Latest / The Craig Way Show / Did Texas need to adjust to Georgia's speed on defense? Hear what Steve Sarkisian had to say.

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Did Texas need to adjust to Georgia's speed on defense? Hear what Steve Sarkisian had to say. · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: We continue here on this Wednesday. Steve Sarkisian is an
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  Speaker 1: old soul, but he's not that old of the dude.
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  Speaker 1: And he took part in the SEC teleconference, the coaches
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  Speaker 1: teleconference today and talked about a lot of different things.
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  Speaker 2: Was asked several different questions about a bout this team.
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  Speaker 2: But we were talking about and last hour we got
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  Speaker 2: into this.
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  Speaker 1: The expansion of the college football playoffs, and I was
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  Speaker 1: just running down what at least one set of projections,
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  Speaker 1: those from ESPN Plus or ESPN from Heather Dinnach, the
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  Speaker 1: set of projections that have Oregon number one, Georgia number two,
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State or I think Miami number three Ohio State. No,
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  Speaker 1: because Oregon is number one out of the Big ten,
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  Speaker 1: and who am I missing out? Is the acc would
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  Speaker 1: be my oh Big twelve be number four BYU as
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  Speaker 1: I mentioned those, and then they eight below, it would
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  Speaker 1: have Texas in as the number five right now, which
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  Speaker 1: would mean they would host a playoff game, a first
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  Speaker 1: round game against the twelve seed. If they were the five,
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  Speaker 1: they would play the twelve and right now, that projects
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  Speaker 1: out to be the highest ranked G five conference champion,
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  Speaker 1: which at this point, according to these projections would be
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  Speaker 1: Boyse State and they're outstanding running back and maybe now
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  Speaker 1: the favorite in the Heisman race Ashton Genty from Frisco
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  Speaker 1: lone star native Texan.
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  Speaker 2: We'll see how all of that shakes down as well.
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  Speaker 1: So Sark was asked several questions about the college football
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  Speaker 1: playoff and last time we heard him talk about how
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  Speaker 1: it kind of has taken on a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: an NFL style scope because of twelve teams giving more
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  Speaker 1: teams an opportunity. So he was asked following in the NFL,
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  Speaker 1: like playoff structure mean that it's a good thing? Is
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  Speaker 1: that is that beneficial for the support of college football
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  Speaker 1: to be set up like that? You know?
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, I think time will tell.
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  Speaker 3: I do think the popularity of college football right now
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  Speaker 3: is at an all time high. I think the exposure
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  Speaker 3: that it's getting not only from y'all but on television,
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  Speaker 3: the fanfare has been tremendous. I do think the one
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  Speaker 3: thing that is unique with college football as opposed to
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  Speaker 3: the NFL. You know, the NFL, you only have thirty
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  Speaker 3: two teams, you know, vuying for those playoff spots. College football,
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  Speaker 3: what do we have one hundred and I don't know
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  Speaker 3: thirty something, I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: Whatever it is.
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  Speaker 3: And so it still the margin prayer is still not
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  Speaker 3: very big in college football, and so I do think
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  Speaker 3: there's still a real sense of urgency in college football.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think anybody here is thinking, hey, if you go,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I don't know eight and four that you're
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  Speaker 3: probably gonna get in the player. Probably not, not realistically speaking.
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  Speaker 3: And so you're still striving for perfection knowing, but you know,
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  Speaker 3: and we do have a little bit of margin for
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  Speaker 3: air to make it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's the other key is margin for error.
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  Speaker 1: How much margin forrer do you have? As long as
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  Speaker 1: the log Worns were winning and staying unbeaten, they had
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  Speaker 1: a seemingly wide path with a lot of margin for error.
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  Speaker 1: That is considerably narrowed now with the loss to Georgia.
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  Speaker 1: But that was the case last year for Texas, where
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  Speaker 1: they only had one road into the playoff to be
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  Speaker 1: a top four, and that was to win out after
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  Speaker 1: losing to Oklahoma and win the Big Twelve championship, which
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  Speaker 1: they did convincingly, and even then it took all of
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  Speaker 1: that stuff is really really close. Remember, Gosh, that seems
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  Speaker 1: like it's such a foreign thing now that Florida State
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  Speaker 1: was actually that close to being in the College Football
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  Speaker 1: Playoff and then they kind of mentally, emotionally and even
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  Speaker 1: numerically checked out of their Orange Bowl game with Georgia,
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  Speaker 1: got blasted and they're one in six this year, Florida State.
