Rocky: 0:00

Thank you for watching.

Coach Faggiano: 0:34

Good evening everybody. Welcome to the second episode of Inside Utica University Football with head coach Blaze Faggiano, who will join me in just a little bit. If you're tuning in tonight, make sure to hit subscribe on YouTube. We're across all social media platforms tonight Facebook, You Tube , Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok. Of course, if you have any questions, comments for Coach, we'll pull him on. I'll try to pull as many comments and questions over as I can. I was joking with him. I was supposed to have my UC gear on tonight. I was going to be all decked out and my shirt's not in yet, but I'll have it. So I got my RFA shirt on. Our Modify team tonight had our opening win of the season, so congratulations to the kids. Nice first win of the season for the kids here in Rome. So without further ado, let's bring Coach on. Let me just switch us up. Coach, there we are. How are you tonight?

Rocky: 1:27

Excellent, excellent. I look forward to this every week.

Coach Faggiano: 1:31

Well, Coach, we'll get into the fun picks at the end. But you were 3-2, but I went 3-2 as well. I was kind of hoping I would do a little bit better the first week, but we each tied. Let's put it that way, we're 50-50.

Rocky: 1:43

I'll take it.

Coach Faggiano: 1:45

Not. We each tied. Let's put it that way, we're 50-50. I'll take it Not bad. So, coach, great opening week for you guys, great first game of the season and some record-breaking performances we'll get into. But early thoughts, comments from the opening week from you.

Rocky: 1:56

I was proud of how our guys traveled. You know that's a long ways out to Pittsburgh. You know and appreciate. You know. Shout out to UB and coach Lembo. Uh, they were very gracious hosts. We practiced in their indoor facility which one of our players dad's designed, which was really cool. Mitch dates from the Buffalo area. His dad designed the building and so we kind of broke it up, got some Wegmans subs. You know, being a Rochester guy, I don't know when Utica or Albany ever going to get Wegmans. I don't know when Utica or Albany ever going to get weapons?

Rocky: 2:24

I don't know. But you know it was a bit of a trip. You know, and I'll tell you, you don't tell the guy, you never tell him the things, some things that you know, and almost three-quarters of the guys on this trip one never traveled and two never played varsity football. And here we are opening up with the president.

Rocky: 2:42

Know the the president conference champs, right long trip. But when everyone had a tie at dinner, I was like you know, we're gonna be okay. Right, everyone had a tie at dinner. We looked sharp, they traveled well. Uh, you know, I'm like our guys, we just have so much energy. There was a little inside, there was a karaoke in the hotel, okay, and there had to be like 30, 40 people, all probably a little older than me. We'll say right, and I find this out the next day from the parents and they just couldn't get over our guys with the people there. All the people were rooting for us to win. The next day Our guys were singing karaoke and when 10 o'clock hit and bed checks at 1030, they just scattered, boom, they all went to to bed and the parents just couldn't get over our guys and how they were.

Rocky: 3:28

And you know, when I had heard that the next day, I said you know, we're going to, we're definitely going to play with some passion and some energy on Saturday and it was one heck of a football game and you know glad it was on TV. You know a lot of the pioneerer Nation got to watch the game and tune in and it was pretty crazy, like now. I'm going to start with the negative first. You know we had 133 yards in penalties so we got to get that fixed. I promise everyone we will, because I told the guys if we would have said, okay, we're going to give WNJ 133 yards and go there and win, you probably wouldn't bet on that Right and so all things correctable. You know a lot of like. You know let's make sure we're playing whistle to whistle. You know what I mean and. But our guys played hard and I guess again you watch the tape but they were a very good football team. I'll be very surprised if they don't have a winning season, win their conference, go to postseason.

Coach Faggiano: 4:25

Really well, coach, postseason, win their conference, go to postseason, they really will. Coach team Coach Sirianni is great and Coach, so we'll get into Tyler's performance here in just a little bit, because that was a great performance, throwing for over 500 yards. And I know, coach, I know what your answer is going to be when I say this, but as a coach and I was going through some of the numbers for you guys you had almost 600 yards of total off but over 500 were through the air and only 65 yards rushing. But I know as a coach, whichever way you guys need to play to win games, you'll do, but talk to us about that.

Rocky: 4:53

most of your yards were through the air well, that's funny too, because you know in the rpo world right, we're calling a run, but it could be a pass right and and they were very good up front and they're packing it in for the run Right, and they really kind of stayed pretty consistent on that the whole game.

