August 30, 2024 • 10 mins
Craig Way and Steve Sarkisian sat down for their weekly Coaches Show from Pluckers this week and two of them broke down Saturday's opponent: Colorado State
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking me back to your time as a student at
the University of Texas. You graduated what in seventeen? Is
that correct?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm not that old that I look like it. I
know the hairline, it looks old.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
But you were in school at twenty seventeen, Yes, yes, okay,
freshman year. So would you say it would have been correct,
at least in an overlap sense to say that you
were a classmate of Cam Rising?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I had I think it was a business of sports
media with Cam Rising, de Marvin Overshown, and a handful
of other Texas football players. Casey Thompson wasn't in that class,
but there was a good group of Texas football players
in my class, including Cam Rising.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well, so you say you're not that old, here's Cameron
Rising's still playing college football. J Thompson and Casey Thompson
and Cameron Rising at a career high five touchdown passes
last night Utah and he hits his seventh season of
college football. His seventh season of college football. In fact,
(01:12):
it's kind of interesting in that a former Longhorn quarterback
and a former Aggie quarterback both were in action last night.
Rising for Utah the beat Southern Utah forty nine to nothing.
Max Johnson, of course, had been at Texas A and
hemy transferred to North Carolina and was playing for Max
Brown for Mac Brown. But Max Johnson had to be
carted off the field a hip injury in the third
(01:34):
quarter and the Tarios went on and held on for
a nineteen seventeen win on the road against Minnesota. Minnesota
missed two field goals, including one that would have won
the game. On the final play of the game. Johnson
did have a hip injury. He was taken to a
local hospital. They weren't sure that whether he was going
(01:58):
to travel back with the team. Of course, his father
is Brad Johnson, the former NFL quarterback for the Vikings
and with Tampa Bay when they won the Super Bowl.
So yeah, there's there was that connection. So we'll see
what happens after that, and Connor Harrell wound up finishing
the game for North Carolina. Carolina did get the win,
(02:20):
and it was for I found this note interesting. It
was the first season opening road win for North Carolina
in thirty two years. It was the first season opening
road win for North Carolina since Mac Brown was the
coach there the first time back in nineteen ninety two.
(02:44):
That's the last time that Carolina had won a season
opening true road game, not a neutral site, but a
true road game. So good for Mac and for the
Tar Hills, and hopefully Max Johnson isn't too banged up
on them all right. Speaking to college football Longhorns, of course,
getting ready for Colorado State. Last night on Longhorn Weekly
(03:06):
from Learfield, we visited, of course, coach Sark the season
premiere of his program, which we record on Wednesdays and
then it airs on Thursday, So it aired late yesterday
afternoon here on the Zone, and Sark and I, as
we always do, down the stretch of the program, discuss
(03:27):
the opponent. So here's our weekly excerpt in examining the
Colorado State rams from last night's edition of long Horn Weekly.
You were talking about Jay Norvell and what he's done
and starting to build this program at Colorado State, entering
his third year as the head coach there. How about
your impressions. I know you've known coach Norvell. How about
(03:47):
your impressions also what you see from his football team?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, A ton of respect for coach Norvel. You know,
I'm followed his career for a long time. He's been
around some great coaches and what he did in Nevada
and now what he's doing Colorado State. You know, definitely
the expertise and the air raid offense and their ability
to throw the ball around the field quarterbacks, a really
good player from Alito. They got an All American wide
receiver and Tory Horton. But the thing they have is
(04:13):
a very veteran offensive line and they've got an older group.
They pass protect really well, they spread the field and
then they run it enough in there to challenge you.
But we've got to deploy people the right way in
the back end. Defensively of really veteran defense. You got
two great safeties to all conference safeties, veteran secondary, great schemes.
(04:35):
I will say this, in all three phases, they challenge
you schematically, offense, defense, and on special team. So this
is a heck of a challenge for Saturday.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
When you look at a team, when you first start
to break it down with your coaches, is the first
place you go to the offensive line.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Well, it's helpful because we don't play seven on seven, right,
we play eleven man football, and so much of the
football that these guys grow up playing is seven on
seve of it in the offseason. But you've got to
be able to be good upfront if you're going to
be a really good football team, and the fact that
they've got that, they've got this veteran offensive line poses
some issues for us.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
You mentioned the quarterback Brandon Fowler Nicolosi won a state
championship at Aledo and is the guy who leads this
program now. They say that he's made an awful lot
of progress and went through, like a lot of quarterbacks
go through some growing pains course with interceptions and things
like that. But a guy that really has a great deal.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Of confidence as he goes to the field, Well, it
really does. And I think he's got great rapport. Like
I said with Tory horton the wide out, I think
the addition of Armani Windfield, a guy we recruited here
transferred from Baylor, is helpful for them. I think anytime
you're in a system like he's been in now, as
he's grown up in it, you're just always better the
next year. Right, Well, how much better was Quinn from
(05:49):
year one to year two? How much better do we
expect him to be now going into year three in
the system? So I think all that's helpful as well
for him.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
And it's also interesting that the running back Justin Marshall
is a Red Church freshman. He did play last year.
