September 3, 2024 • 20 mins
Greg Tepper, the managing editor of Dave Campbells Texas Football Magazine, joins the program for his weekly segment to discuss Week 1 of the college football season. Craig and Tepper talk about A&M's loss to Notre Dame, Texas Tech's near upset loss to Abilene Christian, Week 2 games, and more CFB. They close out with Texas High School Football.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Is Greg Tevor, the managing editor of Dave Campbell's Texas
football magazine TEP. I have often didn't referred to as
a highwayman simply because I'm up and down the highway
so much. But you got to go see Frost and
Winners kick off the season last Thursday.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
How was that experience?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Oh? It was joyful.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
It was as pleasant high school football experience as I've
had in.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
A long time.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Hamilton is a gorgeous little town, a good Hamburger, it storms,
and then made our way over to Cook and Field,
where we watched what ended up being one of the
games of the weekend. I mean, look, there were seven
hundred and fifty Texas high school football games last weekend,
and I would ask you how many came down to
(00:45):
a potential game winning field goal attempt as time expired.
I mean probably only a handful of them. And we
got one of them as Winters comes away with a
twenty eight to twenty seven win over Frost to win
the inaugural Ice Bowl.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I got a shirt. They made shirts for it.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
And I will also say that for two towns that
are you know, small towns, I don't mean tell people
this is two way schools, small towns and winters and
frosts that were each between an hour and a half
and two hours away from Hamilton. Really nice little crowd
out there at Cooking Field. They were excited about football
and it was it was a real joy to.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Be out there.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Did you good milkshake at storms?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I did not. I didn't have the courage.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
But what I did get was I think they make
their own cherry syrup, because I got a doctor pepper
with some cherry syrup in it, and oh that's I'm
not entirely sure that should be legal or available over
the counter.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I mean, it was really good.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Closest one to where I live as in Lamb Passes
and I get the cherry shake every time, and it's
it's also, of course, the one in Hamilton always recalls
to me something that happened thirty years ago, nineteen ninety
four state championship.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I was on the side lines.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Last year, was on the sidelines before I moved into
the play by play booth. I was on the sidelines
for Plano and Katie at Kyle Field. Plano wins the
game and then I leap in the car to race
to Abilene to call the six man state championship there
Amherst and Milford for radio, and I stopped at that
(02:21):
Storms in Hambleton and got a burger and a shake,
and then I was in such a hurry. I got
a ticket for doing about eighty five and a fifty
five on them and it was one of it was
it was one of two tickets I got on the
way to that deal.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yeah, that's worth that's worth it, though all Bee it
was somebody has now been to that Storms. We were
also in there. This is the afropo that we were
in there with a Winter's band. They were eating at
the same time, and I.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Believe it was a trombone player turned to me and
Matt Stepp and asked, hey, hey, do we have a
chance in this game? And I said, you know what, yeah,
I think you got a chance.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
I thought they were underdogs, but I think he got
got a chancey And and this trombone player, in classic fashion,
cu said.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well, are you sure we're not very good? And it's like, hey,
you're you're want to know this week? You know, the
Winter's Lizards undefeated.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
There you go, there you go, that's that's great. Before
we get back into high school, let's let's go to college.
I asked you last week how important the game was
for Texas A and M against Notre Dame. And I'm
not picking on or piling on or something at A
and M. I guess my question is more to the
realm of does anybody in college station or fans need
(03:31):
to be pushing panic button yet because it is only
one game against the at the time seventh ranking team.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
In the country.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I don't know if panic is the right word. I
do think that it exposed a couple of concerns that
may end up lingering along with this with.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
The I mean, here's the good news.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
The good news is that the defense looks like it's
going to be pretty good, and overall, I thought that
they played pretty well. In some places that we had concerns,
especially maybe in the secondary, they looked pretty good and
overall that's that's fairly strong for them. The concerns I
think have to be twofold on the offensive side.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
One of them is going to be offensive.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Line, which is now going to be without their starting
center markin Naboo is out for the year with an injury.
That is a huge blow to them. They're going to
be and they are now. The way we talked about
it around here at Dan Campbell's is they were already
pretty thin on the offensive line. They are probably one
injury away from really staring into the abyss as far
as the offensive line is concerned. That's one and the
(04:30):
other thing is just and I know I'm not the
first person to bring this up, but boy, that's a
performance that Connor Wigman would like to forget. I mean,
that was he didn't play well.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I don't think there's really any doubt about it.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
He was out there at a press conference yesterday and
said as much, and and you know, respect him for
owning up to it, but he just was not good
enough to win that ballgame.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I think that he is better than that.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
But I think that that kind of gel process between
him and new offensive coordinator Colin Kline is just going
to take a little bit longer than we thought. The
good thing of them is that they've got McNee State
this week that they should be uh, they should cruise
to a victory there and work on a few things.
