Rocky: 0:34

Good evening, everybody. Welcome to another live edition here on The Rock Pile. Tonight, the Rock Pile brings episode number eight here on Inside Utica University Football with Coach Faziano. We'll bring Coach on here in just a little bit. If you're following on YouTube, make sure you hit the subscribe button for me. If you're following on any of the social media channels, I appreciate the follow. If you're following me on iHeartRadio, I appreciate the follow as well. Can't wait to talk to Coach tonight and see what was in plan during the bye week. We'll talk SUNY Morrisville, which seems like forever ago, I'm sure. And then we'll preview the upcoming game against Alpher. We'll see how Coach is doing in his picks. I picked one bottom a few weeks ago. So we are even at 19 and 15. So we'll talk a little bit about that, and we're here tonight on the podcast. So let's jump in. Let's bring on coach. There you are, Coach. What's happening?

Coach Faggiano: 1:34

In the office tonight. We're off the practice field. So a little later practice tonight.

Rocky: 1:40

I like the like the backdrop. I like everything in the back there. It's all bright and cut colorful. We see some of the pictures back there. It looks cool.

Coach Faggiano: 1:49

This is this is the original physical therapy lab that you'd be using back in the day.

Rocky: 1:57

So coach it feels like forever ago. SUNY Morrisville, but let's talk a little bit about um that game before we get into uh we get into Alfred. It seemed like the Morrisville game was a really hassle for you guys. Got off to a really good start in the first half. Second half, Morrisville played well, which you had said they were gonna fight like hell. A lot of those kids were back from a year ago when you guys played them. Talk to us about Morrisville.

Coach Faggiano: 2:23

Tough, tough, well-coached football team. You know, Walter Burks uh calling their defense, uh was on our staff here for years. Uh very good coach. He kind of stepped in the DC role, uh, helped out coach Tendryzek because they they had a DC like leave late in the summer. Um just a very big physical team, you know, their defensive line, their front seven, their offensive line. Um you know, so I liked how we we matched their physicality for for at least for three quarters before we made a few errors and and you know got got a little too interesting for the fans. But uh I like how our guys played, and certainly you know, credit to Morris for their tough kids. And that's you know, it's always it's always been a good football game with them. So, you know, good local rival.

Rocky: 3:05

Coach, talk to us. You used your quarterback. Quarterback run was big for you in the red zone with uh with Matt, your junior quarterback. You had two big drives uh in the second quarter here. I think one of them was a 13-play, 80-yard drive, the other one was a little 81-yard drive that ended with with Matt running the ball in. I know you previewed that um at homecoming. You used all your quarterbacks. Talk to us about that set, talk to us about those two long drives that got you started in the second quarter.

Coach Faggiano: 3:33

Yeah, we call that our Raven package. The kids really believe in it, you know, kind of started with Sam Florio back in the day, and you know, get those tight ends in there and get the cute quarterback run going. And uh, you know, was really, you know, again, guys just like knowing the role, accepting the role. And you know, we call Matt uh MP, Matt Players. That's his that's his name of practice. And it was great energy, uh Jersey guy, the lefty, and that was a goal of his is that that that he knew he could find a way to contribute in that way and put on like 15-20 pounds over the summer so he can come in and do that. And I'll go back to the Cortland game where we needed a much needed you know third and one, and he lowered his shoulder and went right right at you know Cortland's linebacker to get the first down, who's a really good football player. So you know, really tough kid, and and the the old line, they just they get amped up, you know, for that package. And you know, certainly you know, we've been throwing the ball pretty well and you know, really wanted to uh not put as much on the quarterback and run the ball more effectively, and we did that. Now we in the stats we had 186 yards rushing, but because we had some a couple bad snaps uh in uh one one which was a turnover, and in another turnover, we had a lot of negative yards, which kind of took away from that. But the fact that like Aze Frazier had over 100 yards rushing, uh, that was huge, and that was something that we wanted to establish in the game. You know, they get into a three high safety look, which makes it sometimes hard to pass and um and to be able to run the ball again. So I thought it was a pretty big physical team in there. You know, I was pleased at how our guys, you know, uh played. And you know, again, we had a couple turnovers and and all of a sudden they're clawing their bait. We had a couple mistakes on defense and they're clawing their way back in the game. And um, but we needed to at the end, you know, the defense came out and you know the Morrisha was driving to go to win the game, you know. And our guys had a Nick DeForest had a couple big stack, big sacks. Jordan Davis had a tip pass and another big play, and those guys came to play. So, you know, like how our defense went out and finished the game for us when we needed.

