Latest / The Craig Way Show / Greg Tepper previews CRAZY upcoming weekend in Texas High School Football and College Football
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Broadcasting and writing into his thirties, well into his thirties,
- 0:03Speaker 1: his upper thirdies. Now is Greg Chepper, the managing editor
- 0:06Speaker 1: of Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine, who joins us on
- 0:09Speaker 1: the hotline for our weekly conversation. Well into your upper thirties, right.
- 0:13Speaker 2: Well into my thirties. Oh yeah, well and in my thirties.
- 0:17Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 0:17Speaker 2: By the way, Craig, I realized that I had half
- 0:20Speaker 2: a conversation with you on Friday, and I want to
- 0:21Speaker 2: make sure I finish it here in a public forum.
- 0:25Speaker 3: I told you that you went because.
- 0:27Speaker 2: Last Thursday, because you're a sicko, you went and you
- 0:31Speaker 2: called A and M consolidated in Flugerville Hendrickson, which was
- 0:35Speaker 2: interesting for a half. Shout out to Hendrickson for hanging
- 0:37Speaker 2: in for consolidated state ranked undefeated, kind of hit the cast.
- 0:41Speaker 2: Here's what to me amazes me most about it, and
- 0:44Speaker 2: the part I didn't bring it up. You opted to
- 0:49Speaker 2: call that game in lieu of watching a Dodgers NLCS
- 0:53Speaker 2: game all they were playing.
- 0:55Speaker 3: That is commitment to the game. Man. Well, two things.
- 0:59Speaker 1: First of all, I had a laptop on in the booth,
- 1:08Speaker 1: so yeah, we're.
- 1:10Speaker 3: Keeping up with that one too.
- 1:13Speaker 1: I've been getting a lot of feedback from folks about that,
- 1:15Speaker 1: because everybody knows what a huge Dodger fan.
- 1:17Speaker 3: I became one at like at age nine.
- 1:20Speaker 1: I've seen them in two World Series now, one when
- 1:23Speaker 1: Mookie Betts was playing for Boston when they wrapped up
- 1:26Speaker 1: the World Series in twenty eighteen. And then, thanks to
- 1:30Speaker 1: your generosity, or at least your willingness to be generous
- 1:35Speaker 1: at selling me your World Series tickets during the pandemic
- 1:39Speaker 1: at face value, to go see Game one between the
- 1:42Speaker 1: Dodgers and the Rays when Kershaw was on the mound
- 1:45Speaker 1: and to be eleven rows from the plate. That was
- 1:47Speaker 1: pretty cool, you know, and it helped convert my wife
- 1:51Speaker 1: permanently into being a Dodger fan, so to the extent
- 1:56Speaker 1: that as she got to see one of her all
- 1:58Speaker 1: time musical idols when we flew to Los Angeles Sunday
- 2:01Speaker 1: morning to cap off this crazy weekend that just passed
- 2:05Speaker 1: to see Joni Mitchell at the Hollywood Bowl, one of
- 2:08Speaker 1: her all time idols, she said she actually felt bad
- 2:12Speaker 1: that we weren't just down the highway at Dodger Stadium
- 2:15Speaker 1: watching them wrap up the National League Championship Series. And
- 2:17Speaker 1: I said, well, we committed to this a long time ago.
- 2:20Speaker 1: I knew I'd accrued some points there, but I did
- 2:25Speaker 1: have the game on my phone from time to time,
- 2:27Speaker 1: and during intermission to concert, we actually got to watch
- 2:29Speaker 1: the ninth inning, so that was cool.
- 2:31Speaker 2: It's actually it's you know, it's you know, the celebrities
- 2:34Speaker 2: are just like us folks. You know, Craig Way is
- 2:36Speaker 2: earning Browning points with his wife. I earned Brownie points
- 2:39Speaker 2: with my wife. I've been, you know, cleaning up the house,
- 2:41Speaker 2: making sure things are good. And that's so that Thursday
- 2:43Speaker 2: night I can go out to Big Sandy to watch
- 2:45Speaker 2: Wascomb and Big Sandy.
