Latest / The Craig Way Show / Texas-Tennessee on the Horizon, MLB Postseason Taking Shape, Cowboys Head to Rio

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Texas-Tennessee on the Horizon, MLB Postseason Taking Shape, Cowboys Head to Rio · The Craig Way Show

0:19
Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to a Thursday edition of the program. The
0:24
Speaker 1: Craig Way Show here on Sports Radio AM 1300 The Zone.
0:29
Speaker 1: where you can always listen to us gratis, absolutely free
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Speaker 1: of charge, if you're utilizing the iHeartRadio app. My name
0:36
Speaker 1: is Craig White. Thank you very much for joining us.
0:38
Speaker 1: Producer for the program is Jake Herman. We're with you
0:41
Speaker 1: each and every weekday afternoon, Monday through Friday from 2 p.m.
0:44
Speaker 2: To 5 p.m.
0:45
Speaker 1: We bring you various topics, a lot of sound from
0:48
Speaker 1: involved parties, coaches, players, things like that.
0:51
Speaker 2: Also, people who are close to things.
0:53
Speaker 1: We've got a couple of conversations coming up with some
0:56
Speaker 1: folks we'll tell you.
0:56
Speaker 2: About in a moment.
0:58
Speaker 3: And.
0:59
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2:33
Speaker 1: to be a family program whenever we have the opportunity.
2:36
Speaker 1: Other things we'll keep you updated on. The baseball pennant races.
2:38
Speaker 1: Here we are getting ready to head into the final
2:40
Speaker 1: weekend of the season. The Texas Rangers, who have lost
2:46
Speaker 1: the first two games at home to the New York Mets.
2:48
Speaker 1: Golden opportunities to make hay in the American League West.
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Speaker 1: But then again, this entire season, for all of the
2:53
Speaker 1: teams in the American League West, has been about missed opportunities.
2:58
Speaker 1: So the Rangers are playing the Mets, and they are
3:01
Speaker 1: up 2-1 in the top of the second. Josh Young-Homer,
3:04
Speaker 1: the bottom of the first, has given Texas and Kumar
3:06
Speaker 1: Rocker a 2-1 lead on New York.
3:09
Speaker 2: We'll keep you updated on that.
3:11
Speaker 1: The Astros open up their four-game season-ending series in Sacramento.
3:17
Speaker 1: Toward that end, joining us from Sacramento... Our MLB insider
3:22
Speaker 1: from the Chicago White Sox front office, Gene Watson, will
3:25
Speaker 1: join us from Sactown. He'll be out there. And you say,
3:29
Speaker 1: why is he out there? Remember, Gene is with the
3:31
Speaker 1: Chicago White Sox. There's a very real chance that Chicago
3:36
Speaker 1: could face Houston, if not the Rangers, in the American
3:41
Speaker 1: League playoffs.
3:43
Speaker 2: If Chicago.
3:44
Speaker 1: should happen to win the American League Central.
3:49
Speaker 2: And they're one game back of Cleveland. If they should
3:50
Speaker 2: happen to win the Central.
3:52
Speaker 1: Then they would play the winner of the three seed
3:57
Speaker 1: versus the six seed. And the six seed could be
4:01
Speaker 1: either the Rangers.
4:01
Speaker 2: Or the Astros.
4:02
Speaker 1: So he's out there kind of doing an advanced scout thing.
4:04
Speaker 1: So he'll join us in the four o'clock hour. Coming
4:07
Speaker 1: up here in a few minutes, Roger Wallace, my broadcast
4:12
Speaker 1: partner on Longhorn Football, and who helps us out also
4:17
Speaker 1: on the fill-in basis for men's and women's basketball and baseball.
4:21
Speaker 1: And Roger will join us because, in addition to talking
4:26
Speaker 1: some Longhorn football, we'll get his preview of all the
4:30
Speaker 1: high school football offerings that will be televised with that
4:33
Speaker 1: KXAN Nexstar family of opportunities there. Like tonight on KBVO,
4:39
Speaker 1: it's Leander and Cedar Park. And then on KXM Plus,
4:43
Speaker 1: there are multiple offerings. So we'll visit Raj coming up
4:46
Speaker 1: on a few minutes. But we want to lead off
4:49
Speaker 1: with Longhorn's head coach, Steve Sarkeesian. He had his weekly
4:51
Speaker 1: Thursday media Zoom. And that weekly Thursday media Zoom is
5:02
Speaker 1: the last opportunity for the media to to get with
5:10
Speaker 1: Sark and ask him certain questions. So toward that end,
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Speaker 1: we started off with Sark with some opening comments.
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Speaker 4: You know, obviously we're about 48 hours away from kick.
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Speaker 4: And so that part, when you start thinking of it
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Speaker 4: that way, you know, it's getting closer.
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Speaker 5: It's exciting.
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Speaker 4: It's a great opportunity for our team starting off SEC
5:31
Speaker 4: play in a historic stadium, legendary matchup. the opportunity that
5:37
Speaker 4: we get to kick off SEC play. It's going to
5:41
Speaker 4: be a tough environment against a really good team. But
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Speaker 4: I do think our practice habits, the way we've worked
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Speaker 4: this week, have been very impressed with our guys.
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Speaker 5: And so, you know, the.
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Speaker 4: Key to the drill is make sure we're ready to go,
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Speaker 4: ready to go from the opening bell and then go
5:55
Speaker 4: play four quarters of football.
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Speaker 2: Okay. So then the questions start.
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Speaker 1: Now, remember, when you start with conference play, you have
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Speaker 1: a roster limit of what you can take on the road.
6:07
Speaker 1: you know, non-conference, you can take as many as you want.
6:10
Speaker 1: You know, as many as you, if you had, what's
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Speaker 1: the maximum? 134 in the program, even if you had,
6:16
Speaker 1: if you had 134 in your program, you could take
6:19
Speaker 1: all of them on a non-conference game if you wanted,
6:22
Speaker 1: or 120 or 105, whatever.
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Speaker 2: Conference play, you're limited to 74.
6:26
Speaker 6: 74.
6:27
Speaker 1: So Sark was asked, what goes into putting together the
6:33
Speaker 1: 74 players who make that travel squad. Is that a
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Speaker 1: consistent thing he likes to have, or do you have
6:40
Speaker 1: changes on that?
6:42
Speaker 5: I think it varies.
6:44
Speaker 4: You know, you're thinking about offense, you're thinking about defense,
6:47
Speaker 4: you're thinking about special teams, right? When you start talking about,
6:51
Speaker 4: you know, some of those guys later of who's coming,
6:53
Speaker 4: who's not, you know, with that being said, you know,
6:58
Speaker 4: depending on what's your plan, you know, depending on, Certain
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Speaker 4: guys' roles, are they backups on special teams? What does
7:05
Speaker 4: that all look like? And your own roster. And so,
7:08
Speaker 4: you know, again, I think it varies year to year.
7:10
Speaker 4: I think it varies week to week. You never want
7:13
Speaker 4: to feel like you're strapped where you don't have enough
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Speaker 4: at a certain spot. Uh, but 74, um, is a
7:20
Speaker 4: fine number. You know, again, I think that we can,
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Speaker 4: we can make that work.
7:24
Speaker 1: All right. Uh, on to the expected question about the
7:28
Speaker 1: student athlete, uh, student athlete availability report. The SEC has
7:33
Speaker 1: that where you, it's basically the injury report like you
7:36
Speaker 1: have in the NFL, but they call it the student
7:38
Speaker 1: athlete availability report. Uh, Tennessee has a lot of players
7:44
Speaker 1: on the list, most of whom have not made much
7:47
Speaker 1: of an impact anyway, like tight end Ethan Davis, wide
7:51
Speaker 1: receiver Joaquin Watson, linebacker Jaden Harmon, defensive back Ed Rees-Faroque,
7:59
Speaker 1: also DB Dylan Lewis.
8:01
Speaker 2: Those are all out.
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Speaker 1: Questionable running back Javin Gordon and defensive lineman Nathan Robinson.
8:07
Speaker 1: For the Longhorns, they have all four categories, players who
8:14
Speaker 1: are out, doubtful, questionable, and probable listed. In the out category,
8:20
Speaker 1: Justice Terry, Xavier Fils-Aimé, and Jordan Coleman. So those guys
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Speaker 1: will not make the trip to Knoxville. In the doubtful category,
8:28
Speaker 1: tied in Nick Townsend. Questionable, Hollywood Smothers, the Longwoods running back.
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Speaker 1: And probable, Colin Simmons. Remember, Colin was in a walking
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Speaker 1: boot toward the end, but that was more precaution than anything.
8:40
Speaker 2: So I think we'll see him out there.
8:42
Speaker 1: So this being the first game where the Longhorns were
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Speaker 1: listing players on an SEC student athlete availability report, you
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Speaker 1: knew it was going to bring the questions and Kirk
8:54
Speaker 1: Bowles bringing the question about the availability report, about the
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Speaker 1: extent of Hollywood smothers and injury that has him listed
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Speaker 1: the question. Then there's a follow-up on here as well.
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Speaker 3: Steve, I don't know if you could elaborate on Hollywood
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Speaker 3: Smothers' availability. And also, I don't know if you saw
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Speaker 3: the Protect Sports.
9:16
Speaker 4: I just won a bet. Who was going to be
9:18
Speaker 4: the first one to ask me about injuries? Did I win?
9:21
Speaker 2: You win.
9:21
Speaker 7: Oh, yeah.
9:22
Speaker 5: You won. You guys saw the report.
9:27
Speaker 3: Did you see the amendment to the Protect Sports Act
9:30
Speaker 3: that was one of the cap coaches' salaries at $ 5 million?
9:34
Speaker 1: Yes.
9:36
Speaker 3: Curious what your reaction to that was.
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Speaker 5: I did not. What state was it from?
9:40
Speaker 3: It was two Democrats. Cory Booker was one of them
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Speaker 3: from New Jersey. I'm trying to think of who the
9:47
Speaker 3: other one may have been.
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Speaker 2: Maryland.
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Speaker 5: Didn't think they'd be SEC school, so.
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Speaker 7: You got any thoughts on it?
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Speaker 3: No.
9:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of figured that'd be the case. in the
10:00
Speaker 1: land of big coaches' salaries, obviously, in the SEC. Next,
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Speaker 1: he was asked about Cole Hudson, and would he be
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Speaker 1: cleared to now travel with the team?
10:13
Speaker 4: I haven't gotten word back from our school yet. I
10:17
Speaker 4: know they have a conversation today with the SEC, and
10:21
Speaker 4: then that'll ultimately determine kind of his availability for us.
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Speaker 1: Okay, and then one more this hour, and we'll hear
10:27
Speaker 1: more from Sark coming up. And also, by the way,
10:31
Speaker 1: I'll tell you more about that in a moment. But
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Speaker 1: first of all, one more from Sark from this morning's MediaZoom,
10:37
Speaker 1: where he.
10:38
Speaker 2: Was asked about, again, the travel roster.
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Speaker 1: And the question he got was related to how many
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Speaker 1: freshmen could or might travel make the trip. And there
10:53
Speaker 1: was a whole bunch that traveled last year to Ohio state,
10:56
Speaker 1: but that was a season opener again, a non-conference game. But, uh,
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Speaker 1: Sark was asked how many could he anticipate freshmen? I'm
11:03
Speaker 1: talking about making this trip for this conference opener in Tennessee.
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Speaker 5: So I only get to bring 74.
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Speaker 4: When we got to go to Ohio state, it was,
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Speaker 4: we got to bring as many as I wanted to bring.
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Speaker 4: And I think we went to Ohio state last year.
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Speaker 4: We might've brought 92 or 94, something like that.
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Speaker 5: So no, they're not all going to get to go. Um,
11:23
Speaker 5: I think the guys.
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Speaker 4: That don't get to go, hopefully it serves as motivation
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Speaker 4: to come back ready to work. They'll get a workout
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Speaker 4: in Saturday, but come back ready to work the next
11:32
Speaker 4: week to try to earn a spot during the bye
11:35
Speaker 4: week to find a larger role where they can contribute
11:38
Speaker 4: when we do go travel on the road that they
11:40
Speaker 4: can get a helmet and get on the plane and
11:43
Speaker 4: go travel. Off the top of my head, Amware, it
11:46
Speaker 4: would take me too long trying to recount exactly which
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Speaker 4: players are which. I mean, you guys probably have a
11:51
Speaker 4: general sense and feel of of which of those young
11:53
Speaker 4: guys are going already.
11:54
Speaker 2: Okay. All right. The question coming from Anwar Richardson of
11:58
Speaker 2: Orange Bloods. Okay.
11:59
Speaker 1: So there it is, some initial offerings from Sark. Now,
12:04
Speaker 1: let me tell you what else we're going to have.
12:05
Speaker 1: You're going to hear more from this media availability, him
12:08
Speaker 1: addressing some questions from the media.
12:10
Speaker 2: You'll hear that. And then also, we do this every week.
12:15
Speaker 1: When we bring you Longhorn Weekly with Coach Sark, we
12:19
Speaker 1: give you a little sneak preview of from a segment.
12:24
Speaker 1: In this case, we're going to do it twice here
12:27
Speaker 1: because I'm going to be traveling tomorrow to Knoxville, so
12:30
Speaker 1: we won't do our usual Friday preview or review coming
12:34
Speaker 1: off the Thursday night show. The show will air tonight
12:37
Speaker 1: at 7 o'clock in its entirety. And we usually give
12:40
Speaker 1: you a little preview on Thursday and then a review
12:42
Speaker 1: on Friday. And the review on Friday really is the preview,
12:47
Speaker 1: the look at the opponent. And we're going to give
12:50
Speaker 1: you both this afternoon since I'll be out tomorrow. The
12:52
Speaker 1: other thing that we're going to do, by the way,
12:54
Speaker 1: this afternoon, because I'm out tomorrow, when we get to
12:57
Speaker 1: Inconceivable a little later this afternoon, yeah, we'll get some
12:59
Speaker 1: Florida Man for you today. Okay, on Thursday night. Yeah,
13:02
Speaker 1: because I'm not here tomorrow. I'm not here on Friday.
13:04
Speaker 1: It won't be Florida Man Friday. It'll be a little
13:06
Speaker 1: Florida influence. It won't rule all of Inconceivable, but there
13:11
Speaker 1: will be some representation of Florida Man on a Thursday
13:14
Speaker 1: edition of Inconceivable. But as I started to say, uh,
13:19
Speaker 1: Coming up in the 3 o'clock hour and the 4
13:20
Speaker 1: o'clock hour, we'll hear from Sark from the show that
13:27
Speaker 1: will air tonight at 7 o'clock, Longhorn Weekly.
13:31
Speaker 2: And it'll air tonight at 7 o'clock here on The Zone.
13:34
Speaker 1: So in the 3 o'clock hour, we'll hear him talking
13:37
Speaker 1: about coming off this game against UTSA and getting ready
13:42
Speaker 1: for their first conference game. In the 4 o'clock hour,
13:47
Speaker 1: we'll have more of a direct look at the Tennessee Volunteers.
13:52
Speaker 1: That'll be coming up in the 4 o'clock hour. So
13:54
Speaker 1: all that's still to come. But up next, Roger Wallace
13:58
Speaker 1: joins us to talk some Longhorn football and to get
14:01
Speaker 1: ready for a week in high school football. That's up
14:04
Speaker 1: next here on Sports Radio AM 1300 The Zone and
14:07
Speaker 1: where you can always catch us for free on the
14:09
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app. Welcome back here to Sports Radio AM 13
14:17
Speaker 1: Under the Zone. And for bumping back with Buffett on
14:21
Speaker 1: a Thursday, it means it's time for a visit with Raj.
14:23
Speaker 1: How about Jake dipping deep into the well on this one, Raj?
14:28
Speaker 6: Whoa.
14:29
Speaker 2: Well, here's my first thought.
14:31
Speaker 8: I'm glad he didn't let the entire song run, or
14:34
Speaker 8: he better have it on delay.
14:35
Speaker 7: Yeah, I did see that coming up a little bit
14:38
Speaker 7: later on.
14:39
Speaker 2: Oh, that's good. So there's an unmentionable in there, huh?
14:43
Speaker 8: Yeah, that is, boy, that one, I did not expect
14:46
Speaker 8: that one. That's pretty cool, though.
14:48
Speaker 2: West Nashville Ballroom Gown? Is that the name of it?
14:52
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think that's just the story would be going
14:56
Speaker 8: against maybe.
14:58
Speaker 2: The aristocratic stereotype.
15:03
Speaker 8: Young lady who wanted to break away from that lifestyle.
15:08
Speaker 2: So this is a runaway bride kind of story, then, right?
15:13
Speaker 8: Yes, yeah.
15:14
Speaker 7: A hitchhiker.
15:14
Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
15:15
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:16
Speaker 1: Wow.
15:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, listen to... Yeah. She writes a letter. I'll
15:20
Speaker 2: just say that. She writes a letter. Okay, all right.
15:23
Speaker 2: What album is that one from?
15:25
Speaker 8: That is from Living and Dying in Three-Quarter Time.
15:27
Speaker 2: Okay, okay. Man, that's old. That's 74. Sure is.
15:30
Speaker 3: Wow.
15:31
Speaker 2: How about that? Okay. Yeah. Well.