He rushed for three hundred yards. He only played three
games right to the end, but they really like him.
How difficult or challenging is it, especially when this team
does not have this particular team does not have a
game on tape from twenty twenty four to your typical
(06:17):
season opening challenge.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Well, I think offensively we've got a decent idea schematically
of who they are. I think what we learned a
year ago against Rice and the opener, we got a
whole different defense, and so you know, and then you
have to adjust on the fly and what that looks like.
And so I think offensively we feel pretty good just
in general. What they're going to do, they hey, they
believe it throwing the ball, but there's no secret there.
(06:41):
Defensively is how they're deploying their people, and then how
we're going to adjust to put our players in a
good position to have some success.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
How do you also prepare, as you mentioned, Rice did
something completely different defensively, knowing that that is always a possibility.
How do you prepare guys for that possibility, that element
that everything you're training and working for and game planning
for may be completely different what you see when you
get on the field.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Well, I think that's why you have to have rules
in your plays. Your blocking schemes have to have rules.
Is it a four down front, a three down front?
Is it a bear front? How do we block these plays?
And that's what training camp is for. And then you
trust your training and you fall back on that with
whatever the look is that you get. And then we
try to call plays in games like this that are
all encompassing, meaning it works versus a variety of coverages
(07:30):
and quinnos. This progression, it works versus a variety of fronts.
It's not so specific for this defense. We want this
play because you really just don't know. I mean, we
have an idea, but you don't know until the ballgame begins.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, that's you know, Once it does begin, that's when
you find out for sure what you're dealing with. Because
as we said, and you heard Sard just say it,
you know, that's they'll find out when to get out there,
how much of a different look they get from the
Colorado State defense. Then everything they've seen schematically, same defensive coordinator,
(08:06):
all of that sort of stuff, So you would think, Okay,
well maybe it'll maybe it'll have all the similarities and
you know, maybe maybe that'll make sense since you're talking
about the same scheme and Freddie Banks is the defensive
coordinator there. But hey, we saw that with Rice last year.
(08:26):
Them give a completely different look. So it's entirely possible
that that could be the case, and they'll, you know,
they'll have to be ready for that, and they'll have
to be ready for addy, you know, additional wrinkles that
they might get from the Colorado State offense with the
Texas defense as well. So that's that's another thing that
(08:47):
Sark has talked about, just being ready for all of
those kinds of possibilities in the way it could turn
out and what they the looks they might get from
Colorado State. I will also tell you this, they have
a good red shirt freshman running back of Justin Marshall.
But well, let me put it to you this way.
He was good for three games. He only played in
three games. It wasn't because of injury that knocked him
(09:10):
out after the third game. No, he played in the
last three games of the season and ran for three
hundred and eleven yards and two touchdowns. He averaged five
and a half yards per carry. He's more of an explosive,
get to the edge guy, five to ten and eighty pounder,
that sort of thing, and can catch the ball out
of the backfield. But you heard start saying Tory Horton,
(09:30):
who had eleven hundred and thirty six receiving yards on
ninety six catches with eight touchdowns last year. And Armani Winfield,
who transferred in from Baylor, one of nineteen Texas high
school football products. He's a former Lewisville fighting farmer from
right up here in the Dallas for Metroplex. Winfield was
the guy that Texas actually recruited, started at Baylor's transferred
(09:52):
to Colorado State. Those are two guys that can make
a difference, as well as Dylan Goffney, who's a senior.
He's from the Greater Houston area Bridgeland, where he caught
passes from Connor Wigman. The Texas A and M quarterback,
began his collegiate career at SMU. He caught twenty three
passes a season ago. So those are guys for them
to watch as well, and we'll have more on Colorado
(10:14):
State throughout the course of the afternoon and obviously on
a pregame coverage. Longhorns Game Day begins from Bevo Boulevard
there in the Winship Circle to hook them hangout with
Cameron Parker and Mike Hardball Harge and Mark Henry and
it comes your way at eleven thirty tomorrow morning. Eleven
thirty is our pregame start time with Longhorns Game Day,
(10:37):
and then at till one point thirty we'll have the
network pregame and the kick off at two thirty. All
right up next, it's a Friday edition of Inconceivable. We
bring it to you next here on Sports Radio AM
thirteen under the Zone and the iHeartRadio app.
