October 7, 2025 • 23 mins
Greg Tepper, the editor-in-chief at Dave Campbell's Texas Football, joins the show for his weekly conversation with Craig Way.
In the collegiate ranks, Texas Tech looks to be hitting its stride on both sides of the ball while North Texas can take a big step forward this Friday night against No. 24 USF.
And in area high school football news, District 25-6A is up for grabs after McNeil's victory over Vandegrift. Greg and Craig discuss the muddy playoff picture and how it showcases the wide-open landscape in 6A Football this season.
In the collegiate ranks, Texas Tech looks to be hitting its stride on both sides of the ball while North Texas can take a big step forward this Friday night against No. 24 USF.
And in area high school football news, District 25-6A is up for grabs after McNeil's victory over Vandegrift. Greg and Craig discuss the muddy playoff picture and how it showcases the wide-open landscape in 6A Football this season.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, continue here on thirteen under the zone, and of
course we regale you coming back in the three o'clock
hour on a Texan Tuesday. Willie Nelson in the song Dallas,
So what you know, why not? Why not go up
to the Dallas Fort Worth metro plagues. Greg Tepper is
the editor in chief of Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Correct me if we're wrong.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
The offices of Texas Football Magazine are located in beautiful Lewisville, Texas.
Are they not just straight up by thirty five, halfway
between Dallas and Detton.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes, if you make your way up to Lewisville, you
can find the Dave Campbell's Texas Football mothership. And yeah,
we're we're headquartered up here kind of north of north
of town. So although I'm sure Austin runs into the
same thing too, where it's like where what is Dallas?
What is Austin? Right, It's just it's this sprawl. I mean,
(00:50):
it's hard to know. We were talking earlier today. There's
a big game this week in Hudder. Hudder's got a
huge game against round Rock in a critical critical district
twenty five six A and Huddo I guess you can
see Austin from there, like maybe, but like the sprawl
kind of gives it that that difficult. Uh. What I'm
(01:12):
saying is that like we're kind of having a hard
time drawing these boundaries of what actually represents these cities,
but we would be technically tallus. I think, yeah, yeah,
that's true.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Even though you're in a different county in edd County
up there, and even though Huddo's in Williamson County and
in northeastern Williamson County at that. Uh, but you're right
there are people ask me a lot of times where
you live. I said in the Austin area. When they say, aw, where,
and I say, well, Georgetown. That's that's a solid thirty
miles north.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
It's up there. It's like I live in McKinney. You know,
I live in Dallis, you know up there. Yeah, well,
I'll tell you what we run into. So we divide
up the state in order to just from high school
football purposes, we divide up the state into twenty one
different regions. It's it's the only way to do it
to make the least amount of people mad. And yet
you are always going to those cases are going to
(02:01):
be like, where do you draw the line? Like, you know,
I'll give you a perfect example. Is you think about
like Parker County is east of is very far west
of DFW.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
And then that's where Alito is. We technically consider a DFW,
but you could call that Big Country. You could call
that any which number of ways. And then don't get
me started on places like super Syntax Region, which it's
basically like Greater Greater Greater Waco, Greater Waco. It's impossible
to draw lines evenly around the state. It's too unwielding.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
You know why that is, I'll tell you just from
my own history of it and living up in the
Metroplex and all that other kind of stuff. Some of
it has to do with, you know, television markets. For example,
I saw that it was a week or two ago,
you guys had a game listed and lamp Passa's was
(02:54):
in it and it was listed as Big Country. Well,
Lampes's is fifty miles northwest of Austin, you know, so
a lot of folks would take issue with that, But
they were playing at b Country School and so so
it's like yeah, and and and yet if you talk
to my broadcast partner Roger Wallace, who's the sports director
at k x A n LAMB passes. Even though it's
fifty miles from Austin and it's about the same southwest
(03:17):
of Waco, is it considered part of the Austin ADI
you know, the market. So they're in those areas I
referred to as black holes. You know how many times
have you gotten into it or I've gotten into it,
or at least into discussion with people about what is
East Texas? What is deep As East Texas or Piney Woods?
(03:42):
I mean, yeah, you know what, well, it's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
You get into those those middle parts and you're exactly
right East Texas. That whole area is is kind of
like you get along the kind of the eastern border
of Texas and it is just it's a free for all.
I mean, uh, you know East Texas. I think general
like this is broad Strokes, Greater, Tyler, greater, greater, Greater Tyler, Okay,
Piney Woods greater, greater, greater, like Nacdoches. Yeah, uh, and
(04:13):
then like and then you get down to the Golden
Triangle and there are people who will draw some pretty
pretty story lines down there, but like Greater Beaumont down there,
But don't you dare consider it teams that are Golden
Triangle to be Houston. And it's just it's it's a mess.