15:35
Speaker 1: Maybe it's apropos since this is the first time since
15:38
Speaker 1: 1969 that Texas will play Tennessee. I saw something I'd
15:42
Speaker 1: never seen before because I'd read about the last time
15:46
Speaker 1: they played the January 1st, 69 Cotton Bowl, which was
15:50
Speaker 1: really kind of the launching pad. for the unbeaten 69
15:53
Speaker 1: national championship season. They're coming off that first year of
15:56
Speaker 1: converting to the wishbone. They had a loss and a
15:58
Speaker 1: tie early with Tech and Houston, and then they turned
16:01
Speaker 1: it around after that with James Street taking over quarterback
16:05
Speaker 1: for Bill Bradley, and the.
16:06
Speaker 2: Rest, as they say, is history. They win the rest
16:08
Speaker 2: of their games.
16:08
Speaker 1: That year, and then, of course, the next two years
16:11
Speaker 1: going unbeaten, at least in the regular season. They finally
16:14
Speaker 1: had the streak, snapped at 30 when they lost to
16:17
Speaker 1: Notre Dame in the January of 71 Cotton Bowl. But
16:21
Speaker 1: when I was going through that, and I'd read all
16:25
Speaker 1: that stuff in the past, I saw something because social
16:28
Speaker 1: media will find it. Somebody had a little recap of
16:34
Speaker 1: a long touchdown pass that James Street through to Cotton
16:39
Speaker 1: Spire in that Cotton Bowl game against Tennessee, which Texas
16:44
Speaker 1: won 36-13. So I guess you can see just about
16:48
Speaker 1: anything eventually off of that, but there's a lot of
16:52
Speaker 1: themes going into this game this weekend, aren't there?
16:55
Speaker 2: Quickly, can I backtrack?
16:56
Speaker 8: Is that why you picked the song, Jake, because of
16:58
Speaker 8: the Tennessee connection?
17:00
Speaker 7: That's the one.
17:01
Speaker 2: That's why.
17:01
Speaker 9: Okay.
17:02
Speaker 2: That's why you went with that.
17:03
Speaker 7: He's covered a couple of other teams.
17:04
Speaker 8: He also has a song called Meet Me in Memphis.
17:06
Speaker 8: but I guess maybe you can save that for another
17:09
Speaker 8: flight to Memphis. Eventually when we go to Ole Miss, we'll.
17:12
Speaker 7: Have a chance for that during basketball season.
17:14
Speaker 2: Maybe. Yeah, that's true. Absolutely.
17:17
Speaker 8: Yeah.
17:18
Speaker 2: Lots of storylines.
17:20
Speaker 8: The obvious kind of cliche ones, obviously the UT and.
17:24
Speaker 2: The orange and all that.
17:25
Speaker 8: And then you elevate it to the Manning connection and
17:28
Speaker 8: things like that. But yeah, I'm sure Stark talked to
17:32
Speaker 8: you last night. Talk to me about, Today is about
17:34
Speaker 8: going on the road and getting an SEC win to
17:37
Speaker 8: start off a run of nine opponents where currently seven
17:41
Speaker 8: of them are ranked.
17:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
17:44
Speaker 8: And the one that's not ranked was ranked pretty high
17:46
Speaker 8: a few weeks ago in Oklahoma.
17:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt about that.
17:49
Speaker 1: And then the other thing, and he did tell me
17:52
Speaker 1: this last night, we did not talk about it on
17:54
Speaker 1: the air when we were recording because in fact, it
17:57
Speaker 1: didn't even come up to after we got done and
17:59
Speaker 1: we got off the air. And that's when the stuff
18:01
Speaker 1: had really started to filter through.
18:04
Speaker 2: That the president was coming to the game.
18:06
Speaker 1: And that's when Sark mentioned to me, and he said
18:08
Speaker 1: it again on the Zoom, about when a president comes
18:14
Speaker 1: to a sporting event like he did with Alabama LSU
18:17
Speaker 1: in 2019 when Sark was on Nick Saban's staff, if
18:20
Speaker 1: the president gets up for any reason, go to the bathroom,
18:23
Speaker 1: change sections, coming in, going out, all communication is cut off. there,
18:29
Speaker 1: and he said that included the headset, head coaches' headsets
18:33
Speaker 1: out to the green dot or up to the press
18:37
Speaker 1: box or whatever. It's cut off on that, and that's
18:40
Speaker 1: kind of an adjustment.
18:41
Speaker 2: To be made, I guess, hopefully. Or down to Will Matthews? Yeah, yeah,
18:45
Speaker 2: I sort of say.
18:47
Speaker 1: I guess maybe it's all about the wireless stuff that
18:49
Speaker 1: happens there. Hopefully, it doesn't knock us off the air.
18:51
Speaker 1: I don't think it will.
18:52
Speaker 2: No, I know, but I wonder if that would affect
18:55
Speaker 2: It might. Will, on the sidelines. That's a very good,
18:58
Speaker 2: put it this way.
19:00
Speaker 7: Not that you'll have any heads up.
19:02
Speaker 2: Right.
19:03
Speaker 1: I started to say, if it affects coaches' communication on
19:07
Speaker 1: the sidelines up to the press box and out to
19:10
Speaker 1: the player with the green dot on the helmet, then
19:12
Speaker 1: it probably would knock out the wireless communication with the sideline.
19:18
Speaker 1: Our broadcast operations manager, Terry Kelly, told our engineer, Greg Klingensmith, that.
19:23
Speaker 2: His response was, oh, well, I didn't need that. Yeah.
19:27
Speaker 7: I was going to say that he's got enough on
19:30
Speaker 7: his mind.
19:31
Speaker 2: Exactly.
19:33
Speaker 1: Um, the, uh, so the, the student athlete availability report,
19:37
Speaker 1: the injury report came out and, um, the only thing
19:40
Speaker 1: that I think raised an eyebrow was Hollywood smothers being
19:44
Speaker 1: listed as questionable on, the list. And I would imagine
19:49
Speaker 1: that's where they're really going to have to lean into
19:51
Speaker 1: Raleigh Brown and to a lesser extent to Derek Cooper. Yeah.
19:56
Speaker 8: And he mentioned Michael Terry again. So I don't know
20:00
Speaker 8: if he's a guy that could be elevated to be
20:02
Speaker 8: in the rotation like that. But again, we've seen this
20:06
Speaker 8: running back room thin out real quickly over the years.
20:09
Speaker 8: So wouldn't wouldn't be unheard of to think about that
20:13
Speaker 8: but yeah and I just keep going back to you
20:16
Speaker 8: just want to see this passing offense get a little
20:21
Speaker 8: more explosive and be a little more dynamic and I
20:24
Speaker 8: get you got to run the ball and and Smothers
20:26
Speaker 8: has been outstanding but but I think they're really going
20:30
Speaker 8: to press the issue here to get this passing game
20:34
Speaker 8: going Saturday.
20:35
Speaker 2: Hey I'm telling you, I'm calling it right now.
20:37
Speaker 1: You know, when you and I and Will get together
20:40
Speaker 1: to discuss what our keys to the game end, my
20:44
Speaker 1: key is going to be the Texas wide receivers against
20:48
Speaker 1: the corners for Tennessee. If nothing else, to talk about
20:51
Speaker 1: Cam Coleman going up against his teammate for three years
20:54
Speaker 1: at Auburn, Kay and Lee, the starting left corner for
20:57
Speaker 1: the Volunteers.
20:59
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, I guess we're going to get that
21:01
Speaker 8: a lot once we get into SEC play is you know, the,
21:05
Speaker 8: the possible connections with, with Coleman. Then there's a, you know,
21:08
Speaker 8: another interesting one in Metcalf who played against Texas last year,
21:14
Speaker 8: TJ Metcalf in the bowl game from Michigan. And I
21:16
Speaker 8: think he had some bulletin board material this week about
21:21
Speaker 8: Texas and physicality and all that. So I think that
21:24
Speaker 8: might be a matchup to, to watch as well.
21:27
Speaker 2: I mean, but yes, I agree.
21:29
Speaker 8: I think the, the, the Texas receivers against that back
21:33
Speaker 8: end for, for, Just it's going to happen sometime where
21:39
Speaker 8: they're going to kind of take off, you would think.
21:41
Speaker 1: And I would also say that it's going to be
21:43
Speaker 1: interesting to see what Will Matthews, what Will Muschamp has
21:49
Speaker 1: dialed up to deal with Faison Brandon, to deal with
21:52
Speaker 1: Deshaun Bishop and DeJuan Morris and that running game for
21:56
Speaker 1: the volunteers, but especially as Sark says, in Josh Heupel's offense,
22:01
Speaker 1: they love to take deep shots over Darius Jackson or
22:03
Speaker 1: Braylon Staley or Mike Matthews. They like to take their
22:07
Speaker 1: shots downfield, and the Texas defense will have to be
22:10
Speaker 1: buttoned up for that.
22:12
Speaker 8: Yeah, and we've seen it with young quarterbacks. Typically, that's
22:15
Speaker 8: kind of their easiest read is that quick read, the
22:18
Speaker 8: deep shot. It's what I'm sure Muschamp would like to
22:22
Speaker 8: do is make Brandon go through progressions and have to
22:27
Speaker 8: you know, go to plan B, plan C, because, you know,
22:32
Speaker 8: that's typically a guy that's playing his fourth college game
22:35
Speaker 8: isn't quite as comfortable with that as, you know, throwing
22:38
Speaker 8: the deep ball. So for sure, that's going to be
22:40
Speaker 8: something I'm sure they want to try to exploit. And then,
22:42
Speaker 8: like you said, those big running backs, I mean, they're
22:45
Speaker 8: averaging a ton of yards, but let's be honest, you know,
22:47
Speaker 8: a lot of those yards were against Furman and Kennesaw State.
22:50
Speaker 8: So we'll see how they do against a pretty good
22:53
Speaker 8: Texas defense.
22:55
Speaker 2: No doubt about it.
22:55
Speaker 1: Roger Wallace joining us for a few more minutes here
22:57
Speaker 1: on 1300 Design. Let's jump to high school. The games
23:00
Speaker 1: in the KXAN plus slash KBVO slash Nextar family of
23:12
Speaker 1: high school football televised offerings.
23:14
Speaker 2: Let me put it that way. Includes tonight, old, old matchup.
23:18
Speaker 1: How old? Well, Leander and Cedar Park are the first
23:21
Speaker 1: two schools in the Leander ISD. Now, Leander's been around
23:24
Speaker 1: a long, long time. Cedar Park has only had a
23:26
Speaker 1: varsity program since 1997, but they developed pretty good rivalry.
23:30
Speaker 1: It kind of got splintered and separated for a while
23:32
Speaker 1: when they were in separate classifications.
23:34
Speaker 2: Now they're both 6A schools. I don't know if it's correct.
23:39
Speaker 1: To say that Cedar Park has emerged the favorite in
23:43
Speaker 1: this district. After all, Vandegrift is Vandegrift, and Huddo's there
23:46
Speaker 1: as well. But what do you make of the T-Wolves
23:48
Speaker 1: getting ready to take on Leander in this game that
23:50
Speaker 1: you and Keith Moreland have tonight from Gupton?
23:52
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think they're really good, and I think you can,
23:56
Speaker 8: you know, they had the one close game against Midway, but,
23:59
Speaker 8: you know, they seem to kind of have answers on
24:02
Speaker 8: both sides.
24:03
Speaker 2: They've got a big.
24:04
Speaker 8: veteran quarterback in David Cooper, 6'4, over 200 pounds.
24:08
Speaker 2: Third-year starter.
24:10
Speaker 8: But yeah, and Michael Quintero talked to Keith and I about,
24:14
Speaker 8: we think we have something built for a December run.
24:17
Speaker 8: They've made it to the second round in a couple
24:19
Speaker 8: of years. Interesting kind of footnote here is that the
24:23
Speaker 8: coaching matchup, Ahmad Zayden, the first-year head coach, not only
24:27
Speaker 8: worked with Michael Quintero twice, he said he was kind
24:30
Speaker 8: of his mentor for and their deaths were together at
24:34
Speaker 8: both Cedar Park and at Colleyville, in Colleyville as well.
24:38
Speaker 8: So a guy that obviously has learned a lot from Quintero,
24:41
Speaker 8: and I'm sure Quintero has fond thoughts about him. So,
24:45
Speaker 8: you know, kind of a sidebar. I don't think that's
24:47
Speaker 8: going to matter when they kick it off. I think
24:49
Speaker 8: Cedar Park's pretty good. Leander, you know, they played in
24:52
Speaker 8: Pflugerville really tough in our first Friday night KXAN Plus game.
24:55
Speaker 2: They've kind of taken their lumps in two of the
24:58
Speaker 2: other three.
24:58
Speaker 8: They have their win over Aikens, so we'll see if
25:00
Speaker 8: they can You know, as I always say, Craig, get
25:02
Speaker 8: it to the second half.
25:03
Speaker 2: Now, I was dead wrong last.
25:05
Speaker 8: Friday because, you know, we saw that Legacy Ranch team
25:12
Speaker 8: just really surprised, I think, a lot of people in
25:15
Speaker 8: what they did to Pflugerville. So I don't take anything
25:21
Speaker 8: for granted, but I think this is going to be
25:22
Speaker 8: an uphill battle for Leander tonight.
25:24
Speaker 1: Let me get some thoughts from you on the other thing.
25:27
Speaker 1: And here's my theory. that part of the reason that
25:32
Speaker 1: we are seeing, and I think this is a way
25:34
Speaker 1: to put it, Greg Tepper and I were talking about
25:36
Speaker 1: this on Tuesday, I hesitate to use the word parody,
25:40
Speaker 1: but put it this way, a tightening of the gap,
25:44
Speaker 1: a narrowing of the gap, if you will, between the
25:48
Speaker 1: upper echelon 6A schools in this area and those who've
25:53
Speaker 1: been down below them for a while and the floor
25:55
Speaker 1: is rising a little bit maybe the ceiling being lowered
25:59
Speaker 1: a little bit in these districts.
26:01
Speaker 2: I think it's a.
26:02
Speaker 1: Direct result of three 6A districts for the first time
26:05
Speaker 1: ever in the area. And maybe the big three, as
26:10
Speaker 1: we've known them over the past several years, Westlake, Lake Travis,
26:14
Speaker 1: and Vandegrift, look a little more vulnerable. So in 25-6A,
26:20
Speaker 1: where we saw Round Rock get a non-district victory over Vandegrift,
26:24
Speaker 1: They're 3-1, but you've got Cedar Ridge is 4-0 in there.
26:28
Speaker 1: Westlake is the only one with a non-district game because
26:31
Speaker 1: of the odd number of teams. Somebody's going to have
26:33
Speaker 1: either an open date or a non-district game every week.
26:36
Speaker 1: And they have an interesting one in Midland Lee. That's
26:39
Speaker 1: part of what you guys have on KXM +. And
26:41
Speaker 1: then Lake Travis is playing McNeil, which the numbers would
26:46
Speaker 1: say they should.
26:47
Speaker 2: handle their business on that.
26:48
Speaker 1: But I think there's a little more unknown between that
26:51
Speaker 1: and also 26 6A since Dripping Springs lost to Round Rock.
26:56
Speaker 1: Bowie's off to a 3-1 start. Hayes is off to
26:59
Speaker 1: a 3-1 start. I think there's more unknowns this year
27:02
Speaker 1: in 6A around the area than in past years.
27:05
Speaker 8: Yeah, I don't think there's any question that, you know,
27:06
Speaker 8: you've kind of penciled in one of those big three
27:09
Speaker 8: to at least make a deep run and, you know,
27:13
Speaker 8: good chance they get to Arlington. So I don't know
27:15
Speaker 8: what to make of uh, for instance, your game last
27:18
Speaker 8: Friday that you had on kicks and plus with round rock, uh,
27:22
Speaker 8: beating Vandegrift and the fashion, uh, that they did it when,
27:25
Speaker 8: you know, they needed a big play and they got
27:27
Speaker 8: it late in the ball game.
27:29
Speaker 2: Um, and then, you know, like.
27:30
Speaker 8: Travis has had some struggles, but they played a, a
27:33
Speaker 8: really tough non district. I think Cedar Ridge can be
27:36
Speaker 8: six and Oh, uh, going into there. Uh, I think
27:38
Speaker 8: it's their next toughest is either Lake Travis or West.
27:41
Speaker 8: I can't remember which, but I think they'll win their
27:43
Speaker 8: next two. So that's a program that, uh, I think
27:46
Speaker 8: kind of falls into that category too. But yeah, I mean,
27:50
Speaker 8: you saw two of those schools, one that's been there
27:52
Speaker 8: and one that Round Rock seems to always have enough
27:56
Speaker 8: talent to at least figure into it. But maybe this
28:00
Speaker 8: is the year that Cody Moore has something to.
28:03
Speaker 2: Kind of get them over the hump and make a run.
28:05
Speaker 2: See what you think of this.
28:06
Speaker 1: If somebody were to ask me if there was a
28:09
Speaker 1: game this week where you said the outcome will show
28:13
Speaker 1: me a lot about that team, The game that I
28:17
Speaker 1: would pick would be a 3-0 Anderson at a 4-0
28:21
Speaker 1: Bernie champion. The computer likes champion by like 16 points.
28:24
Speaker 1: But Donald Hatcher's team has been pretty impressive so far.
28:29
Speaker 1: For two years now, yeah.
28:31
Speaker 8: And that's what kind of we've talked about is he's
28:34
Speaker 8: built a program.
28:35
Speaker 2: So, yeah, for sure.
28:36
Speaker 8: We're going to get them in the old version of
28:41
Speaker 8: Taco Shack, Shoal Creek Showdown in a few weeks, unfortunately.
