Latest / The Craig Way Show / Seven Pressing Questions for Texas against Clemson with Eric Henry
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Texas will host Clemson. Here the help me preview this game.
- 0:03Speaker 1: But Eric Henry from Horns two four seven, Erica, thanks
- 0:07Speaker 1: for hopping on an. They're another busy week and this
- 0:10Speaker 1: time not joining me from a hotel room.
- 0:13Speaker 2: Caim.
- 0:14Speaker 3: I'm not opposed to little Darius Rutger, little blowfish, but
- 0:17Speaker 3: this is this is the flagship station of the Horns. Man,
- 0:20Speaker 3: where's the big ex the plug?
- 0:24Speaker 1: Craig with text being like, hey, what do you playing?
- 0:27Speaker 2: You know?
- 0:28Speaker 1: I also I don't want to get e FCC fine
- 0:31Speaker 1: fare point, Eric, had you had a good post on
- 0:33Speaker 1: two four seven sports dot com seven pressing questions for
- 0:36Speaker 1: this game between Texas and Clemson, And you start off
- 0:40Speaker 1: with kin, Texas went on early down, so then they
- 0:42Speaker 1: struggled with against Georgia and it's going to play a
- 0:44Speaker 1: key role in this game against Clemson to marrow.
- 0:47Speaker 3: Listen, if you take a look back at Texas is
- 0:50Speaker 3: lost in the SEC title game, they went six of
- 0:52Speaker 3: eighteen on third down. Now, Cam, you and I are
- 0:55Speaker 3: never going to confuse for Steve starkeg all right, he's
- 0:58Speaker 3: forgotten more football than we'll ever know. This forward Division
- 1:01Speaker 3: two football player is not claimed to be in the
- 1:03Speaker 3: same stratuspeare as him.
- 1:04Speaker 2: However, that yeah, yeah, Jacksonville University.
- 1:08Speaker 3: All right, all right, we played a year D two
- 1:10Speaker 3: football for our realized the NFL isn't looking for five
- 1:13Speaker 3: to nine linebackers, so I better focus on this communications thing,
- 1:17Speaker 3: start talking rather than playing. Nevertheless, you don't have to
- 1:20Speaker 3: be an expert to figure out that eleven point six
- 1:23Speaker 3: yards to go on third down not necessarily the ideal circumstance.
- 1:27Speaker 3: That's the average that Texas needed to convert third downs
- 1:31Speaker 3: two weeks ago. Now, three of or excuse me, three
- 1:35Speaker 3: of the six third down conversions that Texas had they
- 1:38Speaker 3: weren't third and short. So that's why one of my
- 1:40Speaker 3: seven pressing questions is winning on early downs. Texas needs
- 1:44Speaker 3: to stay ahead of the chains. A big part of that.
- 1:46Speaker 3: And I'm sure you're gonna ask me about this guy
- 1:47Speaker 3: at some point. Is keeping TJ. Parker in the rest
- 1:50Speaker 3: of Clemson's defense front the front seven off of quint yours.
- 1:55Speaker 2: Yeah, let's go ahead and talk about TJ. Parker.
- 1:56Speaker 1: I think he's go with sixteen sacks this season. He's
- 2:00Speaker 1: been absolutely tremendous for the law for the Tigers, and
- 2:03Speaker 1: a big matchup will be Calvin Banks, who was coming
- 2:06Speaker 1: to this game probably less than one hundred percent against Parker,
- 2:09Speaker 1: who can you know, wreak some havoc in the in
- 2:11Speaker 1: the Texas, in the Quinn yours excuse me?
- 2:15Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 2:16Speaker 2: The three names though, starting with t J.
- 2:18Speaker 3: Parkers, you mentioned sixteen and a half sacks for his career,
- 2:21Speaker 3: eleven and a half this year. He's a guy who
- 2:23Speaker 3: continuously has a sophomore camp. First off, these you know guys,
- 2:26Speaker 3: they just come out of high school now.
- 2:27Speaker 2: Bigger and bigger.
- 2:28Speaker 3: I mean he's six three, two seventy as a sophomore,
- 2:30Speaker 3: which he's just crazy for that size.
- 2:32Speaker 2: As an edge player, a guy's only in a second year.
