Latest / The Craig Way Show / CFB Eligibility Battles, MLB Labor Latest, Dallas Cowboys Buzz

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CFB Eligibility Battles, MLB Labor Latest, Dallas Cowboys Buzz · The Craig Way Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Heading down the homestretch of the week as we kick
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: off a brand new edition today's edition of the craig
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: way show welcome to the program here on sports radio
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: am 13 under the zone my name is craig way
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: i do thank you very much for joining us. Happy
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to be with us. Happy to have you with us
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: here on this Thursday afternoon. We're with you each and
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  Speaker 1: every weekday afternoon, Monday through Friday from 2 p.m. to
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  Speaker 1: you can do it is through our talkback microphone or
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app. And, of course, that's
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: how we did our giveaways of the Dave Campbell's Texas
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Football Magazine. By the way, there's still a few of
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: those copies left for those of you who won. Make
• 1:11
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• 1:13
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  Speaker 1: going on in the air, including this program in real time.
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  Speaker 1: But it's the red button with the little white microphone
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• 1:54
  Speaker 1: It'll cut you off. But you got 30 seconds to
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: leave us a message. You want to talk about something,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: this whole business with college football and the Daquan Wright
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: saga and all that kind of stuff. You can talk
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: about that or the Longhorns or the Cowboys, whatever's on
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: your mind. You can leave us a voice message there.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: The producer is Jay Kerman. How'd your evening go last night?
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: You know, Craig, you were asked yesterday on the show
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: about the new season of Ted Lasso, whether I was
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: caught up. Did you watch last night's episode?
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I've not because we watched the Vince Young documentary.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, that was last night.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: It's been out for a few days and I had
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of people hitting me up for it. So
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I did watch it last night. I'll get to that
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: in a moment. Okay, I'll get to that soon. I
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: really enjoyed the episode of Ted Lasso last night. I
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: might be back in. Okay, it's the fourth episode, right?
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: The fourth episode.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: All right, we haven't seen it. Lynn and I are
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: going to watch tonight. So that's good news.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Good news on that front. And other than that, I'm okay.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I've got an exciting night coming up.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Headed out. Well, the bad news is I've got one
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: of my good friends that's leaving town in a couple days.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: He's moving.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: But as a send-off tonight, We're going down to Driftwood,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: to the Salt Lake.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, good. Yeah, well, you've been down there before, right? Yes.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: It's been a while, though. Has your friend been down there? Hey,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: he picked it out. He wanted it before he left
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: the great state.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah. Well, you could certainly do far worse than
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the Salt Lake and Driftwood. So, well done.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Coming up on the program this afternoon, one of the
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Longhorn players that we did not get a chance to
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: hear from yesterday, from when they had the media availabilities, was...
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: the Longhorns corner, Bo Masco, the transfer from Rutgers. And
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: we'll hear from him. I had some interesting things to say.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: We will hear from Brian Schottenheimer, the Cowboys head coach.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: And speaking of the Cowboys, coming up in the four
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: o'clock hour, we will visit with Isaiah Stanback. Isaiah, who
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: at one time played for the Cowboys, played for other
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: teams as a Super Bowl ring, was a quarterback at
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: the University of Washington and was a running back and
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: a receiver, kind of an all-purpose quarterback. Swiss Army knife
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: type of player in his time in the NFL. And
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: he's now on the Cowboys. He's been with the Cowboys
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: network for six years now. And he's the analyst in
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: the booth on the game telecast. So if you were
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: in the booth or if you were watching the Cowboys
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Cardinals game last night, you heard him in the booth
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: make all kinds of guttural sound. It was almost kind
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: of like a Tony Romo, but it sounded more organic. Oh,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I don't know, Chad. And he had some funny comments
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: and stuff. Like you can tell, he really enjoys himself
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: in the boot there. Doesn't take himself too seriously and
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: understands it is preseason football. But he has some good
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: things to say about what the Cowboys are all about.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: So we'll ask him about some of those things coming
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: up in the 4 o'clock hour. We've got some other
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: NFL notes we'll get to. And I mentioned Bo Masco.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: We'll hear from him and some other college football notes
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: as well. In the 3 o'clock hour, we have our
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: weekly conversation with Gene Watson from the Chicago White Sox
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: front office, our MLB insider. Geno's been in Japan the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: last two weeks. He joined us from Japan at 3.15
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: last week. That's 5.15 a.m. Tokyo time in Japan. And
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: so when I was checking back, I said, do you
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: want to wait until later? And then he said, well,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I'm actually... He said flying back tomorrow, which is tomorrow
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: for us. It's already into today now for them, you know,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: once you're crossing that international date line. He's actually going
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to be leaving to come back in about 12 hours,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: something like that. But he's going to join us again
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: at 5.15 a.m. local time in Japan. Coming up in
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the 3 o'clock, right around 3.15 our time. So we'll
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: visit with Gene Watson to talk about that.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Imagine that being over there. You wake up, you do
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: the show, and then two hours later, it's Yamamoto bump day.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you know what? And I told him,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I said, hey, listen, I don't want to... I said,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I feel bad disrupting your sleep cycles. He said, I've
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: hardly slept at all since I've been here for two weeks.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: He's up, down for a couple hours, whether back up.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: They've got stuff, you know, body clock all messed up.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: It's going to take him a week to get right
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: when he gets back.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: So.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Anyway, but he'll join us coming up in the 3
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: o'clock hour, so we'll look forward to that. We do
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: have Inconceivable a little bit later on this hour as well. Okay,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: let's jump into some topics. Clearly, I've laid it all
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: out over the past couple of days, the hue and
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: cry against players. I'm not even going to say student-athletes.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I'm going to say players because they were trying to
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: play pro football. Now, again, many did not sign a contract,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: and that included Cole Hudson, who was able to return
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: to Texas, at least under an injunction. We'll see how
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: all that holds up. But the guys who were trying
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: to make it on NFL teams, and at the top
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: of the list, as has already been mentioned by many
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: different outlets, the quote-unquote poster child case study of this
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: is Daquan Wright, the former Ole Miss tight end, who
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: not only was trying to make it with an NFL team,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: the Cleveland Browns, he signed a contract and was actually
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: in uniform on the sidelines for their preseason game against
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: the Bills last Saturday. He did not suit up the
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: prior week for their loss to the Bears, but he
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: was in uniform for their preseason contest last Saturday against Buffalo.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: did not get into the game, he did not play,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: but he was under contract getting paid and was in uniform.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Upon being cut, and in actuality, entered the transfer portal
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: in complete anticipation of being released by the Browns. He
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: entered the transfer portal and chose to transfer from his
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: former school, Ole Miss, to LSU, which of course is
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: coached by the former Ole Miss team. coach, Lane Kiffin,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: who's at LSU. And he wasn't the only one as
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: well trying to do that. And there's some other players
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: trying to go to various and sundry teams and things
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: of that nature. Lane Kiffin vociferously defended these players saying
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: they had no alternative had they known that a fifth
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: year could have been eligible to them to go back.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: They would have done it in the first place. They
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: never would have tried to make an NFL roster. That
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: did not matter to either the Big Ten or the SEC.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: They both issued very strongly worded statements leading to policy
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: that does not allow for the return of athletes to
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: once again become student athletes to go back to college
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: if they'd been on a roster, signed a contract, appeared
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: in games, things like that. Well, add to that list
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the Big 12. which unanimously last night agreed to ban
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: professionals from returning in all sports. The Big Ten's initial statement,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and they were the first to come out with a
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: definite statement, that the SEC was the first to respond
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: to all this in a tweet on Monday night saying
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: that university presidents and athletic directors and general counsels were
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: against this. And the response nationwide from a lot of
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: people was, okay, they're against this. Are they going to
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: do something about it? Well, first, the Big Ten the
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: next day banned what it said in its language, was
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: all football players looking to return. The SEC then went
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: a step further and said, if you appeared in a
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: WNBA game or an NBA game or any kind of
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: professional football game, you're out. You're not going to be
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: in there. By the way, for those of you, and
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: I had a couple of people ask me, he said, well,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: wouldn't this apply to baseball? Baseball pretty much takes care
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: of itself. It polices itself because if you have two
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: chances to enter the major league draft, one, when you're
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: right out of high school. So if you're drafted, say
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: in the first round, a lot of baseball players figure
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: That's about as good as you can get. So I'm
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: going to go ahead and take the money and sign
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and move on. And so many do. Longhorns lost a
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: couple of players that way out of their signing class,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: even though they wound up with a really good signing class.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I think D1 baseball rated it number one. But you
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: can sign right out of high school or you can sign,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I believe it's within 45 days of your 21st birthday,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: which normally falls in the third season. Not always. Some
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: have later birthdays and some might redshirt, so they've actually
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: only played two seasons, but they're at the 21-year-old mark,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: so they would be draft eligible and could do that.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: And if they're drafted, it's quite simple. If you sign,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: you sign, and you've become a professional and you move on.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: If you don't sign, you can return. So it isn't this, again,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: a popular phrase for a lot of folks, including a
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: text of the other.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Day, blurred lines.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of, uh, murky gray area on this
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: whole pro football thing. Whereas baseball, it's pretty cut and dry.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: You either sign right out of high school, uh, or
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: you sign when you're close to your 21st birthday, which
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: usually falls after a player's third season in college. Sometimes
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: after the second, especially if they went to junior college
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: or whatever. Uh, but, uh, the, but A lot of
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: times it comes after the third. So baseball pretty much
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: polices itself. Toward that end, the Big 12 unanimously joined
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the party for coming out with this policy, saying you
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: couldn't do it. So it's in line with the similar
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: rules that the Big 10 and the SEC announced yesterday,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: although the Big 12 is the first conference to say
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: all sports. All sports. Now, if we're being realistic, I
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: don't know how many beach volleyball players might want to
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: go there, but they just threw a blanket over and said, look,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: we don't want to have to look at a lot
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: of extenuating circumstances on certain cases. If you are a
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: collegiate athlete in the Big 12 Conference and you then
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: sign a pro contract or wind up on a roster
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and all that other kind of stuff, you're done. You're
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: not a college athlete anymore. ACC athletic directors also met yesterday.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: And according to Pete Thamel of ESPN, there is momentum
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: for that conference to follow these bans on NFL players. Now,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: the Big 12 ban includes athletes who have declared for
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: a professional draft and did not withdraw before the draft.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: That's the hook on basketball that you can— be drafted. Now,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: you might have a family representative or a quote-unquote agent
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: to assist you with your NIL.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: Dealings.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: In the past, it used to be the big demarcation
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: was if you got drafted by an NBA team, you
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: had to make the call. And if you signed with
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: an agent, you were a professional. It's been softened a
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: bit in that area, mainly because the agents and the
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: family representatives are allowed to represent you for your NIL
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: and that kind of thing. So there's that. And it
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: was softened in some recent years where collegiate basketball players between, say, whatever,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: their junior and senior year, sophomore and junior year, even
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: freshman and sophomore year, could go to the pre-draft camps
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: and participate. Chicago, Portsmouth, among others. They could go to those.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: And most importantly, and I've heard basketball coaches say this
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: for years, get the feedback from the NBA teams. who
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: can tell them you need another year at college or, yeah,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: we think you're ready and you will be drafted. So
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: that's where that is. And you can make that call
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: at that point, a much more informed decision. But what
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the Big 12 has done is to ban athletes who
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: have declared for a professional draft and did not withdraw
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: before the draft. And just to put the exclamation point,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the finish on that, is that if the basketball player
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: decided to go back to school, then you have to withdraw.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Don't be drafted. Go ahead and withdraw. Return to school.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: That kind of thing. But this Big 12 ban does
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: include athletes who declared for professional draft and did not
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: withdraw before the draft. Also, athletes listed on a pro
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: roster or those who have signed a contract with any
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: professional because it comes in the wake of Daquan Wright,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: who was cut by the Browns, and Xavier Harris being
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: cut by the Saints, leaving their teams with plans to
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: join Lane Kiffin's roster at LSU. And both of those
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: guys played at Ole Miss. They would return to college
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: football thanks to a court order that right now has
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: got everybody all up in arms about the five for five,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: five years to do it. That's why they're saying, hey,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: and Lane Kiffin is saying this, and the attorneys are saying,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: if we'd known about the 5-for-5 before all this happened,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: because the 5-for-5 was approved, I think, while we were
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: in Tampa for SEC media days. It was late July.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: And by then, certain guys were in training camps. So
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: that's that age-based model. The NCAA also adopted in June
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: that grants athletes up to five years of eligibility within
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: five years. The new rules did not cover players. who
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: began their careers in 2022-2023. There were exceptions to the rule.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Cole Hudson is one of those guys. Played four years,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: did not look to transfer anywhere else, was not drafted,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: did not appear in a training camp. He was at
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: a rookie mini camp and was never signed, never signed
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: a contract, never got into a uniform for a team,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: never received any money on any of that. And that's
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: why a judge allowed him to return. But others, it's
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: a lot murkier. And so now the ACC athletic directors
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: have met. There's momentum for them to join the SEC
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and the Big Ten in banning returning players. The ACC
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: apparently would still need to pass a few more steps,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: including board approval. But sources have indicated that there is momentum.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: The ACC will join the SEC, the Big Ten, and
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: now the Big 12. The goal for the ACC is
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: board is to meet and vote over the next 24 hours.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: So more getting in line with this.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: And more racing in my mind, what's the next loophole?
