D1R 161 – Matt McCarty, Wesley Coleman, Wild Dual-Sport Athlete and Top D2 Transfers

Northwestern HC Matt McCarty joins the show to update us on the renovations of a first-class facility in Orange City, Iowa for the Red Raiders. We’re also joined by the man who squatted 800lbs from Harding University, DL Wesley Coleman. After that we take a look at a D3 Lineman who also plays college GOLF, and break down some of the top transfer talent at the D2 level.

Video Chapters:
0:00-2:06 Episode Overview
2:07 Matt McCarty
18:47 Wesley Coleman
36:53 D3 Lineman who also GOLFS?
41:06 Top D2 Transfers

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[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome back to division one rejects I’m your host Kobe Manzo this is episode 161 I’ve got not one but two great guests for you tonight the first of which the head coach of the Northwestern College Red Raiders head coach Matt mccardy joins me here shortly to talk about a the success they’ve had down there in Orange City Iowa but also the new facilities and the renovations going on down there for their football team and their other athletic teams you guys are going to be pretty amazed for an nii school to be at this caliber and this level of facilities is pretty awesome so we’ll talk about Coach mccardy joined later by the man feature just a few episodes ago Wesley Coleman aka Big West from the dline at Harding University we put out that video of him squatting and benching a million and 2 million pounds respectively and uh I hit up West I said let’s get you on the show he said hell yeah let’s do it so on this episode as well like I said this episode 161 here on May 13th otherwise couple little notes from me um in this episode we’ve got an All-American offensive lineman at the D3 level who’s also an all League golfer From The Trenches to the links that sounded pretty good in my head let me know how you think that one went over that’s a really cool story that I want to talk about a kid over at wartberg I won’t say the name yet but stick around for that conversation and then a top transfer portal breakdown of talent at the D2 level a lot of guys making the jump up to division one FCS FBS respectively both we’ve seen a lot of it especially a lot of skill players which is uh always a good thing to see from the division 2 level guys utilizing that transfer portal to make that jump up and Elevate but as always you can watch this episode on YouTube if you are hello subscribe use those timestamps video chapters fast forward to any part of the conversation you want to hear same thing on Apple podcast Spotify wherever you’re listening they’re all in the description so check those out follow us on the socials had a great uh little Instagram post about John Moka and Sean PT on the on you know both the socials so make sure to check that one out was a great one um but without further Ado let’s get into that first conversation with Coach mccardy joining the show tonight head coach of the Northwestern College Red Raiders Nia national champion and Kinesiology Professor it’s coach Matt mccardy what’s going on Coach how are you hey I’m great man it’s great to be on here with you and great great to visit with you about Northwestern hell yeah man like I told you before I mean I was going to talk about the facilities tonight but uh I figured it’d be much better to have you talk us through not only that but kind of the programing Direction and all those things yada y that comes with being the head man in charge um instead of just me blabbing about the facilities and just going off of news articles so I like to hear it from the man himself but man you’ve lived Red Raider football for a long time you got yourself a short reprieve a little bit of a break if you will after you graduate go on uh do a little bit of coaching outside of that it didn’t take long for you to end up back wearing the red going as the defensive coordinator and um everyone who’s who’s followed your journey knows that that was another fast track to where you are now and this program has been on the up but what is it about this program makes it so easy to come back to yeah it’s a really special place and you know I grew up about an hour from here and it’s kind of funny because growing up I told myself I was never going to go to Northwestern that’s yeah and now I’ve been here I’ve been a part of Raider football for over half my life so um you know God’s got a sense of humor I guess and and it’s been awesome I didn’t go here initially out of out of high school uh and I transferred to Northwest here and the experience that I had was phenomenal uh as a student athlete here and just the relationships I had with my coaches my teammates professors and um when I graduated I I taught for one year but I really knew I wanted to get into coaching like I had a passion for coaching I really wanted to be a college coach and was fortunate enough to get hired by the head coach that I played for just a year removed from college and I was here for as a defense coordinator for 11 years and then able to move into the head coaching role for the last eight so 23 of the last 24 years I’ve been a part of Raider football as a player assistant or now head coach so it’s a pretty awesome Place uh we’ve got great people here I think you know we’re going to talk facilities we have phenomenal facilities for a school our size but the people uh are really what makes this place special you know coaching here you know the alignment that we have from our president to our athletic director uh in terms of our mission who we are how we do things from our you know football program to the college itself it there’s great alignment it’s it’s an awesome place to work yeah you said you’re never going to be a part of Red Raider football some would argue that you are Red Raider football um but like you said the the facilities are only as good as the people inside of them and it sounds like you guys have a pretty good core nucleus over there um it history would also stand to agree with that fact since you’ve taken the Reigns the last time you guys didn’t place at least second in the conference was back in 2016 in your first year in a conference that you and I both know is is right up there as far as the the top of the mountain and the ni Scene goes what’s Secret Sauce man we got great players I think that’s the secret sauce we’ve got guys that we’ve you know year one was a was a challenge uh I think we went three and seven but um you know we we saw a lot of improvements we really focused on just the culture and the way we wanted to do things and get things in place and and we had a great group of guys that bought into it and you know we just we could see results they just weren’t shown up on the scoreboard and then you know we’ve just really taken off from there the next