- 2:34Speaker 3: Playing college football, but he's consistently made plays behind the
- 2:37Speaker 3: line of scrimmage. And as you mentioned that matchup he
- 2:40Speaker 3: versus Calvin Banks junior, and everyone knows, you know, Kelvin
- 2:44Speaker 3: when he's right, one of the top two three offensive
- 2:47Speaker 3: lineman in all the college with all there is a
- 2:48Speaker 3: reason he was a unanimous All American.
- 2:51Speaker 2: But how is he going to fare with that ankle?
- 2:53Speaker 3: During the limited availability that Steve Sarkgian and company gave
- 2:56Speaker 3: us on Monday to watch practice, Kevin was running with
- 2:59Speaker 3: the first team, didn't walk with the limp appears to
- 3:01Speaker 3: be fine, but it's something that you know, you can
- 3:03Speaker 3: only test that thing out when the bullets are alive,
- 3:06Speaker 3: the you know, proverbial bullets are alive, and you're going
- 3:08Speaker 3: against a guy like t J. Parker, then of course
- 3:10Speaker 3: the other two guys keep an eye on are wood As.
- 3:12Speaker 3: Wade wood As and Barrett Carter, two guys who are
- 3:15Speaker 3: in that front seven linebackers continuously make plays behind the
- 3:18Speaker 3: line of scrimmage cam The thing about Clemson's defense, And
- 3:21Speaker 3: it's so funny because I've done you know, countless radio
- 3:24Speaker 3: spots this week, and whenever I do the spots in
- 3:27Speaker 3: South Carolina, they're a little down on this Clemson defense.
- 3:30Speaker 3: And oh it's not. The Clemson defense is a year's past.
- 3:32Speaker 3: With Dado Swooney and others. We'reas if you ask Steve
- 3:35Speaker 3: Sarcasian and company, they continue to raid about Clemson's defense, right, So,
- 3:39Speaker 3: I guess it's all about the perspective you view it from.
- 3:41Speaker 3: No doubt, you know, no matter which way you slice it,
- 3:44Speaker 3: this is a very talented defensive front seven and Texas's
- 3:47Speaker 3: offensive line can have their hands full of them.
- 3:50Speaker 1: Redstone scoring has been a big issue for taxes as
- 3:52Speaker 1: of late one hundred and six in the nation, and
- 3:54Speaker 1: they are converting about seventy eight percent of the redstone trips.
- 3:58Speaker 1: Do you think two weeks it up time for Texas
- 4:00Speaker 1: to kind of figure that rhythm out in the red zone?
- 4:03Speaker 1: And could par that answer maybe be number sixteen? Arch Manning?
- 4:07Speaker 2: All right, So I will come to the arch aspect
- 4:10Speaker 2: in a second. Cam.
- 4:11Speaker 3: I'm a huge believer in trends. I don't like to
- 4:14Speaker 3: isolate statistics. I like to view them over long, extended
- 4:18Speaker 3: period of periods of time. I think that's how you
- 4:20Speaker 3: get inaccurate look at the numbers. Texas over the past
- 4:23Speaker 3: two years has not been the greatest red zone team.
- 4:26Speaker 3: So when you ask me, do I think two weeks
- 4:28Speaker 3: is enough time to get it fixed?
- 4:29Speaker 2: You hope? So Texas has at.
- 4:32Speaker 3: Times shown the ability, shown glimpses of being an effective
- 4:36Speaker 3: red zone team. They started out well in the red zone,
- 4:38Speaker 3: but big difference trying to do it against the Georgias
- 4:40Speaker 3: of the world, the Texas A and M's and others,
- 4:44Speaker 3: as opposed to doing it against ULM and quite frankly,
- 4:47Speaker 3: a very bad Michigan team and Utsas and others.
- 4:50Speaker 2: So it's going to be interesting to see.
- 4:52Speaker 3: Now.
- 4:52Speaker 2: Of course it's a point.
- 4:54Speaker 3: Red zone efficiency can be a little bit overrated, and
- 4:58Speaker 3: I'm not saying it has been for Texas this year
- 5:00Speaker 3: because you look at that Georgia game, they struggled in
- 5:02Speaker 3: the high red zone, right that you can make the
- 5:04Speaker 3: argument that costs him the game. However, if you're able
- 5:07Speaker 3: to score with the big play from outside the red zone,
- 5:09Speaker 3: well then the.
