Latest / The Craig Way Show / DCTF Magazine Insights, TXHSFB 1A and 2A Preview with Greg Tepper

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DCTF Magazine Insights, TXHSFB 1A and 2A Preview with Greg Tepper · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: It is a Texan Tuesday here on Sports Radio AM
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  Speaker 1: thirteen under the Zone. So we mentioned three o'clock hour.
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  Speaker 1: One of the rejoinders is always from the iconic Willian Nelson.
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  Speaker 1: This particular selection.
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  Speaker 2: Bloody Mary morning.
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  Speaker 1: There's been enough folks who have had enough of those
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  Speaker 1: over the year. I won't say that is the case
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  Speaker 1: of our next guest, because I don't know that he
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  Speaker 1: actually even fancies bloody Mary's.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: No, my good friend Greg tepper'll he can sit back
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  Speaker 1: and have an old fashion with you. I'll grant him
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: that he and I have enjoyed a single malt Scotch
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  Speaker 1: on occasion as well. And if we're hearing from Willian
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  Speaker 1: Nelson a Texan Tuesday here we are late July, which
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  Speaker 1: means it's time to start our seasonal edition of Tuesdays
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  Speaker 1: with Tepper.
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  Speaker 2: He's Greg Teppery.
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  Speaker 1: He's the editor in chief of Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine.
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  Speaker 1: Am I right about the bloody Mary thing? You're not
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  Speaker 1: a bloody marry.
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  Speaker 2: Guy, are you? Or are you? Look?
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  Speaker 3: I'm an equal opportunity in Biber. I won't I won't
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  Speaker 3: turn it down. Okay, there's you know, there are times
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  Speaker 3: certain certain times where it's at the time is right.
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  Speaker 2: I wouldn't say I seek it out all that much.
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  Speaker 3: But but I'm not I'm not here to uh to
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  Speaker 3: give anybody, you know, I'm not here to yuck anybody's young.
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  Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Standing that?
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  Speaker 1: Okay, that's a very diplomatic answer. I like that. It's okay,
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  Speaker 1: nothing wrong with that. You didn't have one at coaching
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  Speaker 1: school a week before last, did you?
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  Speaker 3: No?
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  Speaker 2: I didn't know. I didn't plenty of other things, but
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  Speaker 2: not that any other things. Uh.
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  Speaker 3: It was fun as always down there. It's a it's
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  Speaker 3: a it's a big fraternity party down there, uh, and
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  Speaker 3: and and people having good time.
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  Speaker 2: But that's also just a kickoff of football season. Everyone's
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  Speaker 2: in a good mood.
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  Speaker 3: That's the thing I like about coaching school is that
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  Speaker 3: everybody's everybody's undefeated, everybody's in a good mood. Every like
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  Speaker 3: hopes rings eternal for almost everybody, depending on how how
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  Speaker 3: good these coaches are at sandbagging me and telling me,
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  Speaker 3: I don't know we're gonna be any good. Uh, but
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  Speaker 3: you know, everyone's got a shot. Everyone's in a good mood.
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  Speaker 3: And and that's what that's what makes that a special event,
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  Speaker 3: uh down there because because there's no there's no bad
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  Speaker 3: times down there.