Rocky: 5:12

They were going to take away the run and then we kind of I think kind of wore down on them, wore them down a little bit, excuse me, you know, later in the game and had some really good rushing yards. And AJ Frazier ran hard and Janai Strong, when he got in, ran hard. He got a big first down. It wasn't like we weren't trying to run the ball. In this RPO world it could be a run, it could be a pass. You do lean on the quarterback to make those decisions on the field, for sure.

Coach Faggiano: 5:36

Coach, you guys are really good on third down. I think you guys are like 6 out of 10 or 7 out of 10 on third down. That's huge too, especially on the road.

Rocky: 5:44

That's huge Turnovers. We won the turnover battle, won the time of possession, even though the defense gave up some points. They played some really good defense. I mean, they couldn't run the football. It really got them out of you know. They couldn't run the football and they had two outstanding receivers that were 1,000-yard receivers before that. We really kind of kept them in check for most of the game until that kind of that last drive. They scored, you know, and um, but we had the tail of the tape was, you know, penalties and just some missed assignments and it could have been even a different, different picture. So all things that were correctable and I just told the guys I mean to be able to have a game like that were certainly not error-free and things that we can learn from and still win, and win on the road against a quality opponent, um, you know, that's something to be said for, you know, just for the efforts of our coaches and our players in that that week one game and coach, you mentioned the penalties.

Coach Faggiano: 6:35

I was going to bring that up for you and I kind of had an idea what your answer was going to be, and I know you said you'll fix it. How do you fix that? How do you fix that as a coach?

Rocky: 6:43

well, yeah, I can't say all of it on the air, but no, we fix it, we address. You know, you address it on an individual basis and say, one guy had a few more penalties. You bring him in, you show him the highlights of the of the, not highlights of the penalties, and how we got to get these fixed. And it's not acceptable. And, and you know, I think a couple of the guys after watching the tape, really they're playing so hard they're not even realizing that they're not playing to the whistle. You know, when we're like landing on the ball carrier who's on the ground, or we're tackling a guy out of bounds and it's like a hustle penalty, right, they're not trying to be malicious, just they got to play, they got to find a saw wood, right. You know they can't play too high, they can't play too low and they got to play between the whistles. They're definitely things that are correctable.

Coach Faggiano: 7:31

Coach, the defense played really well too. I know you gave up a lot of points, like you said, but anytime you can hold a team under 100 yards rushing and win that battle, normally you've got a chance to win games and your defense did that. I think you guys held them to what? 90 or 91 yards, I think it was.

Rocky: 7:41

It was. It was like it was 91. I think it was. It was. It was like it was 91. And again, they're a big physical team. You know, well-coached team, talent, all over the board.

Rocky: 7:48

They're special teams, like you know. That's the thing that was great about our team. Like the first kickoff, you know, we don't do well, we don't execute. They give a huge kick return and they score right. Our guys didn't blink, they kept battling, kept battling.

Rocky: 8:03

We cleaned some things up, made some adjustments and again, I think you know you don't talk about this, but there's only two guys on our defense that started last year. Three you know Jordan Davis, eli Douglas and Renaldo Lewis. Right, there's a lot of new faces and special teams. That goes that way too. Most of the guys in special teams, those were their first plays, you know. So you know there, not worry about it, it's just different. The pressure week one was on the road performing. Now the pressure is going to be believable, you know, like Tyler knows from talking to Braden. Now Coach Zanolovic, his quarterback coach, like it's going to be rocking Saturday night, okay, at the believable, and like being able to block that out right and not looking at the stands, at the crazy herd and all the fans just really focusing on your job. So there's always different distractions. It's just a matter of just kind of focusing in on your job each play.

Coach Faggiano: 8:57

And, coach, you mentioned you had some first-time starters for you that didn't play a lot of football for you last year and especially now you go on the road opening week, you're down right out of the gate, right, they punch one in on you guys. Was there any panic by the coaching staff to say, oh God, here we go? You know it's a new group of guys. Was there any panic at any point?

Rocky: 9:16

You know none at all. You know, and you know Coach McClendon does a great job with those guys hey, sudden change, we have to go out and win that. We have to hold them to a field goal and win that. Sudden change right, sudden changes can come from turnovers, they can come from, you know, a big special teams play right and you know, I think the way our guys handle that, you know, is a really good sign of things to come ahead.