It's it's a mess. That's that's why I appreciate I
appreciate the Rio Grand Valley because the Rio Grand Valley
has very distinct and they will get onto you if
(04:35):
you try to expand it a little bit north, be like, yeah, well,
like there's because there's towns in between, like San Antonio
and and the Rio grand Ville, Like Alice is a
perfect example. What do you do with Alice? They are
in they are in no man's land right now. But
don't you dare lump them in with the valley because
I'll be like, no, no, no, no, Brownsville and Alice are
not are not the same, folks.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
No, And there's what I learned over there's upper Valley,
mid Valley, and lower Valley. Yeah, and and and don't
and don't you dare put Laredo in there, because oh
there was a time we tried to lump Laredo in
there because we're like, oh, they're all along kind of
the Texas Mexico border, right, like like both Rio Grand
Valley and Laredo was like absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
No, no, no. So we learned our lesson pretty quick only.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
And people out on the South Plains as it, don't
call us West Texas ru on the South Plains and
we're not the pan don't call on the Panhandle either.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Don't call the Panhandle either. That's Amarillo are not the same.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
That's always great, great geography lessons here the geography of
college football in this state. And looking at the uh
the Dave Campbell's Texas Football uh FBS power Pole. Uh,
some folks would have felt as preposterous for the season began,
but uh, here's Texas down to number six and ranked
(05:50):
ahead of them Texas A and M in the one spot,
Texas Tech to two, TCU three, Baylor four and s
m U five, and UH A and M and Texas
Tech certainly have done nothing to shake up what their
situation is right now because both of those teams.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Are on a roll. Yeah, part of it, Part of
it is just that, you know, you look at team.
Part of it has been obviously Texas's tumble, and I
think you guys have probably talked enough about that. But
a lot of this is also just a and M
and Tech have looked just spectacular. I mean, for for
A and M. You know, last week, I thought in
their win over Mississippi State, after starting off relatively slow,
(06:27):
for them to get that ground game going through ban
Owens and then that defense to really step up a
real complete win, like a complete win. And I think
that's something that a lot of programs cross the state,
including Texas, have kind of been chasing, is that complete win.
And I think the same thing can be for what
Texas Tech is. And I know we've we've talked about this,
but the fact that Texas Tech is winning the way
(06:49):
that they do, and the fact that they are winning
a defensive football I mean, playing and simple, this is
a This is a This is a team who you
can make the real argument their defense is better than
their offense. I mean, they are ninth in the nation
in score in total defense right now. Uh, they have
been excellent defensively and by the way they are running
the ball when they have had a little bit of
(07:11):
you know, in a in a universe in which you know,
Tech Tech does have the number one uh, you know,
total offense in the in the nation. But in a
universe in which Texas Tech has kind of been bouncing
between a pair of quarterbacks and parent Morton will Hammond,
and both have looked good. It kind of hasn't mattered
all that much because Cameron Dickey's been so good and
(07:32):
Jacoby Williams has stepped up, and they've got this kind
of bevy of backs back there who've led the way
on the ground, and so I think those two teams
certainly look very complete. I thought TCU has looked very good,
uh last week with a with a good win over Colorado, uh,
and then and then Baylor as well. Baylor, I think, uh,
it was it hasn't always been pretty and hasn't always
(07:52):
been easy, but a win over Kansas State or is
a win, and they they were able to get done
and and s to me won and on conference play
right now. You know, it's funny to say because the
flagship program in Texas is in the crosshairs right now,
and not for good reasons. It's but college football from
an FBS perspective, cross state of Texas, not even mentioning
(08:14):
North Texas, who has a huge game this week in
South Florida. The college football is pretty healthy at the
FBS level in the state of Texas. The majority of
these programs have have looked very, very good and have
reason to be in their respective conference title races.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Other than and this is a big other, but other
than a trip to tenp on October eighteenth, is there
anybody that you can see realistically beating Texas Tech and
them not being unbeaten going into the Big Twelve championship game.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
You know, look, Arizona State, obviously on the road, is
going to be tough. And the thing about it is,
I think the Big Twelve is such that every one
of these games is going to They're gonna have to
put their best foot forward. And I don't think Texas
Tech and I think Joey McGuire would agree with this.
I don't think that they have done enough historically to
(09:10):
get that benefit of the doubt where they can go
out there and they play a team like Kansas this
week and they can just throw their jock on the
field and they're gonna win the ball game. I just
don't think they they've earned that yet. But you take
a look at their schedule, and that's why I think
that win over over Utah was so important, because that
really did represent the big land mine there now They've
(09:30):
got Arizona State you mentioned in Tempe in a couple
of weeks, and then you know they get BYU at home.
Aside from that, you know, Kansas State has traditionally been
a bit of a house of horrors for them up
there in Manhattan. But that feels like a beatable team.
I'll tell you what I mean. Right now, My guess
(09:50):
is the Texas Tech is going to be favored in
the remainder of their ball games and looking at a
twelve and oh mark and heading to the conference championship game,
which was obviously always step one for them. And we
talked in the in the preseason, you and I about
how the bar for Texas Tech was to you know,
at least play for the Big Troll Championship. They didn't
(10:11):
play for the Patrol Championship. It was probably going to
be it might cost joeymaguire's job. Right now, they're certainly
trending in the right direction and look the part of
the team to beat in the conference in your opinion.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Bigger game this week Texas A and M hosting Florida,
North Texas hosting South Florida. It's North Texas hosting South Florida.
