The Longhorns Are Gearing Up For The Upcoming Football Season!

Craig Way talks Coach Sark's expectations for the upcoming football season, and interviews with Greg Tepper breaking down everything high school football. It's all here on The Craig Way Show!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Kisa, Texas legend, a Hall of Fame broadcaster, the voice
of the Texas Longhorns, and your host of the Craigway Show.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Here he is now Craigway.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Good Tuesday afternoon, so hope it's going well for you.
A good afternoon, and welcome to the program here on
Sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone. My name is
Craig Way. Thank you very much for joining us. We're
with you each and every weekday afternoon from two to five.
We also includes a producer. Normally it's Cameron Parkerer. Cameron

(00:43):
off to Mexico to participate in, or at least be
a witness to a wedding going down there. So he's
got a couple of weddings coming up, neither his own,
but he has a friend's weddings getting married, so he's
down headed down Mexico for that. We're always always pleased

(01:04):
to have Ronald Savage Junior as our producer this afternoon,
So Ronald at the switch for this afternoon. Glad to
have you with us. As always, and as always we
open up the text line if you'd like to join
in the thought process, you have only to avail us
by one of two ways. One is the text line,

(01:26):
so you text the word texas follow by your question
or comment to eight one five three zero. Again, you
text the word texas follow by your question or comment
to eight one five three zero. Standard messaging and data
rates may apply. That's one way to do it, and
we always have a lot of people participate on that.
And then we have the other way where your voice

(01:49):
can actually be heard on the air, and that's our
talk back feature. And the way that that works is
all you have to do is download the very free
and easy to download iHeartRadio app on your smartphone. So
if you now, if you haven't already, now it's very
easy to do. So you download the iHeart Radio app.

(02:11):
Then you do a search and you can do that
through you know the little magnifying glass thing that comes
through or however you search AM thirteen under the zone
pops right up. And again all this is for real,
completely free and really easy to do. And then you
have there's two buttons on there. One's a little white

(02:31):
triangular button that's to listen to what's going on in
the air, like this show right now. But the other
one is a red button with a white microphone. That's
our talk back feature, and you press that button and
you can leave us voice message up to thirty seconds.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
If you want to talk about college.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Football, or the log Worns, or the NFL, you know,
whatever is on your mind on that you can leave
us a voice message up to thirty seconds on that
talk bad feature. And one way to make it easier also,
when you download the iHeart Radio app, when you do
the search frame thirteen hundred zign, it'll pop up add
it to your presets because if you do the preset,

(03:06):
it gets you into it real quick. And then that's
how we do our contesting. That's what we did when
we were giving away the copies of Dave Campbell's Texas
Football magazine. We're giving away tickets to see Pantera. We'll
do some of that later on this afternoon. And the
way you do it is through the talkback feature, So
it's easy to do and you can make it a

(03:26):
pre set just like that makes it real easy. So anyway,
there's a couple of ways you can join us in
on the conversation as well, so we're glad to have
you with us on that. Coming up, we're going to
hear from Longhorns set football coach Steve Sarkisian after their practice.
I don't know if you may have seen a SoundBite

(03:47):
or two, you know, on your local newscast, you might
have seen that, and some of that's in there, but
there's a lot more in there as well, so we're
going to you know, we'll bring you audio from that,
not only here in the two o'clock hour, we'll do
that as well in the four o'clock hour three o'clock

(04:08):
hour For the program. Greg Chepper, the editor in chief
of Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine, joints us our weekly conversation.
We'll talk college football in the state of Texas and
also high school football. We're doing the classification previews every week.
We've done six A, five A, and four A. Next
up is three A today, so we'll get to that

(04:29):
as well in the three o'clock hour. We have inconceivable
here in the two o'clock hour, including your junk food,
fast food update, and some other topics as well. So
all of that is on the table, and as I mentioned,
we are always very pleased to have your participation in
the program, so feel free to do that as we

(04:49):
go for it. Okay, there are several things to get to.
You've heard me say on this show, especially as we
get into June and really into July and then even
into August. July is really the month where we do
this more than anything else. But you've heard me say

(05:12):
that there are signposts that lead to the start of
not only the college football season, but also the high
school football season and the pro football season. And it
actually even starts all the way back in late June
to early July, when we have the copies of Dave

(05:35):
Campbell's Texas Football magazine hit the new stands and Barnes
and Noble and all that other kind of stuff. So
we always have that, But there's a couple others. The
second one is usually Conference Football Media Days, and for me,
which tells you my advancing age that it goes all

(06:02):
the way back to when Texas was in the Southwest
Conference and then the twenty six years in.

Speaker 4 (06:12):
Not only.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
In the Big Twelve, but obviously now beyond that, now
entering their second season in the SEC. So that's a signpost.
Another one along the way is a coaching school in
the Coaching Convention. Went through that at the end of July.
And then I'll give you one more here as practices
are now underway, and that is this time.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
Of year when.

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Those of us who are in this business quite often
are asked to speak at events. And today had the
opportunity to speak to the Austin Rotary Club today and
it was a lot of fun, and it was mainly
Q and A because I wanted, you know, wanting to
give folks as much opportunity within our brief window of

(06:57):
time to ask the questions that they want, because as
we know here in the greater Austin area, it is
much more of a melting pot now than ever before
when it comes to your constituency for college football. So
I asked those who were not not Texas long Orn
fans to raise their hand. It was about half the room,
so you had like half the room for long Orn fans,

(07:18):
and then you had half the room that were like
I counted A and M fans, Texas Tech fans, Oklahoma
fans as well. They have a bizarre story today that
we'll get to when we get to you, inconceivable. So
those are the types of things that kind of set
the table on this and then we start to see
things kind of settled in. For example, Alabama named it

(07:40):
starting quarterback today. There was a big battle with Keelan Russell,
the kid from Duncanville, and Austin mac But it's Ty Simpson,
the red shirted junior, who is the quarterback, the starting
quarter for Alabama. Their offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb confirm that today,

(08:01):
and so the five star true freshman Keelan Russell and
the red shirt sophomore Austin Mack both in the competition.

Speaker 4 (08:10):
Things have been headed this way for a while.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
During the news conference at the end of the spring,
Grubs said that if we were playing a football game tomorrow,
Ty Simpson would start, and he earned that. So Simpson
was kind of looked at as being the guy to
beat out for the job. He only has thrown fifty
passes during his collegiate career. So basically what we're talking
about here is the situation kind of like Arch Banning

(08:37):
hadn't had an awful lot of experience, but he'll get
the opportunity to show what he can do.

Speaker 4 (08:45):
So that's one of the things.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
The other thing is we see all these rankings, not
just the top twenty five college rankings, and of course
that engender is a great deal of conversation in these
parts because for the first time in school history, Texas
is a preseason number one in both polls, the Coaches Poll,
which came out a little over a week ago, and
yesterday's release the AP Top twenty five in Texas for

(09:08):
the first time in school history is the preseason number one.
They've been number one at the end of the seasons,
certainly when they won the national championships in nineteen sixty three,
nineteen sixty nine, in nineteen seventy, and two thousand.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
And five, But on.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
All but one of those occasions did Texas start the
year beneath number one. They started at number two. Nineteen
sixty three, they weren't even number two in the country.
They were in nineteen sixty two, but then again in
nineteen seventy, nineteen sixty five, and then in two thousand

(09:50):
and five and two thousand and nine, and of course
nineteen seventy. In two thousand and five, then won national championships.
For those of you and I've gotten some questions about
this who might have been confused about the nineteen seventy
national championship team, there were two levels of questions. One
why did they only play eleven games that year? And
two why then as Nebraska looked at as being a

(10:12):
national champion that year. Remember you're talking about the days
of the split national champions because there were the two polls,
the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll.

Speaker 4 (10:22):
Back then, the.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Coaches Poll was put out by United President and National.
UPI was the other major news agency, and the coaches
poll was the UPI Poll, and the UPI Poll in
those days awarded the national Championship trophy at the end
of the regular season. Because bowl games back in the day,

(10:44):
and there weren't many of them. There were about in
nineteen seventy, I think there were six or seven, maybe eight,
but no more than that, and so the bowl games
were looked at as being more of a reward, at
least in the eyes of the coaches in the Coaches Poll,
So they awarded the national championship based on what you

(11:07):
did in the regular season. Well, going into nineteen seventy,
Texas was the defending national champions. The long Worns went undefeated.
Nineteen sixty nine, I had the big shootout with Arkansas
number one against number two in Fayetteville. Texas won that
coming from behind to win fifteen fourteen. Finished the regular
season number one in the Coaches Poll and ascended to

(11:32):
number one in the AP at the time because Ohio State,
who had been number one, was upset by Michigan on
the final week before the Texas Arkansas game in the
regular season. So Texas carried that number one ranking into
the Cotton Bowl against Notre Dame. And Notre Dame was
ending this long drought of not participating in bowl games,

(11:52):
and they had this memorable game and Joe Thaisman was
playing for Notre Dame and James Street quarterbacking Texas and
went down to the wire and Texas was down seventeen fourteen,
and just as was the case in the Arkansas game
when Texas had to convert a fourth down and that
was a fourth and three, when they had the fifty
three veer pass that went down the sidelines on fourth

(12:13):
down caught by Cottonspirer, and it set up the goal
had touchdown and the goy had two point conversion to
ultimately win the game fifteen to fourteen. Three weeks later,
or three and a half weeks later, on January first,
and the Contowl, they faced fourth down and two at

(12:33):
the eleven and Street hits a pass and they get
it down to the two yard line and then of
course they get the winning touchdown from there and they
beat Notre Dame.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
Twenty one to seventeen.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
So that year Texas was the national champion. The next year,
nineteen seventy, Texas opened the season at number two. They
were not number one. It was Ohio State again who's
number one, and the Longoorne ran table during the regular
season that year they only played ten games, and they

(13:06):
played ten games in the regular season won all of them.
Had a memorable game against UCLA when they were down.
This was in Austin in September, late in the contest
seventeen thirteen, and Street found cottonspire on a big touchdown
pass late in the game. Texas wins the game. They
go on in the rematch with Arkansas in December, they

(13:27):
blew out the Razorbacks. They won forty two to seven.
So they finished the regular season ten to zero, and
so the UPI, which handled the Coaches Poll, crowned Texas
the national champion. They gave them the MacArthur Bowl as
a big silver trophy that goes emblematic of the Coaches
Association to the national champion. Texas was number one in

(13:49):
the AP poll, but their poll would not take place
until after the bowl games, and then Texas went of
the Cotton Bowl. They had several guys injured, including the
quarterback edde Phillips. They were very limited, they had turnovers.
Notre Dame played a really good game, Joe Thaisman played
a really good game, and Notre Dame won the game
twenty four to eleven. So that coupled with number two

(14:11):
Ohio States upset loss to Stanford led by Jim Plunkett
in the Rose Bowl and Nebraska's win over LSU in
the Orange Bowl, vaulted Nebraska into the number one spot
in the Ape Pole. So they were both recognized national
champions that year. It's a split national champion, and there

(14:32):
weren't split national champions all the way up until they
had the Bowl Alliance and the Bowl Coalition and then
the BCS.