year we won 10 games and made the quarterfinals and and really haven’t looked back but the you know we’ve been in three of the last four National Championship games and we’ve got great kids that really just buy into the way we do things and we try not to be too fancy um we try to just show up and work hard every day and be great every single day and it sounds really cliche but I think that’s the secret sauce is we take things we try to make things as simple as possible and be great at what we’re doing um and and just continue to do that day in and day out and our guys have really Embrace that it’s fun to see nothing wrong with Coach speak if it’s coach speak I mean it’s been said long enough that it works or that it’s right and uh anybody who is currently talking in coach speak that has a trophy behind that over your left shoulder up there on the Shelf who am I to sit here and critique what the hell is coming out of your mouth I love it I love the message um but let’s talk about your other uh day job if you will as a professor saw you had a few courses on there I wanted to know um if per se I was a betting man over Wonder on how many football players will be enrolled in the weight training course offered this upcoming school year o weight training yeah there’ll be quite a few guys in that that weight training class so you know it’s it’s probably there’s probably half the guys that’ll be in there so I awesome I it’s I don’t teach that every single year we kind of rotates around through the department but uh yeah there’s there’s a lot of guys a lot I mean it’s going to be majority student athletes that are going to be in that class I love it man and then um outside of that also some other ones personalized physical fitness just to ripping off the website of course intro to sport management um was that something you knew coming into this position that like uh was that going to be a passion of yours that was going to be something that came with the job that you’re going to have to do this on the side talk about that um was that always in the plan or something that kind of uh came along the way there something Northwestern just typically does with our coaches is we have other responsibilities with outside of just you know our our sport yep um so there’s there’s a you know I’d say half of our head coaches probably teach in the Kinesiology Department um some of them have other duties like just event staff or or different things throughout the department um my I mean I teach right now my main focus is in our in sport management uh I teach the int sport management course in our sport management major uh that’s what I have my master’s degree in so that’s probably the class that I’m most passionate about I really enjoy teaching that class and it’s fun to interact with other students and you know outside of your team and you get other student athletes but other students from across campus in that course and it’s just fun to interact with them and on a day-to-day basis not just as a football coach yeah 100% now let’s get over um you know the reason why I thought now would be a great time to get you on here obviously uh the buzz about those facilities that we talked about earlier you guys already have a great existing base now you’re getting to renovate uh those facilities and and take them from you know what is already a solid caliber for your level of football now you’re coming into an area that is Elite for this level of football and what’s going on there on that campus talk to me about the uh renovated Bolton Center yeah it’s going to be really exciting especially for our program you know there’s a you know a $6 million addition that that’s really focused on our football program in terms of a new locker room for our guys and I think that’s big um just a space that will be for the football team which then that allows us to renovate our old locker room and that’ll become baseball men’s soccer and men’s basketball so uh the domino effect is big but just new football locker room and the functionality that that’ll serve and in terms of it set up in a way that we’ll be able to have meetings in there as well with uh you know TVs and and and whiteboards in the locker room and in those those pods so we’ll be able to have position meetings in the locker room and then new coach’s office for the football staff and then a new team meeting room that will fit our entire team that we can split into offense and defense within a few minutes so that that that piece is going to be really nice you know the wow factor of you know you’re going to show up and the trophy case is going to be right there and then you’ll go right into the team meeting room which um it’s modeled after some of the FCS schools that are around us and so you know when we have recruits on campus you know if they visit some of the FCS schools or they walk into Northwestern they’re not going to really be able to tell much of a difference in terms of facilities that’s huge and uh you you say FCS I see that big block red n I’m thinking uh go Big Red I’m thinking Nebraska there in that Locker I pulled up that the video of some of those visuals and things that um were put out how long were those just kind of circling around and and you know finally coming to fruition now what was the the process like with that and obviously phase one we’ll talk about here in a little bit these are continuing to move on but got to feel good you’ve probably seen those a while ago to now have them finally start to come to fruition man yeah we really remodeled the bolman center back in 2020 and uh at that point they’re like all right phase two is we need to to work on some things with football and then they’ve started the fundraising process so over the last last three years you know it’s funded by our donors funded by alumni and they’ve got to a point now where it’s like all right it’s go time we’re starting this spring and it’s going to be a 12- Monon project so yeah seeing those images it’s it’s been really nice it’s been exciting uh just to see what’s down the road and yeah I think we’re anxious to to get that facility up and get that going and you know I think that they’ll renovate all of our existing locker rooms and I think just the again we want to create an atmosphere that’s a first class atmosphere for all of our student athletes and I think Northwestern does a really good job of that I think it’s important too I mean you talk about pting up some pictures here of that that phase one right over $2 million going into new gym floor new bleachers all these things this isn’t just a football deal like this is a whole Athletics uh revamp I don’t even know what word kind of describes what you guys have going on over there but I wanted to of course mention that and that the culture of the athletic teams over there that just has to be