Coach Faggiano: 9:39

Yeah, and I want to talk a little bit about your sophomore linebacker too. I think led your team in tackles Isaiah Thomas, I think he had what 12 tackles. A pass breakup, a fumble recovery was all over the field for you guys. You had some other players that played well too but talk to us a little bit about isaiah.

Rocky: 9:59

You know it's funny too. In defense we have so many guys that were like x something, so like it was that we call it goes by it isaiah thomas. And so it was um, a running back in high school so we were teasing him on his fumble recovery like where's the running back? You got to go score on this play and he returned it a good, a good 25 yards and I think that was a huge play momentum in our favor to give our offense great field position and go ahead. But, like Nick DeForest out of Holland, patton was the one that makes the tackle and strips the ball for IT to pick up. And those are things we work on all the time take away, scoop and score. It's just a tremendous person. He's on our leadership council, he's a strong leader and you know it's just about being confident. He battled all spring and battled into camp for that starting spot. It was a close battle. I think. Just each day and every rep he gets, the more confidence he has within the defense.

Coach Faggiano: 10:47

What was the message, coach, after the game? Now you said you had to go on the road against a really good team to open the season. Now you've got to come home with a lot of pressure because again it's going to be rocking. Like you said, there'll be a lot of people. I think the early weather it looks like it's supposed to be a nice day, so we should have a good day for some football. But that's a little bit more pressure too. What was the message to the guys for this week?

Rocky: 11:08

Well, you know, from after the game they were just so excited Like they knew, you know, and we kind of have a good chip on our shoulder like Utica against the world and you know all the D3. There's a huge D3 fan base out there and podcasts like yourself that cover D3 football and across the country. And you know, no one had us winning that game right. But we knew we could win that game. And at the end of the game I said everyone's going to be surprised but we are not surprised because we know that we have a very good team. They're a very good team. At the end of the day it's about the team and you know. And then I told him, you know, to the victor goes the spoils, right. And so we I don't believe we have ever had two D3 national team kind of players of the week. And so for Tyler Zolkowski and Isaiah Thomas to represent our university and community on a national level on d3footballcom is outstanding. You know it was outstanding. And then Tyler was Offensive Player of the Week in the Empire 8. You know we have a great football conference, as you mentioned on our show last week. So you know the kids know it's Believe Bowl week and you know, just to jump into that, like, believe Bowl is a very special game for us because it's like our game to give back to the community. You know, and we don't have a traditional rival right and we kind of have no one likes us, we don't like them right, we don't really like anybody, but there's no traditional rival like you have in some schools, or we're not playing for a shoe or a cup or those types of things and and, uh, the believe bowl has been different teams over the years. You know, and, uh, you know, our program's mantra is uncommon and we try to put on common people, like first responders, uh, like our folks that are honorary captains.

Rocky: 12:47

We had our press conference today should be on social media, on facebook. We had our press conference, the master videoito Hyundai showroom today Shout out to Frank and Colleen and their family there and we had our two honorary captains there today, victor and Nancy, and they were great, got their jerseys today and you know, so it's about them. So our guys are pretty amped up for the orange out on Saturday night for sure. So it's always what you know what's next. So it is always something big. And I remember when, when coach McLennan first got hired, he's like why is every home game got to be like the Superbowl? I said well, cause it's got to prepare us. You know every one of our home games or something huge happened in the tents packed in the end zone and you know it's kind of just kind of who we are.

Coach Faggiano: 13:27

Coach, I will tell you and agree with you. There's a lot of those other d3 podcasts out there and I follow a lot of the guys and, uh, when they do. There was one of them I don't know who it was, I gotta look but they did like their predictions and they had you guys getting blown out by like three touchdowns right, I think it was that someone tell me it was the hansen one I don't know if that was the one there, there's a, there's, there's two really good ones.

Coach Faggiano: 13:49

I follow the guys, you know they of different teams.

Rocky: 13:52

Yeah, there's a lot of good guys. The Dingo Talk guy is a good guy. He played.

Coach Faggiano: 13:54

D3 football.

Rocky: 13:56

He's a good dude.

Coach Faggiano: 13:57

One of them had you guys like 56 to like 21 or like something crazy, and I was like man, what do they watch?

