Latest / The Craig Way Show / Greg Tepper on Baylor/Texas Tech, Texas/Georgia, and High School Football

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Greg Tepper on Baylor/Texas Tech, Texas/Georgia, and High School Football · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: Our next guest is native Texan. Maybe he might.
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  Speaker 2: He's Greg Tepper, managing editor Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine.
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  Speaker 1: He's a former Coppel Cowboy.
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  Speaker 2: He's pretty dark gone, proud of his state rank Cockpel
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  Cowboys who joins his name? Would you would you even
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  consider voting for Willie Nelson for president?
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  Speaker 1: I absolutely would. And I'll tell you why.
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  Speaker 3: I actually, and you guys are talking, you were wondering
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  what song or what album George on my mind was
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  off of?
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  Speaker 1: It is off of Stardust.
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  Speaker 3: I know that because my father is a huge Willie
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  Nelson fan. He's originally he's a Chicago and he's a
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  Southsider one hundred and sixty first in Pulaski. And but
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  when he moved to Texas. I haven't asked him this directly,
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  but I think he was like, I got to get
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  some Texas bona fides, like I can't be a Yankee
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  down here, and so he and so Willie Nelson was
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  like his entree into like country music. So Willie Nelson
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  is very much like the soundtrack of My Youth, among
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  many other things, a lot of hot rock, a lot
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  of a lot of the classic rock, and stuff like that.
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  But Willie Nelson is certainly in the playlist.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, Lynna and I drag you kicking and screaming
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  into the yacht rock sphere.
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  Speaker 1: We did. We did that, that's for sure.
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  Speaker 2: Although you wouldn't join us at Ambrosia a couple of
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  weeks ago. I'm not sure where that was going on now. Strangely,
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  I was a little busy. Yeah, yeah, just a little bit.
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  Hey before we get to the high school thing, and
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  I've got some really intriguing things to ask you with
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  regard to the high school world.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. Did you hear more.
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  Speaker 2: Input from people who might not otherwise have a lot
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  of input or a lot to say about Texas ou before, during,
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  and after the game because of the following programs not
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  in action Baylor, TCU, Texas A, and m Texas Tech.
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  With those programs not in action, you think that might
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  add something to do it people people around the state
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  of Texas weighing in on all of that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it took center stage, especially considering like
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  the second most interesting game on that Saturday was UTSA
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  and Rice, which, by the way, turned out to be
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  a fabulous game with Rice. You know, certainly certainly getting
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  a bit of a perhaps a stay of execution for
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  the for the coaching staff there as they come back
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  and beatsa.
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  Speaker 1: You know the other thing it did.
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  Speaker 2: Tip the other thing it did, it made bad beats
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  last night on Scott Van Sports Center because because of
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  the late touchdown that the Utsa Rice game made bad beats.
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  Speaker 3: Actually probably the over under I've got the overhit on
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  that last Rice.
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  Speaker 2: They said that too, But also I think Utsa was
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  like a three point favorite before the Rice last touchdown
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  something like that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a terrific win for Rice, but it did
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  kind of clear the way for Texas and OU. And
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  I think that that as a result, especially considering you know,
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  the buzz around this game, and I know folks down
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  there understand this that there are some years in which
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  Texas OU is the game and there's also some years
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  where it is a game, and this was definitely one
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  of those years where it was the game, especially considering
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  Texas being number one in the nation. Oklahoma I think struggling.
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  I think people kind of still wondering exactly what Oklahoma is,
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  and even when you add in the idea of it
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  being the first ever meeting as SEC FOS. I think
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  there's a lot of intrigue around it, kind of statewide,
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  whereas people would otherwise not be intrigue. The other thing
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  that I would say is that especially on the Texas side,
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  there's they have legit star power. They have legit you know,
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  with quinn Ewers and a lot of the playmakers they
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  have on the defensive side, like Anthony Hill. They have
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  legit star power that I think draws in perhaps the
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  casual or the people who otherwise wouldn't sit down and
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  watch Texas OU. So I think that the schedule set
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  up in such a way that it did allow for
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  TEXASOU to say, to take center stage in my opinion, rightfully.
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  Speaker 2: So okay, So with that in mind then, and the
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  reason why I say that is with regard to the
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  rest of the week and the other games, Texas of
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  course plays Georgia, and if we remove that, and that's
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  a big remove, but if we removed that this week
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  kind of like what we do with high school football
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  about transporting the games, which of these games involving the
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  State of Texas schools in the state of Texas has
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  you most interested in it? And I'm just going to
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  rattle off the list, and you tell me what comes
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  to mind here, all right. Sam Houston is hosting Western Kentucky,
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  UTEP is hosting FIU, Baylor and Tech play in Lubbock.
