October 7, 2025 • 19 mins
Oklahoma Sooners play-by-play voice Toby Rowland joins the program for an inside look at OU before this weekend's Red River Rivalry matchup.
They discuss Oklahoma's success under new OC Ben Arbuckle, quarterback John Mateer's latest injury updates, and a great start for the Sooners' defense in 2025.
Plus, they share favorite (and least favorite) memories from the Cotton Bowl during one of the best traditions and rivalries in sports.
They discuss Oklahoma's success under new OC Ben Arbuckle, quarterback John Mateer's latest injury updates, and a great start for the Sooners' defense in 2025.
Plus, they share favorite (and least favorite) memories from the Cotton Bowl during one of the best traditions and rivalries in sports.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Texas Oklahoma game. By the way, the series between
these two teams has been played an awful long time.
In fact, it'll be this series of sixty four to
fifty one to five all time for Texas. Sooners have
won seventeen in the last twenty six games. It's important
(00:23):
to point out that as well. And this will be
the one one hundred and twenty first meeting between the
long Wrns and the Sooners. The first one happened in
nineteen hundred in Austin. Since nineteen twenty nine, they played
annually at fair Park, and Dallas used to have the
old Fair Parks Stadium, the wooden grandstand thing. It tore
that down and then built in honor of the centennial
(00:45):
the Texas State Fair in nineteen thirty six, and so
the game has been played inside that Cotton Bowl every
year since nineteen thirty seven. And I can promise you
that my good friend Toby Roland was not there to
witness the first one of that.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The voice of the Oklahoma Sooner joins us on the hotline.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
How you doing, Tiro, I am great grigger, how are
you sir?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Wonderful? Wonderful and uh and I appreciate you taking this time.
You know, you and I when when we usually when
we hop on each other's programs, we've done that over
the years. One thing that always comes out is what
our favorite memories of the games are, and uh, you know,
(01:28):
favorite moments and and all that kind of stuff, not
to mention the State Fair food and and all of
those things. It's interesting, isn't it? Over the years? How
what appeals to us? Obviously the football and the great
brand of football and some of the great games that
we've seen over the years, but just the spectacle of
everything is always kind of resonates with us, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I think that is what makes this game different, right.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I think that, uh, there are a lot of great
rivalries in in sports period. Army Navy is incredible, Ohio State, Michigan, Auburn, Alabama, Yankees,
Red Sox, Celtics, Lakers, on and on, but there's nothing
quite like this. This is I like to call it
(02:14):
the greatest game in American sports. It's just one single
game on one single day. And the pageantry, the pomped circumstance,
the setting, the way that the fans are arranged, everything
that goes into it is so unique and unparalleled in
all of American sports, and usually and this year is
(02:38):
another example, there is something very very important on the
line as well, and you throw some good old fashioned
hate in there, you know, and it's just the best.
It is the absolute best sporting event that I get
to cover.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
And that I think exists period in America.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I've always said that if we're not broadcasting the game,
I would want to be on the aisle seat on
the fifty right where the dividing line is, just to
listen to the banter, to the conversation what that must
be like. And I know there's little pockets of based
(03:17):
on the way the seating configuration it works, there's a
little pocket of Oklahoma fans that sitting that far north
end zone up there because the amount of seats there
is a post of the tunnel in on the south.
So I get that, I understand that. But just if
you were sitting on that dividing line, how much fun
would that be?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Right? I've sat there.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Night, yeah, upper deck in front of the press box
nineteen ninety seven. I sat right on the fifty for
the Ricky Williams, Demond Parker. Oh yah down, Yeah, what
a game?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
What a game?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
And Texas won that game. But I sat right on
the fifty and it was the chief seats. It was
way up high, but it was, you know, an incredible experience.
And you're right, you know, everybody to your left or
right is cheering on every single play, and there was
a lot to cheer about on that day because those
two dudes put on quite a performance on that afternoon.
