It's, it's still there. That money,
that money is not, uh, that space is not going anywhere. Yeah. And then speaking of Latamore,
I think he's a sad old because he's got a bad hammy and he has missed enough games too. So I
think they're a little wary of that. I would almost rather my guy have a broken bone than a hamstring
or growing injury. Um, but I will say, um, you know, look, uh, Chicago isn't going to, I don't
think Chicago is going to compete in this game this Sunday. I don't think the Green Bay in Chicago.
I don't think it's going to be a competitive game. I really don't. I do think you're going to have
a couple of plays here or there. They're going to be exciting on the Chicago sidelines, uh,
for the Chicago sidelines. But that's about it. But on the defensive side of things,
you got trouble makers. You got guys, and I don't mean like, you know, getting in trouble
and dirty players. I mean, guys, it could give you some trouble with it with an offensive line
that has moments like that. Uh, it's interesting. Jordan love in this offensive line are so in,
in tact. They, they obviously in tact, but I mean, they're locked in sync. They're very in sync
together. And it almost also feels like their moods are together. And there are moments where
Jordan love will be the first one to tell you he has lapses. Uh, and that offensive line does
that from times to time too. They're all talented enough that if they are locked in all 54 or
49 plays or whatever it is in the game, uh, they got this. Like, I don't know many teams that can
compete with them. Maybe in your own division to Detroit, uh, obviously Kansas City as long as
Patrick Mahomes is on the team. They could be down 45 or nothing with two minutes left. And I
don't know. I still don't know if they might win that game. Um, but outside of those like, I mean,
three teams, maybe, um, Baltimore is the most, uh, interesting team, I think maybe in the NFL
this year. Uh, I will say because we're, we're watching, honestly, the only comp I have right now
for Lamar Jackson is Dan Marino. Um, because Marino and, and, and, and part of the reason I do that in
my head is I'm, I'm, um, a biasing. I have a bias towards Lamar Jackson right now that I don't
know that he even had own that he, that's necessarily his fault. Um, I kept hearing over and over
again that he's got to win the big games, got to win the big game. And I'm hearing it again
this year. And I'm like, wait a minute. Didn't he win a playoff game last year? Like, and he played
well in the playoffs? So didn't he pull that monkey off his back? Like, uh, and, and, and I'm seeing
that man do things that I have not seen quarterbacks do. I know everybody wants to talk about his agility
and his speed. It's, it's fantastic. We can talk all day about his Tim Tebow type like don't touch
down passes in these things. Um, I want to talk about his brain, his decision making is so on point
the last three years. Yeah, he's got a couple of picks here and there and everything. Yes, blah,
blah, blah. You can go ahead and throw this in my face with like four or five examples. But
that's it. You don't have a ton of them. This guy is making very, very smart decisions out there
while also being incredibly creative and, and, and just improving all over the place.
So I make, I mentioned Marino because I've still never seen an arm or a brain attached,
like Dan Marino. I still haven't seen that. But Marino never won the big game so we can't call
him the greatest of all time, et cetera, et cetera. Right now, that's kind of what's being said
about Lamar Jackson. And, and, uh, I will see what happens with that. It sure helps when you have
one of the greatest ruddy backs that we've seen in the last 30 years. Like it may be even
longer than that. Well, Derek Henry, uh, what I actually thought this back with Christian
of Coyay, like, oh, this is the last time we're going to see a back like this. A guy who way, it
looks like he weighs, if he weighs 300 pounds, 250 of it is above the waist. And like, you know,
and that's it. Like it's just a barrel of a man. Derek Henry doesn't have the biggest legs,
but he is, and he's actually thinned out a little bit, but he is somehow just the most devastating
player on the field whenever he walks on the field. And I don't care who's playing on defense.
I don't care. Sure. I don't want to see him coming or not. Me, would you?
