Hi everybody and welcome to the Lakeland locker room once again I'm John Weber joined today by Jim Zabrowski the head football coach at Lakeland College Jim as usual on the show We like to get right to it. So this past weekend. It was the Yankees versus the Marlins I should say it was Lakeland College versus Concordia of Illinois, and it was a mismatch and and a lot of intriguing stories inside You know sidelines to this game and and of course you guys first off it was homecoming So it's a big game for you. There's a lot of things this homecoming. It was the Hall of Fame banquet We had some guys back. It's great to see a lot of alumni back So it was that let alone you knew you were you thought you were better in terms of physicalness and just overall team You thought you had a better team at this moment So you're hoping to play well because you never know you know in any situation You're always are the kids gonna be overconfident our kids not gonna play a great thing that happened this game with our kids came out Played well and and the game was over by halftime. That's a good thing It was really a blowout of course is 42 nothing at halftime got great performance all the way around in fact your defense Scored twice in the first half right. It was great It was a good experience when almost and we had touched on the other half almost when it was potentially a 50 point half Which is regardless of your plan. It's not an easy thing to do and it wasn't like it was a hurry up offense And we kept trying to go. I mean it's just how the game worked out our first four possessions offensive we scored to make it 28 nothing rad for that then was the Interception return for a touchdown like you said deep on scored Quinn Roswell, and then a punt Block by Eric Royal. So right away this score just and next year was 42 nothing I think we got Stuffed once in the first half off instantly the end of the end of the half drive I've got we just missed a touchdown But the first half went how you would want a first half to go in this type of game So it was great I think it found the rock setter above for that half and then I went back there cars and tailgate a little bit more Well, the last thing you want to do is give a team like in court a little chance to feel gain confidence Yeah, and that's exactly and you know how you feel the baseball guys play a team You think you should be I guess the way you if you play well Think you have a good good chance to beat them and we did like you said we came out Quickly scored right away and just kept scoring scoring scoring. They never had a chance I think maybe 21 or 20 not the end of the first quarter They had not much chance after that our defense play outstanding First half gave up nothing And we came out did a great job offensively special teams everything worked really well Just how you want no turnovers didn't give them one little chance to think they were in the game 42 nothing a half time almost 50 to nothing a half time And a half time they're not really much you can talk about except Make sure the twos are ready Yeah And it's a tough situation for you because somebody's gonna say oh he's running up the score And other people are gonna say oh he's got to work on things He just don't know we were talking the way or the toughest thing was I always think regardless of what side you're on I always think it's fair game until halftime. It's right. It's fair game. That doesn't mean You're getting plays as quickly as you're trying to do things to increase the margin, but Most programs will play A half and if the game is out of reach Then a lot of teams will come back in the third quarter and still play their starters For at least a court for at least a series or two And this game was tough in terms of because the old coach was their coach It was almost a normal situation in terms of anything we would do would look like we're trying to stick it at him because I don't know how you say I I replaced him as a way to say because you know he left on his own Recourse and I replaced him. I'm trying to stick it to him and show him and you know I could and that's not not how it was as a furthest from the truth It was furthest from the truth in that sense because that was a case and we would play our starters The whole third quarter made that game about 75 nothing and that's what we weren't going to do So at halftime their defense rotated a couple starters offensive We played not one starter in the second half now one James Hayes played a little bit of our third receiver He rotated not one starter I made one just because we're thin a little bit, but that's it and then by the fourth quarter We had our jb guys playing our true freshman out there playing So so it was it worked out. Well, I think like you were talking I even felt less Intent on trying to do things because Of all the things because you have a lot of alumni back. It's a homecoming You don't want to do anything to damage your program what you're trying to do I don't want this to be like hey, we're trying to no no Yeah, I'd like to be people's well as possible like any of us do it as a coaching staff But you just don't want to make it look like hey this guy's trying to he's trying to They're trying to pad their stats on both sides of the rug. No, we're trying to at least get our kids to play a half You know and and do that so that's so worked out well every almost 98% of our kids played you know almost everybody got a chance to get a couple reps Which is great for homecoming right and yeah at the same time You still want to find some things to work on like maybe your two-minute drill right and the two-minute drill at the end of the Half