Show 051 - Brian Murphy Wraps UCF Baseball, Football Schedule News

[Music] support for this podcast comes from Fredo in the 2023 snack bracket Championship the Fredo snacket challenge is underway and fans are voting on their favorite snacks to Crown Champion we're talking about Prime Time matchups between the best 64 snacks in the land will Ruffles ridges reign supreme can Doritos defend their Dynasty or will smart food use their smarts for a surprise upset only you can decide get in on all the action for a chance to win up to $1,000 or a Year's worth of snacks let your snacks be heard just go to Fredo snack at. sbnation.com to vote and enter for a chance to win no purchase necessary TW Stakes ends April 3rd 2023 void we prohibited years worth of snacks awarded in the form of 52 coupons each good for one bag of chips see official rules at freed a snack. sbnation.com [Music] what's up night fans welcome to the black and gold banneret podcast episode number 15 1 Eric Lopez I am Jeff Sharon along with ELO here on this uh Wednesday evening and I know it's late June but I want to get another show up here in between our Black and Gold banneret Award Show um nomination show and our actual award show which will be taking place um over the weekend we'll be releasing that by Monday Lopez did you vote yet absolutely all right so you got your votes in hey I wanted to send a special thank you out to everyone who has uh clicked on our survey so I had to I I thought I could do it on Twitter and it turns out Twitter polls only accept a maximum of four answers so I had to uh quickly late on Sunday night uh compose the polls on Survey Monkey then I found out that the free Survey Monkey you can only do a survey that has 10 questions and we had 11 nominees so I just separated the team of the year one out and then I put that in there uh embedded it in the for the show it's all up and running we got a bunch of votes that are streaming in by the day and um thanks to all the fans who have voted and if you haven't voted make sure you do that um hit up our last show show number 50 the nomination show and make sure you vote for the black and gold banneret um 2017 postseason Awards the bannies the first annual Banes so uh lots to get to believe it or not it'll be a fairly quick show because we do have some news to talk about make sure uh you follow us as as always on black and gold banner.com and also on Facebook at black and gold banneret follow us on Twitter at UCF banneret also you can follow me at Jeff Sharon and Eric Lopez at Eric Lopez ELO uh you can uh subscribe to this podcast on iTunes don't forget to leave us a rating there uh you can also subscribe on Google Play uh SoundCloud and tune in and also later on we will uh just put a final uh wrap up on the baseball season uh with um uh with Brian Murphy uh our resident baseball writer here spokes Murphy on Twitter um we'll just kind of wrap things up we'll talk a little bit about the draft and how things ended up uh for um for UCF baseball finishing out so um lots to talk about you know with that so we'll we'll be getting to that in due time in a little bit but first we had a few stories that we wanted to just riff about here on this week we turned out to be a fairly busy um turn have to be a fairly busy uh news week for uh UCF but um first thing I wanted to do is credit you Eric Lopez because you called this and lo and behold it came to pass the uh season opener between UCF and FIU uh which will be played um at uh Spectrum Stadium this is what it this is what it's called now Spectrum Stadium uh and will'll be televised on CBS Sports Network has been moved to Thursday August 31st as the season over Thursday August 31st at 6:00 p.m. it was initially scheduled for Saturday they moved it up two days you get the national television uh on CBS Sports Network um and now uh and and so now we and so now we have that Thursday night uh start UCF noow stranger to starting on the first Thursday night of the season I remember George O's um uh or the opener to uh the two thou the Georgia L's second season the 2005 season at South Carolina was on ESPN that was on a Thursday night and ucf's opened on Thursday nights before um well I know you're going to say this is a smart move but what do you think but but what do you think was the final deciding factor well I think it's real simple I think the fact that the team you're playing in week two Memphis in your conference is playing on Thursday night and it's funny how this kind of works out where now ucf's playing a 6 Eastern the reason they're playing at 6 o'clock is because CBS Sports Network had already picked up the Memphis game and so what they did is they moved Memphis from 8 o'clock Eastern to nine o'clock Eastern to fit the UCF game in if you're into head on Thursday night on CBS Sports Network okay one thing one thing I don't like uh from a superstitious standpoint two years ago UCF played FIU Thursday night 6 o'clock on CBS Sports Network and we know how that ended up so uh throw that out and pretend when nothing happened it Spooks me out but uh otherwise look I mean you know you you would have had Memphis with a two-day advantage in preparation if you would have played on Saturday now Brandon Hellwig our friend from UCF sports.com has reported that originally the game was going if it stayed on Saturday it was going to be a noon game the TV part a TV picked it up for a noon game and I studied that Saturday TV slate my guess is that CBS Sports Network because they had a slot available at noon was probably going to put that game at noon it was either them or maybe ESPN news let's say so the question now becomes forget you do you really want to play a noon on Saturday when you have your next opponent already resting and chilling after playing two days earlier or do you move this game up to Thursday night and and kind of e even that out with Memphis and at the same and I would argue actually you're G to probably get more fan actually come out to the Thursday night game than you would have for a noon game on Saturday which historically is I'll break down in a moment doesn't draw so at the end of the day I I think it's a fine move I'm very Pro uh having games on Thursday and Friday nights because there's less competition and I think you have more exposure and even more attention locally and even nationally to some extent uh I don't buy into the theory that your Thursday night or Friday night games hurts you uh except for a holiday weekend which there's that one in November that talked about in the past but well this is a holiday weekend though because it's Labor Day weekend though right yeah but the holiday is not till Monday and actually this actually works out because I think what happens is a lot of times there's going to be people that maybe would have gone to the game uh that that normally would go to the game I should say that maybe take off the weekend they want to go out and get out of town students might leave town on Friday or Saturday get out of town and spend time with the family on a long weekend whereas the Thanksgiving weekend that literally starts on Thursday uh so a lot of people are gone so uh I actually like it I think they're fine and I think they're going to draw I have some numbers to prove this because I I know some people like crap they I mentioned the game two years ago six o'clock right A lot of people are like oh man I gotta take time off work I gotta do this or that they drew 39,18492 Scott Frost's debut Saturday night right everybody loves Saturday night 36260 they actually Drew more two years ago