But I think if you're if you're a and M
unfortunately there there's kind of the same song, different verse
to this to this level in the sense of your saying,
(05:14):
here is an opportunity to make a statement on national
television against the brand name helmet program. Uh, and you
couldn't get it done at home, and that that's that's
got to be disapointing.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Those opportunities don't come around every all the time.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And you and I we followed Connor Wigman all throughout
his high school career at Bridgeland, and I'm in agree
with you. I think he's better than that. I think
he will be better in that. But it was it
was a difficult night for him. And and like you said,
kudos to him for owning up to it yesterday coming
out in the press conference.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And I got to be better.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yeah, I mean, and that's that's you know, in my area,
you know, in my interactions with him, that's not surprising,
just just.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
In kind of the guy that he is.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
And I think get a bad game, and that happens
to everybody. I hate to tell tech the fans that
there's a but there's a chance of Quinn yours is
a bad game at some point, and you hope that
you know, you know, he will probably own up to
it in the same way that that happens.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
But but the.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Difference may be that for Texas, they may have the
surrounding cast, the supporting cast, uh to to get up
and over a potential plunker from their court, from their
QV one Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And I just couldn't do it. They couldn't get things
going in the running game. And I thought the offensive
line really struggled. Uh.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
And and then when you when you compound that with
a with a quarterback who is who is not playing
well at the moment, that's that's just a recipe for
a for a disappointing performance.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Several of the other Division one FBS programs in Texas, Uh,
you know, uh lived up to their building. Obviously Texas
was one of those Baylor Handlebo Tarleton, there wasn't any
issue with that. North Texas was able to do well
and spoil the head coaching debut for Major Apple White.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Those kinds of things happened, Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
But the ones I wanted to ask you about where
Texas Tech would survived Avali Christian and what in the
world happened in Houston to U N l V. The
those are the ones that really just kind of stuck
out of me.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Yeah, yeah, I think you're exactly right. Those are the
surprising performances I think everything else about. Congratulations to Sam Houston,
which and what would very clearly their best FBS performance
today where that they win over Rice. Questions for Rice
though on Texas Tech it is a it was a
baffling performance in a lot of ways, in the sense that,
(07:23):
you know, the offense, it looked like it really didn't
look like early.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
In the first kind of couple, you know, quarter and
a half.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
It looked like it was going to be your classic
FBS versus SCS game basically what Baylor did to Tarleton, right,
which is going to run out to a big lead,
You're going to get to get your backup quarterback in
and get your get all your backups in and get
some time uh and stuff like that and uh and
and unfortunately the defense just was not able to live
up to their end of the Billy give a lot
of credit by the way to Keith Patterson, who was
(07:50):
a former Texas Tech assistant, and also their entire offense
which is basically like Texas Tech like.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Uh, you know, cast offs in a lot of ways.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Iber their quarterback, a former Texa Tech quarterback with San
Angelo's central product a lot of their guys were at
Texas Tech, and they played with a lot of heart
and a lot of passion. I think, you know, this
is this is you know, I'm not going to make
Tech to Tech mans feel any better, but I think
Aveleen Christian's got to be feeling.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Really good coming out of this.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Have an opportunity to go off and get a good
win for Tech. Obviously, there's big concerns I think in
the secondary. Uh, that is a big, big concern moving forward.
Timer Ruters got to figure something out and in a
hurry because by the way, they go on the road
to Wazoo this week. So I think for Tech it
is possible that you can just kind of put this
in the clunker category and you just want to win
(08:36):
your clunkers. But there are certainly some some areas of concern,
especially in the secondary.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
That are going to linger for tex Attack, I think.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
And then as for Houston, we thought it was going
to be bad what Willie Fritz was walking into. We
did not necessarily think it was going to be this bad,
and and it is. This is going to be a
full on tear down and rebuild. The good thing for
Houston is that that's what wially Fritz does.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
That's that's that's his whole thing.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
It's tearing down and building from from the you know,
from the studs. But but I will tell you that
that the roster right now, plain and simple at Houston
is uh, it's not a Power five roster right now.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I just don't think it is.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
And and that's that's one of the things that's going
to hold them back and may have them fighting to
get out of the cellar of.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
The Big twelve this year, talking football in the State
of Texas with the Greg Kepper, managing editor at Dave
Campbells Texas Football Magazine.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Right, let's move to to high school.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Is it safe to say that maybe, at least in
terms of the top ten, the easiest poll for you
and your staff to put together with six A.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Yeah, for the most part, especially the very top. You know,
this was a six A that was very shocky at
the at the top of the rankings, top fifteen I
believe were entirely unchanged. And so yeah, that that, you know,
and the teams that we.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Thought were going to take care of business took care