Taking me back to your time as a student at
the University of Texas. You graduated what in seventeen? Is
that correct?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm not that old that I look like it. I
know the hairline, it looks old.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
But you were in school at twenty seventeen, Yes, yes, okay,
freshman year. So would you say it would have been correct,
at least in an overlap sense to say that you
were a classmate of Cam Rising?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I had I think it was a business of sports
media with Cam Rising, de Marvin Overshown, and a handful
of other Texas football players. Casey Thompson wasn't in that class,
but there was a good group of Texas football players
in my class, including Cam Rising.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well, so you say you're not that old, here's Cameron
Rising's still playing college football. J Thompson and Casey Thompson
and Cameron Rising at a career high five touchdown passes
last night Utah and he hits his seventh season of
college football. His seventh season of college football. In fact,
(01:12):
it's kind of interesting in that a former Longhorn quarterback
and a former Aggie quarterback both were in action last night.
Rising for Utah the beat Southern Utah forty nine to nothing.
Max Johnson, of course, had been at Texas A and
hemy transferred to North Carolina and was playing for Max
Brown for Mac Brown. But Max Johnson had to be
carted off the field a hip injury in the third
(01:34):
quarter and the Tarios went on and held on for
a nineteen seventeen win on the road against Minnesota. Minnesota
missed two field goals, including one that would have won
the game. On the final play of the game. Johnson
did have a hip injury. He was taken to a
local hospital. They weren't sure that whether he was going
(01:58):
to travel back with the team. Of course, his father
is Brad Johnson, the former NFL quarterback for the Vikings
and with Tampa Bay when they won the Super Bowl.
So yeah, there's there was that connection. So we'll see
what happens after that, and Connor Harrell wound up finishing
the game for North Carolina. Carolina did get the win,
(02:20):
and it was for I found this note interesting. It
was the first season opening road win for North Carolina
in thirty two years. It was the first season opening
road win for North Carolina since Mac Brown was the
coach there the first time back in nineteen ninety two.
(02:44):
That's the last time that Carolina had won a season
opening true road game, not a neutral site, but a
true road game. So good for Mac and for the
Tar Hills, and hopefully Max Johnson isn't too banged up
on them all right. Speaking to college football Longhorns, of course,
getting ready for Colorado State. Last night on Longhorn Weekly
(03:06):
from Learfield, we visited, of course, coach Sark the season
premiere of his program, which we record on Wednesdays and
then it airs on Thursday, So it aired late yesterday
afternoon here on the Zone, and Sark and I, as
we always do, down the stretch of the program, discuss
(03:27):
the opponent. So here's our weekly excerpt in examining the
Colorado State rams from last night's edition of long Horn Weekly.
You were talking about Jay Norvell and what he's done
and starting to build this program at Colorado State, entering
his third year as the head coach there. How about
your impressions. I know you've known coach Norvell. How about
(03:47):
your impressions also what you see from his football team?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, A ton of respect for coach Norvel. You know,
I'm followed his career for a long time. He's been
around some great coaches and what he did in Nevada
and now what he's doing Colorado State. You know, definitely
the expertise and the air raid offense and their ability
to throw the ball around the field quarterbacks, a really
good player from Alito. They got an All American wide
receiver and Tory Horton. But the thing they have is
(04:13):
a very veteran offensive line and they've got an older group.
They pass protect really well, they spread the field and
then they run it enough in there to challenge you.
But we've got to deploy people the right way in
the back end. Defensively of really veteran defense. You got
two great safeties to all conference safeties, veteran secondary, great schemes.
(04:35):
I will say this, in all three phases, they challenge
you schematically, offense, defense, and on special team. So this
is a heck of a challenge for Saturday.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
When you look at a team, when you first start
to break it down with your coaches, is the first
place you go to the offensive line.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Well, it's helpful because we don't play seven on seven, right,
we play eleven man football, and so much of the
football that these guys grow up playing is seven on
seve of it in the offseason. But you've got to
be able to be good upfront if you're going to
be a really good football team, and the fact that
they've got that, they've got this veteran offensive line poses
some issues for us.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
You mentioned the quarterback Brandon Fowler Nicolosi won a state
championship at Aledo and is the guy who leads this
program now. They say that he's made an awful lot
of progress and went through, like a lot of quarterbacks
go through some growing pains course with interceptions and things
like that. But a guy that really has a great deal.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Of confidence as he goes to the field, Well, it
really does. And I think he's got great rapport. Like
I said with Tory horton the wide out, I think
the addition of Armani Windfield, a guy we recruited here
transferred from Baylor, is helpful for them. I think anytime
you're in a system like he's been in now, as
he's grown up in it, you're just always better the
next year. Right, Well, how much better was Quinn from
(05:49):
year one to year two? How much better do we
expect him to be now going into year three in
the system? So I think all that's helpful as well
for him.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
And it's also interesting that the running back Justin Marshall
is a Red Church freshman. He did play last year.