now now In fairness uh you're coming off a winless season so maybe there's less people that are interested etc etc fine so we'll go I I looked up these numbers since 2008 in that Stadium because I don't really count the uh the Citrus bow Stadium years or completely different story and I didn't I don't count 2007 cuz 2007 was a honeymoon year so everybody went to every game and I remember in the Mac like we played on all kinds of weird I think I'm pretty sure we had a Tuesday night game at the Citrus Bowl one time when we were in the Mac right so it was weird back but go ahead so this is some of the interesting attendance numbers you know Thursdays compared to Saturdays Etc uh for example prior to uh some notable Saturday games 2014 Thursday night game against BYU 41547 was the attendance that year uh Friday night that year against Tulsa 35323 season opener against akan 2013 right Thursday night 35,1 15 they played ruter that year Thursday night game late in the year1 I remember yeah 41,000 people yep 41,000 uh you know so so you get the list of kind of how they've been drawn now in comparison here are some Saturday noon games okay let this could have been a noon game you realize since 2008 in noon games UCF has played at home you know how many times they've drawn over 40,000 noon games since 2008 at home yeah noon home games noon home games how many times they've drawn over how many 40,000 oh I would say zero two okay which two games South Carolina game which was all you know South Carolina Steve Spurrier you know Yad yada and the 2010 CA championship game against Tulsa where they actually Drew 41,45 there was actually empty seats there about 3,000 4,000 I remember that because I was in the postgame press conference and one of the media people asked George lir about not you know empty seats and was he disappointed by that and I remember remember George's face was priceless cuz he just like are he's like are you seriously asking me about this after I just won the championship game I could he was not been thrilled at all so my point is they don't draw I'll give you an an example remember 2013 that magical year they beat Louisville they beat uh they come from behind and beat Louisville they have beaten a Penn State you know what they drew for a Yukon game at noon after all that momentum 37,000 I was there for that game yep 37 noon game against Yukon and we scored 60 some points on him too yeah exactly destroyed him Missouri remember that one 2012 how they hyped it up as the first SEC opponent to play in that Stadium y yada 35,8 35 last year they hosted Cincinnati at noon a game that locked up a bow eligibility all right 30, 346 uh weather WEA plays a factor in that we had some some here and there and some days that are impressively hot but yeah but the main concern that's the main concern a lot of people complain about that um can't really can't really do anything about that I mean the weather's the weather what are you gonna do it's Florida so but point is that's a track record they don't draw at noon so to me anybody that's complaining can't complain because you're not coming out to those noon games now uh other numbers uh other open notes of openers since 2008 I'm going to go in order here 2008 season opener Saturday against South Carolina state they drew 42,1 126 keep in mind that was coming off that Liberty Bowl year in ' 07 uh 2009 they played Sanford it was a Saturday night game remember they almost lost that game BR Brett Hodes comes in relief to Win It 38,7 19 for that game 2010 their season opener Saturday against South Dakota state 34,37 3 in 2010 in contrast that same year they hosted UAB on a Wednesday night 4,281 actually Drew better that's on a Wednesday night right and the school you know the part of that was a lot of student turnout that's been the fre consistent thing and then that particular game I remember they had a they had some sort of thing going on where they allowed students from Valencia as well to go to those games but hey you know whatever get people in the in the seats that's fine with me 2011 season opener Charleston Southern 39,7 52 2012 season opener Saturday against FIU 40,000 uh 20 you know I mentioned the akan numbers uh the the biggest season opening crowd they have had since 2008 now remember 2007 they open against Texas duh that was sold out it's Texas take that away their biggest season opening crowd they've had was in 2014 against bethon cookman 44510 now a couple things there well for one thing you're getting the beun people coming down from Daytona so that helps which which brings up which brings up an interesting side question I'm gonna ask you in a moment but that that's one yes number two that was the year after the Fiesta Bowl year so obviously a lot of T you know people were excited you see a football more ticket so yada y the other thing was that was the third game of the season remember that year UCF opened in Ireland against Penn State and then played Missouri so I think people were just hungry to see football live right and it was a Saturday night six o'clock game against bethon uh so 44,000 uh 2015 I mentioned the FIU was a season opener 39,000 and then last year 36,000 my point is I just ran through those numbers Jeff did you notice a big difference between a Thursday night game and a Friday night game compared to a a Saturday opener for example not a big in fact true it's better it's better on Thursday openers have been better than Saturday noon games my thing on it is whatever gives the team the best chance to win in my opinion is the most important thing I think you go back to the idea that you know Memphis is playing you know and and this is a pretty even even Shake because Memphis is at home they're playing against uh Louisiana Monroe in their first game Sun Bel team that went 4-8 last year Monroe um you know not overly good you know their only wins were against South Alabama Georgia State Texas State and Southern um FIU last year uh was uh 4 and8 as well now there now here's the here's the catch on that they're going to be debuting the new coach in Butch Davis so there's some so there's some news associated with um with that game I certainly believe so and it's going to be at least interesting with Butch coming on uh for FIU you know we talked about how tough that they're going to you know that that recruiting is going to get their only wins last year uh Florida Atlantic at UTP at Charlotte and against Marshall uh um uh at home so um and they're and Fu now of course in Conference USA but um but yeah I if that helps you know Scott Frost team you know get in terms of getting prepared for the Memphis game you get that extra basically 36 hours if it's a difference between Memphis or excuse me if it's a difference between noon Saturday and you know Thursday evening I'll take it um and that you know that works fine for me and and the fans will show up to that game anyway because I think there's going to be some high expectations heading into next year so all right so don't forget here's the thing here's the thing I mean yes I get it I think you know the Out of Towners get hurt by this I get it you know if you're if you're traveling uh on a Saturday from out of town or even late Friday this hurts you I agree well I mean to to an extent yeah but but here's the thing you know we're heading into Labor Day weekend to start the weekend day early take Friday off from work drive down to the game when you get out on Thursday and uh and come enjoy the game and start your Labor Day weekend early and and I think and the other thing is while yes you