Rocky: 5:36

Coach, how much is a run game? I know we've talked about the run game this year for you guys, and that's been the theme for you guys. You want and try to run the football a little bit more offensively. You've been getting a lot of your yards through the air, but how much is being able to run the ball here as the season goes? Because you're coming up on a tough stretch of conference opponents here. I think you get Fisher, you get Brockport, you know, two of the next against really good teams. How much is that run game and taking some pressure off Tyler?

Coach Faggiano: 6:03

I mean, it's I mean any quarterback, you know, and Tyler's obviously having a great year. And it's so funny, too, like in the RPO world, you know, those first couple games there, you know, we're not necessarily calling passes, you know, you know, sort of rack up, you know, the first game there, the 500 yards passing. That wasn't like necessarily the plan. He used to a great job in the RPOs and and and taking what the defense was giving us, you know. So I think that's kind of can throw off your stats, you know. But certainly we uh wanted to make sure that we could establish the run, want to be more balanced, uh, you know, doing some things in the perimeter. You know, now we've got a couple games where we're getting the ball in the perimeter, whether it's running or throwing, I think that's really important too. Um, you know, and so I think that would that was really big, you know, for our offense to get that stuff going and uh you know, give credit to you know, uh Coach Klaus, Coach and Elovic, and and offense for doing the doing doing some great things that we wanted to do. Like I said, we were really in control of that game for most of all our three quarters, and then kind of let the thing, you know, a couple turnovers there. And that's that's we got to get away from those here. And the guys know we gotta protect the football. Uh we had one reception, which was great. Mason Payton had a great pick, and then I really thought that that um you know Booba had a pick, and they you know, one official says he had the pick, the other one didn't. Um you know, so that's tough. And then we I thought we had we had caused a fumble um on their punt return. You know, we punt them the ball, and Nate Hernandez, big hit, fumble, Austin the crew recovers it, and I don't know, after a couple huddles, all of a sudden we didn't have the ball. That was kind of odd turn of events. But you know, I think it was also a good game for a guy to learn that you can't complain about the officials. The only one that can talk to those guys is me. You know, there are a couple tough ones there. A great fourth down play by Mason Payton, uh defensive play that was called the pass interference. I gave him another chance there was was tough, but you know, uh Empire aid play. The guys know, you know, the guys know. Um, you know, like I said, the guys that that was not the same Morrisville team that we saw play Cortland on film, right? We just know that's just something about you know, teams come and they're gonna bring us their best game. And uh and that's how we prepare our guys. Every game is gonna be a battle, it'll be a war, and you know, uh not to get off of Morrisville, but like, you know, get so you know, so excited, like today, full pads, second padded practice, you know, had the great bye week last week, and everyone got to go home and and and have you know home cooked meals and spend time with friends and family. But we're all on the same page, like we are not ready for football to be over, right? You know, we're not ready to be home on Saturday. And um, but a much needed break, and uh, you know, looking forward to going into Alfred, New York, which is a very difficult place to play here uh coming up this week uh for an overnight trip.

Rocky: 8:51

Coach, you talked about you know, Marshall had the ball with a chance to to win the game in the fourth. And I think we talked a couple times that throughout the year that you guys have been battle-tested with this group where you've played from you've played with the lead, you've played from behind, and this was another game where your defense is on the field and came up huge um in the fourth quarter for you. But your team's been battle-tested, you've been in all different situations so far this year.

Coach Faggiano: 9:15

We really have, you know, and then and and some of the you know our issues are self-inflicted as we figure this thing out, you know. And I I started telling the team this, I didn't tell them in the beginning, but 90% of our team, excuse me, Tyler included, it's the first year playing. You know, now you don't start the season with that. And now I said, listen, now we have six games now, now we're veteran team, right? We know we know that you know we kind of uh you know control our destiny as most teams do here in the in the in the second half of our season. And um, you know, it's just like you know, we we hold I think we held Morrisville was under 300 yards offense, maybe.

Rocky: 9:49

Yeah, I think they were like two seven. You held them only 94 passing, I know that.

