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Steve Sarkisian on what characteristics all Nick Saban disciples share · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: Now I wanted to get to some comments from log
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  Worn's head coach Steve Sarkisian. Now, we didn't get a
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  chance to play all of the ones from the Monday
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  press conference, but there's some important things that you need
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  to hear out. First of all, one about his defense
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  and how they've had what we know in the industry
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  to be sudden change defense. If you give up the
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  ball on an offensive turnover, how the defense could clamp down.
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  And that's what they did against Oklahoma last week with
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  the early interception throne by Quinn e Weers on the
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  third play of the game, and they held Oklahoma without
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  a point as Sooners went up missing a field go.
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  So sark was asked about the prowess his defense has
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  displayed in not allowing scores following turnovers.
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  Speaker 2: I'll say, first of all, we're turning the ball over
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  too much and that has to be rectified, and so
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  we continuing to work on it, always looking for things
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  and our team where we can improve and where we
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  need to get better. Clearly, that's one of them. We
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  can't We cannot keep doing that to our defense and
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  putting them, putting them in those positions. But a credit
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  to our defense, and I touched on it Saturday. We
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  practice those scenarios. We practice that mentality of sudden change
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  and what that feels like to take the field and
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  a lot of teams take the field with the poor means,
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  oh man, why do we have to go and they
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  get the ball in the fifteen yard line going in
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  or whatever it is. We take the field as it's
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  an opportunity to seize momentum, and I think our players
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  really respond to it and have done a fantastic job.
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  I'm lucky that that's the way we do approach it,
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  but I don't like it, you know, because that means,
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  you know, eight turnovers is way too many through six games,
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  and that that's got to improve the second half the
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  season for us.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so there's that. He was also asked
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  about his running back depth. You know, Jaydon Blue of
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  course had the couple of fumbles and then came back
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  and he's bounced back and he's had the end had
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  to go through that jerk Gibson runs top between the tackles,
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  but of course he is a true freshman. You have
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  Trey Wisner now and Wisder of course had the fumble
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  that went into the end zone that Silas Bolden fell
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  on for a touchdown was a huge moment, and then
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  the defense was able to get the ball right back
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  on the fumble, and one play after that, Wiser went
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  forty three yards for a touchdowns. So who was asked
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  about Trey Weisner and the depth at the running back position.
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  Speaker 2: I want to say yes, And you guys might not
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  believe me, but you know, he had a heck of
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  a freshman year of just developing as a running back.
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  But at the same time, we found out a lot
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  about his speed and his toughness because of what he
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  did on special teams last year, and he had a
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  tremendous spring ball and the growth that what we saw
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  during spring practice and then the growth we saw in
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  training camp, you know, as he continued to get more opportunities,
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  and so I'm not surprised, you know. The I guess
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  what I'm learning more and more about him is he
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  has a real natural running ability. He kind of reminds
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  me of Jonathan Brooks at times that you don't get
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  wowed by the size. I don't know if you get
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  wowed by the outright speed, but there's just a natural
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  feel that he finds his way through holes. He's tough
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  to get on the ground, he's physical when he has
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  to be physical, and so I just think that he's
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  got a natural running ability about him. But he also
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  has speed and he has real toughness, which are kind
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  of prerequisites at the position.
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  Speaker 1: A couple other questions, and this is something I definitely
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  wanted you to hear in cause you did not hear
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  it when we brought to the news conference live on Monday,
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  Sark was asked about how well he knows Kirby Spartan.
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  He talked about that, and Kirby, by the way, talked
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  about it in his press conference. He said that the
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  same thing Sarks said. They're both good friends. They're part
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  of I guess a sponsor trip every year. Afterwards, and
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  then Sark had mentioned something about there's, you know, there's
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  certain things both of them being Nick Saban disciples and
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  former assistance and all that kind of stuff. So he's
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  asked if there's a specific characteristic that both he uh
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  and Kirby spart have displayed being Nick Saban disciples.
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  Speaker 2: I'd say the first characteristics is everybody recruits really good players.
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  You know, when you're at Alabama, with coach Saban. I
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  think you come to learn and value that you get
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  to coach great players, and when you've got great players,
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  we all become better coaches. I'm smarter, I call better
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  plays because those guys make me look better, right, And
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  so I think we, you know, all of us that
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  have been with Coach Saban recruit really good players, you know,
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  and whether that's laying at old Miss Kirby myself, you know,
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  they're allys trying to find really good players. I think Two,
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  I think all of us believe in the value of
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  a complete team, you know, whether that's offense, defense, and
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  special teams. You know, because when you when you play
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  games like this at a really high level against really
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  good people, and the goal is to try to win
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  that last game, it's hard to win that last game.
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  It's hard to be a national champion if if you're
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  not a complete team, if you're not a versatile team,
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  and so you got to have depth of quality players.
