Coach Joey Jones Show Recap 2009-01-14
Joey Jones, Lee Shirvanian, Haven Fields and Daniel McCarthy were all at Wing’s Sports Grill in Mobile today for the Joey Jones Show. Most of the episode was dedicated to recruiting talk since we are in the home stretch before national signing day.
This weekend is a recruiting weekend at the University of South Alabama. About 13 prospects and their families are coming to tour campus and what Mobile has to offer. Most are verbally committed but there are some in the group who are not committed. They wil lbe housing them at the Battlehouse Hotel in downtown Mobile and will take them to a coupld good restaurants to eat, including Wing’s for lunch one day. While they are at USA they will have a chance to meet with some of the academia at USA. What the staff wants is for the recruits to leave USA and not have any unanswered questions.
USA is actively recruiting about 50 students heavily in order to fill their 30 scholarship alotment for the 2009 signing period. When asked, Coach Jones said that there are about 20 more students that are sort of on the fence. In the case of oversigning, one option is a gray shirt. A gray shirt is when a scholarship is held for them the next signing season and they agree not to enroll into school until that next spring. So, a 2009 recruit would hold off from enrolling at USA in the fall of 2009 and would enroll the spring of 2010. He would still get a scholarship and would then count against the 2010 scholarship alotment.
Haven Fields is the assistant athletic director for football, he was hired by athletic director Joe Gottfried. He was a former linebacker for Auburn from 1996-1999. He was associate director of athletic development at Auburn University before coming to the University of South Alabama. He works for the football program on the school side to work out things so Coach Jones and his staff’s day-to-day life is much easier and so they can focus on working with the student athletes and prepare for gameday.
Keith Ayers, in the Office of Public Relations for USA, stopped by for a few minutes to talk about a couple things. First he wanted to let the listeners know about the schools plans for national signing day on February 4th. At 4pm in the Mitchell Center they will announce the schools first signing class and they will have some video to show to everyone in attendance. This will be a historic moment for the University and the football program. Free T-shirts, autographs and much more will be available.
The second thing Mr. Ayers wanted to let everyone know is that ticket sales have been ramping up and wanted to urge everyone to call 461-1USA to get their season tickets before they are all gone. The third and final thing is that tomorrow evening the USA Men’s Basketball team will host Troy and it will be K-12 appreciation night so kids in K-12 will get free admission and the first 1,000 will get free USA Football T-shirts as well. This is all tomorrow night at the Mitchell Center.
Daniel McCarthy’s former team in Richmond just won a national championship for Division I-AA football. Lee Shirvanian asked if a playoff would work in Division I-A since it seems to work fine in Division I-AA. Mr. McCarthy said that going through it with his former team was probably the most exciting thing he has ever gone through. Just like every game in the Division I-A regular season is like a playoff game, every game in the Division I-AA is also like a playoff game as well because there are only a limited number of spots available in the playoff for schools to get in.
Mr. McCarthy is the compliance officer for USA, so he is the go-to guy on questions about proper and improper conduct by the staff on recruiting visits. Coach Jones says that when recruiting, “Its pretty much just use your common sense.” But he and the staff do sit down with Daniel from time to time in order to ask him questions, not to try to find a loophole, but to make sure everything is done within the rules set forth by the NCAA.
Mr. McCarthy said he would like to see football recruiting treated more like the other sports in college and have it opened up somewhat. Other sports are much more open than football so the kids get to know the coaches much better and he thinks this would help cut down the number of transfers by students to other schools. This will help players choose the right school and program for them and would allow the school of find good players that fit well in their program.
When asked about how they educate their student athletes about rules, both Mr. McCarthy and Coach Jones responded that they have meetings to go over what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. The caller who asked the question mentioned the Andre Smith situation with the University of Alabama before the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. Mr. McCarthy said that it has gotten to the point where agents have to be approved by the NFL and in some states they have to be approved and licensed by the state legislature to operate in that state. Sometimes they employ a back door runner, someone who might want to get into the agent market or whatever, to work their way into befriending student athletes to steer them to their ’employer’. It can start out innocently by giving them a few dollars then it can easily escalate to more and eventually becoming an NCAA violation. The staff and everyone involved work hard to make sure nothing like this happens.