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  Houston plays at Kansas, TCU plays at Utah, A and
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  M plays at Mississippi State. North Texas plays at Memphis,
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  Texas State plays at Old Dominion, and let's see Rice
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  plays at Tulane. So of those games, which ones would
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  if you were say, wow, hey, I've kind of got
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  some skin in that, not necessarily financial, but some some
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  interest in it.
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  Speaker 1: And UTSA Florida Atlantic by the way too.
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  Speaker 3: Uh, it may be strange to say, I think it
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  might be happening tomorrow night in Huntsville with Sam Houston
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  and Western Kentucky folks. Sam Houston can be Bowl eligible
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  tomorrow night. They're five and one, hosting a good Western
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  Kentucky team and an opportunity, uh to to be to
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  pull one of the great turnarounds I think in college
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  football this year, you know, to go from from really
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  you know last year they were really on zero to
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  twelve watch for a couple of weeks, uh that to
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  go and then suddenly be six and one to start
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  the year would certainly qualify as a big time turnaround there.
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  The other, the other one that that really catches my eye,
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  I think has to be what's going to go on
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  in Lubbock and Baylor Texas Tech.
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  Speaker 1: That is a huge game out there.
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  Speaker 3: I think for Baylor to to to kind of stop
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  the bleeding. But Texas Tech, say this about Joey maguire,
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  They've been very good at home, very very good at home,
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  tough to beat in Lowick, and and you know this
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  is I think a big, high stakes game for both teams.
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  I think for Texas Tech an opportunity to get Bowl
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  eligible at six and one, which is not nothing out
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  there that that would be I think, especially considering you
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  go back to those first two weeks where it was
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  super shaky against Abilene Christian and then a loss to
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  Wazoo UH to rattle off then five straight to get
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  Bowl eligible will be huge. And then for Baylor, I
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  don't want to say they can save their season, but
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  they can start the process of saving their season with
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  a win.
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  Speaker 1: So I think there's really high stakes, high stakes there.
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  Speaker 3: And then look North Texas and Memphis if you're into
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  that kind of thing. North Texas the quietest five and
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  one team in America.
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  Speaker 1: They are.
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  Speaker 3: They are rolling right now, and if they can go
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  on the road at Memphis and get a win, that
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  would be that'll be very big. And then of course
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  nationally ranked SMU with the conference game with their old there,
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  they're I mean that the historic rival I mean when
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  you talk about the great eight historic rivalries in college football,
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  you know Army Navy, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, OU at Auburn, Alabama,
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  and of course SMU and Stanford. That's just there's a long,
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  long lineage of big time matchups between those two programs.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it does. You know.
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  Speaker 2: Something made me think about SMU is pointing out I
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  think I read on Sunday morning that when Pittsburgh won
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  the other day, pitt is six and oh for the
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  first time since nineteen eighty two, and I thought that
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  was the year. The quarterback of that team, by the way,
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  was Dan Marino, and they played SMU and the Cotton
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  Bowl when they had the Pony Express and Lance mclaney
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  from Highland Park was the option quarterback and he had
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  Eric Dickerson and Craig James, and SMU won seven to
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  three in a cold, freezing drizzle that day and now
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  that's that was the high watermark for SMU, who went
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  eleven oho to one and finished second that year because
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  of Penn State beating Georgia to win the national title.
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  Speaker 1: And now SMU and Pitt are in the same conference.
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  About that, so.
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  Speaker 3: Everything, I will tell you one thing that I am monitoring,
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  one thing I'm keeping an eye on.
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  Speaker 1: We'll have to wait till the end of the year.
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  Speaker 3: But but with all these conference realignments and these cross
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  coastal things I do, there's there's there have been kind
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  of studies done in Texas high school football about long
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  road trips and about long travel and specifically a non
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  district if you go over I think it's like one
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  hundred miles or some sort of arbitrary number, but like
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  your chances of winning on the road drop dramatically, And
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  I would be very interested at the end of this
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  to see, especially on the heels of Ohio State going
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  to Oregon and losing, uh you know, you know, cal
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  being suddenly resurgent with programs coming to them and falling.
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  If there are is some sort of uh, what exactly
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  is happening with those kind of cross continental games.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, right, absolutely, I think You're exactly right on focking
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  football with Greg temper, managing editor of Dave Campbell's Texas
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  Football Magazine. Okay, let's uh, let's shift to high school.