Coach Faggiano: 9:54

Yeah, you know, so like that's that's not an easy thing to do. You know what I mean? I think that's something that you know our run defense has improved. Um you know, we're able to do some things, you know, try to get them in passing situations, and even Morrisville, they were you know, third and long, they were running the ball a few times, right? To try to try to break some tendencies. So um liked how the defense is playing, uh, like how our special teams were playing. Uh Devin Taylor uh you know got Empire Special Teams player of the week and had a uh a huge 50-yard punt. Uh you know, you know, talk about you know, very different than what happened in Hobart. Right. We needed a big punt uh to give our defense good field position to go out and and and give them an opportunity to win the game for us, and uh and they were able to do that. So um and then uh geez, who's we had a we had another defense, we had another player of the week, too. That was two weeks ago. Help me out. Well, you I know um oh is IT, right? Because IT had 17 seven tackles.

Rocky: 10:50

I was just gonna say he had 17 tackles for you. Jordan Davis had nine for you, and uh Nick had a couple big sacks.

Coach Faggiano: 10:56

JD made uh which is really big for us, you know. That JD that's our fourth D3 uh national team of the week. I mean that's you know quite an honor, you know. And so I think we have four guys uh recognizing that way, and JD's playing at a really high level, you know, trying to do things to get him some 101s when we can. Uh he's certainly uh drawing attention in there in the middle.

Rocky: 11:18

So and coach offensively, Bryce cracked the thousand-yard mark, uh similar to Antonio for you. He had 10 catches for 109, so now you have two receivers that have cracked that thousand-yard mark, which that's special. That's tough to do.

Coach Faggiano: 11:31

It is, and and you know, we didn't have Logan Frederick for the Morrisful game. You know, we didn't talk about that, but you know, he was out for an injury, he'll be back this week. And but you know, the three of them, I think, all have five touchdowns apiece, which makes it hard to defend. And very happy for Bryce. And you know, it's it's like we don't Bryce and I laugh like because in the past he's had some injuries and hasn't been able to finish a full season, and he doesn't even want to talk about that, right? Just wants to keep playing football. He loves playing football. We're moving him all over the place. Teams are gonna try to double him. Um, and uh, you know, he's having a great uh you know, great senior year. Really glad he came back to to to play his uh senior year.

Rocky: 12:10

Coach, you mentioned you mentioned Devin. I had on my notes here your special teams, Nico and Devin. Your kicking game's been fantastic this year, the two of them.

Coach Faggiano: 12:18

They're both they're both doing a great great job, very coachable. Um, you know, Nico uh making his extra points and and then kicking the ball great this week. And you know, uh, we're just teasing about you know how far of a field goal we're gonna let him kick, you know. So he added this week he added about five more yards, I think, to his his distance. We're gonna give him a shot, you know, uh as far as kicking the field goal. But um, and he's really good at you know, we the well here's another tough play in the game is we we get him on the Christmas kick. Then we get called for on sides. Like, oh come on, right? That was tough. We you know, they're their front lines back at 14 yards, and Nico's great at it and just dribbles at 11 yards, scoops it up, we're good. And uh unfortunately we were just a hair off sides, I guess. So that was like we had some crazy things happen that game. So for whatever reason, we play Morrisville, like some crazy things happened over the years, and uh this game, you know. Uh I thought we were gonna get through it without some crazy things, but we had a few crazy things happen. Again, I like our guys' resolve. You know, they don't let it bother them, they're not, they're not upset, they just keep playing, you know, and I think that's gonna be key here uh in these last four games.

Rocky: 13:25

And coach, you guys are coming off the bye week, and uh I was I was looking through that and I said a lot of coaches handle bye weeks a lot different. How did you guys handle the bye week?

Coach Faggiano: 13:34

So we we uh Monday was a normal day of film and weights for the varsity. Tuesday, we just usually usually Tuesday's uppers, we just went uh helmets. Uh Wednesday we went in uppers, shortened the practices to like an hour and a half instead of two hour practices. Um, you know, and then because even our young guys were off as well, you know, could get their bodies, get healthy. We we had some guys sit out. And then Thursday we actually went in the morning. Uh so if guys wanted to go home Thursday afternoon, uh, you know, in and you know, obviously cleared it with their professors, yeah. But a lot of guys did go home like Thursday afternoon through the weekend. Um, you know, and then you know it's funny, a bunch of guys, you know, took some great trips. A whole bunch of guys went up to Albany and went up to Osable Valley and spent time with Eli Douglas's family. And there's some great pictures from that trip. About eight of them went up there. Um, you know, again, this is a really tight, tight-knit group, and uh, you know, uh, so that's kind of how you know how we handled, shortened the practices up, made sure we got some some pads in there, and um, you know, really went back, did some indie, some fundamentals. Got certainly got a head start on Alfred with some things, but it wasn't like we spent two solid weeks getting ready. We wanted to make sure we healed up and got back to some fundamentals.

