Previewing Longhorns' Opener at Ohio State, HSFB Just Two Days Away

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We welcome you to the program this afternoon here on
sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
My name is Craig Way.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Glad to have you with us as always, and we're
with you each and every weekday afternoon, Monday through Friday
from two pm to five pm. Now us today, we
kind of have the A team, the super team here
with us because Cameron D. Parker, who has been the
longtime producer of this say, long time we've been, you know,
a couple of couple of I think a day after

(00:27):
tomorrow will be two years to the day for me
back in the iHeart world. But you and I worked
at the anniversary. Yeah all right, and you and I
work together across town. So you are here. But just
as Ronald Savage Junior was yesterday, you're here just keeping
a watchful eye on young Jake Herman as he you know,

(00:47):
keeps keeps the dials operative.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Yes, Jake Herman no relation to Tom Herman, which, of course,
just want to make sure that that's clear. Yeah, yeah,
you know, Jake's doing a fantastic job this week. I'm
excited for him to be joining the iHeart family. But
you know, I'm kind of, you know, kind of like
the CEO type, you know, who bucks his head in,
walks behind the hallways, the hands behind his backs, you know,

(01:09):
just keeping an eye, just making sure everything's on the air,
because I believe we are four days away.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Four days away. And yeah, and you've transitioned nicely into
the role. I even heard somebody in the building refer
to you as a management clown the other day.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
No, I just kidd, I'm just kidding, already got there.
There you go. But Jay Carman is our producer.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
You survived day one in the chair yesterday under the
watchful eye of Ronald Savage Junior, and you have the
watchful eye today of Cameron Parker. But you seem to
have adjusted and continued to adjust a little bit, so
you weren't too emotionally distraught coming out of yesterday.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
No, you know, I went back, I watched the All
twenty two. I sat in the film room for a while,
and I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Ready to go. I'm ready to do this again. That's good.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
You know, it wouldn't take much to do in All
twenty two in this room. You know where we are.
This is what we call the fish bowl studio here.
When folks walk right into the iHeartRadio compound. Here they
see us immediately on the left. Okay, here here's what
we've got today on the program coming up in a
few minutes. Remember we did this last year. It was
a great deal of fun, and we're going to do
it again this year. Our colleague, our intrepid sideline reporter

(02:22):
and lifetime log worn Will Matthews sits down uh every
week with a series of long worn football players and
with Cameron there putting that you put you put what
Lavalier MIC's on them.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, we put some some clip mics on Will and
the players. You know, we found the best lighting with
help of Thomas Stepp We've got.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Because these interviews are also well on Longern Network. They
are on that or are they.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
It's it's separate exclusively posted on our Instagram in TikTok pages.
So if you don't follow us thirteen of the Zone
on Instagram and in TikTok, do that because Will sat
down and you know, obviously Will played a big part
of Texas football is running early two thousands. Unfortunately did
not play in the Shoe last time, but he just

(03:17):
missed it. One year he did help beat Michigan in
the rolls Bowl. But he has a rapport with these
guys that, you know, someone like me just can't develop
with these guys. I didn't play football. I don't look
like a football player. Will, on the other hand, I
think you could still play. I mean, he's shoot, he's yoked.
But he has a great chemistry with guys like like
Trey Wisner. You'll hear his interview with Trey Wisner and

(03:38):
actually we posted on Instagram and TikTok. They have a
great back and forth that you just, you know, you
can't fake that. And for some people you just can't
develop that relationship. But because Will play the position, and
Trey knows him. Obviously, he's been in the postgame interviews
on the Learfield Radio Network doing it for post game
for UT football.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
So there's some great stuff that comes out of it.
And uh, there is some McDonald's.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Talk when when that's good Uh, And we're gonna hear
that conversation tomorrow. Among his conversations today is with that
other running back C J.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Baxter. So we'll we'll hear him visiting him.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
But coming up in a few minutes, we'll hear him
visit with Malik Muhammad and so that's that's coming up
with a few minutes.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
There is a note about c J. Baxter too. Then
when we get to it, I do want to mention.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Oh good, okay, all right, So yeah, we're gonna you'll
hear uh from Malik Mohammad this hour, CJ.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Baxter next hour. Uh, And in the four o'clock hour.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
We'll hear no, no, no, it's Colin Simmons next hour, and
then CJ in the four o'clock hour.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
I think it's going to be the deal.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Also, also we have our weekly Tuesday offering in the
three o'clock hour. Greg Tepper, the editor in chief of
Dave Campbells Texas Football Magazine, joins us as we uh,
you know, finally wrap up our previews of high school
football in addition to college football, because preview time is

(05:02):
about run out now. In the case of some teams
like Iowa State and Case State have already played in
Dublin and Kansas and Fresno State and a couple of
those other games with Hawaii beat Stanford last weekend out
in the Islands. Those games those who are already in
the book. So the previews are done for those schools,
but for the SEC schools including Texas. Obviously, the previews

(05:25):
will end this week and other college football programs across
the state, so Tap and I will discuss that as
well as finishing up the high school football previews. We've
done all the eleven man previews from six A down
through two A. Today, one of your little six man
football talk, you're gonna hear it. Well, have a six
man football preview as well, Jake, have you ever witnessed

(05:46):
a six man football game?

Speaker 4 (05:48):
I've witnessed many a nine man football game. Number six
was that up in the Dakota's absolutely right?

Speaker 5 (05:54):
Nine man.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
They used to have eight man in Texas up through
seventy five, and they still have eight man in Oklahoma.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Nine man.

Speaker 6 (06:01):
It's high scoring, it's fast paced.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
And the places I called nine man football there were
no stands. It was a rope and people parked their
trucks and sat on the back to watch.

Speaker 5 (06:12):
You see.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Now, that's great, and that's how it is in some
of the six man locales around the state of Texas.
All right, So there are people who are well acquainted
with the nuances and differences in the six man game
as opposed to eleven man game.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
In Texas it's an eighty yard field.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
It's eighty by forty instead of you know, one hundred
by fifty five.

Speaker 5 (06:30):
It is you run for one and.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Kick for two and six man after touchdowns field goals
were four points. If you do that, and you fifteen
yards for a first down. So and you have to
have what's called And this is the I think the biggest.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Most important rule in six man football.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
If you've ever watched a six man football game, it's
called the clean exchange. When you get whoever takes the
center snap is not allowed to run across the line
of scrimmage. You have to give up the football to
do it. So the strategy quite often is they want
to get it in the hands of their best ball carrier.
So he didn't take the snap. He might line up

(07:09):
right beside the guy who takes the snap and flips
it to him or throws it to him. But it's
called the clean exchange. It has to be a definite
pitch or handoff. And that's the number one rule difference,
I think, other than the eighty yard field obviously, and
there's the forty five point mercy rule. If you're up

(07:31):
by forty five or more at the half, or at
any point in the second half ball game, it's over.
I called two state championship games for television last Deceummer.
One of them ended at halftime, the other one ended
off of the first play of the second half. So
and I think those are the two favorites or two
of the favorites anyway to win a state championship again
in six pence so Temper will be with us. In

(07:52):
the three o'clock hour four o'clock hour, we begin our
previews of each Texas game through the eyes of the
opponent and the opposing teams play by play voice longtime
fram Paul Keels, the play by play voice of the
Ohio State Buck Guy, say no, I'm affectionately up there
in central Ohio.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
It is Big Daddy. So I learned that.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
I learned that when I was on his show on
back twenty years ago, the epic Texas Ohios taking game.
I'm driving to the stadium to park and I'm hearing
their pregame like four hours out and they got him
on and say blah blah blah.

Speaker 5 (08:29):
Paul Keels joins us, big Daddy, let me ask about it.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
I was like, Big Daddy, Okay, So ever since then
I've kind of had some fun with it as well.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
But he's a great guy, a fabulous broadcaster, and he'll
join us to today was Ryan days press conference, and
he'll kind of recap what went down with coach Day
and talking about Julian Sayan being the new quarterback and
all of those things with regard to Ohio State. So
that'll be in the four o'clock hour as well, So

(08:57):
we look forward to that, all right, camp, I didn't
get a chance is to get your impressions because you
were so busy yesterday obviously following SAR Express Conference working
with Will Matthews on those player interviews. First Golf Tour
Championship as Tommy Fleetwood wins his first PGA Tour event.

(09:17):
I think everybody's pretty happy for him. That's that's nice
for late one hundred and sixty fourth start before he
finally won one.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
And I think we talked about it on Friday, was like,
we're gearing towards another weekend where Tommy was going to
be in contention. Would it be any different what he collapse?

Speaker 5 (09:34):
Again?

Speaker 3 (09:35):
And first off, give him credit because there's a lot
of times, especially in sports, where you're just yourself so's
tennis golf where you have a collapse like that, it's
so hard to get back. Even team sports like the
Atlanta Falcons right leading twenty eight to three, den Quinn's
fired the next year. It's so hard to come back
from a collapse like that. And here's Tommy Fleetwood, who

(09:58):
has the record for most of my a PGA Tour
starts without a win. He has the record for most
career earnings without a win, and he keeps coming back
and coming back, and surely you get the Sunday, Surely
he's gonna find a way to falter and you know,
Cantley comes out, he plays the first two goals, three over.
Scotty just didn't have his a game and Tommy got

(10:20):
over the hump and it's awesome. I think, you know,
me had Caitlin Clark and Lebron tweeting about it. If
Kenttley had won or Russell Henley, no offense to those guys.
I don't think anyone really would have cared if Scotty won.
It would have been Hey, here is the domination of
Scotty Scheffler. But you know, fleet with winning, I think
was really cool for the sport, for him. Obviously. It

(10:41):
goes back to your discussion last week. Is he the
golfer of the year. I think it goes to Scotty
Scheffler because Scotty scheffer won the most amount of events
and he was, you know, he dominated. Now they did
a staggered scoring. I think Tommy still would have won
if I remember it by last year staggered scoring, because
I think Scotty finished four behind and Tommy would have started.
I think it's seven under if I remember correctly. I

(11:04):
could be wrong, so you know it's Scotty had started
two shots ahead of everyone.

Speaker 5 (11:09):
Would he have one?

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Who knows? We can't say. Uh, the format needs to
be changed. But good for Tommy. Lad excited for him
and excited for this Ryder Cup here in about a month.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, I will repeat what I said yesterday and what
you and I talked about the other day on this
Congratulations to Tommy Fleetwood winning the Tour Championship in my evaluation,
in my view, and winning the FedEx Cup that accompany's him.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
It's it's a great achievement.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
It's what I like to think of as being basically
a second tier major. It's not Masters, PGA, US Open
and the Open. It's not that I think it's on
the second tier, like with the Players Championship and the
John Deere and the John Deere.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
Sure, the fifth Major is many many, So it's it's
on that second tier.