- 2:46Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the same thing with me too. Yeah. Absolutely.
- 2:49Speaker 3: You know, look at you heading out there.
- 2:50Speaker 1: You know I'd be tempted to join you out there.
- 2:54Speaker 1: I do have a coaches show to do Thursday night
- 2:57Speaker 1: basketball coaches shows. I won't be able to make it
- 3:00Speaker 1: on on Thursday nights. But anyway, there's, uh, there's a
- 3:04Speaker 1: lot going on. I'll get to the high school a minute,
- 3:07Speaker 1: because this is a BAFO weekend for it. But let's
- 3:09Speaker 1: let's talk college football first, and I'm interested in your
- 3:13Speaker 1: thoughts of the weekend.
- 3:14Speaker 3: Obviously, the UH. The Texas UH.
- 3:17Speaker 1: Georgia game called a lot of attention with the Longhorns
- 3:20Speaker 1: UH being popped pretty good by really good Georgia team.
- 3:24Speaker 1: I think Mike Craven wrote two real interesting pieces I
- 3:26Speaker 1: thought on your website, one about UH and this went
- 3:29Speaker 1: contrary to a lot of folks who were being very
- 3:32Speaker 1: very instant over reactive about the quarterback shift when he
- 3:37Speaker 1: played UH, when he played arch Manning just to in
- 3:41Speaker 1: his words, as Sark said, give Quinn a chance to
- 3:43Speaker 1: settle down and put him back in something. Mike Craven
- 3:46Speaker 1: agree with something a lot of folk, other folks at, oh,
- 3:48Speaker 1: you can't do that.
- 3:48Speaker 3: It sends a wrong statement to the program and all
- 3:50Speaker 3: this kind of stuff.
- 3:51Speaker 1: And my response has been to say, nobody knows his
- 3:53Speaker 1: lockering better than the head coach. I think he felt
- 3:56Speaker 1: like they will be okay with all that, so he
- 3:58Speaker 1: wrote that piece. He also wrote a piece so it's
- 4:00Speaker 1: saying that Texas basically he's not ready for prime time,
- 4:03Speaker 1: or at least in terms of the sec they still
- 4:05Speaker 1: got a ways to go.
- 4:07Speaker 2: Yeah, So he contains multitudes for what it's worth. I
- 4:10Speaker 2: do agree with with the overall point ritten large is
- 4:13Speaker 2: that I think us it kind of outside of the program,
- 4:17Speaker 2: feel like we understand what's going on within the program.
- 4:19Speaker 2: But those are intricate and complicated relationships. And I'm sure, look,
- 4:25Speaker 2: Quinn yours is not some like you know, he wasn't
- 4:29Speaker 2: He didn't fall up the turnup truck. I mean, he
- 4:31Speaker 2: understands the score, and he understands I'm not playing well.
- 4:34Speaker 2: The guy who has been filling in for me has
- 4:37Speaker 2: been playing well. Ultimately, we want to win the game.
- 4:39Speaker 2: Let's see if this thing works. And obviously, you know,
- 4:42Speaker 2: it didn't work to the extent that they were hoping
- 4:44Speaker 2: it would. But I think that I think that you know,
- 4:46Speaker 2: these are it's important that these are adults, and and
- 4:49Speaker 2: there's not necessarily this kind of uh oh you got,
- 4:52Speaker 2: I've got replaced, so therefore I'm going to go pout
- 4:54Speaker 2: and you know, go transfer or whatever. I think I
- 4:56Speaker 2: think that that overall, for Sarkesian, who's tried to give
- 5:00Speaker 2: that team of spark, trying to get things moving, it
- 5:03Speaker 2: worked to a certain extent, but obviously not not well enough.
- 5:06Speaker 2: And and Quinn Ewers is going to be QB one
- 5:09Speaker 2: kind of moving forward. But I think the reason you
- 5:12Speaker 2: have a good quarterback room is and not just a
- 5:15Speaker 2: good quarterback is so that if things I push comes
- 5:17Speaker 2: to shove, you can do.
- 5:18Speaker 3: Things like that.
