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Steve Sarkisian on being the last SEC team standing in the CFP · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: And we're back to the Craig Way Show. Have a
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  Speaker 1: message for Craig, share it by using the talkback feature
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  Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app. Coming up in a few minutes,
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna let you hear from Michael Taff. You may
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  Speaker 1: have seen a couple of soundbites of what that guy
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  Speaker 1: is all about and actually what he's kind of had
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  Speaker 1: to endure over the past week because of the controversy
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  Speaker 1: about the no call targeting and some of the feedback
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  Speaker 1: and blowback he had personally has received on that, but
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  Speaker 1: other things as well. So we'll hear from Michael Taff
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  Speaker 1: coming up in a few minutes, but we do want
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  Speaker 1: to hear some more from Longhorn's head coach Steve Sarkisian
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  Speaker 1: and from his media zoom availability. And next up, he
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  Speaker 1: was asked about uh Ibuka and Jeremiah Smith and the
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  Speaker 1: the outstanding two receivers for Ohio State and the challenge
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  Speaker 1: they present.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, they're both big physical players. You know, they
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  Speaker 2: have have length, they have speed, they have playmaking ability
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  Speaker 2: on the ball, they have really big catch radiuses they've
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  Speaker 2: got they've got the scheme to go with it with
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  Speaker 2: with coach Kelly and coach day. And they've got a
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  Speaker 2: quarterback who delivers in the ball. So you add all
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  Speaker 2: that up. These guys are impactful players that uh that
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  Speaker 2: are real issues and there we're gonna have a hard
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  Speaker 2: time gardening.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Uh yeah. Mecca A. Buca Is is a veteran
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  Speaker 1: AS senior who has uh you know, nearing right. I
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  Speaker 1: think he has one hundred and ninety four career catches.
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  Speaker 1: He's nearing the Ohio state all time record. Now, we
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  Speaker 1: pointed this out and and and I think it's fair
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  Speaker 1: to repeat it. This run through the college football playoffs,
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  Speaker 1: and I anticipatedveral things coming out of it, and those
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  Speaker 1: have manifested themselves. But there have been some other unknowns
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  Speaker 1: that perhaps I wasn't thinking deeply enough about or counted
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  Speaker 1: on happening, or just kind of emerged. And that is happening.
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  Speaker 1: And here's one of those things. Because of the compressed
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  Speaker 1: amount of practice time. Remember coming out of the conference
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  Speaker 1: championships that was on December seventh, the Longhorns had to
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  Speaker 1: turn around two weeks later, so they had like a
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  Speaker 1: true open date, and then on December twenty first, they
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  Speaker 1: had the first round playoff game against Clinton. They won
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  Speaker 1: that game, then they had what we kind of referred
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  Speaker 1: to as a mini buy because the next one was
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  Speaker 1: on New Year's Day, so there were a total of
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  Speaker 1: i think eleven days before the next game, and they
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  Speaker 1: won that contest in the Peach Bowl of Arizona State,
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  Speaker 1: as we all know, But it wasn't like a full
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  Speaker 1: New Year six Bowl experience. In other words, they even
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  Speaker 1: get their week out and do all these different, you know,
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  Speaker 1: activities and things. You saw that with some of the
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  Speaker 1: older Tier two and Tier three bowls where guys were
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  Speaker 1: going and playing a lot of video games and bowling
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  Speaker 1: and going to different stuff with the guys in the
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  Speaker 1: Alamo Bowl and See World, you know, all those kind
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  Speaker 1: of activities. There were very few of those activities because
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  Speaker 1: the log Worns came in like three days out and
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  Speaker 1: they played the game and one was a media day
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  Speaker 1: and then you know all that, and they got their
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  Speaker 1: practices and did that same story this week. They will
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  Speaker 1: not go to I'm not going to say Dallas the
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  Speaker 1: games in Arlington. It's in Terren County. But folks who've
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  Speaker 1: got a custom of saying Dallas, they're going to Arlington,
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  Speaker 1: They're going to Jerry World. But they won't go up
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  Speaker 1: to Arlington until Wednesday. The game is Friday, so they're
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  Speaker 1: getting their work in most of it this week and
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  Speaker 1: they'll go up there. They'll have a media day, they
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  Speaker 1: will have practices up there, walk through. That's pretty much it.
