FORT WORTH, Texas – In 2022, the Nashville Stampede put all the pieces together, going from worst to first to become the inaugural PBR Team Series Champions.
In 2023, they looked to be an even more formidable squad, boasting a lineup of 2018 World Champion Kaique Pacheco, three-time World Champion Silvano Alves, two-time World Champion Jess Lockwood, Dener Barbosa, and Mason Taylor.
But what looked so good on paper never translated to the dirt. Pacheco, Barbosa, Lockwood and Taylor made a combined 20 outs for the Stampede in 2023, notching just five rides.
(And those stats are even worse than they appear. Barbosa had 14 outs and all five qualified rides. Pacheco, Lockwood and Taylor went a combined 0-for-6.)
They also made a late-season trade for Chase Outlaw, who went 4-for-8 before breaking his leg at the last regular-season event and having to doctor out of the postseason.
The Stampede went 11-17 in the regular season to finish seventh in the standings before going 0-2 to finish last at the 2023 PBR Camping World Team Series Championship.
“It was rough,” head coach and two-time World Champion Justin McBride said. “It was rough. I probably poured a little too much on some kids that weren’t ready for that. But I was out of options.”
Alves was a huge bright spot, going 16-for-29 (55%) and recording his 500th career qualified ride.
But another glimmer of hope for the Stampede was rookie Kaiden Loud. He went 4-for-12 (33%) with one 90-point ride as one of the kids who shouldered more responsibility than he was ready for.
If Loud’s performance at the 2024 PBR World Finals: Unleash The Beast is any indication, he’s certainly ready for it now.
Loud went 3-for-4 in the Elimination rounds to win the aggregate, climbing to No. 6 in the Unleash The Beast World Championship standings ahead of the Championship in AT&T Stadium on May 18-19.
“I’m really excited,” McBride said. “I’m excited for him. I was excited the day we got to draft him. But I’m so excited for him now that he’s starting to feel what I’ve been seeing for a long time. It’s not a fluke, is the great thing. He’s not just guessing and getting lucky. This is just what he is. He is that humble, he is that shy, and he can ride that good.”
Loud finished just ahead of No. 2 John Crimber and No. 1 Cassio Dias in the Eliminations aggregate. All of them are rookies, and McBride says the level of fresh talent has made this season one of his favorite seasons he’s ever watched.
“It’s all the young guys that are coming into this thing, and seeing that hunger in guys that are really excited to be here, that are grateful to be here, that love what they’re doing,” McBride said. “That’s really fun to see. I’ve been around this a long time, and you tend to get to seeing guys that are a little bit jaded and don’t really want to go win anything. They feel like they’ve already earned everything and that it should be given to them. And these kids are like, ‘No, I’m going to go win it.’ That’s just really fun to see. And I think it’s in any sport. It’s just a new wave coming in, and it’s a wave that’s been building for a while. A lot of these kids, we’ve known them since they were little, and to see them now at 18 and finally get to turn pro, from John Crimber to Kaiden Loud, Clay Guiton, Marco Rizzo. And you’ve got to remember Cassio is actually a rookie. So there’s a handful of them that are just really fun.”
Crimber, Guiton and Rizzo look to be the top three picks in the upcoming 2024 PBR Team Series New Rider Draft on May 29.
The Stampede’s first pick will be the third pick in Round 2 of the draft, No. 13 overall, so it’s highly unlikely any of that trio will still be on the board. But McBride – and Alves, who’s transitioning into more of a coaching role as his riding career winds down – knows exactly what he’s looking for.
“I’ve got to have a guy that loves to ride,” McBride said. “The fundamentals don’t have to be perfect, but the desire has got to be strong. Because you can have strong fundamentals and weak desire, and it’s not good. And I’m not saying it can’t be good at certain times. Certain situations, yeah, it’s going to work. But when it gets hard – and it will get hard. It’s bull riding. It will get hard – if the desire and the love are not there, the fundamentals never even get a chance. We’ve already been having lots of talks about the guys we’re looking at for the draft. That has got to be first and foremost. Forget about what hand they ride with. Forget about these things. Give me a guy with guts and heart.”
The Stampede will look to fill the hole left by Pacheco, who was selected by the Oklahoma Wildcatters in the expansion draft and then traded to the Austin Gamblers. The team knew it was taking a risk leaving their first-ever draft pick unprotected, but McBride says it was a risk everyone was comfortable with.
“From the Stampede’s perspective, we absolutely love Kaique. We do,” McBride said. “That was our first pick when we made one, and we got to win a championship together. That’s as much as you could ever hope for, I feel like, out of your first pick ever in the draft, and you got to win a championship. It just came down to who we were going to protect, who we weren’t going to protect, and Kaique was in on the decision-making. It wasn’t something that we were trying to surprise him, or this or that. We were very honest with one another, and I think that’s why we’ll always have a great relationship with Kaique moving forward, wherever he’s at.
“But for us, I can’t let Kaiden Loud go. I can’t do that. And there’s a lot of things that go into those decisions – contracts and different things. Kaique’s got a great big contract. Kaique’s won a lot over the years. And Kaiden, I feel very strongly about what everybody’s watching him become. Alan (de Souza), I think, is a gritty guy. We’re lucky that we get to have him. He’s a really tough guy.”
The Stampede’s third protected rider was Lockwood, who’s been a shell of his former self since tearing his hamstring and undergoing surgery in March of 2020. He competed in 10 premier series events in 2021 and just six in 2022, making zero appearances after being drafted by the Oklahoma Freedom (now the Florida Freedom). He competed in just four premier series events in 2023 before the Stampede traded for him.
“Jess Lockwood – that’s really the wild card,” McBride said. “That’s the one people are either going to say, ‘You’re brilliant,’ or, ‘You’re an idiot.’ But I feel, deep down in my core, that we get him back. Physically, he’s okay now. He’s healed up. He had to have more surgeries, and he’s 100% healthy now. Some people don’t even know how good he is because they haven’t seen him the past few years, and other people have forgotten. But if we get him back to where I think we can get him, he goes back to the best guy in the world.”
With a healthy Lockwood, Alves assisting with coaching, and the new-and-improved Loud, the Stampede could shape up to be quite the contender in 2024.
Ultimately, McBride is content with the decisions that he’s made, including leaning heavily on Loud last season.
“If I don’t, does Kaiden get to where he’s at now as quickly?” McBride said. “Some guys crumbled. He flourished. And that’s really cool to see. So, hopefully, knock on wood – and I hope for all the teams. I hope everybody gets to put their best foot forward and figure out who’s the best team for that year.”
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