on the absolute ight now with everything uh going on and what’s funny about that I I think from an Outsiders perspective and I’m sure you could probably attest to it is it becomes a Snowball Effect you know you get money for these kind of projects and people see what it goes towards and the impact that it has uh the support I would assume especially that combined with the success you’ve had on the field this last uh almost a decade or so that’s just got to all contribute to even more of that Snowball Effect you’re right you know there is a great Snowball Effect and and just the excitement that that is around the college around the athletic department from from one team to the other team I think we won six conference championships this school year uh across the sports and I think you know the the first phase yeah you talked about the gym being remodeled and you know with our men’s and women’s basketball teams our volleyball team you know they’re really successful programs and it was kind of a rebranding of our our athletic department and at the same time and so we’re really able to Showcase that and highlight our facilities just update and mod modernize them uh so it’s a it’s a great feel when you walk into those athletic facilities now it feels uh big time and I think that’s awesome but yeah you know when you walk up and down the hallway fortunate to be around some really good coaches you know our volleyball team was National Runners up this year as well a um they were’re they’re phenomenal and it’s it’s fun to you know see our guys at though it’s like we’re preparing for our national semi-finals this year uh on Sat for that game was coming up on Saturday and Tuesday night is like guys you need to get down to the National Championship volleyball game so it’s like Monday and Tuesday night our guys were down cheering on our volleyball team which was was really awesome see um where was that at that volleyball game uh they got to play in Sous city which is about an hour south of us uh so I was a little jealous at the atmosphere that they had yeah for their National Championship just being an hour away and you know we were 19 hours away in Durham which our our fans were phenomenal down there but um yeah it was a pretty awesome atmosphere to be a part of that is electric um looking forward I mean to this year like you had just you told me earlier like wrapping up classes you’re not the only coach in the staff that is uh you know in that role of doing some of that on the side and so now I mean not that you guys haven’t been already but really locked into filling out this class Signing Day moving forward what’s the uh what’s next what are the next steps for for you guys here heading into the actual summer when it comes to recruiting and getting ready for the fall yeah right now our big focus is on the 2025 class so we’re we had one Camp a couple weeks ago already um and then it’s just it’s getting ready we we’ll get out to some other the other bigger schools around us to some of their camps to see kids so we’ll hit South Dakota State USD we’ll probably get to Iowa Iowa State and just an opportunity for us to see kids uh in one place which is awesome and then we have some summer camps that we’ll get ready for but really building out our 2025 board uh getting into some schools yet while the kids are still in school and seeing kids and and just talking with them and then it’s yeah June is really our slow month we’ll get to some camps but that’s our our staff’s time to kind of refresh and get ready for next season and then once July 4th hits it’s it’s go time full speed into next season really preparing for that oh yeah 2024 man and uh you guys have quite the backloaded schedule this year and I know again Co you’ll come on here and tell me you can’t Overlook any of these early opponents and you’re absolutely right like you have you have to say that I’m totally with it but humor me here Dakota Wesleyan Morningside Dort back to back to back that’s what I would call a see what you’re made of stretch I know you guys are definitely up for that challenge again like the first time you had to do that talk about that you got a stretch of games there against some top caliber competition yeah it’s it’s good it really show when you test yourself it gives you a good idea what you’re good at where you need to get better um obviously I love having some of those games early in the season because it it really just shows you immediately like all right this is where we are you know a couple years ago in 2022 when we won the National Championship We we played morning side week one and it’s like all right out of fall camp we know exactly what we’re good at and we know what we need to get better at and we’ve got time to get better at it um so when it’s backloaded you know you really don’t have that time toep you know to you go right from you know big games to postseason play it’s it’s a little bit different than when you play teams like that early in the season uh those are some fun games though there’s some fun rivalry games that are great atmospheres and you know it doesn’t really matter if it’s home or away because we’re all so close to each other that uh it’s going to be a great atmosphere no matter where you play you feel like you have a home crowd so it’s those are those are fun games when you play him and where you play him no I believe that and also the dynamic of you talk about like playing a team like Morningside in in week one and then having the potential opportunity to see someone like them again in the PO so then you’re talking about an entirely different Squad that is now playing you know all the changes that happened from you know over the course of the season but talking about that conference you guys are so uh like geographically close-knit if you will uh the one thing it doesn’t lend is the outof conference scheduling I’m assuming that’s just kind of a a relief a lot for the most part for you guys I know a lot of schools Now with uh conferences shrinking here and there especially in these lower levels of football scrambling to find these scheduling and schedule these different teams from all over has become just another thing added on to the coaching staff’s uh duties if you will I’m assuming you’re not too unhappy about having your schedule laid out for you basically the year in and year out it is nice you know the depending on when you’re bye Falls you know if we have a mid-season buy it is it’s a great time to refresh and refocus focus and you know last year we played Drake for a non-conference game so we went from we played 11 weeks straight through and then we had a Buy in the first round of the playoffs which was was really nice but that’s a that 11 week stretch that that can get that can be a grind it can it can wear on you physically I think that’s the piece