Good morning. Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Hope you all are ready. It's time for WFHR's
playmakers. Let's start the show. Good afternoon, everyone. I got it that time, Randy.
You're host, James behind the mic. Thanks so much for joining us. Everybody, Randy Paul
joining us on this Monday and only edition of Playmakers this week. That's right. Appreciate
you being here, Randy. We're going to have some fun. Randy's got a bunch of high school
coverage for us. I've got possibly my hottest take yet. Randy, we will get to that, of
course, as a sports talk show has to. We've got a bunch of other coverage, certainly in the
weekend of football and plenty more to talk about, but we kick off this show. Oh, I
shouldn't mention as well. We will open up the phone lines in a little bit, looking forward
to talking with all of you. We are looking forward to talking with Bob Brickhouser right
now. We're going to talk about the assumption cranberry classic coming up. It's right around
the corner, looking forward to diving into this one. First off, Bob, I always appreciate
you joining us to become a real fun tradition of ours and something I look forward to
every year. And this year, in particular, though, I want to thank you because we did not
have to start off talking about my team losing to your Packers. So thank you for giving me
that grace this morning. I greatly appreciate this afternoon. I greatly appreciate that.
Bob, what number are we on for cranberry classics? We're on the 40th. How about that, Randy?
And it's pretty impressive. Thank you for having me. I always appreciate the company.
And you hear with us. Randy, how excited is it over there on campus, if you will, with
assumption in this games, these games coming up. Yeah, it's always a special time of
your kind of kicks off the year, even though there's, you know, a game I had a time with
the girls are going to be playing already this Thursday. And I'm looking, I think, at
next Tuesday as well against Edgar. So they've got a couple of games before, but then
the boys take over at the classic. And it's always fun because the place is packed. You
have a lot of local teams, which you can share a little bit about Bob as well. And of course,
you always have those great concession stands as well. Thank you, Randy. Yes, we have very
much of local flavor this year. The, both the boys and girls teams from assumption, Columbus
Catholic and from the Kusar participating. And on the boy side, we have the, the varsity,
and JV port Edward's teams. And on the girls side, we're a welcoming back pits fill this
year. They were in the tournament many, many years and then took a little hiatus and they're
now back competing. And it's, so it has as much of a local flavor I, you could almost have,
you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, recent years, it's been nice to welcome in some of these
teams from out of town and everything. It's kind of nice to have this at, it's such a local
favorite to have these local teams in and have, you know, parents and relatives being able to,
not to go too far to be able to see these games and take them in. And as Randy, you know,
pointed out, of course, those concessions, we want to make sure to make sure to hit that hard
here in this interview with those great concessions over there. But it's fun to have these teams
involved. Yeah, right. I think that, you know, like you said, it's nice sometimes to have some
variety, but, you know, a local flavor really helps attendance. You know, it's teams that came from
like Leona, Wabina are only going to bring so many people. Yeah. Yeah. But we, we have very much
a local flavor this year and we're very much looking forward to the tournament. You know, Bob,
one of the other things that's always fun is like even after the games, when the things are wrapping
up to see all of these local fans just enter twingled on the court. Exactly. And just enjoying one
another's company, you know, competition spheres and yet afterwards, everybody gets together and
enjoys each other. Yeah, leave the game on the court. Right. Yeah. That's a lot of fun.
And I just, as long as you brought it up, I'll talk about the concession stand. We have an outstanding
concession stand, thanks to Mrs. Tara Dillman and Mrs. Sarah Shaw. And no, it's not, not Sarah. I'm sorry.
Sarah's the player. Anyway, Shannon. Sure. Shannon Shaw, they do a great job with the
concession stand and it's very, very well received. I really appreciate them doing that.
Appreciate all the volunteers and all the people that put so much into this to build up to this
event. How long is the planning going on for this one, Bob? I was like to remind people how long,
how much prep goes into this? Well, you know, as far as we put together a booklet for the tournament
and we sell advertising. So we basically start on that back in September because you have to give
people a chance to approve, get the ads approved and so forth. In fact, I have the final proof with
me, which will be my homework tonight. But then we have a very good committee. And I don't have
all the names here, but we added a couple of new people this year, the Kavanaugh's and Jen Oswald.
And we had a meeting here about a week ago and we signed different duties and everything seems
to be coming together very, very well. Really good to hear. So now we're just waiting for the games.
When does everything kick off, Bob? At 9 o'clock Friday morning, games are the tournament
has always on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, which is here is November 29th and November
30th. And it's as late as it can be based upon the calendar. But we started at 9 o'clock with
JV girls on Friday morning. We do the girls games first. There's two JV girls games at 9 and 10
15. And then the varsity girls at 1130 and 115. And then right after that, we start with the boys,
JV to JV boys games and two varsity boys games. And then on the Saturday, we again have eight games
starting at 9 o'clock in the morning. And it's basically a consolation type tournament, you know,
winners play winners, losers play losers. So I don't I like to think that there aren't any
losers, you know, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, especially the people that get to attend this. Nobody
loses there. Everybody gets have a good time. And the coaches, I think I see them doing a lot
of experimentation. Like for the girls, it's probably the second or third game. For the boys,
it's the initial game, you know, and you think, you know, exactly what you want to do. But
once you start the game, you know, you get to evaluate how your players react.
Some of my favorite things about early start to a sports season, especially at this level in
high school, where they're they're putting out different lineups and they might normally try
or things like that and giving even some rep time to players, it may not get it always. So that's
a fun part of the game, I think, for your fans, your diehard fans, especially, they're going to be
watching a lot of these games throughout the season. And what a great way to kick off a very
exciting high school basketball season, Randy. That's going to be a lot of fun this year. You know,
when you're speaking that way, it was just reminding me a little bit of like John Tangi, right,
he comes in from Missouri, played only eight games last year and goes off for 41 the other night.
Sometimes that happens, you know, get a transfer injury, you get a kid who maybe moved up from
JVs, you didn't expect them to be that bad good. And you get a chance to get a little playing time
and prove themselves on the court against other competition too. Exactly. And the other thing I
just want to mention, it's amazing how many people come for the nine o'clock game and are still
there when we close up at 10 o'clock at night. Yeah. So besides yourself.