28:44
Speaker 2: McCallum's a little bit down, so I don't know how
28:46
Speaker 2: that's going to look. But yeah, I think that's a
28:49
Speaker 2: good call.
28:50
Speaker 8: And the other thing, Craig, is now we have more
28:52
Speaker 8: of these districts, it feels like to me, at the
28:55
Speaker 8: higher classifications where you have schools in and out of
28:58
Speaker 8: what we call our market. So we're not intimately familiar
29:03
Speaker 8: as much with a Bernie Champion or the Colleens or
29:06
Speaker 8: the College Stations, or if you go down south, New
29:08
Speaker 8: Braunfels and things like that. So it's not quite as
29:12
Speaker 8: second nature as when all these districts seem to be
29:15
Speaker 8: clustered with just Austin area high schools.
29:18
Speaker 1: Tonight on KBVO, you can catch Roger and Keith bringing
29:22
Speaker 1: you Leander and Cedar Park from Gupton Stadium. Tomorrow, what,
29:27
Speaker 1: it's our own Cameron Parker joining Keith, right, for that
29:29
Speaker 1: Eastview-Hutto matchup in Georgetown?
29:31
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's a Hutto team that, you know, they only lost,
29:34
Speaker 8: they scored 50. So we'll see. That one might be interesting.
29:38
Speaker 8: And then you've got the the west lake and lee
29:40
Speaker 8: you can also uh peek in tonight i believe on
29:44
Speaker 8: kxam plus give it a shot but uh mcneil like
29:46
Speaker 8: travis from from kelly reeves um so uh there's a
29:51
Speaker 8: few options there but uh yeah we're gonna we're gonna
29:53
Speaker 8: go out to gupton and and you know take a
29:55
Speaker 8: look at this uh the cedar park team that seems
29:58
Speaker 8: to be pretty complete uh, take on Leander.
30:01
Speaker 2: Okay.
30:01
Speaker 1: Appreciate the time. See you at the airport dark and
30:03
Speaker 1: early tomorrow morning, right?
30:05
Speaker 2: Right.
30:05
Speaker 1: And early.
30:06
Speaker 2: Thanks, Craig. You bet.
30:07
Speaker 1: Uh, that's Roger Wallace. Uh, you can catch him and
30:10
Speaker 1: Keith Moreland tonight. KBVO with Leander against Cedar park. And again,
30:14
Speaker 1: there's several offerings. If you go to KXM plus both
30:16
Speaker 1: tonight and tomorrow night, especially tomorrow, there's several different offerings, uh,
30:21
Speaker 1: that are available there. Um, uh, Jake, would you like
30:27
Speaker 1: to guess what the computer thinks of Brenham and Bastrop?
30:31
Speaker 7: For my friends in Bastrop, I might not want to
30:33
Speaker 7: guess on this game. I'm going to go with 49
30:35
Speaker 7: for Brenham.
30:36
Speaker 2: You're pretty close.
30:36
Speaker 5: 53.
30:37
Speaker 2: Yeah.
30:38
Speaker 7: The Cubs are really, really good, and the Bears are really,
30:40
Speaker 7: really injured.
30:41
Speaker 2: All right.
30:42
Speaker 1: Coming up, we bring you Inconceivable here on 13 Under
30:45
Speaker 1: the Zone. All right, second hour of the program here
31:01
Speaker 1: on Sports Radio AM 1300, The Zone.
31:04
Speaker 2: Glad to have you with us on a Thursday afternoon.
31:06
Speaker 1: Coming up, we'll hear more from Longhorn's head coach, Steve Sarkeesian,
31:08
Speaker 1: including a little sneak preview of tonight's Longhorn Weekly with
31:12
Speaker 1: Coach Sark.
31:13
Speaker 2: Our special guest, by the way.
31:15
Speaker 1: How about not only Longhorn Hall of Honor linebacker, but
31:21
Speaker 1: newly installed linebacker, Kansas city chiefs hall of fame member,
31:25
Speaker 1: Derek Johnson.
31:27
Speaker 2: He'll be with us tonight.
31:28
Speaker 1: A lot of great conversation with DJ. Uh, that comes
31:31
Speaker 1: your way tonight at seven o'clock on Longhorn weekly. I
31:35
Speaker 1: think the televised version of it is tomorrow night, Friday
31:40
Speaker 1: night at seven on KBVO seven o'clock on KBVO. If
31:44
Speaker 1: you want to watch the show, the radio side of
31:48
Speaker 1: it will be tonight at seven o'clock. Um, In addition
31:54
Speaker 1: to hearing from Sark, let's hear a little bit from
31:57
Speaker 1: Brian Schoenheimer. The Cowboys leave today for Rio de Janeiro.
32:02
Speaker 7: 10-hour flight, baby.
32:03
Speaker 1: Yeah.
32:05
Speaker 2: They travel quite comfortably. Trust me on that.
32:08
Speaker 1: You know, didn't help the Rams much, but the Rams
32:11
Speaker 1: left 36 hours before kickoff for a 16-hour flight that.
32:15
Speaker 2: Kind of messed them up.
32:17
Speaker 1: Thank goodness Sean McVay took the hit on that. And
32:23
Speaker 1: Owned it afterwards when they lost. I brought that up
32:27
Speaker 1: to Sark last night.
32:28
Speaker 2: He laughed.
32:28
Speaker 1: He goes, McVay's a great guy. He thought it was
32:32
Speaker 1: really humorous what McVay said about sometimes the dumbass coach
32:35
Speaker 1: makes travel plans that aren't good.
32:37
Speaker 9: I tend to think he's going to be awesome on
32:40
Speaker 9: TV whenever he decides it's time to make that transition.
32:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, good point there on that. Meanwhile, the Cowboys get
32:48
Speaker 1: ready for the Baltimore Ravens. And if you're getting ready
32:51
Speaker 1: for the Baltimore Ravens, you're getting ready for Derrick Henry.
32:54
Speaker 2: And that was right out of the gate what was
32:56
Speaker 2: asked of Shottie. Challenge is great, for sure. You know,
33:00
Speaker 2: I don't know Derrick.
33:01
Speaker 10: I've competed against him multiple times. What's amazing to me
33:04
Speaker 10: is the off-season training videos that come out. I'm sure
33:07
Speaker 10: he doesn't put them out. There's people, whether it's his
33:09
Speaker 10: trainers or people that are in all of them. But
33:11
Speaker 10: it reminds me, I'm going back since we started with
33:14
Speaker 10: older people. You remember clips of Walter Payton running that
33:18
Speaker 10: hill in Chicago, right? The training, you're like, oh my gosh,
33:20
Speaker 10: look at this guy. But you see the things that
33:22
Speaker 10: Derek does to create, and it's very specific. It's lower
33:27
Speaker 10: body power and strength. It's all ground-based because that's the
33:30
Speaker 10: way he plays the game. He's a running back, so
33:32
Speaker 10: you have to be able to get your cleats in
33:33
Speaker 10: the ground. Incredible player. What we have to do is
33:38
Speaker 10: we have to create knockback. Our front has to play really,
33:40
Speaker 10: really well because if you can kind of make Derek
33:43
Speaker 10: hesitate his feet a little bit, it gives you the
33:45
Speaker 10: best chance to slow him down.
33:47
Speaker 2: If he's getting seams and build up speed and.
33:49
Speaker 10: They're knocking us laterally, which we never want to be
33:52
Speaker 10: knocked laterally. Unfortunately, those seams are big and safeties and
33:56
Speaker 10: linebackers just have a hard time getting them on the
33:58
Speaker 10: ground by themselves.
33:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a difficult thing.
34:01
Speaker 1: And if you've got several injuries in your defense, that
34:04
Speaker 1: doesn't help either.
34:05
Speaker 2: What about an update on that?
34:06
Speaker 10: It's not perfect recipe for what we want, but it
34:09
Speaker 10: is next man up and I think I said this
34:11
Speaker 10: the other day, you know, the thing about defense is
34:14
Speaker 10: really team defense is.
34:15
Speaker 2: What matters the most.
34:16
Speaker 10: And so whether it's, you know, Marquise Bell stepping up,
34:20
Speaker 10: the linebackers, you know, Kaylin Carson stepping up, At corner spots,
34:24
Speaker 10: different things, you know, we need those guys to play
34:26
Speaker 10: well as a team. And all 11 guys is what
34:29
Speaker 10: it's going to take to stop a very explosive offense
34:31
Speaker 10: in Baltimore.
34:33
Speaker 1: And then there's that 10-hour flight that Jake spoke of,
34:35
Speaker 1: the travel challenges the team will encounter.
34:38
Speaker 10: Like I said, the biggest thing for us was we
34:40
Speaker 10: wanted to do, treat it like a short week from
34:44
Speaker 10: a game plan standpoint. We wanted to leave here today
34:47
Speaker 10: having the game plan done. So there's challenges in that.
34:50
Speaker 10: You have to work ahead, a lot of long nights.
34:52
Speaker 10: So we just did our red zone meetings, a little
34:55
Speaker 10: bit of two minutes. discussions. And so we'll go out,
34:59
Speaker 10: we'll throw a normal Friday practice. Then the guys will
35:01
Speaker 10: have a break to go home and get some of
35:03
Speaker 10: the stuff that they need. And then we'll all meet
35:04
Speaker 10: back here and we'll go to the airport together. The
35:09
Speaker 10: biggest challenge we have is I think over these next
35:12
Speaker 10: couple of days, it's what Thursday. So Friday, Saturday, you
35:16
Speaker 10: have two more full days where you got to keep
35:19
Speaker 10: these guys up to speed with the scheme, like first
35:22
Speaker 10: and second down reviews critical. I mean, we put that
35:24
Speaker 10: in on Tuesday, you know, And you've got to do
35:27
Speaker 10: the third down review. And so we're going to be busy.
35:30
Speaker 10: And this is a business trip. And the meetings and
35:33
Speaker 10: the walkthroughs and the practice that we'll have tomorrow, the
35:36
Speaker 10: trip to the stadium on Saturday, those are all critical
35:38
Speaker 10: parts to what we're doing so we go into the
35:40
Speaker 10: game feeling prepared. I feel really good about the plan
35:43
Speaker 10: right now. It's keeping these guys focused on the things
35:48
Speaker 10: that went in earlier in the week.
35:50
Speaker 1: Which means taking on the Baltimore Ravens team, of course,
35:52
Speaker 1: with Jesse Minner now as the head coach, Sean Harbaugh
35:55
Speaker 1: now with the Giants. And Sean Ambers asked about how
35:59
Speaker 1: much of a carryover he noticed between when Harbaugh was
36:04
Speaker 1: coaching the Ravens and what Jesse Minner has rolling out.
36:07
Speaker 10: The fact that he's been there before, you know, under
36:09
Speaker 10: Mike McDonald, the ties to Michigan and all that stuff.
36:12
Speaker 10: I mean, I think, you know, he's an awesome, you know,
36:15
Speaker 10: creative mind. He has a conviction about what he wants
36:17
Speaker 10: to be. you know, he made some really good adjustments
36:20
Speaker 10: last year in the second half, I thought against us,
36:23
Speaker 10: which again, that's what coaching is about, right?
36:25
Speaker 2: Making adjustments.
36:26
Speaker 10: We can all go in with plans, plans change quickly,
36:29
Speaker 10: but I do think that a big part of him
36:32
Speaker 10: being back there is, you know, his ability to continue
36:35
Speaker 10: the tradition of Baltimore playing great defense.
36:38
Speaker 2: I mean, you go back to, you know, you.
36:41
Speaker 10: Know, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and Syragusa and all
36:44
Speaker 10: those guys. I mean, Baltimore has traditionally always played good
36:47
Speaker 10: defense and, They're no different now.
36:49
Speaker 2: The names have changed.
36:51
Speaker 10: Hamilton and Roquan Smith and Marlon Humphrey and Calais Campbell,
36:56
Speaker 10: but they still play great defense, and I think he's
36:58
Speaker 10: a great complement for what they already have on offense.
37:01
Speaker 2: Okay.
37:01
Speaker 4: All right.
37:02
Speaker 1: So there it is with the Cowboys leaving today for Rio,
37:10
Speaker 1: and the game is on Sunday.
37:11
Speaker 2: You'll be able to hear it on 98.1 FM KVETS.
37:12
Speaker 2: That comes up.
37:16
Speaker 1: On Sunday afternoon, it is a 325 kickoff, just like
37:19
Speaker 1: your standard 325 kickoff. It just happens to be 525
37:23
Speaker 1: local time in Rio, two hours ahead of the time
37:28
Speaker 1: frame that it is right now. All right, before we
37:32
Speaker 1: get to hearing from some SART, you said some folks
37:35
Speaker 1: have some questions coming in?
37:37
Speaker 9: Yeah, on our YouTube stream, Greg Powell says, Hook'em Texas
37:41
Speaker 9: defense has not given up a touchdown in six quarters,
37:44
Speaker 9: two of those versus Ohio State. Says he believes if
37:47
Speaker 9: Texas gives up two touchdowns or less to Tennessee.
37:50
Speaker 7: They'll get a win on the road.
37:51
Speaker 2: Might be a good recipe.
37:53
Speaker 7: Tennessee defense has not played an offense as talented as Texas.
37:56
Speaker 7: He wrote, of course, Archer and Sark need to be on.
37:58
Speaker 7: Few penalties, no turnovers to keep the crowd down.
38:02
Speaker 6: Agreed.
38:02
Speaker 9: And then in Inconceivable, our decimated band that you talked about,
38:06
Speaker 9: the only letter that band could form was an I.
38:10
Speaker 2: That's true. That's true.
38:12
Speaker 1: They could do that. Our man CPAL said, They said, oh, yeah, right.
38:17
Speaker 1: He was looking at a different Cotton Bowl game. And
38:20
Speaker 1: then he said, and this is a good point, he said,
38:22
Speaker 1: it's a shame Spire broke his arm against Oklahoma in 1970.
38:25
Speaker 1: Texas lost its deep threat in that 71 Cotton Bowl
38:29
Speaker 1: against Notre Dame. They also had other guys banged up.
38:31
Speaker 1: Remember Eddie Phillips was hobbled in that game. They had
38:33
Speaker 1: several guys. Wooster was really hurt. They had several guys
38:36
Speaker 1: who were really hobbled, limited, and all that sort of thing.
38:40
Speaker 1: And take nothing away from Joe Theismann and Notre Dame.
38:42
Speaker 1: They played really well. But still, that was a... That
38:47
Speaker 1: was a hobbled Texas team that had already been crowned
38:50
Speaker 1: national champions in the coaches' bowl by UPI. But because
38:54
Speaker 1: they lost, and because Ohio State lost at Stanford and
38:58
Speaker 1: Jim Plunkett, and because I think it was fifth-ranked or
39:01
Speaker 1: fourth-ranked Nebraska beat LSU in the Orange Bowl, then Nebraska
39:06
Speaker 1: wound up winning the AP national championship that year. Let's
39:11
Speaker 1: hear from SART. This is from the media Zoom this morning.
39:16
Speaker 1: And he was talking about the running game and was
39:25
Speaker 1: looking at trying to make his running game effective by
39:29
Speaker 1: the same token. trying to be prepared for Tennessee's ground attack.
39:33
Speaker 1: Deshaun Bishop has run for nearly 300 yards. Dwan Morris
39:40
Speaker 1: has rushed for about 250. So they've been very, very close.
39:44
Speaker 1: Bishop's an interesting character in that he's a former walk-on,
39:46
Speaker 1: a local product at a Carnes High School in Knoxville.
39:49
Speaker 2: So there's that involved.
39:52
Speaker 1: And so Sark was asked, what has made this Tennessee
39:55
Speaker 1: running game effective?
39:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I think they do, you know, early
39:59
Speaker 4: in the season, you know, there was obviously a lot
40:01
Speaker 4: of more two tight end stuff, 12 personnel stuff. And man,
40:04
Speaker 4: it was very intricate stuff with both tight ends and
40:08
Speaker 4: inserts and different things. And not to mention, the quarterback
40:11
Speaker 4: uses legs and then ultimately, you know, the home run shots,
40:14
Speaker 4: you know, where the ball spits and they're, they're hitting
40:16
Speaker 4: some big runs as well. But they've evolved. I, I,
40:19
Speaker 4: you know, I give, I give coach hype a lot
40:21
Speaker 4: of credit there. They're, they're very creative in the run game,
40:24
Speaker 4: whether it's the counters, the inserts, the same side counter
40:28
Speaker 4: stuff that they do. So they've got really good schemes
40:30
Speaker 4: are committed to it. And they've got good players. You know,
40:35
Speaker 4: they've got a good old line. You've got an elite
40:36
Speaker 4: left tackle. They've got good runners and, And so the
40:41
Speaker 4: tight end before he got injured was an elite player.
40:43
Speaker 4: So they have people to execute very intricate schemes, and
40:48
Speaker 4: they believe in it.
40:48
Speaker 5: You can tell that.
40:50
Speaker 1: How does it make Sark feel in terms of the
40:52
Speaker 1: comfort level, knowing that he's got a pretty deep defensive
40:54
Speaker 1: front and is able to rotate guys there?
40:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, we do.
40:57
Speaker 4: We're fortunate. We do have a really good defensive front.