It was mentioned in the show that Coach Jones is working hard trying to find the right person to fill the offensive coordinator position left vacant when Les Koenning left for Mississippi State recently. Lee Shirvanian made light that if people knew who has been contacted, interviewed or even were interested in the position, we would be amazed. But one person who was interviewed by Coach Jones for the position was former Hoover High School head coach Rush Probst. However, since his interview he has since let Coach Jones know that he is uninterested in leaving his position at Colquitt County High School, at least that is what he has told the local newspaper. We will see what transpires over the next few days.
So come out and support your Jaguars tonight as the Women take on Troy and tomorrow night when the Men host Troy both in the Mitchell Center.
GO JAGS!
Lady Jags Fall To Louisiana-Monroe 67-58
The Lady Jags played hard in the second half to cut the lead from 16 points to a single point but ULM proved to have too much left in the tank and won the game 67-58.
The Jags came out and struggled from the field for most of the first half and would only hit three of its first 13 shots. But with about eight and a half minutes left in the first half, the Jags would pull within three points when Jessica Starling would be fouled while shooting a 3-pointer. She would hit two of the three foul shots and those would prove to the their only points for the next four minutes. ULM would take advantage and go on a 13-2 run that would finally end with a Karina Sproal layup with just under four and a half minutes left.
Siedah Banks and Jessica Starling would help to pull the Lady Jags within nine points but would be stretched back out to 11 at halftime, 33-22.
The second half started off like the first half started, slow like molassas. ULM would take advantage and increase their lead in the first 3:15 of the second half to 41-25, a 16 point lead. But Nettles would awaken from her slump where she was held without a field goal against MTSU and for the first 20 minutes of the ULM game. She would hit two 3-pointers in the first six minutes of the second half and back-to-back ones with less than 14 to go to help USA close the gap to 41-31.
Both teams would trade a few shots over the next few minutes to again increase the lead to 13 at 46-33 with under nine and a half minutes to go. This is when the Lady Jaguars started to make their run. A 15-5 run over about a five minute stretch would would pull USA within 3 at 51-48 with under five minutes to go. A layup by Jessica Starling would then close the gap further to a single point, 51-50.
But ULM would outscore the Jags 16-8 the rest of the way with most of it coming from foul shots when USA was forced to foul.
Coach Pietre was quoted saying, “There are peaks and valleys in a season and we are definitely in a valley right now….we couldn’t make the plays we had to make to go ahead and finish it off once we got it to one possession.”
Jessica Starling would lead USA in scoring with 18 on 5-15 shooting and going 3-8 from outside the arc. The only other double digit scorer for USA was Shakira Nettles with 14 on 5-14 shooting while going 4-6 from 3-point range.
ULM had three to score in double digits, Lottie Moore would lead all in scoring with 21 on 6-17 shooting with 1-3 from 3-point range and 8-15 from the free-throw line. next was Ashley Wallis with 19 on 7-8 shooting and hitting all five free-throws. Then Jesse Carrier would score 11 on 1-8 shooting and going 1-3 from 3-point range but would hit all eight free-throw attemps.
USA would go on to shoot an abysmal 29% for the game, hitting only 24% in the first half. While ULM would shoot 37% for the game and 39% for the first half. ULM would also hit 73% of their free-throw attempts, having 25 attempts in the second half alone.
The other statistical categories were a dead heat between the two teams: Pts in the paint ULM 20, USA 18; Pts off turnovers USA 14, ULM 11; 2nd chance points USA 14, ULM 12; Fast break pts USA 4, ULM 0; Bench pts USA 8, ULM 5. Rebounds ULM 48, USA 42.
The Lady Jags will be in action again on Wednesday, January 14th when it hosts Troy, their in-state rival. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05pm at the Mitchell Center.
Come out and support your Jags! Bleed it red!
Jaguar Men Win Big At Louisiana-Monroe
Jaguars win big, 90-57, while both DeAndre Coleman and Brandon Davis come away double-double performances. Coach Arrow decided to try a big starting lineup, using three forwards, with good results.
Brandon Davis hit all seven attempts from the floor in the first half, scoring 19 in the period. After a media time-out with just under 8 minutes to go, the Jags were down 32-38. Davis then scored 7 of the Jaguars 14 points to take the lead going into the locker room up 42-37. While Lawrence Gilbert would score 14 and Jarvis Hill would score 12 going 4-5 from 3-point range in the first half for the Warhawks.