Well, you know, I think what the fee is five dollars per day. So you're seeing all those games
for about 60 cents a piece. Yeah, you want to get your money. You are not going to find a better
deal anywhere, especially for those of us that just can't get enough basketball. This is a dream
day for those of us. It's a, this is, people can have their shopping and all those things. This
is what I want to do right after Thanksgiving. This is the only thing that I want to do. And we
appreciate assumption, appreciate all these schools coming together to do this. Certainly you
and all your, the people working on this, Bob, appreciate it. Before we let you go, though,
I don't know if I've ever gotten a chance to do this. And we've been doing it for a while and I
thought of it the other day. I don't, I try really hard not to ask you too many, you know,
hardball questions here, Bob or anything. But after all the years of doing this, is there anything
you look forward to? Maybe a little more than other things. Is there any one thing that you
really are excited about? And you don't have to give me just one thing. But is there anything that
you, you're excited about this year or in years, they're building up to it? Well, I also look forward
to the concession stand because that's about the best thing. That's that's my guy. Yeah, I got 100%
100%. And, but no, I think it's just the, you know, the kickoff to the basketball season. Yeah,
I've had a lot of kids and grandkids that have played high school basketball. And I just very
much enjoy the competition, enjoy seeing what different teams have, you know, so forth.
The other fun thing is, you know, those kids that played basketball that you maybe haven't seen,
you know, consistently. And now it's basketball season again. And I get to see those kids that are
constantly on the team and some of those families as well. So you spend more time with them in the
next three, four months as well. That's exactly right. Yeah. And yeah, and I think it's going to be a
very competitive tournament on both sides. I, the assumption boys are, you know, particularly,
I think it'll be more competitive, not that they worked last year, but they were very, very young
last year. And, you know, they've had a chance to mature. I know they spent a lot of time in the
off season working on their skills and so forth. And I look for some very, very good basketball.
Yeah, you know, you got an acoustic coming back, Nash Kretschman over there, the quarterback for
football team. He's a talented basketball point guard. And, and we got a bunch of kids back.
I think we have about four seniors, maybe on that team, at least. So they're going to be a
little experience. That makes a huge difference because your kids have been so young over the years
over an assumption. It's fine finally getting to that point where they're going to be juniors and
seniors. Yeah. And the pork boys will have a, you know, I have a nice team. And then, of course,
Columbus is a perennial power in boys back. Columbus just kicks kicking them out like they do.
They just, they just keep putting out good, good product teams. So similar to the assumption
girls team, you know, they become consistent, very consistent programs, which makes for a really
fun tournament. Like there's, there's, there's great storylines with all these kids, all these
teams. And it's, it's just a great kickoff to the season. And we can't look, we can't wait for it.
That's already a, now I do want Randy to rest his voice. I do think you need, because we're going
to be broadcasting a lot of these games. We're going to be, we're going to be enjoying this too.
As always, we had time. Yeah. Yeah. I should just mention, I think, you know, the assumption
girls have back everyone from last year, except for Kendall Dilman, who was hurt for part of last
year. So I expect them to be very, very competitive. And they got to the sectional final game last
year. Lost by a point. Lost by a point. Yeah. And then, of course, the guy in our sister,
who is now going to be eligible to play in the varsity as well. Yeah. Yeah. So that's
forgotten about that. Yeah. She develops over the year too. That's going to be fun.
It's going to be, and we're very excited. Thank you so much for joining us Bob. Always
appreciated. Well, thank you very much. I enjoyed doing this also. And like I say,
our 40th cranberry classic. And my son tells me who's the athletic director I should mention.
Says, I only have to do 10 more. There you go. Hey, we're, we're going to get those checked
off for you, sir. We're going to take, see if we both can hit number 50. I'm pulling for you.
I'm pulling both there. Thank you, Bob. Appreciate it. The cranberry classic taking place over at
assumption high school kicks off Friday, November 29th. We'll be talking about this and building it
up and making sure that you make plans to get on over there. Randy and I'll be back with more
playmakers here at WFHR locally grown radio. Welcome back everyone to WFHR's playmakers.
Randy and James here with you. Thank you so much for joining us. We send a big gigantic thank you
to our friends at quality plus printing getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rapids. We're here
thanks to them. Big shout out to them. For all your printing needs, head on over to A Street South
and visit our friends fill in the gang over there. Be sure to join us on Wednesdays on our morning
show around around 845. I'd say with our wicked awesome word of Wednesday Phil joins us looking
forward to that. And a gigantic thank you to the legend of Mr. Bob Rickhouser joining us.
Always appreciate talking with him, Randy. Yeah, it's just a wonderful person. It's just fun to
shout them here or whether you're over at assumption doing some games or whatever you might be
there for just a great person to walk into and talk to. Yeah, we greatly appreciate that. We're so
excited about the cranberry classic. We're going to be talking more and more about this in the next
couple of weeks as we build up to it. And I'm just happy to be talking about basketball.
Very excited about that. I love basketball. Very excited about the high school basketball season,
especially with what you guys, Bob and you were talking about there towards the end,
gave us a little bit of a preview sort of of high school basketball in this area coming up
this season for our boys and girls, which I don't know. Maybe I'm looking at this with Rosie
color dyes or something, but I just I really feel like every team in our local area here has a good
storyline and something to follow all season long regardless of when's our losses. But those
wins and losses could be quite interesting too. So hope always brings eternal, right? Yeah,
Randy, I want to talk with you about the the badger game over the weekend. I think there's a lot
to talk about there is basketball or football. Yeah, both. Both. Both. We're definitely talking both.
But I have to and we'll get to some river Kings conversation. Randy's got some great local
coverage for us and high school coverage. We'll get to as well. After our second break here,
we'll come back with the high school coverage and everything. But I have to touch I have to start
here with arguably my hottest take ever. I don't do hot takes really, Randy, but you know,
you're going to run a sports show. You got to do it. It's the game. You've got to be able to do
sports takes. So I have it. I have the take of all takes. And I actually had it before
the Green Bay Chicago game. I was actually on my way to go watch the game when it occurred to me.