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  Speaker 1: So and this is for another New Year six bowls
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  Speaker 1: to New Year six bowls in one year, so that's unusual.
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  Speaker 1: And playing in the Cotton Bowl and playing in the
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  Speaker 1: Cotton Bowl for the first time in twenty two years,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, the last time he did it was
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  Speaker 1: January of three. The last time the Texas long Wrnes
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  Speaker 1: played in the Cotton Bowl, the quarterback was Chris Simms.
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  Speaker 1: Think about that. That's how long ago that was. But
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  Speaker 1: in any event, it's been a different kind of bowl experience.
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  Speaker 1: So Sark was asked, did he allow himself an opportunity
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  Speaker 1: to enjoy winning a Peach Bowl, which of course made
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  Speaker 1: Texas the only program in Division on FBS college football
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  Speaker 1: history to win all six New Year six bowls during
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  Speaker 1: the totality of time. Did Sark allow himself to enjoy
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  Speaker 1: that or was it just hey, it was nice, discard it,
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  Speaker 1: get back to work, twenty four hour limit and jump
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  Speaker 1: right back into the Cotton Bowl.
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  Speaker 2: No, I mean we took a moment. We took a
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  Speaker 2: moment after the cleansing game, and took a moment after
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  Speaker 2: the Peach Bowl. You know, there's it's always probably a
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  Speaker 2: good thing when the confetti's fallen on you and it's
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  Speaker 2: your colors, you know, So you know, we try not
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  Speaker 2: to miss those things. You know, as much as there's
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  Speaker 2: a there's the big prize at the end that we're
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  Speaker 2: striving for, there's there's there's victories along the way, and
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  Speaker 2: those small victories need to be celebrated. And this, by
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  Speaker 2: no means was a small victory. But you got to
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  Speaker 2: celebrate your victories as as you as you navigate your
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  Speaker 2: way through it because they're hard to get. If they
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  Speaker 2: weren't that difficult, there'd be a lot of other teams
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  Speaker 2: in this position. But you know, we're fortunate to be here.
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  Speaker 2: And like I said, I've been I've been so proud
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  Speaker 2: of our staff, so proud of our team with their
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  Speaker 2: work ethic, with their determination, with their resiliency, you know,
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  Speaker 2: week after week after week, and it's it's been a credit.
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  Speaker 2: You know that ourselves in Penn State are the only
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  Speaker 2: two teams now that actually played in the conference championship
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  Speaker 2: game and had to play a first round game. So
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  Speaker 2: we're we're the two that really haven't gotten any of
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  Speaker 2: the time off that that you know that Notre Dame
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  Speaker 2: and or Ohio State have gotten and even those teams
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  Speaker 2: that got the first round by So we're just trying
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  Speaker 2: to you know, take it all and stride and continue
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  Speaker 2: to move forward, but again along the way, enjoy the
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  Speaker 2: victories as they come.
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  Speaker 1: And toward that end. Sark was asked if being the
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  Speaker 1: final SEC school still playing carries an extra special meeting.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I I still hold true to this,
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  Speaker 2: like I really believe this is a premiere you know,
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  Speaker 2: football conference in America because of the weekend, week out
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  Speaker 2: task that it requires physically and mentally. It's not a
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  Speaker 2: one time thing where you just play one SEC team
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  Speaker 2: and then you get on to go do the rest.
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  Speaker 2: You have to do it week in and week out.
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  Speaker 2: You have to go on some really go into some
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  Speaker 2: really difficult environments and over time that's what takes this
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  Speaker 2: toll on your team physically and mentally, and so you've
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  Speaker 2: got to make sure that you can kind of recharge
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  Speaker 2: those batteries, stay as healthy as you can. You know,
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  Speaker 2: clearly we've we've endured our fair share of injuries this year,
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  Speaker 2: and I think have done a pretty good job, decent
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  Speaker 2: job of navigating our way through it, you know. I know,
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  Speaker 2: unfortunately for Georgia, you know, they lost their starting quarterback
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  Speaker 2: in our game, in the SEC championship game, and I'm
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  Speaker 2: sure other teams in our conference had to endure things
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  Speaker 2: that can take their toll on your team. And that's
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  Speaker 2: that's no excuse at the end of the day. We
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  Speaker 2: have to find a way to navigate our ways through it.
