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Is Steve Sarkisian concerned with the Longhorns slow starts on offense? · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Craig Way Show and the Voice
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  Speaker 1: of the Longhorns. Craig follow Craig on social media that
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  Speaker 1: Horn Voice a.
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  Speaker 2: Thursday afternoon here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the
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  Speaker 2: zone to continue here, getting you're ready for the weekend.
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  Speaker 2: I hope it's going all right for you. A couple
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  Speaker 2: of things that I wanted to get to some short cuts.
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  Speaker 2: There were a couple of pieces of sound yesterday that
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  Speaker 2: we didn't get a chance to play for you from
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  Speaker 2: the SEC conference call. However, one of those is pretty
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  Speaker 2: much identically the same question that was asked in today,
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  Speaker 2: so we can we can dispense with the one from yesterday,
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  Speaker 2: but there is one from yesterday I did want you
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  Speaker 2: to hear, and that is about Vanderbilt's prowess of time
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  Speaker 2: of possession. I think we said they had it for
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  Speaker 2: like forty two minutes against Alabama. They do a great
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  Speaker 2: job on three yards in a cloud of dust, or
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  Speaker 2: like three point four yards in a cloud of dust,
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  Speaker 2: just enough to get the first down, and they keep
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  Speaker 2: the change moving, they keep the clock moving. So Sark
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  Speaker 2: was asked yesterday about that about does the time of
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  Speaker 2: possession element that Vanderbilt demonstrates they lead the sec in
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  Speaker 2: time of possession. Does it affect and impact his game
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  Speaker 2: plan for this Saturday's game.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think, you know, it's one thing to possess
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  Speaker 3: the ball, it's you know, it's another or not to
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  Speaker 3: possess the ball, But it's what are you doing with
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  Speaker 3: your opportunities when you get them? And you know, I
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  Speaker 3: think that when you're playing a team like Vanderbilt who
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  Speaker 3: is very efficient, can control the ball, can ex drives
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  Speaker 3: on third downs, things of that nature, it's not you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's not counting the plays.
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  Speaker 4: It's not counting the possessions.
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  Speaker 3: It's it's making the plays and making the possessions count.
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  Speaker 4: And and so we need to be really efficient Saturday
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  Speaker 4: against them.
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  Speaker 3: We really got to minimize the wasted plays as I
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  Speaker 3: like to call them, find positive yards, you know, be
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  Speaker 3: effective on third down and or fourth down if we
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  Speaker 3: choose to go for it, to extend our own drives.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, I think they do a heck of
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  Speaker 3: a job of having a good plan coming into games,
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  Speaker 3: of getting the lead and then playing to that lead
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  Speaker 3: and trying to trying to shrink the game some. And
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  Speaker 3: it's a formula for success, you know, Clark. I just
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  Speaker 3: heard him say the same thing. They have a they
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  Speaker 3: have a formula of which they believe in and you
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  Speaker 3: could see their team does believe in it and it's
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  Speaker 3: been holding true for him.
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  Speaker 1: So that coach, if you could just that the.
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  Speaker 2: That was from yesterday's UH teleconference. Here's the thing, here's
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  Speaker 2: the difference and going into today, because remember on Thursday
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  Speaker 2: he does one final Zoom media availability.
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  Speaker 4: For the media.
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  Speaker 2: And I asked you this question last week, Cameron, about
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  Speaker 2: how many national or regional media we're on this zoom
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  Speaker 2: regularly and he said one two.
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  Speaker 4: You know, it's not many. It's just one or two.
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  Speaker 2: It's almost all local media as opposed to like say
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  Speaker 2: on the teleconference. So there might be some different things
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  Speaker 2: in different elements ask but here's start's opening or march
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  Speaker 2: from this morning's media availability done via Zoom.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I think one of the beauties of sports
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  Speaker 3: is the opportunity to go back out and do it again,
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  Speaker 3: especially after a tough performance like we had last week.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, different than say baseball or basketball, where
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  Speaker 3: you get to kind of do it the next night,
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  Speaker 3: in football you kind of have to, you kind of
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  Speaker 3: have to sit in it for a week and not
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  Speaker 3: necessarily always a bad thing. You know, it allows you
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  Speaker 3: some time to reflect, allows you some time to learn
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  Speaker 3: from the failure. And like I said before, I think
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  Speaker 3: there's winning and losing if you handle it the right way.