of you want guys to be healthy going into the postseason and so when you don’t have that buy you know that that can just add up on you and so we’re pretty conscious we try to take take that by if we can if it’s mid midseason it’s tough to find games mid-season you’re trying to find teams that you know from either other leagues or other divisions that maybe have a mid-season buy two and that can be pretty difficult uh week zero is a great time to find a non-c converence game yep we honestly you know we’ve it’s it’s not easy finding non-conference games whether it’s travel um you know sometimes you want to play a bigger schools you we knocked off Drake so there’s not a lot of takers in and trying to play this year and so it can be a challenge finding it can be a challenge finding non-conference games really and whose fault is that I don’t know that would be you guys just scaring everyone away that that’s exactly what it is um but no that’s a good point and you see um you know some of these like the bigger FBS schools and they’re putting out here’s our known opponents for 2029 and you’re like I it’s unreal um the fact that that is just so planned out ahead of time but um yeah it’s a like you said it’s for at these levels of football it can be very difficult and again it’s just something that you don’t have a typically a dedicated role of someone who’s in charge of of making those decisions so again it falls uh into the lap of you guys but that’s all I have for you coach I appreciate taking a little bit of time talk to the facilities talk to the program you’re the man absolutely I appreciate you having me on it’s fun visiting with you of course have a good one I’ll talk to you y thanks you do joining the show tonight the man that barbells are afraid of 500 pounds on his back black forest is on the feet from the dline at Harding University it’s Wesley Coleman big West what’s up man hey what’s going on man glad to be here bro dude glad to get you on here um and I love the fact that I can stumble across a Twitter video repurpose it throw my little thing on there and just throw it out there and put it in front of more eyes and then we connect and we get you on here a week later that’s cool I think that’s pretty cool social media is crazy bro like even just from like after the national championship post like I talked to people I hadn’t talked to in Years bro like it’s crazy how fast you can connect with folks man I believe that bro but before we get into anything like I gotta ask like so black forces I mean they can’t hook you up with shoes over there or is that just the type of energy you’re on when you walk into the building like what talk me through that because I’ve seen like I told you before we got going I was a powerlifter I’ve seen a lot of interesting stuff black forces with that much weight on the bar was a first for me now what I will say up to up to that point I probably squatted in them like three or four times and I had like some other shoes I squatt in like some fours but then that day like around that time you know the black Force meme was crazy so I was like it’s only right that I go ahead and throw him on bro so you know I threw it on and you know it did what I thought it was going to do he’s he’s a men he’s crazy so yeah and it was I didn’t even notice on the first watch through I was too busy focusing on the bar that as you can see is doing like it’s doing you know you get that much weight it starts bouncing looks a lot more fluid all of a sudden on your back there um that was a very fluid very smooth lift was that the first time you put up that weight yeah that was the first time I went that heavy like the last year I had probably went up to it was 7 65 but breaking eight that was a that was the first time I ever went that high like ever damn I wouldn’t have guessed that by looking at it because I feel you can get a usually get a good judge of um you know how people have managed that before with how that moves and you’re talk just smooth through the entire process like no hitches or nothing were you a powerlifter in high school or any point or was it just one day you just decided to start throwing the wheels on until it started to get tough it really was until like really I’ll say preparation for college like my first summer like I had had a trainer his name is Jace and we’d always be putting crazy weight on and and so I was like from then like when I get to College like I’m definitely just going to start throwing it up once I get a stram program there but it was it was really like that that summer before my freshman year like my trainer we was just in there me and a bunch of other guys just going crazy yeah hell yeah man and then you had talked even before we got going about coach grag and and the staff over there the strength and conditioning staff what did they do from your freshman year to now to help develop you and obviously as a football player but also just to have the physique and the body to put that much weight on your back and just be able to execute on those kind of lifts man man I say the big thing is like they just they’re still like coach brg himself like he’s a like I call him an EV Mastermind because he’s always lips and just extra stuff to help us get better but like he’s just the way he does things man it’s always from a science scientific standpoint and also just really based off how we feel you know so like if I don’t feel good on something he’s not going to make me do it or anything like that and he’s always just like making sure his programs are for us and like if anything they’re for power like they’re really not for numbers so like leading up to that I wasn’t even really doing like a lot of like a lot of weight and we had it’s called the bird CH it’s like a like a velocity block so it just your velocity and so like he was like I want this to be high weather the numbers to be high so like he’s just been real smart about that it’s been awesome and then when you get both that’s where the real special thing comes in because you start to put on you have that volume but you also have the Velocity right you get both that’s where um that’s what separates a lot of guys and I’m sure you know guys I know I do that can put up massive numbers maybe even stuff like that in the weight room but you get them out in between the white lines and the [ __ ] just doesn’t translate right whether it’s their movements that are very stiff or conceptually they don’t get the game um just a lot of different things can go wrong between the weight room in the field thankfully it seems like for you and for a lot of guys over there Harding that has not been a problem the translation to the field uh but what are you doing workout wise continuing to talk about maybe that staff and and kind of the methods over there what are you doing besides uh heavy