Latest / The Craig Way Show / Steve Sarkisian on narrow win over Vanderbilt, penalties, and plan for the open week

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Steve Sarkisian on narrow win over Vanderbilt, penalties, and plan for the open week · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: It's the Craig Way Show with the voice of the
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  Speaker 1: Texas Longhorns and Hall of Fame Broadcasting.
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  Speaker 2: Craig glad to have you with us on a Monday
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  Speaker 2: afternoon here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone,
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  Speaker 2: a Long Worn's Monday where we recap Texas long Orne
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  Speaker 2: game in here from the head coach. So, without further ado,
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  Speaker 2: you heard it if you had the chance this morning
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  Speaker 2: to listen to it live here on the Zone. This morning,
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  Speaker 2: we had the opportunity to bring you Long Worn head
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  Speaker 2: coach Steve Sarcaisian's weekly news conference in its entirety, but
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  Speaker 2: we break it up and bring pieces of it to
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  Speaker 2: you throughout the course of the afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: So let's do that right now.
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  Speaker 2: Starting with some detailed information coming in Sart's opening statement, here's.
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  Speaker 1: A little recap.
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  Speaker 3: I think of the last ballgame before we talk about
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  Speaker 3: kind of where we're at, where we're headed is you know,
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  Speaker 3: first of all, just thanking our fans again, you know,
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  Speaker 3: you think about and talking to some of the players afterwards.
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  Speaker 3: The impact that our fans had on the road was
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  Speaker 3: was awesome to have their support the way that we did.
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  Speaker 3: I also think this past week and kind of speaks
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  Speaker 3: to the aspect.
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  Speaker 1: Of where we've come as a program.
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  Speaker 3: For our ninth straight road win, I think that that
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  Speaker 3: talks to the kind of the mindset, the mentality our
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  Speaker 3: players have on the road, and and going on the
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  Speaker 3: road is not always ideal. It's not always perfect circumstances,
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  Speaker 3: and this week was not, which we'll talk about, but
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  Speaker 3: sticking together having the mental fortitude, the mental toughness uh
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  Speaker 3: to to go do that on the road where other
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  Speaker 3: people have have gone and lost, I think is I
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  Speaker 3: think continues to speak to where we're headed as a program.
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  Speaker 3: So I was really proud of our team for that
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  Speaker 3: and and where we've gotten to on the road, where
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  Speaker 3: early on in our time here, winning on the road
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  Speaker 3: was difficult, and I think that we've adopted that mentality
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  Speaker 3: of winning on the road, which is which is.
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  Speaker 1: Great as far as the ball game goes.
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  Speaker 3: You know, you never know kind of the impact of
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  Speaker 3: everything until you boil it back down and you start
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  Speaker 3: to look at it. You know, we had ten penalties
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  Speaker 3: in the game, and seven of them were really impactful penalties.
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  Speaker 3: You know, there's times that you can get penalties and
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  Speaker 3: you know it's a fall starts five yards you know
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  Speaker 3: it's first and fifteen and there's nothing really to see here,
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  Speaker 3: but you have four penalties on offense that really negated
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  Speaker 3: four explosive runs.
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  Speaker 1: And so what does that.
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  Speaker 3: Impact have not only on the result of what that
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  Speaker 3: drive could have been, but where it kind.
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  Speaker 1: Of sets you back. That's the first part.
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  Speaker 3: The second part we get we get a holding on
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  Speaker 3: a kickoff return to start on our first return to where, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: what might not have been a great return. We get
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  Speaker 3: the ball, I think on the fourteen or fifteen yard line,
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  Speaker 3: but we get a holding penalty.
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  Speaker 1: Now we have to start inside our own ten.
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  Speaker 3: The odds of you score starting inside of your own
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  Speaker 3: ten diminish immensely. We have two penalties on the defensive
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  Speaker 3: side of the ball, one on a fourth and seven
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  Speaker 3: a pass interference penalty that we're in great position.
