Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome back to the Craig Way Show and the Voice
of the Longhorns. Craig follow Craig on social media that
Horn Voice a.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thursday afternoon here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under the
zone to continue here, getting you're ready for the weekend.
I hope it's going all right for you. A couple
of things that I wanted to get to some short cuts.
There were a couple of pieces of sound yesterday that
(00:50):
we didn't get a chance to play for you from
the SEC conference call. However, one of those is pretty
much identically the same question that was asked in today,
so we can we can dispense with the one from yesterday,
but there is one from yesterday I did want you
to hear, and that is about Vanderbilt's prowess of time
(01:13):
of possession. I think we said they had it for
like forty two minutes against Alabama. They do a great
job on three yards in a cloud of dust, or
like three point four yards in a cloud of dust,
just enough to get the first down, and they keep
the change moving, they keep the clock moving. So Sark
was asked yesterday about that about does the time of
possession element that Vanderbilt demonstrates they lead the sec in
(01:35):
time of possession. Does it affect and impact his game
plan for this Saturday's game.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Well, I think, you know, it's one thing to possess
the ball, it's you know, it's another or not to
possess the ball, But it's what are you doing with
your opportunities when you get them? And you know, I
think that when you're playing a team like Vanderbilt who
is very efficient, can control the ball, can ex drives
on third downs, things of that nature, it's not you know,
(02:04):
it's not counting the plays.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
It's not counting the possessions.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
It's it's making the plays and making the possessions count.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
And and so we need to be really efficient Saturday
against them.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
We really got to minimize the wasted plays as I
like to call them, find positive yards, you know, be
effective on third down and or fourth down if we
choose to go for it, to extend our own drives.
And you know, I think they do a heck of
a job of having a good plan coming into games,
of getting the lead and then playing to that lead
and trying to trying to shrink the game some. And
(02:35):
it's a formula for success, you know, Clark. I just
heard him say the same thing. They have a they
have a formula of which they believe in and you
could see their team does believe in it and it's
been holding true for him.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So that coach, if you could just that the.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
That was from yesterday's UH teleconference. Here's the thing, here's
the difference and going into today, because remember on Thursday
he does one final Zoom media availability.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
For the media.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
And I asked you this question last week, Cameron, about
how many national or regional media we're on this zoom
regularly and he said one two.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
You know, it's not many. It's just one or two.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
It's almost all local media as opposed to like say
on the teleconference. So there might be some different things
in different elements ask but here's start's opening or march
from this morning's media availability done via Zoom.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
You know, I think one of the beauties of sports
is the opportunity to go back out and do it again,
especially after a tough performance like we had last week.
And you know, different than say baseball or basketball, where
you get to kind of do it the next night,
in football you kind of have to, you kind of
have to sit in it for a week and not
(04:01):
necessarily always a bad thing. You know, it allows you
some time to reflect, allows you some time to learn
from the failure. And like I said before, I think
there's winning and losing if you handle it the right way.
And I thought our players have done a really nice
job this week of getting up off the mat, working
really hard, preparing really well so that we can go
out and fight another round this Saturday.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
All right, then getting to the questions now, we'll get
in a more detail next segment in our DJC law
injury update. But Michael Kern, remember the punter has not
played other than to hold for conversions, field goals and
extra points and played the last two games. It's been
the retro freshman walk on Ian Ratliffe who has been
(04:47):
in actionate. So the question for Sarkiz where does he
think he stands right now with his punter, because as
it stands, going into the he had been kind of
hobbled Michael Kern. That is now Kern is not listed
on the injury report. The reason Kern is not listed
(05:08):
on the injury report, or as it's officially described, the
student athlete availability report, and the keyword there is availability
because he's been available to hold on conversions. Therefore he's available.
Therefore he's not on the injury report. However, he hasn't
(05:28):
punted the last two weeks, so the question went to
Sark with regard to availability, where do things stand for
Michael Kerr?
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Might he be ready for this Saturday?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And he was asked a larger question about Special Team's
performance overall.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah, we're hopeful Michael will be ready to go. I
thought he has had a couple of good practices in
a row. But again, we'll get to game day and
assess them both kind of on the field and decide
who will go with their I think Special Teams, you know,
we've we've gotten so so much kind of notoriety for
how aggressive we've been and the explosive plays, and you know, it's.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Back to back weeks. We had big returns.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
You know, we had the big one against ou As
Silas and the punt return game. We had the long
one with Matt last week that got called back with
the holding penalty, you know, and we just haven't had
a lot of opportunities in the field goal game for Bert.
I think will Stone has kicked off tremendously. I think
we've only had eight kickoff returns total in seven games
(06:28):
that people have brought back against us, and we're covering
kicks really well. So again, we haven't quite gotten the
splash plays, the block punts, the block field goals, or
that those touchdown returns, but I think we're very close,
and we're continuing to work at it and looking forward
to kind of the second half of the season of
that becoming a really impactful phase for our team.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Okay, So then it comes to another point where they're
trying to be better third downs, and Sark says it
really does get into the length and what is really
needed on third down for you know, making the adjustments
and the things you have to do to be better
on third down.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Well, there's a variety of things, you know. I mean
third down is you know, you're talking about third and shorts,
and then third down you're talking about third mediums, and
then third down you're talking about third and lungs. And
then the percentages tell you over the years of kind
of what roughly a number would look like to be
a successful kind of third down margin. From where you're at,
I think the first part is you want to stay
(07:27):
out of third lungs. You know, the further you get
away from that first down marker, your percentage of goes down, down, down, down, down.