Speaker 4 (14:41):
They had that.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
I mean, he didn't even go back as far as
I think ninety seven when Nebraska Michigan split the National
TELEISI and both legitimately claimed national champions national championships, but
it was a split thing until the advent of the
BCS to decide one national champion and then ultimately into
the College Football Playoff. So That's why that was like

(15:03):
that is well, you have the rankings, so the preseason
rankings out. There's other sets of rankings as well, which
we'll get to coming up this afternoon. We'll do that,
but up next we're going to hear from Longhorn's head coach,
Steve Sarkisian when we continue here on a Tuesday afternoon
on thirteen under the zone. You know, glad to hear
from you this afternoon. I'm saving the breakdown on this

(15:27):
deal in case you haven't heard it about Oklahoma's transfer
quarterback John the Tier transferred from Washington State supposedly being
investigated for gambling. But I'm going to I'm a save
it for inconceivable because there's there's a lot of different
I don't know if sides is the right word, but
there's a lot of different elements that are going into this,

(15:49):
and so we're going to save that for inconceivable. On
the text line, we had somebody say, knowing how the
NCAA operates, the kid from Oklahoma will be suspended for
the first four games in twenty thirty four. Your point
is well taken, no doubt. But again, before anybody jumps

(16:11):
to any conclusion, on that there's some elements and.

Speaker 4 (16:13):
Factors that need to kind of go into this.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
But we'll certainly find out more about it. All right,
let's jump to hearing from long Oarne's head coach Steve
Sarkeshan this following yesterday's practice.

Speaker 4 (16:26):
You're gonna hear.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
Very much an upbeat tone from sark and the excitement
that he has for this team based on the circumstances
that they had coming off of scrimmage going into a practice,
and they have a pretty big practice tonight inside of
the stadium. But sark was very very pleased with what

(16:50):
he saw yesterday. As we'll hear in this opening statement
following practice yesterday.

Speaker 5 (16:54):
Our guys just practice their asses off. It was awesome.
So that's that.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
Pretty simple on that, he was very very happy and
ready to go okay.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
So naturally, the first opportunity to ask him about being
number one in the country would come right after they
had finished an afternoon practice. The poll came out late
in the morning yesterday, and so a lot of conversations,
including right here on this program yesterday afternoon while the

(17:26):
team was on the field going through practice. So you
can imagine the first question for sark after that opening
statement was.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
How do you feel about number one?

Speaker 3 (17:39):
The team feel about number one and being number one
for the first time ever in the preseason.

Speaker 6 (17:44):
It really doesn't matter. Yeah, that's how I drowned it out.

Speaker 5 (17:47):
I tell the guys exactly that, like, it doesn't matter.
It's irrelevant to the to the way the season is
going to go. It's irrelevant to the way we're going
to play. It's irrelevant to how our opponents are going
to play. Maybe it puts a little big bulls eye
on us for our opponents, but the reality is we
have to go do it right. We have to perform,
and we have to perform at a high level over

(18:08):
time and time and time again and so and that
shouldn't change. Whether if we were one, eight, twelve, thirty
should matter. Right, we got to have to prepare really well,
and then we're gonna have to perform, and we're gonna
have to perform in critical moments. We're gonna have to
perform at home, We're gonna have to perform on the road.
We've got a very challenging schedule that way. That is

(18:28):
quite frankly, it doesn't matter, you know. And you know, again,
I think that expectations around here are always to be champions.

Speaker 6 (18:34):
I mean that hasn't changed since day one, you know.

Speaker 5 (18:37):
I think the key to the drill is you like
to have a number one next to you at the
end of the season, right, And so the beginning of
the season, as I've said before, it's great for the fans,
it's great for the exposure of college football. It's great
for the first game of the year, and what that
matchup looks like, it's great for college football. I think
there's three top ten matchups the first weekend of college football, Like,
what an exciting weekend for our sport. And so that

(19:00):
part's exciting. But I bet you could ask every coach
around the country. They tell you the exact same thing.
The reality is, what are we gonna do? It's not
what other people think of us. It's actually how we
need to perform. And that's going to be the message
to the guys.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
All right, So then what follows in how does he
feel his guys will handle it?

Speaker 4 (19:18):
How will the team handle being number one?

Speaker 5 (19:21):
Like I said, we just practice our asses off, and
so I don't know what's time of that come out
at eleven thirty today and we had a fantastic practice,
and it's always a practice that is concerning of mine.
Because we just scrimmaged Saturday, we had a day off yesterday,
we'll be in full pads tomorrow night in DKR, and
there's this little practice that sandwiched in between that we
go in the bubble to try to get their bodies back.

(19:42):
And they had a really good practice, and so that
told me right there they weren't really concerned about what
hit their twitter feed at noon today. They were more
focused on having a really good practice today.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
Okay, so they had the real good practice yesterday and
a Sart called him kind of the sandwich practice in
between the Saturday scrimmage and the practice tonight inside the stadium.
So the next thing for Sark was he was asked
what he did and what he did not like. What
really struck stuck out to him the good and not

(20:15):
so good about that scrimmage on Saturday.

Speaker 5 (20:17):
Yeah, the scrimmage, you know, I thought, you know, the
first three drives we were going ones, twos, threes in
the scrimmage, which was a little.

Speaker 6 (20:24):
Bit different format than we've used in the past.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
You know, historically we've gone ones in twos and then
when they're done, the threes go, and then we go
ones and twos and then threes go. We were going ones, twos, threes,
and defensively, all three groups ones, twos, threes came out
and had a really good first drive. The second drive,
the first offense, the second offense, and the third offense
all had really good drives inside the five, and then

(20:49):
they didn't finish those drives and so that was a
great stand by the defense to hold them there. Then
we went to the next phase of the scrimmage, which
was red zone lockout, and I thought the offense.

Speaker 6 (20:58):
Performed really well and one that period.

Speaker 5 (21:01):
We came back after halftime and did a coming out
period and the first the second defense had a nice series,
the first defense struggled a little, and then the third
offense had had a ninety nine yard drive.

Speaker 6 (21:15):
It's a hell of a drive. And then we did
a two minute drill and both.

Speaker 5 (21:18):
The first offense and the second offense drove down and
kick game winning field goals. So I like the balance,
I like the competitiveness of the scrimmage. I like the
physicality of the scrimmage. We're playing really physical football on
both sides of the ball. As naturally in a first scrimmage,
it's always going to be a little bit sloppy, you know,
pre snap penalties things like that, had we definitely had

(21:40):
to clean up. From an offensive perspective, I love the
way we tackled in the first scrimmage. I think we
had you know, the defense, as coaches will tell you,
we had fifteen miss tackles. But excuse me, but there
were no really egregious miss tackles. A lot of them
were in the line of scrimmage. So I thought we
tackled well, which was encouraging. At the end of the day.

(22:00):
You know, I thought we punted the ball really well.
We got to a little slow start kicking game, but
I think Mason really stepped up and feel very confident
in what he can do, and he made a couple
of really big kicks force there at the end. And
then obviously we know we have will you know, kicking
kicking off for so I think we're in good shape
from a from a specialty standpoint that way.

Speaker 4 (22:20):
So I don't know about you, but but if you
if you noticed.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
On social media during the weekend and things that kind
of leak out and m and ate out a little bit,
following closed practices can be a little bit. Ah, that's
the best way to put it inaccurate. And there was
a lot of and there was there were several of

(22:47):
those talking about how the first team offense really struggled.
That's not at all what we just heard from the
head coach. He really liked what he saw driving them,
but he also liked a couple of the stops at
the defense. And you know, it's an interesting and difficult
position for a head coach to be a because you
want excellence throughout the team on both sides, offense and defense.

(23:10):
And if the offense really looks good, you're happy about
your offense, especially if you're an offensive oriented head coach
at Sarcus, but you're not happy with what your defense did.
Same thing the other way around. That's the defense really
puts the hammer down and plays really well. You're very
happy for them, but you have your concerns about the offense.
Sounds like we've got a mixture of both in that
scremens on Saturday, all right. So next up, he was

(23:31):
asked in the long worn secondary, that starback position that
so many different guys have played, including Johnny Barron, who
then shifted the corner and won the Thorpe Award last year,
and they've had different guys playing that star. So Sark
was asked about that and also freshmen who are in
the hunt to try to start.

Speaker 5 (23:53):
Yeah, I don't look for what year you are. Honestly,
I'm not concerned. Michael Taps a fifth year senior. Grayson
Littleton's a true freshman. Can I trust you, you know,
at the end of the day, I'm looking for a
player that can play steady football consistently and not one
that makes highlight plays and then the next play is
a busting coverage and then the next play is a

(24:13):
pick six, and then the next play.

Speaker 6 (24:14):
Is a busting coverage. How consistent can you play?

Speaker 5 (24:17):
And can you play a brand of football that's fast
and physical that we require and so hey, at that position,
we've got some really cool options and we're fortunate you
know that. You know the guys that are in there
right now with Grayson and Wardeale Mack, they're both playing
good football. But a lot of our safeties can go
play that spot, and Jaylen Gilbert can go to that spot,
and so we're training all of them because different situations

(24:40):
are going to require different things, right, who's the opponent,
what does their slot look like. There's times we play
nickel the base, you know, to twelve personnel offenses, and
that's when Jelani maybe can get down there and play
that position. So there's a lot of variety that we're
toying with. But Grayson's you know, had a heck of
a camp. Like I said, I think today was practice
number ten. You know, we don't we don't play for

(25:01):
almost three weeks still, so there's a lot of work
to do. And he's definitely been an asset for us
on special teams as well.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
Okay, and then from there it goes to it's kind
of an extension what he was just talking about that
starback position and stressing the importance of having flexibility from
his guys at that starbacks spot.