weight and some of the more conventional lifts to get you guys ready for the field man and moving uh fluid I would say the biggest thing is is our field work like we we make sure that our field work will translate to the field because you know you see a bunch of trainers and stuff and colleges doing stuff that’s like you will never be in that position in the game you will you will never like you will never be in that position so coach grg always make sure whether it’s like contact based stuff or just cutting and planning stuff making sure that even even telling us all these positions you’re doing will will happen in the game at some point so you need to take him seriously and you need to do them on your own so that that way you can get more accustom to him so just making sure we listen to him and just buying answer what he has for us yeah and sticking with that offseason coach Simmons has been posting a lot about the uh Prospect camps for you guys right now like every coach in America I mean he’s not alone in that but what makes his message I think a little bit unique is that he said every class of 25 Prospect they’ve offered has come to a camp and I think that was maybe almost the same for the 24 class has that been a standard over there for you guys guys that hey if you want an offer like a committable offer and you want a chance to come play here like you need to get your ass to one of our camps personally I didn’t even go I didn’t go to a Harding Camp did okay interesting I met coach Underwood after one of my games and then he started telling me about Harding and obviously I started researching myself and I was like man this is a great school but like a bunch of guys that we have now though like it’s crazy to see that shift like a bunch of them like I remember them from the camps uh one guy in particular he’s a old lineman named uh koven I remember him being at a couple of camps and like me coaching him and like now he’s here and I can say that for a bunch of other freshman but like we had we also have like a good amount of guys who like didn’t come to a camp so okay I don’t really know but I I can see that shift starting to get there though that is that is interesting and I you know you talk about coaching at the camps you guys have another Camp specifically for defensive line training with high school guys I’m assuming you’re helping out at those and maybe like helping these guys out or what yeah coach coach big he tries to get a couple of older guys to you know get out there help coach a little bit like it’s really cool to be out there that is cool and then when you talk about kind of that narrative and what that madebe people think about that is um you see okay only the guys who are coming to our camps are getting offers right that’s what they’re just seeing on the internet you might develop this perspective of oh Harding’s just a bunch of hom grown uh Arkansas guys maybe right around that Cersei area man and um a lot of guys I think you have just under 30 maybe on the team right now that are Arkansa guys not in counting the incoming Freshman Class um but there are a ton of gu you guys have a good spread I did not read realize that before actually going through the roster there’s a pretty good spread from across the country I I don’t know for whatever reason I feel like that’s um not the norm especially when you are a private uh like a Christian liberal arts that kind of school I feel like usually those schools don’t have that kind of reach but you guys seem to have a pretty diverse Squad man I I’ll say this like Harding is everywhere man and so just hearing a bunch of the guys stories like you you just be surprised on how many guys just got connected whether it be like their Uncle played here or they knew a teacher that went here or they had a they had a classmate who went here so it’s just like it’s just crazy we have a bunch of guys from everywhere and I just I just think that’s awesome man that’s the Brotherhood right that’s the Brotherhood for sure I’m saying you guys talk about it all the time it’s very real though huh it’s man very real like it’s it’s something that you could you could try to put in the words and like coach Simmons and all the coaches they put in very well but like you feel it more than you than than anything you could say about it like it’s just awesome man and I I think there are a lot of uh tweets other post when you guys made that Natty run like the Brotherhood showed up and showed out at those games and was like very very uh you know loud in their support but um going back to the the dline room you got some you got some talent in that room it’s no news to you but it’s been news to a lot of people this year obviously yourself but you guys talk about a guy like Nate Wallace on the outside who commanded a ton of respect this last year guys like Dre Hall Gage price excuse me you can go down that list uh what kind of changed for that room this year if anything thing and uh how do you feel about that room coming back into the fall man if I’m being honest nothing nothing really changed like Coach B has always had crazy expectation for us and so I feel well I will say one thing that changed I would just say like our chemistry just got to a whole another level like it was already great the past season but just knowing how certain guys are going to rush so you can kind of play off each other like that was huge this year like and the fact that we can we can rotate two three deep you know almost every position like you know my position or last year was me BJ tyr and Gage side it was him ab and like it at the end man it’s just it’s just awesome to know that there was kind of no drop off depending on the depending on the strings and like just having that and coming back in the Years this year I feel really amazing we only lost um two guys Nate and BJ their spots will be hard to feel but the guys who are fing those spots I just think that like they’re ready for they they starving too so like that’s just going to be awesome to see and I feel like those are I mean obviously those are the best defensive lines when you have depth but defensive line is is almost I think depth is at a premium more so than a lot of other positions right because you’re constantly rotating in guys and you have guys with different skill sets I think running back maybe you can make potentially a similar case but D line because you have more guys on the field at once I’d argue it’s actually even more important and so did you see maybe more of that this year where you guys didn’t typically have obviously you’re going to have a couple guys that play you know a lot of snaps cuz they’re just those type of dudes but you’re getting these guys and getting fresh legs in there and getting the right guys for the right situations in there for key and critical Downs