maybe you lose a few people from Out of Towners that would have gone to the game on Thursday I think you pick up people that would not have gone to a Saturday game anyway I always I think that's one of those things where kind of it evens itself out yeah so I just I just want to end the myth and the whining about oh it's a week night game and it's Saturday and they moved it I I don't think it's that big of a deal I've never have except uh you know we can we I'm sure we'll down the road we'll talk again about the Thanksgiving weekend that's a whole other story um now you brought this up the bethon cookman I brought up the number and you brought up the big reason why the local people it's an easy what is it 40 minutes away Beth five minute drive depending on where you are from a business standpoint you know I don't want to get into whether division one team should be playing FCS opponents and there's a lot of reasons for now ucf's obviously playing Maine this year uh that'll be the fourth game of the season the uh you know and so forth from a business standpoint would UCF be better off scheduling a bethon cookman like instead of your Ms and Ferman because like you just said you might that increases more people getting to the gate and in the end of the day that means more attendance means more money but more tickets sold more money right I mean they're yeah are they better off scheduling the bons or uh you know FAMU even you know people always you know Miami always plays FAMU a lot and the joke a lot of people go just to see the FAMU band for example that was always the joke when Miami and FAMU would play and people like to see that so would they be better off playing teams loc in the state now obviously the negative on that is you know there's pressure to win more than maybe normal but heck I mean we lost the firm in two years well I pressure to win I mean come on it's pressure to you're playing if you're playing an FCS opponent you better freaking win the game I don't care if it's I don't care if it's bethon or Stetson or North Dakota State who is actually pretty good um I personally I've always said this and and you know you and I have talked about this before I believe in college football there should be a rule that says that if you're an FCS team and you schedule an F excuse me if you're an FBS team and you schedule an FCS team it must be a team from within your State's Borders or from a border state like in Florida's case it would be it would be a team you know either within the State of Florida or from Georgia or uh or Alabama uh I would love to you just to help out those schools that are you know relatively close by in terms of travel and they're going to travel down to you I I don't see the point in playing Maine I mean I know they probably had that scheduled out a while back you know when uh when coach coach was around um but you know well no I mean what I mean what happened was uh remember UCF was slated to play Texas in Texas oh that's right and that got to of the season and and they got pushed back and so now all of a sudden you got to scramble and what they they replaced it with the game against Maine uh and it turned out that Maine was only available to play the fourth you know that weekend of September 3 that's what happened but that but that does open up though like if you if you're if the rules are look you can only play teams from your state or a neighboring state then that opens up the potential for not just you know FAMU and bethon which I think you know be fun you know get some local kids on those rosters too coming down um I would like to see I don't think this will ever happen I hope I'm wrong but you know who else is in FCS Stetson and yeah but they're lower level than even the bons they're lower level right aren't they Pioneer league right I mean they got a that's still they're still FCS so um you you could you could theoretically schedule them at some point I I I don't know if Florida Tech is FCS um let me check on that real quick but um but I know that you wouldn't it be fun to see uh Florida Florida Tech is D2 by Florida Tech is yeah I wouldn't use fun I mean some would I mean I'm not fun play football why not no because well first of all it's an FCS game I don't like I don't enjoy FCS games to begin with so enjoy Maine so at the very least have the you could have the Intrigue of playing you know I mean come on we're both oldtimers we remember days when they when they rather Play i' Rather play on the road to be honest I mean I rather just play who on the road anybody that division one yeah literally like I hate FCS now again I understand why it is and it is what it is and that's cool it's not like UC it's this is not a UCF thing this is a whole are not alone I mean every a lot of I mean I would I mean you could probably I would say about 80 90% of the college football plays at FCS opponent so um you know it is what it is um so it's a part of it and from UCF standpoint it gives them an you know they got an extra home game and it was one of those situations where the Texas game got moved so you got to fill it up and a lot of schedules are as you mentioned done in advance so a lot of times FCS is the only route to go so a little bit more ammo for my argument by the way that you know if you did neighboring states in state or neighboring state only that would open up the following teams bethon cookman Florida A&M Jacksonville Stetson Kennesaw State Mercer Savannah State uh Alabama A&M Alabama State Jacksonville State and Samford so I mean I like I'm fine with the idea but I'll never use fun as a as a word to describe a game against an FCS opponent I will never okay well let me rephrase slightly more fun than the alternative I don't even know I'm going that route here come on come on I I would I would love to see us play STS in in football it's just you you and your you yourself you and yourself enjoy all right so so all right let's put it B on so again um the opener August 31st Thursday night 6 pm on CBS Sports Network but don't even bother paying attention that just go to the game it's at Spectrum Spectrum Stadium don't forget FIU um and their head coach Butch Davis um in his and that would be his debut uh with uh FIU longtime Miami coach and um Bo that should be it should be at least interesting to see uh what happens there of course UCF kicked the tar out of FIU uh last year all right moving on to a couple of um other things I wanted to talk about um Donald dad ucf's uh kickoff specialist who it's no surprise to anybody in case you haven't missed it um Donald has a YouTube channel and on this YouTube channel he does all kinds of cool stuff he does some like trick shots you know with Place kicking some of the things he does with the football are just unbelievable um and he talks about you know some of his training and stuff like that so you know so he has this YouTube channel he's become very good I mean you know I mean I'm a video production guy initially and is pretty well well produced so UCF has he's put he's done uh this is according to uh dead spin he's got 54,000 subscribers and two million page views um you know he's uh only it says here only a few directly address the status as a UCF kicker which naturally here it comes um ucf's compliance office went to Donald and said Hey listen love the YouTube channel and stuff but you're going to have to stop because and because Donald has um a number of um he's got you such good subscriber numbers um he is able to you know YouTube which is owned by Google is able to put ads on some of those videos and so Donald was um