(04:13):
What were you like nine back then when you went
nineteen ninety seven, I was freshly out of college, okay,
twenty four.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, I'm not that young.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I got grandkids now, Craig had two grandkids.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
As do I, But that was, you know, by then,
my year old. Yeah, well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
We all agree. Year old. That was.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
That was my eighth year on the network and my
fifth in the broadcast, working to Bill shouting on that one.
But I remember that was what year did you call
your first game? Two thousand and two? That was to
come from behind when for the Sooners? When later my
later talk show co host and and and then later
sideline reporter Rod Babers had to pick six in that game,
(05:00):
and Texas was up fourteen to three at the half,
and the Sooners turned it around and they won thirty
five twenty four. That was in the midst of that
glorious run for Bob Stoops of five in a row.
That's why when people ask me, and I'll ask you
for the same people ask me, what you know, what's
your favorite memory from a Texas winning perspective, And people
(05:20):
point out a lot of the ones like the Dick
or the Kicker game, and several others and all this
other kind of stuff, or even forty nine to nothing
a couple of years ago. No, it's two thousand and
five because it was the end of the streak. They
finally were able to end the street. Now it was lopside,
it was forty five to twelve, but still it was
ending the streak, and I could see the relief on
the faces and the elation of a lot of Logorn
(05:42):
fans because it had been a great run, including a
national championship, and in the first of that run in
two thousand for Bob Stoops group. So how about you
from an Oklahoma perspective, what's your favorite moment?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Well before before I started calling the games, it would
be the year before you started the game. Is my
partner Teddy Layman's famous moment. Of course, the Superman play
that is regarded by many O you fans is kind
of the greatest play in OU history.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It's it's certainly way up there.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Since I've been calling them, you know, we have been
on an amazing run in the last half decade, six
years or so, where we had amazing finish after amazing finish.
The four overtime game, the COVID year was incredible, Kennedy
Brooks game where he won it there at the end
(06:39):
fifty five forty eight, if I remember correctly, a shootout
that was two years ago, the Dylan Gabriel drive at
the end of the game to when it was remarkable,
and then the year before that and the year after
that haven't been much fun at.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
All, I understand. Sooner, Yeah, yeah, there's been some great ones.
We've been some great memories.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And since you and I have been together, yeah, you know,
since you and I've been together. It's funny we both
have those kinds of things, like those last second thrillers.
I mentioned the Dick or the Kicker game, you know,
so on and so forth. There's that, and then you
just mentioned thirty four, three and forty nine. Nothing to
the last three years, but I can I can see
that and raise his sixty three, fourteen, sixty three, twenty one,
(07:19):
and fifty five seventeen. I remember those very well too,
So I guess that.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Only goes there a lot harder as a broadcaster, when
you're on the wrong end of a drubbing, it's a long,
long day.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Do you find yourself when it's one of those like
both of us have experienced, and not just in the
games between these two schools, but if you're but if
you're on the business end, the short end of a
game against somebody else, and the same thing with with
with me for Texas, do you find yourself at that
point just kind of lock it in and calling the
(07:51):
play by play and hoping your analysts can kind of
pick up the pieces and talk about it from there.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah, you got to find a way somehow to still
make it entertaining. Yeah, you got to find a way
to still you know, make people want to listen. But
if it's ow you Texas, like we've experienced, uh two
of the last three years, if it's going the wrong
way and it's it's uh, it's ugly, I find myself
just daydreaming of corny dogs after the game.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I'm with that helps me, That helps me get by.
I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Toby Rowlins with the play by play voice of the Sudero. Okay,
let's let's talk about this team. What has impressed you
more The play of the Sooner defense to this point
in the season, or what Oklahoma has done offensively and
(08:42):
has done so not only with John Mattier with him
before getting banged up, but just the way that they've gone.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
About their offense. What's what's impressed you more.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, you know, it's a good question because we knew
coming into the year that there's a you know, Oklahoma
pro probably had a pretty good defense. They've been pretty
good the last couple of years. They've been trending in
that direction, and they had a lot of vets back.