Rocky: 14:06

Same guys that had us not a chance to beat Susquehanna in the playoffs. So you know, fortunately we've had a couple good trips to Pennsylvania as of late.

Coach Faggiano: 14:16

The state's been good to Utica.

Rocky: 14:18

For sure.

Coach Faggiano: 14:19

So, coach, talk to us about Tyler. I know we talked to him last week. You spoke very highly of him, had a great camp. Good kid transfer for you 528 yards passing. I was more impressed with the 28 completions and all his stats were great, but the 28 completions, um, and all his stats were great, but the 28 completions talk about how special performance that he have.

Rocky: 14:38

you know he had a great performance. The o-line played very well. If you only had two sacks um and protecting them, uh, you know, uh. And to have three receivers all with over 100 yards and receptions right and all three a touchdown each, and that's not including gabe's's Wallace touchdown and the 73 yards that that Logan Frederick had, you know, and like there's a great little story there, like who's Logan Frederick? Well, you know, little falls, high school family moved around a bit One time was in Virginia and Pennsylvania, comes home to the area and wants to be as a physical therapist right Playing receiver for the last few years, and then anytime a young man just makes a commitment. We kind of had a feeling that he could be a tight end and he worked hard in the weight room and made that commitment and boy, you know, we're, we're, we're fortunate to have him. He did it. Just a great, great story, you know. But you know, antonio everyone has eyes on Antonio had a great game. Tyshawn, taylor, bryce, palmer, those guys all played lights out.

Rocky: 15:40

And he spread the ball around the whole surrounding cast for sure.

Coach Faggiano: 15:43

So, Coach, this week Rensselaer comes into town. They're coming off a win in Week 1, 26-9. And it was again funny because I was looking to see some of the guys on their team. Their quarterback's father was the running back coach at Fordham when I played the the Maddio kid, the quarterback. So I was looking through that. I said he's, I know him. Talk to us about you know what? Do you know? What's the scouting report on Rensselaer? What do they bring to the table?

Rocky: 16:07

and you can help me. Is his dad, because there's the brothers. Is his dad the head coach at Somers?

Coach Faggiano: 16:12

I think his dad is the coach at Maholpec, maholpec. Okay, that's what it is, you got it.

Rocky: 16:19

That's right. And then his uncle is the head coach at Somers.

Coach Faggiano: 16:22

Yes.

Rocky: 16:24

And then this kid's grandfather is a god. Coach DiMatteo got an award at the AFCA a couple years ago. But the quarterback, who runs their offense very well, they're very. They have some really good skill players. The running back and receiver positions, offensive lines, big. They're going to use the quarterback in the one game. Some certainly, you know teams are going to, you know, really try to run the football against us and keep our offense off the field. You know. You know they're very good at running screens and I think those are the kinds of things. You know. Our defense, you know we've never been the biggest defense but we've always been fast, and so we know when you're a fast defense you're going to see misdirection and you're going to see screens and see those things. Coach Isernia has done a great job there.

Rocky: 17:12

It wasn't too long ago you, they beat Cortland in the playoffs one year. The year before I think Cortland won the whole thing right. So I mean very good program, well-coached. One of their newest coaches, justin Higgins, was on our staff and was head coach at Morrisville and Keystone and moved his family back to Albany. He's from the North Country and you know, so he knows us a little bit, and so they're again very well coached, really good football team Traditionally win and they traditionally go to postseason. You know and that's the type of program that we aspire to be that you know every year that we're going to win and every year we're going to find a way to get to postseason. That's what RPI is. So you know, definitely a good challenge. And they won there. They won there. They played for some big game with WPI I'm not sure what the name is and then I know the end of the year, it's the shoes game, I think, with Union.

Coach Faggiano: 18:06

Yeah, I think it's the transit trophy.

Rocky: 18:09

Oh, there you go. Thank you, yeah, so they played in that big game and they look good on film for sure, coach.

Coach Faggiano: 18:15

What conference are they in? They're Liberty League, the Liberty okay.

Rocky: 18:18

So liberty league, the liberty okay rpi's with hobart and in st lawrence and u of r and ithaca, that's. That's the union, that's the liberty league so it was no.

Coach Faggiano: 18:27

I don't know if I'm going to pronounce this right. Was it worcester polytechnic institute who they played?