you know making a just a little bit I mean it's it's basically they don't pay you that much I mean it's basically Pocket Change he was sending it back home to his Folk um in Costa Rica so basically NCAA you know or via UCF you know put their foot down and said look either you give up the YouTube channel or you stop playing for us well it's not UC hold on UC it's not it's not UCF this is the NC to yeah to be clear you're absolutely right it's the NCAA saying this but UCF has to has to kind of be the bad guy and well they right they got to protect their own interest especially the past Discretions with during the Keith Tribble era so of course they got to play this on the conservative side absolutely I mean I would do the exact same thing uh look I think this is silly um the kid obviously created a YouTube page I don't even think he ever thought it would be this big to the point where you would be making money it's unfortunate because you know booster could probably you know could pay for the team to go up to Italy Ro or Rome but you know hey if you're making money YouTube oh right God forbid um my thing is my solution to this would be well and I don't know what's taking place why not let him still do the YouTube page but he can't use any of the UCF Athletics you know football helmets he can't use UCF stuff right you know what I mean because isn't that the heart of like if this just if he's just a regular student then nobody would care and and the funny thing is by this getting more attention he's actually increased his YouTube page um dead spin you picked up on it a couple of national Outlets picked up on it because you know because everyone likes to beat up on the NCAA um you know primarily and you know for Fairly good reason right but I feel like The Simple Solution is okay keep doing the YouTube page but uh don't use or reference UCF you know because uh and then look I mean because if you're really that creative and that talented then the the football shouldn't be another side of it now some would argue well wait a minute that's kind of the Intrigue and all that I don't know if that's intriguing but uh I feel like that would be a fair comp compromis for parties which is probably why it won't happen because usually the NCAA doesn't believe in interest in compromises stuff like that so uh look I mean the kids's going to fight for it and I think that's cool uh but you know we'll see what happens with it um if the NCAA says no he's not eligible then he's not eligible that's the way it goes well on his YouTube channel uh he did say that he's going to um maybe it's time for someone to actually try to fight back he says um and you know it's he said it's about time for things to be changed I I you know I I think I think he's in a no- win situation here unfortunately because the ncaa's rules about what they consider to be amateurism are Preposterous because you know like I said you know basically Donald deah is an entrepreneur right and this is what col is for is for teaching kids how to you know is for teaching kids how to have a career and if college is a laboratory for doing this you know Donald Del has a skill and he's trying to Market that skill that's what you're taught to do and the NCAA is basically putting the kabash on that you know and taking away from what I believe his from what I believe are his educational opportunities which runs counter to the mission of the NCAA now if the NCAA CH decided to change their rules regarding amateurism to something more like the Olympic model where you can you know maintain sponsorships you can do these sorts of things it's just you can't you know directly you can't do some those sorts of like direct sponsorships um I think that would be um acceptable but um yeah it's just it's a real bummer by the way since this news broke he's bumped up over three million views on his YouTube channel there go so um you know it's uh it's tough I I mean I hope for the sake of him in his career I first of all we know he's really talented he might be in line to be ucf's place you know to be more than just a kickoff specialist in uh in the next couple years and and he and he had this presence on YouTube by the way long before he was at UCF right on High School too so and this was coincidental stuff I mean that's the thing it's not like hey I worked for a booster in a car dealership and I got side money on the side type of stuff and the this was a very innocent thing but the NCAA always you know I'm very skeptical on that and so it is what it is I mean what are you gonna do yeah so he's gonna so he's going to appeal we'll be following this one I hope that um that the NCAA starts to see clearly on this one but I just but of course just like you I'm sure I have absolutely zero faith that the NCAA will make the correct decision here so all right so um before we go to break and uh don't forget we have Brian Murphy coming up next to talk about um baseball um little uh some sad news of course that we wanted to pass along um from some folks that we know pretty well in the UCF family so um many of you out there should know the name Tony Deo and Tony Deo was the head coach of uh the U uh the uh USA Women's soccer team from 1994 to 1999 um Tony passed away just recently um uh at the age of 68 and this is a this is a tough blow to the UCF family uh for this reason Michelle akres first of all um star for the USA Women's National team as it was getting started as it was gaining traction and building through the Dio years leading up to the 99 World Cup uh played for Tony Deo so did Amanda Cromwell who coached at UCF um in the women's soccer program for a decade as did ucf's current head coach Tiffany Roberts haak so a a truly you know I think of the World of Sports and those of us who know women's soccer Eric you and I have have both covered UCF women's soccer um for some time and we both know coach Cromwell we both know um uh coach zahak uh and you know it's it's it's really shocking news and sad news for them because you know we know how much I don't think that people fully understand how much um uh Tony Deo meant to the growth of the game of women's soccer in the United States and how instrumental he was in building uh the USA Women's soccer into a power through people like Michelle Lakers and Amanda Cromwell and Tiffany Roberts the Hax so um so you know our uh thoughts and prayers go out to the Deo family and of course um you know Michelle and uh Tiffany and Amanda uh on the loss of Tony what do you remember most about Tony Eric well I think the one that REM reminds everybody was the uh 1999 Women's World Cup when the United States beat China and uh right I mean that was kind of really the big boom right there the big turning point for the women's soccer game as a whole the funny thing about Tony and I don't know if people might remember this or not uh but when you UCF women's soccer won the American Conference CH tournament Championship they hosted it uh the first year which was 2013 that was the fall I believe and they beat Ruckers in the championship game the game was on esba you and Tony was I one of the analysts was the analyst that's right and I remember that that was the day and I remember that day because I did I was there for that match and it was dramatic towards the end and then from there I went to uh the citus bowl because the US Women's National team was playing uh Brazil in a friendly so that was a huge day of women's soccer in this area and you know coming up this fall you've got the college cups going to at the Orlando City soccer stadium in November so uh this