Rocky: 14:50

And coach, the bye week comes at a really good time for you guys with Alfred coming up, who we'll talk about here in a minute. But I was going through your schedule, and it you're gonna finish with you know three tough games. You get Fisher that's playing really well, Brockport's playing really well, and you got to go to their place. I think you get Hartwick at at home, but that bye week can't come at a better time for you guys, right? With this the season here downside.

Coach Faggiano: 15:10

No doubt. No doubt. Coach Raby is doing a great job at Fisher. They you know they beat Brockport in overtime. Uh they only have one loss on the season to the University of Rochester, which is a local rival game out there. And then you know, Hartwick Fisher was 21-21 in the third quarter, you know. So Coach Rogers is doing a great job uh at Hartwick. And um, you know, again, each each week and each team uh brings its own challenges, you know. Um, you know, Alfred, we're looking forward to like we finally it took a few years, really. Uh I know I've been here a long time, but it took a few years to find the perfect, like we have a great hotel. We have this literally this entire Italian family feeds us at the VFW, and that's how we roll, right? We we did the same thing. We were talking about it today, leadership council. We went to Susquehanna, we didn't go to some fancy restaurant, we found the VFW.

Rocky: 15:59

Love it.

Coach Faggiano: 16:00

We got it, we got them to cater it, and like that's what that's what you could guys do. And uh, so we got this family's all fired up. They're they're excited. Alfred State's in the conference now because they're gonna once a year. We have an overnight trip to Alfred now, but um, you know, uh there's you know some challenges to that. And all the guys were talking about the WJ trip, you know, overnight trip and you know how we went and played and didn't really pay attention to what WJ did the year before or what they were ranked or that they won their conference. We just went out and had fun playing together, and you know, they definitely want to get back to doing that here on this overnight trip.

Rocky: 16:33

And Coach Alford had coming off a win too. They beat Hobart and uh they beat St. Lawrence and Hartwick, and then they were close, real close. That was a good game against Fisher, I think 21-7. Uh real good game. So they're sitting at 500, but they're playing some pretty good ball.

Coach Faggiano: 16:47

No doubt. They the Fisher game, they got stopped. Alfred was stopped on the one and the eight, right? So they had chances, no doubt. And then they're driving to tie the game and had a turnover, and then Fisher scored late, but it was a 14-7 game in the fourth quarter, you know. So really good game up at Fisher. So I mean, Alfred very good history. Um, Coach Ranko's been there a long time. Um, tough kids, they play tough, um, always play tough at their place. And uh you know, we'll see. Yeah, I'm sure they're gonna have some different stuff for us. Every team we've played comes out and they're doing they're doing something different, you know. So we just gotta we've done a good job of riding the waves of that. Like, hey, they're running these coverages on these downs. Guess what? Against us, it's all the opposite. Yeah, you know, it's like we haven't seen any man-free or cover two, and all of a sudden they're running man-free and cover two. It's it's so our guys have uh kind of welcome that, you know, and our coaches, like all we do is put them in the toughest situations of practice that we can um uh to prepare them for uh those big E8 games.

Rocky: 17:50

Yeah, coach, and they're uh they're sophomore running backs. Um he's averaging about 15 carries a game, but it looks like they're pretty they're pretty 50-50. It looks like they're pretty split. They're they're averaging a little over 100 yards um on the ground, and um they're averaging just about 400 yards of offense. So they look like they're about 50-50.

Coach Faggiano: 18:08

Quarterback's tough, tough player, makes plays, uh, scrambling. You know we got to make sure we keep him in the pocket best we can, makes plays with his feet, running back, you know, runs their run game very well. Uh, they do a nice job with the RPOs, you know, and and hitting those. So um, again, well-coached football team. They've had a lot of big special teams plays this year on their special teams units. So, you know, we definitely got to be uh be on high alert.

