Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
We're back.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
It's the Craig Way Show with Hall of Fame broadcaster
and voice of the Texas Longhearts Craig Way.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Earlier, we had told you that the announcement was made
today that the Texas Georgia gain would kick off at
six thirty pm on Saturday the nineteenth. And so what
I had done was just repost the tweet that came
(00:41):
off of x from Texas Football. So Texas versus Georgia
on October nineteenth, we'll kick off at six thirty pm,
just you know, letting people naturally, somebody has to chime in.
Let's take care of business at two thirty on Saturday. First,
no joke, just letting people know the time has been announced.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
That's all. That's all.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Nobody's getting ahead of anything. Nobody's putting cards before horses
and all that other kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So there.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
So baseball is underway Game two of the Division series
the Tigers and the Guardians. Cleveland won Game one on
Saturday seven and nothing. It is scoreless bottom of the first.
Derek Scuball pitched so well for Detroit against the Astros
in Game one of that Wildcard series is on the mount. Yeah,
(01:31):
I'm having the same problem you were having earlier cam
about the signal getting through it.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
Yeah, I think it's just on TVs. So for those
trying to watch Tigers Guardians, try a True TV, Craig, Yeah,
the channel used for the NCAA tournament that people forget
we have. And then okay, I gotta watch, you know,
I gotta watch Saint Mary's against Tennessee. Yeah, it's on
True TV.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Okay, yeah, yeah, all right, so keep people post on
that and again next hour, Geene Watson joins us to
talk about the Division Series in Major League Baseball. Let's
hear some more from Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian Sark
from the news conference here on our Longhorns Monday presentation
Broady Alive here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred The Zone,
(02:20):
and Sark was asked about an update on his running backs,
in specific Jayden Blue and Trey Wisner. And I think
it was our friend Danny Davis from the Austin American
Statesman who asked this question.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Saying that.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I wanted to see more from Jaden during the week
coming off the game against Misissippi State with the two
fumbles at the time Sark said he had no confidence
issue in Jane Blue. He thought he would be fine.
He bounced back to work fine, and Weisner also would
continue to run well. So this was hal Sark addressed
(03:00):
the question about jayden blues work and Trey Wisner's during
the open date.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
I thought they had a good week. I thought Jayden
practiced really well. I thought he never mind the ball.
I thought, just you know, guys coming off of an
angle injury and sometimes you're limited in practice leading up
to a game. But he looks really healthy, He's practicing fast.
Feel very comfortable with him. Both those guys are going
to play in the game, and I feel comfortable with
either one of them in the game that we can
(03:26):
execute and do things that are really high level.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Okay, all right, So there was that, and then other
questions that he addressed from the news conference included the
somebody asked him we had at last hour about were
there things to be taken, lessons to be gleaned for
(03:50):
his football team watching from AFAR over the weekend as
five of the top eleven ranked teams in the country
all took defeats, and he addressed that, and then someone
asked the question what about facing Oklahoma, and remember last year,
the Long Words lost to the Center thirty four thirty.
(04:11):
They beaten them forty nine nothing the year before that.
So Sark was asked, were there lessons to be taken
from last year's defeat.
Speaker 5 (04:19):
Well, I think it reinforced the value of the football.
The turnovers really hurt us in that game. I think
it reinforced why it's important to score touchdowns in the
red zone. We were in the red area three times
and scored a total of three points. And I think
it reinforced the value of you know, really playing good
situational football, you know where where we didn't execute very
(04:40):
well on that last drive on defense and we gave
up a couple blown coverages that led to ultimately a
touchdown to beat us. And so there's some valuable lessons
in that game that I think we value in our organization.