- 5:10Speaker 2: Red zone doesn't necessarily matter as much.
- 5:11Speaker 3: Right, If you're getting thirty forty yard touchdowns, great, at
- 5:14Speaker 3: least you're finding seven points. But when you get the
- 5:16Speaker 3: ball on the opposition side of the field, especially in
- 5:18Speaker 3: that high red in the red zone, you need to
- 5:20Speaker 3: walk away with seven points. And not to throw anybody
- 5:22Speaker 3: under the bus. But bert Auburn has been you know,
- 5:25Speaker 3: a little bit hit or missed. I mean's four or
- 5:27Speaker 3: six last week. But you don't really want to put,
- 5:29Speaker 3: you know, that situation on the foot of your kicker. Now,
- 5:32Speaker 3: of course, the elephant in the room, the arch manning elephant.
- 5:35Speaker 2: Right, do I think he's going to be a factor.
- 5:37Speaker 2: I think the answer is yes.
- 5:38Speaker 3: I think we're at a period in time in which
- 5:40Speaker 3: and I'm not saying that this was part of Steve
- 5:42Speaker 3: Sarkisian's logic, but I just think, you know, the managing
- 5:45Speaker 3: of the quarterback room, which I think Steve has done
- 5:47Speaker 3: an excellent job over the past two.
- 5:49Speaker 2: Years, that kind of goes out the window now, right.
- 5:51Speaker 3: It's all about, Hey, if we need to do whatever
- 5:54Speaker 3: it takes to win a game, that's what you do
- 5:56Speaker 3: because you're not worried about next week next opponent, because
- 5:59Speaker 3: guess what, you don't take your business on Saturday, there
- 6:01Speaker 3: is no next opponent, right, So I do think you
- 6:04Speaker 3: pull out all the stops and that will probably look
- 6:07Speaker 3: like Arch Manning and some sort of package in the
- 6:10Speaker 3: red zone on Saturday.
- 6:11Speaker 1: Do you think Texas has to play a perfect game
- 6:13Speaker 1: tomorrow to win, because I don't know if we've seen
- 6:16Speaker 1: Texas's a game against an opponent like this since maybe
- 6:21Speaker 1: Week two against Michigan.
- 6:24Speaker 2: This is how I feel about the entirety of the
- 6:26Speaker 2: college football Playoff.
- 6:27Speaker 3: To be honest with you, Cam, I'll respect Oregon because
- 6:31Speaker 3: obviously they come in unblemished, and I don't even think
- 6:33Speaker 3: Oregon is, you know, a team that's completely infallible without
- 6:37Speaker 3: their own issues. But will put them aside for a second,
- 6:40Speaker 3: whether it's Texas or any of the other teams in
- 6:43Speaker 3: this field. I think the reason why this playoff field
- 6:46Speaker 3: feels so wide open is because you can say about
- 6:49Speaker 3: virtually any of those teams outside of Oregon that if
- 6:52Speaker 3: they played their A game, they can beat anybody. The
- 6:55Speaker 3: thing that makes it so interesting is that I feel
- 6:57Speaker 3: like the rest of these teams, you've seen them play
- 7:00Speaker 3: their A game one week, their B game, their B
- 7:03Speaker 3: minus game, and that's cost them some games. So to
- 7:06Speaker 3: make it specific to Texas, does Texas need to play
- 7:09Speaker 3: their A game? No, Texas can be Clemson with their
- 7:12Speaker 3: B game because Clemson, quite frankly is a team that
- 7:14Speaker 3: I don't want to disrespect them, but I think they
- 7:16Speaker 3: kind of snuck in the back door and you know,
- 7:18Speaker 3: SMU really had a chance to take care of business
- 7:21Speaker 3: in that ACC title game, right, So I don't think
- 7:23Speaker 3: Texas has to play their A game. But moving forward,
- 7:26Speaker 3: it would be really nice starting on Saturday if Texas
- 7:29Speaker 3: can build some consistency and play something as close as
- 7:32Speaker 3: possible to their A game, because there's no you know,
- 7:35Speaker 3: if not now, then when to really get that consistently.
