Latest / The Craig Way Show / Greg Tepper Joins The Show!
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What collection and completion of our visits talking about high
- 0:07Speaker 1: school football and college football involving teams in the state
- 0:10Speaker 1: of Texas would be complete without checking in one final
- 0:12Speaker 1: time with Greg Tepper, managing editor of Dave Campbell's Texas
- 0:15Speaker 1: Football Magazine, who yesterday morning at ten thirty in the morning,
- 0:19Speaker 1: alongside Aaron Hardiget in yours truly sat in a studio
- 0:24Speaker 1: to do our final high school Scoreboard live show the year.
- 0:27Speaker 1: And it was live yesterday morning at ten thirty, and
- 0:30Speaker 1: we're still checking our extremities for frostbaw. I have never
- 0:33Speaker 1: ever been in a studio that cold. They said it
- 0:36Speaker 1: was fifty five. It seemed like thirty five in there.
- 0:38Speaker 1: That was brutal, wasn't it.
- 0:40Speaker 2: It was really cold. Now, for those who don't know
- 0:43Speaker 2: and those who haven't been on television, it is not
- 0:45Speaker 2: unusual for it to be cool in a studio like
- 0:49Speaker 2: simply because like the lights do get really hot, and
- 0:53Speaker 2: so that is not a surprise. But it is not
- 0:57Speaker 2: supposed to be antarctic in there. But it was freezing
- 1:02Speaker 2: in there. But it was a nice wake up call
- 1:05Speaker 2: after four long days at atnc STATED for the state championships.
- 1:08Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was quite the grind for
- 1:10Speaker 1: everybody that everybody looks forward to. But I'm going to
- 1:13Speaker 1: come back to that. Man, Let's go college. First of all,
- 1:17Speaker 1: you are quite often I'll give you credit for this.
- 1:20Speaker 1: You often point out when your predictions are wrong, even
- 1:24Speaker 1: as much as you point out when your predictions are correct.
- 1:28Speaker 3: So I give you, I give you credit for this.
- 1:32Speaker 1: You said UTSA was not going to lose its bowl
- 1:34Speaker 1: game because Jeff Trailer was not going to have a
- 1:37Speaker 1: losing season. He's never had a losing season, and he
- 1:40Speaker 1: still has never had a losing season because they just
- 1:42Speaker 1: blasted the Shana Clears the Beach Chickens today from Coastal
- 1:46Speaker 1: Carolina there in the Myrtle Beach Bowl forty four to
- 1:48Speaker 1: fifteen on.
- 1:50Speaker 2: Their own field. By the way, Yeah, reminder that was
- 1:52Speaker 2: a home game for Coastal Carolina and UTSA took care
- 1:56Speaker 2: of business. But yeah, he has never had a losing season,
- 2:00Speaker 2: either it was at Gilmer High School or as a
- 2:02Speaker 2: head or at UTSA, He's never had a losing season.
- 2:05Speaker 2: And bowl games, ultimately, aside from the college football playoffs,
- 2:09Speaker 2: they are ultimately, in my opinion, a measurement of how
- 2:11Speaker 2: much you want to be there and how motivated you are,
- 2:14Speaker 2: and UTSA I knew they were going to be motivated
- 2:18Speaker 2: in the same way that I think Texas Tech's a
- 2:20Speaker 2: lock to win their bowl game simply because you know
- 2:22Speaker 2: Joey mcgarre is gonna have his boys fired up, ready
- 2:25Speaker 2: to go come out of the gates. Those are the
- 2:28Speaker 2: types of things that it's a measurement more of how
- 2:30Speaker 2: well you motivate your kids as opposed to how good
- 2:33Speaker 2: you are. And that's that's why I it's not a
- 2:36Speaker 2: surprise to see UTSA go there, go out there and
- 2:39Speaker 2: take care of business against the schantz Claires.
- 2:42Speaker 1: Since you brought up Texas Tech, let's let's talk about
- 2:45Speaker 1: that Liberty Bolt match up with with Arkansas Old Southwest
- 2:48Speaker 1: Conference Days matchup. And you say you certainly are expecting
- 2:53Speaker 1: the Red Raiders to be primed for the fight.