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  Speaker 3: And I thought our players have done a really nice
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  Speaker 3: job this week of getting up off the mat, working
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  Speaker 3: really hard, preparing really well so that we can go
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  Speaker 3: out and fight another round this Saturday.
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  Speaker 2: All right, then getting to the questions now, we'll get
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  Speaker 2: in a more detail next segment in our DJC law
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  Speaker 2: injury update. But Michael Kern, remember the punter has not
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  Speaker 2: played other than to hold for conversions, field goals and
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  Speaker 2: extra points and played the last two games. It's been
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  Speaker 2: the retro freshman walk on Ian Ratliffe who has been
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  Speaker 2: in actionate. So the question for Sarkiz where does he
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  Speaker 2: think he stands right now with his punter, because as
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  Speaker 2: it stands, going into the he had been kind of
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  Speaker 2: hobbled Michael Kern. That is now Kern is not listed
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  Speaker 2: on the injury report. The reason Kern is not listed
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  Speaker 2: on the injury report, or as it's officially described, the
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  Speaker 2: student athlete availability report, and the keyword there is availability
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  Speaker 2: because he's been available to hold on conversions. Therefore he's available.
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  Speaker 2: Therefore he's not on the injury report. However, he hasn't
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  Speaker 2: punted the last two weeks, so the question went to
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  Speaker 2: Sark with regard to availability, where do things stand for
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  Speaker 2: Michael Kerr?
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  Speaker 4: Might he be ready for this Saturday?
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  Speaker 2: And he was asked a larger question about Special Team's
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  Speaker 2: performance overall.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're hopeful Michael will be ready to go. I
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  Speaker 3: thought he has had a couple of good practices in
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  Speaker 3: a row. But again, we'll get to game day and
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  Speaker 3: assess them both kind of on the field and decide
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  Speaker 3: who will go with their I think Special Teams, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we've we've gotten so so much kind of notoriety for
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  Speaker 3: how aggressive we've been and the explosive plays, and you know, it's.
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  Speaker 4: Back to back weeks. We had big returns.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we had the big one against ou As
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  Speaker 3: Silas and the punt return game. We had the long
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  Speaker 3: one with Matt last week that got called back with
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  Speaker 3: the holding penalty, you know, and we just haven't had
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  Speaker 3: a lot of opportunities in the field goal game for Bert.
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  Speaker 3: I think will Stone has kicked off tremendously. I think
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  Speaker 3: we've only had eight kickoff returns total in seven games
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  Speaker 3: that people have brought back against us, and we're covering
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  Speaker 3: kicks really well. So again, we haven't quite gotten the
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  Speaker 3: splash plays, the block punts, the block field goals, or
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  Speaker 3: that those touchdown returns, but I think we're very close,
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  Speaker 3: and we're continuing to work at it and looking forward
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  Speaker 3: to kind of the second half of the season of
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  Speaker 3: that becoming a really impactful phase for our team.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So then it comes to another point where they're
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  Speaker 2: trying to be better third downs, and Sark says it
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  Speaker 2: really does get into the length and what is really
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  Speaker 2: needed on third down for you know, making the adjustments
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  Speaker 2: and the things you have to do to be better
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  Speaker 2: on third down.
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  Speaker 3: Well, there's a variety of things, you know. I mean
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  Speaker 3: third down is you know, you're talking about third and shorts,
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  Speaker 3: and then third down you're talking about third mediums, and
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  Speaker 3: then third down you're talking about third and lungs. And
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  Speaker 3: then the percentages tell you over the years of kind
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  Speaker 3: of what roughly a number would look like to be
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  Speaker 3: a successful kind of third down margin. From where you're at,
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  Speaker 3: I think the first part is you want to stay
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  Speaker 3: out of third lungs. You know, the further you get
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  Speaker 3: away from that first down marker, your percentage of goes down, down, down, down, down.