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  Speaker 2: But to be here on this stage, to be back
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  Speaker 2: in the final four, wearing that SEC patch on our jersey,
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  Speaker 2: you know we're gonna do our best to represent it
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  Speaker 2: because this is a heck of a conference.
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  Speaker 1: No doubt about that, all right. And in continuing the
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  Speaker 1: preparation for this, how about the dynamic of playing in Arlington,
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  Speaker 1: where the Longhorns last played last year and won their
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  Speaker 1: final Big Twelve championship. Does it carry any extra weight
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  Speaker 1: responsibility pressure?
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  Speaker 2: I don't necessarily feel pressure upon that. You know, when
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  Speaker 2: you take the head job here at the University of Texas,
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  Speaker 2: you got to know what you're signing up for, and
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  Speaker 2: there's an expectation in a standard here to to compete
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  Speaker 2: and to win championships, compete for and win championships, and
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  Speaker 2: so you acknowledge it, you you accept it, and you
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  Speaker 2: start charging forward. I think this is more of a
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  Speaker 2: great opportunity, UH to play in the Coup Bowl and
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  Speaker 2: in the in the semi finals of the college football
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  Speaker 2: Playoff against an unbelievable opponent, UH in Ohio State. They've
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  Speaker 2: got a great fan base, They're going to travel there,
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  Speaker 2: their fans are played against them in the Rose Bowl
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  Speaker 2: and UH a different different opportunities, so their fans travel really,
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  Speaker 2: really well. And so the challenge for us is to
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  Speaker 2: stay composed in that arena.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: The challenge for our fans is to show up, buy
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  Speaker 2: tickets and support us so that we can make it
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  Speaker 2: as tough in an environment as we can, because, like
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  Speaker 2: I said, we're gonna need all those factors in this game.
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  Speaker 2: And this is this is the you know, the best
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  Speaker 2: team in college football, and we're gonna have to make
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  Speaker 2: sure that that we put our best forward to to
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  Speaker 2: give ourselves a chance to win game.
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  Speaker 1: Okay next. Sark has often discussed this NFL schedule, or
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  Speaker 1: at this college football schedule resembling more of an NFL schedule.
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  Speaker 1: Now now, because this is game number sixteen that they win,
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  Speaker 1: they'll be play seventeen games. So has it begun to
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  Speaker 1: take on the field of an NFL schedule.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it definitely feels like that, you know, you think about,
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  Speaker 2: like I said, we're going into game number sixteen here,
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  Speaker 2: and so how you manage the players, how you utilize
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  Speaker 2: your time, how you you try to keep them as
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  Speaker 2: fresh as you can, not only physically but mentally, but
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  Speaker 2: also put forth, you make sure you've got a good
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  Speaker 2: plan that you can execute against. You know, the further
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  Speaker 2: you go into the playoffs, the better quality opponent you face,
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  Speaker 2: and so your quality of play has to continue to improve.
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  Speaker 2: The coaching has to improve. Everybody's got to improve. We've
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  Speaker 2: always got to continue to strive to get better, all
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  Speaker 2: on the same time trying to get everybody fresh and
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  Speaker 2: back and putting them in the best position to have success.
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  Speaker 2: And so it's a challenge, but that's the beauty of it, right,
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  Speaker 2: That's that's like to be in the stage and to
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  Speaker 2: be with this opportunity. You embrace it and you try
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  Speaker 2: to balance it as best you can so that when
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  Speaker 2: the ball's kicked off You're putting everybody, your staff, your
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  Speaker 2: players in the best position to have some success.
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  Speaker 1: All right there it is long wrn's head coach Steve
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  Speaker 1: Sarkesian his thoughts on getting ready for this matchup with
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State up next went in for Michael Tapp Long
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  Speaker 1: WRN Safety about well, the backlash that came out of
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  Speaker 1: the Peach Bowl and what's ahead of them with the
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  Speaker 1: Cotton Bowl when we continue on AM thirteen under the
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  Speaker 1: Zone