No, but you think he's another one I was thinking about as you mentioned that says,
hasn't Sequan really kind of turned his career? I mean, seem like he had a down year or two in
there. Yeah. And now he's just like a beast again. Yes. And then I was, you were thinking, talking
about the offensive lines. And I was also thinking, I wonder if Aaron Rogers misses the Packer's
offensive line. Yeah. Yeah. You know, people are actually saying last week already that he just
doesn't have the escape ability and he's 40 years old, right? And so that's going to go away,
obviously. We could see it already in his last year with the Packers that he wasn't, you know,
eluding the rushers. You know, if he'd roll out to the side, it used to be he could run away from
him and he'd pick up a first down or get out of bounds. And that just didn't happen anymore. So
if you don't have that strong pocket, I'm going to struggle a little bit. And that's what's
happening with them too. I think Aaron Rogers misses 2015. I think he misses 2015, 2014, 2013.
I think he really misses that. But you're absolutely right. I don't know if he's self-aware enough
to do this. But I got to think that because I felt like I saw this in maybe it was his first or
a second interview. No, it's probably his first interview because I think the second or third
interview had to do with other things. But when fire first went to New York and they're
interviewing him and he's got pretty sure it was after a loss or no, actually, I think it was
after a win. And he's just got his head down in the locker room like I've never seen him. And
it's just it just seems like he just like this is I didn't realize the grass was not greener.
It turns out the grass was not greener. Even though the team is green in their color scheme,
it turns out it was not, you know, but I haven't seen that in Aaron Rogers yet until yesterday.
Yes, exactly. Yes, like five or 10 minutes of his post game. And he had his head down the whole
while and he barely lifted it up. And, you know, when the Packers went that when they were they
struggled and then they rebounded, he went R-E-L-A-X, right? Yeah. That's there's no
relaxing him this year, is there? No, I think he just knows it's done. I saw the same. Yeah,
we saw the same thing. I was like, I've not seen Aaron Rogers like that. I've not seen
undefiant Aaron Rogers. I've seen him after a three-pick game being blown up by three scores
and coming in there in exactly what you said, Randy, relax. It's okay. This was just like,
I don't know, man. You know, I don't know. You saw the game too. You just like, I like almost asking
asking for answers out of the ether. Just kind of like, please help me. I don't know.
Where do you improve, right? He goes, well, maybe if I go to Kansas City.
I have no options. We will take a time out when we come back. Randy's got some great stats for us.
We're going to talk some high school sports. We're going to talk a little rafters. They are in the
news with a handful of changes in the front office. We'll get into some of that. We'll talk some
River Kings as they had a nice weekend as well. Plenty more coming up right here on Playmakers
with Randy and James. Brought to you probably by Quality Plus Printing, getting your words out
right here in Rapids. Welcome back, everybody, to WFHRs Playmakers.
Randy and James here with you. Thanks so much for joining us, everybody. We appreciate the time.
Thanks so much for the company. We are working on the phones. We're going to try to get those up
and running so that we can get to your sports takes and feelings. I mean, Randy, there are
friends of ours out there, listeners who have sports takes and they got nothing to do with them.
They can't get them out of their system. I feel for these people. This is a tragedy. This is not
right. We got to fix this. As I hear on Sunday evening, they've been waiting all day for Monday
night. I've heard this. Yes, I've heard that. But thankfully, we do have some great stats for you
and some information for you. Randy Paul, of course, the best in the business brings this to us. Randy,
what do you got? Well, one of our sports seasons is drawing to a close while two others have closed
now as of this past weekend. Let's start with the one that's still going on. Level three of high
school football. Now in the books, taking a look at some of the area teams division one, how about
DC Everest? Yes, they continue to roll. As the seventh seeded, Evergreen's upset, the number one
seed won a key 31 to 21. Everest will now face Bayport at UW-Ashkash on Friday evening.
Division three, six-thrinked, Medford was upset by LaCrosse Logan in a thriller, 51 to 48.