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: What's the next TRO? What's the next way that somebody's
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: going to try to circumvent this for their own program's
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: benefit that can shake it all up again?
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I think there's a couple of different things in play here. One,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: how are the G6 conferences going to answer to this
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Because on the one hand, you'd say, well, they'll probably
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: just fall in line with the power fours. On the
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: other hand, they may look at it as a boon
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and a chance for them to increase their chances with
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: their conference champion. Or in the case of last year,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: you had two teams, two G6 schools be able to
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: reach the playoff. So maybe they would look at it
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: that way. However, if you do that, you run the
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: risk of angering the power four schools and how the
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: structure of the college football playoff might set up.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because they gave you a spot. They could easily
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: take it away.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in the G6 schools, nobody has said anything from
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: any league. Conference USA, American, Sunbelt, MAC, Mountain West, and
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the newly reconstituted Pac-12. Those G6 conferences. There has been
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: no statement, not that I've seen anyone, from any leadership
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: of any of those conferences to say, we're in line
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: with the Big Ten and the SEC and the Big
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: 12 and looks like the ACC as well, the Power Fours,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: in not allowing players to return from NFL training camps
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: to college campuses as eligible student athletes. You can go
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: back to college if you want. You just can't play
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: football or any sport according to these league rules going in. which,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: of course, then brings up the next issue. What is
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: indeed the next shoe to drop? I mean, I would
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: imagine this is going to go legal, and we're going
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: to see court battles ensuing. How long this takes remains
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: to be seen. We'll see how that works out. All right,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: up next, we're going to hear from Bo Masco from
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the Longhorns. We'll do that when we continue on Sports
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Radio AM 13 Under the Zone and the IR Radio app.
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: Here we are on a Thursday afternoon.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: It's been a while since I've heard Bo Diddley.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: By Bo Diddley.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: By Bo Diddley.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: On the album Bo Diddley. On his guitar that he
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: called Bo Diddley.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: That's right. A song played on the guitar by the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: artist of the single of the album of the same name.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Using the beat that became synonymous with it later.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you're... ready to try this on Thursday.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: It's throwback Thursday, that social media trend you always see
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: athletes and teams doing. This is a pretty deep cut
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: of a throwback.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it is. That is going back a little bit.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, was there a specific reason you just decided
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: to go throwback?
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Well, you said we're going to hear from Bo Masco,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: aren't we?
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: I did.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Nothing more profound.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: So you went Bo Diddley because of the Bo Masco thing. Okay,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: all right. I'm slowly catching up to you here. I'm
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: figuring it out. Okay, let's hear from Masco and and
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: hear what Trans Fred is saying. This is pretty interesting.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: He was asked, first of all, here's a guy coming
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: from a completely different part of the country and a
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: completely different collegiate program. Why would Bo Masco pick Texas?
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: I picked Texas because I felt like this was the
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: best decision for me, for me to have the year that.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to have, and yeah. He had 16 solo tackles,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: 102 total tackles, Eight passes broken up and two interceptions
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: over the last couple of years playing corner at Rutgers.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: So part of what he detailed in his reason to
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: come to Texas was his interest in playing for Mark Orfe,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the cornerback, the secondary coach that is on the Longhorns roster.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: It had a big impact.
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: I mean, I made the decision to come here, but Yeah,
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: just me and him, our relationship, that made a big
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: impact of why I made the move to come here.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: All right, now, when a guy picks a school in
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Texas and arrives in the Lone Star State for the
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: first time, there might be some preconceived notions that are
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: altered once he gets to town. So first of all,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: he was talking about the outside perspective he had and
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: what he envisioned about Texas.
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: I thought it was going to be more country, but,
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's cool.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: I'm loving it out here, though. I ain't going to lie. Yeah.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: I think Cedric Golden, the awesome American statesman, then followed
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: up and said, you know, did you think we have
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: that one as well? Okay, let's hear this one.
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: I ain't going to lie. I kind of did. Then
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: they told me it wasn't really that. I'll just repeat it.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: All right, that was about horses. Cedric asked him, did
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: you think you were going to see, like, cowboys and
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: people on horses and stuff here? So he said he did.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: How does he want to impact this program?
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: I just want to be the best player as I
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: can be for me and my teammates, everybody that's around us,
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: so that we can be great at the end of
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: the year.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right. And then he was asked if he could...
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: How would he describe his skill set? I'd say I'm
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: a baller, physical player.
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: I play for my teammates, so we all have a
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: good impact at the end.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, and then he was also asked, you know, what
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: is it like for him to go up against big, physical,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: wide receivers like Cam Coleman being in town now?
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: Shoot, I'd just say I just got to stick my
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: chest out and just be ready to win.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Every time. Just trying my best to win. Okay. Yeah,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: because it's a good challenge as well. He then was
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: asked about the adjustments. And all players, whether they're freshmen
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: or just newcomers coming in, all players are asked about
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: if they're on campus for the first time, the adjustment
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: they have to make to the Texas football program, to
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the coaches. to the weather, if they're from an area
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: where the weather's different, the school itself, the academic load,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: and Austin, Texas overall. It all falls under that category
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of adjustment. And so he was asked, what would be
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: his biggest adjustment to transferring in, coming from Rutgers to Texas,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: and being a part of this program?
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: It was really just Just getting close to my teammates,
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: just trying to build that bond so that we all
• 24:45
  Speaker 5: can be on the same page on the field.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: So how did you able to build that bond?
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: Just going out outside with my teammates, with the guys,
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: going to go eat food, all that like that.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Just getting to know each other. You know, food is
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: a good bridge. It just helps.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: As long as you're not bonding over a PB and J.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: If you're me.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. And the smoothie I had this morning
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: would not work for you either. I had a peanut
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: butter and banana smoothie.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: I've heard those are good.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Really good. You know, Lynn and I got, we had
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: one of those big Vitamix blenders, but we really rarely
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: used those. And so we got the smaller thing where
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: you can make the individual smoothies and shakes. And I thought,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: I'm going to learn how to make me a smoothie.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: And so, like anybody else, you know, go to Google,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: how to make a peanut butter and banana smoothie.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: And you got to go past the AI summary.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I did. And then I read some of those.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: And then there was a step-by-step instructions that only take
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: you five minutes. And by golly, it was spot on.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: It was like, and I'd had to do this because
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: they tell you to freeze the banana. Like it needs
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: to be a frozen banana. They said you can use
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Room temperature bananas, but they really work best for smoothies
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: if they're frozen.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: Always money in the banana stand.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: And cut up. So we had this, and we cut up,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Linda sliced up a couple of bananas, and then we
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: put them like in a zip top bag and then
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: put them in the freezer. They froze overnight. And so
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: this morning, then I got that and I dropped enough
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: for one full banana sliced up into individual pieces into
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: this little deal. two tablespoons of peanut butter, a cup
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: of milk, and it said two ice cubes. I have
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: the smaller cubes. I put a few more than that
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: in there. And some cinnamon added in there. You can
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: add honey for taste if you want. And then just
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: blended it up real quick. Came out just like if
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: I'd gone to whatever, one of the smoothie places. And
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: got one.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: It came out really well. Well, that's perfect for you.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: You've got the commute to and from Georgetown. You can
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: have that on the go.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Exactly. So it worked out really well off of that.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: So you're right. So it would not have worked for you.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Not this time.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: Because peanut butter was involved. Wouldn't work for Linda either. See,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: she couldn't touch the peanut butter because of the peanut
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: butter allergies and stuff like peanut allergies. So I did
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: the whole thing myself because I needed to learn how
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: to do it and because I knew she couldn't touch it.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: What's the best thing you can cook?
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: I can make spaghetti. I can make pasta.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: That's the Italian side.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm really good with an omelet. I can
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: make an omelet or French toast. That's about it. Can't
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: do too much. I can grill. I can grill really well.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: I can grill steaks and burgers and chops and chicken
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: and shrimp. There you go. Grilling I can do. Other
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: cooking things, not so much. But it sounds like, from
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: what Bo Masco is saying, You know, there's some bonding
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: there through eating. That's the point of all this, what
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: we're talking about. Finding the common ground through consumption of
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: food always works for student athletes, always helps out. When
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: I was a freshman at UNC Wilmington, and I had
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: potluck on a roommate. It was the way it was
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: going to work out in my dorm. And it was
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: a guy from Raleigh who had grown up in Philadelphia,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: but he was in Raleigh. And, of course, I was
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: from Greensboro. And, you know, first time we met each
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: other was the day that we moved in to the dorm.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: And it was like, well, what are we going to do?
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: We're sitting there chatting. Are you hungry? I don't know.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: We walked over.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: There was a Hardee's nearby, which, of course, out here
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: would be Carl's Jr. But we went to a Hardee's
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and ate and struck up our roommate friendships.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: That way sounds like uh my freshman year roommates and
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: i had the torches right there on uh near like
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: near moody did you.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Have a potluck roommate a random roommate someone you did
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: not know two of them were random okay so you
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: had there were a total of four of you yeah
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: i shared a room and there were two more yeah
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: my my kids had that type of thing all right
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: uh coming up next we get to inconceivable that's next
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: here on sports radio am 13 under the zone in
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the ir radio app Second hour of the program here
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: on Sports Radio AM 1300 The Zone on this Wednesday afternoon.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: We're glad to have you with us. Craig Way, joined
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: by the producer, Jay Kerman. We'll be with you up
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: until 5 o'clock. Coming up in a few minutes, we'll
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: talk some baseball with Jay Kerman. Watson, our MLB insider
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: from the Chicago White Sox front office, wrapping up his
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: time in the Pacific Rim. He'll join us from Tokyo,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: which will be just after 5 a.m. local time. But
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Geno is a great guy and great to do that,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: to get up there in the morning. And I asked him,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: I said, I want to interrupt your sleep cycle to me,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: and I'm not sleeping that much right now because of
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: the body clock issues.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: We need Gino back in the States. The Nats have won.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: I know he's got nothing to do with the Nats.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: They've won like three games while he's been gone.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: Season's gone into a tailspin.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: You need them for that. Okay. Maybe, maybe you'll have
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: some good karma as well. So we'll visit with him
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: coming up in a few minutes. Um, uh, on the
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: text line, somebody said, did I hear the four star
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: telegram got kicked out of TC sports coverage? Um, yes,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: that's a little bit of a blanket statement. It isn't,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: What happened is the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on a
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: locker room fight for TCU based on the sources they had.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: And when they reported it, apparently TCU Athletics, and in specific,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I think the Media Relations Department, did not appreciate the
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: particular bent or slant of TCU And they said that
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: it endangered the health and well-being of the student who,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: athlete who got beat up in the locker room. The
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: other guy got kicked off the team. And they said,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: but the Star-Telegram's contention is that they didn't list the
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: guy's name who, you know, got beat up. He went
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: on social media, on Instagram, and talked about it. And
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: the Star-Telegram didn't even report his name for three days. Nevertheless,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: TCU Athletics and Media Relations were not happy about it,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: and they revoked the credentials of their beat writer, Stephen... Johnson? Yep,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: that's it. And, you know, Stephen Johnson's plane ticket to
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: go to Ireland covered the team in the Aer Lingus
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Irish classic, whatever the... the kickoff classic game against North
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Carolina on Saturday. And TCU, they had the credentials revoked
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: for at least that game. It's not like they just said,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: you're banned forever for Star Telegram. But what they did
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: say is certainly for that game. Now he's going and
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: a spokesman with the group, with the Aer Lingus football
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: classic group said, this is TCU's decision to, So, yes,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Steven Johnson will not be given a credential. It'll be
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: interesting to see if they, you know, have him buy
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: a ticket and go into the stadium or if he
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: just watches it on television and all that kind of stuff.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: But he's not going to have the access to the
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: team or something out of that. So it's brought about
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: a big hue and cry about, you know, whatever, you know,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: media outlets being able to report the things they need
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: to report versus, things that you should not report. First
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: people talking about, what about First Amendment? First Amendment has
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with that. First Amendment is the freedom
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: of speech and freedom of the press, but that doesn't
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: mean that you necessarily are going to be given access
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: to it. After all, also, TCU is a private institution,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: so they can decide who receives credentials and who does not.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Does that make it right? No, I don't think it
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: makes it right. But I do think I would have
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: asked for more of an explanation and maybe with the
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: editors of the star telegram sitting down with athletic personnel, uh,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: with TCU to discuss the situation a little more in
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: depth before just pulling the trigger on that and saying, we're,
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: we're pulling credentials because that's going to get, draw attention
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: right away. That's going to be a lightning rod right away.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: And maybe it's only for the one game, but, uh,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: he just said that they had pulled their credentials for
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: that game anyway. So that was the story there.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Um, Wanted to hear from Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer. Now,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: coming up in the 4 o'clock hour, we'll visit with
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: Isaiah Stanback from the Cowboys Television Network and talk about
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: some things. But let's hear a little bit from Schotty.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: First of all, as they get ready to play the
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: New Orleans Saints tomorrow night, is he ready to announce
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: who the starting quarterback for that game? We know Dak
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: Prescott is the starter for the team, the number one guy.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: But is... He ready to announce who's going to start
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: at quarterback tomorrow night. We have not.