Because I've already moved on from Adi refluse. I know that he's still there technically,
but I mean no ill will to him. This is not personal. This is a business. He seems like actually
a really good guy and a very pretty good defensive coach once you just let him be in charge of
defense and all that. I wish him well and is next stop. But he's a dead man walking. He was before
that game. He was after the game, of course, and will be all season long. There is no way you can
bring him back. There wasn't back before they played Washington, let alone after that game and
everything that is followed. I have the next head coach of the Chicago Bears. I know who it should
be. Now I'm not saying this will happen. And I'm not saying it will work. But I am saying it would
be the greatest storyline we could have. First name isn't Bill. It is. It is Bill Belichick.
That is exactly who I think the next bear's coach should be. I have gone to the dark side,
Randy. I've never been over here before. I grew up on the other side of the track. Sure. But I've
never been on the dark side before. I've never been a fan of anything involving the Patriots. I
didn't want Brady, even though it might have helped my team. I don't think Brady would have won
another Super Bowl headie come to Chicago, but there was talk of that. And I was told, as I had
this take, apparently, Belichick talked pretty well about the bear's organization at one point or
something. It should be noted, not for nothing is a side note. Whatever you think of Bill Belichick,
you ever get the chance to hear him talk about Jim Brown or Walter Payton or any old running
backs? My God, man. Listen to the man go on. He is such a historian. And just he talks about them
and he sounds like he's 12 or 13 again. Like he's just giddy about it. And I've seen him do videos
just dissecting video and showing this. And you know, it was a whole half-order show of the
plays, you know, and you can tell that he's got a little experience behind him. I really think
that not only this is a win-win for Chicago and Green Bay. If you're a Green Bay fan,
and Belichick were to take, be gone. And let's put this out there real quick, everybody.
The bears one time, and I believe in their history, or at least in the last 30 years of
hired a veteran coach, they tend to like higher rookie coaches. That's just what they do. Go
ahead and look at the history of it. John Fox is pretty much the only veteran coach they've hired
in recent memory. Going back to Dicca, Lovey Smith, you know, Dave Wonstent, all these guys'
assistance. This was their first head coaching job in Chicago, along with, of course, the recent run
of, go ahead and insert name and tell, if I pulled up a picture of Mark Trustman and Matt Nagy,
could you tell the difference? I don't think anybody could. I don't know if their families could.
Regardless, especially the way they coached, Belichick, if you're a packer fan comes in. And look,
the odds of that working are very slim. So you just sit back and eat your popcorn. And when it
doesn't work out, you get to say, look, even that guy couldn't make it work. And if you're a
Chicagoan, what better way to show to your fan base for the first time in maybe 20-some years,
that you actually care and you're focused and you actually are trying to compete with the rest
of the NFL. Because right now, you have gone and not only lost with a Hail Mary that shouldn't have
happened and lost to baby, the worst team in football and New England Patriots. But then you
finally did the one thing that your fan base has been asking, give me a competitive game. Just give
me a competitive game. Now, a blocked kick can happen. I was just before that game talking about
when it went the other way. During the, for me, the most famous games in this series of bears and
packers, where during the weekend, Walter Peyton passed away and the bears won off of a blocked
PAT. So this happens. But it doesn't have to happen. Because of good coaching, it doesn't have to
happen. If you take those last 30, 40 seconds and move the ball a little bit closer, where Kairos Santos,
who is a very good kicker and I still stand by, is a seven for seven on the season. The difference
in those five to six yards, that's coaching. That's the death of coaching decision. That's not on
Caleb Williams. That's not on Kairos Santos or the holder. Maybe my favorite bear of all are
punter. Taylor's awesome, man. The kid's awesome. I love that awesome. That doesn't happen.
So, you know, and you have here, and we're sitting here today, talking about what I really actually
think we should be talking about is there's some, if Green Bay goes into the playoffs with that
performance, you're going home. There's no way you're getting around that. You're going home.
So that's what I think we actually should be talking about. But I had to get all that out of my
system ready. And I gave myself a minute and I want to thank you and the audience for putting up
with it. But I also have to, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. One last thing I had to get in. This,
I've had a number of friends of mine who are packer fans texting me and all that and rid of me,
which that's cool. That's fine. That's part of the game. But, but asking me, oh, doesn't it's
hurt? Oh, doesn't it? Man, as soon as that kick was setting up, I stood up so that I get a good
angle on it. And so I could swallow it when it happened. I didn't know if it was going to be a
block. I didn't know if it was going to be a miss. But I, I, this doesn't crack the top 20 of a
bear packer losses for me. It doesn't even come close. And if anything, if you're somebody who wants
Eberfluse out of there, this is almost a good thing in some ways. You had the best of both worlds.
I had a competitive game. I had everything I wanted in that game. And I, yeah, we lost. Yeah. So,
so we still take the L, which gives us a better draft position, which, because as bear fans,
this is all you got. This is it. You're not, you can't, anybody that came in the disease and
hoping for playoffs, I got a bridge in San Francisco to sell you. And I got a lot of, I got,
I got a place on the moon. That's beautiful. You're going to love it. Yeah. I got some things to
sell you, but I'm so sorry, right? What are you going to say? Well, there's so many different things.
You know, when they're lining up for the kick, I thought the only possibility, because it's a good
kicker right is if it's a mad snap, right? And you muffs it or something like that. And as soon as
he kicked it, you know, I, I was just watching it and it looked like it, you know, it took off.
But then you listen to it, you hear it go, thumb, thumb, you know, you can hear that second thumb.
And immediately the packers started celebrating. I'm like, why are they celebrating? You know,
that ball's still flying. Not realizing that it was, you know, going into over it. Yeah. But like
you said, that interesting stat from outside of 40 yards, Santosus Fort was 75%. Inside 40 yards,
100%. If there was fear, and I don't know if that would see said in the post game, I don't know
for sure. But if there's fear of a fumble, I think the fumble percentage was 0.46%.
And if you're worrying about that, that's coaching too. That's, you don't trust your players enough.