has been a great Community for women's soccer and and Tony's a big part of and you just highlighted it you know with Michelle akres was part of that 99 championship team played under him mandic Cromwell played under him uh and so did sahak so there's a lot of ties towards UCF from that state point in the tra tradition of women's soccer so uh yeah it's not a tough day for the sport I mean he was definitely a legend I would say him and Coach dorence right the coach at North Carolina are probably two of the most famous coaches in women's soccer uh if you kind of you know if you did a a short list about the people that people know and I you know no question about that yeah so I mean the one thing that I wanted to you know I did want to pass that along and you know to those of you who you know maybe you don't follow women's soccer all that closely but you know here at UCF you should because if uh um if it's not for Tony Doo I don't think UCF women's soccer is where it is right now um and you can draw a straight line back from Tiffany from Tiffany Roberts haak and Amanda Cromwell uh straight back to Tony daso and Michelle akres and um and again you know thoughts and prayers go out to the USA Women's soccer family and to uh and to Tony's family as well who uh by the way his son was actually um uh was actually on Amanda crom's coaching staff at UCLA briefly so um so and you know again our you know thoughts uh and and well wishes go out to everyone involved so all right so um listen let's uh take a quick break and we get and when we get back we will have Brian Murphy on to talk uh UCF baseball kind of wrap up the season from his perspective uh and also talk about um you know UCF and the baseball in the MLB draft uh and open up the cupboard and see what's left for UCF baseball uh heading into uh the 2017 2018 uh season so stick around we'll be right back this is the black and gold banneret podcast hello night Nation I'm Andrew Figley and I'm Trace trco um uh um where are we this isn't our usual spot it looks like we've landed in the black and gold banneret podcast oh yeah i' I've heard of those guys you know Nightline has UCF Sports covered week in and week out we bring you interviews with newsmakers and in depth analysis of UCF Sports subscribe to our weekly podcast on iTunes SoundCloud Stitcher or wherever you get your podcast be sure to subscribe to Nightline on YouTube like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at UCF Nightline Trace can we go back to the 1148 Studios now and start working on our next all new Nightline how do we get out of here go nights charge on now back to you guys in the black and gold bannered podcast and welcome back Jeff Sharon Eric Lopez with you here on the black and gold banneret podcast don't forget to follow us at black and gold banner.com uh and don't forget to vote in our uh 2017 banny's Awards just look for show number 50 uh we're going to have that pinned on our Facebook page uh as well and I've been trying to tweet it out throughout the week make sure if you haven't voted yet make sure you do uh follow us on Twitter at UCF banneret follow me at Jeff Sharon and follow Eric at Eric Lopez ELO hit us up on Facebook uh as well just look up black and gold banneret uh all right let's talk a little baseball and uh I know we've been I know it's been a little while but we do have some news to talk about with our baseball Guy Brian Murphy spokes Murphy on Twitter uh who's been so good for us this entire year covering UCF baseball uh wanted to put a bow on the baseball season here uh and also talk about what happened with the draft and a couple other little tidbits as well that I think you'll find interesting uh regarding some teams uh elsewhere in the conference so without further Ado here's here's our interview with Brian Murphy all right and joining us now is our resident baseball writer for black and gold banner.com all around whiz kid and knower of all things Brian Murphy what's up Brian how are you hello Jeffrey I I did not pay you to say that the The Listener should know uh that I am that you are not in my pocket and I feel very uh uh very honored to have such an introduction a lofty introduction I can only hope to to fulfill that sort of promise you now made to listeners it is merely an understatement welcome aboard once again so I'm listen I I I wanted to have you on because we didn't have you on like right after baseball season finished and you got a couple good you got you got a couple uh good pieces up on Black and Gold panet.com kind of you know wrapping up the season here and and uh and we're going to talk about that we're going to talk about UCF baseball in the draft and um and a couple of other things but I I guess my first thing is for you you know now that we've had time to digest the end of the season you know it was kind of a bitter I would say a rather you know Bittersweet end to what was a pretty terrific season you know 40 wins no one thought that would happen regular season title and all that um what was your impression of how things kind of played out with the way the American Conference tournament ended and the way and you know two and out in Tallahassee kind of a disappointing end but is that what is that what you felt is that what the players felt felt about it or did they kind of have better a little bit more perspective on it well coming out of the of the conference tournament it was okay right because like you know if you think about it you know maybe if they had won the if they had won the tournament uh you know they would maybe gotten a little maybe a slightly different bracket would they would they faced Florida instead Florida State who knows um but coming out of there you they knew that they had something to look forward to they knew that they were going to play more baseball so yeah I think they were disappointed but it wasn't like again it wasn't the end of the world uh and being there on selection day uh that Monday and they were very ecstatic and and ready to go up Tallahassee um and I remember you know talking to coach love lady and talking to uh Luke Hamlin the senior outfielder talking about how you know we'll never forget this a goal we've always dreamed of and that's great what they probably should forget are those two games in tah hasy because like not to Sugar Kota that was that was two really rough games it was a quick exit and it wasn't necessarily a pretty exit I will say that there are two things I guess if you want to like put some lipstick on it um Robbie how in his final start as a KN uh gave a tremendous e effort against uh Auburn uh in in the first game of uh ucf's NCAA tournament he got the loss but he pitched I think like 120 pitches something like that um he had some bad defense behind him too which didn't help but he really gave a gutsy gutsy effort to close out his career and then on the next day uh Jason bar I believe struck out all struck out six guys in two innings uh to sort of end his career too since he got drafted we'll talk about that the minute but uh those are the two things that kind of if you want like has that has something that like you wanted to look back on from that tournament you could do those two things otherwise it was ugly it was quick it was pretty forget and the best thing for those kids to do who are either graduating or coming back is to think about all the good times that they had from February through April uh and into May and then it's like yeah well we got tasse something happened we don't remember whatever but but Brian don't you think that kind of exposed that really