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Michael Taaffe harassed after tackle in victory over Arizona State · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: It's the craig Way Show with the voice of the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Texas Longhorns and Hall of Fame Broadcasting Craig Way.
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  Speaker 2: Here on this Monday edition of the program, hearing from
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  Speaker 2: several long hornshout and another one. Michael Taff, of course,
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  Speaker 2: the subject of munch conversation after the hit that was
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  Speaker 2: never ruled targeting.
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  Speaker 3: It was reviewed for targeting but.
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  Speaker 2: Never ruled targeting, draw a lot of ire from Arizona
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  Speaker 2: State fans, drew analysis and paralysis by analysis from national
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  Speaker 2: media and things like that, interpretations and reinterpretations and sub
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  Speaker 2: interpretations of the targeting rule, all those sorts of things.
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  Speaker 2: Michael Taff would be asked about those things and preparing
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  Speaker 2: for Ohio State.
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  Speaker 4: Michael, you got a really tough wide receiver matchup. What's
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  Speaker 4: the key tost stopping guys like a Mecca and Jeremiah
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  Speaker 4: whoever else they run out there.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, they got an impressive group out of receiver. They
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  Speaker 5: got four or five guys that are really dangerous. Obviously,
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  Speaker 5: Jeremiah is really good. Obviously, Meca number two is elite,
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  Speaker 5: and number seventeen, number eleven.
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  Speaker 6: They got guys that you got to respect out there.
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  Speaker 5: So just knowing knowing the type of game plan, knowing
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  Speaker 5: what you're trying to do to them, knowing what they're
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  Speaker 5: trying to do to us, and just being ready and
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  Speaker 5: being confident.
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  Speaker 7: Michael, good afternoon. You played against Will Howard when he
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  Speaker 7: was a case State. Obviously, what do you recall from
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  Speaker 7: playing against him? And what have you guys learned the
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  Speaker 7: past two weeks playing against quarterbacks that can move pretty well?
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  Speaker 5: He's competitive, he wants to win. It was obvious in
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  Speaker 5: that game he was willing to do whatever it took.
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  Speaker 5: It came down to the last throw. It came down
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  Speaker 5: to that last little second when he was scrambling around
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  Speaker 5: trying to find somebody opening the end zone.
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  Speaker 6: And so he's competitive. He does what it takes to win.
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  Speaker 5: And you know, I don't assume anything lest from him
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  Speaker 5: and this matchup come Friday. So he's a he can
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  Speaker 5: put the ball where he needs to, he can deal
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  Speaker 5: with his legs, and he's he's a guy that you
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  Speaker 5: know those guys like on offense.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, Michael, have you ever played against an eighteen year
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  Speaker 3: old receiver who's six three and two twenty five? Go ahead?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, No, he's he's, uh, you know everything that he
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  Speaker 5: offers just is incredible. He's he's a guy that that
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  Speaker 5: looks like he's NF already already on Tate He's going
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  Speaker 5: up and getting the ball over to three defenders. So
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  Speaker 5: I think they got a lot of trust in him.
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  Speaker 5: It doesn't matter how good of coverage the defense has,
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  Speaker 5: will still giving him a chance.
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  Speaker 6: And clearly he's.
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  Speaker 5: He's making it, making money, and so you know, he's
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  Speaker 5: he's very talented. There's there's no way that that he's
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  Speaker 5: actually a team. He's he's a he's a dog, and
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  Speaker 5: I'm ready to go compete against him.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, Michael, hope you can hear me and having some
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  Speaker 1: Wi Fi issues, but just kind of piggybacking off of that,
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  Speaker 1: Is there anybody that you guys have faced this year
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  Speaker 1: from a receiver perspective? I think kind of you know,
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  Speaker 1: resembles you know, either Jeremiah Smith or any of the
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  Speaker 1: guys at Ohio State has.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't think you can compare anybody to Jeremiah.
