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Steve Sarkisian addresses latest transfer portal additions and departures · The Craig Way Show

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's the Craig Way Show with the voice of the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Texas Longhorns in Hall of Fame broadcaster Craig Way.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Here we go. Oh wait, sorry, you don't want to
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: do that.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Sorry, Dak's not playing, right Have you noticed that? Cooper
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Rush says it too.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: He doesn't.
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  Speaker 2: He doesn't go here we go like like Dak does.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: But he goes here we go Bma Bama nineteen thirty three.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: You will go nineteen You'll do it, you know, he'll
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: He'll just kind of drop that in. Why am I
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: asking you? Yeah, you know you said you're not watching them.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: I haven't seen a single Cooper Rush throw this year.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Thank God for this.
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  Speaker 3: Wait a minute, didn't you say you watched a few
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: weeks ago, watched it? Not the Washing games, the game afterwards?
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: I think I remember. I think you said you wound
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: up watching it. Dak was still playing on it my
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  Speaker 3: last slid. Really what was the crazy game? That was
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: the crazy Washington game? But I didn't see offensive stat
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  Speaker 3: because it was just that. But I thought you saw
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  Speaker 3: a game. Let me just you have a schedule marked
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  Speaker 3: on what games? Did Cameron that? Because because you were
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: you were pretty adamant that you were not going to
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  Speaker 3: watch them at all. And then we found out you
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  Speaker 3: kind of were kind of taking a peek when you
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  Speaker 3: were in the kids. When you did, you said that
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  Speaker 3: your dad had it on.
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  Speaker 2: Was kind of background.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Oh gosh, I just got bad news here. I didn't
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: know David Montgomery got lost for the season.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Mcl he played through it yesterday.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Okay on my fantasy team, and I'm in the semifinals
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  Speaker 3: this week.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Need that. Detroit is very very banged up right now.
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  Speaker 3: So was my fantasy team. Anyway, So I'll tell you.
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  Speaker 3: I'll tell you the game you told me that you watched.
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  Speaker 2: It was.
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  Speaker 4: I watched the end of the Washington game yet the end,
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  Speaker 4: but there was a I have not watched a full
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  Speaker 4: game all year, though it.
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  Speaker 3: Was a lot of it. I think it's a lot
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  Speaker 3: of it. I'll tell you which one it was. I'll
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  Speaker 3: tell you which one it was. It Wasn't it the
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  Speaker 3: Texans Monday nine game.
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  Speaker 2: No, there was no chance I watched anything of that game.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, I'm telling you, Crak, it was the Washington game
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  Speaker 4: because it was the crazy back and forth.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, No, did not watch it. Not watch Atlanta.
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  Speaker 3: Did you watch the Bengals game on Monday Night with
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  Speaker 3: the with the punt at the end. How about the
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  Speaker 3: jobt No, that was Thanksgiving? You didn't watch that?
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  Speaker 2: No telling you, Craig, I've been true to my word.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, like Jerry Jones says, he's all in and you're
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  Speaker 4: not all in, and you're not all in if you don't.
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  Speaker 2: Spend money and free agency, which the Cowboys are not
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  Speaker 2: going to do in twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 4: I'll tell you what, Craig, I'm already leading closer and
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  Speaker 4: closer than not watching a single Cowboys snap in twenty
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  Speaker 4: five as well. All right, and Ravon digs another season
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: nding injury. Who knows what hill status will be next year?
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: You know, Dak returning from his injury. It feels like
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: Mike mccrout is gonna get a free pass. You know,
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  Speaker 4: I'm surprised Jerry didn't sign him to an extension on
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  Speaker 4: the spot at Bank of America State Carolina for being
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: a crafty Carolina team.
