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How has Texas improved since loss to Georgia? · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: Fradway Show. Have a message for Craig, share it by
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  Speaker 1: using the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio AB.
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  Speaker 2: You can certainly do it that way. You can also
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  Speaker 2: reach us on the text line. I have to do
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  Speaker 2: is text the word Texas followed by your question or
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  Speaker 2: comment to eight one five three zero. So again you
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: would text the word Texas follow by your question or
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: comment to eight one five three zero. Standard messaging and
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: data RH may apply. Somebody asked, what Oklahoma State ever
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  Speaker 2: fire my Gundy?
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  Speaker 3: Good question? Ever's a long word.
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  Speaker 2: I would say, I don't expect it right now, only
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  Speaker 2: because there's a lot of money left on his deal
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  Speaker 2: right now.
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  Speaker 3: He's pushing that theory to the test though he is,
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  Speaker 3: isn't he? Like I said, what the world happened to?
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  Speaker 2: Then? They were favored in the Big Field Championship last
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  Speaker 2: year yep. And they were favored to either win it
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  Speaker 2: or at least qualify for it again. Them along with
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  Speaker 2: the Iowa State I think was one of in Kansas
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  Speaker 2: State were probably the main favorites.
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  Speaker 3: Was at the bottom. Yeah, Ny Dillingham has done in
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  Speaker 3: his first season in ASU really has uh and to
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  Speaker 3: think about.
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  Speaker 2: I saw them back in September spotted for my Powell
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  Speaker 2: tim Healey to play by play voice for the ASU
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  Speaker 2: Sun Devils when they played in San Marcos and almost
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  Speaker 2: lost to Texas State, whereas Matt Berry says, San Marcos,
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  Speaker 2: San Marcos, Uh, they were down and the fourth quarter
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  Speaker 2: came back to win that game. So and Texas State
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  Speaker 2: has gone on to have a good season. By the way, congratulations,
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  Speaker 2: the Bobcats are going bowling. They have a chance to
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  Speaker 2: get to eight wins overall when they ever they find
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  Speaker 2: out whatever bowl game they're headed. For the teams in
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  Speaker 2: the state of Texas, quite a few were going bowling, obviously,
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  Speaker 2: Texas obviously, Texas A and m Texas Tech got a
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  Speaker 2: turnaround for Baylor to get to eight wins after where
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  Speaker 2: they were around. Yeah, TCU has qualified for a ball.
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  Speaker 2: I'm into Texas Tech, Sam Houston. Sam Houston was this close,
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  Speaker 2: this close thumb and an index finger a quarter inch
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  Speaker 2: apart to playing for a conference championship. I don't know
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  Speaker 2: if you've heard about this in the conference Whosa Jacksonville State,
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  Speaker 2: Rich rod Rich Rodriguez done a fabulous job there, has
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  Speaker 2: them in first place and they're playing Western Kentucky and
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  Speaker 2: they had I believe a seventeen to sixteen lead in
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  Speaker 2: the final seconds, had they held on and won, they
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  Speaker 2: would have gone unbeaten. Conference play. The number two seed
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  Speaker 2: would have been Sam Houston. But Western Kentucky kick they
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  Speaker 2: walk off I think a fifty four yard field goal
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  Speaker 2: something like that, and won it. So Jacksonville State played
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  Speaker 2: Western Kentucky Saturday. Jacksonville State will play Western Kentucky again
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  Speaker 2: this week in the conference championship game for Conference USA.
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  Speaker 2: But Sam Houston is going to a bowl. So you
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  Speaker 2: have Sam Baylor, Texas Texas A, and m Texas Tech,
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  Speaker 2: TCU Texas State.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's it. At seven.
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  Speaker 2: North Texas got there by winning at Temple over the weekend.
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  Speaker 3: Eight. So n SMU makes nine nine.
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  Speaker 2: Of the thirteen I think D one programs FBS programs
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  Speaker 2: in the state are going to a bowl. UTEP didn't
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  Speaker 2: make it, Rice didn't make it, Houston didn't make it,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm leaving one out. But anyway, there's four. Pretty
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  Speaker 2: sure there's four Division one FBS teams that didn't make you.