From division five, top-ranked Stratford, level lake country, country Lutheran, 34 to 11,
they'll now take on third ranked Prairie Dushin in the Delves. That's at Friday at seven o'clock.
In division six, ninth ranked Bondwell, upsets, second ranked and previously undefeated Coleman,
15-13. Division seven, Edgar continues on the tournament trail. As they host lords Academy 29 to six,
the Wildcats will face six-thrinked Boyceville in Chippewa Falls. And in eighth player football,
number one, Owen Withie, snuck pass number two, Highland 23 to 21. The Black Hawks will go
against fourth ranked Lena St. Thomas Aquinas at 1 p.m. on Saturday right here in Wisconsin Rapids,
four of the state championship in eight player football. High school soccer, four state champions were
crowned for the boys down in Milwaukee on Saturday at Eline Park. First in division one, Middleton went
back to back, blanking Green Bay Preble, two to zip. D2 saw Wakashaw West wins its first-ever
state title in a shootout over Elkorn, two to one after a scoreless two halves of regulation.
From division three, St. Augustine Prep also wins its first championship with a two-nothing
shut out of Chippewa Falls. And in division four, another first-time winner, as Lake Country Lutheran
upset top-seated Charlotte Lutheran, one to nil. And the rush to the rush for girls high school,
volleyball is now complete. As this year, a fifth division was also added.
Division one saw divine savior, Holy Angels, when its third consecutive title with a four-set
victory over Hamilton. In division two, Catholic Memorial won for the eighth time in 11 appearances,
as they swept Luxembourg Casco. From division three, after losing the first set,
Baron rallied to win the next three, an upset top-seated Aquinas to grab their second-ever
state title. Division four saw my alma mater, Manitok Lutheran, when its first-ever state
championship in a five-set thriller over O'Claire Regis, and O'Claire manual Lutheran captured
the first-ever division five title in four sets over Marshfield, Columbus, Catholic.
So that's what's happening. Now, still this next weekend upcoming is the girl swimming and
diving competition down at state. That's going to be down in Wakashaw if I remember correctly,
so see if we can get some results on that next week. Looking forward to it in a shout-out to all
our local teams and a big congratulations to all of them. Great seasons all around.
I want to have a rest, right? Like a number seven scene, they just keep rolling here.
It's been fun to watch. It's been fun to see great local coverage too, and an incredible
coverage by you, as always. Thank you, Randy, for that. Appreciate it. I want to talk a little
rafters right now. We don't get to talk rafters this time of year very often, especially if you
go like to spring with the way the weather's bad. Yeah, it's exactly a little bit. Get a little
feel of that. I should have wore shorts today, but I want to get a chance here, especially with a
pretty steady coaching staff over the years. We pretty much had the same coaches for, you know,
a good run here of a rafter baseball that we've had for a good amount of time of the rafters, but
if you have not heard, the rafters have signed a new field manager head coach. We are welcoming
in, welcoming you here to town Tom Ziggy Zygolowski. Ziggy is our field manager, a new head coach,
and he is telling you, make sure you grab those ores because we are riding this raft together
to a championship. This man is walking in talking championship right away. He's got a great video
on Facebook. If you want to go check it out, I already can tell I'm going to enjoy talking with
this guy. We got to get him on the air. We got to get him on the air with us. We got to get him
talking. We got to get him on and just have a good season together because I'm looking forward to
this. We actually got the chance in, I would say about a week or two after the rafter seasons ended.
They're, you know, owner GM came by and dropped off some equipment. Randy, I have never seen that.
I have never seen somebody from the top of the front office bringing over equipment and radio
equipment. And he did it on purpose because he wanted to talk to us and just have a nice conversation.
We had a great talk. We understand better than most, I think, how intertwined we are with the
rafters and the rafters are with us and how much we benefit each other. And just talking about
2025 and just as so excited about he had so much energy about the season looking forward to it.