The Jaguars would open the second half with a 13-0 run, which would be a 16-0 run spanning the last 3-point field goal by DeAndrae Ross to end the first half that would put USA up 54-37 with 15:50 to go in the game. USA kept the engine going by pushing the lead out to 65-44 with over 10 minutes to go.
Domonic Tilford would further push the lead out to 30 with a 3-pointer with eight minutes left and the Jags largest lead (37) would come with just under five minutes to play on a Tilford layup, 85-48. Then both teams would cruise to the final score of 90-57, an impressive 33 point victory.
Brandon Davis was a perfect 11-11 from the floor and going 8-10 from the free throw line to score a career best 30 points while grabbing 10 rebounds, 7 of them defensive and adding two blocks and two steals for the game. DeAndrae Coleman added 12 points on 6-12 shooting with 11 rebounds, 9 of them defensive. Then to round out the double digits scoring was Domonic Tilford with 22 on 8-11 shooting and going 4-7 from 3-point range and hitting both attempts from the free-throw line.
The Warhawks were lead by Lawrence Gilbert who scored 16 points in the game going 4-7 from the floor and 4-6 from 3-point range and sinking all four shots from the free-throw line. Jarvis Hill was the only other Warhawk to score in double digits with 14 on 3-12 shooting going 1-3 from outside the arc and 7-10 from the charity stripe.
The telling stats for the game were the FG and 3FG percentages for the two teams. USA shot 64% from the floor and 58% from 3-point range compared to Louisiana-Monroe’s 27% from the floor and 48% from outside the arc. The Warhawks went from 10-29 from the floor in the first half to 5-26 in the second half.
Additionally, USA out-rebounded them 38-27 for the game with 29 of the rebounds coming on the defensive side. The Jags claimed all of the other telling stats: Points in the paint 44-8, points of of turn-overs 16-8, second chance points 13-11, fast break points 9-0 and bench scoring 19-15. Plus the Jags held the Warhawks to only 20 points in the second half.
Louisiana-Monroe falls to 5-10 (1-3 in the SBC) while USA improves to 10-6 (3-2 in the SBC).
The Jaguars will return to the court when they host Troy on January 15th with tip-off set for 7:05pm at the Mitchell Center. Come out and support your Jags!
Go Jags!
Coach Joey Jones Show Recap 2009-01-07
Lee Shirvanian was in the studio at Wings Sports Grill but Coach Jones and crew are all out on the road recruiting. But over the phone he still reveals a new hire for his Jaguar staff. Brett Bedsole was hired and started his duties on Monday as Director of Football Operations, which was an unfilled position on his staff.
His explaination of what a Director of Football Operations does is that he takes care of anything the coach needs to do administratively, help the recruiting coordinator and help organize and run the summer football camps among other things. He jovially said he would have something like 14 or 15 different hats that he will wear. Basically, he is there to make sure Coach Jones and the rest of the coaching staff are ready to go onto the field. He takes care of the administrative side for the coaching staff. While the associate athletic director will take care fo the football program at a higer level than the coaching staff.
One example was made by Travis Toth, Associate Athletic Director for Marketing and Promotions, was that a local company wants to get Coach Jones to make an appearance at their grand opening. While it would take Travis a long time to get ahold of Coach Jones and work out his scheduling and get it ironed out with the company. However, Travis can contact Brett and he could get it done much quicker and more efficiently while letting Coach Jones continue working on recruiting or preparing for the Jags next game.
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, the staff are out on the road recruiting. This is a new recruiting period after the recruiting black-out in late December. Recruiting will continue through this week and next week will be another black-out period while the National Football Coaching Convention takes place. The recruiting will pick back up after that through the end of the month.
Coach Jones also informed the listeners that this weekend was not a recruiting weekend on campus, however the next three weekends will be. The first two are pretty well booked up and then they will see from there about the third weekend.
On to recruiting. So far the Jaguars have 27 out of 30 possible spots verbally committed. As always with college recruiting, other schools are talking to our guys just like our staff are talking to guys who are leaning towards other schools. We are working hard to keep our recruits and to help get some more to come down to Mobile.
