Tony Caridi and George Von Benko | Sports Talk w/ Steve Jones, Ep. 291

with that we bring in one of the best in the business the play-by-play voice of West Virginia football and basketball Tony Ked my friend welcome great to have you back hi Steve how are you buddy doing great long time no talk was it Friday yeah we got you on this past week to to get your Insight toh what's going on as we get ready to uh to do this thing huh ready to go again yeah so let's talk about the general atmosphere surrounding this game is a leadup um pit obviously the Backyard Brawl is very special is there anything in the Big 12 that approaches in the fans Minds anything of a Backyard Brawl or a pen State being there no not really Steve um I'm just trying to think out loud nothing really has taken and I it's a good question I think sometimes in order to develop a rivalry as weird as this sounds like something out of character has to happen I.E um a bad call or hey this team was given a fifth down and you lost a game or a fight or something weird right and I think that's what builds those kinds of situations and certainly the backyard wew for West Virginia and pit has had a Litany of those types of things which increase the intensity of it um so no I I I think that this game it's uniqueness is that the last time Penn State was here was 92 which is a long time ago obviously and I think that since the two teams played so many times um 60 meetings over the course of of the many years that you know it's a game that builds excitement then you just throw in the mere fact that it's a season opener and everyone is you know amped up for a season opener and West Virginia's coming off a nine win season so I think that kind of Paints the picture to to where we're going this week Garett green um is a player that plays with a lot of guts he's very talented but he's also got a lot of guts where has he improved in your eyes I think it's a good question I think when we went up there last year Steve really the first true Road start for him and to go into that atmosphere you know there's a lot going on obviously and I think where he has improved is being judicious with the ball if you take a look he only threw four interceptions in all of last season he's really a statistical anomaly if you take a look at it he had higher success throwing the Deep ball than he did the short range and the mid range pass a year ago and really throws a beautiful deep ball and so I think going into this season he's much more confident in the short pass game the intermediate passing game and then to add to that uh I think he just feels uh really good about what he can do do using his legs he's a he's a topend speed guy and can get out of the pocket he can extend drives that's really something that WVU did not have um in Neil Brown's first four seasons we did not have a quarterback that could make plays with his legs and that is problematic in today's football and so he gives them that ability to uh to make a play when a play isn't there and I I think that he'll go into this season feeling better about his arm and knowing that when he needs to go he can go and make a play the running game uh the number of times in the offseason that jackam and I have talked about CJ Donaldson is more than I think you'd realize so The Donaldson component but then add in what Jem white did in the last half of last season that gave West Virginia a different Dynamic so that's a great point because a year ago Jem was not ready to play in this game they just didn't trust him enough and as a result of that he didn't get a single carry and so it was on CJ Donaldson so real quick story just for for Penn State fans that don't follow obviously on a week- toe basis as far as what goes on here so Donaldson converts from a tight end to a running back as a true freshman and has a really really big Time season and so everyone had high expectations for him last year and he had a shoulder which nagged him the entire season it could have been operated on in the summer of his freshman year but he had already broken his leg so he didn't want to have two surgeries so he nurses that thing so he was okay but by his own admittance um it was a disappointing year for him uh Here Comes Jem white you know about four games into the season and he explodes and he starts doing the things where the coaches can trust him to play and he ended the season um just really super red HP so that gives you going into this year now a really unique combination you've got a small built running back and Jim White who has the ability to catch the ball out of the back field um and he's got speed to break away from people and then you add in a healthy CJ Donaldson who did have that shoulder repaired um at the end of last season he didn't play in our bowl game and he's good to go so I'm interested you know what difference does a Jem white make in this game on Saturday and what does a healthy CJ darson look like defensively there's the team does have multiple transfers and it seems like there are a group of them on defense how interested are you Tony to see how they mesh together on defense especially the transfers in the secondary super interested I think that's a whole component of the the whole season to be quite honest with you Steve um we've got a big 10 transfer and Garnett Hollis who was a corner at Northwestern and he'll start at one spot we have another Corner who's going to start by the name of Aiden Garnes who we played against yet last year when he was at duaine and in fact he had a pick