41:01
Speaker 4: we do have the depth in there and the ability
41:03
Speaker 4: to roll guys. And what I say about our front
41:06
Speaker 4: two is we got some really versatile guys, guys that
41:08
Speaker 4: can play, you know, a shade or a nose, but
41:11
Speaker 4: at the same time, they can be a three technique
41:12
Speaker 4: or a four eye. We've got edge players that can
41:15
Speaker 4: slide in and play five techniques or four eyes. And
41:17
Speaker 4: so it allows us to be versatile with coach must
41:21
Speaker 4: champ with the different fronts and packages that, that he
41:23
Speaker 4: likes to use.
41:24
Speaker 1: Okay. We're going to hear more from Sark a little
41:26
Speaker 1: bit later on with regard to this real interesting thing,
41:30
Speaker 1: this added, element of the president of the United States
41:34
Speaker 1: in attendance and what it does in that it kind
41:38
Speaker 1: of in one way affects what's going on in the
41:41
Speaker 1: game itself. Update on the Rangers game, bottom of the sixth.
41:45
Speaker 1: They now have a 3-1 lead on the New York Mets.
41:49
Speaker 1: Corey Seager with the leadoff homer. Badly needed. He's been struggling. Yeah,
41:54
Speaker 1: he hit that off. Is this the young man, Yam,
41:57
Speaker 1: the guy who was doing the cartwheels and all that
42:00
Speaker 1: other kind of stuff on the mound?
42:01
Speaker 5: Yes, it is.
42:01
Speaker 7: Jeffrey Yam.
42:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, Seager just cartwheeled him right out of the end
42:05
Speaker 1: of the right field seat for a home run. So
42:07
Speaker 1: it's 3-1 Texas, bottom of the sixth. Rangers at Astros.
42:11
Speaker 1: Beginning the day, deadlocked for first place, two games below.
42:16
Speaker 5: 500.
42:16
Speaker 9: And Josh Hader probably down for two days.
42:20
Speaker 2: Gosh, he threw, what, 39 pitches or something last night?
42:22
Speaker 5: More than that.
42:22
Speaker 2: In the 40s. It was a bunch. It was a bunch.
42:25
Speaker 1: And gave up the game-winning hits and runs to the
42:28
Speaker 1: Mariners in the 10th inning last night. So that was
42:34
Speaker 1: last night up in the Pacific Northwest. And then they
42:37
Speaker 1: had to go to Oakland. No. Well, no, they had
42:40
Speaker 1: to go into Sacramento. They had to go into Sacramento.
42:43
Speaker 1: They're playing the Athletics in Sacramento. They have a four-game
42:48
Speaker 1: series starting with the Athletics tonight. The Rangers are finishing
42:55
Speaker 1: this series with the Mets, and then they go to
42:57
Speaker 1: Minneapolis to play.
42:59
Speaker 2: The Twins this weekend.
43:01
Speaker 1: And again, and we'll talk about this an hour from
43:04
Speaker 1: now when Gene Watson joins us, I've just been saying
43:07
Speaker 1: it since the month of September, this could finally be
43:10
Speaker 1: the year where a sub-500 team wins a division title.
43:15
Speaker 1: The Rangers and Astros are about two below 500, four
43:18
Speaker 1: to go. The best, I mean, if they split, if
43:21
Speaker 1: the two teams split, they're 81 and 81. So unless
43:25
Speaker 1: they win three out of four, you know, that kind
43:28
Speaker 1: of thing, then yeah, it could wind up, you know,
43:33
Speaker 1: it could wind up. well, I guess what, let's see,
43:35
Speaker 1: it's both 70, yeah, it could be 79, yeah, they'd
43:37
Speaker 1: have to win out of their last.
43:40
Speaker 2: Three games for the Rangers.
43:43
Speaker 1: If they win today, they'd have to win their last,
43:45
Speaker 1: two of their last three to finish at 82 wins.
43:48
Speaker 1: The Astros, with four games left, starting tonight, would have
43:53
Speaker 1: to win three out of four to wind up with
43:57
Speaker 1: that as well. So, That's where they are right now.
44:00
Speaker 1: The Rangers and Astros deadlocked two below 500. And by
44:06
Speaker 1: the way, the Mariners are still breathing. They're on the respirator,
44:08
Speaker 1: but they did keep their... In order for the Mariners,
44:11
Speaker 1: would they have to win out and have the Rangers
44:14
Speaker 1: and Astros both lose out? And then all hell breaks
44:17
Speaker 1: loose because then there's a three-way tie for the division
44:19
Speaker 1: title at that point. All right, we're going to hear
44:21
Speaker 1: more from Coach Sarn coming up on 13 Under the
44:24
Speaker 1: Zone and the iHeartRadio app. Here on a Thursday on
44:30
Speaker 1: Sports Radio AM 1300.
44:31
Speaker 2: When are you hitting this wave back here?
44:33
Speaker 7: Jason Isbell on the 400 unit.
44:35
Speaker 9: Performing this song in Tennessee at the Ryman.
44:39
Speaker 7: Cumberland Gap.
44:41
Speaker 9: Which you'll cross on your way in if you're driving
44:42
Speaker 9: from my hometown of dc yeah you'll be coming from.
44:45
Speaker 2: East to go through cumberland gap as i.
44:47
Speaker 7: Did when i moved to austin last august.
44:48
Speaker 1: Nice it's very scenic area sure is that cumberland gap
44:52
Speaker 1: area there it's kind of in that we're in that
44:54
Speaker 1: tri-state area almost really with kentucky and virginia and tennessee
44:58
Speaker 1: where they kind of come to a point down through
45:00
Speaker 1: there and that's where a lot of the settlers went
45:03
Speaker 1: through the mountains the mountain pass that the uh that
45:06
Speaker 1: the Native tribes used for years, Native American tribes used
45:10
Speaker 1: for years to pass through the mountains from the east
45:14
Speaker 1: over beyond that into the Ohio Valley region. We continue
45:18
Speaker 1: here on this Thursday. Well, here's some more from Longhorn's
45:22
Speaker 1: head coach, Steve Sarkeesian, from the weekly media Zoom coming up,
45:25
Speaker 1: including the unusual added element of the President of the
45:29
Speaker 1: United States being in attendance. But I want to give
45:32
Speaker 1: you a sneak preview of tonight's edition of Longhorn Weekly.
45:36
Speaker 1: It'll come your way at 7 o'clock. Longhorn Weekly, we
45:39
Speaker 1: coach Sark, and our special guest will be Derek Johnson.
45:42
Speaker 1: He'll join us for a goodly portion of the program
45:44
Speaker 1: as well. But in review of the UTSA game and
45:51
Speaker 1: in looking ahead to the start of the SEC, this
45:54
Speaker 1: was one segment of the show with Sark and I
45:57
Speaker 1: talking about the start of SEC play for Texas. Other
46:01
Speaker 1: stuff that The 3-0 and the number one, that's all nice,
46:04
Speaker 1: but now it's really getting to where the rubber meets
46:07
Speaker 1: the road this week, right?
46:08
Speaker 5: It really does start this week.
46:09
Speaker 4: I always like to look at this game. I like
46:12
Speaker 4: to kind of see what our schedule is going to
46:14
Speaker 4: look like. We always have the bye after this, and
46:16
Speaker 4: then we have eight straight. You get a lot of stats,
46:19
Speaker 4: and I watched enough of SEC play last week, and
46:22
Speaker 4: you see some people beating other people and so on
46:24
Speaker 4: and so forth.
46:25
Speaker 5: We've got nine SEC games to go. Here we go.
46:28
Speaker 4: It's a nine-game conference schedule. seven of our next nine
46:33
Speaker 4: games are against ranked opponents. That's our conference, you know, and,
46:36
Speaker 4: but that's, what's great. Like when you, when you really
46:38
Speaker 4: think from, from a competitor standpoint, um, and we're not
46:42
Speaker 4: the only one, you know, everybody's schedule is a little
46:44
Speaker 4: bit different, but there's a lot of tough games for
46:46
Speaker 4: a lot of teams. I think this league and, and
46:48
Speaker 4: watching how this league unfolds is going to be really intriguing,
46:51
Speaker 4: but it starts for us Saturday. Um, I guess a
46:54
Speaker 4: very good Tennessee team and a very hostile environment game
46:57
Speaker 4: day is going to be there. Um, I've been there
47:00
Speaker 4: a couple different times. In my opinion, this is the
47:02
Speaker 4: loudest stadium in the country. I haven't been to them all,
47:04
Speaker 4: but I think there's a lot of people that echo
47:06
Speaker 4: the same sentiment.
47:08
Speaker 1: On the SEC teleconference, Josh Heupel, the head coach, was asked,
47:12
Speaker 1: Tennessee's head coach, asked if he thought it was possible
47:16
Speaker 1: on this first year of going to nine conference games
47:19
Speaker 1: for any one team to run the table.
47:21
Speaker 2: He said, I don't know.
47:22
Speaker 1: I remember last year you said the odds of a
47:25
Speaker 1: team going undefeated in college football now They've gotten longer now.
47:29
Speaker 2: Indiana did it last year, but.
47:30
Speaker 1: It's very, very... It's becoming more and more difficult now
47:33
Speaker 1: for it to happen in college football. I know coaches
47:35
Speaker 1: don't think this way in terms of running the table.
47:37
Speaker 1: I know you take each game as it comes. But
47:39
Speaker 1: in the broad-based picture, that's a pretty daunting task, isn't it?
47:42
Speaker 4: Well, it really is, you know, because historically, going back
47:46
Speaker 4: in time, it was almost like you had to go
47:48
Speaker 4: undefeated or at least be undefeated in the regular season
47:51
Speaker 4: to compete for a national championship. And nowadays, it's... I
47:56
Speaker 4: don't want to say we're all the way to the
47:58
Speaker 4: NFL model, but now it's about did you get into
48:02
Speaker 4: the playoffs and then are you hot at the right
48:04
Speaker 4: time to play your best football in December and January
48:07
Speaker 4: to be a national champion? And so I think it's
48:10
Speaker 4: the it's the challenge one. We all want to win
48:12
Speaker 4: every game. Don't please don't don't don't get that mistaken.
48:14
Speaker 4: Like we put forth all the effort in the world,
48:17
Speaker 4: but it's how do you get your team back? one
48:20
Speaker 4: loss doesn't end your season. When there's been seasons where
48:24
Speaker 4: you lose one game and you don't get that chance,
48:26
Speaker 4: it's happened here, right? I mean, think about Coach Brown's team,
48:29
Speaker 4: some of those teams that were one loss teams that
48:31
Speaker 4: never got an opportunity to compete for a national title.
48:34
Speaker 4: So different mindset, different focus. I think your team understanding
48:38
Speaker 4: that if you lose a ball game, you know, I'm
48:40
Speaker 4: looking at A & M, I'm looking at LSU last week.
48:43
Speaker 4: There's still a lot of meat on this bone for
48:45
Speaker 4: those guys to achieve what they want to achieve this season.
48:48
Speaker 4: So Um, and that's, that's the unique part, especially in
48:51
Speaker 4: our conference of, of just how many teams are ranked
48:54
Speaker 4: in the top 25 right now. Um, and, and that
48:57
Speaker 4: we're essentially going to eat each other to some degree.
49:00
Speaker 4: And then what's it all going to look like, you know,
49:01
Speaker 4: come that first weekend of December.
49:03
Speaker 1: Does it make it easier then for you and for
49:04
Speaker 1: the coaching staff to get the guys to dial in
49:09
Speaker 1: on that specific opponent that week?
49:11
Speaker 2: Does it matter that much?
49:12
Speaker 1: Because you're pretty much taking a game at a time anyway,
49:15
Speaker 1: but given that there's so many hurdles down the road,
49:18
Speaker 1: let's just worry about the one right here. And then yeah,
49:21
Speaker 1: there'll probably be another one next week. We'll have to
49:23
Speaker 1: deal with that and so on and so forth. Yeah.
49:24
Speaker 4: I mean, I, I, I say yes and no, I
49:27
Speaker 4: don't know how much of that has changed. Um, but,
49:30
Speaker 4: but I do think, I do think every team we
49:34
Speaker 4: play on our schedule gets our attention. You turn on
49:37
Speaker 4: the tape, they get your attention. Right. And You turn
49:40
Speaker 4: on the tape and you watch Tennessee's run game, and
49:42
Speaker 4: it doesn't matter which running backs back there, they're snapping
49:44
Speaker 4: off runs and they're running the football. You turn on
49:48
Speaker 4: the tape and you see the exotic defenses that Coach
49:51
Speaker 4: Knowles is playing. Everybody gets your attention. And I think
49:55
Speaker 4: the competitive spirit we have in our building, we just
49:58
Speaker 4: want to win this game. And then we can worry
50:00
Speaker 4: about whatever comes after that. And, you know, like Ohio
50:04
Speaker 4: State feels so long ago already. And it was a
50:07
Speaker 4: week and a half ago, but it feels so long
50:09
Speaker 4: ago because We exhaust ourselves each day, right, from a
50:13
Speaker 4: coaching staff perspective and then from a player perspective.
50:16
Speaker 5: Like, players are working out. They're in meetings. They're at practice.
50:20
Speaker 4: They're doing their own film study. They're doing recovery in
50:22
Speaker 4: the training room. They're going to class. Like, it just
50:25
Speaker 4: starts going, right? And when the weeks start going in season,
50:28
Speaker 4: it's just like this is the next game. And it's Tennessee,
50:31
Speaker 4: and it's a really good team, and it's on the
50:32
Speaker 4: road in the SEC. That's the life we live.
50:35
Speaker 1: Is it easier to put a game like Ohio State–
50:40
Speaker 1: on the shelf and deal with it and go on
50:43
Speaker 1: to the next one than it is, say, a UTSA
50:46
Speaker 1: game where you said at times offense felt a little
50:51
Speaker 1: choppy and didn't quite get the rhythm and flow that
50:53
Speaker 1: you wanted, but the defense was spectacular at times. Does
50:57
Speaker 1: it matter on that, or are they both individual challenges?
51:02
Speaker 4: I think every week is its own challenges, unique challenges.
51:05
Speaker 4: You talk about just the emotional challenges that you have
51:09
Speaker 4: Every week, we've got bumps and bruises. How's this guy
51:12
Speaker 4: coming back from what he had? Is he going to
51:15
Speaker 4: be available? How much does he practice? The game planning aspect,
51:19
Speaker 4: and it's a new plan. How are we going to
51:21
Speaker 4: attack this team or defend this team?
51:23
Speaker 2: The environment.
51:24
Speaker 4: This is our first road game of the season. There's
51:26
Speaker 4: some newness to that. There's layers to it all, I guess,
51:31
Speaker 4: as it makes sense. I think each week, to your point,
51:33
Speaker 4: has its own unique challenges to get ready for the
51:36
Speaker 4: next game. And then You want to learn from that experience,
51:40
Speaker 4: and then you've got to put it to bed, and
51:41
Speaker 4: you've got to give all your focus to that next game.
51:44
Speaker 2: And so.
51:46
Speaker 4: I really believe our staff and everybody in the organization
51:49
Speaker 4: does a really good job of that. I feel like
51:50
Speaker 4: the leaders on our team do a really good job
51:52
Speaker 4: of that. I don't think people harbor stuff from the
51:55
Speaker 4: week before, good, bad, and different. It's about today. Today's
51:59
Speaker 4: the most important day. You've heard me say that a
52:00
Speaker 4: million times. Today is the most important day. We needed
52:03
Speaker 4: to have a great Wednesday today, and we did. and
52:06
Speaker 4: so on and so forth as we go through the
52:08
Speaker 4: week of practice.
52:10
Speaker 5: But those are the challenges, right? And everybody's got them.
52:12
Speaker 4: You know, I mean, I was thinking about this, and
52:14
Speaker 4: just because I had some time, you know, to kind
52:17
Speaker 4: of watch some games Saturday and then assess a little bit, like,
52:20
Speaker 4: what a big win for Ole Miss, right? All the
52:23
Speaker 4: hype that came into that thing, and they get that win,
52:27
Speaker 4: and they got to get on a plane Friday, and
52:29
Speaker 4: they're going to Gainesville, Florida, to play the Florida Gators,
52:31
Speaker 4: who nobody wants to play right now of how good
52:34
Speaker 4: they look, And then you look at LSU and A
52:37
Speaker 4: & M, they're 0-1 in conference play. They're playing each other.
52:41
Speaker 4: One of those two teams, there's no more ties. So
52:43
Speaker 4: somebody's going to be 0-2 right out of the block.
52:45
Speaker 4: And so think about just the emotions that everybody's dealing
52:49
Speaker 4: with on those teams too. And so we're no different.
52:52
Speaker 4: Everybody's got them, and that's the flow of the season
52:54
Speaker 4: that you go through.
52:55
Speaker 1: All right, that's a little sneak preview of tonight's edition
52:57
Speaker 1: of Longhorn Weekly with Coach Sark.
52:59
Speaker 2: Comes your way at 7 o'clock.
53:00
Speaker 1: We'll have another little snippet preview for you coming up
53:04
Speaker 1: in the 4 o'clock hour in addition to our conversation
53:07
Speaker 1: with Gene Watson to talk Major League Baseball. Speaking of which,
53:09
Speaker 1: Rangers still up 3-1 on the New York Mets. Mets
53:13
Speaker 1: batting with one out on the top of the seventh inning. Again,
53:15
Speaker 1: going into today's action and tonight's as well since it
53:20
Speaker 1: includes the Astros. The Rangers and Astros are tied for
53:23
Speaker 1: first place. In the American League West, both teams are
53:26
Speaker 1: two games below. 500. And I might add that it's
53:34
Speaker 1: going to be kind of a winner-take-all for them because
53:37
Speaker 1: there's now getting to be enough separation. I think the
53:40
Speaker 1: Rangers are three back of Cleveland right now. So it's
53:49
Speaker 1: looking like whoever wins the West is going to make
53:52
Speaker 1: the postseason. Whoever doesn't win the West is not going
53:55
Speaker 1: to make the postseason. They're not going to be a
53:57
Speaker 1: wild card.