But again, when when they're highlighted in real time and
what it looks like and then you can go back
and touch on them, hopefully that that reinforces why we
prepare the way that we do so that we can
(05:01):
negate maybe some of those things that occurred in last
year's game.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Okay, so last year was last year announced this year,
and they're facing a completely different young man at quarterback
for Oklahoma. It's not Dylan Gabriel this time, who's now
playing his trade and skills for the Oregon Ducks. By
the way, they have a pretty big game of their
own this Saturday and Eugene against Ohio State, and I
think that's where ESPN College Game Day is headed. As
(05:25):
I predicted last week that might be the case, because
I said, if they go out there, they've got Oregon
in Ohio State, and if Texas is able to defeat
Oklahoma and Georgia wins its game, then he got Texas
Georgia and they can be in Austin the next week.
I think that probably will be the plan, especially with
the six thirty now six thirty primetime kickoff. The Tennessee
(05:48):
Alabama game will be the afternoon game, and in those
games that were announced, so now they prepare for a
true freshman in Michael Hawkins, and Sark was had for
his thoughts on Hawkin's skill set and at Oklahoma quarterback run.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Well, I think we, you know, we have to spend
time on their scheme, you know, in the quarterback running
the football in their scheme as a reality, whether it
was Jackson earlier in the season or now with Michael Hawkins.
So the quarterback's going to run and run at some point,
whether it's designed runs or they both have the ability
to tuck it and run. So it's not that we
have to adjust necessarily for two different styles within the
(06:28):
scheme of the player. I think what Michael Hawkins does
is he does provide that element of yeah, they can
throw it, they can run it with design runs. But
his first touchdown there against Auburn was a pass that
he tucked it and took off and ran.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And so that's.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Where we've got to be, you know, really cognizant of
him in the pocket that, yeah, we want to try
to get to the quarterback, but our rush lanes are
really critical in this game because when he pulls it,
it's not to get four or five or six yards.
I mean, he went fifty for a touchdown against Auburn,
So we got to be really mindful of his ability
to stendon plays and then create explosives with his legs.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
All right, So was that Then Sark was asked a
question about energy, juice, excitement, the drive and how he
wants to see it happened on the practice field before
(07:23):
they ever get to a ball game, that if they
have it in practice, it can translate into the game.
So he was asked, how does that happen in practice?
How does he see his guys bring that kind of energy.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I look for energy. I look for intent, you know.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
I think our energy at practice, especially from some of
our leaders, is really important. You know, I was talking
to somebody earlier. I was thinking about our secondary with
John A. Baron, Jalen Gilbot, Manny Mohammad, Michael Taff. These
guys provide a lot of juice in practice, Like that
group has got a lot of personality about them that
I think kind of permeates throughout our team. And so
(07:58):
sometimes you never know where it's going to start and
who kind of are those guys. But our secondaries kind
of the energizer bunny to me, you know, they're the
ones that kind of spark a lot of what we
do and bring that energy that way, and I think
is a good thing.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So that's the first part I look for.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
The second part is intent, if they're really understanding what
we're trying to accomplish in certain periods in practice, and
then executing them in a way, communicating in a way,
talking about things in a way that that feels like
they're engaged. And those two things I think are kind
of really important to us, especially for me, you know,
(08:35):
because it's easy. You can go to practice and go
through the motions and it can kind of look okay,
And we never want to go through the motions. We
want to make sure that we're really intentional with the
work that we're doing, but yet doing it in a
facet in a style that is ours and that's definitely upbeat, energized,
and kind of a lot of positive energy, if that
makes sense.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
All right.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Next came a question about how his depth at linebacker
is really showed itself out during the first five weeks
of the season and on the team, the depth overall
being a big factor.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
I think overall totality of the team. We've played a
lot of players this season, and it's shown to be
beneficial to us that we have played a lot of
people and played a lot of players. And you know,
I think one of the challenges for us as coaches is, yes,
we want to put our players, our best players in
position to be successful throughout the ball game, but the
(09:30):
mindset needs to be to do that. Maybe you need
to spell them earlier in the game so that they
are can be at their best late in the game
in the fourth quarter. And so hey at linebacker, we're
fortunate we've been playing five guys. There really a good
four man rotation, but we've been playing five with Anthony
and Leonga, David Bendemo Blackwell and to Anthony Smith. We've
(09:50):
also implemented more defensive personnel groupings and so we've been
going to dime a lot more where we've even taken
one of those guys off the field and played with
anx extra dB on the field. So all that being said,
hopefully we can be more fresh late in the game.