people are going to say it's 42 nothing. What are you doing? I said Well, he's first off the problem was they threw the ball two out of three down and just didn't move the clock Which doesn't help the cause and We got the ball the 45 yard line and we ran we threw And they do pass and ran the ball the rest of the time was kind of position The worst call I had to make was that 42 nothing On the eight yard or 10 yard line. Do you kick a field goal? Or do you try and score a touchdown and to me kicking a field goal almost You might have just try and score a touchdown on that case. That's what we did It was incomplete pass great catch by shaman who's out on the end zone When you know what the ref said and that's the way it went I kind of had a good view of that. I thought he was in And that's the same darn ref who called uh Inverting whistle That was the worst call maybe in the history of lake lacos I've never seen that happen before the ball's in the air and all of a sudden the whistle goes off You know, you hear interval whistles and basketball something to never in football. It's uh, how do you miss that one? One of the ways we talked about the first quarter marcus denim really stood out for you guys He scored the first two touchdowns right away. You mentioned your first drive 11 29 He punched him from three yards out and then midway through at the 753 mark He had a 14 yard caught a 14 yard pass from brent loop geek marcus played Well the thing about marcus and we were kind I was joking with you on the right over and some of these games I'm not gonna keep a kid in Just to get him 25 carries for 190 yards He had 14 carries for 80 some yards that had a reception or two and And he got he scored three touchdowns in the first half There's some people that's a Great day let alone a great half And we just have other kids who need to play a marcus played well He broke a 20-some yard run in the second quarter Ran hard did did a great job And old line did a great job there blitzed a lot and a lot of funky things on defense and our kid I thought reacted really well And I was happy with our quarterback play brent didn't make any mistakes and turned to turn the ball over We broke down a protection sometimes brent scrambled made a play he scored a touchdown on bootleg Yeah, that in fact that was the very next score there a 20-yard touchdown on 219 to go in the first Yeah, the first quarter made 21 nothing and then we came back and then marcus scored in the second half second quarter on the run But played well and moved the change the first four possession We scored right majority got in that four series at a great job scrambling around just making a play to this feet And that's a great thing about what we did The defense kept getting the ball back to the offense the offense kept producing and that's what you want Yep, and it gets the team like in court. You know a team that's undermanned You know they don't have as much talent etc Right you got to expect to see some funky things because I mean that's the only chance they have to write and that's two things they do they go no huddle on offense which is a It's a good bad thing because if you're not as talented as you like the clock never move the clock is cruising What they did they did a good job not hiking the ball or snap the ball until the last five seconds So it was kind of a slow motion no huddle in that term And he was smart in that regard, but yeah defense you're gonna see a lot of different things Craziest thing that happened in this game was we we played Oshkosh and Corey Wisconsin and Carthage Very mental injuries and this came You know when you're physically punishing somebody we came out of the game with like two or three Kind of dinged up kid like just weird injuries, you know, and that's the unfortunate part of that kind that happens sometimes I don't know if it's because they're not in the position. They're supposed to I don't know why Sometimes they play a team that you're more talented. You get some funky, you know injury that you don't want to have happen Yep, well you guys have as we mentioned you have 21 nothing at the end of the first quarter You just talked about Marcus Denham running in from 20 yards out made a 28, but now your defense wants to get in the act Yes, they're all frustrated I think there was about an eight-minute span Six eight-minute span that second quarter where offense didn't do anything and we scored 14 points We had an interception terrible decision by their kid and up throwing trying to throw a ball away through right to Quinn who caught it dribbled it you fumbled it came right back to me scored and the next drive We block a punt you know next, you know, it's 42 nothing and the offense played one series In the second quarter and it was already 42 nothing. You're going jeez. Yeah. What are you? Holy macros. Yeah, the defense played outstanding in terms of Didn't let that know how to self-confuse and didn't let all those Formations and five y's and four y's they just stuck to it.  