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Greg Tepper on UTEP's move to the Mountain West and more CFB notes · The Craig Way Show

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  Speaker 1: On a Tuesday in time to talk some football with
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  the managing editor of Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine and
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  also whom I join alongside Aaron Hartigan as well the
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  three of us bringing in a high school scoreboard live
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  on Friday nine, So Valley Sports Southwest.
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  Speaker 2: It's Greg Tepper. But Teb, I have to ask you something.
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  Speaker 1: Do you share I think I know the answer to
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  this question, But do you share in the schadenfreude displayed
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  by my producer Cameron Parker on the misfortunes of the
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  other Major League Baseball team in the state of Texas
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  when they're trailing in Game one of their Wildcard Series
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  three to nothing Detroit in the bottom of the sixth inning.
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  Are you, deep down inside, as a Ranger season ticket
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  holder kind of delighting at the early anyway Astro's misfortune.
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  Speaker 3: No, And I'll tell you why, very specifically, which is
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  this will never end well for me. They just won't.
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  One of the one of the worst things about being
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  a Rangers fan in this era, which by the way,
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  is still the reigning World Series champions.
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  Speaker 4: I do want to make that known, just remind people, is.
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  Speaker 3: That is that their art rival is the Astros and
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  the Astros are the villain in the horror movie that
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  like you can't that you can't kill. There was a
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  time it was it was I believe games. It must
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  be one of the one of the late games in
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  the series. In the ALCS last year, the Rangers had
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  a big lead. It might have been a game six
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  or game seven, and uh and they had a big
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  lead and I want to say, they're by like eight
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  and in the ninth and Josel Tuve hits a solo
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  home run to left field to trim the lead to
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  seven or something like that, and the only thought going
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  through my head is, well, the Rangers are about to
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  give nine runs and lose this game, like there's there's
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  no way, like the astros As will not go away.
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  Speaker 4: It must be fun.
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  Speaker 3: I wonder if it's fun being an Astros fan, simply
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  because like you're you, you live rent free in the
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  heads of so many teams, most especially my to my
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  my head that they're down three nothing, and all I'm
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  thinking is like, cook, all right, that's like two swings
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  of a bat and back in at like you know.
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  Speaker 4: It's don't work. That's said. I know how this movie ends.
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  I've seen it too many times.
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  Speaker 1: You have you have all that Rangers PTSD working. That's
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  that's the Oh yeah, that's that's the problem on that.
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  Let me let me shift to football and when to
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  Starwarck College and get your thoughts on something, because I
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  know you tweeted about it and I thought it was
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  a pretty appropriate tweet. The announcement today that you tap
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  is going to go to the Mountain West Conference. Now,
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  there will be a lot of people I think I've
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  read this comment, these comments, and it was the first
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  all that went through my mind. This is actually kind
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  of a realignment move. That makes sense. They were in
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  the old whack that had several of what are the
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  current Mountain West members or future Mountain West members in there,
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  I think, or more natural fit for the Mountain West
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  Conference than they are for Conference USA or the Sun
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  Belt or any of the American or any.
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  Speaker 2: Of those those others like this.
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  Speaker 1: But you looked at it from a selfish perspective on
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  your tweet, which I thought was rather humorous.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, what this means is that now as it stands
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  right now, that I believe this will go in fact
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  into twenty twenty six, but as it stands right now,
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  That would mean that the twenty twenty sixth edition of
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  Dave Campbell's Texas Football would feature previews of the SEC,
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  the Big Twelve, the ACC, the AAC, the Sun Belt
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  Conference USA.
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  Speaker 4: And the Mountain West.
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  Speaker 3: So I have to find a page in the four
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  hundred page magazine to put a Mountain West preview. And
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  you might be thinking, whether there's four hundred pages that
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  they get swallowed up quicker than you think. I promise,
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  And so I've got to find this. It is interesting,
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  like go back to like it. It's a lot of times, right,
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  go back to nineteen ninety three, right, go back to
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  nineteen ninety three, and I believe every Texas team I'm
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  trying to trying to think back through my head. Uh,
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  I'm fairly certain that every Texas FBS team, with the
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  exception of UTAP, which was in the whack.
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  Speaker 4: Was in the same conference. Uh.
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  Speaker 3: And now they are scattered across so many different conferences
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  that it's going to be like impossible to keep track of.
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  It's it's still it's a wild to me that SMU
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  hosted Florida State last week. Like that's something that I
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  have a hard time time for getting my wrapping my
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  head around.
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  Speaker 4: But that's such as life, such as a stake.