And I got to think part of it was understanding and bringing in a coach like this. There's some good
energy with this guy. And he already seems to be getting the local fan base going. So that is
exciting. Good to see that. You know, it reminded me of when we had Mr. Porter in here last week,
right? And he talked about coach Peckman as he was being honored, you know, on Thursday evening,
as that was a wonderful evening and got a chance to see all of the inductees into their sports
commission of Hall of Fame that they got honored that night as well. So we got some great local
coaches, right? Really do. And not for nothing, man. Coach Paul has been here two minutes,
like two minutes, and we've got a competitive team and the guys win in the warts.
But it's pretty nice. It's pretty good. And it also, this is something too. And I don't believe
that there is, when I say competition, I don't mean like traditional competition, like the Yankees
and Metz or something like that. But when I do say, hey, one franchise is doing well in town,
the other one's definitely going to want to do well. That is a real thing. And that's not a
thing that's not a negative thing or anything, but that is a standard that, well, okay, we want to
rise up to that. The community shows that, okay, this is a team worth investing in. This is not
just a business. This is a team worth investing in. The fan base loves this team. So I think that's
part of what we're seeing with the Raptors right now. And you know, you think about the same thing
happening just throughout Wisconsin, like the Bucks players, the most important Packer players,
vice versa, or the Brewers, right? They all get together and they support one another. And
the same thing happens after it's River Kings, right? It's down. Absolutely. Absolutely.
And two other signings, the Raptors are introducing two new front office members. We welcome in,
oh boy, I got to talk with these guys. Just get their last name. Is it Philippi or Philippi?
I think it's Philippi. I think, but we'll have Gwen and Conner correct us and let us know. We'll
also have them let us know what the relation is there because that can't be acquired. I would
love that it was a coincidence though. We don't even know each other. We're going to be great.
But they are coming in. Gwen will be the new relations and sales manager. So we'll
and Conner is the marketing and media manager. Two positions we traditionally talk to quite a bit.
I do mostly getting players on the air with us and everything. We don't shy away from things
here with our audience. Last year was a weird year for us. We've never had a year like that with
our Raptors where we didn't have necessarily the connection that we usually do with that front
office and being able to bring players on. That is not at all pointing fingers. That is on all of
us, including myself, to do better. And that's what next year is all about. Is making sure that next year
we keep a consistent run of players coming in and talking with them, making sure that you out there
gets a chance to really get to know these guys. And we fill up that ballpark and show them when
home field advantages. Yeah, and maybe start a little hot stove league. Winter when we're getting
excited and excited for Raptors baseball. I like that. And congratulations to all these new
faces looking forward to getting to know them and our audience getting to know them. River King's
Randy. River King's 13, 4 and 1 now, I believe. Yeah, I apologize, everybody. That was, that was
not, no, it was the unjournalistic integrity of me. I apologize. Our first place was constant
Rapids River Kings. There we go. That's politics. Yes, thank you. Thank you. River King's a role
in River Kings a role in right now, playing some great hockey. The wins and losses are certainly
very important. And we love winning. But I'm telling you that I think one of the magic numbers for
the Kings this year is the number 30. They can get 30 plus shots on goal. Good luck beating us. Good
luck. This team has got depth. Their third line has got some skaters on it. They have got a couple,
they got some nice goalies and a defense that is just hunters. They are hunters. They are looking
for it in their versatile. The speed on this team is, you're not going to, this is one of those
leaks in the USPHL as a very fine, fine division with some great talent in it and everything.
But this is one of those things where you're going to be able to tell the difference between our
team and the team in the last place because our team is so well put together in almost every,
no, yeah, I feel confident saying this. Every line has got speed on it. Every line has got agility on
it and playmakers on it. Guys that are creative with the puck and that are going to shoot that puck
and they're going to pepper that net and then league like this in the NHL, it's difficult to do,
to get your, they just be peppered three straight periods and hold up. Let alone in this division
with the talent that coach Paul has put together here and everything. I don't, not at all,
it's hockey. Anything could happen. The ice isn't, you know, Zamboni didn't one spot and somebody
shoots a pocket, it goes in that shouldn't have gone in and you know, the River Kings lose or whatever.