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  Speaker 1: How about how about our old pal Joey McGuire, one
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  Speaker 1: of your cover guys here on this year's edition, coming
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  Speaker 1: into the hotel bar when you and I just had
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  Speaker 1: to be standing there with Ashley Pickle and the rest
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  Speaker 1: of your gang just kind of just minding our own
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  Speaker 1: business and him just coming up and bear hugging us
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  Speaker 1: from behind doing all that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, that's that's that's a man who who Who's
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  Speaker 3: Who's jones in for some high school football. I know
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  Speaker 3: he's got other things to do, he's got he's got
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  Speaker 3: a job to do, but he's primarily just like high
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  Speaker 3: school football fan number one. And we got we got
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  Speaker 3: into that and and and yeah, good to see him
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  Speaker 3: as always, you know, he's Uh, that's That's one of
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  Speaker 3: the things that I think has has really changed of
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  Speaker 3: the last I would say since my time here, and
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  Speaker 3: this was my sixteenth coaching school, is that now it
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  Speaker 3: was it was neat to see college coaches at coaching
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  Speaker 3: school maybe when I started, and now it is it
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  Speaker 3: is mandatory, like everyone is there and not just for
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  Speaker 3: the FBS Coaches panel that you so eloquently, you know, moderate,
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  Speaker 3: but also just because they want to be seen, they
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  Speaker 3: want to be around them, And I think that also
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  Speaker 3: kind of speaks to kind of the makeup right now
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  Speaker 3: of the college football coaches across the state of Texas.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, you've got I think six of them that
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  Speaker 3: played high school football in Texas, so they understand, you know,
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  Speaker 3: from a recruiting perspective, it's good business to show up,
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  Speaker 3: plain and simple. And also a lot of these guys
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  Speaker 3: have have ties to the texta high school football world,
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  Speaker 3: whether they played it or coached or both, and that
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  Speaker 3: I think has made it a more robust event beyond
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  Speaker 3: just the high school football coaches that are that are.
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  Speaker 1: In a time visiting with Greg Tapper, editor in chief
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  Speaker 1: Dave campbells Texas Football makes Is this officially the second
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  Speaker 1: year that you're officially titled editor in chief?
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  Speaker 2: Or is it the third? This is number two. This
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  Speaker 2: is the second one.
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  Speaker 3: Last year was the first one. So this is I
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  Speaker 3: guess I'm as used to it as I'm going to get.
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  Speaker 1: I see, because I accidentally in the first hour at
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  Speaker 1: one point started to say managing in and I stopped.
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  Speaker 2: I went, no, it's editor chief. I should have that
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  Speaker 2: down by now.
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  Speaker 1: But I think I said, I don't know if Tepper's
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  Speaker 1: got it completely down after two years.
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  Speaker 3: Now, I'll still I'll screw up my own title every
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  Speaker 3: once in a while, just because I'm used to.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I was.
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  Speaker 3: I was managing editor for for thirteen years, you know,
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  Speaker 3: and then suddenly they say, hey, we want to we
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  Speaker 3: want to give you new business cards, and okay, well
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: that's fine, you can't. I can't promise I'm going to
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  Speaker 3: be one hundred percent on it. My wife still calls
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  Speaker 3: me the same thing, but that's not suitable.
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  Speaker 2: For air, right right, I understand that. Uh okay.
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  Speaker 1: One thing the magazine I think can take some pride
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  Speaker 1: in every year is that, in addition to you kept
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  Speaker 1: it to the four hundred page edition, but in addition
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  Speaker 1: to that, you always find a new wrinkle in how
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  Speaker 1: you put out the magazine. And this year the new
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  Speaker 1: wrinkle is not a coach, not even a coach from
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  Speaker 1: Texas Tech on the cover.
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  Speaker 2: That's happened several times.
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  Speaker 1: Not that, but the fact that you have the administrators
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  Speaker 1: of how it all operates, as you say, inside the
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  Speaker 1: modern college football machine. It's first time I can ever
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  Speaker 1: remember a prominent donor being on the cover as well
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  Speaker 1: as an athletic director and a program builder as well
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  Speaker 1: and the head coach.
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  Speaker 2: What went into the mindset of that.
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  Speaker 1: And how much breath holding was there just prior to
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  Speaker 1: the magazine's release when all the Soursbee stuff was being
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  Speaker 1: sorted out.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, first of all, you're right by putting James Blanchard
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  Speaker 3: and Kirby hoe Cut and Cody Camble on the cover.
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  Speaker 2: They are the first three non player, non coach to
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  Speaker 2: be on the cover.