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  Speaker 5: The whole country knows what type of talent he has,
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  Speaker 5: what type of football player he has, and I think
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  Speaker 5: he's only getting better because he's eighteen years old. So
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  Speaker 5: I really don't know how much you can compare anybody
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  Speaker 5: else to him. You know, I think number two, just
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  Speaker 5: being in that system for a while and knowing knowing
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  Speaker 5: that system, I think it looks like they trust him
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  Speaker 5: a lot, a lot.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 5: It seems like, you know, he's slide blocking like a
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  Speaker 5: tight end sometimes and kind of seems like a Jay
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  Speaker 5: Witt type of guy that you know. I bet that
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  Speaker 5: whole locker room loves him. It shows on tape. You know,
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  Speaker 5: he's doing those extra effort type of plays. And so
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  Speaker 5: I wouldn't say he's a receiver like Jaywit, but kind
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  Speaker 5: of that Jwhit mentality of doing it whatever, doing whatever
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  Speaker 5: it takes to win.
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  Speaker 6: And you can really tell on tape what's up, Michael.
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  Speaker 8: So I did some research and correct me if I'm wrong,
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  Speaker 8: But I don't believe you've ever lost it at and
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  Speaker 8: T Stadium in your football career. So what really allows
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  Speaker 8: you to cut it loose when you're playing there?
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  Speaker 5: I kind of go by the motto big time players
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  Speaker 5: and make big time plays and.
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  Speaker 6: Big time games.
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  Speaker 5: And whenever you're in at and T Stadium, that's always
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  Speaker 5: a big time game. So you got to show up,
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  Speaker 5: you got to show out, you got to be confident.
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  Speaker 5: You know, not a lot of people are are betting
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  Speaker 5: on the underdog, and most of the times that I've
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  Speaker 5: played there, I've been the underdog, and so I just
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  Speaker 5: believe in myself and kind of live by that motto.
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  Speaker 6: Oh House.
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  Speaker 9: It's just been dominating people in this playoffs, obviously, and
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  Speaker 9: there have been some concerns about you, you guys finishing and
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  Speaker 9: heaving the killer in state, you know, kind of like
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  Speaker 9: in the beach ball when you had the sixteen point lead.
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  Speaker 9: Is that a concern of y'alls? And and why do
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  Speaker 9: you feel like that is and how do you fix it?
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  Speaker 7: No?
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  Speaker 5: I don't feel like that's concerned obviously. You know, we
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  Speaker 5: got to keep harping on finishing. You know, we started
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  Speaker 5: really fast last week and we had always you know,
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  Speaker 5: preach finishing.
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  Speaker 6: I gave up.
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  Speaker 5: You know, one of my first go balls this year
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  Speaker 5: lay in that game on a on a deep go ball,
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  Speaker 5: this cateaboy. So I went to the saline, I said, hey,
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  Speaker 5: that's on me, you know, so if you're preaching it,
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  Speaker 5: you got to do it also. So you know, almost
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  Speaker 5: all that was was on me. Now, yes, you got
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  Speaker 5: to keep preaching it. But but I think there's just
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  Speaker 5: so many situations that happened in that game that you know,
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  Speaker 5: the football gods, if there is any, you know, they're
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  Speaker 5: they were on Arizona State side for for all that
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  Speaker 5: second half and it just seemed like nothing could could
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  Speaker 5: go our way, and that happens in football. But you know,
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  Speaker 5: at the end of the day, we came out with
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  Speaker 5: the w and no matter what it took, we were
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  Speaker 5: willing to do it. And you know, thank God for
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  Speaker 5: quinn Ewers to check the protection on fourteen thirteen and
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  Speaker 5: deliver a nice ball.
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  Speaker 6: To a well route by Matthew.
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  Speaker 10: Golden and Michael You guys have allowed more passing yards
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  Speaker 10: in each of these two CFP games than you did
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  Speaker 10: in any of a regular season games. So what do
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  Speaker 10: you attribute that to? And what are the things you
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  Speaker 10: feel like you have to clean up going into this game?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, just communicate, Just communicate with one another. You know,
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  Speaker 5: I think you got ten days to prepare for each
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  Speaker 5: one of these games. Arizona State had twenty days to
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  Speaker 5: compare to sorry to prepare for their game, and so
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  Speaker 5: you know, you have fifteen games on tape of what
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  Speaker 5: type of schemes you run, and so I think you know,
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  Speaker 5: with every defense, there's always you know, a beater to
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  Speaker 5: a defense. That's why defensive coordinators are always on the
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  Speaker 5: side throwing their hats, throwing their headsets down, because there's
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  Speaker 5: always some type of bead to every single defensive scheme.