Let's go We're all really proud of the kids at halftime. We look at the stats After the games, I don't even look at halftime stats. I really don't care I think and when I look at the game, I think about 303 yards offense at halftime And they had a little over a hundred or something. That's a great this whole week I talked about Good stop the moment we lost to concordia, wisconsin. We were good people around the area. That's a pretty good team Wow, they played oshkosh and quadruple overtime And they got a chance and we played pretty darn well against wisconsin just made a couple of mistakes But I said good's not good enough anymore. I want you dare to be great be great start playing Great and that means give great. I mean not that they haven't but I want them to say you got to get that to the next You're at the point now where you got a chance to be successful. Let's be great these last four games Let's be great and I think they took it to heart for the most part and really had a great For regardless of who you play you put 42 on somebody almost 50 on somebody In a half without doing anything special in terms of razzle dazzle That's an outstanding half on both sides of the ball and special teams Yep And of course you mentioned before we talked about this last week on the show You guys have that chance to be finished eight and two, you know worst case I'm talking in the you know on the right on the right, oh it is seven and three putting the pressure on right But realistically, I mean that's the first that's the best record in the last five or six years That's what I told I said since 97 I think randiori's Was it last year or second one? I think the second last year randiori was 10 and 0 97 When they didn't have the automatic bid yet, so they did not make the playoff I think 98 they were they were seven and three. I think they were seven Okay, so they're seven and three and 98 And getting eight wins would be the most wins since that magical 10 and 0 season And even before that, I know I don't know if they're nine and one per se Or they might have been eight and two the year before the season, so you get that Great opportunity to really get something rolling. I said it's a one game at a time. You know me. I'm a step seven step eight But it's important in those terms. That's that's an exciting deal And I think those kids that you have to do you have to get them to grasp on something after a lot That they think might damage your hopes of winning the conference Well, you can't worry about what can court at wisconsin does but jeez Getting this game getting the next game moving on if you come through the season you're Ain't that's pretty darn good and that's a really the most of these kids ever at the most they've ever won a six And that was just a three game season. Yep. It's three game season and like you and me are driving like goes fast now I look back. I feel like we just played tri-state level Now it's on to aurora and you're like jeez always But it was it was a great way and everybody said our kids play second and a half I knew it was going to be a I call kind of a cluster because the way they did all the funky things on offense and defense Our young kids don't rep stuff a lot of times they're scout team kids during the week So I knew it was going to be a train wreck. I wasn't into Doing anything fancy. We just we have scorn early in the third quarter by erin barron got another touchdown Which is great for a local kid again Local kid and 49 it makes a 49 nothing they scored one late and we had we were driving late again We missed a field goal attempt We we had a bad handle by our holder and that's you know the opportunities we had So I didn't I didn't mind that really as a coach you want kids to play enough fun And get the clock moving as quickly as possible because there's not much else you're going to give you besides kids getting reps You know a game reps the young kids it's like they're a little You know throwing them a bone in terms of hey, I get a chance to play at homecoming and that's important Sure great crowd. Yeah, but thought it out.  He did something you guys have been struggling with He's seven for seven. You can say that seven percent was just huge. I mean that's your point field goal We missed we just with a holder dropped the rock.  It was so nice just going by sevens as much as you football supposed to be played by sevens And that was very as much as very good to have that happen And you have three different kickers that you can rely on right? Yes, and the young kid Gerald senior matzah jr. Cook and then case Kajarowski is amazing. I mean he was 44 yards He didn't I told him no offense case. He was our partner. It was a freshman I don't like punters because they're putting a lot of them. We're not doing very good But he did a great job punter once in the first half the second half was like a casey highlight show They're boon is he had about 44 kick. He's outstanding. He kicked off once and he's he's a special kid He's really really an outstanding kicker and I'll pass that's what's exciting That's good But we're getting the sign here that we got to go to break we're going to come back Look at some highlights talk again a little bit more about the game next week's opponent And maybe even talk a little bit more about what it meant to play against still And bring it up your brother, but stay with us We'll be right back with more on the like the locker room Because he was diagnosed with cancer as a baby Because she was told she would not live to be nine Because she should have a chance to grow up Each year thousands of children learn they have cancer or another deadly disease St. Jude Children's research hospital needs your help to research cures and treat these children Regardless of their parents ability to pay because they deserve to dream Call now to learn more about st. Jude's lifesaving work Having twins can be a handful buy one get one free So when I decided to go back to school, I needed to find one that fit my Our lifestyle Lakeland College was the perfect place They offer an easy to manage schedule and counselors to help me anytime Evening classes at Lakeland don't tie my Our life in knots Ever consider a double major Hi everybody and welcome back to the lake and locker room once again I'm joined today by Jim Zabrowski the