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: We'll get into that later as we go. But I'll
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: just say this. I thought last night's work was really,
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: really good. It was great to have the fans out there.
• 34:35
  Speaker 6: And last time we were in shells, we were a
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: little too slow and addressed that with the guys. And
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: I thought, you know, as always, these guys give us
• 34:42
  Speaker 6: what we ask for. But I thought the work was really,
• 34:44
  Speaker 6: really good. Great spirit. You know, the red zone work
• 34:47
  Speaker 6: was awesome. It was cool to see Caleb Downs get interception.
• 34:52
  Speaker 6: uh punt was pretty good too so look out banger
• 34:55
  Speaker 6: um but uh yeah it's good work and um but
• 34:58
  Speaker 6: no none of those decisions have been made and uh next.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Day or so okay all right next was asked if
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: he's seen ever seen a rookie grow as fast as
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: caleb downs has.
• 35:09
  Speaker 6: Yeah i'm not going to compare him to anybody else
• 35:11
  Speaker 6: calvin but yes i mean he's he works incredibly hard
• 35:16
  Speaker 6: He's very serious.
• 35:17
  Speaker 7: He's very intentional.
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: You see him pre-practice working with CP on footwork drills
• 35:21
  Speaker 6: and stuff like that.
• 35:22
  Speaker 7: And, you know.
• 35:24
  Speaker 6: There's a thirst or quest there for knowledge that he's
• 35:28
  Speaker 6: trying to ascertain and bring into his game. And you
• 35:32
  Speaker 6: love that about any player, but especially a young player
• 35:35
  Speaker 6: as a rookie. And again, there's no secret why he's.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Such a good player.
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: Is his superpower then his brain?
• 35:44
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, it's the psyche for sure, the mindset.
• 35:48
  Speaker 6: I think that goes back to his upbringing, his family.
• 35:51
  Speaker 6: But you don't have to be big to be a
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: great player. He's a very powerful player, great lower body strength.
• 35:57
  Speaker 6: So the ability to drop his weight in coverage, the
• 36:00
  Speaker 6: ability to blitz, the ability to block, destruct, all those
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: things are part of because he's so strong from his
• 36:06
  Speaker 6: lower body. But I would say that his mind and
• 36:10
  Speaker 6: football IQ is certainly one of the reasons that he's
• 36:12
  Speaker 6: such a great player and why he's picking up the
• 36:15
  Speaker 6: defense you know so quickly all.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Right and then he was asked to wear the running
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: back room situation right now and the status of those guys.
• 36:22
  Speaker 6: Yeah there's still um a lot of competition going on
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: uh each position battles a little different uh as you
• 36:28
  Speaker 6: guys try to set your roster um but uh you
• 36:32
  Speaker 6: know we'll uh like i said to calvin we'll make
• 36:34
  Speaker 6: those decisions here in the next you know, day or so,
• 36:37
  Speaker 6: and you guys will be the first, but maybe the
• 36:39
  Speaker 6: last to know.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: He's having some fun with them. Listen to this. When
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: the media that was coming in for the press conference,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: apparently the press room is situated differently from where the
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: press workroom is. So the writers and other people were
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: in there working on their stories, and time kind of
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: got away from them a little bit. And so they
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: were a little delayed, some of them, getting into the
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: press conference room. And the head coach took note of that.
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: Is he in the work room?
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: They're all in the work room.
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: What's that? Let's hurry up.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Let's just go.
• 37:18
  Speaker 7: And then when they get here, oh, here they come.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Dang it.
• 37:24
  Speaker 8: Let's see.
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: That's $ 4, 000.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: That's $ 4, 000. That's $ 4, 000. That's $ 4, 000. Yeah, yeah. fining them
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: for being late. So he's having some fun with those guys.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: All right, up next, we'll talk some baseball with Gene Watson,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: your MLB insider on 13 Under the Zone. Here on
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: a Thursday afternoon, well, it's 317 Thursday afternoon in Austin, Texas.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: In Tokyo, Japan, it's 517 a.m. Friday morning. Which is
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: about 10 hours prior to our good friend, our MLB
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: insider from the Chicago White Sox front office, Gene Watson,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: getting on a plane and returning from the Pacific Rim.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: But nice enough to, again, rise certainly before most folks
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: there in Japan and join us. I was sitting there
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: drinking a cup of coffee and I'm sitting there thinking,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: you're the guy who needs a cup of coffee or two, right?
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: How disrupted? Have your sleep cycles been since you've been
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: over in Japan for this fortnight?
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: It has been real and it has been rough.
• 38:40
  Speaker 8: And I actually have not slept tonight because really about
• 38:44
  Speaker 8: two days ago, I keep my world clocks on my
• 38:48
  Speaker 8: phone and I just deleted Tokyo and just looked at
• 38:50
  Speaker 8: Houston and I've tried to like accolade myself back to it.
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: So I I've been up all night. I didn't sleep
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: all night. I'm going to try to sleep.
• 38:59
  Speaker 8: So I'm here after the show, but we have a,
• 39:02
  Speaker 8: a 345 flight leaving here at Friday afternoon. And we're
• 39:06
  Speaker 8: going to land in Houston at 645 on Friday afternoon.
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: So it's kind of, we're going to go back in
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: time a little bit.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, absolutely. That reminds me of the old story.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: I know you're familiar with this story. There's a great
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: book about the old ABA, the American Basketball Association there
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: in the late 60s and into the 70s called Loose Balls,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: written by Terry Pluto. And there's a story that Bob
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Costas relates in the story about when he was the
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: 21-year-old play-by-play voice of the Spirits of St. Louis. And
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: they're getting ready to play the Kentucky Colonels in Louisville.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: And they play the Colonels, or they're getting ready to
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: play the game. And Marvin Barnes, the colorful player, asked
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Bob Costas, he said, hey, young man, what time are
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: we leaving here? It was an afternoon game. What time
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: are we leaving here? And he said, we're leaving at 7.59 p.m.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: What time we land in St. Louis? 6.59 p.m. He goes,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: no way, man. I ain't getting on no time machine.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: So I'm sure you must feel a little bit like that.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: I will tell you this. Some guys feel they are timeless.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: And your guy, Tristan Peters, might now feel timeless. He
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: is homered in five straight games. tying a White Sox
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: franchise record and matching the Major League Baseball rookie. Mark
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Peters and your guy, Munitaka Murakami, are the only rookies
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: in club history to hit home runs in five consecutive
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: games in the same season. And with all the conversation
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: about Murakami, how about Tristan Peters and what he's done
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: of late?
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: Really a great story.
• 40:55
  Speaker 8: You know, everybody knows that he played for the Coastal
• 40:59
  Speaker 8: Planes savannah bananas that was a college summer league team
• 41:03
  Speaker 8: at the time a lot of people get that confused
• 41:05
  Speaker 8: but it was a college summer league team um and
• 41:09
  Speaker 8: you know he was a guy that we tracked all
• 41:11
  Speaker 8: last year in durham with the tampa bay rays and
• 41:13
  Speaker 8: it was just fit us from a platoon's profile and
• 41:17
  Speaker 8: just a great style of play and you know he
• 41:19
  Speaker 8: comes in he has you know he makes the team
• 41:21
  Speaker 8: and He gets off to a great start, makes the
• 41:23
  Speaker 8: all-star team, which was absolutely incredible. And then coming out
• 41:27
  Speaker 8: of it, we kind of felt like he was putting
• 41:29
  Speaker 8: a little bit self-undue pressure on himself. And going into
• 41:33
  Speaker 8: the games in the first week of August, one of
• 41:37
  Speaker 8: the conversations we had with him was, look, this time
• 41:41
  Speaker 8: last year you were in AAA. When you got to
• 41:44
  Speaker 8: spring training in Glendale opening day, did you dream you'd
• 41:46
  Speaker 8: be on the opening day roster?
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: No.
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: Okay, well, you were. did you ever dream that you'd
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: be in the major league all-star game in July?
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Nope. Okay.
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: Well, you were, and then he began to press a
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: little bit.
• 41:55
  Speaker 8: And I think that we, we sat him down and
• 41:57
  Speaker 8: just had a little conversation about perspective and, and told him,
• 42:01
  Speaker 8: you know, how much we believed in him. And, and,
• 42:03
  Speaker 8: you know, he was playing with house money and, and
• 42:06
  Speaker 8: just keep the perspective on the season. And right from
• 42:08
  Speaker 8: that point on, he just took off again. And he's,
• 42:11
  Speaker 8: he's a tremendous player, tremendous teammate. And, a big part
• 42:15
  Speaker 8: of what we're doing right now.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: You talked about him playing in the Coastal Plain League,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: and I'm familiar with it because a lot of the
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: teams are in my home state of North Carolina, including
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: my dad's hometown, Ashboro, the Copperheads.
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, my son played in Wilson.
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: Okay, yeah.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: And now the Wilson Warbirds are, you know, an affiliated
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: minor league team, the way that that's worked out since
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: the Carolina Mudcats moved there. How much do, very little,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: if anything, escapes your notice, But those wood bat collegiate
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: summer leagues, like the Coastal Plain League or the Shenandoah
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Valley League, obviously the most celebrated is the Cape, Cape
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Cod League, Santa Barbara, Alaska, different leagues. How closely do
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: the major league organizations pay attention to those wood bat
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: summer leagues that are going on?
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: Oh, incredibly.
• 43:04
  Speaker 8: I mean, we stay on top of that because especially
• 43:06
  Speaker 8: if they go to a draft where players can get
• 43:08
  Speaker 8: drafted every year, they'll become even more important, but certainly
• 43:13
  Speaker 8: it's an opportunity for players to go and work on things.
• 43:17
  Speaker 8: I love that players will do that because we're in
• 43:21
  Speaker 8: such an amateur era right now where guys just want
• 43:23
  Speaker 8: to take the time off and work on the.
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: Weight room and get stronger and faster.