Rocky: 18:32

correct. Yeah, wpi. Uh, their head coach, chris robertson, was uh our start in safety at ualbany back when I ga'd there, you know 94. He's been the head coach there quite some time and runs a good program. One of our senior who graduated tight end is actually getting his master's in engineering at WPI right now. So really good engineering school as RPI is.

Coach Faggiano: 18:55

Yeah, and I was going back through some of their game stuff. They only gave up about 47 yards on the ground and it looked like they're a pretty good size, so everything you're saying it looked like. I mean I was just looking on paper trying to find some clips of their last game it looks like they had some good size up front. Does the game plan change at all for you guys this week? Are you going to try to spread the ball? I know you want to give your game plan out over the air here, but no, does anything change for you guys?

Rocky: 19:16

well, you know, you, you prepare for what you see on film, and then you prepare for what you see on film, and then you prepare for what you think you may not see on film. There's a trap in the film. We found over the last few years that we go and play someone and they're doing something that wasn't on film the last three weeks. So I think that's what we try to do as coaches is really challenge our guys throughout the week, put the pressure on them so the game's easy. So we're throwing everything at our offense the kitchen sink, so just keep those guys on their toes.

Coach Faggiano: 19:47

And I know you mentioned the Blue Bull. How special that is. I would imagine the kids will be fired up for that game. They probably won't need a lot to get them fired up for that. It should be a full packed house. I would think the weather's supposed to be nice.

Rocky: 19:59

Should be a packed house. We love the night games. Six o'clock starts so by halftime definitely we'll be under the lights there at Gaetano and love having the night games. I know the students love it, the community loves it. I believe they started airing the commercial on TV. We made a little commercial to promote the game. It should be on WKTV over the next few days.

Rocky: 20:22

Again, tickets are only $5, you know. And if you're at the ticket booth and wanting to get season tickets, there are only 20, you know. So you, so you get kind of an extra game in there and there's still time to join the 12th man, you know. So if you haven't joined our 12th man tailgate booster club and you did it before the game, we would still have time to make sure that you had your tailgate passes at the gate waiting for you when you got there. So I know the parents are fired up. You know, for our first home game, tailgate, you know our guys will walk through the tailgate after our team meal and the parking lot will probably be packed, and go on our pioneer walk before the game. I know they're amped up for that.

Coach Faggiano: 21:02

Coach, I know we talked about the indoor facility for you guys and what a great recruiting tool it is, but I mean talk about the home field, like the setting, I mean the atmosphere. It's as good as any college program in the country. It's a great atmosphere you know.

Rocky: 21:14

I think a couple things. One, the fact that we don't have a track around this football stadium. The stands are right on top of you.

Coach Faggiano: 21:21

Yeah.

Rocky: 21:22

And you know, although on paper I think it says it only seats 1,200, in a game like there, like everyone's standing on the deck, you know, and there's at least 2,000 people in the stands, and then a game like tomorrow, I think there's already 150 people will be in the tent and then it gets three or four deep around the fence, you know. So we even have a hard time gauging how many people are there. But I believe and talk to other SID, like when we have the night games or homecoming, we can get at least 3,000 to 4,000 people at the games and it's pretty loud and it's a fun atmosphere for sure.

Coach Faggiano: 21:58

And Coach, I know the night games. I always like playing at night and the kids do as well. But knowing that you have to kind of wait the day to get things started the kids, you know. I'm sure you got a routine for the kids before leading up to the nighttime, but do you prefer the night game or do you like that those afternoon games?

Rocky: 22:13

I'd like to have at least one night game and I like to do it early, you know and it is a long way we get them up.

Rocky: 22:19

We have like a little walkthrough at 10 o'clock on Saturday. It's not even a walkthrough. They pretty much go out and throw the football around and relax, you know, just to get up and get moving. You know, I know they, you know watch watch some college football. You know you know watch the. A lot of them will watch a D3 game. That's on, you know, until we are our team meals at two right. So we have our, our team meal, you know, four hours before. You know.

Rocky: 22:41

So we have some great, you know game day traditions. You know Saturday we're going to remember number 12, james Salas, who we lost last year, and I know thoughts and prayers are always with James and his family and you know we'll have his logo in our program. We'll have some mental health awareness items in the program and pretty sure there'll be a 12 jersey on the bench. So to honor him and his family and great family. Real tough time for his family, unimaginable time for his family a year ago and for our program and to watch our guys come together in a difficult time. Um certainly made him stronger. So you know we've got all kinds of things going on, even outside the bleeple. Uh, that we're gonna, you know, honor james as well, so I want to make a mention to that are you ready to do?