- 7:38Speaker 3: And we got especially on offense, because you know, we're
- 7:40Speaker 3: not talking about the defense.
- 7:40Speaker 2: We're talking about the offense.
- 7:42Speaker 1: The line open at eleven and a half for a reason,
- 7:44Speaker 1: and it's because this Clemson team, you no offense to
- 7:46Speaker 1: Dallo Sweeney. They're a bit stealer, right. They got in
- 7:49Speaker 1: because Miami could not figure out how the play defense,
- 7:53Speaker 1: and also because maybe SMU is a little bit overexposed
- 7:56Speaker 1: in that ACC title game. But as you know, with
- 7:59Speaker 1: these long periods of time in between the matchup announced
- 8:02Speaker 1: in the actual game and with us talking about it
- 8:05Speaker 1: every single day, sometimes the narrative will change. And I'm
- 8:09Speaker 1: hearing a lot of underdog narrative and Davilis Sweeney and
- 8:12Speaker 1: he's a college football playoff champion, all that stuff leading
- 8:16Speaker 1: into that. You know, now I'm hearing people actually pick
- 8:18Speaker 1: Clemson to win this game. But when we look at
- 8:21Speaker 1: both sides, Eric Texas seems a little more talented. They
- 8:25Speaker 1: have the better weapons, the better defense, and arguably the
- 8:28Speaker 1: better coaching staff here.
- 8:30Speaker 2: No again, no disagreement there.
- 8:32Speaker 3: I don't think there's any doubt cam that if Clemson's
- 8:34Speaker 3: gonna pull off the upset, and I do think it's
- 8:36Speaker 3: an upset. I you know, no disrespect to Clemson, but
- 8:40Speaker 3: to view them winning this game as anything other than upset,
- 8:43Speaker 3: I think is just you know, not living in reality.
- 8:47Speaker 3: It's gonna take Kate Clubnick, right, it's gonna take an
- 8:49Speaker 3: outstanding speaking of a performances, it's gonna take the A
- 8:52Speaker 3: plus performance from Kate Clubnick. I think they're gonna have
- 8:54Speaker 3: to get something from Phil Maffa. And I think that's
- 8:56Speaker 3: interesting because he's a guy who six of the first
- 8:59Speaker 3: nine out had top the century mark, had one hundred
- 9:01Speaker 3: yards rushing.
- 9:02Speaker 2: But since he's had those shoulders, his shoulder injury, shoulder issues.
- 9:06Speaker 3: Has been I think it's fifty three carries for a
- 9:09Speaker 3: buck twenty something, right, so he's not tote in the
- 9:11Speaker 3: rock really well in the backfield. But yeah, in terms
- 9:14Speaker 3: of Clemson, if they're gonna win this game, it's gonna
- 9:16Speaker 3: take their stars, t J. Parker being a game wrecker
- 9:18Speaker 3: on the defensive side of the valve, Barrett Carter being
- 9:20Speaker 3: a game wrecker, Mickens and Hampton and those guys in
- 9:24Speaker 3: the secondary, you know, really stepping up. And yeah, it's
- 9:27Speaker 3: gonna take as I mentioned, Kate Klubnik. And let's take
- 9:30Speaker 3: a second there, Cam, I mean Kate club Nick is
- 9:33Speaker 3: probably and not probably even touch it.
- 9:35Speaker 2: He is the best.
- 9:36Speaker 3: Quarterback that Texas will have faced this year, no respector
- 9:39Speaker 3: Marcel Reid or Taylor Green and others, and that in itself,
- 9:43Speaker 3: of course, gives you a chance any given Saturday.
- 9:45Speaker 1: Yeah, Phil moffas I think Dabo said this weekly, he
- 9:48Speaker 1: is gonna have to have soldier surgery and look at
- 9:50Speaker 1: his last couple of games has not fared well and
- 9:53Speaker 1: I can't imagine what it's like him playing through that.
- 9:55Speaker 1: And obviously Jay Haynes, their backup rinning back, He's out
- 9:57Speaker 1: for this game, so a lot will be put on
- 9:59Speaker 1: k Clubnick. You mentioned club Nick in the big plays.