- 2:56Speaker 2: Yeah, it should be. I think they absolutely should be.
- 2:58Speaker 2: The other thing I think is important to know is
- 3:01Speaker 2: that while they have taken some hits in the transfer portal,
- 3:04Speaker 2: I don't know that they've taken like the critical blow
- 3:07Speaker 2: in the trade boil. Yes, Michael Hudson is obviously a
- 3:10Speaker 2: big hit for them to lose him to the Portal,
- 3:13Speaker 2: but I think that when you take a look at
- 3:14Speaker 2: their roster as far as contributing players, it is largely intact.
- 3:18Speaker 2: Arkansas has been hit relatively hard by the Portal, and
- 3:21Speaker 2: so I would expect the Texas Tech, again, just from
- 3:24Speaker 2: a motivational perspective, should be at least a small favorite
- 3:27Speaker 2: in this game, simply because I think that the motivational
- 3:30Speaker 2: factor is going to be on their side.
- 3:32Speaker 1: About Sam Houston, this is interesting. So the Bearcats finally
- 3:36Speaker 1: get into a bowl game the first full season that
- 3:39Speaker 1: there was great excitement about that, and then Casey Keeler
- 3:42Speaker 1: leaves to be the head coach at Temple. So he leaves,
- 3:47Speaker 1: they go on without him. They win the bowl game,
- 3:51Speaker 1: beating Georgia Southern in the New Orleans both thirty one
- 3:53Speaker 1: to twenty six. Now, now Phil Longo is the new
- 3:56Speaker 1: head coach.
- 3:56Speaker 2: Huh yeah. And Phil Longo is is a no and
- 4:00Speaker 2: beloved figure around Sam Houston, a former offensive coordinator who's
- 4:04Speaker 2: who's kind of coming home. I would expect them to, uh,
- 4:07Speaker 2: you know, to to really lean in on this idea
- 4:09Speaker 2: of of of high flying offense that's kind of his
- 4:12Speaker 2: calling card. I would expect them to really lean in,
- 4:14Speaker 2: and especially in the state of Texas, I think that
- 4:17Speaker 2: because of the depth of talent here, they can really
- 4:20Speaker 2: clean up on the recruiting trail and go out there
- 4:22Speaker 2: and get guys. One of the things that I'm interested
- 4:24Speaker 2: in as far as the way that college football is breaking,
- 4:26Speaker 2: is that programs like sam Houston can sometimes serve as
- 4:31Speaker 2: feeder tea theater schools for you know, bigger programs. You start,
- 4:35Speaker 2: you you're you thrive at sam Houston. Now, you know,
- 4:38Speaker 2: you go into the transfer portal, you get an opportunity
- 4:40Speaker 2: to play at a power for school or something like that.
- 4:43Speaker 2: And so I would expect to see Sam Houston really
- 4:46Speaker 2: hit the ground running and allow their guys, really get
- 4:48Speaker 2: their guys to play early.
- 4:49Speaker 3: I think.
- 4:50Speaker 2: I think one of the things that you'll see from
- 4:51Speaker 2: them is that Sam Houston may in fact start becoming
- 4:54Speaker 2: one of the youngest teams in the state as far
- 4:56Speaker 2: or in the nation brother as far as they're starting.
- 4:59Speaker 2: Starting players are concerned simply because that's kind of necessary
- 5:02Speaker 2: to go out there, because you don't know how long
- 5:04Speaker 2: you're gonna be able to hold.
- 5:04Speaker 3: On to these guys.
- 5:06Speaker 2: But Phil Longo is a guy that I think is
- 5:08Speaker 2: going to be able to utilize that to his advantage
- 5:10Speaker 2: and say, hey, if you're a young star who's been
- 5:12Speaker 2: a little bit overlooked maybe by the power for schools,
- 5:15Speaker 2: come to sam Houston and show out, and we can
- 5:17Speaker 2: we can put on a show out here in the woods.