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  Speaker 2: Well I'm happy about it. And uh boy.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, uh let's move on back over to Texas and
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  Speaker 3: here from Logorton's head coach Steve Sarkesian. Yes, a Monday
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: press conference. I know the whole thing sounds a little
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: bit weird that there's another game. Here we are in December,
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  Speaker 3: in just before Christmas, and there's about to be a
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  Speaker 3: football game, not a high school state championship game, but
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  Speaker 3: a Texas Longhorns home football game at DKR Texas Memorial
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  Speaker 3: Stadium in uh just past the midway mark, getting toward
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  Speaker 3: the latter part of the month of December. And by
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: the way, the temperature I'm seeing on the forecast is
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  Speaker 3: gonna be like in the mid to upper sixties. It
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  Speaker 3: was gonna be like around fifty. And I thought, okay,
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  Speaker 3: well football, whether or not too bad. It may be
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  Speaker 3: in the sixties on Saturday. From what I'm seeing in
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  Speaker 3: sunny that's a good thing. Here's sorry be opening statement.
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  Speaker 5: You know, this new era of college football and to
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  Speaker 5: be playing in a playoff.
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  Speaker 1: Game in mid December is just very different.
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  Speaker 5: You know, I think for everybody, at least on our end,
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  Speaker 5: it's taken a minute. You know, when you have a
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  Speaker 5: really successful season, historically you get this long layoff until your.
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  Speaker 1: Bowl game right around New Year's and whatnot.
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  Speaker 5: And for to come off kind of two weeks after
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  Speaker 5: the SEC championship game is pretty exciting because you know,
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  Speaker 5: one of the concerns always for us as coaches is
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  Speaker 5: that long layoff and how do you keep your team
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  Speaker 5: sharp and how do you keep them competitive but yet
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: in the same token, heel and get healthy. And so
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  Speaker 5: this just kind of times up really nice and what
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  Speaker 5: an awesome opportunity to host a playoff game in the
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  Speaker 5: inaugural twelve team playoff here at dk R Saturday at
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  Speaker 5: three o'clock against a really good Clemson team. I'm really
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  Speaker 5: pumped for our fans and Longhorn Nation that they get
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  Speaker 5: to experience this and that we get to have one
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  Speaker 5: more opportunity here at DKR with this team, We're gonna
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  Speaker 5: need all their support, and I hope the ticket sales
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  Speaker 5: and all that stuff went the right way. I know
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  Speaker 5: it's been unique and new for everybody, but I know
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  Speaker 5: CDC and his team have done an awesome job of
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  Speaker 5: getting those things out. So we're looking forward to that.
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  Speaker 5: Clemson's a really good team. You know, Dabbo for a
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  Speaker 5: long long time has been winning a lot of games
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  Speaker 5: at Clemson. I think this is their seventh, you know,
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  Speaker 5: college football playoff appearance. He's won two national titles, and
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  Speaker 5: this team really embodies what his teams have embodied over
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  Speaker 5: the years. They're really disciplined, very few penalties. They take
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  Speaker 5: care of the football extremely well offensively, they create turnovers
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  Speaker 5: on defense. I think they're plus sixteen and the turnover margin.
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  Speaker 5: They've got a veteran offensive and defensive line. You talk
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  Speaker 5: about winning and winning laid into December and into January.
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  Speaker 5: Why how important the line of scrimmage is. They've got
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  Speaker 5: veteran OW and d lineman who played really well.
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  Speaker 1: They've got a really good quarterback.
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  Speaker 5: You know, we've known Kate a long time since since
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  Speaker 5: his time here at west Lake, and highly competitive young man.
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  Speaker 5: He's gonna do what it takes to put them in
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  Speaker 5: position to try to win. He's had a really good
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  Speaker 5: season throwing it. He's had a very good season running it.
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  Speaker 5: They they spread the ball around and so a lot
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  Speaker 5: of a lot of great challenges that they present and
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  Speaker 5: they didn't get to this to this point on accident.
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  Speaker 5: So we've got to work cut out for us. I
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  Speaker 5: think last week was good for us as a team.
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  Speaker 5: You know, naturally, when you when you go when you
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  Speaker 5: go twelve rounds with a team like Georgia, you need
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  Speaker 5: some time to to heal, which I think we got,
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  Speaker 5: but I do think we got in front of the
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  Speaker 5: game planning uh and practice standpoint as well, and put
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  Speaker 5: us in position to be really ready to go this afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: So looking forward to the opportunity.