Because I'll tell you what you know, you start again,
you start talking about teams that have a lot to gain. Here,
North Texas they beat South Florida this week, and then
(10:42):
you suddenly really start having trouble finding their loss, and
you start talking about a team with not just a
legitimate chance at playing for an AAC championship, not just
a legitimate chance of winning the AAC Championship, but also
a legitimate chance of making the College Football Playoff. The
path is there for them, and and right now they
(11:04):
have looked the part and a lot of it ultimately.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I mean, it is a resurgent defense. Their their defense
has been significantly better. But offensively, the balance they've got
with Mackenzie McGill running the ball and Drew Messamaker throwing
the ball, they are just they are a team you
don't want to face right now. And it's going to
be presumably a really nice crowd in Denton on Saturday
or Friday night. Rather this is a big, big game
(11:29):
for them, and if they are able to pull out
this win, this does feel like, you know, UTSA is
always going to give them trouble, you know, but I
will say that, and the Navy is Navy is always
a bit of a mystery box. But I will say
that you take a look at the way that that
things have kind of shaken up for them, and I
would say that if you get past this week, North
Texas can really start dreaming big dreams about what they want,
(11:51):
what they what they think this this team can look like.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah, it makes that game against Navy on November first
look like the final you know mile marker that they
have to box, they have to check off otherwise. All Right,
so we're talking football here with Greg Tapper, editor in
chief Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine. Let's shift to high
school football. I'm gonna ask you two questions. I don't
know if there's any relation at all, probably not between
(12:15):
the two. But I do find it interesting in the
new rankings this week that you have out in the
top twenty five, there are five teams who were not
ranked a week ago. Woodland's College Park at twenty, Rockwall
Heath at twenty two, Siblosteel twenty three, and they had
been ranked at one point tom Ball twenty four in
(12:36):
si Fair twenty five. There are so there's five teams
there that were not ranked. There's also not as much
hubbub shall I say about duncan Villdesota as I can
remember in some past years.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
And I don't know if the two are related.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
But I guess my point is is the relationship between
that and a more wide open six say this year, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I think you hit the nail on the head. This
is a This is a story about parody, and and
parody has come to class six A in A in
a classification which has largely been in past years. You
and I have talked about it about how there are
years where it's like, all right, wake me up when
we get Duncanville De Soto, you know, or wake me
up when we get duncan Villain North Shore, or wake
(13:23):
me up when we get to these big games. Six
A has felt a lot more like, quite frankly, like
four A or like three A, where it's, oh, any
team can beat any team any week, and you know,
for we look this up. This is the first time
that duncan Villa and De Soto will play one another,
and neither team is undefeated since twenty fifteen, so it's
(13:45):
been ten years since they've since neither team has been
undefeated entering this game, and it is a fascinating ball
game with a lot on the line, because if you're
Duncanville and you lose this game, you are looking at
being the second second D one seed out of out
of district elevensay. And then for DeSoto, you know, all
the good vibes that you've been able to put together
over the past three weeks where they kind of got
(14:07):
off the mat after a RUFO and to start, all
those vibes kind of go out the window. There's a
lot to lose in this game, I think for both
these teams. But I think that you're right, there is
kind of this new blood, this new group of teams
that I think have established themselves that people are talking about.
You know, just even just look at the undefeated teams, right,
just look at the unefeated teams that are rank so
(14:28):
obviously they are big brand names, but who haven't been
to the mountaintop recently, like South Lake, Carol and Allen.
You've got relative new blood in the Houston area like Humble,
Summer Creek and Fort ben Ridgepoint and Dickinson. Of course
you know Lake Travis is in there as well, but
Paarland's having a great year. And then you've got Dripping
Springs having a great year per usual. But then you've
got teams like North forty. You've got teams like the
(14:48):
Woodlands College Park, who's coming off of a huge win
over Willis last week. San Antonio Harlan, a relatively young
program down there in the in the Alamo City. It
is a very deep year in six A, and I
think that it's a very evenly match team year that
right now, you know, I feel good about the two
teams we have at the top in South Lake Carolin Allen.
They have looked like the two best teams in six
(15:08):
A week in and week out. But it also I
think stands to reason that what we've seen from Class
six aight is that you cannot take any week and
any game at face value because these two this classification
I think has reached a certain level of parody that
is going to make it really fun as we enter
these district races where the games start to really matter.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, to your point, I've got a pretty good game
I think matchup this week with San Antonio Johnson and
San Antonio Reagan. Neither one is ranked, even though Johnson
is unbeaten and in the highest ranked San Antonio Area
school is the aforementioned Harlan So I mean it speaks
to a lot of different You might say contenders for
(15:52):
the crown if you will.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Well, and I would say this that you know your
game this week the Stone Oak super Bowl is is
a perfect example of what I mean. You would look
at the records in this game and you'd say, okay,
Johnson and Entry five and oh they've been fantastic. Love
what they've been able to do offensively, they were excellent
last week and in kind of overmatching Santoina Roosevelt, I
(16:14):
love Elvis astro out of their quarterback. And then you
look at Reagan, they're like, okay, well two and three,
it's a down year for Reagan. I hey, one, don't
I think Reagan's better than their record indicates at two
and three and two. You add in the rivalry aspect
of it, and if you told me, if you woke
me up on Saturday morning and said, hey, by the
way you slept your Friday night, just to let you
(16:35):
know Reagan b. Johnson, I'd be like, yeah, okay, that
makes sense to me. I think that that is perfectly
emblematic of kind of the parodo we've come to expect
in that there's these rivalry games within districts, teams know
each other really well. I think you've got that, and
you can take that same idea and expand it out
to the entire state, where now there is parody within
across the entire state. That will make this a really
(16:59):