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  Speaker 1: But that's somebody else's problems. Texas understands now that the
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  Speaker 1: margin for error has narrowed. It doesn't mean they can't
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  Speaker 1: get in the playoff, but they're probably looking at needing
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  Speaker 1: to win the rest of their games, and if they
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  Speaker 1: win the rest in the regular season, just getting into
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  Speaker 1: the conference championship would probably get them into the playoff
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  Speaker 1: regardless of the outcome. But if they were to win it,
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  Speaker 1: then you're talking about getting that first round by which
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  Speaker 1: would be very, very important. But for all that to happen,
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  Speaker 1: they have to turn around and play well against Vanderbilt
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  Speaker 1: coming off the loss to Georgia, And there were some
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  Speaker 1: questions about how Sark expects and is looking for his
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  Speaker 1: team to bounce back from the loss to Georgia. Part
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  Speaker 1: of that is seeing what they went through in the
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  Speaker 1: loss of the Bulldogs on Saturday night, So Sark was
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  Speaker 1: asked about the Georgia defensive lineman Mikel Williams, what a
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  Speaker 1: big night he had, and he was asked about the
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  Speaker 1: impact that he had in the game against the Longhorns.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, he's obviously an elite pass rusher that can
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  Speaker 3: put stress on your tackles and can put stress on
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  Speaker 3: your quarterback. And credit to Georgia, I thought they had
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  Speaker 3: a really good plan of allowing him to rush and
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  Speaker 3: flushing the quarterback and then using Walker as a spy
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  Speaker 3: to go chase down the quarterback. He's got an elite
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  Speaker 3: closing speed as well, So I thought that combination of
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  Speaker 3: those two guys worked well in the game for them,
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  Speaker 3: something that they were able to utilize getting the healthy
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  Speaker 3: Michael Williams back, so he looked a heck of a
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  Speaker 3: lot better in person than he had on tape throughout
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  Speaker 3: the season. I know, he hadn't been healthy, you know,
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  Speaker 3: really since the very beginning of the year, but they
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  Speaker 3: got him healthy right in the naked time for our game,
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  Speaker 3: so you know, but yeah, he's a really good player.
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  Speaker 3: That both those guys had had excellent games, something that
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  Speaker 3: you know, if we get another shot with them, we'll
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  Speaker 3: have to prepare a little differently.
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  Speaker 2: For yeah, no doubt about that. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: Speaking of preparing, fans like to talk quite often and
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  Speaker 1: coaches bring it up as well, adjustments, making adjustments like
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  Speaker 1: at halftime sometimes in game adjustments, however it might be.
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  Speaker 1: And give them the fact that Texas trailed at the
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  Speaker 1: half twenty three to nothing and then came back and
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  Speaker 1: had the two touchdowns there to pull it within eight
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  Speaker 1: at twenty three fifteen.
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  Speaker 2: By early fourth quarter, the question became obvious.
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  Speaker 1: Did it take a half an entire half for Texas
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  Speaker 1: to adjust to Georgia in a lot of ways, physicality,
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  Speaker 1: the speed, things of that nature. And for that matter,
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  Speaker 1: why in his estimation did Sart think Texas was better
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  Speaker 1: in the second half.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think that was part of it, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I think I think naturally, you know, we didn't take
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  Speaker 3: care of the ball very well in all the first half,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we were kind of I thought the field
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  Speaker 3: position was a real issue in the first half. I
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  Speaker 3: think Georgia's average you know, field position starting in the
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  Speaker 3: first half was there at forty seven yard line. I
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  Speaker 3: think ours was the twenty three. I think three of
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  Speaker 3: our first four drives we started inside of our own
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  Speaker 3: thirteen yard line. We were giving them short fields. You know,
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  Speaker 3: I thought our defense played admirably in the first half
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  Speaker 3: of trying to minimize some of the damage. But I
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  Speaker 3: thought in the second half we started to find a
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  Speaker 3: little bit of rhythm. But anytime you're playing catch up
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  Speaker 3: like that, it's it's hard to find balance. And we're
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  Speaker 3: at our best as a team when we have balance
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  Speaker 3: on the offensive side of the ball, and we just
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  Speaker 3: couldn't really create that because of the hole that we
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  Speaker 3: dug ourselves in the first half.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's playing and simple arithmetic on some of that.