Speaker 5 (12:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
But and so he should be accorded the respect and
admiration for that. But he's not the champion Golfer of
the year, as you put it. And I think this way,
you know, Scotty, if there was an MVP award, He's
obviously would be a unanimous MVP. He won more events
than anybody else. He won five, two of which were

(12:25):
major championships. So, and he continues to be the number
one ranked player in the world on the points system
by a mile if you look at it.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
And statistically speaking, looking at data Golfer, a great website
that looks at strokes game Scotty Soffer season this year
top fifteen all time joining you know, Tiger Woods is
like six of those speets in there. His twenty fifteen
year VJ seing.

Speaker 5 (12:53):
Rory.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
So, Scotty had a historic year, not just this season,
but in terms of all a professional golf and how
great he was playing. And he wasn't truly rewarded now
of course, like say, hey, you play match play formatt
and you know, maybe he still does lose the Tommy
Fleetwood this week or he gets eliminated. So there is
no perfect way. I don't think the Tour Championship is

(13:15):
a good indicator who truly is the best golfer of
the season, because again, I think it goes back to
Scotty Chef. I mean, it's a long year for these guys, right,
I mean they've been playing since since, you know, February March.
You know, I think most of these guys, if you
ask him, they care about how they performed in the
major championships. And for Scotty and probably even Tommy, they

(13:35):
probably care more about that tournament at beth Page in
three or four weeks than they do about winning the
Tour Championship. Now, when that ten million dollar check clears,
maybe Tommy will go, oh yeah, I love the Tour Championship.
It's my favorite event of the year. But I think
we're both on the same page here, and I don't know,
you know, I think matchplay would be a fantastic idea,
but again, I don't think it's still going to make

(13:56):
it a perfect golf tournament.

Speaker 5 (13:57):
And it probably never will.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
It'll probably all be kind of below the Players Championship
in terms of the level of respect it deserves. And
maybe maybe that's just okay Craig.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, yeah, you know, I think properly placed is the
main thing there. And change the location. Get it out
of East Lake, get out.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Of Atlanta, because when they first brought the event to
Atlanta for torch Championship, it was played in November, and
I think Atlanta November is fine. In August, we both know.
In the Southeast, I mean, those guys look miserable. So
there's been talk of like, hey, go to the west coast,
maybe play pebble a second time. The Northeast is probably
pretty lovely at this time of the year. Change it

(14:40):
around to where play East Lake maybe in the spring
or played in February, and flop it around, flip flop
it around with a different event to where, like, you know,
if you play in Pebble Beach, Craig, Hey, that's primetime golf,
you know. Now all of a sudden you're tor Champions
and plus everyone knows pebble, right, everyone loves pebble.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
You watched East Lake.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah, it's a lot of you know, it's a long
beir way, and there's that one hole with the tough
par three and that weird drivable power for besides that,
like holes two through eight, I black out on like
I don't remember what hole this is. Whereas Pebble, I
think everyone kind of and of course you watch it
every year, but you also watched Eastlake every year. I
feel like everyone knows Pebble. But we'll see the new
CEO coming in, Brian roll App. I'm super pumped for him.

(15:23):
He's already promised a lot of change and I think
he's going to be about and talk about it. So
I think there's one more year left in Atlanta and
then twenty twenty seven rolls around. Who knows where the
Tour Championship will be like, but where it will be
played at or what the format will be, but I
can promise you it'll be a lot different.

Speaker 5 (15:41):
I give you a couple other suggestions. The Broad morn
in Colorado.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, the Greenbriar White Tiltur Springs, West Virginia that used
to be a tour stop.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yep. I mean, so's there's some thoughts in there and
it could do it, or you could really teeth it up,
go to like oak Kill in Rochester or Pine Valley
in Jersey, or you know one of those or Wingfoot.
You know, you can go to one of those really
really really difficult golf courses that's in the rotation, like
Aeronomy Kiss for the PGA next year.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Do you think you should change it up every year
or just solid a byot with one single tournament.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (16:16):
You know, like I said, I don't think you can
quote unquote crown a champion of the circuit when your
major championships have already been played during the year.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
The only way I thought that you could do it
would have been ranked on points thing. But if you've
done it that way, Scotty could a no show and
still want it going away on the deal. So I
get that. I understand that they're continuing to tinker with
it to see if they can find a workable solution,
and I agree with you. Change the golf course for
one that might help out. They could even you know,

(16:48):
cancel out for one year the wind and play it at Sedgefield.
You know, go to seds Field'll be okay, although it's
it's warm in August.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
They're in Carolina as well.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
All right, coming up, well we'll hear the conversation that
Will Matthews has with Malik Muhammad.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
That's up next one.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
We continue on thirteen under the zone you want to
you can text text the program by texting the word
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(17:28):
rates may apply. For example, our friend Chuck in Houston said,
it's a Tuesday, one step close to the log orange game.
Hook on log horns, let's go yep, four days to kick.
So then somebody else cheering for those litel pirates as well,
so hopefully it goes well. This is a season opening
week for high school football as well, and there's some

(17:49):
big matchups involving area schools and across the state of
Texas too, so it goes full tilt in the low
Star States. One of those guys who was an outstanding
high school football player is Malik Mohammad at South o'cliff
part of a state championship team there and we got
to calling him as a nickname Manny. And this actually

(18:12):
started in high school when I did the state championship game.
They were talking about Manny Muhammad. Malik Muhammad is his
real name is Malik, but a nickname Manny. But you'll
hear as Will Matthews talks to Malik which he prefers,
and also about the coming season. Here is Will Matthews,

(18:32):
our sideline reporter on the Long Run Radio Network from Learfield.
His sit down conversation with the junior corner Malik Muhammad.

Speaker 7 (18:39):
Now we're walking up into the season, I mean just
a couple of days away.

Speaker 8 (18:44):
Talk to me about the offseason. How have you been
chomping at the bit to get back on the field.

Speaker 9 (18:50):
So we didn't get to our ultimate goal last year,
so there's always a lot to kobo, always more than do,
Always always got to push harder.

Speaker 8 (19:03):
And uh, that's that. That was the biggest thing for
us in the off season.

Speaker 9 (19:07):
Uh, just taking our next step, giving a little more,
doing more around the facility, outside, being outside of the facility,
being consistent on and off the field.

Speaker 8 (19:18):
That that was our.

Speaker 7 (19:19):
Main focus this offseason, but you were walking into your
junior year and kind of definitely been a leader since
the time that you've been here.

Speaker 8 (19:28):
But this is a whole new role, like the defense
belongs to you.

Speaker 7 (19:32):
How has it been moving into that role and kind
of seeing the other guys come around you.

Speaker 8 (19:37):
Since dan Win Sirk had always told me that that.

Speaker 9 (19:41):
When I first got in here and when he first
seen me step on the field, Uh, as far as
workouts and uh just playing seven or seven with the
team that he we had a meeting after my first
my first spring, and he said I could be, uh
the face along the guys to lead the defense. So
I mean I always had that in my mind, but

(20:03):
I had to follow the guys that were here before
to step in that row.

Speaker 8 (20:07):
I have to see what they were doing to step
in that role.

Speaker 7 (20:10):
As you continue to step into that role, reports from
cam say that you've been intercepting taking the ball from
the offense and adding that to your game.

Speaker 8 (20:19):
What do you feel like that's going to mean this
year for you?

Speaker 9 (20:22):
Uh, It's doing to mean a lot, especially with starting
My coach is telling me that I have to work
with my tackling and getting my hands on the ballmore
this off season to make my game complete. And so
with that being said, I focused on that with all
the other attributes to it, but those were kind of

(20:43):
my main focus is going going into spring and pocket.

Speaker 8 (20:47):
And so as we start game one, what getting you excited?
What are you excited about?

Speaker 7 (20:52):
Who's been getting you excited on the team, and how
excited you for this first game?

Speaker 8 (21:00):
Has been like a chill, mellow type person. Uh, I'm
overly excited to.

Speaker 9 (21:07):
Shut all the doubters up and prove to myself that that.

Speaker 8 (21:10):
I'm that I'm the one, and I want to do
it in a high class fashion.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
See what does that look like?

Speaker 8 (21:17):
High class fashion?

Speaker 10 (21:19):
I'll say, winning ninety ninety five of my reps in
the game. I know I might have a I know
I might lose a few reps, which that's just that's
just football, that's just the nature of playing position and
I play.

Speaker 8 (21:32):
But just win a ninety reps and dominating four quarters.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, that's a real educated take from a pretty cool
young man who, by the way, he said, at least
in first reference, he prefers elik over Manny. So when
you hear me talk about the starting lineup, I'm gonna say,
Malik Muhammad, and then maybe if he makes a big
play Malik Mohamma knocked the ball away, blah blah blah.

(21:58):
A great run up on that by Manny, you know,
as a second reference, and that's what to do with
some of the other guys. But he prefers in the
first reference that you refer to him by his given name,
Malik Malik Muhammad. So there's the conversation there with Will Matthews.
Read more from Will coming up next hour, he'll visit
with Colin Simmons and in the four o'clock hour a

(22:22):
conversation with C. J.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Baxter. Will look forward to that as well.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
You know what we're looking forward to next It will
be that time again here on a Tuesday afternoon. We'll
be ready to throw down another edition of Inconceivable. That's
next when we continue here on sports Radio AM thirteen
hundred zone in the iHeartRadio app on Sports Radio AM
thirteen hundred zone.

Speaker 5 (22:46):
Craig Way with you.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Glad to have you alongside the man on the board today.
The producer is Jay Herman. Coming up in a few minutes,
we'll talk football in the state of Texas of the
collegiate and High School Variety with Greg Tepper, the editor
in chief of Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine, as we
do every Tuesday, later this hour, and we'll have Will

(23:07):
Matthews conversation with Colin Simmons. The Longhorns had Rusher preseason
All American. That is coming up as well.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Okay, so I've been doing a lot of these up
and this is nothing new. When you when you.

Speaker 1 (23:20):
Do the play by play for a college football program,
especially the ones that are you know, of the of
the higher profile and in the Power five leagues, you
know you're you get asked to pop on other shows,
just like we're going to have UH in the four
o'clock hour Paul Keels, the play by play voice of
the Ohio State Buckeye Joiners.