- 5:19Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 5:20Speaker 1: Interesting, all right, So we talked about Texas Tech at
- 5:23Speaker 1: Arkansas and and let's let's let me get your thoughts
- 5:25Speaker 1: in the other bowl games. Uh, TCU is playing Louisiana
- 5:30Speaker 1: in the isleta New Mexico Bowl. Uh there this coming
- 5:34Speaker 1: Saturday at TISHU did kind of write the ship a
- 5:37Speaker 1: little bit down the stretch and wound up eight four
- 5:38Speaker 1: after things.
- 5:39Speaker 3: Look, we're not looking good for the Frogs for a while.
- 5:42Speaker 2: Yeah, And actually they were, like going into that final
- 5:46Speaker 2: week of the regular seasons, they had like a bank
- 5:48Speaker 2: shot chance of making the Big twelve championship teams.
- 5:51Speaker 3: Yeah, it was.
- 5:52Speaker 2: A weird, a weird kind of break. But they got
- 5:54Speaker 2: hot late and and trending certainly in the right way,
- 5:57Speaker 2: which I think is good for Sunny Dykes. After again
- 6:00Speaker 2: and a disappointing twenty twenty three follow up to their
- 6:03Speaker 2: run of the College Football National Championship Game, they've righted
- 6:06Speaker 2: the ship. As far as trajectory is concerned, I think
- 6:08Speaker 2: they are probably pointing in the right direction. But Louisiana
- 6:12Speaker 2: is going to be a team certainly to keep an
- 6:14Speaker 2: eye on, simply because that's a team coming out of
- 6:16Speaker 2: the Sun Belt that was that was playing exceptionally well.
- 6:19Speaker 2: At one point they had a real outside shot at
- 6:21Speaker 2: the College Football Playoff. At the playoff, I've been particularly
- 6:25Speaker 2: generous to the G five. That's that's a good team,
- 6:28Speaker 2: and it'll be it'll be a real test, I think
- 6:30Speaker 2: for the Frogs.
- 6:31Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 6:31Speaker 1: And then you know, even though Louisiana had it was
- 6:35Speaker 1: a weird deal. They had the disappointing home lost Marshall
- 6:39Speaker 1: in the Sun Belt Championship game, and then Marshall has
- 6:42Speaker 1: to opt out of the bowl game because they lose
- 6:43Speaker 1: their head coach. And what thirty six players in the portal.
- 6:46Speaker 1: What a weird deal that was Baylor in LSU New
- 6:51Speaker 1: Year's even the afternoon playing in the Texas.
- 6:53Speaker 2: Both sure Bay's playing Baylor's again a team that that
- 6:59Speaker 2: you to talk about from the depths. I mean, they
- 7:02Speaker 2: were we were we were making lists of like who's
- 7:05Speaker 2: gonna be the next head coach at Baylor, but they
- 7:07Speaker 2: have pulled it out of a ditch in a big,
- 7:08Speaker 2: big way. I mean, arguably the hottest team in Texas
- 7:11Speaker 2: outside you know, maybe the Longhorns. Uh they are, they
- 7:15Speaker 2: are white hot, playing exceptionally well. You know, they've really
- 7:17Speaker 2: settled in under sorry Roberts and their quarterback.
- 7:20Speaker 3: Uh.
- 7:20Speaker 2: And again, if you want to talk about a team
- 7:22Speaker 2: that probably wants to be there more than l s U,
- 7:25Speaker 2: I think I think that tends to favor Baylor in
- 7:27Speaker 2: that instance. Should be should be a good crowd to
- 7:31Speaker 2: not as well, that's pretty local draw draw for them
- 7:34Speaker 2: down in Houston, and Baylor should show up, well, I
- 7:36Speaker 2: think it will be a good crowd. And yeah, I
- 7:38Speaker 2: think Baylor's got an opportunity to go out there and
- 7:39Speaker 2: get a real uh, get a real feather in their
- 7:41Speaker 2: cap to close out what I think is a is
- 7:43Speaker 2: a real uh retrenching season.
- 7:45Speaker 3: Yeah all right, So.
