Latest / The Craig Way Show / Vic Schaefer on the return of Rori Harmon and the growth of Madison Booker

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Vic Schaefer on the return of Rori Harmon and the growth of Madison Booker · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: Before we hear from Texas women's basketball head coach Vick Schaeffer.
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  This news broke late in the show yesterday and we
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  did bring it up on the program, but it's well,
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  I guess you could use the word bizarre in description.
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  Tony Bennett, the Virginia men's basketball coach, announced yesterday his
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  sudden retirement three weeks before the start of the season,
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  and it threw everybody off. He'd been at the ACC
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  tip off media day thing before, so it was quite
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  a stunner for a lot of folks. So we had
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  a news conference this morning and was asked why now
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  and all this, and he described the as he called it,
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  current environment in college sports as one of the driving
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  forces behind his decision to retire. His quote was the
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  hardest thing to say is when I looked at myself
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  and I realized I'm no longer the best coach to
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  lead this program in this current environment. If you're going
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  to do it, you got to be all in. If
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  you do it half hearted, it's not fair to the
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  university and those young men. So in looking at it,
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  that's what made me step down. He's been a guy
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  who for many years has complained about the direction of
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  college athletics and increased emphasis on the transfer portal and nil,
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  he said, I think it's right for student athletes to
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  receive revenue. Please don't mistake me. The game and college
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  athletics is not in a healthy spot. It's not and
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  there needs to be change, and it's not going to
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  go back. I think I was equipped to do the
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  job here the old way. That's who I am. It's
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  going to be closer to a professional model. There's got
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  to be collective bargaining. There has to be a restriction
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  on the salary pool, there has to be transfer regulation restrictions.
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  There has to be some limits on the age and
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  involvement to these young guys. And I worry a lot
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  about the mental health of the student athletes as all
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  of this stuff comes down. So he said he actually
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  originally gave some thought to stepping down when the season
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  ended last year, and the decided not too, but then
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  it changed his mind on all of that. There are
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  some coaches who are better constructed to deal with this.
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  Nick Saban regularly admits he's not one of the better
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  constructed guys to deal with this. Dabo Sweeney is raging
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  against the machine. He's working against transfer portal, so we're
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  seeing its effect throughout the course of college athletics. If
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  you talked to Vick Schaeffer, the Texas women's head coach,
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  he'll tell you that the challenge is certainly there and
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  he understands what it's like. But he credits having a
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  youthful staff around is helping to bridge that gap quite
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  a bit. And he still connects very tightly with his players.
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  He did so again in talking about them at SEC
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  Basketball Media Days this week, and he had Madison Booker,
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  the National Freshman of the Year, with him, and he
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  had Rory Harmon, who had been a preseason All American
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  last year a point guard before having the knee injury.
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  Rory got cleared yesterday, officially got cleared to go full
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  on with everything, and that was good news. But Vick
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  was asked what to this point has he not seen
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  from Madison Booker and what he expects Rory Harmon to
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  bring back to the team.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think last year I saw a little
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  bit of everything from Madison, you know, as a freshman,
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  as a young player early in her career. Having that,
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  we'll be blanket in Rory Harmon. Who's your point guard
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  running your team. And I said this earlier. I thought,
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  I thought Rory was really really good last year, was
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  on pace to have a first team All American season
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  as well. But I thought she created Madison created a
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  lot of opportunities for Rory, and of course Rory being
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  a point guard, she is opportunities for everybody. And then
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  when Rory went down.
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  Speaker 3: Most of the.
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  Speaker 2: Time, y'all in basketball, when your point guard goes down,
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  your two guard is who you might lean on. We
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  went to our three player in Madison. But I knew
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  after recruiting Madison her entire high school career and knowing
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  my team that I had last year, Madison Booker was
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  the answer.
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  Speaker 3: It wasn't a tryout. That's who was going to be
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  our point guard.
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  Speaker 2: And while we had some bumps in the road along
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  the way early, the kid has so much presence for
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  such a young player. She had tremendous presence on the floor.
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  She nothing rattled her her first three or four minutes
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  in that very first game against Baylor, when we only
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  had three days to get ready, that was the worst.
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  Speaker 3: Of the worst.
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  Speaker 2: After that, I took her out, and then when we
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  put her back in, I never saw that again, she
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  was just she was really ready to embrace the role
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  that she was in and so you have to give
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  the kid a ton of credit what she was able
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  to do leading that team. That team won thirty three games.
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  In the history of Texas women's basketball, they've only won
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  more games one time, and that's when they won the
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  national championship in nineteen eighty six and they were thirty
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  four to oh But that team would not have been
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  that if it hadn't have been for Madison Booker embracing
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  being the point guard. So now you fast forward to
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  where we are now, Madison Booker. There's nobody more excited
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  on our team that Rory Harmon's back than Madison Booker
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  because she wants to go over there and get on
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  the wing where she's really comfortable, and I just think
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  that it allows us as a team. We've got a
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  lot of flexibility there. And we have a special freshman
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  in Brionna Preston who's going to be an unbelievable point
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  guard for us.
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  Speaker 3: But Rory just.
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  Speaker 2: Rory's presence, how hard she plays, the energy that she
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  plays with permeates through my team every day, every game,
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  and I think she really is a settling influence on
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  my entire team, and it gives my team a lot
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  of confidence. And I ain't know this, it gives her
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  head coach a lot of confidence to know that we
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  have her back on the floor leading our team. And
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  so it's a really good feeling to know we've got
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  great guard play. You win with guard play in basketball.
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  You have notes. You can have all the size you
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  want in the world, but if you don't have guard play,
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  you got no chance. We've got guard play this year,
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  and I've got depth at guard play with Brie and
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  in Jordan Lee to exceptional freshmen. Leilophilia y'all is a monster.