this team may be overachieved that I I feel like coach love lady and I and I said this in the last podcast that to me Greg love lady is the UCF coach of the year because I think he maximized the most out of this roster this is not an offense that really scared anybody and all of a sudden you go into a regional you know Auburn throws a guy that's I think is going to end up getting drafted and it's going to be a could be a guy that could be maybe flirting with the big leagues and then because Florida state was upset in the opening game that night by Tennessee Tech now they're going to throw Tyler Holton their ace against you and I I just think this was a story where the offense finally caught up with UCF and at the end of the day that's kind of all things considered if if I would have told you in January hey you'd be going to Tallahassee and uh making an NCAA tournament for the first time in five years I still think we take it absolutely I think anybody in US position would I mean new new coach first year coming off of of an awful 2016 where where you like at the end of the last season you had the feeling like well there's going to be a new change there's going to be a change here before before for next season than there was so yeah everything about that was great getting there was fantastic and no one really expected it but you're right ELO I mean this team had some strength uh and although the conference St could really bear it out their offense wasn't great it wasn't like I said there was nothing to really fear in this offense there were players that were good uh with with Luke Hamlin and Ryland Thomas and Ian putam but this was not a a juggernaut offense and when you run into pitchers like that that Auburn threw up there and and Florida State Ace like it it didn't it wasn't really surprisingly they were a little overwhelmed um because that was the one area of this team um that you know never I I think never they were never fully satisfied I think Lov he was never really satisfied with the offense this year they did some good things but he always said that you know he's looking to be better and that wasn't just coach speed I think he really thought this team could be better maybe he was too optimistic uh offensively but yeah the offense was not uh built to beat those kind of quality pitchers well if it wasn't built now boy there's some rebuilding that has to be done now because when you look at uh UCF in the JB I mean obviously we've talked before about the guys who um you know who who you're losing out of your uh senior class um you know just to you know just quickly to run down some of those names for example um you know uh Trent Thompson's going to be gone you know I'm just going up down the roster Drew fck um Eli putam who you mentioned earlier Juan pimel brandan Boseman Austin Griffin who didn't really have a great year but still a guy in the lineup who was there you know Ryan cryle Luke Camlin Brooks Morgan cam gellinger those are the seniors that you lose and then in the draft and uh you hat tip to Brandon Hellwig because he was following the nmlp draft as closely as everybody else was you lose um had a couple guys get drafted Jason Bar got picked in the fifth round uh by the San Francisco Giants which what a story for him right I mean that's fantastic Robbie how as expected uh was drafted in the 10th round by the Cincinnati Reds um Jordan chefs the reliever um selected by the Cleveland Indians uh and then and then a few SES Jordan Spicer who was a pulk state college uh uh pitcher who was picked by the twins he was supposed to transfer to UCF Christopher Cy who was uh who was also a commit to UCF from West Orange High School um he went 29th overall in the draft to the Texas Rangers so he got taken pretty uh uh pretty high and then in the fourth round the Rangers also picked um a a right-handed pitcher by the name of Ryan de who is also a UCF um baseball uh commit so I guess my question is what's left heading into 28 do you want the good news or the bad news I've always been the kind of guy who wants to start with the give me the bad news first and then let's end on a good not so what's the bad news first the bad news is we just talked about H this offense really wasn't consistently impressive this year and now they've got some e like a lot like if there's one is the one issue on this team it's the offense I mean you have Ryland Thomas who again freshman of fr freshman of the Year freshman hitter of the year in the conference uh very good they have two decent catchers in uh Anthony George uh and second catcher off to look on the roster name's blanking on me right now umer and Matthew yeah Logan Heiser correct and Anthony George so catcher is set you've got you've got Ryland Thomas at first base and Matthew Mah who can play in you know around the infield I I wouldn't be surprised if they they Tried Him in the Outfield in The Corner Spot somewhere outside of those three guys there's really nothing in this offense that's proven and losing Hamlin and putam is huge not only because they were your leading hitters they were like at the top of the lineup there so basically you have to rebuild the entire top of the lineup uh and outside of your cleanup hitter and Micah and the catcher spot I'm not really sure what this offense is going to look like next year that's going to be the major overhaul of this team um and you know again it's just worrisome because if the offense wasn't up to up to love lady standard this year uh next year I think it's going to be a real a real grind and you're gonna have a lot of permut lineup permutations early on I believe and that's going to take a long time to see which combination works best yeah it feels like if they get off to a slow start it's like you know people are going to be critical and I don't think that's fair because I mean look at the munition that they just lost you know you know I don't know and then on top of that you know we talked about the pitching that they've just lost too um yeah you know I mean they Lo they basically lost they basically lost their the top of the lineup and the entire left side of their infield because cam gellinger uh although he had some hard times at third base uh was an everyday player uh and Brennan Boseman who got hurt early on but came back was a real solidifying Force up the middle when this team needed some good defense and he provided it so your entire left side of your infield your entire top of the lineup a couple outfielders all gone uh and it's it's just there were seniors I mean you knew this team jeffre you knew too had a lot of seniors coming in and a lot of those seniors were were impactful players uh on the offense and now they need to fill a lot of H well the good thing is there I Chris Williams is supposed to be coming back on the hill as is Joe Sheridan we know how good Joe was this year uh pel's gone I think Bryce Tucker um is he a senior I I I forget exactly price T no he was only a sophomore oh that's right okay he's coming back so at least you have that coming back man this pitching staff also got decimated they're probably going to have to call upon when you think about it they're probably going to have to call upon Ryland Thomas to do a lot more pitching next year well I know I mean we're forgetting guys I mean don't forget cre frro missed the entire year true so they hopefully get him back and I think they look I mean this is college baseball in a nutshell I mean you're going to have constant turnover and murf I think the positive is look let's see what love lady brings in right there's a reason