The 10 Junior College recruits who joined the program were going through orientation at USA on Wednesday. Mr. Bedsole has been working with them to make sure housing and cafeteria needs are all taken care of for them. Monday was Mr. Bedsole’s first day on the job, so he was learning where things were on campus and now has been the source of information for these incoming recruits.
The JuCo transfers will start classes on Monday when USA begins the spring semester. They will begin their winter workout period of weightlifting and running throughout the month of January. Then in February, they will being spring practice.
As Coach Jones has indicated previously, at least some of the practices and scrimmages will be open for the public to view, but Mr. Bedsole has not delved into that with Coach Jones yet. Again, Coach Jones will have autonomy over that and will say what they can and cannot do. He hopes to talk to Coach Jones about that soon and will hopefully have more about that next week on the Joey Jones Show.
When asked about redshirting decisions, they said nothing will be decided upon until after spring practices. They want to see how well all of the players perform together then look to see what they have and decide upon redshirts accordingly. Players may be good with their former teams and players but they must be evaluated in the USA system first before any decisions are made.
Big games coming up for Jaguar Basketball so come out and help the Jaguars by taking in a game in the Mitchell Center. Also don’t forget to get order your Football season tickets at 445-1USA!
Go Jags!
(Note: I cannot find confirmation about Brett Bedsole’s hiring as Director of Football Operations at USA. I hope I have his name correct from the radio show. When confirmation comes in, it will be passed along.)
The Jaguars Sign Another Offensive Lineman From JuCo
Coach Jones announced that Jon Griffin, Offensive Lineman from Ventura Junior College from Ventura, California, has signed a National Letter-of-Intent. Griffin makes him the 10th Junior College player to commit to the USA Football Program.
As a freshman, Griffin and Ventura JuCo won the conference championship and claim the Southern California Bowl title. Last season they finished 5-5 overall going 5-3 in the Western State Conference. Their offense averaged 350 yard of total offense and just under 29 points per game. Griffin will join the other Junior College recruits, Heath Blount, Chris Brunson, Kevin Helms, Early James, Brian Krauskopf, Chris Payne, Steven Pease, Corey Pittman and Levi Slaydon as the first Junior College recruiting class for the USA Football program. All 10 players will begin class on Monday, January 12th and will participate in Spring practice scheduled to start in February.
Go Jags!
Lady Jags Fall At Home For First Time This Season
The USA Lady Jags would jump out to a quick lead making the first basket but that would be their only lead of the game, falling to the Lady Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State 80-57. This loss puts the Lady Jags at 11-4 for the season and 2-2 in the Sun Belt Conference.
After USA made the first points of the game, the Raiders would go on a 25-8 run over the next seven minutes to take control of the game. MTSU had the hot hand early making their first seven shots which included three 3-point field goals, a couple by Brandi Brown early in the half. While USA was cold and only shot 2 of 9 during the same stretch. At the end of the run MTSU was up 25-11.
They did not stop there, Chelsia Lymon would make two 3-pointers in the closing minutes, one of them at the buzzer, to lead the Blue Raiders into the locker room with a 19 point lead, 40-21. Lymon’s buzzer beating shot was the ninth of the first half for the Blue Raiders on 13 attempts.
The Lady Jags came out of the locker room and tried to rally, cutting the lead down to 15 at 50-35 about five minutes into the second half. But the Blue Raiders would not let the Jags get any more momentum. The rest of the half was all downhill until the Jags were down by 30. USA would trim the lead back down to the 23 point margin of victory for the Blue Raiders.
Coach Pietri was in disbelief a few times at the Jags shooting and defensive woes. He made several substitutions and defensive changes in the second but the Blue Raiders would exploit different holes in the defense and continue scoring.
Alysha Clark lead the game in scoring for MTSU with 23 and adding 18 rebounds for a double double going 8-19 from the floor and 7-9 from the charity stripe. Other top scorers for MTSU were Brandi Brown scoring 17 on 6-8 shooting from the floor and 5-7 from outside the arc with 5 rebounds, Jackie Pickel scoring 14 on 5-9 shooting and 4-7 from 3-point range, and Chelsia Lymon with 11 points on 4-6 shooting and 3-4 from 3-point range. MTSU ended the game shooting 12 of 22 from outside the arc.