• 43:27
  Speaker 8: And that's all great, but making the main thing the
• 43:31
  Speaker 8: main thing is also really important. And if you got
• 43:33
  Speaker 8: a chance to go get some at-bats and get some
• 43:35
  Speaker 8: innings and play in the heat of summer and get
• 43:38
  Speaker 8: the The travel, the scenery from Pro Bowl, it definitely
• 43:43
  Speaker 8: can be advantageous, and a lot of players, you know,
• 43:46
  Speaker 8: I think back to Ben Zobus.
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: Who really took off playing in the Northwoods League.
• 43:50
  Speaker 8: He became a star by playing in that Northwoods League
• 43:53
  Speaker 8: every summer, and So it's certainly something we pay a
• 43:55
  Speaker 8: lot of attention to.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've let my producer Jake Herman down because he's
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: a former play-by-play voice in the Northwoods League, right? Did
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: you see Zobris? No, you weren't playing. No, no. Zobris
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: was already at the bigs by then.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: But Ben Zobris is the best Wausau Woodchuck to ever
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: play in the pros.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 44:09
  Speaker 8: I mean, he was begging people for an opportunity at
• 44:11
  Speaker 8: the time. He just wanted a uniform and a locker
• 44:13
  Speaker 8: and ends up being a tremendous major league player.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Would you say that the collegiate... Summer leagues probably draw
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: more eyes and attention from major league teams than, say,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: the independent leagues like the Frontier League or American Association.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Do they draw a little bit simply because those are
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: guys who clearly, in almost every case, have exhausted collegiate
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: eligibility and they're paid professionals, although at a very small
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: amount and that kind of thing. Some of those guys
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: may be on the backside of their careers. Other guys
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: may be trying to get back to the bigs. as well.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: How would you classify that with those leagues as compared to, say,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: the collegiate wood bat leagues?
• 44:53
  Speaker 8: Well, they're two separate vehicles of acquiring players. The collegiate
• 44:56
  Speaker 8: wood bat league is more to, one, follow players for
• 45:01
  Speaker 8: next year's draft because there's various levels of those leagues. But, Craig,
• 45:05
  Speaker 8: the real thing with the wood bat leagues and collegiately
• 45:08
  Speaker 8: is that with the player limits taking place right now,
• 45:12
  Speaker 8: when you talk about 20 rounds in the draft and
• 45:15
  Speaker 8: then signing upwards of 7 to 10 free agents after
• 45:18
  Speaker 8: the draft, 27 players that go in on August 1st
• 45:23
  Speaker 8: into your 160. It's really hard to sign somebody out
• 45:27
  Speaker 8: of those collegiate leagues that may be an eligible player.
• 45:30
  Speaker 8: Where the independent leagues become a little bit more important is,
• 45:32
  Speaker 8: especially at the upper levels, if you take a number
• 45:35
  Speaker 8: of injuries, say to your pitching staff or a premium
• 45:38
  Speaker 8: position player at the AAA level, you can just pluck
• 45:42
  Speaker 8: one of those players from the American Association or the
• 45:44
  Speaker 8: Atlantic League or Mexico, and it's a little bit more fluid,
• 45:48
  Speaker 8: especially for teams like Long Island that sit up there
• 45:52
  Speaker 8: where the American League East is. If a team takes
• 45:55
  Speaker 8: a couple of injuries in a given night in the
• 45:58
  Speaker 8: American League East, they can just shoot over Long.
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: Island and pull some players out of there.
• 46:03
  Speaker 8: So two separate vehicles of acquiring players, but the 160-player
• 46:07
  Speaker 8: limits have really hampered– signing those younger players that may
• 46:12
  Speaker 8: have been missed in the draft because, you know, through
• 46:15
  Speaker 8: the draft and your six-year free agents after a year,
• 46:18
  Speaker 8: you would hope to have your own.
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: Version of that player that didn't get drafted or signed.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: You brought up the thing about the possibility of being
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: draft eligible every year. I want to get your thoughts
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: and the in-depth on that. And then I've got a
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: labor-oriented question to ask you. But first of all, is
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: that going to be a real thing going forward with
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: the draft where I was talking about this because of
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: what's happened with college football and Daquan Wright trying to
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: go back from being cut from the Browns to getting
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: into LSU. And I said, baseball's pretty cut and dry
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: about it. I said, you can sign out of high
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: school or when you get to 21 or right around
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: your 21st birthday, you can sign. It's pretty cut and dry.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: But you're talking about now about an opportunity where draft
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: could be on an annual basis?
• 47:02
  Speaker 8: Yeah, and I think what's been proposed is they want
• 47:06
  Speaker 8: to go– 10 rounds, no high school players in the draft.
• 47:10
  Speaker 8: And when you look at the best players in Major
• 47:12
  Speaker 8: League Baseball, the Connor Griffins, the Bobby Witt Juniors, the
• 47:16
  Speaker 8: younger players that get those big contracts already in their career,
• 47:19
  Speaker 8: that's where a lot of.
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: Money is spent.
• 47:21
  Speaker 8: So if you exclude the high school player, I think
• 47:24
  Speaker 8: you're doing a disservice to the younger players. But I
• 47:29
  Speaker 8: think what could ultimately be a compromise is maybe go
• 47:33
  Speaker 8: 12 or 13 rounds.
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: With three rounds of high school players.
• 47:37
  Speaker 8: And that makes a little more sense because with the
• 47:39
  Speaker 8: NIL money, the signing bonus in the fourth round, there's
• 47:44
  Speaker 8: schools that are given that much money in NIL. And
• 47:46
  Speaker 8: so if you make it 12 or 13 and three
• 47:49
  Speaker 8: of high school.
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: And then you got the NIL money and you let.
• 47:54
  Speaker 8: Them get drafted every year, that does a lot for,
• 47:57
  Speaker 8: let's just say, a Paul Goldschmidt or a Hunter Dozier
• 48:02
  Speaker 8: or a Ryan O'Hearn that was a really good football
• 48:05
  Speaker 8: player in Texas didn't have any opportunities to play college football.
• 48:10
  Speaker 8: They go to a mid-major to play baseball. And in
• 48:12
  Speaker 8: a year or two, they develop into really good baseball players.
• 48:15
  Speaker 8: And that's a big thing in the state of Texas.
• 48:17
  Speaker 8: It happens a lot. And so it gives those guys
• 48:20
  Speaker 8: an opportunity that developed in the first or second year
• 48:23
  Speaker 8: not to have to wait that third year to.
• 48:24
  Speaker 4: Get drafted and signed and go out and play professionally.
• 48:27
  Speaker 8: So I do kind of like that part of it
• 48:29
  Speaker 8: where kids can get drafted every year, and it would
• 48:33
  Speaker 8: certainly put a major emphasis on more scouting, which is
• 48:36
  Speaker 8: always good when there's more scouts.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Talking baseball with our MLB insider Gene Watson here on
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: 1300 Zone. Okay, I want to ask you to get
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: your thoughts on this. Today this came down. Major League
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: Baseball has proposed limiting scouting free agent signings to several
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: weeks in December, and then from early February on each offseason,
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: along with a ban on trades during the gap in between.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: So there'll be no trades between what happens in December
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: with a free agent signing, and then again in February,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: the plan aims to create more of an offseason transaction flurry,
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: similar to what we see in the NFL and the NBA.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: The plan was offered to the Players Association today, contingent
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: on adoption of that salary cap system that mlb proposed
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: in may which of course the union is vowed never
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: to accept what about as it strikes you initially your
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: thoughts on.
• 49:28
  Speaker 8: That well as long as that word salary caps being
• 49:32
  Speaker 8: used i don't think there's going to be any kind
• 49:34
  Speaker 8: of movement um What I would say is I do
• 49:37
  Speaker 8: think that the offseason can be very mundane in the
• 49:41
  Speaker 8: rhythm of it and the flow of it. I think
• 49:43
  Speaker 8: that a lot of the times, if there's a premium pitcher,
• 49:47
  Speaker 8: premium shortstop, premium bat out there, everybody's going to wait
• 49:51
  Speaker 8: for those premium positions and those players to get signed
• 49:55
  Speaker 8: before the dominoes begin to fall down the line. If
• 49:57
  Speaker 8: you do put a timetable on it, I think you
• 49:59
  Speaker 8: will see a little bit more activity. I think the
• 50:03
  Speaker 8: trade situation, if you did put a limit on it,
• 50:05
  Speaker 8: I think the teams that know they aren't going to
• 50:07
  Speaker 8: be active in free agency because they're up against a
• 50:11
  Speaker 8: CBT or they just have financial restraints on their payroll,
• 50:15
  Speaker 8: I think you could see a little bit more activity.
• 50:17
  Speaker 8: And I think the argument has been, and this is
• 50:20
  Speaker 8: more listening to fans and media than anybody on the
• 50:23
  Speaker 8: inside of the game, is that there's always so much
• 50:26
  Speaker 8: excitement around the NFL and there's always so much excitement
• 50:29
  Speaker 8: around the NBA with free agency and the trade deadline.
• 50:33
  Speaker 8: Why can't baseball get that right and try to create
• 50:35
  Speaker 8: the same scenario? So I think that's work. these conversations
• 50:38
  Speaker 8: are typically coming from.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: The MLB also today proposed lowering, and this is something
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: you have been really deep in the woods with, you
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: understand this as well as anybody I've ever met. They've
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: proposed lowering the maximum in-season options to the minor leagues
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: from five to four and adopting a system of weekly
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: rosters where teams would be allowed 14 pitchers up from 13,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: when the 26-man roster limit is in effect from the
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: season start through August 31st. There's no response yet from
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: the union on that. But again, the in-season options would
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: be reduced from five to four, and then teams would
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: be allowed 14 pitchers up on these weekly rosters, up
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: from 13. I'll tell you what, I've almost gotten dizzy
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: seeing how many times the Dodgers have sent Emmitt Sheehan
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: down to Oklahoma City back and forth. It's been a
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: yo-yo with him. this year and other guys as well.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: What's your thought on that? Because you understand that option
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: and where it gets really, really sensitive for teams on
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: how many moves they can make, how many times they
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: can option a guy down to the minors.
• 51:47
  Speaker 8: Well, the biggest one for me is the pitching situation.
• 51:50
  Speaker 8: I think that it's tremendous that they would make it 14.
• 51:54
  Speaker 8: I mean, teams are averaging just under 14 yards. If
• 51:57
  Speaker 8: you could put a just under, it's either 13 or 14.
• 52:01
  Speaker 8: It's closer to 14 than it is 13, statistically. So
• 52:04
  Speaker 8: to be able to do that is good. I don't
• 52:06
  Speaker 8: love the number of position players that are throwing in
• 52:08
  Speaker 8: baseball games right now. For the players, for the pitchers
• 52:12
  Speaker 8: that have pitched 7, 8, 9, 10 years in AAA
• 52:16
  Speaker 8: that don't get one day in the big leagues and
• 52:17
  Speaker 8: you've got position players doing it, I think there should
• 52:20
  Speaker 8: also be a rule that if a position player is
• 52:22
  Speaker 8: used in a game, you have to make a move
• 52:24
  Speaker 8: on a pitcher.
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: The next day.
• 52:26
  Speaker 8: So that would cut some of that out as well
• 52:29
  Speaker 8: and give some of those guys in AAA at least
• 52:31
  Speaker 8: more of an opportunity to pitch in the big leagues.
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: But the optional, that's a big deal.
• 52:37
  Speaker 8: And I think that you create more opportunity for a
• 52:41
  Speaker 8: player to go somewhere else and have an opportunity somewhere else.
• 52:44
  Speaker 8: And so to cut that down by one, if you
• 52:46
  Speaker 8: look at our catching situation, Jake Rogers, we're like his
• 52:50
  Speaker 8: fourth team in the last six weeks. And that's, that's
• 52:54
  Speaker 8: basically been created because he's out of options and they
• 52:57
  Speaker 8: don't can't option them down. And so he's had more
• 53:00
  Speaker 8: opportunities to go elsewhere and he found a nice landing spot.
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: I think that's what it creates. And I think that
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: the union would agree with that.