Speaker 11 (23:42):
UH.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
But on all the ones that I've done, be it
UH in the markets of the opposing team.

Speaker 5 (23:50):
UH.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
And then like later this afternoon, for example, Beyond with
our sister station down in Houston, Sports Talks have a
ninety on with the eight team guys, Adam Wexland, Adam Clinton.
And when you're on the shows, you know you're you're asked,
you know a lot of questions about the football team
in this case obviously a lot of questions.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
About arch banning as well.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
And then invariably you get the question of, Okay, somebody said,
predict the record for us and how you think they'll go.
And I've never been comfortable with that because I'm usually
not very good at it. I'll say things, I throw
qualifiers in it. I say, if they stay healthy and
if certain guys play up to what the coaching staff

(24:36):
believes they can do, then yes, then then they're going
to be a contender for a conference championship, so and
so forth. I'm a little more difficult to nail down
on things like, you know, exact record and where they'll do.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
But those who have to do.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
That type of prognosticating for a particular website or whatever,
uh tomorrow going into a season, Uh, they rattle those
things off because they pretty much have to rattle those
things off. So so anyway, there's there's some I'd say

(25:18):
I got sidetracked and I was laughing about something some text.
I said, well, guys, you can't pick your nose on
the air. Huh, is I know I was scratching my nose,
or if you were talking.

Speaker 6 (25:28):
About scratch not a pick not Peck, not Peck.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Just somebody that's say, see pale found us online on
the screen as well.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
If I was I bothered, I didn't think that I was.
I scratched.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Sometimes this is also an allergies kind of get on
me a little bit, but that made me laugh. My
point that I was getting to is that the guys
who are in the business of doing those things, they
put a lot of study into it and uh.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
And and a lot of analysis into it. So as
a result.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Of that they come up with their projections. Stewart Mandel,
who we've talked about covers a lot of college football
for the Athletic along with Scott Doctorman, came up with
their preseason bowl projections.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
And I'm always amused by these this.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
Early to see guys projected to being picked for some
of the second and third and yes four tier bowl games,
because that takes a little bit of.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
Research and brain power. But here's what they have listed.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
They point out that they have a couple of surprise
teams that are qualified for the playoff, like Iowa and
Texas A and M they think will both make the
College Football Playoff. Their twelve team field includes five SEC teams,
three from the Big Ten, Notre Dame, and one each
from the Big twelve ACC and the American Based on

(27:00):
Stuart Mandel's conference previews, the final spot would come down
to seven Power four teams with three losses, including ACC
runner up Miami ten and three and Big twelve runner
up Kansas State. Now that you know that comes off
of and that's inclusive of Case State's loss last Saturday

(27:22):
in Dublin, Tyowa State, they've got him at ten and three,
so they've already got one of the three down there. Said,
we predicted Georgia nine and three, which both one of
the nation's more difficult conference schedules, would earn that spot.
And then they add one notable change to this year's
CFP format. The top four teams in the rankings will
earn the top four seeds in first round byes. It's

(27:42):
important to remember that regardless of whether the conference champions
they're going to go with the rankings of that that
was the big change they made. Those teams will slide
into the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Eve, the Orange
Bowl in January first, the Rose Bowl in January, first,
Sugar Bowl on New Year's Eve, and bowls on December
thirty first in January, first team seeded five through eight

(28:02):
will host seeds nine through twelve December nineteenth and the twentieth.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
So here's what they got. First of all, the College
Football Playoff.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Those games on the nineteenth and twentieth, the seventh seed
Ohio State against the ten seed Arizona State. Arizona State
excuse me, sixth seed Texas A and M against the
eleventh seed Georgia, an all SEC matchup, LSU a five
seed against Tulane, an all Bayou State matchup to Lane
the twelfth seed they predict them to win the American

(28:32):
and Clemson the eighth seed against Iowa the ninth seed.
Then in the Cotton Bowl, Alabama a three seed against
the Texas A and M Georgia winner, Notre Dame four
seed against the LSU TWU Lane winner, Penn State the
top seed against the Clemson Iowa winner, and Texas the
two seed against the Ohio State Arizona State winner. Then

(28:54):
the Fiesta Bowl the Peach Bowl in the championship. So
that's what they have projected for the playoff. Now for
the remaining bowls, the La Bowl, I got Ucla and
Boise State the Salute to Veterans Bowl, Georgia Southern and
Northern Illinois Sun Belt Champion James Madison picked for the
Cure Bowl to play Toledo from the MAC the sixty

(29:17):
eight Ventures Bowl that's one in Mobile. They're picking Home
Standing South Alabama to play in that against Central Michigan.
The Myrtle Beach Bowl as an old dominion against Yukon,
Gasparilla Bowl, South Carolina against USF the famous Idaho Potato
Bowls San Jose State against Miami Boca, Ratone Bowl, Liberty
against Appalachian State, New Orleans Bowl, Louisiana against Louisiana Tech,

(29:38):
Frisco Bowl, Texas State against Houston, Hawaiti Bowl, Hawaii against UTSA,
The Game Above Sports Bowl, Rutgers against Buffalo, The Rate
Bowl Minnesota, Iowa State First Responder Bowl in Dallas, Oregon
State against TCU Military Bowl, Army against Georgia Tech, Pinstripe

(30:00):
Bowl at Yankee Stadium, Michigan State, and Pitts Fenway Bowl
at Fenway Park. They picked North Carolina and go back
there again in the play Navy Arizona Bowl, UNLV in Ohio,
Pop Tarts Bowl BYU and Duke New Mexico Bowl, Colorado State,
Colorado Gator Bowl, Miami against Oklahoma, Texas Bowl, Texas, Tach
against Alburn, Birmingham Bowl, Syracuse against Memphis Independence Bowl, Baylor

(30:25):
against Western Kentucky Music City Bowl, Illinois against Ole miss
Alamo Bowl, Kansas State against Oregon, Relia, Quest Bowl, Indiana
against Florida Sun Bowlands, he Stayed against USC Citrus Bowl,
Nebraska against Missouri, Las Vegas Bowl, Utah against Michigan State,
Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth Air Force against North Texas,
Liberty Bowl in Kansas against Vanderbilt, Dukes Mayo Bowl, and Charlotte,

(30:48):
Tennessee against Louisville Holiday Bowl, Lessmu against Washington and the
Bahamas Bowl, Bowling Green against Middle Tennessee. So that's what
they have for their bowl projections. So you can mark
that down and hold them to it if you want. Opnext,
we'll talk football of the immediacy, with the season's beginning
for teams in the state of Texas this week and

(31:10):
the start of the high school football season. Greg Tepper,
editor in chief of Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine, joins us. Next,
I'm thirteen Under the Zone. The Road to Football championships
both at the collegiate and the high school levels. Truly
Internest begins this week welcoming back to the program, and
of course, if we're doing that, that means it's time

(31:30):
for a weekly conversation with the editor in chief of
Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine. That's Greg Tepper, who has
his own road destinations this week, do you not? I do?

Speaker 11 (31:41):
I'm on Thursday, after doing our little dog and pony
show around here at Dave Campbell's Texas Football, We're going
to load up to Dave campbellmobile and drive west on
I twenty until we hit Abilene Beautiful Shotwell Stadium for
Wolford's Friendships taking on Byron Nelson will Across regional matchup

(32:02):
to open the season. Because we're here, we made it
like we have finally arrived at the fireworks Factory. There
are more than eight thousand Technas High school football games
on the docket over the next seventeen weeks and then
I'll be I'll be in attendance of one of them
on Thursday night, and it's it's going to be very exciting.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
More important question here is the White Elephant truck stop
at Cisco still open, because if it is that you
go to, I'm.

Speaker 11 (32:30):
Going to report back. I'm presently being bullied by other
members of the staff to stop at Mary's Cafe and
strong on the way. So we're there, we will. There
may be a couple of stops. It may take us
longer than would be a direct route to get to Abilene.
For you know, for cultural purposes, I would say.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, For yeah, I sort of say Mary's
Cafe isn't exactly on the way, but I can certainly
understand the detour over there.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
I can certainly understand that.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
For folks, you've never seen the larger chicken fried steak
in human existence. You need only go over to Palipindo
County and you'll see it in all its glory there.
You've been there before, right, I.

Speaker 11 (33:12):
Have actually never been. I've heard tell Basically, it's one
of those things that I think on my Texas bona
Fide list is missing a check mark. I intend to
put that check mark there on Thursday.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Well, you need to do that, and I will tell
you this again. The argument can be made, and I
understand it, and you've heard it before that while it
may not be the best chicken fried steak in existence.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
It's certainly the largest. If you get the big one.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
The big one's about sides of a truck tire. I
wouldn't exactly recommend you go there, even though you have
a healthy appetite like me. The small one would probably
do you. The medium would definitely be more than enough
for you.

Speaker 11 (33:51):
I also the other thing about it, and like, if
we are to go to a football game after that,
I don't want to be, as I would say, have
the itis. I would like to be a little bit,
a little bit mobile, a little bit able to enjoy
myself as opposed to being splayed out in the middle
of the floor of a Shotwell stadium press box. Enjoyed

(34:11):
my opening. I have second high school football wishing I
hadn't eaten so much chicken fried State.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Okay, well, then the small ones you get your your
go to, then that's the one that's one. And by
the way, if and I don't know if the White
Elephant is still open, but that was used the in
off of I twenty there at Cisco.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
That was the stop off.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
And you go in there and you have what's called
the Trucker Special, which is like hinjeladas and they got
like crushed Freedo's over the top of them.

Speaker 5 (34:34):
Or something like that. So yeah, that's high way. That's
a highway for you.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
So all of this to say that the highway to
college and and and high school state championships. I'll get
back to high school in a moment. I'm gonna do
what I normally do with you, and that is I
removed Texas from the equation. Okay, uh, And in this case,
I'm removing it for probably a very good reas. And

(35:01):
the reason is this, I want you to pick out
the collegiate game involving a Texas school that most intrigues
you this weekend. So that's why obviously I'm removing Texas
Ohio State from the equation.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
So I'll be up in Columbus. But because the.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
Duty calls, But for the purposes of this conversation, what
outside of that game has your attention?