53:57
Speaker 7: Thank goodness.
53:59
Speaker 9: I mean, I mean that with no disrespect to those
54:01
Speaker 9: fan bases, but if it's going to be an historically
54:04
Speaker 9: bad record for the team that wins it, I, we
54:06
Speaker 9: don't need the runner up in there as a wild card.
54:08
Speaker 1: But they're both selling playoff tickets. You should know that
54:13
Speaker 1: there are playoff tickets, uh, that are on sale for
54:16
Speaker 1: both of those teams.
54:18
Speaker 2: All right. Uh, we're going to hear some more from Sarkozy.
54:21
Speaker 1: We got some NFL notes to get to some, uh,
54:24
Speaker 1: Curious ones when we continue on Sports Radio AM 13
54:27
Speaker 1: under the zone at the iHeartRadio app. Updating the baseball game,
54:34
Speaker 1: bottom of the seventh. Rangers up 3-1 on the New
54:38
Speaker 1: York Mets in that one with Texas and Houston tied
54:40
Speaker 1: for first with, after today, just three more games to go.
54:46
Speaker 1: We'll keep you updated on that. A couple NFL notes.
54:50
Speaker 2: Here's a curious one.
54:53
Speaker 1: The NFL has fined 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk $ 14, 926 today
55:03
Speaker 1: for what they call, quote, engaging in offensive demonstrations.
55:10
Speaker 7: He was shotgunning a beer in a celebration.
55:13
Speaker 1: Well, according to the league, he violated Rule 12, Section 3,
55:17
Speaker 1: Article 1 when he did an, quote, imitation of chugging
55:20
Speaker 1: a beer in with just under eight minutes left in
55:24
Speaker 1: the third quarter of San Francisco's win.
55:26
Speaker 2: Over the Miami Dolphins.
55:27
Speaker 1: The fine notice went on to say that, quote, players
55:30
Speaker 1: are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that reflects
55:33
Speaker 1: positively on the game and is consistent with NFL standards
55:35
Speaker 1: of sportsmanship, end quote.
55:36
Speaker 2: It added further offenses will.
55:39
Speaker 1: Result in an escalation of disciplinary action up to and
55:43
Speaker 1: including suspension.
55:46
Speaker 2: Now, here's the other side of this.
55:49
Speaker 1: Juszczyk, who has already appealed the fine... He told Adam
55:52
Speaker 1: Schefter of ESPN. Usachek goes by the nickname Juice. He's
55:58
Speaker 1: done this celebration for years and said he's drinking his juice.
56:04
Speaker 2: When asked about it. Okay, sure. Let me finish.
56:08
Speaker 1: He has never been fined previously for the celebration and
56:12
Speaker 1: told Schefter, I don't even drink beer. So in a post,
56:19
Speaker 1: he said, can't make this stuff up. It's the first
56:22
Speaker 1: time I've ever been fined in that don't even drink beer.
56:26
Speaker 1: So that nickname doesn't just come from his last name.
56:28
Speaker 1: He actually drinks juice.
56:30
Speaker 6: Juice.
56:31
Speaker 1: That's what he's saying. I've done it several times for years.
56:33
Speaker 1: Why all of a sudden they're picking on me now?
56:37
Speaker 1: My nickname's Juice. I'm drinking my juice. Why are they
56:42
Speaker 1: doing this now? Well, I think I know why. You see,
56:46
Speaker 1: Colts guard Matt Goncalves, Goncalves, I guess? also got fined $ 8, 847.
56:53
Speaker 1: By the way, these numbers are probably percentages of game checks,
56:57
Speaker 1: I guess, or whatever, by the NFL for his imitation
57:02
Speaker 1: of chugging a beer in the Sunday night game against
57:04
Speaker 1: Kansas City. After Colts tied in, Tyler Warren scored a
57:08
Speaker 1: touchdown in the first quarter. He gave the football to
57:12
Speaker 1: gun cows who pretended to pop the top and celebrate.
57:17
Speaker 1: So there's a difference there, I think. I mean, and
57:22
Speaker 1: Calvus is actually showing to be popping a top and
57:25
Speaker 1: then chugging. Jusicek is just chugging his juice, as he says.
57:31
Speaker 1: I would think at the very, you know, and maybe
57:33
Speaker 1: they got put onto that because of what the dude
57:36
Speaker 1: with the Colts did. But I would think they would
57:38
Speaker 1: at least call him and say, or, you know, whatever,
57:43
Speaker 1: Zoom him and say, what are you doing?
57:46
Speaker 2: And he can say, I'm doing my juice. Your juice?
57:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, my name is Jusicek. And its nickname is Juice.
57:53
Speaker 1: And I've been doing this for years. And you've never
57:57
Speaker 1: fined me. So what's up? So I think they're overreacting
58:02
Speaker 1: with him. And you know me, I'm a Rams fan.
58:05
Speaker 1: I'm not a 49ers fan, but I think that's a
58:07
Speaker 1: bit over the top for the NFL.
58:08
Speaker 2: The other dude, I get. He's popping a top. I
58:12
Speaker 2: think that's different.
58:13
Speaker 1: It's kind of like when we were saying the difference
58:16
Speaker 1: between Cole Hudson and say Daquan Wright is.
58:22
Speaker 1: Hudson didn't sign a pro contract. He wasn't in an
58:25
Speaker 1: NFL training camp, and he certainly didn't put on a
58:27
Speaker 1: uniform in a game. There are differences. I don't think
58:32
Speaker 1: you can throw a blanket over everything and just say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
58:36
Speaker 1: He's drinking beer. He's popping a beer. You see what
58:38
Speaker 1: I'm saying here?
58:40
Speaker 11: That or he's very, very, very committed to the bit. Well,
58:44
Speaker 11: if he's been doing it for years, I'd say he's
58:46
Speaker 11: pretty committed, wouldn't you think? If he's been doing it
58:49
Speaker 11: for years, as he says— um so anyway so that's
58:55
Speaker 11: that that's the deal with that okay um i want
58:59
Speaker 11: to go back to sark uh this you've heard of
59:02
Speaker 11: it by now that the president of the united states
59:06
Speaker 11: is going to be at the game so sark was
59:09
Speaker 11: asked about the logistics of, uh, playing with president Trump
59:17
Speaker 11: being there and how, what they do might or might
59:21
Speaker 11: not be affected by it.
59:22
Speaker 4: It won't change anything for us from a logistic standpoint,
59:25
Speaker 4: a timing standpoint of, of getting there. Um, This will
59:28
Speaker 4: actually be my second time. I've had one other opportunity
59:31
Speaker 4: to do that. The one thing that you have to
59:34
Speaker 4: be aware of when the president goes to any game
59:36
Speaker 4: is that any time he enters the stadium or leaves
59:39
Speaker 4: the stadium or changes locations within the stadium, they cut
59:43
Speaker 4: all communications. So they cut your headsets. They cut headsets
59:47
Speaker 4: to coaches. They cut headsets to coach-to-player communication. So you
59:51
Speaker 4: have to have a plan for that if and or when,
59:54
Speaker 4: and you get no warning. So that just gets cut out.
59:56
Speaker 4: So you have to have a plan for that to
59:58
Speaker 4: adjust if and or when. If he comes in middle
1:00:01
Speaker 4: of the first quarter or leaves in the fourth quarter
1:00:04
Speaker 4: or decides he's got to use the restroom, whatever that
1:00:07
Speaker 4: looks like, you've got to be prepared to have no
1:00:09
Speaker 4: comms for a short amount of time.
1:00:12
Speaker 5: Okay.
1:00:12
Speaker 6: All right.
1:00:13
Speaker 1: And he has dealt with that before. And what does
1:00:18
Speaker 1: he remember about playing in front of the president, as
1:00:24
Speaker 1: well as the balance of taking in the pageantry.
1:00:27
Speaker 4: What I remember about it was no different from the
1:00:30
Speaker 4: last time the president came to watch us play. Really
1:00:35
Speaker 4: doesn't impact what we do, again, outside of if your
1:00:38
Speaker 4: comms go down, depending on when he moves.
1:00:40
Speaker 5: So you don't see him. So I don't, there wasn't
1:00:45
Speaker 5: much to it.
1:00:45
Speaker 4: I would say from a player's perspective, we really try
1:00:49
Speaker 4: to operate with a sense of gratitude for what we
1:00:54
Speaker 4: get to do.
1:00:55
Speaker 5: And whether it's at home and DKR.
1:00:57
Speaker 4: Or on the road, you know, what we get to
1:01:01
Speaker 4: do is very special. And we, these guys work really
1:01:04
Speaker 4: hard 12 months a year for these guaranteed 12 Saturdays
1:01:10
Speaker 4: that they get to play and what anything they do
1:01:13
Speaker 4: beyond that they earn. And so I always, challenge them,
1:01:17
Speaker 4: the staff to take, take in a moment, take it in.
1:01:20
Speaker 4: Like there's a lot of people that would love to
1:01:22
Speaker 4: be in our shoes, you know, Saturday at 12 o'clock
1:01:25
Speaker 4: when this ball gets kicked off.
1:01:26
Speaker 5: And so it's okay to take a moment. It's okay
1:01:29
Speaker 5: to be where your feet are.
1:01:29
Speaker 4: It's okay to take it in and then recalibrate, refocus
1:01:33
Speaker 4: and go play the game.
1:01:34
Speaker 5: And so, um, that doesn't matter.
1:01:37
Speaker 4: Like I said, if we're at home away and a
1:01:39
Speaker 4: playoff game, a bowl game, whatever that looks like, I
1:01:42
Speaker 4: would tell them the same thing, you know, because this
1:01:45
Speaker 4: stuff goes fast, right? We're, we're, we're already a month
1:01:48
Speaker 4: into this season and it goes quick. And then, you know,
1:01:50
Speaker 4: you look back on your career. If you don't appreciate
1:01:53
Speaker 4: these opportunities that you get, you'll, you'll regret it some.
1:01:56
Speaker 4: And so I do, I do remind them, Hey, take
1:01:58
Speaker 4: it in, enjoy it. And then let's go to work.
1:02:01
Speaker 2: Okay.
1:02:02
Speaker 1: Um, I think it was our friend Jim Vertuno, the AP,
1:02:05
Speaker 1: then asked Sark. He brought up a historical reference. You know,
1:02:10
Speaker 1: earlier this hour was talking about Texas and playing in
1:02:13
Speaker 1: the Cotton Bowl and got inspired to catch a pass.
1:02:15
Speaker 2: That was against Tennessee.
1:02:16
Speaker 1: The next year, which is what CPAL was asking about,
1:02:18
Speaker 1: was when they beat Notre Dame. Now, that was coming
1:02:21
Speaker 1: off of winning the big shootout against Arkansas, where President
1:02:25
Speaker 1: Nixon visited the locker room after the game and presented
1:02:29
Speaker 1: a plaque to coach Royal and said, I'm going to
1:02:31
Speaker 1: take this back to Washington and have an engraved national
1:02:34
Speaker 1: champions that, that whole thing afterwards. So borrowing off of that,
1:02:41
Speaker 1: Jim then asked, then asked Sark, have you heard, is
1:02:46
Speaker 1: there any plan to visit the locker room or the
1:02:49
Speaker 1: winning locker room or anything like that?
1:02:51
Speaker 5: No, I have not heard that.
1:02:53
Speaker 4: It was 2019 Alabama. We hosted LSU.
1:02:56
Speaker 1: That was the last time it happened there. So yeah, Anyway,
1:03:01
Speaker 1: the president will be there. And not sure, you know,
1:03:06
Speaker 1: they're telling everybody to get to the stadium earlier. My one, well,
1:03:13
Speaker 1: I had a couple of encounters with that sort of situation.
1:03:17
Speaker 1: Both happened within a week of one another. In 1994,
1:03:22
Speaker 1: Arkansas basketball, the year they would win the national championship,
1:03:25
Speaker 1: was playing in the Sweet 16 at Reunion Arena in Dallas.
1:03:29
Speaker 1: And of course, President Clinton at the time, Arkansas graduate,
1:03:32
Speaker 1: wanted to come to the game.
1:03:33
Speaker 2: So he did.
1:03:33
Speaker 1: And what it did was it meant the media had
1:03:36
Speaker 1: to go through extra security and walk down these long
1:03:38
Speaker 1: corridors and down these back steps. We didn't take the
1:03:40
Speaker 1: regular elevators and go into our regular media section.
1:03:44
Speaker 2: So it was that.
1:03:46
Speaker 1: And then the week after the Elite Eight was the
1:03:47
Speaker 1: Final Four, and it was in Charlotte. And same thing
1:03:51
Speaker 1: happened where they were taking us through extra security. But
1:03:54
Speaker 1: the president at the time was going, it was just
1:03:56
Speaker 1: observing the game from a suite. So it was a
1:03:58
Speaker 1: little bit easier. So, yeah, it just means getting to
1:04:01
Speaker 1: the stadium earlier, which means I better make sure I
1:04:04
Speaker 1: get to the stadium early to be on with you
1:04:05
Speaker 1: guys on Saturday morning.
1:04:06
Speaker 9: That's why you told Roger Wallace we'll see you nice
1:04:09
Speaker 9: and dark and early.
1:04:10
Speaker 2: Dark and early.
1:04:11
Speaker 1: I mean, well, and I meant that tomorrow flying out. But, yeah,
1:04:16
Speaker 1: it'll be pretty early when we go to the stadium
1:04:17
Speaker 1: on Saturday as well. We'll be back to wrap up
1:04:19
Speaker 1: hour number two on 1300 The Zone. Third and final
1:04:22
Speaker 1: hour of the program here on Sports Radio AM 1300
1:04:24
Speaker 1: The Zone.
1:04:26
Speaker 2: Craig Way alongside the producer, Jake Herman.
1:04:29
Speaker 1: Got another hour of the show to go up until
1:04:31
Speaker 1: 5 o'clock. Coming up in about 15 minutes, we'll visit
1:04:35
Speaker 1: with Gene Watson from the playoff-bound Chicago White Sox, who,
1:04:41
Speaker 1: as I just mentioned a few moments ago, still have
1:04:43
Speaker 1: other things to play for.
1:04:44
Speaker 2: Right now, they would be the No. 6 seed. They
1:04:46
Speaker 2: have a chance to be the No.
1:04:47
Speaker 1: 2 seed and get a first-round buy if they can
1:04:49
Speaker 1: win the American League Central.
1:04:50
Speaker 2: They're one game back. of Cleveland.
1:04:53
Speaker 1: And if I remember correctly, the White Sox finish against
1:04:56
Speaker 1: the Rockies and the Guardians finish against the Royals.
1:05:02
Speaker 2: So we'll get his thoughts on that.
1:05:04
Speaker 1: Also on the American League West, the Rangers are going
1:05:07
Speaker 1: to the ninth with a 3-1 lead on the Mets.
1:05:10
Speaker 1: If they win that game, they're a half game up
1:05:12
Speaker 1: on the Astros. Houston plays this evening, I think it's 6.30 tonight,
1:05:16
Speaker 1: Texas time. They'll play, maybe it's 8.30 Texas time.
1:05:21
Speaker 7: Yes, 840 in Sacramento.
1:05:23
Speaker 1: Right. 640 in Sacramento. 840 our time.
1:05:27
Speaker 7: Yes.
1:05:29
Speaker 1: They'll play the Athletics the first of four games. They
1:05:31
Speaker 1: would need to win that game to draw even with
1:05:33
Speaker 1: three to go. And remember, the Astros won the season
1:05:37
Speaker 1: series of the ring. I think they won nine of
1:05:39
Speaker 1: the 13 games. So Texas actually has to finish ahead
1:05:43
Speaker 1: of Houston in order to win that American League West.
1:05:45
Speaker 1: And what we know now with Chicago having clinched a
1:05:49
Speaker 1: spot today, And with Cleveland having clinched the spot last
1:05:53
Speaker 1: night with the Rangers and Astros losing, it's all or
1:05:57
Speaker 1: nothing for the two Texas teams. You either win the
1:06:02
Speaker 1: division and go to the playoffs or you're completely out.
1:06:04
Speaker 2: No wild card.
1:06:06
Speaker 1: The wild cards will come from the American League, East
1:06:10
Speaker 1: and Central. Yankees and Red Sox from the East, and
1:06:13
Speaker 1: either the White Sox or Guardians.
1:06:15
Speaker 2: From the Central, depending on who wins that division. So
1:06:17
Speaker 2: we'll have more on that coming up. in a few minutes.
1:06:20
Speaker 1: We're going to hear more from Longhorn's head coach, Steve Sarkeesian,
1:06:23
Speaker 1: from the Zoom meeting today.
1:06:28
Speaker 2: And we'll also hear some more from Brian Schottenheimer.
1:06:29
Speaker 1: But we wanted to bring you this little sneak preview
1:06:33
Speaker 1: of tonight's show. And tonight's Longhorn Weekly comes to you
1:06:38
Speaker 1: at 7 o'clock with Coach Sarke. We do have Derek
1:06:40
Speaker 1: Johnson joining us as a special guest. But, of course,
1:06:44
Speaker 1: we usually bring you the preview of what to expect
1:06:46
Speaker 1: from the opponent tonight. That's the little sneak peek preview
1:06:52
Speaker 1: we bring to you right now.