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  Speaker 1: Manny's an awesome position.
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  Speaker 3: I think if he could do it all over again,
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  Speaker 3: he turned around a little quicker, he might even intercept it.
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  Speaker 3: But the result of a pass interference on fourth and
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  Speaker 3: seven resulted in seven points on that drive for Vanderbilt.
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  Speaker 3: And then later in the game we get a roughing
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  Speaker 3: the passer penalty on an interception return for a touchdown
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  Speaker 3: that in turn results in a touchdown for Vanderbilt again,
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  Speaker 3: and so you're just looking at that's a fourteen point
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  Speaker 3: swing on one play, a seven point swing on another play,
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  Speaker 3: a probably a seven point swing when you have to
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  Speaker 3: start inside your own ten yard line to start a drive,
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  Speaker 3: and then four explosive runs getting called back. Those are
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  Speaker 3: impactful plays in a game. And so our penalties did
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  Speaker 3: not come at the ideal time. I don't know if
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  Speaker 3: there is an ideal time, but those penalties did not
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  Speaker 3: occur at the right time, and we have to be better.
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  Speaker 3: That's eighteen penalties now in the last two ball games,
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  Speaker 3: and we have to clean that up. I think that
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  Speaker 3: on the other side of it is the turnovers. You know,
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  Speaker 3: really for our defense to go create four turnovers in
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  Speaker 3: that game, I know we only got three, but they
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  Speaker 3: really created four. We had the one called back roughing
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  Speaker 3: the passer after he'd thrown the ball against a team
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  Speaker 3: that only had two turnovers all year. Was an awesome
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  Speaker 3: job by that unit to get that done, and so
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  Speaker 3: happy about that obviously offensively, now this is six turnovers
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  Speaker 3: in two games, and you can't predict how and when
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  Speaker 3: turnovers happen or occur. I really think these were just
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  Speaker 3: kind of the ball bounces a certain way sometimes it
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  Speaker 3: was unfortunate for Quinn to have kind of two tip
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  Speaker 3: balls that land in their arms.
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  Speaker 1: But the impact of those.
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  Speaker 3: Two turnovers fourteen points off of two turnovers. We gave
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  Speaker 3: them two short feels that they turned into points, and
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  Speaker 3: so playing complimentary football matters, and so that's another area
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  Speaker 3: where we need to improve. And then in the red area,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we've been playing such great red zone defense
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  Speaker 3: now for really two years, and for them to go
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  Speaker 3: three for three in the red area on touchdowns, two
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  Speaker 3: of them are really unbroken plays. The first one should
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  Speaker 3: be a dead play. It's a throwback wheel route that
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  Speaker 3: we defend and then we lose lose leverage on the
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  Speaker 3: quarterback on third down he runs around us for a touchdown.
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  Speaker 3: And then another one is on a fourth down where
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  Speaker 3: he's scrambling to his right and kind of flings the
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  Speaker 3: ball into the end zone and I think Jelani McDonald's
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  Speaker 3: probably gonna intercept the ball, but Leon g Lafal gets
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  Speaker 3: his hands on it first and tips it underneath Jelena
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  Speaker 3: McDonald's hands, right into the cradling arms of their defenders.
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  Speaker 3: So a little bit of bad luck there, but we've
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  Speaker 3: got to continue to try to defend our end zone
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  Speaker 3: better and so that aspect of it. The ball has
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  Speaker 3: got to become paramount in the program. I thought third
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  Speaker 3: down we were back to normal. I know a lot
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  Speaker 3: of talk going into the game was us on third day,
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  Speaker 3: but I think offensively nine to fifteen, some big conversions there,
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  Speaker 3: and then defensively to hold them three to twelve, which
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  Speaker 3: they were leading the conference in third down conversion rate
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  Speaker 3: was huge for us, and so there was a lot
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  Speaker 3: of I thought key players in this game. I thought
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  Speaker 3: DeAndre Moore played a fantastic football game. Obviously, his impact
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  Speaker 3: on the offensive side of the ball, you know, a
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  Speaker 3: couple of touchdown catches, some really some really big plays.