Speaker 11 (35:25):
That's a fair that's a fair response because otherwise, obviously
Texas and Ohio State, that's going to be that's probably
the game of the week in the nation, let alone
within the state of Texas. But there is plenty of
other really intriguing football going on across the state this
week that I'm very I'm going to I'm going to
be keeping a close eye on a number of them.
One of them is going on in College station on

(35:46):
Saturday night when Texas A and M welcomes in a
UTSA team that you know, darnwell would love to take
a scout home to San Antonio and I would love
to get what would be undisputedly the biggest in program history.
And by the way, I think they got the capability
to do it. You know, look, they're going to be
a huge underdogs obviously. I mean, this is an AAC

(36:08):
team against an SEC team playing simple on the road.
But we know that Jeff Trailer is going to be
out there coaching his rear end often He's going to
lay it all out there because he understands what a
win like this could mean for his program. And furthermore,
you know, we do have questions about this you team,
about this the sex't A and M team. I want
to see exactly how the Marcel Read situation kind of

(36:29):
bears itself out. I want to see, especially the linebacker situation,
what that looks like there with Texas A and M
and can UTSA take advantage of it. That's one thing
that I'm certainly keeping my eye on. I am also
going to be keeping an eye on what is going
to be happening. I think on Thursday with Houston welcoming
in SFA, and obviously, look again Houston's a big favorite

(36:53):
at home, but year two under Willie Fritz, I would
like to see this team look like the kind of
team that is does making that step, that is ready
to take that next step in their development, and against
the steam at Austin team at the SCS level that
is not a pushover, that is a contender. I think
within their conference. I am interested to see what's going

(37:14):
on there. Those are the two that I'm especially interested in.
And then obviously I think the Friday night one with
Baylor welcoming in Auburn obviously a big big twelve, you know,
a Big twelve versus the SEC matchup, an SEC team
going on the road, an SEC team that I think
is is there for the taking. And look, you know,
if you're a big twelve school and like you know,
like Baylor, you don't apologize for getting a SEC win.

(37:37):
You just go out there and you take it and
you you you hang the banner. And so I think
for Baylor. That is a really intriguing opportunity to really
make a name for themselves and say, hey, we are
in fact back to where we you know, back near
the top of the Big twelve. Just look, we got
a big Week one win against an SEC squad in Auburn.
Those are the three that really catch my eye.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
I agree with all of those choices. Two questions.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
One, is your co host Ashley Pickle fired up about
the North Texas opener against the Lamar Cardinals on Saturday.

Speaker 11 (38:08):
Yeah, she hasn't shut up about it. She's very excited
about about what they've got cooking there at North Texas.
So yeah, I think they think should be comfortable favorites there.
I want to see exactly what that offense looks like,
which is overgone an overhaul in the off season.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
And I would imagine you're probably not that intrigued by
SMU welcoming in East Texas A and M, the former
Texas A and M commerce the transitional FCS program.

Speaker 11 (38:36):
Yeah, I mean, you know, sm U, go out there,
take care of business. I'm really interested just to see
the look on East Texas A and M, just because
you're right, they have been commerce for quite some time,
it will be a new look and I'm interested to
see what that looks like. But yeah, SMU should be
pretty comfortable favorites to move to one and on here.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Greg Jeffer, editor in chief Tape Campbell's Texas Football magazine joints,
All right, let's jump by high school. You're pre season
polls out the top twenty five in six A. As
we always point out, it's a top twenty five. It's
a top ten in the in the classifications that have
divisions and they don't split into the division still the
playoffs at the six A level. But you know, I

(39:17):
look at it. I look at the computer rankings from
a friend, Jerry Farest. There's lots of similarities there. How
about your thoughts on this preseason top ten, And that's
South Lake Carol at one, North Crowley two, and of
course they're bound to go different brackets, different directions, and
it's Duncanville, Westlake, North Shore, vandergriff Alan, Katie Lake, Travis
in Minnesota for the top ten.

Speaker 11 (39:38):
Yeah, it is a really intriguing kind of top ten,
specifically because you've got this group of teams the top
that I think would you would clarif Cross by at
blue bloods, right, it's a lot of blue bloods. Obviously
North Crowley maybe and vandergriff would be the newest blue
blood quote unquote of these groups. But they are, of
course the reigning state Champson deserve our respect and I'm

(40:00):
excited to see what they put out there, especially in
in Week one. Boss them a very interesting Week one openers.
There's a couple of teams that I want to draw
your attention to, kind of lower in the top ten,
that I'm very intrigued by. One of them is a
long time program that you know for you know, people
not much. You know, don't have to be a high
school football fan for long to remember when Allen was

(40:22):
ruling the roost in six A. I think Allen's back
in a big way, and I think what Lee Wigginson
is building there is maybe a vintage Allen team that
is going to be a legitimate contender. I think in
six A Division one, they are that good. They are deep,
they are talented, They're going to be exceptional defensively. I'm
interested in that. And the other one is, again you

(40:42):
don't have to think far, go back far when Katie
was the Kings of the Houston area and obviously won
the twenty twenty state championship. People may forget that because
I think we've all kind of tried to push that
out of our mind. But you think about what Katie
I think has has it's been a minute since aside
from twenty twenty, they've kind of ruled the Houston roosts.

(41:03):
North Shore has taken that kind of that that mantle
as the program of record in the Houston area. Well,
I think Katie's back in a big way, and I
think this might be Gary Joseph's best team in a
decade or so. I'm really excited about. They're very good
in a lot of the Katie ways. Isaamh McMillan leads
the way on the defensive side. Jeremiah Smith is just

(41:23):
an old school linebacker that is going to be a
lot of fun to watch. And they're going to run
the sink and ball but it's simple and so that's
that's what really catches my eye in the sixth A
Top ten is that, Yes, of course Southlake Carol, We've
talked about them for quite a while. They'd fall in
that category of maybe a blue blood of yesteryear that's
having a revival. A lot of the usual suspects there,

(41:43):
but especially Alan and Katie. They may be kind of
on the upswing, and the trajectory may be such that
this may be a year where they are capital b back.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Okay, all right, now before we jump to our six
man previews. To close out of previews, we'll do what
we always do. We always call it the cruel list me.
This thing we do each week is I give you
the choice of three games, and you tell me which
one really intrigues you, the one that's your most uh
if you could transport to one and had to be
at one, which would it be? All Right, I'm gonna

(42:12):
give you the choice of these. Uh in six A
Westlake prosper in UH five A Division one, simply because
of the number one team Alito against Denton Geyer. I
think that's the our telecast on victory plus. I won't
be there obviously. I think Josh Bograd will be on
the call for that, but it'll be that, all right.

Speaker 5 (42:32):
So there's that.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
Five A Division two South O'cliff against from six A
north Shore. And then just just as a bonus for
a Division two Carthage Killgore.

Speaker 11 (42:43):
You're yeah, yeah, well that's brutal. We are very back,
my friends. Okay, the answer is probably Carthage and Killgore,
just because these are the team that played for state
championship last year in Kilgore and a team that won

(43:04):
the state championship last year in Carthage, and and the
star power here is absurd for a four four a game,
but all four of them are really really interesting. Obviously,
the north Shore South Oakliff game has big name brand potential.
I'm interested to seeing what a new look north Shore
team looks like going on the road. Remember, this is
a team that dud leave Harris County very often, and

(43:25):
I'm interested except for basically to come to Arlington. I'm
interested to see what they look like. And then you
mentioned Aledo getting Geyer. What does the guy or offense
look like? They're basically a mystery and is this an
Alito year where they are back to their their normal
self they start the year number one. This would certainly
kind of cement themselves as the team to beat in
five day Division one. But then you mentioned a local
game and the local in you know air quotes because

(43:48):
being played in Belton and mary Hart and Baylor. But
Prosper and Westlake. This is a real take your eye
off the ball type game because I think Prosper might
have the best offensive line in Texas with Zayden Crimpen
lead the way. They've got three fbs that commits on
the offensive line, which is insane going up against Maddicks
Splint and a defense there led by coach by coach

(44:09):
Tony Salizard that we know it's going to be good,
So they're all great. I will go with Carfage and
Kilgore as the game that you got to be at.
But but it is a it's a whopper Week one
of texashigh school.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
Football, absolutely no question match. Okay, let's let's move to
our six man previews, because we previewed every classification, so
now we're down to one A six man Division one,
one A six man Division two, the two divisions of
six MANU is it too simplistic to say it's a
run it back for both Gordon and Jaydon in six

(44:40):
AD one In six A D two.

Speaker 11 (44:42):
It is going to be very hard, I think to
pick against either of these teams to go to win
another state championship. Obviously be three in a row for Gordon,
and then it will be a back to back for Jading.
I do think that Gordon is a borderline prohibitive favorite
in one A Division one. I mean they have three

(45:05):
potential FBS guys there with Ry Reid who is committed
to Army, Striker Reid who's committed to Air Force, and
now bring Walter as their wide receiver. Who you talk
with coach Mike Reed, he'll tell you that they might
be the best. He might be the best of the bunch.
Now they have a really interesting first week test against
the Richland Springs team that could be on that short
list in one A Division two. Two up in Jaydon

(45:25):
is a good Jaydon team with Sean Standalon their quarterback back,
the coach's kid leading the way. But I do think
that there are two legitimate threats to the throne. I
think for Jaydon one of them is lemita Klondike coached
by Dalton de Graff and Reed, and he's only like
twenty eight and driving me nuts. I covered him in
high school. But he has got a team this year.

(45:48):
They have a They had a really tough non district
sim I think they started to heear like one in
four or zero to four. They grid through a brutal
non district schedule and then got white hot towards the end,
took their lumps on interested in claude Ie. They're Richland Springs.
Richland Springs absolutely fascinating this year for a couple of reasons.
One of them, they're very very good guys like Billy

(46:09):
Billy Cohen Lee in the way or Billy Perry and
Cohen Athriersly in the way. But also who's coaching them,
because you may remember a few years ago Jerry Burkhardt
was suspended for three years. That was three years ago.
But we do not know. It is an open question
as to who is going to be coaching Richland Springs
this year. You know, we understand that Sean Rodgers is

(46:30):
the guy who's been there coach in the last few years.
That's what we think it's gonna be. But there is
there the chance that you've got, you know, one of
the thost decorated coaches in the six man football history
just wandering up to the sideline and coaching the Coyotes
this year. So fascinating there, and I think one A
Division two probably the road to Arlington is more treacherous
for Jaydon than it is for Gordon, who looks like

(46:51):
the clear team the people won a Division one.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
You know what, maybe maybe I did six man at
the service. Maybe in those games that I made you
choose one, maybe I should have included Gordon versus Richland Springs.