- 5:19Speaker 2: Now that said about about the Texas and Georgia game, overall,
- 5:23Speaker 2: I thought that one of the things that was I
- 5:27Speaker 2: thought Georgia's defensive line was particularly impressive. I thought that
- 5:32Speaker 2: that was really where the game was won and lost.
- 5:34Speaker 2: We can talk about Quinn youwrs and I don't think
- 5:36Speaker 2: he was very good, but but overall, I thought the
- 5:39Speaker 2: defensive line for Georgia was was excellent and that ultimately
- 5:43Speaker 2: won the game for them. You know, whoever was playing
- 5:45Speaker 2: at quarterback was running for their lives. And I thought
- 5:47Speaker 2: the offensive line for Texas, you know, struggled for the
- 5:50Speaker 2: most part. So I thought that that for Georgia. You know, look,
- 5:53Speaker 2: it's also important to remember it's probably just the note
- 5:57Speaker 2: that it is not all going to come easy for Texas.
- 5:59Speaker 3: You know, this is gonna be weekend week out.
- 6:01Speaker 2: There's gonna be a lot of really good teams on
- 6:03Speaker 2: the sec uh and you're gonna have to deal with
- 6:06Speaker 2: them one after another. I think there was kind of
- 6:08Speaker 2: this notion maybe after the Ou game, where it's like, hey,
- 6:11Speaker 2: actually this SCCI.
- 6:12Speaker 3: Things not that bad.
- 6:13Speaker 2: We can do this a little bit check exactly a
- 6:17Speaker 2: little does the reality for the Longhorns that I think
- 6:20Speaker 2: this doesn't knock off their trajectory all that much.
- 6:23Speaker 3: Everything is still out in front of them.
- 6:25Speaker 2: But I think an important kind of reality check for
- 6:28Speaker 2: the program, uh that that you know, whether you're too
- 6:31Speaker 2: high or too low, this too shall pass well.
- 6:34Speaker 1: And and in addition to that, our friend Carter Yate
- 6:37Speaker 1: wrote a piece for you deal and then I thought
- 6:38Speaker 1: it was spot on about how it was a rough
- 6:40Speaker 1: week overall for conference championship contenders. He points to, you know,
- 6:45Speaker 1: Texas State in the Sun Belt, that was a stunning
- 6:47Speaker 1: loss and old dominion for them in North Texas losing
- 6:50Speaker 1: that shootout in Memphis when they had a chance to
- 6:53Speaker 1: you know, staying at the top there along with Army
- 6:56Speaker 1: and Navy in the American Yeah, it is a it
- 7:00Speaker 1: was just overall just not a great week, uh for
- 7:03Speaker 1: for contenders kind of across the stand.
- 7:05Speaker 3: Tech obviously Texas uh is one of them.
- 7:07Speaker 2: But but then you you look at North Texas really
- 7:10Speaker 2: disappointing loss, uh, you know, to to Memphis. I thought
- 7:13Speaker 2: Texas Tech, you know, you know, give it to Baylor.
- 7:16Speaker 2: Baylor you know, maybe saved their season by going and
- 7:19Speaker 2: really laying it on Texas Tech. But I thought that
- 7:21Speaker 2: was particularly disappointing, uh for for for Tech and and
- 7:24Speaker 2: you know, now they've handed Joey MacGuire basically two worst
- 7:27Speaker 2: home losses.
- 7:28Speaker 3: Uh.
- 7:28Speaker 2: You know, UTSA got to win, but like they are
- 7:30Speaker 2: banged up in a big, big way, you know. And
- 7:34Speaker 2: and really, you know, the only two teams that I
- 7:36Speaker 2: think you could look at, you know, Houston struggled, Rice struggled,
- 7:38Speaker 2: et cetera.
- 7:39Speaker 3: I think the only two teams that you.
