Tracking the Cats
Wide ranging discussion of Western Carolina University athletics hosted by long time alumni and supporters, Bob Sabin & Steve White.
Tracking the Cats
Tracking the Cats - Jerry Odom - 2/10/2025
Welcome to Tracking the Cats. This is the bi weekly podcast of Everything Catamounts. Our sponsor, as always, is Stanbury Insurance, not to be confused with Cord Stansbury from the the basketball team at Western. But Kevin Stanbury at Stanbury Insurance covers all your insurance need anywhere in North Carolina and North Georgia. He's got offices in Highlands, Waynesville, and of course, the home office in Silva. I got my co host here today, Steve White, and we got a special guest on this great week following the
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:So,
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:day last week. So Steve, do you want to introduce our guest? I
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:a family connection, although it's not a very friendly one that goes back to my junior year in high school when his dad, Gerald Odom, was a
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:presentation
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:school players in the state of Florida at the time for the old Apopka High School Blue Darters.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:of
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:up with them and
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:Board
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:My first introduction to his dad was I called a play, a trap play, to hole, I'm leading through, I'm going to try to block him, he's coming full force at me, forearm shivers me right back into the tailback, and he wraps both of us up and takes us both down at the same time. So that was quite an introduction to the Odom family.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:And it's the,
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:That was, I
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:guess so.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:know,
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:59, but I've been around Catamount football coach, you know, for over 60 years, and I can't recall one of our football coach, maybe other than coach Kerwin Bell, with as much football experience as our guest today, coach Jerry Odom. played for the Florida Gators, was a team mode of coach Bell's. He was a two year starter at inside linebacker there for the Gators, played professionally for seven years. Serving as assistant coach at Florida at East Carolina head coach high school in South Georgia. Then was a coach in pro football with the old Philadelphia soul. he joined coach bell staff at Jacksonville university for six seasons. assistant head coach, defensive coordinator, then went on to Tuscaloosa College over in Tennessee, in Greenville, Tennessee, for eight seasons, where he was, had a South Atlantic Conference Championship team before joining Coach Bell and his staff last season. That's quite a tremendous resume, Bob.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Yeah, I guess so. And I'm excited to have you on board. It's been a good year and a half so far since you joined us. And I was just wondering. Okay, you had connections to Coach Bell but no apparent connections to Western. How, how did you decide to come here when you learned about the job?
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:Well, and I obviously go way back. He's a little bit older than I am. He was a senior when I was a freshman. Last year, a little about this time, maybe a little bit before he called me and just said, Hey, are you tired of being a head coach? And you know, at the time, you know, Tuscan was a great place. Outstanding people, but it was tough, you know I think I ended up, you know, like with, I was five or six games above 500, which wasn't exactly what I was looking for when I, you know, went there. But the issue is, you know, I think we had 22, 23 scholarships and then the best teams of that league have 30 to 35. And, and that's where people don't understand D two football. And when you. Really look at D2 football if you got another 10 scholarships over something. That's like having maybe 25 more players on some kind of money and You know it became hard. We I'm proud of the work we did at Tuscaloosa We were won a championship. We're in it two other times in my time there and But it was just it was tough. You know, it's a small school. You got to carry 170 kids on your roster Yeah, you had lockers for 120. yeah, you know, so it was, you know, you know, we, we built extra lockers. We did, you know, you just do a little bit of everything. And I guess it was the right time for me just because, and I don't know if I'd have done it for anybody else. But KB and I go way back. We've, you know, we know each other. you know, I knew that. Thing, you know, he was going to get things going over here the way he wanted to, and he just wanted the defense to play to the level of the offense. Now, I, I don't think we did that last year. I'm very disappointed with you know, really, if you go back and look at it, which I have over and over and over, it was the big plays this year. You know, when you, you look back at it, we were really good and sometimes, but then we gave up too many explosion plays, which in my career, I have not. been a part of that much. And we've got to be mentally tougher. We've got to do our jobs better. And hopefully the second year in the system is going to make us, you know, a little bit, you know, take that leap that I, that I want to take. I'm certainly not happy with the way we played. It's just not my kind of football.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Well, to that point, and is, we've gotten used to that over the last three or four years. The offense has just been boom, boom, boom. And, but our defense Holds tight third and long and all of a sudden we, we get hit. So I'm, we are looking forward to filling those gaps coach.
