1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Midland's HUGE Comeback vs. Concordia + Trent Bray FIRED at Oregon State & Where in the World is Mark Banker?: October 16th, 11:25am

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

Midland's HUGE Comeback vs. Concordia + Trent Bray FIRED at Oregon State & Where in the World is Mark Banker?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We are back here on one-on-one, getting us ready for Nebraska and Minnesota talking more college football. Of course, there is some football this evening as well. I guess I don't know what is on the college docket, but Steelers and Bengals as well. So we'll see if Zach Taylor can get some more wins there in Cincinnati. Always an interesting situation with the Joe Burrow injury to see how much pressure of that is falling back on Zach. But it might be a few too many years of injured quarterback excuses for. for not winning. What do you think about Zach Taylor's job right in there with the Bengals?

I think that Zach Taylor is a good coach. I don't think he's a great coach necessarily. I think any and every coach looks better when they're surrounded by elite talent. And certainly the Bengals have that on offense, except that they're starting quarterback is now on the shelf and Jake Browning, despite having the same initials as Joe Burrow, is not the same quarterback. Who could have guessed that in the long run? not really his fault that he can't build a defense but is it his job to build a defense or coach a defense?

I get that it's kind of a holistic thing. I don't think Zach Taylor has done so poorly in Cincinnati that he's one of those guys that's going to get exiled from the league or blacklisted because he was so bad and ran such a poor ship. I do think that there are things Zach Taylor is a young first time head coach still. I mean, relatively deep into his tenure by NFL standards. certainly things he can improve on, I'm sure.

But let's not forget the organization that employs him notoriously cheap on the margins. Not exactly a free agent destination, because they don't really take any swings there. If it goes south for Zach Taylor again and he ends up getting fired, I'm not at all surprised. That does not make him a candidate for Nebraska because I think that he does have enough respect as a game planner, offensive coordinator, quarterback's coach that he might get another shot as a head coach down the line. but I think there is legitimate respect for him across the NFL and that that's where he's sticking. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, at least as the as the coordinators, you know, he's, he's considered a bright mind.

Obviously, helped lead them to the Super Bowl, which was huge in his winter NFC championship game. Just the last couple of years, two, nine and eight seasons, now two and four. So it is, it is, you know, it's what have you done for me lately? So we'll see if the Bengals can get it done here against the Steelers tonight with Joe Flacco starting. I had to look it up because I was wondering, okay, which one of these, guys is older. Joe Flack or Zach Taylor. Sack Taylor is two years older. Is he? It doesn't look older. Yeah. Blacko, when he went up there, he looked like, that's what I saw him on the podium. I was like, that kind of looks like a coach just because of his age. But,

so that should be an interesting game. One of the biggest rivalries in, in NFL, too. So we'll see if anything necessarily comes from that. There were a few notes that I, that I had from earlier in the week that I just never got to, obviously, because of all the, all the Matt Rule and Penn State stuff going on. Did you see that we had a very intriguing game in Nebraska involving Concordia? Did you see what happened with Concordia? Yes, I did. Concordia lovingly dubbed Lincoln Lutheran West.

There you go. Love it. Yeah. My fair share of connections to people who are connected to Concordia, even though I have very few direct connections there. Yeah. Woof. Yes. Against Nebraska's upcoming men's basketball scrimmage opponent week for Monday against Midland.

It was so big. It got the shout-out from Bill Connolly at ESPN. Yes. Incredible. Getting some national attention. So if you don't know, Concordia had a 38 to 7 lead over Midland in the third quarter, throw a 31 point lead. They end up losing to 60 to 52 in double overtime.

What are you supposed to do at that point? What do you say to your team? Well, I could have won it, obviously. See a Monday for practice. Yeah. That is a tough game to really break down. And, you know, overall, too, I think, you know, just diving out this real quickly. Because I was thinking about the Nebraska, Minnesota, you get to this time of the week.

You think, okay, what are my keys to the game going to be? Nebraska lost the turnover battle last week, three to nothing. And Minnesota got outrushed like 242 to 30 and both teams won. So my keys to the game going into this big, I'm thinking, I don't really, I'm kind of lost because these teams have proven that they can win despite getting pretty beat up and some usually pretty favorable choices for key to the game, running game in turnovers. So it'll be interesting to see how that kind of goes. But I thought it was at least a shout out for Midland. Worth a shout out for Midland.

Hopefully we'll see if Concordia can respond. How do you respond to that? I don't know. Okay, you're up big, you're coaching, put your backups in. No, I can't do it. We blew three. Yeah. If you can't do it,

starters, you're playing 60. That will be the next time they're up big and their second team gets scored on. You're right. There's going to be, okay, let's get the starters back in. That will be interesting.