That's kind of the secret for Brent Vinnables. He runs
(09:13):
a very complicated defense, and you got to live in
it for two or three years before you really grasp
it and it becomes second nature. And he's got a
lot of dudes now this year, like our Mason Thomas,
like Kobe McKenzie and Kip Lewis, Gentry Williams and Robert Spears,
Jennings and on and on and on who have been
(09:35):
here as long as he's been here, and they get it,
they understand it, and they have been fantastic. So I'm
not surprised the defense has been good. I'm surprised it's
been this good, you know. I mean they they are
tops in the SEC and virtually every defensive category except
for turnovers forced. They have been hard to run on,
(09:59):
hard to throw, They've been great tackling, They've got a
ton of pressure. It's just been it's been as good
of a defense as we've seen at Oklahoma since the
early Stoops years. Wow, now you got seven games to go,
and as soon as you say something like that, you're
just asking for Texas to light you up for thirty five.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
But I'm just telling you what I've seen so far.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
And there's been an Auburn and a Michigan in there too,
it has been very, very impressive. Offensively, they were abysmal
a year ago. And so while the offense doesn't, you know,
rank as high in the country and all the categories
as the defense does, it has been so significantly better
than it was a year ago. And I'm talking with
(10:42):
John Mattier here that it's just been I don't know
if i'd say surprise, it's just been a breath of
fresh air. I mean, it's not it's not running at
the Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Sam Bradford level. They're not
putting up gargantuan offensive statistics, but they look like a
you know, above average offense. And last year they had
(11:06):
a hard time getting a first down and so that
has been fantastic and John Mattier has been great. But
they've got healthy wide receivers, they've got a fairly healthy
offensive line, and compared to a year ago, it's just
been nice to see that the offense can go out.
The defense doesn't have to win. It's to win the
game on its own. That's what they've had to do
(11:26):
the last couple.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Of years, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Talking with Toby Rowland here, how much of a major
seismic impact has been our buckle made since stepping in
his offensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Well, it's a good word for it. You know, it's
been significant, and it's hard to know how much of
it is our Buckle and how much of it is Matier.
You know, they both came from Washington State and instantaneously
this looked like an entirely different offense. He is only thirty,
and he turned thirty in the middle of the season,
(12:04):
so he is very very young, but uber creative and
has you know, just been a lot of fun to watch.
The offense last year looked like it was stuck in mud,
and so to watch his creativity is you know, don't
tell anybody north of the Red River that I'm using
this word, but it's been a little Lincoln Riley esque
(12:26):
on the offensive side of the ball what we've seen.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
So that's been fun.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
But he also has his quarterback, and Mattier has shown
the ability to make plays out of nothing. He's got
a little swashbuckler in him, he's got a little Baker
in him. He runs around, he has some charisma, and
he's fun to watch too. So once Matier moves on,
whenever that is, we'll get a better feel for exactly
(12:51):
what ben Arbuckle is. That being said, you know, if
Oklahoma goes on and has a really good year this year,
this might be the only year that ben arbuckles at Oklahoma,
because I think he's going to be mentioned in a
whole lot of head head coaching openings at.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
It I saw the report today as many did obviously,
that said that you know that there was this uh
push by Matiar to be available, and we only know
what we know until we know what we know, and
that'll be and that'll be obviously for you as well
getting into it.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
But how about that groundbreaking report by Pete Damil today
that Mattier was trying to play for Texas.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
No, Dush Sherlock. Obviously he's trying to play.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
For tex I don't think anybody was shocked by that revelation.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
No, Pete Tamil reported what everybody in the world had
already reported.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
John tire is hoping to play against Texas.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah, yeah, and and and and really getting to know
John as you have, I guess ay that doesn't surprise you,
And that be that he would try to do whatever
he could to accelerate the process to be ready to play.