of business in big ways.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Where you had some turners at the bottom plank Collins
drops out. Shadow Creek got got bludgeted by Summer Creek
in a big way, and I thought that was really
impressive from the state finals from a year ago. And
then Houston Lamar got gotten drilled by a task Casita,
but also offered gave us an opportunity to put a
couple of teams that really impressed us in week one
into the rankings, including Dent and Geyer who got to
(10:15):
win over Aledo Cedar Hill who looked really good in
their opener against Midlothian, and then San Antonio Reagan who
was really really strong in their win over San Antonio
Brannan and they have a huge test this week against
Sibillo Steel. But yeah, overall, as far as the rankings
were concerned, partially because it was chalky at the top
and also partially because there was a lot of chaos
(10:36):
elsewhere in the rankings, sixth A was relatively easy to see.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I completely understand why. When we were previewing some of
the big matchups last Friday night on the show Tap
and Aaron Hardingan and I do the High School Scoreboard
Live show on Mallley Sports Southwest, and we were previewing
the big games that we said next week this coming
Friday night and De Soto and North Crowley. It makes
and it's number one in the state, number five in
(11:02):
the state. That said, I think one of the better
ones might be Rockwall Lake Travis this week down the
here at Lake Travis.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
A fabulous game in the game that I think is
really kind of flying under the radar. I thought Rockwall
looked pretty good in their win over Bergner and then
for you know, for Lake Travis, what they did last
week against Arlington Martin, I thought was really impressive, especially
you saw that offense really get going and that defense
really stood on its head. If that defense is going
(11:30):
to carry over from what we saw last year right
when they were holding Vandergrift to ten points, I mean
in a playoff game, that is I think really promising.
And so this is a real kind of strength on
strength matchup here in that rock Wall offense going up
against Lake Travis defense, which the early returns have been very,
very positive. I think this is a really really great
(11:50):
game that might get overshadowed in the six day ranks
is simply because there's a couple of other really big games,
especially in the DFW area. But but for Rockwall and in
Lake Travis, that is box office stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Well, when I asked you, when I asked you about
the number one ranking in five A Division one with
the lead up following to dent Gar, you kind of
gave me an answer like Sark did when somebody asked
Sark if arch Manning was going to play, asked him
last week one with Mary, and he goes, we'll see.
And so I asked you, I said, is Ryan will
(12:23):
be number one?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You said maybe? And there they are number one.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, we bubb Ryan up.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And overall when you take a look at our rankings,
we tried to be relatively like humble in this instance
of saying like we don't know, we don't know, and
you try to measure up against what's really with these
non district games is to measure up like, okay, what
is the not only the quality of the opponent they're playing,
but also the size of the opponent that they're playing.
(12:50):
And so we're a team like Alito, they're playing a
team from six A.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
But then we did have outside the top twenty five,
and so for me that was and for the day.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Of Campbell set this football staff in us talking about
it we said, you know, what Ryan did against the
six A decent six A program in in Eton was
was good enough, we thought. And then what Highland Park
did against Ruckwall, he was good enough to maybe leap
frog Aledo.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Now Alito's you know, one went away from being right
back up there at number one.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
That's why we kept them kind of within striking distance
of the rankings because we know that they are They're
not going away and I'm very comfortable saying they're one
of the three best teams in five A Division one.
But for now, you know, the resume is what it is,
and if Ryan, you know, if Alito can bounce back
and get a win this week, then they're going to
have an opportunity to.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Rise back up those rankings.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
But for now, Ryan feels like they've done enough to
kind of vault up to number one.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
That can change, certainly.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
With any any week, because these resumes are are fluid.
But one of the things that again we kind of
talked about is we don't want to overreact to two results,
but you also don't want to underreact, and so it's
striking that bound, especially with what is one week of data,
and honestly, in a lot.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Of ways the bad set of data just because a.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Lot of weird things happen in week one. There's a
lot of upsets, there's a lot of weirdo results that
are going to look very strange in Arlington in sixteen weeks.
So we want to make sure we're being a little
bit diligent as far as making sure we consider all
of the elements when you're talking about moving teams up
and down.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
In the ranking, Well, no better example that the fact
that it's not often someone can say, hey, a team
got beat thirty eight to nothing and did not drop
in the poll. Then you consider, well, at South oak
Cliff playing a team that has a real legitimate shot
to win the six A Division one state championship in
the Lena Partner Shore.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
It's a perfect example, perfect example, and we had a
lot of conversation about this because on one hand, South
Oak Cliff did lose by by five touchdowns. That's a
lot and I think on its face, you look at
that and say, boy, they should certainly be punished for that.
But then you consider a couple of things. One, they're
playing a team three times their size. Two, they were
(14:58):
on the road going all.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
The way down at Gleena Parks play this game.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
And three, when you take a look at the context
of the game, this game was it's hard to stay
with the game that was thirty eight nothing was actually
closer than it appeared. But North Shore ran out to
basically a thirty five nothing lead in the first quarter.