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  Speaker 3: I will say, I think you're right, that doesn't make
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  sense from a geographic perspective that they, you know, out
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  there in the mountain out there in El Paso, they
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  have a lot more in common with you know, those
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  teams in the Mountain West than maybe they do with
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  teams even in their within their own state, like like Houston, Rice.
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  So it's a really interesting move. I think it's a
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  nice little, nice little payday for for UTAP, which is
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  probably why they're doing it, which is good. Now, I
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  will say that if if Tarletan State moves up to
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  FBS and joins the MAC, I'm quitting, Like that's kind
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  of it. I'm just I'm done. That's going to be
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  the end of me. I will I will not write
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  a Mid American Conference preview in the magazine.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you speculated this, you ruminated on this back
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  in the summer.
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  Speaker 2: TEP.
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  Speaker 1: This might be what sets the magazine into that new
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  realm of beyond four hundred pages.
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  Speaker 2: It might just it might.
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  Speaker 3: Just have to do that, right, It's been four hundred
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  pages for for for quite a while now. For those
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  who don't know, not to get too far in the
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  weeds of the of the mag of of how magazines
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  are made. But generally you have to add in increments
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  of sixteen generally how how printing works. So who knows,
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  maybe four hundred and sixteen pages. But there's just there's
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  a lot that I can get into about magazine production
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  that nobody's interested in. But yeah, that was my first
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  thought whenever I saw the news about UTEP was oh good, now,
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  you know, now a gout to do a Midwest Amountain
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  West preview, which of course we've had before. You know,
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  TCU's won the month West a couple times, so not
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  necessarily unchared territory.
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  Speaker 1: Are you thinking this is also going to be the
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  latest step in some other conference realignment? Might we see
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  Texas State wearing rumors and rumblings that they're being courted
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  by a number of conferences, perhaps even the PAC twelve,
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  that the Texas State all of a sudden may become
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  an attractive expansion candidate.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, there are a lot of kind of rumblings kind
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  of around the realignment, and I.
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  Speaker 4: Think that this was always going to be kind of
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  the next kind of ripple effects.
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  Speaker 3: You know, obviously, when Texas and Oklahoma moves the SEC
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  I really set off a number of different things.
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  Speaker 4: You know, kind of the arms race between the SEC
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  and the Big and the Big ten was.
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  Speaker 3: Then on, which is probably why you got this big
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  You know that all these changes. But now I would
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  suggest to you that that there are these ripple effects
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  that have not yet nanified themselves in the quote unquote
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  you know, a group of five conferences, and I think
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  that's what you're going to see.
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  Speaker 4: You're going to see these these things come.
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  Speaker 3: Together pretty quickly, with the Mountain West and the PAC
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  twelve trying to hold together as best they can.
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  Speaker 4: You know, now Conference USA.
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  Speaker 3: Which has been kind of held together with duct tape
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  and rubber bands for a couple of years, now they're
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  going to be scrambling. This is going to be you know, look,
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  we've already more or less seen one conference in the
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  PAC twelve kind of certainly certainly demoted in stature. It
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  would not be a surprise to see another one at consolidation.
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  I think is the coin of the realm in college football.
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  Speaker 1: Greg Temper, managing editor of Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine.
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  Whether it's during this program a portionmouth program, Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Before we move to high school, I have to have
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  you ask another quier.
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  Speaker 1: Are you making the from the Metroplex one hundred and
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  eighty mile road trip to see your alma mater, the
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  University of Missouri taken on the aggies of Texas A
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  and M this weekend.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not my actually in a strange a bit of
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  you know, kids mean, my wife is actually going to
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  be going up to Missouri for her twenty year high
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  school reunion.
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  Speaker 4: As I just date my wife on the radio, but she.
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  Speaker 3: She's going up there, and so I'm in charge of voice.
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  Uh so it'll be me, but it'll be It'll be
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  a good boys weekend. We're gonna order some pizza, We're
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  gonna watch some football, we'll have.
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  Speaker 4: It on the TV.
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  Speaker 3: But no, I will I will not be enjoying A
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  and M. And it's a very interesting game. I saw
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  that A and MS favored at home, which is really fascinating,
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  especially considering like the ranking disparity here. As you know,
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  Missoo's a top ten team and A and M just
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  now back into the top twenty five. But I do
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  think that there are some reasons to doubt if Miszoo
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  is all that is a top ten type team. I
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  think that they need to get more from their quarterback.
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  And I think that this A and and deepen if
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  they play like they did last week against Arkansas, and
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  then we've got an opportunity to go in there and
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  really make a statement against what's what the top ten
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  Miszoo team as stamp and you know, would would certainly
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  be a feather in the cap of Mike.