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  She's gonna be so good. Shay Holly has been the
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  glue to my program for the last few years. So
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  I just named off five six guards that they're all
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  gonna play every night, and they're gonna play a lot,
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  and they're all gonna impact our team.
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  Speaker 3: And so.
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  Speaker 2: I think our team, our future is in really good
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  shape at the guard spot. And this year's team, we
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  finally have some depth. I just haven't had it the
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  last couple of years. And give those teams credit, they've
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  learned how to stat a foul trouble and play play
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  through some issues. But this year's team, we finally have depth.
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  Speaker 1: Those would be obviously the most celebrated returning players to Texas.
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  There are new faces on this team, among those Michigan
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  Trends Forer guard Leilophelia, and Vic was asked what he
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  believes Leyla can bring.
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  Speaker 3: To this team.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Layla. Layla's is really She's perfect for how we
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  want to play, how I like to play. She's a
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  great teammate, she's a great kid. She's tough and competitive.
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  Speaker 3: Man.
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  Speaker 2: I would have loved to have had her for four years.
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  You know, I'm blessed to get her for one year.
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  But she just brings so much to the table. She's
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  she's she's really an aggressive offensive player. She cares defensively.
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  She's trying to learn a new system, you know, get
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  a crash course in that. She's had some injuries this
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  summer which have kind of slowed her, but she's finally
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  healthy and has really looked and this last week she's
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  looked really good, like a million dollars and she really
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  looks good. And I've even played her at some points
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  because she is really good reading reading Boss Green defense.
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  So she brings a lot to the table. And you
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  know she's she can scored all three levels. She's smart,
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  she's heady, sees the floor extremely well. She's going to
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  be a great compliment to my other guards. But she
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  and along with Shay, that's two veterans, two seniors. You know,
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  we lose Shaley Gonzalez and those two I can plug in.
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  One of them is going to start, and one of
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  them is gonna be six, have a chance to be
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  six Player of the Year because they're that good. And
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  that's a great, great it's not a problem. I hate
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  to say that, you know, it's not a problem. It's
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  a great thing to have. And so again excited about
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  the opportunity to coach her. And again she's a great
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  kid man. She's just really, really a perfect fit for us.
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  Speaker 1: Vick was asked then a couple of questions about other coaches,
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  coaches that he knew coaches have been former assistants or
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  players under him. One of those is, you'll let me
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  fee mckun who has been turning around the old miss program,
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  and he was asked for his thoughts on mckewn.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think you said it.
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  Speaker 2: I mean where they are today and where they were
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  then it's way different, you know. And I haven't been
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  in the league since then, and I've had my own
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  problems and concerns and my own league that I was
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  in the kind of and I haven't paid that much attention.
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  So I know that she was very successful where she
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  was before she went to Mississippi, and uh, so I
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  does it surprise me. No, she was very successful where
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  she was, and I think that obviously, when you finish
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  in the top four or three years in a row
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  in this league, you're doing something and h and so again,
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  the bottom line is it all comes down to recruiting,
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  you know, for all of us, And uh, I think
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  she's done.
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  Speaker 3: A great job.
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  Speaker 2: And again, we all recruit to a fit, and I
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  think she's done a great job.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 2: The secret to our success has been recruiting a fit,
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  retaining our student athletes, and developing them. And over the
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  course of time, we've been pretty successful in all three
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  of those phases. So for her, it doesn't surprise me
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  at all, and certainly happy for her. I know, I
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  know that blood feud in that conference in that state,
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  and I know how that is, and you know, I
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  lived it for eight years, and there's no middle ground,
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  and I know the competition and the competitive spirit that
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  she has as well as Sam Now we had when
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  I was there.
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  Speaker 3: It's really special. So I'm really happy for her and
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  her staff.
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  Speaker 2: And again that's what happens when you work hard and
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  you have a plan.
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  Speaker 1: He also is not surprised at all and seeing what
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  Johnny Harris, his former assistant who was with him actually
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  one year in Austin, is starting to do with the
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  Auburn program to turn in around.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's no surprise.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, she was with me, you know, all eight
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  years in Mississippi State, and you know she's lived it.
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  She's seen it every day and she was a big
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  part of the big reason why we were able to
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  do it. We did, so, you know, when I was
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  recommending her for that job, there was no question in
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  my mind she was ready and she could do it.
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  Speaker 3: And she knows what the recipe is.
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  Speaker 2: When you start interviewing with people and talking to people
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  and you've got to take over, there's nothing harder.
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  Speaker 3: And y'all in this room, you either you should know it.
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  Speaker 2: If you don't, I don't care what sport it is
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  in the Southeastern Conference.
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  Speaker 3: You want to take a dawning task.
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  Speaker 2: Go take over one of the bottom teams in this
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  league and whatever sports you're going to take over and
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  try to build it and pass people up.
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  Speaker 3: It's almost impossible. It's so daunting.
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  Speaker 2: And so again, she was a big part of what
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  we did.
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  Speaker 3: At Mississippi State, and it doesn't surprise me that she's
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  able to do it at Auburn. And I knew she could.
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  I knew she would, and she.
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  Speaker 2: Knows what the recipe is, and I'm certainly happy for her.
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  And so it's we were together a long time. We
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  had a lot of we had a lot of good
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  times together. Not enough time of the day for me
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  to share them, but we had a lot of good
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  times together.
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  Speaker 3: All right.
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  Speaker 1: There it is some more from Vick Schaeffer there coming
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  up next, we bring you today He's edition of Inconceivable
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  of Friday edition on sports Radio AM thirteen under the
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  zone of the iHeartRadio app.