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  And I would say that probably you were not going
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  to drop Desota very far in the poll despite being
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  whacked with their second loss. But the two losses they
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  have are to the number one and number three ranked
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  teams in the state, Duncanville North Crowley.
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  Speaker 1: See you factor all that stuff in, right? Yeah? Absolutely?
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  Speaker 3: I mean that's that's the kind of thing is that
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  when you take a look at the at you have
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  to look at the strength of record and strength of
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  resume here and and look for duncan or for De Soto.
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  Speaker 1: They've got too.
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  Speaker 3: Nobody likes the idea of good losses, but they got
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  two very good losses, I mean to Duncanville and then
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  a one score game, uh to to North Crowley, who
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  is a team we have number three in the state.
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  Speaker 1: De Sota is gonna be fine.
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  Speaker 3: I will say this, coming out of that Duncanville and
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  De Soto game, I can't help but feel like this
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  is the most wide open six A has been in
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  a long time, and certainly De Soto and Dunkville are
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  going to be on that short list of teams that
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  can win their respective state championships. They of course have
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  won the last two in their respective divisions. But it
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  does I think, in watching that game and just kind
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  of understanding what else is out there in the six
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  A kind of zeitgeist, I do wonder if six A
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  is just more wide open than it's been in the
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  past few years. And whereas I'll give you an example,
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  last year, it would have been an absolute shocker if
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  De Soto didn't make the state championship in six A
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  Division two. They were I think as prohibitive a favorite
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  as we've seen in quite some time. Now, you look
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  at six A Division two and I think there is
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  a handful of teams depending on who goes D one
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  D two.
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  Speaker 1: Westlake Katie of course can both go D two as well.
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  Speaker 3: That if Desta weren't to make the title game, I
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  don't think it necessarily would be a shocker. I would
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  say the same thing with Duncanville because I think that
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  not necessarily a duncan say anything poor about Duncanville. Two
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  time defending state champs deserved their respecting. The Corey Moore
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  as an absolute monster out there. But I think you
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  take a look at the strength at in sixth A
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  Division one, with teams like North Crawley, with teams like
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  North Shore, with teams like a task Asita, with teams
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  like you know, potentially Katie, potentially Westlake going D one.
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  I think you know Lake Travis, and that makes as well.
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  I think there's reason to believe that when you take
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  a look at six A, there is going to be
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  a greater depth there to challenge for those spots at
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  at and T Stadium, whereas in past years it may
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  have seemed like fada company of who we're going to
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  be seeing in Arland.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, is this a really bad weekend for games.
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  Speaker 2: Across those other than there's in these parts there's like
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  Travis tripping Springs, which is none.
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  Speaker 1: Wrong with that, but is otherwise in a lot most
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  of the rest of the state.
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  Speaker 3: This just kind of kind of Yeah, broadly speaking, I mean,
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  nobody's this is just between you and I, right, nobody's
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  listening to those es you and I talking, right, Okay, Uh, Yeah,
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  it's a tough week. It's a tough week across the state.
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  It it just happens to Fall that way. This kind
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  of happens every couple of years. You just have a
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  week like this where you don't have those big showcase matchups. Look,
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  we're coming off of duncan Ville De Soto. Next week,
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  we have Lake Travis, West Lake. Next week, we have
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  a task to set in North Shore. We've got these
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  massive games across the state next week that we've become
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  so accustomed to this. This week we've got some good games.
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  You're never not gonna You're not never gonna have a
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  dud week. But like you know, Katie and Katie Jordan,
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  you mentioned Lake Travis and Dripping Springs, which big look
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  ahead let down possibility there, don't be looking toward the
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  chaps there calves games like that Fall City and Shiner,
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  you know, sitting in Quero. It's kind of games that
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  in past weeks would provide great depth to a week
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  that I think now give you they kind of rise
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  to the top this week. It's a thinner week across
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  the state quite frankly, but you know what, it'll still
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  be good. And I will also say these weeks tend
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  to be the ones that give us the stunners. Historically,
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  I'd even go back a couple weeks, Craig a Week six,
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  which was the big open date or a third of
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  the state was off, and that is probably on balance,
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  the most chaotic week of the season so far. So
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  just because there's not those headliners, all that does is
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  maybe open up the possibility for some stunners on Thursday,
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  Friday and Saturday. The other reason I mentioned it for
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  folks in these parts is, for example, other games Liberty Hill.