Speaker 5 (25:24):
Well, I think, you know last year, you know, obviously
the year before, jodd A was really primarily our our
nickel or our star in our vernacular, and you know,
Gilbert was coming off of the knee, and we really
felt like to try to get our best five guys
out there consistently, was to move johd A to corner
if Jalen could get back to to what he was

(25:45):
and he was able to do so, and then the
rotation really started where we were rotating johd a some
to nicol and playing different guys at corner, and then
Johda would go to dime and then we were playing
different guys at nicol. So I think you have to
train that position as a guy, as a position flex
type of position. And there were games where Jelani was

(26:06):
playing Nickel Force, which which was Big four. So it
takes a savvy players. It's one of the more difficult
positions to play in most defenses. There's some defenses you
can hide guys depending on the coverages you play. But
if you're gonna play man coverage, if you're gonna stop
the run, if you're gonna blitz the quarterback, if you're
gonna be savvy enough to play in zone and the
variety of zones, it's got to have a real high

(26:28):
sense of football IQ. But also you have to excuse me,
the athleticism to play the coverages that you want to
play that way too. So I don't know, it's just
such an important position and you see it now more
so even in the NFL that those guys that are
the really versatile players. You know, Jalen Ramsey one week
he's playing there instead of corner. Well, why that's a matchup.

(26:49):
Maybe it's Justin Jefferson in the slot. He's got a guard,
so it's definitely a match up position that way.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Do you see what Sard just did there, just kind
of just kind of meandered right into NFL Jalen Ramsey
shifting from corner into the nickel there with a guy
like Justin Jefferson of the Vikings.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
Based on a matchup that sort of thing as well.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
Okay, there's some stuff from Sart, interesting takes, and we're
going to hear more from him coming up later in
the program for a Tuesday afternoon right here on thirteen
under the Zone, second hour of the program here on
Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred of the Zone. Craig Way
would be glad to have you alongside. Our producer is
Ronald Savage Junior. Glad to have you with us. And

(27:34):
coming up in a few minutes, we'll have a weekly
conversation with the editor in chief of Dave Campbell's Texas
Football magazine, Greg Tepper, to talk college and high school
football across the Lone Star State we'll have that coming up.
But one thing I wanted to get into was if
you've listened to me for any amount of time, whether

(27:55):
it's games or this program, you know that I'm intrigued,
not consumed, but intrigued by lists, not necessarily rankings all
the time, just listing of categories of teams, historical achievements, players, coaches,

(28:18):
and the like. And as I mentioned at the top
of the hour last hour, those signposts that you see
that you are getting closer to the start of the
season include these preseason lists. Not only the preseason rankings
of teams like the coaches, Poland and yesterday the a

(28:38):
people coming out, but also of the players. And I
read a lot of different articles and takes and and
different different things from a variety of sources, not only
ESPN dot com, but the Athletic, the Austin American States,

(29:00):
in the Dallas Morning News, several other the New York Times.
I read several different things in the mornings as I
begin my day and start to get ready for this.
There was a list a ranking that came out this
morning from the Athletic, And like I said, some of

(29:21):
this stuff is pretty impressive because these guys who put
these together. They have to spend considerable amounts of time
on a specific ranking, thing like this is and what
it is is. Sam con who outstanding writer, has written
for ESPN, He's written for team sites, the Houston Chronicle,

(29:43):
he writes for The Athletic. Now, he and Antonio Morales
put together a list of projected starting quarterbacks, ranking them
from one to one hundred and thirty six, in other words,
ranking every projected starting quarterback.

Speaker 2 (30:02):
Now.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
They do separate it into tiers seven tiers to be exact.
For example, the lowest tier, Tier seven is described as
a largely unproven group, with some decent group of five
G five returning starters, but also quarterbacks who haven't played
much at all or have made multiple stops in their
college careers in hopes of finally putting it all together.

Speaker 4 (30:23):
Tier six.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
These quarterbacks have a lot of question marks, but there's
talent or a trait there that someone is betting on.
Tier five. You've probably seen these qbs before. Many have
played well in college but haven't put it all together
consistently yet, and bring some what ifs in the twenty
twenty five. There's some lower end Power four guys here,
but if you're a group of five fan, there are

(30:45):
some really good ones here. Tier four. Some are young,
unproven starters with the high potential. Others are veterans who
have flashed great talent but hit performance or injury speed
bumps somewhere along the way. Tier three. Most teams to
be happy with the quarterback of this caliber. Great ability
and a solid body of work, but they have some flaws.

(31:05):
On their best days, they can be great, but there
can be an underwhelming moment or two. Tier two winners
who have proven their medal. They can carry the team,
but have limitations when it comes to certain traits or
question marks about their consistency. And finally, the cream of
the crop Number one Tier one, the most talented quarterbacks

(31:26):
in the country with the highest ceilings. They can carry
their team and are often the biggest keys to victory.
Many in this tier find themselves in the Heisman Trophy conversation. Okay,
so with that in mind, I take you two the
tiers in tiers seven. Number one thirty six would be

(31:47):
Josh Johnson, the quarterback a new starter at Air Force.
Number one thirty five Devin Cargman at Kent State. I'm
not going to read all these I'm just giving you
some examples. Chase Jenkins of Rice, a new start, is
at number one thirty three. Moving on up through tier seven,

(32:09):
and that includes uh Rhees Poffenberger of North Texas at
number one fifteen. He's a transfer, so that's that would
be one there that's listed. Hunter Watson of sam Houston's
listed in tiers seven as well. Tier six would include
Washington State's news starter, zeb Echous, who has to take

(32:33):
the place of John Materia transferred Toklaoma when we were
talking about him early. Brad Jackson, the new starter in
Texas State, listed at number one oh two.

Speaker 4 (32:41):
He's in tier six.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
McKay Hillstead is the guy who has to be the
starting quarterback at BYU now as Jake Retzlaw of course transferred,
he was going to be suspended and he's transferred to Tutlane.

Speaker 4 (32:56):
Moving forward on further.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
Up and into tier number five, that would include the
guy that we're probably going to see second game of
the year, Walker eget E g e t He's a
returning starter for San Jose State. He's in tier five.
Also in tier five, hass Haney, he's the quarterback at

(33:20):
Oklahoma State. He's a transfer. He's from Aledo and quarterback
state championship teams there. Those two were in Tier number five.
Also in Tier five Zach Calzada, former Texas A and
M quarterback who is at Kentucky. Tommy Castellanos is at
number sixty four overall, he's at Florida State. A transfer

(33:43):
in Joey Aguilar, who takes the place of Nico Iamaliava
at Tennessee, is at the top of the Tier five
group at number sixty overall. Tier four includes Jaden Maeva,
the returning starter at USC, Eden Salter, the former Cedar
Hill long worn who had been at Liberty and is

(34:04):
now taking Shdoor Sanders place at Colorado's number fifty two
over Connor Wigman, former Texas A and M quarterback, is
at Houston. He's in Tier four, listed as number fifty one.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
C J.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
Carr new starter Notre Dame. Number forty nine Gunner Stockton
from Georgia. Obviously we saw him come in in the
SEC championship game.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
Listed in tier number four.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
The guy named today the starting quarterback for Alabama, Ty Simpson,
Also in number forty seven. Chiron Drones of Virginia tech
a returning starter who actually began his career at Baylor
quarterback to the state championship team at Shadow Creek in
the Houston area. Preston Stone is at Northwestern. He was

(34:50):
out of Prestonwood Christian Academy transferred him from SMU. Those
guys are in Tier four, as well as Dylan Royola,
the Nebraska quarterback there in tier number four. Jackson Arnold,
the Oklahoma transfer to Auburn, is in Tier four. Jalen Daniels,
returning starter at Kansas, is listed in Tier four, and
Julian Sayan, who's in the battle for the top spot

(35:12):
at Ohio State, is at number four in Tier four
at number thirty two. Tier number three includes Baron Morton,
returning starter at Texas Tech. Malik Murphy, the former log
worn and Duke Blue Devil now at Oregon State, is
in there. Marcel Reed of Texas A and M is
number twenty six. Taylor Green, the Arkansas returning starting quarterback

(35:35):
in Tier three at number twenty one.

Speaker 4 (35:38):
Tier number two.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Diego Pave of Vanderbilt is number fifteen overall, rock O
Beck of Iowa State at number fourteen. Carson Beck, who
had left Georgia for Miami is at number twelve. Saw Robertson,
the Baylor returning starter at the top of Tier two.
Then tier number one, we counted down. Number ten is
Arch Manning. He's listed as number ten, Number nine, Josh

(36:01):
Hoover the TCU quarterback, number eight, Kevin Jennings the SMU quarterback.
Number seven. Sam Levitt, we saw him in the Peach
Bowl with Arizona State last year. Returning start at number seven.
Drew Aller, the returning start at Penn State is number six.
Dj Lagway of Florida's number five. John Mattier, the Oklahoma
transfer who's been the topic of conversations today is number four.

(36:24):
Leonora's Sellers of South Carolina's number three. Garrett Nussmeyer of
LSU was number two and the number one quarterback ranked
by the Athletic at the top of Tier one the
former Westlake Chaparral. Kate Klubnick, the quarterback at Clemson. So interesting,
look there at a variety of different quarterbacks.

Speaker 4 (36:42):
All right.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
Up next, we talked college and high school football across
the lone Star State with Greg Temper, editor in chief
of Dave Campbells Texas Football Magazine.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
When we continue on thirteen under the Zone.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Glad to have you with us On a Tuesday afternoon,
as we draw closer to football season, Well, let's just
ask the editor in chief of Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
That's Greg Temper, joins us on the hotline.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
We are officially nine days away from first allowable scrimmages.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
How freaky is that?

Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yeah, it's it's come up pretty quickly on us. Suddenly.
It's it's kind of arrived with a terrifying speed and
efficiency that suddenly. Yeah, I mean, look, Craig, two weeks
from Thursday, there will be real, actual, meaningful counts in
the record books football games going on. I mean, we're

(37:36):
sixteen days away from go time here, and that's that's
that's fun. I've already got my week one plan. I
think I'm going out to Abilene to watch Byron Nelson
take on Wolford Friendship in a neutral site affair. So
so it's about that time to start kind of kind
of picking out your dance partners and figure out what

(37:57):
you're going to be doing in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 4 (37:59):
Very good point. All right, I'm going to jump back
to high school in a minute. I want to go.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
I want to start off with college with you and
other than other than the local college football team that
plays in this town here that's obviously has its own
buzz and excitement going on with that preseason number one ranking,
which has never been experienced before by the program other
than Texas. What to you is the biggest college football

(38:24):
story in the state of Texas going in the twenty
twenty five other than Texas?