- 7:40Speaker 2: Could look look at as having like a good week,
- 7:43Speaker 2: you know, A and M I'm sure that they would
- 7:45Speaker 2: prefer to play a little bit better against Mimissippi State,
- 7:47Speaker 2: but they don't ask you how. They ask you how
- 7:48Speaker 2: many uh and then SMU going on the road to
- 7:51Speaker 2: Stanford and uh and in that uh that classic rivalry
- 7:54Speaker 2: uh and and and taking care of business there. So overall,
- 7:57Speaker 2: it probably wasn't a great week of college football for
- 8:00Speaker 2: the state of Texas, But like you know, it's on
- 8:03Speaker 2: to the next one and a little bit of sorting
- 8:06Speaker 2: going on, and probably in the case of Tech maybe
- 8:09Speaker 2: coming back to earth. They were five and one. I
- 8:12Speaker 2: don't think that they looked like a five and one team.
- 8:14Speaker 2: They look much more like a five to two team.
- 8:16Speaker 2: Quick did TCU save their season? Would that win at Utah?
- 8:21Speaker 2: I think that they They've got a real chance to
- 8:23Speaker 2: And Savian Williams I thought was fantastic. You know, this
- 8:26Speaker 2: is a guy who was you know, came up with
- 8:29Speaker 2: big plays, especially in the running game. Surprisingly a guy
- 8:32Speaker 2: who is their their number one wide receiver coming into
- 8:34Speaker 2: the year.
- 8:35Speaker 3: I think they saved their season.
- 8:36Speaker 2: They took advantage of a Utah team who I mean
- 8:40Speaker 2: just fired their offense coordinator, who.
- 8:41Speaker 3: Can't score right now?
- 8:43Speaker 2: And who is I mean, I think Cam Rising's out
- 8:45Speaker 2: of the year now. Like they they they are kind
- 8:47Speaker 2: of outsorts and the big twelve is I mean, who
- 8:52Speaker 2: wants it?
- 8:53Speaker 3: It has been a while.
- 8:54Speaker 2: If you remember, coming into the season, it was about
- 8:58Speaker 2: Utah and Kansas State. They felt like the two front runs.
- 9:00Speaker 2: Maybe Oklahoma State is in.
- 9:02Speaker 3: That mix as well. Well. Utah has fallen off the map.
- 9:04Speaker 2: They can't score, Oklahoma State can't get all a Gordon
- 9:07Speaker 2: going the Kansas State's playing well, but suddenly you look
- 9:10Speaker 2: up BYU's playing particularly well. Colorado's still in the mix.
- 9:14Speaker 2: They're in the Big twelve. It is a much more
- 9:17Speaker 2: wide open conference in a different way than we thought
- 9:19Speaker 2: it was going to be. Uh, And for TCU to
- 9:21Speaker 2: take advantage of that, I thought was really important and
- 9:24Speaker 2: and you know, saving their season is probably not far
- 9:28Speaker 2: off from the truth. I thought that was an extremely
- 9:30Speaker 2: important victory, UH to take care of Utah, a wounded
- 9:34Speaker 2: and limping Utah team.
- 9:35Speaker 1: Hey, and U TAP got in the win column, although
- 9:38Speaker 1: at the expense of Sam Houston, who was who was
- 9:41Speaker 1: rolling along in Conference USA play until that.
- 9:44Speaker 3: U UTEP gets gets a big win.
- 9:47Speaker 2: I thought that was, you know, really important for them,
- 9:49Speaker 2: and and I think people were kind of giving Scottie
- 9:52Speaker 2: wall in trouble because he was going crazy, uh, you know,
- 9:55Speaker 2: for their win. But I just I think that, you know,
- 9:57Speaker 2: in the end, for U TAP, they were at zero
- 9:59Speaker 2: to twelve one, and I think that they kind of
- 10:02Speaker 2: pulled it out of the fire there to come away
- 10:04Speaker 2: with a win. Let's gott a Walden celebrate. I think
- 10:06Speaker 2: it's it's a really really exciting time there for UTUP.
- 10:09Speaker 2: We knew it was going to be a build. Just
- 10:11Speaker 2: to get that win I.
- 10:11Speaker 3: Think is really important.
- 10:12Speaker 1: Then Yeah, and Sam lost to Western Kentucky and that
- 10:15Speaker 1: that didn't help.