• 53:07
  Speaker 8: I don't think they're going to be real excited about
• 53:09
  Speaker 8: a lot of things that were proposed, proposed today, but mostly,
• 53:13
  Speaker 8: The first thing was when you use the word salary cap,
• 53:16
  Speaker 8: I think it's a non-starter on both sides.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: We've got a few more minutes here with Gene Watson.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: Let's go to some on-the-field stuff. Astros are up by
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: half game on the Rangers in the West. Mariners, tune
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: that back. The Astros are a game below. 500. I'm
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: starting to hear this conversation around baseball circles, Dino. Is
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: it possible that we'll have our first ever sub. 500
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: team win a division this year? And if so, would
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: that be the American League West?
• 53:42
  Speaker 8: I don't think so because they're going to have some
• 53:44
  Speaker 8: games against each other coming up where, you know, your
• 53:47
  Speaker 8: teams have got a chance to go on a run.
• 53:48
  Speaker 8: So I don't think that's going to happen. Could it
• 53:51
  Speaker 8: be 500? Could it be one or two games above 500?
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: Possibly.
• 53:55
  Speaker 8: But, you know, really when we just played Texas and
• 53:58
  Speaker 8: we're going to play Houston beginning on.
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: Monday, and I've done a lot of advanced work on
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: it this week.
• 54:04
  Speaker 8: When you look at both teams, the starting pitching has
• 54:07
  Speaker 8: really been a big problem for the Astros. They haven't
• 54:09
  Speaker 8: had a starter go. five or beyond five innings, the
• 54:11
  Speaker 8: last six starts, their bullpen is significantly taxed. And so,
• 54:16
  Speaker 8: you know, solidifying that rotation, they're going to get Burroughs
• 54:19
  Speaker 8: back pretty soon who's been injured. So solidifying that rotation
• 54:23
  Speaker 8: and even possibly creating a plan as to how you're
• 54:26
  Speaker 8: going to manage the bullpen the rest of the way,
• 54:28
  Speaker 8: whether it's using openers or your starters on their side days,
• 54:32
  Speaker 8: coming in the middle innings in some leverage situations could
• 54:35
  Speaker 8: maybe increase the depth of those rotations. But, A lot
• 54:39
  Speaker 8: of teams are gassed right now when it comes to pitching,
• 54:42
  Speaker 8: and the pitching injuries this summer have been significant. And
• 54:45
  Speaker 8: so that's how teams can manage that is going to
• 54:48
  Speaker 8: be very important down the road. And I just keep
• 54:51
  Speaker 8: waiting for Seattle to go on the run that you
• 54:54
  Speaker 8: would expect them to go on because they're clearly the
• 54:57
  Speaker 8: most talented team in the division, and it's the best
• 55:00
  Speaker 8: team they've had in Seattle in forever. And they would
• 55:04
  Speaker 8: tell you that. With Eugenio Suarez going on waivers today
• 55:07
  Speaker 8: and clearing, there's a possibility you could see a third
• 55:09
  Speaker 8: reunion there for them to kind of not only just
• 55:12
  Speaker 8: kind of loosen up that clubhouse with his veteran presence,
• 55:15
  Speaker 8: but also offensively lengthen out that lineup.
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: I think that's something you could see.
• 55:19
  Speaker 8: But for the unbelievable job that Houston and Texas have
• 55:24
  Speaker 8: done this year, I find it hard to believe that
• 55:27
  Speaker 8: Seattle won't go on a run and at least try
• 55:29
  Speaker 8: to make this thing close toward the end.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: All right, the last thing I want to ask you about, blisters.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: Last night, Rokey Sasaki had to leave the Dodger Braves game.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: His quote was, through his interpreter, I actually didn't feel
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: anything coming beforehand. My skin just ripped off, and after that,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: it kind of got worse. He had to come out
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: in the game. Braves come back, and they end up
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: winning the ballgame. That was mainly because Tanner Scott struggled
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: with the second straight game to hold the lead in
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: the ninth. But I want to ask you about blisters.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: You were a pitcher. Your son was a pitcher as well.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: Rokey Sasaki's going on the 15-day injury list because of
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: a blister. And obviously, it affects things. And this was
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: in the middle finger for Sasaki. So I heard Oral
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: Hirshhiser say sometimes when things get a little moist, you
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: can develop that blister in it a little more. They
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: had a very human night in Atlanta last night. I
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: bet your thoughts on how difficult it is on pitching
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: staffs and guys who work lots of innings to keep
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: from getting blisters.
• 56:25
  Speaker 8: Well, that's exactly what I was going to say is
• 56:27
  Speaker 8: what Oral said. Typically, It comes from a change in
• 56:30
  Speaker 8: the environment that you're normally pitching in, and they have
• 56:33
  Speaker 8: been on the road. They've been in Atlanta, and they're
• 56:35
  Speaker 8: at Detroit now. They were in Pittsburgh. And it can
• 56:38
  Speaker 8: be anything from the weather conditions, the humidity, when the ball,
• 56:43
  Speaker 8: you know, it's a ground ball to the shortstop, and
• 56:46
  Speaker 8: the ball doesn't get thrown out, and the material that's
• 56:49
  Speaker 8: in the infield can get lodged in the seams just
• 56:51
  Speaker 8: like microfibers.
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: That can be a reason it happens, the conditions of
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: the ballpark.
• 56:57
  Speaker 8: The, the turf is on the ballpark and all play
• 57:00
  Speaker 8: into it. And I struggle with blisters a lot. There's a,
• 57:04
  Speaker 8: there's a cream called Silva Dean that, that we actually
• 57:08
  Speaker 8: used with Josh Beckett back in the early two thousands,
• 57:11
  Speaker 8: he had a blister issue and, and it burns like
• 57:15
  Speaker 8: all get out, but it solves the blister issue pretty good.
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: But, but if you.
• 57:19
  Speaker 8: Don't treat them right away and treat them properly, it's
• 57:22
  Speaker 8: something that can be the smallest thing. That can persist
• 57:26
  Speaker 8: for a long period of time. And so it's certainly
• 57:27
  Speaker 8: something that you've got to take care of right away
• 57:30
  Speaker 8: and just get it on the mend as quickly as possible.
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: Silvadene, you said? That's what it was 23 years ago. Okay,
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: so that was a cream. So not to be confused
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: with the cream or the clear that Barry Bonds was using, right?
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: All right. I just want to make sure you're awake
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: at 537 in the morning there. Hey, listen, safe travels back.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: I know Melanie will be glad to get you back
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: home to yell at you a little bit for some
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: well-deserved omissions of things on your part. But I know
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: she's going to be happy to have you back. It'll
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: be good to see you back in town. I appreciate
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: you taking the time in Japan. All right, Craig, thanks
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: so much. I'll have a great day. All right, you bet.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: That's Dean Watson from the Chicago White Sox front office.
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: Our Front office, MLB Insider. We have more coming up
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: here on a Thursday afternoon on Sports Radio AM 13
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: Under the Zone and the iHeartRadio app. Okay, this is
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: not Texan Tuesday, but that doesn't matter. It doesn't have
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: to be Texan Tuesday to hear from the immortal Stevie
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: Ray Vaughan.
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: And it was 36 years ago today, at the age
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: of 35, that we lost him.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: Yep. By the way, on that note, Our condolences go
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: to the family of Lifetime Longhorn, Jason Klotz, who played
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: basketball in the early 2000s in Texas. He was on
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: those three straight Sweet 16 teams. Great guy. And I
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: called his state championship game for Klein Forest for television
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: when they went up against Duncanville with also future Longhorn,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: Chris Owens, on that team. And Jason was a really
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: good guy. And and big tall six 11 post player
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: who could eat with the best of them. He could
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: put away the groceries, a really good guy and gone
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: far too early at age 44. So our thoughts and
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: condolences certainly with his family. We continue with, with talking
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: about current Longhorns like Bo Masco, the transfer from Rutgers
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: getting in. He was asking, you know, when you're trying
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: to get, you just got to mention about starting to
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: get to know guys well. It happened through going out
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: to eat. So who are the guys that he's really
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: been able to click with to this point?
• 59:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I click with the whole offense, defense.
• 59:46
  Speaker 5: I'm cool with everybody, but yeah, really, I've been, yeah,
• 59:51
  Speaker 5: it's really everybody. I ain't gonna lie, on the defense.
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: It's been really interesting to ask these transfers, the guys
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: who come in through the portal, what other schools they considered.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: Raheem Biles talked about a couple of different ones, and
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: even though he was from Columbus, Ohio, and he was
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: transferring from Pitt, he did not consider Ohio State. He
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: was not going to do that. So, Bo Masco was
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: coming in from Rutgers. Where else did he visit?
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 5: Texas was my only visit, and then I just made
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 5: a decision from there.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: All right. Did he envision being able to play on
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: a big stage like this?
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 5: I mean, yeah, young, I did see myself at a
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 5: big stage, but I mean, I just knew I just
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 5: wanted to get far from Florida, but somewhere big.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: And I felt like, yeah, that was a good chance.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: He was also asked if former players had helped him
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: understand what being in Austin was all about.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I just, I had talked to my coaches, Coach O,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 5: and then some of the guys that was in that room,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 5: and then they just told me how it was going
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 5: to be. And then, yeah, I just... I trusted him
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 5: from there.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: Now, it's always fun to talk to these high-level defensive
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: backs and high-level wide receivers because they go up against
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: one another in practice on a day-in, day-out basis. So
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: it would be certainly feasible to visualize Bo Masco matching
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: up with Cam Coleman.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 5: We've been going at it since spring, Cam. It's been
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 5: a great battle, you know. Because getting out there every day,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 5: we're making each other great. Say that again?
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 4: Can you stop him?
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: Yes, sir.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Hey, did you stop him?
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: Kirk Bowles wanting to know. Also, you talked about the
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: relationship and being able to bond with the senior safety,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: Jelani McDonald.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah, he's a big leader for sure. He's like the
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 5: voice in the back end for us right now. Yeah,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 5: he played a big part.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: For sure. Okay, all right. Now, when it comes down
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: to team culture, what has that dynamic been like for him?
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: I'm loving the culture right now. Longhorns, Longhorn Nation.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 5: I'm good with getting to know the culture and all
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 5: that around the guys. I just got in. talk to
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 5: my players and all that. We just go over it
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 5: like that.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: And part of getting more familiar with that culture is
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: understanding the overall defensive coordinator, Will Muschamp, and the team
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: defensive philosophy. Yeah, we always really learn at the same time.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 5: And I kind of feel the defense kind of played
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 5: the same role as we had at Rutgers. So it
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 5: wasn't really too hard to pick up on it.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: Now, Masco, of course, is a veteran for this Longhorn team. Bo,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: transferring in, is a senior. However... He was asked about
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: the younger guys. There's a lot of young corners in
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: this program.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 5: Dude, them boys, them boys some dogs for sure. All
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 5: of them really working. John Meredith getting in the way.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 5: I mean, like he picking it up.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: So, yeah. He was also asked about a couple other
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: guys in the secondary. Cade Phillips at corner. And then,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: of course, the guy at the star who can play
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: just about anywhere, Grayson Littleton.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 5: They just ballers for real. Grayson, he real physical too.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 5: He can get physical. Cade, he's lanky. So, yeah, he
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 5: can really do it all. Cover, go up and get
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 5: the ball.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: And when it comes down to it, the final analysis,
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: defending means being able to tackle well.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 5: It's important because I know the way how the defense is,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 5: we're going to have to come up and fit and
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 5: really have to make big tackles.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: That's Bo Masco from the Longhorn Secondary. We'll be back
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: to wrap up hour number two coming up here on
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: 1300 The Zone on the IR radio app. Third and
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: final hour of the program here. on sports radio am
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: 13 under the zone here on a thursday afternoon glad
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: to have you with us craig way alongside the producer
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: jay kerman and we'll be with you until five o'clock
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: and um coming up in just a few minutes we're
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: going to talk a dallas cowboys and um we'll uh
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: we'll do that with a good friend and a guy
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: who's doing a fine job on the cowboys television network
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: um both as analysts on the preseason Cowboys telecast and
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: then in the in-season programming for the Cowboys. Isaiah Stanback
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: will join us. And Isaiah's a really good guy. I've
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: gotten to know him. He's worked with me on some
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: state championship games for high school. And he's got some
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: college work on his horizon as well. So we'll look
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: forward to visiting with him. All right, to put us
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: in the mood for the NFL, we're talking about the
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: Cowboys rather, I was going to go down this road,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: and I've mentioned this quite a bit here over the
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: last month, that this is the time of year where
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: we start to see all these different rankings and ratings
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: and things like that, in addition to the preseason polls.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: Sip of water. And in addition to those preseason polls,
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: there's ratings on the best players and best coaches and blah, blah, blah,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: and the best matchups and things like this. I came
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: across one this morning. And when I was surveying all
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: of the sites that I read, this one came up
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: on ESPN from Ben Solak, who wrote and ranked all
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: 30 teams, 32 teams, not in terms of who's the
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: best and, you know, who's going to, you know, win
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: or who's the worst or this. No, he did a
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: a ranking of all 32 teams based on what he
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: calls their watchability and excitement level is what he said
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: it is. So it's a watchability and excitement level. And
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: for many people, that can mean a different thing. What
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: would that mean to you, Jake, if somebody said, if
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: you were going to rank somebody on excitement and watchability.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: What would that mean to you?