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  Speaker 4: Altout early in his career.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, here's here's something I want to ask you.
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  Then you mentioned how unusual it might be, and I
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  completely agree with you by the way that Texas A
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  and M might be favored against Missouri even in college station,
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  that they might be favored as a result of that.
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  But I would ask you, what do you think would
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  be more unlikely? I guess is the best word way
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  to describe it. What is more unlikely Texas A and
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  M to be favored to win a game over Missouri
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  or east Side Memorial of Austin favored by twelve points
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  according to the computer against Maynor Newtech on Friday night.
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  Speaker 4: I saw that.
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  Speaker 3: Of course east Side Memorial just very very I think,
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  you know, happy to Stephen snap that long losing streak
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  fifty plus games. You know, just a terrific, terrific job
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  by Luis Passera there with the East Side, And yeah,
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  look when I talked with him in the off season,
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  before the season, I talked with him and a number
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  of other coaches who had been riding long, losing streets,
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  and I kind of asked them, hey, look like what
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  would represent a good year for you guy? And a
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  lot of these guys, you know, they're they're talking in
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  terms of process and that result. They're talking about we
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  want our guys, we want to play ten games as
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  hard as we can, and we want to go out
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  there and see that personal growth, and we want to
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  bond in the team, we want to stick together, those
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  types of things. But I remember Luis Pisara being like, yeah,
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  I want to win like four games.
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  Speaker 4: Like this is a team that hadn't.
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  Speaker 3: Won, you know, one game in seven years, and now
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  they're like, no, we want to go four and six
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  and maybe challenge for a playoff spot.
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  Speaker 4: I'll tell y'all, like.
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  Speaker 3: They're better, They're trending in a better way.
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  Speaker 4: And I think their defense, which is.
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  Speaker 3: Long than kind of a problem for them is you know, I.
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  Speaker 2: Think they got a shot.
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  Speaker 3: I don't necessarily disagree with the computer. I think they
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  entered New Texas has struggled to start the year as well,
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  and I think that the East Side's got a great
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  shot to get a second win for the first time.
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  And what might be I would need to look it
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  might be a couple even more years.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, than what twenty seventeen. I guess is when we
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  were talking.
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  Speaker 3: About we might be talking like we might be talking
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  about the earlier part of the last decade before we
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  get into when they want two season, like.
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  Speaker 2: When they were still known as Johnston.
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  Speaker 4: Might have been. Yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: I remember doing a game in Week ten of the
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  regular season when the then Johnston Rams were actually in
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  considered mathematically alive to make the playoffs. Now they were
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  playing I think a McCallum and everybody on the planet
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  knew that it was not going to go well, and
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  even if they won, some weird thing had.
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  Speaker 2: To happen and other things.
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  Speaker 1: But because they were mathematically alive, we put them on
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  our game of the week here on the Zone. This
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  is like the two thousand and eight or nine or
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  something like that. It was very first time we put
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  them on because the first time we had real reason
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  to put them on. Mathematically they had a shot to
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  get in, so we we put them on. They didn't
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  go well, they lost them all that other kind of stuff.
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  But you're right, it may it may go back. As
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  opposed to a couple of the headline games, I'll just
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  narrow it to two. Ask for your analysis of these
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  two games, and ask which one you would rather attend
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  DBT and Ryan against Aledo number one versus number two
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  in the state in five A Division one or according
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  to the computer, number one and number two in the
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  state in six A, which would be a task Casida
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  and Summer Creek.
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  Speaker 3: It's an amazing week of high school football because this
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  is the biggest open date of the year.
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  Speaker 4: There are It's something like.
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  Speaker 3: More than a third of the UIL eleven man teams
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  are off this week, like it is a massive week
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  of bie weeks. And then by the way, in two
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  weeks we'll have another one as basically every six man
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  team in the state takes the week off.
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  Speaker 4: But what's what's funny is that even.
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  Speaker 3: With kind of fewer games, only five and twenty games
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  this week, wo is us there's the upper crust might
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  be the best we've seen all season, and you mentioned
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  the top two, you know, Alito.
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  Speaker 4: And Debt Ryan. My pick is probably to go to.
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  Speaker 3: A task two in summer creak, and I'll explain why.
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  But but Alito and Debt Ryan absolutely fascinating for a
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  ton of reasons. Obviously number one versus number two. Obviously
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  what Aledo has been able to do, you know, as
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  far as winning state championships.