Coach Faggiano: 23:36

you ready to pick some teams?

Rocky: 23:38

you know I am. I've actually got it pulled up. I was looking at it trying to get a head start well, you don't know the games I'm going to throw out. I'll take three and two. I'm feeling good all right, all right.

Coach Faggiano: 23:47

The first one I got. I don't know if anybody's playing as good as south florida right now. Two, two ranked wins. This is a big game um. South florida at miami, miami's at 18 and a half point favored in this game. You think there there's any shot? South Florida can pull another one off.

Rocky: 24:05

I think there is a shot. This is a tough one, you know, because our defense coordinator coached at South Florida for a few years with I'm going to blank for a minute, it'll come to me the head coach was head coach at Louisville, who coached Lamar Hunt, or Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson. Sorry, Charlie Strong.

Coach Faggiano: 24:28

Love Charlie Strong, great guy.

Rocky: 24:30

Great guy. Last I knew him was he coaching in Alabama. I kind of lost track of him. Yeah, this is tough you know what I'm going to go home team. I'm going to go with Miami on that one.

Coach Faggiano: 24:44

See, if we were picking with the spreads, I'd say I would take South Florida getting the 18.5, because I don't think Miami is going to blow them out.

Rocky: 24:51

No, I don't think so either. We're not doing that. You said that.

Coach Faggiano: 24:54

No spreads straight up. I'm going to go with Miami. I think they have better players. But listen, I'm not going to be surprised if South Florida wins this game. I mean, if South Florida wins, that's three ranked teams right out of the gate, boise, state, florida, on the road. Now they got to go on the road at Miami. But I'm with you. I do like Miami in this game. Coach, this was one I think you did not have last week. I think you went against Lane Kiffin and the boys at Ole Miss Not doing it this week. Arkansas-ole Miss. This is at Ole Miss. People say this year Lane Kiffin has is better than the team he had a year ago. But Jackson Dart, of course, was on that team a year ago. Any chance Arkansas gets him.

Rocky: 25:36

I don't know. We have an order of who goes first on this one, because we don't influence each other. I don't know how it goes.

Coach Faggiano: 25:45

I'll let you. I'm on the lane train so I know who I'm going to go with in this game. I don't know much about Arkansas.

Rocky: 25:47

You're definitely prepared, I am not prepared.

Coach Faggiano: 25:49

I'm going to go Ole Miss. I'll go Ole Miss here. You're going to go Ole Miss as well. And then, of course, I feel bad for Billy Napier, because I like Billy Nap napier. I think he's he's a good coach. A lot of pressure, uh, at florida finished the season, while last year, which they decided to bring him back, loses the south florida. Now they want him out. They're already saying that john gruden's probably going to be the next coach of of florida. But I think florida schedules like lsu, georgia, like I think they go like four or five ranked teams in a row. So so now you lose last week at Now you've got to go on the road at LSU Nine-and-a-half-point favorite Coach, who do you like LSU?

Rocky: 26:29

All right, you said that one, a lot of confidence in that one. I was watching that show, the SEC show. The kids got me on that and they were, yeah, and I forget what it was at, was that on Prime or was that on Netflix, I forget where I saw that, but I was watching some LSU stuff. I think LSU is pretty fired up right now. They have some good momentum.

Coach Faggiano: 26:49

Yeah, I like the quarterback. I like Garrett Nussmeyer there, the quarterback this year. All right, we're on the same page there. Notre Dame, notre Dame at home, the Texas A&M this is a tough one too, because everybody's got Notre Dame from that opening loss of the season and a really good game and I'm not really sure what to expect from A&M. Well coached, both teams are well coached. I love Marcus Freeman, the young guy. Six and a half points favorite who does A&M beat?

Coach Faggiano: 27:19

I don't know who A&M beat last week. I don't think they've played anybody. I don't know who A&M beat last week. I don't think they've played anybody. I think they beat Duke and then I think they beat a non-ranked team. So I mean Notre Dame, obviously the first game of the season. They got beat.

Rocky: 27:31

Yeah, I think I'll go with my heart. I'm going to go with Notre Dame.