You don't believe your players enough. And you don't think that you're coaching them well enough,
that they can't handle a snap. In the last seconds, there's something that they hopefully have been
practicing all week long. And I think I heard this morning too. They said the charges ran for this
touchdown right at, you know, the last whatever 18 seconds, basically like a 29, basically about
the same place where the bears were where they decided to run off like 35 seconds. The charges
instead run another play get a touchdown win by seven. But that went on to Elmer. Yeah. And let's
be honest, none of this matters because if you went to NFL.com today and you saw a recent,
less 20 minutes, they posted the bears to send video of the Packers Black field goal to League
Office for review. So this, of course, none of that, you know, this will change everything.
And the bear season is completely different now. And that'll change the franchise. And oh,
no, no, no, it won't mean a darn thing. I was waiting for the flag because when you saw them,
you know, you're supposed to leave the center alone nowadays. And they kind of, they kind of pinched
in both the defensive tackles. Yeah. And went over the top of it. Oh, it was a great block. Yeah.
It's really, I got to say, I love special teams. And I love you just, you don't get to see the big
men have fun like that. I very often celebrate. Yeah, just think that's two weeks in a row because
Denver did this have the same thing happened to them with Kansas City the week before.
It's usually my homes or somebody like that that scores the winning touchdown or has the winning
play for the guy, the no name for the guy just grinding the third backup defense of linemen or
something like that. Like more power to them. That's cool. That's always cool to see. I don't
care if wait. I'm a fan of football. I love that. As a bears fan, where you, uh, what was your
take on Caleb Williams yesterday getting into the ball quickly? Much better. Uh, you know,
what I want to see what I, well, part of the reason I want to see Eber Fouce out of there,
I want to see this OC as the head coach for seven games. And I want to see if he could possibly be
my real head coach. Bella check is not going to be the bears head coach. Uh, for one, I don't know
that they're going to let go of pace. They're GM. And I think Bella check wants to be the GM.
And as I mentioned, they don't hire veteran coaches, let alone maybe the biggest vet in all a free
agency of, of coaching. They're not bears aren't going to do that. And they wouldn't pony up for them
or anything like that either. So, uh, and all honesty, if I can't get, uh, Thomas, uh, the OC right now
for the bears, boy, I would love to bring in the kid, uh, the, uh, Ben Johnson from Detroit.
Uh, I don't know why he would take the job other than Caleb Williams because Caleb Williams is
the real deal. Like I, uh, you want a true hot take? That was a joke hot to add you joke hot takes.
I mean, there's a billion hot takes out there. I don't really see the point in it or anything. Um,
but what I, I, if you really do want me to take that you can play back and, you know, rub him
my face or anything like that. I am a hundred percent. Caleb is my quarterback. A hundred percent
with this kid. I, I, I love his attitude. I love his imagination, uh, the way he approaches the game.
And I don't know if you're paying attention or not, but this kid is learning week to week.
And if you get, look what happens if you give him some decent coaching, just decent, talk about
a OC. This never done this before either. There, you got two rookies in there right now. You got
in the rookie os office coordinator and you got a rookie, uh, quarterback in there. And they're both
giving you, I thought a pretty darn good game against a defense with a bunch of what seven eight
first round picks on it and a defense is supposed to be a playoff defense. I thought they played
pretty good. I was pretty impressed with Caleb Williams. I am, I don't need 400 yards. I don't
need 4,000 yards passing. That's for the graphics department at Fox. That's for, you know, uh, the
talking heads and gives them something to talk about. Give me W's. Just give me a competitive game,
give me W's. And there's one thing I do not doubt about Caleb Williams. He eats,
sleeps, and breeds football. This is what he does. This is what his passion is. This, he's going
to die trying to get us a Super Bowl. He's going to die trying to make us competitive. That's,
we got one position, a couple of positions now. And if you ask me, uh, I love Roma Duse,
that's what I, that's my, maybe my favorite young receiver in football right there. I love that
kid. Uh, and in Caleb Williams between those two, um, um, that's not a bad start. You got to do a
lot about that offensive line. You got to do a lot about coaching. And, and then you're resetting
again as a defense is fine. Yeah. Defense. I have no problems with it, but you're, you're, you're
are going to automatically going to be resetting it for Chicago. You've already taken this kid's
rookie season and outside of the reps he has gotten and, and learning he has done, you have wasted
it. Uh, as a, as a GM, uh, I like Ryan pace a lot. And I like a lot of the things he's done.
But a lot of things have fallen into his lap, uh, getting Carolina to take that, this all happens
because Carolina agrees to that trade. Uh, if you don't get that sucker bet, a lot of his other
decisions have been questionable. And, and it's going to be interesting to see what happens there
with his position as well as obviously the rest of the whole thing. But focusing on what we should
be an actual competitive team, a team that deserves our time and the Green Bay Packers. Um, this has
been, you, you want to Jordan love to inherit certain things from Aaron Rogers and learn certain
things from him, not the red zone pick, not the, not the bad decision, not the, I'm the smartest
guy in the field and I can make this play happen thing. Um, Jordan love does not come across like
that kind of guy, but he's playing like that guy a little bit. And I don't, he's a young quarterback.
He's under what 20, 30 starts in his career. He's still learning at some of these things. But
unfortunately, unlike Caleb Williams, where that's a building project. Who knows for how long?
This is go time for the Green Bay Packers. And they were everybody's darling coming into the
season. Jordan love was an MVP pick and everything. And right now, uh, miss me with the injuries.
You had a week off. Uh, everybody's hurt. Uh, it's between the ears with this kid right now that
you want to see better decision making. I think Jordan love at the end of the season could be holding
up the Lombardi trophy and be the MVP of the Super Bowl. I wouldn't, I wouldn't be laughing at
anybody taking that bet. I think that's a very fair bet to take right now. But regard, you've got
to get to that point and he's got to start learning quick. He's got it's, it's, go. He's got to learn
now. There's no chance for, well, we just got to keep, you know, we got, there's no way that we
should be talking about Green Bay winning, uh, statistically, uh, because of what happened. You,
you happen to play a team that's, I don't know, that just, you know, that team, uh, whatever they are.