1:06:53
Speaker 2: They're 3-0.
1:06:54
Speaker 1: They're ranked 14th in the country, so they're obviously a
1:06:57
Speaker 1: good football team. What's your initial impressions when you look
1:07:00
Speaker 1: at them both offensively and defensively?
1:07:03
Speaker 4: The first thing is they look the part. They're a
1:07:07
Speaker 4: big physical football team. You look at their offensive line,
1:07:11
Speaker 4: their style of play is a physical brand of football.
1:07:13
Speaker 4: You look at them defensively, the speed they have, the
1:07:16
Speaker 4: physicality in which they play the game. That's the first part.
1:07:19
Speaker 4: The second part is schematically what they do. Coach Heupel,
1:07:23
Speaker 4: I've known him for a long time. He's got real
1:07:25
Speaker 4: schemes he believes in. He's evolved some over the years
1:07:29
Speaker 4: of running the ball, a little bit more 12 personnel.
1:07:31
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, they're going to
1:07:32
Speaker 4: run it, and they're going to take some shots down
1:07:34
Speaker 4: the field. And they've always got a quarterback that can
1:07:36
Speaker 4: use his legs, and they've got another true freshman this
1:07:38
Speaker 4: year in Faison. And then defensively, Coach Knowles coming in
1:07:43
Speaker 4: from Penn State and then bringing in some new faces,
1:07:46
Speaker 4: some guys coming with them from Penn State, and just
1:07:49
Speaker 4: the versatility that they have playing to the strengths of
1:07:52
Speaker 4: the players that they have. So team speed, physicality they
1:07:55
Speaker 4: play with in really good schemes. They're not 14th in
1:07:58
Speaker 4: the country on accident.
1:07:59
Speaker 1: One thing I found pretty interesting, both in Coach Heupel's
1:08:02
Speaker 1: news conference earlier in the week and then on the
1:08:05
Speaker 1: SEC teleconference, he was asked on both occasions, and you
1:08:08
Speaker 1: were kind of asked about it as well, about the
1:08:10
Speaker 1: evolution of the offensive scheme And the names that got
1:08:14
Speaker 1: invoked were Mike Leach and then, of course, from the
1:08:19
Speaker 1: Art Briles scheme. And they talk about, you know, Jeff
1:08:21
Speaker 1: Levy down at Mississippi State and those kinds of things.
1:08:23
Speaker 1: And I think his answer and yours kind of was
1:08:26
Speaker 1: like there are traits of it, but it has.
1:08:29
Speaker 2: Its own identity.
1:08:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that that's a credit to Josh. I
1:08:34
Speaker 4: call him Josh, to Coach Heupel, in that when you
1:08:38
Speaker 4: get your turn, it's– what do I really believe in?
1:08:43
Speaker 4: And then, yes, I may have been influenced by different
1:08:46
Speaker 4: people along the way, but then ultimately you do the
1:08:49
Speaker 4: things that you believe in and then you evolve from there.
1:08:52
Speaker 4: Ideas come to mind, personnel that you have on your team,
1:08:55
Speaker 4: so on and so forth, and you continue to grow
1:08:57
Speaker 4: and grow and grow and grow. And so you can
1:08:59
Speaker 4: see the influence of Mike Leach and Art Bryles going
1:09:03
Speaker 4: all the way back to who they were initially, but
1:09:06
Speaker 4: I can see it in there, but this offense that
1:09:08
Speaker 4: Tennessee has now today is not what those guys ran.
1:09:11
Speaker 4: Then he's evolved into what they are.
1:09:13
Speaker 1: Another thing that he was asked about was his quarterbacks.
1:09:16
Speaker 1: And the question was, you, you seem to be more
1:09:20
Speaker 1: dialed in to developing, uh, the high school player coming
1:09:24
Speaker 1: in then, uh, then through the portal. And then he
1:09:28
Speaker 1: quickly pointed out, you know, when, uh, he said, well, we,
1:09:30
Speaker 1: we had, uh, you know, they had, uh, uh hooker
1:09:34
Speaker 1: and then and then also had joe milton as well
1:09:36
Speaker 1: and they got those guys through the portal but he's
1:09:38
Speaker 1: had guys and and here in face on brandon as
1:09:42
Speaker 1: a guy i happen to know a little bit about
1:09:43
Speaker 1: he's from my hometown and i know the high school
1:09:45
Speaker 1: program he was in at grimsley when he was a
1:09:47
Speaker 1: grimsley whirly he was quite the quarterback uh there as
1:09:51
Speaker 1: well but i know you've been impressed for for a
1:09:53
Speaker 1: freshman to be able to do what he's doing.
1:09:55
Speaker 4: Yeah it really has you know and i think the
1:09:57
Speaker 4: physical traits are there right he's got six four 225
1:10:00
Speaker 4: pounds he's got a rocket arm he can run But
1:10:03
Speaker 4: I think managing things and the poise and composure that
1:10:06
Speaker 4: he has, this is an intricate offense. It's not, you know,
1:10:10
Speaker 4: that you've got it. They've got to be detailed in
1:10:12
Speaker 4: what they do. They're RPO and there's quarterback runs. There's
1:10:16
Speaker 4: down the field throws. There's quick games. So there's a
1:10:18
Speaker 4: lot to what they do. And so his ability to
1:10:21
Speaker 4: manage all of that doesn't look like a true freshman
1:10:24
Speaker 4: three games in.
1:10:25
Speaker 6: Right.
1:10:25
Speaker 5: And so.
1:10:26
Speaker 4: I think, A, that's a credit to Faison and his
1:10:29
Speaker 4: own personal development. I think it's a credit to their
1:10:31
Speaker 4: coaches of getting him ready to play the way that
1:10:33
Speaker 4: he is.
1:10:33
Speaker 1: When you look at the running backs, Deshaun Bishop and
1:10:35
Speaker 1: Dwan Morris, I guess Morris is kind of looked at
1:10:38
Speaker 1: as being maybe the more breakaway guy. He's got good
1:10:40
Speaker 1: speed and all that. But do you see the marked
1:10:42
Speaker 1: differences in the two?
1:10:43
Speaker 4: Well, I think Bishop, obviously just in stature, he's a 215,
1:10:48
Speaker 4: 220-pound guy. He's got a really big lower half. He's
1:10:51
Speaker 4: got really good balance and body control. Finds hidden yards
1:10:54
Speaker 4: in runs. when you go to Morris, he's a home
1:10:58
Speaker 4: run hitter.
1:10:58
Speaker 2: You hit it.
1:10:59
Speaker 4: I don't know exactly how fast he is, but he
1:11:01
Speaker 4: can go. And so they are a bit of a
1:11:04
Speaker 4: change-up when the other one's in the game. But, man,
1:11:07
Speaker 4: they're both dynamic. They're both really good players. And I
1:11:09
Speaker 4: think Bishop's obviously a great story. I think he's a
1:11:11
Speaker 4: former walk-on right there from Knoxville. So think about his
1:11:14
Speaker 4: journey to be playing for Tennessee as a former walk-on
1:11:17
Speaker 4: and having the year he's having as a senior.
1:11:19
Speaker 1: And then on the defensive side, I know a lot
1:11:21
Speaker 1: of the questions came down to how will their secondary.
1:11:24
Speaker 2: Matchup with you?
1:11:25
Speaker 1: You know and that's good that's going to be one
1:11:27
Speaker 1: of the things to watch their secondary against your receivers
1:11:29
Speaker 1: but but i know you see talent all the way around.
1:11:32
Speaker 4: For them yeah i really do you know everything everywhere
1:11:35
Speaker 4: you look it's always start up front right and and
1:11:38
Speaker 4: they've got a very active defensive front they've got two
1:11:42
Speaker 4: really good inside linebackers obviously avion carter and campbell um
1:11:46
Speaker 4: but then you get to the secondary i think you
1:11:48
Speaker 4: know everybody wants to talk about the corners of safeties
1:11:50
Speaker 4: i think a fantastic player is the nickel that they
1:11:53
Speaker 4: play with moss number six i mean he's uh He,
1:11:56
Speaker 4: he plays with reckless abandon.
1:11:57
Speaker 5: He's tough.
1:11:58
Speaker 4: Um, he's a guy who's kind of earned his way here.
1:12:01
Speaker 4: He was a junior college guy, small school guy, Kansas
1:12:04
Speaker 4: state guy. Now here, here he is at Tennessee starting
1:12:07
Speaker 4: at nickel. And to me, he's kind of the, the,
1:12:10
Speaker 4: the straw that stirs the drink for him defensively. And
1:12:12
Speaker 4: so not, not to take anything away from, from the
1:12:15
Speaker 4: other guys that have, cause they got some, some dang
1:12:17
Speaker 4: good football players, but he's a guy that, that, that
1:12:19
Speaker 4: can be.
1:12:19
Speaker 5: A real problem for us.
1:12:21
Speaker 2: Yeah. Uh, that's for sure.
1:12:23
Speaker 1: And, uh, You can hear the entire show coming up
1:12:27
Speaker 1: at 7 o'clock tonight, Longhorn Weekly with Coach Sark, where
1:12:31
Speaker 1: it's not only a breakdown of Tennessee and a look
1:12:33
Speaker 1: back at the game against UTSA. Derek Johnson is with
1:12:37
Speaker 1: us as well. We'll talk about his time as a Longhorn,
1:12:39
Speaker 1: his time in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs.
1:12:42
Speaker 1: He had a pretty funny Pro Bowl story back in
1:12:45
Speaker 1: the day when they still, well, first of all, when
1:12:49
Speaker 1: they still had a Pro Bowl since it's gone now,
1:12:51
Speaker 1: but also when they tackled And how he hit his
1:12:57
Speaker 1: own Kansas City Chiefs teammate, lifetime Longhorn Jamal Charles, because
1:13:03
Speaker 1: they were on one of them weird deals like Team
1:13:05
Speaker 1: Irvin against Team Dion or whatever.
1:13:07
Speaker 2: It wasn't AFC-NSC.
1:13:09
Speaker 1: So it was possible for players from the same NFL
1:13:12
Speaker 1: team to be on opposite sides in a Pro Bowl.
1:13:14
Speaker 9: Well, and I saw this watching the Commanders with former
1:13:18
Speaker 9: Longhorn Sam Cosme taking friendly fire from, I think it
1:13:22
Speaker 9: was Corey Kroski married on that.
1:13:24
Speaker 2: We'll see. There you go.
1:13:25
Speaker 7: And now he's probably not going to play this week.
1:13:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's unfortunate there. Hated to see that happen there.
1:13:32
Speaker 1: Of course, that was by accident.
1:13:34
Speaker 2: Yeah.
1:13:34
Speaker 1: Whereas Derek Johnson hit Jamal Charles pretty hard and took
1:13:39
Speaker 1: him down. Andy Reid called him during the week. Afterwards,
1:13:44
Speaker 1: he'll tell that story. That's part of Longhorn Weekly coming
1:13:46
Speaker 1: up tonight at 7 o'clock. All right, up next, we
1:13:49
Speaker 1: shift to baseball. It has gone final in Arlington. Texas
1:13:52
Speaker 1: Rangers beat the New York Mets 3-1. So, two things
1:13:55
Speaker 1: have happened. The Rangers have gone up a half game
1:13:59
Speaker 1: on Houston. Now, the Astros play tonight. If they beat
1:14:02
Speaker 1: the Athletics, the two teams will be deadlocked again at
1:14:05
Speaker 1: 79 wins and 80 losses. With three games left, the
1:14:09
Speaker 1: Rangers go up to Minnesota. Houston's finishing the regular season
1:14:13
Speaker 1: in Sacramento. So something like that will happen this weekend. Also,
1:14:18
Speaker 1: the win for the Rangers eliminates the Seattle Mariners. Jake
1:14:22
Speaker 1: had the Mariners and the Tigers in the playoffs.
1:14:24
Speaker 7: I had the Tigers winning the pennant. I had the
1:14:26
Speaker 7: Mariners winning that division.
1:14:28
Speaker 2: Yikes.
1:14:29
Speaker 7: Yikes, yikes, yikes.
1:14:31
Speaker 1: So the Rangers finished out their home schedule with a
1:14:34
Speaker 1: 3-1 win. They're on a plane later today up to Minneapolis.
1:14:39
Speaker 1: They'll finish the regular season. tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday at
1:14:42
Speaker 1: the Twins and the Astros in Sacramento. They start at
1:14:47
Speaker 1: what will be 8.30 our time tonight against the Athletics.
1:14:51
Speaker 1: They will need to win to draw even with Texas. Now, again,
1:14:54
Speaker 1: if the Astros win, if they wind up tied with
1:14:57
Speaker 1: the Rangers, the Astros will get it based on the
1:15:00
Speaker 1: regular season series, the Silver Boot series, and that will
1:15:03
Speaker 1: knock the Rangers out of the postseason.
1:15:06
Speaker 2: They have to finish ahead of Houston. So we'll see
1:15:08
Speaker 2: how all that goes.
1:15:10
Speaker 1: But up next, we talk baseball with Gene Watson, whose
1:15:12
Speaker 1: team is the Chicago White Sox.
1:15:14
Speaker 2: Talk about inconceivable.
1:15:16
Speaker 1: Two years removed from 121 losses, and they're going to
1:15:21
Speaker 1: the playoffs. We'll visit with him and talk other pennant
1:15:24
Speaker 1: race and postseason race baseball on 13 Under the Zone.
1:15:36
Speaker 2: The key number.
1:15:39
Speaker 2: To remember here is.
1:15:40
Speaker 5: The number 224 224.
1:15:41
Speaker 2: Why is that number significant 224 losses by the Chicago
1:15:44
Speaker 2: White Sox over the last two.
1:15:46
Speaker 1: Seasons combined 121 two years ago 103 last year they
1:15:48
Speaker 1: have become the.
1:15:49
Speaker 7: First team in baseball history.
1:15:50
Speaker 1: To to have back-to-back 100-plus lost seasons and then make
1:16:11
Speaker 1: the playoffs the next year. And with that, one of
1:16:15
Speaker 1: the reasons the White Sox have had the turnaround is
1:16:18
Speaker 1: Gene Watson, our Chicago White Sox front office man and
1:16:23
Speaker 1: MLB insider, joins us now. from Sacramento. And we'll get
1:16:28
Speaker 1: to that in a moment. But first and foremost, Gino, congratulations.
1:16:31
Speaker 1: I know the folks on the South side are pretty
1:16:33
Speaker 1: excited about this. Even though you still have work at hand,
1:16:36
Speaker 1: you can go from being the sixth seed to the
1:16:38
Speaker 1: two seed if you win the Central. But first and foremost, congratulations.
1:16:42
Speaker 1: What a turnaround by the ball club and the organization.
1:16:47
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Greg.
1:16:48
Speaker 6: I was literally dancing to the song in front of
1:16:50
Speaker 6: the airport when you started playing that.
1:16:52
Speaker 2: It's just, it's so unbelievable.
1:16:54
Speaker 6: And you know, I mean, I'm getting a little emotional
1:16:57
Speaker 6: today because you you take that task on and, you know,
1:17:00
Speaker 6: you you have a vision and you believe in the
1:17:04
Speaker 6: vision and it takes so much. But to do it
1:17:07
Speaker 6: in two years has just been it's been absolutely remarkable.
1:17:11
Speaker 6: And it begins with, first of all, Jerry Reinsdorf, our owner,
1:17:14
Speaker 6: and his commitment to winning and Chris Getz. his vision
1:17:18
Speaker 6: for the organization and will Venable and his staff and
1:17:20
Speaker 6: what they've done. But this is, and forever will be
1:17:23
Speaker 6: a player's game. And our players, we got 26 guys
1:17:26
Speaker 6: that love to play with each other. They, they believe
1:17:29
Speaker 6: in each other and today they got it done. But,
1:17:32
Speaker 6: but if I don't know if you saw the post
1:17:33
Speaker 6: game celebration, but, Very subdued because we have work to
1:17:36
Speaker 6: do over the.
1:17:37
Speaker 2: Weekend and we still have our eye on the prize.
1:17:39
Speaker 2: But a great season nonetheless.
1:17:42
Speaker 1: I want to go back to two years ago when
1:17:43
Speaker 1: you took the job and ask you two questions. Well,
1:17:45
Speaker 1: I want to ask you one question and then remind
1:17:47
Speaker 1: you of something you said. The first thing was when
1:17:51
Speaker 1: you went from the Angels to the White Sox and
1:17:54
Speaker 1: they're coming off 121 losses, did you have people say
1:17:58
Speaker 1: to you, what in the hell are you doing? Did
1:18:00
Speaker 1: you have anybody asking you and questioning.
1:18:02
Speaker 2: Your wisdom to go to Chicago? Not really, Craig, because
1:18:06
Speaker 2: it's what I've done my whole career.
1:18:08
Speaker 6: I mean, when I started with the Padres in 97,
1:18:12
Speaker 6: we were last place.
1:18:13
Speaker 2: In 98, we were in the World Series.
1:18:14
Speaker 6: And I was fortunate enough to be a part of
1:18:16
Speaker 6: the end of the Atlanta Braves run and then going
1:18:19
Speaker 6: to the Marlins and winning a World Series in 03.
1:18:22
Speaker 6: And then the spine of my career was in Kansas City.