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: I think about star power. I think about style of play.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 2: I think about playoff implications, but there's watchability for teams
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: for different reasons, right? If they're exciting, they score a
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: lot and give up a lot of points. If their games, uh,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 2: tend to feature radical swings of momentum or at times
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: radical incompetence, that to me is watchable.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: Interesting. And, and two extremes.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: Um, So anyway, there is that. And I'm going to
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: run down his list of the excitability and the watchability
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. And I'll do that
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: in a little bit. But I wanted to get to
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: another NFL note first. And this was on NFL.com. And
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: it was Kevin Patro who did this. This is kind of,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: on the one hand, kind of unfortunate and diabolical. But
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, it's pretty incisive. And what this is,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: is they're coming up, as we know, on the 53-man
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: roster deadline when they have to make the roster cuts.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: So what Kevin Patra did was a 53-man roster deadline
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: cut candidates and trade targets. They could be both. They
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: could be either. And he said with clubs going from
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: 90-man rosters to an initial 53-man crew, roughly 1,184 players
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: will lose their jobs before Sunday's cut-down deadline. He said
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: each team will bring back players to the practice squad,
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: and others will be re-signed over the next few weeks
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: as IR spots are used. However, for a large chunk
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: of the players, this is the end of the line.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: in 2026. He said, we've already seen clubs begin to
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: churn their rosters. The Patriots traded away Keyshawn Boutte. Of course,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: he's now with the Texans in a long-expected move. The
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: Cardinals cut running back Trey Benson. More are coming. And
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: he says he's taking a gander at some notable players
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: who could be released or traded in the coming days. So,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: if he's going alphabetical, for example, Buffalo, he's got three
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: players listed. Edge Rusher, Michael Nana, Wide receiver, Mecole Hardman.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: And safety, Geno Stone. Those could be. Chicago Bears, he
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: has one guy listed. Roshon Johnson.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: Now, here's why he's got Roshon listed.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: Special teams?
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: The former fourth round has struggled to gain traction in
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: the offseason. Lacking keen dual threat ability doesn't make him
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: a great third back option for Ben Johnson's offense behind
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: DeAndre Swift and Kyle Montaguei. He had just two games,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: two carries in seven games last year, but he was
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: injured last year as well. So, and of course we
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: visited with Roshan during the week and he had felt
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: really upbeat and excited about what was going on in camp,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: but we'll find out. For the Bengals, McKinley Jackson, defensive tackle,
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: and another one, Chris Jenkins. So for Cleveland, it's wide receiver,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: Cedric Tillman. For the Cowboys, quarterback Sam Howell, which is
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: interesting because we're going to visit, like I said, in
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: a few minutes here with Isaiah Stanback. And I will
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: ask Isaiah about that quarterback spot, you know, since Sam
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: Howell has been in this battle with Joe Milton for
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: the backup spot, for the number two spot on the roster.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: So we'll visit with him about that coming up. The
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: other one is defensive end Sam Williams that he has listed.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: He said the addition of Von Miller pushes one of
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: the incumbent edge rushers off the roster. And he said,
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: I think James Houston's pure rush ability keeps him on
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: the club. Between Williams and Maris Leofau, he goes, I
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: lean toward Dallas keeping the latter, who is a better
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: special teams player. Kansas City, Christian Fulton, their corner, the Raiders,
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: quarterback Aiden O'Connell, because they've got Fernando Mendoza now, and
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: obviously Kirk Cousins. For the Dolphins, wide receiver Tutu Atwell.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: one-time Los Angeles Ram. They may make room for third-rounder
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: Caleb Douglas. The Vikings, J.J. McCarthy.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: He said, I don't believe the Vikings will outright cut McCarthy.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: They can't. But if anyone calls about a trade, the
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: Vikings should jump at the chance to move the third-year quarterback.
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: Despite what Kevin O'Connell has said, I think the club
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: would trust Carson Wentz more than McCarthy as QB2 in
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: the event Kyler Murray goes down. The former number 10
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: overall pick caddying as quarterback three could present some issues. Wow. Wow.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, look, I think that division is going to
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: be really good this year.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 2: And there's a world where you get to the end
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: of the year and you have the opportunity to see
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 2: what JJ McCarthy is. You can put him back out there,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: let him develop more.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: To see Wentz play over him in that situation is,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: would almost scare me more than him potentially putting out
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 2: bad tape and tanking that trade value. He's still young, Craig.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: I find it hard to believe he's not going to
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 2: get at least one more shot at this.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: I think they may look at a trade option, though,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: for him. Like he said, they're not going to outright
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: cut him.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: What are you going to get, a fourth-round pick for
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 2: a guy you took at number 10 or 12 overall,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: whatever it was?
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: At this point, it also depends on if anybody else
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: is in real need of a quarterback, if they have
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: an injury to a backup this weekend.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 2: Well, if anyone's in real need of a quarterback and
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 2: they're contending, I don't think they're looking for J.J.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: McCarthy. No, I'm saying if they get an injury and
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: need somebody as a quality backup while somebody else is there,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: and then maybe somebody to challenge somebody.
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure I'd have him as my backup right now, though, J.J.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: McCarthy.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: I'd want him on my team if I knew I
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 2: didn't need him this year.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: And then I could let him develop and learn.
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting to invest that if you're not
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: even planning to use him, though.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: That's why I don't think they can get anything for
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: him in a trade.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Interesting.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: That's why I think they're going to keep him.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: Other ones, the Giants, I think Odell Beckham Jr. is
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: going to be released. Andy Dalton still bouncing around as
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: a backup for the Eagles. He said Tanner McKee has
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: clearly outplayed Dalton in the preseason. The Steelers, linebacker Malik Harrison,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: running back Caleb Johnson, offensive tackle Broderick Jones. 49ers, wide
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: receiver Christian Kirk.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he hurt himself.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: Unfortunate. So the inaction because of that, coupled with us
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: signing Adebo Samuel and... A star turn from rookie Dijon
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: Striblich buries Kirk on the depth chart. So there's some
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: of the key people he thinks might be sent packing.
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: All right, coming up next, we're going to visit with
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: Isaiah Stanback to talk Cowboys in specific. That's next when
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: we continue on Sports Radio AM 13 Under the Zone
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: and the iHeartRadio app. I'm going to need some help
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: here just to make sure that we were accurate on this.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: I'm told... that this is the fight song of the
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: University of Washington. So if it is, then it's apropos
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: and it makes perfect sense because our next guest, a
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: proud graduate of UW and a former outstanding quarterback and
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: all-purpose man for the Washington Huskies. a fabulous NFL career,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: a Super Bowl ring, and a member of the Dallas
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: Cowboys who now works on Cowboys preseason telecasts and Dallas
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: Cowboys productions all season long. And my partner on the
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: UIL State High School Football Championships, Isaiah Stanback, joins us now. Isaiah,
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: did we get that right? Is that the UW fight song?
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you absolutely got that correct. That is the best
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 3: fight song. I know you would argue differently, but that's
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 3: my favorite fight song. And the only thing that you
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 3: left out was the fact that I'm your bodyguard for
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 3: the UIL state championships.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: I need that. I need that. So that helps. It's
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: great to visit with you. I wanted to talk some
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: Cowboys and some NFL notes with you because Isaiah also works,
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: and we were watching you the other day on NFL Networks.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: So I know that's keeping you busy as well. The
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: first thing I want to ask you about in hearing
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: what Brian Schottenheimer has had to say, and not just Schottie,
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: but hearing from players and other people, is that there
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: is a, if I'm describing it accurately, a different feel
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: about this team. Is that an accurate way to describe
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: what you've seen from Cowboys training camp and getting ready
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: for the final preseason game tomorrow night? against the Saints,
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: which will be a part of the telecast team along
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: with Bill Jones. Is it a different feel?
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 3: The vibes are definitely different. And I know that's not
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 3: a topic that people like to really touch on because
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 3: it's not tangible, right? A feeling is not tangible. It's
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 3: not something that you can necessarily always convey or necessarily
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 3: kind of take on. But the reality is there's something
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 3: different about this team. And I can say that because
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 3: I've played for this team. I can say that because
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 3: I've covered this team over the last six seasons. this
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 3: is different and it's different from the sense that the
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 3: culture and the identity and the ethos of this organization
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 3: and team that coach Schottenheimer start to instill last year
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 3: is now carrying itself from not only just the offense,
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 3: but now it's starting to matriculate his way through the
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 3: defense and through the special teams. You've heard a lot
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 3: about Christian Parker and what he's able to bring, you know,
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 3: young 34 year old, first time defensive coordinator coming from Philadelphia,
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 3: you know, finding his way from a big Fangio tree.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 3: This dude, along with Coach Schottenheimer, is really about that business.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 3: He's about that action. He's about teaching. He's about, you know,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 3: really building up this and developing these players. And you're
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 3: really starting to see the productivity and communication and identity
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 3: of that offense from last year that was so successful
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 3: for Dallas is now starting to carry its way over
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 3: to the other two-thirds of the game, which is defense
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 3: and special teams.
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: So, in other words, to coin a phrase or to
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: borrow a phrase from from the guy who did such
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: a great job plying his trade up by playing for
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: the Seahawks, Marshawn Lynch. In other words, in the case
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: of Christian Parker, quote, I'm all about that business, boss.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: Is that it?
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 3: That's it, about that action.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, about that action. And how about the offensive side?
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: We hear a lot about Clayton Adams, but we know
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: about Shottie's involvement. How has that dynamic worked for them
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: from what you've seen so far here in the preseason?
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 3: It's been awesome. And I think the expectation of a
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 3: lot of fans is that the Dallas Cowboys are going
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 3: to be right back at the top of the NFL
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 3: in terms of offensive productivity. And you would like to
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 3: think so. It's not necessarily always the case in this
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 3: league because this is a difficult league to double down on.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 3: But when you start talking about being in the same
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 3: system for multiple years with the same staff and majority
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 3: of the same players and contributors, that's huge. So Dallas
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 3: not only is going to be returning majority of their people,
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 3: but they're now able to stack upon the confidence that
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 3: they had last year.
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: They're able to evolve the offense.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 3: They're able to build upon things, the nonverbal communication, communication
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 3: at the line of scrimmage, the understanding and the chemistry
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 3: of the person that you're playing alongside with. All those
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 3: things get better whenever you have consistency and continuity, which
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 3: is what this offseason has been allowed to be because
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 3: of the front office.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: Well, one thing I've been impressed with, and maybe this
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: rolls back to this whole thing about a different vibe.
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: is not only clearly the production, but also what George
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: Pickens has said and his approach and all of that.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: And between him, obviously, anchoring or being the biggest part
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: of of that receiving core along with CD, that this
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: is something that everybody has to have a good feeling
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: about because even though the contract thing had been kind
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: of hovering over, it doesn't look like it's affected him
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: at all. No, not at all.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 3: And I believe that he's really denouncing a lot of
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 3: things that people have projected upon him, right? Coming into
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 3: the Dallas Cowboys after the trade with Pittsburgh, a lot
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 3: of people looked at George Pickens and said, oh, he's immature,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 3: or he's emotionally unintelligent, or hey, he's a spark play.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 3: He can go off at any moment. And I think
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 3: that he's really renounced a lot of that. I think
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 3: that he has proven to people that he's one heck
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 3: of a teammate. I think he's proven that he's one
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 3: heck of a consistent contributor on offense. He's proven that
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 3: when CD's not even present on the field because of
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 3: injury or whatever it might be, he is a true
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 3: number one receiver. So he has proven himself The organization
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 3: just wants to see it just a little bit longer, right?