fun kind of finished to the season, simply because there's
going to be a couple of games that throw everything
into flux. I'll give you an example last week McNeil's
win over Vandergrift. I cannot tell you, guys how crazy
that makes District twenty five to six A like. It's
that is the kind the kind of game that if
(17:20):
you had just penciled it in as a W for Vandergrift,
suddenly you have to go back and not just erase that,
but erase a lot of the other priors you have
about District twenty five six A, just those We're getting
more and more of those, which I think makes this
a particularly fun classification to watch. In the past, it
hasn't always been that fun. It's been kind of like, Okay,
we're marching. We're waiting till it's regional final week or
(17:40):
stet semi final week before we can really get those
clash of titans. Those classes are happening now and we're
getting some surprising results of that. Yeah, as a result,
it would be everybody below Vandergriff was in that crazy
soup that we used to talk about a lot on
the show. Now the soup includes Vandergriff with all of
those permutations that that.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Texts to do about the other night. It's nuts right
now in that district.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
And to that point we mentioned it off the top,
that game in huddle is enormous with round Rock and
Huddo because those are two teams. For Huddo it's an
opportunity to stay out of the soup, and for round
Rock it's an opportunity to maybe emerge from the soup
and take there and drag Huddo back into the soup
with them. It is a mess in the best possible way,
(18:23):
which which makes for high stakes football here in week seven.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
You know, I look at that thing, just keeping it
on that district for a moment, and what we were
talking about, the fact that McNeil beat Van Grid, Van
de Griff beat Vista Ridge, Vista Ridge beat Round Rock,
Round Rock beat McNeil. This week you have McNeil playing
Vista Ridge, which is big Huddle, and Round Rock which
is big as you mentioned. And the last three games
for Huddle are home against Vandergriff at Vista Ridge and
(18:49):
at home against mc neil. This thing's going down to
the final hours again, it looks like, except this time
maybe all four spots are up for grabs. Oh I
think so, and so if you're Huddle coach Eli Reinhart,
like things have been good, You've been trending in the
right direction, and you've won the games you're supposed to.
After that week one loss, say Marcus, you're trending in
the right way. There is still so much work to
(19:12):
do out in front of this and it starts this week.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
There is like coaches will tell you, oh, you know,
every district game, you take it seriously, you stack it up,
you know, you make sure your your your mind is
right for every game. And they're not lying. But at
the same time, there's a lot of coaches who, if
you get them behind closed doors, be like, yeah, we're
playing the last place team in district. We're gonna take
care of it. Twenty five six A Legitimately, if you
(19:36):
do not have your head screwed on straight. Every single week,
you're gonna get dragged down in the mud. And if
you get into the mud, there's no guarantee you're getting
out of it, because this district is so balanced and
there have been enough results that have turned this whole
thing upside down.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
All right, let me give you three games, and you
can tell me which one you would teleport too if
you could be at one. One of them would be
the aforementioned can build a sota that would That would
be one of them, one of them. The second choice
of that would be Salina hosting Sulfur Springs, which in
(20:14):
your poll is number one against number six in the state.
And uh, then what was the third one I had down?
The third one I had down was this is not
the right paper. Hold on now I'm just searching for it.
Now I had the third one, hear, and now I've
lost it.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I'll tell you this, So Solina Sulfur Springs, it was.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
It was the crop bowl. Lindsay, monster, Okay, Well that's
the answer. The answer is monster, Lindsay.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Okay. But I'll tell you what slin and Sulfur Springs
is one of only two matchups of UI l unbeatens
this week Salina Sulfur Springs. The other one is George
weston Odom, which is a real like Sicico super Bowl,
like if you are into high school football, like Odom
and Odam that George West is like a man from
two of the top three offenses in three Division two
(21:04):
going out anyway. One of them, George Rustlans is a
lot to It's great, Okay, all right, the answer is
to crowd Bowl. It is their fifty sixth meeting. I
think it is and Lindsay. I think it's really quietly.
It's Lindsay Munster. By the way, Lindsay is very quietly
put together a great season five and zero. They've got
a young quarterback who's really blossom. I think his name
(21:27):
is No. One Flowers. I think it's Springs to mind.
I think their defense has been great. Munsters had their number.
Munsters won nine to the last ten. This game is
at Hornet Stadium. It's hard to see the state, the
defending state champs going down. They're three and two, but
their two losses are to a state ranked three eighty
two team in Holiday and a team that could be
ranked in three eighty one in Pottsborough. I think this
(21:49):
is a whale of ball game two. If you don't know,
two German Catholic towns separated by about ten miles up
in kind of North Texas, and it's it's like the
friendliest rival you'll ever see like these. Like these, it's
basically one community up there. All know each other very
very well. We all know, oh yeah, there's keen on
on both sides and stuff and so. But it'll be
a great ball game. And I think I like Munster,
(22:12):
but that's that to me, is the game of the week.
I'm really excited about the crapp bol.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Okay, and I'm going to tell you in advanced spoiler
alert when you put that up for me when I'm
on with you on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
That's my choice also, Okay, just saying, just saying, I'll pretend,
but ill on the air, I'll pretend that like, oh wow,
what a shocking revelation.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah yeah, right, all right, he's Greig Temper, editor in
chief Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine. Appreciate the time, TAMP
will see you, absolute voice, take care.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
All right.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Uh, that's Greg Temper there, and it is if you've
ever been to a Lindsay Munster game.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
You'll you'll know what I'm talking about. It.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
It's a great, great river. I think they're exactly twelve
miles apart on US eighty two. They have German Fest
in Munster every year and they have it and they're both,
like he said, his historically German Catholic rooted communities. They
know each other really, really well, and it's a great rivalry.