- 7:48Speaker 1: How about your thoughts on Texas A and M with
- 7:50Speaker 1: all the ups and downs, and of course they had
- 7:52Speaker 1: the uh the loss uh to Texas afterwards, but they
- 7:56Speaker 1: have a chance to kind of, like you said, right
- 7:58Speaker 1: the ship in the bowl game and a lot of
- 7:59Speaker 1: a lot of people really liked them in their bowl
- 8:02Speaker 1: game against USC and Las Vegas as Friday.
- 8:05Speaker 2: I think that I think they should I don't think
- 8:08Speaker 2: this USC team is anything to write home about. They've
- 8:11Speaker 2: been clobbered pretty well in the portal themselves, and and
- 8:15Speaker 2: a lot of this will ultimately come down to, you know,
- 8:17Speaker 2: Marcel Reid, I think is in an interesting spot now
- 8:20Speaker 2: now that Connor Wegman is in the portal where he's
- 8:23Speaker 2: pretty clearly you know, at least for you know, he
- 8:26Speaker 2: will enter as the clear favorite to win the job
- 8:29Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five, and so I'm very interested to
- 8:31Speaker 2: see exactly how well he plays. He played a little
- 8:34Speaker 2: bit looser as a result. Uh And and should be
- 8:37Speaker 2: you know, it should be. I think they should be USC.
- 8:39Speaker 2: I think they're probably better than USC, especially you know,
- 8:42Speaker 2: I think you give you and Mike Elco a month
- 8:45Speaker 2: the game plan for somebody. Defensively, I think he's gonna
- 8:47Speaker 2: have an he's got something.
- 8:48Speaker 1: For him, Okay, and then and then the last college
- 8:51Speaker 1: know that before jump to high school. I'm a little
- 8:54Speaker 1: uh uh, I feel a little weird and even bring
- 8:57Speaker 1: this up because it's not a school from the state
- 8:59Speaker 1: of Texas, but he is a bowl game in Fort Worth.
- 9:01Speaker 1: Does it just seem weird to you that Oklahoma is
- 9:03Speaker 1: playing in a bowl game in Fort Worth?
- 9:05Speaker 3: Playing in the Armed Forces Bowl?
- 9:08Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, But but it's it's one of those things
- 9:12Speaker 2: where you know, remember there's an argument to be made,
- 9:15Speaker 2: and certainly o U fans is going to be small
- 9:17Speaker 2: comfort to them that that they shouldn't even be in
- 9:20Speaker 2: a bowl game to begin with. I mean they had
- 9:22Speaker 2: to beat Alabama to get into a bowl game basically.
- 9:25Speaker 2: But yeah, now they will return to their to a
- 9:27Speaker 2: place that used to play conference games. Uh there in
- 9:30Speaker 2: Fort Worth and playing the Armed Forces Bowl? Again, how
- 9:34Speaker 2: how motivated are they?
- 9:36Speaker 1: Like?
- 9:36Speaker 2: Are they happy to be there or would they rather
- 9:38Speaker 2: be at home? And that's kind of the issue. Is
- 9:40Speaker 2: a lost season for OU. Uh, they kind of pulled it,
- 9:43Speaker 2: you know, the big one over Oklahoma. I think was
- 9:45Speaker 2: probably their their biggest opportunity. So I don't know if
- 9:49Speaker 2: I spuck a whole lot from the Sooners there and forwarth.
- 9:51Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, if you're offering me Metroplex Bowl choice between
- 9:56Speaker 1: the Armed Forces Bowl, uh, you know with Oklam and
- 10:00Speaker 1: Navy or the First Responda Bowl with Texas with North
- 10:03Speaker 1: Texas and Texas State I'm probably gonna take the first responderblel.
- 10:06Speaker 1: I think it'll be a good game.
- 10:08Speaker 2: I think it'll be a good game, and I also
- 10:09Speaker 2: know where the party will be. Okay, that is going
- 10:12Speaker 2: to be a scene out there North Texas and Texas State,
- 10:16Speaker 2: Are you kidne me? They are going to remember last year?
- 10:19Speaker 2: This is the game where they ran out of beer
- 10:21Speaker 2: at the at the SNU Stadium. I would expect that
- 10:25Speaker 2: they should probably be prepared for a similar situation.