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 3: They just want to see it again for maybe half
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 3: a season before they start having these conversations. But he's
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 3: proven that he is the person that was not conveyed
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 3: in Pittsburgh. They already had an idea of who they
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 3: thought he was. He's not that. He's a leader on
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 3: his team. He's the heartbeat of this offense. When you
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 3: see him step on the field, whether it be practice
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 3: or the game, people come to him. Everybody revolves around him.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 3: And just something that you would think that only happens
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 3: around Dak, not so fast, my friend. He is that guy,
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 3: and he really is the glue on offense.
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: Visiting with Isaiah Stanback here on 1300 The Zone. Two,
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: because training camps quite often, we know the known commodities
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: like Dak and the guys that we've talked about. Everybody
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: kind of zeroes in on the backup. So let me
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: get your thoughts, your overview on how you see the
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: backup running back spot and the backup quarterback spot.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 3: First of all, let's start with their backup quarterback spot.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 3: I believe that coming into week two, which was last
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 3: week prior to the Arizona Cardinals game, if I were
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 3: a coach trying to make a decision on a backup quarterback,
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 3: I would have said Sam Howell. And the reason why
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 3: I would have said Sam Howell is because Sam Howell
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 3: is tried and true. Sam Howell is somebody that we've
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 3: seen conduct himself as a starter and lead an organization
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 3: in this league, somebody that we've seen in playoffs. We
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 3: know who Sam Howell is. His floor is really high.
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 3: His ceiling might not be as high, but we know
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 3: the consistency we're going to get out of him. Joe
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 3: Milton going into the Cardinals game is somebody that we've
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 3: seen flashes of. You know, his floor is relatively low because,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 3: you know, he makes some mistakes. He's inconsistent. But boy,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 3: is his ceiling high, right? He has throw the ball
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 3: 85 yards. He can outrun anybody that's chasing him. He's athletic.
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 3: What have we seen over the past few weeks in
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 3: training camp? Joe Milton is starting to show that consistency factor.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 3: So what do we always say? And when you talk
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 3: about youth sports, when you have athleticism and you have
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 3: ability and you pair that up with consistency and reliability,
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden that person's untouchable. And that's exactly
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 3: what Joe Milton is becoming for the Dallas Cowboys today.
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 3: He's becoming somebody who's comfortable in this offense. He's becoming
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 3: somebody who's dependable or reliable in this offense. He's gaining
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 3: the confidence of his teammates and gaining the confidence of
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 3: his coaches. And when you pair that up and you
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 3: can stack good days along with his athletic abilities, it's
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 3: going to be very difficult for him to not become
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 3: the QB2 in this offense. And when you start talking
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 3: about the backup running back position, it's Malik Davis. How
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 3: can you not say it's Malik Davis? What can he do?
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 3: To prove anything more to you, the fact that he
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 3: is the guy that's going to protect your quarterback, he's
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 3: going to run downhill, he's going to fall forward, he's
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 3: going to protect the ball, and he's always going to
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 3: move the chains. He's reliable, he's dependable, he's your RB2.
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 3: The real question is, do they go ahead and carry
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 3: a true RB3, or are they going to feel comfortable
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 3: and confident simply just staying with Hunter Lipke as their
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 3: fullback slash RB3?
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: Interesting. Is it your thought that this final preseason game
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: with the Saints will... if it hasn't already been solidified,
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: definitely lock that in with Malik Davis, with Joe Milton,
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: that they're still looking for things or looking at things
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: going into this game with New Orleans?
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 3: I believe that they are. I believe, especially at the
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 3: quarterback position, if Joe Milton goes out and builds upon
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 3: what he's done these first two weeks in the preseason,
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 3: it's his job. I have no doubts about it. I
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 3: believe First of all, shout out to Coach Schottenheimer. I
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 3: know a lot of people are looking at it and saying, well,
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 3: they brought in Sam Howell to be the QB too.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 3: Maybe they did, or maybe they understood who their quarterback
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 3: was in Joe Milton and knew that, hey, this man
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 3: is competitive and he needs somebody to push him and
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 3: challenge him for that role, for him to step into
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 3: the role that we want him to be. There's a
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 3: teaching element. There's an understanding and a development element from
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 3: this coaching staff and a point of emphasis. Maybe they
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 3: just understood him that much. They knew that this was
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 3: going to be the trigger that pushed him over the edge.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 3: Either way, I think if Joe Milton comes into this
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 3: third game against the Saints and does what he's been doing,
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 3: it's his job. And then as far as the running
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 3: back room. There's so many really good running backs on
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 3: this roster. Unfortunately, some of these guys are going to
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 3: hit the waiver wire, and I highly doubt that a
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 3: handful of them are coming back.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I guess that includes the Longhorn Jayden Blue. Although,
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: I know from watching the telecast, the preseason game with
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: the Cardinals, you like that little hurdle, that little leap
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: he did last week.
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the Blue's Clues. Listen, he is talented, and he
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 3: understands that last year was a wasted opportunity for him.
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 3: He had an opportunity last year to solidify himself as
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 3: somebody who's reliable, dependable, but he understands that he was
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 3: emotionally unavailable. He was mentally unavailable last year. He's admitted that,
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 3: and kudos to him for acknowledging that. The preseason presents opportunities,
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 3: and he has shown you that he's capable, but is
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 3: the runway long enough for him to show you that
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 3: he's consistent enough? And that's the reality of the preseason,
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 3: especially when you cut it down to three games. There's
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 3: guys that are very talented, guys that are very capable,
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 3: but they don't have a long enough runway to prove
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 3: to these coaches that that's something that's dependable throughout a
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 3: whole season.
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: Is Camden Smith going to make the team?
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 3: Which one?
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: Did I say his name wrong?
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 3: Camden Brown. You talking about Camden Brown? Brown, yes.
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: Camden Brown. I said Smith. Camden Brown.
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that wide receiver five position. And I say wide
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 3: receiver five because of CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, Ryan Flanoy.
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 3: Kavante Turpin. Those four are definitely on the roster, obviously.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 3: The number five position is really between Camden Brown, who's
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 3: stepping into this role and balling out in training camp
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 3: with every single quarterback. Oftentimes, we see these guys come
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 3: in and have the relationship with the wrong quarterback that's
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 3: not throwing them the ball in the preseason. So we've
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 3: seen guys in the past that have had great relationships
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 3: with Dak, but Dak's not throwing you the ball in
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 3: the preseason. The backup quarterbacks are, and if you don't
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 3: get those opportunities, you can't show the world what everybody's
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 3: been seeing in training camp. But Camden Brown has built
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 3: a relationship and a trust with every single quarterback on
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 3: this roster, and you've seen it show up in the games. Now,
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 3: Jonathan Mingo finally gave you a glimpse of why they
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 3: traded a fourth-round pick for him. You finally saw a
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 3: little bit of a highlight as, oh, there's that guy
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 3: right there. He's somebody that's trusted and reliable in the
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 3: special team sector, but now you're starting to see why
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 3: they believed in him in terms of the receiver position.
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 3: But again, I go back to the runway. Is this
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 3: runway long enough And is the upside long enough to
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 3: justify keeping one, if not both of these guys? But
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 3: there's going to be one battle that you have to
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 3: watch this last game that I really think is going
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 3: to come down to who's able to be most productive.
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: We talked about Christian Parker. With regard to the defense,
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: we've seen some young guys really kind of show out
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: early on. Who has really impressed you most on the
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: defensive side in camp? You know what? L.T.
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 3: Overton, interior defensive lineman out of Alabama. LT's done one
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 3: heck of a job. You talk about somebody who I
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 3: would consider to be somewhat undersized at this point in
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 3: his career, Ricky career, but he's been impactful. He stepped
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 3: up in a major way. Somebody that's been consistent for
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 3: me over the last two years has been Shamar James.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 3: He's somebody that always shows up. I think he's a
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 3: really dependable, you know, high ceiling, young talent. And then
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 3: the fella out of Michigan last week, First time having
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 3: an opportunity to see him in live action game in
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 3: the NFL as he was out the first preseason game. Barham.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 3: And I think Jay Sean Barham out of Michigan, number 55,
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 3: inside slash outside linebacker, is a dude. And he is somebody,
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 3: as we were mentioning at the beginning of this segment here,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 3: he's about that action, boss. He wants to run through
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 3: your face. He brings the intensity. He brings the physicality,
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 3: not only for himself, but it's such a presence that
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 3: everybody around him is going to have to get with
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 3: the program. So he's going to rub off on everybody,
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 3: veteran or rookie. I like the fact that he's on
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 3: his roster, and I like what he did last week.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: And by design, we have only seen just a snippet
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: of Caleb Downs, but he looked impressive early on before
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: they put him in bubble wrap for the rest of
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: the season, right?
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 3: Listen, Caleb Downs, I can't talk about what he's done
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 3: in the preseason because he only has six snaps. But
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 3: I can tell you about what I saw at training camp.
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 3: And this dude, everything is advertised.
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: He's smart.
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 3: He's emotionally intelligent. He's a student of the game. He's
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 3: a student that wants to learn from everybody. He's humble
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 3: enough to ask the questions to the players and ask
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 3: questions to the coaches. He spends 30 to 40 minutes
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 3: after practice working with people, working on his game. You
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 3: hear the interviews about him sitting in there with the
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 3: meeting rooms late night working with Coach Christian Parker. He
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 3: is a player form of Christian Parker, and he's going
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 3: to be such a Swiss Army knife for this defense.
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 3: He can run and hit. He can get turnovers. He
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 3: can guard you in the slot. He can play safety.
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 3: He checks a lot of boxes. He's going to provide
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 3: a lot of versatility for his defense.
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: I say stand back with us for a few more minutes.
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: What are you looking for out of this final preseason game?
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: You'll be working the telecast with Bill Jones tomorrow night.
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: What are you looking for other than maybe an extension
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: to the half-million-dollar fine because of the training camp dust-up
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: with the Saints and Cowboys? I imagine they'll mind their
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: P's and Q's and behave, but what else are you
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: looking for out of this preseason finale?
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 3: As long as Jerry Jones doesn't try to find me,
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 3: I think we're perfectly fine. This last game, I'm truly
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 3: looking at, I'm paying a lot of attention to that
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 3: wide receiver five battle. I'm also paying a lot of attention,
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 3: and it's not a conversation that's being had right now,
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 3: but it's a concern of mine at two positions. The
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 3: backup tackle position, right? Right now, you're looking at Nate
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 3: Thomas and Drew Shelton, who are both you're considering your
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 3: possible swing tackles. Drew Shelton had played left tackle in
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 3: college for the first part of training camp in the
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 3: first preseason game. He was playing right tackle. They moved
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 3: him over to the left side, and they moved Nate
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 3: Thomas over to the right side. So both of these
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 3: guys are getting work. I'm also concerned about the cornerback position,
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 3: the cornerback room, the starting cornerbacks that you have on
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 3: this team right now. Obviously, Kobe Durant, you're able to
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 3: bring in. Deron Bland, you have. Savon Revel, you have in.
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 3: Savon Revel is coming off a knee. Deron Bland has
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 3: a history of a foot. If either one of those
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 3: guys go down, who's the next man that you feel
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 3: comfortable with? Is it Kalen Carson that you feel comfortable with?
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 3: You know, like, like, Reddy Stewart's a safety slash nickel.
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 3: I like him. I think he'll be on his team.
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 3: But who do you have? Speed, you know, Chiquese bridges.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 3: There's not a lot of depth there. Devin Moore, you
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 3: drafted obviously out of Florida. He didn't have a good
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 3: showing last week. First preseason game. He was out second
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 3: preseason game. He kind of got to see it out
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 3: a little bit. He has a lot to learn. Who
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 3: is your DB three or four depth on your roster?
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 3: And can they contribute at the level of the competition
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 3: that you're going to be facing when the regular season
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 3: presents itself?
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: I would counsel people to, if you kind of have
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: a jaundiced view of watching preseason games, watch the Cowboys
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: because Isaiah Stanback will make it entertaining, if nothing else.