USA was lead in scoring by Jessica Starling who had 18 points on 5-14 shooting and hitting 3 of 7 from 3-point range and making all five of her free throws. Seidah Banks was the next highest scorer with 9 on 4 of 4 shooting and hitting her only attempt from 3-point range. Karina Sproal had 8 points, six of them on two early 3-pointers in the first half, but could not hit any of her later shots until two free-throws late in the second half.
MTSU shot 45% for the game from the field to a woeful 27% for USA, with a blistering 51% to 28% in the first half. The Blue Raiders also lead in 3-point FG percentage 55% to 28%, going 9-13 in the first half. MTSU lead with points in the paint 24-14 and points off turnovers 19-10. But USA did outscore MTSU on 2nd chance points 24-14 and fast break points 4-0. Plus USA’s bench scored 19 compared to MTSU’s bench scoring only 7 points for the game.
The Lady Jags will travel to Monroe, Louisiana to take on Louisiana-Monroe on Wednesday with Tip-off set for 7:05pm.
One high point to the game was that the Thunderjags.com co-founder Matt had a visitor come sit next to him during the first half.
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| Matt with South Paw at the Lady Jags game. |
Jags Suffer Hard Loss To MTSU 82-67
The Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State stay undefeated in the Sun Belt Conference with a win at the Mitchell Center 82-67. The game mirrored how the weather was in Mobile for the day, sloppy and a bit ugly at times.
The Jags held an early lead after tip-off but the Raiders quickly took the lead and held it the rest of the way. USA held its own in the first half and was down by as much as eight points and would come back to tie the game after a 11-3 run that was spurred by Phillip Tabet coming in with an assist, tipping-in a shot, sinking two free-throws and blocking a shot. He would finish the game with 13 minutes of play time, scoring four points, five rebounds and three blocked shots. With 4:30 left in the first half the score was tied at 26 and they would see three more tied before MTSU went into the locker room with a four point lead at 36-32.
With 17:41 left in the game, the Jags were hanging in only down 41-35 until an 11-2 run in only two and a half minutes firmly put the contest into MTSU’s favor at 52-37.
The Jags would make a seven point run with about eight minutes left to bring the Jags within 14 with less than five minutes to go and would cut the lead even further with under two minutes to go at 78-65. But 13 points would be as close as they could get.
Watching the game, you see why MTSU was chosen to finish first in the SBC Eastern Division when you see that they made nearly 70% of their shots from the floor in the second half. They outshot USA for the game 49%-44% from the floor, 44%-39% from 3-point range and 90%-70% from the free-throw line.
For the fifth consecutive game, Domonic Tilford lead the team in scoring with 18. He was helped by DeAndre Coleman who scored 13 and Brandon Davis with 11 before he fouled out in the final minutes. Ronald Douglas had 5 blocks.
MTSU was lead in scoring by Demetrius Green who had 18 and was helped by Desmond Yates with 17, Kevin Kanaskie with 16 and Montarrio Haddock with 13 to round out the double digit scorers.
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| A Frustrated Coach Arrow sheds his jacket. |
Lady Jags Down Ohio 68-64 But Fall Short At FAU 67-66
It was Jessica Sarlings’ basket and free throw late that sealed the win over Ohio University and to run its record up to 11 wins for the season.
USA held a six point lead at halftime 42-36. After halftime, the jags would score 8 of the first 10 points to jump out to a 50-38 lead with 16:24 left in the game. About a minute later, still holding an 11 point lead, the jaguar offense went cold. With 38.3 seconds to play in the contest, Ohio pulled to within one points, 65-64, after a pair of free-throws.
Starling then stepped up for the Jags by driving in for layup with time winding down on the shot clock and was fouled on the play. She then sand the bonus shot to give USA the 68-64 win.
Shakira Nettles led the way for the Jags with 20 points on 8-19 shooting, 4-9 from beyond the arc and a team high 7 rebounds for the game. Her foil for Ohio, Lauren Hmiel, also scored 20 points with 7 rebounds. Jessica Starling added 16 to be the only other Jaguar in double digits. Notably, USA outscored Ohio 21-9 off turnovers while the other statistical categories were pretty much even.