So if, if they lose that game, how are, how is the microscope on Jordan love and that coaching
staff right now and some of the decision making going on and some of the, the choices that they're
making? I, I, I, I, I don't know if they're just trying to figure things out and throw things out
there, but how are you, how are you as a packer fan feeling you're watching that game ran? Well,
the one picky hat. He just got a little excited on over through the intended receiver. It wasn't a
bad decision. It was just a high throw on its tail. It happened to have a bear in the corner of
the end zone. So that pick was in, you know, later in the game, when he ran that last one and he
got to the one yard line, he probably was afraid of getting a pick. So he looked around and thought,
too tight a window, I don't want to get a pick and get, you know, criticized for that, get criticized
for that. So that's why he runs it and doesn't make it at the two. Um, and, and the, the floor is like,
well, we may not get the ball again, you know, it's, it's that kind of possession. They only had
what three in the first half. So they had a minimal amount. So from that standpoint, you could see
why I didn't kick the field goal. On the other hand, you're like, boy, we sure wish we'd add.
I just needed a field goal. You know, and the interesting thing was if the, uh, Packers do kick the
field goal and they go up by four, it would have forced the bears to get a touchdown to win. Yeah,
they wouldn't have been in the situation to kick a field goal. And I said, you look back on it. And
sometimes that's a blessing because if they have to go for touchdown, sometimes they make it,
right? Yeah. Whereas now they just play cautious and they don't, they don't get it in, um,
you know, Romeo dobs. I think he only got targeted once yesterday. And he dropped that one that he
was targeted. Yeah. They just didn't complete. It didn't, he didn't throw a lot of passes yesterday,
either. I don't, I think I can't remember the number right off top of my head. I will say, uh,
you know, the way Jacob's was running in the fact that they have nobody in that interior line
in Chicago, I don't blame them for running the ball as much as they did. But the play calling was
really weird. I just, I don't know. It's second and one, right? From about the six and it's like,
well, they're going to pound, you know, him two, three times and they'll get a touchdown out of it.
Then they get a penalty and then they go backwards and they end up not getting that out of it.
He only did throw 17 passes. That's what he was. There's 13 for 17 with the one pick two.
We still had 261 yards, but a lot of that, I think that was 60 yards at time to Watson. So, yeah,
got a lot of that. But Jacob's yesterday, 76 yards rushing, 58 yards receiving. So we got
134 yards of total offense for the Packers. I don't know that he's going to make any all pros or
anything like that. But boy, there are some moments that I just enjoy watching Christian Watson play.
Like some nice adjustments to the ball. Similar to what you saw with Roma Duse on that dry,
what could have been a game winning drive and everything. Adjustment to the ball, adjusting to your
quarterback, the connection that you have with the quarterback, Christian Watson and Jordan Love.
It may not always show on the field, but you can tell that they are working on this, that they
have been trying very hard to learn each other very much in their body languages and just keeping
Watson on the field healthy as well. Challenge in the last couple of years.
This is also an opportunity. You had a great thing happen for you for the Green Bay
organization. If you were a Green Bay Packer fan, you had almost the game that you did everything
you didn't want in that game pretty much happened in a lot of ways. And you still came out with a
win. So for some, that could be, you know, you could look at this like some, I think Kansas City
looks at these games like, oh, we can pull off every game at the last second or BYU for that matter.
Oh, we can pull off any win at the last second. But as you saw this week, and either of those
teams are undefeated anymore. And I think a smart team sees something like this and like,
whew, okay, back to the drawing board. Let's work on this. Let's make, let's tighten this ship.
We got lucky with that one. Let's not let that happen again. We just got, oh, you know, what happened
with Detroit. This game didn't go that well. I think you got to build on these things. You have
something here that you cannot guarantee is going to be there every season. We've seen this.
We've seen for every team like a chiefs that can know well every year. They'll be in it with
that guy. There's teams that know angles. Yeah. The way that they talked about the bangles with
Carson Palmer, little one with Joe Burrow, a similar thing with Palmer, though, where it was, oh,
yeah, they're going to be competitive for the next 10, 20 years. Carson Palmer breaks up that
leg in a playoff game and you don't hear from them again. As a kid, I thought the Philadelphia
Eagles were going to win two Super Bulls, Randy. I thought Randall Coddingham, but that defensive
light of Dredgy White and Jerome Brown and Clyde Simmons and how could they not? Yeah,
I'm sure they're going to win one of everything. Say, yeah, that window tightens up quick.
It'll be interesting. It'll be interesting. That's for sure. Well, it's really me interesting
over the next two weeks because on Sunday, it's San Francisco at Green Bay. And then Thanksgiving
day, it's Miami at Green Bay. You got two out there and you got Tyree Kale. Yeah. Yeah,
most are to Randall all over the Packers with the 49ers and a playoff game a few years ago.
It feels very weird to say this with a bare Packer game, but do you think there's any chance
the Packers were overlooking looking at San Francisco with the boogie man that that has been for them?
Possible, just because you know, you look at the sack numbers. I think that happens more in college,
I guess, but I did hear somebody say that. I thought it was worth throwing out there, but I don't,
I don't know in a rivalry. You think they wouldn't. Yeah, yeah, it's hard to, you know,
they're young people. It's the again, it's team in the NFL. Yeah, never know. Right.
We'll take a quick time out. Come back and have some more playmakers.
Brought to you by Quaid Plus printing here at WFHR.
Well, come back everybody to WFHR's playmakers. Randy and James here with your phone lines
wide open 715-424-2600. Hit us in the numbers. Call us up 424-2600. We will talk some river kings,
talk some badgers, both football and basketball, but Randy, you got some stuff for us.
You know, before we get to it, I got to say a great big thank you to all kind of things you
said on Friday. I was very kind to you. And today happens to be my third grandson's golden birthday.
Oh, awesome. Happy birthday, Lysha. Happy birthday, Lysha. It's a great name,
too. I love that game because that's a great name. Happy birthday to him.
Thank you. So in high school, football action from the past weekend,
the eight-player championship game was played at Southwood County Stadium,
right here in Wisconsin Rapids on Saturday afternoon,
talking a little bit to Bob Berkhaus, or he was at the game as well.