Like anything can happen. But as far as on paper and the way this team is put together and everything,
I will take on anybody, bring it on. This team is just so well put together. You're seeing
something with this coach that I can actually tie to, you know, actually UW in the UW football team.
We are seeing a coach I believe in his third year and this is where you got mostly your guys.
This is where it's mostly your team now. You know, that's what we expect out of coaching staff,
no matter what the division, no matter what the sport. By your third year, this is pretty much your
recruiting class. This is your guys. We're seeing that, what can happen. And I think that that's
something to keep in mind with Coach fickle and that UW team. Don't be Nebraska, don't, don't be
Nebraska, man. Don't be Oklahoma. Don't be one of these teams that's hanging on to like 30 years
ago and what we should be and what we should have been. Nothing is the same of 30 years ago.
The hairstyle, the fashions aren't the same and neither are the offense or defense is in football
and the players don't sure aren't. They're bigger, faster than they've ever been before and you have
to adjust to that. The option doesn't work like it used to. They evolved. We started doing this thing
that's in luck when all of a sudden started doing where he started slinging the ball up forward.
Like it blew everybody's mind and it hasn't been the same ever since. I mean, if you want to
really go throwback football, then tell me about that. Tell me about before, you know, George
Hallis ruined the game and started throwing the ball down the field and everything. I would
ruin a time machine, Randy. I would go back. I want to sit in the stance and just watch the people.
I'm not even watching the game. I want to see the looks on people's faces when they start doing
that. You can't do that. People lose their minds over it. Don't just think Max McGee, right? He was
the third wide receiver for the Packers. He wasn't going to play in the Super Bowl. Yeah, that's
crazy. Carol Dale went down and he comes in. Oh, they run off five. They'll run off five wide
receivers, you know, every other play now. River Kings with a nice weekend, congrats to them.
Looking forward to having Coach Paul in here soon to talk with him, but nice five to two win on
Saturday. You're taking, seeing if, you know, you get 30 shots, you'll take your chances.
They'll shot Northwest Express 51 to 23. I thought it was 51. I couldn't believe that.
Right? And it's not the first time they've done it. I think that's either the third or four time
this season that they have had 50 plus shots on goal. And they outscored Northwest Express three to
one in that last period. So to put the game on ice, so to speak, right? Yeah, nicely done.
That's also, and this isn't the case with every scenario, certainly, but I feel pretty confident
in saying this is another one of those cases, too, where they're beating these teams down and defenders
on the other teams are not getting in the way of the puck or not be in all that's energy,
all that's, you know, heart. There's not a ton of skill involved in diving in front of a puck.
I'm not taking any throne. I'm making light of it. It's one of the toughest things in all of sports
if not humanity to be able to do that and everything. And I commend every person that it's ever done
at once. I don't care what the division or what level of hockey they're playing. But guys
ain't doing that in a five one game. Guys aren't doing that when they've been beat down for two periods.
And the third period, and they don't feel like they have a shot. They're not diving in front of the puck.
So you're getting more shots on goal. Thanks for getting in front of Derek Henry in the fourth
quarter, right? Yeah, you're just going out. Shout out, you know, look at the real quick football
reference there. I shot up to Baker Mayfield for keeping off a bossa while also throwing a complete
like a perfect complete pass to Baker Mayfields at a rental sauce at that guy. What he's been able to do.
So I shout out to the Kings. Help your Kings build hockey up and down the river at riverkingshockey.com.