- 10:02Speaker 1: I think that's a huge part of this game is
- 10:04Speaker 1: if Clemson can create both a big plays because both teams,
- 10:08Speaker 1: both offensively are great at creating plays of twenty yards
- 10:11Speaker 1: or more, thirty yards or more, but Texas defensively is
- 10:14Speaker 1: great at stopping them, whereas Clemson is not. So if
- 10:17Speaker 1: we're looking at maybe two big broken plays by Kid
- 10:20Speaker 1: Klebnick and the Tire and the Tigers, maybe Antonio Williams
- 10:23Speaker 1: gets free, that's the recipe for success. But also, as
- 10:26Speaker 1: you mentioned in your piece, here the turnovers of it.
- 10:28Speaker 1: It's going to be a huge part of this game
- 10:30Speaker 1: as well.
- 10:31Speaker 3: I think protecting the football is going to be huge.
- 10:33Speaker 3: I'll start from the Texas side of things. Here's the
- 10:37Speaker 3: thing that Texas's defense has done all season long. When
- 10:40Speaker 3: Texas's offense is failed to kind of get going early,
- 10:43Speaker 3: Texas's defense has bought them time, extra possessions to get
- 10:47Speaker 3: their footing, get going and then eventually produce points. That
- 10:51Speaker 3: I think is going to need to be the situation
- 10:53Speaker 3: again on Saturday. Now for Clemson, it's a totally different scenario, right,
- 10:57Speaker 3: You're thinking, all right, if Clemson's going to come into
- 11:00Speaker 3: leave with a victory, it's going to take.
- 11:02Speaker 2: Something close to their a game.
- 11:04Speaker 3: Plus plus turning over Texas, turning over Quinnie, were turning
- 11:07Speaker 3: over the offense and giving Clemson their own offense additional
- 11:11Speaker 3: opportunities to go out and put up points. Because again,
- 11:13Speaker 3: and I said this on a different spot earlier this week, Yes,
- 11:17Speaker 3: Clemson's offense and k Klubman probably gonna be one of
- 11:19Speaker 3: the more talented offenses that Texas has faced all year.
- 11:22Speaker 3: But I refuse, based on what I've seen this season,
- 11:26Speaker 3: to put my belief in anything other than the most
- 11:30Speaker 3: consistent thing.
- 11:31Speaker 2: That I've seen. And quite frankly, I've been Texas defense
- 11:34Speaker 2: all year long.
- 11:35Speaker 3: I Am not going to choose against Texas's defense to
- 11:39Speaker 3: allow something like fourteen, seventeen to twenty points.
- 11:41Speaker 2: So I just haven't seen it this year.
- 11:43Speaker 3: Remember when Georgia walked out out of DKR with a
- 11:45Speaker 3: win in thirty points. That's because Texas offense put them
- 11:48Speaker 3: in untenable situations to really defend their own end zone.
- 11:51Speaker 3: So turnover battle is going to be huge time. Posession
- 11:53Speaker 3: battle is going to be a huge field position battle.
- 11:55Speaker 2: It's going to be Yeah.
- 11:56Speaker 1: I think Texas seven turnovers combined me in those two
- 11:58Speaker 1: Georgia games I went too. And on the Clemson side,
- 12:02Speaker 1: they've only had one game that they do a great
- 12:03Speaker 1: job of holding onto the football, only one game where
- 12:05Speaker 1: they've had two turnovers or more. They've lost the game
- 12:08Speaker 1: in South Carolina, and the two games where they did
- 12:10Speaker 1: not force to turnover against George against Louisville they did lose.
- 12:13Speaker 1: So hold on to the football will be a big part
- 12:15Speaker 1: of it. Before we let you go, two things. First off,
- 12:19Speaker 1: your prediction for tomorrow's game.
- 12:21Speaker 3: My prediction for tomorrow's game is I do think Texas's
- 12:25Speaker 3: offense will need some time to find its footing, but
- 12:27Speaker 3: I don't think it's going to take a whole quarter
- 12:29Speaker 3: or and a half. I've got Texas winning something like
- 12:32Speaker 3: thirty one fourteen.