uh in our game against Duane which made West Virginia coaches a kind of raise an eyebrow but he became a heavily sought after Corner when he put his name into the portal and he's interesting and and so they feel and this is kind of wild neither of those two have started yet at WVU but Neil has said uh that he's better at corner now than he was a year ago but it's also a concern uh same situation at safety uh you've got you've got some new bodies out there and you're hoping that they mesh you know you go back this past weekend and you take a look at Florida State and Georgia Tech yeah and Florida State had a bunch of really super talented players but they weren't jelled yet because they came in from different places and as a result of that you know sometimes the it and a consistency um can beat the talent and I think overall West Virginia especially offensively returns intact there's a couple sprinkles of salt that they've added in transfers uh but defensively the line solid good returning guys linebackers guys who have taken a lot of snaps but that back half of that defense those safeties and the corners if you're a mountaineer fan you've got a hope but you don't know exactly what it's going to look like right now yeah it's not as if I mean Penn States faced Jahim Joseph before they faced Hollis before conversely let's get into this interesting Dynamic if there's any offensive coordinator you're going to go up against that knows West Virginia it's going to be Andy Colton Nikki conversely if there's any team that you're going to play in the opener that knows Andy Colton Nikki it's West Virginia because of the Big 12 what are your thoughts on that Dynamic add another layer to that one go back to colon Nikki at Buffalo yeah no he talked to me about this him when he was at Troy in a bowl game and Neil during his press conference this afternoon said I called my agents when we had played those guys and he said hey you need to take a look at this guy at Buffalo because he runs really good stuff and you know Steve in coaching circles whether it's football or basketball when you say hey that guy runs really good stuff like that's the ultimate tip of the cap of respect from one coach to another so they're familiar with them I mean they've they've broken down in fact Neil today during his press conference talked about how colon Nikki has had past quarterbacks that bodywise and arm strengthwise were similar uh to Drew Aller and so they've gone all the way back and they're looking at that and that's that's part of the deal and that's one of the areas that you know everyone I think is interested Penn State fans are interested to see what their new coordinators um change and do this season and then obviously West Virginia is also you know intimately wondering out loud uh what their presence will do um you know in Saturday's game Neil Brown you brought up his name a year ago coming into the Penn State game some people were wondering if West Virginia didn't have the season they had hoped for that it would be trouble they ended up going N9 and four and the Houston game had to be R in for you to call the end of that uh I'm still in shock over that one uh Neil Brown survives all this what has allowed Neil Brown to be a Survivor well several things um I think one he's truly a good person and I think that everyone around him that deals with him realized that two I think the roster that he inherited from the previous staff was as low on Talent as I've ever seen and I've been here this will be my 41st season and each coach from Don Neen to Rich Rodriguez to Bill Stewart to Dana hogerson each inherited a minimum of eight players on the roster that they inherited that went on to play in the NFL Neil Brown inherited one and we just were out of players the talent wasn't there throw in Co throw in the Genesis of the transfer portal in nil and it took longer than anticipated and expected to get into this new world and I think for the very first time in his six seasons now that you go in to every single Saturday this season and you will be a competitive football team you you've refilled the cover with the Personnel that you need that every Saturday you'll compete now that doesn't necessarily translate to every Saturday you're going to win but we've been playing with one arm behind our back here for about the last four and half Seasons it really wasn't until the second part of last year where we got back to where we needed to be and so I think those are the reasons why if you were just looking at it not without your without your heart but just looking at it you know as to what this dude is about and what he was able to do you say keep them going so I was absolutely thrilled the season that they had because as you indicated if if it didn't go well if that thing was about six wins last year uh he probably isn't here right for you Penn State fans haven't been to Mountaineer field since 1992 you get the best seat in the house every week to you what makes that place special I think there is an inherent passion for this team that is different than in most places and I say that in this regard firstly we're a really small state 1.8 million people people and there are 55 counties in West Virginia and every every County in some way shape or form has a commitment to WVU whether they went to school here their family went to school here whatever it might be the fact that there are no professional teams in this state makes this the professional team and so the the es and the flows the highs and the lows truly