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  Speaker 1: We'll hear some more from Sar coming up next hour.
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  Speaker 1: Some specific thoughts on this matchup with the Vanderbilt Commodorees.
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  Speaker 2: We'll hear that coming up. I was looking at the
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  Speaker 2: the schedule.
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  Speaker 1: I mentioned that Notre Dame and Navy play this week
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  Speaker 1: and that is without question the biggest G five matchup.
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  Speaker 1: And I know folks don't really think about Notre Dame
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  Speaker 1: in the G five realm if you will, because they
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  Speaker 1: are Notre Dame and they operate as an independent they
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  Speaker 1: do have that scheduling agreement with the ACC. But that
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  Speaker 1: they've been playing pretty well since the loss in northern Illinois.
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  Speaker 1: So they play Navy this Saturday, and they're playing them
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  Speaker 1: in East Rutherford, They're playing them in the Meadowlands.
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  Speaker 2: Navy, of course is undefeated.
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  Speaker 1: Navy going into the game takes a six and zero
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  Speaker 1: record into that and Army is also unbeaaten. Now Army
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  Speaker 1: is off this week, they have an open date on
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  Speaker 1: the schedule, and the Black Knights are seven and zero
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  Speaker 1: and they have a week off. Then they play Air Force.
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  Speaker 1: Then they're going to be in Denton to play North
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  Speaker 1: Texas on November ninth. Then they have a second open date,
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  Speaker 1: Then they play Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium, and then
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  Speaker 1: after they play then then they play UTSA at home.
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  Speaker 1: Then they have an open date on the weekend of
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  Speaker 1: the conference championship. The reason why it's an open date
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  Speaker 1: is if they qualify, they got to play on that
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  Speaker 1: weekend against Navy. And that's what's been brought up, the
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  Speaker 1: fact that those two could could mathematically feasibly wind up
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  Speaker 1: meeting for the American Conference Championship one week before the
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  Speaker 1: regularly scheduled game, which would not factor in.
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  Speaker 2: There's good and bad to that.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, they don't get a data point an
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  Speaker 1: extra data point for carrying a twelve to zero record
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  Speaker 1: into a conference championship game, and if you're going up
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  Speaker 1: against trying to show the committee that you belong instead
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  Speaker 1: of Boise State, because only one of them is going
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  Speaker 1: to get in as a G five.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe if Army is twelve with a
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  Speaker 2: win over Notre Dame may be a shot.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, but definitely to get ahead of Boise
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  Speaker 1: they're gonna need to be undefeated, and an extra data
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  Speaker 1: point from having played Navy would certainly help.
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  Speaker 2: Same thing for Navy if they are.
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  Speaker 1: If they're somehow able to beat Notre Dame this Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: they have a shot to be eleven and oh and
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  Speaker 1: qualify for the American Conference Championship. That's how bizarre this
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  Speaker 1: whole thing would be. If Army and Navy wound up
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  Speaker 1: both being eleven and oh and playing in the American
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  Speaker 1: Conference Championship, which decides who gets in the playoff, and
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  Speaker 1: then they play the regular season game the next week,
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  Speaker 1: which let's just say your Army and you're eleven and
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  Speaker 1: oh one in that game, and you play an eleven
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  Speaker 1: and oh Navy and you beat them, they go to
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  Speaker 1: twelve and Oh, you're in the playoff and then you
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  Speaker 1: lose to Navy the next week, doesn't matter, You're already
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  Speaker 1: in the playoff. That's the bizarre setup for how that works.
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  Speaker 1: But we'll continue to monitor all of this and watch this.
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  Speaker 1: We'll hear some more from him talking about Vanderbilt in
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  Speaker 1: specific up next hour, speaking about getting ready for Vanderbilt.
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  Speaker 1: Up next, you'll hear Will Matthews conversation with Longhorn's linebacker,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the six year senior David Benda. When we continue on
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  Speaker 1: sports Radio AM thirteen under the zone of the iHeartRadio app.