- 10:30Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt about it.
- 10:31Speaker 1: Visiting with Greg Tepper, managing enter Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine.
- 10:34Speaker 1: All right, let's let's talk about the state championship. I
- 10:38Speaker 1: want to talk about what you guys have on your
- 10:40Speaker 1: website today at Texas Football dot com. An all state
- 10:43Speaker 1: championship team. Now, I take it you convened your group
- 10:48Speaker 1: and came up with these selections.
- 10:50Speaker 2: It's a team effort. Yeah, it's put together by our
- 10:52Speaker 2: own Carter Yates and he we ultimately gave him a
- 10:55Speaker 2: final say. But we as a team where we served
- 10:58Speaker 2: as consultants for young Carter to put together a team.
- 11:02Speaker 2: But yeah, after watching twelve state championship games, we wanted
- 11:05Speaker 2: to make sure we honored some of the best performances
- 11:07Speaker 2: that we saw at every position, and there were some
- 11:10Speaker 2: positions that it was there. There are some and there's
- 11:12Speaker 2: some snubs playing and simple. There's there's no two ways
- 11:14Speaker 2: about it. When you've got some of those outstanding performances
- 11:17Speaker 2: that we saw playing simple, there were going to be
- 11:19Speaker 2: some snubs.
- 11:20Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad he least gave Adam shobl an honorable
- 11:24Speaker 1: mention and Bo Bentley played great. But if if it
- 11:27Speaker 1: were me, I'd probably have gone with Showbull in that.
- 11:29Speaker 2: You know, that's and that was I'll tell you that
- 11:32Speaker 2: was the hottest debate was was it going to be
- 11:34Speaker 2: Showbul or was it going to be Bentley as the
- 11:36Speaker 2: quarterback of this team, of this all state championship team.
- 11:39Speaker 2: Both were dynamite, Both were fantastic. We went with We
- 11:43Speaker 2: went with Bo Bentley simply because I think the numbers
- 11:45Speaker 2: were a little bit better, uh, and he was so
- 11:48Speaker 2: much more involved in the offense, you know, Adam Showbelt
- 11:51Speaker 2: certainly they had a great running game as well with
- 11:53Speaker 2: Grayson rig Dino, which I think helped them as well.
- 11:56Speaker 2: I'll say this, this is a weird thing to say.
- 11:58Speaker 2: If you want to go from a peer impact perspective,
- 12:01Speaker 2: I could be talking to Bryce Olman at Canado, who
- 12:04Speaker 2: was yeh, so good for the Indians there. You know,
- 12:07Speaker 2: that's the kind of thing where it's like, if you're
- 12:09Speaker 2: box Score scouting, you're not going to be overly impressed.
- 12:12Speaker 2: But some of the throws that he made to bring
- 12:14Speaker 2: the Indians a triple overtime thriller win over Stanford certainly
- 12:18Speaker 2: worthy of some recognition there.
- 12:19Speaker 1: Hey, you know, here's the true confession to the name
- 12:23Speaker 1: went straight out of my head yesterday when we were
- 12:26Speaker 1: talking about uh, when you were talking about the feel
- 12:30Speaker 1: good stories and who might who might be just the
- 12:34Speaker 1: overall impact, the name Keeland Sweeney.
- 12:37Speaker 3: Went right out of my head.
- 12:38Speaker 1: And that's what I was trying to think of, because
- 12:40Speaker 1: what he did at Randall tip the dude wasn't even
- 12:44Speaker 1: on their depth chart as a quarterback.
- 12:46Speaker 3: He was on the depth chart as wide receiver.
- 12:48Speaker 1: He rushes for a touchdown, passes and and uh and
- 12:52Speaker 1: and throws one. I mean, it's it's amazing, and receives
- 12:55Speaker 1: one as well.