are felt by the entire State um in our Sports in football and basketball and and really in all sports and so that's what makes it different so when those people come in when mountaine nation comes into the stadium like they're we the cliches you know you're the 12th man you're the 12th person yeah like they truly they truly do believe like I got to do something here I got to make I got to make a difference in this game and I think that when that scenario is put in front of them they do do their part and I think it'll be on full display on Saturday you know the perfect world would have been we play this thing at 7:30 um and then you know it would have been even more electric under under Darkness but I don't think there's any question that this thing even though it's a noon start it will be extremely intense and extremely emotional really from pregame warm-ups and so I think it's it's a classic you know kind of what you hope for in college football you know and going back to being around West Virginia myself in the80s it was it was always a thought process not in football but this was more of a basketball thing can't be in the Atlantic 10wn we got to be in the Metro can't you know or if we're not Atlantic 10 I mean you know what I'm mean I'm not speaking out a turn here I mean I think my quotes are pretty close as you know um now the landing spot was the big 12 probably maybe the ideal Landing spots the ACC but that's another discussion what have the fans thought of the Big 12 as a football basketball landing spot and with Texas and Oklahoma leaving what do they think about the future of it I'll answer the second part first the future of it's really strong because they went out there and they just built their numbers to 16 and so it's hard to blow up a 16 Team league and I think that you were fragile obviously if it would have been you know if you're at if you're at 10 or 12 and you lose three or four then you're you know you're you're you're in you're in a difficult situation so from that regard they feel comfortable that they're they're in a position of okay we're strong the other aspect of it is and I've said this um you know so many times when I talk to Mountaineer fans across the state the only bad thing about this league the only bad thing is the geography that's the only bad thing as far as being in a conference with simar institutions that have similar missions a lot of state land grant institutions are in the Big 12 Conference that's who we are and so geographically why you might not think you know West Virginia and Kansas State have similarities like their fans are our fans Oklahoma State's fans Iowa State's fans uh Texas Tech fans um you can put them all together it's the same deal um but unfortunately up until Cincinnati and UCF came in last year you just can't get to the games like you used to be able to and our fans love to go to the pit game love to go to the Penn State game love to go to Ruckers love to go to Syracuse love to go to be you know it was easy that's the way that it should be right that's an entirely different story and show that we could do one day Steve about how that eastern league you know what what would have happened if pit and Penn State could have come to an accord and you know and who knows nowadays in this world but it would have been great to see had we gone off and and done that thing but regardless um it is what it is um and I think that while there isn't any great history or tradition this will be year 13 for us in this conference um it's it's a good league and it's good quality competition yeah I could do that show with you because I actually did a series with of interviews with Joe in 1981 about attempting and then the the subsequent interview the disappointment on his part it didn't happen so I I could do that show you wanted with some information behind this let me ask you this did he finger pit did he finger pit uh it was it was starting with more Syracuse really with uh J croth Boston College and I'm trying to remember Boston Sy and they were the ones that talked to pit about hey why don't you just join us in the Big E and then the Big East Dave gavit met with Joe at Bradley International Airport and to to talk about maybe Penn State getting into the Big East basketball and the no votes ended up being St John Villanova SE Hall Georgetown stunning right yeah you know Providence was the only basketball only school that voted yes but they need they couldn't have more than three no and they got four and that's what that's what kept them out and so that I mean there's it's a long story behind but he thought he had it he thought he had Maryland in it he had he thought he had the fiesta lined up as an automatic there there are a lot of things that he he had put a lot of work in trying to check each box he went along he thought he had but it was like it that wasn't so much him talking about pit he was more angry that that Syracuse and BC worked on pit to go to the Big East and open the door there than it was pit just bagging bagging it it was he was more in in the Syracuse Direction and isn't that ironic that they ultimately those two schools are the ones that blew up the Big East because they took off to go to the ACC right exactly then we're going to see what what's going to happen with Yukon Basketball sound footb that's ridiculous there's no that's a bad I'm I'm I'm praying that doesn't happen yeah I know I understand and look if you're going to join a conference you join it for the whole thing okay and the reason that