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  Speaker 3: And so when you start playing you know, third and eight,
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  Speaker 3: third and ten, third and twelve, third and thirteen, it
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  Speaker 3: gets difficult and you want to make sure that you're
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  Speaker 3: really maximizing third and six and lower and you're converting
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  Speaker 3: those at are really high rate. And we missed some
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  Speaker 3: opportunities with that last week. I would say that was
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  Speaker 3: something that was a little disappointing. We had some makeable
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  Speaker 3: third downs that we just didn't we didn't convert on.
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  Speaker 3: But everything ties together in that, you know, from the
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  Speaker 3: play call to the execution at the line of scrimmage,
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  Speaker 3: whether it's a run or a pass, and blocking people
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  Speaker 3: to decision making it quarterback to ultimately receivers getting open,
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  Speaker 3: whether it's man or zone, and then making their play.
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  Speaker 4: So there's layers to this whole thing.
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  Speaker 3: And I think at the end of the day is
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  Speaker 3: you know, I think everybody kind of goes through evan
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  Speaker 3: flows of a season of when the third downs are
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  Speaker 3: really clicking, you're finding that rhythm to you know, maybe
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  Speaker 3: maybe have a rough day, and we clearly had a
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  Speaker 3: rough day last week, it was difficult, and again, but
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  Speaker 3: I think we're a lot better than that. And so
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  Speaker 3: the goal is to get back into the fold of
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  Speaker 3: executing at a really high level, converting, giving our guys
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  Speaker 3: opportunities to make plays. But we got to block people too,
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  Speaker 3: so it all goes hand in hand.
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  Speaker 2: He was asked, I believe our friend Danny Davis at
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  Speaker 2: the Austin American Statesman, is the level of concern that
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  Speaker 2: he might have for what in SEC play has been
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  Speaker 2: a series of slow Startssissippi State, Oklahoma, Georgia slow starts
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  Speaker 2: by the offense, and is there a common thread in
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  Speaker 2: the last three games? But the main question was how
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  Speaker 2: concerned is he concerned about these slow starts.
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  Speaker 4: I'm not concerned at all. I think, well, you know, we've.
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  Speaker 3: Had some opportunities and these opening drives that we've just
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  Speaker 3: kind of not capitalized on. I think our players have
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  Speaker 3: a lot of confidence in what we do early in
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  Speaker 3: the game. We just hasn't hit exactly the way we
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  Speaker 3: wanted to. But we believe in our process to get
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  Speaker 3: our guys ready to play. So I'm not concerned.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, all right, So next I think this was Kirk
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  Speaker 2: Bowles who asked this question about the outside noise because
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people pay attention to the outside noise.
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  Speaker 2: I know they had football coach really doesn't and the
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  Speaker 2: players can't avoid it entirely. They're going to hear it.
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  Speaker 2: They're out there in the world. But the quote unquote
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  Speaker 2: outside noise that says that Texas isn't physical enough for
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  Speaker 2: the SEC does that amuse him?
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  Speaker 3: You know, it doesn't matter when people say something good
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  Speaker 3: about us or something bad about us. It really doesn't
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  Speaker 3: matter what people think about us. It really doesn't matter
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  Speaker 3: what you guys think about US's about what we do.
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  Speaker 3: So if we are concerned about the narrative, well then
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  Speaker 3: we have to change the way people think by what
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  Speaker 3: we do in our actions.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, back to the injury thing, and again we've got
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  Speaker 2: a DJC law injury update coming up just around the corner.
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  Speaker 2: But on that report, Isaiah bond and we knew Isaiah
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  Speaker 2: Bom was going to be on that because he's been
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  Speaker 2: banged up last couple of weeks and he's listed as
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  Speaker 2: questionable for the game. So he was asked if there
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  Speaker 2: is a fine line in trying to figure out what
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  Speaker 2: an injured player is ready to play or the decision
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  Speaker 2: comes down to get him extra rest with a bye
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  Speaker 2: week coming next week, and in the specific case Isaiah Bond.