how did that kind of change this year and I’m assuming you uh tried to stay fresh out there oh man coach big uh I really can’t speak much on that just because I know that he feels like certain people work better for certain situations so kind of just like at a certain point it was kind of just plug and play you know so like especially like on our pass rush Downs he kind of mix up the guys and the positions that they were in and just like see how they go so it was just kind of it was just kind of awesome to see how he kind of worked that out you know he he really like uh switches it up but his main thing is just you know you’re only going to be out there for a set number of plays so you might as well go all you can because you know someone’s going to come in and get you you know I like that I can get behind that I like that one um but talk about the uh I need to know about these team outings dude I see the pictures on Twitter I see the all the boys with the life jackets in the bus and doing like uh the river like rafting and those kind of things how often do these kind of things happen and that’s just all goes into building the Brotherhood right I would say like they happen anytime we have either a big break or like anytime you know um coach Simmons just feels like we need one like this past spring that’s the one you guys saw it was actually a camping trip and so it’s just funny to see guys who ain’t never ever stayed in the tent before never set up and never even you know been in the outdoors for longer than a couple hours man it’s just awesome and if I’m being real it’s just when you get your teammates out in that setting you just have no choice but Bond and man it’s just awesome especially the rafting trip man it was it was crazy so like just if anything it just builds team chemistry like you know up it you didn’t hit any crazy Rapids or anything out there did you no actually my boat uh we sun to the bottom because we had the Brad to have 4D Linen on it so uh about half the trip I was pushing the raft down the river so yeah are you serious oh that’s good so wait so you got and that’s a whole team activity right a whole team activity a whole team so where are you sourcing 10 like I’m a I’m a pretty avid like outdoors I did just did a big camping trip out in uh the Grand Canyon like did a lot of backpacking where are you sourcing all these tents and other uh deals like that like all the equipment and stuff man that’s a that’s not a cheap expense man the the crazy thing about it is coach Simmons will send out a Facebook post and say hey we’re having a team mounting and you know a lot of guys have never been so we need some tents and whatever and the community will just come to T just any like anything we need man it’s just it’s so awesome to see man like and like those are the same people that show up to the games and so like that’s why it’s just it’s just easy for you to stay after and just thinkk any and everyone you see because you just don’t know who helped you if anything everyone there helped you you know what I’m saying so this is awesome that’s incredible dude and like you said it makes it a lot easier to be a part of that after after you’re done because you see the support directly from whether it’s alumni friends family whatever the hell it is um being a part of that that Brotherhood that’s awesome dude dude that’s really cool and like oh man like you so so how long would that trip have been I know we’re talking about this a lot but I just I love it how long was that trip it was a weekend trip uh we stay uh stayed Saturday woke up woke up Sunday Flo to the river and came back love it dude love it bunch of dudes who have probably not been in the outdoors very much uh getting to go sleep in a tent and that that’s just like a recipe for for hilarious night dude I love it but let’s talk about last year just a little bit cuz why not to kind of close things up going through whether it’s regular season that playoff run your opinion what’s the toughest offensive front you guys win against the toughest offense of front I’ll say I’ll say two it was uh University of Central Missouri okay and Valley State like those two like they just ring out of my mind University of Central Missouri just their Pace their their Pace like their Lin their condition they ready to go all game so just making sure we can come at them every single play like preparing for that week man it was it was crazy but like we were ready to go and like and um the quarterback he’s just he was just so like cerebral man like he just it it just seemed like it just seemed like luck you know but it happened so many times it wasn’t luck you know what I’m saying I give him his respect he was just a dog and then yeah Grand Valley State man it was just a battle like they were so physical but like we love those type of games and like someone that just ain’t gonna back down like the whole game man you just you just can’t you just can’t you can’t talk about enough a seven to six game bro those are the games you dream about like yeah you want to blow somebody out but I’d much rather be in a dog fight to the end man it was just awesome bro literally to the end you guys are driving down on that last possession and put that in I remember I was watching that on my phone riding back from who knows where and I’m just sitting there that was the last bit of that game I for casual fans like you said maybe nothing crazy but dude watching you you guys just battle that out that was ridiculous um and yeah talking about Zach zabowski like that it seemed like but it happened too many times who got to be uh Zach and for the scout team all week anyone get that responsibility man it was just actually like a couple of our a couple of our guys like all the backup QBs they really give us a good look but they athletic so they make it happen too you know yeah yeah that’s a big thing though the pacing right and there’s not a lot of teams um that hold up to that especially with an you know an offensive line group you’re right you have to be conditioned to run that style or else um you’re not going to make it very far trying to run to the line of scrimmage and get plays off so um it’s not coming to D2 yet but d1’s getting those helmet Communications did you hear about that yeah I heard about that yeah so again it ain’t going to affect us at least not yet but maybe that maybe that’s you know we’re gone with uh a lot of the different colored caps and the boards and all the flags and covering the signs is that slowly out of college football what the hell personally bro I think in the future it’s going to look crazy like that stuff will be a thing of the past bro and I’m sure like even even after that the helmet community ation will be a thing of the past so damn uh starlink from Elon and we’re just telepathically sending messages