Speaker 11 (47:01):
This week, Hey, I'll throw another one at you. Is
I believe Do I have this correct? I believe Abbot
is opening the season against Ogle Speed again, which is
a terrific top five matchup in six man as well
fascinating week. The thing about six man is that all
these teams, they're all these coaches, there's just not enough

(47:23):
teams for you to run away from from our moody,
So like you're going to end up with some absolutely
whopper first round or for you know, non district matchups,
and and week one is chocked full of them.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
Final thing I want to get to here, I've been
meaning to ask you this for for about two or
three weeks.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
Now.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Keep forgetting to do it, but I'm going to do
it because you're your Your staff did a very good
job of presenting multiple opinions, perspectives, and and and comments
on this whole issue of whether the state championship should
remain at at and T Stadium. There are those who

(48:04):
have San Antonio's interest at heart and talk about that
in the Alamo Dome. Uh, there are those who talk
about the NRG and in Houston and uh, you know
those kinds of things. So I'm curious to get your
thought as the dust starts to settle again, because to me,
it seemed like a fat of complete that we would
ultimately see or hear that the ui L has has

(48:27):
reupted with Jerry World again and that it's going to
continue there.

Speaker 5 (48:30):
But until it's official, it didn't official. So how about
your thoughts on all of that.

Speaker 11 (48:34):
Yeah, so I think you're hearing the same rumblings that
I am, that that there is a deal that is
imminent therefore an extension to the existing deal for the
state champions to remain at AT and T Stadium in Arlington.
I will tell you, and I know you know this,
that the oil lights playing at at and T Stadium
playing simple and they don't they don't rotate. You'll notice

(48:56):
that other UIL state championships don't rotate. Like the soccer
the championship are always in Georgetown, you know. The baseball
state championships always in Round Rock. They don't rotate them. Obviously,
football is a different beast than a lot of those
other UIL sports. And I think that one of the
things that I have learned throughout the course of this

(49:16):
debate is I understand where people are coming from. They're saying, Hey,
why should a team from Why should when Galena Park
Northshore plays Duncanville every single year? You know, theoretically, why
does Galena Park North Shore always have to go on
the road and drive up the road while Duncanville gets
to sleep in their bed? And I understand what they're saying.
There's a couple of things. I think it's just not
quite as simple as that specifically, and this is the

(49:39):
this gets into real nerdy stuff here, but the locker
room situation at these stadiums are not equal. The locker
room situation specifically at AT and T Stadium was it's
essentially a stadium built to host the event because they've
got multiple full sized locker rooms that you can bring
in the team that's playing them a three o'clock game

(50:00):
while the eleven o'clock game is going on, and you
don't have to move the teams that are currently playing
out of their locker room. That's one thing that I
think is going on there. I think there need to
be some renovations to the Alamodome for that to happen
as well. I know that that was a real sticking
point when it was that energy in twenty fifteen. I
understand and and and we did a survey of coaches

(50:21):
on Texas Football dot Com, and to be clear, a
plurality of coaches, about forty five percent of coaches wanted
to remain permanently of AT and T Stadium, But there
is a decent minority about a twenty to twenty five
percent of coaches we surveyed that said they would like
to see a rotation between between the three dome stadiums.
And and so I think the UIL will continue to

(50:42):
listen to that. But for now, it does feel like
they're comfortable they're at AT and T Stadium, and until
I think there are some renovation to those other stadiums
that make the operational part of it a little bit
more equal, I think they're gonna they're they're happy there
in ourland.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
I would say this if there was either on the
north side of the I thirty five corridor of the
Greater Austin area, or the east side off the two ninety,
or the south side, if there was a thirty thousand
seat domed stadium there, the state championship would be in
Austin every year and we would never hear anything more
about it, simply because they'd like to have them in
the headquarter city, as you laid out, whenever possible.

Speaker 11 (51:21):
Yeah, they liked being in Austin, they liked they understand
the central location of it. But it's also worth mentioning that,
like to your point, if we did to study a
couple of years ago that if you take all the
UIL member schools and you put together the average distance
to the three dome stadiums AT and T s Teadum
is the most central, is the most central on average,

(51:44):
and is the most central to the most number of teams.
And so that I think, I think, like we think
of a lot about Houston driving to DFW and San
Antonio driving DFW, and I get that, but there's a
whole West Texas guy at West Texas AT and T
Stadium is the closest for those teams. I think we
kind of take for granted how far south San Antonio

(52:04):
is and how far east Houston is DFW is a
little bit more central. I think of the three stadium
it is the most central to the most number of teams.
I think that's appealing to the UIL as well.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
And we'll put it in simplest terms too, the fans,
fans of the Panhandle schools stay away from Houston and
San Antonio and Droves if their school is not in it,
as evidence by more than one hundred thousand fans if
you were in attendance at the twenty fifteen games at
NRG as opposed to the ones at AT and T Stadium.

Speaker 11 (52:38):
Yeah, the numbers, and I know that there is some concerns,
certainly because the numbers the past couple of years have
been slipping. I think that, you look, I don't want
to get into a whole thing, but part of that
is certainly the teams that were playing this past year.
For example, Vandergreth a terrific story, but a young program,
and they just don't have a ton of alumni. Right

(53:00):
of Richmond Randall, a thirty year varsity program, they have
essentially no alumni base. And so I think that's part
of it. I don't necessarily think all it's only one thing.
I know you are else paying attention to it. But
I also think that at and C Stadium feels like
the place that they're the most comfortable and right now,
from an operational perspective and a centralized location, it is

(53:20):
I think the best option.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
Yeah, he's Greg Teper, editor in chief Dave Campbell's Texas
Football magazine, Happy Season, My friend. Will look forward to
reviewing week one and talking about your new rankings and
all that kind of stuff. In other words, will be
in regular season mode next week.

Speaker 11 (53:35):
Oh, I'm so excited, and I am excited for you
to be on our show on Thursday and ask you
a mean question.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Listen, one more thing before I let you go.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
I want to give you a chance to promote now,
because I've made mention of this, and I know you
have on social media, and I know it's going to
be a shock to the system for a lot of
Texas high school football fans that the show that you
and I were such a central part of for several years,
and that I was a part of for twenty five years,
it doesn't exist anymore because FanDuel FanDuel's Southwest chose not

(54:05):
to put a crew together and pay for it to
do a high school football show, even though it was
a profit center for them. They're not doing it. So
that show that we used to do, High School Scoreboard
Live is no more. You and I have kind of
gone different paths. I'm going to be doing games for
Victory Plus, but you and Ashley pick have a more
than an able substitute coming up this ball.

Speaker 11 (54:26):
Yeah, well, I really appreciate. We're excited. It's Dave Campbell's
Texas Football Tonight. It is going to be scores, highlights,
an analysis from across the state, from folks at David
Campbell's Texas Football, Ashley Pickling, myself, bringing you hopefully what
you've come to expect from a Friday night show. That's
that's what we're aiming for. You know, you and I
of course had such a great time there on High

(54:47):
School Scoreboard Live. I'm very, very excited about David Campbell's
Texas Football Tonight. We like to think of it as
hopefully picking up the torch and continuing that tradition of
outstandings Friday night recap show, and we're excited to do
a Friday night The great thing is free wherever you stream,
whether it's YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, on Dave Campbell's Text

(55:08):
and Live. We're very excited about that. So ten thirty
pm Friday night, lock in for your your statewide recap
show from Dave Campbell's Texas Football.

Speaker 5 (55:16):
I'll be locked in from the hotel in Columbus, Ohio.

Speaker 11 (55:20):
I'm looking forward to my friend.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
All right, thanks, we'll tap to you next week. All right.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
That is Greg Chapper, editor in chief Dave Campbell's Texas
Football Magazine, coming up conversation with Colin Simmons when we
continue on thirteen under the Zone, and we will visit
with him every every week. It'll be weird not doing
a Friday night scoreboard show, and it'll be weird not
doing a Friday night scoreboard show with him and Aaron Hartigan.

(55:45):
They were my partners for the last few years. Prior
to that, Rick Renter was involved as well. I really
enjoyed doing that show. But again, when the FanDuel Network
opted not to continue doing that, then Dave Campbell's Texas
for Well magazine put together the Texas Football Tonight, which
I think is a great pickup of it to go forward,

(56:06):
and I'll be calling games for Victory plus high school
games on home weekends.

Speaker 5 (56:13):
For Texas Long Corn football when I'm not traveling like
I am this week.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
So my first game for Victory Plus will actually be
Van Grift against Cedar Park next week, so I'll look
forward to that. But their first telecast on Victory Plus
will be Alito against Denton Geyer, and.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
That's quite an opener there for them this week.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
All right, let's go back to Long Corn football and
a guy who wasn't All state or great high school player,
Colin Simmons transitioned I won't say seamlessly, but did quite
well transitioning into the collegiate game, earning National Freshman of
the Year honors. Back on the edge as the edge
rusher and Simmons the sophomore. Sitting down with our Will Matthews, we.

Speaker 7 (56:54):
Got Colin Simmons, and Colin, I'm super excited to talk
to you, mostly because there's just it's.

Speaker 12 (57:00):
Been a lot of energy that comes from you, what
you put out in the world, and kind of that
leadership that you're bringing into the road just to sophomore
of beginning to lead the defense.

Speaker 8 (57:11):
Talk to me about your process and your maturity and
what you're looking for for this season. I want to
say that.

Speaker 13 (57:19):
My main thing this off season was working on me
as a person, you know, being better as a person,
being a better leader, being better on my communication skills,
being better at being patient. So that that was my
biggest growth this off season, this off season, and I
just want to say that, like, I just want to
say that I've done that, I've grown, I've grown as

(57:42):
a person on and off the field. So to tell
you that, I feel like I did a great job
with my development when it comes to that.

Speaker 14 (57:51):
I love that you talked about a couple of things,
and one of them is a really interesting thing. As
an ex football player, this is not something I've been
able to manage well.

Speaker 8 (57:59):
But you said patience. Talk me through that. Why does
patience been so important in your growth and development, especially
in this offseason? Well, I do.

Speaker 13 (58:06):
First of all, I want to start that saying that
I have a little rather that's autistic. So him already
already teaches me patients, you know, being patient with him
when it comes to like communication and stuff like that,
doing things for him and all that different type of things.
And when it comes to when it comes to football

(58:27):
and stuff like that, you gotta be cultorable, you gotta
be coulforable. So you got to be patient with the coaches,
You got to be patient with the with the play called.
You gotta be patient when it comes to writing those down,
watching film and stuff like that like that, all that,
all that stuff takes time. So you know, you know,
you just gotta, you know, be disciplined and committed to it.