After this win, the USA Lady Jaguars then picked up a second honorable mention vote in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.
Florida Atlantic upset the Lady Jags 67-66 when Jessica Starlings three-point attempt in the final seconds missed its mark. However the team showed alot of poise in the game. Trailing by eight points with under four minutes remaining, the Jags rally and nearly won the game on the last second shot attempt.
FAU held the lead at halftime 34-32 and would extend its lead to four early in the second half when USA would use its outside shooting to retake the lead. Starling would put the Jags up 43-38 with 16:15 to go with one of her five second half 3’s.
FAU would answer with an 8-0 run and take the lead at 46-43 with 13:40 left. The Jags and the Owls would exchange the lead several times in the next six minutes until USA took a 3 point lead on a 3-pointer from Lauren Walker. But for the next four and a half minutes the Jaguars went stone cold and FAU went on a 11-0 run grabbing its largest lead of the game at 67-59.
The Lady Jaguar defense then tightened up and held FAU scoreless for the last 4:36 of the game.
Jessica Starling lead all in scoring with 24 on 9-19 shooting, 6-13 from 3-point range. Shakira Nettles was the only other Jaguar to score in double digits with 19. Ra’Shawna Sippio pulled down 12 rebounds, 8 of them on the offensive side.
Field Goal Percentage was a dead heat between the two teams with USA shooting 36.1% to FAU’s 35.9%. But USA shot 29% from the FT line compared to 76% for FAU. Also, FAU had an edge in points in the paint 22-14, points off turnovers 12-6 and bench scoring 24-14 in their upset victory.
The Jags host Middle Tennessee State on Sunday with tip-off scheduled fro 2:05PM at the Mitchell Center.
Go Jags!
Tilford Scores 27 To Lead Jags Over FAU
Scoring a game high 27 points, Domonic Tilford lead USA to a wire-to-wire, 74-69 win over Florida Atlantic in southern Florida. While Brandon Davis scored 11 to be the only other player to score in double digits.
USA led the entire first half shooting 54% and going 4-7 from 3-point range on Tilfords 12 first half points. The Jags led 32-22 after Brandon Davis answered a FAU 3-pointer with a dunk with less than five minutes to go in the half, but went scoreless from that point through halftime. Going into the lockerroom at the half they had a slim 32-30 lead.
The Jags hit an early three in the second half to extend their lead to 5 but over the first seven minutes of the second half, FAU would close within 1 point three times. After a quick 7-2 run in just over a minute, the Jags jumped out to a six point lead, 50-44.
Another short run over two minutes saw FAU climb back within 2 points midway through the second half at 52-50. Methodically the Jags would pull out to a nine point lead, 67-58 with 4:40 remaining on the clock. Up by eight with less than four minutes to go FAU would score 6 straight points to close the advantage to two points 69-67 with just over a minute and a half left.
Sherrer sunk two shots from the free throw line, then FAU’s Monroe sunk two foul shots and C. J. Garner hit one of two foul shots to put the Jags up 72-69. To preserve the win, Garner blocks Carderro Nwoji’s attempt at a 3-pointer with four seconds left which lead to him making a layup to end the game.
FAU out rebounded USA 31-22 and hit 19-22 from the free throw stripe. USA out-shot FAU 57%-46% from the field and also outshot them 46%-15% from 3-point range. They were even scoring in the paint, USA held a slight advantage in points off turnovers 12-11. FAU outscored USA in 2nd chance shots 15-7 while USA had 8 fast break points to FAU’s 0. But bench scoring made the biggest difference in the game with USA scoring 22 and FAU could only muster 5 from one player, however that number is a bit misleading since FAU’s roster only lists seven players for the game.
USA will host Middle Tennessee State at the Mitchell Center on Saturday with tip-off scheduled for 7:05PM. These two teams were chosen to finish 1-2 in the SBC Eastern Division this season. Additionally, these two teams are the top two point producers thus far in the Sun Belt Conference. Domonic Tilford leads the league with 19.3 points per game and 3.25 3-pointers per game. While Desmond Yates is second in the league with 19 points per game but leads the conference with 62% FG percentage.
Come out and support the Jags in their first home conference game since Western Kentucky on December 18th. GO JAGS! BLEED IT RED!