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  Speaker 2: I say there's thirteen, and I think nine made it
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  Speaker 2: from the state of Texas. So congratulations, it's a pretty
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  Speaker 2: good deal. All right, let's here's some more from Long
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  Speaker 2: Worn's head coach Steve Sarkisian from the weekly news conference
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  Speaker 2: part of our Longhorns Monday presentation here on sports Radio
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  Speaker 2: AM thirteen under the Zone. All Right, Sart was asked
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  Speaker 2: about how much time he has to spend on two
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  Speaker 2: point conversion plays. This really kind of became even more
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  Speaker 2: evident because of that eight overtime game between Georgia and
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  Speaker 2: Georgia Tech. How many can you stockpile? Do you have
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  Speaker 2: enough in the playbook? How do you deal with that
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  Speaker 2: given that you only have so many plays you can
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  Speaker 2: prepare for?
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  Speaker 3: Sarks. So you've got to be prepared for about everything.
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  Speaker 1: The game, the length of games, they are what they are.
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  Speaker 1: And college football is a very unique overtime format where
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  Speaker 1: you get it at the twenty five and if you score,
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  Speaker 1: you get to kick the extra point. When you get
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  Speaker 1: into that second overtime. When you score, it's mandatory that
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  Speaker 1: you go for two, okay, and then beyond that you're
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  Speaker 1: just going for two the rest of the way. And
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  Speaker 1: so we do do a lot of work in training
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  Speaker 1: camp in relation to two point conversion plays on offense
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  Speaker 1: and style of defense, and then we periodically do it
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  Speaker 1: throughout the season, good on good, but always on offense.
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  Speaker 1: We're studying, we're we're looking at two point conversion type
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  Speaker 1: plays and I bet we carry between six and seven
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  Speaker 1: of those plays every week. Knowingly, if that if that
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  Speaker 1: situation were to arise in game when sometimes you have
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  Speaker 1: to go for two or for overtime purposes when you
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  Speaker 1: need to go for two, that you know, I think
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  Speaker 1: our guys have a lot of confidence in going and
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  Speaker 1: executing those calls. But again, you have to practice it
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  Speaker 1: because is it a It is a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a different style of play, you know, and you almost
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  Speaker 1: can see it when it gets to it that balls
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  Speaker 1: on the three yard line of people kind of shifting
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  Speaker 1: gears and there's a lot more gas and different things
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  Speaker 1: that pop up. And that's why defensively, the discipline you
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  Speaker 1: have to play with in two point conversions is really critical.
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  Speaker 2: Now, for the light entertainment portion of the news conference,
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  Speaker 2: our friend Terry Middleton from Wren's Illustrated asked sarka question,
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  Speaker 2: but he prefaced it by quoting Bob Seeger's song like
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  Speaker 2: a Rock and many of us, who if you followed
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  Speaker 2: classic rock at all, or whether you're very familiar with
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  Speaker 2: that and how slow it goes, and talk about I
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  Speaker 2: was standing tall and free and all of those kinds
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  Speaker 2: of platitudes. So he actually quoted from it and then
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  Speaker 2: asked sark about that about Quinn Ewers and will you
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  Speaker 2: have a heart to heart with him about taking this
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  Speaker 2: team all the way?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if I'll have that exact moment, but
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  Speaker 1: but I do think we'll. We'll talk quite a bit
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  Speaker 1: about being a steady see. You know, we talked quite
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  Speaker 1: a bit about that. You know, a a lot of
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  Speaker 1: things around us may be rocky and whatnot. You know,
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  Speaker 1: our our minds, our hearts, our souls are a steady sea.
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  Speaker 1: And I think Quinn is an epitome of that. You know,
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  Speaker 1: he's he he the guy is right here, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Uh and even Saturday night, you know, after a couple uh,
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  Speaker 1: a couple turnovers there in the low red, I don't
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  Speaker 1: think the guy wavered. You know, he had showed great
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  Speaker 1: leadership in the huddle. The guys responded to him, and
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  Speaker 1: so you know, I think he'll be ready to play.
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  Speaker 1: You know, That's that's what he showed me over time.
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  Speaker 1: You know that that the bigger the moment that guy
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  Speaker 1: shows up and we need to play well around him.
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  Speaker 1: You know that that's gonna be important. You know, we
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  Speaker 1: can't just rely on number three. We needed We need
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  Speaker 1: to block well, we need to run well, we need
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  Speaker 1: to run good routes, we need to catch the ball.