head football coach at Lakeland College Jim again, we just got to follow advertising for Lakeland College. Yes, which is always good Which is always good. Send them in and make sure you check out lakeland.edu. Yes, uh, but anyways, uh You know we talked about the individuals in this game And really that the neat thing about it is just there's so many standouts and we were just talking about kasey And it's kind of interesting your punter is actually a standout in the game Yeah, it was and it wasn't it wasn't for our second half here to never partake in the game, which is good But we ended up you look at the stats. We have 10 kids 9 to 10 11 kids rushing the ball We got three quarterbacks throwing the ball a little bit I mean and when you and my you know we're talking about we looked at I look at stats by half And you look at our kids The market's done them 14 carries 80 some yards. I don't know exactly 85 89 Something around there for two touchdown runs one catch for a touchdown That's a great. That's a great game along great half Brandon loop he's 9 for 11 by halftime 109 yards no interceptions one touchdown pass and he ran for a touchdown And that's great And you have 303 yards at halftime and you hold the team to 100 That's outstanding if you multiply that you say let's keep your kids out there You're talking about a 600 plus yard game a 200 plus yard game for them and an 84 point game Right, and that's just and that's not gonna happen And where's that?  That's I mean you're leading our leading ball care only had 85 yards and we didn't do anything I mean second half we they they out gained us and second half like 120 to 80 Right, you know, which is who cares right in that turn But it was so nice having our kids being able to play you said the young kids Don't always get the opportunity and whenever they get opportunity to play because they they've earned it I mean scout team is not an easy task sometimes We do a pretty good job getting them reps anyways and playing jb game, but Homecoming parents are there You they get a chance to see there's something to go out there for five six seven eight snaps. That's good You can't it doesn't do anything to help your program right to play kids and there's no need for us to We always talk about being a team. There's not a need for us to have hey I'm up with marcus back out there. Let's give him 10 more. Let's get him 100 yards Marcus doesn't care about that. We don't care about that any marcus had a great half I want to make sure marcus is still walking by the time we get to aurora right in terms of trying to get 20 more Carries and get up 200 yards who cares. Yeah, well, that's kind of the neat thing I also brought the cumulative stats i'd say we're not going to go over any of that But one thing when you you really notice there stands out when you when you flip through these is It's not just the game that that you guys played this past weekend It's been the whole season you have somebody else stepping up and there's a good balance pass right all the way through It's been that's the crazy thing. It's been a Balance attack and I've never I don't go in to see we talk about balance but balance is so I mean, I don't care if we score if we score and more than eight when we give up That's good because you're going to win pretty simple formula there But in certain games are different, you know, if we throw for 300 yards one game rush for 100 next game come back and rush for 300 and throw 400 whatever we can do offensively is great Whatever we can do defensively in terms of not letting them in the end zone is what we're going to do So you're right. You don't see you very rarely see one of our kids have 18 tackles Or have a 200 yard game, you know, brunette had a 300 yard game. I think it's gosh gosh and I think The big thing that's happened with our program. I think in the past they've had those types of moments because Of the schemes they played they never ran the ball. They threw the ball at the time So your court is going to have big numbers something in I think the big position They had to kind of bite the ball a little bit our program was receivers. They're used to getting the ball All the time right now all of a sudden you have jeff taffy still getting his catches five six a game probably and And shan bair maybe one or two james a's maybe one or two where they're probably used to getting Three or four a game and so on those guys had to bite the ball and realize this is Going to be diversified now our running backs are catching the ball They're tight ends are catching the ball our quarterbacks are running and defensively you've got nine You got all different guys every game is someone differently in the team and tackles And that's outstanding. Yeah, well, it's very hard to prepare for that's what it is And that's what I think that's what's really helped us is we don't we don't worry so much about what our teams do anymore and that's why we worry about Making ourselves better, you know, let's let's run our play as the best we can Let's play defense the best we can and we'll react to what the other team is doing Well, let's see if we can go ahead and get some look at the some of the highlights here You can explain what happened this past saturday. I actually looked at these highlights before I came here So that's good marcus denim three hour touchdown run quick one there, but he scored great job Here's Brent driving back It's third and 12 ends are making great run marcus denim great job block there and Brent gives us 20 Any runs I kid over just good and Brent's 240 pounds.  