(23:09):
It really is a monster. Is an outstanding program at
the Penning State champ They're the highest ranked two loss
team in the state rankings, the number two and two
eight Division two with a three and two record. As
he pointed out, punching up class playing two higher classification
really good teams accounts for their two losses, and Lindsay's unbeaten,
So that's one to keep an eye on.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
All right.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
We'll hear from Brian Schotneimer, the Cowboys head coach, up
next on thirteen under his own
Okay, continue here on thirteen under the zone, and of
course we regale you coming back in the three o'clock
hour on a Texan Tuesday. Willie Nelson in the song Dallas,
So what you know, why not? Why not go up
to the Dallas Fort Worth metro plagues. Greg Tepper is
the editor in chief of Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Correct me if we're wrong.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
The offices of Texas Football Magazine are located in beautiful Lewisville, Texas.
Are they not just straight up by thirty five, halfway
between Dallas and Detton.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes, if you make your way up to Lewisville, you
can find the Dave Campbell's Texas Football mothership. And yeah,
we're we're headquartered up here kind of north of north
of town. So although I'm sure Austin runs into the
same thing too, where it's like where what is Dallas?
What is Austin? Right, It's just it's this sprawl. I mean,
(00:50):
it's hard to know. We were talking earlier today. There's
a big game this week in Hudder. Hudder's got a
huge game against round Rock in a critical critical district
twenty five six A and Huddo I guess you can
see Austin from there, like maybe, but like the sprawl
kind of gives it that that difficult. Uh. What I'm
(01:12):
saying is that like we're kind of having a hard
time drawing these boundaries of what actually represents these cities,
but we would be technically tallus. I think, yeah, yeah,
that's true.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Even though you're in a different county in edd County
up there, and even though Huddo's in Williamson County and
in northeastern Williamson County at that. Uh, but you're right
there are people ask me a lot of times where
you live. I said in the Austin area. When they say, aw, where,
and I say, well, Georgetown. That's that's a solid thirty
miles north.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
It's up there. It's like I live in McKinney. You know,
I live in Dallis, you know up there. Yeah, well,
I'll tell you what we run into. So we divide
up the state in order to just from high school
football purposes, we divide up the state into twenty one
different regions. It's it's the only way to do it
to make the least amount of people mad. And yet
you are always going to those cases are going to
(02:01):
be like, where do you draw the line? Like, you know,
I'll give you a perfect example. Is you think about
like Parker County is east of is very far west
of DFW.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
And then that's where Alito is. We technically consider a DFW,
but you could call that Big Country. You could call
that any which number of ways. And then don't get
me started on places like super Syntax Region, which it's
basically like Greater Greater Greater Waco, Greater Waco. It's impossible
to draw lines evenly around the state. It's too unwielding.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
You know why that is, I'll tell you just from
my own history of it and living up in the
Metroplex and all that other kind of stuff. Some of
it has to do with, you know, television markets. For example,
I saw that it was a week or two ago,
you guys had a game listed and lamp Passa's was
(02:54):
in it and it was listed as Big Country. Well,
Lampes's is fifty miles northwest of Austin, you know, so
a lot of folks would take issue with that, But
they were playing at b Country School and so so
it's like yeah, and and and yet if you talk
to my broadcast partner Roger Wallace, who's the sports director
at k x A n LAMB passes. Even though it's
fifty miles from Austin and it's about the same southwest
(03:17):
of Waco, is it considered part of the Austin ADI
you know, the market. So they're in those areas I
referred to as black holes. You know how many times
have you gotten into it or I've gotten into it,
or at least into discussion with people about what is
East Texas? What is deep As East Texas or Piney Woods?
(03:42):
I mean, yeah, you know what, well, it's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
You get into those those middle parts and you're exactly
right East Texas. That whole area is is kind of
like you get along the kind of the eastern border
of Texas and it is just it's a free for all.
I mean, uh, you know East Texas. I think general
like this is broad Strokes, Greater, Tyler, greater, greater, Greater Tyler, Okay,
Piney Woods greater, greater, greater, like Nacdoches. Yeah, uh, and
(04:13):
then like and then you get down to the Golden
Triangle and there are people who will draw some pretty
pretty story lines down there, but like Greater Beaumont down there,
But don't you dare consider it teams that are Golden
Triangle to be Houston. And it's just it's it's a mess.
It's it's a mess. That's that's why I appreciate I
appreciate the Rio Grand Valley because the Rio Grand Valley
has very distinct and they will get onto you if
(04:35):
you try to expand it a little bit north, be like, yeah, well,
like there's because there's towns in between, like San Antonio
and and the Rio grand Ville, Like Alice is a
perfect example. What do you do with Alice? They are
in they are in no man's land right now. But
don't you dare lump them in with the valley because
I'll be like, no, no, no, no, Brownsville and Alice are
not are not the same, folks.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
No, And there's what I learned over there's upper Valley,
mid Valley, and lower Valley. Yeah, and and and don't
and don't you dare put Laredo in there, because oh
there was a time we tried to lump Laredo in
there because we're like, oh, they're all along kind of
the Texas Mexico border, right, like like both Rio Grand
Valley and Laredo was like absolutely not.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
No, no, no. So we learned our lesson pretty quick only.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
And people out on the South Plains as it, don't
call us West Texas ru on the South Plains and
we're not the pan don't call on the Panhandle either.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Don't call the Panhandle either. That's Amarillo are not the same.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
That's always great, great geography lessons here the geography of
college football in this state. And looking at the uh
the Dave Campbell's Texas Football uh FBS power Pole. Uh,
some folks would have felt as preposterous for the season began,
but uh, here's Texas down to number six and ranked
(05:50):
ahead of them Texas A and M in the one spot,
Texas Tech to two, TCU three, Baylor four and s
m U five, and UH A and M and Texas
Tech certainly have done nothing to shake up what their
situation is right now because both of those teams.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Are on a roll. Yeah, part of it, Part of
it is just that, you know, you look at team.