I guess is probably the better way to describe this,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Well, I mean, first off, it was a very non
invasive surgery. This is a surgery that Jared Goff had
and played eleven days later. So this is not a
crazy timeline that we're on here. I think right now
we are thirteen days removed from surgery, and by the
(14:25):
time the game rolls around it will be eighteen I think, yeah,
so it's not unheard of. For me, it all comes
down to and I don't know. I don't know if
he's gonna play or not. I you know, for the
sake of my newscast, put a different percentage on it
every day, and right now I'm at sixty percent.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Okay, there's a sixty percent chance he plays.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
But for me, it all comes down to Kenny grip
the football and throw the football.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
If he can grip it and throw it, he's gonna play.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I don't think, you know, And that could change throughout
the week. You know, if he let's say he goes
out there today at practice and catches it on a
jersey or throws fifteen to twenty passes and wakes up
tomorrow and it's swollen and throbbing, then he doesn't. But
if he has a healthy week and can grip and
(15:11):
throw a football, you're not keeping.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Him off the field.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
On Saturday, the kids from Little Elm, Texas, that's a
Grayson Miller punt away from the Cotton Bowl. I mean,
it's this is probably his one and only chance to
play in this game, and if he can at all,
he's going to play. But he just you know, we
do not We are not privy to what kind of
(15:36):
pain he's in, what the doctors are saying, how the
healing process is going, all that kind of stuff. My hunches,
my sixty percent hunches that we're gonna see him down
there on Saturday. But that's what makes this week fun.
Don't we have this every year? Isn't some major figure
injured every year and we're just waiting with baited breath
to see if he plays in this game?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, I mean it was like that with Quinn yours
in the past.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Gosh, I mean we've already yeah, I've already, like you said,
we've already established how old I am. Sorry, And go
back uh uh to any number of guys over the
years that we wanted, Hey might they be in the
be in the ball and Adrian Peterson, right, you know,
so I mean it goes back, he goes back, all right.
(16:22):
So so the last thing I'm gonna ask you here
now for folks who don't know, Toby's gone back to
the television world, and and and and and given up
the semi underside of of daily radio talk show hosting.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So he's gone back.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
He's gone back to to being the the Roger Wallace
of Oklahoma City, just as uh, just as Rogers the
Toby Rowland of of of of of Austin. So, uh
do you miss it at all? Or is that just
an absolutely stupid question.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I miss my co host T J.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Perry, who I talk to every morning for twenty one years.
I miss the interaction with some of the callers who
you know, would text he call in every day. But
I do not miss getting up at four forty five
every morning. I am very much enjoying sleeping. It's been
My body is still in shock a little bit from
(17:21):
the change in sleep schedule after two decades, so I'm
still trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
But no, it's this has been fun.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
I was in TV for a long time, got out,
and now back in and I am enjoying it. It's
a little bit of a different world than it was
when I left fourteen years ago, so I'm trying to
catch up to technology still, and I need a lot
more makeup than I used to try to make myself
camera presentable. That's a problem. Roger doesn't have at all,
(17:52):
But it's it's fun. I'm enjoying it. Who knows what
the future holds, but for now, I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Listen, we've already established again this age thing about me.
The older you get, the more you'll appreciate that sleep.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Absolutely, And you're gonna and we're gonna we're gonna rope
you into a little TV work, uh, coming up on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It'll be fun.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Hey, I appreciate you taking the time. Yeah, I'll look
forward to the visit with you on Thursday and see
you and I guess what we've been told. It's slightly
different are digs, But largely I don't know, is it.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Well, you know, all of the other media, as they'd
like to say, the old business, the ink stained wretches.
They that the writers and stuff they're on, they're all down.
Uh you know by uh the end zone. Now that
is the new main press box.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
They took a lot of that main press box and
made it in the suites. Do our windows open? Last
year our windows didn't open. That's right, I'm told. I
think we're up on the seventh level and I think
the windows do open. So I think we're I think
we'll be in good change. I think I think we'll
just my day, Craig Mine's. I can't stand and not
(19:04):
be to not feel the atmosphere of this game. Yeah,
so you just made my day. Well, I hope I'm
not wrong about that. But I've been told that it's
supposed to be deal where our windows were open, and
we'll be upstairs and still with a pretty good bird's
eye view of the stadium, and that's one of the
special things about it, right, That is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
I'll talk to you Thursday and I'll see you in
the press box on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Thanks tro I appreciate it all right.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
But that's Toby Rowling, play by play voice of the
Oklahoma Sooners coming up. We'll hear more from Arch Banning
when we continue on thirteen under the Zone.