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  Speaker 3: Now, James Blanchard is a coach, but but as far
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  Speaker 3: as in his role is concerned guys who are not
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  Speaker 3: on field, these are the first three people who.
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  Speaker 2: Aren't on the field that that we've ever featured.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we knew back in about February that we
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  Speaker 3: once feature Texas Tech.
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  Speaker 2: We went through a number of different options.
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  Speaker 3: Houston was a real consideration for us of what Willie
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  Speaker 3: Fripps is building their Texas state as well whether they
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  Speaker 3: moved to the pack.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we've said on Texas Tech, and and we.
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  Speaker 3: Were saying, Okay, the story has been told before, Like
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  Speaker 3: we know the story of Texas Tech.
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  Speaker 2: How do we tell it in a different way?
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  Speaker 3: And Basically, what we want to do is just like
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  Speaker 3: get inside and figure out how the guts of this
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  Speaker 3: machine work, because that's what they've built.
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  Speaker 2: What they've built out.
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  Speaker 3: There is a program and a a an operation in
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  Speaker 3: which everyone's pulling the.
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  Speaker 2: Rope in the same direction.
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  Speaker 3: And and and there's there's the word that the word
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  Speaker 3: that you will see in this story and you'll hear
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  Speaker 3: all about tech is alignment.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone is aligned on what they want.
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  Speaker 3: To do because they're not They're not the richest program
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  Speaker 3: in America, don't have the richest program in Texas, but
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  Speaker 3: they are the program that I think has the best
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  Speaker 3: alignment as far as all of their their pieces are concerned.
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  Speaker 3: And so to tell that story, we had to include
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  Speaker 3: all of the pieces. And obviously Joey McGuire's key part
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  Speaker 3: of that, uh, But then also James Blanchard, the general manager,
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  Speaker 3: he's a key part of it. Obviously, Kirby Hokuk because
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  Speaker 3: he's the guy who has to sign up on sign
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  Speaker 3: off on everything. Obviously, Cody Campbell, you know, a guy
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  Speaker 3: who who is is in any respects kind of a
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  Speaker 3: new face of the program, for better or for worse,
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  Speaker 3: for for for the boys and loveg now to your
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  Speaker 3: other question. Yeah, that's Ben roberts On, the cover linebacker
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  Speaker 3: Pride of I think Byron Nelson.
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  Speaker 2: I think he's a Byron Nelson boy. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And and we we did a you know, I've said
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  Speaker 3: this before, we did a cover shot.
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  Speaker 2: With Brinton Sorosby.
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  Speaker 3: We have we have photos of Brittain Soresby in the
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  Speaker 3: twenty twenty sixty uniform.
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  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 2: They they're now really fun.
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  Speaker 3: Uh you know, uh, you know, a nice trivia, nice
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  Speaker 3: bit of trivia. We got the word obviously of what
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  Speaker 3: was going down, and we said, all right, time to pivot,
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  Speaker 3: and so we went to Ben Robertson to photoshoot with him.
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  Speaker 3: The thing that I think is is most interesting and
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  Speaker 3: probably why we quite frankly lucked out, is a the
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  Speaker 3: Soresby news when he first was announced that he was
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  Speaker 3: removed from the team and he was going into treatment,
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  Speaker 3: we made the decision we need to pivot away from
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  Speaker 3: sores be all together. So a that came along at
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  Speaker 3: an okay time that it was enough time between now
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  Speaker 3: and we has in the magazine press that we were
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  Speaker 3: able to change him. The other thing is that I
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  Speaker 3: think the player, with all due respect to Ben Roberts,
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  Speaker 3: who's an outstanding player the Big twelve Big Seal Championship
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  Speaker 3: game defensive MVP. The the player is kind of the
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  Speaker 3: the least visible, least uh you know, uh, not important
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  Speaker 3: because I was very important, but least prominent exactly player
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  Speaker 3: or person in the story. Because those guys change out,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and they are pieces of the machine by
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  Speaker 3: one guy for another. It didn't really change the story.