why we have a new Greg love lady here now this is where the job really begins he's got to recruit he's gonna he's gonna depend on some young guys I know they they're excited about a kid that's going to play shortstop for them next year and it's just a matter of can the pitching carry them again and until the offense kind of you know sorts itself out where no question they're going to have to have some of the newcomers uh are going to have to win jobs and step up right away yeah and I think you know again again that might lead to some some rough Beginnings as you guys said and then there's going to be there's going to need to be a sort of an incubation period for this offense because it's going to take a while but yeah leading into the pitching so maybe they maybe they maybe Joe Sheridan can't be as good as he was was uh or or Chris Williams won't be as good as he was to end this season if you take away you know really that that start against Florida State and just look at like his last five or six out like four or five outings he was really really good so I think at least if you the bright spot is on the mount uh Sheridan and Williams look like I think locks for the weekend rotation Sheridan might find his way into Friday depending on how friend frck comes back uh so with if if he comes back well and healthy uh that that's actually not a bad looking rotation if the guys like Williams and shered and keep it going then in the the bullpen uh you talked about bar got drafted and chess got drafted so there's going to need to be some some some rebuilding there but Bryce Tucker was for 90% of the Season uh very very good uh he was a closer and dominating at that uh Thad Ward to is also a nice piece to have um you know in Middle relief he was extremely good so uh at least I think again the good news is the on the pitching side of this team uh not only is the the cupboard we know what they we kind of know what they have cupboards not empty and there's reason to be optimistic it's not as much of a mystery as the offense well I here's hoping that you're right about that because I know that you know I I thought that you know we Eric and I both thought that you know one of the things that really helped out Greg love lady in his first year was that he had that that Core group of seniors that bought in with him really early and I and I guess we'll end on this note you know we saw love lady how emotional he was after the last game when they lost to Florida State and um you know I have not I can't recall the last time I mean I am sure I I'm sure I'm blanking on something but I can't recall the last time that I saw um a UCF coach you know that emotional over the last time he got to play with a particular group of players and you know in in the span of one year to be that emotionally invested um you know between the players that that much of a really A Love Affair I think between the players and their coach in one year I think just speaks volumes about um about the job that Greg love lady did um do you recall ever seeing anything like that was that did you what did you think about that I was trying to think of like if if I could ever remember like Bergman ever getting to that sort of level but no and it's not like that's a fault on you know I can remember Bergman and Rooney and but the thing with with love lady is that's not uh that's not act like he is that he he he he was emotional obviously very emotional on Joe Skinner night where he could hardly keep it together didn't know we're GNA have a postgame press confence after that and then once they won the regular seon title over at U USF you know cry you know really legitim crying again about uh the the what it meant for him to move his family over the year you know from a place they had known for so long at right states to go and take this risk in Orlando he's an emotional guy it's real it's legitimate and I think uh you know people might you know have their gripes but the the fact of the matter is you your kids want to play for that because it shows how much he cares and if he cares that much the kids could should care at least at least as much just put their you know it really kind of um validates everything he says everything he coaches because he shows you how much this means to him and I think it's it's it's it's um it's not something everybody has or needs to have but for him it's fantastic because uh if nothing else and this is sort of selfish but if nothing else it really works in Rec recruiting Because it it shows you how much this means to love lady and he can pass it on to his players pretty easily well it's easy for me to say I would if I was if I was a recruit I'd run through a brick wall for a guy like that go ahead Eric yeah well murf you mentioned Rooney Le let's talk about the story that's come out this week Terry Rooney will be seeing him again he's now the pitching coach assistant at Houston which is phenomenal storyline on many levels number one anybody that's followed this program knows that houst with Rooney and that Houston Co coaching staff they had some run-ins in particular a couple years ago 2015 I'll never forget uh Series in UCF where UCF won the series two out of three and both teams almost uh you know they were some Choice words we'll leave it as that uh back and were flaring and to the point where we thought there could be a fight that break out and now after spent you know obviously spent the year as the pitching coach at Alabama and with Coach Goff at Alabama getting fired now Rooney's in Houston in the conference so uh that will be certainly when the whenever the schedule comes out that'll be certainly one of the storylines in 2018 now uh next year UCF will go to Houston but certainly uh fascinating your reaction to Rooney now in the conference back with Houston well you you expect him to say nothing but glowing things he's not going to be acrimonious I don't think just because he's so overly positive so it's not like he's going to stir the pot and say things he's going to get the fan base riled up but at least having him on the other in the other Dugout uh you know hopefully it's it's you know in the home series uh the fans will not forget certainly uh so yeah it'll be it'll be fun you know we'll talk about it we'll cover it does it I mean will it mean a lot for the actual game probably not but it's it's it's a great thing to talk about it's a storyline it's drama he's coming back to this to this school where he had so much hope and optimism and it didn't pan out the way he wanted and uh now he's on his way back and uh now he's you know kind of in a way trying to beat you but he won't stir the pot uh I don't believe and you know but it'll be fun it'll be fun I agree and I will say ELO uh because I haven't been following that closely that that was news to me so you broke that to me right now I appreciate that very much I well I I I I I see I saw it break um earlier like like this afternoon I was like huh that's kind of interesting so so I know Brian that you'd said that um you know hey I I don't know that you know he's not going to stir the pot we know that Rooney is not going to stir the pot externally but internally behind closed doors there's some pots going to be stirred okay when those right right right the thing is the thing is too now that series next year is in Houston and a lot of the players as you mentioned murf we've talked about have moved on so by the time you you know next year I mean there's going be a lot of new faces now some of them Rooney probably is recruited who knows uh but a lot of the Old Guard