Rocky: 18:32

Yeah, the quarterback too, senior quarterback, uh, has played pretty well this year, completing over about 60, just over 60% of his ball, spreads the ball around a little bit. They're young, seems like they're young in the skilled positions.

Coach Faggiano: 18:45

There are two two of their wideouts are, well, I'm sorry, one's a freshman, one's a sophomore. Both very good players, 84 and 89. Uh, they have a really good player in the slot that they like they like to give jet sweeps to and you know, get him the ball. And so uh I think they do a really good job of utilizing their talent, you know, offensively.

Rocky: 19:03

Coach, I know you said you you know you were just saying that uh you don't want Saturdays to end my season. We got we got done the other night. We had our little banquet tonight, and now I'm sitting to myself, I gotta get back to like a normal routine now, like work, come home. I gotta go watch my daughter play now, which is which is okay. Right. But it's it's it's it's funny to sit sit here and say that you guys are coming right down to the end here with the regular season. That's how fast it goes.

Coach Faggiano: 19:28

Goes fast, and and that's why football is special, right? You got you got 10 regular season opportunities, and everyone's fighting for extra football, whatever that looks like, right? NCAA tournament, ECAC bowl game. What's nice to see there's more and more bowl games that are growing in Division III. Uh there's the New England Bowls, there's a Max Centennial challenge, I think I have that right. Um, more and more popping up, which is good because you watch Division I and it seems like you really got to mess up to not get a bowl game in Division I, right? Like half the teams get to go, you know.

Rocky: 20:00

Yep.

Coach Faggiano: 20:00

So um, and that's what that's what we're doing. Is that we're just fighting to to you know have a winning season, fighting to get to that postseason, um, you know, and uh and the tough Empire Eight. So it's gonna definitely gonna be you know one of those things where it'll come right down to the wire to the last game uh to see who who goes where, who does what, you know.

Rocky: 20:20

I feel like the Empire Eight's a lot like uh the SEC in a big ten. I mean, I think this year it's more like the SEC because the SEC's just beating each other up. Like every game in the SEC this year is like number five against seven, ten against eleven. And you're gonna have an SEC team that could have two, three losses that's probably better than some of these other teams that only have one loss. I feel like that's how your conference is.

Coach Faggiano: 20:43

I think I think a couple weeks ago, D3 ranked the conferences, and I think they had us up there, I forget where we were, maybe six or seventh, but like our our winning percentage in the postseason of the conference is very, very high. Very, very high. Uh, and uh again, the biggest thing is is survive, surviving the conference. You know what I mean? If you can win the Empire Eight, you're a really good team. If you're a nine and one team and can get to postseason or eight and two and get to postseason, or even seven and three, you know. I mean, you don't you don't want to play an a seven and three Empire 8 team in a bowl game. You know, you got your hands full. So um just a credit to our conference and D3 football in New York.

Rocky: 21:18

Yeah, I think you got I think the Empire Eight was like seventh. And then I think I put a comment up there I said it should be top five, and there was a bunch of people that followed D3 that said they agree. And I I'm with you, coach. There's always a team in the Empire 8's, a tough outcome postseason. There's been a lot of success stories with uh with your conference in postseason, a lot of big wins, including you guys.

Coach Faggiano: 21:40

No doubt. And then for whatever reason, for a while there, there was this negative connotation to the east. And you know, obviously Cortland helped that go away. And you know, even you know, even Brockport when they had the German aerial kid at quarterback there, and they were in the tournament a few years in a row. So um, you know, our teams have uh have fared well, no doubt about it. And they've gone on and competed with the the big, the big the big dogs, right? The Mount Unions and North Centrals of the world.

Rocky: 22:05

So, Coach, you and I are are dead even now at 19 and 15. I picked one up on you. I think it was a Syracuse game, but you gave me that one because you picked Syracuse. I went against Syracuse. Uh by the way, I'm getting hammered on Twitter on my Fran Brown stuff here because they're all saying Fran Brown's a Penn State candidate, he's a Florida State. I'm like, Fran Brown's got to get this team under control and try to get him to a bowl game.

Coach Faggiano: 22:30

Yeah. No doubt. Like, listen, there I think he's a really good coach and he's got great staff. I got to meet a few of those guys, and you know, uh he's got to find ways to win some football games, you know.