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  Speaker 5: And so you know, when you have that much tape
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  Speaker 5: out there, all the games that we've played and in
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  Speaker 5: ten days to get ready for that and to to
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  Speaker 5: scheme a defensive back group, then.
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  Speaker 6: I think that's how that happens. And so is it okay? No,
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  Speaker 6: it's not okay at all.
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  Speaker 5: We got to do whatever it takes to to hold
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  Speaker 5: people to under you know, our standard of yards given
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  Speaker 5: up and then touchdowns given up. But I think that's
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  Speaker 5: kind of where it comes from. You know, we're playing
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  Speaker 5: really good teams. There's no there's no coincidence that you know,
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  Speaker 5: Ohio State made it to the final four. There's no
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  Speaker 5: coincidence that we made it to the final four. But
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  Speaker 5: you know, you gotta just you got to know what
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  Speaker 5: they're trying to attack, and you got to be confident
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  Speaker 5: in yourself.
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  Speaker 4: Hey, Michael, I wanted to ask you a little bit
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  Speaker 4: out the places you've played. You guys just came from
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  Speaker 4: a game in Atlanta, which of course you played a
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  Speaker 4: few weeks ago. You guys mentioned the eighteen and T
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  Speaker 4: Stadium familiarity. Obviously this team played for bigdeal title. There
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  Speaker 4: is there a tangible benefit to plane in venues that
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  Speaker 4: you have some familiarity with.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it gets those nerves out a little
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  Speaker 5: bit when you know, you know what the stadium looks like,
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  Speaker 5: what the atmosphere is, what the air smells like in
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  Speaker 5: that dome or that stadium, and so I think those
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  Speaker 5: nerves kind of rush out. And it's good to have nerves,
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  Speaker 5: I truly believe that, But too much built up nerves
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  Speaker 5: where you're not kind of playing your game because you're
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  Speaker 5: thinking about something else.
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  Speaker 6: I think that's where it can go wrong.
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  Speaker 5: And you know when when you have that familiar familiarity,
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  Speaker 5: then those nerves kind of subside. And so, you know,
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  Speaker 5: having that familiarity then then that comes with confidence and
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  Speaker 5: poise and composure. And so I think it's great that
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  Speaker 5: we get to go back to at and T Stadium.
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  Speaker 5: I know that the burn orange will be there and
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  Speaker 5: they'll be rowdy, they'll be they'll have the juice, and
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  Speaker 5: they'll be a loud on on third downs.
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  Speaker 3: Say Pike Ah click show.
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  Speaker 11: Sarkisian said to you, guys are a massive underdog, and
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  Speaker 11: your whole career has been about being a massive underdog overcoming.
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  Speaker 11: How can you use that as fuel and what are
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  Speaker 11: the conversations like with you and your teammates who have
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  Speaker 11: had some success.
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  Speaker 5: Again, Yeah, I kind of talked to talk to the defense,
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  Speaker 5: talked to the DBS about being under the dog, about
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  Speaker 5: being the underdog, because you know, that's that's my story.
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  Speaker 5: I love being the underdog, and you know that's just
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  Speaker 5: that's what I grew up with. That's the adversity that
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  Speaker 5: I faced, and that's where I got to where I
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  Speaker 5: am right now. But we're not super worried about what
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  Speaker 5: the critics say. We we live by the motto of
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  Speaker 5: the man in the arena, and so the people that
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  Speaker 5: are in the arena, the people that are with us
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  Speaker 5: every single day, you know, shedding blood, shedding sweat for
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  Speaker 5: one another to to honker a common goal. I think
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  Speaker 5: that's where we get our knowledge from. And you your
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  Speaker 5: mind goes where your thoughts go, and so when your
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  Speaker 5: thoughts are on this team, this dream and just taking
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  Speaker 5: it one day at a time, then you know that's
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  Speaker 5: where your mind.