And well, of course, Wednesday, Friday, get you more ready for these games. Did you have any stats
on those or anything you want to touch on? Yeah, I'm just going to say Friday and Saturday,
they're going to be on the road. They're going to be at the Minnesota Squatch. And that's always,
you know, you're talking really about Packers Bears, right? And you're kind of thinking, well,
you know, that shouldn't be much of a game. But it's still rivalry, right? Oh, yeah. And Minnesota is
right there. We're neck and neck with them in the standings right now. So I would say that you
I'm not taking the mullets lightly. And I know with what we did to the express, I'm not taking them
lightly. But I do think that you got the class of the lead of the division going up against each
other right now in this weekend. You're on the road. So yeah, it should be fun. It should be fun.
I did want to get into my stats of the show, stats show, show stats. And then we're going to
college football here for a little bit. Just kind of interesting things I thought. Like in 1899,
when Sunani played five road games in six days, Randy, we all remember this. It was like it was
yesterday, right? I was 10. They were playing football at 1899. I think that just a load right there
could be a good stat of the show right there. But yeah, 1899, Sunani played five road games in six
days and won every game by shutting out the other team. November 9th through the 14th, they played
and beat Texas 12, nothing, Texas A&M, 10, nothing, two lane, 23, nothing, LSU, 34, nothing,
an old Miss 12, nothing. All of those teams have not only gone on to win championships.
Oh, I'm almost all right. They actually, Tulane hasn't, but gone on to win and be established,
while Sunani is just sitting there in the upper, I believe in the upper acres of Tennessee.
That's where that university is located.
We're down upon the Sunni River. There you go. Also, I thought that one was quite interesting,
Randy. I thought that was another one. We were talking about college football. We had a
couple of big upsets this weekend, right? Yes, yes. Why I was really shocked at Georgia's loss
to Ole Miss 28 to 10. I never saw that one coming. And Miami, the Georgia Tech, the Ramblin
Rack, they can be tough, right? They've got a pretty decent club this year, but my goodness,
that was just surprising with Georgia. They've dropped down, I think out of the top 10.
Then of course, you talk top 10. Oregon coming to town. They just beat Maryland 39 to 18. They
got the Badgers in prime time this Saturday. Maryland was in that game up until the fourth quarter.
So if you're the Badgers, you're a better team than Maryland. I would hope that you can go in
there and do something, or at least have them remember that they came to Camp Randall. You play
tough. Just let's not have Iowa. Yeah. That's important going forward because much different than
there's a couple of big differences in college and pro football, of course. But one of the major
ones is if I'm a free agent in the NFL and I'm looking at a Detroit line team that just went
0 and 16 or something like that, I mean, you know, debate going there and another team.
But if the money's there, I'm signing in Detroit. I mean, I got a miles to feed. I got
I got bills to pay in all this. This is a job. I want to win in everything, but at the end of
the day, I got to go where the money is and stuff. That's a professional athlete. That's the life
you signed up for. In college, I'm doing a similar thing, but I'm recruiting. I'm recruiting
every second of the day, let alone when the games are being played. And I need these kids to want
to come here because it's no longer good enough to just get them in the room and get them to sign
up for their season for one season. I got to keep them believing for three, four years to stay here
not jumping into transfer portal or something like that. So do you have to you don't have to win
against Oregon, but you've got to show those recruits something. You've got to be able to show that
fan base something. You got to show a Macintosh something and those things. There are things
to build on. The most surprising thing to me about the old misbictory over Georgia. I would say
second to the them actually beating Georgia and maybe even in third in that list is Jackson dark
coming back out and everything. That was a very impressive performance by him. What's happened
with Lane Kiffin? Where Lane Kiffin went from somebody that it felt like everybody loved to just
dog and just dislike. And he goes to Ole Miss and now everybody loves like everybody likes
Lane Kiffin. I like Lane Kiffin and I never would have thought I'd say that, but I actually kind
of like him. He's not so bad. And I never I did not think that when he took that Ole Miss job
that he would get a signature win. I didn't know if he would before he would take his next job
wherever that might be. I didn't know, but I didn't think he would be at Ole Miss as long as he's
been. And I did not know that he'd ever get a signature win in the SEC. Much less Georgia.