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Well, coach, we've lost several outstanding players on both sides of the ball from last season's win team both graduation and the portal. Look at it, this current recruiting campaign that's I'm sure is still ongoing. How do you feel about this group of now it's 30 plus, I think maybe 37 total signees our needs for the coming season to have you feel like y'all have done a good job of filling the gaps with what we've lost.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah, I do. I think that you know, if you look on the defense side of all, we basically lost three guys, lost corner D tackle and a, uh, and a linebacker. And I think we replaced all those guys. I mean, you look at the linebacker who brought in Jordan from Middle Tennessee State 10 game starter. Outstanding player was second leading tackler on their team. I'm really after talking their linebacker coach It didn't sound like he wanted to get rid of him. You know, I agree.
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah. Okay.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:obvious to it with these, these other young guys that we've brought, brought in, I think a D tackle, you
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Okay.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:At corner we lost Jordan you know football smart they want to be, how much they want to With where
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Silence.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Oh gosh, we've lost all these guys,
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Silence.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:that a lot of those, you know, situations were going to happen
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Silence.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:Right in a thing. So I think we have some really good players that are already here that people may not know of yet. And I'm looking forward to coaching those guys. I
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Silence. Silence.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:it, you know, I'm like, what am I supposed to tell
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Silence. Silence.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:You almost have to use that to your advantage. Like, Hey, you come here,
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Okay.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:players you have to look out for their
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:but in this day and age, that's just the way the game's changed.
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah, well, coach 22 of our high school and transfer recruits for the coming season from the state of florida. Obviously florida is a very fertile recruiting destination, not only us, but for most of the college football programs in the southeast. What is it about the sunshine state where you grew up and football high school football? I know it's a different world down there.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:It I tell you where it's, it's really not that much different till you get down toward the bottom, the, the, the Miami Fort Lauderdale area is a little different. You gotta, you gotta, know, the, the thing that we have going for us down there is you have to have ends down there, right? And those high school coaches have to trust you to take care of their kids. Well, happens is you know, Kerwin and them you know, we did the same thing at Tusculum. I think, you know, we would bring in four or five guys and they'd say, man, this place is safe. I could get a great education. You know, the safe part people don't think about, but they, you know, these kids of the places they come from are not, you know, not the easiest places to live. This place is safe. I can get a great education. I got three hats and a cat. You know, I mean you know, I got a great place to live. We're going to play high end football and they're going to come to a place where people care. You know, the stands are going to be full on game day. And I think when you sell that to these kids, you know, down there and you, the more you get here, the more that want to come. Because they the
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Silence.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:see us
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Okay. So,
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:going back to the Catamount board the post where everybody posts messaging, they were like, Oh, if you're from a big city area, why would you want to come to the mountains? Well, we've had a lot of those guys stay. But looking at the upcoming roster, do you know of any folks that we should be watching out for?
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Okay.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:your eye on the defense, of course.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:Well, I mean, obviously we lost some really good offensive linemen.
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:the end of the presentation. all.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:what, five games, four games, you know, his
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Right.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:he played very well. So I think really, if we can get the offensive line going, obviously losing. Derek Simmons and those guys, you know, up front, but you know, if you think about it, Derek only played five games last year, six games, he's heard a lot, you know, and so we've got a couple of guys there. I can't pronounce his last name, but Elia I can't, Elia,
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:could.
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:to be honest, a kid out of Spain that was playing in Mississippi Valley state. Now both those kids, He was like six five three oh five but both those kids played high school football in the states They didn't come over like like Elia played at IMG And I think the guy I'm trying to remember the kid from
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:everyone.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:both those guys you And we've got two,
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:I don't know if you can see it, but We are now in the process of
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:what the other guys that we do have back.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Cool.