Speaker 14 (58:47):
He said, you gave yourself, you gave yourself a grade
and said that you did a good job this offseason.

Speaker 8 (58:53):
I mean, we haven't really even been talking about the xs.

Speaker 14 (58:55):
And o's and and your get off in the weight room,
been talking about the things outside. How is the things
outside of the game so important? And how are you
able to bring that maturity into the game.

Speaker 13 (59:10):
The little things matter, I would say, the little things matter.
Technique matters, all the all the small things get off, hand, placement, eyes,
all that, all that stuff matters. So so with me implementing,
with me, implement implementing is that the word implementing, implementing

(59:34):
with me implementing me implementing them small things into my
work on and off the field. It builds me, It
builds my character, It builds my confidence, and things like that.

Speaker 7 (59:47):
So I said, what should we expect from you game day,
because this is game week.

Speaker 8 (59:52):
Last year didn't go the way that we wanted it to.

Speaker 7 (59:55):
Now another opportunity to play the best in in their house.

Speaker 8 (01:00:00):
What should we expect from you?

Speaker 13 (01:00:01):
You should expect You should expect from me A clear
mindset for me.

Speaker 8 (01:00:08):
To go out there and do what I'm supposed to do.

Speaker 13 (01:00:10):
Do my job, Allow me to play free, Allow me
to not have no regrets in my mind about what
I do on the play, Allow me to play fast
and physical, and allow me to get way more burned
than I did last year so I can be able
to showcase my talents and my skills.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
So there's the conversation with Colin Simmons. With Will Matthews.
We'll be back to wrap up our number two. I'm
thirteen under the Zone alongside Cameron D.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Parker.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
The D Universe certificate stands for Dallas Also Jake car
What is your middle name? Jake Sidney? Okay with an
I S I S I D N eat. That's right, okay,
all right, all right, not like Sidney Crosby. Okay, yeah, yeah,
that's right, all right. So is Jake short for Jake?

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Are just Jake?

Speaker 6 (01:01:01):
It is for Jacob.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
It is short, so it's Jacob Sidney harm that's right, Okay,
all right, all right, nice? Uh okay, when did everybody
just start calling you Jake.

Speaker 6 (01:01:13):
Since the day I was born?

Speaker 15 (01:01:14):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Real?

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
Yes, I'd asked many times why Jacob? If it was
never going to be Jacob, it's a valid question. It's
always been Jacob.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Yeah, okay, Well, I mean you know Cameron's deal is
is that?

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Now? Did you ever solve the mystery that was surrounding
the origin of your name, because we were under the
original impression, and I think you were as well, that
your dad wanted to name you Dallas, after his favorite
pro football team, and your mom was resistant to that,
so that they compromised on Cameron with Dallas the middle end.

(01:01:47):
That was the original thing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
Then you told me back a few months ago that
that's kind of nebulous that there might have been some
other reasons why.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
This thing ended up the way it did.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
Yeah, it never got to the bottom of it, I guess,
and both my parents maybe have blocked that out of
their memory.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
Not really sure. Divorce maybe played a part in that.

Speaker 5 (01:02:06):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
My mom will be up here actually next month for
a wedding, so.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
You had to bring her to the station. Yeah, I'll
bring her in and we can get to the bottom
of this maybe. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
Yeah, we'll put her on the air. Yeah, we'll put
her on the air and do it. She's a delightful lady.
Enjoyed meeting her last year, when in fact, it was
probably the most enjoyable part of the trip down to
Florida for long worn basketball because that game did not
go well.

Speaker 5 (01:02:29):
And and then you and.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
I early early, well.

Speaker 1 (01:02:32):
We have a three hour delay taking off from Gainesville
to go to phil not Philadelphia, to Newark because the
women's game on MLK Day was against Maryland at Prudential Center,
and we had the snow and the slush to get through.

Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
Do you remember why we were delayed?

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
Did they ever say, Yeah, some dufe is at United
the who was loading our luggage into the plane dean
one of the wings and they had to come look
at it. And the contractor was like off site by
like three hours.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
He stuffed something in the underneath in the baggage thing
and it got broken underneath it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that
was that was just lovely went yeah. Uh So, anyway,
but meeting your mom, that weekend was really cool.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Yeah, she was good. It was good. It was good
to do that. Steve Sprayer's Restaurant and grill also, Yeah,
that was good.

Speaker 5 (01:03:27):
We did that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
We did that.

Speaker 16 (01:03:29):
Uh and and UH, I had discovered a nice barbecue
place down there, so I have to remember when I
go down for football the barbecue place that I went
to down there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
Cebe's question to ask me.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
He asked me if I'd watched the Cowboys Netflix docu series,
and I've seen the first seven parts, uh going through Uh.
Part seven is entitled Cocaine Cowboys.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
When Michael Irvin's bust and the other guys, Alfred or
Roberts and some of those other guys that got they
got busted for different drug related offenses, be it paraphernalia
or actual possession and stuff like that. So they've gone
through and that, so they are in their complete free

(01:04:17):
fall from grace. Is that about the time you started
to become aware of them? This is like two thousand
and seven, two thousand and eight, right around that time.
Excuse me, no, no, no, I stand corrected. Ninety nine
two thousand, two thousand and one, two thousand two.

Speaker 5 (01:04:33):
You still would have been very young yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:04:35):
I mean, honestly, I remember very young going to an
Eagles Cowboys game, I believe at Texas Stadium. We actually
we knew one of the Eagles offensive linemen, Jermaine Mayberry,
and so he got us tickets. I remember going there,
sitting up very high, and for some reason, I can

(01:04:55):
remember the intro video at Texas Stadium of like the
Cowboys and they're like running with the bulls and like
all the animations. That really stuck with me. But I
mean I didn't really hardcore get into the Cowboys. I
mean I remember, of course to the wild card game
against Seattle and was actually watching that from a suite

(01:05:18):
at the Spectrum Center which used to be called the
Time Warner Cable Arena. We were there for like a
Monster Jam show. And I remember, of course Tony's Tony Romo,
who led the led what could have been the game
tying drive against Seattle, you know, watching the snap on
the extra point and turning the corner, always going for two.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
No, he's not, he's not.

Speaker 5 (01:05:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
I actually saw that on an airplane, awaiting the pushback
from the gate in Denver, coming home from a long
worn basketball game in Colorado. It was a Boulder in it,
and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that.
Now you mentioned in Philadelphia, of course, the Longhorns played
Villanova at whatever the name of the arena is now

(01:06:03):
where the Sixers play, Wells Fargo Arena. Yeah, I guess
it's Wells Fargo.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
So back then maybe Center, Yeah, Wells Fargo Center, I
think well Fargo Center.

Speaker 2 (01:06:15):
Okay. Back then six o seven, which was Kevin Durant.

Speaker 3 (01:06:18):
One year, renamed ex Fanity mol Arena. Now it's Exfinity, I.

Speaker 6 (01:06:22):
Guess, renamed the Factory of Sadness the Factory.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:06:29):
The original name of the place was for First Union Bank,
or as the people up there in Philly said.

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
The Few Center, because that's what they called it. A
lot of it up there. I remember doing the game
when when Texas played Villain over there, when Kevin Durant
was playing it. Welcome to the Few Center that there
in Philadelphia, First Union All right, up next, we'll talk
Ohio State Buckeyes with the voice of the buck Eyes,

(01:06:57):
Paul Keels.

Speaker 5 (01:06:57):
That's next.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
I'm thirteen under the zone.

Speaker 13 (01:06:59):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
It is always a pleasure to visit with my good friend.
The play by play voice of the Ohio State Buckeyes.
They simply call him Big Daddy up in Columbus. But
Paul Keels is the legend that is the voice of
the Ohio State Buckeyes, and he joins us now from Columbus.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
How you doing today?

Speaker 5 (01:07:16):
You need dame hire if you think that's a legend.
Help me out here, you know, better, help me out here.
How many years is this now? For you?

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
In the play by play chair, this will be year
number twenty eight.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
Okay, yeah, see that's what I'm saying. It's twenty five
for me, twenty eight for you. We've known each other
a long long time, even going back to that game
twenty years ago. But I want to ask you about
something that came out of the Cotton Bowl meeting back
in January. This was not the fact that you know,

(01:07:49):
obviously the buck Eyes won the game and went on
to win the national championship. No, this was because of
Jack Sawyer's eighty three yard fumble return to give the
buck Eyes the at that point, the separation and they
and they win it twenty eight fourteen. Apparently I've been
told that that scoop and score has been flavorized into

(01:08:11):
a new concession stand menu item called Scoop and Score
nachos factor fiction fact I believe.

Speaker 5 (01:08:20):
I mean, we'll find out Saturday, but I saw that
in the game notes. Also, so there were Scoop and
Sawyer t shirts that were making their way around town
all summer, you know, And it certainly punctuated a great
career for a young man from right here in Columbus,
stayed four years, you know, did everything you want to
see a student athlete do it, and a great young

(01:08:41):
man as well that should have a nice opportunity to
play some for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But it certainly was
an incredible moment. You know, that game, Craig, as you know,
had so many significant plays even beyond that one. There
was the play where you know, Will Howard gets the
fourth down conversion where really he could have run into
the end zone, but he joked and said he stumbled

(01:09:02):
because he knew.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
The defense still needed a little more rest.

Speaker 5 (01:09:05):
Uh, you know, the Candle downs interception following the Sawyer score.
So but yes, we will find out together about the
Scoop and Score not jos.

Speaker 1 (01:09:14):
Okay, I'll look forward to that. I read a pretty
revealing piece. I've read two pretty revealing pieces about Ryan Day,
one on from ESPN and one from the Athletic about
what he and his family had to endure and go
through through through some of the disappointments, most notably obviously
the game with Michigan and that sort of thing, and
how they they they were always able to stay the course,

(01:09:37):
even the youngsters and the family.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
And I think it says an awful lot about him.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
Uh, But how aware as close as you and and
Jim Leche are to the program. Uh, were you guys
aware of how this thing had been building and a
lot of the tide of unhappiness. I guess we'll call
it from from a lot of Ohio State fans that
O then was able to be blown away with what

(01:10:04):
happened in the stretch drive of the season and the
Buckeyes capture and the title.