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, I think that. Yeah. I think you could probably
narrow it down to probably two different teams. One of
them would be Texas Tech. And I think what we
are about to find out is whether or not, like
an off season of hype can translate into an in
season of positivity, because that's ultimately where it's at. They

(38:54):
have been the I think they won the off season.
I think Zack and Tech has won the all season.
What they've done as far as the buzz and the
hype and the Cody Campbell of it all has been
the story I think in the state of Texas. In
the off season, you see the talent acquisition that they've
been able to do both in the recruiting world, in

(39:15):
the high school prep world, as well as in the
transfer portal. And it's now time that the rubber is
going to meet the road. It's fun to win the
off season, but it doesn't count for a hill of
beans if you don't win in the football season. I
think that there's a lot of pressure on Joey maguire
and company to make sure it stands up and make
sure that it actually matters when the games arrive. And

(39:35):
so that is one thing that I think is a
huge storyline. The other story I would say is probably
SMU and whether or not playing and simple they can
do it again? You know, last year, obviously their first
year in the ACC, they come within a whisker of
winning the dang conference. They are a team that everybody's

(39:57):
buzzing about at Lashly is kind of the hot new
coach around the nation, and they make it to the
College Football Playoff. Well, the question now is is that
are you closer to what TCU was in their run
to the national championship a game or are you closer
to what Texas is, which is a team that you

(40:18):
expect every year to be in that mix and and
you know, anybody can do it once. Now can SMU
go and do it again with a tougher schedule and
with kind of more of a target on their chest.
That is I think a huge, huge question in this one.
Those are to me the two biggest stories setting in there.
That's probably with all due respect to Baylor, who's probably

(40:40):
in that mix as well as well as I would
say the rise of Texas State there with GJ. Kinney,
But those are I would say, Tech and SMU are
the two stories that I'm most intrigued by, obviously, aside
from the lads in Austin.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
Well, I'm glad you brought that up because I was
going to ask you in specific about two guys, two quarterbacks,
and they're at the two schools you mentioned, And the
reason why I bring this up, and I just got
through going through this. The Athletic had a piece today
where they've ranked all one hundred and thirty six Division
one FPS quarterbacks and they put him in tiers all

(41:18):
the way from tier number one at the top, at
the very top of the list. Kate Klebnik, by the way,
the former Westlake Chaparral is the number one overall rated quarterback.

Speaker 4 (41:28):
Hars Manning is rated tenth.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
They're in rounding out Tier one, but also in Tier
one on that are the quarterbacks.

Speaker 4 (41:36):
At SMU and TCU.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
Kevin Jennings is ranked number eight, Josh Hoover is ranked
number nine, and then you've got to go down to
tier three before you find Baron Morton, the returning starter
at Texas Tech. Now, I like Baron Morton, and I
loved his dad, James when he was coaching at Friona
and got him to the final flourback in the nineties.

(41:59):
Great guy as well. Do you feel that Baron Morton
is the guy talp Texas Tech and Joey McGuire get
over that hump that you're talking about and then and
then your thoughts on those two quarterbacks in that top
ten other than Arch Banning, Kevin Jennings at SMU and
Josh Hoover at TCU.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Yeah, you know, to take it first part first. We
know with Baron Morton, that is really the big question
heading into the year because for Texas Tech for all
of the let's say resources that they have pulled in
as far as talent acquisition is concerned and getting top
end high you know, high end players, you know, you know,

(42:41):
reportedly paying a half million dollars for a left tackle right,
things like that. The place that they strangely haven't done
it is at quarterback at least, no, not not recently.

Speaker 4 (42:53):
Now.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
I like Baron Morton a lot as well. I mean,
this is the guy that when he was the Eastland
I know, was the guy that everybody really liked, really likes,
you know, coming out of there. But he is probably
closer to a probably closer to a what Texas Tech
you know, used to be a good player, you know,
good four star quarterback there at at at at Eastland.

(43:14):
But I would say the kind of guy that Texas
Tech felt really good about going in and a you know,
relatively local kid, you know, you steal the borders, you
get him to come out to Tech. They did not
go out into the portal and go get some plus
some five star quarterback. They did not go out there
and go get some you know, some guy who was
going to be the backup quarterback of Ohio State for example.
Instead that they're sticking with their guns. And this is

(43:36):
a real I think this is this is the real
question I think for them heading into twenty twenty five
is how well his Baron Morton play. If he's the
guy the sky's limit for Tech, and if he's not,
then suddenly there's gonna be a lot of questions about
whether or not this whole thing can work as presently constructed.
You know, Kevin Jennings, I think is is such a
remarkable story. You know, it really is local boy done

(43:58):
good right, you know, as a guy who led South
O'cliffs to that historic state championship back in twenty twenty one,
then Stay Home plays at S and U and then
guides them to the college football playoff. I really love
the way he's developed. He was a guy I remember
when he was in high school. I was talking with
Alito coach Tim mccannon, you know now, the former Alito

(44:21):
coach Tim mcannon. He was on the sideline for that
game and I or for a game before before they played,
going into that title game, and I asked him because
South o'cliff was had was the team that had beaten
and dethroned Alito, And I said, hey, tell me about
South oak Clip and he just turned me. And this
is a guy who has forgotten more football than ALI
learn know. He turned me. He said that quarterback's an assassin,

(44:41):
that quarterback a killer, and if you don't if you
don't deal with him, he's going to tear you apart.
And sure enough, Kevin Jennings has lived up to that
hype and more. Josh Hoover is the interesting one. Josh
Hoover is the guy that I think is all ceiling.
I mean, the ceiling is sky high. They're NFL scouts
who love this guy. They think that he was built
in a lab and there have been flat in which
he has been able to put it all together and

(45:04):
be the guy that everybody thought he would be coming
out of high school. The question is can he be consistent?
Can he do it, you know, consistently? And I think
that what you saw at times at ll Heath he
was really really impressive. Can he put it all together consistently?
I would say that that, you know, to be up
there in that top tier is probably a little rich
for me right now. I know that there are NFL

(45:26):
scouts who love the cut of his jib and think
that he could be the next big thing. So I'm
not surprised that there are outlets that are going all
in on Josh Hoover right now.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
You know, it's interesting in this ranking system done by
the Athletic there's four consecutive quarterbacks who will apply their
trade in the state of Texas. Near the top of
the rankings, Kevin Jennings is eight, Josh Hoover's nine, Arch
Manning is ten, Sawyer Robertson is eleven. And then you
go on down a little bit. How about Haines King

(45:56):
remember him here? He is the number sixteen there for
Georgia Tech. And you just still still knocking it out
and still hanging around and still doing what he has
to do well.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
And and look at look at some of these guys
and the connections between these these guys is is a
lot of pedigree and and and I think that Haines
King is a perfect example of that. A guy who
who obviously a coaches kid, he's he's grown up, uh
you know in in the the you know, in the
the cradle of football out there in a long view America,
and led them to a state championship themselves. This is
I think. And actually, we had a really good piece

(46:27):
up on Texas Football dot Com this week where around
Carter Ye reached out to a number of high school
football coaches and said and asked them, Hey, what's your
all time favorite play call? What's your favorite play that
you were able to, so it's a call, and he
talked with Todd Dodge, who gave him some a great
answery top with Carry Joseph and and some of these, uh,
you know, the legendary coaches. And one of the guys
you talked to was was John King. And he goes

(46:49):
back to a play in that title game, which I
believe you were on the call on along View and Westbrook. Huh,
And it was the it was it was not a touchdown,
but it was rather the deep shot to Kias Moore.
If you remember this, this was it was basically the
play before the play that that took the lead more
or less. But it is a perfect ball from Haines King.

(47:11):
And I remember that being a real moment for me
of saying they might just think and do this because
they've got the guy at quarterback who's now settled in.
And sure enough, you know, Haines King, he's been a
little nomadic, but him landing at George Tech, he's he's
really kind of found his footing and found a home.
And it's good to see, you know, Texas high school

(47:32):
football quarterbacks thriving wherever they may go.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
One other college quarterback, when you get your thoughts on
before we shift into our high school preview of three A.
I mentioned Baron Morton is in Tier three. He's ranked
twenty seventh out of one hundred and thirty six. The
guy just above him and number twenty six is Marcel
Reed at Texas A and M.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
He is he is the most I think he is
the person who if you were going to pick one
player in the state of Texas that could essentially shape
the entirety of the landscape, it's going to be Marcel Reid.
And obviously him being in Texas A and M, and
then you know, one of the pre eminent programs in

(48:14):
the state of Texas, that helps. But I think that
you're talking about a guy that I think the jury
is out on him and we're going to find out
exactly what he looks like, uh and and and how
far he can take Texas A and M. Because the believers,
you know, will tell you that Marcel Reid can be
an all SEC type quarterback and that he's got all

(48:34):
the tools to do it, and that a full year
as the guy at in college station is going to
be uh going to help lift this offense to new
heights that they weren't able to get last year, whether
it was with Wigmen or with or or with Marcel Reid.
The other side of it, they're they're the detractors who
are shocks at A and M didn't go in the
portal and get a quarterback because Marcel Reids, you know,

(48:57):
at times he flashed last year, but he was pretty consistent.
The offense sputtered at times. I would say that essentially
Marcel Reid and Colin Klein are now like handcuffed together
and they are either going to sink or swim together.
And if it works, it could be a real, real
great year I think in Texas in college station. But

(49:19):
if it doesn't, and it is going to get real hairy,
real quick, because the schedules is no joke and they
are going to be facing some exceptional defenses. I think
this is a I've said this before, but I think
this year is a true referendum on Colin Klein as
an offensive coordinator. We will find out a whole lot
and I think a ton of what college football looks

(49:41):
like in the state of Texas in twenty twenty five
depends on what you think of the young man who's
going to be taking the snaps for the Aggies this year.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
The other thing that's interesting here to your point about
Texas high school football quarterbacks, you just litter this list,
I mean even just scattershooting down to Jackson Arnold from
Geyer the transfer to Auburn is number thirty five in
Tier four. In addition to that, Preston Stone from Preston
Wood Christian Academy. Of course I was at SMU's at Northwestern,

(50:10):
he's forty five.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
Kron Drones, who of.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
Course had been at Chadow Creek and Baylor in Virginia
Tech is number forty six out of this, and Connor
Wakeman you mentioned him, he's number fifty one, transferred to Houston.
Cayten Salter, who had been at Cedary Hill and then
originally Tennessee and then Liberty and now stepping in at
Colorado for Shirdar Sanders number fifty two in Tier four.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
So it goes on.

Speaker 3 (50:34):
Chandler Morris is still around the area, is at Virginia
at number.

Speaker 4 (50:37):
Fifty five, and so it goes, it goes on and on.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
And by the way, a lot of those quarterbacks that
you have listed just now played Texas high school football
on the biggest stage. They've played in state championship games.
If not that, then state semifinals. Jack and Narold, Cayden
Salter Right, Kyroon Drones won a state championship, a shadow
Crew week Preston Stone won state championships at the TAPS level.