I don't know. That is just a, that is a tough game on either side. For Midland, I mean, you got to be, imagine how you felt midway through that third quarter. You know what I mean?

It's like, well, and you got to, that at least is a belief that in that is set instilled in those guys that it is not over until, it's over. You know who Midlands head coach is, right? Who's that? Jeff Jamrock. Okay. Former Nebraska assistant. There we go.

Yeah. Shout out Jeff Jamrock for getting his team to fight back and get that win. Other, here's another former Husker connection that didn't go so well this week. Trent Bray was fired at Oregon State after an 0 and 7 start. They did go 5 and 7 last season, but had lost six of their final seven games down the stretch. So therefore, over there at Oregon State, he was one. and 13 in his last 14 games. Interesting that we know from his time even at Nebraska.

I think he was the interim head coach for like a week, but that he was considered to have a great future. Obviously, this is not the end all, be all for Trent Bray. We'll see what happens next for him. But it really is part of a longer story of what is happening to Oregon State. This is obviously coming off Jonathan Smith's successful run there. It's not like the same old Oregon State that maybe Nebraska thought was impressive enough to hire Mike

Brian, I really away from. But this was, so it makes you wonder where Oregon State, obviously along with Washington State, they're going to try the new PAC 12 moving forward, but they have fallen a long way from where they were. Now, the staff is still in place, but I did look, I didn't want to take a look. Say, okay, what other former Huskers were involved in this?

Mike Kavanaugh, the offensive line coach out there. He was not particularly a fan of one of my questions. I gave him in the circle back in the day. So I still like Mike Kavanaugh, former house great. Ryan Gunderson is the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach out there. So another guy that was seen as young and had a lot of upside and talent in the future. So again, this this was standing, hopefully will just be a bump of the road for him. Here is the surprising one. Danny Langsdorf is on staff.

Any idea of what Danny Langsdorff was doing with Oregon State? Former Nebraska offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf, if you're asking me the question in that way, and that's how you're framing it's probably something ridiculous. If it's not coaching running backs, it's definitely a special teams coordinator. Offensive senior quality control analyst. So he's just kind of holding down a chair. Right, which is a big fall from Grace,

obviously, from office coordinator at Nebraska. Again, there might be signs before and after Mike Riley left of why that didn't quite work out. Before we move on too far. where are we out with Mark Banker? Where is Mark Banker? What is he up to right now? I will forever wonder what that could have been. Remember that defense.

It was like a top 30 defense. It wasn't perfect, right? It had its moments. But, and it was 30, by the way. I think when I say top 30, definitely back into that. But that's when they decided that the whole athletic department need to listen to Bob Diaco.

And that was definitely, again, that's the too many chefs in the, kitchen. That did not seem to be a Mike Riley decision. That seemed to be an athletic department decision. And I always wonder, I mean, that guy was fun. Remember the blood blast comment from the Iowa practices? Do you have any idea, any guesses where Mark Banker ended up? I just guessed he retired after that. I never really thought. He appears to have retired, or at least is not coaching anymore. He is just turned 69 in January. After Nebraska took a year off, took 2017 off when he got fired, went to Hawaii where he was hired by Nick Rolovich, as assistant head coach,

before everything happened with Nick Rolovich. And then after that, well, this follows Nick Rolovich to Washington State. Okay. To coach the safeties for, for two years. And then that was that. Well, well, fair enough. I'm glad to hear at least he rebounded in, of swords. That's a, that's a dream. Yeah, I mean, he was getting up there. He was just, he was good for a quote. some coaches, you know, they might not be the best on the field. If they're good for a quote, they're better for at least media purposes. And according to LinkedIn, he's now living in Buckeye, Arizona. Huh.

Is that a retirement community, perhaps? I have no idea. I've never heard of this before. Let's see. I have not either, but I know there are a few retirement communities down there in Arizona. Buckye, Arizona. Looks like it's in the middle of. Okay.

So it's like super outskirts of Phoenix. Oh, okay. like west of Phoenix and it's yeah even west of Glendale there on I-10 so by the Gila River oh good for him I at one time thought about moving to Phoenix and then I spent a week down there and decided there's no possible way that's ever going to happen when I got there I was like everybody's got pools this place is awesome and then after like a day you're like everybody has a pool for necessity if I have to come home and jump at the pool and it's not for enjoyment minutes because I want to. Yeah, I just want to die otherwise. Yeah, other people could do it.

It just wasn't for me. Let's go ahead and take quick break. We've got a few more things to get to college football, Nebraska, Minnesota, and otherwise coming next year on one-on-one.