He boots left decide not to throw it sees open grass Great job getting into the end zone right there. That's what made a 21 nothing Here's Ryan my order our second team quarterback who I always does a good job try to get him in there Drops back. We're open. We get a little seepage in the in the in the protection Ryan's fast now when you watch Ryan play he's probably the fastest kid out there on the field I need scampers for about 39 yards Here's Ryan my way again We got a chance to go vertical. He feels a little pressure and Ryan takes off again The kids start junking around playing and saying hey, that's michael vick Michael vick alike. I said, well, he runs pretty hard This is a Marcus Denham scoring his last of us for three touchdowns and watch this move at the end Just broke that kid's ankles away. You go That's a great job. Depensely. Here's a block punt by Eric Royal A great job bounces right to Courtney Gatlin Touchdown good guys. That's a great job screen path covered. This is an interception terrible throw to Quinn Kept it. He fumbles it right here. It's like Australian rules football Picks it up and goes to the house. That's great when your defense can score as outstanding. Here's our defenses Running bootleg We blow them up on the back side. They found a will smith picks it up freshman almost takes it into the house That's what's set up erin berry score late. Here's jaga vigilante stepping and blowing this kid up on inside ice inside zone That's a great job and you just see how it's the kids getting getting beat up a little bit Which is good in that term the kids making great players. That's fun. It's fun watching kids It's fun watching your kids make plays. That's what it is. That's exciting Well, how do you feel you got a big quarterback six four?  He said they talked about hey staying healthy You know the slide and and my philosophy be it right or wrong I was I Have coached court writes where I've been and how we coach them here is we have four rules Don't slide make plays have fun and win as our four rules a quarterback. Don't slide. I use this philosophy I've never went to a backyard football game and see some kids slide not to get hit Football is a contact sport.  Yep, and it really exposes your ankle Exactly.  So that's why those kids do that I said hey, don't be running out of bounds And I think our quarterback makes a physical aggressive play kind of fires the whole team up If your quarterback's playing soft, I think your team somewhere over there. He's kind of a You know quarterbacks get that stigma of oh, they're soft. They're they're a fragile Now all of a sudden you say hey if you see somebody you got a chance to blow them up blow them up Well, let's get past that game and we talked about all the stats and stuff And one thing we got to talk about of course We talked about it last week is the Jeff Hines situation because you know it is it is something that if we didn't bring it up It would just be avoiding an issue and you don't like to avoid issues Exactly. We got to bring it up for us, you know, that's right But you know the big thing is he was obviously the involved at Lakeland for 10 years He was a coach to last for and it's just emotionally. What did it mean to your team? What did it mean to you guys anything? Was it anything different to the kid? To the kids I don't know. I think what happened was the kids needed to change whether being right or wrong I think Jeff needed to change being in a place for 10 years. I think the kids needed to change. I think the kids got I think there was some Proud last year offensive defense. They kind of little arguments on the field from what we heard from what I've heard And the kids said and I think it was just a time where Jeff spent their 10 years did his time per se and did a nice job and And those kids I don't know if any of those kids took I think some kids Anytime different coach. I mean any time you leave plays kids are gonna like it kids aren't gonna like it That's where life is But for me perfect, I don't know I think they wanted to show that they're The kids want to show them that hey, this is how we play now And they wanted him they wanted to show how good they are now and for me it was weird because I didn't really like it honestly just because of all the this and that and And you know What happened they started running playing well these deer you couldn't I couldn't win in this game in terms of Oh, you're running it up on hand and then they end up doing some funky things They end up stretching they end up getting taped at Howard School of High School So they don't come out till the last minute Just something stupid like that and then at halftime they don't come out until after the game should have started already Just kind of always do those little things and And so it was a no win situation myself in terms of with him and I mean him No offense. We're not friends. I didn't know him beforehand You know, I was cordial after the game because I'm not he's not an enemy But I said hey, I got a nice game. Jeff goes nice game. He wasn't gonna hunt me down I had to go hunt him down and find him and I said nice game and he didn't come talk to me about kids and Take that however you want to take that but I wasn't gonna I just want to say nice job He goes nice job your kids played well and that's it. It's not somebody he's never been You were you were with for a couple years. That's different. I'm sure he's a good guy. Me. I just never knew him beforehand I'm not gonna go out of my way to To get to know him just because that's just not how it is right now But I don't I don't not like him. I just not he's not somebody I'm gonna go hang out with because he's not a friend So it was weird. It wasn't something you just don't it