The Texas Oklahoma game. By the way, the series between
these two teams has been played an awful long time.
In fact, it'll be this series of sixty four to
fifty one to five all time for Texas. Sooners have
won seventeen in the last twenty six games. It's important
(00:23):
to point out that as well. And this will be
the one one hundred and twenty first meeting between the
long Wrns and the Sooners. The first one happened in
nineteen hundred in Austin. Since nineteen twenty nine, they played
annually at fair Park, and Dallas used to have the
old Fair Parks Stadium, the wooden grandstand thing. It tore
that down and then built in honor of the centennial
(00:45):
the Texas State Fair in nineteen thirty six, and so
the game has been played inside that Cotton Bowl every
year since nineteen thirty seven. And I can promise you
that my good friend Toby Roland was not there to
witness the first one of that.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The voice of the Oklahoma Sooner joins us on the hotline.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
How you doing, Tiro, I am great grigger, how are
you sir?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Wonderful? Wonderful and uh and I appreciate you taking this time.
You know, you and I when when we usually when
we hop on each other's programs, we've done that over
the years. One thing that always comes out is what
our favorite memories of the games are, and uh, you know,
(01:28):
favorite moments and and all that kind of stuff, not
to mention the State Fair food and and all of
those things. It's interesting, isn't it? Over the years? How
what appeals to us? Obviously the football and the great
brand of football and some of the great games that
we've seen over the years, but just the spectacle of
everything is always kind of resonates with us, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
I think that is what makes this game different, right.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I think that, uh, there are a lot of great
rivalries in in sports period. Army Navy is incredible, Ohio State, Michigan, Auburn, Alabama, Yankees,
Red Sox, Celtics, Lakers, on and on, but there's nothing
quite like this. This is I like to call it
(02:14):
the greatest game in American sports. It's just one single
game on one single day. And the pageantry, the pomped circumstance,
the setting, the way that the fans are arranged, everything
that goes into it is so unique and unparalleled in
all of American sports, and usually and this year is
(02:38):
another example, there is something very very important on the
line as well, and you throw some good old fashioned
hate in there, you know, and it's just the best.
It is the absolute best sporting event that I get
to cover.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
And that I think exists period in America.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I've always said that if we're not broadcasting the game,
I would want to be on the aisle seat on
the fifty right where the dividing line is, just to
listen to the banter, to the conversation what that must
be like. And I know there's little pockets of based
(03:17):
on the way the seating configuration it works, there's a
little pocket of Oklahoma fans that sitting that far north
end zone up there because the amount of seats there
is a post of the tunnel in on the south.
So I get that, I understand that. But just if
you were sitting on that dividing line, how much fun
would that be?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Right? I've sat there.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Night, yeah, upper deck in front of the press box
nineteen ninety seven. I sat right on the fifty for
the Ricky Williams, Demond Parker. Oh yah down, Yeah, what
a game?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
What a game?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
And Texas won that game. But I sat right on
the fifty and it was the chief seats. It was
way up high, but it was, you know, an incredible experience.
And you're right, you know, everybody to your left or
right is cheering on every single play, and there was
a lot to cheer about on that day because those
two dudes put on quite a performance on that afternoon.
(04:13):
What were you like nine back then when you went
nineteen ninety seven, I was freshly out of college, okay,
twenty four.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, I'm not that young.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
I got grandkids now, Craig had two grandkids.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
As do I, But that was, you know, by then,
my year old. Yeah, well, thank you.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
We all agree. Year old. That was.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
That was my eighth year on the network and my
fifth in the broadcast, working to Bill shouting on that one.