Yes, a team that I came into this season and I am obviously they may not even make the playoffs
man. I could be very wrong about this, but I will die on this hill. That's the best team I
thought I saw in college football. I really did. Going out and coming out a week one. I'm like,
that's it. That's the team. So that's a big win for that franchise, for that university.
And a cool thing to see. Ole Miss wins the last time Ole Miss had a signature win. You know,
whoever the coach was. It's always fun seeing Ole Miss Mississippi state,
Southern Miss any of those teams win like that. When I saw that Alabama Georgia game,
I went on, we're just seeing the national championship play out before us here in a week two
or whatever week it was, right? And now, Alabama's kind of rebounded. They really spanked LSU down
in Death Valley the other night. Boy, that was surprising, right? LSU, I don't know if Brian
Kelly knows this or not, but he's already fired. As I say, he's got to be honest. He's gone. He's
definitely gone. I will put anything anybody wants on this. Go ahead and email me, everybody. I'll
take it. LSU gets rid of coaches that have won national championships. They've done it three times
in a row. No, two times in a row. What are they going to do with this guy? I mean, unless the goal is
to be able to have somebody who could turn red faced, like in a second, is Brian Kelly is the
best in college football at that. Nobody is better at getting red faced than Brian Kelly,
and half a second. We'll take a quick time out. We will come back and wrap up playmakers here
in 97-5 FM 13-20 AM WFHR, where we are locally grown radio.
Welcome back, everybody to WFHR's playmakers. Thanks so much for joining us. Hope you guys are
having a great one out there. Randy and James here to take you to the top of the hour. We're
actually going to dive right into some high school or I'm sorry, some college basketball. I want to
talk a little college basketball. I was so excited Randy wanted to talk college basketball.
You got some good, but it's already there's already some players that we can look at and we can
really get excited about. We're having a bit of a throwback here, Randy, where I do basketball
matters again. Yeah, they think they have the number one pick overall that they got as a
freshman this year. Cooper flag. Yeah. But he has only been like their second leading scorer,
and he's been second leading scorer to another freshman who's from Wisconsin. He actually went to
Wisconsin with her in high school who won the division two state championship last year,
and he has been the leading scorer in all three games for them this year. He's just watching
a little thing on one of the networks this last week, and they said, well, what do you think
of Cooper flag? And they said, well, watching that game, I believe he is the second best player on
the court. He said, this con canibal kid is just unbelievable. I think I heard a stat that some
are used. They had a shoot around at Duke, and he made like 26 out of 28 from beyond the arc,
the players were just sitting there. They were mulls hanging a gate because they couldn't
believe what he was doing. And they had beaten Arizona State University in an exhibition game
earlier this year, 103 to 47. I mean, they just absolutely destroyed them. And second half,
they all scored them 66 to 26. Well, just the other night, Gonzaga played Arizona State.
They're number four in the country, and they only beat him by eight. So how good is this Duke
team going to be? How good is this Cooper flag? How good is this con canipal going to be?
Maybe the low number one and two in the draft. Who knows, right? Yeah, you could see that.
You could be crazy. That'd be amazing. And then suddenly I was a fly slammer jammer or something
like that with Clyde Drexel and Hakeena Lajuan. I don't know if we've seen anything like that since
something along those lines. Right. Some of those North Carolina teams had a couple of guys go
in the first and everything, but never like one, two. We've never seen anything like that.
Other than maybe, I suppose a little bit, we have back to back years, the same French team,
we pulled Victor Womanyama and his other kid, but I don't know. It's exciting.