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  Speaker 3: The story is the same. This is how Texas Tech operates.
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  Speaker 3: The fact that we had to switch out the quarterback
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  Speaker 3: for the linebacker is a something that gave me a
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  Speaker 3: little bit of gray hair, but also that didn't necessarily
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  Speaker 3: change the kind of idea of the story.
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  Speaker 2: So let me see if I've got this straight.
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  Speaker 1: If none of that stuff had happened with Soresby and
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  Speaker 1: he was on track to be the Tech starting quarterback
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  Speaker 1: going in, and none of the other gambling stuff had
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  Speaker 1: come down, would it have been him with the other
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  Speaker 1: three on the cover, or would it have just been Soresby?
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  Speaker 3: It would have been the exact same cover that the
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  Speaker 3: exact same cover just replaced. We have very cool action
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  Speaker 3: shots of Brendan Soresby dropping backs pass. It would have
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  Speaker 3: been him instead of Ben Roberts leaping up from an interception.
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  Speaker 2: That's the only change it would have been.
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  Speaker 3: This is the concept we had, and then we ended
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  Speaker 3: up having to make late substitution there there, So it
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  Speaker 3: would have been the same idea. We were always going
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  Speaker 3: to have those four gentlemen at the top on it.
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  Speaker 3: Ben Roberts was just the lucky recipient of a second
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  Speaker 3: chance here.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know how I am about that tap. I
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  Speaker 1: think all things lead back to the Beatles. If if
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  Speaker 1: if it had happened, then you'd gone to print with
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  Speaker 1: Sowreersby on the cover, it could have been like the
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  Speaker 1: Beatles yesterday in the day Butcher cover in nineteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: six with the uh, decapitated baby dolls and the hacked
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  Speaker 1: up pieces of meat in butcher schmock smocks. And then
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  Speaker 1: they quickly steamed a cover on of them all sitting
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  Speaker 1: serenely and neatly dressed in front of steamer trunks, and
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: people start steaming off the peeling off the cover. That
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: you could add yourself a Beatle Butcher cover. If if
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  Speaker 1: the news on Sowreersby had been what another month two
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  Speaker 1: months later?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were we were close. I mean it was probably.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, about five weeks out from us sending the magazine
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  Speaker 3: the presses that we had, we had to scramble.
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  Speaker 2: Uh yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, look, there does come a point, and I
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  Speaker 3: write about this in my letter from the editor. There
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: comes a point where the buzzer goes off, and it's
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  Speaker 3: just like, all right, anything that goes past this date
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  Speaker 3: is just kind of kind of out there.
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  Speaker 2: And we've had things that have happened before where.
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  Speaker 3: Things have changed, Guys have transferred, Guys got injured, you
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  Speaker 3: know before the season, gets hurt, and they're listed in
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  Speaker 3: the magazine. There's one, for example, in the high school ranks,
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  Speaker 3: John Meredith, a third John Merrethy at the outstanding defensive back,
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  Speaker 3: who just he's on our super team. Nothing we can do,
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: you know. We figured he was going to be a
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  Speaker 3: part of the second high school football world. He's now reclassified.
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  Speaker 3: That's just the nature of the beast. That's kind of
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  Speaker 3: the nature of print media. The buzzer has to go
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  Speaker 3: off at some point. We're just happy that we were
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  Speaker 3: able to make it on our most visible portion thing
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  Speaker 3: we put out every year.
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  Speaker 2: We're just happy we had enough time to make that change.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I can tell you this long worn fans are
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: happy that he's down here. So and speaking of them,
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  Speaker 1: after all of a sudden done and really nice things
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  Speaker 1: written about Texas Tech in your power poll still have
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  Speaker 1: Texas at the top is with Texas A and them
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  Speaker 1: second to Texas Tech third.