1:18:26
Speaker 6: That was an organization that was worse than expansion the
1:18:28
Speaker 6: day we got there. So When you know the blueprint
1:18:31
Speaker 6: and you've got people that believe in the plan and
1:18:34
Speaker 6: that are willing to pay the price for the plan,
1:18:36
Speaker 6: it's just day-to-day, brick-by-brick, one player at a time, getting
1:18:41
Speaker 6: the right types of players that you believe in, drafting well,
1:18:45
Speaker 6: signing internationally well, making good trades, great waiver claims, which
1:18:48
Speaker 6: is a conversation.
1:18:50
Speaker 2: Of our entire team right now.
1:18:51
Speaker 6: And so, uh, I, I don't, I don't, I've just
1:18:54
Speaker 6: never wanted to be the guy that worked for a
1:18:56
Speaker 6: $ 300 million payroll and you're going to be away from
1:18:59
Speaker 6: your family 280 days a year. I've always wanted to
1:19:02
Speaker 6: take those big projects on. And, um, uh, this was
1:19:05
Speaker 6: another great one and we're not done yet.
1:19:08
Speaker 1: Um, the other thing I wanted to remind folks of
1:19:10
Speaker 1: is something you said to me when you took the job,
1:19:14
Speaker 1: I had you on right afterwards and you said, uh,
1:19:18
Speaker 1: this is a building thing. We're going to build this,
1:19:20
Speaker 1: but I'll never forget what you said. A lot of
1:19:23
Speaker 1: people don't say this. This situation is actually in a
1:19:28
Speaker 1: much better spot than it was when we were in
1:19:30
Speaker 1: Kansas city.
1:19:31
Speaker 2: And I was like, really?
1:19:33
Speaker 1: We're talking about 121 long. You're like, Trust me when
1:19:36
Speaker 1: I tell you this. This is a better spot. If
1:19:37
Speaker 1: we can get in, roll up our sleeves, and get
1:19:39
Speaker 1: the people we think we can get and do the
1:19:41
Speaker 1: things we want to do, we'll get this thing turned around.
1:19:43
Speaker 2: Did you think you'd get it turned around in two years?
1:19:47
Speaker 6: Honestly, Craig, we thought the backside of next year was
1:19:50
Speaker 6: going to be when you could really see the team coming.
1:19:52
Speaker 6: I mean, you know, with all the CBA negotiations, there's
1:19:56
Speaker 6: been a lot of talk about two halves taking place.
1:19:59
Speaker 6: And we felt like, okay, if there's two halves in
1:20:01
Speaker 6: the 27th season, maybe the backside of 27 or competing
1:20:05
Speaker 6: for a wild card, but, but I've said it a
1:20:07
Speaker 6: thousand times on this show, the players decide, and we
1:20:10
Speaker 6: have a tremendous coaching staff and these players they're young
1:20:13
Speaker 6: and they're dumb.
1:20:14
Speaker 2: And they don't know any better.
1:20:15
Speaker 6: And they, they have all season long been, been knocked
1:20:18
Speaker 6: down and put on the mat and they constantly just
1:20:21
Speaker 6: keep getting up.
1:20:22
Speaker 2: And that's what makes the, the team so much fine.
1:20:24
Speaker 1: Talking with Gene Watson from the Chicago White Sox, who
1:20:27
Speaker 1: will be in the playoffs at the very least, the
1:20:29
Speaker 1: third wildcard.
1:20:30
Speaker 2: But as you mentioned, there's work still to be done.
1:20:32
Speaker 1: And I would imagine going home to play the Rockies
1:20:36
Speaker 1: who are getting clubbed and they're going to be swept
1:20:39
Speaker 1: by the Diamondbacks. And we'll get more to the National
1:20:41
Speaker 1: League in a few minutes. you know, and I know
1:20:44
Speaker 1: you take nothing for granted, but a chance to go home. Cleveland,
1:20:48
Speaker 1: of course, finishes in Boston and then they have to
1:20:52
Speaker 1: go to Kansas City. So this is kind of, it's
1:20:54
Speaker 1: kind of interesting, isn't it? That what could be on
1:20:57
Speaker 1: the table for your team, instead of having to be
1:21:00
Speaker 1: the third wild card and on the road, either in
1:21:03
Speaker 1: Houston or in Arlington to get a first home field
1:21:09
Speaker 1: in a division series against the wild card versus, uh, the, uh,
1:21:14
Speaker 1: division of the third wild card versus either the Rangers
1:21:17
Speaker 1: or the Astros. So, so obviously, I mean, the, uh,
1:21:20
Speaker 1: what will Venable and the rest of the ball club
1:21:21
Speaker 1: that now the attention turns to finishing the job and
1:21:24
Speaker 1: getting the division title, doesn't it?
1:21:26
Speaker 5: Yeah.
1:21:26
Speaker 6: And, and, you know, and in playing Kansas city, I mean, they, they,
1:21:29
Speaker 6: they're going to have Noah camera on the mound tomorrow,
1:21:31
Speaker 6: arguably their best pitcher all season long. Uh, but, but
1:21:34
Speaker 6: it's baseball, Craig, and anybody can beat anybody on any
1:21:36
Speaker 6: given night. And, um, So, you know, we're going to
1:21:39
Speaker 6: do the best we can. Fortunately, we didn't have to
1:21:41
Speaker 6: use the bulk of our bullpen today, our leverage relievers.
1:21:45
Speaker 6: But again, we're going to do everything we can to
1:21:47
Speaker 6: try to close this thing out this weekend and and
1:21:50
Speaker 6: hopefully we'll get some help from the Kansas City Royals.
1:21:53
Speaker 2: Okay, all right.
1:21:54
Speaker 1: Let me jump to the reason you're in Sacramento. The
1:21:57
Speaker 1: Astros are playing in Sacramento this weekend. The Rangers just
1:22:01
Speaker 1: won a little while ago, just a few minutes ago.
1:22:03
Speaker 1: They finished off the Mets, so they salvaged the last
1:22:05
Speaker 1: game there. They won 3-1. That and the inexplicable loss
1:22:10
Speaker 1: for the Astros in Seattle last night where he got away,
1:22:12
Speaker 1: where Hayter just was pitching his arm off there in
1:22:15
Speaker 1: the 10th, and the Mariners came back to win. leaves
1:22:18
Speaker 1: the Rangers at 79-80, the Astros at 78-80, pending the
1:22:23
Speaker 1: first of their four games in Sacramento this evening against
1:22:26
Speaker 1: the Athletics.
1:22:27
Speaker 2: I maintain, Gino, as I.
1:22:28
Speaker 1: Said at the start of September, I think it's not
1:22:31
Speaker 1: inconceivable to think we might have our first sub-500 division winner,
1:22:36
Speaker 1: although the schedule would seem to set up where the
1:22:38
Speaker 1: division winner could wind up above 500. And if the
1:22:42
Speaker 1: Rangers are going to get in the playoffs, we know
1:22:43
Speaker 1: now The White Sox win eliminated Baltimore. And we also
1:22:49
Speaker 1: know that the Rangers win eliminated Seattle. So it's all
1:22:53
Speaker 1: or nothing for the Rangers and Astros. They're either going
1:22:56
Speaker 1: to win the West and get in the postseason or
1:22:58
Speaker 1: they're going to go home.
1:22:59
Speaker 2: How about your thoughts?
1:23:00
Speaker 1: First of all, let me start with the Astros because
1:23:02
Speaker 1: you're in Sacramento with what the Astros have in front
1:23:05
Speaker 1: of them trying to do something against the A's to
1:23:07
Speaker 1: wrap up the American League West.
1:23:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, really an unfortunate loss last night.
1:23:12
Speaker 6: When you have the lead like that and you have
1:23:14
Speaker 6: your closer, arguably one of the best closers in the
1:23:16
Speaker 6: game on the mound, you expect to win the game. But,
1:23:19
Speaker 6: I mean, both teams right now are extremely exhausted, especially
1:23:23
Speaker 6: on the mound.
1:23:24
Speaker 2: And it's going to take some things to do. Some
1:23:26
Speaker 2: guys are going to have to step up.
1:23:28
Speaker 6: Guys that haven't stepped up all year long for both
1:23:30
Speaker 6: organizations are going to have to this weekend. And, you know,
1:23:33
Speaker 6: the key to the Astros is, you know, Sacramento is
1:23:37
Speaker 6: a hitter's ballpark.
1:23:39
Speaker 2: They have a very good lineup.
1:23:40
Speaker 6: They can put some runs up in a hurry, so
1:23:42
Speaker 6: the pitching is going to have to be on point,
1:23:44
Speaker 6: but they're going to have to get some help from
1:23:46
Speaker 6: somebody other than Isak Paredes and Jordan Alvarez. There's going
1:23:50
Speaker 6: to have to be some other guys in the lineup
1:23:53
Speaker 6: step up and have some production this.
1:23:55
Speaker 2: Weekend for them to score runs.
1:23:57
Speaker 6: I expect the games to be very high scoring, and
1:23:59
Speaker 6: it's going to tax your pitching. What would go into
1:24:03
Speaker 6: a wild card situation are actually.
1:24:06
Speaker 2: The bye next week.
1:24:08
Speaker 6: You're going to have a chance to rest your pitching,
1:24:09
Speaker 6: but it's going to be interesting to see how they
1:24:12
Speaker 6: manage the arms. Both teams are extremely taxed when it
1:24:15
Speaker 6: comes to their pitching right now.
1:24:17
Speaker 2: Yeah.
1:24:18
Speaker 1: Have you, by the way, and I know that obviously
1:24:21
Speaker 1: you've been every major league ballpark many times over and
1:24:24
Speaker 1: just about every minor league park. Have you been there
1:24:27
Speaker 1: to Sacramento since the A's have been playing? I know
1:24:30
Speaker 1: you were there a lot, you know, seeing the Rivercats play,
1:24:32
Speaker 1: but have you been there since the A's have been
1:24:34
Speaker 1: in there? I haven't.
1:24:36
Speaker 6: I was just with Brian McTaggart on our flight and
1:24:38
Speaker 6: I was asking him about it, you know, like how
1:24:40
Speaker 6: are the accommodations been accommodations been for the major league stuff?
1:24:43
Speaker 6: And they seem to think that it's been okay. So,
1:24:45
Speaker 6: but no, I have not been there for a major
1:24:47
Speaker 6: league game and looking forward to it.
1:24:48
Speaker 1: All right. Visiting with Gene Watson here. Let me turn
1:24:51
Speaker 1: your attention to the Rangers. They go to Minneapolis now. After,
1:24:54
Speaker 1: like I said, they dropped those first two games to
1:24:56
Speaker 1: the Mets, rallied back, they got a home run from
1:24:58
Speaker 1: Corey Seager, they got a home run from Josh Young,
1:25:00
Speaker 1: and that was enough to back the pitching. They win 3-1.
1:25:03
Speaker 1: So now they go to Minnesota this weekend. How about
1:25:06
Speaker 1: your thoughts on the Rangers knowing they have to finish
1:25:10
Speaker 1: in front of Houston in order to make the playoffs?
1:25:12
Speaker 1: They can't just be level with them. They got to
1:25:14
Speaker 1: finish ahead of them.
1:25:16
Speaker 6: Well, you know, Minnesota's been, you know, they've got some
1:25:18
Speaker 6: young talent on their team, and they... they would tell
1:25:22
Speaker 6: you that they've underachieved this season. I think they had,
1:25:24
Speaker 6: like the Kansas City Royals, had some expectations. And Kansas City,
1:25:29
Speaker 6: they played us tough. They're going to play Cleveland tough.
1:25:32
Speaker 6: And so that is going to be the same situation
1:25:34
Speaker 6: for Minnesota. They have some young players that have a
1:25:37
Speaker 6: lot of pride to play for. And so they're going
1:25:40
Speaker 6: to have to be on point. I know the pitching
1:25:43
Speaker 6: for almost every team right now is really exhaustive.
1:25:46
Speaker 2: And gas.
1:25:47
Speaker 6: And so again, your underbelly of your bullpen is going
1:25:50
Speaker 6: to have to step and step up and then have
1:25:52
Speaker 6: some performance, uh, for them to be successful this weekend.
1:25:56
Speaker 2: Wow. All right.
1:25:58
Speaker 1: Let's jump to the National League where there's got to
1:26:01
Speaker 1: be a party going on on Rush Street right now
1:26:03
Speaker 1: because not only did the White Sox clinch a playoff spot,
1:26:05
Speaker 1: the Cubs did.
1:26:06
Speaker 2: Today as they beat the Marlins.
1:26:08
Speaker 1: So both Chicago teams will be in the postseason. And
1:26:13
Speaker 1: I think, I could be wrong about this, I think
1:26:16
Speaker 1: it's the first time that both have been in the
1:26:17
Speaker 1: playoffs since they faced each other 120 years ago in
1:26:19
Speaker 1: the 1906 World Series. So the Cubs, who have a
1:26:25
Speaker 1: chance to finish as the four seed, as the top
1:26:30
Speaker 1: wild card, San Diego, of course, hopped right back into
1:26:33
Speaker 1: that spot by beating the Dodgers last night. And then
1:26:35
Speaker 1: you got the Phillies in there as well. All three
1:26:37
Speaker 1: were deadlocked before the action of last night. Let's talk
1:26:42
Speaker 1: about that National League wild card spot as it sets
1:26:45
Speaker 1: up with the Cubs, the Phillies, and the Padres.
1:26:49
Speaker 6: Well, you know how I feel about the team that
1:26:50
Speaker 6: keeps playing and these, these teams that they have, they
1:26:53
Speaker 6: have all been chasing the Dodgers from a roster standpoint.
1:26:56
Speaker 2: And these teams are all super talented.
1:26:58
Speaker 6: I would tell you that there's a pretty significant gap
1:27:01
Speaker 6: between the national league and the American league right now.
1:27:04
Speaker 6: And so it's going to be interesting. I, you know,
1:27:06
Speaker 6: being in Chicago last week with the team, the city
1:27:09
Speaker 6: is actually on fire for, for both teams. And, and the,
1:27:12
Speaker 6: you know, even with no windy city matchup, the, the,
1:27:17
Speaker 6: the controversy and the comparison continues, but, but it is
1:27:20
Speaker 6: a city on fire right now for both their baseball teams.
1:27:24
Speaker 6: And again, you know, I feel like in the national league,
1:27:28
Speaker 6: a team in the wild card could have the advantage
1:27:31
Speaker 6: because these are a little bit different teams when you
1:27:33
Speaker 6: talk about the depth of their pitching. And so they're
1:27:36
Speaker 6: not going to need the rest that the teams in
1:27:38
Speaker 6: the American league need. And so for me, that team
1:27:41
Speaker 6: that gets really hot and has to keep playing has a.
1:27:44
Speaker 2: Chance to be super, super dangerous.
1:27:46
Speaker 6: And, There are four really good teams in the National League,
1:27:49
Speaker 6: and it's going to be really fun to watch.
1:27:50
Speaker 1: You know what's also kind of interesting to see? You know,
1:27:56
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks are still mathematically alive. It's kind of almost
1:28:00
Speaker 1: like that scene from The Princess Bride where he says,
1:28:02
Speaker 1: good heavens, are you still trying to win? They're handling
1:28:06
Speaker 1: their business by sweeping the Rockies. They're up 12-2 in
1:28:09
Speaker 1: the seventh right now. The Padres' magic number, because of
1:28:12
Speaker 1: their win over the Dodgers last night, is.
1:28:14
Speaker 2: Reduced to one. However....
1:28:17
Speaker 1: And Tyler Glass now is on the mound for Los
1:28:19
Speaker 1: Angeles tonight. Nick Pavetta, who's had a lot of his
1:28:21
Speaker 1: season on the injured list, he's going to count it
1:28:23
Speaker 1: for San Diego. If the Dodgers win, and by the way,
1:28:26
Speaker 1: they still have something to play for. They need to
1:28:28
Speaker 1: win to lock up the number two seed or have
1:28:30
Speaker 1: a Braves loss to to clinch it but if if
1:28:33
Speaker 1: uh if the dodgers uh were to beat them and
1:28:37
Speaker 1: and the diamondbacks going to win this game yes they'd
1:28:41
Speaker 1: be three back with three to go but they would
1:28:43
Speaker 1: at least be staring their opponent across the field they
1:28:47
Speaker 1: play they finish in san diego head to head the
1:28:51
Speaker 1: d-backs and the padres do tomorrow which i think adds
1:28:53
Speaker 1: a little intrigue if if la keeps san diego from
1:28:57
Speaker 1: clinching that final playoff spot.
1:28:59
Speaker 6: Tonight Well, what I would say is we've talked for
1:29:03
Speaker 6: weeks about Atlanta, the Phillies, the Dodgers, and the Brewers.
1:29:09
Speaker 6: They've been on our radar for weeks as arguably the
1:29:12
Speaker 6: four best teams in the National League.
1:29:15
Speaker 2: But you cannot count the Padres out right now.
1:29:17
Speaker 6: They've played extremely good baseball for the last month. And
1:29:22
Speaker 6: as I've said before, this is a roster that has
1:29:25
Speaker 6: been together for a while.
1:29:26
Speaker 2: They've invested an incredible amount.
1:29:28
Speaker 6: To continue to build the roster up and they're, they're
1:29:31
Speaker 6: playing as well as anybody.
1:29:32
Speaker 2: And they're as dangerous as anybody.