They absolutely blitz cried South Oakcliffe from the beginning, and
then the final three quarters were basically a three nothing game.
(15:22):
And and look, so what you want about South North
north Shore. They're putting in there, you know, putting in
their twos, or they're playing vanilla offense and stuff like that. Certainly,
but I think that in a lot of ways, the
context of this game is more kind to South oak Cliff,
and that's one of the things we wanted to reflect here. Furthermore,
I just don't think here's this is just the point
that I would make name a five A Division two
(15:43):
team that could go to North Shore and stay within
thirty eight points in them.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I'm just not.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Sure one of those exists. Even the number one is
even to say pot and Ahs grows, I'm not sure,
you know. Our our thought is they might do a
little bit better. We have them above South oak Cliff
but the expecting them to go down there and win
against a North Shore team like that, I just don't
think is especially the North short team that showed up
on Friday, because goodness gracious, I just don't think that's reasonable.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And so we decided to keep South oklup number one.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
And by the way, I hate to tell people, but
if you hate that, I got bad news. They play
Duncanville this week, which is also a team that's three
times their size, but at least it's more local and
so we'll be able to have a better data.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Set and remove that particular variable.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Final thing, the old cruel thing. You can go to
one of these games. Would it be just south of
North Crawley in sixs egg Would it be Alito Lancaster
as you talk about Alito trying to punch up there,
although Lancaster just moved up off of that one. And
(16:47):
then the third one I was gonna throw at you
believe it was a for a D one.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Oh yeah. Solona Lavega is the other one.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Slina Lvega is really interesting because Solana coming off a
really nice win over Belleville. They now get another opportunity
to big physicals team in La Vega and can put
together their best opportunity yet. But the answer is to
Soto and North Crowley top five matchup at six A.
Our first real look at the Soto. Last week they
played the team from Georgia that just I mean all
(17:20):
due respect to them, they just did not belong on
the same field as them. They launched them into the sun.
It will be a real look at kild and Ryan,
their new quarterback, who of course has tons of weapons
around him, Dalen Singleton, Boobe Feast or Tiger right, and
it goes on and on and then for North Crowley,
an opportunity to really go out there and put a
skin on the wall, I mean an opportunity to really
(17:40):
measure up against a true sixth eight Division one, sixth
Division two, rather state title contender. For Ray Gates, the
program has been on a meteor trajectory. This would be
the biggest win for the program since they won the
state championship back in two thousand and three. If they
can pull this off. I think they're underdog from this one,
especially to Sota, but from a playmaker perspective, this game
(18:03):
is going to be fun. The other one and I
know this was on the third of the three gaming.
But Gunner and Anna is the weirdest game.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Of the week.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
It's the weirdest game of the week. It's five A
versus three A. Okay, so think about the difference in
enrollment between North Shore and South o'cliff and, oh my gosh,
they're three times How about Anna is four times the
size of Gunner, four times the size of Gunner, and
they're going to play each other.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Imagine with defending state champs.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
It is a.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Truly bizarre matchup here that It's just I looked this up.
This will be the twentieth time in the last five
years the will of five a versus a three A
twenty times in like more than like twenty five.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Thousand Texas high school football games, it has been.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
It's a nuts proposition and I'm really excited to see
how much Gunner can hang.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, that does sound pretty interesting when you think about that.
How how it might ultimately shake down because they're just neighbors.
Although the population thing has certainly made and the computer
likes Hanna by nine. When's the last time Gunner was
not was was a nine point computerized underdog to anybody?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
To anybody?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Oh, they that's that's the thing. It's it's been, it's
been a minute.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
I think that they're an underdog in any kind, which
is going to make this all that were remarkable. And
by the way, I think it speaks to how much
the computer thinks of them. That a three A Division
two team team four divisions smaller than the team they're playing.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Is within ten points of them. That's that's respect from
the computer, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Should I even, knowing what we know about high school
football in the state, should I even bother to go
see a Michigan high school football game Friday night?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
It might be worth it, just for the just for
the novel Dason's sake.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
You should Yeah, you should just be like be the
real life textis high school football jerk.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I always do this whenever I go up to Missouri
with my with my with my wife's family.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Like, for example, one of the schools in Saint Louis
is Kirkwood High School and they're coached by former Miszoo
grade Jeremy Macklin.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, right now.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
I think they won they won something pre significant last year.
But every time we drive by the stadium, I always
just make a point to tell my wife I'm like,
that's cute.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Look at that. I didn't know they played here. That's
good for them. You know, you can be a real
elitist if you want.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
He's Greg Temper, managing editor of David Campbell's Texas Football Magazine.
Follow him on X at Tepper and of course on
Friday nights where he and Aaron Hartigan will sail without
me this Friday night, and so we'll just look forward
to it next week.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Tip.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, we'll miss it desperately, my friend.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
All right, thanks, take care.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
That's Greg Tepper from Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine. More
coming up on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone.