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  Speaker 3: But what he did on special teams, what a tremendous
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  Speaker 3: job fielding the punt down on the one yard line.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously he was the guy who was who fielded the
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  Speaker 3: on side kick there at the end of the game.
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  Speaker 1: So how reliable he's becoming.
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  Speaker 3: The program touched on Quinn going back and even looking
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  Speaker 3: at the tape, thought Quinn had a tremendous game, you know,
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  Speaker 3: especially coming off of last week where you know your
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  Speaker 3: first pass is a tipped interception and you can get
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  Speaker 3: kind of you can get kind of down. And for
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  Speaker 3: him to come back and go seventeen completions in a row,
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  Speaker 3: two hundred yards, three touchdowns, I think just speaks to
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  Speaker 3: the volumes of kind of his his mental fortitude, the
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  Speaker 3: resiliency he showed. I was really proud of him for that. Defensively,
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  Speaker 3: Michael taff had a great ball game. Jolana McDonald's first
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  Speaker 3: career start.
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  Speaker 1: Great game.
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  Speaker 3: I thought Alfred Collins, Jermaine Lola were really good. I
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  Speaker 3: thought Treo Trey Moore, excuse me how a great game.
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  Speaker 3: Anthony Hill continues to play good football for us. So
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  Speaker 3: we're fortunate a lot of our high level players are
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  Speaker 3: still playing at a high level. But as we're transitioning
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  Speaker 3: into this by I was thinking to myself, Okay, we're
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  Speaker 3: seven and one, we're eight games in to this season,
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  Speaker 3: and the goal is to be playing January twentieth, And
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  Speaker 3: if you want to play it at January twenty twentieth,
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  Speaker 3: you're at minimum playing eight more games. And so when
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  Speaker 3: you look at it this way, we're at the halfway
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  Speaker 3: point and might have to play nine, you know, depending
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  Speaker 3: on how it goes, and so what are we doing
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  Speaker 3: this week to continue to build up the depth of
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  Speaker 3: our roster of our younger players, because we never know.
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  Speaker 3: We've seen the injury bug bite us at a few
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  Speaker 3: position now where young players need to get ready to play,
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  Speaker 3: and so this week is really important for that of
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  Speaker 3: making sure that we're getting our young guys ready to
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  Speaker 3: go when their numbers called. We need to get some
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  Speaker 3: of the guys that have been nicked up healthy and
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  Speaker 3: get them back into the fold, and then we need
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  Speaker 3: our other guys to get fresh. You know, at this
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  Speaker 3: point in the season, at the end of October, as
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  Speaker 3: we head into early November, nobody's operating at one hundred
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  Speaker 3: percent of what their ability is.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody's dealing with something.
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  Speaker 3: But as I touched on with the team, as close
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  Speaker 3: as we can get them back to one hundred percent,
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  Speaker 3: the better that's going to serve us over this four
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  Speaker 3: game stretch here that we have coming up. And so
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  Speaker 3: we've got things that we need to work on schematically,
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  Speaker 3: We've got things we need to work on philosophically that
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  Speaker 3: that are true to our program. We've got things to
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  Speaker 3: work on for individual players, whether they're a young player
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  Speaker 3: or a veteran player.
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  Speaker 1: That's that's we need to get healthy.
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  Speaker 3: But all in all, proud through eight games to be
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  Speaker 3: where we're at. We know our best football still ahead
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  Speaker 3: of us, and now it's our job to get that
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  Speaker 3: out of everybody so that we can play the best
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  Speaker 3: football we need to play that is required in November.
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  Speaker 2: All right, So there's the opening statement.
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  Speaker 1: Now to the questions.