Part of it has been obviously Texas's tumble, and I
think you guys have probably talked enough about that. But
a lot of this is also just a and M
and Tech have looked just spectacular. I mean, for for
A and M. You know, last week, I thought in
their win over Mississippi State, after starting off relatively slow,
(06:27):
for them to get that ground game going through ban
Owens and then that defense to really step up a
real complete win, like a complete win. And I think
that's something that a lot of programs cross the state,
including Texas, have kind of been chasing, is that complete win.
And I think the same thing can be for what
Texas Tech is. And I know we've we've talked about this,
but the fact that Texas Tech is winning the way
(06:49):
that they do, and the fact that they are winning
a defensive football I mean, playing and simple, this is
a This is a This is a team who you
can make the real argument their defense is better than
their offense. I mean, they are ninth in the nation
in score in total defense right now. Uh, they have
been excellent defensively and by the way they are running
the ball when they have had a little bit of
(07:11):
you know, in a in a universe in which you know,
Tech Tech does have the number one uh, you know,
total offense in the in the nation. But in a
universe in which Texas Tech has kind of been bouncing
between a pair of quarterbacks and parent Morton will Hammond,
and both have looked good. It kind of hasn't mattered
all that much because Cameron Dickey's been so good and
(07:32):
Jacoby Williams has stepped up, and they've got this kind
of bevy of backs back there who've led the way
on the ground, and so I think those two teams
certainly look very complete. I thought TCU has looked very good,
uh last week with a with a good win over Colorado, uh,
and then and then Baylor as well. Baylor, I think, uh,
it was it hasn't always been pretty and hasn't always
(07:52):
been easy, but a win over Kansas State or is
a win, and they they were able to get done
and and s to me won and on conference play
right now. You know, it's funny to say because the
flagship program in Texas is in the crosshairs right now,
and not for good reasons. It's but college football from
an FBS perspective, cross state of Texas, not even mentioning
(08:14):
North Texas, who has a huge game this week in
South Florida. The college football is pretty healthy at the
FBS level in the state of Texas. The majority of
these programs have have looked very, very good and have
reason to be in their respective conference title races.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Other than and this is a big other, but other
than a trip to tenp on October eighteenth, is there
anybody that you can see realistically beating Texas Tech and
them not being unbeaten going into the Big Twelve championship game.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
You know, look, Arizona State, obviously on the road, is
going to be tough. And the thing about it is,
I think the Big Twelve is such that every one
of these games is going to They're gonna have to
put their best foot forward. And I don't think Texas
Tech and I think Joey McGuire would agree with this.
I don't think that they have done enough historically to
(09:10):
get that benefit of the doubt where they can go
out there and they play a team like Kansas this
week and they can just throw their jock on the
field and they're gonna win the ball game. I just
don't think they they've earned that yet. But you take
a look at their schedule, and that's why I think
that win over over Utah was so important, because that
really did represent the big land mine there now They've
(09:30):
got Arizona State you mentioned in Tempe in a couple
of weeks, and then you know they get BYU at home.
Aside from that, you know, Kansas State has traditionally been
a bit of a house of horrors for them up
there in Manhattan. But that feels like a beatable team.
I'll tell you what I mean. Right now, My guess
(09:50):
is the Texas Tech is going to be favored in
the remainder of their ball games and looking at a
twelve and oh mark and heading to the conference championship game,
which was obviously always step one for them. And we
talked in the in the preseason, you and I about
how the bar for Texas Tech was to you know,
at least play for the Big Troll Championship. They didn't
(10:11):
play for the Patrol Championship. It was probably going to
be it might cost joeymaguire's job. Right now, they're certainly
trending in the right direction and look the part of
the team to beat in the conference in your opinion.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Bigger game this week Texas A and M hosting Florida,
North Texas hosting South Florida. It's North Texas hosting South Florida.