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  Speaker 3: Listen. I mean, you know, being on the cover is
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  Speaker 3: great and we think you're you know, and and Joey
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  Speaker 3: McGuire was very happy we were there. And also you know,
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  Speaker 3: we look at Texas as the team to be in
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  Speaker 3: the state of Texas, uh and and one of the
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  Speaker 3: teams to beat across the nation. This team is absolutely
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  Speaker 3: loaded for bear and especially with a second year with
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: arch manding at the helm, especially within our estimation, a
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  Speaker 3: revamped offensive line which feels really really big for this team,
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  Speaker 3: and then a lot of the pieces that they've got.
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  Speaker 3: This is a this is a team that that's ready
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  Speaker 3: for prime time. We think that they have an opportunity
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  Speaker 3: to win it all. You know, they're on that short
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  Speaker 3: list of teams across the nation that they that have
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: legit aspirations for a national championship and and and.
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  Speaker 2: The roster speaks for itself.
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  Speaker 3: They've got to go out there and they got to
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  Speaker 3: perform right I mean last year we were saying some
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  Speaker 3: similar things about this program. Uh did live up to
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: the expectations then, But this year we like the pieces.
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  Speaker 3: The pieces are really really strong for ce Sarkisian squad.
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  Speaker 3: They's got to go out there and do it in
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  Speaker 3: a difficult league with a difficult schedule.
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  Speaker 2: But we think that.
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  Speaker 3: They've got the they've got they've got the goods playing
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  Speaker 3: and simple and you know, as good as Texas texts
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  Speaker 3: going to be, and we think they've got a great
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: opportunity to win the Big twelve, you know, right now,
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  Speaker 3: stack them up on the field.
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  Speaker 2: Texas will be our pick for the best powerful count team.
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  Speaker 1: In the day, Greg Tepper, Editor in chief Dave Campils
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Texas Football Magazine.
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  Speaker 2: But here's the question I've never asked you before. H uh.
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  Speaker 1: And by the way, a nice gatefold cover photo, I
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: guess you should point out for one of the best
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: running backs in all of Texas in Landon Williams Cols, who,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: By the way, that that's going to be pretty interesting,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: isn't it. In in five A D one with Randall
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: moving to five A D one now these days, even
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: though they've had those two great slugfests with South o Cliff,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: which makes Sock, I guess, the the obvious choice to
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: defend the title in five A D two, But it
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: puts them right in the in the list of contenders
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: for five A, I say contenders because the soda drops
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: from six A and it's entirely different.
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  Speaker 2: Kettle official. I'll get back to that in the moment.
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  Speaker 1: What I wanted to ask about was, this is the
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: question I never asked you before. How does it go
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: about it? And and you, of course, being the editor
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  Speaker 1: in chief probably of the largest say in this, Uh,
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  Speaker 1: in who writes what? What previews?
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  Speaker 2: College?
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  Speaker 1: I know Mike Craven is one of the best in
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: college football, Carter yates outstanding young talent in your in
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: your high school stable. I got to see several of
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: your crew there when we were there in the aforementioned
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: watering hole Saturday night meeting. But uh, who, how has
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: it decided? I guess maybe the who is you? But
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: how how has it decided? Who rights the previews on
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: which sections which classifications? For high school Division one, Division
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: two fcs in the college ranks?
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  Speaker 2: How does that all meet out for you? Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: So, ultimately a lot of that is just my job.
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  Speaker 3: My job is just to we've got you know, I've
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: got a bunch of spreadsheets of all the different features,
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: all different things that have to get written, and then
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  Speaker 3: it's my job to kind of assign those out to
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: various people. Now we will have guys who will There's
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  Speaker 3: some things that are obvious fits, right. We we know that,
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  Speaker 3: you know, Mike Craven on the FBS ranks, he's got
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  Speaker 3: it covered and we know he's going to write most there.
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  Speaker 2: There may be one or two that that that.