And because fresh doesn't mean always physically, I'm in the
best position, but I think mentally it can take its
(10:10):
toll when you're when you're worn down, So we want
to stay fresh. We're at our best when we're a
fresh football team. Football team, and you know that'll be
the goal against Saturday.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
All right.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
We also know this is a very emotional game. It
carries its own emotional baggage, and Sarka has always said
he wants his team to play with emotion but not
play emotionally. There is a difference. And he talks a
little bit about the mood swings and the way the
game can go and how it can affect you both
(10:40):
positively and negatively due to your emotions.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
It's fascinating.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
I think nine of the last ten years this game
has been decided by one score, and so to think like,
whatever happens in this game early on is just gonna
that's the way it's going to go is probably not
a reality.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
And we've been on it multiple ways.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
You know.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Our first year, we jumped out to a really big
lead and they came back and got us. The next
year we kind of ran away with that game. Last
year we fell behind, we came all the way back
to take the lead, and then ultimately they went down
to score at the end to beat us. And so
I think that the key to this drill to me
is emotions run high in games like this, and most
notably in this game. And I'm not here to deny
(11:25):
that our players won't have some emotions in this game,
and I think they deserve that they should have it.
The key is not to cross over that threshold where
we get emotional. And I felt like in last year's game,
we got a little emotional at times. You know, we
had an unsportsmanlike conduct after the block punt for the touchdown,
one of our players took his helmet off. That's uncharacteristic
for us. And so I want to make sure that
(11:46):
we stay true to who we are. That we do
have emotion, and there's nothing wrong with that, but we
fight the urge to get emotional. So I think when
we get emotional, that's when some of those those types
of things happened that that can cause caused put us
in a position that maybe might not be unsuccessful with.
So that's what I'm looking for, and that's what kind
of I'm preaching to throughout the week to get ourselves
(12:08):
in the right frame of mind for Saturday at two
forty nine or whenever we kicked off.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, I'll mean whenever that is. It will be right
around that time. And then another thing he was asked
about was the fact that and I mentioned this last segment,
all of their remaining opponents on their schedule, the ones
who played Oklahoma didn't play, but the other ones who
played all lost during the during the I mean all one,
(12:33):
excuse me, they went perfect during the weekend, the one
the one Oklahoma did not play, but all the ones
who did play won their games. And Sark was asked
about the difficulty of the second half of this season
coming up in conference play, and.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
This is to take nothing away from anybody we're playing,
but I really focus on us. You know, so much
of what we do with our team. The opponents just
give us what need to prepare for. But the way
we prepare is really about us. And I use the
adage know be ingamored with us. You guys have heard
me talk that way, and I think this team really
understands that. And again that's to take nothing away from
(13:13):
the people we're playing, but we're going to dictate how
we play Saturday, not not the opponent. And so we
really try to focus on what we need to do.
Like I said, we're fortunate that we get to play
a heck of a schedule and we've got really good games,
not only this weekend, but as the season the season
goes on, there's going to be adversity that strikes for
multiple teams, including ourselves, and how we respond to that
(13:34):
is going to be critical. So that's that's kind of
where our mindset is it's really not so much about
what other people do. It's about what we do and
how we prepare, and so that's really not changing for us.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
All right, So there's sarchs thoughtson that. We're going to
hear more from head coach Steve Sarkisian coming up next hour.
We'll have some other college and pro football notes coming
up here on sports Radio AM thirteen under the zone
of the iHeartRadio app.