Because I'll tell you what you know, you start again,
you start talking about teams that have a lot to gain. Here,
North Texas they beat South Florida this week, and then
(10:42):
you suddenly really start having trouble finding their loss, and
you start talking about a team with not just a
legitimate chance at playing for an AAC championship, not just
a legitimate chance of winning the AAC Championship, but also
a legitimate chance of making the College Football Playoff. The
path is there for them, and and right now they
(11:04):
have looked the part and a lot of it ultimately.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
I mean, it is a resurgent defense. Their their defense
has been significantly better. But offensively, the balance they've got
with Mackenzie McGill running the ball and Drew Messamaker throwing
the ball, they are just they are a team you
don't want to face right now. And it's going to
be presumably a really nice crowd in Denton on Saturday
or Friday night. Rather this is a big, big game
(11:29):
for them, and if they are able to pull out
this win, this does feel like, you know, UTSA is
always going to give them trouble, you know, but I
will say that, and the Navy is Navy is always
a bit of a mystery box. But I will say
that you take a look at the way that that
things have kind of shaken up for them, and I
would say that if you get past this week, North
Texas can really start dreaming big dreams about what they want,
(11:51):
what they what they think this this team can look like.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah, it makes that game against Navy on November first
look like the final you know mile marker that they
have to box, they have to check off otherwise. All Right,
so we're talking football here with Greg Tapper, editor in
chief Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine. Let's shift to high
school football. I'm gonna ask you two questions. I don't
know if there's any relation at all, probably not between
(12:15):
the two. But I do find it interesting in the
new rankings this week that you have out in the
top twenty five, there are five teams who were not
ranked a week ago. Woodland's College Park at twenty, Rockwall
Heath at twenty two, Siblosteel twenty three, and they had
been ranked at one point tom Ball twenty four in
(12:36):
si Fair twenty five. There are so there's five teams
there that were not ranked. There's also not as much
hubbub shall I say about duncan Villdesota as I can
remember in some past years.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
And I don't know if the two are related.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
But I guess my point is is the relationship between
that and a more wide open six say this year, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I think you hit the nail on the head. This
is a This is a story about parody, and and
parody has come to class six A in A in
a classification which has largely been in past years. You
and I have talked about it about how there are
years where it's like, all right, wake me up when
we get Duncanville De Soto, you know, or wake me
up when we get duncan Villain North Shore, or wake
(13:23):
me up when we get to these big games. Six
A has felt a lot more like, quite frankly, like
four A or like three A, where it's, oh, any
team can beat any team any week, and you know,
for we look this up. This is the first time
that duncan Villa and De Soto will play one another,
and neither team is undefeated since twenty fifteen, so it's
(13:45):
been ten years since they've since neither team has been
undefeated entering this game, and it is a fascinating ball
game with a lot on the line, because if you're
Duncanville and you lose this game, you are looking at
being the second second D one seed out of out
of district elevensay. And then for DeSoto, you know, all
the good vibes that you've been able to put together
over the past three weeks where they kind of got
(14:07):
off the mat after a RUFO and to start, all
those vibes kind of go out the window. There's a
lot to lose in this game, I think for both
these teams. But I think that you're right, there is
kind of this new blood, this new group of teams
that I think have established themselves that people are talking about.
You know, just even just look at the undefeated teams, right,
just look at the unefeated teams that are rank so
(14:28):
obviously they are big brand names, but who haven't been
to the mountaintop recently, like South Lake, Carol and Allen.
You've got relative new blood in the Houston area like Humble,
Summer Creek and Fort ben Ridgepoint and Dickinson. Of course
you know Lake Travis is in there as well, but
Paarland's having a great year. And then you've got Dripping
Springs having a great year per usual. But then you've
got teams like North forty. You've got teams like the
(14:48):
Woodlands College Park, who's coming off of a huge win
over Willis last week. San Antonio Harlan, a relatively young
program down there in the in the Alamo City. It
is a very deep year in six A, and I
think that it's a very evenly match team year that
right now, you know, I feel good about the two
teams we have at the top in South Lake Carolin Allen.
They have looked like the two best teams in six
(15:08):
A week in and week out. But it also I
think stands to reason that what we've seen from Class
six aight is that you cannot take any week and
any game at face value because these two this classification
I think has reached a certain level of parody that
is going to make it really fun as we enter
these district races where the games start to really matter.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Yeah, to your point, I've got a pretty good game
I think matchup this week with San Antonio Johnson and
San Antonio Reagan. Neither one is ranked, even though Johnson
is unbeaten and in the highest ranked San Antonio Area
school is the aforementioned Harlan So I mean it speaks
to a lot of different You might say contenders for
(15:52):
the crown if you will.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Well, and I would say this that you know your
game this week the Stone Oak super Bowl is is
a perfect example of what I mean. You would look
at the records in this game and you'd say, okay,
Johnson and Entry five and oh they've been fantastic. Love
what they've been able to do offensively, they were excellent
last week and in kind of overmatching Santoina Roosevelt, I
(16:14):
love Elvis astro out of their quarterback. And then you
look at Reagan, they're like, okay, well two and three,
it's a down year for Reagan. I hey, one, don't
I think Reagan's better than their record indicates at two
and three and two. You add in the rivalry aspect
of it, and if you told me, if you woke
me up on Saturday morning and said, hey, by the
way you slept your Friday night, just to let you
(16:35):
know Reagan b. Johnson, I'd be like, yeah, okay, that
makes sense to me. I think that that is perfectly
emblematic of kind of the parodo we've come to expect
in that there's these rivalry games within districts, teams know
each other really well. I think you've got that, and
you can take that same idea and expand it out
to the entire state, where now there is parody within
across the entire state. That will make this a really
(16:59):
fun kind of finished to the season, simply because there's
going to be a couple of games that throw everything
into flux. I'll give you an example last week McNeil's
win over Vandergrift. I cannot tell you, guys how crazy
that makes District twenty five to six A like. It's
that is the kind the kind of game that if
(17:20):
you had just penciled it in as a W for Vandergrift,
suddenly you have to go back and not just erase that,
but erase a lot of the other priors you have
about District twenty five six A, just those We're getting
more and more of those, which I think makes this
a particularly fun classification to watch. In the past, it
hasn't always been that fun. It's been kind of like, Okay,
we're marching. We're waiting till it's regional final week or
(17:40):
stet semi final week before we can really get those
clash of titans. Those classes are happening now and we're
getting some surprising results of that. Yeah, as a result,
it would be everybody below Vandergriff was in that crazy
soup that we used to talk about a lot on
the show. Now the soup includes Vandergriff with all of
those permutations that that.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Texts to do about the other night. It's nuts right
now in that district.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
And to that point we mentioned it off the top,
that game in huddle is enormous with round Rock and
Huddo because those are two teams. For Huddo it's an
opportunity to stay out of the soup, and for round
Rock it's an opportunity to maybe emerge from the soup
and take there and drag Huddo back into the soup
with them. It is a mess in the best possible way,
(18:23):
which which makes for high stakes football here in week seven.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
You know, I look at that thing, just keeping it
on that district for a moment, and what we were
talking about, the fact that McNeil beat Van Grid, Van
de Griff beat Vista Ridge, Vista Ridge beat Round Rock,
Round Rock beat McNeil. This week you have McNeil playing
Vista Ridge, which is big Huddle, and Round Rock which
is big as you mentioned. And the last three games
for Huddle are home against Vandergriff at Vista Ridge and
(18:49):
at home against mc neil. This thing's going down to
the final hours again, it looks like, except this time
maybe all four spots are up for grabs. Oh I
think so, and so if you're Huddle coach Eli Reinhart,
like things have been good, You've been trending in the
right direction, and you've won the games you're supposed to.