yukon's not the it's Boston col College sure yeah yeah uh can't wait to see you Saturday uh we'll talk off the air for a little bit about a couple things and we'll go there CU I think I saw a request that yeah can we talk you know all I is back to the old days can I get a depth chart just a guy looking for a depth chart we'll do that Tony thanks so much I'll see you Saturday we'll talk here shortly thanks buddy take care Steve you bet Tony ked the great play-by-play voice of West Virginia football basketball new book about the Pittsburgh Steelers looking at the 2008 season in a team that gave up 223 points led by coordinator dick leau George vono Penn the book George welcome to the show Steve great to be on with you uh we're very excited about the book it was released on July the 9th and uh it is doing so well that Triumph books has already uh committed to a second printing of the book oh that's wonderful that's great uh that that's really great news so let's start with this why did you pick this topic of dick laau in the 2008 Steelers defense actually he picked us uh Dick had had this on his mind for some time because he always believed that that 2008 Steeler defense never got its just doe uh he felt uh it was one of the great defenses in NFL history and certainly the numbers back that up so he had had this on his mind for some time he had accumulated a lot of information all of the the game films from all of those games the 19 games from That season all of the the stats and uh he started to look uh at writing the book and he selected Scott Brown who was a former beat writer covering the Steelers back then and of course me toh co-author the book with him uh and um he wanted it to be completely about the 2008 defense we had to convince him a little bit that yes the bulk of the book will be about that season and that defense but we can't Overlook 59 years in the National Football League as a player and a coach Steve that will never ever happen again so we had to put some things about Dick labau and his career in the book uh he did didn't want to do it but finally acques to our demands and so there's some stuff on leau in his career with the Lions and his time when he played for the Buckey at Ohio State uh some great sidebars uh on that and of course the book about the 2008 Steelers the 19 chapters are the 19 games of that season going into the Su uh going into the final game which was the Super Bowl what did you learn about dick laau the man that you did not know before well uh he is just unbelievable in this respect I've been around football a very very long time my first year covering the Steelers was actually Chuck n's first year 1969 and in that period of being around particularly pro football and college football an awful lot I have never ever met a coach as revered by by his players as leau was it just came through uh and I just couldn't believe the way they felt about him as a coach and as a person uh right on the cover of the book there's a quote from James barrier who was his middle linebacker and the quote was unlike any coach I've ever met and that that struck me but then when you dig deeper into leau people forget Steve what a great player he was in his own right a 62 career interception which is seventh or eighth still on the all-time interception list uh and he was just a great great player in his own right uh and a lot of people don't know that and then the stories that came out of Ohio State uh the time he was at Ohio State was a great period Steve they won the National Championship in 57 and there were great football players there but he was in school with Jerry Lucas John havich Larry zigf freed Howard the baseball player was a A Center on that team Bobby Knight was on that team and Knight and he became great friends and then two other uh classmates of his that people don't didn't realize were uh Jack Nicholas and Tom weof yeah yeah know I was over at the we had the golf outing this year Ohio State I saw all that he like okay here's here's Nicholas's scorecard right underglass from the the Masters in 86 in the final round like okay very nice uh well one of the the funny stories of the sidebar is I interviewed a KN quite some time ago before he passed away and Dick remained in contact through him to the till the end even though he had uh deteriorated and had uh dementia he he called Bobby quite a bit talked to him but he told me the story about night and it sort of tracks uh Knight was always bugging leau he said take me over I want to visit with Coach Hayes he always was bugging him to take him over to visit with Coach Hayes and if you think about the two personalities it sort of makes sense doesn't it yeah to a point to a point uh sometimes you can butt heads with people um if you have two similar personality but sure I mean you also you also want to learn from people who are leaders uh that's why you'll find coaches today they'll read leadership books and it's not just leadership books uh when it comes to um uh other coaches for example you know Joe and Reed Churchill you read Harry Truman people like that I mean those are some of the books he would read leaders under crisis and how they handled it so yeah I can completely understand that James Harrison had a phenomenal year as an undrafted player he rises to the top of the defensive ladder what uh you know for dick leau James Harrison to him meant what uh it meant uh fighting for a player that he believed in because uh he was cut several times and before he had that run when he really turned into the