But I remember that was what year did you call
your first game? Two thousand and two? That was to
come from behind when for the Sooners? When later my
later talk show co host and and and then later
sideline reporter Rod Babers had to pick six in that game,
(05:00):
and Texas was up fourteen to three at the half,
and the Sooners turned it around and they won thirty
five twenty four. That was in the midst of that
glorious run for Bob Stoops of five in a row.
That's why when people ask me, and I'll ask you
for the same people ask me, what you know, what's
your favorite memory from a Texas winning perspective, And people
(05:20):
point out a lot of the ones like the Dick
or the Kicker game, and several others and all this
other kind of stuff, or even forty nine to nothing
a couple of years ago. No, it's two thousand and
five because it was the end of the streak. They
finally were able to end the street. Now it was lopside,
it was forty five to twelve, but still it was
ending the streak, and I could see the relief on
the faces and the elation of a lot of Logorn
(05:42):
fans because it had been a great run, including a
national championship, and in the first of that run in
two thousand for Bob Stoops group. So how about you
from an Oklahoma perspective, what's your favorite moment?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Well before before I started calling the games, it would
be the year before you started the game. Is my
partner Teddy Layman's famous moment. Of course, the Superman play
that is regarded by many O you fans is kind
of the greatest play in OU history.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
It's it's certainly way up there.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Since I've been calling them, you know, we have been
on an amazing run in the last half decade, six
years or so, where we had amazing finish after amazing finish.
The four overtime game, the COVID year was incredible, Kennedy
Brooks game where he won it there at the end
(06:39):
fifty five forty eight, if I remember correctly, a shootout
that was two years ago, the Dylan Gabriel drive at
the end of the game to when it was remarkable,
and then the year before that and the year after
that haven't been much fun at.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
All, I understand. Sooner, Yeah, yeah, there's been some great ones.
We've been some great memories.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And since you and I have been together, yeah, you know,
since you and I've been together. It's funny we both
have those kinds of things, like those last second thrillers.
I mentioned the Dick or the Kicker game, you know,
so on and so forth. There's that, and then you
just mentioned thirty four, three and forty nine. Nothing to
the last three years, but I can I can see
that and raise his sixty three, fourteen, sixty three, twenty one,
(07:19):
and fifty five seventeen. I remember those very well too,
So I guess that.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Only goes there a lot harder as a broadcaster, when
you're on the wrong end of a drubbing, it's a long,
long day.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Do you find yourself when it's one of those like
both of us have experienced, and not just in the
games between these two schools, but if you're but if
you're on the business end, the short end of a
game against somebody else, and the same thing with with
with me for Texas, do you find yourself at that
point just kind of lock it in and calling the
(07:51):
play by play and hoping your analysts can kind of
pick up the pieces and talk about it from there.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yeah, you got to find a way somehow to still
make it entertaining. Yeah, you got to find a way
to still you know, make people want to listen. But
if it's ow you Texas, like we've experienced, uh two
of the last three years, if it's going the wrong
way and it's it's uh, it's ugly, I find myself
just daydreaming of corny dogs after the game.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I'm with that helps me, That helps me get by.
I'm with you.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Toby Rowlins with the play by play voice of the Sudero. Okay,
let's let's talk about this team. What has impressed you
more The play of the Sooner defense to this point
in the season, or what Oklahoma has done offensively and
(08:42):
has done so not only with John Mattier with him
before getting banged up, but just the way that they've gone.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
About their offense. What's what's impressed you more.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, you know, it's a good question because we knew
coming into the year that there's a you know, Oklahoma
pro probably had a pretty good defense. They've been pretty
good the last couple of years. They've been trending in
that direction, and they had a lot of vets back.