Rocky: 22:41

I agree. All right, there's some good games this week, coach. Uh Ole Miss is the first one I got up here. Number eight Ole Miss at Oklahoma. They're both six and one. Oklahoma is minus four and a half. Oklahoma's defense has played lights out. Um, Ole Miss, I thought, should have beat Georgia uh last week, which was a great game to watch. Great game. Great game back and forth. Ole Miss scored on the first five possessions. When do you see that against a Georgia Kirby smart defense?

Coach Faggiano: 23:08

That was a wild game. And then right at the end of the game, a couple three and outs, and Georgia scored.

Rocky: 23:13

It was like that was the difference. So this is a good game. Uh I really like Oklahoma's defense. Venables is they've been really good all year, but man, old miss. Kiffin's just called. I think he's the best offensive guy in the game. I love watching him call plays.

Coach Faggiano: 23:30

I think I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go Ole Miss that they respond after losing to Georgia.

Rocky: 23:34

Yeah, I'm I'm with you. I I I like them a lot. I think it's gonna be a team that, again, out of the SCC, maybe a two-loss team, three-loss team that we're gonna be talking. Do they belong in over a one-loss Big Ten or you know, another conference? So this is another good one, too. South Florida's been really good. Their head coach, um, Al Gollish, is getting he's another one that's a hot name for these big jobs and in Memphis, too. Um, they're at six and one. Memphis is getting four and a half at home to South Florida.

Coach Faggiano: 24:05

I'm going South Florida. I've listened to that coach a few times, podcasts, and he's doing some great things.

Rocky: 24:11

He was really professional. I liked I listened to him last week when they were asking him about his name being mentioned for these jobs. I really like how he handled uh the interview. I mean, you know, he he was basically living in the moment. He said he's got a great job right now, and you know, let him enjoy. He hasn't even thought about but just the way he handled himself, I thought was was was different than some of the other coaches. All right, here's another big one. Number 15, Missouri at 6-1 at Vandy, who Vandy's coming off the big win last week over um LSU. Diego Pavier, the quarterback's been fantastic. Um, he's another Clark Lee.

Coach Faggiano: 24:52

I'm going Vandy here.

Rocky: 24:53

Are you going to Vandy? I'm gonna go Vandy. Oh, this is a tough one because I really like I really like the quarterback. I just think they got everything going. But I think people are sleeping on Mizzou. You know what? I'm gonna go opposite on you. I'm gonna go with Missouri because I I like Drinkowitz. I like the coach for Missouri. I think he's another one that's gonna be an interesting candidate, I think, for the Florida job.

Coach Faggiano: 25:15

Well, they lost the they lost a real close game to Alabama, right?

Rocky: 25:18

Yes. Really good game. Really good game. So here's another SEC one. And I think this one, I think Brian Kelly's on the hot seat if they find a way to lose this game. So you got Texas AM at 7-0 at LSU. LSU's plus two and a half. I'm gonna give you mine first because I'm gonna go with LSU. I think Texas A. M., they haven't played anybody yet in the SEC. They're coming up on their tough games now here over the next three to four weeks. I think LSU finds a way to get this thing done at home. I think it's a night game. Um, so no matter what their record is, um, I think Brian Kelly, I think they find a way this week.

Coach Faggiano: 25:55

Yeah, that's a tough place to play down there. I'm gonna go LSU too.

Rocky: 25:58

All right. I thought I was gonna pick another one up on you there, but we'll we'll ride with that. Michigan looked good last week, coach. Um, it seems like they got uh a little bit of the downfield passing game. They uh Wink Martindale, they played really good defensively last week. Uh Michigan at Michigan State. Michigan State just hasn't found a way to get things going. Michigan's a two-touchdown favorite at Michigan State. I'm assuming we're gonna go with the same teams on this. You like Michigan?

Coach Faggiano: 26:25

Yeah, I like Michigan.

Rocky: 26:29

I'm with you. I like, I think they're I think that could be an ugly one here. All right, I always got to put Syracuse on here for predictions. Um, Syracuse will be at Georgia Tech. You know, this is another one. I really like Georgia Tech. I really like Brent Pry, the coach, who's done, I think, a hell of a job as his his alma mater. He's going to be mentioned for a lot of these jobs too that are coming open. They're a 17 and a half point favorite. This is at Georgia Tech. Any chance Syracuse goes down and pulls it upset?