And so when you start playing you know, third and eight,
third and ten, third and twelve, third and thirteen, it
gets difficult and you want to make sure that you're
really maximizing third and six and lower and you're converting
those at are really high rate. And we missed some
(07:48):
opportunities with that last week. I would say that was
something that was a little disappointing. We had some makeable
third downs that we just didn't we didn't convert on.
But everything ties together in that, you know, from the
play call to the execution at the line of scrimmage,
whether it's a run or a pass, and blocking people
to decision making it quarterback to ultimately receivers getting open,
(08:11):
whether it's man or zone, and then making their play.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
So there's layers to this whole thing.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
And I think at the end of the day is
you know, I think everybody kind of goes through evan
flows of a season of when the third downs are
really clicking, you're finding that rhythm to you know, maybe
maybe have a rough day, and we clearly had a
rough day last week, it was difficult, and again, but
I think we're a lot better than that. And so
the goal is to get back into the fold of
(08:38):
executing at a really high level, converting, giving our guys
opportunities to make plays. But we got to block people too,
so it all goes hand in hand.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
He was asked, I believe our friend Danny Davis at
the Austin American Statesman, is the level of concern that
he might have for what in SEC play has been
a series of slow Startssissippi State, Oklahoma, Georgia slow starts
by the offense, and is there a common thread in
(09:06):
the last three games? But the main question was how
concerned is he concerned about these slow starts.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
I'm not concerned at all. I think, well, you know, we've.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Had some opportunities and these opening drives that we've just
kind of not capitalized on. I think our players have
a lot of confidence in what we do early in
the game. We just hasn't hit exactly the way we
wanted to. But we believe in our process to get
our guys ready to play. So I'm not concerned.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Okay, all right, So next I think this was Kirk
Bowles who asked this question about the outside noise because
a lot of people pay attention to the outside noise.
I know they had football coach really doesn't and the
players can't avoid it entirely. They're going to hear it.
(09:52):
They're out there in the world. But the quote unquote
outside noise that says that Texas isn't physical enough for
the SEC does that amuse him?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
You know, it doesn't matter when people say something good
about us or something bad about us. It really doesn't
matter what people think about us. It really doesn't matter
what you guys think about US's about what we do.
So if we are concerned about the narrative, well then
we have to change the way people think by what
we do in our actions.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Okay, back to the injury thing, and again we've got
a DJC law injury update coming up just around the corner.
But on that report, Isaiah bond and we knew Isaiah
Bom was going to be on that because he's been
banged up last couple of weeks and he's listed as
questionable for the game. So he was asked if there
is a fine line in trying to figure out what
(10:41):
an injured player is ready to play or the decision
comes down to get him extra rest with a bye
week coming next week, and in the specific case Isaiah Bond.
But is there a fine line involved?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
You answered the question for me, there's a fine line,
and trying to figure that out.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
You're right, played and simple there, it's a fine line
as they try to meaning. And he alluded to this
on Long Worn Weekly about trying to get guys healthy
and said, you know, not gonna know until Saturday.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Really questionable.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
You might know in advance, but if you do know
in advance, for questionable, it's usually toward the not playing side.
If it's questionable and you're really hoping the guy can go,
and depending on the amount of treatment he's getting and
what he's able to do in warm ups and then
you watch him in pregame warm ups, that's a different
kind of questionable, leaning toward the probable side. But that's
(11:37):
that's where that comes from, all right. With regard to
and this was something we heard it saying from yesterday's
deal about the time of possession thing. But as it
relates to his own team, is there a specific play
call formula for this game facing an opponent that wants
to control the time of possession.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
You know, again there's everybody's got their own formula for success.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
And I give Vanderbilt a lot of credit.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
You know, they play to their style, which is, you know,
they try to minimize the explosive plays on defense and
make you earn it. They try to they try to
live in those third and one to four range and
extend drives and if there's fourth down, they can go
forward to extend those drives and then you know, not
snapping the ball till under five seconds, all those things right,
(12:27):
And we've quite frankly, we've seen that formula kind of
get presented at us, even against teams that are supposed
to be up tempo teams that ended up milking the
clock on us and trying trying to shorten the game.
And the best thing we can do is execute at
a high level. The best thing we can do is,
you know, an ideal world, you get the lead and
then they feel like they have to try to come
(12:48):
back in the game, and now we can get them
out of their comfort zone as well.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
But ultimately it comes down to execution.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
As I was saying the other day, you just don't
want to have those wasted plays and you don't want
to have those wasted possessions. You want to make sure
that that at least you're attacking. I'm not saying we're
going to score every drive. We get the ball, and
we earned the right to punt and all those things,
but you want to make sure that everything you're doing
has got a real opportunity to move the chains, extend
drives and put points on the board again, you know,
(13:17):
because those possessions can get can get limited. And as
I told the team earlier, Lord City, we reiterating all
week long. It's like, we don't want to count our possessions.
We don't want to count the number of plays in
the game. We want to make our possessions count. We
want to make the plays count that we do run.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Okay, all right, we'll hear more from Sark next hour,
including his thoughts on LBJ product, the starting running back
for Vanderbilt, Cedric Alexander, and they're tough as nails quarterback
Diego Pavio. So we'll hear more from Sark coming up
next hour. Up next the DJC law injury update here
on Sports Radio AM thirteen.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Under his own