That's kind of the secret for Brent Vinnables. He runs
(09:13):
a very complicated defense, and you got to live in
it for two or three years before you really grasp
it and it becomes second nature. And he's got a
lot of dudes now this year, like our Mason Thomas,
like Kobe McKenzie and Kip Lewis, Gentry Williams and Robert Spears,
Jennings and on and on and on who have been
(09:35):
here as long as he's been here, and they get it,
they understand it, and they have been fantastic. So I'm
not surprised the defense has been good. I'm surprised it's
been this good, you know. I mean they they are
tops in the SEC and virtually every defensive category except
for turnovers forced. They have been hard to run on,
(09:59):
hard to throw, They've been great tackling, They've got a
ton of pressure. It's just been it's been as good
of a defense as we've seen at Oklahoma since the
early Stoops years. Wow, now you got seven games to go,
and as soon as you say something like that, you're
just asking for Texas to light you up for thirty five.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
But I'm just telling you what I've seen so far.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
And there's been an Auburn and a Michigan in there too,
it has been very, very impressive. Offensively, they were abysmal
a year ago. And so while the offense doesn't, you know,
rank as high in the country and all the categories
as the defense does, it has been so significantly better
than it was a year ago. And I'm talking with
(10:42):
John Mattier here that it's just been I don't know
if i'd say surprise, it's just been a breath of
fresh air. I mean, it's not it's not running at
the Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Sam Bradford level. They're not
putting up gargantuan offensive statistics, but they look like a
you know, above average offense. And last year they had
(11:06):
a hard time getting a first down and so that
has been fantastic and John Mattier has been great. But
they've got healthy wide receivers, they've got a fairly healthy
offensive line, and compared to a year ago, it's just
been nice to see that the offense can go out.
The defense doesn't have to win. It's to win the
game on its own. That's what they've had to do
(11:26):
the last couple.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Of years, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Talking with Toby Rowland here, how much of a major
seismic impact has been our buckle made since stepping in
his offensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Well, it's a good word for it. You know, it's
been significant, and it's hard to know how much of
it is our Buckle and how much of it is Matier.
You know, they both came from Washington State and instantaneously
this looked like an entirely different offense. He is only thirty,
and he turned thirty in the middle of the season,
(12:04):
so he is very very young, but uber creative and
has you know, just been a lot of fun to watch.
The offense last year looked like it was stuck in mud,
and so to watch his creativity is you know, don't
tell anybody north of the Red River that I'm using
this word, but it's been a little Lincoln Riley esque
(12:26):
on the offensive side of the ball what we've seen.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
So that's been fun.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
But he also has his quarterback, and Mattier has shown
the ability to make plays out of nothing. He's got
a little swashbuckler in him, he's got a little Baker
in him. He runs around, he has some charisma, and
he's fun to watch too. So once Matier moves on,
whenever that is, we'll get a better feel for exactly
(12:51):
what ben Arbuckle is. That being said, you know, if
Oklahoma goes on and has a really good year this year,
this might be the only year that ben arbuckles at Oklahoma,
because I think he's going to be mentioned in a
whole lot of head head coaching openings at.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
It I saw the report today as many did obviously,
that said that you know that there was this uh
push by Matiar to be available, and we only know
what we know until we know what we know, and
that'll be and that'll be obviously for you as well
getting into it.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
But how about that groundbreaking report by Pete Damil today
that Mattier was trying to play for Texas.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
No, Dush Sherlock. Obviously he's trying to play.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
For tex I don't think anybody was shocked by that revelation.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
No, Pete Tamil reported what everybody in the world had
already reported.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
John tire is hoping to play against Texas.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah, yeah, and and and and really getting to know
John as you have, I guess ay that doesn't surprise you,
And that be that he would try to do whatever
he could to accelerate the process to be ready to play.