defensive player he turned to he was very close to being cut by the Steelers again and leau fought for him uh and that's what uh and to this day Harrison still talks about that that leau believed in him and and he became the player he became the interesting part of the book too uh when you look at all the players that contributed to the book Harrison uh James Harrison and Troy palalo uh thought enough of it to write the forward for the book right which then brings us to poalo every defensive coordinator loves to have a chess piece that the opposition needs to find on every snap to Dick leau what did Troy palalo mean to him he used him like a Swiss army knife he could do so many things and you must remember Troy was drafted the year before leau came back to be the defensive coordinator and many people in Pittsburgh viewed him as a bust he had a very uh subpar rookie year didn't get an awful lot of playing time and Paul amalo says to this day that it is no surprise to him that his career took off after dick laau became the defensive coordinator and the thing that Paul amalo impressed upon me is how much he put on his shoulders every player on that defense uh had to learn learn their role Troy had to know what everybody else's role was he said not only did I have to know what I was supposed to do I had to know what everybody else was supposed to do on that defense and that's why coach leau spent so much time with me uh and I was in the film room with him and that gave him the leeway to do what he did because a lot of times Troy would freelance and leau gave him that that opportunity of course it really helped and it comes through in the book that he had uh Ryan Clark back there to cover up if there were any mistakes made when he did Gamble and see something and go to try and make could play Ryan Clark was always in the right position and uh leau always told me he says it was so funny they never I never saw them speak to each other on the field they would just give each other a look uh and and a nod or or just a a look at each other and they know what they were going to do it was almost uh like it was telepathy between the two of them well if you ever talk with the legendary Harry sinden who was the coach of the Bruins on Bobby y's famous goal where no peard trips him and he flies through the air after scoring in overtime to win the Stanley Cup Harry cind will tell you when or went to the net the first thing he as a coach looked at was not Derrik Sanderson passing it he wanted to see if Eddie Westfall went back to the point to cover up for or not being there right so that's how see coaches think that way Ryan Clark was back there to cover up for Troy poal and more often than not uh which drove the other teams crazy Paul amalu would guess right yeah well no he would see something and he would guess right and he would blow up the play or or or do something spectacular he was just a uh a great player but that defense was filled with great players uh I mean and it all started up front if you hear dick talk the defense would not have been able to do what they did had it not been for a great nose guard by the name of Casey Hampton yeah who just dumbed things up in the middle of the other team's off it took sometimes two or three players to to block Hampton Well I mean that goes back to the Patriots Vince Wolford it's the same thing right you know most great defenses are built up the middle all right it was that always dick lao's philosophy of building up the middle because it starts with Hampton then it goes to fer then it goes back to the secondary yes uh and of course uh we can't Overlook James frier who did felt never got the credit he deserved he was like another coach on the field uh frier was just a great great leader uh for that defense uh and and did so many things and then they they had the two great outside linebackers uh in Harrison and then Lamar Woodley who had come in and was actually in his rookie year that year and did so much uh but there were just so many great pieces uh to that defense and and Dick moved them around like chess pieces but uh it was a pretty special bond between he and Paul amalo uh Paul amalo as dick said he used him like a Swiss army knife what if paalo you know obviously dick laau meant a lot to his career uh but as a as a man what did Dick leau mean to Troy poalo well you hear that from so many of the players uh he taught them so much and to a man everybody I talked to from the defense you know praised what he did as a coach and how they were put in a position to succeed uh by laau but they talked about the fact that it was more than just them as players uh he cared about them as people and about their families and uh you know uh uh he was a father figure to many of the guys on that defense and it continues to this day we kicked off the book at the western Pennsylvania sports museum the Hines History Center we had a Q&A session down there on a Sunday July the 14th with Coach leau Scott Brown and I and then uh we had four players who came to participate in the Q&A session with the fans Casey Hampton Brett Keel um uh Mike Taylor and Chris hul and uh it was just a marvelous uh get together with the fans over 400 people showed up uh but one of the things that happened late in the U the uh talk we had with the fans is a lady got up and said I've heard so much about you reciting the Night Before Christmas to your players around Christmas time and she said would you give us a snippet of that and Casey looks at me and says he's just going to do