Is Greg Tevor, the managing editor of Dave Campbell's Texas
football magazine TEP. I have often didn't referred to as
a highwayman simply because I'm up and down the highway
so much. But you got to go see Frost and
Winners kick off the season last Thursday.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
How was that experience?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Oh? It was joyful.
Speaker 4 (00:18):
It was as pleasant high school football experience as I've
had in.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
A long time.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Hamilton is a gorgeous little town, a good Hamburger, it storms,
and then made our way over to Cook and Field,
where we watched what ended up being one of the
games of the weekend. I mean, look, there were seven
hundred and fifty Texas high school football games last weekend,
and I would ask you how many came down to
(00:45):
a potential game winning field goal attempt as time expired.
I mean probably only a handful of them. And we
got one of them as Winters comes away with a
twenty eight to twenty seven win over Frost to win
the inaugural Ice Bowl.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I got a shirt. They made shirts for it.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
And I will also say that for two towns that
are you know, small towns, I don't mean tell people
this is two way schools, small towns and winters and
frosts that were each between an hour and a half
and two hours away from Hamilton. Really nice little crowd
out there at Cooking Field. They were excited about football
and it was it was a real joy to.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Be out there.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Did you good milkshake at storms?
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I did not. I didn't have the courage.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
But what I did get was I think they make
their own cherry syrup, because I got a doctor pepper
with some cherry syrup in it, and oh that's I'm
not entirely sure that should be legal or available over
the counter.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
I mean, it was really good.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Closest one to where I live as in Lamb Passes
and I get the cherry shake every time, and it's
it's also, of course, the one in Hamilton always recalls
to me something that happened thirty years ago, nineteen ninety
four state championship.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
I was on the side lines.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Last year, was on the sidelines before I moved into
the play by play booth. I was on the sidelines
for Plano and Katie at Kyle Field. Plano wins the
game and then I leap in the car to race
to Abilene to call the six man state championship there
Amherst and Milford for radio, and I stopped at that
(02:21):
Storms in Hambleton and got a burger and a shake,
and then I was in such a hurry. I got
a ticket for doing about eighty five and a fifty
five on them and it was one of it was
it was one of two tickets I got on the
way to that deal.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yeah, that's worth that's worth it, though all Bee it
was somebody has now been to that Storms. We were
also in there. This is the afropo that we were
in there with a Winter's band. They were eating at
the same time, and I.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Believe it was a trombone player turned to me and
Matt Stepp and asked, hey, hey, do we have a
chance in this game? And I said, you know what, yeah,
I think you got a chance.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
I thought they were underdogs, but I think he got
got a chancey And and this trombone player, in classic fashion,
cu said.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well, are you sure we're not very good? And it's like, hey,
you're you're want to know this week? You know, the
Winter's Lizards undefeated.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
There you go, there you go, that's that's great. Before
we get back into high school, let's let's go to college.
I asked you last week how important the game was
for Texas A and M against Notre Dame. And I'm
not picking on or piling on or something at A
and M. I guess my question is more to the
realm of does anybody in college station or fans need
(03:31):
to be pushing panic button yet because it is only
one game against the at the time seventh ranking team.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
In the country.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I don't know if panic is the right word. I
do think that it exposed a couple of concerns that
may end up lingering along with this with.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
The I mean, here's the good news.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
The good news is that the defense looks like it's
going to be pretty good, and overall, I thought that
they played pretty well. In some places that we had concerns,
especially maybe in the secondary, they looked pretty good and
overall that's that's fairly strong for them. The concerns I
think have to be twofold on the offensive side.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
One of them is going to be offensive.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Line, which is now going to be without their starting
center markin Naboo is out for the year with an injury.
That is a huge blow to them. They're going to
be and they are now. The way we talked about
it around here at Dan Campbell's is they were already
pretty thin on the offensive line. They are probably one
injury away from really staring into the abyss as far
as the offensive line is concerned. That's one and the
(04:30):
other thing is just and I know I'm not the
first person to bring this up, but boy, that's a
performance that Connor Wigman would like to forget. I mean,
that was he didn't play well.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I don't think there's really any doubt about it.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
He was out there at a press conference yesterday and
said as much, and and you know, respect him for
owning up to it, but he just was not good
enough to win that ballgame.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
I think that he is better than that.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
But I think that that kind of gel process between
him and new offensive coordinator Colin Kline is just going
to take a little bit longer than we thought. The
good thing of them is that they've got McNee State
this week that they should be uh, they should cruise
to a victory there and work on a few things.