and play calls yeah there’s gonna be a chip you can insert in your arm and your coach can you know just give you the play and everything but maybe like a little uh I’m a big Star Wars guy I don’t know where you stand but like the little hologram like pop up right on the arm there and show you play the draw yeah yeah right in the middle of the Huddle yeah that’d be hey that’d be nice that’d be really on a sunny day though I don’t know I think you just get the big line and kind of just get over and we’ll have those conversations in about 15 20 years whatever it is man I’ll still be around the game we both will be but um finally The Natty the national championship I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention it man the first time in program history and I say that one because it’s awesome but two you guys show up with the confidence that you know mind scores in their first possession that didn’t shake you guys at all right and you guys scored your first six possessions even going into the second half where does that confidence come from a team in a program that quite literally has never been there before man it just comes from just doing the little things right all year like even when you’re winning games very big making sure you’re going back and being meticulous over film like in it was just never enough you know what I’m saying and sometimes I can be like daunting as a player but when you got the big picture of mine you yourself start to adapt at like oh yeah I made a tfl on this but like I could have took a couple more steps and like I would have made to play sooner cuz in games like that man like that’s the difference you know and you know I feel like it was a culmination of that and just the fact that you know we want to go out there and be ourselves man some little Cersei boys on the big stage like that man we had to go there and just you know show them show them how we do it man so it was just awesome and then everything came together and like the the score was what it was and the day was what it was it was awesome yeah man I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again I was not hip to the little Cersei boys before last year I mean if someone would have asked I’d have known about y’all but I was not hip to to the game being played out there in Cersei you best know I am absolutely on the train now for this year man I’m excited to to follow you guys into fall and you specifically thank you for your time tonight man that’s all I got for you Wes hey thanks for having me man I appreciate you of course have a good one brother I’ll see you thank you coach mccardy thank you big West two great guests now bring it back to me let’s close out the episode let’s talk about one great story that I’m really pumped about this man right here Tucker Kenny at wartberg you see right here allconference he’s an allconference honors uh placing tied for fifth at the arc championships that’s their uh their conference deal that that tournament and you know what Kobe what’s so special about this dude’s an allconference golfer he’s also an All-American offensive lineman for the warberg knights and it doesn’t stop there uh the dude didn’t even play offensive line until College I thought that is at least worth mentioning um here’s another story and and picture of him here if I can uh if I can pull that up for some reason okay there we go um but yeah the dude didn’t even play offensive line in high school or yes and then he goes into college at warber a squad that um you know many of us in the football World know is very prominent football squad he goes in there and converts over to being an offensive linean here’s the shot right here of him says didn’t play offensive line in high school in two years turned into a D3 All Region left tackle one of just a couple guys who have great stories over there at wartberg but man I’m reading this I’m like that’s pretty incredible and then you’ll say you know like what did the dude look like in high school I think that you know like did he not play offensive line but he still had like the build still had kind of those things going for him this is a picture of tuer in high school doesn’t even look like the same human this dude’s a ho a Hooper look at this guy like he still obviously has the frame and he’s relatively call but I mean he can’t weigh more than 2115 I I don’t know 200 215 somewhere around there he’s put together so I say like 215 maybe 220 because he’s got like I said he’s got that big frame look at this guy athletic is all hell and then makes the switch over to being an offensive tackle in college that is not that’s not an easy transition by any means um this year he averaged uh just about th really his whole career he averaged about 80 that was his scoring average on the golf team over there at warberg for the knights um and this wasn’t something that he just picked up like this year he’s been on the team since 2020 and uh so this is really his that was his fourth year of competing uh on the squad and he’s taken quite a pivotal role in their team one of their better performers on that golf team uh in the arc championships he did uh pretty pretty well I’m trying to find the scores here but uh a pretty top consistently a top team finisher in some of the competitions at the uh cougar preview the W wartberg spring invite the Upper Iowa invite this guy is continuing to put up like a really steady statline and he tied for fifth at the American Rivers conference championships and uh that gave him the All Conference honors so talk about a dude like when you’re a high school athlete you have no idea what the next four years look like that could be changing Sports to adding Sports to gaining weight or losing weight this guy coming out of high school committed to this team probably not even knowing he was going to be an offensive tackle and kudos to the staff over there they took a guy like that that had a mold and was obviously athletic and had the intangibles and turned him into a high caliber player at the division three level I mean I think that’s just such a neat story of a guy who’s able to do it both and it’s also the benefit of going to a division three school you’re not going to have those opportunities at a division one and even sometimes at a division two those things become even harder to do um and I think that is part of the the appeal of division three you have guys that can make that jump and and go into a transition like that obviously a good like that isn’t going to step into a D1 FBS team and be a tackle like that [ __ ] just doesn’t happen not to say it can’t certainly could but your chances are a lot Slimmer pal so I think D3 is a great opportunity for these guys to go play and the dude obviously is a very Avid golfer enjoys it so he can have that and pursue his passion of football at the same