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  Speaker 1: We need to do all the things right and that generally
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  Speaker 1: allows the quarterback to play even better.
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  Speaker 2: Sark did mention we had the block well, and he
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  Speaker 2: was asked about the pressure packages that Georgia can roll
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  Speaker 2: in and what they did do very well in the
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  Speaker 2: first meeting between the two.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know they you know, Kirby's a great coach,
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  Speaker 1: humans a great coach. Will Muschamps a great coach man.
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  Speaker 1: They got three really good minds on defense, not to
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  Speaker 1: take anyway, three from their other coachings on that staff,
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  Speaker 1: very good defensive staff. And and historically they've they've been
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  Speaker 1: a very good third down defense with their pressure packages.
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  Speaker 1: And and it's twofold. Part of it is, you know,
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  Speaker 1: recognizing you know what they're doing, and then having the
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  Speaker 1: ability to win your one on ones. You know, they
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  Speaker 1: they create one on one situations and and and you've
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  Speaker 1: got to you got to have the physical ability and
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  Speaker 1: use your fundamentals and techniques to block them. And then
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  Speaker 1: on top of that, you have to have the ability
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  Speaker 1: to get open and you got to be able to
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  Speaker 1: beat man coverage. And we struggled at all three of those.
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  Speaker 1: In the first game. We didn't identify a couple blitz
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  Speaker 1: as very well. We had free rushers, uh and they
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  Speaker 1: we got hit. We struggled to block them at times
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  Speaker 1: one on one when we had those opportunities, and then
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  Speaker 1: we struggled to get open versus man coverage down the field.
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  Speaker 1: And so there's layers to this that we have to
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  Speaker 1: play much better at if we want to if we
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  Speaker 1: want to be victorious Saturday. So a lot to work
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  Speaker 1: on that front.
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  Speaker 2: On the opposite side, on his defensive front, he was
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  Speaker 2: asked about Trade Moore's impact on the defense, especially over
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  Speaker 2: these past few weeks.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I think Trey's had a heck of a year.
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  Speaker 1: And that's I think sometimes the problem with with with
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  Speaker 1: you all no offense and fans, we always want to
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  Speaker 1: look at numbers and we want to look at production.
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  Speaker 1: And I've been talking all season long about how much
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  Speaker 1: of an impact he's had in the run game, how
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  Speaker 1: much he's affected the quarterback it's just now now he's
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  Speaker 1: starting to get some sacks and Tray's playing really good.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 1: Well, he's had a really good year for us, and
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  Speaker 1: I've been I've been proud of him of sticking to it.
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  Speaker 1: And then sure there's probably been a level of frustration
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  Speaker 1: for him that you know, he hadn't gotten the sacks
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  Speaker 1: and the numbers. Well, all of a sudden, now in
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  Speaker 1: the most critical games, in the most critical moments, h
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  Speaker 1: those players are starting to show and he's starting to
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  Speaker 1: make these plays for us. I think it's been a
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  Speaker 1: great compliment with calling and our ability to have he
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  Speaker 1: and Calling out there together along with Anthony Hill, where
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  Speaker 1: we can give multitude of looks with those guys moving around,
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  Speaker 1: and then you still have Vernon on the inside and
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  Speaker 1: Alfred on the inside. That our rush is now can
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  Speaker 1: create a lot of issues for opponents because of the
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  Speaker 1: variety of people that can get to the quarterback. And so,
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  Speaker 1: you know, his production now picking up. I'm happy for
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  Speaker 1: him that way, But he's he's had a really good
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  Speaker 1: year for us. But I do think he's playing his
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  Speaker 1: best football for us right now.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, And then he was asked about what he's learned
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  Speaker 2: about his team since that lost to Georgia.
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  Speaker 1: I thought we had good leadership. I found out we
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  Speaker 1: do have good leadership. And those guys haven't waivered, they
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  Speaker 1: haven't blinked from a leadership down. And you know, the
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  Speaker 1: resiliency that you have to have as a team, I
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  Speaker 1: think is mightily important. And you never know when adversity
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  Speaker 1: is going to strike. But as I say, every year
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  Speaker 1: a team takes on a new personality, there's new leadership,
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  Speaker 1: there's new voices in that locker room. Who are they?