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Coach, you know, you're looking at when you're out recruiting and so forth, you're looking at potential players for Western Carolina. You know what your needs are, what qualities other than pure athletic ability Size and all these things are you looking for in a kid? I know you got to think of, you know, where they're coming to location, change in environment. What are you looking for? These talents, other than just the pure athletic ability.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:Well, I mean, to me, I think that one of the things we talk about all the time is, are you a self starter, right? Are you a guy that cares about football? Are you a guy that that, you know, this means something because at the end of the day, when you get here, and I tell this to kids all the time, right? The average. NFL player, you know, plays three years. That's the average career now 2. 9 years, right? So, you know, we always talk about is so if you said five years in college and three years there, so what are you going to do? What are you going to do? What are you going to use football? You know for in the next eight years to make your life a heck of a lot better, right? How do you want you want to be a great player? You want to be a great student athlete you want to do those things that are correct And use football to help you get the things that you want to be, you know to be better at now What we look for in people for our team again, like I said self starter Guy that's going to
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Okay. very much.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:grow so much. In the game from high school to college, right? It's such a jump and I tell freshmen all the time. They go, coach, how much do you think I'm gonna play here? I'm like, I don't know how much can you handle, you know, because really
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:mental concept of the game and how much you can handle most of these kids on defense play, let's say your DB, you might play. Two or three coverages tops. When we might play three, three or four coverages on a series, you know, like we have nine, 10, 11, 12, 13 coverage concepts that you got to learn and play fast doing. And I think that's the difference between high school and college. You know, you can be a great player, but if you don't understand the game of football, that's the part that you're going to struggle with the most.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:You know, Coach, what we've seen over the years with you is it's hard to put you on the spot, but I'm going to ask a little bit tougher question here. It's not your job in the off season to be looking at the other schools, but how do you think we're going to rank up against our competition this fall?
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:mean, I feel like we've, if you look at what people lost, right,
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Okay. very much.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:was what they did well. Now they'll still be a really good football team, right? They lost their running back. They lost two of the receivers. They got us three offensive linemen. They're in the same boat. You know, a lot of people are chat lost their whole back end to the portal and one and their best linebacker. Wofford lost both their quarterbacks, you know, they lost both their
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:don't think they have a quarterback that's ever taken a snap on their, you know,
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Right. Right.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:you
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:don't know what they're going to be because they may bring it 25 or 30
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Silence.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:transfers. You know if you look at E-T-S-U-E-T-S-U looks like they're, they're getting some good guys coming back in, but they lost whether it be graduation because half those dudes came from Gardner Webb with him and, and
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Right.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:left, and then they lost probably another eight to the portal that were really good players on top of it. So you start going down the line, Sanford Lost had 51, or we were there for Sanford Senior Day and it took us an hour to go through senior day, lost 51 seniors. I'm
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Bye bye.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:is this ever
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Hello.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:of those, but we have four back that we feel really good about, at safety. Everybody's back except for one, and he was inconsistent, really.
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:All
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:than we do?
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:right,
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:I'm going to tell you
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:yeah, yeah.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:you know, we had 21 interceptions this
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:All right. All right. All
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:that's how I look at it.