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  According to Jerry Forrest and Pigskin Prep, the computer has
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  Liberty Hill as an eleven point pick. That means it's
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  not a betting line, as we always say, it's just
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  that's what the computer believes will happen. The computer also
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  believes that LBJ will defeat Austin Achieved by one hundred
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  and nineteen points. It actually showed up as one hundred
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  and nineteen LBJ. Now to Jerry's credit, and I salute
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  him for this, he quote unquote pulled that projection off
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  of there and put in l like no line, which
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  is probably good because LBJ is not going to score
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  one hundred and nineteen points, but you get the point
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  and no point in embarrassing achieve which by the way,
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  is ranked out of one hundred and seven five A
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  Division two four A Division one programs one hundred and
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  seventh and LBJ is third.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, so it's one of that kind of thing.
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  Speaker 3: It's kind of worth resetting sometimes with the computer rankings.
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  The thing that the computer likes, it's an unfeeling robot, right,
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  and what the unfeeling robot likes is dominance. Okay, it
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  likes dominance. It likes you going out there and just
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  just crushing teams. And so what you have with an
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  instance like LBJ and achieved, is you have a team
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  in LBJ that is not just undefeated, but is crushing teams.
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  They have been really, really impressive all year long, and
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  I believe they's outscored their opponents two hundred and sixty
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  two to ninety three. The computer likes that. The computer
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  thinks that's very very good. Achieve has been outscored this
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  year four hundred and fifty three to nothing, and so
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  kind of the opposite of that. And so the computer's
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  just reading the numbers and saying and spitting out some data.
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  It doesn't have anything against achieve, just kind of the
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  way that it's rolling right now. And yeah, it's you
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  have those every once in a while. The funny thing is,
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  and I even ask the master of the computer himself,
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  Chrey Force, about this. Some of the six man games
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  he will cap at forty five, and some of them
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  he won't. So sometimes you'll have like one hundred and
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  three point, you know, you know, one hundred and three
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  point projection on a six man football game.
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  Speaker 1: And other times it'll just.
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  Speaker 3: Be like, oh, it'll be forty five, and we all
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  kind of know, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, what that's going
• 15:45
  to be. So it's not unheard of that I will
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  say that is the largest projection I've seen in my time.
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  But it also I think just reflects how good LBJ
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  is and and achieved the way they're struggling right.
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  Speaker 1: Now, tep.
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  Speaker 4: Circling back to the Livery Hill foot game that will
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  air on Dave Campbell's Text and Live network Friday Night
• 16:03
  at the.
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  Speaker 1: Field, Jay, guess who's calling that one? I wonder who yours? Truly?
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  Speaker 4: Now I can't remember it, but I know you have
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  a certain nickname for Liberty Hills slot t offense.
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  Speaker 1: Can you remind me? And can I borrow it for
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  the broadcast and Friday Night?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: I want to be very clear that it doesn't belong
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  to me. It belongs to the world.
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  Speaker 3: It's it's, it's it's, it belongs to the culture, and
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  it is that the slot Tea is the devil. It's
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  it's it is, because the thing is, if you have
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  a week to prepare for it, it is you. You
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  are learning to speak a different language in a week.
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  And that's just kind of like I think it's a
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  credit to the way that that Liberty Hill runs your offense,
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  because the thing that I think is so underrated about
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  Liberty Hill. I have some concerns about their defense that
• 16:49
  you're giving up some points, but the thing that's underrated
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  about Liberty Hill is that they run it with tempo. Okay,
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  tempo slot T is. If the slot Tea is the devil,
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  Tempo slot T lives in the penthouse in Hell. I mean,
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  it is the absolute the worst thing that you can
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  go up to because they are go up one count
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  and snap and go. They don't allow you to get set.
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  And so that's what we're fond of saying around here.
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  If you run the slot Tea, we have great respect
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  for you, and opposing defensive coordinators should have great fear
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  of you.
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  Speaker 1: That's the way to put it.
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  Speaker 2: He's Greg Chepper, managing editor Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine.
• 17:28
  Following at Tepper, They're on x Slash, Twitter, and he
• 17:32
  co host High School Scoreboard Live with Aaron Hartigan and
• 17:34
  yours Truly. I will see you Friday nights up in
• 17:37
  the house. Appreciate the time, tip looking forward to it.
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  Take care, guys.
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  Speaker 1: All right, that's Greg Chepper. All right, we have more
• 17:43
  coming up.
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  Speaker 2: We'll continue right here on Sports Radio AUM thirteen Hunderd,
• 17:45
  The Zone, and the iHeartRadio app.