(51:05):
That is, to me proof positive that when you can
win at the highest levels in Texas high school football,
it translates. It translates in a way that maybe it
doesn't in other places. And I think that that speaks
to just the difficulty of being able to hang in
Texas high school football, but also how you can trust

(51:28):
your eyes whenever you see someone who is playing at
the highest level in Texas high school football, and you
can say that guy might have a little something, well,
sure enough. Look across the college football landscape more often
than not they do.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
Yeah, here's where you and I can nerd out all
day long. Maverick mckiver is number sixty five point for
Western Kentucky and hass Haney, who is transferred to Oregon State,
is number seventy six in Tier number five.

Speaker 4 (51:53):
I mean, it goes on and on with the guys
that you get see.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Well and Hany, by the way, I'm really interested in
seeing him get an opportunity because I remember him coming
out of Alito and people just just just drooling over
his athleticism and having the opportunity to get him and
get a spot there. I'm really interested to see if
he's able to break through there at order to.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
Stay all right, we're talking football with Greg Temper, editor
in chief Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazinum continue with the
high school previews. Now we move to Class three A.
And you got Columbus number one in Division one and
Gunner number two in Division two, and didn't didn't have
to take a great deal of extension out on the

(52:33):
limb to make those picks.

Speaker 4 (52:34):
Did it well?

Speaker 2 (52:36):
It didn't. However, I do think this is the most
intriguing that three A has been in quite some time.
So it is the two the both of the defending chances.
So we'll start with three A Division one. First. Columbus
is fascinating to me because they lose almost all of
their star power. I mean, there's for a three A
school for them to graduate the talent they did, whether

(52:58):
it's mister Texas Football, Adam Shobel or John Shobel, their
star linebacker, or Grayson Riggs in right they had. I
think they signed four players to at fifs letters of
intent from a three Division one school is insane. Well,
they're gone, but they also have a lot of the
nuts and bolts back, which is gonna make this really
interesting because can they find the guys who are going

(53:20):
to help them break through? If not, three A Division
one has got plenty of teams that can go up
and get them, including a team that, by the way,
had been the four consecutive state championship games before they
got there in Franklin who is lurking, and a team
to be reckoned with. I think Paradise has an opportunity
to be really good. I'm really high on the two
teams in regions that look to be duking it out

(53:42):
for Region four in Edna, Atlanto that figures to be really,
really fun to watch. I think Jefferson has an opportunity
to be good as well. And then for Gunnar, Gunner
is a little bit more of an easier choice than
three Division two, even though they graduate relatively heavily. We
feel pretty good about the new quarterback that got coming
in and anox stage and that culture has been so strong,

(54:05):
and obviously if you win three consecutive state championships. In
my opinion, you deserve to start the year at number one. However,
they have had their own up and down offseason, right
with the kind of surprising and a stunning resignation of
coach Jake Fizzel. They promote Jordan Gill the offensive coordinator takeover.

(54:25):
What impact does that have? And also I think three
A Division two is better this year, just holistically. Tide
Haven is loaded, loaded from a state semifinal run last year.
Wall a team that gave Gunner everything they wanted in
the state semifinal last year, brings back to their thirty
five hundred yard passer in Land in New York. Lexington

(54:46):
has an FBS quarterback themselves in case Evans. Newton has
got a terrific running game per usual down there. And
then you can't forget the team that played the state
championship game last year, I think, rather surprisingly in Woodville,
this is a I think in three D Division two
you have to put Gunner number one, but it is
by no means a walk over for the Tigers to
a four peat because this is a dangerous three eight

(55:09):
Division two class that is all gonna be wanting to
take some shots at what they may perceive to be
a vulnerable Tigers program.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
Okay, you've given me contenders, given me favorites, give me
a dark horse at each and D one and D two.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Okay, So three A Division one, I would like to
I would like to draw your attention to a team
that might finish third in their own district. Then you're
gonna I know you're already shaking your head. I would
like to draw your attention to yoakum yoakam Bo Robinson
and company. They are loaded and if they played in
any other district betw besides twelve three A Division one,
which if he didn't know, has both Columbus and Hitchcock,

(55:47):
they would be really really I think we would be
shutting up about them. The other team that I'm really
interested in three A Division one is Winsboro. Winsboro is
a team whose offense is going to cook this year.
They have an unbelievable amount of skill talent there due
to the Red Raiders. Their wide receiver, Camden k Part is
a Mississippi state committee. He is box office and no

(56:09):
only Carroll their quarterbacks back neary Castleberry. I'm not sure
they're going to be able to stop anybody, but they're
going to be really fun to watch. And then in
three eight Division two, there's a couple of teams that
really catch my eye that I'm interested in, but one
of them that I think might be flying under people's
radar if you take a look at it, and I
think it's because they don't have a ton of A.

(56:30):
I think they're in the wrong district and B they
don't have a ton name recognition. But Blue Ridge has
an opportunity to be really good. They're in the wrong district,
they're in with Gunner who hasn't played a competitive district
game since Kingdom Come, but they have a ton coming back.
I love what they're going to be able to do,
especially offensively. I love wide receiver Caleb Gaddis, who is

(56:50):
one of the most explosive players. I think in all
of CreatiVision two, that is a team that I'm really
really interested in. And then I'll give you one more.
I know you told me to give you just one.
It is a a I would I would keep an
eye on what Blanco has cooking this Yep, there's a
lot of intrigue around what's going on there in Blanco.

(57:11):
For for a number of reasons. First of all, they
bring back a good amount to thirteen starters from a
team that went you know, seven and four and I
think bounced out a little early in the in the playoffs.
But also they have a new coach that is probably
familiar to folks down there, and that would be Kent
Walker who takes over after leaving Liberty Hill to take

(57:31):
over there Blanco. How quickly can he instill that winning
and culture and that winning mentality and maybe even that
winning slot t down there at Blanco. That is a
team I'm really fascinated by, and I think the ceilings
really high if they are able to take to what
if they're able to pick up what coach Walker is
putting down early.

Speaker 3 (57:48):
And it's not like the Panthers were, you know, roadkilled.
They got to the playoffs last year and then they,
like you said, they have the healthy amount of starters
coming back on each side, so's they've.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
Got plenty come back. They were a team that I
think we're hard luck losers to Van Bleck in the
first round, but I think that the future is very
bright there in Blanco.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
They've even as early as this year, best teams of
the Greater Austin, Central Texas area in D one, maybe
Lando D two.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
Lexington, Yeah, I would say so. I love Lexington, I
love case Evans. I think he's a guy who could
be in the three A Player of the Year category.
And then yeah, Lano I think is going to be
really good. This is one of the teams that Matt
Green I think has been waiting for. They bring back
twenty one letterman from last year's team. And the other
thing that catches mind this is this is the stuff

(58:35):
that if you're ever wondering what I'm doing, like in
like April of of the you know, waiting for football
to come, what I'm doing is I'm looking at JV records,
uh and and Lano has went went tenan oh and
JV last year, which tells me if there is a
youth movement coming up that is going to be really,
really exceptional. So I'm excited to see what Lando is
able to do, taking what are some veteran pieces that

(58:57):
I know Matt Green's really excited about, and adding in
some you some young guys that I know they're really
excited about. I think, especially this class is going to
be sophomores this year. They're really excited about down there Atlanto.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
I'm guessing that you don't gush this much about the
Yellow Jackets when you're with your co host and co
worker and proud Atlanto graduate Ashley Pickle. Am.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
I right, she is. You know. I will tell you
that she is currently in another room and I have
turned off all of the power so she cannot listen
to this interview at any time, and I will thank
you to take this off of the podcast if when
you get a chance.

Speaker 4 (59:29):
Okay, all right, hey, I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
Next week we moved down to the lowest of the
eleven man digs in two A, which is always intriguing
for sure.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Yes, two A will be I love me. Here's the teams,
and I think there's the lateral teas, so wait for
next week. Two A is going to be really fun
this year and I think potentially really unpredictable, So tune
in next week for that.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
All right, hey, TEP appreciate it. Thanks for the time,
all right, Greg, All right, that's Greg Tapper, editor in
chief Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine, Answered three A preview.
Each week, we're previewing a different high school classification. In
addition to the fact that we're doing obviously college football
previews as well. And if you're interested in subscribing, go

(01:00:10):
to Texas football dot com for a subscriber information for
Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine and the online stuff which
is fabulous.

Speaker 4 (01:00:19):
All right, more coming up when we continue on thirteen
under the Zone.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
Here on the program of this aburnet thanks again to
Greg Tepper, managing editor of no used to be managing editor,
now he's the editor in chief. Still getting used to
that title, he says, he's still getting used to that
title as well. From Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine, back
to the text line where a question was where was

(01:00:44):
Marcel read rank? He was ranked twenty sixth in that
quarterback rating. And again what this is is from the
athletic where Sam Con and Antonio Morales were for the
guys who put this together, where they ranked every one

(01:01:05):
of the projected and again that's the keyword is projected
starters for every Division one FBS program from one to
one and thirty six. And I think the thing that's
equally interesting about this is how they split it into tiers.

(01:01:26):
It wasn't just here's number one. Kay Klubnik, here's number
one thirty six. They put them in tiers, but as
they did put them in tiers, it was a graduated
ranking all the way up from one thirty six to
number one. So, for example, like we said, number one,

(01:01:48):
Tier one is the most talented quarterbacks in the country.
Is what they write with the highest ceilings. They can
carry their team and are often the biggest keys to victory.
Many in this tier find themselves in the Heisman Trophy conversation. Okay,
the ones in Tier one are led by Kate Klubnick
at Clemson, the former Westlake quarterback Garrett Nuspyer of LSU,

(01:02:11):
who's a Texas high school football product by the way,
out of Flower Mount Marcus. So the top two are listed.
There are Texas high school football products Leonora's Sellers of
South Carolina number three. John Mattier, the Oklahoma transfer from
Washington State is for DJ Lagway, another Texas high school
football product from Willis is at Florida. He's number five.

(01:02:34):
Drew Aller of Penn State is number six. Sam Levitt
at Arizona State's number seven, Kevin Jennings from South Oakcliff
and SMU number eight. Josh Hoover TCU nine and arch
Banding is number ten as we mentioned, and then the
second Tech ten actually begins with Sawyer Robertson, the Baylor quarterback.
But to answer the question about where Marcel Reed is
number twenty six. That's in tier three, just ahead of

(01:02:57):
Baron Morton of Texas Tech twenty seven, just behind the
Von Dampier of Utah's number twenty five. And others in
tier three include Avery Johnson, the Kansas State quarterback, Taylor
Green the Arkansas quarterback, Johnson twenty two, Green twenty one.
Nico Iamailiava, now at UCLA having transferred from Tennessee, is

(01:03:19):
at number nineteen. There I mentioned Haines King from Longview
at Georgia Tech started off in Texas A and M's
number sixteen.

Speaker 4 (01:03:27):
He's in tier two.