a little bit right did got up and did the whole thing for btim and brought the house down the Super Bowl win over Arizona ended up being a wild Affair where the Steelers had zero control over Larry Fitzgerald sorry just a fact uh but James Harrison had the 99 yard interception return which took about four and a half minutes to return uh what does dick recollect about that play at the end into the first half Harrison saw something uh he was not supposed to be in that position but he saw something and he moved over to that position Warner didn't see him threw it right to him uh but the interesting thing about the return was leau had been on the defense that week in practice about if there is a turnover you have to turn immediately and he stressed it time and time again from a defensive player to an offensive player and lay a hat on somebody and start blocking and that was stressed in practice during the week the players remembered it in fact they got to the point where everything that was a turnover in practice they were running back all the way and and never stopping and that led to the return uh everybody uh got a hat on somebody except theay Townson who was on the other side of the the defense and then finally caught up to the play but one of the funny things is ik Taylor was yelling for James to give him the ball MH and James didn't give it and Dick wanted him to get down I was yelling at you know we had the lead we still had a three-point lead that was right at the end I didn't want anything to happen and lose the ball again I was telling James to get down and instead he was running down the field and finally I'm to the point where go go go and uh you know it turned out to be one of the greatest plays in NFL history but it was Harrison uh who actually was not in the position he was supposed to be in he saw something and moved into that position yeah it's one of the slowest plays in NFL history but yeah it's a great play uh like come on let's go he was completely out of gas when he got to the end zone well no he got to the 30 yard line his own 30 yard line I wouldn't got a sandwich came back he he when they got back he was at the other 30 all right so he just took a long the other thing is Dick uh after they gave up the pass to Fitzgerald uh which was a breakdown in the secondary and Fitzgerald scored that touchdown and the Cardinals had the lead uh the defense had been so great all year and Nick was Fring on the sidelines that we had played so well all year and we're going to have a breakdown like that and it's going to cost us the Super Bowl and the the byplay on the sidelines was the the defense had really carried them all year and rothberger looked over and said don't worry I got this yeah because when they won when they won Super Bowl 40 rothberger was um a caretaker in a lot of ways made that throw uh to San Antonio Holmes uh to to win the game and then that's where the title comes from paraphrasing Mike Tomlin looked at leau and the defense and said you guys have been great all year now is the time to rise up and stop Warner and Fitzgerald and them you have a chance to be legendary that's where the title came from right well I mean look rothberger had been a caretaker really in Super Bowl 40 um but in 43 I mean he is I mean the defense played well but rburg is the Difference Maker in the game because he made big plays when they needed it um what did the defensive guys think of the offense for the Steelers and Ro well at the beginning of the year uh the offense was very much a uh work in progress and Dick had told the defense that you've got to hold the fort until the offense catches up and that's what they did and they put up great in all the categories Dick had a a list of like 11 categories that he wanted them to uh rise to the occasion these categories they were better in each one of those categories except one and they were very close to the number that he had uh and the fact that in nine defensive categories they led the league they were second in one but he felt the defense was going to have to carry the load early until the offense caught up and eventually they got better and better as the year went on and by the time they reached the Super Bowl they were hitting on all cylinders at that point uh uh and the that's the but there was never any uh finger pointing uh that never happened with Dick and his defense there the the the de that you played as one and he made that clear to everybody we play as a team yeah well fortunately rosburg and San Antonio Holmes were there to prove that point um so where can people get this book um where the the outlets and how can they order it you can order the book online at amazon.com it is in Barnes & Nobles bookstores all around the country and many different Outlets it's being sold on the Steelers website uh where they s sell their merchandise it's being sold at the Pro Football Hall of Fame website where they sh sell their merchandise uh so there are plenty of outlets to to pick up the book uh and U as I said it's doing very very well and uh I'm just so pleased with the way it turned out you know one of the things that helps Meg's books uh too is to have some good photographs in the book and the Lions and the Steelers both gave us cart Blanc uh for photos in the book and there are some tremendous photos in the book George congratulations on this it's a tremendous project and it sounds like a fascinating read that should be on a lot of tables thank you so much thank you for having me on Steve I really appreciate it