But I think if you're if you're a and M
unfortunately there there's kind of the same song, different verse
to this to this level in the sense of your saying,
(05:14):
here is an opportunity to make a statement on national
television against the brand name helmet program. Uh, and you
couldn't get it done at home, and that that's that's
got to be disapointing.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Those opportunities don't come around every all the time.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And you and I we followed Connor Wigman all throughout
his high school career at Bridgeland, and I'm in agree
with you. I think he's better than that. I think
he will be better in that. But it was it
was a difficult night for him. And and like you said,
kudos to him for owning up to it yesterday coming
out in the press conference.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And I got to be better.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yeah, I mean, and that's that's you know, in my area,
you know, in my interactions with him, that's not surprising,
just just.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
In kind of the guy that he is.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
And I think get a bad game, and that happens
to everybody. I hate to tell tech the fans that
there's a but there's a chance of Quinn yours is
a bad game at some point, and you hope that
you know, you know, he will probably own up to
it in the same way that that happens.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
But but the.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Difference may be that for Texas, they may have the
surrounding cast, the supporting cast, uh to to get up
and over a potential plunker from their court, from their
QV one Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
And I just couldn't do it. They couldn't get things
going in the running game. And I thought the offensive
line really struggled. Uh.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
And and then when you when you compound that with
a with a quarterback who is who is not playing
well at the moment, that's that's just a recipe for
a for a disappointing performance.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Several of the other Division one FBS programs in Texas, Uh,
you know, uh lived up to their building. Obviously Texas
was one of those Baylor Handlebo Tarleton, there wasn't any
issue with that. North Texas was able to do well
and spoil the head coaching debut for Major Apple White.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Those kinds of things happened, Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
But the ones I wanted to ask you about where
Texas Tech would survived Avali Christian and what in the
world happened in Houston to U N l V. The
those are the ones that really just kind of stuck
out of me.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Yeah, yeah, I think you're exactly right. Those are the
surprising performances I think everything else about. Congratulations to Sam Houston,
which and what would very clearly their best FBS performance
today where that they win over Rice. Questions for Rice
though on Texas Tech it is a it was a
baffling performance in a lot of ways, in the sense that,
(07:23):
you know, the offense, it looked like it really didn't
look like early.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
In the first kind of couple, you know, quarter and
a half.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
It looked like it was going to be your classic
FBS versus SCS game basically what Baylor did to Tarleton, right,
which is going to run out to a big lead,
You're going to get to get your backup quarterback in
and get your get all your backups in and get
some time uh and stuff like that and uh and
and unfortunately the defense just was not able to live
up to their end of the Billy give a lot
of credit by the way to Keith Patterson, who was
(07:50):
a former Texas Tech assistant, and also their entire offense
which is basically like Texas Tech like.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Uh, you know, cast offs in a lot of ways.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Iber their quarterback, a former Texa Tech quarterback with San
Angelo's central product a lot of their guys were at
Texas Tech, and they played with a lot of heart
and a lot of passion. I think, you know, this
is this is you know, I'm not going to make
Tech to Tech mans feel any better, but I think
Aveleen Christian's got to be feeling.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Really good coming out of this.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Have an opportunity to go off and get a good
win for Tech. Obviously, there's big concerns I think in
the secondary. Uh, that is a big, big concern moving forward.
Timer Ruters got to figure something out and in a
hurry because by the way, they go on the road
to Wazoo this week. So I think for Tech it
is possible that you can just kind of put this
in the clunker category and you just want to win
(08:36):
your clunkers. But there are certainly some some areas of concern,
especially in the secondary.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
That are going to linger for tex Attack, I think.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
And then as for Houston, we thought it was going
to be bad what Willie Fritz was walking into. We
did not necessarily think it was going to be this bad,
and and it is. This is going to be a
full on tear down and rebuild. The good thing for
Houston is that that's what wially Fritz does.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
That's that's that's his whole thing.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
It's tearing down and building from from the you know,
from the studs. But but I will tell you that
that the roster right now, plain and simple at Houston
is uh, it's not a Power five roster right now.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I just don't think it is.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
And and that's that's one of the things that's going
to hold them back and may have them fighting to
get out of the cellar of.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
The Big twelve this year, talking football in the State
of Texas with the Greg Kepper, managing editor at Dave
Campbells Texas Football Magazine.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Right, let's move to to high school.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Is it safe to say that maybe, at least in
terms of the top ten, the easiest poll for you
and your staff to put together with six A.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Yeah, for the most part, especially the very top. You know,
this was a six A that was very shocky at
the at the top of the rankings, top fifteen I
believe were entirely unchanged. And so yeah, that that, you know,
and the teams that we.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Thought were going to take care of business took care
of business in big ways.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Where you had some turners at the bottom plank Collins
drops out. Shadow Creek got got bludgeted by Summer Creek
in a big way, and I thought that was really
impressive from the state finals from a year ago. And
then Houston Lamar got gotten drilled by a task Casita,
but also offered gave us an opportunity to put a
couple of teams that really impressed us in week one
into the rankings, including Dent and Geyer who got to
(10:15):
win over Aledo Cedar Hill who looked really good in
their opener against Midlothian, and then San Antonio Reagan who
was really really strong in their win over San Antonio
Brannan and they have a huge test this week against
Sibillo Steel. But yeah, overall, as far as the rankings
were concerned, partially because it was chalky at the top
and also partially because there was a lot of chaos
(10:36):
elsewhere in the rankings, sixth A was relatively easy to see.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I completely understand why. When we were previewing some of
the big matchups last Friday night on the show Tap
and Aaron Hardingan and I do the High School Scoreboard
Live show on Mallley Sports Southwest, and we were previewing
the big games that we said next week this coming
Friday night and De Soto and North Crowley. It makes
and it's number one in the state, number five in
(11:02):
the state. That said, I think one of the better
ones might be Rockwall Lake Travis this week down the
here at Lake Travis.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
A fabulous game in the game that I think is
really kind of flying under the radar. I thought Rockwall
looked pretty good in their win over Bergner and then
for you know, for Lake Travis, what they did last
week against Arlington Martin, I thought was really impressive, especially
you saw that offense really get going and that defense
really stood on its head. If that defense is going
(11:30):
to carry over from what we saw last year right
when they were holding Vandergrift to ten points, I mean
in a playoff game, that is I think really promising.