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  And two, you better be good in all three areas
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  because it's tough to get to that game and it's
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  tough to win that game if you're just a one
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  dimensional team.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, So there was that, and then he was also
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  asked a question about things that the players have said
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  about this big week and and and and the program
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  overall and get ready to take on Georgia, of what
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  what kinds of things does he hear from his players
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  in a week like this, and coming off the winn
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  of Oklahoma, there was.
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  Speaker 2: A there was a few things that got said coming
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  out of the game from those guys. You know, I talked,
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  I did hear that from Jake, And I think that
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  that that just kind of speaks volumes to the mindset
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  of where our team is at right now. I heard
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  John A. Baron talking about getting healthy as quickly as
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  everybody could so that we can come back Monday. You know,
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  how you do anything is how you do everything, as
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  it kind of a mantra we live by. And so
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  all those little things that our guys say, even today
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  when you guys visit with them, the how easy it
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  comes out of them, how easy it flows out of them,
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  has been ingrained in them now for three and four years.
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  Some of these guys that they don't have to think
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  about it, I think they truly believe it. And then
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  that to me is what permeates through our locker room.
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  And so I don't think Jake Majors is the only
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  guy that feels that way. I think he was able
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  to say it was such ease because I think that's
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  what our guys are talking about, you know, and I
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  think that that's a topic of discussion rather than just
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  a personal thought that he has.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: That was in response to a question Roger Wallace asked
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  him about Jake Major sitting down there in the general
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  media session, big old band aid across the bridge of
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  his nose. You were there, cam, you saw it, and
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  he said, what wins like this? They're like they're celebrated
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  more by good teams than great teams because great teams
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  want to be.
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  Speaker 3: Better, he said. I think he said good teams celebrate wins.
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  Great teams don't because they still want to get better.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and it's a good thing. And I will
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  tell you this. You were down in the locker room,
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  so you saw this. Were they happy? Of course they
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  were happy, and they tried on the golden hat. Did
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  you get the trial the golden hat? Did you put
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  the golden hat on?
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  Speaker 3: No?
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  Speaker 1: I did not.
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  Speaker 3: I wouldn't feel comfortable puting the golden hat on.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, tons of people put the golden hat on right
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  down there, my son put the Golden aut I never
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  put the golden hat on, but Jason was down there
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  assisting with the locker room coverage it there and then
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  there was I was sitting there for all any and
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  all the trial if they wanted to, and he put
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  it on, so he had that. No, but you did
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  take a good Instagram photo when he went out to
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  midfield wearing your cowboy hat. And when I first pulled
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  it up, Linda looked at it and said, is he
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  wearing the golden hat? But no, no, he's just wearing his
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  regular cowboy hat standing at midfield on that. My point
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  was going to be that the player, yes, they celebrated it,
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  and they should. A win in this rivalry is big.
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  You put so much of yourself into this, the strategy,
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  the hard work and the emotion, all this they did.
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  They did all of that. Then they released it and
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  went back to work Sunday and Monday and you know,
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  and started working toward getting ready for this game. Because
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  that's how this They've been told this the last couple
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  of years camp, that it's an every week grind in
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  the SEC, and we saw this on the schedule in
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  advance Scott Howard when he was on with US mentioned that,
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  you know, hey, Georgia has to play Alabama on the road,
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  Texas on the road, and Ole Miss on the road.
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  Everybody's got, as my dad used to say, every man
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  has his own sack of rocks to tote. Texas plays
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  all three of its rivalry games away from Austin the
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  OU game in Dallas, at Arkansas, at Texas A and M.
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  Everybody's got challenges on their schedule. And by the way,
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  for those who you know were tracked the schedule earlier,
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  they still have to go to Vanderbilt, which is proving
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  to be certainly no picnic. With Vanderbilt having beaten Alabama Nashville,
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  they have to go to Kentucky. Kentucky a very good
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  team that played Georgia to within a point. They have
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  to do that. And we mentioned the A and M game.
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  Even Florida's been improved, they're gonna have to play them
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  at home, and of course going to Arkansas, and Arkansas
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  beat Tennessee at home. So everybody's got to deal with
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  that sort of thing.
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  Speaker 3: Sark had a really good comment postgame presser on Saturday
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  when he said, after Texas beat Oklahoma forty nine to nothing.
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  They celebrated it like it was a Super Bowl. What
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  happened was they barely got by Iowa State the next
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  week and then ended up losing the Oklahoma State and
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  still and there's other factors to that, but he said
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  that this season, after that game, it's Oklahoma. They just
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  celebrated like it was a win and then moved on.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Now that shows you the difference in the mindset and
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  the difference in the culture in this year's team versus
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  two years ago.
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  Speaker 1: The culture of the growth, maturity, all of that stuff,
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  it rolls in and they know what they are dealing
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  with now in the SEC and they've been told what
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  they're going to be dealing with, you know about this
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  every week grind. They've been told that for the past
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  two years, so they're living it right now. All right
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  up next latest power rankings and the probabilities and things
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  like that for reaching the college football Playoff. We get
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  to that when we continue on sports Radio AM thirteen
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