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  Speaker 3: We we shift over to Carter just from a workload perspective,
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: but you know, for for Mike, we know that that
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  Speaker 3: he's going to have a lot of that covered.
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  Speaker 2: At that point.
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  Speaker 3: We kind of, uh in the high school ranks where
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: things get interesting. The high school previews, I think we've
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: talked about we kind of we do have a great
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: number of contributors from various parts of the state who
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: know there's they're part of the state very well. Jack
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: Stallard writes our East Texas Capsules, right, you know, we
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: we've got David Hinnahosta down in San Antonio.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: It does a great job.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: Right. The features in the high school ranks are interesting too,
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: because a lot of that will fall on Carter and
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: I and we will just kind of jockey for position.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: There's some negotiating here.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: You know, if Carter really wants to write the four
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: A cover boy story, then then yeah, we can we
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: can talk about that. We can we can see if
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: he has that. A lot of it is just managing workload,
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: because you know, when it's all put together in a magazine,
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: I know, it feels like a lot there. It's it's
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: a ton to keep in your head and a ton
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: of work, you know, to put all those things together.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: Mike Craven was talking about how I think he wrote like,
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: you know, one hundred and seventy thousand towards or something
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: for this magazine.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: It's crazy. He's basically writing.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: A book every time, and so I want to make
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: sure we're managing workloads.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: And because we got to make sure.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: We have enough time on the back end edit it
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: to to get it laid out and things like that.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: So a lot of it just comes down to, hey,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: I think your plate is full, we'll go and move
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: some things around. A lot of it there's jocking for position, though.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: You know, there's some some people who will who will
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: call for the ball for certain things for I know,
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: Carter Carter Yates, for example, was very very adamant. He
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: wanted to write the Prairie View A and M section
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: because Tremaine Jackson is one of his one of the
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: best interviews in Texas and so he he he went
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: to Mike and.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Says, hey, you've got to top this chest to be like,
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: let me grab this one. So there's a there's a
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: little bit of that that goes on as well.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: And let's be honest, nobody, nobody was going to write
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the six man preview, but you nobody because you and
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I are freakazoids enough about six man football and one
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: A six man deal was going to be your baby,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: come hell or high water.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I was gonna do six man. That's just
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: that's just me. I want to do it.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: I want to take care of it, you know, I
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: want to allow you have to get a different mindset,
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: that's a different kind of give to shift in a
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: different way to think about uh, the you know, six
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: man football. And it's especially I would say this year,
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: in a realignment year where there is so many moving
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: parts and so much change in the one A ranks
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: that I was like, hey, I'm going to take care
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: of this. You guys got a lot on your plate.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: I don't want you to have to shift your brain
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: and think about things in a different way and a
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: lot of things to slip through the cracks.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: I'll just take care of it.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: I will, you know, go into to six man mode
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: for a week to write this thing. And yeah, because
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: there are so many moving parts in the six man ranks.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: With that, let's jump in.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Because you and I do this every year in the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: run up to the season, we take a different classification
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: or two in a given week. So since we're just
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: a little over a month out, coming up on a
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: month out, I'm gonna get your thoughts on one A
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: six man, the two divisions of that, and two A
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: today and then next week we'll start. We'll do three A,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and then the following four A and so on and
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: so forth. But let's start with one A. Where in
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: one A with six man for folks who don't know,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: that's the same thing where you have a defending state
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: champion in Gordon's gonna be hard to beat. And then
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: you've got another state champion from a year ago, Jaydon,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: who moved to Class A up to the Division one
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: ranks this year.