Owen Withley completes the undefeated season as they beat Lena St. Thomas Aquinas,
50-36 Mason Gay said an eight-player state record with six touchdowns in that game.
And he rushed for 321 yards on the contest. Not a bad night. That's a pretty good game.
Back on Friday night, the level four games were played in 11-player football with a trip to state
on the line. First in Division I, the magic for DC Everest ran out. As they fell to Mayport 35-21,
the pirates will now face Muskego, who upset third ranked McQuanigal 16-14.
In Division II, fourth ranked Rice Lake, held off number six West Depeer 31-24 in Marshfield.
The L-Face top-ranked slinger, who outlasted number two Badger 35-28. That'd been a fun one to be had.
From Division III, right here in Wisconsin Rapids, in number one, Green Bay Notre Dame will level
the Cross Logan 41-21 much closer in the first half than the final score.
Notre Dame will go against number five Catholic Memorial, who top number nine Wisconsin Lutheran 31-14.
Division IV saw a number seven balled-win Woodville, clobber undefeated and sixth-ranked
Winnecony 40-16. BW will now go against fifth-ranked Racine St. Catherine, who upset number two
lacrosse Aquinas 12-6. In Division V, top-ranked Stratford scored on a 22-yard touchdown pass
with under a minute to play, and will head to state for the third consecutive year,
as they rallied past number three Prairie Ducine 26-25. The Tigers will now take on the Tigers
of Wrightstown, that is, on Thursday at 4 p.m. Division VI, seven-thrinked Ransford,
was five better than number nine Bondowell 34-29. They will match up against Lamira,
who shut out Belleville 36 to zip. And from Division VII, wow, the Edgar Wildcats.
They're heading back to Madison to defend their crown, as they scored with under two minutes
remaining to defeat Boyzville, 21 to 20 in James. The final drive, they had a second and 30,
on second down, they got 24 yards, and then they picked up the first down to keep the drive alive
on third down. A foreign exchange student kicks the extra point, the game-winning point,
coach Jerry Sins wins his 100th playoff game. Just think about that.
100th playoff game. I mean, most you can get in a year's five. That's a few in the state of
the year. Yeah, that's incredible. And this is now going to be their 15th state appearance.
That'll be Thursday at 10 a.m. as they will take on Potosi Casville, who is top ranked,
and Edgar's number two. Potosi Casville beat Kenosha St. Joe's 26 to 15. So all of that takes
place Thursday and Friday down at the camp. That's exciting stuff. Thank you so much, Randy. Great
coverage. Great work, as always. Suck a little River Kings real quick, as a big weekend for the
Kings. Took on the Minnesota Squatch, who are number one in the division, first place in the
division. Kings looking to make some move on that, on that and go for them. Friday night's game,
a 4-3 victory for the Minnesota Squatch. A well played game. Very well played game.
You had plenty, everything that you could look for in that game. Things sometimes just don't go
your way, especially with the cut of the ice and just the way it goes. Both teams are almost
identical in shots on goal, 41 for the Kings, 43 for the Squatch. It actually went to a shootout,
right? I worked all the time, neither team scored, and then they got, well, they outscored
the Kings one to nothing in that shootout. And then Saturday night, a little more our way,
5-4 victory for your Kings. And again, a pretty similar story to tell as far as the score and
everything, but something I just keep pointing to it because I do this in part because for your
average hockey fan, I think this is a good tell of a game in that. And I think it's interesting,
even for your diehard hockey fans, take a look at shots on goal. That's one of the first things
you can look at if you're looking at a box score and everything. And when you see a good difference
in that by a 10 to 15 shot, you're usually going to see your team win. And just in comparison,
the Kings 48 to 39 shots on goal. And it's not just that the peppering of the net in the time,
amount of those at the times that they do it. And I think you talked about this last week of
what a third period team this group is. Yes. The squad scored like 37 seconds into the third period.
They want it 4-2. Yeah. And the Kings got three goals after that to win at 5-4. So a nice little
rally. And like you said, they're a third period team. Got 17 shots to 8 by the squad in that
third period, a big difference maker. And I'm sure we'll be talking about that with coach
next time he's able to join us looking forward to it. Great weekend by the Kings.
Follow your Kings as they build hockey up and down the river river Kings hockey.com be sure to
follow them on social media as well. And get excited everybody because we got some home games coming
up next month. We're really looking forward to let's fill up the South of County Rec Center and
make sure that they know what home ice advantages. Yeah. And I think next weekend they're at the
Detroit showcase. Yes. We have busy time for coaching the boys. Follow the boys winner as they
build hockey up and down the river river Kings hockey.com and a safe travels to all of them this weekend
and everything. Hope it's a good one. We'll get into our schedule a little bit later. I want to
talk about some things happening here, but also over on our sister station WIRI. I got something
pretty cool going on going over there. I'll get to all of that, but let's talk a little badgers
Randy. And I think we'll start with the the loss and then with the win against Arizona. Okay.