He rushed for three hundred yards. He only played three
games right to the end, but they really like him.
How difficult or challenging is it, especially when this team
does not have this particular team does not have a
game on tape from twenty twenty four to your typical
(06:17):
season opening challenge.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Well, I think offensively we've got a decent idea schematically
of who they are. I think what we learned a
year ago against Rice and the opener, we got a
whole different defense, and so you know, and then you
have to adjust on the fly and what that looks like.
And so I think offensively we feel pretty good just
in general. What they're going to do, they hey, they
believe it throwing the ball, but there's no secret there.
(06:41):
Defensively is how they're deploying their people, and then how
we're going to adjust to put our players in a
good position to have some success.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
How do you also prepare, as you mentioned, Rice did
something completely different defensively, knowing that that is always a possibility.
How do you prepare guys for that possibility, that element
that everything you're training and working for and game planning
for may be completely different what you see when you
get on the field.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Well, I think that's why you have to have rules
in your plays. Your blocking schemes have to have rules.
Is it a four down front, a three down front?
Is it a bear front? How do we block these plays?
And that's what training camp is for. And then you
trust your training and you fall back on that with
whatever the look is that you get. And then we
try to call plays in games like this that are
all encompassing, meaning it works versus a variety of coverages
(07:30):
and quinnos. This progression, it works versus a variety of fronts.
It's not so specific for this defense. We want this
play because you really just don't know. I mean, we
have an idea, but you don't know until the ballgame begins.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, that's you know, Once it does begin, that's when
you find out for sure what you're dealing with. Because
as we said, and you heard Sard just say it,
you know, that's they'll find out when to get out there,
how much of a different look they get from the
Colorado State defense. Then everything they've seen schematically, same defensive coordinator,
(08:06):
all of that sort of stuff, So you would think, Okay,
well maybe it'll maybe it'll have all the similarities and
you know, maybe maybe that'll make sense since you're talking
about the same scheme and Freddie Banks is the defensive
coordinator there. But hey, we saw that with Rice last year.
(08:26):
Them give a completely different look. So it's entirely possible
that that could be the case, and they'll, you know,
they'll have to be ready for that, and they'll have
to be ready for addy, you know, additional wrinkles that
they might get from the Colorado State offense with the
Texas defense as well. So that's that's another thing that
(08:47):
Sark has talked about, just being ready for all of
those kinds of possibilities in the way it could turn
out and what they the looks they might get from
Colorado State. I will also tell you this, they have
a good red shirt freshman running back of Justin Marshall.
But well, let me put it to you this way.
He was good for three games. He only played in
three games. It wasn't because of injury that knocked him
(09:10):
out after the third game. No, he played in the
last three games of the season and ran for three
hundred and eleven yards and two touchdowns. He averaged five
and a half yards per carry. He's more of an explosive,
get to the edge guy, five to ten and eighty pounder,
that sort of thing, and can catch the ball out
of the backfield. But you heard start saying Tory Horton,
(09:30):
who had eleven hundred and thirty six receiving yards on
ninety six catches with eight touchdowns last year. And Armani Winfield,
who transferred in from Baylor, one of nineteen Texas high
school football products. He's a former Lewisville fighting farmer from
right up here in the Dallas for Metroplex. Winfield was
the guy that Texas actually recruited, started at Baylor's transferred
(09:52):
to Colorado State. Those are two guys that can make
a difference, as well as Dylan Goffney, who's a senior.
He's from the Greater Houston area Bridgeland, where he caught
passes from Connor Wigman. The Texas A and M quarterback,
began his collegiate career at SMU. He caught twenty three
passes a season ago. So those are guys for them
to watch as well, and we'll have more on Colorado
(10:14):
State throughout the course of the afternoon and obviously on
a pregame coverage. Longhorns Game Day begins from Bevo Boulevard
there in the Winship Circle to hook them hangout with
Cameron Parker and Mike Hardball Harge and Mark Henry and
it comes your way at eleven thirty tomorrow morning. Eleven
thirty is our pregame start time with Longhorns Game Day,
(10:37):
and then at till one point thirty we'll have the
network pregame and the kick off at two thirty. All
right up next, it's a Friday edition of Inconceivable. We
bring it to you next here on Sports Radio AM
thirteen under the Zone and the iHeartRadio app.
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