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: I'm just telling you that for the smallest classification, this
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: is the classification with the most drama. There's a ton
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: going on here because you've got one A Division two
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: where things are like you're already needing a new champion, right,
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: Jaydon moves up, and that's gonna be that's gonna be
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: hard enough to kind of project. Then you add in
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: all of the movement of what happened, Like for example,
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: in our preseason rankings, we were going to have Benjamin
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: as the number one team in the state. Well, then
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: suddenly Kegan Hayes, his dad, the best player in six
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: nth football mis mansion, our cover boy. His dad gets
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: hired at Gordon, you know, as the basketball coach. So
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: he moves over to Gordon. They make a change. Then
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: we're thinking, okay, the number two team in the state
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: was going to be Richland Springs. Well, Richland Springs, suddenly
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: Cohen Ethridge moves to Menard and now they've got to move.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: And when we're talking about one player, as you know
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: Craig in the six man ranks, and especially one A
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: Division two, the smallest, smallest classification, losing like one player
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: can be enormous, and so we end up going with
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: Cherokee kind of by you know, attrition, they end up
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: hurt the year as the number one team one A
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: Division two is going to be wild. And then you
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: go to one A Division one, which is kind of
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: hard to parse for a different way. You've got a
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: ton of really good teams, Teams like Rankin which played
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: for the state championship a year ago, Union Hill, which
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: might be the best team from out east we've seen
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: in quite some time.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: They're gonna be really really good at E. J. Mallory's fantastic.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: Then you've got both state champions there, Jaydon moving up
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: from Division two after winning back to back state championships,
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: and then Gordon, who is a an ultimate mystery box
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: because on one side, they were by far, in my opinion,
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: the best pound for pound team in Texas last year,
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: like in any classification line it up the best pound
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: for pound team.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: They were so much better than everybody else.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: Okay, this year they graduate everybody, literally everybody. They bring
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: back zero starters from last year's team. But then they
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: bring in Keegan Hayes, who's the best player in MIAs
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: Mission six man football. They're hard to read, it's a
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: it's a strange situation. We went to the ranking to
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: start the year, but again, six minute football, this is
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: the year to really sink your teeth into because there
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: was just so much drama and so much unknown here
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: that it wouldn't be a surprise that we had some
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: party crashers kind of come out of nowhere.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: I would submit to you that in no other classification
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: has the drama around coaching involved more so than the
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: six man level. For folks who said, wait a minute,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: what did you say about the coach Benjamin He's now Gordon,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: but Mike Reed's they head coach. Yes, Mike Reed, as
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: they had football coach there, but now now you've got
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Nathan Hayes who's going to be the basketball coach there.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Obviously he'll be a part of the football staff. But
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: we've seen weird things like that Benjamin Strawn in other
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: places where a prominent head coach winds up being an
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: assistant coach on a state contending team.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: It's it is a they're like for all of the
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: drama about like the John Meredith of the world and
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: the six six A ranks man, it's got nothing on
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: six man because I think because the players have such
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: a big role, like because like literally just the math,
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: you're one sixth of the team on the field instead
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: of one to eleventh.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: It is it is wild.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: And you're exactly right if you if you have a
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: if you're a coach's kid, and then suddenly like and
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: you're really good at football, your dad is going to
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: get some job offers that simple because you know that
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: that is the that is the most elegant way to
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: get a guy on your team.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: And to be very clear, I've talked with Mike Breed.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: He and he and Nathan Hays go about years and
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: years and have one to work together for a long time.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: It just so happened that this was the right time
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: for them. They needed a basketball coach anyway, and so
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: it it it works out in that regard. But yeah,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: there is there is so much movement and so many
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: so many kind of intricacies in the six man game
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: that that then when the music stops there and football
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: season gets going, you kind of have to take a
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: couple of weeks to see, Okay, who's who's got what
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: and and exactly how are they.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Going to stack up UH two a UH in in
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: UH Division one you have Monster moving from two A
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Division two to to a Division one.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: And then and then you have a bevy of contenders
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: there and you have again the thing where you had
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the two state champs both into a D one and