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  Speaker 12: Is, Hey, Michael, Ohio State is uh is suddenly throwing
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  Speaker 12: the ball to set up the run?
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  Speaker 6: You know, just talk about how how you.
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  Speaker 12: You all on defense, who've been you know, coming up
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  Speaker 12: big all year, are gonna have to, uh, you know,
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  Speaker 12: be on your toes from the beginning in this game.
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  Speaker 12: And how's your body recovering after I think you played
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  Speaker 12: over one hundred snaps in the in the Peach Bowl.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, body's getting there definitely.
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  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 5: I feel like if if game day was tomorrow, I
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  Speaker 5: could go. The adrenaline would take me. You know, I'm
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  Speaker 5: willing to sell my body out on the line from
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  Speaker 5: my team.
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  Speaker 6: So body's there.
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  Speaker 5: But you know, everybody's gonna have a bumper or bruise
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  Speaker 5: when it's week sixteen and you're playing in January and
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  Speaker 5: you started I think we started July thirty first or
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  Speaker 5: something was our first game. I can't remember when Corral
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  Speaker 5: State was, but it was early. And so just knowing that,
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  Speaker 5: you know, just knowing that you're you're gonna be banged
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  Speaker 5: up and you just got to keep going.
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  Speaker 6: Now.
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  Speaker 5: They love to throw, they love they got too talented
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  Speaker 5: running backs too, So they're a pretty complete offense and
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  Speaker 5: you just got to know that the game plan switches
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  Speaker 5: from week to week. You've got a really hard running
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  Speaker 5: back that they wanted to run the ball, run the ball,
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  Speaker 5: run the ball on Arizona State. And so now this
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  Speaker 5: next team, you're a little bit more balanced. You got
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  Speaker 5: two really good running backs, you've got a really good quarterback,
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  Speaker 5: you got a good O line, and then you got
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  Speaker 5: obviously your receivers out wide that we've been talking about.
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  Speaker 6: So you just got to know the game plan.
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  Speaker 2: All right, there's from Michael Taff. We'll be back to
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  Speaker 2: wrap up today. He's edition to the program on Sports
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  Speaker 2: Radio AM thirteen under the Zone. I wanted to stare
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  Speaker 2: up because I wanted you to hear this. This is
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  Speaker 2: what I was talking about when I mentioned about tap
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  Speaker 2: getting feedback. Is one way to put it on the
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  Speaker 2: tackle that he made there in the fourth quarter of
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  Speaker 2: the Peach Bowl. The question coming from our old friend
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  Speaker 2: Kirk Boles.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, to discuss that that hit. I think, first, thank
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  Speaker 5: God that that I don't have to have my foundation
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  Speaker 5: and the opinion of others, the approval of man or
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  Speaker 5: the game of football, because the things that were thrown
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  Speaker 5: my way after that game on text, people that are
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  Speaker 5: finding my phone number on social media.
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  Speaker 6: I don't think anyone should ever have to go through.
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  Speaker 5: So thank God that I don't put my trust in
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  Speaker 5: what others say about me. Now, the second thing, you know,
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  Speaker 5: I said a prayer for that guy. I know, you know,
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  Speaker 5: number five, it took him a long time to get
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  Speaker 5: up from that head.
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  Speaker 6: And I know it's football, but but you.
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  Speaker 5: Know, I wanted to pray for him, and I hope
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  Speaker 5: he's doing okay, because you know, you never.
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  Speaker 6: Want to see anybody go down on the football field.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 5: The third thing, I've always been taught all my life
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  Speaker 5: to whenever you're tackling, tackle with your eyes up.
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  Speaker 6: If your if your head's ever down, then your next
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  Speaker 6: gonna get injured.