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:right. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence. Silence.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:right? We don't want to hear any excuses. Like that's, that's how we break everything out. No
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Silence. Silence.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:There's no excuse for us not to be good this year. And I think we all agree with that. They're doing it. Coach Bates is doing a heck of a job with those guys. Their effort so far and their want to has been outstanding. You know, We got to just get I I kind of got on our defensive guys at the end of the year I said guys, I feel like we're a little bit frontrunners and and that's that's a bad word, man You know because when things are going good, we're good when one or two things go bad You guys just you know, we can't fold our tent We got a you know You got a you got a buck up and and and you got to play harder and play better and more disciplined And that's really who I am and I'm not sure those guys are quite ready for me When it came to that aspect of it but they know me now and they know our defensive staff now. And, and I can't tell you how proud I am of the way those guys are working right now, trying to learn the system, you know, coming in on their own. Cause you
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:I can't get guys to like, I'm trying to get some work done and they're like, Hey coach, you got a few minutes to watch film. Hey coach, you got a few minutes to watch film. And so to me, that tells you that we're right where we need to be. I'm not, I'm not sweating it. The schedule works out pretty good. We don't have to fly to Montana, you know, you know, because if you look at it, we had basically two money games. And if anybody thinks that Montana trip is an easy trip, they're crazy, right? I mean and that's, and, and we said it from the get go, that place was louder than NC state ever thought about being, know, and
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:I was there. Yeah, I was there. It was incredible.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:Crazy, right? And they're right on top of you. Literally. I've got the iPad out and I'm looking at some stuff and I got a guy looking down over top of yelling at me, you know, laugh. And I'm just kind of like, this is interesting.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:I've been to some big games, and I've never heard a stadium that loud. I know they get that loud, but that was
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:well,
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:amazing.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:you think it's because of the mountain? You know, the mountain sitting right behind it, that, that noise just reverbs right back off the mountain and that's, you know, so 26, 000 sounds like 60, 000,
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Right.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:mean? I mean, I hate to say that, but and they got a good football team and, and you know, You know, what's kind of funny to me is you go back and you watch that game again. Some of the calls that we got against us, some of the calls we didn't get,
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Yeah.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:you, you, if you're going to be an out of conference team from somewhere else that goes in there in the regular season, you better be that much better than them jokers
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:that football
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:their own announcer
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:should have
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:said, I'm not sure that was the right call.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:We still should have, we still should have won that game.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Yes, we should. Oh,
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:for us as coaches. If you look, I mean, every game we lost, we were ahead in the fourth quarter, every single game. And that's where we talk about finishing, no excuses, all that stuff that we're, you know, keep on working on. And, and you know, I'm not an excuse guy. I'll be the first guy that, you know, like. I was on myself about as bad as anybody. I mean, my wife had taught me off the ledge several times coming back from games. You know, if you think
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:I saw a couple of
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:joking.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:after games there, Coach. Just saying. Yeah.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:in the world. Let's just say that.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Yeah.
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Well, Coach, next Saturday, we're having our signing event over at the Health and Sciences Building, room 204. You need to call the Catamount Club if you haven't reserved a space. Begins at 10 o'clock in the morning. This is a new venue for us. I think it's going to be a lot better than the old auxiliary gym. And of course, after that, we've got basketball with with the Citadel Bulldogs at 3 30. It's a doubleheader. The women play at one. The men play at 3 30. But Big event. I really look forward to this every year. And it's gonna be fun listening to some of these guys. These coaches break down these names like you were talking about the the Serbians and so forth. Spaniards, Spaniards. But looking really looking forward to that event Saturday. That's skin. It'll be over to health and human sciences building up old Savannah Road, Room 204 and that that's gonna be a lot of fun.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah, it should be. We, I actually enjoyed that last year, you know, because I think you, you work so much with this stuff and recruiting is such a big part of what we try to do with this. And, you know, I think people panicked a little bit when we didn't sign a lot of guys early. But again, that was kind of what we talked about, you know, doing the whole time, because as a group, we, we sat down and. You know, we don't do anything without thinking it out and we sat down, said, you know, over the last four years, this is coach Bell and start talking, he's like, you know, the guys that we signed later have been our better players, you know, and that second thing, the guys who signed early, some of them hadn't panned out now, you know, some of them were this
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Okay.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:and that star. I want to be that guy who's the star guy, because that guy's wrong all the time and nobody says anything to him, you know, but you know, but at the end of the day, I felt like what I think what you're seeing because of the portal, because all the different stuff happening, there's so many good high school football players out there right now, it's unbelievable, like these guys that we're signing