Speaker 5 (01:10:08):
You know, Craig, we became aware of some of it
in the weeks afterwards, a leading up to the Tennessee
game at the start of the playoffs, but to the
full extent, probably not until everything was over. We knew
that coach Day had had to have security put around
his house, and then the stories that have come out
about that meeting that the coaches and the players had
really kind of signified what brought them together.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
And you know the thing that the Tennessee game.

Speaker 5 (01:10:32):
Playing it in Ohio Stadium after losing that Michigan game,
there was a lot of concern what was the fan
base going to be like, especially with the onslaught of
Tennessee fans. It came to town that weekend and with
that football team starting off the way, they did, really
get Tennessee back on their heels. That football team played angry,
not only just that day, but then they got the
match up with Oregon that they had hoped to have

(01:10:54):
in the Big Ten championship game, and they didn't really
jumped all over Oregon. And I'm not so sure that
I didn't hurt Oregon not getting a chance to continue
their momentum. But those things really kind of brought this
club together. And you know a lot of people that
are around Ryan day, we get a chance on a
limited basis to be around him just to see what
kind of a wonderful guy he is. Now wonderful guys

(01:11:15):
that doesn't win you games, but it really allowed this
team to rally around him.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
Yeah. Interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
Indeed, as we visit with Paul Keel's play by play
voice for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Let me get your
thoughts on how And I know this is a relative term,
the word different, but I want to ask you how
quote unquote different things might be when you have two
new coordinators. Brian Hartline, of course, an Ohio State hero,

(01:11:43):
coordinating the offense, and then of course Matt Patricia, the
hired gun so to speak, coming in now is the
defensive coordinator. How has that evolved and how changed or
diversified or wrinkled so to speak? Are these two units
offensively and defensively with two new coordinators.

Speaker 5 (01:12:05):
Well that's the thing we're all curious to see, because,
as you know, practice is closed, so we don't get
to see a lot. You know, the former players can go,
but those of us in the media cannot. So I
think we're all anxious to see how different. The guess
is it won't be terribly different too often, given the
fact that you've got so many key returning players. Yes,
you lost your whole defensive starting line. The guys that
will be starting were key backups last year. But you

(01:12:26):
still have sunny styles, you still have cattle downs, you
still have Davison Nigbuanosen.

Speaker 11 (01:12:32):
So I think that.

Speaker 5 (01:12:34):
On the hoof defensively, not sure there's going to be
and this is just guessing there'll be a lot of
significant differences offensively, you know, with a new quarterback, a
young man that played only four games, a new set
of running backs, and you saw how vital those running
backs were at Ohio State last year. The security blanket

(01:12:54):
is the fact that they've got experience and depth on
the offensive line, which came out of injury last year
because of two injuries, guys had to step up and
that's really helped, you know, an offensive lines and area
usually where teams don't have a ton of depth. Ohio
State feels like they have that and hopefully that can
help Julian saying kind of get his feet under him,
get into a rhythm. You've got an experience running back

(01:13:15):
and ce j Donaldson who came from West Virginia to
kind of help things when comes to carrying the ball.
And then there's always Jeremiah Smith and Texas did a
phenomenal job on Jeremiah smit but Carnel Tate had a
career day because of that. So, you know, I think
Craig really, we're all anxient just as anxious here to
see how different it'll be.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
Yeah, well, you touched on a couple of guys who
want to ask you about one obviously, is Julian saying,
And I find it fascinating that this matchups.

Speaker 5 (01:13:43):
They has the.

Speaker 1 (01:13:44):
Number one and number three teams in the AP Pole,
number one and number two in the coaches poll, a
defending national champion, a team that is a preseason number
one for the first time in its history.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
And they both have.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
Let's just say curiosities a little bit at quarterbacks simply
cause of the lack of extensive experience. Arch Manning obviously
had to start two games when when quin yours was
down and came back and then and and played in in.

Speaker 2 (01:14:09):
The uh you might say in limited duty.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
Well from in the for the most part, but still
you don't have a full body of work for him.
And then saying, of course is a bit of an
unknown commodity. And I just I find that fascinating that
a game of this name brand magnitude has each of
these guys going at it and quarterback.

Speaker 5 (01:14:30):
Yeah, that is a real interesting part of this. And
you know, Julian San played only four games and mop
up duty last year. But one of the things that
we're hearing that has been a big step of improvement
for him is he needed to get physically stronger, and
it sounds like he has. He's a young man that
by those who watch a lot of practice say he's
got a quick release. You know, he's a guy you know,
for whatever it's worth. You know, the high school plot,

(01:14:52):
it's only get you so far. It gets you to
a school, but you know, doesn't keep you in a
job or anything like that. But he's a guy that
was really he pushed by Lincoln Keyholts. Excuse the Keynolts
is in his third year. He's played limited. He had
two games last year but no stats. Really played in
an emergency in the Cotton Bowl two years ago against Missouri.
But a guy that's very athletic, Craig. This is a

(01:15:13):
guy that averaged nineteen points a game in basketball, he
hit over four hundred in baseball, and won three state
titles in football. Yes it was the state of South Dakota,
but still that's the same something. So he really pushed
Julian sand which you know, from this side of things,
folks are hoping that what that has done is had
sand sharpened his skills.

Speaker 1 (01:15:32):
Was there a point in the season last year where
you're calling a game in the booth and you turned
to Jim Leche and Jeremiah Smith had just made, you know,
one of his amazing catches, and you just turned to
him said, the kid's a freak. Was there a point
when that dawned on you just how good it was
earlier in the season, When when did it really strike

(01:15:54):
you just how good especially for a freshman that that
young man was, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
Early in MIDSI And then I'll point out two examples
to you, Craig. They were playing at in Michigan State
and actually Will Howard had to leave the game briefly
and Devin Brown came in as a backup, and he
threw a ball in the end zone the Jeremiah Smith
went up and snatched like he was picking an apple
off the tree. It was incredible. And then in the
Iowa game at home, he had a similar type of play.
Raay to go way up in the air, almost palming

(01:16:21):
the ball to catch in the end zone and with
his other hand shoving the defender away from him. Those
were two instances where you thought this kid is different.
He's not like a typical freshman. He kind of reminded
you of some of the plays that Chris Gamble made
back around two thousand and two. He just seems to
be a game changing type of player that even and

(01:16:43):
let's exclude the Texas game because of what the Long
Runs did last year, but even when people know he's coming,
he's still able to make incredible plays, no doubt about it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
Talking about the Ohio State Buckeyes with the Buckeyes play
by play voice Paul Keels here on thirteen hundred the Zone,
I'm going to shift to the defense, and.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
My examination of the of the Buckeyes.

Speaker 1 (01:17:03):
Defensive line is much like my examination of the Texas
offensive line. For example, the Longgrns, of course, only return
one starter from the offensive front in DJ Campbell. However,
they've got a lot of guys who rotated in and
saw a lot of action. I look at the fact
that all four starting defensive linemen from the past two

(01:17:23):
year seasons have been selected in the NFL draft, and
then I look at what you got in Kenyana Jackson
and Katon Curry and Kate McDonald and Edric Houston and
us see guys who've had extensive experience, even though they
weren't regular down by downstarters and Craig.

Speaker 5 (01:17:40):
Their role last year was to be able to give
the four guys that went into the NFL to give
them a blow so that late in the game they
were fresh enough to make plays like what Jack Sawyer
made in the Cotton Bowl, like some of the players
we saw Jalen Touey Molowow making the Rose Bowl against Oregon.
So these are guys when you think about them, as
well as you know Taiwan Malone, who is an experienced
player who started his career at Ole Miss you add

(01:18:03):
bo Atkinson, a transfer from North Carolina who comes in
and seemingly can give them some quality play. The guy
that really this summer has turned some heads from what
we're being told is Will Smith Junior, playing at defensive tackle,
the son of Will Smith, who tragically died while he
was in New Orleans, but was part of the O
two national championship team. So you're right, they're guys that

(01:18:24):
have played a lot. They didn't have the starter's role,
but their purpose was to give those other guys enough
of a breather. The question regarding them is are there
people behind them that can do the same as what
these guys did last year.

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
Okay, I'm curious to get your thoughts on this because
I know Sark has been asked about it at length,
and I would imagine also the coach Davis asked about
it as well, and that is.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
The gravitas of this matchup.

Speaker 1 (01:18:53):
And Sark, while quick to talk about how great it
is that two teams of this Hill can get together
and play, you know, play this year in Columbus and
next year in Austin, to have that type of big
time matchup in this day and age of the twelve
team playoff in college football and who knows maybe expanding
in the relatively near future. That that it's not a crusher,

(01:19:18):
it's not a season killer if you don't win. And
yet if you do win, obviously it kind of puts
you out in front, as they like to say in
NASCAR and clean air, running ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
Of the pack. How about your thoughts on this, well,
I would agree with that.

Speaker 5 (01:19:34):
You're not going to get the coaches to talk about
that because you know, just like Sark, you Ryan Day
today and as Press Garment said, it's about this game.
It's about winning this game, and he's talked and embraced it,
and how because this is the first game on the schedule,
it's got the players edgy. It's got them with a
point of urgency of being ready. Not to say that
they wouldn't have been just as urgent or not as

(01:19:54):
ready if it was going to be Ohio University or
Grambling State in this week as opposed to the next
two weeks. But I would agree with Craig one hundred percent.
This is not a death knell to the team that
loses the football game. It certainly affects your possible positioning.
You know, last year Ohio State didn't have a power
for a game like this because they had opted out

(01:20:14):
of a scheduled game with Washington. Once Washington came into
the Big Ten, they didn't want to, you know, have
that kind of a jumble there. So it's one that
it's got fans excited, even though you know, people are
still washing their hands over the twelve noons start. But
to get to see a game like this, to see
a team like Texas coming in, you know, preseason number
one doesn't come to town very often, so coaches aren't

(01:20:36):
going to take the track that we can it's great
to see this kind of a game because the loser
is not put out of the playoff picture. And a
few years ago, yes, it would have been.

Speaker 16 (01:20:45):
But not.

Speaker 2 (01:20:45):
Now. Final question here, you fill in the blank for me,
it's not even question. Just to fill in the blank.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
Craig, it's been twenty years since you've called a football
game here in Columbus. So I've got to tell you Friday, Nye,
you simply must have dinner.

Speaker 5 (01:21:02):
At hmm, Well, I would tell you one of my
favorite spots. It's a sports bar, great bar food. It's
called City Tavern. It's on the edge of downtown, between
downtown and campus. And if you were to go there,
you might run into a familiar face there on Friday night.