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  Speaker 5: So I always try to tackle with my eyes up
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  Speaker 5: and I always try to wrap, and I think that's
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  Speaker 5: what I did on on that play. I had my
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  Speaker 5: eyes up and I rapped, and I left it up
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  Speaker 5: to the officials. So I gotta probably get my pad
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  Speaker 5: level down a little bit more. But I tackled with
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  Speaker 5: my eyes open and I rapped. And so when your
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  Speaker 5: eyes are up and you're wrapping, that's fundamental football.
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  Speaker 6: That's what you've been taught since the second grade.
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  Speaker 3: So there you go.
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  Speaker 2: That's Michael Tab's thoughts on that and just saying that
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  Speaker 2: wrapped up. And again, I know there was a great
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  Speaker 2: deal of discussion about this. Those who claimed that it
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  Speaker 2: was targeting, you know, cited the nature of the hit,
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  Speaker 2: the elevation of the head they had contact, and they
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  Speaker 2: pointed to that in the rules. Those who pointed out
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  Speaker 2: that were many. You pointed them out, and I will
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  Speaker 2: say those who said targeting included guys like Gene Sterotor
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  Speaker 2: of CBS, Terry McCauley of NBC, all the NFL rules
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  Speaker 2: analysts said they thought it was targeting. And then there
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  Speaker 2: was another one that came back in later might have
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: been Terry McCauley came back and said on second thought.
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  Speaker 2: And they also pointed out several calls that were not
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: made and should have been made against Arizona State, the
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  Speaker 2: one where Isaiah Bond gets whacked and knocked down.
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  Speaker 3: They thought that should have been targeting.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Obviously, the touchdown and overtime for Cam Scattaboo being pulled
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  Speaker 2: into the end zone, that is in direct violation of
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: NCAA rules. You were not allowed to pull a runner
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: into the endzone. You could push which cannot pull a runner,
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  Speaker 2: So there was a lot of that. There were folks
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  Speaker 2: aught that Kataboo pushed off on the past events on
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  Speaker 2: the downfield route there, so there was a lot of that.
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  Speaker 2: Probably the most humorous one was the one from the
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  Speaker 2: Arizona State fans claiming that the missfield goal that hit
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: the ground should have counted when it hopped over the crossbar. Now,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: there is a provision in the rules for the ball
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  Speaker 2: hitting the ground and crossing the crossbar and being good.
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  Speaker 3: But that's a drop kick. That's a design kick.
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  Speaker 2: It's an old loll start in the NFL, and it's
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  Speaker 2: still in the rules where you can take it like
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  Speaker 2: a punt and drop it and when it hits the ground,
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: you kick it off the ground. That's the same thing
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  Speaker 2: like if you're kicking it off being holed, held on
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  Speaker 2: the ground, not held on the ground, up hits the
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  Speaker 2: ground again and goes over. And a lot of Arizona
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  Speaker 2: State fans couldn't get that. They thought that it should
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  Speaker 2: have counted because in the rule bucket says it could
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  Speaker 2: come off the ground. Yes, if it's a drop kick,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: look it up. If you've never heard of a drop kick,
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  Speaker 2: like I said, it's an old loll start in the
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  Speaker 2: NFL and college football as well, but that's how they
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  Speaker 2: used to do extra points, less about placement and more
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  Speaker 2: of the drop kick, which is still a legal kick.
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  Speaker 2: You can do it, just like when folks didn't know
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  Speaker 2: about the rule that Dick or the kicker didn't where
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  Speaker 2: you can fare catch off a punt and have a
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  Speaker 2: free kick for a field goal. Crazy to do it.
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  Speaker 2: It's in the rules. You've just got to know the rules.
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  Speaker 2: That's the thing. And that's when I think I heard,
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  Speaker 2: more than anything else in feedback from fans and seeing
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  Speaker 2: on social media, is that folks either did not read
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  Speaker 2: the rule or did not understand the rules. And that
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  Speaker 2: includes the targeting thing to it. And I will say this,
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  Speaker 2: the targeting rule has a great deal of ambiguity in it.
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  Speaker 2: It's there are some things that, eh, you don't but
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  Speaker 2: you know, the most important thing was he was not
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  Speaker 2: leading a crown of the helmet