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  Speaker 2: The first one was asked about DeAndre Moore, who caught
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  Speaker 2: those two touchdown passes, had another big catch in the game,
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  Speaker 2: and of course the guy recovered the on side kick
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  Speaker 2: at the end of the game, and about DeAndre Moore's development,
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  Speaker 2: whether it's a receiver and as a leader.
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  Speaker 3: I thought DeAndre did something that was very mature last season.
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  Speaker 3: I think he realized, Okay, I'm not a frontline guy,
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  Speaker 3: and how do I learn from the guys that do
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  Speaker 3: it the right way?
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  Speaker 1: And he literally.
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  Speaker 3: Watched Jordan Whittington every day and has tried to emulate
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  Speaker 3: Jordan Whittington every day. And we all know how I feel,
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  Speaker 3: and everybody in our organization feels about Jay Witt and
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  Speaker 3: the leadership he provided, his willingness to do the dirty work.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't about the stats.
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  Speaker 3: Ever for him, and DeAndre came into this season in springball,
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  Speaker 3: in summer, in training camp with that same mentality. And
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  Speaker 3: the credit I give him is early on in the year,
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  Speaker 3: I think he went two games without a catch, but
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  Speaker 3: he was starting in the same role that Jaywitt was playing,
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  Speaker 3: and never did he lose that leadership, lose that energy,
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  Speaker 3: willing to do the dirty work. And now he's had
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  Speaker 3: some games where he's really reaped the benefits of just
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  Speaker 3: staying positive, continuing to work. But I know this, he
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  Speaker 3: has got a ton of respect in that locker room
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  Speaker 3: from his peers about the work ethic, what he puts
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  Speaker 3: into it, the team player that he is, his willingness
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  Speaker 3: to play on special teams, and so I think everybody's
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  Speaker 3: happy and excited for him. But also I think he's
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  Speaker 3: earned that voice because of what he does, and so
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  Speaker 3: when he speaks up, I really think our team listens.
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  Speaker 2: A question that was kind of outside the boundaries of
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  Speaker 2: just talking about the game just played in the games
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  Speaker 2: to come. It was more a generalization question overall about
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  Speaker 2: still trying to work out the NCAA with the lawsuit thing,
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  Speaker 2: and how many scholarships if it go if it as
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  Speaker 2: rumored goes to one hundred and five full scholarship ships,
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  Speaker 2: and again rumored is Sark and his staff are they
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  Speaker 2: recruiting four more scholarships next year, But Sark points out
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  Speaker 2: that it's still only rumor right now.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think we can do that yet, you know, Joe,
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  Speaker 3: I think that we have to operate as if things
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  Speaker 3: are what they are, because the last thing I want
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  Speaker 3: to do is take a bunch of commitments and then
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  Speaker 3: they turn around and say, no, you only have eighty five.
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  Speaker 3: And then what do I say to these seven, eight
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  Speaker 3: ten kids that, hey, sorry you can't come. You know,
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  Speaker 3: I just I don't think that's the right thing to do.
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  Speaker 3: So we're going to operate as if we're at eighty
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  Speaker 3: five until they tell us otherwise, and then we'll have
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  Speaker 3: to adjust and pivot at that point from there.
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  Speaker 1: I just I'd hate it to go the other way.
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  Speaker 3: Maybe other schools can maybe get away with doing that,
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  Speaker 3: but not here. You know, I don't think that that
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  Speaker 3: would bode well.
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  Speaker 2: All right, So there's some thoughts and that opening statement
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  Speaker 2: from the press conference from long Worn's head coach Steve Sarkisian.
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  Speaker 2: We'll hear more from Sark coming up now next hour
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  Speaker 2: in the four o'clock hour. Also in the four o'clock hour,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Gene Watson, our MLB insider, will join us to preview
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: tonight's third game of the World Series and his thoughts
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: on where the series stands and all that sort of stuff,
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  Speaker 2: So we'll get to that as well. Up next inconceivable
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  Speaker 2: for a Monday afternoon on sports Radio AM thirteen under
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  Speaker 2: the zone of the iHeartRadio app.