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Okay.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:seven or better than a hundred got two nickels that were, you know. All state three
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Silence. Silence. Silence.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:300 pound center. So, I mean, you start looking at all this stuff going, man, you know, we're in pretty good shape and we just got to get these kids in here to learn the system, learn what we're trying to do and then we'll kind of go from there. Okay.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Cool. Well one last question for you unless Steve's got something else, but it's kind of off topic, but, you know, a lot of the fans say, Oh, man, if we could just improve the stadium and if we could get these improvements done, do you think that would help the
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Silence.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:this, right? So I think there's a fine line nowadays, right? I think the stadium improvement is gonna, anytime you can ma you make your facility look better, it's great. You know? Personally I wish they, I know they've got several things that they were trying to do, you know, I know the stadium part of it's gonna be first. I almost wish the weight room slash locker room part was first. But hey, that's the second part that they're trying to get going, but you'll take anything you can get. But I think nowadays. I think what you're going to see is, is that's important. But the other part of this important is having a little bit of NIL money, having some things that you, and we don't expect to have a lot. We know what we're dealing with through an FCS program. We're a program of You know, like the school's a teacher school, right? It was me, you know, it was a school of teachers. My parents were
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Right.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:it, right? So we don't have the law schools, like, you know, Mercer, I think it's got a law school, med school, you know, all that kind of stuff where they may have some bigger money guy, people that are willing to help with that. At some point, we got to get that part going too, because for us to like, like we lost four kids this year just because we didn't have any of that kind of stuff. You know, or didn't have enough and, you know, it is what it is that, that that's the frustrating part for us as coaches. I think now is you could have a greatest relationship with a kid in the world and he's got to go where the relationship is. He's going to go where that money is, you know, and, and whereas situations are, is that right? I don't know if it's right or not, but it's just the, it's, it's the way of the world right now. So I do believe what you're saying is correct. Yes. If we, the, the nicer stadium redoing the weight room, redoing the things like that where the kid, my biggest thing is everything you, you want to do needs to affect the student athlete. Does that make sense? Like,
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Right.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:upgrade your facilities, it needs to affect the student athlete most. And that's where we got to make sure we're getting that done. But then you got to have a little, like I said, a little bit of extra, we know that we're not
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:north carolina states if they're State, right?
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Right.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:that kind of money and if we're going to try to win at the level that coach
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:That front four for the Philadelphia Eagles on defense said we're winning this football game
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Right.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:they did and you know, like it's let me tell you something as a defensive coordinator having four guys who can rush the passer, And I can and I can just play coverage. And then get after that pastor and sack him a bunch of times and everything else, that makes my life a heck of a lot easier. That's the point where I say the Jimmy's and Joe's, you know, over the X's and O's. You
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Right.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:you can scheme somebody up to crazy, but if you don't have Jimmy's and Joe's to execute, it doesn't really matter.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Right.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:that's the, probably, In a three part look is what you just asked me, that's how I see things, you know, and, you know, I don't know if anybody agrees with what I'm saying, but that's kind of how I see it is like the facilities and all that stuff is outstanding, it'll help everything else, but I think there's got to be that extra part to that. We got to keep working together on with everybody in the community. And like I said, we're not, I don't think anybody's asking for like, you know, Like we, we understand where we are. Let's just say that we're going to say where we are and who, what we're dealing with, but at the same time, anything anybody can do, we'd love to have it. So,
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Great. Got anything else, Steve?
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:I think Coach Odom has covered it tremendously, and I hope that our audience, our Catamount football fans, well, just Western Carolina fans, you know, tune in and watch this because, Coach, this is exactly what we were looking for out of you, and you did a tremendous job of breaking it down, explaining it, and on our level. So appreciate it so much. You joining us and stepping up here and I won't know a lot of our fans urge them to watch this and listen.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:Yep. I appreciate you. Great half hour. We will look forward to getting you back maybe in the springtime to talk a little bit about how things are rolling around there. I had other questions, like on
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:Okay.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:conditioning and things like that, but we'll get to those next time we talk.
squadcaster-fafj_2_02-10-2025_105837:Absolutely guys. Anytime you ever need me, love to have it and go cat and mouse. We're going to get this thing done.
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:Yeah. All
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:right. Thanks so much. That does it for this
squadcaster-1682_2_02-10-2025_105837:you.
bob-sabin_2_02-10-2025_105840:version of Tracking the Cats, brought to you by Stanbury Insurance in Silva, Highlands, and Waynesville. We will see you all again in about two weeks.