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  Speaker 5: It's an honor to be in the in the playoff,
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  Speaker 5: and we're gonna try to make most of it.
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  Speaker 3: All right, let's hear some questions for Sark. First of all, right, Alligate,
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  Speaker 3: this is I'm gonna tell you.
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  Speaker 2: I credit I do.
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  Speaker 3: I credit local writers for the newspapers and also for
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: the fan sites for being a dog with a bone
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  Speaker 3: when it comes to this business about transfer portal and
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  Speaker 3: recruiting and all that stuff, because it's an ever evolving process.
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  Speaker 3: And I think it was our friend Danny Davis to
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  Speaker 3: the Austin American Statesman asked the question, wasn't it that
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  Speaker 3: asked this question of Sark about with the transfer portal
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  Speaker 3: opening up, now, how does that affect your team as
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  Speaker 3: well as the defensive line depth because we've heard of
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  Speaker 3: several guys who along the D line who are entering
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  Speaker 3: the portal.
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  Speaker 5: This has been a very challenging. Call it three weeks
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  Speaker 5: when you think about we had signing date on Wednesday
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  Speaker 5: of the SEC Championship game, and so we were trying
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  Speaker 5: to solidify that class and get ready to play for
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  Speaker 5: an SEC championship on Saturday, and then Monday, the transfer
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  Speaker 5: portal opens, and so you're dealing with current players on
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  Speaker 5: your roster who are trying to make decisions if they
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  Speaker 5: want to stay, if they want to transfer, and all
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  Speaker 5: the while still talk to some players about the NFL
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  Speaker 5: because they're getting those those conversations are happening. So last
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  Speaker 5: week was a was a busy week for me, more
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  Speaker 5: so than I was probably anticipating.
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  Speaker 1: And it's a lot to think that. I use this
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  Speaker 1: analogy last.
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  Speaker 5: Week in an interview, and in three weeks the NFL
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  Speaker 5: playoffs are going to begin, and imagine I don't know
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  Speaker 5: how many teams in the NFL playoffs, eight or something
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  Speaker 5: like that or ten, I don't know how many, but
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  Speaker 5: imagine every one of those players becoming free agents the
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  Speaker 5: day that they announced who's in the playoffs.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what's happening in college football.
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  Speaker 5: Every quarterback is essentially a free agent right now, every
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  Speaker 5: O lineman, every D lineman, every running back. And then
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  Speaker 5: also our free agents are all the other teams that
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  Speaker 5: didn't make the playoffs, and so for the teams that
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  Speaker 5: didn't play in conference championship games or not playing in
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  Speaker 5: the college football playoffs, they can devote a lot more
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  Speaker 5: time to free agency when when we're devoting time to
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  Speaker 5: trying to win a championship, whether it's a conference championship
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  Speaker 5: or a national championship. But I would just have it
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  Speaker 5: hard to think that the NFL would want, you know,
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  Speaker 5: Pat Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts all being free agents
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  Speaker 5: the day that the NFL playoffs begin. But that's the
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  Speaker 5: world we're living right now, so it is. It is
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  Speaker 5: definitely challenging a couple of the guys that have gone
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  Speaker 5: in the portal that are going to stick around and
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  Speaker 5: stay throughout the remainder of the playoffs. T Save is
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  Speaker 5: going to do that, Justice Finkley's going to do that.
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  Speaker 5: I think we have a couple other guys that are
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  Speaker 5: still trying to decide how they want to go about it.
