The Talking Preps Interview: Palisades High QB Cole Hough

Welcome back, everyone, to this week's edition of the Talkin' Preps interview. The first playoff edition, I've got Cole Huff, quarterback of the Palisades Pumas. Cole, thanks for joining us. How you doing, man? I'm good. I'm good. How are you? I'm doing well. First, I'm going to jump right into it. Let's talk about that win last night over Audrey Kell, the co-champion, so to speak, in the conference. You guys really put your stamp on it and let it be known that you guys were the rightful. champions of the conference last night. Just talk about that game. You guys got off to a quick start and never really let your foot off the gas and look back. Yes, sir. So, obviously, you know, we're blessed to be conference champions or co-conference champions, but, I mean, obviously, we felt a certain way. We felt like we should have been the outright conference champions, but, you know, we had a setback in the beginning of the conference play, but, yeah, we just used that energy and redirected it in a great way, and I think we had a very complete game. That was probably our most complete game all season long. Defense was fired on all cylinders offense. We had a pretty decent game, I would say, but yeah, it was great to see. It was great to see. Absolutely. Oftentimes, obviously, you guys had a little bit of a leadership change this year at coach. Sometimes you see teams, they'll splinter a little bit when they have a coach leave midseason for whatever reason. How have you guys really rallied behind Coach Wilson and his continuation of the things that Simmons kind of built there, and you guys really hadn't had any drop-off? Yeah, I mean, I feel like it starts even with Simmons, with him just implementing the standard. Thank Obviously, nobody expects a school this young to be this good, especially in 8A. So, yeah, just a big shout out to Simmons just for instilling. The standard around when we had a coaching change, we had any adversity, it was like, okay, you. yeah, we understand this is a big hit, but we didn't use it as no excuse to not be great. So, yeah, Wilson came in and really instilled more of a brotherhood, I would say, made it more of like a player-led team. And I feel like there's more than one way to get something done, I felt like we put both of the coaching styles together, and we were able to have a pretty decent season so far. Absolutely. Talk a little bit about your recruiting process. Obviously, you're committed to Liberty. What went into ultimately deciding for you deciding to go there and just the conversations with the coaching staff there at Liberty, and what are you going to bring to the Flames next year? Yeah. So, um, really ever since I've started, um, playing the quarterback position is really, has it been like a smooth trail? I would say, I feel like, um, I really was going back and forth between, um, receiver and quarterback for, um, I think since I was seven years old, really, um, until my sophomore year of high school. And then after sophomore year, um, You know, some guys seen what I can do with the quarterback position and seen potential. So made the switch to Palisades and I mean, the rest is history. But after my junior year, recruiting really picked up, got a few, got a few FCS offers. And then Liberty came around, seen a lot of stuff that they liked. and The big thing about Liberty was they saying that they wanted somebody they could develop, um but also play really early. So that was all I needed to hear, right. because obviously playing the quarterback position, I felt like you need to be all in. Um, And, I mean, me going back and forth between positions for so long, I really never got to get in the groove like that. But I feel like with Liberty's promising that they're going to develop me, I feel like that's going to bring out the best in me in college. So, yeah, I'm just super blessed. Absolutely. Well, next week, obviously, is a huge game. And I'm going to poke the bear a little bit. Last year, your guys' season came to an end at the hand of the Huff Huskies. You had a good game on the ground, 85 yards on the ground, but the passing just wasn't quite there. What makes you feel confident that this year is going to be different when you go up to Cornelius this upcoming Friday? Yeah, so, I mean, obviously, they're a super talented team. Thank But I feel like just us going through all this adversity, I feel like we've played with a different level of chip on our shoulder. So us going up there, I feel like we're not going to give them anything. I feel like last year we kind of just gave them a little bit too much credit. you. You know, I feel like we kind of just gave them the game. We didn't really believe in our own abilities and we kind of just bypassed everything that we had been through that season and just looked at the name and kind of gave it to them. But I feel like this year with all the guys, I feel like we all just have one mindset and I feel like it's going to be very different when we go out there. Well, there you have it, everyone. Cole Huff is confident that they can beat Huff. Well, I look forward to seeing that game this upcoming week, man. Appreciate you coming on. Best of luck this upcoming week, and I look forward to seeing what you're able to do. Yes, sir. I appreciate it.