And so this is a real kind of strength on
strength matchup here in that rock Wall offense going up
against Lake Travis defense, which the early returns have been very,
very positive. I think this is a really really great
(11:50):
game that might get overshadowed in the six day ranks
is simply because there's a couple of other really big games,
especially in the DFW area. But but for Rockwall and in
Lake Travis, that is box office stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Well, when I asked you, when I asked you about
the number one ranking in five A Division one with
the lead up following to dent Gar, you kind of
gave me an answer like Sark did when somebody asked
Sark if arch Manning was going to play, asked him
last week one with Mary, and he goes, we'll see.
And so I asked you, I said, is Ryan will
(12:23):
be number one?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You said maybe? And there they are number one.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, we bubb Ryan up.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And overall when you take a look at our rankings,
we tried to be relatively like humble in this instance
of saying like we don't know, we don't know, and
you try to measure up against what's really with these
non district games is to measure up like, okay, what
is the not only the quality of the opponent they're playing,
but also the size of the opponent that they're playing.
(12:50):
And so we're a team like Alito, they're playing a
team from six A.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
But then we did have outside the top twenty five,
and so for me that was and for the day.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
Of Campbell set this football staff in us talking about
it we said, you know, what Ryan did against the
six A decent six A program in in Eton was
was good enough, we thought. And then what Highland Park
did against Ruckwall, he was good enough to maybe leap
frog Aledo.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Now Alito's you know, one went away from being right
back up there at number one.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
That's why we kept them kind of within striking distance
of the rankings because we know that they are They're
not going away and I'm very comfortable saying they're one
of the three best teams in five A Division one.
But for now, you know, the resume is what it is,
and if Ryan, you know, if Alito can bounce back
and get a win this week, then they're going to
have an opportunity to.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Rise back up those rankings.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
But for now, Ryan feels like they've done enough to
kind of vault up to number one.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
That can change, certainly.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
With any any week, because these resumes are are fluid.
But one of the things that again we kind of
talked about is we don't want to overreact to two results,
but you also don't want to underreact, and so it's
striking that bound, especially with what is one week of data,
and honestly, in a lot.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Of ways the bad set of data just because a.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Lot of weird things happen in week one. There's a
lot of upsets, there's a lot of weirdo results that
are going to look very strange in Arlington in sixteen weeks.
So we want to make sure we're being a little
bit diligent as far as making sure we consider all
of the elements when you're talking about moving teams up
and down.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
In the ranking, Well, no better example that the fact
that it's not often someone can say, hey, a team
got beat thirty eight to nothing and did not drop
in the poll. Then you consider, well, at South oak
Cliff playing a team that has a real legitimate shot
to win the six A Division one state championship in
the Lena Partner Shore.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
It's a perfect example, perfect example, and we had a
lot of conversation about this because on one hand, South
Oak Cliff did lose by by five touchdowns. That's a
lot and I think on its face, you look at
that and say, boy, they should certainly be punished for that.
But then you consider a couple of things. One, they're
playing a team three times their size. Two, they were
(14:58):
on the road going all.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
The way down at Gleena Parks play this game.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
And three, when you take a look at the context
of the game, this game was it's hard to stay
with the game that was thirty eight nothing was actually
closer than it appeared. But North Shore ran out to
basically a thirty five nothing lead in the first quarter.
They absolutely blitz cried South Oakcliffe from the beginning, and
then the final three quarters were basically a three nothing game.