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  Speaker 5: I'm not concerned about our depth in game from a
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  Speaker 5: defensive line perspective. I'm the guys that play will be
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  Speaker 5: ready to play and we'll be adequate depth there. More
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  Speaker 5: of the concern is how to practice, and I think
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  Speaker 5: This is one of the unintended consequences of having the
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  Speaker 5: portal while the playoffs are occurring, because now we're having
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  Speaker 5: to have guys that have to one prepare to play
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  Speaker 5: in a game, but also too servius the offense to
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: get them ready to play in the game. And I
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  Speaker 5: don't think that that's what we intended to do when
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  Speaker 5: we opened the portal the way that we did. And
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  Speaker 5: I'm sure other teams are dealing with some of the
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: same issues that we are too, so we're managing it.
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  Speaker 5: We we adjusted some of our practice plan to account
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  Speaker 5: for that, and I think we're in.
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  Speaker 2: A good spot. Okay.
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  Speaker 3: Next up, long Ouns did sign some new players in
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  Speaker 3: the transfer portal, uh and and uh and so doing
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  Speaker 3: one of the first things that came to mind that
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: that folks saw was that the signees included a punter
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  Speaker 3: and uh, I'm back to the world of Australian punters
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: because there's there's another one of those in there, and
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: the Long Runs had a string of those for a
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  Speaker 3: long time.
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  Speaker 2: But uh.
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  Speaker 3: Anyway, so uh, new new new players added to the list,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: and Sark was asked about these new guys, if you
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: could talk about that and also be able to provide
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: an update on Isaiah Bond as he tries to recover
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: from the ankle injury.
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  Speaker 1: So we'll start with Jacksonce.
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  Speaker 5: He was the first one, obviously an elite punter at
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: the University of Utah, Australian background, and as a guy
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: who's mastered a lot of the different punts and you know,
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: obviously you know, averaging forty five yards per punt, but
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: when you look at some of the specialty punts that
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: he has an ability to do, pending people inside the five,
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: inside the ten yard line, the hangtime. We're super excited
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: to have him join the team.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Cole, as we know, you.
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  Speaker 5: Know, with the attrition on the defensive line for us
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: this year, with some guys that have transferred and the
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: amount of seniors that we have on our defensive line.
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  Speaker 1: Although I thought we did.
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  Speaker 5: A great job in recruiting it out of the high
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: school ranks, this is probably going to be another cycle.
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  Speaker 5: And we talked about when you go into the portal,
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: you go in for positions of need. From a debt perspective,
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: I think Cole definitely provides that.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: You know, he's a guy with a ton of.
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  Speaker 5: Experience, started out at Penn State, started for two years
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: at Purdue, and now to get him on board as
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  Speaker 5: a big, physical interior defensive lineman I think is huge
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: for us. And then Brad Spence is a guy that
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: we actually, you know, we recruited pretty extensively out of
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: high school Climb Forced who was more of an edge
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: player in high school, and when he got to Arkansas
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: they played him off the ball some on regular downs
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: and then on third down they used him as kind
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: of a DPR and allowed.
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  Speaker 1: Him to rush.
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  Speaker 5: Had an excellent game against US, oddly enough, and they
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: get seven tackles in a sack against US. And so
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  Speaker 5: again we've had some attrition at the linebacker position with
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: some transfers. We've got a senior graduating. We were already
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: a little under the number from where we wanted to be.
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: We signed a couple of high school kids. But to
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: get him on board in the versatility and provide on
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: defense off the ball as well as pass rushing and
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: what he did on special teams for Arkansas, I think
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: is is big for us.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Isaiah is kind of all.
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: In the same boat as Kelvin as Quinn, and anytime
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: you're you're you have an ankle injury, it's it just
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: takes time, you know, And so we really took last
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: week to shut him down completely to try to get
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: him as healthy as we could. Isaiah and I had
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: had a great meeting last week, and he's gonna do
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: everything in his power to play this week. But we're
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: gonna have to monitor that daily as it goes. And
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: so I'll get a little better gauge coming out of
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: practice today and tomorrow as to kind of where he's
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: at and how available, what his availability would look like
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: for Saturday.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: Okay, all right, we'll hear more from Sark coming up.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: But up next we do have inconceivable let's just around
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: the corner here on a Monday afternoon on sports Radio
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: AM thirteen under zign any iHeartRadio app