That sounds good. First off, the Wisconsin fired off its coordinator Phil Longo on Sunday a day
after the badger says 16 13 home lost to number one organ in a statement coach fickle thanked
Longo for his two seasons with the program adding we are not where we need to be and believe that
this decision is in the best interest of the team. I think that this was a long time coming
into some badger fans and to some, you know, well, you just kind of gave us, you know, the game
yesterday. There was a couple of things that really stood out offensive play calling wise,
especially in that fourth quarter that I think had a lot of almost had him gone before the game
was over. You know, not again, we're talking about human beings and I don't like anybody losing
their job. So I think people are a little too flippant on sports talk radio about firing people
and I try to be really careful with that. But I also am a big believer in you're a big boy,
you could pay to do a job. If you can't do that job, this is business 101. You know, we got to
bring somebody else in. I'm sorry, it's not personal. I think with Phil Longo, you had a good
I mean, a good guy, it seemed like certainly and a guy that the the kids liked, but just didn't
seem to be doing. I always felt like him and fickle just weren't on the same page and fickle,
I don't have any doubts about as a coach. I have no doubts about as a recruiter. We need to see
a little bit more here. I think that you got one thing out of that game that nobody can take away
and then not even a, you know, a horrible rest of the season can take away. You got national
respect. Locally, what people think is one thing, but nationally and recruiting wise, nationally,
you got a lot of respect around the country from that game. And I think it's first time the quarterback
for Oregon hasn't thrown for a touch down this season. I think they've only given up like three
in the last several games, but you know, I think one of the things people forget as a brain lock
was the backup. Yeah, you know, and he was what 12 or 28 for 96 yards, one TD that picked that got
batted up in the air at the end. You know, a big play that happened in that game, they got called for
a chop block, which of course everybody, even on TV was saying it wasn't a chop block. That saying
they would have went down and scored and got a field goal and taken the lead, but instead of being
at about 40 yard line, they got pushed back to about the eight. Well, you know, they weren't going
to convert that with as much as they were struggling with the past game. Yeah. So now they need to win
one game. I'd see they're at Nebraska next Saturday or else the following Friday when the cranberry
classics going on had 11 o'clock against Minnesota for the X at home. Yeah, you want to win both
those. Of course, you got to win one of them. You got to win one. Yes, Wisconsin ranked 101st
nationally in scoring in Longo's 23 games as coordinator and failed to eclipse 13 points and
it's current three game losing streak, which is obviously, you know, you just can't keep your job
that way. And you're almost in a situation very similar to Chicago where you, I mean, what do you
have to lose? Give somebody young an opportunity to see if they can shake it up a little bit. You
never know what can happen going forward. Similar to where Chicago actually, because the NFL
that doesn't happen, you know, gain respect for a close loss. But in college, this can happen.
And that's pretty cool. And interesting that we can talk more about your football if you want
Randy, but I was going to go right to the Badger basketball team because one of the things I thought
was interesting is them going into that game. Hey, let's hope that they can hang with Arizona. They
give them a good game. Well, how about we try to win that game? Oh my goodness. You know,
I think there are 63 fouls called in that game. Yeah, Arizona had 32. Wisconsin had 31. Wisconsin
was 41 out of 47 from the free throw. And what's the last time you heard somebody shooting the 40.
So incredible. It was not crazy. Yeah. And how about Tangy, right? Yeah. I mean, I think he
was at Colorado State, transferred to Missouri, played like four games for himself. He only played
a total of eight. I think I saw something like he averaged 2.3 points per game. Well, he put up 41
points the other night. The only person that's ever scored more for Wisconsin was at the game
because they were honoring that 1415 run that they had. Yeah. Yeah. And they were honoring of coach,
of course, coach Bo Ryan, who just went into the Naysmith Hall of Fame.
Kaminsky had 43 against North Dakota. So a little bit better competition here. Yeah,
North Dakota. That granted. But I know it was Kaminsky. I couldn't remember who was against.
I was kicking me off. All right. Eight for 14 from the field. Four for six from the three point line.
21 out of 22 free throws for Tai Chi. What a game he had. Yeah. So 103 to 88 over Arizona.
And now they played a night too. We'll have it for you, right? Yeah. We're going to have that game
right here for you. We're going to get into our schedule in a moment. We will have that game
for you lined up. Wisconsin Mads basketball holding Rio Grande Valley, that classic matchup,
you know, that rivalry that we when it says Texas, you're like, oh, yeah, Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Six o'clock. We'll be kicking that off right here, looking forward to it and everything.
I should mention as well, if that's not your game, maybe hunting is six o'clock on our sister station,
105, 5WRI, Seth is going to have countdown to the hunt. Be sure to check that out. Everybody,
all week long, we are going to be having different highlights over there. Today, we're going to the
Wood County Wildlife and talking a little hunting over there with our friends at the Wood County Wildlife.
That'll be going again from six to seven tonight. And then on Tuesday, Wood County DNR will be in
always a good opportunity to always appreciate being able to talk with our DNR. Any chance we
get to do that. Wednesday raised in whiskey with Sean Becker, you know that's going to be good.
Oh, absolutely. Sean's a great talker, man. That's going to be great. Thursday, central
Wisconsin 4-H shooting sports. That'll be great. Love our local 4-H. I get spoiled. I get to talk
to the 4-H at least once a month and enjoy that. And we will wrap things up on Friday with women's
bow hunting from UWSP. That is going to be a really interesting conversation. From six to seven,
join us on 105-55WRI to count down to hunting. All week long, tune in here from area experts and
listeners like you. Help your school and be on the radio call into the show. Ask a question,
share a story or a hunting joke. And when money for your school, the school that gets the most
shout outs is going to win $500 and free advertising. That is pretty cool. Give them a call from six
to seven tonight, all week long at 4-2-3-1055, 4-2-3-1055. Just a touch or two way on the Civic Media app.
How fun is acting to be? Oh, it's going to be great. It's going to be great. I think this is
the first of many, too. I think we're going to be doing this kind of thing going forward here
every hunting season. What was really exciting. I was sitting in some of the meetings where this
was starting to be bandered about back in summer. It was really exciting. How everybody was just so
on board with it. And of course, Michael Colmer, a good friend who always helps us out. He's a
big hunter. So he had a part in that as well. We gave Michael the week off of Playmakers on Wednesday
so we could do this. No, no, we don't have a Playmakers on Wednesday and Thursday this week. We'll
get into that a little bit more later, but that is all the more reason we want your sports takes
and feelings, everybody. We got a little bit less than 10 minutes when we come back to do that.
Feel free to call up and join the conversation. 715-424-2600. Join Randy and I here on Playmakers.
Welcome back everyone to WFHR's Playmakers. Randy and James here with you.