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  Speaker 1: And I thought we had good leadership, but it was
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  Speaker 1: smooth saleing there for a while. And then when you
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  Speaker 1: when you get hit in the mouth and you stumble
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  Speaker 1: and you fall, you know, as I touched on, we
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  Speaker 1: had to get back up. We had to get back
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  Speaker 1: up quickly, and we had to go compete again. And
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  Speaker 1: I thought that this team did that, and I was
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  Speaker 1: really proud of them for that, and that that showed
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  Speaker 1: me resiliency, the metal toughness that this group has to
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  Speaker 1: not let a lost linger and to get back up.
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  Speaker 1: And as we said, hey, if we can do this
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  Speaker 1: the right way, maybe we'll get an opportunity to play
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  Speaker 1: them again. But we're gonna have to earn it. It's
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  Speaker 1: not gonna be given to us. And we've had to
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  Speaker 1: earn every game along the way, and these guys have
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  Speaker 1: gone out and earned it. They've earned an opportunity to
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  Speaker 1: play for an SEC championship, and I'm proud of them
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  Speaker 1: for that.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Next, he was asked about how much the offensive
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  Speaker 2: line has improved in preventing sacks. Remember, in the Vanderbilt
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  Speaker 2: and Georgia games, combining the Lowrens allowed sixteen sacks. They've
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  Speaker 2: only allowed six totals since then. What's been the big difference.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's probably a combination of all. I would
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  Speaker 1: say the first part is we're running the ball better
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  Speaker 1: and we're not We're not a one dimensional team maybe
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  Speaker 1: where we were at that juncture of the season. I
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  Speaker 1: you know, I think with the running game, that allows
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  Speaker 1: us to do more. It forces defensive linemen, It forces
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  Speaker 1: defensive play callers to have to defend the run and
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  Speaker 1: make sure their gap sound or we can hurt you there.
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  Speaker 1: It allows us to play action pass and do some
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  Speaker 1: of those things to maybe use a little bit more
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  Speaker 1: max protection. And on the on the flip side, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I think we've avoided some of the I guess call them.
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  Speaker 1: I'd call nonsense sacks, like we're calling an RPO and
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  Speaker 1: oh shoot, the guys not open and the offensive line
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  Speaker 1: is blocking for a run and the quarterback gets sacked
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  Speaker 1: because he's got nowhere to throw the ball. We've we've
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  Speaker 1: kind of eliminated some of those too, to go along
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  Speaker 1: with I think we're identifying fronts better. I think our guys,
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  Speaker 1: our running backs are pass protecting better. We need to
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  Speaker 1: be better than we even been that and that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: that's got to continue down that path. You know, We've
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  Speaker 1: got to continue to try to improve that to protect
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  Speaker 1: the quarterback so that we can do the things down
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  Speaker 1: the field that we want to do.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Then finally, Sark was asked about the vibe in the
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  Speaker 2: locker room these days.
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  Speaker 1: Our culture is so cool. These guys genuinely love one another,
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  Speaker 1: and you could feel it. You could feel it when
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  Speaker 1: we got off the bus in College Station. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if that was intentional or not, but
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  Speaker 1: they drove us through all of their fans and it
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  Speaker 1: was probably the best thing that could ever done, quite frankly,
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  Speaker 1: because at that moment it alerted us to what we
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  Speaker 1: had to do and The biggest thing we had to
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  Speaker 1: do was stay tight together. Is stick together, and that's
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  Speaker 1: something that our guys are comfortable doing because of our culture.
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  Speaker 1: And in the end, when you accomplish something like that,
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  Speaker 1: everybody was just happy for the team. It wasn't about
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  Speaker 1: one guy or another guy. It was about what the
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  Speaker 1: team had accomplished. And we knew would be a heck
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  Speaker 1: of a challenge to get to an SEC championship, and
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  Speaker 1: it took all the way until the last game to
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  Speaker 1: go do that and to get it done on the
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  Speaker 1: road in a renewed rivalry with A and M. It
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  Speaker 1: was a special moment. But that moment ended when we
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  Speaker 1: got off the bus back here in Austin. It was okay,
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  Speaker 1: we got to get back to work because the mission
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  Speaker 1: is not done and there's more work to do.
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  Speaker 3: All right, So there it is more work to do.
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  Speaker 2: We have more log worns to discuss when we come
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  Speaker 2: back here on Sports Radio AM thirteen Under the Zone,