My favorite coach in maybe all of college football, our college sports, let alone easily in college
basketball has been shock as smart. It has been for a long time. I've liked him for a long time
and a great coach. I know you were so excited when the map couldn't be more excited. It couldn't
be more excited. It's the perfect match for him for the university. I hope he's there for another
30 years and I just saw him doing an interview with Sophie. I'm in it the other day and he's talking
about how they, you know, how they work the program and he says, you know, when we're out there
recruiting, we're trying to convince these kids, this isn't going to be one and done. You're going
to be part of a family and we want you here for four years and that's, you're going to work hard,
you're going to be out there practicing hard. There's going to be tears, there's going to be hugs,
there's going to be joy, there's going to be upsets, there's going to let down, but he says, we're
family, you know, and it's a four year deal and it was just kind of refreshing to hear, you know,
coaches. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's why we like Shotgun Smart. Yeah. Honestly, you can give the
wins and losses and everything. It's the guy that I really do enjoy and the way he treats these
kids and the way that he coaches, you've never heard him throw anybody under the bus. You've never,
and you've never heard really, you know, players dislike playing for him or anything like that.
I think that's always a big sign when you see former players in the way they talk about their
college coach or their high school coach or something along those lines. You know, you talk about
in-state players. Of course, AJ Store for the Badgers was one and done. He went to Kansas and he
had 13 points of their day when they beat North Carolina by 39289. So good for him as he's enjoying
his new digs over there. We look at our schedule and tomorrow we have the Wisconsin Hockey Hour for
you at 705 right here at WFHR. Wednesday will have playmakers from five to six and after that we'll
lead you into the loop fickle show at 705 going to be interested to see what coach has to say coming
out of the by-week Friday, more playmakers for you Friday night, seven o'clock, Wisconsin men's
basketball hosting Arizona. Oh, Arizona's number nine in the country. They got a good squad
again. And Badgers, not so bad right now. I like what I'm seeing out of the Badgers. So I like
that's going to be, that should be a really competitive game and see how you rank against them
in that division. Kind of see where you stand, you know. As Randy touched on earlier, the
mid afternoon game 430, our pregame kicks off Wisconsin hosting Oregon this Saturday right here.
I mean, exciting game one way or the other. In Sunday, 140 start time Wisconsin women's
basketballs, they host UW Milwaukee. That should be a good one right there. I do want to make a
programming note. Last couple of months or really since we've gotten to take over your prime time
hours here, which we are so thankful to Civic Media giving us the opportunity to be live on the
air with you in this time slot. Tuesdays, Thursdays, we've been having unlabeled. Seth,
thanks for the music. Thank you so much for the feedback on that. But we only had that there as a
placeholder because now premiering tomorrow right here from five to six community stories with
Melissa Kay. Be sure to check that out, everybody. Melissa's been working so hard on this,
got some wonderful veterans interviews to kick off her inaugural episode. And then on Thursdays,
community stories junior, where she'll be focusing more on our high schools and our grade schools,
really finding out more and more what's going on with the kids and parents and the teachers and
all that. She is one of the better reporters in the state, I believe. And I think that she's
going to be a great show. I can't wait. And I know we had a veteran's day program at our school
today, so I just want to personally give a big shout out to all of our veterans. Thank you so
very much for your service, past and present. You know, we haven't gotten to play a game,
we haven't gotten to getting any reps in or anything, but you and I still have the same chemistry.
I wanted to wrap up thinking our veterans as well and appreciation to our veterans out there.
One of the things that I think would be fun for people out there, you want to combine these worlds,
look at people like my grandfather who fought in World War II and in Korea and also got a
universe and a scholarship to play offensive line at Purdue. There's a combination. A lot of
our vets, certainly former players. And you guys like that also left the game to go fight
and come back and everything. So many intertwined together and so many that we are here to have a
sports show like this and do all these kind of fun silly things we do thanks to our veterans.
We appreciate you. Next week, I want to talk a little cranberry classic. I hope they have Mr.
Brickhawzer in with us for that. Randy, thanks a lot for the time today. Always fun.
You guys have a good night. We'll talk to you soon and later right here at