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  Speaker 4: The playmakers that they've got.
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  Speaker 3: I think that the real money matchup here is it
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  Ryan defense, which has been so good all year up
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  against kind of the home run hitters like Racing Guillory
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  for Aledo. But but I mean lost in all that
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  is that by the time these two teams tee it up,
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  it will be six thousand, two hundred and nine days
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  since Aledo last lost the district game. Their last district lost.
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  They won one hundred and twenty two in a row.
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  It's the most in Texas high school football history by
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  fifty games.
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  Speaker 4: They have just they've just been absolutely dominant.
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  Speaker 3: And what is amazing to me is that like when
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  they last lost, they you know where they weren't election season.
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  I'm sure people have noticed the last time that Alito
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  lost the district game the President of the United States
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  was George W.
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  Speaker 4: Bush.
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  Speaker 3: It's been a long time since they lost the playoffs
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  a district game, which is what makes Ryan's climb so steep.
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  But for a task gait the Summer Creek, this game
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  is box office. It's kind of the first of that
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  kind of round robin of doom in District twenty three
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  to six A with these two teams in Glena Park
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  North Shore.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we talked about a task.
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  Speaker 3: And the resume they have with wins over Westlake and
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  Katie both on the road. Their offense has been absolutely
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  terrific and their defense has been good as well, but
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  it pales in comparison. I mean this sincerely, it pales
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  in comparison to the defense that Summer Creek is rolling
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  out there. They have outscored their four opponents two hundred
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  and fifteen to d row. They have not allowed a
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  point in four games, and their defense chadwood Fork, Brandon Jones,
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  their defense is outrageous. And I do think that their quarterback,
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  Blake Thomas, has.
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  Speaker 4: Really made that step.
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  Speaker 3: This is this is one of those games that I
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  think has it's good enough to be like a regional final,
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  and we get it in week six of the season.
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  I think a Task to See is probably a slight favorite,
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  just because I think they're a little bit more battle tested.
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  But for a quote unquote slow week in Texas high
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  school football, you've got two monster matchups at the very
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  top of the slate that are going to be just
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  box office.
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  Speaker 1: And for the greater Austin area, I would say probably
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  the best matchup would be Cedar Park against Rals, unless
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  you're talking about east Side Memorial against me and or
• 15:17
  New Tech.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, you could go with that one too.
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  Speaker 3: It's not a bad week in Austin, but.
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  Speaker 4: A lot of a lot of the teams are off.
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  I would maybe look at another game.
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  Speaker 3: You know, there's a couple other games in the Austin
• 15:29
  area that intrigued me, you know, most notably, I'm interested
• 15:32
  to see what LBJ does against against Austin Travis. I
• 15:35
  think Austin Travis at four and one is off to
• 15:36
  a fantastic start. I want to see how for real
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  of that. And then you mentioned it Cedar Park and
• 15:41
  Leander Rouse an absolutely critical game. Industry eight five A
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  Division one where there's really no margin for error for any.
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  Speaker 2: Team, no doubt.
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  Speaker 1: He's Greg Tepper managing editor of Dave Campbell's Texas Football
• 15:52
  magazine and co host along with me and Aaron Hartigan
• 15:55
  on High School Scoreboard Live Friday nights at ten thirty TEP.
• 15:58
  Appreciate the time, and and we'll look forward to By
• 16:02
  the way, how did your twenty year high school reunion go?
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  Speaker 2: You had that, didn't you? Last weekend? I did.
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  Speaker 3: I had my twenty year high school reunion last weekend.
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  Speaker 4: It was. It went very well. Everyone was very nice.
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  It was good to good to catch up with people.
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  Speaker 3: I'm shocked and surprised at the number of people who
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  actually do watch TV. I thought that that was just
• 16:20
  kind of on closed circuit TV. But you're like, hey,
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  you're going to TV thing right, I'm like, how do
• 16:25
  you know about that? But that was that was great.
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  The one thing that they did, which I thought was
• 16:30
  extremely rude is that they put our senior portraits on
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  our name tags. I've been trying to I've been trying
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  to run from that photo for twenty.
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  Speaker 4: Years, and they maybe put it on my chest. It
• 16:39
  was pretty tough.
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  Speaker 1: Ooh boy, all right, we'll live it down somehow. Hey,
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  thanks for the time, TAP, appreciate it.
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  Speaker 4: Right, Take care all right.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: That's Greg Tapper, managing editor Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine.
• 16:50
  We'll update the baseball for you, and here from Rodney Terry,
• 16:53
  Texas fan's basketball coach.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: When we continue on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone.