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August 23, 2024 • 16 mins
Greg Tepper, Managing editor of Dave Campbells Texas Football Magazine, joins the show to preview Week Zero of College Football and High School Football.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Back to the Craig Way Show.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Connect with Craig through the text line by text Team
Texas to eight one five three zero, followed by your message.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Standard message and data rates may apply.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Here on a Friday afternoon as we head toward the weekend.
Now I mentioned this necessarily mean it to be any
sort of a particular tease or anything like that. But
I said, we were going to talk high school football
where Greg Chepper, managing editor Dave campbells Texas Football Magazine,

(00:37):
and we are going to do that in a moment.
The reason why I said, I said, we do need
to discuss this because there are actual games, games, not
scrimmages games. We're not talking about practice. We're talking about
games being played at at and T Stadium. Now you
should know what those games are. It's the Dallas homes
Homeschool Athletic Association playing Lighthouse Christian of Missouri, and Atlas

(01:02):
is playing Tomball Christian. So, in other words, there's a
private schools off of that. The public school regular season
begins next week, as we know, begins as early as
next Thursday. So as Greg Tepper joins us, before we
even get to talking about those things, I wanted to

(01:22):
ask you a little bit about college football, because hey,
in this state, there's a couple of games, or there's
one game and then there's another game with another team,
and that includes a team within a brand new conference.
You guys had to dedicate an ACC section in your
summer edition of Dave Campbells Texas Football magazines up to
the ACC because of SMU. And here's SMU out of

(01:43):
the gates playing at Nevada tomorrow. So what's the buzz
you're hearing in the Metroplex about this first ever game
as an ACC member for the SMU mest tags.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, nothing gets you fired up about football, about football
quite like Uh, SMU at Nevada on the on the
on the Saturday before Labor Day. It's it's it's it's
really interesting. And I'll tell you that the ACC thing,
I think is one of those things that at first
glant it takes you like a few minutes to kind

(02:17):
of reget your bearings, uh, to remember that, oh, yeah,
they're in a conference with Stansford and they are also
in a conference with Florida State, uh and Syracuse like
it all kind of kind of comes together in a
weird way. But then once you kind of then consider
the fact that we have ditched the entire idea of

(02:38):
regionalized conferences. I mean even the SEC, right, Yeah, the
SEC is probably the most quote unquote regionalized conference maybe
outside of the MAC, you know, as far as that's concerned.
But even they stretch all the way up to Missouri,
which I don't think anybody would mistake them for being
in the southeast.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
It takes a minute. Now. I will say that there's
a lot of buzz around SMU and the Metroplex simply
because A they're going to be pretty good, uh, and
B they are finally finding a way I think, to
tap into the not insubstantial resources that they have at
their disposal. I think it is important to remember that

(03:17):
SMU is really rich. They have a lot of money,
and they have more or less found a way to
leverage that into into a major conference bid. When the
Big twelve kind of passed them over again and again,
they said, all right, we'll go make our own destiny.
And I think they've got the right guy to help
in Rett Lashley, and they are starting to do a
lot of you know, good work. This is a team

(03:39):
that's been very good the past couple of years and
with a roster full of Texans, uh, they have an
opportunity to be really good. And by the way, they
should beat in the VATA and the bat is pretty bad,
so you know, probably be the first one oh team
in Texas. And by the way, this iss, let's not
overlook the fact that there are other Texas college football
games this weekend. There are tech, there are college football

(03:59):
games in the state of Texas. Tarleton is going to
be on ESPN two tomorrow, their first ever nationally televised
game when they take on McNeese, and I know they're
they're buzzy and Stevenville about that.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
They're pretty excited because they're now FCS Playoff eligible, right, Yes,
they have.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Fully transitioned now from Division two up to Division One.
They as I think as football fans know, there's kind
of this purgatory you have to go through for a
couple of years. But Tarleton now fully eligible and they
can go win a darn FCF national championship and it
starts tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
Okay, there's one other thing I want to ask about
before we return to high school. Your colleague, one of
your esteemed writers, the guy folks, and these parts know
very well Mike Craven from his days on the station.
I saw Mike yesterday at that big sware thing for
Texas and Texas A and m that that deal, and
he said he was fresh from coming up from a

(04:58):
Willie Fritz practice at the University of Houston. And he
asked me, he looked me square in the eyes, said
have you ever been to a Willie Fritz practice? And
I said, I must admit to you that I've not.
He said, it's an event. Did he tell you about
this about Willie Fritz?

Speaker 2 (05:13):
About it that.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Willie Fritz wears a like a microphone speaker thing on
it that that kind of acts like a bullhorn, and
that he's just constantly bellowing walking around on the practice
field and has everybody's attention.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Do you know what. It kind of reminds me of it.
And this is kind of a tie into high school football,
though college college is is certainly.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
The same way.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
It kind of reminds me of like the band director.
If you've ever been to band trout, you've ever been there,
there's always like the band director is usually up on
high kind of watching everything, but they have this microphone
that is the voice of God that will tell you
if you are out of step. That's what I whatever.
Whenever Mike was explaining it to me, That's that's how
I pictured. It was like he's like the band director there.

(05:58):
For University Houston, it'll probably do a little bit more hidden.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
That's a good that's a good comparison.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Greg Tepper, Managing editor Dave campbells Texas Football Magazine. With us,
we have previewed every classification from six A down through
two A, all the eleven man divisions. Now we get
the six man football Now correct me if I'm wrong,
but this season seems to me to be in all
classifications more examples of defending champions being in position to

(06:28):
repeat that. I can remember that the largest collection of
those anyway, And I guess one A Division one would
be no exception to that rule.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
You're absolutely right. One A Division one is definitely definitely,
you know, falls into that category as well. With Gordon,
the defending state champs back to run it back, and
in my opinion, I don't know if they're a prohibitive favorite.
I don't know what you would kind of put between
you know, a clear favorite of prohibitive favorite. But there's
somewhere in that block because they are the number one

(07:00):
team and they should be, and there is a pre
wide consensus among the six man folks that it should
be Gordon. You know, you go back to last year's
state championship game, Westbrook versus Gordon. Westbrook, the two time
defending state champs, back into a state championship game up
against Gordon, and I remember the narrative coming into that
game was, well, it's either going to be the last

(07:21):
year of the Westbrook dynasty or it's going to be
the first year of the Gordon dynasty. And Gordon went
out there and took it because what we had heard
from folks is that this Gordon team is not just
really good, they are also good for the long haul
that these next three years really Gordon is going to
be rocking and rolling. And you look at the guys.
They've got Striker Reid and Ry Reid by the way,

(07:44):
no relation, amazingly, two guys with the same last name
in Gordon, Texas are not related. But they are absolutely outstanding.
And they've got a great defense as well. You know,
I look at this Gordon team as I would put
them in that same category maybe as a Gunner in
three A Division two where they look like the clear

(08:06):
favorite to win it. You know, maybe not you know, overwhelming,
and certainly there's some other good teams there that can
that can challenge them, but I think that Gordon has
got to be everyone's favorite to go back to back.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
You know.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
The thing that I really love is when you guys list,
you know, the record from the prior year, and then
in all classifications you do this the returning starters on
offense and defense, and you look at Gordon and they
have five returning offensive starters and five returning defensive starters.
That's a lot for six And then you stop and
think it's probably the same five dudes, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
We're pretty close, So yeah, it's almost certainly. I don't
know if they have any one way guys there at Gordon.
You know, that's that is kind of you know, in
a lot of ways. You know, when you get kind
of into the depths of six men football, what you
start realizing is that those types of guys, guys that
you can keep fresh on one side of the ball,
they are such a luxury, like whatever you can do
that because normally you're just rolling out with I don't

(09:00):
fourteen guys and seeing if you can put together a
football team.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
Usual suspects would be the biggest threats. Maybe Abbott Westbrook Jonesborough.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, I think so. You know, you look at Abbot.
This is a really fascinating ball club. New coach there,
although it's kind of the new coach, same last name,
same family. They go to the dinner at the same
place on Sunday evenings. In Kyle Crawford taking over for
his dad, the legendary Terry Crawford, who in one of
the most six man moves of all time, retired to

(09:28):
become a full time pastor. He's he's spent time with grandkids,
but his son Kyle takes over. He's a guy that
people had their eye on for a while. And six
man football coaching communities to be like the next big thing.
Obviously good bloodlines, but they're gonna be really good as well.
Riley Sostala, Joey Pavelka. They feel like this is their
year as well. And remember this is a state semi

(09:49):
finalist or regional finals. Last year Felton Gordon there, but
they are now interestingly by region, they're going to be
a different class or different regions. Gordon's Slim was over
to Region four by moving to District thirteen, while Abbott
remained in District District three. Westbrook is still going to
be around, but this was last year. Fell like the

(10:10):
window may be closing for that elite, elite, elite level
for Homer Mount Lets ball club. I do like Jones
Burrow a lot and probably is the chief challenger within
Region four. I love what Eddie Diegos has going and
I think that their defense has an opportunity opportunity to
be pretty good if they could find a quarterback the
sleeper here that you know, because people think of six

(10:31):
man football as a West Texas sport, and it certainly
is if you're looking for a West Texas team. I
like the analopes of Whiteface. I think they've got a
really strong ball club this year. This is a team
that really burst onto the field, burst onto the team
last year made to the regional semifinals. They've got half
their team back from last year. They're gonna be really
explosive out of the backfield. So White Face would be
that sleeper in D one.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Okay, and by the way, Kyle Crawford will be trying
to pull off that rare feet winning both a baseball
and football.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
State campionship as a coach, that's that's a rare feed.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
Indeed, Division two, Oglesby was a great Cinderella story. Kyler
Foss was an incredible player and they got to the
finals and then they ran into Benjamin, and Benjamin was Benjamin.
But that said, you like Oglesby in Division two.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Let me tell you a story about magazine production, because
whenever you put this magazine together, there's a press day, right,
there's a press day. Then we send the magazine to press.
I don't remember what it is. It Friday, So Friday,
well on Wednesday. On Wednesday, we get a call and
run down the story that Grayson Rigden, the All Everything

(11:40):
three times six man player of the Year, is leaving
Benjamin and so we have to basically rewrite the six
man section, at least in the one in Division two
in forty eight hours. And one of the things we
had to do was reconsider what the rankings are going
to look like. And I will be entirely honest with you,
Benjamin was number one and Oglesby was number two. When

(12:00):
we had a conversation within our office about what does
what does what is Benjamin without Grayson Rigdon, we said,
we think they're still a top five team, but probably
not the best team in the state because they are
losing some other key pieces. Uh, and so we dropped
them to number five and Oglesby moves up to number one.
Now that may that may sound like they were getting
a battlefield promotion to number one, and they kind of were.

(12:21):
But make no mistake, this is a team in Oglesby
that was very clearly the second best team in one
A Division two last year, and they come back almost
entirely intact, most notably bringing back the apple mentioned Kyler Fauston,
who now, in my opinion, takes the reins as the
most dominant player in six man football with Grayson and
Rigden moving to Columbus. So I look at this Oglesby team,

(12:45):
I think that they are ready to finish the job.
And I think that Jeff Dixon has got this program
pointed very very much in the right direction, and I
think that they're going to be the big favorite. I'm
not the big favorite, but they favorite to win it.
And by the way, we'll find out a lot in
week one because they take on Abbot in Week one,
because six man football coaches ain't afraid to play non
district games because you're with fourteen districts, you need seven

(13:07):
non district games, and so they're like, well, might as
well play everybody.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, no doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
Is the weirdest I don't know if weirdness is the
right phraseology, the right description, but is the most unique
and intriguing story in six man.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Other than the course creation, rig than leaving.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Is the constant evolution and reinvention at Richland Springs.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Every year, every year they figure it out. I mean,
I think that if you go back a couple of
years ago now it's been about a year that Jerry Burkhardt,
their multiple multiple multiple time state champion coach, was suspended
for three years basically essentially given the UIL version of
a show cause, you know, and people thought, well that's
the end of Richland Springs. Well here they come, just

(13:56):
reloaded and kept that program rolling. And by the way,
they're gonna be again. We have the number two in
the state, and I think that they are probably at
least within Region four. It's a chief challenger to Oglesby
for a spot at AT and T Stadium. They are
going to be excellent as usual. And the thing about
Richard Springs, and I'll just it goes beyond one guy

(14:16):
in Jerry Burkhard. I think that you look at Richland
Springs and they are always so fundamentally sound. They always
tackle extremely well, they always block very well.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
This team is I mean, this is this is a
program that I know that they have taught some some
obviously taught the ire of the U I L and
other six minute football coaches. But when you look at
the what the what they instill and the way that
they play football in the between the lines, Uh, it's
it's really really impressive. And you're right, the consistent evolution
there over the course of the last decade and a

(14:47):
half has been really impressive.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
Final thing here, I was meaning to ask Granger hundreds
about this, but I ask you, have you heard anything
further as far as you know that the startup program
at Pawnee is still on track to start.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
I can tell you that it is on track to start,
if only because I saw their coach at coaching school,
and believe it or not, a six man guy at
thhsca coaching school. It does happen a few weeks swing
by it was coach Danny Gondales. He's taking over, and
he called me out because I promised that I would
nail him a book about six man football, which I

(15:22):
do have. It's apparently some book that's way out of
print and so but I happen to have a copy
and he's like trying to learn how to coach six
man football. But from what we understand, Pawnee is on
track and they are going to be launching their football
program as the I believe, the one of the smallest
schools in the state. They're they're rocking with an enrollment

(15:42):
in the twenties if I remember correctly, that is noble
real quick. They yeah, twenty five. They are tied for
the second smallest school in the UIL. So they they're
going to give it a go and then and it'll
be it'll be fun to see the Indians back out there.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
No doubt.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
What are you gonna do on your find a weekend
before this all gets cranked up?

Speaker 2 (16:00):
This is my last Friday night of freedom.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
It's odd.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
I don't know, like I might I might go to
bed early, Like what are all the things I won't
be able to do on a Friday night. It's going
to like take my wife to dinner, like go to
bed early, like watch TV. I don't know the world
is my oyster because from this is the last Friday
night until Christmas that without a high school football game,
and that that sounds pretty good.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
I gotta tell you no doubt, he's great.

Speaker 3 (16:27):
Tafford Managing editor Dave Campbells Texas Football Magazine. Next week
we'll start our weekly conversations about the games to watch
going into the week. Tep appreciate the time, enjoy whatever
it is you decide to do this weekend.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
I'll let you know on Monday what it is.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Okay, Thanks right. That's Greg Tepford, Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine.
More coming up on Sports Radio AM thirteen under of
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