Speaker 2 (01:21:22):
Really, now, well, it's funny.

Speaker 1 (01:21:24):
It's funny you mentioned that because my son, who tries
to stay ahead of me on all these things, my
old a Suden, who's also my spotter. He said he
pinpointed four spots to go to, and that was one
of them. He said, so yeah, he said one of
these four spots. And he said we could go to
one of these four. And I said, okay, I'll ask

(01:21:45):
Paul about it. So it sounds like the choice has been.

Speaker 5 (01:21:47):
Made, then well we will communicate further about that.

Speaker 1 (01:21:50):
Okay, Hey, I appreciate you doing this. I look forward
to coming up there and this should be an awful
lot of fun this weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:21:58):
As always, it's great to visit with you. Always good
to see him. Look forward to seeing you in person. Greg.
Thank you, Paul, take care all right.

Speaker 1 (01:22:04):
That is Paul Keels, the play by play voice of
the Ohio State Buckeyes. It's true story. My son did
say he listed like four places and said and one
of them was city Tavern on that and it did
kind of look intriguing. So now now I've got endorsements,
so I have to I'll have to remember.

Speaker 2 (01:22:21):
That, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
Coming up next, we go back to Will Matthews conversations
with long worn football players. The guy you're gonna hear
from next could could have had a really impactful sophomore
campaign last year had he not been injured in preseason

(01:22:43):
and knocked out as a result of that.

Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
Cedric Baxter c. J.

Speaker 1 (01:22:48):
Baxter, the Longhorns running back, and we'll hear from him
coming up in his conversation with Will Matthews.

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
That's up next.

Speaker 1 (01:22:55):
When we continue on this Tuesday afternoon here a Texan
Tuesday on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone. As
fine a man as he is a broadcaster as well.
It's a great Somebody said, couldn't help, but think you
were talking to Paul or actor John Goodman in that conversation.
Could uh could he give me a toe by three o'clock?
He's Uh, he's got he's got great pipes, no doubt

(01:23:17):
about it. And uh, if you've ever heard him call
a game, uh, he's He's entertaining and incredibly informative of
what all good broadcasters aspire to be. You want to
make sure you're accurate and you're telling the story about
what's going on, and make it listenable as well. Our

(01:23:38):
man Chuck and Houston asked me about my favorite barbecue
spot in Austin and how do I feel about Salt Lake.
Salt Lake is one of my favorites I've got, I've
got several. It's hard to pigure out. I love Terry Blacks,
been going there for a while. I live in Georgetown,
so I'm not far away by looping around off Toll
one thirty to get over to the South Side Market

(01:24:00):
location over in Huddle, so that's a good one.

Speaker 5 (01:24:03):
Uh when when I when.

Speaker 1 (01:24:05):
I really get to feeling it is uh, my wife
and I did a couple of weeks and really want
you know, we were out driving around and we happen
to be down around South Austin and said, oh they hell,
let's get let's let's go down to Lockhart. We got
a choice, you go down there, whether you're talking about
Kritsis or Terry Black's location there or Black's the original
Blacks there. Uh, Smitty's, Uh, Smitty's, I started to say

(01:24:27):
Smitty's christ Smitty's, Uh, Christ's Market, Chisholm Trail.

Speaker 5 (01:24:33):
It's hard to go wrong at all those. So I
like a lot of.

Speaker 1 (01:24:37):
Those, and I like other ones that have been uh
in some other other parts of the greater Central Texas
area as well. So uh, I am not a barbecue
snob by any chance. Obviously, I love Franklin's if you
get there, if you if you want to wait it
out and stand in line. Certainly there's that, there's Interstellar.
I mean, I can name them all. I enjoy all

(01:25:00):
of them. Louis Miller's Snows, It's it's hard to go
wrong with just about all of those. They're all really
really good, okay speaking really good.

Speaker 11 (01:25:11):
C J.

Speaker 1 (01:25:11):
Baxter had a really good freshman campaign and there was
great excitement going into the sophomore season, and then of
course he had the knee injury that took him out
all of last year, worked very, very hard to rehabit.
There was the well chronicled story in a media availability
during the fall camp workouts about how his girlfriend Mia

(01:25:33):
Scott from the Long Warren softball team, had played through
a tear of an ACL and had given him some
good natured grief about, hey, what up with you? You know,
he'd already had surgery. She went through without surgery off
of that, but he accepted it all in good grace

(01:25:53):
and humor, and he said it served to inspire him
to work a little harder as well. So he he
was also one of the guys who sat down yesterday
with our man Will Matthews, where is our sideline reporter
on Longhorn football broadcast. And Will has that really good
relationship in type bond with the student athletes himself. So

(01:26:15):
here's the conversation that Will had with c. J.

Speaker 2 (01:26:19):
Baxter last year.

Speaker 7 (01:26:23):
Put that to bed now going into this year, once
we expect from you walking into this year.

Speaker 17 (01:26:29):
Oh yeah, I'm definitely super excited about the season. I
want to put last year in the bit, but it
did happen, but I learned so much from it. It
definitely made me a smarter player.

Speaker 1 (01:26:40):
Man.

Speaker 8 (01:26:40):
Coach Flood literally just had a conversation about it.

Speaker 17 (01:26:43):
He was just telling me how he's happy to have
me back on the field, and I told him, like,
the game slowed down for me a lot.

Speaker 8 (01:26:50):
I missed the year, but because I think.

Speaker 17 (01:26:53):
I handled it the right way as far as being
involved with the guy, I still learned the offense, excuse
me and then things like that.

Speaker 8 (01:27:00):
So super excited for this year.

Speaker 17 (01:27:02):
I still think I gonna be the dynamic cler I
once was, so I'm just excited to get back to that.

Speaker 7 (01:27:07):
So I've been injured before. It can be demoralizing. It
can be really difficult to stay connected, but special players
stay connected. How did you stay connected to the team.

Speaker 17 (01:27:19):
Yeah, so from the get good from the drunk, Coach
start told me he still wanted me to be at
ball like heavily. It was hard the beginning of the
season because I did have surgery the week before the
Michigan game, So it was hard the beginning of the season.
But once I was, once I was more, you know,
moving around more and stuff like that. He let me
travel at practices. He would make me be behind the

(01:27:42):
ball and like see it from a different point of
view to see everything. Coach choice when he was here
during games, when Durant best will come off the field,
when we have we have the iPads now, he would
make me grab the iPad first and see what I've
seen before he even grabbed it. So it was just
things like that that really that. Then my teammates, those

(01:28:02):
guys rarely behind me, they made sure I felt involved
during everything. Even though I wasn't physically playing, I was
still there. They made me, you know, just I'm just
so grateful for all of them they held They held
it down for me. Yeah, and he said that they
held it down.

Speaker 7 (01:28:21):
Not many people understand the bond of a football team
coming together that locker room.

Speaker 8 (01:28:26):
How did you come together, talk talk us through? How
they held it down for you? How did they how
did they continually be.

Speaker 2 (01:28:33):
Your north star?

Speaker 17 (01:28:34):
I mean, Trey Watson is the perfectly symbol. I think
people did not expect him to do what he did.
And when I went down, Christian Clark went down. Uh,
he stepped up, big tongue and what his number was called.
He was ready, which we all knew it in the building,
Like we knew the type of guy he is. Brain

(01:28:55):
energy every day. He doesn't have a bad day, he
doesn't have a bad practice. He's he trade like who
y'all see on the field. That's him off the field
far as like energy and how outgoing and stuff he is.

Speaker 8 (01:29:06):
Things like that.

Speaker 17 (01:29:06):
And then like there was moments in a game where
Quinn or Tray or Blue or the list goes on
and on, they'll make a plan, but like that that
was for you or something like that. So that's what
I mean by holding it down for me? And so
did you get ready for this season?

Speaker 7 (01:29:24):
Game one is we're standing at the doorstep of the
next channel's nameless faceless talk me through how excited you
are about getting back on the field.

Speaker 15 (01:29:34):
I know you called your father and said, I'm excited
about that. Yeah, so I'm definitely super excited. The opponent
is who the oppont it is. Definitely respect those guys.
It's a big game. I mean, that's why we kind
of takes it to playing games like that. But for
me personally, like you said, I'm excited to be on
the field a game. I mean it's been I've never
missed a whole year in football.

Speaker 17 (01:29:55):
Ho, So just excited to you know, see the crowd,
make plays, be out there with the guys.

Speaker 8 (01:30:04):
We don't have to hit each other anymore.

Speaker 17 (01:30:06):
Go play against someone else. So I'm just super excited. Man,
I can't I can't wait. But doing my feet are
today and then get through the week.

Speaker 8 (01:30:13):
Saturday, be here when he gets here.

Speaker 1 (01:30:16):
Yeah, you can tell a little bit of excitement in
his voice there. I think he's excited to get back
on the field. It will make reference to There was
another comment that CJ May during that post practice interview session,
the same one where he was talking about Mia Scott
and all of that, where he said he called his

(01:30:37):
dad and he told him, and he said this in
the presser, that he was more excited about taking a hit,
getting hit, going down and getting back up than he
was about scoring a touchdown, whether it be in scrimmage
or in drills. Just the fact that no, he's there
and he can trust it. And that's also why Sark

(01:30:58):
had mentioned that.

Speaker 2 (01:31:01):
Early on.

Speaker 1 (01:31:01):
He even said this at SEC media Day. I remember
my sit down with with Sart where he said, uh, we'll,
we'll take it. I don't think he used the word cautiously,
but he said, he said, well, we'll we'll take our
time and making sure he's ready to go. Uh and

(01:31:21):
and we'll go through the process and making sure he's
completely ready before we get him out there.

Speaker 2 (01:31:29):
In the live rounds, so to speak.

Speaker 1 (01:31:31):
Uh. But then once it got on into practice, he said,
I've you know, pretty much taken the training wheels off.
Now I've told him that, you know, no more precautions,
get after it, you go. And he said, and that's
the way he wants it, and and it was and
is and that's what he's been able to do. So

(01:31:53):
that's that's good to see. Look forward to seeing that
young man back on the field and looking forward to
seeing Trey Wisner carry the football as well. We're gonna
hear from Trey tomorrow, and we're gonna hear from Rach
Panning tomorrow. So and we're also gonna hear from Ethan
Burke tomorrow. So we're looking forward to hearing from those
guys as well. All Right, we'll be back to wrap

(01:32:14):
up today's edition of the program here on Sports

Speaker 2 (01:32:17):
Radio Am thirteen under the zone

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