After that week one loss, say Marcus, you're trending in
the right way. There is still so much work to
(19:12):
do out in front of this and it starts this week.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
There is like coaches will tell you, oh, you know,
every district game, you take it seriously, you stack it up,
you know, you make sure your your your mind is
right for every game. And they're not lying. But at
the same time, there's a lot of coaches who, if
you get them behind closed doors, be like, yeah, we're
playing the last place team in district. We're gonna take
care of it. Twenty five six A Legitimately, if you
(19:36):
do not have your head screwed on straight. Every single week,
you're gonna get dragged down in the mud. And if
you get into the mud, there's no guarantee you're getting
out of it, because this district is so balanced and
there have been enough results that have turned this whole
thing upside down.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
All right, let me give you three games, and you
can tell me which one you would teleport too if
you could be at one. One of them would be
the aforementioned can build a sota that would That would
be one of them, one of them. The second choice
of that would be Salina hosting Sulfur Springs, which in
(20:14):
your poll is number one against number six in the state.
And uh, then what was the third one I had down?
The third one I had down was this is not
the right paper. Hold on now I'm just searching for it.
Now I had the third one, hear, and now I've
lost it.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I'll tell you this, So Solina Sulfur Springs, it was.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
It was the crop bowl. Lindsay, monster, Okay, Well that's
the answer. The answer is monster, Lindsay.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Okay. But I'll tell you what slin and Sulfur Springs
is one of only two matchups of UI l unbeatens
this week Salina Sulfur Springs. The other one is George
weston Odom, which is a real like Sicico super Bowl,
like if you are into high school football, like Odom
and Odam that George West is like a man from
two of the top three offenses in three Division two
(21:04):
going out anyway. One of them, George Rustlans is a
lot to It's great, Okay, all right, the answer is
to crowd Bowl. It is their fifty sixth meeting. I
think it is and Lindsay. I think it's really quietly.
It's Lindsay Munster. By the way, Lindsay is very quietly
put together a great season five and zero. They've got
a young quarterback who's really blossom. I think his name
(21:27):
is No. One Flowers. I think it's Springs to mind.
I think their defense has been great. Munsters had their number.
Munsters won nine to the last ten. This game is
at Hornet Stadium. It's hard to see the state, the
defending state champs going down. They're three and two, but
their two losses are to a state ranked three eighty
two team in Holiday and a team that could be
ranked in three eighty one in Pottsborough. I think this
(21:49):
is a whale of ball game two. If you don't know,
two German Catholic towns separated by about ten miles up
in kind of North Texas, and it's it's like the
friendliest rival you'll ever see like these. Like these, it's
basically one community up there. All know each other very
very well. We all know, oh yeah, there's keen on
on both sides and stuff and so. But it'll be
a great ball game. And I think I like Munster,
(22:12):
but that's that to me, is the game of the week.
I'm really excited about the crapp bol.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Okay, and I'm going to tell you in advanced spoiler
alert when you put that up for me when I'm
on with you on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
That's my choice also, Okay, just saying, just saying, I'll pretend,
but ill on the air, I'll pretend that like, oh wow,
what a shocking revelation.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Yeah yeah, right, all right, he's Greig Temper, editor in
chief Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine. Appreciate the time, TAMP
will see you, absolute voice, take care.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
All right.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Uh, that's Greg Temper there, and it is if you've
ever been to a Lindsay Munster game.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
You'll you'll know what I'm talking about. It.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
It's a great, great river. I think they're exactly twelve
miles apart on US eighty two. They have German Fest
in Munster every year and they have it and they're both,
like he said, his historically German Catholic rooted communities. They
know each other really, really well, and it's a great rivalry.
(23:09):
It really is a monster. Is an outstanding program at
the Penning State champ They're the highest ranked two loss
team in the state rankings, the number two and two
eight Division two with a three and two record. As
he pointed out, punching up class playing two higher classification
really good teams accounts for their two losses, and Lindsay's unbeaten,
So that's one to keep an eye on.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
All right.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
We'll hear from Brian Schotneimer, the Cowboys head coach, up
next on thirteen under his own
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