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  Speaker 2: But is there a fine line involved?
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  Speaker 3: You answered the question for me, there's a fine line,
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  Speaker 3: and trying to figure that out.
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  Speaker 2: You're right, played and simple there, it's a fine line
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  Speaker 2: as they try to meaning. And he alluded to this
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  Speaker 2: on Long Worn Weekly about trying to get guys healthy
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  Speaker 2: and said, you know, not gonna know until Saturday.
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  Speaker 4: Really questionable.
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  Speaker 2: You might know in advance, but if you do know
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  Speaker 2: in advance, for questionable, it's usually toward the not playing side.
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  Speaker 2: If it's questionable and you're really hoping the guy can go,
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  Speaker 2: and depending on the amount of treatment he's getting and
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  Speaker 2: what he's able to do in warm ups and then
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  Speaker 2: you watch him in pregame warm ups, that's a different
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  Speaker 2: kind of questionable, leaning toward the probable side. But that's
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  Speaker 2: that's where that comes from, all right. With regard to
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  Speaker 2: and this was something we heard it saying from yesterday's
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  Speaker 2: deal about the time of possession thing. But as it
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  Speaker 2: relates to his own team, is there a specific play
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  Speaker 2: call formula for this game facing an opponent that wants
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  Speaker 2: to control the time of possession.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: You know, again there's everybody's got their own formula for success.
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  Speaker 4: And I give Vanderbilt a lot of credit.
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  Speaker 3: You know, they play to their style, which is, you know,
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  Speaker 3: they try to minimize the explosive plays on defense and
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  Speaker 3: make you earn it. They try to they try to
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  Speaker 3: live in those third and one to four range and
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  Speaker 3: extend drives and if there's fourth down, they can go
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  Speaker 3: forward to extend those drives and then you know, not
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  Speaker 3: snapping the ball till under five seconds, all those things right,
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  Speaker 3: And we've quite frankly, we've seen that formula kind of
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  Speaker 3: get presented at us, even against teams that are supposed
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  Speaker 3: to be up tempo teams that ended up milking the
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  Speaker 3: clock on us and trying trying to shorten the game.
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  Speaker 3: And the best thing we can do is execute at
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  Speaker 3: a high level. The best thing we can do is,
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  Speaker 3: you know, an ideal world, you get the lead and
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  Speaker 3: then they feel like they have to try to come
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  Speaker 3: back in the game, and now we can get them
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  Speaker 3: out of their comfort zone as well.
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  Speaker 4: But ultimately it comes down to execution.
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  Speaker 3: As I was saying the other day, you just don't
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  Speaker 3: want to have those wasted plays and you don't want
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  Speaker 3: to have those wasted possessions. You want to make sure
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  Speaker 3: that that at least you're attacking. I'm not saying we're
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  Speaker 3: going to score every drive. We get the ball, and
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  Speaker 3: we earned the right to punt and all those things,
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  Speaker 3: but you want to make sure that everything you're doing
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  Speaker 3: has got a real opportunity to move the chains, extend
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  Speaker 3: drives and put points on the board again, you know,
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  Speaker 3: because those possessions can get can get limited. And as
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  Speaker 3: I told the team earlier, Lord City, we reiterating all
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  Speaker 3: week long. It's like, we don't want to count our possessions.
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  Speaker 3: We don't want to count the number of plays in
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  Speaker 3: the game. We want to make our possessions count. We
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  Speaker 3: want to make the plays count that we do run.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, all right, we'll hear more from Sark next hour,
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  Speaker 2: including his thoughts on LBJ product, the starting running back
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  Speaker 2: for Vanderbilt, Cedric Alexander, and they're tough as nails quarterback
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  Speaker 2: Diego Pavio. So we'll hear more from Sark coming up
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  Speaker 2: next hour. Up next the DJC law injury update here
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  Speaker 2: on Sports Radio AM thirteen.
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  Speaker 4: Under his own