- 10:16Speaker 3: Them a week ago Thursday. Yeah no it didn't. Yeah,
- 10:19Speaker 3: they played on that WEIRDO Thursday, and I came.
- 10:21Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, nothing weird about this high school schedule. This week,
- 10:26Speaker 1: as we talked football in the State of Texas with
- 10:28Speaker 1: Greg Tepper, managing editor Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine, I.
- 10:32Speaker 3: Was kind of curious.
- 10:32Speaker 1: You tweeted out something about, uh, if you've got a
- 10:37Speaker 1: big match up, let me know, And I thought, dude,
- 10:40Speaker 1: talk about somebody who's filling up his plate at the
- 10:43Speaker 1: buffet line.
- 10:43Speaker 3: I mean, it's not like you didn't have a full slate.
- 10:46Speaker 1: My goodness that the games that are on tap this week,
- 10:49Speaker 1: I think you just kind of what sent the feeler
- 10:50Speaker 1: out if I'm missing anything because of because all these
- 10:53Speaker 1: other big games that are going to be happening.
- 10:56Speaker 2: This is so I've been at Dave Campbell's since twenty eleven.
- 10:59Speaker 3: It's my fourteenth season.
- 11:01Speaker 2: I think this is the biggest week of regular season
- 11:05Speaker 2: high school football I've ever seen. It is from a
- 11:09Speaker 2: star studded, premiere, big time matchup perspective, I don't know
- 11:15Speaker 2: that it gets any bigger than this. I mean, you
- 11:17Speaker 2: look up and down the schedule, everywhere you look, in
- 11:20Speaker 2: every corner of the state. It's basically it's like a
- 11:22Speaker 2: slow week in Corpus and it's a slow week in
- 11:25Speaker 2: San Antonio. And other than that, everywhere there's massive, massive matchups.
- 11:30Speaker 2: I mean, Matt step and I were going, we did
- 11:32Speaker 2: our podcast yesterday about this and we go back and
- 11:36Speaker 2: forth picking games that were most interested in. I will
- 11:39Speaker 2: tell you that Westlake and Lake Travis was our fifth pick.
- 11:43Speaker 3: The fifth pick. That's how good of week it is.
- 11:46Speaker 2: This is a staggering, staggering array of games at every level,
- 11:52Speaker 2: with playoff implications on the line. It's I mean, we
- 11:55Speaker 2: finally got to the fireworks factor here. Yeah, yeah, no
- 11:59Speaker 2: doubt about okay.
- 12:00Speaker 1: So, uh if Lake Travis Westlake is the fifth pick,
- 12:05Speaker 1: uh uh. I feel even compelled to not even ask
- 12:11Speaker 1: you to choose the game, but I'll I'll just ask cal.
- 12:13Speaker 1: I won't even offer you choices because there's so many choices.
- 12:16Speaker 1: You tell me if you're going to one game this week,
- 12:20Speaker 1: I know which game I'm going to go to, So
- 12:21Speaker 1: when you ask me on Thursday, you'll know when I'm
- 12:23Speaker 1: on your program. But if you knew, if if there's
- 12:27Speaker 1: one that you say, is the camp missed this week?
- 12:30Speaker 1: Which point game is it?
- 12:34Speaker 2: Coleie, It's probably north Shore task A Seedom.
- 12:40Speaker 3: It's the biggest game in Houston.
- 12:42Speaker 2: Like for all the talk we had about duncan Ville
- 12:44Speaker 2: De Soto, this is the Houston version of duncan Ville
- 12:46Speaker 2: De Soto. And both teams undefeated, both teams rolling, uh
- 12:50Speaker 2: a tastic. They got a real scare last week against Kingwood.
- 12:53Speaker 2: That's one of the questions. But like you could very
- 12:56Speaker 2: easily take Columbus Hitchcock at the three A level, which
- 12:58Speaker 2: is box off of stuff, you could very easily take
- 13:03Speaker 2: you know, sun Ray Panhandle up in the if you're
- 13:06Speaker 2: a small school snob and you want to do that
- 13:08Speaker 2: kind of stuff. Of course, Westlake Lake Travis is is
- 13:11Speaker 2: certainly in that mix as well. And I'm really excited
- 13:13Speaker 2: to see that quarterback matchup between Chasten Didda and Reese Wise.