Phone lines are wide open. Hit us in the numbers. 715-424-2600. One more quick shout out to
Mark Ket, too. They're 4 and 0 as well. And tomorrow night they take on Purdue, who just beat number
2 Alabama. So you think you lose that Gideon. It's not going to be the same. So their number 13
probably climbing the polls too. Boy, they just seem to have put L. They're recruiting into basketball
over there. Because they did not really do much else. That's a shame. Shout out to them. Shout out to
Shaka Smart too. Just enjoying that. For those who did not hear about 8 minutes ago, the news
broke. The Pirates ace Paul Schienz was named the NL Rookie of the Year with 23 of the 31st
place votes. Pretty solid thing. I think that's a pretty safe bet right there. And sticking with
baseball news, today is Ward Day. They're going to be announcing a lot of the awards. I was hoping
they announced a little bit more of them while we were on the air. But congratulations Paul Schienz.
Definitely. That's that's the choice right there. I don't know. Yeah. They most also
baseball just announced today that they are the 14 newcomers that are going to be in the Hall
of Fame ballot. A couple of big names on there. Felix Hernandez, Carlos Gonzalez, Dustin
Pedroia, Haley Ramirez, Fernando Rodney, and in Kinsler. One of my favorite players of all
time, Ben Zobrist, Troy Tualwinski, Russell Martin, Brian McCann, Curtis Granderson and Adam Jones.
But the two big names on there are outfielder. It's kind of funny. Oh, I thought he was already
in the Hall of Fame, but each row and pitcher C.C. Sabatia. And that is where we go with our
stat of the show, Randy C.C. gave us one of the better runs we've had in here in Wisconsin when
it comes to baseball. C.C. was 11 and 2 with an ERA of 165 and 128 strikeouts in 17 appearances
for the Brewers in that run that he had here. So my number today was 17 because I couldn't remember
how many appearances 17 when he was here for like a week. I didn't know they could play that many
games in that time. And wasn't it like one time either of the playoffs or just to get to the playoffs
like he pitched on like two, three days rest and said, I'm going out there because we've got a
chance here. I'm not I'm only slightly exaggerating here. He deserves to go into the Hall of
Fame for that a lot. Absolutely. Like, yeah. This is what this is what you make a move in
free agents or in at the trade deadline for. It's everything you ask for. Now they didn't get what
they the prize, the ultimate prize. But he did every single thing you could ask for when you make
a move like that. And whenever anybody is asking their team to make a move with the trade deadline,
he is the example. Like it really is and it's it's not just us doing this here at everything. But
I've heard other talking heads and a lot of people I respect like Buster only in Tim Kirkchin
talk about this and everything where that run he had they'd never seen anything like that. And
you just especially now where we're starting pictures. We're lucky if they go four or five innings.
This guy was giving you all of this and complete games. And he got ripped out of a perf or not
a perfect but a no hitter because they called an error on what or what they called a hit on what
should have been an error. CC get that speech ready. Get that speech ready because you deserve to go
answer. And I don't know if it's somewhere on a video that you can find. But I did see one time on
a talk show where he did like an hour show talking about his time in that year with Milwaukee and
he just could not rave enough. And you know you expect him to because he's doing this for Milwaukee.
But he seemed genuine about it. Like he really. Oh yeah. Yeah. I've heard him talk about Milwaukee too.
Yeah. And he he's always talked really highly of the area and the team. He's one of those guys.
You know he means it when he says the fans and the organization. They don't always include both.
He's one of those guys that always includes both of those taking a look at our schedule as
I mentioned earlier coming up at six Wisconsin men's basketball hosting UT Rio Grande Valley.
We'll have some great men's basketball there for you on our sister station WRI still sports going
on hunting. Countdown to hunting with Seth going on over there. Be sure to join us from six to seven
all week long at one oh five five WRI tomorrow. We'll have countdown to the hunt going on at six
and then over also at seven oh five Lincoln high school girls basketball hosting Nina
Mike and Seth going to cover that one for you. That's going to be a good game. Yeah. That'll be a
nice start to the year. No playmakers on Wednesday because our own Melissa K will be at a
spire's review hospital with the lights of love's tree lighting celebration. One of our time
year. Yeah. That's one of our favorites. Send the warm vibes to Melissa and listen in here. We're
going to have some great locals on the air with us. It's an event like no other. There is no
event like it and we appreciate being it. We're humbled to be a part of it and having it on our
airwaves. Melissa's going to do an amazing job there with that. Then on WRI with countdown to
the hunt at six and seven oh five Luke fickle show right here at WF HR. Subtion girls basketball
taking on Newman Catholic starting at seven on Thursday and WRI whoo must listen to radio. Exactly.
That is going to be a good one. Cannot wait for that game. And plenty more. Well Wisconsin men's
basketball on Friday and more football on Saturday. Wisconsin at Nebraska should be a good one
Randy again. No playmakers on Wednesday and Friday this week. You know as you list off all those
people are doing all those shows. It just reminds me of our little local station here and the
talented people that that we have working here. It's just amazing from from you to Seth to Melissa to
Beth. You know on and on we go Michael and so on and Pam behind the scenes. She does a great job
as our sales staff. You name it. They're just awesome. You know you think of people like Don Chesboro.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean with some of the things that he has been struggling with that he still comes
and helps us out if we get in a pinch very we are very blessed. Yeah. Yeah. We we can name
enough of this team. We have Laura and Michael as well and so many of you out there that help us
with your calls and stuff. We appreciate you. We consider you a part of the team.
I'm coming in. Bob coming. Yes. As a big thank you to Bob for being here. We're really humbled
to do this. This is a good living. This is a good life. It is. And we appreciate all of you.
Thank you so much for joining us. I do want to remind everybody that in this time slot on Tuesdays
and Thursdays be sure to join us for Community Stories with Melissa Kay on Thursdays.
Tuesdays you'll have Community Stories. You know adult we're a version and then on junior
Community Stories on Thursdays fun. Be sure to join us for that. That is a really fun show.
It's only going to get better and better as it goes along. And we'll be back next week with more
playmakers for you everybody. Collect those sports takes and feelings. We don't want you to you know
oh where did I put that sports take? Write it down so you don't forget it and bring it to us
next week on Monday when we'll have our next playmakers. Big thank you to quality plus printing
and a thank you to you Randy. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me.
Well you guys have a good night. We'll talk to you soon in the later right here at
This is locally grown radio WFHR 1320 AM W24 A.D.E. Wisconsin Rapids and always streaming of the Civic Media app.