Speaker 3 (01:03:28):
Diego Pavia, the Vanderbilt quarterback who did so much for
them and won his court case, and he has another year,
so he'll be coming into Austin in November. He's at
number fifteen in that list. All right, we'll be back
here on thirteen under the Zone. Third and final hour
of the program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen under
the Zone, Craig Way with you. Glad to have you
with us. And Ronald Savage, Junior, our producer. This afternoon,

(01:03:53):
Cameron Parker off to Mexico, going down there to be
in a wedding, not his. He's not getting me at
least not that I know of. He's going down there
with a friend's wedding. But he'll be back next week.
He'll be back with us. But I, uh, of course
always haul for up the text line to you any

(01:04:15):
text where Texas followed by your question or comment to
eight one five three zero, and standard messaging and data
rates may apply.

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
Got to thank you for actually even reading the text.
I told you we'll do it as long as they're
family oriented. At least that's something I can read. When
I was speaking today at the Austin Rotary Club and
I opened it up for questions, and I got a
wide variety of questions. Uh, people asking about Texas, people

(01:04:48):
asking about arch banding, people asking about the rest of
the SEC college football in general. ESPN with its acquisitions
of NFL Network and the Red Zone Channel and stuff
like that, had this wide ranging spectrum of questions. And

(01:05:12):
one of the questions I got was, did I ever say
anything really kind of they set off brand nothink is
what was the feel on the air? And I took
that to mean, did you ever say anything off color?
Meaning you know, something profane, a cuss.

Speaker 4 (01:05:30):
Word, whatever. I never have.

Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
Knock on the calendartop here. People have done it before.
It is it is. It is the human condition. Sometimes,
especially the times I've heard it is when people have
gotten really frustrated about something and they're trying to remember
something and all of a sudden it goes black and

(01:05:54):
it comes out and or it's completely absent minded. My
good friend Bill Shooning, former co host of the show
and of course just recently retired voice in San Antonio Spurs.
He'll laugh if if, in remembering this, we were doing
the show together.

Speaker 4 (01:06:13):
On this station.

Speaker 3 (01:06:14):
This would have been like ninety nine and he dropped
an S bomb and talked about he just did it
in passing conversation blah blah blah blahah and says to
Sid and I looked at him and he didn't even
realize he said it. Fortunately, our friend John M. Danny
was our producer at the time now with ESPN Radio,
and John was able to hit what's called the dump

(01:06:35):
button and get rid of it in time, so that
was good. Back to my news radio working days in Dallas.
When I was at KRLD, we had an all news
operation and there would be sportscast twice an hour except
weeknights Monday night through Friday night, there would be no

(01:06:58):
sports cast at either nine or ten fifteen. And the
reason for this was we ran a general interest talk
show call in show, not sports. Again, this was a
news radio station. We did a lot of sports. We
were the Cowboys flagship station and did sportscast twice an hour,
but from nine thirty to ten thirty, we ran a

(01:07:20):
show called Opinion Line. Folks took to calling at Looney
Line because you basically just had people had just had
way out there theories about stuff. And then one caller
getting angry at another, one of them challenged the other
to a duel in the parking lot of the radio station,
and the show host.

Speaker 4 (01:07:39):
Like a now, look, look, fellas, we're not going to
have that here.

Speaker 3 (01:07:41):
That guy was an old, hardened news anchor reported by
the name of Dick Wheeler.

Speaker 4 (01:07:47):
He'd been around a long time.

Speaker 3 (01:07:49):
He was one of the crew from KROLD, along with
my broadcast mentor Bill mercer, who were the boots on
the ground, if you will, covering the entire Kennedy assassination weekend.
And by then Dick was probably I would see in
his seventies by then. And then this this is going

(01:08:10):
back forty years ago, and he he hosted this show,
and he was he was taking a call about someone
who had gotten in trouble for plagiarizing and or or
it had been a Nobel Peace Prize winner and got

(01:08:32):
in trouble. So then this person calls into the show
to say, when there's somebody who did that that got
stripped of a Nobel prize for something that he wrote?
And he said, who is that? And I said, you know,
he wrote something? Turn out to be he didn't write
it at all. Clearly the caller was thinking about somebody
who had won a Pulitzer Prize and had plagiarized the story.

(01:08:54):
So Dick tells him, Oh no, that was so and
so and that was it. That wasn't a no Bell prize,
that was that was a Pulitzer prize. But he didn't
say oh no, He went oh no, and dropped the
S word in there. Oh no, that was blah blah blah,
blah blah. Didn't even realize he said it, and and
me and the other news anchor look at each other like,
does he know that he just dropped an S bomb

(01:09:16):
on that. So sometimes things like that happen, but fortunately
for me that is not been the case, at least
to this point. Anyway, we were talking when I was
talking with Greg, we had a preview Class three, and
we got to talk about Blanco because the Panthers have

(01:09:37):
can't Walker now who was running slot tea there after
taking over when his brother passed away at Liberty Hill
Jeff Walker back a few years ago when they had
that run to the state championship game. And that is
a great, great family there, the extended family, Jeff's widow

(01:09:58):
Miranda and the kids, the girl tremendous and and Kent,
great guy, great coach as well. And now he is
at blancam and so everybody's looking forward to seeing the
slot t run down there. But somebody pointed out that
Blanco has run some wing tea before, so it was

(01:10:20):
it was there back in the day, so that he
put it out see power pointed out he said, I
was one of Jeff Howell's coaches.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
Our sun Dan and he was a fullback when our
good friend Jeff Howel was actually.

Speaker 3 (01:10:31):
Playing as an offensive lineman there at at Florence back
in the day. And Florence, I'm I'm you know, Jeff
knows this. He doesn't need me to say that he doesn't.
It's not going to shock him that that it could
be another long year for the Buffaloes there for Florence.
But they get it started on the twenty nine against
rosebud Lott, so who knows. We'll see how that goes

(01:10:54):
all right. Up next, back to Logorns head coach Teve Sarkisian.
We'll here so take on a variety of other things,
not only following yesterday's practice, but what they're looking forward
to seeing the rest of this week. And then they
have another scrimmage coming up on Saturday at the stadium,
so all of that is still down the road for them,

(01:11:15):
and they have a night practice tonight, and then I
think the players have a day off on Wednesday before
they come back and practice Thursday morning. But we're gonna
hear more from sark coming up when we continue on thirteen.

Speaker 4 (01:11:26):
Under the Zone.

Speaker 3 (01:11:27):
We're rolling on for hour number three of the program.
First time of the program, we brought to some comments
from Long Warning's head coach, Steve Sarkeshan coming off of
yesterday's practice, and a lot of those were a little
more practice specific. Here's some sound that's a little more

(01:11:47):
not necessarily generic, but it speaks to the more of
the macro and the improvement of the program overall. If
you are a football fan, and many of you who
listen to this program or this station are that, you're
well aware of a lot of the cliched phrases that

(01:12:09):
permeate college football and pro football and high school football,
all of those at any level of football. Really, there's
a lot of different ones, you know, the ones we've
heard over and over and over.

Speaker 4 (01:12:23):
Again about.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
You know, one game at a time, blah blah blah,
that play with's in front of you, let it all
fall where it can, so on and so forth, where
the chips fall where they may. There's another phrase that
has become more popular for coaches and for athletes, and

(01:12:49):
it almost sounds like a phrase that maybe an Olympic
athlete might use, say maybe a track athlete, a sprinter
or something like that, or maybe someone who's a shot putter.
The phrase I'm referring to is trying to be one

(01:13:09):
percent better because if you try to go by leaps
and bounds, obviously and take these quantum leaps, it's it's
very difficult to do. But coaches in just about every sport,
we'll say, let's see if we can get one percent
better every day. Players say they want to get one
percent better every day. Now, what exactly defines one percent

(01:13:34):
when you're talking about that? So Sark was asked about
this whole concept of the thing and what and what
coaches want their players to do in getting one percent better?

Speaker 5 (01:13:45):
Well, I think the key is it's on a daily basis.
You know, you know you I can point to specific
positions by day of man, that guy really took a
step at something we were.

Speaker 6 (01:13:55):
Working on to try to get him better at.

Speaker 5 (01:13:58):
But I think collectively that's the key, right, is that
are we all moving in the same direction and are
all we are we all raising our game collectively consistently,
And that that's the challenge I think as a coach
that you strive for is am I pushing the right
buttons every morning to motivate all one hundred and ten
players that we have and all the coaches that we
have to be really intentional today, be present today, focus

(01:14:22):
on today, like be where our feet are, and not
get caught in worrying about you know, full padded practice
and dcare tomorrow, or not get caught waiting, man, I
can't wait till the next scrimmage Saturday, or not get
caught looking at I can't wait till August thirtieth, right,
and you start looking down the road and you miss
what's right in front of you. So we just try
to stay present and then I think ultimately when we

(01:14:42):
can do that, we will make the incremental growth that's
needed to be made.

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
Okay, And as many coaches will say, we just heard
Sark allude to it, mental outlook, the mental approach play
such a big part in this because if you're trying
to get whatever one better, if you're just trying to
take a step forward, yeah, there's there's there's a physical

(01:15:06):
part of it. Certainly, like I mentioned, if you're like
a sprint or whatever, something some adjustion, that adjustment you
might make, or as Star just pointed out, a technique
something like that might make a difference in terms of
trying to get physically better. But all coaches will tell
you that it's a mental thing, the mentality of it.

(01:15:29):
And not only is Sark saying this, but the players
say it, and coaches and players that other programs say
it as well. It's about the players having a winning mentality.

Speaker 5 (01:15:38):
Well, I think I think what they know is competition,
you know, because we really preach competition, whether it's across
the ball, O line, d line, wideouts, you know, dbs,
you know, quarterback safeties, you know whatever that is, running
backs and linebackers. Like, we're a very competitive operation that way,

(01:16:00):
but we're also very competitive within our own position groups.
Guys are competing with one another and guys are you know,
everybody plays, as we know around here, we play a
lot of guys, but guys want to play more and
so they know this level of competition that they have
to that they have to excel at. And then, you know, ultimately,
a byproduct of being a really good competitor means you know,
you're taking care of your body, you're preparing the right

(01:16:21):
way mentally, you're preparing the right way emotionally, and then
ultimately you have the ability to go perform when it's
needed to perform.

Speaker 6 (01:16:28):
And the byproduct of that is winning.

Speaker 5 (01:16:31):
And so I think they they I think they appreciate
the process, maybe more so than the result. And and
that's something that that I appreciate about our team right now.
I think these guys really enjoy the process, you know.
And I when I look at the way Saturday went,
the way the offense had to respond to a tough

(01:16:52):
start but then fight back, the way they came back
and competed today on both sides of the ball, the
way Mason can kick the ball today, Like that's a
competitive spirit that I think is in that locker room,
that these guys know how to go out and compete
on a daily basis.