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: If I'm remembering correctly, last Saturday against here. You sang
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: the theme from Blue's Clues. You did that. Did you
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: sing another theme song during the game? You did that.
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure of it. I think I hit you
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 3: with a Looney Tunes, you know, Roadrunner. I think I
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 3: hit you with Blue's Clues. I've done Aventura in there.
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 3: I'm going to keep you guessing.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: You had various and sundry bodily aspects. actions in terms
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: of emotions coming out. It kind of sounded like a
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: more ramped up version of Tony Romo when he's doing,
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: you know, oh, and ah. I mean, I know you
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: from working with you.
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 3: Those are natural.
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: That's organic for you, isn't it?
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very much so, man. And big, you know, shout
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 3: out to the late, you know, John Madden. You know,
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 3: he's the person out of anybody and everybody I've ever
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 3: seen on a broadcast that was able to blend true analysts, detailed,
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 3: high level stuff, bring it down to the common level.
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 3: and make it digestible for the fans, but also the
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 3: entertainment factor and showing emotionally that he's having fun watching
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 3: this game alongside the fans. So I try to embody
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 3: my version of that, but he's the one that made
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 3: me feel comfortable being my true self.
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: All right. Are you still the father of multi-sport high-level
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: athlete kids?
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. I got three minions, two that are in seventh grade,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 3: one that just entered high school.
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: Now, the one that entered high school, was that the
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: basketball slash soccer slash wrestler? Is that how that works?
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 3: She played, I believe, six or seven sports in middle school,
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 3: and now she has to cut it down to three
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 3: sports in high school. So she's only doing three.
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: Okay. All right. Listen, I appreciate you doing this, and
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: I look forward to seeing you and working with you
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: on the state championship. By the way, I saw your
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: name mentioned. Now, I may be speaking out of turn.
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: I don't even know. Are you part of, at least
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: on the backup side or fill inside or whatever, part
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: of the Pac-12 network too?
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 3: So I'm working with, I signed a contract with CW
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 3: Sports this year. I'm their flex color commentator, and I'm
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 3: going to be working both Mountain West Conference and Pac-12
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 3: this year.
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: Wow. Okay. All right. You might see the group right
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: down the road from us. Texas State in a game
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: this year in the Pac-12. You never know. Isaiah, I
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: appreciate it, man. Thanks so much, and have a great season,
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: and obviously you and I will be in touch during
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: the course of the season. Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Greg.
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: Appreciate it. That's Isaiah Stanback. You can watch him tomorrow
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: night in the Cowboys preseason finale against the New Orleans Saints.
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: You'll see him on other Cowboys programs. Like I said,
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: he and I worked together on the state championship games
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: and on the Pac-12. You'll see him in Mountain West.
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: So he's a man of many talents and destinations.
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: We have more coming up here on this Thursday afternoon
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: on Sports Radio AM 13 Under the Zone and the
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app.
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 3: Okay, you're taking me down my concert vending day's path.
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 3: Word to police, 1981 or 82, right around that time,
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 3: Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, Oklahoma.
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: Great show.
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 2: The place hadn't changed a bit.
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: No. No, it hasn't. The arena's pretty much the same
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: since then. Okay, I want to jump back to the Cowboys.
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: And we just heard in our conversation with Isaiah Stanback
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: about some of the guys that he's really, that Brian
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: Schottenheimer's really excited about. We'll get to one of those
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: in a minute. First, I always ask, you know, they
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: only have the one preseason game left. And then they
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: get ready for that Sunday night season opener against the Giants. So,
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: Shadi was asked, has he started to work on things
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: for that opener against the Giants?
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 8: No.
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 6: I mean, right now, we're focusing on cleaning our shed,
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 6: if you will. Sweeping the shed and figuring out who
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 6: we want to be from an identity standpoint.
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 7: The personnel part of it is big for us.
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 6: We don't take any of these decisions that we have
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 6: coming up lightly because they're important decisions and they affect
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 6: our football team, but also people that we love and
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 6: care about. um each coach is doing a little stuff
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 6: on their own for their area but um you know
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 6: we know they're a good football team ton of respect
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 6: for coach harbaugh uh the football team's got a lot
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 6: of really good players and it's going to be an
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 6: electric deal but you know that'll start as we get
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 6: into a little bit next week but you know really
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 6: you got uh sometimes you over prepare todd you know
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 6: and that's a real thing and i've done it where
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 6: like next week you do a bunch of the giant
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 6: stuff and then You come back, and what ends up
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 6: happening is you do it all again, and you just
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 6: end up, you know, we just did that. So what's
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 6: different than what we looked at? There's no new film
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 6: to watch. There's nothing new about that. It's a new scheme.
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 6: It's a new defense with Denard Wilson and, you know,
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 6: Coach Nagy. And so we won't overdo it. We're going
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 6: to focus on us first, make sure we're in a
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 6: good spot.
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: So among those players with whom we were visiting with
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: Isaiah Stanback about that he was all excited about is
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: Jay Sean Barham. the former Michigan Wolverine. And Sean Hammer
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: was asked what Bar-Am is like behind the scenes. He's awesome.
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 7: And I think I'm getting to know Jay Sean on
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 7: a much.
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: Closer level.
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 6: He's a very serious and great intent, but I was
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 6: actually visiting with him yesterday for a few minutes and
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 6: talking about a lot of different things.
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 7: But you talk about a.
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 6: Guy that's wired the right way and don't let his
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 6: demeanor or the way he carries himself around you guys
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 6: make you think for one second that he's not all
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 6: in for this football team.
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 7: He is very serious at what he does and he
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 7: wants to be great.
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 6: But he's getting more and more comfortable in this locker
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 6: room around our players, around our coaches, and I think
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 6: he's a terrific young man.
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: And does that mean also the expectations for Bar M?
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: Are they as Jerry Jones would say, relative to where
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: he was when they drafted him?
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 7: Well, I mean, he was slowed down a little bit
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 7: because of the groin.
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 6: But from the time he's gotten here, we've been really
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 6: excited about the player, the person, the seriousness that he
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 6: approaches meetings with, and the ability to communicate, the versatility
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 6: is real. And it kind of goes back to draft day.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 6: And we did the work. We did the prep.
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: He was there. Jerry made the call, and it was great. Okay.
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: I want to go, I mentioned this earlier that I
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: wanted to get to this, this piece written by Ben
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: Solak for ESPN.com about ranking all 32 teams, watchability and excitement.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: Now this definitely will not necessarily reflect how good they're
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: going to be or where they'll finish. Although in some
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: cases it might truly apply. For example, The worst one,
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: according to watchability, is the Cleveland Browns at number 32.
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 2: And not a surprise.
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Number 31, the Miami Dolphins. Probably not too much
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: surprise about that. The Titans at 30, even with Cam
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: Ward saying they're getting better. Number 29 is Arizona. The
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: Falcons are 28. He says the Falcons do have enough
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 1: playmaking juice with Dijon Robinson, Drake London, Kyle Pitts to
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: become quickly watchable in the event their quarterback play is satisfactory,
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: but I made the mistake of ranking them highly last year,
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: sixth on the back of expected splashes from Michael Penix Jr.,
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: and that was a huge embarrassment for the fidelity of
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: the exercise. I'm correcting the error.
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 2: Some would wonder if that's an overcorrection because a quarterback
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 2: battle is entertaining.
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it is.
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: The Raiders, speaking of quarterbacks, number 27, Kirk Cousins likely
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: to start the season. When he does, the Raiders will
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: not be very watchable. Most likely, there'll be a middling offense.
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: Even if they are good, it'll be annoying that they're
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: good because it will mean first overall pick Fernando Mendoza
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: won't play anytime soon.
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 8: Okay.
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: 26, the Steelers. In a different time, an Aaron Rodgers-Schwan
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: song season would move the needle considerably. There were a
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: few years in Rodgers' last season at this point. Yeah,
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: it's kind of like the Who's Farewell Tour. And my
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: nostalgia for his prime has been well used. 25, the Jets. 24,
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: the Saints. Number 23. Wait, really?
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 2: The Saints are that low? Kellen Moore offense? They're going
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 2: to sling it.
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: He says, you know which defense led the league in
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: success right in the back half of the season? The Saints.
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: How cool is that? Totally meaningless for watchability, of course.
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: The Saints faced largely bad opponents, and Brandon Staley's preferred
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: style of light box defense leads to quiet games overall.
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: That's at 24. 23 is the Giants. 22, the Chiefs.
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: Who would have thought that? He said the can't-miss television
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: Chiefs of yesteryear haven't been around for seasons now. They
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: don't create explosive plays 9.3% of the time. 26th in
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: the league last year. And they don't give up explosive plays. 8.9%
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: of the time, fourth in the league. Sure, they play
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: close games. They were 12-0 in one score contest in
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: 2024 and 1-9 last season. And close games are entertaining
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: for most teams. But for the Chiefs, they feel more disappointing.
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: A referendum on team building more than a statement to
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: their competitive spirit.
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 2: I like that he used data, not just the old
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 2: chief's fatigue that half of our listeners probably feel.
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, he went into numbers. All right, Carolina
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 1: at 21, the 49ers at 20, Colts 19, the Packers
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: at 18, Jaguars at 17, the Bills at 16. It
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: says it's hard to have the Bills this far down
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: in the watchability rankings on account of their quarterback. Josh
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: Allen's not just elite, he is perhaps the most watchable
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: among the elite. quarterbacks, but they say his worst plays
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: are draw dropping head scratchers. The issue is the reason
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: to watch the bills is the same reason we've had
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: for the past five seasons. DJ Moore is not enough
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: of a star receiver to move that needle.
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 2: How are the bills behind Washington?
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: Uh, I'll tell you what, Philadelphia is behind Washington too.
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: They'd be number 15.
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 2: Well, I agree with that.
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: Tampa Bay 14. There's your commanders at number 13. The Commanders,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: my most watchable team entering 2025 off Jaden Daniels, a
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 1: glorious offensive rookie of the year season. Pension for close games.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: They won on multiple Hail Mary plays, remember, and a
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: high pace of play that made for a lot more football.
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: Of course, I didn't calculate absolutely everyone getting hurt, but
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: that's on me.
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 2: Well, these rankings have been really tough last year so far.
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: Number 12 is the Texans. So they're talking about trying to,
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: if the offense can take a step forward in Nick
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: Cayley's second season, they'll play some closer games. Ravens number 11,
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: Broncos number 10, Vikings are nine. He says, Kyler Murray's
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: so cool to watch when he's good. I feel like
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: many of us have forgotten him. Eh, I'm not so
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: much on board with that. He does his best not
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: to get hit and will throw the ball into harm's
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: way just to avoid taking a sack and stuff like that.
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 2: And the Vikings will do all of that just to
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 2: avoid the guy we talked about earlier this hour, J.J.
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: McCarthy. That's right. Seahawks, number eight. He says, the defending
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: Super Bowl champs are watchable by default. They'll get the
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: best out of every opponent they play. Every loss will
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: be a crisis, and every win will be another step
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: toward the rare repeat. Number seven, the Bengals. He says,
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: you know what's fun to watch? High stakes. That's what
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: it'd be watching Joe Burrow. Cowboys, number six. Cowboys were
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: not a pleasant watch last season. The defense was so
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: poor that an at-home viewer endured second-hand embarrassment through the
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: television screen. Number five is New England. Number four, the Chargers.
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: Number three, the Lions, saying it's the Jameer Gibbs show.
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: Number two, the Rams. Everyone loves watching a one-last-job movie,
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: and everyone will love watching the Rams in 2026. Every
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: season could be the final one for Matthew Stafford, and
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: he goes on, and, you know, whether they get Aaron
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: Donald back or not. Number one, the Chicago Bears. the
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: number one watchable team. He goes, there's no way you
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: need me to explain this to you.
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 8: Nope.
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: If you watched every Bears game last season, you saw
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: an NFL leading six comeback wins led by quarterback Caleb
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: Williams and Chicago's ludicrously explosive offense. So anyway, so this
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: year's Bears might not produce as many wild swings, but
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: they still figure to be the most explosive offense in football.
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: All right, we'll be back to wrap up today's edition
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: of the program on 13 Under the Zone.