Coach Faggiano: 27:37

Okay, I'm a little scared because so far we're on the same team. So far I don't know if that's good or bad. And then I think this is going to be the game of the week. A lot of people say no, but Vandy's 2-0. I don't know how Vandy's not ranked. I love what they're doing, I love their quarterback over there, but I'm a big Shane Beamer guy. This one's in.

Rocky: 27:57

South Carolina. Yeah, it's the Shane Beamers. I got to watch him a little bit because the one game they covered on that show was South Carolina LSU a year ago and South Carolina had a chance to beat them. I think here I've got to go South Carolina.

Coach Faggiano: 28:12

Yeah, I'm with you. I thought the game last week when they beat Virginia Tech and his dad was on the field with them, they gave the game ball to his dad. I thought was really cool and they kind of aired it. When Shane grew up, obviously played for dad, I thought was really cool and they kind of aired it. When shane grew up, obviously played for dad and then uh was a coach for dad and um, it was really cool to see that. And lenore sellers are the quarterback who's phenomenal um gave frank the game boy. I thought was pretty cool. So I'm gonna ride with beamer boy.

Rocky: 28:37

I love shane beamer well you could just tell from you know that you know not not being around him enough, like I haven't, like hopefully he'll start speaking at the convention and things and I can go be around him, listen to him. I heard his dad a few times, like at least three or four times, um, but definitely can relate to how the, the culture that he has and how he talks and coaches players. Uh, in that show I watched and I was that I was a fan right away.

Coach Faggiano: 29:02

And he was another coach a couple years ago. I mean he was kind of on the hot seat because they lost like three or four games and he's had two really good seasons and I think they're going to be right there this year in the SEC. So we're on the same page, coach. We have all the same five teams. So we'll see how we end up. And I know we were talking a little bit and just just briefly we'll get your thoughts, coach Fitz. They're going to go to Syracuse play tomorrow, and I was saying they they've been in games, um, and I know he'll get that thing turned around, but they'll play at Syracuse, which would be great for great for the kids and great recruiting tool, right great exposure.

Rocky: 29:36

You know great exposure and it's nice. It's a local game and you know um. I'll tell you what they're. They're going to make plays. They're going to have plays on their highlight tape at the end of the year against Orange. Now I think the biggest thing that happens in those games at the different levels is the line play. I think that's one of the biggest things. If Syracuse is able to run the ball, I think that'll be tough, but Coach Fitz always finds a way to score points. His DC is outstanding. So I'm very confident they're going to make some plays and certainly make it interesting and give the Orange their best for sure.

Coach Faggiano: 30:13

And Sert, you said the nice come-from-behind win last week against UConn. So a good win for the Orange.

Rocky: 30:19

They did. How about running the team? He's awesome. I listened to all his interviews. He's as authentic and genuine of a guy like oh man. His interviews are great.

Coach Faggiano: 30:32

I don't think I've ever seen that. Have you ever seen that after a game at any level?

Rocky: 30:35

I don't know. I thought it was like I remember the Titans kind of like era time thing to do. It was it was wild, it was wild. But but then you hear the guys talk in the interviews and they love it.

Coach Faggiano: 30:47

They love it, they want to be like.

Rocky: 30:48

they want discipline, they want to be held accountable. They know they didn't play well, you know. So kudos to coach, for you know sticking to who he is for sure coach, listen, I hope I get chance to see you this weekend.

Coach Faggiano: 31:00

If I do, I'll say hi, of course, and good luck this weekend and look forward to catching up with you next week.

Rocky: 31:05

Thanks a lot.

Coach Faggiano: 31:13

All right, coach, we'll see you. So that was Coach Blaze Faziano. I love talking to him. I love doing this show weekly. I'm glad we ended up figuring something out to make it happen, because I love talking football with him. He's a great guy, always been great to me and also was great to my dad as well when my dad was coaching. So I'm on down Saturday night 6 o'clock. The Believe Bowl Utica University Should be a great game. It's going to be a great night for football, so get on out to the stadium and let's watch some college football. So if you're watching tonight, make sure to hit subscribe on YouTube. Follow me on YouTube, twitter, linkedin, all the social media platforms, iheartradio, you name it Apple Podcast I'm on there and I'll post all the playbacks and the cut-ups as well. So, on behalf of myself, coach Foss, tonight on Inside Utica University Podcast, episode 2, thanks for tuning in to the Rock Pile, which is where dreams become reality. Have a good.