players won't be there but still obviously the fans in two years whenever Houston comes back to UCF and if Rooney's still there then that'll certainly be interesting uh kind of like it was when Cliff Godwin took over at East Carolina and faced Terry Rooney I mean that was fascinating it's interesting we got UCF ties man all over this conference with Coach God at East Carolina and Coach Palumbo I mean that's is great right I mean we're we're just the wealth it's too it's too bad that cam gellinger has graduated because he was the one I was just thinking that man he when he called it fake hustle uh that fake fake effort like man and Cam's a great talker he's wearing a chains he's got the big you know the big beard and he's he's a great dude and I would I would absolutely love to have him back for a year just for that series I mean give him literally three more days of Eligibility I I would love to just yeah I would love to see him like back maybe in the stands see what happens there that's cool stuff right all right well Hey listen can't thank you enough for the great work you did on covering UCF baseball for us this uh this entire year uh as we head toward the summer what are you going to be working on uh as we head into the summer and then uh into the fall here not just for us but for uh for every anywhere else where people can catch you uh I'm I do a lot of of fantasy stuff I mean when I'm I mean my passion is covering real games like this college and pro but my job right now is a lot of fantasy uh you can hit me up on Twitter at spokes Murphy and you can ask me Fantasy Baseball fantasy football questions is what I do but really you know I'm looking forward to football in the fall because college football there's nothing like it unless you go 0 and 11 which you C if kind of knows we've been we've been there before here's the hoping that doesn't happen again all right fantasy football got it thanks I'm going to need your help this year to beat Eric in our league all right Brian Murphy from from our excuse me our baseball riter for black and gold Banner at.com Brian thank you once again uh stay in touch over the summer and uh we'll be hollering at you again soon all right man all right thanks boys and thanks again to Brian for joining us again catch him at spokes uncore uh Murphy uh where he can C where he can uh catch you up on everything having to do with not just UCF baseball but everything around the world World of Sports as well so uh and I will be enlisting his help Eric in order to beat you this fantasy football season beautiful good luck you can use all the help you can get I really could so uh by the way it's like I said it's June it's late June so we're looking at two more months until Fantasy Football Draft time already that's right brother oh man ticking this is uh this is getting real quick right now so all right so once again just a reminder to you make sure you vote for the Banes our 2017 uh black and gold Banner at postseason award show uh make sure you log on to our previous show actually show number 50 um to get to the uh voting surveys that we have up there uh via Survey Monkey uh we have them up there as well uh thanks to everyone who's already voted if you haven't voted make sure you do it uh right away we will have our award show um next week early next week I'm thinking we're going to close the polls on Sunday night Eric and uh and finish this thing off and and our next show is going to be the awards now throughout the summer like we've said we're going to have some interviews with some UCF newsmakers here and there we're going to kind of throttle back our production a little bit because it's um you know not going to be um obviously it's not so busy if something crazy happens you can expect you know one of those emergency podcasts like we've had earlier this year that we'll be doing but you know keep an eye out we're we're reaching out to some folks who might want to interview and I think we hopefully we'll get a couple of really good bites here and there so uh what else you got coming up Eric not much just getting laying low it's summertime and just kind of f figuring it all out obviously I got my own podcast for you softball listeners out there uh yeah this is good this is good news too in the the in the circle podcast tell us about your news with that yeah in the circle now on Fastpitch news on Fastpitch news.com you can listen to it it's a p two podcasts a week week and we break down the latest news in softball in college pro softball and uh we interview a lot of coaches and players from the C from across the country and uh you can listen to it on the many same platforms that you can listen to this podcast as well so uh that'll also keep me occupied I Mr podcast man I just I'm just gonna pop in in every podcast I can get all a sudden all the sudden you're a media Mogul man you're you got podcasts all over the place between this one and that one um and Victor is on there too our our buddy vict correct too right yeah he produces that one and uh yeah so I mean it's if you're a softball fan and I know some of you are uh know my work there from doing UCF softball which you know we'll still do that from time to time as well but uh this is more of a national softball really a unique thing and uh so excited to be the partnership with the fast best news and uh cover the whole sport so uh that's kind of the fun thing you know it's kind of like what's unique about this right it's just us and Nightline UCF podcast and I only one doing the softball podcast well I know that you and Victor you know it should be no surprise to anyone here who know know you guys as well as I do we've known each other for a long time that you guys are as plugged into the softball world as anyone uh that's out there so uh congratulations on that on getting on getting that big platform that's awesome dude appreciate it man looking forward to it uh so yeah that'll be my summer basically uh we do this podcast and we'll do obviously softball podcast but uh you we'll make it work it's fun and it's easy and then uh it's the way of the future that's right man hey specific content that people actually really like you know and listen and and that goes right to a specific audience you know that's why we do this so it should be fun all right Eric so uh make sure you listen to him again in the circle uh and Eric people can follow you where on Twitter once again Eric Lopez ELO you can follow me at Jeff Sharon you can follow us uh at black or excuse me at UCF banneret special thanks to Brian Murphy our guest from earlier you can follow him at spok Murphy on Twitter as well don't forget you can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes Google play SoundCloud and tune in radio and make sure also uh that you leave us a rating on iTunes let us know how we're doing uh and also reach out to us at black and gold banner.com or on our Facebook page to search up black and gold banneret so for Eric Lopez I'm Jeff Sharon thank you so much for listening don't forget to vote for the Banes 2017 on black and gold banner.com our final award show will be happening next week thank you so much for listening good night and go [Music] nights today's episode is brought to you by cars.com with over 2 million vehicles and 50,000 more added every day car cars.com will match you with the perfect car for you your budget your life your style and if you're ready to say goodbye to your current car cars.com will get you an instant offer to cash it in just start by entering your 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