(15:22):
And and look, so what you want about South North
north Shore. They're putting in there, you know, putting in
their twos, or they're playing vanilla offense and stuff like that. Certainly,
but I think that in a lot of ways, the
context of this game is more kind to South oak Cliff,
and that's one of the things we wanted to reflect here. Furthermore,
I just don't think here's this is just the point
that I would make name a five A Division two
(15:43):
team that could go to North Shore and stay within
thirty eight points in them.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I'm just not.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
Sure one of those exists. Even the number one is
even to say pot and Ahs grows, I'm not sure,
you know. Our our thought is they might do a
little bit better. We have them above South oak Cliff
but the expecting them to go down there and win
against a North Shore team like that, I just don't
think is especially the North short team that showed up
on Friday, because goodness gracious, I just don't think that's reasonable.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
And so we decided to keep South oklup number one.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
And by the way, I hate to tell people, but
if you hate that, I got bad news. They play
Duncanville this week, which is also a team that's three
times their size, but at least it's more local and
so we'll be able to have a better data.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Set and remove that particular variable.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Final thing, the old cruel thing. You can go to
one of these games. Would it be just south of
North Crawley in sixs egg Would it be Alito Lancaster
as you talk about Alito trying to punch up there,
although Lancaster just moved up off of that one. And
(16:47):
then the third one I was gonna throw at you
believe it was a for a D one.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Oh yeah. Solona Lavega is the other one.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Slina Lvega is really interesting because Solana coming off a
really nice win over Belleville. They now get another opportunity
to big physicals team in La Vega and can put
together their best opportunity yet. But the answer is to
Soto and North Crowley top five matchup at six A.
Our first real look at the Soto. Last week they
played the team from Georgia that just I mean all
(17:20):
due respect to them, they just did not belong on
the same field as them. They launched them into the sun.
It will be a real look at kild and Ryan,
their new quarterback, who of course has tons of weapons
around him, Dalen Singleton, Boobe Feast or Tiger right, and
it goes on and on and then for North Crowley,
an opportunity to really go out there and put a
skin on the wall, I mean an opportunity to really
(17:40):
measure up against a true sixth eight Division one, sixth
Division two, rather state title contender. For Ray Gates, the
program has been on a meteor trajectory. This would be
the biggest win for the program since they won the
state championship back in two thousand and three. If they
can pull this off. I think they're underdog from this one,
especially to Sota, but from a playmaker perspective, this game
(18:03):
is going to be fun. The other one and I
know this was on the third of the three gaming.
But Gunner and Anna is the weirdest game.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Of the week.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
It's the weirdest game of the week. It's five A
versus three A. Okay, so think about the difference in
enrollment between North Shore and South o'cliff and, oh my gosh,
they're three times How about Anna is four times the
size of Gunner, four times the size of Gunner, and
they're going to play each other.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Imagine with defending state champs.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
It is a.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Truly bizarre matchup here that It's just I looked this up.
This will be the twentieth time in the last five
years the will of five a versus a three A
twenty times in like more than like twenty five.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Thousand Texas high school football games, it has been.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
It's a nuts proposition and I'm really excited to see
how much Gunner can hang.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, that does sound pretty interesting when you think about that.
How how it might ultimately shake down because they're just neighbors.
Although the population thing has certainly made and the computer
likes Hanna by nine. When's the last time Gunner was
not was was a nine point computerized underdog to anybody?
Speaker 2 (19:12):
To anybody?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Oh, they that's that's the thing. It's it's been, it's
been a minute.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
I think that they're an underdog in any kind, which
is going to make this all that were remarkable. And
by the way, I think it speaks to how much
the computer thinks of them. That a three A Division
two team team four divisions smaller than the team they're playing.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Is within ten points of them. That's that's respect from
the computer, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Should I even, knowing what we know about high school
football in the state, should I even bother to go
see a Michigan high school football game Friday night?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
It might be worth it, just for the just for
the novel Dason's sake.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
You should Yeah, you should just be like be the
real life textis high school football jerk.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I always do this whenever I go up to Missouri
with my with my with my wife's family.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
Like, for example, one of the schools in Saint Louis
is Kirkwood High School and they're coached by former Miszoo
grade Jeremy Macklin.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, right now.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
I think they won they won something pre significant last year.
But every time we drive by the stadium, I always
just make a point to tell my wife I'm like,
that's cute.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Look at that. I didn't know they played here. That's
good for them. You know, you can be a real
elitist if you want.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
He's Greg Temper, managing editor of David Campbell's Texas Football Magazine.
Follow him on X at Tepper and of course on
Friday nights where he and Aaron Hartigan will sail without
me this Friday night, and so we'll just look forward
to it next week.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Tip.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, we'll miss it desperately, my friend.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
All right, thanks, take care.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
That's Greg Tepper from Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine. More
coming up on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone.
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