- 12:33Speaker 2: Thirty one seventeen.
- 12:34Speaker 1: Okay, so a little bit more higher scoring than I'm
- 12:36Speaker 1: seeing a lot of like twenty twenty fourteen to twenty
- 12:39Speaker 1: ten games.
- 12:42Speaker 3: I don't have that much faith in Clemson's If Texas
- 12:45Speaker 3: offense is going to find enough of stride to win
- 12:47Speaker 3: the game, I think.
- 12:48Speaker 2: It's going to put points.
- 12:49Speaker 1: Okay, all right, So Eric Henry rolling with the long
- 12:51Speaker 1: courts tomorrow. And then last thing for you. Last night
- 12:53Speaker 1: you were at Moody Center and you witness history. Jordan
- 12:56Speaker 1: Pope forty two points a Moody Center high, career high
- 12:58Speaker 1: for him. Is tox team trying to find their footing
- 13:02Speaker 1: before a rigorous conference schedule play. And they've had two
- 13:05Speaker 1: games without Trey Johnson, and so far we've seen different
- 13:08Speaker 1: guys step up, including Jordan Pope, the transfer guard. We've
- 13:11Speaker 1: seen some good minutes out of Nick Cody. As Texas
- 13:14Speaker 1: gets ready for conference play, have you seen enough for
- 13:16Speaker 1: them to feel good about where they're going to be
- 13:18Speaker 1: going into the SEC.
- 13:20Speaker 2: I have not Cameron, to be honest with you.
- 13:22Speaker 3: I mean, I yes, they're able to find the win
- 13:24Speaker 3: against NC State, but let's call a spade a spade, right,
- 13:27Speaker 3: And I don't want to suspect any of the non
- 13:29Speaker 3: conference opponents that Texas has played, who aren't you know,
- 13:31Speaker 3: power teams, but they're.
- 13:34Speaker 2: Bad and bad is an understatement. I mean New Orleans
- 13:36Speaker 2: came in here last night.
- 13:38Speaker 3: The average height of their starting line was what six
- 13:39Speaker 3: to two six ' three, right, So to go you know,
- 13:43Speaker 3: for a half and be out rebounded by New Orleans.
- 13:46Speaker 3: That to me, I'm not trying to you know, throw
- 13:47Speaker 3: cold water on Rodney Terry's club in Texas. I think,
- 13:51Speaker 3: as Artie has continued to emphasize, this group is gonna
- 13:54Speaker 3: have to gel, They're gonna have to find their footing together. However,
- 13:57Speaker 3: I would have liked to have seen them at least
- 13:59Speaker 3: not one quad one plod two victory or type of
- 14:02Speaker 3: victory against whether I mean not as that the Yukon,
- 14:05Speaker 3: although it was a struggling Yukon, but Ohio State or something.
- 14:08Speaker 3: So yeah, it's gonna be a little bit more show improve,
- 14:11Speaker 3: especially with the start of that SEC slate that you know,
- 14:14Speaker 3: you know just as well as I do.
- 14:16Speaker 2: It's gonna be tough.
- 14:17Speaker 1: Yeah, and they'll definitely have their chances of getting a
- 14:19Speaker 1: quad one win in the SEC, that's for sure, with
- 14:22Speaker 1: almost half the conference ranked and right now I think
- 14:25Speaker 1: thirteen projected bids into the NCAA tournament. He's Eric Henry,
- 14:29Speaker 1: of course, to follow him on Twitter, Eric C Henry
- 14:31Speaker 1: Underscore read his work on Horns two four seven. Eric,
- 14:35Speaker 1: thanks so much for stopping by, and we'll see you
- 14:36Speaker 1: tomorrow at dk R.
- 14:38Speaker 2: Always a pleasure man, appreciate you having me on.
- 14:40Speaker 1: Yes, sir Eric Henry from Horns two for seven, we'll
- 14:44Speaker 1: be back to wrap up today's show. Well not just yet.
- 14:46Speaker 1: We still have about thirty minutes. We're gonna hear more
- 14:48Speaker 1: from head coach Steve sarkjen As Texas takes on Clemson
- 14:51Speaker 1: tomorrow in the first round of the College Football Playoff