I guess is probably the better way to describe this,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Well, I mean, first off, it was a very non
invasive surgery. This is a surgery that Jared Goff had
and played eleven days later. So this is not a
crazy timeline that we're on here. I think right now
we are thirteen days removed from surgery, and by the
(14:25):
time the game rolls around it will be eighteen I think, yeah,
so it's not unheard of. For me, it all comes
down to and I don't know. I don't know if
he's gonna play or not. I you know, for the
sake of my newscast, put a different percentage on it
every day, and right now I'm at sixty percent.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Okay, there's a sixty percent chance he plays.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
But for me, it all comes down to Kenny grip
the football and throw the football.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
If he can grip it and throw it, he's gonna play.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I don't think, you know, And that could change throughout
the week. You know, if he let's say he goes
out there today at practice and catches it on a
jersey or throws fifteen to twenty passes and wakes up
tomorrow and it's swollen and throbbing, then he doesn't. But
if he has a healthy week and can grip and
(15:11):
throw a football, you're not keeping.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Him off the field.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
On Saturday, the kids from Little Elm, Texas, that's a
Grayson Miller punt away from the Cotton Bowl. I mean,
it's this is probably his one and only chance to
play in this game, and if he can at all,
he's going to play. But he just you know, we
do not We are not privy to what kind of
(15:36):
pain he's in, what the doctors are saying, how the
healing process is going, all that kind of stuff. My hunches,
my sixty percent hunches that we're gonna see him down
there on Saturday. But that's what makes this week fun.
Don't we have this every year? Isn't some major figure
injured every year and we're just waiting with baited breath
to see if he plays in this game?
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yeah, I mean it was like that with Quinn yours
in the past.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Gosh, I mean we've already yeah, I've already, like you said,
we've already established how old I am. Sorry, And go
back uh uh to any number of guys over the
years that we wanted, Hey might they be in the
be in the ball and Adrian Peterson, right, you know,
so I mean it goes back, he goes back, all right.
(16:22):
So so the last thing I'm gonna ask you here
now for folks who don't know, Toby's gone back to
the television world, and and and and and given up
the semi underside of of daily radio talk show hosting.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So he's gone back.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
He's gone back to to being the the Roger Wallace
of Oklahoma City, just as uh, just as Rogers the
Toby Rowland of of of of of Austin. So, uh
do you miss it at all? Or is that just
an absolutely stupid question.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I miss my co host T J.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Perry, who I talk to every morning for twenty one years.
I miss the interaction with some of the callers who
you know, would text he call in every day. But
I do not miss getting up at four forty five
every morning. I am very much enjoying sleeping. It's been
My body is still in shock a little bit from
(17:21):
the change in sleep schedule after two decades, so I'm
still trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
But no, it's this has been fun.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
I was in TV for a long time, got out,
and now back in and I am enjoying it. It's
a little bit of a different world than it was
when I left fourteen years ago, so I'm trying to
catch up to technology still, and I need a lot
more makeup than I used to try to make myself
camera presentable. That's a problem. Roger doesn't have at all,
(17:52):
But it's it's fun. I'm enjoying it. Who knows what
the future holds, but for now, I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Listen, we've already established again this age thing about me.
The older you get, the more you'll appreciate that sleep.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Absolutely, And you're gonna and we're gonna we're gonna rope
you into a little TV work, uh, coming up on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It'll be fun.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Hey, I appreciate you taking the time. Yeah, I'll look
forward to the visit with you on Thursday and see
you and I guess what we've been told. It's slightly
different are digs, But largely I don't know, is it.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Well, you know, all of the other media, as they'd
like to say, the old business, the ink stained wretches.
They that the writers and stuff they're on, they're all down.
Uh you know by uh the end zone. Now that
is the new main press box.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
They took a lot of that main press box and
made it in the suites. Do our windows open? Last
year our windows didn't open. That's right, I'm told. I
think we're up on the seventh level and I think
the windows do open. So I think we're I think
we'll be in good change. I think I think we'll
just my day, Craig Mine's. I can't stand and not
(19:04):
be to not feel the atmosphere of this game. Yeah,
so you just made my day. Well, I hope I'm
not wrong about that. But I've been told that it's
supposed to be deal where our windows were open, and
we'll be upstairs and still with a pretty good bird's
eye view of the stadium, and that's one of the
special things about it, right, That is fantastic.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
I'll talk to you Thursday and I'll see you in
the press box on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Thanks tro I appreciate it all right.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
But that's Toby Rowling, play by play voice of the
Oklahoma Sooners coming up. We'll hear more from Arch Banning
when we continue on thirteen under the Zone.
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