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: then to a D two wide open.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Is it very similar to one A Yeah, I think so.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: And again you've got two classifications without a defending champion
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: at least for their own classification to a Division two
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: with Monster moving up really opens things up. And especially
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: I want to draw your attention to Region one where
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: there's a ton of drama.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: You've got Stratford, who's gonna be really good. Groover is
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: going to be really good.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: In the same district, you have Stinnett West, Texas, who
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: is a two waight Division one state semifinals dropping down
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: into District one.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: That's gonna be fun. And then you've got the drama.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Of what's going on with Stratford and Ropes because Chase Lantelmy,
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: who was in my estimation, Stratford's best player their quarterback,
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: transferred to Ropes in the offseason.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Which is going to give them a huge boost.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: That's not even to mention our number one team, which
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: is the Bremont Tigers. We really like what coach coach
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: Jef Kazowski's squad has this year. I'm excited to see
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: what happens again. Munster has been in many respects. Munster
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: and Shiner both moving up, have been such dominant forces
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: there that now now that with both of them gone,
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: it kind.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Of makes this vacuum into Advision two, which is going.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: To be fascinating to watch there in the smallest elevenman
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: Class two A Division one is absolutely fascinating for a
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: variety of reasons. One of them is again, Region four
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: really got reloaded. You've got Gnado our number one team,
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: plus Shiner, uh plus uh you know Raffeirio. We're interested
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: to see what they look like. We've heard that they
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: may be on a downswing. Here, Kennedy, I think it's
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: gonna be really good. You added a kind of sleeper
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: like Rosebud a lot, and then you have what can
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: only be described as the most remarkable like makeover of
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: a region in recent history.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Because in the.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: Last alignment, Region two of two A Division one was
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: just kind of like a Who's that of Texas high
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: school football. Hamilton ended up becoming a dominant power out
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: of there. But it was like Hamilton and Axtole and
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: like Italy and and just like a handful of these
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: teams that you just don't really know. It's like the
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: UIL heard us talking about it, and they're like, all right,
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: all right, all right, watch this. What if we cram
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: in Cisco. We'll move them over from Region one. We'll
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: move Mason over from Region four. We'll drop a defending
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: state champ two times of fending state champion Monster in
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: there as well. Oh and by the way, Paul, we're
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: gonna move them into Region two as well. And so
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: now Region two has gone from like a real like
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: mystery box.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Someone's gotta win it Region two.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: They must see region into a division one and in
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: a game where like a region where like second round
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: and playoffs, we're gonna have like legit state ranked teams
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: going at it. It was once you like going through
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: two A in realignment. It was such a especially D one,
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: it was such an overthrow of last year's alignment that
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: it makes for a ton of new storylines heading into
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: twenty six.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: And you have throw that Gnado as your pick to
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: win two. A D one gonna be really good, really good.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: They were This is a team that remember they won
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: the title back in twenty twenty four. Last year they
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: were super young, really really and still made it to
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: Thanksgiving weekend. They made the Thanksgiving weekend. They graduate a
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: grand total of two players. Two bring back eighteen star
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: or eighteen starters total from last year's team.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: It is a real They're gonna be really, really good.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: They'll have a challenge within their own district and Shiner
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: who moves up from two eight Division two. But I
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: think that I think the Canado is our early favorite
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: to win.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: All right, we're off and running with Tuesdays with Tepper.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: By the way, Monday tep of next week is when
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: we start giving away copies of your outstanding publication, one
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: per hour for three weeks. We're gonna do so. So
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: we're gonna do that and for those who don't win one.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: It's available in all the usual places, right.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: You can go to your local grocery store, Walmart, wherever
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: you buy you know, Barnes and Nobles really good.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: You've also go to Texas Football.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: Dot com and subscribe, or we'll just or you can
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: go to our store and we'll just mail you a magazine.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: If you go to our store on Texas football dot com. Hey,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: great to get it off and run. I appreciate the time.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: As always TEP will do again next Tuesday, looking forward
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: to my friend. All Right, that's correct, Chap, editor in
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: chief Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine. We have more coming
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: up here on thirteen under the Zone.