time it’s too bad he wasn’t on the Hoops team there too looked like the dude was a player uh so maybe maybe we need to get a a three sport uh over there at wartberg but no I thought that was a really cool story about a guy kind of just doing it all at the D3 level and making things happen for himself but we’ll close off the episode on a piece from athlink which if you don’t follow them they’re a pretty good resource on the old Twitter verse about all things transfer portal they put out this graphic just this last week talking about the top division 2 transfers right currently and uh we’ve got quite a few names on here from Lenor Ry which if you do remember uh their head coach I believe Mike Jacobs I believe is the name don’t quote me on that moved over to FCS Mercer so made a big jump as far as the coaching goes and I’m trying to remember one of his guys did just commit over there I don’t believe it was one of the guys listed on the screen though um but you’ll see here Jay Harris who’s a name that we talked about a lot he’s featured on the left side of that graphic he is making his way up to Oregon he’s already there he played and got a lot of reps in their spring game has been in the rotation as far as that offensive backfield goes and is going to be be a really fun thing to see how they fit him into that offense and how he’s utilized staying in that running back kind of role Sheen Butler Lawson right there underneath for the Mavericks he has picked up quite a few offers we have not seen a commitment out of him yet we’re talking about a guy who for probably the first half to three quarters of the Season had a really good argument for a Harland Hill trophy the dude was putting up phenomenal numbers now trailed off a little bit the Ed to believe he battled a little bit of injuries but the phenomenal player phenomenal human we’ve had him on the show definitely rooting for Sheen wherever he ends up uh excited to see that he’s a physical but allpurpose back very similar to to Jay Harris maybe a little bit more punishing um than his Northwest Missouri State counterpart moving down the list though look at the Lenor Ryan guys Dwayne McGee we saw a lot of him from that Lenor Ryan Squad John May Xavier Jennings uh those two guys as well again the portal out of Lenor Ry you have Brooklyn Blair going from Fairmont State to I believe that is Gardner web if I got the logos correct there offensive lineman out of tiffen making the jump up to Kansas that’s something you don’t see very often good for him and then uh you know surprised we don’t see more of them but a couple Notre Dame Ohio transfers on here they got a tight end there and uh CJ going to Western Kentucky and then is Lawrence the running back going over to Slippery Rock does Slippery Rock use that logo fulltime now is that their deal I thought it was still the S but that line is kind of interesting a kicker going over to Finley we’ve got uh o linman from Shepard making the jump to Colorado State how about a Long Snapper from Newberry is that I believe that’s the SA going to Coastal and then you’ve got Angelo statea defensive lineman he’s making his way over to Tulsa the wide receiver from Emporia State Jaylen I think we’ve talked about him a little bit on the show and then uh jvr Suggs a defensive lineman from Grand Valley State that’s someone who I played against in high school actually um dude is just a big body great at just moving other individuals which right on the D line you have to do a lot of he’s got some big time offers do not be surprised if he goes not only to an FBS Squad but to a legit Contender to a blue blood uh Power five type of program would not be surprised cuz he does have all those measurables and you know what’s crazy is I don’t even think he’s been able to really shine on that Grand Valley defensive line you talk about the guys that have been in those shoes he’s not an edge guy so that takes away from uh Christian McCarroll uh Niles King those type of talents we’ve seen on the edge for Grand Valley he wasn’t exactly in those positions but we’ve seen some really Stout defensive line play from the Lakers the last couple of years they lose Carol just because of uh graduating jvr jumps in the portal I believe n’s King also in the portal uh one of our d1r athletes Jack Gilchrist in the thick of it there in that inner defensive line but uh they’re going to be losing a good bit of talent defensively and that goes to the defensive secondary and the linebacker core as well Abe Swanson Co patrio and those kind of guys they’re losing quite a bit it’ll be interesting to see how they reload they restock and reload on defense but it a pretty good list pretty good list here shout out to athlink for the information and we’re going to be following along with these guys as they they go through their process and commit to those other schools but also just wanted to bring it up because I bash on the transfer portal a lot on this show admittedly I’m a certified hater um as Kendrick might say or Drake or one of them I don’t know uh but I can be a certified hater of the transfer portal I’d like to see it in this fashion and see it in the fashion for which I I believe it was intended to be used these guys obviously all balled out at their respective schools colleges universities whatever the hell you want to call it and now they’ve earned themselves opportunities to go to the next level they’re not the first ones to do it they won’t be the there are guys that have earned those opportunities and elected to stay home and stay at their spots Mike Jerell might ring a bell out of Finley we just talked about him last episode but the fact that these guys are able to earn those opportunities and go get themselves in a quote unquote better situation if their goal is to make it to the National Football League or to play professional football somewhere else for the most part going and playing one of these squads is going to be your best bet to get the right eyes on you get evaluated critically and and find yourself a spot at the next level so certainly not knocking them shout out to them congratulations to them wanted to to cover that really quickly but that’s all for this episode I appreciate you guys tuning in um I’m more a fan of just having the guests really be the episode I’ll always come in if we’ve got like news or other cool stories that I can talk about I’m always going to do it but uh when the guests can be the more main piece of the episodes I’m a happy guy because I love doing the interviewing I love talking to people I love hearing their stories and uh it’s one thing for me to talk about a guy’s story it’s another for him to just come on the show and tell it for himself so really enjoyed both coach Mardi and big West today thank you guys excuse me thank you guys for tuning in this has been D1 Rejects