Coach Faggiano: 26:58

I think this might be the first time I've gone against Syracuse, I think. So I think I think on this one, Georgia Tech's a very good football team. I think on the road's tough. Um, I think Syracuse will I think Syracuse will will give him give them hell, but I think end of the day, Georgia Tech may have too much for him.

Rocky: 27:14

Coach, who do you think's gonna get this this Penn State and Florida job? Those those are two a lot of big jobs.

Coach Faggiano: 27:20

I like the last person. Listen, I'm sure last past weekend on the bye, like everyone's spending time thinking about those things. Um, I'm watching Empire 8 film and spent some time in the woods with my dad doing some hunting, right? So, like uh, you know, I who knows? I really don't. Like, you wonder if Coach Rule with all his connections, you kind of wonder. Yeah, you know what I mean? And now he's very close to the AD there. I think everyone knows that. Like, that's a possibility. You know, um, I think he had a hard time answering. I heard his one interview. He had a hard time.

Rocky: 27:49

Yeah, he had a tough time. He had a tough time, you know. He did.

Coach Faggiano: 27:52

So that kind of makes you wonder. You know, it kind of makes you wonder. But um, yeah, I'm not who it's crazy.

Rocky: 27:57

I like Matt Rule. The only the only thing I would say is, you know, James Franklin got knocked for he hadn't he didn't win the big game. I think he was like one and something against top five teams and you know, Nebraska since Matt Rule's been there. His record against big big teams hasn't been the greatest either. But Penn State alum might be a little bit more patient with him since he played there, played for Joe Paterno. I think he's probably the easy hire. Um, but we'll see. I think it's gonna get interesting.

Coach Faggiano: 28:21

A lot of big jobs open for the first time, really, since you never know what they're looking for. You know what I mean? That's the thing you don't know. Are they looking for an alum? Are they looking for a defensive guy? Are they looking for a recruiter? Are they looking for that that quarterback coach that's gonna you know bring you that top-notch quarterback? Like you just don't know behind the scenes like what they're what they're looking for as far as a school. I think that's the hard part, you know. And um, you know, just a lot of respect for the coaches that you know, Penn State and what Penn State went through as a Penn State fan myself, and um, you know, uh, so just a lot of respect for those guys, you know, getting Penn State back to where they are now. You know, I was a very difficult thing that that they went through, and uh, you know, glad to, you know, it's just crazy. It's so different than uh than Division III and what we're doing, you know.

Rocky: 29:10

It's just so hard to believe that all these big jobs are open here, and you're still you're we're not even halfway through the the college football season, or we're just about halfway, I guess you can say it. And uh there's gonna be more jobs coming open, and the buyouts for these coaches are they're paying James Franklin 50 million dollars. 50 million dollars to stay home. Exactly.

Coach Faggiano: 29:31

But and like is he gonna is he gonna just take some time at home or is he gonna go take another job? Like, you don't know. Yeah, when in his interview that I uh when he was on with Coach Saban and that them on uh was it game day? I forget what it was.

Rocky: 29:42

Yep.

Coach Faggiano: 29:42

He's like, just they're gonna go win a national championship somewhere else. Okay, all right.

Rocky: 29:46

I think the best fit for him is Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech, I think, is the best fit for him. So, but we'll see. Listen, coach, good luck to you. And uh we'll do it again.

Coach Faggiano: 29:58

Congrats on your guys' season.

Rocky: 30:00

Yeah, we had a good year. Good year for the kids.

Coach Faggiano: 30:02

Yeah.

Rocky: 30:05

The future looks good.

Coach Faggiano: 30:06

We'll hope to see you in a couple games. All right.

Rocky: 30:08

Sounds good, Coach. Thank you.

Coach Faggiano: 30:10

Appreciate everyone for listening. Through the moose.

Rocky: 30:12

You got it. So I want to thank Coach for uh for jumping on. We got a little got off to a little bit of a late start. No problem. Coach was just coming off the field. That's my fault. I should have probably pushed him back just a little bit. But uh thanks for everybody tuning in tonight. Again, if you followed me on YouTube, make sure you hit the subscribe button for me. And um if you're listening on any of the social media platforms, I appreciate you tuning in uh tonight. So thanks to Coach for tuning in. As I say on the rock pile, the rock pile is where dreams become reality. Have a good evening, everybody.