- 12:57Speaker 2: And yeah, and Kielan Sweeney is I think in like
- 13:00Speaker 2: an embodiment of that Randall win. Where again, if you're
- 13:04Speaker 2: box Score scouting, there's no way, there's no way Randall
- 13:08Speaker 2: wins that game. No, they were outgained Craig by two
- 13:12Speaker 2: hundred and fifty yards by South Oak Cliff. I mean,
- 13:15Speaker 2: there's a real argument to be made that South Oak
- 13:18Speaker 2: Cliffs had the superior offense and the superior defense in
- 13:21Speaker 2: this game, but the margins were so in favor of
- 13:26Speaker 2: winning on the margins were so in favor of this
- 13:29Speaker 2: Randall team. Two kickoff returns for a touchdown, They took
- 13:32Speaker 2: advantage of short fields, they came up with big play
- 13:35Speaker 2: after big play when it mattered most, and their bodes
- 13:38Speaker 2: their neck. And for Randall, that is one of the
- 13:41Speaker 2: more unlikely wins, not necessarily because they weren't good, but
- 13:44Speaker 2: simply because of the way the game played out and
- 13:46Speaker 2: Kieland Sweeney in the center of it coming up with
- 13:49Speaker 2: those big clutch moments for Randall to bring home their
- 13:52Speaker 2: first state championship.
- 13:53Speaker 1: All right, final thing here, what's your biggest takeaway from
- 13:56Speaker 1: these state championships?
- 13:58Speaker 2: I think my biggest takeaway is probably just the amount
- 14:01Speaker 2: of new blood, even if it's kind of like blood
- 14:04Speaker 2: we've seen before, but it's been a while. Of the
- 14:07Speaker 2: twelve state champions only four had won a championship in
- 14:10Speaker 2: the last fifteen years. That includes a number of first
- 14:13Speaker 2: time state champions. Canado's a first time stage champion, Columbus
- 14:17Speaker 2: is the first time state champion, Randall obviously first time
- 14:21Speaker 2: state champion as well. Vandergriff gets their first title. But
- 14:25Speaker 2: then you've also got like the return of Salina to
- 14:27Speaker 2: the first time. Jaydon has win the title for the
- 14:29Speaker 2: first time since the mid eighties. It's been a while
- 14:31Speaker 2: since we've talked about them. North Crowley wins their first
- 14:34Speaker 2: house since two thousand and three, and so there was
- 14:37Speaker 2: kind of a I think the surge of depth within
- 14:40Speaker 2: these pro within the tests high school football was evident
- 14:43Speaker 2: on the big stage, and it played out in our
- 14:46Speaker 2: state champions list.
- 14:47Speaker 3: No doubt about it.
- 14:48Speaker 1: Hey have a great Christmas holiday and all that kind
- 14:51Speaker 1: of stuff. I know, we'll touch base around the corner
- 14:54Speaker 1: and everything. You get to relax just a little bit,
- 14:56Speaker 1: don't you for a little bit.
- 14:57Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, But I got to go home, and I
- 15:00Speaker 2: don't think my kids are listening, So that's okay. I
- 15:01Speaker 2: gotta go like build hot wheel stuff for them so
- 15:04Speaker 2: that when they come downstairs on Christmas. I mean, Dad's
- 15:07Speaker 2: about to go. I'm about to go to work in
- 15:08Speaker 2: a different way right now.
- 15:10Speaker 1: Been there, done that, Understand the whole deal. Hey, at
- 15:12Speaker 1: least you're not dealing with dollhouses. Trust me. You have
- 15:15Speaker 1: to trust me. That is all right, Hey, thanks Tap,
- 15:18Speaker 1: appreciate it.
- 15:18Speaker 3: Man. All right, Mary Chris YouTube.
- 15:21Speaker 1: All right, that's Greg Tapper, managing editor Dave Campbell's Texas
- 15:23Speaker 1: Football magazine. We had a good time he and Aaron
- 15:26Speaker 1: Hartigan and I on our final show with the season
- 15:29Speaker 1: yesterday and talked about all the state champions and all
- 15:32Speaker 1: the themes and everything that resonated through all of that.
- 15:35Speaker 1: All right, Up next, we're gonna hear more from Sark
- 15:37Speaker 1: and from Kenny Dillingham when we continue on Sports Radio
- 15:40Speaker 1: AAM thirteen under the Zone.