wasn't fun in that terms I didn't like the every time you scored you you feel good But then you're thinking well good not everybody if you keep scoring Yeah, I was just being and I never really felt that way before when you play something, you don't know or you have no Ties to it's no big deal. You just play hard and play well But I'm glad the kids played well and and we played while the kids played hard and they played great You know for that first half and that's outstanding a lot awkward situation It was awkward and I think above both sides of the handle well and not no little stupid things went on or anything No, no, it was just kind of shaking it after the game and both sides and away you go Well now you got the a big game next week, of course, Aurora has been a traditional power within the conference the last several years The coach does a great job there. Yes, he does. We got him at home last game into here again Is that 130 senior day, which is obviously a special day. Is it 130 still or is it moved up? It said 130 on the schedule. Okay, we gotta check that way. I know I think we're going to go on that one more time It might be about one o'clock or two. But it's even bigger. TV8 is going to be back out there. Yes, they are. We're going to plug in for you guys. Good luck. Good luck. We'll keep them coming. They're out here this past weekend too, of course And of course they got to see a good game. Hopefully we get to see another good game Yeah, Aurora and McMurray have won the conference the last four or five or however many years it's been. They've always, they're the other two teams that made the playoffs every year, I think if I'm not mistaken And we knocked off McMurray who's down a little bit this year Unfortunately didn't get the win against Concordia, Wisconsin But realized we can play where it's good if not better than they are Now you get to the next thing and in any sport when you're in a league You want to finish in the top of the league be a first or second You always want to be first You have to finish once you get to the top Everybody mentioned you as part of the top from that moment on And that's where we need to get to this. This is a big game. These seniors are never beating Aurora I think go back to the fifth-year seniors. They have not beaten Aurora So it's a big thing in their minds in my mind You know, we played them once when I was at Milliken last year. I mean we beat them fairly well 54 12 So me I'm like, yeah, let's go. You know, let's roll. Here we go But I think if our kids play well, I think Aurora is they're always strong tough kids You know hard-nosed kids and that's what we are But I think we have more speed than they do that doesn't mean anything once you got a football field You got to play the game. So I think it will be a good game I think if we can jump on them and give momentum being senior day, you know The toughest thing is we have fall break.  So I want to be a great crowd Especially these seniors who have been through four different defensive coordinators Some have been through most of them had one head coach They knew of coach already before this is like their third coach they knew of And and they bought into what I said and the kids have played well We're doing community service work now our kids just got done reading the shaboy in schools for the elementary school So I think I want these and they fans can be there for those kids because that's tough It may have a new coach come in and have them go through a whole new system So it's important for our 14 15 16 seniors for people to be there and it will be exciting You know, I think it'd be a good game And hopefully we'll we'll play the world we did the first half against Concordia, Illinois. We're good Well, actually we're getting the sign here. We got about a minute and a minute and a half left and I got more news to announce You got the summary. You got the musky update buddy. So but thanks again for joining us and the show Jim You did a great job. So again, the muskies killed Concordia 49 to 7 a nice homecoming victory Again, they play a roar next week either at 1 or 130 will double check the schedule But again, it's senior day. So if you get a chance come on out and join the guys They've done a great job with the past four or five years women's soccer team. Unfortunately Split this weekend. They beat Concordia 3 nothing to improve in conference They're still battling for first place have a good chance to win the conference They unfortunately lost on sunday to carol college 4 to 2 There's 6 and 10 overall, but they're 3 1 and 1 within the conference the men's team. Unfortunately blew up on saturday They lost 5 to 1 it could courting an important match Unfortunately, that's going to probably put them back in second or third place once the season finishes up here However, uh Crests from keel did a great job by setting the individual scoring record for one season for the men's team A really great honor for first got there. So the women's volleyball team as we mentioned time and time again I've just picked up where they left off last year. It looks like they're going to have another chance for an NCAA bid They're 15 11 right now. They're undefeated within the conference at 8 no Coach Schreiber loaded up a schedule early and it's paid off in the long run And the muskies are now in a position to get another NCAA bid being the standout team within the conference So lots of things going on the lakeland college campus if you get a chance come on out next week Watch the muskies play a roar university at 1 or 130 p.m So anyways, thanks again for joining us on the lake and locker room and we'll see you next time