- 13:17Speaker 2: And the big question for me not to spoil everything here,
- 13:19Speaker 2: but the big question for me is can Lake Travis
- 13:22Speaker 2: run the ball with Van Hopping.
- 13:24Speaker 3: If they can run the ball, I think they're in business.
- 13:25Speaker 2: But if they become one dimensional Westlake, I mean ton
- 13:28Speaker 2: of Salasar's defense just they pride themselves on just crushing
- 13:32Speaker 2: one dimensional teams. Or you could go with the biggest
- 13:36Speaker 2: mid county madness game in two decades. I mean, P
- 13:41Speaker 2: and G Niederland. This week is as big as it's
- 13:45Speaker 2: been in a long, long, long time, and a lot
- 13:48Speaker 2: of that is because of what Scott Rich has done
- 13:49Speaker 2: his first year there at Neerland. It's gonna be I
- 13:53Speaker 2: think that game sold out in like thirty minutes. It's
- 13:56Speaker 2: gonna be a zoo down there. And by the way,
- 13:58Speaker 2: you got Basidi El Campo, you got Midland Legacy, and
- 14:01Speaker 2: of Desa Permian, you've got Alan prosper Uh, you've got
- 14:04Speaker 2: a just apparently in Shadow Creek Gil. It is a colubs.
- 14:09Speaker 2: It's a ludicrous week of games. I like, honestly, step
- 14:13Speaker 2: and I were talking about this. It reminds me of
- 14:15Speaker 2: like if you told me, hey, by the way, this
- 14:17Speaker 2: is like a regional final round of the playoffs, I'd
- 14:19Speaker 2: be like, yeah, yeah, that that's what it feels like
- 14:21Speaker 2: with these big, high profile matchups.
- 14:23Speaker 3: I'll give you one that that's going to be a
- 14:25Speaker 3: real good undercard.
- 14:26Speaker 2: Robinson Leavega, Oh my gosh, I think that game's flying
- 14:30Speaker 2: under the radar because le Vega's got three losses. Yeah,
- 14:35Speaker 2: that's like, that's like one of the best three lost
- 14:38Speaker 2: teams in the state. They have been terrific when they've
- 14:40Speaker 2: been when they played well, and I think they've figured
- 14:42Speaker 2: things out and and Robinson is no slauch State ranked
- 14:45Speaker 2: playing very well right now. I think you're right in
- 14:47Speaker 2: Central Texas. That game is is sensational, sensational stuff.
- 14:52Speaker 3: He's great.
- 14:52Speaker 1: Temper Managing editor Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine, following on
- 14:56Speaker 1: x slash Twitter at Temper. Uh So, I'll check. I
- 15:00Speaker 1: came with you guys from a hotel room in Nashville
- 15:03Speaker 1: on Friday night. I'll either be in a really good
- 15:06Speaker 1: mood depending on how Game one of the World Series goes,
- 15:08Speaker 1: or I'll just be on with you guys.
- 15:11Speaker 3: You know it'll be one of the other. Yeah, you
- 15:12Speaker 3: know that kind of thing.
- 15:13Speaker 2: I will Yeah, I will be watching the box score
- 15:16Speaker 2: to see if I need to ask you about how
- 15:19Speaker 2: you're feeling games.
- 15:22Speaker 3: All right, Hey, thanks Tap, talk to Friday. Alright, bye, guys.
- 15:26Speaker 1: All right, that's great, Tepper, because I won't be in
- 15:29Speaker 1: the studio with Tap and Aaron Hartigan on Friday Night
- 15:32Speaker 1: for High School Scoreboard Live, because I will be in
- 15:36Speaker 1: a hotel room in Nashville coming off watching Game one
- 15:39Speaker 1: of the World Series, no doubt. All right, well, we've
- 15:41Speaker 1: got more coming where that. We're going to talk some
- 15:43Speaker 1: long one football next on Sports Radio AM thirteen hunderd
- 15:45Speaker 1: Zone of the iHeartRadio app.