Speaker 3 (01:17:07):
One thing that was not lost on me just then
and maybe you as well, especially as we go down
this road of hearing cliche phrases or whatever that sort of.

Speaker 4 (01:17:15):
Stuff, is.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
Trusting the process, and it is very difficult. I've had
so many coaches at different levels tell me this. Brian
Schotnheimer was just talking about it the other day in
his press conference.

Speaker 4 (01:17:32):
They are the Cowboys new head coach.

Speaker 3 (01:17:33):
And I've heard several different head coaches at the University
of Texas in a variety of sports, and I've heard
a lot of high school coaches say this, one of
the most difficult things to do is to get student
athletes to believe in the entirety of the process to

(01:17:53):
become better and not just thinking about I got to
get to ex goal into the process, the destination journey,
not the destinations another way to say that. So if
you're doing that, and Sark said, that's one of the
things he appreciates about this group that they continue to
believe in and try to execute the process of improving

(01:18:18):
individually and then collectively as a football team, those are
the things that they're very, very encouraging. The same can
be held true for the quarterback because it's the quarterback
is certainly one of the key leaders, if not the
key leader, of the.

Speaker 4 (01:18:33):
Football game football team.

Speaker 3 (01:18:36):
So Sark was asked about Arch Banning and how has
Arch performed and has he indeed performed to expectation so far.

Speaker 5 (01:18:46):
I don't know if I have necessarily expectations, you know,
I think I think when we visited with Arch coming
out of Saturday, there was probably five or six plays
that I'm very confident he's gonna make as we move forward.
You know that Saturday was what our ninth practice of
fall camp, and be like essentially a preseason game like
playing the Hall of Fame game, right, So to think

(01:19:07):
that we're a fine tune machine and that and and
that practice probably not realistic. But he came out today
and had a great practice, and so again that work
in progress. He didn't do anything like catastrophically bad. But
I just know what he's capable of, and so we
just got to keep, you know, tightening the screws to
make sure that that he's performing the way he's you know,

(01:19:29):
he's capable of performing. And I think part of that
is physically, and part of that is mentally the leadership
that he provides to the guys around him to allow
them to help him play the way that he's capable
of playing. By the way, no turnover Saturday for him
at all. I think there was one turnovers on a
tipball in the red area. Actually that the defense made
a nice play during the red zone period.

Speaker 3 (01:19:50):
So there you go with that. By the way, it's
the story to say. The other question for Sar about
arch then came up and said how is he handled
all of this stuff? Again, this was something I talked
about in the speaking deal today. The arch Mania or
as Oli row of ESPN turned it yesterday Arch Madness,

(01:20:13):
which that's actually the name of the basketball tournament of
the Missouri Valley Conference there because it's in Saint Louis,
right about the Gateway Arch, hence the name Arch Madness.

Speaker 4 (01:20:24):
Nevertheless, a lot of folks may have that.

Speaker 3 (01:20:27):
But Sark was asked, how has Arch handled all of that,
the mania that surrounds what's expected of him and what
he's capable of doing this season.

Speaker 5 (01:20:40):
I don't know, no, no, the truth, I don't know,
Like I don't I don't really know yet. What I
know is what I see every day, and he seems
good to me. You know, we visit a fair amount
to make sure that what frame of mind is he
in where I think he performs the best. You know,
there's there's this is going to be a long season,
and unfortunately we live in a world of he's the

(01:21:03):
greatest ever or he's going to be a bust, and
there's not a lot of like in between. And it's
kind of like where we are as a team. We're
either going to be national champs or we're going to
be a bust. Like that's the mentality outside of our building.
We don't really think that way. I don't think Arch
thinks that way. I think Arch thinks about what am
I doing today to improve? What am I doing today

(01:21:23):
to be the best teammate I can be when the
game weeks roll around, What am I doing to prepare
to put myself in the best position to perform. I
just don't think he's that concerned. No offense to you
guys with what you guys write and say. It just
I don't think it matters to him. I really don't.
I think it's more about what do his teammates think
about him, And that's a cool thing to have, and
so but I don't know yet because we really haven't

(01:21:45):
gotten into the fire as much as the hooplaws happened.

Speaker 6 (01:21:48):
We really haven't gotten into the.

Speaker 5 (01:21:49):
Fire of real games and dealing with that in game, postgame,
next week's game, so on and so forth, with really
dealing with the media that way.

Speaker 3 (01:21:57):
Yeah, it's a really good point. And there's two things
that I think need to be said here. One when
Sark says no offense to you guys, but he really
doesn't care, or no offense to you guys, but we
really don't care what you're right with A that's absolutely true,
absolutely certain that they're into themselves and getting themselves ready

(01:22:21):
for the season. But I think it's also important to
point out that by and large, those like the writers
who are there, and the TV reporters and radio reporters,
the fan website reporters, all that they don't take offense
to that. They understand that's part of the deal. Most
I would say, the vast majority, just as I would

(01:22:43):
say the vast majority of football players understand that's part
of the process, and they deal with it and they
don't really worry that much about what is written or said.
Sometimes it is important to clarify something, as was the
case with the Oklahoma quarterback today, the transfer Jamatier, who

(01:23:07):
was addressing the conversation and the reports that he's being
investigated by the NCAA for gambling, and he had to
get out front of that and say no, it was
an inside joke between friends and categorically deny all of that,
which was important for him to do. That's an important
thing to address, but by and large, I don't think

(01:23:30):
student athletes are that worked up, especially because they're not
reading everything, and right now they're in the midst of
trying to get ready for the coming season, and a
lot of those guys aren't even going to know where
to turn to read some of that stuff. And a
lot of those guys are not going to subscribe to

(01:23:50):
either a specific fan site or a newspaper, online subscription
or whatever it might be.

Speaker 4 (01:23:58):
Might not even have.

Speaker 3 (01:23:59):
ESPN plauged us or whatever whatever it might be. They've
got they've got other things on their mind. They've got
bigger fish to progress, is what I'm saying about all
of that, Okay, And toward that end, Sark would point
out that for the coaches and for the players, the
ability to stay on an even keel, to to have that, uh,

(01:24:20):
just that same every day approach is important in trying
to build a successful season fourteen.

Speaker 6 (01:24:28):
We just focus on the process.

Speaker 5 (01:24:30):
You know, really, I wish I could tell you that's
something different than we've done. That's exactly what we've done
for the last three years, last four years, and it's
it's served us pretty well.

Speaker 3 (01:24:42):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:24:42):
We We've we've played for two conference championships the last
two years, and we've been to the College Football Playoff
semi finals two years in a row. We've been knocking
on the door two years in a row. So it's
kind of like, you know, yeah, we're gonna we're gonna
fine tune some things right, to try to tweak a
few things here and there, but the messaging remains really
assistent with us. And that obviously for me, to the

(01:25:02):
assistant coaches, to the leaders on the team, so on
and so forth.

Speaker 6 (01:25:07):
I don't I don't operate with my head in the sand.

Speaker 5 (01:25:11):
I address the rankings because they're going to see it
here it anyway, but they understand it really doesn't matter
what do we do, What are we gonna do? What
are we gonna do come August thirtieth.

Speaker 6 (01:25:20):
And the next week and the next week and the
next week.

Speaker 5 (01:25:22):
What are we going to do when we're faced with
adversity in game like that's the that's the key to
the drill. And and to me, I think we have
enough guys in that locker room who have been through
it the last couple of years that know what the
messaging is and know what the approach needs to be.
It's it's not about proving people right, it's not about
proving people wrong. It's about hanging together right and being

(01:25:46):
a collective team and performing week in and week out.
And that's from Monday through Saturday. That's that's just not
on Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:25:53):
Yeah, important to do. And I think the first person
I ever heard talk about that whole even keel thing
about not getting too high or not getting too low
and remaining on even keel.

Speaker 4 (01:26:13):
It might have been when I.

Speaker 3 (01:26:14):
Was a teenager, but the first person I can remember
now that mindset, that approach goes back generations, decades and generations.
I'm sure John Heisman talked about that when he was
coaching guys Walter Camp, you know, at the turn of
the century, when he was coaching Yale New Rockney, Coach Bible,

(01:26:37):
you know Dana Bible, when he coached Texas, Bear Bryant, Uh,
you know, Daryl Royal. They all kind of had that
kind of approach. Just from my own recollection, I think
the first time I remember hearing something like that was
from Tom Landry, by the way, another former long WRN

(01:26:59):
in watching one of the Cowboys television shows back in
the late seventies early eighties, and I always remember him
saying that, you know, they were coming off a big
win over Washington, but they had Atlanta and Philadelphia and
Saint Louis coming up big games, and coach Landy was
asked about the deal about how excited these guys were

(01:27:22):
to be Washington and he said, wow, you know, and
you know we had that. He had that kind of
Texas accent, South Texas accent, will twang on it and
he said, you know, it was great to be Wasshington,
but we got Atlanta and Sat Lewis and Philadelphia coming up,
so we have to be ready for that. In there
he was, he was just saying, and it's important. It

(01:27:43):
just kind of remained on the same plane. I remember
in saying that same keel and not get too high
and not get too low. He might have been the
first one I ever heard say that, but obviously it
predated his time as a coach. I'm sure it probably
went back, like I said, maybe even generations with coaches. Okay,
back to the scrimmage thing, and Sark was asked about

(01:28:06):
standouts from the scrimmage and who really stood out for.

Speaker 5 (01:28:10):
Him stand out performers.

Speaker 6 (01:28:14):
You know, I was.

Speaker 5 (01:28:15):
I was really pumped about Cedric Baxter Saturday. Uh that
that he fired me up. Man, He ran hard, he
ran physical. That was encouraging. Derek Williams was another guy
I was. He had his best day, which was Day nine,
and both those guys coming off of those injuries. So
those were probably the two biggest guys that that excited
me the most coming out of there was other guys

(01:28:37):
that highlight plays. Aaron Butler had a bunch of catches,
you know at the Tanthony Smith has had a great camp.

Speaker 6 (01:28:43):
I mean, there's a bunch of guys that way, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:28:45):
I think Marod Watson, Alex January looked really good. I
think we only had two guys didn't finish the scrimmage
and that was Nick Brooks and and Nick Townsend, and
both of them were both practiced all day to day
and were great.

Speaker 6 (01:28:57):
So nothing serious, okay, all right.

Speaker 3 (01:28:59):
And then as the follow up to that, anything particular
that came out of the practice itself which followed the scrimmage.