1:29:34
Speaker 6: And so you look at those five teams in the
1:29:36
Speaker 6: national league, and I think it's, it's safe to say
1:29:39
Speaker 6: that good baseball, anybody could beat anybody. And so it's
1:29:42
Speaker 6: going to be a great, you know, couple of weeks
1:29:45
Speaker 6: to watch in the national league.
1:29:46
Speaker 2: And, and I think that we would all agree.
1:29:49
Speaker 6: There's some pretty big gaps between, who are the best
1:29:51
Speaker 6: teams in the American League and who are the best
1:29:53
Speaker 6: teams in.
1:29:53
Speaker 2: The National League.
1:29:54
Speaker 1: I want to ask you one other thing about organizational
1:29:57
Speaker 1: development here, because this is right into your wheelhouse. Yesterday,
1:30:02
Speaker 1: when the Dodgers activated Shohei Otani, and he had a
1:30:06
Speaker 1: hit last night in the walk of the game, but
1:30:08
Speaker 1: you can tell he's still trying to get himself back
1:30:10
Speaker 1: into a rhythm and a groove.
1:30:11
Speaker 2: But when they did that.
1:30:12
Speaker 1: To make room for him on the roster, they optioned
1:30:16
Speaker 1: Josue DiPaola down the triple A. Now, DePaula, of course,
1:30:21
Speaker 1: was promoted, as you know, straight from AA to the bigs.
1:30:24
Speaker 1: So ironically, this is his first time to land in
1:30:26
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City in that championship series with Las Vegas there
1:30:30
Speaker 1: in the PCL. So they send him down. And a
1:30:32
Speaker 1: lot of folks scratched their head, including my wife, who said,
1:30:35
Speaker 1: wait a minute, guy's batting 321 since he's come up
1:30:38
Speaker 1: to the big was what gives. But then I heard
1:30:40
Speaker 1: Dave Roberts say, By going down to Oklahoma City, he
1:30:45
Speaker 1: might be able to get 10 more at-bats by going
1:30:47
Speaker 1: down there before we bring him back up. So clearly,
1:30:51
Speaker 1: it sounds like they're planning to bring him back up
1:30:53
Speaker 1: and probably have him on the postseason roster.
1:30:54
Speaker 2: How about your thoughts on that? No question.
1:30:57
Speaker 6: You do not want your young players like that sitting.
1:31:01
Speaker 6: I'm with Pat Listash advancing the Astros right now. 1992
1:31:04
Speaker 6: American League Rookie of the Year with the Brewers.
1:31:08
Speaker 2: We were talking about this last night.
1:31:10
Speaker 6: You do not want your guys sitting. You want them
1:31:15
Speaker 6: to get their at-bats. And for a young player like that,
1:31:19
Speaker 6: this is a guy that could come up if needed.
1:31:21
Speaker 6: And every team right now has what's called a stay-ready camp.
1:31:25
Speaker 6: And so they've got players in Arizona and players in Florida.
1:31:28
Speaker 6: You know, the two kids last night with the Astros
1:31:30
Speaker 6: had to come from West Palm Beach at the stay-ready
1:31:32
Speaker 6: camp and come all the way across country to play
1:31:35
Speaker 6: in that game in Seattle last night. So if the
1:31:38
Speaker 6: luxury of them still being in the playoffs and playing
1:31:41
Speaker 6: is enormous because of the quality pitching, the crowds, the
1:31:44
Speaker 6: things that are going to be different that he doesn't
1:31:46
Speaker 6: have to lose for the major leagues, but you don't
1:31:48
Speaker 6: want a guy like this sitting on the bench because
1:31:51
Speaker 6: he's a guy that could come up like Andrew Jones
1:31:54
Speaker 6: in the early 2000s, come in like Miguel Cabrera in 2003,
1:31:58
Speaker 6: and be that young guy that really electrifies your team.
1:32:01
Speaker 6: So absolutely the best call to make for that organization
1:32:05
Speaker 6: and for him.
1:32:06
Speaker 1: Do you have a restaurant in Sacramento from your days
1:32:09
Speaker 1: of being there to watch the Rivercats that you remember
1:32:11
Speaker 1: that you'll frequent? Because I know you have restaurants in
1:32:13
Speaker 1: every major league town. Do you have one you like
1:32:16
Speaker 1: in Sacramento, or is that going to take some refreshing
1:32:18
Speaker 1: from somebody?
1:32:20
Speaker 6: We are actually going to Frank Fats, recommended by Steve
1:32:24
Speaker 6: Sparks with the Astros, and it's a Chinese restaurant, so.
1:32:28
Speaker 2: That's what we're going to try to do at some point.
1:32:30
Speaker 2: I will expect the full report. And then there's always
1:32:32
Speaker 2: the squeeze in for hamburgers. There you go. There you go.
1:32:35
Speaker 1: Hey, enjoy it. I appreciate it. Congratulations on that. And
1:32:38
Speaker 1: we'll look forward to talking some playoffs next week since
1:32:41
Speaker 1: the postseason.
1:32:41
Speaker 2: Will be underway. Thank you, Gino. All right, Craig.
1:32:44
Speaker 5: Thanks so much.
1:32:45
Speaker 2: Take care.
1:32:45
Speaker 1: That's Gene Watson, our MLB insider from the playoff bound
1:32:50
Speaker 1: Chicago White Sox.
1:32:53
Speaker 2: Imagine that.
1:32:54
Speaker 1: And they still have a shot to win the American
1:32:57
Speaker 1: League Central and be the two-seed and draw.
1:32:59
Speaker 6: Bye.
1:33:00
Speaker 2: In the first round. That's rather inconceivable to consider as well.
1:33:05
Speaker 5: All right.
1:33:06
Speaker 1: Coming up more, we'll hear from Longwood's head coach, Steve Sarkeesian,
1:33:09
Speaker 1: when we continue on 1300 The Zone. Back here.
1:33:18
Speaker 2: On this Thursday.
1:33:20
Speaker 1: What do we got here?
1:33:23
Speaker 7: A little Tennessee River.
1:33:26
Speaker 2: Okay.
1:33:26
Speaker 7: From Alabama.
1:33:28
Speaker 1: Yeah. We'll be astride the Tennessee River on Saturday. And,
1:33:36
Speaker 1: I mean, you're pretty close to it. Neyland Stadium is, like,
1:33:39
Speaker 1: right across the road and then a slope down to
1:33:40
Speaker 1: the bank down to the river.
1:33:42
Speaker 7: I walked down there on my night in Knoxville on
1:33:44
Speaker 7: my way down to Austin.
1:33:45
Speaker 2: Did you?
1:33:46
Speaker 5: Nice area.
1:33:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. It really is.
1:33:49
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll get back to talk about Texas in a moment.
1:33:52
Speaker 1: We're going to do some more with the Cowboys. They
1:33:55
Speaker 1: may be in the air right now, or certainly they
1:33:57
Speaker 1: had a practice, and then they were going to be
1:33:58
Speaker 1: leaving for Rio.
1:34:00
Speaker 2: And the evening flight.
1:34:01
Speaker 1: And head coach Brian Schottenheimer was talking about this team
1:34:08
Speaker 1: and where he's expecting certain guys to improve, to be.
1:34:12
Speaker 2: Better, like Jalen Thompson.
1:34:16
Speaker 10: It goes back to game one, some of the communication stuff,
1:34:19
Speaker 10: giving and receiving.
1:34:20
Speaker 2: I think that's part of it.
1:34:22
Speaker 10: He's in a position where he's got to get things right.
1:34:26
Speaker 2: He's the last line of defense.
1:34:28
Speaker 10: Uh, I think you see the athleticism to cover, but
1:34:30
Speaker 10: at the end of the day, you know, all of
1:34:32
Speaker 10: us need to play better on defense.
1:34:33
Speaker 2: We need to coach better myself included on defense, make
1:34:36
Speaker 2: cleaner adjustments.
1:34:36
Speaker 10: But again, early season, you know, he's not when the
1:34:40
Speaker 10: ball's not getting thrown over our head a whole lot,
1:34:41
Speaker 10: you know, in the drop back passing game, a couple
1:34:43
Speaker 10: of gadgets have snuck behind us, but overall I think,
1:34:47
Speaker 10: you know, JT's he's playing, he's playing well.
1:34:50
Speaker 2: Okay.
1:34:51
Speaker 1: Uh, next asked about Roquan Smith. What makes him so
1:34:53
Speaker 1: formidable for the raisin Ravens? And, uh, makes him so consistent.
1:34:58
Speaker 10: Violence, physicality, interesting story. He was committed to us at
1:35:04
Speaker 10: Georgia when I was there. My cup of coffee I
1:35:07
Speaker 10: had at Georgia in college. And, you know, I just
1:35:11
Speaker 10: remember talking about the young man and how much he
1:35:14
Speaker 10: loves football. I mean, he just loves football. You know,
1:35:17
Speaker 10: he's a film junkie. He studies a great communicator. And,
1:35:21
Speaker 10: you know, the violence and physicality he plays with is real.
1:35:24
Speaker 1: All right.
1:35:25
Speaker 2: And then one more... You know, you think about the
1:35:28
Speaker 2: Cowboys' schedule.
1:35:30
Speaker 1: And, you know, they started off with the loss in
1:35:36
Speaker 1: the opener in the Meadowlands. Came home, got the win.
1:35:39
Speaker 1: Now it's down to Rio to play a good Ravens team.
1:35:43
Speaker 1: So is this the toughest stretch of schedule he can remember?
1:35:47
Speaker 1: I know what you're asking.
1:35:50
Speaker 10: I'd be a hypocrite if I said I think it's
1:35:52
Speaker 10: a tough task, but we're up to it.
1:35:54
Speaker 2: And mentally tough. We need to be. It's a long season.
1:36:00
Speaker 10: And I can't be a win the day type guy
1:36:03
Speaker 10: and be angry about it. But in reality, it's a
1:36:06
Speaker 10: long trip. Come home, Houston, short week. But we're going
1:36:09
Speaker 10: to win today. And then we're going to go down there.
1:36:11
Speaker 10: We're going to win Friday, Saturday and play a really
1:36:13
Speaker 10: good team and hopefully win that.
1:36:15
Speaker 2: But you got to stay in the moment.
1:36:16
Speaker 10: But it does require mental toughness.
1:36:18
Speaker 2: And the schedule is a schedule. And we will play anybody, anytime, anywhere.
1:36:22
Speaker 2: But it's a unique schedule for sure.
1:36:24
Speaker 11: All right.
1:36:26
Speaker 1: Unique is one way certainly for him to describe it. Okay,
1:36:32
Speaker 1: back to talking about Longhorn's head coach, Steve Sarkeesian, and
1:36:36
Speaker 1: getting ready for this matchup. And that includes looking at
1:36:42
Speaker 1: Faison Brand. And he was asked about his philosophy on
1:36:48
Speaker 1: freshman quarterbacks. How often does he see them? How does
1:36:52
Speaker 1: he feel about them getting into game action and being
1:36:56
Speaker 1: possibly factors in games?
1:36:58
Speaker 2: All of those types of things.
1:36:59
Speaker 4: Well, physically gifted guy.
1:37:01
Speaker 5: I mean, 6'4, 225. He can run. He's got a
1:37:04
Speaker 5: rocket of an arm.
1:37:07
Speaker 4: I think that schematically what they've done with him, they've
1:37:11
Speaker 4: kind of helped him build and grow into it. Obviously,
1:37:14
Speaker 4: they've been relying on the run game, but you know,
1:37:16
Speaker 4: coach Hypo is notorious for the shot plays, you know,
1:37:19
Speaker 4: they're going to run the ball and then they're going
1:37:20
Speaker 4: to take six to eight shots a game down the field.
1:37:23
Speaker 4: And that, that allows a young quarterback, you know, you're
1:37:26
Speaker 4: running it well to tee it up pretty good and
1:37:28
Speaker 4: to take those shots down the field.
1:37:30
Speaker 5: So, but his, they've.
1:37:33
Speaker 4: Kind of grown their, their, their game plans from week
1:37:36
Speaker 4: to week and you can see him getting more comfortable.
1:37:38
Speaker 4: So credit to him, credit to those guys, getting him
1:37:41
Speaker 4: ready to play and playing at a high level and,
1:37:44
Speaker 4: you know, I don't know if it's such a philosophical approach.
1:37:47
Speaker 4: I think every situation is different, you know, you know,
1:37:51
Speaker 4: what's your quarterback situation that you have, and then how
1:37:54
Speaker 4: good is the guy that you have? And is he,
1:37:56
Speaker 4: you know, physically able to do it? And does he
1:37:58
Speaker 4: have the mental maturity to do it? And so I
1:38:02
Speaker 4: don't know if it's more or less historically, I haven't,
1:38:05
Speaker 4: I haven't ran those numbers, Sam, to say, gosh, it's
1:38:07
Speaker 4: more or less, I don't know.
1:38:08
Speaker 5: So I'm, I don't know.
1:38:12
Speaker 4: I don't have much more to say on it than that.
1:38:14
Speaker 4: It's like you just try to put the best team
1:38:15
Speaker 4: out there that you can, I imagine. And if it's
1:38:17
Speaker 4: a true freshman, it's a true freshman.
1:38:18
Speaker 1: All right. The other thing that comes up a lot
1:38:20
Speaker 1: is how noisy this is going to be. Sark has
1:38:23
Speaker 1: said it's been the loudest stadium he has ever been
1:38:26
Speaker 1: a part of with a team. And so he's, you know,
1:38:30
Speaker 1: you know, been a big, big part of a lot
1:38:33
Speaker 1: of noisy things. So the question is, has the team
1:38:37
Speaker 1: not allowed the noise to distract them in their preparations?
1:38:40
Speaker 4: I didn't even know there was a lot of noise
1:38:42
Speaker 4: around the game. So, you know, we don't, we don't
1:38:45
Speaker 4: really change a whole lot, Terry. Like our guys are
1:38:48
Speaker 4: Our process is our process. I think one thing for
1:38:52
Speaker 4: us that benefits us is that this is a little
1:38:57
Speaker 4: bit more of the norm for us. We've played in
1:38:59
Speaker 4: a lot of big games around here. We've already played
1:39:01
Speaker 4: in a big game earlier this year that way. And
1:39:05
Speaker 4: so I think there's a level of comfort of, hey,
1:39:09
Speaker 4: we know what it takes to prepare for moments and
1:39:11
Speaker 4: games like this. And that's just we just get back
1:39:14
Speaker 4: to it. You know, we don't spend a lot of
1:39:15
Speaker 4: time talking about things that don't contribute to our success
1:39:20
Speaker 4: on game day. You know that our focus goes right
1:39:22
Speaker 4: into what we need to do mentally, physically, emotionally. I
1:39:25
Speaker 4: think the leaders on our team understand that the guys
1:39:28
Speaker 4: now that we're going into week four.
1:39:30
Speaker 5: So the players understand that.
1:39:32
Speaker 4: You know, if you're anybody who's been new to our
1:39:34
Speaker 4: program this year, I think they've realized a month into
1:39:37
Speaker 4: the season.
1:39:38
Speaker 5: There's a lot of noise around our program. Right. Just
1:39:41
Speaker 5: in general.
1:39:41
Speaker 4: And I credit and I thank you guys for that.
1:39:44
Speaker 4: And I appreciate all that you do in creating the
1:39:46
Speaker 4: excitement and energy around our team and topics and discussions.
1:39:50
Speaker 4: And so that being said. It really doesn't matter so
1:39:53
Speaker 4: much about the opponent. There's always stuff going on around
1:39:57
Speaker 4: our program, and that's because of the coverage that we get.
1:40:00
Speaker 4: And so, again, this doesn't feel that unique or new
1:40:04
Speaker 4: to us. This is kind of what it is week
1:40:06
Speaker 4: to week for us.
1:40:06
Speaker 3: Yeah.
1:40:07
Speaker 1: There's a difference between the noise outside and the outside noise,
1:40:13
Speaker 1: and that's what he was going with, with the outside
1:40:15
Speaker 1: noise there around the program as they prepare for the
1:40:18
Speaker 1: noise outside playing outside. at Neyland Stadium. And then finally,
1:40:23
Speaker 1: asked about Arch Manning, how he's handling it. It would
1:40:27
Speaker 1: not be a Zoom media session without a question about
1:40:29
Speaker 1: Arch and how he's going, his mindset and his prep
1:40:33
Speaker 1: for this contest.
1:40:34
Speaker 4: I think he's done what he always does. He prepares
1:40:37
Speaker 4: incredibly well. He's dialed into the game plan. I was
1:40:42
Speaker 4: telling him the other day, I don't know if I've
1:40:43
Speaker 4: ever been around a quarterback, maybe Matt Ryan, that prepares
1:40:47
Speaker 4: better than he does, that is really, truly dialed into
1:40:49
Speaker 4: the plan with what we're trying to.
1:40:51
Speaker 5: Do and executing those things. So, again, I don't think
1:40:56
Speaker 5: he's been different.
1:40:58
Speaker 4: I think he's been dialed into his prep, mental, physical,
1:41:01
Speaker 4: emotional prep, his connection with the receivers, any little nuances
1:41:05
Speaker 4: that were changing schematically, getting those extra reps with those guys,
1:41:09
Speaker 4: throwing post-practice. So I anticipate him coming out guns blazing,
1:41:13
Speaker 4: ready to go.
1:41:14
Speaker 11: All right.
1:41:15
Speaker 1: There it is. Stuff from Sark. We'll be back to
1:41:17
Speaker 1: wrap up today's edition of the program on 13 Under
1:41:19
Speaker 1: the Zone.