Speaker 5 (01:29:05):
Yeah, definitely the offensive operation pre snat whether it's coming
from the sidelines, whether it's at the line of scrimmage.
Our sense of urgency, you know, as you all know,
our motions, our formations, our shifts are a big part
of what we do. And procedurally we just were not
very good Saturday, and so we made it a huge
emphasis today and I think it was it was good

(01:29:28):
to us. I think the guys understood the message and
really tried to get better at that, and so that
was critical. I thought the level of physicality and the
strain to finish was better today. You know, we need
to play harder longer than our opponents, and that's every
play that's for four quarters like that's that's a mentality
that we have to have in our program, and so

(01:29:48):
straining to finish for us as a really critical component
to do that. And I thought our strain was better
across the board on offense, defense and on special teams,
and so those two things were probably the most that
stood out to me.

Speaker 4 (01:29:59):
To playing harder, longer a big, big part of that.

Speaker 3 (01:30:02):
We're gonna hear some more from Sark about the upcoming
goals for this week and headed into the second half
of fall camp when we continue here. I'm thirteen under
the zone. Glad to have you with us here on
this Tuesday afternoon. We're talking a lot of long Gorn
football today and we'll do some more of that tomorrow,
and I've got some other things in store for tomorrow

(01:30:23):
as well. Some more sound from long Orn's head coach
Steve Sarkisian asked about his tight end group, and of
course Jack Hendry's transferred in from cal He's kind of
the lead dog there, but they have several different guys
who can provide snaps as well in depth at the
tight end spots of Sarcers ask how's that tight end
group coming together?

Speaker 5 (01:30:43):
Yeah, you know, I think they're all coming along. They're
all kind of, like you said, different body types in
somewhat different phases in our program, you know, And I
think once we get through Saturday, I think we're gonna
have multiple.

Speaker 6 (01:30:58):
Personnel groupings for twelve.

Speaker 5 (01:31:00):
You know, I think to the to the to the
average fan, Oh, there's two tight ends out there, but
I think we're we're going to be really specific with
what two tight ends are out there doing what when
they're out there together, and so you know, it's not
just going to be, hey, twelve personnel and the first
two guys run out.

Speaker 6 (01:31:16):
We may have two or three different.

Speaker 5 (01:31:17):
Twelve personnel groupings that we use in conjunction with who
are the white outset are out there with them too.

Speaker 3 (01:31:24):
Next, he was asked about what he looks for during
the course of the week, the goals for the week,
leading up to an inclusive of Saturday scrimmage.

Speaker 5 (01:31:35):
You know, again, I think our physicality has got to
continue to grow. You know, I think that, you know,
we have to we have to really start to fine
tune the details of what we do. You know, it's
so competitive out there right now that sometimes human nature
can tell me I lose my details because I want

(01:31:57):
to win the rep. And the details are what is
going to win you the rep. And so we can't
lose sight of that. And so that's something that in
all three phases that I want to make sure we
hone in on, focus on, but still do it with
the level of physicality and a competitive spirit that is
true to us in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (01:32:14):
Next up, since we're talking about the physical nature of things,
he's talking about in specific a couple of area groups,
not just the offensive line and the defensive line. That's
going to take care of itself, the trench warfare of
physical nature of football that pretty much that you know,

(01:32:36):
takes care of itself in terms of the two sides,
Corny Goods. He's also referring to what he wants to
see from the linebackers and the secondary and then really
even things like downfield blocking guys receivers, which has.

Speaker 4 (01:32:49):
Been really, really good.

Speaker 3 (01:32:50):
That's a big reason why a guy like Matthew Golden
was taking the first round of the Packers that you know,
he was an unshy blocker downfield when he wasn't catching
the football. DeAndre Moore is another guy who who fits
into that category, and Ryan Wingo has been a willing
blocker as well. So those things are important there for

(01:33:16):
that and if you're doing all that physical stuff, and
especially if the offensive line is being physical, then they're
taking care of the quarterbacks. So with that in mind,
he was asked, how did the quarterbacks do in that
scrimmage on Saturday and their progression overall?

Speaker 5 (01:33:31):
Yeah, they all rotated with the twos and the threes,
you know, I thought, I thought kJ had a really
good day, created explosive plays, had a great two minute drive.
He had the two minute drive with the twos at
the end and had a big play to Dayla McCutcheon
to get us down there, had a nice scramble in
the red area. I thought, I think Matt Calbell had

(01:33:52):
two drives. One was a sixteen play drive, one was
a thirteen play drive which was pretty effective for him.
The guy's you know, he's been practicing with us. That
was nine practices he's been in our offense. And so
I was really impressed with that. And Trey, you know,
for me where we were talking to Trey's, I mean,
he has some highlight throws and plays. We got to
have a level of consistency in him, because when he

(01:34:13):
plays at a high level, it's really good. But we
gotta we got to maintain the consistency for him at
that spot.

Speaker 3 (01:34:18):
Trey being Trey Owens and you heard him talking about
Matthew Caldwell as well, matt Colwell, So all of those
you know that part of it, all right. A couple
more things from from Sark. There was a great deal
of talk last year about the long Orange schedule, and

(01:34:38):
the detractors were saying, well, the SEC really gifted them.
Well they took care of him, YadA YadA. Uh, they didn't.
They didn't have much in the way of difficulty, but
they had some challenges, especially on the road. Vanderbilt proved
to be pretty good. Just ask Alabama about that. About
trying to beat them. The Logorns were able to do that,

(01:35:03):
you know, having to go obviously to A and M
that was that was important to do that. Arkansas was
going to, you know, be a difficult assignmon simply because
of the rivalry and what that engenders up there as well.

Speaker 4 (01:35:16):
This year, if you.

Speaker 3 (01:35:19):
Look at it, it's it's kind of an odd schedule
because they open with this gigantic road game at Ohio State.
Now let me just stop for a minute there with
use of the word gigantic with describing a road game.
It's a couple of things to keep in mind. Yes,

(01:35:40):
it's number one in the country, number three in the
country in the AP number one, and number two in
the coaches, So it carries a lot of gravitas, there's
no doubt about it. But we have all learned in
the college football playoff world that we live in today,
the twelve team playoff world that we live in today,

(01:36:02):
and even really before then, that one loss, one non
conference loss, one non conference road loss, one non conference
road loss had a really good team is probably not
going to damage you that much. Would it knock you
out at number one spot?

Speaker 4 (01:36:19):
Yeah? Probably?

Speaker 3 (01:36:21):
In fact it would because even if Penn State were
to lose its season open, in which I doubt, then
Ohio State, by virtue of the Winniver Texas would step
to number one, and they might even move to number
one anyway if they beat the Long Orange, if Penn
State doesn't look, you know, uber impressive in its season opener.

Speaker 4 (01:36:41):
So there is all of that.

Speaker 3 (01:36:44):
But after that game, okay, there's three straight non conference
home games against G five opponents. So they play San
Jose State, they play UTEP, and they play Sam Houston.
Then they have an open date. Then they go back
on the road for a team that could be could
be a top five team by then Florida. They're currently

(01:37:05):
ranked fifteenth and they got winnable games first few weeks
of the season. After that is the Oklahoma game in Dallas.
Then they go to Kentucky, then they go to Mississippi State.
In other words, they do not play a home game
in the entire month of October. They come home. Three
of their final four games are home games, Vanderbid on

(01:37:26):
November eleventh, and Arkansas on the twenty second, and of
course Texas A and M on Black Friday Ay after Thanksgiving.
But the one road game is Georgia. So it's got
its own challenges and the home road dichotomy was not
lost on Sark when talking about the schedule.

Speaker 6 (01:37:45):
Yeah, very unique.

Speaker 5 (01:37:47):
I noticed that when it came out I might have
came out last season as a matter of fact, I
was like, wow, this is a little bit different.

Speaker 6 (01:37:54):
It just is what it is.

Speaker 5 (01:37:55):
You know, it's uniquely challenging. I mean, we have some
very tough road games. Obviously, the first game you go
to the Shoe, that's gonna be it gets a great opponent,
defending national champs.

Speaker 6 (01:38:08):
Tough game you go.

Speaker 5 (01:38:10):
You open in Gainesville at the Swamp, one of the
more difficult places of playing the country. And our sec
opener you play at Kentucky at night, which ask any
other head coach in our conference what that's like.

Speaker 6 (01:38:20):
That's difficult.

Speaker 5 (01:38:21):
We're gonna go to Mississippi State and we're gonna hear
the cow bells ringing in our ears all night long.
And then you know, we're at Georgia, who hasn't lost
a home game and I don't know maybe since the
last century. I don't know one last time that lost
lost at home. So we have a very difficult road schedule.
And then that the ending of our home schedule is
difficult with Vanderbilt, which we all know is had bit

(01:38:42):
enough people in the butt last year we're they're very
good football team, and then we get back to back
rivals with Arkansas on A and M and so, like
I said, I think the key for us is one
week at a time. And I hate using coaching adages
with you guys, Like I hate that because I hate
it when I listen to press conference and guys use it.
But for us this year, that's kind of the secret sauce.

(01:39:04):
It's like, what's right in front of us. Let's be
present in the moment and prepare for that opponent and
not get caught up looking down the road. Man, when's
our next home game? We can't worry about it. Man,
it's over a month, right, It's almost a month and
a half between home games. So let's just you know,
as you all know, Man, we go on the road,
you got to pack your you got to pack your
defense and pack your run game. And then whatever happens

(01:39:26):
after that, hopefully we.

Speaker 4 (01:39:27):
Got a shot there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:39:28):
And then one more from Sark because all roads lead
back to Arch Manning, right, I mean, everybody's wanting to
talk about him, right, And one thing we did see
in his limited work last year is that Arch obviously
it's pretty gifted when it comes to the legs, you
can put tuck the ball in and take off running.

(01:39:49):
So the question was asked of Sark about how Arch
has looked in running and how much did they want
him running and by design versus necessity and all that
sort of stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:40:00):
Yeah, he's really good.

Speaker 4 (01:40:01):
I mean Jake was.

Speaker 6 (01:40:03):
I mean he was a really good runner.

Speaker 5 (01:40:04):
I mean he that was probably his strength and that
was what they really used him as when before I
got to Washington, we kind of evolved him into the
passer that I think he became, but utilized his legs
and he had some big time runs for us that
were critical. Arch definitely provides something different that way for us,

(01:40:25):
and I think Matt and kJ do too, you know.
But I don't think any all three of those guys,
I think any of them are majoring and running the ball.
But I do think it adds a dimension to our
offense that you have. It requires you to defend, and
hopefully that opens some other aspects of our offense up
a little bit more.

Speaker 3 (01:40:45):
All Right, There it is comments from Sark, and we'll
hear more from him as the week progresses, and we'll
hear from players as well. All Right, we'll wrap up today.
He's edition of the program on thirteen hunder the Zone.